COLD!!!

IT  IS  SO  COLD!!!
Today after school, I went with my friends sledding. At first, I wasn't very good, but after a few times of falling off, I got the hang of it. As I bicycled home, the snow blew in my face and my snow covered clothes made me even colder... It is really winter!

At first, I thought it was like the best thing in the world. Now, it is the second best. The first best is the heater in the house... Snow is fun, but if you don't have enough clothes on, your butt could fall off!

At the lake down by the church, it is frozen hard. It is supposed to be 10-12 cm to walk on and it grows 1/10 of a cm. every hour in minus Celsius degrees. I think that it is at least 15 cm thick. Stella and I went and walked on it and later got our mom out on the lake after about 30 years. We had a bunch of fun!

More fun on the ice pictures here

Hjemkundskab

Last Thursday, we started on hjemkundskab instead of woodwork and sewing. It is a 4 hour cooking class. We have made egg salad and cooked pork with potatoes and parsley sauce, with waffles as a dessert. We will continue to make loads of delicious things and I am very excited for next time! Each time, we get a number. Today, I was number 4 and next week, I will be number 1. Numbers 1 and 2 make the main course and wash the dishes, while numbers 3 and 4 make the dessert and set the table. Next time, we will be making a Chinese Curry soup and brownies!

Emotion Storm

Recently I have been experiencing many emotions. I mean a bunch of them! I sometimes feel confused about where I am. I have a family and friends in both places. Torn between what side is more me. I probably shouldn't be as worried about all of this, because of it being in a matter of time. There are two different things. One is thinking about something and the other is doing it. We have been thinking about moving to Denmark a few times, before coming here, for high school but now we have done it. We jumped into it and I feel that now I am finally realizing it and regretting some things.

I am worried about my future.
I am scared that I won't get back into ISM.
I am nervous that I will not stay very well in touch with my friends here.
I am confused about where I really belong.
I am excited to move back, but I will really miss everyone here.
I regret not blogging as much as I have hoped.

Once I get back to the US, nothing will be exactly the same. I will be older, stronger and have grown from this lifetime experience.

By coming to Denmark, I have met my "other side". I met my grandmother as my grandmother, not just the sweet old lady that we would visit during the summer. I am now close to her and I will miss her even more than when we just left after summer break. I wonder if I could have done better with getting to know her, but I think that I have done my best. I just don't want to loose her now that I have her.

At school I looked at some of the past class pictures with Ellen, one of my friends. I asked about a girl in the picture who isn't here now. She didn't seem to miss her and just said her name like: "Well she is not that important, let's move on." I hope that when a new kid comes in my class, my friends would introduce me like I was a kid in the class that was fun and awesome.

I will miss all the people that I know, and have gotten to know, here. My family, friends from school, friends outside of school, Bente and her horses and many others.
I think that going back to the states will be even harder then coming here.

I am very lucky to have one person by my side this whole time. She is always supporting me and holds my hand when I have to cross over the bridge of reality. Thank you Mom!

Back in the saddle...

Today, I went to riding with Mom after my two-week break. We came extra early to get Fussie, which we did. We also learned some amazing news... The boy who I had to compete with to get Fussie is currently riding on another horse. Yahooooooo! Yippee!

There is a class an hour before mine with a girl who also rides on Fussie. It is nice in both ways. First, I don't have to compete with her to get Fussie and secondly, she tells me what mood Fussie is in. Today, she told me that she had to ride on another horse because Fussie was way too energetic. I appreciated her telling me that, but I did get a bit nervous.

We got Fussie ready a half hour before it was time and started walking her around. She was hyper and anyone could tell. Bente started the tractor and Fussie like all horses, got spooked by the loud sound. I started flipping out as well. She was about to go on her hind legs a couple times, but mom held her down and calmed her. My heart was beating so fast and so did mom's, but she didn't show it.

The riding lesson began and once I got on the horse, I felt much better. It was a really fun lesson and it was okay that Fussie was hyper... Later when we started jumping, everything was going great! Then it was my turn. The jump was a bit higher than usual. I did the usual. Set Fussie in gallop, stood up, jump, and sat dow, continue... This time we jumped a high jump. It was a real deal jump. I wasn't expecting any of this to happen, so I sat down to early. By doing that, my thighs were not still tightened around Fussie and when she landed, I fell off full force. First hip, then on my back. Worst of all, it was right infront of my mom.

She was so worried, I bet even more than I was. At first, when she came over, I couldn't move. It took a while but soon I was back on Fussie. All that happened was a few huge bruises around my body and a sore, tired body... All is fine other wise. I mean, seriously, if I am a real rider, I proved myself by getting back up on the horse. This was an expirience, a not so good one...

Stella's New Year's Speech and Party

Stella and everyone in her class had to write a New Year's speech about the year that went and their hopes and expectations for 2014 - all in danish of course! They then had to read it out loud to all the families. Stella did an awesome job! I am so proud of her!

Later that week she and her class and the other 3rd graders had a New Year's Party. She looked so pretty!

More pictures from her party here

Let it Snow!

It has been snowing the past few days. An on/off snow. It comes, melts and comes again. The weather has been a very fun experience. The first day that it snowed a lot, the whole school went down to the field outside of my classroom and had a huge snowball fight. It was all for one and it did get pretty scary when the 9th graders would come up to you and give you a face wash. Good that it didn't happen to me! All my friends laughed at me that I haven't experienced a snow white winter before and at the same time, they told me that they were jealous. Supposedly, they want to walk on the beach in shorts on Christmas Eve...


Stella and I had fun throwing snowballs at each other on the way to school. We each had our share of snowballs hitting us right and left. We also made snowmen. They turned out super cute!

Here are some more snow pictures

Mor's Birthday!

Mom's birthday was on the 12th of January. She is a very special person to me and she always does so much for me, so I wanted to really make her birthday special. Stella helped plan what we would do and get and I went to work. When the day of her birthday came, I got up early to finish all of the preparations. I bicycled up to the bakery at 6:45am, came back home and made breakfast, woke Stella up, put all the gifts together and marched into the room singing. Mormor was with Stella and I and she helped out with the breakfast. I was very happy that Mom got to spent her birthday with her mom after so many years. We had a very fun time and I was more than happy to see my mom so excited and glad!

Once all of the gifts were unwrapped, we hung out and decided that we had to go on a walk. We walked over to the school, where we played and showed Mom the new games that we've learned.We had a lot of fun! After we played at the school, we went over to the forest that is right across the street from Mormor's house. All the leaves are gone and the trees are bare. It give a whole different feel from during the summer. We walked around in the forest, and came to an open spot. My mom had an idea of something to do. She wanted to take a picture of the three of us jumping. The plan was one picture, but we had fun and took a couple more...

When we got home, the guests were about to arrive. We got dressed and cleaned up a bit before everyone came. Everyone arrived and said hi. They gave Mom gifts and we all had a great time.

Happy Birthday, Mor!

Here are some pictures from Mom's birthday...

Review: Half-way Point

It is now the half-way point of my experience of living in Denmark. We just celebrated New Years and will be leaving exactly on the 26th of June. In a way, I'm excited about going back, I mean to my family, friends, hopefully the same school, and my "normal" life. At the same time, I am dreading it. I got to know my Danish family much better. I met new friends. I met the other side of me. I will really miss my family and friends here and also have a hard time changing the way I live, my daily routine, once again.

I have learned another language, and learned a different culture, but my math, and science as well as my new subjects in an American middle school will not be as shiny. I sometimes worry about how I'll do, but my mom always reminds me that it is the future of 6 months and I am in the present of today.

To sum up, I would just like to say, deep breath, and calm down. Everything will go fine and as long as I believe in myself and my family, everything will go great...

Happy New Year to you all!

I wish you a very warm and joyful new year. May your journey in 2014 always bring in many memorable times. A very heartfelt thank you to all of you who have supported me in my writing and my journey abroad.

Christmas & Spedding's Visit

MSped and his wife, Randi (aka. the lovely Mrs. Spedding) arrived on Christmas Eve. We picked them up at the airport and went to my grandmother's house where we celebrated Christmas together.
This was the first time Stella and I have celebrated a Christmas in Denmark with our Danish family and now we got to include my 5th grade teacher and his wife.
When we arrived from the airport my aunt, uncle and his family had already arrived. The food was almost done and (Stella's favorite part) the gifts were lined under the tree. We first ate a beautiful traditional Danish Christmas dinner. For dessert, we had Ris a la mande with cherry sauce on top. Delish!

Later we danced around the Christmas tree and holding hands. We sang Christmas songs with Stella as the lead.

"Nu' det jul igen,
og nu' det jul igen,
og julen varer li' til påske.
Nej det' ikke sandt,
nej det' ikke sandt,
for ind imellem kommer fasten"

After we danced around the tree, we opened gifts. Usually Stella ans I pass out the gifts and we take our time, but here, gifts were thrown at us! Gift after gift from the family... Thanks! And then . . . .

CA-POW!!! MSped started throwing gift after gift at us from all of our friends in the USA. THANK YOU GUYS!!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

We all played and/or chatted. I played wii sport with my cousin, and when I finally won, he changed the game... Oh well! Stella and Amalia played with all of the new gifts, mine were already put away carefully (if they were clothes or candy) and hung up nicely if they were a card or a signed picture. :-)

When everyone had left, we cleaned up a bit and then went to bed from a long day. A long, fun day...
Pictures from the 24th here.

The next 7 days we toured the Speddings around the Northern Sealand.

Dec. 25th:
Today we went to Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød and toured the inside. IMPRESSIVE! We walked around Hillerød and had a picnic by the castle lake.
Later we drove them out to the beautiful Buresø were Stella and I have spent many hours swimming every summer.
We ended the day with a walk around Lynge where we showed them our school before having dinner at my grandmother's house.
Pictures from the 25th here.

Dec. 26th:
Stella was not feeling good today. She had a cold and a fever so we unfortunately had to leave her home. My mom, the Speddings and I took the train into Copenhagen. We walked down Strøget and Nyhavn before heading the National Museum. After a wonderful day in the city we went to my grandmother's house for dinner.
Pictures from the 26th here.

Dec. 27th:
Stella was still not feeling good so my mom and I went off to spent a day with the Speddings without her.We drove to Louisiana on the coast to see the Polar exhibition. After seeing the exhibition, which I thought was fantastic, we went and walked around outside for a little bit. This museum is location so beautifully! We then sad and enjoyed a great picnic before heading up along the coast to Helsingør. Helsingør is a great town with charming streets, old houses and Hamlets castle - immortalised by Shakespeare.
Pictures from the 27th here.

Dec. 28th:
Today was a big day for me. I got to show MSped and Mrs. Spedding my riding skills.We went out to the stables and I introduced them to all the horses. We asked if Mrs. Spedding would be interested in riding with me, but unfortunately she declined....
There was a boy that had already taken Fussie to ride on so I had to ride on a horse called Prince. I was not happy! Bente, who owns the stables, knew that I was sad because I really wanted to show the Speddings me riding on Fussie. Half way through the riding lesson Bente asked the boy on Fussie and I to switch horses. I was so happy that she did that!
Pictures from the 28th here.

Dec. 29th:
The Speddings really wanted to see the Jewish Museum so today we went back in to Copenhagen.
The architect of the museum, Daniel Libeskind, who lives in America, has done a really cool job with this museum! Wow!
When we where done we decided to go to another museum - Glyptoteket. This place was amazing and huge! We walked around and checked out the fantastic collections before settling down in the museum's beautiful restaurant for lunch.
Before heading back to my grandmothers for dinner we walked down the back streets of Copenhagen.
Pictures from the 29th here.

Dec. 30th:
Today we drove to Gilleleje to go for a walk on the beach. Stella was especially happy because it meant looking for rocks. :-) The weather was amazing for December - sunny and not too windy.
We had a great time walking the beach, the harbor and around town. Later we drove all the way Knud Rasmussen's house. It was so cool to be there with MSped because my explore project in 5th grade was on Knud Rasmussen. Full circle.
We ended an awesome day with dinner at my grandmothers.
Pictures from the 30th here.

 

Dec. 31st:
Today was our last day with the Spedding before they were heading back to California. We took the train in to Copenhagen. The Speddings checked in to a hotel and we then went for lunch - at BURGER KING!!! After our gourmet lunch ;-) we walked down to the queens castle - Amalienborg. When we got there we noticed that there were TV stations everywhere. My mom told us that they were getting ready for the queen's New Years speech. As Stella and I was goofing off trying to get a picture with the queen's guards my mom noticed that one of the doors in to the castle was opening up. And out, right there in front of us, came a car driven by the queen's husband, Prince Henrik. He had the window down, looked right at us, waived and said hi. It was way cool!!!!
We made our way back to the heart of Copenhagen and went to Tivoli. In Tivoli, there were loads of people. The decorations from Christmas were still up, including all of the elegant lights. Everything was so peaceful and enlightened. At 6:00pm we saw a light show with Nutcracker music and later, at 9:45pm to be exact, the fireworks in Tivoli were lit.
We ate dinner in Tivoli and when we were finished, we left. Everyone left at the same time, so it felt a bit awkward. You literally were floating while you walked out.
We walked over to Rådhuspladsen where we saw the amazing, and powerful fireworks. It was a madhouse! It was two hours of non-stop fireworks!
Stella was having a hard time. I think that the large fireworks really brought up her emotions as well as her tiredness. She had a hard time celebrating New Years without Dad.
We began 2014 by wishing the Speddings a happy New Year and then we said our farewells as they headed to their hotel and we went to train station where we took a train home.
Pictures from the 31st here.