Orlando, now without my parents

The 11th April I was so lucky to have an airline ticket to Orlando. Since I left Denmark, I have wanted to go down to Orlando to visit some of our friends that lives down there. That is also what I did this Easter. In my school we don't have spring break, but we do have Thursday, Friday and Monday off around easter. With some schooldays off, I went down there. I hadn't even been in Wisconsin for a week, and off I wnt. The kids in the family I went to visit did have to go to school all of the days, but I was really good anyway. In the start it was really hard to talk Danish though. I took myself thinking  "can't I just say this in English?" When I went back to Wisconsin everybody was like: "You've got an accent..." Overall it was nice to talk a little Danish again. I just have to get used to it again when I return home to Denmark in a few month. I was there for 10 days, and it was really nice to get some Danish food again. 

One of the things I wanted to buy down there was a prom dress. There isn't many options up here around Webster, and I wanted one nobody else had. Here is a little selection of the many dresses I tried on:

I loved this one, but it is black. I don't mind black, but I don't like it is only black. It is too much funeral. 

The following one won. I love it because it is almost too long, and there are so many layers.

The first Sunday we went out to the west coast and stuck our toes in the golf. The beach was so beautiful, an we got the best Italian ice cream. It was almost as being back in Italy. 

Italian ice cream!!!

You can't go to Florida Orlando without visiting Disney at least once. This time the choice fell on Magical Kingdom - again. A couple of years ago when I went there with my parents, a lot of the amusements were closed. AND this time I wasn't the only child. It was really fun, and we got to see the new parade called "The Festival of Fantasy parade". Very fancy, and even the new film Frozen was in it. 

Overall it was a really nice trip, and I wish I could do it all over again. A really good thing with the trip was though I got reminded about a lot of things about Denmark, which I kind of had forgotten. Yes I miss Denmark, but not as much as before, and now I have realized that I am going to miss Wisconsin just as much, when I go back to Denmark.

And of course I won big time in monopoly:

- Troldungen

Aloha!

So last week I returned from what people call paradise. The trip was a week long, and it was an organized trip only for exchange students. It was through the organization Belo USA, and the trip I was on was almost only AFS's exchange students. We were 55 people from 14 different  countries. We were 4 from Denmark. 2 of them I knew in the first place, but not well. Because almost half of us were from Norway, a lot of people knew each other from before. As a result of that, it took me a couple of days before I found the right group to go in. At last I found some really nice girls I had a lot of fun with. Belo had a set of rules that we all needed to sign before anything else. Including these rules, were we couldn't drink, smoke, do drugs, get a tattoo or date with other exchange students participating in that trip. If you broke these rules you would get sent back to the main land for your own cost. 

The first day, Sunday:

Because of our flight the day before (10 hours) they had a relaxing day ready for us. The program was some surfing in the morning, and then some sailing with a catamaran around lunch. Surfing pictures will come, when I get home to a cd. drive. 

The second day, Monday:

The bus was heading the north shore, and from the morning we were experiencing the Hawaiian spirit. The first stop was at the government building, and then walking over the the last queens palace.   On our way to the north shore, we stopped at the DOLE plantation. For you who don't know that DOLE is, it is a brand of pinnacle and other fruits. And there was pineapple everywhere. That was a lot of fun. After a could of different stops, we arrived at the Polynesian cultural centre. Here we spent the rest of the day discovering 7 of the Polynesian cultures. We finished it of with a true Hawaiian show. The bus was very quiet on the way home. 

The government center:

From the inside:

All the girls on the trip in front of the last queen:

The palace, where the last queen lived:

All the boys in front of the last king:

Finally I got sushi, after 8 months of none:

Just a walk on the beach:

Our bus:

The polynesian cultual cenre:

Our Ukulele team:

The third day, Tuesday:

Today we were going to visit the east side of the Island. Boarding our bus, we were heading to the Pali Lookout, a spot that could easily have blown us all away (Both mentally and physically). The Nuuanu Pali Lookout ("Cool Height Cliff") overlooks the 985 foot cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range. It was here in 1795 that King Kamehameha and his warriors defeated the O'ahu armies and united the Hawaiian Islands.  Some history is always good! From there the bus was heading the most beautiful beach  on the island (or it looked that way). The waves was really big, and also sometimes too big, but most of the time it was a lot of fun!

A view point on our way home:

The fourth day, Wednesday:

Departure to Diamond Head Trail! It was a breathtaking view from the top of Diamond Head, the world's most famous volcanic crater. Don't worry about us falling in the lava though - Diamond Head has been extinct for 150,000 years.  It even served as an early Naval Defense Base in the United States Military . We hiked one mile up sunny trails and unique spiraling staircases. The stairs was the worst part though. It was good to hike a little bit again, because that is a long time since I have done that, and it was actually a lot of fun.  The view from the top, was truly amazing.

Our view from the hike:

The fifth day, Thursday: 

Pearl Harbor was the destination today. We started out splitting up in 2 groups when we arrived on the USS Missouri. I was part of the team that did the community device first. Jep you read correct community service! It mainly consisted of disinfecting railings, an it was a lot of help for the ones that normally cleans the ship. After the community service, we headed for a tour under need deck. After a quick lunch, we headed to the USS Arizona. It was a very touching place, and as all other American memorials build very well. 

The wire system is fantastic:

An officer cabin:

The normal crew's bed:

The memorial:

The USS Arizona was never reconverd:

The memory wall of all the lost lives:

The sixth day, Friday:

Our last day... Snorkeling! My snorkeling buddy was a girl from Italy, and we had a great time. I didn't like the snorkeling though. The water was only 4 feet deep, so the coral reef reached up, so sometimes you couldn't avoid touching it. And they were like, ohh you can see sea turtles... Maybe it is just me, but I don't want to meet a sea turtle in so shallow  water. Maybe I am also a little bit afraid of them... Maybe. The beach was also a lot of fun, so we had a blast. In the evening we went to a luau.  The sunset was beautiful, and the hula dancers were really good. 

The danish people on the trip:

These 2 girls! So amazing! The short one is from Italy, and the one with the white dress is from Colombia, but before she went on her exchange she lived a couple of years in Brazil:

Our little group:

This girl though... Miss you sooooooo much!

And a picture with the hula guys:

Over all it was an amazing trip, and now I have even more friends around the world.

- Troldungen