Caitlin Nacsin

2009-10 Outbound to Denmark

Hometown: Orlando, Florida

School: Timber Creek HS, Florida Virtual School

Sponsor: Avalon Park Rotary Club, District 6980, Florida

Host: Lemvig Rotary Club, District 1450, Denmark

Bio

Caitlin's Bio

Hej! Mit navn er Caitlin Nacsin og jeg er 16 år gammel. And according to my Danish books that means “Hello! My name is Caitlin Nacsin and I am 16 years old.” Yeah, I know… I’m impressed by my Danish skills too. But as I was saying, my name is Caitlin and I’m 16, but for nearly all of my exchange I will be 17 years old. Up until the end of November I attended Timber Creek High School as a sophomore; however recently I have switched to Florida Virtual School and take all my classes online; the reason behind this being that I can work more hours at my job so I can go to Denmark. I lived in Three Rivers, Massachusetts for about the first 3 years of my life, then I moved down here to sunny Florida with my family. My family includes my Mom and Dad, two sisters, Erika and Amanda, and of course my dog, Maleek, whom I will I miss tremendously while I’m gone. I’m a huge animal lover, although I am deathly afraid of birds - don’t ask me how I got the fear because I’m not so sure myself.

I have a few hobbies, some of which include learning new languages, so learning Danish has been very fun thus far. My friends are a huge part of my life and I enjoy hanging out with them. A few other things I love doing are dancing, reading, and listening to music. I do work a lot, not that I enjoy it… although I must say my job is kind of fun since I work at Chuck E. Cheese and it never really gets boring.

I am extremely thankful to Rotary for this opportunity. I know it will be amazing. I cannot wait to go to Denmark for a year and I’m hoping these months fly by until I can leave for my exchange. I’m going to learn so much during my exchange and become a whole new person. This will be the best year of my life.

August 8 Journal

Nothing could have prepared me for this. The feeling I was going to have when I left for Denmark. I wasn't excited nor did it feel like this was really happening... it still doesn't feel like this is happening. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Looking back just a month ago I said to myself "I'm not going to cry, I won't miss home... this will be so easy." But was I wrong... I couldn't have been more wrong. I never cried so much in my life, missed someone so much until now. The morning of August 1st, I had to say goodbye to the most important person in my life, Tomas. I cried and cried the whole week up to this day. I was waiting in line for security at the airport with my family and Tomas and the time came to finally say goodbye for a year. I completely broke down, people were staring. I gave my last hugs and kisses and it was soon my turn to go through. I was still crying walking up to the security person, just wanting to get this over with. The security man asked me "Why are you crying?"... I said "I just had to say goodbye to my boyfriend and family for a year"... he laughed. I do not understand why he was laughing at me, like it was really funny or something!

I walked alone to my flight to Detroit and took off to meet up with everyone else in Detroit. In Detroit I had my last McDonalds for a long time, seeing how the nearest McDonalds to me in Denmark is about 30-40 minutes away. (I am addicted to McDonalds if you should know.) After making some new friends with exchange students also going to Denmark, it was time to board the plane to Amsterdam. Worst flight I have ever been on, not because of the 7 hours it lasted, but because me and Morgan (also going to Denmark) got stuck with a screaming, crying, kicking baby behind us, the entire flight. She never shut up. Not to mention the family smelled like they hadn't showered in days. Although I was lucky enough to be able to sit next to someone I knew on the plane because the majority of us were separated.

After landing in Amsterdam, the excitement started to set in. I was officially in another country. It was all so exciting to hear another language being spoken in the airport (Dutch) and seeing people who you knew were Dutch... really tall and skinny, it was too obvious. After finding the gate for my next flight to Copenhagen I had my first glimpse of Danish people and the Danish language! I'm sure all the Danes sitting at the gate with all of us exchange students thought we were crazy from the way were talking about Denmark. I know I saw a few strange looks.

On the flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen I was extremely stressed because I knew I had to get my luggage and re-check it and get a new boarding ticket, within an hour and a half. Everyone was reassuring me everything would be fine... but it was not fine. We landed in Copenhagen at around 9:30am and my friend Frank, who is also an exchange student to Denmark, ran with me to the baggage claim area so I could get my luggage as fast as I could and he would help me find where I had to re-check it. I got my first suitcase within 5 minutes of everything coming out, but waited nearly another 30 minutes for my next suitcase, I was beyond nervous about missing my flight, I now had 40 minutes to re-check my luggage and get a new boarding ticket. Me and Frank ran to the nearest person who looked like they worked at the airport so we could find where I needed to go, of course it was one of the farthest places. We ran through the airport looking stupid, I'm sure. We got to the counter I checked in my luggage got a new boarding ticket and asked the lady where I was suppose to go now, she gave me directions, and yes of course it was at the OTHER end of the airport. I had 20 minutes until my flight took off. I took ten minutes for me to run to the gate, but I also had to go through security before I could get in. While getting out the stuff from my carry-on that needed to be taken out the security men started speaking to me in Danish... I gave them a confused look and said "I'm sorry I don't speak Danish...". They said in English "Oh, yes you do! You are Danish!"... I kept insisting I was not Danish but they still also kept insisting I was Danish. I was getting so frustrated because I knew I had 10 minutes to get to my flight. I got out of there as soon as I could and made it just in time, literally just in time, one minute later and I would have missed my connecting flight to Billund. My flight to Billund was relaxing and only took 20 minutes to get there.

Morgan and Sydney from Florida were also on this flight with me, it was just the three of us. I was minutes away from meeting my host family for the first time. I was starting to get really nervous. I walked through the doors and saw my host family waving American and Danish flags, smiling and taking pictures. It was all very welcoming. We had about a 2 hour drive back to their house. They spoke English to me, but spoke Danish to each other, which I found to be awkward. They asked me questions mostly on the way to their home.

Once we got there I dropped off my luggage and went to a Welcome Party at my host counselor's house. At the party I met the other inbound from Brazil, Natalia, I also met Stine who is from Denmark going to Argentina. I learned that when you walk into a room full of people you have to shake every person's hand. Even if you don’t intend to talk to them. At this party I had my first taste of Danish food, which I didn’t really like at all, I tried it, but did not eat it all. During the welcome party, I was extremely tired, my mind was barely there… I was falling asleep standing up and my eyes were closing without me doing it. I had no sleep in about 40 hours or so. Everyone finally realized I was tired, when they would ask me questions and I would give them an answer that was completely unrelated to the question. Since I was so tired we went home so I could take a shower and take a nap.

The nap was nearly impossible, I didn't sleep at all, just because I hadn't been able to talk to my family and Tomas since I left Detroit. All I needed was five minutes to speak with Tomas but I couldn't have that because Tomas was on a flight back to Sweden, himself. I eventually fell asleep and was awoken at 8pm for dinner. I got my second taste of Danish food which was a little better than before. It was French fries!!!!! YES YES YES! My favorite! So I ate those of course, but there was also this meat with sauce, that was okay, but I didn’t really like it so I didn’t eat it all. After dinner I sat down on the couch and my host brother Viktor was watching Ninja Turtles, which was in Danish, so weird. Pernille, my host sister who will be leaving soon for Mexico, and I played a game, then we played another game with Viktor. After that I went upstairs to try and sleep again.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I was up crying. Not one positive thought went through my mind that night. I wanted to go home. I wondered why on earth I signed up for this program, what was I thinking?! I never felt as bad as this before. I needed Tomas, that's what I needed, if I just had him I could make it through this. I remember the jacket he gave me before I left, pulled it out of my suitcase and finally fell asleep. I woke up that morning at 11am and we had brunch. It was the first time I actually enjoyed the food, I had a good ol’ American ham sandwich! It was delicious… they have now discovered that if they have bread out I will eat, haha.

After this we were going into the “city” Lemvig. I live in Nørre Nissum which is outside the city. I went upstairs to get ready and saw Tomas was on MSN… I talked to him for a few minutes and felt so much better. We drove into the city to do a few errands. It’s so much different than Florida. We walked around… and one thing I noticed is that cashiers in Denmark get to sit! And they're allowed to tie their dogs up outside the stores. We also drove by my school, Lemvig Gymnasium, it’s really small. But I am excited to finally start school on the 12th. Later that night we had a Rotary meeting. The 4 of us, inbounds and outbounds had to make a speech and present it. I wasn’t really that nervous. But once again when arriving I had to go in and shake every single person's hand, which was a lot. After the meeting we went home.

The next morning my host sister Pernille asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride. I have not rode a bike since I was about 10 years old and wasn't sure if I could still even ride one! But I managed to re-gain my bike riding skills. She took me to this really tall hill and we had a picnic on it. Looking out over all the hills was absolutely beautiful. After we finished eating she took me further down the hill into the bushes. There were lots of different fruits and berry trees, I tried all different sorts of things. I tried memorizing where this area was so I could come here when I wanted to just relax and get away from everything.

My first four nights in Denmark were miserable. Everyone was asking me if I was okay, I really wasn't. I wished to go home, I didn't want to be here. I hated it. I wanted to call Rotary and tell them, I'm done... I'm over it, I'm going home TONIGHT. I wish I could have been more prepared for being homesick and missing my boyfriend, especially missing my boyfriend. I know Rotary doesn't like to focus on things like that, but I really wish they would have for the some of us who do have relationships while going on exchange. Even if Rotary doesn't want to hear this, it's real life and it's a real part of your exchange. My boyfriend was the main reason for me wanting to leave and hating my first few days here. It was not an option for me to break up with him before I left and it's still not an option. Although everything is fine with me now, I just want to give advice to other 09-10 outbounds that haven't left yet and to future outbounds. Having a relationship on exchange will be one of the hardest things you have to handle while you're here. I wasn't prepared at all for this. I cried so much saying good bye and cried every single night since I have been in Denmark just wanting my boyfriend. I have made the mistake of almost canceling my exchange for him. Seeing Tomas on webcam has helped me a lot since I've gotten here. You will cry the first few times you get to see each other again but it gets easier as time goes by. One thing is to remember is that if you're meant to be together your relationship will last while you're on exchange.

I don't mean to get personal on everyone, but I figured I owed everyone an explanation as to why my exchange as been pretty much horrible so far, and decided to give some advice too. I am currently now loving Denmark! Everything is going great. I have realized my purpose here and I definitely won't be leaving Denmark anytime soon. Vi ses!			Florida outbounds in Detroit
My home in Denmark	On the hill my host sister took me to	Church near my home	Trail

August 31 Journal

Last time you heard from me I was having a really rough time here in Denmark... but you should know that now I am absolutely loving it! There is no way I'm leaving Denmark, I'm just not, I never want to leave! I can't believe a month of my exchange is already gone... this is going by way faster than I want it to. Denmark is starting to feel like home and I can now sucessfully navigate myself around the area, by bus! I had so much trouble with the buses at first, but now I can't imagine what I would do without them!

My Danish is progressing so fast and I can understand most of what people are talking about, I can't reply back in full sentences but people can still understand me and reading and writing in Danish is so easy. It's amazing how fast I have picked up on the language. My host family is eager for me to learn Danish fluently and is constantly helping me by speaking only Danish to me, unless it's something I really do not understand, putting Post-Its around the house with the Danish and English word and they have now started this "Three Words a Day" with me. Every night we eat dinner together and I must share three new words I've learned. I must also repeat the words from the days before to make sure I memorize them. Derfor er mit dansk ved at blive bedre.

School is great. It's becoming more normal everyday for me to go to school and sit in a class and listen to Danish all day. Even though I may not understand it just feels normal. I don't exactly feel like a part of my class yet because people are still nervous around me just as I'm nervous around them. But it gets better each day. English class has to be the worst class for me. I may be a native English speaker, but there is so much pressure on me during that class! I am expected to be 100% in everything and I'm constantly asked questions and half the time I don't even know the answer! However I do like that class because it's nice to hear English once in awhile. My teachers are extremely nice to me, they always try to explain the lesson in English to me afterwards when the students are working and are always trying to make me feel like a part of the class.

I just today found out that there are two pairs of twins in my class, which explains most of my confusion. No one ever told me anyone was twins in class. I always thought something was up but it never clicked. Line and Sara in my class are twins and I always thought they looked alike... and it did cross my mind that they could be twins... or that maybe there's just one of them! For the longest time I thought there was just one and I would always mix up their names and think "Didn't they just tell me their name was Sara/Line?"... and then to make things even worse Helle and Tine are also twins in my class! I just mixed them up all the time and was never sure if there was really more than one of them but today I was finally told that they are twins. Things make so much sense now...

I recently got back from Intro Camp which was A LOT of fun. I got to meet all the exchange students in Denmark, learn more Danish and visit two cities, Viborg and Århus. Visiting those cities was nice because they are big cities with lots of shopping and McDonalds! In Denmark I live in a really small town where there is barely any shopping and no McDonalds around for a good 40 minute drive. One thing you should know about Denmark is that it's expensive! It's usually at least half more than the price of something in the US. If something costs $50 in the US then it is going to cost $100 in Denmark. Needless to say I haven't done much shopping in Denmark. I had my first McDonalds in Århus... it had literally been a month since I last had it and I was starting to go insane.

My 17th birthday is this Friday and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited to see how Danish people celebrate birthdays. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do something on my birthday with some friends... but we aren't exactly that close yet.

All in all my first month in Denmark has been absolutely amazing. It's exciting that I've been living in Denmark for a month but at the same time it's sad because that means I have one month less in Denmark. Denmark is a beautiful and wonderful country and I never want to leave.

Århus

Thybøron

Some of the Americans at Intro Camp

View from a walk

September 16 Journal

The morning of my birthday (Sept. 4th) I was awoken by my host family coming into my room singing Happy Birthday in Danish, waving Danish flags and holding some birthday gifts for me. At 6:30am you could imagine how confused I was. The gifts they got me were gym clothes (because I had mentioned I needed them) and a book in Danish. They know I like to read so they bought me one in Danish which will definitely help me improve on my Danish. They also wrapped up a package from my Mom that had just came in the mail, that contained lovely Goldfish, really gross chocolate chip cookies and a mouse for my laptop because the touch pad thing doesn't work anymore. I went to school and I had "special" Danish lessons first with the 4 other exchange students in my school. Natalia, from Brazil, made me a cake for my birthday. So after we finished our Danish test we got to eat cake. Throughout the day everyone was telling me "Happy Birthday" or "Tillykke". When I got to Samfundsfag class everyone was just doing class like usual, but then in walk two people from my class with a cake and everyone started singing Happy Birthday. It was so embarrassing but I liked it, it made me feel like a part of the class.

After school that day I was going over two of my friends house, Line and Sara. They are twins. They live in Harbøore, which is a 10 minute train ride away from the school. Once we got to their house we went straight for the food and then it never stopped. We ate and ate and ate and ate. But it was so delicious. It was very much needed for me. At about 9:30pm their Dad drove me back to my house and I got to finish my birthday talking to my wonderful boyfriend.

The next day I honestly just wanted to rest and relax from a busy past two weeks, but that didn't happen. My host family thinks I should always be doing something even though I'm much happier doing nothing sometimes. They made me learn how to clean their bathrooms, which I did not enjoy. They also made me cook dinner which was hamburgers and fries, NOT the same as in America. And even the next day I was busy. We went to Lemvig in the morning to see the Queen and Prince of Denmark, who was in town for something. I will admit it was kind of cool to be able to see the Queen of a country because we don't have that in America.

As soon as we got home from that we had to leave and go to my host Dad, Dad's 75th birthday party, shouldn't even say party, more like just a sit down and eat. They literally sat and ate food for six hours straight. It actually wasn't so bad, I liked most of the food offered, especially the vanilla ice cream at the end. Vanilla ice cream here is probably the best you'll ever have. I never liked vanilla ice cream before but I could live on it here. After the "party" was over we had to go over my host dad dad's house, for yet MORE FOOD! All I wanted that day was to just go home (my home in Denmark), because I just felt so out of place. It was a family event and I knew no one and no one spoke English. I sat there for six hours staring at the ceiling and did the same thing again at their house. It was definitely one of my worst days. After we left their house we went to take Maiken, my host sister, back to boarding school and had a nice long one hour drive home.

On Monday of last week I had a Rotary meeting to go to at my host club. I was extremely nervous because I had to do a speech in Danish. It ended up not being so bad and they all said it was good but I think they were just saying that to be nice. I also got to meet my third host Dad, who told me he won't be there for the first month I'm living with his family because he'll be in New Zealand. I also got to drive by and see where my second host family lives.

This Friday I leave for my district get together. I will be there until Saturday night because I have to leave for Ireland Sunday morning. I'll be in Ireland until next Friday with my class from school. I am really excited because this will give me a chance to become better friends with them.

Last night I received information from the travel agency about booking a flight home for the end of the year... all I can say is... depressing!

The cake my class made for me

I have now found an interest in stalking cows

Gross slug things in Denmark

Marabou ... best chocolate in the world!

October 9 Journal

My trip to Ireland was amazing. The plane ride there was short, but entertaining. It was mostly Danes on the plane and a few Irish people. I was sitting with my two Danish friends, Line and Pernille, and to the other side and behind were some Irish people, one of the only ones on the plane. In English, they kept saying how awful the Danes are and they should really stop speaking Danish and they need to know English and horrible things about certain people. In English they would also talk about very personal things. Little did they know that I am American and that I am a native English speaker just like them, so I would translate everything they were saying so the others could know. At the end of the plane ride I heard them saying "These *insert your own creative word here* don't even know what we’re talking about"... then I turn around and say, "Excuse me, I am a American I speak English just like you do, so yes I did understand every single thing you said about me and everyone else. And these people... these Danes you were talking about understand English perfectly as well." They just sat there speechless and you could tell they were embarrassed.

Well, anyways... there isn't really much to tell. We went to some museums, an old jail, and shopped A LOT. It was so different than going to Ireland with a class from home in USA... there were no rules. We could come and go as we pleased, didn't have to tell anyone where we were, didn't have to stick together or with any teachers… students were even allowed to drink alcohol in front of the teachers. I found it so strange but it was really normal for them. I had McDonalds and Burger King almost every single day... and did you know you have to pay for ketchup at McDonalds in Europe? Well you do. This trip has really helped me get to know my class. I have such good friends now.

Last weekend I went to Legoland with my host family. All of us. Me, my host parents, Viktor and Maiken. Me and Maiken stayed together most that day. It's mostly a kiddy park but some things were fun. It rained a lot and was really cold. I didn’t get an opportunity to take pictures either because like I said it was raining the whole time and I didn’t want my camera to get ruined.

School's the same. Boring. But at least I don't have any work. It’s hard to not fall asleep in class. Today some boys in my class decided I can’t fall asleep or they're gonna torture me... hitting me, touching me, calling my name, saying stupid stuff in English, threatening to pour water on me. It's all in good fun I guess, haha. They've found a new obsession of touching my knees because I'm extremely ticklish there... well at least I don't fall asleep in class now.

My Danish is amazing. I can understand almost everything spoken and written. It's hard for me to speak still, but it's getting better. I decided that when it gets to November I will have everyone speak in only Danish to me and no more English. I have one friend in school who only speaks Danish to me because he thinks I should learn Danish and I should not be speaking English, I must say it’s really helpful that he does that.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I leave for Sweden. I am so excited to go to Sweden, it was my first choice country, and now I finally get to go! Even if only for a week I am satisfied. I am not sure anyone knows how excited I am, I kind of feel like, departure for exchange all over again. I’m going to Sweden! Sweden! Sweden! You can expect that I will be taking lots of pictures.

Anywho… that’s been my last few weeks here in Denmark. I recently hit the two month milestone and I can’t believe my exchange is going by so fast, it needs to slow down.		People driving on the wrong side of the road in Ireland!	Me and Line
Me and Lærke	Me and some of the girls	Me and Line	Me and Natalia, from Brazil, who also lives in the same city and goes to the same school as me