Two Months!

 I know this is a long post but I didn't write last week since I didn't think much happened. But of course, as soon as I began writing I realized I actually did do lots of things! Ooooops:)


 I've finally gotten into a routine these past two months. Every day I wake up at 6:30 and go down to eat breakfast around 7:15. I then walk down to the bust stop in order to take the bus at 7:42 to go to school.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I have four class through out the day starting at 8:30 and ending at 3:40. After school on these days I get home around 5 and then leave to go to soccer at 5:30. On Tuesdays and Thursday I have three classes through out the day starting at 8:30 and ending at 1:50. On these days I get to leave class early to take a bus to extra Danish lessons with the other exchange students. So basically every day I'm not home until 6 or later... It feels good to finally have a scheduled routine every day. One thing that is extremely different in school here is the P.E. class. Back home when we had to take gym class we would usually run twice a week for ten minutes straight or play dodgeball or volleyball. Here, we run and run and run. We only have gym once a week but it last two hours long. This week we had to run about 6.5 kilometers which is a little over 4 miles. My school is practically in the middle of nowhere with just farm land surrounding it so the wind is crucial when running. Along with the wind, the rain and cold also play a huge factor. Although it's nice to get out and run and i don't have a problem finishing the 6.5 kilometers, I just have to say that I prefer the gym class back home!

The view of farm land surrounding my school.

  Last Friday I was asked by one of the YFU volunteers to make a presentation at the social school in town. The social school is a school where many people of any age older than 15 can attend in order to become some type of social worker. The volunteer sent me an email telling me to speak about school in the U.S. and my daily life. She told us to explain that school is different than their stereotypes created by High School Musical. Once I read this, I began to think about how Clements High School was. After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that in some ways Clements is just like High School Musical just without the singing and dancing. Because I didn't want to strengthen their stereotypes, I let Sarah (from Minnesota) explain what her school was like. After taking a tour of the school and doing our presentation, the other exchange students and I went to the city to eat at a cafe. It was a really nice Friday with the other exchange students. On Saturday I went shopping with my host sister Nanna and I finally bought something! I ended up buying 2 sweaters, a jacket, and 3 shirts. Yes it took a lot of convincing to finally buy something since the prices are so ridiculously expensive. You couldn't buy a single sweater less than $50!!! After we went shopping, I treated (more like my parents ;) ) Nanna to mexican food for lunch. Of course is was nothing compared to the Tex-Mex food I've been craving, but it was actually really good! I ordered the burritos which were more like enchiladas without the chili sauce on top. P.S. Thanks Mom and Dad for lunch and clothes :) Love y'all

Sculpture in town.

Arthur is from France and also attends my school.

Arthur(France), Sarah(Minnesotta), ME, Thea( Danish YFU volunteer)

Thea and Arthur being crazy.

  My host suggested that I invite all the girls from my class back to our house for dinner and desert after school today. We talked about what we would like to have and we both decided on tacos. Since leaving Texas, I have missed my moms Slut Brownies (chocolate chip cookie dough with oreos and brownie batter baked)  that she makes and decided I would make them for dessert. The only issue here is that I have to make EVERYTHING from scratch! That means no buying a box of brownie mix and adding water, oil, and eggs or buying a roll of pre made cookie dough. Because of this, I had to find a brownie and cookie recipe that I could make from scratch. Once I found a recipe along with a video, I realized that everything is measured in cups and that in Denmark they measure everything by grams. My plans on baking then turned into a math class by trying to convert the weight of 1 1/3 cup of butter into grams and how many grams 2 cups of sugar weighed. I have to admit that converting everything was very complicated especially because one wrong conversion and the whole recipe would be messed up. Working hard in the kitchen, I successfully assembled everything into the pan and put it in the oven to bake! It ended up looking normal when it come out of the oven but I guess we will just have to see how it taste tonight! I also bought vanilla ice cream to put on top!! :)

Homemade brownie batter (not from box!!)

Homemade cookie dough

                                          

Me proving that yes I did bake this!

Assembling the cookie dough on bottom of pan then layering Oreos on top.

Next pouring the brownie batter on top of the Oreos and cookie dough.

Right out of the oven! Let's hope it taste good:)

Week 6: Summer house and Pig Fest

   So I finally feel like I've mastered the bus routes and how they work. Lately many of my classes have been cancelled so I can either take a different bus into the train station or wait up to 3 hours for my bus...Well obviously I choose to take the earlier bus into the train station. This being said, I still haven't received my official bus card so I have to pay in cash each time I get on a bus. (Almost $6 per each ride!!) On Friday, I took the early bus in to the main station then changed busses and headed home. Uffe, Anette, Nanna, and I then headed out to their summer house in Middlefart. We had a lovely dinner with their good friends that live permanently next door to their summer house. We spent the rest of the night watching movies and playing just dance.
   The next morning I woke up to find Uffe and the neighbor out on the boat water skiing. Because this was the last time we were going to the summer house, they talked me into going tubing on the back of the boat. It was freezing cold, but we wore full body wet suits that made it nearly impossible to feel how cold the water was! Later that day I went to my friend Kia's house to join her family and family friends at a pig party. The party was at a small community hall where they played country music and roasted a whole pig!! We all ate lots of food and talked with each other. I spent the night at Kia's and we watched movies and made delicious pancakes for breakfast. Once I got back home, Nanna had these tickets to a big shopping outlet that was in town just for the weekend. I was ready to buy lots of things, yet I walked away with nothing! It's very difficult for me to get used to the new styles over here. Every time I go shopping I always picture myself wearing it and think it looks absolutely ridiculous because I would never wear it back in Texas. It's also very frustrating because everything here is so much more expensive back home and I'm used to being able to buy lots of clothes for a reasonable amount. In Denmark, a normal sweater cost up to $80.
Here some of the pictures from Week 5 and Week 6 :)

These are from the summer house.

Photos after Nikolaj's birthday dinner. 

Nikolaj's birthday party/My welcoming party

Pig party and weekend at Kia's

Week 5 Update

  I know I haven't posted in a while so I thought I should update everyone on what I've been doing recently!
  Last Friday our school had our first party called "Putte Fest" which basically means Freshman Party. First of all, school parties here are much more different than school parties back in the states. Since the drinking age is 16, the school is allowed to serve alcohol to all the students. If that's not already very different than back home than imagine having your principal sitting at your table with a beer and everyone sings a song to make him chug it... Hahaha it's a completely different atmosphere. Everyone spent the whole night dancing and having a good time! Monday was my host brothers 20th birthday so they have a tradition of the whole family coming over early in the morning to wake the birthday boy up. So at 6:30 we all marched into Nikolaj's room singing the Danish birthday song and had a nice breakfast all together. Later that night we all went out to a very nice Steakhouse for dinner.
  On Tuesday, I attended my first Danish language classes that I will have twice awake for my stay here. Classes start at 3 and they are on the other side of town so all the exchange students must leave school early to get on the busses. After having to switch busses twice we finally made it to our classes! In our class there are a total of 14 exchange students from all over the world.
  On Saturday the Strunks planned a big birthday party for Nikolaj. Because the whole family and friends were coming, they decided it would also be a welcome party for me. Friday night Nanna and Nikolaj were busy so I was at home with Uffe and Anette (my host parents) preparing food for the party. I think by the time I come home I should be able to cook finally! ;) The party would consist of 50+ guest so it was very important for us to prepare enough food. In Denmark, many events are put together differently than in the States. Here we set every table with candles, wine glasses, silverware, table cloths, and flowers. Back home if we were having 50+ guest, it would consist of plastic silverware and plates, and most likely we would cater food in order to have enough. With help from the grandparents and family, we had Frikadeller (Danish meatballs), potato salad, fruit salad, prime rib, chicken wings, rice salad, and boiled potatoes. It was all very delicious! After lunch/dinner, we all sang happy birthday to Nikolaj and had a cake that Anette made and Nanna and I decorated. Nanna also secretly decorated a beautiful welcome cake for me. Unexpectedly, many guest brought gifts for me along with Nikolaj! Nikolaj's class came later and we had S'mores by the fire and then they all went into the city to celebrate.
  I will post pictures once they are downloaded from the family camera! :)