Shopping and the North Carolina beach!!!

My weekend in Wilmington was so much fun! Saturday I went shopping with my host mom and sister. My host Ellen Tootoo was going to play a volleyball game with her team from early morning, so she was not able to come with us. First we went to shop at the Independence Mall, I was looking for some new shoes but I couldn't find any, but of course I bought a lot of other nice things. After that we went to a big store with a lot of cheap stuff Walmart, I bought a lot of gifts to my family and some things to my self of course :) After we had been shopping for 4 hours, we went home to relax. One hour later my host came home, and we went downtown Wilmington to eat dinner with Ditte and her host Becca. It was sooo cozy and the food was very good! Sunday we went to church. It was very different from what I had imagined! It looked like a café. After church we went shopping again - this time in a "outdoor" mall. The weather was so good, so after we was done with shopping, we decided to go down to the beach. As you can hear, I had a really great weekend with a lot of shopping and good food!! :D

See you! Julie Friis 2.a

Battleship - USS North Carolina

Battleship – North Carolina!

The last day of our trip to “the states” we went on a field trip to the USS North Carolina Battleship. The battleship is a huge ship opened as a kind of museum. After a short trip around an indoor museum we were led out to the ship itself. USS North Carolina was used under the Second World War and she was an important player in the bombardments in the pacific. The ship was designed to carry 1,800 men, but under the WW2 she was home to over 2,300 soldiers. Going on the tour around the ship we saw the bunk beds stacked five tiers high. The life on the ship must not have been a private place to be. There were no doors, not even in the toilets! Even the showers were open, so you would have had no privacy at all!

 

The ship was interesting and we could have used a lot more time. But the fact that we all got a bit claustrophobic going around in the small narrow hallways of the ship, got us all looking for a way out – which took us a really long time! We could just imagine how it would have been to be a soldier living on the ship. When we finally found our way out of the ship we saw a big sign saying “DO NOT FEED THE ALLIGATORS!” what a great ending of a great trip to the battleship of North Carolina!

Written by Jannie and HenrietteJ       

Dick's and a concert church

Suddenly weekend! 

I've been looking forward spending the weekend with my host, Emilee, for a long time now. When we found out that we both loved shopping, we decided driving to Myrtle Beach to go shopping. Christine and her host Erin and Sophia and her host Caroline and Emilee's friend Sara joined us. It was an hour long road trip. On our way to Myrtle Beach we decided to go eating at a restaurant called Dick's. The girls had told us that it was a very special restaurant and the waiters were mean, but that was just their job. They really act like dicks. At the same time we walked in the waiter said: "Welcome sluts, sit down". My host prepared us about the hat the waiter would give us when we had ordered our food, because the point of eating at Dick's was that everybody gets a hat with a mean and strange comment. I think it was awkward sitting at the restaurant with a hat saying: "That fishy smell isn't coming from the kitchen", but we have been told by the girls not to take it personally. So we didn't and we just had fun. We all wondered what very old people did at the restaurant, because really mean things were written on the hats. It was a funny experience. To give you a better insight of the weird restaurant the comments on the hats are shown under this. Pictures in the bottom. 

                                     Line's hat: That fishy smell isn't coming from the kitchen. 

                                     Christine's hat: If dicks had wings my mouth would be an airport. 

                                     Sophia's: This is not the first bag put on my head. 

                                     Emilee's hat: My "cat" smells like fish. (be misunderstood)

                                     Caroline's hat: I hump her pillows --> (pointing to Sara) 

                                     Sara's hat: X-mas wish list - Boobs, boobs, boobs. 

                                     Erin's hat: I stand when I pee. 

After a long day of shopping and other funny things yesterday, her mother wanted me to go to church with her and the whole family. She told me that is was a very unconventional church and that it was funny and exiting. My first thought was: How can a church be funny and exiting? 

The church didn't look like a normal church and it was definitely not a traditional church. It looked more like a new and modern museum. We came inside the church and people walked around with coffees and hot chocolate. I was sure that we were the wrong place, but we went to the big hall filled with people. Suddenly people stands up and the lights turned down. The band on the stage started playing and people sung with them. All the songs were about Jesus (of course). When the "concert" was over people sat down and a man called Mike began to speak on the stage. Her mother told me that he tells about different kind of things every sunday among a lot of themes. For example: Love, death, freedom etc. It was very exiting and he knew how to get our attention. The ceremony ended with songs from the band. Another great and different experience from my weekend with my host. After church we found a restaurant where we eat some lunch. 

                         

                                  

Panic Attack and Halloweeeeeen!

When I first arrived at my wonderful host family's house, the mother said to me that she had not decorated for Halloween because she was afraid to scare me. Therefore, when I told her that I would not be scared but think it could be cool, the father started decorating the house Saturday morning.

To follow up the Halloween theme we went to a haunted house “Panic Attack” Saturday night (when it was pitch dark). I was frightened when we got there! The haunted house was inside a huge farm and outside the farm, big bloody monsters with chainsaws walked around. When we stood in line to buy tickets I could hear screams from inside and I saw people running out crying and I thought: “Well this is fun…”

We were let in six at a time and my family pushed me in front because I was the tallest and I said, “I don’t really think this is a good idea and grabbed my host sister who is only 150 cm…”

We went in and my host parents walked behind me and every time I screamed they had a laugh, apparently because they thought I was kind of a joke ;-)

When we came out I was totally pale, relieved that it was over and glad that I had experienced it.

The added pictures are from Saturday night with my family at “Panic Attack” and a Panic Attack poster 

School life

John T. Hoggard High is a big highschool compared to Ikast-Brande Gymnasium. Hoggard High has almost 2200 students while Ikast-Brande has around 700 students. The schools are totally different. At this school there's a special dresscode - girls are not allowed to wear tops, shorts and short dresses that show our skin above the knees.

Every class is with different people and every day is the same. They have the same four subjects every day through the whole semester and then they have to pick four subjects in the beginning of the new semester. At Hoggard High they have four grades (9,10,11,12), whereas in Denmark we only have three (1,2,3).

As you know there are a lot of rumors about the American cafeteria food and we can now conclude that they're all true. The American cafeteria food at the school sucks. It's fat and full of cheese. Even the cookies have a taste like cheese! All the people are very friendly and outgoing and because we are from Denmark they call us "The Danes". The fact that we're from Denmark makes people look at us like we're from another planet. Compared to the American people we're very tall and blond. They are not used to having people like us around, but they treat us very well and we feel welcome.

There's a lot of school spirit and this week is homecoming week. Tonight (Friday) is the big homecoming game - American Football. Before the game there's a pep rally at the stadium so all the students can feel the school spirit. School life at this school is amazing (wish we could say the same thing about the food) and it's been an unforgetable experience.
Have fun - bye bye.

- Line and Julie 2.aG

The Capitol building visit

On Saturday morning, the day after we arrived in Washington D.C., we went to the Capitol visit center to get a guided tour inside the building. We were all handed a headset so everybody would be able to always hear what the guide was saying.  Steve, our guide, took us to a room that was originally the main entrance of the building. Slaves built almost the entire building by pressing sand into bricks. 

It was the only room that didn’t burn down in 1814, and all the original stonewalls were intact. 
The whole building was very prestigious and chandeliers hung from the roof in almost every room. 

We entered a round room with a high ceiling that was painted with people from different times and on a banner it said “E pluribus unum” which means “out of many, one”. It was probably the most interesting room in the whole building. Steve told us about the building being divided into two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives and in that room we should imagine an imaginary line crossing through that separated them. Abraham Lincoln was the one who decided to build that room, but interestingly enough, he was the only president to never step foot in the room. 

There were paintings of the history of America and especially how the Americans took the land from the Indians. That’s not how they portrayed it, though. Among the paintings were some of Pocahontas; one where she was protecting John Smith from being killed and one where she was being baptized so she would be able to marry John Ralph.

Steve said something interesting about the Lady of Freedom (she’s the woman on top of the Capitol building). What he said was that no statue can be taller than 19 feet because nothing should stand taller than freedom.

Even with the amazing tour of the building, what we noticed the most was all the asiens running around with high tech SLR cameras.

Christine's weekend!

I experienced a lot of great things with my host this weekend. Sunday we went to the beach with some other Danes and their hosts at 12 o'clock and the weather was just wonderful. It was smoking hot and the sea had a perfect temperature to go swim. The sand burned my feet and we played volleyball, soccer and American Football which was so much fun. Everybody was having a good time when someone came up with a crazy idea: We should try the go-kart park at a place called Jungle Rapids. We all really wanted to go so when we had got our stuff together we all went there. At first I was very nervous about driving because I knew that all the boys would drive like maniacs and compete from the very first moment. I was let out as number two, but already after 30 seconds every single go-kart had passed me. I drove a little slowly, but after a couple of minutes I felt more comfortable and started to compete like all the others. It was so funny and exciting at the same time. It was definitely 8 dollars worth!
In the afternoon my host, Erin, Sophia and her host Caroline and I went to Caroline's house to go canoeing in her "backyard". It was getting dark and lots of bugs were flying around annoying us. The canoe was kind of difficult to control, but we got better and better. The area was beautiful and we saw both swans and fish in the water. I had an amazing time, and it was definitely one of the best days ever!

- Christine

          This weekend, a few friends and I went on a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit Carowinds, a local amusement park. The park was putting on an event for Halloween called Scarowinds. It was a long 4-hour drive. On the way, we stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken to get lunch. Although it was a 4-hour drive, it didn't seem that long because we talked and had fun the whole way.
          By the time we got to the park, it was dark. Perfect for a scary Halloween event. The first thing we did when we got there was jump onto the largest roller coaster in the park. Eddy was scared. Eventually, we grew hungry and decided to get some food. It was disgusting. I barely ate any of the burger. There were many haunted houses to go through, and a lot of frightening actors running throughout the park scaring people.
         To take a break from all of the rides, we decided to play some games and won prizes for our friend Katie. After a long night, we got back into the car and enjoyed a sleep-filled ride back to Wilmington. I had a lot of fun.

     

MY WEEKEND!!!!!!!!

In the weekend with my host we experienced a lot. One of the best things we did was being with my host Callie's friends at a birthday dinner. We went to Little Dipper's which is a fondue restaurant. At first we got two giant bowls with cheese and a lot of vegetables and bread to dip into the cheese. We were already full after that meal which we found out was just an appetizer! After that we got a bowl of salad which was very good! And then we got a lot of meat like pork, filet, shrimp and chicken which we cooked by ourselves. At last we got A LOT of fruit and cookies which we dipped in some chocolate. Every single meal was sooooo good, and the girls at the birthday party were very welcoming and kind to me even though they had only just met me. We went home very late but we had a great time!
Pictures will be added soon!

- Mette

Weekend on a movie set!

This Saturday I got the chance to be on a movie set for the movie “The Hollow Oak”. My host Allie Harrison plays the lead in the movie (Kayla) so she spends a lot of her time on the weekends filming.

“The story is about "Kayla," a good-natured but misunderstood young woman who faces peer pressure from a friend with questionable motives. She finds love at Camp Hollow Oak, but haunting memories surface and it's up to her to contain the evil that materialized from a once-innocent childhood friendship. Battling depressive tendencies, Kayla finds Camp Hollow Oak will help her find what she needs in life.

When we arrived, Allie was put into hair and makeup to get ready for the day's scenes. They were shooting dream sequences so the main part of the day Allie was the only one acting. It was very interesting to see how they do things on a real movie set and one thing that shocked me was how time consuming it is to get even just a few seconds of screen time. You have to shoot it from every angle and make sure that the items are in the exact same place. Also the lighting has to be the same, and to make it look right they use reflectors. So basically it is a lot of work!

We started at 2 pm and went home at 2 am, so it was a long and cold day and you could tell that the actors were tired at the end of the day. The scenes were filmed in the woods so it was kind of creepy in the cold dark, but it was a great experience and I look forward to seeing the final result cause my host is AWESOME!

Since the movie is a low-budget movie it will be shown on netflicks.com and in redbox. You are welcome to join the fanpage on facebook “The Hollow Oak – feature film”.

The added pictures are from the set Saturday + a commercial picture for the film (Allie is the girl on the right)

- Malene

BBQ and South Carolina

BBQ and South Carolina

Spending my weekend with my host Taylor and her family was amazing!
I woke up at nine Saturday morning and went all excited about the BBQ we were going to have in the late afternoon. Taylor's mom had been cooking all morning to prepare for the dinner. She told us to go have fun on the beach instead of helping out with the cooking. So she showed us the way to the beach. When we got home we started making things ready for the guests. Taylor had invited some of her friends and I some of mine from Denmark. The night was so cozy and we all enjoyed it very much!

Even though we spent the most of the night talking and eating Sunday was a day of tiredness. Both Taylor, her mom and I were yawning all morning. We skipped breakfeast at home and went to find an IHOP instead. Having eaten my pancakes and bacon omelet we drove off to South Carolina for the big aquarium and promenade. It was such a nice day with great weather and no people around. We had so much fun in the aquarium taking pictures of weird sharks and touching some of them too. After the aquarium and promenade we went shopping in an outlet mall! The best invention ever! Everything was so cheap! Sunday ended up in the big kitchen with homecooked BBQ chicken flamegrilled in the backyard!

All things considered - I had a fantastic weekend in the states!

Written by Jannie Willumsen

Going to church

Sunday morning we went to church. When we came to the parking lot it was packed with cars, so we had to drive in the woods to park because there were some extra spaces. There were men in yellow wests to guide the traffic. The church was a square, and it was big and white. When we came in those big doors, there was a big hall, and on the left side there was a book store with Christian books and a coffee shop. People walked around with cups of coffee, and there were a lot of people helping to get other people in the right place. On the right side the real church was. We went in through doors that could have been doors into a movie theatre or something like that. We were a bit late so the music was already playing. Now you would expect calm church music played on an organ but it wasn't. It was a band playing rhythmical music on a big stage. The room was huge, and as far as I could see it wasn't decorated with any Christian things. People stood up and enjoyed the music, and after two songs the singer said a prayer, and then the band left the stage, people sat down and the priest came onto the stage. He was in casual clothes, he wore jeans and a sweater. He didn't have an altar or anything like that, only a stand for his notes and a screen which had his most important messages on it. On both sides of the stage, there were big flat screens which showed what was going on on stage, so everybody could see and understand the priest. In the church they didn't read the usual text from the bible that fits the Sunday but instead the church chose a theme for the month and then talked about that. This month the theme was death and the priest talked a lot about the fact that people shouldn't be motivated to live by fear. There was no receiving Holy Communion or hymns during the ceremony and in the end the band would play again. It was a really cool experience and I'm glad I went there. I think some Danish churches should try to renew themselves like this church has done; that would really bring more people to church.

My awesome weekend!

The weekend started with an incredible football game at the school where the Hoggard High Vikings won!
We experienced a lot but the two best things about the weekend were 'The Lyceum Haunted House' and kayaking.
Saturday night, only a few weeks away from Halloween, we went to a haunted house which was made by some cool people who happen to be school rivals of Hoggard's. It is open every Halloween to scare you till you pee your pants! It was incredible how believable and scary they could be, despite the fact that they were just a bunch of kids our own age. This year the theme was a haunted hotel! So at first we came into this big lobby where some creepy people were, and then we just went through the different rooms with a "guide" who 'helped' us escape from this crazy serial killer in the haunted house!! It is one of the coolest things I have ever tried, and now I want to celebrate Halloween in Denmark too!
Sunday evening was totally different because Christine, me and our hosts went kayaking. It was so fun and I was so afraid that I was going to fall in the water! I learned it pretty fast and it got even more fun when I understood how to do it. When we were all out on the creek the view was sooo pretty! We had so much fun even though we only had a short amount of time because it was getting dark, but it was an awesome experience!! Afterwards, we went to Walmart to get Ben&Jerry's, which by the way is so  cheap over here!
Now the week is almost over, and we have to go home from the most awesome trip/holiday/experience ever!

Love Sophia.

Agenan and Marc's awesome weekend

We started our weekend with dinner at the Mellow Mushroom with most of the gang. The dinner was very cozy and funny, and during the dinner all of the boys flirted with Katie, and all the other girls got jealous because we're so pretty. after the very tasty dinner we went to the homecoming game, where the Vikings beat the shit out of the GH Rose. After the game we were all tired, so we all drove home and went to bed.

The next day we got up and drove 4 hours to the amusement park in Charlotte called Scarrowinds. The cool things about Scarrowinds were the Halloween theme and big ass rides at night. At the park we decided on winning prizes for our woman Katie. Almost all of us won the prizes in a legit way, except for Agenan and his host Liam who spent money on multiple Teddy Bears in a shop because they couldn't win anything. Agenan even got another try at one of the games because he completely made a fool out of himself by missing the target with a hammer. We spent a good 4 hours in the park before Austin's very sweet mother drove us home. While driving home all of us fell asleep in the car because it was an exhausting trip.


We started off the next day by going to the beach with a couple of the hosts and Danes. We spent a few hours at the beach getting our tan. At the beach we played American Football and soccer. We didn't really go swimming because the water was chilly and some of us didn't have our bathing suits with us, while others like Agenan didn't care and went into the water anyways. The girls at the beach went for a long walk.
After the beach a lot of us went to a bbq at Kelsy's (one of the hosts) house which turned into a semi party.

At the movies!

On Wednesday I went to a movie theater at Mayfair with Chloe (my host), Caroline and her host, Maggie. We got there some time before the movie started, so we went shopping for some time. When we got there, we wanted to buy something to eat while watching the movie. There were so many things to choose from! Caroline and I decided that we would try the nachos, just because we can't do that in Denmark. My host got popcorn (with loooots of butter of course).
We knew that everything is bigger in America, but we didn't expect it to be that big. There were 16 theaters! We saw the movie "Pitch Perfect", which is an extremely funny and girly movie. In Denmark when you go to a movie theater you have to turn off your phone, and be very quiet. It's not like that in America! Everytime something funny happened everyone laughed really loud and people even started clapping a lot of times. It was a great experience and we had a really good night!

Written by Trine.

GREAT WEEKEND

After a week full of impressions we were ready for a "relaxing" weekend. Friday evening we got a group of people together and ate before we went to the big homecoming football game. The weekend got a good start from there when Hoggard's Vikings won 34-7. The day after we went hanging with a couple of guys down town before in the evening we got a quick bite to eat with my host's parents before we got on the "horror-train" and went to Panic Attack. Panic Attack is a big haunted house with crazy, decorated rooms where actors are hired to jump out at you and scare you on your way through the house. There were a little demon girl in a church who was crawling, a man with a white mask and a knife, a face in the wall and demented clowns. Often you would not even realize that they were not dolls till they would jump out in your face and run after you. We were waiting for a long time to get in though. When we came at about 9 o'clock in the evening the line was extremely long a we didn't get in before 1-2 o'clock in the morning. Sunday we got up "early" and ate breakfast at Bojangle's (we got biscuits, fried chicken and french fries. Real American style!) on the way to NC State Fair. It is like an amusement park with rides, games and lots of junk food. You could get everything fried (like oreos, mac and cheese, cheesecake ect.) and even bacon ice cream was possible to get. In the evening we got the most fantastic and strong curry at a Thai food restaurant before we went home and spent the evening relaxing and hanging out.

Friday after school we went to Libby's house (Cabrina's host) where we got ready for the homecoming game. We arrived at the school and soon the game began. The Vikings won!
After the game we went to a restaurant where we hung out with some of their friends. They wanted us to taste fried pickles which we DID NOT like! After the game we had a sleepover at Hanna's house (Henriette's host).
Saturday we went shopping at mayfair. We didn't really buy anything but we got a delicious sandwich at a place called Which Wich. We had a nice time, but we had to go since we were going to go on a hayride and in a haunted house later that evening.
When we got to the halloween festival we bought our tickets for the rides, and then we waited for the sun to go down so it would be dark when we went on the hayride. We were sat in a wagon pulled by a car. We stopped at different scenes that were set up in the woods, and a group of young people would act out a short story and at some of the stops some of the people would actually jump on the side of the wagon and try to scare us. It wasn't that scary but it was a great experience.
After the hayride we went in a haunted house. I Didn't think it was scary, but Henriette thought it was a bit scary. There were people in masks getting up in your face, and trying to scare you by laughing in a really creepy way or screaming. There was a girl crawling out from a tv like in the movie 'the ring'.
Sunday I went to Sunday school with my host and her sister. We just went out and got breakfast, so it wasn't that bad. Later we went to the beach with Henriette, Hanna and a girl called Robyn. I was really hot, but Henriette loved it! We stayed there for an hour and then we went to fussy peach where we got frozen yoghurt. We went souvenir-shopping where we got some presents for our families and friends.
And that was our weekend in Wilmington!;-))))))))

By Henriette and Cabrina

Museum of American History

Saturday the third of October we went to the Museum of American History, and in that museum there were a lot of memorials of the men who had fought for America, and a telling through time and places, how America came to be the America we know today. The museum was parted in North, East, South and West, where you could experience every single corner of America at a special time. The museum displayed central events in their history such as slavery, The Civil War, Indians and racism. 
On one of the floors there was a lady, who explained how it was to be a black woman or man during The Civil War. She was talking about how it would be to visit, for example, a coffee shop at that time. People did not want you to be there because black people were seen as dirt. They would spit on you because of your race, and some would even scream offensive things, threaten you and  push you while you were about to enjoy a nice and calm cup of coffee. The fact that she was talking about it in person, she, and the museum, made a certain impression.


The following pictures are from the museum:

 

- Maria & Mette

Homecoming!

Friday night we all went to the homecoming football game, which is the big finale of the homecoming week. During the homecoming week students dress up to a different theme each day in the purpose of showing school spirit. Friday afternoon there was a pep rally, where everybody got pepped up to the football game in the evening. When we arrived at the stadium of Hoggard High there were a lot of people there already. The whole school was probably there, and the entire thing was just like in the movies. The cheerleaders cheered, the band played and the footballers were in action while the audience was pumped up and cheering. During the game there was a half-time show in which the band performed along with the flag-team. At the end of the half-time show, all of the nominated students for homecoming queen- and king entered the stadium all dressed-up, and the winners got their crowns. The homecoming week was a very good experience, and it was fun trying a typical American thing that you only see in movies.

The homecoming queen, king, prince and princess

- Maria

The weekend with my host

Sunday morning we went to the beach with all the other Danes and Rachel's cousin Bre. The weather was really great so we wore bathing suits and ran into the water. We stayed there for about two hours and we played soccer and had fun. 

 Afterwards, we went to the mall and walked around and shopped for four hours. We were in Victoria's Secret forever trying on a lot of bras and we ended up only buying one bra.

 

Later at the mall we met up with Leo, who is a friend of Rachel's. He had a plan. He needed us to deliver a present to some girl that was mad at him. The girl's mother did not like Leo so I ran to the door, rang the doorbell, gave them the present, which was a giraffe and some skittles and I said, "Hi! I'm from Denmark, this is for you. Bye!" and ran away. We a fun day and now we are really tired and hungry. 

Written by Dorthe

Arrival at Hoggard High School and meeting with hosts!

After the coldest and longest bus drive EVER we finally made our way to Hoggard High School. Everyone was very excited and nervous and tried to control their nerves. Even though all the girls just did their make up in the bus, it was completely impossible not to blush! The sweat was dripping and no one wanted to make the first step outside the bus. A bunch of American students were waiting and the bus stopped right in front of them. It was a little caotic and everyone was trying to find their host between the strangers' faces. When  we finally went outside the bus and got our luggage we were just waiting to get picked up. Some of us found our hosts at the very first sight while others had to wait. They all seemed very friendly and were smiling at us like we were from another planet. The first meeting was very akward and it was hard to keep a conversation going. We were and are still known as the "Danes" or just the danish pets...

Holocaust Memorial Museum

After walking in the rain for about 15 minutes, we stood in front of the Holocaust Museum. It was quite big, it was a bit hard to figure out what way to go and we didn't have that much time, so we all kind of rushed through two of the three floors, which was too bad, since it was really exciting. Before we went inside we had to grab a little pamphlet which had the information about a person who actually lived during World War 2. You had to read one page per floor and on the last page on the last floor you were told if they survived.  Mine survived, and she made gypsy songs about the holocaust afterwards. Another person from the pamphlets was a Jew from Poland. She actually just got the papers, so she and her boyfriend could go to the USA, but they didn’t leave before Poland was taken by the Germans. She was moved from town to town by the Germans and in the end she and her family disappeared.

The museum said a lot about the Danish people during World War 2, and we were real heroes because we helped so many people to Sweden and risked our own lives to help them. It was very few Jewish people from Denmark who died during the war because of the great resistance movement of Denmark who sailed them to Sweden.

It was a really good museum and it was a nice experience, but we would have liked to have more time because it really isn’t a Museum you should rush through since it is really interesting even if you know nothing about the war. 

Caroline og Cabrina

Our first Roadtrip in Wilmington

Wednesday October 10^th at 8.30 we all met at the school, ready for our first roadtrip in Wilmington. The purpose of the day was to go visit the NC aquarium, the Fort Fisher Battlefield, PT’s Grille and finally the famous Walmart.

We went by a typical American activity bus with Chris as our busdriver which in itself was an interesting experience (He’s a maniac). The first place we visited was the NC Aquarium which is a big place with all kinds of fish and animals from North Carolina, for instance an albino aligator and the Nemo fish. We also got the opportunity to touch sharks and spidercrabs.

Our next stop was at the Fort Fisher Battlefield. We got a tour around the Battefield from a guide dressed as a soldier from The Civil War. He also showed us how to use a rifled musket (weapon during the Civil War). Then we went up to a look out post where we could get a view of the whole Battlefield and the Cape Fear River.

After the Fort Fisher Battlefield we were all hungry and went to the PT’s Grille which apparently is well known for their good burgers. We must confess that the reputation had a hold. The burgers were really good and the French fries were great!

Our last stop was at the Walmart superstore, which is a huge supermarket that has all kinds of articles. All the girls went crazy in the make-up section because of the shockingly cheap prices. All things considered it was a very good roadtrip and we were all tired when we got back to the school.

Almost all of us ended the day at the school where the girls’ powderpuff game took place. Powderpuff is the girls’ way of playing American football and it is part of the homecoming week. It was a close game between the juniors and seniors, but in the end the seniors were victorious and earned the bragging rights. It was a fun experience and a good way to end an interesting day.

Malene & Sophia J J J J 

 

First day at Hoggard High!

We arrived at school at 8:20. One of the first things we noticed was that everyone was dressed in red, white and blue. It is spirit-week, so everyday there is a different dresscode, and today it was patriot day. We all met in Chris' classroom, a very cool and energetic teacher. In America every teacher has their own classroom which they can decorate however they want. Chris is a big fan of superheroes, so his room is full of superhero-stuff.
We were devided into groups of three, and then we got a tour from some of the students from Chris' class. They showed us the school. At the school there are more than 2000 students. One of the things we noticed was that there were police-officers everywhere, they even had their own room.
When we came back we were all given a test about U.S. - history. The test was really hard, and afterwards some of the students tried to teach us about the subject. After that a girl from the students' council came and told us about the school and about homecomingweek. She wanted us to participate in a parade at the pep rally on Friday, so we had to make a banner. After she left, some guys from the footballteam came in and explained us the rules of American Football.
Then it was time for lunch. The food in the cafeteria was really nasty. All of the students in the cafeteria kept staring at us and talking about us which made us feel like animals in a zoo.
After that we went to observe some different classes of our own choice. Five of us went to observe a german-class. The teacher only talked for about ten minutes, and the rest of the time the students got to ask us all kinds of questions, which was kind of funny.
Then we walked into a class where we had to participate more. We were devided into groups again, about three Americans and Danes in each group. It was a social-studies class, and we made posters to get people to vote.
At last we were devided into groups again, where some students told us about the civil war. After an amazing first day of school, we all went home with our hosts.

Written by Dorthe and Trine 2.a 

Washington

The first things you see are all the tall builings, like you are in the biggest maze you have ever seen. You cannot find your own way, so it was a good thing that we had the sweetest driver ever.

After arriving at the hotel, we each got a fine room with lots of space for our suitcases. We were 4 girls in one room and the hotel was close to the most important things such as McD, Starbucks and a CVS Pharmecy where you could buy anything you needed.

The baths we took that night were the best ever! We all took the longest baths ever,  after we had been downstairs because we could not figure out how to turn on the water. Everybody who worked at the hotel was nice and very keen on helping us. We had no problems that night and went to bed exausted, but ready to explore the Big City next morning!

Potomac Mills Mall

Potomac Mills Mall

Being in Washington was really amazing even though we had to run after Morten and Charlotte to be able to keep up. But the one thing that kept us all going was the thought about going to the BIG mall later that saturday! We were all super hyped, and even the boys looked forward to a couple of hours in a shopping center, but what we got was not what we expected! Yeah right, Morten told us it was a big mall, but when the cab driver couldn't even find the main entrance because of the fact that there were so many big entrances we got super hyped. Getting inside and looking around was really weird. The detailing around the shops was as if it were outside, made in a beautiful, sanded style. Everything was SO big! Not to mention cheap. We all bought shoes, t-shirts and designer stuff for like nothing at all. We were all running around like headless chickens trying to see as many shops as possible. Some of us didn't even get the chance to eat dinner before heading back home to the hotel room because we had so much shopping to do! Sure everything is bigger in America, maybe not the buses, but the malls really are bigger than in Denmark.  


Hugs from Henriette and Jannie <3

Trip to Washington

Dog shit being removed from the floor by brave student. 

View from the plane

After a lot of waiting, a fantastic journey began October 5th at three o'clock in the morning. Tired but excited we drove to Frederecia from where we would hit Copenhagen by train. The ride had been very comfortable till we got on the train and found a surprise in the form of a dog  shit smashed in the wheels on one of the students' suitcase. We therefore had to spend some of the time in the train in company with the smell of the little present. After several hours we finally arrived at the airport where we spent a couple of hours before take-off. The flight was nice and easy besides some turbulense. To get to the metro we had to take a metro bus - and oh my it was crowded! We took up over half of the space. Other passengers actually had to crawl over our bags. After we got to the hotel and had had time to settle down, we went out to get something to eat. And so a great time had begun!

NFL

Today we went to the stadium of The Washington Redskins, Fedex Field. When we were about to enter the stadium we were immediately faced with problems, we couldn´t bring our bags with us into the stadium, so we had to pay some typical american black women in a shop 10$ to keep our bags safe, although they couldn´t promise our bags were safe. When we finally got into the stadium we ran around like headless chickens trying to find out were the f*** our seats were. When we finally found our seats we got disappointed. We had gotten tickets for the standing department, although  it said ''seats'' on the homepage and on the tickets. The atmosphere in the stadium was bloody amazing, the crowd was crazy. When the Redskins made the first touchdown all of the 91,000 spectators wen't ballistic. Even though the Redskins lost in the last period, the atmosphere was still amazing through the entire game. Even though there were 91,000 spectators, there was no trouble except for one incident where the guards had to wrestle a guy to the floor. But all in all, it was a great experience. We came for the game, but we stayed for the cheerleaders <3

Love Agenan, Marc and Emil.
Peace out.

Bye Bye Ikast

In about 2 weeks' time, a GREAT 
adventure will begin :-)