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