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

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

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

Nu sund... Og nej, det er ikke en joke...

Men jeg ville ønske, at det var det! Cross country startede i mandags med små 2 miles. Det var faktisk ikke slemt. Tirsdag 3... Værre. I dag 2 uden at gå... Det var helvede. Jeg var jo blevet træt efter at have løbet de andre gange, og vi havde jo ikke fået nogen hviledag, fordi det findes der ikke her. Der findes weekender, hvor vi ikke har træning, men alle ugens dage er det bare på med sejheden, som ikke rigtig vil komme til mig. Man er ikke sund ved kun at gøre en ting sundt, så da vi tog til Wallmart, kiggede jeg på mel. Rugbrød, tænkte jeg, det kan jeg da lave. Mom skulle have noget andet, men hun vidste ikke, hvor det var, og på vores togt, fandt vi det. Vakuumpakket, tørt og aflangt. De havde rugbrød. Og så flere forskellige slags. Så nu har jeg konkluderet at jeg er sund, fordi jeg spiser, sover og dyrker motion sundt!

I går registrerede vi os på skolen. Det var okay, vi havde begge gjordt vores hjemmearbejde, og derved tog det næsten ingen tid at ordne os. Som historiefag tager jeg American history & debate. Det sidste tror jeg vil blive sjovt, fordi jeg elsker at debatere, men det er nok ikke det samme, som herhjemme. Kommer vi til at lære det boglige om at debatere, eller bliver det noget med, at vi skal hver kæmpe for en sag? Det bliver i hvert fald spændende. Som science fag tager jeg advanced chemestry. Man kan åbenbart ikke bare tage math, nej man skal vælge hvilket emne. Så jeg har valgt trigonometri. Vi har haft det i folkeskolen, men det er sikkert lidt mere avanceret, og det var det, algebra eller geometri. Desuden har jeg sagt, at jeg også gerne ville have nogle kunstneriske fag som cheramics, art and crafts, wood shop og media production. Desuden ville jeg også gerne tage pilot klassen. Herovre skal man ikke tage gymnastik (Overraskede), men jeg har valgt at tage den klasse, der hedder phy ed. Det er, hvor man dyrker alle mulige former for sportsgrene. Den anden gymnastik klasse, som man kunne tage, hedder personal fitness. Det er vægt løftning. Ikke noget for mig...

- Troldungen