AHHHH I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME! DON'T MAKE ME!

A couple weeks ago, I would have begged you to move up my departure by at least a week.  But now that it comes down to it, I am incredibly emotional about leaving.  While I know it would not be practical for me to stay for a whole year, that's all that I really want right now.  My two best friends here, Elizabeth and Marianne, are staying for the whole year, and leaving them knowing they still have another 4 months here makes me green with envy.  At the same time, there are so many things I am looking forward to about going home and back to Santa Clara next semester... But it's just so sad to think that this chapter of my life is over.  Well, bittersweet I suppose, but I am the type of person who has a hard time letting things go so.... that is not helping the situation.

As much as I would love to say, yeah, I will go abroad at another point to work or volunteer, the odds of that are slim and it still wouldn't be the same.  Nevertheless, it is a nice thing to keep in the back of my mind during this time.  I feel like I really started to blossom here only recently.  Bummer.

I was going to make a list of things I will miss about Denmark, but instead maybe I should try to be a little more positive and think about what to look forward to when I get back:

-my family and friends, of course!

-Holidays with my whole giant family... I wouldn't miss it for the world

-Chipotle/taco bell/good Cali mexican food (yeah, make fun of me for the taco bell but you would miss it too if you are surrounded by pickled herring and rye bread for 4 months)

-heat. sunshine. not wearing a jacket, tights under my pants, gloves, a hat, a scarf, snow boots...

-moving into my new house!!!!

-seeing everyone back at school

-meeting the new dg babies (I am a grand-big now... so old!)

-so many more types of food I could list here... but specifically my momma's cooking :) which i will only have for a few weeks, but still...

-not worrying if people are making fun of me in a language I don't understand

-21st birthday in 2 weeks!

that's just a short list.  But it's already making me feel better.  Be home soon!!!

I leave Denmark in 4 days.  Well, more like 3 and a half days. I have not started packing and still have a final tomorrow, so these will be a few crazy days.

I am having very mixed emotions about leaving.  For the last couple of weeks I have been very antsy to get back home, but now that it is coming down to it I am realizing how much I am going to miss this place, for so many different reasons.  There are things that I didn't get a chance to do that I regret, like taking the 30 minute train ride to Sweden... just to be in a different country that easily and quickly is something I should have taken advantage of!  And maybe I have spent a little too much time in bed wrapped in blankets watching movies online.  But hey, maybe thats not the worst thing... and it's pretty much the best option when you live in a weird little town 30 minutes out of the city, and your room has no heating.  I have come to cherish my time alone; it's not really a thing you get much of in a college atmosphere (ask me about it when I am living in a house with 9 other girls in a few weeks) and I think it's important to be able to be content without always having to be running around doing stuff or constantly being surrounded by other people.

People have told me that you don't really realize how great your abroad experience was until you are back home.  I'm sure that it will hit me even more then, but right now I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to have been able to live and study in a different country for 4 months, completely on my own.  With more and more American students studying abroad, especially from Santa Clara where it's almost an expected right of passage during your junior year, it is so easy to take this opportunity for granted.  It's easy to forget that not everyone can just drop everything and go to Europe for four months.  Not only have I learned about a different culture and way of life, I have met some fabulous people who I would have never had the opportunity of meeting otherwise.  I have been pushed out of my comfort zone, but with incredible results.  So to those who encouraged and enabled me to have this experience (most of all, my fabulous parents) and supported me along the way, I cannot thank you enough.  

Now, I am off to make the most of my remaining time here...

I can't tell you how many times I have been asked, mostly by confused Danes, "so uhhh, why did you come to Denmark?"

I really don't know what to tell them.  The abroad options which I seriously considered spanned a good 5 continents, and my reasoning for each place was completely different.

My reason for choosing Denmark at the time was: I don't know anyone going, and I want to have an experience all my own (turns out John and Will are here from SCU, but they hardly distract me from having my own experience, but rather provide comfortable and familiar faces :). )  I get credit for all of my classes here as well, which is great for a double-major that is slightly behind on classes.

Other reasons?  It's somewhere different, and I must admit, I thought everyone in Denmark was going to be a hippie or something.  Which is not the case at all, but they still lead a pretty relaxed lifestyle, and have really got their priorities straight.  While I certainly do not think that such a welfare system would EVER fly in the US, I think we could learn a few things from the Danes.  For starters, Danes value family and friends above all else.  Most only work a good 6 hours a day, which I know because I see them at 3 pm "rush hour" losening their ties and having a beer on the train with their friends before they go home to spend some quality times with their families.  They don't really get why Americans work so hard, which I don't really get either, except for money I guess.  And personal satisfaction.  But personal satisfaction in Denmark doesn't exactly consist of how much you get done in a day's work.  It's about cultivating personal relationships and knowing how to spend their free time in an enjoyable manner.

Yup, us Americans could sure learn a few things from the Danes.

Except in my opinion they are kinda crazy for living in a place with 5 hours of sunlight and ridiculously cold weather.  But that's just me.

a few things i love about winter in denmark (despite the 5 hours of sunlight everyday):

-Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE, and everything being all hygge... and candles (Jen knows how great the candles are!)

-people wearing santa hats around, just for the heck of it, and not getting weird looks

-little kids waddling around in snow suits, looking like the little brother in the Christmas Story... I so wish they made them in adult sizes!