The third day in the United States

 Monday:

Monday morning we went to Madison College where we  started and spend the most of the day. The day started off with some general information about the day and our program.  After the information, we got an hour to prepare ourselves to present about Denmark to students from Madison College who were interested in Denmark. After the preparation, the presentations started, and we all did pretty well. The madison students were very interested in our country, some were interested in politics and some were interested in the youth and Denmark´s drinking culture. There are some cultural differences between the US and Denmark, that we especially noticed.

Pictures of Madison College.

One of the differences between Denmark and the US is that many Americans are afraid of the police and are actually kind of working against them. Where we in Denmark sees the police as our friend and someone we always can ask for help. We have also noticed that the American population is much more open minded and very friendly to people like us, who are from a foreign country. People on the street on the colleges and even in the bus is stopping up and asking where we come from and what we are doing in The United States.

                                                                          Picture of Madison College.

After the presentations, we did Q & A, where a lot of interesting question both from the Danish and the American students came up.The American students came up with some really relevant questions and they were not shy to ask.

At noon we all got hungry and there were served mexican food, which we all liked.

Madison College

After lunch, we had a guided tour at Madison College, where we got a lot of exciting information. It was a huge campus and it was funny to see the different kinds of education possibilities and facilities at the school. For us, from Denmark, it was really exciting to experience an American college because we all had some expectations with us from home. When our “school day” ended we went shopping in East Towne Mall and ate dinner  at Doolittles, which we can recommend to everyone it was a really good restaurant.

The second day in the United States

Sunday

Our day started with breakfast at the hotel, we had a lot of time this morning which was very nice after we did not get enough sleep saturday. We went out for some shopping at the forenoon in local shopping centre, called “East towne Mall”.

At noon we walked to Reindahl Park, where we were going to meet with our mentors. We found it awkward in the beginning,  when we all were sitting in the shelter and we did not know who our mentors were. However the atmosphere got better in the shelter and we found our mentors except from Signe, Tanya and Cecilie.

The park where we meet our mentors. 

Mentor experience:

Emilie’s mentor experience:

My mentor was very friendly, I am in a group of three students and one mentor, we got along quite well, she understands our danish humour and was very excited to learn about our danish traditions, mentality and values.

We had a great time talking to each other, we asked a lot of questions and joked with each other. Afterwards the welcome lunch in the shelter, our mentor (Sarah) asked us if wanted to go somewhere. We decides together to go to the farm, sassy cow, which is located on the countryside, 20 minutes from madison. The farm was very exciting to see, and their ice-cream was even better.

We talked with few of their animals they have on the farm. This experience on the farm made the relationship with Sarah great.

"The sassy cow farm"

"Birgit smiling at a sheep"

Signe, Cecilie and Tanyas’ mentor experience:

Signe, Cecilie and Tanya have the same mentor which is why they are writing our mentor experience together.The mentor we were supposed to have did not show up because of some personal things. So in the beginning we did not have a mentor, but after a short time a very sweet teacher from Madison College and her sweet daughter started a conversation with us. We were with these two lovely persons the rest of the afternoon and we had so much fun. They told us so many things about America and their culture and values, and we told them about Denmark and Europe. As an example they told us about the american tradition “Homecoming” which is a huge thing in the american high school. We are exactly going to see a homecoming football game on Friday. They were so open-minded and friendly and we really couldn’t ask for more. We already know that we will see them again when they are coming on a visit in Denmark with some other people from Madison College which we are looking very much forward to.

"From the left to right Cecilie, Brenna, Signe and Tanya"

Maja's mentor experience:

Afternoon/evening

At the evening we went out to eat and some of us girls ate at a good restaurant called Friday’s, where we got real American food. Afterwards we went on a little shopping in the East Towne Mall. And as perfect end of the day we have some relax time in the pool before we went to bed.

"Real American food"