The Danish Invasion of the McConnell Home

On July fifth, around eight-thirty in the evening, the McConnell home was invaded by a foreigner of viking origins.

A Dane.

Or, in other words, Louise came all the way from Denmark to visit me for a week!

This blog post is way, way, wayyy overdue, but better late than never, right?

I first met Louise on a penpal site about two years ago, and we’ve been good penpals ever since. She taught me so much about Denmark and even did a special on the blog a couple years ago about her country. (See Country Spotlight: Denmark) This spring we were discussing our respective churches and I made the joke she could come visit my church but it might be a long commute.

Her response?

“Oh, I’d love to visit your church. And you.”

“That would be so much fun,”I replied, thinking of it as another “someday” thing of many someday things. “I would love to meet you too! We could go on grand adventures while you are here.”

“That would be great!” She then paused, and said, “I’m not busy this summer…”

And thus, her trip was planned! Louise came to our house very tired and exhausted that first night, and told me when she got off the plane that she wasn’t thinking in English so she might have a hard time talking. After twenty-four hours of travelling I understood— I wouldn’t be able to speak English after such a long flight, and I speak English as my first language!

Her time here was an incredible adventure for all of us, and the moment she left we all missed her so much. But instead of just telling you about her trip, why don’t I show you her visit, along with both of our comments on the pictures??

Welcome back to the blog, dear readers, my wonderful friend Louise!

Louise, before we get started, what would you like to say as your “introduction”?

Louise:

Thank you Emily, it is great to be here again!

My introduction.. Well, I guess invading other people’s homes is in my blood. It just comes naturally to me.

Jokes aside. I was actually very nervous about meeting Emily. After I bought the tickets, I regretted it so many times. I don’t think I have told Emily this before, so when she reads this, some of it will also be new to her. I was so nervous about multiple things. Partly because it was my first time traveling completely alone.Would I get easily through security? What should I do if something went wrong? Would I get the infamous middle seat between two smelly people? What about getting through customs, what if I had mistyped something wrong on my ESTA application and I was sent back? And then there was the whole meeting Emily and her family. One thing is how people interact and seem like through writing, another thing is how people interact and are in person. What if they didn’t like me? What if I didn’t like Emily or her family? What if they were all really strange or crazy? But I decided not to cancel anything. If it all went wrong, I had my great aunt in Seattle, so I could just go there. A great back up plan. But nothing went wrong. I got there. I met Emily. I met her awesome family. I had a way too short but wonderful and happy week! It was definitely worth the 24 hours of basically no sleep. Now we just need to plan my next visit. Or even better: Her visit to Denmark!

Emily: Awww, Louise, well, thank you so much for being so brave and coming to see us! I’m glad we weren’t as crazy as you feared. ;) Though we certainly were probably as crazy as you expected. It meant the world to us to have you!

Okay readers, time for some pictures! From here on out, my comments will be marked E and Louise’s comments will be marked L. Time to show you our adventures!

L: I like this picture for several reasons. First of all, we are both in it. It took some time before that happened. But it did, luckily. Pictures or it didn’t happen 😉

Also, look at this view! It’s amazing. How can one not be amazed by this view? (And by the view, I mean the nature, not us 😉)

And finally, I’m on a mountain! I’m not just looking at one, I’m actually at the top of one. Everyone who has been near me whenever I’ve seen a mountain, have heard me ramble about how much I love mountains, how amazing and impressive I think they are, and how I think that I’m lucky that I live in a country with no mountains because that way I’m able to enjoy and admire mountains more whenever I see them.

E: This was a fun day because we got to drive Louise up to Mt. Spokane and enjoy a clear day before smoke season began! We showed her our “fake” cliff (a rock pile that, if you climb behind, looks like you’re going to fall hundreds of feet down) and jumped on the rocks on the mountain, viewed the lakes below and hiked the trails. It was so much fun and it was great to see how excited Louise was!

L: I really love mountains.

But here’s another picture where you this time can see our faces. Getting to know Emily in person was great. She will always be a good and dear friend to me. If I should describe her, I would say strong, respectful, positive and full of energy. The world would easily become a better place if we had more people like her.

Did I mention that I love mountains?

E: Awwww thank you, Louise. <3 That’s really really sweet. I’d say that my description of Louise would be thoughtful, quiet, kind and very confident in her abilities and her beliefs. She will never shy away from explaining what she believes and why but listens closely to what others think and considers it as well. She’s very humble and very competitive, all at the same time! I just couldn’t get over her confidence levels despite having a quiet personality, and it just goes to show that we can all learn something from someone like Louise—to be respectful of others and yet be fully confident in who we are in Christ and what our beliefs are. We had so much fun on our Mt. Spokane adventure.

L: Look at this pretty cool picture. Is that the moon in the background, or what is it? And what about the bird, what did we find out? That it was an eagle?

Emily has some Danish neighbors whom we of course had to visit. Practicing your native language is a must when you visit a foreign country. Especially so you can make more stupid mistakes when speaking your second language, like directly translating what you would say in Danish and then having Emily look at you really strange and then realize that what you said sounded even more strange.

At her neighbors’, Emily had the experience I have had in China a few times now. Listening to people speak another language for hours while only understanding some words 😉 But we saw this bird and we couldn’t really find out what it was, so we got out the binoculars, and Emily got all creative and took this picture through the binoculars. I like this picture so much that it’s my background on my phone now.

E: This was a really fun visit! We went to see my Danish neighbors and I had so much fun listening to Louise and my Danish friends talk in their native tongue. I didn’t understand a lot but I understood enough to get the basic gist of the conversation, even replying in English the answer to the question of what pet store I worked at that the older gentleman asked me in Danish. It was really fun to see how excited Louise was and how much our neighbors loved having her. Oh, and we never figured out what the bird was! I looked it up online and tried and tried to figure it out, but didn’t. He has left our area and we still aren’t quite sure what he was.

L: This picture reminds me of all the small things we did, like shooting (can I use this word here?) with the Rocket Copters or playing Apples to Apples, that actually made me really happy. Not that I’m not happy at home, but getting away from your daily routines and the role you are used to play in life is really relaxing. And also jumping on a trampoline after a year of working with children makes you remember that it’s not that long ago that you were a child yourself and that it is okay to be childish sometimes.

E: Ah, yes. Louise discovered that Emowee has not quite grown up yet and that childish things are her favorite in the whole world. ;) We did lots of fun games like jumping on the trampoline at my sister’s house, firing the rocket copters into the air and seeing who could shoot the other’s rocket copter, playing Apples to Apples with the family and just enjoying life in general. That was something that was very important to me, getting to just let Louise experience normal life for us. Was it normal “American” life? Perhaps. Since McConnells are Americans I would assume it is. ;) But the memories we made just doing the simple things, like getting balloons and having a helium party or picking cherries or just enjoying life in general were some of my favorite memories.

Thank you so much Louise for showing off your favorite pictures! Now here are mine!

E: This picture is one of my favorites because it shows just how brave and amazing Louise is. She put up with my gentleman, myself, and my brother all teaching her how to shoot a BB gun and a 22 rifle. Despite being nervous and unsure of it she went ahead and gave it a try, did a fantastic job and was a great shot! Then, when she was done, she made it clear she was done shooting and watched us the rest of the time. I highly respected her bravery in trying something new and intimidating and also being firm when she was finished. It was a fun afternoon, even if it was loud. I just so respected her bravery for this!

L: So this was a little scary. At least the thought of it. In Europe we hear about all the school shootings and how you easily can access a gun, and all the negative stuff. We wouldn’t like it that way in Europe, so with all the negativity about guns we are bombarded with, I had to experience how real Americans shoot. And I was positively surprised to see how much respect people have around guns! That is something I’ve told people about here in Denmark, when I tell them I went shooting, they look at me terrified. Why would anybody want to try to shoot? But it was fun. It’s not my new hobby, but I do see why people like shooting and why they find it fun. I find it more enjoyable to watch, that way I’m sure I’m not going to shoot anybody. 😅

E: This is another picture I loved because Louise was so willing to try new things. In this photo we’re at my sister’s house with her kids and Louise tried a popsicle, and even let me take pictures of her trying one despite me being so ornery and goofy. ;) Louise was very willing to try so many things, from popsicles to Cheez-its to chili dogs and even a water fountain, she went all out in adapting to our culture and we did our best to try and do things and learn things from hers! So far I think Louise is going to start an American store in Denmark that stocks sparkling apple cider, Cheez-its, the game Apples to Apples and rocket copters. ;)

L: I’m willing to try new things when I’m not in Denmark. I’m the most picky eater whenever I’m home, but when I’m out traveling, I feel like I should giver other people’s cultures and traditions a chance. And usually that is also a lot of fun.

Well, Emily, I think you forgot a very important thing in my American store. Pop-Tarts! I had heard about them before, but I had never seen any before, and I can’t even try to describe what I thought they looked like, because I had honestly no idea. So again I was positively  surprised. I was positively surprised many time that week.

E: I love this photo because it shows the comradery between Louise and my siblings. I was sitting on the trail on Mt. Spokane fixing my boot and I remarked the girls looked like they were going to beat me up. So the responded with clenched fists and crossed arms and scowls. I laughed so hard I had to get a picture, I was going to get beaten up by a Danish viking and an Irish-Aztec-German gangster! Little sister A and Louise became very good friends during Louise’s visit and they talk to each other regularly, which I’m so glad about. It’s such a blessing that our whole family became friends with Louise and were so blessed by her visit! <3

L: Wow I’m bad at keeping a straight face!

You have a great family, Emily! And I would always team up with them to beat you up... Or maybe not. It’s so far back in our history when we beat people (unless they are Swedes), that our Eurovision entry was even in form of a pacifist viking. I enjoyed meeting them all! I really hope you appreciate them as much as I think you should. ;)  I’m really happy that I know that I now have another home on the other side of the globe. Also if you for some reason should move away.

And the patience your little sister A has! She was baking mini-æbleskiver for how many hours? That was impressive. I consider myself very patient, but I wouldn’t have endured that!

E: And finally, our goodbye photo.

Saying goodbye to Louise was hard because we had so much fun with her! She felt like part of the family and we learned so much about Denmark and Europe in general. We learned some fun words and tried some Danish foods and just enjoyed her presence and friendship through and through. I can’t wait until the next time we get to see her again, be it we go to Denmark to visit her or she comes back to the USA to visit us again!

L: I also felt that one week wasn’t enough. So if it’s possible, my next stay should be longer. It has been a long time since I had as much fun as I had.

I learned a lot about the American way of living, or should I say the McConnell way of living, which is very different from what I’m used to. Not that I mind. It was refreshing to see the world through another set of eyes.

I look forward to seeing you in Denmark!

So that concludes Louise’s visit to the United States! We were so glad to have her and I just can’t express how much I appreciate her adventuresome spirit, her honesty and confidence, but also her humility and the time we spent in the Lord’s word together and talking about God and what the Lord was teaching us. It was so special. I wish I had a picture of my favorite memory—we sat on the bed and had her Bible out, my English Bible out and an old Danish Bible out and we were comparing passages in all of those translations. It was such an amazing experience and my favorite thing we did.

Thank you so much Louise for being so brave to come and see us, and may the time between our visits be short so we can see each other again soon!

Thanks for reading, readers, and have a wonderful and blessed day! Go have an adventure!