Cool Things We Learned About Life in DK
Every day, we learn more about living in this awesome country. Here are some fun things we've discovered in the last year that didn't really have a place in our other semi-regular posts:
Child Island
There is a man-made island between Denmark and Sweden called Ungdomsøen, or the Youth Island. It's an island FILLED with activities and adventures for kids. You can camp there overnight, kayak, swim, paddle board, build fires, play outdoor games, go on a scavenger hunt, play laser tag, or participate in a group activity like an escape room, debates, tours, etc. There are also indoor activities like board games, table tennis, pool, art, and more.
We have not visited this island, but it might be a fun thing to add to our list!
"This would never be allowed in the U.S.!"
Denmark has a very trusting culture, and part of that is that they trust people to make good choices about their safety and limitations.
For example, there is a beautiful church near Christiania called Church of Our Savior. It has an incredible spiral staircase winding around the spire on top, and for a fee, you can climb to the top. It really is a breathtaking experience.
I climbed it on one of my solo trips to Copenhagen for work in May of 2018. The first thing I noticed is that you are very high up and the hand rail only goes up to your waist. When you reach the top of the spire, the staircase just tapers to an end! There's a stream of people coming up behind you, and you have to kind of move around each other to get back down. I definitely thought: "This would never be allowed in the U.S."
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| See how the wind whips my hair and my view is unencumbered by plexiglass? |
We totally climbed this as a family to celebrate our 1-year milestone in Denmark, too! I made a separate blog post about that though. Here's a video I took as I descended the staircase.
As another example, I was walking back to the bus stop after dropping Harrison off at school this past winter, and it struck me how odd it was that there is a little waterway running along the path. The grade down to the water is pretty steep, and you can see a pile of footballs and playground balls down at the bottom. There are trees alongside the water that kids were climbing on, and a group of kids was just kind of splashing around down at the bottom when I arrived before the bell rang. You can see it in the video below (forgive my horrible narration - it was kind of spur-of-the-moment), but again, this wouldn't be allowed in the U.S.
And then, of course, there was my post about Tivoli, the incredible old amusement park in the city. If you recall, many rides allow you to secure yourself, some kid rides are operated manually, and the Fun House is "a litigator's dream" (as quoted by Aunt Lorie). We said many times, "This would NEVER be allowed in the U.S.!"
From playgrounds to tourist attractions, from the zoo to the forest, there are simply a million dumb ways to die in Denmark, but they trust YOU to figure that out on your own.
Postage
Postage costs a lot in Denmark, and there aren't any facilities akin to the U.S. Post Office. A cool thing I discovered is that you can buy postage on the PostNord app and just write the code they give you on the envelope! You take it to a drop-off point (the one we use is in our grocery store, Føtex) and it gets delivered just as if it had a postage stamp on it. I have now tried this about five times with success. Amazing and convenient, eh? Now if only it were affordable...
Bike culture
Danes ride bikes everywhere, and I think this is a well-known fact. Some people ride for transportation, and some ride for exercise or fun, but everywhere you go, you'll see people pedaling along on the bike roads.
There are lots of reasons the Danes can ride everywhere. One is because the land is relatively flat compared to the U.S. Another reason is because they have built dedicated routes for bikes that are safe and well-kept. I've shown photos before in this blog, but in case you missed it, there are dedicated lanes in most places for bikes, and they even have their own traffic signals to help ensure safe co-existence with cars.
A new cool thing I spotted is that there are occasionally stations mounted along the bike roads in Denmark that allow you to perform quick maintenance on your bike. There are wrenches, bike stabilization racks to set your bike on while you work, and even free air to pump up your tires. Supporting the biking infrastructure is important to keep car traffic to a minimum and incentivize people to keep actively transporting themselves around the country.
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| Do you have use for a little fresh air? |
One with Nature
The Danish culture is very centered around coexistence with the natural world.
Danish daycare facilities take kids outside every day, rain or shine. A big part of growing up Danish is being outdoors and learning about nature. I was walking down the path between buildings at work and I had to go offroad because I happened upon a small class of small children, maybe 2-3 years old. They had a big piece of paper laid down in the middle of the path and they were watching all the slugs and snails leaving trails all over it. So cute!
There are also right-to-roam laws that ensure people can walk along the waterfront in the country, access public forests, and even pass through cultivated field areas via gates and small paths. I think I read that over 95% of Danes take advantage of publicly accessible natural spaces each year. Our family sure does!
Socialized Medicine!
Most of you are probably aware that Denmark has a free public healthcare system. We have only had a few experiences with it, but so far, I'm a fan.
Some of the Americans in my life have made negative comments about the socialized medicine system. For example, "But all your money goes to taxes!" or "You probably have to wait three months to get an appointment."
I pay 39% taxes here, and I was paying about 33% taxes in the U.S. So yes, my taxes have increased, but I can literally see my tax dollars at work every day. The roads and aforementioned bike paths are well-maintained, I can access nature at every turn, and I can call a doctor or take my kids to the emergency room anytime without weighing it against the cost of the trip.
An example: One of my colleagues has a small child, and one night, as they were picking up a game with small, round, magnets that her older child had been playing with, they noticed one of the magnets was gone. They were worried the smaller child had swallowed it. Scary stuff, but no worries. They just drove the child to the hospital, had her examined (including scans), found out their child actually did not swallow a magnet, and went home. Total cost: US$ 0 (or 0 DKK if you convert that to kroner).
In the U.S., this is a life-altering decision for some families. A hospital bill with scans and an emergency visit would be thousands of dollars, even with insurance. It's really sad to think that so many people have to make the choice between medical debt and ensuring their child's safety.
Another example: A family in our neighborhood had a major medical emergency at their home in the middle of the night, and a helicopter was called to transport the person to emergency care. I'm sure you can guess how much that cost. (It was US$ 0, 0 DKK). Getting airlifted in the U.S. is tens of thousands of dollars.
It does sometimes take a little bit of time to get an appointment with a specialist, but I used to work for a group of specialists in the U.S., and sometimes they were booked out three months, too. Whenever I need a normal appointment with my doctor here, I just schedule it online, and I can usually get in within days. There aren't really receptionists at the office, so it's true that you can't just call and leave a message, but imagine if you called a doctor and didn't have to sit through that awful hold music or push any buttons to talk to someone? There are just a couple hours each week where you can call the office and talk right to the doctor. They answer their own phone.
Furthermore, there is always a doctor covering for them when they are on holiday, so when I got Lyme disease from a tick bite that I ignored for far too long, I just called the non-emergency number, went to kind of an urgent care center at a hospital, started antibiotics, and then when I was concerned about some severe headaches during my treatment, I called another doctor's office and they saw me the same day. No paperwork or fees for any of it. I just scan my medical card and they see everything.
Warning: This next paragraph might be TMI (too much information)
Recently, I scheduled an appointment with my doctor because I realized it had been two years since my last mammogram, pap, and breast exam. When I got to the appointment, I told her I was worried that I had skipped them last year because the timing fell right around the month we moved to Denmark. She just kind of smiled and asked if she had explained the difference between the U.S. and Danish healthcare systems yet, and I said no.
Mammograms are only started as a screening tool at age 50 because most people under age 50 have "dense breast tissue" (especially people who have had children) and it's difficult to get a visual on tumors in that case. Instead, they just do them for younger women if they come in with symptoms or self-identified lumps. Similarly, they don't do palpitative prostate exams for men at this age either.
Many screening tools are employed in the U.S. because the healthcare system is insurance-based. Insurance companies would rather pay for screening exams for everybody than to pay to treat a disease once it develops. In Denmark, they don't want to stress the public healthcare system with unnecessary scans, bloodwork, and checkups. It's free for anyone to come at any time, so if you have symptoms, you go to the doctor. If you don't, you go live your best life.
I also learned that they do not do annual wellness exams, annual bloodwork to look at e.g. cholesterol, or annual well-child exams. Once kids are about five and have had all of their vaccines, the doctor sets them free.
This was concerning to me a little bit, because I've always grown up with the idea that I need to get my checkups and ensure my kids get into the doctor on their birthdays each year. In the U.S., I was being monitored for my borderline high cholesterol. Here, my doctor says she would never put someone my age on medication for cholesterol unless it was wildly out of control and causing me problems. Care in the U.S. (tries to be) proactive, and care here is more reactive, I think, but I don't know if one or the other is actually better.
If you look at statistics, Denmark and the U.S. have similar life expectancies for men and women. The cancer death rate in DK is almost 25% higher than in the U.S. (maybe in part due to those early screenings in the U.S.?), but premature death and infant mortality are much higher in the U.S. than in Denmark. Prevalence of heart disease and intestinal diseases is similar between the two countries. There are some conflicting stats though, so maybe don't put too much stock in this. When you look at healthcare spending, incidence of disease, life expectancy, and all that, it's safe to say that both country's strategies appear to have some advantages and some disadvantages.
Denmark is actively trying to increase access to legal abortions and expand fertility treatments. Healthcare related to gender identity is totally covered by the public healthcare system here, too. It's nice that people are allowed to make their own choices about their bodies and their healthcare here.
Anyway, the point of all this is to say that I don't think socialized medicine should be demonized the way it is. I'm enjoying it so far (except that dental care (for adults) and vision are not part of it, and that's a bummer for this family), and I can see a healthy balance of pros and cons. The biggest "pro" in my mind is that every person in the country has access to it at all times, regardless of employment status or insurance or age, and there are no complicated "plans" to choose between, no "open enrollments" too stress about each year, no "gap coverage" needed for prescription coverage, no "COBRA" to rip you off when you're between jobs, and no "Medicare requirements" to prove that you meet before your kids can go to the pediatrician for strep throat.
Elephants are important...I think?
Elephants seem to be very important here. At first, you see an elephant here, or an elephant there, and then you realize it's kind of a theme.
There are 40 elephants in The Church of Our Savior, the church I mentioned above. The church information pamphlet says they are a symbol of the absolute monarchy and the Order of the Elephant, the highest order of Denmark.
The Order of the Elephant *is* the highest order, and it's basically an honor bestowed upon members of the royal family and other important people. Also maybe one common person, recently. I think I heard that. It's marked by special badges or medals and sashes that are worn on certain occasions. I think the elephant originally stood for the strength of Europe in medieval times, and was adapted from the group that eventually morphed into the Order of the Elephant a long time ago to maintain the connection.
Elephants are also a symbol of friendship between Thailand and Denmark, and elephants for the Copenhagen Zoo have been gifted from Thailand a couple of times. I think some of the current elephants are offspring of the gifted elephants. The elephants at the zoo are also the only animals you can view from outside the zoo. You can see them from the park in Frederiksberg.
The other elephants I know about are at the Carlsberg Brewery. There are four huge granite elephant statues holding up a tower and forming a gate. The statues were kind of an homage to his four of his children, and the elephant symbolism was to represent strength, industriousness, and loyalty. They are over 120 years old and have been an icon in Copenhagen since they were created. Carlsberg also has a beer called Carlsberg Elephant, and it's their strong beer. Get it?
Anyway, the elephant is a symbol of the Kingdom of Denmark, and once you start looking for it when you're out and about, there are lots of little elephant icons to spot!
Graduation time
Danish high school is called gymnasium and it lasts for three years. When the final exam has been taken, the students receive a white, sort of nautical-looking hat. It has a small brim at the front and a satin band around the base. They have the student's name embroidered on the back in gold.
Then come the trucks.
As I understand it, the students from a single graduating class pile into the back of a rented truck with a dedicated driver. The truck is huge and open on the sides and top. The students decorate the truck the night before the big party and make signs describing what will happen for one, two, or three honks. On party day, the kids pile into the back of the truck with their drinks, and the driver takes them all over town, blasting music and stopping at every student's home. The parents at the home host a brief stop-over with snacks and alcohol or soda, and then the kids are on their way again.
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| Here's one out on the street near our house. |
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| Here's one, all decorated, turning around in front of our house before the pick-up. |
Random picnics all summer
And now the random observations:
They play Aqua everywhere. If you're just out in a bar or sitting at the canal watching boats go by, someone is playing an Aqua song. Maybe you're in a restaurant or walking past a bookstore, or maybe you're at a holiday party for your company. Regardless, Aqua will be played. I love this.
They measure babies in cm and grams. Like, of course they do, I guess, in a country that uses the metric system, but I never thought about it until my colleague introduced his new baby as weighing 3345 g and being 51 cm long.
They count to 4 before they do an activity in unison instead of three. Like if a group of Americans were going to take a shot of whiskey together, they’d say, “ONE! TWO! THREEEEE!” and then everyone would drink. Here, they rapidly shout, “En-to-tre-FIRE!” (One-two-three-FOUR!) *EDIT* I have been polling Danes about this and seems most of them still count to three but end it with "Now!" or "Go!" before they do the thing. So maybe the ones who counted to four were anomalies?**
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That's all I've got for now. I'm sure we'll keep learning and observing things as we go, and the more we relax and immerse ourselves, the more we'll be exposed to. It's all very fun and exciting.
I am so happy to hear you all are enjoying your new country! Ron and I miss you all, but happy to know Denmark is a great place to live! 😁💕👍🌞
ReplyDeleteThe older kids and I are coming to visit soon! We'll be sure to stop by and see you. :)
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