happy birthday:]

By that i mean fake birthday. Good day then a family birthday party by night. It was a relaxed party with my counselor and host families but it was perfect. Kind of weird at first because they were strangers but as the night went on I came to realize how great they all were. One thing that is really cool and different here is on your birthday theres Danish flags everywhere, i dont know why but its awesome:] It was so kind for my mom to do this and then have people bring me presents. I COULDNT BELIEVE IT. It was the best fake birthday i could have asked for:]

A Few days gone by.

It has been a few days since my last post because not anything really crazy or noteworthy happened. Although, two days ago the rotary meeting was in the middle of a lake which was awesome because we had to row out there and it was absolutely hilarious and sooo much fun! Besides that I made a successful dinner of mac n cheese for my family and they absolutely loved it. It was their first time ever trying it, they had only heard about ti in the movies. It was quite comical. Last night was such a good night because I went to a rotary members house for dinner. He, Glen, has an amazing wife and two beautiful children. Their daughter, Sophie, was seven years old and didnt know a word of danish. It was interesting to say the least. I had to use every scrap of danish I could muster and she ran around teaching me new words. It was absolutely amazing and I love the kids soo much. The kids in my class are absolutely amazing. They make all the hardships of being an exchange student so much easier. They are accepting and welcoming. Im soo lucky!

perfection all bottled up.

Started off as a perfect day. I rode my bike all the way to school instead of taking the lazy way out on the train. Rode into school feeling quite accomplished and proud. Had a great day and found out we are taking a class trip to Bosnia.....i guess cool? I know nothing about Bosnia. Then our class walked to Mcdonalds and we all ate lunch together. I was one of them, no difference. To my surprise Mcdonalds here is SOOOO expensive. For a 9 chicken mcnugget meal it was 12 dollars!! HOLY MOLY. Anyways I got out of school at 1. Went around Birkerod and a kid in my class Thomas showed me what there was in the small town. It was really nice and it got even better. I went up to Copenhagen with Sophia (my third family host sister) and went in to shops and found the best bakery ever and bought cupcakes and croissants for my family. I was pumped! We rode back to Birkerod station and instead of taking my bike to Holte station (only one stop away) I thought hmm....Ill be a crazy dane and ride my bike home with my backpack and bakery bag and be fit and healthy well guess what!? FLAT TIRE. A perfect day with an embarrassing ending. Thyge (my host dad) had to come pick me up and I felt so bad. I interrupted family dinner. Not my proudest moment but I wont let it ruin a perfect day. Godnat (goodnight) <3

SUSHI!.

Madeline, Ida, and I watched this nordic roller blade race thing. In Vermont when people practice for nordic skiing they practice on these elongated roller blades with ski poles and in Denmark they actually race on them. It was intense and interesting to watch. It was a gorgeous day so after we went and got ice cream at the harbor. Yum:]

Later that night came my favorite part. Kirsten (my host mom), Ida (my host sister), Anne (my other host sister), and I went and got sushi. IT WAS SOO GOOD! The sushi here is amazing and all so different but extremely expensive. More so than in America. The waiters were nice and the restaurant was beautiful and all of us ladies were looking fine. All in all it was a beautiful day and a wonderful evening.

I also learned that skaal/ skål is the word for cheers. Learning something new everyday.

ps/ footnote

ive decided that doing a blog every single night is great but ive been posting lame stuff a few times where ive done nothing. I have thought about it and i will post when something exciting/ thought provoking happens or when i have to blabber on and talk or have something worth reading about. :]

first school party.

Yesterday was SUCH A GOOD DAY! I woke up that morning just feeling great. I really needed that sick day. I went to school with my head held high ready for an amazing day and it was nothing short of that. It started with me in danish class which is kind of like english class in America. literature and all that good stuff. The teacher saw me reading and asked if i wanted to give a presentation along with all the other kids about my books so i said why not? Could it really hurt? I was finally going to be part of the class. Giving that presentation was the best choice I made. It made me one of the classmates, we were all doing the same thing with the same nervous pang of presenting in front of peers. They had the chance to get to ask me questions and see me as an individual in their class not just another exchange student thats blankly staring at the teacher from the back of the class. It felt good plus I love reading so it was a great start for me to get to share what I love. After danish I had social sciences which is all about the government and stuff and we started learning about the government and were assigned a project. In my group they asked if we could present in english so that i could join in, it felt good to be included but then the real shock came. When the teacher said yes he said why not just have the whole class present in english and they were not happy but none of them blamed me! Although i felt bad, they looked at me as just one of the other kids that would have to suffer through this (even though there wont be any suffering for me) and my group looked at me as if I was the best thing to ever happen to them because they got the American girl that actually could speak perfect english. I was a lucky asset to them. I loved every second of it. After all my classes I got to leave school at 1:30! Such a good feeling.

That night the joy just continued. I met up with some girls at the train station and we went to the park where the school party was. There was about six schools there spread out across the park and i could not believe how many people were there. From just are school there was at least 600 kids.....AT LEAST! It was absolutely amazing. One of the girls brought a blanket and we sat there people watching and just laughing and meeting new people and just having a blast. I couldnt believe how fun it was. The more and more I talked to the girls, the more and more I knew that this was going to be an amazing year with them! At first the kids in my school were very closed off and it made me feel like they didnt want an exchange student but as i talk to the danish people they all reassure me that they are closed off at first but they are very nice and want to know me and i see that more and more as i meet and get to know people. These danes are some great people:]

yesterday and today.

Sorry about not posting last night but here I am posting for today and yesterday. Yesterday was confusing and i didnt understand a word but thats expected for the first month. I cant wait until the day that i can confidently understand in class. I am retaking chemistry, blah, but at the same time YAY because i understand the material and can focus on the learning. Today I felt sick so I took a sick day. Read and laid in bed but tomorrow I am going out with my friends and have a half day at school, i just have this feeling that its going to be a good day. Thats all the events i have for now but hopefully there will be more soon! :]

a taste of home.

Why was I freaking out? For all of those who consoled me,  YOU WERE RIGHT! The kids were welcoming, hell they clapped when I was first introduced. I already have two friends and have already been invited to two parties, ON MY FIRST DAY, nuts! The school is so different from America. First off, they are allowed to smoke during breaks and lunch. I could not believe it; they smoke everywhere outside. Secondly, they have english class which luckily was my first class but it blows my mind that they have english class then the block after that they have another language!!! It was really cool though. I became the go to person in my first class, good way to be introduced. Unfortunately, I have to retake chemistry which is NOT my favorite subject at all. Sufficed to say i crashed and burned last year in chemistry but the teacher was going over the syllabus (at least i think she was) and I understood most of it. Thank you Mrs. Sherman for preparing me for Danish chemistry:]

In other news, I made dinner for the first time for my family tonight. A home recipe of green bean casserole and my own creation of a summer salad. They loved it!!!! And by loved I mean they could not get enough of it. They ate 105% of it and you may ask how could they eat 5% more than was there? Well I will tell you, THEY SCRAPED THE DISH. Every last bit was gone. It made washing dishes very easy. My first day/ night of success is feeling pretty sweet. I cant wait to make them homemade mac n' cheese next week:]

reality is setting in

Oooo the butterflies. Today was nothing special but tomorrow life begins. And by life I mean school. There is an abundance of butterflies and not enough will to sleep. I want to sleep but how can i sleep!? This is like my first day of kindergarten on crack. So much to learn and so many people to meet and so many expectations to block from creeping into my mind. The questions floating around in my brain are numerous. What are the kids like? Will the teachers demand a lot of me? How much will I get lost? Will they just put me out there on my own? Whats lunch gonna be like? Where will i sit? How much will i mess up? How embarrassed will I be!? AHHHHH too much swirling around. I guess we will just have to see. The suspense is literally KILLING ME!

rain rain go away.

Madeline, the exchange student from illinois that lives super close, slept over last night and might I say boy is it good to have someone that speaks PERFECT english that understands. She knows all the struggles and pains and difficulties. It was sooo great to have her here and we really get along great. WOOH first friend:] We woke up late wandered into town, got lunch and tipped the waitress which people dont do in Denmark (sufficed to say we were embarassed), and went to a rotary meeting. At this rotary meeting they went over rules blah blah blah blah but we got to meet the other exchange students in our district which was actually very cool because they were sweet. Plus I got to meet my third host sister and we agreed to meet up before and after school to go to and from school together. THANK THE HEAVENS I KNOW SOMEONE! I am soo nervous for school because it is going to be very hard to make friends at first and I know that but im also excited because im ready to get involved and not be stuck in the house or searching for things to do. Its going to be nice to have school occupying my days and NO WAY am i riding all those kilometers to school uphill. I will take the downhill home but lets face it, i am a very lazy american.

all american

What a good, painful day. It started off with a lacrosse game. I took my three older siblings to go watch a lacrosse game in copenhagen and get this, it was an american team playing a danish team. Just absolutely nuts, of course america won:] Once I got home my mom offered to ride bikes into town so she could show me the house where a rotary meeting is tomorrow and all went well it was only about 4 km, 2 miles, no worries. But then the real hard part came, we rode to my school which was another 6 km, 3 miles away. Out of those 6 km, 4 of it is uphill on the way there. Now I am just a silly american that is out of shape from avoiding exercise all summer so its easy and fair to say that the bike ride more than kicked my ass. Walking up the stairs is like being on an uphill climb on a treadmill for an hour, NO FUN. After I got home and felt like I would never got on a bike again I had to ride my bike down a huge hill (not bad at all) to meet another exchange student, Madeline, to have a sleepover. Yes, when you are a foreign exchange the first few sleepovers that you have are playdates set up by your host parents. Kicking it old school. But anyways back to this bike ride, as they say; what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, i decided to go down first then had to go up to my house again. My legs have never burned this bad. Boy will I be in shape when I get back to America. Ill be running marathons like theres no tomorrow.



ps: new danish sentence of the day:
hvad vil du med mit talent?

translation:
what will you do with my talent?

Thats right, saw that on the cover of a magazine and IMMEDIATELY understood. Its coming along people.

weekaversary.

Well, this day was short of amazing. Had a very very lazy morning, little bonding, and some family time. It started off with watching crappy tv on my laptop not moving a muscle out of bed. A nice way to celebrate my weekaversay here. My mom and i joke all day about me being here for one week. My dad took me to the dump, WOW CRAZY........not. Then i got back home and my mom and i made a delicious pear pie which was actually a lot of fun because i was so bad with preparing the pears and she was so good at doing it that i started calling her pear whisperer and she called me decorating lady because thats all i could do with the crust and the pears. After dinner my sister, mom, and I watched burlesque and I painted my sisters nails plus before the movie my sister and I talked about everything and had a really bonding moment, it was great. Although, this day was uneventful and yes, boring, I am closer with my family and i dont even want any other host families, I love them sooo much.

KANYEEE

Today was quite a good day. I met up with the other exchange student in my area and her name is Madeline. She is very sweet and we really bonded because we are going through the same thing. We also bonded over shopping and boy was that fun!
After shopping i went to a kanye west concert! IT WAS SOO MUCH FUN. the energy and enthusiasm in the people was infectious. I met a few cute danish boys and had an amazing time with my girlfriends. I couldnt have asked for a better day. It makes me anxious for the adventures to come in the future:]

ps. sorry for the short entry

an ordinary day.

Today was quite the boring day. Literally I did nothing. I laid on the couch all day in my pjs watching sex and the city with my sister. It was nice. I then went to a Rotary meeting which was quite nice. The men were all nice, funny, and eager to participate in the meeting. I did not understand a single word but I still got through it. Ida brought two australian exchange students to spend the night and they are quite nice plus it is refreshing to have english speaking people here, i dont feel like such an outsider. I also bonded with Kirsten a little bit today and she told me how much she enjoys me being here and I didn't feel on the outside at all. Plus my older brother Christian sat down with me and helped me with my danish for 10 minutes and it really helped. I feel a lot more accepted than i did yesterday.

and so it begins.

Today was not the easiest day. I felt lonely and I felt like an outsider. I had made a great lunch of grilled cheese with tomato which the danish do not know what grilled cheese is. MIND BLOWN. So that went well but then i was washing dishes and a glass broke and so did my feelings of being a loser. They were talking in Danish and I didnt understand and I felt like a lost child. For the first time, I didnt feel like I was welcome and I didnt fit in but then Ida took me to her friends house tonight and I was quite nervous. But they were very nice and kind and welcoming. They spoke a lot of English and really accepted me. They even invited me to a little get together that they have as a tradition at their school. It really showed me that everything will be ok, I will make friends and it will work out. It took the emotional stress of today and washed it away. Even when they spoke Danish I listened and just relaxed and watched what unraveled before me. The well spent night was what I needed to show me that, HEY TARA, YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON, EVERYTHING WILL BE JUST FINE!

so much information.

Today was not as eventful as the others but it didnt lack information in the least bit. I started out the day with my counselor, Henrik. He is a very funny man. We traveled to the bank and the bus and train station to explain to me the public transportation system, which is convenient yet very confusing. We also went to my school where we talked with a man that clearly had no idea what was going and did not help in calming my nerves in the slightest. I am very nervous for school especially because I barely know 15 danish words and I would really like to graduate but transferring credits from one country to another is no easy task to take on. I am excited for the learning and prospects of school but I am nervous about not making friends or having difficulty fitting in and actually really having a complete cultural experience. Fortunately, I already have two friends, Ida and Anne, my host sisters. They are so wonderful. Anne took me into town today and showed me a thai, italian, and sushi (my favorite) restaurant. Anne also showed me the local movie theatre which was quite small and unfortunately it was closed but she said the inside was beautiful. Everyone that I have been going lately has been on a bike and today Henrik gave me a bike that actually fits me. HALLELUJAH!!! When I got home I talked to Kirsten, my host mother, about transportation to school and back and I am riding my bike! On the positive side I will be in shape and I enjoy riding my bike. On the negative side it is 6 km which in America is about three miles and lets just say im not in the fittest shape I could be. The bike is kicking my ass, literally, its sore and so are my calves but its all in the fun of becoming a dane.

And to all those people that I miss and are missing me as Henrik says, "Thats life."

cakes with taste.

Today was quite a calm, uneventful day but not boring at all. In the morning my sister, mother, one of my brothers, and I decided to go across the street and watch the championship bike tour. The tour started at one point in Denmark and went all through the country. The last stage was in our town and Christian told me that the man that won the tour de france was participating. It was very cool to see and experience. After we got home my sister, Ida, and I made chocolate chip cookies which was weird. When we were making them we put oats in them which turned out to be good but was still very different. We also had to ride our bikes down to the store which was a challenge because my bike is too tall for me so its like watching a midget get on a unicycle, no easy task. When we got to the store I asked her where the chocolate chips were and get this, THEY DON'T HAVE CHOCOLATE CHIPS! She didn't even know what they were so i explained to hear that they were tear drop shaped tiny bits of chocolate that made chocolate chip cookies easy. MIND BLOWN! We had to kick it old school and cut the chocolate ourselves. It's funny to think that something so common and ordinary to Americans has never been seen by the Danish people.

another lovely day.

If everyone says the first couple weeks are the hardest then I cant wait for the rest of the year because the only challenge im facing is the language. My family is absolutely amazing. They are nice and caring and have so much to offer me. Between watching tv with my youngest brother, bonding with my sister, or talking sports with my oldest brother im having a blast. Unlike yesterday, today was a chill day. I layed out on their hammock most of the day reading and I went on their trampoline for a bit and played with their puppy, Watson, he is an adorable little black lab. Today we also went out to dinner as a family at a local golf club and had amazing, delicious hamburgers. We rode our bikes down and I have my own bike but its too tall for me so its always hilarious watching me try to get onto it. After we were done eating i told them i was full which is a common thing to say in America but my sister warned me that in danish full meant you were drunk, I guess I will have to watch myself with certain words.
Danish is no easy language to learn. My host mother already speaks a tiny bit to me and they tell me what a lot of things are in Danish but the sounds of the language are so difficult and Im dreading the first 12 days of school before our intro/language camp. I start the school the sixteenth and although I am excited I am also a little scared of whats to come. Its all so new but I am like a sponge, ready to absorb new knowledge. The intro camp will be so helpful and im really looking forward to meeting all the exchange students. I am going to have one great August. My mom is even throwing me a small birthday get together with all my host families and representative!

the first day.

Even though I arrived at 1:00 pm after a full night of not sleeping through a long flight the day was nothing but eventful. When I first arrived we took the train to their house and saw my awesome room and met my amazing family. They were all so welcome and open and we are already joking and mixing pretty well. They took me to a town called Lyngby where there were all these gorgeous stores and this huge supermarket. We went grocery shopping and my older sister, Anne, just kept telling me what everything was. We would walk around and I'd just be learning random danish words. I already know about 14 more words then I knew when I arrived 5 hours ago! When we got back home I unpacked and then my host dad, Thyge, took me down to the local tennis club to watch the finals. I've never been interested in tennis but one of the kids was freaking out the whole time and it was actually suspenseful. I met their oldest son, he was very nice and definitely helped me to understand tennis a lot more. All in all its been an absolutely amazing first day. Oddly enough though it doesnt feel like I'm going to be here for 10 months, I'm dreading the time when that realization creeps up and slaps me in the face.