Musica Ficta

I've been lucky to have become a member of Musica Ficta shortly after I arrived in Denmark. It's one of the few professional vocal ensembles in Denmark. We've done all sorts of concerts together in which I've been able to see many parts of Denmark. Andreas says that I've seen more of Denmark than he has. For example, we were down in a town called Tønder which is near the German border. Noone ever goes there. But we did! I've also been involved in a video which was filmed in the basement of a castle here in Copenhagen. It's pretty cool all the things I've been able to do here through Musica Ficta.

One of the biggest projects we've had throughout the last couple of years is called "Nuns of Notre Dame". It's all music that was written or performed by nuns. We've also made a cd, which is on it's way out to the market now. It took a while to get all the rights to the music.

Wii

The other night, Andreas' parents and Mikael were over for a visit. We ate dinner and then ended up playing Wii together. Johannes really likes tennis and golf. Here's some pictures of us boxing.

Not bad for 72, Johannes!

Oh yeah, lookin' good!

Heart Attack!

Last night after our ward temple night, we came home to a heart attack! The girls upstairs had decorated our door with lots of hearts and candy (most of the candy is gone now...). It's probably no surprise that both girls served missions at Temple Square, (i.e. Utah). Anyway, it was really sweet and fun! It's nice to have good tenants!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Apartment

Per request, I've taken some pictures of our apartment so you all can see where we live! I tried to make a video, but I couldn't figure out how to upload it.


























It's not a big apartment, but It's in a nice part of town, in which we're really happy about. And for those of you that don't know, we have purchased the apartment directly above us, in which we plan to make into one big apartment with the one we live in now. In the meantime, we have rented the one upstairs to two young single adult girls. We're hoping that until we really need the extra space, i.e. children, that we can continue to rent out the upstairs. The problem is, that we have to build a staircase this summer. So we'll have to figure out how to make both floors private. And as a requirement of the county, we will have to build a nice big bathroom where our kitchen and bathroom (toilet) are. Then later, when we have the whole apartment to ourselves, we will open up the kitchen upstairs into an open kitchen and dining room. But in the meantime, after we will have made the bathroom downstairs, we will have to live without a kitchen. We will probably just set up a microwave and hot plate on our dining room table or something. It will be worth it for a year or so to save on rent. Because it's not cheap to own both of these apartments. But it is a huge investment opportunity for us, if we can just manage to figure out how to pay the bills for a couple years. Hopefully Andreas will get a really good job when he's done with his Phd.

Fastelavn

Fastelavn is a tradition in Denmark that is similar to that of Carnival. It means literally the night before the fast. It was people's last chance to really have a good time before the fast started. In Denmark and Holland there was also a tradition where they would take a barrel with a cat inside and hit and kill the cat. The cat apparently represented evil.

Nowadays Fastelavn is a holiday for kids. They dress up in fun costumes and hit the barrell which is filled with candy. Afterwards they eat special Fastelavn donuts. Here's a picture of our junior primary trying to get the candy out. It was freezing cold and the barrell is very hard. I think we stood outside for over a half hour waiting for the kids to get it open.

Here's a picture of my friend Emma. She's from Scotland and is also married to a Dane. She dressed up as the tooth-fairy. She was on the activities committe and had to help with the event. It reminded of how Laura Gable and I were in charge of the party my first year in Denmark, and how we didn't know what the heck we were supposed to do. Fun memories.

Estonian Excursion

Last October, Andreas and I took a last minute trip to Tallinn, Estonia. We got it really cheap, since it was last minute. The hotel we stayed at was called Telegraaf. It was a five star hotel. Boy did we get good service. It was so nice.

When we arrived at the hotel, Andreas arranged to surprise me with flowers and chocolates. There were also rose petals on the bed. It was so romantic. He really outdid himself.

The next morning we headed out into town. The inner part of Tallinn is very quaint. The architecture is medieval. However, outside of that little part of town, it's not so inspiring. It just seemed like a very sad place to be.

We walked around a bit and did some shopping. I did get a cute hat there! Other than that, we preferred to spend our time at the hotel. How sad is that!

By the way, we found out that Tallinn actually means Danish city. Apparently it was conquered by Denmark at one point in time. How appropriate it was for us to visit!

My Bike

My bike! Isn't it cute? With a basket and everything! I actually use it everyday. Now that we've moved a bit more into the city, everything I need is within a comfortable biking distance. It takes me about 15 minutes to get downtown and 5 minutes to get to church and the temple!

Biking is very popular here in Denmark. It's probably because cars are so expensive. I think it's also because Denmark is so flat. Biking is much easier here than it would be other places in the world.

They say that there are more cyclists than motorists in Denmark. That's probably why there are bike paths alongside almost every road in Denmark.

We also live right across from a bike shop which is nice, just in case we need to make some repairs!

Our Life in Copenhagen

Well I've finally done it. I've started a blog! I have to at least make the attempt of keeping up with my sisters who have been so sweet to share their lives with me through their blogs. After all, we do live on another continent! So it is my goal to try to keep them and all of my friends afloat with our life here in Copenhagen.