Danish 4th of July!

The 4th of July just isn't quite the same when you're in Denmark, but I did the best I could to re-create a "real" 4th of July for my danish friends and a couple other Americans! :) Here are a few of the pictures from the party!

Waiting for the guests to arrive so I thought I should take some pics!

I may have gone a little overboard???

Since we're in Denmark you can never count on the weather and I knew as soon as I planned to have everything outside there would be freezing cold rain/winds/ awful weather (dårligt vejr) so I set up everything inside with the hope that we could go outside if the weather cooperated... I was THRILLED when the sky was clear blue and the weather was PERFECT! We really couldn't have planned it any better. So once the guys lit the grills (yes 2 because we're in Denmark and they apparently only have kiddie-sized grills here) we took the snacks downstairs along with a football, softball and gloves and a Frisbee to play while we waited for the food to be ready. It was such a fun time to just hang out and enjoy the company of friends! :)

Then came the FOOD!! So for the appetizers we had some standards like chips and veggies with dip, but then I also added fruit skewers that looked like an American flag, ants on a log (since apparently this is something that Danes don't ever do!) and of course popcorn! :)

Jesper was NOT a fan of the Ants on a Log! lol!!



For the main course we had hamburgers with corn on the cob and cole slaw!

Then for dessert we went WAY overboard! lol! We first had S'mores outside because my neighbors have this really cool torch thing that makes perfect toasted marshmallows (not the intended use, but hey it works really well!)



I know it looks like its the middle of the afternoon, but really it was probably 9pm at this point. So we decided to head back upstairs since it was starting to get a little chilly and there was CAKE upstairs! :) I had made the "traditional" cake with whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries as well as strawberries dipped in white chocolate and then dipped in blue sugar. I also had coffee and tea for everyone as well as chocolate chip cookies (but no one really ate those because everyone was full/ on a sugar high from the cake and strawberries!)



So that was our 4th of July celebration overseas! :) I had such a good time introducing my new friends to a lot of the things that remind me so much of home! The only things missing were my family and friends from home and the fireworks (but apparently its illegal to shoot fireworks off on a "random" Wednesday night!)
What do you think? Did I miss any other big traditions? How did everyone back home celebrate this year?

XOXO,
Joy

Two weeks to Scotland!

It sort of seems like I'm already on vacation so its funny to me that Klaus and I will be leaving for "real vacation" in two weeks, but I'm really excited about this trip!!! :) We will be going to some pretty cool places and I have had a blast researching and finding out more about this cool country. Including random facts, for example, did you know that there are a ton of TINY little mosquito-type bugs there that you are apparently NOT supposed to swat and kill when the little jerks bite you, but instead you are supposed to gently blow them off without killing them so that their little dead butts can't alert the rest of their friends that there is fresh blood around??? Apparently once you kill one of these little guys you are going to be swarmed by THOUSANDS!?!?! Yikes! I made sure to add bug spray to our packing list! lol!

I have spent the majority of my morning confirming bookings for our hotels and tours. We will fly into Aberdeen and then take a train to Edinburgh on Tuesday (17th), we will be in Edinburgh until Friday, when we'll start our "Misty Isle and Mountains 3 day bus tour" that will take us up to Isle of Skye and then to see the Loch Ness Monster and some other fun stuff! We get back sunday evening into Edinburgh only to leave again on a different tour monday morning. This one is the one I'm really excited about the group is called "The Hairy Coo" and all the pictures on the website look goofy and everyone looks like they're having a lot of fun. :) The tour will take us to St. Andrews, a whiskey distillery and another castle! :) We'll spend another couple days in Edinburgh before going to Glencoe (where the big braveheart battle was and the location where they shot some of the Harry Potter stuff!) This part of the trip is mostly for Klaus, he's the one that really likes the hiking/ nature stuff, but I think it will be nice and peaceful so I'm looking forward to it too. Then we'll go back to Aberdeen for a couple days and fly back to Copenhagen on Saturday the 28th. Whew!! Action packed vacation!

I'm looking forward to the trip because it will be the first time Klaus and I have vacationed together and I know he's looking forward to actually having a vacation! Its also been nice to have plenty of time to research and figure out where to go and what to do. I feel really lucky that I have so much free time right now that I have the ability to plan at a leisurely pace and not stress about getting it done. I'm hoping this feeling carries over into the wedding planning which I plan to really start after we get back! (YAY!)

In addition to planning the what/wheres of the trip I've also started playing around with figuring out some real photography stuff. Since Klaus has a really nice camera I thought it would be good to learn so that we can get some good shots of our trip. :) Here's some of my "playing around pictures" from our walk thru a park this past weekend. Enjoy!

That's all for now- I'll update again Thursday after my 4th of July BBQ!!! :)
XOXO
Joy

Whew!

ITS OFFICIAL, I PASSED MODULE ONE OF MY DANISH LESSONS!!!!!!
(If you can't tell I'm super excited about this!)

I have been studying/ cramming like crazy for my test which is the biggest reason for my silence this past week, but now it is over and I passed!!! :) :) :) Its a huge relief to know that when I'm ready next year I will be admitted directly into module 2 and not have to retake this module. So for our test we had to create dialogue based on some pictures of stick figures with thought bubbles that contained one word and we had to come up with either the question or the answer and our instructor did the other side. So for example one stick figure would say "cykel" and the other would say "10 mdr." and from that we had to come up with the questions "Hvor længe har du haft sin ckyel?"/ "Jeg har haft min ckyel i ti måned." We had a page of these to do with maybe 20 variations, the other half of our exam was to memorize 5 stories (3 from the text and 2 that we told about ourselves) and when we got to the exam we picked a number at random and had to tell the corresponding story... So needless to say I was extremely stressed yesterday trying to review everything from the last 5 weeks plus memorizing 5 stories! But everything went well this morning, except that I froze a little bit when he first handed me the page of "sticky men" as he refers to them! But once we got started and I relaxed a bit I was fine and he apparently thought so too or at least enough so that he passed me! Woo-Hoo!!!

With that behind me I was able to focus on decorating the apartment for a baby shower I threw for one of my classmates- Yana! :) Klaus had helped me clean the apartment and prep the food (and he baked the cake!) last night while listening to me go over and over the stories for my test. So after the test another girl from my class came over and helped me put up all the decorations! :) I always love doing crafty things and we were both so incredibly relieved to have the test over that it made for a very fun afternoon. Some more of the girls, including the mommy-to-be, came over this afternoon and we had a really nice time just sitting and chatting and relaxing for a few hours! I think the baby shower was a big success and I think Yana had a really good time which was the important thing to me! :)

Congrats Yana! :)

The Food! The rainbow fruit and dip, popcorn,
chocolate dipped marshmallows, and the CAKE!

One of the many hand-made signs I did!

Gifts for Baby Raphael!
(the brown sweater is what I made for him)

The girls!

And now I am totally wiped out and ready to crash so Klaus said we could have a nice quiet evening watching tv and just relaxing or as the danes would say "ser fjernsyn og hygger derhjemme"

I hope everyone had a good weekend and a good start to the new week!
XOXO
Joy

Its been a while...

I know I've been a little silent for the last week or so- sorry! Things have gotten busy around here. My class has less our test in just one week from Monday! Ah! So they have really started speeding up the learning process which means more homework and then I've been trying to start reviewing and studying for the test itself (flash cards, rewriting notes, practicing my pronunciation...) But its been really good and I actually feel pretty comfortable listening to/ understanding when other people are speaking (slowly) and also writing in danish. Which means I've been trying to text mostly in danish (or as a classmate of mine calls it- dan-glish since I still have to use a few English words when I don't have the vocabulary for some stuff) :) Klaus seems pretty impressed, but I can tell that I'm still writing things incorrectly (or sometimes too correctly to the point that it sounds awkward?) but at least I'm trying and hopefully the more I use it the easier it will get. We have been taught the basic grammar rules and I feel like I know how to put together sentences, but it still takes me just slightly too long to think through it so speaking it in a conversation doesn't work quite right. But the funny thing is when I say a sentence in English and then realize I know how to say it in danish I try to repeat it, which I'm sure is pretty annoying to Klaus, but of course Mr. Wonderful just smiles and usually has to correct me. :)

I've also been a little bit more social active which makes me sooooo happy! :) I'm so excited to be making new friends, but sometimes it just makes me miss my friends back in Texas even more... like last week I had coffee with a friend and went shopping afterwards which is something Michelle and I would do almost every week and the entire time I couldn't stop wishing she were here too. :( Or going out to lunch with the girls from my class always reminds me of my Watters Creek group, and the laughter and happiness I always felt with that group. Or when Klaus and I went to watch the soccer match between Danmark and Portugal in the park with all the crazy Danes I kept thinking it was something that Nichole would love to see! Or when I go running I miss Kim A LOT! I don't have a running buddy just yet, which is fine because I really need to build up my endurance on my own before I run with other people, but I miss our chats and silliness when I ran with Kim. And of course any time I sit down to crochet or knit it reminds me of the amazing ladies in Project Linus! There is always something happening that triggers a memory of my friends and makes me miss everyone, but I know that that is a good sign and it reminds me just how lucky I am to have so many amazing people in my life!

Speaking of being social active, Klaus and I are getting ready to leave for a party for a couple of friends from the apartment community, so I should really go change and pack our overnight bag (they rented a big lodge/ cabin for the night! BIG slumber party! Woo-Hoo!! :) I will take pictures and update again soon!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope all of my guy friends who are amazing daddies have a wonderful fathers day tomorrow!
XOXO
Joy

Awesome new word!! @@@@

I have found my new favorite word in dansk... "Snabel-a" :) It is the word for @ (not "at" but the symbol @) which for some reason made me and the girl next to me giggle EVERY time we had to say it in class today. "Snabel" is like an elephant's trunk so basically an "A" with an elephant's trunk! We were learning how to ask some one's address, phone number, email address etc and when we got to the emails we were introduced to a little group of very funny sounding words. But "snabel-a" and "punktum" (period or "dot") are by far the most fun!

The girl I was working with and I decided that instead of writing a note saying "Can we meet @ 1:00" it would be WAY more fun to say "meet snabel-a 1:00!" tehe! And it also serves as a very fun replacement for some not so nice words... like "SNABEL-A's its raining again!" :)

There have been some silly moments in class (like the first time I tried to say "møder" or pretty much any time the teacher calls on me to ask about my address or Klaus' last name- neither of which I can really pronounce correctly!) So I just thought I would share my new favorite word with everyone! Let me know if you come up with any other ways to use this awesome word.

Don't be a snabel-a!
XOXO
Joy

Sunflowers, Castles, and Soccer oh my!

Sorry for the week in between posts, things have been pretty steady around here. Not so hectic that I'm overwhelmed or tired, but I also haven't been bored by any means! :) The weather has been cloudy and a little gloomy for the last week or so, which I think has contributed to my energy being a little down. That and I've been missing my friends back home a lot. But today the sun is out and its blue skies and warm(er) again! :) I'm not sure how long this nice weather will last but I'm going to take advantage of it while it lasts! This morning I walked down to Lyngby to meet a friend from class for coffee and shopping which was really great! Its about two miles from our apartment to the train station where I met her so it was a good walk (mostly downhill YAY!) I also opened the windows again this afternoon to let some fresh air into the apartment which always makes me feel better! :)

Speaking of the apartment, its finally starting to feel like OUR apartment not just Klaus' apartment. For the first week or so it felt a little weird to be in the apartment by myself (like being in someone else's home without them there) but now I'm really comfortable, maybe its because we've finally moved the suitcases out of the guest room/ office and into the basement? Or maybe its the sunflower in the window? :)

Tuesday was a national holiday for Denmark (yes again...) and Klaus' office was closed Monday as well so after my class on Monday he met me in Copenhagen and we walked around the city and did a little bit of sightseeing. :) It was so fun to not be in a hurry to see anything in particular but to just spend time walking around with him.

Yes... we are wearing our winter coats...

We also went shopping this past weekend and I got a Denmark "fodbold" (aka SOCCER) shirt because the Euro Cup starts this weekend! :) I figure if I'm going to be living over here I should probably just give in and see what all the fuss is over soccer... I'm sorry "fodbold". :) Denmark's first game in the tournament is on Saturday and I think I'm more excited to wear my new shirt than I am about the actual sport at this point, but I'm hoping its like any other sport for me and once I sit down and try to understand it I can get into it? We'll see!

Now I'm heading over to the neighbor's to visit with her and her daughter for a little while so I guess I'll wrap this up now. :)

I miss everyone back home soooo much!
XOXO
Joy





Welcome to June!

I can't believe its already June 1st! Although in some ways it feels like a lifetime ago that I had my last day at Starbucks. May was crammed with so many big events- end of starbucks, Rhianna and Mike's wedding, CJ and Jess' wedding, moving to Denmark!!, starting classes, settling into a new apartment... No wonder my head feels like its spinning a little bit! Here's hoping June means a little less craziness!

Last week I mentioned that Klaus and I both had three day weekends so I thought I would share some pictures of our adventures last monday. We walked from the apartment to Bakken and then took the s-tog (train) to Copenhagen and walked around the Lakes for a little while and just enjoyed the weather. We then headed to Helle's for dinner and then eventually back home. Whew! Lots of walking! I actually had my pedometer tracking app on my phone turned on and we managed to log over 15 miles of walking! (I turned it off on the trains!) It was a really good day and beautiful weather as you can see!

The trees are HUGE!!! Can you see me??

Other than that I've been really busy studying. The language is difficult for me to pick up and I'm not sure what I need to do to get it to stick in my brain, but I know it will be worth it, I'm just waiting for that "ah-ha" moment to hit, instead I'm just trying to hang on and grasp at anything that makes sense.

But I am really loving getting to know the people in my class!! :) They are all super sweet and very helpful! A few of us went out to lunch yesterday after class again which is so nice to just get to sit and talk to other people for a while. It also helps that the majority of people are in the same boat (fell in love with a dane and moved to be with them!) So it helps to know that I'm not totally crazy and that other people are trying to make this work too! :) Its also funny because we were talking about how weird it feels to NOT work and to actually do all the domestic stuff. Yes friends, even I have started to cook!!! Crazy right?!?! And I haven't even set the smoke detector off once!! Woo-hoo! And since I know people won't believe me without proof here are some of the more fun things I've made this week!

"potato skins" but slightly healthier... baked not fried! lol!

Taco salad night! (With homemade guac!)

my favorite veggie salad- cucumbers, chickpeas, tomatoes and corn!

The other highlight of my week was when I got to see my friends at the community quilters on Wednesday!!! :) Mom figured out how to hook up her laptop to skype from Nevada and I got to see and talk to my ladies! :) It was so great to see their smiling faces and I miss all of them sooo much! Hopefully we'll get to chat again soon!

ok this post is getting to be really long so I'll end it here and update again soon!

I miss you guys back home!! Skype if you can, I always have it on when I'm in the apartment.

XOXO,

Joy