RIBE

So yesterday I went out with the AFS-Denmark contact from this location (not Tove).  We went to go get a bike, but we did not find one.  We drove a half hour to Ribe, the oldest city in Denmark, and there were no used bikes in any of the 3 stores we looked in.  I think this is ok though and we are going out tomorrow to look in Vejen.  While in Ribe, I ate a very nice meal at a small food place.  It was very very good.  I think it was 

Ox meat.  We ate outside and listened to her husband play jazz, which was ok, but the group was a wee bit out of tune.  It was basically the most fun I had all week.  I also visited the big church there which is in the picture... I did not take that picture by the way.  

Tonight I am eating pizza and then we are going up town Vejen to go to an all night party thing.  I don't know what it will be like, but it is a town party where everyone goes to different stalls and there is lots of beer to try.  I will have a full report tomorrow night, because tomorrow during the day I am looking for the bike. 

Please leave more comments peoples.  I love you all and I want to here from you guys!

Kyle

This just in!

Ok, I was told I am not a bad blogger : )  Well that is good.  I forgot to say that the street light changes from red to red and yellow before it turns green.  Isn't that just the coolest.  So you can rev your engine and look cool right before you get to go.  I love it!  Sorry Francine for taking directly what you used as an example.  Well, I have to get back to class.

I have noticed I am really bad at blogging. I have not even used pictures yet. So I will though some in on this publish.  I will begin learning how to make stuff work correctly as I try different stuff.  That is the new kitten, it is really crazy.

Well I need to get going.  I am currently in Danish class and will soon be going to sport class where we are playing fodbold (I think thats how it is spelled)  Soccer.  I am off for now.  I will talk to you guys later.

Kyle 

School Pictures and Other Stuff

I bought a year book type of thing. It was only 40kr. Thats really cheap, but if it has personal pics I won't be in it because I was not on the class list. I think it will just be the normal pictures though of the classes. I also have updated facebook so that I have most of the pictures on it, other then the pictures I took on my camera... that doesn't make sense. The facebook pictures are just pictures from other people and from my web cam.

I am doing well. Ok, dinner will be soon. Cya

Spansk Klassen

I am currently in spanish class. I feel like I have to write now, because I am so lost in class. We are talking about how the words go to be correct, but it is obviously all in Danish. After this class we have Danish, so I am not so excited for that either. I still do not have a grasp on how they talk. I like when we get to write and stuff like that, but I can not speak spanish nor danish... which makes me worthless to the conversations. I felt so stupid trying to talk about the weather in Ohio and saying it in Spanish. I didn't do very well, and I could not use my book as a reference as she told me to do. She said the words I was looking for and asking about were right in front of me, but I didn't know what to use because they had the translations into danish. I felt dumb.

Jeg forstår ikk'

This weekend is not like last weekend. It is not full of parties or concerts. I am still not sure what I will do but hopefully I will get out of the house tonight after dinner. I am going to try to hang out with some guys from class, and I might watch a movie or something like that. That is at least what I will suggest to the people I ask to hang out.
Classes are going well, but it is hard because I don't know what is going on. I understand only a few words, and they are not typical words used in school. I will spend some time studying my spanish and danish today after lunch. I need to study spanish because they are at a slightly higher level of spanish then I am, and I also can not use our spanish book as a reference because it is translated from spanish to danish. That is why school is hard though.
There have not been any grades yet. I am not sure if there will be grades later or if it is all graded on final exams and stuff. The students here are paid for going to school based on how well their school grades are. So it is very important for them to get good grades, compared to me, who will not get paid. I wish I got paid though, that would be a lot of fun to be able to go out to shop with the money I got from school.
Today I was planning on going shopping, as I told everyone that I was. This did not occur. I got a phone call this morning saying that we were not going to go to Kolding. I wish we were, basically because I really need to go shopping to buy some different stuff. I still need hair cream and stuff. Oh well. One of my friends Rasmus, who goes to the business school down the street from the gymnasium, I am pretty sure got my a new phone. He said my phone would not do, and I agree because I really don't know how to use it it is so old. Rasmus is a tight guy. He knows everything around town and knows the best places and parties to go to. He works at the CC discotech in Vejen though, so he is never available to hang out during nights. It is good to have a friend like him though, he can get you places in this town. He knows people and things.
So now it is lunch time. I am not sure what we are eating, but my guess is a hard boiled egg, and some sort of pasta. I don't know why this is my guess. It might just be sandwhich's. It doesn't make a difference, I am hungry and will eat anything they put down in front of me. I try to stay away from the cabage though. I don't like the taste, but we often eat big heads of ... ok, I don't know what it is called. Its like broccoli but white. ... Somebody post a comment telling me what that is.

Peace

Må vi se håndbold? Plz?

Today was a short day for some kids and a long day for others. I chose the safe road. More on this later in the blog.
Today began with an assembly of all the classes. This is where the AFS and other exchange students had to introduce themselves. It was a little nerve racking, but I have stopped being nervous, because I don't really care if I screw up or not. All I said was... Jeg hedder Kyle Shriver. Jeg kommer fra USA. Jeg år etton er gammel. It's much harder to say then to type or to listen to. I am not sure if I got it right, but yeah. That was the start of my day at 9am. Then I played vollyball in sport class.
Vollyball here is very different. The rules are get the ball over the net, and you can use your feet. It was fun, and I guess later in the year each class has a team and we play a big tournament to see who wins. I was not so bad.
Then after sport I was asked to go with the rest of the class to watch handball at a persons house. I agreed that I would go, because it seemed like a good way to spend time with some of the other classmates of mine. Then after thinking more about it I decided to go to class instead. It was english and ancient history I would have missed and in english they had asked if I would give a presentation about the US. So we went and picked up some stuff at the store and then I went to class. About 20 people were absent from class, leaving 6 of us to learn. This was just as well, and I got some good socializing in without getting in any trouble.
Now I am home, and waiting to see what the day might bring for me.
Cya.

Jeg... dunno

I have to ask... why do I not get any comments. If you have any question or whatever, I check often to see if I have received any comments on this blog. So yeah, please leave any comments you might have.
Today I will focus on the school, a normal day. The fun thing is that there is never a normal day. Like today I had a class at 9:10 and that was the beginning of the day letting out at about noon. But tomorrow I have a full 5 hours of class, which will not be much fun. I don't even know what classes I will have tomorrow. But back to school. In between classes we have 10 minutes and around 11 we have a 20 minute break for lunch and stuff. There is always music playing in the common room during breaks, so it is really fun. Today Tenacious D was playing, and I then thought... how really laid back the school system is here. If you know Tenacious D the song was =hergentally. I will code that so nobody get offended. So yeah... school is just, school. I don't understand a word of it, but I think it is about the same. But there is a lot more homework.
so, any questions?

kyle

Could be well in

So I met this guy who works at a discotech in Vejen. He dreams of going to Baltimore and playing football there, so he was very nice to me. He got me in the club plus he got me in for free, big perk, and so on and so forth. This is all a good thing because now I text him and say, "what is there to do?" and he always knows where the party is at. So today I am going to a concert with Boris which I was informed about.
Last night was huge... I can not describe the school party. It is maybe 150 kids, most the kids from school, all in the school common room. There was a live band, and a lot of dancing. It was like, a movie. Tons of crazy people everywhere with there drinks in the air dancing like they just don't care... yeah. It was a fun night, but maybe a bit too intense for a every weekend activity.
Lots of love,
KAS

Social Time

Tonight is the first school party. I have been invited to go to a get together before the party where I think we might eat and drink, but I am not sure. This is good though that I have been included into a group a little. It will be fun I am sure.
After school there was also a strange water fight. Everyone loaded up with water guns and buckets and bottles and started soaking each other. It was fun, and odd that it was so out of control. There was a lot of water in the school before we took it outside. I got pretty wet by some of the third year students and a few of the friends of Boris. Then I got powdered with flower... so it was a big mess, but not as bad as those we held down and sprayed some whipped cream all over them. I can claim that that was my idea, and we found it over by some pie eating games, so it was a lot of fun to make other people all gross. lol
I missed a class today... I didn't know that I had the class because I did not have it on my schedule this morning, but I guess sometime during the day the class was added. That is the odd thing about how this school works, I will just have to remember to go to class next time. Instead of going to class I was at Vejen signing up for my danish classes that I need to start taking. It's not a huge issue that I missed class, I just didn't know. There are no concequences here for anything so I will notify the teacher next time that I have that class that it was not on my schedule.
So I will start getting ready for the party, or something. Right now I do not know what I will do, I have been home for a while, but I have maybe 4 hours before I need to get ready. Oh well. I will do something, maybe clean my room.

Bye

Stuff

So today I had english... which is not so easy because I can not read the danish instructions of what we are suppose to do in English. I also had ancient history (bore) and spanish. Spanish was fun, and we practiced some things, but I need to study it so that I will not be so bad at remembering how to say all the numbers, days of the week, months, time and so on. It is ok because most of my AFS friends speak spanish and little english, so I can just ask them. I use skype to talk to them every now and then.
I have my mac computer now. This is good because in school everything is done on computer and so I need to take it to school, very unlike in the USA schools were computers are usually not allowed. So yeah.

Here is some fun info on bathroom edicate in this house. The wash machine is in the bathroom. No belongings can be kept in the shower area, meaning I have to take all of my soap and shampoo out of the shower each time I shower. Then you must dry the shower area to prevent lime buildup. This is new for me, but it only takes an extra 5 mins per day. Danish people don't seem to have driers though, so it takes a long time for stuff to dry after washing, which reminds me I need to hang up some cloths because I have a load in right now, and it takes 2 days for a pair of jeans to dry. I thik this might be because of the humidity, but I am not sure.

Typical danish weather. It rains every day at least once. One second you might see sun and the next everything is gray. It is also typical to be caught in the rain and look around to see places it is not raining... which always makes you feel like you were picked as the odd one out because you get wet, other people are dry. When the rain does fall though it is really big. I soaks you in less then a minute. Other then that the temp is just about perfect. I really like this weather, minus a little of the rain, I kind of want to dry out sometime on this trip.

Friends! I kind of click with a few people, but I am not sure yet. Friday is a party, and I will be going if I get to the bank today. It is 50 dkk per person, which is not much. It will probably be out of control because Danes like to party as I think I have mentioned before.

I am going now to an AFS reunion thing I think in Kolding. I set up this keyboard for english so now it is confusing because i can not look down cause symbols are all different, I might change it back to danish later but that is when I know the language.

Peace,
ki_el

Klasse dag 1

Ok, so I'm sure you are all interested in my first day of Danish school. If not, then you can just leave because I don't care about you either.
I had to sign up yesterday for my classes... well I got to choose a line. Which is a specific group of classes focusing on 1 general subject. None of the AFS students get to be in the same class, so I chose 2.a. This means second year subject a. There are only 5 different lines to chose from and since the other classes were either full or already had an AFS student in them I got languages. This may seem impossible, but that is because it basically is. Here are my coarses.
Spanish, English Literature, Danish Literature, French, German, and Sport.
Ok so here is the hard part, all these classes are taught in Danish. So it is like trying to figure out two languages at the same time, which is very difficult. I have homework to do also, I can not forget that. I have to come to class prepared to say a few lines in spanish... not so difficult since this is only 2nd year spanish.
Now school-------------------------------
I showed up, and went into a classroom. The room was two rows with spinny computer chairs. We all sat down and received a epic in Danish... and all I did was stare at it as the teacher explained to the class what we had to do with it. I don't think I will have to read it because I don't know Danish yet, and it's in old fashion danish. Then we got out spanish books, of which I received one. I opened it up and we sang some songs like, la coocuaracha and stuff. We also had to speak some. It was not bad and I could speak a little. Me llamo es.. and stuff. Then we went to P.E. called sport class. It was fun, but took out all of my remaining energy. After an hour of arobics we played hockey. My team got beat like, 4 times. We were not too good, but I made some semi-class-friends. This is good, or at least a start. Then school was over. It felt like only two classes... because it really was two classes. But the group stays together as a class through every activity. Which is good, cause I get lost a lot. Like on my way home, I rode the bike for about an hour trying to find where I was. It rained... and I got soaked........ not fun. But I made it home safe and now I know how to get home from school.
I still do not have my computer. As soon as it arives I will start my studies in Danish because I have some software for learning. Then I will be able to... maybe understand the class I am in. That is all for now.
CYA

iPod- short post

hey. Yesterday I went to a pop rock concert and took in a little of the culture that way. It was fun. It was for Tove's oldest daughters birthday. Today is also a birthday. I count 18 chairs. This will be interesting because that is a lot of new people to meet. Wish me luck with that. I will return upstairs now to practice bassoon. I need to do this before the party because I will be weak and tired after the party. I hope everyone is having fun... I do not know who is reading the blog. Love you guys
Peace
KshrDK

Jeg kommer fra USA

So there are a lot of things new. So many over the last two days that it is difficult to write everything down. I will begin with yesterday.
Yesterday I woke up at around noon. It was late but my body is still getting used to the time change (which is 6 hours later). I went down stairs and ate with Gustov (my temporary far(dad) until I move in with the other parents). We ate corn flakes, which seems to be the typical breakfast for most Danes. Tove(too-Vay) which is my contact here in Danmark has been instructing me in Danish. It is very difficult and even after 2 or 3 hours working with her each morning I do not feel like I am clicking with any of it. Then we decided to go to the West Coast. It is only a short drive, maybe 30 mins. When we arrived we walked on the beach and I noticed all of the large German bunkers. They were left since World War 2. They were everywhere for as far as I could see. None of them were in use, they had sand blown by the wind into them making them difficult to get into. But I went inside of a few of them as we walked through the dunes.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner. I thought that hot dogs would be the same... boy was I wrong. They were very long, and you did not put them inside the bun. You ate the two seperate. Then I had another hot dog, which was in a bun, and it came with a lot of stuff in it. Remoulade seems to be the main dipping/everything sauce. It is a little like mustard, but I am getting used to it. I had an ice cream, and after saying tak formel,(or however you spell it) which is what you say after somebody feeds you meaning thanks for the meal, we were off to go back home. Did I mention that the beach was cold so that I wore a sweater. I also went up a lighthouse. It was fun!
Today I went to the mall, on the east coast near the island of Fyn. It was also an experience. I thought I would find it easy to shop, but this was not so. The styles are so... out there. People wear wool things around there necks and the pants are worn in a different style, so I held off on buying stuff until I go to school and see what people wear. That will be soon. Also things are fairly expensive so I really am glad that this family is supporting me and when we eat they pay, as well as buying me a shirt today. Tak Tak!!! There is no such word as please here... just to stick that out there for you mom, so you can stop asking me to remember please.
Well, thats about enough for one blog post. It is 17:38.
Bye

Lots to say on a odd keyboard

So, I do not know how to start. Orientation went very well, but took a lot of getting used to. I was afraid at first because I was not used to the food that they eat. There is a lot of fish, but it is too expensive to be served at the camp. So we ate all sorts of other foods, not so different from the USA.
The Danish people I have met like to smoke. And so do the Italians. Other than that there is not too many smokers that I have met. The Italians are very nice and it is fun to talk to them, it is sad that I left all the cultures behind at orientation.
I am spending time now with my contact adviser. She will take care of me since my host parents have gone to London on Vacation. It is very sad that I do not get time to spend with them, but I will soon. I met them at the train, Børis is very tall.
I hope that dinner starts soon, it is 19:15, and I have become very hungry. I wonder what will be for dinner. It could be anything. I think its about time though.
There are two dogs here, but one is blind.
I did a skit, I might talk about it later, but lets just say that the Danes like to flash and don't see always why I do not want to be naked in front of 150 people in a skit.

For now,
Ta