Midterm Exam, Christmas Choir and Voting in Denmark!

I can't believe I'm already at the midterm point of my module 2 dansk class! We had a written and spoken "exam" today. Really it was a practice test for the final, but mostly I think it was so the teachers would have a good reference point of how we are all individually doing so far. I had studied over the weekend and Klaus had helped me prepare as much as possible so I felt pretty confident going in today and I think I did pretty well (we get the results on Friday so keep your fingers crossed) For the written portion we had three parts. 1) Reading comprehension- we were given an article and a list of about 5 questions that we had to read and find the answers to. 2) Grammar- we were given a paragraph with blanks to fill in with the correct pronouns. 3)Essay- we were asked to write to a friend about a new job... this was by far the hardest section for me, partly because my mind went blank when I tried to think of vocabulary words I knew for different jobs... I haven't learned any of the terminology surrounding theatre, I don't know the words to describe a marketing job or a copy editor job... SOOOO I went with what I know and talked about getting a job at a coffee shop! lol! Three years at Starbucks is paying off again! :) Our spoken section consisted of being paired with a classmate and interviewing each other. We were given a sheet of paper with bullet points of a mans life "Food- oatmeal, vegetables everyday, red wine on weekends" etc (obviously all of this was in Danish not English...) We got to practice several times and then the teacher came around to each pair and listened to us interview each other.

Another exciting new development for me is that I have joined a Christmas Choir this year at the International Church in Copenhagen! :) We started a few weeks ago and meet on Saturday mornings for a couple hours and then we'll perform on December 8th- and its in English!!! :) We're singing some of my favorite carols like "Silent Night", "Away in a Manger" and "Little Drummer Boy" :) I'm having a great time and I really have enjoyed meeting new people! Its been a LONG time since I've been in a choir, but it makes me miss my HGBC friends! :)

Today ALSO happened to be election day in Denmark! It was the regional and municipality level elections- not national, but its been really interesting to talk about it with Klaus and read about it online. The biggest difference to me is that there are a LOT of different parties- like 10 for the municipal elections and probably 20 or so on the regional level! I won't be allowed to vote here for another few years, but it was interesting to observe how it works first hand. Klaus even took me with him when he went to vote. I didn't go in the voting booth, but I got to see how its organized and the GIANT ballots they give you (seriously its like an 8"x 48"!) I hope between now and the next time when I can vote, I will be able to figure out how the parties are organized and how to pick which candidate to vote for! ha!

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here- other than Tex being adorable! ;-) He's figured out how to jump ONTO the couch, but he hasn't figured out how to get down yet, nor has he realized that if he jumps up there when a human is NOT there- he's gonna get stuck!!

Please come get me down...?

And I'm also preparing to host Thanksgiving dinner for Klaus' parents and sister! :) Wish me luck!! ha! I'll be sure to post a recap of that as well :)

I hope everyone is doing well,
XOXO,
Joy

Happy Halloween from Denmark!

This past weekend, Klaus and I hosted our 2nd Halloween party in Denmark!! I LOVE decorating the apartment for any occasion, but especially for Halloween! :) I would love to say that I'm super creative and came up with all of these decorations on my own, but really Pinterest was my inspiration for most of it. :) I'll post links to the original pins that I used to come up with my ideas, or note when they were actually my own creations! I'm really proud of how it turned out and thought I would share the details on here :)

So, the spider web wall was super easy to make, I just used black curling ribbon and tape. I came up with the idea last year and it was a big hit, so I did it again this year but on a smaller wall. :) And our cute furry spiders were a purchase at Tivoli last year! :)

The 4 signs were inspired by this post, but I put my own spin on it and cut them out of cardboard to the layered effect. They read "Keep Calm and Scary On", "I'm Here for the Boo's", "If the broom fits, ride it" and "Trick-or-Treat"

This guy was a TOTAL copy from this post, but I thought he was sooo cute! It was nice to have a non-sugary snack option too. :)

The "Boo Mix" was also a pinterest idea found here, but I modified it a bit. I changed out the "monster scabs" for "zombie boogers" because I couldn't find chex in Denmark and used raisins instead of chocolate chips for the "witches warts" I also opted to not mix them up so it was easy for people to take what they'd like!

The severed fingers turned out WAY creepier than I had anticipated, but apparently they were a hit because they were the first thing to be finished off! I found the idea here.

The spider web pizzas were originally intended for the kids since I was planning to serve chili for the adults and I wasn't sure the little ones would like that too much. I had seen several ideas for Halloween pizzas, but this one seemed the easiest. You just take string cheese and lay out the spider web and then cut up an olive to make the spider. Super easy and a great idea from here.

 

The punch bowl with the floating hand was something I had tried last year as well, it came from this site. They say to cut off the glove, but we found that using a thin clear plastic glove and leaving it on worked best for us. When we put it in the softevand the ice actually shattered within the glove, but it still looked ok.

 The witch was just drawn on cardboard and cut out, it was something I had gotten inspiration from multiple sites, but the design of this one was my own.

The 4 little faces were inspired by this site. I decided to make a bat instead of a spider because Klaus thought my spider legs were cat whiskers... :-/

 This was again something we had done last year that got great results, so this year I adapted it a bit and made different silhouettes, as well as adding colored lights behind the spooky house and graveyard. This site has a good tutorial on the general idea and then I just google image searched for things I wanted to make and drew them on cardboard and cut them out.

This was originally inspired by a decoration my dad had made for our front yard of a witch crashing into a tree. (I'm sure he found the idea somewhere, but I don't know where so I'll just assume it was his own creative genius) Then when Klaus and I were in Tivoli we saw the same concept except she had crashed into the door and I said "I could totally make that!" (they wanted like 250 kroner for it!!)

The spiders on the door were my own idea- I couldn't figure out how to get the plastic to stick to the door (tape wasn't working) so instead I super glued some black sewing thread to them and taped that along the top of the door.

 

The bats are probably my favorite decoration and SO easy! Here is where I got the inspiration- she has a fancy vinyl cutter that she used to cut out the bats... I just traced them onto black cardboard and cut them out with an exacto knife.

 

The window stickers and mini jack'o'lantern were things I brought with me from the states. :)

 

These little guys are another one of my favorites, probably because they were my OWN idea! :) I just took some of the flower pots we have around the apartment and gave them faces and filled them with candy! :) I think the bat and Frankenstein are my favorites! :)

These peanut butter eyeballs were something I thought looked really cool and I was really excited about, but I forgot that danes aren't particularly fond of peanut butter, so we have a few of these left over. They're just peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar and covered in white chocolate with a chocolate chip for a pupil and red food dye painted on to make them bloodshot. Here's where the idea came from.

The ghost in the corner is just a scarp piece of fabric I had draped over a balloon and hung from the ceiling- I think its cool that he was backlit by our normal lamps! The hanging decorations are a mix of things I brought from the states and things we found here in Denmark. :)

 

The ghost and jack'o'lantern wine bottles were from this post. And the luminaries are from here.

 

We had 12 adults and 3 kiddos and a puppy in our apartment for the party, and yes it was a bit crowded, but I had soooo much fun and was really glad everyone came! :) It was fun to have people from several different areas of my Danish life in the same room and everyone seemed to be having a good time too! :)

A couple of witches and a mad scientist

Dorothy, Scarecrow and Toto!

 

Toto and a cat!

And one more with Toto in his basket!

What about you? Did you make any Halloween decorations this year? I'd love to get more ideas if you have them to share!

 

Happy Halloween everyone!

XOXO,

Joy

France and Spain!

The second to last day of the cruise took us to Toulon, France where I took a bus tour to Marsielle! It was a bit surreal to be in this port and driving along the roads because I have seen so many of these places on tv when my family and I would watch the Tour de France- I kept expecting to look out the bus window and see some crazy drunk guy dressed as a water bottle running along side the bus! :) But alas, Bottle Boy did not make an appearance. It did however give me a whole new appreciation for how narrow those roads are and how steep the hills can be (and we weren't even in the mountain areas!) Our bus driver was INDREDIBLE and navigated our giant bus through some of the narrowest roads and sharpest turns!!

One of the stops on our tour was Notre-Dame de la Garde where we could climb to the top and get a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city! We also drove along the coast line and got some amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea and its beautiful bright blue water!

After our bus tour we had about an hour of free time in the shopping district. I used this time to find a quaint little sidewalk café and enjoy a cappuccino (and free wifi) as well as writing a couple postcards to friends and family back home! :) As well as a little bit of shopping at the street market!

That night, for our last night on the ship together, Linda and I went to the Pinnacle Grill (the super fancy restaurant on board) It was Amazing!!! I felt so spoiled eating my 4 course meal that included shrimp cocktail, ceasar salad (that the waiter mixed the dressing AT THE TABLE), filet mignon and 3 different flavors of crème brulee! It was Fantastic and I was soooooo full afterwards! :)

The next morning it was time to say good-bye to Linda and my Holland-America experience... :( I
was able to take my luggage to the Barcelona airport to drop it off there so I would be free to explore the city! :) I had about 12 hours between getting off the ship until my flight left for Copenhagen.
I didn't really have a plan for Barcelona but I decided I would walk down Las Rambles and then figure it out from there... well I got off the "Aerobus" and promptly headed in the WRONGE direction! Oops! After wandering down a very quite street for about half an hour I started to wonder if maybe I wasn't actually on Las Rambles since all I had heard was that it is REALLY crowded.

NOT Las Rambles... but a cute promenade!

Sooo I found a café and ordered a cappuccino and got the wifi password and pulled out my handy-dandy google maps and realized I was no where close to where I thought I was!

Cappuccinos and wifi... the theme of my vacation?

So I finished my drink and headed back in the direction I came from. Past all of the fancy designer stores- Armani, Dolce and Gabbana, Burberry, etc... and then I looked to my left and saw a CROCS store!!! What?!?!

Thinking of you Dad! :)

Once I got back to Plaza de Catalunya I decided that the best option was probably to buy a Hop on Hop Off bus ticket and spend my afternoon visiting the sites that way (so I didn't get lost again!) 

Plaza de Catalunya

Plaza de Catalunya

Ready to do some hopping!

Sagrada Família

FC Barcelona Stadium

Once I completed the loop of the hop on hop off tour I found the REAL Las Rambles and headed down towards the Columbus Monument enjoying the shopping and people watching along the way. :) I had a great time exploring, but I was also exhausted so I headed to the airport a little early and checked in for my flight and relaxed a bit.

Las Rambles

I should have just looked for the signs... oops!

Street Market! :)

It was an amazing trip- one that I will never forget and that I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to go on! But it was also really nice to land in Copenhagen and see Klaus and Tex again!

Thank you Linda for an incredible adventure and I hope to see you again soon! :)
XOXO,
Joy

Italian Adventures

Part two of my cruise recap was delayed a bit because I spent the week decorating and preparing for our Halloween Party! :) More on that later.

On Day 4 of the cruise we made it to Naples, Italy!

Beautiful view as we got off the ship!

I was so fortunate to get to go to Pompeii with a guided tour and explore the ruins of this 2,000 year old city! Our tour guide was super sweet and kept calling our group "my family" We got to see so many cool areas from a wealthy family's home to the public bath house to the bakery and of course the town square.

Our tour guide! "My family! My family!"

The city center of Pompeii

Inside the bath house

The bakery

Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii has always been on my list of places to visit ever since reading about it in my high school history books. The idea that people were living their normal lives and everything was frozen in time is fascinating to me. I would LOVE to go back to the area and spend more time exploring it and I would love to explore Mt. Vesuvius with Klaus as well! :)

Linda and me at the city center

A perfect day to explore the ruins of this amazing city!

Actual human remains perfectly preserved under mountains of ash.

The next port we came to was Civitavecchia, Italy! This was the first (and ONLY) day of not so great weather, so I was VERY happy to have a bus tour of the highlights of Rome and then a 2 hour stop in the Vatican City! :) I wish I could have spent DAYS here, as there is sooooo much to see and do that even on the driving tour we weren't able to cover everything in the 9 hour tour! I did enjoy seeing the Vatican City and even found a bobble-head pope for my parents! :)

Circus Maximus

Altare della Patria or "The Wedding Cake Monument"

The Colosseum

St. Peters Square- and the LONG line to get into the basilica!

Me and the Pope! :)

Next up was Lucca, Italy (or more precisely the port of Livorno) This was another incredibly fun day that I got to spend with Linda doing a guided tour. When I was at CCM there was a summer opera program that took students to Lucca, Italy so I had always seen pictures from my friends' trips, but going myself was a whole different experience. Lucca is ADORABLE! It looks just like something you'd see in a movie or on a postcard. We only had about 45 minutes of free time after the walking tour, but I was able to snag some good souvenirs- real Italian leather gloves for me and a belt for Klaus as well as some very yummy chocolates! :)

A view of the walls that have been turned into a city park

Such a quite, sweet little town!

A mansion for one of the wealthy families in town-
It was originally built for the people who brought beer to Lucca!

Our Italian tour guide- Alexandro and Linda
"Oh! Mama Mia!!!"

Piazza Anfiteatro

Narrow, winding streets

With that, we said Arrivederci to Italy and headed to France! :) Next, stop- Toulon, Italy and Barcelona, Spain! :)