11th and 12th week in Denmark (Holland, Belgium, and Ribe)

Well quite a bit has happened in the past two weeks, so i apologize again for what I expect to be a pretty long blog.. I'll start with my trip to Holland and work my way up to now :)
Well two Saturdays ago I finished updating my blog around 2 AM and was asleep around 2:30. I woke up at 3:45 AM to go to Holland. It was about a 7 hour drive.  Let's just say I slept like a baby the whole way.  Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday were spent in Amsterdam. The rest of Monday and Tuesday were spent in Rotterdam, Wednesday was spent in Antwerp, Belgium, and we left Wednesday night, arriving back home at around 4 AM.
My host mom Lise, my host sister Sara, my host Grandmother Mormor (translates to mom's mom), and I all went. When we arrived on Saturday we dropped off Sara and Mormor at their hotel and Lise and I continued on to our campsite.  Mormor had a gift card for a 2 night stay in a hotel so she and Sara stayed there while Lise and I stayed in a camping cabin.  Both the hotel and cabin were in Amsterdam.

our cabin

 We settled in and then went into Amsterdam.  We walked around, went in some shops, and enjoyed the canals.  It rained quite a bit.  There were bicycles EVERYWHERE. I'm glad I wasn't the one driving because I can't imagine having to dodge all the bicycles and pedestrians everywhere. It was actually pretty impressive to watch the bikers. They were riding their bicycles without using their hands, while on the phone, while holding an umbrella, with passengers (on bikes that were obviously not meant for passengers..), in rain or shine. It was remarkable.
Quite a few of the shops we stopped in just so happened to be cheese shops. They wreaked. I don't think I've ever seen so much cheese in my life. They had samples, though, and not just of cheese. They had Dutch Waffles and Dutch chocolate samples too. That was lovely.

Amsterdam was full of very old houses and buildings. It was really interesting just to walk around and observe.

We took a canal tour which was really great. It gave some history and showed famous and popular sights in Amsterdam.

These were all taken from the canal cruise. I think my absolute favorite thing from the whole trip was visiting Anne Frank's house. Obviously WW2 effected the US, but in completely different ways than how it affected these European countries.  It's so interesting to see these kinds of things.  You weren't allowed to take pictures from inside where she hid so I don't have any. But if anyone reading this ever goes to Amsterdam- GO TO ANNE FRANK'S HOUSE. It was truly incredible. Very, very sad, but something I think everyone should see.

It was lovely to see the canals everywhere. The autumn colors especially made it nice.

Amsterdam proper has about 800,000 people living in it. But the metropolitan area has over 2 million.  There some 14,000 tourists on any given day, and there are 5 and a half million tourists a year.  That's how many people live in Denmark.. The canal tour said that there are approximately 600,000 bikes being used in Amsterdam. That's a lot.
Rotterdam is the second largest city in Holland. There are over 600,000 people in Rotterdam proper, and in the whole metropolitan area there are around 1.2 million. So it's pretty big.  Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed in WW2, so everything is very modern and it's a fancy city. This is the apartment we stayed in on Monday and Tuesday night.

and this is the view we had from our balcony

Rotterdam has Europe's biggest port and the world's 3 largest port. We went on a tour on a ship that showed the port and part of the city. It was nice. These are from that trip:

This is probably the coolest bridge I've ever seen.

We went to a market place which was cool and we also went to a big beautiful cathedral. If it hadn't been destroyed in the war and totally rebuilt it would be from the 1600s.

While we were in Rotterdam there were 7 painting stolen from a Rotterdam art museum. You may have even heard about it. They were famous paintings by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse and some others. So that was interesting. Rotterdam was really nice though.

Then we went to Belgium! The houses were soooo cool. All the building looked like royalty was living in them.  They were really nice.  We went into another GINORMOUS cathedral.  We also, of course, ate some Belgian chocolate. It was delicious.  Oh, and don't forget the Belgian Waffles! The difference between Belgian and American waffles: Beglian waffles are made into a dessert by covering them in chocolate or cream. American waffles are eaten for breakfast with syrup, peanut butter, what have you, on them. 

I'm sorry again that this is so long..
The Friday after we got home I went horseback riding for the first time! It was really fun!  The next day we went into Ribe, which is Denmark's oldest city.  It's from the early 8th century. We went in a Viking Museum and saw the old church and walked around and saw the old houses.

My Viking name is Helga.

Of course we took this opportunity to buy matching shirts!

2 viking skeletons

 We saw the COOLEST thing after we went to the Viking museum.  They were excavating old viking ruins. So we got to see a real old viking home. That was awesome.

SOOOOOO COOOL. I can't even handle it. 

That night Rachael and I went to a party of a girl in my class and it was Halloween themed. Halloween isn't very big here.. but slowly it's merging itself into Danish lifestyle. It was hyggeligt :)

This week the autumn colors were so pretty. I've never seen anything like it. We went behind Cathryn house again just so we could look at the leaves. It was so lovely. 

We're really bad at jumping at the same time. But you get the picture. It's been a good two weeks, and today marks 1 quarter of my exchange being over. It's crazy how fast/slow it's gone by. It's a strange phenomenon for sure. Me and my friends are definitely enjoying Danish hygge to the max and enjoying every minute. Most of my time is spent with Rachael and Cathryn who have turned into the best friends imaginable. I tell them everything and they help me so much. It's not as easy as I thought being an exchange student, but these girls certainly make it A LOT easier and certainly much more enjoyable.  

My Danish is coming along. My classmates speak to me in Danish much of the time which is good. It's a really hard language which is a bit discouraging, but it'll come with time. It's starting to get colder and the weather now goes below freezing. It feels so much colder than freezing weather in Nevada..

Well, I hope this wasn't too long, and I'll write again somewhat soon I hope :) haha have a good one!

Med Venlig Hilsen,

Mady

9th and 10th week

This whole "I’m gonna blog every Saturday" thing may not have been my brightest idea.  So, again, I’ll be telling you guys about my week this week and my week last week.  As I'm writing this it's actually Friday but I'm not going to be home tomorrow so I'm writing it today. 

I only had school on Monday and Tuesday of last week. I also went on Wednesday, though, because we were taking a class picture.  They had testing and a big project so I didn't have to go!  So don't worry, I've been filling my time with lots of good stuff :) 

Since our house is out in the country side there are not many busses passing through.  There is one that comes by my house on week days at 6:12 AM, 7:08 AM, 8:28 AM, and 2:01 PM.  So it's a little difficult to get places.  On Thursday I just waited until 2:01 to go into Vejle to meet some friends.  I had other plans for Friday, though.  I took the bike 4 km to the nearest bus stop where buses come more frequently (in the rain), took a bus to Kolding, took a bus from Kolding to Vejle, took a bus in Vejle to a friends house, and then walked to her house from the bus stop.  We went shopping and then went laser tagging with the youth group at my LDS church.  It was very fun!  I spent the night at her house where we had a very fun night.  The next day I went to the Mermaid Bowl in Vejle with Poncho.  It is the last game of the Danish American Football Foundation.  The game was equivalent to our Super Bowl. So, obviously,  I had high hopes.  The game started at 7:30 but we got there around 5 for the tail gate.  The stadium was smaller than Mackey Stadium at UNR and was only half full.  It was a good game and our team won!  We were behind the whole game until about the last 3 minutes when we pulled ahead.  It was very fun and very cold!  It definitely made me miss real American Football even more than before, though!

A booth at the tail gate party. It says, "Would you like to be and Exchange Student in the USA?"

The Mermaid Bowl with Poncho. Go Razorbacks!

Sleepover fun!

This Monday, I celebrated the Canadian Thanksgiving with a Danish family.  A few weeks ago a girl in my class, Cecilie, asked me if I was doing anything for the Canadian Thanksgiving.  When I told I her I wasn’t she invited me to celebrate it with her and her family.  She told me that they had a Canadian student last year.  I thought maybe it was something that was common to celebrate in Denmark and that’s why they wanted to celebrate it with me.  Then she asked if there were any other Canadian exchange students.  I answered, ”Ja, men jeg er fra USA.”  Which means “yes, but I’m from USA.”  We both started laughing and she said I reminded her of the girl from Canada so she thought I was from Canada.  They still had me over for Thanksgiving dinner, though.  They made traditional American Thanksgiving food for me and it was really really hyggeligt!  Not mention, it tasted American!

This Tuesday, I went into Vejle where  I met two other exchange students: Poncho and Rachael.  We went to the Vejle Kunstmuseum (art museum), and the Økolariet. I have no idea if that translates to anything, but it was like a museum about the way the protect the environment in Denmark and stuff like that.  It was pretty cool!

On Wednesday I had 7 exchange students over to my house to celebrate the Canadian Thanksgiving again.  Cathryn is from Canada, so we thought we would celebrate it with her.  It was also a good excuse to have the exchange students over, because most of them haven’t seen my house yet.  It’s pretty far away from where most of them live so it isn’t that easy to have them over.  I met them at the station in Kolding and we went and bought some groceries and then went to my house.  We made fruit salad, sweet potato casserole, pasta, jello, cookies, and ris a la mande.  While it may not have been traditional Thanksgiving food, it was all we knew how to make!  It was fun, though and it tasted good.  We ate by candlelight and then just talked and watched movies.  Everyone spent the night because it is not easy to get to Vejle from my house after about 2 o’clock. 

Our Thanksgiving meal ♥
(photo credit Rachael)

Everyone left on Thursday.  That night I went into Vejle and spend the night at Cathryn’s house because we were going to Århus Friday morning.  Her host mom had a business meeting there so she drove us.  We went with another exchange student from Brazil, Heloisa.  We went into DomeKirke (a big church), Kvindemuseet (women’s museum), Vikings museet (Viking museum), Aros (the same art museum that we saw at INTRO Camp), and Den Gamle By (“the old city” it’s an “open air museum” it is a big area that has homes and shops and roads the way they were in olden days). We did all this in about 5 hours.  It was pretty busy!  It was really fun though!

Cathryn and me

Autumn time! We went for a walk behind Cathryn's house and enjoyed the beautiful Danish nature!

Heloise and I posing with "The Boy" in ARoS

Den Gamle By

Beautiful sunrise on Thursday morning (photo credit Rachael) 

The view of Århus

Tomorrow morning my host mom, sister, and grandma will be travelling to Holland!  We’ll see Holland and Belgium this week, through Wednesday night. We're leaving at 4 AM and it is now nearly 1 AM and I'm not packed yet.. so I think I'll wrap this up! Well I've had a great two weeks! I got a package from back home which was really great.

So, you know, if anyone is just super board and wants to send me a package, I wouldn't mind ;) haha just joking.  So thanks again to everyone for all the support! Next week's blog (which will hopefully happen) will have everything from my trip to Holland and Belgium, so it should be a good one :) Thanks to everyone for all the support , I'm so blessed and am so grateful to be here!  In the words of Medina, "Jeg har det godt." ♥

8th week

     I’m actually writing this from the train going home from school.  

i just love public transportation.. can't you tell.

I haven’t had a chance to update this (so much for every Saturday.. sorry!) so I'm using this time on the train and bus.  Last week was just a normal week at school.  I guess I’ll just start with last Monday and tell you guys about all the fun stuff I’ve been getting to see J

     On Monday I had another Rotary Meeting.  My counselor came and picked me up after school in Vejle.  I had a few hours between school and the time he would be picking me up.  So I walked to Cathryn’s house.  Now before I got here everyone said it’s so easy to get around in Denmark because it’s so flat.  HA!  While the highest point in Denmark I just below 180 meters, that doesn’t mean the entire country is totally flat. Before I got here I pictured this flat land that you could see all the way to the other side of because it was so flat.  Well, that’s not really true.  The hill up to Cathryn’s house is quite large.  But don’t worry, we were pounded with rain the whole time to cool us off from the work out we were getting!  (Don’t get me wrong I’m still loving the rain, but sometimes it gets a little cold!)  We watched Harry Potter and then I walked down the hill to the train station where I met my counselor.  I really enjoy going to the Rotary meetings!  Everyone is very nice, not to mention I get yummy Danish food!   Then I went home and went to sleep.

     I don’t really remember, Tuesday, which probably means nothing too exciting happened.

     Wednesday is pretty much the same way.  I went to Rachael’s house for a little while and then went home.  Nothing too noteworthy.

     On Thursday I went to school with Lærke to see another gymnasium.  She goes to the gymnasium in Kolding.  There are about 730 students in her school.  It is about half the size of Rosborg (my gymnasium) in both size and the number of students.  It was a nice school.  It ran basically the same way Rosborg does; the biggest difference was the interior of the school. Rosborg has had a lot of remodeling and construction done, and it is still being rebuilt and constructed.  There are parts that haven’t yet been remodeled.  The school in Kolding looked like those un-remodeled parts of the school.  It was nice though, and I had a good time.

     Friday was the first school party.  It’s called Bacchus.  I thought that Bacchus was a Danish word, but I was surprised when I tried to google translate it and didn’t have any success.  Turns out it is a painting and Bacchus is like the god of wine or something like that.  So I went to a pre party with some girls in my class before Bacchus.  A lot of classes have pre parties together and some people just do their own thing.  We got dressed and got ready and then had dinner and they made some drinks and we took pictures.  One of my classmates brought some soda to the party since I don’t drink, and another one of my classmates made me a virgin drink.  So that was really nice!  It’s very unlike Danish culture to not drink.  After the pre party we all headed over to the school.  I’ve never really been to a party before, especially at school.  So this was quite different for me.  There were a lot of people there; I would guess that most of the student population was there.  There was a large area in the cantina where they had all the alcohol for the students to buy.  There was music, dancing, lights, food, drinks, and lots of drinking!  (don’t worry, not by me!) I had a really good time.  It was certainly very different from what I’m used to though!  The party ended at 12.  A lot of people went out afterwards, but I went to Rachael’s house and spent the night.

at the party

pre party

     Saturday was not super eventful, but it was fun!  I stayed at Rachael’s for most of the day.  That evening we went into the city and went to a new Chinese/Mongolian restaurant with my host sister from my 3^rd host family: Line.  It was hyggeligt J Then Rachael and I went to the train station, she was spending the night at my house.  “There are always busses and trains from Vejle to Kolding, we’ll be fine”  I told her.  Oops!  Haha apparently not on Saturday nights.  We waited there for an hour and then a bus came.  Luckily she had some cards with her and we sat on a bench and played for a while.  We got home around 11:30.

     On Sunday Rachael came to church with me.  After church we went and had lunch with some people from the church at the Young Women’s leader’s home.  It was fun and yummy!  Then we went home.  I got home around 6, and then shortly afterwards I went to my host dad’s workplace to see what it was like.  I think it was pretty similar to one in America.  My host mom had just gotten back from a business trip in New York City.  It was fun to hear some of the cultural differences that she noticed.  One that she told me I’ve heard before from people who have visited the states.  People ask how you are even if they don’t really care how you are doing.  When put that way, it sounds a little rude!  I had never really thought about it before, though.  When walking into a store, the nearest employee usually asks how you’re doing.  One wouldn’t typically tell them exactly how they’re doing.  They usually say just fine, good, or return their question with a “hi.”  It wouldn't be normal to say, “I’m not feeling well,” “I’ve had better days,” or “bad” unless it was relating to the reason why you came in the store.  I thought that was pretty funny.  She also noted that people at restaurants probably thought she was rude because in Denmark the tip is included in the bill, so she didn’t leave a tip.  That was also a little bit different. 

     While I’ve told you a bit about my school, I’m realizing that I haven’t really mentioned much about what actually goes on in my classes.  I was recently put into a social sciences class.  On my first day in there, I was invited to the front of the class where I was asked questions about American politics.  I was asked if my family had any guns and everyone seemed pretty surprised when I said yes.  I explained that we only use them in the shooting range and that my dad used to hunt, which I think made it a bit better.  My teacher asked if we carry them around with us.. nope!  I was also asked questions about where I stand on a lot of hot political topics.  They asked what I think about our prison system.  I didn’t think it was very harsh, but in Denmark they find it very harsh.  “But you have millions of people in jails!”  I think that since we are a country of over 300 million, that a few million in jail isn’t that bad..  I brought up that some people argue for more harsh punishments.  I pointed out that not everyone feels this way only some, but that maybe more harsh punishments would keep people from breaking the law.  That seemed to surprise some people.  Lots of topics came up, but if I told you all of them you’d be here reading this all day, and it’s long enough as it is!  So I’ll wrap this bad boy up.  I’m working on one about all the differences I’ve noticed, so I’ll post that soon.   I can also add more differences to the blog after I put it up. 

     So anyways, I’m having a fantastic time over here.  It’s hard to express the things I’m experiencing over here in writing.  I’ve met some of the most amazing people, and I have made the best of friends already.  It’s funny how after only knowing some of these people for less than 2 months they’ve become my best friends.  The exchange students are all like one big family.  We’re already planning road trips and vacations after our exchange year so we can keep in touch and still see each other.  It’s crazy to me how some average teenagers from all over the world have been able to come together in tiny Denmark and create these amazing relationships with total strangers who all have the same thing in common- a desire to learn and to grow through this amazing exchange year that we all expect to be the best of our lives.  Cathryn showed me a song that she related to our exchanges.  It’s called New Soul.  “I’m a new soul I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit ‘bout how to give and take.  But since I came here I felt the joy and love here, making every possible mistake.”  It’s one of the many songs that have already become “theme songs” for the my exchange students here.  If you want a good laugh, you should watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q06aPwnppF4&feature=g-all-u This is certainly Rotary Youth Exchange Denmark 2012-2013’s favorite song, so we thought we’d make it even better J Haha I hope you enjoy!  Sorry for making this so long, I hope I didn’t bore you too badly.. Have a great week and if you’re enjoying warm weather (Nevada..) think of me as I freeze my booty off over here in the land of the Vikings!  Thanks for reading!