HELLO MY LOVELY PEOPLE!!! i cannot believe that it has actually taken me this long to write in my blog again. But it has. I am terribly sorry. I plan on writing a few entries very soon so there won't be just one super long post. Be looking for them =) But until then, I just wanted to wish everyone, all across the world, a very merry christmas.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! GLÆDELIG JUL!
HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR! MAKE THIS ONE COUNT. I KNOW I AM.
many hugs and kisses <3
Rebekah
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Truth...Revealed
If you want the truth about my exchange and how I'm doing, then this blog post is for you. If you are tired of the shallow posts saying how grand life is, then this post is for you. If you care about how I'm REALLY doing, then this post is for you. Otherwise, stop reading now.
I decided to write this post awhile ago. I just haven't been able to do it until now. I figured that I owe it to my faithful readers, family, and friends. You deserve to know how I really am doing.
It's the day before Thanksgiving. Almost a month before Christmas. Just weeks until my 18th birthday. I've been in Denmark almost 4 months right now. Some days it feels like it's been a century. Other days, it's like the blink of an eye.
I've had my struggles here in Denmark. As I'm sure all the exchange students here this year have. It hasn't all been a bed of roses or a walk in the park. It's been a year, give or take, since I first filled out my application and completed my interviews. Wow, how long ago that seems. And how surreal that I'm actually here now. I'm doing something that I never in my entire life desired to do...I guess people and dreams can change, can't they.
Ok, it's time for the 'nitty gritty'. The truth about all things.
That non existant bed of roses that I mentioned earlier is true. It hasn't been. Every day is a challenge for me. Something I have to work for. I have to work for my language, my school, my rotary, my friends, and most importantly, myself. I want to look back in this year and have no regrets.
Having friends over here has been hard. My closest friends are other exchange students. I love them all to pieces. I do have some Danish friends, but not a million like I would like. My class of 26 people is generally very nice to me. But sadly, I can say I'm only genuinly friends with less than half. The language barrier didn't scare me at first when I came. Everyone said that Danes love speaking English and would gladly practice on me. Well, I don't know which Danes they have been talking to, but my Danes choose to almost never speak English. The language barrier is now a huge deal with making friends. I speak Danish when I can, but not understanding what your classmates are saying to each other across the lunch table or classroom is just a horrible secluding feeling...do I wish I had more Danish friends? Yes. But I love the ones I have right now and I really wouldn't trade them. I just keep hoping I'll make more as the language goes along.
Speaking of Danish...it goes. It just goes. I'm like a duck out of water a lot of the time. I understand so much somedays. And other days it's hard to make out two words. I have the reading and writing level of a middle schooler I think. That is to say, I can read a lot and write a lot. But not everything. Especially not super scientific or advanced pieces. My speech, however, is probably more like that of a small child. 5-8 maybe. That's the frustrating part. Thinking about the language and everything I say before I say it. I'm
not worried about saying it perfect anymore, cuz heaven knows, I probably will never say it just perfect. I still get laughed at or chuckled at when I try to say some things. That's a bit disheartening. It was cute in the beginning, but really? Four months in, and you're still having a problem with my accent? I don't comment on when you say English words wrong...so yea. Danish is coming. Slowly. I like to think I'm on track with most of the rest of the exchange students here. But somedays I'm not so sure. Sometimes I feel like I'm so left behind. That I'll never dream in Danish again. That I'll never hit the fluency where I can have a whole conversation. Those things worry me a great deal...I try to integrate Danish into life whenever I can. I type to friends in Danish and I speak when I can. I just want it so bad. And I fear it'll never come.
Now for home. Do I miss my home of Newport? Yes. And no. I miss my family a lot. I miss being my daddy's little girl. I miss my mom. I kiss fighting with my brother and sister. I miss terribly my niece and nephew who are like my own children. I miss them all. I miss my friends too. Not as much as I originally expected too. But I do. I muss driving the loser lap around town cuz there is nothing better to do. Miss Dutch bros. ^_^ but in general, I don't miss 'newport' very much at all. Sure, it's my home. But here is something I realized the other day. I am really blessed. Some people don't have any place on God's green earth that they can call a home. And I've got 4. My home in Nebraska. That will always be my home. My home in Ohio. My family will always welcome me. My home in Newport. Where I decided to let myself sink in and take root. And now my home here. Denmark. It is a blessing to say I have that many homes and places where I know I belong. But you can only be in one home at a time. And you'll always miss the others. I have cried since I've been here. Not a cry to go back, but a cry to not be forgotten. Replaced. A cry that you'll always love me no matter where in the world I go. That's what I cry for.
And my last, but certainly not least, subject that I will be addressing tonight with complete truthfulness is changes. Changes here in Denmark. Ones I see in myself. Ones I wish to see. Ones I wish will never take place...I have changes already since coming to Denmark. I'm becoming who I am. What I see so far is that I'm becoming assertive again. I've changed a lot in the past few years. I lost who I was for a long time. But now, I see that person coming back. It might not sound like much to you, but I've struggled with being assertive for a long time. I've been working on it over here. If I don't do it for myself, no one else is going to. It's not a bother to people to ask questions or favors. And it's not embarrassing. I've asked so many people for help out here. More than a year in Newport probably. Huge change for me...another change I'm working on and that I gradually see improvements in is my self esteem and confidence. I used to be a confident girl with esteem as high as the sky. But somehwere along the bumpy ride of life, I lost a lot of it. I'm working on that over here. People ask me why I've stopped using make up or why I only use mascara now. Because I want to feel beautiful just being me. I don't want to be covered up anymore. I want to be real. And I've been doing that here. I wear some mascara and that's all. And believe it or nor, I feel beautiful no matter what. Because I am beautiful. You can't get your worth from anyone but yourself. I'm perfectly, beautifully, and wonderfully made...now a change I don't ever want to see in my time here. Alcohol. The drinking age is 16 here and it's hugely part of danish teen life to get hammered at parties. My classmates and friends no that I don't want to get drunk. They have a hard time accepting this though. I don't want to regret anything I do out here. And a drunken night at a party could undo my whole life. I've seen what alcohol can do to people and families. Alcoholism is a huge part in my family background and history. I've never had the desire to drink or get drunk. I don't think people realize this. I don't think they can really understand my reason: I care too much. I care about my future. I care about hurting my family. I care about hurting myself. I've always been the one to think about the consequences something could have. I've never been a live in the moment kinda gal. My decisions do effect other people. Just like their decisions effect me. In my life I never want to have a negative impact on someone's life. I don't want that part of me to change. It's too important.
So...I think that's about it. The truth. The real truth. Nothing but the truth. I bet some people are reading this thinking why would I post something like this? Well, as part of the changes thing, I'm working on not caring about what people think. It's only what I think that matters. And I thought this would be good to inform people on how I'm really doing. So! If you want more truth, send a comment or email. Questions are always welcome.
Love you all so much!
Rebekah Smith <3
I decided to write this post awhile ago. I just haven't been able to do it until now. I figured that I owe it to my faithful readers, family, and friends. You deserve to know how I really am doing.
It's the day before Thanksgiving. Almost a month before Christmas. Just weeks until my 18th birthday. I've been in Denmark almost 4 months right now. Some days it feels like it's been a century. Other days, it's like the blink of an eye.
I've had my struggles here in Denmark. As I'm sure all the exchange students here this year have. It hasn't all been a bed of roses or a walk in the park. It's been a year, give or take, since I first filled out my application and completed my interviews. Wow, how long ago that seems. And how surreal that I'm actually here now. I'm doing something that I never in my entire life desired to do...I guess people and dreams can change, can't they.
Ok, it's time for the 'nitty gritty'. The truth about all things.
That non existant bed of roses that I mentioned earlier is true. It hasn't been. Every day is a challenge for me. Something I have to work for. I have to work for my language, my school, my rotary, my friends, and most importantly, myself. I want to look back in this year and have no regrets.
Having friends over here has been hard. My closest friends are other exchange students. I love them all to pieces. I do have some Danish friends, but not a million like I would like. My class of 26 people is generally very nice to me. But sadly, I can say I'm only genuinly friends with less than half. The language barrier didn't scare me at first when I came. Everyone said that Danes love speaking English and would gladly practice on me. Well, I don't know which Danes they have been talking to, but my Danes choose to almost never speak English. The language barrier is now a huge deal with making friends. I speak Danish when I can, but not understanding what your classmates are saying to each other across the lunch table or classroom is just a horrible secluding feeling...do I wish I had more Danish friends? Yes. But I love the ones I have right now and I really wouldn't trade them. I just keep hoping I'll make more as the language goes along.
Speaking of Danish...it goes. It just goes. I'm like a duck out of water a lot of the time. I understand so much somedays. And other days it's hard to make out two words. I have the reading and writing level of a middle schooler I think. That is to say, I can read a lot and write a lot. But not everything. Especially not super scientific or advanced pieces. My speech, however, is probably more like that of a small child. 5-8 maybe. That's the frustrating part. Thinking about the language and everything I say before I say it. I'm
not worried about saying it perfect anymore, cuz heaven knows, I probably will never say it just perfect. I still get laughed at or chuckled at when I try to say some things. That's a bit disheartening. It was cute in the beginning, but really? Four months in, and you're still having a problem with my accent? I don't comment on when you say English words wrong...so yea. Danish is coming. Slowly. I like to think I'm on track with most of the rest of the exchange students here. But somedays I'm not so sure. Sometimes I feel like I'm so left behind. That I'll never dream in Danish again. That I'll never hit the fluency where I can have a whole conversation. Those things worry me a great deal...I try to integrate Danish into life whenever I can. I type to friends in Danish and I speak when I can. I just want it so bad. And I fear it'll never come.
Now for home. Do I miss my home of Newport? Yes. And no. I miss my family a lot. I miss being my daddy's little girl. I miss my mom. I kiss fighting with my brother and sister. I miss terribly my niece and nephew who are like my own children. I miss them all. I miss my friends too. Not as much as I originally expected too. But I do. I muss driving the loser lap around town cuz there is nothing better to do. Miss Dutch bros. ^_^ but in general, I don't miss 'newport' very much at all. Sure, it's my home. But here is something I realized the other day. I am really blessed. Some people don't have any place on God's green earth that they can call a home. And I've got 4. My home in Nebraska. That will always be my home. My home in Ohio. My family will always welcome me. My home in Newport. Where I decided to let myself sink in and take root. And now my home here. Denmark. It is a blessing to say I have that many homes and places where I know I belong. But you can only be in one home at a time. And you'll always miss the others. I have cried since I've been here. Not a cry to go back, but a cry to not be forgotten. Replaced. A cry that you'll always love me no matter where in the world I go. That's what I cry for.
And my last, but certainly not least, subject that I will be addressing tonight with complete truthfulness is changes. Changes here in Denmark. Ones I see in myself. Ones I wish to see. Ones I wish will never take place...I have changes already since coming to Denmark. I'm becoming who I am. What I see so far is that I'm becoming assertive again. I've changed a lot in the past few years. I lost who I was for a long time. But now, I see that person coming back. It might not sound like much to you, but I've struggled with being assertive for a long time. I've been working on it over here. If I don't do it for myself, no one else is going to. It's not a bother to people to ask questions or favors. And it's not embarrassing. I've asked so many people for help out here. More than a year in Newport probably. Huge change for me...another change I'm working on and that I gradually see improvements in is my self esteem and confidence. I used to be a confident girl with esteem as high as the sky. But somehwere along the bumpy ride of life, I lost a lot of it. I'm working on that over here. People ask me why I've stopped using make up or why I only use mascara now. Because I want to feel beautiful just being me. I don't want to be covered up anymore. I want to be real. And I've been doing that here. I wear some mascara and that's all. And believe it or nor, I feel beautiful no matter what. Because I am beautiful. You can't get your worth from anyone but yourself. I'm perfectly, beautifully, and wonderfully made...now a change I don't ever want to see in my time here. Alcohol. The drinking age is 16 here and it's hugely part of danish teen life to get hammered at parties. My classmates and friends no that I don't want to get drunk. They have a hard time accepting this though. I don't want to regret anything I do out here. And a drunken night at a party could undo my whole life. I've seen what alcohol can do to people and families. Alcoholism is a huge part in my family background and history. I've never had the desire to drink or get drunk. I don't think people realize this. I don't think they can really understand my reason: I care too much. I care about my future. I care about hurting my family. I care about hurting myself. I've always been the one to think about the consequences something could have. I've never been a live in the moment kinda gal. My decisions do effect other people. Just like their decisions effect me. In my life I never want to have a negative impact on someone's life. I don't want that part of me to change. It's too important.
So...I think that's about it. The truth. The real truth. Nothing but the truth. I bet some people are reading this thinking why would I post something like this? Well, as part of the changes thing, I'm working on not caring about what people think. It's only what I think that matters. And I thought this would be good to inform people on how I'm really doing. So! If you want more truth, send a comment or email. Questions are always welcome.
Love you all so much!
Rebekah Smith <3
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Mamma Mia!!
Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I will now tell you about the rest of my weekend! =) Here we go!
So after my tour of Næstved, I managed to catch my bus in time (always a good thing) and I went back home. I was only there for a few hours, however, before I was picked up =)
See, I was going to Copenhagen for the weekend with a family from rotary! How exciting! I was picked up by Marianne Bülow and her sister at about 4, then off to Copenhagen we went! We got into the city at about 6 maybe? not sure, but we parked the car and got out. We walked towards Tivoli (the oldest amusement park in the world) and then we walked towards this restaurant. A really fancy one, I might add. (Better than Applebees ^_^) And we went in and ate dinner there. I MUST tell you, I met probably the nicest waiter in all of my life! He was sooooooooooooooooo nice!!! He heard I didn't speak English, and he spoke directly to me, and he asked about why I was in Denmark and for how long and stuff like that. SO NICE! He had a pretty thick british accent, and I think he said he came to DK in the 80's and just never left ^_^ yea, if it were up to me, I would have tipped him a million kr. He just started off my night amazingly, and when we left, he told me to have the best year and the best time here. Yea, he was awesome =D
After dinner, we walked outside and towards the main entrance to Tivoli. It was all decked out for halloween =D it was great. We were able to go inside and walk aruond the park for a bit. It's closed right now, but will open again next week. We were all just a really special group that got to go in =D Tivoli looks like so much fun, if only I had enough time to come back next summer to go! So we walked around the park and then finally started heading towards the theater house in the park. O yea, I forgot to mention, but I was going to see the musical "Mamma Mia" performed live and in Danish!!!!!! I found out that the play was coming to Denmark a few weeks after I arrived (I saw in a magazine) and I new from that moment that I wanted to go! And then in late Sept. a woman from my rotary club called me and told me she had an extra ticket and would I like to go...WOULD I LIKE TO GO!!!!!! yea, I was sooooo excited and looking forward to going. =DD So we got to the theater house and went inside and waited for us to be allowed to be seated. (I really need to mention, that this wasn't an ordinary showing of the play, it actually doesn't open for another week. But this was a special showing for rotary. This was a fund raiser to get the polio vaccine to the few countries that need it still. I found out just the other day, that with all the money made on this night and the money that Bill Gates has promised to donate, over 100,000 children can now be vaccinated. Way to go rotary! Make a difference in the world!) When we were finally allowed to take our seats we went in. The seats that Marianne had gotten were about 4 rows back from the stage and dead center! Yes, it was amazing. The musical was performed in Danish for the first time, and they all did a marvelous job =D I was able to follow the story and understand a lot, and I was really glad for that. It was an amazing time at the musical. I loved every second of it =D
Then on Sunday (Marianne and I stayed in her flat in Copenhagen for the night), her husband and 2 sons came to see us. We left the house at about 11:30 and set off for a tour around the city of Copenhagen! It was just a lovely time. The best ever. And I thought Næstved was lovely, well it's got nothing on Copenhagen ^_^ we walked down the street and I looked to my left and guess what I saw! The royal guards were marching down the street! No kidding. Haha so we walked a little behind them and walked to the queen's castle and saw the changing of the guards at noon. That was really neat to see. Then after that we walked through the royal garden and saw the new opera house that seats over 1,000 people. We walled down the canal-front and saw the headquarters of the biggest ship building company. It's owned by denmark's rishest man, go figure. We walked all over to where the little mermaid usually sits. She is on vacation in china right now though ^_^ then past this old english church. I saw about twenty churches in Copenhagen I swear =P we went to this old park that's for remembering WWII and all the soldiers. That was really cool to see. And there were statues everywhere in the city! Some kings, some heros and soldiers. Really awesome. After walking for a little over an hour and a half, we made our way back to the flat for some lunch. But on te way, I went into 2 churches. One was a Russian church, and I went to the top and inside the sanctuary, they were having a little ceremony. A baby was being baptized I think. I didn't take any pictures, but that was cool to experience. Then I went to this other church, one of the biggest they told me. It was absolutely gorgeous inside. There was a domed ceiling and all 12 desciples' pictures were up with their names. And there was an old set of organ pipes on one end of the room, and on the opposite end there was a newer set. It was a gorgeous old church. I'm really happy I went inside. Then! We finally got back for lunch.
After lunch, we went out again! But this time we didn't walk very far, we got onto a boat =D and took a canal tour. It was so amazing to see most of Copenhagen from the water. I saw so much, and such beautiful buildings. Once that tour was over, we set out on foot into the dead center of the city. We saw all the shops and I saw some familiar brands =) (Tommy hilfiger, I miss home) haha and gucci! I saw that, and was tempted to go inside =P I got this really delicous hot chocolate from a street vender =) I saw a balloon animal making clown! And some of the most 'hygglidt' (cozy) things in Copenhagen, there we little cafes with seats outside about every 30 meters, I swear! And there was a fire outside next to the tables sometimes, and usually there were fuzzy warm blankets on each chair outside. How cozy!! I want to go to one =P (I learned this is just a recent phenomonon in DK, only the past 10 yrs or so.) there was one last sight to see in Copenhagen before the day was done! So we walked over to this other church with a huge cylindrical tower right next to it. Guess what we were going to do =P I don't remember if I have ever mentioned it, but I'm deathly afraid of heights ^_^ however, I haven't once given up a chance to go up high when someone asks =P up the tower we went! This was no ordinary tower though. No stairs. Inside it was jst a spiralled incline. All the way to the top. (there was a floor with a modern art museum in it. I really am not fond of modern art. It doesn't speak to me at all. I could make art like that, people) but finally we made it to the top. It was gorgeous to see all of Copenhagen from a birds eye view. Loved it. This was one of the highlights of my trip =) and then, the trip was over. =( we headed home after eating again at about 8? I didntt get home until almost 10, so yea haha it was a great trip though =D
So that! My friends is the rest of my weekend. I'm hoping to be posting pictures here soon. So please come back and check them out. Take care of yourself! Miss you all. Keep reading, and keep questioning and commenting. Love you!
Rebekah<3
THINGS IVE LEARNED::
-It's not uncommon at all for guys (haven't seen a girl do it yet) to wear the same outfit two days in a row.
-scarves are super popular here, even among the guys.
-big, clunky looking wedge shoes are 'in'. They looked awkward at first, but I really want a pair.
-most girls wear some type of heel everyday whether it's a wedge, boots, or stilettos.
-if you're riding a bike, it seems like it's safer than walking. Cars will stop for bikers crossing the street, but if you're on foot, they WILL hit you ^_^ (that's not actually true, but it seems like it. Very different from Newport where pedestrians have the rght of way no matter what)
-a lot of people consider going to McDonalds a real novelty and treat. Most people go at MOST once a month. But that is a lot!
-WINTER IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is now frost on the ground in the mornings, and it is near 0°C, luckily, I won't have to ride my bike from Nov 13 on. (I switch families)
-in Taiwan they don't celebrate Christmas =((( (my second family has a son there right now)
KEEP READING! THANK YOU! love!
So after my tour of Næstved, I managed to catch my bus in time (always a good thing) and I went back home. I was only there for a few hours, however, before I was picked up =)
See, I was going to Copenhagen for the weekend with a family from rotary! How exciting! I was picked up by Marianne Bülow and her sister at about 4, then off to Copenhagen we went! We got into the city at about 6 maybe? not sure, but we parked the car and got out. We walked towards Tivoli (the oldest amusement park in the world) and then we walked towards this restaurant. A really fancy one, I might add. (Better than Applebees ^_^) And we went in and ate dinner there. I MUST tell you, I met probably the nicest waiter in all of my life! He was sooooooooooooooooo nice!!! He heard I didn't speak English, and he spoke directly to me, and he asked about why I was in Denmark and for how long and stuff like that. SO NICE! He had a pretty thick british accent, and I think he said he came to DK in the 80's and just never left ^_^ yea, if it were up to me, I would have tipped him a million kr. He just started off my night amazingly, and when we left, he told me to have the best year and the best time here. Yea, he was awesome =D
After dinner, we walked outside and towards the main entrance to Tivoli. It was all decked out for halloween =D it was great. We were able to go inside and walk aruond the park for a bit. It's closed right now, but will open again next week. We were all just a really special group that got to go in =D Tivoli looks like so much fun, if only I had enough time to come back next summer to go! So we walked around the park and then finally started heading towards the theater house in the park. O yea, I forgot to mention, but I was going to see the musical "Mamma Mia" performed live and in Danish!!!!!! I found out that the play was coming to Denmark a few weeks after I arrived (I saw in a magazine) and I new from that moment that I wanted to go! And then in late Sept. a woman from my rotary club called me and told me she had an extra ticket and would I like to go...WOULD I LIKE TO GO!!!!!! yea, I was sooooo excited and looking forward to going. =DD So we got to the theater house and went inside and waited for us to be allowed to be seated. (I really need to mention, that this wasn't an ordinary showing of the play, it actually doesn't open for another week. But this was a special showing for rotary. This was a fund raiser to get the polio vaccine to the few countries that need it still. I found out just the other day, that with all the money made on this night and the money that Bill Gates has promised to donate, over 100,000 children can now be vaccinated. Way to go rotary! Make a difference in the world!) When we were finally allowed to take our seats we went in. The seats that Marianne had gotten were about 4 rows back from the stage and dead center! Yes, it was amazing. The musical was performed in Danish for the first time, and they all did a marvelous job =D I was able to follow the story and understand a lot, and I was really glad for that. It was an amazing time at the musical. I loved every second of it =D
Then on Sunday (Marianne and I stayed in her flat in Copenhagen for the night), her husband and 2 sons came to see us. We left the house at about 11:30 and set off for a tour around the city of Copenhagen! It was just a lovely time. The best ever. And I thought Næstved was lovely, well it's got nothing on Copenhagen ^_^ we walked down the street and I looked to my left and guess what I saw! The royal guards were marching down the street! No kidding. Haha so we walked a little behind them and walked to the queen's castle and saw the changing of the guards at noon. That was really neat to see. Then after that we walked through the royal garden and saw the new opera house that seats over 1,000 people. We walled down the canal-front and saw the headquarters of the biggest ship building company. It's owned by denmark's rishest man, go figure. We walked all over to where the little mermaid usually sits. She is on vacation in china right now though ^_^ then past this old english church. I saw about twenty churches in Copenhagen I swear =P we went to this old park that's for remembering WWII and all the soldiers. That was really cool to see. And there were statues everywhere in the city! Some kings, some heros and soldiers. Really awesome. After walking for a little over an hour and a half, we made our way back to the flat for some lunch. But on te way, I went into 2 churches. One was a Russian church, and I went to the top and inside the sanctuary, they were having a little ceremony. A baby was being baptized I think. I didn't take any pictures, but that was cool to experience. Then I went to this other church, one of the biggest they told me. It was absolutely gorgeous inside. There was a domed ceiling and all 12 desciples' pictures were up with their names. And there was an old set of organ pipes on one end of the room, and on the opposite end there was a newer set. It was a gorgeous old church. I'm really happy I went inside. Then! We finally got back for lunch.
After lunch, we went out again! But this time we didn't walk very far, we got onto a boat =D and took a canal tour. It was so amazing to see most of Copenhagen from the water. I saw so much, and such beautiful buildings. Once that tour was over, we set out on foot into the dead center of the city. We saw all the shops and I saw some familiar brands =) (Tommy hilfiger, I miss home) haha and gucci! I saw that, and was tempted to go inside =P I got this really delicous hot chocolate from a street vender =) I saw a balloon animal making clown! And some of the most 'hygglidt' (cozy) things in Copenhagen, there we little cafes with seats outside about every 30 meters, I swear! And there was a fire outside next to the tables sometimes, and usually there were fuzzy warm blankets on each chair outside. How cozy!! I want to go to one =P (I learned this is just a recent phenomonon in DK, only the past 10 yrs or so.) there was one last sight to see in Copenhagen before the day was done! So we walked over to this other church with a huge cylindrical tower right next to it. Guess what we were going to do =P I don't remember if I have ever mentioned it, but I'm deathly afraid of heights ^_^ however, I haven't once given up a chance to go up high when someone asks =P up the tower we went! This was no ordinary tower though. No stairs. Inside it was jst a spiralled incline. All the way to the top. (there was a floor with a modern art museum in it. I really am not fond of modern art. It doesn't speak to me at all. I could make art like that, people) but finally we made it to the top. It was gorgeous to see all of Copenhagen from a birds eye view. Loved it. This was one of the highlights of my trip =) and then, the trip was over. =( we headed home after eating again at about 8? I didntt get home until almost 10, so yea haha it was a great trip though =D
So that! My friends is the rest of my weekend. I'm hoping to be posting pictures here soon. So please come back and check them out. Take care of yourself! Miss you all. Keep reading, and keep questioning and commenting. Love you!
Rebekah<3
THINGS IVE LEARNED::
-It's not uncommon at all for guys (haven't seen a girl do it yet) to wear the same outfit two days in a row.
-scarves are super popular here, even among the guys.
-big, clunky looking wedge shoes are 'in'. They looked awkward at first, but I really want a pair.
-most girls wear some type of heel everyday whether it's a wedge, boots, or stilettos.
-if you're riding a bike, it seems like it's safer than walking. Cars will stop for bikers crossing the street, but if you're on foot, they WILL hit you ^_^ (that's not actually true, but it seems like it. Very different from Newport where pedestrians have the rght of way no matter what)
-a lot of people consider going to McDonalds a real novelty and treat. Most people go at MOST once a month. But that is a lot!
-WINTER IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is now frost on the ground in the mornings, and it is near 0°C, luckily, I won't have to ride my bike from Nov 13 on. (I switch families)
-in Taiwan they don't celebrate Christmas =((( (my second family has a son there right now)
KEEP READING! THANK YOU! love!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
It's Like a Fairytale
I've had a very interesting weekend/past couple of days.
On Thursday, nothing really spectacular happened. I had volleyball like usual, but it wasn't a normal practice. The coach had another obligation with the school that night, so a bunch of us just fooled around and played a game. This was Stephanie's first practice, and another exchange student, Ruby's (New Zealand) 2nd or third practice.
On Friday, I got out of classes early, 11:25! And I was going over to Stephanie's house for the night, but she didn't get out until 1:30. I decided to make the time productive, so I walked to the library which is 2 minutes away from the bus stop. I got 6 new books. Yay me! The last 3 Harry Potter books (I have read the first few, then stopped, and now I don't want to be surprised when the new movie comes out), The Poisonwood Bible, a book with Edgar Allen Poe's writings, and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I honestly can't wait to finish these books because I have heard such great things about all of them! Ok. Then at 1:45 I headed over to the bus station to catch the bus to Steph's house. I met her on the same bus about 5 minutes later (she took a different stop) and then we were off together! That night we both just had a lot of fun hanging out, we always have fun just doing that. We watched an anime movie "Howl's moving castle" by the same artisit who did "spirited away" and I love the latter movie =)
And on Saturday, we had to wake up pretty early (8;00, o my goodness) because we had to be back into Næstved at 9 to meet up with our Danish class. This is why I stayed the night at her house, that way I had a ride into town that morning. Our class (only 3 of us ended up being able to go) took a tour with our Danish teacher around the city. Well, more through it than around it =P We walked all over the center part, and we learned some history about the city, and we saw some really great things. Like I have mentioned before, the ancient-ness of all of the things out here just warms my heart. I love it. We saw some old churches, but didn't get to go inside =( they were closed. We were just able to see a whole new side of the city. I found out that there is a Saturday market there, so now I want to come back into town on a weekend! And then, since we had about an hour before I had to leave to catch my bus, my Danish teacher drove us 3 in her car to the outside of town. And guess what we saw!!! A CASTLE! A REAL CASTLE! yea, it was pretty amazing. We rounded the corner in the car, and there it was. You could hear all of us girls just gasp as soon as it was visible. Breathtaking really. It's a yellow castle, and I found out that that is where the crown prince stayed with Mary (his now wife) when they got together. And I learned that there is a winter thing that happens there. I want to go!! haha and in the spring there is a huge thing with a bunch of tulips. People plant them like crazy on the grounds I guess and they start to bloom in the spring. It's supposed to be really beautiful...I can't wait to go! I hope I can =D =P It was a great day with my Danish class. Det var meget hyggligt =D (It was very...cozy/comfy/not sure) I can't wait to go back into the city and explore some more.
That's about all for this post, guys. I will be writing more about my weekend very soon. So stay tuned!!! =D
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-use of the word 'toilet' and not bathroom. So if you come here, don't be offended when someone says to you "I need to go use the toilet"
-my butt no longer hurts from my bike =D actually, this isn't new news. it's like a month old =P
-There really aren't any suv's out here. all the cars are pretty much the same--small. but there are a few, don't be fooled.
-when you buy a car here, you actually pay for it about 3 times because of all the tax on it. So if it cost 100,000 kr, it would cost you about 300,00 kr
-when Danish students raise their hand in class, they always point one finger up, as if you say 'I have a point'??
-Næstved turned 875 years old this year =) one city is older than my entire country! haha
ok, that's all for now. MUCH LOVE! =D
Rebekah
On Thursday, nothing really spectacular happened. I had volleyball like usual, but it wasn't a normal practice. The coach had another obligation with the school that night, so a bunch of us just fooled around and played a game. This was Stephanie's first practice, and another exchange student, Ruby's (New Zealand) 2nd or third practice.
On Friday, I got out of classes early, 11:25! And I was going over to Stephanie's house for the night, but she didn't get out until 1:30. I decided to make the time productive, so I walked to the library which is 2 minutes away from the bus stop. I got 6 new books. Yay me! The last 3 Harry Potter books (I have read the first few, then stopped, and now I don't want to be surprised when the new movie comes out), The Poisonwood Bible, a book with Edgar Allen Poe's writings, and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I honestly can't wait to finish these books because I have heard such great things about all of them! Ok. Then at 1:45 I headed over to the bus station to catch the bus to Steph's house. I met her on the same bus about 5 minutes later (she took a different stop) and then we were off together! That night we both just had a lot of fun hanging out, we always have fun just doing that. We watched an anime movie "Howl's moving castle" by the same artisit who did "spirited away" and I love the latter movie =)
And on Saturday, we had to wake up pretty early (8;00, o my goodness) because we had to be back into Næstved at 9 to meet up with our Danish class. This is why I stayed the night at her house, that way I had a ride into town that morning. Our class (only 3 of us ended up being able to go) took a tour with our Danish teacher around the city. Well, more through it than around it =P We walked all over the center part, and we learned some history about the city, and we saw some really great things. Like I have mentioned before, the ancient-ness of all of the things out here just warms my heart. I love it. We saw some old churches, but didn't get to go inside =( they were closed. We were just able to see a whole new side of the city. I found out that there is a Saturday market there, so now I want to come back into town on a weekend! And then, since we had about an hour before I had to leave to catch my bus, my Danish teacher drove us 3 in her car to the outside of town. And guess what we saw!!! A CASTLE! A REAL CASTLE! yea, it was pretty amazing. We rounded the corner in the car, and there it was. You could hear all of us girls just gasp as soon as it was visible. Breathtaking really. It's a yellow castle, and I found out that that is where the crown prince stayed with Mary (his now wife) when they got together. And I learned that there is a winter thing that happens there. I want to go!! haha and in the spring there is a huge thing with a bunch of tulips. People plant them like crazy on the grounds I guess and they start to bloom in the spring. It's supposed to be really beautiful...I can't wait to go! I hope I can =D =P It was a great day with my Danish class. Det var meget hyggligt =D (It was very...cozy/comfy/not sure) I can't wait to go back into the city and explore some more.
That's about all for this post, guys. I will be writing more about my weekend very soon. So stay tuned!!! =D
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-use of the word 'toilet' and not bathroom. So if you come here, don't be offended when someone says to you "I need to go use the toilet"
-my butt no longer hurts from my bike =D actually, this isn't new news. it's like a month old =P
-There really aren't any suv's out here. all the cars are pretty much the same--small. but there are a few, don't be fooled.
-when you buy a car here, you actually pay for it about 3 times because of all the tax on it. So if it cost 100,000 kr, it would cost you about 300,00 kr
-when Danish students raise their hand in class, they always point one finger up, as if you say 'I have a point'??
-Næstved turned 875 years old this year =) one city is older than my entire country! haha
ok, that's all for now. MUCH LOVE! =D
Rebekah
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Oreos+Peanut Butter=Heaven
So since I had just a thrilling weekend =P I was hoping that the actual week would be a lot better. I really wanted to do stuff this week! Because let's face it, staying at my house, in the middle of no where, is not the most exciting thing in the world. Don't get me wrong, I love living where I am. It's beautiful, but I miss being able to go to town whenever I wanted..I miss living in an actual town! =P So this week I was hoping that something fun would come up =)
On Monday I went to school like always. My first class on Mondays is always gym...great way to start off the week ^_^ No, it's not that bad. At least I can participate in that class! It's usually fun. I have a great teacher. He's really nice..so anywayz, there was gym, then after gym was the rest of school =( yea...haha I got to see my friend René though! Yea that was great. We were able to talk for a bit, and then we decided that we wanted to hang out after school. (I didn't have my normal Danish lessons because the teacher was sick) So René came over that night from about 7-10. We just relaxed in my room. Ate some candy. Takled..O how I miss doing that! Having a friend over or going out and just chilling. It was really nice to be able to spend time with my best friend =) As it turns out, René is kind of a neat freak, and he didn't like the way I had cleaned my room. So guess what he did! ;) yea, I want to have him over more often if he'll do that for me haha then after that we just hung out and ate candy from my candy stash =D he had like 30 pieces of salt water taffy, I swear. ^_^ And you know why that's really funny? Cuz the first time he had them, he said they tasted terrible...Well, I showed him!We also ate some skittles (if you remember, they don't have those here, so it was quite a treat) and then! I gave him the best thing he will ever experience in his life! An oreo with peanut butter =DD Everyone over here says that sounds just disgusting (they don't like peanut butter, but I think they just haven't had the right kind) but René really liked it =P He said it was so strange to put those together, but it was good! YOU are welcome =P Then at about 10, he left. Sad day =( I wish I could hang out with friends 24/7 sometimes...
On Tuesday, I had biology in first module. So I was just sitting there minding my own business when a friend leaned over and asked if I'd eaten breakfast. I hadn't had time that
morning so I said no. Next thing I know, I'm in the front of the class getting my bloodsugar tested for an experiment! They had those little diabetes bloodtesters, you know, the ones that prick your finger. So I had to do one for a baseline. (I helped a bit) and then I ate some apple, and I had to have 4 more tests at timed intervals. SO.MUCH.FUN. =P not really. It's a good thing I'm not sqeemish with blood. But my fingers hurts for awhile after that. Haha
then we all got off of school at 11:30. No way I was going back home for 10 hours =P So me and Stephanie decided to go shopping at the mall since we didn't want to walk around downtown in the cold. But first, we had to walk to the bus station and go to the post office so I could mail a HUGE letter back home to the US. (you're welcome amber hatten ^_^) We got to the post office, I picked up a package of envelopes and went to the counter to mail this letter. I was really disapponted that I couldn't talk to the lady in Danish. I couldn't for the life of me remember how to say letter in Danish =( but I did it in English. So the letter is now *safely* on its way home now. Haha...
then Stephanie and I boarded a bus and went to the mall. Niether of us has eaten lunch yet, so naturally we were starving. Guess what we bought!! A pizza =D and we ate it all. It was soooo good guys. =P then we went to scout out some shoe stores and sales. It was sad, we didn't find anything too amazing. So we just stuck to buying the necessities. I love the store "Bilka" because it's like walmart. Always some good sales. After purchasing our 'stuff' we decided that an ice cream cone sounded good. It's called soft ice. And let me tell you! It's the creamiest soft serve ever!! It's sooo good =) Stephanie then decided she didn't want one, so I got one by myself. And I ordered in Danish! It's funny how things like that just excite me so much ^_^
at about 3 we decided to head home as both of us had busses to catch. Stephanie caught the bus back to the station and I, not having any money in my pocket whatsoever (spent it all shopping and hadn't gotten my allowance yet), decided that I could just walk the few kilometers to my nearest bus stop...don't you just love how I get ideas like this! See, if you remember, I had walked to the mall already. So how hard could it be to get back? Well, I went a different way than the last time because I knew it would be shorter to go the straight line route instead of taking the big "L" route. So I set out!! I got maybe ten minutes down the road when I started to doubt myself. Am I on the right road? Will I get lost?? I can see the headlines now! "Foreign kid wanders from næstved to Germany, how she got there, we may never know" lol these things just started running through my mind. Lucky me.. Then I saw something familiar on another road. "should I turn?" I didn't turn. I decided I would just keep walking the way I was headed. About 30-40 minutes after I started, a road came into view. The main road my bus takes!! I made it =DDD that's right, I didn't get lost =P so I walked to the nearest bus stop, sat down, and waited for about half an hour for my bus. Great times haha.
O, and Tuesday night during dinner, I found out that parliament was having an important ceremony. The new year for them had begun. I guess that's a big thing? I really didn't know much about it, so for the next 10 minutes or so, my host dad and I talked about it and ue explained how the system works with the elections and everything. Really interesting, not gunna lie.
And today is wednesday! Nothing special going on today. I get out of school at 1:30 and I'm just going to go home an relax. Can't beat that right now. The 5:30 wake up is taking its toll. I just want to sleep most of the time haha. Really looking forward to sitting in some comfy clothes and watching some tv. Wish me luck ^_^ I will write more later! Thanks for reading!!
THINGS IVE LEARNED SO FAR::
-Danish tv is mostly in English with Danish subtitles. There are a few channels with only Danish speaking though.
-they put ketchup on their spaghetti here =P sounds disgusting, I know. But it actually good. It's pasta, this plain meat sauce, then ketchup on top!
-in grocery stores, you have to bag your own things..most places don't provide bags eitwr. You need to bring your own or buy them.
-waking up just 30 seconds before your bus stop comes is very awakening.
-Danes must bleed carbs, I swear. From all the breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes.
-Danish has some insanely longs words..why? Because they are actually a bunch of little words squished together! Seriously, like 'whole grain pasta'turns into fuldkornspasta. The trick is finding out where the words start and stop.
-I now ride my bike when it's very dark outside. No sunrise. I'm very thankful for the 'dorky' lights on my bike. I haven't gotten run over yet! =D
-a lot of people bring their laptops to school. Pretty much 30% of the time is spent on school work. The rest of the time they are on facebook or surfing the Net.
-snails are becoming a new nuisance here.
-all the good Danish guys are taken =((( haha just kidding
-there are only chalk boards at the school. No white boards. 2 smart boards that I've seen, but the teachers I have don't know how to use them.
-danes who will be driving soon are insanely jealous when they hear how cheap and easy it is to get a license in the US.
-I look forward to thursdays because that means volleyball. =)) (except for tomorrow, there is no practice)
-Denmark is probably one of the most expensive countries in the world (for those of you who don't know)
-there is a mixed knowledge of english among older people. Some can understand perfectly but can't speak very well. And others can communicate very well in English.
-I love how rotary is made up of normal everyday people =) just wanting to make a difference
I think that's all for now! Remember to check out facebook for pictures! (if you don't want to be on facebook, I will be uploading on some kind of picture sharing website soon) keep reading my blogs and tell me what you think or ask questions. I love it. Talk to you all soon! Miss and love you =)
<3 Rebekah knus og kys (hug and kiss)
On Monday I went to school like always. My first class on Mondays is always gym...great way to start off the week ^_^ No, it's not that bad. At least I can participate in that class! It's usually fun. I have a great teacher. He's really nice..so anywayz, there was gym, then after gym was the rest of school =( yea...haha I got to see my friend René though! Yea that was great. We were able to talk for a bit, and then we decided that we wanted to hang out after school. (I didn't have my normal Danish lessons because the teacher was sick) So René came over that night from about 7-10. We just relaxed in my room. Ate some candy. Takled..O how I miss doing that! Having a friend over or going out and just chilling. It was really nice to be able to spend time with my best friend =) As it turns out, René is kind of a neat freak, and he didn't like the way I had cleaned my room. So guess what he did! ;) yea, I want to have him over more often if he'll do that for me haha then after that we just hung out and ate candy from my candy stash =D he had like 30 pieces of salt water taffy, I swear. ^_^ And you know why that's really funny? Cuz the first time he had them, he said they tasted terrible...Well, I showed him!We also ate some skittles (if you remember, they don't have those here, so it was quite a treat) and then! I gave him the best thing he will ever experience in his life! An oreo with peanut butter =DD Everyone over here says that sounds just disgusting (they don't like peanut butter, but I think they just haven't had the right kind) but René really liked it =P He said it was so strange to put those together, but it was good! YOU are welcome =P Then at about 10, he left. Sad day =( I wish I could hang out with friends 24/7 sometimes...
On Tuesday, I had biology in first module. So I was just sitting there minding my own business when a friend leaned over and asked if I'd eaten breakfast. I hadn't had time that
morning so I said no. Next thing I know, I'm in the front of the class getting my bloodsugar tested for an experiment! They had those little diabetes bloodtesters, you know, the ones that prick your finger. So I had to do one for a baseline. (I helped a bit) and then I ate some apple, and I had to have 4 more tests at timed intervals. SO.MUCH.FUN. =P not really. It's a good thing I'm not sqeemish with blood. But my fingers hurts for awhile after that. Haha
then we all got off of school at 11:30. No way I was going back home for 10 hours =P So me and Stephanie decided to go shopping at the mall since we didn't want to walk around downtown in the cold. But first, we had to walk to the bus station and go to the post office so I could mail a HUGE letter back home to the US. (you're welcome amber hatten ^_^) We got to the post office, I picked up a package of envelopes and went to the counter to mail this letter. I was really disapponted that I couldn't talk to the lady in Danish. I couldn't for the life of me remember how to say letter in Danish =( but I did it in English. So the letter is now *safely* on its way home now. Haha...
then Stephanie and I boarded a bus and went to the mall. Niether of us has eaten lunch yet, so naturally we were starving. Guess what we bought!! A pizza =D and we ate it all. It was soooo good guys. =P then we went to scout out some shoe stores and sales. It was sad, we didn't find anything too amazing. So we just stuck to buying the necessities. I love the store "Bilka" because it's like walmart. Always some good sales. After purchasing our 'stuff' we decided that an ice cream cone sounded good. It's called soft ice. And let me tell you! It's the creamiest soft serve ever!! It's sooo good =) Stephanie then decided she didn't want one, so I got one by myself. And I ordered in Danish! It's funny how things like that just excite me so much ^_^
at about 3 we decided to head home as both of us had busses to catch. Stephanie caught the bus back to the station and I, not having any money in my pocket whatsoever (spent it all shopping and hadn't gotten my allowance yet), decided that I could just walk the few kilometers to my nearest bus stop...don't you just love how I get ideas like this! See, if you remember, I had walked to the mall already. So how hard could it be to get back? Well, I went a different way than the last time because I knew it would be shorter to go the straight line route instead of taking the big "L" route. So I set out!! I got maybe ten minutes down the road when I started to doubt myself. Am I on the right road? Will I get lost?? I can see the headlines now! "Foreign kid wanders from næstved to Germany, how she got there, we may never know" lol these things just started running through my mind. Lucky me.. Then I saw something familiar on another road. "should I turn?" I didn't turn. I decided I would just keep walking the way I was headed. About 30-40 minutes after I started, a road came into view. The main road my bus takes!! I made it =DDD that's right, I didn't get lost =P so I walked to the nearest bus stop, sat down, and waited for about half an hour for my bus. Great times haha.
O, and Tuesday night during dinner, I found out that parliament was having an important ceremony. The new year for them had begun. I guess that's a big thing? I really didn't know much about it, so for the next 10 minutes or so, my host dad and I talked about it and ue explained how the system works with the elections and everything. Really interesting, not gunna lie.
And today is wednesday! Nothing special going on today. I get out of school at 1:30 and I'm just going to go home an relax. Can't beat that right now. The 5:30 wake up is taking its toll. I just want to sleep most of the time haha. Really looking forward to sitting in some comfy clothes and watching some tv. Wish me luck ^_^ I will write more later! Thanks for reading!!
THINGS IVE LEARNED SO FAR::
-Danish tv is mostly in English with Danish subtitles. There are a few channels with only Danish speaking though.
-they put ketchup on their spaghetti here =P sounds disgusting, I know. But it actually good. It's pasta, this plain meat sauce, then ketchup on top!
-in grocery stores, you have to bag your own things..most places don't provide bags eitwr. You need to bring your own or buy them.
-waking up just 30 seconds before your bus stop comes is very awakening.
-Danes must bleed carbs, I swear. From all the breads, pasta, rice, and potatoes.
-Danish has some insanely longs words..why? Because they are actually a bunch of little words squished together! Seriously, like 'whole grain pasta'turns into fuldkornspasta. The trick is finding out where the words start and stop.
-I now ride my bike when it's very dark outside. No sunrise. I'm very thankful for the 'dorky' lights on my bike. I haven't gotten run over yet! =D
-a lot of people bring their laptops to school. Pretty much 30% of the time is spent on school work. The rest of the time they are on facebook or surfing the Net.
-snails are becoming a new nuisance here.
-all the good Danish guys are taken =((( haha just kidding
-there are only chalk boards at the school. No white boards. 2 smart boards that I've seen, but the teachers I have don't know how to use them.
-danes who will be driving soon are insanely jealous when they hear how cheap and easy it is to get a license in the US.
-I look forward to thursdays because that means volleyball. =)) (except for tomorrow, there is no practice)
-Denmark is probably one of the most expensive countries in the world (for those of you who don't know)
-there is a mixed knowledge of english among older people. Some can understand perfectly but can't speak very well. And others can communicate very well in English.
-I love how rotary is made up of normal everyday people =) just wanting to make a difference
I think that's all for now! Remember to check out facebook for pictures! (if you don't want to be on facebook, I will be uploading on some kind of picture sharing website soon) keep reading my blogs and tell me what you think or ask questions. I love it. Talk to you all soon! Miss and love you =)
<3 Rebekah knus og kys (hug and kiss)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Hash...anyone?
This past week has been awefully dull =( A few things happened, but not many..
Monday started a new week at school. And an odd week it was. It's call 'AT' week. All the classes stay in one classroom for the entire week, and the teachers come to us. There is only one subject talked about during this week, and it's usually one that's worth thinking about and trying to figure out how to fix. My class's subject was Burma, and all the bad things that have happened there with the dictatorship and everything, and what we could do to help..Now, I thought that normal school was boring, but nothing compares to sitting in the exact same classroom for the whole day. ^_^ My ipod has become my new bestfriend.
Monday afternoon I had my Danish lessons like always. It's getting better. My friend Stephanie was deathly ill the past week, and Monday was her first day back. She walked into the classroom, and all 6 of us (5 students, 1 teacher) just stare at her. Then I think I may have said it first, or our teacher did, but someone said 'Wow, Steph. You look like hell' hahaha funniest thing ever. Not that my friend looked horrible because she was still sick, but because all of us in the room said it. =P It's ok, she laughed too..and she blames me for her illness. So she has plans to get me =/ haha
Monday night I went to a Rotary meeting. This one was held in Næstved at a museum type place. They played about 6 films on the old times in Denmark. The first was about the Suså (which i thought was going to be the only one) but then more and more films started playing =P I really don't mind going to the Rotary meetings. Even if I get really bored because I don't understand it. You know why? Well, the poeple are really nice, and they always have tea, coffee, and cake ^_^ hahhaha yea. i'm a bad person, I know. =P
On Tuesday nothing really happened. Same old same old. After school, I went shopping with my host mom and sister to look for winter shoes for Astrid. That was pretty much all that happened...Wednesday morning I was finally able to open a package I had gotten from my mom in the States! Yea, you don't know the excitement. haha it's better than Christmas! So I opened it before I had to leave for school. Candy (they know me too well), my winter coat (they care if i freeze), some socks (she is a mom afterall ^_^), and probably my most favorite things in the entire box! A pair of gloves =DDD thanks mom, now my hands don't freeze while I'm riding my bike in the morning.
Wednsaday after school I decided to do something brave, go to the post office next to the bus station and mail some stuff. See, I have already done this (I mailed my grandma a bday card) but I decided to try to talk to the lady in Danish. So I braved my way up to the counter and I did it! I told her how many letters I had, where they were going, and everything! So proud of myself ^_^
Thursday was volleyball. I showed up to practice and there were about 10 guys there already and no girls. Fun fun fun..yea no. =P Then more guys started showing up. I think there were 15, and then the coach started practice. In the middle of warming up, a few other guys came, and then 2 girls! yay. haha overall it was a good practice. I need some work, cuz it's hard after not seriously playing in a year. But it's coming. I love volleyball. And it's going to be great to have a team again. Maybe some new friends? The guys are really nice ^_^ nice looking too =P
Friday night my host parents took me to Christiania which is in Copenhagen to see their oldest son play with his band at a club to celebrate the release of his second cd..Now, I can't tell you everything there is about Christiania, but it's a strange place. It's literally it's own world. It used to be a military base, then the government gave it up, and some guy from nowhere comes in and sets up camp and starts his own city ^_^ and I'm not joking. They have their own rules there almost. If you want to know more (or better) info, look it up. I'm sure there's a lot about it..Well in Christiania we went to this club, right. We get in the door and guess what's right there on a table: a sign saying 'hash cakes for sale' lol!! and actally sitting there were some! People were even smoking it inside the club, which I have just come to learn, it's ok to smoke it in Denmark. You just can't sell it...how you're supposed to smoke it without buying it or selling it is beyond me...=P So we saw the band, it was good. Very different music than what I normally go for.
Saturday was a cozy day. I didn't go out, just stayed at home all day in my pj's. I cooked some mac 'n' cheese for dinner as my host family was out of the house. And I just relaxed =) Same with Sunday. Not much has happened today. Just chilling out and enjoying life...That's all folks!
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-it's illegal to smoke inside a club, but no one really cares and they all do it anyway
-'leftovers' don't really exist in my house..if it's not eaten and it's not meat, it gets trashed
-there are some people in this world that you will just not get along with..ie, hot shots on the volleyball team
-riding a bicycle applies directly to life (comment if you want more info)
-Danes think some American foods just sound disgusting..peanut butter, mac 'n' cheese, etc.
sorry I can't think of more! Like I told you before, I just forget what I think about to write down =( message me! email me! comment me!
miss you all. love. knus og kys! (hugs and kisses)
Love, Rebekah <3
Monday started a new week at school. And an odd week it was. It's call 'AT' week. All the classes stay in one classroom for the entire week, and the teachers come to us. There is only one subject talked about during this week, and it's usually one that's worth thinking about and trying to figure out how to fix. My class's subject was Burma, and all the bad things that have happened there with the dictatorship and everything, and what we could do to help..Now, I thought that normal school was boring, but nothing compares to sitting in the exact same classroom for the whole day. ^_^ My ipod has become my new bestfriend.
Monday afternoon I had my Danish lessons like always. It's getting better. My friend Stephanie was deathly ill the past week, and Monday was her first day back. She walked into the classroom, and all 6 of us (5 students, 1 teacher) just stare at her. Then I think I may have said it first, or our teacher did, but someone said 'Wow, Steph. You look like hell' hahaha funniest thing ever. Not that my friend looked horrible because she was still sick, but because all of us in the room said it. =P It's ok, she laughed too..and she blames me for her illness. So she has plans to get me =/ haha
Monday night I went to a Rotary meeting. This one was held in Næstved at a museum type place. They played about 6 films on the old times in Denmark. The first was about the Suså (which i thought was going to be the only one) but then more and more films started playing =P I really don't mind going to the Rotary meetings. Even if I get really bored because I don't understand it. You know why? Well, the poeple are really nice, and they always have tea, coffee, and cake ^_^ hahhaha yea. i'm a bad person, I know. =P
On Tuesday nothing really happened. Same old same old. After school, I went shopping with my host mom and sister to look for winter shoes for Astrid. That was pretty much all that happened...Wednesday morning I was finally able to open a package I had gotten from my mom in the States! Yea, you don't know the excitement. haha it's better than Christmas! So I opened it before I had to leave for school. Candy (they know me too well), my winter coat (they care if i freeze), some socks (she is a mom afterall ^_^), and probably my most favorite things in the entire box! A pair of gloves =DDD thanks mom, now my hands don't freeze while I'm riding my bike in the morning.
Wednsaday after school I decided to do something brave, go to the post office next to the bus station and mail some stuff. See, I have already done this (I mailed my grandma a bday card) but I decided to try to talk to the lady in Danish. So I braved my way up to the counter and I did it! I told her how many letters I had, where they were going, and everything! So proud of myself ^_^
Thursday was volleyball. I showed up to practice and there were about 10 guys there already and no girls. Fun fun fun..yea no. =P Then more guys started showing up. I think there were 15, and then the coach started practice. In the middle of warming up, a few other guys came, and then 2 girls! yay. haha overall it was a good practice. I need some work, cuz it's hard after not seriously playing in a year. But it's coming. I love volleyball. And it's going to be great to have a team again. Maybe some new friends? The guys are really nice ^_^ nice looking too =P
Friday night my host parents took me to Christiania which is in Copenhagen to see their oldest son play with his band at a club to celebrate the release of his second cd..Now, I can't tell you everything there is about Christiania, but it's a strange place. It's literally it's own world. It used to be a military base, then the government gave it up, and some guy from nowhere comes in and sets up camp and starts his own city ^_^ and I'm not joking. They have their own rules there almost. If you want to know more (or better) info, look it up. I'm sure there's a lot about it..Well in Christiania we went to this club, right. We get in the door and guess what's right there on a table: a sign saying 'hash cakes for sale' lol!! and actally sitting there were some! People were even smoking it inside the club, which I have just come to learn, it's ok to smoke it in Denmark. You just can't sell it...how you're supposed to smoke it without buying it or selling it is beyond me...=P So we saw the band, it was good. Very different music than what I normally go for.
Saturday was a cozy day. I didn't go out, just stayed at home all day in my pj's. I cooked some mac 'n' cheese for dinner as my host family was out of the house. And I just relaxed =) Same with Sunday. Not much has happened today. Just chilling out and enjoying life...That's all folks!
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-it's illegal to smoke inside a club, but no one really cares and they all do it anyway
-'leftovers' don't really exist in my house..if it's not eaten and it's not meat, it gets trashed
-there are some people in this world that you will just not get along with..ie, hot shots on the volleyball team
-riding a bicycle applies directly to life (comment if you want more info)
-Danes think some American foods just sound disgusting..peanut butter, mac 'n' cheese, etc.
sorry I can't think of more! Like I told you before, I just forget what I think about to write down =( message me! email me! comment me!
miss you all. love. knus og kys! (hugs and kisses)
Love, Rebekah <3
Monday, September 27, 2010
Things sure are...different
So! Since my last post was insanely long, I decided to post 2 entries. One about my time and one about new and interesting and different and WEIRD things. haha here you go =)
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-Denmark is the only country that doesn't have a 'B' note, but it has an 'H' I guess. Mind fully blown. So much for music being an international language. This was like telling me 2+2=5 here..makes absolutely no sense.
-There are spiders everywhere here! And big ones. With huge webs. And literally EVERYWHERE. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww
-People can park on the wrong side of the street here..In fact, if there is no designated parking spot, people just park half on the sidewalk.
-Canada has a lot of the same systems as us in the US: the oulets, using feet and inches to measure height...so ha! take that Europe! haha we aren't the only ones that do it this way =D
-I figured out which era the Danish fashion reminds me of! The '90s, most definitely. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, but indeed. We are talking shoulder pads, pants up high on the waist line for girls, wedge shoes, one piece suits...yea, the whole nine yards =P
-The busses do not always run on time, and the next bus WILL leave you behind.
-My Danish teacher said that some drunk Viking must have thuoght up the Danish language, cuz it's just that crazy haha
-The notebook paper for school has 4 holes, not 3. Why they need an extra hole? I have no idea.
-Some words in the Danish language cannot be translated. EX: hyggligt (hue-gah-lee) everything is hyggligt. It's like saying comfy or cozy, but there is really no way to tranlsate this word..IT'S EVERYTHING! haha
-Speaking English to some people shocks them at first..but speaking Danish to a classmate is almost more shocking.
-If you're done eating, put the knife and fork on teh same side of the plate, otherwise you're still hungry..yes, it took me a good 2 weeks to figure this one out. "Why are they still giving me food?!" yea, that's why...
-Black is a major staple in most people's wardrobe.
-The music is old here. Old as in, they are just now getting things on the radio that we had months ago.
-Chucks/All stars/Converse are very popular. Go US =D
-A lot of people are caffeine addicts. Coffee and tea all the time. Sometimes they drink 3 cups of coffee at 8-9-10 at night. It's usually black, no cream or sugar. And it's ALWAYS scalding hot. I don't know how they drink it that way, but they do.
-People play hacky sack here! Haha this gave me a kick
-The water is completely clean no matter where you go. Straight from the tap is how they drink it. And I also blame the water for a few things: making my hair grow super fast, making a lot more hair fall out, making the Danish people so tall! It's gotta be the water, guys. It's gotta haha
-A Dane can out-eat an American any day. Seriously, they eat A LOT. I saw this little 11 year old eat 3 plates full one time.
-Sometimes they eat really slow and sometimes you blink and the food is gone. They tend to talk a lot during mealtime, so this could explain it.
-A 'typical' Danish boy might come off as gay. They dress well, smell nice, are very free and open with other guys, and their mannerisms are very feminine. Don't be fooled hahaha they are about 95% of the time straight.
-When in a place like a store or postoffice, people are generally very willing to help if you ask. Like I said earlier, they are kind of taken aback by the English at first, but they help with a good attitude =) very nice people
THE LANGUAGE BARRIER::
I think I should updat y'all on how my Danish is going. Det går ok. It's going ok. Pretty much. Haha I am learning more everyday, but it's just not enough. I have danish lessons after school on Mondays for a few hours. Right now, I'm in that place where I can understand if they speak slowly and give me a few seconds to translate, but that's not what most people let me do. When I'm in a group of people and they start speaking Danish I can usually pick out words and figure out what they're talking about. But somedays, my brain gets so tired that I quit. I haven't gotten my first dream in Danish yet, but everyone says it should be coming any week now ^_^ I have started to think in Danish though. Not fluently by any means, don't get all excited. But sometimes I'll just be sitting in class and I'll just start saying Danish sentances in my head. The only problem with this is that when someone asks me a question, I can only off the top of my was give them a bare minimum answer. But if I can think about it, I can say so much more in my head. It's frustrating cuz it jusr won't come out. Haha Also, an interesing fact, my English is starting to suck. Majorly. My vocabulary is shrinking rapidly. My grammar is getting bad. Sometimes I hve to ask my friends what the word I'm looking for is. Yea, that doesn't help when they don't know the word either. =P so, my English is going bad really fast, but my Danish is getting better super slowly. I wonder if I wot be able to speak at all during this year ^_^ o, one more thing, "tell us what you know in Danish!" is a horrible thing to get asked. Because now, I know more than my name, but I can't translate a sentence for you if it's too big. So pulling a good Danish sentence out of my head is tricky. It takes a minute or two. O! And when I read, I can read almost everything now. Ok, not everything, but I can read a lot an understand it. It's because I can think about it more and read the context...I think that's about all for language ^_^ it's coming. But it's just gunna take some time. More time.
That's all for now! =D I hope you are learning a lot from these blogs. I wish you could experience it for yourself, but since you can't, I hope you find this insightful. =) until next time! <3
Rebekah~~~~ jeg elsker jer. Og, jeg savner jer. Jeg skal ser jer snart! (I love you all, and I miss you all. I shall see you all soon)
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR::
-Denmark is the only country that doesn't have a 'B' note, but it has an 'H' I guess. Mind fully blown. So much for music being an international language. This was like telling me 2+2=5 here..makes absolutely no sense.
-There are spiders everywhere here! And big ones. With huge webs. And literally EVERYWHERE. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww
-People can park on the wrong side of the street here..In fact, if there is no designated parking spot, people just park half on the sidewalk.
-Canada has a lot of the same systems as us in the US: the oulets, using feet and inches to measure height...so ha! take that Europe! haha we aren't the only ones that do it this way =D
-I figured out which era the Danish fashion reminds me of! The '90s, most definitely. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, but indeed. We are talking shoulder pads, pants up high on the waist line for girls, wedge shoes, one piece suits...yea, the whole nine yards =P
-The busses do not always run on time, and the next bus WILL leave you behind.
-My Danish teacher said that some drunk Viking must have thuoght up the Danish language, cuz it's just that crazy haha
-The notebook paper for school has 4 holes, not 3. Why they need an extra hole? I have no idea.
-Some words in the Danish language cannot be translated. EX: hyggligt (hue-gah-lee) everything is hyggligt. It's like saying comfy or cozy, but there is really no way to tranlsate this word..IT'S EVERYTHING! haha
-Speaking English to some people shocks them at first..but speaking Danish to a classmate is almost more shocking.
-If you're done eating, put the knife and fork on teh same side of the plate, otherwise you're still hungry..yes, it took me a good 2 weeks to figure this one out. "Why are they still giving me food?!" yea, that's why...
-Black is a major staple in most people's wardrobe.
-The music is old here. Old as in, they are just now getting things on the radio that we had months ago.
-Chucks/All stars/Converse are very popular. Go US =D
-A lot of people are caffeine addicts. Coffee and tea all the time. Sometimes they drink 3 cups of coffee at 8-9-10 at night. It's usually black, no cream or sugar. And it's ALWAYS scalding hot. I don't know how they drink it that way, but they do.
-People play hacky sack here! Haha this gave me a kick
-The water is completely clean no matter where you go. Straight from the tap is how they drink it. And I also blame the water for a few things: making my hair grow super fast, making a lot more hair fall out, making the Danish people so tall! It's gotta be the water, guys. It's gotta haha
-A Dane can out-eat an American any day. Seriously, they eat A LOT. I saw this little 11 year old eat 3 plates full one time.
-Sometimes they eat really slow and sometimes you blink and the food is gone. They tend to talk a lot during mealtime, so this could explain it.
-A 'typical' Danish boy might come off as gay. They dress well, smell nice, are very free and open with other guys, and their mannerisms are very feminine. Don't be fooled hahaha they are about 95% of the time straight.
-When in a place like a store or postoffice, people are generally very willing to help if you ask. Like I said earlier, they are kind of taken aback by the English at first, but they help with a good attitude =) very nice people
THE LANGUAGE BARRIER::
I think I should updat y'all on how my Danish is going. Det går ok. It's going ok. Pretty much. Haha I am learning more everyday, but it's just not enough. I have danish lessons after school on Mondays for a few hours. Right now, I'm in that place where I can understand if they speak slowly and give me a few seconds to translate, but that's not what most people let me do. When I'm in a group of people and they start speaking Danish I can usually pick out words and figure out what they're talking about. But somedays, my brain gets so tired that I quit. I haven't gotten my first dream in Danish yet, but everyone says it should be coming any week now ^_^ I have started to think in Danish though. Not fluently by any means, don't get all excited. But sometimes I'll just be sitting in class and I'll just start saying Danish sentances in my head. The only problem with this is that when someone asks me a question, I can only off the top of my was give them a bare minimum answer. But if I can think about it, I can say so much more in my head. It's frustrating cuz it jusr won't come out. Haha Also, an interesing fact, my English is starting to suck. Majorly. My vocabulary is shrinking rapidly. My grammar is getting bad. Sometimes I hve to ask my friends what the word I'm looking for is. Yea, that doesn't help when they don't know the word either. =P so, my English is going bad really fast, but my Danish is getting better super slowly. I wonder if I wot be able to speak at all during this year ^_^ o, one more thing, "tell us what you know in Danish!" is a horrible thing to get asked. Because now, I know more than my name, but I can't translate a sentence for you if it's too big. So pulling a good Danish sentence out of my head is tricky. It takes a minute or two. O! And when I read, I can read almost everything now. Ok, not everything, but I can read a lot an understand it. It's because I can think about it more and read the context...I think that's about all for language ^_^ it's coming. But it's just gunna take some time. More time.
That's all for now! =D I hope you are learning a lot from these blogs. I wish you could experience it for yourself, but since you can't, I hope you find this insightful. =) until next time! <3
Rebekah~~~~ jeg elsker jer. Og, jeg savner jer. Jeg skal ser jer snart! (I love you all, and I miss you all. I shall see you all soon)
Monday, September 13, 2010
ET...Phone Home!!!
so! this past weeks have been awesome =D you kno, it still had it's ups and downs, but for the most part it was good =) sorry it's been like 3 weeks since my last update. Wow. It HAS been that long. Well, let me try to remember what has happened =D
the week went by like usual. nothing special happened. and then this weekend of September 10-12, the other kids in my district went to the southern island called Lolland (low-lan) to a little town called Maribo (my-bo). it was a lot of fun =) I got to see all of the kids in my district and that was awesome because I really like my district. We also got to spend time with the oldies in my district too. Oldies are the people from the southern hemisphere that have been here half a year already.
So on Friday, I went on the train with Stephanie and we all met up in Nykøbing. then we hopped on the next train to Maribor. That is where i saw all my friends and the new oldies. After checking with our 'surpervisers' for the weekend, we all got on this really old style train that was going to take us to the place we were staying. And I do mean that this train was ancient! Haha it actually belonged Tina museum and the rotary let us ride on it =) that was a lot of fun. I got to stand in between the cars, terrified of falling off. And the wistle of the train blew and blew. I'm not sure exactly how long we were on the train, but it was great.
Then we got off the train and were driven to the camp site where we were going to be for the next few days. No, we didn't stay outside, we were in a little cozy cabin type thing. Me and all my friends claimed a whole top row of bunk beds so we could all be next to each other. 5 beds. One and a half for luggage, and three and a half for 5 girls ^_^ o yea. Haha that's just how we make things work =P it was a lot of fun. I love being with my girlfiends...so on Friday night we got to just relax for a few hours. And then after dinner, at about 8 I think, some ZUMBA intrustors came! For those of you who don't know, zumba is a mix of dance and workout. It was sooooo much fun =D sure, I can't dance, but I honestly think that none of us can. Haha so after they left, guess what we got! Cake!! (kage {kay} in Danish) yep. After we worked off all of our calories, then let us eat more ^_^
that night we didn't sleep very much. Not by choice either. It was the blasted oldies!! It's unfortunate, but they didn't get along well with us. Well, the ones from Australia and new Zealand mostly. They just are a bunch of party animals and that's not what a lot of us are into. So we butted heads a few times...anywayz! On Saturday! We went into the town first. And had a boat ride in a lake. Pretty relaxing. We saw so many ducks!! And they were so close to us. Like on shore they were only a meter away on te grass! So me and some friends had some fun chasing them. Haha there is a video on facbook. Check it out! Then after the ride we got to wander in the city, and we got to see a military tatoo. It was like a bunch of marching bands dressed up in old style military gear and playing. So cool. But, what made it the beat ever! There were some bag pipers. I'm sorry that a lot of you absolutely loath the noise, but I love it =) and!!! they started to play "Amazing Grace" as we were walking back to our bus. I can't explain to you the emotion...it was just, GAH! yea. haha i loved it soooooo much =D then after that! We went to this place called Knutinborg..I think that's how you spell =P this place is the coolest! It's a SAFARI! in the middle of Europe!!!! Yea it was great. We got there and the weather was kind of junky, go figure in Denmark. ^_^ but we got there and ate lunch outside and then! Before we started our tour of animals, we got to roam around this playground area. LET ME TELL YOU! this, was the most awesome playgroud/obstacle course that I have ever seen! It wad so big and there was so much to do. I want to go back just so I can play there again =D am I a child or what...then! We got to see the animals. Giraffes. Tigers. Wolves. RHINOS. Zebras. Gazell. It was AWESOME. haha I love the zoo, but this was like the zoo on steroids. So much fun =) I would love to go back with my girlfriends sometime.
Then we spent ANOTHER sleepless night in the cabin. Then left bright and early on Sunday (Søondag). So, after a BUNCH of confusion over who gets into which vehicle and which train to get on, we boarded the train and were off! About an hour later, Næstved was approaching, and after that is Ringsted. Now, I wasn't exactly sure which stop to get off on. See, Ringsted is closer to my house, but Næstved is usually where we get on and off the train. So! wanting to call my host family to ask them, I reached for my phone, and guess what...that's right! DEAD AS A DOORNAIL -_- so I decided to just get off in Ringsted since it's closer to my house, and I figured that was where I would be picked up at. Jokingly, I knew something was going to go wrong, and that I would be stranded at the train station. So I told Stephanie to look for my host parents and point them in the direction of Ringsted if she saw them at the Næstved station. So I said goodbye to Steph, and then I was on my way to Ringsted. After arriving I looked for my host mom or dad..no dice. SHOOT. Yea, through my head I was saying "I'm in trouble" just over and over again. haha this stuff just always seems to happen to me! So I'm in a total calm/stressed/panicked state, if ever such a thing existed ^_^ so I had no idea what to do. My phone was dead, and I didn't see any outlets in the walls. So I walked up to a couple of the oldies and was like "guys, I need help from my older and wiser oldies" haha And they suggested taht I go up to the counter at the convenient store and ask to plug in my phone..I guess they really aren't that bad, huh. =P so I walked up to the cuonter and asked the lady if there was anywhere I could plug in my phone, she pointed to a corner. I quickly walked/ran over to the corner, and as soon as I bent down to plug in my phone, I heard my name from behind me. My host mom had arrived!!!! haha I ran up to her and gave her a hug andtold her how scared i was that I was going to be stranded there forever! And guess what, she had gone to Næstved, she had seen Stephanie, and Stephanie actually told her where i was!!! yea, this kind of stuff only happens to me guys ^_^ it's soo funny to think about now. like, wow. anywayz! that was that weekend =D crisis averted.
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Just when you think nothing else can possibly go wrong, it does. I'm talking about the following Monday morning. SO.MUCH.FUN. not. this was the worst day I've had in Denmark to date. Let me explain! So I woke up on Monday morning, bright and early at about 5:30 like usual, got ready, and started out on my bike at 6:30. I ride my bike every morning to the bus stop 2k away, which isn't so bad. It takes like 8 minutes, something like that. So I set out! Well, about 2 minutes into my bike ride, it started to sprinkle..OH NO. And then! POURING. And not just normal pouring. POURING BUCKETS! so, that was not fun, I had to finish my bike ride, soaking wet. Then, with the bus stop in sight, this big blue van pulls up next to me, this lady leans out her window, and starts yelling at me. IN DANISH. So I had to just sit there, in the pouring rain, listening to this lady yell at me, and then I finally said that I don't speak Danish. She looked back at me, annoyance clearly written on her face, and just said very curtly "you need to put lights on your bike" i then replied with not having any lights, and she said to get some! then she drove away. So then I rode away, drenched, and got on the bus, freezing. I was hoping my clothes would dry in time, but no dice. I had PE that morning too. So I had to take off the wet clothes, then put them back on...fun fun fun. ^_^ worst morning ever.
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Now! A bit more recent. This past weekend, sept 18-19, me and Stephanie went down south about 2 hours to see my friend Hillary from Canada and Erica from Illonois. (These were my group from intro camp) That, was a super long train ride, I must say. haha but it was all worth it, because I got to see my awesome veninder (girl friends). So we finally got off the train and then were met by Hillary and Erica and then walked out to Hill's house. We chilled there for a few hours, then ate dinner. And somehow we made dinner last almost 4 hours it felt like. TOO MUCH TALKING. haha but then, we finally had the night to ourselves. And we went out like we planned to. CLUB. My first dicso in Denmark. We had to first walk to the bank so Hill could get money to pay for us all to get in, and then we had to walk to the disco. It was like 11:30-12 at night by the way. And freezing. haha but! we finally got there. It was still super early when we got there, so we just chilled out and talked until like 1 when more of a crowd started coming. There was some dancing, but like I said in a previous post, the people here can't dance very well ^_^ but we tried. haha the only thing i hated about the club was all the smoke. it's "illegal" to smoke in clubs, but no one really cares. So it felt like I smoked 5 whole packs myself that night. My eyes were falling out of my head practically. Yea, not so much fun. But overall, the whole night was good. I was the first out of the group of girls to get talked to by a few guys we didn't know. One asked if he could come home with us. hahaha Erica got bought a drink, so did Hill. Steph, did you get any action?? haha jk. It was fun. We headed home at a mere 4 in the morning. Yea, we were all dead by this time. No joke, but we still had to walk home. Still freezing out, by the way. =P But let me tell you, getting home and taking off the smoke smelling clothing and crawling into a nice warm bed was probably the best thing that happened to me all night ^_^ Then we all awoke Sunday afternoon, ate some chow, then headed off on our ways. Erica had her bus leaving at 4, so Steph and I found a train leaving at the same time. I then arrived home at the RIGHT train station, and my host dad was waiting to pick me up =) So home I went. We ate some dinner together, then I think I passed out on my bed =D that was my weekend
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The past week at school has been less than thrilling like always =P Just the normal stuff happening. Classes. Boring. Sleeping in classes. On Tuesday (sept 21), my afternoon classes got cancelled, so I decided I didn't want to stay at home for 10 hours, and I wanted to go shopping. The only problem, I left some stuff at home that I really wanted to return. So this is what I had to do: took the bus home, got there at about 1, ate some food, took the next bus out at 2:20, arrived in Næstved at 2:45ish, walked to the mall, got there about 3:10, then got all my returning done eventually, then I got to shop =) It's my Nanny's Birthday today (Sept 27!) so I wanted to get her a card. It took FOREVER to find the birthday cards. haha then it took forever to find the right one. but I did it! =) and I found some postcards too. I have never told so many people that I didn't speak Danish before. haha I was asking for help ALL over the place! Yea, you all should be very proud of me, cuz if you know me, you know that's not me. Asking strangers for help...I'M GROWING UP! O MY GOODNESS HAHAHA but it was a good trip =) i'm very proud of myself actually...My host mom was able to come get me from the mall, so I didn't have to take the bus. YES! this, was a great day =)
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and then this past weekend, sept 25-26! (finally up to date!!!!!) on saturday I was home alone all day because my host mom was in Germany (Tyskland) for work, my host sister went to a friend's house, and my host dad had a birthday party (fødselsdag) to go to for someone in his family. So that left me home alone..The few times that I have been home alone the host parents seem so worried about me. Telling me that I can cook whatever I want and to not get scared and whatnot. haha little do they know, I have stayed home alone since I was practically 7. ^_^ it was a very relaxing day. very enjoyable. and! i got to talk to my parents <3 yea, i miss them, i'll admit. haha Then on Sunday, a man from rotary and his wife and their son wanted to take me out to this school that their oldest son was at...this is called an "efterskole". Normally, students in 10th grade do this. It's a lot like a boarding school. Students live there, but they can see their parents almost every weekend if they choose, and each school has a specific interest. Like gymnastik, music, theater, things like that...So we visited the school on the open house day, and all the students did a show for us visiters. A gymnastik show. (hopefully, i'll be posting the video on facebook soon) It was a lot of fun! Then after that we drove to this place where there are cliffs made of chalk and the WATER! Yea, it reminded me so much of Newport and home. It was good to see again =) I miss it I guess haha. Then, we went home. Another hour in the car..actually, it wasn't a car. It's an SUV. the first and only I've seen in Denmark. stranger, huh...
And that's all there is! Sorry that this post was so long. I will be posting my "what I've learned" section in a new entry. Thanks for reading! I love you all and miss you. jeg elsker dig og jeg savner dig =)
<3 Rebekah
the week went by like usual. nothing special happened. and then this weekend of September 10-12, the other kids in my district went to the southern island called Lolland (low-lan) to a little town called Maribo (my-bo). it was a lot of fun =) I got to see all of the kids in my district and that was awesome because I really like my district. We also got to spend time with the oldies in my district too. Oldies are the people from the southern hemisphere that have been here half a year already.
So on Friday, I went on the train with Stephanie and we all met up in Nykøbing. then we hopped on the next train to Maribor. That is where i saw all my friends and the new oldies. After checking with our 'surpervisers' for the weekend, we all got on this really old style train that was going to take us to the place we were staying. And I do mean that this train was ancient! Haha it actually belonged Tina museum and the rotary let us ride on it =) that was a lot of fun. I got to stand in between the cars, terrified of falling off. And the wistle of the train blew and blew. I'm not sure exactly how long we were on the train, but it was great.
Then we got off the train and were driven to the camp site where we were going to be for the next few days. No, we didn't stay outside, we were in a little cozy cabin type thing. Me and all my friends claimed a whole top row of bunk beds so we could all be next to each other. 5 beds. One and a half for luggage, and three and a half for 5 girls ^_^ o yea. Haha that's just how we make things work =P it was a lot of fun. I love being with my girlfiends...so on Friday night we got to just relax for a few hours. And then after dinner, at about 8 I think, some ZUMBA intrustors came! For those of you who don't know, zumba is a mix of dance and workout. It was sooooo much fun =D sure, I can't dance, but I honestly think that none of us can. Haha so after they left, guess what we got! Cake!! (kage {kay} in Danish) yep. After we worked off all of our calories, then let us eat more ^_^
that night we didn't sleep very much. Not by choice either. It was the blasted oldies!! It's unfortunate, but they didn't get along well with us. Well, the ones from Australia and new Zealand mostly. They just are a bunch of party animals and that's not what a lot of us are into. So we butted heads a few times...anywayz! On Saturday! We went into the town first. And had a boat ride in a lake. Pretty relaxing. We saw so many ducks!! And they were so close to us. Like on shore they were only a meter away on te grass! So me and some friends had some fun chasing them. Haha there is a video on facbook. Check it out! Then after the ride we got to wander in the city, and we got to see a military tatoo. It was like a bunch of marching bands dressed up in old style military gear and playing. So cool. But, what made it the beat ever! There were some bag pipers. I'm sorry that a lot of you absolutely loath the noise, but I love it =) and!!! they started to play "Amazing Grace" as we were walking back to our bus. I can't explain to you the emotion...it was just, GAH! yea. haha i loved it soooooo much =D then after that! We went to this place called Knutinborg..I think that's how you spell =P this place is the coolest! It's a SAFARI! in the middle of Europe!!!! Yea it was great. We got there and the weather was kind of junky, go figure in Denmark. ^_^ but we got there and ate lunch outside and then! Before we started our tour of animals, we got to roam around this playground area. LET ME TELL YOU! this, was the most awesome playgroud/obstacle course that I have ever seen! It wad so big and there was so much to do. I want to go back just so I can play there again =D am I a child or what...then! We got to see the animals. Giraffes. Tigers. Wolves. RHINOS. Zebras. Gazell. It was AWESOME. haha I love the zoo, but this was like the zoo on steroids. So much fun =) I would love to go back with my girlfriends sometime.
Then we spent ANOTHER sleepless night in the cabin. Then left bright and early on Sunday (Søondag). So, after a BUNCH of confusion over who gets into which vehicle and which train to get on, we boarded the train and were off! About an hour later, Næstved was approaching, and after that is Ringsted. Now, I wasn't exactly sure which stop to get off on. See, Ringsted is closer to my house, but Næstved is usually where we get on and off the train. So! wanting to call my host family to ask them, I reached for my phone, and guess what...that's right! DEAD AS A DOORNAIL -_- so I decided to just get off in Ringsted since it's closer to my house, and I figured that was where I would be picked up at. Jokingly, I knew something was going to go wrong, and that I would be stranded at the train station. So I told Stephanie to look for my host parents and point them in the direction of Ringsted if she saw them at the Næstved station. So I said goodbye to Steph, and then I was on my way to Ringsted. After arriving I looked for my host mom or dad..no dice. SHOOT. Yea, through my head I was saying "I'm in trouble" just over and over again. haha this stuff just always seems to happen to me! So I'm in a total calm/stressed/panicked state, if ever such a thing existed ^_^ so I had no idea what to do. My phone was dead, and I didn't see any outlets in the walls. So I walked up to a couple of the oldies and was like "guys, I need help from my older and wiser oldies" haha And they suggested taht I go up to the counter at the convenient store and ask to plug in my phone..I guess they really aren't that bad, huh. =P so I walked up to the cuonter and asked the lady if there was anywhere I could plug in my phone, she pointed to a corner. I quickly walked/ran over to the corner, and as soon as I bent down to plug in my phone, I heard my name from behind me. My host mom had arrived!!!! haha I ran up to her and gave her a hug andtold her how scared i was that I was going to be stranded there forever! And guess what, she had gone to Næstved, she had seen Stephanie, and Stephanie actually told her where i was!!! yea, this kind of stuff only happens to me guys ^_^ it's soo funny to think about now. like, wow. anywayz! that was that weekend =D crisis averted.
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Just when you think nothing else can possibly go wrong, it does. I'm talking about the following Monday morning. SO.MUCH.FUN. not. this was the worst day I've had in Denmark to date. Let me explain! So I woke up on Monday morning, bright and early at about 5:30 like usual, got ready, and started out on my bike at 6:30. I ride my bike every morning to the bus stop 2k away, which isn't so bad. It takes like 8 minutes, something like that. So I set out! Well, about 2 minutes into my bike ride, it started to sprinkle..OH NO. And then! POURING. And not just normal pouring. POURING BUCKETS! so, that was not fun, I had to finish my bike ride, soaking wet. Then, with the bus stop in sight, this big blue van pulls up next to me, this lady leans out her window, and starts yelling at me. IN DANISH. So I had to just sit there, in the pouring rain, listening to this lady yell at me, and then I finally said that I don't speak Danish. She looked back at me, annoyance clearly written on her face, and just said very curtly "you need to put lights on your bike" i then replied with not having any lights, and she said to get some! then she drove away. So then I rode away, drenched, and got on the bus, freezing. I was hoping my clothes would dry in time, but no dice. I had PE that morning too. So I had to take off the wet clothes, then put them back on...fun fun fun. ^_^ worst morning ever.
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Now! A bit more recent. This past weekend, sept 18-19, me and Stephanie went down south about 2 hours to see my friend Hillary from Canada and Erica from Illonois. (These were my group from intro camp) That, was a super long train ride, I must say. haha but it was all worth it, because I got to see my awesome veninder (girl friends). So we finally got off the train and then were met by Hillary and Erica and then walked out to Hill's house. We chilled there for a few hours, then ate dinner. And somehow we made dinner last almost 4 hours it felt like. TOO MUCH TALKING. haha but then, we finally had the night to ourselves. And we went out like we planned to. CLUB. My first dicso in Denmark. We had to first walk to the bank so Hill could get money to pay for us all to get in, and then we had to walk to the disco. It was like 11:30-12 at night by the way. And freezing. haha but! we finally got there. It was still super early when we got there, so we just chilled out and talked until like 1 when more of a crowd started coming. There was some dancing, but like I said in a previous post, the people here can't dance very well ^_^ but we tried. haha the only thing i hated about the club was all the smoke. it's "illegal" to smoke in clubs, but no one really cares. So it felt like I smoked 5 whole packs myself that night. My eyes were falling out of my head practically. Yea, not so much fun. But overall, the whole night was good. I was the first out of the group of girls to get talked to by a few guys we didn't know. One asked if he could come home with us. hahaha Erica got bought a drink, so did Hill. Steph, did you get any action?? haha jk. It was fun. We headed home at a mere 4 in the morning. Yea, we were all dead by this time. No joke, but we still had to walk home. Still freezing out, by the way. =P But let me tell you, getting home and taking off the smoke smelling clothing and crawling into a nice warm bed was probably the best thing that happened to me all night ^_^ Then we all awoke Sunday afternoon, ate some chow, then headed off on our ways. Erica had her bus leaving at 4, so Steph and I found a train leaving at the same time. I then arrived home at the RIGHT train station, and my host dad was waiting to pick me up =) So home I went. We ate some dinner together, then I think I passed out on my bed =D that was my weekend
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The past week at school has been less than thrilling like always =P Just the normal stuff happening. Classes. Boring. Sleeping in classes. On Tuesday (sept 21), my afternoon classes got cancelled, so I decided I didn't want to stay at home for 10 hours, and I wanted to go shopping. The only problem, I left some stuff at home that I really wanted to return. So this is what I had to do: took the bus home, got there at about 1, ate some food, took the next bus out at 2:20, arrived in Næstved at 2:45ish, walked to the mall, got there about 3:10, then got all my returning done eventually, then I got to shop =) It's my Nanny's Birthday today (Sept 27!) so I wanted to get her a card. It took FOREVER to find the birthday cards. haha then it took forever to find the right one. but I did it! =) and I found some postcards too. I have never told so many people that I didn't speak Danish before. haha I was asking for help ALL over the place! Yea, you all should be very proud of me, cuz if you know me, you know that's not me. Asking strangers for help...I'M GROWING UP! O MY GOODNESS HAHAHA but it was a good trip =) i'm very proud of myself actually...My host mom was able to come get me from the mall, so I didn't have to take the bus. YES! this, was a great day =)
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and then this past weekend, sept 25-26! (finally up to date!!!!!) on saturday I was home alone all day because my host mom was in Germany (Tyskland) for work, my host sister went to a friend's house, and my host dad had a birthday party (fødselsdag) to go to for someone in his family. So that left me home alone..The few times that I have been home alone the host parents seem so worried about me. Telling me that I can cook whatever I want and to not get scared and whatnot. haha little do they know, I have stayed home alone since I was practically 7. ^_^ it was a very relaxing day. very enjoyable. and! i got to talk to my parents <3 yea, i miss them, i'll admit. haha Then on Sunday, a man from rotary and his wife and their son wanted to take me out to this school that their oldest son was at...this is called an "efterskole". Normally, students in 10th grade do this. It's a lot like a boarding school. Students live there, but they can see their parents almost every weekend if they choose, and each school has a specific interest. Like gymnastik, music, theater, things like that...So we visited the school on the open house day, and all the students did a show for us visiters. A gymnastik show. (hopefully, i'll be posting the video on facebook soon) It was a lot of fun! Then after that we drove to this place where there are cliffs made of chalk and the WATER! Yea, it reminded me so much of Newport and home. It was good to see again =) I miss it I guess haha. Then, we went home. Another hour in the car..actually, it wasn't a car. It's an SUV. the first and only I've seen in Denmark. stranger, huh...
And that's all there is! Sorry that this post was so long. I will be posting my "what I've learned" section in a new entry. Thanks for reading! I love you all and miss you. jeg elsker dig og jeg savner dig =)
<3 Rebekah
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sports Day =)
i got a couple requests to actually SEE the penguin costume. so here you go =D along with some other pics from that awesome day at school!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Party Time ^_^
this last week at school was AWESOME! it was sooo much fun. let me tell you about it::
yes, even though i was super sad to have to come back home after that last amazing week and go back to school, i still enjoyed being back. i missed all of my danish friends believe it or not ;) So it was nice to come back and see them all. It was especially nice to have a fun week.
Pretty much all week we have been preparing for friday. Friday was "sports day". It happens once a year. Every class dresses up like something, performs a little dance, then competes against each other in sporting activities. It was great. My class decided 3 weeks ago that we were going to be apes. Then we decided to do bay watch. Then we FINALLY decided to be penguins =D so the class bought their costumes the week I was gone, and unfortunately I don't own one. One of my friends let me borrow hers for a couple games.
Anywayz, on Monday we practiced our dance during gym class. Then at various other times during the week. The teachers let us do it during class a couple of times. Which helped a lot. We eventually got it down enough to where we could perform it. My class did great =) I am going to try to post the video if facebook will let me...we also did a pretty ok job on the activities too. Well, we lost almost all of them. But it's the spirit that counts haha. There was this baseball game. A game with an American football. 'water skiing'. A wheel barrow race. Volleyball. Field hockey. And frisbee. It was fun =D like I said, we lost almost everything, but it was great to just hang out with friends all day and not have to do school work. fun fun =)
then that night there was a party for the whole school. i went to steph's house and then with her to her host sister's pre party. we got to the dance at about 9:30 and had to wait outside...in the rain -_- yea, my hair died...but when we FINALLY got in, soaking wet and all, we started finding some people we knew and started having a good time dancing and what not.
the party started at 8, and i arrived about 2 hours later. there were 2 bars at the party/dance. and they were used, believe you me. most of my classmates were already 'gone' by the time i got there. because of the pre party and all i guess. everyone was crazy and having a blast. i was having fun too =) dancing with friends is always fun. they then had some live music play, and that pretty much killed the mood..yes, THAT bad. so i took a breather and wen looking for stephanie, and eventually i found her with another exchange student. now this other girl had had a bit too much to drink, i could tell becasue someone had drawn a mustache on her in blue pen. is it wrong to find this funny? haha sorry if that offends anyone.
anywayz the party was to last until 1, but we didn't make it. 12:30 and we were calling stephanie's host mom to come pick us up. then we went to bed =) sleeping the night away!
and that was friday. haha the rest of the week was comparably boring, but still had some ups. one day with my geography teacher, my class went up this ginormaous hill and climbed to the top of a water tower. i think we were measuring wind speeds?? by the way, i do NOT like heights...so i was pretty scared up there.
then one day me and stephanie went shopping in downtown næstved. we wanted to buy some shoes for the dance, but no dice. we walked around for a long time, then we ended up at a little supermarket store underneath the library. we were both craving cake, so guess what i bought =DDDDDD yes, a little chocolate cake that we shared. we only got half way through with it, then we were done. haha or, i made us be done. cuz we would hae gotten so sick! then we went up to the library for a bit while we wre waiting for her mom to come get here. and then i left to catch my bus! not getting lost by the way =)
o, something exciting that is coming up! volleyball is starting here at the gymnasium. every thursday there is practice. i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stoked! for those of you who don't know, i have played since 5th grade with the amazing crusaders with amazing teammates and amazing coaches. i played until 10th grade and 11th grade i couldn't play becasue i had missed out on sign up, but i assistant coached a 3-5th grade team of girls =D it was great! well, anywayz, i really miss playing the sport, so i'm really happy i'll be able to do it again. now i just have to find some sports store that actually HAS volleyball gear...=P
that's all for now folks! keep in touch =) and i'll try to update more often!
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
danish girls loooove mascara, for most, that is all they wear makeup wise. and i must tell you, it feels really nice to not wear as much makeup anymore =)
they have donuts here, i have seen them...also pringles =P
when calling for a cab, count how many people will be riding in it SEVERAL times...and pray it's not raining outside where you're waiting
nothing feels better than a letter or package from home (thanks mom)
danes DO know that smoking kills you
don't give a drunk friend a rubber stamper, becasue he will go around stamping EVERYONE he meets
denmark used to have an empire! no joke, just learned that today...they used to own sweden and norway and the virgin islands and more of germany...CRAZY
we no speak americano is like my new favorite party song
danes CAN'T dance ^_^ sorry guys..
coffee and tea and cookies is pretty common on a sunday afternoon =D
ok, that's all! o, shoot! language stuff...ok, i'm starting after school danish lessons every monday at school. i hope they are effective. i learned a lot of danish at the intro camp i feel like...i have OFFICIALLY been here one month =DD and i can understand a lot, if you speak slowly and repeat. my pronunciation sucks however. but reading is getting better =) some people in class said it's not fun that i'm learning so fast because now i'll know what they are saying to me. haha and yes, people have said that i am learning danish quite fast. and this makes me sooooo happy. maybe i'll actually be able to conquer this language that some people say is harder than chinese =P
now! that's all haha please keep reading. i hope you like what i have to say, and my opinion on things. ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE. i'll answer. love you all. miss you <3
rebekah smith (jeg elsker dig, i love you)
yes, even though i was super sad to have to come back home after that last amazing week and go back to school, i still enjoyed being back. i missed all of my danish friends believe it or not ;) So it was nice to come back and see them all. It was especially nice to have a fun week.
Pretty much all week we have been preparing for friday. Friday was "sports day". It happens once a year. Every class dresses up like something, performs a little dance, then competes against each other in sporting activities. It was great. My class decided 3 weeks ago that we were going to be apes. Then we decided to do bay watch. Then we FINALLY decided to be penguins =D so the class bought their costumes the week I was gone, and unfortunately I don't own one. One of my friends let me borrow hers for a couple games.
Anywayz, on Monday we practiced our dance during gym class. Then at various other times during the week. The teachers let us do it during class a couple of times. Which helped a lot. We eventually got it down enough to where we could perform it. My class did great =) I am going to try to post the video if facebook will let me...we also did a pretty ok job on the activities too. Well, we lost almost all of them. But it's the spirit that counts haha. There was this baseball game. A game with an American football. 'water skiing'. A wheel barrow race. Volleyball. Field hockey. And frisbee. It was fun =D like I said, we lost almost everything, but it was great to just hang out with friends all day and not have to do school work. fun fun =)
then that night there was a party for the whole school. i went to steph's house and then with her to her host sister's pre party. we got to the dance at about 9:30 and had to wait outside...in the rain -_- yea, my hair died...but when we FINALLY got in, soaking wet and all, we started finding some people we knew and started having a good time dancing and what not.
the party started at 8, and i arrived about 2 hours later. there were 2 bars at the party/dance. and they were used, believe you me. most of my classmates were already 'gone' by the time i got there. because of the pre party and all i guess. everyone was crazy and having a blast. i was having fun too =) dancing with friends is always fun. they then had some live music play, and that pretty much killed the mood..yes, THAT bad. so i took a breather and wen looking for stephanie, and eventually i found her with another exchange student. now this other girl had had a bit too much to drink, i could tell becasue someone had drawn a mustache on her in blue pen. is it wrong to find this funny? haha sorry if that offends anyone.
anywayz the party was to last until 1, but we didn't make it. 12:30 and we were calling stephanie's host mom to come pick us up. then we went to bed =) sleeping the night away!
and that was friday. haha the rest of the week was comparably boring, but still had some ups. one day with my geography teacher, my class went up this ginormaous hill and climbed to the top of a water tower. i think we were measuring wind speeds?? by the way, i do NOT like heights...so i was pretty scared up there.
then one day me and stephanie went shopping in downtown næstved. we wanted to buy some shoes for the dance, but no dice. we walked around for a long time, then we ended up at a little supermarket store underneath the library. we were both craving cake, so guess what i bought =DDDDDD yes, a little chocolate cake that we shared. we only got half way through with it, then we were done. haha or, i made us be done. cuz we would hae gotten so sick! then we went up to the library for a bit while we wre waiting for her mom to come get here. and then i left to catch my bus! not getting lost by the way =)
o, something exciting that is coming up! volleyball is starting here at the gymnasium. every thursday there is practice. i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stoked! for those of you who don't know, i have played since 5th grade with the amazing crusaders with amazing teammates and amazing coaches. i played until 10th grade and 11th grade i couldn't play becasue i had missed out on sign up, but i assistant coached a 3-5th grade team of girls =D it was great! well, anywayz, i really miss playing the sport, so i'm really happy i'll be able to do it again. now i just have to find some sports store that actually HAS volleyball gear...=P
that's all for now folks! keep in touch =) and i'll try to update more often!
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
danish girls loooove mascara, for most, that is all they wear makeup wise. and i must tell you, it feels really nice to not wear as much makeup anymore =)
they have donuts here, i have seen them...also pringles =P
when calling for a cab, count how many people will be riding in it SEVERAL times...and pray it's not raining outside where you're waiting
nothing feels better than a letter or package from home (thanks mom)
danes DO know that smoking kills you
don't give a drunk friend a rubber stamper, becasue he will go around stamping EVERYONE he meets
denmark used to have an empire! no joke, just learned that today...they used to own sweden and norway and the virgin islands and more of germany...CRAZY
we no speak americano is like my new favorite party song
danes CAN'T dance ^_^ sorry guys..
coffee and tea and cookies is pretty common on a sunday afternoon =D
ok, that's all! o, shoot! language stuff...ok, i'm starting after school danish lessons every monday at school. i hope they are effective. i learned a lot of danish at the intro camp i feel like...i have OFFICIALLY been here one month =DD and i can understand a lot, if you speak slowly and repeat. my pronunciation sucks however. but reading is getting better =) some people in class said it's not fun that i'm learning so fast because now i'll know what they are saying to me. haha and yes, people have said that i am learning danish quite fast. and this makes me sooooo happy. maybe i'll actually be able to conquer this language that some people say is harder than chinese =P
now! that's all haha please keep reading. i hope you like what i have to say, and my opinion on things. ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE. i'll answer. love you all. miss you <3
rebekah smith (jeg elsker dig, i love you)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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
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
Sunday, August 22, 2010
City Busses...Small Town Girl
This week has been great. =) well, every week has been great here so far actually! Yay! I've been here three weeks. Wow. Already three weeks. It's funny, because before I left the US, back before I was excited to leave, a whole year seemed like SUCH a long time. Now it feels like it won't be enough!!!!!!! Haha anywayz, ON TO BUSINESS =P
I have been very successful at navigating myself to the bus station ever since my little incident =P it's really not that hard once you know the right way. I like it, it's a nice little walk. The only thing I hate is that at the end of school I'm usually starving and I have to pass this delicious looking pizzaria on the way. (yes! They do have Italian food! And Chinese, and mexican, and even Thai I heard. Even though I hvent tried any haha) so I walk past that everyday and start drooling. It's bad. And also, in the bus station there is a little quickie mart that has food and stuff. I would go in there to buy something, but the language barrier bothers me. All I can do is ask in English still haha. But I'm working on that =)
Ummm...Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal days I think. On wednesday at school we had a 'morning show'. It's between my first and second class and it's for like 10-15 minutes. They do this every Wednesday morning I hear. Well the whole school gathers together in the middle part that is as big as an auditorium but looks like a cafeteria, and a lot of kids gather on the second floor above that looking over the balcony-ish things. Pretty much they can play music or do something funny. I heard that it was all about making fun of people and having fun. So yay =)
Nothing happened Thursday I don't think...I think I passed out on the bus ride home haha but that's all =P
Friday! Was a good day. The weekend was here and we all got out of schoo early =D yay! So me and Stephanie (from LA) had planned to go shopping at the mall in Næstved. I was soooooo excited for this. So we got out of school and she had to do something with her class for like half an hour so I just chilled out and listened to music. Then she found me and we sat together for awhile just chatting and eating. She made some cookies that she 'messed up' so she let me benefit =D haha we left for the bus station (not getting lost by the way) and had to wait there for like half hour for the bus that goes to the mall. On the bus we both paid 8 kr. and sat down. Then Stephanie counted her change. 10 kr. short. NOOOOOO. After counting it about 20 times we decided to talk to the driver at our stop. We were both laughing histerically about this. Well, I was at least hahaha. At our stop steph tried to reason in Danish. And guess what, the bus driver answered her in DANISH! so then, seeing we weren't getting anywhere, I busted out my English =) eventually we left the bus with her 10 kr. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, cuz not. But that could buy her an ice cream!!
So at the mall we walked around for a loooooong time. Just talking and looking. It was great =) it kills me how expensive some stuff is, but that's normal and I'll just have to get used to it. We walked by this one store and saw the sales table outside the store. There were jeans on it. For ONLY 100 kr!!!! That is crazy cheap for jeans. Too bad the only sizes were WAY too small for us =( but then we noticed the rest of the table was buy 2 for 150 kr!!! Super sale!!! We picked up a bunch of stuff =D after some difficultly in finding proper sizes and colors, we both walked out of the store with a dress! Our first Danish clothing purchase =) and the sales girl was really nice. She spoke English to us when we told her we didn't speak Danish yet. She helped us out a lot. It was great.
We eventually realized it would probably be a good thing to figured when the bus comes. So we walked out and went by the street by the stop. There was no schedule, just a bus stop sign. So we stood there for like half an hour or more just waiting for a bus to drive by. Then we saw that a bus had pulled into the mall parking lot. We watched this happen 3 more times. See, we didt want to leave the bus stop because we both new, that as soon as we got far enough away, the bus would come. But after watching the third bus go into the lot i made a decision. We left for that bus. We had gotten about 100 meters away and GUESS WHAT! yep...the bus pulled up to the stop we had just been at, and it left. We KNEW that would happen. We both bust up laughing soooo much. It was hilarious. And Stephanie threatened to kill me. Haha but RUNNING, we caught the other bus in the parking lot. So that was good.
Then we made it back to the station. Stephanies parents were coming to get her. I was taking the bus home. No biggie right? Wrong. I missed a bus. And there wasn't another one for 2 hours ^_^ yea. I don't have much luck here. Haha but! I eventually made it home =D safe and sound
On Saturday me, and my parents went to århus to his sisters 50th birthday party. Eh. It was ok. Like, it was exciting and happy, but it's weird to not talk to anyone in the room because we literally can't communicate. But! At the beginning of the party it was soooooo funny! The birthday girl is a part if some square dancing club so, you guessed it, they square danced for us!! (they have it in Europe! I couldn't believe it) and after the pros did it, they each broke off and found a partner in the crowd. Then another one with the club. Then the amateurs got a chance again. Haha yes. I did it. ^_^ and I sucked. Not really haha the calling was in English which was awesome I think. But I had problems with the spinning part. Everything else was great =D hilarious. Yes.
And today I'm leaving for my intro camp with the other exhange students in the country!!!! Yay!! My first train ride =D I can't wait. It's going to be lots of fun this week.
THINGS IVE LEARNED SO FAR::
I can't remember right now =P so I'll write again when I get home!!!
Love, Rebekah
I have been very successful at navigating myself to the bus station ever since my little incident =P it's really not that hard once you know the right way. I like it, it's a nice little walk. The only thing I hate is that at the end of school I'm usually starving and I have to pass this delicious looking pizzaria on the way. (yes! They do have Italian food! And Chinese, and mexican, and even Thai I heard. Even though I hvent tried any haha) so I walk past that everyday and start drooling. It's bad. And also, in the bus station there is a little quickie mart that has food and stuff. I would go in there to buy something, but the language barrier bothers me. All I can do is ask in English still haha. But I'm working on that =)
Ummm...Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal days I think. On wednesday at school we had a 'morning show'. It's between my first and second class and it's for like 10-15 minutes. They do this every Wednesday morning I hear. Well the whole school gathers together in the middle part that is as big as an auditorium but looks like a cafeteria, and a lot of kids gather on the second floor above that looking over the balcony-ish things. Pretty much they can play music or do something funny. I heard that it was all about making fun of people and having fun. So yay =)
Nothing happened Thursday I don't think...I think I passed out on the bus ride home haha but that's all =P
Friday! Was a good day. The weekend was here and we all got out of schoo early =D yay! So me and Stephanie (from LA) had planned to go shopping at the mall in Næstved. I was soooooo excited for this. So we got out of school and she had to do something with her class for like half an hour so I just chilled out and listened to music. Then she found me and we sat together for awhile just chatting and eating. She made some cookies that she 'messed up' so she let me benefit =D haha we left for the bus station (not getting lost by the way) and had to wait there for like half hour for the bus that goes to the mall. On the bus we both paid 8 kr. and sat down. Then Stephanie counted her change. 10 kr. short. NOOOOOO. After counting it about 20 times we decided to talk to the driver at our stop. We were both laughing histerically about this. Well, I was at least hahaha. At our stop steph tried to reason in Danish. And guess what, the bus driver answered her in DANISH! so then, seeing we weren't getting anywhere, I busted out my English =) eventually we left the bus with her 10 kr. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, cuz not. But that could buy her an ice cream!!
So at the mall we walked around for a loooooong time. Just talking and looking. It was great =) it kills me how expensive some stuff is, but that's normal and I'll just have to get used to it. We walked by this one store and saw the sales table outside the store. There were jeans on it. For ONLY 100 kr!!!! That is crazy cheap for jeans. Too bad the only sizes were WAY too small for us =( but then we noticed the rest of the table was buy 2 for 150 kr!!! Super sale!!! We picked up a bunch of stuff =D after some difficultly in finding proper sizes and colors, we both walked out of the store with a dress! Our first Danish clothing purchase =) and the sales girl was really nice. She spoke English to us when we told her we didn't speak Danish yet. She helped us out a lot. It was great.
We eventually realized it would probably be a good thing to figured when the bus comes. So we walked out and went by the street by the stop. There was no schedule, just a bus stop sign. So we stood there for like half an hour or more just waiting for a bus to drive by. Then we saw that a bus had pulled into the mall parking lot. We watched this happen 3 more times. See, we didt want to leave the bus stop because we both new, that as soon as we got far enough away, the bus would come. But after watching the third bus go into the lot i made a decision. We left for that bus. We had gotten about 100 meters away and GUESS WHAT! yep...the bus pulled up to the stop we had just been at, and it left. We KNEW that would happen. We both bust up laughing soooo much. It was hilarious. And Stephanie threatened to kill me. Haha but RUNNING, we caught the other bus in the parking lot. So that was good.
Then we made it back to the station. Stephanies parents were coming to get her. I was taking the bus home. No biggie right? Wrong. I missed a bus. And there wasn't another one for 2 hours ^_^ yea. I don't have much luck here. Haha but! I eventually made it home =D safe and sound
On Saturday me, and my parents went to århus to his sisters 50th birthday party. Eh. It was ok. Like, it was exciting and happy, but it's weird to not talk to anyone in the room because we literally can't communicate. But! At the beginning of the party it was soooooo funny! The birthday girl is a part if some square dancing club so, you guessed it, they square danced for us!! (they have it in Europe! I couldn't believe it) and after the pros did it, they each broke off and found a partner in the crowd. Then another one with the club. Then the amateurs got a chance again. Haha yes. I did it. ^_^ and I sucked. Not really haha the calling was in English which was awesome I think. But I had problems with the spinning part. Everything else was great =D hilarious. Yes.
And today I'm leaving for my intro camp with the other exhange students in the country!!!! Yay!! My first train ride =D I can't wait. It's going to be lots of fun this week.
THINGS IVE LEARNED SO FAR::
I can't remember right now =P so I'll write again when I get home!!!
Love, Rebekah
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Cars, Bicycles, Busses..Oh, My!!
Heyyyyy =) sorry it's been so long! I just haven't felt like writing this past week at all. So i'm trying to break myself out of this slump I'm in =)
Anywayz, so what has been going on this past week? Well, both a lot of stuff and hardly anything at all =P let me start at the beginning!
So I told you about my first day of school and how awesome it was. Well, the second day was ok. The schedule changes and extra long classes kinda took their toll. Also, having classes that are completely in danish are kids boring to sit through. Ok, a lot boring actually haha. The teahers all felt the need to explain to me upon our first meeting that they would be teaching in Danish and couldn't translate everything for me...ok, that's no problem. Cuz I already knew all the classes were going to be in Danish anyway. I mean, I can't expect the teacher to translate just cuz one American is in the classroom. Right! Haha so pretty boring. People sitting next to me keep asking me if I understand anything. Uh, noooo I don't understand. Haha at all actually. So during school I pretty much sit there. Color with my pen. Daze off. Eat some fruit I packed in my lunch. Yea that's pretty much how it's gone. But it's ok. Cuz I'm willing to learn the language! =D trying to learn it anyways.
I don't think anything happened on Friday...wait! Haha ok friday was te first morning I had to wake up at 5:30 to be ready to ride my bike 2 km to the bus stop to catch my bus at 6:45. Surprisingly, this is not as bad as it sounds =P the morning air felt great and was very awakening. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt great to be out. No one else is out and about yet. The road is your own. (which is great cuz I'm terrified of getting hit by a car on my bike lol) everything just looked better. I don't know. Then I did my school stuff. Yay me =) then! School ended. Astrid and I ride the bus home but we have to go to the bus station. So I figured I would wait for her so we could go together since neither of us knew where the station was. Astrid didn't know I was waiting and had already left the school. The poor foreign kid was standing on the school steps not knowing what to do lol. Thankfully one of her friends saw me and called astrid for me and I found out I needed to walk to the station. No prob, right? Wrong. Haha does bekah know where the station is? No. But I said I would make it anyway. So I got about 3 blocks from the school and didn't know which way to turn when all of the sudden!! That same friend and her mom pulled up next to me and gave me a ride. I paid special attention so I knew the way next time. They were so nice. Haha I'm so thankful =D
Then on Saturday! Wow. My host dad's side of the family had a family reunion at our house in our 'barn'. (it's in quotes because it's not like a farm, red barn. It hold tractors, yea. But it's all metal) and so there were about 50-60 extra people at our house that day. Soooooo many people. We all ate some snack (cakes and cookies they brought) and we also ate dinner together. It was crazy. All those people and all were relatives. When several first met me they asked (in Danish of course) if I was astrid. And all I could respond with was 'jeg hedder rebekah' (my name is Rebekah) and then it was expained that I was an exchange student from the US. o, and one minor thing:: when gathering 'formally' with a group of people, you have to go around and shake everyone's hand and greet them. Yes. Everyone. Haha I learned that after my first rotary meeting. And it's easier to not skip around and just go in a line so you make sure to greet everyone. =P all the people just hung out in our property all day. There were some games, a trampoline was up, and a little canooing in the Suså creek at the edge of our land. It was a good day. Long, but good. O! And I got to practice my Danish. Which pretty much thrilled me. This little cousin Andrea is 11 and she has just started learning english. I got to talk to her throughout the night. Like she would ask me questions in English and I answered in Danish and vise versa. It was great. Also kinda frustrating. I was frustrated at myself for not knowing more words. It made explaining where I live kind of difficult. But it was still soooooo great! I didn't care that I said it wrong or my grammar was bad. It's a learnig process =D
ok, now Sunday. I had my first rotary district meeting. All the rotary exchange students in my district met together. It wad great! We went over the rules for what seemed like the millionth time haha and then we all just got to hang out with each other and talk. There are Canadian, brazilians, ecuadorians (????), chileans (????), mexicans, Americans, a guy from Lithuania, anddddd I think that's it. There are about 30 of us I want to say. No idea. But what I can tell you is that we are all super loud when we all get together and talk at the same time haha. It was lots of fun to see them all. And like I said in an earlier post, we are like magnets. Drawn to each other with an instant connection. I felt no awkwardness whatsoever with them. And we are all so excited for this up coming week. From august 22-29 all of the rotary exchange kids in the COUNTRY are going to an intro camp =D learning some Danish and about the culture. It's gunna be awesome seeing everyone!!! I'll write more about that after it happens haha Then Sunday night rené came over and hung out with astrid and I for a couple hours. It was great. I love having friends ^_^ he told me that I inspired him to read twilight. Haha so proud of him =P he left around 10:30 then I hit the hay. Sleeping away the night in total preparation for the following day. I needed the sleep for what happened next.
Monday was mildly eventful. MILDLY. Depending on if you feel sorry for me or laugh at me. My sister and I need to ride the bus home after school as we live about 20 minutes out of næstved. (city bus btw. Not an icky school bus) so since I learned on Friday that I could walk by myself to te station and astrid was out on a trip anyway, I set out on my own. Trying to follow the path that we had taken in the car on Friday. There were some other kids around so I felt completely confident I was going in the right direction. I walked about 1-2 km into the downtown of næstved and took a couple turns and realized to myself:: I have no idea where I'm going. Uh, oh. Foreign kid lost in the city!!!!! (Im laughing right now as I write this. It's so funny now) I walked a couple more blocks. Took a couple turns. Doubled back a *few* times. I almost asked for help a dozen times. But I wasn't sure if I should ask in Danish because then they might answer in Danish and I'd have no clue what they said, or if I asked in english I was worried maybe they didn't know English. (with my luck I would pick a person in a country that learns english from 3rd grade who didn't speak English) anywayz, I refrained from asking for directions, which in hindsight was really dumb. But I've learned it's ok to ask. Haha so about 30 minutes later after I walked down this street for about 1 km and PRAISE GOD I found the bus station!!!!!!!! Sweetest sight my eyes have ever seen =D it was great. today, however, I learned that I was never lost in the first place. I had walked the EXACT bus route that it takes from the station to my school. Now THAT takes skill ^_^
Monday night, after being exhausted from walking everywhere and biking home, I was ready to go to bed when I got home. I even put on some sweat pants and ate a snack. Yay! Sleep! Wrong. I had forgotten that I had a rotary meeting to go to that night. So I changed once again and after my host mom came home from work we all set out in the car. We went about an hour to north of Copenhagen (where ALL the rich people live I learned) we went to see this one lady who owns a bunch if horses out there and a stable and stuff. Let me tell you! They have about 14-18 horses in their stable-palace (no joke, it's huge and luxurious) there was an indoor training/ show ring. An outdoors one. Like 6 fenced in areas with grass. And there were 3 trailers for transporting the horses. (one of which was capable of taking 5 horses and a family in the mobile home area) CRAZY!!! I loved seeing and petting the horses. They have soft noses =D and these aren't everydy horses. They are the special trained kind. The kind worth a million+ euro! I felt kind of bad for the horses actually. I mean they don't deserve to my cooped up like that just to perform tricks. I always wish I could read an animal's mind to see if they're happy. It's so sad sometimes...anywayz, we left about 10 at night and drove home. I was soooooo tired.
Then I woke up the next morning at 7:30 and my host mom drove me to school at 8:50 because my first morning class was cancelled. It was nice =) after school a friend offered me a ride to the station so I didn't get list again =P then since I didn't have my bike at the bus stop I had to walk the 2 km home. Not that bad. Pretty relaxing actually =) (well, besides the fact that I had just received 30 lbs worth of school books ^_^) I enjoyed it. Then today I walked ALL the way to the bus station by myself WITHOUT getting lost or asking for help =DDDD you have no idea how awesome it is haha that's about it!
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
the boys here LOOOOOOVE hair gel! haha
riding a bike 2k at 6:30 am is NOT as bad as it sounds.
The da Vinci code is a really good mystery book, but I still can't decide if the ending sucked or not.
Cold oatmeal is AH-mazing. (it looks nasty, but I had to try after my host sister did it. Take oatmeal and pour milk over it and add sugar!!)
a lot of Danes have a pretty biased view of America and don't hesitate to ask about it (on several occasions I've been asked stereotypical questions about Americans, once by a teacher even)
they rarely snack on junk food in school. Most people eat some kind of fruit or a sandwich.
I can't remember if I told you, but when they speak english, a LOT of danes have a British accent.
There is some kind of performance every Wednesday morning in the huge 'cafeteria' kinda thing, between first lesson and second lesson and everyone in the school goes. (that's a boat load of Danish people at one time in one area) lol
and that's all for now!!! Email me =D jeg elsker dig. I love you. Hugz.
Love, Rebekah <3
Anywayz, so what has been going on this past week? Well, both a lot of stuff and hardly anything at all =P let me start at the beginning!
So I told you about my first day of school and how awesome it was. Well, the second day was ok. The schedule changes and extra long classes kinda took their toll. Also, having classes that are completely in danish are kids boring to sit through. Ok, a lot boring actually haha. The teahers all felt the need to explain to me upon our first meeting that they would be teaching in Danish and couldn't translate everything for me...ok, that's no problem. Cuz I already knew all the classes were going to be in Danish anyway. I mean, I can't expect the teacher to translate just cuz one American is in the classroom. Right! Haha so pretty boring. People sitting next to me keep asking me if I understand anything. Uh, noooo I don't understand. Haha at all actually. So during school I pretty much sit there. Color with my pen. Daze off. Eat some fruit I packed in my lunch. Yea that's pretty much how it's gone. But it's ok. Cuz I'm willing to learn the language! =D trying to learn it anyways.
I don't think anything happened on Friday...wait! Haha ok friday was te first morning I had to wake up at 5:30 to be ready to ride my bike 2 km to the bus stop to catch my bus at 6:45. Surprisingly, this is not as bad as it sounds =P the morning air felt great and was very awakening. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt great to be out. No one else is out and about yet. The road is your own. (which is great cuz I'm terrified of getting hit by a car on my bike lol) everything just looked better. I don't know. Then I did my school stuff. Yay me =) then! School ended. Astrid and I ride the bus home but we have to go to the bus station. So I figured I would wait for her so we could go together since neither of us knew where the station was. Astrid didn't know I was waiting and had already left the school. The poor foreign kid was standing on the school steps not knowing what to do lol. Thankfully one of her friends saw me and called astrid for me and I found out I needed to walk to the station. No prob, right? Wrong. Haha does bekah know where the station is? No. But I said I would make it anyway. So I got about 3 blocks from the school and didn't know which way to turn when all of the sudden!! That same friend and her mom pulled up next to me and gave me a ride. I paid special attention so I knew the way next time. They were so nice. Haha I'm so thankful =D
Then on Saturday! Wow. My host dad's side of the family had a family reunion at our house in our 'barn'. (it's in quotes because it's not like a farm, red barn. It hold tractors, yea. But it's all metal) and so there were about 50-60 extra people at our house that day. Soooooo many people. We all ate some snack (cakes and cookies they brought) and we also ate dinner together. It was crazy. All those people and all were relatives. When several first met me they asked (in Danish of course) if I was astrid. And all I could respond with was 'jeg hedder rebekah' (my name is Rebekah) and then it was expained that I was an exchange student from the US. o, and one minor thing:: when gathering 'formally' with a group of people, you have to go around and shake everyone's hand and greet them. Yes. Everyone. Haha I learned that after my first rotary meeting. And it's easier to not skip around and just go in a line so you make sure to greet everyone. =P all the people just hung out in our property all day. There were some games, a trampoline was up, and a little canooing in the Suså creek at the edge of our land. It was a good day. Long, but good. O! And I got to practice my Danish. Which pretty much thrilled me. This little cousin Andrea is 11 and she has just started learning english. I got to talk to her throughout the night. Like she would ask me questions in English and I answered in Danish and vise versa. It was great. Also kinda frustrating. I was frustrated at myself for not knowing more words. It made explaining where I live kind of difficult. But it was still soooooo great! I didn't care that I said it wrong or my grammar was bad. It's a learnig process =D
ok, now Sunday. I had my first rotary district meeting. All the rotary exchange students in my district met together. It wad great! We went over the rules for what seemed like the millionth time haha and then we all just got to hang out with each other and talk. There are Canadian, brazilians, ecuadorians (????), chileans (????), mexicans, Americans, a guy from Lithuania, anddddd I think that's it. There are about 30 of us I want to say. No idea. But what I can tell you is that we are all super loud when we all get together and talk at the same time haha. It was lots of fun to see them all. And like I said in an earlier post, we are like magnets. Drawn to each other with an instant connection. I felt no awkwardness whatsoever with them. And we are all so excited for this up coming week. From august 22-29 all of the rotary exchange kids in the COUNTRY are going to an intro camp =D learning some Danish and about the culture. It's gunna be awesome seeing everyone!!! I'll write more about that after it happens haha Then Sunday night rené came over and hung out with astrid and I for a couple hours. It was great. I love having friends ^_^ he told me that I inspired him to read twilight. Haha so proud of him =P he left around 10:30 then I hit the hay. Sleeping away the night in total preparation for the following day. I needed the sleep for what happened next.
Monday was mildly eventful. MILDLY. Depending on if you feel sorry for me or laugh at me. My sister and I need to ride the bus home after school as we live about 20 minutes out of næstved. (city bus btw. Not an icky school bus) so since I learned on Friday that I could walk by myself to te station and astrid was out on a trip anyway, I set out on my own. Trying to follow the path that we had taken in the car on Friday. There were some other kids around so I felt completely confident I was going in the right direction. I walked about 1-2 km into the downtown of næstved and took a couple turns and realized to myself:: I have no idea where I'm going. Uh, oh. Foreign kid lost in the city!!!!! (Im laughing right now as I write this. It's so funny now) I walked a couple more blocks. Took a couple turns. Doubled back a *few* times. I almost asked for help a dozen times. But I wasn't sure if I should ask in Danish because then they might answer in Danish and I'd have no clue what they said, or if I asked in english I was worried maybe they didn't know English. (with my luck I would pick a person in a country that learns english from 3rd grade who didn't speak English) anywayz, I refrained from asking for directions, which in hindsight was really dumb. But I've learned it's ok to ask. Haha so about 30 minutes later after I walked down this street for about 1 km and PRAISE GOD I found the bus station!!!!!!!! Sweetest sight my eyes have ever seen =D it was great. today, however, I learned that I was never lost in the first place. I had walked the EXACT bus route that it takes from the station to my school. Now THAT takes skill ^_^
Monday night, after being exhausted from walking everywhere and biking home, I was ready to go to bed when I got home. I even put on some sweat pants and ate a snack. Yay! Sleep! Wrong. I had forgotten that I had a rotary meeting to go to that night. So I changed once again and after my host mom came home from work we all set out in the car. We went about an hour to north of Copenhagen (where ALL the rich people live I learned) we went to see this one lady who owns a bunch if horses out there and a stable and stuff. Let me tell you! They have about 14-18 horses in their stable-palace (no joke, it's huge and luxurious) there was an indoor training/ show ring. An outdoors one. Like 6 fenced in areas with grass. And there were 3 trailers for transporting the horses. (one of which was capable of taking 5 horses and a family in the mobile home area) CRAZY!!! I loved seeing and petting the horses. They have soft noses =D and these aren't everydy horses. They are the special trained kind. The kind worth a million+ euro! I felt kind of bad for the horses actually. I mean they don't deserve to my cooped up like that just to perform tricks. I always wish I could read an animal's mind to see if they're happy. It's so sad sometimes...anywayz, we left about 10 at night and drove home. I was soooooo tired.
Then I woke up the next morning at 7:30 and my host mom drove me to school at 8:50 because my first morning class was cancelled. It was nice =) after school a friend offered me a ride to the station so I didn't get list again =P then since I didn't have my bike at the bus stop I had to walk the 2 km home. Not that bad. Pretty relaxing actually =) (well, besides the fact that I had just received 30 lbs worth of school books ^_^) I enjoyed it. Then today I walked ALL the way to the bus station by myself WITHOUT getting lost or asking for help =DDDD you have no idea how awesome it is haha that's about it!
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR::
the boys here LOOOOOOVE hair gel! haha
riding a bike 2k at 6:30 am is NOT as bad as it sounds.
The da Vinci code is a really good mystery book, but I still can't decide if the ending sucked or not.
Cold oatmeal is AH-mazing. (it looks nasty, but I had to try after my host sister did it. Take oatmeal and pour milk over it and add sugar!!)
a lot of Danes have a pretty biased view of America and don't hesitate to ask about it (on several occasions I've been asked stereotypical questions about Americans, once by a teacher even)
they rarely snack on junk food in school. Most people eat some kind of fruit or a sandwich.
I can't remember if I told you, but when they speak english, a LOT of danes have a British accent.
There is some kind of performance every Wednesday morning in the huge 'cafeteria' kinda thing, between first lesson and second lesson and everyone in the school goes. (that's a boat load of Danish people at one time in one area) lol
and that's all for now!!! Email me =D jeg elsker dig. I love you. Hugz.
Love, Rebekah <3
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