A Grey and Rainy Sunday is...

 

...something you rarely experience in Albuquerque.  However, these words describe last Sunday afternoon. There was even a storm coming in and it was somehow fascinating and liberating to me. The air got cleared of dust and everything seemed much lighter after the storm slowed down. 

Oranges and Grapes. And a touch of lime

On Sunday Jonathan and I decided to make some orange juice, so we got A LOT of oranges, some grapes and one lime and then we started cutting and pressing. We had exactly 50 fruits and after we were done our hands were all sore!! But the result of our hard work turned out great! The juice tastes amazing and we have now got 2 litres of fresh juice stored in the fridge in the perfect fitting bottle! :-))

Blowing bubbles on campus and fun journey to cultural center

On Sunday Jonathan and I went to The Pueblo Cultural Center. We did not know, that it would be so complicated to get there... The busses were not really running because it was weekend, so we had to walk about 3 km. from Downtown to The Pueblo Cultural Center!! It was really hot and many people were trying to lead us in the wrong direction, hahaha! -But we did not give up and after a long walk we were at our destination. We met Jana and Radim from Check and we sat together with them, watching indian dances of different kinds. It was pretty good, however, the museum was very small and not that exciting...
On the way back home we went to a plant nusery (?!) to pick up some plants to make my room look a little less American ;-) We found 2 cute ones and we walked all the way to downtown, each of us with a plant in our hands. I probably do not have to tell you, that the people who passed us in their cars, looked at us like if we were crazy. I believe that we looked very, ehm, not-american. They were probably thinking 'What is happening? Two people walking on the street, why would they do that?! Hmm, maybe they are selling plants...?! ' Hahahaha! (my experience is, that you rarely see people walking on the streets here..)
Also, during our journey we were 'almost' run over 2 times - both of the times by blonde women, driving cars that looked more like aeroplanes... I have evidence (photos). But it was a fun journey and quite an adventure too!

I søndags var jeg i Pueblo Cultural Center sammen med Jonathan. Vi var ikke klar over, at det ville blive ret besværligt at komme dertil... Da det var weekend, kørte kun få busser og derfor blev vi nødt til at gå ca. 3 km. fra downtown til Pueblo centret!! Det var helt vildt varmt og folk forsøgte at lede os i den forkerte retning, hahaha! Men vi gav ikke op og efter en lang gåtur ankom vi til vores destination. Radim og Jana fra Tjekkiet var der og vi så sammen med dem flere forskellige indianske danse. Det var godt, men museet var ikke noget at råbe hurra for...

På vejen hjem købte vi to planter, og dem gik vi så med i hånden hele vejen til downtown. Jeg behøver nok ikke at nævne, at folk der kørte forbi kiggede meget mærkeligt på os. Jeg tror, at vi så meget 'u-amerikanske ud ;-) Her ser man ret sjældent folk gå rundt på gaden. De tager bilen istedet... To gange var vi, eller dvs. nærmere Jonathan, ret tæt på at blive kørt ned - begge gange af amerikanske blondiner i biler på størrelse med flyvemaskiner... -Jeg har beviser!! (fotos). Men vi havde en sjov tur og det var noget af et eventyr vi kom ud på!

Johnson field

I love spending time on Johnson field. I got there with friends to relax, read, eat, play frisbee or look at Jonathan trying to dance. .. ;-) -I have been taken a lot of picture of different people walking by and I really find it interesting to try to catch these everyday-moments that are somehow very special.

Jeg elsker at fordrive tid på Johnson field på campus... Jeg kommer der sammen med venner for enten at slappe af, læse, spise, spille frisbee eller se på Jonathan mens han forsøger at danse... ;-) Jeg har taget en del billeder af folk som går forbi, og jeg synes det er interessant at forsøge at fange de her 'dagligdags-øjeblikke' som på en eller anden måde også er meget specielle.

The beauty of diversity...

I went to an International Festival here on campus yesterday. A lot of countries were represented and I bought some turkish food - It was really good!! There was a lot of different dance performances and even pipe music - very interesting! Juliana and Julia got a free 'henna-painting' (I don't know what it is called in english) on their hands, but I did'nt get to it, as I had to go get my camera before the festival finished. The weather was amazing which was really lucky as it has been raining all day today. It feels good to hear and see the rain again - Feels like home... :-)

Igår var jeg til International Festival her på campus. En masse forskellige lande var repræsenteret og jeg købte noget tyrkisk mad - det var rigtig godt! Der var også en masse forskellige danseopvisninger - rigtig interessant! Julia og Juliana fik lavet gratis henna på deres hænder, men jeg nåede det ikke, da jeg skulle hente mit kamera inden festivalen sluttede. Vejret var virkelig godt, hvilket var meget heldigt; det har nemlig regnet hele dagen idag. Det føles godt at se regn igen - Minder mig om Danmark... :-)

The day he saw it all coming

Sunset on campus

The other day I witnessed a really beautiful sunset from my window. I hurried out the door with my camera in my hands, excited to take some pictures of it. The Sandia Mountains look so pretty when the sun sets; they turn almost purple and I am so lucky I can see them from my flat. -That is something I for sure am going to miss when I leave this place.

Her forleden så jeg den smukkeste solnedgang fra mit vindue. Jeg skyndte mig ud ad døren med mit kamera i hånden - spændt på at tage billeder af det. Sandia Mountains, som de kaldes, er så smukke når solen går ned over dem; de får et lilla skær. Jeg er heldig, at jeg har en så smuk udsigt fra mit værelse, og det er helt sikkert noget jeg kommer til at savne, når jeg drager hjem...

California!!

I went to California during spring break. I was so excited to see what it was like there and it for sure is very, very different from New Mexico! People seem to care more about the environment, especially in San Francisco where there is a law saying the stores can only give away paperbags (that, however, did not seem to be the reality of all the stores I went to, but it is a start) and I was very impressed by that. All the people I talked to was so friendly! I did not see a lot of overweight people, and that is very different from Albuquerque. San Francisco is a really beautiful place and I love the victorian style of the houses. The houses are all in different colours - red, blue, green etc. and it just seems to fit the city so well!

In the middle of the week I went to Santa Monica with Marcelo and Juliana. We took the bus from San Francisco and it took aound 9 hours to get there... Actually, it was not that bad and it was cheap too; around 30 dollars. LA was sooo confusing! It is huge, around the same size as sjælland in Denmark (!!) and everything is spread out... We stayed at a hostel in Santa Monica (around 1 hours bus drive from downtown LA) and it was really great, more like a hotel actually and just a few minutes walk from the beach! -Perfect. There was a piano in the common room of the hostel, and two Argentinan guys we met taught me to play half a song... ;-)

Like all the other tourists going to LA, we naturally wanted to see what all the fuss about Hollywood is about:-), so we decided to take the bus there. It took about 1 hour to get there and it was fun to see The Walk of Fame, the Hollywood sign etc, but otherwise it wasn't really that amazing.

I sidste uge havde jeg spring break og sammen med to brasilianske venner herfra, Juliana og Marcelo, rejste jeg til Californien. Jeg var så spændt på at se Californien og det er helt sikkert meget, meget anderledes end New Mexico! Det virker som om, at folk er mere miljøbevidste; især i San Francisco hvor der er en lov som siger at butikkerne ikke må sælge/give plastikposer, men kun papirs (det blev godt nok ikke overholdt alle steder, men det er da i hvert fald en start), og jeg var positivt overrasket over det! Alle de folk jeg snakkede med var virkelig flinke og åbne! Faktisk så jeg ikke særligt mange overvægtige i Californien, og det er noget af en forskel fra Albuquerque...! San Francisco er bare så smuk en by og jeg elsker den victorianske byggestil; husene er alle malet i forskellige farver, rød, blå, grøn osv, og det passer bare så godt ind der...

I midten af ugen rejste vi videre til Los Angeles. Vi tog bussen (Greyhound) dertil og det tog ca. 9 timer. Det var slet ikke så slemt som vi havde frygtet og det var også rigtig billigt; ca 30 dollars. LA var virkelig forvirrende!! Det er en kæmpe by, på størrelse med Sjælland, og alting er fordelt hele dette kæmpe areal... Vi boede på et rigtig godt hostel i Santa Monica som er ca. en times buskørsel fra centrum af LA. Det mindede egentlig mere om et hotel og der var endda et klaver der! Vi mødte to rigtig flinke fyrer fra Argentina, og de lærte mig at spille en halv sang på klaver.. ;-)

Ligesom alle andre turister der rejser til LA, ville vi selvfølgelig se Hollywood for at finde ud af om der er noget om al den snak... ;-) Vi tog bussen dertil, det tog ca. en time. Det var skægt at se Walk of Fame, Hollywood skiltet osv, men udover det var det altså ikke SÅ fantastisk. :-)