with all their lions and all their might and all their thirst.

This is me, diligently updating my blog like a good foreign exchange student is expected to do. As I sit here in samfundsfag (a class designed to teach politics, government, economics, and the like), it's easy to contemplate life's great mysteries, because I have no idea what's going on in the class itself. I have a general concept (we're comparing the cultural differences of Lebanon, Denmark, and the United States, at the moment), but it's certainly not enough to write home about and far from enough for me to be worth anything in class discussion, even if I had the Danish at my disposal.

Last Friday was idrætsdag, a sort of field day where all the classes in the gymnasium got together and were in activities focused on teamwork and things like that. Each class was assigned a country, making the day something akin to the Olympics; another exchange student's class was Italy, my host brother was given France, and so on, and so forth. My class, 2.e, was given the prestigious honor of being North Korea. Here I am, in Scandinavia, prancing about with a makeshift North Korean flag, and I think that itself speaks to a massive cultural difference between the United States and Denmark. In the US, doing something like this would possibly be risking media coverage for imitating a political enemy of the state; here, it's all just good fun. For all the preaching about free speech, I feel I'm much more able to speak my mind - especially ideologically - here than I ever was at home. Perhaps that's because, at least politically, I'm a little more Danish than I am the stereotypical American.

I went to Aarhus to visit Jenny on the weekend, because there was a festival there that she wanted me to see. It's great having her so near, knowing that I have someone who really is family to talk to and within driving distance if there is ever an emergency. The festival was a prime example of the fact that me not speaking Danish is even funnier in open streets when people try to approach me. I'm fine once we get past my initial greeting ("I'm foreign, and if we're going to speak Danish, you're going to have to do it slowly."), but it's nerve-wracking to experience someone who doesn't know that I'm a foreign exchange student coming my way. All Danes that I've met speak English, and they speak it well, so if they ever really need me to understand something, there isn't a problem.

Everyone told me that Danes would be cold, but I haven't experienced that yet. I think they're quieter people (for the most part) than Americans, and they aren't going to go out of their way to approach you if you don't make the first effort, but that's not fair to call them cold because of something like that. I was told Danes would be rude, and in some ways it appears that way; they don't say "excuse me" as superfluously as we would in the US, and they aren't as likely to begin a conversation, but hugs are still common, and people are always friendly and helpful so long as you ask. A lot of it comes from not being the ugly American that I think many Europeans expect when the USA comes to mind. They're happy to talk, if you'd like, but calling Barack Obama the Kenyan Antichrist isn't going to much raise their esteem of you. Americans have given themselves a reputation of stupid loudmouths who are unwilling to give any opinion but their own the time of day, and if you're truly like that in a society as egalitarian as Denmark's? You're in for a rough exchange.

In short, I love it here, and I don't think the Danes mind having me around too much either.

<3
-Lex

take me to your best friend's house; i loved you then, and i love you now.

Mark, and a disgusting amount of candy;
note the price tag on just one bag

So, today is the second-to-last day of intro camp in Bjerringbro, and I'm a little behind on blog posts. Persecute me, please, but I've just been so tired and happy and busy that I'm finding it difficult to keep up on all the commitments I have. I've had a lot of fun here at this Danish-intensive camp, even if it isn't as intensive as I'd hoped and I didn't learn as much Danish as I wanted. It's really hard to ask any week to fulfill my thirst for knowledge of the language, though, so I'd consider this week a success, despite my misgivings before attending. I've made a couple of really good friends here (one of them, Mark, is from New York, and he is obscured by the obscene amount of candy he held up so I could get a picture of us being the epitome of obesity), and that's really all I can ask for. I did miss my first gymnasium party for intro camp, and that's really upsetting, but that's probably my biggest complaint for the entire week. I missed a couple of other things back in Aalborg, too, I think, but that's okay; I'm leaving here knowing more Danish than I began with, so at least I'm making progress.

I really enjoyed my Danish class itself; my teacher, Anders, was phenomenal, and a friend and teacher both, and I got along well with many of the people in class, sweet girls from Paraguay, Brazil, and the USA, great guys from the USA, Mexico, and Brazil, and more that I can't think of at the moment. My biggest complaint was that I felt stupid on occasion, and never because I was made to feel stupid by Anders or my friends. Rather, there were a few other students in the class who were much more advanced than I was due to their participation in language schools. My Aabybro Rotary Club has chosen instead to provide me with a private tutor, and he has been great, but these language schools have left my classmates clearly more prepared for the nuances of Danish. An ill-placed comment or two was all that it took to shake me; I'm so used to picking things up quickly at home, easily understanding things without them ever really going over my head. I still haven't cried here yet, and I hope I can keep that up a while longer, but feeling stupid is not something with which I've ever been comfortable.

Jaidan (Canada), me, and Cigne (Alaska)

I got to go to Aarhus with all of the other exchange students plus Anders and the rest of the teachers, and they showed us to ARoS, the art museum there, and afterwards we were allowed to wander around the city on our own. Mark, Cigne (a girl from Alaska who I feel like I've known for years despite just having truly begun talking to her a few days ago), and I wound up at Bruun's, a shopping center, and then we had a bite to eat at McDonald's before we met Jenny for a couple of hours. I was Jenny's host sister in the USA a couple of years ago, and it was wonderful to see her again; her, Cigne, Mark, and I all went to get ice cream together at Manu, which is arguably the best ice cream joint in the whole city. After that, though, we had to say goodbye to the city, and we piled back on a bus to Bjerringbro.

Since my last blog post, and before intro camp, I moved in with a new host family, and I couldn't be happier with them. They've welcomed me in with absolutely open arms; my mother and father, Marianne and Jens, have been trying very hard to make me feel at home in the family, and it's definitely working. It's just like I'm one of their kids; I have the same responsibilities and privileges that their children have, and I have a lot of freedom as long as I don't lose their trust. They have three other children (Martin, 17, who goes to my school and is just back from exchange in NY; Frederik, 16, who goes to a boarding school and whose room I stay in; and Matilde, 14, who goes to a different school in Biersted and helps me whenever I ask for assistance with the buses), and each one has been really welcoming to me as well, which I really appreciate.

I probably shouldn't be in here writing this blog post when all the other exchange students are out and about having fun, but I've been social all week, and, if we're being serious, I have quite the permanent headache. It's good to sit out and take a breather for a moment, especially when I've got so many plans once I get back to Biersted again. I have to go to the zoo sometime with Anne, Aida, and Johanne, and I'm supposed to spend some time with some other friends as well.

Vi ses! <3
-Lex