Weeks 14 &15(3Mo 2W): Slowing Down

3 Months and 1-2 weeks(Nov 9-22)

     These past 2 weeks have been pretty good, life slowed way down for me, I pretty much just had school, I decided to take a little bit of a break from most things, including sports. This is partly because its gotten a lot colder in the past 2 weeks. It has started to turn into winter here, sub-freezing temperatures, a lot of wind and also rain. On the night of Saturday the 21 we even actually got snow. Another thing about winter here, it is really really dark. I get about 7 hours of daylight a day. It finally gets light in the morning at about 8 -8:30, and then the sun sets at about 3:30, which really kinda sucks because its dark before I get home at night. However, the weather here reminds me very much of my home in Southern Oregon, mostly because it's so bipolar, you may be able to tell that by some of my pictures below. some have sun, some have very grey skies, and some even have snow.

First Week:

   This week started out fairly well, it was warm until about halfway through the week when it started raining a lot too, after Tuesday this week I started taking the bus into school instead of riding my bike, it really sucks to ride a bike against the wind. School was pretty normal this week, and I went to track on Thursday. On Friday my host Mom had some of her friends over. one of them had a couple of daughters who were throwing a party the next night, so I pretty much out of the blue was going to a party on Saturday night. Before I went to the party that day I remembered that there was a warehouse sale that was ending on Saturday and it was pretty much all winter clothing. I spent about $50 and got a thick wool coat, a puffy down waterproof jacket, and a black blazer. I think it was a pretty good deal. Then, the rest of the day I hung out with my friend Mads who I know from Gymnasium(school). We hung out at my house until he had to leave, and I had to get ready for the party. The party was a lot of fun, I didn't know anyone there, and made a lot of friends. :) I stayed out until 2am, it was a lot of fun. One of the funny things about Danes is that there is no middle ground when it comes to alcohol, they either don't drink at all, or they go all out and get completely hammered, they are incapable of having "just a few drinks." It's really entertaining to watch.

Second Week:

     This week was another AT week. What this means is that the school takes an entire week to research a topic, and write a short synopsis on it, I still have no clue what I am actually supposed to do during this week, 90% of the time I am just sitting there doing absolutely nothing. I don't understand why this is even a thing, it's a complete waste of time, and everyone I ask about this completely agrees. It was a really good thing that I got to skip three days of the week for a debating tournament. On Wednesday I got to leave class at lunch and go to a debating showcase in my school by some Irish girls, they were really really good. I got to talk to them after their debate, it was nice to talk to native speakers again. On Thursday my team and I had 2 debates against different teams, one team we completely killed, and the other was a pretty good debate, we lost the close debate. This was mostly because we had to many points over the course of our debate. This past weekend i didn't do almost anything, which ....I don't know was good, but also bad at the same time.

I'm sorry I haven't updated this in a while, the main reason I didn't was because I wasn't doing anything, which was a little bit of a bad thing. When I have nothing to do, or choose to do nothing.. I think of home, so as a result, over the course of the past 2 weeks I have been a little depressed and missing home, missing my friends, missing my friends, missing having mountains around me, and I even miss North Medford High School, I miss my band, I miss my teachers back home. I miss everything, and I am very thankful for all of the people I have encountered, and events that have unfolded over the years. But perhaps the person I miss spending time with the most is my girlfriend, Kate. I'm really sad that I wont be able to be home for Christmas, and see my fiends, but I am also a little excited to see how Christmas is celebrated here. I miss you guys, thank you for all of you who have kept in touch :) I really enjoy talking with you :)

As always here are all the pictures, sorry that here aren't as many.

  My friend Mads and I messing around                                                                                                                                                   

New Blazer :D

New Coat :)

Week 12 & 13: Cheers to 3 Months :)

Week 12 & 13: Oct 26-Nov 8

     Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks,  I've had a pretty busy couple weeks, so I am just now getting around to it. 

     Week 12: This week was very different from any other week I have had so far, Monday was crazy as usual, then Tuesday, after lunch we went to the Næstved Kommune offices, and went up to the main conference room and got to hear a presentation from the mayor. That was fun. During this week I also finally figured out the online homework portion of the scheduling website that my school uses, and was finally able to figure out what homework my teachers had been talking about. Most of my teachers told me not to worry about it, however, my chemistry teacher wanted me to do as many of the online projects as I could, there were probably 7 projects that took each about 2-3 hours. I have been pretty much doing those over the past 2 weeks, that's partly why I haven't been able to write on my blog. Then, on Thursday and Friday I got to leave school very early both days, right after lunch on Thursday, and on Friday I was able to leave at about 10. This was because the Danish government decided to cut the budget to the schools of Denmark by 2%. This may not seem like much, but here that makes a big difference because all education is paid for by the state, even college. So, over the next 3 years this would cut the funding by about the equivalent of 5 million USD. Because of this decision the students decided to boycott classes on Thursday and Friday, and the teachers were on-board too, so none of us got counted absent either. It was really crazy to be in the middle of. One thing that was really funny about Thursday was that some of the students literally took tables and set up a Soccer arena in the middle of the main atrium of the school, there are some pictures below.

     The weekend was really relaxing compared to the week, it was nice to just stop for a little while on Friday after I got home at about 10, and for the rest of the day I pretty much just messed around and did nothing of real importance. On Saturday and Sunday however I got a lot of work done. By the end of the week I had gotten through 4 of the 7. 

      Week 13:This week was much less crazy, Monday was usual, Tuesday was a good day, I got to go up to Copenhagen for free pizza, soda, popcorn, candy, and a free showing of the new James Bond Movie, Spectre :D. I had so so much fun, the movie was awesome, and the food was great. :) On Wednesday I went for a very nice long run, about 10 km.  Thursday was pretty slow this week, I was a little homesick, Thursday was the 5th of November 2015, exactly a year and a half from when Kate and I had started dating, so I really didn't feel like doing much of anything that day, and I almost didn't go out with my friends the next day, but I decided I was going to make my self go out and have fun, so on Friday I was able to witness probably one of the weirder holidays in Denmark. "J-Day" is literally a holiday centered around the release of the Christmas Beer made by Carlsberg. I went out with some of my friends from track. First we went Bowling, we were pretty much playing Danes Vs. the American. It was a lot of fun :)  The American did win one of the 3 games. ;P  Sunday was November 8th, exactly 3 Months from when I left the US. I cant even really believe its already been 3 months, it has flown by so so fast.

As always here are all of the pictures from these past 2 weeks. Again sorry for taking so long. 

Tuesday Oct27 :Ekskursion(field trip) and a beautiful view from my room :)

Thursday Oct29: Student Blockade, and the bike ride to follow

Friday Oct 30: 2nd day of blockade

Tuesday Nov 3: Spectre!! :D

Wednesday Nov 4: Run

Friday Nov 6: J-Day :)

This happened at 2100 when the Christmas beer

 was officially released.

I miss you all so much. Thanks so much for reading.