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