La Multi Ani di Juli

Julia was back in town to celebrate her 30th birthday this weekend...how great to see her! She organized a Romanian/Danish/English party with delcious food and great company! Joakim and Celcilia made a slideshow of her life which was fantastic, and she was showered with presents.Great to see you Julia! Happy Birthday!!

Huntin' Treasure

I've been in PEX training all week...PEX stands for Process Excellence which is a department in our company. I was on the first week of Green Belt training (combining Lean, Six Sigma, and Project Management techniques) with 19 other colleges from Denmark, Spain, China, Belgium, Iran, India, Turkey, Australia, German, Britain, and the USA.

On Thursday we had a team building night where we took a ferry to an island off the coast of Copenhagen. There we split into three teams and went on a treasure hunt around the island.
Part of our journey took us down into the basement cellars of the lighthouse...Nina was a little scared...
Hard at work trying to complete one of the tasks...
So...how many meters above sea levels would you say we were?? Well, I defered all tasks having to do with the metric system to my team members, but I'll tell you one thing, the answer is not 12meters.
Group photo...
Afterwards we enjoyed a great BBQ "back at the ranch" - see you all in a few months!

New Olympic Event??

Copenhagen is hanging onto summer and we had a gorgeous Saturday! This was especially fantastic because the Opera was holding its annual Opera in the Park where they preview the upcoming season by playing a few songs from each. Full orchestra, blankets, picnics....bliss.Afterwards people came over to my house for games...both board and Olympic. We kicked the night off with Sequence and finished with Mexican train...which I do believe we should lobby to be an Olympic event in 2012!
Gold: Sylvie

Silver: Gustavo
Bronze: William

And the rest of us competed with the Olympic spirit :)

Bo...part deux

I popped over to Nikki and Grant's today to check up on my favorite young Aussie...Bo. He was doing well...was about to take a nap, but stayed up a little while to welcome me. He was all "swaddled"...I think this is almost cruelty to the poor kiddo (especially because he really wants to stuff his fists in his hands) but Nikki and her sister assured me this is common practice in the land down under.While Bo feasted, the adults enjoyed some drinks and appitizers. We kept an eye on Grant to ensure he didn't mix up the formula with the Fosters!

For the Bambini

Elena's birthday was on the 11th...but we started the celebration on the 10th to take advantage of the weekend. The festivities started with drinks at Nyhavn where Daniel, being the perfect gentleman that he is, presented the birthday girl with lovely mini white roses.Then it was on to La Vecchia Signora for a fabulous Italian dinner. William, knowing the Danish birthday flag tradition, swiped a Maersk flag from the office...but thankfully the restaurant had a Danish flag.William and Daniel had arranged for a great fruit tort from a French baker in Amagar.Which we all enjoyed with some tastey Moscato d'Asti.Elena is by far my favorite person to give presents...she gets SO excited and is so gracious!On Monday, Elena's actual birthday, I headed over to their apartment in Valby and taught Elena how to make Sour Cream and Chicken Enchiladas.YUM!!!

Gu's Gulerodkage

Gustavo, Cecilia, and Nina came over for game night tonight and Gu made his favorite cake...which happens to also be my favorite...carrot cake!! Now, I have tried many a carrot cake in my day (Kristen R, Kristen S, and Joanna can verify the many Mag Room lunch dates) and this was like no carrot cake I had ever tasted. Not sure if it was Brazilian carrot cake or Danish gulerodkage, but it had a chocolate like topping instead of cream cheese...different, but tastey! Gu and I look pretty scary taste testing the cake...
And of course we had to introduce the Brazilians to the Mexican train - final standings were Nina in first, Cecilia, Gustavo, and me brining up the caboose...arriba arriba!!!

Fiesta!

My Tuesday night Bible Study decided to take a break from our study and instead have a little celebration for Nina and Susi who will soon be leaving us. Nina has finished (almost!) her masters in teaching and has taken a great job in north Zealand. Susi will be leaving for Burundi to do missionary work for 6months.

Cecelia and Don were great helpers in the kitchen...the avocados were a little green, but no worries, we used the hand blender to soften them up!
Appitizers were chips with guac and salsa...and cheese and onion quesadillas. Followed by my "party staple" Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. YUM!

The Skewers

Ron and Mary Skewers were our neighbors at the Lake from before I was born until about 8 years ago. They were in Copenhagen last weekend and were nice enough to take me out to a fabulous dinner at Copenhagen's oldest restaurant Den Lille Apotek. Afterwards we walked into the Latin Quarter for gelato at my favorite place, and then back to the Marriott for an after dinner drink overlooking the cityscape.
Now they are off on a Northern European tour and I hope they're having a great time!!

27 Bryllupper

Every summer, TV2 hosts SommerBio - a 6wk festival of night movies in different parks and squares around Copenhagen. Saturday night we headed to Frederiksberg for 27 Dresses...or 27 Bryllupper (Weddings) as they translate it here. I was thrilled since I never managed to see it when it was in the theaters here. Elena, Cecilia, and I headed to the free makeover stand for some beauty advice.
We set up our blankets and busted out all our picnic gear and enjoyed a great evening and a great movie!

5 reasons why I love the Boat Bar

1. Location Location Location!
It's a bar...on a boat...in Nyhavn...what's not to love?

2. Something crazy is guarenteed to happen
Today I went to watch the Tri-Nations Championship. The Tri-Nations is a rugby tournament between the Southern Hemisphere rugby teams - New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. I was a little late as I did the time conversion wrong thinking the game was being played in OZ instead of NZ. When I got there some of my favorite men from the southern hemisphere - Calum (SAF), Kevin (NZL), and Grant (AUS) - had already come up with a prank to play on our friend Jody. Jody was going on a canal tour with his new girlfriend LeAnn and the boys decided they were going to moon him.
After meticulously diagraming the lettering (wish I would have taken a picture of the scrap of paper where they had drawn out the plan) they used red marker to spell out "Hi Jody." It was decided that I needed to take a picture so they could preview the spectacal...afterwhich we all decided they needed black marker to add definition. Good thing they checked - disaster averted. Liz and I were extra entertainment for the people touring, donning Russian captain hats and waving flowers. This tour group certainly got more than they paid for. We decided that next time we'll hire a car and travel from spot to spot along the tour (Little Mermaid, Christianshavn canals, etc).
3. I get to bartend
Okay, this is Grant not me, but things got pretty busy and we all had to chip in. I was walking around picking up empty glasses and a group of German ladies called me over to order. You typically have to walk up to the bar to order, but hey why not give some added service?! I stuck to the "simple drinks" while Grant made a crazy concoction for a guy on a bachelor party.

4. Dudley

Dudley was at home today, but he is a fantastic old yellow lab who hangs out on the boat most days.

5. Drive Thru Service

Again no picture because I was on the phone...but a big sailboat was headed out of the harbor and had to wait for the bridge to go up, so they moored up next to us and enjoyed a cider while they waited...now that is service!

Ah summertime in Denmark :)

Buon Compleanno William!

Wednesday was William's first birthday away from Italy and Elena did a fantastic job making it a birthday to remember. She arranged a surprise party at a local Mexican restaurant (a woman after my own heart choosing to celebrate Mexican style!). As a lot of you know, one of my favorite parts of living here is the mix of nationalities and William's party was no exception with Alister (Indonesian), Frederic (French (southern)), Sylvie (French (northern)), Daniel (Romanian), and myself joining the Italians!

No Danish birthday is complete without Danish flags!

32 candles... fire hazard??

Elena thought of every detail and even supplied the restaurant with colorful napkins to make the table even more festive (much to Williams dismay because those napkins have to be at least 5 kronner each!).

Buon Compleanno Willam!

Danish Summer

You can't beat the summer weekends in Denmark....I just wish it wasn't such a short season. Last weekend was gorgeous. It kicked off with the typical "friday beers" after work...this time it was a goodbye party for Ken at the South African boat bar in Nyhavn. That's right...a bar on a boat on the Nyhavn canal...doesn't get much better than that.












Saturday was another great day spent at the beach. We biked up to Bellevue (about 30min) and spent the day laying in the sun, swiming in the sea, bbqing, and playing beach volleyball.