Alrighty so Im assuming you've all seen the video from eurotour so hopefully I won't end up rambling on and on for too long about that since you can most of what we did in the video. Just to catch you all up: we went to 8 different countries over the course of 18 days via one bus full of 50 exchange students, 2 Rotary guides, the bus guide, and the bus driver (54 people total for anyone that flunked kindergarten math) and in total we drove over 5,000 kilometers. Eurotour was obviously amazing and a once in a lifetime opportunity. I wound up making life long friends with some of the exchange students and have some memories I will forevermore be holding on to. Now most thing can be seen in the video so I'll keep it brief and point out certain things you may or may not want to know:
~my group of friends and I ended up having an "ice cream club" where we vowed to be the fat exchange students we are and eat ice cream in every country (we wound up not getting any in Monaco, but since it's surrounded by France we're counting it as France; we also cheated and had delicious waffles in Belgium instead). Some countries we only had one ice cream..... others I may have eaten my weight in ice cream *cough cough ITALY cough*
~In Paris I was able to catch up with my Aunt and Uncle that I had visited back in March and spend a few hours in the Louvre with them followed by a fun dinner party with some of their American friends.
~On our last night in Paris we decided to spend a good 5 hours sitting in front of the Eiffel tower just hanging out. We then climbed the tower at night and stood at the top as the first light show went off. It was probably the best most relaxing few hours of the entire tour.
~In Monaco our bus was the luckiest. My bus wound up being in Monaco during the week of the Grand Prix/ Formula 1 race. We were there during a trial day and a few friends and I actually found seats in the official stands and sat and watched for a couple of hours. It was a huge surprise for us and I won't forget the feeling I had sitting in those stands as cars raced past.
I will shut up about Eurotour now..... aside from saying that it was a great trip with amazing friends and I loved every minute. But, as great as it was, it ended which was sad yet wonderful. I was insanely excited to be able to stop living out of a suitcase and sleep in the same bed all week. I become overjoyed about speaking Danish again and loved having the chance to text my friends again. Once we arrived at the meeting point in Denmark, I walked off the bus, said a few teary eyed goodbyes, and then happily walked over to my 2nd host mom and dad. (Side note- after eurotour I moved back in with my 2nd family due to the fact that I will not be having a 4th family as was the original plan and my 3rd host mom just had knee surgery, making my 2nd host family the easiest choice of a place to stay for my last 6 weeks).
The first week back in Denmark was hectic. I had plans every day. I needed to go back to my 3rd family to pack my bags to move to my 2nd, catch up with my good friends, and then I took a trip to northern Jutland with my 2nd host family. We spent the night at their daughter's house and then drove up to Skagen the next morning. Skagen is the place in Northern-most jutland where the two sea's meet.
I have basically spent the 2 weeks following that one just as busily as the first week back from eurotour. I went shopping with a friend, went to a district get together with the current inbounds (like myself) and the students going on exchange next year, and done tons of other stuff!
I went to the west coast for a day with a Rotarian where I tried surfing for the first time (I fail as a Floridian- surfing for the first time in Denmark of all places?!?!), which I was actually alright at. I managed to stand up twice in the 1.5 hour long lesson, didn't get too bruised, didn't freeze my butt off in the Danish waters (admittingly, I did happen to have a full wetsuit on.... but still), and even got a few thumbs up from my surfing teacher (let's pretend for a second that he wasn't getting paid to support me and act like I'm actually amazing at surfing, okay?).
One of the best parts of the past few weeks was my weekend with my best friend. We spent a day at a theme park, Djurs sommerland, where we had a blast and were super lucky (nobody in the park so super short waiting times). We also threw a party for our friends that was American themed (I need to share the American culture right?).
us on a ride (and yes, she would be wearing a UF sweatshirt.... I bought a "few" clothes in Denmark so giving out some of my old was has become necessary)
Just this week I went to go and visit some of my exchange student friends from Eurotour. I started in Give (small town nearby mine) where myself and my newbie from Australia spent the night at my Brazilian friend's house. Then my newbie and I took the train for Vejle where we briefly met up with another Brazilian to say goodbye and then spent a few hours in the park with a guy from Chicago and then we spent the night at our friends house (she;s from Canada). It was a great couple of days and I'm happy I was able to do it.
My Newbie and I in the park
Once I got back home from my small vacation with exchange students I then got ready for an evening with all of my host parents and my club president and his wife. It was weird seeing all 4 of my Danish families together (my 3 host families and my club president and his wife who have become a family to me as well). My 4 Danish moms sat and chatted about things as if they were a group of moms talking about their own children (only they were all moms to the same kid, me) and it was odd having them all together, but quite fun. I showed them a presentation of all my pictures from this year and had a fun evening with them all together.
From left to right: Ove and Susanne (club president and wife), Ruth and Niels (family #1), myself, Bjarne and Vivian (family #2), and Kjeld and Merete (family #3).
I guess that's about all for now. My next 3 weeks are fairly crazy busy but I'll tell you all how they go later. I would sit and talk about all the random semi-philosophical thoughts I have for now, but if I do that I'll somehow get to the fact that I'm leaving in 3 weeks, which I honestly can't handle for now, so you'll have to live with what I've written above.
-McKenzie
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