August Adventures

Well this has been a wild and crazy month back!!!  Home exactly one month before hitting the road again!  We had the Skanderborg Music festival where everyone in our group got passes to get in, and some drink/food money!  Was really a lot of fun!  And we got to see Ozzy, I mean my life is complete now.. haha.  Well the boys seemed to get extra excited at least  ;-)

The following week.... My first race!  I am so proud!!!  I ran in a relay with 5 other people, and we all ran the same 5 km lap.  Was really fun to be in the competitive atmosphere, totally addictive!  I can see how people can do these small relays often!  I will have to keep it up now I think (until my knees fail me eventually...).  At the end of the race a couple of the other girls and I made a deal that we need to run the Aarhus half marathon next June!  So that will keep up the training over the winter, and spring.  Somehow I will have to learn how to run in the snow and not freeze, or slip and fall.  Really I think the biggest issue is going to be getting the motivation to get out there and run, even though it is dark, and snowing!

We were competing against the other mixed gender team from the Reporting and Compliance group, the one with Steve and Carol on it.  Really we couldn't have asked for a closer race, we lost to the other team by 9 seconds!!!!  Mark who was running our last leg got passed on the home stretch, was so close!  So proud that we all did so well though!  Everyone on my team ran it in less than 30 minutes, and for us I think that is really good! 

We were a team of 3 girls and 2 guys, and we lost to a team with 2 girls and 3 guys... so I would say we were top competitors  :-D

I can't wait for the next one!  I have my number on the wall to keep up my motivation!!!

Then Nate took me to Germany for the HighField music festival. Awesome birthday present!  We tried a bit to pretend like we were young... However we stayed in a hotel room, thank goodness... the camp grounds at the music festival were trashed, and full of trashed people!  Boys peeing everywhere, and outhouses that smelled horrible!!!  So thank goodness for a clean place to go back to at night and hang out around in the morning.  We took a nice walk around one of the lakes in the morning, and read our books for a bit... Before we headed into the madness.  We saw some pretty good music on Saturday, Yellowcard and The Kooks were awesome!  There were some others that were just ok that day... Headliner was Thirty Seconds to Mars, who I had to stay for since it is Jared Leto!!  He was my favorite when I was young!!!  Soooo good looking... And so was entertaining on stage in a comical way (I am sure that is not what he was really going for).  He was wearing some long black parka thing, and sunglasses (at 11pm)... And then proceeded to forget his lyrics!  Was amazing!  That was the point we decided we had seen enough.. he was singing one thing, and tried to nonchalantly turn around to look at the words that were part of the "visual background" of his show.. and immediately switched to what he really should have been saying... classic... so pretty.... soooo not smart!

Sunday was absolutely awesome though!  We saw so many good groups!  No Use For a Name, Deftones, Jimmy Eat World, Dropkick Murphys, and the headliner on Sunday.... - Foo Fighters - did not disappoint!!!  We had a really good time!  We were the smart old festival goers though... We drank water (seriously Saturday we both had a drink, but Sunday there was not time for that), but not too much because the outhouses were disgusting (really - what do people do in there?  how hard is it to get your business into the toilet???).  And staked out a spot against the railing so we had a bit of space and could see perfectly!  Not the front railing right by the stage as that is where the drunk psychos were moshing, and crowd surfing... but the second row railing just outside of all that madness where there was another layer of security (containing the wild ones in one area), so we were about 50 feet from stage probably, LOVED IT!  Standing for that long over the two days though is brutal!!  My feet were soooo sore and tired!  Not sure if we will do another festival, but this one sure was a blast.

This is what I have been dealing with for the last week... oh yea, gangster Nate... with a really bad cold    

Have been trying soooo hard to not get his sickness before this adventure.. so far so good, unless it is lying dormant for when I am actually on vacation.  Will be a replay of the Ireland holiday!  Except this time it is in the sun and warmth so I think that I can cook it out of me faster  ;-p

"Home"

Now I know after being in Aarhus for 11 months you would think that this would be "home", but it just will never be my real "home".  Portland just feels like home, and so many people that I love so dearly are there. 
Even though when I was leaving I was saying I was heading back home too.. so clearly my heart is just split.. I am lucky to have love in both places.

Wild crash ride at home.  Ran around like a mad woman spending as much time as I could with everyone I miss soooo much.  Came back to Denmark feeling like I needed to sleep for about a week, but was so worth it.  Miss everyone so much it hurts sometimes.  Just keep having to remind myself of the crazy adventure I am on, and all the fun things I am still going to do while over here!!!  Thursday I head to Italy to meet Jess for a week before we head to Greece for a week too!  2 weeks of vacation is so close I can taste it!  :-D

Somehow I didn't feel the need to take pictures of everything I was doing, which I totally should have... Guess those pictures will just be in my head for me.

First things first.  I turned 30 this year!  So clearly I had to go home to spend that event with all my girls.  Just somehow wouldn't have been the same without them.  Jess planned a lovely night at the Melting Pot and we all got together and ate way too much food (as seems to always happen there, but is sooo good every time)

Lil Sis and I, love you Kins.

Besties! 

 Mmmmm, melted cheese for appetizer, and melted chocolate for desert!!  num num num

Next we were on to Vegas!!!  Had to have a crazy bachelorette weekend for Sara to send her off into her matrimonials in style.  I am still shocked how much VIP treatment we receive even though we are all right around 30.  Guess getting such a large group of good natured girls together, who are a lot of fun, will get you a long way.  We had so many laughs, and so much fun playing together!!!  And soooo little sleep.  Brit, still swearing off trips with you for a while, we are bad news together!

Yay Lady Wolf Pack!!!!!  Watch out Vegas, here we come!

Mitch and his ladies, he made sure we were well taken care of  :-)

Last weekend before leaving was Sara's wedding, which was a crazy awesome event in it's self!!!  Epic schenanagins for sure!

We started the weekend off with a little brewfest on Thursday and Friday nights!  So much fun to go and taste so many delicious beers!  Not quite the same as over here, that's for sure.  Main option is Carlsberg, and that gets old real fast.  We are so spoiled in the pacific northwest with all the micro-brews we have!!!

And of course I had to spend some time with my favorite little girl.  Princess Layla is getting so big!  She is such a little domestic bee already, "helping" mom in the kitchen. :-D

Baby Jack, such an adorable baby, I mean what else could be expected with those gorgeous parents.  Linds is going to have her hands full with both I am sure. Glad I get to be part of it.  Hard to not be around while they are getting bigger that's for sure.

I spent a couple evenings with Casey's little boy Kale too, but didn't get any pictures  :(

Next visit I will have to be better about that!

I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to, but hopefully at Christmas we can make up for that!!!  I miss eveyone so much already!  Such a large piece of my heart is missing when you all are so far away.  What an amazing trip though, makes me appreciate all the beautiful people I have in my life that have enriched it so much.  Cheers.

Danish Sculpture by the Sea

Every year in June in Aarhus comes an "art" show called Sculptures by the Sea.... There are art pieces that are brought in from all over Europe, so naturally Nate and I had to head down to see what the hype was all about.  Very strange stuff for the most part, some things that seemed bizarre and inappropriate.  Some were kind of cool.  I took pictures of the ones that I really liked (5 of about 65, not the best odds).

 Legs over the walkway, this one was by far my favorite :-)

Mushrooms on the hill. 

This one was cool because it was like a gigantic wind chime over a tiny creek. And when people walked over the bridge it would chime from the vibrations.

Yay bear on a bike pulling a monkey. He he.

Nate really liked this one... there were four of these around, and were about 7 feet tall so cool to look at.

 And then there was this one... No idea how we call this art, I mean had to have been tough to set up, but besides that... these are sleeping bags hanging upside down from a tree.. I just don't get it.

 There were other very strange exhibitions around... like strange hand-made stuffed animal things stuffed in trees or thrown on the roof of a shed.. or like some scaffolding and shipping containers stacked with some orange netting stuff around the bottom, not sure how that is art but it had a number... or like the gigantic "egg" on the beach which was an interactive art piece with a woman dressed up in a dragon costume hatching out of it over and over again in like 45 minute intervals (sooooo strange).

Interesting last taste of Denmark before heading home for 3 weeks...

Nate and I played some bananagrams before I took off.  Wishing me a pre-happy birthday, so lovingly  ;-p 

He is just sore that I keep beating him. Ha.