søndagshygge

as i have mentioned before, jamie oliver is huge in denmark. he's everywhere -- on tv, in the bookstores, his kitchen supplies are everywhere. he is pretty much a big deal here. so, with that said, morten and i were watching a jamie oliver episode where he was talking about eggs & chickens and blah blah blah. i was a bit disappointed with the chicken bit, because he took these two factory chickens that had been kept in cages for their whole lives and put them into a chicken coop. i wanted to see if their appearance changed at all, but jamie just left us high and dry.

anyway, he had a bit on homemade pasta and he, of course, made it look super easy with his pasta machine, but the idea still stuck with us (along with the idea to make merengues), and we decided to try our hand at homemade pasta today. it was super easy even without a pasta rolling machine, and it was delicious! basically, 1 egg/100g flour/person. bam. homemade pasta. the hardest part is getting it very thin with just a rolling pin.

morten rolling away

cutting the pasta

homemade bolognese

final product

and i swear i helped! i really did. it was all so easy and fun to try something new, and i really think that we have nailed the perfect bolognese sauce :) thank goodness there are leftovers! now, to start thinking of the next food adventure to try next time...

why worry?

i wonder how many people are sitting around wondering "what?! why?! who is he?! and why didnt she say anything?!". based on my facebook page, i guess it is quite a few. but as a good friend says, why should i let what anyone else thinks bother me? it isn't their wedding. it's yours.

and you know what? shes right. you always hear those cheesy stories of people meeting each other and just knowing that the other person was the one. i used to roll my eyes and think, get real. until i met him. when you have a connection with someone that is so strong that you miss them terribly when they are away, always have something to talk about, never argue over a thing, encourage each other to be better and healthier people, then you cant deny that this isnt the person you were meant to spend the rest of your life with. i found a person that makes every day better just by being there. someone that motivates me, supports me, and loves me just as much as i love him (even though he claims he loves me more ;)). i feel like i dont need to offer any explanation for why we got married, why we didnt tell many people, and why there were no invites. the only people that needed to be there were the two of us.

i know that everyone is dying to see pictures from the wedding. mortens good friend took some amazing photos that i will have to sit down and sort through to put onto facebook, with mortens help of course. but, just to give you a teaser...

and that's before the ceremony :)

after the wedding we headed on a surprise trip (well, a surprise for me at least) to berlin. morten had planned it a long time before we knew what date the wedding would be, so it was sweet that it was like a mini-honeymoon. it was such a nice weekend. berlin is a great city, the sun was shining constantly, the food was great, and we really got to relax and unwind.

here are the highlights:

delicious brunch! oh i could eat this now!

very cool concept gourmet store. all ingredients are packaged into servings, with the recipes, and accompanying wine.

bench break in the sun on under der linden

speaks for itself

delicious elvis burger: peanut butter, banana, pineapple, jack daniels marinated beef. GOOD.

getting in touch with our inner 7th graders

where in the world is carmen san diego?

wow. where did march go?? one minute i was on study tour with a group of students, the next i am running a workshop for dis that i didn't even plan, and then the next thing i know i am on a honeymoon in berlin! there is just so much to write and catch up on, that it is almost overwhelming. i will do my best and then leave you to some highlights of my past 2 weeks.

anyway, my last post left you in stockholm on woman's day. the next day, i actually headed out on an overnight ferry to tallinn, estonia. you might be asking yourself "who goes to estonia?". well, the answer is "this girl". seriously, i have been 3 times in the span of a year. and while tallinn is very small, i have to admit that it is very charming and now that i feel very familiar with it, it is becoming one of my favorite places to go. probably because i am starting to really nail down the restaurant scene ;)

stockholm is hands down one of my favorite places in the world. it's so beautiful, under-rated, and extremely charming. while it is pretty pricey, you can still find really good deals on cafes, as long as you forget about wine, beer, & alcohol. our entire time in stockholm was sunny and clear skies. the academics on tour were great and left me really wanting to learn more about the specific organizations. one of the visits was to lakare i varlden, which is the swedish "doctors of the world" and they mainly work with undocumented foreigners in stockholm. scandinavia is not known for its open borders and liberal views on immigration, so here is a sweet drawing that a very smart 8 year old drew with their own opinions of the immigration laws:

we rounded up our time in sweden with a trip to uppsala, where the university campus is located, and one of the oldest towns in sweden. here are some highlights of the town:

uppsala cathedral -- dates back to the 1200s

statue of mary inside the cathedral, which i thought was completely real and tried to nudge her out of the way...

old viking burial mounds in gamla uppsala

the original church before they built the one seen above

main walking street in sigtuna, sweden's oldest town

now back to the ferry... it. was. horrible. it left most of the students either sick or sleep-deprived due to all the snow on the baltic sea. i have to agree with them and say it was the worst night of my life, but thank god for disney channel in my cabin. between that and the standard cnn circulation of news, i at least had some sort of entertainment through the night.

my time in tallinn was fab as always -- funny guide on the walking tour, medieval feast for dinner, and lunch at a russian restaurant. nom nom nom. here are some highlights of that part of the week:

tallinn claims to be the home of marzipan, but they will have to go to war with lubeck, germany on that one...

russian orthodox church in old town; a reminder of their past

looking down onto old town

winner of the best translated dessert menu. i'll take the fat cakes, please.

no russian restaurant is the same without a stuffed bear playing the accordion

and that brings me back to copenhagen, back at dis, back to reality. i think i will have to save the rest for another time. now it's time to go for a jog around the lakes with morten so that i can remove the fat cakes from my hips. i didn't even eat them, but looking at them just made me gain 5 pounds... or maybe that was just the cherry pie with custard sauce...

international women's day

this blog comes to you live from stockholm, sweden! i am currently "on business" for work (read: leading a study tour for the students), and today is international women's day. havent heard of it? well, it is probably because it started as a socialist political event, and the us is pretty much terrified of the word. international women's day was established in copenhagen in 1910, at the first international women's conference, which was held at the old ungdomshuset (jagtvej 69) in the borough of nørrebro, and the building no longer exists (thanks kids!).

anyway, sweden takes it pretty seriously, as one of the doctors we met with yesterday was zipping off to an official women's day kick-off with the prime minister & royal family. nbd. and to my pleasant surprise, after a very long day of walking and leading my ducklings around stockholm, i returned to my fabulous hotel room at the globe to find this little treat :)

love this day!

so, thanks to my mad danish skillz, i can read a little svenska. and the hotel has not only left me a sweet flower in my room, but they also are offering me a free glass of bubbles or wine in the bar downstairs. now if only i had read the card prior to putting on my pj's and taking out my contacts... oh well, it is nice to know that i am appreciated :) as they say, it's the thought that counts!

london calling

so after a long hiatus, it is time for an update. on a bit more than a whim, i decided to jetset to london last weekend for a laonnoise reunion/girly weekend with mack and ions, two lovely ladies i spent the better part of a year with in france.

i got in pretty late on friday night, or at least late for london. pubs close by midnight, so we had to beg for a beer after last call. after a beer, it was back to mack's for a laidback night with several cupcakes, a bag of candy, and some chips. could you tell i didn't really eat dinner? talk about destroying my diet. haha. as my blog editor says, if it's in another country, it doesn't count ;)

saturday started off with a hilarious attempt at shake and pour pancakes (why did i NOT get a photo of this??) anyway, i think more pancake batter wound up on mack's apron than in the pan. needless to say, brunch was delicious, despite the weird shape of our pancakes :)

then it was off to a pub for some pints and rugby (italy v. wales). no pub visit is the same without fried food so we got a round of fries and onion rings to accompany our beers.

ladies who "scoop"

after rugby, it was time to freshen up for a night out on the town. so with some good music, some wine, and some more cupcakes, we dolled ourselves up and headed to dinner at yo! sushi. running sushi is obviously the hot trend these days, and it only reminds me of this hole in the wall place in chapel hill that i used to go to in college. i guess the trend really caught on. anyway, dinner was great, like sushi always is, and then we headed to a club at 21.30. definitely an early start, which i think is strange, but i guess londoners really like to start early. we were supposed to meet up with one of mack's friends, but he was clearly a jerk, and we headed off to a pub, which was definitely more our scene. the choice was brilliant though, because it led to an epic night that otherwise wouldn't have happened.

you can find us in the pub...

i will save you the blurry details of the night, the bottom line is that it was a blast and had all of my favorite elements: good company, random strangers, dancing, falafels, and cab rides.

sunday was a late start and we finally ate around 15.00 at this cute little place in covent garden called bill's produce. i really should have taken a photo of it, or at least have bought one of their net bags. anyway, it was delish -- fish finger sandwich and fries w/ mayo. yum. the rest of the day was pretty chill as we were all still struggling from the night before.

on a side note, check out this pretty view out mack's window. it's may be the only sun i have seen in weeks...

monday we headed off to get our feet done... by fish! another new trend out there is these fish that eat the dead skin off your feet, leaving them soft and smooth. think of it as an alternative pedicure... it was a bit creepy and weird in the beginning, but after some channeling of my thoughts and trying to compare the feeling to jacuzzi jets, i had gotten over the weird sensation. and it's true. my feet are softer. thank you groupon!

nom nom nom...

so after fish pedicures, we had a nice french lunch and headed back to mack's to pick up my stuff and head to victoria station to catch the train to the airport. a nice little surprise inside the station was a krispy kreme doughnut stand! go figure! based on all the jamie oliver specials i watch in denmark, it really isn't very shocking to find this here. anyway, the choices were different from home, and i really couldn't choose so i got two. (yeah, yeah, back on the diet train i go again). i chose a regular glazed cruller (delish!) and a special brit doughnut... the GLAM blackcurrant doughnut, shown here...

um yeah... that is glitter on my doughnut...

weird, huh? well, that is exactly what it was. pretty strange. i mean, it really felt like putting my estee lauder colored lip gloss on top of my doughnut. the texture and consistency was the same, but it definitely tasted like blackcurrant. i really don't know how i feel about eating glitter... but damn that cruller was good!

diet starts on monday.

for my 2 loyal followers, i am sorry that i have not updated sooner! time just flies and it has been pretty busy with work & fun. anyway, morten finally came home on the 12th and i surprised him at the airport, even though it was a bit stressful as his plane was 30 minutes early! we had a nice dinner at home (he would like you to know it was delicious and perfect). i made a roasted pork tenderloin with brussel sprouts and a mushroom risotto. first time doing risotto, and i have to say, it was super easy and fun. having bubbles and great company wasn't bad either ;)

so now that spring is *fingers crossed* around the corner, it is time to buckle down and start on my diet. i keep say "diet starts on monday", but this time i mean it. i can't be wearing my winter coat of fat for as long as i did last year, so it is time to say goodbye to all the sweet treats and fatty delicacies.

please note this is only half of the selection! how can you just walk past??

the past 2 weekends have been uber cold, but also very sunny and it is time to take advantage of it. morten and i headed out for a walk to the bookstore to buy me a "500 cupcakes & muffins" book (yes, i am definitely on the right diet track...). and what better way to celebrate all the options, than to buy our own muffins on the way home. the choice is tough when it comes to lagkagehuset (pronounced: laow-kaaayy-hoos-it -- hey! why all those g's?) we decided on rhubarb muffin & a carrot cake muffin, and headed to the botanical gardens to enjoy them in the sun.

morten is a famous danish muffin model

this was my first time in the botantical gardens, and even though everything was dead and/or frozen over, it was still nice to escape the city in such a beautiful setting. now i can't wait until spring/summer when it all comes back to life again.

from atop a small hill, i take on the wind

saturday evening morten and i got to enjoy one of my christmas presents -- tickets to hear band of horses! this was my 3rd time seeing them play live and it was the best, most likely because now i know most of the songs by heart. we started out the evening with dinner at 2 of morten's friends' apartment. it was so nice and hyggeligt and i really enjoyed feeling part of the conversation and evening. there are times when you feel a bit on the outside when you are a foreigner surrounded by people that know each other, but morten's friends aren't that way :) so after dinner, we headed to the concert, got some beers, found a good spot and enjoyed the music. here are some highlights:

evening kitchen opens the show -- so beautiful

rocking out

the projections coupled with the music are always spot on

after the concert we headed out into the arctic air and biked to a party in nørrebro. it was a great end to the evening and the birthday cake was delicious :)

so on another note, morten and i are getting very excited about looking at apartments in atlanta and will be putting our names down on a waitlist. it's really making this feel more real, which is both exciting and terrifying. it will be a huge change for the both of us, but it is nice to know that we will be doing it together. aaand, we are working on our spring USA trip details, and i think we will be able to squeeze a trip to atlanta into the plan so that we can see the city we will be moving to and get even more excited about it! :)

well, that's all from here. maybe i will sneak in 1 last cookie before the real diet starts tomorrow...

around denmark in 3 days

so it has been quite a while, and so much has happened. morten and i celebrated our 6 month anniversary (cheesy, i know), but it is always nice to sit down to a home-cooked meal made by your danish lovah (and blog editor). dinner was devine -- baked salmon with a light breading with butter, parsley, and garlic, a delicious spinach salad with blue cheese, walnuts, pears, chives, and a homemade honey vinaigrette, and roasted "hasselback" potatoes and jerusalem artichokes. oh, and don't worry, if i wasnt spoiled enough, i got to accompany the meal with a 2003 amarone di valpolicella and top it off with homemade brownie and ice cream. nom nom nom! so good! here is a delightful picture, pre-feast:


smiley wiking

so the next day was our final day together for 10 days, as i was off to a short tour of denmark with the students (hence the blogpost title), while morten was headed to malta (yes, people go there) for a work/vacation, or wacation. our last meal was my very fancy idea of bbq chicken pizza. first time making it and it was pretty delish. just wish there had been some cilantro to really top that baby off.


mmm pizza... nom nom nom...

a little added bonus to my job at dis are study tours -- basically an opportunity to take the students on an academic trip outside of copenhagen. short tours stay inside of denmark, while the long ones head across europe. despite denmark's tiny size, i almost always wind up somewhere new each time i go on a short tour, which makes it pretty exciting and educational for me as well. i won't go into the boring details of tour, but just give you some highlights.

this time i headed out to the great cities of århus and aalborg, both on jutland. our day in århus was primarily academic, but we definitely met some very important people associated with heart valve transplant research. this visit also included pig experiments and surgeries, which i know is controversial, but considering the amazing progress these researchers are making, and the fact that the pig would have wound up as bacon otherwise, i think it is ok to keep up the projects.

speaking of pigs, our dinner that night was an awesome rack of babyback ribs at a local microbrewery. seriously. devine. i love ribs and i could go for a rack right now.

the last city/town brought us to a more cultural side of denmark. aalborg is pretty small, but it is the hometown of jørn utzon, who you may know as the famous dane and architect who designed the sydney opera house. anyway, we visited the utzon center in aalborg, which was built to honor his works, and to provide local architecture students with studio and library space.

the roof of the auditorium at the utzon center

the next day we ventured out to the amazing viking burial ground of lindholm høje. over 700 graves have been found here along the hillside just outside of aalborg. i am sure you all think that vikings are pretty cool, but trust me, after 4 - 5 viking museum visits, things tend to get repetitive and boring. did you know that vikings didn't wear those hats with horns on them? they weren't christian so they didn't realize that raiding monasteries was a bad thing. yada yada yada. anyway, this museum was pretty awesome. it came with all kinds of preserved viking graves and skeletons, including items they were buried with, plus a preserved human body that had been sacrificed into neighboring bogs. i think that is pretty BA. the day we visited the burial site it was insanely windy so photo-taking was definitely difficult, but i did my best.

from the highest part of the burial site

we wrapped up the tour with a very danish lunch buffet packed with fried fish filet & remoulade, leverpostej, little baby briny shrimps, assorted mashed meats, and a selection of cheeses most likely marked illegal in the states. outside of the "kro" (or "inn" in english), they had these sweet deer fenced in...

which i later found out were for eating... what happened to the hunt?

lastly, to wrap up my 3 day danish adventure, the storebælt bridge, which connects the island of fyn with the island of sjælland, which is here copenhagen is located. couldn't help taking a photo. it just looks so picturesque and danish with both the modern bridge design and the classic lighthouse to the side.

almost home...

ok. those are the highlights of my trip wrapped into 1 lil blogplost. i guess i should end this post with a positive note. now that i have a blog, i feel like i can keep secrets here that i can't post on facebook. so please help me out by not posting anything about this on facebook :)

i am happy to say that i have been accepted to the rollins school of public health at emory university in atlanta! i am so excited about it as it was my number 1 pick (tied with UNC), and i really can't believe that i got in! woohoo! i can't wait to celebrate and to receive the packet in the mail so i can read more about the little details. as my roommate fraze said last night, omg! you're going back to college! and that is EXACTLY how i feel :D