Tuesday, April 14th

Waking up at 4:00am for the second day in a row was brutal. Me and Ryan were in no way ready for it, and went downstairs feeling very groggy. When we got to the airport and all of us checked in, Erin (Mrs. Cingel) and I went to go try to find where we turn in the tax free forms. It was closed, as it was 5:00am, so, unfortunately, some people weren't able to get money back on their purchases. The first flight over to Paris was very short and easy, but towards the end I started feeling a bit strange. I just thought I was hungry, as I hadn't eaten yet, and asked Adam for an Apple. I ate it, but I didn't really feel better. When we were going through customs, I started to really feel crappy, but I fought through it and kept walking. Once we got to our gate, I couldn't hold it any longer, and I felt like I had to throw up. Let's just say, I made it to the bathroom, but not to the toilet. Anyways, after I cleaned myself up, Adam and I headed to the Gucci store so I could spray some cologne on myself. Boom, good as new. We then boarded the plane, and I was feeling fine. However, after sitting in the plane for about 20 minutes, prior to takeoff, the Tivoli hamburger had one last bit of revenge in it, and I took the barf bag and used it. I did not miss, and it did not smell. I like to think I was very graceful in the way I got sick on the plane, and swiftly went to the bathroom and took care of it. I felt good after that, and returned to my seat. That was the last of the Tivoli hamburger, and I soon found myself home safe at the Cleveland Hopkins airport. I was welcomed by my mother, brother, grandmother and her dog Becket, and it was very nice to see all of them, but I missed Denmark.

Monday, April 13th

4:15am was the time my phone read when it began ringing. 4:15am is way too early for any human being to be up at, so I was not very happy when I rolled out of bed. I took a quick shower, which woke me up a bit, got dressed and gathered all my things. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe I was leaving. The time had flown by. I looked at the room I had stayed in all week, and felt like I had only just arrived, like I had only just set my suitcase down. I then went out and ate my usual breakfast, but there was a very sad, unhappy aura in the kitchen. I wasn't ready to leave, and Mathias didn't want me to either. We then headed to the car, and left for the train station. The car ride was also sad, as the duration of the ride was spent reliving the trip, talking about all of the awesome memories we made. When we got to the station, I said my farewells to Mathias's parents. I thanked them for everything, and we headed up the platform. Even though it was 5:00am, everyone was somewhat energetic, hugging each other and sadly saying their goodbyes. Mathias and I grew pretty close over the trip, so it was pretty sad to say goodbye to him. I also found it difficult to say goodbye to other people I had grown close to on the trip, like Paul and his brother Christian, Ellen and Louise. After everyone said their goodbyes, we boarded the train and began our journey to Copenhagen. The short, 2 and a half hour train ride was easy, and very beautiful. Parts of the ride overlooked beautiful seas and rural areas, and the weather was nice. I decided not to sleep, and ended up talking to my OHS peers the whole time. When we got to Copenhagen, we walked to our hotel from the station, a walk much shorter than I had prepared myself for based on what Mr. Chordas had said. After setting our luggage down at the hotel, we walked to the famous Round Tower, one of the oldest observatories in Europe. After this, we had a bit of time to eat and relax, so Adam, Ryan and I went to get some sandwiches and coffee. We then boarded our little boat, and relaxed for our canal tour of Copenhagen. It was a beautiful day, so it was very nice and relaxing to be on the boat tour. I had a very good time, aside from hitting my head on the top of the boat a few times. After this was over, we had free time to walk around and shop. I went off with Adam, Nandor and Ryan. First, I bought some shorts and socks from the Danish athletic brand Hummel. I then bought some clothes from a store called Solid. I am very happy with the purchases I made in Denmark, as like and wear everything I bought. Once we were done shopping, we had to use the restrooms, and found the most elegant, spacious bathroom we had ever been in. We then bought some small souvenirs for our relatives. By this time, we were hungry, and decided to grab some Nutella crepes. They were delicious, but we still had about 30 mins to kill. We then discovered a small store that looked intriguing, so we headed in, and saw Cornell, Olivia, Ben and Liz. It was a fish spa, where small fish eat the dead skin off of your feet. It is banned in the US, so of course we had to do it. It was a very unique experience, certainly worth it if you're given the opportunity. We then regrouped with the OHS squad, and headed back to our hotel for some down time before Tivoli. Tivoli was next, and we were all very excited to go. It's not very often we go to amusement parks, and we basically had it to ourselves, as it was a bit chilly. We got to go on every ride as much as we wanted to, and no line was more than a ten minute wait, including a ride called Vertigo, which we were told is an hour wait in the summer. One ride, called the "golden tower", was very fun to go on, as it was a beautiful day and at the top, before you fell straight down hundreds of feet, you had a clear view of Copenhagen. It's truly a remarkable city. For dinner, I had a quick hamburger. I had no idea what I was getting into, as the burger would soon come back to haunt me, but that's a story for my next entry. After Tivoli, it was very late, so Ryan and I went to bed pretty quickly after getting back to the hotel and packing up. It was on to another day of waking up at 4:00am.

Sunday, April 12th

The day began as any other day did, we woke up and ate breakfast. We didn't have much planned at the beginning of the day, so we kind of hung out, talked and played Madden. We finally headed to Paul's house, where we met up with Paul and Cornell. We all went to the nearby grocery store and bought ingredients for lunch. I bought cheese, because I really liked the Danish cheese. I made a cheese and jam sandwich on Danish rye bread, and it was pretty good. Paul and his brother Christian had a soccer game they had to go to, and Cornell was tired and wanted to sleep, so Mathias and I decided to go to the DGI house. It was pretty cool, a lot larger than I'd expected. There were lots of different saunas and activities. My favorite part was the rock wall. There was a very tall rock wall that overlooked a pool, so if you messed up, you just fell into the pool. If you made it to the top, you could jump off into the pool, and it was pretty high up so it was awesome. There was also a trampoline that you could jump into the pool off of. In addition to these, we also hot tubbed and played catch in the water. It was very relaxing, and pretty unique, we don't have anything like that around here. It was kind of like a very unique lifetime fitness, a lot more water orientated. After we finished up, we headed back to Paul's, where we met up with Paul, Christian and Cornell. It was around dinner time, and Paul drove us to his dad's house, a huge house on the outskirts of Herning. He had made the whole house, and it was very very cool. He made us a Danish dinner, consisting of Danish meatballs, their specially prepared potatoes, and purple cabbage. It was delicious. Ryan and Ellen also joined us, so we spent the night watching the Cavaliers (yes, it was on TV) and talking. It was pretty sad, none of us were ready to go, yet it was our last night. We lit some fireworks and watched them go off, and then headed back to Mathias's house. I packed and then got ready for bed. It was about 12:30am when I was in bed, and I was preparing to wake up at 4:15am for the train. I was not very happy.

Saturday, April 11th

Getting to sleep in was very nice. Waking up at around 9, I felt very rested and ready for the day. After a quick breakfast, we went to Ellen's for a tour of her farm. As we began the tour, Ryan was standing in the barn with a sign, flowers and a pony, as he asked Michal to prom. I thought it was very cute. As for the farm, the farm was mammoth, bigger than any of us expected. There were hundreds of cows, standing in rows that seemed to be endless. I have no idea how you tend to that many animals, but they seem to be doing a pretty good job. We went through the farm, petting the cows and chit chatting all the while. I found it very interesting, actually. Every cow in the building was female, except for one cow, the bull. His job was to reproduce. So basically all day, all he does is have sex. Outside, there were smaller, plastic enclosures, each housing a calf. The calfs were very cute, and if you stuck your hand inside the enclosure, they would suck on it, thinking milk would come out. It was pretty funny, it felt really weird. After the tour was over, we went out in the backyard for lunch and ice cream. It was a very nice day, so everyone was in a really good mood enjoying the outdoors. The home made ice cream was also delicious. Ellen even brought out her pony! After we were finished at the farm, we went to the beach. Again, it was a very nice day, so we all wanted to hang out and play some sports. We played football for a while, and then switched to soccer. We had to explain football to the Danes, but they picked it up pretty quickly and had a blast. Soccer was also very fun. We then headed back to Mathias's to shower before the group dinner. We had some time to kill, so we played some Madden and then headed to the school. The dinner was outstanding, tied with the Italian Pizza meal as the best food I had. It was all so unique, so tasteful. I also got interviewed, they asked me a few questions about Denmark. I later found out that I made the school paper! A few of us, including myself, said a few words of gratitude before heading out. It was pretty sad because it was the last time we'd all be together until Monday morning, when we would depart. Me and some others headed back to Paul's where we hung out, playing video games and talking. When it got late, Mathias's dad picked us up and we headed home.

Friday, April 10th

Waking up at 6:00am, a tad bit earlier than my usual 6:30am, was not difficult at all. I ate my regular breakfast with Mathias and his parents, and then headed off to school. When we got to Herning Gymnasium, there was a very large bus waiting for us. We boarded the bus, and embarked on the slightly over an hour trek to Aarhus. The bus ride was pretty fun, despite the early departure. We talked, listened to music, played games, Kenneth even gave us a quiz on our knowledge of both Cleveland and Herning. Once we arrived at Aarhus, we left the bus and toured the university. It was very cool to see, considering me and a lot of my fellow seniors on the trip are all preparing to head off to College anyways. We also saw some students practicing their beer chugging and kayaking, a traditional college activity in Denmark. We then walked to the ARoS Art Museum, a walk that seemed to take forever! Once we finally arrived, we toured the museum. I didn't love the tour. I thought the girl who lead the tour talked far too much, and did a lot of the interpreting herself rather than allowing us to do it for ourselves. I really liked this part, as the tour guide lady left out pretty much every cool part of the museum. There were several awesome exhibits, such as a rainbow-fog room and the rainbow panorama room. After looking around and taking pictures, we headed out to a very old church, where we split up and had our free time. I went with Nandor, Ryan and Adam. We first went to Super Dry, a store I've purchased items from in China. I got very excited when I spotted it and knew we had to get something from there, there are only two in the US. We then walked around for a while and got lunch, the largest pizza I've ever seen in my life. I somehow ate two pieces. We then hopped back on the bus and headed for the Queen's Castle. It was beautiful, overlooking the sea was a large, clean white house. We kind of hung out around it, taking pictures the whole time. We then boarded the bus and headed back to Herning. This was one of my favorite days of the trip. I bonded with a lot of students from OHS who I had never even spoke to prior to the trip. I made a lot of new friends, and got to spend a lot of time with my old friends too. As Mr. Chordas would say, it was "quality". Once back at the school, Mathias, Paul, Cornell, Lasse, Ben and I all went to play pool for a little before heading to Carla's. Carla's was very fun as well. She lived on a farm, so there were dogs, sheep, pheasants, etc. Adam and I even chased down one of the sheep and pet it. Dinner was also very good, everyone loves Tacos! We hung out there until pretty late and then went home. Carla's was great, because, this time, I got to bond with the Danes. There were a lot of them that I had really not gotten the chance to meet and talk to, so I made a lot of friends there.

Thursday, April 9th

Waking up at 6:30am again was easy, as I was sleeping very well and got a good rest. Again, the weather was spectacular and the view was beautiful. Breakfast was the same, but still very good. We soon found ourselves at Herning Gymnasium, in the Spanish room. I've always taken Chinese, so I had no idea what was going on, and just sat there pretending I was being useful. Next, Kenneth took us into a large sitting area in the school, where we created writings about our trip. I wrote about the Handball match, with Ryan Sonkin. After this, the fun part of the day started. I thought this day was one of the best days we had on the entire trip. We played sports all day! Once through with Kenneth's writing lesson, we changed and headed towards the gym. Mr. Chordas and Mr. Ley explained to the Danes a very basic overview of the American game of Football. I also demonstrated the art of the extra kick with Ryan (the Kicker is undoubtably the most important player on the field, it is indeed an art). We then headed outside and did some basic drills, involving throwing and catching. We also did a few punts. After we finished the football lesson, we headed inside for some lunch. Again, I couldn't even nearly finish, as Mathias's lunches were COLOSSAL. We then went back outside, for some soccer and ultimate frisbee. I chose to play soccer. We played as America versus Denmark. You can pretty much guess what happened, we fell behind and ended up losing 8-5. We were outnumbered, I think in a fair match we could've taken 'em easily. We then got our bikes, and prepared for the trek. The trip was very thorough, taking us around Herning and all the way to Elia, a very large man made structure, and back. It gave us a very good look into the town, and showed us pretty much everything we needed to see. After we got back, we headed out to the beach to see the German bunkers. We went as a group, so it was very, very fun. We just relaxed by the bunkers and on the beach, bonding with one another the entire time. We then headed to an Italian Pizzeria for dinner. Having been to Italy and having experienced Italian Pizza, I'm being completely honest when I tell you that this place was just as good. It was a phenomenal meal. After the meal, we headed home and relaxed until falling asleep.

Wednesday, April 8th

I woke up at 6:30am to the sound of my alarm clock. I looked outside and I recall noticing the beauty of the country, I had a view of a grassy field, which looked beautiful under the cloudless, blue sky. I showered, and headed over to the table to eat breakfast with Mathias and his mother (his father had gone to work). We ate Oatmeal with milk, and bread with all sorts of spreads (jam, butter, etc) as well as cheeses. I really enjoyed the food. We then headed off to the school, and were lucky enough to have his friends drive us there, as opposed to biking. The first thing I noticed about the school, was that it looked exactly like my old school, from when I lived in China. It was all new, with clever architecture and modeling creating a very modern aesthetic. We moved into somewhat of a lecture hall area, where we all took our seats and began listening to presentations. All of the OHS students did a great job, but I was told that there was a unanimous decision, and the "American Kitchen" group was the best. I wonder who was in that group. We then headed out into a large room in the center of the school, where we were given an assembly. This began with live music and us being introduced, and concluded with their regular assembly material. After a short english lesson with Kenneth, it was time for lunch. I had a huge lunch, as Mathias's mom is accustomed to packing lunch for him, and he's huge. It was all very tasty, it consisted of three different types of rye-bread sandwiches, a Danish hot dog, a vegetable sandwich, a banana, yoghurt, almonds and water. A lot to eat for lunch. After a short history class, Mathias had an economics class, which I opted to miss, and instead, played soccer with some of the Danes as well as some of our kids. We then had a short integrated group discussion, regarding different topics and how our cultures perceive them. Once the day came to its end, we left the school, and headed to the beach. A couple of us met up there with our Danish hosts, and we just kind of hung out. There was a very large man made lake, surrounded by sand. There was also a dock, which we went out on and hung out on. We then went into the city and got a quick hot dog. It was soon time to travel to a nearby city to watch Handball. I knew what Handball was, as I had played it in gym in my old school (which was British, so they played Handball) but I had never seen a real match. It was an awesome experience, truly unique. After the match, we headed home and relaxed until falling asleep.