Hey y'all!
I know it has been forever since I have brought y'all an update, but here it finally comes.
I spend my Christmas break in Dothan, Alabama - 45 min from Troy, with Cristina's family. They were all really nice and I'm so grateful for them letting me stay there for almost a month. But before Cristina and I headed to Dothan, we went on a small roadtrip to Columbus and Atlanta, Georgia. We spend two nights in Columbus, which actually isn't a big town but beautiful. They have over the last couple of years tried to restore the town, so it was really pretty. On the trip was Lewin, Willem, José, Cristina and I, and since all of us are a little bit crazy, we decided to go riverrafting in December. The instructor was a little sceptic, but he let us go anyway. And I do not regret it even a little bit! It was only us, so no problems with avoiding others. And y'all might think; The water must have be SO cold! But it actually wasn't that bad, we all ended up jumping in the water.
The next day we went to Atlanta, which is the capital of Georgia and a growing city. So we went out to discover Atlanta's nightlife. We ended up at this nightclub called Opera, where there was an amazing DJ playing, we actually later found out that he was sort of famous, but either way, he was great. It was the perfect last night before we had to say goodbye to two of our dear friends the next day.
After dropping of all the guys at the airport, Cristina and I headed toward Dothan where Cristinas's uncle, aunt and cousin live. Since christmas is all about family, I of course felt a little bit weird celebrating it without my family, and Cristina's family did everything in their power to make me feel welcome. I a so grateful for their hospitality. But of course I could not feel a little bit homesick, when I saw all of them together as one big family. We were around 30 people gathered for Christmas Eve. Around 7 different nationalities in one big room, and we all sat down in the livingroom enjoying both ham and turkey, the American first choice for big holidays. In Cristina's family they also, as the tradition in Denmark, share presents on Christmas Eve. Curing this event we all sat around in one big circle with the kids in the middle opening their christmas presents. I did also receive Christmas presents from Cristina's family, which was completely unexpected. Thank you so much. There are lots of differences between an American christmas and a Danish christmas. First of all, the tree was no longer the center of christmas, and they all found it funny when I tried to explain that we, in Denmark, "dance" around the christmas tree singing christmas carols. After all the presents were opened we went to church. We went to the local catholic church, which actually looked like a real church, unlike some of the churches in Troy. I learned that you had to follow a book and go back and forth if you wanted to follow the flow of the mass. I was slightly confused and chose at some point to just give up and listen, really take in the church-experience, since I couldn't really figure out the system.
In between christmas eve and new years I went on a little spontaneous trip to Birmingham, just by myself. It was great to get a little time for myself when you are surrounded by a lot of people most of the time (it is not really a Danish thing to spend so much time with your family all the time). So I went to Birmingham to visit Sofie and her friend Hallie and her family. They were all really nice and welcoming, I really enjoyed their company. I spend one night with them and also got the chance to catch up with Sofie. We even ended up talking politics in the middle of the night, which Hallie's dad found really funny, but I think both of us needed to talk about something that was related to Denmark, and then talking about the past years politics seemed fitting. The next day I went and got a hotel room, to really spend some time for myself, sometimes I just need from time to another. I got a great night's sleep and some good food, and got some time for myself, which I as a person just need from time to time. I also got the pleasure of talking to an old friend, which just made everything so much better!
New Years Eve was also a different experience. We went to visit Cristina's cousin, where we all contributed with some food and created a buffet. I contributed with some home made fried shrimps (had to proof that I too could cook). We all sat outside around a little fire-pit, really nice, one problem, it only heated one the front of you. But we all had a great time and actually jumped down from the chair we a couple of others when we got to the new year.
Thanks again to Cristina's family for taking me in this special time!
Cristina and I got back to the school on Friday January the 2nd because we were volunteered to register all the new international students. There were less new international students this semester compared to last semester, which actually doesn't quite surprise me, so it wasn't that busy, but the best part was to be back in my own room.
We did though manage to find some new friends whom we could bring into our little group: Jenny, Malin and later Jody.
A picture from this semester's first fraternity party
As I also told y'all last year, I'm taking Legal Environment of Business, Introduction to Philosophy, Physical Defense for Women, and two anthropology classes; 'Culture in Media' and 'Language in Culture and Society'. I'm now four weeks into the new semester, and I love all of my classes. I love them so much that I don't feel like I have to drag myself through the week, and yesterday when I was off from my last class, I didn't feel like it was weekend already. I have great professors too, some more normal than others. Dr. Burmeister, whom I have for both of my anthropology classes is probably the best teacher/professor I have ever had. We never go through the pages we have read by just repeating what it said, we actually put it into a context, since we always discuss and come up with examples from the real world and experiences we have had. Both of these classes isn't easy either, since one of them is a junior (3. year) class and the other a senior (4. year) class. This means of course that the reading is difficult, especially in my Media class, but no so much that I totally give up. In my Language class we are in process of building our own language based on a culture that we too create our selves. Our groups culture is based on books (yes we are a bunch of book nerds) and it is gonna be interesting to make our own words out of a bunch of sounds. I also love my Legal Environment of Business class. Some might think that it could be a little bit boring to learn about law, but my professor is luckily a young woman who is both funny and good at making it easy to understand. I haven't really had self defense so much yet, so can't really tell whether I like my teacher yet or not. Last is my Philosophy teacher, he is special (hence the fact that he has a PhD in Philosophy). One thing you at least can't hold to Dr. Lee is that he is a boring old professors that sits behinds his desk and gives lectures.
Last weekend we all went to Nashville and Sewanee University. We spend one night in Nashville where we went sightseeing on Saturday. I like Nashville, its a city that has it's charm, I think it might be the music. For those of you who aren't that familiar with Nashville; Nashville is called 'the Country Music Capital of the World' and you can feel the country music in the streets, especially Broadway, which is the big main street for bars and is placed in the center of Nashville. In every bar/restaurant you can listen to country music while you are eating. We went into a little place where they had live music and great food, an amazing experience.
We went into the gift shop for the museum of Johnny Cash and in there we actually met Johnny Cash's youngest sister, Joanne Cash, pretty cool to be honest!
After our Nashville-tourist-time, we went to Sewanee University which is a little over an hour outside of Nashville. Sewanee University is apparently a very expensive school, which of course meant that it is fille with rich kids. It has a beautiful campus with all of these old stone buildings. We were there visiting Lewin's friend who lived in 'the german house' so we stayed in the living room. That night was probably one of the best nights, we had such a good time and met a whole bunch of nice and welcoming people. Unfortunately we only had one night there and we had to leave the next day at noon, since we still had a 5 hour drive ahead of us.
Spring break is just around the corner (35 days, so almost) and today we finally managed to book our vacation. Sofie, Malin and I are going on a cruise out of Miami to the eastern Caribbean. It is a 7 night cruise and we are going to visit St. Thomas (an old Danish colony), St. Martins (an old Netherlands colony) and the Bahamas. So we are all looking forward to a week with max relaxing surrounded by blue water, white sand and palms.
For all of you who managed to get to the end of this very long post (I know but I had to recap almost two months), I can tell y'all that on thursday I have been here for 6 months, people that is half a year! This also means that I'm getting close to the home date, which I finally can disclose. I'm yet again gonna be on Danish soil May 21st, which means that I will be home in less than 4 months!
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