Although he is not allowed to come in at

Although he is not allowed to come in at 4 or 6 a.m. on the weekends or 11:30 p.m. on school nights as in Denmark, Thomas is allowed to eat when he wants. “He doesn’t eat if he's not hungry, and then he wants to eat at 9 p.m. or after,” Lynne said.

"At home, if my mother says we eat at 5:30, we eat at 5:30,” Thomas said. "1 like the way it is here.”

He is not as happy about the curfew observed in the Baines household.

"1 have to chase, him into bed every night,” Lynne said.

Thomas' mother sent a Danish cookbook to the Baineses so that Thomas can have some of his favorite foods here.

"One of his favorite foods is oxtail soup. Rufus said. “We’ve been looking for an ox so we can cut its tail off.”

Thomas also experienced a new way ol getting food — the drivethrough window. “That was when we talked into a box and then got our food," Thomas said.

He likes movies and has been to theaters five, or six times so far besides watching movies on TV, and he went to his first drive-in movie. His other favorite pastime is girl watching.

Thomas will be playing soccer as a member of the RCHS team after he gets a fiber cast for his arm. “Soccer here is different from European soccer,” he said. “In Europe, we kick the ball more and don’t run as much.”

Since he does not know the rules, he will not play basketball or baseball. He said that he enjoys watching football on TV but does not think he would like to try playing.

Thomas is enjoying his stay in the U.S., but to him, Denmark is still number one. “I think that Denmark is the most wonderful country in the world just as Americans think the U.S. is the most wonderful country,” Thomas said.

He will return to Denmark in July. Until then, the Baineses have shown their respect for his feelings by flying the Danish flag beside the American flag in the front yard.

“On the first day they did it, they told me to come and see,” Thomas said. “It made me happy.”