Winter Break in Sweden

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

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

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

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

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

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