2 Months In

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

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

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

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!

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

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)

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!