Carpe Diem

“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”

-Oprah Winfrey

I’m sitting in class right now and my school’s wi-fi isn’t working and I think it’s safe to say that I’m having a minor panic attack. In Danish Gymnasiums it’s totally normal to be on your computer while the teacher is teaching, which works out very well for me. But today there is no internet and I don’t know what to do with myself, so I decided to update this.

Last weekend I went up to Horsens to visit Emma! Wednesday night Emma called me and told me that she was really sick, and that it was still okay if I came, but that she wouldn’t be able to pick me up from the train station. So she explained the busses to me, and told me exactly what to do and I left the house Thursday confident that I knew what I was doing. The only catch was that the bus only runs once and hour, and it left eight minutes after my train arrived, so I didn’t have much turn around time. And of course, when I got to Høje-Taastrup Station, I see that my train is 14 minutes delayed. I really didn’t want to miss the bus, so I just got on the first train that came through. I made sure it stopped in Horsens, so I figured I was all good. The guy came around to check tickets and told me that I was on the wrong train, and apperantly you can’t just get on any old train. This was the express train, and my ticket was just for a standard train. I played the stupid foreigner though, and he didn’t give me a ticket or kick me off.

Finally I made it to Horsens, and after a short phone call to Emma asking where exactly the bus picked me up, and I made it on my bus and arrived in Brædstrup (Where Emma lives) all in one piece. She was pretty sick so we had a really quiet afternoon. We just leyed around and watched movies and slept, but this was totally fine by me. My host family pretty much tells me on an hourly basis that I sleep too much and that I’m too lazy, and they don’t seem to understand how exhausting it actually is to be an exchange student, and how much I sometimes just want to take a break and sleep or watch movies on my own or whatever. So being able to just spend a whole weekend doing nothing was actually really great. Thursday night we watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose with Emma’s host sister, which was really fun. I love watching horror movies. Simone and I used to watch them all the time, but Carina isn’t as interested, so it was nice to have someone to watch some with.

Friday morning I woke up and had a craving for Risengrød, which is like a rice pudding that you put cinnamon on top of. It’s so amazingly good! So I walked down to the store near Emma’s house and bought a box, and then we made it. It was supposed to only take half an hour, but it ended up taking over an hour to cook properly. But it doesn’t even matter because it turned out great and totally satisfied my craving.

(Risengrød--One of my favourite Danish foods.)

Saturday we decided that we wanted Mexican food, so Emma and I went and bought beans and cheese and chips and we made nachos and been and cheese burritos. It wasn’t the same as Taco Bell, but it was close enough.

Sunday, Emma, me and her host parents went for a walk around this lake near her house. We had pretty much spent the whole weekend lying around, so it was nice to get out and actually see the sun. The part of Denmark that Emma lives in is so geographically different from where I live, and it’s really beautiful. There are rolling rills and open farms and it’s so quiet. I love living near Copenhagen, but sometimes it’s nice to escape and get away from the big city.

And then after our walk, they took us to a chicken farm where they get fresh eggs from. Emma and I were like little kids looking at the chickens and imitating the noises that the roosters made. (Okay, well that one was just me. But it was funny to see the roosters freaking out trying to find out where the noise was coming from.) And there was also the cutest dogs ever!!

(How cute is that dog? I mean like for real <3)

And then all too soon the weekend ended and I had to go home. It always sucks having to go back home after spending the weekend with my friends, but hopefully I’ll see her again soon.

Monday I started on a volleyball team, which I really like. It’s so nice to be doing team sports again, and I definitely need the exercise. I played volleyball a bit at school last year, so I know the basics, and hopefully by June I’ll be pretty good. I play every Monday and Thursday, so I’m pretty busy now. Monday is volleyball, Tuesday is language school, Wednesday is Rotary, Thursday is language school AND volleyball and then Friday and Saturdays I try to be out with my friends. But being busy is good because it doesn’t give me much time to miss home.

And then this weekend I spent with some of my friends who live near me. Saturday night we went out, and then a few of us slept over at Emily’s house, and then because it was the first Sunday of the month, the trains were free and the stores were all open, so we spent the day in Copenhagen, which was a lot of fun. I love the other exchange students in my district, and because we are are the Copenhagen district, we are known as the party district, so our Eurotour bus is going to be so much fun! It sucks that I won’t get to be with Emma for Eurotour (she’s in another district), but I will still have a great time with all of my friends near here.

(Me and some of the other awesome exchangers.)

The weather is warming up, and I’m ignoring everyone who tells me that it’s going to snow again, and I’m choosing to prepare for Spring. The only sad thing about winter ending is that Spring is my last season in Denmark. Time is going way to fast, and I’m tying my best to hold onto every second, but it seems to be slipping by faster and faster.

I have another blog post in the making, so expect that sometime this week!

Kærlighed fra Danmark

Andrea

And p.s. I added a flag counter, so now I can see where in the world people are reading from!