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 :)