Happiest Place on Earth

Top Ten Reasons We Love Denmark:

10. Everyone speaks English- how nice of them.

(and I mean everyone! From teachers, to businessmen to 

the 7-Eleven clerk . . . oh yeah, they have 7-Eleven, too)

9. Where else can you meet THE Little Mermaid in person? 

*You can even buy post cards that describe some of the vandalism that she has experienced that say, and I quote: "Sometime she lose her head"

8. Views like this! I mean, this is Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark- 

the heart of the city- and it looks so cute you want to move right in! 

7. Old, awesome, beautiful castles all over the place. 

Welcome, Prince Robbie and Princess Sarah

6. Delicious soft serve ice cream with this super yummy 

chocolate topping and chocolate marshmallow-like stuff

5. Denmark is about 1/4 the size of Pennsylvania, and I totally do not 

mean this in a patronizing way, although that's probably 

how it sounds . . . but, isn't that just so cute!? A tiny little country just for us!

4.  The Danish are totally crazy patriotic. They decorate everything 

with flags, all time, all seasons, all year long. They use Danish flags 

for store sales, brithdays, graduation- everything.  

3. It's SO clean there. The trains are clean. The streets are clean. 

Even the trash is clean and all recycled and eco-friendly. 

Go Green! Go Denmark!

2. Vikings. Or if, you were Danish, you would say Wikings. 

(One of the only things not perfect with the Danes' English)

1. NyHavn (New Haven), Copenhagen. The cutest harbor in the world. 

Love at first sight.

It's easy to see why Denmark is so lovable. The country is beautiful and the people are so kind and  friendly. I know that sounds clique, but it is really true. 

Denmark was voted the Happiest Place on Earth to live! That's crazy- out of the whole world?! (Eat that, Disneyland!)

On a political note, socialism totally works for Denmark, which its' size helps to facilitate. Poverty is almost non existent; whether you're the garbage man or a doctor, you can easily have a comfortable life. Taxes are high, but the government totally has your back on health care, great public transportation, welfare, quickly fixed pot holes and any other social needs. 

If I had to pick another other place in the world to live . . . in a heartbeat- Denmark! 

(Or at least somewhere in Scandinavia- Loooove it) 

(Reading Rainbow Theme Music) But don't just take my word for it ;)

ABC 20/20 New Article- Denmark: Happiest Place on Earth

The Independent, UK Article- Denmark is the world's happiest country

Chi-town

Chicago, the Windy City, Chi-town, Second City, Chicagoland, City by the lake . . . whatever you what to call it- we live here. A lot of people ask us, "Why Chicago?" I mean, it wasn't really an obvious move. I'm from Pittsburgh, Robbie's from California- with family in Kentucky (just moved to Seattle), we met and went to school in Utah, then taught in Russia . . . I mean, Chicago obviously comes next, right? 

Well, actually, when Robbie was applying to grad school, we both decided if he didn't get into the University of Utah (we thought Salt Lake might be cool) he would apply to "big cities". California was too far from our families (and too expensive), New York just seemed a little crazy (and also expensive) and Chicago was pretty close to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (closer than Utah at least) and just seemed really "cool", for lack of a better word. He ended up only applying to Chicago schools, I got a job in south side teaching and here we are!

One of my favorite pictures I've taken since living here- 

The Chicago Theater on State St.

Chicago River that goes through downtown

Love at the Giant Bean 

As I always point out: "Perfectly Seamless"

We live here . . . and I don't just mean Chicago, 

this is a few blocks from our place

Great shows to see!! 

(We've seen Wicked 3 times, because our family keeps coming 

into town and wanting to see it, plus we love it!)

Color Purple- I liked it a little better than Robbie, though

One of the best shows we've seen! (Twice!)

Giant face fountains are always a hit!

Gongheguo! (China!)

I'm currently reading Wild Swans right now, and China has totally been on my mind. (A lot of my friends read it while we were in China teaching, but I seemed to never get around to it. I did however read Life and Death in Shanghai and LOVED it!) What I like about Wild Swans, though, is that it spans Chinese history over three generations; most of my knowledge about China was more current, from the Cultural Revolution onward. So, anyway, it's just really interesting and I love it.

One of the many things I love about the book is that it brings back memories from when I was in China. I was recently reading and thinking Mao Zed0ng's rise to power (um, how often do you say that?) When I was in China in 2004, he was still very much "apart" of Chinese culture- or at least as far as Beijing tourism was concerned. He has a portrait about the size of 10 billboards (my over estimating strikes again!) hanging on the Forbidden city, tourists can buy his "little red book" on the street, and you can see his cryogenically frozen body (snow white style) for a few bucks.

I would have loved to chat with some of my native Chinese friends about what they thought about "all of that" (like I was able to do in Russia, talking with a lot of people about communism and Stalin and politics and what not). However, even besides the language barrier, people tended not to want to really open up to us about anything other than sights to see and kids to teach and things to sell us. Nothing negative really ever seemed approachable. Not that the Chinese people weren't very friendly towards us (like insanely friendly, wanting us to marry their sons and take pictures with their babies, friendly) but definitely not wanting to talk politics with us; although, that could have had to do a lot with the environment that we were in as volunteer teachers.

In front of Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square in Beijing

(see the picture of Mao in the background? he's there)

Me and Karina inside the Forbidden City
Giant picture of Mao on Forbidden City in Bejing
(compare to the guy you can see standing above it)
Mao's Little Book of Quotations or the "Red Bible"
(cost me about 1 dollar, I think)

Tiananmen Square

(different angle. differnet season, too)

Outside Mao's "snow white" (as I like to call it) Mosolium Memorial