Wow. Today I was in three countries. Doesn't that sounds strange and exciting?
Well, my Danish adventure has almost come to a close. Tomorrow I will be leaving for the airport to fly back to Chicago. It is hard for me to believe I have been in Europe for 9 weeks. At the same time, though, I have a TON of memories (and pictures) that I will not forget. :-) But let me update you on Munich.
So in my last post I thought I would just bum around and not do anything. Well, that didn't really happen. I met three great guys from the States: David (MechE), Michael (Civil) and Justin (Comp Sci with languages). As you can tell we hit things off well just because of our majors. I ended up going to three bars/beer serving places with them that night. I did NOT drink at all three but did have some tasty beer. And it was fun! We got back a bit late but made plans to hit some of the major beer gartens/halls on Tuesday. I hung out with them all day on Tuesday and had a blast. We had Paulaner beer at the Paulaner brewery beer garten and also went to the English beer garten. At both places we had interactions with Martin Monk. Look him up on Youtube. In two months (that is what he claimed) we will all be on youtube in his "Beer Garten" episode. Oh man, this guy was a character! I can't really describe him here because words just won't do him proper justice. It was fun and very awkward. :-) After the English garten we wanted to go to the Hirsch beer garten, which is the largest in the world at an 8000 person capacity (they serve like 186 American sized beers AN HOUR or something ridiculous like that). We got lost and ended up eating (and drinking) at Augustiner (the place has great beer and delicious and cheap food). My stomach was acting up again so while I had ordered an incredibly delicious blue cheese lasagna-like dish I could only eat about 15 bites of it. Thankfully the guys were hungry. :-)
We made it to the Hirsch garten but ended up chatting with some locals for like half an hour before almost running to the beer garten so the guys could get one more maass (it's not supposed to have two a's but Idk how to make the symbol correctly). They drank and we headed back to Wombats where we chilled at the bar till it closed at like 1:30. I went to bed and we had plans for them to come get me before they left for Neuschwanstein (the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle).
Wednesday saw me wake up in a room with 5 guys. Yes, it's possible and it did happen. I knew one of them but things were still a bit awkward. I have engineering to thank for prepping me (kind of) for such a situation. But anyway, I had to wait for all of them to use the bathroom and once they were done I got to shower. David showed up twice, the second time to tell me they wanted to catch a train 15 minutes later. So I grabbed my bag and off we went. We ended up running to the train which meant we were sweaty forever because the train had no AC and it was over 80 and sunny the whole day. But the view of the castle was fantastic! It may be under restoration but it is still beautiful. We booked it back down the mountain and got on our train just in time. After an hour we parted ways (sadly) as they were off to the Black Forest and I was going back to Munich. They really did make those two days incredibly fun for me and seeing the castle with them was way more fun than it would have been alone.
I called home, my grandparents and my great aunt after all of that and then went to bed. Yesterday I went on the free walking tour and it was AMAZING! Ozzie is THE BEST tour guide EVER! So, if you go to Munich, stay at Wombats Munich and take the free walking tour with Ozzie. He is the only black tour guide in the city and he literally talks the whole 4.5 hours you are with him. Yes, 4.5, you read that right. Didn't feel like it at all and you see a ton. Our tour ended at the English garten but a bunch of us bought beer/food and sat with him for a few hours. I didn't get back to the hostel till 6:30. It was a great day. My shins were in pain, though, as I am pretty sure I got minor shin splints from booking it down the mountain on Wed and then didn't help them with the walking tour. So that's a pray request: healing for my little shins.
I went to bed relatively early and was awake sometime after 3 this morning by my new roommates (again, all 5 were guys). Beer just does funny things to foreigners I guess. :-) Got up this morning and was basically all packed. Got ready, did Internet then bought my train pass and more chocolate than I should have, packed the chocolate and headed to the airport. I got there WAY early but am glad because I finished reading Acts and started reading Romans. It is amazing how much I have learned in just the past few days while I have been in Munich. Not just historically and culturally but spiritually too. I didn't grow much last summer while at Abbott and was afraid the same thing would happen this summer. I shouldn't have feared that happening because, well, it didn't.
The flights went well though I was tired for both of them. Got back to CPH around 7:10, got my bag, discovered all of my beer bottles were intact, and headed home. Got to Hellerup around 9:30 and caught the 21 to Emdrup Soepark. It took me like 15 minutes to walk from the stop to the house because my bag was so heavy but when I arrived Yujie was excited to see me and then I learned that Lise is gone for the weekend. I shouldn't have rejoiced as much as I did but it means less stress for me. I also get to sleep in a bed tonight and not worry too much about showering or packing. In fact, I thought I would pack tonight but I will probably only sleep till 8 or 9 and then have plenty of time to repack a bit. I need to be at the airport around noon tomorrow so I can do tax free stuff before check-in. Check-in will NOT open more than two hours before take off (which is 3:30pm tomorrow) so I do not want to be there too long. Noon should be fine.
So there is the update. I am glad to be back in CPH again, even if just for one night. This place is familiar (though parts of Munich were familiar by today)and I know how to get around and where I want to go. Last week you may remember I did not want to leave. I still would like to stay but after being on "vacation" for a week I am ready to be home. Guess that just goes to show that God will provide and prepare you for whatever is ahead, even if you don't realize it.
I do, however, have prayer requests. Please be praying for my shins as I travel tomorrow. Pray for peace of mind and comfort as I travel (God has been so good to me every time I've travelled!) and for the weather and crew. Also, this is ridiculous, please pray that my beer bottles won't break! They are important to me for more reasons than just the fact they are German beer and I really want to get them home. They survived today and I am tempted to leave them just as they are (don't worry, I will add more padding and more plastic bags) for tomorrow's trip. Also, please pray for my family as they drive down to Chicago to get me. They have had lives the past two months and I am coming back "all of a sudden." Pray for my attitude as well. I have been gone and want to see everyone and will have the urge to be the "center of the world." I by no means want to be like that as I cannot wait to hear what everyone else has been up to, who they have met and what they have learned. But attitude is huge. Thank you for praying; I really appreciate it!
Have a great day/night/afternoon and I will probably post one last time once I am back in the States just so that I can talk about my trip home.
Bekah
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Munich Update 1
Hallo! I am currently in Munich and am finishing up my second full day here.
Let's see, where to begin. I got up at 6:30 on Saturday, got ready, finished packing and cleaned up the room. If I do say so myself it looked pretty good. Hopefully Lise felt the same way when she got home. Yujie was up to let me move my suitcase and computer into her room. She is so good to me. Lise wanted me to keep my stuff in the garden shed till I got back. Thank the Lord for Yujie! Then it was off to the airport. I was running a bit late and caught the bus shortly before 8. Once at Hellerup I discovered the machine wasn't accepting credit cards and I couldn't find my klip card. I eventually bought a full ride ticket and waited on the platform for the next train. Who should I meet while waiting there but Burcin and Brandon! She was flying out to DC that day so we rode the train to the airport together. I was freaking out a little bit about getting to the plane on time and she calmed my fears. The Lord is good.
Once at the airport I went straight through to security because I already had my boarding pass. No problems and then it was off to the gate. Boarding was actually announced this time (Swiss:1 Norwegian:0) and on my way to my seat I chatted with one of the flight attendants about getting to my connection on time. That flight was good as I slept a good portion of it but there was an obnoxious 10-12 year old boy kitty-corner behind me who decided to wham his foot on the floor the last ten minutes of the flight. He also thought it was fun to yell just about everything he said. With his mom sitting right there you would think that wouldn't happen but whatever.
Landed in Zurich and walked the length of the A terminal (gate 86 to 05), waited ten minutes and boarded the flight to Munich. That was short and sweet and the rather large man next to me slept the whole flight. I highly recommend Swiss airlines. They are nice, punctual and you get chocolate after any snack or at the end of the flight. Delicious. I bought a ticket for the Sbahn and took my 45 minute train ride to Hauptbahnhof (the central station). Then I wandered a wee little bit before finding my hostel. Walked in and Tom checked me in. Tom is basically my hostel hero. He has seriously answered EVERYTHING for me. Headed up to the room (4th floor) and made my bed and put stuff away and chilled on the bed. A few minutes later a guy walks in, introduces himself as Paul and then says he is finishing his Internet time and would be back. Turns out Paul's a Brit and would be there for two nights. He invited me out to eat with two other guys (Ryan a Kiwi and Aaron an American) and out we went. All of us were basically starving. I had a delicious bavarian meal of meat meat and more meat as well as some beer at the Augstiner. Or something like that. Then to a biergarten where the guys had another stein, back to the restaurant and then to the hostel. Due to lack of sleep and huge lack of proper food I was sick on the way back to the hostel. Yay, three big cities, three lost meals. But I am really glad I met Paul, Ryan, Aaron and Martin (Aussie who joined us later).
That brings us to yesterday. I did absolutely nothing. I woke up to find myself in a room with 4 guys. That was not supposed to happen and, so, I felt a little weird at first. All of them had been travelling for some time, though, so they felt pretty at ease. Raj was above me and was leaving for Frankfurt and then back to India so he'd only slept there. Andy is from Leeds and will be here till at least tomorrow. Bernard is from Brazil and is here till Thursday I think. Then there's me and Paul. One of them snored like nobody's business so none of us slept well. I showered and ate breakfast with Paul then did Internet, rested because my stomach was acting up, and then found a call shop so I could call home. Then I took a two hour nap (lovely!) and headed down to the bar in the hostel with Bernard. I met Pedro (another Brazilian), Luca from Italy and two people from France. I also met Alex and John from Orange County and had a nice chat with them. I ended up ordering a small sandwich thing because my stomach just did not want to eat and then headed up to bed around 10. I had a nice quiet time and then journaled and was asleep probably around 11.
This morning I woke up at 9:15. Ah, that was wonderful! The snoring guy hadn't been as bad and all of us slept better. Our room gets really hot so I suggested leaving the window open all night and that definitely helped. So, I showered (again), did Internet, grabbed a roll and muffin at a cafe I discovered and then headed to the train station. I bought a full day pass and took a 40 minute train ride to Herrsching. From there I took a ten minute bus ride up to Kloster Andechs. It is a brewery based out of a monastery. I spent a REALLY long time there. Unfortunately my German is next to none and everything there was in German. I wandered around the church (absolutely beautiful) and then headed down to the brewery only to be directed back up the hill to food and beer. I finally got food and a beer and sat down. Now you must know that it was ridiculously hot and in that weather I do not actually want to drink a lot of beer. So it took me a good two hours to finish mine. The dopplebock dunzel was very good, though. Once done I headed to the gift shop and bought a few things then bought some dopplebocks to bring home. I was going to catch the bus back to Herrsching but realized I was in no rush. So I plopped down on a bench in a grassy area and journalled for 45 minutes or so. When I finished that and took a couple more pictures I headed to the bus. While waiting for that I met a group of five Americans who work for United. That was pretty cool and they were very funny. They head back to the States tomorrow. I headed to the train and took my 40 minute ride back to Hauptbahnhof.
On my way to the Hostel I bought a juice, the first fruit I have had since Friday. Ah, it was soooo delicious! In fact, I will probably go there every morning now after the cafe to top off my breakfast. And now I am back at the Hostel. I've put my stuff away and now Internet. I don't really want to go out for dinner or anything so I will probably head across the street for pizza or a kebab and then hang out in the bar or the wintergarten before calling it a night. Yup, I am THAT boring in Munich. :-) But as Paul so wisely said to me: this is my trip, do as I want.
I ask that you pray for my stomach because it is still not 100%. I have no idea why and would really like to look at food and WANT to eat it instead of having to tell myself it is a necessity. Other than that, I have seen Andechs, which was the one thing I wanted to see, so pray I would be able to enjoy the rest of my time here at my own pace.
Have a wonderful day/night/afternoon and I figure I will post once more before heading back to Copenhagen,
Bekah
Let's see, where to begin. I got up at 6:30 on Saturday, got ready, finished packing and cleaned up the room. If I do say so myself it looked pretty good. Hopefully Lise felt the same way when she got home. Yujie was up to let me move my suitcase and computer into her room. She is so good to me. Lise wanted me to keep my stuff in the garden shed till I got back. Thank the Lord for Yujie! Then it was off to the airport. I was running a bit late and caught the bus shortly before 8. Once at Hellerup I discovered the machine wasn't accepting credit cards and I couldn't find my klip card. I eventually bought a full ride ticket and waited on the platform for the next train. Who should I meet while waiting there but Burcin and Brandon! She was flying out to DC that day so we rode the train to the airport together. I was freaking out a little bit about getting to the plane on time and she calmed my fears. The Lord is good.
Once at the airport I went straight through to security because I already had my boarding pass. No problems and then it was off to the gate. Boarding was actually announced this time (Swiss:1 Norwegian:0) and on my way to my seat I chatted with one of the flight attendants about getting to my connection on time. That flight was good as I slept a good portion of it but there was an obnoxious 10-12 year old boy kitty-corner behind me who decided to wham his foot on the floor the last ten minutes of the flight. He also thought it was fun to yell just about everything he said. With his mom sitting right there you would think that wouldn't happen but whatever.
Landed in Zurich and walked the length of the A terminal (gate 86 to 05), waited ten minutes and boarded the flight to Munich. That was short and sweet and the rather large man next to me slept the whole flight. I highly recommend Swiss airlines. They are nice, punctual and you get chocolate after any snack or at the end of the flight. Delicious. I bought a ticket for the Sbahn and took my 45 minute train ride to Hauptbahnhof (the central station). Then I wandered a wee little bit before finding my hostel. Walked in and Tom checked me in. Tom is basically my hostel hero. He has seriously answered EVERYTHING for me. Headed up to the room (4th floor) and made my bed and put stuff away and chilled on the bed. A few minutes later a guy walks in, introduces himself as Paul and then says he is finishing his Internet time and would be back. Turns out Paul's a Brit and would be there for two nights. He invited me out to eat with two other guys (Ryan a Kiwi and Aaron an American) and out we went. All of us were basically starving. I had a delicious bavarian meal of meat meat and more meat as well as some beer at the Augstiner. Or something like that. Then to a biergarten where the guys had another stein, back to the restaurant and then to the hostel. Due to lack of sleep and huge lack of proper food I was sick on the way back to the hostel. Yay, three big cities, three lost meals. But I am really glad I met Paul, Ryan, Aaron and Martin (Aussie who joined us later).
That brings us to yesterday. I did absolutely nothing. I woke up to find myself in a room with 4 guys. That was not supposed to happen and, so, I felt a little weird at first. All of them had been travelling for some time, though, so they felt pretty at ease. Raj was above me and was leaving for Frankfurt and then back to India so he'd only slept there. Andy is from Leeds and will be here till at least tomorrow. Bernard is from Brazil and is here till Thursday I think. Then there's me and Paul. One of them snored like nobody's business so none of us slept well. I showered and ate breakfast with Paul then did Internet, rested because my stomach was acting up, and then found a call shop so I could call home. Then I took a two hour nap (lovely!) and headed down to the bar in the hostel with Bernard. I met Pedro (another Brazilian), Luca from Italy and two people from France. I also met Alex and John from Orange County and had a nice chat with them. I ended up ordering a small sandwich thing because my stomach just did not want to eat and then headed up to bed around 10. I had a nice quiet time and then journaled and was asleep probably around 11.
This morning I woke up at 9:15. Ah, that was wonderful! The snoring guy hadn't been as bad and all of us slept better. Our room gets really hot so I suggested leaving the window open all night and that definitely helped. So, I showered (again), did Internet, grabbed a roll and muffin at a cafe I discovered and then headed to the train station. I bought a full day pass and took a 40 minute train ride to Herrsching. From there I took a ten minute bus ride up to Kloster Andechs. It is a brewery based out of a monastery. I spent a REALLY long time there. Unfortunately my German is next to none and everything there was in German. I wandered around the church (absolutely beautiful) and then headed down to the brewery only to be directed back up the hill to food and beer. I finally got food and a beer and sat down. Now you must know that it was ridiculously hot and in that weather I do not actually want to drink a lot of beer. So it took me a good two hours to finish mine. The dopplebock dunzel was very good, though. Once done I headed to the gift shop and bought a few things then bought some dopplebocks to bring home. I was going to catch the bus back to Herrsching but realized I was in no rush. So I plopped down on a bench in a grassy area and journalled for 45 minutes or so. When I finished that and took a couple more pictures I headed to the bus. While waiting for that I met a group of five Americans who work for United. That was pretty cool and they were very funny. They head back to the States tomorrow. I headed to the train and took my 40 minute ride back to Hauptbahnhof.
On my way to the Hostel I bought a juice, the first fruit I have had since Friday. Ah, it was soooo delicious! In fact, I will probably go there every morning now after the cafe to top off my breakfast. And now I am back at the Hostel. I've put my stuff away and now Internet. I don't really want to go out for dinner or anything so I will probably head across the street for pizza or a kebab and then hang out in the bar or the wintergarten before calling it a night. Yup, I am THAT boring in Munich. :-) But as Paul so wisely said to me: this is my trip, do as I want.
I ask that you pray for my stomach because it is still not 100%. I have no idea why and would really like to look at food and WANT to eat it instead of having to tell myself it is a necessity. Other than that, I have seen Andechs, which was the one thing I wanted to see, so pray I would be able to enjoy the rest of my time here at my own pace.
Have a wonderful day/night/afternoon and I figure I will post once more before heading back to Copenhagen,
Bekah
Friday, August 14, 2009
I am not in school...
...so why is sleep such a hot commodity all of a sudden?
Seriously though, all I want to do is sleep for like two days straight. Good thing I'm getting up in about 7 and a half hours to get ready to leave for Munich, right? Haha, yay vacation! Yes, I know, I have a good way of complaining about even the most exciting things. Please forgive me, I am rather tired.
Today was my last day at Topsoe. I had everything done by about 11 (cleaning, sending/uploading files, compiling e-mail lists) so I was very ready for lunch at noon. I ate with Brandon, Burcin, Arkady and Klas and met two new people (one whose name I don't know and the other was Pablo or Paolo). Lunch was fun and very nice, though everyone kept bringing up that it was my last day. :-(
Spent the afternoon reading PhD Comics. Yes, I know, lame but they are actually pretty funny. My paper is done and I also got a recommendation letter from Esben, which is fantastic! Around 3 I headed into lab to say good bye to everyone. That was hard/awkward because, yeah, good byes are just awkward and difficult. Both Simon and Bodil told me that if I did go through with applying at Topsoe to let them all know so that they could push my application. Brandon and Burcin said the same thing. How blessed am I? Very. Beyond measure, actually.
Anyway, I went to the "pub" at 3:30 and ate beer and irish coffee flavored ice creams (I liked the Irish coffee one better). Said good bye to Lars and then Esben (he's finally getting to go on vacation and leaves for Malta tomorrow afternoon) and then Brandon and Burcin drove me and Klas to Hellerup. The four of us rode into the center of the city and met Arkady at an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, the company wonderful. They all overpaid and I spent a grand total of like 50 kroner on the night. Then we went and had a beer at an outdoor cafe and just chatted for a while. That was nice. The beer? Langfarts beer. Yeah, two of us got it just for the name. :-) I had decided that since I hadn't paid for dinner I would try to pay for drinks. I managed to GET the check and HAND it back to the waiter with plenty of money to pay for it but Burcin made a fuss (as did the rest of them) and she proceeded to retrieve said bill and money, hand the money back to me and they all chipped in to pay. It's what you do when someone leaves, I know, I would have done the same but to be so doted upon, well, it makes me feel special. And that was a terrible sentence as far as grammar goes. Anyway, then it was slowly saying good bye. First Arkady then Klas then Brandon and Burcin. It's done. There is no going back.
I got home at 9 which was an hour earlier than I had set as a deadline so I was able to call my mom and chat for a few minutes and then I set about packing and cleaning. Since it's late I cannot really clean. Vacuuming will have to wait till right before I leave. Ah, I am nervous. My duffel and backpack will not be too stuffed, thankfully, but I am so afraid of forgetting something vital or bringing something too precious (moreso the former than the latter). Then I realized I will probably be sleeping on the couch next Friday and won't want to throw my stuff everywhere to repack. So I repacked my big suitcase as best I could. Please, this is very selfish, pray that I can ship beer from Andechs back home so that I will not have to repack the big suitcase next week. Any other breakable thing I buy can go in my backpack but beer must be checked and right now I have the porcelain and glass I'm bringing back packed well and my bag shuts.
Okay, I need to go to sleep. I do not know if I will be able to blog while in Munich. If I can the updates will have to be short (yes, rejoice, go ahead) simply because even though I type very quickly I do not want to spend tons of euros in order to update this. I'd rather spend those euros on another memory card for my camera (which will probably be necessary).
Please please PLEASE pray for Yujie while I am gone and for Lise. Pray that they will have understanding and patience with one another and that the cultural differences will not form too large a barrier. Please pray for my travels tomorrow and my time in Munich. Pray for courage, humility, and to have an overwhelming sense of God's presence too. Pray for safe travels for Esben and Burcin as he goes on vacation and she heads to DC for an ACS conference. Pray for my coworkers and all I have met while here. Thank you for praying and I hope your summer, as it comes to a close, ends well.
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Seriously though, all I want to do is sleep for like two days straight. Good thing I'm getting up in about 7 and a half hours to get ready to leave for Munich, right? Haha, yay vacation! Yes, I know, I have a good way of complaining about even the most exciting things. Please forgive me, I am rather tired.
Today was my last day at Topsoe. I had everything done by about 11 (cleaning, sending/uploading files, compiling e-mail lists) so I was very ready for lunch at noon. I ate with Brandon, Burcin, Arkady and Klas and met two new people (one whose name I don't know and the other was Pablo or Paolo). Lunch was fun and very nice, though everyone kept bringing up that it was my last day. :-(
Spent the afternoon reading PhD Comics. Yes, I know, lame but they are actually pretty funny. My paper is done and I also got a recommendation letter from Esben, which is fantastic! Around 3 I headed into lab to say good bye to everyone. That was hard/awkward because, yeah, good byes are just awkward and difficult. Both Simon and Bodil told me that if I did go through with applying at Topsoe to let them all know so that they could push my application. Brandon and Burcin said the same thing. How blessed am I? Very. Beyond measure, actually.
Anyway, I went to the "pub" at 3:30 and ate beer and irish coffee flavored ice creams (I liked the Irish coffee one better). Said good bye to Lars and then Esben (he's finally getting to go on vacation and leaves for Malta tomorrow afternoon) and then Brandon and Burcin drove me and Klas to Hellerup. The four of us rode into the center of the city and met Arkady at an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, the company wonderful. They all overpaid and I spent a grand total of like 50 kroner on the night. Then we went and had a beer at an outdoor cafe and just chatted for a while. That was nice. The beer? Langfarts beer. Yeah, two of us got it just for the name. :-) I had decided that since I hadn't paid for dinner I would try to pay for drinks. I managed to GET the check and HAND it back to the waiter with plenty of money to pay for it but Burcin made a fuss (as did the rest of them) and she proceeded to retrieve said bill and money, hand the money back to me and they all chipped in to pay. It's what you do when someone leaves, I know, I would have done the same but to be so doted upon, well, it makes me feel special. And that was a terrible sentence as far as grammar goes. Anyway, then it was slowly saying good bye. First Arkady then Klas then Brandon and Burcin. It's done. There is no going back.
I got home at 9 which was an hour earlier than I had set as a deadline so I was able to call my mom and chat for a few minutes and then I set about packing and cleaning. Since it's late I cannot really clean. Vacuuming will have to wait till right before I leave. Ah, I am nervous. My duffel and backpack will not be too stuffed, thankfully, but I am so afraid of forgetting something vital or bringing something too precious (moreso the former than the latter). Then I realized I will probably be sleeping on the couch next Friday and won't want to throw my stuff everywhere to repack. So I repacked my big suitcase as best I could. Please, this is very selfish, pray that I can ship beer from Andechs back home so that I will not have to repack the big suitcase next week. Any other breakable thing I buy can go in my backpack but beer must be checked and right now I have the porcelain and glass I'm bringing back packed well and my bag shuts.
Okay, I need to go to sleep. I do not know if I will be able to blog while in Munich. If I can the updates will have to be short (yes, rejoice, go ahead) simply because even though I type very quickly I do not want to spend tons of euros in order to update this. I'd rather spend those euros on another memory card for my camera (which will probably be necessary).
Please please PLEASE pray for Yujie while I am gone and for Lise. Pray that they will have understanding and patience with one another and that the cultural differences will not form too large a barrier. Please pray for my travels tomorrow and my time in Munich. Pray for courage, humility, and to have an overwhelming sense of God's presence too. Pray for safe travels for Esben and Burcin as he goes on vacation and she heads to DC for an ACS conference. Pray for my coworkers and all I have met while here. Thank you for praying and I hope your summer, as it comes to a close, ends well.
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Surprise
So tonight I met with Maria, the woman who helped me in the CPH airport when I first arrived two months ago. The plan was that we would go to a tea house, take a walk around the "lakes" and then maybe go to Tivoli for an ice cream (she had a free entrance pass I could use). Well, I met up with her and she not only had a free entrance pass but a free multi-ride ticket. That meant I could get in and she had her season pass which got her in AND a 50% discount on her own multi-ride ticket so, basically, I got to see Tivoli for 75 kroner with is ridiculously cheap! (Especially considering I paid like 85 kroner just to get IN last time). We did 4 or 5 rides and I giggled like a school girl. Then we had ice cream and I think it disagreed with me because my stomach has been upset since then (though that could have something to do with the fact that I didn't really eat dinner...). It was so nice to hang out with her again. Really, we are very similar and she is very easy to talk with and listen to.
Work: my second to last full day went very well. I gave Esben the second draft of my paper and he returned it with very few comments. Just a couple of things needed to be tweaked or added and then it will be professor worthy. I also analyzed my last experiment today and started cleaning up my lab space. Had lunch with Klas and Arkady and both brought up the fact that tomorrow is my last day. I can't believe it. Just yesterday (and this morning) I was thinking of how I've lived here for two months. While I still experience many MANY things that tell me I'm a foreigner they have become "normal" and I have a routine, which I like. Maria very much wants me to get a job here and several people have asked over the past few days if I will try to get one. Of course my answer is yes. :-) I have been so blessed while I have been here and I have learned and grown quite a bit. I told Maria I am afraid of losing some of this when I get home and she asked me to explain. The only things I could think of were my international group here and my independence. Yes, as a college student I am already somewhat independent but here it is different. I can call home, yes (even crying sometimes) but while I may be able to pass the decision on to someone else back in the States I am the only one who can really decide things here. Not the best way to word that but I hope you understand.
Ah, and right now I very much need to sleep. I ask that you pray for me as my stomach is still feeling a bit upset. I also ask that you pray for me tomorrow. I do not want to leave and would rather deny that I am leaving than embrace it. Really I have just started to get to the point where people are more comfortable with me; as Maria said "[I am] no longer the new girl." Please pray for all the people I have met while I am here. They each have something they struggle with and each have blessed me while I have been here. I also ask that you pray for my travels this next week as I go to and explore Munich. Please pray for peace and contentment as well because I am beginning to worry about my travels to Munich as well as my travels home. The Lord is God and He knows what will happen the next week and I want to rest fully in Him because no other place will give me peace and comfort and contentment like He will.
Thank you for praying and really, I must be off to bed.
Have a great day/night/day,
Bekah
Work: my second to last full day went very well. I gave Esben the second draft of my paper and he returned it with very few comments. Just a couple of things needed to be tweaked or added and then it will be professor worthy. I also analyzed my last experiment today and started cleaning up my lab space. Had lunch with Klas and Arkady and both brought up the fact that tomorrow is my last day. I can't believe it. Just yesterday (and this morning) I was thinking of how I've lived here for two months. While I still experience many MANY things that tell me I'm a foreigner they have become "normal" and I have a routine, which I like. Maria very much wants me to get a job here and several people have asked over the past few days if I will try to get one. Of course my answer is yes. :-) I have been so blessed while I have been here and I have learned and grown quite a bit. I told Maria I am afraid of losing some of this when I get home and she asked me to explain. The only things I could think of were my international group here and my independence. Yes, as a college student I am already somewhat independent but here it is different. I can call home, yes (even crying sometimes) but while I may be able to pass the decision on to someone else back in the States I am the only one who can really decide things here. Not the best way to word that but I hope you understand.
Ah, and right now I very much need to sleep. I ask that you pray for me as my stomach is still feeling a bit upset. I also ask that you pray for me tomorrow. I do not want to leave and would rather deny that I am leaving than embrace it. Really I have just started to get to the point where people are more comfortable with me; as Maria said "[I am] no longer the new girl." Please pray for all the people I have met while I am here. They each have something they struggle with and each have blessed me while I have been here. I also ask that you pray for my travels this next week as I go to and explore Munich. Please pray for peace and contentment as well because I am beginning to worry about my travels to Munich as well as my travels home. The Lord is God and He knows what will happen the next week and I want to rest fully in Him because no other place will give me peace and comfort and contentment like He will.
Thank you for praying and really, I must be off to bed.
Have a great day/night/day,
Bekah
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
I need to go to sleep!
K, so today was pretty good. I did manage to spill twice: once in lab (not cool, more clean up for me to do) and then once at dinner (white wine and it didn't get on anyone). Um, sorry, I'm trying to think fast because I really want to go to bed. I have one big section of my paper/report to do and then the second draft is done. Ideally I want to give it to Esben tomorrow early afternoon and I HOPE there's not too much wrong with it. I'm having a tough time writing the introduction, though. I rode with Mai-Britt, Anders and Anders' friend Jon up to Tikoeb in northern Denmark. We went to Simon's (our manager) home for dinner. It was actually quite nice. Mai-Britt, Bodil, Simon, Peter, Anders, Xiaobo, Esben, Jon and myself. Plus Simon's family but they didn't eat with us. Meat (lamb, cow, & sausage) and salad (tomato and mozzarella for one and then a lettuce and tomato for the other) and potato salad and bread and it was all delicious. The lamb was soooo tasty. It did not rain for the first two hours we were there which meant we ate outside. Then it started to rain and proceeded to pour. We hurried inside and eventually had coffee and tea with the lemon bars. They all seemed to like them and most people had two or more. Then the hardest part of the night. With 7 Danes all together I knew there'd obviously be some Danish conversation. What I wasn't prepared for was to spend basically an hour or more sitting at a table listening to them all talk in Danish and not have any clue whatsoever about what was being talked about. I was okay for the first half hour at least but then I got kind of tired and just wanted to come back to the house to sleep. And speaking of sleep, I was dropped off and am all ready for bed and just need to journal and head to bed.
Please pray that I am awake tomrorow at work and that all the information I need will flow into the introduction for my paper. Also, praise the Lord we had hot water this morning. And praise Him for the absolutely beautiful countryside we drove through as well as the stars I got to see. I am incredibly blessed and I know He is watching over me.
Have a great day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Please pray that I am awake tomrorow at work and that all the information I need will flow into the introduction for my paper. Also, praise the Lord we had hot water this morning. And praise Him for the absolutely beautiful countryside we drove through as well as the stars I got to see. I am incredibly blessed and I know He is watching over me.
Have a great day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Things You Discover...
...when you pack!
Yeah, I have just finished doing some haphazard packing. Basically I planned out what I'm going to wear for the next 10 days and then proceeded to put just about everything else into the one big suitcase I brought. Let me just say that the amount of breakable items and the kinds of chocolate I'm bringing home are equal. Since this is just for "storage" while I'm in Munich I'm not using every niche and cranny in the suitcase. Still, I have hardly any clothes and limited toiletries in there and, well, it's a good thing I have a duffel bag and my backpack too. :-) Plus, as I was packing, I discovered a variety of medicines and random toiletries I'd forgotten I had brought with me. Yay!
Haha, besides that I found the "Things to do before leaving" list I made at work last week. Of the 11 things I've done 9--pretty impressive since I lost the list like a day after making it. Oh, post-it notes, why are you so easily misplaced? And I can actually do the two things left on the list before I leave Saturday...if I remember. :-)
Alrighty, so my day. Well, we didn't have hot water last night for some reason and all of us hoped it would be turned on this morning. I went to bed preparing myself to not be able to wash my hair. Well, we had no hot water this morning. I did not feel like braving the cold water for a hair washing so I didn't wash it. That's a healthy thing to do, right? Haha, yeah, whatever, Lise, our landlady, made a call and apparently everyone in our housing area is without hot water. The water company turned it off to do some pipe work and then just didn't turn the water back on. Sweet.
I left later than I wanted but had both batches of lemon bars in tow. Made it to work and had everything on it's way to being done when Esben arrived from DTU sometime around 10:30. And then lunch came and I stood Arkady up. I know, I'm a horrible person but hear me out. So yesterday I wasn't around when the lab group went to lunch and today I was. The first time I was asked I graciously declined but the second time I was asked (about 5 minutes later) I couldn't resist. It was actually a good lunch; 5 Danes, me and a Chinese guy. Esben wasn't with us but I am pretty okay with that now (have been for a while, actually). I learned that the boss/manager of the group was a punk musician when he was younger and did some crazy gigs. I also learned that we are going to his house tomorrow for a bbq. His house is on the same latitude as Helsingor, which is at least a 35 minute drive from work. You can imagine I will be home late tomorrow. :-)
Once lunch was over I started an experiment and then handed out lemon bars. Klas was first followed shortly by Arkady (who did forgive me for standing him up, but only after two lemon bars :-)). Burcin had one then Brandon "ran" from Fuel Cell to devour two. Xiabo (shoot, I spelled that wrong but I can't remember the correct spelling right now), Mai-Britt, Bodil and Simon all had one too before I left. And there's still basically a whole batch left! So I left them in the fridge at work and will take them to the bbq tomorrow. Yay for being able to contribute. :-) Wow, lots of smileys. Guess my words aren't enough to convey my feelings tonight.
Esben read my report/paper and had quite a few changes. He must've thought I was upset/stressed by all the comments and said that he was being really detailed. I thanked him. Part of me was yelling and screaming inside with disappointment but there was another part of me that said this was good, he was teaching me the best way he thought to write a paper. Now, there were a couple of things I did that were good but, because I didn't really know what he wanted, I had left out quite a bit. So there's plenty of writing for me to do the next two days (three if I have to work on it Friday). I spent the next hour with writer's block, lack of motivation and a desire to get up and take a run around the building just so I wouldn't have to sit there.
Anywho, left around 5:15 and on the way home thought about having a quiet time in the park by the house. I did to a certain degree but I didn't read in the Word like I thought I would. It really was perfect, though. My Ipod was on shuffle and the songs fit the sunny day and many were praise/worship songs. The sun was shining, everything green and the blue sky had lots of white fluffy clouds. I had my camera and ended up taking a bunch of random pictures because I could. Part of me lingered there because I didn't really want to come back to the house. I prayed on my way back and, upon entering, realized Lise wasn't home. I thanked the Lord because He apparently knew I needed some quiet time to myself. I then discovered a note on the table saying Lise had gone to visit a friend and wouldn't be back tonight. As unloving as it is I was excited. I e-mailed Yujie so that she would maybe consider coming home at a normal time since we had the place to ourselves. I made dinner, ate and watched the sermon from Elmbrook this past week and then did some Facebook stalking.
Somehow two hours passed and Yujie came home. She too was excited and we enjoyed just chatting for like half an hour or so. My heart aches for her a little because I know that when I leave she will be alone here for three weeks. We are both very much hoping her brother gets his visa soon so that he is back here. We made s'mores too; I made her marshmallows and she made mine--we're very good at it, let me tell you. :-) And then I finally started the packing I described above. I did that around 9:30 and, since it's going on 11, I should get to bed.
Please, this is selfish, but please pray we have hot water in the morning. We heated water on the stove so that Yujie could wash her hair (and I hope she sleeps well tonight because she doesn't sleep well without a bath) and I'd rather not have to do that at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Also pray for me to be gracious, loving, humble and content each day. Leaving can be difficult and, let's face it, awkward too. I want to leave a good impression when I leave. Who doesn't. Yeah, I just don't want to be all fake and what not before I leave. So please keep that in mind. Also pray for my coworkers. I realized today that one of them in particular is searching. My coworker claims life becomes boring very quickly and is running out of ways to make things more interesting. That's a cry for something more and I finally realized the only thing that will give that excitement is Christ. That is a very intense statement but I think it's true. Why I am realizing this right now and why it didn't occur to me earlier I have no idea. But please, be praying for my coworkers!
That is it for now. It is definitely time to sleep.
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Yeah, I have just finished doing some haphazard packing. Basically I planned out what I'm going to wear for the next 10 days and then proceeded to put just about everything else into the one big suitcase I brought. Let me just say that the amount of breakable items and the kinds of chocolate I'm bringing home are equal. Since this is just for "storage" while I'm in Munich I'm not using every niche and cranny in the suitcase. Still, I have hardly any clothes and limited toiletries in there and, well, it's a good thing I have a duffel bag and my backpack too. :-) Plus, as I was packing, I discovered a variety of medicines and random toiletries I'd forgotten I had brought with me. Yay!
Haha, besides that I found the "Things to do before leaving" list I made at work last week. Of the 11 things I've done 9--pretty impressive since I lost the list like a day after making it. Oh, post-it notes, why are you so easily misplaced? And I can actually do the two things left on the list before I leave Saturday...if I remember. :-)
Alrighty, so my day. Well, we didn't have hot water last night for some reason and all of us hoped it would be turned on this morning. I went to bed preparing myself to not be able to wash my hair. Well, we had no hot water this morning. I did not feel like braving the cold water for a hair washing so I didn't wash it. That's a healthy thing to do, right? Haha, yeah, whatever, Lise, our landlady, made a call and apparently everyone in our housing area is without hot water. The water company turned it off to do some pipe work and then just didn't turn the water back on. Sweet.
I left later than I wanted but had both batches of lemon bars in tow. Made it to work and had everything on it's way to being done when Esben arrived from DTU sometime around 10:30. And then lunch came and I stood Arkady up. I know, I'm a horrible person but hear me out. So yesterday I wasn't around when the lab group went to lunch and today I was. The first time I was asked I graciously declined but the second time I was asked (about 5 minutes later) I couldn't resist. It was actually a good lunch; 5 Danes, me and a Chinese guy. Esben wasn't with us but I am pretty okay with that now (have been for a while, actually). I learned that the boss/manager of the group was a punk musician when he was younger and did some crazy gigs. I also learned that we are going to his house tomorrow for a bbq. His house is on the same latitude as Helsingor, which is at least a 35 minute drive from work. You can imagine I will be home late tomorrow. :-)
Once lunch was over I started an experiment and then handed out lemon bars. Klas was first followed shortly by Arkady (who did forgive me for standing him up, but only after two lemon bars :-)). Burcin had one then Brandon "ran" from Fuel Cell to devour two. Xiabo (shoot, I spelled that wrong but I can't remember the correct spelling right now), Mai-Britt, Bodil and Simon all had one too before I left. And there's still basically a whole batch left! So I left them in the fridge at work and will take them to the bbq tomorrow. Yay for being able to contribute. :-) Wow, lots of smileys. Guess my words aren't enough to convey my feelings tonight.
Esben read my report/paper and had quite a few changes. He must've thought I was upset/stressed by all the comments and said that he was being really detailed. I thanked him. Part of me was yelling and screaming inside with disappointment but there was another part of me that said this was good, he was teaching me the best way he thought to write a paper. Now, there were a couple of things I did that were good but, because I didn't really know what he wanted, I had left out quite a bit. So there's plenty of writing for me to do the next two days (three if I have to work on it Friday). I spent the next hour with writer's block, lack of motivation and a desire to get up and take a run around the building just so I wouldn't have to sit there.
Anywho, left around 5:15 and on the way home thought about having a quiet time in the park by the house. I did to a certain degree but I didn't read in the Word like I thought I would. It really was perfect, though. My Ipod was on shuffle and the songs fit the sunny day and many were praise/worship songs. The sun was shining, everything green and the blue sky had lots of white fluffy clouds. I had my camera and ended up taking a bunch of random pictures because I could. Part of me lingered there because I didn't really want to come back to the house. I prayed on my way back and, upon entering, realized Lise wasn't home. I thanked the Lord because He apparently knew I needed some quiet time to myself. I then discovered a note on the table saying Lise had gone to visit a friend and wouldn't be back tonight. As unloving as it is I was excited. I e-mailed Yujie so that she would maybe consider coming home at a normal time since we had the place to ourselves. I made dinner, ate and watched the sermon from Elmbrook this past week and then did some Facebook stalking.
Somehow two hours passed and Yujie came home. She too was excited and we enjoyed just chatting for like half an hour or so. My heart aches for her a little because I know that when I leave she will be alone here for three weeks. We are both very much hoping her brother gets his visa soon so that he is back here. We made s'mores too; I made her marshmallows and she made mine--we're very good at it, let me tell you. :-) And then I finally started the packing I described above. I did that around 9:30 and, since it's going on 11, I should get to bed.
Please, this is selfish, but please pray we have hot water in the morning. We heated water on the stove so that Yujie could wash her hair (and I hope she sleeps well tonight because she doesn't sleep well without a bath) and I'd rather not have to do that at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Also pray for me to be gracious, loving, humble and content each day. Leaving can be difficult and, let's face it, awkward too. I want to leave a good impression when I leave. Who doesn't. Yeah, I just don't want to be all fake and what not before I leave. So please keep that in mind. Also pray for my coworkers. I realized today that one of them in particular is searching. My coworker claims life becomes boring very quickly and is running out of ways to make things more interesting. That's a cry for something more and I finally realized the only thing that will give that excitement is Christ. That is a very intense statement but I think it's true. Why I am realizing this right now and why it didn't occur to me earlier I have no idea. But please, be praying for my coworkers!
That is it for now. It is definitely time to sleep.
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Monday, August 10, 2009
Back in the Kitchen
So I like Denmark. I woke up this morning to the sound of rain and was actually happy. It sounded nice and I wasn't sweating, which was also nice. I got ready and, since Lise is home and it kind of feels like my every move is watched, I was ready to go about 7:45. Headed out for the bus at the same time Yujie left. Usually we leave a different times but since Lise been back we leave a bit earlier and get back later. It's not the same but I think we're doing pretty well with her back.
I got to work and did all my lab work by 10:30. Yes, in two hours I no longer had a reason to be in lab. Instead I was then stuck writing the paper/report at my desk the rest of the day. Oh man, that stinks. I get bored really quickly and I don't like staring at my screen. Anyway, lunch time rolled around and, to make a long story short, no one came to get me and I couldn't find anyone. So around 12:15 I headed down, got food and sat with my lab group. 4 of them were done and left shortly after I sat down and 2 others stayed about 5 minutes before leaving. So I ate my lunch semi-alone. That was not fun but it's over and been handled and I apparently have survived.
Like the morning, I spent the afternoon sitting in front of the computer. I did successfully write, edit, and send my first draft to Esben. It took everything in me not to say "I don't think this is very good" when I sent it to him. I didn't really get any guidelines for writing so I wrote it more like a 324 report than anything else. And technically I wrote it twice: once in lab report format and another in more of a this is what I did and this is what it means kind of way. I sent Esben the former and will find out tomorrow or Wed what needs to be changed.
I left around 5:15 and got home around 6ish. I immediately started making dinner because I was really hungry. Lise commented on how I was having the same thing as last night. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? I then remembered I still have some shrimp--guess that's tomorrow's dinner. But after that I don't know that I'll be eating anything but breakfast here. Wednesday there is going to be a bbq with the lab group after work, Thursday I will probably meet Maria and Friday, well, Friday is Friday so the chances of me being home for dinner are low.
Anywho, I had the lovely opportunity to Facebook chat with a friend out in California for the first time in like 2-3 months. Huge blessing for me. After that I made two batches of lemon bars. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to make and clean up everything. How cool is that? Very. :-) I think List was impressed with all the work I put into it and Yujie was, of course, very excited. :-) This is my last baking till I'm back in the States. Hopefully they turn out well!
I meant to pack and plan more tonight for Munich but all I did was make a list of clothes I think I'll take and that's it. Baking took most of my energy I guess. And now it's time to head to bed. :-)
My prayer requests remain the same as before with an emphasis on our living situation. I'd also ask for patience and grace for myself as I pack and prep for Munich and then going back home. I have been so blessed while I've been here.
Thank you for praying!
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
I got to work and did all my lab work by 10:30. Yes, in two hours I no longer had a reason to be in lab. Instead I was then stuck writing the paper/report at my desk the rest of the day. Oh man, that stinks. I get bored really quickly and I don't like staring at my screen. Anyway, lunch time rolled around and, to make a long story short, no one came to get me and I couldn't find anyone. So around 12:15 I headed down, got food and sat with my lab group. 4 of them were done and left shortly after I sat down and 2 others stayed about 5 minutes before leaving. So I ate my lunch semi-alone. That was not fun but it's over and been handled and I apparently have survived.
Like the morning, I spent the afternoon sitting in front of the computer. I did successfully write, edit, and send my first draft to Esben. It took everything in me not to say "I don't think this is very good" when I sent it to him. I didn't really get any guidelines for writing so I wrote it more like a 324 report than anything else. And technically I wrote it twice: once in lab report format and another in more of a this is what I did and this is what it means kind of way. I sent Esben the former and will find out tomorrow or Wed what needs to be changed.
I left around 5:15 and got home around 6ish. I immediately started making dinner because I was really hungry. Lise commented on how I was having the same thing as last night. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? I then remembered I still have some shrimp--guess that's tomorrow's dinner. But after that I don't know that I'll be eating anything but breakfast here. Wednesday there is going to be a bbq with the lab group after work, Thursday I will probably meet Maria and Friday, well, Friday is Friday so the chances of me being home for dinner are low.
Anywho, I had the lovely opportunity to Facebook chat with a friend out in California for the first time in like 2-3 months. Huge blessing for me. After that I made two batches of lemon bars. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to make and clean up everything. How cool is that? Very. :-) I think List was impressed with all the work I put into it and Yujie was, of course, very excited. :-) This is my last baking till I'm back in the States. Hopefully they turn out well!
I meant to pack and plan more tonight for Munich but all I did was make a list of clothes I think I'll take and that's it. Baking took most of my energy I guess. And now it's time to head to bed. :-)
My prayer requests remain the same as before with an emphasis on our living situation. I'd also ask for patience and grace for myself as I pack and prep for Munich and then going back home. I have been so blessed while I've been here.
Thank you for praying!
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Sunday, August 9, 2009
I am Blessed
Ah, I am so blessed! There have been so many blessings today it's kind of ridiculous. First off, I slept rather well and felt rested when I got up. I then got ready and all and wore a cute pink, black and white halter dress. Originally I was going to wear this dress to the Doty rehearsal dinner but ended up wearing a different dress and, so, today was the big debut. I left about 10:20 and was on the bus to Noerreport shortly thereafter.
I got to Noerreport about twenty to eleven so I wandered around a bit and then met up with Arkady. We had a nice chat on our way to the cafe and, when we got there, he got a call from Klas. I'd forgotten that he might join us and felt badly about not telling Arkady. I was forgiven once Klas met up with us at Cafe Marius and we all enjoyed a brunch of pancakes (blackberry for Klas, blueberry for Arkady, and chocolate chip for me), bacon, eggs, the smallest square of hashbrowns EVER, a bagel, piece of dark bread and then a piece of at least ten different fruits (strawberry, blackberry, mango, papaya, starfruit, kiwi, plum (maybe), orange, grapefruit, bloodorange (which is apparently different from a grapefruit), pineapple, watermelon and I'm missing at least two that I didn't know and we couldn't name. It was delicious. And I was stuffed.
Now, part of the deal with going to get pancakes was that I would pay for Arkady because he'd paid for my dinner a couple weeks ago when I didn't have enough cash. So it's time for the bill and he's pulling money out and I'm like "Hey, remember, I'm paying for you." He puts up a fight about how he can't let me pay for him and the check comes and Klas hands the guy a bill and it's over and done before Arkady and I can finish arguing. Now the joke here is two-fold. 1.Arkady said that since Klas has given up drinking (among other things) and he now "needs" something to spend his money on and 2. Klas said that with Arkady pimpin' by buying my dinner he had to do the same. They are ridiculous. :-) So I thanked them both and off we went.
The weather today was lovely: 75ish, sunny, good breeze and just beautiful all around. So they had plans to meet up later at Islands Brygge (not at ALL pronounced like that by the way) and invited me along. Without a phone this would be tough and we joked about how we had to plan like in the "olden days," which meant making plans before separating. I got Arkady's number and said I would call. Headed off to church and saw Cecilia for the first time in a few weeks. Good thing too since this is my last Sunday in Copenhagen. The service was good and I had a chance to thank the pastor. It seems like each week I was there the message either encouraged me or called me out on something I had just experienced or experienced shortly thereafter. God has pretty great timing. Spent some time in the fellowship hour, said good bye to Cecilia and Raymundos and was on my way.
I am FINALLY done shopping at the RC store. I have all the things I need/want/desire and also have my tax free receipt (yay for getting a small amount of money back because I don't live in Europe). I felt pretty good about how I looked today and definitely felt comfortable walking around the city and catching a bus. It's a shame my time here is almost over--I'm just getting started! Imagine what "damage" I could do to this place! Haha, just kidding. :-)
Anywho, I got the bus home, walked back to the house and started laundry and some packing/planning for Munich. It may seem a bit far in advance but when you have to make sure you have enough clothes for the next two weeks and then also pack for a week long "vacation" only to come back and pack for home in one night, I think I have a valid argument to start packing/planning now. :-) I also went grocery shopping for what is "hopefully" the last time. And some of my groceries were ingredient for lemon bars. Yes, I'm making them again. They went over pretty well the first time and there's nothing like them over here (at least, that's what I've been told) so it might as well be what people remember me for (baking wise anyway).
I made dinner (note to self: no hamburgers for a week or two once home--variety is a GOOD thing) and then had the wonderful opportunity to skype with a friend from Michigan. We actually met just two months ago at a friend's wedding but, as she puts it, "we are soul mates." Haha, sounds funny but it's pretty true. We get along really well and, since we're Sisters in Christ, I have absolutely no problem sharing my life with her. She is SUCH an encouragement and I love hearing about her life. We chatted for over an hour, which by no means actually felt like an hour to me, and could've chatted much longer but she needed to nap before her closing shift. I am SO blessed.
My second load of laundry was put in and then I got to chat with my mom for a bit. Apparently I'd forgotten about the WI State fair and she and my brother are there today. And why must the chocolate covered bacon be at the State Fair THIS year???? Not fair (no pun intended). Anywho, a nice short chat with them and now I'm waiting for laundry, going to do a little more planning and cleaning and then it's time to get out of the pretty dress and go to sleep.
Prayer requests. Please pray for patience and peace as I pack. Pray for my witness too this coming week as this is my last chance for a little while to make any impact in person. Also, I have a paper to write this week which I don't really want to write so if you would pray about motivation and a clear mind that would be great. These are all pretty self centered; I'm sorry about that. Pray for the people I've met during my time here. Some I will be able to maintain contact with through e-mail and Facebook but others, who I met maybe once or twice, I won't see again for a long time. Yeah, and pray for my trips to Munich and Home.
Have a wonderful day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
I got to Noerreport about twenty to eleven so I wandered around a bit and then met up with Arkady. We had a nice chat on our way to the cafe and, when we got there, he got a call from Klas. I'd forgotten that he might join us and felt badly about not telling Arkady. I was forgiven once Klas met up with us at Cafe Marius and we all enjoyed a brunch of pancakes (blackberry for Klas, blueberry for Arkady, and chocolate chip for me), bacon, eggs, the smallest square of hashbrowns EVER, a bagel, piece of dark bread and then a piece of at least ten different fruits (strawberry, blackberry, mango, papaya, starfruit, kiwi, plum (maybe), orange, grapefruit, bloodorange (which is apparently different from a grapefruit), pineapple, watermelon and I'm missing at least two that I didn't know and we couldn't name. It was delicious. And I was stuffed.
Now, part of the deal with going to get pancakes was that I would pay for Arkady because he'd paid for my dinner a couple weeks ago when I didn't have enough cash. So it's time for the bill and he's pulling money out and I'm like "Hey, remember, I'm paying for you." He puts up a fight about how he can't let me pay for him and the check comes and Klas hands the guy a bill and it's over and done before Arkady and I can finish arguing. Now the joke here is two-fold. 1.Arkady said that since Klas has given up drinking (among other things) and he now "needs" something to spend his money on and 2. Klas said that with Arkady pimpin' by buying my dinner he had to do the same. They are ridiculous. :-) So I thanked them both and off we went.
The weather today was lovely: 75ish, sunny, good breeze and just beautiful all around. So they had plans to meet up later at Islands Brygge (not at ALL pronounced like that by the way) and invited me along. Without a phone this would be tough and we joked about how we had to plan like in the "olden days," which meant making plans before separating. I got Arkady's number and said I would call. Headed off to church and saw Cecilia for the first time in a few weeks. Good thing too since this is my last Sunday in Copenhagen. The service was good and I had a chance to thank the pastor. It seems like each week I was there the message either encouraged me or called me out on something I had just experienced or experienced shortly thereafter. God has pretty great timing. Spent some time in the fellowship hour, said good bye to Cecilia and Raymundos and was on my way.
I am FINALLY done shopping at the RC store. I have all the things I need/want/desire and also have my tax free receipt (yay for getting a small amount of money back because I don't live in Europe). I felt pretty good about how I looked today and definitely felt comfortable walking around the city and catching a bus. It's a shame my time here is almost over--I'm just getting started! Imagine what "damage" I could do to this place! Haha, just kidding. :-)
Anywho, I got the bus home, walked back to the house and started laundry and some packing/planning for Munich. It may seem a bit far in advance but when you have to make sure you have enough clothes for the next two weeks and then also pack for a week long "vacation" only to come back and pack for home in one night, I think I have a valid argument to start packing/planning now. :-) I also went grocery shopping for what is "hopefully" the last time. And some of my groceries were ingredient for lemon bars. Yes, I'm making them again. They went over pretty well the first time and there's nothing like them over here (at least, that's what I've been told) so it might as well be what people remember me for (baking wise anyway).
I made dinner (note to self: no hamburgers for a week or two once home--variety is a GOOD thing) and then had the wonderful opportunity to skype with a friend from Michigan. We actually met just two months ago at a friend's wedding but, as she puts it, "we are soul mates." Haha, sounds funny but it's pretty true. We get along really well and, since we're Sisters in Christ, I have absolutely no problem sharing my life with her. She is SUCH an encouragement and I love hearing about her life. We chatted for over an hour, which by no means actually felt like an hour to me, and could've chatted much longer but she needed to nap before her closing shift. I am SO blessed.
My second load of laundry was put in and then I got to chat with my mom for a bit. Apparently I'd forgotten about the WI State fair and she and my brother are there today. And why must the chocolate covered bacon be at the State Fair THIS year???? Not fair (no pun intended). Anywho, a nice short chat with them and now I'm waiting for laundry, going to do a little more planning and cleaning and then it's time to get out of the pretty dress and go to sleep.
Prayer requests. Please pray for patience and peace as I pack. Pray for my witness too this coming week as this is my last chance for a little while to make any impact in person. Also, I have a paper to write this week which I don't really want to write so if you would pray about motivation and a clear mind that would be great. These are all pretty self centered; I'm sorry about that. Pray for the people I've met during my time here. Some I will be able to maintain contact with through e-mail and Facebook but others, who I met maybe once or twice, I won't see again for a long time. Yeah, and pray for my trips to Munich and Home.
Have a wonderful day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Saturday, August 8, 2009
"So what'd you do today Bekah?"
"Oh, nothing too amazing. Trapsed to another suburb of Copenhagen I'd never been to this morning and the, oh, you know, grabbed a train to Malmo, Sweden and spent the afternoon wandering around a city in another country. Nothing too big." :-P
Haha, okay, I've been thinking about that "opening" the whole afternoon and had to write it. But it's true. I slept till around 9:15, ate and got dressed. Yup, no shower. I feel kind of gross right now but considering how warm my room is a shower would be kind of stupid before bed. Anywho, saw Lise and Yujie before I headed out and both were shocked at how nice I looked. Headed to Fredericksburg and managed to get there safely. Granted, I did have to wander around one of the stations before I figured out where the metro was and then I started walking the wrong way out of the station to go to the RC factory outlet. Still, no major problems. I looked around the outlet and then bought one thing: a shopping bag. Yes. I spent 40 kroner on a bag that is much like the ones from Trader Joe's. It's got a bit of a blue pattern on it and i really wanted something and figured I will use the bag when I shop here (ha, like one more time) and then when I'm in Madison. Yay me.
Stopped off at the house and found a delicious chicken thing waiting for me. I packed it up and headed to Hellerup. The train ticket to Malmo was waaaaaay more expensive than I thought it would be: 178 DKK, around $35. So I decided that if I paid 60 DKK for a 60 minute canal tour then I'd better be in Malmo for at least 4 hours to get my money's worth. 4 hours later I was in Malmo central station. And I just started walking. About two hours, several stores and an ice cream later I found myself at the end of what seemed to have been the major pedestrian street of the city. I almost bought a book at one of the bookstores but I don't really like paying with my card and hadn't taken out any Swedish krones (SEK) when I was in there. So yeah, I did end up taking out some SEK and then realized I would probably have to spend everything I'd taken out. Good thing it wasn't too much. Ice cream and a boat tour helped that. The boat tour was nice except I was seated right by the motor and it was a little hard to hear the guide. To be honest, though, the best boat/canal tour of this experience has been in Stockholm. Malmo was pretty, though, which means Copenhagen comes in third.
The boat tour ended around 6 and I decided I wouldn't leave till 7ish. Ha, kind of forgot that in the Scandinavian countries not much is open after 5 on the weekend. I managed to use the toilet of a coffee shop before finding out they closed while I was IN the toilet. Sweet. Couldn't even give them my business. I walked around a bit more and had 85 SEK left on me. Since the train ride would be about 45 minutes I thought I'd stop in the 7-11 and buy a snack. I found Paprika Pringles!! Bought two cans as well as two bars of chocolate called "Geisha." Used up 84 SEK and made me happy. I am bringing so much food back to the States it's a bit ridiculous.
Speaking of coming back to the States I have a praise! This morning, while talking with Lise and Yujie about my plan for the day, I mentioned this was my last weekend in Copenhagen. That prompted Lise to ask when I was leaving and I was able to ask her if it would be alright for me to leave some of my things here and to sleep here on the 21st, the day I get back from Munich and the day before I come home. She initially asked if that meant sleeping in the room I have now, which happens to be her room usually. I assured her that no, I'd sleep on the couch if nothing else. And she agreed to let me stay! So now all I have to do is pack and clean. And do some laundry.
Today was really good practice for Munich and I realized that on my way back to Copenhagen. I just spent an afternoon, alone, walking around a foreign city. I can do it. It was a little awkward and I'm pretty sure I looked funny taking pictures of myself but isn't that was tourists do? Yes, yes it is. :-) I am really rather tired now, though, and I've been told the hostel I will be staying at in Munich isn't exactly quiet. So if you would pray that for at least the first night that I'd be able to sleep I would appreciate it. I will be buying earplugs but I just realized that I have no alarm clock. This is going to be an interesting week!
Haha, anyway, I'm back at the house and Lise is downstairs. My plan now is to do some financial work and then head to bed. It will be tough not going straight to bed. :-) But tomorrow will be just as happening and if I don't get a decent amount of sleep most nights this week then Munich will by no means be as fun.
Please be praying for me this week and next as I finish work, say goodbye and travel. Also continue to pray for Lise, Yujie and I as we adjust to living together again. And the other requests remain the same.
Oh, one more thing about Malmo. I found another huge cemetary (I seem to find them quite easily) and it was beautiful. When I say huge I am not exaggerating. And there are many mature trees and well planned grassy areas. I really wish I'd brought my Bible with me because it would have been the perfect spot for a quiet time. And considering I haven't been in the Word much this summer, I know that would have done me quite a bit of good.
Okay, on to finances. Have a great day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Haha, okay, I've been thinking about that "opening" the whole afternoon and had to write it. But it's true. I slept till around 9:15, ate and got dressed. Yup, no shower. I feel kind of gross right now but considering how warm my room is a shower would be kind of stupid before bed. Anywho, saw Lise and Yujie before I headed out and both were shocked at how nice I looked. Headed to Fredericksburg and managed to get there safely. Granted, I did have to wander around one of the stations before I figured out where the metro was and then I started walking the wrong way out of the station to go to the RC factory outlet. Still, no major problems. I looked around the outlet and then bought one thing: a shopping bag. Yes. I spent 40 kroner on a bag that is much like the ones from Trader Joe's. It's got a bit of a blue pattern on it and i really wanted something and figured I will use the bag when I shop here (ha, like one more time) and then when I'm in Madison. Yay me.
Stopped off at the house and found a delicious chicken thing waiting for me. I packed it up and headed to Hellerup. The train ticket to Malmo was waaaaaay more expensive than I thought it would be: 178 DKK, around $35. So I decided that if I paid 60 DKK for a 60 minute canal tour then I'd better be in Malmo for at least 4 hours to get my money's worth. 4 hours later I was in Malmo central station. And I just started walking. About two hours, several stores and an ice cream later I found myself at the end of what seemed to have been the major pedestrian street of the city. I almost bought a book at one of the bookstores but I don't really like paying with my card and hadn't taken out any Swedish krones (SEK) when I was in there. So yeah, I did end up taking out some SEK and then realized I would probably have to spend everything I'd taken out. Good thing it wasn't too much. Ice cream and a boat tour helped that. The boat tour was nice except I was seated right by the motor and it was a little hard to hear the guide. To be honest, though, the best boat/canal tour of this experience has been in Stockholm. Malmo was pretty, though, which means Copenhagen comes in third.
The boat tour ended around 6 and I decided I wouldn't leave till 7ish. Ha, kind of forgot that in the Scandinavian countries not much is open after 5 on the weekend. I managed to use the toilet of a coffee shop before finding out they closed while I was IN the toilet. Sweet. Couldn't even give them my business. I walked around a bit more and had 85 SEK left on me. Since the train ride would be about 45 minutes I thought I'd stop in the 7-11 and buy a snack. I found Paprika Pringles!! Bought two cans as well as two bars of chocolate called "Geisha." Used up 84 SEK and made me happy. I am bringing so much food back to the States it's a bit ridiculous.
Speaking of coming back to the States I have a praise! This morning, while talking with Lise and Yujie about my plan for the day, I mentioned this was my last weekend in Copenhagen. That prompted Lise to ask when I was leaving and I was able to ask her if it would be alright for me to leave some of my things here and to sleep here on the 21st, the day I get back from Munich and the day before I come home. She initially asked if that meant sleeping in the room I have now, which happens to be her room usually. I assured her that no, I'd sleep on the couch if nothing else. And she agreed to let me stay! So now all I have to do is pack and clean. And do some laundry.
Today was really good practice for Munich and I realized that on my way back to Copenhagen. I just spent an afternoon, alone, walking around a foreign city. I can do it. It was a little awkward and I'm pretty sure I looked funny taking pictures of myself but isn't that was tourists do? Yes, yes it is. :-) I am really rather tired now, though, and I've been told the hostel I will be staying at in Munich isn't exactly quiet. So if you would pray that for at least the first night that I'd be able to sleep I would appreciate it. I will be buying earplugs but I just realized that I have no alarm clock. This is going to be an interesting week!
Haha, anyway, I'm back at the house and Lise is downstairs. My plan now is to do some financial work and then head to bed. It will be tough not going straight to bed. :-) But tomorrow will be just as happening and if I don't get a decent amount of sleep most nights this week then Munich will by no means be as fun.
Please be praying for me this week and next as I finish work, say goodbye and travel. Also continue to pray for Lise, Yujie and I as we adjust to living together again. And the other requests remain the same.
Oh, one more thing about Malmo. I found another huge cemetary (I seem to find them quite easily) and it was beautiful. When I say huge I am not exaggerating. And there are many mature trees and well planned grassy areas. I really wish I'd brought my Bible with me because it would have been the perfect spot for a quiet time. And considering I haven't been in the Word much this summer, I know that would have done me quite a bit of good.
Okay, on to finances. Have a great day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Friday, August 7, 2009
Out...on the town and like a light!
I'm really tired right now and should've gone to bed about two hours ago. Instead I had the wonderful opportunity of calling my grandmother to wish her happy birthday and to chat with her and my grandfather about life. Plus I got to video chat with one of my best friends for the first time in over a month. And on top of that, I went on the canal tour today with Esben, Klas and Enric then we went to dinner. So the afternoon and evening have been pretty packed.
Work was really nothing special. Had lunch with Kresten, Klas and Arkady, which was nice. Did some work throughout the day and read a whole bunch of PhD comics. Yeah, I didn't feel like doing much paper stuff between experiment stuff. So yeah, the weather was downright perfect for the canal tour: blue skies, just the right number of clouds, 70's and a breeze off the water. Perfect. My camera died about 20 minutes into the tour, though, so I don't have many pictures. Good thing I've seen most of the things from land already. :-)
And now to sleep. This is my last weekend in Copenhagen and so tomorrow I'm planning on heading to Malmo, Sweden. It's a 40 minute train ride from Hellerup and, since it's so close, I really think I should go. So I will! :-)
My prayer requests remain the same, especially for Yujie as she hasn't been sleeping well. Also pray for me as I've begun to feel a bit homesick, which I think is a result of the fact that I know I have to leave soon so I might as well feel homesick. But I am sad to have to leave and cannot wait to see what opportunities, challenges and memories the next week here will hold.
Have a wonderful night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Work was really nothing special. Had lunch with Kresten, Klas and Arkady, which was nice. Did some work throughout the day and read a whole bunch of PhD comics. Yeah, I didn't feel like doing much paper stuff between experiment stuff. So yeah, the weather was downright perfect for the canal tour: blue skies, just the right number of clouds, 70's and a breeze off the water. Perfect. My camera died about 20 minutes into the tour, though, so I don't have many pictures. Good thing I've seen most of the things from land already. :-)
And now to sleep. This is my last weekend in Copenhagen and so tomorrow I'm planning on heading to Malmo, Sweden. It's a 40 minute train ride from Hellerup and, since it's so close, I really think I should go. So I will! :-)
My prayer requests remain the same, especially for Yujie as she hasn't been sleeping well. Also pray for me as I've begun to feel a bit homesick, which I think is a result of the fact that I know I have to leave soon so I might as well feel homesick. But I am sad to have to leave and cannot wait to see what opportunities, challenges and memories the next week here will hold.
Have a wonderful night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Power of Forgiveness
Wow, my blog titles have really turned serious. Today, however, merits a serious title.
The day itself went rather well. Because I was up so late last night I decided to take my time getting to work and didn't get there till 9:30. That was a bit later than I wanted (thank you late bus) but I still got everything done. I have a rough draft of the paper written. Lots of work still to do, though. I had lunch with Mai-Britt and Bodil again but sat next to Brandon so we chatted until he left. Bodil gave me great encouragement today. She was telling me about the jobs she's held at Topsoe and I asked if Topsoe ever hires just Bachelors and, for the first time, I heard yes. The Engineering division does and I think that is the type of work I would like to do. I thanked her and told her that she'd just encouraged me and we talked for a bit more before heading back to work.
I spent the afternoon at my computer with a short break to clean and set up a washing experiment. Left at 5:25 and sat with Maria and Arkady on the trains home. Took the bus and arrived home to find Lise cleaning. Lise, if you remember, is my host/landlady and has been on vacation the past month. I hadn't cleaned at all yesterday because I was out late and had hoped she would be back tomorrow and not today. All I feel comfortable saying here is that disappointment, ticked, and pissed are words that lack the strength and connotation to convey how she felt coming back to her house as dirty as it was. If you go to the heart of the whole situation it was based upon miscommunication. Miscommunication rooted in language and culture differences. Yujie and I had talked about cleaning together tonight once we got home but really felt the house wasn't too bad. Our expectations were lower than Lise's. But we were all able to get out how we felt and what our intentions had been and will be able to move forward.
One thing I got out of this (besides that I apparently need to learn how to clean better/more often) was that I had the chance to explain forgiveness to Yujie. No, Lise has not forgiven us and I'm not quite sure she will but forgiveness is what the two of us are longing for. We know we have disappointed, we know we have unintentionally been disrespectful and we would do just about anything to make that right again. My housemates from Madison know that I apologize for everything but I hope they know that I mean it each time I apologize. I had to restate my apology to Lise because "sorry" is such an overused word. But anyway, after talking about forgiveness with Yujie and explaining it I felt I had just explained something very important and something she really needed to hear. God works in so many ways that I have no idea what His purpose of all this is. You can bet I will be more clean outside of my room in the next week, though.
I am now emotionally drained, though. Top that with lack of sleep from last night and you have one tired me. So now it's bed time.
I ask that you pray constantly for Yujie, Lise and myself. Me for the next week, Yujie for the next three and Lise, well, as long as we are here. The atmosphere of the house has changed. We two are no longer as free as we were and must relearn how to live with Lise. We did not get a good start. Pray for patience, understanding, grace, humility and love all around. Ah, my heart still hurts just thinking about this, though we will be putting it behind us and have made steps already tonight showing things can be more normal.
Okay, I have to go sleep now.
Have a good night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
The day itself went rather well. Because I was up so late last night I decided to take my time getting to work and didn't get there till 9:30. That was a bit later than I wanted (thank you late bus) but I still got everything done. I have a rough draft of the paper written. Lots of work still to do, though. I had lunch with Mai-Britt and Bodil again but sat next to Brandon so we chatted until he left. Bodil gave me great encouragement today. She was telling me about the jobs she's held at Topsoe and I asked if Topsoe ever hires just Bachelors and, for the first time, I heard yes. The Engineering division does and I think that is the type of work I would like to do. I thanked her and told her that she'd just encouraged me and we talked for a bit more before heading back to work.
I spent the afternoon at my computer with a short break to clean and set up a washing experiment. Left at 5:25 and sat with Maria and Arkady on the trains home. Took the bus and arrived home to find Lise cleaning. Lise, if you remember, is my host/landlady and has been on vacation the past month. I hadn't cleaned at all yesterday because I was out late and had hoped she would be back tomorrow and not today. All I feel comfortable saying here is that disappointment, ticked, and pissed are words that lack the strength and connotation to convey how she felt coming back to her house as dirty as it was. If you go to the heart of the whole situation it was based upon miscommunication. Miscommunication rooted in language and culture differences. Yujie and I had talked about cleaning together tonight once we got home but really felt the house wasn't too bad. Our expectations were lower than Lise's. But we were all able to get out how we felt and what our intentions had been and will be able to move forward.
One thing I got out of this (besides that I apparently need to learn how to clean better/more often) was that I had the chance to explain forgiveness to Yujie. No, Lise has not forgiven us and I'm not quite sure she will but forgiveness is what the two of us are longing for. We know we have disappointed, we know we have unintentionally been disrespectful and we would do just about anything to make that right again. My housemates from Madison know that I apologize for everything but I hope they know that I mean it each time I apologize. I had to restate my apology to Lise because "sorry" is such an overused word. But anyway, after talking about forgiveness with Yujie and explaining it I felt I had just explained something very important and something she really needed to hear. God works in so many ways that I have no idea what His purpose of all this is. You can bet I will be more clean outside of my room in the next week, though.
I am now emotionally drained, though. Top that with lack of sleep from last night and you have one tired me. So now it's bed time.
I ask that you pray constantly for Yujie, Lise and myself. Me for the next week, Yujie for the next three and Lise, well, as long as we are here. The atmosphere of the house has changed. We two are no longer as free as we were and must relearn how to live with Lise. We did not get a good start. Pray for patience, understanding, grace, humility and love all around. Ah, my heart still hurts just thinking about this, though we will be putting it behind us and have made steps already tonight showing things can be more normal.
Okay, I have to go sleep now.
Have a good night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
He is Always Faithful
"God is good" was already taken and it is sooo true that He is faithful and never fails. Why the gratitude? I just spent the last hour trying to find a flight to Munich for the 15th. I found one for $289, roundtrip, which is awesome considering it is only 10 days away. I called my mom to share the news and blessing and went to book it and...it was sold out! I tried three times to do it again with the same result. So I opened travelocity again and found that the price had changed to $231 roundtrip! I nearly fell off my seat! I went through the whole booking process and when the page with my confirmation popped up it said the flights were sold out. Yup, bummer number 2. I then opened a tab for four different websites and began perusing different options. My cheapest option was $346 and I would not be able to get to the airport for the outbound flight. Then I decided to check the carriers website and not the travel deal sites. Swiss.com has seen me visit at least ten times each day in the past 4 days. I went through, not expecting to find anything cheaper, and actually found a workable roundtrip and went for it. Nothing is refundable, I have a 40 min layover in Zurich and won't be back in CPH on the 21st till almost 8 pm but I am 100% okay with that and spent $287 total. God is good!
I also booked my hostel and already know that they will make sure I am not the only female in the room (the all female dorm was not available the 6 nights I will be there so I e-mailed ahead of time to check). Again, God is good.
Ah, it's going on 12:30 AM here and I need to go sleep. So, unfortunately, here's a quick run through of today.
I did little experimentation and analysis.
I researched zeolites and then companies that work with them (prep for the fall career fair).
I had lunch with Mai-Britt and Bodil (two women in my lab group) and then was joined by Charlotte and an asian girl (whose name I don't know). It was quite a nice lunch with very little Danish. Plus we were all women in science; it was nice. :-)
After lunch I handed out my raspberry cheesecake bars. Klas was first and approved; Arkady, Burcin, Brandon and Radek followed shortly thereafter and all agreed. So they were a success! Almost everyone asked me to verify that I'd actually made them. I guess they turned out pretty well. :-)
More reading and research then Esben tried the bars and also liked them. :-)
I found out I will be writing a 4-5 page paper about what we've done and concluded so far.
I went to dinner at a cafe with Burcin, Brandon, Arkady, Enric and two new post docs from DTU that know Brandon and Burcin from UCSB. VERY fun and we hung out at B&B's afterward and finished my cheesecake bars, ate Swiss Chocolate Arkady brought, and I got home around 10:30.
Now I'm going to bed! Thank you for your prayers and I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
I also booked my hostel and already know that they will make sure I am not the only female in the room (the all female dorm was not available the 6 nights I will be there so I e-mailed ahead of time to check). Again, God is good.
Ah, it's going on 12:30 AM here and I need to go sleep. So, unfortunately, here's a quick run through of today.
I did little experimentation and analysis.
I researched zeolites and then companies that work with them (prep for the fall career fair).
I had lunch with Mai-Britt and Bodil (two women in my lab group) and then was joined by Charlotte and an asian girl (whose name I don't know). It was quite a nice lunch with very little Danish. Plus we were all women in science; it was nice. :-)
After lunch I handed out my raspberry cheesecake bars. Klas was first and approved; Arkady, Burcin, Brandon and Radek followed shortly thereafter and all agreed. So they were a success! Almost everyone asked me to verify that I'd actually made them. I guess they turned out pretty well. :-)
More reading and research then Esben tried the bars and also liked them. :-)
I found out I will be writing a 4-5 page paper about what we've done and concluded so far.
I went to dinner at a cafe with Burcin, Brandon, Arkady, Enric and two new post docs from DTU that know Brandon and Burcin from UCSB. VERY fun and we hung out at B&B's afterward and finished my cheesecake bars, ate Swiss Chocolate Arkady brought, and I got home around 10:30.
Now I'm going to bed! Thank you for your prayers and I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day/night/afternoon,
Bekah
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Success!!
The cheesecake bars are delicious! Oh my goodness, the only thing I would change is that the raspberries are a bit tart and the taste they leave in your mouth isn't very sweet but overall the bars came out well. Yujie likes them and the real test will be tomorrow. Since I already know about the raspberries 1. I can warn people and 2. I am prepared for them to not like them because of it, though that would stink. Still, I'm excited! And they LOOK beautiful. :-) So when I make them at home I will have to add something sweet to reduce the tartness of the raspberries.
Okay, so, that taste test happened about twenty minutes ago. Wanna hear about the rest of my day? Haha, suuuuure ya do. :-P
Up and ready as normal and headed out the door. There's some sort of "construction" on the sidewalk near us so I have a little detour to get out of our neighborhood. Not a problem in the morning but if I forget on my way home, which I did today, I have to retrace and go all the way around. I'm just glad it wasn't raining. :-)
Anywho, got to work and did work basically the whole day. I wasn't feeling great (my stomach or something) but somehow I always seemed to have a smile on my face. Guess I just like work or something. ;-) So yeah, busy morning and all. Went to lunch with Esben and Kresten and ended up also eating with Lars and Chi-manh (two of the guys from Friday night). We recounted our evening; Chi-manh left us "early" in the night and I went home before Lars (who ended up going into Copenhagen AFTER 2 am). It was fun to recall silly things and make fun of what went down.
It looks like I'll be doing the canal tour either Friday or Saturday (pending the weather) so I'm looking forward to that. The afternoon went by rather quickly. Before I knew it 3 o'clock rolled around but I didn't have time to sit and ponder that because I had things to do. I love days like this. Work work work and not feel useless. :-) I didn't end up leaving till about 5:15 and Esben had been long gone.
Had a nice ride home; couldn't stop smiling and enjoying my music. :-) Once home I started on dinner right away and then popped in a load of laundry. Food and some quiet time in the Word and then e-mails and Facebook. I had quite a few e-mails and messages to reply to so once that was done I Skyped a bit and then Yujie came home and we tasted the cheesecake bars. And now you know my whole day. :-)
In a couple minutes I will be purchasing my plane ticket to Munich. I'm a bit nervous but I know I am going and there's no point in waiting any longer. I wanted to buy it from work but there's a rule about not making any purchases on a company computer with a personal credit card. Oh well, I tried.
Prayer requests: this is selfish but please pray that my information doesn't get stolen while I buy my ticket online. Also, pray for peace of mind concerning my trip and all that goes with it (flight, place to stay, food, etc). And just praise the Lord in general. He is so good and showers so many blessings upon us that it is easy to miss them. One more request is that I would sleep better. I've been tired quite a bit the past week and it could be due to lack of sleep but I'm not entirely sure.
That's it for now! Tomorrow I'll hopefully have a plane ticket and I'm also going to dinner at a cafe with Brandon, Burcin and Enric and possibly a few others. Should be quite fun. :-)
Have a great day/afternoon/night!
Bekah
Okay, so, that taste test happened about twenty minutes ago. Wanna hear about the rest of my day? Haha, suuuuure ya do. :-P
Up and ready as normal and headed out the door. There's some sort of "construction" on the sidewalk near us so I have a little detour to get out of our neighborhood. Not a problem in the morning but if I forget on my way home, which I did today, I have to retrace and go all the way around. I'm just glad it wasn't raining. :-)
Anywho, got to work and did work basically the whole day. I wasn't feeling great (my stomach or something) but somehow I always seemed to have a smile on my face. Guess I just like work or something. ;-) So yeah, busy morning and all. Went to lunch with Esben and Kresten and ended up also eating with Lars and Chi-manh (two of the guys from Friday night). We recounted our evening; Chi-manh left us "early" in the night and I went home before Lars (who ended up going into Copenhagen AFTER 2 am). It was fun to recall silly things and make fun of what went down.
It looks like I'll be doing the canal tour either Friday or Saturday (pending the weather) so I'm looking forward to that. The afternoon went by rather quickly. Before I knew it 3 o'clock rolled around but I didn't have time to sit and ponder that because I had things to do. I love days like this. Work work work and not feel useless. :-) I didn't end up leaving till about 5:15 and Esben had been long gone.
Had a nice ride home; couldn't stop smiling and enjoying my music. :-) Once home I started on dinner right away and then popped in a load of laundry. Food and some quiet time in the Word and then e-mails and Facebook. I had quite a few e-mails and messages to reply to so once that was done I Skyped a bit and then Yujie came home and we tasted the cheesecake bars. And now you know my whole day. :-)
In a couple minutes I will be purchasing my plane ticket to Munich. I'm a bit nervous but I know I am going and there's no point in waiting any longer. I wanted to buy it from work but there's a rule about not making any purchases on a company computer with a personal credit card. Oh well, I tried.
Prayer requests: this is selfish but please pray that my information doesn't get stolen while I buy my ticket online. Also, pray for peace of mind concerning my trip and all that goes with it (flight, place to stay, food, etc). And just praise the Lord in general. He is so good and showers so many blessings upon us that it is easy to miss them. One more request is that I would sleep better. I've been tired quite a bit the past week and it could be due to lack of sleep but I'm not entirely sure.
That's it for now! Tomorrow I'll hopefully have a plane ticket and I'm also going to dinner at a cafe with Brandon, Burcin and Enric and possibly a few others. Should be quite fun. :-)
Have a great day/afternoon/night!
Bekah
Monday, August 3, 2009
"It's funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most."
For me this is completely true. As you've noticed, my blogs can be pretty detail oriented. Hope you don't mind too much. Today will be no different as several things happened to make today me upset and rejoice, at separate times.
This morning I did the usual with getting ready for work and all. I had wanted to leave early so I could get some things started more quickly but ended up at work around 8:30. As I was going to get off the first train of my commute a little blond girl ran up to the door all excited to push the button to let us out. The train hadn't quite stopped yet and her mom said something that almost immediately made the little girl recoil from the door but I could see on her face she REALLY wanted to push that button. Since I was closest I knew I had the "power" to let her hit the button. So when we stopped and I didn't move my hand she looked at me. I gave her a smile and a nod and you should've SEEN her face light up! I walked to the next train with a huge grin on my face and probably looked ridiculous. :-)
Once at work I checked e-mail and then spent the next two hours in lab doing analysis, setting up experiments and taking observations. At that point things calmed down just a bit and I took a short break at my desk. Esben and Arkady were both gone today and I haven't seen Klas since Wednesday I think so I knew lunch was going to be interesting. I saw Burcin like three times but never made the move to ask if she had lunch plans. So 11:45 came. And it went. And noon came and I heard Mai Britt and Anders come back from lunch. I made sure lunch was still "across the tracks" and then trekked over there. Since I was by myself I decided just to grab a sandwich and some fruit and head back to eat at my desk. Why would I do this? Oh, because I hate lunch rooms and not having a group of people with which to sit. So I walked in and on my way to get food I see Klas and Kresten (goodness, I haven't seen him in over a week now) sitting at a table full of guys. Yeah, there was no way I would be asking to pull up a chair there. My first impression? "Boys Club." Yeah, not going to try and infiltrate that. I waved to Kresten on my way in and made eye contact with Klas on the way out, which caused me to drop my apple, which rolled for about 5 feet before I could get it. Yeah, I basically ran away after that. :-)
Ate and did more work as things finished up and had everything I wanted to get done completed by 2:15. Yeah, you saw that right: 2:15. I hadn't planned to leave till 3 or 3:30 and THAT was supposed to be early because I needed to make an exchange at the RC shop. So I did little things and looked stuff up till a little before 3 and then headed out. I feel guilty for leaving early but I got two whole experiments done and started a longer one in the morning, so the day was quite productive. Headed to Noerreport and then Kongens Nytorv and walked down the Pedestrian Street for the third day in a row. I made my purchases and headed out into the light rain. I had seen a stand selling raspberries and knew I had to have them. However, it is very difficult to carry a bag of porcelain, an umbrella and a flimsy bag containing a flimsy container of raspberries while also trying to get your bus pass out for an incredibly full bus. Haha, yeah, that was an adventure. :-) I stopped at Fakta on the way home to buy butter and cream cheese and some more chocolate and then headed home.
Chilled for a little bit and then made dinner. I attempted three cheese mac and cheese with some "hamburger" balls. Should've just stuck with cheddar but it was okay. Not every dish can be a success. After dinner I decided to make cheesecake bars. It took me about two hours once all was said and done (remember, no mixer or measuring cups, etc) and I, again, have a new respect for women who baked "back then." Honestly, I understand why a day of baking started at the crack of dawn. I had to mix butter and brown sugar until "light and fluffy." HA! That did NOT happen but my right arm certainly got a good work out trying. Yujie did show me that our host does actually have a measuring cup: it's for both liquids and solids. Yeah, figured I'd be better off using my own system. The crust came out well; yay! I tweaked the cream cheese part and added a little but of a raspberry "puree" and then put a thin layer of chopped chocolate on the crust before the filling. Now when I say chopped I should tell you it's more like shavings. Took forever and covered my hands in chocolate but was definitely fun and made me feel "artsy" with my food. I threw a couple of whole raspberries in there and then more chocolate shavings on the top and back in the over. Oh, when I pulled that baby out it smelled SO GOOD! It looks delicious and smells delicious; now I just hope it tastes as good as it looks and smells! We will have to wait till Wednesday to find out, though, as I'm giving them a full day in the fridge to set. Plus Arkady's not back till Wednesday anyway.
And now to another little thing that happened. I had marshmallows left over from the fudge, "Digestive biscuits" that I thought I was going to use for the cheesecake crust, and some leftover chocolate. What can I make with those? If you said s'mores you are absolutely correct. I asked Yujie if she'd ever had one and she said no and agreed to eat one if I made it. Well, oven-done marshmallows aren't exactly components of a true s'more but it was pretty close. And she liked it. :-) So I did two desserts in one night and put smiles on both our faces. I'd say it was a success. :-)
Since it's after ten now I need to head to bed and won't be booking my flight and hostel tonight. Bad idea, I know, but our internet here stinks right now so I'd rather see if I can do it all at work anyway. And I'm pretty sure I've picked a flight and hostel so it's mostly just point and click now anyway. Thank you for praying about that. I still feel uneasy about the whole thing but I know I will be incredibly glad to have gone and seen what I want to see.
Prayer requests are the same and I emphasize courage. I ran away from lunch today and am not proud of it. For being such a "people person" I sure am a good chicken. Also pray for my attitude and motivation each day as the countdown to Munich (and, consequently, home) has unfortunately begun. I am not necessarily ticking the days off but I do realize my time is running out. Also, please pray for my host, Yujie and myself as we get ready to "reunite" later this week. Pray for safe travels for my host and that she would find the house in good condition upon her return.
Thank you for praying and if you are reading this and we haven't had any contact in a while, send me an e-mail! I'd love to hear from you. :-)
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
This morning I did the usual with getting ready for work and all. I had wanted to leave early so I could get some things started more quickly but ended up at work around 8:30. As I was going to get off the first train of my commute a little blond girl ran up to the door all excited to push the button to let us out. The train hadn't quite stopped yet and her mom said something that almost immediately made the little girl recoil from the door but I could see on her face she REALLY wanted to push that button. Since I was closest I knew I had the "power" to let her hit the button. So when we stopped and I didn't move my hand she looked at me. I gave her a smile and a nod and you should've SEEN her face light up! I walked to the next train with a huge grin on my face and probably looked ridiculous. :-)
Once at work I checked e-mail and then spent the next two hours in lab doing analysis, setting up experiments and taking observations. At that point things calmed down just a bit and I took a short break at my desk. Esben and Arkady were both gone today and I haven't seen Klas since Wednesday I think so I knew lunch was going to be interesting. I saw Burcin like three times but never made the move to ask if she had lunch plans. So 11:45 came. And it went. And noon came and I heard Mai Britt and Anders come back from lunch. I made sure lunch was still "across the tracks" and then trekked over there. Since I was by myself I decided just to grab a sandwich and some fruit and head back to eat at my desk. Why would I do this? Oh, because I hate lunch rooms and not having a group of people with which to sit. So I walked in and on my way to get food I see Klas and Kresten (goodness, I haven't seen him in over a week now) sitting at a table full of guys. Yeah, there was no way I would be asking to pull up a chair there. My first impression? "Boys Club." Yeah, not going to try and infiltrate that. I waved to Kresten on my way in and made eye contact with Klas on the way out, which caused me to drop my apple, which rolled for about 5 feet before I could get it. Yeah, I basically ran away after that. :-)
Ate and did more work as things finished up and had everything I wanted to get done completed by 2:15. Yeah, you saw that right: 2:15. I hadn't planned to leave till 3 or 3:30 and THAT was supposed to be early because I needed to make an exchange at the RC shop. So I did little things and looked stuff up till a little before 3 and then headed out. I feel guilty for leaving early but I got two whole experiments done and started a longer one in the morning, so the day was quite productive. Headed to Noerreport and then Kongens Nytorv and walked down the Pedestrian Street for the third day in a row. I made my purchases and headed out into the light rain. I had seen a stand selling raspberries and knew I had to have them. However, it is very difficult to carry a bag of porcelain, an umbrella and a flimsy bag containing a flimsy container of raspberries while also trying to get your bus pass out for an incredibly full bus. Haha, yeah, that was an adventure. :-) I stopped at Fakta on the way home to buy butter and cream cheese and some more chocolate and then headed home.
Chilled for a little bit and then made dinner. I attempted three cheese mac and cheese with some "hamburger" balls. Should've just stuck with cheddar but it was okay. Not every dish can be a success. After dinner I decided to make cheesecake bars. It took me about two hours once all was said and done (remember, no mixer or measuring cups, etc) and I, again, have a new respect for women who baked "back then." Honestly, I understand why a day of baking started at the crack of dawn. I had to mix butter and brown sugar until "light and fluffy." HA! That did NOT happen but my right arm certainly got a good work out trying. Yujie did show me that our host does actually have a measuring cup: it's for both liquids and solids. Yeah, figured I'd be better off using my own system. The crust came out well; yay! I tweaked the cream cheese part and added a little but of a raspberry "puree" and then put a thin layer of chopped chocolate on the crust before the filling. Now when I say chopped I should tell you it's more like shavings. Took forever and covered my hands in chocolate but was definitely fun and made me feel "artsy" with my food. I threw a couple of whole raspberries in there and then more chocolate shavings on the top and back in the over. Oh, when I pulled that baby out it smelled SO GOOD! It looks delicious and smells delicious; now I just hope it tastes as good as it looks and smells! We will have to wait till Wednesday to find out, though, as I'm giving them a full day in the fridge to set. Plus Arkady's not back till Wednesday anyway.
And now to another little thing that happened. I had marshmallows left over from the fudge, "Digestive biscuits" that I thought I was going to use for the cheesecake crust, and some leftover chocolate. What can I make with those? If you said s'mores you are absolutely correct. I asked Yujie if she'd ever had one and she said no and agreed to eat one if I made it. Well, oven-done marshmallows aren't exactly components of a true s'more but it was pretty close. And she liked it. :-) So I did two desserts in one night and put smiles on both our faces. I'd say it was a success. :-)
Since it's after ten now I need to head to bed and won't be booking my flight and hostel tonight. Bad idea, I know, but our internet here stinks right now so I'd rather see if I can do it all at work anyway. And I'm pretty sure I've picked a flight and hostel so it's mostly just point and click now anyway. Thank you for praying about that. I still feel uneasy about the whole thing but I know I will be incredibly glad to have gone and seen what I want to see.
Prayer requests are the same and I emphasize courage. I ran away from lunch today and am not proud of it. For being such a "people person" I sure am a good chicken. Also pray for my attitude and motivation each day as the countdown to Munich (and, consequently, home) has unfortunately begun. I am not necessarily ticking the days off but I do realize my time is running out. Also, please pray for my host, Yujie and myself as we get ready to "reunite" later this week. Pray for safe travels for my host and that she would find the house in good condition upon her return.
Thank you for praying and if you are reading this and we haven't had any contact in a while, send me an e-mail! I'd love to hear from you. :-)
Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Just another quick update
I need to go to bed so here's a quick run down of my day. I got up around 8 after sleeping basically the whole night straight (only woke up once after the sun came up I think). Originally I was going to head to the Royal Copenhagen Shop before church but then found out it opened at noon, not ten, and decided to just see how long it took me to get ready. Well, I was ready by 11 (well before that actually) and decided to go see the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace at noon before church. Didn't take me too long to get there and quite a few tourists were there. Met a woman from U.S. Virgin Islands and saw 25 minutes of the changing of the guard before heading to church.
Got to church in plenty of time and with no problems. Raymundos sat near me and I chatted with another woman I'd met my second week here. Service was good; talked about turning immediately to God when something happens in our lives, especially something negative, instead of going emotional. Plus, there's a new family in the congregation who just moved here from Cairo and the father is a Badger alumni! I chatted with him and his son, who is my brother's age, for probably 45 mins after church. It was great! I'm sad I'll only be at the church one more time before leaving.
After chatting I headed to the RC store. Got there a little before 4 and started my shopping. I bought quite a bit (and the bill reflected that) and then went home. I was starving by this point (I'd only eaten breakfast and that was at like 9) and so I made dinner. Nothing fancy, just burgers and I attempted to melt blue cheese over pringles. It was pretty good, just really salty.
Later I chatted with my family and that actually caused quite the frustration because I realized I spent more than I wanted to at RC. Plus the Internet completely cut out and I had no way of telling them my call had been dropped and I was working on getting back. Trust me, the whole thing was frustrating and I ended up with a headache. Guess I didn't apply the sermon very well.
And now I'm off to bed. TOmorrow is work and there's a good bit to get done. Esben will be gone so if I get everything done I may leave early and head to the RC store to exchange a couple things. We'll see.
Yup, that's it. Prayer requests are the same. Thank you for praying.
Have a good night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Got to church in plenty of time and with no problems. Raymundos sat near me and I chatted with another woman I'd met my second week here. Service was good; talked about turning immediately to God when something happens in our lives, especially something negative, instead of going emotional. Plus, there's a new family in the congregation who just moved here from Cairo and the father is a Badger alumni! I chatted with him and his son, who is my brother's age, for probably 45 mins after church. It was great! I'm sad I'll only be at the church one more time before leaving.
After chatting I headed to the RC store. Got there a little before 4 and started my shopping. I bought quite a bit (and the bill reflected that) and then went home. I was starving by this point (I'd only eaten breakfast and that was at like 9) and so I made dinner. Nothing fancy, just burgers and I attempted to melt blue cheese over pringles. It was pretty good, just really salty.
Later I chatted with my family and that actually caused quite the frustration because I realized I spent more than I wanted to at RC. Plus the Internet completely cut out and I had no way of telling them my call had been dropped and I was working on getting back. Trust me, the whole thing was frustrating and I ended up with a headache. Guess I didn't apply the sermon very well.
And now I'm off to bed. TOmorrow is work and there's a good bit to get done. Esben will be gone so if I get everything done I may leave early and head to the RC store to exchange a couple things. We'll see.
Yup, that's it. Prayer requests are the same. Thank you for praying.
Have a good night/day/afternoon,
Bekah
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Comfortable
Hello hello. It's Saturday evening and I would say that after being here 6 weeks I actually felt comfortable today. I got up around 10 something (going to bed after 2 will do that to you) and lounged about for a bit. Eventually I ate and showered and then headed down to the walking street. The bus there was packed! It was about 1:30 in the afternoon so that kind of makes sense to me. My goal was to get to the Royal Copenhagen (RC) Porcelain store to look around and possibly buy some of their tea and too look into some dishes. The wares are incredibly pricey but very beautiful.
I got sidetracked in a couple stores along the way and actually bought a purse! It's brown, which is really nice since I will no longer have to carry a black purse with brown outfits. The strap is very long and it feels kind of like a messenger bag, but the purse is much smaller than that. I like it and it will serve my purpose and I bought it in Denmark, though since I got it at H&M I probably could've found something similar in the States.
Walking down the pedestrian street, alone, I felt like a Dane. Well, as much as I can since I'm an American. :-P There were tourists everywhere and some of them have no idea how to walk down a street. Okay, that's me being judgemental, which I shouldn't be, especially because I was in no hurry. Eventually I made it to the the RC store and looked around. I did NOT buy tea because, well, I have a feeling I will be back there tomorrow and I'm not entirely sure that I want the tea if I could instead buy a mug or something.
Anyway, I decided to walk down the rest of the Pedestrian street and take a train home from the Central Station. This was a good idea until I reached the City Hall square. See, apparently this past week or something was Copenhagen Pride. Oh yes, it was intersting. I knew I had a decision to make: either turn around and walk back up the Pedestrian street to take a bus home or walk through the throng of LGBT's and supporters and on to the Central Station. I did the latter. Now, I love people. Their choices do not affect that, though I will say I do not agree with the kiss that happened about 12 inches away from my face as I followed a guy through the crowd.
Once through the crowd I quickly made my way to Kobenhavn H and was on a train to Hellerup. There was a group of guys from some organization or club that got on the train just ahead of me and whistled at any and every female that passed them. At one point one of them dropped his pants and apparently got spanked with a belt. I was facing the other direction so I didn't see most of it, thankfully. There was also a bachelorette party on our train; the bride had a pink cowboy hat on, hot pink sash, and her two pigtail braids tied on the top of her hat. Funny.
I took the bus home and got ready to go grocery shopping. A lot of the food I bought before Paul got here had gone bad and I really needed to throw it out. In doing so I basically depleted any food I had. So I biked on down to Fakta and stocked up a bit. I was also going to withdraw money but the ATM is broken, so I'm down to just change. That's fine, though, because I can pay for lunch that way and if I buy anything at RC tomorrow I will use my card anyway.
Oh, I really need to buy my Munich flight and hostel. I have pushed it off and will probably spend an extra $50-100 because of it. At the moment, I'm okay with that, though. I'm really nervous about the hostel and apparently I think that pushing it off will make it better. Ha, we all know that's not true.
Anywho, I made burgers with blue cheese and bbq sauce and have been attempting to upload more pictures. So now I guess I can give you a short rundown or yesterday. Here goes:
Went to work, did little work till after lunch because I didn't have the supplies I needed till then, did LOTS of work till about 5:30 and then headed to the "pub" on the HT campus. I met Brandon, Burcin, Marios (her summer student whose last day was yesterday), Lars (a PhD student at Topsoe) and Shamein (not spelled right but hopefully that's okay). Had a couple beers and just chatted. Headed outside to watch a game of beer bowling and, after a break, was roped into playing. My Madison engineering friends will be proud to know I did very well. Even with penalties my team won. After that the 6 of us plus Radek and Enrique (a Spaniard who works at Topsoe) headed to Hellerup to get burgers. The cafe was closed though so we walked till we found another place and all ate. I had the chance to talk with Enrique in Spanish and, let me tell you, that was amazing! I actually did pretty well, though he definitely had to talk slowly in the beginning and had to remind me of a couple of words. The water and food of dinner definitely helped me out and we were off again to a gathering at another HT employee's place. She had been the only other woman playing beer bowling and seemed pretty cool. I was handed a beer basically upon arrival and then another not too long after that. It was a bit before anything else was doled out but Burcin loves tequila shots so I ended up having two: one her way (with sugar) and one in Danish fashion (with salt). I think I'm a fan of the sugar version. Anyway, Marios gave me a little swing dance lesson later in the night to save me from one of the guys who was getting too close and then Burcin, Brandon, Enrique and I left. I got home a little before two and quickly jotted yesterday's entry and went to bed.
So now you're all caught up. Oh wait, except I forgot two things. 1. I ate lunch with Brandon, Burcin and Marios yesterday and it was VERY fun. 2. After Thursday I realized I was already mourning leaving CPH when I still have two weeks left! So I prayed throughout the morning as I got ready and was on my way to work that God would change my attitude. All of a sudden, on the first train to work, I just started smiling. There was no reason for it but my spirit was lifted and I felt happy, content and excited to be here and ready to take it all in. God is good. :-)
Prayer report: Paul got home safely! Yay!
Prayer requests: I would continue to take in everything I can while I am here; I would be the young woman God wants me to be; I would continue to have patience, humility, and courage. Pray also for Esben: his aunt, who he was going to visit last weekend but the visit was postponed, passed away on Wednesday. He won't be at work Monday because of it. Pray too for my host, Lise, as she will be coming back later this week. On that note, pray for Yujie and I as we adjust to her being back. Freedom here has been so great that it will be difficult to go back. But for me it is only one week and that is not too long. Remember that God is good, all the time, and He has a plan for my life, your life, and those of the people around you.
Have a wonderful evening/day/night,
Bekah
I got sidetracked in a couple stores along the way and actually bought a purse! It's brown, which is really nice since I will no longer have to carry a black purse with brown outfits. The strap is very long and it feels kind of like a messenger bag, but the purse is much smaller than that. I like it and it will serve my purpose and I bought it in Denmark, though since I got it at H&M I probably could've found something similar in the States.
Walking down the pedestrian street, alone, I felt like a Dane. Well, as much as I can since I'm an American. :-P There were tourists everywhere and some of them have no idea how to walk down a street. Okay, that's me being judgemental, which I shouldn't be, especially because I was in no hurry. Eventually I made it to the the RC store and looked around. I did NOT buy tea because, well, I have a feeling I will be back there tomorrow and I'm not entirely sure that I want the tea if I could instead buy a mug or something.
Anyway, I decided to walk down the rest of the Pedestrian street and take a train home from the Central Station. This was a good idea until I reached the City Hall square. See, apparently this past week or something was Copenhagen Pride. Oh yes, it was intersting. I knew I had a decision to make: either turn around and walk back up the Pedestrian street to take a bus home or walk through the throng of LGBT's and supporters and on to the Central Station. I did the latter. Now, I love people. Their choices do not affect that, though I will say I do not agree with the kiss that happened about 12 inches away from my face as I followed a guy through the crowd.
Once through the crowd I quickly made my way to Kobenhavn H and was on a train to Hellerup. There was a group of guys from some organization or club that got on the train just ahead of me and whistled at any and every female that passed them. At one point one of them dropped his pants and apparently got spanked with a belt. I was facing the other direction so I didn't see most of it, thankfully. There was also a bachelorette party on our train; the bride had a pink cowboy hat on, hot pink sash, and her two pigtail braids tied on the top of her hat. Funny.
I took the bus home and got ready to go grocery shopping. A lot of the food I bought before Paul got here had gone bad and I really needed to throw it out. In doing so I basically depleted any food I had. So I biked on down to Fakta and stocked up a bit. I was also going to withdraw money but the ATM is broken, so I'm down to just change. That's fine, though, because I can pay for lunch that way and if I buy anything at RC tomorrow I will use my card anyway.
Oh, I really need to buy my Munich flight and hostel. I have pushed it off and will probably spend an extra $50-100 because of it. At the moment, I'm okay with that, though. I'm really nervous about the hostel and apparently I think that pushing it off will make it better. Ha, we all know that's not true.
Anywho, I made burgers with blue cheese and bbq sauce and have been attempting to upload more pictures. So now I guess I can give you a short rundown or yesterday. Here goes:
Went to work, did little work till after lunch because I didn't have the supplies I needed till then, did LOTS of work till about 5:30 and then headed to the "pub" on the HT campus. I met Brandon, Burcin, Marios (her summer student whose last day was yesterday), Lars (a PhD student at Topsoe) and Shamein (not spelled right but hopefully that's okay). Had a couple beers and just chatted. Headed outside to watch a game of beer bowling and, after a break, was roped into playing. My Madison engineering friends will be proud to know I did very well. Even with penalties my team won. After that the 6 of us plus Radek and Enrique (a Spaniard who works at Topsoe) headed to Hellerup to get burgers. The cafe was closed though so we walked till we found another place and all ate. I had the chance to talk with Enrique in Spanish and, let me tell you, that was amazing! I actually did pretty well, though he definitely had to talk slowly in the beginning and had to remind me of a couple of words. The water and food of dinner definitely helped me out and we were off again to a gathering at another HT employee's place. She had been the only other woman playing beer bowling and seemed pretty cool. I was handed a beer basically upon arrival and then another not too long after that. It was a bit before anything else was doled out but Burcin loves tequila shots so I ended up having two: one her way (with sugar) and one in Danish fashion (with salt). I think I'm a fan of the sugar version. Anyway, Marios gave me a little swing dance lesson later in the night to save me from one of the guys who was getting too close and then Burcin, Brandon, Enrique and I left. I got home a little before two and quickly jotted yesterday's entry and went to bed.
So now you're all caught up. Oh wait, except I forgot two things. 1. I ate lunch with Brandon, Burcin and Marios yesterday and it was VERY fun. 2. After Thursday I realized I was already mourning leaving CPH when I still have two weeks left! So I prayed throughout the morning as I got ready and was on my way to work that God would change my attitude. All of a sudden, on the first train to work, I just started smiling. There was no reason for it but my spirit was lifted and I felt happy, content and excited to be here and ready to take it all in. God is good. :-)
Prayer report: Paul got home safely! Yay!
Prayer requests: I would continue to take in everything I can while I am here; I would be the young woman God wants me to be; I would continue to have patience, humility, and courage. Pray also for Esben: his aunt, who he was going to visit last weekend but the visit was postponed, passed away on Wednesday. He won't be at work Monday because of it. Pray too for my host, Lise, as she will be coming back later this week. On that note, pray for Yujie and I as we adjust to her being back. Freedom here has been so great that it will be difficult to go back. But for me it is only one week and that is not too long. Remember that God is good, all the time, and He has a plan for my life, your life, and those of the people around you.
Have a wonderful evening/day/night,
Bekah
God Is Good
This will be short. Yes, hold your rejoicing just a bit. I'm too tired and not with it enough to recall the whole day.
I had a very good day, though. I knew after blogging yesterday that I needed to enjoy the time I spent here and not mourn that I was leaving in three weeks. So I asked God to change my attitude and on the train to work I couldn't stop smiling. He'd completely changed my attitude! I also asked Burcin if she had lunch plans and ended up eating with her, Brandon and her summer student, Marios, whose last day was today. But seriuosly, I need to go to sleep. I have had 7+ beers in the past nine hours along with some other drinks. Nothing to brag about, I know, but it is true. I had a great time hanging out with people but now very much need to sleep. I will probably blog twice tomorrow to make up for how short this is.
Nonetheless, God is good and has taken care of me, as always.
Have a wonderful night/day/evening and I will blog more tomorrow,
Bekah
I had a very good day, though. I knew after blogging yesterday that I needed to enjoy the time I spent here and not mourn that I was leaving in three weeks. So I asked God to change my attitude and on the train to work I couldn't stop smiling. He'd completely changed my attitude! I also asked Burcin if she had lunch plans and ended up eating with her, Brandon and her summer student, Marios, whose last day was today. But seriuosly, I need to go to sleep. I have had 7+ beers in the past nine hours along with some other drinks. Nothing to brag about, I know, but it is true. I had a great time hanging out with people but now very much need to sleep. I will probably blog twice tomorrow to make up for how short this is.
Nonetheless, God is good and has taken care of me, as always.
Have a wonderful night/day/evening and I will blog more tomorrow,
Bekah
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