marks

i waited for greg today to run home so we could go together to pick up the boys.  it was william's request this morning and it worked out that greg could leave a little earlier than usual so we could make it work with henry waking up from his nap.  i sat outside.  a day nice enough that on our ride over to the school i could leave my mittens in my bike basket (though i needed them for the ride home-- that's denmark's weather for you.  you really cannot expect that even 15 minutes won't make a difference).  

outside of our home, on the bricks just outside our door, are the etchings of students.  this was once a school, and in fact, when we tell people we live at "the old school," most people know what we're talking about.  the man who came to fix the bathroom fan told us his grandfather had gone to this school and that he, himself, had started here, before they put up a new one and moved all the students.  one of our neighbors also attended school here as a girl.  i think she lives in part of her old gymnasium.  

the etchings on our walls are names. no pictures. just one student after another, setting their names in clay bricks... 

on our temporary little corner of denmark... 

here... a closer-up of my trusty bicycle... 

later, when we pick william up, he displays a rat trap he has built... 

making his own mark on his school

goodnight! 

burning butter and other domestic thoughts

i'm making a dal, of sorts.  no chiles and surely my ghee is something more like burned butter.  anyway, i'm waiting for said butter to burn and i have no children here right now (still having the occasional intellectual and emotional debate about that with myself), so i figure now's a good time to write up a post.  today i'm trying to keep my head up.  literally.  i've got a painful sinus thing going on right now, which only gets worse when i bend down to pick up a toy or stick my head into the washing machine to make sure i'm not putting a sock on the slow train to mildew.  so it's a good excuse not to wash the floor today, which i'm slightly embarrassed to say we have not done since we've been here... and if you only knew how much food ends up on this floor every day... which is not to say we don't sweep it up... but still... i can almost hear the floor saying to me (or maybe the homeowner)... "hey you over there... you know they say there's nothing like the present."

hold on, you can see the butter's burning....

okay... garlic and onions, sauteed. lentils, turmeric, and water added and simmering.  last night's (and tuesday night's) remaining cabbage soup heating up for lunch, to make room in the fridge for tonight's dinner.

okay, are you tiring of the play-by-play of my day?  it's just that yesterday was your typical overcast day and class just a review of monday's class.

here's a view from yesterday....

where is the sun?

greg and i did have our first lunch together sans little ones yesterday.  in the risø cafeteria.  with three of his co-workers.  so, not exactly a date, but at least half the meal didn't end up on the floor, for example, and there was chocolate cake!

yesterday was also the first time i had to walk my bike up the steepest part of vestre kirkevej (the very steep street leading down to the fjord or up to our house depending on your direction... the steepest street in roskilde according to greg's officemate who once lived on it).  greg said the wind was moving opposite than usual.  i don't necessarily recall any extra wind resistance, but it makes me feel better.

so now i'm done with my soup, the lentils are nearly done, and i must go pull out all those wet socks from the washing machine before henry wakes up and i'm called to pick him (and today!) his brother up from school... when the real fun begins.

until next time! 

taxes

can i tell you about our taxes?

we took everyday the government gave us, every day of rest, and every holiday the district of columbia instituted, to get our taxes done.  and it took us almost all of denmark's tuesday to get them postmarked.

greg brought them to work on tuesday to make one more photocopy.  i bought envelopes at the super best (which only come in packs of twenty by the way, because you don't want too many envelopes crowding up your desk drawers here in denmark).  i picked the guys up from school and we met greg leaving home as we were pulling in.  all part of our plan to get to the post office on time.  the burley swapped bikes because greg's got a bit (okay, a lot) more stamina for the longer journeys, and we rode to the post office.  only our second trip there, which might explain why you have not received a postcard from us.

greg went in and i took henry out to nurse and walk around.  after a refreshing three hour nap at school he wasn't about to sit in an idle burley.  william though had settled in for a nice long burley nap on the way to the post office.  greg came out, envelopes in hand.  we needed around 200 kroner to send both letters certified, plus another letter (so someone's getting something from us-- look for it in six weeks) but greg only had 100 and he'd left his wallet at work.  "no problem," i said.  "i've got my visa, i'll go in and pay.  did you have a chance to ask about the mail we've been waiting on?"  "no, she didn't give me a chance to get much of a word in."  "okay, i'll ask."  in i go.  i fill out the certified mail forms, and when my turn came (there were only a few people in there), i walk up to the desk.  as the clerk was looking over the forms, i started to ask her the question about our missing mail.  "can you tell me..." "no, you can't use that here (she was pointing to the visa i was taking out of my wallet).  only dankort card here."  "but... i... swear i used my visa the last time i was here."  "no.  and the next time you come here, you need to take a number.  the man behind you had this number (pointing to the screen above her head)."  i looked behind me to a man looking at me with a disapproving tsk tsk smile.  "okay.  sorry.  can you tell me if there's an atm machine around here."  "no."  "... nowhere? you don't know?" "no." " .... okay... thanks."  i leave.  a man leaving at the same time as me asks, "is there anything i can help you with? that clerk, she's always rude." "yes, i didn't think she was very nice."  i am happy for the validation.   "well," i tell him.  "we need to send in our taxes.  the irs will not be happy with us if we don't." (okay, he can't help us with that of course.)  "do you know if there's an atm around here?"  he suggests a couple of places and tells us he is a foreigner too.  "oh, where from?" "from norway."  ah, a scandinavian, yet, somehow a foreigner like we are.  we tell him why we are here... the most common of questions... "why are you in denmark?"  some danes ask it in a way that makes me think they are trying to act surprised that anyone would want to come and live in their modest little country.  (i imagine the postal clerk would ask it in this way, if she were ever forced into that sort of conversation with us.) it's as if maybe they will get us to rethink our decision, if they act surprised enough at our presence in denmark.  i think they don't want the secret to get out.  but i also think their immigration policies make it impossible for a person to come over solely because he or she falls in love with the social safety nets or the generous vacation time.  but the man from norway asks without motive.  we tell him.  he wishes us luck, and we go to search out an atm.  we find one not too far away.  i consider informing the clerk when we return to the post office, to be helpful, in case anyone else asks her someday.  but i suspect if she were to think hard enough, she would have an answer.  in any event, greg goes back in this time.  after a few minutes, he comes out.  he has two receipts with april 17th written on them.  there.  that should keep the irs from requesting a fine, though given the amount of money we spent to send it (nearly $40), it felt a little like a fine to us.  only of course, to the wrong government.

but we'd done it.  relief.  taxes are over.  at least for one country... for this year.  we rode home and ate fruit salad and cabbage soup, which i'd made earlier in the day.  i won't have time to cook dinner early today as i leave directly after posting this for danish classes and then to get a little hen from school.

until next time... 

a tuesday post mostly about monday

i am writing this post early today because i have time now and i might not have it tonight.  also, at some point along the way i became... somewhat of a... procrastinator.  shame.  i should do my danish homework.  but instead, i will just write a little bit about danish class.

so yesterday of course was our first class.  having class at a danish national lab (greg's place of employment) is just a little less arduous than having it at the u.s. embassy.  i must stop in at security, show them an email which states i am enrolled in the class, and receive my guest pass.  then i must stop there on the way out and turn in my guest pass.  and i must do this every time.  i can't keep the guest pass and i can't not bring the email even though they made a photocopy of it.  i wonder if they'll make a photocopy of it every monday and wednesday...

the ride to the lab is mostly against a backdrop of farmland and, here... tall grasses and blue sky...



greg met me by the building and because we had a little bit of time, we met some of his co-workers (two of which are our fellow classmates) in the adjacent cafeteria where i took the opportunity to have a little pastry-- i almost always take the opportunity to have a little pastry when it arises-- which i wisely thought could be converted to energy for the ride back.

in class we were the only amerikaners (as in, OO-S-A).  there were two students from italy.  one from germany. one from poland. one from canada.  greg's co-workers from russia and turkey. a student from china. and a student from spain.  after class a guy from colombia registered and a friend of his, but i did not catch where he was from.  then the teacher, of course, a dane.  we practiced asking one another what our names were, where we came from, and what languages we did and did not speak.

we worked on pronunciation.  the written and the spoken danish might as well be two separate languages.  for example: you are writing an email to your friend and want to tell her that no, you can't do something.  well, you might write: Nej, det kan jeg ikke.  she's reading your email aloud.  she will get to that sentence and say something like: Nye, de-kay-yig.  apparently there has been a long and continuing linguistic evolution of subtracting (consonant sounds) and smooshing (everything together).  i think there's a common joke that if you have a lot of beer, you will be able to speak danish well.

we practiced vowel sounds and i hopelessly attempted to write down the phonetic spelling of the sounds. here is a bit of my efforts:

y = ew

u = oew

o = oo

e = eyh

ae = ay

there may have been more vowels which sounded like ew and ay, but i ran out of spelling variations.

as greg and i were leaving class the teacher asked us why our accents were so good.  "hmmm?" i thought.  "ah, are you asking why our american accents are so good?" i said to her, partly in jest.  no, she really was referring to our danish accents.  perhaps she says this to people she senses might be scared off by the danish language, in hopes they will continue coming to class.  but really, all of those exact same yet different vowel sounds notwithstanding, the class wasn't dispiriting.  it was just exciting to start learning and practicing.

on the way out we met the guy from colombia who said he'd lived in california for three years and that his wife was from california and would be moving here soon.  he seemed hopeful that she and i could hang out, so perhaps a new friend is on her way.

then greg went back to work and i returned my guest pass.  it was a not unusually windy day and on my way home, along a short stretch of the fjord, i had to slow my bike down as it felt like the wind was going to grab hold of the bottom of my tires, lift my bike into the air, and flip it over... a little like that wrestler's embrace, i thought.  but, we remained cordial.

i did not go home.  i pedaled past and went straight to the school to get the littlest guy.  the bigger one was content to stay and have his dad pick him up.  it was something he was looking forward to.  so that's how it was done yesterday.  today i told henry's teachers to call me when he wakes up.  i'm not quite sure if i should put him on a different schedule the three days a week i don't have class, or if i should let him settle into a routine where he learns that after he wakes up from his nap, i will come for him.  given that he's successfully napped there both days he's tried, i decided he could do it again today.  it was a good hour or so of heavy-heartedness as i left him this morning, but, well, it's part of the transition i suppose.

okay, now for homework as i wait for the call.

transitions

two months ago we came over here and began transitioning to our new lives.  as the weeks went by, we settled into a routine.  two weeks ago, we began transitioning out of that routine and into what will become our new one.  nursery. kindergarten. danish lessons.  today was william's first day of kindergarten and our first day of danish lessons.  when i asked william how things went today he said, "it was so good.  it was so good."
transitions are exciting.  it means things are happening.  i like this time when it's all new, but i did feel sad today leaving the school without any children in tow.  and henry is definitely feeling the transition.  sleep time has been incredibly challenging for a boy who is usually falling asleep by 7:30, give or take a half hour.  right now it is 10:15 and greg and i have been trading off trying to get him to sleep since 7:00.  this struggle has been happening on and off for the last week or so.  being sick didn't help, but i think being away from home and changing things up is the bigger culprit.
so as i publish this post, i will put the computer away, turn off the light, and he will fall asleep in our bed tonight.  what it is that i think he's holding out for.
so a short post.  goodnight. 

hvad is going on with this weather?

well i got my homework done.  i think.  the lesson (what is your name... my name is... where are you from.... i'm from... do you speak dansk... i speak a little dansk....) was all in danish... no surprises there i guess... but i did need my more-immersed husband to help me.  i should probably review it tonight because when i think about it, all i can really remember is that "hvad" is "what" and pronounced something like "vell."  "han" is "he" and "hun" is "she."  "fra" is "from."  there's a lot missing isn't there?  well, okay, so a review would be a good idea before tomorrow's class.  

but let's focus on today.  today made me realize that the weather here has not turned the corner to what we would call "continuous and uninterrupted warmth."  i'm not even going to mention the sun.  i'm just concerning myself with warmth, and really, the lack of it.  i'm wondering if there is a corner to be turned here or if we are on one long straightaway of cold and windy days, with the occasional hill that puts us that much closer to the sun, so that we might feel its warming rays just a little bit more as we ascend, but then of course there's always the coming down part, and well, i'm going to express gratitude now because it will help me to appreciate this climate, which, as far as i know, does purport to have four seasons, which maybe i misunderstood to correspond to the midwest in trajectory (as surely not in temperature.)

here it is... 

i'm thankful for the earmuffs my grandma bought us how many years ago? that i put on every single time i get on my bike.  

i'm thankful for my purple wind coat that i also rarely leave home without.

i'm thankful for my mittens.

i'm thankful for whoever invented socks.  i think that was a smart idea.

i'm thankful for radiators that i can sit against.

i'm thankful for our electric kettle that quickly puts the "hot" in hot tea.  

and lastly, i'm thankful that i don't have a car so that i have to embrace this weather... even if it is sometimes as a wrestler might embrace his opponent on the mat.  

bah, okay, i will show you a couple of pictures from today when we did go out to have an adventure which consisted of riding our bikes to a kebab shop by the train station, buying our lunch, eating it inside the walls of the roskilde kloster, then quickly pedaling home and sitting against the radiator with some hot, in this case, coffee.  

the pedestrian street, fairly deserted on a sunday

greg, with the guys tucked inside the burley, after lunch

sitting against the radiator

and a couple more photos from yesterday's work day which greg took on his phone and i magically bluetoothed over to my computer tonight.... 

william pruning... but if he were a dane, he'd be taking that entire little branch off, and all of the little innocent branches surrounding it.

henry and me-- to help fulfill a request from three years reader anne that i show up more in these photos.  

finally... why not end with another picture of the fjord... this from a greg-henny walk a few evenings ago... 

the post which was short because i have homework to do...

today was a work day for our little community-- rake, prune, sweep out, prune, mow, prune-- my how they prune!  you didn't want to be a new little branch of an apple tree in this neighborhood today.  

participation was great.  but i have to say, among the under 5 crowd, it was spotty.  william though... i'm just going to come right out and assert that he was the hardest worker in his age group.  

henry was a bit of a wild card.  he'd push a wheelbarrow for a few minutes, become bored with it, walk up to someone's door or their bike or their car or their dog.  easily distracted and you can tell, the work ethic just isn't quite there yet.

but he's awfully cute!

tonight we had potato leek soup, topped with homemade croutons, bacon, and parsley.  mmmm!  if you haven't had potato leek soup in awhile, now is probably not the time to do it, but for some reason, we have leeks now and we're getting more tomorrow in our very not local vegetable box, so we had a need for such a soup-- because danish fridges do not hold very many leeks.

then we went on a family walk down to the fjord.  perfectly lovely as always...

and by the time we got home, we had two sleepers.

now, on to danish homework!