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

Last day of school

So yesterday was last day of school and it was sad because something great was ending, but also good because it is also the beginning of something new. My day started out really bad actually by one of my favorite teachers announcing she wasn't going to be here next year. Even though I am not going to be there next year either, it means that even though I might return one day, she won't be there. She was my debate and anthropology teacher, and I loved her. She was a great teacher, and I loved her stories about her kids. That is actually very common over here. A teacher telling the class about their past and their family. At least it is more common than in Denmark.

That was my 1st period, and when I then came to my 2nd period, my choir teacher then gave the same announcement. He was my choir teacher, and he has teached me a lot. I have taken choir the whole year, and some of my best memories from my year has been choir related. For example I can still clearly remember honors choir, and that was truly amazing. 

When then my 3th period started, which was American history, I didn't think it could be worse. Fortunately he did not give the message about not being here next year, so my bad morning stopped there. The rest of the day ran about as smoothly as it could, and we came to our last period. Before it even started people started crying, and everybody was saying goodbye. And when I say everybody I mean literally everybody. Well except me though. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I just didn't cry. Perhaps it is because I know I am going to see my friends again, because Mink and I are having a goodbye party, or perhaps I just didn't realize it was my last moments of my schooling at Webster high. I have enjoyed my time at Webster a lot, but at the same time it is time for me to move on. I think I am ready to go to a school where it actually matters for my future if I do good or bad.

- Troldungen

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