It's that time of the year....

  It's officially that time of the year where the weather begins to get cooler and the christmas decorations light up the street. It's also one of the most cheerful times of the year with lots of family gatherings and ceremonies. However, for me it's a bittersweet month. I have exactly 11 days left in this amazing country with amazing people. In August,  my year abroad was shortened to a semester due to school credits and courses back home. I have honestly had the most amazing life changing half year here. Although I am sad about leaving I am also excited to see everyone back home. I've honestly never felt so bittersweet about something before. Moving on from this topic, I'm so sorry I have been slacking off on writing another post. Here's what Ive been up to lately.
  On Thursday I spent my 17th birthday in Denmark together with friends and family. My host family and their good friends came singing into my bedroom at 6:30 in the morning to wake me up for a birthday breakfast. I quickly changed and went downstairs for bacon, eggs, bread, and of course brunsviger (danish birthday cake)! I opened my presents and then went to school with a delicious cake that my host mom and sister baked. After school, we had a party with all the exchange students since it was our last danish lesson this year. Later that night, my host family took me to a very nice restaurant famous for their æggekage (egg cake). It was definitely a birthday that I will never forget. On Friday my host family let me have birthday party with my whole class and a few other friends. I had a really great time being with everyone.
  Yesterday I went to Copenhagen with all the exchange students in my danish class. We spent an hour shopping and then went to Tivoli. Because our old exchange student lives in Copenhagen, she invited me to come over for dinner and take the train back to Odense. It was perfect timing so that I would be able to say goodbye to them before I headed back to Texas. The christmas decorations in the cities are all so beautiful! Once again sorry for not updating sooner! I'll write again after my first Danish Christmas:)  Here are some photos!

Mia and Anna

City hall in Odense! (That's a real tree)

Two boys in my class bought me a kolache and put a flag in it!

The cake my host mom and sister made.

The American flag out for my birthday

My class

My good friends Mia and Anna

Andreas and Nathalie

Exchange students at Tivoli

Jasmina and Jana from Germany 

Photos :)

          Hey everyone! So I know that these pictures are from a while ago but I just now downloaded them! :)

Egeskov Castle 

Nanna(host sister)

Tea and coffee break at Egeskov

Fall Break

Fall Break on top of a bunker on the West Coast

Sanne's Wedding

November Already?!

  It's already November 7th and my time here is running out.... I haven't updated my blog in a while just because I've been so busy making the most out of my days! This will probably be a long update considering the fact that I haven't updated this in quite a few weeks... 

  The trees here all such pretty colors and I can now truly say I have experience a true fall, not like the ones in Texas where only some trees are different colors. It's beautiful. Two weekends ago, I went to my friend Kia's house to celebrate a Danish Halloween. Denmark doesn't celebrate Halloween the same way that we do in the United States. There's no trick-or-treaters or costumes and candy. Instead, the church in each town will hold somewhat of a community gathering where they eat together and do some activities. Kia lives in a town called Bogense, which is about 25 minutes from Odense. Because it was a Sunday night and we had school the next day, I to spent the night at Kia's and went to school with her the next morning. We went to the church and helped her mom put out cookies and set up the stations for pumpkin carving. We carved pumpkins and then went into the church for a service along with most of the people from the community. After a nice service, we went to their city hall to eat pumpkin soup and lasagna. It was such a nice experience to see how other cultures celebrate Halloween! 

The view of the trees from my room.

My pumpkin with Kia.

Family pumpkin carving.

With our pumpkins 

  On Tuesday of that week, I went to my friend Jacob's house for dinner. Jacob is one of the few people that lives near me! His family is so nice and I had a great time! :) On Friday, I went to Sarah's (one of the girls in my class) birthday party. We had a lovely dinner with tacos and then Sarah had made some delicious chocolate mousse for dessert! After eating we all sat and talked until it was time to go home. I'm so happy that I've met so many amazing people here in Denmark and I really hope that I will stay friends with them even when I'm back in Texas. On Saturday night, I attended my first Danish wedding! Uffe's (my host dad) niece had a beautiful wedding and I was lucky enough to be included! :) Danish weddings have many interesting/sweet traditions that happen during the reception. One tradition is that whenever the bride or groom leave the room all the men go and kiss the bride or the all the women go and kiss the groom. Also if you bang your fork on your plate over and over, the couple must stand up on their chairs and kiss. If you stomp your feet, the couple must go under the table and kiss. Throughout the dinner sheets of paper are passed around with songs on it that different guest at the wedding have written about the couple. We sang around six songs through out the dinner! It was a very nice personal touch on the wedding! I will post photos from the wedding once they are uploaded onto the family computer! Yesterday all the art classes in the first grade of Nordfyns Gymnasium went to Århus to see the famous art museum ARoS. The bus ride took around two hours and we were already there. We first walked around the city to see the different architecture and then went to the museum. It was a great trip! Tomorrow I am going to Holstebro to visit The Pedersen's (my dads host family). I'm looking forward to a great weekend with great people:) 

The city Århus

Inside 360 panorama rainbow

360 Rainbow Panorama 

Anna and Mia

Efterårsferie (Fall Break)

  I started off my fall break by taking a train from Odense to Copenhagen to meet with my cousin Sadia and her husband. Recently Sadia and Keith have been living abroad and are currently living in London so I haven't seen them very often recently! Since London is closer to Denmark than Texas is, they figured they would come see me while they were nearby. We met at the train station and then headed to Tivoli Gardens, which is a 169 years old amusement park. We spent the day riding rides and catching up on everything that's happened. For dinner, Sadia and I decided to take the bus from our hotel to Nyhavn. We ate at a really nice Italian restaurant and then walked along the harbor. The next morning, Sadia had a bike tour around Copenhagen planned for the three of us. Since it was raining and we had no rain clothes, we decided we would do a Segway tour instead. We rode around downtown Copenhagen looking pretty lame, but it was a ton of fun! We spent the rest of the rainy day in museums until we met Nathalie (our old exchange student) for dinner. We ate right by the metro station and then all took the metro to the train station. After spending an amazing weekend with Sadia and Keith, they headed back to London and I headed to Dragør to stay with Nathalie. It's funny how no matter how long ago it was that Nathalie lived with us, we always feel as if it was just yesterday! We spent the night catching up and watching movies while eating american candy. (Just like old times) Nathalie's mom mad an amazing brunch the next morning with bacon and pancakes! Nat, Andreas (Nat's brother), and I then took the metro into Copenhagen for lunch and shopping. Copenhagen is such a nice city and it was fun just hanging out with each other. Nat's family took me out to a nice restaurant for dinner in the city before we headed back to their house. Nat and I made cookies and then spent the rest of the night watching scary movies with Andreas. It was such an amazing time getting to see them once again.

  I took the train back to Odense the next day where I was picked up by my host grandparents. The next morning my host family and I headed out to the west coast of Denmark to a town called Søndervig. On the way there, we stopped at the famous Lego Land in Billund. The few times I had gone to Denmark before, I always asked my dad if we could go to Lego Land and his response was always, "If we're going to Denmark we're going to see castles and history." Well thanks to my host family, I finally got to go to Lego Land. It was very fascinating seeing what could be made out of only legos. In the center of the park, there was a whole mini world with many famous landmarks built out of Legos. We spent the whole day at Lego Land and then drove to the condos they rented for the rest of the break. I find it very funny how a car ride to get to the very west coast of Denmark from Odense is considered a "long" drive, yet it is only a two hour drive! In Texas, you wouldn't be in Austin from Sugar Land! When we first arrived in the city that we were going to be staying at, I noticed that just last summer I was in the exact same city having ice cream with my dads old host family! We spent the rest of our days going to the indoor swimming pool and walking around the cities along the coast. It was a very nice vacation! 

  As for today, I'm back in school! Since they don't have thanksgiving break here, our next holiday is Christmas break!!! Hope everyone back home is doing great! Miss y'all! Here are some pictures from the week. :)

Tivoli Gardens

Tivoli with cousin Sadia and her husband Keith

Copenhagen with Nat

Nat's brother Andreas

NASA built out of legos

Replica of Nyhavn built out of Legos

Castle built out of Legos

The Capital Building built out of Legos

West Coast of Denmark

On top of the bunker

Bunkers on the beach

Sand sculpture display