In Dublin's Fair City, Where Girls are so Pretty...

That was the fastest trip ever. We aren't use to only going somewhere for 2 nights, but it was a lot of fun, we never got bored and we stayed busy...that is, if you can call drinking, keeping you busy. When in Rome right? :)

We flew business class over to Dublin so were spoiled from the start with the SAS lounge and the nice seats, food and drinks on the plane. We got in about 6:00pm and went straight to the hotel. We did something a little different on this trip than we usually do. We stayed close to the airport at the SAS Radisson on a package deal. We had 2 days of free transportation to and around Dublin, a one day pass per person on a hop on hop off bus, a free meal in their nice restaurant, free breakfasts, and a business class room. Since it was pretty last minute we decided to give it a try and it worked out great. The first night we got in and at dinner at "Potters" I had a fantastic slab of thick, juicy beef with wonderful potatoes and Michael had a huge piece of grilled salmon with vegetables. He tends to order fish in a restaurant that he thinks will have good fish since he never gets any at home. :) After that we watched some TV and went to bed.

Saturday we got up early, ate breakfast and headed into Dublin. We got on the hop on hop off bus. We have always kinda made fun of the hop on hop off buses, but it was free and we didn't have many days in Dublin so seemed like the easiest way to get from point A to point B and see lots of stuff. It wasn't so bad after all. The guide was really funny, we saw a lot of places from the bus we might not have seen, and since it was a 24 hour pass that took us to all the top tourist spots it worked out great. We got on and rode for about 30 minutes as we knew our first stop we would get off at was the Guinness Brewery. I had reserved our tickets before arriving in Dublin and I am so glad we did. It was only about 10AM but the line for the tickets was pretty long already. Since I had reserved ours we went straight to the Customer Service Desk where there was no one got our tickets and started the tour (which was self guided). This was our third brewery tour so we didn't spend much time on the beginning of the tour where you learn about how beer is made. You can only learn about it so many times before it gets kinda boring. The rest of the tour was interesting and really well done, but we rushed through the entire thing. We spend a little time in the room with the history of the advertising and about the actual Guinness Company and finally made it to the Gravity Bar to claim our free Pints of Guinness. We were both a little nervous about this as the only other time we had had Guinness we weren't fans at all. To our delight, it was heavenly! The stuff we had before was the Guinness Extra Stout and was really hard to get down. The regular Guinness Draught, was by far 10000000 times better :)

After the brewery we got back on the bus and drove around for about another 40 minutes until we got to the Jameson Distillery. We grabbed lunch at a pub before going to that tour.

This tour was great. It was a guided tour, the tour guide was funny and I was one of 6 people that she got to do a Whiskey Tasting of 5 types of whiskeys. Everyone else only got one glass. After it was all done, I got a little certificate saying I am a "Certified Whiskey Taster". Michael is a whiskey man and I'm now a certified whiskey taster so we couldn't leave without a bottle. We went for some pretty good stuff. The bottle had some "pomp" to it, because it was one of their better and rare bottles that they make. Our bottle got registered by its number in a big fancy book. So if you go here, we will tell you our bottle number and you can go see our name. It gets put in the book by a calligrapher, so it will look pretty.



From there we hopped back on the bus and got off by the river front and wondered to an area called "Temple Bar" It is a cute area of nothing but restaurants and pubs. We ate dinner at a place called "Mexico to Rome", took our classic picture we always take, walked back to the bus to take us back to the hotel and headed back up that way. We dropped all our stuff off in the room then went downstairs to the hotel pub for another smooth wonderful pint of the black stuff. Mmmm Guinness. (We are big fans now)

Our Classic Picture

Sunday we spent walking around Dublin for about 6 hours. We had thought about going to the coast to a little fishing town, but decided that we weren't sure how much time it would take so opted to head back to Dublin. We didn't really do anything but walk and walk and walk. We found Dublin to be a pretty small city as it didn't take very long to walk from here to there and back again. We stumbled upon a few cool things, had some coffee, ate some lunch and went back to the hotel to grab our stuff and head to the airport to come home.

Gulliver made of Sand

The Tart with a Cart as she is known by the Irish. AKA Miss Molly Malone

Tourist Center

Me with a Church connected to the Dublin Castle. (which really looked more like a palace or big mansion)

Michael in front of a Pub

Cool Yellow Door

Michael acting like an orangutan

A Church

In short, Dublin to me, is a city of pubs and colored doors. It was fun to have a short weekend trip for just 2 nights even if it meant sacrificing knowing the city as well as we know many others. My tip for Dublin, Don't miss the Brewery or the Distillery. They were by far the highlight of the trip!

All of our pictures are in this album below.

Dublin August 2007

Kommunikationsvanskeligheder

Yesterday we started our final chapter in our Danish book. It was called, ""Kommunikationsvanskeligheder". Try to say that 10 times quickly, or just try to say it once! I can't believe we are already at the end of our book. We have 2 classes left of our beginners class. I'm not sure what we will do the last week of class but we will finish the book next week. Michael got a quote from the school for the intermediate and advanced classes and then sent those off for approval from TI. The guy wrote Michael back and said, "If your next email is in Danish, you go right ahead". Naturally he wrote back a short, "Tak for det. Hav en god dag!" We are paying up front for the next two set of classes because the money that TI gave us for classes expires at the end of November. We figured just pay for it all now and we can take both classes and not just the next one. I think a lot of people still think we are in a big class or with other people, but no, it is just Michael and I and the teacher. Intensive private instruction. We have been though all sorts of hurdles and what I think might be steps in learning a foreign language. From forgetting the easy stuff sometimes to not being able to understand anything because there was so much that we were learning that it got a little overwhelming. I had a big moment the other day. There are "Den" and "Det" words. The equivalent of "The" but different words use a different "The's". We had been told from day one that there is no rule and you just know or at some point you will be able to hear if it sounds funny, and while we were writing our Simpsons papers, it finally happened to me. I wrote, "det" read the sentence and thought that doesn't sound right, changed it to "den", looked up the word to see if i was correct, and I was!! YEA!! An itty bitty little milestone :)

Out teacher has started to give us copies of a newspaper called, "Overblik" and questions to answer about the articles. It is a newspaper designed for those who can't read well but many language schools use it for a learning tool. It's been good practice to not only read but to try to retain the information we are reading. Which is much harder then it seems. I understand now why in 2nd grade you have to read what seemed like easy books and answer what seemed like easy questions. I remember struggling with it sometimes as a kid and always having to go and look back for the answers but as I got older I just thought it was that my concentration wasn't that great back in 1st,2nd 3rd grades( ok, and all the way up till 10th,11th,12th grades too ;) ) But really, it is pretty difficult to start to read and retain the info at the same time. Fascinating. And believe it or not, It's difficult for perfect smart Michael too!!! Which in turn makes things a little easier for me. Slowly its getting easier to store the info from an article, but it takes a great deal of work. Short passages don't give me too much of a problem, but the longer ones do.

It has also been interesting to see how Michael and I both have different strong and weak points when it comes to Danish, and whats even more interesting is that our strong points compliment each other. That works great for us!

We did it First

What is the world coming to? When I started reading the news yesterday morning, plastered amongst every page were these headlines, "Paris names her Dog after Jimi Hendrix". WHAT!!! I certainly don't think that is news worthy, BUT it is a pretty cool name for a dog. For probably the first time in Paris Hilton's life, she is behind the times...The name Hendrix for a dog is sooooo 2-8 years ago. ;o) I am certain our Hendrix and THE Hendrix are up in Rocker's Heaven chillin' together.

Rock on Hendrix's, Rock on.

(Yes, thats a Santa Claus hat flying off his head)

This Bonny Lass is Goin' to the Motherland!

On the 15th of every month SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) puts out specials on 3 different cities that you can fly to on half as many bonus points as normal. We have been itching to get away for a quick trip but had been waiting to see what cities were on sale this month. When we checked we were delighted to see Paris, London and Dublin! It was easy to pick one of these three.

Paris: Been there, Done that! lol. just kidding. We would love to go back to Paris, or even just fly into Paris and go to some other French cities/towns, but not this time.

London: We both want to go, Michael more so then I, but it doesn't call to us as loud as many other towns.

So, Dublin it is! We are heading out in a week and a half and will only be there over a weekend, but should be plenty of time for some fun and most importantly, the Guinness Brewery! Recently a Viking Ship from Denmark set sail to Dublin and arrived just a couple days ago after a 6 weeks journey and will stay there for a few months. Perhaps we will run across that Danish Viking Ship while we are there!

Once I step foot in Ireland, I will have finally visited all the country's that make up my blood! Mexico, Germany, and Ireland! While I'm so glad I know that my family from Mexico was from Guanajuato, I still wish I had some idea where in Germany and Ireland my family came from as well.

Movie, Homework and Friends... Oh My!

Last night we saw one more movie. This time it was "The Bourne Ultimatum". This one was FANTASTIC!!! Now, I think we are all caught up on movies for a bit until Shrek 3 comes out. (It isn't out here yet)

Yesterday we got a fun homework assignment in our Danish class. We have to write a paper about Marge and Homer Simpson. Our teacher said we could do it however we wanted as long as we talked about what they look like,their personalities and their clothes (Because those are the most recent chapters we have done) So we decided, I will write about Marge, and Michael will write about Homer. This should be fun and challenging. We can read a ton of Danish, we can understand a lot, but writing gets tricky. I can come up with all the words, but for some reason I guess I know it will be easier to judge my danish if it is written. And that is intimidating.

Check out this picture. This is my good friend Anthony Weeks. We have been good pals since 8th grade. He is in the Army right now and got his two sweet precious daughters matching flight suits to his and got some pictures done. I thought it turned out so sweet that I had to share! Plus, I know several of my loyal readers know Anthony as well and might enjoy seeing him all grown up with his daughters.

If this doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what will

Movie Weekend

Another weekend down. They are passing way too fast. The weather has been wonderful here, but the effect is that inside places, it isn't so wonderful as the sun heats up places quickly. Michael has been going to work in shorts (as have many others in his office) and he usually comes home miserable because of the heat in the building. Friday, he left early. We were home from the gym and both showered before 4:30. We decided to come up with something to do rather then just bumming around here, so we got tickets to see "Evan Almighty". Oooo what a funny movie! We laughed and laughed and laughed some more. If you haven't seen it, you should. Sunday we went to see "The Simpson's Movie" also very funny. As we watched both of these movies we found ourselves at times to be the only ones in the theater who were laughing, which is a weird feeling. We find it happens when something is said that is a play on words, or in reference to a small event or American saying. I guess thats just something you learn to get use to. So, number 783 of things they don't tell you when you move abroad is, "You will find yourself to be the only one laughing in movie theaters at certain times"

Friday I also bought some pretty flowers. The picture is a little dark, but I think you get the idea.

And Sunday we got some delicious cinnamon rolls!
There is no doubt, the best pastries in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, are Danish. I've known that for 5 years now, but I just can't say it enough. YUM.

Enjoying Copenhagen and Lyngby

I love rain. I love fall. Most years I could do without summer. But what "they" say, seems true, when all you get is rain, you get tired of it, when all you get is cloudy days, you long for the sun. I don't know who "they" are, but "they" knew what they were talking about.

This weekend was nothing short of gorgeous days of sun, sun and more sun with a slight cool breeze that made the weekend simply perfect! The air feels like fall though, but one of those beautiful warm, fall days. So we took advantage of the weekend and played tourists in our own home!

First thing we did was head to Copenhagen climb the "Rundetaarn" (Round Tower) for a view of Copenhagen. We figured, we've seen Oslo,Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul and even a couple small German villages from way up high on towers and mountain/hilltop, it was probably about time we saw Copenhagen as well. The entrance was pretty cheap (for Copenhagen standards) at 25DKK a person (about $4.50) so we thought, why not!

"Rundetaarn"
Apparently the tower part of the Trinitatis complex, and included an astronomical observatory, a student church and a university library. It was built between 1588-1648We saw the church and the library which were a decent size and quite nice. It is also the oldest observatory in Europe and is still used! At night in the winter (which is practically all day long haha) people can go up and use the telescope to see the sky.

Climbing the tower was pretty simple. The entire climb looked like this until the very end where there were about 15 steps. Not too bad. Easiest tower climb we have ever done (worst one was in Freiburg Germany where we climbed just short of 1,000 stairs in the narrowest little stairwell, in a Cathedral to get to the top of a bell tower) I was actually a little surprised to see many people huffing and puffing on their way up.

Once at the top we had an amazing 360 degree view. Knowing so many of the buildings and streets made looking at wonderful Copenhagen that much better. We could see pretty far and could even see some really tall buildings in the distance which we immediately recognized as "Høj Gladsax" , which is basically where we lived last time we lived here.


After the tower we wondered around Copenhagen. Stopped at Nyhavn grabbed some soft ice, then hopped on a boat (one that is tied up and doesn't go anywhere) for a micro-brew style beer. The city was so very full of tourists, not many Americans though. Seemed like the streets were filled with Swedes and Brits. We both have an " Årskort" (year card) for Tivoli, so as long as we were in the city we hopped in there for another beer and sat right next to the little lake in there and had a really good time. After all this, we were starving so came home and ate and rested our feet. (We actually do tire ourselves out from walking, but no one has been brave enough to stick it out long enough to see that actually happen!)

Copenhagen Street

Tivoli

Tivoli

Sunday was just as lovely if not more so then Saturday. We hit the gym in the AM which was pretty much like an old abandon town. We were the only ones in there for about 45 minutes until 4 people came and hopped on treadmills. Then there were 6 of us. Danes love the sun, I'm sure they didn't want to waste any of the weather on being indoors. I can't blame them. We were doing abs and I told Michael that at that moment, I envied their freedom of not being so ridiculously dedicated. We got out of there as fast as we could and headed for a little walk. We stopped at a bakery on the way to grab some bread (and it was the first time Michael had ever witnessed me doing everything in Danish). We headed towards something called, "Lyngby Fort" I had seen it on a map and was just a little curious what it was, so we went. To be quite honest, I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but I know it was built in 1887 -1892. It was, "interesting" to say the least. Kinda hidden behind houses, and very overgrown with growth. We climbed up to the top and ate up there.

It once read, "LYNGBYFORTET" but now, there are letters missing

Along the side

Stairs to top
View From the Top

Top of the Fort

Walking back to our place we stumbled upon a hidden treasure. A "Møntvask"!!! It is a Laundromat!! For those of you who remember months and months ago I had to start doing our laundry by hand....again.... well. I am STILL doing it that way. Long story short...our landlord sucks and we do not want to spend the money to buy a washer that we can't take back with us because they are quite pricey. ANYWAYS, so we have searched every corner of Lyngby (or so we thought) looking for one and never could find one. On our way home, somehow we ended up on a hidden curve of a street, not too far from our place, and staring me in the face was the word, "Møntvask". I grabbed Michaels arm and pulled him across the street as he was laughing knowing my pleasure in seeing this word. I haven't minded doing our laundry by hand but the sheets and towels are quite the chore, because they are so big. I think that was the highlight of the day! Today, I'll be heading down there with towels and sheets to get those all washed and I am very excited about it, as I am sure my mom and a few of my close friends are very excited for me as well!! haha.

We got back to our place about 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening on our balcony. Reading, drinking some wine, doing Danish homework, eating dinner....etc.

Today looks just as wonderful as the past couple days. Perhaps August will turn out to be ok after all. I'm not holding my breath just yet, but I'm closing my eyes and wishing really really hard that it keeps this nice.

Flash Back

I don't know if you noticed or not, but I have been a HORRIBLE blogger lately. The month of July was especially bad. I am finding myself incredibly busy, with nothing at all. It's strange! So I made an August resolution. Be a better blogger. I must find things to post about, even if there is simply nothing going on. So, today after my daily chores, and errands I dusted off my scanner, grabbed my boxes of pictures and scanned a bunch especially the ones that needed touching up, and while doing so, ran across a bunch of old pictures of Michael and I from 1998-2001 (AKA, the years before the digicam made its way into our lives) This month marks 9 years of us sharing our lives together! For the math experts out there, that is 1/3 of our lives!!! I thought it might be fun to post just a few pictures of us together through the past 9 years!

Band camp July 1998

with Dusty Balderas and Blake Hlavaty.
(Go ahead, say it: This one time at band camp.... ya, we've never heard that before ;) )

1999
Ready for TBS (band sorority formal-once a band geek, always a band geek)
Look how tiny Hendrix was!

The pro pic from that night

Michael was once a farmer...so I decided I was going to be one also

2000
Chuck E Cheese's
2001
Gma's Gpa's 50th Anniversary Pro Pic

2002
Paris

Magazine Picture for a Danish Article about the DTU/TTU program

2003
Engagement Picture

2004
Costa Rica

2005
Lubbock Home

2006
Fort Worth

2007
Copenhagen

Newest Picture Together
Istanbul