Farmers Santa Parade

This Saturday I went to the Santa parade down town with Mary and Charlotte. I had been told that the parade was a bit lame but I was happily surprised. They had Olaf, Rudolph, planes and kiwi balloons. There were four marching bag pipe bands. I was a bit schooled that there were four. Who knew Auckland had so many bagpipers. It was a bit odd to see ginger bread houses covered in snow when it was a warm sunny spring day. It just felt odd. My favourite part of the parade was the last float. It had Santa with his reindeer. The back of the float was shooting out snow. I loved it. It definitely made it feel like Christmas. 

    There were a few odd floats. One dance company had a haunted house float playing Thriller. Everyone was dressed and ghosts, skeletons and vampires. It was very out of place. They also had black fares roller blading between the floats which didn't scream Christmas to me. 

    I really enjoyed going to the parade. Mary has seen the Macy's thanksgiving parade. Charlotte had never seen a parade (apparently they don't do them in Denmark). It was cool to have both perspectives. 

    After the parade we wandered around for a while and waited for enough people to leave that we could get on the bus. It was super crowded as most people seemed to take the bus.

Thanksgiving!

     Last weekend was insane. I had Thanksgiving, went to a birthday party on a boat and went sky diving!!! Due to our crazy busy schedule we couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving so we had to celebrate it the weekend before. I have to mention how awesome Rob and Tanya were about letting me celebrate and helping pay for food and letting me have people over. They were so flexible and helpful. My Thanksgiving story really starts a month ago when I was trying to figure out how you get a turkey. This is not a turkey eating country. You can buy frozen turkeys but they are hard to come by. After calling a few different butchers I found on that could get me a fresh turkey. Saturday rolled around and I showed up to collect my turkey. The fresh turkey had gone off on the way to me so I was presented with a fully frozen turkey. This was not ideal because Thanksgiving was at 3pm and I picked the turkey up at 10 am. There was no way to thaw the turkey. Luckily Tanya had gotten a turkey breast bake that was stuffed with a cranberry stuffing and she went out and bought me a chicken to cook. Turkey disaster averted I started cooking. I had done most of the prep the day before so it was only the meat, gravy and heating up the food that I had to do.
    Kaiya and Indigo set the table. Kaiya made paper lanterns for each place setting. They also made place cards and folded the napkins. By the time that people started arriving the table was beautiful. Tess, Rachelle, Ariel and Ben all came. The girls are all American. Ben is a kiwi.
   When the guests arrived Kaiya helped them trace their hands and had them write something they were thankful for on their hand print before putting it on our thankful tree. We had made the thankful tree the day before as a way to talk with the kids about being thankful and appreciating what we have.
     Other than the turkey issue my first solo Thanksgiving went off very well. Ariel brought pie and dressing. Tess brought salad. Rachelle brought a pumpkin cake. I made mashed potatoes, turkey/chicken, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, holiday sangria and gravy (with some help from Tanya).
    After dinner and dessert Ariel and I scrambled to get ready for our boat party then drove into town. We got there only a tiny bit late. Our friend Mary and her boyfriend Nathan have birthdays super close together. Nathan works on the boat and the owner was kind enough to let us use the boat for the evening. We sailed out to Takapuna beach. It was cool to see it from the water. Normally I'm on land looking out. We had so much fun. There was lots of laughing and dancing and meeting new people. It was an awesome party.
    The next morning we woke up and got ready to sky dive. The place we were jumping from is two hours north of Auckland. Our jump was delayed because they had bad weather. It was beautiful in Auckland though so we hung out on the beach for a bit then got in the car to start heading north. We were going to stop at some markets on the way up but they said to come straight up as the weather had cleared. When we got there we drove around the air port a few times before finding the right place. We got signed in and all of the paper work sorted. Then we had to wait an hour before our jump so we went to a near by beach so we wouldn't be so nervous. When we got back to the sky diving place we found out that we still had to wait and that all four of us couldn't jump together. They have two planes. One fits one person and a tandem master and the other fits two people and their tandem masters. Elisa went first which was really good because she really liked it which made it easier for Ariel and I to go. I really enjoyed going up because the views were amazing. We could see out over the ocean and some farms on the land. The tide was out so the ocean was more sand than water. It was still beautiful though. I wasn't nervous until they opened the door to the plane. When they open the door it gets really really cold and noisy. I had a few seconds where I thought that I didn't want to. Luckily I was strapped to someone else who was jumping out of the plane. He didn't give me much warning just flung us out of the plane and did a summer salt. We free fell for 45 seconds. It was awesome! I loved the free fall. After he deployed the parachute he let me steer it which was fun. It takes a lot of upper body strength to move it about. I absolutely loved it. I would jump out of a plane again.

P.S. Due to issues with technology I haven't been able to move them into chronological order 

Before getting into our plane...so excited and 

yet so nervous

Kirk, me, Ariel and Sam in the plane!

Kirk and I as our shoot was deploying

We survived!!!

Me, Mary and Ariel on the boat!!!!

Part of dinner

Our thankful tree

Awesome place settings

Ariel and I

Light Show

    On Thursday Ariel and I went to the art gallery. There is an exhibit there right now callec the Light Show. It is all art that is made out of light. I really really liked the exhibit. I pulled some photos off the website for my blpng but they aren't as cool as the actual exhibit because cameras don't work like eyes so lots of the illusions created bythe light are totally missed. For instance one of my favorite pieces was three monochrmatic rooms. There was one with vree light, one with red light and one with blue light. The longer you stood in one color the more your eyes adjusted to that color. They had cubs hanging from the celining between the rooms so that youcould see one skde had become white and the color in the adjoining room had changed. For instance if you were in the blue room the light from the green room looked very yellow and if you were in the red room the green looked very much like the Emerald City from Wizard of Oz. Our first go through the monochromatic rooms we missed the point but walking around again we figured it out.

This is a bunch of light boxes that had signs from fast food places and shops at one point in time but the fronts were taken off and they were filled with colorful lights. I think it looks better from the other side were you can see all the lights. You can't see it in this photo but all of the cords and stuff are exposed on the back. The description in the museum reminded me of the book 1984 because it was a very big brother inspired piece of art. 

This is one of my favorite pieces. Each strand had loads of LED's on it. The artist had created a custom computer program to make them go off in random non-repeating patterns. Ariel and I sat and watched this one for a long time. A lot of the piece is lost in a still shot. You really need a video to get the feeling for it. The lights are constantly moving. I love that the patterns don't repeat because it means every time you see the piece is is essentially a different piece of art. 

This is the monochromatic rooms I mentioned above. It is hard to get the feeling from a photo but it shows how the rooms are laid out. This is a hall way on one side of them. You are suppose to stand under a row of lights and not in the hallway to let your eyes adjust but once they have looking into the hallway is super cool. 

This piece is a one way mirror and a regular mirror with a neon light. When you look at it straight on it looks like the lights are making a tower. The artist is also an architect and this is the foot print of a building he made. It is suppose to look like you are on the bottom of the building looking up. 

I really loved this piece. You go into a dark room through a dark corridor. The only lights are the red lights. It is hard to see it in the photo but it looks like there is a screen in front of the red lights and then a wall. In actuality it is an illusion made by cleverly placed lights and a fog machine. The whole area is empty space but it definitely looks like a room. It was very very cool. I am impressed that this piece of art can travel. The exhibit has been lots of places and each museum has different rooms and stuff. It seems improbable that they could all create a room for this exhibit. I wonder if the artist has to go with it and recreate it in each new place. 

This was in it's own room. There was a projector and a fog machine. The projector projected shapes I would have made on my graphing calculator in high school but can't remember the names of now. What was being projected was not the interesting part. The cool part was watching the lines of light as they were projected. You were able to walk through them and be in a light tunnel or look under them. The piece is called Horizontal lines potentially because from the side all of the light lines look as though they are horizontal but as you move through the space and look from different angles you realize they aren't.

Hiking, visting and eating in Norway

     Two days ago, in the morning I went for a run around Klepp. It was a nice way to see the area. After running around the town I headed out on a country road. There were lots of Norwegian flags every where. Many of the farms had the flag painted on the barn and a flag pole. While running along I was surprised by an overly friendly sheep. The sheep popped out from behind a fence right into my path and then chased me for a bit. I guess those type of things will happen when you are in sheep country. After recovering  from my fright and returning home, I had a delecious breakfast with Tore and Suzanne. We had bread with a variety of toppings and some rolls Suzanne got from a bakery near by. She got cinamon rolls and something that translates to school roll. The school roll is similar to a donut. It is a sweet bread with white frosting and custard in the middle. It was a bit too sweet for me. Near the end of breakfast Liekney showed up to watch the baby so that we could go to Dalsnuten. We had planned to go to Pulpit Rock but the weather didn't look very nice so we decided against it.
    Dalsnuten is a hike that goes up a large hill/small mountian for a beautiful view. It startes by going through a forest that had lots of streams bursting with water from all of the rain. Then we headed through a muddy swamp section next to a small lake. Tore and Suzanne were able to avoid the mud a bit better than I was. The next section I found particularly difficult. We were clamoring over rocks up the side of the mountain. I think that Tore and Suzanne may be halfmountain  goat. They knew how to climb up over all the rocks. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where to put my feet so I could get over rocks and wishing my legs were longer. We were so lucky because as we were approching the summit the clouds cleared and we had some blue sky and sun shine. From the summit there is an amazing 360○ view. You can see the sea, Stavanger, Sandes, where you start the hike, sheep (or sou in Norwegian), farmland and two small lakes. It was beautiful. Later when I am at a computer I will post photos.
  One the way down I spent a good deal of time trying not to fall in the mud. The rocks were very slippery from the rain. One of the things I really liked about the hike (other than the company and the view) was that there were T's painted on rocks and trees to show the trail and that there were planks that made it easier to walk without getting muddy. On the way down we met a voulenteer that was going to fix up some of the planks. His daughter had gone to school in Wisconson. It is cool that many people here seem to have a connection to the USA. While we were talking to the voulenteer I was watching a kindergarden trip and saw a boy that really had to use the toiket and just went. It was quite funny. Suzanne noticed too and we had a good laugh about it. They told me that it is quite common to talk to people that you meet in nature but much less common to talk go people you meet on the street in Norway.
    After our hike we went back to the apartment to get Tore and Suzanne's daughter Hannah. Then we went to Grete's house. Imet her husband and daughter. I was amazed at how good herndaugbter is at English. She is only 10 but I was able to have a conversation with her. Grete made us a delecious califlour soup for late lunch. After eating we went to the beach near her house. Grete's hobby is photography so she took lots of pictures of us at the beach. I hope I can post a few later. The beach was very cool. There were huge sand dunes covered in a special grass to keep the sand in place. The beach was quite narrow and covered in sea weed. There were a few surfers in the water. I think they are a bit crazy because the water is super cold. Normally the beach is very windy but when we visited it was only a light breeze. I really liked going to the beach because I got to walk and chat with everyone.
   After the beach went back to Grete's house. Tore and Suzanne went home to put Hannah to bed. I hung out with Grete and her family for a bit longer. I helped her make pizza and small pancakes for dinner. For dessert we had really yummy rhubarb porridge.
     Yesterday I got up and had kind of a lazy morning around the house with Tore. We had breakfast an watched a bit of tv. Around 11 Liekney showed up to watch Hannah again. Tore an I went into Stavanger to do some wandering. On our way into town we stopped by the site of a Viking battle that united Norway. They had three huge swords in the rocks. I wish I could remember the name of the place so I could look it up. When we got into town we went through the old town which was very cool. All of the buildings were similar looking with white siding and a variety of colors of doors. Both Tore and I liked looking in the windows. We walked past the canning museum but neither of us were that interested. Stavanger used to be driven by the sardine business. After visiting the old town we walked around the water to a brick fire tower.  From there we wandered down to color street and got hot chocolate and cakes from the chocolate shop there. The color street was super cool. It looked a bit like it had been transplanted from San Francisco. After warming up at the chocolate shop we wandered to a book store. We looked at the travel books and I attempted to find a map with Montana on it but had no luck. Montana is a very well kept secret. Some wherein our  wanderings we went past a super cool play ground thats made of things used in the harbor and surrounding industries. they had orange fishing buoys that you can walk on. I had to give it a try. it was super fun. We went to lunch at a place called cheese house. We had yummy cheese burgers. I really enjoyed wandering around and chatting. It was super fun.
    When we got back to the house. We played with Hannah. When Suzanne got home we tried a marshmallow cup cake lollipop thing that we bought at the mall. It wasn't as nice as the chocolates from earlier.
    Tor Inge took me to the air port. It was nice to get a bit more time with him.
     I had a tad of a flight drama because of the dog. My flight was delayed a few times and then when I finally got to the UK I had a heck of a time getting through immigration. They had all sorts of issues with my travel plans and that I am an au pair.

This is the monument to a viking battle that united Norway. 

Color street!

Looking towards Sandes from the top of the mountain

From the top of Dalsnuten (not sure if that is the name of the mountain
or just the name of the trail to get up it).

On the summit of the Dalsnuten hike with Stavanger in the back ground

Norway

    I have been so busy here that I didn't get to post yesterday, oops. Yesterday morning Tor Inge picked me up from the air port. We went out for breakfast being as it was quite early. Then we headed to his house for a bit before his step mother Liekney. She took me into Stavanger. We wandered around the cobblestone streets for a bit and window shopped. Then we went to the oil muesum. When they started to find oil near Stavanger it changed the economy of the city and the country pretty dirastically.  Before oil Stavanger was a a poorer city and there was a sardine factory that was the major industry. There are loads of oil offices and oil companies located here.  The oil muesum was interesting. It was a good way to get to know Liekney. She was very nervous about her English so it was a good way to break the ice. My favoirte part was looking at the differnt types of drill bits that they use. I wish I had taken some photos of it but I didn't. After the oil muesem Liekney took me to lunch at a Greek resteraunt. It was really yummy.
     After lunch Liekneyntook me to visit Gerd. She lives in the house that my great grandmother grew up in. While we were there Gerd's nephew and girl friend showed up. They live in Indiana. It was funny to meet more Americans here. We had coffee with Gerd and the Americans. Gerd has just turned ninety and had left over krunekaka and lefsa from her birthday that we had with coffee. It was awesome because for me those are special Christmas treats. Gerd does not speak any Englishs but Liekney was kind enough to translate. It was a bit confusfing at times when Liekney didn't know how to translate something. She did a good job though. On the way home Liekney drove a different way back to Stavanger. We stopped at the church where my great grandparents, Liekney and Torger, Tønnes and Kirsten and Tore and Suzzana were married. It seems to be the family church.
    When we got back to Stavanger Tor Inge took usnout to dinner at a place called Around the World in Eighty Days. I got a Mexican burger. They have better guacamole and salsa there than we do in NZ. It was a lovely dinner. Then we headed home and I went to bed. I was exhausted because I didn't get much sleep on the floor in the Oslo air port.
    This morning Tor Inge made me a super tastey breakfast. I tried Norwegian brown cheese. It was very sweet and sticky. I did not dislike it but it is not something that I would choose to eat. Then Tore picked me up and we went to Kleppe where he lives. I met his wife Suzanna and their daughter Hannah. Hannahnis nine months old and is adorable. We hung out for a bit before going to the second biggest mall in Norway. I think it is called Kvdrat. It translates to square. It was fun to wander around and look at stuff. I thought about buying stuff but it is all winter things and I will soon be in summer.
     Once we had exhausted the mall wandering and had some good laughs in a design store we headed for the Åsen farm. Liekney had made a traditional Norewegian meal for us. We had potatoes, meat balls with a brown gravey, lingion berries, mashed peas and vegetables. You put the lingion berries on the meat ball which was unusual but delecious. Torbjorn came over for lunch as well. He owns the farm and lives in one house with his family and Lienkey lives in the other house there. His voice sounds like my Dad's. It was a bit starteling at first to hear how similar it was. Torbjorn's wife Ingunn and his two children came after a bit. The kids had been in day care and the wife at work. We chatted some more then went to Torbjorn's house andnchatted a bit more. Torbjorn teases Tore a lot. It was fun because it is so similar to Brian and I. Because of the weather we stayed inside for my time at Åsen which was fine because I didn't want to be outside but also a bit sad that I didn't really see any of it. Tore did drive around it a bit when we got there. I should have taken some pictures. There where two houses and two barns quite close to each other. One of the barns is quite old. I think they said it was from the origional farm. The other barn is newer and houses thesheep in the winter. From the houses/barns you look down the hill on a beautiful lake which they own part of. At the top of the hill are two wind mills. A large group of trees next to Torbjorns house had been cut down. My Mom told me about my grandfather planting a bunch of trees there to be harvested later. I asked if what they had cut were the trees he planted but no one knew.
     This evening Tore, Suzanna and I played cards. They taught me how to play a game called American, which was a bit complicated and we couldn't chat and play. They also taught me how to play a game called President which is really fun. It seems quite simple but I struggled with some of the rules. I had lots of fun. We laughed a lot and teased each other. It was a great way to end the day.

Just in case anyone wants to know how to play President/so I don't forget.
In the game the deck is delt out evenly. The objective is to get rid of all of hour cards first. The three of clubs is the highest card then twos, aces, kings etc. The first round the person with the three of diamonds goes first. You put down 1, 2, 3, or 4 cards. If you put down more than one the cards must have the same value. If you put down a singke card the next player must put down one of greater or equal value. If they can't or don't want tonthey say pass. Once no once else can play the player whho went last discards the stack and restarts. Same with pairs and triples. If you put down four of the same value theynare discarded and you start again. The person runs out of cards first becomes the President and the person who runs out of cards last becomes the bum. The next round the bum has to give the president their two highest cards and the President gives the bum two of their lower cards then play continues as in round one.
    

Heading to Stavanger

     I am not normally enthralled by plane rides but this one happened to be especially beautiful. The flight left Oslo at 7 am before the sun rose. We flew up thrpugh a heavy layer of clouds. Once on top of the clouds I could see thenhints of sun rise. It looked as though the plane was floating on a layer of clouds. Behind us was a layer of light orange creating a blue hombre effect into the ink blue of the night sky. Above the hombre ansliver of the moon still shown bright white. Looking towards the front of the planrnit appeared as though we were flying into the night and being chased by the sunrise. Ahead of us was a navy blue sky scattered with more stars than I have seen since I left Montana. As the flight went on we were chased by a pink and orange sunrise.
    I tried to take a picture and to describe it accuratly but I am not sure I have done the experience justice. I know the photo won't do it justice as thencamera lense on my tablet is not wide enough nor clear enough to capture it accuratly. It may just be one of those things you have to see,

Denmark Part Three :(

    Last nigth Ninna and her boyfriend took me out. In case you are wondering I don't write her boyfriend's name because I can't spell it. First we went to a pool bar. We had to wait a bit for a pool table so we got drinks while we were waiting. Here you can choose what size of drink. I wanted to know the difference between a small and a medium but some how ended up with a medium that was enormous! I wish I had taken a picture of it. The glass was so bit that I had to carrynit with two hands when it was full. Part of it was an optical illusion though because it was a very thick glass which helped 2ith the weight and size to make it look so big. After a bit we got a pool table. At this bar you pay for the amount of time that you play insteadnof per game which is a bit of a bummer because I used to be able to spend ages ona fifty cent game. I won against Ninna's boyfriend because he put the eight ball in. Ninna won against me and then she and her boyfriend played. While they were playing I had a weird experience going to the toilet. I was headed for the restroom and this guy out of the blue asked me if I was an American. I was shocked and stared at him for a second before he wandered off. I am sure he heard me talking or something but it was quite odd.
    After some pool we headed for the Irsih bar which was unfortunatly closed. Ninna wanted to show it to me because they only speak English there. Instead we went to anotner bar they hadn't been in before. It was quiet enough for us to have a drink and chat which was nice. A guy came up to us and asked Ninna if she was American (which I think is funny because she sounds way more kiwi than American). It turned out that he was from Poland near where Ninna's boyfriend is from. The Polish guy sat down with us for a bit before we left.
     This morning we had a sleep in. It was so so nice. We had planned to go to Lego Land but it was raining so we decided against it. It didn't seem like it would be fun to be riding rides while wet and cold. While I am sad that we didn't go I think it was the right choice. Instead of Lego Land they took me to a city called Blånd (I think that's how you spell it). It is a big tourist city. We wandered around through the town a bit. There were loads of cool shops. Ninna's boyfriend was a trooper. Wandering around between shops definitly wasn't his thing but he didn't complain. After edhausting the window shopping in town we went to a rrec center to swim. They had two water slides and two different pools. One of the water slides was totally black inside and ended in a cave. It was super cool. Thenother water slide was definitly intended fornkidsnbut we rode it any way.They had two hot tubs as well. The hot tubs have red and green lights nest to them. When the light turns rednypu have to get out because thenhot tub cleans itsself. I thought it was pretty cool but they did spend more time in a cleaning cycle than a sitting cycle. It was fun to have a relaxing day goofing off in the water.
    After swimming we were hungry so we got some Danish ice cream with guf. I got dark chocolate and strawberry this time. The ice cream here is much creamier than at home. I really like it. To prevent a food coma we took a quick walk on the beach neare by. It was really windy and crowded. Apparently it is always suoer crowded like that. Coming from NZ where people don't hang out on beaches much during winter it was funny to see everyone walking along the beach all bundled up. There were lots of people flying kites. Itnreminded me of going to the Oregon coast with my family and flying kites.
    We drove to Billund and had some dinner. We had pizza for dinner which was fun because I got to show Ninna American pizza at Sal's in NZ and now she got to show me Danish pizza. They don't use nearly as much cheese or sauce as on an American pizza. The pizzas were thin crust but not quite as crunchy as the thin crust I would get at home. They also have different topping choices. I am learning that peperoni, which I once thought was the most popupar pizza flavor, is an American thing. They had lots of pizzas on the menu with beef, spaghetti and onion toppings. We thought about trying a spaghetti pizza but neither Ninna nor her boyfriend like them that much and I wasn't very interested in trying it. One of the pizzas we got was an extra meat extra cheese pizza which was similar to an American pizza but was still lacking the sauce. The sausage they put on their pizza is more like a hot dog than the American sausage. I asked Ninna and it turns out they don't have ground sausage. They also wouldn't eat sausasge for breakfast. They do have sausage every where though. It is at fast food places. While we were at the swimming place they got a sausage, fries, onions and curry ketchup. It was an interesting dish. Not my favorite though. I think that America is really lacking in the sausage department. When I got to NZ I thought they had tons of sausage but after being with Ninna for a short bit I realize that Denmark has loads of sausage.
    After dinner they dropped me off at the air port. I am so grateful that Ninna was able to have me for the weekend and that her father loaned us the car. I know that it is buys for her to have guests while in univeristy and I really appreciate her making time for me. I am also very grateful to her boyfriend (even thought I can't spell his name) for letting me invade his home and make him speak English. Thank you so much.
Hi hi Denmark. (Hi hi is Danish for bye)

Denmark Dag To

    Today was my second day in Denmark. It started outnwith Ninna jumping on to my bed and sceaming. It was super funny. Then we had Skyr, muslei and berries for breakfast. Skyr is something the Danish got from the Icelandic people. It is a very thick yogurt that has more protien than normal yogurt. Ninna's boyfriend doesn't like it. I thought it was super yummy.
   After breakfast Ninna took me to see the four white men on the beach. They are a the thing that all Danish know Esbjrg for. They were much bigger than I thought they would be. Easily the size of a buikding. We wandered around the beach and looked at some of the fancy houses near them before getting back in the car. We looked at going into anfishing mesuem but eventually decided against it. Instead we went to Ribe. It is the okdest town in Denmark about 30 minutes away from Ninna's. I really liked the drive because Ninna and I chatted the whole time. I feel so lucky that I have made such great friends in New Zealand. Once in Ribe we wandered around a bit and looked at the old buildings. We walked past an ice cream shop a few times. I knew that I had to try Daniwh ice cream while here cause Ninna and Ozmene (another Danish au pair) always talked about it. We decided to go to thentop of a church then get ice cream (huge mistake).  We walked up a gazillion stairs to the top. It reminded me of walking up to the top of a tower with my Mom in Swizterland. We started on cool spiral stair casue but afterntwo stories moved to a very narrow wooden stair case. I kept thinking that the next set of stairs was the top but there were so many. When we finallh got to the top we got an amazing view of Ribe. It was cool to see how as the city got farther away it became more modren.
    After climbing down the gazillion stairs we went for ice cream. But tradegty of tradegties thr ice cream shop closed ealry! With our ice cream dreams dashed we moped back to the car and headed for home but miracle of miracles we happened across a fast food shop with ice cream! I got three scoops; brownie, dumle (yummy carmel) and chcolate marzipan in a waffle cone. Apparently waffle cones are standard here. On the top I had some guf and jam. Guf is is like a liquidy pink marshmallow. It is very sweet and fluffy. I had a minkr sugar overload but it was totally worth it.
     Filled with yummy ice cream we made our way home, had some lunch, went to the gym and had dinner. All in all it was a great day filled with friendship, laughter and food.
    

DENMARK!!!!

     We arrived safely in England and spent most of the day getting everything sorted. The next day we scurried about getting me some new boots before I got on the trainnto Gatwick Airport. I flew first to Oslo where I had the most American dinner that I have had all trip. I had buffalo wings and beer in an American sports bar watching it snow outside. I had flash backs to many meals in Helena and Spokane. After dinner I got on a flight to Billund.
   My friend Ninna met me in Billund. Then we drove about 40 minutes to Esbjerg (said es-pi-a). I got in super late so we went to bed. Today Ninna had to go to school so I got to sleep in. Her boyfriend was super nice and made me some breakfast. When Ninna got home we wandered around the town a bit. They have streets where cars aren't allowed. It was super cool. After some window shopping we went to the grocery store to get Danish cakes for after lunch. For lunch I tried Danish bread with various toppings. The bread is really dense and full of seeds. Not anything like American or NZ bread. I had one bit with peanut butter, one with an autum salami (yum!), one with roast beef and remoclade (pickle, egg yolk, mustard spread) and one with a ham pattee. I was plesantly suprised. I was initially very skeptical of the remockade and pattee but both were super tastey. Dessert was even better. We got four types of cakes and slpit them up so I could try lots of things. We got a nut one that had chocolate on it, a napolen's hat (my favorite), a romkogle and the Danish pastery spandauger. They were soooo good. I love that they have national pasteries and cakes here. I'm not sure America has a single national dessert that everyone would know is the national dessert.
    After our amazing lunch we did some more window shopping. I want to deccorate my house from their shops. They have the coolest furnitue and home ware here. It is very nature inspired; lots of wood and animals.
    Now Ninna is making me Danish meatballs for dinner. More food updates to come.

Thoughts on Being an American

     Traveling to the USA with non-Americans has been incredibly enlightening. There were lots of things that I didn't notice as being different until I had someone ask me the questions.
    The first was four way stops. They don't have them at all in NZ and apparently not in other places where Rob and Tanya have lived. The concept of having to stop even if there isn't anyone else there was frustrating to them. It does seem a bit silly some times to stop all the time.
     Next was explaining tipping. The concept of tipping is somehting that I have struggled with. At one point in university I did a bit of research so that I knew more about it. I felt like I did a good job of explaining things. It was easier to explain it to Rob and Tanya than it was to explain it to the kids. Kaiya was very curious as to why we don't pay people a full wage. I really had no good explanation for her about why our society doesn't always pay people well.
   Kaiya was definitly one of the biggest questioners this trip. We saw some homeless people in Kona. She is not exposed to homeless people where we live in NZ. She asked how people became homeless, how they get out of homelessness, how do they live, what do they eat, why doesn't the goverment help them etc. I was greatful for all the time I spent at the Community Center for Action and Service Learning. I tried really hard to give her an answer that was honest but also intellectually appropriate for her. Jack was curious about homelessness but not as much as Kaiya.
    All the kids, Rob and Tanya were surprised by the number of police everywhere and the fact that they carried guns. I don't know how to explain why they carry guns they just do. I never thought about it in all honesty. To me it is just something that police do. Kaiya thought it might be bacause bad guys in America have guns and bad guys in New Zealand don't. I like her reasoning. I have no idea if it is valid or not but we went with it. Rob hypothsized that it was because some of them "are tooat to chase a bad guy so they shoot instead". While we did see a number of heavier officers I think it was more due to the small size of the Kona police force and the large number of people and need for crowd control than a trend amongst police officers. They were also surprised by thenpolice on bikes. Rob was interested enough in it to take pictures of police on bikes.
    The food was another differnt point of questioning. In New Zealand there are loads of cafes but in the states there aren't. It certiantly makes it harder to feed the kids. They also don't like peanut butter and jelly which is on all kids meals we saw. They didn't get the orange cheese thing. After reading the cheese lable it turns out we dye our cheese. Why do we dye our cheese orange? I really have no idea. I thought cheese was orange...I just thought that they made cheese different in New Zealand. I feel a bit silly that I didn't notice it. The next weird food thing is sugar in the bread. Some of the loaves of bread I looked at had up to have 5g of sugar per slice. You may think I was looking at cheap breads but I looked at loads of them including the uber healthy looking ones with nine grains and seeds. Why do we have so much sugar in our bread? After spending time with the sugar free bread I really noticed how sugary it tastes. While we are on the topic of food our coffees are super big. The American small lattee is the size of the NZ large. I normally get a small here and a large in NZ so it really doesn't matter to my life but it was very noticable.
     The next big question is why isn't tax included in the list price. Adding tax after is just confusing. I toally agree with this. I wish tax were included. I am starting to think the US isn't actually that much cheaper than other places. We just make it look that way by adding little fees every where so the list price looks cheap.
      While we are on the subject of money; pennies. There was a general confusion as to why we have them if they aren't really worth much. In NZ they round so you never end up with something that is 92 cents so NZ doesn't need them. I don't have a good reason for why we haven't gotten rid of them. The kids did enjoy findimg them places. I told them about how they are lucky if you find them with the head up. I remember my grandma telling me that heads up pennies are lucky but I don't know what the origion of it is. I really should look it up for them. I also don't know why we wish when we throw pennies in wells. I don't know the origions of it either. My money history is really lacking. Why do we have odd names for our money and not call them 50 cents and 10 cents like other people do.

Travel Disaster

     Oh my goodness I have never been so bad at traveling as I have been this trip. We started by flying from Kona to Maui then straight to Honolulu. The connections were super tight and some how in the midst of it all I left mynkindle on a plain which is a tradgey and will continue to br a tradgey because I have to spend so much time on planes. I was also in the middle of a good book. I was able to download and sync my books to my tablet but it is harder to read on and has very little battery life.
     Our nest issue was trying to get to LA. We had to leave the terminal, get our bags and check them on another terminal in a short amount of time. We had a little confusion with our booking and had to scurry around the air port to get to the right place and get every thing checked. By the time we got through security it was pretty late. I ran to quiznos to grt some dinner for us and left my credit card there. We slept on thenplane to LA. Well I only sort of slept. I had one kid with a head on my lap and another with on my arm. About two hours into the flight.the nerves in my leg got all weird and started to hurt. After dislodging a child I still couldn't go to sleep. When we got to LA we got on a party bus and went to a hostel for a bit more sleep. This morning we got up and got some breakfast. I have told Rob and Tanya about biscuts and gravey before. They had it on the menu so I ordered it thinking they could try it but it was not nice biscuts and gravey. I failed to fend off their attempts to taste beause I didn't want their first impression of biscuts and gravy to be yucky but alas I failed and they tried it.
    Getting through security in LA wasn't difficult at all. Air New Zealand leaves from possibly the crappiest terminal ever. They only had two places to eat, a starbucks and a news stand but everything closed after we got there and they started packing up the shops because the leases expired and they wouldn't renew them.
    While we were waitimg to board I noticed that the soul has torn off the heel pf one of my boots. I only brought boots and flip flops so I am hoping to get some boots tomorrow.
    On our flight from LA I was sleeping and a man tried to get something from the over head compartment and dropped a heavy hard sided purse on my head. It was a very unpleasent way to wake up. My head is also quite sore.
     Despite all the drama and losses we have finally arrived! Now I just have to get ready to go to Denmark tomorrow.

Bleu Cupcakes

    In Kona there is a cupcake place called Bleu Cupcakes. After thenundies run Rob and I took the kids to Hapuna Beach so that Tanya could have the apartment to herself to do pre-race stuff. We had lots of fun at the beach and were ready for some food after. Cupcakes were a great treat. I tried the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing. Oh my goodness it was delecious! I don't remember what the kids tried. I know Tally tried a choclate. I only remember this because she got it all over her shirt and it was hard to get out. I have no idea what the other kids had. They all loved it though. Tanya was resting so we picked out a carrot cake cupcake and brought it home for her.
    One our last day in Kona I took the kids to a playground then we had to go to Target and get a few things. I used cucpakes as a bribe for good behavior in Target. It was a very powerful incentive for them. After a very successful Target trip with some great behavior we went for more cupcakes. I tried the Kona Coffee cupcake. It was delecious! This time around I took tax from the kids (tax is when grown ups get a little bite for buying the treat). Kaiya and Tally got vanillia with beautiful pink frosting. Jack got chocolate. Indie got a very tastey lemon cup cake. The lemon was one of my favorites. They picked out a red velvet cupcake for Tanya and a Kona coffee one for Rob. Watching them collaborate on what to get their parents was pretty cute.

Race Day

     The day finally arrived. Months of planning and preparing (mostly for Tanya) and it all came down to one insane day. Rob took Tanya down to the start around 430 am. She started the swim at 7. As soon as she started Rob headed back to the aparment to get us. The kids made awesome support t-shirts. On the back of each shirt it said Team Sharp. Each kid decorated their own shirt. Rob and I had shirts too. It was fun to have a project to work on with the kids and have a secret from Tanya. It was so much fun to watch the kids keep the secret. Tally didn't understand the concept really well and has been asking me for weeks if it is time to tell her yet. I was a bit surprised that she managed to keep the secret. I also had NZ temporary tatoos for the kids. We all got at least three. It was really fun. Lots of people commented on how cool the shirts were. It made me really happy that people noticed. Tanyanseemed to really like them. I am so glad that the kids had the idea and followed through it.
     We first saw Tanya on the bike. The kids were waving their NZ flags, ringing cow bells and cheering for everyone. We had just said that we needed to start looking out for Tanya as she shot past us. Then we headed into town. We had a bit of a wander before getting some smoothies. After some more wandering we had an earlyish lunchnat the Kona Inn. Then we wandered down some more and found an awesome spot to watch the run. We located ourselves near a beach and restraunts rightnon thenrun course. It was ideal because there were trees for shade/climbing, bathrooms nearby, a nice sea breeze, and a six year old from England named Cameron who Indigo and Tally are in love with. Cameron was really nice. He is an only child and was very excited to have some other kids to play with. He helped keep our whole crew happy. We stayed there for most of the race. We got to see Tanya go by twice before watching her finish. We were able to get a space right next to the finish line. We were all able to see her finish! She was so focused on the finish line that she saw didn't see
     She did a great job. Her time was 10:43 which was quicker than expected. It is seriously impressive. She managed a quick time despite a bike crash! She also once again proved her toughness by continuing the race while in pain and how she has behaved after. Despite some probably pretty uncomfortable scrapes she hasn't complained.
    One of my favorite things about the day was meeting a girl named Anna who is studying photo journlism at the Univerity of Nations. She saw us early in the day and took photos of the kids throughout the day. She saw us in the morning and took pictures of thenkids shirts. Later we met up again and she took photos of us cheering for Tanya. She also saw us at the finish and took some family photos. Anna was so nice and she was great with the kids. She is suppose to e-mail us some of the photos. Hopefully I will be able to post some.

    I typically try to lable my photos but the app is pretty basic and won't let me so I will have to do it later. 
   
    

Undies Run...

    What is an undies run and why did I do it you may aks upon seeing the name of this post. It's just a casual run in your underwear with hundreds of other people that happen to be wearing their underwear. As to the why well that I'm not so sure on...it was sort of a job requirement (weird job right) but it also sounded like fun. The run was on the 9th of October so on the 8th (after my epic surf lesson) we headed to Target to get some undies! Indigo and Tally got matching Frozen undies. They had a super cute cami and undies set at Target. Jack wore superman undies. Kaiya got purple undiesnwith a purple crop top. Rob found spme cool bananna undies. I couldn't find anything in the right sizes for Tanya and I. There had been a run on womens undies over the past few days I was told. Tanya and I went to Ross after the kids went to bed and found some cook blacknwith white polka dots and pink trim. The cut of the undies wasn't ideal for modesty but we found some cool pink infinity scarves to go around our waists as modesty belts. We had to go to Target after for a few things and happened across some hot pink compression socks which made the outfits.
    On the 9th we got up super early and headed to the race. We had been told that the race was 4km but it was much much shorter which was a blessing with the kids. Jack, Kaiya, Indigo, Rob and myself ran. Tally and Tanya walked a bit and turned back. It was a bit too much for Tally. I was impressed at how well the kids did. They did awesome running. Despite my anit-morning personness I am glad that it was in the morning because it was pretty hot already and I think it would have been too much for the kids if it had been later.
    This undies run was an attempt at the world record but at the end of it they couldn't announce if it was a new world record because they had to double check the numbers.

Surfing!!!

    Two days ago Ingot to go surfing!!!  Rob "talked me into it". I say that because I didn't need much convincing. I mentioned that I was intrested and Rob encouraged it. He got the name of a guy when he bought his rash vest from a surf shop.
   My surf instructor was a wirey man in his 50's. He had super tan skin and a grey beard. He said things like "epic", "I love it" and "keep your cup full" all the time. In some ways he was very much the stereptype of a surf instructor. I really enjoyed him. He was a great teacher.
    We started off learning some surfing etiquette like take turns on waves, be careful of reef life, don't swim up the impact zone, watch out for other people catching the same wave you are catching, the person at the peak of the wave has right of way etc. For thenmostart it seemed like common courtsey to me but I'm sure I am missing finer points. After our ettiquete talk we practiced moving from laying on the board to standing in one quick fluid motion. Then we got in the water. We spent maybe 20 minutes pf the lesson on land. I was pretty stocked because I thought I would spend way more time practicing jumping up and other stuff on land.
     He started me out on a baby wave. He told me when to paddle and gave me a little shove then started yelling stand up and all of a sudden I was up. It was super fun!!!!! I paddled back out and he told me that he rarely has people come back out with such big grins on their faces. He thought one baby wave was enough so we moved to slightly bigger but still pretty small waves. The good surfing waves seemed to be spaced with a bunch 8f crummy waves then three or four good waves in a row. I would catch a wave then get hammered by three or four as I tried to turnnmy board and get to the channel where the waves weren't breaking. My instructor said it is called paying tax. I really like the expression.
   I was so lucky to go out when I did. The waves were nice for a beginner and there weren't many other people around. There were a few locals, two other personal surf lessons, a really nice Belgian lady and us. It made it easy to get waves without worrying about other people getting in the way or steering into you. My instructor knew the Belgian lady. Apparently she has been out nearly every day with anfented board trying to figurenit out. She was realy nice. I was impressed by her stick-to-it-ness. My instructor would help her when I was paddling back out.
   I had a nu ber of suoer awesome rides and a few super awesome wipe outs. My favorite ride was my second to last ride. It was the only one I didn't need a little push on. I finally paddled fast enough to get up on the wave by myself. Standing up felt seemless. All of the things I had been told kind of came together for an awesome ride. We had planned for it to be my last one but after such a great one we decided for one more. My arms were absolutly wasted going out for thenlast wave but it was totally worth it. After a good sized one I rode baby waves the rest of the way in.
   I had two pretty good wipe outs. The first was on the first of the bigger waves. I stood up and knew my feet were in the wrong place so tried to do a little hop to correct it like I was told. Unfortunatly I hopped one foot off the board and came down with ont leg in the water and the other on my board. Needless to say I wasn't able to save it. The second bit wipe out was when I set up for a pretty big wave (a bomber according to my instructor). With a little help I was able to get on it and stand up but I was way way to far back on my board and slide off the back of it. The board went flying up in the air and a big wave crashed on my head. I was quite ammused by the whole event.
     After the lesson I got to try an apple bananna. It was shockingly tastey,
    I am so grateful that I was able to take a surf lesson. I really appreciate Rob making it work with our schedule, pushing me into it, finding a good insturctor and helping pay. Rob made the whole thing possible. Thank you Rob!

This is me and my surfing instructor paddling out. Special thanks to Rob Sharp for getting a photo for me. 

A Reef Shark and Swimming with Dolphins!

Indigo and I on the submarine.

     Oh my goodness I don't blog for one day and all of a sudden I have so much to write about! It has been a very eventful few days.
     Yesterday we had a pretty laid back morning. Rob took the kids to the pool while I ran to the grocery store then did a few jobs at the apartment. This is not thenpart that makes one think I've had an exciting time. We took the kids in to town for lunch. Then we went on a submarine. It was a proper submarine and not a dressed up glass bottom boat. We had to take a boat from the peir to the sub then crawl down the hatch to the seating area. The sub can fit 48 people but our tour only had 13. It was nice to have loads of space and be able to look out both sides. All along the sub were big round windows. After a short saftey breifing we set off. First we went to a coral reef that was about 50-70 feet deep (they had a big depth gauge on the boat). The reef was amazing. There were tons of parrot fish, box fish (a type of puffer), yellow tang, angle fish, mu, butteryfly fish and so many more that I can't remember the names of. Every where we looked there were more things to look at. Then we went to a place called
    After our awesome submarine tour we wandered the shops a little then went for a swim at the beach
     After that we came back to the apartment fed the kids and put them to bed. Then one of Tanya's tri buddies came over for dinner with his partner. They were super nice. I made bison burgers. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't turn out very well. I didn't want to give anyone a bad interpretation of bison burgers when theynhad never had them before. I really like bison and have missed it being in NZ. They turned out fine though and people seemed to enjoy it.
    Today we got up early to go on a dolphin swimming tour. We got on a boat and went up away from Kona along the coast. We quickly fooubd a pod of Hawaiian spinner dolohins. They are one of the smaller species of dolphins. The pod was moving along the cozst to their resting grounds. Our boat would speed ahead of them and we would all jump in and they would swim under us. They are phenominally beautiful when they swim. We missed the first jump because the kids weren't ready. The second jump I was swimmimg with Indie. She was so excited to see dolphins. I got to see them pass under us twice. The third time I stayed on the boat for a bit with Tally because she was cold and very upset about the whole ordeal. The dolphins stuck around so after a bit Tanya got on the boat and I went back in the water. The dolphins were super close to us. The pod had a number of babies with them. It was aweso,e to watche the babies feed and play. They were so adorable. I can't seem to find the right words to explain how awesome it all was. It was like watching a national geographic film in real life. It was actually a bit sureal. As we were snorkling abovd the dolphins we could hear them squeking to ezch other. It was like listening to someone speak another language in a cafe. I was impressed how well Jack, Kaiya and Indigo did with the experience. They were so excited. They were behaving the way I felt. They pointed out all sorts of cool stuff. Kaiya showed me a giant brain coral. Jack showed me his attempts at free diving. Indie pointed out lots of fish. One of my favorite parts of the trip was during the last swim. I was swimming above some dolphins. They all had babies with them. Theynstarted to head for the surface and came up not more than 20 yards from me. They were so close that I could see the threre colors of grey on them and the scars on the mothers. One of the babies had a big open wound which looked uncomfortable. They came up for air and I got to see them above the water and in the water at the same time. If there was a word for more than super awesome it wouldn't totally describe it. I loved everything about the experience. I am so grateful to Rob and Tanya for taking me on this amazing adventure with them.
   After the boat tour Tanya went out training and the rest of us went back to the apartment for lunch and some down time. We had afternoon tea at the team kiwi luncheon. All the kiwi atheletes got shirts and had a photo together. We met another au pair who is living in Taupo. She seemed really nice. Our kids played tag and hide and go seek together. After the meeting we watched the parade of nations. I of course hzd to cheer for New Zealand and the USA. The kids got so much candy! I'm not sure we will ever be able to eat it all. They might explode if I give them that much sugar. We wandered through expo and did a super secret surprise for Tanya. Then we headed home.

near the peir. It was nice because the beach was pretty enclosed and shallow which was nice with the kids. Jack and I went on a little adventure and swam along the edges looking at fish. He knows so much about fish. I was amazed.
the oasis. It is a large chunk of lava rock on the sea floor which is surrounded by sand. All of the fish congregate on the rodk because it has coral and alge for them to eat but it is also a safe haven. It was amazing. It was like walking into a huge school of fish of all different types. I loved the oasis. It was avsolutely stunning. Rob got some good photos which I will post when we are back in NZ. At the oasis we saw an eel. It was very cool. Then we moved along the sea floor going down to 100 ft and saw two ship wrecks. At the first ship wreck I was still a bit in awe of the oasis and didn't pay much attention. A diving company had attached a plastic skeleton to the shipwreck for a Halloween night dive. Sounds pretty scary.  At the second ship wreck Inwas back in focus mode. The second ship they call crazy lady because a couple sailed here from Alaska. The husband had to fly home for a family emergency. While he was gone his wife thought that there were termites on the fiber glass boat and tried to smoke them out with some flares consequently lighting the boat on fire and sinkjing it. We saw a white tipped reef shark at the ship wreck. It wzs a juvinile only about 6 ft long. The shark was pretty afraid of the sub so we only saw it for a second. We saw another eel. I learned lots on the sub (some of which I've already forgoten!) but mynfzvorite fact has to be thfat parrot fish poo white sand. I also found out that the light changes as you go deeper so bright colors glow. It was quite cool.

Cool fish we saw while on the sub

This is the skeleton that was put down by the diving club.
Looks pretty creepy. 

The sub we went on.