2nd week

Well I've now officially been here for 2 weeks (two weeks and a day, but who's counting?).  I've had quite a full week.  Language school started on Monday.  My class is made up of 18 students.  There are 7 Brazilians , 2 Americans, 1 from Bahamas, 1 from Argentina, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Czech Republic, 1 from Italy, 1 from Canada, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Thailand, and 1 from China.

This is all of us, actually- I think one person is missing.  Our language school is right in the very center of Vejle, so there is lots to do during our lunch break and also after school. I walk to the school from the train station in Vejle. It's only about a 5 or ten minute walk.  On Monday, after school, I went to Miss Saigon with my rotary counselor and the members of Rotary. It was very good, but it was interesting to see the way the Danes portrayed the American soldiers.
       On Tuesday, after school, my counselor picked me up and we went to Rosborg Gymnasium- the school I will be attending after language school.  There will be 10 other exchange students there.  We met with my "contact teacher." She is like an exchange student tutor.  She told me that I would be going into my 3rd year of gymnasium.  That is the highest level and my classmates will be one to two years older than me.  That's ok though.  She put me in a high level english class and spanish class, so I will be in a language course.  My spanish class is going to Spain! :) After I got home from the school, my host mom and host sister took me to Kolding for a summer barbecue.  We walked around the Botanical Gardens and saw Kolding Miniby (Kolding is the town and miniby means mini city). It showed what Kolding used to look like. There are still some old houses in Kolding that look like these models, so we went and saw them after the barbecue.

        On Wednesday I don't think I did anything.  If I did I don't remember.  Probably just went to school, hung out in Vejle with the other students after school, took the bus to Kolding, and met my host mom there and then went home.
         On Thursday I told my mom to pick me up at the wrong time (military time is confusing) so I spent some time at the mall in Kolding.  Every shopping center or public place in Denmark that I've been to has had an ice cream place and a hot dog place (or many of them) very near by.  Their hot dogs are pretty good. They are sausages that go inside this bun that has pocket.  If you picture an American corndog it's very similar, just without the stick.  Their ice cream is also quite good, but everyone gets it with black licorice shavings on the top- that's not very good.
         On Friday I stayed after school for quite a while.  There was a performer in the center of town right outside of our school.  He was doing Indian dancing and I felt like I was at the Pow Wow in Carson.  We found a cafe that had "iced chocolate."  That was by far the best thing I have ever tasted.  It was almost 10 U.S. dollers (45 kroner), but definitely worth it (especially since someone bought it for me.. ).  Right outside of my school is a long area of walking streets.  That's where all the shops and restaurants are.
         On Saturday I went to Legoland!  I went with 2 other rotary students.  The Danes sure are proud of their Legos.  The park was so crowded that they actually had to close the park to guests in the early afternoon.  There were 36,000 people there.  We were there for about 12 hours and only got on 4 rides.  We gave up around 3 o'clock.  The reason why it was so busy was because some really famous Danish bands were performing there.  So we went over to the concerts and spent the rest of the time there until about 10 o'clock.  We pushed our way all the way up to the standing area and were about 1 foot from the very front.  It took a while to get there though!  Obviously in the picture we weren't quite there.  It was very fun.  There were SO many people there.

 this doesn't even do it justice.

        Today I took the train from Kolding to Fredericia where I planned to go to church.  I couldn't find the church, though, so I got back on the train after about an hour of wandering around and asking for directions. Maybe next time!  I'm going to have my first horse riding lesson today!  Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year.  So we'll see if that lesson happens.  My host mom is giving me this lesson.  They don't have air conditioning so it gets pretty miserable, especially with all the flies and humidity.
         This Sunday I'm going to INTRO-camp with rotary and I'll be back the following Sunday.  I'm very excited, I think it will be really fun.  It is outside of Åarhus so I'll have to take the train.  All the rotary students from Denmark will be there.
          My exchange is going well and I'm seeing  a lot of Danish culture.  The language is coming, I just wish it would come faster.  Right now my host dad is turning the hay in the field.  They are hurrying and trying to get it harvested before it goes bad.  It has been a busy week for him for that reason.  Well I'm trying to adjust and I'm getting used to a lot of the Danish customs.  It's a work in progress for sure!

1st week in a nutshell

Well, it's been a whole week since I've been here.  Half of the time it felt like it was flying by- and the other half of the time every second seemed like an hour.
I've seen some pretty cool stuff so far.  I think my favorite was probably Middelfart. When the Danes say it you can't even tell it has the word fart in it.  The way they speak is- very different.  They do this thing where they say ya in a gasp.  I'm used to gasping if something is shocking.  They do it to say "ja." The first time someone did it to me I thought something happened- nope!  I hope that's one of the traits I don't pick up!
Anyways- back to my sightseeing.  So we crossed the bridge connecting Jylland and Fyn to get to Middelfart.  It crosses the sea called lillebælt.  The one connecting Fyn and Zealand is called storbælt.  Lille-little. Stor-big.

This is on the bridge.  In Middelfart we got an icecream at a famous icecream place.  Icecream is "is" in Danish. Then we went to a little castle (really little haha-now it's a hotel) and walked around outside.  We went through a deer reserve and I saw an albino deer! We went down to a beach in Middelfart.  Prettiest sunset I've ever seen..

       On Monday we went to the police station to figure out stuff about my paperwork.  It was scary; I felt like those people that everyone looks at funny because they're "foreigners." Someone thought I was Russian.  Nope.  Then we went to Vejle and I saw my school.  I have to take 2 or three buses to get to school and then walk 20 minutes. I'm gonna be so lost.  Monday night at 5 Ole (my counselor) and his wife picked me up to go to a Rotary meeting. We had traditional Danish food (quite good) and went around a museum.  I didn't get home til 11:15 that night.
       On Tuesday it was Lise's birthday.  We didn't do much but her family came over for dinner.
       On Wednesday we went for a bike ride into Jordrup.  We didn't do anything though just rode around.  Then we came home and got ready for dinner.  We had dinner with all of my families and my counselor and his wife.  My "host grandparents" were also there.
       On Thursday we went into Kolding and did some shopping.  They have walking streets here where they have stores and shops.  Cars can't come in.  They're quite nice- I like them.  That night we went over to the neighbors house and had dinner with them.  They are very nice.  We had smoked fish and shrimp and frogs ( I'm sorry to say that I did not muster the courage to try the frog).  It was outside and very cold!
       On Friday we went to Fanø.  Anything that ends in ø is an island.  This one is on the West Coast of Denmark.  It only took us 20 minutes to drive across the country.  That was strange.  We drove onto a ferry that took us into Fanø.  We drove along the coast for about 15 minutes.  They called it a road, and it was marked as a road.. but it was just the sandy beach.  That was interesting.  It was really pretty there.  We went to 2 different cities there and a museum and an old church.  They had cows there that were the strangest looking cows I've ever seen.  They were hairy like sheep dogs, but they were cows.  I wanted to pet them.  There was a big windmill there.  I saw it from a distance but we didn't go up to it.  Then we came over and had dinner with some more of their family.

Today we aren't doing much.  My host sister is leaving for boarding school tomorrow so it is mainly about getting her all packed and whatnot.  Tomorrow night my family is taking me to Fredericia to show me my church so that I can find it more easily on my own.  That's nice of them.
School starts on Monday.  I have 2 weeks of language school.  Then the next week I'll be away at Intro-camp.  The two weeks of Language School is for local exchange students.  Intro-camp I believe is for all exchange students in Denmark, so I think it'll be really fun.  Then the next week I'll start normal school.  The school I'm going to starts when I start Language School, so I'll be starting school the 4th week into school.  Fine by me!
Well considering that I've never made a blog before I don't really know what else to say.. so I think I'll leave it like this!  I think I'm gonna try to blog each saturday.  That's my plan!  Have a good week :)

First Night in Denmark

I've been in Denmark for about 10 hours now.  It's 1 in the morning (Danish time) and I can't sleep! I was glued to window when we were flying from Amsterdam to Billund.  It's beautiful here!  I have my own room and I'm all unpacked now.  I have a beautiful view out my window.  My host family is great, they're very nice and they want to help me learn Danish.  I can pick out a few words in Danish when they speak, but I'm pretty lost.  I need all the help I can get!

My family is still on holiday for summer so next week they'll be taking me around Denmark to some of the attractions.  They are also going to be taking me to Germany and they are even planning a camping trip.  I'm going to Lego Land next week which will be fun!  There seems to be tons of sightseeing here!  Everything is so pretty and they're so close to the water and other countries and attractions that it's probably impossible to be bored.  The countryside is very peaceful and quiet.. I like it!
Mogens, my first dad, works at the airport so he came past security to come get me which was nice!
So far it's been great!