A Visit from Home!

So last week, I would have to say was the best part of my exchange ever! Above... answers that why? question. My mom, brother and sister flew all the way from Nebraska into Copenhagen Denmark, to spend the week with me! I have to say after almost 8 months without them, it felt really good to huge them again!

During this week, I tried to show my family a little bit of the culture here, and also my day to day life! We took a short tour around Skåne (where I lived) I took them to the bigger city of Malmö, also the twin city to Helsingborg which is in Denmark Helsingør.

This picture was taken, while we were on the ferry (more like cruise ship my mom thought) on our way to Denmark, yes there was a fancy or elegant restaurant on this ship, where you could ' take a load off' and have a nice dinner. Ours included pea soup ( a typical swedish soup) with shrimps and lobster, our appetizer was a big variety of salmon! I think this was one of my favorite times with my family! Just as I was shocked too see how close Denmark and Sweden were, my family got to share in that amazement!
This was my family's first lunch in Sweden, and just as I did when I was first here, they wanted to 'try it all!!' So we had, TONS OF BREAD, some caviar, raw salmon, crayfish salad spread, a red beet salad spread, anchovies, big varieties of cheeses and olives. Oh, and surprisingly my mom liked the 'overly strong European coffee' Glad she got to also bring some home with here!
Oh how I had missed my mom so much, and now I miss her again, all I know is that I only have a little less than 5 months left, and I sure will enjoy what little time I have left here, and then be excited to go back home to my family... then in months to come, I will want to come BACK to Sweden! I was just glad I got to spend that week with my family! It made me happy that there first time abroad was to see me!! & I am really glad I got to show them where I have been living for the last 8 months!

Love you guys, and see you soon!
Our trip around Skåne this picture was taken in a small yet beautiful town called Mölle.

So whats new you ask??

So whats new? My mom, sister and brother are coming in 8 days! There will be a big post about that! I am very excited to see them! Also I have booked my tickets to Kiruna which is very far up in the north of Sweden, and there I shall go see the Ice Hotel, which I am sure most of you have heard about! Also I have changed families, and this has been a big difference! But it has all been good so far! I know have to host sisters at the age of 15, and 13, and also 2 host parents, who are great cooks! There other daughter is on exchange in Japan now! So this picture above is from when we visited my host aunt. She lived very far away, in the middle of skåne somewhere, and she had 5 cats, and 1 dog. Here is a picture of the dog, and beside it a fire stove thing, which she had only 2 of these that heated the whole house! It was a little cold! But very cool way, of saving energy and money!
This is my new house in Laröd, which is about a 20 minute bus ride to Helsingborg.
Another picture of the kitchen.
And this is a picture of my new room!
This is a picture of when I just visited my old host family, and took the dog for a walk. As my new house family has no pets, so I was very happy to get to go on a walk with Isa, my old host dog! :)

New Year's Ski Vacation~ Sälen Sweden

So these are a bit late, and yes I feel bad for delaying this post but I have been super busy! Its Christmas break, and here's whats new! Well besides spending Christmas and New Year's in a foreign country, you have all of the goodbyes, to the older and (wiser) exchange students who are leaving after New year, and some before Christmas.. and as of tomorrow I will be living in another family! Yes I have spend 5 months in this family that I am now, and tomorrow I will change, if you post a comment below asking if I am nervous, I will for sure answer YES! I mean I have been living with this family now for 5 months, I know where everything goes after you clean, I know the house chores, I am used to the family now, and then what happens.. "Oh hey Dakota your moving here soon!" It kind of just runs in and hits you in the face, like a baseball bat.

So right now I am staring down at 6 full bags, (yes 6, how did that happen when I only came over with 2??) I am smelling carrot soup, ( my fav that my host mom is making me for my last dinner here) And thinking, I wonder what there going to be like?? Awesome I am sure! :D

Another upcoming event... 6 weeks, and my mom, brother and little sister will be visiting me in Sweden!! Of course I am highly excited for that! I miss my family so much back home! So it will be really nice to see them for a week! Plus its the first time any of them have been over seas! How cool is that!

Its so weird for me to think I am the first one in my family that has gone to a different country.. and for a year! It doesn't even seem likes its been 5 months!! Time flies!!

So above is the first of many pictures from my ski vacation in Sälen, which is in the North of Sweden, please be aware it was my first time skiing (xc) and I kicked butt! It was so much fun! I got a hang of xc perfectly, but was to afraid to try downhill! It was fairly cold up there, about -15 to -20 everyday! Wait one day it got -9! I so felt like I was on the beach that day!! NOT.. but its not bad when you have the right kind of clothes to wear!
So here was a downhill ski place, I only got to take this picture, because it was right next to the store where we bought food for the week.

The view.. No I didn't get to see the Northern lights, but this was the next best thing!

And again, it was so beautiful, this weekend really made my think of how lucky I am to be able to be here, and have such great parents back home, and here (my host parents) I really am thankful for all the adventures I am have been able to do here, and hope to return someday with my family, especially my dad, who I think would love this place!

OH hey dad, and in the summer they have extreme mountain bike trails and event going on! Plus canoeing too!!

God Jul

Everything looks a little different with some snow on it! This is a picture from behind the bus stop, in spring it might have some nice flowers, lots of leaves on the trees, but after you have an intense snow storm for a full day and through the night, this is what it looks like! Kinda nice huh? Well as I was walking home from a friends house, I thought it would be a great picture, and reminded me of my dad! & as you can probably tell its still snowing a little! Which means we are defiantly having a white Christmas over here in Sweden! God Jul everybody! (Merry Christmas)

The Gingerbread house my host sister made, along with the advent candles, and the nice background (through the window) A little touch of snow can really light the Christmas spirit! Even if you are 5,000 miles away from home missing your family! For me the snow makes it all worth while! Hopefully when we got up to the North after Christmas for some skiing, I will get to see the Northern lights! Wouldn't that be something?!?
These pictures are from the Christmas decorations in the city, this is 1 of the christmas trees but the main christmas tree is still the best, maybe because it is so huge!
And here is is, the main Christmas tree, located right in front of the Kärnan Castle.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

GOD JUL!

Copenhagen Denmark

The bridge from Sweden to Denmark, it actually goes under the water too!! It takes like maybe 30/45 minutes to cross this bridge! It is over 13,000 feet long!!
Now in Copenhagen Denmark! This is like the city center clock tower, quite similar to the one in Helsingborg Sweden which is my town!
This is the Queens Castle, their were 3 castles all next to each other, one for the queen, one for the king, and one for the Prince. On this picture there was a flag waving above, that indicated that the queen was home while I took this picture!!! But she was not so nice to invite us in for Fika :( But whenever the flag is up, it means that the Queen/ King/ Prince is home.
The Tivoli, it is one of the World's great amusement parks. During Christmas season (when I went) there was great display of Christmas decorations, and hand made candies!
The Little Mermaid- I didn't know that a Danish man wrote this story. But this statue just had gotten back from China, so we were in great time to see it!

A snowy snowy Sweden!

Snow angels! So this week we have been getting so much snow, now we have about 13 centimeters, and still going strong! So what else to do, but make snow angels, and go sledding! It was great, because the forest is right next to our house, with (not so big hills) but good enough to get some speed! It was a blast!

And this is some Christmas decorations, we each got one of the lamps in our rooms! And I added my own little touch with the stocking, a great way to get this Christmas season started!

It was quite snowy, and I was quite cold, it was nice to have good snow boot though, in which I borrowed from my host family, it makes all the difference, how great! I must say I love this -5 degree, snowy, icy weather! KEEP IT COMING! I am dreaming of a white Christmas!

Denmark- Kronborg Slot

Kronborg Slot, better known for being Hamlet (from Shakespeare's) Castle. This castle is in Helsingør Denmark, which is about 20 minutes by ferry from Helsingborg (the town where I live.) This castle dates back to the 1420's, was built in order of the Danish King, Eric of Pomerania. The king insisted on the payment of sound dues, because Helsingør is located right next to the harbor of course there would be much sound. So he built a very powerful fortress to control the sound. In 1629 some careless workers caused much of the castle to go up in flames. Only the Chapel was spared, and that was only because of its strong arches. Christian IV put much efforts into restoring the castle and by 1639 the exterior was once again magnificent, but it was never as great as it used to be before the fire. From 1739 until the 1900's Kronborg was used as a prison. The inmates were guarded by the soldiers in the basement of the castle. (Which was very dark, and consisted of many tunnels, very hard to find your way around in.) The prison was divided into two categories, those with minor sentences, whom were called "honest" and were allowed to work outside the castle walls; but those who were serving sentences for violence, or murder were called "dishonest" and had to serve the full sentence doing hard physical labour inside the castle. They all had to wear chains and spend nights in cold and damp dungeons. (Even hundreds of years now, those dungeons were really cold.) So many of you may think, "what about Hamlet?" well this technically was NOT Hamlet's Castle. Kronborg is known as being the setting of William Shakespeare's famous tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, but Hamlet has been performed in this castle many of times, the first was the mark of Shakespeare's 200th anniversary of his death.

The group that accompanied me to this lovely castle. ( I am to the far left, if you didn't know, then we have 2 australians, and 2 U.S girls!) We are the exchange students that are in Helsingborg Sweden.