A year in perspective

Today I did my end of the year Rotary presentation, so I figured what better a day to post this when 1/4 of my closing remarks have been made.

Here goes:

I've now been in Denmark for nearly a year.

It blows my mind to think that it was already ten months ago that I was sitting on my aisle seat to Amsterdam, sitting back in my airplane seat cuddled with my black blanket, thinking "you still have a whole year! You have so much time, it's just beginning!" 

I am ready to come home to my family, and to see some of my greatest friends again. This year has helped me better realize who my greatest friends are, just by those I kept in touch with. In a couple weeks I will walk out of customs in SeaTac airport, and will see my parents undoubtedly greeting me with open arms, and one can only hope for a box of cheez-itz. 

I will try to surprise some of my friends when greeting them, although one has already told me she'll switch it up on me, surprise me sometime in the morning. *Cough, Makayla, Cough.* First times will feel refreshing, and there will be plenty of meet and greets. There will assuredly come the excitement of reacquainting myself with surroundings that were all so familiar only eleven short months ago.

I will be able to go into my own kitchen and open a bag of goldfish crackers without feeling slightly uncomfortable taking food from another family's cupboard. I will be able to sing, no matter how crappy my voice may be, to my music on high blast. I'll even be able to use my own bathroom, and I will no longer need to give in or stand up to peer pressure regarding partying, drinking, or clubbing.

In reality though, I cannot only think of the firsts, of the meet and greets, and surrealism of being home again, because it doesn't even feel as though I left in the first place. I have thought beyond the firsts. The "normality" is what will be the hardest part of readjustment. There is always a nice dose of happiness in the excitement that lies within returning. Excitement will eventually die down, however, and in the following weeks it will be replaced with a sense of realization. The adventure that drove me for nearly two years, and formed essentially a new life for me, is over. Something that had always had a future and present tense to it will now be simply over, and it will only have a past tense. 

I will go back to school come September, and it will come with the realization that while I've been gone for the past year, my classmates haven't. Life has continued for them just as it has for me. I do not know wha they've done, and they do not know what I've done. It's likely not even something they can imagine, as my experience is likely as foreign to them as the place I lived. Some may not realize I left, and some may think I've left for good. Some may not recognize me, and some may not care I'm back. I can't expect them to know what this experience was like for me though, and I can't expect them to remember the details of my exchange. They shouldn't remember I went to Denmark, or what language Denmark speaks. I simply cannot hold them responsible for remembering the details of my exchange.

Just as the year seemed to stand still in still such an ironically fast-paced way to me, the year back home to the others probably felt the same way. The only difference is that even though our years moved in the same time, we were living in different worlds. While it feels like nothing changed for me, and nothing changed for them, I will undoubtedly go home and see that everything changed, in the same sense of it having stayed the same. I'll pass by the same streets, I'll walk into the same house as if it was just yesterday that I walked out of it. Yesterday was nearly a year ago, though, and whether I realize it or not, I will be different than the person I was August 9th when I ate half my eggs, shoved oreo's in my bag, and packed up my life for a year. It's hard to notice change while you're living it, but it's easy to notice it when you return to it or return from it. I have come to terms with that (I say before I've given myself the chance to experience rebound life).

Unlike when I quit gymnastics in my freshman year though, I refuse to let myself think of this as an end. When I quit gymnastics my freshman year, I let myself fall, and took a year to watch as my self esteem and self confidence plummeted from 100 to 0 for a couple months.  I figured that as long as I could no longer do what made me happiest, then I would have a hard time finding anything else.

My year of prep for exchange is over, and it has been long over. That was a hard goodbye. The time I wished away, and all of its impact on my newfound self esteem and confidence, hit me hard when it was over. I never expected it to end, and I viewed that year as endless in a sort of breathtakingly fast way. As the days neared the ending, it still didn't feel real. So when all was said and done those last couple days in June, it was a serious reality check, one that when I come to think of it, I hadn't ever had before. I gave myself a couple days, and that was all I could give myself, because I had to re-find my excitement for my exchange year that I somehow misplaced after my first goodbye. I reminded myself to listen happy music and to leave the house once in a while. Eventually, it worked. The memories still came and went, but it never prevented me from having a good time.

On August 9th, 2014, I got my passport stamped for the first time, and the man at security did a quick up and down and said "Amsterdam, huh?" I explained that I was studying abroad in high school doing a year abroad in Denmark. I continued onto security, went through the procedures, and the next thing I knew I was on the other side of the security gate. No going back, I looked up, and saw my parents standing across the airport waving goodbye to me. I waved back, we exchanged our last remarks, and then I turned around. I looked back one more time, and the next thing I know I was standing on the opposite side of a glass wall. I followed the signs, alone, that took me to my flight gate. I was off for a year. Although the year of prep was over, the year of exchange and experience still stretched on in front of me.

That year is now three weeks from finished, despite me telling myself practically three minutes ago (or at least thats what it feels like), "you still have your whole year ahead of you!"

So although now both years are nearly done, I need to remind myself that it was just a beginning.

This year I learned a lot about myself, and what I want to do. It helped me broaden many of my perspectives, and interests. This year I learned a language to fluency. I can, at the risk of sounding vain, say that I am bilingual. I learned as well that I don't want to stop there. I don't feel like English and Danish is enough. I feel oddly limited having grown up speaking such a universal language. I want to try, at least, to finish off the French I started two years ago and paused on this year to learn Danish. In my opinion, it doesn't make sense to start learning a language and just stop. What you could use your skills for after two years, you could use them for so much more after a couple more years of learning.

Dutch looks interesting to me. The whole double vowel system and the j's in seemingly random spots, for some reason, interests me. Nobody ask how I'm going to go about learning all these languages, because I don't think leveling up through duolingo will really get me anywhere. I'm currently an unemployed 17 year old high school junior living off of a currently fleeting bank account that I stopped building nearly a half year before I left for Denmark, gladly accepting donations from the bank of mom and dad as my new source of income. I'm not really, in any shape, ready to do more years abroad to learn all these languages I desire.

Right now, as of three weeks from my departure, my ultimate plans are all over the place. I know what I want to do in my future, however I don't know how long it will take me to get there, or how I will get there. Immediately, I have (I believe) one year left of high school, plus a gap year to tie the ends on my SAT/ACT, college applications, and one final chemistry class. After that I will be off to university (I feel so European calling it university now, not just college), and I'm not sure where after that.

I would like to major in international relations or business, because I would love to travel and work with different languages as a job. Although, for a good five years or so, I was dead-set on being a lawyer. Look at me now! That's not even in the cards.

I (think I) would like to do another year abroad in college. Where I go, I'm not sure. I woke up a couple weeks ago and decided I was going to join the peace corps and ship off to South America (I'm not kidding, I woke up and spontaneously became excited about the prospect for a day), but then realized that saying hola and counting to ten doesn't quite qualify you in Spanish. Which brings me back to French where I'd like to go to Geneva for a year, so I can bring my French back up to par. The only problem is, my French disappeared when my Danish prospered.

I will of course be coming back to Denmark to visit, I intend on keeping, and even growing the relationships I have with my host families and friends here.

I am thinking about keeping a blog to mark my rebound experiences, however I'm not sure yet. If I do, I'll let you know and it'll likely be linked through this blog URL. It will essentially be your own responsibility if you really want to keep up on it though, because I won't be sharing the links on facebook. If you don't see anything by September, you probably won't see anything at all.

I have one more blog post, and it's going out on a really positive and uplifting note (I say very sarcastically), so I hope you look forward to that.

But for now, it's nearly a wrap. Tuesday marked ten months here in Denmark, and in three weeks I'll be back where I began, just a week shy of eleven months in the third happiest country in the world. 

EUROTOUR

Hello!

As you all may have seen on facebook, I have just returned from the BEST three weeks of my life, touring much of Western Europe with a whole district of other wonderful exchangers!

I don't want to fill my blog up with ten different posts of all the cities, or group the cities together in each country they're in, because I'd still have 8 different posts on my blog. So what I've done, is written one blog, but with a nice bolded line in between each city, so like ten blogs in one post. You of course don't need to read the whole blog at once, or at all, just pick whichever city you're most interested in, and read to your hearts content.

The report will remain just as spectacular regardless of the amount of views ;-)

The following cities are listed below, and are in the same order in my blog, so it'll be easy for you to find whichever ones you're most interested in reading.

1.) Berlin, Germany,
2.) Prague, Czech Republic, 
3.) Vienna, Austria, 
4.) Lido Di Jesolo, Italy
5) Venice, Italy,
6.) Verona Italy, 
7.) Monte Carlo, Monaco, (this was a day stop)
8.) Avignon, France,
9.) Paris, France,
10.) Brussels, Belgium, (one day stop)
11.) Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (We stayed about an hour out in a town called Doorwerth).

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Berlin, Germany: 

We pulled into Berlin on Monday at around 7 in the evening, after driving nearly 9 hours (side note- Google says it only takes 4 hours to gets to Berlin?), and ate dinner after we got all our luggage lugged upstairs.

After dinner we all went out until curfew at 11, and wandered around for the hour and a half we had. Three of us (me and the two other girls) went out wandering and ended up at a park, where we heard an accordion player who made us feel very much like we were in Paris (second side note- we didn't see any of what made us feel like we were in Paris, in Paris). 

The second day we went and took a tour on the bus until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, where we also got to see The Berlin Wall, Brandenburger Tor, a holocaust museum, and Kaiser Wilham II church. 

We had time to wander on our own after that, so we went out and got some delicious Thai food, and then went into this place called Primark where everything is/was just so blissfully, wonderfully cheap, I walked into heaven. Until I tried everything on and decided never again until I get back and exercise all of this “middags kaffe” exchange weight off. 

Wednesday we took off from Berlin at 8 in the morning to head off to the Czech Republic. Everything was going smooth, I was having a nice conversation with the two girls I wandered Berlin with, when all of a sudden the bus stopped. I presumed we were not moving because we were at a red light, and I thought we were, but I suppose I’m also not too observant because I later saw the light was green and our main predicament was not the color of the street lights, but the fact our bus was dead. Being stuck on a dead bus in Europe is not as adventurous as it sounds, let me be the first to say ladies and gentlemen. 

We sat in the dead bus for our fair amount of time, just making jokes, sleeping, listening to music, and passing time. After a while one of the tour leaders came back with donuts, and I ate a Berliner in Berlin. We later went and sat in a park for five hours while we waited for the bus we had to dismantle to be fixed by a mechanic. 

The time finally came to board the bus, and we were happily weaving through Berlin’s traffic, on the way to Czech Republic, enjoying ourselves once again and ready to conquer Prague. And then our bus hit a car only a couple meters from the highway, and we had to swing around, trade insurance, talk to police, do that whole shebang before shuffling through Berlin’s traffic all over again. I honest to god felt like I was in the Bermuda Triangle of Berlin, once you go in you never come out. 

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Prague, The Golden City, Czech Republic. 

Prague stole my heart. 

It was only our second stop on eurotour and I had no idea what Venice or Paris or Amsterdam would look like, and it still just stole my heart. 

When stepping out of the subway in Prague, it was everything I could have imagined and better. Prague lived up to every one of its expectations, and even more. The more I wandered and saw, the more I fell in love with. Gosh I could just talk about Prague forever, I love(d) it so much.  

If I had to do an exchange year in college, I’d want it to be Prague. I guess I’m just drawn to places with languages that are harsh and difficult to learn and currencies that no matter how many conversions you do, still make everything feel ridiculously expensive. 

Anyway- to the tour. 

We took the subway in the morning into Prague, and toured until about 12 when we were set off on our own to go adventure. We went and got lunch, two people got goulash in a baked bread bowl, I got traditional Czech pancakes, and one got a Caesar Salad. 

After lunch we walked around the city more, saw some street performers, and then went into a café to mooch off their wifi for a couple minutes while we rested ourselves after walking all day. We ordered hot chocolate, until we finished and didn’t want to get up, so another girl ordered a second hot chocolate. After we finally conjured up the courage to leave our limited wifi and warm blankets we went into a souvenir shop, and then walked around more. For dinner, we got Mexican food. I was, for the first time in eight months, satisfied with my Mexican food experience. We went home at 10:00 to meet curfew, and the next day we went to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czech on the way to Vienna, Austria. 

It was a little bit unreal to experience someplace that only 70 years ago was occupied with the horrors of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. 

I didn’t really realize until a couple hours after we left that the place I just visited was a real relic from the holocaust, not just a museum with artifacts. I suppose I’m so used to seeing museums and “memorials” with recreated artifacts, it took some time for it to set in that Theresienstadt isn’t the Holocaust museum in D.C, or another memorial/museum with recreated, re hand crafted artifacts- it’s the real deal. 

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Vienna, Austria:

Well, to be honest, Vienna was very rainy. It rained the whole time we were there. The city was beautiful though, despite the pour, and I had a good time the one day we were there. 

We spent all day driving, and then got there about 5. A bunch of us went out afterwards even though the rain was sprinkling and mostly everything was closed. We were in a suburb of Vienna. 

The second day we went sightseeing during the day, and then came back for dinner. My friend had one of her Austrian friends with her, and so the whole group went out to an event called Eurovision contest. Perhaps you are familiar with Eurovision, perhaps you aren’t. It’s, from what I know, basically like American Idol only the European countries are competing. (For example Phillip Phillips won an American Idol, in this case it would be a country winning the title.)

It was going pretty good. The crowd was huge and we were squished, but I decided to leave the crowd for a couple minutes to try and find a bathroom. I was thinking "no problem, I'll find my group," until there ended up being a slight problem. I spent the next hour and half trying to find the people I was with, to no avail. I paced the street, and hyperventilated literally every time I tried to weave through the crowd. At one point, I stood in a corner of McDonalds to mooch off their free wifi. I tried to try and contact anyone I knew from the tour that could be possibly be at Eurovision as well, but couldn't get in contact. When I had officially gone insane, I messaged my mom. Because, you know, my mother, who is 5000 miles away, could do a lot for me. Then I left her hanging to panic about her lost daughter.

I finally decided to use a strangers phone who was really proud about his international cellphone service plan. Coincidentally, while I was on the phone with the Eurotour guide, I saw the group I was with. So I guess now I can say I got lost in a crowd at Eurovision, in Vienna, Austria. 

The next day I woke up in the hostel next to my own things, still relieved I wasn't continually pacing the streets of Vienna, and got ready. We all drove to Italy afterwards. We drove entirely though the Alps, and it was breathtakingly stunning the whole time. I loved it so much, I just love the Alps. Both winter time with the snow caps and summer time with the green trees and flowing rivers they’re wonderful and I’ll never get enough.  

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Lido Di Jesolo, Italy: 

Lido is a small little beach town about an hour from both Venice and Verona. The sand is perfectly soft and although the water is bit cold, I still loved my beach time. 

We got there in the evening after driving from Austria and went to the beach before dinner, and then went to the beach again after dinner and got some delicious Italian Gelato. 

Our second day in Italy we were still in Lido, and had a whole beach day to ourselves. I went to the beach in the morning with my group of friends, went and bought a bikini around 11, ate some Italian pasta around noon for lunch, and went back to the beach later. I had some gelato again (much gelato consumed over the past three weeks) and then it was dinner time again. After that Rotary took us all to a club and gave us each a free soft drink. The club played a lot of songs that was like a throw back to my middle school dances, and I had to wonder "why the hell am I listening to 'dynamite' by Taio Cruz in 2015.'" 

A friend and I left the club about an hour early, and went to sit on the beach and talk while it was dark, but still a little warm. There was a thunder storm, and it looked kind of cool on the beach.  

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Venice, Italy: 

Venice is a beautiful tourist trap. This city is, what I am convinced of, built for the tourists. I believe there are probably more tourists there than there are actual Italian residents. 

I’m glad I had my day there (even though I ended up getting sick for most of the day). We toured for a while until it started pouring, where we went inside to eat lunch (which was Italian pizza with tiramisu afterwards), and when the rain finally stopped around 12, we went back outside. We took a gondola ride which was beautiful, just weaving in and out of many of Venice’s bright green and blue canals, with a spirited Italian steering our gondola. 

We met with two of my friend's friends, one that lives in Venice that is my friend's friends' friend (an exchange student from California), and one that is from my friend's Rotary district back home in Florida. We talked for a while, wandered, got some more gelato (have eaten so much gelato whoops), and then the whole group of exchange students went back home. I went back up to the room and slept, went down to eat a tiny portion of dinner, came up and finished writing this blog entry about Venice, and then went to sleep so I didn’t have to pay attention to the fact that my head and neck felt like it was on fire.  

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Verona, Italy: 

Verona was a “stopover city” as we started to refer to them - we visited on the way to the other cities where a bigger tour would happen. 

We arrived in Verona around 11 and were there for about two hours. We saw Romeo and Juliet's tower. It was very crowded, which made it hard to get pictures. So, unfortunately, I took pictures for the “memories” but not really to post to Facebook or my blog. 

We also saw the arena in Verona. I do have pictures of that, but we just walked right by it on the way to Romeo and Juliet’s castle, so I can’t write much about how that was. My group of friends and I got our first and last real Italian pizza that was delicious. The Italians do it right. We went shopping around for a bit after that. 

We boarded the bus later around 1:30 or 2 and were off to the San Remo area which is on the Italian Riviera. That is where we would spend the night before driving to our stopover in Monte Carlo and tour destination: Avignon. 

The Italian Riviera was beautiful and looked very expensive, though we were only there when it was dark out, so I can’t say I experienced much to blog on there. If you’d like a report - the hotel was good and the spaghetti they served us was perfectly cooked, topped off with chocolate ice-cream cake, which Claire and I got two pieces of, because in the group of four, two of them are lactose intolerant. 

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Monte Carlo, Monaco 

Trying to get to Monte Carlo was really just an experience in itself. 

Just to give you some background information if you skipped the Berlin post- our last day in Berlin we were trying to get to Prague when our bus broke down and we couldn’t get it started ourselves. After it had been repaired, we were only meters from the highway when we got in a car accident. 

And now, on our way to Monte Carlo, we’re cruising up high and winding cliffs on the Riviera when we slowly start to realize that the roads are thinning and soon will not accommodate the size of our tour bus. 

We get to the top of the cliff, and are trying to take a turn to go further, and realize we literally can’t. We had to back down the cliffs of the Italian Riviera and take a completely different route so as to not back 46 exchange students over the rocks into the Ligurian sea. (Using slight hyperbole there). Our bus driver had a smoke break after that.

After a while though, we were back on track and before we knew it we had crossed the border from Italy to France and were cruising on the French Riviera, heading for the principality of Monaco. 

It was beautiful there, however you could really tell that it was expensive and meant for the wealthy and upper class. Bright blue oceans, huge houses over looking them, boats in the water, cruises on the coast, and nearly everyone I noticed seemed to be driving a motorcycle too.

I loved it, and looking out over the water was great. It was endless, literally endless. You could look over the cliffs and see nothing but bright blue ocean ahead of you. Simply amazing. It feels kind of cool to say I’ve been to the French Riviera.  

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Avignon, France

Avignon is a small medieval town in Southern France, a ways away from Monaco.

It is famous for the Pont Du Gard aqueduct bridges, which is primarily why we went - to visit the bridges. 

The first night we checked in to where we were staying, ate dinner, and then walked into town and came back at 12, which was our curfew. The second day we woke up early (but late for most mornings on this trip), and drove to Pont Du Gard. We were there for about two hours and some of us hiked up to find the best view of the ancient aqueducts. Some of the boys went swimming, and then once we returned to the hotel we were free for the rest of the day. 

My friends and I went out and ate lunch, and after looking around for a while we decided our cheapest and probably best place was a little hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant. It was definitely worth it. My duck with spicy sauteé was delicious. I almost ordered pho soup, however I decided I was going to save my pho soup experience for when I come home.

*Believe it or not Mom, I have indeed thought about that on multiple occasions this year and do look very much forward to a nice, hot, small (yet still very large) pho number 5 chicken soup from T&N. 

Anyway - after we ate lunch we came home, and I went swimming with Kelsey. Then, we went into what we referred to as the “wifi café” (the only place you could find wifi in the hotel). 

We ate dinner, and then after that I went out with a friend and got champagne. We walked around Avignon, and then came home a little bit before curfew and talked further in our room. 

We all woke up the next morning, and at 7:30 we began our nine hour adventure to PARIS.  

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Paris, The City of Romance, France

Oh Paris. Je t’adore. 

Gosh I loved Paris. Prague and Paris honestly are the cities on eurotour where I felt withdrawals after leaving them. 

The first night in Paris we arrived in our hotel, and we all got ready and went out to eat. The group of people I had been hanging out with all eurotour and I went to an Indian place a very short walk from our hostel. After going out to eat, we went to a canal tour along the Seine River. 

It was so beautiful, and so cool to be able to take a canal tour in Paris. It was in the evening, and so when the canal tour was ending we sailed by the Eiffel Tower all lit up and beautiful. 

After the canal tour we went to the Eiffel Tower, and as we were walking there it started to sparkle. It was lit up, and sparkling, and just so incredibly beautiful. I loved it there. We were there until 12 when we went back to the hostel. 

The next day we had a free day to ourselves, so I and my group of friends hit the Louvre first. We all shoved through many people and made it to the world famous Mona Lisa, which is impossible to see or get pictures of because everyone wants the same thing you do. We conquered the impossible and got both normal pictures and, lo and behold, the inevitable selfie with the Mona Lisa. 

After going to The Louvre we went and walked across hell’s half acres to find a classic American Mexican restaurant; Chipotle. It was delicious, even despite walking in the drizzle for ages. When we were finished with our Chipotle, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way up to the summit, and then back down to the second floor when we had seen the view from the very top, and then we went back down completely and finished off our day at L’Arc De Triomphe et Champs Élysées. 

The next day two of the friends from our group of five started the morning early and went to Notre Dame de Paris. I stepped on Point Zéro, which, so I’ve been told, is supposed to bring good luck and/or guarantee your return to Paris. We went inside Notre Dame, where we heard the most beautiful choir singing. We then walked back to the Louvre to meet our group before Disneyland Paris, with a stop for crèpes and Starbucks. 

So much for "good luck," from point zéro though, because on the way back to Le Louvre, I was swindled, the last (100) euro in my wallet. The money that was supposed to go to escargot actually went to fund a fake petition or something, but I don't know, maybe that's the plot twist, an incentive to return after all? 

Disneyland cheered me up though as soon as we entered, and it proved to not be a bad thing (until two weeks later when I found out the child's hat that I tried on happened to be the one harboring head lice?) What they say is true, it is the happiest place on earth and I will admit to having a fantastic time in a glorified, over expensive kid park, despite the fact that I’m turning 18 in a month. 

Shout out to the Peter Pan ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and It’s a Small World. Peter Pan’s ride made me feel like Santa Clause and we waited in line for a good half an hour for a minute long attraction, but let me just say the attraction was worth every second, even if for only 60 seconds. 

(Needless to say though, I will not be stepping on point zéro again, nej tak, non merci, no thank you). 

And then the next day we were off to Amsterdam, our last stop on Eurotour, with a small one hour stop in Brussels, Belgium.  

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Brussels, Belgium: 

We were in Belgium for only about an hour and a half, however Brussels is a beautiful city from what I saw. 

It is home of the EU Parliament, Mannekin Pis (literally a peeing sculpture), and of course world famous Belgian Chocolate, Waffles, and French Fries. 

The first thing we did when we got into Belgium was walk down to Mannekin Pis, took a couple pictures, and then went and bought a delicious Belgian Waffle. 

We went to a book store after a while of aimlessly wandering around the city, and were in there for a while before walking back to our meeting place. 

We then got into the bus and drove to Doorwerth, The Netherlands, where we were staying which is about an hout outside of Amsterdam. 

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Amsterdam, The City of Sin, The Netherlands

Amsterdam was dank. That's how I could sum it up. The dankest city in Europe.  

We walked around Amsterdam for quite a bit, with the tour even going through The Red Light District, before being set off on our own. Many people went to eat lunch in the Red Light District, I did what I've been wanting to do I was 12 and read her diary- went and finally saw the Anne Frank House. 

The line of one and a half hours was considered short, on the weekends during high tourist season the line can reach five hours. 

It was worth every minute of the wait however. While I was 15 minutes from the entrance and could see the end of the line, I was looking at pictures from a brochure handed out to me and was just mind blown that in only about 20 minutes I would be inside the place that I have read so much about. 

When I finally got in we stopped to look around the various quotes and relics in the downstairs "museum" area, and then climbed the steep first flight of stairs. There were more relics and pieces of information there that we read, and then when we were finished in that area we walked through the infamous bookcase and climbed the stairs further, up into their kitchen that doubled as a living room, Anne and Fritz Pfieffers bedroom, the bathroom, and into Peter Van Pels bedroom, which was the attic. 

We couldn't climb completely up into the attic, it was blocked off with glass. I'm curious as to why, I'm not completely sure why it's no longer possible, but maybe I'll look it up. 

You really never realize how small the living quarters were in the Secret Annex until you realize how short time you can make it through the Anne Frank House, even while reading the various quotes from her diary and taking time to stop to really look around. 

Anne's posters of celebrities and movie stars were still hanging on her wall, and her first red and white checkered diary is still being preserved downstairs under a glass case. Her further diaries have also been preserved, as well as Margot's flashcards that she used to learn elementary Latin. 

The church bells that Anne wrote about so much in her diary rang loud and you could hear it through the Annex. The old willow tree she looked at fell down a couple years ago and so is no longer there, however the black out curtains that they could not open "even an inch during the day" were still on the wall, shut tight. 

On a canal tour of Amsterdam later after I left the Anne Frank House we were told that many houses in Amsterdam are built on wooden platforms on the water, that are beginning to sink. They call them "dancing houses." 

When we went back to Doorwerth we bowled for an hour all together, and when we came back to the hostel we had a bonfire from almost 11 to 2 in the morning, when the majority of the group had gone inside and the few left started to disperse as well. 

And then, the day actually came where we packed up everything and got ready to sit on the last bus ride of the tour, that would take us back to Denmark. 

And that was eurotour, the last hoorah of our exchange year. 

Vi ses! :-) 

Bonne Vacance, The Sequel.

Perhaps I should have put that title in Danish.

Thus, 1/3 closing posts. Got the first one underway, the last two to come in due time.

Today ladies and gentlemen, May 13th 2015, marks my last day of school in Denmark.

I have officially completed school as a foreign exchange student in the Danish language. Granted I didn't understand half of it up until the last couple weeks here, and that was if I was lucky. However now I'm done! And I can go back to understanding the lessons! (Which could arguably be an unfortunate thing) ;-)

Crazy to backtrack all the way to last year, writing my last day of school post and entitling it "bonne vacance," and to think to now, one year later, that I'm doing this all over again. I honestly just cannot believe that last year on the last day of school, Denmark still felt ages away. I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams writing a last day of school post in Denmark or my year even ending, let alone me even getting there at all. It all just felt so unreal and far away. Now its even a little bit surreal how fast it all goes. I mean really, I feel like I also just wrote my "Først dag af Dansk skole" (I'm completely confident that you can probably at least guess what that means, and that I don't have to translate), and met all my classmates.

I remember my first day I went in the back of the class and sat next to someone, class ended early, school ended at 1:40 in the afternoon, and then I went home and got a mass of friend requests on facebook from some of my classmates. Now it's the last day. It boggles my mind to no end. Of all differences I've experienced in Denmark, the way time goes on is certainly not one of them.

This past year in Danish school hasn't been the easiest year of my life. I know what I did, and it wasn't homework, tests, or much school work at all for that matter. The excuse "Because I can't understand," started to feel so beaten down and worn out towards the end of this year, even when it was true. Even when I could understand some of what the teacher was saying, it was almost too late in the game for me to be able to comprehend the classwork. Because what they were doing at that time, no doubtedly followed something that I missed at the beginning of the year.

Something I've always wondered when I was in maybe, hour 3 of my 6 hour study sessions back home, was what it would be like to be someone who let themselves come home and put it in half the hours I do to their school work, and still get the grades I do. Or perhaps get grades a little lower than me (respectably). To simply be one of those who comes home and doesn't have to be the straight A student and get their homework done all the time.

I now know what that's like. And I won't be going back to that lifestyle. It's not and never will be the lifestyle for me. I'm built to take on twice the level of stress I mentally can, overthink things to the highest degree, and plan every minute of my life. Granted, coming home and not having homework to do was relaxing and enjoyable because when I got off school, I could self decide what I wanted to do next. (On the other hand if it's one of those afternoons where you spend all evening on your computer, you have no excuse such as homework as to why you're exceptionally lazy and antisocial). However sitting in school and going through the same routine every day for hours *check gmail, check blogger (sees nobody commented) check facebook, log out, log back in, log out again* gets really tedious because I honestly, sometimes just felt dumb. Just to put the words out there, and no more sugar coating, you just feel dumb.

Sometimes I would literally look up university sights and visibly pull up ACT test sights to make it look like I was doing something intelligent and had important matters to attend to on the home front. And I mean technically I do have important matters to attend to, but I'm also built to procrastinate on everything that stresses me out which is quite possibly why I'm always stressed, I save 4/2 of my work for the last minute. But when I think about it too, my university search binges did give me some pretty good foundation on college research...

My Danish classmates have about another two weeks left in the classroom, and then about a month of reading/studying for various exams. I however, will be off touring much of Western Europe, and do not have to take the exams.

So therefore, there is also not much to say on "the last day of school" specifically, because for my classmates it wasn't their last day. I made my classmates some vanilla cake with chocolate frosting which was nicely made if I do say so myself, and brought it to class, and we all "hyygede" for a while. They gave me a nice little farewell present called a "blå bog" which is kind of putting together all your impressions of the person etc. that you gave it to. It was super sweet, and I really like it :-)

And then I got my last most delicious 22 kroner sandwich from the school kantine (cafeteria) before I left. Which will also be my last school food that isn't freezer burned pizza and/or soggy chicken burgers (I will give my high school credit for their mashed potatoes though). Man I loved this cafeterias food.

And that's a wrap for my Danish school year! Should I start counting days until school starts in the U.S?

I think not...unfortunately this summer break doesn't come with a year after. 

'Ses!

Luxembourg

Hi! So I haven't updated in about a month. On the general front, things are going good, I've been to my last school party (and Denmark throws rad parties, can you imagine...), I went on a day tour with my Rotary club where we visited many of the different borders between Denmark and Germany, and THEEEENNNNN a couple days later went to Luxembourg while staying at my host dads house near Düsseldorf, Germany. (Disclaimer: He lives part time in Germany because he works for NATO).

The first day (Saturday) the other exchange student and I drove to Düsseldorf, Germany, with my host mom, and arrived around dinner time. Technically there isn't much to talk about on the first day because it was all spent driving.

The next morning (Sunday) we woke up at 7 which was ridiculously hard, ate breakfast (which I was hoping wasn't mandatory at such an hour of the morning), and then drove a couple hours to Luxembourg City.


We got there around 3:30 that afternoon, and went to the American Cemetery from WWII. It was like a smaller version of Omaha Beach, with 5,076 burials, many people unknown when lost in combat. We wandered around there for a while before leaving and driving into Luxembourg City.

We drank some grass water when we got to the hotel (it was really Schweppes tonic with lemon but I panicked while ordering because I ran out of time so I just chose something that consequently tasted like grass), and then went and wandered around for a while. We ended up eating dinner in a Tex Mex restaurant, and ate a pepper that was probably grown in the sixth circle of hell, it was so hot. I did however have refried beans, which I have not had since I left the U.S, which was like taking a flight on the airline of taste buds back to the U.S. Which in all honesty will be better than my delta airlines flight back, so cheers again to my itinerary that gets worse each time I think about it. (Really though, was geography not taken into consideration when making this itinerary)?!

After that we had some ice cream, and then went back up to our room for the night. Monday morning we woke up slightly later than Sunday but still early for the weekend, and ate breakfast together. We then went up, finished getting ready, and checked out of the hotel. My host parents went down to old town Luxembourg, and Claire and I went around Luxembourg City together, and ended up in a café. We met again at 12, and drove from Luxembourg City to Vianden, which is home to Vianden castle. It is so beautiful there!

We drove home after that, however not before a stop in Aachen, Germany at the lindt chocolate warehouse. I first walked in and thought I saw a couple other things like fruits, normal groceries, I thought it was kind of a grocery store with a couple extra lindt chocolates. No. My eyes soon adjusted to what was in front of me. It was all chocolate. Every shelf was lined with Lindt Swiss Chocolate. What a time to be alive.

Tuesday we were "home" in Germany, and toured the base with my host dad. We went into a couple shops and were blown away because we were lead to the American food section which was stocked with Ritz crackers, flamin' hot cheetos, regular cheetos, beef jerky, honey mustard pretzels, and all kinds of doritos. We didn't actually buy anything besides two personal sized honey mustard pretzels and bag of beef jerky which we shared (I didn't really eat the kind of food they sold here in Germany when I was back in the United States anyway), however it was like we were back in the United States for a couple hours. (You read hours correctly). We even heard people speaking English to the fluency of other Americans which, to be honest, it'd been a while, and even longer that we've really heard the nasally twang of Americans...and lets be honest, we can't deny we all sound a little nasally...

The biggest shock was when we walked into the shop to be greeted by a friendly display of pepperidge farm brand food, which if you recognize that brand name you probably know the goldfish crackers "the snack that smiles back." (I know you sang along to that). We scoured the store looking for them, practically running, but were unfortunately dismayed and disappointed when our hopes were brought up once again, and they really had set out a display of everything pepperidge farm, minus what is probably their best selling product. If you know what goldfish are, without jumping to conclusions we eat live goldfish, then you are American. (Clarification- when abroad you must clarify that goldfish double for crackers, I have indeed encountered this obstacle many times).

I have had a lot of people tell me "I know this great place with American food!" I have learned to dismiss these comments however, before I get my hopes up, because what Europe has yet to catch onto is that goldfish and cheez-its are probably the most American food of it all, and these shops will never be selling American food to me until I walk in and see a display of goldfish or cheez-its after a hearty nine months. (Tbh I'm well and functioning without goldfish and cheezits and have kind of hyped it up a bit this year, but what's a little hyperbole to make a story).

And tomorrow we drive home! So that was that.

Vi ses!

Påske Ferie

"Påske,' translated from Danish means "Easter" in English, and "Ferie," translated from Danish means "break" in English.

So therefore, you could probably predict that I just had my "Easter break," or otherwise spring break here in Denmark.

It started out on Friday night after I got out from school, where my host family and I ate "middags kaffe," (afternoon tea/coffee/cookies), and then a couple hours later my host dad, host sister, two host brothers and I all went to the movies. I ate more than the recommended dose of popcorn, but what else is exchange for besides gaining a bunch of weight and pushing your body to maximum exhaustion limits (as previously mentioned in my last post.)

Saturday the whole family took to the summer house (minus my host sister.) We went for a nice, frigid cold walk outside on the beach, and then came home and made dinner. After dinner we watched a movie about navy divers as I continued reading the Anne Frank diary for the second time.

Sunday after we ate breakfast we all relaxed a little bit, and then went to my host brothers soccer game (minus my host sister and first host brother). After that we drove back to the summer house after a few stops along the way, and I made dinner a couple hours later, a dish that my mom made. When dinner was over I spent the rest of the night rotating between the movie that was playing on TV, to listening to music, while reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Technically I bought it back in October but never got around to reading it until now, so applause to Grace for actually picking up a book.

Monday I went with my host father to his mom and dad's house where I met his father, and when we walked back to the summer house I was driven back to their regular house. I spent a nice night at home just listening to music and sitting on the couch for hours on end until I went to bed.

Tuesday I went out with Claire to a café to eat dinner, and then we went out before coming home later that night. We're actually so regular at the café we go to we're on an acquaintance basis with one of the waiters. One morning we went there to get breakfast after a cancelled class and didn't realize it didn't open for another 20 minutes. They let us in anyway while swinging open the door yelling "Helllooo girlies!"

Wednesday I went over and spent the night at my first host sisters house, where we rotated between speaking a healthy dose of both Danish and English, talked a lot about exchange, and just generally had a great time together.

Thursday was a Påske frokost, which is basically the same thing as a jule frokost, only we don't play pakkeleg or eat risalamande (although I wouldn't object, I'm always in the mood for risalamande.) There is however a substantial amount of rye bread, and food, and people, and laughing. I met my whole host dads side of the family (give or take a few). They're incredibly fun and have a lot of personality to them.

Friday I met with a girl (former exchange student in Port Angeles) and had coffee with her.

Saturday my host parents were at another get together and my host siblings and I stayed home. I went out for a good two hours and biked around in the sun while taking photos. The sun FINALLY came out. It was wonderful.

Sunday Claire came over and spent the night, where we had a pretty good time as always just talking.

And Monday...well actually today is Monday and nothing really remarkable happened, but I know I'm getting sick. Funny though, it came in time for me to miss school (fingers crossed.) Normally whenever I'm sick it comes at the most inconvenient times like breaks or vacations, where I don't get any extra time off.

Tomorrow I'll be waking up and going to four classes (only two of which I can understand) and repeating for 5.5 more weeks of Danish schooling. Hard to believe how fast time is flying.

Friday is eight months that I've been here, and I have a little over two months left, approximately five blogs left, here in this little itty bitty country.

So there was Easter!

Vi ses! :-) 

One week of Turkish delight

Hello hello!

I spent this past week in none other but the transcontinental city of Istanbul, Turkey!

It was full of so much culture and experiences and much Turkish food.

Sunday we flew from Hamburg airport at 10 or 11 (I can't remember), and arrived in Istanbul around 3:30 their time. We got to our hostel, a nice hostel a couple blocks from the Bosphorus, the Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sophia, and then went out to eat dinner.

We ate at a bazaar and it was a mix of things from meat, to pita bread, and lettuce on the side.

Monday we went to a newspaper called "Today's Zaman," (who also copies in Arabic), and talked to a Turkish Journalist on what it's like being a journalist in Turkey. After we were finished there, the group disbanded into their own separate groups, and the people I was with, five girls from my class plus a couple extra, all went to The Grand Bazaar. We shopped around, and a Turk told me I looked like I was 13. I glared at him in return. I bought four pins for my Rotary blazer, and then we all walked back to our hostel. Well, we attempted walking back to our hostel but it took a couple tries getting lost. That seems to be the mantra of my year abroad.

Tuesday we went to the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, and the Taxim area. We got "the best ice-cream," up there, and afterwards I went shopping with two girls from my class. Let me tell you - Istanbul was blissfuly inexpensive compared to Denmark. That evening two of the classes in Istanbul went to a Dervish dance, which is kind of like a religious, ceremonial dance, and then we all went out to dinner. At midnight, a couple of us went to McDonalds and ordered Sundaes. So now I can say I've been to McDonalds at midnight in Istanbul.

Wednesday my class went to the HDP which is an up and coming Kurdish party in Istanbul, who advocates for democracy. We went up to Taxim again after we were finished talking with HDP, got Starbucks, (see left for picture of my new Turkish name), went shopping again, and then we listened to a Danish journalist speak on life in Istanbul. Well, really my class listened, I kind of spaced out.

Thursday we went to an international Turkish high school. It was really cool, and reminded me very much of an American high school. It brought along some nostalgia with it. I was told that if I went to a public, Turkish speaking school, that it wouldn't be the same structure or English proficiency, and that it would be a lot different.

On Friday we went and watched Friday's prayer, got a döner kebab for lunch, and then went into a catholic church. I got Starbucks walking back to the hostel (See below right for picture of my second Turkish name), and then we all chilled before going out to dinner as a whole class for our last night in Istanbul.

I got my third Starbucks on the way back from dinner, and although I don't have a picture of the way they spelled my name, it was pretty...interesting. I'm stuck between saying this was the farthest off I've seen my name, because technically it's not even a name, or closest to my name with the most out of this world spelling. The last two times I got Cris or Kris, which, technically, those are names. Just not my name. This time, I got "Grays," (or Greys, I couldn't decipher between the e and a.) Grey's anatomy fan, perhaps?

And then Saturday we flew back, which is where I got my fourth and final Starbucks, and swapped genders for a couple seconds. This time, I was named "Chris," the boys spelling of Kris. (See below left for picture of gender swapped Turkish name.) So there you have it, if you have a really common name, but think the misspellings of a coffee barista are funny, just go to Turkey.


Also- for anyone who cares to know, I booked my return flights. I will be back in Seattle on July 2nd, two hours after I leave London Heathrow airport (gotta love time differences), and three ungodly layovers later.

I suppose we'll soon see if all these summers of staying up to unholy hours of the morning and getting no sleep pays off, because after these following three flights I will have been awake for nearly thirty six hours.

What better way to push your body to extreme limits than travel? But I mean, what else is exchange for.

In and out,
Vi ses!

I have a host family- the trilogy.

Helllooo!!

In general: I just spent the last week volunteering in a school for special education children. It was very interesting, and the U.S happens to be even more iconic to these children I met than I ever imagined it could be. My favorite question: "have you met one direction?" I also went to a school party, made some småkager (cookies) with my host sister, more specifically snickerdoodles which we burned, ANNNNND *drum roll please* switched host families for the LAST time.

It's been about a year since I wrote my first "I have a host family blog," a year I thought I'd never get through, seeing as how I was still waiting for Denmark to come. It's been about three months since I wrote my last blog about switching to my second host family. And thus, this is my third, and final host family blog.

And thank God this was my second to last time packing, because I'm pretty sure with each time I pack I get worse and less organized than the most recent time. I mean I'm not kidding, I had more clothes than I could fit in my suitcase (literally, and I don't say literally figuratively this time), and even though the more I packed away, the less clutter I had in my room, everything still managed to look messy.

I am living very close to my first host family in this third family, and can bike to school again which I actually am happy about as long as I don't get soaked in the rain, which really is not a rare occurrence. It's actually how I soaked my phone.... I know actually I say I'm happy to bike again now, but the forecast for me saying "I hate biking" while biking and huffing and puffing again up Denmark's many hills (it's NOT a flat country those are all just a wheelbarrow of LIES) is 100%. Call it a very conditional happiness. ;-)

My first host dad actually once told me he thinks I'm "getting used to my bike because I'm not coming home so tired and out of breath anymore." I decided that laughing would be my best shot, because what I didn't tell him is that I really just walked up one of the side hills that nobody drove down, and hopped back on my bike again when I got to the main street so nobody saw me walking.

ANYWAY- back to my host family. I have two host brothers, 15 and 16, and a host sister who goes to the same school as me, who is 18. They also have two cats, so sorry mom - you'll be sneezing for a while until I do laundry once I get back to the United States. One of the cats can open doors (from both directions) as well. I've been told that in the middle of the night he may sneak into my bedroom by opening the door by himself. And if he wants to leave, well he opens it again and leaves.

I am really excited to have a house full of siblings again, I hope this will be a fantastic end to a fantastic year, and I am more than confident that this family will be a fun and welcoming family to spend my last four months on exchange with.

Oh! And before I end my blog! I went to a Katy Perry concert live in Herning! It was amazing! The one thing the other exchange student and I noticed though, is that when Danes go to concerts, they don't cheer. Or sing along. Or stand up. Or dance. They only cheer for a couple seconds when the artist finishes a song, starts a song, or comes on stage. They all just sit still and... listen (even when the artist gives the next verse of the song to the audience to sing.) Maybe its a cultural thing... maybe it was just this concert.

Anyway- I'm ready to make the finishing touches to my exchange year, a year that feels like it just started, and I sure hope that these next four months feel as infinite as my first four months did.

In a week I'll be off to Istanbul with my class, so I'll also be blogging on that. I suppose all these new blogs make up for my lack of blogs from Christmas to February. It can only mean I'm keeping good and busy in my last four months here? :-)

Vi ses! :-D