Update from Portland

Karina and I are both doing really great over here in Portland. I thought it was about time that I wrote a little update about our happenings and future plans. 

Our biggest news is that after the summer we are moving to Vancouver, BC in Canada where I will start graduate school in Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in September. Karina is excited to take some time off from studying before pursuing grad school and plans to work in Vancouver. We had an extremely hard decision to make between moving to Vancouver or Copenhagen in Denmark. I was offered amazing grad school scholarships to both UBC and the University of Copenhagen (where Karina also applied). Essentially, we decided that the programme is better for me at UBC, Karina would like a break from studying, and because of our connections and desire to return, we will always have reasons to go back to Denmark. Karina's parents also live in Vancouver and it's only 6 hours away from her sister's family here. We are really looking forward to moving to Canada!

Karina is doing really well at university and her graduation from Portland State University is on Saturday 13 June at the Rose Garden (Portland's giant basketball stadium). Naturally, she can't wait! She will still have a few classes to do over the summer, but she can do those online so that she's not tied down to a particular place - which is just as well, because we have an amazing summer ahead of us before moving to Vancouver!

My Dad arrives for nearly a three week visit on Tuesday! We can't wait to see him! My Mum decided to stay home to be with my grandparents, as my Grandad is having a few health issues at the moment. We miss them all very much and hope that both Mum and Dad can visit for Christmas! We have heaps of exciting things planned for when Dad is here, including spending a week in Vancouver with Karina's parents after her graduation. Dad flies out of Vancouver to the UK to visit his side of the family over there and also to go and watch Wimbledon, which has been a dream of his for a long time.

After he takes off we will be back down here to pack up our apartment, which we have to be out of by the end of June. We plan to rent a truck and drive our furniture and belongings up to Vancouver to store until we move there in August. 

On July 1, Karina's Aunt Ann, Uncle Gorm and their kids Benedikte, Elisabeth and Gustav arrive from Denmark for a visit. We will meet them with Karina's parents in Seattle and tour around Washington state for a couple of days, then head back to Lisa and Mike's in Battle Ground for the 4th of July (Independence Day and Annika's 7th birthday). The next day we head back to Vancouver with Karina's parents and her Danish family as we are all embarking on a 7 day cruise to Alaska, which is really exciting! Karina and I will stay in Anchorage until early August and spend some time with her brother Kent's family, while the others will be there for a week or two after the cruise. 

While we are in Alaska my US visa will expire, though I am allowed 30 days afterwards to be in the country but not work. So on August 10 we head back to Vancouver to find a place to live and get settled in before university starts for me.

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend, so we went to Newport on the Oregon Coast for the long weekend together with Lisa, Mike, Liz, Bob, Annika, Eva, Alexander and Coda (the new family puppy). We had a  wonderful weekend down there with them!

Friday was also Karina's 22d birthday (on the 22nd), so we celebrated out at Lisa and Mike's. For her birthday we went to see Celtic Woman at the Rose Garden with Lisa and Annika earlier on May. They were amazing!

The weekend before we had a visit from one of my host brother from Denmark, Kristian, and his mate Mathias. It was great to catch up with him again! They are doing a big trip up the west coast of the USA and have been to San Diego, LA, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and San Francisco. They are currently in Vancouver and we will hopefully catch up with them when we're there with my Dad.

I think that's most of our news at the moment. Hope everything is wonderful wherever you are reading this!

Best wishes,

Andy