Spring

Spring has arrived in Denmark, a little late, but that is understandable since we have just had on of the worst winters Denmark has seen in 14 years. Finally the snow is gone, the trees are starting to turn green, the flowers are blooming, the bees are pollinating, and the bears(Danes) are finally out of their caves. With spring comes many changes, the most remarkable change would have to be the Danish people. All winter long the Danish people hide themselves in their houses, understandably so, seeing as it is below freezing. The towns are dead and covered in snow, occasionally one might catch a glimpse of a fellow human, before they quickly shuffle indoors. The towns stayed dead all winter, and it was a long winter. Suddenly, the sun came out, and the towns were flooding with people; shops selling ice cream and people lying out in the sun, even though it was still only 10 degrees Celsius. The towns sprang to life in a matter of weeks, I have never before seen such a drastic change. Now the temperature never dips below freezing and I no longer have use for my winter cloths. This came so suddenly I am only recently becoming used to it.

Another change that came with spring was my housing situation. I no longer live in the little fishing town, Kerteminde, I now live in a small town called Åsum, pronounced almost like "awesome", and that's just what it is. This small town lies on the east side of the large city of Odense, the city in which my school lies. This move from 20km to 4km away from my school has made life much more convenient: I can ride my bike to school, come to and from my house when I want, and most importantly, sleep longer. The town is also extremely beautiful, there are not many citizens, and a good share of the citizens are interested in gardening. This has created a beautiful town. The town also gets together and has activities, such as what I was doing today, collecting garbage. The town also has interesting activities, some time in my there will be a little festival where we will burn a witch at the stake... I am not kidding, its tradition...luckily for the women of Åsum it will be a fake witch, this will not turn in to The Åsum Witch Trials.

Although I said I live in Åsum, I actually also live in a far away town called Dalby. I actually have two host houses. My host parents are actually divorced. My host mother in Åsum, and my host father in Dalby. They both have girlfriends/boyfriends, so its almost like I have two host families. Although some might think its annoying, I love it. I get the best of both worlds because my host fathers place is almost the opposite of where I live now. My host father lives in Dalby, about 32km from Odense, so its really far away and inconvenient to go back and forward. It makes up for it by being an incredibly beautiful house, away from the town, and near the beach. My host father even has a boat and some kayaks, making this house the perfect summer get away. In all, I get the city life and the country life all in one host family, I would call myself lucky.

My host mother's name is Helle, and her boyfriends name is Thomas. They are great host parents. Helle is really interested in gardening and used to have a really beautiful garden when she lived with my host father. She has two sons, Kaspar and Jens. I met Kaspar before I came to live here, actually I met him in California. Kaspar was en exchange student last year up in Arcadia, I got to meet him when I went to some rotary get-togethers, and now he is my host brother. He doesn't live at home, he has an apartment in Odense, but he comes back so often, to eat mother's cooking and get some laundry done, that I still get to see him. He is a really fun and relaxed fellow. Thomas has introduced me to a sport I find really fun, golf. He takes me with him some times to play golf. My first time playing an actual game of golf, not mini golf or driving range, was just last saturday. Helle, Thomas, and I went down to Svendborg, to a place where you don't need to belong to a club, a pay and play place. It was cloudy and and the wind was strong, but it was still fun. They rented me a set of golf clubs and we took to the driving range to warm up. We played a 9-hole game with a total par of 30, I got +31 over par, an average of a triple bogey for every hole. I considered that good for my first time, and I found that I really like the sport. I have never really been one for team sports where I need to concentrate on both what I am doing and where my team mates are, probably why I like swimming, sailing, table tennis, and now golf. At night we might play Backgammon or a game of cards and enjoy a class of wine.

My host father's name is Jes, pronounced like "yes", and I forget my father's girlfriend's name. I really like them both. Jes spends his spare time renovating his house, which is amazing. He has built his own pizza oven, and is trying to grow a forest in his massive plot of land. This man seems to do everything; I went on a walk with him around his house and he would keep pointing at different things and telling me which year he started growing what, or built what. He really loves to work with his hands. My host father's girlfriend is from Norway, it is rather difficult to understand her sometimes, because she has a strong Norwegian accent. She has two kids: a son, 11, and a daughter who is younger. I like playing with the son, when I first met him we played a game of chess. I lost, but I like to think it was just because I did the stupidest move ever and let him take my queen with his pawn. They are both really nice.

Another change in my life came on the 7th day of February, my birthday. I am now 18. My family in Kerteminde held a party for me, with a large traditional Danish lunch, with lots of herring, that I requested. I had all the exchange students around Fyn and two class mates, along with the whole Sørgård family, and my first host family. In all there was over 20 guest. Eva, my best Danish friend baked me a cake in the shape of a pokemon, just for fun. After the delicious lunch we went out into the back yard to play "slå katten i tønden," which means "beat the cat in the barrel." I must say I really do love these old Danish traditions, burning witches, beating cats in barrels... again not a real cat. This tradition is quite old, when it was thought that cats were linked with the devil. The village people would, in the months of march/april, put a cat in a barrel and beat the barrel until the cat died. Today, we just put a bunch of candy and oranges inside a barrel, hang it up, and beat it until nothing remains of the barrel. All the while dressed up like it was Halloween. One can also win the title of queen if they break off the first board of the barrel, or king if they break off the last piece. My first host bother won king, and Milly Wallace, the other exchange student from my district in California, won queen.

The Danish people call me fluent in Danish, but I really don't feel like it. There are just so many expressions, and weird ways of using the language, that I don't sound Danish at all, but the others are quite impressed. Danish is on the list of the hardest languages to learn, and I would say its just because how they use the language. One example is that Danes say "i går" after ever other sentence, well some Danes do, and what it means is yesterday. They obviously dont mean to say yesterday, they just put it in. Its a odd, but fun, language.

This post was long overdue, I will update more often now. I still have more to tell, and more will certainly come with time.

Med venlig hilsen,
Greg Martin

The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent, Was In Denmark.

Firstly, I apologize, I have kept my readers waiting and broke a promise. Secondly, SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNE!

Yes as you can tell the biggest difference from my last blog is the weather. Around mid of December, it snowed, not just a little, but well over half a meter! Although do not think of Denmark as a winter wonderland, in the past it has had many green winters. This is not the typical Denmark, but rather an outlier. It has not snowed this much in 15 years, nor has it been this cold in over 20 years. I have probably lived almost a solid month with temperatures just barely in the negative(Celsius). Surprisingly its not common for a family to have Ice Skates, one would imagine that the residents of a Scandinavian country would all have ice skates, but then again it hasn't been cold enough in almost 20 years. All ponds and small bodies of water are completely frozen over, one can most safely walk, run, and even jump on the ice. Even a bay with might be over 20 square kilometers is almost entirely frozen. I was so excited when the snow came that my host family now says that I was like a baby seeing snow for the first time. I fought valiantly in so many snowball fights, shoveled quite enough snow, and made plenty of snow angels. Although surprisingly, not one snowman. Now, however, the snow is becoming irritating, and I think I have forgotten what it was like to be able to sometimes wear just a T-shirt in winter. Here, one must wear, at the least, a couple of long sleeve shirts, a thick jacket, a scarf, and gloves, along with the normal articles. It is so dry and cold that just staying out for about twenty minutes without gloves caused my hands to become so dry the skin started cracking. My knuckles were so red and scratched up that my family thought I got into a fight. There is one thing about the weather that I will always be thankful for, I was able to have my first White Christmas.

Christmas is celebrated slightly differently in Denmark. First off, the celebrations start in November as many will have Julefrokoste, see back in my previous blog for a discription of these, and some times don't end until mid January. Second, the Danish hold their celebration on the 24th. On the 24th my family got up around 9, ate a small breakfast then went on a run with many others from our street. We ran over 5 kilometers, well I did, some others went for a 10 km run. I was exhausted. We finished our run at the beach, where we quickly stripped to our underwear and jumped in the ocean. Just to give you an idea of how cold that is, the sand was mixed with snow. It was the coldest thing I have ever experienced, it felt like the water was at absolute zero. Although as soon as I got out, I felt warm(except for my feet), and was in no hurry to put on my cloths. After we were dressed we stood around and had a shot of schnapps, which does not taste good, to warm us up. We went back into the house and took a shower and got ready to go to church. After we got back from that we had a great big dinner, with very typical Danish food, like duck, potatoes, pork, and pickled red cabbage. It was delicious, and to top it off we had Risenlamande, a dessert made from risengrød, again explained in my last blog. This was the dish with the almond hidden in it. I was the first to get served and my host grandfather next to me gave me an extra scoop. I wound up finding the almond, but I think I had help. I hid the almond in my mouth and denied my having it for a while, then as they started wondering it was put in, I stuck it out like I would stick out my tongue., winning me the prize. After dinner we held hands and danced around the Christmas tree, singing songs in Danish. Then we gave out gifts, I put on an elf hat and helped deal them out. It was all very hyggeligt(that feeling of a very nice christmas with your family, cozy).

For New Years Eve, the Danish also celebrate it more than we do. First, fireworks, completely legal. I went to a New Years party in Odense, a city a bit less than the size of Santa Rosa, and I was amazed as I spun on the spot and not a single strip of the horizon was without the colorful explosions. The Danish also have their queen give a speech every year, this part was rather boring but a good exercise of my Danish. Right afterward, a little skit comes on the T.V. called Dinner for One. It is about an elderly women who holds a dinner with all her friends, except that all her friends are no longer alive. The only person there is the butler, but she has him act as if her friends were there, giving them wine and other types of spirits. But thats not all, she also makes him play the role of the guest each time they cheer, putting on there voice and drinking their drinks. He serves serveral courses and by the time the dinner is over he can barely even stand. It is hilarious and all in English so just find it on youtube and enjoy. The last really Danish tradition is to have a cake made with a lot of Marzipan.

Another part of my life

It seems these post are now a monthly thing, which it was not intended to be. A lot has happened since I last wrote, such as: I have become a lot better at Danish, I have become much worse at English, I have moved to my second host family, and it has become bloody cold.

I always get compliments on my Danish. All those who I meet are amazed that I can hold a conversation in Danish. Most even try to guess how long I have been here, there usual guess is around 5-6 months. I have only been here for 4 months. I find it important to learn the language because one can connect much better with the Danes if you can follow a conversation. I find it silly that most of the other exchange students show no desire to learn Danish. I understand their logic, we won't use it when we come back to the US. I have looked up how many colleges in the whole US offer Danish as a Major, I found one. I guess there is a big interest in Danish in Seattle. Sometimes, a word doesn't sound Danish, it just is what it is. It's hard to describe but when you think of the word tree, you think of a tree not the English word tree. Other times I almost say a Danish word when I am talking English. Its an interesting feel, but since this has developed so slowly it goes almost unnoticed to me, unless I stop and think about it. This is the same with just being in Europe, I forget very easily that I am in Europe. Its not Europe to me, it just is what it is.

I love my new host family, they are nice and always include me in whatever they are doing. I have four siblings, only three live here regularly, and there was supposed to only be two living here. I have two younger sisters, one is just younger than me at the age of 16, and the other is 13. I also have two older brothers, both of which are amazingly nice to me. I have Nikolaj, who I think is 20, and Rasmus, who I think is 19. Nikolaj doesn't live here in the beautiful city of Kerteminde, he lives in Copenhagen because he is studying at a university. Rasmus, wasn't actually supposed to be here at the same time I am. He was, just before I came, in New Zealand, and was there for at least a few good weeks, but he hurt his back bungee jumping. He is home now and doing fine, just can't do much heavy lifting. When he came home, he gave me a present from New Zealand. While there he got the chance to go where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, and he picked up a bottle of the Lord of the Rings official beer. He gave it to me as a present, it's called SobeRing Thought. Rightly named because it is only a 1% alcohol beer. My two host brothers are always treating me nice and asking if I want to go with them. In fact on the 28th I had a Thanksgiving dinner with the other exchange students, it was a really great time, and I was going to take the bus home, but my host brother Rasmus came and picked me up and brought me to the party he and Nikolaj were attending.

Elections for the communities in Denmark were held a couple weeks ago. My host parents invited me to come along and see how the elections work here. It is much different that in the US. First off, there are over 10 parties, and in each party there are several candidates. The sheet of paper they handed Niels, my host father, was about 3/4ths my height. Some of the parties names are Konservative, social democrat, venstre(left), and radikal venstre. I found it weird when I saw that the party Venstre, is actually on the right side of the political spectrum. There are so many parties that I have no idea what they each stand for.

For almost the entirety of November, it rained. Although as soon as it turned December 1st, the sun came out, and it became bloody cold. The temperature was usually between 8 Celsius(46.4F) and 12C (53.6F), now the temperature is between 2C (35.6F) and 6C (42.8F). Sometimes in the night, the temperature dips down to -2C. There is so much frost on the grass, it looks like it has snowed, which I have been told by many Danes that it probably won't snow this winter. This cold weather has a benefit. I went down with some classmates to a small lake next to the school, and it was frozen over! It wasn't just in spots, no it was ice from one side to the other, although definitely not thick enough to stand on, I didn't dare try. I throw some sticks, probably weighing over 2 pounds, and they just skipped along the surface. After seeing that I had a smile on my face like a 5 year old, that just made my week.

The family has started some of the Christmas traditions. One tradition is to hold a big lunch, called Julefrokost. You eat tons of really danish foods, and near the end you eat one dish called Risengrød. Risengrød is made of rise and looks like porridge, it taste bland so you add cinnamon, sugar, and butter. When you eat Risengrød at a Julefrokost you put a bunch of crushed almonds in it, and one whole almond. The person who finds the whole almond is the winner and gets a present. Now the strategy behind this event, is if you find the whole almond, hide it in your mouth. Then you sit back and watch the others eating bowl after bowl frantically trying to find that almond. Det er meget sjov! If you would like to know what Danish food is like, wiki it. Turns out Wikipedia has a great big page on Danish food, it knows more than I do on it. I also did some searching online and found a place in Oakland, I think, that sells Danish food. I won't be without my beloved herrings when I come back. Jeg elsker sild med karry salat! I also heard my host mother saying that Ikea also sells some Danish food, but I can not verify this. So next time you are in Ikea, if any of the names have these letters Ææ,Åå,Øø, then its a Danish name. If they have letters with dots above them, thats swedish. A long time ago my mother, or my host father, told me that Ikea names all their toilets after Danish Cities, so look in the toilet section and think of me!

I will post another blog devoted entirely to Christmas stuff another day, I promise it will be before Christmas.

Vi Ses,
Greg

Drømmen

I had a dream last night, and in this dream I found myself speaking a bit of Danish. Although it wasn't much I feel like it is progress. In the dream I was with my father(not my host father) in Denmark and we were talking to a Dane. He and my father were talking English but just as we were about to leave I said vi ses(see you later). He got very excited that I can talk danish so I continued to say that I am an exchange student living near Odense. I even said some other things but I can't remember them. It is truly an odd experience to dream partly in anouther language.

This is long overdue.

A couple of weeks ago my host parents left for England, my host father went to go hunting with a buddy he has. Staying with us in their place was my host farfar(grandfather). He is a light hearted, caring, and nice man, but he talks too fast. He doesn't speak much English, which I thought was great because I wanted to speak Danish anyways. The only problem was that he talked with a different dialect. Now when I first heard that there were dialects in Denmark I thought that the difference couldn't be much, I mean they live at most three hours from each other. I was wrong. It was so difficult to understand him when he talked because I was not used to his dialect, also because he talked very fast. I was happy when a little normality came back upon the arrival of my host parents.

On the first Friday of the week my host farfar stayed with us, there was a party in the evening at the school. In the morning I was dropped off at school early because my farfar wanted to drive back and pick up Jeppe to take him to his school. Since I arrived so early I got out my computer, which I brought for math class, to pass the time. In about ten minutes I see a classmate of mine. I say hi, she says hi back followed by "You know there is no school today, right?" .....And of course my initial reaction is "Hvad?!" That friday just happened to be Idrætsdag, or sports day. We didn't have any classes all day, instead we played sports while everyone was dressed up as a nationality their class picked. My class was supposed to be Italy so some of them dressed as the mafia. They even brought toy guns along, which would have caused a student suspension in the states. Some of the other classes really got involved. Some were dressed as vikings, others as Russians, some men as women, some women as black people, and one as Bob Marley with a giant joint(fake). Many used props such as swords, toy guns, and bottles of vodka(the Russians), all of which would have severe consequences if found on a California campus.

We played several sports such as Basketball, Softball, Ultimate Frisbee, and we even did Folk Dancing. Since this wasn't an academic day there were some students who didn't show up. Others left in the middle of the day. By the end there were only 7 from my class still participating.

After school was over I went to one of my classmates house to make a lasagna and some salad, to be served at our class's restaurant. The restaurant was just a decorated classroom, but the students put a lot into it. There were table cloths, candles, dry bread sticks in cups, cloves of garlic on tables, peppers hung from the walls, and fake salami sticks. Many other classes had done just as much to their rooms. Students came in and served themselves, sat down with friends and had a beer. Later in the night the teachers came and served themselves and sat down. The students at that point all moved to the teachers table and started drinking with them hoping to raise their grade. The night was fun and I was able to socialize with many of my classmates and also meet new students. The night ended around 12, and I was home sleeping by about 1.

Just the next day I went with some friends from school to a sort of fair. There were carnival games and rides like the Sonoma County fair, except about a 10th of the size. We didn't ride any rides because that is way too expensive. During the night I saw someone that looked familiar and I just started looking at him when he faces me and says "Greg!?" That person turned out to be Kasper, the Danish exchange student in our district that was an inbound when I was an outbound. I didn't think I'd see him again but there he was. We started talking and he told me that he is going to be my third host Brother, for the last part of my exchange I will be with him. I thought that was amazing, and since then I have bumped into him several times.

This week I have been waking up at 0555 every day in order to ride by bike to school. I actually chose to do this myself. I like the exercise, it's quicker than taking the bus, and I don't have to be constantly reliant upon a bus schedule. Although I live 15 km from the school, so its quite a trip, and since I also bike home that's a total of 30 km every day. It feels nice but my thighs are always tired.

I found out that I am the good exchange student. I was with some of the other exchange students and they were talking about their school. They all said that their attendance must be around 40%. I have not missed a day of school besides Rotary events. I don't do much in school except make presentations about California to my class and others. I only have done one Danish assignment, but that was difficult. I had to read 5 pages of Danish Literature, and write a summary about it. After a week I completed it, thanks to Google Translate. I could not understand many of the words without its help.

Last night I went to see a play at the Odense Teatre(theatre) in Odense. It was a beautiful old, very old, theatre. I went with my class, but I loved it so much I am going to come back their again to see a play. The play we went to see was The Taming of the Shrew or in Danish "Trold Kan Tæmmes." If you directly translate it means "The Troll can be Tamed." The play was completely in Danish but luckily the actors were so good I didn't have to understand what was happening to laugh. Although I could remember what happens.If fact it might have been funnier to hear it in Danish. Also Kate was even more fierce sounding in Danish. That play was very well done, and very humorous. I plan to go back April 28th to see Sweeney Todd, one of the actors is a very talented Opera Singer in Denmark. It should be crowded, but I will get my ticket ahead of time.

I will write again soon, I have next week off from school so I will have plenty of down time.

Vi ses,
Greg

On the 22nd of August I went to a classmates 18th birthday party. Here in Denmark 18 is really important for the reason 16 is in the U.S., you can drive. Almost all of my classmates were there including my favorite Fanni. The night was fun, the others taught me a game that was the equivalent of "who stole the cookies from the cookie jar" but in danish. I lost, but by the end I could say it without a problem. I went home earlier, which was around 12:30 for two reasons: my host parents were also at a party so they could swing by and pick me up when they were done and because the next morning I was to board a train to Bjerringbro.

The next week I was in a language school in Bjerringbro, a really boring town. There were over 150 exchange students there, so many I thought I ran out of pins but I only brought 2 bags.One thing I realized was that almost all of the exchange students spoke English. English really is the universal language. The school was like a boarding school, we had a roommate which we shared a room. I was with another from the U.S. his name was Hunter and extremely nice.

The meals consisted of a buffet of Danish food. There were so many different foods to try I had to try them all, as a result I ate a lot. During our off time I would hang with some of my exchange friends and play pool while blasting some tunes or eating kage and coffee. One night they teachers, who all are around 20, showed us a movie called Flickering Lights, or Blinkende Lygter. The movie was great although a little morbid at times.

Unfortunately when you have that many teenagers in one place, in a country were the vending machines contain beer(and is cheaper than the soda), and many of those teenagers are Brazilian parties are bound to happen. Two exchange students were sent all the way to their home country but if they wanted to they could have sent at least 40 home. Going back to my room I saw a kid from the U.S.A. with a bottle of vodka in each hand. They can drink all they want any other week, but drinking that week was just asking to sent home.

When the week came to an end I was not sad to say goodbye to the exchange students, but rather glad to get home because when my host family came to pick me up it felt like I was going home. Even though I am not related to them it feels like home to be here.

Now for something completely different.... This weekend I went on a tour of Denmark with my host family. We went up towards the north and spent the night with some friends of my host parents. They live on a farm and have two children, an infant and a girl of about 2. It was a very hyggelidt (a very danish word to use that doesn't have a direct translation) time. They made fun of me for not being able to say a word that in english means quarry and of course I laughed with them. We had venison, potatoes, gravy, and Ice Cream. The next morning we left and went to the desert in denmark. This place was pretty large and was like a desert. David and I had a great time running around and climbing the hills. After that we visited the very tip of Denmark then some old defense positions made by the Nazis when they occupied Denmark.

We spent the night in a hotel and watch the football game against Portugal, it ended 1 to 1, and had pizza. The next morning we crossed the border into Germany and stopped at the danish equivalent of Costco. all the Danes cross the border and buy their goods in Germany because it is much cheaper. The parking lot was full and maybe only one of those cars was German. I saw a package of Toblerone that was 4.5 kilograms. It was huge. The car was full for the trip home.

After spending the weekend with David, he feels like the brother I never had, and Jeppe is also starting to feel like family to me. I have been here for a month and it has been the best month of my life. Although sometimes I miss my friends and family back in the states, that feeling doesn't last long at all.

Vi ses.

Katelynn Wouldn't Like This One.

I took a deep breath and started to regulate my breathing. Slowing it down each time until I was holding my breath, all the while keeping my eye on the target. I slowly started to give the trigger a pull.... then... nothing happened. I forgot to load the round into the barrel. I put the round into the barrel, regained my breathing, aimed, squeezed the trigger, and that cute adorable bunny was down for the count. I have now made myself an enemy to the rabbits, by killing not only my first but my second and third rabbit.

The fenced in area, called the killing fields by my host father, can only have a certain number of rabbits dwelling inside. If the number of rabbits exceeds that number they must be killed. So my host father got out the gun and offered me a few shots; we had gone practicing just the other day. I said yes and we went up stairs and put a chair next to the window. We sat on the chair and shot the rabbits from inside the house like it was a zombie invasion. I shot five times, but only three hit, which is strange because when we went practice shooting my accuracy was almost better than my host fathers. David shot one and unfortunately only wounded another, which is a problem because then it will run into its hole and die there.

We went out to retrieve the rabbits using the dogs for training them to fetch. I got a head-shot on one of the rabbits, its head was close to gone. Unfortunately I was told head shots were not preferred, shoulder shots were better. Another rabbit had no visible mark on it. We think that it must have been scared to death, by me of course, I just looked at it and it died! Well not really. The father kept the ones without too much blood on it to train with the dogs while David and I buried the others. We made lots of jokes about burying them, and I told him all the jokes about Idaho, since we dug up some potatoes.


My day has been going well I went to school and participated as much as I could and spent the breaks with some classmates. They talk quite a bit about the previous exchange students. His name was Marshall and he was from Illinois. from what I heard, he learned to listen to the language but never to speak and he skipped quite a lot of skole(school in Danish).

In the classes I would find myself daydreaming a lot, or studying Danish on my own, because its hard to pay attention to something you don't understand. Luckily in Biology it was all review for me, thanks to the amazing Mrs. Fenton, so I could follow without hearing. English was not so great, because I found out that Fanni, a girl in my class, is a much better writer then me, in English. After skole I said goodbye and rode my bike home, which is 15 kilometers away. Hopefully that will keep me in shape.

I am having a great time with my family and with every day this is becoming more and more like just another day. Now it doesn't seem out of the ordinary to be here. The only things missing are those I hold dear.

GodtNat,
Greg, The Fearsome Hunter

Happy Day's

I was just hit in the face with a brick wall of happiness. I just had a moment where I couldn't stop smiling. I was the happiest I have been in months, maybe even a year, and I couldn't stop smiling. Even if someone brought a kitten to my face and SHOT it, my smile would shine through the blood. I brought to tears but not those of sadness and sorrow, but of bliss and blithe. It was a surreal feeling I have only felt on rare occasions, and it was brought upon by something so small. I could understand 3 small, slowed down, broken sentences in Danish. Such a small accomplishment but I felt as if I had just graduated with a major in Danish and its only been two weeks. There was only one thing that could have made that moment better, if I could have shared that moment of pure joy with my love, Danielle.

I miss everyone back in the States, only because I wish I could share all of this with you. I am sure you would love it here Mom, huge plots of Christmas trees.

Till I write again Farvel.
Knus,
Greg

New Kid In Town

I feel obligated to write a post today because it was the first day of my new school. It is a very nice school for some reasons and ikke godt for others. The student services seem very nice, the cafeteria seemed nice but somewhat expensive, and most of the halls were decorated with a bunch of posters, artifacts, and dead, stuffed wild-life. Although the student services seemed nice the books were terrible, most were used back in the 70's and 80's. They were falling apart.

The day started with the principal giving an opening speech. In the speech the other exchange student and I were welcomed, and we had to stand so everyone could see us. The rest of the speech seemed humorous, judging by the laughter, but I understood none of it.

After the speech as I was walking to my class a girl tapped me on the shoulder, introduced herself and told me that she was in my class. She introduced me to some of her friends and they seemed nice, so I spent the day with them. I even helped one with a computer problem.

When the school day ended I rode my bike back to kølstrup, which was 14 km, and arrived back at my house exhausted and thirsty.

Goodbye Anne, its been nice, hope you find your paradice.

The night of the 10th was Anne's last night in Denmark because the next morning she boarded the plane.

I agreed to go with the family because I wanted to say goodbye to Anne. I have only had the pleasure of being with her for a week, but in that time she has help me tremendously. She would sit down with me and tell me all the important words I needed to know to construct a sentence. In return I would tell her about some of the difficult parts of English; the most common mistake made by every Dane is saying learn when they should say teach or taught. After the first three days of being here we started to joke and laugh. I usually would talk to her more than anyone else in the family. She took me to Havnefest, the mall, and a party and each time introducing me to more of her friends. She has been a great help and I am sad to see her go but she needs to live her own amazing experience.

When she told me the time we would be leaving for Copenhagen originally I misunderstood and thought that she meant we would leave the house at 0700. It turns out she departs from Copenhagen at 0700. We had to leave at 0100. I was not prepared for that. I was planning to shower in the morning, so I was dirty and I had to quickly get dressed to go. We left 0100, and arrived around 0330. Since it is an international flight Anne needed to be there 3 hours before. I slept most of the way. When we arrived I noticed all the signs had English and Danish which was nice. We went into the airport and waited by the 7-11 inside the airport, which had a nice pastry section. Soon we were surrounded by Exchange students, and since I wore my Rotary Blazer many thought I was leaving too. I noticed one Exchange student, a male, seemed to be saying goodbye to his girlfriend. It reminded me of when I said goodbye, and I know how he must feel. Anne was nervous but had a calm and excited façade. All the exchange students going to Canada gathered around a Rotarian who gave some information. He also told the group that four of the students have not received their visas yet. Luckily Anne received hers a couple days before.

The students gathered on a set of stairs and pictures were taken. After that they began their walk to the terminal and we quickly lost site of her.

And Now For Something Completely Different

The night of her departure I had a nightmare but I wasn't dreaming. I was sitting at my computer and turned the light off. The only light was from the computer. I walked back to my computer and decided to open the window because it was getting hot. I opened the window and soon after I heard a buzzing sound. I looked at the wall to my right and.......... I saw........ MOSQUITOES HUNDREDS OF THEM. I quickly bolted out of that room. Jeg hader mosquitoes! De er ikke godt! Now there are hundreds of dead bodies and blood covering the walls, mosquito bodies that is.

Kerteminde

Yesterday and today I went to the spectacular Havnefest, where the streets are paved with plastic cups, being drunk is a state of normality, and public urination is a must. This festival occurs once every year in the town of Keterminde and last all weekend. Saturday is the major drinking day since few have to go to work tomorrow. For those who do have work Sunday, they get plastered anyways because the whole town is going to have a hang over the next day as well. I went with my host family Sunday to get some smoked salmon and people were still drinking, although not as many.
While sitting down having a nice meal with my host family, a man sitting only about a meter away stands up, goes to the edge of the pier, and starts to urinate in the water. Only seconds later he strips down to his boxers and jumps in the marina, all the while his friends were drunkenly cheering him on. I managed to catch some of his acts of drunkenness on film. These acts can be seen by following the like on the right to my youtube profile.
The fireworks were amazing. The public was allowed to get rather close to the site where they were launched and they weren't launched high. I also have a video of the firework presentation for your viewing pleasure.

I'm Full

I have been experiencing so much in such a little time. I think that it might be interesting for me to talk about the differences I have seen. Although there are differences I seem to find Denmark more alike to the U.S. then different.

1. The youngest son, Jebbe, who is 5 has a lot more freedom then a five year in the U.S. He has a big cardboard box he plays in and a couple days ago he wanted to add a window in his pretend house. He grabbed a steak knife and started to cut out a hole in the box. Most parents upon seeing this would take the knife away from him thinking that he will somehow stab himself. The parents let him and in the pictures you will see Jebbe hitting the ground with a hammer and the parents didn't mind. It may not seem like a big difference but to me it was.
2. Where ever we used periods for writing out a price they use commas and where we use commas they use periods. For example $5,023.25 would look like: $5.023,25. Its a minor difference but it still looks odd to me.
3. Believe it or not, there is a higher percentage racist people in Denmark then in the U.S. There are a couple of reasons for this. The Danes believe heavily in Freedom of Speech but there is a large Muslim community here as well, who do not hold Freedom of Speech as an important value. You may remember that ordeal a few years ago with a Danish comic making fun of the Muslim faith. So there is a conflict of ideals. Another reason is because they are isolated, most live in a couple huge apartment complexes. These apartments are run down and inhabited mainly by Muslims and blacks. This place has a name that in English would be "violence town", actually its real name is something close to that but many like to call it that. From what the host father has told me a police station was built next to the apartment complex. The police had to abandon it to build a police station somewhere else because the youth kept burning it down. Isolation, lower income, conflicting values, and violence are some great ingredients for racism pie. Mmmm pie.
   Although don't take my word for it, this has just been what I have seen and heard.
   
4. Red rooftops, almost all the roofs are red.

Well that's enough differences.

Today I went to the beach, we left at around 7:00 the sun was already getting low but the beach was still full of people. The water is shallow for a great distance, which is great, but it was cold. The father said that it should have been warmer, but it was still fun, we didn't spend much time in the water. Later David met up with us there and he, Inger, and Jebbe went to pick up some pizzas. They brought back 4 pizzas that hold about 6 slices in each. They were the best pizzas I have ever tasted, none compare and I can say that while hooked up to a polygraph test. Real Bacon, good cheese, delicious peppers, and one had this amazing what seem to be steak on it. I thought I didn't like pizza but it turned out I have just been eating terrible pizza.
After pizza we went and got Ice Cream at Wafflehuset or waffle house. I got the keterminde special. It was huge: 3 scoops of Ice Cream, dipped in chocolate, with soft serve, and a chocolate covered treat on top. It was the largest ice cream I have ever eaten, and I didn't even finish it, but now I feel sick.

Hello

Today has been my 2nd full day here. It is amazing here: the family is great, the scenery is beautiful, and the food is tasty. I had a 8 hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, during which I watched Star Trek, which was good, and Dragonball Evolution, Which was not good. While in Amsterdam Milly and I meet an exchange student going to Germany. We talked while waiting for our next flight to our final destination. Milly and I left Amsterdam for Billund around 3:40 PM Danish time and arrived 4:40ish PM, or 1640ish. When we landed we meet a Canadian Exchange Student coming to Denmark as well. We talked, exchanged pins, and picked up our luggage together. We struggled to find our way out of the airport, it was a well hidden exit. When we walked through the door we saw three families waiting for us. I found the Nissens and left with them. We arrived at their house about an hour later. Their house is amazingly beautiful, I will be posting pictures because it would be too much to explain. We had a typical dinner with pork, potatoes, sweet potatoes, french potatoes(chips), and something red. After dinner the family showed me a common Danish comedy, klovn(clown). It was a common Danish comedy because it pushed the envelope, if you know what I mean. I was a bit shocked. The father told me that the Danish value their freedom of speech, which contradicts what the Muslims value causing some unhappy international relations. After that I went to bed, I am sleeping in Anne's room, while she is still here she is sleeping with her brother David.

The next day I woke up around 8:20 AM, luckily I believe jetlag has only effected me slightly. Anne, David, Jebbe, and I had breakfast, which was just cereal and milk we got from a dairy farm next door. The parents left and we sat around the house and eventually got the cards to play a round of asshole, a card game. I lost all but one of the times. Later we rode bikes to a cherry farm where Anne used to work, and got to pick all the cherry's we wanted. They were good and we had a fun time. We came back and the father then took me on a short bike ride to exercise the three dogs their have. When we were riding down the street he lives on, out off nowhere a hedgehog appears and just sits in the middle of the road. The father used his boot to move it to the grass, the whole time it was hissing. It was so funny to see because it rolled into a ball while he was moving it so it was like he was playing soccer with it.

When we got back the father went into the back where a fence has been laid in a rectangle about the size of a small house. Inside this rectangle lived rabbits as if the lived in the wild, with holes and every thing. There are tons of them and so adorable. So the father takes some earmuffs, his dog, and his shotgun inside the fence and the next thing I saw was a clump of fur flying up from behind a small mound. He has to keep them from over populating.

Today I went to the shopping center with Anne and her two friends, we had a good time and the place was huge. This shopping center had tons of stores. I amused myself by learning some Danish from Anne. We had fisk for dinner, it was delicious, and watched a film that normally comes on every new years called "Dinner for One".

Well I am tired so I will go to bed, night