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YFU group Denmark 89-90 at Kronborg, May 90.

Submitted by your Class Contact Jean Ping (jean@roadq.com):

I went to Denmark in 89-90 and lived in a village north of Odense on Fyn. I was one of the youngest in the exchange group, and went to folkeskole instead of gymnasium. This had some disadvantages, but was great for my language skills because hardly anybody spoke good English. At school, I tried out some new activities; I took a photography class and joined a handball team with some girls from my class (I was terrible). At the end of the year, I was in a local theater production--just as an extra, of course.

I'm still in touch with my family and have made two visits back; one the summer after I graduated from high school, and one about a year after I got married. Exchanging has had an enormous impact on my life, in every area from college to my personal worldview. My family has also been very affected--they've hosted several students, and two of my brothers went on exchanges of their own. After my exchange, I finished high school and went to UC Berkeley as a comparative literature major. I met my husband, Mark, in my last year and we got married in 1996. After he graduated (in 97), we moved to San Jose and I got my master's degree in library science. In 2000, we moved to Chico in Northern CA and had a baby girl named Katie. We are enjoying Chico a lot; I mainly stay home with the baby, but am also doing a little work for the local public library, and generally do a bunch of different things.

I'd love to know what everyone else is up to--I was going through my old pictures (you might remember that I was always the one taking pictures of everything) and started thinking about how much I enjoyed my exchange, and especially how much I loved getting to know the other YFU students. I have some good pictures that I'll be posting soon. If you have any, send them to me and I'll put them up too!

Found Alumni from our class:

Isabel Baur (from Switzerland) (kellerbaur@freesurf.ch)

Michael Arra (m_arras@hotmail.com)

Chris Schlotfeldt (chrisecoli@alaska.com) I'm currently living in Seattle, and am half owner in http://www.nunatakgear.com. I have been a web designer / programmer for a number of years now, and before that a sponsored athlete / climber for nearly 8 years. Last summer I took a 70 foot ground fall, rope cut, and was in the hospital for three weeks, ending up with 4 surgeries. I'm okay now, all limbs intact and okay, but still having a few problems with my left wrist, which I completely crushed, but it'll be fine, I'm convinced of that.

Maarten van de Sande (info@vandesande.nu) My exchange year in Denmark has also changed my entire life. I learned a lot about myself in that year - things that I still use nowadays. One of the things I found out is how I wanted my future to be like: before I went to Denmark, I wanted to study language and become a translator, or study history and become a teacher. After the year in Denmark - I went to the Handelsskole there - I considered that a career in Finance would be better for me. After I came home from Denmark, I finished my gymnasium in Holland and started working and studying in finance. At this moment (almost 9 years later) I'm still studying, but I hope to finish within 3 months now. For 2 years, I have had my own company, Van de Sande Finance, which is specialized in temporary projects on finance and business. I basically work for other companies on a temporary basis. At this moment I'm working for a company as an interim Finance Manager. I also have 1 employee, who's working for the same company now.

Shortly after my homecoming from Denmark I met my current wife Marie-José. We moved in together in a small apartment when I started to work, and in 1997 we got married. And my Danish host brother Peter was best man at my wedding!! Isn't that great?? In December 1998 our first child was born. We had a boy, Thijmen. In august of 2000 our daughter was born: Rosalie. This picture was taken just before Christmas 2000, more then a year ago. Maybe you'll recognize me: I'm the guy with the blue shirt ;-) .