You can't judge a book by it's cover...

Welcome to Kornbakken street! Home sweet home. This is Brandon's apartment building in Naestved, Denmark. His window is at the very top right. We call it Dracula's house because of the spooky exterior but the inside of his apartment is adorable. I guess you really can't judge a book by it's cover. It might be a small apartment but I fell in love with it the moment I walked in...it has so much character and charm. This is my second night here and it still hasn't really hit me that I am in Denmark. Yesterday, after I landed, Brandon met me at the airport and we took a train from Copenhagen to Naestved. It was my first time on a train and the whole train ride was filled with windows of beautiful countryside and small towns. It's been pretty cold since I have been here and I can't say that I miss the heat or the humidity yet. Brandon has been a really good host. Yesterday we walked around Naestved on cobblestone streets with bicycles wizzing past us. We went into a small candy store where I bought some real black licorice...(Brandon seemed a little disgusted with my candy choice lol) We picked up a huge pizza for dinner. It was a lot different than the pizza in the states...it had really delicious lamb on it and was topped with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. While I am on the subject of food...going to the grocery store is quite an adventure...for one, it's all in Danish, and if that isn't hard enough, I had to try and figure out how much everything was worth by trying to convert kroners to dollars using my fingers to count! I know my Dad is reading this right now, talking out loud at the screen complaining about his daughter having to use her fingers to perform "simple math." This may be a little off subject...but I have noticed that because the majority of my traveling has been done with my parents, that I have started traveling with their perspective. I was noticing the brick work of a large church today the way my father would and looked at different species of plants and flowers wondering if I could figure out what they were the way my mom would. Even walking around town with Brandon the last two days has shown me how he notices the behaviors of people and the details of their culture. I think it is really refreshing how people can open up little windows into our worlds and offer their perspective on things without even realizing they are doing it. While Brandon was at practice today I went to the local grocery store by myself to buy flowers for the apartment...which turned out to be a little more intimidating than I had anticipated. Simply said, things are just different here. I have to step my game up and learn the grocery store rituals lol...you have to BUY the bags that your groceries go in, which means you have to guess how many bags it will take to get all your groceries...you have to put those little divider things BEFORE and after your groceries. I had different people speaking to me in Danish and even after I responded with the "I'm sorry, I don't speak Danish" they would keep speaking Danish! Lucky for me though, almost everyone under 50 speaks English. Between what Brandon is teaching me and plain old survival skills I have learned at least 10 new words in Danish...I know, that isn't very much but you have to start somewhere. Well, I made it out of the store alive and with flowers in tow...and made my cold yet refreshing walk back home. Brandon is asleep right now, it's about 1 a.m. here. The train runs right past his apartment so along with huge gusts of wind that are whipping past the building, I can hear the train coming through. I feel like I am in the setting of a novel. Well I need to try and go to sleep now because I am still not adjusted to the time change. Tomorrow I will post more pictures and not have such a rambling blog. Until then, take care. I love you all! Email me and let me know what is going on in your neck of the woods...

With love,

Rebecca