Glædelig jul og godt nytår!

Hello, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Or as they would say it in Danish, Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!

Okay, so for starters, Danes like to say they love Christmas. And I believe them. In some aspects. To clarify though, they love Christmas in the way of celebrations. I wouldn't say they go all out with the decorations and the Santa spirit.

They have what are called "julefrokosts." It is essentially translated to "Christmas lunch" though they can be held invariably throughout the day and can vary in traditions of celebrations. It is called Christmas lunch, though has almost no relevance to actual lunch.

What is it? Well, it varies. Sometimes it is a lot of people playing what they call "pakkeleg" and drinking Christmas schnapps. Sometimes, if you attend a kid friendly version of a julefrokost, it is just people playing pakkeleg. Well there is also always eating involved as well, from roast beef, to hvidkål or rødkål (white or red cabbage), to LOTS of different fish types. They have "sild" which is Danish for herring (actually not too bad), and "lachs" which is Danish for salmon. I even tried smoked eel. It was served on top of rye bread (rye bread in Denmark? No way), and there were scrambled eggs put on top of the eel. I thought it looked good as it was going around the table, and when it got to me someone told me it was called "eel" in English. At which point I hesitantly took a small piece from the large platter and politely took a small bite, all while discreetly thinking that it definitely looked a lot more appetizing before I knew what it was. That small and polite bite later led to less subtle and less polite bites however as I devoured my piece of that eel. It was delicious.

They also have a traditional food called risalamande. It is rice pudding with cherry sauce on top. The tradition in it being, you put one single almond in the pudding bowl. Whoever finds it in their portion of the risalamande gets a prize. I haven't found the almond but boy have I eaten my fair share of this fantastic food. Denmark also has a Christmas food called "æbleskiver" which is essentially just so out of this world incredibly delicious, I just.... can I just have some right now?

*Further clarification- pakkeleg is a game I will for 100% certainty be bringing home with me (along with risalamande and æbleskiver). It is where you have a dice, and everyone has a toy that they bought. You put all the toys in the middle of the table, and each time someone rolls a 6 on the dice they get a present. Once all the presents are gone someone starts a timer and if you roll a 6 on the dice again you can start stealing peoples presents. Once the time is done you have what you end up with; some are lucky and end up with lots of presents, and some are unlucky, like me for example, and end up with nothing. Well, there goes 50 kroner. But its really fun so either way...

So in the form of celebration - Danes love Christmas. However, they do not set up their Christmas tree until the 22nd or 23rd of December, do not hang Christmas lights, and from what I have observed, feel very decorative when they put tiny "nissemænd" (elves) in the windows of their homes and call it good. They DO, however, have traditional Christmas countdown shows, and your Christmas is NOT complete if you do not have your Christmas calendar countdown, which is essentially an opportunity to eat a piece of chocolate every day for the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Luckily for everyone else, and arguably lucky for me, due to my procrastination to buy a gift for a pakkeleg, someone received (almost) all 24 pieces of chocolate from my Christmas calendar. Woops. (Not sorry that I saved all the twix bars, those are my weakness and I will be as stingy as I please.)

The 23rd I had my host mom's brother's daughter over to bake American Christmas cookies with me, and her niece with us as well. We baked snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies (Danes have never eaten snickerdoodles and this actually happens to be an inside joke with my first host family). That was very fun and if I do say so myself, tasty. My host family liked it as well, thus meaning we have two out of three host families that like quesadillas, snickerdoodles, and compliments of their Christmas presents as well, cheezits!

The 24th (yesterday) my host family had 15 people over for a celebration. Danes open their Christmas presents on the 24th as well, and later dance around the Christmas tree while holding hands in a circle. If this does not scream "traditional white people Christmas movie" to you, than I don't know what would. So there we were, 15 of all us family members (my host moms side of the family) singing Danish Christmas carols (I silently sang the "la la la's" because I didn't know the words), holding hands and dancing around the Christmas tree. Although I must stop your visualization there because there was no room around the tree, so we ended up dancing around the white dining room table, and *almost* going up the stairs. From my vantage point, it looked quite complicated...it was fun though.

The 25th (today) my host family had 20 people over for a celebration. It was the 15 that were there for the 24th, plus a couple extra. To be perfectly honest, I actually always kind of thought that if I had a party consisting of 8 or more people it was a really large party. Not anymore. I later skyped my parents in which we opened each others gifts over webcam, and talked.

The 26th (tomorrow) my host family is going to their summer house which has a name that I cannot spell nor pronounce. I believe it goes something like: Lillemøller. Not that it was an important detail per se, I just thought I'd enlighten you. New Years Eve and New Years day we are back at the summer house with ANOTHER CELEBRATION.

January was supposed to be very calm, but then I went and filled every weekend in my calendar with something else to do.

*First weekend: birthday/Goodbye parties*
*Second weekend: making Christmas cookies* (I know the timing is a little off).
*Third weekend: friend comes from Belgium*
*Fourth weekend: going to Copenhagen*

Time is going WAY too fast. It honestly scares me how fast time is going by. Was it not JUST New Years of 2014? Did I not JUST get picked up at the airport by my host dad?!

Anyway...

Vi ses!

Thanksgivings, bag packings, etc...

Hellooooo,

Since I have last written, I have attended three thanksgiving dinners (and I'm not even in the United States...), successfully spent my months Rotary allowance on (almost) nothing but coffee, and tried to figure out how it could actually be possible that I have seemingly less clothes than what I initially packed for Denmark.

And, as an extra bonus for me, I have also dreamt in Danish. It essentially works the same as dreaming in your native language, only its 100% cooler when you wake up and realize you just dreamt in a foreign language.

I actually woke up that morning thinking "darn. It was in English again." And then I realized "Wait. Wait nope. That was in Danish. I just dreamt in Danish." I was happy.

I attended three thanksgiving dinners which is significantly more than I ever attend in the U.S, one of them being one that I actually made for my host family. It was a little bit lacking in all of the traditional foods such as turkey (that costs like an arm and leg and a couple extra kroner, so no way was I buying that), so I just settled for green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. With the green bean casserole I obviously had to substitute the American "Campbells mushroom soup," and the mashed potatoes were severely lacking gravy, seeing as how I didn't have any turkey. However in the end, I'd say that what was an incredibly foreign interpretation of thanksgiving turned out pretty good. The pumpkin pie was a success as well, according to my youngest host brother. It now has popular demand. He looks up at me after taking his first bite of pumpkin pie (*ever*) and goes "Grace. FANTASTIC." He wants it for his birthday. As well as I would presume quesadillas...cheezits...he likes American food. My host mom told me she never knew "cake" (there again with the "kage") made out of pumpkin would taste so good, and my host sister ate it first thing when she came home from school the next day.

And then, three days later, I made the final touch to my (rather horrid) packing job, and switched host families.

113 days, two overly stuffed suitcases, one backpack, a travel bag, a box, some gummi støvlers, and a Christmas calendar (?) later, I begin part two of my exchange. I am increasingly concerned at how I will ever get all the things I have accumulated here in Denmark back to the U.S. Especially if I've accumulated all this after only three months...let alone the other eight.

*Mom, I still don't know how to pack. You'd probably be appalled.*

For those who may recall the much awaited post that came in April entitled "I HAVE A HOST FAMILY" I have been in fairly often communication with my first host family since than. I spent the better half of my child psychology class period last year talking with my host sister when we weren't technically supposed to have electronics out (whoops, did I say that out loud...?), and the occasional email from one of my host parents. So you could say I knew them fairly well once I got there, and after almost eight months of communication with them, you could say I know them pretty well now.

I have thanked them already, however at the risk of sounding overly thankful (if they read my blog) I just want to say again how grateful I am to them for taking me in, especially when all they knew about me at first was essentially on an essay I had written before I turned my application in to Rotary. I will always remember how much fun I had with them, and as my days go by with my new family I find myself remembering all that was special with my previous, and I know I have a growing appreciation for all they did. I like to think that three and a half months ago when I arrived in Denmark, I entered a house, and later left what I now call a home.

My new host family is very sweet as well. I have two host brothers, one who is 18, and another one who is 21 and studying in Copenhagen. (Eller, København.) OH, and get this. They speak a different dialect of Danish. It is called Sønderjysk. It is a mix of Danish AND German, seeing as how Southern Denmark is close to Germany. And the best part? It is hard for some native Danish speakers to understand. Let alone foreigners. Who are now learning regular Danish and a dialect. I now have a new appreciation for the word impossible. Skål.

Vi ses.

Efterårs ferie

Hello hello hello!

Det sidste uge jeg havde min efterårs ferie for min skole i Danmark (God bless). Min værtsfamilie og jeg kørte til Fanø Island, og vi havde vores efterårs ferie der på sommerhuset, på Nordsøen. Det var rigtig sjov, og jeg havde en meget dejlig tid. Det var min sidste gang på Fanø fordi jeg vil være med en andre værtsfamilie snart (jeg vil skrive om det når jeg skifte), men jeg er glad det jeg havde det sidste uge på Fanø med min familie. 

For alle mine venner som læse min blog og forstår ikke Dansk, jeg oversætte ;-) 

Okay, på Engelsk nu. 

"This last week I had my Autumn break for my school in Denmark (God bless). My host family and I drove to Fanø Island, and had our Autumn break at their summer house, on the North Sea. It was really fun, and I had a really nice time. It was my last time on Fanø Island because I will be with another host family soon (I'll write about that when I switch), however I'm really glad that I had this last week on the island." 

Last Friday afternoon I drove over to Fanø with my host family after school. Of course school had relatively little work for me to do, and the drive to Fanø was essentially just listening to music on my iPod or talking to my little host brother in the car. He's actually learning English while I'm learning Danish, and everything he says in English makes me laugh pretty hard. He is only nine, so that is why he is just now learning it. I always have a pretty fun time with him.

Anyway - back to Fanø. While the day was relatively non eventful, it wouldn't be a proper Friday without some kind of story to tell. We finally got to Fanø around 8 PM, and still had to make dinner. My host mom had lit some candles near the stove, and we put some garlic bread rolls in the oven to appetize before dinner. When they finally came out of the oven, they were put near the candles in a bread basket. I was talking to my host sister and reached over to get a bread roll, my hair alarmingly close to the fire. And well - you can predict what happens next. Someone yells out "Grace, be careful," and lo' and behold I look down and see my hair on fire. Nothing quite like igniting your hair to start out an autumn break.  

Saturday morning I met up with another exchange student whose family also has a summer home on the island, and we had a really fun time together. We walked up and down Nordby, and ate some seriously tasty crèpes.  De smagt rigtig gode. The pancake place on the island actually keeps track of all the tourists they receive, and so we had Washington and Indiana put up on their tourist map. One of the workers there has actually lived in Tacoma, Washington (about an hour and a half from where I live) before! Super cool! The other exchange student Hannah and I later continued to explore the island, and came across some old WWII bunkers from the German invasion of Denmark as well! I spent the night at her host family's summer home, lost a couple board games, went skinny dipping (you heard me right) in the North Sea, and went home on Sunday.

The rest of the week was rather relaxed, which was really nice. My host family and I went to the beach every day and looked for amber, because after a storm on Fanø you can find little pieces of amber washed up on the shore.

Thursday afternoon - time for another story - I really encountered some language/culture barrier...it was sure entertaining though. We were eating some spice-cake, and because most of the conversation was in Danish, I kind of started spacing out. I tuned back in when I heard the word "hashbrowns," because I was excited to hear anything remotely familiar.

In the United States, a hashbrown is literally just shredded pan fried potatoes. So I scream out "Mmmmmmm, hashbrowns!" My host sister immediately looks at me and asks "You've TRIED those before?!" My host brother, meanwhile, was looking at me across the table. I look around a little confused, starting to wonder what we were really talking about while I responded a hesitant "Yes?" Repeating herself, my host sister says again "Hashbrownies?" That's when I realize that they were not talking about fried potatoes, they were referring to pot brownies. And I had just moments before called out how delicious I thought they were.


Friday I went into Nordby, one of the small towns on the island. I was told Saturday by the people who work at the pancakery (is that even a word) that one of the people who work on the island is actually from Colorado, and so I was able to drag my host sister along with me. I had a pretty fun conversation with another American, and the person working the register was actually an old Rotary Youth Exchange student to Brazil. We also got to talk with her. It's pretty crazy how many exchange students (old, current, or soon to be) you can find all over. I even met a girl a couple weeks ago who was an exchange student in Port Angeles, Washington last year, only a half an hour from where I live! We talked A LOT and it was super exciting...how coincidental is it that 5000 miles away from my home, I meet someone who knows exactly what I'm talking about when I make the reference to "Puget Sound," "Poulsbo, Washington," or even better yet, knows where my old high school is. Insane!


Friday night my host family and I all played (like a billion and one) rounds of a board game. I had a lot of fun. In the two months I've been in Denmark, I don't think I've laughed any harder than I did at the things that we joked about Friday evening playing the board game. Sometimes you just really purely enjoy yourself, and that is exactly how I'd describe the time I spent with my host family Friday evening.

Thus ends my efterårs ferie, and begins many more weeks of sitting in class thinking of all the ways to fall asleep with my eyes open, and figuring out all new and unthought of ways to pass time.

Vi ses! :-)

Gained on exchange (besides exchange weight)

It's been about a month since I've last written a blog, but here it is! When I first applied for exchange I had to write a couple essays about what I wanted to get from exchange, and what I wanted to experience on exchange. I decided that I've been in Denmark for two months now (two months that I left the United States today actually) so I'd take this blog post to see what I've already experienced in my short two months here.

When I first heard about foreign exchange, I wanted the opportunity for self redemption. Just thinking about foreign exchange boosted my self confidence before I was even accepted, and I just knew that I wanted this opportunity. In fact, it wasn't until I was writing my essay on the back of my application for why I wanted to be an exchange student that I was actually able to place exactly why. However once I knew it, I knew it. It was more than just self redemption.

• I wanted to see how people acted half a world away from me. What is customary, what is not.
• I wanted to see how different cultures really are, even though they all felt the same. My French class had a sister school with Pen Pals in Saint-Nazaire, France. When I wrote my pen-pals, they wrote back and I sensed the same personality, similar culture, similar lifestyle. I wanted so badly to see how culture is so much different in real life than what meets the eye. 
• I'd never been the new kid in a school. How would I act. Would I act a little bit more quiet, more reserved than my normally loud and outspoken self? Would my personality change to mold with the crowd, or would I find it as easy to act myself? 
• But most importantly, I wanted to see how other families around the world are. I wanted my own perspective on that. Their traditions, their own family culture. I knew they certainly weren't the same as my family back home, no family is ever the same. But how different does it get 5000 miles away. 

Now that I am on exchange, I think by far the greatest thing that you can gain as a foreign exchange student is your own perspective. Perspective on your own life and family, and others. As you live with other families, you see the way they live, and you see how they treat each other and interact. As you watch their interactions, you remember your own interactions with your own family as well. You remember that you too have a family, you too have your own special traditions, interactions, nicknames, etc. Those are all special to you, just as this family has something that is special to them. 

You start to realize that just as you have your own memories, and traditions, so do these families. You have a new found realization that these families come from their own background, and they all remember different things. So do you, however. As you realize that these families were here long before you were with them, it solidifies the idea that you really are here for only a year. You, as the foreign exchange student, came into these families lives much later in time, and you have the potential to be left as a blip on their own radar, or to be someone that becomes one with the family. You could leave their houses as a nationality, or as a person. I could leave still being "The American they hosted," or I could leave being "Grace." Maybe you understand that, maybe you don't. I believe there's a difference. 

While I'm sitting with my host family at dinner, I can see my host mom help my younger host brother put dinner on his plate, while my host dad may tell the rest of us something funny. I enjoy when that happens, even just the little things, because every once in a while it helps me gain perspective on my own life, my own family, myself. This family was doing this months before they met me, months before I came, and still after I came. Yet I too was doing something different. It helps me remember that I have a life back home, as well as a new life here in Denmark. However the one thing that is paramount, is I remember how fortunate I am to have my two separate lives collide with three other families. 

As a foreign exchange student, you experience not one year in a life. But one incredible life in a year.

Vi ses, hej hej! :-)

My side hobby is eating.

HERE is my treasured food post. I said before in my one month post that maybe I'd get around to making a post solely dedicated to food, and oh my goodness this is it.

Food here is not very much different than what I'm used to in the United States, but at the same time it's incredibly different. For example, I eat potatoes in the United States. But the way I eat potatoes might be different.  

For starters - if I had one dollar for every type of bread object I've eaten since I got here I'd literally make Bill Gates look completely and utterly irrelevant. To set the tone- the very first night I was in Denmark I see on the counter, a cake! The cake is put on the table after dinner, and my host family begins to describe to me what the cake is made of. You there all over in the United States are probably thinking what I was thinking "I'm guessing it's made of either vanilla or chocolate or any other cake flavor for that matter?" Incorrect. It was made of rye bread. It was literally a cake made of bread. How do you make a cake of bread? I don't know. Who invented the idea of bread cake? Det ved jeg ikke. I don't really know.  Not only do they make bread cake, I eat some kind of bread- biscuits, bread rolls, big bread rolls, wheat bread rolls every morning. I eat rye bread for lunch. And sometimes for dinner there is also bread rolls. In the cafeteria at my school, you can literally get just a bread roll for maybe 8 kroner. Like a bread roll with chocolate chips, and you just simply eat it. I'm not complaining though. My friend and I joke that by the end of the year the cafeteria will probably have received in the hundreds of U.S dollars from us just on bread, and next year they will most likely see a decrease in revenue when we're gone... it's skide godt. 

Heres the even bigger plot twist - Danes put butter on their bread. Many of you reading this might be thinking "Grace, do you live in a cave? EVERYBODY puts butter on bread??" No I mean, they put butter on every slice of bread no matter the topping, no matter the bread type. You want Nutella on your bread slice? Butter it first, Nutella on top. You want cream cheese (which I've always kind of viewed as cheese butter in the first place)? Butter first, cream cheese after. Honestly though they have the best kind of cream cheese here ever, so it's all alright. I don't personally taste a difference between butter/no butter, with/without the toppings, but maybe that's just me. I mean I'm not here to change the culture, just experience it. One more thing though- they have what is called pålægschokolade. Don't try to pronounce it, it's chock full of letters that I cannot for the life of me pronounce. Anyway - it's chocolate. And you put it on top of bread. Well actually you put it on top of the butter that is really on top of the bread, because you can never forget the butter. And you eat said chocolate for breakfast? I mean hey, chocolate on any morning is a great start to the day...but chocolate for breakfast?

One morning that we weren't eating bread for breakfast we were eating cereal. Typically, cereal here is granola, or corn flakes, or oatmeal. So that sounds normal, right? Nope, incorrect. I mean the granola and corn flakes are. But how do they eat oatmeal? Some oats with hot water and maybe milk or fruit? Nope, completely incorrect. I'll walk you through the steps of eating oatmeal in Denmark. 

1. Pour oats in bowl. 
2. Pour milk over oats. 
3. Eat it.  

I'm not joking, that is precisely how you eat oatmeal here. No hot water. Just dry oats. It doesn't taste bad... it took me a while to get used to the texture especially since I didn't typically eat much oatmeal (can I even call it that) in the U.S, but now I think I like it Danish style better. 

Now you kind of get what I eat for breakfast and lunch, lets move onto aftensmad. Or dinner. So I could write a pretty big paragraph on this, but I think it's pretty straight forward. Potatoes (kartofler) and some kind of meat (kød, or pølser if it's sausage). My host family has actually adopted a nickname for me: pølsepige, which means sausage girl in Danish. I kind of love sausage. Danes call salami kartoffelpølse which, can you guess would mean potato sausage in Danish. I eat potatoes mashed sometimes - they are usually mashed with some kind of chili or meat sauce on top (I know you're probably thinking "chili on mashed potatoes?" IT'S SO. SO. GOOD. Most of the time, they're peeled and boiled and then served with some kind of REALLLYYY good gravy on top. One night my host family made a meal that they told me was traditional. Oh my gosh I just...I can never...oh, it was so good. It was hamburger meat (which they say minced meat when they say it in English...) and it was pressed into these little oval patties. On the inside these minced meat patties were filled with cream cheese, and the outside was then wrapped in bacon. You pan fry it with sautéed onions, and serve it with boiled potatoes (on the side) with béarnaise sauce on top. No words can suffice for how good it actually tastes. 

Danes call basically everything cake. If it's a pie, it's cake. If it's a cake, it's cake. Cookies are called cake. I made this thing with my host sister which was basically dough wrapped around chocolate and marshmallows. I'm not even sure what you'd call it. They call it cake. Technically "kage" which is the Danish word. My host mom made æblekage (apple cake), and can you imagine that it was really just these little tiny cookie things with apple sauce poured over it. Oh, and they have ice-cream in cubes. Vanilla ice-cream is literally in frozen cubes. I was eating this pie thing (or excuse me, kage) with my host family once on a Saturday night, and I saw these cube things just kind of sitting on a plate. I wasn't even sure what to guess they were, like were they giant sugar cubes, or some cubed whip cream? So I asked my host mom, and she responds "ice-cream." I'm thinking w-w-oah wait a second there. Say again?  

So as you can see, food is not so different. On the other hand though, food could potentially be a polar opposite in some aspects.

My food pictures essentially had nothing to do with the food I actually talked about but they're food pictures and the food was pretty good. As you can see, I quite enjoy coffee in Europe...

Hope I made you hungry, the only bummer for you is you can't very well find Danish food ;-)

Vi ses! :-)

One month in Denmark!

Hi!

Today is one month that I've been in Denmark!

I thought that I'd write about some of the differences that I've experienced in my first month in the happiest country in the world.

Denmark is very much like the United States, although there are some cultural differences. They may vary throughout each European country, but I think that in general, Europe will be very culturally similar to the U.S.A.

Here are some of the differences I've experienced.

1. Grocery stores bag themselves, and let me tell you I will not ever be cut out to have a job as a grocery store bagger. You have to keep everything that is cold with the cold, the bread and eggs on top, etc. That's really hard to do when you have a cart full of groceries coming down the grocery carousel.
2. You eat loads of rye bread. It's much, much better here though than it is in the United States. I mean I'll be the first to admit that I was terrified to eat rye bread every day of my life for the next year, and I honestly didn't know how I was going to do it. Now however, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, navigating an airport where all signs were in Dutch (Amsterdam-Schiphol), and clearing all customs and airport security by myself, I can honestly say that the hardest thing of all that is choosing what topping to put on my rye bread. It's good stuff. 
3. When I was in the U.S I would consider "sleeping in" to be sleeping until noon. After that, I probably wouldn't get out of my pajamas at all during the day if I wasn't leaving my house. Here in Denmark, Danes consider "sleeping in" to be sleeping until nine or ten o'clock in the morning. I suppose I kind of like that because I get more of a day out of my day, and I'm usually ready to do something spontaneous by 12 or 1 in the afternoon without having to get ready. I still miss sleeping in.
4. You eat potatoes. I mean so many potatoes. In the U.S we consider maybe flour, sugar, general baking type items a staple in our cupboards. I swear rye bread and potatoes could be a staple in an average Danish home. I eat some kind of potatoes almost every night for dinner, or, if I were to be Danish "aftensmad." The potatoes though, oh my gosh they are so good. I could literally write a whole blog post on Danish food. Maybe I will later. Anyway - potatoes. Most of the time they're boiled and peeled, and have some really good kind of gravy or sauce on them. I especially love béarnaise sauce...it is so good I can never emphasize enough. My host mom put chile on top of mashed potatoes once also...oh. my. gosh. I will never ever leave this country. 
5. Biking in Denmark is like driving in the U.S. You bike everywhere. Everywhere. Everyone is so good at biking as well, I am so slow at biking, it is not a rare occurrence that people have to ring their bell to tell me to pull over so they can pass. Oh, and that's the thing. Bikes here have bells- not so little kids can ring them when they're riding bikes up and down hills in their neighborhood, but so people can tell you to pull to the side because you're way too slow. They also have bike shops specifically for the purpose of bikes, like how we have car shops in the United States. 
6. School. Is. So. Much. Different. In the United States I had six of the same subjects, every day. I had French II, journalism, geometry, English, modern world history, and biology. In second semester, journalism would have changed to a different elective. Here however, I might have natural geography, religion, and biology on Monday, and I'll have French, English and history on Tuesday, back to religion class on Wednesday with social sciences and maybe history again. You have P.E for two or three hours once every other week instead of a 55 minute P.E class once every day for a semester. The school does not call your house if you miss a class or are late, you don't have to have a parents note or call to excuse your absence or tardy from school, and you don't have to sign yourself in or out. You just simply...leave, and come back. Sometimes teachers don't even take attendance. You also have to bring your computer to school every day. Your computer sits in front of you while the teacher is talking, and you can have your phone out. I'm so used to coming from a school where teachers literally confiscate your phone until the end of the day if you have it out, and there is no way teachers would ever even dream of letting you have your laptops out because of the strict "no electronic policy." The freedom granted in Denmark is so much more than I can ever imagine having in a U.S high school.  

That is all I have for now. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. 

Vi ses!

Intro camp!

Hellooooo!

This past week I had my introduction/language camp for exchange! It was a week long event that had all of the Rotary Youth Exchange Students in Denmark from all districts, held in a town called Bjerringbro! It was super cool to meet people from all over Denmark, and I made some pretty cool friends. There were kids from Taiwan, Japan, Lithuania, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Canada, U.S.A, and Argentina (Maybe forgetting a few countries).

I arrived Sunday afternoon with all the other exchange students, and from there we traded pins for our Rotary blazers, we talked a lot, we ate dinner, and then we danced A LOT in our "living room" area with some strobe lights, and A LOT of Brazilian music.

We had three hour Danish lessons every morning from Monday to Friday, and again in the afternoon from Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday we went to Århus and saw the art museum there, and then we were able to walk around and shop a little. I also ordered ice cream (twice) IN DANISH.

Friday afternoon was really great because our afternoon Danish lessons was talking about culture shock, and although Denmark is much like what I'm used to at home, and although the culture shock wasn't very much, it was really great to be able to talk with a whole class full of other exchange students about all the differences we've noticed and what we all think of them, or how we're adapting to them.

Saturday night there was a little "celebration" for the end of intro camp. By celebration I mean there was an entire country full of exchange students crammed into a lecture hall dancing to Brazilian music all night long. It was literally like we were clubbing, minus basically everything that goes into clubbing besides music, and people. It was a lot of fun.

We also had to perform a "show" at the end, it was all just really fun performances made up by the teachers and students. My class ended up marching into the lecture hall signing an old Danish nursery rhyme: "Min venstre, min venstre, min venstre fod er meget godt, den hopper og danser i støvler og sko. Men hvad den med højre, den højre? Den højre danser hopsasa." Which basically translates to: "My left foot, my left foot, my left food is really good, it hops and dances in boots and shoes, but what about the right? The right? The right is dancing hopsasa." I'm pretty sure hopsasa is an old Danish dance...or maybe a part of the rhyme I still don't know.

Here are some pictures from intro camp:

The "massive river of Denmark" we saw on the first night of intro camp.

A kid named Hunter and I holding up the American flag in front of the art museum, you can kind of see the rainbow bridge above us.

Also the rainbow bridge.

This is probably the biggest exhibit in the art museum in Århus, it's the rainbow bridge on the roof.

This is a view of Århus from the roof of the art museum.

This boy is one of the biggest exhibits in the art museum in Århus.

This is all Danish I translated from a story in English. 

I would have wrote more, but I'm tired because I just got back from intro camp today. 

Vi ses!

Først dag i Skole

Hello!

Idag var min først dag i Dansk skole. 

Today was my first day in Danish school. 

I got placed into a second year class, and I'm in a class line of Social Sciences - Religious studies - English. 

I will now (confusingly) describe to you what a second year vs. first year and what a class line is: There are three years in a Danish gymnasium (Gymnasium is what they call their "high schools"). You have your first year classes, which is all the kids who are in their first year at gymnasium, your second year classes which is all the kids in their second year at gymnasium, and your third years which you probably understand by now. 

Then you have your class line, which is incredibly hard to describe. In a Danish high school, it is not like in the United States. In Danish school, you pick a general class line to study (kind of like a "major" or "minor" in the U.S), and whatever you pick, that is what you study in the rest of your time in statsskole (gymnasium) and into university. When you're a first year, you will choose what class line you want to study, and in January at the half year mark you can re-decide your class line, or confirm that's what you'll be studying. Once you choose, that is what you study for the rest of the time. 

For example: you can have a class line "French, Spanish, German" or "Biology, Chemistry, Physics" or maybe some kind of biotechnology or psychology type class line as well. 

Everyone has to take two languages besides your general class line, English compulsory for everyone and after that you can choose your second language to be either Spanish, French, or German. I personally am hoping and wishing with every last fiber of my being that I can be placed in French, but I suppose in the end if I'm not the world wont end and I suppose me not taking French as a language in my exchange year doesn't mean I can't stop studying French anymore. Don't disregard the"hoping and wishing with every last fiber of my being" part though because I still am doing that regardless of what I actually write. Or "skrive" if I were to be Danish. 

This is where it get's even longer and more confusing, I'm not just taking English, Social Sciences, a language and Religious studies, there are more classes broken down into this class line such as biology (which I took last year so maybe I'll have some earthly idea of what the teacher is saying) and natural geography. I think that's it...not sure though. 

ON WITH MY DAY- So I walk into natural geography first with the foreign exchange coordinator at my school. I was told to say something about myself, so I introduced myself in Danish and figured that was enough. I ended it by awkwardly whispering "yaay," and everyone laughed. I'm guessing it's because: 

A.) I had an accent. 

B.) I spoke in wrongly pronounced Danish with an accent

C.) I was as awkward as I thought I was

D.) I'm simply foreign. 

Hoping for either A, C, or D. Natural Geography ended almost an hour early so I talked with some girls, almost walked into the boys bathroom, saw some boys walk into the girls bathroom (I hope it was that...) and then went to Social Sciences. I sat there and pretended like I knew what the teacher was talking about, and then went to lunch. I sat with a couple girls at lunch and pretended like I knew what they were talking about, and then went to biology. I again, sat there and pretended like I knew what the teacher was talking about, wrote down some (pretty good- if I do say so myself) notes, and then contemplated how I'll get 11 months worth of translated Danish notes and xerox book copies home to show my school in the United States. That was my last class of the day, thus school is over.

Other than that it was a pretty solid first day of school- I met some nice people, and that's cool. I'm going to go attempt reading something in Danish and again (lets see if you can guess what I'll say) pretend like I know what I'm doing. Shocker. 

Vi ses, hej hej! :-)

Photo update

My last blog didn't have any photos because it was my first day here and plus 11:30 at night, but here's some photos so far that I've taken in Denmark. I start school on Monday so maybe if I'm not absolutely fried from trying to pick out words I understand from a foreign language all day, I'll write a blog.

Anyway, min billeder. (Don't try to google translate that because honestly I'm not even completely confident in my ability to form a grammatically correct phrase in Danish out of even two words ;-) )

My first sight of Denmark after sitting in Amsterdam Schiphol airport for 3.5 hours, and airplanes for a grand total of almost 10 hours.

AMSTERDAM STAMPED MY PASSPORT SAY WHAAAT.

I'm not one for selfies but my host families dog Luna jumped on my lap and put her front paws on my desk making me laugh so I opened webcam to document the moment, because who doesn't love cute dogs who do even cuter things. 

Second or third night in Denmark, I can't remember. Since I'm not going to school yet, all my days are kind of running together, I even had to ask my host dad yesterday if it was Thursday. My host families house is situated right near a battlefield that's behind us left from a battle between the German's and Danes, which is in the picture.

Sunset from... I don't know Wednesday night? Probably. Like I said, my days are running together.

Called it on the rain ;-) it was torrential downpour right after I got inside from walking Luna. It rained literally harder than I've ever seen it, and coming from the Pacific Northwest that says a lot. Kudos to you if you understand what I'm referring to when I relate these cows laying down to rain.

Not often that you see an actual Dairy cow grazing. Well I mean unless they live behind your house :-D

Another sunset picture, this was last night. I know that for sure.

I just took this photo with my phone so it's not too great but it's an old church in Germany in a town called Flensburg.

And there's some pictures so far.

Vi ses, hej hej!

Velkommen til Danmark

Hej! Jeg er i Danmark! (I'm in Denmark!)

I took off on my flight from Seattle to Amsterdam on Friday night, and it was a 9 hour flight. Some of it felt ennnndlesssssss like that word, and some of it went by fast. Oh, and story time!

Okay so I board the plane, and it's my first international flight right? So of course I'm flying overseas, wanting some reassurance that I will make it overseas. So I'm scoping out who I'm sitting next to, and find I'm next to a family with three kids. I'm thinking, oh cool, okay. Maybe a little less intimidating than a business man. (I have this weird thing about flying; I feel like a business man traveling alone is more susceptible to die a plane crash than a kid and her family with the rest of their lives - don't ask.) So I sit down and kind of smile, and start organizing my two carryons under my seat, when I realize these people have an accent. I wasn't really expecting anything less than that because it's an international flight, but I started to recognize the accent and realized I knew the language...because the family was speaking French! I've been waiting two years to test out my French skills and what better way to do so than on a 9.5 hour flight? (They understood me, by the way. Just as I understood them.)

I finally got into Denmark around 5:35 Danish time, and it was a 90 minute drive from Billund to Sønderborg. I got to talk with my host family of course, they're all really sweet and welcoming and I find myself not experiencing what might be called the "honeymoon stage," but rather a country that I can call home, without even realizing I'm away from home. I of course slept a lot also, but woke up voluntarily at 5:30 in the morning because I just decided I wasn't tired anymore. Jet lag, grrr.

When I woke up I ate breakfast with my host dad, host sister and two host brothers, and then my host sister and host dad and I all drove to Germany for a couple hours! My host father's business is in Germany, and a lot of grocery shopping is done there also so I got to see a grocery store in Germany! It's like a mall in the United States, and then when you keep walking past the various food shops and vendors, you'll enter a store that's basically like a German version of Walmart.

I can now say that in two days I have been in Amsterdam (for a layover), Germany, and Denmark.

When we got home from Germany we had a couple hours before eating dinner, and after dinner my host mom, dad, and one of my host brothers went to my second host brothers handball practice. It was pretty cool, it's like a game of basketball with soccer nets instead of hoops.

So, there is my arrival and first day in the happiest country in the world. I would have wrote more, but I'm super tired right now and kind of falling asleep on my computer. Jeg er så træt.

Mojn!

Airline tickets!

Alright!

I can officially say that I have my airline tickets, and that I definitely know the exact date that I'm leaving! Woohoo!

Okay, so, *drum roll please*

I OFFICIALLY depart SeaTac Int'l airport on August 9th! I have (thank god) only one connection, and will be flying direct to Amsterdam! I'll have time to get some coffee or something because I have a 3.5 hour layover (or maybe just buy out the Starbucks store and all their coffee, because I have the inability to sleep on airplanes, and my flight is 9 hours), and then I will board a flight to my final destination, Denmark!

I am SO excited to meet my host family and to just simply see Denmark!! Ahhh!

On December 9th I got home from Victoria Canada and wrote on my little "countdown whiteboard," Eight months to Denmark. I glanced at it every minute, hour, day of my life. I had those moments of complete excitement thinking I'd never get there, to thinking that "I'll be in Denmark soon," to thinking..."Oh woah, woah. Hold on a second. I'm going to Denmark?" And now eight months is up! I mean...I'm going to Denmark. I actually made it. D E N M A R K!!!!!!

And lastly- thank you to everyone who has helped with my exchange up to this point! So many people have helped to make sure I, and all the other exchangers have what it takes to be incredibly successful exchange students. In two weeks it'll be up to me (and the occasional help from some others) to make of my exchange what I truly want it to be. I am literally two weeks away from boarding the flight that will forever change my life, and I am so thankful to those who had the faith in me to carry me this far, and to provide me with such an incredible opportunity. I appreciate it!! :-)

OFFICIALLY 12 DAYS UNTIL I FLY TO THE HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!

Seriously though I'm so excited I could probably fly without an airplane.

Jeg vil være i Danmark i 12 dage og jeg er så spændt!

Vi ses! Se dig snart Danmark!

"Bonne Vacance"

And thus, my last day of school in the English language (for a year at least) is over.

WHICH IS CRAZY. SERIOUSLY, WHERE DID THE LAST NINE MONTHS GO. 

I practically just applied to Rotary, I just got accepted. That was NOT eight months ago. But it was. (Yesterday was eight months exactly actually). 

I JUST found out I was going to Denmark, and wrote on my whiteboard "eight months until Denmark" which was just this infinitely long waiting time. And now it's one in a half months away? 

What. Even. I'm not actually sure that's acceptable.

I've learned a lot of things this past school year (Duh. I'll never forget what Osmosis is), but especially through Rotary, and it's not even my exchange year yet. The biggest thing I learned though? Goodbyes suck. Even if I said goodbye to most people for just a year. The one thing is though, is that when I get back most of my friends will be seniors, and while I'm still holding onto hope that I graduate on time, they will have changed, just as I will have. Time moves on, and people move with it. So a year, in perspective is not a long time. A lot still happens though.

Although, the next time I walk through the hallway of a school, it'll be in Denmark! I'll be the person with the funny accent, who has to think of weird things to say off the top of my head if somebody wants to hear me speak English. BUT HEY I'LL HAVE AN ACCENT. HOW COOL IS THAT?!!?!

So maybe, in that case, saying "hej hej" or "Au Revoir" to a lot of my friends for a year wasn't ALL a bad thing. I mean, in one and a half months I get to see how large life outside of my own small town is, and I'll be able to learn about the world by seeing it, not by reading about it.

A ship is not meant to stay docked in it's harbor.
Just as a life is not meant to be lived in one place.

Approximately 57 days until I see life on the flip side of the Atlantic Ocean!
SEE YOU SOON DENMARK

Hej Hej!

Countdown: 3 weeks

Okay so when I say countdown: three weeks, I'm not counting down to the time until I leave to Denmark...

(I wish.) 

I'm counting down to the weeks left of school! And not JUST school! THREE WEEKS LEFT OF SCHOOL IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Although when I think about it, some of my teachers may as well be speaking a foreign language because I can hardly understand them anyway. I mean, an A in geometry all year? Can someone explain THAT to me? 

ANYWAY. 

I also have kind of an update: 

First, let's do a quick Q&A session, kind of like the way I figured out all I needed to for exchange: 

Almost every question that people ask me is either: "Are you getting excited?" and "When do you leave?"

Well, in all honesty, I'd love to know when I'm leaving as much as the next guy and unfortunately I'm still kind of waiting. Not to fret though, I'll know soon, just like everyone who's friends with me on facebook when I post some kind of an all caps lock status update. 

Am I getting excited? I suppose to keep things simple I'd just say yes, I'm getting very excited. If I wanted to be accurate though, I'd say that there is no getting excited for exchange. As you may recall I almost knocked photo frames off the wall, fell out my seat with a seatbelt on, and shattered two cellphones with excitement...and that was just December. So to say the least, I've been excited. 

MOVING ON: 

In one of my posts way, way back I mentioned that I don't need a visa to study abroad in Denmark (A visa is not the traditional swipe-n-go money card people think of, in this case it's a residence permit and if I didn't have it I'd technically not legally be allowed in Denmark.) Some countries however, don't require visa's to study there (from what I've heard), and Denmark is apparently not one of those countries. So change of plans, I need a residence permit after all. I also need to make an in person appearance at a consulate in order to receive that, and when I find out where that is there will be blogs with lots and lots of photos. It will not be in Washington however, because there is not a Danish consulate in Washington state. 

I also said that I'd be leaving around August 25th in a past blog post, and that too has changed. In one set of rules and regulations that I had to read over, sign, and scan back to the ADC of my Danish district it was written that I'd be leaving around (so not exactly) the first weekend of August. I've also heard that many people are expected to arrive in Denmark August 8th or 9th, and actually some people have purchased their airline tickets for that weekend also. I am still in the process of filling out my residence permit application, which needs to happen before I actually get the residence permit, and until I get my residence permit, I won't purchase my airline tickets. Thus, until I purchase my airline tickets, I won't know the exact date that I hop on an airplane yelling "FREE AT LASSSTTT." 

Nah just kidding, I'll put on some kind of convincing show for my moms sake at the airport... (I say because she reads my blog ;-) )

For all the people that ask me questions about exchange though, I love it when you ask questions, and please feel free to KEEP asking me questions because eventually my answers will get a little less repetitive. 

One last thing (I'm sorry this blog post is super long) PLEASE START THINKING ABOUT ASKING YOUR PARENTS TO BE AN EXCHANGE STUDENT, EITHER SHORT TERM OR LONG TERM. IT IS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE, AND ALREADY I'VE EXPERIENCED THINGS THAT I CAN'T REALLY DESCRIBE. I WANT YOU TO FEEL THE SAME HAPPINESS AND EXCITEMENT THAT I DO. Applications are typically turned in to Rotary in September but applying to be an exchange student is not an overnight process. It took me about  five months to fully think about this along with my parents before handing in my application (which was the scariest and most satisfying moment of my life). 

TWO MONTHS TO DENMARK!!!!!!!! (I should probably stop wishing my time away now)...

Vi ses! :-)

I HAVE A HOST FAMILY

I HAVE A HOST FAMILY!!!

On Sunday I was matched with my first host family! I emailed them shortly after I found out they would be hosting me, and they emailed me back shortly after!! They are a very nice family and I really can't wait to meet them in person! I have three host siblings, and I am so excited to have siblings for the first time in my life! I have two younger host brothers (one is about two years younger than me, and one is about 7 years younger than I am), and a host sister who is about my age!

My host father's name is Jan, and my host mother's name is Ditte. Their three children are named Frands (two years younger), Thor (seven years younger), and Marie-Louise (Malou for a nickname), who is my age!

They also have a 10 month old dog named Luna. She looks so fluffy, she's adorable!

I also found out that I will be going to Sønderborg Statsskole! I'm not sure what day I start school, or what class I will be in there (which does not correspond at all to classes in my high school here), but I'm still really looking forward to starting school there and starting my exchange year.

Countdown to Denmark: Four months and getting closer! 

Hej Hej!

The final stretch

So, it’s finally my spring break! WOOHOO!!!!! And of course spring break is the last break until summer break, besides Memorial Day weekend. So with the final stretch of the school year in sight, and my countdown at less than 10 weeks until summer break, I thought I’d write a blog. 

So with the theme that the school year is almost over I’ll start by saying: it’s almost like it was JUST October, like I JUST turned in my application. Exchange is so fast approaching I don’t even have time for it to sink in that in four months I’ll be boarding a plane to a foreign country. In fact, I’ll probably board my plane still without the actual realization that in only hours, I’ll be in a different country for a year.

In literally less than 10 weeks I’ll be saying goodbye to probably half the people I hang out with at school. On the last day of school there will be a countdown among many until the bell to the final sixth period of the entire school year. For me though, sure I’ll be counting down, but I don’t think I’ll be watching the clock as avidly as I normally do for the same reasons. If I am watching the clock, it’s not so I can scream and yell summer and cheer with the others, it’s so I can make sure there’s still plenty of time for me to talk with the people I hang out with before I leave the continent for a year.

Today at the end of first period, my French teacher yelled “bonne vacance!” to us, which obviously means, happy vacation, or somewhere along those lines. So, she said that, and then I was realized that in less than 10 weeks it will be the real deal, and it’ll be summer. And I won't be back. And although the sun, and no homework, and no grades sound so ideal, especially at this point in the year, it’s also kind of scary. And exciting, but that’s kind of besides the point. 

Approximately 125 days until Denmark!!!!

Vi ses! 

I HAVE A HOST CITY!!!!

I have never in my life been more grateful or excited that I get to participate in such an incredible organization. The feeling that I get from seeing an email in my inbox from someone I don’t know, and realizing that they are from Denmark, makes me happier beyond ways that words can describe.

So today when I got an email from my Danish Rotary counselor (because every RYE kid has a counselor), and she told me that I’m going to Sønderborg, Denmark on my exchange, I couldn't have been any happier after having thought about host cities and families 24/7 for the past week. Literally. I don’t quite know my host family yet, however I am being matched with one and as soon as I have one, I will get their contact information and start communicating with them! 

I looked up Sønderborg on google images earlier and honestly think it is one of the most beautiful cities ever. I am so excited to live there. 

Outbound orientation day three

Hej, commence outbound orientation day three!

The third day of outbound orientation was honestly one of the best and most memorable days of my life. I think I will probably always remember it solely for the people who were involved in it.

The day started with breakfast (which I did not attend because however much food is served, there will never be enough to get me out of bed). I got down to the room that orientation was held in at 8:00 because that’s when the third day started. (Technically though, it was only the second day of orientation, the third day I was in Canada. That’s why it’s day three on my blog). We had our first morning lectures on more of the things that we will need to expect and remember on our exchange, and a lot of what to do about travel before and on our exchange. There was a little bit said on communication also.

We broke for lunch at around 12:00 at which point I wandered around the room we were in and “mingled” with more of the exchange students I had talked to the night before. We talked about exchange for a little bit until we were called back for more orientation type activities, and then later had a coffee break before “graduation.”

At graduation we were presented with our “regalia” is what is was called with our pins that will go on our blue blazer, with a white t-shirt representing rotary youth exchange, our business cards, and a little bit more. We also had to introduce ourselves in our language which was really awesome to hear people presenting themselves in languages from all around the world.

“Hej, jeg hedder Grace, jeg er en Rotary udveksling student fra America og jeg vil vaere hosted I Danmark.” Again, quite possible that there are some grammatical errors, however that is what I presented myself as in Danish!

Outbound orientation ended at about 3:30, and since our Rotary district, district 5020, is an international district meaning there is students from both U.S and Canada, some of had to part and say our goodbyes, for we lives in different countries. The rest of the U.S students walked to the ferry terminal and all waited together for the ferry to leave. We stood around in a circle and all talked about exchange…everything. Everything related to exchange was said, and it was really truly awesome to be a part of this adventurous group of students who are all flying across the world in less than 6 months. It’s kind of fun to think about, how we just looked like regular high school sophomores and juniors in this large circle taking up space in a ferry terminal, however really, we were all together a group of teenagers whose thoughts stretch as large as the world itself, and who are about to pack up everything we know and leave it behind for a year.

Once the ferry boarded we all found each other again, and all sat together on the ferry where we exchanged our business cards with our host countries and phone numbers on it, and ate ice-cream while once again talking. Once the rebound exchange students found us, we went up to the very top deck of the ferry and took a couple crazy group pictures in the pouring down rain which was a lot more fun than it sounds. We went back downstairs again after that, and later found ourselves back on the top deck in the covered area.

Why? Because we were going to “dance like exchange students.” And my gosh, that was probably one of the most crazy fun things…ever. One of the rebound students had a phone that hooked up to a portable stereo, and so we started playing music from that. American music? Of course not. We played Brazilian music, and we played Camaro amerelo over and over and over again. All of the rebound students were dancing with things they all picked up from exchange in their past years, and all of the outbound students just kind of the did there own thing. I ended making my way to the middle of the cramped circle under the cramped covered space and there again, I was just doing my own thing. When we got of the ferry though, it was said that I apparently “danced like Austin Powers, and that he wants his 70’s mojo back.” Haha!

We were on the top of deck…dancing like Austin Powers…until the boat finally docked, and when it did, it was one of the most shocking things ever. Here we were, a group of exchange students who had said maybe two words or less to each other Friday afternoon, and by Sunday afternoon were a family with a bond so unique it takes an actual exchange student themselves to understand it. We stood around all hugging each other and wishing each other good luck on our exchanges before we head off to unload the ferry, and it occurred to me, “what do you mean goodbye, good luck on your exchange. We just officially met each other Friday and now were saying goodbye? We won’t see each other again until rebound weekend AFTER our exchange? What?”

I still think that now, almost a week after outbound orientation and I still don’t get how we won’t be in the district group again until after our exchange year. The people I met this past weekend are absolutely more than just friends; they are by far an exchange family that NOBODY how hard they try will ever understand us better than ourselves. Of course though when I say that, I’m not trying to put my school friends down that I have here, you guys rock too :-P

And an update on the host family and host city: I still don’t know quite yet who they are and I found out that even though my Danish Rotary club has my guarantee forms, they have to fill out all the information on it, and then mail it back to United States and my sponsor Rotary Club. And when I say mail, I mean mail, not email. So depending on how they mail it here and when it gets here, I guess either way,  in perspective I will have a host family and host city no matter how long I wait to find out, and it will be an amazing moment whether I find out in two days or two weeks or two months. Although I don’t think it’s going to take two months to find out.

Every time I write a blog post, or go to a Rotary event, or hang out with exchange students, I remember again all the reasons why I wanted to be a foreign exchange student and it never fails to excite me even more.

Vi ses! 

I HAVE A DISTRICT

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL. I HAVE A DISTRICT!!!!

I will be in Rotary District 1461 in the southern part of Denmark! District 1461 (or southern Denmark in general) is near the border of Germany, a ways from the Netherlands, and the especially cool part of district 1461 is that it even includes parts of Lithuania!!!

I found out that I am going to district 1461 tonight while I was standing on the ferry, just having come back from outbound orientation. I didn't have data on my phone all weekend since I was international (in Canada), and so I didn't have a chance to check my email all weekend. When my phone finally got around to hooking itself back up to my home network that I’m on, I looked down at my notifications and saw 48 new emails. I expected them all to be from Facebook with things that my friends did over the weekend, but when I looked down…I had absolutely the best surprise ever. Besides finding out my country almost a month early, best surprise ever.

I looked through my emails really fast and saw the chairman of my district introducing himself to me, saying “I am your Danish ADC” (Assistant District Chairman), and with my mind running on hyper speed, I nearly started hyperventilating. I wasn't supposed to find out basically ANY information on where I’m going until MAY.

So now you all and I have a little bit more insight into where I’m going in Denmark, and YAYYY, I have communication with Danish Rotary!!!!!!

Vi ses,

Oh and P.S I'll have more blogs on outbound orientation later this week.