June 28th

Technically, since it's past midnight, today is departure day.

Well, not the actual day of us (I will be refering to the AFS Georgia group as "us") leaving Atlanta, but the day of our goodbyes and departure from hometowns, homes and from current lives.

Agnes left for Washington DC, early morning yesterday, for a week long conference. Almost week long. So basically I already said goodbye to my loving and caring spanish host-mama ):

And in 15½ hours, I will be separated from the rest of the family; Steve, Marina and Carolina. It' so damn hard to realize.

We (AFS kids, remember?) will all get dropped off at the Vila International near Emory University tomorrow where we will spend the night and maybe even have a miniature departure-orientation? Monday we will proceed to go to the airport, and fly to New York all together, where we meet up with 900 AFS exchange student from the Eastern region, all ready to go home! And from NYC, the AFS of the student's homecountry take over. They arranged the home flight and all. So from what I understand, we will part up to be with our countrymen (and women), spend the night, and leave Tuesday.

Since we don't arrive in Copenhaguen until Wednesday, I'm gessing it'll be an overnight flight. Party!

And Thursday; ROSKILDE FESTIVAL!!!!

I don't even want to get startet on my emotions right now. I barely know myself what I feel. I don't really want to live here for real, but I also don't want to leave. I don't really want to go back to Denmark, and yet I am excited in some way.

I am afraid I'm going to be deeply disappointed when I walk out of the "arrivals" at CPH. With what? I don't really know.. My family, my friends, my language, my everything? It's not that I don't love every single one of them (applies to the language too), I just don't feel like it's something I can handle. At all.

It's such a big part of myself I'm leaving behind. "You're not leaving it behind, because it's in your heart" - I have heard several times. Thank you, I am very aware of that, but I'm pretty sure we all know there is a humonguous difference. People will be there, but not really. Westminster won't be there. Atlanta won't be there.

It seems like such a an impossible task; the task of going back to Danish lifestyle. It makes me so mad at the world. I know it's ridiculous to be mad at everything, but I can't help it right now.

I cried saying goodbye to this and that person. Mostely because I was so incredibly grateful for getting to know them and for all those good memories, but also because I knew the end was creeping up on me. It's a weird undescribable feeling, and I feel like a majorly-overreacting-super-hormonal-teenager. Therefore I am also mad at myself.

I guess I did describe some emotions. Well.. Yeah.

Now I'm gonna go finish packing (stupid weight restrictions), go to bed and thoroughly enjoy every single remaining moment.

This might be my last post for a while, but I will keep posting (like Francine!) next year, as I think (like Francine) that that part definitely is relevant too.

And even though nobody's reading it, I like writing it down for my own sake.

See y'all on Wednesday!

June 20th

8 days.. I can't believe it's this close to being over.

The Braves game was fun, although they lost (I was wrong about them being a good team. Apparently they USED to be) to the Pittsburg Pirates.

There were a lot of little funny games in between the shifts and that kind of stuff.

The stadium was originally an Olympic stadium from 96, but since a baseball field is way smaller, then tore down half of it, and made it into the baseball field it is toda

y. It has one of the biggest screens in the world, and they always film people around sitting, and we were on it at some point! Great fun.

Andy and Pedro

Me and Alex

Ruth and Darren

One of the many games on the big screen: the tool race

eating ice-cream

I've just been hanging around the last couple of days with Carolina, Marina, Glenn, Leigh Ann and the AFS kids. Nothing special.

Marina arranged a goodbye-party for me tomorrow, so I'm excited about that! We got a Tinkerbell Piñata for the party today. It's so cute and pretty and YAY : )

I've been packing. Bought a few American presents for family and friends.

That's pretty much it. I can probably tell you the stories once I get back, if you really want to hear them.

I already miss Westminster terribly...

Alessandra (Italy) and Pedro (Portugal) both left already, because they had to go back and take some kind of exams for their schools and what not.

I hope y'all are doing well.

June 10th

Hey everyone!

This going to be very quick and short. Just thought I would update you quickly, before I forget.

Wow. So much happens all the time.

I am so busy, that I have barely had time to sit at home and be with the Mathesons! I am so stressed out all the time. I want to do everything before it's too late, so I always worry about this and that person that I have to see, this place I have to go, that thing I have to get and so on. I even have a hard time falling asleep at night..

But one thing is for sure; it has all been amazing. I have been doing sooooo much fun stuff!

Like the other day? I went to a No Doubt concert with Torrey, Allison, Sarah and Dianne! It was awesome. I looooooove Gwen Stefani! She is such a great performer and it made the evening amazing. 

Besides that, I have just been doing more Odyssey and so on. And did I mention our French immersion night?

Hm, I dont think so. WELL; Claire, Peyton, Katie and I cooked french food and spoke French (kind of.. haha) and watched a French movie and all. It was a great night!

We cooked moules-frites (all home made), ratatouille, some weird fish and YUM! So delicious. Then we watched Les Choristes, and all fell in love with Jean-Baptiste Maunier. Basically.

I think we're doing the Italian one on Friday! I'm excited!

Tonight, I'm going to a Braves' Baseball game with my AFS buddies! Yay! The Braves, Atlanta's team, are supposedly really good. Soooo, after Odyssey ends at 5, I am off for a fun night, that will actually be the last before we all go to NY in 2½ weeks, with a bunch of really good friends. 

Well, that was my short update for now! I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post soon.

I hope y'all are well.

June 3rd

Hey everyone!

Summer has arrived; trust me, the temperatures show it. It has been over 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) most days this week. I'm pretty sure it is in the low 40s in Celsius degrees. = HOT! And that's in the afternoon! 

I decided to spend my first month of summer the American way; being busy. Yup, here they don't just "hang out". That is viewed as boring and as a waste of time. Also, most parents are still working, so kids can't just stay at home all day and do nothing. Therefore, pretty much everyone gets involved with something; summer school, summer jobs, volunteering, camps and other fun stuff like that.

Summer school? - you might think. Yes, summer school. I don't know about public school, but it is quite popular at Westminster. If you take a class during the summer, for.. 6 weeks I would say, then you don't have to take it during the year. And who wouldn't want some room in their schedule for a free period or some kind of art class, music class and such? A few of my friends are doing "Marine Biology" these weeks, as the junior science class is Biology. They study fish, yeah, but they get to go to Hawaii for a week to go look at these fish in real life! Nice, huh? 

Personally, I had no reason to do summer school, I can't work because of my student visa and camp? No. Not enough time for that. Soooo, I decided to volunteer! Yay!

There is a program at school for inner-city kids (several programs actually, buuuuuuut...) that are not as privileged as Westminster kids, that go to public schools with a lot of trouble and trouble kids, and that get to go spend their days at Westminster, in stead of staying at home and getting into some kind of stupid stuff. This program is called Odyssey, and it isfor  Elementary school kids and Junior High kids. 

Elementary school kids are with volunteers all day. I'm not too sure about what they do.. Coloring, playing.. stuff like that I guess. 

Junior high kids (rising 6th-8th graders) have themed classes in the morning, at Westminster, with Westminster teachers. 

THEN it is time for Odyssey Adventure, the part I am volunteering for. It goes from 3pm to 5pm and we basically just play and do activities with the kids. There are quite a lot of volunteers (all Wesminster kids), and also a couple of friends of mine that are doing it. Excitiiiing! :)

I really enjoy working with these kids - my 7th grade girls, because I get to see another "culture" and I get to understand how it is not to be at Westminster and in Buckhead. It's crazy how different life can be for people just a few miles away.

Of course, sometimes they are hard to handle because they are NOT Westminster kids, and they are not used to this kind of supervision. Also, I don't think they are used to having people expect things from them. Odyssey is a quest for college. We have to give these kids hope and motivation to continue their education, because it IS possible. 

Did I mention that this program is free for these kids, and sponsored by donors? Go America and all their donation-obsession!

I could go on about Odyssey for a long time, but I won't. Not now at least :)

If you want to read more about the program, you can read about it here.

Besides all of this Odyssey business, I have been an extra in a movie! This movie called "The Blind Side" is scheduled to come out at my grade's graduations, in 2011. A senior that graduated this year, Hampton Fluker,  has an important role in this movie about football, whichs cast includes Sandra Bullock. Yep!

But Hampton was not enough Westminster for them, because they also decided to use our beautiful campus for some scenes! 

They asked students to sign up for roles such as cheerleaders, football managers, crowd members, and even football players! Of course, I thought I would sign up too! They called me back about being a football manager and such, so I was super excited. I thought it would be SUPER fun to get to see how movies were made! But a few days later, they called and told me that they couldn't use me as I didn't have an American social security number, and because of that wasn't covered byt their insurance. Great.

Despite that failure, I decided to go hang out in the crowd last night, open to whoever wanted to join. A lot of random people showed up, simply because they could get paid 100$ per night (from 8pm to 6 am). It was weird seeing all these non-Westminster people on campus...

But yeah, I joined the crowd. It was fun. They moved us around several times, and finally we were on. We had to cheer, but silently. So fun. It looked crazy! It was like being in a movie, but in real life. It had a great time! And it was really cool to see how it works. Nothing is random. Some people were asked to walk from here to there, and asked to stand up when this and that happened, to walk out, to walk in, to sit down, and all that kind of stuff. To make it look real, I suppose.

I had a lot of friends that were cheerleaders, so when we had breaks, I went to hang out with them, until the people called us to "reset", and we filmed the scene 4-5 times. Then they had to change the light settings, move the cameras, practice the scene witht he football players and all. So there would be like 30-40 minutes with that, where I would go hang out with the cheerleaders again. And then more filming. It went on and on all night. 

I left at 12.40 though. It would have been fun to stay all night.

They are filming again tonight, and Sandra Bullock is going to be there. I don't know if I want to go though.. Hmm.. I'll think about it.

Agnes' mom and mom's cousing arrived, so now everything is in Catalan at home! I don't understand anything. But that's cool.

I hope y'all are well!