Being in America

29/12/2013

CHRISTMAS IN KANSAS

Dansk: Først og fremmest vil jeg gerne undskylde for manglende indlæg på bloggen, men jeg er endelig tilbage med nye opdateringer. Siden sidste gang jeg skrev noget herinde er vi gået igennem en hel måned, og ikke hvilken som helst måned. DECEMBER! En af mine personlige favoritter. Det bedste ved december er at vide hvordan julen bringer familier sammen. Personligt var jeg dog ikke sammen med min familie i Danmark, men fik glæden af at opleve hvordan en ægte amerikansk jul foregår. Bilen  blev igen pakket til der virkelig ikke var mere plads, og vi tog ellers afsted til Kansas hvor mine værtsbedsteforældre bor. Selve rejsen derned tog 2 dage, og omkring tid til aftensmad på andendagen nåede vi frem til den store farm min værtsmors forældre bor. Det at den farm har været i familien i mange år og at både min værtsmor og værtsbedstefar er vokset op derude fik mig til at tænke på at der ikke kunne være noget bedre sted at holde jul. Vi var den første familie der ankom, men det varede ikke længe før farmen var fyldt op med 2 familier mere. Det meste af tiden på farmen foregik i slowmotion da der ikke rigtig var så meget at lave, men på forunderlig vis kedede jeg mig nu alligevel aldrig. En morgen besluttede Betty og jeg os for at tage ud og løbe, og siden at alt andet havde syntes at gå så langsomt siden vi var kommet til Kansas indså vi ikke at der pludselig var gået to timer, og næsten alle de voksne var draget ud for at lede efter os. Det var ret så pinligt, men heldigvis var der ingen sure miner, og nu griner vi bare ad det.

Nu må jeg jo ikke glemme at fortælle om det aller vigtigste - Jule aften og første juledag! Okay så jeg havde besluttet at lave risalamande for hele familien i Kansas da det jo er så typisk dansk som det kan være, så efter at havde fået købt hvad jeg nu skulle bruge gik jeg ellers i gang, og for at det ikke skal være løgn så endte det faktisk op virkelig godt, og alle kunne lide det! Derefter blev der åbnet pakker, og selvom vi havde åbnet de fleste pakker hjemmefra, var der overdrevet mange gaver under juletræet! (Jeg tror virkelig der er noget om den generellisering med at amerikanerne godt kan lide overdrevne portioner af alting, haha). Derefter gik vi i seng, for julemanden ville jo ikke komme forbi hvis ikke vi lå i vores seng og sov ;). Vi stod op på første juledag til en sofa fyldt med gaver fra "Julemanden" og efter at have åbnet dem blev der ellers bare hygget igennem hele dagen lang.

Jeg glemte helt at fortælle at vi også tog ind til byen min værtsmor voksede op i. Det var en meget meget lille by, og da hun viste os rundt i den gik det op for mig at måske var alting i USA ikke så overdrevet stort som jeg troede alligevel. Byen havde engang haft et indsamlingsprojekt hvor at man kunne betale for at fo en sten, med sit navn på, lagt på gaden som en sti gennem byen. Der skulle vi selvfølgelig lige finde min værtsmors navn. Derudover tog vi hen på det lokale bibliotek (fordi Audrey elsker bøger), og her fandt vi sørme også et par bøger med min værtsmors navn i fra dengang hun gik i skole der.

Efter en super hyggelig tid måtte vi jo tage hjem på et tidspunkt, men inden vi tog den lange rejse tog vi lige et hurtigt stop forbi min værtsfars familie hvor vi fik ønsket dem god bagjul ved at tage og ud spise frokost med dem.

Så gik turen ellers hjem og efter en lang, men god jul er jeg igen hjemme i Virginia, og oplevelse rigere.  Julehilsner herfra!

(jeg undskylder for sjusket grammatik :P)

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English: Sorry for missing updates on the blog, but I'm finally back with new stuff to tell. A whole month have passed since i gave you an update last, but this long blogpost will hopefully make up for it. It's not just a random month that passed. It's DECEMBER! one of my personal favorites! The best thing about December is to know how Christmas brings families together everywhere. This year I was not with my family in Denmark, but instead i was so lucky to get to experience a true american christmas. 

The car was again packed until there were no more room, and this time we were headed to Kansas where my host-grandparents live . It took us 2 days to get there, and finally on the second day (around dinner time) we arrived to the big farm where my host-mom's parents live. The fact that the farm has been in the family for many years and both my host mother and host grandfather grew up out there made ​​me think that it was the best place to celebrate Christmas.

We were the first family to arrive, but soon the farm was filled with 2 more families (4 in total). While staying at the farm everything seemed to happen in slow motion as there was not really much to do, but somehow I was never bored. One morning Betty and I decided to go for a run, and since everything else had seemed to go so slowly around the farm we never realized that two hours had gone since we left the farm and almost all of the adults had gone out to look for us. It was really embarrassing when my host mom found us, but fortunately no one got mad, and now we just laugh at it.

Oh well, I almost forgot to tell about the most important thing - Christmas eve and Christmas Day! Okay so I decided to make danish rice pudding for the whole family in Kansas, and it actually ended up pretty tasty, and everyone liked it! Then we opened christmas presents and even though we had gotten most of our gifts back in Virginia, there was unbelievably many gifts under the Christmas tree! (I really think there is something about the generalization saying that Americans like huge amounts of everything, haha) . Then we went to bed, cause Santa wouldn't show up if we didn't go to bed ;). We got up on Christmas Day to a bunch gifts from "Santa" and after opening them we just relaxed the rest of the day.

I completely forgot to tell that we went into the town where my host mother grew up while we were in Kansas. It was a very very small town , and when she showed us around I came to think that maybe not everything in the US was so huge after all. The city had once had a fond raising project where you could pay for a stone with your name on, and it would be put on the street as a brick road  through the city (like in "the wizard of oz"). And of course we had to find the brick with mo host mom's name on it. We also went to the local library (cause Audrey loves books), and here we found a couple of books with my host mom's signature in it from when she was a student in the school that used the library.

We had to go home at some point, but before we went all the way back, we took a pitstop by my host dad's family where we had lunch together and got to say Merry Christmas to them too.

Finally after a long, but great time in Kansas we are back in Virginia, and with a memory of a great experience that I will never forget. Christmas greetings from here!

( I'm sorry for bad grammar : P)