Day 20 - The day where nothing happened:-P

Today: school...In the break we(meaning Morten and I) once again went to Express Panda. It is quite good food:-P

After school we went shopping in Target. The rest of the evening we relaxed, had a great talk and did some laundry at the hotel:-P

Well if i have to say something that happened today, it must be that i tasted a Dr. Pepper Cherry Vanilla. My teacher Jennifer who is from Texas are almost never seen without one over here. She actually gave me one so i could taste it. I liked it:-P There are not many of my class mates who likes Dr. Pepper, but i think it is okay:-) Just not too much of it at the same time:-) It has e very unique taste:-P

Day 19 - Church

Today we had class, and in the break we went to Panda Express to check that out. It is a Chinese fastfood retaurant. It was actually pretty good! - We got it to go, and there were a lot of food so we had for two meals:-P And very important: the coke tasted good!!


Right after school Morten and i went to church in Mount Sinai Baptist Church. We had two churches to choose from. This baptist church and Austin Cornerstone church which we were in last sunday. We choose Sinai, and got very lucky! - When we arrived we found out that the two churches had a service together that night in Sinai:-P
A nice lady called Joy were one of the people welcomeing us and got a nice seat for us:-)The church were gospel inspired and i have never heard so many people shouting stuff doing a sermon:-P He said some really cool things! - So i really got something to take back home as an encouragement. All in all a very cool and unique experience! - Poeple were so nice and came up to talk and say hello and goodbye and so on. Again i can conclude that we can really learn something from the American church in Denmark!

The Pastor at Mount Sinai:


When we were finally home after some shopping we relaxed with the computer to be in touch with friends and family:-)

Day 18 - Texas Capitol and Chili!

Today we were in school of course. In the break we went to Wendys, which is another classic fastfood chain in America we needed to try. Some of our classmates had tried it some days before and had not recommended it, but you know, we have to try:-P I got a salad which was okay. Morten got a burger which were not that good:-P

The rest of the break was used on reading a book we have to read for literature class on wendsday. It is called "Evacuation Plan" and our teacher Joe O'Connell has written it. It is a very interesting book when you first get going.

Right after school we went to get a tour of the Capitol in Austin. The building looks a lot like the Capitol of Washinton D.C.


It is a very cool building!! - Very beautifully made. There are many small details. The Lone Star that i wrote about earlier are everywhere inside the building. It is in the lamps, walls, floor and so on. Places where you really need to be looking for a while to see it. Ths is a picture of the floor underneath the dome. I think the design is awesome!


This is the House of Representatives in Texas. In here are 150 members during sessions:


This is the senate, where 31 members sit:


The dome, with the star:


The doormat in the capitol:


Morten having a press conference in the Capitol:


When we were finished we went to a Restaurant called: "Texas chili parlor". Jennifer one of our teachers love the place and wanted us all to try it. It is very spicy food. It was cool to try but it was not something i would go back to:-P The place was very cool though!! Very western, and trashed! - The restaurant has been in a Quintin Tarantino movie called "Death Proof". I dont think i have seen it, but now i have to. I like his movies:-) Kasper got xxx which is the hottest chili they got. That was crazy:-P

In the evening we had to practice politics. We were askee to prepare a one minute speak last week for tonight. So our teacher Spencer came to the hotel. I was very nervous and had felt kind of bad about it all evening. I tried to get out of it but there is no way back. I have to perticipate in that debate. Now i am trying to see it as a challenge and try to learn as much as possible but i know i will be very nervous. I am happy to have some suportive friends!

After that me and Morten had to read to finish the book for wendsday. We did not finish, we had to stop at 2 at night, to get some sleep:-P Coke(Cola:-P) was not enough to keep us awake...

Day 17 - Evacuation and MUSIC!

Today while we were in school having Gaming class we were asked to evacuate the building! - Something apparently had started the firealarm, which we had not heard, So we all went outside, but only few minutes passed by before we could go inside. Nothing had happened, luckily:-)
Here we are all standing outside the ACC building:


After school Michael, Thomas and I went downtown to the biggest musicstore in Austin called "Waterloo". We were prepared to spend quite a good amount of money:-P The place was really big, and they have SO MUCH music! - I do not know how much time we spend there but it was quite some time, and we did not go through it all. I spend 111 dollars in there on CD's. Here are a picture of what i got:


And i forgot to menation that i bought these in San Antonio the other day:


I also got to buy some very special cigaretts called "Black":-P They smells like christmas and tasts relly nice:-) I am going to bring home as many as i may since we cannot buy them in Denmark. I know i have some friends at home who will be very exciting about getting some:-P


I also got this rose from some guy in town:


When i came home a surprised waited for me:-P Some of the guys had accessed my room and had a bit of fun in there...hmm:-P
We have all gotten this nice file with all the info we needed and mine now looks like this:

(Sorry about the language in the picture:-P)

A lot of other things happend in my room, quite funny actually:-P

(sorry about the pictures, my blog is teasing me)

Day 16 - UT Tower, Segway! and...church?

Today we went to another hotel in Austin called "Holiday inn". We had to go on a Segway Tour by that hotel. A Segway is this machine that you can stand on. It has two wheels and a handle:


It is actually fast to learn how to control it. We went out in a area with a beautiful nature and also into the American neighborhoods. This was one of the poorer once. It is something you would not see anywhere in Denmark like this.
In the learning process:


At the end, we are about to race each other:


AMerican house, all ready for Halloween which is next weekend: (our American teacher Jennifer has her hotel room filled with Halloween stuff:-P)


Afterward we went into one of the campus areas in Austin, to go up into the UT Tower. It is the highest tower together with the capitol building(which we are going to see this week too) in Austin. It has been a campus library some years back, and has a beautiful view over Austin:-)
Waíting outside UT Tower:


UT Tower:


Some view from UT:


The statium where their precious football team Longhorns play. Their t-shirts are all over town and they are in a tournament now. It is going pretty well:


The special sign for the Longhorns team is actually the Rock n' Roll handgesture(performed here by president Bush, who is from Texas and has been the governor of Texas):


And this is their logo which is everywehere as mentioned before:


Morten and i had once again planned to go to church this time to an evening service, but the churches homepages is not always trust able:-P So there were no service. We wandered a bit to figure out if any of the other churches had something, but without any luck. Instead some guys who i found a bit creepy pulled up beside us and started to say "hey baby" and stuff like that! - luckily Morten was the one who were walking by the road, and he did the talking. They asked where we were going and he said home and they asked where that was and he said Denmark, and then they offered us a ride there...haha, they had no idea where it is:-P
They disappeared for a while but came back still saying all this things! really creepy! - It is not the first time at our stay here. They are not afraid of giving you comments like that here, sometimes it is a bit too much:-) I am just happy that i am here with 16 guys! - Well we got away from them, a creepy, but also funny experience:-P

The rest of the night we were reading. We have a book that our literature teacher has written that we need to read. And also 3 novels for tomorrow. The writer for two of them will come tomorrow and talk about them.

Day 15 - San Antonio and The Alamo

Today we went by bus to San Antonio. The weather was really good! - Lots of sun and heat:-)
We first went to the Alamo:


The last couple of days in school we have been told a lot about its history and the Spanish Missions. Very interesting history! So it was cool to see. We found out that a Dane had been there and died there in the battle. And also that he had been one of the guys designing the Texas flag, which looks like this:


The star was the danish guys idea. They have it everywhere here in Texas. On trashcans, in the pavement, everywhere! - When it is not on the flag it is drawn like what we/I know as the punk-star:


Here it is called "The Lone Star". I think its pretty cool:-)

After wards we went to see and old Spanish mission called "San José". That was also very interesting!
Here the intrance to the catholic church in the mission:


A window were the priest read out loud from the bible, to the indians who were not yet Christians and could not be inside the curch:


When we were finished at the Spanish mission we proceeded to the famous River Walk in San Antonio. We ate lunch at a boat going up The River Walk. It was very beautiful sight in a special way. A very nice trip!! - Our guide was very funny and knew a lot of stuff from Wikipedia:-P
Our boat:


When we were done we got a couple of hours in San Antonio by ourselves. The city is very special and beautiful i think in some very special way! - I enjoyed seeing it, and i really want to go there some other time and have some more time there:-)

Morten and I meet some people in a park there with red T-Shirts on, with a text on it saying something like "Sharing the love of Jesus"

Day 14 - Football, Diversity workshop and real cowboys!

(the sight i woke up to)

Today we were in the hands of our two new teachers who came to take over from the other two. Our new teachers are Mette and Jennifer. Mette is our English teacher. Jennifer are an American citizen and she is from Texas. She has been filling in for Mette when she was in maternity leave. Besides that we had her to socials studies for half a year in 1.g.

Today we got up early to go to the "Diversity Workshop". It is a group of minorities in the U.S that is gathers for this day to tell about what they are doing. It is the collage that we are on (ACC) who has arranged this day. The theme was: "Speak Out!" We(The Denmark Group) had a workshop. Me, Thomas and Michael had to do a presentation were we presented the danish education system. Our classmates had gathered information to us about it:-)It went pretty well, and people there were very interested, especially by the fact that we are paid to go to school. Being in America makes you think about how lucky we are that we can take whatever education we want to without paying - or worrying about it.


When the presentation was over Thomas, Michael and I got a T-Shirt, and we all got a diploma. The T-Shirt is in a campaign which tries to get all young Americans to vote at this election.
Looks like this:


I meet an interesting and cool guy at the Diversity Workshop. He asked about the band that i had on my T-Shirt which was Norma Jean, and i found out that he was a Christian. So he got my myspace and e-mail, and i am looking forward to talking to him!
Morten and i went to a workshop called "Crusader for Christ" it is a group of Christians who is in the school, a bit like KFS in Denmark, but they are reaching out a lot more, in an very alternative way by art. I need to do some more research on it, but they seemed very cool:-)

I am starting to miss the danish food a lot:-P Everything over here is sweet even their bread. We have been talking about baking some ourselves oneof these days:-P

After the Diversity workshop we went to our literature professors house(Joe O'Donell). He lives out in the country of Austin. He had invited a journalist and some other Americans who wanted to talk to us, so that was pretty cool:-) All this time we have been here we have been told that Austin is very different from the rest of Texas and the US in general, and going to Joes showed that. He lives still in Austin but in the outskirts. The geographics was real cowboy-like.
At Joe's:

And especially the place were Joe took us to eat showed what many of us were thinking of Texas before we came here. It was a club were people were dressed like cowboys, and country music was played:-P I got to talk to a nice woman there about Texas and the culture compared to Denmark in many areas also religion.
Many years ago that was the place to go to hear music and meet people:-)Apparently a bit of a famous place at the time.
This is the "logo" from it:




After the visit there with GREAT and cheap hamburger we had to go to a high school football game. Tigers vs. Bulldogs. That was cool to experience the atmosphere at a game like that. There were cheerleaders and everything which the boys from our class enjoyed A LOT! - The cheerleaders came up to take pictures with them and yeah, that was fun! - They act so different when there are other girls around:-P Quite funny!






And i have to mention that Morten was feeling much better today and with us all the whole day:-)

Day 13 - School and a goodbye to our two teachers!

Today we again went to school. I just want to mention a very special teacher that we have. He is a professor and has written textbooks. He teaches us Texas History. He is a really great teacher, and he is really cool! - He has a lot of humor which he uses a lot! - He can almost keep me awake for two straight hours were he is just talking! - Well, almost:-P I am a tough crowd though:-P

Today Morten has been feeling better so that's great! - I have to admit that i miss him in school already:-)

Right after school we all(except Morten) went to the restaurant "Chilis" to have a final dinner with our two great teachers Line and Karin. Line is our psychology teacher and Karin is our danish teacher. It was a cool way to end there time here with us in the states:-)
(hopefully the pictures will be coming soon)

At 8:00 we had a visit from one of our teachers at ACC, who teach us "U.S Government", his name is Spencer and he is very funny!
I am not the strongest person in politics but i have been chosen to be a candidate in a debate. I am quite nervous about that:-P

Day 12 - School and...well not much more...

Today we of course went to school. I checked on Morten in the morning and it has not improved much. I tend to get very much motherly when my friends are sick and no parents are around to take care of them. I did that on my boarding school too. It is very weird since i really not like being sick like that, so when my brother is sick at home i always isolate myself:-P But here were there are no parents, i just cannot help myself:-) So i am just praying and hoping that we will all be shielded from more sickness, and that Morten will SOON get better!

School today has been a bit hard because me and apparently most of our class are very tired. We are talking about that the food here is very different from the danish food, and maybe it messes up our health. I will try to get many hours of sleep tonight and see if it helps:-)

We had to skip church. We were supposed to go to a mid-week meeting in Sinaid Baptist Church but we will have to save that for another day:-)

Mathias and I made some quick dinner and i went to bed pretty early to try to catch up on some sleep!

- Sorry about the missing pictures, but there were not much to take pictures of today:-P

Day 11 - School and homework!

Today we of course went to school again. We can really start feeling the load of homework coming. We have to write a lot of articles to our newspapers to keep people informed, and read some books and stuff. I am together with two of my classmates going to make a presentation of the danish school/education system in front of some students here at ACC. We do not know how many yet. Besides that i have been selected to act candidate in a debate about politics the night before the election. I am not so fond of that, because politics is not my favorite subject, but I guess i will learn a lot:-)
So there is so much to do with very little time:-)

In our break today Morten and i went for a quick trip to Highland mall which is right behind the school. On our way there a car pulled up and called us over. In it were a bunch of military people. The guy who rolled his window down interduced himself. His name is Larry. He started to ask us were we were headed, were we are from, about our study and so on. When he left we were quite confused. we did not really know why he had asked us that, but it was quite fun and he was really nice:-)
Their uniform looked a bit like this:

After school I went with Kasper, Morten, Mathias and this days birthday boy Stefan to a restaurant called "Chillis". The food was really good, but once again the coke tasted to much of chlor.


The evening started out with homework and a surprise cake for Stefan in his room. But then my friend Morten who had been coughing these last days, you know been a little sick, but not that serious started to feel really sick. It ended in him being really sick unfortunately:-( So he was send to bed, and i hope he feels better in the morning, but we will not let him go to school!

Day 10 - School, Target, and homecooked dinner!

Today we once again were at school from 9:00 to 6:30. It was a long day, and i could feel that it has been a weekend with lack of sleep. The hard thing about school here is that its lectures(except gaming of course) like in the universities at home in Denmark. So if your tired it is really hard to stay awake:-P But i succeeded and the teachers are pretty good:-)

In our 2 hour-break we(Mathias, Christian, Morten and I) went to IHOP(International House of Pancakes). I ended up having salad though. I kind of missed some of that after the food we have been eating here. The guys who had pancakes were not impressed, but everything else was good. They had a wide selection of all kinds of food, not only pancakes.
(picture will come)

Right after school, Mathias, Morten and I went to Target. Here we bought some food and stuff to keep things going. We have made a "food-arrangement" to save some money, and make it a little easier for everybody.
So when we got home we made our first meal from scratch. it went pretty well, which we were all surprised by:-P

Day 9 - Church and Birthday!

Today it was Morten's 18 years birthday. He and I started the day with going to church. It is called "Austin Cornerstone Church". That was a really cool experience! - They were also very good at welcoming us. They had opposite "Church of Christ" instruments, and the music was great! - It had a great atmosphere and i could really feel that God is in that church:-)
Something very special about this church was the fact that they had a person to translate everything, songs and the sermon into sign language. That was very cool! - We both agreed that we have to come back before we go back to Denmark.


This guy was pretty cute, just standing and playing on his miniature guitar. Sends a pretty good signal to people:


Afterward we(7 students, 2 teachers + husbands and kids) went on a steam train ride. We had been told we would see different landscape, but that was not so much the case. But the trip was very nice anyway. We had some fun:-)






When we got home, Mathias, Morten and I went to celebrate Morten's birthday at a restaurant called "China Star" which is near our hotel. It is a Chinese Restaurant. The food was good:-)


At 9:00 we had to meet to sing a song for Morten and eat some cake the teachers had bought:-)