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!