October 29th

Wow, I guess I haven't kept my promise about updating.

It's just that whenever I tried to write something, it felt slightly pointless.

Transfering back has been weird. Really weird.

I went a whole lot easier than I thought it would, but it was a challenge. I'm conviced that the fact that I just started high school this year made it a lot easier also. I got to meet new people, and it wasn't exactly "going back to your old life". Only in some ways.

Most of my old friendships died out, which can be really annoying when my (okay get ready for this) new friends have plans to hang out with their old friends (from before they went to high school) and I don't have any old friends to hang out with.

It makes me feel really fucking lonely. And not only this. Just the fact that I went on this journey by my self, and only I fully understand what happened this year. No one understands why I appreciate certains things so much.. I'm sure they just think I'm convinced that "my life is way more interesting than theirs and thats why I have to keep telling them about it blah blah".

Finding where this thin line between sharing experiences and bragging, can be hard to find.

I love Denmark, I really do. I feel comfortable in my life. My school (Rysensteen Gymnasium - supposedly one of the best public schools in CPH) is awesome, social life is good, and there isn't a lot to complain about. There really isn't. And I AM aware of that.

Yet, I miss the US. Terribly.

The weird part is that I don't know where I'd rather be.

All I know is that everytime I see a footage in TV set in the US, the American Flag, hear someone speak American English, or just get reminded of the US in general; I really miss it.

Not only do I miss my lovely host family, my beloved friends and Wesminster; I also miss speaking English, watching a football game, going to Willy's or Starbucks, driving around in my friends cars listening to music, baking break'n'bake with Carolina at night, sleeping in the basement, hanging out in Athens.. I just miss it.

What's really tough is that I don't see ANY of these things in my life in Denmark. They're so far away from me, yet they lie so deep in my heart.

Staying positive and focusing on how priviledged I am to be able to live my life, is how I stay sane ;)

I hope I have something interesting to update about soon!

xoxo

Camille

July 10th

I'm back home, in Denmark, Hillerød. I have been since Wednesday.

Honestly, I'm still not realizing, but that might have something to do with the fact that I left for the well known Roskilde festival the day after I came back, and just came back Monday... Hehehe

I think I mentioned that getting from Atlanta to Copenhagen took me approximately 4 days, didn't I?

Well I think I'm going to describe a little bit of how it all went (although I doubt anyone reads this.. maybe Francine!).

It started Sunday after saying all my goodbyes to friends stopping by, to Agnes the previous day, and to Carolina leaving for work; we - Steve, Marina, Julia and I, went to the Vila International in Atlanta where we got dropped off and said goodbye for good.

It was horrible. I started bawling when I said goodbye to Marina, and so did she. First then, I kind of hit me. And yet..

Afterwards, when they left, I just sat in a chair for 30 minutes and couldn't stop crying.

It was absolutely terrible.

Luckily, my AFS buddies were there (asides from Pedro and Alessandra; who both left early) to keep my mind off such sad things for the following 3 days. We were joined by the Alabama kids who I found to be very nice people too, and we were just all a big group of happy friends travelling. It sure made leaving easier. It felt more like travelling than leaving actually.

Anyways; we went out to dinner and ate Thai food, went to Starbucks, had Coke floats, played games, made posters for the next generation of AFS exchange students in GA and AL, and just chilled out for the rest of the night.

Monday morning, we left the Vila early in the morning to get to the airport in time to make sure no one had problems with their luggage and so. I passed! 50 pounds in one suitcase, and 49 in another one! Perfect. On the other hand, I had a backpack and a big purse; both incredibly heavy, that I had to carry around. Trust me, after 3 days of travelling, my back was not happy. It hurt like "#¤%&/ !!!!

But we got to NYC, we all talked about how much we missed the good ole' south already at the airport, and proceeded to join the MissTenCky (guess 3 states!) and Florida kids at St. John's University in Queens; where we "spent the night". Again, we enjoyed each other's company, walked around, talked, partied it up , but not many people slept. We had to leave the University at 4 am for the next destination: CW post at the Long Island University. Many people, including me, decided it wasn't worth trying to sleep.

We crashed in the hallways of the dorms and ate leftover pizza from dinner. I made quite a lot of friends from all over the world, that night.

So we left Queens in busses, in the middle of night. AFS gave us (the exchange students) little tags with name, flight numbers, destinations and what not. They also indicated at what time we were to leave the CW post to go to the airport. Oscar, from Columbia, was scheduled to leave at 7 am - which was basically just after we got there. Knowing that this was the end of AFS Georgia 08/09, I couldn't hold back my tears. Again, I felt like everything from this year was just being ripped apart. At least, we were together - even though it was a very short amount of hours.

New York was beautiful at sunrise when the roads were yet almost empty and it was relatively quiet.

We arrived at the CW post, got checked for swine-flu and put our luggage at the sign with the number printed on our little tags - a number that also indicated how early or late you'd get to leave.

So we settled. Breakfast was served, I sat with Andy, the other ones joined, and we waited.

Oscar left as the first one. Then Julio, then Fabi, and then it was my turn - at 2.40 pm. I'll never forget it.

We'd been sitting outside in the shade, waiting and waiting. By then, I still hadn't slept since Sunday night. It seemed like it had been a forever-long-day, although it had been two. Since I didn't sleep Monday night and decided it wasn't worth trying to sleep Tuesday, while waiting for my departure, it got to a point where I had been awake for 34 hours. I was so tired mentally, but my body was getting overly awake from coffee, coke and what not.

But the time came for me to get my stuff into the bus, and leave.

Guy, Taresa, Andy and Michael came up to the bus and said goodbye. It broke my heart. I still find it hard to think about without having to take a deep breath and bite my lip.

Luckily, Cleo (danish AFS buddy) was there. It was awesome seeing her after we'd been two totally different parts of the US for a year!

So there we were, all the danes, on our way home. It was really awkard at the beginning, because we'd all be speaking English to each other. Me and Cleo slowly started tuning back into Danish (GOD I was having such a hard time the first few hours) so that we could be speaking it relatively well by the time we got to Copenhagen.

There's not much to say about this part.. I liked being with Danes again. It felt comfortable in a weird way. And when we all started speaking Danish, all the language jokes followed. I laughed so hard.

On the plane, I slept for an hour, just when we took off. Once I woke up I couldn't fall asleep again. I didn't sleep again untill I got home-home, in my bed. So I had slept one hour and 40 minutes from Monday morning, to Wednesday afternoon. With the time difference, it felt like it had all been one very long day. A 3-day long day.

We had a connecting flight in London that we almost missed, and when we got to Copenhagen I had a little drama with my passport that was lost, before I could leave. I left it on the plane, and I needed it to get in to Denmark, arriving from the UK.

But yeah, I got my luggage, walked out, my family was there, and so were a few friends; Emilie, Nanna, Carla, Lasse, Kasper and Jetty. It was so nice of them to be there, but I don't remember all of it clearly.

I remember I started crying of disappointment. It all seemed so wrong.

I got home, after a long train ride and hike through Hillerød, ate a tiny bit, an crashed at 6 pm. I was so exhausted.

The first days were horrible. I just cried all the time.

Then I went to Roskilde Festival. It was awesome. It helped alot.

Right now:

Denmark as a country is awesome.

I love seing my friends again.

It's really freaking freezing cold here.

I feel oddly misplaced. Nothing feels like home - including the US.

My suitcases have not been emptied yet - I try to stay out of my room as much as possible.

I'm leaving for France on Sunday. I've been excited about that for a looooong time. I really like it there; especially because it's the only time of the year where I get to be French, for real. AND let's not forget that I love spending time with my Grand-Maman.

I don't feel like posting pictures. They're on facebook, probably.

I think I'm gonna go to bed now.

I hope yall/whoever's reading this now are doing well!

ps. Glenn wrote me a song.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2501848/Denmark.mp3

my song, I love it <3

- Look up his band, HuzZah on FB!

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!

May 27th

Hey everyone!

Sorry I'm being so lazy with updating. Life is just crazy now that I only have less than 5 weeks left until I am back in Copenhagen.

So I had my final Chinese exam on Wednesday; which went just fine, not because it was easy actually, but because I studied my characters well. I am very proud of myself actually. I only forgot how to write 2 character (homework) and that was it. Other than that, I am pretty sure I dominated that exam. 

On the other hand, since it was my only exam, I didn't have to stress about studying for a million different classes. Just one.

Friday, after the last exams - sciences (Physics for freshmen, Chemistry for sophomores and Biology for juniors - excluding the one that took AP Chemistry and AP Biology/ people that are crazy smart), we took off for THE LAKE. 

Shelby had invited a group of girls to her Grandparent's lakehouse in North Carolina, to celebrate her 16th birthday. It was an absolutely awesome weekend. We had soooooo much fun. Great time. Great times. And the house is so big and so pretty! They even had a boat! Maaaaaan it was fabulous.

We had yummy food, went kayaking, swam in the lake, hung on the dock, went tubing, saw eagles and their nest, ate a lot of flavor ice, had dance parties at night, decorated t-shirts and just enjoyed each other's company. 

Tubing. Shelby, me and Anna G (who's about to fall off)

Everyone! Maddie, Maria, Katie, Baggy (Shelby's grandma), Shelby, me, Anna G 

2nd row: Claire, Peyton, Hayley & Anna W

Girls chilling on the dock

Hayley!

Shelbs! 

Shelby, Peyton and Hayley eating flavor ice.. O, How I love them.

I ate blue flavor ice.

pretty sight from their dock

the house. yes, it was big!

The "pretty kayak" (Maria, Shelby, Anna W and me)

to get down to the dock. so so so so so nice and pretty!

The view. YAY North Carolina!

and their boat, of course.

It was a fabulous weekend that i thoroughly enjoyed with my amazing girls!

Marina came back from her Costa Rica trip, and is now working at the Westminster summer camp.

Carolina just found a job, tonight, at a mexican restaurant, as a waitress.

Agnes' mom is coming from Spain on monday. That's what's going on.

I'm just trying to enjoy my last few weeks. It's crazy to think about saying goodbye. Bahh, not yet. 4 loooooooooooong and beautiful weeks. Right? I can't realize it's going to end. It makes me so indescribably sad !!!!! :(  It just seems like such a short amount of time. 

Oh well, as I already said;

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

I hope y'all are great.