clouds over denmark and the opposite

it rained and rained and rained today.  and then, around 4 p.m. it stopped, the clouds parted, and the sky turned blue.  an exact repeat of two fridays ago.  and really, like any day here lately that is cloudy.  once the sun gets a little bit low in the sky (or when it starts out that way in the morning) the clouds are gone, the sky is blue.  but for the time in between... thank goodness for rain pants.  

otherwise...

i received a somewhat unhelpful email back from a graduate school advisor.  prerequisites?  eh... we decide that on a case-by-case basis... huh.

but the bathroom's clean.

william is having trouble with authority at school--

"because when they say something, i hear the opposite."

we talked about it and i think he's open to change.

meanwhile, both boys used their imaginations today...

looking defiant, but not really. the camera just caught the opposite.

the littlest playing make believe... a magical sight to behold

and now it's the weekend, so what could be better?  

copenhagen on $7 (plus train fare)

i dropped the guys off at school this morning and took a mostly empty train to copenhagen.  which means i got four seats all to myself! and i read... and eavesdropped just a bit on the conversation of two canadians sitting across the aisle from me.  simply because it's been impossible to eavesdrop on anything for the past four months.  but mostly i enjoyed reading before 10 o'clock at night... 

i met juan's wife, katie, who has been in the country for about a week, just to explore around their neighborhood a bit and share a little of our common experience.

first, frederiks kirke (church. and i'm not forgetting the apostrophe.  danish doesn't use possessive apostrophes, unless the word ends in an 's').

under construction, inside and out.  this church was begun in the mid 1700s, but because of the architect's death and of budget cuts (sounds so modern!) it actually sat unfinished for 150 years!

 also, its dome span is bigger than that of the u.s. capitol dome (at least according to the dimensions stated on wikipedia).  the largest dome in scandinavia, but fourth in europe...

here's the inside of it...

then amalienborg palace... the queen's residence.  four mansions surrounding a courtyard.  they were originally built for four noble, but not royal, families, because the danes like co-housing... even in the mid-1700s (yes, same time period as frederik's church) and, guess what-- same architect! his name was nicolai eigtved.  he died with only two of the four mansions completed and his rival finished them up, but stuck to the plans.

frederick v...

the opera house.  apparently otherwise known as the toaster...

and then another church.  this one an episcopalian... so not a danish state-sponsored church.
the services are in english.

katie is a singer/musician so she asked the women volunteering at the door, about their choir.

"why? do you sing?" they asked.

"yes."

"oh, they would love to have you. love, love, love it.  come to the service this sunday at 10:30 and talk to the piano player.  he directs the choir.  they are always looking for more singers."

cool!

then, along the water...

to the little mermaid...

but, maybe even bigger than the little mermaid was the discovery of this pizza place down the street from their apartment... a lunch special-- one very large individual pizza for 35DKK.  about seven dollars.  and real pizza too.  i'm not sure how the danes do pizza, but maybe they don't.  maybe they reserve it for places like this.  it was delicious pizza and probably the cheapest lunch i've had here.

they also do sandwiches...

the end!

solstice

tonight sleep is pleading with me not to take a long time writing this post.  so maybe i will just stick to the facts.

henry is still sick, but i'm trying to imagine each day he's getting a little better.  hard to say if that's true because he's good, to varying degrees during the daytime, but gets sicker at night, as all children do.

we had our last danish class today before the six week summer break.  our teachers made us (and a couple other classes) a big lunch of vegetable quiche, salad, cheeses, breads, and set up a long table with real plates and silverware. it was all very civilized, as they say.  then we got into teams and answered mostly sciencey quiz questions in danish (our team... greg, juan, myself, and a woman from spain, lost... or at least didn't win).  and then, as i'd hoped, (rhubarb) cake and coffee for dessert.

talking to my friend, sarah, about national identity and perspectives.

a nap calling to me, that never happened.

chickpeas and onions and tomatoes and sauteed cabbage and mushrooms and brown rice for dinner.

a little post-birthday celebration with william and greg after henry went to sleep (and before he woke up twice before 9 p.m.).... and on a related note, hoping he has a good night, but assuming we're still another day or two away from that.

thinking about the light, but because i'm tired now, the five hours of darkness we have on this longest day of the year and for the two days to follow.  sunrise: 4:27 a.m. sunset: 9:59.  with an additional 45 minutes or so of light on either end.

summer!

running

phew!

how is it that leaving for two days and coming back and sitting down, feels like running a marathon?

okay-- i don't know what running a marathon feels like, but i feel a little bit like i was running, and i've just suddenly stopped.

i know, i know, i really know that people do much bigger things than what we do, but i still sometimes wonder how we accomplish getting this four-person clan from point A to point B and back again.  especially when i compare myself to parents who look like real adults (because i have in my mind that we still sort of look like and have the mindset of kids who are too young to be raising kids).  but, we do it and they seem to be growing up.

i wish i could tell you i left the conference with the key to unlocking the inner minds of the collective "dane" but i came to realize a meeting such as this is difficult.  too much, "let me tell you how 'they' are so you can fit in or understand 'them' better"... and you think, "okay! here we go! i'm going to come away enlightened!" but then the presenter does a couple of subtle things that make you realize, "you're one of 'them.'  so maybe you give us the key but then you stand blocking the doorway and so we're no more enlightened than when we got here and why does this have to be an us-them paradigm anyway, because maybe if it wasn't, i wouldn't have attributed those subtle behaviors from you as 'danish' and i wouldn't have put you onto the 'them' team, and ahhhh etc. etc.!!!"

that is to say-- i just don't know what i learned.  superficialities, check.  some helpful websites, check.  a few new acquaintances, check.  more than that?  i have to think about it.  but, i will say this-- the mere fact that greg's employer and this country offer international employees and their families a program that attempts to help us adjust to life in denmark (and puts us up in a hotel, feeds us, provides us with nannies) is more than i would have ever expected from any country.  so that alone makes it a positive experience that outweighs any shortcomings that are inevitable for a program that attempts to delve into "culture."

my two nebulous cents.  okay, i'm going to go recover from my run now!

june 18th

i think when you have two little kids and one of them is sick and you're at a two day 'welcome to denmark' orientation, and the day's agenda is set by relocare inc., you sort of have to give up the idea of celebrating your birthday.

but i can take count of the small things, like, rushing to the station on my bike this morning (when are we ever not rushing to the train?) and realizing i'm in much better shape at 32 than i was at 31... and 30... and the second-half of my twenties...

other things...

a blue sky... at least in the morning.  (it did rain of course, later on.)

three pieces of hotel cake.


these guys, and the sick one on my back when i took this picture (the not so small things)...

no dishes to wash.

someone from the hotel staff going to the pharmacy to get us baby pain reliever so we didn't have to. 

william making a drip castle on the beach... 

and making friends with the other kids that are here. 

the clouds, when they make room for the sun... 

spending the day right next to the baltic...

even if i was in a conference room for most of it.  

thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  and to danes everywhere for liking cake as much as i do. 

sunday

the day started out beautiful, which meant it would rain.  

william's gift to greg for father's day was a little lego set they could build together.  we got it yesterday and he hid it from greg under henry's bed.  before 5:30 this morning he could wait no longer.  he woke greg up to wish him a happy father's day and showed him the present.  greg thanked him and let him know it was still a little early.  but william had been patient long enough and went ahead and built it, waking greg up whenever he needed help.  

we had peanut butter oatmeal cookies (as well as the usual oats) for breakfast which i'd made (and we, the grownups of the house, snacked on) the night before (the cookies, not the oats), and later, as a surprise for me, we shared a chocolate covered donut, as tomorrow is my birthday, and we will be celebrating it in a conference hotel, learning all about our not-so-new-at-this-point country (and, for some reason, i've been wanting a donut lately).  it was remarkably less sweet than its north american relative. 

later we met a friend from danish class and his wife at a jazz festival by the harbor.  it rained on our way over.  it was a difficult rain to ride in as the wind had it blowing directly into our eyes.  

"are you having a hard time keeping your eyes open?" i asked greg as i alternated the eye i kept closed and the eye i kept half open in order to navigate.     

but as we parked and dried ourselves off, the rain stopped and the day turned nice... sometimes chilly, but never cold.  in keeping with the day's sugar trend, william ate ice cream, though we did manage to get a few vegetables into him at dinner time. 

william walking to the dock...                             

at the harbor...

greg and our friend, juan, discussing something that appears to be puzzling them both...

tomorrow we go to køge, learn about denmark.  and i turn 32!  

saturday

this morning... a race! 

somewhere in copenhagen.  near the concert hall.  and this musical note... 

we were supposed to get a tour of the concert hall (which is not the building behind the note), but it fell through maybe.  just fine.  i imagine (not in the reality sense but in the daydream sense) that someday greg and i will go to a concert there and see it up close without kids.  the architecture and acoustics are supposed to appeal to the audience.

jon and persille and their children found some car seats and stuffed the burley into the trunk of their station wagon and brought us to the race.  a 5k.  fairly informally organized.  no numbers, no medals, no one keeping time.  but enthusiastic organizers and home baked goods at the end of it all.

on a small canal bordered by apartments, a technical university, and t.v. studios.

organized warm up...

i learned recently that stretching before exercise doesn't help and doesn't hurt.  but warming up isn't a bad idea.  

a cultural difference greg and i both noticed... this car, which shouldn't have been driving through the starting line of the race, drove through the starting line of the race.  this happens in the u.s. too, of course, but in this group at least, all of the racers promptly (as in, a good 10 seconds before necessary) made way and then good naturedly applauded the driver...  rather than standing in his way until the following second's only two options become moving or ending up on the underside of a car... and then banging on the windows or giving the driver defiant looks... what we imagine would happen in the good ole' u.s.   

 and the car goes through and the race begins!

greg is the only one pushing a large contraption in front of him so he stays toward the back of the crowd until it thins out.  and then they round the corner and i go watch the swans for a bit.

with one of their five kids.

keeping a close eye on me...

and i show you a close-up of a typical bicycle used in copenhagen, used to transport kids, and, probably groceries...

city forest...

then i go back and eat my oatmeal and watch the 10k runners (who began the race a few minutes earlier than the 5kers) trickle in to begin the second leg of their run... 

but then, not far behind, the first of the 5k group...

through a fluke, because jon and persille's son, who was far ahead as the leader, made a wrong turn, making william and henry, and then greg, the first to cross the finish line.

mercifully, henry, who typically cannot tolerate riding in a car, fell asleep on the way home, and unfortunately, so did william, who is now struggling to fall asleep as i write this at 9:15.

after the car ride: two firsts in denmark-- greg got a truly expensive haircut and william rode his bike to the grocery store, along the, fortunately, calm streets of himmelev.

we made a pizza for dinner-- if you're going to do this, i would recommend adding finely chopped garlic and capers to the top of it.  delicious!