hi. how have things changed?

this morning i went into town after dropping the guys off.  i had a ten o'clock appointment with an office associated with the kommune (the local government), to help and give me advice on starting my little company (remember... english edit... which looks snazzy on the business card, i swear).  they taught me how to send a bill through a mandatory website, and put me in touch with someone from the tax office so i can sit down with him and learn all about danish taxes.  two very nice, free services.

i went into town early because i figured either a) the bank would be open (and i had to stop in there) or b) their office would be open and i could come early and just wait for my meeting to start.  but neither the bank nor the office opened until ten.  nothing was open.  just one small restaurant.  and then, at 9:30, the toy store.  it was so, so cold, so, i went inside to get warm and found something i've been looking for.  (not exactly what i had in mind, but they will do for this year)... two advent calendars.  one for each boy.  for william-- a lego advent calendar, and for henry, a playmobil calendar.  i'm sure you will see plenty of pictures of them during the month of december... which is only a little more than a day away!

it was also a rather significant shopping trip, because, for the first time since i've been here, i listened to and translated the total when the cashier said it, and got it right, without second guessing myself-- that is to say, i handed over exact change before verifying on the little screen that i'd translated it correctly in my head.  or...well, maybe as the money was changing hands i looked over and saw i was giving the right amount.  but i was still pretty proud of myself as the numbers have just been sort of tricky, for me at least!  especially 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90.  i'm finally starting to internalize the number 50 however.

after my meeting i went to the bank and set up a bank account for this little company, because it seemed like it would be easy, and you are not required to put money in it to open it, or keep it open.  but life moves at a different pace here.  you cannot, apparently, open a bank account in one day.  rather, i have to go back in the middle of next week to finalize it.

so then i went to a 'save the children' thrift store in town and bought henry one of the one-piece snowsuits that's all the rave with the little ones around here.  and i went home and got out my own winter coat from the closet, because, again, today was so, so cold (but for you midwesterners, only around freezing).  it's an oversized reversible land's end down coat that i've had for some years now, but which is still in very good condition, save for a finnicky zipper.  but it really does make me look like a bright blue, or, if you have it reversed, black, yeti.  it's just so big, so poofy.  i played around with the sides to see which made me look less comical and i finally decided on neither, but i also decided that i needed to not be so vain and just pick a side and wear it since it makes me warm.  so that's what i did when i went to pick up the guys (i chose blue).  and when i put my hands into the pockets, i pulled a little post-it note out.  on it was a drawing (a bored doodle if you will), which i think i made while sitting at a job i had before law school... so probably nine years ago.

funny, it looks a little bit like a knight.  knights are big here.

on the other side was a note to myself... knowing someday i'd put the coat back on and find it.

'hi regan,' it says. 'how have things changed?'

with my crazy writing project going on, i hadn't really reflected on the fact that it was during thanksgiving last year that greg and i decided we were moving to denmark.  he had his interview here on thanksgiving day.  i try to remember now what denmark felt like to me, a year ago, when this unreal idea was becoming a reality.  it's difficult to conjure up those feelings, and all that comes to mind is the color blue... bright blue, like my coat.  it must be an optimistic color.

surely everything about this country was a lot fuzzier in my brain then...

than it is now...

after all, i know the number fifty.