Clever titles are hard to think of...

I am really bad at keeping up with my blog. To be honest, it is kind of something I dread because I have to remember everything that happened, try to make it sound interesting and it is all in English. Honestly, my English is bad. I am seriously considering not coming bad to the US, because I know that I will have to work hard again. Here, I can pretty much do whatever I want. In school, if I want, I can take my shoes off, play backgammon and write notes in Danish to my friends (honestly, it helps!). A major reason that I have all this freedom is because I do not really understand everything. So, it will be weird to go back to school and understand everything and also have homework! My teachers always just tell me to make a power point about Wisconsin or the Declaration of Independence (which I did, and no one understood because how do you make the Declaration interesting and understandable to Americans, let alone foreigners. Sorry Jefferson...). You can say I pretty much pull the "Exchange Student Card" a lot.

On Halloween, I went to Næstved to see some of the exchange students there. If you have been following my blog faithfully, Næstved is a town I have talked about a few times. There are some really fun exchange students there, and whenever I go we always have a good time. I honestly cannot really remember what else happened that day. We walked around Næstved, went to a bar and practiced our Danish. It was really nice. Two students from New Zealand, who live in Næstved, and I are planning to cook supper at one of houses sometime. It should be really fun.

That week in school there was sometime called OB day. It is a day where the students find a business/company/organization who will pay them for a day's work. Then the students give all the money to a good cause. This year the money went to help children in Zimabawae go to school. That is a HUGE difference from US to Denmark; The students are extremely politically active. A few weeks ago students across Denmark planned a big protest at all the gymnasiums. No adults, no school help, only 16, 17 and 18 years old. It is really incredible.

Another example of their political activism was this past week. All the classes were cancelled for the week and every student was placed in a group, which apparently you could choose but I obvisously didn't understand that. Anyway, the week was devoted to research and activism about the climate. It was pretty much a mock climate conference, similar to the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in Copenhagen in early December. If you haven't heard of it, it is called COP15 and I really encourage everyone to read more about it, because the things that will happen there will be decide the fate of our planet. Moving on, there was a lot going on this week. There were countries from all different postitions on the climate (US, Russia, China, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, etc.) There were also groups like the European Union, GreenPEACE, Green Air and oil companies that tried to persuade the decisions of the conference in a certain direction. There were also terrorists who kidnapped one of the leadersThere were a bunch of debates and agreements between countries and it was really cool. I was Bolivia. It was nice too, because I was with people from different classes who I didn't know, so I was put out of my comfort zone. There wasn't much for me to do the whole week, so I spent a lot of time on Facebook and playing trivia online. Time well spent. The week ended with a party at the school and some really good bands from the school. They were really talented.

Yesterday, Gerda, Hjalte, Aske and I went to Gerda's brother's farm to help out. We chopped wood, fed sheep, goats and cows and got really dirty. It was a really long day, but it was fun. I have really cool boots now and I cannot wait to use them again! There were also some neighbors there to help out with some meat packing and we had really, really Danish food. Rugbrød with leverpostej and cucumbers; apple crumble and æbleskiver, light round cakes, similar in size to a golf ball, which you dip in marmalade and powdered sugar. Really good! Rugbrød is a dark, bread that (almost) ALL Danes eat. It took time for me to like it, but now I have my favorite combinations: Cucumber, egg and mayonaise is one of favorite, pepperoni is good and so is pickled herring in curry sauce. Sounds gross, tastes good. Leverpostej is gross and I will never like it. It is literally "liver paste". No, thank you. For the most part Danish food is good. Heavy, but delightful. Not a good description of food, but I really don't know how to describe it. There are some really Danish foods and meals, but there are also a lot of pastas and rice and non-Danish dishes.

Today, Gerda, Hjalte and I went on a bike ride into the country. It was the nice to see the surrounding area and all the tiny towns and anicient estates. We passed a church built in 1587 or sometime around then, and it was so incredible to think what life was like back then and what the area looked like and so on. It was really beautiful and for the first time in..well maybe ever, the sun shone and it didn't rain. Honestly, the past month has been so rainy. Everyday it rains, and rains, and rains...seriously. If Seattle thinks it is rainy there, I think Denmark has them beat. It is a cold rain too. It isn't a rain that you go running in or play around in. The song "Singing in the Rain" was definitely not written by a Dane, lets just say that. It doesn't help that it is getting really dark now. It gets light at 8 a.m. and gets dark at 4 p.m. But if it is a rainy day (every single day), it never really gets light, so the whole day is dark and it makes you feel like buying chocolate and brownies and getting fat. I know from personal experience.

I am really looking forward to the next few weekends. As Christmas comes closer, all these neat traditions happen and it is really nice. Next weekend I am going to Copenhagen with my AFS chapter and all the exchange students in it, to see a Christmas play in English. The weekend after that is a Christmas lunch with my class. It should be really fun. I am really looking forward to it. And then the weekend after that weekend, we are all going to Fyn to visit my "host cousins", if I can call them that. We will do some Christmas baking. Then Christmas is almost here and then I will be home soon! So weird. I don't really think about time much; it takes away from the whole experience to think about when it ends. I am just enjoying as it comes.

IDA! I hope you are finally happy that I meantioned you. I will see tomorrow!

Andy