Our First Day

Monday the 14th was my first day at ALK in Hørsholm!!

I took the bus to work - it's only two stops north of our house. I haven't shown how totally easy it is to get to a bus from our front door, but here:

Walk past the basketball hoop onto that little trail, and the light spot at the end is the bus stop.

When I got off the bus, I just had to walk across a street. There's a separate footpath back to the buildings and it's all forested on the sides. There are ferns and little ponds and tons of trees. It's the most peaceful walk up to work you could ask for.

The walking path from the bus stop to ALK.

I went to the reception desk in the main building and got my temporary key card and access PIN for the other buildings. They took my photo for my permanent badge and then my manager, Helle, met me and took me to our building.

ALK headquarters!

I share an office with Thomas, a guy I've worked with on projects for about 10 years. Our desks face each other along a huge window, and the window OPENS! On the third floor of a building! Also, they bought me an orchid, because we're allowed to have plants in our offices.

My orchid.

My desk (left) and Thomas's desk (right).

We went to the common area on our floor for a welcome breakfast. There were breads and cheeses and pålægschokolade, and it was great to see familiar faces and meet some new people. Everyone was really kind and made me feel right at home. Oh, and there are these really fancy coffee machines at the Hørsholm site, so I had a latte made with real, fresh milk, too.

I had to order my phone and set up my computer, which took some time. I got a laptop with a Danish keyboard, so there are extra letters on it and a lot of the special characters (like comma, question mark, etc.) are in different places. I'm looking at it as a fun challenge. It does slow me down just a bit though.

I also had a giant backlog of work emails that have been piling up from Post Falls, so there was plenty to do. I clicked to log into my user profile and noticed a somewhat hilarious error with my work photo.

Check out my new, strong jaw line.

I emailed reception and they said they'd fix it, so I didn't really think anything of it, but over the course of the day, I got several pop-ins, emails, and text messages from colleagues pointing it out. I lost count of how many times I read, "Wow! Denmark has really changed you!" You're all hilarious.

I ate lunch in the canteen with my department, and looking around, I saw a few more familiar faces. It's nice to feel so at ease already.

I had a meeting with Helle after lunch where we talked about the company, the department, and what my role would be. I will be working on two projects initially, and I am familiar with one of them and have at least been introduced to the other one, so I'm excited to get going. Lots of logistics to take care of first though, and all of my Post Falls duties that carried over need to be knocked out.

Anyway, I feel super comfortable in my new place here and I'm not anxious or nervous or anything. I know it's going to be amazing!

* * *

The kids also had their first day of school!

Normally, I'd go into work late on the first day of school so I could drop off the kids. Normally, I'd take pics of them as they headed out the door, or when they got to the school, or when they walked into their classroom for the first time. Normally, I'd try to get a group shot in front of the house or in front of the school, or take pics of each kid sitting at their new desks. Of course, I couldn't do any of this because I had my first day of work to get to, and with Zac on vacation, it seemed only logical he would get them where they needed to be.

He's also not a picture-taker.

I did ask him to describe the day though, so here's what we've got:

It was easy to get to the school in the car (Vibe's car). Zac went to the office and found out that the kids had never been officially registered at the school, so they weren't on any class lists. But they had already taken their benchmarks, and the office knew they were coming, so it's unclear why their registrations were never completed. The administration helped get the problem sorted out, and then Zac helped the kids figure out where they were supposed to go.

While the kids went to their classrooms, Zac went to a parent presentation. He arrived late due to the registration fiasco, so the coffee was gone, but he did get to listen to the new head of the school talk about his background, introduce himself a bit, and present his vision for the school. After the meeting, Zac sat in the car for 30 minutes, and when the kids were released from their classes for the day (at 10:30 a.m.), Zac drove them home.

Khloe liked it, Harrison said it was boring, Kaden amazed everyone with his height. All the kids mentioned at least one new friend.

[I swear this to you, I will be present on their first day of school next year and pictures will exist.]

* * *

So I guess that's it! Our first day of work and school in Denmark. So far, so good!