Exchange is everything

"Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.

Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.

Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.

Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.

Exchange is people. people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.

Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.

Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people . It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s BUGS. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.

Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.

Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.

Exchange is falling in love with this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.

Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…

Exchange is understanding.

Exchange is unbelievable.

Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.

Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.

Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.

Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.
Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year. And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents. Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.

Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it ! "




Dette er ikke mine ord - men hvor er det hele alt sammen altså bare sandt. 
Nanna Bo

Januar... Februar... MARTS

Hvad skete der lige der.... så er vi allerede inde i Marts måned - og nej.. det er ikke bare Marts måned - det er nu Marts 6th OG det er officielt forår.. eller i hvert fald i følge den danske kalender! Herovre venter vi lige et par uger får vi indstiller os på at det snart er sommer.
Nå - men får lige at opdatere.. Så er vi jo for alvor begyndt på second semester - puuuhhh! Men ved i hvad.. det er slet ikke særlig hårdt, da mit second semester schedule (heldigvis) er super duper let! Jeg fortsætter med AM-stud og math i EHS, og har kun Photo II og Chem på BHS - hvilket betyder at jeg mangler en period. Og ja, du hørte rigtigt.. jeg har simpelthen en åben period, hvor jeg basically sidder og laver mine lektier, hvilket betyder jeg har mere tid til pjat når jeg kommer hjem, wooo hoooo! Men grunden til at jeg har en åben period, er fordi der er for mange elever på skolen.. og jeg er nedprioteret fordi jeg er en udvekslingsstudent - NOT cool!
Meeeeeen..... Tid? Det tror jeg ikke jeg har meget af - selvom jeg som sagt har min åben til at lave lektier og sådan... så går jeg direkte fra skole til Crew, roning, som er helt vildt fedt! Der er jeg hver dag til klokken seks før jeg kommer hjem - laver lektier - går i seng.. så tja, der er ikke meget tid til at snakke med nogle at all! Så, hvis jeg nu fortæller jer at den sidste gang jeg skypede min Mutter var den 25. Januar, så føler du dig ikke rigtigt glemt længere, vel? Og hvis jeg siger, at vi jo ses i lufthavnen, Mutter, så føler du dig heller ikke glemt, vel? Ej pjat - jeg skal nok finde tid til at ringe... på et eller andet tidspunkt... måske....

Denne uge står på endnu en SPIRITWEEK! Ligesom vi havde i begyndelsen af året, så gør alle eleverne dress ups for hver dag i denne uge - og dagene er som følgene:
- Yoga day
- AMERICA day
- Frat day
- Seattle-sports day
- Freshies: Cowboys, Sophomores: Pirates, Juniors: Ninja's, Seniors: Superhero's

Så det er meget sjovt.. selvom denne uge helt sikkert ikke er ligesom intens som når vi har spiritweek for homecoming week, da denne uge "kun" er spirit for tolo, som er på lørdag. Tolo er - ligesom homecoming - en schooldance, hvor - i modsætning til homecoming - er pigernes tur til at spørge sin "date".. og ja, jeg er stadig lame - og nej, jeg har ikke en date.. For jeg er en taber, sry

- Nanna Bo