Thursday was my first day at work. I took a very long tour of the chemistry building and was introduced to I think pretty much everyone who works in the entire building. I briefly met Bo, who I will be working for. But, he was all sorts of busy with a student giving a Ph.D. defense, a Norwegian colleague who was apparently wandering lost all over city, and a knee operation, so we put off getting me started until Friday/Monday. So, instead of working, I set out to downtown to find out what this "World Pictures Australia" event that I had been seeing ads for was about.

Turns out, this was an event where all of downtown Aarhus became Australia themed for a day. I think a lot of it had to do with promoting tourism to Australia, because they were many flight/travel companies there. There were exhibits on Australian wildlife...
The Jutland girls marching band...
And Danes playing beach volleyball.
This was made much more amusing by the fact that the Danish boys were really bad at volleyball. Also, it was pretty cold (50 F ish) and had been raining, so they were probably freezing. And there were dancing girls on pedestals (see: girl in red shorts). I enjoy the juxtaposition in this photograph - beach volleyball in front of the centuries old cathedral.

Friday was a public holiday: Constitution Day. I tried to go in to work to meet my boss, Bo, but the entire building was locked. Silly American girl, trying to go to work on a public holiday. Instead, I went to a new art exhibit in Aarhus called "Sculpture by the Sea". It consisted of many (over 50) sculptures set up along the coast. The exhibition was originally shown in Australia, but Frederik and Mary (the prince and princess) wanted to bring it to Denmark (note: Mary is from Australia. She is (was) a commoner. This was a huge deal to the Danes, that someone in the royal family would marry a commoner. But, the Danes love her now because she learned Danish really quickly and is very good at public relations). This was one of my favorite sculptures:
It was very delicate and intricate, and moved and turned with the wind. This was another cool moving sculpture:
And a whale-plane!
Since it was the day the exhibit opened, Frederik and Mary were there to introduce it. Of course, I wanted to see them! They are more popular than celebrities here. Unfortunately, the other speeches by the mayor, the art director, etc took so long that I had to leave to catch my bus and I did not get to see them. Very disappointing.

Then, I took the train to Solrod Strand to visit my host family for the weekend. My host mom, Mona, picked me up from the train station, and we went to visit my host grandmother Kirsten.
Saturday, I woke up early to eat breakfast with my host brother, Lasse, before he had to leave to go play in a floorball tournament. I took a walk down to the city center with Mona, and then walked around on the beach for awhile.Then, we went to a birthday party for some of Peter (host dad) and Mona's friends' (adult) children. It started at 1 PM and was described to me as a 'lunch'. When we arrived at 1, a beer was immediately placed in hand. We ate some delicious danish food (herring and rye bread - better than it sounds) and drank lots. Then, we had more food, Danish barbeque. Then, it was time for cake and coffee; it was maybe 4 PM at this point. It started to rain about now, so it was lucky that all Danish parties involve tents set up in the backyard, so we all took shelter in the tent. At this point, I remembered (how could I forget) that Danish parties go on forever, and I realized I was in for a very long day. At some point here, Peter showed up, because he had been in Poland for work. We hung out a bit more, then it was time to eat some delicious Danish sausage! Every good Danish party involves eating sausage. Then, we watched the Danish national football game against Sweden, which Denmark won! Peter, Mona, and I finally biked home around 10 PM, and I fell immediately asleep, being exhausted after 9 hours of partying. This morning, Lasse, and my other host brother, Jakob, came for brunch. I had forgotten how much I like my host brothers - they are incredibly friendly and open, as is my whole host family. Denmark was voting on several issues today, so Peter and Mona took me with them to witness the Danish democratic process. After that, I had to go to the train station and come home. It was such nice weather here that I went out for a long run. Aaaand, that about brings me up to now!

Now, in Danish House Names Part 2, one of my favorite house names, just down the street from Peter and Mona's house:Stormly!
With a tree on the roof and a very cute post box in red!

-Lauryn