Efterårsferie (Autumn Break)

Just three days after I returned home, I left for Copenhagen to spend a few days with Camilla. After a 5 hour train ride, I met Camilla in Copenhagen. I was so excited to see her! About 5 seconds after I arrived the teasing commenced. Hey foreign hahaha hey foreign hey foreign. You speak don't speak danish right. It's jakke not jak. hahaha Well I can't say I didn't deserve it. It's her payback for the last 7 months of tormenting. We headed back to her house in Hareskov and then to her family's summerhouse with her mom, Ilse. Their summerhouse is located about an hour away from Hareskov in northern Sjælland outside of the city of Havnebyen. It was a very pretty landscape with the sea and fall colors. We spent one evening watching movies and relaxing at the summerhouse. The next morning we walked about 2 kilometers to the end of the small strip of Sjælland that we were on. It was super windy. Much like windy spring day in Nevada. Then we drove into Havnebyen and had fish and chips and remoulade for lunch. That afternoon we headed back to Hareskov. The next morning, Ilse, Camilla, and I visited the Frilandsmuseet in Lyngby. It was my second visit to the museum. Luckily, I saw different buildings this visit. After freezing in lovely Danish weather, we visited a bakery and purchased kage which made everything so much better. Mmmm it was good kage. That evening we went to Tivoli. It was beautiful with all the Halloween decorations. Even though Halloween isn't really celebrated in Denmark, Tivoli was decorated just as well as Disneyland. Thursday morning, Camilla and I traveled into Copenhagen to do touristy things. Since Camilla didn't want to look like a tourist, she left the map of Copenhagen at home, so we it took us a while to figure out where to go. The first place we visited was Vor Frelsers Kirke (Our Savior's Church). As it turns out this was one church that my parents didn't drag us into on our trip two years ago. It was beautiful both inside and outside. Camilla and I walked to the around the corkscrew shaped tower to the top of the church. Awesome views of Copenhagen from the top. The inside was amazing. The church's organ was the most amazing piece of woodwork I have ever seen. I can't even imagine how long it took to make in the 1600s. We met up with Camilla's cousins from Jylland (part of Denmark where I live) and we went to Christiania. Christiania is awesome. Unfortunately I don't have very many pictures since pictures weren't allowed. Basically Christiana is its own neighborhood in Copenhagen that is almost completely separate from the Danish government. I have never seen anything like it. It's very colorful with all of the graffiti and murals painted on the buildings. It's huge! I don't think I've seen very much of it. It was beautiful in a different way, but I am very glad that I got to visit. When we got to the walking street Camilla and I parted ways with her cousins. We visited Rundtårn (Round Tower), which is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe. Lots of old things in Denmark. Oldest flag, oldest monarchy, and lots of old buildings. A funny thing I learned is the hallways of Rundtårn are so wide because one of the King Fredericks (like every king in Denmark is named Frederick) was too fat to fit through the original hallways. Afterwards, Camilla and I did a little shopping on the walking street. I also tried almonds cooked in sugar. I wish I could remember that name. They were so good. Camilla and I went back twice to buy more. That evening we had dinner with Camilla's cousins and their parents. It was such a delicious meal. Jeg elsker danske mad! (I love Danish food.) Camilla and I went into Copenhagen again the next morning. This time solely to shop on the walking street. It was a successful shopping day, and I bought a few things. However, the best part was Nutella pancakes. Yes it is exactly what it sounds like, and it is amazing. Camilla's inspiration for the Nutella tortillas we ate so much at home. Sadly I had to leave Camilla's that night. I was headed for Sweden for my ACT test the next morning. It such a nice visit. I'm super excited for her to come and visit me in Hjørring.

It took about 30 minutes to get to Malmo where I met Helena, Lisa Schuette's host sister 30 years ago. I was super excited to see here again. I hadn't seen her or her family since the 4th of July party in the States 3 years ago. We had tacos for dinner! Yum! I miss Mexican food back home. There isn't so much of it here in Denmark. I had a very hyggeligt evening with Helena's family drinking tea and talking. The next morning I got up early and took the ACT. It went ok, and I hope I get the score I need. The part of the test was that I met an American exchange student spending her year in Sweden and another American who was attending an international school in Copenhagen. After the test, Helena, her son Wilhelm, and I went to the walking street in Malmo. There was an American store, and I bought A&W rootbeer! Due to the lack of any rootbeer in Denmark, I was super excited about this. Helena also took us to TGI Friday's. I have never been to one in the States, but I was super glad to have baby back ribs for the first time in months. That evening, the Rosell family and I drove to a small town about an hour and a half north of Malmo for a family party. It was so awesome. I got to see where Lisa Schuette, a family friend, my teacher, and a former exchange student, lived while she was on her exchange. Helena drove up to the house Mrs. Schuette lived in and pointed out the room Mrs. Schuette stayed in and where my mother had visited her 30 years ago when she was an exchange student to Denmark. I met Mrs. Schuette's host brother, sisters and her mother. I was so excited to meet her mother. She remembered my mother's visit year's ago, and we had a great conversation. That is one thing that never ceases to amaze me about the Rotary program. It creates so many connections all over the world. The food was amazing as well as Mrs. Schuette's family. I had such an fun time eating dinner and talking with them. It was really special for me that I got to experience a another part of my mother's exchange as well as a part of Mrs. Schuette's. Before I departed for Denmark, Helena and her daughter, Ebba, took me to see the Turning Torso, which is the symbol for the new Malmo. It was quite an architectural feat. We also walked around the modern neighborhood that was built around the Turning Torso. Very cool. I'm pretty sure a lot of school teachers live there. I had a great time with Helena's family, and I hope that I can come for a return visit.

Studietur i Czech Republic

Last Saturday evening 2.y (my gymnasium class) and I departed on our studietur to the Czech Republic. It was a 16 hour bus ride to our first destination, Terezin. Even though it was a long trip, it was a very hyggeligt trip with lots of delicious snacks and socializing. After an early early breakfast Sunday morning in a cafe in Terezin, we visited Theresienstadt, a concentration camp during World War II. It was very interesting to see a concentration camp, but it was also very unsettling to be in a place where so many people were killed. One really interesting thing I learned, before Theresienstadt became a concentration camp it was the Terezin prison, and the assassin of Duke Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, was imprisoned there. It was also where he died. Afterwards, we visited a museum dedicated to the memory of the Jewish people that lived in the Jewish ghetto located in Terezin. The ghetto was the last place Jews stayed before they were sent to Auschwitz. We then drove to Srbsko, a small town in the Cesky Raj, where we would be staying for the next couple of days. After we arrived and settled in, we went on a "short" walk to plan evening activities. The walk ended up lasting a solid 5 hours. Needless to say there was no evening activity. :) The next morning we were up early for our mountain biking adventure. It was a beautiful ride especially with all of the fall colors. After our 18 km (11 mi) bike ride, we went rock climbing and rapelling. The rapelling was intense! We rapelled down a 25m (75ft) cliff! It was a little scary hanging off the edge of a cliff with only a rope and a harness. That evening an interesting thing happened. While my roommates and I were talking upstairs in the small cabin we shared, some boys from with another study tour from Denmark came into our cabin and squirted about half a bottle of ketchup on as much of our stuff as they could. Some of my roommates clothes, beds, shoes, and my shoes now smelled like ketchup. Yay. The next morning we checked out and headed to a river for rafting. It was more like river floating than river rafting, but it was ok. It was a super long river floating trip. We had to paddle 10 km (6 mi) in an almost non-existant current. We made our merry way to Prague following the rafting trip.

The first thing that we saw in Prague was the Yellow Market. The yellow market sells cheap copies of popular clothing brands such as North Face or Bjorn Bjorg etc. The best part was watching my classmates haggling prices with the vendors. After about 4 hours of shopping, we returned to the hotel. The next morning we went for a run at 6:45 in the morning to the Lennon Wall. Not my favorite part of our time in Prague; it was much to early to attempt that sort of exercise. After breakfast we visited a Kozel brewery in Prague. I have never seen so much beer. Kegs of it everywhere. However, it was really neat getting to see the production of beer from the beginning, with the making of the beer, to the end, with bottling the beer for export. Then we went on a guided tour of Prague that lasted the rest of the day. Prague is a beautiful city. The architecture of the buildings was impressive especially the churches. Another highlight of the day was that I got a Starbucks coffee for the first time in months! There is only one Starbucks in Denmark located in the Copenhagen airport. In fact, some of my classmates didn't even know what a Starbucks was. Pretty crazy considering that there is one on every corner in America. That evening we had dinner at a pizzeria, which was very hyggeligt. I know I have used that word many times, but it is commonly used in everyday language in Denmark, and it is also how my classmates would describe this evening. The next day we visited a gymnasium in Prague. It was pretty similar to the gymnasium that I attend in Denmark. The only difference was that the students had to take more classes and the school was smaller. We took a tour in pairs with students at the gymnasium, and crazily enough I met a girl who had also been an exchange student last year to Montana. At the end of the tour, we were given free rein until we had to meet up that evening to return home. A group of my friends and I went to the walking streets and shopped, ate Ben & Jerry's icecream, drank coffee, and overall had a great time. We also ran into the ketchup boys again, yelled ketchup in their general direction and continued on our way. It was such a fun and hyggeligt trip with my class. 2.y is the best class ever!

THULE!!!

THULE! is a huge school party that happens four times a year at Hjørring Gymnasium. This was the first one of the year, and the theme was villains. I got ready for the school party with Julie and one of her friends from her class, and I dressed up as Mijauf, the cat from Team Rocket. And yes i did wear my hair like that all evening. hahaha Then i went to one of my classmates house, Marie Louise, for forefest (before party). The forefest is a lot of fun. We ate dinner together and talked before Thule. Det var rigtig hyggeligt! When it was time for Thule, we took the train together into the city. Thule was crazy! There i was a live band and lots of dancing. Later in the evening we danced well sort of danced Lanciers the dance that I learned earlier in the year. Unfortunately, I came later so I had no one to dance with. Dang! Luckily there is three more dances. After Thule, I went into the city with my friends from my class. Det var en sjovt og hyggeligt aften!

September

I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog in a while. I have been very busy for the last 3 weeks. As far as school goes, I still don't understand everything yet, but it gets better everyday. I was very excited the other day when I actually knew that my biology teacher was talking about cancer and how it spread throughout the body. Danish class is keeping me very busy with all of its homework. I had to read a short story in Danish and then write a half page summary or longer about the story, in Danish. I also had to give a 5 minute presentation in my Danish class about my life in the USA in Danish. Even though it sounds like a lot, it is really helping me learn Danish as well as practice my speaking. My presentation actually went really well. I just pointed at the pictures I put on my powerpoint and described them in my best Danish. Jeg bor i Carson City. Der bor halv tres tusind mennesker i Carson City. Jeg bor i nord Carson City. Om vinteren jeg står på snowboard at Mt. Rose hver weekend. However, it got more difficult when my classmates asked me questions in Danish. Some of them I could understand, but it's hard to translate what they said in Danish to English while trying to think of a response in Danish. I also joined an after school volleyball club, and I play every Wednesday with some of classmates. It's a lot of fun, and I occasionally make a good play. I leave with my class for Prague in about a week on our study tour. I am so excited! We have been practicing rock climbing on a rock wall at a nearby gym in preparation for our study trip. It has gone pretty well so far. Except I am going to need more practice tying the climbing rope to my harness. I only epically failed at that. At least the climbing teacher is a very patient man. Tomorrow, Friday night, is THULE!! Thule is a huge school party. Almost everyone from the gymnasium goes and there is a lot of dancing including the formal dance, Lanciers. I can't wait for tomorrow! So that about covers everything school related.

Now for the non-school related events. A few weekends back, Lars and Mette went golfing and brought me along. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and it wasn't too cold. After Lars and Mette played a few holes of golf, they let me try golfing at the driving range. Yeah my golf shot=not so good, but it was fun to try anyways. I have seen more of beautiful Northern Denmark since the last time I updated my blog. Mette and I went on a day trip to Ålborg and walked around the city. We looked in a few shops and purchased the best flødeboller in the world. Really the best flødeboller I have ever eaten. I also visited Hirtshals, Mette's hometown, with Mette one evening. We walked to the top of the Hirtshals lighthouse. Mette and I also walked around the German bunker museum that is nearby the lighthouse. The Germans would have definitely been ready if the English had decided to invade Denmark. Hirtshals is neat town that smells like fish. I enjoyed a soft ice with Mette as we walked around the town. Hyggeligt :) On Saturday, my host family and I went up to Skallerup klit, which is a vacation resort with about 200 summer houses, swimming pools, spas, badminton courts and such things located right next to the North Sea. The first thing we did was the Junglesti, which is like an obstacle course. It was quite challenging but super fun! Later we walked around and played on the outdoor exercise equipment, jumped on the trampolines, and climbed this huge rope structure. I made it to the top! My family took me on the tour of the main building of the resort. It was a super nice resort! There was several badminton courts and swimming pools as well as ancient Rome bath, restaurant, bar, billard room, bowling alley, gaming area, play place for small children, internet/gaming cafe, and an entire room set up to play Nintendo Wii. Intense! On Sunday, Lars and I "hiked" through the Hjørring mountains. He showed me where a ski jump was built on the mountain for the 1950 something Olympics. It was surprised at how steep the hill was where the jump was built, but judging on the size of the ski jump at the 2010 winter Olympics Hjørring will probably never host the Olympics again. On Tuesday of last week Julie came home. It was great to see her again. She started gymnasium in 2.w. On Saturday I went with Julie and her friends from gymnasium to a Friday night dinner at Sofie's house. Det var meget hyggeligt! We ate dinner together and talked. After dinner, we went to Postgarden, a place frequented by may of the gymnasium students. It was a great evening. This past week, I went with Lars to Tornby strand to watch the sunset one evening. The sunsets here are amazing. On Thursday I went to a performance at Ciffy Cafe by Thomas Buttenschøn with a few of my friends from the gymnasium. The music was different than anything I have heard before, but it was good nonetheless. Det var meget hyggeligt :) Well that's all for now. Vi ses.