mandag den 28. november 2011

Another danish one - before the ending

This one will also be in Danish. Sorry to all of you who doesn’t understand it, but unfortunately people who doesn’t understand English also want to follow me ;-)
I actually just thank you guys for following my blog and talking (and talking, and talking, and talking) about this trip and what it have meant to me to be able to be here.
Actually it is just my thoughts and what I’m thinking in this moment. Here we go!  Tusind tak til alle jer der har fulgt med I min blog de seneste to måneder. Det har været så fedt at skrive, mest af alt fordi jeg så gerne vil fortælle folk om det jeg laver. Og det er rart at vide at folk rent faktisk også læser det og følger med i det. Det gør mit lille blødsødende jeg glad.
Det er lige pt. mandag aften, og om halvanden døgn er jeg på vej hjem. Det er vildt underligt at tænke på. De her to måneder er gået så stærkt. Det er helt tilbage i 9. klasse jeg fik at vide at jeg skulle til Seattle. Og jeg har ventet på det så længe, og nu er der kun halvandet døgn tilbage. Men det har været en tur med opture og nedture, og det var været en intet mindre end fantastisk tur! Jeg kom aldrig på efterskole, så jeg har aldrig prøvet at være så længe væk fra mors trygge arme, mad og vaskeevner. Og nu har jeg klaret mig selv, med hjælp fra min hostmom i to måneder. Jeg har været så taknemmelig for at have fået den her mulighed og at jeg har oplevet alt det jeg har. Det har været intet mindre end en fornøjelse at være sammen med min kære klasse og opleve alle de ting med dem. Jeg har fået så meget ud af de her to måneder, men jeg kunne nu sagtens have blevet her i længere tid. Jeg kunne have været her i et år, hvis min hjerne lige var indstillet på det.
Jeg glæder mig til at komme hjem til min familie og til de venner jeg har i lille Danmark. Men den her tur har ændret mig så meget og jeg ville ikke have været den foruden. Jeg har ondt af dem der ikke oplever noget som det her (eller ligesom mig, ikke oplever efterskole). Det er en fantastisk følelse at være af sted og opleve alle de nye ting, bo hos fremmede mennesker og tale et andet sprog. Det bliver underligt at komme hjem til Danmark igen, efter at have vænnet sig til alt det herovre og opbygget en hverdag, til trods for at jeg kun har været her i otte uger. Det er underligt at tænke på jeg kun skal sove i min nuværende seng to nætter mere og så aldrig mere. At det om to dage ikke længere er mit værelse, og at det hus jeg har boet i de seneste to måneder snart ikke længere er ”mit”. Det bliver underligt at det er helt tømt for mine ting når jeg går herfra onsdag morgen. Det bliver underligt at min adresse er dansk. Faktisk bliver det bare underligt.
Jeg vil aldrig glemme den her tur. Det har vendt min verden op og ned og det er helt underligt at skulle tilbage til sin gamle hverdag. Jeg savner det derhjemme, men inderst inde har jeg jo vidst at jeg ville komme tilbage dertil. Der her kommer jeg aldrig tilbage til. I hvert fald ikke minderne og oplevelserne. Jeg kommer højest sandsynlig aldrig til at se mine søde hostsisters fra Kina og Indonesien igen, og høre dem snakke kinesisk og indonesisk. Jeg kommer til at savne min hostmom, Evangeline, som jeg dog allerede har taget afsked med i lørdags. Det er mærkeligt at hun ikke skal aflevere mig på skolen på onsdag. Men jeg håber at kunne se hende igen, hun har jo trods alt været min ”mor” herovre. Hun har gjort mit ophold herovre så fantastisk og hun har været så venlig og skør og fantastisk. Hun kommer helt klart på listen over ting jeg kommer til at savne mest. Hun har givet mig oplevelser jeg ikke ville have kunnet få med klassen og det har været fedt at bo hos hende og lære hende at kende.  
Men der er en ting jeg aldrig vil glemme, som jeg nok kommer til at savne mest: Seattle. Det er underligt at jeg kommer til at savne byen mere end de mennesker jeg har mødt herovre. Seattle er efter mit hoved undervurderet. Det er så smuk en by med bjergene og skyerne, søerne og den natur der er rundt om. Alle vil til L.A. og N.Y. – jeg har ændret mening; jeg skal til Seattle! Det er fantastisk så stort et indtryk den by har gjort på mig. Det er jo næsten mit andet hjem.
I morgen er vores sidste dag, hvor vi har planer om at tage til Seattle. Det bliver underligt at skulle sige farvel til den fantastiske by. To måneder siden havde jeg kun forestillinger om hvordan byen måtte være og hvor fedt det må være. Nu sidder jeg med en følelse af at jeg efterlader det. Hvis jeg kunne blive, havde jeg gjort det. Uden tvivl!
Hvis det er muligt at forelske sig i en by, så har jeg gjort det. Seattle, you own my heart! Jeg vil vende tilbage til dig en dag. Jeg vil tilbage og se dig, genopleve dig, nyde at være til stede. Det syn der er fra Seattle og til Seattle, er noget af det flotteste. Det er ikke bare højhuse som i de andre storbyer, og det er ikke bare natur med ekstra meget natur. Seattle har faktisk det hele. Det er noget af det smukkeste jeg nogensinde har set, og jeg synes ellers selv jeg har set meget. Men Seattle har taget mig med storm.
Får jeg nogensinde muligheden for at komme tilbage hertil – så ville jeg gøre alt for at lade det ske!
My heart belongs to you. I really had the time of my life!
Seattle 2011 – two months that I would never in my life forget.

One day left! (en dag tilbage)

Today we had our last day at school. It was weird, that it was our last day at Edmonds Community College. Wow! But it has been great to go to school. I actually wouldn’t mind study there again. But Seattle owns my heart, so of course I wouldn’t mind ;-)
After school Mette Bækgaard, Mette Bennekov and I took to Alderwood Mall for the last time this trip. And we said goodbye to this lovely mall that actually just stole our money. But I’d still wish I could take it with me to Denmark and exchange it with Herning Centret! No doubt!
After being in the mall, we went to Red Robin to have a real American dinner. With dessert! Mhh, it was really good. If I was hungry before eating, I sure wasn’t afterwards!
After eating at the restaurant, Bennekov’s hostmom took us to this place, with lights. It hard to explain exactly what it was, but you those light you put up at Christmas time. Yeah, that kind of lights and then they have created waterfalls, trees and all kinds of figures and colors, it was so beautiful to watch!
Now I’m sitting in my room talking with my mom on skype. And it’s weird to know that tomorrow is the last day over here. Tomorrow I have to start packing all my stuff, and I really don’t think that’s going to be good! I’m afraid that I would have too much in my bag. And I’m gonna miss Seattle. I wish I could be here for Christmas. I think that I could have been here for a year. I wanted to.
I’m going to enjoy these last hours in USA. I will at no point think about going home – I’ll just live in the moment, because that’s why I’m here!
Nik & Jay once said these clever words (and this one goes to all you danish people!):
En dag tilbage - lev mens du gør det, elsk mens du tør det!

The first goodbye

Well, this Saturday wasn’t all about me being tired and black Friday and using money. Something serious also happened.
My hostmom told me about a week or two ago that she was heading to Hawaii. But I didn’t quite get it before some days ago, when she told me that she was leaving Sunday the 27th. I was like NOOOOO! I’m going home the 30th and you’re not there! So I had my big goodbyes with her yesterday. I’m gonna miss her sooooo much! That Philippine lady made an impression on me, she sure did! And it is so weird that she’s gone and not going to drive me to school Wednesday before going to the airport. I hope to see her again. After all, she was my hostmom for two months; it can’t be true that this was it! Another reason why I have to come back to Seattle ;-)

#4 After every thankgiving - there comes a BLACK FRIDAY!

The school offered us in the beginning of the term, the opportunity to go to Portland, Oregon, to shop on Black Friday, because they have no taxes. Of course everybody wanted to go, because we didn’t only save money because it was black Friday, we also saved the taxes!
So we had to be ready to drive to Oregon 9 AM in the morning. Mostly everybody had big suitcases with them, and then I came with my normal bag. Yup, I was so ready to shop till I dropped. But first of all: driving in bus for 3 and a half hour! Weeee!
Obviously not the best part of the trip, but I just fell asleep, so I didn’t really care about that part.
When we arrived to Portland I was so tired from getting up so early, but we just had to shop. And I had my plans: Apple store! I’ve talked so much about buying an iPod and finally I did, so now I’m the happy owner of a small little baby, iPod nano! I’m glad that I waited until this trip to buy to, because I saved lots of money on it, compared to Danish price and the price in Seattle.
Then we just went from shop to shop and… well, used all of our money (actually I didn’t).
In the evening we went back to the hotel. Me and Mette Bækgaard shared room and then we changed to our pajamas. Or I did, Mette put on her one piece from H&M. we had been talking about it all day and nobody except from Mette Bækgaard, Mette Bennekov and I knew what we were talking about. And in the evening she just went out to the lobby in this one piece! Everybody just looked at her, really fun! But I think the real Black Friday was when all the shops opened at midnight, when people were just waiting in line and going crazy. That was also the time when all the stores had the big sales. But I think this is okay. Maybe overrated, but that's okay for me that there is no big croud of people.
But Bækgaard, Matias, Erik and I were at our room almost all evening. We were playing Ligretto, which is a game that Bækgaard had brought. And of course she won the game.
Besides playing Ligretto we did those things you shouldn’t do on a hotel: jump in the bed, playing with the elevators and all that. And then we came up with this idea that we had to watch a movie. But as on every other hotel, you would have to pay for that. So what to do? Find the wallet and go down to the reception and say that we have five dollars that we wanna spend on a movie. and when we came up to our room, we could use five dollars on everything for five dollars or less. It was like if a kid just got five dollars to candy from its mother. But we’d already decided what movie we wanted to watch, so we just pressed the ‘Order’ bottom (yeah, all we needed was room service!). As always I fell asleep to the movie. I always do that, so of course I did it this time too. But at least I woke up before the ending this time! And it was only 1:30 when the movie was over, and we weren’t that tired anymore. We just talked for some time – before going to the fitness room! Yes, we went to the fitness room 2 AM! It wasn’t fun going to bed at 3:30 at night, and then the alarm started 7 AM again. Man, I was so tired I didn’t wanna get up from bed. But Mette forced me, even though she had a hard time waking me up, and she had less sleep than I had!
And then we went for breakfast before going to this waterfall. It was 45 minutes away from the hotel, but it was an opportunity to sleep, so I did. No problem! And it was a beautiful fall. Mogen, Mette Bennekov and I hiked halfway up. We didn’t have time for more. Or the power to continue, so we just walked back to the bus. And when we came into the bus, guess what? I fell asleep again. We were going to spend the rest of the day shopping in Portland, and honestly I just wanted to sleep, no surprise. But I ended up using money on lots of stuff anyway, so I guess it wasn’t that bad after all. But when we came to the bus in the afternoon to drive home to college – I just didn’t want to be awake anymore, so I decided to sleep! I didn’t sleep as much as I could, but I slept for at least one hour.
My conclusion? Amazing trip to Portland, nothing less!

torsdag den 24. november 2011

The day before THANKSGIVING!

Today is Wednesday, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving!
Yesterday I ate with Emilie, Anne Sofie, Kristine, Clara, Mette and Mette on this restaurant called “Olive Garden” and it was some of the best Italian food! It was really good. We got off from school early, but we made our homework until 6 PM, and then we moved to Olive Garden.
And it was raining! It was raining so terrible much and I was so afraid of getting my computer wet, that I took off my jacket, put on my bag, and then the jacket OUTSIDE me and my bag. It looked like I had the most gigantic ass in the whole America! But my computer didn’t get wet, that was the point. But my shoes and socks became so wet, that I could squeeze them and water could just fall down like a waterfall.
Everything on the menu just sounded good and I didn’t know what to order, because it all just sounded so good. I love Italian food (or food in general), and it had all the Italian specialties, so what to do? SPLIT!
I had some spaghetti with tomato sauce and some pizza. Me and Emilie just split and then we had soup and salad. If it wasn’t for the really ignoring bus-schedules I could easily have been there, waiting for the dessert, but the busses only go once in the hour after 7 PM, so we had no other chance to get home.
Mette Bennekov and I took our bus home and then I was at her place for an hour. And then I borrowed some dry socks. That just made my evening! And then her hostmom drove me home.
Today we were at the Mall, and I bought a new blazer. Uuups! I just love them so much. And I didn’t have one in blue, so actually it wasn’t that bad!
And there is less than a week until we go back to Denmark. I don’t wanna go home, I wanna stay. I hate the feeling that it is soon over. But I’m still glad I’m here now. It’s gonna be good to get home, but for now I’m just gonna enjoy my last days. My hostmom flights to Hawaii Sunday morning, so this is my last says with her. I’m gonna miss that Philippine woman!
But now it’s actually Thursday. It’s thanksgiving today! I don’t know what to expect of it. I think of it as 25th December. Just in November and with other kinds of food. And the amount of food.  But perhaps I shouldn’t compare that much to 25th December. After all, it’s Thanksgiving, not Christmas (YET!!!)
So in case you celebrate this holiday, happy thanksgiving to you. J
And now I wanna go to sleep! Goodnight!

onsdag den 23. november 2011

I DO like Mondays; Frappuchinos - this is your superior!

Mondays are usually bad. But over here, I love Mondays! But that’s because I have a Starbucks-date with Mette Bennekov every Monday after school. That’s one thing that I’m going to miss, because it is really just cozy!
And we took the bus from school and went to QFC to buy some things before going to Starbucks. And when we came to Starbucks there was Christmas music and of course we had to have all the holiday specials. First I had a Peppermint Mocha Frappuchino. And this is what I found out:
YOU LOST CARAMEL FRAPPUCHINO; YOU JUST MET YOUR SUPERIOR!!!!
It tasted like cold after eight chocolate, in this frappuchino! And I mean it, OMG! And all the Christmas music and we were just relaxing and talking and it really made me miss Denmark!  I missed Disney’s Christmas Show, my mom, everything! I was in totally Christmas-mood! And there is not long to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I’m looking forward to it!
But after being at Starbucks for hours and after drinking TWO drinks, we split up. But only a couple of hours later Mette came to my place to sleep that night. We had so much fun, I won’t say more. We girls never kiss and tell! ;-)

tirsdag den 22. november 2011

Sunday = church!

After a great day in Seattle, my hostmom took me to church. I have never been to church in America before, but what I have heard, it was different from Denmark. So I got up a little early (not too much!) and then me and my hostmom drove to Mette Bækgaard’s place to pick her up, because she was going with us to church. She hadn’t been in church either, so we decided to go together. We went to the St. James Cathedral inside Seattle. It was weird that they had this big church in the middle of everything. But it was a beautiful church.
In USA people are Catholics, so it was not the same kind of church service than in Denmark, but it was fun to see how people prayed all the time and how people were just “chanting”. It was so weird, but a fun experience, that I absolutely will remember!
After church my hostmom took me and Mette to this Korean restaurant. I wasn’t hungry, but we went anyway and had these really weird Korean dishes and I’m sorry, but not all of it tasted that good. Well, I didn’t like it all. So all in all, a little weird day, that somehow turned out to be pretty fun J