Willkommen in Österreich

Winter break was finally here. My host parents, host sisters, Laura and Amalie, and I piled into the already luggage filled car for a 12 hour drive to Austria. We overnighted in Sønderborg, southern jylland, before continuing our long drive the next morning at 4:30 A.M. As we crossed into Austria, I saw something that I have missed for the last 7 months, mountains! I had my own mini celebration in the backseat of the car, which my host family looked slightly confused about. We arrived in Sölden in the evening, bought ski passes and rented a snowboard and boots for me before heading to our apartment. The apartment that we stayed in was absolutely amazing! It was huge to start with, it had two bathrooms and two bedrooms and an amazing view of Sölden. The next morning we got up early to hit the lifts right when they opened. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was the perfect ski temperature. We met up with family friends and skied all day long except for a lunch break at one of the traditional Austrian ski lodges. My host family is insanely good at skiing considering that they live in Denmark, and one has to take a 12 hour trip north or south to find mountains to ski on. Tuesday and Wednesday the weather was a little chiller and it snowed, but I was just so happy to be snowboarding in the Austrian Alps that I didn't mind one bit. On Tuesday after we were finished skiing, I went to after ski with Frank and Peter. After ski is an Austrian tradition where skiers and boarders head to the many bars in their ski clothes in Sölden have a few beers, listen to Austrian music, and party. Although I didn't see it, apparently there are some places where people get up and dance on the tables in their ski boots. On Wednesday night Laura, Amalie, family, Julie, Nicolina and I went up into Sölden for a taste of the night life. We went to a place called Fire and Ice. It was an awesome club, and I had a fun time hanging out with my host sisters. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Thursday. The brilliant blue sky made the jagged Austrian peaks look absolutely breathtaking covered in their new layer of snow. On Thursday evening, my host family as well as family friends ate dinner together at an amazing Italian restaurant. There is nothing like an amazing plate of pasta to end a perfect ski day. On Friday we got in our last runs before we packed up the car and headed back to Denmark. It was one of the most amazing weeks of life. I am so thankful for the incredible experience that my amazing host family provided me with. Auf wiedersehen!

Let the good times roll

I am officially over the half year mark of my exchange in Denmark, and what an amazing 6 months it has been. At the end of January, I went with my host parents and my host sister for a weekend trip to Århus to visit my two older host sisters, Ditte and Laura, as well as celebrate Laura's birthday. Friday night we all went out to a nice resturant to celebrate. The next day all of the extended family living in northern jylland scrunched into Laura's apartment to celebrate her birthday with a kagemand (special Danish birthday cake) and other delicious treats. It was a very nice weekend together with the family. The next week was pretty intense with SRO. Basically SRO for me was writing a 5 page paper in Danish about the differences between Carson High School and Hjørring Gymnasium. Definitely tops the list of most mentally exhausting things I've ever done. That weekend Frank, my host dad, took me to Lindholm Høje, the largest viking burial site in Denmark. It was super cool. The burial site overlooked the beautiful Limfjord that unfortunately was obscured by large amounts of Danish fog the day we visited. There was also a viking museum next to the burial site that was very interesting and filled with tons of viking artifacts. While we were there we ran into Esther and her host sister and Mom. I had a good time walking around and learning a little about Danish history with them.

The third week of February, Hjørring Gymnasium's had its annual three-day school party also know as Galla. It was EPIC. School started two hours later than usual on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Over three days all of the gymnasium students ate dinner together with their classmates and saw the school musical. After dinner on all three days, Lanciers was danced by all of the third year gymnasium students. Following Lanciers there was music played by live bands until 1:30 in the morning. I went on Monday and Tuesday to hear the music, and on Wednesday I had dinner with my class and saw the musical. The musical was absolutely hilarious and very well done. It even made the evening news: http://www.kanalhjoerring.dk/vis/nyhed/hjoerring-gymnasium-og-hf-kursus-holder-fester/ Watching Lanciers was also very cool. All of the girls were wearing beautiful dresses and the boys were wearing tuxedos. I didn't take any pictures myself, so I borrowed some from facebook. It was an awesome ending to school before the one week winter break. Vi ses :)