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