Hej! A few weeks have passed since my last entry and as a result, I now have so much to share with you!
We are all doing well, feeling much more at home here in Copenhagen and very thankful for each day that we are here. "Oluf" is enjoying his classes and the students as he gets to know them as time goes on. Teaching at DIS provides him the perfect opportunity for learning about Europe for himself as he prepares for teaching his class--it really is a great set up! The course, European Urban Life and Development that he co-teaches with another professor, provides opportunity for travel to different European countries and most recently they took the class on a 3-day study tour to Hamburg, Germany. The professor that he teaches with happens to be German, though raised in Denmark and is a wealth of information on Europe in general, having lived here his whole life. From all that Michael had to share about the trip, it proved to be an enriching learning experience about the history of Hamburg, the impact of WWII on the city and how such cities redevelop. The class will go on their next study tour in a week or so, visiting the cities of Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary.
In keeping with the topic of DIS, Leah began attending a class at DIS called Cross-Cultural Communication, taught by a professor from Ireland named Brendan. :) She thinks he is pretty cool and is enjoying the course thus far. It is providing her the opportunity to 'get her feet wet' with taking a college course as well as a chance to hang out with students more her age.
She also is beginning to get involved with the College & Young Adult Life Group at the church we now attend and she really looks forward to their meetings/outings each week. She walks to church on Wednesday nights for their Bible Study meeting and then they also gather on Sundays after church at a cafe just to talk and get to know one another, along with other fun outings being planned throughout the semester. Being that many of the college students at church are usually here for 6 month study abroad programs there is much turnover and being mindful of that fact, the young adult leaders do a good job of providing as many get together opportunities as possible so that everyone has a chance get to know one another on a deeper level and more importantly, grow in their faith while they are here.
Leah has also begun her part-time job taking care of two elementary age children once a week. While she says they tire her out, she is enjoying having a job and the money that it provides for college savings and also some spending money for chai lattes that she loves to occasionally get at the cafe.
She also continues working on her German here at home, as well as being the resident photographer/editor. All photos posted are courtesy of Leah and I'm happy that she is able to share her talent with you all through her pictures!
Sophia has been in school for a month now and it is exciting to see her picking up the Danish language a bit more! It makes such a difference living amongst those who actually speak the language--she can pick out words that she hears people say here and there which is exciting!
Sophia celebrated her 15th "Golden" birthday this past Sunday--really can't believe she is halfway through the teenage years already!! While we had a small family celebration, she is looking forward to tomorrow (Thursday) when she and four of her school friends go to Tivoli---the amusement park that is the second oldest amusement park in the world! It is within walking distance from our place which is soo nice.
Sophia is also getting involved with the High School Life Group at church. They had their first meeting last week---she took the train up to the same stop she gets off at for her school and they had a gathering in a nearby park and played a couple of games, one being a Danish game called 'Kongin's Spil", which she thought was great fun! The youth pastor is a great guy who happens to be from Norman, Oklahoma and has been at the church now for 7 years. If the first outing is any indication, I am sure Sophia will really enjoy her time with the high school life group---she came home from the meeting all smiles. :)
The church has been a blessing from the start and know it will continue to be so as we get more involved and get to know more people there. We recently attended the annual fall church picnic (known as FIBC Day) which was held in the backyard of the pastor's home. It was a challenge going out of our comfort zone and attending an event where we didn't really know anyone but by the end of the day, we had met and gotten to know quite a few people. One family we have much in common with had moved to Copenhagen from Australia about the same time we arrived here. The husband is a professor and the mom is at home with her girls who happen to be the same ages as Sophia and Leah! We couldn't get over the similarities we shared while also learning much about the different places we come from and our different ways of life. We happen to live in the same part of Copenhagen, and both live on the 4th floor of our prospective buildings so we can commiserate on the difficulties of carrying groceries up all the stairs. haha
Tomorrow begins the women's Bible study group (I'm so excited about that) and since Karyn (this Aussie mom) and I happen to live near the same train stop, we can travel up together and probably get lost together as we have to take a train and a bus and then a short walk to get to the home where the women are meeting.
Our most recent adventure was going on a bike trip to the island of Bornholm, Denmark! One of the perks of Michael working at DIS is that each semester the DIS students are given an opportunity for travel and adventure in different parts of Europe and because Michael is visiting faculty, it means we get the chance to 'tag along' as well on one of the excursions of our choosing, so this semester we chose the weekend bike trip as we had heard so much about the beauty of Bornholm, where they are known to have the best bike trails in all of Europe. We thought it would be wonderful way to learn more about the great country of Denmark while also getting some great exercise. ;)
So this past Friday night we boarded a charter bus (along with 100+ DIS students/leaders) which took us to a shipping port where we then boarded a LARGE ferry boat (we hadn't been on any ferry boat quite this big before!) We left the port at midnight, for an overnight 6 hour ferry ride to the island of Bornholm, which is situated on the Southeast tip of Sweden. To our surprise, our family was given sleeping cabins for the night complete with a full bath--nice! Most of the students stayed on the main deck in lounge type chairs so we were thankful to be given our own (quiet) space for sleeping. :) After a short night of sleep, we pulled into the port on the island of Bornholm at 6 a.m., got off the ferry and boarded charter buses once again for the drive across the island to our final destination in the little town of Gudhjem, a little town situated on the East side of the island overlooking the Baltic Sea.
We assumed we were staying in the Youth Hostel where the students were staying but were surprised to learn that they had reserved rooms for our family at the hotel across the way from the Hostel. We were shown to our room but because we happened to be the ONLY people in the hotel the girls were given the option to be in their own suite with a view of the Baltic Sea! It was a "suite" surprise. ;)
We quickly got settled in our rooms and then went to have breakfast with the students, after which we got our bikes along with our booklet of maps which gave us options for different island tours to take. We had the whole day before us and though we were a little low on sleep, we were excited for our biking adventure! Different groups of students left in all directions for the prospective tours that they chose, as did we. There were several tours to choose from but we really wanted to see the beach which boasts having the finest white sand. . .the same sand that is used in hour glasses around the world! Never mind that that particular tour was called "The Killer Tour" because it was 65 km round trip. No, we were going for it! So off we went. It took some time to actually get out of the quaint little sea-side town because I had to stop so often to snap a cute picture here and there. We were overwhelmed with the beauty that was all around as the cute and bright colored homes soon gave way to spectacular views of the sea, beautiful gardens, rolling fields of green and gold, apple trees, boysenberry bushes, thatch roofed houses and lots and lots of hills! It was a challenge pedaling up those hills but as I kept reminding the girls, "what goes up must always come down" and soon we'd be coasting on down the hill. We stopped at various places along the route for some shopping or to take some pictures, trying to capture some of the breath-taking beauty we were seeing. We arrived at our destination, Dueodde Beach by early afternoon. We recognized some DIS students there as well, and actually met up with one student who attends the same church as us and is in Leah's DIS class. We walked the boardwalk down to the beach and the sand was spectacular!! Beautiful, fine, white sand that beckoned for us to take off our shoes and feel the sand between our toes. The sand, the sea with the bright sun glistening off of the blue water--the whole beach was sooo beautiful and worth every hill we had to climb on our bike ride thus far. The water was chilly but invigorating for tired feet and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. All too soon though, we needed to start our journey back as it was getting to be mid- to late afternoon. On our way out, we stopped to get something to drink at one of the nearby shops near the beach. Sophie ordered a Nes-tee-a (how she pronounced what we would call Nestea) :) We all chuckled at that, as she did not realize we have Nestea in the states and thought that was how the Danish would pronounce it.
In further talking with this DIS student whom we met on the beach, we discovered that we all wanted to stop to see one of the round churches supposedly on the way back to Gudhjem (where we were staying). According to the map, that meant going back a different route so we made our plan, decided to travel together and off we went! This second leg of the trip was unlike the first in that on the way down we were more or less following the coastline. On the way back we were cutting through the center of the island which was largely traveling on rural farms, many more rolling hills of beautiful wheat fields, what we thought were possibly beet fields (??), many horse farms (beautiful!), cows, and sheep too. We would hit small towns here and there while on our journey. The difference with this part of the trip is that obviously we were markedly more tired and legs were aching as we encountered more hills than we did traveling along the coastline. We ended up getting a little lost trying to figure out which way to go once we got into the center of a town and the Danes in these rural areas didn't know English like we experience living here in Copenhagen, so we hit a language barrier as well. We managed to eventually get on the right road which then led us to follow the bike path signs as we entered a large forest in the center of the island. The forest was beautiful and while Michael and I were trying to take it all in and appreciate our surroundings, we couldn't help but notice that being in the forest, it was getting ominously dark with the tree cover along with the setting sun. :/ The paved bike paths gave way to dirt paths which made it a bit treacherous at times but we kept pedaling and pedaling. At this point we were getting a bit worried knowing the daylight hours were dwindling and though we knew we were making progress, headed in the right direction, we were a long, long way from "home". It was comforting to be able to say a prayer to the Lord, knowing He knew exactly where we were and I knew he would get us back safely. Long story short, with very tired and teary-eyed girls, tired legs, arms and sore bottoms we saw the bike trail sign for "Gudhjem - 4 km" and we were sooo relieved! The last 4 kilometers seemed effortless and at one point I felt like it was as if my guardian angel was pushing me the rest of the way. Afterward, I mentioned that to the girls and they said they felt the same way---it seemed we didn't have to pedal much at all and just coasted much of the way even though we weren't necessarily going downhill!
The "Killer Tour" was said to be 65 km., but with our detour, we know we biked well beyond that! Not bad for a bunch of first-timers. haha Uffda!
Needless to say, we went to bed early that night and woke up late the next morning. It was Sophia's birthday and she DID NOT want to spend it on a bike again (lol) so we opted to stay in town and just did some exploring and shopping in the area. Later in the afternoon it was time to board the buses which took us back to the ferry, we then traveled on the ferry to Sweden and from there a 1 1/2 hour bus ride back to Copenhagen. The ferry ride this time around was a bit different experience and quite entertaining with the way the boat would rock back and forth the whole time. It made it impossible to walk in a straight line no matter how hard we tried and we had a good laugh as we would try to walk from point A to point B without running into someone.
This trip was an adventure we will never forget. There were life lessons learned along the way in the good times---by seeing the goodness and greatness of God in the variety of natural beauty that surrounded us on that bike trip, and in the bad times----in that no matter how lost, how impossible and difficult our bike trip on the way back seemed, we knew that God was with us, He gave us the strength that we needed to keep going and He helped us find our way home. Ezekiel 34:11-12 in the Bible describes our experience well:
"This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them." ". . .I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness." Comforting words, true to life words!
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Got bikes, will travel. The beginning
of our biking adventure!
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| The seaside town of Gudhjem where we stayed for the weekend. |
Our hotel.
Cute homes full of character!!
To start off our bike trip we had to walk our bikes up
this huge hill!
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| Michael's middle name! |
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| Beautiful skies throughout the day! |
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| Leah climbing rocks at water's edge. |
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| Family photo op |
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| Biking through the countryside. |
Stopped off at this lovely shop---Oluf modeling a vest and matching hat that he found! :)
A Christmas tree farm! We decided to be awkward in the trees.
Stopped for lunch in the 2nd largest town on the island of Bornholm.
God's splendor on display in this field of flowers!
The bike trail directions alongside the road were so helpful!
Beautiful trails made the trip so much fun.
Watching the repair of a thatched roof.
On the boardwalk headed to the beach!
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| Family photo by the Baltic Sea at Dueodde Beach! |
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| The beach, the water----so amazing! |
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| Birthday greeting to Sophia written in the sand. |
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| Walking our bikes back down the hill---we made it!! |
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| The ferry ride to Sweden on the way back. Nice! |
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| A beautiful sunset. |
