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 :)

The vikings stole my internet

I'm sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I hope you enjoy my experiences the last two months as much as I did. Here are my feelings about Christmas in Denmark as I described it to my Rotary club, a rigtig spændende oplevelse (a really exciting experience), and it really was.

Thoughts turned to Christmas in Denmark on the first advent, which falls on the sunday of the last weekend in November, a little similar to the States. However Christmas spirit doesn't really get into its full swing until about 2 weeks before the actual day. About two and a half weeks before jul (christmas) I baked vaniljekranser (delicious round Danish cookies) with Lene and Amalie. You can see just how much fun we had based on my facebook photos. Not to mention the cookies were absolutely delicious! Two weekends before Christmas, I went out with my family to get the jultræ (Christmas tree) at a christmas tree farm. A first and for me and a hilarious adventure. It sure beat the heck out digging the christmas tree out from storage in the garage. My host mom was determined to find the perfect jultræ. My host dad, Amalie and I walked around pointing at Christmas trees asking her "hvad med denne træ?" (what about this tree?) Her response for the first half and hour was "det er for stort" (it is too big), "det er for høje" (it is to tall) "det er tomt på toppen" (its to empty at the top). hahahaha ah so fun. Anyways, after searching about in the balmy december, Danish weather (insert sarcasm) we found the perfect tree. Sure it had a funky top, but the invention of the saw could handle that quite well. When we arrived home, we drank gløgg, warm, spiced, red wine) and ate æbleskiver (sort of like waffles rolled into a ball with sugar and marmalade) while feeling returned to our frozen bodies. On the last advent day (last sunday before christmas) I made maricipan confect with Amalie and Lene. I love marcipan!!!!!!! It tastes so good, and we buy it in large tubes and make delicious, chocolate covered masterpieces. America should really adopt this custom. In the afternoon, I went with my first host family to see my sister, Julie, and my mom, Mette, sing in the concert they have had annually for many years. It was beautiful. They are both amazing singers as well as the others they sang with. After school let out, I headed down to for a short trip to Odense to visit with Irene, the former exchange student that lived with my mom's family in 1983, and her family. It was very hyggeligt. While it snowed and snowed and snowed some more outside, we made more marcipan confect and talked. It was really great to see them again. Without too much train trouble, I made it home on the 23rd to find that my two older host sisters had come home from Århus. It was awesome to see them again. That evening we brought the Christmas tree in to decorate it. After getting the tree to fit in the stand, we began to put the ornaments on including real candles! I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the Danes don't let fire safety stand in the way of a good time. I explained to them that we didn't do that in the States since our trees were made of plastic, which they thought was a little weird. I got to put the star on top of the tree, which was awesome since not just anyone gets to put the star on top of the tree. The next morning, juleaften (Christmas eve) and Denmark's biggest Christmas celebration day, was crazy busy. We got up early since it was also Frank, my host dad, birthday, and we had family over for a birthday breakfast.Once we were finished with breakfast, we had about two or three hours break before we started preparing Christmas eve dinner. When we were finished we all sat down together and ate. I tried duck, the main dish, for the first time. It tasted amazing! Once we were finished with dinner, Lene broke out the risalamande. Risalamande is similar to rice pudding; it has almonds, whipped cream, rice and is served with cherry sauce. Now the risalamande is fun since there is one whole almond put into the giant bowl, and the person that finds the almond gets an extra present. As you could imagine there was quite the competition going on between all the family members, especially my host sisters to guess who had the almond. My oldest host sister, Ditte, found the almond to the dismay of Amalie and Laura. She won a trivial pursuit game, which we played a few rounds of. Next, we all gathered around the Christmas tree in preparation to dance around it and sing Danish christmas songs. Luckily they had a song book, so I could sing a long! Ahhhhh it was sooo much fun! I apologize that my last sentence was so spastic, but I'm pretty sure that at that moment dancing around the Christmas tree and singing was one of the happiest moments in my life. I couldn't stop grinning ridiculously. We sang one sang for every family member that was there. The fun doesn't stop there. Then we ran around the house, through every room, singing "nu er det jul igen! nu er det jul igen!" I'm pretty sure there were other lines but that was pretty much how the entire song went. The evening goes on. Next we opened presents. Yeah thats right America, I got to open my presents 24 hours before you did :) We opened the presents one at a time, so it took about three hours. I got some really nice stuff. Beautiful clothes from Camilla and both of my host families, Hans Christan Andersen's fairy tales in Danish from my third host family, a book about Denmark from my counselor and his girlfriend, a beautiful Christmas ornament from my current host family, and in good fun a hinbær snitter (Danish cake) that I had asked for on my Christmas list as a joke. It was definitely the most tasty Christmas gift that I have ever received. I was surprised by all of the gifts that I was received, and it made me feel so loved and a part of both of my families. I couldn't have had two better host families.

Well that paragraph is getting a little long, so now I will use a new one to talk about what I did on Christmas Day. The next morning we headed out to Lene's mom's house and had a Christmas lunch with Lene's family. I seriously have never eaten so much in a short period of time. It was like having Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner back to back. That afternoon I was pretty sure that I never wanted to eat again. After eating, we played pakke spil, which involves ridiculous gifts that you roll a dice for. If you got a six you took a gift from the middle of the table, and in the second round you took a gift from someone else. I won a bag of candy, some gum, pig fat (that I "accidentally" left on the table) and tattoo arm warmers. Not to bad considering my host sister Amalie went home with only a pink spatula. When we returned home, Amalie, Ditte, Laura and I got ready to go up into the city, which is what the Danes did Christmas night. I had a fun time hanging with Amalie and her friends from her gymnasium class. On the second christmas day (dec. 26th) I went to the Hansens house, my first host family, and had Christmas lunch. I was pretty sure that I would burst since I had consumed so much food in the past three days that it would be impossible to eat again until New Years. After eating I played another game of pakke spil. This time I won a candle holder, napkins and a reading light. How cool is that?! Now I can read a book in the dark while wearing my tattoo arm warmers eating candy from a napkin and chewing gum while holding my candle holder.

On the 27th of December, I took the train to Copenhagen to spend a few days with exchange student friends that I had in the area. We had a pretty good time. We spent the two days walking around Roskilde and Copenhagen as well as just relaxing and talking. I was home a couple of days before New Years began. The day before New Year's Eve, Frank, Lene and I went on a day trip to Skagen. I love that city. It is so hyggeligt and beautiful with the nearby beaches. We had a coffee and the biggest pieces of lagkage I have ever seen at the Brondums Hotel. It is the hotel that all of the famous Skagen painters lived. There was even some of the original paintings up on the walls. Very cool. The awesome thing about New Years in Denmark is that you can buy fireworks and shoot them off! Needless to say the sound of fireworks filled the night air long before New Years. On New Years Eve I started the evening with Frank and Amalie down at neighbor's party. We watched the queens's speech and ate together. It was a delicious Italian meal prepared only by the men. So good. Later that evening I took a train out to Sindal to meet up with Esther and her classmates for a party. It was wild and so much fun! Erin, another one of my good exchange student friends was there and we had such a great time. We shot off fireworks, well the boys did while the rest of watched from a safe distance. It was the best New Years party ever!

There isn't really much other to report than that. I'm just busy living life going to school, learning Danish and hanging out with friends. In February I'm going with my host family to Austria to go skiing for a week, and I am so excited. Now I something to give my dad grief over after all of his repeated reminders of what a fantastic snow year it is in Nevada. Happy New Year to everyone! Vi ses :)

"It's a long way to the top...if you want to learn Danish."

November has been quite the busy month. I cooked an American dinner for my host family. I made, from scratch, Mac n' Cheese with chicken, green onions, tomatoes, and ranch dressing. Luckily I had my wonderful Danish mom, Mette, to help me with the preparation. For dessert I made root beer floats. They loved it! I had such a great time introducing some not so healthy American foods to them. In the middle of November, I moved to my next host family. I was very very sad to leave my family. However, it is a new adventure and that is what my year in Denmark is all about. School wise I have changed my schedule, so I no longer have biology with my class. It was just to difficult to of my class for my level of my Danish. I now have a Spanish class with Esther, which is so awesome! It's a little crazy with three languages though. hehehe

Classmates asks me, "Como te llamas?"

I say, "Jeg hedder... no no whoops um um me...llamo Alex".

I also have a different PE class with 3.m. So far it has been a lot of fun! We're currently doing parkour, also known as free running, where you run up walls and do other kinds of crazy stunts. I know youtube has some awesome clips about it. The next Thule is tomorrow, and I'm so excited!

Winter is officially here in Denmark. The sun doesn't come up until 8:30, and it goes down at around 4:00 everyday. It did nothing but snow for the last week and a half of November, and the temperature has not risen above freezing for the past two weeks. In fact it is currently -6ºC, about 21ºF. Brrrr! However, the snow makes everything feel more like Christmas. Hjørring is getting ready for Jul (Christmas), the walking street is decked out in Christmas lights and trees and there is Christmas tunes playing in every store. The Danes have so many awesome Christmas traditions. Advent, which is the four Sundays before Christmas, started this last weekend. On every advent everyone gets a present. I got the warm socks for the first advent since my host family was worried about my feet due to the lack of winter boots. The Christmas food is amazing! I seriously don't know how the Danes stay so thin. When I went with my new family to a family gathering, I tried æbleskivers, which taste like waffles that were rolled into a ball. They are also served with powdered sugar and jam. I also tried gløgg, which is warm red wine with spices of some kind. It also had chopped almonds in the bottom of the glass to add flavor, I think. It was a little weird, but it tasted so good! I'm sure I will be learning more of these Jul traditions as well as enjoying more amazing Christmas food.

The title of this blog, a quote from Matt in 2.w, illustrates just how I and the other exchange students feel about the Danish language. About three weeks before I switched host families, I realized that I was never going to completely learn Danish if I didn't speak it. I decided from there on out that I would speak only Danish with my families and classmates. It's very challenging, but I am so lucky to have the support of my Danish family and now my second host family in this difficult endeavor. I think it's quite amazing much better my Danish has become since then. I know longer form sentences in English and then translate them to Danish. The Danish just comes, but I still have so much to learn. The language barrier has made it harder to make friends than I thought it would. It has been really tough getting close to my classmates, but I keep trying my best. I've made some friends outside of my class which is great, and I have always had Esther, another exchange student and my best friend, and Julie, my sweet and amazing Danish sister, to hang out with. Being an exchange student has its ups and down. There are times that I really miss my first Danish family and I feel quite alone, but there are also times where I'm excited about getting to know my new family and meeting new people. Even at the toughest of times, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

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!