Cake pops! <3

Today one of our neighbors, a little girl called Massy, brought us some homemade 'cake pops'. I have never seen it before in Denmark but it is very popular here in the States. It is like a lollipop made out of cake... It is really fun to eat and it is so yummy!

Frozen Alberta falls in Rocky Mountain National Park

Today we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. This winter there have been much less snow than what there usually is in Colorado. In Castle Rock we don't have any snow but in the mountains there is always snow. So right when we started our hike to Alberta Falls there was a snowball fight...

We hiked 1 mile up to Alberta Falls and 1 mile back, which wouldn't have been very hard if we hadn't been so high up in the altitude and walking in snow...

Alberta Falls was really pretty! It was all frozen so it looked really cool. It kind of looked like the waterfall or stream had frozen in just one minute. It looked awesome!

Later on our way out of the national park, we saw a huge elk herd. Even though it's hard to see in the pictures, there must have been like 200 elks! I have never seen this many elks gathered in one place before, but apparently it is pretty common in the national park. I was so amazed!

After an exhausting hike and a lot of "Wow, look at that!", we went to La Hacienda a Mexican restaurant. It was another really nice day here in Colorado.

Hiking Mount Cutler

Right now Sara, Nico and I are on the way home from a nice hike on Mount Cutler. First we went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. It was my first time eating donuts, and I actually liked it! Then we went on our 2mile hike. We need to get back in hiking-shape for our trips in the spring. As always it was so beautiful to hike up in the mountains.

Awesome debate-tournament

Last Saturday I went to my second debate-tournament. At the last tournament I was debating with a guy named Pierce but now my debate partner is Alexandra(girl on the picture). She is an exchange student from Montenegro. She is just incredible! I am so impressed that she knows 7 languages.
Saturday I had to get up at 5:30 am. And it was like -15 degrees Celsius.
Me and Alexandra had three debates. At the first one, our opponent didn't show up so we automatically "won". The second debate, our opponent was really good, so we obviously lost, but they were still very nice and afterwards helped us a lot on what to improve. Our opponent at the third debate was two very smart guys. One of them were going to Harvard!!!(OMG!) It was really interesting to talk to those guys and they were very interested in hearing about Denmark and Montenegro. We obviously didn't win this debate either, but it was still fun!

That Saturday I wasn't home before 9:30 pm. It was such a great day though! The debate-people are apparently very interested in exchange students and hearing about other countries and cultures. I am very excited for the next debate tournament.

New fun classes

Now school have started again and I am really excited! All my classes are new. I have chosen some fun classes that I won't be able to take in Denmark.
I have theater, where we learn how to act and get out of our "comfort zone". It is so much fun!
Then I have Literature and Diversity which is basically about reading a book and learn about diversity in it. Right now we are reading 'The Help' which is about black maids in the 60's. I love the book!
Then I have choir. The choir is called Sabersingers, because the schools mascot is a Saber cat. Being in choir is harder than I expected. It is not only singing(which can be hard in the first place), I am also getting the notes and that stuff refreshed.
The last class I have is Mass Media Video Production. When we start making our own films I think it's gonna be lots of fun.

I am very excited about my classes. I can't remember the last time I liked ALL of my classes this much.. I really enjoy them.

New Years Eve!!

A few days ago I went in to a new year, a little different than I am used to. First of all it was my first time celebrating New years in another country than Denmark. Second of all, because of the time difference, I went in to the new year 8 hours later than usual. So when it was midnight here, it was 8 o'clock in the morning in Denmark... It was kind of funny to think about.

Then there was the New Years Eve Party. It didn't quite end as planned. Me and a danish exchange student, Ida, had planned to go to a party that a finish exchange student had planned for some YFU-exchangestudents in Colorado. Then after we had dressed up and where almost ready to go, there was a misunderstanding with Ida's host mom that lead to a little complication. So me and Ida ended not going to the party. Instead went to a party in my neighborhood. There was a lot of small kids and their parents. But that doesn't mean me and Ida didn't have a good night. Actually the kids where hilarious and where all crazy about hanging out with teenagers. We even had a song-competition with them. And then the food there was great! A little before midnight we went home to my house and watched the ball drop on TV, and jumped down from the chairs as we usually do in Denmark. Sara, Brian and Nico had already gone to bed. Me and Ida stayed up to watch a movie and talk all night. It was a different but nice (and "hyggelig") New Years Eve.

Skiing in Loveland

Last Friday I went skiing for the first time in Colorado. Since Sara and Brian don't ski, I went with our a neighbor that lives down the street. We left early on the morning and drove up in the mountain to a place called Loveland. Even though it was two years ago since I skied the last time, I had fortunately not forgotten it. The weather was really, really cold! Especially in the morning. We had to ski for a little bit, then go inside to get the feeling back in our toes and fingers and then we could go back outside for a little bit and then inside again. Thats how it had to be because it was soooo cold! Skiing in Colorado is a little different from skiing in Sweden which is what I am used to. The snow in Colorado is much better! Because the air here is so dry and there is almost no moisture, the snow gets fluffy and light and almost like powder. Another thing that is different from Sweden is that you are in much higher altitude. That means it is a little harder and you get tired more easily.
After just one day of skiing I was really exhausted and sore, but it was definitely worth it!

Downtown Denver

A couple of days after christmas, we all recovered from our sickness, so we went in to Downtown Denver. We went to see the Colorado-History-Museum. It was really cool and they had so much old stuff from back in time. Then we went to see the Big Blue Bear, which is kind of the icon for Denver. It is made so it looks like it is looking into a building, which looks really cool.

It was fun to be a tourist in Denver, even though it was very cold!

Christmas

Now that Christmas vacation  is coming to an end, I thought I would tell a bit about how it have been. Unfortunately we have had quite a lot of sickness in the house. First I was sick on the last two days of school where I had my finals. And then I continued being sick for three more days! Then one day later on Christmas Eve, Sara got sick, so we couldn't go out to eat christmas eve dinner as we had planned. Then the next morning on Christmas", Brian was sick. We still had a good time opening presents in the morning though. Sara's brother Michael and his girlfriend Caitlyn came over, but neither Sara or Brian was up for eating, so we rescheduled our christmas dinner for another day.
Even though there was a lot of sickness, and that I missed the danish christmas-food a little bit, it was still great to experience an american christmas. It was actually fun to open presents in the morning on the 25th. From my host family I got a bag from 'Vera Bradley' and Nico got a lot of Legos, so of course we where building all day.