Lawn chairs and Lavender

I haven't posted anything in a while mainly because there hasn't been too much to report and I didn't want to make you read through another post with no pics, boooring isn't it? Of course now that I am in 'procrastinating from my studies mode' (again) I finally uploaded the few recent photos I have taken.

Since I last wrote I went to Brussels for another meeting this time because I am a member of the Erasmus Mundus Association (EMA) Newsletter Service Team and hence part of a new Liaison Group within the EMA. Sounds fancy and official doesn't it? It was a good meeting to be honest and a great chance to not only reconnect with my team but also with some other cool people I met on my first Brussels trip last fall.

Due to the need to find the cheapest flight possible on our limited budget from the EC I had an extra day to wander around Brussels. The downtown area is small and cozy with lots of cute boutiques and chocolate shops. I also stumbled upon the best, coolest thing about Brussels. Any of you who have been church tourists in Europe know that its a pain in the neck (literally because you have to find an odd angle) to get a good look or a decent photo of the whole of a church face. In Brussels they have created a fantastic way to soak in the view of the church in the center of the city by putting out several permanent wooden lawnchairs in the green space in front of the church. After several hours of walking around and feeling weary from window shopping (yes I DO have a rough life ;-) I took a catnap on one of these chairs amidst a refreshing early spring breeze and under the rays of a perfectly shining sun. Check it out!





















The other cool spot is this covered shopping area, kind of puts US strip malls to shame don't 'cha think?
















As for life in DK, its going A-O.K. these days with the exception of bicycle troubles - argh. I was fortunate to find a guy knowledgeable and willing to fix a flat on my dashing hot pink racing machine (ha!). Unfortunately, the fix only lasted me three weeks and now its time for the new tire I knew was going to have to be bought sooner or later - was just hoping it would be (much) later. The troublesome bicycle gods have struck again!

I also had a week off in March during which I INTENDED to do some castle hopping outside of Copenhagen but failed completely in the mission. Instead I revisited the Statens Museum with a friend and spent many hours cursing the snow that reappeared every morning for several days. Argh! In January I didn't mind the dark and the cold so much, its January after all in Scandinavia. I was not mentally prepared for freezing temps at the end of March. We had a few addictive tastes of spring earlier in the month, what happened? Where did it go? Why was it taunting us? Is spring schizo? I began to wonder...

Despite the chilly temps though spring could not be stopped as was evident in the arrival of the daffodils and other spring flowers and just in time - the sun and flower-power have served to get me off my lazy winter butt and back to playing futbol (calcio, soccer) and running, FINALLY! Every day that I ran in nearby Frederiksberg Have (park) more and more flowers were blooming in yellow, white and numerous shades of lavender. Anne and Linda you would love it! Here is a few pic I took recently of my flower laden running path.
















I'll leave you with what I found to be some thought provoking ideas uttered in the film "Stranger than Fiction":

"Sometimes when we loose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy - we can thank god for Bavarian sugar cookies and fortunately when there aren't any cookies we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or in subtle encouragement, or in a loving embrace, or in an offer of comfort....We must remember that the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties that we assume only accessorize our days are, in fact, here for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives..."