3 and a half months in, making it 1/4 of the way through my exchange. As always I’ve kept myself nice and busy this month and with the Easter holidays it was easier to make lots of plans. I moved host family this month and it couldn’t have gone any better. This family feels like home to me and reminds me so much of my own family back home. I have a younger brother Jacob who has just turned 5 on the 18th and then my host parents, Mette and John. We live on the only hill in my town with one of the best views as well as being close to the local supermarket which is great. Writing this, I’ve only been with them for 2 weeks but it feels like longer because we are just so comfortable already. We have so many plans together and I cannot wait. 1-2 months ago Mette messaged me asking to reserve the dates 20-23rd of June for a surprise activity so naturally I did. When I moved in they told me “Hey remember those dates that you reserved for the surprise? Yea well we are taking you to Rome!” I nearly died of excitement and almost cried at how special this is for me. I mentioned to them Rome was on top of my travel bucket list and they wanted to help give me that experience as well as have a family trip. I couldn’t be more grateful. They have also got tickets for the Skanderborg festival in August for me to go AND bring a friend so I have lots of exciting things coming up in the near future. I also have Eurotour coming up in 16 days which I cannot wait for! Upcoming events aside, lets get to what I’ve been doing the past month.
I started out April with one of my classmates, Emma, coming to my house. We ate pineapple and walked to the beach. She stayed for dinner and it was so nice! We just talked and caught up with each other. Went to Aros Art Museum with my art class the next day and finished at 2:30 so I messaged Fernanda and we hung out in the city with another exchange student, Julia, from another program and we ate chips and salsa and drank smoothies and chocolate milk. I then went home and attended a rotary meeting where we went to the restaurant in Norsminde. It was lovely because I got to see Torben and Ulla and talk to my third/ last host family which had been a while. The next night I went to the Salsa night in Vejle with Anne my first host mum which was so much freaking fun! We got free cake after as well hahaha. Most of the steps I knew already but it was so nice to dance with a partner compared to practicing by myself in front of a mirror haha. Mau (the exchange student that organised it all) ended up raising 10,000 kr for this guy to go to the Paralympics in 2020 which was amazing. On the Friday of the first week I had my last gymfest for this school year. I got ready and hung out with a few of the girls in my class and ate pizza before our forfest. We then walked to the forfest and spent about an hour there which was fun. The Gymfest was themed Hawaiian Grillfest which was cool because everyone wore flowery shirts and leis but the school wasn't decorated much which was a shame. But the night was so much fun. I danced for 4 and a half hours straight and sung until I lost my voice. Most of the songs they played I knew very well and were English so it made it easier to scream my lungs out haha. The night finished at 12:30 and I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30. Started the next day bright and early and woke up at 7 to pack my things for the weekend. I headed to Kolding where I met my best friends Lexie and Zara. Later we met up with about 10 other exchange students and had a mini get together. We danced and sang and talked and soaked up all the sun. Lexie, Zara and I went back to Zara’s house for dinner and to sleep. We woke up at 7 again because no one could sleep and decided to go on an early morning walk to the estuary before breakfast. We then went to the mall and I got a t-shirt and then another exchange student picked us up and we went back to his place and ate strawberries haha. It was a very eventful and fun weekend. This next week was my last week with my first host family so I spent most of my time at home when I wasn't at school. On the Tuesday I had a Rotary meeting where we played bingo. I nearly won multiple times but obviously that doesn’t count. One of the Rotarians won like 4 times so he gave me his chocolate Easter basket which was so sweet of him. That Friday I went to Aarhus with Lexie and met Fernanda. We had a girls night and watched Mamma Mia and Happy Feet 2 and talked and ate food. Anne and Anders picked me up in the morning and then we went to lunch in Silkeborg with some of their hunting friends then went out for dinner and had Italian. Sunday was a great and exciting day! Anne took me out on the ATV before I moved to my second host family. We had a pear cake of some sorts which was delicious and drank coffee before I said goodbye to my first host fam. Everyone asks if it was hard to move host family or if it was sad and as much as I love my first host family, no it wasn't hard or sad. I know I will see them again soon, I mean I still have 3/4 of my exchange left and I want to look forward to all of the new experience and new exciting things coming up not being sad when I know I'll see them. At first I'll admit it was weird not to be in the same room I got used to the first 3 months, the room I settled into Denmark in, but then you adjust and it's great. The great thing about when I moved is that we had the Easter holidays to spend with each other. The first night I had with them they asked if I watched Game of Thrones which I hadn't so they have introduced me to GOT and now when we have free evenings we spend our time watching that haha. I spent all of Monday with my new family, settling in and talking to each other which was so nice. Jacob got comfortable with me pretty quickly which I was very happy about. I remember Mette telling me when she asked him who the coolest person was and pointed at herself, Jacob said no Katrine is hahaha he's so sweet. The next day I took the bus into Aarhus and met with other exchange students. We went to Den Gamle By and the Botanical Gardens. It was cool to see the changes of Den Gamle By from when I went in 2012. The boat was no longer running and there was a whole new section added in. Wednesday my host dad drove me to Middelfart where I would celebrate an exchange student's 18th birthday with a lot of other exchange students. I was staying with one of the exchange students living in Middelfart and we didn't get back to hers until 3:45 am! I got the train home the next day for Jacob's birthday and celebrated with all of Mette’s family. We sat in the sun all day and ate lots of cake and food. John is the best chef when it comes to cooking meat so loved that we had steak for dinner. Once Jacob went to bed, we continued the party inside and played lots of music and talked and laughed. I taught John how to play snap and beat his ass a million times which was so funny for everyone to watch because John never loses and was getting so frustrated. Snap is my new favourite card game :) The next day we went to a lunch at John’s mum’s house which was lovely and then had a few of John’s friends over for dinner. Saturday we went mini golfing and turns out I’m not half bad at that either. It was such a beautiful day so John and Mette wanted to take their boat out to an island for dinner but sadly the boat wasn’t working so we couldn’t. Instead, John brought the jetski home and after dinner he took me out on it all the way to Aarhus and back. It was so cool because there was hardly any wind and we watched the sunset on the water. Next morning we got up bright and early and had breakfast before going out on the jetski again. It was the best day for it because there was no wind, the sun was out and when we went out we drove over the waves of a boat and went flying. I’ve never had so much fun, it’s such a rush and I couldn’t stop smiling. We then went back around 10 and I baked red velvet cupcakes for the afternoon tea to celebrate Jacob's birthday with John’s family. We spend the rest of the day much like Thursday. Monday we went out on the jetski… again hahaha. Took it all the way to an island and walked around which was lovely. We then came back and I went to Horsens to meet with my danish friend Nathalie from Gaston’s party at the start of my exchange. It was so nice to see her again after such a long time. We had fries and iced coffee, burned, got ice cream, burned some more, got chinese and then went back to her place and ate the chinese food while watching high school musical. An ideal evening really. Got picked up and arrived home in time to watch the new GOT episode and early to bed for school the next day. Thursday I got off school early because my last class was cancelled so I took the bus to Horsens and spend some time with Gaston who I hadn't seen in two weeks. It was so nice, the sun was out and the ice cream was good haha. We went back to his house and had dinner (lasagne) and those of you who know me the slightest know it's my favourite so that really topped the day off. This weekend has been extremely tiring but so much fun. Friday I had a get together at my house after school with 7 other exchange students. We sang and danced to the best music, talked with each other, ate pizza and just had a great time. Then on Saturday I went to Silkeborg for my district get together. We were around 50 exchange students, 30 (ish) inbounds and 30 (ish) outbounds. I got to meet the wonderful girl going to New Zealand in August and she's so lovely! She will be living in Auckland (hello home city) so I will be so happy to see her when I finish my exchange. As a group we got to know each other and ate lunch before getting split into our countries and participating in a small competition. New Zealand and Australia was paired because we were small groups but we put our heads together and won the competition! The last activity for this was actually the most fun because we had to throw an egg around the circle and every time everyone had caught it we would take a step out. We got to 11 steps out before the egg broke so that was fun, bonus it didn't break on me but I threw the egg that broke hahah. After dinner (pizza :P) we got ready for the party and then danced all night long. By all night long I mean we started at 7:30pm and finished at 6-7am it was one hell of a party! Everyone was dancing and didn't care what they looked like so we had so much fun! Even got to limbo and discovered that for someone that's 181cm tall, I can limbo pretty low hahahaha. This event was so special because it was the last time we would all be together as a district before my oldies leave. Some of them I won't see again so we really lived the night to its fullest. I'm really going to miss everyone so much it's getting harder and harder to think about. Especially for my district it will be hard because out of 30 exchange students, only 4 of us are newbies and I hadn't seen the others since the intro camp we had in January so until my newbies come I think I'm going to struggle a lot with keeping it together. Anyway, after no sleep and with feet I wasn't sure I had anymore, I packed up all my stuff and the air mattress I did not use. John picked me up at 8 and we headed to a confirmation in Odense which meant a 2 hour car ride. Now any sane person would be like "Oh awesome I'll sleep in the car!" but I'm not a normal person and decided it would be better to blast good music and sing some more like I hadn't been the past 11-12 hours. I was hanging in there barely but I think breakfast and coffee helped give me a little burst of energy. We got to the Church and John said I could just sleep through the ceremony (it was just an hour) because all of it would be in Danish and it was perfectly okay. So I fell asleep on his shoulder haha. John if you're out there, you're a great pillow and thank you hahaha. Once the service or nap finished we headed to a restaurant by the water which was so lovely! It was hard to keep my eyes open sometimes but it was very nice to meet lots of people. Didn't get home until around 9pm so it ended up being like 36 hours no sleep. Record? I think yes. Best part to finish this off was Monday I didn't have any class for the first 2 periods so I could sleep in. One of the best sleeps ever. This month has been another fantastic one with the bonus of having fantastic weather to match! Every time I meet up with people I get closer and closer to them and make more amazing friends. It really surprises me every time how much you can actually care for someone in such a short space of time and I've never appreciated it so much. Every moment here is so precious and beautiful and it really shows me how valuable life and time is. I will say it time and time again but I can't express how grateful I am for all this program has given me. I can't recommend this enough. I have grown so much as a person and I feel it. I'm trying new things, I have a newfound confidence in myself and I'm so proud of who I am, what I've done and how I've gotten here today. Lesson from this month is to take every opportunity and don't hesitate to participate, just be yourself. Until next time... xx
1 Comment
|