Field Trip to the Lake

Sunday evening after dinner, we went for another long walk exploring the city. As I mentioned before, there are beautiful gardens everywhere, and some of the paths feel like they are right out of a storybook.

We have also seen that there are two different types of Danish flag that people fly outside of their homes. The smaller, skinnier one is for everyday and the larger more traditional shape is used for special occasions.

Monday was a delightful day! We spent the morning in our usual pattern of walking everyone to where they needed to be, and relaxing when school and work were finished. Svea and I went to the  Højskole for lunch with Jeff and had some amazing African-inspired curry over rice. I believe it had beef and venison in it, judging from the pictures nearby. She kept asking for more! 

Anders and Torben had a great day at school again. Their teacher told me they had about an hour of extra language lessons during the day with a couple of other kids. Anders was so excited when I went to pick him up -Mom! I learned Danish today!- They will have this extra class once per week, which will really be helpful for them. They have been having a great time in school so far, and the teachers are wonderful. 

I can tell the boys are picking up some of the words and phrases. Yesterday Jeff asked the boys to do something, in Danish, and they responded in English, but clearly understood what he had said to them. We were both sort of taken aback at that, but in a good way. And I have discovered that I can figure out written words on a lot of things, which is handy.  

In the afternoon, Jeff had to go again to the neighboring city to work on some of our documents, so Svea and I picked up the boys at school and we relaxed at home before heading to dinner. Anders brought home a snail shell he found on the playground...

...when we later saw it in the middle of the kitchen floor, we realized it was not a snail shell, but was indeed a living snail. Torben carefully placed it back outside. :)

While waiting for dinner, we took advantage of the ping pong tables in the Højskole, and even Svea thought to join in the fun. Here she is practicing her backhand.

Dinner was sandwich-type food, with some of the leftover spaghetti with chicken and vegetables, so Anders was thrilled (and not once has he said "I don't.like.leftovers." so there is progress as well!). Torben loved the bread, eggs, and salad. The typical bread here is a very dark, almost black, rye bread with all sorts of nuts, seeds, and grains in it. It is very dense, and good with a bit of butter and some sort of meat or eggs. Svea ate all the cheeses (that's my girl!), even the blue cheese! I didn't give her much of that, just a taste, but she loved it just as much as any of the others. The cod-caviar, which was sliced and resembled liversausage in appearance, wasn't quite our cup of tea, but we tried it on crackers. 

After dinner was a field trip with all the students to the lake nearby. We all boarded a coach bus and headed over. There is a great little swimming area surrounded by a dock that's built into the water, so the water flows all around it, but the swimming area is protected.

 This made for a perfect place for our children to play in the (not so warm!) water. We brought our swimming clothes, but apparently they were confused by the term, so they instead chose to go swimming IN their clothes.

I wish this wasn't blurry...she was DELIGHTED at being able to play in the water!

And, since Svea cannot swim, I got to go in too. She wasn't too interested in having help, however! She thought she should be able to roam free in the water just like her brothers were. It was a very fun time. Then they were soaked, so we changed into their dry swimming clothes (glad to have brought along the swim suits that have a coordinating shirt to go with them!) And we went for a walk in the woods around the lake while the students played some outdoor games. It was already past bedtime at this point but the bus wasn't coming back for a bit, so we decided to entertain the kids with nature.

The sun was starting to think of beginning to set, so the colours were beautiful. The lake is very long and skinny, so it was easy to see both shores.

Here, Anders is pointing out another abandoned rowboat and an old dock.

 These photos are the view of Jels from the park.

It was beautiful and serene, and such a nice time to be together out in nature. Our kids are still learning to speak a little more quietly (not be silent -that's too much to ask!- but at least speak in conversation tones rather than screaming tones) so this was good practice. We kept reminding them that people come to nature to relax and unwind, so they need to respect the peacefulness.

It was well past bedtime when we boarded the bus to return home, so we were trying to entertain Svea on the trip. Thank goodness for camera phones! 

All in all, a very fun day was had by all. And everyone slept fast!