Together!

My work trip finished Friday night and I took the train to find Susan and the boys.  Now we have taken a ferry ride to the island called Aero. 

Look who I found!

More sailing

Acksel, my host invited Sophie's host family for a sailboat ride and dinner. We left out of a town called Corsor and went really close to the bridge I climed up and posted about earlier. Here are a few pics. 

One Direction and a boat ride

Today we spoke to a few classes at the local high school that are apart of their international track. I've spoken to several groups in Denmark and all of them ask about lockers in school. They have seen so many American movies and shows that they are really curious about lockers. And, all of the girls love One Direction!  I am thankful I have learned some songs from Noah. They were impressed with that. 

Here is a chair of knowledge at the school. 

After that we went on a boat ride.  The boy in the picture with Jill is Giovanni. He is on a Rotary Exchange from Brazil. He has bee here for one month. We had a nice quick ride. 

Home for Kelly

I a in a town called Skalskoer which is a small coastal town of about 6,000 people. I am staying with a very nice family who live in a remodeled church that is beautiful. They have an 18 year old daughter named Linnea that needs to meet with my sister Kelly. She watches Beverly Hills 90210 every day!  Not the new one either, the ones from the 90s and she loves them. Kelly and Linnea could spend lots of time talking about 90210. 

2 weeks in

Here are more things to add from the trip

19. I think I am known as the sweaty team member.  Go figure!

20. People are impressed with my Paula Clark and Kay Peterson ability to make small talk about anything. 

21.  We went inside a Viking grave. 

22.  We went to the biggest flower shop I have ever seen.  

23. We are staying on the southern coast of Falster, which is pretty!

24. There are lots of sugar beets here, and you don't eat them, you use them to make sugar. 

25. I eat lots of bread!

26. I have drank lots of coffee. 

27. Danes eat lots of meat!

28. I had fancy sheep yogurt and it was the best I had ever tasted. 

Churches going over the edge!

Here is a church that is famous because in 1920, due to erosion the altar section fell over the edge. It's on a beach that is known for flint stone and as a place where you can trace the dirt back 65 million years. You can see on the beach, there is no sand, only round stones. When a wave comes in, there is a really cool sound of thousands of rocks slightly moving against one another. 

Vikings and bats

We were in a town called Maribo on one of our longest days. We even had to change right out of our bags for our presentation. During the presentation Sophie and I met our hosts and it really sounded like they said they had gotten us hotel rooms. It was hard to hide how excited we were. Our hosts are Michael and Lars. At one point Lars said "we can stay here and look at these people or leave and see some cool things". He and Michael took us on a nighttime tour of Lolland island. Different houses and statues. The high point was that we had been seeing many different Viking burial mounds when we got to one that we could go inside of. It was dark and there was a tiny path you had to crawl through. We climbed in and looked around with an iPhone light. It was super cool. There was even a bat inside!  We did finally end up at a hotel!  

Before our presentation

Me and some weird statues

Efterskole

The Efterskole is something that is unique to Denmark. It is a one year program where students that are 15, 16, or 17 leave their parents and stay at a residential school. It is strict with bedtimes and early rises. Most students don't know one another but quickly do. It is seen as a way for kids to mature and become more indepenant. Some have specialties like sports, dram, or music. Denmark is smaller in size than Oregon and has over 200 of these schools throughout the country. There are even 20 that are for kids with dyslexia. I wish the US had something like this. The kids go home pretty often, but are jam packed with activities!  Most schools are only about 100 students in size. 

Thinking about food?

Danish food has been great. Lots of meat and lots of potatoes. This sums up what I will need to do when I get back to Oregon. 

More

16. Watched a special about Ronald Reagan with a Dane and talked about global politics. 

17. Met a guy that was a Life Guard at the queens palace.  "Puffy hat and can't talk to people as they march"

18. Met a guy that was a bodyguard for the royal family. He is also the lead singer for Chookfeet and could be our neighbor John Sweet's Danish twin. 

Check him out singing http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oo9Rf22fJu0

15 things from week 1

1.  It has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined staying in people's homes and getting to know them. 

2.  I watched a Danish rock band practice and had a shot with them!  rock on Chook Feet!

3. I have been to three castles and several churches. 

4.  Ate pickled herring!

5.  Drank alcohol at least once for 7 straight days.

6.  Saw the Crown Jewels of Denmark. 

7.  Went on a bike ride and ended up at a castle and then got ice cream at the coast. 

8. Saw a Viking fortress from 1000 years ago. 

9. Walked 3 miles inside a bridge.

10.  Took an elevator up 70 stories. 

11. Looked over the edge of a bridge that is taller than the Golden Gate Bridge. 

12. Had Schnapps for breakfast because it keeps you healthy. 

13. Went into a pub barn. 

14. Went into a dairy with robots that milk the cows 24/7

15. Biked 14 miles through the rain in the Danish countryside. 

Here's a picture of one of my hosts. Here's Pernille and I with the same book, except the language is different. 

Here's a picture of the bridge mentioned above. It's called the Great Belt Bridge and connects Zealand and Funen (2 of Denmarks islands)

Bike ride

My host family took me on a bike ride to an old farming castle and then to the coast for ice cream. This was the original castle of the farmer that owned all of the land in the area. It is still in use. There is a picture of Katherine, their daughter also. 

Funny stuff!

I went to a Gymnasium today, which is a little like a high school. The Councilors had never really thought about these two doors until I stopped for pictures!

Then I went to the kindergarten where my host mother works. Check out their student. 

Farming

I am staying with Jorgen, Pernille, and their daughter Catherine. They have 1000 hogs and 300 acres where they raise wheat and mostly spinach seed. 

Nyhavn

This is a picture of Nyhavn street. It's one of the more famous places in Copenhagen dating back to the 1700s. We caught a canal tour there and went to see the Little Mermaid. Very fun.  I had a waterside view in the boat but gave it up to a team member who take really good pictures. I have learned that all I do is hold up a camera and click, and if can do that from any seat!  Susan knows that about my scenic pictures!

It goes down smooth....

Well, I ate the fish. I usually don't post pictures of food, but I have to this time. The cup in the middle of my plate is pickled herring. It tastes just like you think it does, but I can keep my reputation of trying anything. You eat it on top of buttered bread. The small cup is aquavit, which is schnapps. It goes down hard!  This was for lunch to!  I had the fish platter and ate just about everything. We'll see what I have for dinner it smells like pork!

Church

Grundtvigs Kirke, or church. One of the largest Protestant church's in Denmark. Ole says he is a member, but is not sure it's not all bullshit. 

Six million bricks make up the entire church and none of them look out of place. 

For the first time in forever.......!

Today started our first day off with our host. My host, Ole Anderson picked me and we took off!  I dropped my bags at his house and we sped off to Kronborg Castle which is north of Copenhagen.  If you are in Susan's family, I would describe Ole as a Danish Bob Mork. He retired from the Air Force, tells lots of jokes, and has a fun time wherever he goes. We went to Kronborg, which is the castle that is the setting for Hamlet. 

It was great. Two pictures are below. One is from the ballroom which really reminded me of the Frozen movie. The other is of Holgier Danske, or Holgier the Dane. He is a sleeping giant in the basement of Kronborg. The legend is that if Denmark is ever in real trouble, Holgier will wake up and defend the country. 

The best quote of the day was from a tour guide. A girl pointed across the water to Sweden and asked is that Sweden?  He looked at her and said "no, it's Denmark, they just don't realize it."  There was also a Swedish flag hanging outside the dungeon. A little history between the two countries!

Koge

Stayed in Koge last night. Leave with my first host family tonight. Koge is small but had a pretty harbor and center square. We walked up on a town festival and a banana eating contes. Pics below. 

Biking!

You know a country loves biking when they have bike pumps next to the luggage carousel!

Frankfurt

Had a really good flight to Frankfurt. We were in an Airbus which is the largest airplane that a carries passengers today. At full capacity it carries over 500 people!  Watched Captain America Winter Soldier and Million Dollar Arm. Pretty frantic to get through the airport to our connection to Copenhagen. Now we are on a half full flight to Copenhagen waiting to take off. 

Took this picture for Noah while speeding through the airport. 

Leaving on a jet plane!

Our team when we were about to leave Euegene Airport.  We are at San Fran now waiting to board a giant plane to Frankfurt. 

Welcome from our family!

We made a short video to introduce myself and our family to the people that I will be staying with. Here it is:

Getting ready to leave!

Hello Family and Friends! I am excited to be getting close to our trip! I will be gone for just over a month, while Susan and the boys will be gone for 10 days. Here is a link to my itinerary if you want to see what I will be doing, or if there is any type of emergency and you need to contact me immediately. Itinerary I am going to try to post pictures and text everyday. I don't think I will be available by phone, but should have pretty good internet access from what I have been told. Stay tuned!

I am traveling with 4 other people. Two people from Klamath Falls that teach at OIT, one from Redmond with a small business, and one from Eugene that works with nonprofits.