Home Again

  At 9 am in Bethesda, I've already been awake almost 4 hours. Which is actually not bad, because I can see the floor of my room again- it's looked like a tornado whipped through for the past two days. I returned home Saturday evening after a slightly delayed flight (but I really can't complain, since quite a few of my friends are stuck in Europe for the near future due to the weather). The past day and a half that I've been home, I've been pretty exhausted, but we got our christmas tree and it's definitely nice to be back. I missed my family, my boyfriend James, my friends (even though I've been too exhausted to see anyone yet), and of course our poodle Cassie and my monster puppy Bear. When I walked in the door Saturday, I was almost crushed by 120 pounds of jumping puppy- at least he didn't forget me!
  As great as it is to be home, it was really hard to leave my host family. On Thursday, after my final for my Complexity of Cancer class, I went home to some frantic repacking and dinner with my host family, before I went with all my host sisters and my far Jess to my mor's choir Christmas concert. They later told me that was the first time all of them had been to the concert, and that my far only went because of me. It was a very nice concert and I got to hear lots of traditional Danish christmas songs, as well as some American ones!
  After the concert we went to my far's brother's house for gløgg and æbleskiver, which was a lot of fun (and delicious!). We stayed there a while before I had to come back and study. When my mor came home, she said that one of the women in her choir said that she saw all of my mor's four daughters, but that she was surprised she had never seen me before.  It was really sweet. 
  Friday I had two finals, for my Copenhagen class and my Medical Practice and Policy class, before being done with my semester abroad. My friends and I from MPP got lunch together and then walked to the nearby Folketeatret (People's Theater) for the DIS Concluding Ceremony. It was long but very nice, and a good way to end the semester with friends, music, and some pretty good speeches. When the ceremony was over I went back home and hung out with my host family for a while before dinner. But before we were allowed to eat, my far wanted to present me with a speech he had written for me. He said that he would have been proud to have me as his daughter, that he regretted me not finding a boy in Denmark and deciding to stay, and that he had found a few presents for me to remind me of my time with them in Denmark. It was very sweet and I think everyone teared up a little bit. 
  After that we ate dinner and I gave them their presents, and we watched CSI and drank tea together one last time. I then went into the city with my friends for a last night out in Copenhagen, came back and went to bed for a few hours before getting up for breakfast (my last Danish from far!) and heading to the airport with my far and Maja. They dropped me off before security and I headed to the plane. Luckily some of my friends were on what was arguably the longest flight of my life (although compared to people stuck in Europe right now, it's really not bad at all), but it was a difficult combination of excitement to be home and sadness at leaving my host family.
  That feeling is still there, although slightly dampened by jetlagged exhaustion and my attempts to unpack my life again. So this is the end of my blog (for now, at least) hopefully it's been enjoyable and interesting. Vi ses!