Feliz Navidad!

Yes, we're living in Denmark this year, but we spent the holidays in the Canary Islands! We arrived on Christmas morning and spent the whole week relaxing in the sun. On Monday, we luxuriated at the spa for several hours, and then lounged at the pool for a few more hours before going into the nearby town/fishing village, Puerto de las Nieves, for a wonderful dinner. We ate there several more times during the week, each meal seemingly better than the one before.

On Tuesday we went horseback riding through several nearby banana farms, and Wednesday was spent hiking. Andrew found a trail online that was supposed to be easy, but it turned out that the last third of it was basically scaling down a cliff (which we didn't do). Thursday we spent the afternoon at the pool and on Friday we went back to the spa. Saturday came way too early and we were a bit sad to leave all the warmth and sunlight.

More pictures of our wonderful vacation are on my flickr page here.

Juletid in Aalborg

Christmas has taken over Aalborg since October - as neither Halloween nor Thanksgiving really exist here, the Danes start decorating very early. The streets are all decked out with Christmas trees and lights, and one of the biggest Christmas traditions is the town's outdoor Christmas market. Almost every town (it seems) has their own market that is set up through the holiday season (Advent through Christmas). There are plenty of stalls full of people selling food and Christmas presents, and there are even rides for the kids. 

 

In addition to the town market, there is also an indoor Christmas market in Nordkraft, the cultural building about two minutes from our apartment (it houses an indie movie theater, restaurants, a climbing wall, and the tourist center, among other things - be warned, though, the Indian restaurant there is terrible!). The indoor market is infinitely better than the outdoor one - we got some delicious apple cider and bacon there a few weeks ago, but have yet to buy anything from the outdoor one. One of the best parts of the indoor market has got to be the man riding around on an absurd bicycle, though:

Lastly, one of Aalborg's best Christmas festivities is the train (actually a bus that is decorated to look like a train) that runs around the city during the season. I've never seen anyone but children riding, but it looks like a good way to get around the city...

Happy Holidays!

Since we're living out of the country this year, Andrew and I won't be mailing any Christmas/holiday cards. This will have to do instead:

(The background is from a photo I took in Luxembourg.)

An American Thanksgiving in Luxembourg

Andrew is in Copenhagen for a few days this week, giving me some alone-time to finally post about our best trip yet: an American Thanksgiving in Luxembourg with family (Andrew's cousin Sara lives there with her husband, Paul, and daughter, Julia; and his Aunt Janet and Uncle Dick were visiting from Buffalo, NY)! We arrived in Luxembourg on the night before Thanksgiving, and I can't begin to explain how nice it was to get there and have family waiting for us. Thanksgiving day was spent cooking and eating (and eating and more eating) some very delicious food! Hats off in particular to Uncle Dick's stuffing:

On Friday, we went into Luxembourg City where we visited their Christmas market and tried some traditional Glühwein (warm, mulled wine). We also went to an art museum and found some dinner at an American restaurant (who knew that Chi Chi's had locations abroad?!). We hit another Christmas market on Saturday, this time heading across the border to Trier, Germany.

On Sunday we got a tour of Paul's office and lab, and spent a little more time in Luxembourg City before flying back to Aalborg that night. It was a bit hard to leave, as we had such a wonderful time with everyone. We really hope to get back to Luxembourg at some point before we leave Denmark. More photos of our trip are on our flickr page.

Our next big trip is in just a few weeks: the Canary Islands for Christmas! We can't wait to get some sun and warm weather!

Into the Woods...

This morning, Andrew and I hopped the train to Skørping, where we spent a few hours wandering through Denmark's largest forest (Rebild). We're having a beautiful autumn here and it was great to get out of the city and spend some time in NATURE today. Here's some footage of the fall foliage we saw on the train ride:

We hiked through the forest for a few hours, and, thanks to Andrew's GPS, we got off the [beaten] paths and explored a very beautiful part of Denmark. 

An interesting fact about Rebild is that the land was purchased by some American expatriates and donated back to Denmark with the stipulation that it be open to the public and available for the celebration of American holidays. There is a huge Fourth of July party held here every year, but today it was quiet and we didn't come across many people, let alone any Americans. It was a lovely way to spend an autumn afternoon and you can see the rest of our pictures from the day on our flickr page.

We're famous!

Andrew and I attended a dinner for expats at the local library here in Aalborg last week. It was a potluck dinner and over 100 people were there from different countries, each bringing a cuisine from their home countries (we made macaroni and cheese - I couldn't think of anything really American!).

It was a fun night, but the best part about it came yesterday when we found out that we'd made it into the feature on the local news. Check us out on Danish t.v. here. The clip isn't long, but it is almost entirely in Danish, so if you only want to see us, you can skip to 00:09 (saying that I'm from Chicago) and 00:15 (sitting with some friends, enjoying dinner - you can only see the back of Andrew's head and the side of my face, so you'll have to look carefully).

A Hard Day's Work

I worked my first (almost) full day of work yesterday in Denmark. As some of you may know, I've been volunteering my time at the local international school in Aalborg as a tutor. I work with some of the kids there one-on-one to improve their English skills for a few hours each week, and a few weeks ago, I was asked if I would like to be a substitute there, as well. I agreed, and my first day finally came yesterday.

I'd been nervous ever since they scheduled me to cover an actual class, but the nerves increased about an hundred-fold when I found out last week that I wouldn't be getting the lesson plans for my class until the morning of (when the school opened about twenty minutes before class started). Also, the school has two locations and while I do my tutoring at one, I would be subbing at the other one, but I had never been there before.

I woke up before seven (far earlier than when I normally get up) and set off from the apartment while the moon was still out! (We're losing daylight fast up here in Denmark - come winter the sun won't rise until almost nine!) Upon getting to the school, I found out that two extra classes had been added to my subbing schedule in the afternoon, but the lesson plans were there at least - thank God! I spent the morning subbing for a class of little kids (about six to eight year olds), and then headed over to the other location for an afternoon with a class of older ones (thirteen to sixteen year olds). Both classes were totally wild and didn't want to listen to a sub at all (they are on fall break next week, so that didn't help matters). I can really only say that I have nothing but respect for teachers, and hopefully it will be easier if they ask me to do it again!