My Wonderful Families

I have now realized, that I do not only have one family. Actually I have several.

Last weekend I spent four days with my biggest family. Rotary gave all us exchange students a wonderful long weekend in Disney. There is only one thing I can say when I have to describe that weekend: Wauw! Approximately a hundred exchange students from all over the world joining together in Disney for four days – that could only be amazing. And yes, it was. I feel I am almost friends with everyone. We share so much: We all have the desire to experience the world and build bridges between different cultures. We all know what it feels like to say goodbye to everyone you love, knowing that you are not going to see them again for a year. We can all share stories about the differences between our own cultures and the American. I feel all these things brings us very close together even though we have only known each other for four months. I must admit though, that those I hang out with are from either district 6970 or Europe.  It is unfortunately impossible to get to know everyone, so of course groups start to form.
This weekend was packed with experiences. It may be true what most American teenagers say about Disney: It is mostly made for kids. But! There are some really good rides too. Rock n Rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios  was my all time favorite. It was great fun to drive through the darkness while listening to Aerosmith! My group actually only tried two rides the first day: Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror, which was great fun.
It was amazing to see everyone again. It was only the inbounds in 6970 I had seen since the Orientation Weekend in the very beginning of my stay here. We spent a lot of time just hugging each other while a big parade passed us. We all had so many stories and experiences to share.
We started our day in Magic Kingdom very early the next day. I think I was one of the only ones who enjoyed getting up early to learn about physics in an amusement park. I thought it was so awesome! We got the chance to ride Space Mountain (which is very different here compared to the one in Paris) with the lights turned on in order to guess how much Potential Energy we started with in the beginning of the ride. How cool is that? Space Mountain is from 1975, so it was actually quite scary to see all the old mechanics in the ride.
The World Showcase in Epcot was so much fun for us exchange students. I was really excited to hear, that they had Norway. I got the chance to speak Norwegian with the staff and ride the ride “Maelstrom Adventure Cruise”, which featured Vikings, oil (ofc), trolls, and Sørlandet. They even had Norwegian candy!
Now I’m just looking forward to go to Sea Camp in the end of January and Hawaii! It is amazing to have one big family consisting of students from all over the world.
“We Put the World in Disney World”.

I didn’t only go to Disney with one of my families once, but actually twice. The chorus from St. Augustine High was so fortunate to be chosen for the 19^th time in a row to perform at Disney Candlelight in Epcot. I had barely unpacked my bag from my previous Disney trip before I started to pack it again to go singing at Candlelight with my chorus family. It was an amazing feeling to walk on stage with 200 others to perform 15 Christmas songs with professional singers and the Disney Orchestra. It had taken a lot of effort to come that far. Unlike most of the others I hadn’t heard most of the songs before, so I had to start from the very beginning with learning all the lyrics. It was all worth it, though. I didn’t only get the chance to perform at Disney. We also got paid with extra tickets, so the following day we went to Magic Kingdom just to have fun. I walked around with several different groups, which was a lot of fun. Most of my friends here in Florida are a part of SJCCA Chorus so it was wonderful to spend a whole day just walking around in Disney with them and having fun. I’m going to miss Disney!

I am at the moment sitting in Williamsburg in Virginia with my fantastic family. This is actually the second time I’ve been in Virginia. I got the chance to experience my first Thanksgiving here with my family. I must admit, that before I arrived in Florida all my knowledge about Thanksgiving was from the tv-show Friends. I was very disappointed when I realized that no one was going to put a turkey on their head. I soon accepted that fact though, when I realized how much good food I was going to eat. Thanksgiving is really cool!
I had never heard of Black Friday before I came here, and I must admit that I was a little scared when I was standing in the middle of it. People are crazy when there are huge sales that start at midnight! I have never seen lines that big. (Bilka when it’s worst is nothing compared to Black Friday.) By the entrance to Target we were handed maps of the store, so we could find the biggest sales. After the very exhausting shopping we went to IHOP at 3 am in the morning to get pancakes. Life is soo tough!
I have been so unfortunate to be sick the whole month of December. I have been coughing, coughing, and coughing… My family here has been taking very good care of me though. They have driven me to the minute clinic, made hot tea with honey in the middle of the night and given me a bunch of different medicine and vitamin C. My family here is fantastic. I have lived with the Paxton’s for more than 4 months and I feel totally as a part of my family. It’s not my “host family”, “host sister”, “host dad”, or “host mom”, but family, sister, dad, and mom. I even have a Christmas sock with my initial on hanging beside theirs. I cannot wait to spend my first American Christmas with my family here. It is going to amazing to experience a real American Christmas.

I do not want to leave my family out in Denmark. One thing I have not really talked about on my blog yet is being homesick. Before I came here, I have been told by several former exchange students that Christmas is the hardest time to be abroad. So many traditions that you are used to from home are not traditions in your host country. Even though I have been away from home for more than four months by now I must say that I have not been homesick yet. I have missed my home, my family, and my friends, but I would not call that being homesick. I have yet to experience the feeling of missing home so much, that I want to board a plan right away and leave. I do not miss home. Instead I smile when I think of my family, my friends, and Denmark. I have turned the “missing part” around and made it into something nice to think about. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that I not only have my wonderful family and friends here, but also everything that I had before I left the country. My family in Denmark has been fantastic and sent me Danish candy and nice messages. Today I skyped with one of my best friends for more than one and a half hour, simply because we had so much to tell each other. No, I am not home sick. I feel so fortunate to know that I still have everyone at home plus everyone in Florida.

I would like to wish everyone, all my families, a very wonderful Christmas  and a happy New Year.

I hope 2012 will be just as fantastic as 2011 has been.

Glædelig jul og godt nytår!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Life is Full of Experiences

These past months have been the most eventful of my life so far. When I look back on everything I’ve experienced I can’t help thinking – has it really been only 3 months? When I think back on when I full of anticipation stood in Copenhagen Airport it seems like ages ago.

A thing I haven’t talked about yet on my blog is religion. I go to church twice a week. Yes, friends in Denmark, twice a week and I enjoy it. My church here is nothing like church at home. We are a big youth group that worship together each Wednesday. The first 7 months our theme was, literally, “GoodSex”. Yes, church is very different here. The lyrics for the songs (all of them written after year 2000) are shown by a projector, while accompanied by a guitar. At the service on Sunday there are even drums and piano. I go to a non-denominational church.

I have spent two wonderful weekends with my exchange student friends. The fall weekend in St. Augustine was so much fun. It is really interesting suddenly to see your own city from a tourist’s perspective – that was exactly what I got the chance to do. We went on one of the many trolley tours, visited the alligator farm among all the other tourist stuff. I love spending time with all the exchange students. We in district 6970 have really gotten to know each other very well.
Last weekend a bunch of us helped out with the interviews of the maybe future Rotary exchange students. 36 applicants got interviewed during the 3 days. The interview process is much more challenging here than what I went through in order to become an exchange student in Denmark. I only had a 20 minute interview besides the home interview (which was more just information about the program and not an interview). Here the applicants went through 6 different rooms, each 15 minutes, and were tested on different areas. Our, the inbound’s, job was to either inform the parents, make the exchange students feel comfortable, or actually evaluate the students in one of the interview rooms. It was very exciting for me to be a part of the whole process, and get to meet the students of some soon will become exchange students. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that my two good friends, Orion and Aly, will be selected as two of the 25, who get the spots.

It is amazing how huge Halloween is here. Almost all the houses are decorated with “scary” things like pumpkins and spider web. Sam and I “found” some kids in the neighborhood and took them trick and treating – of course not so we had an excuse to go trick and treating. Even though we have Fastelavn in Denmark, 

Halloween here is somewhat different. The whole street was full of kids high on sugar going from door to door and parents were sitting outside the houses to give candy out. During the Halloween weekend I also got the opportunity to go to Warehouse 31. It’s a haunted house, which was really fun to experience. I was scared, but not too scared, haha. :p Great fun.

I continue to become more and more grateful, that I chose to be a part of the chorus program. We had our first performance a while ago. It went really well. I performed the Star Spangled Banner with all chorus students and 3 other songs with my class, Women’s chorus. It was amazing to be part of something sounding so beautiful. We have now started to rehearse our songs for Disney. I’m actually right now typing with my iPod plugged in, so I can memorize all the songs before Disney. There are quite a few! It is going to be such an amazing experience and I want to be prepared, so I can enjoy it and not worry about remembering everything, haha. Most of my friends are a part of the chorus family here at SJCCA (St. Johns County Center for the Arts), which is why Disney is going to be so amazing. The environment in SJCCA is fantastic. Last weekend I went to “The Drowsy Chaperone”, the fall musical that the musical theatre class performed. Some of my friends from chorus was a part of  it, so it was so much fun to watch it. I’ve got some very talentful friends!

Even though I’ve only been an exchange student for 3 months, I really feel that it has had a huge impact on me already. I wouldn’t say I was shy or anything, when I came here, but I am much more outgoing now. I guess you have to be outgoing when you go to a foreign country without knowing anyone. I feel I’m much more open minded. I talk with everyone and see different parts of the society. Last week I helped out with a project at church in downtown St. Augustine, where we fed almost 100 homeless.

Plans have gotten changed, when it comes to host families. I will be staying with the Paxton’s until January/February, so I will get the chance to experience Christmas in Virginia, which I’m really looking forward to. After that I will be moving in with the Mortons, who I already feel I know quite well. We will be going to the Virgin British Islands together!

Life is full of experiences – you just have to grab them. 

Am I an American?

When do you know you are starting to become an American? Am I there yet? I have asked myself these questions quite a lot since I got here almost 2 months ago. The truth is … that I don’t know. But signs are starting to show me, that I’m on my way to become one:

There are more things to learn, than what I would have expected. The language was no problem, not even in the beginning, but there are so many terms, that I as a foreigner didn’t know. When I got here I would have been completely lost if someone said some of these sentences to me: “Do you want to go to Walmart or Publix?”, “Hey! Do you like Chick-fil-A?”, “Y’all”, “Will you be taking the FCAT while you are here?”, “Are you a Gators fan?”  and I could go on. Now I, of course, don’t even think about it when I use them.  English has become my first language in some way now. When I speak or write Danish it seems wrong, like as if the words didn’t come out right. It is a relief to start speaking English again. I have even started to calculate math in English inside my head now. Google Translate is not only being used on English àDanish because I don’t understand the English word, but also because I’ve forgotten it in Danish.

When I hear the word football it’s not the sport with the round ball, but the American style. I have now experienced my first college football game. My family and I went to Tennessee to visit UT (University of Tennessee). We spend an absolutely fabulous weekend up in the cold. I, if possible, had more trouble dealing with the cold weather, than the Floridians had. The temperature was around the 50s (10 degrees celcius). It doesn’t sound bad, but 4 rows from the top of the 8^th largest stadium in the world, that is really cold. Especially when it’s windy. It was fall break for the University so only around 80,000 were on the stands waiting for the Vols to beat Buffalo. They had an amazing band, who accompanied by a (awesome!) high school band put on a fantastic show in the half time.

“Are you excited about homecoming?” Before I wouldn’t have been able to answer more clever than, “What??”, now I know exactly what is being talked about. Homecoming is a big deal here in United States. The party Saturday night is like a prom, but less formal and for the whole school. In the days leading up to the weekend, you dress out. Each day as something different. The biggest football game of the year is the Friday before weekend starts. I yet have to experience the week before homecoming, but I have got the amazing opportunity to go to 3 homecomings in total. One last weekend at Palm Coast, one next week at Pedro, and then there’s the St. Augustine High School Homecoming. Last week was a fantastic experience. Max, an exchange student from Germany, had invited me to his homecoming in Palm Coast. Sam and I spend much time in different shoe- and dress stores to find the perfect outfit, while Aly was in charge of the make-up and hair. Max and I didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived on campus. We had been worried that we were dressed to formally, but it turned out be just perfect. All girls in nice dresses and most boys with tie. I had been warned before we went: People dance differently here, but I hadn’t taken it too seriously: “It can’t be that different”. Well, it was! Let’s just say, that you’re not facing your dance partner here. :p Max and I had such a great time, even though we didn’t know most of the songs and didn’t know how to dance, haha! Stupid foreigners. :p

Again, what characterizes an American? He/she obviously has American friends. I’m getting there. I’m so thankful that I didn’t have a language barrier when I came here – my English has made it so much easier for me to become good friends with some fantastic people here. I don’t know why, but it continues to surprise me how we are “exactly the same” as Daphne said in her presentation. I don’t know what I had expected: That all Americans were fat and had the same personality? Of course not! (I hope I didn’t offend someone. :p) I just think there would be at least something, where I could say: “Typical American”. To be honest, when it comes to personality I can’t find those specific things. We have all the types in my school, as there would be in any other school in Denmark. I know I’ve been so fortunate to meet so many nice people here. It has of course taken some effort and courage. I don’t think that I had ever texted or said: “So do you have any plans tomorrow” to someone I had only spoken to a couple of times before in Denmark. I had become immune though. It felt like no big deal just to ask to do things with people I barely knew. That has helped me to get to the point, where I actually know the people I’m asking really well.
I guess I’m not a fully American on this specific topic. I have friends in Denmark that I of course miss, but missing has not (yet hopefully) become a problem in my world, which I really appreciate. I also have much more than “just” American friends. The bond between us exchange student has shown to be much stronger than I had first anticipated. We do quite many things together and talk much. Not only because we’re in the same situation and have many things to talk about, but simply because they are all amazing people. All of us from 6970 are going to have a “Fall Weekend” in St Augustine in two weeks, which I am really looking forward to!

Things that before seemed different to me has now become daily life. Palm trees, alligators, thunderstorms? Ha! That’s not even new and exciting anymore. Okay, admitted. I am exaggerating  a bit. The thing about alligators is not completely true: I was so excited when I got a very dark, blurry picture of an alligator from very far away last weekend! Haha! But the other things are true. Palm trees are everywhere. I thought it was weird that there was no dress code for homecoming, because I’ve gotten so used to dress code. 70 degrees is suddenly cold (I am not(!) looking forward to when it gets cooler).

Conclusion? Hmm, I don’t think I can call myself American yet. But I’ve gained weight, so I’m getting there. :p Talk to y’all soon! 

More than 1 month!

Time has went by so quickly. Last time I updated my blog I had been here for less than two weeks - now I’ve been here for more than a month. When I found out, that I had been here for more than a month I couldn’t believe it. I’m only going to be here for 11 months and I just want to make the most out of it. When I’m thinking of all the amazing experiences I’ve had so far, I can’t imagine how fantastic this whole year is going to be. Dee, my fantastic nice counselor from Rotary, has told me, that the fifth week is the most difficult for her when she travels. So when I caught a cold and got the nicest package from my mom some days ago I automatically thought: Oh no! This is my fifth week and maybe the homesickness will be horrible. Well, so far I can’t feel anything, haha!

Of course I miss all my friends and my family back home, but I can’t imagine how much I’m going to miss my “new” family. They are not my “hostfamily” anymore, but my family. And Florida is my home. For almost two weeks ago I met my whole family in North Carolina. We had the best long weekend together. Maw maw and paw paw (grandma and grandpa) have a beautiful house by Lake Gaston. We drove there Friday in a huge car. We had to fit all 5 of us + Jake (our dog) into the car, which actually went pretty well even though Jake was quite excited about going to the lake. He really enjoys being on the boat and the jet skis. I loved it too! I had my first jet ski ride with Sam and tubed several times. It was really difficult to hold on to the tube and unfortunately I fell off quite a few times as you can see from the pictures on facebook. Sam (of course) put them all on facebook. :p

The most  different thing about being here is definitely the school:

• ·         You call all the teachers by last name.
• ·         More people sleep in class
• ·         Many guys have long(!) hair. Like longer than to the shoulders.
• ·         The tables and chairs are one piece of furniture.
• ·         Mathematics and physics are more difficult here.
• ·         You do the pledge of Allegiance every morning. And I know it by heart! J
• ·         There are American flags in all classrooms

I really enjoy school now. It’s not scary to walk from B-hall to G-hall anymore and it seems completely natural to have the same schedule each day. I’m walking around with my candybox at all times. I’m enrolled in the chorus program and we have a fairshare ($200) and a Colorado trip to pay, which means that we have a lot of fundraising stuff going on, where one of them is selling candy. $1 per piece and then 50 cents goes into our account. It’s nice with some extra money and it gives me a good opportunity to talk to people who wants to buy candy from me. It probably sounds weird, but we are many people in the halls walking around with our small candyboxes. I’m so happy that I chose to be in chorus. First of; I’m (hopefully) going to perform at Disney with 180 others and I’m going to Colorado. So many nice people are in chorus, so it’s a great way to meet people.

Something I really like about the High Schools here is the team spirit. Danes would be a amazed to see all the yellow jacket tee shirts and hoodies. There’s a football game every Friday which I just love. To be honest: I don’t watch the game that much, but so many friends are gathered together, so it’s soo much fun and a great opportunity to speak to people you don’t have the time to speak to during school. You don’t have much time to talk when you’re walking from G-hall to B-hall in 5 minutes. The atmosphere during the football games is fantastic. There are cheerleaders, the band, the dance team and so many dressed (or painted :p) in burgundy and gold. SAHS has a pretty good team, so we haven’t lost any games so far. J I love SAHS. People here love exchange students! :p On next Wednesday I’m going to talk about being an exchange student in front of all the foreign language classes. I did the same thing at Pedro yesterday. It’s really nice to be able to tell others about what an amazing program Rotary is.

Something that I’ve had a hard time getting used to is the fact that you drive everywhere. It is impossible for me to get anywhere outside my neighborhood without having someone driving me. But I’ve started enjoying it. The 20 minutes to school with Sam and Holly is always great. We listen to music which wakes me up – just like the “biking through snow in Denmark” did. People have been quite amazed when I’ve told that we bike even though it snows in Denmark.

It is very different how much people know about Denmark. Some don’t know where it is, others know more than me about Denmark (Orion, :p)… Many seem interested and want to hear more. The questions they ask are not those questions I had expected when I left Denmark. :p

• 1.      The question most people have asked me here is: How do you like Florida? And I can only say that I love it here!
• 2.      Then it’s typically followed by: Is it very different here? Well, the climate is, but besides that: No. People are the same. They all laugh when I say that the hottest it has ever been in Denmark is 88 Fahrenheit. I’m getting used to the climate. Maybe a bit too used to it. 2 days ago I asked everyone if it was cooler today. No, they all said – it’s really hot! Well, I was wearing my hoodie and still thought it was quite cold. I brought the sweater I use when I’m skiing and I’m actually using it quite a lot – believe or not. Inside it’s quite cold because of the AC, so I actually usually wear jeans to school. Then there’s of course also dress code…
• 3.      The question I’ve been asked the most except the two above. It’s often the second question people ask me. So what’s the drinking age in Denmark?
• 4.      Do you have black people in Denmark? Yes…

Fast food… Well, at that point USA is like I expected. You eat more out and there’s almost a McDonalds everywhere. I have only been eating McDonalds once though. Instead: Chick-fil-A! The one who introduces Denmark to Chick-fil-A is going to be rich. It’s soo good! :p And you can get free breakfast once a week. I have actually not gained weight yet. But I think it’s because muscles are heavier than fat. I’m too concerned though. When the tennis season starts I will be playing tennis every single day! J I can’t wait!

How are y’all doing in Denmark? :p

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." – United States, I love you! 

Arrival and first days in Florida

I don’t think I’ve realized it yet. Realized that I’m in Florida and that I’m going to be here for a year. But hey, I’m here!

I didn’t know what I was supposed to expect when I gave my application to Rotary. I just knew that I wanted this year full of experiences. And I’m definitely not disappointed! My days in Florida have been just great. But first I would like to talk a bit about all the travelling. We were around 35 students travelling together to Chicago. We met at 4 am in the airport, but I wasn’t tired. It was probably because of all the excitement. During the 26 hours of travel I only slept like 20 minutes. Many of the other exchange students slept, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. There was a lot of talking on our way to Chicago via Stockholm. Everyone was excited and the fact that we were all going through the same thing was great. I’ve heard that many of the other students from other countries were travelling alone, so I really appreciate that I didn’t have to travel alone. That wouldn’t have been any fun. Well, I had to travel alone from Chicago to Jacksonville, but that was okay. 

The 7 hour layover in Chicago wasn’t as bad as I could have feared. Even though we had to wait outside the security area for 2 hours it was okay. We were 3 people, Morten, Lene and me, who had to wait for quite a long time in the airport. We talked about all kinds of stuff and the time went by pretty fast. We tried to find a McDonalds in the airport, but couldn’t find any. And actually: I haven’t had McDonalds yet here in Florida. :p

During the flight to Jacksonville I could think of nothing but the fact that I was soon going to see my new family for the first time. I felt that I knew them already. I had been emailing with my sister, Sam, for a long time and skyped once with my host parents. I had planned to sleep all the way to Jacksonville, but only slept like 20 minutes. Even though it was dark outside and only the lights from the cities we passed were visible I spend most of the time watching United States from the window.

I didn’t know that there would be so many people waiting for me at the airport. When I got to the baggage claim area around 12 people were standing with large posters and waiting for me (picture on facebook). It was great to see them all; my first 2 host families and the people from Rotary. They were all so nice, so everything was quite overwhelming. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, so I smiled. :p When I think of my first hours here in Jacksonville it feels like I’m thinking of a dream. Everything seemed so unreal when I just arrived. The heat outside the air conditioned airport was fantastic – and yeah, I still like the warm weather here. My first host family; David, Jennifer, Sam and Lexi + Aly drove me all the way to St. Augustine. It was fantastic to be able to talk with them in real life for the first time – even though the drive to St. Augustine didn’t take that long. When we arrived I went straight to bed. It’s not every day I stay awake for 26 hours (minus the 20 minutes of sleep in the plane).

I’m not going to go in detail with all the stuff that have happened since my arrival. I’ll just tell about some of the great experiences I’ve had so far.

The beach… I can’t believe that I live in a city with such an amazing beach. Wow! And then the weather is great too. I’ve been there twice. The first time we got there in a jeep. Yep, my family has a jeep. It was so cool! The water wasn’t cold at all. Usually I have to force myself into the water even though I’m in Italy for example. But here it was so warm that I could just walk right into it. I went to the beach with my family and we stayed there for a while. On our way back from the beach we ate at sonics. Real drive in restaurant where the waiters are having rollerblades on. Cool!
The second time I went to the beach was only with Sam. And we went surfing! It was pretty hard, but with great help from Orion (third host brother) and Laurie (third host mom) I finally stood up twice. It was great fun even though I got a few scratches here and there. Julien (another exchange student with rotary from Switzerland) also went surfing and to my disappointment he really got the hang of it. Just kidding! :p He was quite good at it. J

I’ve got to know a bunch of great people here. Some of them I’ve met through Sam, while I’ve met the others in school or at parties. Before school there were 3 parties for us exchange students so we could get to know everyone. It was great fun and everyone are so nice here. I’m starting to feel that I have a small network of people here, which is great. In the beginning everything was new – including all those people I met, which was quite scary. :p

I’ve just been at the Orientation Weekend with all the exchange students from Rotary here in Florida. Such a great experience! We were more than 70 exchange students from all over the world together for the whole weekend. My blazer is full of pins now! :p
We made all kinds of stuff together including playing American sports, making skits/rap songs and performing them, getting information about being an exchange student and America and just relaxing and getting to know people. When I arrived to the camp I knew some people: Those I had talked with through facebook, the exchange students in St. Augustine and the Danes I had been travelling with. When I arrived I knew a lot more! Mostly people from Northern Europe for some reason. I guess it was easier to talk because we were from similar countries. We had a lot of fun together! I’m looking forward to see everyone when we are going to Disney World!

I’ve now been in school for 2 days and so far I like it. It is different. :p You have the same schedule each day. Mine is:

1.      Chorus

2.      Pre-Aice Physics

3.      Spanish 1

4.      English 3

5.      Law Studies

6.      American History

7.      Algebra 2

So I have those 7 lessons every single day. School starts at 9:15 am (which is great, ‘cause Sam and I have to drive for 20 minutes to get there) and ends at 3:45 pm. We don’t stay in the same class room. The teachers stay in the same classroom and the students move around – and you only have 5 minutes to get from one classroom to another. So if you have to pie, then you have a problem. :p So far I’ve only been late for one class. Chorus is great. We are maybe going to perform at Disney during Christmas. I hope so! Go yellow jackets!

I’ve been surprised by how few things that are different here. And because of that I would like to make a list out of those things:

1.      We drive more here in USA. Things are quite far away from each other, so you just have too.

2.      You can get a refill on all restaurants.

3.      The walls are not normally painted white. And Americans find it really strange that all our walls in the house are white.

4.      The weather obviously. I love it!

5.      You don’t use knife and fork for everything. You only put knives on the table if you need to cut something. It’s hard to get used to!

I love it here. I really do and I know that so many great experiences are awaiting me in the future: North Carolina, Tennessee, Disney, West Coast (including Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Grand Canyon and LA), Hurricane Irene (haha :p), Football game with the Yellow Jackets, and so much more!

I will be online on facebook and skype on Friday around 4:30 pm Florida time (22:30 danish time). J Look on facebook if you want to see pictures.