Reason number 1 for having an exchange student

Short and simple:

Because international exchange is the smartest thing I ever did!

Growing up I was the odd duck - the nerd, the brain, not interested in sports at all. I was a quiet little mouse who preferred to blend in with wallpaper. I was very good at languages and in the 8th grade I came up with the idea to travel on exchange.

My dad thought is was a great idea. We were advised to wait until I was sure to placed in 12th grade in the States. So I left Denmark when I was 17. I was placed in a family with no kids and spent a year in a catholic private school in Michigan. Didn't make a whole lot of friends but that year changed me forever and I returned home a confident and strong 18 year old.

At home I quickly became a volunteer for the exchange organisation I traveled with; Youth for Understanding and soon all my friends was from YFU. I was very involved in the organisation for many years and tried out so many different things and had loads of responsibility at a very young age.

I met my husband through YFU and most of our fundamental values stem from our international experiences.

Having an exchange student living with us has been just as rewarding as our original exchange experiences.

Reason number 2 for having an exchangestudent

It has been over two years since she arrived. The experience changed both her and us. But even though it has been so long now it is still a conversation starter or something that interests people a great deal.

Being an "international" family is so normal to us that we sometimes forget how the other half lives. We feel so priviledged that we have have had the opportunity to invite the world inside our own home. And my reason number two for having an exchange student may sound a bit thick but I feel proud that I made the world a little bit smaller and helped further international cultural exchange and opened communication between people. And through casual dinner conversations or lunch with collegues I continue to do so. I wonder if everyone had to have an exchange student if there would be so much conflict in the world ... or just in Denmark?  

Reason number 3 for having an exchange student

She has just been back for a visit and it was great to see her again.

Her danish skills was pretty much the same as when she left - very impressive!

Most of the everyday words she has gotten pretty good at. However a trip to Italy showed me that there are words in the Danish language that so hard to say and makes no sense at all.

Bølgeskvulp - the first time I said it she looked at me like I was making up new words (translation: not a real wave but a little sound water makes when it curls)

Halv fem - she kept saying that she had to  leave the house at half seventeen. It took a few guesses before we figured out she was meant 4:30. In Danish we don't use am or pm. After noon we say 13, 14 etc ( or 1, 2 etc). So in her mind 4:30 was 30 min before 17. "But that makes no sense at all??"

Trying to explain the ins and out of the Danish language is reason number 3.

Reason number 4 for having an exchange student

I just received a message that she has found tickets to come back and visit!

We are all so excited. It will be great to see her again and see if she has changed in the year that has passed.

It is such fun to have visitors. This year my husbands hostparents are coming for the baby's baptism and my best friend is coming in August. But it will be wonderfull to see her again and see her being excited about being back.

Reason number 5 for having an exchange student

Our student left for home many months ago and we still miss her ... she misses us too.

But she is still family. The kids - especially our daughter - refers to her as their sister. We wish we could have more exchange students but the room is now occupied with the latest addition to the family; Anne-Sophie. She was born in november.

But our student will always be our daughter too. And her family is an extension of ours. Being connected to another family like this worth gold.

Long time no hear ...

A post on this blog is long overdue. So much has happened over the last four months I don't even know where to begin.

We ended the year of 2012 on a sad note. Our beloved dog Pax developed cancer and a short 6 weeks after we found out we had to say goodbye to him. We managed to get a new puppy before he was put down but is it still not the same.

In the end of January my husband was let go from his job - a turbulent month followed but luckily he was able to find a new job very quickly.

Around the same time we was called to a meeting at school. They wanted to hold back Alexander a year because they were worried about his academic skills. We refused but it means that we need to focus a great deal on him.

It was with a sad heart that we then decided that we had to put our kids first and not have exchange students for a while.

Then life threw us another little or rather big twist. In the middle of march I thought Emmeline had given me the flue. But a pregnancy test showed a different answer to my stomach problems. I am pregnant!! We still have trouble believing it but hopefully come November the household will say Hello to the world to a little baby.

We felt bad for our exchange student because we knew that the following two months I would be very sick and mostly confined to my bed and we simply wouldn't have the time to give her the exchange year we think she deserves. We had also had a period where communication wasn't going so well between us - we didn't see her much and we felt we lived to separate lives. So we gave her a choice. We said that we would love for her to stay but if she wanted to switch family to a family that have more time for her we would understand completely. We felt it was important that she made the choice herself.

I had to make a similar choice as an exchange student. My host mother was a teacher at school and she was a tough teacher. To me she was a great friend that I loved spending time with but to others she seemed very harsh and not a very warm person. One of my great friends asked if I wanted to come stay with her and her family instead. I declined because I was perfectly content where I was. But it did make me think about my situation and looking back it meant a great deal to have made that decision my self. I chose to stay so I was responsible for my own situation - that is character building!

She also chose to stay and she is so excited about the baby that she wants to come visit next summer to see the baby. She has also been great at helping out more around the house and communication has improved vastly since.

Reason number 6 for having an exchangestudent

Al though I haven't done it much lately cooking is one of my favorite pass times. Between kids and every day chores I just don't seem to have much time to do it. But I am looking forward to teaching her some traditional danish meals.

We are an "international" family so we don't eat very traditional danish food - at least not for dinner. 

I remember when I was an exchange student I asked my mom to send some recipes so I could cook for my host parents. I did cook a few times but after I on two separate occasions started a small fire and flooded the kitchen they asked if I could just bake from then on. 

One of the dishes I made was meatballs in curry or as we say in Danish: "boller i karry". It is basically pork meatballs which is boiled and served with a curry sauce and rice. This was actually what I was making when I set the kitchen stove on fire as an exchange student.

Another dish is one that most foreigners have heard of; Frikadeller - again pork meatballs, served with either potatoes and gravy or potato salad.

She has expressed interest in making frikadeller - it will be fun to teach her even more about danish food traditions.