Saturday, December 27, 2008
Wury is back!
I'M BACK IN CALIFORNIA!
HEJ HEJ KOBENHAVN, DANMARK! Will miss you Denmark, but I just had a date with Garrett yesterday and I'm so glad to be back. Hahaha. Okay not only the sole reason why I'm glad to be back - but a huge part of it :)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
earthquake!
But anyways, my plans for the next 5 days left here in Copenhagen is so weird! Saying goodbyes to people that I probably won't see again! :(((( Okay I have to finish my papers and go to the library... it all feels so weird to have this be my last couple days here! AHhh....Copenhagen you will be missed.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
FIBC Christmas Concert!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
last day of work!!!!!!! :D
But yay!!! No more cleaning poo in toilets, no more cleaning (all sorts of) shed hair, no more dirty Chinese fob men in hotel (it's so true though, everyone like sighs when we see Chinese men in the lobby and out of all the people that come to the hotel, I can say that they are the dirtiest), no more cleaning 15 rooms and bathrooms, no more itchiness from detergents and sprays , no more scrubbing calcium off the faucets and showers, no more wearing the maroon apron uniform, no more free breakfasts and lunches, no more free danish goodies, no more free fitness center, no more seeing my English bosses and co-workers that I just started to get to know a little better... Goodbye Park Inn...
What an experience though to have to work as a hotel cleaner... I really have so much more deep appreciation for hotel cleaners. It is hard work! And I had it easier than my co-workers who were cleaning 23 rooms. That's professional status. And I thought I've gotten pretty fast at cleaning a room now - I have no idea how they do it. I keep telling the girls that: "I don't know how you do it." Some of them have been there for four years! I was working twice or three times a week for 5 hours per day and only there for three months. How tiring it really gets. But you do get used to the physical labor part. I even started to go to the hotel's fitness center on Thursdays to do running on the treadmill! So now that I know what goes behind the scenes in the hotel, some things that I myself would now do differently after staying at a hotel:
1) I wouldn't move the furniture around too much. Some of the people just like to really move side tables underneath desks, and move beds, etc. Try to keep things in the same place. It makes it a lot easier to clean.
2) I would throw away the trash in trashbins and leave bottles and recylcables outside the trashbins. Often times I would have to fish out gross beer bottles and cans in the trashbins
3) I would take off the sheets and pillowcases that I slept in and put it in a pile. And I would also bundle up the towels I used and put them in a pile as well. You don't have to do this, but because I know what hotel cleaners go through, I think I would because it makes cleaning go so much faster.
4) I would also tip well! In Europe I guess they don't tip - but sometimes I would see some Euros or DKK and that was really nice to get.
5) I would get checkout of the room before 12pm for sure. Basically, the later you checkout - the later we would have to stay at hotel to clean the rooms. So checking out in the morning is best so that the hotel cleaners can get out of there faster too.
The list could go on. But those are the major things...please be nice to the housekeeping workers in hotels. Say "hi" to them and smile please. Even those slight things made the job easier.
But yeah, I'm glad God gave me the opportunity and experience to do it - He taught me a lot from it. He made me think of what it means more to be a servant/slave as an analogy to being a servant/slave (doulos) for God. He taught me more on being submissive to my bosses - to do what they say and work hard without complaining. God placed my bosses there for a reason and my actions and obedience are a good way to be a witness for Christ. Having integrity as I work - it is so tempting a lot of the times to just skip over dusting, vacuuming, wiping...And I did give in a couple times :( He gave me the opportunity to witness to more people that don't know Christ and build at least one relationship with a co-worker...
All in all, I have to conclude that hotel-cleaning was a good job. God really used this job to teach me and refine me - to be more of who He wants me to become. But I'm so glad it's over! Haha. Thank You God.
Oh and here are pictures from Rome with Hyan!!!
Monday, November 24, 2008
snowing again!! Hyan is coming!
So Hyan, my oldest sister is coming tomorrow and I'm so excited to have her here!! I hope she can experience the snow while it lasts :) I'm thankful for her that she'll spend that much money to come here and spend Thanksgiving with me and also travel! Haha I'm sure going to Europe is just a plus and another excuse to come. Haha just kidding, but it really is a plus. Have a free place to stayin in Copenhagen if you come from now until December 22nd. Then you would have to leave with me at 5:30am on December 22nd because that's when I gotta go for my flight! WOW...It's November 24th and I have less than a month to go here. I sorta wanna stay longer! Haha. It'll be bittersweet leaving - I think the best part was meeting the people here in Copenhagen. Not necessarily the Danes. I only play volleyball with them really. Haha. But those ones are cool and I'll miss them too - but the church is what I'll miss here. It's been such a faithful spiritual home and really a family to me. Oh Copenhagen...I must make a bucket-list of things to do in Copenhagen. I've made it much more like a home than a place to go visit different museums and castles and churches. But I think I'm gonna start making a list to go visit the ones that I really should. Haha well when Hyan comes - we'll do some of that.
Haha did I tell you guys that I'm going to Rome, Italy?!?! Haha. Hyan wanted to go...and when we bought tickets to go to Poland they got cancelled because Sterling Airlines went bankrupct! So when I was pressing Hyan to make a decision of what to do she didn't really get back to me soon and then she spontaneously decided to go to Rome! So I'm going with her haha. So we'll be there from Wednesday afternoon till Saturday morning!
Right now I gotta go do my Danish homework! But next time I blog it'll be after I come back from Italy! Ciao!
Oh and here are pictures from my London trip with my old suitemate lovely Loan Luu!
Friday, November 21, 2008
snow!!!!!!
Me at work. I was prepared to bring my camera just in case it started to snow while at work! And it did!!!!!!! Okay I think I got too excited that you can't see much. So here's another one!! SO PRETTY!!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Oh my!
Schedule:
- October 28th to November 1st: London with my suitemate from freshman and sophomore year in college, Loan Luu!
- November 12th: Mediasociology paper due. Booo....Gonna write about Joel Osteen. Haha gross huh?
- November 22nd: UC Thanksgiving Dinner in Lund, Sweden with UC students from Sweden! Sweden is just a bridge away! :)
- November 25th to December 1st: Hyan is visiting Copenhagen!
- November 27th to November 30th: Poland!
- December 14th: FIBC's Christmas Concert - "Forever Gloria! We Worship the Christ of Christmas"
- December 15th - 21st: Maybe Romania? My good friend Sylva is gonna go back home and she really wants me to come back with her! :) Maybe....
- December 22nd: FLIGHT HOME! :D
I can't wait to give everyone a FAT hug!
It's going by really fast!!! I'm gonna miss this place. For SURE, I'm gonna come back to Copenhagen some day...
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Being a foreigner in Denmark
So more to experiencing the bad side of being a foreigner is being taken advantage of. I got a job recently (quit it now) at a hotel called Tulip Copenhagen Centre. For the past month and a half, I was looking for a part-time job so that I can pay for my own food and personal expenses here. My dad has been financially burdened enough with paying my rent, my tuition, and some travel expenses. So since I have about 8 hours of class a week I thought, okay why not get job! But finding a job was super tiring - gotta bike there, lock your bike, go inside, ask if there are part-time jobs, give the resume, etc. I did this for at least 2o places. And why it's so hard to work in Denmark as a foreigner is because they want Danish speakers. Something as simple as working in the supermarket I cannot even do just for the reason that I don't speak Danish. And I don't get why they have that - because almost everyone here speaks English, so why don't they just hire me?! I've bumped into so many places that needs workers, but just because I don't speak Danish fluently they don't hire me. Bummer huh?
So last last Tuesday I decided that I was going to target this one area where there are hotels. I was already pretty desperate at this point and didn't care if I had to clean hotel rooms. So printed 10 more resumes and tried to put on a good face so that I could get a job. I was already pretty tired of looking for one at this point. I've been praying about this a lot that if God gives me a job - I'll be sure to not just hoard the money to myself, but that I would serve the church and serve others with the money too. I also really want to be a good steward of my time here in Denmark and know that I could use the extra time that I have to make some money. So yeah I went into hotels, and most of them didn't need any part-time workers because the peak tourism times are over now. Plus recession is horrible everywhere. But ran into Tulip - and basically talked to the manager of the hotel restaurant. I gave him my resume and he said that he would call me later that afternoon to make his decision. I got super excited to hear that. So I went back to the library to study some and then I got a call like 3 hours after I had went into the hotel. He wanted me to swing by the hotel restaurant, so I did and we talked about availability and the things that I would be doing. So he asked if I wanted to start that day! So I gladly said yes! I was thanking God for making this so smooth! I wanted to talk about the pay and all of that - but decided to hold off that question. The reason why I did that was because I knew that okay this is pretty nice hotel and it seemed like things were running in the right manner. So that night just showed me around and told me things I was going to do. We prepared dinner for 3 people and that was that! I only trained for about 2.5 hours and then after working I asked the boss if we could talk about the payments and all of that stuff and he said: Yeah, we'll talk about that tomorrow. So as I was riding my bike back home, I kept thanking God for graciously giving me a job. I was so excited that I finally got one!
So I was actually scheduled to come in the next morning at 6am, but then my ex-boss actually called me later that night telling me that I did not need to come since another waitress was going to be there. So went to bed but then I get a call at 6:53AM and it was my ex-boss asking me if I could please come in because the other girl didn't show up. I wasn't going to lie to him, because I was free and didn't have class until 10AM so I got there ASAP at 7:30AM. So worked with the chef and all was smooth. Everything seemed to be going right - and my boss and I had set up a time to talk about the pay. So while working the breakfast buffet with the chef, I got to talk with him about how much I should be getting paid, about the hotel, etc. And that's when some red flags started to come out. First, the chef told me that the hotel was going under new ownership and this new ownership was not putting in enough money into this hotel. Second, he said that I was probably not employed with the hotel yet but with just the restaurant. So yeah - some red flags huh.
So after my class ended at 12PM, my ex-boss was supposed to call me. I waited for this call but it didn't come, so I called him. He picked up and said that he was busy with the restaurant at the moment and asked if we could talk later. So yeah waited longer...no call. So I called him - no pick up. Called him again later that evening - no pick up. Now I was starting to get worried. Now I was also scheduled to work Friday morning at 6AM. So I woke up around 5:20AM, but accidently fell back asleep! Haha whoops. And woke up again at 6:22AM. I immediately called the chef and told him that I was going to be there in 15-20 minutes! But he said that I didn't need to come in. And he asked, "Palle (ex-boss) didn't tell you?" And that's when I realized that I've been cheated and taken advantage over. I didn't want to get angry at 6:30AM so I just went back to sleep - glad anyway that I didn't need to work the breakfast buffet.
So I was also scheduled to work Saturday at 6AM too - but Friday, I tried calling me ex-boss several times. Still no pickup. So I just finally left a voice mail and text message saying how we were supposed to talk about pay and that if he wanted me to work things should be straightened out. But after leaving those messages, I just knew that he wasn't going to pay me for the 6 hours that I've worked.
So yeah - I got angry and frustrated inside, but then I was talking to God more about this whole situation that happened. Like okay God, what do you want to teach me? I've never really been wronged like this before - but then God was just reminding me to love others. And looking to the example of Jesus who loved his enemies - when they spat on Him, shouted at Him, mocked Him, beat Him, whipped Him, scourged Him, crucified Him...He still forgave them. So I forgave my ex-boss in my heart. So the next Tuesday, I had wanted to speak with him face to face and give him back the tie that I was supposed to wear for work. I was ready to talk with him calmly and walking in the hotel again I felt a bit nervous. I was talking with the receptionist and she explained to me that the hotel restaurant actually got shut down.
And looking back, I see that God was actually trying to protect me too. Because if this kept on going on and I still kept working - then I probably wouldn't have been paid for even more hours worked. And I was stupid for not settling all that legal paper work in the beginning before working...
But now I have a new job! This lovely Chinese lady at my church, Ying, worked at this other hotel for 4 years and they pay well, bosses are nice, coworkers are nice, free breakfast and lunch, and they do things legally! Haha, but it's no more waitressing/helping the cook it's housekeeping! Haha yes, I am a housekeeper for a hotel. The hotel is called Park Inn. It's a really humbling job. I gotta scrub the toilet, clean the bathroom (with all kinds of hair in it), replace all kinds of things in the room, change bedsheets, make the bed, vacuum, dust, etc. It's weird that now I'm the one knocking on the door and saying: "Housekeeping!" Haha it's really weird...But hey - I'm almost 21 now and I need to start supporting for myself on my own. It's a good experience, it really is and even though it's not the best job in the world - I have a peace in my heart because I know that God wants me there. I say to myself: "Wury, don't complain - this is good practice before you become a wife/mom - God-willing." So when I sleep at hotels, I'll just be thinking and criticising how they make the beds and clean the bathroom. Haha.
So today was my third time coming in to work, and the people that I work with are nice and interesting. I've been able to share about God and really open up with one coworker, Jing. And my bosses right now want to know what the Bible explicitly says about homosexuality. Haha. That topic might get a little sticky - but gotta tell them the truth!
But yeah - should get going and get to bed earlier. Gotta be up by at least 6:30! Goodnight all!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Brrrrrr....

The temperature here has totally dropped.... it's getting so cold here! The lowest today will be 7C!! And for those that don't think in terms of Celsius I'll do the conversions for you. It is equivalent to 44.6 F! Man, I gotta put away the sandals and flats already. That's a dilemma though because I only brought running shoes, my really cheap H&M flats that are now ripping, and my sandals that have been tearing up because I keep stubbing my foot on the cobblestone sidewalks.
So things to buy: BOOTS and COAT. But they are so expensive! And I'm PO. Very very PO.
Been trying to look for a part-time job, but I keep getting rejected because I don't speak Danish (well). I feel so discriminated against! If everyone can speak English here - can't they just hire me?? So sad...there's this restaurant/cafe right around the corner and they are looking for a part-time worker, but they want someone Danish-speaking. So seriously the only jobs that minorities do here are: dishwashing in restaurants and cleaning in hotels. EEEKKk.... I really don't want to do those kinda jobs but I think I just might have to. Sigh...But pray for me please! Not just so that I can earn money, but also so that I can give to the church here and also serve others!
But let's see what else can I update on... Did I tell everyone that I'm an associate member now at FIBC?! It's been good to have the right hand of fellowship extended to me! What was really neat was that my church made the new members and i stand in front of the congregation and stay there when the service was done. Then people gladly welcomed us, shook our hands, and gave us hugs to invite us in for fellowship. It was really warm :)
Church has been pretty good so far. I shouldn't complain - there are just minor details I think that might get to me, but who's to say that I know everything. I need to stop being arrogant and prideful that I think I know more or I know how to run a church or how the preaching should be done. But Pastor Erik who is on sabbatical preached on Sunday! I was glad to finally hear him preach! He was challenging us a lot to think about spiritual leadership - and how are we doing on having our encounters with God on a daily basis, how is our character/integrity, how are we training to be spiritual leaders? And the goals of spiritual leadership should lead to spiritual maturity, to leadership itself, and to glorify God! Really short summary of his sermon...But yes I'm being challenged here to how I can be a spiritual leader during this short time in Copenhagen.
Joined the Connect LIFE group which is like our college/young adults group and hopefully if scheduling works will be a part of the W omen's Bible Study group going through Colossians! I really want to be in Pastor Tom's wife's small group Barb...but I don't know we'll see what happens and why God is making things they way they are happening! But another exciting thing with church is that I'm serving in the music ministry! The opportunity to encourage people through singing has been really good! Praising the Lord with our voices is something that my soul loves to do. :)
And for school, it's already the third week of school! Classes have been good so far - except trying to understand one of my professors is really hard because he can't really speak English and he stutters quite a lot to try to find the right words. So yeah - testing my patience and respect for him because yeah it's pretty boring if you can't understand his explanations on theories of Marginalization Sociology. But it's only once a week for that class so I'm glad. Haha. I'm also taking Mediasociology which is much much more interesting. Probably a topic that WuWuWu knows more about. :) Kinda interesting though to try to relate to myself when I try to not be part of the media culture because 1 John 2:15 tells us: Do not love the world nor the things in the worl. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." My media should be the Bible! I might have ideas for a paper for this class about commentaries, sermon audio messages, and the Bible and how that type of media affects Christians. Just an idea.
Well, gotta get going on reading more about this media information techonolgy society that we're in. Bleh. And I need to do my laundry - no more undies left! Haha.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
My First Weekend in København!
Got to see cool stuff like Kajakpolo!
Kajakpolo is cool...it's a mix of what they said "handball," waterpolo, and kayaking. Haha. I wanted to jump on in there to play - it was all these like macho men playing against each other. It was funny - because sometimes they just purposefully tipped each other's boats so that they wouldn't get that waterpolo ball. It was fun to watch!
Saw other crazy Danish activities like diving off this wooden diving board thing. Haha kids would jump from meters high!
Other weird activities but looked really fun was trampoline diving! Watch this kid do like a somersault backflip!
And then I watched a full on bboy battle. There was one kid that was maybe 12? And he was pretty good for his age. The crowd loved him.
Haha but the funniest one was a GRANDMA bboyin'! She was horrible...funny though because she actually did some freezes. She was BUFF...I will not be like that...
Battle! Here's a video!
Here's another slideshow of pictures from Saturday:
Other good news! I think I have found my spiritual temporary home here in Denmark! :) First International Baptist Church! I'm going to love walking or hopefully riding my bike to church every Sunday. Here's why... so pretty isn't it!


I was so excited to see other believers worshiping God and professing that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for us! Their NVT (new visitors team) was really nice - she even like patted my back and rubbed it a little as I walked in. Haha. But the songs were also very God centered and Bible centered - sang: "Open the Eyes of my Heart", "To God be the Glory", "The Love of God", "How Deep the Father's Love", and "I Am Thine, O Lord." Hymns = :) The music leader had great times of teaching in between almost each song. :) Once I heard the piano into to "How Deep the Father's Love" I smiled. I love that song - because really it focuses on Christ and Him crucified. FIBC also practices communion every first Sunday of the month! :) Reminded me of Lighthouse. Glad to see that they remember Christ crucified and practice it as a church body. They also have membership as well - and I'm thinking about becoming an "Associate Member" not a "Full Member" because I still want to be a member at Lighthouse! But then I have still pray about it because I don't know when I'm going to be traveling, but I can still serve if I'm just a "Participant in Fellowship." It was great to see that they had many different Bible study groups throughout the week and also a young adults/college ministry called Connect. Although Pastor N.Erik Nielsen is on sabbatical right now, he is still at church - just not preaching on Sundays. Right now a couple from the US that are missionaries through the IMB (International Mission Board) will be staying until next September. Pastor Tom Suitor and his wife Barb are going to be mentoring Pastor Erik and his wife. Although Pastor Tom and I think Pastor Erik do not do expository preaching, but I am not going to let that be what holds me back from this church. I think this church is the closest I can get to like-mindedness with Lighthouse. I spoke with Pastor Erik and Pastor Tom for a good while - learning about their past and where they are from. Pastor Erik when to Talbot School of Theology and interned at Whittier Hills Baptist Church. Pastor Erik also has FIVE boys between the ages of 6 and 13! How awesome is that. But anyways, I could say more and more - I'm just so glad they preached Christ crucified by talking about Communion - the Bread and the Cup. He was saying that Christ took such ordinary everyday things like bread which people back then would eat everyday. He took the wine as well - something that they would drink everyday. These things are such common elements in life - that the image in mind that people should have when they eat bread or drink the cup of wine is to remind you of Jesus' sacrifice. When you take that cup and drink if should remind you of the blood of Christ. This is sorta paraphrased: "If we are to follow Him, must remember what it cost to follow Him - even to Gethsemane (Place of Crushing). No longer that I live but Christ that lives in me." He preached against the "prosperity gospel" too - and said if you want to follow Christ - it will cost you!
He said to read Psalm 118 too - and when we read it, we should keep in mind the Lord's Supper and Jesus' death. Must do that tonight.
But :DDDDD! I think I'm staying at FIBC. All the other English churches here are charismatic, BIG, or really far.
Haha, another cool thing that happened on Sunday at church was that I got connections to get a free bike! His name is Aiban and he's just leaving the country to do his PhD in London - after trying it I asked him how much it would costs, but he said he didn't want any money! What a generous man!!!! It would costs me 450 DKK ($90) at least! Yay!!!
Well that was my weekend! Will update more on what's been going on this week!
I'll just say:
"Jeg kan ikke forstå dansk!"
( I can not understand Danish!) Haha don't even try to pronounce that.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
recap of my Wednesday, July 30th!
It was quite cool to see the progression of eras of art. Glad i got to use some of my art history knowledge to recognize these art movements! I definitely like Modernism because it shows how these artists were thinking into the future. A lot of the furniture made in the 1930's looked as if it were made today!
The museum had lots of furniture to show from the 16th to the 20th century. pretty cool huh? I really wanted to sit in these chairs - they were calling my name for sure! these next pictures were my favorites, partly because they were recyclable materials but also because it's harmless to the environment! Check out the Little Beaver Chair and the Newspaper Chair!
I thought this piano was pretty awesome too.
They also had funky ceramic stuff.
those japanese looking ceramic dolls reminded me of Moon. :)
another part of the museum had a gallery full of really funky ceramic vessels.
behind the museum had a pretty courtyard with a theater and this pretty walkway
then ventured out some more to the seaport harbor and reached this crazy looking lutheran evangelical church with scary statues.
then walked a little further and came to the Amalienborg Palace/Residence of Queen Margrethe II. This was to be a winter home for the Royal Danish Family.
and here's the statue of Statue of König Frederiks the V in the middle of plaza. He was king of Denmark and Norway from 1746.

Next to it close to the harbor, is Amaliehaven (Amalie Garden). Here I just sat down and wrote in my notebook.
That about sums up my Wednesday on July 30th!
Enjoy another slide show of more pictures!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Hej from KØbenhavn, Denmark!
Hej from KØbenhavn, Denmark!
I left Monday morning from the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and arrived ten hours later in London! London looks really pretty from above. I was sitting next to an old British lady - Mary and another younger San Franciscan that is working at Yahoo! and was going to London for an ad marketing business trip. Didn't really get to talk with the American lady, but got to dabble in some conversation with Mary more who was Catholic. I didn't want to shy away from talking about spiritual things so I asked her towards the last three or four hours of the flight: "What is your life purpose/passion in life?" I found myself not wanting to probe her too much about her faith partially because I did not want to interrupt her in her answers, and also sadly of fear. Fear that I'll get yelled at on the plane or that the last two hours of the flight would be awkward. Whenever I am a little fearful I want to kinda just slap myself on the face. My stinkin' pride...But did get to talk about past physical things and that we both agree that God is our heavenly Father and Jesus is God's Son. I just hope that she sees that those other ritual things - she doesn't need to do because Christ fulfilled it all!
Then another 2 hour flight and then arrived in Kobenhavn! Yay!
After getting luggage, my apartmentmate Malene was there to pick me up! So kind of her! She was joking earlier on facebook that she would bring a Danish flag with her and she did! Haha. After lugging my suitcases and carrying them up on the 4th floor (got us so tired), we had lunch at the near by familiecafe (family restaurant).
my sandwich had raw meat in it! it's supposed to be french - Chevre sandwich! They have much healthier mayonnaise that taste more like plain yogurt to me! Yay for Danish dairy products!
That's my roommate Malene. Haha I think she got kinda weirded out that I pulled out my Nikon DSLR, but I told her that she was gonna have to used to it. :) And me taking picture of food. :)
Nervous at first to meet her - but we're getting a long pretty well! She had to get going for work - so I just unpacked and got my room ready! I really love the apartment - so European and very much reminded me of Boston.
my room! it's actually pretty big!
my bed!
tiny tiny bathroom - sink is only 8 in. x 12 in.! shower is all in there too believe it or not!
here are my pictures of my first day in Kobenhavn!


