Oslo and Updates

Hello! So much has happened over the last few weeks. First, Mel got actually two jobs. After she found out that her work visa was ready to go she applied to substitute teach at several international schools that give classes in English. Just two days after being hired at one (and before she had actually even subbed any days) a teacher had to return to the U.S. suddenly and unexpectedly. Mel interviewed and was hired within the following few days and started immediately. Since students here end a term before Christmas break, it has been rather hectic getting up to speed on what they have been learning and preparing them for their finals. However, it will be nice to work just two weeks and then get three weeks off! In January, Mel will start the new term at 60% time. She'll teach two classes, a modified 10th grade and a modified 9th grade class, each being literature and writing-based classes for students who still struggle with English as a non-native language. Additionally, she'll lead an SAT prep class on campus and do some other one-on-one tutoring. At about this same time, Mel got a tutoring job with a family of three boys. The kids are a bit exuberant but are also very sweet and it is fun to spend some time in a Danish household.

Besides starting work, we also found a new apartment. The location is AMAZING. It is right in the city center of Copenhagen, on a busy street in what is known as the sort of trendy ethnic part of town, so we will have a bit of a reprieve from the otherwise very blond Denmark (not that there's anything wrong with being blond ;) as well as access to lots of fun, cheap restaurants and bars. But, the apartment is located quite a bit off the street, behind several other buildings and so it is quiet and private, and it receives lots of light from the east and west and is just all around a cute Danish building. We'll move during the middle of January.

This week Adam had his birthday, and we spent it at Tivoli gardens, an amusement park. They have quite a Christmas display with many strings of lights and a market selling all sorts of Christmas gifts. We ate at a Croatian-Danish buffet, which included lamb roasting on a spit, five different kinds of pickled herring, and miscellaneous other meat and potato type foods.

A few weeks ago we went to Oslo, Norway. Oslo is a great city. It is very clean and organized well for tourism, but also rather dark and expensive. It actually was a great time to make the trip, because now that we are back in Denmark, everything seems incredibly cheap and bright! We saw the Nobel Peace Center, which has several thoughtful exhibits. We were a week too early to see Al Gore in town to receive his award, but he is already featured in the museum as a part of this hall of lights, "illuminating" each winner with his or her accomplishments. There was also a large room on freedom of speech, asking though-provoking questions about when free speech compromises others' rights and to what extent industrialized nations are actually able to provide freedom of speech. One of our favorite parts was the Nobel Peace museum, highlighting past Nobel winners. There was also an incredibly interesting photography exhibit in which the artist asked other Palestinians who had been expelled from their homes, "What would you have me do for you when I go to visit?" The artist then took pictures of herself doing these simple things, like sipping water from a home village or walking the route from a former home to the local market.

We also went to see the ski jump in the mountains above Oslo, which provided a beautiful view and a ski museum about the history of the sport. That same day we went to see the Viking ship museum and Frogner park. The park is extensively decorated with statues by the Norwegian artist Vigelund. He made an agreement with the government that they would provide work space, materials, and a salary for the rest of his life if he would donate all he produced to the people of Norway. Now many of his works are on display in this park. He always portrays people engaged in the emotional extremes that characterize humans. This is my favorite, portraying jealousy between two small children. We also went walking around the harbor and Carl Johan's Gate, a famous pedestrian street, and sipped mulled wine at a Christmas market.

Malmo

Our second Saturday we took the Oresund bridge to Sweden. Sadly, a Dane told us that the highest point in Denmark is actually on this bridge, right before it crosses into Swedish territory. Malmo is the first city across the bridge, and it turned out to be a delightful place to spend a Saturday. The train is quick and easy and the town is rather like Copenhagen but a bit cleaner and better geared towards tourists. We wandered around the pedestrian shopping streets and visited the modern art museum and the old fortress complex, which actually Denmark built since this area used to be Danish. The fortress has extensive grounds (as it used to be a castle) that were fun to wander through, and then we got some dinner and enjoyed the live music and mini-donuts that were a part of the local outdoor Christmas market.

Helsingor

We've been trying to take some sort of trip every Saturday that we've been here, whether it is a little day trip or a longer outing. The first one we took was to Helsingor, a small town on the north-eastern end of the island Copenhagen (and we) are situated on. If you say Helsingor five times fast, you'll get Elsinore, most famous as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The centerpiece of the town is the gloomy castle where the famed and mostly fictionalized prince met his demise. It was described to us as rather gray and dreary- which it was, and which really is just exactly what Hamlet's castle probably should be. Besides that, the town is just five miles across the water from Sweden, and since Denmark sells goods for so much cheaper, lots of Swedes will ferry across the sea to stock up on cheap stuff. Consequently, Helsingor is a cute shopping town as well. A golden pretzel above the window of a shop to Mel means a bakery, and to Adam means slow down, Mel is going to make a stop. Outside of the chocolate, the cheese, and the pastries, the food here leaves much to be desired, but goodness, you can certainly fill up on chocolate and cheese and pastries. The one Mel is sampling here (probably her favorite) is a little citrus-flavored cookie that is crispy on the outside and spongy-soft on the inside, covered with chocolate mousse and then sealed shut with a hardened layer of chocolate. Mmmmm.... We also visited a great little cheese shop and had our first taste of the polser- a much-varied hot dog that is the Danish answer to fast food.

Copenhagen and Thanksgiving!

We usually go into Copenhagen at least twice per week, once on Friday nights and for the day on Sunday, to attend church and to explore. So far we have been out two Fridays with some of Adam's work colleagues. His officemate is an amazing linguist who is originally from China and speaks Mandarin, Swedish, Danish, English, and French. Because he attended college in Copenhagen he knows his way around really well and he has taken us to his favorite bars on Fridays. Ironically, they often have themes on Friday nights, and the first one we attended was a Texan theme- which included a very large American flag draped on the wall and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" playing on the stereo. Bummed we didn't have our camera with us for that night, but convinced that sort of thing only happens once, we went out the next week without our camera again to a different bar that was doing a Hawaii theme! For the Danes, the Hawaii theme meant leis and large blow-up alligators, which again was pretty funny to see. We're pretty bummed we didn't get to document either occurance, so now we don't leave home without our camera.

In Copenhagen we've found a church that we really like. It is an international Lutheran church conducted in English, with attendees from all over the world. Each time we've gone we've stayed late at their coffee hour hanging out with the great people there. And Adam likes his weekly opportunity for good drip coffee. And for Thanksgiving, we had four of the girls we've met over for turkey dinner. Two girls are American, one is British and one Hungarian. Mel cooked her first Thanksgiving, and we were able to make a turkey breast and some drumsticks (no whole turkeys), cranberry sauce from fresh berries, mashed potatoes, stuffing, lemon-butter green beans, and rolls. No pumpkin, canned or fresh, for pie, so we did a chocolate torte instead (no complaints here). It was so fun to get to share our traditions with some people who had never celebrated it before- the one from Britain said that what she knew about Thanksgiving was entirely based on watching the sitcom Friends from Britain, and that we did it pretty similarly to how they do it on the show!

From Copenhagen I've posted pictures of some of our favorite places. Nyhavn is the canal from which most of the boats leave. It is the old-fashioned sailors' quarters and has the bright building fronts. In Denmark it used to be that you paid taxes based on how much street-front property you used, so the buildings are narrow and have no side yards. Some of the coolest parts of the old town are situated right on the former canals, that have now been reworked to be a network of lakes. We also visited the old citadel which is a star-shaped piece of land islanded off by canals, and now has an old church and active walking trails. Christiana is a hippie colony with tons of artistic graffiti, and lastly you'll see this guy who was misbehaving and tried to hop stones over to the statue of the Little Mermaid to give her a little kiss and ended up falling in the water.

Lyngby

For our first two months here we're living in Lyngby, which is a smallish town about six miles north of Copenhagen. For the time being, we are living in university housing and in January we'll have to find a place on our own, hopefully in the city of Copenhagen. Before we came, we had received conflicting advice from first a Dane and then a former post-doc in Denmark as to whether it would be better to live in Copenhagen or in Lyngby, where Adam works. Now that we have been here a while we would perhaps equate the two to San Francisco and Walnut Creek. Not very many Americans would live in San Francisco and commute to Walnut Creek- just like not many Danes would live in Copenhagen and commute to Lyngby. The city is more expensive, more crowded, and less quaint than the town of Lyngby. However, for two Americans who don't speak Danish, Copenhagen offers many better opportunities in the way of English-speaking clubs, movies and art, churches, and social settings for us to get involved with. We also are excited to try living in a big city. For the meantime, Lyngby is wonderful- it is a quaint, upscale, mid-sized town with lots of shopping and cafes and a well-developed downtown area (and as you see, one cafe has a name that is rather close to our hearts- the translation is "Cafe Me and Annie"). Also, it has a beautiful park called Dyrehavn (animal park) which constitute the former royal hunting grounds. Consequently, it has beautiful scenery as well as many different types of animals. We've heard the park is most beautiful after a frost, so that is one reason to look forward to the weather getting colder!

We're He-ere

Hello friends and family! It has taken a while but we have finally gotten our travel blog up and running. We hope to update about every other week or so with pictures and short blurbs to tell you all what we are having fun doing this year as we are living in Denmark! But first, since it has been a while since we've seen some of you, we'll give a quick recap of how we've spent the last two months or so.

The Journey Begins

Around September first we packed our things and left our "hobbit hole" apartment in Santa Barbara. We had an amazing last week saying goodbye to loved ones and enjoying our favorite Santa Barbara things one last time. Unemployed and homeless, we left for a Greater Northwest road trip for twenty-five days. The trip had multiple goals: enjoy a special transitional time when we both had few responsibilities, see a part of the country that we live so close to and had spent so little time in, taste beer in as many breweries as possible, and decide if the California housing market should be abandoned for the luster of Oregon and Washington. Our first day we left early to arrive at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company by lunchtime. This easily wins the best restaurant choice of any other brewery. Besides cheap and yummy beer, the food was fantastic and varied. We moved on to see the steam crags in Lassen, and ended the day at Lava Beds National Monument.

Days 1- 4: Southern Oregon

One of the most interesting things we saw were the caves at Lava Beds National Monument. In Northern California there is an entire network of caves that are completely open to climbing and exploring. They really look like you are in the middle of The Goonies movie, with divided passageways and mosses hanging down from the ceilings. This picture is taken climbing into "headache rock." Besides the caves, in south Oregon we went to see As You Like It at the Ashland Shakespeare festival, hiked at Crater Lake, and visited some Monkowski family friends in Bend.

Days 5-8: Northern Oregon to Montana

Before leaving Bend we decided on a whim to climb the South Sister to get beautiful views of the neighboring mountains and valleys. Unfortunately, when we left the car we had not yet decided to do that, so we didn't bring our hiking boots or poles and we ran out of water on our way back down. The hike has a false summit two-thirds of the way up, so when we thought we were almost to the top of the summit we were surprised to learn that we still had another two miles of hiking on crumbling volcanic rock to get to the top. Throughout that last leg of the hike every time you would step one foot forward you would sink six inches back again. Having not adequately carbo-loaded for the trek, we got really worn out and Mel got some elevation sickness at the top but it was a beautiful view.

Our friend Greg told us recently that when you travel, you often learn more about your own culture than the one you visit. In Oregon, we learned that California provides convenience and service that we had never noticed when we almost ran out of gas. It turns out that in Oregon, it is common to have four or five hour stretches of driving with no serviceable gas pumps. Luckily, after we had driven ten miles already with the gas light on, Melanie met a nice man in overalls at the post office who let us use the town's private co-op to get our gas. He said his kids have lived in Oregon their entire lives and they still run out of gas on the highways, so we shouldn't feel too badly about it. Besides that adventure, camped and hiked a few days in the Wallowa mountains in the north eastern corner of Oregon. After having seen so many volcanic phenomena, it was great to get back to granite mountains and the waterfalls, plant life, and lakes that accompany them.

Days 9-16: Kalispell and Hiking in Glacier

We spent a little over a week in Montana, mostly in Kalispell with Mel's parents, but also on a three-day backpacking trip through Glacier National Park. Staying at "Chateau Wilkins" is always such at treat, and this time even more so after having been camping. We had a great time going hiking, out to eat, hot tubbing, and just relaxing with Karen and Howard for a few days.

In Glacier you can see Adam taking proper bear precautions, and even though it was the season for it, we didn't see any grizzlies. We did however have to protect our food from a big eight-point buck and have little showdowns with the mountain goats for the right to pass on the trail. We hiked up what looked like the hidden stairs from LOTR to some beautiful views and a kind of disappointing glacier and saw the fall colors Mel had been hoping for.

Days 17-25: Washington, Oregon, and Norcal

After leaving Montana we drove a marathon day to the Olympic Peninsula. From there we camped and backpacked into a coastal rain forest, which has the highest concentration of living mass per area in the world! The beach had piles and piles of trees spanning miles in each direction that fall in the rain forest and are carried by rivers to the ocean. The forest literally is green in every place that you look. Every single surface is covered by mosses and other plants, and when a tree falls over, it becomes a "nurse log" because several other trees will spring out of it along with other vines and shrubs. We camped by a little creek and could hear the caribou making their trumpet-like mooing to one another. And amazingly, although it rains over one hundred inches every year there, we had beautiful weather and didn't even get rained on once!

In Seattle, we stayed with a good friend who made excellent recommendations of what to see and do in the city. We hung out at Pike's place market, got excellent seafood lunch by the water, went to fun coffee shops and bookstores, and got a tour of the "chic" area of downtown while we checked out the evening bar scene. In Portland we saw Multnomah Falls before exploring the rose gardens and having lunch at a McMenamin's- a chain of brewpubs all over Oregon that convert high-character old buildings like schools and theaters into fun downtown hangouts.

From Portland, we drove to Astoria, then down the Oregon coast and inland again to Eugene, where we stopped through a friend's hometown of Drain. On the way we saw the Tillamook Cheese Factory and stopped at hug point. We continued south into California where we camped a night to explore the Lost Coast, the only area of California coastline too rural and rugged for highway access. Notice how our footsteps are the only ones in the black sand. Our last, long day was spent in northern California tasting at breweries and finally getting back to Danville. We got pint glasses at almost all of the breweries we visited, and so here is a picture of our final collection.

Kristin's Wedding

A week after we got back, Melanie's lovely sister Kristin Grossheider officially became Kristin Melli. The wedding was beautiful and the wedding week was a fun time to celebrate with friends with showers, bachelor/ette parties, and the rehearsal dinner.

PA and DC Trip

The day after the wedding, we left for Pennsylvania. Adam's dad was receiving an award at Penn State and Melanie had never seen Adam's birth state, so we met up with Adam's parents and extended family. We got to see Adam's grandma and uncle in Pittsburg, and then continued to Erie to see where Adam's dad grew up and his other grandma and aunt, uncle, and cousins. Then we got to tour Penn State before heading on to DC. Melanie had never been there and since we are planning on traveling as much as possible in Europe, it seemed to make sense to see our own nation's capital first. We spent our time wandering around the monuments, exploring Georgetown, having dinner and drinks with some friends, and seeing the big DC attractions like the White House, Arlington Cemetery, the National Cathedral and the National Zoo. And look, Lois Capps hooked us up with last minute passes to see the House and Senate in session!

London

After we said our goodbyes in Danville, we set out for Europe- HURRAY! Our first stop was to visit our friends Greg and Mariah in London. Miraculously, our baggage was accepted (despite being a few pounds overweight) on every flight and made it on time to each destination to which we flew, even to Copenhagen. Perhaps even more miraculously, we were able to get the bags from each airport to our lodging destinations and back again (sometimes with more than a little help from others). We had just been to London a year before and had done most of the touristy things then, so it was nice to get the London perspective from two people who have been living there for over a year and do the locals thing. We went to great local restaurants, watched "football" from a pub, visited great specialty stores and went on a walk in the outskirts of London proper. Besides that, we got spoiled with great home cooked food and good company.