Blog Spring Cleaning: Dansk Progress, Monkey is Two, Fashion Fails, Irondad Prevails

TV/Midt-Vest visit

In January, my classmates and I passed the test to move to Module 3. Now in addition to our regular classes, we have a group project element in which we make presentations on a central theme. This is a combined effort with Module 4, and we have just begun our second project--Media in Holstebro. My team chose TV, so I arranged for us to visit TV/Midt-Vest, the regional TV station, last week. We were all pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable and interesting it was. We got a personal tour by the redaktionschef through the news rooms and studios, and she graciously sat with us for a short interview. We will give our presentations in a couple of weeks. 

In February, I took the first Dansk Prøve, a test which is required for those on 'Family Reunification' visas. There is only one testing location for the entire country, so it was a very convenient 3 1/2 hour drive for us. I'm still waiting for the results, but the test was easy. 

Monkey Baby turned two in March, so she's not really a baby anymore. But she's definitely still a monkey. She's funny and frustrating and totally charming. Her English and Danish are both developing quickly which is completely fascinating to me as one raised mono-lingually. Currently trending is 'ikke' (not) with everything: 

'Daddy henne?' (Where's Daddy?)

'Daddy's in the living room opening the curtains.'

'Nej, mama, ikke curtains.'

'Well, he is opening the curtains.'

'Ikke curtains!'

'Take it up with Daddy.'

'Time to get ready for bed, Monkey.' 

'Nej, ikke bed.' 

'Yes, and then we'll read some books.' 

'Nej, mama, ikke read books!' 

'But you love books!' 

(pause) 'Yaaaay books!'

So that's fun.

Påske is everywhere right now. Easter. There are familiar themes of eggs and chocolate bunnies, and the ad magazines are full of offers on legs of lamb and pickled herring. 

Easter dresses, c. 1987

This morning my choir sang for the Palm Sunday service out at Mejrup Kirke. Even though I've been to church here before--and to this church in particular--I still decided to wear high heels, dress slacks, and a dry-clean-only top. It must be something ingrained. Growing up, we always dressed up for church. But today, I felt a little out of place in a sea of sensible shoes and no-nonsense attire. 

This is not the first time I've felt inappropriately dressed at an event in Denmark, so I'm considering generating a chart which details occasions and clothing options that can be cross-referenced with times of day.

• Evening birthday in a garden tent: casual with sweater
• Afternoon birthday: nice casual, take along practical shoes for a forest/beach walk
• Confirmation with a nursing infant: squeeze into that one black dress and hope for the best
• Confirmation at a golf resort: GO SHOPPING
• Church: freely choose any of the frumpy clothes in your closet

It's a work in progress.

To finish my spring cleaning, I need to mention my dad. He pops up in my writing now and then, often in conjunction with athletic achievements, and his latest accomplishment is the Melbourne Ironman. 

As with his first Coeur d'Alene Ironman, there was a bit of drama. There was a trip to the ER to deal with recurring gut blockage caused by the radiation several years ago. There was morphine and an IV drip. There was a mad dash to the airport directly from the VA hospital. There was a recurrence of bronchitis. There was dehydration. Ultimately, there was an Ironman, and his name is Dwight Schuh. 

He finished sixth out of seven in the 70-74 age group, sticking it out to the end with fellow American Richard Weinbrandt who came in seventh with 1 1/2 lungs following a lung infection and surgery in December 2014. To quote my sister, 'Sounds like the old guy division isn't for wimps.' You can say that again.

Sorry you didn't get your Kona qualifier, dad. We still think you're alright.

This and That

I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving because, well, I haven't really done anything post-worthy. Emily constantly bugs me to post (myspace comment from 12.01: MORE BLOGS, MORE BLOGS...!), and I think to myself, 'But I haven't done anything!'

Then I started pondering what defines a post-worthy subject. There are obviously no guidelines, no rules or regulations about what one can or can't post (though I could sure make some suggestions regarding what one's blog shouldn't contain). So why do I feel the need to keep my posts action-based? Why haven't I joined the realm of rambling bloggers who thinks that someone somewhere will care for one second about their muddled thoughts and verbose profundities?

May this blog be the answer.

I wanted to buy a dress for our school Christmas party. I don't know why. Julian's making us wear Santa dresses for part of it anyway. But I thought it would be nice to have a dress, and Morten said he'd take me out for a nice dinner if I got one, so I went to Itaewon in Seoul where they cater a little more to foreigners given the proximity of the military base. I wanted something classic and quality but only found weird, cheap, feathered and sequined. I went home with a sweater and some slacks. Oh, and an electronic toothbrush! More about that later. Then I decided to try my luck here in Gangneung but only found an acute case of post fall dressless disorder, aka Gang-sters don't wear, buy or sell dresses in the winter! *clench fists and teeth, exhale sharply, regroup* So I scrapped the dress idea altogether and went for the nice-white-button-down-with-the-new-slacks idea, meaning that I needed to purchase a nice white button-down. First I found alot of nothing; then I found colored and designed shirts, then I found a white shirt with the brand embroidered on the front in green; then I found some shirts with ruffles, lace, ties and drawstrings, big gold buttons, puffy sleeves, and high collars reminiscent of the turn of the century; then I wanted to scream. I finally found a relatively inoffensive plain white button-down shirt with no frills. I tried on two sizes and purchased the one that fit my arm length but was too big through the ribs. Good news though, I'm having it altered at the dry cleaner.

But listen to me, I'm still writing about my actions!

Ah yes, the toothbrush, nay mouthbrush. The Oral B TRIUMPH Professional Care 9000. First, though, let me tell you something about me and my teeth. I like my teeth. I like to think that I have nice teeth. I am very protective of my teeth. Some people have bad dreams about being chased or killed. My dad has the recurring 'missing the plane' or 'forgetting the plane ticket' dreams. I have the 'my teeth are falling out' dream. I can't stop them, they just come loose and crunch around in my mouth in a big garbled mess (fortunately I haven't had it in awhile--it really is quite troubling). This is where the TRIUMPH comes into play. I've wanted an electronic toothbrush for awhile now, and with the advent of the disappointing visit to the dentist here in November, I thought it was time to take matters into my own hands before I started having the dream again. Well, with the Oral B TRIUMPH Professional Care 9000, the matter has been firmly placed in my hands. I can floss, brush and polish my teeth, massage my gums, scrape my tongue and do detail work around my permanent wire retainer. It even tells me how long to brush each 'quadrant' of my mouth so I can achieve the doctor recommended 2 minutes of brushing. And on top of it all, it has a built-in voltage converter, enabling me to use it anywhere in the world! It's the perfect thing for the oral hygiene conscious world traveler and a worthwhile purchase for anyone.

Liz's Birthday Continued/My Foray into Korean Fashion

Since we didn't feel like doing anything on Thursday night (school night) in celebration of the birthday, we decided to do the official foreigner celebration on Saturday night. And because we always just see each other in our plain old jeans and t-shirts or whatever else we happened to wear to work that day, we thought it would be fun (some more than others) to dress up for dinner. And instead of simply pulling out one of the three sensible skirts from our wardrobes, why not go shopping?

Our friend April found a dress fairly easily, so that left me and Liz to fend for ourselves one night after work. We wanted actual dresses, but this posed a couple of problems. One, Korean women don't wear casual dresses very often. There are strange skirts and tops and expensive little boutique dresses aplenty, but we wanted something in the middle. Two, Liz and I are big American women, and even though there are some big Korean women, Korea just hasn't caught onto making big clothes. In fact, I know that there are many Korean women who have a hard time finding clothes in their own country. It's not as if they're fat, either. Anyway, just for fun, we did go into a couple of the little boutiques. In one, a woman convinced us to try on some items even though she only had small and medium in everything. "I can ORDER large..." she told us expectantly, trying to make a good impression, unlike some of the shop owners who all but sneered at the mention of 'large'. We didn't leave completely depressed, however--we considered the fact that I actually got one of the dresses zipped a victory. As we were about to give up, we ran across a store with lots of brightly colored, fun and funky clothes in the biggest variety of sizes we'd seen yet. And they had dresses. Liz found a nice 'free size' dress, and after trying on a couple of misses, I got a hit. Once we had our dresses picked out, I, of course, had to check out the jewelry and found a nice necklace and some earrings to match my dress.

Sidenote about dressing rooms: there's usually standing room only, so hopefully you don't have to do much bending over; there usually aren't mirrors in the 'rooms', so plan on modeling for everyone in front of the communal mirror; and don't be surprised by a scant door covering. This last dressing room in question was right next to all the clothes and had a curtain on a dowel that covered me from mid-ribcage to knees. Liz was kind enough to stand in front of it. I also once tried on a pair of jeans in a utility closet.

Saturday afternoon we had a nice girls only lunch after which I treated Liz to a fancy airbrush manicure, and April and I had 'foot care' which translates as nearly one hour of intense leg and foot massage. We plan to go back. After that, we put on our dresses, collected the rest of our party, and went for dinner at Liz's favorite samgyeopsal restaurant. I was able to catch some photos of us in our rare state of dress--we even got Bryce to wear a tie, though it didn't last very long around his neck.