I'm not even sure that I can fully understand what I'm writing in this blog, so bear with me..
I've been home for 2 weeks now, and it's been 2 weeks of extremely mixed emotions. Of course it's great to be home and see my family and friends again, but I'm definitely missing my Danish friends and families as well. Since I've returned, I've eaten Cap'n Crunch cereal, I've ordered Domino's Pizza, I've driven my Jeep all around town, I've smelt the wonderful smells of Malt-O-Meal, I've been to a Twins baseball game, I've been golfing with my grandma, I've been to yoga, I've eaten at Hogan Brothers many times, I've gone to Cub Foods at 1 in the morning simply because I could, I've gone swimming in my pool almost every day, I've been together with my family and friends who I missed dearly, and I haven't stopped talking about Denmark.
I finally get to once again experience all of the things I've told all of the people in Denmark about for the past year; all of the things I love about my country, my state, my town, my friends, and my family here. So, every time I do something "American" now, I just wish that I could show it to my Danish friends and say "Remember when I tried to explain this to you? Remember how I told you that we did this?". I want them all to be here now, and experience my life back in the US with me. I love being back and doing all of the things that I missed doing and couldn't do in Denmark, but I wish my Danish friends and families were here as well. I know I shouldn't be, but I feel like I'm constantly comparing Denmark and the US now. Well in Denmark they can do this. They would never do that in Denmark. In Denmark they have this rather than that... It goes the other way as well, but it's more like: I haven't been able to do this for a year! The Danes thought I was crazy when I told them we did this in the US.
The thing with being back is that not much has changed. Sure, my little brother grew a foot since I was gone, we have a new dog, and there is now a Subway by Menards (my dad was sure to inform me of this). But my friends and I still talk about the same things, we still find the same things funny, and my family still eats the same things for dinner. I've been away an entire year and I've experienced so many new things, learned and entire new culture and language, and I've grown so much in myself that it's a bit odd to come back to everything being the same.
I've warned my other friends that I will most likely be talking about Denmark until the time I get to go back, but telling them about it isn't always easy, because they don't know what half the things I talk about are, or who any of the people are. Luckily, there are 15 other exchange students in Northfield that have also just returned from their year abroad. And even though we've all had completely different experiences, we can relate to one another and talk about things together that no one else will fully understand.
I'm so grateful for all of my friends and family here that are putting up with me and my Danish stories, and I'm also very grateful for the amazing Rotary Club I have here, and for all of my exchange friends that are there for me.
Jeg savner dig, Danmark. Du er altid i mit hjerte, og tak igen for et fantastisk år!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
I love...
All of the windmills... and the wind :)
How GREEN the grass is
How often it rains
How the fields turn from brilliant gold to cherry red in the spring
How the sun is only down for 3 hours in the summer
The long bus rides
The even longer train rides
The old man on the corner that waves to all of the cars
Playing ping pong in between classes
How the tallest point in Denmark is not much taller than the hill I live on
How they have letters I still can't correctly pronounce
Being called “the American”
When my class breaks out into song
How they get scared when there is more than 6 inches of snow on the ground
Meeting exchange students everywhere I go, because it’s such a small country
The freedom I have here
Being asked to say “rødgrød med fløde”
All of the walks they go on
How everything here is like a fairytale
They bike everywhere... even in the rain and snow
All of the brick roads
They have a Queen
The beautiful/interesting language
When people don’t notice that I’m an exchange student
Being one of 5 million in the world that can speak Danish
How the beach is only 20 minutes away, no matter where you are on Fyn
How fresh the food is
Livepostej, frikedella, fleskastej
How many potatoes they eat
Rugbrød and remoulade
Partying like a Dane
Odense classic
How they put flags up everywhere when it’s someone’s birthday
The blonde hair and blue eyes
How they dance around the Christmas tree holding hands
Legoland
How much they love their country
How easy it is to travel from here
Rotary Youth Exchange Program
My new friends from all over the world
My amazing counsellor, Arivd
My 6 new brothers
My 3 new sisters
My 3 new moms and dads
My class. More than they will ever know
I hate that it's almost over
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of and made possible my year in Denmark - all of my exchange student friends, my families, Rotarians, the Danes, and all of those in between. It's been such an amazing year, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Tak for ALT Danmark. Jeg kommer til at savne jer alle sammen så meget! Men det er ikke en farvel, kun en vi ses :)
All for now,
Heidi
How GREEN the grass is
How often it rains
How the fields turn from brilliant gold to cherry red in the spring
How the sun is only down for 3 hours in the summer
The long bus rides
The even longer train rides
The old man on the corner that waves to all of the cars
Playing ping pong in between classes
How the tallest point in Denmark is not much taller than the hill I live on
How they have letters I still can't correctly pronounce
Being called “the American”
When my class breaks out into song
How they get scared when there is more than 6 inches of snow on the ground
Meeting exchange students everywhere I go, because it’s such a small country
The freedom I have here
Being asked to say “rødgrød med fløde”
All of the walks they go on
How everything here is like a fairytale
They bike everywhere... even in the rain and snow
All of the brick roads
They have a Queen
The beautiful/interesting language
When people don’t notice that I’m an exchange student
Being one of 5 million in the world that can speak Danish
How the beach is only 20 minutes away, no matter where you are on Fyn
How fresh the food is
Livepostej, frikedella, fleskastej
How many potatoes they eat
Rugbrød and remoulade
Partying like a Dane
Odense classic
How they put flags up everywhere when it’s someone’s birthday
The blonde hair and blue eyes
How they dance around the Christmas tree holding hands
Legoland
How much they love their country
How easy it is to travel from here
Rotary Youth Exchange Program
My new friends from all over the world
My amazing counsellor, Arivd
My 6 new brothers
My 3 new sisters
My 3 new moms and dads
My class. More than they will ever know
I hate that it's almost over
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of and made possible my year in Denmark - all of my exchange student friends, my families, Rotarians, the Danes, and all of those in between. It's been such an amazing year, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Tak for ALT Danmark. Jeg kommer til at savne jer alle sammen så meget! Men det er ikke en farvel, kun en vi ses :)
All for now,
Heidi
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Summing It Up
I realize it’s been a while since I last blogged so I’m going to try and sum up the main events that have occurred since last.
Last Day of School- My last day of school was May 13, and it wasn’t really the most exciting schedule I had that day, but it turned out to be a great day! First I had History, then two hours free, then Nature Geography. But I wanted to spend more time with my class, so I decided to go to German with them in one of the hours I had free. So that was fun to try! We had cake in history because someone’s phone went off in class, and when that happens, that owe everyone else cake. Then we also had cake in Nature Geography, because our teacher’s phone had gone off during class last time, and then I had made cookies for everyone since it was my last day, so we got a lot of nice treats at school! I had also just bought a new camera, so some of my classmates were testing it out and took many photos and videos throughout the. After school we had MGP, which was a sort of talent show at the school with “judges” and everything. So us 6 exchange students decided to do a little act, and we sang “Don’t Worry Be Happy” in our own language (English, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, and Thai) and then all together in Danish. It was quite adorable, if I may say so. The other acts were rock bands, comedy skits, guitar playing, and singing. So that was a nice, fun way to end my year at Midtfyns Gymnasium.
Euro Tour- The next day I left for my 18 day bus tour around Europe, which can also be explained as one of the best memories from my entire exchange. I traveled with 57 other exchange students from my island of Fyn, from southern Jylland, and then we had 3 exchange students from Lithuania that also joined us. One of them happened to be another exchange student from Northfield! So Natalie and I were reunited and got to travel together :) Basically, we drove to all the big cities around Europe, and we had our main guide and then two younger guides who were both exchange students a few years back. Our guide, Henrik, would show us all of the main attractions and tell us what was exciting to see, and then they would give us the rest of the day to explore ourselves and see and do what we wanted until it was time to eat or it was curfew. We slept in hotels and hostels, and we usually ate breakfast and dinner at the place we were staying, and then we were given money for lunch everyday. Some of the days were driving on the bus all day, and in that case we would stop and have a picnic lunch.
After we had picked everyone up, we started out drive to Berlin, Germany where we spent two days. I got to see the Berlin Wall, Berlin Cathedral, I went to the top of the TV Tower, and then we met up with an exchange student who had been living in Berlin the whole year and he showed us around some of the non-touristy spots. After our two days here, we started our drive to Prague, Czech Republic. On our way there, we stopped at the concentration camp Theresienstadt, where we got a tour. Once we arrived at our hotel, we ate dinner, and then went to a water fountain light and music show. It was so beautiful! The next day we went to St. Vitus Cathedral, and then we were allowed to tour the rest of the city to sightsee/shop/explore until dinner. Prague is an absolutely gorgeous city! The following day we left for Austria and we were on the bus for the majority of the day, but the landscape was beautiful! Our next day was spent in Vienna, Austria, and me and my friends were very excited for this day because it was “Sound of Music Day” where we all dressed up cute and sang Edelweiss as we walked down the streets :) We went to the Schönbrunn Palace with the whole group, and then we went off exploring.
The next day we were driving again, and this was an even longer drive down to Italy. We arrived in Lido de Jesolo in the evening, but before going to dinner at our hotel, we all headed down to the beach (which happened to be right across the street from our hotel!) This was one of my favorite locations. It was 90 degrees the whole time we were in Italy and we had an entire day to literally just sit on the beach. We ate delicious Italian pizza and pasta, refreshing ice cream, and we all got a nice tan! Our third day in Italy we took a boat over to Venice, which was incredible, minus the extreme amount of people that were there. It was almost 100 degrees this day, but we still enjoyed it! We took the gondolas and saw the palaces and bridges. It was all amazing. That evening we went back to Lido and enjoyed our last night on the beach. The next morning we drove to Verona where we saw Juliet’s Balcony and the Arena. We continued on to San Remo where we ate dinner and then spent the rest of the evening at the Riviera.
We are now at day 11 of the trip, and on this day we drove to stunning Monaco! Everything here was perfect. There was no trash on the grounds, there were perfectly trimmed plants and flowers all over, the buildings were beautiful, and the scenery was flawless. We unfortunately only had a few hours here before we had to continue on to France. Once in France, we went to the Fragonard Perfumery near Nice. We got to see how they made their perfumes and which flowers they used, and then we all bought some of their perfume of course! We got to our hostel in Avignon, France late that night, so we ate dinner and then hung out at the hostel. So the next day we got to see the Palace of Popes and the Saint-Benezet Bridge. We met two French boys who showed us around the town and took us to the the really good views of Avignon.
After Avignon, we drove to Paris! We had three days here and we got to see the Eiffel Tower (obviously) and the Louvre, Notre Dame, Triumph Arc, and everything in between. I went up to the top the Eiffel Tower with some friends and we got to look out over all of Paris! On our last night there, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close at night. We had a curfew of 11:00 pm, and we had some trouble figuring out the metro, so we didn’t even get to the tower until 10:30. As we were getting off the metro, we saw all of the other exchange students getting on it to go back to the hotel. So were all a little stressed and we weren’t even sure we would get to see it with the sparkling lights. But when we got to the square, there was a complete calmness that was there. Beautiful violins were playing, there were other people there, but it wasn’t crowded, I was there with my 5 best friends, and then the Eiffel Tower started blinking with lights. It was one of those moments I won’t forget. We made it back to our hotel 2 minutes past curfew, but that was okay :)
Day 16 of our trip, we headed to Brussles, Belguim. There really isn’t too much to see in this town except for the Atom Statue, and the Manneken Pis, but they do have amazing chocolate and waffles! This was also our favorite hostel that we stayed at. They had good food, they had a ping pong table, and the rooms had showers in them! The next day we headed to Holland. By now we’re all very tired, and starting to get sad that it’s almost over. In the past, they’ve had trouble with exchange students in Amsterdam, so they weren’t going to let us actually see the city, but just take a canal tour of it. The canal tour was not very exciting, and our guide realized that as well, so they decided to let us have 3 hours to see the city after lunch. And there were no problems :)
Our last night on Euro Tour was a calm one. We were at our hotel out in the middle of the woods and our guide gave a little speech, then gave us free pop from the bar. And then we spent the rest of the evening talking, laughing, crying, and signing flags, t-shirts, maps, and journals. We left early the next morning and drove back to Denmark, stopping every few cities to drop people off and say goodbye. It was an incredible trip with people and places I will never ever forget.
Saying Goodbye- The goodbyes continue, and that’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. You don’t want it to be goodbye, but the truth is, you never know if you will see these people again, (that’s why I’m going to make traveling free when I rule the world). This past Thursday the Brazilians had a big gathering in Odense with exchange students from all over Denmark, so all of us non-Brazilians in the area came too to hang out and say goodbye. Some of these people we may have only met two or three times, but it doesn’t matter because with exchange students, you become best friends with everyone right away, and you feel like you’ve known these people forever. We all hung out in the park all day and stayed up all night together before everyone left the next day. It’s only dark now for about 2 hours, so it’s quite easy to stay up all night.
What’s Left- I still have until July 4th here in Denmark, so I don’t want to start counting down the days yet. My last week will be spent at a week long concert with all of my classmates and two of my host siblings, but other than that, the only thing on my to-do list is see everyone as much as possible and enjoy my last few weeks here. I still can’t believe that it’s been almost a whole year that I’ve been away, and it’s even harder for me to comprehend that this is almost the end. It’s been such an amazing year, and I can't say thank you enough to those who were a part of it and made it possible.
All for now,
Heidi
More Photos HERE
Last Day of School- My last day of school was May 13, and it wasn’t really the most exciting schedule I had that day, but it turned out to be a great day! First I had History, then two hours free, then Nature Geography. But I wanted to spend more time with my class, so I decided to go to German with them in one of the hours I had free. So that was fun to try! We had cake in history because someone’s phone went off in class, and when that happens, that owe everyone else cake. Then we also had cake in Nature Geography, because our teacher’s phone had gone off during class last time, and then I had made cookies for everyone since it was my last day, so we got a lot of nice treats at school! I had also just bought a new camera, so some of my classmates were testing it out and took many photos and videos throughout the. After school we had MGP, which was a sort of talent show at the school with “judges” and everything. So us 6 exchange students decided to do a little act, and we sang “Don’t Worry Be Happy” in our own language (English, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, and Thai) and then all together in Danish. It was quite adorable, if I may say so. The other acts were rock bands, comedy skits, guitar playing, and singing. So that was a nice, fun way to end my year at Midtfyns Gymnasium.
Euro Tour- The next day I left for my 18 day bus tour around Europe, which can also be explained as one of the best memories from my entire exchange. I traveled with 57 other exchange students from my island of Fyn, from southern Jylland, and then we had 3 exchange students from Lithuania that also joined us. One of them happened to be another exchange student from Northfield! So Natalie and I were reunited and got to travel together :) Basically, we drove to all the big cities around Europe, and we had our main guide and then two younger guides who were both exchange students a few years back. Our guide, Henrik, would show us all of the main attractions and tell us what was exciting to see, and then they would give us the rest of the day to explore ourselves and see and do what we wanted until it was time to eat or it was curfew. We slept in hotels and hostels, and we usually ate breakfast and dinner at the place we were staying, and then we were given money for lunch everyday. Some of the days were driving on the bus all day, and in that case we would stop and have a picnic lunch.
After we had picked everyone up, we started out drive to Berlin, Germany where we spent two days. I got to see the Berlin Wall, Berlin Cathedral, I went to the top of the TV Tower, and then we met up with an exchange student who had been living in Berlin the whole year and he showed us around some of the non-touristy spots. After our two days here, we started our drive to Prague, Czech Republic. On our way there, we stopped at the concentration camp Theresienstadt, where we got a tour. Once we arrived at our hotel, we ate dinner, and then went to a water fountain light and music show. It was so beautiful! The next day we went to St. Vitus Cathedral, and then we were allowed to tour the rest of the city to sightsee/shop/explore until dinner. Prague is an absolutely gorgeous city! The following day we left for Austria and we were on the bus for the majority of the day, but the landscape was beautiful! Our next day was spent in Vienna, Austria, and me and my friends were very excited for this day because it was “Sound of Music Day” where we all dressed up cute and sang Edelweiss as we walked down the streets :) We went to the Schönbrunn Palace with the whole group, and then we went off exploring.
The next day we were driving again, and this was an even longer drive down to Italy. We arrived in Lido de Jesolo in the evening, but before going to dinner at our hotel, we all headed down to the beach (which happened to be right across the street from our hotel!) This was one of my favorite locations. It was 90 degrees the whole time we were in Italy and we had an entire day to literally just sit on the beach. We ate delicious Italian pizza and pasta, refreshing ice cream, and we all got a nice tan! Our third day in Italy we took a boat over to Venice, which was incredible, minus the extreme amount of people that were there. It was almost 100 degrees this day, but we still enjoyed it! We took the gondolas and saw the palaces and bridges. It was all amazing. That evening we went back to Lido and enjoyed our last night on the beach. The next morning we drove to Verona where we saw Juliet’s Balcony and the Arena. We continued on to San Remo where we ate dinner and then spent the rest of the evening at the Riviera.
We are now at day 11 of the trip, and on this day we drove to stunning Monaco! Everything here was perfect. There was no trash on the grounds, there were perfectly trimmed plants and flowers all over, the buildings were beautiful, and the scenery was flawless. We unfortunately only had a few hours here before we had to continue on to France. Once in France, we went to the Fragonard Perfumery near Nice. We got to see how they made their perfumes and which flowers they used, and then we all bought some of their perfume of course! We got to our hostel in Avignon, France late that night, so we ate dinner and then hung out at the hostel. So the next day we got to see the Palace of Popes and the Saint-Benezet Bridge. We met two French boys who showed us around the town and took us to the the really good views of Avignon.
After Avignon, we drove to Paris! We had three days here and we got to see the Eiffel Tower (obviously) and the Louvre, Notre Dame, Triumph Arc, and everything in between. I went up to the top the Eiffel Tower with some friends and we got to look out over all of Paris! On our last night there, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close at night. We had a curfew of 11:00 pm, and we had some trouble figuring out the metro, so we didn’t even get to the tower until 10:30. As we were getting off the metro, we saw all of the other exchange students getting on it to go back to the hotel. So were all a little stressed and we weren’t even sure we would get to see it with the sparkling lights. But when we got to the square, there was a complete calmness that was there. Beautiful violins were playing, there were other people there, but it wasn’t crowded, I was there with my 5 best friends, and then the Eiffel Tower started blinking with lights. It was one of those moments I won’t forget. We made it back to our hotel 2 minutes past curfew, but that was okay :)
Day 16 of our trip, we headed to Brussles, Belguim. There really isn’t too much to see in this town except for the Atom Statue, and the Manneken Pis, but they do have amazing chocolate and waffles! This was also our favorite hostel that we stayed at. They had good food, they had a ping pong table, and the rooms had showers in them! The next day we headed to Holland. By now we’re all very tired, and starting to get sad that it’s almost over. In the past, they’ve had trouble with exchange students in Amsterdam, so they weren’t going to let us actually see the city, but just take a canal tour of it. The canal tour was not very exciting, and our guide realized that as well, so they decided to let us have 3 hours to see the city after lunch. And there were no problems :)
Our last night on Euro Tour was a calm one. We were at our hotel out in the middle of the woods and our guide gave a little speech, then gave us free pop from the bar. And then we spent the rest of the evening talking, laughing, crying, and signing flags, t-shirts, maps, and journals. We left early the next morning and drove back to Denmark, stopping every few cities to drop people off and say goodbye. It was an incredible trip with people and places I will never ever forget.
Saying Goodbye- The goodbyes continue, and that’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. You don’t want it to be goodbye, but the truth is, you never know if you will see these people again, (that’s why I’m going to make traveling free when I rule the world). This past Thursday the Brazilians had a big gathering in Odense with exchange students from all over Denmark, so all of us non-Brazilians in the area came too to hang out and say goodbye. Some of these people we may have only met two or three times, but it doesn’t matter because with exchange students, you become best friends with everyone right away, and you feel like you’ve known these people forever. We all hung out in the park all day and stayed up all night together before everyone left the next day. It’s only dark now for about 2 hours, so it’s quite easy to stay up all night.
What’s Left- I still have until July 4th here in Denmark, so I don’t want to start counting down the days yet. My last week will be spent at a week long concert with all of my classmates and two of my host siblings, but other than that, the only thing on my to-do list is see everyone as much as possible and enjoy my last few weeks here. I still can’t believe that it’s been almost a whole year that I’ve been away, and it’s even harder for me to comprehend that this is almost the end. It’s been such an amazing year, and I can't say thank you enough to those who were a part of it and made it possible.
All for now,
Heidi
More Photos HERE
Thursday, April 21, 2011
ROMA
Basically my study trip to Rome with my class was one of the best weeks of my life. So much bonding, so many amazing buildings, and the most delicious food ever. 
I’m not going to do a day by day schedule on what we did, but I will tell you that we got up around 6:45 every morning, walked at least 7 km around Rome each day to get from place to place, ate out every night, and I took approximately 5 billion pictures. Places we visited in the order we saw them: Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Forum Romanum, the Capital, Vatican City (Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Cathedral, and St. Peter’s Square), Pompeii, San Clemente Church, St. Ignzio Church, Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. All of these places were so beautiful and so impressive. The Colosseum and St. Peter’s Cathedral were probably my favorites, and also the places where I took the most pictures. It was 70 degrees and gorgeous while we were there, except for the day we were in Pompeii, then it rained. Otherwise we were quite lucky! Rome is an amazing city. Absolutely gorgeous! And I can’t even begin to explain how amazing it was to spend an entire week with my class. They are simply incredible and I love them all so very much. They have definitely made a huge impact on my exchange here (in an extremely good way) and I can’t thank them enough for that.
The day we got back from Rome was the beginning of Påskeferien, or Easter Break, so we’ve got 8 days off now.
Luckily, it’s been sunny and in the 70s all week since we’ve returned, so I’ve been laying out in the sun, playing guitar, and getting my tan on! The buses in my town don’t run in the break, so if I want to go anywhere or hang out with anyone I have to bike. So I’ve also been biking quite a bit recently. We go back to school on Tuesday, though, and then there’s only 17 days left of school for me before Euro Tour. TIME NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN. So I probably won’t be posting very often anymore (as you may have already noticed.. sorry) because I have oh-so-much that I need to do here and writing blogs did not make the top of my priority list. I’ll keep the photos updated on the photo account I have, so you can check that out every now and then and see what I’ve been up to.
Happy Easter everyone!
All for now,
Heidi
I’m not going to do a day by day schedule on what we did, but I will tell you that we got up around 6:45 every morning, walked at least 7 km around Rome each day to get from place to place, ate out every night, and I took approximately 5 billion pictures. Places we visited in the order we saw them: Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Forum Romanum, the Capital, Vatican City (Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Cathedral, and St. Peter’s Square), Pompeii, San Clemente Church, St. Ignzio Church, Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. All of these places were so beautiful and so impressive. The Colosseum and St. Peter’s Cathedral were probably my favorites, and also the places where I took the most pictures. It was 70 degrees and gorgeous while we were there, except for the day we were in Pompeii, then it rained. Otherwise we were quite lucky! Rome is an amazing city. Absolutely gorgeous! And I can’t even begin to explain how amazing it was to spend an entire week with my class. They are simply incredible and I love them all so very much. They have definitely made a huge impact on my exchange here (in an extremely good way) and I can’t thank them enough for that. The day we got back from Rome was the beginning of Påskeferien, or Easter Break, so we’ve got 8 days off now.
Luckily, it’s been sunny and in the 70s all week since we’ve returned, so I’ve been laying out in the sun, playing guitar, and getting my tan on! The buses in my town don’t run in the break, so if I want to go anywhere or hang out with anyone I have to bike. So I’ve also been biking quite a bit recently. We go back to school on Tuesday, though, and then there’s only 17 days left of school for me before Euro Tour. TIME NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN. So I probably won’t be posting very often anymore (as you may have already noticed.. sorry) because I have oh-so-much that I need to do here and writing blogs did not make the top of my priority list. I’ll keep the photos updated on the photo account I have, so you can check that out every now and then and see what I’ve been up to.Happy Easter everyone!
All for now,
Heidi
Monday, March 28, 2011
Lovely Life
I’m now living with my 3rd host family. How has time gone by this fast? How can I already be at my last host family? How is already the end of MARCH??
I'm pretty sure I don't have a single free day for the next few months. I've got so many things that I want to still, so luckily I still have 3 VERY LONG months ahead of me (yes, 3 months is a long time. I won't let you tell me otherwise). But let's get back on track.. I'm moved in with my third host family! I have once again been very lucky and landed with an amazing family. I have a 19 year old sister, Louise, who was in Brazil last year as an exchange student, a 16 year old brother Jannik, and an 11 year old sister Line, plus mother Susanne and father Flemming. We live out in the country in a small town called Rolfsted. I no longer live a 2 minute walk away from the school.. Instead, I get to take a 25 minute bus ride to school every morning. There is only 2 buses from Rolfsted to Ringe in the morning, and only 2 buses from Ringe to Rolfsted after school. There is no train in this town, and buses do not run in the evening, nor on weekends. My traveling is a bit limited now, but Susanne and Flemming are used to driving their kids around, and tehy have been very kind about helping me figure out how to get places. I also still have two lovely host families in Ringe that are always welcoming me to come over if I have to stay in town before my guitar lessons or volleyball, or if I just feel like coming over for some tea :) My new little sister, Line, is also taking guitar lessons at the moment, and we're learning a lot of the same songs, so it's fun to play a bit and practice with her. Louise goes to a different gymnasium than I do, so I don't ever see her at school or in Ringe, and Jannik just got a moped, so we don't see too much of him anymore...
But from moving to this family, I have realized how much stuff I have acquired. I came with two suitcases and a cary-on, and now
So somehow I'm going to have to find a way to get rid of a lot of this. Maybe a big yard sale? I'm not quite sure where all of this stuff came from, but there is no way I can fit it in my 2 suitcases. But I have plenty of time to figure that out!
Completely switching the topic, the weather has been gorgeous outside!! We've had weather in the 50s for the past few weeks, and plenty of sunshine!
I'm hoping it will stay like this from now on because sun just puts everyone in a good mood :) Also, my first host family now has little lambs running around their farm, and they might possibly be the cutest things I've ever seen. So it really feels like spring right now!This weekend we have our last Rotary Get Together before Euro Tour, and then the next weekend I leave for Rome with my class! I'm extremely excited for this "field trip" with my class. Not only because it's Rome, but more so because I absolutely love my class. It's hard for me to even put into words how amazing my class is, and I am so thankful that I get to spend every day (Monday-Friday) with them. They are all just so much fun to be around and they're creative, and talented, and funny, and I love them all! Even if I didn't have to go to school each day, I would go just to be with them. That's how amazing they are. They make me actually want to go to school. So basically, our class trip to Rome will be epic, and I promise to spend an entire blog telling you about it once we get back.
But at the moment, we have a break from class and the sun is shining, so I'm going outside to enjoy my time with my classmates!
All for now,
Heidi
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Berlin!
Berlin was amazing. What a beautiful city with oh-so-much history! We arrived there Friday night after driving for 6 hours. After drinking tea and having a little cake, we set up our beds and slept. The next day we got up a bit earlier than my liking for a vacation, but we had things to do, places to see, and may pictures to take! We started our day by waiting about an hour in line to get into the Pergamon Museum.
This museum is actually a combination of three separate museums: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Museum of Islamic Art. This is the most visited museum in all of Germany and it also has some of the oldest reconstructed monumental buildings in the world! We spent a good bit of time here, then walked through some small shops on the street, and just took in the aroma of gorgeous Berlin. On Sunday, we went to the Berlin Cathedral. Like most of the churches we went to, this one was bombed in WWII and severely damaged, but rebuilt. 
I had taken about 50 pictures of the cathedral from the outside the day before, so it was really neat to actually go in and get the full tour. We were joined by Anette’s brother, Carsten, and his 8 year old daughter Beatriz. We walked all the way to the top of the dome and then we were able to walk around the outside of it where we could see out over all of Berlin. It was gorgeous! From here, we took the metro and met up with Carsten’s 15 year old daughter Anne, and then we all made our way to the Berlin Wall! Basically just a cement wall with inspirational paintings, but it was one my favorite places we went. It’s weird to be walking along the wall where so much history took place. The next day we went to Checkpoint Charlie, the most-known crossing point from East to West Berlin. In the museum we read stories about all of the creative and crazy ways people used to cross over the wall. Everything from underground tunnels, to hot air balloons were used. Then we went to Alexanderplatz, which is basically like a big town square, and we shopped around in the big mall there (still nothing compared to Mall of America).
Our last full day in Germany, we went to the West side of Berlin, which was much more modernized.
We went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was partially destroyed in WWII,and the newer additions of it which are nicknamed the “lipstick and powder box” because of their shapes. The “powder” building was my favorite. Both of the newer additions were made of concrete with 21,292 stained glass windows covering the entire outsides. It was so pretty inside! Then we walked to the Nike outlet store, and then over to the Ka De We (Kaufhaus des Westens) mall. They had an entire floor level with just edible goods; a chocolate section, a cheese sections, a pasta section, and even a small American food section :) I
f the Jif peanut butter there didn’t cost 14 Euros, I would have bought it all. We didn’t spend too much time here, though, because it was all department stores and things were very expensive..That night we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner (delicious) and the next day we packed up and drove home.
We weren’t home long, though, before we took the train over to København for the rest of winter break! There we celebrated Anette’s birthday, went to a parliament meeting at the Christiansborg Palace, and I FINALLY got to see the Little Mermaid! (She was on a vacation in China..)
So there ya go! That was wonderful winter break with the family!
I’ll try to get a few more updates in here soon!
-Heidi
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Last Monday
So this is just a short short update for you all.
I'm heading to Berlin on Friday for winter break! I'll be staying there with my host family in their uncle's apartment down there. According to Lise, it's an amazing apartment! Plus it's in Berlin... so I'm VERY excited for this :) I'll be there until Wednesday, and then on Thursday we're going to København again until Saturday.
Also, my Danish classes in Svendborg are now done. Monday was our last day, and it was a lot of fun! Last Monday we took the reading, writing, and listening part of our Danish test, and then this Monday we took the speaking part of it where we had to talk about one of 3 books that we've read. I aced the reading, writing, and listening part, and we find out how we did on the speaking part later. We'll be getting a letter in the mail about the whole test. It's a legit test here, so if we come back to Denmark to study, we can have this paper to show how far we've gone with these classes! We made a big lunch together and we took about a million pictures. We all got little Lego men from our teacher, and she told us we could speak Danish with them so we don't forget what we've learned. We also gave her a thank you gift; We put photos from the past 6 months into a photo album and then we each wrote a little thank you letter to her and put those in the album as well! I'll still be able to see these exchange students again, because they all live pretty nearby, but I'm really going to miss my Mondays with them. I loved being able to go to Svendborg every Monday and talk Danish with all of these exchange students and learn Danish! Mondays usually aren't my friend, but I actually didn't mind them when I went to Svendborg! Now I have to go to actual school every Monday. It's gonna be rough, but all of my Danish classmates are excited that I get to come to school 5 days a week with them now. I'm also excited about seeing them more, but not about the 5-days-of-school-in-a-row part...
Well, I'm off to bed now. I've got a lot to do before I leave for Berlin!
Thanks for the amazing 6 months with you all!
All for now
-Heidi
I'm heading to Berlin on Friday for winter break! I'll be staying there with my host family in their uncle's apartment down there. According to Lise, it's an amazing apartment! Plus it's in Berlin... so I'm VERY excited for this :) I'll be there until Wednesday, and then on Thursday we're going to København again until Saturday.
Also, my Danish classes in Svendborg are now done. Monday was our last day, and it was a lot of fun! Last Monday we took the reading, writing, and listening part of our Danish test, and then this Monday we took the speaking part of it where we had to talk about one of 3 books that we've read. I aced the reading, writing, and listening part, and we find out how we did on the speaking part later. We'll be getting a letter in the mail about the whole test. It's a legit test here, so if we come back to Denmark to study, we can have this paper to show how far we've gone with these classes! We made a big lunch together and we took about a million pictures. We all got little Lego men from our teacher, and she told us we could speak Danish with them so we don't forget what we've learned. We also gave her a thank you gift; We put photos from the past 6 months into a photo album and then we each wrote a little thank you letter to her and put those in the album as well! I'll still be able to see these exchange students again, because they all live pretty nearby, but I'm really going to miss my Mondays with them. I loved being able to go to Svendborg every Monday and talk Danish with all of these exchange students and learn Danish! Mondays usually aren't my friend, but I actually didn't mind them when I went to Svendborg! Now I have to go to actual school every Monday. It's gonna be rough, but all of my Danish classmates are excited that I get to come to school 5 days a week with them now. I'm also excited about seeing them more, but not about the 5-days-of-school-in-a-row part...
Well, I'm off to bed now. I've got a lot to do before I leave for Berlin!
Thanks for the amazing 6 months with you all!
All for now
-Heidi
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Little Things
I got out of school at 10 am today (I only had one class), and I came home and felt like writing a new blog post. So just a warning, this is going to be very random. But I have a busy weekend ahead of me so I figured I'd fit in a blog post before I left.
Not too much has happened since I last wrote.
Okay I take that back.
A LOT has happened since I last wrote. It's a crazy and exciting life I lead over here in Denmark, and it's something fun and new everyday! Nothing big has happened, but just in my everyday life I find so much joy in all of the small things that happen. Let me just give you a few examples:
Last Sunday I went to the Nytårskur in Ringe (to be honest I really have no idea what it was, but Rotary invited me to come along, so I went). There was a little opening ceremony for this Nytårskur, where several elderly Danes dressed up in old fashioned military uniforms and shot off canons and guns to celebrate whatever it was that we were celebrating! (I think it was a town gathering and events fair type of deal). These old men, however, just made my day! Usually when a military act is performed, it's very f
ormal and everyone moves in unison, but that was not the case here. The men all moved and at their own pace, some of them were struggling a bit to load their guns, not all of the guns would go off when were fired, and they wouldlook at each other for help. But they were all so cheerful and flamboyant, that it didn't matter! They were just these adorable old men, and I may have taken a lot of pictures of them..
THEN! On Monday after my Danish class in Svendborg, me and the other exchange students were walking around the town, and we saw a
ton of people gathered around with news cameras. Being optimistic we thought it might be the Queen or the Prince. No such luck. But it was two social democrats from Denmark and they were handing out apples and talking to the press. So we decided to chat with them and take pictures like all of the other paparazzi. Even though they weren't big celebrities, us exchange students still were excited meeting them!
My last story happened just yesterday. Lise and I were sitting in my room, when we heard a little bell ringing. It was the ice cream truck! I got really excited because it's been years since I've seen an ice truck. So being a typical exchange student, I whipped out my camera and stood outside the door until he drove by so I could get a picture of a Danish ice cream truck! But as he drove by, he saw me standing outside, and I think he thought I wanted to buy ice cream, so he started backing up into our driveway! Lise and I were just giggling because we didn't really know what to do. So then Anette came outside and explained to him that I was an exchange student and simply wanted a picture of his truck. He was very kind and said I could take as many pictures as I'd like, but he told Anette that he couldn't talk with me because he didn't speak English. I quickly relieved his worries and told him I was fully capable of speaking Danish! He was quite impressed, and I was satisfied with my ice cream truck photos :)
Well I have to catch the train soon. I'm going to Vejle for the weekend to celebrate and exchange student's birthday.
Hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home!
All for now,
-Heidi
Not too much has happened since I last wrote.
Okay I take that back.
A LOT has happened since I last wrote. It's a crazy and exciting life I lead over here in Denmark, and it's something fun and new everyday! Nothing big has happened, but just in my everyday life I find so much joy in all of the small things that happen. Let me just give you a few examples:
Last Sunday I went to the Nytårskur in Ringe (to be honest I really have no idea what it was, but Rotary invited me to come along, so I went). There was a little opening ceremony for this Nytårskur, where several elderly Danes dressed up in old fashioned military uniforms and shot off canons and guns to celebrate whatever it was that we were celebrating! (I think it was a town gathering and events fair type of deal). These old men, however, just made my day! Usually when a military act is performed, it's very f
ormal and everyone moves in unison, but that was not the case here. The men all moved and at their own pace, some of them were struggling a bit to load their guns, not all of the guns would go off when were fired, and they wouldlook at each other for help. But they were all so cheerful and flamboyant, that it didn't matter! They were just these adorable old men, and I may have taken a lot of pictures of them..THEN! On Monday after my Danish class in Svendborg, me and the other exchange students were walking around the town, and we saw a
ton of people gathered around with news cameras. Being optimistic we thought it might be the Queen or the Prince. No such luck. But it was two social democrats from Denmark and they were handing out apples and talking to the press. So we decided to chat with them and take pictures like all of the other paparazzi. Even though they weren't big celebrities, us exchange students still were excited meeting them!My last story happened just yesterday. Lise and I were sitting in my room, when we heard a little bell ringing. It was the ice cream truck! I got really excited because it's been years since I've seen an ice truck. So being a typical exchange student, I whipped out my camera and stood outside the door until he drove by so I could get a picture of a Danish ice cream truck! But as he drove by, he saw me standing outside, and I think he thought I wanted to buy ice cream, so he started backing up into our driveway! Lise and I were just giggling because we didn't really know what to do. So then Anette came outside and explained to him that I was an exchange student and simply wanted a picture of his truck. He was very kind and said I could take as many pictures as I'd like, but he told Anette that he couldn't talk with me because he didn't speak English. I quickly relieved his worries and told him I was fully capable of speaking Danish! He was quite impressed, and I was satisfied with my ice cream truck photos :)
Well I have to catch the train soon. I'm going to Vejle for the weekend to celebrate and exchange student's birthday.
Hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home!
All for now,
-Heidi
Sunday, January 23, 2011
A Little Bit of Everything
So on Thursday, it was my half birthday. 
As a joke, I wrote it on the family calendar, however, my family thought it was a great idea to celebrate it! Usually this wouldn't be celebrated, or barely even mentioned, but since I won't be able to celebrate my real birthday in Denmark, my half birthday was good enough! I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, and then we celebrated. We made half of a lagkage (layer cake), we put Danish flags up all over the house, we sang, and I even got a few presents :) My class also sang Happy (half) Birthday to me at school, and I brought in flødeboller for everyone to eat. It was a terrific half birthday, and I'm very glad that I got to experience (half of) a Danish birthday.
Thursday was also my first guitar lesson! Okay, technically it was my third.. but it was the first one I actually got to go to. January 6th was suppose to be my first lesson; so I biked up to the Music School, cluelessly walked around for 15 minutes, finally decided to call my teacher only to find out he was sick and classes were cancelled. The second lesson I was suppose to have was on January 13th, and for some reason I completely spaced it out, and consequently missed that lesson. So last Thursday at 5 o'clock, I biked up to the Music school with my guitar, walked up the stairs (now knowing where I was to go), met my teacher Niels, and was then told my class didn't start until 6:30.... So I biked home, relaxed for a bit and then biked back to the Music School. Finally I got to have my guitar lesson, and it went really well! At first I was worried that it would be a little difficult for me to learn how to play guitar in Danish, and that maybe I wouldn't understand everything Niels was teaching me, but it was no problem at all! I feel like these will be really fun lessons, and I'm excited to learn more. I'm now practicing my new song for next weeks lesson!
I sometimes surprise myself with how much Danish I know. I've been here for almost 6 months already (eek!) but with so many English speakers here, people say that it's hard to actually learn Danish. And that is true, but I remember when I was first learning Danish, my classmates would teach me new words and phrases in Danish everyday. And when we were all hanging out and they were chatting away in Danish, I wouldn't let me speak to me in English the whole time because I really, really wanted to learn Danish!
My classmates have been a huge help with my Danish, along with my families, but I still feel like I've learned the most from other exchange students. It's so easy to talk to them, and that's probably because we feel most comfortable with each other, and we can understand each other even when we say or pronounce things completely wrong. But for example, with the other exchange students at my school, we only speak Danish together because there isn't any other language that we all know well enough to communicate in. And when we're all together, we can just sit and talk for hours with each other in Danish, and it's such a great feeling! If we don't know a word, we either attempt to describe it using other words we know (and lots of hand motions), or we just make something up.. I still feel like it's easier to understand Danish than to speak it, but when I'm speaking it at home, at school, with friends and with other exchange students, I know it's only getting better!
This weekend I was in Copenhagen visiting our Uncle and his two daughters, Anne and Beatriz. It's Beatriz's Birthday on Wednesday so we celebrated that while we were there. I also took a walk along the beach with Anette and Torben, and it was just gorgeous outside. Blue skies, not too cold, WINDMILLS galore; I loved it.
Our last day there, Anette, Torben, Stig, Lise and I took a little trip into the city and walked around so I could see a little bit more Copenhagen culture. We went to the Round Tower, a 17th century tower that you can walk to the top of, but instead of stairs, there's a round ramp that leads all the way up. At the very top you can look out and see Copenhagen's beautiful skyline, and this is actually Europe's oldest functioning astronomy observatory! It was another beautiful day outside, so the view from the top of the tower was great.
And as we were at the top, it was noon, so all of the church bells around us started ringing :) Then on the way down, we decided to run down the 210 meter long ramp, which was also quite fun! After the Round Tower, we got some kabobs and falafels for lunch, used an underground bathroom, and then drove back to our wonderful island of Fyn!
Now all of a sudden it's Monday again! The weeks are just flying by way too fast.
All the best,
-Heidi
As a joke, I wrote it on the family calendar, however, my family thought it was a great idea to celebrate it! Usually this wouldn't be celebrated, or barely even mentioned, but since I won't be able to celebrate my real birthday in Denmark, my half birthday was good enough! I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, and then we celebrated. We made half of a lagkage (layer cake), we put Danish flags up all over the house, we sang, and I even got a few presents :) My class also sang Happy (half) Birthday to me at school, and I brought in flødeboller for everyone to eat. It was a terrific half birthday, and I'm very glad that I got to experience (half of) a Danish birthday. 
Thursday was also my first guitar lesson! Okay, technically it was my third.. but it was the first one I actually got to go to. January 6th was suppose to be my first lesson; so I biked up to the Music School, cluelessly walked around for 15 minutes, finally decided to call my teacher only to find out he was sick and classes were cancelled. The second lesson I was suppose to have was on January 13th, and for some reason I completely spaced it out, and consequently missed that lesson. So last Thursday at 5 o'clock, I biked up to the Music school with my guitar, walked up the stairs (now knowing where I was to go), met my teacher Niels, and was then told my class didn't start until 6:30.... So I biked home, relaxed for a bit and then biked back to the Music School. Finally I got to have my guitar lesson, and it went really well! At first I was worried that it would be a little difficult for me to learn how to play guitar in Danish, and that maybe I wouldn't understand everything Niels was teaching me, but it was no problem at all! I feel like these will be really fun lessons, and I'm excited to learn more. I'm now practicing my new song for next weeks lesson!
I sometimes surprise myself with how much Danish I know. I've been here for almost 6 months already (eek!) but with so many English speakers here, people say that it's hard to actually learn Danish. And that is true, but I remember when I was first learning Danish, my classmates would teach me new words and phrases in Danish everyday. And when we were all hanging out and they were chatting away in Danish, I wouldn't let me speak to me in English the whole time because I really, really wanted to learn Danish!
My classmates have been a huge help with my Danish, along with my families, but I still feel like I've learned the most from other exchange students. It's so easy to talk to them, and that's probably because we feel most comfortable with each other, and we can understand each other even when we say or pronounce things completely wrong. But for example, with the other exchange students at my school, we only speak Danish together because there isn't any other language that we all know well enough to communicate in. And when we're all together, we can just sit and talk for hours with each other in Danish, and it's such a great feeling! If we don't know a word, we either attempt to describe it using other words we know (and lots of hand motions), or we just make something up.. I still feel like it's easier to understand Danish than to speak it, but when I'm speaking it at home, at school, with friends and with other exchange students, I know it's only getting better!This weekend I was in Copenhagen visiting our Uncle and his two daughters, Anne and Beatriz. It's Beatriz's Birthday on Wednesday so we celebrated that while we were there. I also took a walk along the beach with Anette and Torben, and it was just gorgeous outside. Blue skies, not too cold, WINDMILLS galore; I loved it.
Our last day there, Anette, Torben, Stig, Lise and I took a little trip into the city and walked around so I could see a little bit more Copenhagen culture. We went to the Round Tower, a 17th century tower that you can walk to the top of, but instead of stairs, there's a round ramp that leads all the way up. At the very top you can look out and see Copenhagen's beautiful skyline, and this is actually Europe's oldest functioning astronomy observatory! It was another beautiful day outside, so the view from the top of the tower was great.
And as we were at the top, it was noon, so all of the church bells around us started ringing :) Then on the way down, we decided to run down the 210 meter long ramp, which was also quite fun! After the Round Tower, we got some kabobs and falafels for lunch, used an underground bathroom, and then drove back to our wonderful island of Fyn!Now all of a sudden it's Monday again! The weeks are just flying by way too fast.
All the best,
-Heidi
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
An Update
Yes yes, I know. I'm a horrible blogger. But I'm just too busy having fun and living the good ol' Danish life! Instead of writing too much, I'll give you a few pictures to update you on what I've been up to for the past few weeks! You can always check out my picture share website for more pictures HERE :)
1) Got my name on the mailbox! I'm officially a member of the Birkenfeldt household.
This here is my new host family! They're great :) Stig (11), me, Anette, Torben, and Lise (13)
2) Christmas/ Jul!
Christmas in Denmark is very exciting! In early December we all sat around the tabe and picked out which decorations we wanted in our room, and then we went around and decorated the rest of the house. Most of the decorations are homemade. We also made these candle holders that we set around the house. We also made a ton of Christmas candy and treats. Then on the 24th, after decorating the tree, setting the table decorations, and lighting all of the candles, we ate our dinner. This consisted of turkey, peeled and boiled potatoes, caramel potatoes,
red cabbage, and ris ala made for dessert. It's a tradition to put one whole almond in the dessert, and whoever finds it gets a present! There were accidentally 2 whole almonds, though, so Lise and I both found one, and both got little presents :) After eating, we lit the candles on the tree ( I thought this was a dangerous idea but none of them seemed too worried about it) and then we held hands and sang songs as we danced around the Christmas tree! The last song we sing is "Nu er det Jul igen" which means "now it is Christmas again" and we run around the entire house singing this song. It's quite exciting! Then we opened presents, drank coffee/tea and ate the treats we had baked, and sat around and talked for the rest of the evening! Stig completely forgot about waiting until the next day to open his presents, so he didn't get to try out the American way of holding Christmas, but maybe next year, he said! All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful Christmas :)
3) SWEDEN! I finally got to travel outside of Denmark. Not that I want to leave this fantastic country, but a little traveling is always fun! I was in Copenhagen with some exchange students and we decided to take the train on over to Sweden for the day and get some lunch there! So we went some place very Swedish to eat.. Ikea :)
4) 2011- It's going to be a great year! New Years Eve was celebrated at my friend Frederikke's house. It was 6 of us girls, and we decided to have a fancy new years eve party with nice dresses, and elegant food (which was extremely delicious) as we watched the Queen give her New Years Eve speech on TV. New Years in Denmark is celebrated just about the same as we do it in the US; they get together with friends and family, they set off fireworks, they have noise makers and confetti. But it was a great night and it was very fun to come into the new year in Denmark!
I'll attempt to post a few more updates in the next couple of days, but I can't promise anything because it is actually a busy week for me. We've got 2 new exchange students coming to our school tomorrow, I've got volleyball, guitar lessons, and my half birthday to celebrate (since I don't get to spend my actual birthday in Denmark) and on Friday I'm heading to Copenhagen for the weekend! But I'll do my best to keep you all posted :)
Happy (very late) New Years!
-Heidi
1) Got my name on the mailbox! I'm officially a member of the Birkenfeldt household.
This here is my new host family! They're great :) Stig (11), me, Anette, Torben, and Lise (13)
2) Christmas/ Jul!
Christmas in Denmark is very exciting! In early December we all sat around the tabe and picked out which decorations we wanted in our room, and then we went around and decorated the rest of the house. Most of the decorations are homemade. We also made these candle holders that we set around the house. We also made a ton of Christmas candy and treats. Then on the 24th, after decorating the tree, setting the table decorations, and lighting all of the candles, we ate our dinner. This consisted of turkey, peeled and boiled potatoes, caramel potatoes,
red cabbage, and ris ala made for dessert. It's a tradition to put one whole almond in the dessert, and whoever finds it gets a present! There were accidentally 2 whole almonds, though, so Lise and I both found one, and both got little presents :) After eating, we lit the candles on the tree ( I thought this was a dangerous idea but none of them seemed too worried about it) and then we held hands and sang songs as we danced around the Christmas tree! The last song we sing is "Nu er det Jul igen" which means "now it is Christmas again" and we run around the entire house singing this song. It's quite exciting! Then we opened presents, drank coffee/tea and ate the treats we had baked, and sat around and talked for the rest of the evening! Stig completely forgot about waiting until the next day to open his presents, so he didn't get to try out the American way of holding Christmas, but maybe next year, he said! All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful Christmas :) 
3) SWEDEN! I finally got to travel outside of Denmark. Not that I want to leave this fantastic country, but a little traveling is always fun! I was in Copenhagen with some exchange students and we decided to take the train on over to Sweden for the day and get some lunch there! So we went some place very Swedish to eat.. Ikea :)
4) 2011- It's going to be a great year! New Years Eve was celebrated at my friend Frederikke's house. It was 6 of us girls, and we decided to have a fancy new years eve party with nice dresses, and elegant food (which was extremely delicious) as we watched the Queen give her New Years Eve speech on TV. New Years in Denmark is celebrated just about the same as we do it in the US; they get together with friends and family, they set off fireworks, they have noise makers and confetti. But it was a great night and it was very fun to come into the new year in Denmark!
I'll attempt to post a few more updates in the next couple of days, but I can't promise anything because it is actually a busy week for me. We've got 2 new exchange students coming to our school tomorrow, I've got volleyball, guitar lessons, and my half birthday to celebrate (since I don't get to spend my actual birthday in Denmark) and on Friday I'm heading to Copenhagen for the weekend! But I'll do my best to keep you all posted :)
Happy (very late) New Years!
-Heidi
Thursday, December 23, 2010
December
So I've now moved in with my second host family, (I've actually been living with them for almost a month now) and I love them just as much as my first family! I finally have a sister, Lise, something I've begged my parents for my entire life, and my younger brother Stig is hilarious. 
They were originally supposed to be my first family, but they were switched to my second because they live closer to the school so it's easier for me to bike there in the winter with all of the snow. Speaking of, we have a ton of snow in Denmark now! They rarely have a white Christmas (I think they told me this was the third time in the past 40 years they've had a snow for Christmas) so this is something special! We've got about a half meter of snow covering the ground, but since it's so windy here, there's huge drifts that are over a meter high. Usually when they get snow here, it disappears after a few days, but there's been snow here since the end of November. Christmas time here is adorable, though, and with all of the snow, it's even better! Unfortunately, Denmark is completely flat, so there's no place to go downhill skiing or snowboarding. But I have been out cross country skiing several times and the scenery is gorgeous!
I've been on winter break since last Friday, and the other 3 exchange students at my gymnasium and I were asked to give some sort of presentation on the last day.
So we put together a little Christmas film! We shared it with the whole school at our Christmas assembly, and it was really fun! We also danced around the Christmas tree at school (a Danish Christmas tradition) and we sang songs and had a hyggelig time! You can watch the video at the bottom :)
Tomorrow is Christmas here, though! They celebrate Christmas the evening of the 24th, so it'll be interesting to wake up on the 25th and already have opened all of my presents. But Stig is going to wait until the 25th to open his presents; he says he wants to try it the "American style". We'll see if he can actually wait that long :)
One more little update, I get to start taking guitar lessons after New Years! I'm so excited for this, and Rotary has even offered to pay for my lessons. How amazing :) I love Rotary, and I love my year here in Denmark! Congrats to all of the students back home who just found out which country they'll be going to next year! It honestly will be the most amazing year of your life.
Glædelig Jul! Merry Christmas!
-Heidi
They were originally supposed to be my first family, but they were switched to my second because they live closer to the school so it's easier for me to bike there in the winter with all of the snow. Speaking of, we have a ton of snow in Denmark now! They rarely have a white Christmas (I think they told me this was the third time in the past 40 years they've had a snow for Christmas) so this is something special! We've got about a half meter of snow covering the ground, but since it's so windy here, there's huge drifts that are over a meter high. Usually when they get snow here, it disappears after a few days, but there's been snow here since the end of November. Christmas time here is adorable, though, and with all of the snow, it's even better! Unfortunately, Denmark is completely flat, so there's no place to go downhill skiing or snowboarding. But I have been out cross country skiing several times and the scenery is gorgeous!I've been on winter break since last Friday, and the other 3 exchange students at my gymnasium and I were asked to give some sort of presentation on the last day.
So we put together a little Christmas film! We shared it with the whole school at our Christmas assembly, and it was really fun! We also danced around the Christmas tree at school (a Danish Christmas tradition) and we sang songs and had a hyggelig time! You can watch the video at the bottom :)Tomorrow is Christmas here, though! They celebrate Christmas the evening of the 24th, so it'll be interesting to wake up on the 25th and already have opened all of my presents. But Stig is going to wait until the 25th to open his presents; he says he wants to try it the "American style". We'll see if he can actually wait that long :)
One more little update, I get to start taking guitar lessons after New Years! I'm so excited for this, and Rotary has even offered to pay for my lessons. How amazing :) I love Rotary, and I love my year here in Denmark! Congrats to all of the students back home who just found out which country they'll be going to next year! It honestly will be the most amazing year of your life.
Glædelig Jul! Merry Christmas!
-Heidi
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
And Time Does Fly
So I wanted to give a little pep talk to the upcoming Rotary exchangers before their interviews, but unfortunately I’m a poor blogger and now I’m too late. BUT, I can still give you some timely information on the amazing year that is ahead of you. Like many of the other exchangers are saying, it’s hard to think that a year ago was when we made our decisions on which countries we wanted to travel to. Being one of the younger ones, I had many countries that I could still choose from. I remember going into the cafeteria where all of the tables and booths were set up, and not knowing at all where I wanted to go. I had no specific place in mind, and no real requirements either. So I sloooowwwly made my way around the room, stopping at just about every booth. Now to be honest, I really don’t know why, but something about Denmark caught my attention, and after I left the booth, I knew that that was where I wanted to go. Everything about it sounded appealing to me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I continued to look at the other countries, and liked many of them, but Denmark still stuck on top as my number one choice. Making the decision of which other 4 countries to put on my list was probably the most difficult one I’ve ever made. I was just barely young enough to go to Denmark (actually I was about 10 days too old, but they said that didn’t matter), so if I didn’t get my first pick, I needed to have my other choices be ones that I really liked as well. Unfortunately, I liked them all about the same. I was so eager and excited to just go anywhere and see anything! I think my mom and I sat in the library for about 3 hours while I tried to decide what to put next on my list. (I think I ended up putting Ecuador, South Africa, Sweden, and Chile.) But after it was all done, I had to wait. Those waiting weeks seemed to take forever.
I remember the day that everyone got their countries; Mia was the one who informed me first about where she was going. She was jumping around in our Spanish class yelling Argentina! I was so excited that we were finally finding out where we were going to be spending the next year of our lives! The next hour, Beret left school so she could go home and check her mailbox, and she and Aletha found out they were headed to Brazil! I remember sitting in the yearbook room with Carly and Stina, and we were all trying to call our parents and have them check the mail to see if we had gotten our letters yet.
Since no one was home, I decided to also leave school (I only had study hall left that day) and see if my letter had arrived. It hadn’t. So I waited as patiently as I could until the mail came. My mom came home from work, and as she stepped out of the car I noticed she had the mail in her hand! I ran outside and started searching through it all, until I finally found the letter
addressed to me. I was freaking out, (and I’m getting all excited right now as I write this because it was such a happy day!) I opened it up, and didn’t even read what the first part said, all I was looking for was a country name, and sure enough, DENMARK was written on the first line :)
After being here for 4 months now, I couldn’t be happier with my choice! I honestly love it here. And sure, there are some days when it’s dark and rainy, and I wonder why I didn’t chose some place warm and sunny, but I take one look around, and I see all of the amazing people I’ve met, and all of the extraordinary things I’ve learned, and all of the unforgettable memories I’ve made, and I realize how lucky I am to be here and that there is no place I would rather be. So whether it was the delicious food that caught my attention, or their eco-friendliness, or maybe even the cute boy that was working at the booth, I’m so glad I fell in love with Denmark and I’m so very glad that I get to spend my year here!
For all
of you who have just finished choosing your hopeful destinations for next year, just know that whether you get your first choice, or you get a country that wasn’t even on your list, you will have the most incredible year ever. Rotary gives you such an amazing opportunity to grow and to learn so much more about yourself. You get the chance to meet people from all over the world, and to experience new cultures and ways of living. I can’t thank Rotary enough for giving me this opportunity. These past four months have been phenomenal, and I it’s crazy how fast the time is going by. The “Oldies” only have a few more weeks left here, and I can't imagine what it’s going to be like to say goodbye. But best of luck to all of you! And no matter what the other exchangers have told you, Denmark really is the best country, so I hope you put it down on your list :)
All for now,
-Heidi
I remember the day that everyone got their countries; Mia was the one who informed me first about where she was going. She was jumping around in our Spanish class yelling Argentina! I was so excited that we were finally finding out where we were going to be spending the next year of our lives! The next hour, Beret left school so she could go home and check her mailbox, and she and Aletha found out they were headed to Brazil! I remember sitting in the yearbook room with Carly and Stina, and we were all trying to call our parents and have them check the mail to see if we had gotten our letters yet.
Since no one was home, I decided to also leave school (I only had study hall left that day) and see if my letter had arrived. It hadn’t. So I waited as patiently as I could until the mail came. My mom came home from work, and as she stepped out of the car I noticed she had the mail in her hand! I ran outside and started searching through it all, until I finally found the letter
addressed to me. I was freaking out, (and I’m getting all excited right now as I write this because it was such a happy day!) I opened it up, and didn’t even read what the first part said, all I was looking for was a country name, and sure enough, DENMARK was written on the first line :)After being here for 4 months now, I couldn’t be happier with my choice! I honestly love it here. And sure, there are some days when it’s dark and rainy, and I wonder why I didn’t chose some place warm and sunny, but I take one look around, and I see all of the amazing people I’ve met, and all of the extraordinary things I’ve learned, and all of the unforgettable memories I’ve made, and I realize how lucky I am to be here and that there is no place I would rather be. So whether it was the delicious food that caught my attention, or their eco-friendliness, or maybe even the cute boy that was working at the booth, I’m so glad I fell in love with Denmark and I’m so very glad that I get to spend my year here!
For all
of you who have just finished choosing your hopeful destinations for next year, just know that whether you get your first choice, or you get a country that wasn’t even on your list, you will have the most incredible year ever. Rotary gives you such an amazing opportunity to grow and to learn so much more about yourself. You get the chance to meet people from all over the world, and to experience new cultures and ways of living. I can’t thank Rotary enough for giving me this opportunity. These past four months have been phenomenal, and I it’s crazy how fast the time is going by. The “Oldies” only have a few more weeks left here, and I can't imagine what it’s going to be like to say goodbye. But best of luck to all of you! And no matter what the other exchangers have told you, Denmark really is the best country, so I hope you put it down on your list :)All for now,
-Heidi
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving Dinner
I apologize for not updating the blog in a while, but as you can guess, I've been very busy!
But being that yesterday was Thanksgiving, and I'm in love with Thanksgiving food, I decided to attempt to cook some! Now this may seem like a scary thought to some- Heidi working in the kitchen all day with knives and hot surfaces- but I can assure you that very little harm was done.
I told my host family that I would make my favorite dishes, which included green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and of course the turkey! So I started out by emailing my grandma to get as many tips as possible on how to actually make this all! (I also spent many days researching recipes and watching a few YouTube videos.) The trickiest part of this whole ordeal, was not going to be actually making them, but finding all of the ingredients! Denmark doesn't believe in canned food, only fresh food, so I had to find substitutes for a lot of the recipes. Since they don't have canned pumpkin for the pie, I decided to go with butternut squash pie instead (it tastes basically the same). I figured it will probably all taste much more delicious being completely homemade from scratch, but it would also mean more work for me to do. So I asked a few of my friends from school if they wanted to help make an American Thanksgiving meal and then we could all eat together! They were completely thrilled, to say the least. So I wrote down the recipes for all of my dishes, and I showed it to Susanne, and we went shopping! We only had a few problems while shopping; we didn't know what nutmeg in Danish was, so we couldn't buy any, and we couldn't find a turkey... kind of an important part of Thanksgiving. We went to several different grocery stores before we finally found a full turkey, and there were only 3 of them. We took the biggest :) When we got home with all of our groceries, Søren knew what nutmeg in Danish was (muskat) and it turns out they had some at home, so we got lucky!
Wednesday night I made the pie and it smelled sooo delicious! I had to leave a little note out for Søren and Niels, reminding them that they were not allowed to eat it until Thursday night. The next day I came home from school around noon and began cooking. We only have one tiny oven, so I baked the casseroles first, and then put the turkey in the oven. This was the tricky part. We didn't have big enough roasting pan, or one with a lid really, so we ended up putting it in a cooking bag and then just setting it on the oven tray. I wasn't really sure if this would work out, (to be honest I wasn't sure if any of it would turn out..) but we didn't have any other option really. Then around 3 o'clock, Anne Katrine, Frederikke, and Cecilie came over to help me out, but at this point there wasn't much for us to do so we sat around and chatted (in Danish) and played guitar and sang Christmas songs! Tonight we have our school's birthday party, where all of the students, parents, and teachers come the the gymnasium and eat together, and then there's a dance party afterwards. Apparently this is as close to prom as it gets here, but only the 3rd graders (seniors) are supposed to dress up really nicely. Anyways, each class is suppose to decorate their table according to the theme, which was the four elements of life, and the four of us were in charge of candle holders. So we took some carrots, potatoes, and parsnip and cut out little holes to make the cutest candle holders ever! Then we got back to our Thanksgiving food, and we made the cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. This is where my casualty occurred. As I was peeling potatoes, I accidentally peeled off the tip of my finger... oops. Luckily, both my parents are vets so they have a lot of first aid-like items at home! So no worries, my finger is okay :) We finished making the rest of the dinner and then all seven of us sat down to table FULL of delicious looking food. I couldn't believe how well everything turned out! The turkey wasn't dry, the stuffing wasn't too soggy, and nothing was burnt. It was a miracle! I never would have guessed that I could make such a meal, but I guess Denmark has done me well! We prayed before eating, (something they had probably never done before) and then dug in! They loved it. They told me that they had never tasted anything like it before; they had had mashed potatoes before, but they usually just eat boiled potatoes, and they have turkey, but it's pretty rare to eat. I think the most different for them was the butternut squash pie. It has that smooth texture and they just found that to be the weirdest thing ever. We had some leftover pie, so Susanne said I should just bring it to school for everyone to taste. I brought it to lunch and shared it with 4 guys from my class (everyone else was setting up for the party) and they devoured it. Søren and his friends were a little upset I didn't save any for them, so I might be making another soon! I'm also making another corn casserole to bring to the school birthday party dinner tonight.
Overall, it was a very very successful Thanksgiving in Denmark!
I switch host families on Sunday, and I can't believe how fast 4 months has gone by! It's going to be a little weird switching, but I think it will be all be just fine! I'm very lucky to have such amazing host families :)
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we have SNOW! I'm so excited, but the Danes are all very worried because they normally don't get snow until after Christmas, so this is very unusual. It's perfect winter weather weather for me right now, about 30 degrees Farenheit, but it's freezing cold for everyone else. I got to bike in the snow yesterday, and it's a bit difficult because sometimes your tires slide on the snow and slip on the ice, and today during our mid-class break, a few of us went outside and had a mini snowball fight.
You can check out pictures from Thanksgiving HERE!
All for now!
-Heidi
But being that yesterday was Thanksgiving, and I'm in love with Thanksgiving food, I decided to attempt to cook some! Now this may seem like a scary thought to some- Heidi working in the kitchen all day with knives and hot surfaces- but I can assure you that very little harm was done.
I told my host family that I would make my favorite dishes, which included green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and of course the turkey! So I started out by emailing my grandma to get as many tips as possible on how to actually make this all! (I also spent many days researching recipes and watching a few YouTube videos.) The trickiest part of this whole ordeal, was not going to be actually making them, but finding all of the ingredients! Denmark doesn't believe in canned food, only fresh food, so I had to find substitutes for a lot of the recipes. Since they don't have canned pumpkin for the pie, I decided to go with butternut squash pie instead (it tastes basically the same). I figured it will probably all taste much more delicious being completely homemade from scratch, but it would also mean more work for me to do. So I asked a few of my friends from school if they wanted to help make an American Thanksgiving meal and then we could all eat together! They were completely thrilled, to say the least. So I wrote down the recipes for all of my dishes, and I showed it to Susanne, and we went shopping! We only had a few problems while shopping; we didn't know what nutmeg in Danish was, so we couldn't buy any, and we couldn't find a turkey... kind of an important part of Thanksgiving. We went to several different grocery stores before we finally found a full turkey, and there were only 3 of them. We took the biggest :) When we got home with all of our groceries, Søren knew what nutmeg in Danish was (muskat) and it turns out they had some at home, so we got lucky!
Wednesday night I made the pie and it smelled sooo delicious! I had to leave a little note out for Søren and Niels, reminding them that they were not allowed to eat it until Thursday night. The next day I came home from school around noon and began cooking. We only have one tiny oven, so I baked the casseroles first, and then put the turkey in the oven. This was the tricky part. We didn't have big enough roasting pan, or one with a lid really, so we ended up putting it in a cooking bag and then just setting it on the oven tray. I wasn't really sure if this would work out, (to be honest I wasn't sure if any of it would turn out..) but we didn't have any other option really. Then around 3 o'clock, Anne Katrine, Frederikke, and Cecilie came over to help me out, but at this point there wasn't much for us to do so we sat around and chatted (in Danish) and played guitar and sang Christmas songs! Tonight we have our school's birthday party, where all of the students, parents, and teachers come the the gymnasium and eat together, and then there's a dance party afterwards. Apparently this is as close to prom as it gets here, but only the 3rd graders (seniors) are supposed to dress up really nicely. Anyways, each class is suppose to decorate their table according to the theme, which was the four elements of life, and the four of us were in charge of candle holders. So we took some carrots, potatoes, and parsnip and cut out little holes to make the cutest candle holders ever! Then we got back to our Thanksgiving food, and we made the cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. This is where my casualty occurred. As I was peeling potatoes, I accidentally peeled off the tip of my finger... oops. Luckily, both my parents are vets so they have a lot of first aid-like items at home! So no worries, my finger is okay :) We finished making the rest of the dinner and then all seven of us sat down to table FULL of delicious looking food. I couldn't believe how well everything turned out! The turkey wasn't dry, the stuffing wasn't too soggy, and nothing was burnt. It was a miracle! I never would have guessed that I could make such a meal, but I guess Denmark has done me well! We prayed before eating, (something they had probably never done before) and then dug in! They loved it. They told me that they had never tasted anything like it before; they had had mashed potatoes before, but they usually just eat boiled potatoes, and they have turkey, but it's pretty rare to eat. I think the most different for them was the butternut squash pie. It has that smooth texture and they just found that to be the weirdest thing ever. We had some leftover pie, so Susanne said I should just bring it to school for everyone to taste. I brought it to lunch and shared it with 4 guys from my class (everyone else was setting up for the party) and they devoured it. Søren and his friends were a little upset I didn't save any for them, so I might be making another soon! I'm also making another corn casserole to bring to the school birthday party dinner tonight.
Overall, it was a very very successful Thanksgiving in Denmark!
I switch host families on Sunday, and I can't believe how fast 4 months has gone by! It's going to be a little weird switching, but I think it will be all be just fine! I'm very lucky to have such amazing host families :)
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we have SNOW! I'm so excited, but the Danes are all very worried because they normally don't get snow until after Christmas, so this is very unusual. It's perfect winter weather weather for me right now, about 30 degrees Farenheit, but it's freezing cold for everyone else. I got to bike in the snow yesterday, and it's a bit difficult because sometimes your tires slide on the snow and slip on the ice, and today during our mid-class break, a few of us went outside and had a mini snowball fight.
You can check out pictures from Thanksgiving HERE!
All for now!
-Heidi
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Hyggelig
Hyggelig (pronounced hoo-guh-lee) is a Danish word that I absolutely love. It has no direct English translation, but it basically means being comfortable, happy, cozy, and content all at once. Hyggelig is staying up all night with a classroom full of exchange students all speaking different languages. Hyggelig is relaxing at the summer house playing cards with your family while your little sister braids your hair. Hyggelig is sitting in the aisle of a crowded train with the rest of your classmates, playing guitar and singing songs. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing in the past week!
I’ve been on 3 different trips around Denmark since last Friday, with less than 12 hours in between the first and second, and only about 30 minutes in between the second and third trip. My first adventure was to Holbæk for the Rotary Halloween party. It was a pretty casual Get Together put on by ex-exchange students from Denmark, and of course it was a blast (as all Rotary events are). We danced, sang, took millions of pictures, carved pumpkins (which most of them had never done before), and ate Danish food! This was the last Get Together for the “Oldies” so it was pretty emotional at the end as we were all saying goodbye.
For my next journey I went to Copenhagen
for 3 days with the music half of my class. The International half of my class went to Germany for those days to stay with host families there, but since I don’t know any German at all, they thought it was best that I went with the music class instead. I completely agreed. We stayed in a hotel right in downtown Copenhagen with rooms that had three triple bunk beds in them so we slept 9 to a room. Very hyggelig :) Our schedule for the 3 days consisted of a Danish musical, a ballet, tour of the Opera House, and a Beatles dance/musical performance (probably my favorite). We also had time to walk around and shop in Copenhagen which is always very fun! On our way home, our train from Odense back to Ringe was canceled, so we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next train. While we were waiting, the other half of our class showed up at the train station too! They has just returned from Germany with some German exchange students that would now be staying with them for a few days, so we all got to take the train home together! We all sat together and in the aisles and had a wonderful 20 minute train ride home :)
My last trip of the week was to Fjellerup which is on what is called the “nose” of Denmark on Jylland. I went to the summer house here with my second host family and a two other families.
I had met my second host mom and dad before, but this was my first time meeting Lise, my 13 year old sister, and Stig, my 10 year old brother. I absolutely love them! They are so full of energy and always making jokes and playing games; there is never a dull moment, and I love it! We played card games, made pancakes, went on walks along the beach and through the fields (so gorgeous!), visited a beautiful Glass Museum in Ebeltoft, shopped in Randers, and spoke Danish the entire time. Stig and Lise don’t think they’re very good at English (they’r mother thinks otherwise) so we only spoke Danish, which was really good for me! There were times when they would all start talking too fast for me to understand, or they would say a word that I had never heard of before, but for the most part I could understand them. But I’m back home with my first host family now, and speaking as much Danish as I can. I switch host families on November 28, so I think I’ll be staying put until then.
It’s kind of crazy to think that 101 days ago (yesterday was my 100th day in Denmark by the way- time needs to slow down) I didn’t know anything about this language or this culture, and now I’m speaking it and understanding it and living in it! Sometimes when I say something in Danish, I stop and think ‘Was I just talking in English? That sounded too natural to be Danish..’ It’s a weird feeling, but a good one at the same time!
Well I’m going out to dinner with the family now! Henrik is home on break from school for a while, and Niels passed some sort of veterinarian inspection today, so it’s a special occasion :)
All the best,
Heidi
I’ve been on 3 different trips around Denmark since last Friday, with less than 12 hours in between the first and second, and only about 30 minutes in between the second and third trip. My first adventure was to Holbæk for the Rotary Halloween party. It was a pretty casual Get Together put on by ex-exchange students from Denmark, and of course it was a blast (as all Rotary events are). We danced, sang, took millions of pictures, carved pumpkins (which most of them had never done before), and ate Danish food! This was the last Get Together for the “Oldies” so it was pretty emotional at the end as we were all saying goodbye.
For my next journey I went to Copenhagen
for 3 days with the music half of my class. The International half of my class went to Germany for those days to stay with host families there, but since I don’t know any German at all, they thought it was best that I went with the music class instead. I completely agreed. We stayed in a hotel right in downtown Copenhagen with rooms that had three triple bunk beds in them so we slept 9 to a room. Very hyggelig :) Our schedule for the 3 days consisted of a Danish musical, a ballet, tour of the Opera House, and a Beatles dance/musical performance (probably my favorite). We also had time to walk around and shop in Copenhagen which is always very fun! On our way home, our train from Odense back to Ringe was canceled, so we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next train. While we were waiting, the other half of our class showed up at the train station too! They has just returned from Germany with some German exchange students that would now be staying with them for a few days, so we all got to take the train home together! We all sat together and in the aisles and had a wonderful 20 minute train ride home :)My last trip of the week was to Fjellerup which is on what is called the “nose” of Denmark on Jylland. I went to the summer house here with my second host family and a two other families.
I had met my second host mom and dad before, but this was my first time meeting Lise, my 13 year old sister, and Stig, my 10 year old brother. I absolutely love them! They are so full of energy and always making jokes and playing games; there is never a dull moment, and I love it! We played card games, made pancakes, went on walks along the beach and through the fields (so gorgeous!), visited a beautiful Glass Museum in Ebeltoft, shopped in Randers, and spoke Danish the entire time. Stig and Lise don’t think they’re very good at English (they’r mother thinks otherwise) so we only spoke Danish, which was really good for me! There were times when they would all start talking too fast for me to understand, or they would say a word that I had never heard of before, but for the most part I could understand them. But I’m back home with my first host family now, and speaking as much Danish as I can. I switch host families on November 28, so I think I’ll be staying put until then.It’s kind of crazy to think that 101 days ago (yesterday was my 100th day in Denmark by the way- time needs to slow down) I didn’t know anything about this language or this culture, and now I’m speaking it and understanding it and living in it! Sometimes when I say something in Danish, I stop and think ‘Was I just talking in English? That sounded too natural to be Danish..’ It’s a weird feeling, but a good one at the same time!
Well I’m going out to dinner with the family now! Henrik is home on break from school for a while, and Niels passed some sort of veterinarian inspection today, so it’s a special occasion :)
All the best,
Heidi
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Efterårsferie
This past week we had fall break (efterårsferie) in Denmark. It’s an entire week off, and most people use this time to travel around Denmark, or around neighboring countries. Søren went to Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain to visit friends from his exchange to Australia, and I stayed in Denmark and visited all of my friends here! I was with different people every day and doing something new every day as well. I kept very busy (which I love) so my efterårsferie was simply delightful!
Here are a few of the exciting things I did over my break:
-I went to Fredericia on Jylland and met Denmark’s best guitarist (in his age group).
-Made the world’s most delicious banana chocolate cake!
-Ate pigeon. It was great.
-Carved pumpkins and cooked the pumpkin seeds.
-Had a movie night with all of the girls in my class.
-Ate Turkish candy while at a sleep over with Turkish exchange students.
-Went to Odense to the Harry Potter Festival with a few exchange students from Canada and the U.S. (unfortunately I missed the day that J.K. Rowling was there..)
-Took a train to Copenhagen with Missy and met up with our friend Manuel from Mexico.
-Got to see Nyhavn, the Opera House, and the Queen’s Palace in Copenhagen.
-Made American/Mexican/Danish burritos.
-Made a cookies.
-Met some of the oldies (exchange students that have been in Denmark for 9 months already) and spoke some Danish with them!
-Met up with more Mexican and Brazilian exchange students in Copenhagen and got to speak Spanish the whole day with them :)
-Went to Frederiksborg Castle with Susanne, my brother Jens, his girlfriend Mathilde, and Grandma Nina.
-Got a boat tour of Copenhagen.
-Ate at a running sushi bar with Jens,Mathilde, Susanne, and Henrik. (I didn’t know how much I loved sushi)
-Saw the old Viking ships that were dug up from the bottom of a canal and rebuilt.
-Went to Roskilde with Susanne and saw the outside of a beautiful famous church there; there was a concert going on inside so we couldn’t go in...
-Came home and realized I had school the next morning. Dang.
But I think all the nonstop activity got to me, because I’ve got quite the cold and my body is just exhausted. So today I’m taking a day off to recovery. Susanne and Niels have been so extremely helpful and are taking very good care of me :) Hopefully I’ll be better soon, because I’ve got more places to go and people to see, starting Friday with a Rotary get together in Hoelbæk. The day I return from that, I’ve got a class trip to Copenhagen for 3 days, and then when I get back from that, I’m going to the summerhouse in Jylland with my second host family for a few days. I really do love being busy, but I have to remember to slow down a bit and take care of myself. Plus, there is so much to see and do everyday, I need to take some time to take it all in and remember all of the amazing experiences I’m having.
The weather here is getting colder, and the days are getting shorter. Yesterday I biked to school in the dark... not fun... and the cars were covered in frost this morning, too. There was suppose to be snow last Wednesday, but it turned out to be just really cold rain. I’m pretty excited to have winter here, but I’ve been told that they don’t always have a white Christmas, which would be something new for me! I secretly hope that there is snow on Christmas, though.
As far as the language goes, I feel like I’m a bit of a pitstop right now. I’m not learning as much as I did earlier, but that’s because I know all (or most) of the basic conversation words and phrases. Now I just need to learn all of the other words. And besides my Danish classes every Monday, the only way to do this is to speak Danish and keep asking questions! So I feel like my skills are slowing down right now, but I’m still learning new words everyday, and I just have to use my Danish as much as possible to learn more.
Here is a link if you'd like to see some more photos of my exchange so far!
-Heidi
Here are a few of the exciting things I did over my break:
-I went to Fredericia on Jylland and met Denmark’s best guitarist (in his age group).
-Made the world’s most delicious banana chocolate cake!
-Ate pigeon. It was great.
-Carved pumpkins and cooked the pumpkin seeds.
-Had a movie night with all of the girls in my class.
-Ate Turkish candy while at a sleep over with Turkish exchange students.
-Went to Odense to the Harry Potter Festival with a few exchange students from Canada and the U.S. (unfortunately I missed the day that J.K. Rowling was there..)
-Took a train to Copenhagen with Missy and met up with our friend Manuel from Mexico.
-Got to see Nyhavn, the Opera House, and the Queen’s Palace in Copenhagen.
-Made American/Mexican/Danish burritos.
-Made a cookies.
-Met some of the oldies (exchange students that have been in Denmark for 9 months already) and spoke some Danish with them!
-Met up with more Mexican and Brazilian exchange students in Copenhagen and got to speak Spanish the whole day with them :)
-Went to Frederiksborg Castle with Susanne, my brother Jens, his girlfriend Mathilde, and Grandma Nina.
-Got a boat tour of Copenhagen.
-Ate at a running sushi bar with Jens,Mathilde, Susanne, and Henrik. (I didn’t know how much I loved sushi)
-Saw the old Viking ships that were dug up from the bottom of a canal and rebuilt.
-Went to Roskilde with Susanne and saw the outside of a beautiful famous church there; there was a concert going on inside so we couldn’t go in...
-Came home and realized I had school the next morning. Dang.
But I think all the nonstop activity got to me, because I’ve got quite the cold and my body is just exhausted. So today I’m taking a day off to recovery. Susanne and Niels have been so extremely helpful and are taking very good care of me :) Hopefully I’ll be better soon, because I’ve got more places to go and people to see, starting Friday with a Rotary get together in Hoelbæk. The day I return from that, I’ve got a class trip to Copenhagen for 3 days, and then when I get back from that, I’m going to the summerhouse in Jylland with my second host family for a few days. I really do love being busy, but I have to remember to slow down a bit and take care of myself. Plus, there is so much to see and do everyday, I need to take some time to take it all in and remember all of the amazing experiences I’m having.
The weather here is getting colder, and the days are getting shorter. Yesterday I biked to school in the dark... not fun... and the cars were covered in frost this morning, too. There was suppose to be snow last Wednesday, but it turned out to be just really cold rain. I’m pretty excited to have winter here, but I’ve been told that they don’t always have a white Christmas, which would be something new for me! I secretly hope that there is snow on Christmas, though.
As far as the language goes, I feel like I’m a bit of a pitstop right now. I’m not learning as much as I did earlier, but that’s because I know all (or most) of the basic conversation words and phrases. Now I just need to learn all of the other words. And besides my Danish classes every Monday, the only way to do this is to speak Danish and keep asking questions! So I feel like my skills are slowing down right now, but I’m still learning new words everyday, and I just have to use my Danish as much as possible to learn more.
Here is a link if you'd like to see some more photos of my exchange so far!
-Heidi
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Still Lovin It
Well it's been another great week here in Denmark! I'll try not to make this too long, but here's a bit of what I've been up to in the past week:
Saturday Oct 2
Susanne and I drove over to Jylland, the main peninsula of Denmark, to the small town of Ribe. It's Denmark's oldest town, and they happened to be having a their Fall Festival (similar to Crazy Daze in Nfld) when we arrived, so we bought a few homemade knit hats and some flowers from them. We also climbed 251 stairs to the top of the church where you could look out over the entire town and see for miles in every direction because the land is so flat.
We then drove south to a town called Uge where Susanne went to look at a horse's eye. Our plan was to go to Germany afterwards and just buy a few things over the border, but her work took longer than expected so we didn't quite make it there.
Afterwards we drove to another town in Jylland and had dinner at her friend's (who was an exchange student in Massachusetts when she was younger). We had some delicious food and then we started on the hour and half drive home.
Monday Oct 4
Danish classes in Svendborg continue every Monday. This day, though, all of the different countries went up and told about the school system in their country and how it's different from Denmark. It was really interesting to learn about all of the other countries, and we did this all in Danish, of course, so that made it even more exciting :)
I attended another Rotary meeting in Ringe. It wasn't for any special reason, but my counselor said that it would be one of the less boring meetings so he asked if I wanted to join! He also told me that they were having a really good meal that night, so of course I went. It was a good thing I went, because I got to meet the Rotary President of Denmark. He has to go to all of the district meetings in all of Denmark, and in Lithuania, because apparently they're part of our Rotary program as well!
Wednesday Oct 6
At school we had our first lesson, and then the second lesson was replaced with a live jazz performance for the entire school. I'm not exactly sure why, but every now and then we have these large school assemblies and they cancel the classes and everyone gathers in the main commons for whatever event they have planned. So far we've had a surviver from the Holocaust, a speech on "Sex and the City" and New York, and then this live jazz band. They were very good, and it was a very hyggeligt (this is a danish word which has no direct english translation, but it basically means cozy and happy and fun and wonderful. This word is used very often here)
After school I biked to my friend Frederikke's house for a sleep over. We had a challenge that she could only speak english and I could only speak danish for the whole night, and it worked for most of the evening, but I was showing her some pictures from the U.S. and then prom and Beat Cancer came up so I switched to english so she could get the full effect :) Then she taught me how to play a few songs on the guitar and she helped me with some of my Danish homework and we ate the best pizza I have ever tasted; her mom made it and luckily there were leftovers so we took some with us for lunch the next day at school. It was a wonderful night!
Friday Oct 8
At school there was a campaign going on during lunch to try and get Danish teenagers to not drink as much. So they had these goggles that you could put on that blurred your vision and made it seem like you were drunk, and I'm not really sure how this was suppose to help, because most people had a great time playing around with the goggles, but supposably this was going to make them drink less. We'll see if that works.
After school we had a Friday Café in the basement of the gymnasium, and then later that night there was a "musikklasse fest". Even though I'm not really in the music class, I was still invited to the party. It was for all three grades that are in the music class, so it was fun to meet some new people!
Saturday and Sunday
I had two birthday parties on Saturday. Danish birthdays = Danish flags everywhere! And really good cake of course. The first one was a brunch for Kaya, one of the exchange students from my gymnasium. It was just a few of the exchange students there and it was very fun! The the other was for two girls in my class for their 18th birthday, also very fun.
On Sunday I had my first volleyball tournament! We played two other teams, and lost to both... but it was still a really fun day! There were only six of us there, so we all got to play the whole time. My host dad said that next time I have a tournament he'll come bring some cheerleaders to help my team!
All for now!
-Heidi
Saturday Oct 2
Susanne and I drove over to Jylland, the main peninsula of Denmark, to the small town of Ribe. It's Denmark's oldest town, and they happened to be having a their Fall Festival (similar to Crazy Daze in Nfld) when we arrived, so we bought a few homemade knit hats and some flowers from them. We also climbed 251 stairs to the top of the church where you could look out over the entire town and see for miles in every direction because the land is so flat. Monday Oct 4
Wednesday Oct 6
Friday Oct 8
At school there was a campaign going on during lunch to try and get Danish teenagers to not drink as much. So they had these goggles that you could put on that blurred your vision and made it seem like you were drunk, and I'm not really sure how this was suppose to help, because most people had a great time playing around with the goggles, but supposably this was going to make them drink less. We'll see if that works.Saturday and Sunday
All for now!
-Heidi
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