Settling in and finding my way!

Since my last post things have calmed down quite a bit, and I've started to find my new routine around here. Its all starting to feel more real which is so great! :) Its a lot of change all at once, but I'm so happy about all of it and feel so incredibly lucky! On the mornings that I have class I ride with Klaus to the train station at about 7:30, which means I'm getting to Copenhagen by 8:15 so I have about 45 mins before my class starts. So far the weather has been perfect so I have really enjoyed having a little bit of a break before we start, it keeps me from feeling rushed or worried about being late to class which is actually very relaxing. I've been going to Konges Have (the King's Garden) and either walking around the grounds and enjoying the scenery or finding a bench and sitting down to go over my notes/ homework and sip on my coffee. :) The park reminds me a little bit of Central Park, but not nearly as big. There are so many pretty areas and its so well kept that its a really relaxing area to start my mornings. It really looks like something you would see in a movie!

So far class has been good, challenging but good. I can tell I'm improving at least a little bit which is encouraging. So far I can introduce myself and ask about where someone comes from/ what languages they speak. I can say the alphabet (which was actually WAY more difficult than I think it should have been!!!) I can also sort of count to 100- still working on it but I have the basic idea of what it SHOULD sound like! (again WAY too complicated- their numbers are based on a twenty system instead of 10's like in english so when you get to 50 its actually "2.5 times 20"... HUH?!?!?) The most challenging assignment I've had was to be able to re-tell a five part story in danish pretty much from memory (we could only write down a few key words to help). Poor Klaus had to listen to me talk about police detectives and their lunch break soooo many times!! But I was really proud that I could do it by the end of the night! :)

I'm really enjoying the social aspect of the class though! Its nice to be around people who are in a similar situation as I am, and they're all really nice! :) Friday after class a group of girls invited me to hang out with them. So we went to a pizza shop and got a couple pizzas to go (I got a salad without croutons!) and we headed to Ny Haven to sit by the harbor and enjoy the weather! It was so much fun! Ny Haven was PACKED!!! Which made for some good people watching and a lot of fun conversations and laughter. It was a really great way to spend the afternoon! :)

Ny Haven

Girls from : German, Israel, Romania, India, and Indonesia!

Tomorrow is a national holiday for Danes (They have a LOT of those this time of year)so Klaus and I both have a 3 day weekend! :) Its been so great to spend time with just the two of us in such a relaxed and NORMAL environment. Until now we've always had so much to do or see or people to visit every time we're together for a week or so that to be able to just sit on the couch and watch tv in the evenings or cook dinners together is such a special time for me! :) I am totally crazy about him!! :)

So that's been this week! :) I'm having a blast and am LOVING my new life over here! :)
Jeg vil blogge igen snart!
XOXO
Joy

First weekend/ First day of school!

Wow what a busy few days! I am loving it here, even the weather has been absolutely perfect! Its funny to me that the Danes are complaining that its getting too hot... its been 21-23 degrees Celsius (between 69-73 degrees Fahrenheit) and sunny with a little bit of a breeze... PERFECT! :) One of the neighbors said that with was too hot and I was really confused, but maybe that's because it was already hitting 90 when I left Texas? I have been enjoying the weather and have had the windows open in the apartment every chance I get. The part I'm not used to yet is that the sun doesn't start to set until about 9:30pm and it won't get really dark until about 11pm.

9:30pm!!!!

On Saturday Klaus and I took a trip in to Copenhagen just to refresh my memory on how to get to my school. Boy am I glad we did!!! When we got off at Nørreport I realized that the station was under construction and lost all sense of direction... the plan had been for us to get off the train and I would lead the way to the school and Klaus would just be there in case I needed help... Well after about 2 seconds he stepped in and told me (in a very nice way) that I was going the wrong direction. Not only was it the wrong right or left that I could eventually recover from, but I was going northeast and the school is southwest!!!! AHHH! I was totally freaked out at this point and I think we were both really worried about what was going to happen Monday when I had to find it on my own. Once I could rationally think again we walked back to the station and I took in as many landmarks as I could (i.e. come up from the station and look for the yellow sign above that store, turn right at the big blue flags, look for the store called "the big apple", turn left at the 7-11, etc) forget about street names, not only can I not pronounce them which makes it hard to memorize them, but I have a hard time finding them in any case. They don't have the street names on sign posts or by the street lights like in the states, they are written on the buildings which seems easy enough to figure out, but when your brain isn't used to it, it is very confusing. Or maybe its just me? lol!

Once we got back to the train station we decided not to wander around that area just in case things in the wrong direction would look familiar so we got back on the train and headed to a different stop and walked around for a little bit before heading to his sister's apartment for dinner and a birthday celebration with their parents. Klaus, his sister and his mom were all celebrating their birthdays at the same time :) His dad's birthday is close too, but they had a big party for him earlier. :)

When we got there Helle and Ruth had also turned it into a welcome to Denmark party! :) They had hung up a string of Danish flags across the ceiling and made a poster for me too! :) It was really sweet and very fun :) 

We enjoyed a really good dinner (it was sort of like a hamburger rolled into a ball with sauteed onions on top, wrapped in tin foil and baked in the oven... I don't know what its called, but it was Meget God- very good!) After we were all full from dinner we decided to take a walk down to the harbor near Helle's apartment. It was a little windy and cloudy that evening but still a lot of fun.

The next morning Klaus decided we needed to go to the electronics store (think danish best buy) and get a phone for me that wasn't 10 years old (I had been using an old one of his). So now I have a phone that actually has maps and a gps in it so that hopefully I can find my way in Copenhagen easier! YAY!!!! :) He really is Mr. Wonderful! ;-)

That afternoon his parents and sister came by for lunch since his parents were heading back home and wanted to see him again before they left. It was a very nice relaxing afternoon: we had lunch and then went to a park area near the apartment and sat out in the sun and just chatted and rested.

After they left we decided it would be a good idea to try to go to Copenhagen again and see if I could find the school now that I had found my landmarks and studied the map and had the awesome phone. So off we went... this time it was sooooo much smoother and I didn't get turned around once! YAY!!!! I think this made us both feel better about me going by myself the next morning :)

Monday morning- this is it! My first day of danish school!!! YIKES! 



Ready to go!

Everything went really well getting to class (I actually got to the city about 45 mins early because Klaus dropped me off at the train station on his way to work) So I had plenty of time to sit in Kongens Have (King's garden) and just relax a little bit. I found the school with no problem and was able to chat with a few of my classmates before we went in. There is only one other American in the class, she's from New Jersey and was a flight attendant who had lived in Qatar for a while before coming to Denmark. The other 15 people in the class are from all over the world! It was really cool because the first things we learned in class were how to ask someones name, where they are from, and what languages they speak. So as we went around and (in danish) answered the questions we got to know the other people in the class :) We also learned to count to 20 and the alphabet :) I sort of felt like a kindergartner, but its all things that we have to know before we can move on. The written alphabet is the same except they have 3 extra letters æ ø å, but the pronunciation is WAY different than how we say it in English.

Overall its been an amazing few days and I am loving it! :) I'm looking forward to this weekend and having Klaus around a little more, but its been nice to have some alone time too and have a chance to explore the area a little bit (with my handy-dandy phone that can get me un-lost if I need it!) I do miss everyone back home though, but hopefully everyone is doing well! If you want to chat on skype just find me using my full name and I will leave it on whenever I am in the apartment. :)

XOXO,

Joy

Goodbye America! Hello Denmark!

We made it!!! :) I am actually sitting in Denmark and I don't have to leave in a week! I am so excited and I don't think I've even fully realized that everything is really happening.

Our flights were pretty uneventful other than having to run to our gate in DC because we lost track of time trying to get out of the terminal and check in at the SAS desk and then going back through security and everything. But we made it and everything was fine. I had a hard time sleeping on the plane so I watched a few movies, read a little bit, and listened to music. We landed just before 7am local time (which is +1 GMT fyi- so 7 hours ahead of Dallas time)

By the time we got to the apartment I was exhausted from not sleeping on the plane and only getting a couple hours of sleep on Wednesday night because I was so full of emotions that my brain wasn't able to stay asleep for long. I'm a VERY nervous flyer so in addition to the over the top excitement, I was also really nervous about the actual flight and worried about all the things I might have forgot to pack so at about 2:30am my eyes popped open and couldn't go back to sleep. So once we got here I pretty much fell asleep immediately.

After my nap I got up and began figuring out how to unpack all of my stuff. Klaus was amazing and actually had half of the closet space completely cleared out for me when I got here! :) The clothes were my main priority and they are pretty much put away. Everything else can wait in suitcases until we have time to figure out the best place for things.

Before

After! :)

I think we're going to go for a walk to get some fresh air and stretch our legs a little bit! I start class on Monday and will hopefully have more to write then!

XOXO,
Joy

Wedding Weekend #2

KLAUS IS HERE!!!! :) :) :) His plane arrived safe and sound late Thursday night and since then it has been a bit of a whirlwind weekend so bear with me if this post reaches epic proportions...

Friday morning we woke up early and hit the road for San Antonio by 7am. We got there in the early afternoon and spent most of the day being tourists walking around downtown San Antonio. Since we were there I thought we had to at least go see the Alamo (so he could say that he "remembers the Alamo!" lol!) As you can see the weather was picture perfect and we had a wonderful afternoon!

Friday evening was the rehearsal for CJ and Jess' wedding! :) They were married at the River Rock Event Center just outside of San Antonio in an outdoor ceremony which was gorgeous! After the really quick rehearsal (there were no attendants or children involved so the rehearsal was simple and to the point) we headed to Rita's on the River for the rehearsal dinner. It was a really fun evening full of good food and drinks, a mariachi band and plenty of laughter and love! :)

Saturday was the BIG day! :) Klaus and I started our day by going to a MUST SEE location for all...

From there we went by Mom and Dad's hotel and I swapped Klaus for Mom and we went to get our hair done with the girls and spend the afternoon getting beautiful while Klaus spent the afternoon helping dad get the hotrod beautiful! :)

Getting ready! :)

All the girls!

From there we headed back to the event center where we all got ready in the bridal suite, took a bunch of pictures, had a champagne toast and waited...

Cheers to the new Mrs/ Dr/ Captain Shepler!

The beautiful bride waiting for the ceremony to begin!

The ceremony and reception were wonderful and everyone had a GREAT time celebrating the newly weds!

Here comes the bride!

The new family!

Dancing at the reception :)

Sunday morning Klaus and I headed to Lake Travis (a few months ago I found a really good groupon for a cute bed and breakfast overlooking the lake that was too good to pass up) It was really nice to get away and just spend the day relaxing after a really busy couple of days. We went to an area called "The Oasis" that has an amazing view of Lake Travis for dinner. We went to a yummy barbecue place and watched the sunset. It was the perfect way to end our amazing trip! :)

Enjoying the view from our balcony

Looking out during dinner

Monday was spent driving back to Plano, hanging out with Mom and Dad, cleaning up the cars and watching the Rangers game. Now we are in the waiting room for Mom to get out of knee surgery/ recovery. **We just heard from the doctor and everything went very well (YAY!) and she is in recovery so I should wrap up this post now.**

WHEW! LOOONG post, sorry y'all!
XOXO,
Joy


So Much Love

So Klaus is currently on a plane from Chicago to Dallas and will be here in just a few hours!! YAY!!!! :) He called from Chicago and said that the first flight was fine but that getting thru the immigration lines took a while so we didn't get to talk for long, but that's ok because I will get to see him IN PERSON soon! :)

The past week has been extremely busy! I thought not having a job to worry about might actually free up my schedule and give me plenty of time to get everything done... Silly Joy... I think I'm as prepared as I can be at this point though. I've gone thru the majority of my stuff and thrown away a lot of junk and separated out everything else into "take to Denmark" piles and "give away/ donate" piles and there are still a couple boxes that will stay at Mom and Dad's that are things I really want to keep, but don't necessarily need in Denmark. Thanks to my friends who have come over and helped me get rid of a bunch of stuff from the "give away/ donate" boxes! It makes me feel better to have less to deal with, so THANKS! :)

The hardest part has actually been packing for our weekend trip to San Antonio/ Austin for CJ's wedding. I don't know why but it took me forever to organize that one little bag and wrap their wedding gift, I'm really looking forward to this weekend I think its going to be awesome. But, I think its probably because I've been so overwhelmed with the move that I haven't really been worried about the immediate stuff. I have a feeling that as soon as the plane takes off next Thursday I'm going to remember about 4,000 things I didn't take care of or pack... but it will all be ok because I will be going to Denmark with my amazing fiance! :)

Speaking of which, I'm going to end this now so that I can go get him from the airport! :) YAY!!!
I will probably not update again until early next week, this weekend is going to be busy but sooo much fun spending time with family and friends!
XOXO,
Joy

What a year it has been!

One year ago today was when I first met Klaus at Village Burger Bar and my life was changed forever! If someone had told me then that in one year I would be engaged and planning to move halfway around the world I would have probably thought they were crazy, but here we are now. :) This past year had been a crazy whirlwind adventure and I feel so lucky to have had such amazing experiences that I never thought possible.

I have exactly two weeks until the big move and people keep asking if I'm ready... are they insane?? Of course I'm not ready! I have only done a fraction of the packing and organizing I probably should have started months ago but that's not the tough part. I'm really not ready to say goodbye to my amazing group of friends. Thru all of this I have been so happy and excited and couldn't wait to get over there. It wasn't until this past week (Tuesday was my last day at Starbucks) that I really started being sad about having to say goodbye.

The comforting part is that I know I will be returning in four months for a visit (and to keep from going over my allotted number of days in Denmark therefore avoiding being deported!) This helps a lot knowing that I'm not saying goodbye forever and I think it makes me feel better about being so happy and excited to start the next chapter in my life. :) The part that I won't be going back to is my job at Starbucks and I think that's why Tuesday was so sad for me because a lot of the customers who I've gotten to know and who have touched my life over the last 3 years will be much harder to reconnect with in the future so I knew that saying goodbye to them might actually be the last time I see them. :( But my Starbucks family is amazing and somehow managed to throw me a SURPRISE going away party that night AND put together a very sweet scrapbook with memories from my time there! :) I was totally overwhelmed and realized how much I was going to miss everyone who I've worked alongside every morning at ungodly hours of the morning!

I guess the answer to the question "are you ready for the move?" is actually YES! Aside from the logistical things like packing and paperwork, emotionally I've been ready to go for several months now! I'm thrilled to be with Klaus for real and not have to schedule times so we can skype and just be able to be a "normal" couple for a while. :) He makes me happier than I have ever been so of course I'm ready to go, I know that we will have some things to work out, but I have so much confidence in us that those things will be ok that I'm not scared in any way to go! He is amazing and I am so incredibly lucky that one year ago today I was able to meet the man of my dreams!

I will be trying my best to keep this blog updated while I am in Denmark, but bear with me for the first few weeks while I try to get myself settled in!
XOXO
Joy