Alyssa in Denmark

nearly finished

2006-07-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! Frantic-ness is setting in as my time in Denmark dwindles! I have tons of stuff to do, and now that I'm leaving everyone wants to stop over or have me meet them somewhere... even people I hadn't much to do with before! I've seen most of my classmates for the last time, there are a few of my best friends that will be stopping over tomorrow to say goodbye and eat a final chocolate chip cookie. hmmm... Sometimes I think that is the reason that they like me!

The weather has been beautiful! It's been in the 70s and 80s- Perfect weather!! I think I'm going to melt when I make it home. I leave Saturday morning from Middelfart to Copenhagen with my host parents. My plane leaves at 12:20 but I have to get to the airport 3 hours early. Eew!

Having trouble packing. I just have way too much stuff. It's physically impossible for all the things I want to bring back to fit in two bags... and not weigh over 50 lbs. ! urgh!

2006-07-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going on vacation to northern Jylland this week, so don't expect any long needed updates! I'll finish the post for the Baltic sea cruise later!

ACT, Family, and Baltic Cruise

2006-06-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off writing this because I know this post will be under a ton of scrutiny since my parents, brother, and grandparents were along for part of the ride.... but here it is.

After Eurotour I had two days to prepare myself to take the ACT before it was upon me. I'm not sure how I did. Pretty sure I failed the Science part. I panicked and skipped around all over the place... The day after I finished that my parents and brother arrived in Denmark and came to Middelfart by train from Copenhagen. It was weird to see them again... almost nothing had changed in ten months! I actually think that they might not have recognized me when I first came up to them though, it was really funny, one of those double take things.

For four nights they stayed in an apartment owned by my first host family while showed them where I lived.

Day #1: Arrival, settle into the apartment, and had a really nice dinner with my first host family... or rather Gitte, my first host mom. Bo, my first host dad, was out sailing with his buddies... or rather drinking beer with his buddies, hee hee! Nikolai and Isabella ate dinner and then took off. Still it was really nice.

Day #2: I let the family sleep in a bit before taking them by bike to my Gymansium (or Highschool). There weren't very many people around since it was exams so I just gave them a quick tour around before going to the Lillebælt Skole (grades K-9) where I had promised to give a speech to a class about Wyoming. It was very strange to have my parents and brother listening while I talked about home, because unlike the Danish kids they would know if I was saying something wrong or making things up... It was neat to go to this school because I've made four speechs before this and so everyone knew me and some even recognized my family from pictures I'd shown during my presentation! After I finished with the class I took everyone to 'downtown' Middelfart.We ate lunch here and looked around a bit before starting on a bike ride. We ended up riding for several hours looking at the Danish country. I took them through the forest along the beach and ended with a trip to a castel that had been remade into a hotel. That night we all ate dinner at my current family's house.

Day #3 We woke a bit early and piled into two different cars with my current host family. Okay, I'll call this family the J family since they have two different last names Jørgensen and Jenson. Anyway, girls were in one car and boys were in the other. From here we set out to the west coast of Jylland (Jutland). The first thing we visited was Himmelbjerget the tallest point in Denmark. It's name means heaven mountain, but really it is more of a hill. We climed to the top and took lost of pictures before getting in the cars to drive to a 'wind farm'. It was alot of windmills, or wind power generators or whatever you want to call them in one place that were actually a bit out of date. It was neat to be so close that we could here the gears working.

We carried on a bit before finding a picnic area to stop and eat lunch in. As in usual Danish fashion, the J family had packed up a lunch for us so we didn't need to eat fast food. Almost all Danes pack lunches from home when they go out. After lunch we drove on to the west coast. It wasn't very good weather-- very windy and rather cold-- but it was pretty. We drove down the coast for quite awhile before reaching Esbjerg. Here we stopped to walk around and look at the strange statues of four or five GIANT white men that were sitting and staring at the ocean. Eventually we began to drive back to Middelfart.

We were almost there when we became stuck in a huge traffic jam because someone had an accident on the bridge. I cant remember how long we were stuck but I believe that it was about two hours. Normally something like this would just be annoying, but it was a bit more since we became quite late for dinner at my second host family's house. They had also invited my Rotary counselor and her husband. Once all the mess on the bridge was cleaned up we made it to dinner and had a 'huggaligt' evening. I really like my second host family when I don't have to live with them-- seven kilometers out of Middelfart in the middle of a depressing winter.

Day #4 We hung out around town and ate lunch before taking a bus to 'Rock under Broen' a huge concert in Middelfart! It was really packed, the music was so loud that the sound interfered with cellphone service, and there were drunk middleaged people everywhere!! I saw some of my friends around and stayed with Trine and Tanja for part of the time. I was also with Penny... or rather she came to sit with me where the J family and their friends, and my family, were all sitting. It was pretty fun but I didn't know any of the music and the longer the concert went on the dirtier it got. I think it was quite an experience for my parents, if not something they'd want to do again.

Day #5 Copenhagen! We took a train in to Copenhagen, found our hotel and dropped off our luggage before exploring the city. I met up with Pokchat, the exchange student from Tailand that lives in Copenhagen and we went to lunch with her... or that was the plan. Things became a bit confused and somehow we ended up at the end of the walking street, starving, and Pokchat apparently had to leave and disappeared down a metro tunnel. We ended up eating at a hotdog stand then turning back around the walking street and going back to the hotel to wait for my grandparents to arrive.

When they finally arrived and got settled in we went out for dinner together to catch up.

Day #6 Went to the walking street for breakfast before catching cabs to the place we were suppose to meet up with the Amsterdam, our cruise ship.

Ok, I'll finish this post later. It'll take quite awhile to do the whole cruise. Besides, most everyone who reads this will probably have heard all about everything from my parents!

more pictures

2006-06-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Brussels, Belgium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Eurotour pictures

2006-06-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Venice!

Monte Carlo, Monnaco

Paris!

Back from Eurotour!

2006-06-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! I'm back from my trip around Europe on a bus with 41 exchange students! It was awesome! I can't write about everything that happened, it would take way too long, but I'll give a brief summary and later some pictures!

We started off going to Berlin where I saw the remains of the wall and lots of historically signigicant buildings that I cant remember... It was interesting seeing the difference between what was East and West Berlin. the East side has a major communistic design thing going on with the buildings and alot more spray paint. We spent one night here.

Next stop, Prauge! The Czech Republic was a very different experience for me. The people are a great deal poorer; We even saw yards with chickens in them! It was a very beautiful landscape, though. We stopped at a concentration camp on our way to the city. It was quite sombering to see the conditions the people were kept in and the mass graves spanning across the front 'lawn' of the prison. We arrived that night in Prauge and went touring the city the next day. Prauge itself first appeared a charming city but as soon as you look past the beautiful architecture and HSBs you will see prostitutes, drug dealers, and poverty. There were guys walking around the main square asking everyone if they wanted Marijuana or Coke, and there were large front windows into clubs that had nearly naked girls dancing in them. The second night of our stay we went to see a play at the Black Light Theater. It was cool the first 20 minutes but went on for over 2 hours and had almost no speaking and a very hard to follow plot line. Left the Next morning for Austria.

I think Austria had the most beautiful landscape of all the places we went to. As we traveled through the mountains there were several old castel ruins perched on cliffs that just added to the character. Once we reached Vienna we went to our hostel for the night. The next morning we went touring the city. Vienna was one of my favorite places. It, too had an over ubundance of HSBs that were very pleasing to the eyes. We visited the royal gardens which were more like the royal forests and had alot of the day to ourselves. That night we went to a concert that had classical viennen music with operah and dancing. Great experience but I have to say that German is not a good language to sing in. We left the next morning for Lido di Jesilo.

Italy is incredibly flat. I'd never heard that before but the part we were in was. we stayed in Lido for 3 nights. the first night the Rotary 'babysitters' let us go out to a club together. Woohoo! the next day we had to ourselves for shopping and hanging out at the beach. The day after we went to Venice! In Venice I went on a gondola ride and explored the city which seemed to be a faux city made only for trapping tourists. I'm not certain that the shop keepers were even Italian! That night the second Danish Rotary bus caught up with us and we were alowed to go to the club together. It was pretty great but not that exciting since I was friends with only 2 or 3 people from that entire bus. We left the next morning for San Remo.

On our way to San Remo we stopped in Verona. I was able to see 'Julilette's Balconey' and the statue. I really liked Verona and wished that we had more time to look around. San Remo was a very pretty city situated on a rocky coast and the beginning of mountains. we only stayed for one night before beginning our trip to Avignon.

On the way to Avignon we went to Monte Carlo, Monacco and through some gorgeous mountainous italian scenery. It was really unbelievable that there were so many skyscrapers and buildings crammed along the coastline in the mountains! We stayed in Avignon 2 nights. The first night was spent doing massive loads of laundary. The next day we went to visit the largest known spring in the world, which required a long walk in the woods. We also took a mini tour of Avignon, which is a calm, tranquil place compared to the rest of the cities we've been in. Next morning we began the trip to Paris.

After far too long of a bus ride we made it to Paris where we spent three nights. On the night of our arrival we went to the Latin Quarter and ate Greek food... in Paris...I've decided it was because French food is icky. The next morning we went on a tour and saw the Eiffel tower, the Louvre (and the Mona Lisa), the triumphal arches (old and new), and a large number of other HSBs that I have forgetten in the excitement. You can only see so many parliment houses and castles before they all look the same. We also went on a boat tour.

The second day we were able to go around on our own. My day consisted of 3 hours collective hours of getting lost in the Metro and seeing Notre Dame. There was a little shopping time in between but not much.

We left the next day to go to Brussels, Belgium. We only had the night of our arrival to look around the city. I saw the old square and the peeing kid statue that is so famous. Bought chocolate and ate a belgium waffel with strawberries and chocolate. Yum!

The next day was spent in Amsterdam, Holland. I never immagined that there was so much pot pariffinalia in the entire world, much less in one place. Other than that there were lots of tulips and wooden shoes. We had a cannal tour of the city but it was really boring and everyone was really tired.

The next morning we made our way back to Denmark and said our goodbyes.

The entire tour was really great for the exchange students to get to know eachother. I have a ton of new Australian friends, and I wont have another chance to see the other exchange students that shared the year with me so it was a very sad day. Anyway, that way Eurotour!

Scotland pictures!

2006-04-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

Loch Lamond

Loch Lamond

Myself and Kathrine

Inside Glasgow Cathedral

The Necropolis, at the top of the hill. 200 year old cemetary with industry in the back ground.

Tanja!

Movie night, night out, and more Chinese food....

2006-04-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I organized a movie night with my Danish friends and Mariliis. I invited most of the girls in my class and a few outside, but in the end it was Tanja, Trine, Lotte, and Kathrine from my class, Tine from the 3rd year, and Mariliis. I made everyone meatloaf for dinner, Tanja came over early and helped make the salad, and Mariliis helped me with rice, since I'd never made it before. Thankfully dinner was good, and though the Danish people thought it was really strange they seemed to like it! After dinner we dug into junk food (chips, popcorn, my homemade chocolate chip cookies, Swedish cider, and soda) and watched Flightplan and Red Dragon before all the Danes went home. Mariliis was the only one to stay the night, though I invited them all.

Once everyone left Mariliis and I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days before going to sleep, the next morning I made us pancakes and we continued the movie marathon until about 4 p.m. It was really fun!

Saturday night I went out in town with Mariliis for a bit. She'd been to a birthday party since 7 but I didn't come until about Midnight, mostly we just hung out in a club called Nice. By about 2 Mari was getting pretty tired so we wandered about and tried to find people I knew so she could abandon me with out feeling guilty. First we found Kathrine but she was in a particularly bad mood with me for some reason and I didn't hang around long. After we walked back down the street we ran into to guys from my class that I'm particularly good friends with. After Mariliis was picked up they took me with them to Buddy Holly where we met up with some girls from the class next to mine and had a great time. I didn't get home until about 4:30... My host sister was already up getting ready for her job at the bakery, so we had to laugh at that a bit!

Monday we had free from school, so the Middelfart Exchangers (Mariliis, Penny and myself) decided to meet up at our favorite hang out spot... The City Burger... Which also serves Chinese food. haha, maybe we should be a bit worried about that fact... Anyway, we had a 'hugali' (nice, cozy) time catching up with Penny who had been in Copenhagen all vacation.

EASTER IN DENMARK! okay, it wasn't too exciting. They gave me a big chocolate rabbit and we had dinner over at Hanne's (host mom) sister's house. They do dye eggs around this time of year, but my family didn't because we were too busy.

Sweden: Land of Rocks an Trees

2006-04-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

During Easter break I did many things including taking a trip to Sweden. My host family has relatives way up in the middle of the country, so we set out early on Sunday. First we drove two hours to Copenhagen. Here we took a short stop so I could see the castle where the royal family live in the winter. Here are some pictures:

Once we were finished looking around we drove the car onto a ferry and got out for the 20 minute ride to take some more pictures. This is my first sighting of Sweden:

Once in Sweden there was nothing to take pictures of but the trees and the rocks.... I didn't take any pictures. We drove for 6 more hours before reaching our destination. It was fun enough while I was there, we were staying with my host dad's sister's family. His sister is married to a Swede so it was a bit fun trying to figure out what he was saying. I've decided that if you take Danish, forget how to spell, add a few weird words, and have a Spaniard speak it, then you will have Swedish. Other than that I just read, watched TV, and played some games with my 'host cousins'.

Wednesday we packed up, drove six hours, and ferried until we were once again in Denmark. This time on the way home we stopped at the castle that was the setting for Hamlet! It was probably the best castle I have seen in Denmark. Here are some pictures:

This is one of the 'must sees' in Denmark!

Randers

2006-04-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

Friday after school I went to the chinese food place (the one with the really nice Afgani guy who gives us free tea) with Mariliis and Penny. It's becoming a bit of an routine for us, and I love it! After we finished eating our noodles I jumped on a train and went to visit Arisa in Randers! Zuzu, from Montana, came to visit her as well. That night we went out in the city of Randers... after missing missing two buses, walking/running around the neighborhood, and finally calling a taxi, we eventually made it to The Crazy Daisy. It was slightly horrifying! I have never seen so many bleach blonde, hair combed backwards, orange tanned teenaged girls in my entire life! Some guys were also in that style! There were tons of people in the club, and after being stomped and pushed and elbowed for a few hours, we got a ride home from Arisa's host dad. It was fun since I was out with 'Risa and Zuz, but I still prefer going out with my classmates in little ol' Middelfart! Saturday morning we woke up to a wonderful breakfast made by Arisa's hosts and jumped in a car to go shopping in Århus. We didn't do very much shopping, but enjoyed looking at stuff and walking around town. On our way back to Arisa's we went to Blockbuster and picked up Mean Girls and Vanity Fair to entertain us through the night. Sunday morning/afternoon we woke up, said goodbye, and Zuzu and I caught a train back together. Had a nice train ride interrupted only by a mom and her two kids that decided to sit by us and do all the things that little kids do...

In conclusion I stayed up too late, ate massive amounts of junk food, and had lots of girl-talk this weekend. yay!

Scotland!

2006-03-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Last week was my class trip to Glasgow Scotland! It was super! Through out the week we saw tons of sights.

The week started on Monday, on which we had to be at the school by 5:30 am to get on a bus and drive to LÃ¼bek, Germany. This was the first time I'd seen Germany and I was not impressed. I hope it looks better elsewhere, otherwise I totally understand why the Germans often try to take over the world. Mostly it was brown and scrubby. We went through security and finally got on the plane after having our passports checked no less than 4 times. It was really funny, we left one passport checking line just to get into the next one. Around 1:00 we landed in Prestwick, Scotland, and from there we took yet another bus to reach our youth hostel in Glasgow.

The youth hostel was located in a very upscale neighborhood which sported at least three Mini Coopers, and over six BMWs on one street. The youth hostel itself wasn't that special. It had a TV room, but the TV was broken. There was a lounge, but we weren't allowed in after the first two days. We had cute beds, but they gave us one sheet that was supposed to cover the bed, pillow, and bedspread all at once, since apparently they don't wash any of those things....eew. I was staying in a room with Trine, Tanja, and Signe, so I was alright happy, though a bit disappointed that I was excluded from Kathrine, Lotte, and Lea's room. After everyone had settled in, we went back out to the bus for a tour around the city with a guide who knew nearly everything anyone could possibly want to know about Glasgow.

Glasgow itself is a very beautiful and interesting city. Our guide showed and told us about the numerous towers that show above the city skyline. Apparently, decades ago there was a problem with crime in Glasgow, and the government decided to build more churches in response to this. They built too many, and now alot of them have been destroyed, but often the tower, or steeple, is left behind. Other churches have been put to more practical use as restaurants and pubs! Also around the city are several very tall, highrise 'flats' that were built to try and solve the housing problems in the sixties. It has been decided that they are impractical and are being taken down one by one, but there are still over five standing.

After the tour, Kathrine grabbed me and we (along with Lotte and Lea) went to Subway for dinner. It was really, really funny! They've never gone to a Subway before and didn't know how to order, then they kept forgetting English words and I actually ended up doing alot of translating for them. Super me! I KNOW DANISH!! Yay!

Once we finished eating and walked back of the big hill to our hostel I went with another group and Christian, our principle (and the only supervising adult). We walked all over in search of a real grocery store, but couldn't find one. It was rather important, too, because you can't drink the water in Glasgow and we needed to stock up. We had to make do with the little kiosks that were in the area. Finally, after over two hours of walking about, we went home for some much needed rest.

Tuesday we all woke up early to a delicious wholesome breakfast of jelly and toast. I really hope we didn't pay much for it! When everyone was finished we piled onto two different mini buses and drove to the border of the highlands. While we were in this area we hiked several mountain-hills and went on Loch Lomond for a ferie tour. It was a really fun day, with a break by the lake for lunch that gave us a lot of time to mess around and have rock skipping contests. On our way home from the loch we took a pitstop at a whiskey distillery. Here we had a tour of the building and were shown how whiskey is made.

That night i went out to a club with Kathrine, Signe, and Tanja. It was fun, and a lot of hillarious things happened, including (but not limited to) Kathrine getting spit on by some drunk scotsman for bumping into him. I also learned that night that Scottish English is impossible to understand when the Scots are drunk. The girls kept asking me to tell them what they were saying to them, and I had no idea. After a while at the club I decided I'd had enough fun and asked Tanja to walk home with me. Kathrine and Signe stayed out until about 5 in the morning!

Wednesday we woke to the same breakfast as the day before, and to a day filled with sightseeing and walking. We all walked to the subway, then got off and walked some more until we reached a place called the People's Palace. This visit was a bit pointless, since the only thing in the building was photos of animals. Nothing to do with Scotland at all! After wandering around here for a while we all walked to Glasgow Cathedral, which is the largest and most beautiful church I have ever seen in my entire life! We looked about some more, and then broke up into groups. I ended up following Trine, her boyfriend, and Tanja a bit by accident. We went up to see 'The Necropolis' which was also refered to as 'The City of the Dead.' In otherwords, a huge graveyard. In this grave yard were hundreds of burials from the 18th Century, some of which belonged to rather important people whose monuments were 5+ times larger than they were in life. We also went to the Religious Art Museum before heading back. That night I stayed in the hostel with a number of my classmates. We played cards and talked until about midnight before going to sleep.

Thursday we woke up half and hour early than usual to eat the same breakfast and go visit Holyroot Secondary School. This was quite possibly the best part of the entire trip. We were able to talk and socialize with Scotish teens and even sit in on some of their classes! I was very relieved when I was able to complete a worksheet in biology as fast as the kids who were taking the class did. My brain hasn't totally rotten and fallen out of my head while in Denmark! I love to have school in English!! haha! Later that night about nine of us came back to the school to see a prom fashion show they were putting on for charity. They were a bit short on guys so right before the show started the grabbed two of our Danish guys! They ended up having to walk down the catwalk with the rest of the 'models.' It was really funny, and some guys wore kilts!

Friday, the final day, we mostly had free. We were able to sleep in a few hours later (and eat the same breakfast) before subwaying/walking to a place called the Scotland Street School Museum. This was a school designed about one century ago by a famous Scottish architect.Mostly we learned about how school used to be in Scotland, and I have to say, I'm VERY glad I wasn't a part of it. Girls learned to cook, boys learned to fix things, they were seperated into seperate classes, and caned if they misbehaved. We only spent about an hour here before having the afternoon free. We met up again about 6 at a church turned resturant where we ate a very expensive dinner. Someone actually ordered Haggis, the Scottish meal of innards and kidneys... or something gross like that. When we finished eating, Christian took us out to a pub together, where we ran into some more confusing Scots. One old lady came up to us and was trying to tell us jokes, but I couldn't for the life of me understand any of them, or even half the words she said. Later some old guy kept dragging members of us off to play the piano. Eventually we split up, most of those over 18 went to a club, and those of us under 18 went back to the Youth Hostel and stayed up late talking. At one point we were joined in the sitting room by a huge group of Spanish people, who really couldn't speak English very well, but we tried to have a conversation anyway. As soon as they left, the clubbers came back and we socialized with them. By the time we were ready to go to sleep it was 3:30 in the morning, and we were suppose to get up at 4:30, so several of us just never went to sleep... myself included! I took a shower, finished packing, and got on the bus that took us back to the airport and onto a plane, which took us back to Lübeck, and onto another bus that drove us back to Middelfart Gymnasium.

All in all, it was an awesome trip! I have become alot closer with all of my classmates, and have found out who the people are that I actually want to be friends with. I've got a bad cold, probably from sleep deprivation and lack of vitamins for a week, but I'm very glad with how things are going right now!

p.s. Pictures will come later!

Sleep deprived crazy weekend!

2006-03-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Wow! This weekend has been mad!

Friday was an exchange student gathering in Odense, which was put on by exchange students, not Rotary, and mostly took place in an Irish pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I brought my newbie, Penny, and my exchange sister (cause we came at that same time) Mariliis. We met up with Kyle (Colorado), Sarah (California), Katie (New York), Katy (Wisconsin ?), Aaron (Australia), and two Brazilian girls whose names I cannot remember for the life of me! Oh, and Lilie (France), two or three other Estonians, and a handful of Hungarians. It was great until my newbie brought in drinks from a supermarket into the pub and was kicked out, so I had to follow. Wow, now I can go home and tell people that I've been kicked out of a pub. That is slightly disturbing. I don't think we would have been booted but the table I was at, with five or six people only had one beer on it, so he wasn't making much of a profit off us.

After we left the pub, Penny and I had to find Mariliis and company, who had gone to a cafe and were smoking a water pipe! Yuck! Still, it was really cool in a weird way because I'd never seen one before. I thought they were illegal or only in Turkey. Thinks were slowing down and none of the people that left with us were from Odense, so we had no where to go and didn't know the city. Mariliis, Penny and I went back to Middelfart on the 12:48 train or something like that, called my host mom went back to my house where they both stayed with me.

Saturday, after booting Penny and Mariliis out, I got ready to go to a birthday party for Grace in Kolding. I thought I was going over and staying the night but changed my mind before leaving to catch the train and didn't take anything. Missed the train I wanted to catch after trying really hard to make a ten minute bike ride take five, because as I was walking out the door my host sister opened her IFU Exchange letter that told her she is going to be living in Littleton, Colorado (a suburb of Denver)!!!! I had to do a happy dance since that is close enough that we can visit each other next year if we feel like it.

Finally caught a train 30 minutes later and met up with Grace and Natalie (both from Ecuador). Grace is still with her second host family, whom I've met before and really like, so it was really fun talking to them. Two girls from Grace's school and Grace's 19 year old host sister were also and the party. We had Ecuadorian food, which tasted really good, and Danish layer cake for dessert. After dinner we all conversed and Natalie tried to teach us all how to tengo (unsuccessfully). Later we went out to a pub, and I was going to take the last train into Middelfart but changed my mind 5 minutes before I left and stayed. We played cards, foozball, and danced, or tried too. We went to a club but the music was really bad (rap! Eew!), and when we were dancing together we kept getting bothered by pervy old men (okay, not old, just older). Mostly we sat and tried to sing good songs over the very loud 'gangster' stuff they were playing.Ended up staying the night in borrowed pajamas with my contacts soaking in solution in a coffee mug.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast together (Grace, Natalie, and I), I made everyone pancakes and we had usual Danish food. I left on a train and got home about 2 in the afternoon. The rest of the day I will pack because....

TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR SCOTLAND!!'

Yes!

Anyway, I'm pretty happy right now and Spring is FINALLY coming to this country. I had forgotten what Denmark looked like in sunlight!

2006-03-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Monday 6th of March: Went to Rotary meeting at a local television station. Very boring. Of course. Maybe I would have had a better time if I could understand them better but I don't think so, since they were discussing money and employees or something.

Tuesday 7th: There was a musical called The Commitments put on by the Gymnasium. I knew quite a few people in it, and could understand the Danish. Very fun night!

Friday 10th: After school Mariliis, Penny and I went to the Chinese place I liked so much. Had a noodle lunch and talked a lot. Nice restaurant guys gave us free coke. We followed up our meal with a trip to the library, because Penny didn't know where it was. Inside Mariliis held a really long conversation in Danish with some random old guy. Her Danish is superb and makes me feel really inadequate since we've been in Denmark about the same amount of time.

Saturday I packed and packed to move host houses. That night I went over to a girl's house from school where eight other girls were also visiting for a movie and pizza night. Both Penny and Mariliis were also there. We ended up watching Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and a Danish horror movie called Midsommer.

When I went home on Sunday I finished cleaning and packing and after lunch moved to a new host family. I'm not sure what to call the family, since the dad's last name is Jensen and the wife's name is Jorgensen. Either way, the J family seems to be very nice. I new them for some time before I moved in with them so it wasn't as hard of a transition as my first move. My room is a lot smaller than mine at home, but I like it anyway

Copenhagen Weekend!

2006-03-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

March 3rd-5th was the Copenhagen 'Gettogether' for exchange students. Friday started out with me jumping on a train and enduring a 2 hour long ride before being arriving at the Copenhagen Station. All the exchange students got off here and milled about in a confused fashion before a Rotex (young rotary) member put us on the right connecting train to Sjaelor. When we reached our destination we had a night of socialization that was only interrupted by the usual anti alcohol freak out. Some kids were lectured and a lot was confinscated. They ended up with two big boxes filled with the unintelligent people's alcohol. It's a Rotary function! People shouldn't drink!

We woke up on Saturday bright and early (yuck), ate some breakfast and were herded into the gym where they made us run around in circles. After the running we were divided into groups in which we went through several 'tests' to determine teamwork, creativity, ect. My team neither won, nor lost, which was good because the loosers had to clean up the cafeteria when lunch was over. Once everyone ate lunch we were divided up into larger groups. With these groups we first played dodgeball, then basketball, and finally learned how to dance Lancier. Lancier is a traditional Danish dance. Since there were five times as many girls as boys, I had to dance like a man with my partner, Pokchat (Thailand).

I have decided there is no future for me in dancing...

With the athletic stuff finished we had some time to prepare for the gala dinner. Everyone was really dressed up- almost like prom! The only thing spoiling the mood was the fact that dinner was a taco buffet. After dinner we had entertainment from the talented exchange students. As usual, Jordan (Illinois) sang and played the piano ,Michael (Washington) danced ballet, and a Brazilian girl did ribbon dancing. Unusually, Breanne played the violin! Everyone was crying after Jordan's performance (the songs were SAD!) but it was brightened up by a jazz band that performed for us. The entertainment ended and we made our way to the cafeteria which had been made over into a disco and danced, or pretended to dance, until the early morning hours. It was fun, but the Rotex people made me mad when they got smashingly drunk at OUR party after giving everyone a huge lecture on how bad drinking was! Grrr to them and their hypocrisy! I don't mind the rule at all, but I think it was rude for them to make the rules so different for themselves.

Sunday morning ment cleaning and packing up. Arrived home at about 1 pm, but no one was home to pick me up until 3ish so I went down to a little food place that sells everything from hamburgers to Chinese. I had a box of Chinese and struck up a very long conversation with the workers, who had immigrated to Denmark, until my host parents could come get me.

February

2006-02-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted. Sorry, though it doesn't really matter too much, since hardly anything has happened.

On the 8th of February (I think) Penny the new Australian exchange student called me up and we met in town to wander around and look at things and eat pastries. On the 9th I went to dinner at my first host family’s house. It's much nicer to eat over there now that they have a finished kitchen. When I moved out it was all construction.

The next week I had Tuesday and Wednesday off school, so I had my hair cut. I have no idea what Danish people do on Valentines Day. I don't think it's anything extravagant. Wednesday was Lotte's (my host mom) birthday. She had tons of people over all day from 10 am until late at night. Thursday I had English all day, made Lotte chocolate chip cookies as a birthday gift, and ate dinner at the Jenson's house. The Jensons are the family that I'm moving to in a few weeks. Friday I left school with Mariliis (Estonia) and went around town and the library.

This week I've had off for vacation. Sunday we left to Copenhagen by train where we stayed at Lotte's step mom’s house for a few nights. I was able to see a museum, something called the 'Experimentarium', and went shopping. Tuesday was our last day in Copenhagen so I met up with Pokchat, the exchange student from Thailand! We went on the walking street for four hours and managed to do almost no buying. Shopping at its best!

The rest of the vacation I didn't do very much. It was actually rather boring and homework filled, since I have to write a ten page report for history class that is due next week. I'm doing it on American Foreign Policy and finding it difficult. Highlight of those days was that I read Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen... Who'd have thought I'd voluntarily read a classic?

Today was first day back at school and nothing's happened.

It looks like I'm going to have to take ACTs while I'm over here. This requires me to have books shipped over and on June 10th I must travel to Hamburg Germany to take the test. I only get one chance! At least the studying will be something to do!

2006-02-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

Was very upset the last week of January due to my Rotary club and it rubbed off into the rest of my life.

Thursday the 26th I went to visit my first host family. We had some spicy Mexican food because they remembered I liked it, and I talked a lot with my 'ex' host mom Gitte, and some with Bo (ex-host dad), but none of the others really had much to say. All in all it was a pleasant experience and we made arrangements to have dinner again on 9th of February.

Friday (27th) I invited Mariliis and Penny (Australian) over to my house to watch movies. It was way fun! I love playing hostess! There were snacks, my room was super clean, and I lit candles everywhere (because that is what you do in Denmark)! We watched Bridget Jones' Diary II and some other movie that I cant remember the name of, but was very funny. They left for home at about midnight.

Sunday (29th) I had a meeting with my Rotary counselor which didn't put me in a better mood with my club but helped in figuring out what I needed to know about when I leave school and things like that.

Friday the 3rd of February was the birthday party for two of the girls in my class, Kathrine and Lotte. I went to that and had a good time talking and dancing (sort of...). At about 1 am I left and went to 'the city' where I met up with a guy from my class and an exchange...worker... from Italy. This girl, who is 19 and named Katia, is working at a local kindergarten for 10 months through an exchange program. It was very interesting to talk to her, so I didn't go home until about 4 am.

Saturday and Sunday I worked almost completely on a power point to use for a speech at a local 'efterskole'. 'Efterskole' is like a 10th grade boarding school that is optional between 9th grade and the gymnasium or technical schools. The only break I took from this was to go out with Mariliis, and Anna, Maria, and their mom. The last three were all part of Jess' last host family. Anna went on exchange to Australia last year, and Maria is going to Oregon in August. We went to see Narnia, which was a cute movie.

Monday I misses my first class because I hadn't realized that there was too much snow/slush to ride my bike and I needed to catch a bus. It was a very short school day, but I mostly spoke Danish, because it was my sixth month anniversary and I promised everyone I'd start speaking mostly Danish in school after I'd been here six months. Later I had to do my speech to the school, which went fine but my slide show didn't work!

Blåvand

2006-01-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Friday the 20th, I went only went to school until noon. I could have left half and hour earlier, but I wanted to eat lunch and play cards with my classmates before they went to German. haha, I don't have to take that class! I took the bus home just to pack a bag and have Lotte (my host mom) take me to the train station. Here I paid 45 kroner for a trip to Kolding. I was going to visit Grace!

When I arrived at Graces house, her host parents packed us up in a car and took us to their summer house which was on the West coast of Jutland. The summer house was huge, and was complete with a jacuzzi. Friday we got situated and watched 'Notting Hill' before going to sleep. Saturday, all four of us put on our warmest clothes and took a walk on the nearby beach called BlÃ¥vand (Blue Water). There werea lott of strange seashells on the shore for something called 'Sword Clams' or something. I have never seen them before. After freezing out on the sand, we ran up to the top of a lighthouse and looked at the view. Once we caught our breath we ran back down and went shopping in the town. Amber is found naturally in Denmark so we had to look at some of the stores that stocked it. I think that is something I willdefinitelyy need to buy before I come home. The rest of the weekend we just relaxed with reading, Jacuzzi-ing, and watching movies. It was a really great time, and I enjoyed talking to Grace's host parents.

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies for my class. Last time I had Danish my phone rang in the middle of class so the teacher asked me to bring treats as punishment! After they were finished, I watched some Orange County before going to Rotary. Today Rotary took place at a greenery, where we had a really long tour of the flowers and business before finishing it off with sandwiches.

Even more snow

2006-01-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

I just spent over an hour waiting for my bus to take me home after school because it got stuck in the snow somewhere. It's been snowing hard all day and most of yesterday. Reminds me of home...

Other than that, not much has happened. Went Bowling with Rotary on Monday, got an award for over all loser, Jess left last Wednesday, spent an entire weekend doing absolutly nothing, went to Memoirs of a Geisha with Mariliis this Monday, shot stuff on Tuesday, and got stuck in the snow today. Not much going on.

Castles and Oldies.

2006-01-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no type! Sorry about that. I have not really had a chance to.

Right now I'm on edge because Jess, my 'Oldie' is leaving the day after tomorrow back to Australia. It's really sad! It makes me realize how hard it will be for me to leave, since there is no guarantee that I will ever come back! She had a going away party on Friday and I lost it and cried like a lunatic. Rather embarrassing.

A few days ago my host mom took me to Kolding Hus, which is an old castle that has been remade into an art gallery. That was interesting. I even got to take some pictures so I'll put those on later.

Yesterday my third host family took me out ice skating. Great fun.

Yeah, that's really all that has been going on.

Pumpkin Pie!

2006-01-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

I'm making pumpkin pie right now! It's cooking as I type. I hope my host family likes it... the girls kept coming by and grimacing while I was making it. Oh well, more for me!

SNOW

2005-12-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in the last post that it has been snowing here! Finally! It's a major snow this time, it's been here three or so days and hasn't melted yet. It's just kept snowing, too. Hurrah!

Stuff.

2005-12-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

Christmas has past and left me with lots of vacation to enjoy. There were a few too many family events that lasted for 8 hours at a time but I have survived.

A few days ago Jess came over to eat dinner and socialize. I'm living with the family that was her last host family, so it was funny that what used to be her room, her spot at the table, and her closet, is now mine. She gave presents all around and had me go with her to her first host families house across the street. She didn't want to go alone because she wanted to visit to be short. Bad things happened in her exchange while she lived in that house so she has bad feelings going back, even though she's become more friendly with the family. It was a fun night, but a bit sad because she is going back to Australia in about 10 days from now!

Yesterday was very fun. One of the many cousins on my host dad's side had a birthday party that the whole family was invited to. We went to Odense to the inside ice rink there. I hadn't skated for two or three years but it all came back to me quickly. I only fell down once when these obnoxious kids purposfully went in front of me, and later when I was really tired but trying to skate backwards anyway. It was an exausting but good day.

Christmas!

2005-12-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

After 2 months of Christmas parties, the time has finally come. Danish people actually celebrate the birth of Christ on the 24th of December, and then have two or three 'Christmas Days' afterwards. I think they actually call them first Christmas day, second Christmas day, ect.

Today I will get to open my presents after dinner, which we are having and my host father's mom's house. In order to earn our presents, however, we must first dance and sing songs around the Christmas tree... how strange!

I have been out of school since Wednesday. On Wednesday, we had a 'fairwell' assembly with the whole school, and my class went on stage and sang a christmas song together. It was horrible! We have to be the worst singers EVER! Still, everyone else got to have a laugh, so it wasn't totally worthless. Afterwards we had another 'Friday Cafe' only, like, on Wednesday... that was nice since most of my class attended.

Through out this month, there have been many parties, that I guess I have not told you about, since I've hardly posted since I moved houses, but here is what has occured.

On the 9th, we had a 'Jule Frokost' or Christmas Lunch with only my class. We ate dinner, danced, sang, and played games until 1:30 in the morning. One thing we ate was Risalámande, which is this rice stuff with cream and nuts. There is one whole nut in the bowl of risalámande and if you find it you get a present. No one found it this night, because we only ate about 1/4 of the bowl. We also played a game with dice to get gifts. Everyone had brought 2 small gifts and we placed them on the tables. Dice went around and if you rolled a 6 you could take a present. I didn't get anything! After many hours of partying, everyone started to go home. I was staying over with my friend Lena that night so I wouldn't have to bother with a taxi, but it was a while until her dad would come get us, so I helped clean up. In cleaning up, I got to take forgotten gifts! Yay! It wasn't much, just a deck of cards and some candy, but hey, these things are important!

On the 10th and 11th I went with my host family to visit their family members, and the same things were done there! We ate the rice stuff, couldn't find the nut, and played the dice game! At one house we had æbleskewer instead of rice stuff, but it seems that these are big traditions.

December 16th brought about the Christmas Gym Fest. There was a band, and lots of drunk people that I knew. I also brought my host sister Amelie, so the night was a blast.

And now it is Christmas Eve!! (sorry this post is so random and all over the place... I'm a bit spacey today)

yeah yeah

2005-12-18T04:45:00.000-07:00

Don't worry guys. I'm not dead. Just rather busy because of christmas, and I don't have very much time on the computer now.

I'm fine. One minute very unhappy, the next absolutly brilliant. In other words the normal exchange student mood. I've been going to alot of Christmas parties, and that's been fun. The Danes have a lot of strange traditions. I'll give you all a very in depth entry just for that during the school break.

Rain Riding

2005-12-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

All moved in! The new family is very nice. There are three girls... I can't remember if I posted this or not...

Amelie (pr. Amelia). 16 years old, 'handball' (some strange Euro sport) freak, going to Australia next year on exchange. Nice, but quiet.
Matilde (pr. Matilda). 13 years old, handball freak, very funny, nice, and not shy at all.
Caroline (Carol'ee'na, not Carolina). 11 years old, handball freak, shy, doesn't know English, sweet.

The reason I haven't posted in so long is because the computer is in Caroline's room, and I don't like to intrude. My room's nice, if a little cold. Sundays my host dad, Claus (a.k.a. Jeppe, pr. Yeppa) makes Danish pizza, which is way better than American pizza! There are two dogs. One little spaniel thing, and the other a large hunting dog, which slobbers dog food on your clothes if you let him get to close.

Everything is going fine, but unfortunatly, I now have a bike. This means I must ride from Strib (where the house is) to Middelfart (where the school is). That's right, completely different towns! This morning it was dark and raining and the ride was NOT fun.

Last Saturday was an ammature rock band concert. These kind of things are way better in Denmark than in Gillette, WY. It was hosted by the school! There was a big stage with a light switchboard, and there was great sound control. The bands themselves were even better. At least three people from my class were in different bands, and they were really great. I had a ride from my host mom at two a.m. because it was Amalie's birthday and she was out bowling and wanted to be picked up then, so Lotte (my h-mom) said she'd get me too, just this once. The concert was over at one so I ended up helping the bands clean up the left over mess.

Moving...

2005-11-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

Moving tonight... I'm a little excited, and not at the same time. I keep forgetting that I'm moving and plan something with someone before realizing I will no longer be in the same area. I have most of my things all packed up. My school books fill my entire expanded medium suitcase. Thankfully, Bo went out and bought some movng boxes since Isabella is also moving out of her room (having it remodeled).

Argh. I'll be glad to get away from all the construction going on in this house, but it's too bad that I'm moving as soon as I start really getting along with the family. I'll bet that will happen with the next one as well.

Ahh! Attack of the little ones!?

2005-11-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

This morning I had to go to my little host brothers class to speak about Wyoming and American Christmas. I haven't been around so many little kids since I was little kid! They were everywhere, and all had blonde hair with the exception of a few Arabic kids. I started out in Danish:

Hej, jeg hedder Alyssa, og jeg kommer fra Gillette WY, USA. Jeg er here fortælle
i om Wyoming og Amerikansk Yule, men mine Dansk er dårligt så Gitte er here
hælpe mig.

Hi, my name is Alyssa and I come from Gillette Wyoming USA. I am here to tell
you all of Wyoming and American Christmas, but my Danish is bad, so Gitte is
here to help me.

After that the teacher actually was the one to help me. I said what I knew how to say in Danish, and if I didn't know something I told her in English and she translated. It was rather confusing and I jumped all over the place because the kids kept asking questions not related to what I was talking about. I've decided they have a shorter attention span than my brother off meds... Sorry Devin, just teasing you!

Later I went to Rotary where they had a visting Rotary President give a slide show on what Rotary is all about and why it is important and then there was a big check given to us. They also kept saying things like American Exchange student, important, money, money money, American, exchange student..... It is very frustrating to know what they are saying with out knowing what they are saying...

yup! and tomorrow I finally have a normal day at school... all that free time was getting to me!

One Loooooooooooong Weekend! (+thursday!)

2005-11-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY: Math, boring. Nice to see friends again though!

FRIDAY: Wow, okay. Had a birthday party for Tanja (classmate, was a helper for Thanksgiving) and most of my class was there. It was way fun! I love birthday parties!

SATURDAY: Attempted to recover from Friday, and went to visit Grace in Kolding! It was quite a 'hugali' visit. It was good to see her again and we talked a lot. Even though we just stayed at her house, we still didn't get to sleep until about two o'clock, and I had to get up at 8:30 the next morning! Oof, killer.

SUNDAY: Woke at the dreaded 8:30 and had breakfast with Grace's host family. It was interesting. Apparently, they have relatives living in Cheyenne and have actually been to Wyoming! Who'd of thought? At ten I was picked up (okay maybe 10:15, my host family is always late), and Graces family went to church for the 'First Advent'. The Danish people have Advent the last four Sundays until Christmas, and light a candle in their window for each Sunday as it comes. Younger kids begin to get little presents every single day from the first advent until Christmas Eve, where they get their 'super present' after dinner. The elder family members get gifts each advent and a big one at the end. So, Graces family went to church. We happily did not go to church.

First we went to Frederica were Nicolia had an indoor soccer game. I tried to sleep sitting up, but didn't accoplish much. At about 12:30 we went back to Middelfart, ate a quick lunch, and then went off for a
'tree lighting' and 'tea' (there was no tea) at an ex-castle turned restaurant. We met up with about 10 different family members of my host family, but there weren't enough chairs so I had to sit on a green crate for most of it. After filling up on sweets and pop, we went outside where there were some news cameras and some guy on a microphone. Santa was weaving through the crowd. After a few minutes, they did a Danish countdown and lit up a giant Christmas tree. Everyone cheered and went home. I'm trying to put up pictures, but the computer is being stupid.

Long long break...except for Thanksgiving!

2005-11-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have all these days off yet I still have managed to have school on Thanksgiving. Hmm.

Not much has been going on. This weekend I went out and it was rather boring. I knew a few people there but no one from my class was around. Near the end, Jess came to talk to me, but other than that I just sat boredomishly. yes, I am aware that that is not a word. Monday I only went to Nina (my counselor)'s house for dinner. I like going to her house for dinner, she actually knows what I like and don't like and even cares!

Yesterday was fun. I went to Fredricia (spelt wrong), with Jess and Mariliis. It was way fun and we only managed to get on the wrong train once...

Today I did next to absolutely nothing.

Tomorrow I have all day math...yay... when will we have all day English?

Haha, what was I thinking?

2005-11-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

I've been whining about how I can't spell anything here since it's all British and stuff, but ha, I think I can spell 'British' better than I can spell 'American'! I confuse myself sometimes though.

It's really funny, I always get really good Taranova, WYCAS, etc. scores on everything except for spelling, which I get in the top 50 or 60 percentile.

It's Saturday and I'm just relaxing. I'll try to get around to cleaning up my room maybe. Later, Isabella is having some friends over, so I can bum some pizza and I'll hitch a ride on the taxi with them to the city.

New Host Family

2005-11-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Okay! I have a new host family arranged! I will move out on the 30th to the family Jess last lived with! It's a little strange, I'll even live in the same room she just moved out of!

In this family there are three daughters (wow!!) and one of them is going to Australia next year on exchange, which is why they are hosting me. In Middelfart you must host one year worth of exchange students (3 different students) if you want to send one out. The idea is that you will understand better what it is like to be on exchange. I'm not sure it works that way, but I really think this will be a good family for me.

The only thing that has made me worried is their supposed rule of staying out no later than 3:00 am. Normally that would most definitely not be a problem but they live in Strib, which is a far way section of Middelfart, so I will want to share a taxi with someone to go home and what if they aren't ready to go? Also, it is really hard to get a taxi between 1:30 and 4:00 in the morning because they are so busy.

Another thing I'm wondering about is getting to school. It will take me about 25 minutes to get home in the freezing winter on bike... but I don't have a bike! Jess destroyed the rotary one. Something about the chain and tires...well anyway, it's deader than a pidgeon on fizzy tablets.

Is 'deader' proper grammar? Should it be 'more dead'? How can you be deader than dead anyway? hmmm. Something to think about...

Just in case you were wondering what happened today:
Physics was pointless today. I was so bored I just closed my eyes. I wasn't even tired, I just had nothing to do and the teacher wasn't even lecturing. History was okay, since we've moved out of American history and I can rest easy. It's funny, I probably know more about what we're studying now, which is the history of communism in Europe. I love world history, but haven't been to fond of American History. Still, who would expect me to know the stuff he asked?

"What occurred in Boston in the year XXXX?" (Boston massacre, I guessed the Boston Tea Party)
"How many people died in the Boston massacre?" (!!!)
"Why is the Ku Klux Klan called the Ku Klux Klan?" (No idea, maybe 'cause they don't know that clan is spelt with a c? Don't worry, I didn't actually say that!)
"How many constitutional amendments are there?" (actually I think I should have know this one)
"What would you say is the most important amendment?" (an opinion question, but I got it wrong. I said the ten that make up the bill of rights. He thought it was the one that abolished slavery)

I did get some right though, I know about Rosa Parks, the underground railroad, President Lincoln, and a bunch of other stuff, but it was hard since I couldn't read the text book to refresh my memory (it was in Danish!).

Next was English and I did a lot in the discussion of 'Lord of the Flies'. Strangely, I actually really liked the book! I heard such bad things about it that I didn't think I would at all, but after looking through all the symbolism I couldn't not like it. It's actually now one of my favorite classics! Who'd of thought?

After school was another Friday Cafe. This time most of my class was there, along with Jess and Mariliis (Estonian exchange student), so I managed to have some fun. After words I went with some kids from my class to the city to eat pizza and stuff. It was a good day!

So much time and so little to do...

2005-11-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, let me tell you my schedual next week.

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Math
Friday: Off

Monday: Off
Then back to normal

Why is it that right as I have tons of time I have nothing to do? I would have given anything for a week like this at home and now I'm whining about it!! I have 5 Days off, one day on, then 4 more off days!! One day out of 10 in school!

What will I do?

Straight A Student Brought to Her Knees!

2005-11-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I got my grades back a few days ago... let me explain the Danish grading system!

13 = Super A++ (like a 105%)

11
10 Good Grades
9

8
7 Acceptable
6

Anything below is a fail.

I only have three teachers who even graded me...

7 in Sports
7 in Economics
and in English...

A 10...

How sad is that! Though, actually I don't think anyone got a higher grade than that. Still, I've grown up with the language. I guess I really cant spell here though, since its all British and way back when, the American Revolutionists decided to take out their anger on their mother country by taking out Ss and replacing them with Zs and stuff like that.

What a nice way to complicate things.

Oh and right now host family is tearing apart their kitchen! It looks like a war zone! We have to eat out of one of the apartments for the next four weeks...oh, wait! I'll be gone in two! Hahaha! Guess there is some good coming out of it!

Uh oh!

2005-11-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

My second host family has backed out!! They decided that they were too busy with their new clothes store, and said they couldn't take me!!!

I was supposed to move over to them NEXT THURSDAY!!!

I have no idea where I'm moving to now! It's probably going to be a rotary member's family, which is not necessarily a good thing! It would make it much messier if it didn't work out.

Argh! I really dont like this!

Still, maybe it will turn out for the best...or maybe not...I don't know!

Early Thanksgiving

2005-11-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Tanya, Anders, and Trine! Fine cooks!

Friday I successfully threw a Thanksgiving Party for approximately 20 classmates. That was way interesting. First off, a big hand to my super helpers! This is when they were resting at about 6:00, when everything was cooking. They were enormous help, since I hardly know how to make Easy Mac, and I was trying to make a huge meal! Plus we had to go on a great chair search and set the table and stuff like that. We started cooking at about 2:00 and didn't stop until about 7:30. Then we had to go around cleaning up dishes and picking up beer bottles.

The Turkey wasnt too hard, except that I had to use 2 ovens in the 'apartments' my host family has, and I didn't know how to use the oven. I thought I had them cooking at 3:00 pm, but it turned out I just had the oven FAN on! This came into realization at about 4:00... leaving only 3 hours until the guests arrived. Mashed potatoes were easy-- Trine and Anders did them in about 10 minutes. I made stuffing, and it was really impromptu, but it turned out quite well. Gravy was too floury the first 'boats' out, but I just add more water and heated it back up again and it turned out fine.

And then the party! Everyone at least said that they liked the food, and they ate enough that I believe most of them meant it. After dinner people started ransacking the CD collection and singing along. It might have helped that they listened to me when I told them to bring their own drinks...

Continued...

2005-11-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it wouldnt let me put up anymore pictures! Anyway, everyone seemed to have a good time and didn't want to leave until about 2:30 am. At that time we made sure everything was fairly cleaned up and went to the city. I came home about 3:30 or 4:00. All in all, a terrific evening.

Okay. breather

2005-11-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

I wont stop updating on here. I'm just really disappointed in certain people whom I've emailed and asked specific questions and such, but they don't even give me a 'nothings going on'. No reply whatsoever for about a month now!

Come on!

Bad Wyomingers!

2005-11-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

No one but my mom writes me anymore (not that there is anything wrong with you, Lind)! That's not nice, since I do this blog, and email you back anytime you mail me! So, if you lot don't talk to me, I shant talk to you! (insert immature tounge sticking outige here)

You'll never get to hear about all the stuff thats been going on! I've already made pies for my party, and cookies. Oh, and I nearly set something on fire when I turned on the wrong burner on the stove today...

Presenting...Australia!

2005-11-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Jess's presentation to Rotary about Australia, her life, and her exchange. That's not so hard, she's had to do it a number of times since arriving in Denmark. The catch was that it had to be in Danish!

It wasn't as boring as I though it would be. I was very surprised about how much I understood! It's as if I've been learning stuff without being taught. It's strange to think that I know stuff I don't know I know. Err, yeah.

Thursday I must present to Isabella's class, but I don't know what I'm suppose to be talking about! Am I suppose to bring a power point or something? How will that work, I don't have a laptop! Eek!

52 States?!?!

2005-11-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

GYM FEST! Actually, it wasn't that great. The music wasn't as good as last time, so everyone got drunk faster, sobered up faster, and decided bed was a good idea earlier than usual. I only bought one beer so people would quite saying I needed to drink some of theirs so I did not have this problem. Actually I'd even taken a nap earlier so I could stay up later! It was very sad when all my friends kipped out. Kipped...is that even a word? Hmmm.

Anyway, to make up for Friday night I went out last night, and had a great time. I only really knew one or two people there other than the flock of 15 year olds who came with my host sister, so I just decided to meet some new people. It was great fun, but the one night I wanted to stay out later, was the one night Isabella didn't want to stay out late. I wish she didn't always get to decide. Oh, yeah, and I was orange. One of Isabella's friends decided she wanted to do my makeup and hair, but used Isabella's base. Isabella goes to tanning salons a lot... The overall affect wasn't at all bad, except that my face resembled a convicts suit.

After we got home I wanted to check out the orange damage affect, but was beaten to the bathroom. I decided I could use the guest room mirror. I turned on the light, and took a look in the mirror, then turned my head in horror movie action to my half naked, half asleep, elder host sister and her boyfriend looking dazed in the light. I yelped, apologized profusedly, turned of the light and ran away!

Really, that is something that only I'd be dumb enough to do. I totally forgot they were staying over the weekend! Usually I have the whole bottom floor of the house to myself.

Today I went to my 3rd host family's house. We went on a walk in some woods and played Trivial Pursuit in Danish over cake, candy, and hot chocolate. One of the questions was 'How many stars are on the US flag?' Which, I answered 50 of course. And said one for each state at the moment. My host family actually argued with me! They think that there are 52 states! They are not the only ones. Several other people have done that to me! Did I miss something? What are the other two mystery states?It was a good day all in all anyway.

Parties and smashed fingers

2005-11-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

The lost calling card has been found! Actually I found it about a week ago. It fell from my dresser into my shirt drawer and was discovered after I packed for Holbæk. See! I'm not a total failure.

I'm suppose to be in Economics right now, but were in the computer lab and I dont know what we're doing. I had P.E. last hour and someone stepped on my hand. Now it hurts to type.

Not much to say really, so I'm not sure why I'm typing. How's things in Gillette?

Tomorrow there is another Gym fest, yay! I love parties. Speaking...er...typing of parties, I've decided I'm going to have a sort of Thanksgiving for all of my classmates on the 11th, so wish me luck! I'll need it, my cooking skills are rather lacking. I'm thinking turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie (if I can find canned pumkin), and maybe some 7 layer bars or something.

Anyone have more ideas for food? This will be their first thanksgiving so it has to be good!

Halloween stuff

2005-11-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

So, Friday, right before my train left Gitte rushed me down to the train station and bought my ticket. I was all alone, but that wasn't the bad part. The bad part was I was sold the wrong ticket and the conductor made a big deal about it and made me cry.

yes, I know I'm a big sissy!

Anyway, she made off with my two different types of identification and train tickets, and nearly didn't come back before I got off to switch trains. She gave me a cookie for making me cry though. That was kinda weird. I got a fine and a cookie. I wonder if the cookie was added with the price?

Made it to Holbæk (not hollabeck) in pretty good shape and went through the usually jumping, screaming, squealing and running around that exchangers go through apon meeting. We ended up sleeping on the floor in classrooms. It was really hard to go to sleep that night, since the Brazilians decided it would be quite hilarious to turn the lights on us (after we finally managed to get all twenty or so of us in the room to go to sleep) not once, nor twice, but about seven times between 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock in the morning. They did not earn many international understanding points with anyone that night. Expecially since one time they even brought in a tamborine!

The next day we had some time to go into town. Unfortunatly, there really wasn't any town to go to. I mostly hung out with Arisa and Breanne and we mostly did nothing until we put on our halloween costumes for dinner. There really wasn't anything to do! Still, anytime with exchangers is good time, and I had a lot of time to track down things for my costume. I went as a goth, and while it was a lame thing to dress up as, I really didn't look like myself! It was way fun. Dinner came around, and it was pretty good. After we were finished eating there was entertainment. Almost every country sang their national anthom, some danced, Jordan played us 'Feels like home' on the piano and sang again (he did it at language camp, too), and a guy named Mike from Washington danced BALLET! It was awsome, but I just kept wondering why it took him so long to come out of the closet. Eh, he's a sweet kid.

After all the activity the DJ came on and we started dancing. Waaaaaaaaay fun! I probably looked like a freak but I just went crazy dancing. As the night went on people started bringing out their smuggled alchohol. It got a little gross. One guy made out with about 30 different girls (and two guys) and a girl from texas got so drunk she threw up all night. I wanted to send her to the hospital since I was afraid she had alchohol poisoning, but since they weren't suppose to be drinking no one called it. She was okay, but that was a bit scary.

Once we started to get ready for sleep all the drunks began to filter into our room. It ended up looking a little like a refugee camp- everyone was moving into our room to get away from puke girls room. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeew. One girls sleeping bag went missing so Jordan gave her his, then just went to the Aussie room and took one for himself. About 2 or 3 in the morning Jess came thundering in with lots of 'WHO TOOK MY SLEEPING BAG?!?'s and Jordan was ousted from his slumber. Did I use ousted right? Hmmm. My English is dying!

Sunday we cleaned up, ate brunch, went to the station, and railed on home. Once again I was alone, since I was smart and moved to a compartment that wasn't full.

Monday was true Halloween, and let me tell you this- Halloween in Denmark is lame! I didn't get a single 'Happy Halloween!' there weren't even any halloween socks or anything.

Tuesday it rained all day, and it was my host-dad's birthday so the family went bowling. I wasn't last, but it was close. I'm a really bad bowler, but I think there was something wrong with the lane! (yeah, yeah, excuses excuses!). and today I had school off.

Off to the great yonder!

2005-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

I'm going to a Rotary exchange student get together weekend in Hollabeck (or something like that) tomorrow so I wont be about or probably be sending emails. I'll have some thing big to write about when I come home though.

Yesterday I took a train to Odense at 6:00 at night. I went with Jess and her two host sisters. I love her host sisters! I want to steal them for my own!
...Anyway, we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate factory in English (instead of voiced over in Danish). It was way cute, in a bizarre way.

Today, Isabella and I had to make dinner again... only this time it was nice! We made speggetti, tomato soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Can you believe they'd never even seen a grilled cheese before? Fortunatly they liked them. Then we had Danish pancakes for dessert. Yum.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to Hollabeck tomorrow. I was going to go with Jess, but she made different plans, so now I'm scrambling to find someone to travel with. I really don't want to get lost...or have to face a 2 + hour train ride alone!

JEG ELSKER KOBENHAVN!!

2005-10-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

I just returned from over a week without internet. This week was our efterårfærie (fall break?) and my host family decided it would be a splendid idea to go off to a place where you do sports and aerobic all day long! Not just for one day either, but four days. We did badmitton, tennis, squash, step aerobic, line dance, yoga, swimming, bowling, obstacle courses. Friday we went to Copenhagen because Nicolai wanted to visit some relatives.

I LOVE COPENHAGEN!! Woohoo! I want to live there! It's so beautiful! Unlike Washington D.C. and all those Californian cities, etc. Copenhagen is not loud, dirty, or scary! It's gorgeous!

Here are some pictures! I took way too many. Sometimes I repeated myself...

Most of these are from one area that goes along a famous shopping street.

I think this is the National Chamber of Commerce

Danish football/soccer

2005-10-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

What a day, I finally got out of the 'ten things to do' and went to a soccer match in Odense. I think the opposing team was Copenhagen, and we were for Odense. Nicolai, my eight year old host brother, and some of his soccer team came to run with the Odense team on to the field before the match. Later (after Odense won 3 to 1) we listened to some music, and heard the Odense team coach speak...in English! Yay! Turns out he's actually Scottish! haha!

Jeg er træt

2005-10-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

I am tired.

Not much is happening here. I can't really think of anything important that's been going on. I lost both my calling card and library card, but that was probably only a matter of time. It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't cleaned my room. Every time I clean I lose things!

I'm trying to join volleyball at a local club right now. I went and watched a practice and decided anything was better than sitting around someone elses house and doing a number of repetitive things.

TOP 10 THINGS TO DO WHILE ABROAD
1. Re-re-re-....read Harry Potter books
2. Complain about absence of FAVORITE Harry Potter book
3. Read the few other English books in the library (really classicy classics, and crime novels)
4. Watch CNN (and become depressed of state of world)
5. Watch MTV (and become disgusted with shallow perverted content)
6. Grump about lack of non-German-over-voiced TV
7. Think about writing e-mails but not actually doing it
8. Do senseless online quizzes to find really important stuff out... like 'What's your inner color? and 'Which 'Friend' are you?'
9. Nap
10. Spend hours searching for lost items, in places you've already looked through several times.

FYI a new prince of Denmark was born today and the Danes have gone mad! There were lots of bomb fires and Danish flags everywhere.

Ta da! Two month anniversary!

2005-10-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well...to day is the two month day. It feels like I've been here forever. Let me tell you about this day.

First class was Geology. I fell asleep. I was sitting in the middle of the room too, so everyone knew I fell asleep. At least my head stayed up though. It was more like a doze. Sorry everyone, but it is so hard to listen to lectures when you don't understand anything. It's even worse when I try to understand, 'cause then I get a headache and go to sleep faster!

Next class was P.E., which for many convinient reasons I have only had once before today... I thought I was in better shape from all my bike riding, but apparently not. Ouch. NO MORE RUNNING! I hate running, and then we had to do shot put.

Lunch was fun. We played frisbe with a CD.

Next was Economics, where I learned that the teacher hadn't been giving me a grade for anything! After a long talk, and some help from another student, I finally got it across that I needed a grade to take home for credit. We worked out a deal and he said if it seemed like I knew what was going on, he'd make sure I passed and had something to show for it. I've been doing most all the work, so I know I'll get that grade.

Last class of the day was..............DANISH! I tried to continue with my grammar practice but I kept closing my eyes and not realizing it, so by the end of class I had a paper filled with scribbles and illegible words. Bummer.

After school I made my self bike to the library, even though I was really tired. I was rewarded with a too full backpack that wouldn't clip to the back of my bike, but at least I understood the girl who yelled "Hey, dine taske er faldende!!" (your bag is falling!) so I was able to stay on my bike as I was crossing a crazy intersection, instead of falling in the road when I was put off balance (I had tied the straps to the bike). I was also very happy when I understood a little girl tell her friend "Jeg glemt min sko!" ( I forgot my shoes!). Little things like that make me happy.

Unfortunatly, Bo (host dad) has decided that I have to speak danish starting tomorrow. I don't think I'm ready! I'm not comfortable with what I know, though I do know alot. I keep thinking about the time I thought that my host parents said they had to make a phone call to a ring binder. That was way off the mark, and a little embarassing. It was expecially embarassing when he made me read out of a little kids book at dinner. Still, maybe I need some one to make me start speaking, otherwise I'm afraid I'll always, 'not be ready'.

This week has been pretty good so far. Except for today, I haven't been falling asleep, and I'm having more fun with my class mates. The washing machine broke, then the drier after we fixed the washing machine, so I'm wearing all the clothes I never wanted to wear, including a pair of jeans I haven't worn since my lived with my counselor. My counselor didn't use a drier, so they were really scratchy.

Tomorrow we are going to Århus! Yay! Saturday I have to catch a ride with one of my class mates to Kolding, where we have to listen to some famous Danish poetry. I think it's going to be really boring (I wont understand), but fun since I'll be with my class.

Grace in Middelfart

2005-10-03T05:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had Grace come over to visit me. It was really complicated to get her here since she was having bank problems so I sent her a train punch card through the mail so she could come. I was going to my first 'Friday Cafe' at school until 5 pm but I went home early since it was just a lot of people getting drunk. Besides, there were only a few people I knew. I'm getting very frustrated because I'm starting to really like most of my class but they don't do anything together! They have their own parties and they go out separately. Grace says she gets invited to parties where her entire class is invited. My class doesn't do that.

Natasha (older host sister) took me to pick Grace up from the train station and the rest of the night we just talked and compared host families and towns and such. The next morning we decided that the library sounded like a good idea and set off, Grace perched precariously on Isabella's bike. After arriving to the town center It became clear that the library was closed after 2:00 on Saturdays so I thought I'd show Grace around Middelfart (such as it is).

There was a road I hadn't been to the end of, and it looked like there was an old church on the way, so I led us in that direction. I quickly became sidetracked when we came across a trail that went into what looked like a forest! I got all excited and off we went. The trail was beautiful and went along the waters edge. Eventually we came out at a small marina and a hotel. There was another path that went further into the forest so we followed that, and found some small deer-like animals kept behind a fence, as if it were an animal reservation. We kept on it for a ways but decided to turn back after faced with a particularly large hill.

Once we returned to town we decided we were rather hungry, and stopped at a Chinese-pizza-hamburger place (yes, they do exist!). Here we were faced with two Chinese men who knew little English. One of them was quite excited when he realized we were foreign and tested what English he knew, and we had to use our Danish.

After we were finished Grace wanted to see my school, so we went the long way home to pass it. On the way home in that direction is the Marina, which is very pretty so I found another bike trail. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time. In the end, we had biked for three hours!!

Later that night, after having dinner with Gitte's dad, we went out with Isabella and her friends to the city. I had arranged to meet Jessica there, but she had come with her host sister, who was really drunk, and had to look after her the entire evening. Other than those two people, and a pack of 15 year olds, I didn't know anyone. Grace, of course, also didn't know anyone. It made for a rather boring evening. We had fun dancing for awhile, but eventually we wanted to go home. What we hadn't expected was the fact that there weren't any taxis. We waited in a pizzeria until 5 in the morning, when one of Isabella's friends called her mom to take everyone home. Grace had actually fallen asleep on the pizzeria table while we were waiting. Generally it was just a crummy night.

Sunday, we slep and bid our time until Graces train left. I think I'm going to her house another weekend.

Some random exchange students from last camp just to confuse people

2005-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Grace in the back
Arisa from Alaska
The Asian girls! and a few extras (Kyle from Colorado and Breanne) Sarah from California
Breanne from Washington

Kalø

2005-09-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

Some picts of the Kalø Castel Ruins, and a group shot of what was suppose to be the Americans. There are quite a few missing and some extras thrown in.

Pictures from way back when...

2005-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

creepy dude in front of language school
Stick Fighting!
Just Playin!
Grace, Chihiro, and Myself

Lego pictures!

2005-09-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Legos everywhere!
Ha ha ha! Look where I am, In legos!

Statue of Liberty...in Legos!
me! Under the Legoland sign!

Legos, Sleepovers, Haircuts and more

2005-09-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, okay. It's been taking me a while to catch you all up since I've been having photo difficulties.

Saturday I went to Lego Land with Nina, Bjarne, and Jessica. It was way fun. Many rides were for little kids but we found the ones that weren't and Jess was crazy about legos, so it was funny watching her zooming around for photos. There were way cool statues and things, all made of legos. I especially liked the flamingos, and the statue of liberty.

Right after we returned to Middelfart, I packed a bag and went to Jess's house to stay over. She invited the other Middelfart exchanger Martilisse (or something like that) from Estonia. We watched movies until about 3:00 am and I was teased about American culture (because the movies were all American). It was really funny when we watched The Prince and Me. It's about a prince from Denmark so we knew all the things that were wrong, including the way the tabloids looked, to the words the cab driver yelled in Danish. Besides, the 'commoner' who married the prince of Denmark and inspired the movie was Australian, so it looked like we were stealing Mary's (the new princess) 'fairytale'. It was a lot of fun anyway.

Monday I went off to get a hair cut. It cost 50 dollars!! They also couldn't take any of my cards and I had to go get money out of a nearby bank. Many Danish stores only take Danish credit cards, which I think is rather silly, since Denmark is only a bitty tiny country and the reason people have visas is so they can use them abroad. Well, my hair look good when she was done, but she had straightened it, and this morning after my shower, it was not straightened. Very curly and a bit strange, but still better than what I had before, which was just a lot of hair.

Today, I went sailing with Rotary in a racing boat. It was fun but they didn't have me do anything since the captain guiding us didn't know English very well and the winds were quite strong. There was also copious amounts of rain pelting on our heads. By the time we came back to the harbor, I realized that I had locked my bike, but forgotten the key, and had to have Gitte bring it to me. It was rather dumb, I must admit.

Lego Land

2005-09-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from my trip to Lego Land this weekend.

Well...they upload but don't display. Will have to work on this.

Language School Continues

2005-09-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Not much has been going on. I've gone to Language school (which starts at 9 but I have to wake up at 6:30 and ride bike, train, and walk to get to my destination) every day and I can't say what I've learned. Husker is the word for remember, but I forgot the word for forget! How sad is that?

Mary, The New Yorker, was much nicer this time around. I think it is because we both are good friends to Grace. I have managed to form affection for most all of the class, except maybe Marvin, 'cause he is strange and periodically mean. I don't know if anyone else in the class noticed but he kept almost yelling at me for stupid things. Anyway, it was good to see everyone again, but not that interesting.

Wednesday, Grace, Mary, and I tried to go 'out on the town' in Vejle. Unfortunatly, we could come up with very little to do, since none of us lived there. We did some shopping and went our seperate ways at about 2:30. I, however, had never stayed after school, nor tried to catch a different train. In Fedrecia (or something like that) two boys from my school got on and alerted me to the fact that I was on the wrong train. It was a very lucky meeting. these two boys had left school early so they cound get to some sort of choir practice and got on a train going to a different island and two hours later they were able to get on the train to Kolding (the one we were on now. So they helped me find the right train from the next town and I arrived home after 4 o'clock. Long day, and I still had to bike home. Woo hoo. I didn't stay after school after that.

Thursday I went to the library and was pounced on by two girls from school asking where I'd been. It was a bit nice, since it seems as if they actually noticed I was gone. I wasn't sure they would. In the library, I found some language programs to use since I am finished with language school with little to show for it, and several books I thought I might be able to stand. I only took two though. I wasn't sure I could make it up the hill with anymore, in addition to all my school stuff. It's so hard to find good books in the library. They are all old, classics, or completely random. I think I'll be reading alot John Grisham this year. After that I might have to read Pride and Prejudice. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun.

Today was a bad day. It started out fine, in fact, I was quite chipper and happy this morning. Things changed after we went out for lunch. The food was very pricey, the service was crap, and we had trouble with splitting the bill. Durring all of this, people got a bit testy. Jordan (illinois) started yelling about wanting to talk to the manager and this is crap...lalala, and Pippa yelled at me because I was asking for change for some of the girls at the other end of the table. After we left I just felt terrible. Here was our last day together and it ended with bickering. Still, it bothered me so much that I was near tears for the next four hours. I think it is because I hate it so much when people yell or get angry, even when it is not with me.

Other than that, everything is fine. I'm going to Lego Land tomorrow with Jess and Nina. That should be fun. Much later I'm planning on having all the Middelfart exchange students over to my house (all 2 of them) for a fun night, inviting my entire class over for American 'tea time' (-tea), Grace over for a visit, and Kathrine over to ride horses. I just hope I get to do some of that. It's alot to plan, but I just need people to be doing something with me.

Some strange Danish things

2005-09-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

The four Danish food groups:

Bread
Cheese
Pork
Potatoes

`Car Tax. There is a tax on vehicals that adds up to cost about 300% more in Denmark than in the USA
Obsessions. It seems as if there is a strange Brittany Spears/Micheal Jackson obessession that none of them will admit to.
Handshakes. When one enters a gathering of anysort, they must go around to everyone in the room, whether they know them or not, and shake their hands.
Laundary. Many many Danes do not dry their laundary by machine because, and I quote, "We like the smell of clothes hung up to dry." Personally I thought it just made them crunchy.
Swearing. Every one in this country swears in English from the day they learn to speak. I am constantly started by my 8 year old host brother's words.
Hugali. A word which according to the Danes has no translation to any other language, but 'cozy' works. They say Hugali for everything, and light candles in the middle of the day with this as their defense.

I'll come up with more later.

Real Sailing

2005-09-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

I just returned from my trip of actually sailing on an ocean. I've been sailing on a lake, and boating on the ocean, but never sailing. It was mad! I had fun the first hour or so but there was a part in the middle where I felt a bit ill! It's as if your going up and down on the wave, sidways (cause of the wind) and then the front and back kept wiggling in circles. I was a rather relieved when they pulled down the sails and used the motor to park in the bay thingy. Way fun. I will even have some pictures in a bit, but first the have to be emailed to me from Natasha's boyfriend's dad.

My hair is a wicked mess. I should probably brush it.

I'm afraid to brush it. It was whipped around in the wind for several hours, and then rained on. Maybe if I ignore it, it will fix itself...? One must try to be optimistic.

Dinner and a Play

2005-09-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

The H-fam. and I just returned from a night out on the town. Isabella even went and she was nice to everyone! Wow. We went to an American resturant (YAY!) and I finally was able to eat food so spicey my nose ran and my eyes watered. Oh, how I missed it. Yum yum!

After din-din we went to a play called Premadona on Trial, which was, of course, in Danish. It made me laugh anyway, since I understood quite a bit and Gitte translated when needed. Besides there were cross dressers and stuff like that in it, so it wasn't hard to laugh at.

Tomorrow we go sailing through until Sunday evening. Isabella is not going since she gets sea sick. I think it will be a good way to relax, except that IT IS WAY FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE!

NOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOOOo!

The sun is leaving me also. Tear!

And I have to ride my bike to school and stuff all year long!

At least I have language school to look forward to. One more week and then no more. Still, I'll get to see my most favorite Ecuadorian, Grace. She's my most favorite exchange student (the one who offered to help me dig in the trash for my retainer...Hey! I took a picture of that dumpster! I need put that up. Oh, wait I'm still in parenthases) there, better. Borbala, the Hungarian girl will be there, and Kaori and Chihiro of Japan, Marvin from Hong Kong, Juliana from Brazil, the Canadians, and the New Yorker Mary. I wonder if she's over that 'Wyoming is dirt' crap. I wonder what she'd do about gas and electricity prices if Wyoming was it's own country. Campbell County (where I'm from, in case you don't know) is called the Energy Capital of the Nation. Oh, and I almost forgot Jordan of Illinois. If he could be quiet durring class I might not have to knock him over the head with my largest dictionary...or a chair..?

Sorry it's rather late here so I'm rambling a bit.

People, leave comments! If you don't it feels like no one is reading! I fixed it so you don't have to be a member or whatever.

Parents, I'll try to call Sunday. Nighty night!

The Little School

2005-09-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

I am, right now, in a school which has grades k-10 in it. I have today and tomorrow off from school but there is nothing to do there so Gitte called Isabella's school and asked if I could come visit. It is strange. Isabella (as usual) hasn't said much to me but her other class mates are nice. During the break kids kept coming in the room and to look at me, then leaving . It was very wierd.

These kids hardly do anything in school. I think that the Danes are slow in math through 9th grade, but once the kids are seperated into the different schools and different class lines (language or math), the math kids start learning at warp speed. They catch up to were we are in the first year, pull even with the advanced math seniors in the USA durring the second year, and surpass even them in the third year. In the laguage line they learn up to about what I learned in Algebra II last year, but learn English, German, Latin, and Italian, French, or Spanish.

I wonder when class will start again. We've had lunch break for the last hour and 5 minutes. Maybe this is a class and I just don't know it....?

Danish birthdays

2005-09-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, my birthday was on the 12th. On this day I woke up at the same time as usual for a Monday and walked in on my host family preparing birthdaybreakfast. It was mostly the same as every day with a few additions. They gave me a present, and my hostmom gave me a special lunch, and cake for my entire class. I brought the cake to school and when I served it everyone started to sing birthday songs. One in English, and two in Danish. After school, some of the girls from my class came and Jessica came and ate Danish birthday cake and buns. It was easy to find the house because there were Danish flags EVERYWHERE!Everyone drank hot chocolate and had polite conversation over the table. I recieved a few small gifts from them. After a few hours everyone left. I think normally there would have been a night out on the town, but most of the girls in my class live rather far away from Middelfart and had to catch trains.

Sorry this is all so robotic (the writing), this is a school keyboard and its really really hard to type on.

Ta ta for now.

Long time no post.

2005-09-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Ugh. Sorry it has taken so long for me to post anything. I had a really bad cold or something and I just didn't have the energy to do anything. Thursday I stayed home from schooland spent a very boring, rather depressing day watching CNN. I went to school on Friday, though I still didn't feel well, and went to the Gymnasium Fest (school party) that night. I spent the first part of the evening getting ready with a girl named Lena from school. It was here that I learned my shoes were a bit frightening in Denmark. You might remeber these shoes if you know me well. They are black, shiney, high, and have a pink heart on them. Apparently the Danes call them 'punk'. I call them pretty! After looking at my other choice (my Nikies) I went with them. We had dinner at another girls house and, once again, everyone but me drank. and drank. and played drinking games. And dumped two cups of alchohol on MY SHOES!! It's okay, they survived. I arrived at the school and lol and behold! More drinking and smoking, but this time IN THE SCHOOL! That sure is alot different than the no pop policey we have at CCHS.

It was fun despite it all. There was a band playing famous Danish songs called Kashmir and unlike in the USA everyone danced. Everyone was very friendly towards me and I had a nice night, which ended at 1:00 am.

A bit ill

2005-09-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Blah. I feel like I was ran over by a Buick. My head aches, eyes itch, and throat hurts. I stayed home from school today, and feel alittle better than before, but it has been rather boring.

Last night I went shopping in Federecia with Isabella. One would think that it would be a nice bonding experience but she hardly said anything the whole time. Also, she only went to one store. In this store there were jackets that cost 300 dollars and plain T-shirts that cost 100. I, being a poor exchange student without the 1000 kroners from a parent, could not afford anything. There were alot of repeat things like that. We went to the tanning salon and I had to wait 20 minutes while she got a tan. ulk. Not the best day of my life.

Ouch

2005-09-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

I hit my head on a wall in the middle of the night! I think I must have had a nightmare and tried to get off the wrong side of the bed or something. It even bled a little and I have a huge bump. Then the Polish people staying in apartments woke me by talking very loudly right by my window at around 5:30 in the morning.

School's been gettíng better, except I became rather lost today and walked into 3 wrong classrooms in a row. Hey, what can you do.

Last night I went to Rotary. it was boring but an ex-exchange student from Australia was there to revisit with her family so Jessica and I were able to get some pointers.

Not much is going on today. I think I'm going shooting again later, I just don't know how to get there. It'll be a ways on a bike. I miss my car!

A Taste of Danish Social Life

2005-09-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

Friday night, I went and visited my 3rd host family. It was the moms birthday so we went out to eat and for once it was pretty good.

Saturday night I went out with my 15 year old host sister. We started out at one of her girl friends house were they listened to music and drank alot of alchohol. I had coke. It was boring for a while but then the girls drank enough to relax or something and kept trying to get me to say difficult Danish words and asked me alot of questions. After awhile I followed her to another house where there were more people, and more importantly, more alchohol. It was alright except this one boy (who spoke english very well) kept trying to persuade me to drink a beer, and about half of the people smoked (ack!). they stayed there until midnight then called a taxi and went into town. It was really wierd. There were tons of people out at the dance club and bar and sitting in the street eating pizza. Almost all of them were my age.

I met up with a girl from my class (Kathrine pronounced Katraina) and stayed with her for awhile since my host sister dumped me and anytime I went near her she asked me if I wanted to call her mom to come get me. She sought me out twice to hold her purse while she danced.

About Danish dancing. First, they listen to pop music. You know, all the stuff we dumped in the 5th grade including 'Barbie Girl', Brittany Spears, and Christina Aquilera. Yuck. Second, they all wear strappy high heel shoes so they can only take little tiny steps. Third, they try to make up for this by waving their arms all over.

They looked like birds.

I was a bit afraid to dance for fear of being pecked to death for not looking like a winged creature.

After awhile I lost Kathrine in the crowd and was about ready to leave, when I ran into Jessica (the Austrailian). She was sweet and took me around and introduced me to all her friends. We even danced a little (she also lacked bird qualities) and at about 3:10 (yes, in the morning) I called Gitte and she drove both of us home. Isabella didn't come home until after 4 and she was suppose to ask her mom if she wanted to stay out past 1. hmm.

Yesterday Natasha (the older sister) took Nikolai (the little brother) and I to Madagascar. Afterwards we went to dinner together and with her fiance. It was way fun, they tought me alot of Danish and Nikolai kept trying to out do my danish with what little English he knew. It was cute and the food was good.

Ok, friends of Gillette, you should email me! expecially a specific group of girls!

Sorry!

2005-08-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. It was awful. I spilt tea all over my host families keyboard. It wasn't totally my fault but it was still pretty dumb. they've been very nice about it and already have a new one.

Anyway I'll start from last Saturday and get you all caught up.

Saturday was the last full day of Laguage camp, and the school through us a party. In the beginning we had a 'talent show' where there were a few people who volunteered to provide entertainment. The Brazilians did a mass group dance, a girl did baton/ribbon twirling, a guy from Illinois played the piano, and my group preformed our dance. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't that embarassing either.

Eventually a live band came on and played until midnight. It was fun except for the time I became very homesick because my friends were not there to dance with me. I really wanted Dana there to re-re-re...teach me to swing dance, LeAnna there to dance like a freak with me, Steph to have her Ozzie hair, and everyone else. Other than that (and the hour I spent frantically searching for all of my belongings to be packed), it was pretty uneventful.

The next day (Sunday) we all loaded onto a bus and drove to a trainstation in another town, said our goodbyes, and found our selves on a train that was WAY too full. Many of us had paid extra to reserve seats but people just sat in them anyway. I was totally determined to kick the person in my seat out. This guy had one empty beer bottle in front of him and was swilling down a second. there was a pile of cigarettes in the ashtray and, to top it off, he had really bad teeth. You all know what I'm like with bad teeth. I tried to boot him out but he either A) didn't understand me or B) pretended not to understand me (as people can be prone to do when it fits their purpose). I brought a conductor over and they had a nice chat. Eventually, this guy pulled out a piece of paper and waved it around. shortly after, the conductor left without explanation. I hate trains. Two hours and half a cigarette pack later (by the slimy dude, not me) I finally got off in Middelfart where I was picked up by my host-mom Gitte.

Sometime later, I dumped a cup of tea on the keyboard while trying to fix the computer from my host-sister Isabella. She took out one of those little camara things and yanked out a wrong cord or something.

Monday was my first day at school. Thankfully it started at 10:00 in the morning since I don't have to go to German class (it would mix me up with the Danish), and ended at 1:20. It was hardly even school! I had math class and English.

I'm really uncertain with math. I was put into the medium level by the principal person but I'm pretty sure I've done all this stuff before. It is hard to tell because they have different characters and stuff. It was very strange to be the 'new girl'.

A few people talked to me but mostly they just stared. I felt a bit like an invader. Oh, and I have about 25 different school books. Its insane! I have made two backpack fulls and still have another two to go. the principal said it is because they do not have a national curriculum.

Anyway, I had an etire backpack full of books and I became extremely lost on the way back from school. It took me 40 minutes to do a ten minute bike ride. Yuck.

Today wasn't so bad. It started out yucky, I don't have an alarm clock yet and Gitte forgot to wake me until it was 7:15. I had to leave for school at 7:50! I didn't shower, she gave me money for a lunch instead of me packing it, and I forgot my key and didn't realize it until I was already at the school.
I started with History class. They were doing something about philosophers- that is all I know. Next was Geology (I think). They were talking about storms and air pressure (no I did not understand what the teacher was saying- someone translated a bit for me). We had a 15 minute break and went back for Physics. It was very hard not to fall asleep, since the class was an hour and a half and, of course, in Danish. Later it got entertaining. We are studying sound waves and the teacher attatched a string to a machine and made it go taunt. He turned on a sound wave machine thing and the string began to make really cool patterns. Next, he turned out the lights and pulled out a strange light. All of a sudden it looked like there were three strings, then two, then it was frozen in place. It was way cool.

Once class was over, it was our half 25 minute lunch break. We had to stay though to discuss our class trip. The choices were Ireland, Brittian, or Austria. I thought Austria would be very neat, but no one else wanted to go there. It ended up with us planning to go to Scotland! How cool is that? Next, after a very hurried lunch, I went to Math. Here two girls swooped apon me and pretty much talked all through class. Some of it was about math but alot wasn't.

After math, I went to economics- where there was no one from my class! Another girl started talking to me though, and introduced me to the exchange student from one of those three countries that were made after world war I or II. Lithuania, something, and something. I don't remeber. She was very happy to meet me. Later, the economics teacher let us out way early, and I did not get lost on the way home.

Thats all folks. Except for the Weird Danish Fact of the Post. I'll try to always give you one.

WDFP: The Danish Government has a list of names that people can name their children in order 'to protect from stupid parents ruining their children's lives' (as a Danish teen put it). Wow, isn't that a true piece of Socialism for you!

typical

2005-08-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

I pulled an Alyssa guys. I wrapped my retainer up in a paper towel and threw it away durring lunch. I'm just surprised I didn't do it before now. Anyway, i didn't notice until about 4:30 this afternoon and I had to go ask where they threw the napkins. We always seperate the food and the paper stuff. I didn't know which bag held the napkins. I picked the wrong one out of two, went through the whole thing (which was filled with coffee ground, soggy bread, and liver pausten). In the middle of it all it began to rain. Then i started on the next bag. it wasn't as bad, being filled with paper stuff and celery, and I found my retainer still wrapped up. I let it soak in toothpast for several hours anyway. Still all is well. Maybe I should ask for a new brain for my B day.

Later, after dinner we had our events. I had signed up for dance a few days ago but the teacher was sick and we got to learn Philipino stick fighting instead. that was really fun. This night, though, they found a different teacher to teach us funk dancing. It wasn't as much fun as I hoped. Mostly hard. and now I have to preform with the group in front of all the other exchange students.

and why isn't anyone writing me?!?!

IC continued

2005-08-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Note to all, this is an edited letter to a friend exchanging in Brazil, which is why it is all over the place.
I'm having a good time but most of it is spent learning the insane danish language!! It is rather difficult. I am at a week long 'camp' with all the other exchange students in the district. mostly it just seems as if there are too many people to meet. I don't remember most peoples names. I haven't gotten to get to know any Brazilians because there are 30 or so of them and they only do things together, except they have taken a couple of 'gringos' for dates and just pulled them into their group.
Last night, a large group of people were caught drinking. I think that some of them maybe sent home. It wouldn't have been a big deal except they were drinking and partying at 1 in the morning at a fricken ROTARY MEETING! don't you think the rules might be a bit more important here?
I moved to my first host family last friday. I was fine but became very homesick when there was a party for the eldest daughter's class reunion. It went on very late so I was reading Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and got really caught up in it. I heard through my window someone leaving and talking to theír friend. For a moment I was like "what did they say?" then I realized it didn't matter how clearly I heard them, I still would not understand because they weren't speaking English! it just made me really depressed, though I was okay in the morning. It's better now. Almost everyone is speaking english all the time.

oh, and I have become a tea addict.

I drink like 5 cups a day here.

yum.

Intro camp

2005-08-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I am currently at intro camp. I'm learning Danish, but it is a bit slow since it is a class for all of the students not just for the ones who have already been in language school. our teacher is very good at getting us through quickly though.

In my spare time between lectures and class, I have found time to play volleyball. There is one Ecuadorian girl named Grace who I know from laguage school is very interested in volleyball but doesn't know how to play very well, last night I taught her to over hand serve. Somehow, over the last year without volley ball, I managed to get better. Don't ask me how, but now I can overhand serve and my arms don't get sore when hit things like they used to.

I've also been dancing and singing alot because of mandatory things we have to do. so I've definatley been keeping active.

There are about 170 students or so and it is really hard to remember peoples names. All the Brazilians hang out together though, so you don't really need to meet them. They are all the loadest craziest people I have met thus far. hey, what can you do.

I have never met so many people at once in all of my life.

Alyssa

More Photos

2005-08-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

This web site only takes 5 photos at a time.

Giant E-mail

2005-08-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the giant e-mail that plugged everybody's in box this weekend. I will resize her photos and post them here from now on.
GARY

Original e-mail:

okay, the first picts are of my counselor's house, and the veiw behind it.
then
it is of my new room at my first host family's house. I'll take some of this new house soon but it is to dark right now.
sorry its so big.

sailing

2005-08-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from sailing with my host family and some of their rellies. Well, not really sailing. we motored to a nice spot and just stayed there. One thing about the water in Denmark. It is COLD. It's colder than the salmon river. oh and you have to jump in when theres a break in the flow of jelly fish.

anywho, (yes i did just type that) I have come to notice that 96% of danes have blue eyes. Its a little strange actually, expecially when I'm in a room with 15+ people and I'm the only brown eyed girl. I also think they have blonde hair but it is hard to tell because most of them dye it. They are not tall people though. some of them are very tall but most make me at about average.

Since I've arrived, I've also participated in rifle shooting. that was fun and different. It turns out I'm not a bad shot....except that one time when I aimed at the wrong target....

one thing about my new house. there is one shower and often 7 people staying in the house. other than that it is insane! their house is big in itself but then you add a stable, two apartments (that they rent out) an office building, a sauna, and several buildings for storing their business goods (not to mention a boat at the dock), it is unbelievable.

Roots

2005-08-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

Since I've been here I have started asking people about ways to find out about my great-great-great grandfather who moved from Denmark land way back when. Up to now I have discovered that he probably left from a town called tylstrup (not tylstrip Charles, that is why you could not find it). My counselor has found out that one of the rotary members here looks into the desendants of people often and knows of the place we think that they came from.

Crumcake. I have to go now.

Cheese

2005-08-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

I LOVE CHEESE!!

this is why I didn't whine when I learned that some one came up with the "brilliant" idea of taking the rotary meeting to a fitness center. I went with Jess (the australian in Middelfart [are you done giggling?]) and a bunch of old men. It wasn't too bad but they did actually make us work. afterwords we ate the biggest pizza I have ever seen. EVER! one slice was the size of four slices at home. It was insane.

Oh, and we now have a new student in Language School. He is from Illinois and has an extremely heavy accent. Within ten minutes I had heard several yalls and ain'ts. It was funny and he has enough self confidence that it was okay to giggle at him. It wasn't such a treat for me but all the others thought it was really funny and they started laughing and after that it went down hill. It sounded as if he was from the middle of Texas.

Other than that not much has happened. Oh, I learned that I should not say 'I am full' when people offer me more food because in Danish, full is drunk. I must say 'Jeg er mæt' if don't want anymore food.

Weekend!

2005-08-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Finally the weekend has come. unfortunatly it is almost over! drat.

Last night I went to Nina's (my counselor) family reunion at her family's weekend house. There were lots of people there but only two who spoke English. One was Nina's cousin who was a journalist, and another was a teenaged boy named Simon. Simon was wearing a Metallica shirt that said "Metallica and Justice for all." I was beginning to think that he didn't speak English when he had not said anything to me the first hour but then everyone went on walk and Nina grabbed him and bragged "This is Simon, he speaks English very well," and made him talk to me. I'm glad because it would have been very boring with out some converation. Besides, it was fun to talk to a teen from Denmark. I was able to find out more about the schools and stuff.

The journalist guy was pretty much the only person to talk to me. He was very interested in what I thought of Bush and we had a nice 'chat' about politics. He kept stopping and appologizing for 'interrogationg' me, but then went on. It was fine with me. I was way bored and I like talking about that stuff.

Oh, and I've come to learn that the Danes have 'special' word that have no real meaning. It seems like they just make them up periodiacally.

I've finally met Jessica. She was fun and really likes to talk. Tomorrow we are going to a rotary meeting together which is at a fitness center this time for some unknown reason. It will be weird to see a load of old folks trying to exercise. ech.

tomorrow is school. sad sad sad.

Catch up time

2005-08-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

August 9th. (answering all my mom's questions)

I will try to mow through your questions first. I'm having quite a bit of fun, though school is a bit boring (of course). It only goes from 9 until 1:30 andwe have an hours worth of breaks in the middle. I do have my own room. I'mfairly certain that I will in every house. I've seen my first host family's room for me. it is about as big as the one at home.

I cant send pictures yet because I havn't taken any. I think I will wait to send them when I am at Gitte and Bo's house. They have more technology. Speaking of which, it has taken me so long to e-mail you because Nina only has a laptop and she didn't want to set it up last night. I will only get to use it every other night I think. There are some computers at the school though. maybe I can use those.

The food is great. I like it. I nearly had an issue with hamburger, but it was avoided. Nina took me to the grocery store (which is very different. I waslittle help to say what I wanted because I did not know what they had!) and shekept asking what I like. I told her I liked alot of things. then we passed apicture of RAW hamburger, and I said "that is not something I like!" and shelooked up and was all "no, no? why not you like that?" and I told her about thebeef thing. It turns out she thought red meat was uncooked meat, not beef, lamb,ect. and we were to have hamburgers that night. I told her it was fine and theycould eat whatever they wanted but she told me that they could have burgersanyway, just not with beef. And so we had chicken burgers. They were prettygood.One thing about the food is that it is the same almost every meal almost everyday. At Nina's there is very little junk food. I have seen no chips, chocolate,icecream, or anything else like that. At tea, Nina's mom, (who lives in theplace right next to them) invited me to tea and we had walnut cake orsomething. Anyway, it is always sandwiches. for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Ihave to pack a lunch for school though. Now that I'm doing something different I don't seem to care as much. Usually, if I am hungery, I think about how hungeryI am, but now, not so much. I think I was just bored.

I do not think I start school until after that camp thingy. It will be the 29thof August probably. I am still jetlagged. I have never felt what it is likebefore now. I'm tired all the time.Okay, now language school. I have met everyone and it is just like high school again, only with a better nice/mean person ratio. Strangely I like the English speakers least. There is a girl from New York who keeps talking about Wyoming badly and going, and I quote, "euuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!Wyoming." when I was giving out pins. She also is the best at learning the language of us all and likes to shove it in our faces abit. Oh well. There is more people than I first said.There are three Canadians, the Ecuadorian, two Japanese, a boy from Hong Kong, a girl from Brazil, a girl from Hungary, and, of course, we two americans. Not all are from Rotary.Everyone speaks English very well except the Japanese students, and theHungarian student. The Hungarian girl knows almost none. Surprisingly, I like Kaori, a japanese girl, and Borba'la (i think), the hungarian girl best. It is hard to talk to each other but I have come to learn tht there are many different ways of communicationg that do not involve talking, and you do not have to joke back and forth to like someone.

Today, Barbola wanted to go shopping for something after class. I only had 20 minutes or so but I went with because it was near the train station, and theywould need help with the language thing. It took me awhile to figure out thatBarbola wanted an alarm clock from a store called Tiger. She kept pointing ather watch and saying "tiger." Kaori had heard of the store so we figured out that it was not a tiger watch she wanted but to go to a store called tiger.then she expained it was a 'morning watch' and then made an alarm sound and we figured it out. I had to ask directions for them and stuff like that. I leftafter she had her clock and began walking to the train station. Unfortunately,I had ten minutes, and I became lost. I went over one too many streets and didn't realize it. I had to run a little and ask lots of directions. The train departed about five seconds after I stepped on. It all worked out okay.

On TV there is only American movies and Danish news. Unfortunately there are lots of tv shows that are GERMAN!! I watched Austin Powers in German. Lastnight "French Kiss" which was in english also. It went too late, though, so Idid not get to watch very much. Nina and Bjarne (pronounced Buh Jahrn Ay, not barney) really like that movie. It was funny they kept raving about how great amovie it was. I like it too though, I have seen it before.The Australian named Jessica (whom I still have not met) is the other exchangestudent in Middelfart. OHHHH! I met this girl at a rotary meeting last nightwho just finished an exchange in Australia and her best friend was Megan Lucy,I DEBATED WITH MEGAN LUCY IN SPEECH AND DEBATE. Small world.The language tapes were good. In fact, if I still do not know enough after campI would like you to send me the second unit of them. Also I need my rain coat,it is in the second from the top drawer on the left side of my dresser. I haveto go, and since I spent so long writing this you are going to have to leteveryone else know what is going on! Or I can copy this and edit it later.Whatever. time for dinner, and it sounds like it is not sandwiches!!

August 11th
I rode horses today. It was very different from at home. These horses areArabians and a bit more...fiesty. also, the way they ride is quite differentand I think it confused my horse when I rode differently.So far I still have not eaten something I don't like here, but then, it has onlybeen about 5 days. It feels like alot more.I have now gotten to know all my host sisters better. I really like signe. Sheand I are alot alike and she knows English EXTREMELY well. almost as well asher bachelors degree mother. The other two girls are best friends and are verydifferent from me. They could be described as 'preppy' I think.

Hello to all.

2005-08-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hello my favorite people. This is where I will be posting what is going on in Denmark land. To make sure that you are all caught up I will post the last two e-mails I sent out. One only made it to my mom. This should make it easier to keep everyone kept up with out my e-mailing the same thing out seperately.

If you want to talk to me you are still MORE THAN WELCOME to e-mail me or post comments or whatever.

The First Day

2005-08-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone,

I am just finishing my first day in Denmark. It is very different here but not bad at all. I've nearly gotten used to everyone talking Danish around me whileI sit and look at things. It isn't even boring yet; Denmark has better senery than we do.

Today I met all of my host families. they all seem very nice and i am notworried about living with them. we all met at my first host families house.their house is HUGE. its even bigger than mine, and they own three Arabian horses. we had tea and cake while they talked danish to eachother. they did stopalot to ask me questions, though. after tea i recieved many invitations. I'm going to go to my third host family's house for dinner later in the week;sometime in between language school I have been invited to ride horses; andbest of all, I have been invited to go to a Spanish island on vacation with mysecond host family. wooo hoo!

tomorrow i start language school. here i will meet two Japanese students, twoCanadian students, one Ecuadorian student, and another USA student. Sometime inthe next week I will also meet the Australian exchange student who came toMiddelfart in January. I will have to ride a train to the language school whichis in another town.The weather here is bit chilly, but not unbearable. in the afternoons it warmsup a little.

I'm not sure what else to say and this keyboard is hard to type on. let me showyou some letters æ ø å . these get in the way.anyways, i miss everyone back home but so far my trip is living up toexpectations.