I Got Brass in Pocket. Got Bottle, I’m Gonna Use It.

The fun never ends in the land of Lego. We finally got our act together about the growing recycling pile under our kitchen sink. Although there is glass, battery, and paper recycling just across the street from our place here, we heard there was an alternative! Back in Austin, we would drive recycling to Ecology Action on 8th Street each week (about 20 minutes by car, but on the way to my office) because our neighborhood didn’t have recycling. Once there, we’d separate everything into different types of paper, plastic, metal, and glass. They even took plastic bags as well as food wrappers and such. From what we heard, Aarhus used to recycle like they do in Germany (meticulously separating everything, and taking plastics, too) but the public found out a few years back that they were just taking everything and burning it anyway! So there’s no more of that, no siree. =(

But on the bright side, I have found a new job here in Denmark!!!

Flyday Chinatown

先日友達になった中国人男性群が、美味しいよと薦めてくれた中国料理屋さんへ、先週末行ってみました。

夜ご飯のビュッフェは一人当たり138DKK（24USD）。結構お高い割に、置かれているのは炒飯、焼きそば、春巻き、そしてアントレが２、３皿、サラダ、、、　アメリカに比べると、種類は少ないです。でも、この他に自分で食材を選んで炒めてもらうというものもあって、味も割と美味しいし、、

キブンはこんな♪

私はKIRIN、p.はウィスキーをオーダー。

新しい朝の素敵な予感

さてさて、実際このオファーが本当だったってわけで、家族を安心させとかないとね〜。（オースチンの友人達の間で、「実はこの話全てドッキリだったらどうする！？」って盛り上がってたのです）

Flashing Lights

Lighting seems to be a really big deal in DK. All the cool cats install their own pendant lighting, and when renting unfurnished, it seems you don’t get lights unless they’re actually built into the ceiling or in the fridge.

どんなときも。

どんなときも。肉。なp.です。彼の肉好きは、デンマークでも止まらない〜♪

今週から、毎日オフィスでネット遊び仕事してます。

で、色々書きたい発見はたまっているのですが、取り急ぎ・・

今週も、IKEAへ通いました。


さて、さすがにオースチン程はいませんが、ぱらぱらと、アジア人、見かけます。そしてその多くがベトナム人！先日も書いたように、ダウンタウンには、小さいけれど、ベトナム食料品店があって安心しました。

そして、「ベトナムファション」というお店まで。

Spi-Dah! (he is our hero)

Did you know that it’s bad luck to kill spiders? I confess: I knew it, but I did it anyway. =’( 

I vacuumed up a few when moving out of Austin, and then I vacuumed up lots more after moving in to our current place. I’m not very superstitious, but I do see some patterns forming.

(pssst) Check this out: since moving in here, I’ve had some reeeally strange food disasters. I think…they’re related! This past week alone, I’ve somehow eaten a bite or two of spoiled milk, Pasta with fly’s eggs, sour cream yogurt (i think) with cereal, funky pork steak at a local restaurant, a really bad-tasting bottle of Côtes du Rhône that I dropped the cork in (first time!), and the latest: strange plum pickled herring that s. bought. Okay, so two of those things (the herring and the cream) that can happen to anyone.

The milk and cream selection here is out of this world! =) We still haven’t figured it out yet. Our guess is the A38 and any numbers on food is more of a branding decision, like alphanumeric car names. They sound cooler. Wouldn’t you rather say, “Honey, could you pick up some 1.5 A38?” Sure you would!

Spiders, you are free to go wherever you please. =) We love you spider.

China all the way to New York

We met up with our new friends (that s. had met at the airport in Billund, where they flew in together from Frankfurt last week) for a Chinese dinner yesterday evening. s. and I had been anticipating this for quite some time. They had been to Århus several times before, and should know where all the good Asian eats are at!

So here we are. 5pm sharp on saturday (and by sharp, I mean sharp!) Those are our friends there, in front of the main station. After chatting about some other people that we would meet later, we started off on our walk to the special restaurant. What would it be? Buffet? Hot Pot? BBQ? Home Cookin'? What? What??

人生情け舟

ドイツからデンマークへ戻る際、降り立ったのはレゴランドのあるビルン。ここからバスで１時間半程でオーフスに着くのだけれど、フランクフルトからだと、オーフスへ直接飛ぶよりも楽に＄２００くらい節約できるのだ。

同じ飛行機に乗っていたアジア人男性二人組に、ビルン空港で話しかけられました。月並みですが、"Excuse me. Are you Chinese?"と、笑。いえいえ、日本人です。と、話は進み、彼らも同じバスでオーフスへ向かう事が判明。彼らは、中国人。出張で上海から２ヶ月に一度の割合でオーフスに来るんだそうで。風車の会社のエンジニアとのこと。

真夏の光線

唄のタイトル毎回つけるの、むずいなー。私の音楽知識がばれるよね。
なんてったって、今日は、モーニング娘。ですよ。


さて、初めてお洗濯をしてみましたよ♪

洗濯をしていると、使用済みの水が、あのパイプから、シャワー室に流れて行くしくみになっています。ふむふむ。

ちなみに、p.（←ミクシィ上ではアトムでお馴染みの夫のことです）曰く、この家は、「前橋市が設立？された年と同じ年に作られた」んだそうです。だから何だってこともないんだけどさ、笑　相変わらず変なまめ知識を貯えているp.です。

とりあえず、買って来たタオルを全て洗濯。アメリカに来てからというもの、ずっとアパート暮らしで外に干せなかったので、これが夢でした！！（でも、冬はどうするんかね・・・？？）

p.曰く、真夏の光線がとても強いため、普通に干していると色がすぐ褪せちゃうんだって。なので、お洋服等は全て裏表にして干してみました。で、実は、ちょっと、今回、p.に勝った！？と思える瞬間がありました。それは、洗濯バサミの効率よいとめ方。アトムは一つのアイテムにつき、二つ使っていたのだけれど、日本人なら、大抵アイテム一つにつき一つのとめで平気だよね？小さい頃母の手伝いで洗濯バサミをとめていた事を思い出しました。何年ぶりかな。すっごく懐かしい気持ちになりました。

上・京・物・語

Again, I'm using a SharanQ's title here...

So yesterday, p. and I finally visited my new workplace.

Bye-Bye Miss American Pie

We finally made the walk to McDonalds. It looked so far away from the window, but only about three blocks from our house. It was a little surreal.

言い訳

初登場s.です。

p.に「タイトルは唄のタイトルにすること」と言われたので、今日はシャラン Qの「いいわけ」です。

やっとデンマークに戻って来て一息つけそうなので、これから少しずつ写真などをアップしていこうと思います。英語や日本語、適当に色々使おうとおもっていますが、どうぞお暇な時にでもおつきあいくださいませ♪

写真は、姉夫婦にフランクフルトでご馳走してもらったスペイン料理。美味しかった〜！

Hello all!

s. is back in Denmark, and will be posting more often.. but I may write in Japanese from time to time (so that my mom can read)- hope y'all won't mind!

I am loving our new house that p. was cleaning all week while I was gone. I was in Mannheim for a conference, and then spent a few days in Frankfurt, visiting my sister and her husband. The photo on this page was taken at a Spanish restaurant they took me before the game on Saturday. The food was delicious, and the game was much fun!

Our house is still extremely empty, so tomorrow we'll make an IKEA trip to get some furniture

=)

Outside

Took the bus for the first time (the day before yesterday) to go to Ikea =)
Not the first Ikea I've been to, in fact, it felt a lot like Round Rock, except I had to decipher Danish and the kroner =) They even put it way out in the boonies. I suppose that's how they make money for their deliveries.

After the hike outside and inside the store, I also went to the shop next door to pick up a shower head. In the end, it was all just a small shopping trip with a hog dog, as well as a cat.

Since the machine on the bus to buy a ticket was broken on the way there, I wanted to be sure to buy a ticket on the way back. I found out that I bought a kids ticket when I looked it up later. =( But that's not the strangest part: even stranger were the three people that got on the bus, and then got off at the next stop. We started hearing a meowing sound, and at first I thought it was someone's cell phone, but sadly, the three people abandoned a poor white cat there for someone else to take care of. I was SO, SO close to taking it in, but who knows what that would have done to our renting agreements! Some friends of ours thought perhaps it was because of the summer holidays and people going on vacation, but next time we'll go ahead and take in the cat!

Steppin' Out

After a day housework, decided I needed to get out, and what better reason than to catch Uruguay v Netherlands? It's taken some time to get photos up to flickr, but luckily things are looking bright in Denmark.

Just wanted to share another bizarre photo of the night sky. This was on my late walk home from the pub, around 12:30am. ♪ me babe...steppin' ou-ut ♫

Hello

We got our new place today!!!
We're now moving into that yellow house in the picture.


It was built in 1892, they said. According to the great wiki, that was when the city of Maebashi is founded by the samurai Makuba Kawai. That's s.'s hometown!!!

Figures on a Beach

Happy 4th of July!

Since it's that time of year, and since the beach is only a 5 minute walk from where we are staying, we decided to take a 8pm stroll to the beach.

When we got there, we started hearing languages other than Danish. In fact, I heard Vietnamese right away: "Oh watch out or it will burn!" Sure enough, a Vietnamese family was having a bbq. All around, people from all different cultures sitting about an enjoying the sun and sand.

The water had to be at least 60˚F. Bloody cold, but you wouldn't think that at all by how many people were in it. =)

s. is heading out now for a conference in Germany. Time to see her off!

Into the City

Be prepared to get lots of help from wonderful strangers if you are lost in Århus. On our way to the bank, a lady stopped to help us sort things out. After we got home for lunch, we left again to see the city, take a look at the university, and some potential apartments. 

AЯRIVAL in Sunny Århus

Upon our arrival, the airport and the groups of people outside enjoying the slightly chilly weather gave us our first impressions of Aarhus/Århus. Happy and easygoing =)

Rolling hills and farms scattered the country side on our bus ride from the airport. A little grey at first, but as soon as we got to the city, the sky opened up and it's been sunny ever since. This is the view from our friends' guest room at around 5 in the afternoon, where we're staying at the moment. 

Flight to Denmark

On our way to Århus, we had a near 7 hour layover in Copenhagen, and after we decided that we'd rather see the city when we've got more energy, we wandered around the airport for a cozy place to sleep.

Here's a picture of me at the København Lufthavn as we're walking to our terminal to catch our flight.

Flight to Denmark came to mind today. Expensive $7 beer at the airport made it feel like an expensive lounge for jet setters (perfect for jazz) but really, it was a cafeteria full of drinkers at 10am. So far, so good!