The ENTIRE Month of January

For starters, I apologize for my blog absence for the whole month of January; I have "good excuses". However, I have being keeping a list of things to include in a blog, so I am hoping not to miss any details. Also, this blog may reach a point where you get tired of reading it, because I am predicting it will be lengthy. Feel free to stop halfway and take a little walk. Also, the Spell Check isn't working, so mind the mistakes. And feel free to comment!

New Year's Eve

I spent New Year's Eve with two other exchange students, Kate from Australia and Jason from France. It was really nice to get together and just hang out. We went to Kate's house and filled ourselves up with peppernuts and muffins and played the Australian version of Monopoly and also Apples to Apples To Go!, which my mom had sent as a gift for my host family for Christmas. It was quite enjoyable and we really enjoyed ourselves. The New Year was brought in with a solid 30+ minutes straight of fireworks. WHOA! It was pretty exciting. The next day was a really lazy day and I ended up watching the USA's youth hockey team play Canada with commentary in Danish. However, that night was filled with a lot of scurring and last minute chores, as the next day we went to...

Norway!

We woke up at 5 and slowly got our things into the car. We drove to Copenhagen's airport and meet my "host cousins", Justine and Therese, who came with to Norway. (They also had never skied, like me) We got on our 8 a.m. flight and took off for the shortest flight I may ever take in my life, 55 minutes. An hour later we had landed in Norway and were greeted by snow, snow, a little wind and more snow. I have to say I felt a little at home being surrounded by so much snow; it felt right. The next 6 hours were possibly the most boring of my entire life. Despite recently arriving to a new country and being in an incredibly beautiful airport, there wasn't much to do. Sleep and looking at books in a bookshop, pretty much consumed the rest of the time. Finally, the train (what we had been waiting for) came and we got all out stuff together and sat on the train...for 3 hours. It was, however, much easy to keep entertained on the train because the train ran right next to some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Snow-covered trees and houses high in the hills turned into ice-filled rivers and cities by the water. It truly was amazing.
We finally reached our destination at about 7 p.m. and the moment we walked off the train, we were immediately reminded that we were in Norway. It was -10 degrees C, which means nothing to anyone reading this. It is about 14 degrees F. Yes, very cold. We waited about 15 minutes inside a nearby supermarket for our taxi and it drove us 15 minutes up into the hills/mountains. We reached our cabin and we were all really glad to be in from the cold. The cabin was small, but perfect for us. There was a kitchen/dining/living room, a small bathroom and two bedrooms; one with a full bed and one with 2 set of bunkbeds (one of the bottoms was a full bed). The cabin had sleeping for exactly 7 comfortably (My host dad, mom, 2 brothers, 2 "host" cousins and me). Our cabin was one of about 12 all closely together. There was a central store, ski hut and some other outbuildings, but there were also more than 30 campers, many who belonged to people who lived there during the winter months and moved during the summer. There was a sense of permance to them.
The first day we woke up at 10 and went to prepare our skis. The weather was actually really nice and I was only wearing a t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and a sweater. I was excited and nervous to try skiing for the first time. We started with the basics of rhythm (left foot, right pole; right foot, left pole) and then moved to stopping and slowing down. My host brother, Hjalte, was giving me all this information and I just did not understand anything he was really saying, so when I first tried going down a little hill I immediately fell and realized this would be no cake walk. After 15 more minutes of falling down, I had only learned how to go up a hill. I didn't even fall down right, I kept falling down on the back of skis and it really hurt my butt. Finally, we decided we should take learn-by-doing approach. Kjeld (host dad), Aske (host brother), Justine, Therese and I all went together for a "short" 2 hour 5 km tour. During the trip, I fell down at least 18 times and 4 times on a single hill. It ended up taken about double the time and by the end of the day I was well ready for bed. The next day we did some more technic work and I got really discouraged. I kept falling and after the 40th time, it isn't much fun. I was also real slow and kept falling behind. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one finding it tough; Justine and Therese were also having problems, but I still didn't understand how I was the only one falling every single time on hills?!
Everyday we finished skiing around 5 p.m., when it satrted to get dark. We had brought with some movies to watch and decks of cards. It was really nice to all be together and just relax. For Christmas, the "cousins" had recieved some used English books from their cousin who lives in Texas. We had a quite a lot of freetime and so I borrowed one of the books. They were extremely girly, but I realized how fun reading is and that I need to start reading more. (Since then, I have begun to read the Harry Potter series. I have never done so and I finished the first 2 books in 3 days.)
As the week progressed, my atittude improved as well as my ability. On the down side, the weather got worse and so much colder. The second to last day it was -24 degrees C (-11 degrees F) and we decided to just take the day off and give our bodies a rest. It was much needed for me. My body was just aching from falling so much. The final day was our longest and coldest day. We took an 11 km tour and it was absoulutely beautiful. I had to just stop sometimes and look around at the untouched and barren landscape. The weather made it quite difficult as it was windy and -31 degrees C, which is -24 degrees F! YES, -24 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!! It was worse when we stopped for a break, we just wanted to keep going. Ice formed on eyebrows, eyelashes and nose and started to on my cheeks. When we got home, my body was physically in pain because the I was warming up too fast. It was quite the day. We got home without problems and all-in-all, it was a really great trip. I will actually be going again Week 7 (2/13-20) and doing pretty much the same thing. I am hoping it will be a little warmer though!

WALKING BREAK

Homework, Sickness and Spanish Students

The Monday I got back, the joy from my trip died. I was given a 15-page assignment for English and Social Studies about U.S Immigration, due in 2 weeks. I was not in the mood for hard work (Am I ever?) and from then on my nights were devoted to research and creating acceptable English sentences, hence why I was unable to blog. I kind of became a hermit for a week. It didn't help that I also became sick and stayed home from school for 2 days. When the due date finally came, I was just glad to be finished and I think I actually created a decent report. The due date was also a date that my whole class was looking forward to. That day 30 Spanish students arrived in Denmark and went to live with various people in my class. The next day we all went together to Copenhagen and walked around and saw some of the big tourist attractions. It was fun, but I finally realized how pathetic my Spanish is. I kept trying to say something to them in Spanish, but it would come out as Danish. It got to be kind of a joke. On Tuesday we went skating, which was another first for me. I was terrible at first, but then one of the Spanish students helped me and I was a little farther from terrible, but not by much. It was really fun. They stayed until Thursday, but I left on Wednesday for..

Mini-Exchange in Ålborg

I stayed home from school on Wednesday, because at noon that day I would take a train to Køge and meet all the other exchange students and then take the train together to Roskilde and get on a train together to the other side of the country to Ålborg. This plans were changed by the arrival of snow. In Denmark, when snow comes DSB (Danish train company) act as though they have never seen snow before. The trains are always cancelled or late and it is just a mess. On this particular day there was a lot of snow and the train I and the other exchangies were going to take to Roskilde was cancelled. After a few phone calls were exchanged, I found out that we would be taking taxis. My first taxi ride was probably one of the most frightening experiences of my life. It was in New York on my way to meet all the other Americans going to Denmark. It had just taken 2 flights all alone and now was greeted by about 60 taxis outside the airport. I was to look for a black cab that said "Red Hat". After 50 minutes of me walking around with my baggage for the next year following me and having no idea what I was doing, I finally found it. It was a beige cab and the company was "Red Cap". This taxi ride was not much better. First it was about 15 minutes late. Then for 1 minute I tried to tell him that I wanted to go to the next station so that I could maybe catch the train on time, rather than drive all the way to Roskilde. He didn't speak much English and I was so nervous, I couldn't form proper sentences. Finally I got to the proper train station and was 5 minutes too late. I was met by the chairperson of my local AFS chapter and he arranged for a seat for me on the next train. So, I had to take the train all alone to Ålborg, about a 4 hour train trip. The train didn't come on time and I waited and waited and 35 minutes later it finally came. I took my seat on the train and just relaxed. I had packed some 'gummi' candy and just ate it and read Harry Potter. 3 hours in and delayed because of the snow, the train stopped in Århus, Denmark's 2nd biggest city and an hour from Ålborg by train. I had to switch trains and finally I arrived in Ålborg. My family picked me up, drove me home and bought me a pizza for supper. It was a hectic day, but ended nicely.
The family I lived with there was incredibly sweet. The parents were both dentists and they had 3 kids who were all exchange students: Stine (27), Alabama; Søren (23), Mexico and Katrine (19), Spain. Katrine is in her final year of school and is the only one that lives at home. They lived in a house from around the 1870's. It was pretty spectactular and quite large. They also had a pet turtle that was really big and slept the all day. In the morning, it would get a bath and then afterwards just crawl around the house. I feed it some lettuce. It was quite possibibly one of the highlights of my life. Just kidding. My family said that they want to visit the USA and now that they know someone who lives there, they said they would so sure visit sometime. I really hope they do. All-in-all the week was really nice and some of the highlights were:
Den Gamle By (The Old City): It is an outdoor museum in Århus with more than 60 buildings that were moved there from all over Denmark. It is set up like, well...an old city. There was a tobacco shop, a school, a sawmill, the mayor's house, stables, etc. Everything is authentic and the building are incredible old; I believe the oldest building I saw was from around 1560! Really a must-see
Lindholm Høje: Once an ancient Viking village, Lindholm Høje is a museum filled with Viking artifacts and information. It was so unique how they could preserve everything from so long ago. It was quite unique. Afterwards we went skating
Dinner with Exchnage Students and Families: On Sunday we all got together and had a really nice dinner and just sat and talked. It was really hyggeligt. We then told everyone about our families back home and in Denmark and about ourselves and then people asked questions. It was fun.
Tuesday: The day we went back it snowed the whole day. We all got together at one of the AFS leader's homes and ate breakfast and just talked..in Danish. The snow was the perfect packing snow and we had maybe the best snowball fight I have ever had and built easily the best snowmen I have ever built. We took the train home and I learned how to count to 10 in Thai and a bunch of dirty pharses in French. I would say it was a successful day!

I WASN'T KIDDING! GO TAKE A WALK!

Conclusion (Finally.)

I have recently been thinking deeply about how my time in Denmark has gone so far. I have faced lots of obstacles and made difficult decisions, and feel I have changed because of them. I am so much more independent and open-minded. I have always been a really indecesive person and usually made decisions based on other people and how it would affect them. Now, I am better aware of what I want, but still am aware of how my choice affects others. With summer approaching and June 25th becoming closer, I also feel anxious. I am not anxious to leave Denmark but more, anxious to return to Wisconsin. If anything at all, this separation from my "real life" has made me appreciate "home" so much more. I think I also have a new appreciation of the English language. Even though it is so common and unorginial, per se, it is a beautiful language and I really am proud to be a native English speaker. Finally, I believe my worst enemy is time. Maybe because it is so unlimited, or so it seems. We cherish time, yet throw it away. We forget about time, however wish we could have more. We need time, but want it to sped up. "Give it time", because "time flies". We can never make up our mind about time. It is like a 'half full' 'half empty' thing; sometimes its full and sometimes its empty. That is just the way it is. I have to just remind myself that time is precious and needs to be enjoyed, but also that the one lost is time is lost forever. I just hope time is on my side.

Andy