Disney on Ice!

For Christmas Søren and I recieved a different kind of present from our work. We recieved tickets to Disney on Ice! We had been waiting and waiting for February 19th to finally come where we would, with all our colleagues and families, take a 2½ hour bus ride to see the magical world of Disney come to life on ice. It was a great evening and we were in awe of all the light effects, scenery and of course the skating. I thought it was a bit odd that all the songs were in Danish, but being the Disney freak I am, I loved it anyway. What a fun way to celebrate Christmas two months later.

The Disney Princesses

The 7 Dwarfs

Cinderella's Ball

Swoosh Swoosh...Oui!

We had a wonderful winter vacation skiing in the Alps of France! We experienced one adventure after another but had a wonderful time!!

It all started at midnight Friday February 6th. We began the 16 hour drive south. Things were going well as it became light again somewhere in the southern part of Germany. Traffic wasn't bad at all and the road conditions were great so we could just cruise along. Before long we came to the boarder to Switzerland where we had to go through customs and buy a highway pass so we could use their freeway. Søren was driving at the time and after we bought the pass he tried to roll up his automatic window again and it wouldn't stay up. It would go up and then come halfway down again, over and over again. It was quite cold so it wasn't very fun. We finally stopped at a rest stop for some breakfast and found a trick on how to keep it closed, but it remained a problem the rest of the trip but we got a lot of laughs out of it!

A few hours later we were at the French boarder and time to look seriously at the map to find our way to our Ski resort. Well it turns out that where we were staying wasn't exactly big enough to be on the map, but luckily we had printed out directions from Map Quest ahead of time so we decided to use those. We were taking our exit from the freeway with about 180 km to go on our tank of gas (the car had one of those screens that shows how many more miles/km you can drive on the gas you have left). The map quest directions said there were only about 50 km so we were excited to be so close after 14½ hours in the car so far! Well we followed the directions through many interesting and very small French towns and after talking to some teenage boys that spoke enough English to point us in the right direction we were on the right track towards Chamrousse and our resort where we could already hear our beds calling our names.

The road was quite windy and was constantly winding upwards. The longer we drove up the mountain the more foggy it was and it became harder and harder to see. Also the longer we drove UP the mountain, the more and more the KM left on our tank of gas dropped. Quickly we went from 180 km to 80...and from 80 to 50...and then down to 32... We were getting nervous, we had no clue how long this windy road was and there were no signs of people, towns or gas stations! At one point our screen stopped showing 32 km but this instead.


Now we were really panicking, but laughing at the same time! We were going to run out of gas on a deserted mountain in very cold and foggy weather!!! Suddenly like out of a film, there was a gas station right in front of us. We pulled up on the fumes of gas we had left and found the diesel gas. We tried to use our credit card, and NO, it failed. We tried our friends card, and NO, it failed! We had come so close but couldn't tank up. Just then a French family pulled up and we asked them if they would tank for us if we gave them cash. Luckily they were sweet and helped us out! It turns out our resort was only 5 more km away and before we knew it we were checking into our cabin!

We slept like babies the first night and were ready to ski at 9 o'clock the next morning. The fog was still in the air but we had a nice time. Søren was really great and learned very fast, having never tried skiing before and having to start for the very first time using a chair lift! We found some easier runs but the fog was so dense it was impossible to see more than a few yards in front of you. Not quite the best conditions for a beginner but he was a good sport and did very well!
Fog on the first day

However, the next day was a totally different experience! We woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day and when we went outside we saw the most spectacular view! We were surrounded by mountains! There were mountains everywhere and we didn't even know it before!!! We had just a beautiful day in awe the whole time of our surroundings and the beauty of it all!
Moutains all around

View from our window!

The rest of our days were much the same. We would wake up early, ski into the afternoon, come back to our cabin and relax and then eat dinner together and play a game or two before going to bed around 10.30. The couple we went with, Susanne and Peter, were very fun to be with and we had a great time both skiing and hanging out afterwards. The only bad thing, well not bad for us, was that the Madsen family was pretty much unbeatable in any game we played. Each night Søren and I beat them in every sort of game imaginable!! But still they kept challenging us, so it was fun!!


Also we had brought some food with us so that we could have some easy dinners and desserts, etc. Well we bought lasagne and a cake mix, but then we discovered we had no oven!! Lets just say that the lasagne turned into spaghetti with sauce and well the cake we had to make in a pan. Another adventure but it worked to make the cake in a pan! We were very suprised.
In the process
The final product!

Anyway, we had overall nice weather. It was a bit cold some days and foggy two of the days but we felt blessed with the conditions we had overall. By the end of the trip we knew most of the 100 runs and had fun exploring the off-runs in the woods at times! We had also taken our fair share of "good" falls. Me mostly in the trees and well Søren had a few complete snow wash falls! But we kept up the good humor and just laughed at it all!
Søren having to go up the hill to get his ski pole after a good fall!

France was definitely a great place to be with beautiful nature and a good price but in terms of communication, well that was another story. We found that most people had a very hard time with English. They couldn't understand us and if they did understand our question they responded mostly in French. I had a uncomfortable situation with one of the waiters at a restaurant who, when I asked for ketchup in English, responded by saying "I do not speak English, we are in France and we speak French." So I asked him in French if he spoke Danish then, and he just spoke French to me in a very mean tone and attitude! He was very rude and we had to wonder what they do when they are on vacation, can they expect everyone to speak French? This encounter definitely did not help the whole French arrogance stereotype!

Well before we knew it, it was time to go home again. We left early in the morning Saturday and were home again late Saturday night! Luckily we had a relaxing Sunday and were grateful yet again that our church service starts at 3.30 pm! Now we are back into the full swing of things and look back on our trip with wonderful memories!!! Au revoir!!

Here are some extra pictures!

Our snow covered car.
One of the ski lifts.
Us in a lift!
On one of the mountain tops.
Posing with the mountains and a whole bunch of other skiiers!
Søren relaxing in the sun!
The beautiful mountainious background.

Musical

Just before winter vacation Søren and I were kept busy with our musical project. Like I explained earlier, we only had a week to put it all together so it was a hectic week but also very fun and exciting. Søren did a wonderful job helping the students run the lights and sound, and I had my debut as director. I was very suprised by how many details I had to have in place as the director, I am used to being on the other side of the stage and just getting bossed around so it was quite a change and a challenge but exciting to look back at and say " I did it!!"

The musical was a success and around 850-900 guests were in attendence over 2 nights! The students were very talented and worked hard and it was a most enjoyable week.

Some of the students in action.

Football and music and handball

We've been keeping busy lately watching football, handball and working on our musical project at school. In the past few weeks we have been watching the football playoffs. Because of the time difference it has made for some late Sunday nights, but fun nights too. Its usually okay because I don't have classes until 10am on Mondays and Søren is usually free, but it was especially hard this past Sunday when we had a little Superbowl party at our house. The game didn't start until 12.30 am and was finished at 4am. It was a fantastic game so we weren't too tired but we were sure tired when we got up at 7am the next morning!!

Superbowl Party!

We have also been watching a lot of handball lately. It is a huge sport here in Denmark and they were having the World Championship Tournament. It was so exciting because Denmark played so well and made it to the semi-finals! They ended up getting 4th place, so they are 4th in the world!!

The last thing that has really kept us busy is our musical project at school. We, along with other teachers, have been planning and preparing since October and now we are finally in the actual musical week. That might sound confusing, but how this musical works at school is that we find a musical (write it ourselves or take one we have found), have an audition and then we have a week to put it all together. Some students are in the band, some in the choir, some work on setting up the scene or finding the props, some make the costumes, and well you get the idea. The whole school is involved for the whole week and then we perform 2 evenings. This year I am in charge of the drama and Søren is in charge of lights and sound. It is a huge project but really fun and exciting!!

So that's all for now. We start performances tomorrow and then we leave for France on our ski trip Friday night. We are so excited and we'll be sure to post pictures.


PS: We finally got some real snow here this winter! I couldn't resist running around in it in the middle of the night!!