JAN. 24

Disclaimer: Nothing I type is spelled right according to the Danish computers I use. This means I can not really spell check anything. So now you will know the true horror of my poor grammer and spelling.

Today started out kinda hard. I woke at 5am in tears missing Tom and Betty something fierce. After crying for 45 minutes I gave in and made the 20 dollar call home (there is no dollar symbol on a Danish keyboard). It was encouraging to hear his voice. I continued to cry till I got to the train station. I decided then it was best to pull it together and do what I came here to do.

The train rides here are just as I had heard them to be - QUITE. And I mean silent. Unless you are 5 years old you shut the bleep up. It is fantastic! What makes it even better is the "Quite Car". That is the part of the train set aside for silence. Ummm yeah. These are my kind of people. Especially considering the weird stuff that happens on Portland public transit.

School is wonderful minus the 20 year old kids. I am old. They annoy me. If I had a cane I would shake it at them. Campus is spread out over a 8 block area in buildings that are 200 years old. Needless to the say, the bathrooms were an after thought. The architecture is inspiring. The program I am in seems to really have their stuff together. Which is appreciated considering the cost. I offically start classes on Thursday. We have had orientation the last two days and it will complete tomorrow.

My host family, as I have stated before is awesome. Nina my mum is 4 years older than me. HA! Jesper my host dad is 50 and an IT guy at a natural gas company. Asta is two and full of personality (and I mean that in the nice way). Greta my roommate could not be nicer. She is the most mature 20 year old I have ever met. Talented as well. We are both in awe of how lucky we are to have this family. We all sit around the dinner table and talk politics every night - heaven. And the whole conversation stays very civil even when we disagree. Dinner is kind of deal. Like a two hour deal. Then there is the hanging out after dinner. I am sure some of that will subside as school progresses. I am going to start jogging with Jesper and the very ill behaved dog Luvee. I have also taken the 300 year old cat, Tarzan, under my wing as he is kinda the forgotten animal of the house. (Dad- he is like a very old Ray. Very cute)

So Danish is not an easy language. Not that any of you would make that assumption, but just to be clear . . . After dinner I was asking Nina about the name of bird I keep seeing around. It is large like a crow with the coloring of Magpie. She said that it was maybe this bird called a Sakther (I am butching the spelling). When I repeated it back to hear to verify my pronuncation she burst into laughter. (So far that has not been the common response to my attempts at Danish) She said "oh I must correct you. A skede is a vagina". I was grateful that she corrected me.

I had an entertaining day with taking pictures. Somehow, everything looked like a dirty joke. It had me laughing in the streets a few times. So enjoy.

Please send me letters or emails. I miss home a great deal and would love some American distractions.

The sign reads "slut spurt". It means final blowout sale. Language is funny.

 So they have all these posters around with hot guys holding puppies. Um yeah. Everyone likes that. Loosely translated - he is saying that he will no longer be playing video games but instead hanging out with his gal and dog.

 This is adorable Greta.

Side note - Amy Wheeler, you were right. It is great when everyone is speaking another language around you. There is a certian bliss in not knowing what the hell is going on!