To bikeride with or without music

sometimes, its crazy that somedays the biggest decisions i need to make,

are about whether to listen to music on my bikerides and what exactly to listen to.
especially when i steam rolled through my zillion commitments last year like a freight train!
 

music has a powerful influence over what you think,

how you think about it,

what you hear within yourself

and how you interpret the things going on around you!

so i take it upon myself to be careful what i listen to.

 

but i think i've figured that when it's really busy on the roads,

the music is good.

but only music that has edifying lyrics to the season.

when it's the middle of the night and just the clear night stars,

no music is good.

just my thoughts, God and the starry night sky.

 

this message i got from my sister actually pretty much sums up what im trying to say.

 



ha!
this did help me realise - while im a natural thinker,
i am in a LOT of thought ALL the time while here,
and documenting them solidifies it all, so i feel like im always growing in unexplainable ways.


also what's crazy fun to figure out is how to work out my danish laptop.
especially the keyboard that has a zillion different functions which love to surprise you when you're in the middle of something.
for a variety of reasons that don't need explaining,
this blog will be back to front with small pictures . . . recent pictures happening first.
that is all i'll say.
i am just so happy to have a danish laptop. 90% non scarcasm.

i can always tell i need to write  a blog when i begin to spam the instagram and facebook feed with quips and photos.

im sarrrry!

 

so here it can all be vented and you'll probably see less of me in those forums for a bit.

 

with the sunshine beginning around 4.30am,

and daylight finally closing in around midnight,

i am basking.

 

and so are the danes.

 

man they know how to bbq!

forget the huge grill that takes hours to prepare and clean,

we have little aluminium ones that sit on top of tables or perch on grasses.

 

which sometimes also burn through

but that's not to say they aren't prepared to have every man and their bike down at the local park for a bee bee cue! a few sundays ago we had a huge bbq in the park where we sponsored friends to bike around the city 25 times to raise money for an alpha course.

i cooked this one myself!

must i say - i'm  NEVER entrusted to the bbq at home, so i was just a little bit impressed with myself. 

while my classmates and i have been separated now; i am doing my final research project and they are preparing for and taking law exams,
we still make an effort to bask.

this was a picnic with asja. we met at 3pm, rode around the brabrand lake and sat on a jetty just chatting about life.
and chatted away. and away.
until i got my phone out to show her a picture of my sister and it was 8pm.
ha! 5 hours hanging out with somebody by accident! (the high sun in the sky wasn't exactly a time teller either)

i really enjoy spending time with this girl.

 

i alternate between researching/writing at home,

and researching/writing at the aarhus university.

when i begin at home,

i really enjoy beginning the day with a walk around the woods near my dorm.

and coming home to a tapas breakfast

yes that is biscotti. were you asking who made it? well shucks that was me too.
thanks to eric and his grandma for sending me the recipe learnt in tuscany!

in fact i've been baking alot.

!

which is crazy weird for me because i usually never bake.

i don't have time to bake! who has time to bake nowadays!

me. because in aarhus, we live back 100 years without time pressures and time frames.

so i bake for fun and try them out on my friends.

 

they usually turn out good, except one batch of fruit and nut crackers.

the last batch  i made, my norwegian dorm mate said
"they are nice but i need to watch my fillings"

and my german dorm mate who is actually the lovliest guy

 (and who also offered to teach me how to juggle!)

said

"they remind me of some healthy crackers in germany, just a bit harder."

 one other friend said they were good but they hurt her jaw.

 

i'm having fun learning. 

 

side note.
i think it's cool that most people i've chatted to use their travels and summers to volunteer.
disabled jews in israel, orphans in africa, homeless shelters in thailand or south america.
dts (discipleship training school) in australia. (you won't believe the amount of danes i've met who know of perth solely because of it's dts base! usually nobody i meet on my travels knows where perth is)
but yeah. outward focus travels.
i just think it's really cool.

lisa dunbar, i don't know if you are reading this, but there are some horses in the field near where i live.
i sometimes see girls riding them down the street and i always think of you!

usually aarhus is a pretty peaceful, calm, non confronting city.

nothing too extreme happens here. its cosy and i am falling in love with it.

or i have.
(howamigoingtocomehome)

but i was in a coffee shop the other day, and this protest was happening!

they were bearing the turkish flag and somebody held up a banner in english about eqaulity,

so i gather it was along those lines.

but still.

something out of the norm, say fuji!

i am preparing to move out of my dorms pretty soon, because my lease is almost up.
that being said, there is a huge spring clean that needs to happen.
apparently they will fine you for anything they can thats not clean when you move out.
i spilt coffee over my floor the other day,
but i don't have any carpet cleaner (leanne murray where are you!)
so  i napi sanned it!!
any thoughts or suggestions on whether this is ok would be appreciated, its still not clean.
ha!

but back to the research project...

yes well.

when you have every day free to write a paper your used to writing in 9 days (excluding 2 days for work, and 1 day on the weekend)

it can be a little difficult to incorporate productive structure into your day for 2 months!

 

especially when you want to bask.

 



 

but i make time! i am so thrilled to have been able to choose my topic (the global situation of trafficked prostitutes and implications for social workers)
and i find it truly fascinating and confronting at the same time.
people often ask me whether i find it too intense.
no, not really.



it's a privelage to be given the opportunity to study for hours
and to dream up ways of changing the world.
even when i can't necessarily write down the true changes i think need to happen in good versus evil sense into an academic paper.
i find the injustices drive me even deeper into my faith and i thank God for it.
(and blog it too! see previous post).

sometimes i ride to meet my friends at the library.

but sometimes i get distracted there too.

while living in aarhus, i am eating foods i never eat at home.

and biking everywhere.



it's such a healthy way to live!
i'm constantly strategising how to bring some small town aarhus habits back home to suburban perth city with me.
 i don't know how it will go, but i am going to try.

this is my american mom living in denmark.

mary-anne is such a treasure!
she moved to denmark when she was 37 and married a dane,
before opening up an american sandwich shop opposite the train station.
such a thrifty lady!
so we meet her at the international cluster at church,
and she sometimes brings us the best sandwiches and warm freshly baked cookies

on sunday night, she invited us all over to her house in the suburbs for dinner

and made us good ol  mexican food and a lime cheesecake.

 

and did i mention that her husband is a hunter gatherer that goes hunting all throughout africa and eastern europe?

it was another night of fellowship and hangouts with these girls

 

so the past few weeks have really been full of

such treasured hangouts in other cool apartments with other danish treasures

seeing the sculptures by the sea,

and realising you were looking at a sculpture, not a normal artifact

brunches with koreans who are 100% dane,

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

cd releases

coffee dates basking out in the sun


cooked dinners and basking out in the 6pm sun

...

 

now,

there's maybe three married couples whom i greatly admire

because i see in them the example of what a marraige was created to be.

this couple is one them. 

he a dane, she an american.

they met in perth at dts

which makes me so much more stoked!

it was such a privelage to see them get married, danish style.

 

ok!!

for everyone who lives in perth.

it's friday afternoon, 4pm.

the roads are busy, the shops and carparks are even crazier.

you need the post office at 4pm? forget it.

the lines will be up to here. just go monday 11am after the morning rush. or maybe next tuesday.

but oh, you live here in aarhus?

sure 4pm! wait your spot behind one person,

and havé a cup of coffee with a bikkie while you wait too!

 

so nice.
thank you aarhus.
i love you too.

GUESS WHO I FOUND DOWNTOWN?

hello volvi!

it's been a while!

(this was my first car and is the same car i drive at home)

sometimes i explode the kitchen

ha ha ha

ooooooooooooooh.
a few weeks ago i travelled by bus/ferry/bus to copenhagen to interview an anti sex trafficking agency.
i was just a tad nervous to try out the interviewing skills i had learnt in second year,
but since i've always wanted to be a researcher, i was pretty excited.
i found a coffee shop and waited.

after the interview, i had to walk the 1 hour route to my bus home to allow my thoughts to swirl and sift.

it was one of those times when your body is moving but your head is 100 miles away.
ok i can be like that alot, but this day i was REALLY like it.
i wandered into a cafe and ordered something the barista recommended which i didn't even feel like, but had no defenses to say no.

but it DEFINATELY jolted me alert!
it was a licquorice flavoured hot chocolate (danes LOVE their licquorice! they are chews, gum, water, breath freshners...)
and it was the most delicious drink i've ever had!
with a bread roll, of course.
that's the other great thing about denmark - their bread rolls. every cafe has a nutty, seedy, (sometimes) fruity, freshly baked bread roll that you can ask for butter and cheese with. even at the bakery you can ask for your bread roll to come with cheese and butter! gah. i love it here.

i also love this girl!

angie chen from brasil.

a skype date with my sister fell through (again!) and so she came over to cheer me up and walk through the woods near my dorm.
she is leaving this week and i will miss her so so much!

benedicte is from africa!
we cooked an african meal for our international cluster a few tuesday nights ago,
and i am now onto lentils in everything.

 

and that's pretty much it!

i've planned my july travels throughout europe,

and

i had my interview with my prac supervisor yesterday.

i am starting prac in the middle of august

at a counselling agency for women and children in domestic violence.

when i asked what models they used, they said it was pretty much up to the counsellor.

while i am very excited to begin and stretch my wings as a social worker

it hit me that august isn't too far away.

i don't actually live in this bubble world. 

i finished off my draft research paper on wednesday and sent it to my supervisor to see if it was ok to finalise.

she said that it was,

but that it was probably a little too full of literature, and where were the headings to each paragraph?

i couldn't believe her comments since headings are pretty much forbidden and lack of literature is a big frown at curtin university back home.

but nevertheless, i will make adjustments and send it off by wednesday next week.

so i guess that will be it from me in this crazy world of studying abroad!

 

it definately was NOT what i thought it would be like,

but it has been the most AMAZING and life changing experience of my life

next to camp sonshine 2009 and 2010.

 

but more sentimental thoughts on exchange in a later blog,

when i actually do leave.

 

for now, after this week,

i'll be farewelling my international friends.

they are slowly starting to leave,

with along with a piece of my heart  too.

 



i am so grateful God gave us eachother to experience the past 6 months of our lives with.

we have all been a beautiful mess with eachother,
and have all helped eachother become more of who we were created to be.

we have grown and shaped and been shaped by eachother

and i thank God for each of them.

i'm so excited to see what is in store for them,

and to slowly transition into the next chapter of my life.

 

"O to grace how great a debtor

daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love;

here's my heart, O take and seal it,

seal it for thy courts above."

 

until next time!

x