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