I guess that's just how life happens. Nothing really happens for a couple of weeks and then everything happens at once. Well that just happened to me. No complaints, but now I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. Sorry about the length of this post, but it comes with the territory of being busy...
It all started on Thursday for me. I went to school in the morning, and everything was pretty normal. I taught my kids about Thanksgiving and about all of the thanksgiving foods and traditions. As soon as I came home from school, though, I dropped my bag by a kitchen chair, not even taking the time to go upstairs, and I started to peel potatoes. I had taken it upon myself to cook my mom's recipe of mashed potatoes, which have always been my favorite. But I had to make it for 25+ people. The day before, I grabbed 6 kilos of potatoes, and so as soon as I came home I started the peeling process. I didn't think we had a peeler, so I just used a knife.
About 2 hours in, Leslie comes in to start her vegetables and finds a peeler in the drawer for her carrots.Oh well, I was already pretty much done. All during this time too, I helped out with the turkey, making sure that it didn't dry out. Then, as soon as people started coming, I was pretty much put in charge of where to put all the dishes. Also, I was the only person who knew how to use the swiss army knife can opener, so of course, I had to open all of the cranberry cans, etc. (Shout out to my parents for taking me camping where I learned this). Once everyone started eating, though, everything became much less stressful for me and we all had a great Thanksgiving.
The next day, early in the morning, I got up to head to school. Normally I don't go in until 2nd hour, but this day was special so I had to get up bright and early. This was the day of the school excursion to el pantano (the man-made lake at the bottom of the mountain). We walked down through the streets of Periana to a steep path through olive orchards to the lake. When we got to the picnic area, the kids dispersed to different picnic benches and the teachers started to set up our barbeque. Even though I had had so much food the night before for Thanksgiving, I wasn't going to miss out on all of this food.
Then while more food was barbecuing, the teachers split up to run different games and activities for the kids. I helped run this huge board game where the students were the pieces. Then after the activities, the kids just went off and did their thing while the teachers ate more and hung out.
We walked back up a different way since the way down was so steep. This way was steep too, but not quite as steep. The views were so gorgeous. When we got to the end of the path, there were busses waiting for us to take us all the way back to the school. However there was some miscalculation and they were short one bus so a few teachers stayed behind with the rest of the kids waiting for a bus to return to get us. One finally came and we made it back to school moments before the last bell rang. The day at the pantano was a lot of fun, but on such little sleep from the night before, I was ready to go home and take a nice long siesta. But....
When I got home, a group of friends had come over to help us eat all of the leftovers. I hung out with them and ate even more. We played some games and watched part of a movie. Then we decided that we were going to go out dancing that night so they went home to get ready and I went upstairs to take a nap at 10pm until they came back. They came back to our place around 1am and we headed off to the discoteca to dance off all the calories we had eaten the past couple of days. I came home a little early, but I guess that was understandable since I was the one who had the least amount of sleep in the group.
The next day, Saturday, I got to sleep in finally! Anneli, Nick and Ron came over and we headed into Málaga to see all the lights. This was the first night that the lights were lit in the city and there are always a lot of people on the streets going out to see them. In one plaza there was even a small concert. These lights were amazing!
I thought the ones in Madrid were great (which they are) but these ones were just so colorful. In Málaga we met up with Leslie, Adam, Eddie and Robby who had gone in earlier. That night, we spent the night at Anneli's since she lives in the city.
The next day, on Sunday, when everyone else went back to their respective homes, Anneli and I went to the Picasso museum since the last Sunday of each month has free entry there. The museum was cool and interesting. There aren't any big works of Picasso since those are all in the big museums, but you could see all of the different styles Picasso experimented in and his progression as an artist. But I'm glad I went when it was free.
After the museum I finally went home to relax and have some down time after such a crazy weekend. I was successful in relaxing for the most part except for all the dishes and cleaning...and our power going out. Randomly our power went out, so our landlord came over and finally figured out that water was seeping behind our dishwasher and getting around the outlet which blew the fuse. After all that was settled, things settled in the house. Overall I had an amazing weekend with great friends and great experiences. But it's good to relax too.
I think it's quite amazing. This concept of family. There are people out there, some you have never met before, but because they are family, because they love people who you are related to, they take you in, care for you, and on top of that they care about you too. I think it's such a lovely thing.
First stop, Rosenbborgade, where Soren Kierkegaard lived and wrote a few of his famous books I had looked up the address from a blog online but when we got to the number it gave us, it didn't look quite right and there was no plaque. We looked around for a little, but gave up after about 5 minutes of looking. We decided to just continue down the street towards our next destination. Lo and behold, we found it! It was number 7, not number 15. So all was not lost. It looks like a really interesting location to live too. It's right near the royal park and Rosenborg castle one way and a nice walking street, round tower and old university dorms in the other direction. From Kierkegaard's home, we then walked towards Langelinie, the little mermaid. On the way to see her, we walked down Nyhavn and saw the Christmas market there. Then we went past Amalienborg palace on the left and the Royal opera house across the water on the right. None of the Royal family is here at the moment so there weren't that many guards. Apparently in July, there had been a big storm and the ground floor and kitchens to the palaces had been flooded and they still have yet to be fixed. So no grand changing of the guards while I'm here. 
Then we walked a little more and got to Langelinie. "The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince. But this story doesn't end quite the way that Disney portrayed it. The prince thought it was a different girl who saved him and so he married the other girl. If the little mermaid slays the prince and lets the blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again. But she cannot bring herself to kill the prince so she throws herself into the sea and dissolves and becomes a wandering spirit sentenced to wander for 300 years. Yeah. Not the happy Disney ending... But still a cool story and a pretty statue.
Today we went into the city around noon again. This time I wore leggings under my jeans since yesterday I near froze to the bone. We saw the old stock exchange building with its beautiful architecture, the outside of the parliament building and the royal library with the royal gardens. I also continued my Kierkegaard scavenger hunt. Inside the royal gardens there was a statue of Kierkegaard. Then we met up with Carsten at a place called Charlie's Bar. It was a really cozy spot near Stroget. 
After that we went on to Tivoli. It was just about dusk when we got there so I was able to see some of it in natural light and then I got to see it with all of the lights since it got dark pretty quickly. There was so much light from all of the christmas lights. There was also a special Christmas exhibit in Tivoli about Christmas in Russia. They had some Russian gift shops, Russian food stalls, and a little building in the center with Russian architecture. This was really cool, especially since Russia was on my list of places I would like to travel (But I can't since it's expensive and really hard to get to). So I got a piece of it, however fake it was, here. After Tivoli I took Ingelise and Carsten out for a nice dinner at a place called Klubben to thank them for all their hospitality and then I went back to Ingelise's place. Tomorrow I have to get up at 5am to get to the airport. I have loved my time here in Copenhagen and I would love to come back and see again, especially with friends and people more my age. Hopefully someday...
It all started on Thursday for me. I went to school in the morning, and everything was pretty normal. I taught my kids about Thanksgiving and about all of the thanksgiving foods and traditions. As soon as I came home from school, though, I dropped my bag by a kitchen chair, not even taking the time to go upstairs, and I started to peel potatoes. I had taken it upon myself to cook my mom's recipe of mashed potatoes, which have always been my favorite. But I had to make it for 25+ people. The day before, I grabbed 6 kilos of potatoes, and so as soon as I came home I started the peeling process. I didn't think we had a peeler, so I just used a knife. 
Then while more food was barbecuing, the teachers split up to run different games and activities for the kids. I helped run this huge board game where the students were the pieces. Then after the activities, the kids just went off and did their thing while the teachers ate more and hung out. 
We walked back up a different way since the way down was so steep. This way was steep too, but not quite as steep. The views were so gorgeous. When we got to the end of the path, there were busses waiting for us to take us all the way back to the school. However there was some miscalculation and they were short one bus so a few teachers stayed behind with the rest of the kids waiting for a bus to return to get us. One finally came and we made it back to school moments before the last bell rang. The day at the pantano was a lot of fun, but on such little sleep from the night before, I was ready to go home and take a nice long siesta. But....
The next day, Saturday, I got to sleep in finally! Anneli, Nick and Ron came over and we headed into Málaga to see all the lights. This was the first night that the lights were lit in the city and there are always a lot of people on the streets going out to see them. In one plaza there was even a small concert. These lights were amazing! 
The next day, on Sunday, when everyone else went back to their respective homes, Anneli and I went to the Picasso museum since the last Sunday of each month has free entry there. The museum was cool and interesting. There aren't any big works of Picasso since those are all in the big museums, but you could see all of the different styles Picasso experimented in and his progression as an artist. But I'm glad I went when it was free.