friends, tears, laughter and other such fun.

looking back over my photos for the past fortnight,
i noticed that i don't really have too many photos taken with my danish friends.
i think it's because when i'm with them, i try to be all cool calm and collected.
taking photos is so touristy.
an i'm not a tourist.
i'm such a local ;)

but then when i get together with my international friends,

all the time!



so anyway!

my laptop died this week.

i wasn't able to skype mum on mothers day,
so as i rode home on monday afternoon to make our new skype date,

the man biking in front of me lost his waterbottle and i ran over it.

my bike jolted from side to side as i struggled to keep it up, and me from flying over the handlebars ...
i stayed on my bike, thanfully.

but when i got home and switched my laptop on to skype her, the monitor stayed black.
i took it to an IT man on tuesday, and he confirmed that the monitor has died.

so.

 

my laptop broke when I ran over a man's flyaway waterbottle at 20km per hour downhill, which jotled my bike jolted violently and almost threw me off.

i like to tell it like a survival story.

but anyhow, the IT man has leant me a new laptop to finish off my research project

and uch, i can do this:

æ æ æ æ æ æ æ æ

and this

å å å å å å Å Å Å

!!

but i can't edit photos just yet on it  . . .
and i can't make photos on this blog any larger or smaller, nor rearrange their order.
everything is formatted in danish and it´s IMPOSSIBLE to navigate.

This week has been a healthy school of patience, perserverance and unwavering trust that God will as always, help me work things out.
being so frustrated and confused has been a healthy reminder for me to not place my hope in material posessions,
but that my hope belongs in Christ alone.

...

since bridget left,

i've been spending more  time with my other international friends,
my special, amazing, incredible danish friends,
i've been

studying, researching and more doing more study
i've been
 

baking, bike riding, doing fun aarhus things

and just HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE.

 

this is jasmine.

she's probably one of the funniest girls i know.
sometimes, i just watch her interactions and oh, i laugh so much.

last night i started to tell a story on how i was 30 minutes late to an important meeting because i got lost on my bike,
when she cut in and began to mimmick me with a straight face and said
"because i have an internal GPS but THE´STREETS IN AARHUS ARE NOT PARALELL" .
the way she says things so matter-of-factly, with her facial expressions
 - ah! she's the coolest.
when i got back from france, she poked my stomach and said 'you getting fat! too much wine and croissants!'
she's a treasure.

i taught her how to do the tim-tam slam.

now that it's spring, i just love that bike-riding is my only form of transportation in denmark; rain hail or shine.

i'll often be biking somewhere, and out of nowhere it will start to downpour.
it's the best feeling arriving somewhere looking like a drowned rat.
!

to make sure my food doesn't spoil, i'm trying to eat as many veges as i can in one sitting.

 

such as getting a tortilla wrap and loading it with everythingi can think of and then baking it in the oven!

i was quite proud of myself this week! i did $80 worth of grocery shopping and fitted it ALL into my basket!!
as my danish friend majken tells me, i'm becoming such a dane ;)

 i've been exploring lots of different coffee shops with friends, some favourites being lynfabrikken, kaffekapslen, Løve's Bog- og VinCafé and a few more which i can't remember but can bike with you too.

the 11th may was "melgade" which was a big cultural arts festival.
this is where all the cool kids came out to play.

guys were actually allowed to use these in the middle of the street!

 

since spring has brought the sun out, i'm noticing that danes take alot of care in how they dress.

very hipster, almost grungy.

 

i realised soon that i had concluded danes too quickly in winter; they weren't as carefree as i had previously assumed! their simple winter black/navy/morone/khaki coats were just hiding their alternate indie clothes.

even the older folk!

oh! and here is a video of some girls doing a dance down the strip .. you cant really see too much, but its a video nevertheless

we got the biggest sanwiches i've ever eaten and sat down to watch it all.

i'd invited my friends over for dinner and movie and mine that night - but we were all too full to eat.
so we jsut went to the store and bought our own snacks that we felt like.
worst. host. ever. ha!

i live out in gellerup.
gellerup is known as "the ghetto."
it's not really a ghetto, but since denmark has such low crime rate, if there is a car broken in somewhere, or somebody's hand bag got snatched, the media likes to jump on gellerup.
it's mainly middle eastern families who live out here and from my observation, they seem to be quite separated from the danish society.

so it was cool to see gellerup putting themsevles out there the cultural arts festival.

hmm .. lets see .. other news.

since the sun sets around 9.30pm, it is still light at around 10pm.
so as such, i like to open up my door window and contemplate life with my ipod.

or sometimes early in the morning too.

earlier this week i baked some study treats this week for my friends and i

 

 

they turned out a hit!
thanks to helene karkov for sending me the recipe!

actually it was quite funny -
helene and i met up in a cafe this week so she could try my crackers and so i could try some of her macaroons.
but a cafe lady came and scolded us for eating our own food.
we put it away, but soon enough, we secretly exchanged food again.
i'm almost 24 and helene 27 and we felt like naughty school kids.
THEN the lady saw us doing again and came back to scold us even more!
she was talking so fast and so harsh in danish i had stop myself from giggling.
her face was so intense.
but poor helene bore the brunt of it and had to apologise again.
oh dear.
!!

 

so i brought them to school and shared them safely with my study buddies

 

mm :)




 i'm currently researching the situation of trafficked prostitutes into denmark and comparing it with that in australia.
there´s alot of  reactionary work being done with ex prostitutes,
but i want to look at the causal factors so we can come up with more effective, long term preventative measures.
i've been looking at economic and social structures in particuarly poor countries which fuel this trade, and it´s so interesting.
i'm planning on travelling to copenhagen this thursday to interview a lady from Hope Now, an organisatin that does social and therapeutic work with ex prostitutes.
i look forward to hearing  her professional opinion on what governments, NGO's and international organisations can do to prevent trafficking from taking place.
i love the professional's personal opinion.

it's so interesting studying here.
i am finding the pace really difficult.
i'm getting used to it, but i still feel really lazy sometimes being so slow.
i have two months to research and submit something that i'd be made to do in 9 days at home.
i am learning how to slow down, take my time and not cram research in, but it's tough!

my friend from home told me on friday that she has 5 assignments due in the next 4 weeks.
i remember that pressure all too well.
i think it might produce better quality workers with good work ethic and time management,
but it's definately not healthy.
that stress is so damaging,
and i definately appreciate being able to really take in and enjoy this research project.



in other news,
i atteneded aarhus' rotary meeting this past thursday!

my rotary mentor from home helped me put together my application for the scholarship to come here, and as such, i told him that i would visit some of the rotary meetings here and bring greetings from home!

and i did, and it was weird, but it was cool and funny and yeah.

 

on friday afternoon and all night, i caught up with some of these beautiful danish friends

 

and saw this!
when you turn 25 here, if you are unmarried still - your friends tie you up on the street and throw cinnamon all over you!

 and then if you turn 30 and you're still unmarried - well then it's with pepper!

 

saturday was also a picnic out in the sun, where it was so warm that our chocolates melted!

i think you appreciate sun and flowers so much more when you've been so cold you thought you could fall over.

so that's about it!

i'm just about to bike ride and meet my friend to go for a walk in the woods.
that's another thing!
the only good thing about living a 30 minute bike ride from people is that you can have your danish cake at midnight and eat it too!
(just kidding, i´d eat it anyway.)
i sometimes get so knackered, but i think i'm slowwwlly getting danish legs!
i'm standing up less on my bike and i'm getting to places faster!
i'm starting to beat my own personal records ;)

ha ha.

okies, well . .  .

i guess i'll be seein´ya!