There and Back Again

Yes, this entry is named in honor of Bilbo. :) I read the Hobbit when I was young, and only now that I am older and far from home do I appreciate Bilbo's love for a quiet cup of tea at home. The title of my blog is also starting to ring true. "A Day in the Life of an Aspiring Adult". Blah. I feel so OLD lately! I drink black coffee, for goodness sakes. I thoroughly enjoy just sitting, enjoying my coffee, and thinking about or discussing life. I think about things like my credit card bills, and the next big step I have to take in my life. When did I become an adult!? Hm... Somewhat troublesome. I don't think I'm ready for adulthood just yet. I'll just have to go do something foolish and adolescent. :) Haha. (Don't worry mom, I'm only joking.) In other news, I've been traveling a lot lately, hence the name of the entry. I went to Dublin with my class, and that was tons of fun. We climbed a mountain (all the Danish kids were like "Ahhhhhh!!! What is thiiiis!?!?" because there are NO mountains in Denmark..), toured the Guinness Storehouse/Brewery, went to a huge Botanical Gardens, went to an art museum, went pubcrawling... Got to wander around Dublin quite a bit. It was an awesome trip, overall. I roomed with four AWESOME girls from my class: Ida, Mariane, Björk, and Else. Mariane and Else were quite upset when they found out that I had mentioned Björk in my blog and not them. Haha. They're all crazy, crazy girls. That's my basic summary of Dublin... It was a lot of fun. After Dublin, we flew home, and I stayed in Copenhagen with my fellow exchange student Nova, and our friend Chris was also there. We had a lot of fun being American all weekend. We bought lots of Ranch Doritos, Skittles, Reese's, etc. We also wandered around the city a lot, which was cool. Copenhagen is really beautiful. :) I spent about four days with Nova, and then headed on home to Mountain Town (Bjergby). When I got home, my host sisters Julie and Diana were out of town at a Performance Art camp, and Ginesta and Christian were about to leave town. So I got to spend the rest of the week home alone resting, just me and Linda. It was pretty great. But the first day, I hung out with Mariane and Else. It was great fun. :) We ate spaghetti, and watched ridiculous movies, and talked about boys. Haha. I also had no internet that weekend, so my mother freaked out a little bit. Oh well. :) We all survived. Friday, I drove with some family friends to see my host sisters performing what they learned at camp. Very cool. I didn't understand very much of the performance because it was in Danish, but it was really interesting, and lots of fun. :) The next day, we went to watch the girls dance at the Metropol (it's like the mall) and then had a bunch of guests at the house. Lots of 14(ish) year old girls. Whew. Scary. :P It was tons of fun. And now, we're back to school. Oh! While I was in Copenhagen, I had a realization that I thought was a pretty big step in my exchange. :) I realized... I missed my Danish friends!! That means I like them a lot. :) So I think that means things are going well. Haha. Now I've just got to WORK MY BUTT OFF to learn this language! People are getting tired of speaking English with me. I also move families pretty soon here. About a month. So things are going quite well around here. :) I am pleased with my life at the moment. Not a whole lot of homesickness lately, except yesterday. I got a package in the mail from home, and it was my yearbook, signed by all my friends and whatnot. But I'm better now. :) I love Denmark, and I am excited for LIFE! Stay classy, San Diego! ;)

Hjem, Sød Hjem

Home sweet home is the title of this entry. Today, I realized something that surprised me quite a bit. Denmark is beginning to feel like home. I mean.. I participate in my classes, I do homework, I hang out with friends... Life is pretty normal. It's nice. But, here's a bit about what's going on in the life of Esther. Last week, I ate dinner at the home of one of the Rotarians in my club. He lives in the most amazing house I've ever seen. It was like something from a movie. It was an old farmhouse built in something like 1490, which they had restored. There was a moat around it. Yeah. A MOAT. :) It was epic. The people who lived there were really nice, and we had Halibut for dinner. My first Danish fish. Though, actually, the halibut we ate was caught in Norway. It was a very hyggelig evening. The next day was Friday, and I had a school party. The theme was villains, so I dressed as Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek 4. It was pretty awesome. We all met at Else's house for a "forfest" which is basically where you just get together with your class and hang out. It was cool. I had first conversations with some of my classmates who had just been too shy to talk to me at school. The rest of the weekend was just hanging out with the family. I spent all day Saturday (and all night) watching Ghost Whisperer with Julie and Diana and their friend Sasja. Sunday morning, we all got up and walked 6 km in the wind and rain for a Lion's Club thing. That was fun. Tiring, but fun. I won a potted plant. :) But I traded with Sasja. She won candy. Haha. Basically, it was an epically awesome weekend. So this week, I've got a lot on my plate. My friend Dakota will be in town on Friday visiting his uncle, so I'm excited to see him. I haven't seen him since Outbound Camp back in the states. :) Yay! Then Friday night, he'll escort me to the train station, and I'll be off to Dublin for our class's study tour! I'm super excited about that. Haha. We'll be in Dublin for about a week, and then on the way home, I'll stay in Copenhagen with my friend Nova for a few days. I'm pretty pumped for the next couple of weeks. Okay, I'm just pumped in general. :D It's going well. Really well.