a wonderful weekend!

Wow! I really have so much to blog about! My friend Doug, who's from USA and doing exchange in Norway, came to visit me! He came on Friday morning and Bjarke and I picked him up in Odense. It was so cool that he came! I met him in New York right before I came to Denmark so I hadn't seen him in 6 months! And after a 9-hour bus trip and 2 hour train trip he was really tired! Bjarke, me and him ate a really nice breakfast and he went and took a nap. Then I had to figure out.. what are we going to do? What can I show him? I decided on the Odense Zoo! I had been wanting to go and I heard it was a really cool Zoo! So we took the train to Odense.. walked REALLY far to the Zoo (later found out we could have taken the bus for free.. damn!). I was so excited that we even found the Zoo seeing as I didn't bring a map or address! haha.. And we saw tigers, lions, flamingos, monkeys and manatees. Doug and I were kind of confused how if manatees are an endangered species there can be 4 of them in a Danish Zoo? But it was a really great trip! Then we walked back to the station and took the train home. And then Shannon came over and we all watched Harry Potter and other movies and just had a good time! On Saturday I planned an ice skating trip in Odense (where I went with Nikolai last monday) with all the AFS exchangies on Fyn! Doug, Shannon and I got there half an hour early, so we decided to go check out the town church because Solvej said there was a king's (was it a king, solvej?) body preserved there. The Church is absolutely beautiful! but it was kind of creepy seeing the "crypt" and the king's bones! (and his brother's.. that was weird) Then we went to the ice rink and met up with a BUNCH of exchangies! not just AFS but kids a ton of kids from our language school! It was SO much fun! So freaking funny to see kids from South America ice skating! If you've been following my blog then you already know how much I love the ice rink in Odense and how beautiful it is there, so I'm not going to write any more about that. After skating 5 of us decided to get a bite to eat and we hung out a good restaurant for a couple hours and then went to this english/irish pub and watched a football (soccer) game on TV. And it was just SO cozy! So fun to hang out! We are totally going to do it again! Today I wasn't really sure what we should do. I thought "ehh I will just walk Doug around Ringe and make it LOOK like a big town!" haha.. but then I remember I had to go to a Nytårs Parade (New Year's Parade) for Spejder (Scouts) at 15.00! So we went! We sang songs in the church and listened to a story and some preaching (however.. not like a Catholic church.. it's a Protestant church and therefore somewhat more uplifting if you catch my drift?) and then we went outside. At this point it was snowing like crazy! Big beautiful snowflakes! We walked in a parade with flags and torches and a big band all through the town and then went to the Old Folk's home and sang songs for them and they gave us hot chocolate and bread. It was just so cozy! So much fun! It felt like a fairytale how beautiful it was with little kids and big snowflakes and torches and music!

Tomorrow I start school again after my 2 week holiday, which was fantastic! I mean.. I love seeing my friends at school! Hate the actual school part.. but tomorrow Snaper, a kid from Hong Kong who has been living in Ålborg (remember I talked about shopping in Ålborg last week?) is moving to Årslev.. right down the road and going to my school! So I am going to show him around the school and introduce him to our counselor, Kamilla, tomorrow which I'm looking forward to! Keep writing everyone! I love hearing from you guys! love francine

BTW if you have facebook you need to join the group "Solvej Needs Jelly Beans" and support Solvej's quest for Jelly Belly Jelly Beans to appease her addiction! Tusen tak!