Days 146-156

"I need to update my blog. I need to update it...really"  Yeah been thinking that for like 5 days now. Oops. I've done so well updating about every day for my own memory-sake, I can't fail at the very end.

So back to day 146, which was June 12th. It was raining but Linda and I went to see this Viking event in Jelling (pronounced Yelling). The event was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. But there were a bunch of Icelandic horses, which were adorable. They are a shorter breed, not much taller than what you would think of a pony being. They are horses though, and I now want one. Haha. I also tried my hand at spinning wool. My parents have alpacas and you have to spin their fiber into yarn and such. Yeah, one of the hardest things I've ever tried. Fail. Fail. Fail. I think I'll stick with helping with naming them and putting up a website if my parents decide they want one. On Sunday, Linda had some friends over for lunch along with my cousin Eric and his girlfriend. I spent the morning going through my stuff, and PACKING. Yes, I actually packed about 85% of my stuff :) Anything I didn't think I would need was thrown in a bag, I'm sure this Sunday when I'm trying to get the rest of it to fit I'll just end up redoing it all, but it's the thought that counts ;) Lunch was fun. Susan, Linda's friend, is from NH so it was nice to not have a language barrier. I think lunch ended up being around 3 hours though, craziness. It's always good getting to spend time with Eric or Alex though.

Monday, I worked out and spent the afternoon watching Denmark play Holland in the World Cup. A rather amusing match I must say. I didn't really have a favorite because though I'm loving Denmark, my family is from Holland, so yay Holland?? Tuesday, I worked out, though I was in a lot of pain from the work out the day before, and hung out in the morning till Linda got home. That afternoon we went to the colony house to check on the plants. It was raining/cloudy so I don't think we were there long.

Wednesday, is where my life got a little more fun. I took a train out to Odense to visit Camilla and Alex, mostly Camilla because Alex was at work. But I got into the train station and we went grocery shopping before heading out to her parent's house.  This is one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen. It is a really old farm house...picture an old European farm house, and that's exactly what it looks like. Her mom was really sweet too; she doesn't know much English but tried anyway to talk to me. :) She put out all kinds of sandwiches, home made jam, etc They told me I had to eat because my family couldn't think I was being starved in Europe. Haha One of their cats also just had kittens, so you know I had too much fun playing with them. I want another kitten SO bad (restraining myself from doing so though......so far). After, we headed back to her and Alex's place and just hung out till he got home. After dinner, they took me down to the park area where everyone hangs out when the weather is good. We got ice cream and walked around the park, buttttt it started getting chilly out. Alex took me by his university so I could see it. It was basically one large building from what I could tell, but pretty big at the same time. From there we grabbed coffee at a cafe near the apartment before going back, watching "The Cave" (a strange scary movie), and going to bed. Overall, a very nice day :)

The next morning, I spent talking to a certain someone in the states while Camilla worked on job application things, the day before she'd gotten good news on two possible jobs (one of which is really far from her though), so I took it as a sign that she'll hopefully find something soon. We headed in town to do some shopping (all window shopping haha) and kill the time before I had to leave. They had just put in a new bakery so we grabbed something there and just sat and talked for a while. I grabbed an iced coffee and then the train around 2:00 to make it back in time for Linda to be getting out of work. I really enjoyed spending time with Camilla and Alex. Though conversation was hard at some points, just having family my age to spend time with is nice. I told them they have to come visit ASAP. Haha. Unfortunately, I don't get to see them again to say bye because Alex has a last minute business trip to the states (ironically) but he gets back in late Sunday. :( It's been nice to see them the bit that I could though.

Friday, I met up with Eric in town and got to see where he works, a small theater which is really nice actually. We grabbed some beer and headed back to his apartment and hung out a while before ordering pizza. A little later his friends started showing up for a party. There apartment is about the size of a dorm room, so it was interesting, plus many of the people didn't speak great English. It was fun though. Nice to again hang out with people closer to my age, though most were younger than me which NEVER happens. But during the late afternoon I also got the news that a close friend of my family, Richard Thompson, had committed suicide 2 days before. I was rather worried about my sister, and of course in a little bit of disbelief myself, so when Linda was done at her small work party, around 10, I headed home with her. I still had a really good time though, and it was nice to be extended an invite.

The next morning Linda and I went an hour and a half out to the west coast of Denmark. There are sand sculptures there that are very cool. I'll post a pic of one. I don't care if being excited to see them made me seem like I'm 12. :P Kid at heart, always. We grabbed lunch at an Italian buffet which was only 44 krones (around $7), though my glass of water was another 18 krones on top of that. They had vegetarian stuff, so I was happy. Then we walked down to the ocean, the North Sea to be exact. I've been rather stressed about certain aspects about going home, but the ocean was just what I needed to make that go away. Freshman year I used to go out to Sand Beach at all hours of the night when things got hard, the ocean has always been a bit of a savior in my life. I see many trips to Sand Beach in my near future. There is just something about the ocean. The waves there were huge too, the biggest I've seen. After, we went another 2 1/2 hours to where Linda thought was an alpaca farm, it turned out to be angora goats, but they were adorable. The owner caught the baby for me to see, he was so cute. I couldn't believe how easy it was to handle them. We were both exhausted by then so headed home.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went grocery shopping and fought with the internet much of the rest of the day. It was so strange. I could get on skype to message people and facebook would work, but NO other websites would work, no skype calling, no email....so weird. It's back to working for now though. Haywire internet. I was supposed to have a skype date with my friend Ben who is in the navy in South Carolina, butttt of course the internet started working again right after we'd given up on trying it. :( I'll be in the same time zone soon anyway so it'll be easier to talk. Plus he'll be home for leave soon :)  

A bit of a back story, last week a whale got stuck in the harbor-like area of Vejle. It cause quite the commotion. People wanted it put down....though there are no real successful methods to do so because they have hearts the size of cars, so either attach dynamite to it and blow it up, or let it die. Well it finally died the other day and now there is a huge debate on where it's going to end up. Copenhagen wants it because "the students there have never gotten to see anything like it." Well HELLO Vejle kids haven't either. Plus Vejle firefighters are the ones that went through all the work of getting it out of the water, and now it's Vejle people dissecting it. Yes, Copenhagen is the capital, but I mean really they should not get everything. Eric read somewhere how Copenhagen people were complaining that their people weren't getting to experience it...I have no words for this but...seriously?!? Anyways, we'll just have to see what happens.

Yesterday, I worked out and then went downtown to meet up with Eric again to say goodbye :( Before lunch we went to check out the whale. It was a strange site. For one, they were dissecting it, and two it looked rather deflated. I think we were there all of 2 seconds. Haha After, we went to a cafe to grab lunch; tuna sandwiches on bagels with elderberry flower smoothies. Delicious :) From there we walked to the hospital to meet up with Linda, she was just getting off work. I said my goodbyes to Eric and then Linda and I headed to the hardware store, the colony house, then home. I can't believe I'm already saying bye to people here...I feel like I just got here. I do feel like it's been forever since I've been home, but at the same time it's flown by. This time next week I'll be waking up at my parent's house...crazy. (I'll try to remember to post the pic of Eric and me after I upload it)

I really need to clone myself for the first two weeks there though. I have to move into my place, but at the same time there are a million people I want to see. Figuring out how I'm going to get moved should be interesting, I guess it's not a huge rush, but I would like to get my own place set up and everything before I go back to work on the 11th.

As far as today, I worked out this morning and now just doing this and hanging out till Linda gets home from work. I think we're going back out to the colony house this afternoon. A nice relaxing day. Tomorrow starts (?) the annual festival in Denmark where they set up bonfires and burn the witches back to Germany. Linda doesn't really know the history behind it, so I'll try to look it up before I update again. :)

Sunday will be my last update from Europe, it'll probably be while I can't sleep and am just sitting up awake. I think I have to be at the airport around 4 am anyway...maybe I'll get an hour or two of sleep, Haha.

Until the next time....& the last time from Europe :( ♥