Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (since I will experience it first this year)! I sure do love and miss my family and friends. Being an ocean away sure does make you realize how much you miss when you're not there.

Also, just wanted to let you know that this Christmas will be a completely different story from last year which was spent watching seasons one and two of Bones (pretty much all day, every day). We (and by "we" I mean I) will be teaching the kids pretty much straight through the holidays. We are taking the day off tomorrow (Christmas Day) and New Year's day. But Angie and Scott want it that way so this is what we're doing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Shake Down

In my normal morning routine I wake up, shower, then read my scriptures before finishing the get-ready process. I leave about 30 minutes for scripture reading even though it rarely takes me that long to read. So, when I'm finished reading I take a mini-morning siesta (can you call it a siesta if it's in the morning?). Well, during my mini-morning siesta on Tuesday, there was this weird rocking/shaking. And then we come to find out that there was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in Malmo, Sweden. Yeah, that's the first earthquake I've ever been in--or at least that I can remember feeling. Be glad that I'm not dead.

Thankful for Thanksgiving!

I've been thinking that I really like Thanksgiving. What a great holiday, I mean, it started from two ethnically different groups of people celebrating the ways they helped each other out. Another great thing about this holiday is that there isn't a whole lot that the commercialization sector of society can do to ruin it. There's no stress over what to give someone or what you're getting (don't get me wrong, I love a good gift as much as the next gal but sometimes it can be too much) and the decorations aren't even that different from the Halloween ones (similar color schemes at least--unless you go way into the scary stuff). It's a whole holiday about eating good food, being with friends and family, and taking a moment to think about all the things/people/situations that you're grateful for. What could be more uplifting than that? Yup, this holiday is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I am a bit sad that I won't get to help my mom and sisters whip up a cooking frenzy the day before and the day of the feast--not to worry, I'm grateful for those memories, and am looking forward to having a great time this year! Since I won't see any of you on this gratifying day, let me know at least one thing you're thankful for in your comments.

First Snow in Denmark!

Just so you know, it's snowing here. We've been listening to Christmas music for about two and a half weeks now.

Cruise Rundown

So this is the post that you’ve all been waiting for. I know it’s a month after the fact but all I can say is sorry, and here it is. (Sorry it's so long, I tried to make it concise.)

Our first official stop was a small Greek island, Mykonos. I really didn’t have any desire to go swim on a beach (European beaches are a little too “open” for my tastes), but the Keetch kids were all about swimming so we went to the beach and I watched. The beach was pretty rocky and the water was kind-of cold. (This is not a picture of the beach where they swam, I just liked that the road/walkway was so close to the water.)

Then I walked around the town a bit and took this cool picture. Mykonos is the typical “Greek” city, with the whitewashed buildings and blue trim. Myriad walkways between houses and few streets.



Our second stop was Kusadasi, Turkey (said, kushadas'ie). While here we took a tour out to see the ruins at Ephesus. These were really some of my favorite ruins that we saw. It was truly incredible to think of all of the stuff that happened here. There are tons and tons of ruins, you could spend days exploring them all. We felt a bit gypped because our tour was only a few hours and we had to move on so quickly. I really enjoyed seeing the amphitheater where Paul preached and then later was taken before the tribunal when he was imprisoned.

This is in front of the facade of the Library.
One of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World (designated such by Alexander the Great) used to be here. The British now have the Temple of Artemis in their museum--but originally it was here.

The third stop was on the Greek isle of Rhodes. This is a truly medieval town with the outer walls and the fortress intact and in really great condition. A second Wonder of the World was here--the Colossus of Rhodes. It fell in an earthquake but it was said to stand at the mouth of the harbor. This was a great place to shop.



On Sunday September 28, we were in Cyprus. As everything was closed, I didn’t even go ashore but took this picture from the boat. Isn’t the water beautiful?



The fifth stop is another biggie--Egypt. Alexandria (where we docked) was the sight of the mighty Faros--the lighthouse that Alexander the Great built. But as most of the ancient Alexandria is now under water, the small sandy island that was the foundation of the lighthouse washed away soon after the lighthouse burned down. Actually, they have found remains of Cleopatra’s palace underwater and are currently beginning to build an underwater tunnel through which tourists can walk to see the palace. Of course, here we saw the pyramids (the Great Pyramid of Giza is another and the only standing Ancient Wonder). Yes, they are huge.



And amazingly the three famous ones are practically inside the city limits. There have been no restrictions put on where people can build so they’ve built almost right up to the “doorstep” of the pyramids. I felt like it was very sad here. Sometimes I think that we (by we I me that this is what I’ve done) let our idea of what Egypt was once like taint what we think it’s like now. That’s wrong--there are no vestiges of a great civilization now.

Next stop was Athens. We went on a tour to see the Parthenon. As you can see, they are still restoring it. Did you know that none of the columns are exactly the same? If they were, you couldn't tell that there were so many of them.


From the Parthenon, we saw Mars Hill, where Paul preached again. Yeah, it's the big rock with people all over it. On the right side of the picture, you can see the Agora, where the people would have gathered to listen to him preach.

What an amazing thing it is to see all of these great ruins of incredible civilizations still existing. And there would be more of the Parthenon left here if it wasn’t for one Lord (or maybe he was an Earl) Elgin who decided to take statues and pieces of the engravings back to England to decorate his garden. When he got back, he realized that he’d spent too much money and ended up selling them to the museum anyway. Boy, those British sure didn’t have much sense for preserving things for the country that owns them. We also got to see the Olympic stadium where the first modern Olympics were held. I’m not posting that picture because it wasn’t great as they were setting up for the opening celebration of MTV in Greece--Bono was coming.

Our second to last stop was Naples. We went on the tour of Pompeii. There is an amazing amount of artifacts still intact from this city because of the volcano in their backyard, Mt. Vesuvius. Knowing what kind of civilization they were in this ancient city made this day less “fun” for me.Token shot of the dead dog. Interesting that the people here died of asphyxiation from the gases and ash--they weren't burned. There would be nothing left if they were.


I liked the cross walks (stepping stones) in the streets. Notice the wheel ruts.




Our last tour was back in Rome. This was probably the worst of all the tours we went on. They really were just going through the motions. At the colosseum Scott wanted to go up to the second floor to get some pictures and the tour guides were really bugged with him--but he wasn’t going to leave a second time without seeing the upper level. Also, because it was a Sunday, the tour guides couldn’t take us into St. Peter’s Basilica (because they can’t be giving a tour on the sabbath in the Basilica)--this was fine, I thought, as long as they gave us a good spiel before letting us go in--but they didn’t. I did learn that all the “pictures” in the Basilica are actually mosaics. If you didn’t know this, you probably wouldn’t notice--I didn’t the first time I saw them.





Oh, we did see the Pope-mobile driving the Pope back to the Vatican--just a regular car with two little flags on the front.

So, that’s pretty much the two-cent version of the cruise--sorry that it took me so long.

Election Day Jitters

Just so you all know, it really is not fun to know that I am hours and hours ahead of you--I don't really get to wait up through the night as election results come in. Since the east coast polls don't even close for another four hours--I think--and I'm going to bed. I guess I'll just have to watch the progress throughout the morning tomorrow.

I know, I know I'm way behind in my posts--they're coming, I promise--don't give up on me now.

Not Cruisin' Yet, But Close

Be patient with me, I decided to blog about my cruise in several posts--chronological order, naturally. So the first stop was Rome. Actually we flew into Rome two days before the start of the cruise and saw some pretty cool stuff there. Our hotel was just a few blocks from the Vatican. It was way cool. Back up, as we drove through Rome, to our hotel, it just FELT like I was going to love it here. Maybe it was because it felt very similar to Lisbon. I don't know, but it was a good feeling. So, we got there on Sunday and went walking over to the Vatican . . . this is St. Peter's Basilica--I kept picturing parts of Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code.
I know that some of you know about the Swiss Guard. Well it really is crazy that they still wear the "costumes" that Michelangelo designed.
And of course, there’s the Pieta.



We also went to the museum in St. Angelo’s Castle. It was pretty cool—a bunch of Egyptian artifacts. Mostly though I liked the round building. There’s a bunch of historical stuff that happened here, like the Pope took refuge here at one point but I don’t remember what Pope or when that was. Look it up if you want to know.




Doesn't this tunnel remind you a little of Mom & Dad's painting from Jerusalem?

Also, the Tiber River is pretty picturesque.

On day two we did the whole Roman ruins route. We saw the Coliseum,
the Roman Forum,
Palatine Hill,
etc., etc., etc. It was pretty cool, as we’ve been studying the Roman history with Eli particularly. He loved it when we saw the statue of Romulus & Remus with the wolf on Palatine Hill.

Day three was going to be more of day two stuff but I said that I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. So, Angie and Scott decided to come along with me. First of all you “get” to walk through about a million other rooms, hallways, and chapels and I guess that it’s a good thing that you go through them first because once you see the Sistine Chapel everything else pales in comparison. It was truly amazing. I could seriously spend days in there just straining my neck to see that amazing ceiling. We couldn’t take pictures in there but I got a book. When I get home we can spend hours. It really is incredible to think of all the doctrine Michelangelo had to know to make his work so accurate. Later that day we got on the ship. We spent the next day at sea. My next installment will be on Mykonos, Greece, our first stop.

This is one of the pre-Sistine Chapel ceilings.

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Okay, there's really nothing to do with "Bruisin'" in this post--it just rhymed with "Cruisin.'" I just wanted all to know that we will be flying to Italy this Sunday and then starting our cruise of the Med. on Tuesday. We're not really sure what the internet options will be, so I may be out of touch for a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to post when we get back!

Finally, A Social Life?

So this week Institute started. I am registered for a class on Wednesdays that teaches Danish and a New Testament (the four Gospels) class on Thursday. The sister missionaries teach the Danish class and there were two Chinese girls in it with me. I think my biggest problem with this class is going to be that it's only once a week--I don't get enough practice and reinforcement. The Thursday class in taught in English by a man from England. He has a charming accent but the only other person in the class is a girl from Thailand. Don't get me wrong, Deng is great, she's in my ward so I already knew her--I just don't feel like there's a whole lot of socialization going on here. Oh well, I've only been once, right? It can only get better.

Also, I went to the temple last Friday with a group of older single adults. Afterward we went to one of the girls' apartments, ate and played games. Let me tell you that playing Pictionary in Danish opens an entirely new perspective to the game (especially when everyone else is guessing in Danish, and half of the cards are random references to Danish culture). It was fun but I feel a little bad for making them speak in English the whole time. Come to think of it though, they didn't. As soon as the discussion would get heated, they'd switch back to Danish, and I'd sit there, nodding, smiling, or making other appropriate facial gestures--and not getting any of it. I tell you that Danish is nothing like a romantic language. Just wait, when we get to Italy next week, I'll feel like I have a leg to stand on. Except that almost everyone here does actually speak English, whereas in Italy, they don't nor do they in Greece or Turkey or Egypt. Ah, the trials of travelling.

I know I had several run-on sentences, you'll just have to deal with it.

Feeling the Loss

Just wanted to let you all know that I am aware that I've now missed the first week of season previews. I don't know if any of you can truly feel my pain. I've tried to watch them online but because of international laws & stuff, the shows can't be streamed to people out of the United States. (Daniel, I checked Hulu and they say they're working on it but no cigar as of yet.) I know that most of you have more of a life than me so you may think this is just my worldly nature coming out--but if a single girl doesn't have her shows, what has she got?

Some of you have asked if I've been homesick at all. Well let me tell you, there are times when I think, "What was I thinking? I know that I love being surrounded by my family. I loved the majority of the people that I worked with. I must be crazy." Especially now that Lynette and Anthony are back and Joey has his mission call, I'm realizing all that I'm missing and it hurts. So, mostly I try not to think of all that I'm missing (this doesn't mean that I don't want to know--that would really be worse). I don't really like to complain, so I probably won't write much about homesickness any more--also, it seems to make it worse or more real or something if I write about it. I just wanted you all to know that I miss being there (and "there" means "wherever you are") even though I am having a great time here.

Sightseeing Solo vs. Goin' with the Gang

There’s been a lot of sightseeing around here. I can’t decide if I like going alone or going with a family of six (plus me makes seven) around Europe. Each has its pros and cons. Let me know which you think is better.

A few weeks ago I went to Helsingor castle. You may know it as Ellsinore from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It turns out that there really is some historical background for the story of Hamlet. Boy, people in the middle ages were somewhat crazy. One of the coolest parts of the castle is the dungeon.
This is the chapel, about the only part of the castle that wasn't ruined in a fire. And thus the only part which retains the original ornate carvings and decorations.
The dungeon is still intact and there is a Danish myth that Holger Danske, a Danish warrior, lies in sleep here until the Danes need him to fight for them. They've even made a statue of him down there. The fun thing about this trip was that I was by myself and could take as much time as I wanted to look at the different rooms/paintings/dungeons. Actually, I probably would have spent a little more time exploring the dungeons if someone else had been with me but alone, it was a bit eerie.
This is the view from the top of the castle.
Also, I listened to my iPod pretty much the entire time—this was pretty great but there just wasn’t anyone there to share the joke when “Play that Funky Music White Boy” came on as I was walking around this medieval Danish castle. I wonder if anyone noticed me chuckling to myself. Overall, it was a very satisfying day, although somewhat lonely.

Yes, this is the castle after which Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's castle. This last weekend we went down to the south of Germany (we=Scott, Angie, me, and the four kids).
Arlo, Kara, look! I stood on the same spot that you did—and just a few weeks after you were here.
We’ll have to talk about what you guys thought of the castles—they were pretty interesting. The whole story of the family who built them is pretty intriguing. And Neuschwanstein was only being built in the 1840s—it was never finished as the king, Ludwig II, was declared insane, taken to Munich, and died under questionable circumstances soon thereafter with his doctor.


We also went to Rothenburg (above). This town still has a wall that dates from the times of the Roman Empire. They also have some fun cobblestone streets and fun shops. Here you can see two of the gates out of the town, one upper and one lower.

We stayed in Regensburg—fun town (below). And there was a fair in town this weekend. We didn’t frequent it but there was a ride called the ‘Wilde Maus’ which looked a heck-of-a lot like the Wild Mouse at Lagoon—maybe they took the old one and donated it to the traveling fair in Germany. This is a picture of a street in Regensburg.
One of the hard things about traveling with seven people in Europe is that there isn’t very often a big enough table at restaurants. Europeans don’t frequently travel with kids (and when they do it's not four of them)--so people are often a little bugged when the kids are noisy or disruptive. The kids themselves don’t always enjoy everything that the adults want to spend time doing and seeing. And the somewhat cramped quarters in the car are another story entirely. I loved Germany. I think I'd like to go back and do some more exploring and sightseeing. It's so clean there, and people are very willing to help!

I’ve also found the cemetery here in Hellerup—I like to go there and read or just walk around. I am also enjoying Nutella (I know you can get this in the states but there’s something about being in Europe and enjoying it here that’s pretty great), I’ve found that there really aren’t lots of bakeries but I can buy some pretty great baguettes that freeze well and warm up well. Oh, and I’ve found some cheese that I like—I think that it’s Havarti but I could be wrong, my Danish is a bit weak. Dad, don't worry, I'm all scheduled to go to institute when it starts next week, I'll let you know how that is (never fear, there is an English class for international students).

Irish Intrigue

So one of the exciting things about living next to a bunch of foreign embassies is that sometimes you get unexplained policemen standing in your yard watching the Irish Embassy across the street for half the day and then the whole street gets cordoned off (is that how you spell that word?). We don't know why all this happened today but we think it may be some kind of bomb threat. My question is, who has it out for the Irish? And why the embassy in Denmark? I don't know of any particularly strong anti-Irish feeling here in Denmark but I have been a little out of touch with the Danes, my so-called finger isn't exactly on the pulse of the community here. To add more unanswered questions to the pot, the blocking-of-the-street was all ended by 5:45 this evening and now no one is around. So, although this makes great food for the imagination (maybe the next Bourne movie will take place in the Irish Embassy in Denmark), it really doesn't make us, as across-the-street neighbors, feel completely safe. Don't worry, I'll let you know if there's any more international intrigue--even if I don't have any idea what's really happening.

Homeschool Anyone?

Alright, let's get this out. I've not been a real supporter of homeschool in the past. There are some things that the home just can't provide for kids. That said, if you ever find yourself in the situation where homeschooling is the only option, this would be the way to go. Buy a program--a "year in a box" type--that provides the entire curriculum and daily lesson plans for each grade level of student that you have. Also, if at all possible, hire someone else to do the actual teaching for you. I will be free after this school year if any of you are interested!

Now for the particulars. On Monday of this week we started our "school." I find that teaching this way has its challenges as well as some bonuses. On the down side--coordinating everyone's activities is rather difficult. Especially with Emma, the Kindergartener. Her activities and instruction needs the teacher almost the entire time. So it's hard for the kids, when they finish one task, to wait for me while I finish up with someone else.

The oldest, McKenna, is totally self-motivated. The 6th grade curriculum can be mostly self-taught and she is willing and ready to teach herself everything. In her case, I'm just there as a facilitator and cheerleader. Well except for math. That one will require more actual instruction especially as we get past the review concepts.

Next is Eli, he's bright (4th grade). He has some holes in his education because of their moving around. He wants to learn and know everything. The hard part is that if I'm not giving 100% attention to him, he tends to slack-off and daydream, instead of actually get his work finished. Of the materials that we received, his math is the only part that hasn't yet arrived. Maybe that's a good thing, because for the last two days of the week I had to sit with him individually while we finished all of his subjects--everyone else got done before him because of his tendancy to daydream and become distracted by what the others were working on.

Saeleigh, the 2nd grader, is a tender-hearted, enthusiastic learner. She is excited to be learning and wants to always do well. This is a great trait, except for when she doesn't do well--then she cries. We're working on that. It may be an ongoing instructional opportunity.

Mostly, I'm having a great time. And as the week went by, I felt myself falling into more of a rhythm--being able to juggle the different levels and contents better. I like the scriptedness of the lessons--especially for the first few weeks, but I have a feeling that as I get more comfortable with the program, I'll improvise and add my own style in more often.

Safari, Star, and Amusement Parks And Other Stuff

Warning: This is a long post! Imagine how long it took me to compose it and post all these pictures.

Safari

We've been to two Safari parks now. The first one was built on this old estate that a family donated for the purpose. Throughout the park there are these really beautiful old buildings. This park was cool because you could drive through the areas where the animals were roaming free. So this means that rhinos, zebras, giraffes and camels came up pretty close to the car. There were no lions or elephants here but there were tigers. I might skip the tigers on another trip to this park as it took FOR-EV-ER (said Sandlotesque) to get through this small portion of the park.

This first one is actually the family house, just outside the entrance to the park--they still live there, c'mon, wouldn't you?



Just one of the cool buildings inside the park.


The second Safari park was more like a big zoo. You had to drive between the different areas and then you got out of your car to go look at the different animal pens. There were elephants and lions here but the lions didn't do anything exciting. They do have the largest rodent here it's called a Capybara and is naturally found in South America. Although this park had more variety in the animals, it was more fun to feel like we were on a real safari at the first park.

We sat and watched the camels for quite a while. They are funny. They kept barking at and biting each other.


Star

There is a pretty neat park in Copenhagen that is shaped like a star. Actually it isn't really called the Star Park, and it didn't originate as a park. Its real name is Kastellet (Citadel), but we call it the Star Park for obvious reasons. It started out as a fortress to defend Copenhagen. Its defenses were first tested by the Swedes when they attacked in 1658 and they failed miserably. Needless to say, they were strengthened and are now used as military offices. The buildings in the center were also used as the Danish headquarters for the Nazis during WWII. Now it has a walking path around the outside, then a moat encircling the star. There is a bridge across the moat to get to the center where the old fort buildings are located.


I really wanted to find this park because I knew there was an old windmill here.


Across the moat from the Star Park is the only real Anglican Church in Denmark. There are only two Anglican congregations in Denmark but the second one rents a building somewhere outside of Copenhagen. One of the cool things about this building is that everything was in English! Of course, they had the information in Danish and German too but it’s great to know that it originated in English. The stained-glass windows in this church were phenomenal.




Just around the corner from the church is this fountain. The woman is the Scandinavian goddess, Gefion. The legend is that the king of Sweden told Gefion that she could have all the land that she could plough in one night. So, she turned her four sons into oxen, harnessed them to a plow, and began to plough. When the morning came, she took the chunk of land that she’d covered and threw it into the ocean. This land then became Zealand (the large island that Copenhagen is on) and left a large lake (Lake Vanern) in Sweden that is roughly the same size and shape as Zealand.



Just down the waterfront, is the famous statue of the Little Mermaid. This is Denmark’s best-known monument. Hans Christian Anderson, the author, is, of course, from Denmark.

These are some young men that were playing beer bottles in the street in Copenhagen. We heard them play “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid and “I’m Walking on Sunshine.” It was totally amazing to watch how coordinated they were with their blowing. Between songs, they changed out which bottles they blew for the next one. What would that life be like?



Amusement

I know you’ve all be waiting for this one—LEGOLAND! A truly Danish commodity that we all know and love! Really, the coolest thing about this amusement park was the decorations. Everything was made out of Legos. Here are some pictures of MiniLand and some of the other creations. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t—anything’s possible with Legos!

I hope that you can see the detail in these!


This is H.C. Anderson (lifesize).
This is a countryside in the Netherlands built of Legos.
This is a replica of the queen's castle in Copenhagen--go and look at my picture a few posts ago--pretty right on.
Compare this to the picture on Arlo's post.



Other

As we were driving between some of the following cites, we came across this funny yard art. Actually in the adjacent field, there were some more cattle. We were wondering if the farmer or his wife got bored or just needed an artistic outlet.


On our trip to LegoLand, we also visited some other cities in Denmark. Jelling had this really cool church that had an amazing cemetery. It really is a shame that our cemeteries aren’t this groomed. Also on either side of the church there is a large mound. Under one, archaeologists found a stone ship. Under the other, there was a burial chamber but no tomb or remains. They did find the remains of Gorm, the Old under the church. He was the first king of Denmark. Originally he was under the mound, but his son, Harald I (Bluetooth) converted to Christianity soon after becoming king and moved his father’s remains as an act of piety. There are also these old runic stones outside the church. The one has the first mention of Denmark in a written record (ancient runes), this one is called Denmark’s baptism certificate. The second has the oldest representation of Christ in Scandinavia (abt. 983 B.C.).








The city of Ribe is the oldest city in Denmark and is super beautiful. It has this amazing medieval feel with half-timbered houses and cool streets—we loved this town—I may be going back.



This next one has an example of the medieval fire codes (notice the ladder and hook--not quite sure what the hook is for, but if I was in a fire I'm sure I could come up with some use for it).



The costal town of Esbjerg is more recent but it has these interesting statues looking out to sea. They were built in 1995 for the city’s centennial and we thought they’re kind- of cool. As you can see this was a pretty windy day (somewhat chilly).



The next post will be about the first week of teaching. Coming soon.