Birthday, Christmas and SNOW! (Uge 22)

Hiiiii there, so another week has passed. And it was a very exciting one, since it was my birthday, it was Christmas and we got SNOW!

But the excitement began last Saturday when we had Christmas dinner with our class. It was over at Jonathan's and a lot of people from my class were there. We ate a typical Danish Christmas  "lunch" (Julefrokost). I'd like to explain you what we ate, but I'm afraid I can't really do it in one language, so it will be in both. First we had rugbrød with different "toppings", like fish in curry sauce, fiskefilet with remoulade, meatballs and sausages. And then we continued with flæskesteg (kind of meat), potatoes and caramelized potatoes. All veeeeerry delicious! Of course with all of this, we had snaps, wine and shots! For dessert we had risalamande (ricepudding with whipped cream and chopped almonds). I didn't get the almond this time, unfortunately! After all this food and drinks, we played SingStar and Just Dance. It was sooooo much fun! I slept over there with a few others. I really love my class, I couldn't wish for a better one. (And not only when they're drunk, I always love all of you, you're always great!)

On Sunday we went into the city to buy some more Christmas presents and we went over to Andreas' to eat æbleskiver. We also watched Pingu with Silje. After that, we came home again and played another round of Draw&Guess. 

Monday was my birthday, I TURNED 18! 

As the tradition goes, Signe, Marianne, Mette and Mathias came into my room, singing with birthday presents! I don't know if you're interested in what exactly I got, so I'm gonna leave it here: I got a lot of nice presents that I'm very happy about! After that I slept a little longer (since they woke me up quite early). Eventually we left around 9.30 and went to Marianne's work to pick her up. So I visited a Danish kindergarten. I must admit, it is kind of like ours, but it's different as well. Because in Belgium, kindergartens are (almost) always connected to a primary school, whereas here they're not. We then drove to Aarhus where we walked around to find some more Christmas gifts and we visited "Den Gamle By" which is kind of the same as "Frilandsmuseet" which we visited in Copenhagen, but this is more like a real city-ish kind of thingy. After that we drove back home and we got a Bones takeout. Here are some pictures from Den Gamle By:

Tuesday started of calm, we didn't do much, until everyone was home again and we started putting up the Christmas tree. We decorated the whole tree and it looked veeeery pretty! And then we started putting all the presents under the tree. There were so many presents that there wasn't even space for all of them! It was craaaaazy! For dinner we had risengrød (ricepudding) and saftevand for dinner. Because it was the night before Christmas, we had to put risengrød on the cellar for the Santa-helpers. (So they have something to eat as well for all the hard work they have to do). 

And on Wednesday IT WAS THE DAY OF CHRISTMAS EEEEVEEEE! We first drove to Christiansfeld to pick up some presents from my parents but at 13.00 we were over at our grandparents. We had some Christmas pastry over there before we went to church. I literally have never ever seen so many people in such a tiny church! There were A LOT of people! like A LOT. Then we went back home to find out that our flæskesteg just had had enough time in the oven, so we had to take it out real quick! We waited for everyone to come and then had a lovely Christmas dinner. We had flæskesteg, duck, potatoes, red cabbage, caramelized potatoes, sauce and a lot more to eat. We then danced around the Christmas tree (I thought it was a joke, but people actually do this!) and around the whole house while singing Christmas songs, I don't think I've ever had so much fun on Christmas Eve! It's the best! And there were real candles in the tree! I was soooo scared it was going to set on fire, but luckily it didn't! After that we had risalamande for dessert (Signe found the almond) and we started opening the billion presents under the tree. Yet again I got a loooot of lovely presents! Opening presents took a long time since there's only one person at a time (or sometimes two) that are opening a present. We literally had 3 BIG bags of wrapping paper at the end of the evening, it was craaaaaazy! I was so tired and ate soooo much that I slept lovely! This was definitely the best Christmas I ever had! Thank you so much to everyone that was a part of it! 

On Thursday I woke up to someone jumping and dancing on my bed yelling "SNOW, THERE IS SNOW" sooooo I guess there was snow. But I fell back asleep again. When I finally woke up, there was snow eeeeverywhere! And Signe and I went outside to make a snowman (we tried to make Olaf) and we might have thrown some snowballs at each other (hehe). 

We then went over to our grandparents again for another Christmas "lunch" where we ate the same things at we had over at Jonathan's. But there was also this other thing called "Christmas cabbage", which is cooked, white cabbage and you eat it with cinnamon and sugar. It sounds weird and disgusting, BUT IT IS SO GOOD! Of course we also had a lot of snaps. And we I ate waaaay too much again! I don't get how my pants held me. (I was wearing a dress, but you know what I mean!). We danced around the house and the tree again! We also had risalamande and I didn't get the almond either this time! Then we played Bingo with the whole family, which was a good exercise for my danish numbers! I won once... We ate so much for lunch that no one wanted to eat something for dinner. And we just laid on the couch and watched TV. 

On Friday we finally had a relax-day! I wore a christmas jumper and christmassy pants and we literally didn't do anything. I don't think anyone was sorry for it! We had pancakes for lunch. Oh and we watched 2 Harry Potter movies in the evening! 

Today was kind of the same as yesterday, we didn't do much. I woke up late, because I was tired from the previous days. We played Sequence today but that's about it! 

Soooo that was an experience again! And I'm glad I didn't go back home-home for the holidays. Danish Christmas is definitely the best thing ever! And I don't think I need to eat for the coming weeks. 

Next week I'll be over at Regitze's for New Years Eve SO THAT'S EXCITING! But I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you all the best for the New Year! 

Loooots of loves, 

Justine

P.S.: Nothing to add. (hehe)

My (almost) birthday party! (Uge 21)

Hiiiiii :D 

There aren't really any things in general I want to say, sooooo let's get on to my week ...

Monday wasn't really that much of a special day in school. Just 4 periods and after that AC came home with me and we walked the dog together. But besides that, normal day. I also went to gymnastics practice in the evening, where we had a normal training. Well not really, we had cake afterwards, because it was our last training of the year. 

Tuesday was a lot more exciting though, after a normal day of 4 periods my class came over to celebrate my birthday. Well of course not all of them were able to come, but we were about 15. My birthday is on Monday the 22nd, but since that was very close to christmas and we have holidays, I thought it was a better idea to do it a little early. We had boller, a kagemand and hot chocolate. Boller are like little bread thingies you cut in half and eat with butter. A kagemand is something typical that you have on a child's birthday party. It's shaped like a man and has candy on it (see pictures below). The birthday kid has to cut the head of first and while he or she does that, all the others have to scream. They also sang a birthday song for me that I hadn't heard before. All very exciting and fun! When we all had enough to eat, we played games which was very cozy and fun! I hope they all had a great time! I know I did! Thank you all for making this one of the experiences I will never ever forget! (Also, I'm turning 18, in case you were wondering, urgh)

Wednesday it was back to normal again, 4 periods instead of 5 (the last one was cancelled, woopwoop!). When I came home, Signe and I watched TV and drove down to the city to buy some paint. And guess what I then did... I PAINTED! Haha, I made a little painting for Karoline and since some of my Christmas presents require a mess, I decided to do it all in one go! We also made dinner ourselves since Marianne was not home. In the evening I skyped with Regitze and Sverige (whose name is actually Sofia, but Sverige or Sweden is cooler). 

Thursday wasn't that much of a special day either in school. Although, it was our last french class, so we played some games and ate pebernødder! It was also our last Danish class, so we had pebernødder there as well! After school we went into the city with a few girls from my class and did a bit of shopping! I found a jumpsuit that I'll be wearing on Saturday evening, when I have to go to my class' Julefrokost (christmas dinner party). 

On Friday all our classes were a little bit "chiller" than all the other ones, because it was our last day before the Christmas holidays. After school I went home and we didn't do much... 

Mette and Mathias arrived in the evening. Oh I also made this pretty picture of my school: 

Well that was about it, have a great weekend, 

Justine 

P.S.: Have a great christmas :) 

More Christmas! (Uge 20)

Hiii there, first of all I'd like to say some things in general. IT'S GETTING COLD! Well "cold", it's about 3-4°C and at night it can freeze. We're still desperately waiting for snow though! Because of this weather I don't bike to school anymore, but I walk. Well it's not only because of the weather. The hard part about biking to school is this: biking to school is very easy and goes very fast because it's down the hill; going home from school is a lot harder because I can't bike up the hill, so I have to walk parts and take my bike in my hand which is very tiring! So I thought I'd be easier to just walk ;) And if I'm lucky, Signe drives me sometimes to school! 

Okay on to what I did this week!

Soooo after my last blogpost we went bowling with all the cousins, well almost all of them! As y'all could see in my latest vlog, I'm very good at bowling, so that went very well! (in case you were wondering, that was sarcasm. I'm getting good at this Danish-humor-thing). I didn't lose! And ENJOYING is the most important, right? 

On Sunday it was Vigga's baptizing, so we had to go to the church and afterwards we ate a lovely lunch! I don't think I've ever been to a baptizing before.. And if I did, it was loooong time ago, so I don't really remember it! It was pretty interesting though. Signe is Vigga's Godmother, so she had to carry her in front of the priest. The lunch consisted of typical danish foods: frikadeller, fiskefilet, tarteletter and a lot more! But it was delicious! 

On Monday it was back to normal again after that busy weekend and we had a long day, which means 5 periods. Our last period was gym and we had to go to the Fitness center and participate in a spinning class! MY GOSH that was tiring and hard! But I survived (kind of) and after that I went in to the city to get a coffee and do some christmas presents-shopping! Signe picked me up and we went over to Andreas and Sascha's and we had dinner over at theirs! :) And after that I had gymnastics practice, but that's no different than any other Monday :) 

On Tuesday we had a normal day of school, although the first hour was apparently very tiring for me! --->

We had Physics, English, Danish and Math! 

Kristiane came home with me after school as I had to help her with the English assignment we had due. We started of by walking the dog and buying toast bread on our way and then we did some laundry and made toast. Kristiane apparently likes a lot of cheese in her toast and (<--)this was the result... Cheese everywhere! But then we worked on the English assignment and a few hours later (and a desperate call to Regitze) we were done reading the text! It was an individual assignment, so after that we both had to write the actual assignment! But I'm sure both of us did a great job :) 

Since Marianne was not home, Signe and I decided to eat Burger King for dinner before we went to our knitting course, which is not really a knitting course anymore, but more something like a creative workshop. Also this time I made Christmas decorations instead of knitting! 

On Wednesday we should've had 5 periods, but then one got cancelled and one got moved, so we ended up having 4 periods! One of those was gym again and we had it together with another class, which was weird but fun I guess? :) We had circle training again. We had more fun than actually doing the things we were supposed to do, but yeah. When I came home I was exhausted and didn't really do anything other than writing that english assignment and laying on the couch! 

On Thursday the fun began again! We had again one of those days where we have the same subject the whole day. This time it was Biotechnology! It was an interesting day! Oh yeah, my Nisse came by and left a lovely present for me when I was out to get some food.... (I got pebernødder and he/she taped my pencil case -.-)

On Friday we had a whole day of English and the theme of the day was "horror". So we first got an introduction about Horror, then we watched "The Shining" and discussed it afterwards. It was actually a very fun day because for one reason or another I got the giggles a lot! I also baked a cake the day before and took that to school and most of them liked it :) (I forgot to put baking powder in it... Oops)

After school it was raining very hard, so Karoline and I took the bus to the city and shopped a little :) We also ate a sandwich from Subway because she had to work afterwards! 

Then I walked aaaaaall the way home from the city! And then Signe and I got ready for another Christmas party! This time at Line's with Christina :D We had a great time! We ate a typical danish christmas dinner and had risalamande for dessert. That's like a ricepudding with whipped cream and almonds. The goal is to find the whole almond and then you get a present! We only had one problem... Line made waaaay too much risalamande so no one had the almond in their bowl... Christina then began to search in the big bowl to try and find it, but didn't manage to find it... Signe and Line tried to find it as well, but eventually I was the one who found it (I didn't go with my hand in the bowl to grab it, not at all) and I got a DIY stuffed animal and candy :D (I am so excited about making iiiiiit :D) after dinner we played a game with the presents that all of us brought, so everyone got presents! 

We slept over at Line's and went home this morning! I would like to thank the girls for a veeeeery fun evening! ;) 

Today as you can probably guess, I didn't do much... I cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed my room, but that's about it! 

I hope you're all having great times wherever you are and I hope the city you live in is decorated as beautiful as Vejle :) 

Loooooves, 

Justine

P.S.: This got longer than I thought it would... (Oh in case you missed it: here's a November vlog)

CHRISTMAS TIME (Uge 18 & 19)

Hiii, I knooooow I'm hella late, so this is going to be a hella long blogpost with a lot of pictures! This is the story of my past 2 weeks! Also, a vlog of the things I did in November went up on my channel, check it out! (Or click here)

WEEK 18

First of all, in week 18 there didn't really happen a lot at school... We did have a lot of cancelled classes, so that was very nice!

On Wednesday evening we ate over at my aunt and on Thursday evening we were at Andreas', I think. I'm not quite sure. But besides that, there didn't really happen something exciting. 

On Friday though, things got a little bit more exciting since we had a party at our school. Sooo after school, we went with a few friends to the grocery store to buy some drinks and food for the preparty. Then I went back home to get my clothes and drop off my school bag. I arrived at Karoline's at around 4pm and then we started getting ready for the party! The party as Christmas themed so we had to dress for it! After curling our hair, putting on make up, finding the right dress, we ordered some pizza and played some games. 

Then we had to walk to the bus stop and we bumped into another class (a bunch of 1st graders) of our school (so they had to go to the same bus stop) and they were all sooo drunk that one of them fell in someone's front yard and all died laughing! But we didn't want to be with them at the bus stop, so we went to the other one! When we finally arrived at school, the party mood was definitely there and we had a great time! After the school party (it ends around 11.30pm) AC and I went into the city, but we didn't stay that long. We ate some more pizza, had some McDonalds and went home. It was such a fun evening and I would like to thank the girls (Kristiane, Karoline, AC and Linnea) for it! 

On Saturday we had to go to Copenhagen so we left early and had a loooong drive to Sjælland. We went to see the little mermaid again and after that we went to Frilandsmuseet, which is an outdoor museum with houses and things from a long time ago in Denmark. We walked the whole way through, but it was very beautiful. It was very cold though! And when we came back to Mette and Mathias' we were glad to get a warm cup of coffee!  

On Sunday we went to inner Copenhagen to walk around. We bumped into Santa!

And here are some pictures from in Copenhagen: 

And then Sunday evening we drove back home and when we came home, we found a pakkekalender in the kitchen! For all you non-danes: everyday of December you open a present from the kalender until Christmas!

WEEK 19: IT'S DECEMBER, CHRISTMAS IS HERE.

Soooooo, this week was actually quite busy! At school it started out quite nice! We had a free first and third period, so we basically only had two periods! On Monday evening we had gymnastics and we had a "special edition" training, because everyone had to wear as tight clothes as possible! Not everyone joined but these were the people that did! Also It was my turn to open the pakkekalender today and this is what i got: 

On Tuesday we didn't have normal classes, but we had lectures all day from different people! After that we went to McDonalds with a few girls! Tuesday evening I went to knitting course again and I finished a scarf for Line and I continued working on another one. 

On Wednesday I could sleep "long" because my first period was cancelled. We also had a period where we all sat together and made christmas decorations with our class! Well the whole school did it all together! With some christmas music and pebernødder! I tried to fold a star, which took me over an hour, BUT I MADE IT! It's very tiny, but it is a correctly folded star! :D (I was very excited, if you can't tell!) On Wednesday evening we all just stayed home and watched Julekalender, okay this is like things on TV that you watch every day of December until christmas! And everyone is always very excited for it and there are like 3-4 different ones! And we watched all of them!

On Thursday we had 5th period, so it was a reaaally long day. When I was on the way home from school I bumped into Signe, so she drove me home so I didn't have to bike :D We then drove over to Bilka and I decided it was about time that I cooked something Belgian. So I made chicken with french fries, mayonnaise and æblegrød/appelmoes/applesauce! They liked it, which made me very happy! After that Marianne came home and we played Rummy (Rummikub). It was also my turn again to open the pakkekalender and I got a blueberry hat! :D

On Friday we had a normal day of school. Well, not really because we had our weekly assembly with the whole school and this time it was just sooooo long, but soooo funny! We sang christmas songs and laughed a lot, it was so much fun! Normally it takes like 30-45 min, but now it was over an hour! And we normally don't sing christmas songs! Then in the evening Mette and Mathias came over and we went out eating! I ate waaaaay too much, but we had a good time together! Then after that we played Draw&Guess and Mathias and I won!! (Tbh, I can't remember who won, but let's say Mathias and I won)

Today we went out with the whoooole family and we looked for a christmas tree. And then we went into a liiiiittle tiny shop to buy some old fashion decorations! And of course we had to eat with the whole family, so we did that as well! 

Okaaaaay, I think that was about it! Denmark is ready for Christmas, we're only waiting for some snow now ;) 

For my Belgians: I hope Sinterklaas came by last night and if he didn't, I'm very sorry, but you have to be nicer! AND GOOD LUCK WITH THE EXAMS FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE THOSE NOW! 

Christmas kisses, 

Justine