This Whole Christmas Thing...

Glædelig Jul og godt Nytår alle sammen!! (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone)
So I thought I should probably tell everyone that I am indeed still alive and fill everyone in on the phenomenon that is Danish Christmas! Woooooo!

For starters, Danish Christmas is designed to have you eat so much that you don't need to eat again for another month, it is both disgusting an delightful all at the same time. For example, in the traditional Danish Julefrokost (Christmas Lunch), there are 6 courses, with about 15 minutes in between, which is just enough time for your stomach to make room for the next course. The first course includes the lovely Danish rye bread (of course), pickled and smoked fish (my favorite is the smoked salmon), fried white fish, remolade, and eggs. Yummy. The second course include bread, again, cold cuts, eggs, butter, cucumber, and liver patte (disgusting). After that you get a course of potatoes, cabbage, duck, fleskinstein (pork with a crisp finish), and "brown sauce". Then, after a short break that is filled with singing, dancing, and drinking, you have the cheese course, which is filled with many different types of cheese, crackers, and bread. This course is followed by a long break because the next round requires a very roomy stomach. This 5th course is called risalamande, which is a Danish dessert consisting of rice pudding with almonds, covered by a warm cherry sauce. But, there is a catch, in the whole batch of risalamande, there is hidden one whole almond, and the person who finds the almond wins a prize. Sometimes you get a kind winner, who pops the almond out upon discovery and stops you from overstuffing yourself, but other times you get a little devil of a winner who hides it until all of the pudding is gone and everyone is moaning because of their over full stomachs. From this you have a couple of hours playing games, exchanging gifts and causing all kinds of trouble before the coffee and cake is served, with the intent to sober everyone up enough to head on home.

So as you can see, the need to eat is destroyed and you are ready to hibernate for the month of January.

Another interesting thing about Danish Christmas is their gift exchange game which is just too long to spell and kinda looks like a keyboard crashed into a wall. Imagine pronouncing such a mess, here's a hint, you can't, not even the Danes can. This game is played by rolling dice, in hopes that you land a six. So, everyone sits at a table, and there can be multiple dice rounding the table. For every six, you collect a present and set it in front of you. Once all of the presents are taken, the stealing round begins. For this round, a timer is set and every time you roll a six, you can steal from one of the other players. By the end, everyone secretly hates each other for stealing their gifts and the amount of gifts ranging from person to person is big. After the stealing round, everyone unwraps their gifts and laughs at the hilarity that is inside. One time I got a CPR training mask, another time I got a couple of bars of soap and some chocolate.

The last Danish I will tell you about takes place on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, the whole family dresses up and has a dinner resembling the Julefrokost. After dinner you have some lovely dancing and singing around the Christmas tree, with the last song requiring everyone to run crazily around the house. After dancing and singing, it is present opening time. It was strange opening presents the night before Christmas, I mean Santa must get pretty annoyed having to deliver presents a day early to just one country of only 5 million people, but like a good mystical fairytale man, he follows through. While all of this is going on, there are about 50 candles lit, along with a fire, so by the time presents are done, you are exhausted from lack of oxygen due to the fire hazard that is the house.

So, as you can see, Danish Christmas is insane and overwhelming, I love it don't get me wrong, but it is definitely not something for the weak hearted. This New Year, I will be celebrating in the great white north that is Norway. I will freeze, but I will have fun adding another country to my belt and acting like the proper snow bunny that I am (kinda, not really). Here's a fun fact about the Danes, they literally jump off of furniture when the clock strikes twelve. Nope no kissing or banging pots and pans, but jumping. Off of furniture. Screaming like some kind of Viking warrior. I swear, these people are almost as crazy as I am.

Well, that's all for now kids. I'll talk to you'll again when I am back from Norway and safe inside Danish boarders.

Vi ses!

Becca

Moved In!

Hey everyone!

So I just wanted to tell everyone that I am safely moved in and loving my new house. The best thing about it? The shower. Yes, the shower is a normal shower with a shower curtain and a raised ledge, so there is no water spraying all over the place or any of the awful squiggying that I used to have to do. No more getting the entire bathroom wet when I shower or letting in the freezing cold air when I shower. This shower with it's lovely shower curtain is a proper shower, a shower that traps all of the steam and stays all toasty warm and heavenly. Needless to say, I appreciate this very much, but that is enough ranting about showers.

Another really awesome thing that my new family has is chickens!!! My host dad keeps chickens and every morning walks out to the chicken coup in the freezing cold to take care of his adorable little chickens. The result of this is an endless supply of fresh eggs which are delicious and lovely. Although I will miss my little trips to the little egg vending machine that the local organic chicken coup has, I like being able to walk downstair and have a fresh egg for breakfast. 

Other than the chickens and the shower, my house is pretty much the same as before. Everything is designed to be functional and cozy at the same time, and luckily for me. Both of my host families have lived abroad and have embraced the large American leather couch idea. Also, they know what I am feeling. Everywhere I go in Give I feel welcome and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so grateful to have the honor of meeting the people I have met. I miss my old host family, and I will stay in touch with them for the rest of my life, but I look forward to getting to know my new host family. We already have a lot of plans and it is clear that they intend to keep me busy over the holiday season. 

So for now, that's all that has been happening over here in the land of the Vikings. So I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and ask that everyone eats a lot of turkey and pie for me. Until next time!

Vi Ses!

Danes and Snow

Today was a monumental day, it snowed today!!! Whenever this happens back in the mitten, I am excited and everyone around me is happy and cheery and full of winter-wonderland spirit. But not here. Nope. Danes hate the snow. All of my classmates and teachers are complaining and cursing the snow. I walk into to class, all happy and rosy cheeked from the cold and then I see my classmates. All staring out the window swearing under their breath and looking all grumpy. When I ask why everyone is so upset, they say because of the f**king snow. I really don't understand the hatred on snow here. Everything is even more gorgeous (didn't think this was possible), and it feels more normal to be snuggled up at 4:00 in the afternoon by a fire while its dark outside.

Meanwhile, when I see all of the South American exchangers, they come running up to me speaking rapid Spanglish and screaming about the snow. This is a little more excitement than I was expecting, but I welcome it. Especially considering none of them have ever seen snow before.

I know this is an extremely short post and isn't about anything particularly important, but I just felt the need to express my feelings about proper reactions to snow on the interweb. If someone has a problem with my expression, well tough nuggets, deal with it. I'll be sure to update everyone about my move and tell about my new host family soon.

Vi Ses!

Time Flies

So yesterday was the day that officially marked my three month anniversary in Denmark. I can't believe that I have endured three months in this country full of crazily wonderful people. They have introduced me to amazing things, like the comforting powers of tea and candles (literally everywhere, it is a fire hazard). I have learned to love this adorable little country, more than I ever thought I would. In my opinion, it feels like time is speeding by at a speed of 120 mi/hr. I guess that happens when you try to enjoy every moment you can, and when you purposefully try to take things slow to enjoy the experience. When you decide to stop waiting for something in the future and take advantage of the present, the future gets jealous and swoops in faster than you expected.

The realization that my time here was passing hit me when I was sent an email giving me instructions for booking my return date. When I saw that email, I stared at the computer in shock, thinking Why on Earth am I doing this now? I have eight months left! With these thoughts, I decided to take a look into my calendar to count it out, and what I found was that I had roughly three weeks left with my current host family, and less than two months until Christmas.

See, I feel like it has been barely a month since I have arrived in this charming country, but at the same time, I feel like I have lived here for two years. I feel at home and away from home at the same time, and it is a strange feeling to have. Now, i have less than two weeks before I move on to live with my second host family, and as sad and nervous as I am about leaving the comfort that I have acquired, I am ready to face this challenge. I am excited to learn another way of living, and I look forward to spending time with my new family. I will always love the Damøs, and will always cherish my time living with them, but I realize that it is time for me to take that next step and experience a new lifestyle.

So I think that that is enough sappiness for me, I get any deeper or more emotional and I'll end up being a puddle of tears, which would be really bad since I'm sitting in my physics class right now (by the way, danish physics=impossible). I promise to be a better blogger, especially now that life is calming down for me. Until next time!

Vi Ses!

Dancing, Eating, and Little Black Cats

Hej alle!
So sorry that it has been so long since I've updated my blog, but I have been just non-stop busy for most of this month. As was previously posted, I started out the month with an amazing concert by Macklemore and the month definitely stayed up to par. After finally getting home from a week of traveling and experiencing the wonders of Europe, I arrived home with the awful realization that I had school in the morning. Lucky for me, I only had school for about 3 days before I was off on Autumn break, along with the rest of the Danish population. It's nice that every year they have their breaks on the same weeks, for the entire country. I think America could take some pointers from the Danish school system.

To start off the break, my friends Alex, Abby, Laura (all exchangers) and I went out to Alex's host family's summer house. We danced, we sang, we watched movies, and we ate junk food; in my opinion it was the perfect girlie sleepover to start off the break. Here are some pictures of us dancing, courtesy of Alex, who wielded the camera like a pro.

After saying some sad goodbyes to an amazing few days, I was off to Copenhagen again to spend time with the Damøs. We relaxed and enjoyed the city for the weekend. On Sunday, Emilie and I headed to Præstø, which is in Southern Zealand, to be with her grandparents. For the next two days I saw the beautiful sites of Southern Zealand. These sites legitimately looked like scenes from the movies.

I cans say that I bonded with Emilie's grandparents and I'll admit that I already miss them and can't wait until I get to see them again. But sadly, I had to head back to the city and meet up with my friend Larissa. We had a very relaxed day, enjoying some cafes and being tourists. It was very hyggeligt (Danish phenomenon that is very difficult to explain, the closest translation is "cozy". I'll have to take time to explain this in another post).

I finished off the break with the Damøs, in their summer house. We enjoyed the weather, had some laughs, and enjoyed each others company. Break ended that Sunday as I had to return to Give and to school, but no worries, I was getting ready to head off to a costume party in Frediricia that Friday.

The party was fun and I met some awesome new Danes who had the same love of Halloween as I do.

All in all, it was a good couple of weeks, filled with laughs and good food. This up coming weekend I will be going to a Rotary get-together with al of the other exchangers in Denmark. Needless to say, I am very excited and can't wait to tell you about the crazy shenanigans we get up to!

Vi ses!

P.S. I will have a post with pictures up soon :)

London...Copenhagen...Traveling

Hej alle!

So now I'm finally home after about 10 days of nonstop travel. I've made some amazing memories and met some interesting people while on my traveling escapade. As much as I love to explore and experience other cultures, it is nice to be home and be able to relax. I guess I should probably tell some stories and show some pictures now, so fasten your seat belts, this is going to be a long post. Here we go!

It all started on Thursday, September 26th, when the Damøs and I packed up our things and drove the 3 hour drive to Copenhagen, where we stayed in their flat for the night. That Friday morning, at 5:00 am, we boarded a plane to London and settled in for the 2 hour flight. The flight went extremely well, even though the man I was sitting next to was the most demanding flier I have ever met. I'm talking about a special altitude blanket (didn't know it existed), earplugs, 3 pillows, "flight slippers", sparkling water, eye mask, and sliced apples; it was ridiculous. I was extremely happy to get off of that plan and away from my primadona fight partner.

Once we dropped off our bags at our hotel, Henrik was off for a lunch with his old friend and Barbara, Emilie, and I had the afternoon to explore and see the sights of London. We saw Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, some old churches, the London Eye, hundreds of monuments, the cavalry stables, House of Parliament, and Regent Street. Here are some pictures from out day of exploring.

An old church

Big Ben and the London Eye

Another old church

A very sleepy cavalry soldier

Cavalry stables

After our explorations, we met up with Henrik back at the Hotel, where we promptly got ready for dinner and the show Let It Be. We headed out to China Town for dinner, and had the most delicious meal I could have asked for. We wrapped it up and hurried off for The Strip (the area where all of the theaters are) to catch our show, preparing for some great entertainment. And boy was it good, the band sounded amazing and according to others in the audience, sounded exactly like The Beatles did live. Although I never had the honor of actually seeing the real Beatles, I am happy to say that I at least have some sense of what one of their concerts was like. The band was an extremely good representation of them and had the crowd energized and excited. Here is a picture of them in my personal favorite costume.

That night we all went out to Barbara's favorite pub (where I had only a cappucino. Such a good exchange student). We laughed and bonded and I attempted to learn more Danish. On this particular Friday night, London was definitely alive, especially when a drunken Englishman stripped down and ran around the square that was outside of the pub. He was finally stopped when a friend of his tackled him to the ground and dragged him to an alleyway where he was forced to re-dress. After the excitement and disturbing sight we decided it was time to turn in for the night.

The next day Emilie and I went out to explore China Town while her parents went to a lunch meeting. There we had another very good and ethnic lunch and went out to explore the wonders of China Town. We saw an amazing bakery, got some really tasty stick things that I don't know the name of, but they are delicious, and then picked up these weird little rice ball things that were disgusting. You win some and you lose some, I guess. Here are some pictures of China Town.

China Town!

Our really delicious lunch

The awesome bakery

The disgusting rice things...seriously gross 

After China Town, we stumbled across a giant M&M's World, and, being the child I am, I had to go in and investigate. Long story short, it was beautiful and colorful and a childish candy lover's dream. Here are some pictures.

We finally found ourselves back at the hotel, where we deposited our goods and met up with Henrik and Barbara for Indian food at the best Indian restaurant in London. We finished up a curry filled meal and I tagged along as the parents went out for a nightcap.

That Sunday, we relaxed in the morning, and then went out shopping of course. We saw beautiful little teashops, stepped into London's oldest perfume shop to smell some traditional British perfume, and then explored the oldest department store in the World, Liberty, which was gorgeous and, of course, expensive. We followed up the shopping with some traditional afternoon tea at Fortnum & Masons, which is a famous tea company and the inventors of the cucumber sandwich. We were pampered with scones, hundreds of different teas to choose from,  and amazing cakes to satisfy a sweet tooth. I didn't take any pictures of the beautiful building or food because it was considered rude to do so, so instead I will just describe it to you.

Everything was beautiful carved oak with gold fixtures, sea foam green carpeting (Fortnum & Masons' trademark color), and pristine white table clothes covering every table. Chrystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and there were glass cases portraying the beautiful china. While we ate and sipped tea from the custom Fortnum & Masons china, we were serenaded by a piano player in the main hall. To say it was my favorite experience would definitely be an understatement. We followed afternoon tea with dinner at an adorable little Moroccan restaurant that night.

The last day we packed up and caught lunch at a little English pub, where I had some good old English fish n' chips. We then rushed off to the airport and jumped on a plane back to Copenhagen, reluctantly if i may say so myself. I loved London, and will return some day. The people are hilarious and everything is filled with history and beauty. If anyone is every offered the chance to experience London, seize it and take in one of the greatest cities in the world.

Now on to Copenhagen! Monday night, I went to pick up my friend Abby from the station. We went to dinner and had a quiet night talking and telling stories of our travels (she went to Berlin).

Tuesday we were up early making breakfast and heading out to explore Copenhagen. We stayed close to the flat and saw some beautiful parks and buildings. We found ourselves in a little farmers market where we practiced ordering in Danish, to our surprise, we were successful. We headed back to the flat and got ready for the Macklemore concert that night.

The concert was amazing. Macklemore preformed all of my favorite songs and he truly knew how to entertain a crowd. The crowd was energetic and fun, not cramped and uncomfortable like some can be. Abby and I were about 8 feet from the stage, dead center, and had the privilege of helping in holding Macklemore when he stood on top of the crowd and danced. Here are two of my favorite pictures from the concert.

When he was standing on top of us

My favorite costume of his

The concert was finished with an encore, he played "Can't Hold Us" and during the encore, part of the ceiling in the back behind the stage caved in. It was very ironic and very fitting for such and amazing concert. The collapse, however, did not affect the Macklemore nor the crowd, so the encore continued. Abby and I returned to the flat exhausted and amazed. 

Wednesday Abby and I met up with two other exchange students, Julian and Guilhermme, to see the sights of Copenhagen. We saw Nyhavn, the queen's palace, the opera house, and some beautiful old churches and parks. Here are some pictures.

That night we drove back to Jutland and said our goodbyes.

It was an incredible week and I loved every second of it, I can't wait until I get the chance to see Copenhagen again and have the opportunity to explore even more.

That's all for now folks, until next time.

Cheers!

Vi Ses!
See y'all later!

American Stereotypes

Hej alle!

I just wanted to update you all on my majestic daily life living in another country. Everything here is great, and I am about to embark on a week of traveling. I'll be going to London for four days, and then to Copenhagen for three days. For the most part, I stay pretty busy. If I'm not doing something with Rotary or my host family, then I am at school, doing something with the musical.

One of the many things that I have done over the past few weeks was go to my host sister's school, where I met her class and gave a presentation on what it's like being a teenager in America. Everyone said that I was nothing like the American girl they imagined, so I can successfully say that I broke some stereotypes! But I did get a few questions that I have heard quite a bit, here they are:

1. Are you a cheerleader?

2. Do you own a gun?

3. Have you ever drank before in America?

4. Do you have a car?

5. Do you have a boyfriend? Is he a football player?

6. What is American football exactly?

7. Do you like Obama?

8. What clique are you apart of?

9. Do you eat McDonald's?

10. Have you met any celebrities?

11. Have you ever seen snow?

12. How many people go to your parties?

13. Have you ever fired a gun?

14. Are you rich?

15. Do you know any fat people?

The last one really cracked me up, and so did the first one, in fact all of them made me laugh pretty hard. Some of my answers disappointed people, but for the most part, everyone was pretty relieved. Especially when I said I had never fired a gun before. So I can sufficiently say that all of these stereotypes are pretty much broken, because I am not a cheerleader nor do I have a boyfriend or a car or a gun, so BOOM stereotype broken. Well that's all from me for now, I'll be posting relatively soon with some pictures of London!

Cheers!

Exchange Student Family and Memories

I'm sure that everyone is wondering what I have been doing with my time for the past month, and for the majority of the time, I have been spending time with the hundred plus other exchange students in Denmark and making some crazy memories from crossing multiple cultural boundaries. I will warn you now, this may be a really long post.

As many of you know, I started off my exchange going to a language camp with some other nearby exchange students for the first two weeks. At this school I met some great people, 6 of which were from the U.S and Canada, 5 from South America, and 1from Slovakia. Meeting all of these exchange students so early one was comforting. We were able to experience all of the strange and awkward cultural differences together, we were all lost in the culture, but at least we were lost together. Other than meeting our amazing Danish teacher, who was probably the nicest teacher I have met to date, we helped each other learn how to use the public transportation, had the opportunity to complain about the strange bathroom facilities (like the toilets with multiple flushing options or the showers that are really get the entire bathroom soaking wet), and experience some delicious, and disgusting, food. After this language school, I had to say goodbye to two of the exchange students, the girl from Slovakia and the girl from Argentina, because they're a part of AFS, not Rotary.

Here is a picture of my awesome class:

Then, I got to travel through this beautiful country and was introduced to my host family's cozy little cottage on an island of the coast of Zealand. The weather was perfect and the ocean was beautiful, but a little to cold to go swimming. I met some of their friends, who lived in Houston for three years and had some delicious food. I also went to a fresh fish market for the first time and had fresh fish for lunch while sitting in the marina look out over the ocean. Needless to say, I was amazed by the beauty and couldn't help but think of how lucky I was.

Here are some more pictures of my time at the cottage:

Leaving this magnificent place was difficult, but I was excited to be off at Introcamp with the other 170 exchange students in Denmark. Introcamp was obviously crazy and exciting to say the least, just like any Rotary event. Within an hour of arriving, I had met just about everyone, knew where everyone was from, and exchanged pins and cards with at least 80 people. By dinnertime, we had met our teachers for the week, and become friends with everyone at the camp, and by the next morning I was already calling some of my friends family and others my best friends. By the third day I had decided I never wanted to leave Introcamp because every one there had become a family to me, one that consisted of 170 kids and 8 teachers, one that was almost as closely knit as my family back home, one that I never wanted to leave because I felt so at home there with them. So much happened in this week, and I had made so many memories in such a short amount of time that it felt like I had been there for at least a month. If this post wasn't so long already, I would go through each day and tell you all about every single activity, but that might be a little extreme in this case. So instead I will tell you about the really big things that happened while at camp.

The First Night:
Meeting everyone and getting pins and bracelets from all around the world is something that can definitely make someones day, especially a Rotary exchange student (we have a little obsession with pins / stuff we can make into pins). Sometimes, the names were easy to remember, but when it was to difficult to remember, calling people by there home country/state/city was perfectly acceptable. The only issue with that was the Brazilians, being that there were about 70 of them and if you called out "Brazil" you would be answered by a huge roar of noise followed by spontaneous dancing and chanting (and I though America was patriotic...). By the end of that night, I had become close with my awesome room mate, Abby, and made some friendships that I couldn't imagine not having, like my friend Guilherme from Brazil, who is probably my best friend now and one of my favorite people in Denmark. The first night we all walked down to this little park to have coffee, cake, and fruit while sitting by the river and meeting everyone. This eventually turned into a bunch of singing, pictures, more pin exchanges, dancing, and the casual mini food fight/wrestling.

At the end of the first night we ended up with this awesome picture:

The Surprise Concert:

On Wednesday night, the teachers surprised us with a concert by a danish band called Mettro. The band was amazing and were taking pictures with all of the different flags and exchange students mid-song. Then the played a cover of the song "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit", and needless to say I went a little bit crazy and everyone was pointing to me saying that I was from Detroit. This then prompted the band to give me a bunch of free stuff and one of the other exchange students to lift me up on his shoulders. I don't have the pictures of the concert, most of them were taken by my friends, but once I get some of them I will post them.

The Århus Museum of Art:

Being the art geek that I am, I felt like a little kid in a candy shop. The Museum is world renown for its amazing installations and its amazing modern art collection. The most famous piece in the museum is the large installation on top of the museum. This installation is a huge tunnel, in the shape of a ring that you can walk inside of, but the catch to the tunnel is the optical illusion it creates. The tunnel walls are made of colored class, which is designed as a spectrum wheel. The optical illusion is created when you are standing in a certain color, you are looking out at the beautiful colored view of Århus and then you reach a section with natural light and no glass, when you look around you, everything is colored the color that is opposite of the one that you were standing in. After walking around in the spectrum for a while, and then walking outside, you start to see more vibrant colors for a few hours because of the illusions that were played on your eyes. Also while at the museum, I saw one of my favorite sculptures, which is a large neon lettered sign, a sign that is so big that you can't read it when you are standing in front of it, you have to walk in front of it in order to read it. I didn't know that this sculpture was housed in the museum's modern art gallery, so I was very happily surprised. The museum was followed by lunch, shopping and sight seeing with some of the other exchange students in Århus.

Here are some pictures from the day:

This is a live woman

                                                       "Boy" (note the size comparison)

                                                  The view from inside the spectrum

                                                                 My lovely roommate

                                                         "My Sense of Your Language"
                                                                      (my favorite)
Saying goodbye to all of the other exchange students was difficult, I cried and I was hugged by 170 people. I burst into tears saying goodbye to Guilherme and Abby, and was kissed on the cheek by every single Brazilian. I had to say goodbye to my awesome teacher, who I had so much fun with making fun of the weird danish culture. I miss everyone from Introcamp so much, but there isn't much that can be done about it, and I know that I will see them in November for an amazing few days in Copenhagen.

I will post again next week, and I will also post some more pictures this week and put up a map of Denmark with all of the cities that I have visited.

Vi ses i næste uge!

Becca

Some Answers to Some Questions

       First month in Denmark down and it already feels like I've been living here for three. Sometimes it is difficult to realize that I have only been here for a month, especially when everything feels so natural here. I have already met some great people and have made some great memories in a short amount of time. With meeting all of these people, I have noticed that I am answering most of the same questions, so I decided to answer these frequently asked questions for all to see. Here we go!

1. How's my Danish? My Danish is moving along at a very slow but steady pace. I try to use as much Danish as I can, and I encourage all of my classmates and friends to speak Danish when they are around me. It is sometimes difficult to learn a new language when English is such an accessible and widely known language here. Almost everyone here knows English very well and instead of addressing me in Danish, they just speak to me in English. I have also found that when I do try to speak Danish in stores or at restaurants, they tend to pick up on my American accent and my broken Danish very quickly, then they immediately switch to English. When I am in busy stores, I let it go and just speak English so that I'm not holding up business, but when I am in quiet little places, I ask them to speak Danish to me slowly. Everyone is very helpful when I ask them to speak Danish, and they are all very pleased that I am making an effort to learn the language. The goal is that by November, I will be able to understand Danish when it is spoken to me, and that by the end of December, I am able to respond somewhat. 

2. Do you like your host family? Yes! They are so incredibly helpful and kind to me. They make me feel at home and are always interested in what I have to say. They love hearing about my culture and love teaching me about theirs. It is strange to think that in just two short months I will be leaving my new home for yet another one with a different family, but it is all fine because I get along great with my second host family as well. My first family was a great pick for me though, they all speak fluent English, making communication with them a lot easier. They are also very good at teaching me Danish. They have made it a habit to speak to me in Danish as much as possible and then they switch to English once they realized that I can no longer understand the conversation. 

3. Do you like it in Give? I love it!! It already feels like home to me, and I am completely comfortable walking around the city exploring. It is so beautiful here and everyone is very open and willing to help the "silly America", don't worry, this is said with endearment and only by my friends. 

4. What's different about the schools in comparison to schools in America? The school that I am attending is the equivalency of American high school, and my class is the equivalent of being a junior back home (which is perfect because that is what I would be anyways). The school schedule is set up more like a college. You have about three classes a day, and you are responsible for knowing where you're supposed to be and when you're supposed to be there. There isn't as much homework, but when it is given it isn't repetition that you're doing, but actual work that you haven't seen before. Instead pen and paper for everything, they use their computers in almost every class. The strangest thing to me is the way that they address their teachers, or adults in that matter. Instead of using "Mr" and "Mrs", all of the teachers and adults are addressed by their first name. This is because children and adults are considered equals in society, maybe not on a political stance, but in everyday life, they are. 

5. What do you miss most from home? The people of course! I miss all of my family and my friends, as is expected and I am dealing with it. I have had a few days where I have felt very sad missing everyone, but I am getting through it and staying busy. I also miss driving. I didn't think that I would miss it as much as I do, but I really do miss the independence and ease that driving supplies. However, independent travel is easy to come by because of the amazing public transportation system here, but driving was such a nice and calming thing that was an easy way to pass time with my friends. I also miss some of the food that I had back home. Most of the food that is in America is also in Denmark, but everything is in smaller portions and the American food is much more expensive here. I guess I miss how easy it was to just walk into my kitchen back home and raid the fridge, but once again I am definitely surviving because all of the food that I do eat here is absolutely amazing!

So far I haven't been asked about the political issues in America, and I am definitely thankful for that because I really don't know much about American politics. Also, American stereotypes aren't very common here, or at least I haven't encountered them so far. Hopefully, if there are any negative stereotypes, then I am proving them wrong and setting the record straight about Americans, whatever the stereotype may be. 

This is all for now, but I should have more stories up by next Tuesday or Wednesday. Most will be about all of the crazy exchange students (because we are all completely insane), who I meet last week and spent the most amazing week of my summer with, and about this weekend with all of the exchange students from my district. 

Vi ses i næste uge!

Becca 

 

After my first 24 hours in Denmark, I have no complaints. The food here is delicious and everyone that I encounter is kind and helps me with my pronunciation. Tomorrow I get the chance to rest and enjoy a relaxing day, which is needed to help with my awful case of jet lag...

The first thing that I noticed about Denmark was the vast expanse of nature. Everywhere I look I see green forests, or open fields with a few windmills scattered around. It is a truly beautiful country, with so much charm and history. For once I actually enjoy all of the history lessons that I am hearing. Today, my host parents gave me a tour of surrounding cities and sites, and among these sites was a small, old monument. This monument was in honor of 6 englishmen who died in a plane crash during WW2. The story goes that while Denmark was being occupied by Nazi Germany, England would fly over Denmark to give assistance to the resistance, or to carry mines to the battle fields. During this particular flight, the plane was carrying mines, when it was shot down by the Germans in Denmark. The tail end of the plane fell off and the front end continued for 4 miles, where it fell in a field. The men died before they could escape the plane, their death was a result of the intense fire from the crash. This particular crash was not extremely famous, and did not give any drastic improvements in the war, but non the less, the Danes decided to remember the soldiers. This simple task of inscribing one large stone explaining the monument and 6 stones featuring the name of each soldier and their home, showed me how caring the Danish can be. It was so quaint and such a simple task, but for some strange mystery, it touched my heart, and it gave me the realization that Denmark was ripped apart by war and survived to become one of the most peaceful countries in the world. It was a truly humbling experience for me, and helped me feel welcome in this historic land.

I will continue to post my stories, and will be sure to have many more to come, but that is all for now.

Hej Hej

My journey to Denmark has finally begun, I can't believe it's been a year since I walked up to my parents and asked if I could be an exchange student. Now here I am, about to step on a plane and leave the comfort of my home for something way outside of my comfort zone, but I think I'm ready for it.

I hope I can experience all that Denmark can give and I am prepared to live a life in a year