My 28th Birthday

So, I am now 28, and embracing it. It sounds a bit older, but i guess I don't really feel it at this point. I celebrated the Saturday before my birthday by going to see Sex and the City 2, as well as dinner and drinks with some of my closest girlfriends. It was pretty low key, and everything I wanted!

On the actual day of my birthday (Monday), I had to go to work. I slept in a little, so I was in my bathrobe around 830am when someone knocked on the door. I looked through the peephole and it was non other than Susanne and Lonnie - two of my best friends. They surprised me with traditional Danish breakfast - rundstykker, ost og kage (bread, cheese and these Danish cake things). So we had a leisurely breakfast, and then I rode to work with Susanne.

In Denmark, the Danish flag is a big deal on your birthday. My coworkers put flags all over my desk. Then after work, I was scheduled to run a 10k with many of the girls from work. Susanne and I have been doing a lot of running together lately, which is a great way to get exercise and spend time together. After the run, I knew we were planning on having sandwiches on picnic benches, but when I turned around, Susanne had brought a traditional Danish kagemand (cake man) for my birthday as well. She also had Asti to celebrate, soda, coffee, tea, chips...everything you could need. That woman is amazing and one of the best friends I have ever had. She would do something like this for anyone, but I think she loves doing it for me because she knows how much I appreciate it, especially being away from family and friends.

Check out the pictures below of the kagemand. It says 'Lise Jensen, 28 aar.' Now, the name started because of this: foreigners can't say Liz the way Americans would. When I introduce myself and say Liz, they don't understand normally, and I end up saying Elizabeth. Then they get the connection, but their pronunciation is more of Lis, with an 's'. My soccer friends began calling me Lise, which is a traditional Danish name. Then obviously, Jones to Jensen was a pretty common switch, so when they want to speak Danish to me or when they want to tease me, they call me Lise Jensen. I told my coworkers this story, and they now call me Lise Jensen as well. So it was perfect that Susanne had that written on my cake!

Isn't it cute? Again, this is the cake that the birthday child gets to eat the head, and you scream when the neck is cut and the head is cut off.