Den Gamle By

My son was an exchange student in Denmark the year after he graduated high school. It was an amazing experience. His host family truly made him feel like he was part of their family. When he was there he had to have emergency surgery which was followed with complications. It was awful for me to be thousands of miles away, but it was very reassuring to us that his host family was about as close to him as any family can be. Six weeks before he was to return home we made a trip to Denmark to see how he had been living and meet his wonderful family. Here are just a couple of my favorite photos.

If you have read any of my previous posts you will know that I make quilts to commemorate certain events- not necessarily birthdays and anniversaries, but road trips and time spent with friends and family. This quilt was to commemorate our trip to Denmark.
Den Gamle By means The Old Town. It seems like every town claimed to be the oldest in Denmark. We got quite a kick out of that. We also went to a living history museum in Arhus called Den Gamle By.

Before making our trip I knew I wanted to make Lene a special quilt- sort of mother to mother thing for taking such great care of my son. I thought that the Log Cabin quilt was appropriate and very American. What was really great is that when we were getting a "tour" of their tiny house she had a Chinese-made LOG CABIN on their bed! She told me she just loved that pattern, and that was days before I presented her with the quilt. Isn't' that cool!?

Jon, the son in the front center of the photo was enjoying the many packages of American gum we brought. Since then, he has been an exchange student in California and I doubt it is as special to him now.