A New Post on a New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, full of 'jule hygge' (which essentially translates as cosy Christmas time) and all of the delightful things that makes Christmas so much fun!

I have written three blog posts in the past few days and haven't even posted one!
Why?
Well, frankly I am a perfectionist, and I am usually unsatisfied with what I do and specifically what I write. I always feel I am capable of so much more!

I need to learn to have a more 'laissez faire' attitude...which segways perfectly into what I really wanted to write to you about- New Years Resólutions!

Traditionally I have scoffed at the fact that gyms receive more new memberships in January than any other time of the year, and that universally, people see a new year as a chance for a fresh start.
Don't misunderstand me, it is not that I think any of thís 'fresh start' business is worthy of scorn!
Au contraire!
Rather, shouldn't every day, every hour and every minute afford the same opportunity? And not just January?

Well this year I am putting aside any pretences at 'high-mindedness' and joining the masses in penning my resolutions for 2012.
And I have a lot. I filled three full pages with my dreams, ambitions and goals for the next twelve months, and even then I felt it was just the scant, bare bones of what I really wanted to express.

I am not going to bore you with a list, but I will tell you it ranged from the trivial (drink more water) to the deeply personal.

I am 21 years old, and I have managed to survive the most difficult and challenging year of my relatively young life. I am ending this year with a very different mindset than the one with which I began it, and for that I am sincerely grateful.
I have high hopes for the next 12 months and feel nothing but excitement for what they may hold in store for me.

The celebrating begins tonight for me actually, a big family dinner, and then another one tomorrow night, on the 31'st...and then I will go into town after midnight with a friend to meet up with some more people and continue the celebrations.

Yup. Those are my plans.

I am including a clip from 'When Harry Met Sally,' one of my all time favourite rom-coms.
Why is this relevant? Because the end of the movie, the romantic climax, takes place on New Years, and well if you watch it you'll see. It is pretty cute.

Happy New Years everyone!

A Christmas Song For You

This song is so evocative of Canada, and my home- plus I love Joni.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone!



The Old Town...and a Glimpse into my Bedroom

Den Gamle By (The Old Town)

I have been living in Denmark for nearly six months now, and during the course of this time I have heard time and time again to go to Den Gamle By (the Old Town). Well, I am pretty sure I feigned interest only to immediately push the whole thing to the darkest regions of my mind. I suppose I thought it sounded slightly dull and tedious, and exactly like one of those culturally enlightening experiences you do simply to be able to check it off your list. To be able to flippantly answer when asked, 'Oh yes. I saw it. It was interesting...' etc.

Well, as these pictures bear witness, I finally made it to Den Gamle By and what is more shocking, I genuinely enjoyed it. I went with my Danish family last Sunday and the place was buzzing. You could barely move there were so many people there to see what a traditional Danish Christmas in the 18'th and 19'th century would have looked like.

What is remarkable about this place is that none of it has been replicated. Every single building, stone, and stick of furniture is authentic and has been transported from all over Denmark to recreate life in 'the Old Country.'

Hot Coals. It was bitterly cold while we were there and boy was I happy for this sight.

Oh yes- I thought this was picture-worthy, because never in a million years would
a public place in the US or Canada allow hot coals be left unattended for people's enjoyment.
Can you imagine the potential law suits?

It was EXTREMELY cold while we were there and you can see a think layer of ice on the canal.

A snapshot of a snapshot of Denmark in the 1930's.

The market, and a very patient horse pulling his load through the crowd.

Little I. and Julemæn.
As you can see she is not at all shy.
She wandered off and when I turned around she was deep in conversation with Santa Clause
and received little cookies from him for being such a good girl.

A garden used to grow herbs for the 'Apotheka' (the pharmacy)

This is NOT a part of the Old Town, but what you are viewing is in fact the
artwork that decorates one of the walls of my bedroom. I found these free cards at a
little cafe and decided that they would add some colour to my bare walls.

I added the flags for Christmas, but the little bird remains perched in my
window on a permanent basis.

My bedroom and the lighting fixture that I just dusted after finding
a tall enough chair to stand on.

I wasn't going to include this picture, buuuttt I decided, meh...why not?
Anybody that know me knows I am generally quite neat, with the major exception of my bedroom, and living here
has done nothing to change that.
This is the chair and the desk and the laptop that I spend...probably too much time on.

That little beige purse you can see sitting on the desk? It has been so abused
and overused it is falling a part, but it holds all of my loose change, cards, makeup, bobby pins,
receipts and has served me well.

And the empty plastic mug that you can see beside my laptop if you squint hard enough? That my friends is
the mug that I have become very attached to. It feels like an old friend
and I enjoy several cups of Earl Grey tea from its depths every day.

So there you have it.
It is all happening.
This is real life.

In the mean time, have a very, Merry Christmas to all- and to all a good-night.


P.S. Check back for a new post shortly after the Holidays (but before New Years).

A Theme for the Day

The second post today for the win!!

This is a song by a Seattle based band, Fleet Foxes, that just fits the weather, the season, and the mood of the day. I hope you enjoy it- myself and six and a half million other people certainly have.

A Decision and a Story

Since my last post on Sunday of last week, I have been wrestling with the question of candour and openness on the internet.

Well, more specifically, exactly how much of my daily mundane routines, should I hang out to dry for public viewing? Should I just write in 'stream of conscious,' devoid of grammatical structure? My uncensored thoughts and emotions vomited out onto a blank page for your casual viewing? Or would you be more interested in a list-like, narrated news bulletin?

I can tell you what you will not be seeing, and that is the latter.

Sorry. That is far too compartmentalised and boring to me and I will doubtlessly grow very, very tired or writing that way very, very quickly. Not to mention how tiresome it would be to you, feeling the pressure of being forced (that is right family, forced, unless of course you are lucky enough not to be related to me so you are no longer obligated to waste your precious minutes here) to read these lengthy tomes.

And so, I have tonight made a very serious decision, no longer am I playing the field. The field stinks. Both economically and socially (name that movie).
Instead, I will attempt to amuse you with anecdotes and trivial tales of my life here, and occasionally (and for your sakes hopefully not too often) sermonise to you on the things that I have discovered whilst living in my little nook of the world.

I am glad that has been cleared up. Shall we proceed?

On December 13'th I was invited, along with the other parents and care-givers, to attend a celebration of Santa Lucia at the local kindergarten.

I had no idea what that meant, or what this day is all about, so I quickly looked it up on Wikipedia before running out the door to be there promptly at 3 pm.

Apparently it is originally a Catholic religious holiday to honour Saint Lucy, a woman whose eyes were gouged out for her faith. Consequently, she is also the patron saint of blind people.
In Scandinavia, it is traditional for children to dress in white, flowing robes, and carry candles and sing a song for Lucia every December 13. Usually, one girl is chosen to represent Lucia and is given a wreath with four lit candles, to wear on her head.

I was ready and waiting with my camera to capture this spectacle, only to be told that there were no pictures aloud as it may distract some of the littlest ones who should stay concentrated on not lighting the child in front of them on fire with a wayward candle.

I apologise for the blurry, grainy quality. I felt that I was pressing
my luck taking not one, but two pictures.

It was an adorable afternoon, and I did manage to sneak a picture on my cellphone just for this purpose.
After the processional was over, the kindergarten had prepared homemade appleskiver and gløgg for us to partake in. And then shortly after, the Julemæn himself (Santa Clause) made a surprise visit much to the children's delight!

As for the rest of my week, it was fairly low key and uneventful.

Yesterday I went to a dinner hosted by my Spanish friends to say goodbye to the people leaving to go back home to Spain for the holidays.
They made traditional Catalan food for around 30 people, consisting of bread and grated tomato sauce, and tortillas, which are essentially egg and potato omelets.
We then all packed ourselves into a bus headed towards downtown Aarhus, and spent the evening at a ping pong bar and a disco.

I discovered something last night- that certain styles of glasses can be very polarising.

For instance, because it was drizzling and my hair was a wet, curly mess I decided to abandon the whole- sleek, chic, put together thing in favour of a more grungy, messy urban look. So I pulled out my new 10 kroner glasses from H&M and promptly forgot I was wearing them, until...

I must have been approached by no less then 10 strangers telling me they liked my glasses and were they real, and where did I buy them?
On the other hand, I was also told by certain people I looked much, much prettier without them. But little comments like that did not dissuade me, so I kept them on.

At the end of the evening, while waiting for the bus a homeless man ambled up towards me and proceeded in a raspy, smokers voice to mumble something in Danish. I explained to him I do not speak enough Danish to understand him, and could he possibly repeat that in English? And so he did.
What did he have to say?
He liked my glasses.

The end.

A Quiet Sunday Evening...



My new view from my bedroom window, after all of the trees were removed last month.

It is as the title suggests, a quiet Sunday evening as I sit at my laptop and type up a new little post to share with you.
Just to state the obvious, I have changed my blogs look yet again, and I hope it is slightly easier on the eyes than before.

 I spent the day as a spectator at a 10 km run in Aarhus, cheering on all of the brave souls out in the bitter cold, running at 'marathon speed.' This kind of event provides great inspiration, and keeps my hopes alive that- with any luck, I will be able to join them soon.

After that I went with my Danish family to see an old wheat mill that has been converted into a Christmas market and restaurant. I knew absolutely nothing about the process of milling wheat, and so I was rather surprised to see that the mill is situated on a river, so that the wheel can be powered by water.
The market was adorable and there was an abundance of homemade jam, candy, Christmas decorations, honey, and flour from the mill. Bing Crosby serenaded everybody throughout our tour of the mill (via the sound system, not a posthumous performance) and it was an all together delightful afternoon.

This post is not going to be especially profound, or particularly long, but I simply wanted to wish everybody a pleasant Sunday, and a happy third Sunday in Advent.
I also want to remind you that I have two new posts from the past couple of days, so do not stop after this one- chances are, you have some catching up to do! Check back later in the week for more updates.

Namaste.

A Winter Album



A view from behind the house. This is the path I take with the children in the mornings to Kindergarten.
There was no pond here until about a month ago, when the small forest that was previously here was disposed of by the 'Kommune,' revealing a small pond. The tracks that you can see here are from the stroller.

 

-The next series of pictures were taken yesterday morning (Saturday, December 10) at approx 9 am.

I was running my little 4.5 km route, and decided to bring along my cell phone to capture

the first snowfall of the season!

 

My trusty Asics, and a very slick sidewalk.

My usual route.

Walking alone here, at night, in the fog..gives me the heeby-jeebies. I usually sprint through here
and hold my breath nothing is lurking in the shadows.

  -Copenhagen-

I went on a small Christmas holiday to meet my cousin and her husband last week.

Copenhagen is very festive this time of the year and the city is beautifully lit up at night!

This picture was taken very close to the central train station and at the beginning of 'Strøget,' the main walking street with some of the best shops in the city.

Hans Christian Andersen guarding Tivoli.

One of the main canals running through the city. This picture captures quintessential Copenhagen.

Inside Tivoli, one of the many Christmas stalls.

Gløgg.
It warms you from the inside out.

The main street in Tivoli- beautifully decorated.

A new post and a long overdue update...

A meadow and a 'stately manor' in Roskilde- this picture was taken in July.

Not a new post in two months.

Woops.

Well, actually I have a perfectly reasonable explanation. It goes like this.

One day, about a month and three weeks ago, I spent an entire afternoon writing my best blog post yet. Being new to the blogosphere, I usually spend half of my time ‘winging it’ and the other half figuring out all of the modes and applications that are so foreign to me.

Dangling my feet in Copenhagen (there on a
short day visit), soaking in the
waning October sun.

I poured myself into this post! I even found accompanying pictures on the internet for added visual appeal, and the finished product was so beautiful, it would have made you cry with its sheer brilliance. But just as I sat back to admire my creation, my computer froze and I subsequently lost the entire thing. So feeling disheartened and disillusioned with technology, I swore I was through, through (!) wasting my precious time on this thankless venture.

Well, whatever, I am over it- and consequently back and raring to go. Nothing can stop me now. But nevertheless, I am coming to you humbly with my hat in hand, begging forgiveness for my unexplained disappearance (or excessive laziness) - I promise to make it up to you.

Copenhagen later that same, October day

 In the meantime I have much to fill you in on.

In the past two months I have been to Copenhagen twice, Aabenra once, Fredericia once, Aarhus almost every day for shopping and sometimes for Danish classes…well, that is not totally accurate, I do not attend nearly as often as I should be. So long as I am being open and honest with you, I have gone to both my (3 hour long) classes in the same week once… and I didn’t go at all last week, or the week before. Obviously I am a star pupil.

I have made friends with a whole group of Spanish university students, and met other students from the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Finland, France, Italy, the UK, the USA, and lastly, ‘our home and native land.’ Yep, two other Canadian girls live in Aarhus, one from Kelowna and the other from Vancouver Island.

In other news, I have celebrated Thanksgiving and my birthday here.

I refused to let Thanksgiving pass me by as just another day, so I hopped on the bus and visited three different grocery stores before finding a large, misshapen, slightly battered pumpkin, which I paid 10 kroners for (approx. 2 dollars). As you can well imagine, I got more than one curious glance on the bus as I sat with my prized possession squarely on my lap for the ride home.

I then carved, gutted and roasted my lovely pumpkin, burnt the seeds (unintentionally) and made a big batch of pumpkin soup for the family to enjoy. Amen.

My 'Birthday Table' (taken Nov. 9)

As for my Birthday, well I am not going to lie; I was not looking forward to this particular occasion. Mostly because now I am tipping the scale closer to being 40 than to being born…and seriously, I have found two fine creases under my eyes, and four new white hairs. However, I loovvvee the presents and attention that November 9 usually affords me, and this year was no different than any other thanks to my wonderful families on both sides of the Atlantic (or Pacific…take your pick). I had a lovely day where I was unnecessarily spoilt and then spoiled some more, which made me a very happy 21 year-old. I even forgot about the white hairs and the creases for a short while.

As this post is starting to get long winded (actually the real reason is because my leg has fallen asleep and I should get the circulation going again, don’t you just hate ‘pins and needles’? I know I do) I am going to write to you about Copenhagen and ‘Christmas in Denmark’ in my next post.

So keep your breath baited and your spirits high because… my next post is imminent.**


A view from my bedroom window

**For real- for real. This is not a joke. I actually mean it this time.

Wowzers...two posts in two days for the win! I am starting to like this new blogging venture. There is not much to report other than it is a glorious October day here in the land of Danes.
I went for an afternoon run and delighted in the sublime shades of burnt orange and red-hued leaves, and that mild hint of bonfire smoke tingeing the breeze that is so distinctly autumn.

Tomorrow I am driving at 5:30 AM with Rasmus to Copenhagen! It will be my second time there but I am really looking forward to it. My goal is not to stall the car...even once during the 3.5 hour drive there. I have done it once; however, I don't think it counts because I also ran a red light...so that negates the triumph of driving stall-less. Anyways, Copenhagen is a beautiful city and very unique to itself. I will take pictures (with my Cannon Dad, I promise) so come back here to see them!!

Oh yes, this is a song that fits into my soundtrack for the day. I like it alot, alot. Brucey is boss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KngiJUNdsu0

That's it for today folks. Over and out.

I can hardly believe that it has been nearly three months since I apprehensively left my home, to embark on an adventure as an au pair in Denmark. I have debated with myself whether or not to keep up this blog, and judging by the fact my last post was eons ago....you can see which side of the argument won. However, I have decided to start it back up again, and I have much to fill you in on, dear reader.

To begin with, I live in Aarhus, Denmak. The second largest city in Denmark. I live in an area known as Viby, and it takes me about 25 minutes to cycle into Aarhus center, but that is likely because I am slow and not as fast as these seasoned Danes. I should probably tell you that I have discovered the bus, it is very quick and I can arrive without looking disheveled and windswept.

I am living with a young family where both parents are engineers, and they are fun-loving and health and fitness oriented...so I have not found it difficult to adjust to their lifestyle and to fit into their home. They have two young children, the little boy is 1, and the girl is almost 3 years old. They are both adorable, mischeief makers and I have learned a great deal from spending time with them. Basically, I cannow change their diapers without gagging, I can entertain and amuse them in long car rides, and I have learned to communicate to them speaking 'Dang-lish' (a combination of the few Danish words I know, and common English phrases that they are beginning to understand, for example, 'come here') and I have learned to smile through temper tantrums and not lose my cool (or sit down on the floor and start wailing alongside them).
It has been a marvelous adventure so far, but as I am soon to embark on my fourth month here, AND celebrate both my birthday and Christmas in this distant land, I have begun to reflect on some of the fun things I have done here and also what I have learned along the way.

Barabrandstein: a small, lovely lake that is nearby. 

A Cathedral in Aarhus

 To begin with I thought I had absolutely no sense of direction. I was wrong. I do, it is just usually wrong. In fact the first night I was here I decided to go on an evening run, to work the cramps out of my legs from sitting on a plane for 9 hours. I went out carefully remembering when I crossed a street or turned left or right...but despite my best efforts within half an hour i was sitting on a sidewalk, trying my best not to burst into hyserical sobs, with no idea how to find my way back home. After another 15 minutes of attempting to find my way from whence I had come, I began to get desperate. I thought, 'Should I pull over a passing car?'  But I was feeling a bit shy and embarrassed given that I had only been in Denmark for a matter of hours and was already lost.
But as luck would have it, out of nowhere (literally 5 feet in front of me) a police car pulled out of a driveway. I dashed towards it and tapped on the window as politely as I could. The officer rolled it down and I tried to explain my situation to him. He looked perplexed but told me to get into the backseat and then proceeded to drive me home- and naturally I was about two bocks away from my destination. I got him to drop me off a ways up the street so that my new family would not see their new au pair being escorted home in the backseat of a police cruiser.
Since then I have become much better at finding my way around, in fact, I hestitate to state this in case I jinx myself, but I have become almost good at navigating! It is because this city is built in a grid-like pattern, so once you get a sense of this, and you figure out which direction you have to go...then voila, you are there before you know it!

 At first I was consumed with noticing all of the differences between Canada and Denmark, but now I find myself attempting to blend in as much as possible and speaking what little Danish I know (as quietly as possible albeit so that people do not notice my pronounciation) so that whoever I am speaking to does not know that I am a foreigner. I find that I get tired of feeling like an oddity, like I just don't quite fit in here, no matter how hard I try, because I am not Danish. Don't get me wrong, I am very proud of hailing from Canada, it is just that it gets wearisome constantly being a stranger and it feels nice sometimes just to blend in with my surroundings.
I will soon be staring Danish lessons at the language school in Aarhus and I am so excited to broaden my social network and learn a new language!
There was definately a learning curve that I have had to work through these past few months. Particularly learning the mechanisms of a family and their household and figuring out where I fit into all of this!
I was nervous at first about looking after the children, but so far that is one of the things that I have enjoyed the most about my new job. I have done some travelling with the family, and this has really helped me to bond with them and become like an older sister in many regards. I have gone to their summerhouse in Fjellerup (north of Jutland), to Viborg, and most recently we all drove to Berlin where we rented an apartment and stayed for a week. I will do a seperate post about Berlin though.

The Viking festival at Mosgård

 Needless to say that this has been a very busy 3 months for me, but I am really looking forward to what the futrue has in store for me. Now that I feel that I have made it through this time, and I have essentially learned the ropes- my new challenge for the next 3 months, will be to focus on establishing some connections with people here, and working on my own health and fitness. I have heard that Danish winters are long, dark and dismal, so I will need distractions...and this blog will be one of them! So I hope you check back here occasionally as I am planning on posting more frequently from now on!

A Picture or Two

A lovely summer day in Qualicum Bay



At the Olympics with my Bestie (I am on the right)