Watching my First Danish Football Game!

Well, not live, but that is soon to come! We are going up to Klubben (the club at school) tonight with a new friend - Line Madsen - who I play soccer with. She lives nearby in the same area that we live in (Trøjberg), and invited Rachel and I to go watch the Champions League - a European soccer tournament - with all the big guns...Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester United, etc. The Danish team AaB (Aalborg BK) is playing Manchester United tonight at 20:45, so it will be interesting to see how into the game the Europeans get.

Line is a funny girl...like any typical soccer girl that I love. Down to earth, competitive, and not afraid to play rough. We bonded one night over the fact that we wear the best soccer shoes - the only two on the team who wear Copa Mundials! Sadly, mine have a hole in them, and may need to be retired soon. Breaking in new cleats sucks!

City of Aarhus

Here are a couple of photos of Aarhus, mainly taken in the city centre. We have been fortunate enough to live in or near the city centre in both of our apartments. This is the place to be! All the boutique shopping, the restaraunts, bars and clubs...

It doesn't take more than 20 minutes on bike to get anywhere (and yes, I did just recently purchase my bike!). Prior to that, we were walking EVERYWHERE. Our walk to school took us 40 min each way (uphill, in the snow!). I will admit, though, I do not miss driving. That is probably one of the few things from the US I do not miss. Because of the culture of walking and biking, and the food (not as many options, visit the grocery store much more frequently to purchase fresh), I have managed to trim down a bit...losing around 7 pounds so far. I haven't been able to get into a routine of exercising yet--haven't had money to join a gym--and have only gone running once, and it honestly hasn't affected me too much. I am, however, playing on a soccer team for my school (Aarhus School of Business), and that has been a higher level of competition than I was used to playing post-college. The girls are very aggressive here, which I love...thanks to my brothers and I growing up, I know how to take it and give it back!


This was part of the set-up for the Festival; the festival lasts for a week, and many people come into town for it. Everynight there are tents and live bands and beer and food, etc.

This is similar to San Antonio's River Walk. There are steps right down near hear called the Spanish steps, and we meet up with a lot of students at night to have a beer and just hang out.

I love the buildings and architecture, for the most part. Most of the apartments have a very NYC feel, also.

This is right in front of the Spanish steps we sit on, and was going on during the Festival. Parents could pay money for their kids, and they could get in these enclosed clear balls and bounce around and play on the river. I would have done it too!

Ok--enough posts for now. I have the hang of it, so I will upload more updates in the coming days, and then hopefully stay current.

Much love...

The Infamous Artwork

And now to highlight the beautiful artwork that makes Rachel and my home so cozy. Keep in mind, we got this apartment from a 55+ year old man who was moving to Thailand (note the tigers and hand painted artwork) to find a place to live with his girlfriend. We want to take them down, but haven't done so yet. They definitely make an interesting conversation piece!

This flourescent tiger is hanging on our bedroom wall currently.

Hans (the man who owns the apartment) told us to say good morning to his tiger every morning! This is handpainted from Thailand.

I don't know who this man is, but I know he is scary looking!

Native Americans...perhaps a nod and reminder to my Chippewa heritage?!

And again, another Native American....located in the living room. And saving the ABSOLUTE best for last--

A tribute to Lady Liberty herself! A hand painted picture of the Statue of Liberty. But wait! Instead of a torch in her hand, it is a smoking bong. And on the sides of the painting...no my friends, those are not palm trees; better yet, pot leaves! And enscribed on the tablet in her hand: Fri Hash Til Folket (translation: Free Weed for All the People)!

You can't say we don't have character :)

The New Apartment

A picture is worth a thousand words...so that is predominately what you will be getting! We are not settled in really because we have spent the last three days scrubbing the smoke off of everything. We are hitting Ikea tomorrow, and then should be in business, for whomever wants to visit! Forgive me while I get used to uploading pics on this website....some are out of order and sideways!

This is the living room, aka a bedroom. There was a couch and loveseat in this room; we moved the loveseat to the bedroom, bought a futon, and put it in this room for one of us to sleep on.

This is our view out of the kitchen window....actually a fairly nice view; we are located 5 minutes from "the beach," which really isn't a big beach at all, but people go there and hang out. The city of Aarhus is a coastal city on the main island of Denmark (Jutland), and our beach is on the Baltic Sea.

This is the other side of the living room (with our Ikea couch covers on the furniture!). Note the artwork...I will highlight that later!

The kitchen.....we had to buy a light for in here because there wasn't one, and if you went in after 8p at night, you couldn't see anything!

The bathroom...and yes, you still shower over the sink, but this bathroom is much better than the first one I had; it actually has a shower curtain that covers two walls, so the toilet doesn't get wet! Still hard to get used to the idea that you have to squeegee the floor towards the drain after every shower.

This is the bedroom; much to our dismay, we figured out we couldn't separate the queen bed into two twins (most big beds in Europe are just two beds combined). This is why we had to come up with the futon/loveseat solution. Not much storage anywhere; that single closet has BOTH of our belongings in it!

Catching up on Three Weeks!

So, I figured this would be an easy way to stay in contact with friends and family, especially for all of you who don't use Facebook. I can publish excerpts, pics, etc, and keep everyone in the loop on my little adventure abroad (that is, if you want to hear)!

To update--I have been in Aarhus, Denamark since Tuesday, August 19th. Its hard to believe I have been here 3.5 weeks. The first week or so.....were trying, to say the least. There were definitely times I wanted to say "I am done. Time to go home." I am not typically a quitter by any means, but there have been many things that were less than organized, to put it nicely. I know I can be EXTREMELY type A and organized--I do enjoy making a good list every now and then--however, it BLOWS my mind how a country can be so different than the US. Be thankful for the many, many processes we have in place to make life easy in the US. Because trust me, any task that you need to get accomplished over here takes three times as long. You need to ask three different people before you find one with the correct answer. And then after you finally find the correct answer, it takes 2-3 weeks to process what you need done.

At any rate, I attended Introduction Week

(events specifically for International students,

people new to Aarhus Business School (ASB), as well as Masters students). I met a lot of great people, and have a good circle of friends at the moment. I am closest with Rachel (an American from Minnesota; we are living together now) and Maggie (from Canada). We have many guy friends--it seems easier to make friends with guys than girls here, which could work to our advantage!

Classes have started, and it has been a little difficult to get into the swing of things again--reading chapters and articles.

I guess you could say I was a procrastinator during undergrad, but still managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude. I am not so sure here--these kids were all in the library the FIRST day of classes, highlighting away at those textbooks. Hopefully I am not in for a rude awakening! The exam scenarios are completely different than my undergrad in the US. We don't yet know when they will be, but I do know I have one in January, which potentially messes up my travel plans to go visit back home. But I believe my mom is coming to visit me for Christmas--I have already been invited into my "Buddy's" home to celebrate a traditional Danish Christmas with her and her family. Her name is Nanna, and she has been a lifesaver to me! She helped me get as ahead of the game as possible, which is not too far, but much further than many of the other internationals.

I have gotten involved with soccer, which is fun. I play for, what basically amounts to a Danish Semi-Pro team here (don't get too excited...we are the lowest level!). I play for my schools team, and the level of competition is greater than what I was playing on in Dallas and St. Louis, but less than college. I could get on a higher team, but am not sure I want the commitment. I have not had to practice (twice a week, by the way!) and wear shinguards, full uniforms, and pennies at practice since 2003! Its quite a change, but fun. The girls are much more aggressive here, which I LOVE! Just call me yellow card Liz...totally kidding, I have actually been good, and already have an assist tally to my name (sliding left footer across the mouth of the goal--pretty good for those who know me because I have NO left foot).

It is so interesting to see the different walks of life, and how there are people completely around the world whom you become friends with, even if there are cultural barriers at first. I know the one main lesson/growth I want to come from this is patience in life, and understanding the idea that you can't always plan everything out...what will be will be. A very wise friend has been trying to teach me that lesson for awhile (you know who you are! :) It is definitely something I want to change in myself, and I can honestly tell you, I jumped right in to it. I am much more laid back now; I can't plan everything out, because quite honestly, the culture here just doesn't work that way. Everyone is a lot more relaxed, and more interested in hanging out socially than putting their nose to the grind and hammering it all out in time. It is quite refreshing that the pace of life is much slower than the US.

My roommate Rachel and I have been compiling a list of things that stun us daily. We will be walking down the street, both see something at the same time, and all we can think is, "Why not?!" followed by some laughter. Stay tuned, and I will publish a list. As a teaser...the society is so trusting, moms leave their strollers alone on the sidewalk while they go into the store or cafe...with their babies in them!

I have a new phone number now, for anyone who wishes to call me: 45 29 70 0271. Speaking on the phone is a luxury for me. Email has been great, as well as AOL IM and Yahoo Messenger. I have been lucky enough to web cam with a few: Mom, Dad, Tim, Kevin, Kelly and Naz. It is nice to see and hear all of you, so if you are interested, lets set up a date! I am 7 hours ahead of CST, to give you a timeframe.

I am going to head to bed, and will write more as interesting things happen. When we finally get settled into our apartment (scrubbing 5 years worth of smoke off of the wall, floors, furniture, silverware, etc, is taking a lot more time than anticipated!) I will email pictures. We are hitting IKEA on Saturday, so we should be good to go after that. This weekend will be exciting--Fregasday (Sportsday Celebration) is tomorrow: this involves all the universities in Arhus, and consists of sporting events during the day, and a festival at night, complete with what I am told is the hottest Danish boy band in town...Nik and Jay! It should be interesting. Saturday is our new friend Birgitte's birthday, so we will go out with her friends, and see how a night out with true locals is. And Rachel and I are headed to Munich, Germany next Thursday night for the REAL DEAL....Oktoberfest! That will be a blast!

Peace---definitely won't write as much again probably. This message was making up for the lack thereof the last three weeks. Love you all.

PS--I am so proud of myself for being a little tech nerd with this blog thing! I was inspired by a friend from Dallas that I realized is living in Moscow, Russia now. She is doing the same thing for friends and family back home. I plan to visit her in the coming months!