Wifi to the Rescue!!!

WHaaaaat???!!???! I have wifi!????! Yipeeeeeee!!!!!!

Not only do my awesome Grenaa hosts have wifi they have two cute little boys whos antics leave me rolling and a cuddly springer spaniel who is excited to have another person to pay attention to him (ball anyone????)

Before I left Ronde (I really wish I had the proper characters for these Danish names) I visited a pig farm (well to be exact i stayed on the pig farm but actually got to go in the barn buildings and held a 4 hour old piglet). They are so cute before they look like pigs and before they realize they are bacon.

We also visited some viking burial grounds which are called the stonehenge of denmark. If it hadnt been drizzling and chilly I definitley would have wanted to stay longer. We also had a short hike, also "dampened" by the weather. But most fun of our last day with our Ronde hosts was visiting the Royal tall ship, which was modified from a sail ship to a steam powered vessel, and browsing a glass art museum.

Pictures are.... um... forthcoming. I may actually be able to upload soon! HA!

Castles that stand the winds of time....

After a sad goodbye to our Aalborg hosts we have arrived in Rønde. We took a short walk over a 500 year old stone road (not so flat these days) and visited a fort which used to house the King of Sweden. Of course the king was actually held as a prisoner there, so his prison tower was not so homey. While the castle withstood the wind, we were thankful for our rotary jackets which we chose for wind and rain proofing our journey.

And oh suprise suprise we had fish at lunch. And we negotiated the second attack of the prawns that keep appearing on my plate in seeking to make me authorize Corey to stab me with the epipen. Seriously!!! The restaurants have been very nice about the shellfish removal though we hear there is good healthcare here. Even so I would rather not use it. Ever. :-) (Sorry Corey.)

Marisa and I are now settled in with our host who has a fantastic farm with pigs. At least we think there are pigs since it is too dark to tell. We also took our first trip to a danish grocery to pick out our breakfast and snacks. Tomorrow we are off to a vocational day.

Picture will appear at some point.....

Aalborg by way of the forest

Hai! I've spent the last four days in Aalborg. Aalborg is the fourth largest city in Denmark and the home of 20,000 students at aalborg university. We have visited the zoo (which has the most awesome polar bears and baby tigers ever!) We also have gone to the monestary and the Guild of Christian the Fourth.

My hosts Leo and Hanne Eriksen have a lovely house in their own forest complete with reindeer. The animals and forest are beautiful.

This morning I had a meeting of the minds with Stofa one of the major internet and Telecom providers to talk about networks, content, and customer interaction.

Tomorrow we move on to Ostre. Hopefully with wifi :-)

Packing...

The packing continues! The hardest part was choosing which shoes to bring. No really...... I'm settled on a pair of peep toe pumps, a wedged dress sandal, an urban flat, and sneakers. I think that should cover all the things we will be doing. I don't want to be stuck walking about the Aalborg Zoo or out on a farm in heels, though it could provide entertainment for the animals.

The other prohibitive factor to packing is of course Glory the basset hound. She thinks my spacebags of clothes are the perfect spot to take a nap. I seriously doubt I will make it out of the US hair-free.

I do have to say I have found many more travel accessories (like my flight pillow) in pink these days. :-) If it werent apparent from my blog theme, pink is my favorite color. Then orange. Then blue. But mostly just pink.

Today is my day to finish up packing. And figure out which phone I will use in Europe. My only lament about switching to Verizon and the Droid is that it doesnt have the UMTS bands which would allow me to use it places other than the US. I've traded the snobbery of Apple and helplessness of AT&T iphone plans for the limitations of the Droid and Verizon's "global traveler" plans which are a major FAIL. If I were still working in telecom I would most certainly rant to someone about it.

And before anyone gets the idea I'm just a frilly girl with my shoe issues and love of pink.... tomorrow morning I have a 9:48 tee time at the golf course. Time to swing some clubs! And hopefully avoid the water hazzards. Last time on this same course I totally plunked one in the water. (ok, it was two into the water but it was on the same hole so thats really like doing it once right????........ right????)

Preparing for Take-off

Hello World (Yes, Wordpress, I stole that.)

Soooooooooo I'm finally getting around to actually adding a post to the blog about the fact that the rest of the GSE team and I will be heading to Denmark on Friday. Yep. Preparing for take-off.

So far my week of final preparations has included an ideterminable amount of trips to Target and Walmart for the things I forgot, and the normal girly stuff like making sure my hair will hold up over the next month without too much hassle. I'm convincing myself too that no matter how much ironing and starching I do now, things will be wrinkled by the time I get to Denmark. I hope the Danes don't mind a rumple or two.

I've also been doing quite a bit of snuggling with Glory, my basset hound, who I will sorely miss when I am away. My roomate has been warned that when I call or skype home he will need to hold the phone or laptop up so I can talk to my dog. A four pound bag of dog treats is sitting on the counter and kibble is stocked in the pantry, toys appear all over the apartment, but I will still worry!

I'll keep you all updated here, but also check out our GSE team blog at http://gseorlando.wordpress.com. We will all be updating there daily (if we stay on schedule).