Tak.

I definitely have a case of the Christmas fever. It's not even snowing. But it's hit me early this year.

Last Tuesday I went with my rotary club to a food processing factory. Not going to lie, it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world. The machines we're kind of neat though. I also love Helge and Ann Marie and therefore love seeing them. I consider them my Denmark Grandparents.

Last Wednesday i went to my second host family's house to eat dinner. The are really great people. My second host mom is going to decorate my new room. She asked me if i considered myself a "romantic." I think she gets a kick out of interior design. Their entire house looks like it belongs in a magazine. Everything is really really beautiful. The food was also most excellent. Which foreshadows many wonderful meals to come. They had all these great plans for activities when i arrive in their household. I'm excited!

The only minor downside is that they do not have a dog. When first arriving in a new home, life can be really rather awkward. Not all the time, it's just those long silences can be more frequent. Silence in general is an unavoidable fact of life. As people get more comfortable with each other silence will often also become comfortable. A dog is wonderful for situations such as these. If i don't know what to say, i talk to the dog. I don't know what to do, i pet the dog. The dog as well as myself both benefit from this unspoken partnership.

Last thursday i went to Arvin's house with Elisa. (India and Italy) Elisa made Italian food for all of us. I have a deep, passionate, unhealthy love of pasta, so you can imagine my excitement. I LOVE ARVIN'S HOST FAMILY. I believe i am restating myself. I've been over to his house once before for dinner and i believe i have mentioned how great his family is in a previous blog post. But really, they're great. Twas a lovely evening.

Last Friday after school i went to Odense to meet Caitlin. She stayed with me all weekend. We found a restaurant that actually gives you FREE WATER. Which is unheard of in these parts. It also made excellent pizza. We easily demolished the entire thing. And sang Christmas songs, and listened to Christmas music, and watched Christmas movies, and ate Christmas candy. And made veggie quiche and egg nog! And had a little photo shoot with a tree, some christmas balls complementary of Blackberry Bog, and a Danish flag.

Today is Thanksgiving. Tomorrow i cook for my host family. To be continued...

I also change families this weekend. This is also a to be continued.

Hey guys, let's go to Sweden.

My week went something like this:

Mandag- School.Recover from the sleepless weekend.

Tirsdag- School.Language school.

Wednesday- Wednesday I went to Malmö,Sweden. I went with Elisa, Ayca, Lulu, Alicia, and Sarah. We were Italy, Istanbul, New York, Quebec, Colorado, Alaska, and Denmark. Representing the world well. It was really really fantastic. Days like last Wednesday were part of the reason i wanted to be an exchange student. We took a walking tour to see some of Sweden's history. We went to an old church. We found an really cute vintage shop. We discovered the COZIEST, most magnificent, soul-warming cafe with delicious hot chocolate. We got cheap thai food! Took tons of pictures. Danced in the streets. Talked to some swedes. Made a movie. And strolled the streets of Sweden. I don't think i could correctly describe that day.

It all started with a really good chai tea latte.

Lulu researched various activities and attractions in Sweden. Her report was complete with maps, line graph, and pie chart of fun. Preparation my friends.

It was a very nice tree. So we took pictures next to it.

Creativity.

Vintage fun.

Love in the Cafe.

Oh yeah, and we bought rainbow mustaches.

Hygge. http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

What a lovely looking group.

It was a really good day.

Torsdag- I went to school and then to language school. Then i went back to school for a sleepover at the school with my class. We watched scary movies...and the hangover 2, got basically no sleep, and ingested highly caloric and unhealthily scrumptious treats.

Fredag- Friday morning i went home, showered, packed, and went back to school. I packed because Friday right after school i went to Copenhagen with..i'm not entirely sure how to spell their names: "Helya" and Anne Marie. "Helya" is a man from my Rotary Club here in Denmark. Him and his wife invited me to go with them for the weekend. We stayed with his daughter and her family. Friday night we went to a choral concert. Helya's grandson performs in a famous young boys choral group in Copenhagen. They are all boys from around...age 8-11 i want to say. Before their voices change. It was really incredible.

Lordag- We went to the Rundetaarn or "Round Tower" in Copenhagen. The Round Tower was built by King Christian IV. Is was part of the Trinity Complex, which united three of the most important facilities available to 17-th century scholars: an astronomical observatory, a students' church, and a university library. Yes i did just copy all of that from the brochure.
Then we went to Louisiana which is a modern art museum north of Copenhagen.

Going up the tower.

View from top of tower.

Louisiana.

Sondag- We went to Roskilde Domkirke. It's a very big church were all of Denmark's previous rulers are buried. It was very beautiful. Architecture here is incredible. Then i came home. It was so great though! Helya and his wife were the sweetest people. His family invited me to come back anytime i wanted to visit. They were really sweet too. I love being around different families. Every family has different dynamics. I'm really grateful they opened their home to me for the weekend.

Domkirke.

That was my week.

Also i just found out i will be switching host families next next weekend. Which is very strange to me.

Also my Danish is really improving. I feel like i've had many mini language breakthroughs throughout the weeks. It's fun.

Dead ducks, Pumpkin Cheesecake, No sleep.

Halloween is not yet a thing in Denmark. It's definitely catching on however.
My host mom bought little pumpkin candles and on Halloween she made pumpkin soup. It was really sweet.
She also bought me a pumpkin so that i could bake a pumpkin dessert.
Except i didn't even have the slightest clue how to go about cooking a pumpkin. After some google research i decided to make pumpkin cheesecake. and it was delicious.
I also went to a Halloween shindig with some of my danish buds. I was an indian.

Then i went hunting. Duck and pheasant hunting. With my third host family. They live in a castle. It's very large and has lots of bathrooms. And uninhabited rooms. And really slippery floors. There are also a lot of chandeliers.
Cheers to trying new things. Never in my life would i have ever thought i would have participated in such a thing.
Sometimes my life makes me laugh. It seems really unreal. Before the hunt everyone gathered and the whistle/horn thing was blown. Everyone was decked out in proper hunting attire. The kind you see in movies. The men were wearing those tight knee pants, tall socks, and those funny looking caps. Naturally, everyone was wearing neutral earth tones. I chose that day to wear my floral right and large bright orange ethnic printed scarf.
Hunting is a lot of waiting. My day went something like " wait, wait, wait, wait, hunting hounds chase, birds fly, boom, boom, boom, feathers floating in the air, birds falling from the sky, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. "
One time a bird landed right next to me. It wasn't yet deceased and just laid there convulsing and ruffling it's feathers.
Then at the end of the day they played songs on that horn/whistle. One for the ducks, one for the pheasants, and one for both. They laid out all the dead birds on the grass according to type. And said some kind words that i couldn't quite understand.
It was an experience. A very interesting day indeed.

This past weekend there was another exchange get together in Holbæk. It was Newbies, Oldies, and Rotex. Newbies referring to us who arrived in the summer. Oldies referring to those who arrived this winter and are almost done with their exchange. Rotex are people who live in Denmark and have gone on exchange in years past. So, many, people. It was one massive sleepover. Without sleep.
On Saturday all of us dressed up for sort of a post-halloween halloween celebration. So much love. It continues to amaze me. I have never met or bonded with so many fantastic people. Every single one i meet. I didn't think it was possible to love this many people. For the oldies it was their last get together and the last time a lot of people would see each other. It was really emotional. And unbelievable because when they leave i am halfway through this experience. My skin was tingling. We will be receiving newbies in January. I don't even want to think about it.

So that is all for now.

Currently still happy.

City Lights.

On the 15th of October I went to Copenhagen. That weekend my host family took me to see a good majority of the attractions the city had to offer. The picture is of part of the Queen's castle.

Den lille havfrue- She is a very famous statue of the the little mermaid in the HC Andersen fairy tale.

Christiansborg Slot- This is the castle where elected politicians meet to discuss and adopt the laws of Denmark. It houses the Prime Minister's office, the Supreme Court, and the Danish Parliament.

Kronborg Slot- This castle is located at a very narrow strip of water between Denmark and Sweden. You can look across the water and actually see Sweden. It was originally built to help medieval kings regulate import and export. It also allowed them to enforce taxes from incoming ships passing through. This castle is also known for being Hamlet's castle. It was the one Shakespeare wrote about in the play.

Christianshavn- This is a neighborhood in Copenhagen. My host parents and I took a boat tour so i could see all the sights of Copenhagen from the water. Within Christianshavn is Christiania.

Christiania- I was not allowed to take pictures in Christiania. Google images has provided me with the following images:

Christiania is an independent society. It is a community run by it's people. There is art everywhere. There are few rules, and the rules are independent from the Danish government. If you want to go and paint on a wall, you go and paint the wall. However stealing, violence, guns, knives, bullet proof vests, hard drugs, and biker colors are forbidden. Christiania has a very controversial past.
Personally i loved it. I have never felt more at home than i did when i visited.

Tivoli. It's the Danish theme park. It's not the largest i have experienced. But i ate a very good candy apple. And the rides where entertaining.

The guards infront of the queens castle.

Holgar Danske. He's a stone viking in the basement of Kronborg. Legend says if Denmark is ever in any real trouble he will wake up and save the country.

I also went to Rosenborg Slot. There there were all the crown jewels.

I think...that was all. I'm not entirely sure. It is very easy to overlook something. There were so many places.

So that was...Saturday-Monday afternoon.

Then Monday afternoon I went to stay with my friend Caitlin.
We made ginger grapefruit cheesecake and watched Cabaret. Then in the morning we took the train into Copenhagen. Later in the evening we went back to her home and cooked for her host family. We made pad thai. It was scrumptious.
Then we went back into Copenhagen and met up with Vicente from Chile. We watched a movie.
Then i ran into another guy from Homer. He was camped out at one of the Wall Street protests. I went over to warm my hands and talk to some of the protesters. And he was one of them. It was very exciting.
The next day i met up with Emily. We spent the day together in Copenhagen. Then Caitlin, Emily, and Maria (Caitlin's second host sister who went on exchange to India last year), and myself all went out. I went to stay at Emily's house.
The next morning we woke up and biked around so i could see Emily's town. We grabbed coffee at Mr.Chicken and then biked to this big park. Emily's host dad said there was a mountain at this park. It was really beautiful. Lakes everywhere, bike paths, autumn colors. The mountain was a hill. Not even that large of a hill. Though i suppose it's pretty substantial considering the country i am living in.
Then it was time for me to get on the train and truck on home.
I got home on Thursday. Friday i went to a birthday party for one of the girls who goes to my school. It was a good time. Then Saturday i went to another birthday party for a girl in my class. It was also fun.
Then on Sunday i met up with Elisa from Italy and Ayca from Istanbul. We went to a cafe in Odense and had good conversation and cappuccinos. Then we went to a park and had a bit of a photo shoot.

It was the perfect end to my Autumn Holiday.