Those were the days, Part I

Lately I've found myself thinking a lot about our 3 years living abroad and really missing our friends, the slow paced European lifestyle and the every day adventures of living in a foreign country and getting to travel to new places all the time. I was thinking how it would have been so great if they had this blog thing about 6 years ago because it would have certainly kept me busy. Most of you reading this know that I went stir crazy after almost 3 years without working, well working and getting a paycheck that is. I did work for a non profit about 10 hours a week, but that wasn't enough for me. Especially with a husband who traveled ALL THE TIME! It's funny how the grass is always greener on the other side. I can recall numerous conversations with friends and family complaining how bored I was getting and how I couldn't wait to move home and work, work, work! WOW... did I really feel that way? This adventure all started when I began dating my now husband who was working for a Danish company. After graduating college, I immediately got a job teaching 5th grade down in Charlotte, NC. So, I migrated south a few days after graduation. It was a tough year teaching to say the least (actually I HATED it!) and we weren't particularly happy in the Charlotte area, so when an opportunity with B's company was presented to him at the world headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, we decided to go for it. This decision was not actually made that easily. I actually think the first words out of my mouth were "Where is Denmark and no, I'm not moving to another country with you! We're not even married. Heck, we're not even engaged!" After a few weeks of weighing all the pros and cons and having a lot of chats with our Danish friends who were living in Charlotte and on the brink of getting expatriated home to CPH (Copenhagen), I finally came to the conclusion that it was a once in a lifetime experience and the worst that could happen is I don't like it and move home. Many people thought it was a bit crazy for me to move to another country with a guy I wasn't even engaged to, but I guess that was one of my rare decisions of living on the edge.

B moved over in May of 2002 and I followed a few months later. We had a fantastic summer and of course went through the rollercoaster of loving it, hating it and then loving it again. The picture above is a very popular spot called Nyhavn, pronounced Newhoun. And days as gorgeous as the one above are pretty rare and very appreciated by the Danes. The climate in Denmark and lack of sun was something I had a rough time adjusting to. Because CPH is on an island, there is a constant moisture always in the air in the spring, fall and winter. Not to mention the fact that it sometimes stays dark all day in the winter. The summertime is a different story. Denmark is so far north that it stays light out until midnight or so.

Here is Hans Christian Andersen's famous Little Mermaid statue.

Brad and I somewhat inherited our apartment from the American guy who Brad was replacing. Because it was an easy find and had an incredible location with the bus stop, taxi stand, metro and train station directly across the street, we didn't bother to shop around. Our apartment is the third one up and is right above a 7 Eleven and a few buildings down from a night club. It took a while to adjust to the constant buzz of people at all hours.

Our apartment was also located right on the famous shopping street, the Stroget which was very dangerous for a shopaholic like myself who had a LOT of free time on her hands. However, Denmark has a VAT (value added tax) that is 18% which makes everything crazy expensive. Think about everything you buy on a regular basis and add 18% to that. It's shocking!

I spent many afternoons at cafe Europa below having lattes with 2 shots of caramel reading a book or trying to perfect my Danish by reading Danish newspapers. Now it's not that I didn't have any friends, in fact I had several close friends, but they all worked during the daytime, leaving me to fend for myself.

Pictured below is one of the five lakes in a row frozen over in the winter time. My good friend Aimee and I used to walk several times a week around all five lakes. I can't recall the distance, but we never did run out of things to say to each other.

To be continued....

A First for Everything

For all of you Fran (my dad) fans out there you will be happy to know that history has been made tonight. My dad has an email address and has sent his first email ever! My brother witnessed (and assisted) first hand and sent me the following email that was too funny not to share. The me in the dialogue is Dave. Enjoy!

fran liptak has just sent his very 1st email (see below - 5 minutes ago). the entire email was typed with the middle finger of his right hand. obviously.
i felt it necessary to send a follow up email to the parties involved in this historic moment (my sis'), and to bri and nick, as to fill you all in on the pure comedy of such an event. below is a list of highlights. admittedly, i may forget one or two because they came early and often, and one may have eluded me due to my incessant hysterics.
dad: how do i make the letter a capital?
me: you hit the shift button, then the letter. but you don't need to capitalize. it's only email.
dad: oh, really?
me: yup.
dad: oh.
dad: How do i get spaces in between the words?
me: you hit the space bar.
dad: where's the space bar?
me: right there.
dad: oh.
me: watching him hit the space bar anywhere between 4-10 times between words (see below for proof).
me: dad, you only need to hit the space bar once in between words.
dad: oh. ok.
dad (on the phone): nancy (my aunt) - what's your email address?
dad: ok. i'm going to send you my first letter.
me: email dad. email. it's not a letter.
dad: how do i get a dash?
me: right there. you want to use a dash for the word email?
dad: yeah. why?
me: you don't really need a dash.
dad: putting the dash in......
dad: how do i start a new line?
me: you hit return.
dad: where's return?
me: right there.
dad: hitting the space bar 15 times now to indent in his new line (again, see below).
dad: how do i get a question mark?
me: you hit the shift button, then the question mark button.
dad: the shift button again, huh?
me: yup.
dad: wow.
just can't make that up.

FRAN's FIRST EMAIL:

hi i just wanted to tell you guys i now have a e-mail address
pretty neat huh?
this is a very big moment in my life
thank you
signed frankie

Fall Getaway

We decided we needed a weekend away and headed for WISP ski resort at Deep Creek Lake in Western MD early Saturday morning. I find that even if I try to have a relaxing weekend at home, I always end up filling my time with projects around the house. I never can seem to just "be" when I'm home with nothing planned. It's definitely something I'm working on :-)

We were able to bring Winston along because the resort was pet friendly. We spent all Saturday afternoon hiking around a local state park and Saturday evening the resort we stayed at had a haunted house and a ride on the mountain coaster which was a blast. We felt like we were little kids again. The weather was a little cold this morning so we decided to head back to Annapolis after breakfast and now it's back to the grind tomorrow. The weekends go by much too fast these days.

Baby O gets baptized

This past weekend was such a great one. Great weather, girls night out and baby Owen's Baptism on Sunday. Owen is one of my best friends (Jill) little boy. He is such a good baby and how can you resist him with those cheeks? O and his proud parents.

O and the proud god parents.

Aunt Christy loves her O.

Look at those baby blues!

A Shower for Baby Mills

This past Sunday I hosted a baby shower for one of my good friends. Lauren and her husband are expecting a boy the end of November and her doctor has already warned her that it's going to be a very big boy. She's 32 weeks prego and the baby is already 5.5 pounds! Yikes. Some people say the weight of the baby doubles from 32 weeks but for Lauren's sake, I really hope not. I think she'll definitely be swapping out many of the 0-3 month clothing she received for larger sizes. The theme of the nursery is sailboats so of course that was the primary theme of the shower. I ordered the cake above from a baker my sister in law's family has always used and he did an amazing job. Not only did it look great, but it tasted great too.

Lauren with her mom and sister below.

Winston was appalled that we kept him outside the entire time. Could it have been due to the fact that he table surfed the dining room table before the guests arrived and ate 1/4 of the coffee cake. Probably, but he was getting the boot outside regardless. He watched all the present opening from behind glass doors.

Thanks to Mo Mo for coming on her birthday! We know you're a very busy lady Mo and appreciate you bringing your awesome lemon pound cake. I'm relishing in the left-overs.