One cool thing with Denmark is you don't have to get up at 5 in the morning to watch the sun rise. It rises here between the hours of 7 and 9. It really is a beautiful sight, the way the yellow/orange of the sun fades to pink then to purple and finally into blue,  with a nice purple color falling on the trees and hills. It really is an amazing sight, even if it is raining. It is something that I normally don't get to see because my butt in in a chair in a class room when it happens. But it is nice just to stare out the window and reflect. That was the sight I had this morning on my way back from the airport. See I said good-bye to Megan today. She is on her way back to Australia. It was really hard and sad to say good-bye. I know, well hope, that I will see her again one day, but it is still so hard because she was my first friend here and a good portion of my memories during these last 5 months include her. Good-byes are something I suck at, I hate them. Saying good-bye to my family before I left was hard, not so hard cause I knew that I would be back and they would be there. It is the people that you fear you will never see again that I struggle with. The other harsh reality that I have to come to terms with is that this marks almost half way for me. This year is going by so fast, to fast. I have met some of the most amazing people here; people that I never would have given the time of day to before. The harsh reality that this is only a year is slowly starting to slap me in the face, even though I still have 6 months here.

 

Another Monday, another week of school, YEA!!! But what sucks is, I came to school at regular time today, just to find out that my first class was cancelled. We have this thing called a phone tree, yeah, someone needs to learn how to use it. I never got called, so lets just say that I am not the happiest. I am soooooooo tired from baking the thanksgiving dinner all weekend, that I would have loved to of stayed home and sleep, but no, I am here. Oh well.

 

Ok. Ok. I know that I have not written a journal in a long time. I am sorry, please forgive me. Lets see if I can recap a little of what has been happening. Last week I basically did not have school because all the second years had these group projects that they had to do, but since I am an exchange student, and don't speak much danish yet, I didn't have to work in a group. Instead I had my own project, it was on Danish Interior Design. I got to stay home, sleep in, and then get up and work. The nice thing was, I had a week to do it, it was in english, and it only had to be two pages long. So it was a very relaxing week. Then Monday I missed school to say good-bye to Cara, she was an oldie from South Africa. She went home Tuesday, so that was really sad. Now the weekend is coming up, and I am making Thanksgiving dinner for all three of my host families, my counsellor and his wife, on Sunday. I am going to start baking Saturday, along with my Australian oldie, Megan. I am very excited, yet nervous, because I want everything to be perfect. I move in 1½ weeks. I am excited. I know that I am really going to like my second family, and it is only a two minute bike ride from my first family. So I can pop over and visit any time. Oh, yeah, I cut my hair last night. It is right above my shoulders, so about two inches came off, and I did it myself... yep yep.

 

Great day yesterday was. George W. Bush won re-election. I am so happy. I think it is saying something when Kerry back down. It could be that he was man enough to realize he was defeated, or he is very impatiant and just couldn't bare the pressure of waiting 11 days for Ohio to count their ballots.

But on a sad note, their is a city about 20 kilometers from Vejle called Kolding (pernounced Calling) and they have a fireworks factory. Well it exploded yesterday. The factory was located in the city, so like every window in the city shattered, and I guess one guy was missing. So that was really sad. My family was eating dinner and our house shook. I guess that people 30 kil. in the other direction heard the explosion. So that was really sad, but the fireworks were pretty.   

 

It is so hard to believe that I have been here for three months already. Last weekend we Ålborg and stayed in a castle Saturday night. It was really nice. The castle itself was not the fanciest, but everything else about the castle was. When we got there we went to a wine tasting, it was so cool, I have never been to one before. Then at dinner we had a five course meal that took three hours and certain types of wine at the right time during the meal. I felt like a princess. It was really nice. Then this past weekend I went to Holbæk for Rotary exchange students get together. It was a lot of fun. I met all the oldies (Exchange students that came in January.) They were all really cool. The one thing that I hated was that we slept on the floor, which was nowhere close to being comfortable, and I had a huge headache all weekend, I think it was because I did not get a lot of sleep. But I still had a lot of fun. It was really nice to see everybody that I have not seen since farm school (language school), and I broke a Crazy Like a Fox record, I became his best friend twice in one weekend. ( Yea Yea that is me... sorry to all of you that don't know Fox, but he can not be put into words) One thing that was cool is that we had a Halloween Party Saturday night, and I went as swamp trash, (tak to Carlos for coming up with it, and you had a kick'n costume too) But today was Monday which ment school started back up, and tomorrow is Election Day... GO BUSH!!!!!!!! (undskyld Kerry fans)

 

So school has started again. It is fun, it is just really boring because I don't understand taht much. But most of my teachers are really good about helping me, and my friends are great. They do laugh at me when I break out the Danish- English Dictionary and attempt to translate a whole page. I am looking forward to this weekend, because I am going to Aalborg with my host family and staying in a castle. I am also going to meet up with a good friend of mine, Courtney, and we are going shopping and hanging out. So I am excited. I got so mad today though. I had a late day to school, so I got to sleep in, but I still had to get up at 8:30 (which to me is not slepping in). But I get to school to find out that my second class was cancelled, which means that I could just now be waking up at 10:30. This does not make me happy. But I will live. I am just really tired.

 

This past week has been nice. I love holidays, especially ones that don't really have a point. Efterårsferie, aka fall holiday. So I basicall sat around the house doing nothing, a few days I baked, and one day I went and saw Koldinghus, the castle in Kolding. My host mom also took me shopping... they do have malls in Denmark. I was in heaven at the mall... just wish I had some more cash in my pocket. But the weekend has come which means one thing, school starts again on monday. This really bites the weed. But I did have a nice holiday. Other than I found out that the beast, my car, was checked into rest. So I am sad about that... but I knew I would not have it forever. But I will miss the fun times. RIP Beast... :'(

 

Last night I think I saw more birds in a matter of an hour than I will seen the rest of my life. I witnessed what they call "The Black Sun." It is when over 800,000 birds, of the same type (I am not sure what they are called... but they are black) are getting ready to fly to Africa for the winter. They all came to the same field last night to sleep, and they came by the thousands. It was amazing. I was also on Denmark TV... well actually the back of my head. The news men were at the bird watching last night. I really was in awe by how many birds there were. But life here is going great. I recently started in a photography class... I get to start developing my own pictures soon. I am very excited about that.

 

I saw the prettiest sites yesterday. My host dad took me and my friend Megan, she is an exchange student from Australia, gliding/soring. It was amazing, until he decided to do a stall and I was facing the sky then the ground in a matter of seconds. To put in a funny term... I almost crapped myself. But then I got to fly the plane.... I realized something that I must remember... I can not fly a plane... if it was up to me to fly one... yeah we would for sure crash. BANG!!! Well after that, we came back to my place and I colored my hair. You will have to wait for the pictures... I am not even going to tell the color it was suppose to be... or what it turned out to be... hehehe. Then we went and saw the movie "The Village" lame lame lame movie. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it was not scary at all. I was very disappointed. But now I think that I am getting sick... which really stinks. It is all from the rain storm that I told you about in my last entry. But things are going great here.

 

So like my life seems so boring... I get on here to write about everything I am doing here in Denmark and I never have anything to write about. But i am always doing things. Oh... today me and Megan (awesome girl from Aulstralia) were walk to language school... beautiful skys (which is rare right now) then all of a sudden it start to pour. I had an umbrella...  yea I think the wind was coming from the ground because no matter which way we held the umbrella it flipped into a bowl... that is why is only cost 50 kr. (which is like $6) so I got drenched from head to toe. Then we were sitting in class and I looked out the window... of course.. go figure... it was raining. Then for some reason I looked out the other window... and of course... go figure.. it was not raining. STRANGE... I thought that I was having mental problems (this statement is not saying that I don't have any mental problems... but just for the moment) So I did what every normal human would do... I stopped class and asked everyone if they saw what I saw... and to my amazement... they did. But from what I have been told... that is normal Denmark rain... sometimes there is a line of where it has and has not rained. Kinda cool if you ask me.

 

School is so different here... I am still trying to remember my schedule. I think that this is the only place in the world that pays attention to the week number(yes I mean they know if it is the 35 or 36 week of the year), so for school we have odd weeks and even weeks... and a different schedule for both. We have at most 4 classes a day. Classes are 1 hour and 35 mins, but 5 mins. of that is break. then we have 15 minutes between classes. We have a halh an hour for lunch. Most days though, school ends at 1:30, and some days my classes don't start until 10. So it is not hard days... but I can never remember what class to go to. The other cool thing is that classes get cancelled all the time. So that is always nice. Oh the other thing is, the teacher does not have a room, they move around. So I will have math in 3.07 one day, and 1.03 the next time. So that is very different. But I know that I will get used to it and maybe even remember my schedule one day.

 

Not to much has happened since my last entry. I went to the west coast... saw the sunset on one of the preetiest beaches I have ever seen. Then went to Ribe, the oldest city in Denmark, and to another village where the youngest prince, his wife and kids live. So I had a nice weekend. But another monday... another week of school.

 

I have been here for a month and a half... and I love it. My host family is great. My host dad Benny works for a Network company. My host mom Åse works for the city as like a helper for elderly people. My host brother Christian is still in school, same grade as me. School is fun, yeah I never thought that I would say that. I have made many new friends that are awesome. I am really enjoying it here. The language is slowly coming... it is very hard, but it will come... I hope.