Wury is back!

Hey all ya'll - no more writing in this blog probably because.....

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 :)

earthquake!

Copenhagen felt at 4.7 earthquake around 6am yesterday morning! Haha I sorta just woke up, and said: "Oh it's an earthquake" and went back to bed. Hahaha. Some Europeans said it was their first time experiencing an earthquake. Haha weird...

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.

FIBC Christmas Concert!

Excited!!! Forever Gloria to You Lord! Amen! Soli Deo Gloria!

Singing a solo in one of the songs! :) I love being in the choir. May all of our praise go to You! Wish everyone could come! It's going to be awesome!

last day of work!!!!!!! :D

Oh my gosh...finally no more work! I decided to make today my last day of work because 1) I have papers due soon, and 2) Denmark only pays from the 15th to 15th. So if I continued to work past December 15th, I wouldn't get paid until January 30th. And 3) I want to enjoy my last week here in Denmark!!

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!!!

snow!!!!!!

It snowed today!!!!!




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!!

Oh my!

Oh my!!!! I'm leaving Denmark in 2 months!!!! And for about 2 weeks out of 8 weeks, I'm going to travel! Haha wow...

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...

Brrrrrr....it's wet and dark!

Man...it's only 7:30pm and it's dark outside....sadness. Biking in the rain sucks...I need to buy a raincoat and boots! Time to play some vball though so yay! Haha super short post. Weather here is getting wintery already...Boo...

My First Weekend in København!

On Saturday went to go venture out again! This time I went to Island Brygge to see this event called Kulturhavn that they have every year!



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!

Here's the front of the church:



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.

recap of my Wednesday, July 30th!

I decided to take the day to venture out on my own and catch a little bit of sleep! :) I wanted to do something money-free so I went to the Danish Museum of Art and Design! It was in this cool old mid-18th century building.

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!

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!

i love my window.

my bed!

tiny tiny bathroom - sink is only 8 in. x 12 in.! shower is all in there too believe it or not!

cute tiny kitchen. i like! :)

here are my pictures of my first day in Kobenhavn!