One More Thing Found!!!

Amanda asked on my previous post about Tai Chi here, so here is my answer!

As of this morning, it looks like I have a brand new Tai Chi Instructor and I have my first lesson next Tuesday morning. The guy seems really nice and very well qualified and most importantly got his approval from Chris. (My Tai Chi Sifu in Dallas) I had originally planned on finding an actual class but it proved challenging for a few reasons, the timing of the classes were never good for me, the location was never good, the instructor didn't seem to fit what I was looking for and finally most if not all the classes are taught in Danish. Chris told me I would be fine with that as his instructor teaches in Chinese but he still gets lots out of the classes. Ok, so made me feel better, but after I started emailing this guy, we found out our Danish classes would conflict with the Tai Chi class I found. No good. Ok, so I opted for private lessons. In Dallas I had 1 private lesson every week with Chris and/or Fayne and I felt that's where I got the majority of the best information from because it was tailored to meet my needs as oppose to a general lesson. Speaking of Tai Chi private lessons here is something of interest!

I wrote a testimonial that made it onto Chris and Faynes website!!! After reading this doesn't it make you just want to get to Dallas and sign up right now?? :o)
Go on.. click it, read it!!!

http://www.simplyaware.com/content/view/25/118/

Danish Classes

This weekend, we bought a desk! Michael and Klaus will pick it up tomorrow about lunch time and bring it home. I am so excited because it means our pile of stuff, will finally have a home and we are that much closer to getting everything we need to finally live here! It seems like the entire month of January has been spent looking for things we need for this place. Moving... is NOT cheap. We have had some snow on and off but it is all melted now cuz we got some rain. Tomorrow is a big day for us, we start Danish classes. We are excited to start but the classes couldn't be more inconvenient. They are Tuesday and Thursdays from 6:50 pm - 9:15. Who on earth starts class at 6:50..... !!! 5:45 ok, cool... 7:00 cool, 7:15 cool. but 6:50? stupid. The classes are in a town called Hellerup. We looked at a flat there on our house hunting trip. It will take us about 20 minutes to get there between the walk from our place to the station, the train ride to the town and then the bus ride to the place. We probably wont be getting home till about 10:00pm I am guessing. Ok, so really the classes aren't THAT bad, but when your top priority in life is getting to the gym, things like these become HUGE inconveniences. So Starting tomorrow we have to get up a little earlier, hit the gym before Michael goes to work. Its going to be a LOOONG day. I know, most would say we are crazy and we don't really need to go lift weights that much, but its become almost an addiction for us. (I can think of many many worse addictions then the gym though) and while I know it irks most of our friends that we are always there, it makes us feel good and have a sense of dedication to something. Ok, wow, didn't mean to go off on that...

here are some pictures from Sunday:

Me on our Balcony.

Michael on the church grounds in Lyngby. The yellow building is the Mill. Thats right, we live in a town that has a mill. You can even go there and buy fresh stuff like Muesli!!

Me in the Church Grounds

Michael ready for dinner

Is That One of Those Euro Texas Shirts?

The day we got our furniture, our second order of business after buying lamps, was finding a gym. I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone, and if it does, clearly you don't know enough about us and need to read this blog more often!!!!!

We had two gyms in mind, but decided on one called, "First Fitness". It is owned and run by a couple British guys who might I add are actually very very nice and incredibly friendly. When we first went to talk to them about their plans and look at the place, one of the owners said flat out, with a very confident face "This is the best gym in all of Denmark" we couldn't help but immediately be drawn to his British accent, confidence and humor as well, he made us laugh several times. The gym itself seems to be great. The equipment is in excellent condition, and it is always very clean. The locker rooms are some of the nicest I have seen in a gym. The downfall is that they don't have the quantity of equipment we are used to and the weights don't go as high as Michael usually uses. We decided that was ok though. It will be a good reason to be a little easier on Michaels joints for a year or so depending if when the year is over, we decide to renew at the same gym.

Anyways, Tuesday night, I was talking to the owner to give him our address for his records and he introduced us to a guy who was also at the desk. He said, here is a fellow American. We had seen him previously in the gym and were pretty sure he was American when we heard him speak. I started chatting with him as I waited for Michael to finish changing. Naturally he asked where we were from, I said, Texas. He was from Oklahoma City. (small world huh Amanda?) He mentioned that he had seen Michael wearing a shirt with the state of Texas on it the other day and wasn't sure if we were FROM Texas or if it was just one of those "Euro Texas" shirts. It made us laugh and laugh because we knew exactly what he was talking about. When we where here last time TONS of shops sold stuff with American flags on them. I suppose the flag was trendy here then? I'm not sure, but we use to call them "Euro American" shirts. He is working for a company here and has been here about 3 months. He seems to be probably about..24-25ish. Apparently he came to Denmark with his company mostly for the opportunity to live abroad and told us he wasn't able to go abroad during college because he had a girlfriend the whole time. later Michael told me he really wanted to say, "I don't know what thats like" because of the tiny fact that he would have been in some DEEP TROUBLE had he not gone abroad and taken me with him. He seems like a really nice guy and someone can get along with. So perhaps we already have a gym friend.

One final thing, my comment section on my previous post is actually more entertaining then the post itself! My loyal readers are now making me laugh.. thanks guys :o)

I'm a Negrete Again!

We FINALLY got our yellow registration cards in the mail yesterday. We had a little delay because of the holidays but it still took longer then it should have to get us our cards, without them, we are basically worthless here... or so it seems :) Anyways, they haven't processed our Marriage License yet so I am back to being Nichole Negrete. I have even had to sign Nichole Negrete a few times already. Don't know when they will get my name fixed in the system.. if ever, but I guess here, I am Nichole Negrete. When I was trying to come up with a name for this post Michael was sitting next to me and I said, how about "I'm single again" He couldn't stop laughing and said, "How about...not"

I got a cell phone yesterday...FINALLY! I couldn't get one till I got that little yellow card. That will make life a little easier. I have been using one of our OLD phones from 2002 from last time we were here with a prepaid card in it, just so Michael and I could touch base if needed. We were glad we held onto those phones. anyways, My new phone... I LOVE it.. it is soooo skinny! It is even thinner then my little pink razor phone I had in Dallas. It isn't even available for purchase in the states yet so I feel all high tech. The phones here are actually much more advanced then the ones in the states. I'm not sure why though.

Tonight we are going to Klaus's sister and her boyfriends house with Klaus for dinner. Should be fun as the few times we have been with her, we have always gotten along with her. Her and Jens are our age and really really nice. A couple weeks ago we went to dinner at another old friends place. (Dorte and her family) She is one of the secretaries at DTU that helped make our life infinitely easier last time we were here. Her and her husband have two kiddos that are 11 and 15. It was sooo nice to go back to her house and spend some time with her family. In about two weeks we are going to Jorgen and Agnus Moltofts home for dinner with there children and their families. They were like our surrogate grandparents while we were here last time and again, without them, I'm not sure we would have survived here last time. They have two kids in their 30's and the entire family was SO great to us so we are REALLY looking forward to seeing them again too.

hmmm... yup, thats about it for today. It is 4:50pm and the sun is just now setting. Its nice to know the days are getting longer! I already have noticed I have more energy on a daily basis! yea!

The World is Right Again

IT SNOWED!!!

Finally, after a few months of snow storm after snow storm in Texas including in the desert of El Paso this Nordic country finally got some of the white stuff. Granted, apparently it is snowing in El Paso AGAIN today... Amarillo and Lubbock snow doesn't ever surprise me at all, but El Paso snow is rare.

I only left to hop across the street to a store to by some new fuses. Last night, "Dr. Michael" blew one of the fuses right after he asked me to come stand next to him in case I had to knock him away from the electricity when he plugged something in...He was pretty sure I wouldn't have to knock him over, but he wanted a backup in case.. or something. I'm not sure what he was thinking, and looking back on it, he isn't either. Thankfully, I didn't have to but he did blow a fuse.

Anyways, here's some Danish snow.. :)

Dirty Laundry.. and Pictures!

As you may recall, I had been doing our laundry while we were in the hotel in the sink and hanging it to dry. I could only do so much but that was ok, as I washed what we needed to get us through. Needless to say we had a decent amount of laundry to do when we moved into our flat. We have a front loading machine that is both a washer and a drier. Excited to be able to have all clean cloths, we almost immediately started doing laundry. Our first load, was to say the least, a mess. First it took forever, and second, it didn't drain. You know in all those movies or tv shows where they show a person who moved to a foreign land and somehow a fight breaks between them and a machine they don't understand? That was us, sitting in front of the washer wondering what on earth we were doing wrong. So, we called the landlord who came to look at it,who ended up having to call a repairman, and we had to wait another week to wash clothes. Thankfully the movers brought the rest of our clothes so we had some to sustain us through the week but i had horrible memories as I started sorting through the clothes to stick in bags and laundry baskets to wait for the washer to be fixed. Once upon a time, when we were about 20, we did our laundry probably every 2 weeks when the pile got so bad, it created a small mountain that we had to hike over to get to the bedroom. Michael would sit at the pile and throw cloths at me while calling a color while I caught them and put them in the correct pile, then we started a nonstop 2 day laundry marathon. I'm so glad we finally grew up, but sure makes for fun memories. LOL. I have been doing 3 loads a day (because thats how slow the washer/drier is thats all I can pump out) and finally, today, I am almost done. I have three loads left. One of red sweatshirts, one bedsheets and one of towels. WHOO HOO!!!

Ok, finally some pictures of what our place looks like so far... This weekend we are going to start hanging stuff on the walls.

We will start from the outside, This is our Balcony.
the closest door leads to the living room area and the far door leads to the bedroom

Taken from the bedroom door area

Standing at the door to the bedroom

Standing at the balcony door to the bedroomThe bathroom
bathroom

bathroom

Living Room Area - Neither of us can stand the ugly ugly curtain things. They are just decoration, not even real curtains. thats as far as they go, but the colors, just dont work for us. We are in the Market for new ones. We also are hoping to do that area in black and brown but for now, it is decked out with Texas Tech because we have so much red/black stuff. Since I typed this a couple hours ago, Michael has already taken down the ugly curtains! YEA!
Our lovely TV :)
View of Living Room Area from Dining Room Area
Dining Area
you can see the kitchen through the doorway. There is a sliding door there that you can shut off the kitchen.

Dining Area
But we call it "The Attic" because, well it reminds of us of an attic.

Kitchen

Kitchen

And the Sun Room.

THE END! I must also say I'm sorry to my mom and Sharon for telling them about 5 times today that I would have these pictures online in a few minutes, which turned out to be several hours! sorry :( ... :)

Life Without the Internet

Finally, I am back and connected to the world via Internet. It was 2 weeks and oddly and for the first time ever, I wasn't counting down the minutes till I got it back and never desperately wanted it. How peculiar. It wasn't that I was really that busy with other things, but, just didn't find myself caring much about it. I didn't even go across the street to the internet cafe. However, it is nice to have it back. Though I feel like I have a TON to say but don't even know where to start.. so I'll just write. :)

We have gotten lots done since we moved in 2 weeks ago! The movers came on January 2nd and it was kinda funny to see the same big container (that we nicknamed Rusty) outside our flat in Denmark after watching it be loaded up outside our place in Plano. The movers moved everything in, and unpacked everything all in just about 4 hours!!!I love that TI always pays the unpacking fee, it makes life so much easier for us. there were 5 guys and all really nice and did a great job. They actually weren't even suppose to start unpacking the boxes till the next day! So that was a nice surprise.

The "Danmark Mobile Transport" people left us a "Welcome to Denmark Move -In Box" and that was pretty cool to get.

We got all sorts of fun stuff for the flat and for our tummies. We even got a coloring book and crayons for the kiddos...that we don't have. ;) I thought it was pretty nice of them to stick that in their boxes for the families that do though, I can't imagine being a kid and having to move to another country just because your parents decided to.... that would be difficult I think. At least we both have a say in what we do... oops, I went off on a tangent, back to our lives:

Since our stuff arrived we have been busy making our flat, a home and I think we are doing a pretty good job so far! Our office area isn't set up yet, but we need to get a desk before that can happen and we have a few things that don't have a place yet, but we are getting there.

We quickly went and bought some new lights/lamps. We didn't bring any because of the whole different plug thing, but had forgotten most places, dont have built in lighting and since we moved in at one of the darkest times of the year, lamps were a must. we got some nice ones thats we are happy with.

We also got a brand new TV! Isn't it pretty?

We brought both of ours but not to use, more to have when we go back to the states. We FINALLY got a flat screen, we have both been wanting one for years now. It isn't enormous and also isn't tiny. Just the perfect size for our flat and our entertainment center. Cable is included in our rent we are paying but we weren't sure which package, when we plugged it in, we were happy to see we have the biggest cable package, so we have some cool stations. Granted there are only about 40 of them, but for here, I suppose thats a lot of stations, but nothing compared to the 300 stations back in the states. LOL. We have only had it a little over a week now and those first few days it was really hard to pull ourselves away from the tv (which is very unlike us because we don't typically watch much TV) because we have wanted just sit and watch our new toy :)

This place has already become more homelike then our apartment in Plano ever was. I didn't realize how after 18 days of being there, and finding out we were moving again, that neither of us cared one tiny bit about it,making it home or even keeping it organized. It hit us both that we really haven't felt like we have had a real home since August when we were still in our house in Allen.

Today... I'm going to take loads of pictures of this place and get them all up on here!!! I'm excited to show everyone our new place with OUR stuff in it!!!

The Vacation's Over

It is the big day... the day we check out of the hotel. Its been really fun and fancy feeling to be living in the hotel. It has had its pros and cons and we will miss it here and miss being here, but we will not miss not having a home. The movers arrive at our place at 8:30Am and we are hoping to be there 30-60 minutes ahead of them, so it will be an early morning for us, because we will have to have one last FABULOUS breakfast here at the hotel. So, I won't have endless internet access again until the 12th of January. I will still be able to post up here, by sending what needs to be posted with Michael to work ;) I will check my email from time to time at internet cafes and such, but not nonstop. If anyones needs anything in the next couple weeks, I would advise you to email Michael. So I guess, starting tomorrow, we start living life again and not just being on vacation.


We had a blast on New Years Eve. We got up late, went to the gym, took showers and headed towards Central Copenhagen about 2:00 to go find lunch. We ate at an excellent Italian Restaurant complete with probably the best Tiramisu either of us have ever eaten. YUM Then we took the long way home and wondered back to the hotel for a while and bummed around here. About 10:00 we headed back to the city center. We decided we didn't want to be anywhere near the town square when midnight came around after we saw the chaos of those particular fireworks being lit sideways by the drunk people, we thought it would best to be in the comforts of our hotel when midnight hit. When we left Denmark one of our best memories was that of New Years Eve and the shock we got when we saw how the Danes brought in the New Year. So, for now, I leave you with our New Years Eve Video that we made. Ok, it is more like a movie. It is long ( 14 minutes) so I wouldn't start it unless you have 14 extra minutes to spare!! All the fireworks after we leave the city are seen from our hotel room window. We are on the 18th floor.
ENJOY!!!!

2006 / 2007

Time again to look back at the past year!

At first when looking at 2006 I thought it wasn't that great of a year, but after I really started thinking about it, 2006 was a really great year for us. It started with our spirits low as we were still adjusting big time to Dallas and still trying to get over the loss of Hendrix. Though the year started off pretty low, that was the lowest it ever got and as the year went on, things got better and better!! In 2006 we got the chance to do a lot of cool things, both in and out of Dallas. We went to Medieval Times for Jason's birthday, a STARS Hockey with a boyscout troop which was a blast, went to NASCAR with my best friend Melissa and her family which was AMAZING!! We had a ton of visitors as well! Pam came from New York, My cousin Jeff and at the time finance now wife came from St. Louis, my mom and her best friend Sharon came from El Paso, my friend Sarah and her sister Christine came to stay with us for another friends wedding, My best friend Melissa and her boyfriend Frank came for NASCAR , Michaels dad Scot came to help us move and Michaels mom Tanya and step dad Wayne also came to pick up the blazer and some of our furniture.

There were about a billion weddings this year, just a few were Tree and Jason, Kelly and James, Jeff and Jana, and Molly and Woody. As for babies there weren't as many this year as last year, but we had a new pate, Baby Hagen from Michaels cousin Derrick and wife Leigha and then my best friends sister Amanda and her hubby had their second baby, JJ.

As far as trips go, 2006 was an EXCELLENT year! We went down to Hutto (outside of Austin) twice to see Michaels dad and Rhonda, Austin once to see Michaels moms side of the family who were all down there for his cousins graduation, Lubbock for FUN and the llano wine festival, El Paso for Thanksgiving and St. Louis for my cousins wedding. Then we had some BIIIIG trips (which is what keeps me ticking) and the crazy thing was, of the 4 big trips we took this year, we didn't pay for a single one of them! How in the world did that work out for us? First it was off to Tokyo Japan. What an amazing place!! Then about a month and a half later it was off to Mexico on Carnival Cruise Line with 18 people from the Moorhead Family. I can't even put into words how much fun was had on that trip, In October we FINALLY headed back to Denmark after 4 years and that was incredible to not only be back, but also get to find a place to live and then the BIG trip or shall we say move was back to Denmark at the end of November.

It was a fun and busy year and can only hope that 2007 lives up to 2006!
So to all my loyal readers, Cheers to a fun and exciting 2007 and may it be filled with joy and happiness.