Wednesday, September 30, 2009

"My legs!"

Today was business as usual through school. Lots of tests in English and I handed in my essay. But the workout today was different. It was at a run-workout so we warmed up with 10 minutes of run. (I wouldn't consider that being warm up but ok)
So after the 10 minutes we stretched a little before we took 3 minutes run. Then it was time for 150 meters sprint and then it was time for the big challenge! By 7,5 rounds on the course (3000 meters) I was only thinking of surviving! I ran and I ran and my feet felt bad and in the end I couldn't feel my legs, and it's quite a while since I have tried that!
But I came through in 14:37 which was good considered it being me running. So we had a half an hour for stretching and warm up before the 1000 meters run. When I started I could definitely feel that it wasn't my first run that day. But fortunately I couldn't really feel my legs anymore so it didn't hurt that much when I ran. I did it in 3:58 minutes which again was satisfying.

I was pretty wasted after that workout so I think it's good that I have Thursday without workout before the "camping-trip" with the team that is going to be full of training. I hope to survive it though and am looking forward to being together with the other guys.

So now I will just upload some pictures to FaceBook before I go to bed. And by the way, I have now been in Canada for a month! Incredible as time flies, cause I feel like I landed a week ago. Weird...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Late update

First of all I would like to apologize for my missing updates on this blog this week. I have no explanation for this but it might be that I have just been a little lazy... Sorry!

Anyways my week went pretty easy without the big things happening in the weekdays except for a trip to the theater with Kim, Bryn and some other guys. It was entertaining and I liked just relaxing while the actors was talking English and not me. So that was Tuesday and the next days was just school and some workouts and then Friday came. I borrowed a camera from Media Arts so that I could take some pictures during the weekend and when school ended Kim was waiting for me at the office. We went talking with mr. Reynolds about my options in math. I simply couldn't keep up with the other guys in math pure which is for people planning to go to university so now I have math applied which should be easier. It seems like Denmark need to do something about it's math-level. So when that was fixed we drove home and saw some DVD before we went to bed. Next morning was a workoutday so we left the house at 8:30 to go to Canmore. But it wasn't a workout as usual. It was a rollerski workout! So we arrived and I got some new skiboots cause apparently you need two kind of boots: classic and skate. And since I seem to have Canada's biggest feet we had to buy them from a person who once bought them for her son who ended up don't needing them cause they were to big.

Anyways I took on the boots and Chris, the coach, handed me some rollerskies which I took on. I drove forward and backwards a couple of times and then I tried to keep up with the other guys which ended up in a minor crash. It was pretty fun but I'm still looking forward to real snow. After the training I drove with some of the guys from the skiteam to Calgary. Next day, Sunday, Vincent, Darren, Vincent's friend and I were going to mountainbike so I slept over at Darren's house. We spend the last bit of the day buying lumberjackshirts because I thought that you have to have a lumberjackshirt if you are in Canada. So we bought one each despite they didn't had the real ones (red/black) and after we had bought them we wore them proud while we were participating in Lumberjack Olympics which included wood cutting etc.

We went to bed quite late so I was a little tired when we woke up next day. Darren and I headed towards Bragg Creek to get some bikes and meet Vincent and his friend. Then we headed towards Moose Mountain where we dropped off the bikes and prepared ourselves for the bikeride down. Wearing helmet and lumberjackshirts we started biking down between the trees in the dust. The first hundred meters were insane and resulted in a minor scratch when I drove into a tree with my shoulder but after that it turned into fun and it was really nice to drive down while trying not to hit a tree and fall down the mountain. I survived it to the bottom and then we headed back to Bragg Creek to bring back the bikes and me. Before the other guys left we had some time to push over some trees which felt extra good cause we were wearing lumberjackshirts.
It was a really nice day and I would like to go again sometime!

So today I slept until 10 which was really nice. I even catched my big brother, Hans, on MSN so I talked with him for the first time since my arrival. It was nice to hear from him and it even gave me an excuse to delay my essay. But eventually I had to say goodbye cause he was at work and that left me with nothing else to do than homework. When the essay was done it was time to get changed because we were going at a workout in Calgary. When I was done lifting weights we drove home and I took some pictures that I am excited to see tomorrow in Media Arts. Now it is getting late and since tomorrow unfortunately isn't a day without school I better go to bed.

I will try to keep my blog a little more updated so you will not have to read a minor book like this again ;)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Shorts in snowstorm

Yesterday was a nice evening where Vince and Darren from the skiclub showed me why Canadians are famous lumberjacks. It was a nice night with lots of people and I was as usual quite tired when I went to bed.

The time was 05:30 when I woke up today. I moved the cat that was laying a couple of centimeters from my face down on the ground. I grabbed my computer and had a conversation with Svend, my brother, for an hour. He seemed a little tired despite I was the one who he wanted to get up early so we could talk. It was nice to hear from him and it was nice to lay down in the bed again and take one and a half hours of sleep before my cellphone was bipping me up again. Kim, Ken, me and two others was going on a hike. Despite the rain we left the house at 9:30 and headed towards Powder Face Ridge. The rain was falling while I took a little nap in the car and when we arrived we took on our raincoats. We started walking up but when we reached the treeline the rain turned into hail and from hail into snow. Now I wasn't really prepared for that cause I wore shorts. Now within a half an hour the depth of the snow was about as much as we get in Denmark in a winter! We continued up the ridge and the view was beautifully grey... We couldn't see the mountains around us and the wind was blowing as we continued our hike.

We came to the top where it blew very much. We decided to go a little back on the trail where there was lee and eat our lunch. While we were eating it stopped blowing and the sky turned from grey into blue. We finished our lunch and returned to the top where the sun started shining and we could see the mountains around us covered in snow. Fantastic!

(The pictures are uploaded to my FaceBook profile)

We walked down with our feet in snow and our backs warmed by the sun. We ended up at the car putted in our backpacks and drove back to Bragg Creek.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Back again

It was about 3 am when Ken got me out of bed. We had to go and 15 minutes later I was sleeping in the car. When I woke up we were getting close to the border. That meant that I had to find my passport. We drove up by the side of the Canadian police officer and handed him our passports. He asked if we had any guns in the car which we didn't. Then he gave us our passports and told us to drive away... I felt the sweet irony and smiled. It maked good sense. Since everything that comes in to the states is checked to the least detail, the Canadian don't need to spend time on what is coming from America. We drove on and I got to see what I had missed 2 days ago when we were driving down. (Except for a little nap I took on the last part.)

We continued past Bragg Creek and headed towards the University of Calgary where Ken is working. I got to see his lab which was filled with snails. Ken is studying the memory and snails are apparently good testanimals. I sat down by a computer while Ken went to a talk. When he came back we went down to a hall where a little buffet was prepared. It was a welcome event for the new students who was going to study neuroscience. I emptied the buffet and Ken introduced me to some of the new students. He also introduced me to a Dane! I was a little confused when she started to speak Danish to me. It was nice though to talk a little Danish. After being there for about an hour Ken and I drove to another place in Calgary where a BBQ was prepared for some of the guys who work together with Ken. It's impressive how they cauld talk about snails and fish. It was a nice evening with a good steak but I was quite tired when we finally went home.

Today I woke up at 7:30. We were going for a workout in Canmore which fortunately wasn't that hard. And it helped a lot that there was pizza after the training. Now I am sitting on my room. In a half an hour there will be a lot of people here eating dinner. Tomorrow I will have to be up early cause my littlebrother prefer that I get up early instead of him. The Sunday's program is also a little hike so I guess I will be pretty tired when I go to school on Monday. But I am starting to get used to it anyways...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

In Idaho

Yesterday Ken got me out of my bed and into the car at 2:45 am. I was of course very tired so I sleept for a long time. When I woke up we were getting close to the US border. When we stopped by the american police officer he asked for our passports. He wanted to know if Ken and I knew eachother which we both could answer yes to. After asking what we wanted in the states he told us to get out of the car. The problem wasn't Ken... It was me! I had to fill out a form that asked me if I had been a part of Nazi Germany, if I was a drug abuser or if I carried any explosives in my pocket. I answered no to all of it even though I think it would give the officer an exciting day at work if I answered yes to any of them. Well I handed the form over to him and he asked me to place my hand on a glass plate. It wasn't enough for the officer. He wanted my fingerprints and a picture of my face before he gave us permission to leave the office. Now USA can keep track with me for the rest of my life so thats good!

So Ken started the car and we drove away into the states. We turned on the radio and a deep voice started a torturial about how to make a slideshow. (That is really weird! I don't think I have ever heard anything that crazy in the radio...)
So we turned of the radio and I looked out of the car to discover that the truck in front of us said "Great Dane" on the back. Well thats a nice way to be welcomed into the states!

I fell a sleep again and when I woke up the land had changed. From mountains all around us we now had hilly fields all over. The temperature was at 27 degrees and I started to think about that I probably wouldn't like to live surrounded by fields in such a heat with thousands of kilometers to the ocean. After an hour we finally arrived to Moscow in Idaho. (Not Russia!)

We were welcomed by a nice woman named Barbara. She worked at the Washington State University where Ken is talking today. We drove 12 kilometers into the state of Washington and arrived by the university. Ken and Barbara talked about there experiences with their studies while I was watching over FaceBook. We drove back to Moscow and Barbara prepared a nice dinner for her family, Ken and I.

Today I sleept 12 hours which was absolutely great! I spend my day working on my blog and by running for a while around the neighborhood. I have to train a little cause I miss two workouts by being here and I have to keep up with the unhuman skiclub... So now I will leave the computer and leave into the city with Barbaras son Neil who is the same age as me. The difference is just that he has a drivers license and I don't...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Going to the US

Today was a good day at school. Last friday we had a quiz in math and today we got the results. 8 out of 14 is really good considered the fact that my last quiz gave me 3 out of 20! Unfortunately we also had our unitexam today... I am afraid I did not managed that well but who cares.?
I also spend my time in school hunting signatures from my teachers. It showes up that you have to fill out a couple of papers just to get free from school for three days! The reason why I am going is that Ken is holding a lecture on a university in the state of Washington. Kim got that great idea that I could skip school and join him on the roadtrip down there which will take about 10 hours. I hope to see some of Canada and a little bit of USA. So in 5 and a half hour Ken is going to knock on my door and then we will leave. (That's at 3 in the morning!)

Anyways I ended up getting all my signatures and now I should be good to go. On the way home with the bus we stopped to let some students off and three meters from the bus a deer was standing, eating grass by the road. It wasn't afraid cause when the students stepped out it just moved a bit away. I have to get used to see the deer everyday. It's weird though cause im not used to be three meters away from a deer in Denmark...

Well I think I will now hurry in bed before Ken comes down to pull me up!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Monarch Mountain

Yesterday was a hard but fantastic day!
I woke up at 06:05. Then I fell asleep and woke up by Ken knocking my door. It was 07:04 and I had to get some clothes on. 30 minutes later we were sitting in the car, Kim, Ken and me. Fortunately Kim had some cake in the car so it was a nice ride to Canmore. At the parkinglot we met the four friends of Kim and Ken that was following us on the hike. After saying hi to the new guys we went off on our travel towards the top.
After walking between trees for a time we finally came out in the free and we could now see Monarch Mountain. We continued for a while until one of the others spotted a moving thing in the landscape. We stopped and looked at the Grizzlybear that was walking a couple of hundred meters away. Soon it was hidden behind a tree so we went on.

After a couple of hours walking we stopped for lunch at the top of the ridge. It was sun and 27 degrees and the sky was blue. We had a fantastic view to the mountains and lakes that was surrounding us and it was the perfect spot for lunch. After we had ate we continued down the ridge starting the retreat. I was getting quite tired and when we came to a creek on our way down we stopped to stick our toes into the water. It was cold but refreshing. I dipped my feet and face and then we continued the final kilometers down through the forrest. When we came down Kim told me that I had now experienced more of the mountains tham the most people living in Calgary. That was nice to hear that after 25 kilometers of mountain walking!

On our way home some goats decided to cross the road in front of us. They didn't seemed to fear cars and humans so they took their time. Which gave me some space to take a couple of pictures that are now ready on FaceBook. When we came home we got some hamburgers for dinner and watched a movie. We were all pretty tired so it was nice to sleep 12 hours last night.
Today I have been relaxing a bit and Kim showed me the creek that runs through Bragg Creek. I have made my homework so I think I deserve some sleep before I go to school tomorrow.

So goodnight everyone!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Homework

Monday was Labour day so there was no school. Therefore we went to climb Nihani Ridge. It was not as steep as Moose Mountain but still I was a little tired when we drove home. On the top of Nihani Ridge there was actually a little snowflakes in the air!
After climbing we went home and relaxed a little before tuesday came.

Kim had helped me with the math so after the two periods of math my teacher said that I was making progress and as a way of appreciation she gave me homework... So I ended up doing three hours of math homework before I could go to sleep.

So today started as the often do over here. Up at 06:15 and then some breakfast before leaving with the yellow schoolbus. Today I brought music which was nice on the 45 minutes drive. I also saw a lot of deer on the way which I have to start consider being normal. Anyways I struggled through math and after school Kim picked us up outside the front of the school. We had a workout in Calgary which ended up being just as hard as the last one... I hope I am going to get in shape soon cause I think I deserve it now!
When we were done Ken picked us up and we went home to a delicious dinner prepared by Kim.
Now I am sitting here catching up with the last couples of days.

In a moment I will go to bed which I after the days workout am looking forward to!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sunday

After a great hike to Moose Mountain yesterday I went to bed being a little exhausted. It was a great trip and after a hard climbing it was a fantastic view into the big Rocky Mountains in Alberta/British Columbia. It was me and Ken who went up there and it was a great start of my new outdoorlife here in Canada. (The pictures have been uploaded to FaceBook just now if anyone would be interested)

So today I woke up as late as 08:20 and took a shower. When I came back to my room Skype was ringing on the computer and my mother got here first virtual sign of life from me. So after a talk with Glamsbjerg City I went upstairs to have some breakfast. The days program was a trip to Calgary with Kim to buy SIM-Card for my phone and a pair of runners. So we went in there and on the way I played some Danish music for her. Which she liked! (although Kim thought it sounded like "disaster" when Steffen Brandt was singing "de første kærester på månen")

Anyways I got both shoes and card and when we came home Kim and I went for a walk with Blizzard. (the dog) It was niced and the shoes fitted great! When I got back I thought it was time to unpack the suitcase so that is also done know ;)

Know I will go eat dinner that Kim have prepared!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Calgary

Today I got to school and everything was going great until Art. I was sitting and waiting for the class to start but it took like a half an hour. I thought it was weird but perhaps something is wrong. Finally class started and I realized that I had missed the lunch-break. Stupid!
So instead of having lunch between 3rd and 4th periode the break was now between 2nd and 3rd bacause there were only four periods instead of five...

Anyways I survived math despite the fact that it was crazy algebra. I really need to catch up with this subject.
But after school I got picked up by Ken. He brought me to Calgary where I was going to meet an exchangestudent who came home from the Netherlands. His name was Paul and he was really nice. He showed me downtown Calgary and we went up to Calgary Tower. It was all really exciting and it was nice to see everything from above. After showing me Calgary Paul took me home for dinner. Hamburgers and Corn. That must be some sort of Canadian food right?

So I had a great time there and in the end of the day Paul's mom took me back to Bragg Creek. On our way home I asked a question that was coming up to my mind again and again. "What is the problem between Canada and USA?" The answer was that it was hard to tell in few sentences but it was something with being confused with eachother. I have not really got to know what the differences is between the two countries but I hope to find out someway...


Tomorrow I will go hiking on Moose Mountain with Ken which I am looking forward to!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Day 1 at school

Finally after arriving to Calgary last night I have started to school. Even though I was really exhausted after the travel it was nice to get started. By the I need to say that planes should me made bigger cause even my tiny body could not fall a sleep on board. Anyways at 07:20 the schoolbus arrived so Bryn and I had to run fast. (Bryn is my hostsister)
We managed to get on board so soon we were heading towards school 45 minutes away. When we arrived Bryn dropped me off at the office where Mr. Reynolds was waiting to take a look at my passport and select courses. After that was done he showed me the school which was about four times as big as my school in Denmark. There was even a place for curling and a hockeycourse!

So after the tour I went to my first class which was Art. After drawing some stones which was funnier then it sounds, I went to Media Arts which I really am looking forward to participate in. I am going to learn how to take pictures and make movies so it is going to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was late because I could not find the room, but my teacher showed mercy to me and I was not among the four students who had to stand up and sing "Oh Canada". I ended my schoolday with English. Our teacher showed up with a test which I really did not understood much about, but he told me that is was only to get a feeling of where we was in the subject so I stayed calm.

After school I went to the library to wait for Ken (my hostdad) to pick us up. We were heading towards Calgary where we were going to workout with the skiclub. It was 30 degrees hot so I ended up being really exhausted. After 45 minutes of running and sprinting it was really nice to have that smoothie that Kim (my hostmom) had prepared for Bryn and I. You can imagine a golfer out of shape training hard in 45 minutes in 1300 meters hight...

Anyways it was nice to come home and after a delicious dinner and finishing homework I am now sitting here at my bed writing this post. Now I think I will go to bed and sleep well after a long day with a lot of impressions!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

At 07:00 on the 29th August my plane left the ground in Copenhagen Airport and I started my travel towards Canada where my next year as exchangestudent would be spend. After a very short flight I landed in Frankfurt and I had good time to find both a poweradaptor and some candy to the upcoming flight. At 10:45 I left european ground and a travel on 8 hours was ahead of me. It was a long flight but movies and food maked the trip more pleasant.
After the long flight I stepped out into Toronto Airport and was received my Canadian officers who wanted to know what I was there for. After showing my personal VIP-card they bowed deep and let me walk away to take care of my suitcases.

After getting my bagage I went out to the arrivals where YFU-Canada was standing ready to take care of me. After spending some time searching for the car, me and another student left with an YFU-voluntary heading towards the place where we were going to sleep the next couple of days. Because of the horrible time differences I soon ended up sleeping in the car but after 1,5 hours I woke up and we were far out in the middle of nowhere. Everything was flat and all the fields where full of corn. Once in a while we passed a farm laying beside two silos. Finally we stopped by one of them and we took out our suitcases from the car. We were welcomed by three nice people who helped us with the bagage and in the livingroom we found three Japanese students sitting in the sofa.
I spend the rest of the day and the night there and next day all the YFU-students left for a half hour of driving to the place where the orientation was going to take place. We entered the building which was placed opposite the local church, and in the communitycentre we found other students waiting for us to come so we could start the orientation. We were 12 students and after being fed with donuts and cookies we started the orientation by going through all the rules that I had heard before in Denmark. Fortunately there were breaks and good advices too so it ended up being funny and interesting hearing about other countries. For example there was a Japanese boy who thought Denmark sounded great as soon as he heard about the drinking age and that we in Denmark just called our teachers by their first name.

We all slept there and next day we had a Canadian officer to tell us about the Canadian law. While I was wondering if it was only in the states they ate donuts, he told us about being arrested and what not to do in Canada. After an interesting sunday and monday we left the communitycentre and headed back to the farm where we spended the last hours of the monday. After a good sleep me and another Japanese student was picked up this morning. We said goodbye to the other students who slept at the same house as us and filled our suitcases into the car. We left the farm and headed toward Stratford where a Belgian girl who was driving with us was supposed to drop on a train going to Quebec. After driving for about an hour we were by the Stratford trainstation and we started to empty the car for her bagage.

We waited untill 08:55 where the train arrived and after wishing her a good trip we left Stratford and headed toward Kitchener to the YFU-office in Ontario. It is also here that I am writing this post to my new blog which I will try to keep alive during my stay here in Canada! At 18:10 me and the Japanese girl named Yuko is leaving Ontario by plane and tonight I will meet my hostfamily in Calgary. I am really excited about meeting them and about going to school tomorrow. But right now there is nothing to do except waiting so that is what I am going to do.