Agnete Horup

2008-09 Inbound from Denmark

Hometown: Hinnerup, Denmark

Sponsor: Hinnerup Rotary Club, District 1440, Denmark

Host: Bartram Trail Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Creekside High School, St. Johns, FL

Bio

Agnete's Bio

Hi! My name is Agnete Horup, I am from Denmark which is a part of Scandinavia. I'm 16 years old and and live in a small town called Vitten with only 400 inhabitants. I live with my mother, father and little brother who is 15 years old. I'm interest in sports a lot. Especially running, volleyball, soccer and riding. Most of my time goes with sport activities, listening to music, hanging out with friends and my school of course.

I went on a continuation school last year where I live together with about 100 other students my age and we went on a lot of trips - for example, we were in Norway skiing for 10 days. It was a sports continuation school and my main subject was adventure (lot of running, swimming, cycling and climbing) and I really loved it!

The reason why I choose to be an exchange student is because I know a lot who had been an exchange student already, and they loved it so much. Also because I would like to be better at English and I just love to try new things and challenge myself.

So I'm really excited about what this year would bring me (:

September 16 Journal

Finally at August 10th my Rotary exchange year started. I have been waiting for that day for a long time. I was flying from Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark) to Chicago, a nine hour long flight and then overnight in Chicago together with two other Danish exchange students. August 11th was the day I was going to meet my first host family and I was really excited, but first I have a three hour flight from Chicago to Jacksonville.

I wasn’t really nervous about meeting my new family and all the new things I was going to do, I think I was too excited to be that.

When I came out from the gate, I was greeted with balloons, welcome sign and my host mother and Grunde (exchange student from Norway) and many from my Rotary Club. It was a really nice welcome and I felt good about it all. When I came to my new home was I met by host brother Patrick and one of his friends. It was his 18 birthday so he had some friends over in the evening, so that was really great and they were all very helpful with my English (:

The two first weeks before the school start I was really busy. I went out, a lot, with Pat and his friends, it was really nice. We went to the movies, to the beach, out climbing, we were on jet skiing, went to the Suns game (baseball) and a lot more. I met my host father for the first time, he had been in Boston working, so I was really excited about that. I was in Universal Studios with my host family, the Murrays. It was so fun and I loved the roller coasters (: I was at my first Rotary meeting and at Creekside High School to choose my classes. And the weekend before school started I was to the Rotary orientation weekend where I met all the exchange students from whole Florida – I have a lot of fun and looking forward to our next meeting in December (:

Now I have been in school for three weeks and it is really different from the Danish schools I am use to. I like the way the sports are connected to the school, in Denmark we have it separate, but I really like it here, where I just can go from school to sport. (:

I find the days really long. We first start at 9.15 so that is pretty late, but it is nice to sleep late. But then the days continue to 3.45 so I get home about 4-4.15, so that is almost all day.

I now have been to my first American football games. I have been to the school games on Creekside and Bartram Trail and last weekend I was to my first Jaguars game, with my host family, it was so great and I never in my life thought that it would be so BIG! It was huge. I really enjoyed it (:

I have had a fantastic first 5 weeks and I can’t believe that the time passed that fast, but at the same time I feel that I have been here very long time ‘cause I already experienced so much! I have enjoyed every minute so far and I am really excited about the following time here.

And thanks to all the people that had make this exchange year possible for me, My Rotary club in Denmark, my host Rotary club Bartram Trail, my host family, the Murrays, my family in Denmark and everybody else that have been a part of my exchange program. I feel so lucky because I got this opportunity. THANK YOU all so much! (:

November 17 Journal

Hi everybody (:

I already been here in more than 3 months and the time has gone so fast! And I have done a lot since my last journal. I’m still with the same host family and I’m staying here till January sometime, which I’m really happy for because I have been so lucky to get a wonderful family I really love to stay with.

I’m still staying busy which is really good because then I don’t think about home, my friends and family. I have been a bit homesick some days, but it helps doing things so I’m not thinking about it.

In the end of September I went to Buffalo to visit Mike (my host family’s oldest son) who is in University up there. It was a really great weekend where we saw the school, went out eating and just relaxed. Monday we went to Canada to see Niagara Falls which was so amazing! We spent all day there and ate at Hard Rock Café. It was so beautiful and I enjoyed it a lot! We went with a little boat so we could see the falls close, that was really fun. That has been one of the most amazing things I’ve done!

I celebrated my 17th year’s birthday September 29, which was a really great day. Marybeth cooked a delicious dinner and we all ate together and I opened all my presents, (:

September 30, we had a Rotary day at Creekside where I spent all day answering questions about being an exchange student. I was pretty nervous before ‘cause I had to speak in front of my whole school, but in the end of the day I actually found it really fun and it was a easy day off (:

I experienced my first “spirit week” which I found really funny. A whole week where we dressed up in funny clothes. We had camo, sportsteam, tacky, superhero and spirit day. We don’t have anything like that in Denmark so I really enjoyed it a lot. (:

I have been in Seaworld with some of the other exchange students. We went down to Orlando early Saturday and spent all day there, I loved the Shamu and Dolphin shows, it was amazing to see all the things they could do with them! I had a great day and I can only thank Bill for that (:

I have been in St. Augustine with district 6970 (: That was a wonderful weekend with the other exchange students. Me and Carmen stayed with a great host family together, they took us to the football game, the beach, out shopping and a lot more. Friday, the day we came we were with our families and early Saturday morning, we meet with the other students at the Foundation of Youth, after that we took a trolley around St. Augustine which was really fun. Then we had some free time to see St. Augustine on our own and then in the end of the day we went to the beach where we had dinner together. We went to the Alligator Farm Sunday morning. It was fun to see all the big alligators (: then we went on a boat trip for 2 hours on St. Johns river and that was a lot of fun (:

And then of course Halloween! That was something I had looked forward to ‘cause we don’t really celebrate that in Denmark. I did my first pumpkin, I’m so proud (: I went trick or treating with Grunde, Hannah and Noah and that was lots of fun! And I got so much candy. It was really fun to try and I enjoyed it a lot!

The day after Halloween I went to Bartram Trail's homecoming dance ‘cause I went to Seaworld the day Creekside's was. I met up with some friends and we got ready together and went out eating and around 8.30 we went to the dance. I think the ‘getting ready and go out eating’ part was the most fun. But I had a great night (:

I’ve seen the president! The day before the election I didn’t go to school but instead went to Jacksonville to see Barack Obama speak (: it was fun to see the next president of US.

And this past weekend I went with my host parents to Titusville so see the Space Shuttle launch. That was really cool and ‘a once in a lifetime experience’. We went down to Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago so we knew how it all was and knew what was going on.

I like the school and it is getting more easy to understand everything in the classes and everything becomes more normal with school, friends etc. Most of my time I am spending with friends or my host family. My English is getting better all the time and now I have to think a lot when I speak Danish which is really weird! (:

I’m really excited about the next couple of months with Thanksgiving, Disney World, Christmas, New Year, and scuba diving! I’m going to take scuba diving lessons with some of the other exchange students in January and I’m SO excited about that! (:

I’m sure I’m going to have a great time here but the time is just passing by so fast. See you soon, Agnete (: