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

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

Vil jeg hjem? eller er det bare lidt hjemve?

Vil jeg hjem? På et tidspunkt. Nu? Nej! eller ja? Der er jo en masse, jeg kan glæde mig til. Hvad er der derhjemme? Ingenting! Alt derhjemme vil stadig være der, når jeg kommer hjem til sommer. Så vil gymnasiet starte. Jeg går jo ikke glip af noget. Hvorfor føles det som om, jeg gør lige præcis det? Det er jo jul til næste år igen. Jeg har også fødselsdag næste år. De vil også tage til Gelio næste år. Jeg kommer til at opleve alt det, som de andre oplever nu, men jeg får også de her oplevelser fra USA. Jeg får sproget nærmest givet til mig, og der er så mange ting, jeg skal håndtere nu, som de andre ikke skal tænke på før om mange år. Hvorfor har jeg så stadig hjemve? Der er nu gået 2 måneder, og hjemveen er nu rigtig begyndt at melde sig . Jeg var blevet advaret fra Danmark om en 3 måneders krise. Hvad med en 2 måneders? Fordi ja - jeg har hjemve. Jeg savner den gode stemning, der er, når far begynder at lave mad, at mor og far har tid, at have mere tid selv, selve huset i Danmark, men mest af alt savner jeg min mor og far. Er der ikke et eller andet ordsprog, som siger, at man først rigtig sætter pris på ting når de er forsvundet? Det er jo ikke fordi, jeg ikke har været travl før. Dette forår var f.eks. noget hektisk, men det var anderledes. Når jeg så var hjemme, var der tid til mig. Jeg havde to forældre der kun havde mig. Nu er vi 6 børn. Men de andre børn i denne familie har vænnet sig til det, så det kommer jeg vel også til? Jeg bliver nok bare nødt til at bide tænderne sammen. Hvis de kan kan jeg vel også. Ikke?

Det at skrive tanker ned hjælper mig faktisk. At læse i en bog, eller at tegne, er nogle gode afledringsmanøvre. Det er sådan nogle små kampe, som kommer til at gøre mit ophold ovre her nemmere. Nogle gange bliver jeg bare nødt til at diskutere med mig selv for at komme op med det rigtige svar, som i dette indlæg. Nej selvfølgelig vil jeg ikke hjem! Jeg har det fedt herovre, men der kommer de her naturlige nedture. Det er det, der gør mig stærk. Det at jeg kan håndtere de her nedture i stedet for at give op. Hvad får jeg ud af at give op? Ikke en hverdag, som jeg ville foretrække frem for denne. I skal også huske på, at når jeg skriver, at jeg har meget hjemve, er det fordi jeg føler sådan, når jeg skriver. Det meste af tiden har jeg det fint, og tænker kun på mit amerikanske liv. Det skal lige siges, at jeg er rigtig glad for min værtsfamilie. Det er en super god familie, der holder sammen, og laver nogle gode ting sammen. Når jeg på et tidspunkt rejser hjem, kommer jeg nok til at savne denne her familie lige så meget, som jeg savner min danske familie nu. Jeg føler mig rigtig heldig over, at kunne prøve at leve i en søskende flok. Alle familier er jo forskellige, og jeg lærer utroligt meget af at være i en søskendefolk nu. 

- Troldungen