Pre-Halloween

I'm not very good at this "keeping up" thing; you know, to write about things right after they actually happen. So with me being in a place, where so many exciting things happens all the time, be prepared for a looong blog!

Thursday Oct. 21 - Boeing

The school told us, that the reason they chose Seattle, Washington, out of all cities and states in the US, was partly because a lot of big companies originated here. So of course we were going to visit one of these companies; Boeing.

We went to the Boeing Plant in Everett, about 30 minutes north from Edmonds. When we got the the "Future of Flight", we started in the gift shop, looking at all kinds of planes, jackets and aviators. It was all pretty cool, and pretty expensive. When our tour was about to start, we were told that we couldn't bring anything, and by that I mean ANYTHING! I guess they're scared that we're going to copy their ideas and start making our own plane-factory. During our tour we got to stand on patios above the workers. It was pretty amazing watching them working on the planes like tiny ants.

The Boeing plant is huge! With some 100.000 working there. They have their own little community in there, with restaurants, doctors, and such. Ironically, the only thing they don't have is their own airport. I bet they hold a hell of a christmas-party...

Friday Oct. 22 - Old Fashioned Harvest Hoedown

Kokulan from my class, had arranged this night. We were all invited to his host-aunt's church for this Harvest Hoedown; a fall-fest to celebrate putting down the hoe after harvesting. Pretty much all of my classmates went, and we had a lot of fun! We were meeting up at the school, from were we were all taken to the church. Here they served an American BBQ, consisting of baked beans, BBQ chicken, cornbread, coleslaw, and chips. I'll have to admit I've tried better... During dinner this western/country band played. They weren't super good, but they fitted in perfectly! After dinner it was time for square dancing. We all paired up; boy, girl, boy girl, and started "dancing". It was hysterical! Just looking around, watching the other people dance, having just as hard a time as me. We were all laughing and enjoying it, even though we had no idea if what we were doing was right.

After the Hoedown, we were all driven home and dropped of right on our doorstep. Pretty good service!

Saturday Oct. 23 - Pumpkin patch, corn-maze & the haunted forest

Because it was Halloween in a week, Jill thought it would be fun to go to a pumpkin patch. So Jill, Chihiro, Jill's friend Dawn and her daughter Olivia, Pernille and I went to Remlinger Farms, about an hour's drive from Edmonds. I thought it was just going to be a farm, selling crops, but it was a huge area with small roller-coasters, a train, and a lot of fun stuff to do. Even though the place was intended kids, I had a lot of fun! Right next to the farm, there was a big corn-maze, and a field with a lot of pumpkins. We went through the corn-maze pretty fast, partly because it was starting to rain, and then it was pumpkin time. It was fun walking around, finding the biggest, prettiest, best pumpkin.

Me with my pumpkin

We drove back home to start carving our pumpkins. I've tried that before, but something new was sorting all the seeds out of the gue, drying them on, and the bake them in the oven with salt, pepper, garlic, and oil. I like them!

After carving pumpkins, we drove down to Seattle, to go to a haunted forest on an island. The surroundings were PERFECT for a haunted forest, it was even raining a little, but the people doing it, just didn't take advantage of it. It was supposed to be like walking through a ghost story, but, yeah.... no.

After the "haunted" forest we wanted to go to another haunted house, but there was a 2 hour line, so we just went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and ate.

It was a great day! in spite of the not-so-haunted forest...

Thursday Oct. 28 - Biology museum

Last Thursday we went to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture with our biology teacher. We're actually going to quite a few museum, and I really like it! That is something I think we should do at Herning Gymnasium, too. It is fun to get out and learn stuff in a different way, than just sitting by a desk.

At the museum we went on some sort of a scavenger hunt, answering questions about the stuff we saw at the museum, mostly about fossils.

Friday Oct. 29 - Halloween dance

The school had arranged a Halloween dance for all the students. So of course we were all going; we wouldn't miss out on anything. After school, Emilie, Janne, Nicolai, Alexander and Maja came to my house, so we could all get ready together. Nicolai and Alexander were going to dress up as glam-rockers, so they needed guidance in how to put on pairs of pantyhose and make-up. It was really funny watching them getting ready.

We missed our bus, but when we finally arrived at the school, after waiting in the cold for half an hour, we went and got our tickets. Right when we got in to the dance, the fire-alarm started. It was the most horrible sound ever, and we all had to be "evacuated". We had to wait outside the building for a while. We killed time by dancing the boogie-woogie and watching the cool American fire-truck the came to the place, even though we all knew it was just the smoke machine that started the "fire".

When we got back in, it quickly got so hot and gross in the big room, that it was absolutely unbearable. Therefore, a lot of us had to walk back and forward between the dance and the room outside all night. The dance was alright, but I really can't wait to get back to Herning Gymnasium's parties - those are fun!!

Saturday Oct. 30 - Seattle

After the Halloween dance, Emilie and Janne spend the night at my place. We were meeting some of the others at the transit center, so we could all go to Seattle together. 20 of us were going on a boat trip around the lakes of Seattle. Even though it was raining, it was a really nice and beautiful. It was fun to see Seattle from the water-side.

In the afternoon we walked around for a bit. Seattle is a really pretty city, even when it rains. Some of us ended up at a coffee shop right by the Pike Place Market. It was super cozy sitting there, drinking coffee and getting warm. We had all decided to go to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. It was a really cool place, and they played great music. The food was great too, but when we were supposed to pay, most of our credit cards didn't work, and we had to borrow money from each other. It was kind of hectic, but we sorted it out.

It took quite some time, though, and we only had about 15 minutes to get to the Pacific Science Center, where 10 of us were going to the Michael Jackson Laser show. We hurried (pretty sure we all broke a sweat), but we made it. We also got to see the Space Needle by night.

The laser show was really cool. We went into the dome and lay down on the floor. Then the show started. Loud Michael Jackson music jumped out of the speakers, and lasers made all kinds of figures and patterns on the ceiling. It was awesome! The best thing was probably when a laser skeleton did the thriller dance...

We made it home with a little help from the bus-driver. The bus going from Seattle to Lynnwood was delayed, which meant that we wouldn't be able to catch the last buses home. But the driver called the transit center and made them hold the buses - thank God!

Sunday Oct. 31 - Halloween

This year Halloween was on a Sunday, which meant you couldn't really go do much and stay out all night. Therefore + we'd all had a very busy weekend, Jill, Chihiro and I decided to just stay in, eat pizza and ice-cream and watch scary movies. Jill's friend, Laura, came over and she brought 3 kinds of ice-cream, so there was enough for everyone. We watched 3 scary movies; "The Blair Witch Project", "One Missed Call", and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (p.s. now I know why you don't mess with Texas...).

It was a great night! I think we had 7 kids come trick or treating, and it was fun to see them in their cute little costumes.

Another blog

I think it's about time to write another blog.

Friday October 8th I went to the dog-beach in Edmonds with Chihiro, Jill, and Jill's dog Zeus. The dog-beach is a fenced part of the beach, where dogs can play in the water and with each other. Zeus went pretty crazy and had a lot of fun - and so did I!

The funny thing about Zeus is that Jill shares custody over him with her ex-husband, so they each have him a week at the time. Neither of them have any kids, so they treat Zeus like their baby. It's pretty funny to watch, coming from a family that never has had a dog before. (They are seriously considering dressing Zeus up for Halloween too...)

After the dog beach we went to the mall, because Jill had to get a new phone. I stayed there and went to a movie with Emilie, Janne and Pernille. We watched "Life As We Know It", which was a pretty good movie - chick-flick, but pretty good. Of course we all got the delicious american popcorn with butter on them - yum!!

Saturday October 9th I took the ferry with Emilie and her host-family, from Edmonds to a peninsula on the other side of the "pond". They were going to visit a friend who had just finished building a brand new house. She lived 30 ft from the water, and her house was just gorgeous! I don't know what this single woman is going to do with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, cleaning I guess... The nature around the house was as taken out of a "Twilight" movie, and actually I was just waiting for a vampire to come flying through the trees. Didn't happen, though...

On Sunday we celebrated Jill's birthday. Her birthday is really on the 12th, but because she was leaving for Hawaii on that day, we celebrated it Sunday. Her parents came over and they'd brought the most delicious ice cream cake with Oreo crust. They we're really fond of my book about Denmark, and said that they would love to come see the country someday.

Jill and her parents

Then another week started. Usually I get up at 7.15, take a shower, make breakfast, coffee and lunch, and head out the door to catch the bus at 8.10. I only have to walk for 4 minutes to get to the bus-stop, so that's not too bad. The bus-ride takes about 7 minutes.

When I get to school we have about 3 hours of tutoring. This is a time where we're supposed to do our homework and there's some older students there to help us if we need it. There's not too much homework though, so I've started bringing my bff, Harry Potter, to class. These tutoring hours are pretty nice though, and you get a chance to really learn the stuff they're teaching you. After a 1½ hours long lunchbreak (We still haven't figured out exactly what to do with all this time...), we have 1-4 50 minute classes, before I take the bus home again.

Wednesday October 13th Emilie and I were both home alone, so we went to a grocery store and bought some food, so we could make a delicious dinner. It went pretty well, even though we only could find knives without those "teeth" on it, which made it pretty hard cutting out our steak...

Friday, Pernille, Janne and Emilie came to my house and made dinner, before we went to the bowling alley right by the school with 15 other people from 2.y.

I sucked, but it was a lot of fun; I guess it IS possible to have fun without alcohol. ;)

After we were done bowling, the four of us took a cap back to my place. The 5 minute ride + a stop at 7-11 only cost 13 dollars INCLUDING the tip. That wouldn't have done it in Denmark. At all... The girls and I watched a movie, before we went to bed. The next day we went to the mall, and by now I think we all agree that Urban Outfitters is the most amazing store!

I guess that's all for now. I have an exciting week ahead of me, but you're going to have to wait to hear more about that. :)

Start of something new

Everyday life is slowly starting to settle. Still, new things happen all the time.

Sunday Jill, Chihiro and I went to the mall. There's like a million stores there; I believe this is what Heaven looks like.

Monday was the first day of school. I got up at 7:00 am and got ready for school. Chihiro was goingtake me, even though she didn't have to be at school before 9:30, whereas I had to be there at 8:45. Jill had made delicious smoothies and lunches for us; she is so nice!!

The bus ride went pretty smooth. In the bus I met Cathrine, who also was traveling with her "asian sister". When we got to the school, after a 5 minute bus ride, we all met up and were taken to a room, where some of our teachers and tutors were. After meeting them and hearing something about the school and the housing system, we were taken on a campus tour. Even though it's, in American standards, a small campus with "only" 13000 students, I was pretty lost, and happy that we're pretty much going to have classes in the same rooms everyday.

After school some of us went to the mall. They had to get their phone-card-things, and I had to get new running shoes.

Tuesday my class and I went down to Seattle with school. We went to the Pike Place Market, where the first Starbucks ever is located (I got myself a vanilla latte - yum!), where the infamous Gum Wall is (I put a piece of pink gum on there), with fish-throwing men, and a golden pig. It was a pretty cool place, and I definitely think I'll be going back there.

The very first Starbucks

The Gum Wall

Bobber on a golden pig

After that we went to the Space Needle - the trade mark of Seattle. We went all the way up (158,5 m.), and had a 360 view over the city, which was pretty amazing!

The Space Needle

View from the top of the Space Needle

After all this we went back to EdCC for our first real classes. The teachers pretty much just talked about what we're going to do and such, so it wasn't really a real class. But it'll all start pretty soon; our history teacher already assigned us 60 pages to read, an essay to write and a quiz to take, ALL for Tuesday next week - welcome to college!

I'm here!

I'm here! And it's great! :D

The trip from Herning to Lynnwood took about 24 hours. It all started at the train station in Herning at 06.17 am, where we all got on the train heading towards the airport in Copenhagen. That train was packed! We had all brought one or two suitcases, and this train did not have room for all of them and all of us at the same time! We figured it out, though, and all of us and all of our luggage all made it safe to Copenhagen.

Maja and Emilie in the train VERY early in the morning

We got on the plane and the 3-hour plane ride went by pretty fast. It was absolutely amazing arriving in Iceland. The nature is so beautiful, and the weather was perfect so we could see everything! In the airport we just had to get some food pretty fast, and then we got on the plane heading towards Seattle. I got to sit next to Emilie and Thomas, which was really nice, since I didn't really sit next to anybody I knew on the way from Copenhagen to Iceland. I tried getting some sleep, but it was very difficult, sitting right next to the restroom... They didn't serve ANY food, which was very disappointing! I love plane-food... :(

Emilie sleeping and Jasper being cool.

This plane ride was really pretty too, especially when we flew over Greenland and Canada.

Greenland. I think....

When we arrived at the airport in Seattle, I was prepared to stand in line for a few hours, but when we got there, there was hardly any people. Therefore we only had to stand in line for about 10 minutes. The guy that had to "do" my papers and I, was super nice and not scary at all (like some other american-security dudes...). We got our suitcases, went through customs, and then we saw 3 EdCC people standing with flags. We all got on the bus, said goodbye to Kelli and Neelen, and headed towards EdCC. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and the busdriver gave us a little tour of Seattle by night, pointing out all the landmarks as we were passing them. It was really cool, even though I could hardly keep my eyes open.

When we arrived at EdCC we all went in to this little room where some of the families were waiting. I quickly pointed out my family - mostly because they had a sign saying "Welcome Emma". When the lady called my name Jill and Chihiro both gave me a hug, a we went to the car. It only took about 8 minutes to get to the house; a small 3 bedroom house in a really nice neighborhood close to the Edmonds High School. My bedroom is not too big, but it has everything I need. Pictures soon - stay tuned.

Friday night we had dinner, and the I went to bed - I was exhausted! Saturday morning I got up around 10:00 and started unpacking. Around noon we went to Walmart (my favorite store in the world!) and I got all the stuff I didn't bring. We drove back home, and then we took the bus to EdCC, so I know how to do it tomorrow. The bus ride only takes about 5-10 minutes, so it isn't too bad. We walked around campus, and then we watched some of the baseball game going on. The weather was super nice, perfect for baseball.

Chihiro and Jill at the baseball game.

We took the bus back, and Jill made some really nice dinner. She's pretty determined to eat healthy, which is really nice, and we always have fruit and vegetables in the house. After dinner I pretty much went to bed - the jet-lag is really starting to kick in...

Sunday I woke up around 6 am (!!!). I stayed in bed and watched TV until 9, and then I went for a run. It was really nice discovering the neighborhood on my own, and luckily I found my way back home.

Around 1:30 Zeus was dropped off. Jill shares custody with her ex-husband, so they each have him a week at a time. He is the sweetest dog, although he sheds a lot... After Zeus had arrived and Chihiro was back from church, we went to the mall. I love how everything is open on Sundays, and not shot down like in Denmark. We spend about 2 ½ hours and a lot of money at the mall and some other stores in the area, before we headed back home. Jill made spaghetti and meatballs and a salad for dinner - yum!!

I think I'm gonna go to bed pretty early, still getting tired pretty early. I'm super excited for tomorrow; to see 2.y again and hear how things are going - I only have positive things to tell. I'm really excited to see our teachers and classrooms, and to here more about what's going to happen these next few months.

Take care

- Emma.