4 months later

(started writing this 5 days ago)

As of today I've been home from Europe for a full 4 months.  It seems unbelievable that it was that long ago, but at the same time that it was only 120 days ago.  It is good to be home but it feels like my life was taking off without me from the moment I stepped off the plane. There was and still is so much I wanted to do upon returning home that it is a little overwhelming. There are some days that I long for my lazy days in Denmark or even my chaotic days in Paris. I miss Sasha and Maggie greatly and think of them just about every day.

I'm kind of frustrated with myself that I haven't written in 4 months.  Writing was an (almost) daily outlet for me while I was abroad and helped relieve the daily stresses.  I prefer typing to hand writing and I hope to get back into writing at least a little something every day.  Speaking of writing, my thesis, for any of those who don't know, is taking this very blog, up until the last days in Denmark, and turning it into a sort of memoir/travel guide combination.  I'm very excited for the end result, but the 200+ pages looming out somewhere beyond me are rather intimidating. I just have to jump in to get started, which I sort of did, about a month and a half ago.  It's time to get this going.  There is an annual "contest" online called the National Novel Writing Month where people all over the world attempt to write a 50,000 word novel (about 200 pages) over the course of 30 days.  I've signed up, not necessarily in hopes of reaching 200 pages (which would be a little unrealistic with school, work, Alpha Phi, and a boyfriend) but hopefully to find some motivation to get me part of the way there.

I truly believe that writing made a difference in my life while I was abroad and contributed to my happiness while there. Don't get me wrong, I am still happy. I'm just overwhelmed and not the greatest at outwardly showing said happiness and instead end up showing the stress I feel from graduating and trying to balance everything out in my life.  I've always had way to many ambitions for the time I have but I still don't find this to be a bad thing.

Speaking of ambitions and lack of time, I cannot believe I just registered for my last classes as an undergrad.  The last 4 years have flown by just as my parents always said they would.  Do I wish I had rearranged my priorities a little? Yeah, maybe. But holy hell have I grown as a person.  I'm not sure I'd recognize the Jenn Wayboer from 3 1/2 years ago if I met her on the street, and I'm happy for that.  I still have things to work on but I am so strong and I know that I can throw myself in the middle of any messy situation and I'll be okay.  I always thought it was just a cliche phrase, but it's true, everything truly does happen for a reason.

Anyway kind of back to present day.  Tomorrow I am so excited to have a night with Paul. We're going to go see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the local theatre and I don't even know what else. It doesn't really matter though because I just love spending time just him and me.  It doesn't happen all that often that we actually have a good chunk of time to spend together and I've definitely gotten much better at taking advantage of that time instead of being upset about the time we don't have together.  

And then! This Tuesday I FINALLLLLLLY have an appointment to go talk to Autumn at Riverview about the next steps on my tattoo.  GOODBYE UGLY PIECE OF CRAP I got originally :) Hello pretty cover up.  I think I'll still have 2 more sessions because for one the actual cover up is going right on my ribs like my first one, which I know hurts like hell. And it is logical to split up the money some.  Then, that night, my sis is coming up and we're going to the Ludacris concert together :)  She gets to meet Paul for the first time too.  She is the other person in my life that I really wish I got to spend more time with.  I'm really excited she's going to be able to finally come up.  It's important to me that Paul meets my family because I definitely feel a much stronger relationship with all of them ever since I got back from Europe.

Life is good. Life is stressful for sure, but life is good.

<3

157-161 The Final Days

My bags are packed. The car is loaded down with them. I'm a shower, an attempted sleep, and a car ride away from leaving. Words cannot explain how I'm feeling right now. I'm so excited to see my family, my pets, and a few select other people especially, I'm ready to take on living alone, Senior year, and to see where my life will take me next.  At the same time I'm going to miss my life here so much. I'm going to miss the freedom, the lack of responsibilities. And I'm scared of losing the person I've found in myself here. I'm happy, like I haven't been, possibly ever. I've found confidence I never knew I had and I'm excited about life. I'm interested to see how my relationships with people will change back home. If I'm not the same, will I still get along with the same people? Will I find comfort and fun from the same group of people? I love my friends, and I'm very excited to see them. I just wonder what new doors will be opened for me now.

Wednesday afternoon we went to Linda's friend's house for Sankt Hans.  Sankt Hans is the annual celebration to burn the witches back to Germany. It's believed that on the longest day of the year evil and magical spirits are arisen, therefore the burning is for this reason and just as a reminder of the witches burned so long ago.  It was such a nice night. Luckily people spoke English and there were kids close to my age. It was weird because I was actually the oldest of the young people, by three years even. Around 9 we went out to the bonfire to watch the burning. It was a huge fire, very cool, but kind of creepy to watch her burn. After we hung out the rest of the night drinking and getting to know each other. I don't think we went to bed till around 3 or so. It's nice making connections over here for when I make it back or if they're ever in the states (notice the when, not if).

The next day we slept in a bit and headed home. We were both exhausted so the afternoon was spent drinking coffee and relaxing. It was beautiful out so Linda went to the summer house, I stuck around and worked out some. That night was the unfortunate Japanese v Danish soccer game, the Danish lost if you didn't know. Friday Linda had to work so I hung out and rearranged some things I had packed during the day, that afternoon was again decently nice so we went to the summer house for just a bit. We got another decent day on Saturday. In the morning, we ran errands and then hung out a bit, I finished packing officially, before going to the summer house again.  I helped plant some herbs and such which was fun. Oh! One of the errands was to a place that sells all sorts of plants; one of the most beautiful farms I've ever seen. The property was huge. Old European farms are officially my love now. Sorry I don't have pictures. The colony house was nice though and I have learned a bit, I hope to grow my own herbs to cook with at home. Last night, just consisted of wine and relaxing.

This brings us to today, my last day in Europe. We got up early and went to the Scandinavian Deer Park. It was beautiful out and such a nice day. They had deer (obvs), wolves, polar bears, brown bears, fox, moose, and more. The brown bears were absolutely adorable though. It was nice to spend the last day out in the sun and enjoying Denmark. We bought some real danishes (NOTHING like that thing they sell in the states) and enjoyed coffee and stuffing ourselves. For dinner Linda made veggie burgers and new potatoes (another new love from here). I stuffed my stuff from today in my bag, loaded the car, and now just have my shower left to take. It's been the perfect last day here, especially considering I still don't believe I'll be leaving for the airport in 6 hours. Ugh. 

I am so thankful for my time here. Paris was so rough for me. I didn't fall in love with it like others, and I don't really miss the city. It was the hardest growing experience I've ever had. I miss a few of the people I met there, but thanks to Dany and many of the French, it's not a place that I will be itching to return to. Everyone needs one of those experiences. I don't regret it, I've embraced the things I learned for myself. Denmark has been a blessing. I do believe that if I left for home right after Paris I would struggle to recall my experience as a positive one. I will never be able to express how thankful I am of Linda letting me in her home for 6 whole weeks. Italy, Ireland, Belgium, and France were beautiful, but I don't know what it was about these past 6 weeks, they were just amazing. I wish I could share the feelings I have about this place with everyone. I've seen so much, yet so little, of Europe and feel so incredibly blessed to have the chance. I cannot wait to see more. I cannot wait to see where my life takes me now. I feel different. I can't explain it, but I hope those of you at home see it. I truly appreciate those who have taken this journey with me, through my blog, through daily chats, through random wall posts just checking in. It scares me to stop writing because it's one more closure to this adventure.

A look through some of my favorite memories in the last 5 1/2 months:

Meeting Sasha (& Maggie of course too)

Seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time & making some amazing friends

first real night out

the amazing art I've seen

France v Spain with Kirsten

getting a tattoo in Ireland

spring break with Sasha (complete with Pizza fights in Rome & almost bar fights in Florence)

seeing Grace on Spring Break

Lauren coming to Paris

this beautiful day in Paris, and all my memories with Keshia

Belgium with Maggie; & all of our nights trying to convince ourselves to go out. And of course the night that the wine was really champagne.

Giverny

Ellie coming to Paris

These two, and our absolutely amazing Thursday nights.

Le Bar 10 and all of these people

Angelina's!! And the two most amazing girls I met.

Vejle & Copenhagen with Ellie (including ba ba black sheep, bugs injecting themselves in my eye, and more)

Lego Land

Meeting Alex again after 16 years

Holland (meeting amazing family and experiencing Amsterdam)

The Aros Museum

Meeting my cousin Eric after 16 years

Sankt Hans

The Scandinavian Deer Park

My life in the last 5 1/2 months down to 24 pictures. There is so much that even my 3,500 pictures cannot tell though.

Until the next adventure: returning home. ♥

Days 146-156

"I need to update my blog. I need to update it...really"  Yeah been thinking that for like 5 days now. Oops. I've done so well updating about every day for my own memory-sake, I can't fail at the very end.

So back to day 146, which was June 12th. It was raining but Linda and I went to see this Viking event in Jelling (pronounced Yelling). The event was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. But there were a bunch of Icelandic horses, which were adorable. They are a shorter breed, not much taller than what you would think of a pony being. They are horses though, and I now want one. Haha. I also tried my hand at spinning wool. My parents have alpacas and you have to spin their fiber into yarn and such. Yeah, one of the hardest things I've ever tried. Fail. Fail. Fail. I think I'll stick with helping with naming them and putting up a website if my parents decide they want one. On Sunday, Linda had some friends over for lunch along with my cousin Eric and his girlfriend. I spent the morning going through my stuff, and PACKING. Yes, I actually packed about 85% of my stuff :) Anything I didn't think I would need was thrown in a bag, I'm sure this Sunday when I'm trying to get the rest of it to fit I'll just end up redoing it all, but it's the thought that counts ;) Lunch was fun. Susan, Linda's friend, is from NH so it was nice to not have a language barrier. I think lunch ended up being around 3 hours though, craziness. It's always good getting to spend time with Eric or Alex though.

Monday, I worked out and spent the afternoon watching Denmark play Holland in the World Cup. A rather amusing match I must say. I didn't really have a favorite because though I'm loving Denmark, my family is from Holland, so yay Holland?? Tuesday, I worked out, though I was in a lot of pain from the work out the day before, and hung out in the morning till Linda got home. That afternoon we went to the colony house to check on the plants. It was raining/cloudy so I don't think we were there long.

Wednesday, is where my life got a little more fun. I took a train out to Odense to visit Camilla and Alex, mostly Camilla because Alex was at work. But I got into the train station and we went grocery shopping before heading out to her parent's house.  This is one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen. It is a really old farm house...picture an old European farm house, and that's exactly what it looks like. Her mom was really sweet too; she doesn't know much English but tried anyway to talk to me. :) She put out all kinds of sandwiches, home made jam, etc They told me I had to eat because my family couldn't think I was being starved in Europe. Haha One of their cats also just had kittens, so you know I had too much fun playing with them. I want another kitten SO bad (restraining myself from doing so though......so far). After, we headed back to her and Alex's place and just hung out till he got home. After dinner, they took me down to the park area where everyone hangs out when the weather is good. We got ice cream and walked around the park, buttttt it started getting chilly out. Alex took me by his university so I could see it. It was basically one large building from what I could tell, but pretty big at the same time. From there we grabbed coffee at a cafe near the apartment before going back, watching "The Cave" (a strange scary movie), and going to bed. Overall, a very nice day :)

The next morning, I spent talking to a certain someone in the states while Camilla worked on job application things, the day before she'd gotten good news on two possible jobs (one of which is really far from her though), so I took it as a sign that she'll hopefully find something soon. We headed in town to do some shopping (all window shopping haha) and kill the time before I had to leave. They had just put in a new bakery so we grabbed something there and just sat and talked for a while. I grabbed an iced coffee and then the train around 2:00 to make it back in time for Linda to be getting out of work. I really enjoyed spending time with Camilla and Alex. Though conversation was hard at some points, just having family my age to spend time with is nice. I told them they have to come visit ASAP. Haha. Unfortunately, I don't get to see them again to say bye because Alex has a last minute business trip to the states (ironically) but he gets back in late Sunday. :( It's been nice to see them the bit that I could though.

Friday, I met up with Eric in town and got to see where he works, a small theater which is really nice actually. We grabbed some beer and headed back to his apartment and hung out a while before ordering pizza. A little later his friends started showing up for a party. There apartment is about the size of a dorm room, so it was interesting, plus many of the people didn't speak great English. It was fun though. Nice to again hang out with people closer to my age, though most were younger than me which NEVER happens. But during the late afternoon I also got the news that a close friend of my family, Richard Thompson, had committed suicide 2 days before. I was rather worried about my sister, and of course in a little bit of disbelief myself, so when Linda was done at her small work party, around 10, I headed home with her. I still had a really good time though, and it was nice to be extended an invite.

The next morning Linda and I went an hour and a half out to the west coast of Denmark. There are sand sculptures there that are very cool. I'll post a pic of one. I don't care if being excited to see them made me seem like I'm 12. :P Kid at heart, always. We grabbed lunch at an Italian buffet which was only 44 krones (around $7), though my glass of water was another 18 krones on top of that. They had vegetarian stuff, so I was happy. Then we walked down to the ocean, the North Sea to be exact. I've been rather stressed about certain aspects about going home, but the ocean was just what I needed to make that go away. Freshman year I used to go out to Sand Beach at all hours of the night when things got hard, the ocean has always been a bit of a savior in my life. I see many trips to Sand Beach in my near future. There is just something about the ocean. The waves there were huge too, the biggest I've seen. After, we went another 2 1/2 hours to where Linda thought was an alpaca farm, it turned out to be angora goats, but they were adorable. The owner caught the baby for me to see, he was so cute. I couldn't believe how easy it was to handle them. We were both exhausted by then so headed home.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went grocery shopping and fought with the internet much of the rest of the day. It was so strange. I could get on skype to message people and facebook would work, but NO other websites would work, no skype calling, no email....so weird. It's back to working for now though. Haywire internet. I was supposed to have a skype date with my friend Ben who is in the navy in South Carolina, butttt of course the internet started working again right after we'd given up on trying it. :( I'll be in the same time zone soon anyway so it'll be easier to talk. Plus he'll be home for leave soon :)  

A bit of a back story, last week a whale got stuck in the harbor-like area of Vejle. It cause quite the commotion. People wanted it put down....though there are no real successful methods to do so because they have hearts the size of cars, so either attach dynamite to it and blow it up, or let it die. Well it finally died the other day and now there is a huge debate on where it's going to end up. Copenhagen wants it because "the students there have never gotten to see anything like it." Well HELLO Vejle kids haven't either. Plus Vejle firefighters are the ones that went through all the work of getting it out of the water, and now it's Vejle people dissecting it. Yes, Copenhagen is the capital, but I mean really they should not get everything. Eric read somewhere how Copenhagen people were complaining that their people weren't getting to experience it...I have no words for this but...seriously?!? Anyways, we'll just have to see what happens.

Yesterday, I worked out and then went downtown to meet up with Eric again to say goodbye :( Before lunch we went to check out the whale. It was a strange site. For one, they were dissecting it, and two it looked rather deflated. I think we were there all of 2 seconds. Haha After, we went to a cafe to grab lunch; tuna sandwiches on bagels with elderberry flower smoothies. Delicious :) From there we walked to the hospital to meet up with Linda, she was just getting off work. I said my goodbyes to Eric and then Linda and I headed to the hardware store, the colony house, then home. I can't believe I'm already saying bye to people here...I feel like I just got here. I do feel like it's been forever since I've been home, but at the same time it's flown by. This time next week I'll be waking up at my parent's house...crazy. (I'll try to remember to post the pic of Eric and me after I upload it)

I really need to clone myself for the first two weeks there though. I have to move into my place, but at the same time there are a million people I want to see. Figuring out how I'm going to get moved should be interesting, I guess it's not a huge rush, but I would like to get my own place set up and everything before I go back to work on the 11th.

As far as today, I worked out this morning and now just doing this and hanging out till Linda gets home from work. I think we're going back out to the colony house this afternoon. A nice relaxing day. Tomorrow starts (?) the annual festival in Denmark where they set up bonfires and burn the witches back to Germany. Linda doesn't really know the history behind it, so I'll try to look it up before I update again. :)

Sunday will be my last update from Europe, it'll probably be while I can't sleep and am just sitting up awake. I think I have to be at the airport around 4 am anyway...maybe I'll get an hour or two of sleep, Haha.

Until the next time....& the last time from Europe :( ♥  

Days 131-145

Forever later, another update. I just haven't had the motivation. This will probably be pretty straight to the point cause I just haven't had the spark to write lately, well except I oddly got the motivation at like 2:30 this morning...terrible timing. But that's a whole other matter. We shall see if I can accurately put together the last 2 weeks...Oops. (time flies)

The Friday after I last updated we did just as I said, ran errands: post office, groceries for the trip, fish for Linda's pond, etc. From there we went to the garden house to get the fish settled and I don't believe we did much else for the rest of the day. On Saturday a coworker of her's got married. The church was set up on a hill looking over surrounding fields, very pretty & very European.  The wedding was nice. I mean I couldn't understand anything being said (until "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" was sung [i was super excited for that of course]) but it was pretty. The pastor was apparently cracking jokes the whole time.  But the wedding was basically the same as an American one, except for at the beginning the bride and groom were sitting and pastor was just speaking. After the initial ceremony the women from Linda's work held flags and roses as the bride left. I got the job of photographer. After we headed home, grabbed lunch, packed the car, and hit the road for Holland!! Luckily, on the way there, we didn't hit much traffic. The GPS got us pretty smoothly to our hotel in Germany and we only stopped like once on the way there. The hotel was super nice and pretty vacant. We curled up to watch the Eurovision finals.  In case you didn't know, Lena from Germany won. She was cute. I liked the fact that she didn't expect it and was in genuine shock about it. Also, it was cool to be in Germany when it happened.

Sunday we ate breakfast at the hotel and hit the road, an interesting conversation on the way of course was necessary. :P  On the way, we stopped in Wormerveer, Holland which is supposedly where my family, the "Wayboers," are originally from. It was raining so we didn't walk around for very long. Plus the one place we tried to get food, the guy was wicked rude. He clearly only spoke Dutch but instead of trying to get that across, he just turned his back to us. His loss. So we hit the road for Wim and Winnie's (pronounced Vim and Vinnie).  Wim's grandmother, I believe, was my great-grandmother's sister. Hopefully I have that right.  We got there a bit early but the family spoiling began. I don't think I've ever eaten so much over such few days. But we spent that night just getting to know each other, well Linda and them catching up and them getting to know me. They bought all 100% vegetarian things to cook well we were there. It was so nice of them. We drank wine and just enjoyed each other's company. It was so nice to get to know my more extended family because I haven't really felt that connection since I was little, and never with this side of the family.

On Monday I fell in love with Amsterdam. No, but really, I did.  It was cloudy and I was exhausted, but none the less, I love that city. None of the atms would let me take out money, so I had to go to travelex and take out WAY more than I wanted, but other than that everything went really well. We were going to do the hop on hop off bus like Ellie and I did in Copenhagen but when we went to buy it we did a hop on hop off canal boat instead. If I ever go back I'll do the paddle boats instead of the big boats, either way, by boat is definitely a better way to see the city. First we went to the Van Gogh museum, on the way seeing the "Amsterdam" sign that I had seen in so many of my friend's pictures from when they went. The Van Gogh museum was expensive and disappointing to be honest. I would definitely recommend skipping out on it and exploring more of the other parts of the city. It just wasn't set up well and was so small for the money. I got to see where my great-grandparents (my dad's dad's parents) grew up though which was really cool. I'm learning a lot about my family by being in Denmark. We also made it to Dame's Square (I think that's what it's called) and eventually the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank house was an experience in itself. I would put it on my top experiences in Europe. Linda said there used to be pictures of the bodies from the Holocaust, those have been removed, but I kind of wish they were still there. But still there were excerpts of her diary all through out the house and things like pictures she had put on her wall to "decorate" were there. I'm really glad we made the time to see it. Oh yeah and there is a "Homomonument" that I want to share with all of you the message for "Commemorates all women and men ever oppressed and persecuted because of their homosexuality. Supports the international lesbian and gay movements in their struggle against contempt, discrimination, and oppression. Demonstrates that we are not alone. Calls for permanent vigilance. Past, present, and future by the 3 triangles on this square" I just found it moving. And I also like the fact that this is right in the city, not hidden, they aren't afraid to show what they stand for. Though I am not homosexual, I strongly believe in the equal rights for all of us. I love the liberal mind of a lot of Europe. Anyway, when we got back to Wim & Winnie's, my cousin/their daughter Anoek was there. It was really nice getting to know a cousin my age. She is working in a cancer ward of a hospital and working on finding a job so she can live with her boyfriend. We spent this night, again, just relaxing.

We were back on the road on Tuesday. First, we stopped in to see my cousin, Tante Joke (pronounced Yoka). Her mother was my great-grandmother's sister (not the same sister as Wim's grandmother though, are you confused yet?). She was so sweet. She took us for coffee and insisted on feeding us several times, this was the day I got fed so much that I felt sick. But you just can't say no. She was darling. I don't know how else to explain it. I also met her granddaughter who happened to be working in the hair salon right by where we got coffee. After lunch, see food food food :(, we headed out to my uncle Hans', pretty sure he's really a cousin too, but "uncle" nonetheless. On the way, we stopped in Culemborg, where my dad's dad's mother's family, the deBeus's are from (i hope you understand why i'm so confused by my family). It was a quaint little town, and really nice to walk around in for a bit. When we got to Uncle Hans apartment they gave us coffee and more snacks while we chatted. It was nice talking to him because he was really curious about what I was doing and about my family. We ate dinner, again vegetarian (YESSSS) and huge btw, by this time I just wanted to go for a long run. But we went for a drive to see the area. We went through a twisting area where I had the joy of seeing a man, probably in his 50s, out for a run. Fine, right? Yeah except he remembered a shirt but managed to forget pants...& underwear. I didn't share this discovery with the rest of the car.  A little bit too free-willed perhaps? Anyway, we stopped in a town called Ravenstein, which has been around for 650 years as of this year. When we parked the car it was at a small park area and I saw a girl doing a photo shoot. There is also the cool art stuff here like in Denmark, in the park was an older car, decorated, and placed in the middle of the pond. We walked around and stopped for some tea. Once we got back to their apartment they set out wine and more food to chat some more. I indulged only in the wine and a few pretzels that were stuffed with peanut butter (i miss peanut butter) before heading to bed, what a long day of socializing, and food. A good day nonetheless, however.

The next morning we had breakfast and then  I FINALLY got to talk to someone back home so spent the morning doing that (sorry mom) before we packed up and hit the road. We decided to go to an Open-Air museum, which I had never really heard of. The "museum" is really an area set up to look like areas of the country years and years ago. They had schools, houses, farms, laundry houses, animals, old windmills, and more. There were also people demonstrating some of the old tasks, it was definitely a nice way to spend the afternoon. Some of the buildings were even from the areas where my family is from. After, we headed back to Wim and Winnie's for our last Holland night. It was, thankfully, beautiful out, so we sat outside basking in the sun for a while before dinner. Not long after dinner however, Linda and I were both passed out. The drive back on Thursday was NOT fun. It is supposed to take around eight hours for us to get home...thanks to traffic and construction, it took us 12. And of course it decided to be sunny, so we were baking. I felt kind of bad, because I did pass out for an hour or two of it. We finally made it back though, stopping for some groceries, ate dinner, and as far as I remember were in bed not long after. I managed to read 2 books in 4 days thanks to all the car time.

Friday through Sunday were all pretty much the same. It was absolutely beautiful outside so we went to Linda's garden house each day and she worked a lot on her gardens, I helped a little, but mostly read and laid out in the sun.  I've gotten some nice color after having spent 4 months in dreary Paris...but now it's dreary Denmark so we'll see how long it lasts. It was absolutely amazing to just relax and we all know I'm slightly addicted to reading. Monday & Tuesday were not too much either. Monday morning it was raining so we went to the garden house because Linda had to drop off a key but other than that I just relaxed even after Linda went to work. Tuesday was about the same...more rain. Wednesday however was a really good day. Linda didn't have to work and it was raining so we headed to Arhus, a town about an hour from Vejle. There we went to the Aros museum. Now, if you've read this blog at all over the past 5 months then you know I've been to a LOT of museums. I must say, however, that this one, was one of my favorites.  The permanent collection was pretty small, the more modern part of it being the most interesting. But they had three exhibitions as well; "I Love You," "Jacob Holdt's America," and "Adam Saks Visual Voodoo." The first floor also had the 9 dark rooms which were each set up with different installation pieces. The I love you one was beautiful...and intriguing. It had everything from love portrayed as love, to bondage, to almost abuse.  It interested me that school groups were going through, I know some of it is nothing my parents would have wanted me to see at that age, another difference of culture. The Holdt's one was moving because if you don't know who he is he is a photographer who travels around the USA documenting the "real" America. There were photos of the KKK, of mass murderers teaching their children to use guns, a man that Holdt was playing pool against and the man had to step outside to murder someone, couples of all races, people dying of cancer, the rich, the poor...most of what was set up was pictures from the 70s and I really want to see more of his work. The Voodoo work was the least of my favorite but work about the devil, using water colors. The museum also has a giant boy, "The Boy," he looks like Golum (sp?) from Lord of the Rings if you ask me, but he is amazing still. I don't know what it was about the museum, but it was worth every cent. From there we went to a Bazar to buy some fresh veggies, the grocery store, and home.

Today and yesterday have been back to just relaxing, no going outside though thanks to the rain that comes and goes all day. I've been reading though, working on some applications, and enjoying having time to catch up with some people. In the past few days I have seen some good movies I'd like to share though: I Dreamed of Africa (based on a true story), Fried Green Tomatoes, MILK, and Don Juan DeMarco (with Johnny Depp). Check them out :)

An interesting thing I've learned: In European cemeteries, the families buy the allotted land for only a certain amount of time, in Denmark 20 years/Holland 100, after that time the bodies are dug up and put into a general hole. I kind of wonder if we'll run out of space in the states and this will eventually happen there too...either way...I don't like it.

I'm still loving Denmark, rain or not, and preparing myself for the readjustment back home. I have 2 1/2 weeks left. We don't have many plans, which is okay by me (more okay if the weather gets better), so I'm going to try to turn off my brain from over thinking things back home, which I had been doing really well at, and just try to relax. I'm so used to having so much to do that this whole relaxing thing is new to me.

I'll probably write in another week or so...by then I really should have started packing (AHHH!).

<3

Days 123-130

Before I talk about the last couple days I just want/need to write out something I've been thinking about/talking to Ellie about. My main lesson of this whole experience is really that the little things count for more than anyone understands.  I mean this in regards to the little things Dany DIDNT do for us...the little things that reminded us of home...and the people from home making or breaking my day.  There is nothing sadder then 1. HAVING to be the one to contact someone back home in general and 2. not even getting a response. The people that have reached out to me while I've been here have done more for me then they know, especially those who really seemed to care what was going on, the good and the bad.  It's that phone call in the morning or facebook message that means so much.  Yes I am twenty years old. And yes I am very independent and can take care of myself 99% of the time.  But that doesn't mean that I don't need to feel that people care.  It's an email to see how my week has been. A simple comment on a photo I took.  It's showing that though I am an entire ocean away, I still matter.  And I don't mean for any of this to seem needy or self-centered, cause I don't mean that at all. If anything it's just a matter of WANTING those things...not needing them to be happy...because I now know I can do that, for the most part, on my own. I just really appreciate even the comments made about my blog. The "hey how are yous."  It's really easy to feel very alone when you're so far from home, and I'm so thankful for those who have been there for me. And the ones I feel like I have to pry to get to talk to me?  It really hurts...more than you realize more than likely.  Not that those are probably even reading this.  Pointless I suppose...but being here has made me stronger, more independent, more confident, and most importantly, happier, and I am so thankful for those in my life that have been with me through this experience in my life.

I also mean it regards to it's the little things about American culture that I appreciate. Like the fact that if we like something about another person, we'll walk up and tell them. Anything from a person's smile to their shoes.  Europeans, even Camilla said, just don't do that.  They look shocked when we do, but seem to appreciate it.  They are such private people, but such public people at the same time.  I appreciate that walking around the mall or on public transportation you don't have to dodge couples licking each other's faces. I appreciate being able to understand people (aka English). It's a crazy feeling to wake up every day and not know what's being said around you. It'll be strange to hear English everywhere, for sure. It's really the littlest things about life that make or break every day.

ANYWAY on a much more fun note. LEGOLAND! Thursday Ellie and I went to Legoland & had way too much fun.  When you first walk in there is a miniworld of legos.  It was really cool to see the exact places we were in Copenhagen in lego form.  The boats, cars, even the water LOCKS moved.  It was so intricate and amazing. I decided it's my ideal future job.  The rides were super cool though. There was one that at the beginning you put in your height and then chose the moves you wanted the ride to do and how fast...so it was like a claw thing with seats on the end. It was fun but Ellie and I of course picked ALL of the ones that went upside down.  Oh and we also got in trouble on the dragon ride for taking pictures...the guy claims he told us so he stopped the ride to come out and yell at us.  But no we didn't get put in time out or anything :P We grabbed lunch, hit up a few more rides, but headed home early cause though it was fun, 6 more hours wasn't possible. Linda picked us up and we went across the street to this recently built place that inside had restaurants, bars, bowling, minigolf, an indoor pool area (very cool) and a few other things.  My cousin Alex works for his dad who owns the company that did the fire security system there...pretty cool. From there we went to Linda's "garden house." Which is so completely adorable. It's a cabin on a small piece of land where she has her gardens (duh) but also a few trees and a fish pond. The cabin is completely perfect and if I could I would definitely live in something like it. We picked some fresh mint and rhubarb to make juice with before heading home. Ellie and I both got nice sun burns over the course of the day.

During the day on Friday we just hung out until Linda got home.  Once she did we drove an hour to see my cousin Alex and his girlfriend Camilla. They had a whole dinner set out when we got there along with a couple bottles of a spritzer-type-wine. We had pita bread to stuff with just about anything you can imagine. It was so good.  After we all had coffee and then Linda went home and us "kids" went out.  We went to an Irish Bar for a Guiness, a bar called Froggys for these Smirnoff type drinks, a kind of upclass bar (very cool) where Alex bought Ellie and I Sex on the Beach drinks, then to a bar that was kind of underground where we had another Smirnoff type drink and a typical Danish shot called "Black Swine." I think we impressed Alex because with all the build up to how gross it was supposed to be, Ellie and I didn't even flinch.  It was basically straight licorice (I later found out mixed with gin & vodka).  It was such a fun night though.  I love being here and getting to know this part of my family.  We grew up in two very different cultures but family brings us together, and it's pretty cool to compare things about our lives and where we live. And they were SO amazing to us. Alex paid for absolutely everything and when we got home laid out this huge (most comfortable EVER) air mattress for us, made it and everything.  Neither Ellie nor I could get over how amazing they were to us, it was very much appreciated. I'm hoping that I'll make it back out there once or twice more to see them before I go home.

The next morning they set out a full breakfast for us (bread with spreads, cereal, tea, coffee, juice). And then Alex took Ellie and I into town so we could explore in the daylight.  We walked around for probably 2 hours or so. Ellie bought a swimsuit and I had to resist every urge to buy a really awesome pair of sandals.  I was good though. From there we decided we were going to try to get back to Vejle earlier so we headed to the train station to see if there might be a sooner train. Yup, that train was 5 minutes after we got to the station, and we made it.  40 minutes later we were back in Vejle.  It had been chilly and cloudy in Odense but in Vejle the sun was scorching.  Much appreciated sun.  We walked around, got a little lost, and finally found the hospital to wait for Linda getting out of work.

Sunday we went for a ten mile bike ride.  It was my first time on a bike in a longggg time I think.  But all went well for the most part.  The breaks on the bike I'm using aren't fabulous which took some getting used to...aka going down a hill and almost falling over at the end of it. Haha And on the way back they have these weird little bugs that I don't know how to describe, but they were everywhere.  Sure enough one flew STRAIGHT into my eye. Well, remember my lack of breaks, and now I couldn't see. A terrible combination.  Well Ellie helped me not kill myself and she literally had to PULL the damn bug out of my eye...it had like wrapped itself around my eyeball. Most disgusting feeling EVER!  I was only mildly traumatized though :p After Ellie got her shoe laces wound up in her bike and when she stopped and got off another biker came reasonably close to hitting her.  Needless to say it was an interesting 10 miles, but still fun.  My butt only hurt ya know for like 2 days. Haha.  The trail is nice though and since I'll have so much free time after we get back from the Netherlands, I'm hoping the weather will be nice so I can utilize it.  That afternoon Ellie and I attempted to lay out in the sun, but the wind made it just a bit to cold.  I've made a good dent on the book I'm reading (especially now), Forever Odd. That night we watched the first two Matrix movies and after I got to skype with my family some for the first time in just about forever, which was nice. I'll be home so soon, it's weird. Have to make the most of my time here, which partly means just relaxing and enjoying my time off from the real world.

Ellie flew out Monday so the morning consisted of sleeping in a bit and her packing.  We took her to the airport to see her off and then went grocery shopping before going home.  It's weird that her time with me here is already over...like she'll be home in less than a week (she went to London with another friend).  Time goes ridiculously fast.  But anyway. Linda and I cleaned the apartment in the afternoon and just relaxed while planning our time in Holland/The Netherlands.  I'm really excited to get to go there. We're leaving Saturday night now and staying in a hotel that night.  We have to drive through Germany to get there so I'll be able to add 2 more countries to my list.  I'm also really excited to see the Anne Frank house, my relatives houses in Amsterdam, and meet some more family. That night we watched the last of the Matrix movies and I bought Yankees tickets for a not so much surprising surprise for someone. I suck at surprises, but oh well. Haha

Tuesday started my days of just relaxing, sleeping in, and reading. So Tuesday, Wednesday, and today I've slept in, done the dishes, showered, and just hung out really.  Tuesday night we watched the first night of EuroVision, which made me miss my time in Russia badly.  Yesterday, Linda and I went to her garden house and I helped her out some there.  The fresh air was nice.  But I've really just been sitting outside reading, working on stuff I need to get done before I get home, and enjoying some alone time. Tonight we'll watch the second group for EuroVision which consists of the more major countries (Tuesday was really the further east and smaller countries). And then tomorrow we are running some errands in Vejle.  Saturday I'm going to a wedding with Linda for a girl she works with and then that night we're off to The Netherlands!! So excited for that :) We'll be there till Thursday I believe, so my next update probably won't be until next Friday or Saturday.

A month from tomorrow I'll be on my way home...AHHH. lol.  I'm getting excited, but at the same time nervous. There are reasons that I definitely want to go home...and a few reasons that I really don't want to go home.  Re-adjusting is going to be interesting, and probably take some time. I've gotten so used to my life here.  I guess that'll happen after going on 5 months.  Paris already seems like something of so long ago but I can tell it changed me.  I can't believe I was there just over a week ago.  Definitely glad to be out of that living situation...but I do miss the carefree way of life we had there.  I'm lucky to still have some time in Europe before submerging myself back into the "real" world in the states.

Until the next Adventure :)

(by the way I've written this over the course of quite a few days...tell my mood changed a bit after i just got some time to relax?  yeahhhh. haha).

Days 120-122

Denmark is so beautiful today. The sun is out, there is a nice breeze, and it's just warm enough.  If it was like this every day till I leave, I would be perfectly happy, I might not even want to go home.  This lifestyle is so much more me.  Cities are fun to visit.  Going to big clubs can be fun. But all the time, just isn't for me.  I really am liking it here, even if it is just hanging out and relaxing.

But about Copenhagen:

Monday morning, we got up at six and pretty surprisingly were not completely exhausted. I think my body is finally getting used to my horrible sleeping schedule.  I either get a ton of sleep or really none at all. We got on the train no problem and all was good until a group of probably 15 kids got on....like 12 year olds.  They were SO freaking loud.  So, so, rude to everyone around them. Ugh.  But we finally got to Copenhagen and away from them.  The hotel/hostel was only a few blocks up from the station. And for being listed on hostels.com & $40 a night...it was super nice. We had a room with 2 beds, a desk, an armoire, a little room with a big mirror and the fridge, and then our own bathroom. The woman in charge of the place was super nice too. After we hit up the Tourist Information Center to buy tickets for the hop on hop off bus.  Then the guy outside put us on the wrong bus so we missed the changing of the guards, but it was kind of cool because he ended up giving us the more expensive ticket and we got to see some of the city that there weren't so many people in. After we talked to the company to make sure our ticket would be good for the next day, we weren't particularly impressed. But I have definitely learned through the amount of travel I have done that things can and WILL go wrong, so the best thing you can do is just relax and see how it'll fix itself. There ends up being no sense in getting worked up about it.  It usually works out. So after we finally got on the right bus and headed around the center of the city. Copenhagen is beautiful. I love the harbors. There are such colorful buildings surrounding them and the boats are lined up nearly perfectly for a painting or photograph. We got off the bus and headed to Rosenborg Castle. It was expensive to get into, but it was kind of neat to compare what I'd seen in France, Ireland, and Italy to what there is here. We also got to see the Crown Jewels, which were spectacular. Weird enough there was a ring with a fly in it, so strange. The crowns and necklaces were beautiful. After, we got back on the bus and saw the guardian angel over the harbor and the Gefion Fountain. We ate lunch on the Nyhavn (sp?) Street that ran right along the water. We got totally ripped off too, 40 krones (over 6 dollars) for a bottle of water. Ugh. From there we saw the Royal Theater and searched for a while for the Ice Bar and a microbrewery.  We were standing exactly where we THOUGHT it was. We gave up, bought a milkshake, and walked down the walking street of the city. It had the oldest department store on it and the Guiness World of Records building. Next we took a short nap before heading to dinner. It was one of those awkward times when things were closed and the night things hadn't quite opened. We went to a Turkish Buffet for dinner and FINALLY found the Ice Bar. Except this time....it was closed.  Clearly it wasn't meant to be. We settled for ice cream and sitting in the city square listening to music. There was THE funniest looking old Asian woman sitting across from where we were feeding the pigeons.  We took some pictures with the statues and fountains then headed back to the hotel and passed out at like 9:30. I cannot remember the last time I went to bed that early.

The next morning we were up by 8 to start the day.  We walked a good couple miles to Christiania, or the hippie town of Copenhagen.  You weren't supposed to take pictures, but I of course did.  We could smell people smoking pot right out in the open, kind of funny. There was awesome art work and it was easy to tell that these people didn't care what anyone thought of them. On the way out the back of the sign said, "Welcome to the EU." Clearly they also were allowed to live pretty much the way they wanted.  It was a long walk but I'm glad we went. Definitely a good part of the city to see. After we walked to try to find the the changing of the guards. We were passing a group of students and had to walk a bit into the bike lane and a biker decided to run straight into Ellie. Didn't really hurt her, but he had plenty of room, was just being rude.  When we got close to the palace and couldn't find it we decided to be lazy and took the bus all the way around the city. By then we had walked so far that I didn't feel too bad. We finally got to the changing of the guards, in literally the nick of time.  It wasn't as crisp as I thought it would be. And it was strange that the guards could talk to people, we took pictures with one of them, I don't think he was particularly impressed, Haha.  From there we went into the Amelienborg Palace. There wasn't a whole lot to it because the top floor was closed but some of the Queen's old dresses were there. We tried to go to where the Crown Prince and Princess will be living but stood in line for like an hour, only to figure out that we couldn't make it and our train.  We did get some pretty awesome sandwiches for lunch though before finding the train and heading home. Overall it was a great trip. We got to see all the basics of the city and it was nice that it was a big city but not anything like Paris. People were pretty nice there. The weather was decent, no rain, but not hot. Compared to the pouring day before, we were grateful that it wasn't pouring.

I have learned that I don't understand Danish really at all. There are some words that are pretty similar to English, but the ones that aren't are completely different. Numbers for instance, with how fast they speak them, sound like giberish. It would definitely be cool to pick up some of the language though.

Last night Linda made us homemade pizzas and then I talked online for a bit before going to bed.  It was beautiful out today. After sleeping in, talking online a while, and eating cereal for the first time in 4 months, Ellie and I attempted to mow the backyard. Linda has an older style mower, non electric.  The neighbors were amused at watching us try to do it. We finally succeeded, sort of. I think it looks like the cows chewed on it. After we tried to take the bikes out and kind of failed again. The seats were way too high and we couldn't figure out how to lower them.  So we went for a walk instead.  When we got back we couldn't get the door unlocked...we literally stood there a good 5-10 minutes try to unlock it. Finally a man was walking by who I don't think understood anything except for that we couldn't get the door open...he looks at the keys...turns the handle...and the door opens.  I am not sure I've ever looked so dumb. Or blonde. haha. But we got in and Linda was home soon after. So we ran to get groceries with her, ate root veggies and salad for dinner, and now I'm here, writing this, and watching a movie.

It's been a really good couple of days and tomorrow Ellie and I are headed to LEGO land. I can't wait to pretend I'm 12 again. Some would say I act 12 sometimes anyway :p Friday night we are driving up to see my cousin Alex, Linda's son. Ellie and I are going to spend some time there Saturday.  Sunday Eric (Linda's other son) will be here for dinner. And Monday, Ellie leaves. :(  Time once again is flying by. I can't imagine going home but I know it'll be here before I know it.

Such a relaxing life here.

One Chapter Closes, as Another Whole New Adventure Begins (Day 116-119)

Last time I wrote I may have implied a nice quiet sangria night for Maggie's birthday.  Oh, not quite. But I'll start with the day.  Once Maggie got back from church we headed to Musee D'Orsay, stopping for my last crepe in Paris before.  Luckily the line to the museum was almost nothing AND Maggie & I got in for free with our international students IDs, just paying 1.50 euros for the exhibit. I like the exhibit a lot but it was not set up very well. There were far too many people.  I didn't learn that I had retained a lot more information from my stupid art class this semester than I thought.  I knew a ton about many of the artists there. I don't know how much the other girls cared, but I felt smart, hahaha. We walked around a little bit of the rest of the museum before heading out for the Eiffel Tower and some lunch.  There was a bakery right near the Eiffel Tower where we got AMAZING sandwiches. We took a few pics by the tower, but it of course started raining.  Ellie tried to go to the top, but they closed it like FOUR people before her. Lame.  While we were waiting for her, Maggie and I watched a dance group under the tower and then met up with Sasha and Eddy for a coffee. Before dinner we stopped by the apartment. Bad idea. Ugh.  Dany waved papers in my face saying she wanted Ellie to pay for 4 nights of food even though she only ate their for 2 dinners. I told her no way would I ask Ellie to do that. She gave up quickly but went off saying how we didn't know anything about suffering in life and other shit like that. I let it mostly go in one ear and out the other.  At the same time I found out from Linda that Billund airport may be on strike on Saturday, when Ellie and I were flying in, so we might have problems.  It was a stressful 45 minutes.

But we went to dinner and all was good. Sushi was amazing. It was Maggie (the birthday girl!), Ellie, Sasha, Mannat, Anna, Adrian, and me.  After we headed to Le Bar 10 where Will joined us at well.  I am going to REALLY miss that place.  Thursday nights have become a lot of fun.  We each had like 6 glasses before moving on to L'Urgence Bar.  Coolest/most bizarre bar ever. In the bathroom they had pictures of rectal exams. So funny. Oh and one random picture of a woman's chest of course. We ordered drinks, which are served in baby bottles I might add, and a couple people took shots out of test tubes.  I had a regular shot, and it was gross. From there we headed to the Frog.  Haha oh the frog is always entertaining.  There was a group of guys claiming to be from US News and buying us drinks. Adrian and I split a beer that came from who knows where and there were a couple rounds of shots.  Maggie had 3 shots thanks to those guys.  They claimed they were looking for a "cover story" for the newspaper. Yeah okay. It was hilarious nonetheless.  A little bit later we headed to the bus.  I made a "drunk" call on the way. Though I was not drunk! I got us all to the bus and luckily the bus was pulling up just as we walked up. :)  It was only 2:00 or so but considering we started at 7 with dinner, we were all ready for bed. After about an hour and a half or so of not the ideal ending to the night, we went to bed. By this time I was just so emotionally drained that I couldn't handle much of anything. It was a great night. But a rough ending made the tears come far too easily.

Friday morning I was up at 9 talking to the states. I waited till noon or so for the girls to both be functioning and then we waited for Ellie to get back from Versailles so we could all head to Angelina's for one last delicious hot chocolate.  Before we left Dany had Sasha ask me when my "friend" would be paying for the food. 1. she suddenly forgot "Ellie" suddenly? 2. SERIOUSLY?!  And then Ellie unfortunately met her at the door downstairs and Dany didn't even say "hi," but just got in her face asking when she would have the money, after we had JUST told her Ellie would give it to me to give it to her. She really was somethin' this week. It was amazing of course. As was the bowl of fries Ellie got, haha. Maggie had to go to school and Sasha had to go to work so Ellie and I hung out and waited for Eddy. After he got there Ellie grabbed a souvenir and then we headed to the Louvre.  I got Eddy in for free with my student pass (yay yay) and then we walked around a bit. He was so nice to spend the afternoon with us. I wish I'd had more time to talk with him because helping him with English really helps my French.  Once we parted ways with him, Ellie and I went by her hotel and my apartment before dinner. I ran upstairs to change out of my soaked shoes and Dany wasn't happy when I wouldn't stop everything to talk to her.  I had stripped my bed but she still wasn't sure "if I was leaving that night." Dumb, dumb. And then she went off about how I had to make sure I left my keys, well duh.  I escaped pretty quickly and we went to dinner at a bar/club/restaurant called Fox where Eddy had made us reservations.

It was amazing. I had a pasta with mushroom sauce. YUM.  Maggie invited two of her friends from her program and one of their parents.  The bill was like 130 euros total and the parents paid for it!  Totally not expected at all, but so appreciated. I forgot what it was like to be around friendly, just plain nice, people.  I felt bad that they were paying, but at the same time it was awesome because they didn't have to, they had just met us, but they were just doing it to be nice. I definitely missed that. After we were on the way back to the apartment to move my luggage to Ellie's hotel when I got a text from Dany saying she was waiting for me at the apartment because she wanted to say "bye, bye," haha Dany saying something implying kindness? I knew it couldn't be true. And of course when we walked in she was probably the rudest she had been to me. And the only reason she had waited was to make sure she got her keys. I didn't even say thank you. I really just wanted to say, "Peace the F*** out" and slam the door, but I held my tongue.  No surprise that my last encounter with her would be negative. But anyway. From there we got my luggage into the hotel and went to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with Adrian & Will to say bye.  Ellie got to see it light up, and tried to go to the top again...but they closed it AGAIN. It clearly wasn't meant to be.  Saying bye to the guys was sad, but I mean I never felt like I was leaving Paris. And I mean there is always a chance of seeing some of these people again.  After saying our goodbyes Ellie, Maggie, and I went by the frog and I said bye to Sasha. Luckily it was busy cause if it hadn't been, she would have been the one able to make me cry. Last but not least I said bye to Maggie. I'll definitely miss my roommates.  I don't know what I would have done without them in Dany's house.  We've definitely all kept each other, at least reasonably, sane. From there I went back up to the hotel room, took a shower, repacked my suitcases, talked to the states for a few, and passsssssed out.

Saturday morning we were supposed to get up at 6 for a shuttle to the airport at 7. We set THREE alarms to MAKE SURE we would in fact get up. K, so 1. NONE of our alarms went off so we woke up to the phone ringing 2. the shuttle was THIRTY MINUTES EARLY.  Not cool. So we threw on clothes as fast as we could, luckily everything was together the night before, and ran out the door. Not the greatest start to the morning. Jenn = a little cranky. Haha (sorry YOU had to deal with me :p). The shuttle picked up three other people before taking us to the airport. In between two of the pick ups there was like a gang fight/beating going on! Ellie could see it more than me but apparently a group of guys were beating someone...so scary. I'm glad I couldn't see much of it.  ANYWAYS. So the shuttle guy tried to charge us extra money, I talked to his supervisor person and said NO! Haha. It worked. Then he dropped Ellie off AT THE WRONG PART OF THE TERMINAL & me at the wrong end of mine. Way to go champ. But whatever.  It was kind of cool in the airport because everyone I talked to talked to me in full out French first, before realizing I could only 90% understand them.  But I did well. I apparently learned a lot more than I thought this semester. Checking in was weird because I used the self check in because no one was at the desk. And it printed the baggage sticker tag things there too...so I had to put them on myself. Haha such a failure. I should have taken a picture cause it was so bad. Security was luckily a breeze. Like legitimately I just walked right up, no one in front of me. Then it got interesting.  My gate was supposed to be gate 50. Well I walk to the sign that says 50-52...and there is no 50. Awesome! So I ask a woman, in French, what to do, and she is a complete bitch to me. So I just grabbed some breakfast and sat down to watch as everyone walked over to where 50 was supposed to be, looked confused, and walked back to where I was all while crankily talking to the states. I needed some sort of vent from the rude French, it really is too bad that it isn't a stereotype for some. They ended up changing the gate and delaying my flight.  Once on, I passed out legit within 5 minutes. I woke up once thinking we were in the air, nope we were still on the ground. So I don't really even know how delayed we ended up.  After landing, I explored/got lost, till I found an ATM for Krones. I finally found a nice girl in a souvenir shop to point me the right way. The Copenhagen airport was amazing!  Krones are really cool looking too!  I'll have to bring one back for at least one person to see. I bought some Chinese/Vegetarian, delicious food to eat and looked around. It's really hard to get used to the Krone because like my lunch was 59 Krones, but that's only 10 dollars (expensive for lunch but not my point). It was like in Russia too...each individual rubble was worth like nothing so it was 2-300 rubbles for a meal (still only like 9 dollars).  Hopefully in 6 weeks I'll be used to it...just in time to go home though. Haha I explored a bit more before heading to my gate.

The flight to Billund I attempted to sleep but the guy next to me was sitting like half ON me and was STARING at me the whole time. Ugh.  And we didn't speak the same language or I would have at least attempted some conversation.  The flight was only 40 minutes though. We landed and my luggage was some of like the first 10 to come out, never happens. And Ellie and Linda were waiting right there for me. It was raining, but I was SOOO happy to be here. Linda's condo is absolutely adorable and the room I have here is a mansion compared to what I had at Dany's.  I love this place.  I could literally feel the stress lift off me.  We had wine and her homemade fish chowder for dinner followed by watching Mama Mia and eating chips with this really cool apple cider bubbly stuff. So good. I think I went to bed around 1... Ellie passed out around 12.

Today I woke up to someone calling (good way to start the day) :) and then Linda had set out breakfast for us. I don't remember the last good breakfast I've had. It was very much appreciated. We sat for like 2 hours talking, Ellie and I took showers, and we headed out for the afternoon. First, Linda showed us downtown Vejle (pronounced Viila).  We saw the train station and walked around the city. I LOVE it. There is some really unique art and fountains all throughout.  I can't wait to go back when the shops, like the free trade one, are open, so I can explore more.  There is a small museum that gets a new exhibit on the 22nd, and is free, so hopefully Ellie and I can see that before she leaves.  The water runs right through the city, and with the brick buildings and small streets, it is amazing. Falling in love I do believe. From there we went to Jelling (Yelling) and saw the church, cemetery, and museum there.  It was cold and rainy but very pretty. Royalty used to be buried in ships apparently with their dogs, horses, etc and here there are two hills, I don't think people in them? but just like memorials to people. Also there is some of the first Viking writing there on two stones. It's on one of them that "Denmark" was first named on Danish land. The church there is protected by the United Nations, along with the museum.  The museum had an exhibit about Greenland and climate change and then another part of the history of the area. A nice escape from the rain and pretty neat to learn about. We hit up a grocery store after, $.30 water, heck yes, and headed home.  Linda made us homemade hot chocolate with bread/cheese. It was delicious and what we both needed to warm up while posting pics to facebook.  For dinner we had pasta and salad. Making that salad was the first "cooking" I've been allowed to do in months. It really is the little things in life. Since dinner I've just been writing this and we had some amazing tea while watching tv.  A nice relaxing night.

Tomorrow we're going to Copenhagen in the morning and staying there until Tuesday afternoon. I'm excited but really hoping I don't spend too much money. Being as careful as I can. Denmark so far has been amazing though. It's just so nice to relax.  Ellie and I are hoping to go to a nearby city to see a museum there on Wednesday, LEGGO land (haha) on Thursday, and not specifically sure what else. Meeting up with my cousins Alex & Eric hopefully soon too.  This was the perfect transition between Paris and home. I get to relax and just chill out before going full force back into my hectic life back home.  It's so green and the air is just fresh & crisp here. I love it. Might have a problem getting me to come home. ;)

43 days until Maine. And until then I plan on enjoying every moment here.

I guess I can't say Au Revoir anymore...so umm...

I'll write soon :) <3