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