Before My Departure

Greetings all! This is my first post on my blog =) we will see how this goes!

So I'm leaving for the grand country of Denmark in about 5 days. I have my flights and everything right now, and I'm just waiting for my visa-ed passport to come in the mail any day now! Yes, it's very exciting...and yet very scary at the same time. I got my departure date a few days ago, and it hit like a load of bricks how real this is. Sure, I feel like I'm ready and all the Rotary training and meetings have prepared me pretty well, but it's still a scary feeling. I hope you can imagine.

I will be living about an hour south of Copenhagen in a little town called Ringsted. I have 3 host families set up for me, all are about in the same area I think. In my first family I will have a host sister, Astrid, who is about a month younger than I am. In my second family I will have a sister that is about 14, I want to say?? And in my last family I have a sister who is not much younger than me again, and also a brother who is about 16 I think. It's going to be great to be with all 3 of these families. I'm excited to meet them. Excited, and yet at the same time, really nervous.

Even though I am kind of scared right now, I am absolutely stoked to go! I want this more than anything in the world right now. Going abroad has never ever been a dream of mine like it has been to some people, but right now, going to Denmark is my only dream. This whole experience has changed my goals and aspirations for life. Right now I feel like this is a huge door to the world being opened up for me. Never would I have imagined myself going to Europe for a whole year by myself, but look at me now! It's very surreal at times still, but I'm sure that feeling will fade as I actually depart and live in Denmark.

But why Denmark? This is a question I have encountered several times. Along with this question that ALWAYS follows: "do you speak Denmarkish/Dutch/Denmarkian/the language?" I usually answer the same way each time, "Denmark just sounded like a cool country to go to and it's in Europe. And no, I don't speak DANISH, but I'm trying to work on it." This answer hasn't failed me yet, but I won't have to give it much longer I hope.

I'm going to miss my friends and my family so much. Just today I went to print off some pictures to show people in Denmark. I almost started crying right there in Walmart, I kid you not. But I choked it up like a big girl, and I pushed on. I have spent so much time with a lot of my friends this past 2 weeks. I feel very sad to say that I haven't had a chance to see everyone like I would like to. But it's not like I will be saying goodbye forever. It's just a year, then I'll be back! (Sure there is college after that, but shhhhhhhhhhhhhh) We have all had so much fun hanging out this summer. I've loved every minute of it.

That is really the one thing I'm worried about for when I go: finding friends that will like me. My plan for when I go is to abandon my shy self and embrace my outgoing self. That's the only way I'm going to get friends and enjoy my exchange. Going outside of my comfort zone like that kind of scares me, but not in a bad way. I've needed to trash that horrible shy habit for awhile now. It's just scary because it's like I'll be finding a whole new me over there. I'm hoping it's for the best =P

I think that is pretty much all I have for this first blog. In this bottom section I will try to post some super good things i've learned and some not-so-super-good things I've learned. Here we go!

THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR:
Jeg elsker dig. (I love you)
Real friends enjoy sitting in the car with you for hours cuz they love just spending time with you
The universe loves playing this sick joke of making someone realize they have feelings for you right before one them leaves the country for a year
Peanut butter in Europe isn't very good I hear =((((
The friends you make through this program are life long, it doesn't matter how often you speak to each other, there is a bond there
BE FLEXIBLE and BE PATIENT

That's all folks! If you would like to know more about something specific that I haven't talked about email me and ask me! =)

Love,
Rebekah