Denmark

conclusion (?)

2010-07-18T00:36:00.009Z

I'll start this out with a story.

About 2 months ago I had a goodbye party. I set up a big white tent in my backyard and spent the night out there saying goodbye to my friends and drinking beer until I couldn't really feel sad anymore. By the early hours of the morning all the faces I had come to know and like throughout the year where gone. I still had a week left in Denmark at that point, but for a lot of them, we wouldn't be seeing each other again.
The following night I was at Jason's goodbye party with all the other exchange students from Koege. We met at the station in Greve and walked/road bikes to where the party was. Latter in the week we met up in Solroed, where I had gone to school, and went to the beach there. That was the last time we all hung out together.
Wednesday was St. Hans, the longest day of the year. I went with my host family to a small town in southern Zealand to have dinner by the beach. And Anne and my host mom played the St. Hans song with the band on the beach while we burned a big stuffed witch on a stake. By 11:00pm I was back in Koege again at our beach with Zenia, Simon, Rasmus, and some other friends. We stayed late, and it never really got completely dark out. The next day I watched Denmark loose in soccer with Zenia and Niklas, then said goodbye to them.
The day after that was probably when Anne graduated gymnasium. We all waited out side the door to congradulate her as she finshed her last exam. The next day her whole class came to our house in a giant wagon (a danish tradition) and drank beer for about 15 minutes before hitting the road again.
A lot of little things must have happend between all this but before I knew it, It was time to drive to Copenhagen and say goodbye. Like I had suspected, I couldn't feel it. I don't think they could either. The car ride conversation was normal. We got the the school were I needed to be dropped off and we all sat down and ate the cookies they had sitting there...the table conversation was just like any other... until it really was time to say goodbye. One of the volunteers came around and sad they had to get going. That's when it hit...after we all hugged...after there was nothing for them to do but just walk away and nothing for me to do but just stand there. That's where all the messed up confusion I had for the past week, turned into pain. It was the worst 10 seconds of my life. But probably the most outstanding too.
The camp was strange. It was weird seeing all these kids again. There were only a few out of the 100 something that I saw on a regular basis throughout the year. Most of them I had only seen at camps. I hadn't seen a lot of them for a year, not scenes the arrival camp at the beginning of our big adventure. It was cool seeing how so many of them seemed to have changed so much. and some of them seemed exactly the same. Made me wonder how much I had changed. I feel like I had already left Denmark when we where at the camp, so leaving the camp and heading to the airport didn't faze me that much. It was sad saying goodbye to some of my best friends, but for some reason I didn't feel much of anything that day.
The first plane ride flew by, and feeling the plane land on American ground was a weird feeling. What was weirder was getting off the safety and comfort of my Scandinavian airplane and entering the airport... the real US. It was shocking. Everything was so new to me, I did not feel like I knew this place at all. I remember waiting in the terminal for my next flight, wondering if the girls sitting across from me where speaking english. They were American! Of corse they were! But I couldn't make out half of what they were saying. I couldn't understand half of what anyone was saying.
After two more flights and a lot of hours without sleeping, I had landed in Detroit at about 12 midnight. The place was empty, And I knew that somewhere in there, my family was waiting for me. The family I hadn't seen for 11 months. I walked, then walked faster...then jogged a little, ....and then I saw them. As I was ridding down the escalator they appiered in front of me. My Dad, my mom, my sister, and my twin brother. It was nice...relieving...strange. But not very dramatic. I had run through that scene so many times in my head throughout the year and it was always BIGGER than what it ended up being. It was almost like, the second we were all in the same place again, looking eachother in the eyes again, everything had gone back to the way it was before. Like I had never been gone. We waited for my stuff to come out of the shoot thingy then we drove home, were I saw my two other brothers, my sister-in-law, some cousins, friends, our exchange student and my dog (!)....... I'm sitting here trying to remember how I flet then but I don't really know. I was happy of corse, but among a lot of other things too. tired being one of them.
In a way It didn't take long at all before I felt like everything had gone back to normal. Struggled pretty bad with english for quite a few weeks but besides that It was just kinda, same old same old. It was all pretty refreshing for a while but that only lasted so long. You are so cought up in being home again, that it's not till after that wears off that you truley realize...you're gone now...your're not there anymore...it's over. And that what I've been dealing with for the past month and a half or so.

THE END

I havn't blogged for almost 2 months. I don't know If anyone even checks this anymore but writing this has been importiant to me. So I felt it needed a conclusion. Or just a last post becuase there can't really be a conclusion. Everything just keeps going. Parts of Denmark stay with me. My exchange year will coninue to be a big part of my life for a long time. It's made me who I am. When I think about myself at the begining of my exchange year and look at my self now. I see that I've grown up. I've grown up even scenes I've been home. My exchange year was a trial and error period. It gave me the chance to learn so much. Now is the time to apply it.

A high school exchange year will improve you. It will make you work and grow and expierince thing you would'nt be able to in ANY other way. But most of all....It will mess you up. An exchange year will confuse you. It will make you think and it will make you think again. It will make you change the way you think. It will make you're world so much bigger and you're not going to like it. Becuase before you know it, your closest friends will be very far away. You won't know where you belong. But you'll know who you are. And you'll know a lot of stuff other people will never know. And you'll lead a pretty kick ass life from there on out.

Farvel

2010-06-25T16:26:00.003Z

It is the end :/ Tomorrow is Saturday and I will be saying goodbye to my host family and be left at the goodbye camp in Copenhagen, then I'm flying out Sunday morning. That means today, Friday, is my final day in Køge. This evening is the last time we eat together, and tonight is the last time I sleep here. I can say that, "this is the last...." over and over again about everything but I know I still don't get it. I probably won't get it until tomorrow, maybe Sunday. We've been so busy with so much stuff here, It just doesn't feel like I'm about to leave tomorrow in the middle of all of it. But my bag's are packed, my walls are empty, and my bedroom looks like a guest room. It's sad.

A lot has happend the last few days, cool stuff I should blog about. But I don't really have the energy to sit and write about all of it now. I'll try to once I'm in the states again.

this is my last post from this country!

bye

Goodbye Party

2010-06-21T08:48:00.005Z

Once again quite a bit has happend latley. I've been to Copenhagen in the rain...twice, saw "Youth in Revolt", had a picnic, started packing, went to some goodbye parties, and held my own goodbye party on Friday.

It turned out really well. With about 35 of my closest friends out in a giant tent in my backyard:) Anne is graduating this year too, so they are gonna use the tent for her party next week (after I'm gone). My host mom and I were working on "night food" the whole day, rapping weenies in bread doe and making pizzas and cookies. It all tasted really good. It was a realy nice party. My class took turnes giving speaches about me hah. and my host family wrote a song about me! It's a danish tradition when you have a big party for one person. People make them for importiant birthdays, comfermation, and stuff like that. And there was a kid from the musical who came

with his guitar and played while everyone sang. It was fun.

I only have 5 days left now and I can't see myself really having a chance to blog about much. But tonight is our last day of lanuge school/party. I'm finally done, and I just got 12 on my oral exam (which is the best you can get!) That was a good way to end it :) tomorrow is my last exam at the Gymnasium, that one will probably not end to well :/ and on Wednesday I'm going out to eat with my family for St. Hans day. It's the longest day of the summer and in the middle ages they would burn a "witch" on that day. Now we just have a big fire on the beach :) Anne graduates on the 24th, and the 25th is my last full day here in Køge. I'll try to blog one more time before I get home. then I'll write a couple there too.

We are allowed twice as much logage this time. Which is good, I need the space!

tick tick tick...(thats a clock)

2010-06-14T13:32:00.005Z

Of corse I've been up to a lot this past week :) DK is treating me greatly,..but I find that my adventures might seem slightly repetitive to you guys, and while I could sit here posting a bunch of pictures, telling you about all the stuff that I've been up to and making you jealous, I think I'd rather change it up a little bit.

The ticking is getting louder and louder and it can be pretty annoying. To be honest, even though this year has flown by faster than I can understand...time is going kinda slow now. I'm having so much fun with these last days (less than 2 weeks!) and I'm gonna miss Denmark a LOT.... but becuase I think sooo much about stuff, I think I'm actually pretty mentally prepared to come home. This year has been by far the most progressive year of my life, but It all has to end at some point for it to really mean anything. After months of confusion, not knowing how I really feel about having to go home, I think I've finally figured it out; leaving Denmark is going to be very very sad...but it's not going to be hard for me. I'm gonna be sad leaving Denmark, and the people I've met, but I can deal with sadness. Comming home is going to be amazing.

I remember my first couple months here, were I would sometimes have nightmares about comming home, haha. And they really were nightmares! There was nothing particularly scary about them, I just wasn't ready to go home, at ALL. But for the last few nights I've been having the same types of dream again. My family is all standing there waiting and smiling just like in the old ones... but this time, in stead of thinking, "crap!, no no nono!", I feel the complete opposite. I get the best feeling you could possibly get. And even though I love my life here, and it's generally way more exciting than my life in Michigan... I really just can't wait for that dream to actually happen in real life.

Comming back to my old life is gonna be great. And while I've heard from some past exchange students that it's only good to be back for maybe a week, I don't think it will be the same for me. Now that I've been able to step out of the whole thing and have all this time to look back on it and see it from the outside, I think everything is just gonna be better when I get back. I'm not the same as I was before and I'm glad I get to go back to high school again and use everything I've learned here about people and myself.

The situation of an exchange student is a very unnatural one to be in. And no matter how natural the life you make may seem to feel after 9 , 10, or 11 months, it just isn't. There is always that other life-- your real life, waiting for you over on the other side of the world, and at some point, it will need your attention again. I've embraced my time here so much and I'm going to continue for the next 12 days. But I'm ready to go home. I'm looking forward to it.

Leaving will be sad but not hard, sådan er det bare

SHOPPING LIST FOR MOM AND DAD

- extra crunchy peanutbutter

- sun chips

- cheese-its

- charp cheddar cheese

- onion bagels

- oreos

- root beer

- kool-aid mix

- Garden fresh chips and salsa

- beef jerky

- pizza rolls

- fago water

- V8 splash

.... i'll think of more later :)

See you soon Lucy!

The Streets of Copenhagen

2010-06-08T08:30:00.006Z

The sun is always up.

2010-06-07T14:26:00.011Z

I have less than 3 weeks left and finally, it seems that summer has started and is staying. And just like in the winter time when it was almost always dark, it is now almost always daylight! It doesn't even get completly dark at night anymore. It looks like late evening at 1 or 2 in the morning and the sun is moving up toward the horizon again by 3. Its bright out at 4.30! It's pretty cool, and the days are just gonna keep getting longer until June 23, the longest day of the year.

I've been up to a lot since the last time I've posted:

Last monday was my last day working "praktik" with all the little kids. We took a field trip to a park a little bit south from Køge, and we just let them run around in the mud all day. It rained the whole time. (the summer I've been talking about hadden't started yet then. haha) We took some of them down to the beach too, which was across the street from the park. They had fun :)

On Wednesday my host dad and I ran in a 5k relay race. There were 4 people on every team and we were on a team with people from his work. It was HOT. I ran a 21 minute 5k which is ok considering I havn't been in full running shape for a year now. I was the last one to run on our team so I got to finish holding a danish flag while I ran in. My host mom came to match is too and she was waving an american flag. haha. After that we went to my host dad's friends house and BBQ'd. That was fun.

On Friday I went to Copenhagen with Jason from France and two of his friends from his class. We hung out by the harbor and went swimming. There were a lot of people there. Copenhagen is one of the only big cities in the world where the water is safe to swim in right in the middle of the city. They duild a swimming area a few years ago with a big giant wooden thing you can jump off off. It was really fun. We bought one of those grills you can use one time and ate hot dogs.

On Saturday my host mom road in a long organized bike ride with her sister and some friends. She's been training for it for a while. The ride starts and ends at the habor in Køge, so every year my host family has dinner at our house after. we were about 20 people. It was another perfect day weather wise.

Simon and I went to a party that night and didn't have much time to sleep becuase we all got up early Sunday morning (My host parents, Simon, and I) to go on a canoe trip with AFS Køge. It was the very last meeting with the Køge group which is kinda sad. But we had a really fun time:) We did the same canoe trip I did with my 10klasse last year, but it was better weather this time. I got burnt! Sunday might have been the last time the 6 of us exchange students were all together at the same time, which is weird. We've all gotten to be really good friends, but in a way, more like siblings or just a family of 16-17 year old exchange students. haha

After our day long canoe trip we all went to a resturant and ate danish food, and AFS paid :)

The last couple days have been pretty normal. I've been studying for my oral math exam which is now tomorrow! I'm going to Copenhagen again on Thursday and parties Friday and Saturday so I'm still keeping busy.

19 days!!!!!

summer?...kinda

2010-05-29T12:24:00.005Z

The people in Michigan might think they've got weird weather, but It's not even close to as weird and random as it is over here in Denmark. I dont want to talk to much about somthing as boring as weather, but I thought I should let you know that within the past couple of weeks we've finally had some nice hot summer days!!!....and some winter/fall/spring days too, but at least "summer" is in the mix now :) I've finally gotten some color, and we've had days and nights with open windows. And people are wearing shorts! The first hot day of the year was one of our last days of school. I went to the beach with some friends right after class and went swimming!

It wasn't nearly as cold has it was in April! haha. But they hadn't re-built the dock yet and and there was smelly sea-weed stuff that haddn't been taken away yet that went out to about 20m. So I had to crawl/ walk/ swing my way out there.

Last weekend really got me in the summer mood too. We had a family BBQ out in my host dad's sister garden and it was nice and hot that day :) We spent the whole day grilling and playing yard games and drinking coffe with cake (very danish) It might have been the last time I see some of the family too, which is kinda weird to think about. I don't have pictures of that day...

The last school day has now come and gone (over a week ago) and I'm free! Don't be too jelouse. If you can remember, I started about 3 weeks before you guys over in the US. And I still have all my exams to take, and 8 hours of language school every week. But still, it's very weird that it's all over. Im not comming back to that school again next year and I'll never have another school hour with my class. We don't even all come to exams at the same time! It krept up, which is kinda nice becuase I have vacation now, but kinda sad too. I few days ago I had a meeting at the school with the principal and my counselor, and the 2 other exchange students who went to the school. Just kinda a goodbye thing, and we each got some papers documenting that we went there and what classes we had and stuff. So,..thats over with!

This is inside Solrød Gymnasium ("Sun Red High School", haha) my school....that I no longer go to :/

Since Tuesday I've been working in day care, just for something to do haha. It's at the same school as my 10klasse was and the same school Simon goes to now. All the kids I'm working with are 5 or 6 and it's been a pretty interesting excperience. I kinda forgot that I haven't been around kids that ago since..well....I was that age!!! I don't know any little kids and I havn't gone to school with them since 5th grade. haha. (we never saw them in 10 klasse) I don't even see little kids. they're always at home, with their parents, or in school. So it was so weird to me the first day. Seeing the things the find funny or exciting, like stiking their head in and out from around a corner for 5 minutes. haha. It's fun to just watch them with each other too. I would have loved to go to kindergarden/grade school in Denmark. They have so much more freedom! I remember when I used to have resess and the teachers and lunch mom's would ALWAYS be yelling after kids telling them to stop. Here, you don't really stop them unless they're about to kill each other. I was a little confussed at the start. But it seems like we're just there to help them if they get hurt or yell at them if they're hurting someone else. It's their choice if they want to jump off the top of the playground. If they get hurt, we help them out and they learn not to do it again. haha. They have sooo much fun. There are a lot of kids there, and not that many adults but it doesn't seem like it's not enough adults. The kids seem to take care of themsleves more than they generally do in the US, or from what I've seen at least. If the 5 year old spills something at lunch, 4 of them get up, grab paper towel and help clean it up. They're soo much fun to watch!! They other day me and one other adult took about 10 over to another place for lunch (there are over 100 of them all together!) It was just a little walk from the school and they got to go over by a little pond to eat. When they were done eating we set them free and watched them help each other up onto the roof of some shed type thing.haha. Then one of them started chasing a couple of ducks and all the other kids joined in. They ran pretty far away...but then they came back!... FREEDOM is the key. haha

Simons last school day was a week after mine (on thursday) He graduated from 9klasse which is a big deal here becuase in Denamrk you go to the same school all the way up till you're 15-16 (9 klasse is like 10th grade) Some kids top going to school there (kinda like stopping after high school) you could still get a job and stuff. But most kids go on to something else. Simons going to Oregon next year as and exchange student, then to Gymnasium for 3 years like Anne and Anders. Anyway, on the last school day they drees up in weird costumes and run around the school throwing candy. Then they go to the park and drink A LOT and hit eachother with all kinds of weird smelly food.

This is Simon after comming home from his last school day. hah

Anne had her last school day too and she's done with Gymnasium now! But there hasn't been too much celebrating yet, A little bit, but they're not done with exams until the end of June, right when I'm leaving. Thats when all the big party stuff and traditions happen. I'll write about that when It comes.

I've still got 1 day left with all the little kids on Monday and we're going on a feild trip! that'll be fun. (I actually don't know where yet) Also, my first exam is on Tuesday, but it's not a big deal beacuse it's just a written math exam. The ones I'm really nervous for are the oral exams. but once again, I'll talk about those when they come. I'm keeping pretty bussy and the plans just keep rolling in :)....It's scary how "home" I feel here. I didn't think it was possible after just 10 months to feel like I'm home in a completley differn't country. I know I've said I feel home here before but I feel almost like I must have been lying then, when I compair it to how I feel now. I almost want it to stop getting better. It makes it to hard to think about leaving. Thinking about comming home makes me soooooooo happy, but thats completely differn't then thinking about leaving. ...but when I think about this whole "problem" I have, I realise what I nice delema it is to be in; To have two places were you feel at home,.. to have amazing experiences and people you love and in multiple places across the world. It's pretty nice. And life must go on at some point. I'm gonna enjoy what I have here for as long as I have it.

10 months down, and 1 to go.

P.S

My favorit Coca-Cola ad in the WORLD!!! haha. I've seen it in a lot of places here. Now that I've been away for such a long time this seems soooo American to me and makes me laugh every time I see it.

Thats all for now :)

6 weeks left...

2010-05-17T12:25:00.010Z

Last week I had only 3 days of school, from Monday to Wednesday. And we weren't even in school on Wednesday! We were in Copenhagen with our Danish teacher and it was horibble weather :/ very very cold rain. A perfect day to walk around in Copenhagen :D haha. It's a good thing the 2 longest stops were indoors. We went to Denmarks National Museum and the Workers Museum. They were both pretty boring but there was some interesting stuff. And it made for good memories walking around in the freezing cold :)

So I had a long weekend which I sadley didn't take very good advatage of. Thats kinda hard to do when it's raining every day. But on Friday the forcast was better :) So my host parents took Bow and I to see Møns Klint. It's a klif on the Island of Møn which is south from Sjælland (Zealand) where I live. It took quite a while to get down there, but we took the nice way so there was a lot of danish countryside to look at. Møns Klint was huge. These pictures dont do it justice. It's not something I excpected to see in Denmark. haha. We had to go up sooo many stairs when we came up from the beach. The trees there are really cool too. haha. There is a 5km race there on June 13 and I'm gonna do it! It's advertised as the hardest 5k in Denmark. Which is good. I need more motivation to get back in shap for cross country which starts right when I get back. There's one in Køge sooner that I might do too.

Anyways, we made a few little stops on the way home too. One of them was an old church (all churches in Denmark are old) with paintings all over the ceiling of bible stories. Denmark used to be Catholic, but they switched to Protestant a long long time ago. When they did, they panited over all these drawings with white, but in the 1800's the white paint was removed in these church to show all these old drawings. It was pretty cool to see.

After that , we headed back with nice views out the window :) It had been a while sence I had been out of Køge and Copenhagen. It was nice to get back out in the danish nature again.

Now, as of yesterday I have only 6 weeks left in this country!!! I've really been having a hard time excepting and understanding that. So yesterday, while it rained and rained, I made a calendar to hang on my wall so I would really be able to see how much time there was. Then, I filled it in with all of my plans for the next 6 weeks. Which was a really good idea becuase now I can see were I'm not doing stuff and fill it in with stuff I've always wanted to do before I leave. My goal is to never again have a boring day in Denmark. I'm working on finalizing a lot of stuff right now and there is a lot that is fully planed already:) I've written EVERYTHING on there. Even telling myslef when I have to study or go running! It's so weird to be able to look at the calendar now and have such a clear idea of what I'm gonna be doing with this short amount of time I have left. Its scary. I've been here so long. This IS the end. School is over in 4 days! (and it's gonna be hot on friday!) I'm so glad I made the calendar, becuase I really feel like I understand it ALL now! Any other exchange students reading this should do the same thing. I've had many little sperts of motivation throughout this year, but I know this one I have now is NOT going away until I do.

School is almost over!

2010-05-09T15:16:00.004Z

Whatsss up?? I actually just had to look through the pictures on my camara in order to remember what I've been doing latley. haha. Nothing to out of the ordinary has happend latley. Bow (from thiland) turned 17 last week so I went to her house and we ate thi food and giant icecream cones. It was really good :)

May 1st is a big day in Denmark. My summary of it : "All young people in the country go to Copenhagen and sit in a big park eating, drinking, and listening to live music and political speaches all day long. " I went, and had a really fun time. There were SOO many people. Almost everyone I know (from denmark) was there. I went a group with a friend from my class but we all lost each other eventually! haha. there are so many people that the cell phone lines stop working so you can't call or write to anyone. But it's ok. you just find another group you know and sit down. haha. Sadley I have no pictures of that day. my camara was missing at the time (but i have in now!)

Zenia started teaching me some guitar last week! I can already kinda play "wonder wall". I want to get better and learn more songs before I go home. I've been playing around with our piano a lot too this year so It will be cool to come home and say I can play some piano and guitar when I couldn't play either at all when I left. and Anne has a guitar so I can practice on that :)

Last week was our LAST normal school week!!! Tomorrow startes our first "flex week." 2 weeks were we try to make up for all of the canceld classes throughout the year. But it's not normal school becuase each day only makes up for 1 or 2 subjects. I don't have that many full days ( 8-3pm) and there are some days were I don't have to go in at all!! At the end of those 2 weeks, on May 21st, we have our last school day!!! Which is sooo great, but there is a catch: My last exam isn't until June 22nd. Over here, all the exams are takin after "normal schooling" is over. But even though I will be studying, It's not gonna be anything close to all the time, so I'm gonna be having a lot of free time....too much free time, I'm thinking. So I'm going to work at my old school with the little kids! If you can remeber, at the begining of the year I went to 10klasse at the "Elementary" school. Not really elementry school, it's the school kids go in all the way up until they choose to go to gymnasium or some other higher education. But they have little kids there and I'm going to help with...some...camp/daycare...something. I don't know much about it yet but my host mom's been helping me set it up. She said Yoki (one of there old exchange students) did it and had a really fun time. so I hope it will be fun :)

After a few warm days it' been strangley cold latley. Some people are saying it's becuase of the ash from the volcano in Iceland :( I hope not. I want real beach weather by the end of May!

........

2010-04-28T12:50:00.005Z

Hello. I just thought I'd give an update again while I have time. Last weekend was pretty full as well. On friday night we had a Gymnasium party at my school, Solrød, and the theme was black and white. There are 3 AFS exchange students who go to Solrød and Lenart from germany, got two more in so there were 5 of us foreigners. We hung out with friends from my class and they had fun meeting all these exchange students. We had a really fun time and I went to an after party for my class after that. It was nice being together with all of them outside of school. We don't do that very often. I'm going to miss patrys at the gymnasium. They are WAY better than high school dances.

On friday I went with Zenia to a birthday party for somone in her class. Zenia's danish and she was in Michigan on exchnage a few years ago. It's really cool to have met someone who lived in my state! We hung out last weekend too. It's always fun :)

Today is Wednesday and I wasn't in school. I was at another school instead, in a city called Høje Taastrop, close to Copenhagen. About a week ago an english teacher from the business school over there, called me and asked if I could come in and talk to the students about the USA. And I said, ya. I went in this morning and stayed till lunch. I gave two presentaions and answered a bunch of their questions. I did it in English (becuase it was and english class) but then they wanted to here my danish when they found out I could speak it so the questiond were kind of a mix. It's become so hard to speak well and give good explanations in English that it's not even funny. The only reason I was nervous was becuase I had to give the presentation in english! It seems like it should be the other way around.ahaha. Anyways, It was a really good experience. And wants a got started it went pretty smoothly...I think. Every time there was a break I went down to the teachers lounge with the teacher I was with and we talked to other teachers and drank cofee. haha. They treated me like a guest speaker or something. I mean, I was...but I'm the same age as the students, so It was kinda funny. It's was a good, and fun thing to do. And I like standing up there in front of the class...Maybe I'll want to be a teacher now...(?) haha. I went and got a hair cut after I was back in Køge. It's pretty short, but not buzzed again. I don't like having a lot of hair, and It's actually pretty hot today, so I'm preparing my head for summer :)

In a few hours I'm going to the first day of modual 5 language school. I had my modual 4 test last week and passed, so I'm now on the last modual. If I pass the next test, (in June) it will mean a lot, and maybe help me towards collage. And if I ever wanted to live in Denamrk again,..to study maybe... (?).. It would make comming back 10 times easier. But in general, I just want to be able to say I passed!

Here's a bad picture of Køge Station I took last weekend. You can't really see much, but I'm there every day , so there you go :)

seeya...

Picking up the Pace

2010-04-21T13:42:00.006Z

I was pretty busy last weekend! It started on friday, which was the queens 70th birthday. I didn't have real school that day. It was an exam day (not an importiant one) for math. I went in from 9 to 11 and then went straight to Copenhagen. I met Bow on the train. I couldn't get anyone else to come beacuse they were all still in school! But every year on the queens birthday she comes out on her belcony and waves to all the people who wave danish flags and cheer. I didn't want to miss that. But when we got into Copenhagen there was a big news screen on the street showing an overview of where the queen lives. There were soooo many people. We could see that the crowed went out and all the way down the street. If we walked over there we wouldn't have been able to see anything. So we stayed where we were knowing that in an hour she would be comming through in her carriage and walk into the city hall right behind us. So we ate Burger King while we waited :) Then all the guests started comming into the building. We watched and saw Prince Frederik and Princess Mary go in and then the queen herself. But right before that happend there was a guy that fell off his horse right in front of us. The ambulance came and everything. That was a pretty eventfull trip.

Fred and Mary

The queen, in the blue

I orginally didn't have plans for friday night, but ended up going to hang out with some new friends:) That was fun. But then I was up "early" Saturday morning to go to Næstved. I met Andy on the train but sadly we arn't the best at planning stuff, becuase there was no one to meet us at the station when we got off. They were all still in bed! Kelsi from New Zealand said she would come down in like, an hour and a half. So Andy and I just walked around and hung out in the library. When Kelsi came we went to see a movie. I thought it would be fun to see "Kick Ass" but we saw "Lovley Bones" instead, which was also pretty good.

Hilary came after that and the 4 of us desided to head back to Køge, to my house. My host parents were in Germany last weekend and they said I could have a little party if I wanted. We went food shopping when we got to Køge. We made tacos and drank red wine with it. haha. It was so funny. Just the 4 of us making dinner and eating it by candel light, drinking our cheep wine. Very "grown up"

Simon was having some friends over that night too, so we just all hung out till really late and everyone slept on the floor at out house :) The next morning The 4 of us walked back to the stataion. Hilary and Kelsi went back to Næstved, and Andy and I went the other way...We were going to the beach! something we had planed for a while with the Køge exchangies. It was NOT warm. But we had a fun time acting like it was summer. haha. Jason and I went swimming! Trying to make up for never going "winter bathing" when I said so many times that I was going to. there is a video and Facebook if you have me as a "friend". Besides that we just layed around eating chips and taking pictures. I got a realllllly good one. (the one at the bottom)

So, like I said it was a packed weekend. And I'm completley booked for this next weekend too! And I'm staring to fill up these next 2 months with a bunch of stuff as well. I bunch of things I tell myself I need to do. I can feel that the best part of this year is gonna be these last few months :) So look forward to some good posts...

"The Fame"

2010-04-10T14:14:00.009Z

Hello. I'm back! I've been soooo busy sence my last blog post. It would have litteraly been impossible to write again before now. The musical that I'm in, and have mentioned a few times, just ended last night. It was called, "The Fame", and no, not FAME like the movie, but it has a similar story line. It was written by our director and one of the other people in charge, and It's about a danish "high school" full of rich kids who spend money and party all the time. Then a bunch of stuff goes wrong and theres a bunch of fighting, drama, and sad people and loooove. I played "Jones". He's friends with another kid, Jack, and has a love interest, Zoe. Our story was kind of of the side. There was a lot going on in this musical! Now that it's all over, It's cool to think I did a play in another language, and a had a pretty good sized part :) It was a lot of fun, but a LOT of work the last few weeks. I can't remeber the last time I was home for dinner. It's crazy. Our Easter break was 2 weeks ago and we had rehersal almost EVERY day. Even easter Sunday! I don't even really feel like Easter even happend here with all thats been going on, and I had a birthday too! Most days we were there working on it for 10 hours! But there was one day were it didn't start until 4pm :) So I went to Copenhagen with some of the Køge exchange students. Bow, Nut, and Jason. It was so nice to actually get out and do something during break. I got up kinda early and took the train into Copenhagen to meet the others. We didn't have any plans. We just walked around A LOT trying to get better at finding our way around, and just had a really fun time. We had Thai (?) food for lunch that day. That was amazing!!! I havn't had food with any kind of "kick" for a long time. mmmm. I want more. There's a big walking street in Copenhagen with all kinds of stores. We all saw people we knew there. I didn't realize how popular it was to shop there for people that live all the way down in Køge, but it is. It's crazy how often you see people you know in Denmark. They are everywere. It's kinda funny.

It was a really nice sunny day, and spring is finally real spring. I'm really gonna miss the freedom I have to just do stuff like that when I get home. You can't just take the train into the city were I live. And Copenhagen is so beautiful. I'll never get used to how cool it is. Whenever I go there, no matter how many times it's been, I can't help but think about how lucky I am :)

So after that little trip it was back to Tapperiet (were we put on our musical) were everyone involved lived for the next 4 or 5 day, going home only to sleep, and wake up again. Even though it made me really tired and there were some days were I didn't want to be there, all and all It was really fun. I have a fun time with all the people there. And we spent so much time together!

Our only day off was Saturday, and that was not a restfull day for me, but it was very fun :) That was the day Anne and I had our family birthday party. My host mom made a huge danish layer cake and we had really good dinner too. And I got a bunch of giftes :) that day went to fast, then it was back to "The Fame" for the last day of break.

When school started again last Monday I would go straight from school to musical. It was the same on Tuesday, then on Wednesday we opened :) We were all soo tired by that point but we pretended to have energy. haha. Then came Thursday, my really birthday!!! I turned 17. when I got to the theater they took out a huge cake and all sang the danish happy birthday song. It was really nice, and the cake was awesome!

The show went really well that night. And my host parents came that night too. And a bunch of my awesome exchange student friends, who hade secretly bought me some birthday presents that day we were in Copenhagen. I met them after and they gave them to me. I had I great birthday. It was very unique, and extreamly differn't then any birthday I've had before. But also really weird. I'm a twin, so I've never had a birthday all to my slef. It was so weird having a cake and a day and all that, just for me. I actully think a prefer sharing my birthday. It's so much more fun to be able enjoy it with someone and just say, ya, it's OUR birthday. I don't know. Anyways, I'm 17 now. "16 years old" was by far the fastest thing I've ever experienced. hah.

Friday was the last performance. It went well. Simon and Anders (my host brothers) came that night. After the show we cleaned up a little, then started our after party, which was not until midnight, so we were up late/early! The place where we put on "the Fame" has a cafe with a bar. And everything was free!! We were all extremley tired but it was really fun anyways of corse.

Most of us just slept there. We had to come a 10:00am this morning anyways to finish cleaning up the place. We were done with that around 12:00. then it was just kinda strange...after 2 weeks of doing nothing but "The Fame", and at least one week sences our last day off, it was over. We went OUTSIDE into the SUN, and just sat around eating icecream and saying goodbye. It was reallly sunny and almost warm!

Now I'm sitting at home....with free time. So as soon as I'm done with this I'm gonna go lay down and watch one of those movies I got for my birthday :)mmmm. and eat some real food that people make in a house:) mmmm. goodbye!

P.S. - a very normal thing to come across in Denmark , or in Køge at least. lock you bikes! or people will throw them in the river!

Uhmm...

2010-03-16T15:20:00.004Z

Hello. Sorry it's been so long. I used to be so motivated to blog and share all the things I'm doing and how I'm feeling and stuff, but now It always feels like a chore. I just havn't had any big insperation for a while. I don't ONLY wan't to talk about what I've been up to. I normally like to let you know how I'm doing too, and how I feel and opinions I have about things. This blog isn't just for people at home. It's r future exchange students and I've been having a hard time comming up with good stuff to write. I read a really good blog last year when I was getting ready to come over here and I couldn't get enough of it. So I feel bad going more than half a month not writing but I just havn't been having the feeling of, "this next post is gonna be good"

I've been in Denmark for 7 months 2 weeks and 3 days and I have 3 months 1 week and 1 day left. I knew that off the top of my head. I can't stop thinking about time. How slow tha days go, but how fast the weeks go, and how I have no idea how long a month should feel, and what I was doing this time last year, and what I'll be doing this time next year. My brain is always in another place and I can't get it to stay HERE. I don't have that much more time so I know I need to stop thinking about everything and just be here but thats really hard. I think about comming home like it's happening tomorrow or next week or somthing. I've still got a bunch of time here.

(......I just re-read that last paragraph. I think you should to. It's a perfect ilustration showing how much I have no idea what I'm talking about. I write: "I don't have that much time left." and then the next sentence, "I've still got a bunch of time here" I honestly didn't do that on purpose. I was just writing down my thoughts. Thats what they look like on paper....)

I'm more than ready for some warmer wether. It's been so cold still every morning. the snow as been taking forever to melt and It's finally almost all gone :) But it's still just bellow or just above freezing every day. It's making me sick! Literally, I stayed home from school today. I've got a lot of stuff I want to do in these next few months but this wether makes it hard. I cant wait for warm!

I'm gonna write a list of things to look forward to. Not all of it is planed but, jsut stuff I want to do before It's ALL OVER.

- Anne/Joe, Family Birthday Party (April 3rd)
- My musical! (April 7-9) we have a performance on my birthday!
- My birthday! (April 8th)
- long bike ride to some place far away
- sleep on the beach
- have a party
- take a farry to Oslo (Norway) spend the day there and then come back.
- spend more time in Copenhagen :)
- Pass all my exams!!! :/

hmmm. This post didn't really get anywhere in particular....

Winter Break in Sweden

2010-03-01T15:04:00.007Z

I'm back! and it's March...that was, once again, really fast.

In the 7 months that I've been over here, I've now been lucky enough to go to Sweden 2 times :) The first time was in the fall, and I got to go white water rafting, and this time I got to go skiing (down hill and cross-country) and see winter better than I've ever seen it before. It was a nice trip, And Sweden is a nice place. I thought it was beautiful in the fall but now I would have to say that winter has got to be Sweden's best season. After months of almost no sun, I got to take in DAYS of blue skies. It was really nice, but far from warm. Which is a good thing. Otherwise the snow wouldn't have looked so nice. I fell once skiing, but thats becuase i wasn't looking where I was going. I was looking around me :D

(Yes, I took all those. I just edited some of them)

We stayed at my host dad's sister's house. It took about 9 hours to drive up there from Køge (about half way up in Sweden) but we left a day latter than planned becuase of a snow storm.

My host family has a lot of family in Sweden. When my host dad's sister moved there, she got married and had 4 daughters. So, they have never lived in Denmark. They are all grown and 3 of them have teenage kids (át least 3 each) So thats a lot of Swedish people to visit. It's was weird hearing all that Swidish and being able to understand so much of it. Swidish and Danish a very close (especially written.) There was a lot I couldn't understand but there was so much was similar. When ever we went into a store, we would speak danish to the workers. They would just speak Swidish back and that actually worked! It was cool.

Anyways, I'm keeping this short. It was really nice trip :) When I got home I went to Næstved and had a reallllyyy fun time with some exchange student friends. I came home Saturday morning and Andy came over. We went to a lame musium in Køge and we watched some good movies. He left Sunday and then break was over :( ...But schools fun too.

The first half of Febuary

2010-02-16T15:56:00.012Z

Hello. Time has gone pretty fast since my last post. I feel like the first 5.5 months or so were like the "climbing up the the mountian" part, and even though it went fast, it was hard. But since I've been more than half way through It's started to feel like I'm jumping off the other side. Which is about 10 times faster than climbing up. It's not really hard anymore, it's just kinda scary; falling off a mountian. I want to just keep falling and falling and never stop...but I want to hit the ground too and go home and see my family and friends. The scary part is the confusion. I'm not split 50-50 on this. All of me wants both! I want time to go fast and slow. I want to think about home and I want to forget about it. And it goes on...

Since the last time I blogged I've been to winter camp with AFS. It was the weekend right after I got home from my stay in Jutland so I was still kinda tired. It was in Nykøbing F. Thats on an Island type thing south of Zealand. I met the Køge exchange students in Køge and we met almost everyone else when we switched trains in Næstved. That was cool becuase I havn't seen most of them since October...and the train we switched to was a double decker!! When we arrived it was dark (of course) and we had to walk from the station to the school we were staying at. That was an AFS momment. I always wonder what it would be like to see us from the "outside" when we do stuff like that. What would you do if you saw a group of 40 people walking down the middle of a street in the dark, carrying luggage, screaming in multiple foreign languages, and trying to hug each other and walk at the same time? You just don't see stuff like that. And then for example the next day were we all walked to a grocery store and looked around as if it were a museum. I'm gonna miss those "AFS moments" haha.

It was a good weekend. It was nice to see everyone again and stay up all night for no reason. It was our last regional camp. Our next AFS camp will be with everyone (just like the first one) on our last few days in Denamrk :( ..... but we've got a while.

Simon cut my hair! I needed a hair cut and I havn't been buzzed since I was 6 or something so I thought it would be fun.

(not done. lol)

I went to a party last weekend together with some of the other exchange students. It was our friend Simone's birthday :)

:::DANISH HOLIDAY::: Valentines day was not just Valentines day this year. It was also festelavn! It's kind of like Halloween but when the kids dress up and go door to door it's becuase they want money, not candy. In the old days they would put a cat in a barrel too. Then they would wack it like a pinata. Now it's full of candy thankfully. They had a little festelavn party at the church by our house. It was interesting.

I've started level 4 language school. But now that I'm looking at my schedule for the musical I dont know how often I'll be able to show up :/ I hope I can stay with it. Langauge school still helps me a lot. But I'm pretty busy. After this week of school we are on winter break and I'm going to Sweden with my host family!! I'm looking forward to that, but of course ,I'll be missing more language school.

....Anyways, I've got some more falling... or jumping or... whatever to do, so I'll see you around :)

Mini-stay

2010-02-03T08:12:00.012Z

I'm back from Jutland! It's Wednesday and I'm all messed up with days now becuase It's my first day back to school in Solrød so it feels like Monday. I was in Jutland for a week but it went by really fast. It snowed SO much this past week up there. I finally got to do all the fun winter stuff I haven't had time for. Mini-stay is a really good idea. It's were we go and live with another family and go to another school in another part of the country for a week. It lets as see how differn't things could be in the same country and it just gives us a nice break and lets us try something new and meet some new people.

The 6 of us from Køge went to the same general place in Northern Jutland. 3 of us were in the same school, Søvring Gymnasium, and the others were close by. Last Wednesday we took the train all together, about 4 hours to where we were staying. But we had a little problem to start out, becuase of the snow our first train was canceled. So we had to take a taxi most of the way across Zealand so we could catch the 2nd one. Good thing AFS pays for that stuff becuase it must have been really expensive.

My family was great. They were 4 people (2 kids). Torben was 16 and Trine was 11. I went to school in Sørving with Torben. They live out on a farm and take the bus 40 min. every morning to get to school!!! There was so much snow and we road through a lot of woods. It was like riding through Narnia on the way to school. haha. Torben goes to Gymnastics which just happens to be pretty popular over here and I just happen to be good at so that was really cool. We did that 2 times...It's still hurting. The weekend was packed. We went to a birthday party on Friday and then we were together with some of his friends on Saturday night. That was all really fun. Earlier that day (Saturday) we all went to see some big hills. It sounds lame but it was really fun. There was a lot of snow and we climed up 2 of the hills. I didn't even feel like I was in Denmark

On Sunday I was with the other 5 exchange student. We went to Ålborg, A big city in North Jutland. That was really fun. We went to a Musium and we went ice skating too. And finally we speek danish with each other now! That was the last group of people here that I still spoke english with.

After school on Monday I went with Trine, my host sister, to cross country ski. She was the only one on skis but I just went with her becuase I know how and she had only done it a few times. I convinced her to try some big hills behind the house. Here's a video showing the result of my attempts:

We left on Tuseday but not until around 2.30 So we didn't go to school. We just hung out and had a snowball fight and built some snow men!!!

Here is a video of some weird exchange students:

I had a great time in Jutland. I've been invited to come back this summer before I go home and I would like to so I'm trying to figure that out now :) Now I'll only be home for a few days before I head down to Nykøbing for my winter camp with AFS! I'm busy.

NOT DEAD

2010-01-21T12:51:00.004Z

Hey. I'm writing to let you know that I havn't died. Sadley I don't have very much to talk about so thats why I havn't blogged for quite a while. Life has just been moving along free of "lumps" sense break ended. Just your every day stuff...."smooth". Im still not used to the fact that I'm into the second half of my stay already, and I find myself thinking "when i get back..." much more often now then I did before. "From now to the end of June" has become a very comprehensible time period and it's just weird to really know how much time I have. I've got some big expectations for the next 5 months. Mostly for myself, but thats kind of unblogable so we'll leave it at that.

I made a presetation for english class today. It should have been about the US but I ended up speaking more about Michigan. It was english class so I said it in english but I think I have to make a similare one for AFS in danish some time soon so I'll probabaly just use the same powerpoint. haha. It's weird how I have to force the english out now if I need to use it. It's not like danish is easier. My brain works so much harder when I have to speak danish (of corse, I'm still learning it) but it's what natuarly comes out when I communicate so If I talk to people from home or...write this blog..or talk in english class, there is a little man in my head screaming at me to use danish. I think I created him. haha. But hey, he helps me :)

Next Wednesday I'm going to Jutland through an AFS thingy. I'm staying there for a week and living with another host family and going to another school. They want us to see what It's like to live in another part of the country which I think is a really good idea, so I'm looking forword to that and hopfully it will make for a good blog post :) haha. Sooo, now I'm just kinda waiting for that. The muscial is comming along. It's really annoying for me becuase I cant really concentrate on whats happening yet. I have too try really hard to just say my lines the way I think they should sound but I really don't know. I like the show though. Our director wrote it and kind of roughly to so we get to improv alot and make stuff nice and real :) I get to do a monologue in english (my character is american) and I get to write it.

Anyway, I guesse I'll blog again after the Mini-stay thing in Jutland. So thats not until Febuary 3rd or something....'

Bye

Holiday Break

2010-01-03T19:17:00.013Z

When I go a really long time without bloging Its always for one of two reasons. The first; there hasn't really been much happening, or the second; I've been doing a LOT and have a lot to talk about and not enough motivation to sit down and try to sum up 3 eventful weeks of my life. This time it's the second one. I've been putting it off as long as I could. It's evening on the last day of break so I need to at least start..

Christmas came!!...and has now passed which seems pretty weird to me. Christmas wasn't extreamly differn't then it is in the US. But it was on the 24th insted of the 25th. And It doesn't start until evening. We had a nice big traditionel danish christmas dinner with duck and goose. It was a lot of food! after eating we held hands and made a circel around the christmas tree and we danced around it singing really long danish hyms. Then we exchanged gifts after. AND...Santa comes!! At least in my host family. haha. One of them dresses up as Santa Clause every year. That was fun.

We were 13 people I think. My host mom's sister and her family came from Jutland. So they stayed at our house the next couple days after christmas. When the 25th rolled around christmas was over. We spent the next couple of days watching a whole lot of movies. On the 26th we went to see Avatar in 3D! It was crazy! It was the most futuristic movie I've ever seen. I felt like I was there. lol. I really didn't know they could make computer stuff so real looking. The next day I went to Copenhagen with Anne, my host sister, and we saw Les Miserables in danish! It was a christmas gift from my grandparents and my brothers and sister. It was a really good gift. I've wanted to see that show for a long time :) It was a little hard to understand the danish becuase they were always singing so it was a good thing a knew the story.

Another great christmas gift I got sent was a really nice web cam! Thats right. I've gone all this time without skype! I used it for the first time a few days after Christmas. My family was haveing a party at home so I got to talk to a lot of people. It was weird being able to see them. Then a few days before New Years I skyped again with my cousins and family. They were up north for New Years. I'd say it's very close to my favorit trip of the year so it was weird not being there. But they were at a resturant when we skyped so it was really cool. They just set me at the head of the table so I could see and here everyone. It was like being there....except I couldn't eat the food :( haha. Heres a picture from their end...

...I need to be careful with that skype thing. They say too much contact with home isn't a good thing, so I've been calling home about once a month. But It's just so easy now!...

Ok. Two days after Christmas two americans came. My older host brother, Anders, was an exchange student in Kansas so it was his host brother and friend who came to see Anders. They stayed here the first couple days. One of those days Mor took them out to be touristy and see some stuff. I went too because it was some places I had'nt seen yet either. We went to the biggest church in Denmark were a bunch of dead royal danish people are. Then we went to a vikings museum and saw some really old ships. It was cool.

They are still here in Denamark but they've been gone with Anders sense New Years. I think they're coming back at some point...

Anyways...New Years! I had a good time. We had a party here. Some family and Mor and Fars friends came and Simon and I had quite few people over too. And it grew the latter it got! Firework are HUGE here. We may think we have a lot of firework in the US on new years but you're wrong! It honestly sounded like a war outside, 24/7 the three days around New Years. And EVERYONE is outside after midnight lighting them off. You couldn't find a place in the sky that wasn't full of explosives. I couldn't belive it. We had some that you throw and they take off into the sky and explode! Everyone was wearing goggles....

Then on the 2nd I went to a going away party for Kate, one of the exchange student from Australia. She came 6 months before me and It's just so weird to think she's gone home now. Because I can remeber at the arrival she was one of the kids who were half way through their exchange year. And we were all so interested in them. I couldn't even imagine being half way through my exchange, speaking another language, being used to living here...but now, with what feels like a second, they have all gone home, and I'M half way through my exchange year. It seems impossible-- but, it's not, and the time is still moving. One year is sooo short when it's singeld out with a real start and finish and doesn't just blend into the next. The past 5 months have been like a day dream. I feel like I made it all up, except I have pictures to prove that it did all happen. Everyone has been saying the second half goes by way faster than the first and I just can't understand that. How could it possibly go any faster then te first half! It hasn't even felt like TIME. it's just been......stuff. I'm so glad that i'm here for the year and I didn't choose to do something shorter. I've been way higher up and way lower down in the past 5 months then I allow you to see from this blog and I've learned so much. This year is like a pause in my real life, more then I realized it would be when I decided to do this. It's improving me, and helping me, and giving me so many expieriences. I'm so lucky to be doing this. Not just becuase I get to live in Europe for a year and be away from home and high school, but becuase of what I'm getting out of it. Doing this is far from easy, but I still can't WAIT to struggle through the next half of this weird situation. And I don't have to wait either. I couldn't if I wanted to...

Christmas Stories

2009-12-17T16:44:00.004Z

Hey! I just posted the one bellow this a second ago but I forgot something that I really wanted to put in my blog. Earlier this week our english teacher gave us an assingnment to write a story about christmas in 55 words or less. (thats not very much) The next day he gave us each a copy of every storie we had come up with (we were in groups) And we read them all and discussed them all together....hahaha. It was the best time I've ever had in english class. Some of them were soooo funny.....

The Curious Red Light:

A little red light in the snow lit up the dark forrest. A hunter called Carl got frightent and ran as fast as he could through the forrest, though he couldn't escape the red light. Carl grabed his gun and shot at the red light. The next morning Rudolf was missing :( THE END (there is a picture. I wish I could put that on too...lol)

About Christmas:

It was a christmas morning. The snow was falling down. The children run out and play in the snow. A man saw the two children and through a snowball right at boys head. His head was belding, but the man walked away. An ambulance came out of the blue. Who called the ambulan?
THE END

Search of the Christmas Spirit:

Thomas walk down the street. But suddently nine goblins and one big midget tump down from the big tree. The big midget gave Thomas a lollipop. Then alll the goblins hug Thomas, but the big midget kick Thomas right in the balls and say Merry Christmas :) THE END

haha! That last one was my favorit. OK thats all. Just pretend this was part of the last post. Bye :D

The snow is here

2009-12-17T15:54:00.003Z

I've been so teired of this cold wet rainy danish weather , and for the first time in my life, I really really wanted snow....a lot of snow. And last night we got it! It snowed like crazy! REAL snow, and it stuck and it's still here. It was soo nice....But then I had to get on my bike and ride all the way into town to the station for school :( My bikes not really cut out for...well, anything. I got outside this mornning, (still dark and windy and blazing snow) hopped on my bike and got half way out of my naborhood when the break jammed and my back tire wouldn't go around anymore. So I walked it to Fakta, (a grocery store) locked it and walked the rest of the way. As I was walking I was surprised to see how many people were still doing the same thing. Regardless of the weather, everyone was still out just dealing with it. Danes are really earth friendly, aware, healthy people. haha. Seriously, you would never see people out in that kind of weather in Michigan. Even if we got people to ride bikes or walk more, the second that crap weather came they would be back in their cars. Not the Danes. They're hard core.
Walking is a lot slower then biking so I was sure I had missed my train. But nope! When I got to the station there was a crazy amount of people waiting to get on it. The rails were icey so the train haddent been running and the 3 that come before mine were cancled. So when the train finally came it was packed! I was laughing to myself in Køge, the first stop, but no one really gets off at the first few stops and there were just as many people waiting at those ones. By the time we were to the stop before mine it was just redicualous. We were litterly squished angenst each other. You couldn't not let people in when the door open so we just squished more. People were missing there stops becuase it was impossible to move out of the way. I wanted to take a picture (haha) but I was to squished to get my hand in my pocket...hmm fun times.

I think that this year is the earliest I've ever been in the Christmas spirit. It's almost imposible not to be when it's Decemeber in Denmark! There's christmas music playing everywhere, I pass 3 gaint christmas trees on the way to school, and everyone is just so...peppy. Plus all the christmas parties and food traditions around now. They have this little Christmas cookie called a peppernut. It's really just a gingerbread cookie the size of a penut but they are really good, and they're everywhere! We had a Christmas party thing for the Musical last night and we had a peppernut eating contest. haha. My team won! Then today in school the classroom door flew open and a bunch of kids with santa hats and beards came running in screeming christmas songs and chucking hand fulls of peppernuts at us and at the walls and ceiling and then they were gone again in well under 20 seconds....that was crazy...It makes me feel bad for any Danish exchange student living in the US or something. I don't think anyone has more christmas spirit. Tomorrow I'm just going to school for a few hours for a Christmas party then I'm on break! Yay. I'll wait to update again until after Christmas Day...unless something crazy awesome happens first.

Merry Christmas! (again)

December means Christmas!

2009-12-03T16:31:00.009Z

So when I started thinking today about what my next post would be about I noticed that a lot of little things can happen in 10 days. I think i should start writing stuff down even before I blog, because now that I'm sitting here I know I'm gonna forget some things...

Lets start with Thanksgiving. Obviously mine was a little bit differn't this year. To tell the truth I actually went through the whole school day and much of the evening without it even crossing my mind! It wasn't until Mor got home around 5pm that I realized. she came in the door with a "Happy Thanksgiving!" and I was like ,whaauhooo. Good thing there's a 6 hour time differnece, cuz I was calling home! Thanksgiving is always at my house so I got to talk to everyone. That was really nice:) I called right as people started showing up so I could always here "Hi"s and voices I knew in the backround.

Danes don't celibrate Thanksgiving of corse. So the people here dont have anything stoping them from celibrating christmas as soon as possible. They have a thing here called Christmas lunches. people have them with differnt "groups" in and around christmas. You do them with your families, class, and any sport or club your in, and adults do them with work. They start having them in November and some of them are even after Chritmas (we have a family one on Dec. 29 I think) The day after Thanksgiving, they did the tree lighting in Køge. It was pouring down rain and it was supposed to be at 5 but I think Santa was tired of waiting up in the cherry picker in the freezing rain so it was 12 minutes early...many complaints for that..tsk tsk. (?) An old lady came up to me and started babling about how they should have waited for her to come out of the store. haha.

Town Square the next day. The tree is in the middle.

That night I went to a party with some of the kids from my class and I got a free haircut! There was a girl there who was in beauty school and I agreed to let her cut it. Considering the circumstances (passed midnight at a danish party) It turned out pretty great, and it was free :) and haircuts are expensive here. Then on Saturday I went to Rasmus's house with Simon. We ate dinner there and had a christmas-ish party. It's wierd being in the Christmas spirit so early...

Last weekend I went with Mor and Far to get a Christmas tree. 2 actually (one for inside and one for outside). Christmas trees are differnt here. They're a lot more....whimpy. They're all short and bare, not like the ones we get! I was the one who cut it down, and as I was doing it I started thinking about when I was little, and how my brothers and sister and I would all take turns cutting it a little bit. It seemed to take forever, and when it finally started to fall we would run out of the way. Then all of a sudden I had cut through the whole thing and I stopped it from falling over with one arm...Then we put it in the trunk. haha.

In the USA people go crazy with christmas lights outside thier houses. Here, that pretty rare. But they go decoration crazy on the inside! Last weekend Mor pulled out a a bunch of huge boxes all filled with christmas decorations and now they've been pucked out all over the house. Not that it looks bad. Just very christmasy :) Like I said, it's a little early for me. haha.

Ok. I've got 2 funny stories for you. I'm not sure If they were "you had to be there" type stories but I'm gonna write them down anyway so I have them for me.

#1 I made dinner last night. And after a few weeks of not messing anything up it had to end somewhere. I made black beans and rice as a side for chicken. I missed it and wanted some so I found a recepy on line and made it. But I used some wierd asain rice we had and followed the instructions for white rice. (I'm dumb) They were way over-cooked and then when I mixed it in with the beans and stuff it was just...not the way it was supposed to look. So anyway, when people went to take some it came out in huge solid clumps. Mor asked Far to give her some,...He took one clump, put it on the plate the looked in the bowl and said "Would you like one rice or two rice?" I thought that was soooo funny. But now that I right it it sounds kinda dumb. Maybe you had to be there.

#2 I was walking through the down town area in Solrød to the train station after school today and as I was doing so, a cha-cha line of maybe 60 people came marching out of an office buliding and onto the street. They were all dressed like pirates and they had pirate flags and swords and stuff. I don't know if it was becuase it was Friday or if it was some kinda of weird Christmas party but...ya. They did a big loop around the christmas tree in the town square and I was aproching, ready to pass them, as they came around the other side. But then all of a sudden the lady in the front with a bongo just fell to the ground. And I think she maybe fainted becuase she wasn't really moving very much. As I walked by the fun kinda stopped they all kinda ran into each other and looked toward the front like...what the heck? I was alone and I STILL couldn't help but just bursting out laughing after I had passed by and the whole event regesterd in my head.

So ya, that was that. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I think this is good enough :)

hohoho! Merry Christmas!

P.S. This cat likes to hang out outside our school. We let him inside on Wednesday! He likes hugs :) haha

Life (almost 4 months in)

2009-11-23T15:05:00.005Z

Hello. It's 4:00 now. I got home from school a little while ago and I have to leave again at 5:00 to go to my first day of level 3 language school. It's already dark out AND it's rainning so I'm not really looking forward to the bikeride over there. The level 3 class actually started last wednesday but I wasn't there becuase I went to another play rehearsal. And when I got there I was told I had been promoted :) Someone couldn't do it anymore so I actually have a real part now with lines that were already in the script. haha. They said they're gonna make sure to make it clear that I don't come from Denmark. and the performances arn't until April so I've got a lot of time to work on it. I'm there less then once a week right now (only on some wednesdays) so it's not time consumming at all yet.

Oprah was here! I think I said that a while back. She was here with Obama back when they were trying to get the Olympics in Chicago. but what I didn't know is that when she came she did a segment for her show, showing what life was like in Denmark. It was a very simplified portrayl of the way people live here, but fun to watch. We don't get Oprah on TV but they still aired it here.

(P.S I didn't take this)

I've been speaking a lot of english the last few day. On Thursday we had an AFS meeting, on Saturday I went with AFS to Copenhagen, and on Sunday we had an American over for lunch and dinner. So let's go from the start:

The meeting with AFS was nice. It had been a while sence I had seen the others (6 in the Køge area) We had pizza then 2 of the exchange students did a presentation about thier home countries. After that, the meeting was directed tword the host families. Talking about next year allready! So we got to go in the other room. We didn't really know what we should do then...but wait, I had my camara with me! so we did what all AFS exchange students do with a camara, we took pictures of us with the AFS flag :) But when that got a little boring I showed them the blvbvlvlvblllvlvb game. haha. that kept us pretty entertained.

On Saturday AFS went to Tivoli. It's a huge amusment park in Copenhagen. We went to see a show called "the crazy christmas cabaret" It was in english, and it's was really funny. The show was at 3:00 so when it was over it was dark out and Tivoli was lite up like crazy! christmas lights everywhere! It was really cool we walked around in Tivoli for a while then went to McD's :D That was deliciouse. After that we just walked around in Copenhagen and had a really fun time :)

Then on Sunday Anders's (my older host brother) friend from the US was here, He was from Chicago. He was only the 2nd American I've been around in the past 3 months. It was kinda funny. Anyway, It's Monday again and I'm back into the Danish mode. (minus writting this blog post) but I've got to go. I have 4 more hours of school :( Bye.

"special cocktails for ladies with nuts"

2009-11-12T11:25:00.006Z

Hello. weird title isn't it? Haha. I couldn't think of anything and I read that in my english textbook today. There was a page with signs from all over the world written in english. It was so we could see how much of an international language english is, and also to fix the many many mistakes. A lot of them were really funny but the funniest one by far was the one from a bar in Tokyo that said "special cocktails for ladies with nuts" I think they were trying to say there's nuts in the cocktail. hahaah. that mad me laugh sooo much, so I thought I would share it with you :D
Anyway, I don't have any big event to base this post on but of corse there's always a lot of little things going on that I don't always talk about on here. So I guesse I'll just write about.. stuff...

Last week (or the week before, i can't remember) I had my level 2 language test and I passed! The whole class passed! All 4 of us. haha. It wasn't to hard but it was a step up from the level 1 test I had a few months ago. We had to write an essay, do a listening thing, and do a reading thing. Then I had to talk about one of the three books I had read but they don't tell you which one until you get there. and then the tester just listens to a lame conversation you try to make with another student about a given subject. (we had "shopping") So I passed and will be moving on to level 3 but not right away. Like I said there are only 4 people in our class and you need at least 6 to start a new level. We had some drop outs resently so we have to wait for more people to join before we can start up again. When I got home that night after passing the test we all had icecream and danish cherry wine to celebrate! hah, That was fun.
School is good :) We had a guy come in on Tusday and speak to the whole school about enviromently friendly solutions. He was an inventor I guesse and he showed us a bunch of his ideas. One of them was a car that hooks up to other cars to make a train(? i think?) The next day we split into groups and had to come up with our own ideas. My group came up with the idea of lighting a city with the electricety from lighting....
I got home from school the other day and Far told me I had a part in the musical they're doing with the youth group thing in Køge. I was confussed. It's something I was trying to get into about a month ago but I couldn't go to the audition. But aparently they found a part for me :) So last night I road my bike over to a rehearsal in the pouring rain. It was at a really cool place. I guesse it used to be a train station a long time ago, so it's a long building with graffiti all over it, close to the beach. They do a lot of concerts there I heard. It was a small rehearsal. Just some of the leads I think. I was informed that I have a small part as a foreign exchange student! hah. It will be fun. I haven't seen the script yet but they're writting me in I think. Which is really nice, I've missed theater so much. I've gone more than 3 months without being in a show before of course, but I'm constently around theater at home. constently. It was nice even to just sit in and watch. It was moving slowly becuase they were still blocking the scene but I was happy to be there.
Then when it was over, we went to this back room and there was like, a cafe! It was so cool. And they said once a month there's an open mic thing, and they were doing it that night! There were little tables with candles everywhere, low lighting, and really good live music by people that were just sitting in the audience going up and taking turns. It was just ...cozzy. and there were people I knew! (haha, there's always people I've met before,..everywhere!). It was really nice. Made me wish a played an insterment, really bad. I'm gonna make sure a go to that thing whenever they have it from now on.

What else...We ate goose for dinner the other day. It's a danish tradision to eat goose or duck on November...(?) I can't remeber what day it was. It was good. I've never had goose before. There is a story behind it but I'm not gonna put it on here, I dont want to get it wrong. The simple reason, I've heard, Is becuase they dont like geese, so they eat them. but thats not the real reason...

So my blog has been looking pretty boring lattley becuase I havn't been taking any pictures. I looked at my camara just now to see if there was anything I could share on here but the most resent pics are from Sweden...and the ones I took of my purple big toe after dropping a drawer on it,...but I don't think you want to see those, so i'll just leave this one blank :D But i'll try to take my camara around with me more so I can have some for next time. I need to have pictures of everyday stuff too, not just big events. So watch for another one in about a week, bye!

SG 1p

2009-11-02T15:20:00.007Z

That my new class :) Solrød Gymnasium, class 1p. I've been with my new class, in my new school for a week now (started with my 2nd Monday today) and I'm really happy with it. It's still new of corse but It's been really great so far and it just get's better the more used to it I get. I take the train to school now which still feels really cool, but I know it's gonna just be annoying later on. But for now I'm just reminded how lucky I am everyday. I get to ride my bike through the town square and get on the "S" train (headed tword Copenhagen). It makes me feel cool. haha.
And in the 2 weeks I had between switching from 10klasse to Solrød (with break, and farming school) my Danish improved a lot, so I started off able to understand a lot more of the lessons then I did when I left 10klasse. That was cool. I have so many differnt subjects now! Some of them are only once a week but still:

Math
Danish
English
Geography
History
Chemistry
Biology
Religion
Social Studies
Media (film)
Gym

It's a lot. I went through half a class once last week not knowing what subject it was! I think I only know 2 of our teachers names too. haha. But I've got all the kids names down, so thats good. They've been really nice so far. They've done a good job at welcoming me and making me feel "in". They all get along well with each other too which I think is really cool. It's a class of 25 and I don't feel like they're broken up into little groups like you would think. Lunch is so cool with my class. hhaha. We're free to leave or do what ever we want. The gymnasium is right in town in Solrød so kids are always going to the stores and stuff during lunch. We have speakers in all the classrooms too, so someone will always plug in their i-pod and play it really high. We've also got a really good cafateria which is open ALL the time :) and I went to a class party on Friday. It was a lot of fun, and good to see them all out of school.
Oh! and if the teacher is sick or busy or something, they don't have subs, your just free for that hour! That happend for my first time today with a lesson we have right before lunch so we had almost 2 hours off! About 7 of us just got on a train (cuz you can do that) and went to a mall type place a few stops north and had Burger King, walked around, and went back just in time for our next class... Thats so cool!
But when I'm in class we work, which is a good thing becuase that what I switched schools for. I have class from 8am to 2, 3, or 4pm which is much more time than I was in school before. And the extra time is a really good thing. I get more social interaction, and with a lot more people and I really think thats helping my Danish. Of corse it is. So the switch was a good thing.

I don't really know what else to write about Gymnasium. It's so differnt from high school. (in almost every way) So if anyone has any questions about it you can just comment and ask :)

Joe Cavanaugh is lucky

2009-10-26T15:23:00.006Z

Hello :) I've had quite a good time this past week. Really good. Great!

Lets start with farming school; That was quite an experience....

I just want to start this whole thing by saying my danish has improved like CRAZY this past week or so. ( or at least I've noticed how much I've actually learned) I can't believe I can actually communicate and try to make converstaion with people in danish. Sure I have to ask them to repeat a lot but once they do, I understand them. I've got the small talk in the bag! (kind of) but it's just weird. I'm not used to it yet. My communicationn with other people consists of almost all danish!

Ok, anyway, farming school; It was interesting. We worked on the farm, we learned in the classrooms, and we drove tractors :) I got to hang out with the cows and sheep, and I even got to ride a horse one day! That was cool. I've never done that. We learned a lot about farming and how to take care of the animales and stuff. I had a good time. I had to get up really early everyday though. The school was in Rosklide. So I had to ride my bike to Køge station every morning ( about 15 minutes), then take the train to Rosklide station (about 25 minutes), then sit at the station and wait for the bus (about 20 minutes) then take the bus to the school (about 10-15 minutes) The sun didn't come up until after I was at the school everyday. I hadn't used the public transport that much by my self before last week and there were some messups. I ended up missing the train one morning. And I missed the bus once too and I had to walk 5k to the school 2 times! But now I think I know the transportation system quite well so thats a really good thing. I have no pictures from farming school. There was never an good time to whip out a camara...

When friday came along farming school was over and I was on my way to Sweden! WOW that was an awesome trip! I'm so lucky I got to go white water rafting AND caving in Sweden. It was sooo cool. We were only going to a southern part of Sweden so I didn't think it would look much differnt from Denmark, but ohhh it did. We took our bus across the water on a huge ferrie. It was crazy. There was a huge parking lot on the bottom and a mall type thing with stores an resturants on the other levels. When we got to Sweden the first city was quite simmilar to Denmark. But we were soon out in the nature and things were sooo differnt. I can't really say how but it was like nature I havn't seen in real life before. When you go out in the woods in Michigan (where I come from) It's like the same as it is in Denmark. But It was...bigger in Sweden. Big trees and big rocks and everything was coverd in thick green mosses and stuff. And it was always misty and wet. And there were a lot of calm little lakes and stuff. And it's fall! So that just added to how nice it all was. It was really realll reallllly cold...

I've never tried white water rafting before so I didn't know what to expect. But we had to strip down and change into our wet suits out in the woods by the river! It was sooo cold. Just try to imagine it. It was rainning, it was cold enough to see your breath, I was freezing and we were about to get into little boats and splash around in a raging river. So what happend next I wasn't expecting at all... One of the leaders took as down to the edge of the water. He was speeking danish of corse and the water and everything was making to much noise for me to understand. But than all of a sudden kids started jumping into the water! They zipped down the river into a lake a little farther down. I couldn't believe it. I thought the piont was to stay in the boat and stay as dry as we could!? But it was my turn to jump in, and I've learend to not really ask questions, so there I went :) It was soooo much fun. 100% freezing but one of the coolest things I've ever done. After that, being wet and cold didn't matter anymore. (Jumping into a ragging river in October will do that for you) We took the boats out and did the same strip of river for hours. It comes out into a lake, you get out, take your boat, walk up the trail, and get in the river again. The boats were for 2 people so we just switched parteners all the time. The was on time I was with this girl and our boat got turned around backwards! We hit a big wave thing and she fell out! I was half way out (one of my legs) and I slamed my knee agienst a big rock. That hert really bad :( We were both fine but my knee still herts kind of. Just brused though. It was an adventure! but there was more to come...That same day we changed in to dry(ish) clothes and headed over to a cave! We crawled around deep into these dark little holes ( not for clasterfobic people) but it was really cool becuase we found that a lot of them lead to bigger "rooms". I love how Europeans (from what I've seen) don't have to worry about crazy parents sueing them If they set there kids free in a cave in Sweden, or tell them to jump into a ragging river :) I really don't think that trip would have been the same if I went with Americans....

The next day we did some more white water rafting. But it was less the the first day becuase we had to hit the road. I was home by 8:00pm on Sunday and I had to make sure I was ready for my first day at Solrød Gymnasuim! I don't think my first day could have gone any better :) My class is great. They were all really nice and interested in me. We had math and I was able to do the work. I worked together with some other people and I was actually able to discuse the problems in danish. I was lost with some of it but I knew what we were doing. then we had a geogrophy type class were the teacher gave a test (just to see what we knew) becuase they were starting somthing new. I could read almost all the questions and even answer some of them. haha. It was cool. Then we had gym class were we split up into 2 groupd and had a dance off. haHAHAaa. Not something I've done in gym class before. They were all really welcoming and I even got invited to a class party on friday! yay! I can't wait for the rest of the week so I can get a real feel of what its like and let you guys know. But for now I think I've written enough. I've got language school tomorrow so I've got to study. I havn't had time all week! Bye.

Efterårsferie

2009-10-19T16:20:00.003Z

I hope thats spelled right. It meens Fall Break! I know I mentioned it already. My break was sooo nice:) For the first half we were in a little town in north west Jutland called Blokhus. On the map you see 3 main bodies of land. The three parts of Denmark. The 2 to the right are islands. I live on the east coast of the island on the right side. In english it's called Zealand. The part thats not an island (on the left side) is Jutland, which borders germany in the south (not in this picture. haha) Were we stayed was in the north west part of Jutland.

On the way over we stopped for lunch at one of Mor's friends houses on Fyn, the middle part of Denmark. Is was nice to be able to stop because now I can say I've been there and not just driven through. All in all I think it took us about 4 hours to get to Blokhus (were we stayed) We stayed at a hotel type place but there were a lot of seprate buildings and we had our own kitchen. So we made dinner every night just like at home. The place was right on the beach. The beach was BIG and beautiful with sand duns and people driving cars all over. And the sun set over the ocean every night. It was nice, but freezing cold. You wouldn't think of swimming. But they had a nice indoor pool so we were in there a lot. They had table tennis too and I must say I think I've improved my skills this past week. We did that ALOT. We all played a lot of cards to together too. The trip was great bonding time :) On the way home we got to see Århus, the main city in Jutland. We went to a place called "den gamlle by" It meens, the old town. It's a collection of really old danish buildings that they moved into one area. It's not that exciting if your comming from Køge (it looked like our town. haha) but it was a fun thing to do.

When we got home Simon and I were off to a party that same night. And the next day I finally got to use that canoe thing I won. It was me, Simon, Ramus, and Sigurd. We got up at 10 in the morning and went cannoeing (?) in the freezing rain. Yes it really was freezing rain. We spent most of the time under bridges :D It was cold. But just really dumb fun, you know? And we got free lunch after :)

The rest of the the break we just relaxed, I went to some parties, studied some danish, and slept :)

And today is monday, break is over, and I had such a good day today!!! It started with a long awaited meeting at Solrød Gymnasium. I'm switching to that school! It was so cool walking in and seeing how nice and "un-grade schoolish" it was. There were no little kids, no screeming, no running, and it was fancy and bigger and better! I got a list of my classes and I even met some kids I know that go there. I'm very excited to start but.....I don't start till next monday. This week I'm going to farming school :) It's one of those "bridge building" things with 10 klasse. I decided it's not something I want to miss. How often do you get a chance to spend a week at farming school?! come on! After my meeting at Solrød, Far took me to the farming school and when he dropped me off he said "have fun, it your first and last time to do this." And from there I was sooo happy. After getting to see Solrød and knowing that was ahead for me, and then walking into this "farming school" where I knew no one and nothing about, I just felt good, off to do another random thing in Denmark. I felt refreshed and ready and confident, and I had such a good day. I met new people with ease. And in Danish! I was sooo surprised at myself. It's the most Danish I've ever spoken. In fact I think I said 2 sentences in english the whole day, and I talked a lot! I had a hard time switching over to english at the beginning of this blog! It's by far the most fluent I've ever felt (but still far from it) The hard work is paying off :) I really think I'll learn a lot of Danish this week. Becuase I met these people in Danish we speek in Danish. It's wierd but...english just doesn't seem like an option when I'm with them. It's a really good thing!

Today we got a tour of the farm and school. The kids who go to this school live there! they each have there own rooms too, with a bed, and desk, and belcony, even their own showers. They eat really good there too. The whole place reminded me of a much smaller, much more modurn Hogwarts :) The kids who go there are kind of like family, they eat together, they have a nice big common room, and when they're not in class they "rome the grounds" The main loby felt more like a big living room than anything. I wont talk to much about the school, I'll save it for my next blog. But here's my timeline until I blog again:

- the rest of the school week at the farm school!

- white water rafting in sewden over the weekend!

- my first few days at Solrød Gymnasium!

The next one's gonna be good :)

I've Got Some News...

2009-10-10T11:19:00.003Z

So after a long time of leaving this little "problem" out of my blog I'd like to say....I'm switching schools! The class I'm in right now is called 10 klasse. I wrote about it a long time ago way at the start of my blog. The thing is that it's just to....pointless. I don't feel like I'm in school enough. And when I am in school we don't get much of anything done. I came here with the impresion that school was going to be really hard here. I was mentally prepared for it and now I just feel....lame. I feel dumb being tired becuase I don't do anything taxing (except language school)
and when I go out and have fun I don't feel like I earned it.....It's difficult to explain. but any way. I've talked with AFS and my host family about it and they found a place for me at Solrød Gymnasium :) The one in Køge is full so I'll have to take a train to school but thats OK with me. I have a meeting at the school on Monday but I don't know exactly when I will start school there. Right now, as of yesterday, we are on efterårsferie! ( fall break) So nothing can really be done with the school right now....but I'll wait :)

In the morning we're all going to Jutland! Mors sister has an apartment in a little town in north western Jutland that they use for vacationing. It's right on the water and I've been told the beaches are really beautiful there so I'm excited. Simon and Anne say there's not much to do up there, but It'll be nice. They have a pool and table tennis and we'll be there for 3 days. I'm looking forward to it.

Lastley: you might be wondering how my danish is coming along. We're 10 days into October and I havn't writen at all about my atempts at speaking ALL dainsh at the start of this month. It's very hard! I'll be honest and say I'm slightly failing, but still improving a lot. Even though I use english still when I need to, I think It's safe to say that it's finally more danish than english, especially around the house. And there are A LOT of things I never say in english. It's just automaticly danish with some words and prases that I happen to use a lot. Simple danish conversation is also become much less foriegn to me. I can uderstand a lot when people are talking and I don't translate it in my head anymore. And we're reading books in language school! They're ment for people who are learning danish so that not very hard but still, I don't read baby books anymore. They're are no pictures and I still know what going on! I whipped through 2 books last week, each about 50 pages (haha) Reading is the easiest part becuase the words are right there in front of you. You dont have to try to say them and you don't have to make sure you heard right. I'm working hard! Learning a second language the way I am (living with it) is really fun and really rewarding. I'm lucky to get to do it. And there's not gonna be a day were I just say "hey! I'm fluent now!" With certain conversations I have (when I'm lucky) I feel like I already am fluent becuase I can understand and comunicate back easily. But I'm not even close to being able to say everything I want to.I'll be learning all the way up to the day I leave. There will be no crossing over, just building up from here :)

So, I'm off to a family birthday party but I'll blog again when I get back from Jutland. Hopfully by than I'll be able to say more about my school situation, and I'll have pictures from our trip.

AFS Fall Camp

2009-10-05T10:16:00.004Z

Once upon a time there was a lady named Abigail. She was in love with a man named George. She lived on one side of the river and he lived on the other. One day there was a big storm. The river flooded, and all the bridges to the other side were washed away. Abigail had no way of getting to George. The only person on the river with a boat was a fisherman named Carl. Abigail asked Carl if he would take her across the river to her man. And Carl said he would but only if Abigail would have sex with him first. Abigail didn't know what to do. She was very confused so she went to ask her mother, but when she explained the situation her mother told her she didn't want anything to do with it. So Abigail decided to have sex with Carl. He took her across the river and she went to go see George. She told him everything. She felt very bad about what she did but it was the only way to get back to him. But George didn't understand. He got very angry and told Abigail that they were no longer together. Abigail was very hurt. As she walked away from George's house she met his friend John. She told John the whole story and John became very upset. He thought George should have understood. John decided to go back to Georges house and beat him up. Abigail was very greatful and the too of them fell in love.

THE END

????? This is a story they told us at the AFS camp last weekend. After they told the stroy, they put us into groups and asked us to order the 5 people in the story from best to worst. They wanted us all to agree on who was moraly in the right place. Each group had kids from all over the world of corse, and we were supposed to try to agree on morals.....It was impossible. It was really intersting hearing the other kids opinions about who in the story haden't done anything wrong. The more I listened to each explination, the easier it became to put the charecters into any order. Even fisherman Carl could be seen as the inocent one. It all depended on your set of morals. And we had a lot of differnt sets of moral in that room. The whole thing helped us realise that none are really better then another. They're just differnt. Very interesting....

The camp was a really good thing and it was at a very good time I think. It was really helpfull to be able to talk to other exchange students and to see were they stood and how they felt at this point. We spent a lot of time talking with the leaders and hearing about each others problems with family, school, friends, ect. And the leaders (all passed exchange students) had really good advise and ideas for everything. I learned a lot at the camp. they gave us a lot of advise and really help all of us to kind of stop floating around and start moving forward again. They had us all write a list of goals. simple things and big things, and it was so easy to just write and write and write. I remember in grade school when we would have to do that and I would never know what to write so I'd just make somthing up. haha. But as an exchange student you have so many goals they're just all bundled up in your head. It was really helpfull to write it all down and be able to see it a talk about how we could make them happen. It's really got me thinking about some things...

And of corse it was also great to just be with all these people who are going through the same thing. It's so easy to just talk and talk and talk. In fact, there was a group of us who stayed up until 5:30 am Saturday night! The only complaint I have is that when we slept, it was on the floor, and we were in my school of all places! Some kids traveld for 2 hours but I could have walked home and slept in my own bed. but couldn't. Anyway, It was just great to be able to pause my exchange for a few days and think and colaberate and all that. It was fun.

P.S. When I got home I discovered that Simons bike had been found!!....and a tree fell down in the back yard :(

2 Months In

2009-09-30T10:05:00.002Z

I've been here for 2 whole months now! Time has no meaning to me anymore. Things just happen. Somtimes a lot of things happen, somtimes nothing happens. It's gone by so fast so far but when I look back I see a lot of things. I really HAVE been here that whole time. And I'm very happy to say that I've yet to be sad. They kept on telling us that the first 2 months or so would be the hardest and that we would really have to push our way through it. But honestly, I've glided through these first 2 months like an aimless little bird (hahaha) Where am I? I don't even know how I got to this point...

A lot of little things have happend sense the last time I blogged. Nothing big enough for me to remeber my camara for...Oh! but hey! I won a contest that I didn't even know I was in. Remember in my last blog when I talk about how I went with Far to the water tower? When we were there we had to fill out some form (just our names, e-mailes, things like that) I didn't know what it was for...didn't really care either. But I got a call on Friday and this lady said I won a conoe trip for 4 ,and lunch at some local resturant. Yay me! I don't know when I'll be able to use it. We're booked the next few weeks. By the time I'm free it'll be really cold.

Mor had her birthday yesterday. We didn't make a huge deal of it (it was a tuesday so everyone was pretty busy) But we all manged to get up at the same time to eat breakfast together. Danish birthdays are very patriotic. We had little Danish flags all over the table and one big one standing at the end. Far got some fresh bread from the bakery...mmmm. Before we all left for the day Far, Simon, and me paraided through the kitchen with gifts and a Danish flag and atempted to sing the Danish birthday song. (haha) It's really long, and costumized depending on who you sing it to. We might go out to eat on Sunday for Mors birthday. I'm not sure yet...

...hmmm I think It's time to make a list of random things that have happend or will happen. I've got a lot of little things to let you in on, but no time to write a novel...so here:

- We had a movie night here last Friday with Simons friends.
- On Sunay we went to watch Rasmus play football.
- Simon's bike got stolen right off our porch last night!
- Language school is moving a lot faster, It's getting really hard.
- I have an AFS camp this weekend. It's at my school!
- I'm going white water rafting in Sweden next month!
- I'm gonna be in a Musical!..or on tech. It depends on how good my Danish is come spring :)
- We have "fall break" coming up and we're going to Jutland! (the big part of Denmark)
- I'm going to 2 differn't schools for a week each (one of them is farm school...I think)
-This is my last free day to speek english!
- I've gotta go study my Danish!

wooh. This could have been a very long blog. haha. Don't worry. I'll elaborate on the good stuff as It comes. And I'll blog when I can ( I don't know when that will be, I'm gonna be really busy)

Bye.

...And It Just Keeps Getting Better

2009-09-21T10:04:00.007Z

Are you ready for a long post with a lot of pictures??? Becuase I am. I've been having sooo much fun here in Denmark. I think I'm at one of those "high points" they talked about before I left. A time were everything is good:) REALLY good. And when you just feel so lucky and happy to be there in your host country doing what your doing. Thats me. I love Denmark! I love how unorganized and random my life has become now. Thats what I was looking for...spontaneity! And I got it. I do somthing differnt every day. My weekends are the most random things in the world! (haha) The best part is, when I think about it, my life here is just going to keep getting better and better. With every new expierience I have, with every new place I go, or person I meet, or Danish word I learn, my life will just keep getting better. It will just keep buliding! I came here with nothing but myself and now I kind of have a fake little life...that I really like! It's great!

o, the last time I bloged I was halfway through my "bridge building" week, questioning what buseniss school and soccer had in common. The answer?..nothing! Last week was sooo random. Like I said before, we weren't in our own school. On Monday we went to the business school. Tuesday we played soccer. Wednesday we were at the business school again, and then on Thursday we went to Copenhagen. We went to a giant pet store and a mall...(?)....Then on Friday we played vollyball with the kids from the business school :) .....(I just go with the flow)

In Copenhagen on Thursday...

Friday night was a big party! It was a double birthday party for a girl in my class ad a guy from one of the other 10th sses. They rented out a little party hall in Herfølge (the town south of Køge) It was soo much fun. There were kids running a DJ table and we palyed some wierd games....Oh! and I went in the girls bathroom! (haha) it said "D" on the door. The danish word for "boy" starts with a D...but the danish word for "Lady" also stats with D! haha. It's kind of sad, you'de think I would know what bathroom to go in by now. O well. I'm foreign :D

It was kind of difficult getting up at 8:30 the next morning and riding my bike to the train station. But worth it. I was going to Næstved to visit exchange friends! Ya! I met Andy (from the US) on the train and we headed South :) Once we got there and met up with everyone (8 of us) we kind of realized that we didn't really have any plans...We just said "go to Næstved!" Some kids travels from 3 hours away but we never botherd to come up with a game plan. (haha) But I think that why it ended up being so fun... there were 4 girls from New Zealand with us, and even though they don't sound american, it was wierd, and kind of nice to talk to them and know that english is thier first language. We could talk and use big words if we wanted to and they would understand! I didn't real realize how much slower I've gotten with my english already. When I'm with the Danes I try to keep things kind of simple....so... simple is kind of all I know now. (haha) You don't realize it until your with other people who speek english as a native language. You can't see it much when I'm writing becuase I have time to work things through and get in all the words I want in the right order ;)

Anyway, we ended up walking around Næstved for a few hours. We were all trying to save money so we had grapes and beer for lunch. (haha) For 8 people! Dinner was a bag of rolles with cheese that we ate on the beach :) And it was such A nice day out. Unusaually HOT...but really really nice.

Not only was this luch for 8 people, but we ate it on the ground at the bus stop! you cant get much more foreign than that!

Cool bus...

calm....

After the beach we went to Kelsi's house. We mostly just talked there. It's really nice to talk to other exchange students and to hear how differnt everyone's experiences have been. It's crazy how many differnt ways my exchange could have gone. Everyone was spending the night but I had bought my train ticket round trip so I had to use it before 12:00. I took a train back to Køge at 11:30 (my first time alone) It felt cool. But I fell asleep and almost missed the stop. I was pretty tired. When I got home ( around 12:15) Anne and her friend were sitting at the table getting "warmed up" to go down town. I sat down and they helped wake me up :) I ended up going to town with them. My first time sucessfully getting into a bar! I guesse its harder in Køge becuase it seems like all the other exchange students can always do it in their towns.

I spent Sunday with Far again. We went to the water tower. He said they open it once a year so people can climb up into it. It was cool. We got a really good view of Køge and the bay. We got ice cream too :) It was another really warm day. It felt like summer! We road through some trails too. We have woods close to our house thats a lot like stony creek (home in Michigan) It was fun.

My Danish is improving, And that big day at the start os October is getting closer and closer. The day I stop using english (until 8pm). We've been speeking a lot more Danish at home. I'd say it's at least half and half now and it used to be maybe only 1/4 Danish. And I'm starting to understand all the math words like: plus, minuse, area, vloume, radius,...names of shapes...ect. Today in math (we were doing geometry so it was easy for me) I helped explaine how to do it to some kids who weren't getting it...and I did that in Danish! I'm starting to use it more casually now. It isn't such a big deal when I speek it becuase I just say everything I can in Danish. It's

helping me so much. Oh! and I starting level 2 in language school now. So It's coming along...

Life is good!

News/ Stories/ Random Pictures

2009-09-15T09:19:00.004Z

Hey! It's been too long...

Here's some NEWS:

My blog is on the AFS website now! Thats really cool becuase that means future exchange students will be reading it, but It's also kind of intimidating becuase now I have to make sure I blog often...and spell things right :D The website is http://afsblog.org/ There are a lot of blogs on there writen by AFS exchange students from the US who are now all over the world. They're fun to read. And to any new readers I might have now becuase of that: be an exchange student! If it's somthing your considering, this is the perfect time to start taking action and applying for next year.

Here's some STORIES:

#1: I went to my first Gymnasium party last weekend! Which was really cool becuase I didn't think I would get to go to any sense I'm placed in the 10th Grade. But sense Anne goes there she was allowed to bring two guests: Me and Simon. What a nice host sister:) But then......Simon got sick a few days before the party :( I felt kind of bad becuase I think he might have gotten it from me. I had a little cold last week and then got over, but then he got it worse. When he stayed home from school on Friday, Mor said he couldn't go to the party that night. Which is fair of course but the-- who would I go with if Ann was doing her own thing and Simon was sick? The answer: NO ONE. I felt so dumb walking up there alone, with no plans to meet anyone... But it was so much fun! When I got there I spotted familair faces almost imediatly. Kids from my class, other kids from my school, and just random people I had met before. I also met a lot of new people and just had a really fun time. It was like prom or homecoming at home, except the dress was more casual, and there was a BAR! (and the DJ was better)....

#2: This week at school, we started our first week of "bridge building" It just means we take a week away from the school and go do real life things (!) We have 5 or 6 weeks like this spread out throughout the year. So we're only 2 days in buy I can tell you what we've done so far: On Monday we met at the businuss school (at 11:oo I might add) and they gave ua a tour and talked a lot in Danish...which I can only even really try to understand when I have a lot of energy. The business school is really cool though. It's fancey and arcitectual... and they have belconys on the second floor classrooms that kids were smoking on. (haha)...Today we met at Køge stadium and played football (soccer). I dont know what day 1 and day 2 had in common but maybe I'll find out tommorow(?), We'll be meeting at the businuss school again.

Here's some RANDOM PICTURES:

This is what I eat here!...sometimes. Its called an open face sandwitch...yummm

These cows live right by the beach.....very lucky cows :D

Those are jellyfish! Thats the differance between the ocean and the sea...well, kind of.

This toilet is one of 3 I've seen instaled in public, around Køge....don't ask me.

Our beautiful house! Blåbarvej 13... Thats Blueberry road in english :)

Language

2009-09-07T09:55:00.003Z

I know thats a very general title but thats what I'm gonna write about this time. I could sit here and write what I've been up to all the time but then you would never get to here much about Denmark and what things and people are like here. Plus I haven't really been taking pictures latley.

So let's just start with the word; Language. What does it mean? I really don't know exactly, but I do know the word has changed a lot for me sense I've been here. Before I left I saw language as the words we use when we talk. I have a language, and people from Denmark have a different language that I won't be able to understand. But now I see it as something we all have in common. We all use language to communicate, we just have different codes. It's really hard to explain with words what I'm trying to say. It's just kinda something I feel now.

Just think: each language is like a puzzle...And I already know how to solve a puzzle, becuase I do the same one back home everyday. But now I'm doing a different puzzle with differnt peices.
The point is, I know how to do a puzzle.....I don't know if this metaphor is working but to give a quick explination; this is easier than I thought it would be. I still have to study a LOT. but It's not impossible. I'm doing it. I'm learning Danish, and I feel like I just found a puzzle peice that allowed me to use a bunch of the other ones I was saving. I'm understanding more and more every day. I actually participated in the Danish lesson today. And on break I think I understude an intire 10 minute conversation about the party we had on Friday. I feel like I'm at the point in the puzzle were I can tell what the picture is...And it makes me want to do more.

To learn by doing is the easiest way but I've been mostly learning by watching so I think thats why I understand more than I can say. I need to starts speaking more. I just feel so dumb struggling to say something simple in Danish like, "where were you yesterday?" when the person I'm talking to can speak perfect english. And It's true, my whole host family, all my teachers, and most of my class speak really good english. And they have to. Denmark is half the size of Michigan. 6 million people speak Danish and 10 million live in Michigan alone. Half their TV is in english, half their advertisments are in english. Instructions on boxes are written in English. The music they listen to is in English. It's crazy! I know I would be better at Danish if I HAD to use it, and I had to struggle and sound like an idiot....So we desided that as of October 1, we wont be speaking any english at home until after 8pm, and thats only if I have questions or we have something importiant to talk about. I wont be speaking English in school either. It'll be impossible to get the kids to not speak to me in English but....we'll see. I'm really looking forward to it becuase I know It's gonna help sooo much. I kinda want to start now but sense I've been speeking so little Danish It'll be best to work up to it, and just say everything I can in Danish.....

OK, so now It's time to stray from the title of the blog just for a little while becuase I want to tell you about my Sunday and my odd adventure with Far:

It was already 2 or 3 and we were eating a late lunch. As far as I new I didn't have any plans for the day, but then Far informed me that we would be going to visit his mom again. (something I don't think I wrote about) They probably talked about it before at dinner or something but of course It was in Danish and no one had filled me in, which is fine. It makes things interesting :) Mor said that we were going to a castle to pick up a helmet...(?) So Far and I got in the car (a rare ocassion) and started driving south. He said we had to pick up a helmet from a rich friend of theirs, Peter Hendrick, who lives in a castle. So when we got there we parked the car, went through the gate, and sure enough, it was a big Danish castle with a mote and everything! And there were people all over the lawn. I think he was having a party. Far and I found him and he took us over the mote and into his castle :) We followed him into a back room were he had the helmet.
...Far bikes. So I thought Peter Hedrick was maybe a biker friend who had a bicycle helemet for him. But no...we left that castle with an old hard shell army helmet (?) I asked Far what he was going to do with it and he said Anne needed it....I was confussed. After that we got in the car and drove for maybe 5 minutes and stopped at a little house with a big feild and barn behind in. And beyond the field was the Ocean and the bridge to Sweden! It was really stunning...but I didn't know why we were stopping. Far said, "we have to get another helmet."
So we got out of the car and knocked on the door. While we were waiting Far explained to me that the lady who lives in the house used to own the field and barn behind it, but sold it when her husband died. He said her husband had a plane and that field was the landing strip....After we waited for a minute Far disided she wasnt home. So we walked around back. There was a little green house and Far went inside. He came out with an old black leather flying cap....That was also for Anne. I didn't really care about being confussed anymore. I was having fun :D
After that we finally headed over to Far's Mor's house. I had been there once before and liked it becuase there was a group of older people there and none of them speak english. It fources me to try to use my Danish. It was..... interesting.

K, well I'm tired of blogging now and your probably tired of reading. But I hope you enjoyed the story. wish me luck with my Danish!

It's September!

2009-09-03T08:45:00.002Z

Hey. It's good to hear that I have a lot of readers now. I think you should all know that I suck at spelling. The spell check here is in Danish so just live with the mistakes. I think you'll be able to figure out what I'm trying to say :D....most of the time.

I can't believe that September is here! It's crazy. And you can tell when you look outside. It's been hot and clear sense I've been here and I've been wondering where this Danish weather is? It's here now. RAIN....but not to cold. The rain has been a good thing today though. With my sport (idræt) class we played this big running game in the woods today. We had a partener and we had to take a map and run through the forest raceing to check points. It was like a reality TV show. Sport class here is nothing like phys. ed. back home. It's so much fun! We came in second and finished at 9:30 and we had till 11:30. so I went home, and here I am now. I have to go back at 12:00 for Math and English.

On Tuesday, after language school, I called home!. It was nice. It was only 3:30 there so my dad wasn't home but I got to talk to mike, mom, and kora, my cousin. When I call back in a month or so I'll make sure it's on a Sunday. Then maybe they'd all be home. But it was really nice to talk to them. It's a lot easier than e-mail.

And I made dinner for the first time yesterday! The way it works here, with my host family, is that everyone has a night to make dinner. You ride your bike to the store, get what you need, and then make it. We dont keep a bunch of food stored in the house. Sense I've been here I've just but doing it together with Simon but now it's all me on Wednesdays. We had potatoes, pork, and salad....I thought it was good.

I've started running again! I would run every once and a while last month but I was always so busy...and tired! Some time last week I started running everyday. Ooohh. I feel so much better, just generaly, when I run regularly. And I'm gonna start swimming with Simon! It's just once a week for fun. You can compeate if you want to but he doesn't. I don't know if I will yet.

So now that it's been more than a month I'm really settled, I'm really happy, and I'm working really hard. Not really in school but on the language, on being social, on using Danish, on making friends, and on making myself happy. The more I think about all the things I want to acomplish here, the shorter and shorter one year seems. I dont have much time here and I really think I'm learning to work hard and be disciplined. Which is somthing I really didn't know back home. There are a lot of things I have to do, that I don't really want to to do, in order to get what I want... but I'm gonna do them!

Well it's time for me to go back to school...and it's pouring now...and my bike is busted up. But I'm glad I got to blog. keep reading. I'll write again after the weekend.

Køge Festuge

2009-08-31T10:22:00.004Z

Køge festuge translates to: Køge party week. I wrote a little about it the last time a blogged but let me start by saying things have been a little crazy sence Wednesday. Our house has been like a bed and breakfast. I havent been able to keep track of who's who is sleeping here. There were extra people for breakfast every morning. Anne had 2 friends sleep here Wednesday night so they were here Thursday morning. Then on Thursday the Germans came. It was 2 men, not kids (thats what I wrote in my last post), and they were here to perform at Køge Festuge. They were in the band with mor and Anne. (orcestra) They stayed here Thursday, Friday...and maybe Saturday night, I can't remember. And we also had 2 other Danes who were in the band stay here on Friday and Saturday night. Dinner at night was crazy! Mor warned me that she wouldn't be talking to me much becuase she had to speek German to the Germans and she couldn't do 2 foreign languages AND Danish all at the same time. But I talked with the others so we had 3 languages going at the same time at the same table every night! Now THATS what I came here for!...haha. It was fun.

In the midst of all this, we were all very busy. After I got home from my trip on Wednesday, Simon and I went down town to Køge Festuge. Every night a differnt Danish band performed for FREE in the town square. They had the town square closed to cars and there was a huge stage set up in the middle. There was also a moon walk, and Euro-bunjy, and a bunch of food and beer tents. But we had school the next day so we didn't stay to long.

On Thursday I had a full day of school with language school in the evening so I didn't get to go down town, But we went on Friday! There was a huge Danish pop band playing and their consert was really elaberate and....POPy. It was fun. I danced with a drunk Asian women :)

On Saturday morning Simon, far, and I went to an AFS picnic for the AFSers in and around Køge (there are only 6 of us). It was nice to see some of the kids from the arrival camp again and to see how they were doing. The park we went to had a bunch of middle age Danish games. We had a guy show us how to play them all. They were....pretty interesting, but we had a lot of fun together. After, we had tea and cake and coffe (very danish). We all desided we were gonna meet up that night at Køge Festuge. AQUA would be playing! "I'm a barbie girl...." I went with Simon first and we met up with some of the same people from Friday. Then all of us went to meet the other exchange students: Andy from the US, Lenart from Germany, and Jesper from Denmark( he had been on exchange in Argentina). The town square was more crowded than It had been all week. People came from all over the place to see AQUA!

kind of a bad picture....

After the concert we were herded over to harbor for fireworks! It was a great finale to an awesome "party week" in Køge and I was tired!....among other things.

My Week (condensed)

2009-08-26T11:59:00.007Z

Hey. This week went by pretty fast. It's Wednesday and the last time I blogged was Wednesday. I had a really fun week. Here it is, condensed: WEDNESDAY: So after I blogged I rode my bike to the train station to meet my class. We took the train into Copenhagen then switches onto a metro sytem thats only about 5 years old so it was really nice and "high tech" looking. We took that to this new area in Copenhagen were all the buildings are really modern looking. We went to this big outdoor sports place in the middle of it all. The coolest thing there was this big cement playground. haha. Thats not really what it was but I forget the name of it now, but your supposed to jump from one thing to another like an urban monkey! haha

After that we went to the biggest mall in Denmark, Feilds. It's in the same area and also very new. I didn't buy anything there but I got a taste of how expensive things can be here. No pictures of that. After the trip I went to the beach with Simon and some of his friends and we got giant ice cream :) no pictures of that either.

THURSDAY: As far as I can remember thursday was just another day. I went to school during the day and had language school at night, which is somthing I havent talked about yet. Every Tuesday and Thursday I ride my bike to the language school and have class from 5:20 to 9:00. It's long! But ts been really helpfull. There are 7 people in my class. 3 of us are exchange students with AFS and the rest are adults who have moved to Denmark. I'm always starving when I get home.

FRIDAY: On friday I went to school 8 to 9:45. haha. We got off really early. So I went back to bed when I got home. Then I think I got up and studied my Danish. After that Simon and I went to Rasmus' house (one of Simon's friends) We ended up staying the night and we watched the Extended Edition of Gladiador. It was really, really long.

SATURDAY: Hey, so I forgot to mention that earlier in the week I got invited to a party on Saturday! A girl in my class, Stina, who lives in Herfølge invited me. Ya! So I left Rasmus' around noon and I went with Anne to buy some beer for this party. It's so weird that I can just go buy alcohol now. haha. After that me, Anne, and Rasmus went to watch Simon play soccer. I think they won 12-1. haha. They did good. Anne was having a party of her own at home that night. Mor and Far were in Germany and sense I wasn't going to be home, Simon could have some friends over too. Anne kept her party down stairs and we stayed up stairs mostly. After we ate, Philip, from my class came over. We hung out with Simons friends for a little while then the two of us left and took the bus to Herfølge, were Stina lives.... And well....I had a really good time.

And just for the record I think I was very safe. I dont want anyone back home worrying that I'm gonna get into trouble this year now that I have this freedom. Denmark is a safe place, the buses are safe, the people I'll be with are safe, I'm smart, and I wont do anything illegal. If I do mess up, then I'll learn from it. But I dont plan on messing up so don't worry ;)

SUNDAY: On Sunday morning I was back home, but not in bed. There was still a party here till around 5. Woowhoo. I slept a few hours, and the rest of the day was kind of a blur.....

MONDAY: On monday morning my class left for a canoe trip! We had so much fun, and I learned so much Danish. We took the school bus somewhere south of Køge and set up camp. On monday we just played some games and cooked some food. It was nice.

TUESDAY: On Tuesday we got up early and got in the river! We canoed most of the day and stopped for lunch about half way. When we ended we were in Næstved. A town in southern Zealand. From there the bus took as back to camp and we made dinner again. It was a fun day...with a lot of splashing and crashing.

WEDNESDAY: Today, havn't done much. We got up and took down camp. We were out of there pretty early but I did manage to get my face and hair lit on fire this morning befor we left. We were making a camp fire and someone thru some lighter fluid type stuff in it. It exploded right in my face! It didn't hert. It was actually pretty funny, but the front of my hair is all singged now so I'm gonna need a hair cut. haha. Of course by the end of a trip like that, no matter how fun, your ready to go home. Your ready to take a nice long shower and sleep in your own bed. The cool thing is, that for me, that place was my home here, in Køge! and it feels good to be home.

THE NEXT FEW DAYS: So, "Køge Fest" I haven't talked about this yet but it started in my town while I was gone. It's a series of free concerts and parties in the town square this week. There's a concert every night of the week. I might go tonight. Everyone say's the good stuff starts on Tursday but I'll have language school. So I'll for sure go on Friday and Saturday. Aqua is playing on Saturday!!! haha. You know the song: "Barbie Girl" ??? Thats them. haha. They're gonna be playing in the street, just a few blocks from my house, so that'll be fun :D

Also we're having 3 German kids coming to stay with us tommorow (?) I dont know how long they're staying and I can't say I remember why, and there's no one here to ask, but...that should be fun :)...This has been a long blog post, I hope it wasnt boring. bye!

Køge

2009-08-19T05:54:00.004Z

It's 8:00 on a Wednesday morning and my class is going to Copenhagen today, but I don't have to be at the train station till 9. So I thought this would be a good time to write about Køge, my new home :)

I really love it here. The houses are really cool, the town square is just a few blocks from my house, and we have two good beaches that you can easily bike too, and yes, they bike everywhere here. To work, to school to the grocery store, to the beach....I really like that. People don't have to be motivated to do it. It's just the way things are.

One thing that was very different was my room... and the size of my bed. Which is about a 3rd of the one I have at home. haha. But I've gottin used to it and I actually like my little room.

The town square is sooo cool. I can't believe I'm living in a place like this. Køge is the home of the oldest dated building in Denmark. so ya...all the buildings are really old. I love it. It's like a mini Copenhagen. With all the colors and little windows and crooked red roofs and cobblestone streets :) It's nice...

One of the coolest things about living in Køge is being right on the Sea. I've been going to the beach with Simon (my host brother) and his friends whenever we have a chance. We swim, play vollyball, buy icecream, and do what people normally do on beaches...except we're not on vacation! I love it.

BE JEALOUS!!!!!

Getting used to school

2009-08-17T15:21:00.002Z

So I'm finally kind of all cought up with this thing. I've been sitting at the computer scense I got home from school and I've done every post scence "New York" in one sitting. It was wierd to start school at the begining of Auguest becuase If I was back home, I would'nt be starting till about A week into September. So this really is the middle of the summer for me. But luckly my school is very interesting to me so I would much rather go there then sit at home:)
I'm in what they call here 10th grade. And yes I would be in 11th at home in the US but things are very differnt here. The kids in the 10th grade are 16 like me or turning 16 soon. And my school starts with very young kids. What we would call pre-schoolers :) It's really wierd to see little kids running around when my class is taking thier smoke break. And yes, we have random 10 minute breaks in the middle of the day were I would say at least 50% of my class go smoke a cig. 10th grade is opptional here. You go to "grade school" until 9th grade (our 10th) then everyone does somthing different: you could start at a business school if you know thats what you want to do. You could stop going to school. You could go to a boarding school and specialize in a specific type of education. You could start at gymnasium (upper high school/collage type thing. 3 year program) you could be an exchange student. Or if you feal that you realy arn't ready to do any of those thing yet, you go to 10th Grade. So it might sound like a place for kids who just want to slack off but It's really not. It's just a bunch of kids who dont know what they want to do yet.
In the 10th grade you choose a "line" which is like a path of study. And two days out of the week your scedual is based around that thing. I chose sport. Not very academicly challenging but hey, I don't speek Danish. You do a lot of fun things with you line and go on trips. This winter I'll be going skiing in Austria with the sports line in my school! And I also might spend a week in Holand, going to school there:) So cool!
On the other school days I stay in one room with the same 30 people. Every hour or so a differnt teacher will come in and teach us a new subject. The scuduel is differnt every day of the week and some days I get out as early as 11:20. And I get out at 12:45 every Friday! It's great. I got out at 1:30 today.
As an exchange student I like having one class. We'll really get to know each other. I've been there for a week now so I have aquaintances but I'm still working on actuall friends. haha. Being with the same people all day makes it a lot easier.
So...this is probebly a pretty confusing and misspelled blog post but I'm not gonna go into any more detail. I'm done with this for now. But I'll make a blog about my town soon. I went around and took a bunch of pictures the other day so I'll put those up within the week. I'm going to Copenhagen with my class on Wednesday, so that'll be fun. I'm doing great! I love it here....bye.

My First Week

2009-08-17T14:32:00.005Z

So I don't know if I mentioned this already but my host family wasnt in Denmark when I got there. They were in the USA ironically enough. And whats even crazier as that they were in a city in Ohio thats only about 2 hours from my house in Michigan. So they got to visit my family! Which is crazy becuase they were meeting my family before I even met THEM. And this was on the day the arrival camp ended, so I was picked up by Christian, a cousin, and he took me to his house where I met his wife Lee and their one year old little girl.

We had a very Danish dinner there and my oldest host brother Anders came. He left the States early becuase he had to come back and take a test. He doesn't live at home. He's a student in Copenhagan. He took me to Køge (my new home) and I hung out with him for the rest of the week. We road our bikes around town and he showed me all the cool places. Then one day we went to Copanhagen, the capital, were Anders lives. It was a lot of fun. It all looked so old and European. I met one of Anders's friends and we hung out in a big park.

The coolest thing we did in Copenhagen was going to Christania. It's within the city but it's actually not even part of Europe. It was "conquered" by hippies a while back and people are free to sell and smoke pot on the streets, and they don't all pay Danish taxes. Its a really cool looking place. Everything is painted, or spray painted with bright colors and the houses are mostley "home made." Takeing pictures was forbiden on the main streets but I got some good pictures of some less crazy areas.

At the end of the week, Anders an I went to the airport to pick up my host family. Which is kinda a wierd way of meeting your host family, picking them up at the airport after you've already been living in thier house for a week. But I was really happy to have finally met them. After that Anders left, I started to settle in with my family, and before I knew it: the first day of school....

Arrival Camp

2009-08-17T13:28:00.004Z

Ok so, arrival camp: It was so much more fun than I thought it would be. We arrived very early on Friday morning and I was very jet lagged. For us it was about 2am, but we had a whole day in front of us, and I was determined to stay up all day to get myself on Danish time. The 6 of us from the USA were the first to arrive in the morning. So we spent most of that day just sitting around and meeting everyone as they came in. We were also supposed to prepare some kind of entertainment to share with everyone the US culture...but we were very tierd...We should have come up with somthing better.
By the end of the day there were 160 somthing kids from 33 differnt countries! It was crazy. We all ate together. Then it was time for the US kids to share with everyone the entertainment we were working on all day!...we really didn't have anything. haha. We each just talked a little bit about the state we came from...tried to be funny. It was really lame. But it got so much better from there!
The next two days we spent all of our time making friends with people from all over the world. I learned soooo much about everything (especially Denmark) The whole camp was in English. And just incase you didn't know: EVERYONE speaks it. I feel so lucky to have it as my first language but at the same time I feel so worthless just speeking one. Well, that'll change soon enough.
The camp was hosted entierly by young people. I thought that was really cool becuase they had all been on exchange pretty recently. They were really helpfull. We learned some Danish, ate Danish food for breakfast, lunch. and dinner. And we sat there and listend to the Danish leaders speaking Danish to each other...very fun.
At the end of each day, the 6 of us from the US would have wierd accents. It was a mix of New Zealand, and some english as a second language type thing. It was kind of annoying, but at the same time amusing. I had no idea accents could rub of that quickly. and then I'd be speaking normaly by morning...kind of.
So even though this camp bound as to the grounds of a random grade school in a suburb of Copenhagan. And even though we had to sleep on the floor every night with a bunch of people we didn't know, and even though we were all extremely jet lagged. I think it was one of the best experiences I've had so far....ever. It was a big celebration. Each and every one of us was alone, but we were all together, and we were all FINALLY in Denmark!!!!

New York

2009-08-17T12:05:00.004Z

Hey! So I haven't even really started this blog yet and I'm already behind. I'm in Denmark! and I'm pretty much settled in. I've been living here for more than two weeks now! Sense I have so much to write I decided I would break this up into separate posts. Starting with New York: It was amazing! I've wanted to go there for such a long time.

We drove from Michigan. It was Me, my brother Mike, my sister Amy, and my mom :) It took us about 10 hours to get there. But It flew by for me. I had already said goodbye to half my family and I only had a few days left with the rest of them. The whole New York trip went by in a second. But it was really memorable. We drove through mountians on the way over... out the back window...

Me and Mike...

So we got to New York late on monday night, but we were hungry so we walked from our Hotel to a little pizza place and had some real New York pizza. It was delicious. mmm. peperonie and grease :)

Then for Tuesday my mom got us tickets for a bus tour called "On Board New York". It was perfect. We only hade one full day in the city and that was a great way to see everything. I recomend it if your going to New York for the first time. We saw so many places and it was over by 3pm!

My first view of Manhattan, right off the subway...

The Statue of Liberty...

Theatre is one of my favorit things, so of course I wanted to see a show. We didn't get tickets for anything in advance so I was going to try to find some rush/last minute tickets with my mom. Mike and Amy decided they wanted to go to some comedy show so It was just me and mom:) I wanted to try to get into "Next to Normal" It's a new musical that I've heard a lot about, and it has awesome music. But when we got to the box office they were sold out...and so was Billy Eliot...Shrek...and basiclly every show I had in mind.

So we were walking down the street and we passed the marqui for "In the Heights" A modern musical I had never really heard much about except that it won "best musical" last year, and a buch of other awards. As we walked by they told us to fill out these forms to try and get front row seat for $25 dollars (and for those of you who dont know thats about 80% off!)The drawing was at 5. It was 4:56. I quickly filled out the form, put my name in the bin, they took the bin, and pulled my name!!! 2 front row seats to the best musical of 2008!!! what luck.

We were literaly right under the actors. I could feel the spray from their spit! It was amazing. And it was a really crazy show. It was so differnt. They were rapping and dancing and the music was sooo good...no pictures though :) that would be illegal. Look it up.

Time Square at night...

My mom and I after the show.

So the next day, Wednesday, is the day I would say goodbye to my family. My AFS orientation started at 3pm at some private Collage in Queens. We managed to take the subway to central park before I had to go. It was so hot out!

After that, I took all my stuff and we drove to my orientation site. It was so wierd saying goodbye, but I was really excited. The orientation started that evening and went on through Friday. We left for the airport on friday afternoon. There were only 6 of us. Me, from Michigan, a girl from Alaska, a girl from Cunneticut, A guy from California, a guy from Wisconsin, and a guy from NY.....And we were off!

Ahhh...this is weird

2009-07-22T19:56:00.004Z

Time is flying and I leave in 5 days!!! I cant comprehend it. It's so weird to think that I've already said goodbye to so many people, and I wont see any of them for a year. I said bye to one of my brothers already and It's just so weird. It's like a joke. I don't know how to act because I'm not sad. I actually feel excited when I say goodbye to people. It makes this whole thing feel more real and makes me realize how soon I'll be leaving.
I've been really busy lately. First it was with my going away party. I had a lot of people at my house. All my family, friends from school, and friends from my theater group. It was a lot of fun. We swam and ate and had one of the biggest bond fires my yard has ever seen.
I've also been spending a lot of time packing, and that's a lot of work because I don't just have to fill up my suitcase. I have to clear out my whole room and find a place in a my basement for all my stuff I'm not taking. My twin brother Mike will be moving into my room when I leave because my older brother Alex will be coming home for law school and taking Mikes room. And my family is taking an exchange student from Germany and he'll be staying in our spare bedroom. It's CRAZY!
Lastly, I've been extremely busy with the show my youth theater group is doing this summer, "Willy Wonka." I'm playing Grandpa George (the crazy old man who stays in bed.) It's been a lot of fun but also a lot of work. But If I didn't have this to take up my time I don't know what I would do just sitting around waiting to go to Denmark. The show opens tomorrow so this is our first day off in a long time. This show just runs one weekend so it will be over by Sunday. Then on Monday morning I'll be gone!
All this stuff has been keeping me really busy. I haven't really been thinking more then a few days ahead. And time has been weird too . It's going by extremely slowly and at the same time very very fast. I can't believe I get to go to Denmark in less than a week! But I'm leaving all this too! AHhhh....this is weird. The next time I write I'll be in Denmark :) Bye!

20 Days

2009-07-07T01:31:00.002Z

Hi!I just made this blog and I wanted to make my first post. I'm not in Denmark yet but I will be very soon :) I have 20 days left here in Madison Heights, Michigan. Then I'm off to New York! and I'm driving there with my family. Me, my twin brother, my sister, my mom, and maybe my grandma will be touring around before they have to leave me with AFS (my exchange program). I've never been to New York so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll leave New York on July 30th with all the other kids from the US who are going to Denmark...then I'll be gone!
But I've got a lot to do before that day comes. I'm having my goodbye party this Saturday at my house.I've been busy getting ready for that, and of course, my trip. I have to fit all of my stuff into a 40 pound suit case and a 20 pound carry on. That's not gonna be easy, and I've been warned that things are very expensive in Denmark, so I've been trying to buy most of the things I'm going to need while I'm here. I plan on wearing as much clothing as I can on the plane. It's gonna be hot, but hopefully worth it.
So as of now I'm the only one reading this, but I hope that eventually some other exchange students or future exchange students will start reading this, along with family and friends back home. I'll try to post pictures on here throughout the year when I blog. I'm not sure yet how often I'll be able to post, but my host family does have Internet so hopefully I can get something on here every week.
I'll probably write again before I leave but until then, cya!