Hyggeligt

Hey everyone! It has been a long time again so I'm sorry for that. But I have a lot to tell you all too. The word "hyggelidt" that I named this post is a Danish word that doesn't translate to English. The closest translation would probably mean cozy, fun, or nice but in Danish it can be more then that. It is a lifestyle. The danish life is "hyggelidt" they always lite candles, they eat cake, and drink tea. It can't get much cozier then that. Anyways, around this time of year Denmark is very hyggelidt. As the days are getting shorter and the darkness is coming sooner more candles are being lit, more people are cuddling up on the couch, and most importantly more food is being eaten! Nowadays the darkness comes at around 4:30 maybe and it doesn't get light until around 7:15 in the morning, and they will continue to get shorter and shorter throughout these next few months until spring when we will finally get an abundance of light. The darkness may sound bad but as I was saying, Danish people make the most of it. All the towns around me, including Copenhagen, are getting decorated with Christmas lights and everywhere you go there are candles burning and hot tea being served. As for the food, it is awesome! Danish people are known to eat a lot around Christmas, whether it is the delicious Christmas cookies everyone buys called Pedder Nodder (I think I am addicted) or the traditional Danish dinners like Flæskesteg (consisting of roasted pork with a crackling around it and served with potatoes and a brown gravy), it is all good. Though I'm not much of a slab of meat kinda person I have enjoyed all the traditional Danish meals I've had here and look forward to bringing the recipes back to the USA. I look forward to Christmas here, though I will miss my family a lot. I also am a little sad I won't be home for Thanksgiving which is just around the corner. I can only imagine the mix of delicious dishes my Dad will cook up this year. Lucky for me I will be creating a mini Thanksgiving though on Wednesday for my host family, it won't consist of much but at least I will have Pumpkin Pie and Mashed Potatoes! Well anyways, I have been quite busy recently. Before I wrote about going to a water park called Lalandia, that was a ton of fun! We just stayed for the weekend but we all had a great time and there was wonderful company. Of course the waterpark wasn't quite as big as Raging Waters or something of the sort but it was nice and there was a lot of sweet families there. The next weekend was my Rotary Get Together weekend. That was so awesome! It was so great to see all my Rotary friends again and meet new people as well. We enjoyed good food and even had a DJ and live band at night as well as a costume party due to the fact that it was around Halloween. The weekend after that was my trip to Oslo! It was so much fun. We took a boat over night on Saturday and arrived in Oslo Sunday morning with 7 hours to explore the city. The only problem was that it was a bit rainy actually and we had a hard time finding shops that were open on Sunday. In Denmark and Norway the idea to stay open for even a bit on Sunday is new to them, but more and more shops are doing it now. We ended up finding some cool places though and got to see the Royal Palace and the beautiful Opera House. After the Opera House we tried to find some place to get a hot chocolate but weirdly enough we couldn't find anywhere! We ended up just grabbing some tea, but the warmth was nice after a long day in the cold! Last weekend (Nov 16-18) was the weekend I moved in with my new host family. I moved in midday on Saturday and my old host family and new one had some tea and treats together. It was sad saying goodbye to my first host family, my host mother and I were almost brought to tears, but I know I can see them and visit them whenever I want and nowhere in Denmark is far away so I know I will stay in touch. My new host family is really great, they have two kids: the daughter, Lise (20) and the son, Johan (16). They are both beyond sweet and so far we have got along super great. The host mother and father: Mogens (father) and Janne (mother) are very nice as well and they both work in Copenhagen. I am enjoying myself so much here already and I am all moved into my new room now. I will keep updating on how it is here when I get more adjusted though. Well this friday is my Gala, which is kind of the equivalent of prom so I am very excited. I got a dress for it and I will get ready and have dinner with some Danish friends from my class before. There is not much else going on with me. I hope everyone is doing well and hopefully someone at least still reads my blog every once and while even though I am so bad at updating! Sending love and Danish hyggelidt.

It has been forever!

Wow, I am so sorry folks that I haven't posted in a month. With adjusting to this country and making friends, I am becoming busy constantly. The past month has been absolutely wonderful. I have done soo much and now I feel ever more like a dane. The most important things to cover is what I have been up to recently I think. The past week was our October vacation (kind of the equivalent of Thanksgiving break). At the beginning of the week I was able to go on a small trip with my host family. We got to go to the island of Jutland and stay with my host moms mother. A very sweet lady, but she doesn't speak much english. We had dinner with my host mom's sister and her husband one night too and it was a very nice time. It has become very normal for me over here to have a glass of wine with dinner. My host parents and whichever hosts of dinner generally offer it. I think it will be very strange going home and not being able to casually enjoy a glass of wine at dinner. Anyways, after spending a day or two with my host grandma, we went to the north-east part of Jutland and stayed in a beach side apartment with another family that was friends with my host family. They had three kids who were 14, 16, and 9 so we had a good time. It was too bad though because it was very rainy so we spent a lot of the time drinking tea and playing board games. I got home from Jutland mid week and was able to enjoy some days relaxing and was actually able to go to a couple of parties. I made a very good danish friend name Karoline who lives right down the street from my house and I was actually able to spend a day at her school before break, so that I was able to experience a different danish school then just mine. It was fun and I was invited to a party with her class, which we went too over the week and it was very fun. I enjoyed the break a ton and loved being able to sleep in. Today is my first day back in school and believe me, it was hard to get up this morning. It's almost always difficult to go to school knowing that I already graduated back home and that my grades don't count at all. But on the other hand, school is fun and I get to socialize with more danish people too. Another interesting thing that happened in the past month is that I was actually able to get a visit from a good friend in California that is living in London this year. Flights from London to Copenhagen are very cheap and she came for just a weekend. We had a great time and ended up exploring Copenhagen a lot. We went to a couple art museums which were very great and we also went to all the pretty sights in Copenhagen. I try to go into Copenhagen a lot because I think its such a interesting and cultural city. Theres so much stuff I want to do and haven't done. I hope that by the time I leave Denmark, I'll be an expert on Copenhagen, but I definitely still have a ways to go since when I usually go to Copenhagen, it is for something and not just too explore. The next weeks will be very busy also, I have got a lot on my plate. Every Tuesday and Thursday I am still learning Danish (although we dont learn much in those classes) and this weekend I will be spending the weekend a ways south of Copenhagen at a water park called Lalandia. Its a tradition for my host family to go there and they always go with my host grandparents (on my host dad side) and my  host uncle and aunt and their two young kids. I think it sounds like a fun time, and hopefully the whole park is inside or else we would all be pretty cold I think. It is getting absolutely beautiful in Denmark by the way. I think there are definitely some pictures to come of the autumn leaves. Most trees are yellow and orange now and there are just shedding their leaves. We all know its going to be winter pretty soon, but I am very excited. I think winter in Denmark sounds pretty great. The months of January and December are very traditional months and they are said to be filled with candles, tea, and delicious food. I think I will enjoy Christmas here very much. In the past month I have been able to have dinner with both of my next two families so finally I have seen my next houses and my next rooms. They both have really nice houses and my rooms are nice too. They also both live fairly close to the train stations so transportation will be easy. Well the weekend after Lalandia I will actually be having a Rotary weekend. It's called a Get Together or G2G. We will spend the weekend staying the night at a high school and hanging out with alll of the exchange students in Denmark. I think it sounds like a pretty great time, I am really looking forward to it. The weekend after that (10th of November) I am even busy also. I will be going with my second host sister (Lise - 19) and two other exchange students on a one night boat cruise over to Oslo, Norway. I can't wait for that because I am so excited to see Norway. Since I am part Norwegian I think it will be cool to see where my ancestors came from and of course just be able to say that I have been to Norway. In mid November I will actually be switching to my next host family also and I think with all the things that are going on in the next three weeks, it will come faster then ever. It's really hard to believe that I have already been here for more then two and a half months. Where has the time gone? But at least I really feel at home here. I wonder how it will be to switch to my next host family and start all over again having to make myself comfortable and too adjust. Part of me is scared to switch but part of me is very excited, I think I will really enjoy my time there. So there it is, all that I have yet to do soon and all I have been doing. I am pretty tired being back in school right now, but I think soon I will readjust to the school schedule. I hope this is enough of an update for all of you and I'm sorry again that it has been so long. Much love, Zoe

Getting Colder In Denmark

Hi, sorry I haven't posted in so long. Everyday is a busy day as an exchange student. I'm not sure why that is but I feel like exchange students are constantly feeling three things: hungry, tired, and confused. Even though those three feelings we are always having fun. My past two weeks have been a lot of fun. I was able to hang out with some exchange friends and some Danish classmates over the weekends and I had great times. Last weekend my host parents ended up spending a weekend in Rome due to my host Moms job and so I stayed with my host Grandparents, which was very nice actually! Usually older people don't speak good English in Denmark but for some reason my host Grandparents on my host Dad's side are very very good at it. We had traditional danish meals. They usually consist of a meat, potatoes, and some kind of veggie (carrots, tomatoes, or cucumbers are common). We also went to a Viking Museum in a town called Roskilde. It was very nice and super interesting. There were boat remains from ages ago that were actually used by the Vikings and a lot of cool life-sized models of boats that we got to check out. After the museum, we went to the most beautiful cathedral. It was up on top of a hill, but sadly they were having a service so we didn't get to see inside.

School has been a lot of fun. I am able to participate in most of my classes and a lot of my teachers give me specific assignments that focus on the US and Denmark, so that is very appreciated. I am looking forward to taking the class trip that I will take with my class in March! We will be going to Manchester, England. I think that will be a lot of fun. This weekend I also have plans to go enjoy a weekend with my host Mom on the opposite side of Denmark. We are going to Denmark's biggest island thats called Jutland. We will be visiting my host Grandmother on Friday and then spending Saturday and Sunday in a town called Aalborg shopping and seeing some of my host Mom's old friends. I think it will be a very good time and if I am lucky one of my exchange friends that lives near Aalborg will come and go shopping with us. I am definitely looking forward to the weekend. Today I will go to Language School in about 20 minutes and we will probably study vocabulary and grammar. I am learning some Danish definitely and at this point I can understand simple Danish. So at least that is a start. I am looking forward to everything that Denmark will bring me. I miss everyone back home, but I love my life here. Hope everyone is well. Knus (like hugs in Danish).

A quick hello.

Hello my loved ones, right now I am sitting in school. One might think it's odd that I'm on the computer but actually its very normal over here in Denmark. EVERYONE brings their computers to school and the teachers expect the students too and base some of the lessons around them. I would be paying attention but I am in the class that the school counselor told me "was pointless to take", I am in Danish, but as our english classes back home, they aren't learning basic Danish of course but analyzing complex text and things of the sort. This is all very difficult given that my Danish is still at a very low level. I am proud to say though that I am picking it up. My host family is really really great and we always practice and speak in Danish. I am picking up a lot of regular day phrases such as "How was your day?", "Good night", "Please pass the..", even if it is not much it's definitely stuff that I will need to know to because fluent in Danish like I hope. I have been having language school after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays too which is very fun. We have a big group of exchange students from the area all together in one class and we are always joking around and having a good time, while of course studying a ton of Danish. I will definitely try hard to know as much Danish as possible before I come home because it is really important to me that as well as completely giving myself to the Danish culture, I learn the language. I have been enjoying myself in Denmark a lot and I have more or less moved on from missing Intro-Camp and gotten used to the regular life in Hillerod again. I do miss my friends from camp a lot still though but we have been able to keep in touch and I even get to see some of them in Copenhagen this weekend. Well I should probably keep it short, so I hope to hear from all of you soon! Much love.

Intro Camp!

Wow! I have been so busy recently. So I am very sorry to all my fans (haha) for not posting for a week or so. I went to the party at my school and it was very fun. All my classmates were very friendly and the party was fun, a lot of dancing. It was different because there was beer being served there, at a school event, so strange! Over all I had a very good time though. After the party I had a few difficulties because I was told to take the train home but I didn't know it wasn't running because of track maintenance so I ended up waiting there for two hours and then eventually calling my host family and taking a bus home, so it all worked out in the end. The next day I had a block party in my neighborhood and I had one of my exchange student friends named Alicia come over and we made mac and cheese for it together as an American dish. Yum! It was great to taste some American comfort food. We then when and spent the night at her house, by Copenhagen, and in the morning got on the bus to go to Intro Camp. Intro camp was a camp where we studied Danish and met all the new Rotary exchange students from all over Denmark. We were 150 exchange students in total and we were from all over the world, from Brazil to USA. It was so amazing being able to meet and stay with all these people who were going through exactly through what I am going through. We stayed in something like a boarding school and we each had a dorm with a roommate or two. My roommate ended up being one of my closest friends by the end of the week. Her name is Carmen and she is from Ithica, New York, we got along very very well and I loved rooming with her. I also made a ton of other friends from all over (theres some pictures on my Facebook). We studied six hours of Danish a day and did a ton of fun other things like played pool, swam, cards, a talent show, a live band, and a dance. It was such a great experience and it really was one of the best weeks of my life! We also went into the city of Aarhus one of the days, which is the second biggest city in Denmark, and went to an incredible museum and downtown to shop! I had a truly amazing time. I was a little sad to be leaving but I am happy to be back in my home in Denmark and back with my host family. I had regular school today which went ok, I was still pretty exhausted from Intro Camp because I got back yesterday and it was a long week of studying, fun, and waking up early. I will from now on just keep trying to get into a very normal routine and make friends at school, I have made some, but no close ones yet. I think it is definitely a lot easier to make friends with other exchange students but I definitely wanna have good danish friends too. I love to Danish culture and I am looking forward to truly becoming a Dane. A month has gone by now and it doesn't really seem like it. In some ways it seems like its been forever but in most it feels like it was just yesterday that I got here. Well now I will go run, I have been trying to keep in good shape and eat right, its working pretty well too! Sorry it took so long to post! Hope everyone is good. Much love from Denmark.

Busy Busy

Hi everyone. I have been busy with school and other fun things. The goodbye party for my host sister was a success and I got to meet some of her friends and also some of my host parents friends. I also got to meet my host mom's sister and her two sons (one is 18) who stayed with us for a day traveling from the other side of Denmark to say goodbye to Josefine. After the party we were all tired so we spend Saturday just relaxing. On Sunday it was Josefine's last day and we asked her what she wanted to do and surprisingly she said she just wanted to stay home and say goodbye to the house and her own area. I understand that though. My last night in my own bed was kind of emotional too. But since it was such a nice day on Sunday my host mom and host brother took me to the beach for an hour or two. I actually got some suntanning in.. not that the danish sun is very strong, there was some clouds too. That night we went out to Chinese with my host fathers parents for Josefines last meal. It was pretty good and almost like the Chinese restaurants in the US but this restaurant also was serving sushi and french fries in their buffet. It was pretty odd. That night, or I should say morning, Josefine was taking off from the Copenhagen airport at 4:45 am. We had to be at the airport at 3 am and so we ended up leaving for the airport at 2 am. It was a long night since we didn't get home until around 6 am. I was supposed to go to school at 8 but my host family understand that I would be way too tired to function so they let me sleep in until 11. Anyways my host sister got off well and she has arrived safe in Arizona, so good luck to her! I'm sure she will have a great exchange. The past few days in school have been good. I am definitely getting more adjusted to the Danish school system which is a relief because at first it was hard to figure out. Now I have been able to make my way to my classes and make some friends. The class I'm in is very nice and the teachers and students are both friendly. This Friday there is a party at the school, but parties at their school are MUCH different then in the US. Beer is served and the kids drink with there teachers. It is very hard to get my head around so I will be interested to see how that turns out. Next week I have to go to Intro Camp for all the Rotary exchange students in Denmark. I think its going to be over 125 students so it will be packed. We will be staying in a old school (with rooms for sleeping thankfully) in a town about 4 hours away from me. About as far as you can get in Denmark. I am very much looking forward to Intro Camp, I heard it's a blast and they will teach us a lot of Danish there. I have also started Danish lessons. I have only had one so far but we only learned our birthdays, introductions, and some numbers, which of course are useful things to have. I can't wait until I can maintain a conversation in Danish. I will definitely try to learn as much as I can. Right now I just got home from school and had a snack and I will go for a run pretty soon now. I hope everyone is great!

School in Denmark

Hey guys, sorry it has taken my so long to write another post but I have been busy. In the past few days a lot of things have been happening. Two days ago I got to go and hang out with another exchange student from Oregon in Copenhagen. We walked around and got dinner and surprisingly we were fast friends, it seems like if you are going through the exact same thing you never run out of things to talk about. It was really nice getting to hang out with someone that was going through what I was going through. The next day was my first day of school, yesterday. I arrived at school and someone was there to take me to my class. I was put in the 2nd grade in the Gymnasium. The only have three grades all together and most of the people in my class are about my age. There is also another exchange student from USA in my class. It's been very nice to have her there because it we can figure things out together then. The class I'm in pretty much sticks together the whole day and we have block periods usually, about 2 hours of each subject. The school is very nice but it is hard to be inside all day especially when you can't understand anything the teacher is saying. I am trying to learn though. The kids in my class are fairly friendly.. some more then others but again that's when it is nice to have another exchange student in my class. Don't worry we are very social with the class when we are together, we don't just hang out alone. The first day was pretty good, but very overwhelming, and after words someone from my class invited us (me and the other exchange student Jessica) to go to the beach with them. We said yes and it was very fun but a very short trip. The second day of school, today, was a little more relaxed but still a little hard. I enjoyed myself though and I just got home from taking the train to my town after school. Tonight my host sister, who is going to Arizona on exchange on Monday, is throwing a goodbye party. Many neighbors will come and friends and family. I am excited about that, and I can't wait to meet every one. Well just a short update. Hope everyone is well.