Cars, Bicycles, Busses..Oh, My!!

Heyyyyy =) sorry it's been so long! I just haven't felt like writing this past week at all. So i'm trying to break myself out of this slump I'm in =)

Anywayz, so what has been going on this past week? Well, both a lot of stuff and hardly anything at all =P let me start at the beginning!

So I told you about my first day of school and how awesome it was. Well, the second day was ok. The schedule changes and extra long classes kinda took their toll. Also, having classes that are completely in danish are kids boring to sit through. Ok, a lot boring actually haha. The teahers all felt the need to explain to me upon our first meeting that they would be teaching in Danish and couldn't translate everything for me...ok, that's no problem. Cuz I already knew all the classes were going to be in Danish anyway. I mean, I can't expect the teacher to translate just cuz one American is in the classroom. Right! Haha so pretty boring. People sitting next to me keep asking me if I understand anything. Uh, noooo I don't understand. Haha at all actually. So during school I pretty much sit there. Color with my pen. Daze off. Eat some fruit I packed in my lunch. Yea that's pretty much how it's gone. But it's ok. Cuz I'm willing to learn the language! =D trying to learn it anyways.

I don't think anything happened on Friday...wait! Haha ok friday was te first morning I had to wake up at 5:30 to be ready to ride my bike 2 km to the bus stop to catch my bus at 6:45. Surprisingly, this is not as bad as it sounds =P the morning air felt great and was very awakening. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt great to be out. No one else is out and about yet. The road is your own. (which is great cuz I'm terrified of getting hit by a car on my bike lol) everything just looked better. I don't know. Then I did my school stuff. Yay me =) then! School ended. Astrid and I ride the bus home but we have to go to the bus station. So I figured I would wait for her so we could go together since neither of us knew where the station was. Astrid didn't know I was waiting and had already left the school. The poor foreign kid was standing on the school steps not knowing what to do lol. Thankfully one of her friends saw me and called astrid for me and I found out I needed to walk to the station. No prob, right? Wrong. Haha does bekah know where the station is? No. But I said I would make it anyway. So I got about 3 blocks from the school and didn't know which way to turn when all of the sudden!! That same friend and her mom pulled up next to me and gave me a ride. I paid special attention so I knew the way next time. They were so nice. Haha I'm so thankful =D

Then on Saturday! Wow. My host dad's side of the family had a family reunion at our house in our 'barn'. (it's in quotes because it's not like a farm, red barn. It hold tractors, yea. But it's all metal) and so there were about 50-60 extra people at our house that day. Soooooo many people. We all ate some snack (cakes and cookies they brought) and we also ate dinner together. It was crazy. All those people and all were relatives. When several first met me they asked (in Danish of course) if I was astrid. And all I could respond with was 'jeg hedder rebekah' (my name is Rebekah) and then it was expained that I was an exchange student from the US. o, and one minor thing:: when gathering 'formally' with a group of people, you have to go around and shake everyone's hand and greet them. Yes. Everyone. Haha I learned that after my first rotary meeting. And it's easier to not skip around and just go in a line so you make sure to greet everyone. =P all the people just hung out in our property all day. There were some games, a trampoline was up, and a little canooing in the Suså creek at the edge of our land. It was a good day. Long, but good. O! And I got to practice my Danish. Which pretty much thrilled me. This little cousin Andrea is 11 and she has just started learning english. I got to talk to her throughout the night. Like she would ask me questions in English and I answered in Danish and vise versa. It was great. Also kinda frustrating. I was frustrated at myself for not knowing more words. It made explaining where I live kind of difficult. But it was still soooooo great! I didn't care that I said it wrong or my grammar was bad. It's a learnig process =D

ok, now Sunday. I had my first rotary district meeting. All the rotary exchange students in my district met together. It wad great! We went over the rules for what seemed like the millionth time haha and then we all just got to hang out with each other and talk. There are Canadian, brazilians, ecuadorians (????), chileans (????), mexicans, Americans, a guy from Lithuania, anddddd I think that's it. There are about 30 of us I want to say. No idea. But what I can tell you is that we are all super loud when we all get together and talk at the same time haha. It was lots of fun to see them all. And like I said in an earlier post, we are like magnets. Drawn to each other with an instant connection. I felt no awkwardness whatsoever with them. And we are all so excited for this up coming week. From august 22-29 all of the rotary exchange kids in the COUNTRY are going to an intro camp =D learning some Danish and about the culture. It's gunna be awesome seeing everyone!!! I'll write more about that after it happens haha Then Sunday night rené came over and hung out with astrid and I for a couple hours. It was great. I love having friends ^_^ he told me that I inspired him to read twilight. Haha so proud of him =P he left around 10:30 then I hit the hay. Sleeping away the night in total preparation for the following day. I needed the sleep for what happened next.

Monday was mildly eventful. MILDLY. Depending on if you feel sorry for me or laugh at me. My sister and I need to ride the bus home after school as we live about 20 minutes out of næstved. (city bus btw. Not an icky school bus) so since I learned on Friday that I could walk by myself to te station and astrid was out on a trip anyway, I set out on my own. Trying to follow the path that we had taken in the car on Friday. There were some other kids around so I felt completely confident I was going in the right direction. I walked about 1-2 km into the downtown of næstved and took a couple turns and realized to myself:: I have no idea where I'm going. Uh, oh. Foreign kid lost in the city!!!!! (Im laughing right now as I write this. It's so funny now) I walked a couple more blocks. Took a couple turns. Doubled back a *few* times. I almost asked for help a dozen times. But I wasn't sure if I should ask in Danish because then they might answer in Danish and I'd have no clue what they said, or if I asked in english I was worried maybe they didn't know English. (with my luck I would pick a person in a country that learns english from 3rd grade who didn't speak English) anywayz, I refrained from asking for directions, which in hindsight was really dumb. But I've learned it's ok to ask. Haha so about 30 minutes later after I walked down this street for about 1 km and PRAISE GOD I found the bus station!!!!!!!! Sweetest sight my eyes have ever seen =D it was great. today, however, I learned that I was never lost in the first place. I had walked the EXACT bus route that it takes from the station to my school. Now THAT takes skill ^_^

Monday night, after being exhausted from walking everywhere and biking home, I was ready to go to bed when I got home. I even put on some sweat pants and ate a snack. Yay! Sleep! Wrong. I had forgotten that I had a rotary meeting to go to that night. So I changed once again and after my host mom came home from work we all set out in the car. We went about an hour to north of Copenhagen (where ALL the rich people live I learned) we went to see this one lady who owns a bunch if horses out there and a stable and stuff. Let me tell you! They have about 14-18 horses in their stable-palace (no joke, it's huge and luxurious) there was an indoor training/ show ring. An outdoors one. Like 6 fenced in areas with grass. And there were 3 trailers for transporting the horses. (one of which was capable of taking 5 horses and a family in the mobile home area) CRAZY!!! I loved seeing and petting the horses. They have soft noses =D and these aren't everydy horses. They are the special trained kind. The kind worth a million+ euro! I felt kind of bad for the horses actually. I mean they don't deserve to my cooped up like that just to perform tricks. I always wish I could read an animal's mind to see if they're happy. It's so sad sometimes...anywayz, we left about 10 at night and drove home. I was soooooo tired.

Then I woke up the next morning at 7:30 and my host mom drove me to school at 8:50 because my first morning class was cancelled. It was nice =) after school a friend offered me a ride to the station so I didn't get list again =P then since I didn't have my bike at the bus stop I had to walk the 2 km home. Not that bad. Pretty relaxing actually =) (well, besides the fact that I had just received 30 lbs worth of school books ^_^) I enjoyed it. Then today I walked ALL the way to the bus station by myself WITHOUT getting lost or asking for help =DDDD you have no idea how awesome it is haha that's about it!

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
the boys here LOOOOOOVE hair gel! haha
riding a bike 2k at 6:30 am is NOT as bad as it sounds.
The da Vinci code is a really good mystery book, but I still can't decide if the ending sucked or not.
Cold oatmeal is AH-mazing. (it looks nasty, but I had to try after my host sister did it. Take oatmeal and pour milk over it and add sugar!!)
a lot of Danes have a pretty biased view of America and don't hesitate to ask about it (on several occasions I've been asked stereotypical questions about Americans, once by a teacher even)
they rarely snack on junk food in school. Most people eat some kind of fruit or a sandwich.
I can't remember if I told you, but when they speak english, a LOT of danes have a British accent.
There is some kind of performance every Wednesday morning in the huge 'cafeteria' kinda thing, between first lesson and second lesson and everyone in the school goes. (that's a boat load of Danish people at one time in one area) lol

and that's all for now!!! Email me =D jeg elsker dig. I love you. Hugz.

Love, Rebekah <3