I am Indeed Alive.

Yes I am sincerely sorry - I keep forgetting to blog! It is so hard to keep track of time here as there is always so much going on and half the time I don't understand as it's in Danish. So here is a quick (ish) update of what I have been up to over the last few weeks.

About a month ago I had my last day at Vejle Sprogskole (Language school) so now i am on my own which is GREAT. We had a really nice last day with Pavlova (a New Zealand tradition to all of those Aussies who think otherwise), a 'Secret Easter Bunny' and just general silliness as we all knew we wouldn't see each other for a while. It is safe to say not too much work was done that day but it was a good day all the same. Here are some pics of our last day:

Catherine and I with our amazing easter gifts. Got to love Disney Princesses!

All of our amazing wrapped pressies!

I actually was very sad to leave language school as there was such a nice group of people there and i suppose it was helpful learning a bit of Danish (just kidding Rotary it was FANTASTISK). I now just have to force myself to speak Danish at home so i can be fluent by August (my plan, ambitious yet I am hoping achievable! I have started having Danish only days with my family which is difficult but 'good for me in the long run' as my Mother says.

I had a day trip to Odense (one of Denmark's biggest cities) to see Simon, a Danish guy who cam to Wellington on his exchange. it was really nice to see him again and he showed me around the city which was really cool. Sadly, being teenagers, we hadn't thought ahead about the fact that it was a Sunday and everything was closed (yes I know, even by new Zealand standards that's old fashioned!). So we just strolled through the streets and saw the outside of things such as HC Andersen's house. It was sunny too which was so foreign at that time it almost scared me! Here are some pics.

Only in Denmark - a machine counting the number of bikes passing through per day, month and year!

Some interesting trees. Remind me of the whomping willow in Harry Potter

Me outside HC Andersen's house.

The next two weeks following Odense I was on holiday. The first week was because my class went to Berlin on a school trip and I wasn't able to go with them (I know tragic right?) and then the second week we had Easter holidays. So during the first week on holiday I was actually quite the busy bee. I went to the gym a few times and did some much needed exercise (I can still feel the effects of the cross trainer on my thigh muscles). Over the next few days I was indulged in my love of Danish design, modern art and furniture - Trapholt and IKEA baby! Min mor, Gitte, kindly took the day off work and took me to Trapholt design museum in Kolding which is only 20 minutes away from my house. It was my dream to be honest, I loved every minute of it! There was an exhibition on Danish furniture, chairs in particular, which to the normal human being would deem very boring but to me the strange lover of design and furniture, it was amazing! Plus it had the best gift shop ever seen by man. I could have mental with the visa but I practiced self control and only bought a few nice things for myself and pressies for others. Some pics from Trapholt:

Me at Trapholt with Kolding Fjord behind me

Chairs! I love them ALL

My favourite chair of all.

The latest chairs in the Museum

Then the next day was IKEA!!! For those of you who know me, Ikea is heaven for me. My dream is to own Ikea, and I shall! I went with Catherine, a fellow exchangee, to the Ikea in Odense aka the biggest Ikea in EUROPE. My host Dad Ib drove us there as he had work to do so e had the whole day to roam the heavenly aisles of the world famous enterprise (which is not even Danish!). I'll let the photos speak for themselves to show you what I got up to there . . .

Me having fun in the lamp section!

We had lunch there and we had the famous Swedish meatballs mmm. I love the senile old man food trolley.

Love.

Me entering IKEA. A tad excited.

The front of IKEA with the Swedish and Danish flags side by side awww.

IKEA was sooo much fun and I didn't even spend that much money! It's even cheap here in the land of GST being 25%!. I plan to visit Ikea many more times so I can buy enough furniture to furnish my future home :)

I have more to tell you of what I did during my holidays but to be honest I have already exposed you to too much of my word vomit so next time I will fill you in on our family holiday to Nysted and Copenhagen!

I will leave you with a pic of me with my new bike Rotary kindly gave me :)

I am a true Dane now.

Jeg håber I havde en god påske

Lucy