hanging out with haakon in norway.

well, i need to start from the beginning because you are probably asking yourself, "what's a haakon?"

and so...lets go back to july of 2010. it was my second year at roskilde and this time we decided to attend all EIGHT days. The first four days are called the "warm up days." there are games and music and they show the world cup on big screens. this is where i meet haakon...we make friends with these Norwegian guys and a few Argentineans and for the next 4 days we are all best friends. haakon and i are practically dating and it was getting serious until day 5. i lost him. i mean i literally dont know where he went. its a festival of 100,000 people and i didn't have a cell phone. day 7 i found him.
holding hands with some Swedish girl.
shot through the heart.
after the festival i tried finding him online but i didn't even know how to SAY his name, never mind spell it.

roskilde 2011. one year later.
haakon and his friends have a kurt cobain flag and i see the flag from a distance. it was haakon. we are reunited alas! we hug and kiss and this time i would make sure to exchange phone numbers. so i give him mine. we were meeting up with people at the time - so i left him and told him i would see him soon. he never called.

three weeks later.
im laying on the couch when i get this text. "hey this is haakon. i hope this is the right number. i tried calling you at the festival but it wouldn't go through...i've been editing the first couple digits to see if it would work." apparently i gave him the wrong country code. a legitimate excuse. i text him back and we start skyping. and then...

three weeks later, he invites me to visit bergen, norway. we walk around holding hands and hiking. he calls me katja and i call him hawks. and although we have nothing in common and realistically it would be way to hard to actually date...hawks is one of the nicest guys. a sweetheart. it was a pleasure visiting him and i really hope we stay in touch (see you at roskilde 2012!).
and if you ever get a chance to go to bergen it is absolutely beautiful.
and lesson learned...if you ever meet a cute scandinavian at a crowded festival make sure you exchange the right phone numbers (and country codes)

the picture of us i know is not the best...but it depicts that moment of us reuniting at the festival. so happy :)

5 years.

i am celebrating my five year anniversary as a flight attendant with Skywest Airlines.
FIVE YEARS.
i mean, that is straight up commitment. i have never done anything for five years. and when i started this job at age 22 i planned on being a flight attendant for one year. travel a few places and then go back to school or africa. i remember when i first started i met a girl who had been there for two years and i thought she was crazy. But...i was lucky. i got on at a time when they were hiring a lot of flight attendants, which means i moved up in seniority fast. only one month of reserve. i didnt have to work christmas. i was visiting evie in Des Moines, hannah in LA, michelle in Springfield, Missouri. i was eating fish tacos in Santa Barbara and hiking in Missoula, Montana. within the first year i had backpacked eastern Europe for two weeks, zip lined through Costa Rica and smoked cigars in the DR. i have learned more about myself and the world through my experiences and traveling then i ever could in a classroom.

this is the best. job. ever.

I could be home to watch my nephews grow up. but also travel the world. it's hard to quit something you enjoy and im not saying im going to be a flight attendant forever. but i definitely cant quit right now. it has sucked me in.

and so this week, we were in Medford, Oregon. eating burgers with a couple crews. the other flight attendants were older but had been at skywest for only about a year. they asked how long i had been here - i said five years. one of them asks, "oh, are you still on reserve?"
no, five years. five.
"oh...i see."

the next morning we had an early show. like we have to be at the airport at 5am early. i came down to the hotel lobby a couple minutes early to grab some coffee in the secret break room down this hallway...turn left, then right. and its through a doorway on the right. the captain was in there...."hey! how did you know about this coffee??"
five years.
"oh...right."

"....it's been a pleasure having you on board this morning. on behalf of united and this Denver based flight crew we would like to thank you for choosing us and wish you a wonderful time in Grand Junction or where ever your travels may take you."
the guy in 1B says surprisingly, "how do you know all of the announcements word for word?"
five years.

five years.

and then we were on the news...

last month we were asked to do an interview for 7 News 'The Denver Channel" for a series called Expecting Baby.

Click here to watch.

Ana Cabrera at 7 NEWS also wrote an article called
Placenta Pills To Beat Baby Blues?

That you can read here.

i love our business and i love that the word is spreading!
yay placentas!

once upon a time...

"there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

you might be addicted to traveling if...

- you start every story with "when i was in..."
- you judge people on where they have been or where they want to go.
- your bookshelf mostly contains guide books, lonely planets, and novels that take place in foreign countries (ex shantaram, three cups of tea, the girl with the dragon tattoo)
- you take an emergency supply of granola bars and toliet paper and water and a sarong in your car.
- you have more than one currency in your wallet right now.
- you could have a parasite (you probably do have a parasite).
- you have apps on your phone of "common phrases in french" or "how to speak thai."
- while trying to do important stuff on the internet you often end up reading some travel blog or researching the next overseas music festival.
- when buying something you relate it to how many days it would be worth in your next destination (that cost about 10 days in thailand)
- you pretend you are a travel writer. and wish you could work for national geographic.
- you are on your second passport. and you ask for 'no stamp' when going to canada.
- you can only understand half of your "news feed" on facebook...because too many of your friends are foreign.
- you are considering getting cable...just for the travel channel.
- you could tell someone what every outlet looks like around the world. denmark has two round pegs.
- you can fit a months worth of liquid products in a one quart size bag.
- you understand and appreciate what it means to be home. and it is so sweet. but it wont be long before you have to go again. the world -it calls to you. you live passionately...holding nothing back. you travel lightly. quick to listen, slow to speak. not taking anything for granted.
and well, sometimes you dream of wine in paris, motorcycles in india and being in argentina with a man who can dance.

fashion update!

this just in.

well if you read my blog a year ago...then you know that i have been doing studies that show that all the popular trends in denmark take approximately one year to come to the states. this is a fact. so if you want to dress european. listen up...

1. fanny packs are still in - but make sure you wear them over your shoulder (around your chest) especially if you are a boy. wearing it around your waste is sooo 2010 (or 1986??...im confused).

2. all the girls wear these oversized scarf things...as soon as it gets chilly they wrap around their huge woolly scarves. their necks get real cold.

3. hair - is still long and untamed. and usually up high in a messy bun. nothings changed here really except for they love these wirey headbands that you twist at the top of your head. you can also use a bandana.

4. sheer black panty hose with light short cut off shorts. and converse tennis shoes (low rise). dont ask questions.

5. a jean cut off vest. which i brought over there for the festival...pshh, im so hip.

6. the newest thing are these oversized zipper onesie things. which i think are really cool - if you are on the couch watching a movie, with your mom.

7. for guys - they love shirts that are asymmetrical...colors, zippers, buttons should never go straight down your chest.

well, thats all i can think of for now! as americans we will never be as good looking as the danes, but we can at least try to dress like them.

sigh no more.

Serve God love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea, one on shore
My heart was never pure
And you know me
And you know me

And man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.
There is a design,
An alignment to cry,
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be (x4)

-mumford and sons