=) welcome back to my adventures in the lands of Danes!
So like I said, last week went down pretty much how I said it would. Rotary meeting on Monday, volleyball on Tuesday and Thursday. I did not, unfortunately get to hang out with René, but I think maybe I’ll get over that.
Last week was also murderous in regards to school. I went a FULL day every day last week except for Tuesday when I had a late start. Horrible. =P Danish school is, in my opinion, just BLAH. There really isn’t much I can say about it that I haven’t already said. It’s boring with a capital B. I feel bad for my class, actually. Apparently Danish schools are known for their group work, and they are split off into groups for nearly every single assignment. I find this rather silly. I don’t think it’s more productive. You just talk and don’t do the assignment half of the time. So this is why I feel sorry for my class. See, the groups I get paired with are an equal number with the other groups, but they are playing a man down so to speak. It’s like playing a game of baseball and one of the players has no arms. That player can stand there and look nice and all, but when it comes time to play, they are pretty useless. Yea, that’s me! Haha another thing I really don’t like is the fact that we may only have a max of 4 classes a day, but those classes are 1½ hours long with maybe only a 5 minute break sometimes. I don’t feel like the class gets more done than a normal 55 minute class would back home. I just think they go about it slower, and the fact that the group work takes up some time also adds up. But it’s their system, and they think it works for them. In the long run, I will never complain about a 55 minute class again. ^_^ but I’ve have 3 hour long classes at the college before, so this isn’t new to me. It’s just that I have nothing to do but listen to music or read in most of the classes that’s different. Not so fun anymore. =/ --END RANT
Rotary is going just like it always does: slowly. Haha hey, I love my rotary club. They are some super nice people. And they love having me here, I hope. We can speak together in almost fluent Danish. But mind you, it’s fluent Danish on about a child’s level =P BUT! Danish nonetheless. I’m completely satisfied with that.
Tuesday was volleyball. The first practice back after the Christmas break. And o, was it horrible. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve played THAT horribly. A long time. I guess I just need to get back onto the horse, as they say. Anyway! Haha so Wednesday was just school. Blah. Nothing fun happened that I can recall. Then Thursday I had volleyball practice again. I played better this time around, so I went home feeling not like a failure =P that’s always nice. I was completely sore all last week though from practice. It hurt to walk down the stairs. And that’s not good when you have to go up and down the stairs for EVERY class. But I tried to suck it up and take it like a man. Haha we are going to have a game soon I think. That’s so exciting! I can’t wait. I just need to find some knee pads, cuz man, my knees are torn to shreds. Bruises everywhere. Not so fun. But at least it’s winter and I’m not very concerned with how my legs look right now =P Friday was a good day. Fridays are always good, I mean, it’s FRIDAY! We always get out early on Fridays, so that’s another reason it’s so great. So on Friday I was going to hang out with René, but plans changed when he got a surprise job the day before. No joke, he said they went on a class trip to this place, he talked to some people, they liked him, and then on Friday was his ‘test run’. These people move fast. ^_^ so it sucked that we didn’t get to hang, but no biggie. =)
O, I forgot to mention, but on Thursday night, my host mom’s brother and his son came to visit us from the Farroe Islands. (long story, but they are some islands that Denmark owns, and are a plane ride away, and there is really nothing out there, and they don’t speak Danish, they have their own language, but they are owned by Denmark. So it’s kind of like Greenland, but WAY smaller) ANYWAYZ, so they came for a visit because there was a conference in town and they were going to that, so they stopped here for the weekend and stayed with us. Wow. So they came on Thursday and stayed until Sunday morning. Did I mention I thought the son was cute? Yea, he was! So on Thursday when they came and we ate together I was secretly eyeing him at the table, what 18 year old girl WOULDN’T do that? ^_^ but then it got late, so I went to bed. And on Friday I got up before them all to catch my bus like always. 6.30 in the morning. -_- but that’s not important. When I got home Friday, it was just me and maria for awhile, so I told her I thought he was cute. She said she used to think so too when she was younger, but then she found out he was her cousin’s husband… =O WHAT?!?!?!? That’s right ladies and gentlemen. I had mistaken the son-IN-LAW for the actual son. He’s married, he’s almost 30, and he’s got 3 kids. Wow. I sure can choose them huh. ^_^ please don’t judge me, how was I supposed to know! Haha it’s actually pretty funny. =P needless to say, Friday and Saturday were spent trying to figure out how someone who looks like they’re 19 could actually be 28. Mind blowing.
On Saturday I went with a family from my club to their son’s “boarding school”. (this is the same family I went to see Mamma Mia with in Copenhagen.) at this school they have a musical every year, and so they asked if I would like to come along with them and see it. Of course I said yes. This family has been so nice to me, I knew it would be fun. So we went. The school is about an hour away, so not too bad. The musical was called ‘Strawberry Fields’, and it was laced with Beatles’ music. I couldn’t tell you what the actual plot of the play was, the acting wasn’t that good, but the music was done very well =) they played somewhere from 10-20 Beatle’s songs, including ‘revolution’ ‘blackbird’ ‘strawberry fields’ and ‘hey jude’, and they sounded great. They have some real musical talent there. It was fun =) we had some cake and coffee during the break (what do you call it? I can’t remember…INTERMISSION! Maybe???) så det var meget dejligt! (it was very delightful)
After that I just came home and spent a late night with the family. Always fun =) maria and I have such a great time together. She’s the best little sister ever. I love how we’ve become like real sisters. I’m going to miss her so much. But I’m already planning for her to come see me in the US.
Sunday was relax day! Love it. I laid around the house all day. What a great way to end the weekend =)
I’m going to blog about this week soon! Some fun stuff is coming up that y’all should know about =DDD please keep reading. Keep praying. And for pete’s sake, write me some snail mail people! Show me the love! Haha just cuz I’m over here doesn’t mean I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. If you love me, or care about me in any way, if you’re my friend, I expect a letter from you soon. <3 message me for the address!
Love you all. Keep posted on my shutterfly account. There are tons of cool photos and some funny videos. I’ll be adding more soon. So for those of you without a facebook, I hope you’re checking =) http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/
Take care! Rebekah
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Hey everyone =) I hope life is treating you all well. I know it is for me.
This past week has been good. I mean, besides the school part, of course =P I’ve been enjoying being back and seeing my friends. Not too much happened in the week. But my weekend was really good!
Friday I was free from school at about 1, which was great! I love getting out early. It’s a great start to the weekend =) I just went home and relaxed for awhile. That night my host sister had her birthday party with the girls from her class. Yes, there were about twelve 14 year old girls in my house that night. Crazy. It reminded me of how much I would never go back in time if I could =P but it was still a lot of fun for her. I met the girls, said hi, they stared at me a little. It was ok. Haha I let them just do their own thing. But you definitely knew they were in the house. All the laughing and talking at 1 am proved it =P good thing I wasn’t worried about sleeping.
So then I woke up on Saturday and watched a movie in the morning and then got ready to go out that night. I was heading out to a girls’ night with my exchange student friends. There are 6 of us, and we’re all girls. (two more kids are coming this week, but not sure if they are both girls or not) so I went to Ruby’s house (from New Zealand) and she, steph, and I waited for the other girls to come in their carpool. It was such a fun night. We ate this ginormous pizza, had some tea, had some cookies and cake, and watched great movies. And the best part, we stayed up, more or less, the whole night. Some of us slept for about 30 minutes during a movie, but other than that we were up =D it was a great way to spend my weekend. With the girls that I love. We were able to stay up and talk and just spend some quality time together, which is what I love. My host dad ended up coming to get me around 10.30 on Sunday morning and then we went home. All of us girls had declared that we were not the least bit sleepy, but as soon as I got home and checked my facebook, I was sound asleep for the next 7 hours. Yea, you can imagine how screwed up my sleeping is going to be for tonight. And for school tomorrow. That’s not going to be a fun day.
But all in all, it was a super fun weekend, and I’m glad I got to spend it with my girlies. It feels like we’re all just growing so close together, and every time we do something like this, it just strengthens the bond we have. =)
Coming up this week:: an English speech due in 8 hours (yikes! But I won’t be sleeping tonight anyway), volleyball practice TWO TIMES this week, meeting the new exchangers, hanging out with René (we aren’t sure when, but he just knows he doesn’t have a choice), and might be going out on Friday. Not sure yet, but those are the general plans for the week =D
Hoping to hear from y’all soon! Letters are always welcome =D miss you, much love.
Kys,
Rebekah
This past week has been good. I mean, besides the school part, of course =P I’ve been enjoying being back and seeing my friends. Not too much happened in the week. But my weekend was really good!
Friday I was free from school at about 1, which was great! I love getting out early. It’s a great start to the weekend =) I just went home and relaxed for awhile. That night my host sister had her birthday party with the girls from her class. Yes, there were about twelve 14 year old girls in my house that night. Crazy. It reminded me of how much I would never go back in time if I could =P but it was still a lot of fun for her. I met the girls, said hi, they stared at me a little. It was ok. Haha I let them just do their own thing. But you definitely knew they were in the house. All the laughing and talking at 1 am proved it =P good thing I wasn’t worried about sleeping.
So then I woke up on Saturday and watched a movie in the morning and then got ready to go out that night. I was heading out to a girls’ night with my exchange student friends. There are 6 of us, and we’re all girls. (two more kids are coming this week, but not sure if they are both girls or not) so I went to Ruby’s house (from New Zealand) and she, steph, and I waited for the other girls to come in their carpool. It was such a fun night. We ate this ginormous pizza, had some tea, had some cookies and cake, and watched great movies. And the best part, we stayed up, more or less, the whole night. Some of us slept for about 30 minutes during a movie, but other than that we were up =D it was a great way to spend my weekend. With the girls that I love. We were able to stay up and talk and just spend some quality time together, which is what I love. My host dad ended up coming to get me around 10.30 on Sunday morning and then we went home. All of us girls had declared that we were not the least bit sleepy, but as soon as I got home and checked my facebook, I was sound asleep for the next 7 hours. Yea, you can imagine how screwed up my sleeping is going to be for tonight. And for school tomorrow. That’s not going to be a fun day.
But all in all, it was a super fun weekend, and I’m glad I got to spend it with my girlies. It feels like we’re all just growing so close together, and every time we do something like this, it just strengthens the bond we have. =)
Coming up this week:: an English speech due in 8 hours (yikes! But I won’t be sleeping tonight anyway), volleyball practice TWO TIMES this week, meeting the new exchangers, hanging out with René (we aren’t sure when, but he just knows he doesn’t have a choice), and might be going out on Friday. Not sure yet, but those are the general plans for the week =D
Hoping to hear from y’all soon! Letters are always welcome =D miss you, much love.
Kys,
Rebekah
Friday, January 14, 2011
Accepted
Hello my beloved readers!!! Well, I promised that I would soon be writing a blog about life and things like that, since I’m now generally caught up on things that have been happening. =)
But first of all, I would like to announce my big news! So as I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been looking at colleges a lot and thinking about what in the world I’m going to do and things like that. My number one college of choice was Corban University in Salem, OR. I just received a scholarship from them around Christmas time, but I had yet to be actually accepted to the college itself. Well I am happy to announce that today I received an email from my admissions counselor and guess what! I’M ACCEPTED!!!! =D he said I’ll be getting a packet in the mail detailing my next steps and financial aid and things like that. I’m just so completely happy right now. Now I just have to figure out how I’m actually going to PAY to go to this school, but hey, that’s no biggie, right =P I’m hoping I can earn enough in scholarships to pay for some of it. Otherwise, I’m still not sure if this dream can come true or not. We will see. Pray for me please.
Ok! Onto the *other news =P this is all a little less exciting to talk about, but you still must stay informed!
Like I said awhile ago, December was an exceptionally hard month for me. My 18th birthday was on the 7th, and then Christmas was coming too. In the same month. I missed my family horribly. It was almost unbearable at times. I say almost because had it been completely unbearable, then I would already be on a plane back home. But I made it which is good! Now that the holidays are over I can actually feel myself feeling better and less homesick. It was horrible for awhile though. But I’m glad I have good friends that are here for me.
Coming back to school was almost a nightmare in a sense. Waking up at 6 in the morning after 2½ weeks of sleeping until 10? Yea, THAT’S a nightmare for an 18 year old girl. Easily. But getting back into things weren’t as hard as I thought they would be. Everyone was coming back to school off of break, so we all pretty much felt the same way. Boring, boring, boring. But then again, school back home was rather boring too, but at least I did it =P I have some projects coming up in school which I’m required to do. One in English class, so that was obvious, a paper (5-7 pgs) on global warming for my ‘junior year project’, and sometime after that, if my teacher doesn’t forget, I’ll be giving a presentation about the Grand Canyon, or something cool like that in my geographies class. So! I’ll be busy soon again. Which is great. I’m also starting volleyball again! During the break it stopped, but then the other day the coach messaged us and told us it was starting again. 2 practices a week! Yay =D we had just one before, so I’m really happy. This is good. I love being active. And hopefully it will help me shed my holiday weight.
Ok, now language! I know you’re all dying to hear my Danish and how it’s going. Well, ok. My Danish is going pretty well. I’m still not fluent, not sure if that will ever come. So disheartening, but I’ll get over it. I haven’t dreamed again in Danish either, so that’s also sad =( but other than that! It’s going pretty decently I think. The thing that had me so upset earlier (a few months ago) was that I saw myself plateau-ing and I hated it. But recently I’ve been thinking, maybe I’m not just stuck, maybe I’m still moving, just at a snail’s pace. Hey, I’m ok with going as slow as molasses in January, at least it’s SOME progress. (by the way, that expression is from NE, and a lot of my friends from outside of the Midwest don’t understand it. They laugh) I’ve been speaking a new dialect that I like to call ‘Danglish’. It’s like Spanglish, but with Danish. English and Danish combined. I speak a lot of Danish, and I try to speak as much as I can, but when I don’t know how to say it I just switch back to English. This is probably the wrong approach to take, but o well. My understanding has improved some too. Now I’ve found that I don’t have to translate in my head, I just know that they say or are talking about. But yea, there are still some things where I need a few seconds to think about what was said. But the important thing is that I understand. I remember when I was a few months from my departure and I was listening to youtube videos of people teaching Danish. I was so frustrated because I didn’t understand a THING they said, of course. And I thought it was completely impossible to do. Danish sounded so hard. I wanted to just stay home and not go. I didn’t think I could do it. Well here I am now. Speaking and understanding Danish =) it’s a good feeling. I think it’s time I put things in perspective. I’ve been here 5½ months and had no training in Danish before I came. (besides the few things I taught myself) that’s not bad. I’ll take what I can get.
O by the way, my English has gotten horrible. I make silly grammar mistakes all the time now. And I’m a grammar nazi, I hate these mistakes. And my spelling is really questionable most of the time. Just thought I should let you know. So I can’t communicate in Danish -OR- English right now hahaha ^_^
My friend situation has gotten better. I’m really happy to say that. Some people in my class have done a 180 on me and are now talking to me and things. It’s great. I also had a few problems with my best Danish friend out here for awhile, but now that’s all fixed and we’re really good friends again =D and of course, my other exchange friends are solid. Yea, those are my solid friendships here. I don’t think you can really understand the bond unless you’ve been there yourself. We all trust each other with a lot. And we have trusted each other for a very long time. It’s nice to have ‘instant’ friends. I can see myself being friends with these girls after we leave each other this year. =)
Hmm..not much else to talk about. Those are the news updates in my exchange! Have I left anything out that you would like to know about? Well leave a comment or email me with anything you’d like to know! also, be sure to check out my photo sharing site if you don’t have facebook or aren’t connected with my facebok. ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com is where you’ll find a lot of great pictures and some videos of my time here =) keep in touch! I miss you all.
Kys,
Rebekah
But first of all, I would like to announce my big news! So as I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been looking at colleges a lot and thinking about what in the world I’m going to do and things like that. My number one college of choice was Corban University in Salem, OR. I just received a scholarship from them around Christmas time, but I had yet to be actually accepted to the college itself. Well I am happy to announce that today I received an email from my admissions counselor and guess what! I’M ACCEPTED!!!! =D he said I’ll be getting a packet in the mail detailing my next steps and financial aid and things like that. I’m just so completely happy right now. Now I just have to figure out how I’m actually going to PAY to go to this school, but hey, that’s no biggie, right =P I’m hoping I can earn enough in scholarships to pay for some of it. Otherwise, I’m still not sure if this dream can come true or not. We will see. Pray for me please.
Ok! Onto the *other news =P this is all a little less exciting to talk about, but you still must stay informed!
Like I said awhile ago, December was an exceptionally hard month for me. My 18th birthday was on the 7th, and then Christmas was coming too. In the same month. I missed my family horribly. It was almost unbearable at times. I say almost because had it been completely unbearable, then I would already be on a plane back home. But I made it which is good! Now that the holidays are over I can actually feel myself feeling better and less homesick. It was horrible for awhile though. But I’m glad I have good friends that are here for me.
Coming back to school was almost a nightmare in a sense. Waking up at 6 in the morning after 2½ weeks of sleeping until 10? Yea, THAT’S a nightmare for an 18 year old girl. Easily. But getting back into things weren’t as hard as I thought they would be. Everyone was coming back to school off of break, so we all pretty much felt the same way. Boring, boring, boring. But then again, school back home was rather boring too, but at least I did it =P I have some projects coming up in school which I’m required to do. One in English class, so that was obvious, a paper (5-7 pgs) on global warming for my ‘junior year project’, and sometime after that, if my teacher doesn’t forget, I’ll be giving a presentation about the Grand Canyon, or something cool like that in my geographies class. So! I’ll be busy soon again. Which is great. I’m also starting volleyball again! During the break it stopped, but then the other day the coach messaged us and told us it was starting again. 2 practices a week! Yay =D we had just one before, so I’m really happy. This is good. I love being active. And hopefully it will help me shed my holiday weight.
Ok, now language! I know you’re all dying to hear my Danish and how it’s going. Well, ok. My Danish is going pretty well. I’m still not fluent, not sure if that will ever come. So disheartening, but I’ll get over it. I haven’t dreamed again in Danish either, so that’s also sad =( but other than that! It’s going pretty decently I think. The thing that had me so upset earlier (a few months ago) was that I saw myself plateau-ing and I hated it. But recently I’ve been thinking, maybe I’m not just stuck, maybe I’m still moving, just at a snail’s pace. Hey, I’m ok with going as slow as molasses in January, at least it’s SOME progress. (by the way, that expression is from NE, and a lot of my friends from outside of the Midwest don’t understand it. They laugh) I’ve been speaking a new dialect that I like to call ‘Danglish’. It’s like Spanglish, but with Danish. English and Danish combined. I speak a lot of Danish, and I try to speak as much as I can, but when I don’t know how to say it I just switch back to English. This is probably the wrong approach to take, but o well. My understanding has improved some too. Now I’ve found that I don’t have to translate in my head, I just know that they say or are talking about. But yea, there are still some things where I need a few seconds to think about what was said. But the important thing is that I understand. I remember when I was a few months from my departure and I was listening to youtube videos of people teaching Danish. I was so frustrated because I didn’t understand a THING they said, of course. And I thought it was completely impossible to do. Danish sounded so hard. I wanted to just stay home and not go. I didn’t think I could do it. Well here I am now. Speaking and understanding Danish =) it’s a good feeling. I think it’s time I put things in perspective. I’ve been here 5½ months and had no training in Danish before I came. (besides the few things I taught myself) that’s not bad. I’ll take what I can get.
O by the way, my English has gotten horrible. I make silly grammar mistakes all the time now. And I’m a grammar nazi, I hate these mistakes. And my spelling is really questionable most of the time. Just thought I should let you know. So I can’t communicate in Danish -OR- English right now hahaha ^_^
My friend situation has gotten better. I’m really happy to say that. Some people in my class have done a 180 on me and are now talking to me and things. It’s great. I also had a few problems with my best Danish friend out here for awhile, but now that’s all fixed and we’re really good friends again =D and of course, my other exchange friends are solid. Yea, those are my solid friendships here. I don’t think you can really understand the bond unless you’ve been there yourself. We all trust each other with a lot. And we have trusted each other for a very long time. It’s nice to have ‘instant’ friends. I can see myself being friends with these girls after we leave each other this year. =)
Hmm..not much else to talk about. Those are the news updates in my exchange! Have I left anything out that you would like to know about? Well leave a comment or email me with anything you’d like to know! also, be sure to check out my photo sharing site if you don’t have facebook or aren’t connected with my facebok. ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com is where you’ll find a lot of great pictures and some videos of my time here =) keep in touch! I miss you all.
Kys,
Rebekah
Monday, January 10, 2011
Shutterfly is officially up!
ok, i know that i promised a shutterfly awhile ago and i did create one. i've been posting the albums on this here blog, but i've now created a sharing site! this site will have all of my albums posted so you won't have to go through searching my blog if you want photos. =)
http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/
leave comments and questions people! that's how i knew i needed to make this site, several people asked me where all these pictures were. so i do listen and answer =)
take care!
Rebekah
http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/
leave comments and questions people! that's how i knew i needed to make this site, several people asked me where all these pictures were. so i do listen and answer =)
take care!
Rebekah
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Glædelig Jul...Godt Nytår
Ok, we’ve finally reached Christmas =D no title to guess this time, just a merry Christmas and happy new year. =P I’m almost caught up on all my blogging! Yea, I’m so happy now. It’s hard to get back into it when I’ve waited so long. But that’s not going to happen again! I’m now going to be a faithful blogger =D I hope
Ok, so I left off around the 18th of December, but actually that wasn’t the 18th, it was the 20th =P sorry for the confusion. I’ll have pictures of the lights up on my shutterfly soon. Please check them out!
So after the 20th, not much happened at all. It was all just relaxing at home and sleeping in. HEAVEN. Haha that’s the real horrible thing about going on a vacation. You rearrange your whole sleeping schedule. I went to bed at about 3 am and woke up at about 11 every day. Yea, that was horrible to go back to school =P but anywayz, here they celebrate Christmas on the 24th, Christmas eve, night. So it’s a bit different for me. They also put real candles on the tree along with the lights, and they sing around the tree like the Whos down in Whoville from the Grinch. O, and they eat like crazy. December brought SO.MUCH.FOOD! I hate thinking about it =P but on with the story!
My Christmas package from home hadn’t arrived by the 23rd, and so I knew I was going to get no presents from home for Christmas. This was really depressing for me. Not being able to open anything on the 25th just brought me down. So that day I had to clean my room, and it kept my mind off of things. While I was cleaning I found a letter from a college that my mom had sent to me. I hadn’t opened the letter because I thought it was just another invite to come see the campus, so I simply through it aside. Well on this day I was cleaning my room I picked up this letter and finally decided to open it. I opened the letter and went completely bug eyed. I then immediately started to cry and sob. I guess I should tell you what this letter was. It was a scholarship. To my first choice college. A $32,000 scholarship to use over a 4 year period. I just broke down and sat on my floor and cried. I was so over whelmed by how amazing this felt and how happy I was. Christmas had brought something special after all. I haven’t been accepted to this college yet, I’m expecting to hear from them this up coming week, but if you remember in my last post I was saying how sad I was to not be able to afford to go to this school. Well now, it might just be possible. =) that was the best present I’ve ever received. And it wasn’t even Christmas day yet =P
We then celebrated Christmas on the night of the 24th with a big dinner, then the presents. My host dad actually got sick during dinner, but he still did presents with us. I got 2 gifts from my family: a pair of water proof rubber boots, and a shirt with some shoes on it from my host sister =) great gifts. That night we stayed up, just my host mom and sister and I because my host dad went to bed early, and watched the 3rd Twilight movie that my host sister got for one of her presents. It was great. After that we all hit the hay and went to bed.
The next day was the 25th, my Christmas morning. I woke up kind of late and just lounged around. My family and I had lunch and played some board games for a few hours. We just hung around for a few hours, my sister and I watched dirty dancing, her other present, and then it was time for dinner. We ate and had a good time together, and then around 7 I went up to my room and had a few hours to skype with my family. It was nice. Really hard, but nice. They hadn’t received the package I sent home for them either, so that was a little sad. But it was nice to see them and talk to them. I miss my family. I told you, December was just one awful month for me.
On the 26th was my host sister’s 14th birthday, so we had some family and family friends over for lunch and coffee and cake. It was ok. Really boring. Like fall to sleep at the table boring. But my host mom told me I could just go up to my room, and that I didn’t have to stay down there the whole time. That was great. After the cake and coffee I went up to my room and fell asleep =P I was up there the rest of the night ^_^
And that was my Christmas in a nutshell! Now I’ll tell a little about the few days after that:
I received my packages from home, finally! I swear the Danish post just hates me for some reason and doesn’t want to give me my mail. So that was really great to finally get stuff from home. My parents and I skyped and I opened their presents while they opened the ones from me =) I went shopping with one of my close Danish friends, René. He picked out a black dress for me, and I bought it =D (my rotary club gave me a gift card to a store, so I spent some of that) then stephanie and I went shopping and I bought ANOTHER dress, a shirt, a scarf (so I can look Danish), and a light jacket. Everything was on sale, so it was ok =P
Now on to New Year’s. =)
A lot of people go to parties on new year’s, but I stayed home with my family and Stephanie came over for the night. It was great. We arrived back home (I had to go get her by bus) just in time for the queen’s speech. If we had missed that speech, I just know we would have been in BIG trouble. But we made it with 2 minutes to spare =P we ate dinner together and just hung out until midnight watching tv and talking and things. Then at the midnight countdown we ate a little piece of cake and drank some champagne. Well, us kiddies had some sparkling peach juice or something like that. =P then we went out and set off the fireworks! Yes, Denmark lights off fireworks for their new year =D it was a lot of fun. I love watching fireworks. It makes me happy to know I’ll be back home in time for the 4th of July. I would miss not seeing the show. Then steph and I went to my room, watched a movie, dyed my hair, then passed out =D all in all, it was a great New Year’s. =)
Then school started on the 5th of January. Now that I’ve caught up with what’s been happening to me, I’ll be able to post more recent things, how things are going, and how I’m doing. Thanks for reading. O! and be sure to check out my shutterfly pictures if you are not my facebook friend. I’m trying to let those of you without a facebook to still be able to see things that I’m involved with. =)
Thanks for the prayers and support. Miss you all. Love you.
<3 Rebekah
Ok, so I left off around the 18th of December, but actually that wasn’t the 18th, it was the 20th =P sorry for the confusion. I’ll have pictures of the lights up on my shutterfly soon. Please check them out!
So after the 20th, not much happened at all. It was all just relaxing at home and sleeping in. HEAVEN. Haha that’s the real horrible thing about going on a vacation. You rearrange your whole sleeping schedule. I went to bed at about 3 am and woke up at about 11 every day. Yea, that was horrible to go back to school =P but anywayz, here they celebrate Christmas on the 24th, Christmas eve, night. So it’s a bit different for me. They also put real candles on the tree along with the lights, and they sing around the tree like the Whos down in Whoville from the Grinch. O, and they eat like crazy. December brought SO.MUCH.FOOD! I hate thinking about it =P but on with the story!
My Christmas package from home hadn’t arrived by the 23rd, and so I knew I was going to get no presents from home for Christmas. This was really depressing for me. Not being able to open anything on the 25th just brought me down. So that day I had to clean my room, and it kept my mind off of things. While I was cleaning I found a letter from a college that my mom had sent to me. I hadn’t opened the letter because I thought it was just another invite to come see the campus, so I simply through it aside. Well on this day I was cleaning my room I picked up this letter and finally decided to open it. I opened the letter and went completely bug eyed. I then immediately started to cry and sob. I guess I should tell you what this letter was. It was a scholarship. To my first choice college. A $32,000 scholarship to use over a 4 year period. I just broke down and sat on my floor and cried. I was so over whelmed by how amazing this felt and how happy I was. Christmas had brought something special after all. I haven’t been accepted to this college yet, I’m expecting to hear from them this up coming week, but if you remember in my last post I was saying how sad I was to not be able to afford to go to this school. Well now, it might just be possible. =) that was the best present I’ve ever received. And it wasn’t even Christmas day yet =P
We then celebrated Christmas on the night of the 24th with a big dinner, then the presents. My host dad actually got sick during dinner, but he still did presents with us. I got 2 gifts from my family: a pair of water proof rubber boots, and a shirt with some shoes on it from my host sister =) great gifts. That night we stayed up, just my host mom and sister and I because my host dad went to bed early, and watched the 3rd Twilight movie that my host sister got for one of her presents. It was great. After that we all hit the hay and went to bed.
The next day was the 25th, my Christmas morning. I woke up kind of late and just lounged around. My family and I had lunch and played some board games for a few hours. We just hung around for a few hours, my sister and I watched dirty dancing, her other present, and then it was time for dinner. We ate and had a good time together, and then around 7 I went up to my room and had a few hours to skype with my family. It was nice. Really hard, but nice. They hadn’t received the package I sent home for them either, so that was a little sad. But it was nice to see them and talk to them. I miss my family. I told you, December was just one awful month for me.
On the 26th was my host sister’s 14th birthday, so we had some family and family friends over for lunch and coffee and cake. It was ok. Really boring. Like fall to sleep at the table boring. But my host mom told me I could just go up to my room, and that I didn’t have to stay down there the whole time. That was great. After the cake and coffee I went up to my room and fell asleep =P I was up there the rest of the night ^_^
And that was my Christmas in a nutshell! Now I’ll tell a little about the few days after that:
I received my packages from home, finally! I swear the Danish post just hates me for some reason and doesn’t want to give me my mail. So that was really great to finally get stuff from home. My parents and I skyped and I opened their presents while they opened the ones from me =) I went shopping with one of my close Danish friends, René. He picked out a black dress for me, and I bought it =D (my rotary club gave me a gift card to a store, so I spent some of that) then stephanie and I went shopping and I bought ANOTHER dress, a shirt, a scarf (so I can look Danish), and a light jacket. Everything was on sale, so it was ok =P
Now on to New Year’s. =)
A lot of people go to parties on new year’s, but I stayed home with my family and Stephanie came over for the night. It was great. We arrived back home (I had to go get her by bus) just in time for the queen’s speech. If we had missed that speech, I just know we would have been in BIG trouble. But we made it with 2 minutes to spare =P we ate dinner together and just hung out until midnight watching tv and talking and things. Then at the midnight countdown we ate a little piece of cake and drank some champagne. Well, us kiddies had some sparkling peach juice or something like that. =P then we went out and set off the fireworks! Yes, Denmark lights off fireworks for their new year =D it was a lot of fun. I love watching fireworks. It makes me happy to know I’ll be back home in time for the 4th of July. I would miss not seeing the show. Then steph and I went to my room, watched a movie, dyed my hair, then passed out =D all in all, it was a great New Year’s. =)
Then school started on the 5th of January. Now that I’ve caught up with what’s been happening to me, I’ll be able to post more recent things, how things are going, and how I’m doing. Thanks for reading. O! and be sure to check out my shutterfly pictures if you are not my facebook friend. I’m trying to let those of you without a facebook to still be able to see things that I’m involved with. =)
Thanks for the prayers and support. Miss you all. Love you.
<3 Rebekah
Merry Christmas ya filthy animal...and a Happy New Year
Guess where my latest title is from and I’ll send you something in the mail! =) what movie is this quote from. The first person to tell me wins. Thanks for playing, and read on!
December!!!!! Ok so we’ve finally reached it. The big month. The month I knew would be the hardest in my whole exchange. My 18th birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. Greattttttttt. Let’s get started!
So if you remember from my last post, I had gone to a basketball practice and was asked to play at a tournament in Copenhagen. We were a team of 7. We played 4 games. We lost all of them. But! We got to go shopping in the freezing cold afterwards. That somehow makes up for it, doesn’t it? Haha it was horrible. I remember why I quit basketball in the first place. I suck. Out of 4 games, I made 1 basket. But I did manage to get super physical and lost my temper once or twice. No biggie. -_- I’m convinced that these people don’t know how to actually play basketball. The fouls were flying. It was a mad house. But o well, we couldn’t help that. We tried. That’s all that matters I guess…I don’t really plan on going back to practice. I can’t play basketball for the life of me. Sorry if that disappoints anyone, but you’ll just have to deal with it. =)
On Friday, December 3, my class had a ‘Julefrokost’. It’s a Christmas dinner. So much fun! My whole class showed up besides one or two I think. It was just a great time. We all got to spend time together and talk and have fun being Danish. We ate some great traditional food, played a game with presents, and just partied it up. See, I wish our class could do things like that together more often. Inside the classroom there are some divisions, but everyone can work with everyone. Outside of the classroom we don’t all hang out together, but at a party together we all are like best friends. It’s great and I just would like to have more chances like that to have fun with my class. We will see ;) I left the julefrokost at about 2 I think? Then I pretty much passed out in bed, I was soooo tired. Then I had to wake up early the next morning because my Danish class was having its FINAL trip to the city together. So we all met up at Næstved train station at about 9 in the morning, but because of the snow, Bryan from New Zealand was running late. So we all just waited inside out of the wind and cold. And there was a completely off his rocker, drunk guy there. He started talking to our Danish teacher and then kind of talked to us. It was SOOOOO funny. O the things you can encounter in a train station at 9 in the morning after almost everyone in Denmark has a Christmas party =P when Bryan finally got there, we set out into the city, but we didn’t take the same long tour as the first time. It was freezing outside, so we walked past some of the sites, Majbritt said a few things, then we went downtown and got some hot chocolate or the like. It was good =) I love those people in class. So we ended up heading home at about 12. And as soon as I got home, I went in for a nap =P but there was no rest for the weary because I had to get up at 7.45 the next morning to attend a 5 km march for children. My rotary club loves me I think. Haha it was me, my host dad, and 2 other members that showed up. I took the initiative, which I think they appreciate. After the march we went to one of the member’s house and had some coffee and cake. It was nice. Then we headed home again =)
The rest of the week was pretty boring actually. On Monday night I went to my rotary’s Christmas dinner. It was nice. There were also about 16 swedish people that came. So it was super interesting to hear Swedish AND Danish being spoken. You can definitely hear the difference. Swedish, and Norwegian I must add, sounds a lot smoother, like melody almost. Whereas Danish is more definite. But all in all it was a good night. An old Swedish man sat next to me and he chatted away with me. He was quite the gentleman too, he held my chair out for me to sit in =D haha it was good.
Then! On Tuesday it was my 18th =D yes, I turned the big 1-8. I took some cake to school, they all sang to me, it was good. I still haven’t had my birthday party yet, but I hope to have it at the end of the month maybe. Not sure yet though. We had a nice family night. My host mom couldn’t be there, but my host dad and Maria and I went out to dinner at a little restaurant. It was nice. Danes don’t eat out that often at all, so it was a special occasion for me =) we didn’t do anything big on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we had my other 2 families come over and the rotary club president. It was nice. We had cake and coffee. (I’ve eaten SO MUCH STINKING CAKE in December. I’m surprised I’m not as big as a house) I got some really great presents from them all. And I’m very grateful. =) 2 new necklaces, some Christina Aguilera perfume, an ornament, a gift card for 500 kr. and a bracelet =D it was a great birthday night. O and something funny? We didn’t have enough candle holders, so I got to put 6 train cars on my cake! Hahah yes, I just turned 18, but I fought for those trains. =P
On Friday was my host mom’s birthday, and she had 3 friends over for cake and coffee. So.much.cake. yea I can’t tell you how much I ate this month. It was horrible. Because the next day, my next host sister was having HER 18th birthday family get together. Again, food, and coffee and cake. Wow. Luckily, there were no more birthdays that week. So I got a break! =P but on December 17th, school was let out for Christmas break, and what do you think I did for several of those days? Yea, I just sat around the house and ate. I’m actually scared to get on that scale in the bathroom. I just keep telling myself that my clothes still fit, so it’s ok. =) whatever helps me sleep at night, ya know.
The week after the break started, me and my host dad and my sister took a trip to Copenhagen to visit this museum full of ancient greek, roman, and Egyptian artifacts. It was so cool. I saw things that were over 2,000 years old. Crazy! And I saw a real live mummy!!!! Wait, ok, not the LIVE part, but a real mummy! Two of them actually =D it was soooooooo cool to see all of that stuff. After the museum maria and I went to shop and get some hot chocolate while her dad was visiting a friend. It was nice. A lot of fun. Freezing, yes, but a lot of fun haha
On the 18th my counselor took me to Copenhagen so we could see Tivoli lit up in Christmas lights and see all the Christmas displays. It was great. So beautiful. My counselor is one of the sweetest women in the world. She was an exchange student in the 60s, not with any organization, and she still talks with her family and goes on vacations with them. It’s so great. I would love to be like her when my exchange is over. I can see that happening to me.
Anyway, that is my December up until Christmas. I’m going to write all about Christmas and new years next. Wow, I had A LOT of writing to catch up on. But aren’t you happy to read this stuff again? O I know you are ;)
Hugs and kisses <3
Rebekah
December!!!!! Ok so we’ve finally reached it. The big month. The month I knew would be the hardest in my whole exchange. My 18th birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. Greattttttttt. Let’s get started!
So if you remember from my last post, I had gone to a basketball practice and was asked to play at a tournament in Copenhagen. We were a team of 7. We played 4 games. We lost all of them. But! We got to go shopping in the freezing cold afterwards. That somehow makes up for it, doesn’t it? Haha it was horrible. I remember why I quit basketball in the first place. I suck. Out of 4 games, I made 1 basket. But I did manage to get super physical and lost my temper once or twice. No biggie. -_- I’m convinced that these people don’t know how to actually play basketball. The fouls were flying. It was a mad house. But o well, we couldn’t help that. We tried. That’s all that matters I guess…I don’t really plan on going back to practice. I can’t play basketball for the life of me. Sorry if that disappoints anyone, but you’ll just have to deal with it. =)
On Friday, December 3, my class had a ‘Julefrokost’. It’s a Christmas dinner. So much fun! My whole class showed up besides one or two I think. It was just a great time. We all got to spend time together and talk and have fun being Danish. We ate some great traditional food, played a game with presents, and just partied it up. See, I wish our class could do things like that together more often. Inside the classroom there are some divisions, but everyone can work with everyone. Outside of the classroom we don’t all hang out together, but at a party together we all are like best friends. It’s great and I just would like to have more chances like that to have fun with my class. We will see ;) I left the julefrokost at about 2 I think? Then I pretty much passed out in bed, I was soooo tired. Then I had to wake up early the next morning because my Danish class was having its FINAL trip to the city together. So we all met up at Næstved train station at about 9 in the morning, but because of the snow, Bryan from New Zealand was running late. So we all just waited inside out of the wind and cold. And there was a completely off his rocker, drunk guy there. He started talking to our Danish teacher and then kind of talked to us. It was SOOOOO funny. O the things you can encounter in a train station at 9 in the morning after almost everyone in Denmark has a Christmas party =P when Bryan finally got there, we set out into the city, but we didn’t take the same long tour as the first time. It was freezing outside, so we walked past some of the sites, Majbritt said a few things, then we went downtown and got some hot chocolate or the like. It was good =) I love those people in class. So we ended up heading home at about 12. And as soon as I got home, I went in for a nap =P but there was no rest for the weary because I had to get up at 7.45 the next morning to attend a 5 km march for children. My rotary club loves me I think. Haha it was me, my host dad, and 2 other members that showed up. I took the initiative, which I think they appreciate. After the march we went to one of the member’s house and had some coffee and cake. It was nice. Then we headed home again =)
The rest of the week was pretty boring actually. On Monday night I went to my rotary’s Christmas dinner. It was nice. There were also about 16 swedish people that came. So it was super interesting to hear Swedish AND Danish being spoken. You can definitely hear the difference. Swedish, and Norwegian I must add, sounds a lot smoother, like melody almost. Whereas Danish is more definite. But all in all it was a good night. An old Swedish man sat next to me and he chatted away with me. He was quite the gentleman too, he held my chair out for me to sit in =D haha it was good.
Then! On Tuesday it was my 18th =D yes, I turned the big 1-8. I took some cake to school, they all sang to me, it was good. I still haven’t had my birthday party yet, but I hope to have it at the end of the month maybe. Not sure yet though. We had a nice family night. My host mom couldn’t be there, but my host dad and Maria and I went out to dinner at a little restaurant. It was nice. Danes don’t eat out that often at all, so it was a special occasion for me =) we didn’t do anything big on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we had my other 2 families come over and the rotary club president. It was nice. We had cake and coffee. (I’ve eaten SO MUCH STINKING CAKE in December. I’m surprised I’m not as big as a house) I got some really great presents from them all. And I’m very grateful. =) 2 new necklaces, some Christina Aguilera perfume, an ornament, a gift card for 500 kr. and a bracelet =D it was a great birthday night. O and something funny? We didn’t have enough candle holders, so I got to put 6 train cars on my cake! Hahah yes, I just turned 18, but I fought for those trains. =P
On Friday was my host mom’s birthday, and she had 3 friends over for cake and coffee. So.much.cake. yea I can’t tell you how much I ate this month. It was horrible. Because the next day, my next host sister was having HER 18th birthday family get together. Again, food, and coffee and cake. Wow. Luckily, there were no more birthdays that week. So I got a break! =P but on December 17th, school was let out for Christmas break, and what do you think I did for several of those days? Yea, I just sat around the house and ate. I’m actually scared to get on that scale in the bathroom. I just keep telling myself that my clothes still fit, so it’s ok. =) whatever helps me sleep at night, ya know.
The week after the break started, me and my host dad and my sister took a trip to Copenhagen to visit this museum full of ancient greek, roman, and Egyptian artifacts. It was so cool. I saw things that were over 2,000 years old. Crazy! And I saw a real live mummy!!!! Wait, ok, not the LIVE part, but a real mummy! Two of them actually =D it was soooooooo cool to see all of that stuff. After the museum maria and I went to shop and get some hot chocolate while her dad was visiting a friend. It was nice. A lot of fun. Freezing, yes, but a lot of fun haha
On the 18th my counselor took me to Copenhagen so we could see Tivoli lit up in Christmas lights and see all the Christmas displays. It was great. So beautiful. My counselor is one of the sweetest women in the world. She was an exchange student in the 60s, not with any organization, and she still talks with her family and goes on vacations with them. It’s so great. I would love to be like her when my exchange is over. I can see that happening to me.
Anyway, that is my December up until Christmas. I’m going to write all about Christmas and new years next. Wow, I had A LOT of writing to catch up on. But aren’t you happy to read this stuff again? O I know you are ;)
Hugs and kisses <3
Rebekah
I suffer from short term memory loss. It runs in my family... At least I think it does...
Hi again =) thanks for reading. Once again, I’d like to thank you faithful readers with a reward! The FIRST person to tell me which movie my title comes from will get something Danish in the mail at some point of my exchange. Play fair, children =) no googling, you have to just KNOW which movie it comes from. But it shouldn’t be too hard..
Ok, this post will be primarily about November. Or, what I can remember about November that is =P come on, it was a good 2 months ago! So let me try to remember. Haha this is not in chronological order, by the way ;)
From what I do remember, November was a boring month. I went to a basketball practice after quitting 2 years ago. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life to go back haha. Yea, I’m NOT a basketball player. Or fan. ^_^ so I went to one practice, and apparently that automatically signed my name in blood to play at a tournament in Copenhagen. Woo hoo…but I wouldn’t have to actually play until December, so that’s ok.
Then, the worst part of the WHOLE month. It decided to start snowing. Right before thanksgiving. I swear we got like a foot of snow at one time. It was so cold =( and everyone happily assured me that this was completely abnormal even for Denmark. Greattttttt, I picked a bad year to come apparently haha.
O, and by the way, I forgot about thanksgiving. ^_^ yes, I did. Haha I thought it was a week sooner than it actually was, and then I saw on facebook that I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! But I guess it’s ok. Nothing special happened on that night. Except! I got to see my first American football game since arriving in Denmark. I don’t remember the teams that were playing, I didn’t favor either side, but it felt sooooooooo good to watch again =D yes I’m a girl, and yes I’m a huge football fanatic =D I love it. O, I have a story. I was with a guy friend at lunch one day and we were talking about football. And he doesn’t know anything about the game, like the rules or anything. And here’s a quote from him on that day of lunch: “So I’m just supposed to watch it and enjoy it? How am I supposed to know when they get a homerun and why that happened?” I nearly dyed laughing. I then proceeded to explain to him that homeruns were in baseball. He doesn’t know much about baseball either, I guess =P
November was an exceptionally frustrating month for me. I had to figure out a lot about colleges and scholarships. Not fun from so far away from home. I went back and forth on a lot of things. I went from wanting to repeat this year in high school when I go back, to attending a community college when I go back, to attending a university. I’m going to be honest here, I applied for a total of 3, count ‘em, THREE! colleges back a few months. That probably sounds super irresponsible to a lot of you guys, but there weren’t really ANY colleges that I knew much about. So I applied to a few colleges that looked good just so I could say I applied. I was actually all for going to the community college in Newport for the longest time. That’s kind of changed now. In November I really fell in love with a college and set my heart on going there. It’s a small private college in Salem, OR. Luckily, or more like by Providence, this was one of the few colleges that I originally applied to. I started reading a lot about it. I started emailing a rep. I just absolutely want to go to this school. But in November I finally found out about the price tag. Way too much. More than I can afford. So it was really frustrating. I started looking at the other college I applied to. It looks good too, but it’s all the way back in Nebraska. And I just don’t feel like going back there. It’s so far away. But it’s a cheaper school, so I’ve kept it on my options. And guess what? I got my very first acceptance to that school =D my first acceptance letter. It was such a great feeling. Not my number one choice, but it’s great to have options! I actually don’t hear from my first choice college in November, or December. They are still missing a certain item from my application that I needed someone else to fill out for me. Which I repeatedly asked a person to do this for me, but I guess this person was too busy. It’s ok, I found someone else that was willing to help me. (a little bitterness? Only a little)
I went on a trip to Copenhagen with my danish class during November. It was so much fun =D we walked all around the city. But guess what happened to me! I was walking down the street and I saw someone I knew! I saw Jonathan, an exchange student from Sweden that was in Oregon last year. Wow small world! So we stopped and talked for a little bit before I almost lost my class and ran to catch up with them. This completely made my day. It was so crazy. What are the odds…the rest of the trip went on really well. Stephanie and Bryan, an oldie AFSer from New Zealand, were able to crash some kind of comic con. And that just made their trip the best ever haha. Then we packed up on a train and headed home. At last! My feet hurt soooo bad from all the walking. It’s not like I saw lots of new things. I’ve pretty much seen all the interesting parts of Copenhagen several times over ^_^ but we did walk down to Christiania, the little ‘world of its own.’ Interesting. That’s about all I can say. Our Danish teacher made sure no one was tempted to buy hash cakes, so don’t worry =P
The day after I went to Copenhagen it was MOVING DAY!!! That’s right, I was switching to my second family =) I was terribly nervous, but I somehow managed to pack most of my stuff the night before, only saving a few things for the next day, Sunday. We left the house around noon, and we packed all 9 bags of mine into the car and set off. Yes, I had NINE bags to take to my new house. 1 suit case, 1 book bag, 1 messenger bag, and 6 plastic bags from the store…yea I have no idea how I’m going to get home with all this junk! I have no idea how it happened either. I’ve hardly bought anything at all…anyway, so we got to my new house which is approx. 5 km away. =P yea, a GREAT change of scenery. Except I’m actually in a village this time, and not 3 km in the country. That’s ok with me. No more riding my bike in the mornings! I’ve been looking forward to that since September =P so I got all my stuff over to my new house, and both of my families and I had a little coffee and cake, chatted for a little over an hour, then I said goodbye and moved into my new room. It’s a nice cozy room. I really like it. My new family is Klaus, Inge-Magrathe, and a little host sister, Maria who is now 14. They have a son who is 16, but he is in Taiwan right now on his exchange. So I’m living in his room =) I really like this new family. They are great people, and maria and I are practically like sisters right now. It’s good. =)
The following weekend, I had a girlfriend, an exchanger from Illinois, come stay at my house. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie, went shopping, and dyed our hair. It was such a fun weekend. We did a lot of talking and stuff. I miss her. She decided that Denmark was just not her cup of tea, and she left a week later. =( we still talk, but I miss having her here. And I’m really going to miss her at the rotary get togethers.
That’s about all I can remember from November. I hung out with some friends I’m sure. I went out with Stephanie, I’m positive about that one. Haha she’s definitely my best gal here. She’s great and we’ve already made plans to hang out when we get home. Since she just lives in cali and I live super close to cali. It’s great…I don’t think I’m forgetting anything important. I’ll let you know later =P my next entry will be about December!!! So stay tuned =DD I’ll also be posting the latest updates about school, language, and friends soon. Thanks for reading. Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you all.
Kisses and hugs <3
Rebekah
Ok, this post will be primarily about November. Or, what I can remember about November that is =P come on, it was a good 2 months ago! So let me try to remember. Haha this is not in chronological order, by the way ;)
From what I do remember, November was a boring month. I went to a basketball practice after quitting 2 years ago. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life to go back haha. Yea, I’m NOT a basketball player. Or fan. ^_^ so I went to one practice, and apparently that automatically signed my name in blood to play at a tournament in Copenhagen. Woo hoo…but I wouldn’t have to actually play until December, so that’s ok.
Then, the worst part of the WHOLE month. It decided to start snowing. Right before thanksgiving. I swear we got like a foot of snow at one time. It was so cold =( and everyone happily assured me that this was completely abnormal even for Denmark. Greattttttt, I picked a bad year to come apparently haha.
O, and by the way, I forgot about thanksgiving. ^_^ yes, I did. Haha I thought it was a week sooner than it actually was, and then I saw on facebook that I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!! But I guess it’s ok. Nothing special happened on that night. Except! I got to see my first American football game since arriving in Denmark. I don’t remember the teams that were playing, I didn’t favor either side, but it felt sooooooooo good to watch again =D yes I’m a girl, and yes I’m a huge football fanatic =D I love it. O, I have a story. I was with a guy friend at lunch one day and we were talking about football. And he doesn’t know anything about the game, like the rules or anything. And here’s a quote from him on that day of lunch: “So I’m just supposed to watch it and enjoy it? How am I supposed to know when they get a homerun and why that happened?” I nearly dyed laughing. I then proceeded to explain to him that homeruns were in baseball. He doesn’t know much about baseball either, I guess =P
November was an exceptionally frustrating month for me. I had to figure out a lot about colleges and scholarships. Not fun from so far away from home. I went back and forth on a lot of things. I went from wanting to repeat this year in high school when I go back, to attending a community college when I go back, to attending a university. I’m going to be honest here, I applied for a total of 3, count ‘em, THREE! colleges back a few months. That probably sounds super irresponsible to a lot of you guys, but there weren’t really ANY colleges that I knew much about. So I applied to a few colleges that looked good just so I could say I applied. I was actually all for going to the community college in Newport for the longest time. That’s kind of changed now. In November I really fell in love with a college and set my heart on going there. It’s a small private college in Salem, OR. Luckily, or more like by Providence, this was one of the few colleges that I originally applied to. I started reading a lot about it. I started emailing a rep. I just absolutely want to go to this school. But in November I finally found out about the price tag. Way too much. More than I can afford. So it was really frustrating. I started looking at the other college I applied to. It looks good too, but it’s all the way back in Nebraska. And I just don’t feel like going back there. It’s so far away. But it’s a cheaper school, so I’ve kept it on my options. And guess what? I got my very first acceptance to that school =D my first acceptance letter. It was such a great feeling. Not my number one choice, but it’s great to have options! I actually don’t hear from my first choice college in November, or December. They are still missing a certain item from my application that I needed someone else to fill out for me. Which I repeatedly asked a person to do this for me, but I guess this person was too busy. It’s ok, I found someone else that was willing to help me. (a little bitterness? Only a little)
I went on a trip to Copenhagen with my danish class during November. It was so much fun =D we walked all around the city. But guess what happened to me! I was walking down the street and I saw someone I knew! I saw Jonathan, an exchange student from Sweden that was in Oregon last year. Wow small world! So we stopped and talked for a little bit before I almost lost my class and ran to catch up with them. This completely made my day. It was so crazy. What are the odds…the rest of the trip went on really well. Stephanie and Bryan, an oldie AFSer from New Zealand, were able to crash some kind of comic con. And that just made their trip the best ever haha. Then we packed up on a train and headed home. At last! My feet hurt soooo bad from all the walking. It’s not like I saw lots of new things. I’ve pretty much seen all the interesting parts of Copenhagen several times over ^_^ but we did walk down to Christiania, the little ‘world of its own.’ Interesting. That’s about all I can say. Our Danish teacher made sure no one was tempted to buy hash cakes, so don’t worry =P
The day after I went to Copenhagen it was MOVING DAY!!! That’s right, I was switching to my second family =) I was terribly nervous, but I somehow managed to pack most of my stuff the night before, only saving a few things for the next day, Sunday. We left the house around noon, and we packed all 9 bags of mine into the car and set off. Yes, I had NINE bags to take to my new house. 1 suit case, 1 book bag, 1 messenger bag, and 6 plastic bags from the store…yea I have no idea how I’m going to get home with all this junk! I have no idea how it happened either. I’ve hardly bought anything at all…anyway, so we got to my new house which is approx. 5 km away. =P yea, a GREAT change of scenery. Except I’m actually in a village this time, and not 3 km in the country. That’s ok with me. No more riding my bike in the mornings! I’ve been looking forward to that since September =P so I got all my stuff over to my new house, and both of my families and I had a little coffee and cake, chatted for a little over an hour, then I said goodbye and moved into my new room. It’s a nice cozy room. I really like it. My new family is Klaus, Inge-Magrathe, and a little host sister, Maria who is now 14. They have a son who is 16, but he is in Taiwan right now on his exchange. So I’m living in his room =) I really like this new family. They are great people, and maria and I are practically like sisters right now. It’s good. =)
The following weekend, I had a girlfriend, an exchanger from Illinois, come stay at my house. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie, went shopping, and dyed our hair. It was such a fun weekend. We did a lot of talking and stuff. I miss her. She decided that Denmark was just not her cup of tea, and she left a week later. =( we still talk, but I miss having her here. And I’m really going to miss her at the rotary get togethers.
That’s about all I can remember from November. I hung out with some friends I’m sure. I went out with Stephanie, I’m positive about that one. Haha she’s definitely my best gal here. She’s great and we’ve already made plans to hang out when we get home. Since she just lives in cali and I live super close to cali. It’s great…I don’t think I’m forgetting anything important. I’ll let you know later =P my next entry will be about December!!! So stay tuned =DD I’ll also be posting the latest updates about school, language, and friends soon. Thanks for reading. Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you all.
Kisses and hugs <3
Rebekah
Saturday, January 8, 2011
We Get There When We Get There
Hey everybody!!!! Ok, so I promised a new blog update, and I’m so sorry it’s been like a billion years since I’ve written about what’s been going on here in Denmark. So! Just to make it up to y’all, the FIRST PERSON that can correctly tell me what movie my title is from will get something in the mail from me in Denmark. I just want to reward those of you that read my blog =) so no cheating. No googling the answer. You have to know the movie. And then I’ll announce the winner as soon as they’ve won =D I also can’t promise WHEN you’ll get it in the mail, because hey, I’m on a fixed income right now, but you’ll get it before I leave the country =P
So it’s been roughly 2-3 months since I wrote about things I’ve been doing in Denmark. Time to play catch up!!!! So please bear with me as I try to recap my life for you. I might, as I said before in an earlier post, just make a few new entries. So there isn’t just one ginormous story to read. Ok, so without further a due (no idea if I spelled that right, my English is suffering a lot) I give you my adventures =)
Back in the middle of October we had autumn break, efterårsferie. This was for a week. And it was great! During that week I didn’t do much. I had a party with the girls in my class. We went to this Italian restaurant and had dinner, and then we went back to one of the girl’s apartment and just relaxed with each other for an hour or so. That was nice to get to spend time with the girls in my class. We surprisingly don’t get to do that very often. So I hope we get to do it again soon =)
Also during that week, Stephanie (the girl from LA) and I went to a club in the city called The Crazy Daizy. See, normally you have to be 18+ to go to most clubs, but since this was in the break, it was a special day where 16+ could go. She and I had bought tickets to get in at school, and after waiting in line for about an hour in the freezing cold, we finally made it to the door. One thing, they were taking ID. Did Bekah think about bringing her ID? Nope! So I was seriously just freaking out that they wouldn’t even let me in because I didn’t have my card. I just walked up to the bouncer (A BEAST OF A MAN), gave him my ticket, and when he asked for ID I just calmly said in English, ‘I’m an American foreign exchange student and I don’t have any.’ Do you think he accepted that? YESSSSSSS! Haha that’s probably an abuse of being an exchange student on some level, but hey, he let us in the club. So I was happy. I was completely prepared to beg and cry, but I think it was the English. I’ve learned that to some extent, if you’re an English speaker you get a few perks along the way. =)
Like this other time steph and I were shopping and we stopped to get an ice cream. She walked up to the counter, stood there for a good 10 seconds like a deer caught in the headlights, then blurted out ‘DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?’ to the poor guy behind the counter. Of course he spoke English, so she just ordered her ice cream in English. So he was about to grab the cone for the kind we bought, the soft serve not the scoops, and she stopped him and said ‘Can..can I have THAT one?’ and pointed to a bigger cone used for scoops of ice cream. He said sure and gave it to her =P same price as a small one. Then he got to me and asked if I’d like the same. Um, OF COURSE! Haha so yes, I’ve learned that there are plenty of perks to speaking English in a jam. Sometimes I feel like I get treated better. And other times it’s almost as if I’m looked down upon. And other times it’s just plain frustrating to have a barrier. But it’s coming.
THAT! Was my fall vacation in a nutshell. after that, there have definitely been lots of other fun things! For Halloween, I had a rotary get together weekend with ALL the exchangies in Denmark. It was so fun. We were in Holbæk from Friday-Sunday, and it was pretty much a huge party every night =D dancing and music. It was so much fun. On Saturday we had a Halloween party where we all had to dress up. I was a fairy =D and an adorable one too! If I might add =P I bought the costume on Thursday at a children’s toy store. Yes people, it was a CHILDREN’S costume. But I fit into it, so in my book it’s ok. If it fits you, then it’s ok to wear children’s clothes once in awhile =P it was a great weekend. All of my friends were there (except for Stephanie because it was her birthday that weekend). I miss them all so much. We had a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we got ready to go home. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention, we were all delayed about an hour because of a minor detail: some idiot brought over 1,000 USD with them on the trip and some bigger idiot decided it would be great to steal it. -_- yes, there was thieving among the exchanchies. Which I personally think is just disgusting and horrible. But there are just bad people in the world everywhere I guess. Even as rotary exchange students. They eventually found the money. The person who took it tossed it in the men’s bathroom and that is where is was found. They never did catch the person though. Being threatened to have the police called on us all wasn’t enough motivation for the thief to come forward. A bunch of people just missed their trains and busses. That’s all. No biggie….people these days…
Um, for now, that’s all this entry is going to be about. I have to think about what happened in November =P so stay tuned, but it will be soon! Promise =D thanks for all of the support. Thanks for remembering me. I love you all.
Hugs and kisses,
Rebekah <3
So it’s been roughly 2-3 months since I wrote about things I’ve been doing in Denmark. Time to play catch up!!!! So please bear with me as I try to recap my life for you. I might, as I said before in an earlier post, just make a few new entries. So there isn’t just one ginormous story to read. Ok, so without further a due (no idea if I spelled that right, my English is suffering a lot) I give you my adventures =)
Back in the middle of October we had autumn break, efterårsferie. This was for a week. And it was great! During that week I didn’t do much. I had a party with the girls in my class. We went to this Italian restaurant and had dinner, and then we went back to one of the girl’s apartment and just relaxed with each other for an hour or so. That was nice to get to spend time with the girls in my class. We surprisingly don’t get to do that very often. So I hope we get to do it again soon =)
Also during that week, Stephanie (the girl from LA) and I went to a club in the city called The Crazy Daizy. See, normally you have to be 18+ to go to most clubs, but since this was in the break, it was a special day where 16+ could go. She and I had bought tickets to get in at school, and after waiting in line for about an hour in the freezing cold, we finally made it to the door. One thing, they were taking ID. Did Bekah think about bringing her ID? Nope! So I was seriously just freaking out that they wouldn’t even let me in because I didn’t have my card. I just walked up to the bouncer (A BEAST OF A MAN), gave him my ticket, and when he asked for ID I just calmly said in English, ‘I’m an American foreign exchange student and I don’t have any.’ Do you think he accepted that? YESSSSSSS! Haha that’s probably an abuse of being an exchange student on some level, but hey, he let us in the club. So I was happy. I was completely prepared to beg and cry, but I think it was the English. I’ve learned that to some extent, if you’re an English speaker you get a few perks along the way. =)
Like this other time steph and I were shopping and we stopped to get an ice cream. She walked up to the counter, stood there for a good 10 seconds like a deer caught in the headlights, then blurted out ‘DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?’ to the poor guy behind the counter. Of course he spoke English, so she just ordered her ice cream in English. So he was about to grab the cone for the kind we bought, the soft serve not the scoops, and she stopped him and said ‘Can..can I have THAT one?’ and pointed to a bigger cone used for scoops of ice cream. He said sure and gave it to her =P same price as a small one. Then he got to me and asked if I’d like the same. Um, OF COURSE! Haha so yes, I’ve learned that there are plenty of perks to speaking English in a jam. Sometimes I feel like I get treated better. And other times it’s almost as if I’m looked down upon. And other times it’s just plain frustrating to have a barrier. But it’s coming.
THAT! Was my fall vacation in a nutshell. after that, there have definitely been lots of other fun things! For Halloween, I had a rotary get together weekend with ALL the exchangies in Denmark. It was so fun. We were in Holbæk from Friday-Sunday, and it was pretty much a huge party every night =D dancing and music. It was so much fun. On Saturday we had a Halloween party where we all had to dress up. I was a fairy =D and an adorable one too! If I might add =P I bought the costume on Thursday at a children’s toy store. Yes people, it was a CHILDREN’S costume. But I fit into it, so in my book it’s ok. If it fits you, then it’s ok to wear children’s clothes once in awhile =P it was a great weekend. All of my friends were there (except for Stephanie because it was her birthday that weekend). I miss them all so much. We had a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we got ready to go home. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention, we were all delayed about an hour because of a minor detail: some idiot brought over 1,000 USD with them on the trip and some bigger idiot decided it would be great to steal it. -_- yes, there was thieving among the exchanchies. Which I personally think is just disgusting and horrible. But there are just bad people in the world everywhere I guess. Even as rotary exchange students. They eventually found the money. The person who took it tossed it in the men’s bathroom and that is where is was found. They never did catch the person though. Being threatened to have the police called on us all wasn’t enough motivation for the thief to come forward. A bunch of people just missed their trains and busses. That’s all. No biggie….people these days…
Um, for now, that’s all this entry is going to be about. I have to think about what happened in November =P so stay tuned, but it will be soon! Promise =D thanks for all of the support. Thanks for remembering me. I love you all.
Hugs and kisses,
Rebekah <3
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