Sometimes I forget how lucky I am.
Sometimes I ignore the reasons that I'm lucky.
I forget that I come from a great, albeit dysfunctional, family.
I forget how much my parents really love me.
I forget how truly great both my parents are.
They've taught me, and my siblings I'm sure, so much over the years.
They've taught to be generous.
They taught me to give and not expect anything in return.
They taught me to share my blessings with others.
They taught me to be thankful for all that I have.
They are the most amazing people that I know.
They are my heroes.
They taught me that "blood is thicker than water", but sometimes even water deserves to be treated like blood.
They taught me to work hard for everything that I want in life.
They taught me to reach for the stars, because they know I can do anything.
They've taught me so much over the years. They've shown me how life can change in an instant and how to never give up. They've always worked hard and followed dreams. They are the strongest people that I know-that I could even imagine. They truly are my heroes.
Sometimes I forget that. Sometimes I forget how amazing they are.
Sometimes I don't treat them like heroes.
But they really are. I love you, Mom and Dad.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Differencessssssss
There have been several differences in the culture that I've noticed so far. Though y'all might enjoy it =)
-The lanes on the road, you know, like a two-laned highway, are really more of a suggestion than anything else. While riding in the car, seatbelt fastened of course, we tore down the middle of two lanes of traffic just to go faster. Scary =p
-There are ten billion speed bumps out here on all of the roads. I think they substitue stop signs in many instances. They are a little rough to go over at first...no, i take that back. They're always rough to go over.
-The men are walking, talking, breathing oxymorons. I don't get it. They hoot and holler in the street, but they are also very courteous at the same time. They give up their seats in the busses, they open doors...it's crazy. I'm so confused =p They need to be just nice and polite all the time.
-DON'T tell your teacher that class is over when she's still talking...
-In the football (soccer) stadium it's cheaper to buy a liter of beer than 16oz of water. They have priorities =p
-There are tooooooooooons of street venders. Some of it looks good, like fresh fruit. But it might kill me so... =p
-There are a lot of venders that sell meat, and they just throw it out there on the counter. The raw meat just sits there on the counter. Chicken, beef, pork. This is why they tell us to be careful where we eat here.
-The eggs aren't refrigerated. Sometimes, yea, but in the store they aren't. Also, some of the other people have experienced non refrigerated milk. I don't know how that's possible, but it works.
-They eat a BUNCH here. Litterally. I don't eat that much, and it just shocks my family when I'm not hungry or I don't want seconds. We finally agreed on me just eating cereal for breakfast. But as for everything else... =p My family has their main meal at around 4-6. It's pretty big, and it's delicious. Ususally it's some kind of soup followed by a meat filled dish. Loving that they eat tortillas with everything =))) Then my family eats again around 9:30 or 10. Usually I pass this one up because that's too late for me to eat. For this meal they usually have like sandwiches or something smaller.
-There is a lot of American music here. A lot of it is older. It's fun to sing along.
-There is a lot of Mexican music here. Go figure =p I like it. I've heard lots of slower songs, and they are really peaceful.
-Each bread has a different name. Like a legit name. One memorable one is called a bigote (mustache) because it has that shape.
-Sweet breads, including churros, are considered bread, not a dessert.
-Lots of people don't wear wedding rings. But some do. I'm not sure where the division is and why some do and some don't.
-Policia EVERYWHERE. and they look pretty hardcore. They are always suited up with navy blue uniforms, guns, combat boots, and sometimes armor. I feel safe.
-Gotta run across the street when you're crossing, because the cars, busses, and bikes don't stop.
-There are lots of motorcycles and mopeds that come in handy for those people who don't want to deal with traffic. They just weave in and out of it.
-All of the streets I've seen are 1-way or separated by a huge median. That's super handy when crossing the busy highway because then you only need to watch for cars in one direction.
-You have to tip the people that bag your groceries.
-Each day the temperature has been in the 90s. Wow, look out. I'm melting over here. But hey, there's good news! The hot month here is May ^_^ We haven't even gotten there yet...
-I am so jealous that the kids my age--20s--all know how to dance!!!! Like completely jealous that they can just do the salsa or the tango without even thinking about it. GRRRRRR. I'm going to start learning the salsa. Wish me luck.
What else is different...it's really hard to just think of these on the spot you know.
-Buying food in the city, on the street or in a restaurant, is affordable. Most places and most meals are less than $5 USD.
-The money sign for peso is the same as the US dollar. Sometimes it gets confusing in my mind.
-Most people in the city with normal jobs earn like 60 pesos ($5) a day. For 8 hours of work.
-There are lots of women who work on the street cleaning crew--they wear orange jumpers and have little brooms made out of switches it looks like. And their job is to sweep up the tree debris in the street. Everyday. That's a hard job. There is always more to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I honestly can't think of anything else right now. I'll keep you updated when I think of more though! Thanks for reading =D
-The lanes on the road, you know, like a two-laned highway, are really more of a suggestion than anything else. While riding in the car, seatbelt fastened of course, we tore down the middle of two lanes of traffic just to go faster. Scary =p
-There are ten billion speed bumps out here on all of the roads. I think they substitue stop signs in many instances. They are a little rough to go over at first...no, i take that back. They're always rough to go over.
-The men are walking, talking, breathing oxymorons. I don't get it. They hoot and holler in the street, but they are also very courteous at the same time. They give up their seats in the busses, they open doors...it's crazy. I'm so confused =p They need to be just nice and polite all the time.
-DON'T tell your teacher that class is over when she's still talking...
-In the football (soccer) stadium it's cheaper to buy a liter of beer than 16oz of water. They have priorities =p
-There are tooooooooooons of street venders. Some of it looks good, like fresh fruit. But it might kill me so... =p
-There are a lot of venders that sell meat, and they just throw it out there on the counter. The raw meat just sits there on the counter. Chicken, beef, pork. This is why they tell us to be careful where we eat here.
-The eggs aren't refrigerated. Sometimes, yea, but in the store they aren't. Also, some of the other people have experienced non refrigerated milk. I don't know how that's possible, but it works.
-They eat a BUNCH here. Litterally. I don't eat that much, and it just shocks my family when I'm not hungry or I don't want seconds. We finally agreed on me just eating cereal for breakfast. But as for everything else... =p My family has their main meal at around 4-6. It's pretty big, and it's delicious. Ususally it's some kind of soup followed by a meat filled dish. Loving that they eat tortillas with everything =))) Then my family eats again around 9:30 or 10. Usually I pass this one up because that's too late for me to eat. For this meal they usually have like sandwiches or something smaller.
-There is a lot of American music here. A lot of it is older. It's fun to sing along.
-There is a lot of Mexican music here. Go figure =p I like it. I've heard lots of slower songs, and they are really peaceful.
-Each bread has a different name. Like a legit name. One memorable one is called a bigote (mustache) because it has that shape.
-Sweet breads, including churros, are considered bread, not a dessert.
-Lots of people don't wear wedding rings. But some do. I'm not sure where the division is and why some do and some don't.
-Policia EVERYWHERE. and they look pretty hardcore. They are always suited up with navy blue uniforms, guns, combat boots, and sometimes armor. I feel safe.
-Gotta run across the street when you're crossing, because the cars, busses, and bikes don't stop.
-There are lots of motorcycles and mopeds that come in handy for those people who don't want to deal with traffic. They just weave in and out of it.
-All of the streets I've seen are 1-way or separated by a huge median. That's super handy when crossing the busy highway because then you only need to watch for cars in one direction.
-You have to tip the people that bag your groceries.
-Each day the temperature has been in the 90s. Wow, look out. I'm melting over here. But hey, there's good news! The hot month here is May ^_^ We haven't even gotten there yet...
-I am so jealous that the kids my age--20s--all know how to dance!!!! Like completely jealous that they can just do the salsa or the tango without even thinking about it. GRRRRRR. I'm going to start learning the salsa. Wish me luck.
What else is different...it's really hard to just think of these on the spot you know.
-Buying food in the city, on the street or in a restaurant, is affordable. Most places and most meals are less than $5 USD.
-The money sign for peso is the same as the US dollar. Sometimes it gets confusing in my mind.
-Most people in the city with normal jobs earn like 60 pesos ($5) a day. For 8 hours of work.
-There are lots of women who work on the street cleaning crew--they wear orange jumpers and have little brooms made out of switches it looks like. And their job is to sweep up the tree debris in the street. Everyday. That's a hard job. There is always more to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I honestly can't think of anything else right now. I'll keep you updated when I think of more though! Thanks for reading =D
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Viva Mexico!
Life here in mexico…well, it’s been two and a half weeks. This is what I have so far!
I arrived the 29th, late at night and stayed the night in a hostel with some other people in the group. We went out the first night to check out the town. We had our first legit Mexican meal and beer that night. I had carne asada tacos with some burn-your-mouth-off salsa. It was pretty hot, but my domestic beer helped it go down. Everything tasted great! The tortillas were fresh, the meal was good. It was a great beginning to the trip.
The next day was the first official day in Queretaro, Mexico. It was the day we all met our host families for the first time. The day started off super shaky for me; I was having some problems back home and my mind was completely not in the game. It was hard to go through my first day like that. I couldn’t understand where we were walking, and I wasn’t doing much to pay attention. I just kind of was a blob of a person that first day before heading to my host family. Everything got cleared up in the end, so I guess in a way it’s good all the bad things happened on the first day. I got, knock on wood, all my bad luck done with.
I say all the bad things happened because of a few things. So we had to take taxies together in groups of 2 to our neighborhoods and houses. I went with a girl, and she was dropped off first. We were told that the taxi ride would cost about 40 pesos so she paid me 25 and we said our goodbyes. When I got to my house the cabbie let me out and gave me the bill. 100 pesos. Wow holy crap not what I was expecting! Luckily I had the money on me, but jeez! (I found out later that the cabbie may or may not have cheated me because I couldn’t speak Spanish.) so I went and rang the bell to my house…rang again…rang again…dog was barking. But nobody was answering. O.my.gosh. you’re joking right?! No, there was no one home. I thought maybe I had the wrong house, so I walked up and down the street for several minutes. I asked a bunch of people if they knew the house I needed to go to and sure enough, I was at the right house. So I just parked it under a tree and waited for about half hour. They did show up, everything turned out fine. Didn’t understand much of what they were saying to me, and to this day I don’t know why they were late getting home. But o well. I just went to bed basically when I got there. It was great. After an intense skype session home, I slept about 15 hours. I definitely needed that after all of the travelling and lack of sleep.
Let me tell you about my family. I am living with an older couple. They are both in their 60s or 70s. both are very nice. They have 2 kids that are married that live in the city. Our house is a white stone house. There is a huge brass gate in front of it. (every house, and most buildings have gates in front and bars on all of the windows. No joke. It’s very secure.) there are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a room with a tv, but no, there is NO wifi. =( sad day. It’s a great house, but it’s hard to stay connected. It gets super frustrating sometimes because there is like nowhere for me to get a wifi connection in the city. Mostly all are locked. Ugh. Haha first world problems, right?? Everything else in the house is great. I do my own laundry and hang it up to dry outside. I’ve finally convinced my host mom that just cereal in the morning is more than enough breakfast for me. I mostly get the upstairs bathroom to myself except for showers…the bathroom. My worst enemy. And I’ll tell you why. The toilet doesn’t flush. Legit. I have to poor a bucket of water down in the bowl to make the water go down. Yea…trying dealing with that your first day in the country. The host mom didn’t actually show me that trick until the next day I was there, so imagine my horror of thinking that my toilet is never going to flush. Yea. I miss toilets back home. STOP LAUGHING AT ME. It’s true. And apparently you’re not supposed to throw the tp in the toilet itself. You’re supposed to put it in the trash next to it…I literally just learned that one too. Haha well, nice to know that I haven’t broken the toilet yet by flushing the paper. But shhhh, that’s just between us.
I’m going to school mon-fri here, just like back in the states. My classes start at 8:45 and last until 12:30. There are just 2 classes, grammar and communication. It can get pretty dull sometimes. All I know is that I’m super tired after my classes, but I have to walk about 30-40 minutes to my house. That’s by choice, not by force. I’ll go into that in a minute…classes are going ok. Tons and tons of Spanish. Hoping for good grades. But grades are really not the point of this exchange. Learning about the culture and learning the language is what’s important. I’m trying my best. The culture here is super rich, and there are tons of differences.
The first: the busses. The busses run on their own schedule. You basically just wait at the stop around the time that it might come by and flag it down when it passes. The busses feel like their held together with duct tape sometimes. They are very tight and close quarters inside. It costs a whopping 6.5 pesos ($.50) to ride the bus. To stop the bus…I’m honestly not sure still. There are no buttons to stop. I think you just yell at the driver.
The taxies, and all the other drivers, are crazy as hell. They drive so scary! When I took a taxi the first couple times, I almost had a heart attack. Fearless drivers that think they own the road. There are no seat belts in the backseat, and I’m not sure how serious the seatbelt laws here are anyways.
There are tons, TONS, of police. Everywhere. The first night on the way from Mexico City to Queretaro, I saw no less than 20 stopped on the side of the road and lights flashing. In the street while I walk I always seen at least one every couple of minutes just driving by. At night I sleep with the window open and I always hear sirens.
(throwing this in there. Just because there are lots of police doesn’t mean it’s dangerous or scary here. This is a super safe town, and the police are there in a preventative way. I haven’t felt threatened or in danger at all since being here.)
The men here…wow. What can I say? We were warned before coming about the men, machismos, and about how they are. But wow I didn’t believe til I experienced it. I get cat-called, wolf-called, honked at, yelled at, HOWEVER YOU WANT TO PHRASE IT, at least a couple times a day by passersby. It’s crazy. At times it’s a little offensive, but I’ve mostly just blocked it out. The guys are all talk really, I’ve never been approached or felt in danger. But maybe I should look into getting some pepper spray here… =p
I live in a super conservative city. There are at least a hundred churches for the 2 million people here. Thus: the women usually all wear pants. I’ve only seen shorts or dresses a handful of times. So naturally when I wear my dresses and skirts and shorts, the only clothes that I brought because it’s a hundred freaking degrees here, I stick out just a bit. There is a lot of irony here though, because I’ve seen no less than 2 dozen couples just going at it and making out in front of God and everybody here too. It’s kinda funny.
There are lots of fair skinned people here. Like, LOTS. A long time ago a bunch of germans settled here I guess. But the people are not very dark. Sometimes lighter than me. That’s really different and something that I noticed. A lot have to use sunscreen because their skin is super sensitive to the sun. my thoughts: sucks that you live in mexico where it’s sunny all year long.
There is so much more to tell. But I feel like I’m droning on and on. I’ll leave it with some stories. Everybody loves stories!
Wednesday of the first week. We all, 12 people, went out to a bar where girls got free drinks. That was a fun night. But everyone was sluggish the next day at school =p staying up too late and school the next day apparently doesn’t mix.
I’ve gone out with a couple people just walking around the town. It’s been fun seeing a lot that there is here. It’s such a big place!
There is another Rebekkah here on the trip. Kinda funny. We go out.
I’ve eaten some super amazing Italian food here. Like to die for Italian. (kind of ironic considering I’m in mexico)
I’ve almost died by getting hit by a car a few times. Still alive!
I climbed a monolith in a town about an hour away and almost died of exhaustion. It was super hard.
I went to a movie theater. That was pretty awesome. Also went to chilies ;)
I danced with a couple Mexican guys at the school; they taught me to salsa! Well…kind of. I’m not much of a dancer to begin with. But it was fun =)
I think that’s it for me. Sorry it’s so long! I’ll be more regular soon! It’s the internet thing that’s screwing me up. love you all. Keep me in your thoughts <3
I arrived the 29th, late at night and stayed the night in a hostel with some other people in the group. We went out the first night to check out the town. We had our first legit Mexican meal and beer that night. I had carne asada tacos with some burn-your-mouth-off salsa. It was pretty hot, but my domestic beer helped it go down. Everything tasted great! The tortillas were fresh, the meal was good. It was a great beginning to the trip.
The next day was the first official day in Queretaro, Mexico. It was the day we all met our host families for the first time. The day started off super shaky for me; I was having some problems back home and my mind was completely not in the game. It was hard to go through my first day like that. I couldn’t understand where we were walking, and I wasn’t doing much to pay attention. I just kind of was a blob of a person that first day before heading to my host family. Everything got cleared up in the end, so I guess in a way it’s good all the bad things happened on the first day. I got, knock on wood, all my bad luck done with.
I say all the bad things happened because of a few things. So we had to take taxies together in groups of 2 to our neighborhoods and houses. I went with a girl, and she was dropped off first. We were told that the taxi ride would cost about 40 pesos so she paid me 25 and we said our goodbyes. When I got to my house the cabbie let me out and gave me the bill. 100 pesos. Wow holy crap not what I was expecting! Luckily I had the money on me, but jeez! (I found out later that the cabbie may or may not have cheated me because I couldn’t speak Spanish.) so I went and rang the bell to my house…rang again…rang again…dog was barking. But nobody was answering. O.my.gosh. you’re joking right?! No, there was no one home. I thought maybe I had the wrong house, so I walked up and down the street for several minutes. I asked a bunch of people if they knew the house I needed to go to and sure enough, I was at the right house. So I just parked it under a tree and waited for about half hour. They did show up, everything turned out fine. Didn’t understand much of what they were saying to me, and to this day I don’t know why they were late getting home. But o well. I just went to bed basically when I got there. It was great. After an intense skype session home, I slept about 15 hours. I definitely needed that after all of the travelling and lack of sleep.
Let me tell you about my family. I am living with an older couple. They are both in their 60s or 70s. both are very nice. They have 2 kids that are married that live in the city. Our house is a white stone house. There is a huge brass gate in front of it. (every house, and most buildings have gates in front and bars on all of the windows. No joke. It’s very secure.) there are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a room with a tv, but no, there is NO wifi. =( sad day. It’s a great house, but it’s hard to stay connected. It gets super frustrating sometimes because there is like nowhere for me to get a wifi connection in the city. Mostly all are locked. Ugh. Haha first world problems, right?? Everything else in the house is great. I do my own laundry and hang it up to dry outside. I’ve finally convinced my host mom that just cereal in the morning is more than enough breakfast for me. I mostly get the upstairs bathroom to myself except for showers…the bathroom. My worst enemy. And I’ll tell you why. The toilet doesn’t flush. Legit. I have to poor a bucket of water down in the bowl to make the water go down. Yea…trying dealing with that your first day in the country. The host mom didn’t actually show me that trick until the next day I was there, so imagine my horror of thinking that my toilet is never going to flush. Yea. I miss toilets back home. STOP LAUGHING AT ME. It’s true. And apparently you’re not supposed to throw the tp in the toilet itself. You’re supposed to put it in the trash next to it…I literally just learned that one too. Haha well, nice to know that I haven’t broken the toilet yet by flushing the paper. But shhhh, that’s just between us.
I’m going to school mon-fri here, just like back in the states. My classes start at 8:45 and last until 12:30. There are just 2 classes, grammar and communication. It can get pretty dull sometimes. All I know is that I’m super tired after my classes, but I have to walk about 30-40 minutes to my house. That’s by choice, not by force. I’ll go into that in a minute…classes are going ok. Tons and tons of Spanish. Hoping for good grades. But grades are really not the point of this exchange. Learning about the culture and learning the language is what’s important. I’m trying my best. The culture here is super rich, and there are tons of differences.
The first: the busses. The busses run on their own schedule. You basically just wait at the stop around the time that it might come by and flag it down when it passes. The busses feel like their held together with duct tape sometimes. They are very tight and close quarters inside. It costs a whopping 6.5 pesos ($.50) to ride the bus. To stop the bus…I’m honestly not sure still. There are no buttons to stop. I think you just yell at the driver.
The taxies, and all the other drivers, are crazy as hell. They drive so scary! When I took a taxi the first couple times, I almost had a heart attack. Fearless drivers that think they own the road. There are no seat belts in the backseat, and I’m not sure how serious the seatbelt laws here are anyways.
There are tons, TONS, of police. Everywhere. The first night on the way from Mexico City to Queretaro, I saw no less than 20 stopped on the side of the road and lights flashing. In the street while I walk I always seen at least one every couple of minutes just driving by. At night I sleep with the window open and I always hear sirens.
(throwing this in there. Just because there are lots of police doesn’t mean it’s dangerous or scary here. This is a super safe town, and the police are there in a preventative way. I haven’t felt threatened or in danger at all since being here.)
The men here…wow. What can I say? We were warned before coming about the men, machismos, and about how they are. But wow I didn’t believe til I experienced it. I get cat-called, wolf-called, honked at, yelled at, HOWEVER YOU WANT TO PHRASE IT, at least a couple times a day by passersby. It’s crazy. At times it’s a little offensive, but I’ve mostly just blocked it out. The guys are all talk really, I’ve never been approached or felt in danger. But maybe I should look into getting some pepper spray here… =p
I live in a super conservative city. There are at least a hundred churches for the 2 million people here. Thus: the women usually all wear pants. I’ve only seen shorts or dresses a handful of times. So naturally when I wear my dresses and skirts and shorts, the only clothes that I brought because it’s a hundred freaking degrees here, I stick out just a bit. There is a lot of irony here though, because I’ve seen no less than 2 dozen couples just going at it and making out in front of God and everybody here too. It’s kinda funny.
There are lots of fair skinned people here. Like, LOTS. A long time ago a bunch of germans settled here I guess. But the people are not very dark. Sometimes lighter than me. That’s really different and something that I noticed. A lot have to use sunscreen because their skin is super sensitive to the sun. my thoughts: sucks that you live in mexico where it’s sunny all year long.
There is so much more to tell. But I feel like I’m droning on and on. I’ll leave it with some stories. Everybody loves stories!
Wednesday of the first week. We all, 12 people, went out to a bar where girls got free drinks. That was a fun night. But everyone was sluggish the next day at school =p staying up too late and school the next day apparently doesn’t mix.
I’ve gone out with a couple people just walking around the town. It’s been fun seeing a lot that there is here. It’s such a big place!
There is another Rebekkah here on the trip. Kinda funny. We go out.
I’ve eaten some super amazing Italian food here. Like to die for Italian. (kind of ironic considering I’m in mexico)
I’ve almost died by getting hit by a car a few times. Still alive!
I climbed a monolith in a town about an hour away and almost died of exhaustion. It was super hard.
I went to a movie theater. That was pretty awesome. Also went to chilies ;)
I danced with a couple Mexican guys at the school; they taught me to salsa! Well…kind of. I’m not much of a dancer to begin with. But it was fun =)
I think that’s it for me. Sorry it’s so long! I’ll be more regular soon! It’s the internet thing that’s screwing me up. love you all. Keep me in your thoughts <3
Saturday, April 6, 2013
So.Much.Traveling...
So my arrival in Mexico was pretty crazy. I left Portland at 7:30 in the morning, arrived in San Francisco at about 9, met up with the rest of the group traveling together, left San Fran at about 1, and finally arrived in Mexico City at about 6:30 local time. I’m not exactly sure what time that would be in Portland, but I think right now there is only a one hour difference.
The arrival at the airport was crazy. We got off the plane and had to fill out immigration forms and customs forms, and we waited in the line for what seemed like forever. Passing through the immigration’s felt great. The man asked how long I planned on staying, why I was there, etc. Getting through the customs check was scary though. There were really tough, official looking people with dogs. Luckily, I was not chosen to get searched and just got to walk right through. Leaving that part, I entered into an ocean of people waiting at the gate meeting people.
I’m so happy that my group of people that I came with was rather big– 9 people! There is a lot to be said baout mob mentality when no one knows where we are going =p We had to wander through the airport for a little while just trying to find the bus station to buy tickets. Everything was in Spanish. Everyone was speaking Spanish. I felt a little like “O my gosh. This is going to be hard.” We did actually make it to the bus ticket window, and we all bought tickets. I totally butchered my Spanish there though. It’s so bad because I know what I should have said, but in the moment, I did NOT say what I meant =p The same thing happened when we were going through “security” to get onto the bus. The man took my bag, asked me a bunch of questions, and all I could do was stand there dumb-founded like I’ve never heard a word of Spanish in my life. UGH! haha “poco a poco” my host family says. “Little by little.” I think it’s just the fact that I’m being put on the spot. I know i’m making mistakes, but that’s ok because that’s how I’ll learn.
The bus ride was about 3 hours. I sat near the front of the bus and the others say near the rear. It was a super fancy bus. Like first class =p They gave us snacks when we got on– chips, a rice crispy treat, and of course, a bottle of water And the seats had little computers built in that worked with movies or the internet. I didn’t mess around with that too much. I was more ready for a nap. And that was easier because it was dark outside and the bus was comfortable. The bus ride then ended with a cab ride to the hostel that some of us were staying at–this day was probably the longest day and made me take the most modes of transportation ever!
Unfortunately we were an odd number for the cab, and I drew the short straw to ride solo. (SHH, don’t tell my mom =p) Everything was fine. No problems. I was able to some what communicate my destination to the cab driver. O my gosh! Scary taxi ride! Reminded me completely of being in Eastern Europe. They just drive like crazy people. There were no seat belts. I was terrified some of the time =p But i survived! And he dropped me off at my hostel, and I was able to meet the others again =)
I don’t know what to say at that point. It was great to finally ARRIVE somewhere and not have to keep driving. It showed me just a little taste of the language though. And…yea, I’m hoping it gets better! I can’t imagine being in this language shock forever. I feel like the more I get used to actually being here, the better I’ll understand. Right now I’m still trying to catch up with all of the traveling and lack of sleep =p
I’m completely excited to start school tomorrow and start learning more Spanish. I hope all goes ok =) Wish me luck guys <3
(There are no pictures yet because I suck at life and forgot to take some =p Stay tuned!)
The arrival at the airport was crazy. We got off the plane and had to fill out immigration forms and customs forms, and we waited in the line for what seemed like forever. Passing through the immigration’s felt great. The man asked how long I planned on staying, why I was there, etc. Getting through the customs check was scary though. There were really tough, official looking people with dogs. Luckily, I was not chosen to get searched and just got to walk right through. Leaving that part, I entered into an ocean of people waiting at the gate meeting people.
I’m so happy that my group of people that I came with was rather big– 9 people! There is a lot to be said baout mob mentality when no one knows where we are going =p We had to wander through the airport for a little while just trying to find the bus station to buy tickets. Everything was in Spanish. Everyone was speaking Spanish. I felt a little like “O my gosh. This is going to be hard.” We did actually make it to the bus ticket window, and we all bought tickets. I totally butchered my Spanish there though. It’s so bad because I know what I should have said, but in the moment, I did NOT say what I meant =p The same thing happened when we were going through “security” to get onto the bus. The man took my bag, asked me a bunch of questions, and all I could do was stand there dumb-founded like I’ve never heard a word of Spanish in my life. UGH! haha “poco a poco” my host family says. “Little by little.” I think it’s just the fact that I’m being put on the spot. I know i’m making mistakes, but that’s ok because that’s how I’ll learn.
The bus ride was about 3 hours. I sat near the front of the bus and the others say near the rear. It was a super fancy bus. Like first class =p They gave us snacks when we got on– chips, a rice crispy treat, and of course, a bottle of water And the seats had little computers built in that worked with movies or the internet. I didn’t mess around with that too much. I was more ready for a nap. And that was easier because it was dark outside and the bus was comfortable. The bus ride then ended with a cab ride to the hostel that some of us were staying at–this day was probably the longest day and made me take the most modes of transportation ever!
Unfortunately we were an odd number for the cab, and I drew the short straw to ride solo. (SHH, don’t tell my mom =p) Everything was fine. No problems. I was able to some what communicate my destination to the cab driver. O my gosh! Scary taxi ride! Reminded me completely of being in Eastern Europe. They just drive like crazy people. There were no seat belts. I was terrified some of the time =p But i survived! And he dropped me off at my hostel, and I was able to meet the others again =)
I don’t know what to say at that point. It was great to finally ARRIVE somewhere and not have to keep driving. It showed me just a little taste of the language though. And…yea, I’m hoping it gets better! I can’t imagine being in this language shock forever. I feel like the more I get used to actually being here, the better I’ll understand. Right now I’m still trying to catch up with all of the traveling and lack of sleep =p
I’m completely excited to start school tomorrow and start learning more Spanish. I hope all goes ok =) Wish me luck guys <3
(There are no pictures yet because I suck at life and forgot to take some =p Stay tuned!)
Traveling to Mexico!!!!!!
So I leave for my 10 week trip to Queretaro, Mexico tomorrow morning at 7:30. I’m so excited! This whole week of “Spring Break” has been anything but that for me. I’ve been working all day everyday; I barely had time to even pack myself for my great journey, but I’ve done it, and I’m almost on my way!
This is not my first time traveling abroad- I’ve been all over Europe, but this is the first time I’ll be visiting any place that’s so different like Mexico. I can’t say exactly what it is inside me that loves to travel and experience new things, it’s just there. I’m so glad that I have gotten this chance.
As for Mexico, yea. That I’m not so sure about. I have no idea what it’s going to be like, how well I’ll pick up the language, or what the people will be like. But I have a hope that everything will be good. Great even. Everyone keeps reminding me about the dangers in Mexico, like I shouldn’t be going, or like I should be scared stiff. I am just so ready to go. I’m not afraid that anything bad will happen while I’m there, though I am completely aware of the dangers. I think as long as I keep a good head on my shoulders I’ll survive and make it out ok.
I’m so excited for the culture shock down there. And the weather. O my goodness the weather! It’s supposed to be about 90 degrees the whole time I’m there. I can’t wait for that. So unlike Oregon also am very excited to eat authentic Mexican food and see how the people act. I imagine a very nice culture and people who are pleasant and laid back. I hope for that at least. But who knows, right?
I’ll be staying in a host family while I’m in Queretaro for ten weeks. I think that’s the part that I’m most worried about. They are an older couple, and I just hope we can talk and that we will like each other. I also hope that I make a few Mexican friends while I’m there…
I honestly hope everything will go great. I’m trying not to stress or worry at this point and just let everything go. Let’s see how well that works.
Rebekah
This is not my first time traveling abroad- I’ve been all over Europe, but this is the first time I’ll be visiting any place that’s so different like Mexico. I can’t say exactly what it is inside me that loves to travel and experience new things, it’s just there. I’m so glad that I have gotten this chance.
As for Mexico, yea. That I’m not so sure about. I have no idea what it’s going to be like, how well I’ll pick up the language, or what the people will be like. But I have a hope that everything will be good. Great even. Everyone keeps reminding me about the dangers in Mexico, like I shouldn’t be going, or like I should be scared stiff. I am just so ready to go. I’m not afraid that anything bad will happen while I’m there, though I am completely aware of the dangers. I think as long as I keep a good head on my shoulders I’ll survive and make it out ok.
I’m so excited for the culture shock down there. And the weather. O my goodness the weather! It’s supposed to be about 90 degrees the whole time I’m there. I can’t wait for that. So unlike Oregon also am very excited to eat authentic Mexican food and see how the people act. I imagine a very nice culture and people who are pleasant and laid back. I hope for that at least. But who knows, right?
I’ll be staying in a host family while I’m in Queretaro for ten weeks. I think that’s the part that I’m most worried about. They are an older couple, and I just hope we can talk and that we will like each other. I also hope that I make a few Mexican friends while I’m there…
I honestly hope everything will go great. I’m trying not to stress or worry at this point and just let everything go. Let’s see how well that works.
Rebekah
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Disgusting.
You know what I find disgusting? People who break up other people's families. You know who you are. You're a hoe-bag, white trash, piece of garbage if you have ever broken up someone's family because of an indiscretion that you started.
You make me sick. And angry. Who ARE YOU to do something like that? Who ARE YOU to be so selfish as to wedge yourself into the midst of another's family and pretend that you belong.
News flash. You DON'T belong. You never will. Even if the others can't see you for what you are and accept you in your new role. I know what you are. We all know what you are.
You are disgusting. You are pathetic. You couldn't keep your own family together, and now you've taken over and ruined another. Shame on you.
I like to think that there is a special circle of hell for people like you. You both. Because let's be honest here. It takes two to tango. You should both be ashamed.
I hope that one day, you BOTH can look back on your actions with the biggest regret. I hope that one day, you get your comeuppance and suffer like you deserve.
You can play the facade of being perfect. When the fact is this: YOU are not perfect. YOU are a white trash whore that deserves the same to be done to you that you inflicted on others.
But hey, with a new partner with obvious character and integrity, I'm sure that will NEVER happen to you. I'm sure you will live happily ever after on your disgusting bed of lies.
You, and everyone like you, make me sick. You enrage me in ways I never knew were possible. You make me want to slap you silly.
I hate people like you. Most importantly, I HATE YOU.
You make me sick. And angry. Who ARE YOU to do something like that? Who ARE YOU to be so selfish as to wedge yourself into the midst of another's family and pretend that you belong.
News flash. You DON'T belong. You never will. Even if the others can't see you for what you are and accept you in your new role. I know what you are. We all know what you are.
You are disgusting. You are pathetic. You couldn't keep your own family together, and now you've taken over and ruined another. Shame on you.
I like to think that there is a special circle of hell for people like you. You both. Because let's be honest here. It takes two to tango. You should both be ashamed.
I hope that one day, you BOTH can look back on your actions with the biggest regret. I hope that one day, you get your comeuppance and suffer like you deserve.
You can play the facade of being perfect. When the fact is this: YOU are not perfect. YOU are a white trash whore that deserves the same to be done to you that you inflicted on others.
But hey, with a new partner with obvious character and integrity, I'm sure that will NEVER happen to you. I'm sure you will live happily ever after on your disgusting bed of lies.
You, and everyone like you, make me sick. You enrage me in ways I never knew were possible. You make me want to slap you silly.
I hate people like you. Most importantly, I HATE YOU.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Robots
I am no robot.
I hurt too.
My feelings can get stepped on.
I can't wait to leave this town, this place.
I desire to start anew once again.
I want to leave behind everyone and not turn back.
I want a life with no drama. No regrets. No awful people.
I want to live where no one can find me, unless I choose for it to be.
I love people with my whole heart.
But I also hate ignorance with my whole heart.
How can I love anyone who is full of ignorance.
I don't think I can.
Therefore, do I love no one?
By loving no one, I can never get hurt.
By loving no one, I am never vulnerable.
By loving no one, I can leave and start fresh and not miss anyone.
By loving no one, I cannot get hurt.
Because, I'm no robot afterall.
My heart bleeds just as much as anyone else's.
I'm just better at hiding it than most people.
I hurt too.
My feelings can get stepped on.
I can't wait to leave this town, this place.
I desire to start anew once again.
I want to leave behind everyone and not turn back.
I want a life with no drama. No regrets. No awful people.
I want to live where no one can find me, unless I choose for it to be.
I love people with my whole heart.
But I also hate ignorance with my whole heart.
How can I love anyone who is full of ignorance.
I don't think I can.
Therefore, do I love no one?
By loving no one, I can never get hurt.
By loving no one, I am never vulnerable.
By loving no one, I can leave and start fresh and not miss anyone.
By loving no one, I cannot get hurt.
Because, I'm no robot afterall.
My heart bleeds just as much as anyone else's.
I'm just better at hiding it than most people.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
I love it!
You know what I love?
I love writing.
I love writing poems. I love writing stories. I love having so many thoughts and ideas that they just rush out of me in a nonsensical way.
I love having a new notebook to scribble in.
I love new pens. The gel kinds are my favorite.
I love having so much inspiration to choose from to write about.
The best writings come from the heart. The best poems are windows into the soul, because that is what they contain. They contain heart and soul and raw emotion.
Writing is my escape. It's where no one can hurt me, judge me, or anything. It's mine. It's my mind and my feelings.
It's exactly the way it should be.
I love writing.
I love writing poems. I love writing stories. I love having so many thoughts and ideas that they just rush out of me in a nonsensical way.
I love having a new notebook to scribble in.
I love new pens. The gel kinds are my favorite.
I love having so much inspiration to choose from to write about.
The best writings come from the heart. The best poems are windows into the soul, because that is what they contain. They contain heart and soul and raw emotion.
Writing is my escape. It's where no one can hurt me, judge me, or anything. It's mine. It's my mind and my feelings.
It's exactly the way it should be.
Heartless
Sometimes, I wonder just how badly I'm damaged inside.
Sometimes, I wonder if I'll cry the next time I lose someone I love or the next time someone walks out of my life.
That's not happened in such awhile. I've hurt people, I've left people, people have left me, I've broken up with people, I've crushed people. I do truly feel bad. But it doesn't hurt me emotionally inside. I can disengage from people in such a way that seeing them go, though sad, does not crush me. I've learned to not hold strings with people, because in the end, they just leave anyway.
It's a defense mechanism. It's how I protect my heart and my sanity. The few who I have let in crushed me when we parted ways. I can still remember the gut wrenching sobs that were torn from my body. I remember every last moment we had. And I remember saying goodbye.
I remember all of that, and yet here and now, if people left my life, I feel as though it wouldn't make much of a difference at all. I love my friends. Don't get me wrong. I would miss them if one of us left. But I wouldn't miss them enough to the point where my life stopped the day one of us left. Life must go on, you know?
Does that make me heartless? I don't know. All I know is that I do love with my whole heart, I just don't let the grief consume me. I've learned not to. I've learned that people inevitably part ways throughout the course of life. It doesn't kill me.
At least it hasn't lately.
I have a strange urge to know if I'm still that heartless monster. I have an urge to know if someone that I loved with my whole heart (excluding family members) left me, or I them, would it hurt me? Would I cry endlessly for days?
I really honestly ponder this because of my boyfriend. I have broken up with people before, I have rejected people before, I myself have had both things happen as well. But I wasn't attached to those people enough and not in the same way. I've seen grown men cry, where I could not shed a tear. Is that still me?
I hate to think of us breaking up, but I have to wonder...will it hurt if and when it happens? Will I cry in my room for days? Will I refuse to set foot outside or even out of bed?
Even imagining it, it sounds ridiculous to me. I know myself, and that doesn't sound like me. I love with my whole heart, but at the end of the day, it's just not something I do. I don't get so emotionally involved with someone to where I am vulnerable. I don't cry after people leaving me or I them. I don't. I can't really picture that changing about myself.
But maybe it's already too late...maybe time will only tell...maybe...
Sometimes, I wonder if I'll cry the next time I lose someone I love or the next time someone walks out of my life.
That's not happened in such awhile. I've hurt people, I've left people, people have left me, I've broken up with people, I've crushed people. I do truly feel bad. But it doesn't hurt me emotionally inside. I can disengage from people in such a way that seeing them go, though sad, does not crush me. I've learned to not hold strings with people, because in the end, they just leave anyway.
It's a defense mechanism. It's how I protect my heart and my sanity. The few who I have let in crushed me when we parted ways. I can still remember the gut wrenching sobs that were torn from my body. I remember every last moment we had. And I remember saying goodbye.
I remember all of that, and yet here and now, if people left my life, I feel as though it wouldn't make much of a difference at all. I love my friends. Don't get me wrong. I would miss them if one of us left. But I wouldn't miss them enough to the point where my life stopped the day one of us left. Life must go on, you know?
Does that make me heartless? I don't know. All I know is that I do love with my whole heart, I just don't let the grief consume me. I've learned not to. I've learned that people inevitably part ways throughout the course of life. It doesn't kill me.
At least it hasn't lately.
I have a strange urge to know if I'm still that heartless monster. I have an urge to know if someone that I loved with my whole heart (excluding family members) left me, or I them, would it hurt me? Would I cry endlessly for days?
I really honestly ponder this because of my boyfriend. I have broken up with people before, I have rejected people before, I myself have had both things happen as well. But I wasn't attached to those people enough and not in the same way. I've seen grown men cry, where I could not shed a tear. Is that still me?
I hate to think of us breaking up, but I have to wonder...will it hurt if and when it happens? Will I cry in my room for days? Will I refuse to set foot outside or even out of bed?
Even imagining it, it sounds ridiculous to me. I know myself, and that doesn't sound like me. I love with my whole heart, but at the end of the day, it's just not something I do. I don't get so emotionally involved with someone to where I am vulnerable. I don't cry after people leaving me or I them. I don't. I can't really picture that changing about myself.
But maybe it's already too late...maybe time will only tell...maybe...
Friday, May 25, 2012
Skin Deep
You know what ticks me off? When people are shallow. Like, this REALLY gets to me. You wanna know why? Ok, I'll tell you.
Now before I start, I'm going to tell you that I'm not perfect by any means. I am human, and I also fall into this shallow business. There is my disclaimer. But now I will start my rant.
So, shallow people. Well, maybe it's not the people themselves, maybe it's because society as a whole is shallow. Shallow and superficial. I can't stand it. Who are YOU to say someone is not truly beautiful? Huh? Who are YOU?
Let me tell you something. I have NEVER heard something so tasteless and shallow as a person rating another person's appearance and saying how high their standards are. You know what I find funny? The most UNATTRACTIVE guys have the highest standards sometimes. It's ridiculous.
This is why young girls and women are so messed up in this country. People (men, media, other women) are constantly saying that looks are the most important thing about women. It's about how skinny she is and how sexy she is. But most importantly, it's all about how sexy she ISN'T. If she's not a freaking model, then she isn't worth it.
News flash. Models and celebrities are photoshopped so much that the pictures hardly look like the original person sometimes. No real person looks like that. But as a society, that's how we have been programmed to think. That's beauty. And you know what? It's not.
What's on the outside isn't all the matters. And I know to some people, men and women alike, that is all that matters. It shouldn't be that way.
As a girl, I have come from horrible self esteem issues. My confidence in myself used to be at less than zero. I was so messed up in the head that I thought nothing of myself. I was ugly and useless. Society told me I wasn't good enough, and I believed that.
I've since pulled myself up out of that dark place. But sometimes it's hard to not go back. It's those constant reminders to yourself that you are beautiful just the way you are. Those reminders when you say you're worth something; you're priceless. It's those things that keep me from going back.
I don't think ANY girl should have to go through such dark times and be so depressed ever in her entire life. That's why it makes me so mad when I hear guys tearing girls down saying "she's not pretty enough" or "I only go after amazingly gorgeous girls." It's disgusting. Girls don't need anyone else criticizing themselves because she is, and always will be, her harshest and most ruthless judge. Girls don't need any help creating a self esteem issue because chances are, like myself, she is already battling one inside of herself.
I think that EVERY girl deserves to be treated like she is a princess. Every girl deserves to be treated like she's a 10. Because you know what? In her own way, she is a 10. Not a 5. Not an 8. A 10. She is priceless. She is a masterpiece just the way she is. If more people believed this, maybe this world and country wouldn't be as screwed up as it is now. Maybe more girls would believe that they deserve a man that treats her right and not like a piece of trash. maybe then she would believe in herself.
Every girl is perfect in her own way. She is unique. She is a work of art. Never can she be duplicated. Her personality, her laugh, her quirks, everything. It's perfect just the way it is. When people can't see that about another person, it's too bad. It's too bad that person can't see what a treasure the other person is. It's too bad that that person will never be able to see true beauty. True beauty comes from the inside. After all, the outside fades after while, but the inside will always be.
I only hope that when I have children, my daughter knows that she is perfect. Anyone who cannot see that would be a fool. A blind fool. They are the ones not worth it. Those people who choose not to see beauty are not worth it.
For all you girls out there reading this: YOU ARE PERFECT JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. DON'T LISTEN TO SOCIETY. LISTEN TO YOU. YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE. YOU ARE ORIGINAL. YOU CAN NEVER BE DUPLICATED. THAT IS BEAUTY. YOU ARE AMAZING. AND BEAUTIFUL.
Now before I start, I'm going to tell you that I'm not perfect by any means. I am human, and I also fall into this shallow business. There is my disclaimer. But now I will start my rant.
So, shallow people. Well, maybe it's not the people themselves, maybe it's because society as a whole is shallow. Shallow and superficial. I can't stand it. Who are YOU to say someone is not truly beautiful? Huh? Who are YOU?
Let me tell you something. I have NEVER heard something so tasteless and shallow as a person rating another person's appearance and saying how high their standards are. You know what I find funny? The most UNATTRACTIVE guys have the highest standards sometimes. It's ridiculous.
This is why young girls and women are so messed up in this country. People (men, media, other women) are constantly saying that looks are the most important thing about women. It's about how skinny she is and how sexy she is. But most importantly, it's all about how sexy she ISN'T. If she's not a freaking model, then she isn't worth it.
News flash. Models and celebrities are photoshopped so much that the pictures hardly look like the original person sometimes. No real person looks like that. But as a society, that's how we have been programmed to think. That's beauty. And you know what? It's not.
What's on the outside isn't all the matters. And I know to some people, men and women alike, that is all that matters. It shouldn't be that way.
As a girl, I have come from horrible self esteem issues. My confidence in myself used to be at less than zero. I was so messed up in the head that I thought nothing of myself. I was ugly and useless. Society told me I wasn't good enough, and I believed that.
I've since pulled myself up out of that dark place. But sometimes it's hard to not go back. It's those constant reminders to yourself that you are beautiful just the way you are. Those reminders when you say you're worth something; you're priceless. It's those things that keep me from going back.
I don't think ANY girl should have to go through such dark times and be so depressed ever in her entire life. That's why it makes me so mad when I hear guys tearing girls down saying "she's not pretty enough" or "I only go after amazingly gorgeous girls." It's disgusting. Girls don't need anyone else criticizing themselves because she is, and always will be, her harshest and most ruthless judge. Girls don't need any help creating a self esteem issue because chances are, like myself, she is already battling one inside of herself.
I think that EVERY girl deserves to be treated like she is a princess. Every girl deserves to be treated like she's a 10. Because you know what? In her own way, she is a 10. Not a 5. Not an 8. A 10. She is priceless. She is a masterpiece just the way she is. If more people believed this, maybe this world and country wouldn't be as screwed up as it is now. Maybe more girls would believe that they deserve a man that treats her right and not like a piece of trash. maybe then she would believe in herself.
Every girl is perfect in her own way. She is unique. She is a work of art. Never can she be duplicated. Her personality, her laugh, her quirks, everything. It's perfect just the way it is. When people can't see that about another person, it's too bad. It's too bad that person can't see what a treasure the other person is. It's too bad that that person will never be able to see true beauty. True beauty comes from the inside. After all, the outside fades after while, but the inside will always be.
I only hope that when I have children, my daughter knows that she is perfect. Anyone who cannot see that would be a fool. A blind fool. They are the ones not worth it. Those people who choose not to see beauty are not worth it.
For all you girls out there reading this: YOU ARE PERFECT JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. DON'T LISTEN TO SOCIETY. LISTEN TO YOU. YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE. YOU ARE ORIGINAL. YOU CAN NEVER BE DUPLICATED. THAT IS BEAUTY. YOU ARE AMAZING. AND BEAUTIFUL.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Excitement.
How long has it been since you've felt this kind of excitement:
Excitement, yet panic at the same time. The future awaits before you. And you can hardly wait to start. It's the sort of excitement you can only get from something you're passionate about. The excitement that makes your stomach leap just a little. It's the excitement to do something you think you were meant to do. Destiny awaits you. It awaits us all. The anticipation kills you as you wait for the proper moment to start. It pushes you forward. It makes you want to accomplish everything that is standing in your way of you and your destiny. You and your future. You will fight if you must because at this point, you will do anything to achieve your goal. The excitement drives you forward. It boils your blood.
Excitement, yet panic at the same time. The future awaits before you. And you can hardly wait to start. It's the sort of excitement you can only get from something you're passionate about. The excitement that makes your stomach leap just a little. It's the excitement to do something you think you were meant to do. Destiny awaits you. It awaits us all. The anticipation kills you as you wait for the proper moment to start. It pushes you forward. It makes you want to accomplish everything that is standing in your way of you and your destiny. You and your future. You will fight if you must because at this point, you will do anything to achieve your goal. The excitement drives you forward. It boils your blood.
Magic
It's that moment that takes your breath away. You know what I'm talking about. The first kiss you share with a person of interest. It's like magic. In my experience, nothing else compares to that first kiss in a new relationship. My heart races. My mind spins. My palms sweat. The first kiss is one of the best "highs" a person can ever have. Something drags you to it. Pulls you in. And all you want is to feel that rush again and again.
If this is such an amazing feeling, why does the magic fade? When and why do the fluttering feelings pass?
Why do people go out seeking that high? It's never as good as you think it is.
Is this what causes people to cheat? People seeking that high that they no longer have with the person they are with? Still too much in love, yet feeling no magic.
The truth is, I think, that if you are in love, there will always be magic. There will always be those heart stopping moments. Those disorienting moments. Magic. Electricity. So much emphasis has gone onto those feelings that when we start to feel them not as strongly as we once did, we worry that the magic is slowly fleeting away.
The magic is there as long as you want it to be there. Whether it's found in a moment that you catch yourself thinking, "I love this person." Or whether it's found in that moment where you lock eyes across the room and share that secret smile. Whether it's found in those precious moments when the other person does something selfless for you, or in those moments where you want to strangle someone. It's there.
Magic.
It's all around us. We just have to see it. There is no greater feeling than coming home to a person who loves me. There is no greater high than that.
If this is such an amazing feeling, why does the magic fade? When and why do the fluttering feelings pass?
Why do people go out seeking that high? It's never as good as you think it is.
Is this what causes people to cheat? People seeking that high that they no longer have with the person they are with? Still too much in love, yet feeling no magic.
The truth is, I think, that if you are in love, there will always be magic. There will always be those heart stopping moments. Those disorienting moments. Magic. Electricity. So much emphasis has gone onto those feelings that when we start to feel them not as strongly as we once did, we worry that the magic is slowly fleeting away.
The magic is there as long as you want it to be there. Whether it's found in a moment that you catch yourself thinking, "I love this person." Or whether it's found in that moment where you lock eyes across the room and share that secret smile. Whether it's found in those precious moments when the other person does something selfless for you, or in those moments where you want to strangle someone. It's there.
Magic.
It's all around us. We just have to see it. There is no greater feeling than coming home to a person who loves me. There is no greater high than that.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Home and the Heart
Denmark. Newport. Denmark. Newport.
They say that home is where the heart is. What they don't say is that your heart can be split into so many pieces that it hurts to think about home. Wherever that home may be.
It's been nearly a year since I've been back 'home' here in Newport. It's been nearly a year since I left my 'home' in Denmark. It's been nearly a year. That's so crazy for me to think about. It's been THAT long already??? Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that I came back. Sometimes it feels like it was all just a dream. In those moments, I pray that my travels really happened. I pray that it all wasn't a dream. Then it all comes flooding back.
Some mornings I wake up and am fine. I can look back on my time spent abroad with very fond memories. Other mornings...well, those mornings are different. On those mornings, I wake up sick. I wake up so homesick that I don't know what to do with myself. I remember my friends. I remember my families. I remember my freedom. I remember it all. The homesickness can be so overwhelming.
They don't tell you that when you come home. They don't tell you that any recollection of your time spent abroad will drum up those feelings. They don't tell you that no one will possibly ever understand why you have that stupid grin on your face when remembering something your host mom said or did for you. They don't tell you how much you will miss all of your friends that you made and how it's almost impossible to coordinate schedules so you can visit each other. They don't tell you that the homesickness never ends.
It's almost a year later, and I still get consumed with homesickness. I miss Denmark so much sometimes that it hurts. I get scared to look at any pictures or read any diaries, lest I remember. But I can't stand to look away from any of them, lest I forget.
I miss it. I miss my friends. I miss my families. I miss the country. I miss everything about my time abroad.
I want to quote a very wise man, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." I try to live every day of my life that way. This is my drive. Everything I learned and experienced, though it brings me sadness to remember and miss, I would never change. It's brought me to so many new places in my life. And Denmark will forever be my home. It will forever be my home because it will always have a piece of my heart.
And after all, home is where the heart is, right?
They say that home is where the heart is. What they don't say is that your heart can be split into so many pieces that it hurts to think about home. Wherever that home may be.
It's been nearly a year since I've been back 'home' here in Newport. It's been nearly a year since I left my 'home' in Denmark. It's been nearly a year. That's so crazy for me to think about. It's been THAT long already??? Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that I came back. Sometimes it feels like it was all just a dream. In those moments, I pray that my travels really happened. I pray that it all wasn't a dream. Then it all comes flooding back.
Some mornings I wake up and am fine. I can look back on my time spent abroad with very fond memories. Other mornings...well, those mornings are different. On those mornings, I wake up sick. I wake up so homesick that I don't know what to do with myself. I remember my friends. I remember my families. I remember my freedom. I remember it all. The homesickness can be so overwhelming.
They don't tell you that when you come home. They don't tell you that any recollection of your time spent abroad will drum up those feelings. They don't tell you that no one will possibly ever understand why you have that stupid grin on your face when remembering something your host mom said or did for you. They don't tell you how much you will miss all of your friends that you made and how it's almost impossible to coordinate schedules so you can visit each other. They don't tell you that the homesickness never ends.
It's almost a year later, and I still get consumed with homesickness. I miss Denmark so much sometimes that it hurts. I get scared to look at any pictures or read any diaries, lest I remember. But I can't stand to look away from any of them, lest I forget.
I miss it. I miss my friends. I miss my families. I miss the country. I miss everything about my time abroad.
I want to quote a very wise man, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." I try to live every day of my life that way. This is my drive. Everything I learned and experienced, though it brings me sadness to remember and miss, I would never change. It's brought me to so many new places in my life. And Denmark will forever be my home. It will forever be my home because it will always have a piece of my heart.
And after all, home is where the heart is, right?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Long Road Home
I’ve found out my day to come home!! Yes, it is official. Finally. For awhile I wasn’t sure when it would be because the travel agent in charge of me hadn’t replied yet. But this past week I finally got my final confirmation of flight information. =DDDD I leave Denmark on June 15th at 3.45 pm. I go from Copenhagen to Chicago. And from Chicago, I head out to Portland. I will be officially landing in Portland at 11.30 pm! Yes, it’s a bit late. And then I have another 3 hour long drive until I’m actually in my house again. So it’s going to be a long night =P long day of travel. Let me count the hours real quick…it’s hard because I have to think about the time difference…which is 9 hours…two seconds………………………………OK I GOT IT!! I will be travelling roughly 17 hours straight that day. That’s not including my drive home. Wow. That is one long day. I will not be sleeping either, I can pert near guarantee it.
But the actual TRAVEL being set aside for now, I’m so excited =) in all honesty, a month ago, I wouldn’t have been excited at all. I had talked about this with my 2nd host family quite a bit. When I lived with them it was so hard to even think about leaving Denmark. To even entertain the idea that I was going home. I remember sitting in the bus one day, I think it was a Saturday, as I was heading into town probably to meet a friend. I remember sitting in this bus and thinking about going home. Thinking about all the people I’d be leaving behind. I nearly broke down in sobs on the bus. Then when I was on my study trip to bosnia, I also had a really hard time one of the nights. Me and one of the girls had to walk back to this one place and give a jacket back that was mistaken as ours. So she and I walked back, and we started talking about when I leave. This girl knows who she is and she knows that I will miss her so much. I started crying in the middle of the street when we were walking and talking about it. Then again even just this past week while I was at a party with my class, I was sitting on the couch with this same girl and I got extremely sad again. I’m not sure if anyone cares about those exact experiences, but I’m just trying to paint you the picture of my feelings right now. Right now, this exact moment, as I think about going home, as I think about packing all my stuff up for the last time, as I think about seeing my family and friends again, as I think about lying in my own soft big bed again, I can’t wait to go home. I could go home tomorrow and be the happiest girl in the world.
And that feeling is the reality at the moment. I love living in Denmark. I love my friends here. I love my families here. I love my life here. The freedoms, the culture. I wouldn’t change it for the world. But as it stands, I’ve been away from home for 269 days. 9 months. (and yes, by the way, I just counted. I haven’t been keeping track since I’ve been here) that is a long time to be away and on your own. It really is. And the fact of the matter is, I’m ready to go home. A month ago I know that I couldn’t say this. But whether I was ready for it or not, it was going to happen. So I’ve had to accept it. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m leaving my life here and taking my completely different self back with me. And I’ve accept the fact that I’m going to be leaving amazing people behind here. I don’t want anyone to confuse what I’m trying to say here. Yes, I’m ready to go home. But my heart is going to be broken into so many pieces when I leave. It’s going to kill me, and I know this. Saying goodbye to my best American friend at the airport is probably going to be one of the worst experiences of my life. And saying goodbye to my best Danish friends is going to be even harder than that. At least I’ve got a plan to see my other exchange student friends that live close by. But coming back to Denmark? I have no idea when that is going to happen again. And it hurts to think about it. It hurts knowing that there are people here that I may never see again. But I can’t think about it. It’s inevitable. I have to leave. I can’t postpone it. I can’t avoid it. I have to accept it. Because if I don’t, that’s going to hurt me even more than it already is. So I’m trying to keep going on in my Danish life. I’m living everyday to the fullest here because I don’t have many left. 51 to be exact from this day. That’s insane to think about. I know.
My friends and family back home are really excited to see me again. Parties are being planned. Vacations are being planned. Road trips are being planned. It sounds like life back home is going to keep going despite the fact that I will have just returned from a year of my life away. I think it’s better that way. I think it’s better that I’ll be kept at least somewhat busy when I come home that way I won’t be too ‘homesick’ for Denmark. They say that your first 2 weeks home are the hardest of your entire exchange. We’ll see how this one plays out.
But as it stands now, I’m coming home on June 15th. I’m happier than a clam to be coming home. I miss home. But I’m sadder than that donkey from Winnie the Pooh about leaving Denmark and my friends and families. It’s a hard mixture of feelings to have in one body. Sometimes it overflows one way or the other. I just wanted everyone to know. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again back home. I’m excited to see the ocean from my window again. But for my friends in Denmark and my families that might be reading this, I just want to tell you that I’m going to miss you all so much. And it pains me to think about leaving some of you behind. You’ll be in my heart forever.
Thanks for reading this latest entry about my feelings. There will be more updates coming this week. Stay posted k =)) love you all. Thanks for the support. I’m almost home!
Kram,
Rebekah
But the actual TRAVEL being set aside for now, I’m so excited =) in all honesty, a month ago, I wouldn’t have been excited at all. I had talked about this with my 2nd host family quite a bit. When I lived with them it was so hard to even think about leaving Denmark. To even entertain the idea that I was going home. I remember sitting in the bus one day, I think it was a Saturday, as I was heading into town probably to meet a friend. I remember sitting in this bus and thinking about going home. Thinking about all the people I’d be leaving behind. I nearly broke down in sobs on the bus. Then when I was on my study trip to bosnia, I also had a really hard time one of the nights. Me and one of the girls had to walk back to this one place and give a jacket back that was mistaken as ours. So she and I walked back, and we started talking about when I leave. This girl knows who she is and she knows that I will miss her so much. I started crying in the middle of the street when we were walking and talking about it. Then again even just this past week while I was at a party with my class, I was sitting on the couch with this same girl and I got extremely sad again. I’m not sure if anyone cares about those exact experiences, but I’m just trying to paint you the picture of my feelings right now. Right now, this exact moment, as I think about going home, as I think about packing all my stuff up for the last time, as I think about seeing my family and friends again, as I think about lying in my own soft big bed again, I can’t wait to go home. I could go home tomorrow and be the happiest girl in the world.
And that feeling is the reality at the moment. I love living in Denmark. I love my friends here. I love my families here. I love my life here. The freedoms, the culture. I wouldn’t change it for the world. But as it stands, I’ve been away from home for 269 days. 9 months. (and yes, by the way, I just counted. I haven’t been keeping track since I’ve been here) that is a long time to be away and on your own. It really is. And the fact of the matter is, I’m ready to go home. A month ago I know that I couldn’t say this. But whether I was ready for it or not, it was going to happen. So I’ve had to accept it. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m leaving my life here and taking my completely different self back with me. And I’ve accept the fact that I’m going to be leaving amazing people behind here. I don’t want anyone to confuse what I’m trying to say here. Yes, I’m ready to go home. But my heart is going to be broken into so many pieces when I leave. It’s going to kill me, and I know this. Saying goodbye to my best American friend at the airport is probably going to be one of the worst experiences of my life. And saying goodbye to my best Danish friends is going to be even harder than that. At least I’ve got a plan to see my other exchange student friends that live close by. But coming back to Denmark? I have no idea when that is going to happen again. And it hurts to think about it. It hurts knowing that there are people here that I may never see again. But I can’t think about it. It’s inevitable. I have to leave. I can’t postpone it. I can’t avoid it. I have to accept it. Because if I don’t, that’s going to hurt me even more than it already is. So I’m trying to keep going on in my Danish life. I’m living everyday to the fullest here because I don’t have many left. 51 to be exact from this day. That’s insane to think about. I know.
My friends and family back home are really excited to see me again. Parties are being planned. Vacations are being planned. Road trips are being planned. It sounds like life back home is going to keep going despite the fact that I will have just returned from a year of my life away. I think it’s better that way. I think it’s better that I’ll be kept at least somewhat busy when I come home that way I won’t be too ‘homesick’ for Denmark. They say that your first 2 weeks home are the hardest of your entire exchange. We’ll see how this one plays out.
But as it stands now, I’m coming home on June 15th. I’m happier than a clam to be coming home. I miss home. But I’m sadder than that donkey from Winnie the Pooh about leaving Denmark and my friends and families. It’s a hard mixture of feelings to have in one body. Sometimes it overflows one way or the other. I just wanted everyone to know. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again back home. I’m excited to see the ocean from my window again. But for my friends in Denmark and my families that might be reading this, I just want to tell you that I’m going to miss you all so much. And it pains me to think about leaving some of you behind. You’ll be in my heart forever.
Thanks for reading this latest entry about my feelings. There will be more updates coming this week. Stay posted k =)) love you all. Thanks for the support. I’m almost home!
Kram,
Rebekah
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Welcome to Sarajevo
This past week I was on a school trip with my class to Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia. I am in the second year of high school here, and most second year classes take a class trip together. A lot of classes choose to go to Spain or Italy or Greece or someplace like that, but our class and our teachers chose to take us to Sarajevo. In my class of 26 people, there are 4 girls that actually had moved from Bosnia to Denmark when they were little. So I think that played a big role in us going there. I think, in the end, that our teachers didn’t want to take us to someplace in Europe that most of the people would just go see anyway. On vacations with families in Europe who would ever choose to go to Bosnia unless you had some kind of family there? Exactly, few would go. But I’m so happy that we went to Sarajevo and not any other place in Europe.
Bosnia, along with mostly all of the other Eastern European countries, is just so different from Western Europe. The culture is completely different along with the history behind the country. Now me, I love history and learning about what has happened in the past, so I could go on for PAGES about the history of Bosnia, but since I know that a lot of people think that’s boring, I’ll just be brief. Bosnia used to be a part of the country Yugoslavia. Ring a bell? Right. ok, and after the communist leader Tito died, the country broke out into a giant civil war that lasted about 4 years. The dates were 1992-1995. The war was between Serbs, Croats, and Bosniacs. And long story short, the Serbs were trying to push the Bosniacs out of the main city of Sarajevo, and there was a huge siege there. Ok. After the war ‘finished’ and peace was called, the former Yugoslavia no longer existed. It was now broken into Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia? I think. I’m not too sure about that last one actually. But you get the picture. The 4 girls in our class immigrated to Denmark from Bosnia with their families during the war. The crazy thing is that this all happened only 15 years ago. ONLY. It just puts a lot of things into perspective I think. But don’t worry, for those of you who are. It is a relatively peaceful and working country now. Relatively.
So now, let me begin with what our tour entailed. We left at approx. 5.33 in the morning from Næstved train station heading to Copenhagen to catch our plane. O wait, did I say 5.33? yea what I meant to say was that summer time had officially begun and it was actually 4.33 to our bodies. My host dad drove me into town, but we got a little confused when our watches read 5.15 and yet the clock on the dashboard read 4.15. we had no idea what the time was! So we had to go into a gas station and ask the guy, and turns out, YEP, that we were an hour early getting into town -_- apparently his cell phone and my cell phone automatically change time, which neither of us knew. So when we set our clocks to wake us up at 3.50 (4.50 in the new time) it actually WAS 3.50. =P so we drove back home and waited then drove back into town at the correct time.
Once we were actually on the train, it was more or less smooth sailing. We got off an hour later in Copenhagen and caught another train headed to the airport. After actually arriving at the airport, most of us were there and began to check in our luggage and get our tickets. Wait, did I just say MOST of us??? Yes, you read correctly. 2 of the girls in my class didn’t see when to get off the train to the airport and were currently in SWEDEN. Don’t worry, eventually they made it back. I think it was like 30 minutes later or something. Way after all of us had checked in. but then! We boarded our plane headed for Vienna, Austria, where we would connect to a flight leading to Sarajevo =)
When we arrived in Vienna we headed straight for our gate, went through security again, tried to check in, and hit another problem. In order to enter Bosnia, a person must be 18 or have parent signatures. Now this wasn’t a problem for me as I’m 18 now, but half of my class is underage. So there was a slight problem, yes? Yes! So my teachers were on the phone with the Bosnian Embassy trying to convince them to let us all in the country. There was a bit of panic for awhile as we didn’t know if the class was going back to Denmark or if only part of us were going to Sarajevo. It was just a super complicated situation. But eventually! We were all allowed to board the plane and head to Sarajevo. We were a little late I think, but no biggie as that was our last stop anyway. So then after we landed in Bosnia, we went through customs and passport security and everything for what felt like the millionth time. Then we ran into another problem. The people under 18 were still not allowed to come into the country! Yea, you read correctly. We thought we had fixed this all back in Vienna, but apparently not. So those of us overage went through and grabbed our bags and waited for maybe 20 minutes for the passport security people to let the rest of our class in. They were back on the phone with the embassy and blah blah blah. You know. I wasn’t in that part, so I only heard about what happened, but one of the Bosnian girls from our class went up and spoke with the people and eventually convinced them to let us in I guess. Awesome =)) finally we were off in Sarajevo!!
We took a bus to our hotel and were all checked in then we just hung around a bit. We went out to dinner and ate some good traditional Bosnian food. =) then me and my friend Mikkel and his roommate walked around the city a bit just exploring. It was great. When it started to get kind of dark out, we headed back to the hotel, and most people just crashed after that. I remember that most of us went to bed around 9-10 because we had had a SUPER long day and we were all tuckered out. I know I hit the sack super early. Like 9.30 maybe. It was earlier than both of my roommates. =P and I’m usually the party animal, ha! ^_^
Monday, after everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep, we started our first day in the city completing our scheduled activities. We were up and out of the hotel by 8 in the morning and headed out to go exchange our money. We first stopped by the post office close to our hotel thinking maybe they could, but we ended up just getting told to go find a bank somewhere. So that’s what we did. We walked a bit of a ways through the ‘old town’ and found our way to this really long street just filled with stores, cafes, and banks. We all exchanged our money into the Bosnian mark (it’s a little weaker than the USD, so it was great to use that kind of money system again!) and then we walked a bit more. We had to walked and catch a train leading to the other side of the city so we could meet some professors at the university and interview them and just have them talk to us about the war and the history and the present. It was super interesting, although the men had heavy accents. It was hard for me to understand them at some points so I can only imagine what it was like for my Danish classmates trying to pay attention. But seriously, all in all, it was so interesting. Two ladies that were children and living in Sarajevo during the war came also and just answered some questions that we had for them about life and such. It was great. We ended up leaving there about 1 and we went across the street to a bit shopping mall and ate lunch. One thing that I learned while me and my friend Mikkel were eating lunch is that in Bosnia, it’s still ok to smoke inside! Like in restaurants and bars. Crazy! Anywayz, after lunch we were supposed to go out into our groups and interview people if that’s what we needed to do for our project. The group I was in didn’t need to do this, but they had left earlier than I, so I just tagged along with another group and talked to some people with them. After that, about 4.30-5, we arrived back at our hotel after taking a taxi, hey we had walked for what seemed like forever. No way were we walking back ^_^ so I got to my room and just crashed for like an hour I think and napped a bit. And then! We all went out for dinner again and then headed to a bar after that to chill out. Even my teachers went and drank. =P it was a bar called “Cheers” but it was really crowded and really smokey. Not long after we got there, maybe an hour at most, me and a group of girls decided to go to another place, so that we did =) we went to a Cuban themed pub. It was very cozy, and we just hung there for a bit talking and laughing and enjoying each other. After that we went to one more place just to see what it was like, then at like 1-1.30 in the morning, we landed back at our hotel. Great night.
The morning waking up and leaving again by 8 was not so great -_- this day we were headed to one of the oldest national parks in Europe. We were supposed to drive one hour to get there, walk three hours, then come home. So our bus picked us up and we headed out. There was a little tour guide there for our amusement on the drive there. He was pretty funny some of the time, but the rest of the time it was just like, come on, we all want to sleep, go away ^_^ o, right, and another thing that he brought to our attention was that it wasn’t in fact only one hour away. It was actually 2 because of the roads. Ok. No problem I guess. THREE HOURS LATER OF WINDING ROADS AND CRAZY BOSNIAN DRIVING, we arrived at the national park. -_- not only we were all exhausted from our night before and exhausted from being cooped up in a bus with no room for three hours, it was actually raining when we got there. Greattttttt. =P our first stop was visiting a big monument dedicated to the 3,000 people who died defending Bosnia (Yugoslavia) against the Germans during WWII. To get there we had to walk up a billion stairs in the rain, but once we got there our tour guide explained what it was about and such. What could have easily been explained in 10 minutes ended up taking what felt like forever because there was one man explaining about the monument and its significance and another man was translating to us. Then we walked a little ways a visited an old bunker also dedicated to these 3,000 people who died. There were murals on the walls of this concrete bunker, really moving pictures some of them. And all of the names of the people were inscribed on the walls. After seeing that, our teachers decided to skip the rest of what we were going to see and we headed back to the bus, piled in, and drove about 30 minutes to the part of a mountain we were going to climb. We eventually all got to the top of this mountain. Through fog and rain and snow and mud and trees. Yea, we all got there eventually ^_^ after that, we headed back down the mountain and piled into the bus and WENT HOME! =D I think we were all excited about that. It was about 5 when we finally arrived home. We were originally supposed to be back at 2, and none of us had eaten since lunch and the little snack we brought we us for the mountain. So we all got cleaned up and went out to dinner with the various groups that we chose =) I went with one of my roommates and 2 of my good guys friends. We ate at this little place. I got pizza. There were a lot of places that sold pizza there. Kind of surprising =P but we ate, then me and my girlfriend went into town and shopped a bit, or tried to, once the boys left us. We found lots of stuff we liked, but nothing we wanted to buy. You understand that feeling, I’m sure =) but we made our way back to the hotel when it started getting dark and cold. Then I’m almost positive we all just stayed in and crashed for the night.
Wednesday was a special day. It was a boy’s 18th birthday in my class. Here in Denmark, 18 is like our sweet 16. People go super crazy. And the fact that he got to celebrate his 18th in a foreign country just made it even crazier! So we all woke up and said ‘tillykke’ to him and then we left our hotel for the rest of the day’s activities at about 9.30. on this day we had a little ‘scavenger hunt’ around the city of Sarajevo in our little groups. We had to find old buildings that were important. We saw a Serbian church, a Croat Catholic cathedral, and we got to go inside of a Bosniac mosque. I was so excited to go to the mosque. Like I had been literally looking forward to it since Monday. I’ve never been inside of one before and I thought it was super interesting. I’ve never encountered many Islamic people before, so just seeing how they do things, it’s just interesting really. We girls also had to wear a scarf before we were allowed to go in, interesting! I got a chance to see some people praying outside of the mosque, and then one of my classmates kind of rudely told me that I shouldn’t be staring. -_- I WASN’T staring. I was simply fascinated. ANYWAYZ, sorry, I digress. So we saw those 3 religious places. And a few other old places and after we were finished, we were allowed to go get some lunch, then after lunch we went to one of the museums dedicated to the war. My class went in this place, and I’ve never felt a 10 lb weight on my shoulders more. It was like walking into a Holocaust museum. There were newspaper clippings of deaths; there were pictures of the wounded, captions trying to relate their situation to us. It was almost overwhelming. It took me like 45 minutes to go through it, then I just headed outside with the others that had finished before me. Walking out was like that 10 lb weight had been lifted, but it was still a super somber rest of the day. We all waited outside of the museum for chunk of time, but it was pretty nice. It was the warmest weather. 13 degrees C, so way warmer than Denmark has gotten yet =P most of us were not dressed for warm weather like that. Long sleeves. Black. It was just not good. But still o so wonderful. Then after we were finished there, we walked over to this trauma center to interview the workers there. We ended up waiting outside in the heat for about an hour because there was a miscommunication between our group and the people there. The people we needed to talk to were waiting for us in their office while we were waiting outside for them to come to us. ^_^ brilliant I know =D but anyway we got there and we talked to them about what they did and how they helped people. One of the girls in my class translated for the 2 women there. It was pretty interesting from what I picked up with my awesome Danish skills ^_^ afterwards, we left the ladies at about 4 then headed out to do what we wanted with whom we chose. So I went with my friend Mikkel, his roommate, and my other friend Carina. We walked to the city and bought some cake =D and let me tell you, Bosnian people know how to make good cake. We got 4 pieces and shared them around the table. It was great =) then after that we got a chance to shop a little before heading home to get ready for the night out. We all went out together at 7 and we went to this brewery for dinner. It was really good food. Great beef. Very filling =) but not super expensive either, which was nice. The only problem this night was that after dinner we went to a bar together, and neither at the restaurant nor the bar did our bills add up. Yea, we were swindled at the bar by 80 marks, and almost at the restaurant, but we caught it. That was really the only down part to the whole night. But otherwise it was fun =) it was my friend’s 18th birthday, so I know he had a blast =P we got in at about 2 I think, not sure. Then we hit the hay =)
Thursday was our last day in the city =(( we started off with waking up and leaving the hotel at about 9.30 and we headed out with a bus to a little place that was on the outskirts of Sarajevo. It was a ‘museum’ that was dedicated to a tunnel that was built during the war. This tunnel was built in about 4 months and it stretched from the under-siege Sarajevo to the free part of Bosnia. The city was surrounded by Serbian forces and they were trying to evacuate the city from the Bosniac race. They tried expelling them and had them surrounded, but thanks to this tunnel, the people were able to reach the free land and escape and bring weapons back and fight off the Serbians. We actually got to go down into a little section of the tunnel and see what it was like. It was 1.6 m high and 1 meter wide. Just enough for a person to get through and a cart carrying supplies to clear. It was kind of intense to see that. After the museum we headed out again back into the city and went to the middle of the city and saw a memorial for all of the children that died during the war. That was horrible. All of their names were written there and I was with my friend and I just couldn’t stay there for long. We had to leave. It was too heart wrenching. So we walked over to this shopping mall and got some lunch and we had the rest of the day pretty much to ourselves to do what we wanted. Me and my friend mikkel went shopping for HOURS buying new clothes and things for him =D it was great. I picked out some super nice things for him to wear and he bought lots of stuff. And I looked and looked all week for a new pair of shoes, and finally, on our last 30 minutes of shopping before heading to the hotel, we found a pair I liked =D so he was happy and I was happy haha we then made our way back to the hotel where we just relaxed a bit and then got ready for our last night out in Sarajevo. We left the hotel again about 7 and went to eat together at this great traditional Bosnian place. It overlooked the city and at night, that was just gorgeous. To see all the lights. And the food was delicious =) it was like 4 courses 0_0 I thought we were done after 2, but noooooooo haha make room for more! After dinner we went to town =D about half my class and I. it was so much fun. We went to this night club that was just great! We took lots of pictures and just had a super fun time with everyone around us. I love bonding with my class =P we ended up getting home at about 3.15 then another group of my friends came back about 15 minutes later. Then off to shower and pack my suitcase and then SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP =)))
And then it was Friday. Time to go back to Denmark. We left the hotel at 12.30 and went to the airport. We checked in all of our bags and had a little panic =P they were charging 10 euros for every kilo over 20 we went. That’s expensive. So some of us had to rearrange our bags and hold other people’s things. Great fun. Then we went to our gate. Our plane was to leave at 3.05. -_- there was a computer meltdown and so we didn’t end up leaving until 4.15. which meant that we missed our connecting flight in Vienna. Woo. Haha so we were kind of stuck in Vienna for a little while until they found us another flight, leaving at about 8. So we all got to eat and hang out for a little while. And I had an emotional breakdown in the airport =D woo go me! It just hit me all of the sudden how much it hurt to be in an airport and be flying away, and yet NOT going back to the United States. It was really hard actually. I tried to get over it though. Those things happen sometimes. Especially while on exchange. Sadness can overtake from anywhere. But anyway, we got on our plane eventually and landed in the good old Copenhagen airport at almost 10. We got our luggage and I hitched a ride back to town with another friend. After taking a potty break we arrived home at about midnight =/ my host dad came to pick me up, I went home, and passed out. Even though my host brother was having a party and blaring music. I was out cold =D
This was just such an amazing trip. I’m so happy I went. I can’t explain what it was like. To see children as young as 5, dirty and begging for money on the street. To see war-weathered buildings. To nearly get hit by cars because they are such horrible drivers. To see this completely different culture. It was amazing. And actually, I hope to go back someday. Just to visit again. I’m very happy that I didn’t end up going to france or Italy. Sure those places are great, but they are all the same. This, this was COMPLETELY different from anything I’ve ever experienced and anything other danes in my class had. This is something I’ll never forget.
Sorry this post was so long. But so much happened. I have pictures up on my photo site of Bosnia! Please check them out =D thanks for all the support. See you all soon! <3
Kram
Rebekah
Bosnia, along with mostly all of the other Eastern European countries, is just so different from Western Europe. The culture is completely different along with the history behind the country. Now me, I love history and learning about what has happened in the past, so I could go on for PAGES about the history of Bosnia, but since I know that a lot of people think that’s boring, I’ll just be brief. Bosnia used to be a part of the country Yugoslavia. Ring a bell? Right. ok, and after the communist leader Tito died, the country broke out into a giant civil war that lasted about 4 years. The dates were 1992-1995. The war was between Serbs, Croats, and Bosniacs. And long story short, the Serbs were trying to push the Bosniacs out of the main city of Sarajevo, and there was a huge siege there. Ok. After the war ‘finished’ and peace was called, the former Yugoslavia no longer existed. It was now broken into Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia? I think. I’m not too sure about that last one actually. But you get the picture. The 4 girls in our class immigrated to Denmark from Bosnia with their families during the war. The crazy thing is that this all happened only 15 years ago. ONLY. It just puts a lot of things into perspective I think. But don’t worry, for those of you who are. It is a relatively peaceful and working country now. Relatively.
So now, let me begin with what our tour entailed. We left at approx. 5.33 in the morning from Næstved train station heading to Copenhagen to catch our plane. O wait, did I say 5.33? yea what I meant to say was that summer time had officially begun and it was actually 4.33 to our bodies. My host dad drove me into town, but we got a little confused when our watches read 5.15 and yet the clock on the dashboard read 4.15. we had no idea what the time was! So we had to go into a gas station and ask the guy, and turns out, YEP, that we were an hour early getting into town -_- apparently his cell phone and my cell phone automatically change time, which neither of us knew. So when we set our clocks to wake us up at 3.50 (4.50 in the new time) it actually WAS 3.50. =P so we drove back home and waited then drove back into town at the correct time.
Once we were actually on the train, it was more or less smooth sailing. We got off an hour later in Copenhagen and caught another train headed to the airport. After actually arriving at the airport, most of us were there and began to check in our luggage and get our tickets. Wait, did I just say MOST of us??? Yes, you read correctly. 2 of the girls in my class didn’t see when to get off the train to the airport and were currently in SWEDEN. Don’t worry, eventually they made it back. I think it was like 30 minutes later or something. Way after all of us had checked in. but then! We boarded our plane headed for Vienna, Austria, where we would connect to a flight leading to Sarajevo =)
When we arrived in Vienna we headed straight for our gate, went through security again, tried to check in, and hit another problem. In order to enter Bosnia, a person must be 18 or have parent signatures. Now this wasn’t a problem for me as I’m 18 now, but half of my class is underage. So there was a slight problem, yes? Yes! So my teachers were on the phone with the Bosnian Embassy trying to convince them to let us all in the country. There was a bit of panic for awhile as we didn’t know if the class was going back to Denmark or if only part of us were going to Sarajevo. It was just a super complicated situation. But eventually! We were all allowed to board the plane and head to Sarajevo. We were a little late I think, but no biggie as that was our last stop anyway. So then after we landed in Bosnia, we went through customs and passport security and everything for what felt like the millionth time. Then we ran into another problem. The people under 18 were still not allowed to come into the country! Yea, you read correctly. We thought we had fixed this all back in Vienna, but apparently not. So those of us overage went through and grabbed our bags and waited for maybe 20 minutes for the passport security people to let the rest of our class in. They were back on the phone with the embassy and blah blah blah. You know. I wasn’t in that part, so I only heard about what happened, but one of the Bosnian girls from our class went up and spoke with the people and eventually convinced them to let us in I guess. Awesome =)) finally we were off in Sarajevo!!
We took a bus to our hotel and were all checked in then we just hung around a bit. We went out to dinner and ate some good traditional Bosnian food. =) then me and my friend Mikkel and his roommate walked around the city a bit just exploring. It was great. When it started to get kind of dark out, we headed back to the hotel, and most people just crashed after that. I remember that most of us went to bed around 9-10 because we had had a SUPER long day and we were all tuckered out. I know I hit the sack super early. Like 9.30 maybe. It was earlier than both of my roommates. =P and I’m usually the party animal, ha! ^_^
Monday, after everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep, we started our first day in the city completing our scheduled activities. We were up and out of the hotel by 8 in the morning and headed out to go exchange our money. We first stopped by the post office close to our hotel thinking maybe they could, but we ended up just getting told to go find a bank somewhere. So that’s what we did. We walked a bit of a ways through the ‘old town’ and found our way to this really long street just filled with stores, cafes, and banks. We all exchanged our money into the Bosnian mark (it’s a little weaker than the USD, so it was great to use that kind of money system again!) and then we walked a bit more. We had to walked and catch a train leading to the other side of the city so we could meet some professors at the university and interview them and just have them talk to us about the war and the history and the present. It was super interesting, although the men had heavy accents. It was hard for me to understand them at some points so I can only imagine what it was like for my Danish classmates trying to pay attention. But seriously, all in all, it was so interesting. Two ladies that were children and living in Sarajevo during the war came also and just answered some questions that we had for them about life and such. It was great. We ended up leaving there about 1 and we went across the street to a bit shopping mall and ate lunch. One thing that I learned while me and my friend Mikkel were eating lunch is that in Bosnia, it’s still ok to smoke inside! Like in restaurants and bars. Crazy! Anywayz, after lunch we were supposed to go out into our groups and interview people if that’s what we needed to do for our project. The group I was in didn’t need to do this, but they had left earlier than I, so I just tagged along with another group and talked to some people with them. After that, about 4.30-5, we arrived back at our hotel after taking a taxi, hey we had walked for what seemed like forever. No way were we walking back ^_^ so I got to my room and just crashed for like an hour I think and napped a bit. And then! We all went out for dinner again and then headed to a bar after that to chill out. Even my teachers went and drank. =P it was a bar called “Cheers” but it was really crowded and really smokey. Not long after we got there, maybe an hour at most, me and a group of girls decided to go to another place, so that we did =) we went to a Cuban themed pub. It was very cozy, and we just hung there for a bit talking and laughing and enjoying each other. After that we went to one more place just to see what it was like, then at like 1-1.30 in the morning, we landed back at our hotel. Great night.
The morning waking up and leaving again by 8 was not so great -_- this day we were headed to one of the oldest national parks in Europe. We were supposed to drive one hour to get there, walk three hours, then come home. So our bus picked us up and we headed out. There was a little tour guide there for our amusement on the drive there. He was pretty funny some of the time, but the rest of the time it was just like, come on, we all want to sleep, go away ^_^ o, right, and another thing that he brought to our attention was that it wasn’t in fact only one hour away. It was actually 2 because of the roads. Ok. No problem I guess. THREE HOURS LATER OF WINDING ROADS AND CRAZY BOSNIAN DRIVING, we arrived at the national park. -_- not only we were all exhausted from our night before and exhausted from being cooped up in a bus with no room for three hours, it was actually raining when we got there. Greattttttt. =P our first stop was visiting a big monument dedicated to the 3,000 people who died defending Bosnia (Yugoslavia) against the Germans during WWII. To get there we had to walk up a billion stairs in the rain, but once we got there our tour guide explained what it was about and such. What could have easily been explained in 10 minutes ended up taking what felt like forever because there was one man explaining about the monument and its significance and another man was translating to us. Then we walked a little ways a visited an old bunker also dedicated to these 3,000 people who died. There were murals on the walls of this concrete bunker, really moving pictures some of them. And all of the names of the people were inscribed on the walls. After seeing that, our teachers decided to skip the rest of what we were going to see and we headed back to the bus, piled in, and drove about 30 minutes to the part of a mountain we were going to climb. We eventually all got to the top of this mountain. Through fog and rain and snow and mud and trees. Yea, we all got there eventually ^_^ after that, we headed back down the mountain and piled into the bus and WENT HOME! =D I think we were all excited about that. It was about 5 when we finally arrived home. We were originally supposed to be back at 2, and none of us had eaten since lunch and the little snack we brought we us for the mountain. So we all got cleaned up and went out to dinner with the various groups that we chose =) I went with one of my roommates and 2 of my good guys friends. We ate at this little place. I got pizza. There were a lot of places that sold pizza there. Kind of surprising =P but we ate, then me and my girlfriend went into town and shopped a bit, or tried to, once the boys left us. We found lots of stuff we liked, but nothing we wanted to buy. You understand that feeling, I’m sure =) but we made our way back to the hotel when it started getting dark and cold. Then I’m almost positive we all just stayed in and crashed for the night.
Wednesday was a special day. It was a boy’s 18th birthday in my class. Here in Denmark, 18 is like our sweet 16. People go super crazy. And the fact that he got to celebrate his 18th in a foreign country just made it even crazier! So we all woke up and said ‘tillykke’ to him and then we left our hotel for the rest of the day’s activities at about 9.30. on this day we had a little ‘scavenger hunt’ around the city of Sarajevo in our little groups. We had to find old buildings that were important. We saw a Serbian church, a Croat Catholic cathedral, and we got to go inside of a Bosniac mosque. I was so excited to go to the mosque. Like I had been literally looking forward to it since Monday. I’ve never been inside of one before and I thought it was super interesting. I’ve never encountered many Islamic people before, so just seeing how they do things, it’s just interesting really. We girls also had to wear a scarf before we were allowed to go in, interesting! I got a chance to see some people praying outside of the mosque, and then one of my classmates kind of rudely told me that I shouldn’t be staring. -_- I WASN’T staring. I was simply fascinated. ANYWAYZ, sorry, I digress. So we saw those 3 religious places. And a few other old places and after we were finished, we were allowed to go get some lunch, then after lunch we went to one of the museums dedicated to the war. My class went in this place, and I’ve never felt a 10 lb weight on my shoulders more. It was like walking into a Holocaust museum. There were newspaper clippings of deaths; there were pictures of the wounded, captions trying to relate their situation to us. It was almost overwhelming. It took me like 45 minutes to go through it, then I just headed outside with the others that had finished before me. Walking out was like that 10 lb weight had been lifted, but it was still a super somber rest of the day. We all waited outside of the museum for chunk of time, but it was pretty nice. It was the warmest weather. 13 degrees C, so way warmer than Denmark has gotten yet =P most of us were not dressed for warm weather like that. Long sleeves. Black. It was just not good. But still o so wonderful. Then after we were finished there, we walked over to this trauma center to interview the workers there. We ended up waiting outside in the heat for about an hour because there was a miscommunication between our group and the people there. The people we needed to talk to were waiting for us in their office while we were waiting outside for them to come to us. ^_^ brilliant I know =D but anyway we got there and we talked to them about what they did and how they helped people. One of the girls in my class translated for the 2 women there. It was pretty interesting from what I picked up with my awesome Danish skills ^_^ afterwards, we left the ladies at about 4 then headed out to do what we wanted with whom we chose. So I went with my friend Mikkel, his roommate, and my other friend Carina. We walked to the city and bought some cake =D and let me tell you, Bosnian people know how to make good cake. We got 4 pieces and shared them around the table. It was great =) then after that we got a chance to shop a little before heading home to get ready for the night out. We all went out together at 7 and we went to this brewery for dinner. It was really good food. Great beef. Very filling =) but not super expensive either, which was nice. The only problem this night was that after dinner we went to a bar together, and neither at the restaurant nor the bar did our bills add up. Yea, we were swindled at the bar by 80 marks, and almost at the restaurant, but we caught it. That was really the only down part to the whole night. But otherwise it was fun =) it was my friend’s 18th birthday, so I know he had a blast =P we got in at about 2 I think, not sure. Then we hit the hay =)
Thursday was our last day in the city =(( we started off with waking up and leaving the hotel at about 9.30 and we headed out with a bus to a little place that was on the outskirts of Sarajevo. It was a ‘museum’ that was dedicated to a tunnel that was built during the war. This tunnel was built in about 4 months and it stretched from the under-siege Sarajevo to the free part of Bosnia. The city was surrounded by Serbian forces and they were trying to evacuate the city from the Bosniac race. They tried expelling them and had them surrounded, but thanks to this tunnel, the people were able to reach the free land and escape and bring weapons back and fight off the Serbians. We actually got to go down into a little section of the tunnel and see what it was like. It was 1.6 m high and 1 meter wide. Just enough for a person to get through and a cart carrying supplies to clear. It was kind of intense to see that. After the museum we headed out again back into the city and went to the middle of the city and saw a memorial for all of the children that died during the war. That was horrible. All of their names were written there and I was with my friend and I just couldn’t stay there for long. We had to leave. It was too heart wrenching. So we walked over to this shopping mall and got some lunch and we had the rest of the day pretty much to ourselves to do what we wanted. Me and my friend mikkel went shopping for HOURS buying new clothes and things for him =D it was great. I picked out some super nice things for him to wear and he bought lots of stuff. And I looked and looked all week for a new pair of shoes, and finally, on our last 30 minutes of shopping before heading to the hotel, we found a pair I liked =D so he was happy and I was happy haha we then made our way back to the hotel where we just relaxed a bit and then got ready for our last night out in Sarajevo. We left the hotel again about 7 and went to eat together at this great traditional Bosnian place. It overlooked the city and at night, that was just gorgeous. To see all the lights. And the food was delicious =) it was like 4 courses 0_0 I thought we were done after 2, but noooooooo haha make room for more! After dinner we went to town =D about half my class and I. it was so much fun. We went to this night club that was just great! We took lots of pictures and just had a super fun time with everyone around us. I love bonding with my class =P we ended up getting home at about 3.15 then another group of my friends came back about 15 minutes later. Then off to shower and pack my suitcase and then SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP =)))
And then it was Friday. Time to go back to Denmark. We left the hotel at 12.30 and went to the airport. We checked in all of our bags and had a little panic =P they were charging 10 euros for every kilo over 20 we went. That’s expensive. So some of us had to rearrange our bags and hold other people’s things. Great fun. Then we went to our gate. Our plane was to leave at 3.05. -_- there was a computer meltdown and so we didn’t end up leaving until 4.15. which meant that we missed our connecting flight in Vienna. Woo. Haha so we were kind of stuck in Vienna for a little while until they found us another flight, leaving at about 8. So we all got to eat and hang out for a little while. And I had an emotional breakdown in the airport =D woo go me! It just hit me all of the sudden how much it hurt to be in an airport and be flying away, and yet NOT going back to the United States. It was really hard actually. I tried to get over it though. Those things happen sometimes. Especially while on exchange. Sadness can overtake from anywhere. But anyway, we got on our plane eventually and landed in the good old Copenhagen airport at almost 10. We got our luggage and I hitched a ride back to town with another friend. After taking a potty break we arrived home at about midnight =/ my host dad came to pick me up, I went home, and passed out. Even though my host brother was having a party and blaring music. I was out cold =D
This was just such an amazing trip. I’m so happy I went. I can’t explain what it was like. To see children as young as 5, dirty and begging for money on the street. To see war-weathered buildings. To nearly get hit by cars because they are such horrible drivers. To see this completely different culture. It was amazing. And actually, I hope to go back someday. Just to visit again. I’m very happy that I didn’t end up going to france or Italy. Sure those places are great, but they are all the same. This, this was COMPLETELY different from anything I’ve ever experienced and anything other danes in my class had. This is something I’ll never forget.
Sorry this post was so long. But so much happened. I have pictures up on my photo site of Bosnia! Please check them out =D thanks for all the support. See you all soon! <3
Kram
Rebekah
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Hot Chocolate...Anyone?
Hi I’m back!!! O my goodness this past week was just amazing. I celebrated my 7th month in Denmark, and this week was just the best way to celebrate it =D I must start from the beginning!!!!
On Monday I went to school like any other day. We had a special project week this week of school, so it’s pretty much extra boring. But o well. After school I had to go to my rotary meeting. The first one I’d been to in a month. Yea. Woo! ^_^ I was actually pretty excited to go to this one because it wasn’t an ordinary meeting. We met up with 3-4 other clubs and had dinner. And each of those clubs brought their exchange student with them! =) so after dinner while the ‘adults’ talked, we all just went back into a room together and hung out and talked. Our assistant district chair was with us, so we were supervised =P but Claus is one of the coolest people ever, so we had no problems. We (the 5 ‘oldie’ exchange students) got to meet the 2 ‘newbie’ exchange students. One from Australia and one from South America. Both are nice girls. =) it was nice to just talk to some other kids about how their time is going and things like that. I love being with the other exchange students. We understand each other on a completely different level really. And we click almost instantly…also! I got my allowance for the month of March AND February!! Yea, my club didn’t give me my Feb. allowance, so I was a terribly poor student in that month, but then I got TWO MONTHS’ at one time =O it’s great =D Monday was just a great way to start the week!
Then Tuesday (March 1st, my 7th month anniversary in DK) came around. It was same old, same old at school. But afterwards I got to go into town with one of the girls in my class =) we walked around for a few hours just talking, it was so nice. This was the first time she and I had actually had a conversation like that. Like we’re friendly enough in class, but we’d never done anything like that together. So it was super nice. She’s one of the sweetest girls. All of the girls in my class are just like angels really ^_^ but we walked around and then decided it would be nice to thaw our frozen bodies out in a café =P we walked to one of my favorite places and got some nice hot chocolate. It was so hyggeligt man! I haven’t had a lot of one-on-one girl time with anyone who isn’t an exchange student. I’ve probably said this before, but just to say it again, I usually get along better and faster with guys. I’m just that type of person. So where I’ve lacked in girlfriends here, I think I’ve made up with guy friends. I don’t think that’s a bad thing; it’s just the way it is =) but anywayz! It was super nice to have some girl time with her. We talked about some good things and I think it helped us to be more comfortable around each other. It’s nice to know I’ve got a friend in her…THAT! Was my Tuesday =)
On Wednesday it was pretty much the same as Tuesday, quite literally actually. ^_^ school. Blah blah. Haha but after school I went out to a café again! Yea I know! You need to know the ‘back story’ for this. A few weeks ago I went to my host dad’s business school to give a presentation about USA, right? Right. well after that day, I had gotten some ‘friend’ requests on facebook, which was totally awesome, right? Right. haha so! I started talking with one of these people and so we decided to meet finally. I waited at the bus station for him after school on Wednesday (this whole week I got off at 1.30, which is why I was able to do this) and then we set out walking together to the café. The same café I went to with my friend, Amalie, the day before ^_^ so he was a super nice guy. We talked a lot about Denmark and my exchange, and we talked about his life and stuff. You know, small talk =) he seemed really easy to talk to, which is a GREAT thing when talking to a virtual stranger you only met one time. Haha we also had a really hyggeligt time together, just talking. I love making new friends, like for real. This was nice =)
Thursday. Wow. What happened Thursday? =P well I got to spend the lunch break with my good friend René. That was actually the first time we’d seen each other and talked to each other in a few weeks. We had gotten into sort of a fight awhile ago and we were just taking some time apart. Which I think was for the best, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss talking to him and seeing him. I mean, he was my best friend in all of Denmark. But! We got to spend lunch together, and that was super great =) it was like we had never been a part in the first place. Don’t you love people like that? Where it seems you click with them just instantly and it just feels natural to be around them. It’s a great feeling really. So lunch was good =) then after school guess what I did. YOU GUESSED IT! I went to ANOTHER café -_- yea, I’m getting really fat over here guys. ^_^ I really hope I’m not, but you get the point. A café 3 times in one week is just not good. But it felt soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo right! =P I met another guy that I had talked to on facebook from my host dad’s school. We just basically did what I’d done with the others, we talked. =P you would think that after doing that 2 days in a row I’d be tired of it, but nope =P I’m always good to go! And I think it was almost easier after doing it so much, because then I could just repeat questions and answers ^_^ sorry, I cheat. Haha then I headed to the store after that to pick up some things to cook with for dinner on Friday.
Fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy = WEEKEND! =D everyone, no matter what country you live it, loves the weekend. Don’t deny it. I am definitely no exception to this rule. Haha so since it was Friday, of course I was already in a good mood. And because I’d had such a good week, I was in a great mood. But I was in an awesome mood because I got to hang out with another person after school on Friday =D wow, I hung out with people 5 days out of the 5 school days. I’m such a winner! =D ^_^ but anywayz, so I met my ‘new’ friend Casper after school on Friday. Casper is the guy I met at a party a few weeks ago. The little one who is like 2-3 inches taller than me. Yea! Haha he’s great really. So we met up after school, grabbed his bike, and walked to his house like 30 minutes away maybe? He said it’s like 8 minutes by bike, so I’m assuming it’s a bit longer just walking =P but we went to his house and I met his mom; his sister was also home, but I didn’t get a chance to meet her. This is probably a great time to admit to everyone out in the world that I’m terrified of parents and families. Whether we’re girlfriends or dating, I really am. ^_^ but it wasn’t that bad! So good. Haha we just went and watched a movie and ‘hygged’ some more. It was really a lot of fun. A great way to end my week actually. I was just really sad when I had to leave. I had to torture myself and my family by cooking that night. We’re going to hang out again soon I hope. =) isn’t it funny how life works sometimes? You go to one party with one friend and you walk out with 3 new ones =P I love it.
Saturday and Sunday were the laziest days I’ve had in awhile. Me and maria just literally stayed in the house all day both days and hung out and watched some movies together. It was really nice, don’t get me wrong. I love spending time with my little sister. But I just felt like a waste of life ^_^ I don’t know if I want to do that again. But after the long week I had it was nice to just sit around in my pajamas and be lazy. =) I made maria a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the first time ever. She liked it she said =) so that’s good. Haha wow I’m really going to miss her when I move. =’( she’s literally like my real little sister. We’ve gotten way too close it feels like. Sometimes I tell her more than I tell my other friends. And I definitely act ‘normal’ around her. That’s a scary thought. Hahahah no one needs to see that side of me ^_^ I’m going to miss her that’s all <3
So that was my week =D in a nutshell. This week is going well, I’ll let you know later what’s what. On Sunday I move to my 3rd and final host family! Woo! I do NOT want to pack all of my junk up, but I’m excited to live with them. They are a really nice family =) so I’ll let you know how it’s going with them. I’m really going to miss my family now though. Like, I might actually cry guys. Not cool. I don’t like this feeling. Imagine when I really leave Denmark. I might die. Yea. I’m just going to sit down and die. That would be way easier than breaking off chunks of my heart. =’( agh! No I’m not thinking about that right now. =) happy thoughts. i will talk to you all later. I love and miss you all! Thanks for the support. Thanks for the love. See you soon =D
Kram,
Rebekah
On Monday I went to school like any other day. We had a special project week this week of school, so it’s pretty much extra boring. But o well. After school I had to go to my rotary meeting. The first one I’d been to in a month. Yea. Woo! ^_^ I was actually pretty excited to go to this one because it wasn’t an ordinary meeting. We met up with 3-4 other clubs and had dinner. And each of those clubs brought their exchange student with them! =) so after dinner while the ‘adults’ talked, we all just went back into a room together and hung out and talked. Our assistant district chair was with us, so we were supervised =P but Claus is one of the coolest people ever, so we had no problems. We (the 5 ‘oldie’ exchange students) got to meet the 2 ‘newbie’ exchange students. One from Australia and one from South America. Both are nice girls. =) it was nice to just talk to some other kids about how their time is going and things like that. I love being with the other exchange students. We understand each other on a completely different level really. And we click almost instantly…also! I got my allowance for the month of March AND February!! Yea, my club didn’t give me my Feb. allowance, so I was a terribly poor student in that month, but then I got TWO MONTHS’ at one time =O it’s great =D Monday was just a great way to start the week!
Then Tuesday (March 1st, my 7th month anniversary in DK) came around. It was same old, same old at school. But afterwards I got to go into town with one of the girls in my class =) we walked around for a few hours just talking, it was so nice. This was the first time she and I had actually had a conversation like that. Like we’re friendly enough in class, but we’d never done anything like that together. So it was super nice. She’s one of the sweetest girls. All of the girls in my class are just like angels really ^_^ but we walked around and then decided it would be nice to thaw our frozen bodies out in a café =P we walked to one of my favorite places and got some nice hot chocolate. It was so hyggeligt man! I haven’t had a lot of one-on-one girl time with anyone who isn’t an exchange student. I’ve probably said this before, but just to say it again, I usually get along better and faster with guys. I’m just that type of person. So where I’ve lacked in girlfriends here, I think I’ve made up with guy friends. I don’t think that’s a bad thing; it’s just the way it is =) but anywayz! It was super nice to have some girl time with her. We talked about some good things and I think it helped us to be more comfortable around each other. It’s nice to know I’ve got a friend in her…THAT! Was my Tuesday =)
On Wednesday it was pretty much the same as Tuesday, quite literally actually. ^_^ school. Blah blah. Haha but after school I went out to a café again! Yea I know! You need to know the ‘back story’ for this. A few weeks ago I went to my host dad’s business school to give a presentation about USA, right? Right. well after that day, I had gotten some ‘friend’ requests on facebook, which was totally awesome, right? Right. haha so! I started talking with one of these people and so we decided to meet finally. I waited at the bus station for him after school on Wednesday (this whole week I got off at 1.30, which is why I was able to do this) and then we set out walking together to the café. The same café I went to with my friend, Amalie, the day before ^_^ so he was a super nice guy. We talked a lot about Denmark and my exchange, and we talked about his life and stuff. You know, small talk =) he seemed really easy to talk to, which is a GREAT thing when talking to a virtual stranger you only met one time. Haha we also had a really hyggeligt time together, just talking. I love making new friends, like for real. This was nice =)
Thursday. Wow. What happened Thursday? =P well I got to spend the lunch break with my good friend René. That was actually the first time we’d seen each other and talked to each other in a few weeks. We had gotten into sort of a fight awhile ago and we were just taking some time apart. Which I think was for the best, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss talking to him and seeing him. I mean, he was my best friend in all of Denmark. But! We got to spend lunch together, and that was super great =) it was like we had never been a part in the first place. Don’t you love people like that? Where it seems you click with them just instantly and it just feels natural to be around them. It’s a great feeling really. So lunch was good =) then after school guess what I did. YOU GUESSED IT! I went to ANOTHER café -_- yea, I’m getting really fat over here guys. ^_^ I really hope I’m not, but you get the point. A café 3 times in one week is just not good. But it felt soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo right! =P I met another guy that I had talked to on facebook from my host dad’s school. We just basically did what I’d done with the others, we talked. =P you would think that after doing that 2 days in a row I’d be tired of it, but nope =P I’m always good to go! And I think it was almost easier after doing it so much, because then I could just repeat questions and answers ^_^ sorry, I cheat. Haha then I headed to the store after that to pick up some things to cook with for dinner on Friday.
Fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy = WEEKEND! =D everyone, no matter what country you live it, loves the weekend. Don’t deny it. I am definitely no exception to this rule. Haha so since it was Friday, of course I was already in a good mood. And because I’d had such a good week, I was in a great mood. But I was in an awesome mood because I got to hang out with another person after school on Friday =D wow, I hung out with people 5 days out of the 5 school days. I’m such a winner! =D ^_^ but anywayz, so I met my ‘new’ friend Casper after school on Friday. Casper is the guy I met at a party a few weeks ago. The little one who is like 2-3 inches taller than me. Yea! Haha he’s great really. So we met up after school, grabbed his bike, and walked to his house like 30 minutes away maybe? He said it’s like 8 minutes by bike, so I’m assuming it’s a bit longer just walking =P but we went to his house and I met his mom; his sister was also home, but I didn’t get a chance to meet her. This is probably a great time to admit to everyone out in the world that I’m terrified of parents and families. Whether we’re girlfriends or dating, I really am. ^_^ but it wasn’t that bad! So good. Haha we just went and watched a movie and ‘hygged’ some more. It was really a lot of fun. A great way to end my week actually. I was just really sad when I had to leave. I had to torture myself and my family by cooking that night. We’re going to hang out again soon I hope. =) isn’t it funny how life works sometimes? You go to one party with one friend and you walk out with 3 new ones =P I love it.
Saturday and Sunday were the laziest days I’ve had in awhile. Me and maria just literally stayed in the house all day both days and hung out and watched some movies together. It was really nice, don’t get me wrong. I love spending time with my little sister. But I just felt like a waste of life ^_^ I don’t know if I want to do that again. But after the long week I had it was nice to just sit around in my pajamas and be lazy. =) I made maria a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the first time ever. She liked it she said =) so that’s good. Haha wow I’m really going to miss her when I move. =’( she’s literally like my real little sister. We’ve gotten way too close it feels like. Sometimes I tell her more than I tell my other friends. And I definitely act ‘normal’ around her. That’s a scary thought. Hahahah no one needs to see that side of me ^_^ I’m going to miss her that’s all <3
So that was my week =D in a nutshell. This week is going well, I’ll let you know later what’s what. On Sunday I move to my 3rd and final host family! Woo! I do NOT want to pack all of my junk up, but I’m excited to live with them. They are a really nice family =) so I’ll let you know how it’s going with them. I’m really going to miss my family now though. Like, I might actually cry guys. Not cool. I don’t like this feeling. Imagine when I really leave Denmark. I might die. Yea. I’m just going to sit down and die. That would be way easier than breaking off chunks of my heart. =’( agh! No I’m not thinking about that right now. =) happy thoughts. i will talk to you all later. I love and miss you all! Thanks for the support. Thanks for the love. See you soon =D
Kram,
Rebekah
Sunday, February 27, 2011
A Time to Love, and a Time to Hate
Welcome back to the crazy adventure of my life in Danish-land =D I’m glad you’ve returned. Let me tell you a little about what’s been going on this past week! Prepare yourselves.
Monday was the first day back from winter break. I had to wake up at 6 am again -_- and go to school all day. Yea, what a way to return from a vacation. It was a bad way to start the week, really. I always have gym class my first class on Mondays, and we played BASKETBALL. So much fun to be had! No. I hate basketball with a passion. Yes, I played for like 4 years, but I still hate it. Unfortunately I didn’t have a choice of whether or not to participate in gym class. So I just didn’t try very hard. Forget it. The rest of Monday was just really tiring. And boring. If I haven’t told you lately that Danish school could literally kill a person from boredom, well there you go. It’s the truth. I’m actually really surprised I haven’t keeled over yet from lack of stimulation in my brain. It’s not really my fault, either. I don’t really think it’s just because I’m an exchange student and can’t understand. I think it’s just the way it’s set up. 1½ hour long classes, with a five minute break half way is just not cutting it. I personally think that a teacher loses half of the class past the hour mark. It’s a terribly long time for just one class. And the thing is, I don’t feel like they learn or teach anymore in 1½ hours than we do in our 45-55 minute classes back home. Gr face. I just don’t like it. But I have to go every day. And it really gets tiring after awhile….ok, end of my rant. Sorry =P
Tuesday was a lot like Monday. Except I got off early that day at 1.30 =) I can’t exactly remember what I did on Tuesday. But I don’t think it was that important. Like nothing terribly exciting =P o well! If I remember, I’ll let you know ;) ………o! I remember now!!! Something did happen. It was rather funny. Ok, well first of all, I think I should let you all know, that me and that one friend that I was fighting with a few weeks ago, well, we’re talking again now. Not like we used to at all, but we are working on it. And that makes me really happy. I didn’t screw everything up, and this is fixable. We just need some time. Well that’s something that happened on Tuesday. I saw this friend for the first time in 2 weeks and hand a passing-by “hi”. It’s really the strangest feeling in the world to just walk by someone that used to mean so much to your life. It’s hard to just accept a “hello” when normally we would have stopped to hug and talk. It’s weird to see how far apart we’ve been torn…anywayz, no more of THAT topic. Another thing that happened was that me and Steph had lunch together. =) I saw her on Monday for the first time in a week and it felt really nice. I missed her tons. So we had lunch again on Tuesday. While we were eating I was telling her about this person that I met at a party a few days ago and I told her how I haven’t seen him in person since. And she said it would be just my luck that I see him when I look a mess. =P well, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE SHALL APPEAR! Yes -_- this guy I met at the party, the little one! Like 5’3”, walked by just minutes after that. I acted like a spaz of course. And it was awfully awkward, but I lived =P we’re still talking now, so I didn’t screw it up too badly in that ‘first meeting’. ^_^ I just think it’s funny how those things always happen to me. I have horrible luck, people. I’m not sure if you’re aware =P
Ok, Wednesday. Wednesday was…horrible. Sometimes, you have days on exchange that you’re just unable to deal with. Days where you’d rather be anywhere else. Days that leave you feeling with that “why did I come here?” thought. Wednesday was this day for me. It started off badly with a boring class in the morning. And I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a bad class, everyone else did too. We watched a documentary about a guy. For 1½ hours. BORING. And then my best friends in my class were acting very distant that day. I can always tell how the day will be depending on the first class. If they are really sociable in the first class, then my class will talk to me all day. But if some people are distant, then it’s going to be a struggle to get them to talk the rest of the day. It’s ok really, I’ve learned how to deal with this. But on Wednesday I just wasn’t able to. My second class was just as boring, but a little better. Some people talked to me then. And then there was lunch! Steph came over and said hi and we talked for a little bit and I told her I was having a bad day. We decided to skip my last class of the day and head to her house early. (we were already planning on going to her house, but the skipping early part was new) and then I headed to my date with doom in my third class of the day. Have you ever noticed how some people are put in your life to make it a living hell? Well I’ve noticed this. And I’ve never had to deal with a person like this until I came to Denmark. There is a person in my class that gets some kind of sick pleasure out of tormenting me. And I don’t understand it. It’s not the Danish humor, it’s just plain mean and bullying. Well in my 3rd class this person decided it would be a lot of fun to make fun of me and tease me, and guys, I have a really thick skin. But he was purposely trying to humiliate me in front of my whole class! He acts like a child, but yet he expects me to treat him right when he can do nothing right by me. I try to make it look like it doesn’t bother me, but I sat in the back of my class on Wednesday in near tears because of it. I’ve never had to deal with a person who purposely tried to hurt me before. I’d never hurt someone on purpose. But like I said, he gets some kind of sick pleasure from it I guess. WELL! A few friends tried to cheer me up, but all I really wanted was to skip out. And that I did. As soon as class was over Stephanie and I hooked up and walked to her house. (she moved into town!! And super close to the mall! Lucky) I got to meet her new family =) they are very sweet. Then she and I headed to McDonalds to eat. I hadn’t eaten there in like 4 months, so I was craving pretty badly. But of course, in normal McD’s fashion, I felt disgusting afterwards =P then we headed to the mall because I had to buy a cake for my Spanish class in the morning. (I didn’t have my books covered on time, and in true Danish fashion, the penalty was cake haha) so we bought the cake then headed back to stephanie’s house and my host dad picked us both up and we headed to a basketball game! It was a lot of fun. My team won, so that’s always a great thing. And it was just a good time to relax and unwind from the bad day. It started off horrible. But it ended great. I stayed up until like 1 in the morning talking to a friend ;) so I really can’t complain after that.
Thursday I had volleyball. What a work out! It’s funny how not playing for just 2 weeks can really ruin everything. But it felt nice. It always feels nice to play and work out. After that I just went home and ate dinner and crashed. I was so beat and exhausted.
Friday was just another day =) I had to go to Maria’s school (my little host sister) and give a presentation about USA to her 7th grade class. Yay! Haha yea, not really. But I’m more than happy to do it. The thing that I didn’t like was that I had made plans with a friend for lunch, and then I had to bail unexpectedly. Not cool. I felt really bad. But there are always more plans to be had! So I went to her class. And you can definitely tell the age of these kids by their actions. Dear Lord, I never want to be 13 again. If I was like that when I was 13, I’m terribly sorry =P crazy kids. I tell ya. But it was fun all in all…that night I was a cool kid and stayed home =P staying home, on a Friday night, with the ‘rents, watching tv. Wow, I am a cool kid hahaha.
Saturday I made plans with Stephanie to go to another basketball game =) but here’s the catch! A group of girls in my class invited me to dinner that night. Then my best guy friend from my class invited me to a party at his house that night! CRAZY!!!! It’s like, when I don’t have plans already, nothing comes up. But the one night I have plans with my best friend, EVERYONE and their brother wants to freaking hang out! So inconvenient =(( so me and steph went to the basketball game. Then I went to the dinner, which was a toga party (well, pretty much) by the way, and then I went back to sleep at steph’s house. We opted to not go to the party at my friend’s house, even though it would have been nice. It was just not possible. But I had a nice dinner with the girls in my class. It was greek themed. So we all had to wear the white greek-ish dressed. Like a toga pretty much. And we ate some greek-ish food. And danced and “hygged” together. It was so nice. I don’t know if I’ve said this lately, but I love the girls in my class to death. They are some of the sweetest girls. I’m not ‘best friends’ with some of them, but we all still get along so well. I’m going to miss them so much when I leave. I just know part of me is going to die =’( I’m not looking forward to that. So since I’m not looking forward to it, how about we just not talk about it =) I left the house at like 9 at night and caught a bus to stephanie’s house. It was good. We had a good night together. We stayed up and read and watched a movie, but we both passed about before midnight. We’re so hardcore =P I love us.
And now, today is Sunday! Just a relaxing day. O, I got a package from home the other day, and I got some candy and the movie ‘the time traveler’s wife’. This is a great movie. I sobbed when I saw it in theaters. I might watch that today while I eat my candy. Haha but other than that, I have nothing going on. O, also, stephanie’s new host mom is a hair dresser. And she permed steph’s hair today and gave mine a clip and some style =D it’s great. I love it! Anywayz, haha I’m going to go now. Sorry this was so long, but I guess a lot happened this week. Love you guys. I come home in about 3½ months maybe. I’m looking at the middle of june. Keep writing to me. Send your love. O, and check out my photo-site for pictures of my greek night =D love you all! http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/
Kram,
Rebekah <3
Monday was the first day back from winter break. I had to wake up at 6 am again -_- and go to school all day. Yea, what a way to return from a vacation. It was a bad way to start the week, really. I always have gym class my first class on Mondays, and we played BASKETBALL. So much fun to be had! No. I hate basketball with a passion. Yes, I played for like 4 years, but I still hate it. Unfortunately I didn’t have a choice of whether or not to participate in gym class. So I just didn’t try very hard. Forget it. The rest of Monday was just really tiring. And boring. If I haven’t told you lately that Danish school could literally kill a person from boredom, well there you go. It’s the truth. I’m actually really surprised I haven’t keeled over yet from lack of stimulation in my brain. It’s not really my fault, either. I don’t really think it’s just because I’m an exchange student and can’t understand. I think it’s just the way it’s set up. 1½ hour long classes, with a five minute break half way is just not cutting it. I personally think that a teacher loses half of the class past the hour mark. It’s a terribly long time for just one class. And the thing is, I don’t feel like they learn or teach anymore in 1½ hours than we do in our 45-55 minute classes back home. Gr face. I just don’t like it. But I have to go every day. And it really gets tiring after awhile….ok, end of my rant. Sorry =P
Tuesday was a lot like Monday. Except I got off early that day at 1.30 =) I can’t exactly remember what I did on Tuesday. But I don’t think it was that important. Like nothing terribly exciting =P o well! If I remember, I’ll let you know ;) ………o! I remember now!!! Something did happen. It was rather funny. Ok, well first of all, I think I should let you all know, that me and that one friend that I was fighting with a few weeks ago, well, we’re talking again now. Not like we used to at all, but we are working on it. And that makes me really happy. I didn’t screw everything up, and this is fixable. We just need some time. Well that’s something that happened on Tuesday. I saw this friend for the first time in 2 weeks and hand a passing-by “hi”. It’s really the strangest feeling in the world to just walk by someone that used to mean so much to your life. It’s hard to just accept a “hello” when normally we would have stopped to hug and talk. It’s weird to see how far apart we’ve been torn…anywayz, no more of THAT topic. Another thing that happened was that me and Steph had lunch together. =) I saw her on Monday for the first time in a week and it felt really nice. I missed her tons. So we had lunch again on Tuesday. While we were eating I was telling her about this person that I met at a party a few days ago and I told her how I haven’t seen him in person since. And she said it would be just my luck that I see him when I look a mess. =P well, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE SHALL APPEAR! Yes -_- this guy I met at the party, the little one! Like 5’3”, walked by just minutes after that. I acted like a spaz of course. And it was awfully awkward, but I lived =P we’re still talking now, so I didn’t screw it up too badly in that ‘first meeting’. ^_^ I just think it’s funny how those things always happen to me. I have horrible luck, people. I’m not sure if you’re aware =P
Ok, Wednesday. Wednesday was…horrible. Sometimes, you have days on exchange that you’re just unable to deal with. Days where you’d rather be anywhere else. Days that leave you feeling with that “why did I come here?” thought. Wednesday was this day for me. It started off badly with a boring class in the morning. And I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a bad class, everyone else did too. We watched a documentary about a guy. For 1½ hours. BORING. And then my best friends in my class were acting very distant that day. I can always tell how the day will be depending on the first class. If they are really sociable in the first class, then my class will talk to me all day. But if some people are distant, then it’s going to be a struggle to get them to talk the rest of the day. It’s ok really, I’ve learned how to deal with this. But on Wednesday I just wasn’t able to. My second class was just as boring, but a little better. Some people talked to me then. And then there was lunch! Steph came over and said hi and we talked for a little bit and I told her I was having a bad day. We decided to skip my last class of the day and head to her house early. (we were already planning on going to her house, but the skipping early part was new) and then I headed to my date with doom in my third class of the day. Have you ever noticed how some people are put in your life to make it a living hell? Well I’ve noticed this. And I’ve never had to deal with a person like this until I came to Denmark. There is a person in my class that gets some kind of sick pleasure out of tormenting me. And I don’t understand it. It’s not the Danish humor, it’s just plain mean and bullying. Well in my 3rd class this person decided it would be a lot of fun to make fun of me and tease me, and guys, I have a really thick skin. But he was purposely trying to humiliate me in front of my whole class! He acts like a child, but yet he expects me to treat him right when he can do nothing right by me. I try to make it look like it doesn’t bother me, but I sat in the back of my class on Wednesday in near tears because of it. I’ve never had to deal with a person who purposely tried to hurt me before. I’d never hurt someone on purpose. But like I said, he gets some kind of sick pleasure from it I guess. WELL! A few friends tried to cheer me up, but all I really wanted was to skip out. And that I did. As soon as class was over Stephanie and I hooked up and walked to her house. (she moved into town!! And super close to the mall! Lucky) I got to meet her new family =) they are very sweet. Then she and I headed to McDonalds to eat. I hadn’t eaten there in like 4 months, so I was craving pretty badly. But of course, in normal McD’s fashion, I felt disgusting afterwards =P then we headed to the mall because I had to buy a cake for my Spanish class in the morning. (I didn’t have my books covered on time, and in true Danish fashion, the penalty was cake haha) so we bought the cake then headed back to stephanie’s house and my host dad picked us both up and we headed to a basketball game! It was a lot of fun. My team won, so that’s always a great thing. And it was just a good time to relax and unwind from the bad day. It started off horrible. But it ended great. I stayed up until like 1 in the morning talking to a friend ;) so I really can’t complain after that.
Thursday I had volleyball. What a work out! It’s funny how not playing for just 2 weeks can really ruin everything. But it felt nice. It always feels nice to play and work out. After that I just went home and ate dinner and crashed. I was so beat and exhausted.
Friday was just another day =) I had to go to Maria’s school (my little host sister) and give a presentation about USA to her 7th grade class. Yay! Haha yea, not really. But I’m more than happy to do it. The thing that I didn’t like was that I had made plans with a friend for lunch, and then I had to bail unexpectedly. Not cool. I felt really bad. But there are always more plans to be had! So I went to her class. And you can definitely tell the age of these kids by their actions. Dear Lord, I never want to be 13 again. If I was like that when I was 13, I’m terribly sorry =P crazy kids. I tell ya. But it was fun all in all…that night I was a cool kid and stayed home =P staying home, on a Friday night, with the ‘rents, watching tv. Wow, I am a cool kid hahaha.
Saturday I made plans with Stephanie to go to another basketball game =) but here’s the catch! A group of girls in my class invited me to dinner that night. Then my best guy friend from my class invited me to a party at his house that night! CRAZY!!!! It’s like, when I don’t have plans already, nothing comes up. But the one night I have plans with my best friend, EVERYONE and their brother wants to freaking hang out! So inconvenient =(( so me and steph went to the basketball game. Then I went to the dinner, which was a toga party (well, pretty much) by the way, and then I went back to sleep at steph’s house. We opted to not go to the party at my friend’s house, even though it would have been nice. It was just not possible. But I had a nice dinner with the girls in my class. It was greek themed. So we all had to wear the white greek-ish dressed. Like a toga pretty much. And we ate some greek-ish food. And danced and “hygged” together. It was so nice. I don’t know if I’ve said this lately, but I love the girls in my class to death. They are some of the sweetest girls. I’m not ‘best friends’ with some of them, but we all still get along so well. I’m going to miss them so much when I leave. I just know part of me is going to die =’( I’m not looking forward to that. So since I’m not looking forward to it, how about we just not talk about it =) I left the house at like 9 at night and caught a bus to stephanie’s house. It was good. We had a good night together. We stayed up and read and watched a movie, but we both passed about before midnight. We’re so hardcore =P I love us.
And now, today is Sunday! Just a relaxing day. O, I got a package from home the other day, and I got some candy and the movie ‘the time traveler’s wife’. This is a great movie. I sobbed when I saw it in theaters. I might watch that today while I eat my candy. Haha but other than that, I have nothing going on. O, also, stephanie’s new host mom is a hair dresser. And she permed steph’s hair today and gave mine a clip and some style =D it’s great. I love it! Anywayz, haha I’m going to go now. Sorry this was so long, but I guess a lot happened this week. Love you guys. I come home in about 3½ months maybe. I’m looking at the middle of june. Keep writing to me. Send your love. O, and check out my photo-site for pictures of my greek night =D love you all! http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/
Kram,
Rebekah <3
Monday, February 21, 2011
Winter Break...Houston, We Have a Probelm
This past week was winter break =D it’s been an awesome week really. It was so nice to be free from school for a little while. Very relaxing. So let me tell you what I’ve been up to =D
On Monday, I hung out with my classmate, Phillip. We were planning on working out together (I’ve really got to lose this flub-thing) so we planned on working out outside because I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the gym =P so I took the bus into town. Problem. we both realized that it was FREEZING outside. Not the best for anything. So we ditched the whole working out plan and just went back to his house for a bit to hang. Now people, don’t get any funny ideas. He’s my friend and he’s got a girlfriend ^_^ but it was fun to talk a lot. And after awhile we decided to just go into town because he had some errands to run, so we got all that done =) then I headed home about 5 I think? I don’t remember. But this was the start of my excellent vacation!
On Tuesday I met with one of our 2 ‘newbies’. She’s from Costa Rica, and her name is Alex. She is such a sweet girl. I met her at the school then we walked to town and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate together =D we did a lot of talking. Just about my experiences so far and how she’s doing in her first weeks here. Great stuff really. So then after we finished our hot chocolate I decided to take her to the mall since she hadn’t been there yet. So we hopped on the bus and off we went! We did some shopping at my favorite store H&M. I didn’t find anything that fit me right or that I liked. But alex bought a skirt and shirt. She’s just the sweetest girl. I feel like a big sister in a way because I was her just a few months ago, you know? But anywayz, I hope to be hanging out with her some more soon. After the mall I took her back to the school so she wouldn’t get lost. Problem. I got us on the wrong bus, so we had to jump off really fast and run to catch the right bus. Haha so much for trying to not get her lost =P then I headed home =)
Wednesday! I had plans for Wednesday to go into town with some friends =) so that I did! We planned to go to one of the clubs in Næstved that was having one of their special parties for 16+ kids. Normally you need to be 18 to get in, but since it was during the winter break it was a special thing. So I had to hop on the bus at night to head into town. I do NOT relish taking the busses at night. Freakiest thing in the world. I mean, I know I’m safe and all, but still, I’m a young lady alone, things spook me. But I made it to town safely =) the only problem was that I had to wait at the bus station alone for a little bit while my friends came to get me. SCARIEST THING EVER. I was outside, alone, freezing my butt off. And there were sporadic groups of people that I was sure were going to jump me at any time =P but hey, I eventually made it safely to the club with my friends. It was a good night. We danced and had a lot of fun. I met some new people which is always a good thing. O, and I called the bartender sexy…in hindsight, I think that was still a great choice =P so then the end of my night came at around 2 because that’s when my host dad was coming to pick me up. So I went out to the front of the club to retrieve my checked coat. Problem. I didn’t have my check in number. Somehow during the night, my number must have fallen out of my little bag that I had with me. So I was in trouble. No number, no coat. Yea. Guys, I am an idiot. I think I’ve proven this one before =P so I had to walk out of the club with no winter coat and explain to my host dad what happened. I said I’ll just have to come back tomorrow to get it.
So I stayed in all morning on Thursday and then I looked online to see when I could get my coat. Problem. It said I can only get my coat when the club was open. Which is every Friday and Saturday at 11 at night. Wow. So I had to wait ANOTHER day to get my WINTER coat. I could freeze to death!!! So yea, I stayed inside all day Thursday and hung out, watched some movies. It was a cozy day.
On Friday I had to go into town to buy some food to make dinner. Problem. Didn’t have my winter coat yet, so I put on my thickest hoodie and braved the cold winter air. Haha it wasn’t too bad, but it was definitely cold. So I went to the store and the library. I actually went to the library first and THEN the store, but you know, it doesn’t really matter. I got 4 new books =D and I made some amazing macaroni and cheese that night. Like to die for mac ‘n’ cheese. I’m amazing, what can I say =D haha just kidding. So then that night me and my host dad headed out to get my coat back at 11 at night. I was able to successfully retrieve it! =D so that made me really happy.
On Saturday I was just planning to stay home again and relax. But at about 8 at night I got a text from one of my friends asking when we were going to town tonight..wait, what? We’re going to town tonight?? Yea, I had no clue what was going on, so we talked a little and he thought that he had already talked to me about going to town, and so then I decided that I really wanted to go out. I hate admitting it, but I’m not often invited out to such things, so I don’t want to pass up any opportunity that’s given to me. So I went down stairs and asked my host parents if it was ok that I go out that night. Problem. They could neither take me to town (I live 30 minutes away by bus, 15 by car), nor could they pick me up later. But we managed to compromise that if I could sleep at a friend’s house then it was ok. So I told my friend and we found a place for me to sleep the night =) then I got ready and headed into town by bus, alone and cold, at 10.30 at night. Scary scary scary. ^_^ it wasn’t that bad this time around because my friend Jonas arrived a few minutes after I did and we got on a bus and headed out. He decided that we were going to go to his friend’s private party instead of going to town. That was ok with me =) I met a bunch of people that night and had a lot of fun. I just love being social with Danish people. O and I met this boy, and he’s MY SIZE!!! Like literally my size! The most adorable guy ever! Seriously, cute.as.a.button! hahaha I should explain, it’s not often I find anyone, boy or girl, in my size in Denmark. Here they are all pretty much giants. =P not even joking about that one. For a guy, 6 ft is average, maybe even a little below average. And for a girl the average is at least 5 ft 8. I’m super small here. And some people love pointing it out ^_^ but anywayz, yea haha great night. Great party. I went home with a friend and stayed at their house for the night. I think we got in sometime after 4? No idea. I just went to bed right away and slept =P I woke up at noon and got on a bus and headed home the next day =D
And now, school has started again -_- yea, great. I will be posting soon on how things are going here. With friends. With family. With school. With Danish. So stay tuned my faithful readers =D thanks for everything! Questions are always welcome <3
Knus og kys,
Rebekah
On Monday, I hung out with my classmate, Phillip. We were planning on working out together (I’ve really got to lose this flub-thing) so we planned on working out outside because I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the gym =P so I took the bus into town. Problem. we both realized that it was FREEZING outside. Not the best for anything. So we ditched the whole working out plan and just went back to his house for a bit to hang. Now people, don’t get any funny ideas. He’s my friend and he’s got a girlfriend ^_^ but it was fun to talk a lot. And after awhile we decided to just go into town because he had some errands to run, so we got all that done =) then I headed home about 5 I think? I don’t remember. But this was the start of my excellent vacation!
On Tuesday I met with one of our 2 ‘newbies’. She’s from Costa Rica, and her name is Alex. She is such a sweet girl. I met her at the school then we walked to town and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate together =D we did a lot of talking. Just about my experiences so far and how she’s doing in her first weeks here. Great stuff really. So then after we finished our hot chocolate I decided to take her to the mall since she hadn’t been there yet. So we hopped on the bus and off we went! We did some shopping at my favorite store H&M. I didn’t find anything that fit me right or that I liked. But alex bought a skirt and shirt. She’s just the sweetest girl. I feel like a big sister in a way because I was her just a few months ago, you know? But anywayz, I hope to be hanging out with her some more soon. After the mall I took her back to the school so she wouldn’t get lost. Problem. I got us on the wrong bus, so we had to jump off really fast and run to catch the right bus. Haha so much for trying to not get her lost =P then I headed home =)
Wednesday! I had plans for Wednesday to go into town with some friends =) so that I did! We planned to go to one of the clubs in Næstved that was having one of their special parties for 16+ kids. Normally you need to be 18 to get in, but since it was during the winter break it was a special thing. So I had to hop on the bus at night to head into town. I do NOT relish taking the busses at night. Freakiest thing in the world. I mean, I know I’m safe and all, but still, I’m a young lady alone, things spook me. But I made it to town safely =) the only problem was that I had to wait at the bus station alone for a little bit while my friends came to get me. SCARIEST THING EVER. I was outside, alone, freezing my butt off. And there were sporadic groups of people that I was sure were going to jump me at any time =P but hey, I eventually made it safely to the club with my friends. It was a good night. We danced and had a lot of fun. I met some new people which is always a good thing. O, and I called the bartender sexy…in hindsight, I think that was still a great choice =P so then the end of my night came at around 2 because that’s when my host dad was coming to pick me up. So I went out to the front of the club to retrieve my checked coat. Problem. I didn’t have my check in number. Somehow during the night, my number must have fallen out of my little bag that I had with me. So I was in trouble. No number, no coat. Yea. Guys, I am an idiot. I think I’ve proven this one before =P so I had to walk out of the club with no winter coat and explain to my host dad what happened. I said I’ll just have to come back tomorrow to get it.
So I stayed in all morning on Thursday and then I looked online to see when I could get my coat. Problem. It said I can only get my coat when the club was open. Which is every Friday and Saturday at 11 at night. Wow. So I had to wait ANOTHER day to get my WINTER coat. I could freeze to death!!! So yea, I stayed inside all day Thursday and hung out, watched some movies. It was a cozy day.
On Friday I had to go into town to buy some food to make dinner. Problem. Didn’t have my winter coat yet, so I put on my thickest hoodie and braved the cold winter air. Haha it wasn’t too bad, but it was definitely cold. So I went to the store and the library. I actually went to the library first and THEN the store, but you know, it doesn’t really matter. I got 4 new books =D and I made some amazing macaroni and cheese that night. Like to die for mac ‘n’ cheese. I’m amazing, what can I say =D haha just kidding. So then that night me and my host dad headed out to get my coat back at 11 at night. I was able to successfully retrieve it! =D so that made me really happy.
On Saturday I was just planning to stay home again and relax. But at about 8 at night I got a text from one of my friends asking when we were going to town tonight..wait, what? We’re going to town tonight?? Yea, I had no clue what was going on, so we talked a little and he thought that he had already talked to me about going to town, and so then I decided that I really wanted to go out. I hate admitting it, but I’m not often invited out to such things, so I don’t want to pass up any opportunity that’s given to me. So I went down stairs and asked my host parents if it was ok that I go out that night. Problem. They could neither take me to town (I live 30 minutes away by bus, 15 by car), nor could they pick me up later. But we managed to compromise that if I could sleep at a friend’s house then it was ok. So I told my friend and we found a place for me to sleep the night =) then I got ready and headed into town by bus, alone and cold, at 10.30 at night. Scary scary scary. ^_^ it wasn’t that bad this time around because my friend Jonas arrived a few minutes after I did and we got on a bus and headed out. He decided that we were going to go to his friend’s private party instead of going to town. That was ok with me =) I met a bunch of people that night and had a lot of fun. I just love being social with Danish people. O and I met this boy, and he’s MY SIZE!!! Like literally my size! The most adorable guy ever! Seriously, cute.as.a.button! hahaha I should explain, it’s not often I find anyone, boy or girl, in my size in Denmark. Here they are all pretty much giants. =P not even joking about that one. For a guy, 6 ft is average, maybe even a little below average. And for a girl the average is at least 5 ft 8. I’m super small here. And some people love pointing it out ^_^ but anywayz, yea haha great night. Great party. I went home with a friend and stayed at their house for the night. I think we got in sometime after 4? No idea. I just went to bed right away and slept =P I woke up at noon and got on a bus and headed home the next day =D
And now, school has started again -_- yea, great. I will be posting soon on how things are going here. With friends. With family. With school. With Danish. So stay tuned my faithful readers =D thanks for everything! Questions are always welcome <3
Knus og kys,
Rebekah
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I FORGOT MY BEST FRIEND!!!
wow i really am dumb! i forgot to tell you all about something great that happened!
the week of the school party, you know? yea. well on that thursday was chinese new years! and stephanie is part asian so she celebrates this and wanted me to come over that night. so i came over to her house after my volleyball games. her parents had to pick me up because the bus drivers went on strike =O yea, i didn't know they could do that either! but anywayz, so i went to steph's house, and she graciously let me nap for like an hour. and then she woke me up before she had to go down stairs so start making the food. !!! o yea, i forgot to mention that she was cooking traditional chinese food for us all that night =D 2 of her classmates came over too. she made coconut and warm bananas 'soup'? and rice soup. and fried rice and pork. and flan for dessert! my little girl is growing up! haha yes, it all tasted just great! i was really proud of her. no one got food poisoning from undercooked pork =P i was pretty worried about this. her friends went how at about 9? i think? maybe...and anywayz, then i went and showered. steph told me that it would take awhile for the water to warm up...right, that's cool. except for the fact that it WAS FREEZING THE ENTIRE TIME!! yes, her house has no hot water. it was less than amazing. steph is not having a party with it either i hear haha but then after that horrid experience, i went back to her room and finished my super huge assigment for school that the scary teacher was all making us write. it was 5-7 pages and the subject depended on the class. mine was global warming and how amazing al gore is...great. i am not a fan of al gore by the way, so you can imagine how fun that paper was to write! but i had worked on most of it the rest of the week and i was so proud of myself! i only left a few paragraphs to finish up taht night before i turned it in the next day =D so i finished that up pretty fast and gave the computer back to steph, believe it or not, she had only begun her assigment THAT DAY =OO she had been pretty ill the past week+ yea, and her project was a lot less fun than mine. ew. so i promised her that i'd stay up with her while she finished. well the clock struck 2 and i begged her to let me sleep hahaha. i woke up the next morning and she had just finished. needless to say, steph stayed home that friday. i went to school in the pouring rain just so i could turn the this darn assigment! i saw no point in actually doing it. pretty upset about that one actually.. >=( but it's water under the bridge. i also had a doozy of a time actually locating my file that i saved too. it was great. lots of panic. lots of stress. i'm not even getting graded for this, people!!!!!!!!!!!! wow, it's like high school all over again. ugh. haha but that night was the party, so it was good =D
and now that i've told you about that important detail that i forgot, i will go now =D
Rebekah
the week of the school party, you know? yea. well on that thursday was chinese new years! and stephanie is part asian so she celebrates this and wanted me to come over that night. so i came over to her house after my volleyball games. her parents had to pick me up because the bus drivers went on strike =O yea, i didn't know they could do that either! but anywayz, so i went to steph's house, and she graciously let me nap for like an hour. and then she woke me up before she had to go down stairs so start making the food. !!! o yea, i forgot to mention that she was cooking traditional chinese food for us all that night =D 2 of her classmates came over too. she made coconut and warm bananas 'soup'? and rice soup. and fried rice and pork. and flan for dessert! my little girl is growing up! haha yes, it all tasted just great! i was really proud of her. no one got food poisoning from undercooked pork =P i was pretty worried about this. her friends went how at about 9? i think? maybe...and anywayz, then i went and showered. steph told me that it would take awhile for the water to warm up...right, that's cool. except for the fact that it WAS FREEZING THE ENTIRE TIME!! yes, her house has no hot water. it was less than amazing. steph is not having a party with it either i hear haha but then after that horrid experience, i went back to her room and finished my super huge assigment for school that the scary teacher was all making us write. it was 5-7 pages and the subject depended on the class. mine was global warming and how amazing al gore is...great. i am not a fan of al gore by the way, so you can imagine how fun that paper was to write! but i had worked on most of it the rest of the week and i was so proud of myself! i only left a few paragraphs to finish up taht night before i turned it in the next day =D so i finished that up pretty fast and gave the computer back to steph, believe it or not, she had only begun her assigment THAT DAY =OO she had been pretty ill the past week+ yea, and her project was a lot less fun than mine. ew. so i promised her that i'd stay up with her while she finished. well the clock struck 2 and i begged her to let me sleep hahaha. i woke up the next morning and she had just finished. needless to say, steph stayed home that friday. i went to school in the pouring rain just so i could turn the this darn assigment! i saw no point in actually doing it. pretty upset about that one actually.. >=( but it's water under the bridge. i also had a doozy of a time actually locating my file that i saved too. it was great. lots of panic. lots of stress. i'm not even getting graded for this, people!!!!!!!!!!!! wow, it's like high school all over again. ugh. haha but that night was the party, so it was good =D
and now that i've told you about that important detail that i forgot, i will go now =D
Rebekah
Oh, By the Way...
So i know it’s been a few weeks, again. My bad! Haha but here it goes. Catch up, AGAIN!
So the week after my last post, I had a really good week. I went to Rotary and had a nice conversation with my first host dad in Danish. I think that was the most we’ve ever felt comfortable enough saying to each other. So it was kind of weird. I wish we had talked like that when I actually lived there, but better late than never, right? =) so then the rest of the week kid of flew by pretty much. That weekend, the last weekend in January, I had my 18th birthday party, finally! =) see, I couldn’t have it during the month of December because it was just way too busy, so I decided to wait. I had some girls from my class over and Stephanie. The other exchange girls couldn’t come because the girl from France was having a special dinner which they were invited to as well. So they went to the dinner and I had my close classmates over. It was really nice. We were 6 in all because a few called at the last minute and said they were sick. =( but it was still really fun. We ate pancakes with ice cream and watched some movies. Very hyggelig guys! And that was the end of my week =D o, I should also mention how dumb of a person I am…yea. I really am, and if you know me, you’ll agree! I say this because of this: my parents have been telling me for awhile now that I need to buy some knee pads if I’m going to continue to play volleyball at the school. So knowing that a game was coming up the following week, I went into town on Friday and found some in the second sports store I checked and bought them. They were pretty cheap too, so I was really happy =) after that, I had to go to the supermarket to buy some things so I could make dinner that night. I picked up the foods I needed and went and checked out. Now, here in denmark you have to bag your own things at stores that aren’t department stores. So I was bagging up my groceries and I picked them up and I noticed a white bag sitting on the counter. I literally thought this to myself “aw, some poor sucker forgot their bag. I shouldn’t look into it, it would be rude.” And I left the store… -_- yes, I think you can all see where this is going! That night as me and my family were watching a handball match and here is my exact line of thought: I was thinking that it must really hurt to fall on their knees so much. They should really wear some knee pads. I’m so happy I bought some knee pads today at the store. Jee, I wonder where I put them? O.MY.GOODNESS I LEFT THEM AT THE STORE!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I did it. That ‘poor sucker’ was me. Needless to say, I felt like junk the rest of the night. My only option that I settled on was to go back to the store on Monday and ask if they found them. And then Saturday my girlfriends came over =)
The next week was also very good. I was looking forward to the big school party on Friday all week! So I got through all of school, which was hard, and made it =) I started off my week by going to that store on Monday and seeing if they found my knee pads. I just had this horrible feeling the whole day that they wouldn’t have them and I’d be out good money. So I went in and stood in line and asked the lady, in danish mind you, if anyone had found my bag. She then proceded to lay it on the counter! I’ve never been so happy in my life! Like seriously. After I left the store I walked over to my bus stop and literally made it just in time. Monday was the best day ever. Epic wins on so many levels =D the rest of the week is rather dull compared to that though haha on Thursday I had my first, and probably only, volleyball game with Næstved Gym. We were exactly 6 girls and we went with our boys’ team and played at this tournament at another school in the city. It was so much fun. I love playing volleyball <3 we played against 4 teams. And all of them but one were very inexperienced. We beat all of them except that one team. I would love a rematch! And then Friday rolled around! Finally!!!!!! Fiday school was blah, but then Friday night, the school came alive. We all met up at my one friend’s house and ate some pizza before taking a taxi to the school. There was some famous dj that was playing for us I guess? No idea. His name is morten breum. Look him up if you want. But it was just a killer party. Same as the last school party: everyone was completely hammered. I’ve been in denmark for 6 months now, part of you gets used to this, but the other part is still like ‘and the school is really ok with this?’ =P I’m so american. But anywayz, all in all, it was a super fun time. I had fun with all my friends <3
The week after that was really boring. On Monday I didn’t go to school because I gave a presentation about USA at my host dad’s school. It went well. I hadn’t even left the school yet and I was receiving facebook requests. That means they liked me, right? =P on Tuesday I had only one class at school, and in all honesty, I should have just skipped. That was such a bad day of school. I hadn’t had one like that in awhile. Just a horrible day. Ugh! I hate thinking about it. But it was. The day after that though, that was a just plain awesome day. It evened out all the junk that had happened the day before. I had some really great conversations with a few friends and, I don’t know, it just felt like an amazing day. It was one of those days where it hit me of how happy I am in denmark. I was riding the bus to school and just looking out the window thinking about life and I was thinking about all the junk I should fix in my life and how happy I was to live here. Really, Wednesday was an awesome day. I need more of those =D nothing on Thursday happened. But on Friday I had an absolute horrible day again. I don’t want to go into details, but me and one of my good friends had an argument at the party on the last Friday, and it was all just coming to a head on this Friday. It really was all my fault, I instigated it all. But it still felt horrible. We decided we weren’t going to see each other for a bit to ‘cool down’ and ‘get over’ what happened. =( yea that was really hard to hear, but it’s gotta happen. I hope that I didn’t screw everything up and ruin a 6 month growing friendship in just a matter of hours. And then another friend decided to bail on going to town with me for an hour or so. And then I was almost stranded at the bus station after coming back into town that night…so yea, like I said, Friday was bad =P but Friday night was good! Well, I mean, AFTER I was able to be picked up from the bus station by poliana’s nice host gpa. I had forgotten to bring money with me to take the bus to another girl’s house because I don’t need money to get from my house to the city, I just show a card. So I was scared and tempted to beg for money for a bit, but then I got picked up! So it was good =D so! me and the other exchange girls from the school got together and linda’s house. Linda is from germany. Steph couldn’t come to this one because she left for the week to go to london. And one of the 2 new girls we got couldn’t come because no one knew how to reach her to invite her =P so it was 6 of us! Ruby- new zealand, Apolline- france, Linda- germany, Poliana- brazil, me, and Beckie- new girl from new zealand. It was tons of fun. I love those girls with my whole heart. Going to miss them so much =’( I made some amazing homemade brownies for this night. And by amazing, I mean AH-mazing. Haha and we just hung out and ‘hygged’ and watched some movies. It was great. We are planning to do more of those. =D
And now, this week, I have no school because it is winter break =D I am missing my best friend stephanie because she is in london this week with her mom. I hope she’s having fun. I will be posting a new blog post about all the things I do this week later =) so this one is so long =P lots to say! Questions and comments people. You know I’ll answer you <3 and keep up with my shutterfly site if you’re not on facebook. http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/ Lots of fun things to see there =D
Much love!
Rebekah
So the week after my last post, I had a really good week. I went to Rotary and had a nice conversation with my first host dad in Danish. I think that was the most we’ve ever felt comfortable enough saying to each other. So it was kind of weird. I wish we had talked like that when I actually lived there, but better late than never, right? =) so then the rest of the week kid of flew by pretty much. That weekend, the last weekend in January, I had my 18th birthday party, finally! =) see, I couldn’t have it during the month of December because it was just way too busy, so I decided to wait. I had some girls from my class over and Stephanie. The other exchange girls couldn’t come because the girl from France was having a special dinner which they were invited to as well. So they went to the dinner and I had my close classmates over. It was really nice. We were 6 in all because a few called at the last minute and said they were sick. =( but it was still really fun. We ate pancakes with ice cream and watched some movies. Very hyggelig guys! And that was the end of my week =D o, I should also mention how dumb of a person I am…yea. I really am, and if you know me, you’ll agree! I say this because of this: my parents have been telling me for awhile now that I need to buy some knee pads if I’m going to continue to play volleyball at the school. So knowing that a game was coming up the following week, I went into town on Friday and found some in the second sports store I checked and bought them. They were pretty cheap too, so I was really happy =) after that, I had to go to the supermarket to buy some things so I could make dinner that night. I picked up the foods I needed and went and checked out. Now, here in denmark you have to bag your own things at stores that aren’t department stores. So I was bagging up my groceries and I picked them up and I noticed a white bag sitting on the counter. I literally thought this to myself “aw, some poor sucker forgot their bag. I shouldn’t look into it, it would be rude.” And I left the store… -_- yes, I think you can all see where this is going! That night as me and my family were watching a handball match and here is my exact line of thought: I was thinking that it must really hurt to fall on their knees so much. They should really wear some knee pads. I’m so happy I bought some knee pads today at the store. Jee, I wonder where I put them? O.MY.GOODNESS I LEFT THEM AT THE STORE!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I did it. That ‘poor sucker’ was me. Needless to say, I felt like junk the rest of the night. My only option that I settled on was to go back to the store on Monday and ask if they found them. And then Saturday my girlfriends came over =)
The next week was also very good. I was looking forward to the big school party on Friday all week! So I got through all of school, which was hard, and made it =) I started off my week by going to that store on Monday and seeing if they found my knee pads. I just had this horrible feeling the whole day that they wouldn’t have them and I’d be out good money. So I went in and stood in line and asked the lady, in danish mind you, if anyone had found my bag. She then proceded to lay it on the counter! I’ve never been so happy in my life! Like seriously. After I left the store I walked over to my bus stop and literally made it just in time. Monday was the best day ever. Epic wins on so many levels =D the rest of the week is rather dull compared to that though haha on Thursday I had my first, and probably only, volleyball game with Næstved Gym. We were exactly 6 girls and we went with our boys’ team and played at this tournament at another school in the city. It was so much fun. I love playing volleyball <3 we played against 4 teams. And all of them but one were very inexperienced. We beat all of them except that one team. I would love a rematch! And then Friday rolled around! Finally!!!!!! Fiday school was blah, but then Friday night, the school came alive. We all met up at my one friend’s house and ate some pizza before taking a taxi to the school. There was some famous dj that was playing for us I guess? No idea. His name is morten breum. Look him up if you want. But it was just a killer party. Same as the last school party: everyone was completely hammered. I’ve been in denmark for 6 months now, part of you gets used to this, but the other part is still like ‘and the school is really ok with this?’ =P I’m so american. But anywayz, all in all, it was a super fun time. I had fun with all my friends <3
The week after that was really boring. On Monday I didn’t go to school because I gave a presentation about USA at my host dad’s school. It went well. I hadn’t even left the school yet and I was receiving facebook requests. That means they liked me, right? =P on Tuesday I had only one class at school, and in all honesty, I should have just skipped. That was such a bad day of school. I hadn’t had one like that in awhile. Just a horrible day. Ugh! I hate thinking about it. But it was. The day after that though, that was a just plain awesome day. It evened out all the junk that had happened the day before. I had some really great conversations with a few friends and, I don’t know, it just felt like an amazing day. It was one of those days where it hit me of how happy I am in denmark. I was riding the bus to school and just looking out the window thinking about life and I was thinking about all the junk I should fix in my life and how happy I was to live here. Really, Wednesday was an awesome day. I need more of those =D nothing on Thursday happened. But on Friday I had an absolute horrible day again. I don’t want to go into details, but me and one of my good friends had an argument at the party on the last Friday, and it was all just coming to a head on this Friday. It really was all my fault, I instigated it all. But it still felt horrible. We decided we weren’t going to see each other for a bit to ‘cool down’ and ‘get over’ what happened. =( yea that was really hard to hear, but it’s gotta happen. I hope that I didn’t screw everything up and ruin a 6 month growing friendship in just a matter of hours. And then another friend decided to bail on going to town with me for an hour or so. And then I was almost stranded at the bus station after coming back into town that night…so yea, like I said, Friday was bad =P but Friday night was good! Well, I mean, AFTER I was able to be picked up from the bus station by poliana’s nice host gpa. I had forgotten to bring money with me to take the bus to another girl’s house because I don’t need money to get from my house to the city, I just show a card. So I was scared and tempted to beg for money for a bit, but then I got picked up! So it was good =D so! me and the other exchange girls from the school got together and linda’s house. Linda is from germany. Steph couldn’t come to this one because she left for the week to go to london. And one of the 2 new girls we got couldn’t come because no one knew how to reach her to invite her =P so it was 6 of us! Ruby- new zealand, Apolline- france, Linda- germany, Poliana- brazil, me, and Beckie- new girl from new zealand. It was tons of fun. I love those girls with my whole heart. Going to miss them so much =’( I made some amazing homemade brownies for this night. And by amazing, I mean AH-mazing. Haha and we just hung out and ‘hygged’ and watched some movies. It was great. We are planning to do more of those. =D
And now, this week, I have no school because it is winter break =D I am missing my best friend stephanie because she is in london this week with her mom. I hope she’s having fun. I will be posting a new blog post about all the things I do this week later =) so this one is so long =P lots to say! Questions and comments people. You know I’ll answer you <3 and keep up with my shutterfly site if you’re not on facebook. http://ayearindenmark.shutterfly.com/ Lots of fun things to see there =D
Much love!
Rebekah
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