6th and almost 7th week

Well, I didn't write last Saturday because I was in Copenhagen, and I was planning on doing it when I got home.. but I haven't had the chance!  So it's Thursday afternoon and I finally have a little bit of time to do it! So I'll just do it for my 6th and 7th week, even though my 7th week hasn't officially finished yet. This this will probably be a long one!
       Last week was a normal school week, and this week is another week at the language school.  At Rosborg Gymnasium, where I go to school, I am in the third year.  It's the highest year and 3.a is what my class is called. There are about 30 of us in there.  Most of the time we are together as a class in each of our different classes. Like the teacher changes but the students stay the same.  The classes do change though from subject to subject.  My favorite classes are spanish and english.. because I know what's going on!  My class usually stays together at lunch and during breaks.  So some days I go and eat with the other exchange students, and some days I stay with my class.
       I gave a presentation in my English class on life in Nevada.  I think the biggest difference that I can come up with is either alcohol usage in teens, or RAIN! It rains so much here. I love it! People told me after I got here that I wouldn't like it in a month.. well it's almost been two and I'm still enjoying it :)
       On Friday after school my host parents and younger host sister picked up Rachael and I (Rachael is the exchange student from The Bahamas) and we drove to Copenhagen.  In Danish it's København.  The verb at købe means to buy or shop and a havn is a harbor.  It is a little over a three hour drive there from where I live.  We got there around 7:30.  We ate dinner and then drove around København for a while. I never really pictured Denmark as a neon lights kind of place, but I guess a city is a city!  I saw the biggest McDonald's sign I've ever seen in København.  It was outside of the biggest McDonald's I've ever been in!  We went and walked around the grounds where the Queen lives.  The next morning we went back and watched the changing of the guards.

There were a lot of people there.  We assumed that the guy in the Viking hat was a tourist.

It was a beautiful area.  The guards were pretty good at keeping a straight face, I'm not really sure how they do that. The Queen's room is in the section on the right side, at least that's what I was told.

Very near to this is the Opera House and a huge church.  It's so nice.  A lot of the buildings are really old and everything looks so fancy. I'm facing the Opera House here.

After this we went to the Little Mermaid.  It is famous because of the story by Hans Christian Andersen's story.  People warned me before hand that she was little.  "I haven't met one American who wasn't disappointed after seeing her.  They're expecting the Statue of Liberty" my host mom told me.  So I was prepared!

ok I may have been a bit disappointed..

 We did some more sightseeing.  We walked around and saw some fountains and churches and military areas.  We walked up a round tower and got a really nice view of Copenhagen, in fact, we had a view of Sweden as well!  It was hard to take pictures with the bars, but I did the best I could!

We also went the largest shopping street in the world.  I could do some serious damage there.. but luckily we only had about a half an hour there.  Copenhagen is the 5th most expensive city in the world, so an hour and a half was probably ok.  We also saw the parliament building which is huge and beautiful.

It's hard to tell how big it is by the picture, but it's huge.  Then we went to Tivoli!  Tivoli is an amusement park and there is a concert almost everynight there.  It is really nice and there are restaurants and gardens.  Someone outside had 2 extra tickets that they gave to us, so that was super nice.  It was really fun!  It was pretty crazy because Rachael and I saw two other exchange students that we knew on the shopping street twice (keeping in mind that it's the biggest in the world).  Then, in Tivoli we saw a group of exchange students there.  Small world- better yet, small Denmark!
The next day we went to Kronborg Castle, which is where Hamlet was written about. It was soo cool! It was about a half hour out of Copenhagen.  We took a tour and saw and learned a lot!  It was so interesting and fascinating to be somewhere with so much history.  There are lots of places like that in Denmark I've noticed. You could also see Sweden from here.

the courtyard

on top of one of the towers.

that is Sweden in the background!

It was definitely a great weekend! I saw a lot of amazing things and had a great time!

       On Monday I got to see the Jelling Stones which were some of the coolest things I've ever seen before (along with Krongorg- they were both fascinating).  The Jelling Stones are from the 10th century and they are the first written history of Denmark and the Danes.  It is the first documented time where the people are referred to as The Danes.  It was so amazing to see.  It was outside of Jelling Kirke (the church in Jelling which is a town not too far from my little village).  I took pictures of the descriptions of the stones, so that will probably make more sense than what I can tell you..

 I'm sitting on one of the hills that is known to be a burial sight for the king.  The Church is behind me.

These are not as old as the two above.  The first two are the actual Jelling Stones, but I thought this was very cool too. A description of everything on the grounds is below.  Sorry if you can't read it!

This week at the language school we planned to have an international dinner with all the exchange students where we would all bring something from back home to eat.  My host mom took me to the store and we got everything I would need to make my mom's chocolate chip cookies and my favorite no bake cookies.  They don't have all the right ingredients here, but we did the best we could!  Then they cancelled the dinner.. but since I already had all the cookie ingredients I made them anyways.  They tasted like home!  It's true though that European peanut butter is not as good as American peanut butter.  I'm becoming very comfortable with my exchange student friends, we're like a little family!  Everything here is going great and I can't wait to see what else Denmark has in store for me.  The weather is starting to change and I just bought a new winter coat which I've already begun to use!  Cold weather + cozy inside conditions = hygge!  Last night I had a hyggeligt time with some of the exchange students.  We ate and watched movies in Danish.  I'm certainly having an amazing time.  Thank you for everything you guys are doing for me, both here and back home!  I am truly blessed, and in the words of Danish pop star Medina, "Jeg har det godt." <3

5th week in Denmark.

       Today is Saturday September 8. I've had a lovely week, my first week at school.  The school system is quite different.  The school I'm going to is called Rosborg Gymnasium & HF. It has students from the age of about 16 to 20.  In gymnasium there are three grades.  Within these grades there are classes.  For example my class is 3.a.  Third year is the last year of gymnasium so my classmates are 1-2 years older than I am.  They will be graduating at the end of this year.  Each different class has a different focus.  My class has a focus on language.  I am with the same group of students in most of my classes during the day.  The school schedule consists of 4 90 minute classes each day starting at 8:05 and going until 3:20.  Your schedule changes daily and you can have anywhere from 1 class to 4 classes a day.  They don't use the bell system here, either.  There is a lot of space for the students to "hang out" during periods that they have off during the day.  Another difference in the school system is that students bring their lap tops to class.  They don't usually get papers because the teachers put all the assignments online.

         So now I'll just start with Monday and give a play-by-play of my week :) On Monday after I got home from school I got ready to go to a Rotary Meeting.  They asked me to speak about my experience at INTRO Camp.. in Danish! So I did.  After I sat down I noticed that people seemed quite surprised.  My host mom told me that around Christmas time the exchange students are asked to talk to the club in Danish and they come with their speeches written down and have a pretty hard time making it through the speech.  She said that since my little unprepared presentation was better than those prepared 5 months after they've been here, the club was pleasantly surprised.  So that was reassuring, because I don't feel like I am progressing as much as I would like to be.
The picture is of me and some other exchange students in front of our school.  Catherine from Canada, me, Lucio from Argentina, Kato from Thailand, and Poncho from Mexico.

         Tuesday was Rachael's birthday.  Rachael is an exchange student from the Bahamas who goes to Rosborg and who went to the Sprogcentre with us.  We had casually invited her to hang out with myself and Catherine (a girl from Canada) that night.  We planned a surprise party with everyone from the sprogcentre.  We had food, cake, presents, decorations, a big card, and students who had come into Vejle for her party.  We then got a message from Rachael telling us that her host mom was taking her out to dinner for her birthday.. So what did we do? We had the party and ate all the food without her.

 
         The picture doesn't have everyone that was there in it.  Rachael is on the computer screen.  In our friend group she is known for taking pictures ALL THE TIME, which sometimes results in some pictures that aren't very attractive.  So we thought we would put a not very attractive shot of her up next to her cake.. and then eat it. Payback.  The party was at Catherine's house.  She lives very close to the school, so I stayed the night at her house instead of making the long trip home only to do the same thing again in the morning.
         Wednesday was not very exciting.  I only had 2 or 3 classes (i don't remember..) so I got to come home early.  I was pretty tired and I was coming down with the INTRO Camp bug, so I came home and relaxed.  Everyone got sick at INTRO Camp.  Luckily I didn't have it as bad as some people did.  I'm still trying to get over though.
         Thursday wasn't super exciting either.  I had a full schedule.  I had to wait for my bus for an hour though, so I went down to the walking street with another exchange student for a while.  Then I took like 40 minute bus ride to Kolding.  I waited there for 20 minutes for the next bus to come.  At this point it was freezing cold and, of course, raining.  The bus finally came.  This ride is only 20 minutes and then a 15 minute walk home.  I was surprised by my host sister who picked me up at the stop so I didn't have to walk in the cold rain.  I'm freezing cold and it's still Summer.. ah!
         Friday was the first school party that I attended.  It was a concert with a bunch of local bands in the park.  I went with Catherine and we met some people there.  We stayed for a while and then went and got ice cream.  After we were finished Catherine and I went back to her house where we had a hyggelig evening.  Hygge does not translate into english, but the closest word in english is cozy. We had dinner and then made some hot cider, lit a bunch of candles, got some candy, and watched a movie with her family.  It was so great!  I love the use of candles so much! When I get home I'm totally gonna keep using them.

The girl in the middle is Catherine, and next to her is her younger sister. I stayed the night at Catherine's again and came home this morning.  Today is another relax day which is nice.  Tomorrow I get to go to church, yay! I'm very excited :) 

          I hope everyone has a great week! I miss everyone back home and appreciate all the support!  Next Saturday I'm spending the weekend in Copenhagen.  I'm going with my host parents, my host sister, and Rachael.  It should be really fun, but I don't know if I'll have time to update this.  If I do, great! If not, I'll make it up sometime!  Thanks for reading! <3

3rd and 4th week

This is probably going to be really long because SO much has happened in the last 2 weeks!  So I'll just start with 2 weeks ago and move on up through today :)
      My family has a small farm.  They were worried about when they could harvest their hay because it takes a few days and it can't rain during those days (that tells you how much rain they've been getting..). So last weekend they finally had enough sunshine to harvest their hay.  I got to help them and it was very different from anything I had ever done before.
      Like most typical Danes, my host family enjoys soccer.  My host parents coach a 12 year old girls soccer team. I went to practice with them so I could learn how to play- need I say more?
      On Friday I spent the night at my third family's house.  I have a sister there who is my age.  Her name is Line and we're already really good friends.  I think we'll have a great time when I live there!
      Here's where the exciting part starts :) On Sunday I went to INTRO Camp.  All of the Rotary exchange students from all over Denmark went to this camp.  It was at a Høj Skole near Århus. My host mom and sister took me to the train station on Sunday morning.  They were speaking to each other in Danish and then all of a sudden they started rushing towards a platform.  My host mom told me to get on a train and I said my train was not supposed to get there for about 20 minutes.  We did not have time to figure out if it was right or wrong so they put my luggage on the train.  I was very confused and didn't want to lose my luggage so I got in with it.  As the doors closed they said, "This might be the wrong train, sorry."  I stood there for a few moments and then my phone started ringing.  My host mom told me that it was the wrong train.  I was terrified! I didn't know where I was going or anything.  Luckily it got all sorted out and I made it there in one piece, but at the time it was a little scary.
        Each person was assigned a room with 1 or 2 other students.  We had about 6 hours of Danish lessons each day.  At night there were activities and there was lots of free time during the day. One day during free time my exchange student friends from the language school (sprogcentre = language center and it was in Vejle) made a movie.  I'm not really sure why but we did. If you're bored- watch it :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeTwLzjH08c
That is the link to the video.  This group of friends became my family over the course of the week. We did everything together.

          So they have very large spiders in Denmark.  My room mates and I found a spider the size of my fist. So we went into the hall way and waited for someone to walk by.  The person in the picture was lucky enough to be the first one to walk by.  He was afraid of it so he tried to use his towel- we found someone else to help us.
            We listened to Danish music all week long, and on Wednesday our awesome teachers surprised us with a famous Danish band concert.  They came to our school and we got to meet them.  They were very sweaty. but they were nice!

 On Friday we got to go into Århus which is the second largest city in Danmark.  We went to this crazy awesome modern art museum called Aros.  You should all look it up if you get the chance.  At the top of the museum was like area called a rainbow where you got a panoramic view of Århus.  Each window panel was a different shade of the rainbow so you got this crazy sensation with all the different colors.  there were 2 areas where there were wholes in the class and you could see what the world looked like outside of the colored panels. We asked "Is this real life?"  It was crazy! I can't even explain how crazy it was. You will just have to come visit me and find out!

It was awesome! There were also some really great modern art works inside the museum as well. "The Boy" is one of their most prized possessions.  He is HUGE.  The detail was incredible, he really did look like a real boy.

 After this we were given free time to do whatever we wanted in the city. We went shopping and then to the cathedral and then to an ice cream place.  The Cathedral was huge and amazing.

I can't figure out how to rotate the pictures.. sorry. It was huge though.  There were people buried in there from the 1600s.
           On Saturday we prepared skits for a talent show type thing.  Each class had a skit.  Here is the link to our classes skit if, once again, you have nothing better to do :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BalC0-YLj4&feature=youtu.be
I had a fantastic time at INTRO Camp and I'm absolutely loving my time here!  I have made the absolute best friends.  As I write this I have been in Denmark for exactly one month.  Thank you everyone for all of your love and support <3