oslo is for lovers

Our mini cruise to Oslo was awesome, absolutely perfect aside from Christian’s steak on the first night, haha.  But no, we had the perfect weather (well what you could expect for fall in Scandinavia!) and seamless travel.

As part of the ‘honeymoon’ splurge I got us a room in the ‘Commodore’ class which meant our room had a private balcony and we had access to a lounge with an endless flow of snacks and booze (honeymoon is bliss, yes?).  We spent more time in the room on the way home than the way out (hello cruise boats are just so exciting) but I’m glad we splurged!

The ‘cruise’ is really a ferry, marketed well.  So it meant that we only took 7 hours in Oslo in the end.  We could have of course booked a night in Oslo but between me being in school on Saturdays and my time off not being paid yet (you buy your time into 6 weeks paid vacation here!) I think the back and forth was just right.

It was just so great to spend some one-on-one time with hubby away from the stress of real life.  We wined and dined and took a relaxed tour around Oslo on our bikes.  Of course that meant we didn’t see nearly all Oslo had to offer but that means we can take the trip again with friends and family when they come visit!

I didn’t fall off my bike once, you’ll be happy (and relieved) to know.  The streets were quiet as it was a Sunday so that probably helped quite a bit.

We got off the boat right near the Opera & Ballet House so we took that as our first destination.  You can literally walk all over it – very cool concept.  It looks like a ski slope straight into the harbor.  Very cool stuff – and it allowed for some fun with the camera!

After there we biked through the center of town to the Royal Palace.  I think it’s a little plain looking but their gaurds entertained me.  It was here we were approached by a very erhm… drunk and/or drugged out Norwegian guy going on about the soccer match the night before as he juggled 5 children’s soccer trophies and a broom stick.  He was actually quite hilarious to talk to – but he was definitely on his way home from an epic night I would guess.

From there we biked to Vigeland Park – this giant park holds 200+ sculptures/statues made by Vigeland.  The park was actually designed by him as well.  I’m not sure why this guy gut a whole park in Oslo dedicated to him and his art but I suppose it is impressive.  He made each sculpture all on his own without any help – that has to be a lot of work in the end!

We biked back into town and stopped at the town square area – right near the Akers Brygge harbor area.  The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded here.

In Akers Brygge we got lunch at TGIFridays, pffft. I have no shame.  It was outside and as cute as any other café for the same outrageous prices but they had buffalo wings.  And I knew I could count on Fridays to use proper buffalo sauce (how I miss it!).  They did not disappoint.  It’s the little things when it comes to me… ;)

After lunch we biked over to Akerhus Fortress across the harbor.  It was really beautiful with all the foliage in full fall form and some leaves on the ground.  With the sun angles it made for some fun pictures!

From here we biked around some more and then just relaxed by the Opera House again before going back to the boat.  Once back on the boat we took some time out on our deck to enjoy the view as we left and the fjords in late afternoon sun into sunset.  So pretty!

Some more cruise ship activities and a good night sleep and we woke up right next to Helsingør (town where Christian and I met) on the way back into Copenhagen.

It was such a perfect little trip.  Albeit expensive, it was worth every penny!  I highly recommend and definitely want to do it again sometime!

So where should the Als travel next?  I am thinking maybe either Vienna for a cute holiday feel or Eastern Europe for cheap Christmas shopping in early December?  We shall see…

})i({

culture shock

I never really considered that I would experience culture shock in Denmark.  I was convinced that I had been here enough times and knew and loved my Danish family so much that it'd be unlikely I'd experience culture shock or suddenly break down in hysterics wanting to go home.  I am invincible Jillian, right?

Christian's uniform

Well, 3 major breakdowns later I shall finally raise above my pride to let you all know that living here and moving here has not gone without bumps in the road.  

Don't fret, I am totally fine.  I've just had maybe 3 times where I just cried for hours.  Yesterday a series of frustrations culminated in me falling off my bike and cutting open my knee.  I started to sniffle and all of the sudden I was crying and couldn't stop for an hour!

I think that my boss explained it pretty well, it's as though you're on auto-pilot but you can't be and you keep hitting walls when you try.

For instance, I have this bank card that has been the bane of my existence here. Firstly, it's ugly as hell.  Secondly, it's not what normal Danes have.  It's for people that can't handle their finances.  But my bank said I didn't have a steady enough income to have what the rest of society uses. 

told you, it's ridiculously ugly (and creepy)

Yesterday I was at the post office to send something and when I went to pay the beast of a postal worker crossed her hands in an big X and said "NEJ" - "NO!".  Uhm ok beast.  Clearly seeing she had a machine that took swipes (not just a chip) I asked if she could take my American credit card - she said "No, it must be from Denmark." I said, well the first card I gave you is from Denmark.  She says "Yes but this is Visa electron, it is for small people." Uhm, &$^# you.  I asked to speak with a manager, she said NEJ.  $*%*&($# beast.  

I went to the ATM to take out cash, the ATM was only open until 3:00 PM (?!?!?!?! Denmark, seriously???).  By then I was already late for a meeting with my integration contract lady.  Can't skip those and I don't recommend being late, either.

In the end the package got mailed 2 mins before the post office closed.  I was livid.  Then I fell off my bike. Then I cried, but not from the gash in my knee.  And then I couldn't stop crying. HAHA.

Seems like such a silly situation but it's just been a series of situations like this over the past few months - including the time the taxi driver almost killed us both and didn't even ask if I was OK or step out of the car to help me with my luggage in the torrential rain.

BUT, there are just as many happy situations.  And I absolutely love living with Christian and coming home to him (nearly) every day now.  Work is getting busy and I feel some sense of control again. So I am GOOD.  Just now finally admitting it's not a friggen fairytale every day. ;)

That said, we're headed to Oslo next weekend for a mini-cruise - our mini honeymoon from this year's wedding, haha.  I'm super excited to wake up and look at FJORDS. :P

Woop woop. 

})i({

being home alone leads to...

Well after a week alone, hubby came back.  Thank god.  I was missing him lots!  Here’s a shot of him at lunch on Saturday .  It’s from my Hipstamatic iPhone app which takes old looking photos, love it:

Despite being alone I think the week went pretty fast. I had lots of ‘dinner dates’ and such to keep me busy.

Tuesday I had a meeting in the city about a job with my parent company.  She expressed to me several times that it is not a matter of ‘if’ I have the job but a matter of when.  Hopefully at the end of this coming week I’ll know more. 

After the meeting I met up with Jeanette for some shopping in the city and then we headed to her apartment to rip down some old wallpaper and brainstorm about… a PROPER DANISH WEDDING.

Ah, I said it!  I agreed to this over a bottle of wine at Christian’s mom’s house on Monday night.  The end of this summer, we’re still working some church logistics as the first priority.  I still want my princess church!

It should be fun and it allows us to celebrate with all of our family and our awesome Danish friends. :D I’m sure you’ll hear more but it’s going to be another bohemian all hands on deck kind of wedding. Love it!  Steph… are you up for round two? JK you’ll be happy to know they don’t traditionally do MOHs and bridesmaids and such.  Just a few flower girls.

Speaking of weddings. Steffen and Haley stopped by to see me on Thursday and are newly engaged thanks to a little help of a ring delivery to my desk at work in the US! Their NYC trip was cancelled with the ash cloud business so we've very happy to help and be a part of their special story! Congrats!

This weekend we spent a lot of QT with the family.  Christian’s older brother was in town with the lovely Emma.  She and I have figured out how to communicate somehow… for the most part.  We play hide and seek well.  Today we rode bikes together.

Christian had to fix a number of things on Maggie.  Suddenly I know why it was sooo hard to ride her in the beginning.  Okay so I had two flat tires.  Then Christian sees that my front brake is always touching the wheel and kind of permanently on a bit… pfft.  All fixed up. She rides like a dream!

In other news.  I have had my 2^nd ever lesson on stick shift today.  It went fine in the school yard just going in circles and starting and stopping.  Christian even taught me the emergency brake trick when starting on a hill which I semi-got.

After the school yard I drove down this long windy country road which was fine except when I had to come to a stop and make a turn. I stalled in the middle of the road and oncoming traffic came at me in both directions…  they swerved in different directions around us as I cried and refused to go further with the lesson.  HAHA. Almost dying was enough for one day!

Back to ‘the grind’ tomorrow – aka working from home.  Chr is still around somehow, which is great for the ever growing ‘honey-do’ list. :)

Day one of my new gym tomorrow!  Eeekk.

})i({

it's me against the bee's

I've been spending the past 4-5 days enjoying the awesome weather... working outside, going for runs, reading outside, whatever I can!  Check out what the sun looks like at 8pm:

This was taken from the 'royal forest' where I run.  It's an awesome view and I get there at the perfect point in my run when I feel comfortable in my stride, not out of breath or wanting to stop. :)

So... I'm really trying to be a good Danish housewife. You know... opening up all the windows and doors during the day.  But apparently Danes don't believe in screens... at least I don't recall seeing any over the years.  So in comes all of the wildlife... ok so it isn't exactly Snow White with the forest animals running in but it might as well be.  

Yesterday I spent the better half of a morning locked in the bedroom because of a wasp the size of Texas felt the need to stay and play in my house.   Literally it was as long and as fat as my pinky finger.  If it were to sting me I am pretty sure I would have been paralyzed on one half of my body.  I finally got rid of it (he just flew out at some point) and I promptly shut the doors and windows.

Day two. I didn't learn my lesson.  Windows open. Wasp Texas' nephew decided to fly in for the afternoon.  He is small enough to be swatted but he's between the window and the blinds so I can kill it or shoe it out.  Well... really the only problem is that I'm still scared to death of it, regardless of his size. 

I took my first bike ride into town today.  I didn't kill myself or anyone else you'll be glad to know.  I definitely need to adjust the bike some but so far so good.  I bet I looked really cute with flower basket full of toilet paper. :P

I still haven't cleaned the living room yet where we detonated the bomb of my belongings.  All of my clothes are unpacked... it's just the real odds and ends left.  The bedroom is my first project really.  I know Kate will like to see updates so I’ll keep them coming. ;)  Yesterday I put together this little diddy from Ikea to put things like towels and sheets in/on:

Slowly but surely making it 'home' here.  Oh, I didn't mention.  Christian left for Norway at the crack of dawn yesterday so I've been home alone the past two days and will most likely continue to be home alone for the rest of the month.  Someone has to make the money around here, I suppose.

I'm headed to one of Christian's uncle's for dinner tonight with his family.  His wife is into fitness and happens to live in this rural town of Fredensborg (where we live) so I intend to see if she's up for being my running/gym buddy.  She's probably way more fit than me and a faster runner but so is 90% of the world population anyway.  

I reckon I just need to take these leaps and put myself outside of my comfort zone to really get on with this immersion thing.  Although... with the god damn bees and wasps invading the house I don't really know that I have any comfort zone whatsoever here. ;)

})i({

LA part duex part 2

Well the 2nd half of my trip to LA was a whirlwind in some ways. In other ways there was a lot of sleeping involved? Haha.

The hike in Runyon Canyon was in the heart of the Hollywood Hills but unfortunately we didn't see any celebs hiking/walking/running any of the trails.  We discovered a lot about nature, mostly that Gail hates it (even more than I do if that's possible). She was even upset about the BUTTERFLIES. Oh man haha what a riot. 

Some drunk Slovakian man told us to find some aloe plants on the trail for Gail's very obvious red legs. This turned into Gail asking me if each plant we passed was aloe. No... no... kind of looks like it but no.... Until we arrived at the GIANT aloe plants that were the size of the 3 of us put together. Here is when Gail demands Libby and I to try and wrestle a stem off to get to the aloey bottom part. Not sure if I'm up for the humility of these pictures.

Next on our adventure was to navigate to Lauren Conrad's house. LC lives in the Holltywood Flats which is funny considering the name of her show is The Hills.

We then headed to Robertson Blvd and grabbed a drink at what is apparently LA's premier gay and lesbian club/bar, The Abbey. Not sure why the shot boys in speedos didn't give us the hint right away but that's what internet phones are for, right? ;) Anyway there was a promotion going on and here at 2pm was a live dj pumping the beats. Right up my alley... gay or not.

This is where we must have consumed sleeping rufies because we got back to Libby's in the late afternoon to relax and we all fell asleep watching Empire Records. We woke up and ate homemade guac and then fell back asleep. I appreciated it though because my lack of teeth/whole mouth was in serious pain for all of Saturday. Argh.

All this sleep had the three of us up and at them at 7am Sunday morning. Gail knew about a weekly flea market on Melrose that has vintage designer labels as well as handmade stuff. We got brunch (we are freaks about breakfast in case you didn't already gather) on Melrose and then hit up the market.

I got a set of homemade coasters for my new apartment. It's a shame I have no table to put them on. My coasters and I will be very happy on the floor, don't worry. ;) Gail got some rockstar jewelry and we headed back to Libby's for beach preparation.

Libs had to work at the gym (the one I told you she owns) and because Gail and I are are not able to drive stick (I mean I can get to 3rd gear but like whatever) we borrowed bikes!

Biking was a joyful yet painful experience. On our way to Venice Beach I crashed into a pole on the sidewalk and still can't get rid of the bruise. Oh well. Hit the beach for a few hours while Gail covered her body in towels to protect her sun burn.

We biked from Venice Beach up to Santa Monica Pier and back which was super fun when I wasn't dodging small children and power bikers. And I suppose there was the point when the chain completely fell off. Funny that a damsel in distress approach resolved this quickly. Thank you Mr. Man. ;)

We got back and waited for Libby before a big night out in Venice & Santa Monica. Well this night out is best described as a "hot mess." I can let some pictures speak for themselves as unfortunately the events of this night violate the parental advisory of my blog.  I will let you know I seriously contemplated sleeping on the bathroom floor...

LA night out

Anyway our last day in LA was spent mostly paying for the night before but it was worth it. How often does one really get to party like a rockstar with Libby?! ;)

So concludes the LA trip recap. I feel so lame for all this time going by but I really wanted to wait for Gail's pictures. It's been hectic ever since.

To a more active June! :)

})i({