The sun is always up.

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

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...

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!

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!

........

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

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"

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!