Copenhagen, Denmark and Oslo, Norway Trip

Copenhagen

Clifton, my mother and I went to Copenhagen for two nights last week and driving from the airport we were a little concerned about our choice in vacation spots. Never judge a city based on the airport location. The area was very modern and not pretty but as we got closer to the city center we realized why we chose Copenhagen. We were not prepared for how hot it was going to be and Clifton and I have not been in that kind of heat in quite a while. It was lovely though! Our first day in Copenhagen we walked down the popular shopping street Stroget and went into a few stores to try to buy some warm weather clothing. Clifton actually bought some Capri's for himself. I have to say I was super concerned about this fashion decision but he looked adorable in his little Capri's, and so European. We saw a lot of great squares where people congregate around fountains and hang out at cafes. Some of the cities in Europe are so relaxed and carefree and you feel it when you are surrounded by it. Copenhagen is definitely one of those cities. The first night of our vacation we decided to take a 30 minute train ride to Malmo, Sweden for dinner. Malmo was amazing. We ate at "The Steakhouse" and the food was to die for. We sat outside on the patio at the restaurant, in the middle of the square, and had a great start to our vacation. Our second day, we started it by going to Rosenborg Palace which was built by Christian IV between 1608 and 1634 as a summer palace and used by the Danish Royal Family from the middle of the 18th Century as a spring and autumn residence. It is a gorgeous palace with the most amazing gardens where the Copenhagen residents go for picnics, walks, bike rides etc... In the middle of the gardens they have a little cafe that serves Belgian waffles so we stopped by there and all three of us had a waffle, tea and coffee and enjoyed our surroundings. We then went to go see The Little Mermaid statue. The Little Mermaid symbolizes the fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, the story of a young mermaid who fell in love with a prince who lived on land, and often came up to the edge of the water to look for her love. This is one of the most popular sites to see in Copenhagen but unfortunately it is in Shanghai on display in the Danish pavilion for the world fair so we could only see a live feed from the museum in the place where the statue is supposed to be. After The Little Mermaid we went to see the Amalienborg Palace which is the Royal residence during the winter. This Palace was an interesting palace to see because it is extremely modern. They were in the process of refurbishing the entire place. The floors and the fixtures were beautiful and not what you to expect to see in a 200 year old palace. The wall murals were hideous to say the least. They were modern and weird. These murals made these beautiful rooms odd and out of place. All three of us couldn't believe these murals. The young royal couple must be very modern and eccentric to want these in their royal palace. Right outside of the Amalienborg Palace we saw the changing of the guard which was a lot like the changing of the guard in London. After the Palace we went a little ways down to Christiania which is a Freetown of about 850 residents that have their own laws. We were told before getting off our hop on hop off bus that you are not allowed to take pictures so I wish I could show you what it was like inside the little commune. We were told on the bus that smoking marijuana is illegal in Copenhagen and if you are caught doing so you will face possible fines and jail time. We thought that was a little odd right as we are getting off the bus but then we walk into the opening to get into Christiania and the first person we see is smoking a joint. So I guess it is illegal in Copenhagen but not Christiania. It is an amazing little city in a city with some cool shopping. We only walked through it for about 25 minutes but it was so worth it to see it. When you walk in Christiania you feel like you just stepped into the 60's and 70's. With a day full of sightseeing we decided to go walk along the canals and have some ice cream. The canals were beautiful with these amazingly built boats. The ice cream was one of our favorite things in Copenhagen. They call them softies and it is the most creamy, amazing ice cream. My mother couldn't get enough, but who am I kidding, Clifton and I couldn't either. Lastly, we went to the Carlsberg brewery and we got my mother to try a beer even though she said she hates beer. Her face was priceless and Clifton got a picture of her bitter beer face and me laughing at her. Our trip to Copenhagen was so fun and we loved travelling with my mother. She is up for anything and willing to walk for miles just don't try to get her to go up hills because she doesn't enjoy that. We had a lovely time and would highly recommend Copenhagen as a place to visit.

Oslo

My mother's grandparents and my great grandparents are from Norway and this is the reason we chose Norway as our next vacation spot. The vacation started out great with my mom being upgraded to a suite at our hotel that is on the main street in Oslo's city center. The first day in Oslo we went to the Folk museum that has everyday objects, toys, clothing and furniture from Norway. Our favorite part of the museum was the part of the museum where they have a large open-air museum, with old wooden buildings, arranged according to the part of Norway from which they come. In this part of the museum they have a Stave Church. The Norwegian Stave Churches are some of the oldest wooden structures in the world. It is a beautiful sight to see and different from any church you have seen. After about three hours in the Folk museum we were museum'ed out and went to an outdoor bar across the street from our hotel to get ready for the finals of the World Cup. I couldn't wait for my mother to see the European craziness surrounding Football or Soccer. Needless to say it was packed at this bar and standing room only except for us who had gotten a table because we had arrived early. At half time we decided to finish watching the game in my mother's fancy suite that overlooks the street. With the windows open it felt like we were still at the bar because the streets were so loud and my mother was on the fourth floor. The next day of our vacation all three of us hadn't gotten a lot of sleep due to celebrations surrounding the World Cup but we got on the bus and headed towards the Vigeland park. The park covers 80 acres and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures were incredible and made for a brilliant walk. After our stroll through the park we went to the Viking Ship museum. The Viking Ship Museum displays the large Viking ships Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, as well as finds from the chief grave at Borre in the Vestfold district. The three ships are the best preserved Viking ships known, found in royal burial mounds in the Oslo fjord. These Viking ships are such an incredible sight to see and massive. The woodwork that the Norwegians were capable of at this time was beautiful and very advanced. The last day of our vacation we decided to take a relaxing boat cruise through the Oslo Fjord. Fjords are formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. There are a number of Fjords in Norway but the only one we had time to go to was the Oslo Fjord and it was well worth it. The two hours flew by because everything was so beautiful. The houses are so cute and have beautiful views to enjoy everyday. To finish our Norway vacation we went by the new Opera house that was built in 2007 for 750 million dollars. What an amazing architectural sight. The architect wanted it to look like a glacier. He definitely succeeded.

If you had to have me pick between Oslo and Copenhagen I would say Copenhagen but I loved getting to see Norway especially since my ancestors are from there. Both cities were incredible to see and we had so much fun. We look forward to our next trip in the first of August to Prague!

My Mom's Visit to Scotland

My Mom arrived two weeks ago after a long and hard flight and I was so sad to see her get on the airplane today after the fun we have had travelling. The first day she arrived at 3 o'clock into Aberdeen and we walked up to a little deli called Rock Salt and Snails to have a snack. She was extremely tired from the flight over so the goal was to keep her up until 6 so she could get past the jet lag. She made it until 630 and then went to bed. The second day she was here we had a very full day visiting Glamis and Dunnotar Castle. Glamis is about an hours drive from my house but a beautiful castle. After Glamis we drove to Dunnotar Castle. This castle is only 20-25 minutes from my house and I had not been to walk around these ruins yet but had only seen it from the road. Dunnottar Castle was home to one of the most powerful families in Scotland, the Earls Marischal, from the 14th century when Sir William Keith, the 1st Earl Marischal, built his Tower House, also known as the Keep. These ruins are incredible and the views from the ruin are breathtaking. I will say it is a challenge getting up to the ruins. It is about 150 steps down and up and then 150 back. So my mother and I definitely got our workout for the day and I thought my mom was going to kill me after I dragged her up and down those stairs but after she got her breath back she said it was worth it. After the first couple of days my mother told me she could see why Clifton and I loved Scotland so much. She was so impressed with the beauty of the land.

One day I took my mother around all the shops and grocery stores to show her what my real day to day life consists of. It was hilarious watching her face at the grocery store. She loved so many different things and kept saying this is amazing. Some of her favorites were the different flavored chips, all the different cadbury chocolates, packaged ready made waffles and pancakes. She loved the organization of our store as well. I let her get some things to try since she was so impressed with the different products. She got some caramel cadbury chocolates, cadbury chocolate pudding, a weird flavored potato chip, and of course the strawberries. Our strawberries in the UK are much better because they are more fresh and we grow them right outside of town. My mom said it was like a flavor-burst in her mouth when she bit into one. Ha! She got to see everything Aberdeen has to offer and was impressed by what our small city has available to us. Clifton and I had so much fun showing my mom around and what I have just written about was only in the first few days. The next blog is about our trip to Copenhagen and Oslo.

New Home and Highland Games Video

Clifton and I lived in a flat in Aberdeen for 6 months and became increasingly annoyed that we did not have a garden or a cute granite home. Aberdeen is called the 'granite city' and the homes in the city of Aberdeen are built from granite. So after living in Kepplestone for 5 months we started to look for homes in the area. We are so excited about our new home and absolutely feel we made the right decision in moving. Though, in typical Scottish form we move in and the hot water wasn't working or any of the radiators in the house except for one in the spare bathroom that felt like a sauna anytime you opened the door. Coming from America you would think those things would be checked but nope a lovely reminder that we live in Scotland and things like that are pretty typical. Customer service is not a priority here! Obviously! Yes, they did get everything fixed about three days later so we do have hot water now and radiators that work but our dryer is now starting to give out. I guess we can get clothes lines like everyone else here, but I don't feel right about hanging my undergarments outside for the whole world to see, but no one else seems to care.

We are so happy in our new house and sit outside as much as possible considering the temperature is only nice enough for that about three months out of the year. I also love all the character that this home has like the fireplace, crown molding and chandeliers. So lovely!

Attached is a video of our new place and one of the events from the Highland Games that is talked about in an earlier post.

Highland Games Slideshow

Here are some pictures of the Highland Games in Aberdeen!

I know it has been a long time since I updated my blog and I apologize but Clifton and I moved into a new house and it takes a couple weeks to get Internet service set up in Scotland. Gosh how we missed America these last two weeks when they say it takes a week to set up cable and two to set up just a phone line and Internet. Scotland is in the stone ages sometimes! My next post will show you a video of our new place. This post is all about Clifton and I's experience at the Aberdeen Highland Games. The games were at Hazelhead Park on June 20, 2010. Clifton and I walked to the park from our house and were getting more and more excited as we got closer because we could here the announcer and the bagpipes. The park was full of tents selling homemade goods, kids bounce houses, and of course big Scottish men dressed in kilts. Then of course the park had all kinds of food vendors that made the entire park smell wonderful and made you want to eat the entire time. Clifton and I had a pulled pork sandwich and chips or fries as we Americans call them. I really wanted the smoked fish which are pictured in the slide show but the line was insane and my patience can't handle that kind of line. They smoked the fish whole in these wooden barrels covered with a blanket and then would pull the blanket off, hang the fish and just cut it in half and serve it on a paper towel. They smelled so good and the people looked so satisfied who were eating them. I admit I was jealous! After being there for four hours I got hungry again and saw this kid eating this horrible looking thing but when I asked what it was the woman said potatoes, onions, and steak all mashed into one. For some reason that sounded appetizing to me. So Clifton and I set out on the hunt for this mushed stuff. I found it at a little vendor and it was called "Stovies and Oatcakes". There is also a picture of this on the slide show. It looks terrible and even as I got it Clifton said to me, "I think this was a bad idea on your part." I disagreed of course, and was he ever wrong. It was amazing and then Clifton tried it and loved it too! Never judge a book by it's cover! One of the other random things we saw at the highland games were the owls that were featured in the Harry Potter films. They were beautiful! These were all owls that were rescued and now this group of people travel with the owls asking for donations and charging £5 for pictures to be taken with them. We just took pictures of the owls ourselves. I didn't need to pay the £5 for one to sit on my arm and take a picture. After eating a ton we decided to watch some of the competitions that we ended up thinking were hilarious. They had running events where anyone can sign up apparently and there is this old guy who participates in every event and was horrible. He came in last in every event and I mean every event but good for him for trying! But come to find out he is pretty smart because he gets to come and get his exercise and last place wins £8 for every event. So the guy ended up making around £50 for just participating. I told Clifton I am doing it next year just to get some extra money. HA! Our favorite event was the tug of war. Who knew there was such strategy to this event. These men were amazing. If one took a step they took the step at the exact same time and they were incredibly flexible. It was so fun to watch. The other event we enjoyed was the caber toss. This is the event where the big boys get a tree trunk and have to toss it and it has to have the bottom end of the caber to point away from the thrower and the top end should be pointing toward him. Don't worry there is video of this also! During the highland games they also have bagpipe band competitions and at the end of the highland games the band leaders had a competition to see who could throw the baton over a sign and catch it on the other side. These men were very talented with twirling the batons too and others not so much. Clifton and I had so much fun at the games and we are going to another one in a couple of weeks in Stonehaven so my mother who is visiting can experience this amazing Scottish tradition.

Amber's Birthday Party

Our friend Amber turned 28 a couple weeks ago and we decided to throw her a birthday party at one of the two local Mexican food restaurants. La Bamba is the name of the restaurant and is pretty much just a party place. Everyone does birthday parties there and hen and stag parties. A hen and stag party is a bachelor and bachelorette party. They are usually themed and everyone gets dressed up and goes out all night and one of the more popular places to start out the night is La Bamba. As a part of the party experience you get a party pack with balloons, pirate eye patch, mustache, maracas, hat, and party poppers. If you specify early you can get a sombrero specially made for the birthday girl or boy. So fun! The whole place is just full of people celebrating something. As you can see in the pictures and videos La Bamba is fun for all ages. I will say the food is horrible but the atmosphere makes up for it.

Other than the birthday party nothing else has really gone on in our life here. I have two more weeks of school and Clifton goes on a four day golf weekend with some of his friends this weekend. In two weeks, we move into our new place and then the first week in July my mother comes to visit for two weeks. We have a very exciting summer planned full of family visits and vacations! I am ready to be out of school and start the fun!

New Lanark School Field Trip

New Lanark Field Trip

So first off I want to say I know this is supposed to be about Clifton and I but Clifton does not work for the Internation School so he did not go on the field trip so he is not in this blog entry. He is doing great and kicking butt and taking names at his job!! :)

Last Thursday and Friday I went on a field trip with my 5th grade class. I have to say this was the coolest field trip I have ever been able to take part in as a teacher. We travelled to all these amazing museums and monuments all over Scotland for two days. We set out on our little journey on Thursday morning at 7am and headed to Dundee where we were taken on a tour of the ship Discovery. This ship was specially built for Antartica exploration in the early 1900's for Great Britain. It was an amazing ship with an amazing story. Antartica was unknown at this point in time and this ship was lived on for three years by 47 men who wanted to be some of the first to explore the unknown land. After Dundee, we headed towards Bannockburn which is where the Robert the Bruce monument is located. Robert the Bruce lead the Scottish army to victory in 1314 against the English in the Battle of Bannockburn so we visited the battlefield and the monument. There was also a presentation by an actor acting as one of the Scottish soldiers who showed all the different weapons and customary Scottish uniforms at the time of the Battle of Bannockburn. No the men did not where Kilts at this time, the actor told us that was a rumor started by a man named Mel Gibson. Ha! The Scottish are not fans of the movie Braveheart due to its lack of factual information. After Bannockburn we went to Blantyre to visit the home of David Livingstone. Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and one of the greatest European explorers of Africa, whose opening up the interior of the continent contributed to the 'Scramble for Africa'. This was my least favorite musuem but we had a dud for a tour guide. I had some problems keeping my kids in order during the hour long snoozer of a tour. Blantyre was our last musuem visit of the day and then we headed to an indoor water park and pizza hut and lastly made it to our hostel where we stayed over night in New Lanark. This hostel we stayed in used to be an old cotton mill in the 1800's. New Lanark is a World Heritage Site. Here we learned about Robert Owen who owned the four cotton mills in New Lanark but had a vision of providing education for the children who worked in the cotton mills. He also worked to make the mill workers have less hours and gave them one day off a week. In the 1800's in the cotton mills the children were starting to work at 6 years old from 6 till 8 everyday and only two days off a year at Christmas. Robert Owen decided children should not work until they are 10 and they should attend school until that point and every one should have one day off a week and work less hours in a day. The entire city is a museum to his vision. They showed you what a typical home would look like for a mill family, the grocery store, the school, the mills and it is still a working cotton mill today. Friday, we also walked to the Falls of Clyde which is a stunning waterfall. After leaving New Lanark we headed towards Stirling to see the William Wallace monument. There they have Wallace's actual sword. It is a massive sword but it is said that William Wallace was 6'6 so this would explain why his sword was so big. As you can see my class and I saw a ton of stuff throughout Scotland. Needless to say it was exhausting but how lucky are those kids and myself to get to take a field trip through that much history. Again I am so thankful and feel like I am in such an experience because its not like we did your usual field trip to an aquarium or zoo, we toured Scotland!

So this was probably one of my favorite moments of the field trip was when my class went up against Mr. Kajiwara's class at the Robert the Bruce monument. We had our kids memorize the Robert Burns poem 'Scots Wha Hae' and they had to perform it in front of the monument. The teachers who were helping chaperone had to judge which class performed it better. Mine won!! Of course!!

Here are the Scots lyrics and the video of my kiddies performing it is below. I was so proud!

'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tæ Victory.
'Now's the day, and now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power -
Chains and Slavery.
'Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sæ base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee.
'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',
Let him follow me.
'By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free.
'Lay the proud usurpers low,
Tyrants fall in every foe,
Liberty's in every blow! -
Let us do or dee.