Sunset at the beach

NOTE: I have decided not to post peoples names because I do not have their permission to post their names in the internet. So from now on I am only posting the first letter of their first name.


On Tuesday Nov 16, a co-worker of mine (B) was so kind and took myself, my office mate (C) and a my friend who is visiting me from Iowa (E) to the beach near Slagelse.

We had a lot of fun and the sight was beautiful. I found out that getting to this beach is not difficult there is a bike trail all the the way there from where I live. I was so excited because it is about a hour bike trip there, it is so close.

After the sunset at the beach we all went of for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. The food at this restaurant was delicious, I personally did not order anything. Instead I had a piece of everyone's pizza this way I could try some many different types of food. Even the atmosphere of this restaurant was amazing. This was the best way to end the evening laughing with new friends.

I think it would be best to let the pictures I took to do the rest of the talking.















On this last picture I moved that is why it is a bit fuzzy. But the silhouette of B and his girlfriend with the sunset is just so amazing.

Jul – Beer

(Written on November 9^th)

So it has been a while since I posted any thing and that is mostly because after my day I am just exhausted and I am just now adjusted to the seven-hour difference.

I will first tell you how a basic workday for me is: I usually wake up at 6:45am; I have breakfast etc and then walk out the door at 7:50am to get to the bus stop. The bus comes at 8am, after riding the bus for about 15 minutes I get to work. I get to my office, turn on my computer and then go to the cafeteria and get a nice hot cup of coffee. I bring the coffee to the office and begun to start working. I have a lot to do for my final thesis I am really busy with that. Lunch is served at the cafeteria from 11:30 to 12:30, and they serve really good freshly made food. After lunch I am back to work and around 4 or 5pm I pack up my stuff and head to the bus stop to go home. Once I get home, I go through the mail, I swear I get more mail here then I ever did back in the States. After going through the mail, cleaning up a bit, I start making dinner. After dinner I take a shower and then washing the dishes. At last I work on reading material again for my thesis and I fall asleep and my day starts again.

I did have an interruption in my routine on Friday November 5^th. In Denmark, Nov 5^th was J-Day, this is the day in which the Jul Beer comes out. (Jul=Christmas) So basically there was a huge party for the Christmas beer that comes out only during this time. After work I met a new office mate (Cr) and walked to the pub called The UPPER Hill where we meet many other Ph.d. students. So let me set the scene for you, we walk into this big pub and it is packed full, we find the rest of the students at a big table in the back of the pub. (I was quite happy when I found out this was a NON-smoking pub.)

The photo shows the coaster placed on the tables. The coaster says “Merry Christmas and Good Tub’ year”. The joke is Tub’ year instead of New year, cause the beer makers name is Tuborg.

When sat and chatted then at 9pm the speakers started to play “Jingle Bells” every one was clapping and singing along. That is when the Jul-Beer started flowing, a few guys went up the bar and purchased a few rounds of beers. I must say the Jul beer was quite good and I really did like it.

During the night I only had two beers, it seemed that every time I emptied my glass someone grabbed it and refilled it. So I learned on the third beer DO NOT finish the glass. However there was other Ph.d. decided to say screw it to their personal limits and went all out and drank the night away. Through the night we got a few cute hats, and we passed it around so that every one had a chance to wear it. I was lucky enough to take one of these hats home, and the photo shows the blue Christmas hat. The hat says “Stangstiv… Ingen kys” which means “Drunk… Don’t kiss” with flashing lights. I saw many people wearing these hats; some girls were wearing cute (small) blue elf outfits. The outfit was cute but the first thing I thought was that girl has to be cold when she walks outside.

Later that night the truck with the free beer came to that pub, when the truck came a man in a blue Santa-like suit began handing out free beer and all his female elves were posing for pictures and giving out Jul beer ink stamps on people.

After a great time, two other Ph.d. and I walked back to our apartments. After having a few glasses of water to ensure I would not wake up with a hang over I went to bed.

The following Saturday you could purchase this Jul-beer in any store and is only available until the end of December. Since I liked this beer I felt I should go get some of the Jul-beer to have at home. I found that the cans have really cute Christmas design on it. The front of the can is shown in the picture below.

Also – if you click on the title of this post you will be redirected to a youtube video about Jul-beer.

My feet hurt but I sure had fun

(Written on the evening October 30^th)

Right now I do not have the internet at my apartment, so I am writing these posts at home and then posting them when I get to work. That is why I say ‘Written on date’ on top.

On Friday Oct 29^th one of my new office mates (Cr) offered to take me shopping in the center of town or shopping districts in Slagelse on Saturday (Oct 30^th). I need a few things for my apartment and she knew where all the second hand shops were. On Saturday, I walked over to her place, which is only a 10-minute walk and had breakfast at her place and then we went out to go shopping.

It was deceiving looking at the map, at first I thought the shopping districts were far from where I live. However, as we starting walking we reached the markets in less then 5 minutes. So I was excited to find out that the center of town and all the markets are only about a 15-minute walk from my place.

Cr and I went around to three different second hand stores in the area. Just like any second hard store in the States there were tons of items to choose from. There were clothes, boots, purses and many other things. There was store that had a great selection of used furniture. Cr says that there are new items in the furniture section all the time so it is worth going every weekend to see what is there.

Cr was very nice and helpful always pointing out the direction where her apartment was so that I could orient myself and not get lost. She also pointed out the entrances to the two malls in town and we entered one. She did a little clothes shopping, while I looked around at all the shops.

Cr then showed me a popular store in the mall called Kvickly (pronounced Quickly). When we entered Kvickly, honestly the first thing I thought was this place looks like a miniature Super-Walmart. Just like a Super-Walmart it had a food section, home section, kitchen, electronics and many others. Cr was helpful and pointed out good food prices. Also if there were any food items I wanted she would mention if it were a good price or mention another place that has that item for a cheaper price.

We also went to the information center where you can purchase gifts and get maps of the city. They map they have of the city is detailed and has a lot of information on it.

The one thing that is different about shopping in Europe is that it works best if you bring your own bag or sack. The stores do have sacks for you to use but you must pay for them. I did not have a good sack to use, so Cr and I shared the one she had. So after shopping at the second hand stores we walked back to Cr’s apartment dropped off our purchased items and then went back to the market. We made three trips the square and back. I did have a lot of fun and there is plenty are places to go shopping.

After having lunch at Cr’s apartment I packed all my items and walked home, I put all my items away and just relaxed.

Well I am off to bed. Thank you for your love and support.

Finally in Denmark

(Written on the evening of Oct 28^th)

I was so happy when I found out that my new flight to Stockholm was NOT delayed or cancelled. We were able to board and leave Chicago with no problems, even better was the fact that the flight was not full. So I was to lie down on two seats and get some amount of sleep; as much sleep as I could get on a loud plane with the occasionally seat belt clip poking me in the side.

Unlike international flights, in transatlantic flights there is much more room. Every seat has a small tv screen that plays music, games, movies, and tv shows. I was able to play suduko for some time and even watched a movie. In both first class and economy you also get a pillow and blanket, of course the better pillows and blankets are in first class.

The one thing that surprised me was the quality of food on the plane. Usually when I think plane food, I think horrible food. But the dinner served included a nice salad with feta cheese, with a good size bun. The main entrée was roasted pork, potatoes and broccoli. Then there was a small wedge of brie cheese with crackers and ending the dinner with tirsumu. I was pleasantly surprised and full after eating that. I was never more surprised when they started passing out food for breakfast. I was thinking that since the plane landed at 7:30 that would not get breakfast.

Once we landed in Stockholm, even though Copenhagen was my final destination. I had to go through customs; they looked at my passport and then we had to go through security again. There were a few people I let in front of me cause they had an earlier flight. I felt bad for the guy in front of me, cause he bought three bottles of alcohol on the plane to Stockholm but the security took it when he landed. And many people behind me had bottles of water that they bought in O’Hare which they had to either drink really fast or throw away.

Once I passed security, getting to my next gate was easy. But the one thing that amazed me about the airport in Stockholm was that it was like a huge shopping mall. There were clothing shops with designer clothes and fragrances and huge jewelry stores selling diamond earring and necklaces. Oh and of course there was a Starbucks.

Flying to Copenhagen was uneventful, the flight was full and they did not serve any drinks or food on this flight. But overall the flight was fine. After landing, I ran into the two women from Chicago O’Hare (all three of us missed our original flight to Copenhagen) and we waited together for our luggage to show up on the belt. After waiting for ten minutes and seeing other people with their luggage we just knew our luggage was lost. Later we found out that our luggage was still in Chicago and we would get it later. Of course their definition of ‘later’ was broad, I was dreading that I would not see my luggage for days. I was not happy cause I did not have any extra clothes with me and I really wanted to brush my teeth.

However, on the evening of the 28^th my luggage was delivered to my apartment. I was so happy not only because I got my luggage back but also that everything was in my luggage. I have heard many horror stories of items being stolen from their luggage while traveling but all was well.

When I exited the airport my new professor (T) was waiting for me and he is a very nice person. He drove me to his house so I could get some more food since I have not eaten since 7 am. (It was about noon at this time.) He also let me use his phone to call C, my boyfriend and let him know that I am ok. After which my new professor took me to tmy new office, since my computer was already set up I would be able to send emails and meet a people. (I will make a separate post about my office and institute later.) The computer set up was nice, I just have to get used to a Danish keyboard. The majority of the keyboard is the same however there were some differences.

I share the office with two other people but the best this is that there are two windows in this office. Unlike my office at Iowa State University, which was a dungeon, with no windows at all. After meeting many new people and sending out emails, my professor took me to a grocery store near my new apartment. (In a separate post I will discuss the food and grocery stores.) He then took my to my new apartment and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, even though it is only 39 meters squared (420 square feet). I promise to post many pictures of my new apartment in a week or two, right now I do not have Internet at the apartment and it will take some time to get it set up. Once I get the Internet at the apartment I will post many pictures.

I was introduced to a post doc (S) in my lab group that also lives near by and he is very helpful. He also showed me the trick to locking my apartment door. If you want to send letters to my apartment, my mom has my Denmark address or you can email me and I gave send it you. You are welcome to send letters and cards, I promise to write back. I know many people would be excited to get a letter from Europe.

I will end this post for now. Thank you for your love and support.