slow and easy wins the race

this title is quite appropriate for me righ tnow.

bridget and i have begun bikeriding to and from places,

and i'm so, so slow.

i don't know if it's my fitness,

the deceptive slight incline that aarhus is built on

or  my small-wheeled bike.

but whatever,

i'm so slow and the locals zoom past me all. the. time. 

but i maintain that i'll get there eventually.

just like my fitness.

no need to make it hurt!

things not done to the extreme is my general philosophy in life.

slow and easy wins the race ;)

i also like this title because i have LOVED not travelling these past few weeks!

it's been so good just to relax into aarhus.

so back to easter weekend, 

we celebrated the passover with some 

church friends

over a few hours, we slowly ate all the foods Jesus might have eaten on his last night and read about the symbolism of all the different foods.

 first time for everything!

then, on easter sunday,

 

bridget and i felt 9000 miles away from home after discovering there were no english easter services.

so we, together with anne, packed a picnic and went for a walk into the woods.
played some hillsong music and let the sun tempt us into thinking it was here to stay (it's currently overcast and raining now outside).








this one was easter sunday night, bridget and i made an easter egg hunt for everyone. 

i LOVE this photo.

 these 25-28 year old guys prove that you're never too old for an easter egg hunt!

but as we've unwound,
we've watched our favourite movies with our dorm mates. on laptops. with sub titles.

we've eaten  meals together with our dormates,

....

bridget and i constantly forget to "take the meat down" from the freezer

so we always have to default to salmon/tuna salad or on toast.

 mum, i now understand why you groan when you forget !

i send pictures to my sister to see whether she thinks my danish outfit is ok.

i've had kitchen duty. 

 where i've needed to scrub and clean the inside out's of the oven.

 and been fined 150 DKK becausei forgot to vacuum and mop underneath the sink and fridges.

thankfully i had 24 hours to re-clean it.

last week, the sun DEFINATELY came out to play.

 so some of my uni friends drove me to the beach.

to see actual sun on actual water . . . 

seeing the water glisten . . . 

ah, was glorious.

i also got my hair done this week.

"white blonde stripes in just the top section please."

because my hair dries out if i get it blow dried, (bane of a blonde's life)

i need to let it air dry.

this is fine in perth,

but in aarhus when you bike home from the hairdresser in 2 C . . . 

as you step out from the hairdresser, you think twice about it.

so i went to mcdonalds where i may OR MAY NOT HAVE

put my head under the hand dryer. 

sneaky shot, it worked!

the sun continued to shine on the way home, so i layed out a rug and had a picnic outside my dorm window. 

granted, it was 5C, but it was so lovely that i fell asleep!
that is, until the sun went behind a cloud, i got chilly and woke up.

 and i continue to discover new areas of aarhus.

we liked our previous picnic in the woods so much that we took eric.

and i found these!
you see THIS is why i belong in denmark. 

 rice cakes with a thin layer of chocolate.
hello. i live here.

bridget and i also discovered we have quite a few large hills out the back of our dorms which overlook aarhus.

 and discovered some little things that make life so much fun






the trails are also good to bike around on. 

i've also said many times that living here in aarhus feels like i am living back in time.

i write letters, i ride my bike to and from school, i pick up groceries from the local and place them in my basket, i sew buttons onto my jacket and i have begun to knit

i also press roses.

but this isn't as lame as it sounds.
i found it at the eiffel tower, and wanted to keep it!
ha.


last friday night,  our spanish dormate had a few of his spanish friends over to stay for the weekend.
we went out to the "australian bar" with them, which was the first time we'd been "out" in aarhus.

 we actually thought it was a bar/restaurant, not a club, so i felt a tad out of dress code with my glasses and jeans on.
but hey. when bob sinclair and one direction are belting out of the speakers, who even cares what you're wearing.

we then spent the weekend hanging out, cooking a bbq, playing card games ...

i marinated my own chicken, dad!

 it was delicious.

 we had a game of pictionary, which actually got pretty competitive.

eric was on my team, and i was given the word "viking" to draw.

i had no idea how to draw a viking. (see center picture with the bones)

eric was so shocked at my drawing, he thought he should draw for me what i SHOULD have drawn.

haha.
it was one of those hangouts where you laugh so much your stomach hurts.
i got pretty competitive too. i may have actually yelled at my team player for one of their drawing.
oop.

i've come up with another snack food that i like! blackberry jam, mashed banana and light sour cream on rye crackers.

 then, on the smaller crackers, i've been buying this danish creamy fruity spread. "frugt salat". so healthy. so tasty.

i was lying on my bed last friday afternoon watching the colours of the sun dance across my wall, and feeling so grateful that i could just "be".
i didn't have to plan anything or  be anywhere.
i knew eric and bridget were currently planning their trip to italy for the 22nd april for 11 days
and they were trying to convince me to come.
but i wanted to settle into aarhus and save those travels for later.

i'd been chatting to a friend from denmark uni on facebook which i'd forgotten about,

so quickly checked to see what she'd written.

she was in italy and was encouraging me to visit, too.

she sent me a flight on sale leaving the 22nd,

and then sent me a picture of the school schedule that showed i wouldn't be mising any classes.

and it hit me!

eric and bridget would be moving out for good after their italy trip!

i would be here, with no studies to keep me occupied,

while my two dorm go-two's  were galavanting around italy together!

and they weren't coming back!

if i didn't go with them now,

i'd have to plan my own trip in a few months, and probably have to spend way more money because i'd be by myself!

i prayed about it, and felt that there were definate green lights everywhere.

so we booked a trip to italy! we leave on the 22nd april and get back on the 5th may.

we are in the midst of planning it now.

however.

i emailed my lecturer just to let him know i would be away for a non-compulsary meeting on may 2.

when he wrote back, he said "oh. i was going to see if you wanted to come to a social research day where you would have the opportunity to meet the australian crown danish princess."

WHAT.

BUT COMING BACK EARLY WOULD MEAN MISSING OUT ON ROME!

so what do i do when i have "logical" decisions to make?

i think she wanted me to come back to meet mary, but the meeting will be held in danish anyway.
 so i am staying in rome and NOT meeting the danish princess.
but!
i have emailed the australian consulate and very politely asked whether it would be too presumptuous for me as an australian social work student to ask to meet with the crown danish princess to discuss social and humanitarian matters. after all, princess mary has her own humanitarian foundation.
what is there NOT to talk about!?!

ha!

i got an email from the consulate this morning who said they would contact the crown princess's office and see what they say.

ha!

i'll keep you posted ;)

tuesday night is "international cluster" night,

where the intenational exchange students get together and eat delicious home-made meals and unpack a chapter of the bible.

this week there was no cluster, so bridget and i had everybody over at our dormitories.

we cooked them mexican, and the girls brought dessert.

 these icecreams are INCREDIBLE. and i don't even like ice cream!

 so i just had a bit of the creamy top with the cherry/liquorice flavour.

daphne's birthday is coming up, so we surprised her with a cheesecake and present too.

and here is

us all.

we are all girls now, 

since victor got a job in copenhagen and jeremy finished his internship.

missing them reminds me that these friendships are temporary.

but they are friendships i know are achieving eternal things in our hearts.

we are all somehow being shaped by eachother

we all have stories and backgrounds which remind us that there is more than just our own little bubble world.

and we all, i think, inspire eachother to live a life that counts for something more than ourselves. 

we are so grateful to God for orchastrating our lives together for such a time as this.

aaaand

just now, we went out for lunch with our friend asja from uni. 

she's the lovliest. 

 well i best be off to find eric and bridget to keep planning italy.
we're going out to a friend's apartment tonight too, for a night of tea, good conversation and knitting.

see? i told you. i live in the 1920's.
it's great and i love it.