Christmas

Wow, there has been quiet on the blog recently. It has first been Christmas, and now I am sick. Apparently I have caught a little stomach thing, so now I am having some nausea and colic pain. At least the few things i eat does not come up again. Since Dec. the 26th i have been living on yogurt and plain bread. Fingers crossed for recovery soon. 

So now it has been Christmas, my favorite time of the year. I had a lovely Christmas before I got sick, and I got some very nice presents. Over here you don't celebrate little Christmas eve on the 23th December, but Christmas eve day (the 24th) was interesting. We were going to Bumba and Granny's for Christmas eve (My host dad's parents), so the preparation was non-existing. Therefore my host mom, why don't we then do something else? Just to give an example: Color our hair. Nothing dramatic though, just some pink stripes. Yes! Pink! Who would have thought I would think of doing such a thing?

Christmas eve was really nice and quiet. We were celebrating it early this year, because some relatives were leaving that evening. So it was more likely Christmas noon, than Christmas eve. 

Our Christmas decorations were very American, but very pretty. Even though they are still up, New Year is coming up, and I'm very much looking forward to it. Here are some of them:

This picture is taken Christmas morning after we got our present:

Merry Christmas to you all!

- Troldungen

Brrrrrr.......

So the cold has arrived here in Wisconsin, and it is now average below 10 fahrenheit during the day. Some days it is as low as below -30, other days it is over zero. Well I am a busy girl again, now with basketball. We have about 2 games a week, and when we don't have games, we have practice. That is why I don't get supper regularly, and it mostly consists of oatmeal, or a sandwich. Anyway, I love playing basketball, even though you can't say we are good. Our first game we lost, the score was 7-37. That is not that bad compared to our second game were the result was 3-34. The game last friday was then an improvement: 11-44... Well anyway, as long as we are having fun! Right?

This morning we had a fire fighting drill, were we were doing cold water rescue. We got in these jump suits, and jumped into a hole in the ice. It was really fun, but I got the suit that was leaking. I ended up standing in water to my knees and my zipper was leaking too. Even though I got cold and wet it was fun, and a new experience. 

Now it is soon Christmas, and there will be some Christmas pictures coming up.  Right now I'm happy and busy, and we are soon getting off school for Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everybody!

- Louise

Snowday!

The christmas sprit has come over me, and my room is now decorated with the danish elfs and danish Christmas hearts. The rest of the house is on its way to get decorated, but it is still just the 4th of December. The last two days have been free from school, because of the big snowfall. Over a foot snow has already fallen, and it is still snowing like crazy. My Christmas package came today, and made the day a great day. The presents went in my present drawer, the training socks for my leg in my training bag (Oh yes I can finally say I have on of those), the hoodie on my jacket, and the Christmas decorations went up. Thank you to my parents for the big package with a little bit of everything in and to my aunt Birgit for the Christmas decorations. Today I was on my first snowmobile ride. I, who thought it was a little bit like the four-wheeler, got surprised. When Em told me to lean to the side we turn to, because otherwise it would tip over, I got surprised. That is dangerous! We made it through, but my heart jumped a few times (With my body). So pretty!

I realized today, that I should probably do a checkup for you. It has been long time since I wrote anything about school. I like the school over here. School in Denmark is OK, but here I have some really god courses. To give an example: In the first hour I have Debate. One of my favorite courses. I love to argue, and I am the best in the class. Second hour I have choir. Every single day learning about music and nodes and singing. Monday I was at honors choir all day, because I was selected with 6 others out of 30 in the class. The honors choir is were you go to a school, and the best from all the schools in your district comes and practice together. In the evening we then had a concert. It turned out so that we sang for 7 hours, and next day, I couldn't talk. It was a fantastic day, and it sounded so good. So back to the school check up. Third period American History, 0kay but a little heavy. Fourth hour English 11, next semester I am going to take a harder english class, because right now it is boring. Fifth and sixth hour Algebra 2. As fun as math can be. Seventh hour anatomy. Not as fun as I thought. I think there is way too many tests where you need to learn a lot of hard words by heart. A little heavy too sometimes. 
Basketball. I love itI It is so fun, even though half of the time I am lost. With basketball comes the question: How is my shin splint. Not good is the answer. I made a deal with my host Mom: As long as it doesn't hurt so much that I cry, I can play. Perhaps that is not a wise thing, but I like it so much that I just want to play. We were actually meant to have our first game yesterday, but since we had a snow day, it was canceled. 
Homesickness. Well... It is a battle, but I am winning most of the time. Yes, it is becoming harder as Christmas is nearing us, and all my fingers are crossed for the better after New Year. As I think of it the first two month ware easy, and as I come further it becomes stronger. Well there is only one way, because the option of giving up, isn't open for a second. I am going to toughen up, and get through it.

Last week it was Thanksgiving. We had plans for going to Arkansas Tuesday, but when there was a storm warning, we left Monday instead. Originally I didn't think that I was going because of basket ball. It turned out I missed 3 practices, not so bad, but anyway not good. In Arkansas we visited the Moseleys. They are some friends of Arlan and Debie (my American Dad and Mom). We did a lot of fun stuff, like watching a dinner show, visiting Silver Dollars City (a big american amusement park), and a cute little town called Eurika Springs.

A little bowling of course:

Arkansas. Do I have to say anything more?

This church build out in nowhere, and made out of only steal and glass.

We visited this old hotel, with a lot of stairs. 

Eurika Springs:

A statue out in the middle of nowhere. Why not?

So pretty lights!

While we ware there, it was Black Friday. First I thought of it as fun, but then they told me, people had been tramped to dead before, which I found a little bit scary. We did it Thursday night at 10, and people were staying in huge lines, just to get into the stores. The line in front of the Nike store was about 100 meters long. It was crazy. I kept to the stores, that were a little bit less full, and got a nice leather purse for half price at Fossils with a makeup bag, and a lightweight jacket from Wilson leather. 

So now there is only Christmas in front of us, and I am as a little kid again. Even though I do miss the calendar show which is a Danish traditional TV-show with a new episode each day of the Christmas month. (I read the one on TV2 is a number 2 of Ludvig og Julemanden. Typically when I am gone they show a new one...) Well that just gives me the right to see it in June. I am now short of 1 years of calendar shows... Hmmm. The only solution to that is double of it next year! Have a good 4th december everybody!

- Troldungen

Fall pictures

I just realized i never showed you guys how fall was over here, so here they are:

- Troldungen

Des Moines and a visit

So it has been a while since i wrote here, but as you all can recognize, you get a life over here, and with a life there is normally a lot of things to do. 

Last weekend we took a trip down to Des Moines. That is the capital of Iowa. The trip was because of Minks birthday, the same as I got a trip to Mall of America. The drive down there took 6 hours, a little getaway. When we went down there, we had no idea, that we where going to a concert. There were 3 bands playing at the concert. First up was Dustin Lynch, a country band, with a big C. Next up was Little Big Town, two men and two ladies also from the country. This band was playning music closer på pop, and it turned out Emilie was a big fan of them. Finally Keith Urban came on. Everybody was so overwhelmed, and I was just standing there with absolutely no idea of who he was. It turned out to be an Australian man with way too long hair. His music was actually okay, and something I recognized. The next day (Sunday) we took out to look at bridges. No it wasn't just bridges, it was covered ones made of wood. Some of them were actually pretty.

Here is Little Big Town:

Keith Urban:

Court house in Des Moines:

This weekend I had the great opportunity to spend with my AFS Liaison. She invited me over to spend the weekend, so I went to her house on Friday, and came home Sunday. Saturday we walked with the dogs, and we went to these little cozy and nice Christmas stores. It was so nice and quiet. Even though I love living with the Pope's, as an only child, I can always use some quietness. It is difficult to get used to all the noise at home. My Liaison (Lisa) likes to cook, and she is great at it, so that certainly made the weekend even better, as a lot of you know, I love good food! Over all it was really a nice visit, but I am also happy to be back with the Popes.

Today basketball practice started, so I will probably be soar tomorrow, but I really enjoy playing, so it will be fine.

- Troldungen

State Cross Country

So last weekend we went to cross country state meet with the team from my school. One boy from our team made it to the meet, so the rest of us went to cheer on him. The meet was very cold. I had my big winter coat with me, so I didn't freeze, but some of the others did. The boy made it to the 57th place. That is apparently very good. I am thinking, 57th place, good? But if you think it over, it is the best boy runners from our division, it is pretty good. The experience driving down there, being in the hotel, and all the fun stuff, was on the contrary much better. The cross country team is so great, and we had a lot of fun. Saturday some of us even went to the movie to watch "Cloudy, with a change of meatballs 2". That is hilarious! The plot in the first movie is better, but the second is so much more fun. You really don't have to see the first to enjoy the second, and it is very kinds friendly. Has it already come out in Denmark? 

Here we are in the pool:

Eating ice cream all day long!

Perhaps burning the ice-cream off with a walk in the forrest?

And then a good solid meal to put on top of the burned ice cream:

I am starting to feel like this life is normal. I don't notice now all the things people do this much anymore. That is probably also the reason why my blog has died a little bit too. Now it is just daily life. Who wants to read about daily things? This weekend we are actually going to Iowa to celebrate Minks birthday, so I will have something to tell all of you about. I think from now on quietness is a good thing. It means I'am doing well over here. I will try to keep it updated though. 

- Troldungen

Not much

So, the last two weeks have been very quiet. Last weekend the whole house were sick, so we didn't attend church. Right now I have a lot of problems with headache, but otherwise I am starting to get real friends. I spends a lot of time with the french exchange student, who's name is Marie. It is nice to have one on your own age, who don't live in the same house as you. Otherwise I am only writing to give a thumps up to everybody. Tomorrow we are going to state cross country (No i am not running.). I am really looking forward to this. I will write some more, after we get home from the meet. Take care.

- Troldungen

AFS post-arrival camp and my birthday

Last weekend I was on the second AFS-camp. You can't really call the first orientation a camp, because it was only a single day. This time we spent a whole weekend in the camp. This "camp" was a place were people can rent a cabin with a kicthen, a living room, and two big bedrooms with a lot of double beds (køjesenge). We were given a lot of information, and we got a lot of tools to adjust to local conditions and get over homesickness. I think the best part was to meet the other AFS exchange students from this region called North-Central Wisconsin. I really like AFS, because i know there is somebody who cares about me. Once a month you either just talk to your liason or otherwise meet with them. 

So here is some pictures from the good weekend:

The Italian exchange student the ached me this cool trick, to take pictures of eyes, without a micro lens:

You have properbly noticed that I now write in English. That is because even though I had the translate box there, it could lead to misunderstandings. Automatic translations doesn't always get the right twist.

This weekend it was my birthday. Sweet sixteen. We went to Mall of America Friday. That was a really good day. We spent the first half of the day going on rides and the second shopping. When we are talking about Mall of America, it is the biggest mall in US and there must be rides. You could say it has a built-in "Tivoli". Some of them was a lot of fun, and some a little too scary for me. I have figured out that the rides, that are not roller coasters, makes me motion sick. And we did shopping. Lots of shopping. And I still don't seem to get enough. I really needed some stuff, so it was good to get that off my shoulders, but because of my birthday, there were some things, that I wrote on my birthday list. 

Saturday we had a gun shoot here at our house, and I got to shoot my first shoot with gunpowder style. That was cool (and a little scary). Saturday evening I got an ice cream cake, and it tasted so good. I also got my presents from my host parents. A big world map to pin all the places I've been, and a really nice pair of leather boots. I couldn't have wished for more. Church was on the plan for sunday, and I wore my Lady-vintage dress, that I love. On our way home we ended up in a very little blizzard. First snow of the year on my birthday! Does that mean that I have been a bad kid? Anyway it was a really nice weekend, and thanks to all of you, who sent me a present and some thoughts.

- Troldungen