Written on 31st July 2009

MAY:
May wasn't such a busy month, just preparing for upcoming festivals. I went to Ringsted for the weekend to do some wheel training with the wheel team there. It was nice to do some wheeling again as I hadn't done anything since last year and it was also nice to see the team again. The only bad thing about May is that on Sunday the 10th I twisted my left ankle badly. Yep the same ankle that I had surgery on before coming to Denmark. The annoying thing is that I was having such a good training session before it happened. I had made a new skill from the big trampoline (front double pike rudy out) and then decided to jump on the fast track and twisted it. Frustrating as we only had 8 weeks left til the end of the semester and a twisted ankle like this can take at least 6 weeks to recover! (and it actually did take 6 weeks before I was able to start jumping again). So I was icing and rehabbing like you wouldn't believe to try to get it all better for the next festival which was the German Gymnastics Festival in Frankfurt. I was ready enough to perform but was unable to tumble but it was better than not performing at all. The festival was great. We had beautiful summer weather and there was gymnastics everywhere. I went to see the wheel, artistic, acrobatics and trampolining competitions which were all fantastic. We also did a bit of sight seeing and shopping of course. Oh and we drove to and from Frankfurt which took a very draining 12-14 hours. But all in all it was a great festival. Oh they had this light and water show which was amazing! I've never seen anything like it before.

JUNE:
This month was a very very busy month. It was our last month of school and we were also preparing for the Danish Festival at the beginning of July. It was also the month of spending precious times with each other before we all go our separate ways. Anyways the main events of June included an event at school called Voldstaevne where teams from the Fyn island came to perform outside on the Vold field. We also made a performance to close the event which went ok. But that night we had our last party for the semester; it was called the 1-2 Party. 1 boy to 1 or 2 girls. The boy had to serve the food and take care of the girl, it was quite nice and a fun last party. During this month I also received my working holiday visa for Denmark so I could work in the summer and start getting some $$$ back into my account. Oh yea the day I started jumping again I twisted my big toe spotting double backs! Only I could do something like that, so I was out of tumbling again for the final week of Ollerup. Grrr…..
The internationals went on a day trip with our teachers around Fyn, it was a lovely day sightseeing and just being together one last time. Ahh sigh, it was sinking in that we were nearing the end of the course and that the last 10 months together had just flown by.We had our formal night, where all the boys dressed super smart and the girls looked gorgeous. Speeches, movies, photo slideshow, songs and much more were presented throughout the night. Many tears and laughter were expressed during the night as we all looked back at our time spent at this wonderful school. We all received our diplomas and OD pins and took many photos to cherish this great moment. Goodbye Ollerup 2009 (though we were going to see everyone again in a few days at the festival so it wasn't quite goodbyes yet).

JULY:
All the Danes went home while us internationals stayed at the school for a couple of days before heading to the Danish Gymnastics Festival (Landsstaevne). It was great to see all the students again though we were only apart for a few days. That week we had amazing weather in Denmark, temperatures in the high 20s. It was so hot everyone was in bikinis and shorts and sun baking and making the most of the sun while they can. This festival was our final festival, our final performance as a whole school, as Ollerup F09. Our last performance went really well (and I'll try to get it on youtube so you can all see it) considering not many people were used to performing in the heat and our teachers were giving us water during the performance so no one would pass out. I was fit enough to tumble then and though I wanted to perform a double back but I only did a straight double twist instead. It was still good considering I hadn't done it in 2 months. Oh yea and of course there were a lot of partying and drunk times =p Anywho the end of the festival meant the real end of Ollerup. We all gathered at the school where we were staying and said our final "goodbyes" or "see you soon". Many many tears were flowing that day as we (mainly the internationals) knew that we would never see some of these people ever again. The people that we had been living with for the last 6-10 months were our family. It was a very emotional time and it was so difficult to say "farvel" as we all didn't want it to end. Ollerup is an amazing place, bringing people together and teaching us all sorts of things to prepare us for whatever the future might bring us.

AFTER OLLERUP:
So after Landsstaevne I went to Copenhagen for a week with a friend (Pernille) to work at a summer holiday program teaching kids gymnastics. It was really good and fun, the kids were all very sweet but they were aged between 6-12 years which meant they didn't know a lot of English so I actually had to use my Danish! I did pretty good and surprised myself in the end. So yes I survived the week teaching kids gymnastics in Danish. During this week Copenhagen had their Jazz Festival so Pernille and I went looking for some jazz one night and listened to some awesome jazz and blues jazz.

After Copenhagen I came back to the school (Ollerup) to stay for 4 weeks just to finalise things and to jump again (it's also a much cheaper alternative to staying at a hotel/hostel plus I get free access to all the facilities here =p). There are 6 other international students living at the school. They are working here as cleaners for 6 weeks before heading back home again, so I still have some company while I'm here. I also worked one week here at the Junior Camp teaching acro and gymnastics. It was a very exhausting week as my schedule started at 7.30am (breakfast) and finished after midnight (meeting). But all in all it was still a great week. Now I'm just catching up on photos and other stuff and then I depart to Norway on the 11th August. I'll be working one week in Norway at a Summer Camp teaching gymnastics (again!) then I'll be travelling around the country, then Sweden, Estonia and other European countries. Haven't quite planned it yet but just backpacking around and seeing the world.

Well I hope I have updated you enough on my happenings. Hope you guys are all well. Take care and vi ses. Love you all xoxo