Our Store Bededag

Once Easter passes, Denmark is littered with spring holidays. This past Friday was one of them called, "Store Bededag" or "Great Prayer Day" but I think it sounds better in English as "All Prayers Day". It falls on the 4th Friday after Easter and became a holiday back in the late 1600's. Store Bededag was created when several prayer days were lumped together. One of the traditions is to eat "hveder" heated up in the oven. The closest thing I can compare hveder to is American dinner rolls. The reason they are eaten was because long ago (and the majority of them still today) the bakeries would be closed on Store Bededag so they would make a ton of these rolls that you could heat up the next day. This was the first year we got to eat hveder and they were delicious. Too bad you can only get them once a year!

We spent the afternoon and evening with our friends Hella and Jens. For those of you that know Klaus, Hella is his sister. We enjoyed a 2.5 hour walk with them around Dyrehaven. It was the first time back there for us for the season. They took us up to an area we hadn't been before called, "Rådvad". It was pretty with a nice lake and some older houses. We sat and had coffee/tea and muffins.

While walking around in Dyrehaven were able to see lots of deer roaming the fields and this got us excited about summer and all the days we will be able to hang out here again. In fact we will be back in about 2 weeks with Tanya and Wayne when they come to visit.

Back at their flat, Hella and I made dinner and Michael and Jens talked about music and wine. After dinner they introduced us to one of the coolest games ever called, "Rummy Cube". It is like scrabble with numbers. I'm now addicted.

Rådvad

Our view over coffee and muffins

Jens, Hella and Michael

See the deer in the background between the trees?

Deer crossing the path

Woods of Dyrehaven starting to bloom

Updates and Video

Here's something crazy. It was 5 years ago yesterday (June 4th) that Michael and I stepped foot in Denmark for the very first time. I would never have guess what an important part of our lives this little country tucked up in Scandinavia would become. That also means that today is the 5 year anniversary of my dads death. It is kinda bitter sweet that those two things will always be looked at together.

We have been great. We had the Tech students here for a couple nights and they are now in their own place. It was fun to show them around and be able to help them out their first days here. Someone did it for us and we were grateful. I hope they will look back and feel the same way about us. Saturday we went out to Jen's farm for a little bbq and to watch the Denmark-Sweden Soccer Game. It was, interesting to say the least. It was a great and exciting game until it got canceled in the last minutes of the game because an angry fan stormed the field and tried to attack one of the refs. Game was halted and then called off. We were in the midsts of some very confused and not so happy Danes. None the less, we had a fun time.

Today is Constitution Day in Denmark and tonight we went over to one of Michaels co-workers and his wifes house with Klaus for a bbq. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside and ate and had a nice time.

So, thats what we have been up to.

Now, Video Number 4!!
If you didn't see the first 3 videos, refer to the previous 3 posts to find out what these are all about and to watch the others, before you watch today's video. :)

"The Partney's in Denmark: Day 4 - Bakken and Dyrehaven"

Dallas Smallas

So...apparently I don't really like Dallas as previously thought.
I suppose I just enjoyed a few things here. The gym and Tai Chi and the few acquaintances we had, just made it bearable. Since I have been here I have felt my energy (I know, that sounds all hippy and wierd) just sink south and it feels familiar. Simply sitting in the car my energy seems to become tainted. It's the same feeling I had been having here in Dallas around the time we moved and I was becoming happy about Dallas and sad to be moving. It has made me wonder how horrible I must have been feeling before I got to that "good"place if the "good" place now seems bad. It made me realize how being gone for the past 5 months my spirits have lifted incredibly and that life became life again and I am not just dealing with the cards dealt. So, needless to say, I'm glad we moved and I LOVE LOVE LOVE living in Denmark.

While I was in El Paso Michael had told me he really was missing home and he was really anxious to get back to his small office, morning rolls,walking to work, and spending weekends enjoying the sun on our balcony. El Paso was a blast for me. I loved being with and catching up with family and friends. but now that I'm in Dallas, I'm about ready to head back across the pond too. Dallas is humid, my hair isn't a fan and makeup just melts off my face. The traffic is ridiculous and the city is soooooo huge! Finally we found how important friends are. In Dallas, with the exception of Mary and Jason, and Chris and Fayne, we just had lots of acquaintances. In Denmark we actually have a really great handful of friends who actually enjoy the same stuff we do and who, for the most part, really "get us". It's settling to have the confirmation that yes, we were, without a doubt, meant to be in Copenhagen at this time in our lives and the things we had to give up, were worth it to have the Danish experience again. We have only been there about 5 months, but already it's so much more then our first time and we still have months and months and months to go. How did we ever get so lucky?

Our Danish Weekend

What a FUN FUN FUN weekend we had!!
Saturday we went to Sarah's house to have dinner with her and Jens. She lives in the Nørroboro area of Copenhagen. We had FANTASTIC food and really had a great time just sitting around talking with them. After dinner we watched the Denmark - Spain Soccer game on TV. It was surprisingly not as boring to watch as we had always thought it might be. Actually it was really interesting to watch. We have always wanted to see a live match and now after seeing that game on TV, I think we are even more excited to see one in person.

Sunday we helped Klaus move into his new home. Actually Michael helped move him. I sat around and hung out with his sister and mom. It was great to see his mom and dad again since we hadn't seen them since Christmas. His mom is really good at speaking Danish to us even though we don't know a ton of it. She speaks English, but not as much as many other Danes so I think its easier for her to speak Danish to us more because its just easier. It was nice to see that we actually understood a lot more of what she was saying this time. She made dinner for us as well which was also very tastey. All the Danes just seem to know how to make and cook wonderful food.

Spring is finally starting to show up here. We finally got past the 50 degree mark and we have been having days in the lower 50s and it feels soooo wonderful. We have been sitting in the sun room and on the balcony. We can finally go outside without a heavy jacket from time to time and after we leave the gym since we are usually really hot after that, we don't even need a jacket on at all. Its great. We had Daylight savings time and we were thrilled to see how long the sun was up yesterday. Longer and warmer days make us happy!!!

More Snow!!!

We got some more snow today! Nothing big, nothing stuck, but it was still falling from the sky. The days are quickly getting longer and longer. The sun is rising at about 6am, and setting it seems about 6:30ish. It is kinda funny to see it bright outside at 6:00. Actually we don't see it until about 6:30 when Michael starts hitting the snooze button for the next 45 minutes! We haven't set our clocks back yet. That will happen this weekend for us. At which time, it is going to stay bright even longer! I can hardly wait!! Now if we could just get some spring weather. I'm not expecting it though till mid-late April. You know, about the time we leave for Dallas.

Michael has 3 of his bosses in town right now. One of them had never been to Denmark before and within the being here not long at all, he was already in love with the country and kept telling Michael, "I can see why you wanted to move here" He had only seen the airport, the highway , the walk from the hotel to TI (which is the same walk Michael does every morning) and TI. Its nice to know we aren't crazy and other people find it as charming as we do as quickly as we do. It was almost a nice reassurance for us as that it really is as nice here, as we say it is :)

We STILL have absolutely nothing going on. Saturday Jens and Sarah are having us over for dinner. Jens is the latest student to return to Denmark from Lubbock/Dallas that participated in the TTU/DTU program, and Sarah is his girlfriend. We hung out with them in Dallas a couple times, and they have been over here. It should be fun, and we are looking forward to that, but other then that... we have NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING of interest going on here. I need to find something fun to write about... Keep watching. Ill find something. :)

Friday Night Fun

Last night was our get together with The Møltoft family. To refresh your memories they Jørgen and his wife Agnus use to call themselves our surrogate grandparents our last time we lived here. We would never have survived a few things here without their help. Anyways, we got to know their kids and grandkid first time we were here and so the whole family got together last night with us. When we walked in the door they even had a brand new 4 month old grand baby. She was adorable. We had a really great time. Drank wine, drank beer ate good food and had a lot of fun. We have always said that Agnus is the best cook in the world. We use to get so excited when they would cook for us because she cooks these meals that are just AMAZING, and last night was no different. Started off with some appetizer that I can't really explain, then we had pork, duck and potato's (VERY typical danish food) and for dessert we had fruit and homemade ice cream and coffee. YUM! I had never eaten duck before we went on our cruise back in August, but we have both quickly come to love it!

We don't have much planned for the weekend. It is nice not have to run around trying to find things we need for our place. We will go to the gym in a few minutes, come home, shower, change, eat lunch, then maybe just go out for a cup of coffee.

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!