Week 7
Another good week with all kinds of things to write about! Zac had his first day at ALK in Denmark, Lindsey went on a "sailing" adventure, there were visitors from Post Falls, and we got new rain gear! The weather is definitely cooling off, but it's still beautiful and perfect for doing things outdoors. Read on!
Friday
When I read Kim's book about their family's time in Denmark, I paid particular attention whenever she wrote about something I hadn't experienced and felt I could learn from. Friday was the day that came in handy!
Kim had written about saft, a concentrated juice drink in Denmark, and warned that you were not supposed to drink it without adding lots of water first. At morgenbrød, I found myself staring curiously at an unmarked bottle of deep pink liquid on the table. It was sitting next to a large plastic bottle of sparkling water, and as I looked around, I saw a few cups filled with a light pink bubbly liquid.
"Is this saft?" I asked Vibe. It was! I had a glass and it was delightful. A little syrupy to enjoy drinking all the time, but it was nice on the occasion.
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| A little saft in the glass plus a lot of water = pleasant juice drink! |
In the evening, Zac and I went for a walk (the trails by our house really are great) and Kaden rode his new bike with us.
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| He has to squint. It's *so* bright in the evenings! |
Speaking of Kaden's bike, I never posted a picture of him with his fancy birthday present after it arrived!
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| Happy kid. |
After we got Harrison to bed, we ended up having some kind of weird impromptu family sit-up competition. I don't know how it started, but Kaden was sure he'd destroy us and was a little surprised when Khloe, Zac, and I all held our own.
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| Go, Khloe! Just 10 more! |
I guess you could say that we're finding ways to entertain ourselves in the evenings without our things.
Saturday
Just when I thought we were seeing fewer giant house spiders, I felt one crawling on my shoulder in the middle of the night. I slowly woke up as I moved my hand over to smack my shoulder, and shot upright, fully awake, as I realized I had actually touched something. I slapped it somewhere into the middle of the bed. Sorry, Zac.
I turned on my phone flashlight and tore the bed apart looking for it. Zac woke up about that time and instantly joined in the search. We found it in a very awkward spot where the sheet was just touching the edge of the bed frame. After some discussion about the best way to eliminate it without knocking it between the mattress and the bed frame, Zac grabbed a box of cookies (mysteriously nearby...) and smashed it. We slept poorly after that. It's very hard to just accept that these monstrous beings might crawl all over us at night.
The morning was way better though. Zac made pancakes and since I had found real maple syrup at the store, they were awesome.
Also, we woke up to news of a major milestone: My giant student loan pay-off went through and we are debt-free for the first time since...I don't know. Ever? We used some of the money we got for the house to pay off the final balance, and it feels great. Zac baked cookies in celebration.
Later, Vibe picked up me and Khloe. Khloe wanted to go shopping for some pants, so we were going to have coffee and relax while she browsed. We got coffee at Espresso House, which is a pretty good-sized chain around here, I guess, and we were lucky enough to get a cozy spot on one of the couches.
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| Here's to making time to relax with friends! |
When our drinks were gone, Vibe told me that she and Amanda had planned to get me an electric kettle for my birthday since they knew Zac and I hadn't been able to bring ours from the U.S. What a nice surprise! We browsed around for one but didn't find many options, so we just picked up some toiletries for our kids, some socks for our boys, and met back up with Khloe. It was a nice trip, even if we didn't find what we were looking for.
I've mentioned that the plants serve as fences here, and our neighborhood is filled with hedges made from European beech. On many occasions, we've seen our older neighbors standing out in front of their homes, wielding long electric hedge trimmers to perfectly manicure their hedge-fences. Zac found a trimmer in the shed out back and decided to join ranks of old men fussing about the shape of their greenery. It was very cute and he did a nice job.
The kids wanted Danish s'mores, so Zac built a nice fire and we brought out the speaker we've borrowed from Vibe to listen to music and hang out in our cool backyard. Kaden has really been working on his trampoline flip and nailed it several times in a row.
Sunday
There are some rainy days on the horizon as summer in Denmark wanes, and we are woefully unprepared for wet weather. On the advice of my new boss, Zac and I took the kids to Lyngby to Spejdersport, the scout store, to get rain shells and rain pants.
I don't see a lot of rain pants in the U.S. I'm sure they exist, but I feel like it's a pretty Danish thing. They're just like a rain shell, but instead of a jacket, it's pants. They have an elastic waist and zippers at the bottom so you can get them on and off without taking off your shoes. Khloe, Kaden, and I all got rain jackets and rain pants. Zac didn't want any rain pants, and he has a good rain coat coming from the U.S. with our things, so he didn't make a purchase. Well, he didn't make a clothing purchase. He did buy a sweet pair of Crocs. I guess after months of "just slipping them on" to take out the trash or something, he decided he should stop wearing Kaden's taffy pink pair and get some of his own.
The guys working at the store were incredibly helpful. They taught us a lot about layering in Denmark and gave us some advice about how to prepare for the fluctuating weather. They even threw in some special soap to use when we wash our gear and some water-proofing spray to re-apply later. And they gave us a discount on everything even though it wasn't on sale. People here are so nice!
Kaden didn't actually come with us on our trip to Lyngby, he stayed home and invited a friend from school to go mountain biking with him. Lewis and his little brother came to the house shortly after we left, and the boys had a great day riding trails in the forest. Kaden got startled by a loud car on the way back and ended up crashing pretty hard. His shoulder and arm got kind of beat up and he was very sore, but overall, he had a really fun day.
Since Kaden was all right and the other kids were ready for some downtime, Zac and I hopped on the bikes and rode to Spar for some beer and ice cream.
Up to this point, I've made just a handful of bike rides, and every time, my shorts get soaked in the crotch.
Yeah. I know. Gross.
I thought I was really out of shape, which caused me to sweat so profusely from my crotch that it looked like I peed my pants. I figured the more I rode, the more fit I would be, and the better the wet-pants issue would get. On this day, the wet spot was clearly just on one side of my shorts, though.
I launched a root-cause investigation and concluded that these embarrassing situations were not, in fact, the result of a single, super-sweaty butt cheek, but rather the result of a torn old bike seat with exposed foam. The foam absorbs the water when it rains, and then when I ride, my shorts wick the moisture from the cracks and exposed foam on the seat.
The take-home message here is that I'm not as gross as I thought. Phew.
A few weeks ago, Khloe watched a bunch of YouTube videos and then expertly gave herself a haircut with layers. My hair was getting pretty long and icky, but I never really make time to cut it, so I just put it up in a bun all the time. I asked Khloe if she'd like to cut my hair and she seemed shocked and thrilled that I would trust her with that, so we spent some quality time together in the tiny bathroom. I straddled the toilet and she took her time and it turned out very well.
Harrison really misses having friends to play with outside, and so he keeps going and harassing the older kids in the neighborhood to play with him. They don't seem to mind the age gap though. Asger, who's like 14 I think, happily complied with Harrison's request to play. The two jumped on the trampoline and played games in the yard for almost an hour.
Zac took a walk down the road and borrowed a drill from our French-Danish neighbors, Jean and Mette, so we could finally put the headboard on our bed. I'm glad our bed frame is complete. It adds a lot to our barren room.
Monday
It was Zac's first day of work! We rode the bus together and then parted ways as I walked toward my building and he went toward reception. I ran back to snag a pic of him walking in though.
I've noticed that our respective departments eat lunch at the same time, so I was looking for him in the canteen around 11:00. My colleagues and I spied him across the room walking toward his table (our departments also weirdly sit at the tables next to each other). It was adorable and I'm happy to have him on site.
One of my colleagues had a 50th birthday party, and apparently when someone at work has a "round birthday," the canteen will make special little treats for the department. I wish that I had taken a picture of them, but I failed. They were so beautiful and perfect. They were delicious, too. I asked Vibe what they were called, and she said they were Sarah Bernhardt cakes.
Sarah Bernhardt was a French actress in the late 19th century. She published her memoirs and when they were published in Danish, she came to Denmark for the event. The country was so happy to have her here, a pastry chef created an entire new little cake-y thing in her honor. They're called Sarah Bernhardt kager (cakes). I can't wait to try these in every bakery to see how they compare to the ones from the canteen.
The party also included black licorice pipes (the Danes love their black licorice) and gummy and chocolate candies. The whole group sang one of the two Danish birthday songs - they chose the long one. It's like 4 verses long and it was fun hearing everyone sing it in unison. Someday, I'll know how to join in.
Zac and I rode the bus home together, then walked to Vibe's to pick up her car. It's such an easy and peaceful walk, and Vibe has been just so kind to keep lending us her car when she doesn't think she'll need it. It's really nice to have sometimes. Zac is still browsing the used cars in the area, but I'm sure we'll buy one soon.
(Vibe also loaned us some small coolers for International Day...more on that later!)
Because we had the car, we were able to drive Kaden to his second basketball practice, but when we got there, he decided he was too injured from his mountain biking crash to participate. We also realized he needed some court-dedicated shoes to play in the Monday gym (which was much nicer than the Thursday gym). Kids are expensive.
We picked up take-out wraps and pizza from Gourmet Pizza in Birkerød - it's the same place Vibe ordered our dinner from on our first night in Denmark, so I feel like maybe it will always have a special place in our hearts. It tasted good and was easy on a night when two kids had events. (Khloe's theater group meets Monday nights from 20:00-21:00, so we have basketball and theater on Mondays now, I guess.)
Tuesday
Tuesday was fairly uneventful, except that a bunch of my Post Falls colleagues came to Denmark for meetings! I got to see them at lunchtime and catch up a little bit. After work, Travis, Alanna, Courtney, Val, and John went to dinner with me and Rikke at Humlebæk Kro. The building used to be an inn on a main travel road. It's the original building (with some required updates) from the 1700s and they offer a very royal and intimate dining experience.
Of course, we shared our fancy foods like the uncultured Americans that we are, passing plates back and forth so we could try as many things as possible. Rikke just had to accept it.
It was fun to see everyone, and we really had a nice time at the restaurant. Rikke drove me to a bus stop so I could catch a bus home after dinner. I waited there alone in the dark and didn't feel unsafe at all. It was very nice. I did get a little spooked walking through the short wooded trail from the bus stop to our house though - it was really dark and I couldn't see the ground ahead of me. I just had to forge ahead and hope there were no massive slugs on the pathway.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I have no idea what anyone else in the family did (it's a drawback of having me as the primary blogging voice, and I apologize). I had an all-day global meeting at a beautiful hotel on the sea. Vibe drove three of us who don't have cars. We started with a little social breakfast and then settled in for a full day of presentations from different ALK sites and project areas.
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| The Marienlyst Strand hotel (conference room deck) on Ørsund. You can see Sweden across the water. |
After the meetings, we did team building exercises on the beach. I didn't get pictures of the first two tasks, but they were really fun. Alanna managed to snag a photo of the Post Falls crew (if you can still count me as part of the Post Falls crew).
We were told to "bring extra trousers" because we'd be "sailing," so I was actually very excited as someone who has never been on a sailboat before. I imagined that I'd get an easy job pulling on a rope or something while we sipped wine and watched the tuna jump.
But "sailing" didn't translate well, I guess.
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| Our teambuilding vessels. Please note Kronborg Slot (Kronborg Castle), a.k.a. the Hamlet castle in the background. |
We donned life vests, picked up paddles, and climbed into some rubber boats for teambuilding in the sea (Øresund). Our team was selected based on the fact that we did not speak Danish, so it was Alanna and Courtney and I, our Spanish colleagues, and two of our Danish colleagues who volunteered to get their instructions in English.
We had quite a time paddling our partially-deflated raft back and forth along the coastline in an attempt to complete the various challenges. We were not great, but it was pretty fun anyway.
We did get a little bit wet, and there was more sand in my shoe than I wanted to take to dinner in the fine dining establishment where dinner was being served afterward, so I went up to Alanna's room to dump out my shoes and clean up a little before our meal.
We were served a family-style, 3-course meal in Brasserie 1861, the Marienlyst Strand hotel restaurant. I tried to remember to take photos of my food, but that doesn't come naturally to me and I forgot to capture the main course.
I enjoyed the good company and the good food. It was a really nice day.
Thursday
Kaden is participating in a French study group on Thursday mornings to help him and some other students catch up to the level of the other kids (who started French in years prior), so someone has to get Harrison to school Thursdays. He and I spent the morning working on his home learning assignments. He enjoys our time together and really likes his school work.
On this morning, we worked on discussing which emotions he would feel if certain life events transpired, and then we found Denmark and his home country on a world map.
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| He said he'd feel sad if one of his parents got a new job because, "Then we might not get to ride the bus together sometimes." |
I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me when I got to work Thursday morning after dropping Harrison at school - Thomas brought me a new bike seat! He had one in storage he had been meaning to get rid of, and it had never been used. When I got home, Zac put it on my bike.
Of course, we had to see if this had solved the problem of my soaked shorts, so we went for a nice little ride with Harrison to Ebberød.
The ride was enough to work up a sweat, and I'm happy to report that my ass did not. Problem solved. Thanks, Thomas!
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| Resting at the park. |
Zac wanted me to mention that we haven't found any "normal" swings since we've moved to Denmark. All of them are these round disks with a net suspended in the center. They're made of a nylon rope and they're pretty fun. I don't know if they are better or worse than the swings we typically think of in the U.S., they're just different. I enjoy them.
Just before we headed back home, Zac led me down to a secluded little church in the woods on a pond. He had found it on a previous ride and wanted to show it to me, and I thought it was really nice of him to take me back there so I could see it.
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