Derek and Greg doing awards as computer nerds... 

This is that really fun relay where you have to get dressed, then run, then undress, and the next person puts the clothes on. 

The Danish Townspeople waiting for the Naked Emperor. 

Karsten McIntosh as the Emperor, fully decked out in his new clothes. 

Pool Time! Kirsten and Derek both got really sunburned as a result of this hour... 

Folk dancing inside because of the rain... This is called the Happy Circle. Girls go in four, then yell Whoo! 

Counselors during pre-camp customs set up! 

My family group, after our production of the Wild Swans. 

Nick gives our Danish Senior Camper a massage during inspection... 

Greg and Derek do awards as AC-DK 

Night View of Portland from Camp 

Danish Camp!

Yet again... this is my 13th year here... I am at Himmelbjerget Danish Language Camp. Today, finally, the rain stopped and we could go outside, enjoy the pool, play counting games on the lawn. I adore my danish class... they are super cute, and for once this year, they are actually moving at the appropriate pace for a beginner class. Last year my beginner class covered two weeks worth of curriculum in a week. This year, they are having the appropriate stuggles with the weird vowels and hard numbers of the Danish Language.

Today, just for fun, another counselor and I busted out a Yoga DVD and invited anyone who wanted to to join us for a little yoga during freetime! We had a group of about 6 girls join us, which was cool! And they were pretty excited about it at the end, even asking if I would leave on the extra features so they could learn a few extra poses.

Due to some unfortunate health problems I've had lately, I have some "fun" new dietary restrictions I have to be following. Because of this fabulous new regime, I have been labeled by the camp cooks as "VEGAN + No Nuts" which means that I get some REALLY interesting food here. Today I was served "vegan rice pudding" which was one of the most horrid things I have ever tasted! It was rice with a horribly strong taste of molasses and some weird chunks of pineapple. Other winners this week included the plate of rice and cup of fruit that they suggested was a full meal for me... I went the first two days here without being served any protein at all... c'mon people, how hard is it to heat up a Veggie Sausage!

Anyway, now, happily, things are going well, and we have struck a happy balance of veganism... I don't think this will be a permanent habit though... regular old vegetarianism is good for me!

I have been here at camp for more than half of my life... I am turning 25 this year, and I have spent summers here since I was 11. It's funny because when we reminisce now, I can hardly differentiate which year different things happen... It all blurs together, but it's so great to have this piece of my heritage and this community to be part of!

P.S. Boondoggling is AWESOME!

Omar and Amanda at their reception 

Weddings

Weddings are fun... and its good that I think so, cause I've got a few lined up this summer. Today marked the first in the series, it was my cousin (or second cousin of some sort) Amanda's wedding to a Peruvian man named Omar. So, because his family from Peru flew in for the wedding, the service was done in both Spanish and English. It was pretty cool. I could even pick out a few words here and there that I remembered from elementary school or Sesame Street or something.

The coolest thing about the wedding though, was seeing all the cousins (or second cousins) from my dad's side of the family. We used to have cousin parties at Christmas every year, and all of us cousins who hardly knew each other would attempt to play together. Well, I think we should start them up again, because I have some cool cousins, and now I'm actually old enough to really enjoy talking to them.

The wedding also had some of the best wedding music I've ever heard. They hired a band that played Peruvian music, which is Latin sounding, but not salsa. And the Peruvian family was very into dancing. Omar kept standing up and saying into the microphone, "this is a good Peruvian song, and everyone has to dance." He would then grab hands, one male, one female, and partner people up, no matter if you had no idea how to dance Peruvian. Somehow he had faith that you'd figure it out, and usually, because the songs were a good 15 minutes long, you did have time to at least catch on to something before the end.

I danced once dance with Omar's best man, who shortly traded me off to another of Omar's friends. He was a great dancer, but English was not his forte. Over the course of the 15 minute song, we established that his name was Carlos, mine was Maren, and that no further conversation was going to be possible, no matter what kind of communication we tried. At least I got a good dance out of it... and I reminded myself just how much I love to salsa dance....

Off to rent Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights....

If you give a teacher a cookie...

I was baking chocolate chip cookies last night, and I decided to turn on the TV and ha)ve a little background noise. Unfortunately I got suckered in to, of all things, Diane Sawyer interviewing Brad Pitt. Now, he's not my favorite. In fact, while I love his shiny shirt in Ocean's 12, he doesn't really do much for me. I have other actors I like better, but when you throw an interview with Bono in there, I'm totally hooked. (They played dirty though, by playing what may be my all time favorite U2 tune, One).

Anyway, refreshingly, try as Diane might, good ole Brad was determined to keep the interview about more important things than his recently broken marriage. He lobbied heavily for his recent cause, an organization called the One foundation, or something similar. (See site for more info: http://www.one.org). The whole point that Brad was attempting to make, through shot after shot of some of the worst living situations in the world, is that with a relatively small amount of money and influence, we could drastically change the way they live, their life expectancies, and their ability to survive. And so he asks us to petition President Bush to support his cause.

Good work Brad! Give them clean drinking water, education and medicine. I'm all for any cause that makes life better for people, and makes the world healthier and safer for all of us. But hold up a minute... have you been out of your fancy neighborhood in the US lately? Did you know that there are Americans who don't have food, or access to medicine? Have you seen the affects of disease and violence in our own country? Okay, maybe it doesn't look as dramatic. You don't have hoardes of little kids chasing you through the bad inner city neighborhoods, or even suburban ones. So lets think about what we want to ask Bush for. How about national healthcare for the people in our own country as well. How about making sure kids here have enough to eat too? Why does it have to be foreign or exotic for us to feel like we need to help?

Okay, down off my soapbox now... Please feel free to comment!

Life is a surprise double feature

Peter, my "little" brother, was in town last night for his "weekend" (meaning any set of two or more days off work.) If you're curious about his job, see the link to his blog. He's funny. Anyway, we decided to hit the movies, and see Kung Fu Hustle. Entertaining, weird, outrageous, and graceful are the words that come to mind, but I don't want to spoil the ending, so check out the website if you want more info! http://www.kungfuhustle.com/

Anyway, as we left the theater, Portland seemed to be alive with sound... musical sound to be exact, and as we walked back to our (badly) parked truck (I wasn't driving), the music was getting louder. We got to the truck and did what any child who grew up in my family would do... we weighed our tiredness against the growing sense of adventure and curiosity. In my family, curiosity almost always wins. So we started walking. Now, sound waves bounce off hard surfaces, and cities are mostly made from brick and cement, so it was hard to get a good handle on which way to walk exactly, but as we made our way, we figured there were really only two places outdoors that Portland could hold enough people to make the kind of noise we were hearing... Lincoln High School or PGE park. As we approached Lincoln we hypothesized that it was either some sort of upscale senior year event, or an elaborate practical joke. But as we rounded the corner it became apparent that it was neither, it was PGE park.

Just as we arrived, the music stopped and the cheering got loud. We figured we'd missed the event, but thought we'd check the reader boards to at least see what it had been. And then the lights came back on... the screaming got loud and the encore started. From where we stood, looking down on the field from above, you couldn't see the stage, they had it carefully covered so that all you could see was the lead singer's shadow projected on a sheet.... However, you could see the 500+ screaming fans who were waving their hands in the air and screaming to "pour some sugar." It turned out to be the fantastic double header of Def Leppard and Bryan Adams in their Rock'N'Roll Double Header tour (For more info see the link: http://www.defleppard.com/news/index_update_0517.html) Peter and I figured we got the best end of the deal, a movie and the only def leppard song we actually knew performed live and free. Although we both agreed Bryan Adams would have been cool (how old is he anyway?) I just loved the sight and sound of all those screaming fans.... Makes me want to be a pop star!
Maybe I'll try out for American Idol!