best husband ever

I have the best husband in the entire universe.

For our three year, we´ve been together, anniversary he surprised me with a trip to the city of Göteborg (Gotenburg) in Sweden. I had no idea - this man has been so super busy with work these past few week I figured we were going to go out in Aarhus and try the raw food restaurant, Raabar, down by the canal but we'll save that for another day as Sweden topped that idea.

The trip began with a hangover, three and a half hours of sleep, Michael on our couch (a work colleague), and nine hours of travel by train and then the Stena Line ferry - we were glad we didn't waste a day sleeping off a Julfrokost (Christmas lunch that lasts through dinner and nearly sunrise). It was Sean's work Juleforkost and there was plenty of Gløgg, schnapps, and a keg of beer to be drunk before bed.

The hotel Sean booked required you call a head to reconfirm your stay at which point they text you the door code and room number. It was then that I found out that my Danish phone number does not receive texts while in Sweden. We were very lucky to meet a fellow hotel stayer at the door of the hotel who knew the code and thankfully the information had also been sent to Sean's email so we didn't have to sleep on the streets like that time in Heidelberg, Germany. 

The first surprise consisted of a visit to the Julemarked (Christmas Market) that was inside of the Liseberg Amusement Park. It was full of fake snow, a mini petting zoo, an ice rink, and plenty of shops to see and sweets to be sampled. It really gave us the feeling of Christmas. On our way home we stumbled upon a vegetarian fast food joint and crammed our hungry bellies, the hangover left us empty, with fake meat, chips, and a variety of dips.

The second surprise consisted of a trip to the annual outdoor Christmas hockey match. Sean had another surprise up his sleeve, he had booked the Julmatchen 2013 annual outdoor Christmas hockey match. It was quiet a site to see rain on the ice which postponed the match by thirty minutes but the rain stopped and the game went on. Unfortunately, the home team lost but I cheered for every goal made.

On the final day we enjoyed a vegetarian brunch buffet and being together in a new city exploring, we checked out the various neighbourhoods around the city, wandered into Danish shops, drank cappuccinos, and tried to keep our feet dry without success.

Not even a week went by before Sean surprised me again with my Christmas present - a trip for two to the Canary Islands. 

Like I said in the beginning, best husband ever (at least in 2013). 

Sisters

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her mother. As

 they talked about life, about marriage, about the

 responsibilities of  life and the obligations of

 adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her

 glass thoughtfully...



'

Don't forget your  sisters,' she advised, swirling 

the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll 

be more important as you get older. No matter how

 much you love your husband, no matter how much you

 love the children you may have, you are still going 

to need sisters. Remember to go places with them now 

and then; do things with them.'





'Remember that 'sisters' means ALL the women....

your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other

women relatives too. You'll need other women. Women 

always do.'





What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman 

thought. ‘Haven't I just gotten married? 

Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a

married woman, for goodness sake! A grown up! Surely

 my husband and the family we may start will be all I

 need to make my life worthwhile!'





But she listened to her mother. She kept contact

 with her sisters and made more women friends each

year. As the years tumbled by, one after another,

 she gradually came to understand that her mother really

 knew what she was talking about.  As time and nature

 work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman,

 sisters are the main stays of her life.




Time passes.


Life happens.


Distance separates.


Children grow up.


Jobs come and go.


Love waxes and wanes.


Hearts break.


Parents die.


Colleagues forget favours.


Careers end.


BUT.........




Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how 

many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away

 than needing her can reach.




When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you 

have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life

 will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on, 

praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on

your behalf, and waiting with open  arms at the

valley's end.




Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, 

daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers, 

Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended

 family: all bless our life!




Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on

to all the women who help make your life meaningful. 



I just did.

P.S. Thank you to Bree for sending this to me in an email - it was exactly what I needed.

the L.S.S. club

Read the comic strip before the blog post.

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Comic Square 1: 

This is often how an introduction works if you meet someone through the International/Expat Community, because there are a lot of us who have moved to Denmark for love. 

Comic Square 2: 

78 percent of woman work in Denmark,  so when asked, "what do you do?" and you don't have a job or children - they (probably) think to themselves ,"honey, get a job ." If only it were that easy. And anyways, being an accompanying spouse can be made a full-time time. 

Comic Square 3: 

L.S.S woman are able to be the 'perfect' housewife. 

Comic Square 4: 

It will be interesting to have a comparison when we move for Sean's next post doc. 

Comic Conclusion: 

My life in a nutshell. 

If you liked this comic and want to read more, here you go: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php 

Øst for Paradis - Our First Movie Experience

Sean and I had our first experience at the movie theatre Øst for Paradis a few weeks ago when the Aarhus Film Festival came to town. Are schedules happened to busy that week so we managed only one film, unfortunately. The movie experience at this independent theatre was definitely a great experience to be had. 

We watched a Czech Republic documentary called *Citizien K/Obcan K - it dealt with identity and censorship - this topic interested Sean because of his work and me as I recently read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It is a cozy old building. The theatre is on two levels and both floors have a cafe. You can order fresh baked pastries, hot coffee and cold beer (Sean really liked this), and there are copious amounts of liquorice candy varieties to be had. Unlike other theatres where (a) you arrive early to fight for a good seat or (b) you don't mind to be late knowing you won't miss much as you've got a buffer - the trailers. You won't get that here. There were no trailers, instead a Toastmaster introduces the film. In the theatre you get entrance to the screening a few minutes before as you select your seat(s) when you purchase the ticket.

This is a much better set up then what I've experienced before. How wonderful to be able to come a head of time to meet your date or a friend and have a visit before you enter the film or stay afterwards to discuss what you watched - you can always learn more about the film from having a discussion, especially when it the film is subtitled and you are bound to miss elements.  

*About the film: Michal Dvorák, Czech Republic 2012. Documentary, 72 min.

In an era obsessed with identification, the art group Ztohoven undertook an experiment to see how much could be achieved with your own and with a borrowed identity. The group’s members ordered official ID cards using fake identities, using passport photos created by morphing their faces together. Using their new identities, they showed how difficult it is for the system to tell us apart.