A summation

So the days are running out, and even though I am excited to go home, I still don't really want to leave. Now is the time to sum up my year, and I am going to do it out from my beautiful present I got from my host family. My host family has reached me so much, and my year wouldn't have been the same without them. They gave Mink and me each a special designed pandora bracelet. All the charms each represented something from our year. 

The empire state building stands for America, since it is here I had my exchange. The snowflake stands for all the snow we got this winter. And that was a LOT!

The heart says Mom on the side, which is specifically from my wonderful host Mom. The cheese says Wisconsin on the side. Wisconsin is very well known for their cheese, so that is why it is a cheese.

The fish is because I leaned how to fish this year, and I love it! The music nodes are for my love for choir. I have done so many amazing things with choir this year. It was one of my best classes.

The heart says family, because I have a lot of that now. 2 full sets of grandparents, 10 siblings, 1 niece and 1 nephew. The 16 says sweet on. I had my sweet 16 here and it was a lot of fun. We went to Mall of America right before my birthday. 

Ice cream!!!! I love Ice cream, and of course I have aeten a lot of that here. And I do love bags too! Therefore a bag.

Around christmas I got that funny idea that of course I wanted a dog. I didn't get it though, but I do still love dogs. Here lately I have had a love for old keys, and I have made a lot of fun with them. Therefore a key and its lock.

The basket ball is because I played basketball all winter, and I loved it! It is the only sport so far I don't absolutely stink at. Perhaps it is my tallness. The plane is because I took some trips this spring. First I was a week in Hawaii, and then 10 days in Florida. I do love to travel too. 

It has been an absolutely an amazing year! With ups and downs of course, but overall it has been a lot of fun!

- Troldungen

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

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

Forberedelse

Skrevet i går:
Så går pakningen løs. Man bliver overrasket over hvor meget, man skal købe som gaver og andet, inden man tager derover. I søndags tog vi til Illum, fordi der var storudsalg. Det endte med at vi tog til Magasin for at købe nat tøj og lignende.

I går var vi (Mor, Rasmus, Rikke og jeg) inde i byen for at købe gaver til familien og for en tur på La Glace. Turen dertil var fordi Rasmus og min mor væddede engang om et eller andet. Min mor tabte og skulle så give en tur på La Glace. Som sagt var vi også derinde for at få købt gaver, og andet habengut. Det endte med, vi kom hjem med noget julepunt fra Georg Jensen, en guide bog om Danmark på engelsk, nogle småkager fra La Glace, noget garn til mig så jeg kan lave flere firkanter til vores tæppe og nogle bolcher fra Sømods bolcher. Her er nogle billeder var turen:

I dag fik vi så købt en badedragt, nogle krus, noget patchwork stof og de famøse guldkarameller. Halvdelen af min baggage er efterhånden noget til andre. 

Fra i dag:
Så fik jeg da også sagt farvel til de sidste. Det var rigtig hyggeligt, og tak til alle dem der kom. Nu mangler jeg bare at sige farvel til min mor og far. Gys. Jeg gruer lidt for i morgen tidlig, da jeg ikke er så sikker på, at der ikke bliver tårer længere. Min mor er ved at blive lidt stædig, og siger at hun ikke kommer til at græde, men jeg er ikke så sikker på min far. I går da vi havde pakket min kuffert blev han helt stille, og jeg tror at det var der, det gik op for ham, at jeg tager af sted. Tårerne var i hvertfald i øjenkrogen. Tænk, at en stor stærk mand er så blød inden i. I aften skal vi have kylling, mums. Det sidste aftensmåltid hjemme... Wow det er syret at tænke på. Jeg ved ikke helt om jeg glæder mig eller om jeg er ved græde. En ting er jeg dog sikker på. Jeg fortryder ikke at jeg tager af sted. Sommerfuglene er der ikke, fordi jeg ved jeg har træffet den rigtige beslutning. 

- Troldungen