Holiday

This past week has been holiday for pretty much all of Denmark. As I said in my last post, I was going to visit Johanna, a former exchange student to BRF, on the neighboring island of Fyn. On Saturday night I took the train to Copenhagen and meet Johanna's boyfriend, Charles. He was in the city for some filming he was doing. We took a train to Odense, the 3rd largest city in Denmark (which isn't saying much). It was about a 1 hour and 45 minute ride. We then walked to their house, which is in a sort of development. All the houses are the same and they are connected to each other via a gravel bike path and communal "bike shelters". It was really neat.

Johanna lives in the house with Charles and also with Charles' brother, Evan, and his wife, Christina. Johanna is Swedish, Charles and Evan are Wisconsinites and Christina is Danish. It is quite a interesting living situation! Also, Johanna, Charles and Evan are all med students at Southern Denmark University in Odense. It was really nice to meet them all and they really made me feel welcome. I stayed there from Saturday to Wednesday and it was a really nice relaxing time. We didn't really do anything special, but I was totally fine with that. Charles gave me some movies/documentaries to watch. So, I could tell you pretty much anything about Barbarians or Ancient Rome!

I had also planned to do something with Tove, another exchange student who went to BRF; however, she had to work on Saturday and so we took a rain check. I was also planning to go to Copenhagen to a party with some other exchange students on Friday night, but both of the students who had planned to go with me, couldn't and I did not want to go alone so I just stayed at home. It actually worked out real well, because that night at 2 a.m. I snuck into the kitchen, bringing along the comforter from my bed, and used one of my host family's laptops. I took some grapes and sat in the corner and listened to the BRF vs. Westby football game. It was really nice to hear some familiar names and I even got a "shoutout" from Brain B. Even though BRF lost, I enjoyed it very much.

Today I went for a walk around Herfølge. It was really nice and I found things that I never knew were here. For example, there is a maze only 15 feet from my house! I was really surprised! I also went to the local cemetery. Sounds creepy and weird, but it was actually really nice. The cemeteries in Denmark are more like parks. There are trees and flowers and bushes everywhere. Instead of only having a headstone, here you buy a little area that is guarded off by tiny shrubs and then the grave is decorated with flowers and plants, etc. There are also "normal" gaves with only a headstone, but they are scattered along the walking paths and it is a little weird. All in all, I was really glad I visited it and it also gave me an oppurtunity to reflect on everything that is happening and to think about what is ahead for me.

Great news!! On Thursday I found out that I have a temporary family! I will live with them until I get a "real" family. They live in Haslev, a town about 20 km away and it is two stops farther south on the train, which means that I will have an extra 10 minutes on the train to school, but I suppose I can handle that. The family hosted an Italian boy last year and they had a really good experience. They have extremely Danish names! The parents are Kjeld and Gerda. Kjeld is an engineer who is currently on holiday, but will return to Bangladesh soon. They have 3 sons: Hjalse, Aske and Theis, who is studying at university in Copenhagen. I will move to their house tomorrow and am excited to meet them. I will continue to go to school in Roskilde, but if they would decide to keep me, I would probably change schools. We will see how it all goes.

Andy E