For anybody who knows me...

This "first dance" is exactly what I want mine to look like!! (When I'm in Vegas, getting married by Elvis so I don't actually have to plan a wedding of my own!)


http://youtube.com/watch?v=XKCO8aIxG2Q&feature=related


Go watch, it will make you laugh. =)

For all those people who will be equally amused by this

....besides my mother of course. =)


http://www.glumbert.com/media/weddingfirstdance

Sunrise pics from yesterday

Isn't it beautiful? =) Good day, I'm off to bed now (9pm!!) hoping that I feel better tomorrow.

Has anyone seen my immune system??

I think I forgot to pack it! =P


Feeling a little bit better but managed to sleep through my alarm clock and wake up 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave! Luckily, the kids have specials for the first 1.5-2 hours so I'm not going to miss much by being late.

However, I just called Carolyn to tell her I'm running late and not to worry because I'll be there way before the Open House.

She just laughed and said not to worry about being late and that I should "enjoy the fact that I slept in...I deserve it!"


.....wait, what??! I'm off to school now, we'll see what her in-person reaction is....



PS- I haaaaaate that it takes me almost an hour to get to school!!

Darn snotty-nosed children.........

After about 4.5 days of being healthy I've got something new now. AAARGH!!! I'm so sick of being sick!!!!! Why are little kids always passing their germs off on me? GRRR.

My day in a nutshell:
7:30am Left the apartment & hopped on the bus

7:55 Switched over to the train

8:05 Got off the train 2 stops early so I could take pictures of the sunrise over the harbor (I'll get pics up later sometime, BEAUTIFUL).

8:25 Arrive at school with a headache

10ish Slight nausea sets in

11ish Send a student home because he threw up in the bathroom

1:20 The kids brochures are officially laminated, trimmed, folded, and ready for open house tomorrow! A full 24 hours ahead of time! =)

1:30 "Bond" with Carolyn about Grey's Anatomy

1:45-3 Assorted craziness and lessons, but I did manage to teach the kids how to do a math problem that Carolyn couldn't get them to understand. Even the German-speaking kids understood it!! Yay me.

3:15 Hung out with Faye while she finished leaving notes to the teacher she subbed for; sore throat starts

4ish Got on the train that Faye usually takes home, figuring I'll be able to find my way home eventually

4:15 Off the train at a stop that I thought I could easily switch over to the other train I needed.....I was wrong and got on my normal bus instead (5A)

5:15 Arrive home after doing a combo of bus, metro, and walking for an hour

6ish Dinner & sore throat/nausea intensify

11pm Throat is killing me, burning up (3rd time I've had a fever while I'm here and I almost NEVER get fevers!!!!), and wanting throw up.



And people ask me why I would rather teach middle schoolers!!!!


Crashing on the couch with my bucket and some tea, I absolutely CANNOT miss school tomorrow!! I'll bring my bucket if I have to! I'd kill for a popsicle right now but A) all stores are closed and B) there isn't a freezer here so I'd have to buy just one or eat an entire box right now.

Is it January yet???

10 days left!

That's right folks, I will be on a plane on my way home in 10 days! It's kind of a bittersweet thing; I think I will be ready to go home though. =) Here's the update of the last few days and such.

Last Wednesday:
Mom moved her stuff over here from the hotel in the morning, but I was reeeeally not feeling well at all so I was pretty much crashed on the couch until 1pm-ish. I finally dragged myself up and we headed off to lunch. We got to the O'Leary's at about 2pm and both had the Larry Bird club sandwiches (BLTs basically), which were really good. I also got my french fries!! YAY! They also had a ton of Boston sports memorabilia, which was really cool.


Red Sox wall



Celtics wall


Then we headed off to Tivoli across the street! We walked around there for about 4 hours and bought tons of things, so much that we couldn't go on any rides because we had too many bags. =) My mom also took a picture of a couple at a booth dressed in full Viking gear, which lead to us chatting with them for at least an hour as well as buying a bunch of stuff. I now have 3 beautiful (handmade in Sweden) glass bead necklaces! The couple, Jacob and Hanna, told us a ton of cool stuff about the Vikings and a little bit about Sweden. It was really neat!


We finally tired out around 7pm and headed home for dinner.



Thursday/Thanksgiving!
I headed off to school and mom stayed home at the apartment, where she proceeded to vacuum, do the dishes, and wash most of my laundry! (Thanks Mom!!!) =) My day was very long and frustrating, mostly due to some issues I've been having with my teacher there. On top of that I also fell down about 5 stairs at lunch and bruised my leg, shoulder, and arm up from catching myself on the banister. However, things got better from there!

Mom showed up at school around 3pm, spent a few moments chatting with Carolyn and Mairead and then we took off. I'd had an issue with my phone in the morning so we walked to the prepaid phone shop (turned out that I'd just been randomly outside of the service range) and she lovingly put up with my ranting for about 30 minutes. =) We then went on to Bettina & Jan's house around 4pm, where she got to meet the whole family except Victor. They were very sweet and Bettina made several yummy baked things. We stayed there until a little after 6pm to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and Bettina insisted that I come over for dinner sometime this week. Not sure when that'll be, but it'll be nice to have dinner with them again before I leave.

me, mom, Bettina, Amalie


We got to the Hard Rock Cafe at about 6:50ish and went into the back room with a bunch of other Americans. It was way funny to be in there and listen to everybody talking about the difficulties they've had around here and stuff. A few minutes after the food came out, our waiter Lucas came around to the tables and said that he had bad news....there was some sort of problem at Tivoli (which is right next door) and the electricity was going to be shut off in 20 minutes! But our meals were free!! We quickly ate the not-so-great food and cleared out, saving $80.

(Mom's plate, obviously. My food didn't touch on mine!!)

On our way back to the station we walked past Tivoli and noticed people were still going inside, so we asked the security guard. He told us that it was just a problem at the front gate and that we could go in for free "as his guests." That saved us about $38! At that point we figured that we didn't want to press our luck too much, so just went on the rides that were closer to the ground instead of the giant swings ride that I had wanted to go on. We went on the smaller swings and the ferris wheel and had a lot of fun. =)






Friday:
Like I already posted, that was the day mom left to go home & I was left alone here. It was a really bad afternoon/evening emotionally though. I'm actually starting to look forward to being home in a few weeks, just for the comfort of being in my own country again. It's so uncomfortable to be in a foreign country and trying to do everything by myself. Like I told my mom, it's exhausting trying to blend in and pretend to know what I'm doing!! It's also not nearly as much fun to be a tourist on my own. I'm also REALLY sick of the few tv stations that I can watch in English and nothing being open past 7-8pm at night!!!


Weekend:
I perked up some over the weekend though. I just relaxed for almost all of it and it was GREAT! I'm finally just about healthy again and rested up. =) Saturday was beautiful and I ventured out wandering for a little bit, but yesterday was very cold and rainy.

The end of my street



Today:
School was surprisingly better today. Carolyn and I chatted a bit about some things and hopefully things will also get better after the open house on Wednesday afternoon. The kids are rushing to complete their imaginary city brochures by then, which makes things veeerrrry stressful lately.

I was also somewhat efficient today and got a lot of things done, including a bulletin board that I've been trying to get together for a few days. Yay! The kids are also making a lot of progress on their brochures and I'm much more confident that they'll all be done in time. =)

It was really really cold today though. It was snowing like crazy this morning and randomly on and off all day. They don't often get snow here so the kids were really excited about it (and took foreverrrrr getting all of their snow gear on and off)!


Plans for this week:

• Hopefully getting things done on my teaching portfolio, I have tons of pictures and other "evidence" but gotta start plugging everything in!
• Getting Carolyn to sign off on my teaching hours that I've done here
• Hanging out with Mairead and Faye next weekend and being tourists and having lots of fun!!! I'm way excited for this and determined to make it happen. =)
• Cleaning/organizing the apartment because Casey & Marie come home next Monday!
• Taking tons of pics at the Open House on Wed. for my portfolio, since I did a lot of full responsibility teaching during this project because I often had my own groups that I worked with every day.
• Probably staying after school very late tomorrow to laminate all the brochures and finish getting the room ready for the Open House (which is actually during the schoolday, 2-3pm).
• ENJOYING MY LAST FULL WEEK IN THE COUNTRY!!!

hahaha

This just makes me laugh....


%1

All aloneeee

Took mom off to the airport a few hours ago after a crazy morning of cleaning and packing things up for her to take home for me. =) Then we went to a nearby bakery to buy some pastries to carry home and off to Amagerbro Station to catch the Metro (subway). I over-questioned my abilities to get on the right train, so we ended up going back and forth between a few stations until a nice woman showed us exactly which one and which way we had to be going. Oops! (And I'd been so proud of myself for getting to and from the airport to pick her up last week!)

So we got into the airport, checked her in, grabbed another nice woman to take our picture and she was off to home. =(






After leaving the airport, I went shopping and bought a cute basket to put Marie & Casey's mail in & a few presents for people. =) I also bought a few grocery things and hit the bakery on my way home to get a few pastries to last me the weekend. YAAAAY!


Although I just had to post that as of 1:35pm (mom's plane took off at 1:20pm), the sun came out for the first time in the last week!! Mom complained all week about how there wasn't any sun and it comes out just after she leaves. hehehehe. Oh well, we had a fantastic week anyways!!

Tivoli!!!!

Sick & busy

So, in addition to being so busy with everything these past few weeks I've also been fighting off some lovely germs that my kids have shared with me. I was just a little rundown from it, but it finally kicked my butt today with nasty headcold stuff.

I made it through the day barely, but I was definitely sitting on the floor beside the desks helping kids write their paragraphs for a project. It was quite funny though because my head was barely above the level of their desks and they really didn't know how to take that. =)

My mom came in to school today and met my students, teacher, etc. The kids were thrilled with the pencils (with eraser-ends!!) and some pencil-top erasers she brought for the other pencils that don't have the erasers on them (because they drive me INSANE). I wrote their initials on them with Sharpie, but I'm sure they'll still be lost before Friday. They were very cute today though and really tried very hard to do all the things we asked them to do. It was good.

Then mom & I went shopping for a little bit at Waterfront Shopping (a mall in Hellerup, near the family's house) and in downtown Hellerup, then back to her hotel to change into jeans and sneakers. YAY! We had originally planned to go to the Round Tower (google it, way cool!) and look at the sky from their observatory on top, but decided we were too tired and it's cloudy anyways so we wouldn't see much. Came back to the apartment, made dinner, washed dishes & laundry, and mom called some people and chatted with Skype....... which is pretty much the coolest program ever created! =)

She went home around 8:30pm and I've tried to catch up with some online stuff, but going to bed very very soon.

I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off from teaching to hang out with mom before she leaves, so we've got lots of stuff scheduled!!

Wednesday:

• Mom's checking out of her hotel and coming to stay at the apt. with me for the last few days she's here, saving several hundred dollars.
• She's getting here about 10am-ish, taking over my computer while I get ready (since I'm sure I won't be by then).
• Then, we're going to eat lunch at O'Leary's, the Boston-based sportsbar in the central train station. YAY BOSTON SPORTS! =)
• After lunch we're off to Tivoli: http://www.tivoli.dk/composite-4983.htm <----AWESOME!!!!
• Not sure what we're doing afterwards, probably just crashing. =)
• Christian (Marie's brother) is supposed to come by at some point to pick up his mail & Marie's extra key, but not sure exactly when. He seemed like such a nice guy on the phone tonight when I called him about the mail he got; he told me that I should definitely call him if I have any problems with the apartment or anything. Very nice of him!

Thursday:

• I'm teaching all day and not sure what mom's doing, but she's meeting me at school in the afternoon to go to Bettina & Jan's around 4pm.
• I called Bettina tonight to see when they'll be around and we decided that after-school Thursday is the only time/day that works before my mom leaves Friday @ noon-ish. She's going to bake a cake and make tea/coffee; I told her not to make a big fuss and she said it'd be easy because she's not even making us dinner or anything.
• The reason she's not making us dinner is because mom and I are going to Thanksgiving dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe @ 7pm! I'm way excited because not only am I getting a real Thanksgiving dinner (even though I'm out of the U.S.), it'll be my first time going to any HRC! WHEEEEEEE. I'm sure lots of pictures will be taken with the new camera my mom brought me to use for now, since my camera decided to die on Friday.
• Not sure what'll happen that night, maybe back into Tivoli for a little bit to get pictures of all the lights at night? I dunno.

Friday:

• Leaving from the apartment in late morning and mom flies out at about 1:20pm, I think?
• Then trying to figure out what I'm doing over the evening/weekend, maybe going to hang out with my new friend Faye. =)

Faye is a girl that I met last week at school when she was in substituting for the teacher nextdoor. She's 24 years old, from England, moved here for her boyfriend (who works with the elephants at the zoo!!), and has been in Denmark for only about 1.5-2 weeks more than I have! So we bonded about the craziness of living here, not speaking Danish, and substitute teaching. She's actually certified to teach high school science, so we have a lot in common!! She doesn't really know anybody besides her boyfriend & some casual friends from school, so hopefully we can meet up and have fun sometime before I leave; she's very nice and makes me laugh a lot.

Random:

• I don't think I've mentioned that I have been watching a lot of tv at the apartment, basically the Discovery Science channel and the Animal Planet channel. They only have about 30 channels and at least 3/4 of those are in Danish! I have managed to catch a couple of movies in English on TCM and some other channel, but my regular tv channels are generally restricted to DS, AP, CNN, VH1, and MTV. CNN and VH1 are pretty boring most of the time and MTV seems to be permanently stuck in the late 80's-early 90's (For example, a show consisting of Beavis and Butthead commenting about TLC songs). Soooo yeah, Discovery Science it is!
• I went to the Experimentarium in Hellerup on Sunday. It was an extremely awesome hands-on science museum!!! Mom and I spent several hours there and had a ton of fun. I also bought 2 plate-spinning sets! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_spinning Yes, exactly like the ones I used to use in gym class @ Mahar. I'm getting ready for my back-up plan of joining the circus! =)
• It's really annoying that they don't really have tissues in Denmark. I don't know what they use, but I haven't seen ANY around in stores or anything! Luckily, my classroom has about 40 little packs of tissues sitting on a shelf so I took a few to use until I feel better.
• I introduced mom to the famous Danish hotdogs........I think she's had like 5 in the past 4 days. =)
• My daddy got into an accident with his car today at home. He couldn't really explain it all (he has brain damage from an aneurysm) but something about him spinning around in the snow today and getting a flat tire, possibly dents too. So yeah, that's a little worrying! He doesn't usually drive in the snow at all but I guess it hadn't started when he left the house. He's okay though and supposedly some guy he knows is going to fix it for him?? I didn't quite get what he was telling us.
• My teacher is frustrating me quite a bit lately. I don't want to go into it here though. Just yeah, frustrating.

Anyways, I'm gonna head to bed now to get better. I was going to head to bed early, but figured I had to put an update up to keep everybody up-to-date (and for my memories later). Hope everything's well at home! Missing everybody...

Yes, I'm still alive!!

...and in Denmark! =)

Things have just been really really busy lately. Teaching is still exhausting (for a wide variety of reasons I don't really want to go into here) and my mom arrived here on Saturday to visit for this week!! So we've done lots of exploring and wandering around the city and stuff; it's a good time!


Just finishing up making some dinner right now, but for those people who want to know what's happened in the last 2 days or so (ADAM).... you can check out my mom's blog about being here: www.heleneindenmark.blogspot.com


(I KNOW! My mom has a blog!!!! hahaha, I'm working on catching her up to the 21st century.)

I'll try and get more stuff up soon though! It's looking like it'll be another busy busy week! I have tonssss of pictures that I'll try to put up probably tomorrow afternoon/evening. =)


I'll leave you with the highlight of my entire day, a conversation with one of my students (J.)...

[J. slides off her seat and under the table to pick up an eraser]
ME: You looked like you were melting... are you the Wicked Witch of the West??!
J: YES!! I AM!!
ME: Do you know what I'm talking about?
J: Yes, I do!! [giggles]
ME: Okay, so where is the Wicked Witch of the West from?
J: Norway!
ME: [laughing] Nooooo, you don't know what I'm talking about then.
J: YES, I DO!!
ME: Then where is she from?
J: America!
ME: [laughing even harder] No! It's from the Wizard of Oz.
J: I know!! I saw it in America first and then in Norway!

(She's from Norway.)
She cracks me up and is the sweetest little kid I've ever known. Can't I take her home with me? ;-)

Exhausted

I don't know what it is about Denmark but I've had such a problem with staying asleep while I'm here! I wake up several times a night usually which leads to me being super tired in the morning and such. BLAH.

I also woke up at about 4-4:30 this morning out of a dead sleep because I dreamt of Kyle Flood. I don't remember exactly what it was about, but he was walking down a street with some other guy that I knew (possibly Ben Hause?? not sure) and then Roselle painted them. I just sorta thought, "WOW, it seemed like he was right there walking towards me!!" and then went back to sleep.

However, when my alarm went off at 6:30 I jumped up and started freaking out that something had happened at home. I convinced myself that I'm just paranoid and managed to distract myself all day at school, but I've still been checking my email and stuff like crazy just to make sure. So anything going on out there that I should know about???


My 2nd thought after the one about something bad was that maybe it was Kyle/my brain reminding me to be patient with my boys today. They were really really wild yesterday and my teacher was stressed beyond all belief, so I especially tried to keep the 4 major instigators in line today. All 4 are extremely smart and articulate, but have some problems with self-control and following directions. They're definitely the type of kids that I get along with usually so they've kinda become "my group" in the classroom. I spend a lot of time trying to catch them BEFORE they get into trouble for misbehaving/talking/whatever. I'm fairly successful with 2 of them but not as well bonded with the other 2, so working on that!

They are absolutely exhausting though. Everyday I come home right after school and basically have a mental crash and have to relax instead of exploring the city or anything. Not so great, but I'm trying to keep from getting the sicknesses that my kids all have!!! We've had at least 4-6 kids out every day since last Tuesday! I don't want it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've gotta go pass out now, but I'll try to do a better update on things happening lately tomorrow. Goodnight!

Things are good

• Casey & Marie are awesome!
• I love their apartment....and their shower has a curtain!!!!
• I now have Skype set up, so I called my mom and grandmother last night to chat. It was nice. =)
• I spent a long time talking with Roselle (my professor) last night at a cafe & then a bar where we went to watch Casey perform.
• He sounds great in person too, Mel. And I asked him about getting cd(s) and he said he'll burn some for me before I leave!! YAY!
• I've figured out how to use the bus nearby to get places ON MY OWN!!!! Sorta kind ish.
• Casey took Roselle and me to Christiania. Go look it up, I'm too lazy to do so right now. But it was really neat and I heard some good music performed there too. And have a ton of cool pictures of different murals/graffiti from there to post at some point.
• Missing the family, but I'm hopefully going to catch up with them tomorrow with Roselle after school. Mostly to introduce Roselle to them and return the house keys that I still have........and also cuz I miss them already! =) Victor asked Bettina if Amalie could move out and I could stay there instead of moving to the apartment, way cute.

That's all for now because I've gotta be up way early in the morning to figure out how to get to school via bus and train! But I have a bunch of new pictures on Flickr from the field trip on Friday, leaving from Bettina & Jan's and adventures from today. Go look and comment! http://www.flickr.com/photos/abby6384/

Goodnight, ya'll.

PS

Got this from a Danyelle on Facebook and it made me smile so thought I'd pass it on....


St. Theresa's Prayer:
May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinitepossibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that youhave received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Good day!!

School:
The field trip went GREAT!!! Carolyn was a little....stressed, shall we say, and was running around crazy all morning. She got a little bit of a snappish tone with me a few times during the trip about things that weren't completely my fault (i.e. Mairead begging me to lock her classroom door for her while she watched my class for a few minutes at assembly and when one of my kids wandered a few feet away from my group during the trip), but I just tried to remember that she was stressed out about everything anyways (and I definitely wasn't the only one to have one of my students get away from me...we have a class full of wanderers!!!).

It rained and was windy, but the kids didn't complain as much as I thought they would. We left at about 9:20 and got back to school around 2:15, so almost 5 hours of walking around the city! I had a wonderful group of 2 boys and 2 girls. My girls were really, really good; I never had to worry about where they were for my headcounts!! My boys are known to be a bit of a handful, so I had volunteered to take them and actually had a fantastic time with them!! One of them is SO smart but has a lot of problems with self-control and following directions..... exactly one of the kids that I get along with usually. I talked with him several times about what I expected from him behavior-wise and he's basically latched on to me as his new bestest buddy. Morning was a little rough and I kept having to call his name every few minutes to stay with my group and/or stop doing something, but the afternoon he was really great. I'm so proud of him; he really tried hard!

I have tons of pics that I'll try to get up sometime this weekend maybe. Not sure exactly what's going on with everything still.

I wore my Red Sox hat all day because of the rain and it was great!! Several of the parent chaperones are from the States and I had a convo with one girl's dad about the season and USA stuff for quite a while. He was really nice and lent me his umbrella so I could take pictures without worrying about getting my camera wet. Of course, this lead to one of my group's girls asking, "Do you like [other girl]'s dad??!". lol. I was caught completely off-guard and couldn't help but laugh because my first thought was definitely, "He's at least 40+ and most likely married....I don't think so!!!!". However, I just told her that it was inappropriate to ask those kinds of questions (although he was a very nice guy and very kind to me). Still made me laugh though. =) I also got to meet another big Sox fan when I got back to the school! Apparently he's in the military (maybe??) and he stayed up all night during the Series so he could watch the games at like 3am on the military's special channel for American shows, etc. Still representin', even across the ocean! =)


The Fam:
So cute tonight, Malthe and Victor came in and asked me if I wanted to watch Spiderman 3 with them. Of course I couldn't say no, so that's what I spent most of the night doing except for a short break around 9pm when we walked to the gas station to buy some junk food. hehehe. I definitely spent $10 to buy Ben & Jerry's ice cream (strawberry cheesecake flavor)!!! Jan and I split that and he said it was the highlight of his day. YAY!

I'm really very sad that I move tomorrow (well if you want to be technical, today I guess), however I did manage to get a phone today!!! So now I have a way to reach them easily whenever I want to visit and vice versa. Jan and I (and maybe the boys??) are leaving tomorrow/today at about 10am to go to another big flea market and then to the new apartment. Still haven't updated about the new things with that but it's late and I'm sleepy now. So you'll have to wait!


Random-ish ramblings:
Overall things have been going pretty well for me lately. I've been really tired this week in a combo of staying up too late and not being able to sleep very well. However, it is now almost 1:30am and I'm still not headed to bed!! I'm still feeling kinda stuffy from the sinus infection before I left (I don't think the new antibiotics did anything to help really), but otherwise not too bad. Only other thing that's annoying me is that my jaw keeps locking up and I pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday when I slipped going down the few stairs outside the classroom. Stupid Danish rain making them all slippery!! =P

Emotionally I'm pretty good! Things have just been absolutely amazing and it's really exciting to be here!!!! I stopped this afternoon as I was walking to the phone store and just looked around and thought, "OH MY GOSH, I'm really here! After 3 years of planning I am really here in Denmark!!". YAY!

I'm just starting to feel a bit lonely though. It's not so much that I'm homesick as I'm PEOPLEsick. Having this 6 hour time difference means that many of my friends are sleeping when I'm working and then working when I'm home and home when I'm sleeping!! The reason I'm still up now is so I can talk to my mom on AIM for the first time in about a week because she's so busy running basketball. Thankfully, Susie is great and willing to go online at work sometimes instead of being productive (wink wink) when I send a message to her phone begging her to! It's just getting lonely to only be having smalltalk/superficial-type conversations with the people that I've met here so far and having to think about everything I say before it comes out of my mouth, so I don't offend anybody or come off sounding badly. They don't have my sense of humor and it's frustrating.

So yeah, I miss people, that's all.

Almost Friday!

Lonnnng day at school today. It's so frustrating to have to tell the kids a dozen times to do something before they actually listen!!!! Especially when they look at you, then continue to do whatever they want without even pausing. GRRRRRRRRR.

Tomorrow we're going on a big walking field trip to the center of Copenhagen as part of their unit on cities. Leaving at about 9:30am and won't be back until about 2:30!! I'm sure there will be lots of whining about being tired, etc. but I'm looking forward to getting to see more of the buildings and statues and stuff. It'll also introduce me to taking the train at the station closest to the school, yay! And I'll get to take lots of pictures (since Carolyn's camera is being stupid and she's not exactly technology-savvy...), so I'll try and get those up tomorrow afternoon/evening before I move Sat.


Family is still great and the boys are making me laugh all the time. Between yesterday and today, Victor has suddenly started speaking a ton in English! He is actually taking his own initiative to talk in English around me, instead of having his parents suggest it. Malthe has also picked up a lot of new words!

I watched 2 movies with the boys today: the second Pirates of the Carribean (in English, with Danish subtitles) and just watched the new Jungle Book (in Danish, with English subtitles). And then Jan started having sword fights with the big rubber swords they own, and I jumped in and definitely beat both of the boys. Lots of giggling and running around just before bedtime is good, right??? Well, I had fun at least!


Random:

• Malthe looks exactly like Mowgli, facial expressions and all. Not even kidding!
• Carolyn (teacher I work with) sounds exactly like a combination between Maria from the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, especially when she's annoyed that the kids aren't listening.
• Roselle is arriving in Denmark sometime tomorrow morning (I'm guessing she's leaving very soon, if she's not already in the air).
• I'm exhausted but haven't been able to sleep very well lately. I need a fan!!
• Peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches are faaaantastic! Yes, unhealthy but soooo good.
• Jan has helped build some amazing houses/buildings; I am very impressed.
• I really really REALLY hate loading other people's dishwashers. I don't mind unloading, I just hate trying to follow somebody else's system for loading!
• I had a really long, really good conversation with Carolyn at lunch today. She's worried that I won't meet anybody [at school/in the area] to hang out with while I'm here because she's older (like 40s, I think). So she's thinking about having me help out in a couple other classrooms, just so I can meet people. lol. I like her.

Important-ish:

1. About the pictures, I black out the faces on the kids because I don't have parental permission to be posting their faces online. Just confidentiality stuff, ya know? Also, the reason why I won't use any of my kids' names when talking about the class. Just smarter that way. =)
2. I'm not sure when I will be online next, but probably will make it on at least once more before I move. I'm assuming I'll be able to get online at Marie & Casey's apartment but I haven't actually verified that yet. I'll probably just wait until I get there because I know they're both super busy right now!

Okay, bedtime. Or at least going upstairs to get things ready for tomorrow and stuff! =)

(PS- Hi, Mikaela! It's nice to hear from you... it's been a long time since I saw you last. How is school and everything?)

Pictures!!

I found more pictures that I took when we went shopping last weekend! They kinda got misplaced on my computer, I guess.

Adam- check these out; there are several scenery/architecture pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abby6384/


ANY OTHER REQUESTS, FOLKS?? Help me take pics of things that are important! I can't even think of what I'll wish I took pictures of after I get home, so give me suggestions!!! =)

Today & answering Susie!

I really haven't learned to speak much more Danish than before I came, I actually think I have used LESS than before. I've tried to use my beginner Danish skills to talk with the boys on a few different occasions but they usually just go, "Hvad ("Vell")? What?" and have no idea what I'm talking about anyways. So, I usually just try to act or point things out or let Bettina/Jan/Amalie translate so they can understand.

However, I have gotten a little better at READING Danish than before I came. I can use context clues and stuff, as well as remembering some things Sona taught me to figure out what some words mean.


Of course that didn't help me be very successful today. I'm 1-for-3 on the things I had to get (only made it to the bank)!! I spent 5 straight hours walking around the city today and couldn't find a place that had prepaid cell phones or a way to buy a 30-day transport pass. I DID manage to find the train station by the school though (after 45 min. of looking around the area to find it), so that was a plus. I found a couple nice shops to buy some presents in before I leave and bought a cute little tote bag thing at H&M, but other than that I only bought some food things (couple apples, Mt. Dew!, a cookie, and one of the famous Danish hotdogs).

Which brings me to the highlight of the day.........Danish hotdogs are amazing. I really thought I wouldn't like it because of several things, but here's what it is anyways (in this order):
1. Bun
2. Long, thin bright red "hotdog" (more like sausage than a regular hotdog & yes, DYED bright red usually)
3. Ketchup
4. Spicy mustard
5. Sweet mustard
6. Remoulade (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/remoulade)
7. Chopped fresh onion
8. Crispy, fried onions (kinda like french-style onions)
9. Thinly sliced pickles

And of these things, I usually don't like sausages, ketchup (unless with french fries... which I'm craving!!), spicy mustard, mayonnaise (the base of remoulade), or onions of any kind!

However, I decided to try it anyways just so I could know for sure and I ended up really liking it. As long as I took a bite of everything together it tasted really good, I just didn't like it when I had one part separated from the others. But yes, super good and relatively cheap as far as food goes here: about $4.50. YAY!


So yeah, that's my day. I was pretty discouraged when I got home (and would give almost anything to walk into a store and be able to understand everyone and everything inside of it!), but I'm better now. I just need to keep in mind that I've only been here for one week!!! It feels like so much longer than that... I'm really really gonna miss the family when I move and when I eventually go home. =( They've helped me out so much and I don't know what I'll do when I don't have anybody to ask all my stupid questions about how to get things here!


OH YEAH, stupid moment of the day.......I couldn't figure out how to get into the bank this morning. I was wiggling it all around and there were people inside but I couldn't get it to open. Until a little old lady came up and showed me that I have to PUSH the door instead of PULL on it. I was soooooo embarrassed, but just had to laugh at myself with it; she did too! (In my admittedly weak defense, it had a pull-type of handle and when was the last time you walked into a store and had to PUSH the door in?! Apparently, the doors all open inwards in Denmark.) However, it gave me another reason to like 7-11...they have automatic doors! Yay for American stupidity!! ;)


And can we just kill the 80s please? Seriously, I'm so ready to have a mass burning of leggings and flourescent colors. I found ONE shirt that I actually liked today, everything else was ridiculously expensive, 80's, or black. [/end rant]

However, I am highly amused that a ton of kids things (and some adult ones) have a pirate theme! There are skull&crossbones on everything from hats to shirts to bags to shoes; I love it!!! I almost bought a cute black totebag that had a pink skull&crossbones all over it, but I figured that I'm too old to use it on a regular basis in America. Sad. But I bought a polka dotted one instead! YAY.


Okay, really going now. Miss you guys!! It's not so much the actual home thing that I miss though, it's more that I miss being able to talk to my friends and such. This 6 hour time difference really kills a lot of possible times to chat since I'm working or sleeping when they're available and vice versa. Oh wellllll, mom comes in like 10 days! =)

Hej hej!



PS- Susie, I have like 80 pictures but a lot of them are of my kids & I'd have to go black out all their faces (and it'd be boring for you guys anyways). I'll try to get more pictures once I'm actually out doing things & can carry my camera with me. And it starts getting dark here at like 4 and I'm at school til 3:30!! But more will be coming, promise! Anything in particular that you want pics of???

I do take picture requests! I just don't know what you guys want to see!

Everything went smoothly walking Malthe to school this morning since Bettina had given him the rundown on what he needed to remember to do. So, he was already awake and had eaten by the time I went to wake him up at 8am. He just had to get dressed and brush his teeth, then got to watch tv until we left at 8:30 for school. It usually takes me about 12ish minutes to get to my school, which is just a couple hundred feet up the street from his school, but he has little legs and it took us about 20. =)

He was very serious about the walking to school thing and told me every turn we have to make, etc. (I don't think he realizes that I walk the same route as he does every day!) They usually cross the street farther up than I'm used to though, so I almost missed that there was a light to cross. He immediately points at the light and says, "Abby? Red, no. Green, yes!" *** He really is a very smart kid and has gained a lot of English in just this past week I've been here.


I'm currently doing laundry and then heading out to the bank, cell phone place, and probably some general shopping. Nothing opens here until 9:30am at the earliest and most places at 10am, so I figured that I might as well do laundry since I had to wait after bringing Malthe to school.



Observations/differences:

• *** Nobody jay walks here. Ever. It's so weird to see all these people following the rules all the time!! =)

• I don't think I've mentioned this yet: commas = periods in Danish sometimes. I don't quite understand when each one is used, but I know that it's true in writing prices. So, prices look like this: 37,00 dkk. And then you add in this: 1.789,00 dkk and I get all confused!! But periods are still used at the end of sentences though. Interesting, eh?

• They have a lot of 7-11 stores here. I was very excited this morning to find Mountain Dew there!! I've only seen Coke products around Denmark, so yay for finding Pepsi! I also had a boy notice my Red Sox hat and point it out to his friend in there, which I found really amusing. I just smiled at them and hoped they knew about the Sox. =)

I ADDED NEW PICTURES FROM SCHOOL ON FLICKR, so go check them out! =)

School & stuff

So sleeeeeepy, but I'll try to update more about life (and be as concise as possible).


School:

• I really like the teacher that I'm working with. Carolyn's from England and has been teaching for over 20 years in pre-k, k, 1st, and in 3rd for 2-3 years I think. She's very nice and willing to help me in any way, as well as wanting me to jump in as much as possible. I started out my first day working with a spelling group of children who barely speak English!! EEEEEK!
• Carolyn also likes me though, since I wasn't afraid to jump in and tell kids to quiet down or stop fooling around even on my first day. (I'm totally my mother's daughter on that one!!) She's also super excited that I told her I actually enjoy organizing paperwork and stuff. I'm going to be in charge of organizing her (and the other 3rd grade teacher, Mareide's) huge notebooks of assessment paperwork. =)
• Our class, 3A, consists of 20 children..... 11 girls and 9 boys. Of these, I think only 2 kids are actually fully Danish! The rest of the students come from a wide variety of countries including several from America, as well as students from Japan, New Zealand, England, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, and more.
• Many of the students speak several other languages in addition to English. One boy was telling me that he's fluent in 3 languages and working on learning 2 others!! FIVE languages at a point that most American children can barely speak ONE! Oyyyyy.
• However, there are also 5 children who speak little-to-no English. The best English-speakers of this group: boy who moved from Latvia (speaks Latvian & Russian) sometime last year and a girl from Japan (speaks Japanese, duh) who moved in about April. Then, there is another girl who is also from Japan and came in September. And at the very bottom, speaking/understanding almost no English at all, are a set of boy-girl twins who moved here from Hungary (speak German only) about 3 weeks ago. I feel really bad that these kids never know what's going on in the classroom!! Luckily, there are several kids who can translate for the twins and one boy in the class who can translate into Japanese for the 2 girls. (The Latvian boy understands a good majority of English phrases now.)
• Aside from some language barriers, these guys are pretty similar to my 3rd graders from home. This class seems to be a little ahead of where my MA students are in their math and writing, but just as loud and energetic!!!
• I have the day off tomorrow because they're having a professional development day that's about things unimportant to me, so Carolyn said not to bother going in at all. YAY!

Family:

• They are still wonderful and I'm going to miss them all very much when I move on Saturday. =( Bettina, Jan, and I have been chatting quite a bit more lately and it's been a lot of fun.
• I bonded with Amalie last night over Grey's Anatomy episodes that I'd downloaded. I really do like her a lot, I just haven't socialized with her too much. I usually just kinda freeze up and don't know what to talk about with her. She's unlike any 16 year old girl I've ever known, but not in a bad way. She seems very mature for her age.
• Victor has finally started interacting with me more!! In English even! He's just started really want to know what we're all talking about in English and is always asking what we're saying. Tonight we went to Saskia's apartment and he asked Bettina about where I was going to be moving to, then said that he really wants to visit me at the new apartment. I also saw him looking at a calendar later, counting how many days until I leave. Way cute!
• He came in here a little while ago and asked carefully in English (after Jan coached him how) if I wanted some tea. Then, he sat next to me for a few minutes just watching me checking my emails and stuff, just wanting to hang out I guess. Although it might have been that he was hoping I'd show him pictures and videos again, like I did last night. (Nothing is better than watching camp staff members dance and try to build a human pyramid!!!) He also has been following Malthe's lead in saying hello, goodbye, and goodnight to me in English all the time. He's a really sweet kid once he starts opening up some (and isn't in a bad mood)!
• And Malthe is still adorable. I'm going to walk him to school tomorrow morning because Bettina and Jan both have to work and Amalie is staying at Saskia's for a few days. He was at a friend's house this afternoon, but Bettina told him that I was going to be bringing him to school in the morning and he just got a huge grin on his face. He's very excited to spend time with me! =) He has really been trying hard to learn English to speak with me and is always asking Bettina or Jan how to say something to me. When we got home tonight he came in and said, "Here, a present for you!" and gave me a ring made out of twisted copper wires. That and his huge smile just made me want to melt. Where can I order a kid just like him???? I think I'll miss seeing/listening to him the most! =)
• Love love loooooove this whole family and I will definitely be back visiting them a lot before I leave! And maybe I can convince them to come see Massachusetts sometime so I can show them there's more to the US than just NYC!!

Coming attractions:

• Bed ASAP! I barely slept last night because I couldn't fall asleep (and could hear Victor talking in his sleep a lot, teeheehee), it was a very long and loud day, and I've still got to be up early to get Malthe ready and walk him to school.
• Thennnn, I'm off to find out about getting a prepaid cell phone to use while I'm here....as well as do some shopping!!
• Bank to cash in travelers cheques, I'm down to about $20USD from the $150ish that I started with.
• Roselle, my professor/supervisor, is coming to visit and "observe" me teaching here from Friday-Tuesday! Short trip but I'll introduce her around to everybody and she's coming in to the school on Monday before she leaves.
• Saturday is when I move to Marie & Casey's; I'll update more on that later in the week! They're both super busy and things are a bit crazy with it all, but still good.

Okay, I've really got to go sleep now. I've had to correct about 15 typos in the last 2 min. of writing, eek!! Love and goodnight.