Oh my

My class's opinion of America. Multicultural, obese, and the longest word I've ever seen in Danish: Uafhængighedserklæringen (The Declaration of Independence).

Skole

So school started for me last week, kind of early but I'm glad because now I always have something to do. I have a slightly terrifying schedule, I'm taking French, English with the 3rd grade and with my class (we're in 2nd grade), history, math, biology, chemistry, art, and beginning and advanced music. Luckily, I've already studied most of the things we're studying, so I understand what's going on and will  hopefully learn Danish easier! The only classes I don't understand are math and biology, but I don't want to drop biology because we're gonna go snorkeling near Sweden soon!

I somehow ended up in the athletic class at my school, but I'm not taking p.e. with them so I think it'll be okay. I like my class, though, they're super friendly AND we're going on our studietur to Mallorca in March :). I think it'll be a good year with them.

Denmark has fairs, too. There was one near my house this past weekend, called the kræmmermarked. I spent my weekend there with my brother's friends, which was pretty fun. I also went to a Danish birthday party on Sunday, which was a pretty cool experience. Danes love to sing, they have several different birthday songs, plus they sing to start the Rotary meetings every week. I think it's a nice tradition.

I'm working so hard at learning Danish, because it's honestly SO awkward to be in a group of people and not understand anything they're saying. People really like to have me say Danish words and then laugh at my accent, but that's okay because it helps me learn Danish! So many exchange students come here and go home without learning Danish, and I don't want to be one of them.

Well that's all for now, next week is my Introcamp so I'll make sure to post about that soon!

Vi ses

Video Post!

Oh and it's also spider season here, there's giant spiders everywhere. Honestly one of the more terrifying experiences of my life.

Roskilde

So yesterday I went back into Copenhagen with my 2nd host brother, Mads. We just walked up and down Strøget and talked, it was nice to get to know him. Then I went out to dinner at Nyhavn with my counselor. It's so beautiful, it's a really nice place to eat. Apparently the majority of the waiters in Copenhagen don't really speak Danish.. Good thing all the Danes speak English!

Today we went out to Roskilde. It has a huge cathedral, possibly the biggest one in Denmark, although I'm not sure. It's where all the Danish royalty are buried. The cathedral looks very unique from any other cathedral I've seen in Europe, it was made with quite a lot of bricks. Here are some pictures:

My camera died, and I brought the wrong charger. I've been having to use my iPod, which doesn't have the best camera.

Roskilde is also known for it's viking history, so we went to their viking museum, too.

Several years ago they found the remains of five viking ships in the water near Roskilde.

They're also building a viking style ship using only the materials and tools the vikings used!

Well that's all for now, vi ses snart!

København

I spent the last two days in Copenhagen, which was amazing! It's such a cute city, small enough that you can basically easily walk to everything. One of the main streets, Strøget, is a pedestrian only street for the purpose of shopping. I bought a couple of pairs of pants at H&M, spending almost all of my money. Denmark is expensive!

We also went to Nyhavn. It was so weird to actually be there, instead of looking at pictures of it like I've been doing for the past six months. It helped make me realize that this year is finally a reality!

Near Nyhavn is the Queen's Castle and the Little Mermaid statue. The Queen's castle wasn't especially cool because she's in London and the church was closed. And we didn't walk far enough to go to the Little Mermaid, so that's something that I will need to do in the future!

We also walked to a little castle where the Crown Jewels are kept, but didn't go in because my counselor would have had to pay. When I went back today with my friend Cassidy, we meant to go but didn't have the  time. I'll need to go back and do that, too.

Today when Cassidy and I walked around we got very lost a couple of times, but that was okay because Copenhagen is so small. I can't wait until I've been here enough times that I actually know the city well enough to get around without getting lost!

We also took some city bikes, which are bikes that you pay 20 kroner to use, and get the money back when they are returned. It was fun to bike through the city, which EVERYONE does. It's so nice to bike in Denmark, because it's such a flat country. The bikers here get a little aggressive, though.

A very common sight in Copenhagen

Things I still want to do in Copenhagen:

-See the Little Mermaid

-See the Crown Jewels

-Go to TIVOLI! (We walked past it several times, it looks so fun!)

-Rent Kayaks and kayak through the canal

-Eat at a restaurant by Nyhavn (which I bet is quite expensive, anyone want to take me? ;) )

One nice thing I noticed about the restaurants in Denmark is that they put blankets out for you if you're sitting outside, because it's so cold. Det er hyggeligt!

I move in with my first host family on Saturday, so watch for a post about that!

Hej hej!

My First Few Days

The past few days have been sooo crazy. I didn't sleep at all on the plane because I was too excited, and I haven't really slept since then. I'm still not adjusted to the time zone, so I'm super tired during the day. I even fell asleep in my first Rotary meeting yesterday, hopefully they understand that I'm jetlagged.

Both my first host family and my counselor were out of town when my plane landed, so I was met at the airport by my 2nd family and Ninette, a member of my new Rotary Club. We got Starbucks, of all things, how American can you get? It was sooo nice to meet my 2nd family, though, they seem really nice and I can't wait to move in with them.

Ninette drove me out to her home in Taastrup, which is the town I'll be staying in this year. It's only a 15 minute drive from Copenhagen, but it doesn't feel urban at all. When we toured around the town the next day it was so cute! The old part of town feels so European and everything was just so nice.

My first night there Ninette had a bunch of family over, including her two nephews who are my age, so it was cool to be able to talk to them. We watched Denmark play Croatia in handball, which was pretty painful because they lost. Then we had a delicious Danish dinner, which I didn't get to enjoy that much because I had no appetite from all the excitement. Then we just sat around and talked for a while. Danish humor is so confusing, I can never tell when they're being serious or not!

The next day, my counselor picked me up to go stay with him in Copenhagen for a week. We've just been relaxing a lot since I got here, and it's been really nice. Today if the weather's nice, he said that he'd take me into the center of Copenhagen and show me around, so let's hope it doesn't rain!

About to Leave

Well I'm in Portland right now and I leave in a little over 12 hours!! It doesn't feel real. Like I can't believe this is actually happening. I just feel like I'm going on a trip, not leaving to go live in Europe for a year.

One thing that caught me off guard was how amazingly hard it was to say bye to everyone and leave Corvallis. The past few weeks I've been so stressed and excited and sad and it's all just been really emotional. It's terrifying how this is just the beginning of a really emotional year. It'll definitely be worth it, though, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I can't even picture what my life will be like in 48 hours. I don't really know that much about my host families, town, counselor, or school, and it's so difficult to grasp what everything is going to be like for me this upcoming year.

My bags are packed, I've said my goodbyes, and all that stands between me and Denmark is a sleepless night and a 12 hour plane ride.