Goodbyes

Well being July it is the time of year when all northern hemisphere exchange students return home from their year, and the new lot arrive. Here are some photos from Brittanys farewell..

Midsummer & my Birthday

Hey everyone!

Well I had a very lovely birthday, had a dinner at my house for 10 of my girl friends which went well. I made my auntys famous home made ice cream which was fun and everyone enjoyed it.

my table
Alana and Julia
Sofia and Linnea Louise and I
me, Caroline, Alana and Julia

I am yet to get the rest of the photos of my host parents. It is traditional to be woken on your birthday by your family walking into your room singing a happy birthday song very loudly and bringing your pressies and brekky. It is quite nice really!

Well I had my birthday dinner on the thursday evening before my birthday as on my actual birthday it was Midsummer, a very swedition tradition of celebrating summer right in the middle. Well It is celebrated by everyone dressing in dresses, well the girls anyway, and flowery wreaths in the hair as everyone has a very swedish lunch and dances around what i can only describe as a tall pole wrapped in a grass wreath type thing. So everybody got dressed and we all walked to the field in Gantofta to join the other familys there. It was raining. It rained so much infact taht unfortunatly everybody stayed only about 10 minutes before giving up and going home so I missed out on dancing and singing around a big grass thing haha. Lunch was pickled herring ( the swedes tend to eat that on every occasion such as easter and christmas), potatoes, meatballs, schnaps etc

What wonderful weather to celebrate Summer with!

Emmy's hair wreath

Lunchtime
trying my snaps and herring

Brittany, Emmy and I

Well my host mother felt it was very sad that i was missing out on such a swedish tradition so she took the table model of what everyone dances around, you can see it in the photo of lunch, and placed in the backyard and a few of us danced and sung around that. It was very funny, I shall try and post the video soon.

The ended with a midsummer party at a friends house which was a nice way to finish the day and my birthday :)

myself, host brother Anton and Brittany

Denmark Cycle

Hey everybody,

I have just gotten home from my week biking trip around a part of Denmark. I biked a bit over 400 km over the time so a far whack, but at an easy pace. The route we followed was mainly along coastline with beautiful beachs or through the bush, either way it was usually very pretty although the bush could be hard going with some difficult paths. We started in Helsingor and our first overnight was in Frederiksvaerk. Then it was to somewhere im not sure of the name is then to Holbaek, then roskilde for two nights and later copenhagen for the weekend where I met up with my Helen and Aiden. I went with my host grandfather and a group of his friends, my friend Alana also followed along but not until the second night. The first two days were great for my swedish being with the swedes obviously, as i didnt need to bother using english allowing me to just think and speak in swedish and was very satisfying. The week was really fun and was great spending time with alana who lives an hour or so away from me. I have my photos pretty chronologically ordered so will just write about the pics for you to explain my trip....

Group photo before geting the ferry over to denmark to start the adventure.

Anything for the photo
Team NZ t-shirt on one the group

first morning tea stop so pretty with the swan and the lake...

afternoon tea
cute changing sheds at the beach

brave souls swimming

fixing one of the 3 punctures that occured on the trip...yes 2 were mine!

are we going the right way?!

on ya bikes

it was hotbeautiful sunsets, at about 10pm
there were thousands of poppys in this particular field and as we rode along poppys would line the fields

sharing one of many laughs
in a replica of an old house
playing with clay in a vikings museum
we went sailing on a replica of a vikings boat...i think i will stick with the yacht in future thanks

On Friday night in copenhagen we met jacquelyn and Samantha for dinner






Then Saturday morning I met my sister and her boyfriend at the train station in Copenhagen and had a lovely day together. It was nice meeting somewhere else and being tourists together, I think it was a great way to do it before going to my home in Sweden. We were just on holiday together doing a boat tour on the canels in copenhagen, walking through the commune of Christiania which was very interesting, shopping, dinner and then going to the 160 yr old theme park Tivoli.
It was nice to be in copenhagen before Sweden because i have such a different life in Sweden that doesnt include my life in New Zealand. It sounds harsh when i describe it like that but it is difficult to explain. I have a swedish family and a swedish school and friends and fave hang outs etc so I was unsure how I would feel when I brought the two lives together but it was lovely to show Helen and Aiden around my neighbourhood and introduce them to my host family and take them to a favourite cafe for lunch etc.

on the boat tour
Helen and Aiden in CopenhagenHelen and I in Helsingborg.

I was really lucky to have great weather the entire week and got a bit of a tan. Today I had a lovely day hanging out with 3 girls who are at my next school. I have changed schools as many of you know due to the fact that it just wasnt working out at my old school. i am looking forward to the fresh start in august when school returns after the great summer holidays that have started.

I have a lot to look forward to over the next few months and just want to go go go! hahaha

pusshej x

On the lighter side,

Oh Denmark!

a random statue in the middle of these fields

have you brushed your teeth?

Mcdonalds warrants its own street sign

check out how long this word is in danish!