The Saustrup Family Blog

Wow, it’s been a while! So, what have we been up to since the last post? Nina’s been learning Danish, we got a fish tank and we’ve been on a delicious vacation to Greece! And tonight we’re going to a sweet concert with my favorite Elvis-metal band!

Shortly after Nina got her residence permit, she was offered a free Danish course with a total of 5-6 modules. I’ll be the first one to admit it - Danish is a bloody difficult language. I’m no linguist, but I think it slightly resembles English and German, except for a few awful pitfalls in pronunciation - like the soft d’s and g’s, which will undoubtedly twist the tongue of most foreigners. I’m truly sorry about that Nina is going at it with much dedication, and she’s doing good. On Monday she’s going to the Module 1 exam, so we’re very excited

When it comes to patience and waiting in line, Nina beats me hands down. About a month ago, Nina stayed several hours in line to buy a severely discounted fish tank at a pet store sale. She was the first one there, and ran off with a cool 54 liter tank with light, filter, heater and thermometer. A couple of weeks later the first residents moved in, and now I think we’ve got a total of 15 fish in the tank. We also got a tiny eel, but nobody has seen it since it moved in. I know absolutely nothing about fish, but Nina’s a big enthusiast, so she’s officially Master of the Fish Tank.

My employer gave us a delicious gift card for travelling, so a couple of weeks ago we went to the Greek island of Rhodes for a week. We got it fairly cheap as it’s nearly the end of the season and we managed to go on vacation one week before the rest of the country. Rhodes is nice, but not terribly exciting. There’s plenty of delicious food, beautiful beaches and absolute tranquility - if you rent a car and manage to escape the hordes of tourists that roam around the island. I haven’t managed to put up pics yet, but I’ll see to it as soon as possible. We had a great time, great food and a lot of mandatory Ouzo shots with the bills.

Tonight we’re off to a concert with the Danish band Volbeat. It’s difficult to describe their style, but if you try to imagine what Elvis would have sounded like if he weilded an electric guitar, you’re probably not far off. A couple of their videos can be found on YouTube - check it out, it’s quite delicious!

Just an ultra short update for our faithful readers - hi to both of you. Nina just received her residence permit in the mail this morning, so we’re very excited and happy. This is awesome!

Updates are as usual few and far between, but a lot of stuff has been going on. Yesterday evening we finally got home, after one week of driving, visiting Russian family and dragging Nina’s stuff back to Denmark. Nearly 4.000 km in car and probably something like 1.200 km by train.

The trip went without any major issues, except for having to completely unpack and repack the car at the Russian border. The size of the car and the amount of stuff we were dragging called for professional tetris-like skills when packing, but we did it.

In other news, I was tested for strep throat (group A streptococcus) at the doctor this morning, and it came out positive. After being on long-shot allergy pills the last week, it finally seems like we’re on to something. I’m now on penicillin, and happily awaiting a change from the last 2-3 months of sore throat and fever. Needless to say, I’m exhausted.

Papers for the family reunification (Nina’s residence permit) went through, and the next step is for me to provide the municipality with a 58.000 DKK (8.000 EUR) financial guarantee. This was prepared by the bank while we were in Russia, and was sent by mail today. Things are looking bright indeed.

Got back from the honeymoon - my skin lobsterliciously red from sunburn. Probably drove around 2.000 km on the bike. Uploaded over half of the photos to Flickr - just added the sweet rafting shots today. Nina went back to St. Petersburg three days ago to pack up her stuff and file the papers for family reunification. I hope we will see each other in less than 4-6 weeks or so.

Oh yeah, and I sadly didn’t see the new Indy movie yet! Someone please take me to the movies!

Just a quick update! We took the Autozug from Hamburg to Munich, and arrived yesterday morning. Staying for two days in Munich and going to Innsbruck in the morning. Visited Augsburg today. Spirits are high. Weather is good. Looking forward to driving the motorcycle in the Alps. Curious people can check my Flickr Honeymoon Set for photos.

On May 17 we finally got married! We’re leaving for our honeymoon in two days, and nothing is booked or arranged yet, so we’re a little busy! We do have a little treat for our faithful readers - of which there must be at least one or two left. Here it is - our first pictures from the photographer! Enjoy!

The cake is ordered. Catering is taken care of. Parts of the garden pavilion is already in place. The brides dress has been ironed and the groom is pretty sure he knows where his suit is. Everything is under control. Except the weather.

The weather is completely out of our hands, and it’s playing tricks on us. We visited the website of the National Weather Institute yesterday, and none of us were too happy with the predictions: endless showers starting Thursday.

Weather forecast on May 13 (Lørdag=Saturday)

You can’t really fight the weather, so we did the only reasonable thing this morning - we bought an umbrella. I was slowly embracing the thought of our wedding photos being something like we’re completely soaked, it’s raining cats and dogs, but we’re smiling like freshly fed school children. Then I checked the weather service again. This morning is looked much better:

Weather forecast on May 14 (Lørdag=Saturday)

I guess nothing is certain at this point, but a little sunshine would be nice.

No, we’re not dead yet. Lots of things are happening these days, as we get closer and closer to the wedding. It’s less than a week now, and there are still a few missing pieces of the puzzle but we’re getting there.

The first draft of our motorcycle honeymoon road trip route was also put together yesterday. At first sight it looks awesome although possibly a little overwhelming. So far it’s around 4.500 km in total, so the bike is queued up for a change of tires before departure.

Honeymoon Road Trip - First draft (Google Maps / GPSVisualizer.com)

It’s one hell of a trip, but I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be awesome. I can feel it in my toes.

Nina sent me a link to an essay by Paul Graham about stuff and having too much of it. A very enjoyable read, and a big plus was the complete absence of the horrible expression simple living.

I first realized the worthlessness of stuff when I lived in Italy for a year. All I took with me was one large backpack of stuff. The rest of my stuff I left in my landlady’s attic back in the US. And you know what? All I missed were some of the books. By the end of the year I couldn’t even remember what else I had stored in that attic.

Read all of it right here.

Just wanted you all to know that Nina added a bunch of cute ninja and pirate sock puppets to her Etsy shop - they’re dangerously cute!

Ninjas and pirates!

You know you want them, so go get ‘em!