Hiding in the Forest

Museet for Søfart/Maritime Museum of Denmark

Mom, Stella, Mormor, Moster Lone and I went to the Maritime Museum of Denmark to look at all of the historic pictures, stories, and artifacts. The museum was about boats, ships and saliors' lives. It was very interesting to learn about, especially in such a cool museum.

'The maritime museum opened in October 2013 in Helsingør in a former dry dock. It is placed in an underground area of 7,600 square meters. The decision to build underground was in order to protect the views of nearby Kronborg castle. The old dry dock was an ideal location but before starting construction it was necessary to reinforce the old dock walls. The dock itself will remain an empty space crossed by ramps and bridges providing access to the museum and the exhibition areas. The overall intention is to give the museum the feel of a ship's deck. The exhibitions are devoted to navigation, the Danish lifeboat service, lighthouses, shipbuilding, model ships, paintings, photographs and related artifacts illustrate the Napoleonic wars as well as Danish trade with China and India, and the sailor's life since the 16th century. The museum also has several thousand paintings, a collection of over 33,000 photographs illustrating virtually all Danish ships since 1880, and a huge library.'

More pictures from a great day at great museum here.

Riding with Stella

Today, I invited Stella to come ride with me. When we got to Bente's, we asked what horses to ride on and got ready. As Moster Lone and I were saddling Amira up, she got scared or something of that sort, and stood up and started kicking. I got really scared. Moster Lone calmed her down and I went to go and get Bente. Bente said that we should just get her ready in the stall instead. When Amira was ready, Moster Lone went to help Stella. Stella was going to ride on Fussie!
We started the lesson, and Stella just walked around. Moster Lone and Mom decided that she should just go outside and on a walk instead. That is what they did. I continued through a normal lesson, though I didn't gallop myself and trotted over the jump. At the end, we had to go through some poles and we were timed. I won with 15 seconds...
At the end of the lesson, when Stella had come back, we all went out on a walk. I was really happy that she had fun and that everything went well!

More pictures here.

X Factor Concert

Mom, Stella and I went into Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen, together with 20,000 other people, to see the Danish X Factor participants perform at a special concert. My first concert ! When we first arrived, there were barely any people. That was not what we were expecting. We walked almost all the way up to the front and waited for the show to start. At 6:30pm the entertainment started. The show was scheduled to start at 7:00pm. The entertainment was some music, and a DJ as well as Jacob Riising (the host for Danish Melodi Grand Prix 2014). They brought a little girl up to dance to "Cliche Love Song" (the song that won the Danish Melodi Grand Prix and that is going to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014) and had fun working up the audience's volume. When the show started, the performers sang songs from their past performances. There are only 3 left in the finals. It was so cool to see them up close at my first concert! There was fire, smoke and glitter! The music was so loud - all very exciting! It was so cool and a lot of fun. I was glad that we went.
Here, you can see the X Factor-concert VIDEO.

More pictures from the concert here

Riding at Bente's

Last time:
I went out to riding and got Fussie ready. Everyone from our group was there and they were all getting their horses ready. Nikolaj wasn't going to ride anymore on Amira (aka Kira) because she didn't stop galloping when he told her to. I guess that she is hyper from the spring awakening. Mom suggested to me that I should ride on her next time. We started the lesson off and did the normal routine. Dressage in trot, gallop, pole work, then jumps ending it off differently each time. We rode bear back in trot, in pony training. It was a really fun lesson and Fussie was super sweet!

This time:
I got out to riding today, and no one was there besides Bente. Silke had ridden in the group before me, and Nikolaj wasn't coming. Sophie hadn't arrived yet and there was about 15 minutes until I had to start. I had decided to ride on spring hyper Amira, who was very patient with me when I saddled her up. Sophie arrived later, but had to wait for Rigena, who was getting new shoes. When we all were ready, including Bente, who was also on a horse, we trotted around for a bit. We didn't really do dressage, but just a warm up. Bente's plan was that we would jump outside in the beautiful weather.
We got outside, meeting a family that were going to buy a horse. While that was happening, Sophie and I jumped. I could tell how happy Amira was, because of how she kicked her back legs twice. After most of the lesson, Bente said that she was going to get a horse ready, so that we could go into the forest. Yea!!! I been wanting to do that for the longest time. We rode into the forest and had a bunch of fun. We passed a few kids, who looked up in aw. I am usually one of those kids, but not this time. This time, I was the one on the horse! :-)
We returned and unsaddled them. It was great time and lots of fun!

More pictures here

ISM...

On the 21 of March, we were excepted to ISM!!! From this day on, it is now a tradition to celebrated that day. This is how it all happened... Mom came into my room early in the morning and said, "I have news for you." At first, well I was still half asleep, I wasn't sure what she was talking about. I asked if it was good or bad news, forgetting how I wasn't going to be attending ISM the next year. She looked at me, with her eyes showing the happiness that she tried to hide on her face. "Well, I got this email last night," she said handing me the iPad.

At first, I didn't get it. Then suddenly, I smiled the biggest smile ever... I GOT IN! I GOT IN!! I GOT IN!!!!!! Yesssssssssssssss!!! Woop woop! Oh yea, uh ha! Yea! :-) I just felt so happy. I know ISM as my second home and it would be terrible to lose it. Suddenly I felt sad. Wait, what about Stella???

Stella didn't seem so sad about the news. Either she was hiding her feelings or she didn't understand. I didn't really know how to feel about that. Either be happy for myself or sad for her.

Later in the day, while we were watching X Factor we got another email. Stella also got in!!! This was the coolest, best day EVER!!!

I was so happy, Mom was so happy, and Stella was so happy. It just couldn't get any better. The next few hours, we got about 10 emails with congratulations. I was just so happy!

S t e l l a   &   I   c e l e b r a t i n g   w i t h   o u r   f r i e n d s 

Hanging out with Sophie

Sophie and I decided that we should go and hang out at the mall. We looked around and she bought some things. It was fun, but more of her kind of thing than mine. When we met up with Mom again, we drove to McDonalds. After dinner, we drove her back home. It was nice, simple and fun.

Horseback Riding in the Spring

Sophie drove me over to riding from her house, and we both started getting the horses ready. Mom wasn't there to help me, so I had to ask around. We started the lesson off in trot. I was riding Fussie. Amira was taken, but I actually am glad for that. Fussie is a great horse and I love her. I am going to ride her for the rest of the year, if I can...
After trotting, we galloped, jumped and then went on a walk outside (finally!). During the jumping, I didn't feel nervous almost at all. I think that it is about time that I step out again and do my best.
It was so nice riding with my friends, especially in the beautiful weather. It really makes you happy.
After the walk, we brushed down the horses and put their blankets on. Sophie and I chatted and decided that we would plan something fun to do together on Friday, with our moms' help. I can't wait!

Sophie, Fussie and Me

Sleepover at Sophie's

We arranged a sleepover for me and Sophie. It was going to be on a Friday to Saturday so that we could go together out to riding. When I got to Sophie's house, I was a bit nervous because 1) I only know her from riding and 2) I didn't have much of an idea of what to talk about.
When Mom and Mormor left, we went up to Sophie's room and hung out. Sophie has an older sister and a younger brother and a love for animals and books. She also likes Ranger's Apprentice! Later, we were called down to dinner. We got a lasagne and salad. That was a bit different than the usual pizza and soda. :-)
As soon as dinner was over, we watched the Danish X Factor, followed by Twilight. We went to sleep at about 12:30...
We woke up pretty early, just taking our time talking. We ate rolls with chocolate for breakfast and after that, went outside to play. They have a big garden with swings, a trampoline, and Sophie's bunny, Angel. We decided to go in the forest across the street, so that I could see where it was that Bente took some riding. We chatted until it was time to go to riding. It was really fun to be with her, my first real friend in Denmark.

Fastelavn

Fastelavn is seven weeks before Easter Sunday and is sometimes called a Nordic Halloween, with kids dressed up in costumes going trick-or-treating. The holiday is considered to be a time for children's fun and family games. The traditional events include "Slå katten af tønden" (hit the cat out of the barrel), which is similar to using a piñata. The Danes use a wooden barrel, which is full of candy and sometimes oranges and has the image of a cat on the outside. In the olden days, there was a real black cat in the barrel, and beating the barrel was considered a protection against evil. Now a days, once the candy pours out, the game continues until the entire barrel is broken. The one who knocks down the bottom of the barrel (making all the candy spill out) becomes kattedronning (queen of cats), and the one who knocks down the last piece of the barrel becomes kattekonge (king of cats).

In Denmark a popular pastry associated with the day is a Fastelavnsbolle, a round sweet roll usually covered with icing and sometimes filled with whipped cream, jam or custard. The fastelavn song in Denmark goes like this:

"Fastelavn er mit navn,

boller vil jeg have,

hvis jeg ingen boller får,

så laver jeg ballade.

Boller op, boller ned,

boller i min mave,

hvis jeg ingen boller får,

så laver jeg ballade!"

Fasterlavn at school:
At school, only the smaller classes get to celebrate Fasterlavn, but because my friend wanted to show that we weren't too old to also celebrate, she handed out a couple of small accessories to wear.

Fasterlavn party in Lynge:
Stella and I celebrated fasterlavn with the family at the church. This was yet another fun event for the whole town. We saw some friends from school. When the church gudstjeneste was over, we went outside where we played "Slå katten af tønden" and ate fasterlavnsboller. Luckily, I won the game and became the cat queen. I was dressed up as a happy clown and Stella as the queen of hearts. We filled our bellies with fasterlavnbollers and our minds with good memories.

Fasterlavn with friends:
Stella went with some of her friends to go "trick-or-treating". She got a bunch of candy and some money. Later, I got a call from one of my friends asking me if I wanted to come and rasle (trick-or-treating) with her. We met up and went out to collect candy. What a fun weekend!

More fastelavn pictures here.

Fastelavn with Fussie

Moster Lone bicycled out to ridning with me. I was planing to ride on Amira, bur Nikolaj was already getting her ready. I asked Bente, with my mustache and beard, who I could ride on instead. She told me that I could ride on Fussie. I was sad at first because I had a plan to ride on another horse, but later, after that first feeling, I was quite happy about it. Fussie wasn't a stranger horse and I know how to ride her. I felt a bit less nervous today, and it was nice to have the help of an ex-rider who knows how to saddle up and so on...

We started out the lesson with many riders and horses. Seven total. Me on Fussie, Sophie on Rigina, Nikolaj on Amira, Silke on a new sports horse, Emilie on SaMara, Mads on Krømmel and a new girl on Pocahontas. We did our usual trot program, then jumps and some pony training. We also did trot in bareback and I did managed to get myself to do a few jumps in gallop and after that my confidence gained and I was very proud of myself and Fussie.

After the riding lesson, Sophie asked me if I wanted to stay a bit longer. I agreed. When we were done taking care of the horses, we saw some people setting up for a party in the riding house. We stayed a while longer and helped out. When the party started, we just stayed and weren't sent away. We played "Slå katten af tønden" and I won the cat queen place. We also had fun playing together and competing for the title. We had fun in relay-race, with our feet tied together, tug-a-war, and a few pony games. On the two ponies, we had to ride bearback in a relay-race. After that we took turns, with one rider, and one puller, going through a jumping race or Eguestrianism. After all of the super fun games, we just hung out and ate a bunch of sweets! The riding lesson today was fun and so was being together with other friends than just those from school.

Stella Graduating

Stella graduated from SFO/skolefritidsordningen (after school care, grade 2nd-3rd) and will now be in klubben (grade 4th-6th) together with me. All the 3rd graders gets to join klubben the last couple of months, before going into 4th grade. She spent her first day walking on klubben's stilts with her friends and then giving her old "teachers" a last hug.

More pictures of Stella on stilts here.

Mis Amigas