Weeks 40, 41, 42

Hello! This is one of my last blog posts that I'll be writing.. :( Friday, May 17 I leave for Eurotour! I'll be gone for about 3 weeks, and when I get back I'll have less than a month left in Denmark. I'll certainly do a blog post about Eurotour- but then my time in Denmark will be just about finished..

This is the amazing Euro Tour I'll be embarking on with about 50 other crazy exchange students from around the world. It is 18 days long, and we're going to see some amazing things. We have a really fun and exciting agenda set up of tons of famous places, museums, and landmarks all across Europe. If you'd like to follow this trip while I'm on it, we have two bus counselors who will be updating a blog, while we our on tour. You can read it here: http://dkeurotour2013bus2.blogspot.dk/ It already has all of our tour information on it :)

Ok so the last three weeks have been pretty fun :) Time seems to be going much faster, and i've already been here 9 and a half months. What. Some fun and exciting things have happened recently! About once a week we have a school-wide meeting in the cafeteria area at school. They make announcements about coming up parties, events, and relevant information for the students. On April 29, me and the other exchange students got up on the stage and sang a song for our school. The song is by a band called Switchfoot, and it is called "This is Home." We said a little "thank you for hosting us" and then sung. We are by no means professional, but it was from the heart. I couldn't figure out how to post it in here, so I just put it on youtube :) Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcV8eHaJ0AU&feature=youtu.be

That evening we had a "Hygge" and food evening at our school. It was with all of the exchange students, our two counselors at school, our head master, and all of our host families. We all made some food from our home countries. It was really really fun. Cathryn made a slide show that reflected on our year, and the Brazilians attempted to teach us how to samba. It was a wonderful evening :) In fact I think that day was the best day of my exchange so far.

Me and my host families.

The Rosborg Exchange Students 2012/2013

 The next Friday we had our last school party. It's taken a while to get used to these, but I'm now able to enjoy them haha. I can still remember my shock when I walked into the first one. I guess cause in the states it's illegal, and they do it in the schools here haha. Anyways, it was super fun. The theme was World Tour and all the different classes got different countries to dress up as. My class got Austria. My second host brother was a ski guide in Austria, so luckily he had a lederhosen I could borrow. I went to my host sister's class' pre-party, and they're country was Somalia. They were dressed as pirates.

Myself, my host sister, and her class mate outside of our house.

Pre Party!

Inside the school

Exchange students!

This was at about 8.30 pm, and it was still light outside which felt kinda weird. it's light til about 9.30 now. It's crazy!

After the party most people go down to the city which is like a 20 minute walk away, and they go to the clubs and bars there and have a good time. Everyone also goes to McDonalds which is open all night.

Another fun thing I've been doing is that I've introduced s'mores to the world outside of America. That was exciting haha. The only problem is that they don't have graham crackers, and marshmallows (even though the packaging is decorated with American flags) don't taste the same. Sooo we used digestive biscuits (which are also delicious and if you haven't tried them I suggest you go down to World Market right now and get some). We also didn't have a fire.. so we used the microwave hahah. So they were not real s'mores, but it was the best I could do :)

Last Thursday we didn't have any school, so my host family took me to the West Coast. We went to Esbjerg and Blåvand. In Esbjerg there is a large famous statue that is called Mennesket Ved Havet. The man by the sea. We went and saw that, took a walk on the beach, and then drove up to Blåvand, which translates to Blue Water. All up and down the West Coast there are large, thick cement bunkers from the Germans in WW2 that were made as a lookout. In Blåvand they made some art out of them. That was kinda fun to see.

host parents!

my host sister Line

Blåvand

... :)

bunkers

A while back a photographer from school came in and took a bunch of pictures of us haha. Our school then made a video with those pictures. It gives us a really nice memory of our school and our time here. Today is my last day of school. It will be hard to leave, but I'll always have my memories ♥
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-At07RWVO8M&feature=youtu.be
I'm sorry there are so many links and videos today haha. I was also going to put the slide show from our year but I thought that could be over kill.. :) but ya this is a really really nice video where you can see our school and everything. So you should watch :)


Well I'm still having a blast and am still just always with friends and host families and I'm so happy. Genuinely happy. I'll be home the 26th of June. See you soon!

Weeks 37, 38, & 39

Lots has happened in the last 3 weeks, as per usual.. But most of it happened in the last week haha. April 16th was the Queen of Denmark's 73rd birthday. Queen Margrethe is a direct descendant of Gorm the Old, who reigned in Denmark in 940 AD. She makes an appearance every year on her birthday. A bunch of the exchange students went down and saw her appearance in Copenhagen! Danish events, especially birthdays, use the Danish flag to celebrate. So of course at their beloved Queen's birthday, there were many who stood and waved Danish flags. The Queen made several appearances starting at noon. One with just her husband, one with her sons, one with the grandchildren, and one with everyone. They come out and stand on a balcony of the royal palace, Amalienborg. The crowd joined together in hoorahs for the Queen (which sound a little different in Danish haha). The royal guards played a song and there was a lot of pomp and circumstance. It was really special!

there were tons of people

The flag being up means that the Queen is home. 

the sun was actually shining. we didn't know how to react. luckily Lucio brought an extra hat i could wear.

thank goodness for zoom

representing

The crowned prince's wife is from Australia and so when she saw the Australian flag in the crown (wore gracefully by my Australian friend Beth) she waved and smiled :)

cutest little boy ever.

these guys posed for soooo many pictures. 

this isn't even all the exchange students who came. i would say in total there were probably about 50 of us :)

We were lucky to have such wonderful weather because we spent the whole day there! it was about 55 degrees and I was sweating haha. My friend Cathryn and I did a lot of fun things. We went on a canal tour and saw Nyhavn (the famous row of colorful buildings in Copenhagen) and went up the round tower and went to the Royal Gardens and enjoyed the beautiful weather! We of course met up with other exchangers during the day. It was a wonderful day; I really enjoyed it!

canal tour!

Nyhavn
(translates to new harbor)

the royal palace with the dome church in the back ground

the Royal Yacht

The Little Mermaid from behind

The Round Tower. The 3rd time- still not tired of the beautiful view!

travel pals :)

The Round Tower. It goes up like this for a while before you reach the top. the walk is 100% worth it though

Rosenborg
where the crown jewels are held. this is where the Royal Garden is.  It's kinda like Denmark's version of Central Park.

Cathryn got a little sunburned and I got a tiny bit of color. It's funny how happy the sun can make you when you haven't seen it in 3 months. It was a long day. We took the 2 and a half hour train ride into Copenhagen at 7:45 and got back home at around 10:30, and then had school the next day. We were exhausted but super satisfied. It was a really great trip! :)

The next Thursday I went to another gymnastik opvisning. Like a gymnastic show with a bunch of those efter skoles I talked about last time. There were about 4000 people watching and 2000 performers, so that was exciting! I can say I'm genuinely impressed with these kids. I'm not gonna lie though I got really nervous watching, it looks so scary!

On Friday there was a Hygge / film night at school. They had movies and games and food and anyone was welcome. It was a sleepover at the school and they pushed all the couches together and it was really really hyggeligt (cozy). It was WAY different than anything that would happen at school in the states. There weren't any teachers or chaperons and it was planned by the students. They have them a few times a year but this was my first. It was super fun! Unfortunately, though, all the movies they showed were R haha. so i spend some time on Seminary and we spent our time just hanging out at the school and stuff. It was so much fun though. Here's a video Poncho and I made while the others were watching the movies haha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfk6uKLXk6c

I was one of the first asleep and that was at 4 AM. i got up at about 8:30 because I had a church event in Odense all of Saturday. That was really fun, I got to meet some fun new people. The next day at church I sung (in Danish :) ) and I also translated for a friend that came. That was super exciting. Overall last week was just super fun and enjoyable.

Another super awesome thing here is that with my current host family it's more like a 3 month long sleepover. Line and I have a really great time together; I've been blessed with some really great families.

Anyways, I hope all is well for whoever is reading this! Have a wonderful day and enjoy the Spring weather (it was in the 50s today :D )
Vi ses!

29th-36th week

Well it's been about 2 months.. sorry haha. I try to update this on Saturdays because then the days line up so I can count exactly how many weeks it's been, but all my Saturdays have been busy. So my dad gave me the genius idea of writing it on a weekday and then posting on Saturday.  So here I am :)
Ok where to begin.. I'll start with the big things and then go from there :)
In February I went on a ski trip to Germany with my lovely second host family! Now, considering where I live in the United States one might think I was good at skiing. One would be wrong. This was my first time skiing so it was difficult, but it was really fun. We stayed in a little town called Braunlage. With a lot of help from my host family, lots of falls, bruises, and sore muscles, I would say it was a successful trip :)

The Bunny Hill haha. You can actually see our little apartment in this picture on the left side.

Getting up after falling is way more difficult than it looks.

my awesome host sister and dad ♥

my second host mother :) ♥

Brautwurst!

and of course.. Weinersnitchel!
(i dunno how to spell it..)

The weekend after this lovely/freezing adventure was a trip to Lalandia. it was a Rotary Get Together with all of the Rotary Exchange Students in all of Denmark! We are about 200 in all. Lalandia is like this waterpark fun center place. Haha I don't really know how else to explain it. They have holiday houses so that families can take weekend vacations there and stay in these little cottages and then walk over to Lalandia. In Lalandia they have ice skating, bowling, mini golf, eating, games, and a swimming park area. It's all indoors and in the same building. It's pretty fun! It's on a little island in the south east of Denmark and it took a few hours to get there by train. The train was about 60% exchange students and it was really fun. There was not enough room for us though and it was really funny to watch the differences between Danish culture and the other cultures within the train. For example, Danes are typically very stoic and quiet when in public. So you throw a bunch of rowdy South American, Asian, Australian, and North American teenagers on a train with them and it was chaos surrounded by quiet Danish people haha. When I got on the train I couldn't get past the first entrance into the seating area because there were too many people. About the last hour of the train ride it was just exchange students in that little area and we had all our stuff in there and figured there weren't actually any other seats so we just stayed there. So just imagine like 6 more exchange students and like 5 more Danish people shoved in with all of this. good times :)

So we got there Friday and ate together and just hung out in our houses (the holiday houses). There were 4 to 8 people in each house. On Saturday we went in and hung out in Lalandia all day enjoying different activities and then we went home on Sunday morning. So it was short, but it was really fun. This was the first time many of us met our "newbies" (the new exchange students that got here in January from South America), and it's always fun to see those people that live in other cities that we haven't seen in a while.
We had a slideshow for the "oldies" because it was the last time we'd all be together before we went home. It had pictures from all of us and it was really nice. If you want to watch it (which i recommend.. :) ) you can watch it from this link :)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UyTbpVTW_7w#!

looking out the window on the train while crossing the water :)

you can see here that now i'm actually whiter than walls.

Someone won this in a vending machine for me when I was trying to get out a dolphin. We named it the Ugly Duckling because that story is by Hans Christian Andersen. We found it fitting.

about to get on the train with my fellow Vejle Exchangers :) We had 3 warm days in March- this one of them.

Everyone was very sleepy on the way home. That's Keenan (USA) and Martha (Brazil) and Poncho (Mexicao) and I are watching Drake and Josh to pass the time. and the ugly duckling is perched on Keenan's shoulder for the long trip home.

The people who sat by Keenan and me were very lucky. We serenaded them with Wicked.

It was a fun weekend! I think the big thing to happen would be moving host families. My time at my second host family expired and I moved to a little village called Bredsten. My last night with my host family we went bowling and to dinner. It was really fun, too bad I'm horrible at bowling. It was a really nice night. It was not easy to say goodbye to my family, but it wasn't goodbye it was just see you later :) I don't have any pictures of my new house but when I do I'll put them up.

They surprised me with movie tickets to Les Mis cause it had just come out (movies come out later in Denmark.. dunno why) and movie candy and stuff. It was really nice :)

Mmm, ice cream on a waffle. I think yes.

My current host family consists of a host sister who is 19, Line, and 2 host parents, Erik and Barit. They're a super lovely family and I'm so happy to be living with them! :) Line was an exchange student in Canada last year and one of her Canadian friends is now on exchange in Norway and came down to visit while her. We went around and showed her a bit of Denmark, which meant returning to some places like Århus and København (Copenhagen). 

The ice is melting which means.. YAY SPRING!

Last weekend was Easter and I spent it on the West Coast (of Denmark) with a friend from Australia. Her family has a Summer House up there and we went up for Easter with her host family. It was in a little town called Vestervig and they said that the weather we experience was the nicest weather they'd ever seen up there at this time of year, so that was super great! It's finally warming up and it's in the 40s now most of the time. Which is super great. So here are pictures from that!

enjoying the sun (with a winter jacket on..)

Beth and me

the view from the house

view from a light house

So those were all the big things.. but of course there's always fun little stuff happening. This last March was the coldest March in 26 years in Denmark and it was cold times 23947239850613.  It's finally starting to get warm and the days are about 40 degrees fahrenheit which is lovely. The sun is up now at about 6.30 and it's bright outside until almost 8. It's great! Most of the snow is now gone and the harbor, rivers, lakes, and ponds are starting to thaw.

March in a nutshell

My host counselor is the headmaster of an Efterskole. Efterskole is a concept that basically only exists in Denmark. It's like a boarding school but it works on a different level than in the states. The students are about 15 years old and they typically go after they're finished with their primary school that ends about where our 9th grade year ends. They can go to school that have specific purposes. For example, if they're interested in soccer they can attend a school that focuses on training for soccer. The one I went to had a large focus on gymnastics and dancing. I got to teach a ballet class which was super fun, and I got to watch them perform their gymnastics routine. It was a very memorable experience, and super Danish! They live together in apartments on the campus and spend all their time there, and every now and then they go home on a weekend. Everyone that I've talked to that has been to an Efterskole has absolutely loved it.

In other news, the sun was out this week and I didn't know how to handle it.

Well it's probably about time to close this up. I have less than 3 months left.. and for 3 weeks of that I'll be roaming around Europe on Eurotour- WOOOH! can't wait. I hope all is well wherever you're reading this! Thanks for all the support I've reeived!
Vi ses! ♥