So much for October posts...

Well, we just skipped over October it seems.

Not too much is going on - I'm enjoying being with my aunt and uncle very much. I'm spending most days lazily doing research, studying or reading, but that suits me just fine. Life will return to being crazy soon, so this is a nice break. My stomach, however, is reminding me of real life by producing impressive amount of acid, so that's not all pleasant, but then again, life isn't always - so I roll with the punches and continue to enjoy the ride.

Classes continue to move along at a rapid, yet comfortable, clip. My class is full of fun people (the French guys like ranting about the ''totalitarian bastard dictatorship'' that we are living in here, due to bike laws saying you can't ride through a red light - makes my day every time it's brought up) and we enjoy the class and being around each other, though I'm the only person not working or taking classes, so their free time is in the very very middle of the night. To which I say 'see you next class!' - I'm not much of a club girl anyway ;)

We trundled across the water to Odense to celebrate my cousin Tobias's birthday, which was fun. His mother's family also showed up, so most everything was in Danish, but it's good to listen to - I can pick up on much more than I could when I first arrived, so I'll count it as a success. The next day, my aunt, uncle and I went out to their summer house at Kerteminde and cleaned up there, shut down some of the house, and took a drive out to the top of the island. Absolutely gorgeous - that day was everything a Danish autumn day should be - sunshine with a tepid breeze blowing softly from the shores up across rolling fields... Absolutely marvelous. I'm sad that I didn't think to bring my camera - it really was pricelessly beautiful.

And this past weekend, the city of Copenhagen had its 'Kulturnatten', or Culture Night, during which churches, museums, galleries, the palaces, and various other venues held special concerts or events, tours, exhibitions... basically, the city at its finest, open for the night wanderers to come and see. Everything was accessible by a single cover-charge, including trains and busses, so it was a great price for a very fun time. We went to have dinner at an old favourite of Per and his younger brother (passed away a while ago from AIDs, unfortunately), which had some magnificent curry, and then wandered off to see the palace, a church choir concert (at the best preserved church in Copenhagen - it was built in the 1400s), and to the old hard candy factory. All in all a delightful evening.

This week is a national fall break for most schools in Denmark, so my classes have been cancelled, leaving me with the responsibility of entertaining myself, working on vocab and homework, and cleaning the heck out of the house. Lovely, all in all! I'm enjoying this thoroughly, though I do miss my friends and family - my ticket home has been bought, and I shall see everyone upon that joyous day ^_^

<3

Tiddling around in Copenhagen

Well, as usual, my family is keeping me plenty busy!

After a couple of days of work we had a nice weekend, my aunt's boyfriend had his birthday which went very well. I also got to go have dinner and movie time with my other cousins Stig and Anne, which was very fun. Ridiculous Canadian and a giggly stringbean of a Dane. I love my family.

And Sunday I was brought over to Copenhagen by my aunt Jette and uncle Per, who I have seen more recently in the States. Their house is the same as it always was - nice and old and comfy and full of interesting books and old furniture. Strangely one of the only houses I've ever been in without snacks, thank the lord ^_^

I have taken a couple of walks, but haven't gone too far afield. My aunt and uncle have been working pretty full time, so lots of self-entertaining, which is just fine with me. Tons of films to watch, lots of books to read and LOTS of studying to do.

Class started this week, and hooooo boy, it's going to be hard work. Danish uses a huge amount of German and English, so the grammar and vocabulary is much much easier than other languages I've tried to learn, but the pronunciation? Holy. Moly. I've read a joke before that it's easier to speak danish with a potato in your mouth - sadly, it's almost true. I'm not sure that that many vowels are allowed in a mouth at the same time >.< Bleh

But I shall prevail! My class is full of either college students or young professionals. A Greek kid, a Hungarian girl, an Italian guy, a Finnish guy, an Iranian guy, and Icelandic girl, two German girls, one British guy, a Chinese girl, two French guys, one Dutch guy, and another American girl... yeah, we're a good mix. Everyone is very nice though, and the group I'm sitting in is (naturally) the peanut gallery of the class, so we're having a high old time. My teacher called me out on speaking German the first day because of my wonky pronunciations >.<>

Anywho, that's about all I have to report for now. I'll be buying my return-home tickets sometime in the next week or two, so that info will also be available shortly, hehe. Now, to get all of my Morocco photos online...

I freaking love Danish Tile Floors...

... and you know why? Because they're HEATED - freaking genius.

But anyway, long several days. First a goodbye to my absolutely wonderful FMBS members, who carried me from one end to the other of my journey - not literally, but you know what I mean. Then on up to Denmark!

The flight was full of white-blonde haired Danish kids who were giggling over ipads or plushies (strange folks these Danes), and then into the airport at Copenhagen. First thing to note - people not checking your passport when you land = odd. Second, train tickets are freaking expensive here - almost $60! And then, while waiting an hour for my train, I munched down on a Polser. If you're not Danish, you don't understand the delicious of a Polser (there is a different 'o' used, but my keyboard isn't fancy, so I'm not typing it) - Danish hotdogs - delicious. And yes, Anita, it was a Fransk Hotdog - you may cry, hehe.

Two hours on the train let me see a lot of the beautiful Danish countryside while heading to Odense, where I have been staying with my aunt. While on the train though, the most interesting person I saw was a girl playing her Nintendo DS. Normal you say - not while wearing a tophat and neon pink and black plaid crotchless chaps, it isn't. ^_^

Found my aunt instantly upon my arrival in Odense and met her boyfriend, who is very nice (he is, in fact, the man who is responsible for my webs. He picked me up a USB modem from work that I can use while in Denmark - yes, internet ANYWHERE - really really awesome). We drove home (saw a Dresden look-alike sulking down the street in a floor-length duster and a wide-brimmed hat... kinda weird). Coffee and Danish Pastries were had, dinner made shortly after. Jheez, Danish food is good - I forget after a long absence. And I got a phone call from my dearest parents during dinner to top off the nice day ^_^

Monday we went out to Helnaes (spelling note: blend the a and the e together to get the correct symbol) to my aunt's summer house and while she cut grass I picked blackberries and plums - yes, country excellence. It was a lovely warm (by danish standards) sunny day, so watching the clouds whip across the bay was amazing. Pictures - I will post them when I can.

Tuesday I went in to work with Tante Dorrit to bring lunch to her BF - we ended up staying around for a couple of hours working (she works for a chain of fabric/sewing stores, and her BF is in charge of stocking everything - so we're getting all of the magazines for the next several months divided up, stuffed with patterns, and shipped off to the right stores - 28 stores btw - LOTS of work). After that, we came home and had coffee with my cousin Stig (pronounced Stee), which was fun, as I haven't seen him in YEARS. And then I was dragged off to Ballstix, which is a 'sport' that was invented by my aunt's previous instructor. Basically, you take a medicine ball filled with air (rather than sand or water), put dull spikes all around it, paint it orange, and then use it to balance on and stretch on. Sort of a gymnastics of self-torture and massochism... yeah (shut up, redundance is allowed.) Incredibly painful, very good workout, and kind of fun - I'm terrible at it, and it doesn't really exist far away from Odense, so no, I won't be continuing with it, hehe. And we got home to the BF making dinner (my aunt found her a man who can cook REALLY well), which was followed by a dinner conversation in which I was speaking English to my aunt, German to her BF, and they were speaking Danish to one another. Yup, that's my family for you.

Wednesday we went out to an annual market/fair on the south half of the island - basically, take the cherry blossom festival, all of the mud you could possibly find, and make it a million times bigger. That was this. HUGE. And Danish. We had fun wandering, Tante Dorrit got me a nice rain slicker (in exchange for more slave labour at the warehouse tomorrow) and we had a great time just wandering in the mud and crowds. Good fun. Also, lunch was had in a big circus tent full of picnic tables, beer and a stage with a band singing country music... Danes have surprisingly convincing southern accents...

This evening, up to my cousin Anita's house to have dinner with her husband and daughter - excellent people, lots to say and fun was had. I really really have missed my family out here ^_^

Tomorrow, more work early early! So... since I'm back up in 6 hours, I guess sleep time should happen now... Woo! I shall check in soon, hehe.

NOTE: On the way home, my aunt pointed out an ambulance and said that ''That is the doctor's car.'' I almost died. No seriously - grabbing the wheel to follow crossed my mind... luckily for Tante Dorrit, I can't drive stick...

Transitionary Phase

Well, we're in Spain.

It was sad to see Morocco go, but I'm ready for a change in scenery. Time to get up and freeze my butt off in Denmark!

We left a couple of days early and are staying in the foundation President's house in Malaga (just in case there was issue) but that means a couple of days of rest inbetween the flurry of activity - EXCELLENT idea, by the way.

Because yesterday we had...

Chefchaouen, Morocco -> Ceuta, Spain

2 hr Car Ride (with 30min stop to drop off a kid, 1 hour border crossing, and 30mins at the bank trying to sort out money)

Ceuta, Spain -> Algeciras, Spain

2 hr Ferry Ride (1 hour waiting for the ferry initially)

Algeciras, Spain

45mins of Taxis and waiting between the ferry and bus station

Algeciras, Spain -> Malaga, Spain

2.5 hr Bus Ride

Malaga, Spain

45mins Car Ride through traffic and to the suburbs for my last housing in Spain

Tiiiired puppy. And to those of you who ask 'well what about the planes, bikes and trains?' - I'll be taking a plane and a train on Sunday, and my uncle is lending me his bike for the duration of my stay in Denmark. Don't worry - they're covered ;P

But yes - two days of rest/repacking/transitioning from Spanish to English.

To English? Why yes - among the household at the moment is the President and his Wife, their grown daughter (just graduated from ETS, where we lived/taught in Germany), their grown son, his wife, their 22-month daughter and dog (the wife is from New Jersey, so everyone speaks English very well). So lots of Spanglish in this household! Altogether a happy one though, so I'm pleased ^_^

Transition days - these are they.

Last One Standing

Well, Lola has left for Spain.

This past week Dr.Solis, Carmen and Fabiana arrived in order to take her home and drop Fabiana off here for her 'month on' in Morocco. I adore them, but jheez - messy roommates. The dishes that were left over this morning when they left were DISgusting - rivals college boys - I'm not even exaggerating. But they should be safely over the border by now and waiting for the ferry to take Lola and Carmen back to mainland Spain (a trip I shall be making in just under two weeks).

But overall, this means I'm the only short-term (relatively speaking) volunteer left here for now. The apartment is left just to me (woo, less people to clean up after), which means more peace and quiet, but night time is going to be less enjoyable - again, I don't like being in an apartment on my own at night, heh.

But, as minorly referenced before, I shall be leaving in just under two weeks for Spain (the 9th), and will stay in Malaga for two nights before flying up to Denmark. I only have two official 'shifts' at the orphanage between now and then, but will have multiple part-day shifts to entertain the kiddies, which will be fun. I confess, even though they're terrorists, I've gotten attached to one of the toddlers - as in, I'd bring her with me if I could. Yes, be glad I can't! The babes are all doing well, spoiled rotten and full of energy as ever. Because it's been so hot, we've been having to keep them cooler with more baths and water, but so far so good.

We've all done various amounts of cooking for each other during my stay, and Myrna has promised to give me some of her recipes to take home, which will be exciting! I made a non-soy sauce variation of fried rice the other day, and apparently it was a hit, as I got home from work and it was all gone, hehe. I had plenty though, and have plenty of other stuff to make, so I'm not particularly worried.

As far as my Denmark plans go, they've been shifting around a fair deal, but I believe that we're close to having the first part of my stay finalized, which will be a relief (because I like to have a solid plan). What we'll be doing is having me fly into Copenhagen and hop onto a train to Odense to stay with one of my aunts for a week, get settled, see cousins, buy warmer clothes (having Danes describe the current weather as 'chilly' scares me to death), and overall just take a bit of a breather from Morocco. At the end of that week, I'll be driven back to Copenhagen by my aunt and uncle, and will start Danish classes in the city two days after that. It's basically a two-day-a-week, 2.5 hour-a-class sort of thing that is a good intensive language program, which will hopefully let me learn a good deal of Danish before coming home. Basically, short summer program at GT, without summer or GT.

Really though, not much has happened in 11 days, and not much will probably happen before leaving, aside from packing, unpacking, REpacking, and generally being neurotic about my suitcase... but that's perfectly normal for me! Thanks for passing that down genetically Mum - real helpful!

And after my just-under-two-weeks in Morocco, I'll be driven to the border, cross it on foot, and then be picked up on the other side (all of this legally, btw), hop a ferry, then hop a taxi and then a bus back to my two-day layover in Spain. Alllllll in a day's travel!

Sometimes my life is far too interesting...

Listening to the Rain fall and Thunder roll / A Month of Giving and Peace

Well, today is the first rainy rainy day we've had since I've been in Chefchaouen, and I'm enjoying it - it got sunny and horrifically humid while I was walking up the mountain (yes, comparable to GA), but it wasn't raining, which was really a blessing. The rain has brought nice cold winds with it, with mixed sunshine and deep black clouds, which are gorgeous and I'm very much enjoying during a quiet day.

This week is the week of prayer for GT (24/7 people praying, usually 15 minute intervals each during some scheduled time of day), so I asked Myrna if it was ok for me to have just night shifts this week, and being the wonderful person she is, she let me. That means that, between 6am and 8am, instead of getting ready for work, I'm using some of my extra sleep time at the hospital to do my 4 intervals, which is nice. Four nights of work this week (since the new volunteer didn't show, we're covering her shifts), but I enjoy it, so that's fine with me.

Also, Ramadan started about a week ago, so that's brought about a lot of changes here. First of all, for those of you who aren't familiar with the holiday, Ramadan's main rule, as far as I can tell, is no eating nor drinking during daylight hours (or when the sun is over the horizon). So from about 7am to 7:30pm, none of the citizens are eating. Cafes and stores are usually closed, the town bakery hasn't opened it's doors (as far as we can tell) since the beginning of the holiday, and this trend continues for a month. Now, though we're not fasting, we're also not eating in public during daylight hours - it's rude and would probably get people ticked at us, so it's a little inconvenient, but good for self-control I guess. ^_^ Unfortunately, people tend to be more grumpy during this time, and I'm having to leave realllly early for work in the evenings, because taxis aren't running (before the sun rises and right at sunset is a huge QUICK GO HOME AND EAT time, so EVERYONE is home - not even taxis are out). BUT, along with the cons come the pros... well, kind of - the month of Ramadan has a lot of traditions, most of which concern food, and oh good lord - the pastries - there are SO many for SO cheap and SO delicious... there goes my waistline... worth it.

I picked up my two souvenirs while in old town with the girls yesterday - a lovely scarf and a satchel bag - if and when you see them, you're going to tell me that I could have found similar things anywhere, but A) I like them a lot, B) They were cheaper here than most other places, C) Even though they're not specifically Moroccan, they're still from here, and I'll enjoy that, and D) the typically Moroccan stuff - I don't have room nor desire for any of it, so I'm not bothering, hehe. But all in all, I love them and am very happy ^_^ The bag will be a bigger purse (for flying - score one on not getting another suitcase at least until Denmark) and the scarf will be very very appreciated in Denmark, I'm sure!

Now it's been a busy couple of weeks - last weekend, Marjorie left for home (she was only here for about a week, as work wouldn't let her off for longer), so that cut us down to three girls in the apartment. Sadly, Christina also came to the end of her more extended tenure here this morning while I was at work - she and Enrique headed off to get her to Tangier for her flight back home, so I won't be able to see her again before leaving Spain myself - she is a lovely woman, and I'm very pleased to have been able to have the chance to get to know her.

And with those two gone it just leaves me and Lola - we're both laptop junkies, but I'm still significantly less interactive than her (lack of hispanic blood, I think), so I'm going to try and work on that to make her more comfy and less lonely. We get along very well and have lots of interest in going to old town (of course, I prefer walking, but I'll deal with taxis) so we're going to have fun rambling around I'm sure. She's here for two more weeks, until she heads home for exams, so that'll leave me alone for my last bit of stay here - but I'll love those two weeks I have!

Having been here for two months now, I find I'm settling in fairly well - I'm used to being the strange person on the street, the obvious foreigner in the group, and the quiet person in the conversation. I can't pretend I won't enjoy getting home (or at least back into an environment where I won't stick out so much), but I think this last month will be easier. That and my parents are excellent about keeping up with me on Skype, so I'm incredibly grateful for that!

POST SCRIPT: Also, something I'd just like to point out - for the eating times here, at the end of the day, a giant siren goes off basically saying 'You can eat now' - loud, somewhat unsettling if you weren't expecting it. Not only in the evening, but to wake people up for their breakfast, the same, incredibly loud (because it has to reach the whole valley) siren goes of at 4 am... heart attacks come daily now. That or I think I'm waking up in the middle of an air raid during the Blitz... *sigh*

Moments in time, too fleeting to capture each one...

Alrighty, well, it's been a fair while since I updated, so here goes.

Work continues well, Christina and I continue to get along well.

We have our two other volunteers that will be here for some time - the first one, Lolah, is sweet and wonderful. She's from Malaga, where I arrived, so not too far away. Sort of a punk girl, short hair, lots of piercings, but very sweet - loves music and photography and is studying the Spanish language (and local Malaga dialect) to teach to foreign kids and wants to work with children with disabilities - very nice - we get along very well.

She was brought on Saturday (while I was at work) by Silvia and her husband and daughter, who stayed for a day or two and cooked up a storm (chicken and chorizo and sausage and potato salad..mmmm), and were overall very good company. Fabiana returned to Ceuta with them for some time there (she switches between here and there, to kind of keep herself sane, which sounds like a good practice to me, heh).

And on Tuesday Enrique (who picked me up at the airport and saved my life when doing the train/bus transfer) brought the new girl called Marjorie from Colombia - and yes, she's full Latina. Don't let the name fool you. She seems nice, though very latina in the fact that she's direct and to the point. Kinda meh with me, but that's ok. My only issue so far has been with the hour-long bathroom needs for showers - my poor toothbrush... held hostage...

In other news, haven't really slept well recently - but after three days of not doing more than a light doze for 20 minutes at a time and no naps, who'da thunk, I slept well last night, which was a relief. Still up at 7 every morning for my stretches and devotional, but I enjoy it. Definitely going to work that into my schedule when I get home - love it THAT much.

Funny moment of the week: Yesterday when we were walking through old town, which has a fair number of tourists this time of year, we were passing a group of tourists that was mostly comprised of boys, but had two girls among them wearing fairly short shorts and tank tops (absolutely normal summer wear in the USA) - I was *Scandalized* - I couldn't help but stare for a moment, I blushed, and my mouth even fell open a bit. My roommates almost collapsed they were laughing so hard - apparently, I've been here too long. ^_^

Work again tonight, probably with some writing, then work on Saturday... yay!