A musical weekend!

This past weekend Søren and I we're really in our music element.

Friday night we went to see a Danish artist, Tim Christensen, give a concert. I had bought tickets for Søren for his birthday back in December and finally the concert day arrived. Before the concert, we had a nice meal at a cute little restaurant. It was like a real date! Then the concert was at 8.00 and we were ready. The opening band (or one man) was very talented and we enjoyed a little more quiet set. Then Tim came on stage and played many many songs, from a long time ago to more recent. Søren has been a fan of him for a long time, where I have more recently become a fan since moving to Denmark, but his music is just great, lots of "weird" chords, melodies, etc. It was a fabulous concert and we danced, clapped and smiled the whole time.
An internet picture of the concert because we couldn't have our camera in there, in reality we we're standing way up front in the second row!!!

Then on Saturday we went to a concert type Praise and Worship event about 1½ hours north from where we live. It is a big event where many people from all over Denmark meet to say hi to each other and to sing and praise! We were especially excited because the other 3 former Watermarkers that now live in Denmark were coming too! We met them there and had a fun time. Its so great to be aroud other Americans once in awhile, but also because they are good friends who we spent a whole year with and that we know each other so well.

Josh, Jim, Me, Søren, Jenny

So it was an eventful and fun weekend where we even had time for relaxing too! Now I am off to Poland for a week leaving Søren behind. But he has big plans to golf and visit friends and family. It will be the longest we haven't seen each other since we got married, it'll be hard but I think we will make it! :) :)

Busy bees

Søren and I have certainly been busy bees lately, both during the week but also in the weekends! This past week was busy with school and being sick. Søren was pretty much sick all week with a severe head cold and actually stayed home from school so it was pretty bad. Luckily he was feeling better by the time the weekend came around because we had a full schedule.

Friday we had a triple date with Rasmus and Thorkild and their girlfriends. We found a package deal at a bowling alley / restaurant place in Esbjerg where you can eat and bowl for a special price. It was really fun. First we had a big buffet meal with lots of option and a great ice-cream bar for dessert. Then we had 2 hours of bowling/cosmic bowling where we just laughed and had a good time. It was so fun to see them again!


Then on Saturday we spent the day with Søren's dad + girlfriend as well as Ulla + Peter and the boys. Søren's dad had rented a cabin for the week and invited us to come Saturday and stay until Sunday. It was a very relaxing day. We just hung out playing games, eating, chatting, and we also took at nice walk down to the ocean.


Finally on Sunday morning we woke up and drove from the cabin to Søren's cousin's house. His cousin and her family have meant a lot to me living in Denmark because last year I gave his cousin's daughter piano lessons and they always invited me for dinner. It was fun to eat with a family and get to know some of my danish family here. So it was nice to catch up with them and Søren was able to help his cousin's son tune the drums Søren helped buy a month ago.

After a nice morning and afternoon it was time for church where we were able to be a part of it from the church benches instead of from the band. It was nice to enjoy the service in a different kind of way for a change.

Sunday night went by with a lot of relaxing and watching the Grammys!!! I was so happy that they were showing a re-run of the Grammys, I could tell I really missed seeing it the past few years! And now we know some new up and coming artists from the states. Its crazy how much later new songs and artists get to DK, or maybe I just don't hear the radio as much as I used to!

This week is filled with the student recording and meetings for our trip to Poland next week, while Søren is healthy and back at school.

2 apparently equals 8

Although we are Math teachers, Søren and I recently learned that when you are talking about the number 2 it really means the number 8. Confused??... continue reading....

I may not have told everybody this before, but in order to work and live in Denmark I need to have a work visa. Anyway, the past 2 years it hasn't been much of a problem but for some reason this year has been crazy. I applied for an extension of the visa back in June and although I was supposed to hear from them by the time my old visa expired on July 31st I have been waiting an waiting. We have called the Immigrations office many times asking when it was coming but always the same answer. "We are working on it!" The good thing is that as long as the application is in the process I can stay and work in Denmark, but there is the risk that I could get a letter one day saying that I didn't get the extension and have a month to leave the country. Well I did recieve a letter the other day from the Immigration office....only a mere 8 months later..... and it said I was approved!!! So I can stay!!!! Its nice to have that reassurance.

On the same note we applied just a few weeks ago for the Marriage Reunification "visa" which gives me permanent permission to stay in Denmark as long as Søren and I are married. This "visa" gives me a lot more freedom to switch jobs, study or have babies, none of which are in the near future but again options are always nice to have. So I guess you could say we are very excited about this, now we just need to wait again to hear about this Marriage Reunification. They say max. 4 months, but for that last visa they said max 2 months and it took 8 so we aren't getting our hopes up yet.

Anyway, that is the big new from here. We've had a nice relaxing weekend. We visited one of our American/Dane couples and it was great to see them again. (Josh was with us on Watermark and sang for our wedding). They moved to Denmark just before Christmas and we hadn't seen them yet so it was great. We played American board games and spoke English the whole time, it was so fantastic! They are going to have a baby in a month so we figured we better see them now before their lives suddenly become very very busy.

All in all a great weekend before a crazy busy week.

What's new?

Well not much is new but an update is needed. We are just having everyday happenings. Work and friends are the top on the list. Last week we had something planned every night of the week, either with friends, school, or choir practice. But now it is Sunday and we are spending it the way it should be, relaxing!

In the past week Søren has had a lot of time off but it was great because then he was able to help his little cousin buy a drum set. I think he had just as much fun as his cousin looking at all the different drum sets and well he had to practice selv restraint when he found his dream drum set at a very very good price! Its great that he was able to help, his cousin really looks up to him!

Otherwise, yesterday we visited Ulla and Peter and our two nephews. We hadn't seen them since Christmas and you can really tell in both of them that they have grown, especially Nikolaj who is just so "tall" now, and already crawling! Peter had gotten an early birthday present, a Nintendo Wii, so we all played for much of the day. Lukas was so good at it and we had a hard time beating him, but it was fun to see how excited he was.
Playing tennis.

Otherwise its been a relaxing weekend after a stressful week. We are looking forward to a relaxing week at school while the students are working on a big project, before it gets busy again with a trip to Poland, recording a CD and other events!

Hope all is well with our readers!

Love,
Mary and Søren