Quick trip to....China

Who goes to China for only a couple days....crazy people like me! I had a workshop to host in Shenzhen and things were a little hectic at work so the original plan was to fly in, do a workshop for two days and then fly out - stupid plan, and thankfully I didn't stick to it.

Two coworkers and I flew into Hong Kong, which is a fabulous airport, one of the best I have ever been in. We hired a car to drive us from the airport to Shenzhen, about a 40min drive which included crossing the border into China. When we got to the border there was a toll booth-like setup (similar to crossing the border in Mexico) where our driver gave the immigration person our documents and passports and then we headed on through. I was shocked at how easy it was....well, that was just step 1. Step 2 started with us stopping at a run down building which was the real border inspection/immigration. We made it through to the otherside, but found ourselves without a car or driver and in the midst of hundreds of Chinese people. Later I found out that this was the "plan" all along as the drivers don't have lisences to go between Hong Kong and China. Two bus rides later and we had made it to our hotel, the Shangri-La, which was quite nice.

Shenzhen is a former fishing village that is now one of the fastest growing cities in China. It is a financial and port city. I didn't have any time for sightseeing so I really can't comment on it, but my impression was that it was extremely busy and very population dense. We went to the same restaurant both days for lunch for dim sum which was an aventure! You know how in some Mexican restaurants they have a guy making fresh tortilla (mmm Rio!)...well, here they had a guy making rice noodles! We had some interesting dishes, including spicy jellyfish, pork knuckles and chicken feet. I'll all about tasting the local cuisine...and I did taste the jellyfish...but pork knuckles and chicken feet were out of the question.
I decided to stay 4 days in Hong Kong with my friend Monica. She was attending the meeting also and we headed back to Hong Kong together via the train that runs between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Over 150,000 people cross the border every DAY! Crazy! First you go through Chinese immigration, then you walk across the Shenzhen River which means you are crossing from mainland China to Hong Kong, and then go through Hong Kong immigration. Finally you get on the train and about 30min later you are in downtown Hong Kong.
Monica and her husband Rich live (or should I say lived, they just moved to a new apartment last week) in an apartment on Hong Kong island with a fantastic balcony that overlooks the ocean. I tegged along and went into work with them on Thursday and Friday at theMaersk office which is in Kowloon which is a penninsula that is part of mainland China across from Hong Kong island. Each night we went out to explore different parts of the city...

One night we hit Lan Kwai Fong which is a collection of small streets lined with bars and restaurants. Given that the weather is gererally pretty warm in Hong Kong, most of the places have open store fronts and people pour out into the streets. The later it gets, the harder it is to make your way around as it is absolutely packed with people, lots of them being expats.

I highly reccomend a chicken gyro from Ebaneezers (an infamous kabob place in Lan Kwai Fong)!

Every night at 8 there is a light show, set to music, over the Victoria Harbor. There are huge, modern skyscrapers on each side of the harbor (Kowloon and Hong Kong island) and they've got lasers and lights alternating between the sides. They announce the buildings as they go along and even the harbor boats get into the show with multiple flashing lights. Quite a show!

I was in town for a typhoon!There are 4 levels of danger: 1 is a lot of rain and wind. 3 is rain and wind and you're advised not to go outside. 7 is seek shelter immediately and 10 is get to the emergency areas. It got up to level 3...which was more than enough wind and rain for me.

Monica and me on the Star Ferry, the famous ferry service that crosses Victoria Harbor, connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Hong Kong Airport does a really cool (and quite efficient I might add) service where they have a couple different train stations on Hong Kong Island where you can fully check in up to 24hr before your flight - super convienent for tourists as many of the flights leave late at night. It looks just like an airport terminal and their are airport employees who check your bags and give you your bording passes. Then you just hop on the train and head to your gate once you get to the airport. And with that is was back to Denmark after a great week in China and Hong Kong!

Easter in Rome

Spring is the season for holidays in Denmark and Easter kicks everything off with a five day weekend. Katie and I decided we needed to go somewhere where the sun would be shining, the weather would be a little warmer, the plane ride wasn't too long, and a place neither of us had been before. So we decided on Rome and booked it...only to realize a few days later that we were headed to Rome on Easter weekend -- typical tourists!!

On day one we walked all over Rome....Villa Borghese, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain (where we of course tossed coins), and plenty of beautiful piazzas and churches


Day two we headed to the Vatican and took a tour of the museums and Sistine Chapel. Sadly no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel...it was breathtaking.

Though no pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel, there were some pretty amazing other ceilings in the museums.

Okay, now for the HIGHLIGHT of the trip. I think I should be a little ashamed to say this as I was in Rome , and it was a magnificent city. But the hightlight was that we stumbled upon this amazing little bar that was showing the NCAA tournament...and not just the tournament, opening weekend of the tournament. As I only got to see one of the final games last year, I was thrilled to get to see many back to back to back games! We ended up going back 3 nights in a row and met lots of fun people. I tried to capture the "big screen" but it didn't photograph well, trust me, it was great!

Day three we took a tour of the Colosseum, Panteon, Campo de Fiori, and Roman Forum.

Remember how I said we chose Rome partly because we were hoping to get away from the rain...well, all of Europe was under rain clouds for most of Easter weekend so we spent a lot of time under umbrellas, wading through puddles, and.....


.....enjoying the great food and coffee : )

Basketball Tournament

It's hard to believe how quickly the season went by...but by the middle of March it was time for the end of the season tournament for the middle school girl's team that I was coaching. Now...I don't think we traveled more than about 30miles for my middle school basketball team, we didn't even go to Wisconsin which is less than a 2hr drive from where I grew up. Well, such is not the life for International Schools....we headed to The Hague for a long weekend!

The team and other coaches took a 12hr bus ride, but I opted to fly...I had the excuse of work (which was very true especially having just gotten back from Kara's wedding) but it was a nice quick flight and I think it might just have been the better way to arrive :) We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast right on the water.

It was two and a half days of basketball. My girls played their hardest but we were a little outmatched and didn't do as well as we had hoped. But they did earn the trophy for "Most Sportsmanlike" team, so all was not lost.

Wedding Bells

What better reason to head back to the USA then a wedding!! I'd been talking about Kara and Chris's wedding ever since Kara's trip to Scandinavia back in September when she announced the news, so I was ecstatic that the day had finally arrived. As with most wedding weekends, there were lots of events and last minute details to attend to, but Kara and her mom were (of course) super organized and things went incredibly smoothly and we all had a lot of time to relax and spend time together celebrating this great couple.

I flew on on a Wednesday so I could be sure to be over my jet lag before things really got rolling on Friday. On Thursday we ran some errands, I got my haircut, and did some prep work for the evening barbeque that the Wallace's were hosting to kick off the wedding weekend. The bridesmaid's had all gotten into town and it was fabulous to see so many friends as well as meet some of Kara's friends from high school. Friday started with a bridesmaid luncheon at the Swan House in which Kara treated us to monogramed canvas bags and a pair of black, gittery Reefs to wear post ceremony...nice one! From there we were able to relax a little in the afternoon before heading off to the church for the rehearsal. The rehersal dinner was at a great local Mexican restaurant...margs and guac, what better way to start celebrating with Kara and Chris!
Satruday morning Kara treated us to manicures and Lindsay and her mom organized a delicious breakfast. Later that day is was off to the salon to watch Kara get her make-up and hair done. And then it was time for the main event!!!

The ceremony was fabulous...from Kara's adorable nephew Charlie marching down the aisle with the rings, to the Scotish bagpipes shortly before Kara and her dad walked down the aisle, to Scott Thompson's amazing solo of a Chris Tomlin song that Kara and Chris has selected.

From there is was onto the party bus which took the wedding party to the reception. My parents flew in for the weekend too which made the weekend even more special.

The night included some incredible food (shocker!), fantastic toasts, great company, and lots of dancing which included a competition between the groomsmen/Chris and bridesmaids/Kara on the dancefloor. The boys made a noble effort with Mustang Sally, but they were no match for the ladies (complete with our many years of sorority experience) who sang along to Brown Eyed Girl.

I could go on and on about what a great weekend it was and what a spectacular couple Chris and Kara are, but I think I'll just go with.... TILLYKKE!!!

Back to Blogging!

Whew! 4 months without posting, I am the shame of the blogging world. But, I'm back in action and have a lot to catch up on! But first a little time to reflect/confess on why I dissapeared for a little while. I wish I could say it was because I was traveling all over Europe and the world and was busy having so much fun. While there were definitely a lot of fun times...the majority of it was that I lost my perspective.

What do I mean by that? Well...any of you who know me at all, know that I tend to push myself a little too hard and don't really accept anything short of "perfection" from myself. Well, the job I have here is managing a project that is far from perfect and at the beginning of the year I inherited a new, more complicated part of the project and in the middle of a huge organizational change. Instead of accepting that this is a normal situation in the business world, I pretty much freaked out and started working insane hours trying to figure out the "perfect" solution, worrying about work all the time, withdrawing from spending time with friends, not exercising as much because I was so exhausted, not eating well, etc....basically obsessed with work to a point where I was making myself sick. And then, to make matters worse I started looking at all the things that were wrong with my life instead of all the things that are right with it.

Thankfully I had a lot of great friends and family here and back in the US who stood by me through all this mess, constantly encouraging me and speaking Truth into my life. And thankfully, I've finally been able to see that God was using this situation to teach me more about Himself and reveal some of the areas in my life that I need to work on. I had to depend on God's strength and God's grace to get me through each day Believing that every circumstance in my life is under His soveirgn control and is working together for my good. Trusting that God never wastes an experience.

They say you learn more about yourself through adversity and challenges and I could not agree more. And while these were tough lessons to learn, I am grateful for them. And grateful that I'm back to feeling myself and back to exloring Scandinavia..Europe...and the world. Now to catch you all up on the past few months....

La Noche Mexicana

After the recent success of introducing Mexican Train to the CPH international crowd, I decided that we needed to organize another game night...this time complete with a Mexican theme.

Let's be honest...what other way is there to start a Mexican fiesta than with a shot of tequila?

I made salsa, guacamole, quesadillas, and sour cream chicken enchiladas. Let me tell you, finding all the ingredients was no easy feat as a raced around town to numerous stores looking for cream of chicken soup and ended up having to improvise, thankfully I was successful!

Thanks to Nikki for a fantastic desert to finish our meal in style. By the looks of it everyone was a huge fan....

And of course...the main event: the Mexican Train competion. Grant and Nikki were newcomers to the game and though Grant struggled at first with the concept of not showing your dominos to the entire table, he quickly caught on and decided that a fort of privacy was the way to go...

We decided not to try and beat the previous record of playing until 5am, and instead only played 5 of 13 rounds...but have no doubt that we will complete the game soon. The preliminary standing are:

Nikki: 57

Sylvie and Grant: 67

Christy: 107

Daniel: 120

Virginie: 166

To be continued.....

Marion E. Parker (Nov 1908 - Jan 2008)

I traveled home about a week ago for my Granny's funeral, and while it was naturally a sad event as we mourned the loss of a loved one, I am so thankful that the day was definitely more focused on celebrating the life of an incredible woman.

Marion Dolittle was born in Grayslake, IL. She was a farmer's daughter who rode her pony to school, where there are numerous stories about her spunky nature...including punching a boy "behnid the privy" because he was picking on the girls. She went to Beliot College and then headed to a small farming town in Western Illinois during the Depression where she taught English, History, and Biology even though she was only liscenced in Biology. I don't think I truely comprehend how amazing that is...that 80 years ago when very few women were going to college, especially not those from farming communities, and then that same woman moved away from home during one of the darkest times in our nation and actually recounts her memories with fondness.

Kelly and I snowmobiling with Granny in Dec 2004...she was 96!

From there she went back to Grayslake, married my grandfather, raised two sons, and impacted a community in a way few people do. She was an active member of the Civic Club, PTA, Booster Club, Elections Board, Historical Society, and many more organizations throughout the years. She loved to entertain, cook, dance, go to costume parties (in creative outfits made by things she found around the house), and play bridge. She was the grandmaster in Grayslake's Centennial Parade a few years ago and I really don't think the community had anyone else as qualified to do the honors - she invested her life in that city and was so proud of it. Fishing up in Northern Wisconsin a few years ago

I find myself incredibly fortunate to have had so many great years with a grandmother who was so healthy and full of life for all but the last few months of her life. I loved going up to her house to play in the cornfields, play dress-up in her "famous" closet of old dresses and jewlery, ride around on the tractor, cook (my favorites were smooshing the tomatoes for soup and making applesause), and play cards. She taught me to work hard, to not take myself too seriously, to be humble, to always be honest, and to never miss a chance to to invest in others.

Playing cards in August 2007

The funeral was packed with people whose lives she had impacted just as strongly as she had impacted mine and it was great to be able to share stories about the different ways we knew her. Though she will be deeply missed, one can't help but smile and shake their head a little when they remember the life of love, laughter, and mischief of Mrs. Marion Parker.