Week 11

The weather is getting colder here and we're becoming a little less active - fewer bike rides, fewer walks, less time in the garden, etc. We also have fewer and fewer "Moving to Denmark" to-do items to deal with these days! With the cooler temperatures and fewer logistics to take care of, we've put a little more effort into making our temporary house more homey! Pretty soon, I think we'll be able to actually invite some people over and try to pay back all the friends and neighbors who have helped or hosted us thus far.

Friday

There were treats for sale at work again! I was going to resist them, but Zac caught me after lunch and told me his coworkers said we should definitely buy some of the coconut ones. Zac came back to my office with me and we sat at the little table eating dessert together. 

It was like a Girl Scout Samoa but richer and without the caramel. Yum!

Back at home, it was movie night! Harrison has been asking us to have a family movie night for weeks. I think the kids really enjoyed the family movies during our first week in Denmark when we were all sleeping in the basement by the TV and staying up late together. The last time we tried to have a movie night, the TV wasn't connecting to the wi-fi, so it didn't work out very well.

Zac thought the kids would enjoy Men in Black and they agreed. Kaden pulled his mattress into the family room to make a kind of couch against the actual couch and we all piled blankets and pillows on to get cozy. About halfway through, Harrison asked for popcorn.

I don't think I wrote anything about the popcorn yet, but Zac bought a 3-pack of PopSecret a couple weeks ago. This house is equipped with some very weird appliances from IKEA, and they are...um...what's the opposite of intuitive...? They are so confusing.

The first time Zac made popcorn, he had to pull out the microwave manual. There is an English section, but it took several steps to make popcorn and he was gone for a long time. Since most of you live in the U.S., Zac would just like you to take a moment to appreciate that little "POPCORN" button on your microwaves. Please.

Anyway, that time, it turned out OK.

The second time was a burnt popcorn disaster.

The third time was family movie night. We all came upstairs together at intermission and Zac got out the manual and the popcorn to try to please little Harrison. Wanna know how to make popcorn here?

1. Put the bag in the microwave.

2. Look through the manual to find the popcorn page. There is no index, and the book is about an inch thick.

3. Turn the multifunction knob to the Auto position.

4. Press the Auto button to select the desired function. 

5. Look at the top left of the page to find the auto function that you want from the table.

6. Turn the adjust knob to choose desired food class.

7. Look at the chart to figure out what your desired food class even is. Popcorn is #5.

8. Press the Select button.

9. Turn the Adjust knob to set the weight of the food. The range of choices is 90-100 g. The popcorn bag is not labeled. Zac guessed 90 g.

10. Push the start button.

Fun stuff. Anyway, the popcorn didn't pop. Zac tried it again and selected 100 g, and then we did hear it start popping, but it didn't all pop and it was burnt. The kids didn't care I guess.

If we buy a house here, we are NOT buying our appliances from IKEA...

Saturday

...but we are not averse to buying (some) furniture and rugs there. On Saturday, we chose one lucky kid (Khloe) to ride with us to IKEA (we knew we would have to fold the big part of the backseat down to accommodate rugs). We found a rug for Khloe's room, a rug for the living room, and a rug for the front entryway. Zac also found a little media stand to organize the game systems downstairs a little better, and we got some plastic desk chair mats to protect the floors in Khloe's and Harrison's room. We bought a cheap stand-alone coat rack and some wall-mounted hooks to go in the entryway, and a nice upholstered bench that opens up so we have somewhere to sit when we put on all our winter boots and stuff. (Pics next week when it's all set up.)

We followed up our IKEA trip with a visit to Jysk for some plastic totes to hold our costume stuff and to get a hamper for me and Zac. We found a rug for the kitchen that Zac and I both liked, but once we put it in the kitchen, Zac's eyes started tripping and he decided he couldn't live like that. I was pleased though because it meant I got to put it in the laundry room, and I'm really enjoying it down there!

______________________

One thing we've been struggling with is that the front door handle has been broken since we moved in. It was kind of hanging in there and sort of functional, but it's not functional anymore. The handle is falling off, the latch doesn't always pop out, and the wood seems kind of warped so we can't even reliably close it properly. It's fine because there's an outer door that is just opened and closed by a key, so that one is closed and locked, but it pretty much means we can't use our front door. We usually use the side door to come and go, and there are two other doors to the outside (one in the basement and one that leads to the back terrace), but we really want to be able to use the front door in the wintertime. There's much more space there to take clothes and boots on and off.

The reason we struggle with the situation is that the door is so old, it probably can't be fixed. At the very least, the door handle needs replaced, and worst-case, the whole door needs to be replaced. Since we rented the house as-is, I feel like we can't really ask the owners to pay for it, but they had to have known the front door was jacked up, and if they were fine not using it, maybe they don't really want to fix it anyway? We're not sure what to do or what is OK to ask. TBD.

At JYSK, I found some rechargeable tea lights, which really helped bring our Halloween decor to life.

Mr. Bones lives!

We put all of our bones in the fireplace. It looks pretty cool (although not so much in this picture)!

_________________________

On our way home from all the shopping, I found a free, basic, Singer sewing machine on the Facebook buy-nothing page, and I was very excited. Zac didn't want to drive me to Allerød to pick it up though. To be fair, we were on our street, almost home, we'd been out all day, and the post was 5 hours old so there was no guarantee it would still be sitting outside the house. I guess I can't blame him. Also, yes, I could've driven there myself, but that seemed scary when I wouldn't have a copilot to help me with directions. Alas, I am still sewing machineless. 

Instead, I just settled in and started a puzzle - the first one we've done in Denmark!

It's so full of '90s nostalgia!

Unfortunately, it's a pretty dark puzzle and I have horrible eyes, so here's where we're at:

I'm old.

Sunday

There's a big mall in Lyngby that we haven't been to, so on Sunday, we decided to go check it out and get some lunch with the kids. We loaned Khloe some money for paints and when we got home, she went right to work on one of her big canvasses.

Look at her go!

She also raked up a couple thousand spikey chestnut balls from the garden to work off some of her paint supply debt.

We spent the evening relaxing and pretending I wasn't getting ready to leave my family for four days. When we sit around in the evening, we (except Zac) usually work on our Duolingo Danish. It's slow progress, but it's something! The Danish language school hasn't contacted me yet about a start date for our lessons. Darnit.

But look! Duolingo finally started teaching me some vocabulary I can use.

Har du en øl? (Do you have a beer?) En øl og et stykke pizza, tak. (A beer and a slice of pizza, thanks.) I've got this down.

Monday

It was the first day of Autumn Break for the kids, so they were pretty excited to not have to wake up and get ready for school. Zac headed off to work early without me. I lounged in bed for a bit because my work day would be spent traveling. Khloe offered to make me toast and coffee, so I accepted. It felt like Mother's Day! She brought it to me in bed at my request.

This was a mistake.

I ate the toast very gracefully over the plate without spilling any crumbs in the bed. I also managed to drink about 2/3 of my coffee without incident, but that last third? Oh boy. I don't think I could've spilled it any more ridiculously. It drenched the duvet cover, soaked through into the duvet, covered the top sheet, and then got like a 2" ring on the bottom sheet that also soaked through to the mattress cover. It spilled all over the keyboard of my laptop as well. (I think my laptop is OK.) I started the laundry while I was cleaning bathrooms and stuff, but I had to instruct Khloe on how to finish it because I had to go catch my bus.

Traveling for work is usually amazing (for me, not Zac). Most of the time, I travel with someone I like, we get to stay an extra day wherever we're at to go on little adventures, and I usually end up in a decent hotel with great breakfast foods.

This trip was not amazing. I had to travel to Strasbourg, France, so I could attend a 2-day laboratory course in tangential flow filtration and dia-ultrafiltration. I absolutely wanted to go to this course because I know almost nothing about this technology or the process and it's important for me to understand in my role here, but I didn't really want to go alone.

The thing is, I thought I'd be going with one of my fun colleagues. She enrolled in the class first and asked me to go with her. We were going to fly into Frankfurt, Germany, rent a car, drive the three hours to Molsheim, and hang out a little the day before and the day after the class. We were going to sightsee and eat yummy food and have a nice time. I was excited for the trip, excited to get to know her better, and excited to learn new things. She quit right after I started. Excitement turned to anxiety.

Never fear though, my boss thought it would be good for another new colleague to go with me. Back to excited! I wouldn't be traveling alone after all. I could get to know him better and we could go find fun things to do and sightsee. Except he has a young baby at home and wanted to go there and back as quickly as possible. No sightseeing or exploring. A little bummed again.

It turned out that he could not get into the class last-minute. It was full. Back to traveling alone. Back to anxious. And that's where I stayed.

My trip to the airport was pleasant enough - it's super nice to have public transportation going to and from an airport!! That was the only good part though. I was at the airport 2.5 hours early, and then my flight got delayed over and over again. I ate some food. I listened to podcasts. I texted Zac. Once I got to Amsterdam, it was easy enough to get on my next flight to Strasbourg. It got delayed on the runway though. I got to into Strasbourg at like 22:30 or something like that, then took a taxi to the hotel, checked in, ordered a taxi for the morning, and went up to my room.

I dumped my bag in the bathtub and spent the first 10 minutes searching for bedbugs - there's a lot of news about outbreaks in Paris and other areas of France right now. They're out of control. I would've looked for them anyway, but I was especially wary this time. No way I wanted to bring home bedbugs!

Tuesday

My taxi was late. I was late to my first day of of the course. Also, I was the only one there who hadn't been working with TFF and DUF systems for at least a year, I think. There was a lot of fast math (not my strong suit), almost everyone else was there with people they work with, and they were all staying close to the class site (as opposed to me, staying 26 km away so I could be closer to the airport).

It was a lonely, tough day, but I made it through. I felt like I was behind everyone else the whole time and I felt sorry for the girl from GSK who got stuck with me as a lab partner. We also weren't allowed to take pictures, so I just snapped a selfie with the Merck "M" as fast as I could at the end of the day.

One of the instructors recommended I go to La Petit France in Strasbourg, a historical area with cute bridges, old houses, shops and restaurants, and kind of a bustling tourist vibe. I questioned whether I should walk there alone at night given that our class didn't let out until 18:30 and I still had a 30-45-minute taxi ride back to the hotel. I got mixed reviews about how safe that would be and chose not to go out. I also saw a guy pissing on a building right next to my taxi as we were stopped in traffic. There were kids and people all around, and he didn't seem to mind at all. I felt good about my decision to stay in.

I was hungry though, so I did venture two blocks to a McDonald's I had seen on the way in. Not the best choice, but it was close and easy and I knew I wouldn't have to talk to anyone to order. At the French McDonald's restaurants, they've started using reusable glasses and french fry containers for dine-in. It gets rid of lids and straws and packaging waste, which is cool, but it also means you have to sort your dishes before you leave and all the instructions were in French. They didn't translate well either. I just stood there staring at four bins and two shelves and trying to figure out what to do. Fortunately, one of the kids working there helped me.

Wednesday

Second day of class. It went about as well as the first day, but we got out about 2 hours sooner, so I did get to the hotel with about an hour of daylight left. It was really cold, so I put on most of the clothes I brought with me and made a mad dash for La Petit France.

The buildings were so cool! I couldn't even capture it in pictures (partially because it kept raining on me and my phone). There were really cute crooked ones and they are all essentially unchanged from when they were built in the 1500s-1700s. There was a guy out in the rain playing an accordion and a whole bunch of little kitschy shops underground below the buildings. I went into a few but my glasses always fogged up and I just had to go back outside. I started to head back to the hotel so I wouldn't be out alone after dark, but also, I didn't know where I was going to eat and there were a bunch of little restaurants in the area. I got brave and just decided to go get some food.

I went into the place nearest to me and they asked if I was there to drink or eat. Both? They told me the kitchen wasn't opening for about 30 more minutes (even though it was 18:00), but I just got a beer like I totally knew it wasn't time to order food yet and pretended to watch soccer.

The beer and the music were good, and when I was finally allowed to order food, I got some kind of pizza with diced ham(?), cream, herbs, and cheese. It was really tasty. 

The tables were really close together and I ended up by a couple from New Zealand who saw another guy from New Zealand a few tables away and invited him over. Their conversation was incredible dinner entertainment. The guy who joined them was named Fozzy and he had an incredible life that led to story after story. I had a very nice time eavesdropping. I heard that Fozzy was staying at a hotel near mine and he was getting ready to head back to meet up with his wife, so I figured I could walk behind him most of the way and ask him for help if anyone tried to accost me in the dark. I went to the bathroom and when I got back, he had already left. Oh well. It wasn't a great plan anyway. :)

I got lost on the walk back and went about 10 minutes out of my way, but mostly I felt safe and I eventually got back to my room.

Thursday

I got up at 03:35 so I could pack up, check out, and meet my taxi driver in the lobby at 04:00. I decided I should leave at 04:00 so I could get to the airport by 04:30, which was 2 hours before my flight (and the recommended amount of time you should be early for flights within the EU). The driver was early, we got there quickly, and the airport was still closed. I guess it's a really small airport and they don't open the doors until 04:30. I was there at 04:11.

I stood outside with about 20 other people. A group of guys kept trying to ask me if I was also going to Corsica and I felt like it was really difficult to get them to understand that I was going to Copenhagen via Amsterdam. When they finally figured out what I was saying, they were all like, "Oooooh! Amsterdam! You smoke?" and then I had to start all over again trying to explain I was really going to Copenhagen and I was not just going to get high in Amsterdam all weekend. It was exhausting.

Airport security took all of five minutes and then I had to sit on a bench for 2 hours. There was no place to get coffee that early, and I had promised to try to find Harrison a French flag but there were obviously no souvenir shops open. I don't even know if there were any souvenir shops. I think the airport was like half the size of the Spokane airport.

I was really happy to get home. And that was another cool thing! I don't feel like this house we are staying in is our home. We just call it that. But we are constantly aware that it belongs to someone else who will come back to it, so we just kind of exist in it without making it truly our own. But when I stepped off the plane into the Copenhagen airport, I was instantly at ease. I felt like I was "home." I knew where I was going, I could read both languages on the signs (mostly), and I knew how to get myself back to my family using the transportation systems. I smiled the whole walk through the airport.

* * *

In 2.5 more weeks, we will have been here for three months! My goal is to have all of our remaining "immigration" to-do items checked off the list and to assess our budget to see if we can continue affording to live here. We have guests coming soon, some social engagements on the horizon, and Halloween just around the corner!