The first cut is the deepest.

The title of this blog refers to a problem I just had with my host Mum. It was pretty big, I won't ellaborate on here, but it turns out it was caused due to lack of communication, which i've just realised is the key thing to making your exchange work. Before this happened, I really thought I had the communication side of things downpat, but it turns out I hadn't and I was just assuming things about my host family due to things i had experienced with them earlier. This then turned into an issue about miscommunication, and the whole thing blew way out of proportion. I ended up writing a letter to my host mum, and then we talked about what had happened, and now I think we are both better off because I know where I stand with her and vice versa. If I could recommend anything to any other exchange student, even though i've only been here for just over 2 months and I dont know if i'm fit to be giving advice to budding exchange students, it would be to make sure a level of communication is established from day one with your host family. I know that since I have the communication side of things sorted with my family, its going to get alot better from here.

Anyway, on a better note, I spent the first 4 days of this week in Bornholm! It was the most amazing place i've ever been. On the way over we were on the ferry and I was actually boat sick! I've never ever been sick on a boat before, so it really sucked. Anyway, we got to Bornholm, and we drove to this incredible place called Lilleborg. I dont really know what it actually was, but we climbed up a hill, and then went down a hill, and then up another hill with an old rock wall which had decayed over time, and at the top you could look out over a lake which was so pretty. It's just gone into Fall, so the colours in the trees were really quite spectaculiar, and it made everything look so nice.
Then we drove to a town called Svaneke where we were staying for the 4 days. It was a really nice port town in Bornholm, and the hotel where we stayed was directly in the centre of the town, and right across the street from a little Ice-cream shop :) haha
On the first day we had a small look around the town, but everything was shut since it was Sunday, so we couldnt do much. We had dinner at a really nice seafood restaurant looking over the water and then went back to the hotel and slept. The next day we drove west along the coast of Bornholm, and visited little towns. My host family has a rule when we are driving on holiday, if someone spots something they want to see, the driver (who is always Ulrich) has to stop immediately. This doesnt go too well when Anette wants to see everything, so we stopped many many times. It was great fun though.
So after we had been driving for awhile we stopped in a little town called Gudhjem, which was my favourite town on all of Bornholm. I have decided that I am going to live there when I am old. In a lighthouse haha. It was such an awesome town, and since it is October there were haybales and Pumpkins with litte carved faces outside of almost every shop. It was so cute!
The weather was really shoddy though, and we couldnt stay outside for too ong since it was so cold and windy, so we just had to do a café hop.
We spent a couple of hours in Gudhjem, and then travelled further to some more towns, and visited lots of Glass galleries (Bornholm is famous for things like Vases and stuff made of glass), and also Ceramic stores, and lots of other cute art stores. Then we headed to a place called Hammershus, but it was too far away for us too walk, and we were all tired and lazy (more lazy than tired haha) so we decided to get some dinner and go back to the hotel.

The next day we drove in the opposite direction as we had the day before, and we visited some more towns. The weather wasnt so bad this day, so we got to do alot more walking around and seeing different things. We went for a really cool walk down by some cliff faces, and found a cave and stuff, haha that was fun. It took us a LONG time too get down the stairs to the cave because my host family has two Schapendoes, Ditze and Miska, and they are wimps, so we had to try and get them down about 300 stairs haha.
Later that day we decided that we would man up and actually walk the track to Hammershus, and im so glad that we did decide too in the end.
Hammershus is an old castle, which has eroded over the years, and so now it is the ruins of the castle, but quite alot is still left. We climbed up lots of stairs, and I decided to jump up on an old crumbled wall. I had just got to the top when Anette tells me that its actually illegal to do that, and I could get fined 50,000kr. Probably makes sense because it was a long drop down to the ocean on the other side. So yeah, now I can say I have commited my first illegal act in Denmark haha.
We explored the old castle, and then realised the sun was going down so we sat and watched the sunset on the top of Hammershus. Its probably the most amazing and beautiful thing I have seen in my life, and it was something that I will never forget.

The next day, which was our last in Bornholm, we spent looking around the town we were staying in, Svaneke, since everything was open. We went to a shop where they were making Bolcher (which is like hard boiled candy), and we were lucky because they had only just started so we got too see the whole process. It was so cool, and they made it look so easy! And the shop smelt nice :)
Then we took a drive and went to Aakirkeminde to see some old round churched which was real neat! We also went to a art exhibition, and there was some far out art there, like little cups with fingers and toes haha. It was pretty cool though :)

Then we caught the ferry, and lucky for me our little Katamarine that we were supposed to take back was cancelled, since the water was so rough, and we had to take the ferry we took on the way over. In the choppiest water Ive ever seen. With really strong winds. Great. I wasnt going to get really sick or anything. No big deal.
But I did make it back alive, so I was grateful for that.

Then, on thursday we went to Farmors birthday, and I finally got too meet Ulrichs side of the family. His brother Mads has 3 kids, Malta who is 9, and twins, KarlEmil and Karolina who are just about to turn 5. The twins were so funny, and they taught me some Danish haha. Learning Danish from 5 year olds. Nice. But it was really easy to understand them because little kids are so expressive when they speak, so i could try and communicate with them. It was fun.
Im also going to their 5th birthday next Sunday, so that will also be fun :)

Oh, and its my birthday in 5 days! I'm gonna be 18, finally! :) :)
Haha, yeah so thats all I have to say for now.
Vi ses
Kelsi :)