Best Week EVER!

hello everyone! it's been a WHOLE week since we last spoke. SOOO much has happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let me begin:

this past week, august 22-29, i was at the rotary intro camp in a town near Randers which is also near Århus. this was an 'intro camp' for all the other newbie exchange students in denmark. there are about 150 of us. it was so amazing. by far, it was the best week of my exchange so far.

i left bright and early saturday morning and got on the train in Ringsted, about 10 minutes from where i live. my host dad, torben, took me, and after i got to the train station i noticed right away some friends from my district! there is stephanie from LA who also goes to my school. Hillary from canada. poliana from brazil, she goes to my school as well. and about 5 other ppl. we all waited around for like 10-15 minutes until the train arrived. i hugged my host dad goodbye and boarded the train. MY FIRST TRAIN RIDE EVER!!! it was thrilling haha none of us exchange students paid much attention to our ticketed seats, we all just sat together with our friends in little groups.

throughout the 3+ hour train ride, more and more exchange students boarded the train. i felt sooooooooo bad for the actual passengers, because we were really loud ^_^ and of course, no one was sitting in the right seats either. we all had to hold our breath at each stop praying that no one would kick us out of their seat. we never had to move =) we just had sooooooooo much fun.

after arriving at the train station in randers, all of us on the train piled out and followed some people to the busses that were going to take us to the city where our camp was. i managed to score a seat next to this girl, erica from illinios, and guess what! i had flown on the plane with her to copenhagen =) it was about an hour drive and we all just had fun and chatted.

finally! we arrived in bjerringbro. we all gathered our luggage and met in front of the school we would be living in for the next week. the leaders were calling out the names of people to get them checked in and settled into their rooms. guess how they did it? alphabetical order of course. and my name is always near the end. haha and it was mega hot out! but, i found brittney, the other girl from oregon, and we just chatted until my name was finally called. i got room number 413 =)

so down the stairs we went. up the stairs we went. all the way to the end of the hall we went =) to my new room. opened it up, empty. i was kind of surprised that my roommate hadn't already arrived and set up her stuff. but i didn't think much else of it. i chose my bed, and then me and brittney went out to look for my other friends. we found them,then we all had to go to our first meeting in the lecture hall. the teachers gave us a tour of the school, which we all managed to navagate around by the end of the week, and then left us with the reminder of when dinner was. 6:00 sharp!

all my friends and i just went back to my room to crash before dinner. we also went down and hung out in the common room. then dinner! it was the normal danish dinner that all of us kids had come to love. haha meat and potatoes. AND! they actually gave us some dessert that night too. ice cream =) after dinner we met back in the lecture hall once againto get our classroom assignments for the rest of the week. i got a teacher named anders. he was super cool and nice. we went to our classroom and he basically told us what the plan was for tomorrow and what time to meet back and what not.

after that i think all my friends and i went back to my room. i still didn't have a roommate, so i moved stephanie in =D shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. she was in a hallway with no one else she knew, so i had to rescue my friend, yea? well, she moved in. then guess who decided to show up? right, my REAL roommate. haha we arranged the beds and things so we could all still stay in the room together. it was very cozy =P my room then turned into the ultimate party room. all of my girlfriends would come crash in there when we were on breaks from our lessons ^_^ ana, my roommate from brazil, didn't mind much, as she was out partying with her friends as well.

so this is what happened almost everyday that week:: wake up- 7;30, go down to breakfast- 8 (it closed at 8:30), meet in the lacture hall for the schedule- 8:45, go to danish lessons- 9, BREAK FROM DANISH LESSONS- 11 or so for 10 minutes, then we had to go back until lunch, lunch- 12:15, relax time until 2, danish lessons-2, BREAK TIME for ten minutes, maybe another break depending how nice the teacher was, dinner- 6:00 SHARP (not kidding, if you didn't get there at 6, they wouldn't let you eat), meet in the lecture hall for evening activity choices- 7:30, free time!, in your OWN room- 11 (this one didn't get followed very often, as all my friends were still in MY room usually haha)

that's pretty much the whole week, everyday. there were a few exceptions.

on tuesday night we got to watch a danish movie! thankfully, there were subtitles, so we understoof pretty much everything taht was goiing on. i thought it was a good movie...realy different from american ones. it was just a fun night. all 150 of us kids were yelling at the screen and laughing and clapping. and even when it was completely silent, at least one nim-rod was yelling at the screen...that would be me of course. haha it's ok though, because everyone laughed ^_^

on wednesday we went to a town called viborg (vee-bor) to visit an old cathedral. well, we got there and guess what? yep, the cathedral was closed. i was pretty disppointed because everyone said that it was really beautiful inside. but o well i guess. we all got to do a little shopping instead =) that's never a bad thing. i got to practice my danish when i had to ask someone on the street where the store H&M was. (hvor er H&M?) it was GREAT!!!!!! i was so excited haha. then at a different store, stephanie and i found some adorable shoes on sale for 25 kr. that's practically free here. i was super excited. erica (from illinios) bought a black trench coat, hillary (from canada)..well i don't remember what she bought. and brittney (from district 5110 in oregon!!!!!!!) bought...well i don't remember that either.

so after the shopping we all made it back to the bus on time, and no one was left. (not joking, they would have left us) then we went to this look out over a lake for tea, coffee, and cake =D it was really pretty. i'm happy we got to stop there..then we headed for home, just in time for dinner! haha then that night an up-and-coming danish band came to play for us. soooooooooo good! honestly, i liked them. they sounded a lot like the band 'muse' from the States.

another odd day was friday. we got a chance to go to århus all day! this is the second biggest city in denmark. we left at 9:30 and arrived about 11 i think. the first stop we made was at an art museum. we had a scheduled tour there (each classroom was separate) and then we got to wander around until 1. it was a great musem. big. there was a lot to see, so i'm very disappointed that i didn't get the chance to see more. it was a very new one, only about 8 years old i think. and their featured exhibit at the momnet was called "i love you". it had 'art' dealing with everything about love. every aspect of love. from real love, to passion, to lust, to everything. it was really thought provoking, i really liked it. i think i want to go back to the museum while i'm here just because i didn't get to see practically anything there at all.

then at about 1:15 all of my friends gathered up, and we went on an excursion in århus! we eventually found the mall after passing a delicious looking café AND burger king. haha it was hard to resist. so when we got to the mall and we saw the mcdonald's, we HAD to stop and eat there =D it tasted soo good. like home almost haha what we have noticed is that the portions here are pretty small compared to the portions back home..SO! we finished eating and went on to shop! we visited the trusty H&M, along with a million other stores. this is the biggest mall in denmark. i ended up buying a jacket and a shirt =) very happy. then at about 3:20ish, we decided it was time to go, because we didn't want to be left by the bus which was leaving at 4 sharp. we stopped at this little convenient store, and then erica and i went to use the bathroom. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!! you have to PAY money to pee in the train station. luckily, a lady held the door open for me so i didn't have to pay to open it. it didn't lock, but that's ok. hahah ok, enough of that, of course.

on the way back to the bus, which was parked outside of the museum, which was like a ten minute walk, we decided that the café was wayyyyyyyy too tempting, and we stopped in. my group of 4 ordered some drinks, we sat down, realized we had to leave soon, then went on our merry way =) the coffee was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. you can't imagine. haha i got this iced latte with carmel and whipped cream and chocolate pieces on top. wow. heaven. i definitely want to go back there. ^_^ so! we made it back to the bus on time =DDD and as we were leaving the town on a busy road, we noticed someone walking down the street...AN EXCHANGE STUEDNT!! dear heavens, they actually left her. everyone in my bus who saw her was peeing their pants. she started running to the bus and after stopping at a light, she made it =) we could all breathe again. whew! still, this was extremely scary. they would actually leave us to take the train home...later on we found out that a bus was indeed still waiting for her at the museum, so the teachers don't actually hate us. haha

this night, we finally were able to have our bonfire. the weather was good =) we started at about 8, which coming from newport oregon, seemed very early for a bonfire. but o well. go with the flow, ya know? it was good. the fire was SUPER hot at first, but the later it got, the colder it was outside, and it finally started to feel really nice. we experienced a danish tradition that night:: roasting bread over the fire. kind of like marshmellows, but, ya know, with bread. you wrap some dough around a stick and cook it =) it was kinda hard because all of us kids are impatient and didn't let it cool all the way through, or burned it, so i decided that it tastes better when it's a little gooey inside. ^_^ this was a gerat night to just chill out with friends. relax. sing some songs. be together as a group and not separate countries.

the last night we were there, saturday, there was a party for us awesome kids. each classroom had a show cased talent first, and then the party with musica and dancing started. my class did an act set to music. we wrote all the things that we think a 'typical' danish day includes...stupid bread, stupid weather, bicycling, saying the words that we know we can't say 'rød grød med fløde', and a couple other things like taht. everyone thought it was pretty funny because we described it well i think. haha we all love denmark enough to laugh at things we don't like =P

then after all of the classes went, our teachers for the week decided to play for us =DDDDDDDDDD my teacher, anders, was on the keyboard. palle, the leader of the camp, was lead guitar. martin, stephanie's teacher, was bass and percussion and back up vocals, marie (who is amazing), was lead vocals, and the 3 other teachers came in for a different song. they sang a danish song to begin with. marie has the voice of an angel. all week, all of us kids were just mesmerized by her. she looks like a model, she teaches, and she can sing. the next song they played was soul sister by train =D we all LOVEEEEEEEE this song. so they let us sing along. then for the last song, palle come to sing and marie took his spot at guitar. he sang min engel. a danish song we heard earlier in the week and fell in love with. it was amazing. he can sing also! the other 2 women teachers came in for backup vocals, and the last teacher, kristian, kind of crashed the party when he walked up in the middle of the song in a white sheet and palle sang to him. it was GREAT. best night ever. we all loved our teachers. all of them were between 25 & 30, and all of them were extremely good looking. at the end, all of us girls had crushes on the guys. and the boys all fell in love with marie. haha we were all convinced that her and palle were secretly dating or belonged together, because they looked perfect. we never did find out the truth tho ;)

then the dancing and music started! the party went until 1, but me, not being a major party animal yet, went to bed about 12:30. of course, with my girls =D then we all had to wake up the next day...pack up...eat breakfast...clean the room...and leave =(((((((((((( i did NOT want this week to end. i didn't want sunday to ever come. it was sooooo sad. to have to leave all of the friends i made. rotary is evil like this i tell you. i miss them all so much already. but home we had to go. we all got on teh busses and headed to the train station together. we all sat together until our stops arrived. then it was goodbye...

this week was a major success i think. we all learned so much danish it felt like. i can now tell time with 'ease', and i can't say 'unskyld, jeg kommer for sent' (sorry i am coming too late lol) i learned a lot about danish culture and history. and i made some amazing friends. i'd like to just tell you some of them:: stephanie-LA, erica-illinios, hillary-candada, canada (real name brett, but i call him this)-guess where, bread (real name brett, misunderstanding on the pronunciation)-canada, poliana-brazil, ana-brazil, boris-chile, brittney-oregon, hana-japan, rena-japan, and sooooooooooo many others! some of these people are in my district, so i'll get to see them again soon, but others i won't be able to see for awhile. they are amazing people. i miss them all...

this was the best week of my exchange so far. i'm so happy i got to go. i can't wait until the next meeting in october with the oldies (exchange students from parts of southern hemisphere who have already been here 6 months) and us newbies. it's going to be so much fun!

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
soooooo much...i don't kno where to start
no matter what country you are from, we all have a bond together
brazilians have soooooooooo much spirit! haha
danish people cannot dance very well
south americans can dance EXTREMELY well ^_^ (i plan on shipping a couple in when i have to go to a club or something)
rød grød med fløde tastes pretty good! (we ate it on saturday for dessert, first time ever having it!)
BE ON TIME IN DENMARK. the bus will leave you ^_^ (no, really, be on time, it's only proper and respectful)
SKÅL! (cheers)
the 3 hours it takes to cross the country seems like forever to people here, but it takes 3 hours to get from newport to portland back home...perspective perspective...
they have house warming parties here
i have officially seen my first stop sign! i didn't think they existed here...all yield signs and round abouts and stop lights
police cars exist too!!!!! i saw one for real in århus ^_^ haha
bed times are...well...more like suggestions
danes swear A LOT. so it's pretty amusing sometimes..and shocking lol
we can call our teachers by their first names here, STRANGE!!!
the chinese food here is pretty similar to that in US..but i like it better back home haha
even though you may miss all of your friends terribly, nothing feels better than sleeping in your own bed after a week of being gone

that's all for now folks! please email, comment, write. anything. i hope you enjoy my little updates! miss you all so much <3

love, rebekah