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!