Deigning to Dane – Page 2 – On (loving) living in Denmark

Mt. Fløyen, the Eiffel Tower, and the Yellow House. Bergen, Norway, Day 1.

Planning the trip.

One of the things we had planned to do while we’re in Copenhagen is travel and explore Europe as much as we can. The list of possible places to go has already far exceeded the time we have to do it.

I’m always asking friends and acquaintances what they recommend. And of course asking the girls and MBH what they are interested in. Amsterdam, [anywhere in] France, Iceland, the Balkans are all top of the list.

We also have a budget. Living in Copenhagen is quite expensive – although one huge relief is that we don’t have to worry about going in to debt from health care costs. And for me, the higher taxes (or, investment in the public good, which is what it is) are definitely worth that.

So when I got a notification from Norwegian air about “fall deals,” I excitedly looked for tickets to any of the above mentioned places during the 2nd weekend of the girls’ fall break. The first weekend we visited Legoland with friends who visited us from Rochester. It was also a fantastic weekend. I’ve got a lot of blog post catching up to do!

Anyhow, back to the looking at the “deals” offered by Norwegian air – only to find out that tickets to those places during the week that all Danish schools are closed, were still quite expensive.

Of course they were.

I was sure I could get a better deal, so I kept looking.

The place that had the least expensive tickets was Bergen, Norway.

And while Bergen wasn’t at the top of the list, I had asked friends who visited Norway this past summer – where they would recommend we go in Norway for hiking – and their recommendation had been Bergen (Thank you Lisa and Katie!)

So, I booked tickets for all 4 of us, only to go add this to our family calendar and see that MBH was scheduled to leave for an invited speaking gig in Dresden, Germany Sunday, early afternoon.

Dammit.

Fortunately, I had 4 hours to cancel the flights and get a full refund.

So I did.

Then rebooked the flights for the girls and I same as before, and booked a ticket for MBH for Thursday night to Saturday night. Departure time, 7pm – thinking, “Wonderful, we’ll have 2 full days in Bergen together. “

Or So I Thought.

I’d actually booked him on a 7am flight out of Bergen Saturday morning.

Dammit Dammit Dammit.

Stupid 24 Hour Clock!!!

Or should I say stupid US for not consistently using the 24 hour clock like the rest of the world.

I could also say “Neely, really, how long have you been traveling and known that air travel uses the 24hr clock?”

But I digress.

So when I saw 7:00 – 8:30, I immediately assumed 7pm. If only there had been a 0 in front of the 7 and the 8:30. I didn’t learn about this incorrect assumption until a week or two before our trip, so I couldn’t change it. These are the kinds of travel mistakes I make more often than I’d like to admit.

Next step was to find a place to stay. I did some research, and more research and finally booked our Airbnb right in the city center.

There were 3 options for getting to our Airbnb:

Light rail – $8 total – takes the longest – 50 minutes
Flybussen – $25 total – 30 minutes –
Taxi – ~$55 total- 20 minutes

After much consideration (waaaay too much, honestly), I decided Flybussen was the best option for us – because our flight was getting in at 11:15pm.

In spite of the fact that I lived in Central Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer for more than two years (almost 20 years ago), have traveled a lot since I was 14 (Europe, West Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa mostly), and traveled alone many of these times, I am a really anxious traveler.

Just ask MBH or my Peace Corps post-mate Laura…

All the more anxious when my teen and pre-teen are already off and on not always so happy about the move to Copenhagen, and not excited about this particular trip – as it was nowhere on their “list of places we want to travel to in Europe.”

In addition to that, the first thing Danes and Norwegians and others I talked to said when I told them we were traveling to Bergen was, eyebrows raised, “Bergen, the rainiest city in Norway.” “Oh, Bergen, it’s really rainy there.”

Great. We live in the rainiest and cloudiest European capital city, and I’ve planned a family trip of outdoors activities to the rainiest Norwegian city.

Spoiler alert, the weather was glorious and the trip was amazing.

The hiking was incredible, and morale 98% of the time we were there was higher than it’s been in a while. The 2% was after strenuous hiking- hungry, tired, hurting feet. Perfectly understandable.

So, back to my travel anxiousness. Things I get anxious about when planning travel:

Booking a place to stay in the wrong city.
Booking a place to stay on the wrong dates.
Booking mode of travel for the wrong dates.
Booking mode of travel to the wrong city (Rochester MN and Rochester NY have the SAME AIRPORT NAME).

I’ve made each and every one of the mistakes above more than once and I absolutely hate it when it happens and this has led to my developing a few travel OCD habits over the years.

Things I get anxious about when actually traveling:

Confusing AM and PM Time of Departure: Think 700 with 1900 or 630 with 1830
Arriving to airport early enough. My anxiety eases by arriving at least 3 hours early. For domestic flights. I know I know, this is really absurd, but like I said, I’m an anxious traveler. I can usually convince MBH and children to get there a little more than 2 hours early.
- So for our 2155h flight, I convinced everyone to leave our apartment at 6:45pm. The 150S bus then Metro Line 2 to Kobenhavn Lufthavn. Takes about 40 minutes.

**Waiting for the 150s bus at 6:55pm**. Also notice the number of bags. We were very limited in our luggage so packed super light.
I think this is the lightest we’ve ever ever packed.
As our bus pulled up, MBH reached in his pocket to get his Rejsekort. And also found his pocket knife. That would definitely be confiscated at security. So he had to go back to the apartment (about a 4 minute walk) – and told us he’d catch the next bus.
This is EXACTLY the kind of situation that *I* think justifies planning to get to the airport 3 hours early. Not everyone agrees with me, but that’s ok…

Getting from airport to the airbnb in Bergen and not missing the earliest Flybussen. We had to run a bit through the Bergen Airport, but made it to the 2330h bus. Which runs every 20 minutes. Not a big deal during normal waking hours, but that late at night it makes a huge difference.

We made it! Didn’t have to wait 20 more minutes for the next flybussen!

Getting the key and getting to our Airbnb apartment. The host and I had swapped texts – there was a key lock box and he’d given me the code. But I kept thinking “I hope the box will be easy to find”
For this small detail, I decided to take a deep breath and just trust I’d be able to find it easily. And sure enough:

I have never seen an Airbnb sign like this before. But it sure was helpful. I absolutely love Airbnb but am aware of tensions in municipalities between neighbors, hotels (Airbnb is stiff competition) etc. There’s often no street-level advertising. Clearly not an issue here! And no, I didn’t take this picture the night we arrived. Too tired and didn’t think to do it. So took a picture on our way out the next morning.

We took it easy on Friday morning. Slept in a bit since we’d gotten in so late.

The plan was to spend the day hiking/exploring around Mt. Floyen. I’d spent [probably too much] time scouring guide books and websites, to get a good sense of the hiking trails so I could plan out the day perfectly.

But the best I’d come up with was: the trail head to get to Mt. Floyen was in the Bergen City Center and the trails were well marked and there were a bunch of trails from the top of the mountain.

And I was not at all willing to just wing this hike to Mt. Floyen for several reasons:

my days training with and volunteering for the Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue Group while an undergrad at Virginia Tech.
getting quite lost, hiking alone on a day hike, in the Bavarian Alps in my early 20s.
MBH is an Eagle Scout. And what is the Boy Scout Motto?
Be Prepared.
Quick clarification in case you’re imagining MBH always telling me to “be prepared.” He doesn’t, never has. He is far far too laid back for that. I’m just using this to justify my own OCD issues.

All these things left me unwilling to ever wing a hiking trip – no matter how short or simple.

And the one thing many webpages had mentioned was the Bergen Tourist Information Center.

So that was our first destination.
And I had to take a few pictures along the way.

Fall colors were gorgeous. We’re ready for a day of hiking.

“So Mom, how will we find the tourist information center?”

Just look for the big “I” sign…It’s pretty universal…

Another tip for traveling through [maybe much of? maybe not?] Europe:

In many places, instead of a physical line, there are these little machines where you get your number:

Tap the screen. A piece of paper with a number on it comes out. You look above the counter and wait for your number. I like this system. I have one of these “clearly I’m not from here and don’t know the ropes” moments about once a day. Whenever I’m traveling and in Copenhagen

Maybe this is in other parts of the world too? Maybe in the US? I just haven’t seen them in very many places, but they are everywhere in Denmark: Pharmacy, Bakery, Library.

The tourist information center staff were so very helpful. Gave us a topological map, directions to the trail head, recommendations for taking the more scenic (but more strenuous) route to Mt. Floyen.

It was time to head up the mountain.

Trail head a 5 min walk from Tourist Information Center

In the winter, this is an ice skating rink. What an incredible view ice skaters have.

10 minutes in to at least 5 hours of hiking…the oldest: “Daaad, is this going to be all hills?” hahahahaha.
Oh Eldest…
Although I must say, she is quite the hiker. Her sister has done a whole lot of hiking in the last several years and has the gear, boots, pants.
The eldest hasn’t done much hiking at all – and for this hike wore her [brand new] jeans and sneakers – not exactly ideal hiking attire, but she’s fast, and agile.
And I have to hand it to both of them, we didn’t hear another complaint until we were about 30 minutes from getting back. And by then we were all pretty beat.

First shot of Bergen Harbor. A gorgeous day.

It was a selfie or picture of the view. I tried multiple times and just couldn’t get both in one photo…

I’ll warn you now, there are lots and lots of pictures of mountains.

“Why can’t Copenhagen have this? Also, can we just move here instead?”

“If Copenhagen had this, I’d be happier” The youngest loves hiking and camping and backpacking. Due in no small part to Girl Scouts, and Tori’s wonderful leadership in planning such outings for girl scouts.

Mom! Tell Dad to get down!!! Standing there isn’t safe!!!!

I took this trying to convey how not scary/high this particular rock was. Big fail. Because this actually looks scary. In truth, it was only about a 6 foot drop to a big ledge.

A little bit of scenery included in this photo. Kinda blurry though…

Many of the websites and books I’d read said the trails were well marked. Here is an example. Trail signs at the top of Mt. Floyen.

Another quick break. Almost to the top of Mt. Floyen. All smiles.

Dad telling the girls about his hike from Chamonix, France to Zermott, Switzerland – including the part about his falling down a glacier. I try not to think about that story.

European playgrounds are awesome.
Super excited to hike the Vidden Trail!!

First break on the Vidden Trail. Bergen is getting further and further away.

Until just now, I’ve been calling these birds (very common in Denmark and apparently Norway as well) “some kind of crow.” Without knowing for sure.
Well, I finally got around to googling it – and this is a hooded crow,
AKA “Hoodie” aka “Scottish crow” aka “Danish crow”
In any case, these two hoodies stayed very very close to us. Waiting for some food to be thrown at them (which we did not do) and/or waiting to clear out any scraps we left behind (we did our best to not do this either).

All smiles. I think we can get to that cairn up on top of that ridge. The building in the back is a cafe that I’m guessing is open during the summer, but closes in August/September until spring. Or maybe cross country ski season?

Trying to convey how big these mountains were.

Yes! We will make it to that cairn at the top of that ridge! We are strong and mighty!

Above tree line. To her right (not in the picture) is a structure that henceforth will be referred to as “the Eiffel Tower” Not sure where that cairn we saw an hour or so ago went…

Darn, this photo didn’t turn out. But still putting it here. A small side trail just away from the Eiffel Tower.

Just to give you a sense of scope and scale. That’s our trail and is about a 15-20 minute walk from where I was standing.

Somewhere in all the websites and guidebooks I read, I remember someone saying on clear days you can see a glacier from the Vidden Trail (it’s between Mt. Floyen and Mt. Ulriken).
I can’t remember the glacier name and can’t remember the webpage either…
This is the trail we were on for much of our hike. Because it was a clear day, and clear days are rare in Bergen, we were pretty determined to see this glacier.

Maybe you’re wondering about the yellow house by now?

Here it is. I took this as we were walking down the trail from the Eiffel Tower.

So to get to where we thought we’d have a better view of the glacier, we had to hike down a bit from the Eiffel tower – back to below tree line.
The yellow house became our point of reference for where we thought we needed to hike for the glacier view.

Hike towards Yellow House. It was a bit muddy.

THE YELLOW HOUSE IS RIGHT THERE! WE ARE SO CLOSE! YAY!!
The little sign to the left of Doug says “Viking” which confused (and amused) me.
Oh – so we’re going to find a viking in this land of vikings if we go this way…
Turns out it was a sign for the Vikinghytten “Viking hut”
At this point we had veered off of the Vidden Trail onto a side trail, marked on our topological map, in search of a glacier view.

Still on the way to the yellow house. Plenty of ups and downs and rocks and mud. We were now doing some pretty technical hiking.
Overheard from the oldest in this rather steep (and muddy) section “UGH, This is like Parkour!!”
Her sister has been taking Parkour for a couple of years now and also the oldest is a huge fan of the Office.
If you haven’t seen their Parkour Parody, you should watch it. Pretty hilarious.

We made it to the top! (one of the *tops* at least)!!

Photo from the top. Couldn’t stop taking pictures…Even though I recognize that after a while picture after picture after picture of mountains (that’d can’t fully convey the vastness and beauty of it all ) gets a little boring and repetitive.
Just wait until my post about our boat trip up the Fjord…

See the brown building in the back? Yeah, I know, not the yellow house. It’s the Vikinghytten.

And alas, no picture of the glacier because there was at least one ridge between us and that view…

Exchange between the two siblings that I’m still laughing about.

Oldest sibling “Does anyone see a stick? I need a stick? Dad, do you see a stick?”

Youngest, immediately: “Sibling, we’re above tree line, there aren’t going to be any sticks.”

And also,

WHERE IS THE YELLOW HOUSE!?!?!

HOW DID THE YELLOW HOUSE GET ALL THE WAY OVER THERE?

In all seriousness, if there’s one-lesson I re-learned yesterday is how easy it is to get lost in a place like this. Looks are very deceiving, and can be dangerously so.

Camera Trick. I zoomed in to make it look closer.
It wasn’t.

So we’re on the top of this one ridge and hadn’t seen any signs of animal life (human or otherwise) since the Eiffel tower. And we’d had convos about what animals might be living up here, how the streams and lakes we kept passing were likely super clean and free from giardia because there weren’t any cattle around.

But as we’re taking in the views, a jangling sound entered my consciousness.

So I started looking around, and sure enough across the valley (opposite from where we’d come from) there was a herd of something – sheep? cattle? that had cowbells on.

From the bells (*cow* bells) and the color and the shape I could make out from a distance…I’d say the animals were cattle (and yes, I know that not all sheep are white).

But I’ve never really thought of cattle being above-tree-line-grazers. But really I know next to nothing about this.

Even though I was an animal science major in college, “alpine animal husbandry” wasn’t a lesson or class I remember taking.

In any case, I took a picture.

What’s your best guess? I’m still leaning cattle…

As I’m typing this out I’m realizing I did not get a picture of myself or the oldest at the top. Darn it.

But I did take a few pictures of our view.

Another scenic photo as we started the hike back to Mt. Floyen.

This is the Vidden Trail Eiffel Tower.
This photo is taken from the Vikinghytten as we started on our hike back..

I think it was a 45min – 1 hr walk from the Vikinghytten to the Eiffel Tower.

In hindsight I wish I’d kept a better eye on the timing of all this hike. But I was so taken with the day and the beauty of it all, I just didn’t think to keep track. I do know that we left the Airbnb at 1o:30am and made it back to the Mt. Floyen funicular right at 5pm.

This was a super super muddy patch and although we didn’t see a single person on this side trail, clearly it’s hiked enough that someone took the time to kindly put planks and big rocks down so hikers don’t sink to their knees in mud.
I was hiking in my keene sandals, so was very grateful.
Don’t judge, I know hiking boots would have been better, but I’ve been having trouble with ankle tendonitis and plantar fasciitis in the last couple of years and the Keenes are the one pair of shoes I own that feel the best on my feet. Even hiking for 14 miles.
Except they’re sandals so no protection against wet and mud.

If you recall, at some point we had decided to try and get to the yellow house because we thought we’d have a better view of what we thought was the glacier.

If only I’d looked carefully at the yellow house on the hike up, I’d have noticed the big ridge behind it that would block any glacier view. Sigh.

Another annoyingly blurred photo.
I do not know what I do to make some pictures turn out crisp and clear and others that look like this one.
If you have an inkling, please let me know.
I took this one the hike down.

Silhouette of the girls as sun is setting. It was about 3:30pm. Days are getting noticeably shorter throughout Scandinavia. However, although sunset starts early, it takes a long long time to fully set. And as MBH pointed out, although Bergen is more north than Copenhagen, it’s much further west, so sunrise and sunset will be later…

Sun setting on our hike down. That’s Bergen in the distance. And the Atlantic ocean beyond that last line of hills.

My hero, waiting for me.
At this point, we’d been walking/climbing hills for about 5 hours and in spite of mass quantities of Advil for a seriously pulled muscle in my neck (had happened that morning- I was just getting out of bed. Ugh.), my feet were very sore and my legs were very tired.
And under those conditions, I find hiking down a steep hill more challenging than hiking up. So I had slowed way way down.
Girls were walking on ahead.

Bergen is getting closer and it’s getting darker.

I knew I was close when I passed this troll forest.

This adorable troll forest is about 100 meters from the Mt. Floyen cafe. The Danes and the Norwegians love their trolls. And I find them fun and interesting as well. We’ve got giant trolls throughout Denmark, this troll forest, and other cool troll-things…

Post 12 mile hike snack at the Mt. Floyen cafe.
Thank goodness at some point MBH walked ahead with the girls to get to the cafe about 6 minutes before they closed. If they had waited for me it would have been closed.

We decided that it was in everyone’s best interest to take the Mt. Floyen Floibanen (funicular) down.

Even though it was scary steep.

Oh Dear Lord that funicular is at a scary angle.
If we hadn’t already paid for our non-refundable tickets I’d have walked on out of that station, popped a few more Advil, and walked down the mountain…

On the funicular. I felt even more nervous than the eldest’s facial expression is conveying.
The youngest’s smile says “I’ll smile for the camera but i’m super nervous about this funicular ride.”
Thankfully the trip is only 6 minutes.
I can practice deep slow calming breaths for 6 minutes.

Super duper grateful to the Tourist Information center for giving us this topological map. Also, fun fact, in the wintertime, Norwegians use these trails for, wait for it, wait for it, CROSS COUNTRY SKIING!
That is hard core right there.

So I’m 1/8th Norwegian. My paternal great grandfather was Norwegian and I believe it was his father who immigrated to the US- South Dakota- in the mid 1800s.

And while I often attribute my love of cold weather and winter to that 1/8th Norweigan blood, I give a hard pass on “cross country skiing on the Vidden Trail.”

My palms are sweating just thinking about it.

Anyhow, back to the hike. Our first leg of the hike was from the Tourist Information Center to Mr. Floyen.

And from Mt. Floyen along the path marked in red to Vikinghytten.

The smallest red circle is where we left the Vidden trail in search of the yellow house and a view of the glacier.

While there were trail markers, with this kind of hiking, hikers should always have a topo map.

Day 1 in Bergen concluded with take out from Pingvinen Restaurant. I knew we needed some heavy food for dinner and this seemed like a good one. Good reviews on yelp.

Turns out it’s fine dining and fine dining restaurants often don’t like to do take out. The hostess kind of gave me a hard time about this. But the youngest was adamant about getting take out.

I thought our dinner was delicious and filling. But it was very Scandinavian. So different than what we’re accustomed to. Mashed potatoes mixed with flakes of roasted fish and covered with bacon.

Baked hake with mashed peas and lingonberries (may sound weird – who eats mashed peas!?!?!? with lingonberries?) And I learned a few new ways to prepare peas and potatoes and fish.

I know why this photo is blurry. I had to take it quickly because everyone wanted to start eating already.
As I took it the oldest was giving me dagger eyes “Seriously mom?”
(Ok, confession, she was giving me dagger eyes because 10 seconds before I took this picture, I had fussed at her to get off the couch, and off her phone, and come eat dinner.
Then I said “hold on, I have to take a picture.”
I think I earned those dagger eyes…

So, to conclude Day 1 in Bergen Norway.

It was extraordinary. I’m ready to go back. And highly recommend it to anyone who can make the trip.

If we’d finished the trip with just this one amazing day, it would have been a success.

But [spoiler alert] we had 2 more amazing days where we:

explored old Bergen,
walked through the Bergen fortress,
took a stunning fjord boat cruise,
took an early morning hike to the top of Mt. Ulriken (tallest peak in Bergen)
visited the largest aquarium in Norway

Stay tuned!

København Climate Strike

My best effort at correct pronunciation: “Ko-ben-hound”

Many of you probably heard about the youth climate strikes happening around the world Sept 20th to Sept 27th.

As a former climate movement organizer, I’ve personally become mostly cynical about protests and rallies and their impact.

But in this particular case (and honestly in many other protest and march opportunities I do attend), I commit to going because I feel strongly about supporting young people in their efforts to address the climate crisis. Many of whom are refer to themselves as “The Last Generation.”

For anyone interested, there’s a beautiful digital storytelling project about The Last Generation of the Marshall Islands.

A few weeks ago I looked to see if there was a climate strike in Kobenhavn. There was, scheduled for Sept 27th.

I RSVPd.

But declined to sign up for email updates.

Next step: Invite the oldest and the youngest to go with me.

Over the years they’ve gone to a number of protest – when they were younger they didn’t have much of a choice (plus we had strollers).

But as they got older, they became more annoyed at protests and marches that started late, and lasted “forever” with “boring” speeches and loooong, *very tiring* walks.

And although I was once an enthusiastic marcher and protestor (and even got arrested blocking methane shipments once) and wanted them to be too, I realized that in order to not turn them off of activism entirely, I need to just ask them if they want to participate, and then respect their answer.

Especially for these youth climate strikes. I get very angry when adults claim to *support youth climate strikes* but don’t take any action to support the youth.

I call these LSS “Lip Service Supporters.”

I get especially angry when adults ask and expect young people to take care of the climate crisis. They didn’t create it, but they are inheriting it. Adults should NOT EVER be asking them to shoulder the burden.

As far as the adults being horrible and trolling and attacking and criticizing these young people?

There is a special spot, in a very very hot place, for those people.

Anyhow, for the Kobehavn strike on the 27th, the youngest said “sure” right away.

The oldest was non-committal…

Until Thursday, the day before the strike, when a bunch of her friends decided to go. Then she asked me to please submit an absence request form to the school for her. Which I did.

A big thank you to Copenhagen International School for their position on, and support of, the strike yesterday.

Monday, the school’s director sent out the following message: “As a school that educates champions of a just and sustainable world, we support the aims of the “global climate strike” on Friday and understand that our students are passionate about climate change.… we will record absences as usual but there will be no consequences for students who decide to attend the event at Ofelia Plads”

I needed to find poster board for our signs. Not as easy here as it is in the U.S. where I can either walk to the CVS 5 minutes from where we live and buy poster making supplies or drive to [any big box store or grocery store ] to buy them at a cheaper price.

Getting poster board in Copenhagen required a bus trip to the city center to meet my friend Jessica. I could have biked, but since I figured out how to use my Personal Rejsekort Card (and the 4 weather apps I use cannot seem to accurately predict the downpours) I’ve gotten much much lazier and prefer buses and trains.

The public transportation here is amazing.

Plus, the walking required helps me meet my 10,000 daily step goal. Biking does not.

Anyhow, we found the poster board. And I decided to not buy any markers at $3 each. I knew we had at least a black and a blue one at the apartment. That would suffice.

The youngest and I made our posters Thursday evening.

Side 1: a message for NY Governor Cuomo to #WalkTheTalk on climate change. #HeatpumpsNotPipelines, #stoptheWilliamsPipeline and lots of others things Governor Cuomo needs to do on climate change.

The oldest started her poster. Aimed to finish it Friday morning, but ran out of time. So I finished it for her. She drew/wrote this one. All I did was trace it with blue marker.

**A bit edgy.**
**I support edgy.**
**Especially when it comes to climate change.**
And especially, as MBH pointed out, 2 years from her b-day in February she’ll be old enough to buy alcohol in Denmark (!!!!!!!!!) Not that we’ll be here then, but boy how time has sped up. As parents of older children always told us it would (when the girls were babies and toddlers and we were drowning in parenting).

Confession, this slogan came from another youth climate strike sign. The oldest had started the sign with “I’m struggling for…” but didn’t finish it before having to go to school Friday morning. I texted her to find out what the 2nd half was supposed to be.
**She had told me before leaving that morning, but like any adult who’s overconfident in their memory abilities, I didn’t write it down, assuming I’d remember.**
**I didn’t remember.**
**They aren’t allowed to keep their phones with them at school and I was running out of time.**
**So I just finished the sign.**
**I’m honestly not sure the oldest feels this way, but I know so many young people do.**
**It makes me sad and angry.**
**And one big reason why I set aside my own cynicism to show up for this global climate strike.**

Just as I was about to leave to meet the youngest at school – she texted me “mom, can my friend come with us?”

Me: sure, as long as it’s ok with her parents.”

youngest “ok, she texted her dad, it’s fine.”

So I met them at the school at 11am and we walked to the nearest train station. Nordhavn St.

Waiting for the train. It was pouring rain, so we got a bit wet.

About the red sign “Chequitania, Bolivia is burning! Save the Forests!”

Several weeks ago, news about the horrendous wildfires in the Amazon Rainforest, caused by farmers clearing land for crops and cattle, made headlines around the world.

Brazil’s forest fires received lots of media attention, Bolivian forest fires less so.

Having a sign is pretty important – a visual for photos and the media, but creativity and witty sign slogans aren’t my strong suit. So I had turned to social media for suggestions.

I asked friends if there were signs we could make to support their work. My friend and former colleague Ana, who is Bolivian, wrote this “Neely, Please make ones for the Amazon forests:
“Bolivian forests are also burning!”
“Save the forests, save the air”
“Chiquitania, Bolivia is burning. Save the forests, save democracy”
We’re in dire need of international attention and support. The forests and people are dying, and the government is not helping, it’s condemning this area to its death. We need as much awareness as we can get!!!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏”

So I did.

And Ana sent me this heartfelt message when she saw my posts on social media ” Neely, I took the liberty of sharing this image on my fb wall. I was so excited to see this, and let my friends and family back home know there are others creating awareness of this in Europe. As you can see if you visit my fb wall, I’ve been posting as much as possible about this disaster. It’s really impacted me, it’s affected me so much, because I know what’s at stake. These forests have always been a source of pride for me, a source of marvel. Seeing them burn has struck my heart… It does bring hope that our crisis is being heard and supported, even if we have a ferocious government refusing to ask for international help. They don’t want attention brought to their man made disaster. Thank for from the bottom of my heart!!!!

If you’re not sure how/what you should be doing for any cause you care about, simply ask friends and colleagues how you can support them and their work.

Then follow through.

We transferred at the Norreport Station and all over the station were these ads:

Even if you don’t read/speak/know Danish (like me) this ad translates fairly easily “30% less CO2 from new milk boxes. CO2 neutral milk in 2050.” (Ok, ok, I did have to look up the words Fra Nye Maelkekasser.”)
Dairy is a huge contributor to CO2 emissions (one of the biggest) and I greatly appreciate the efforts (yes it is an ad campaign, still I appreciate it) of this company in addressing its carbon emissions).
We all gotta be reducing carbon emissions and aiming for carbon zero.

Red poster message “White people! Listen to AND FOLLOW Indigenous, Black, Latina, African people ON CLIMATE.”

A word about the red poster message. Greta Thunberg, the young climate striker from Sweden has received an enormous amount of attention (and hate too – which she has handled with dignity and courage) and has become a leader in the climate movement.

But before Greta, there have been young Indigenous, Black, Latina, African and other non-white people fighting for their land, their communities, their futures, for climate, for clean water, around the world, who have been largely ignored.

I think it’s incredibly important to acknowledge what Greta has done for the climate movement. It is equally, if not more important, to recognize those who have been doing the work for even longer but who have not received the same media attention.

Here are a few articles that do just that.

We found the oldest and her friends – who had left school at 10:30am to make sure they got to the rally on time (about a 30 minute trip via train and metro from school).

Although my eyebrows raised a little bit at these plans, I didn’t say anything about really not needing to be so early.

I did not want to dampen her enthusiasm.

But there was this text exchange at 11:30am:

Oldest: “Mom there is no one here. There are more crew members than people.”

Me: “You’re 30 minutes early.”

Oldest: “Yeah, but still.”

me: “People don’t go to protests early.”

Protest Lesson #1 (no one arrives early) learned. (maybe)

“If I only show my eyes maybe no one will recognize me”

“THIS IS IT MOM!! THIS IS THE LAST PICTURE!” (daggers are shooting at me through her skull). And this was the last I saw of her at the rally. Ok, not entirely true. This was the last time we spoke, I did catch glimpses of her throughout the rally.

But at 1:45pm, I got this text: “Mom, what time do I have to be back. We left the protest to get food”
me: 2:30pm
“Mom, we weren’t going to *leave* until 2:30 because we were starving and we are going to protest a bit more after eating.”
Me: (laughing out loud at “protest a bit more after eating.” )
Then texting back “the protest ends at 2.”
oldest: “mom, PLEASE? Can I not leave until 2:30?”
me: Fine
3:28pm: “Mom, my phone broke so it took me an hour to get home (school).”
me: Why weren’t you with your friends?
oldest:”I was, but they were walking very slowly so I couldn’t leave and then they stopped for even more food.”
So, bless her heart, she ditched her friends, with no phone, to get back to school.
And she made it all by herself.
I’m quite proud, I gotta say.

The climate strike drone. The whole rally was in Danish (given the prevalence of English here, i was really hoping/expecting an English translator. Alas, there was not. But when the MC pointed to the drone, and said something [in Danish], the whole crowd turned. Given the crowd sounds were positive and not boos, I think it was not the Danish CIA or NSA.

Give me your best glare….

There. That’s it.
How dare you indeed climate deniers and fossil fuel industry and decision makers doing things every day to worsen climate change.

Family photo time

Me: “My love, no smiling please, climate change is nothing to smile about. You need to look serious.”

MBH:

As someone who thinks constantly about what humans have done/are doing to this planet, and about how much suffering climate change is already cause, and will continue to cause, it can feel wrong to laugh.

But we have to live our lives and laugh and smile when we can.

The photo above was one of those moments.

**This is my friend Jessica and her daughter. Jessica helped me find poster board** **and has inspired me to start running again!** (Photo credit, not me – When I find out who, I will add. I borrowed this from Jessica’s facebook page)

**Crowd photo 1**. A very white crowd. Not unexpected. 87% of the population in Denmark is of Danish descent. It’s a very white country.

American teens in Europe, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and dinner at Chin Chin.

If you have read the list “Hidden Europe: The Top 20 sights you’ll see when traveling with your teen,” (snort) you will have a greater understanding of the Saturday afternoon argument that is threatening to become routine in our family.

The weather was glorious (and based on all 4 weather apps I consult, I was 93% confident it would stay that way), I spent a few hours scouring guide books and googling for a fun family activity.

“Why don’t we go to [insert name of palace, museum, gardens, beach] here.

MBH “Sure, sounds great. Let’s go.”

Teen and Pre-teen: “NO! [that activity you spent hours researching] is b-o-r-i-n-g.”

Me “Come on! It’ll be super fun. Let’s go! We’re living in an amazing European capital, we need to take full advantage of it! We can’t just sit around in the apartment all day! Plus, more than one person has told me it’s their most favorite museum. Do you know how lucky you are to be here? Do you know how privileged you are? PLUS, you’ll get into this museum for FREE!”

“NO! Museums are BORING! We’re TIRED, we need DOWN TIME and REST. We LIKE sitting around in the apartment! AND WE KNOW WE ARE PRIVILEGED!!!”

Glares.

To be fair, their school day starts at 8:30am and ends at 3:30pm Monday through Friday. Their commute by bike is 15 to 20 minutes. And the way home Every.Single.Day includes a long stretch of what must be the country’s fiercest headwinds, in a country known for “having headwinds everywhere.”

They are also involved in quite a number of after school activities – football (there’s a fun story about how the youngest showed up for her first game last week, played, the team won 9 – 1, and turns out, it was THE WRONG TEAM hahahahahaha) piano, parkour, hip hop dance – and have handled the move away from Rochester and transition to life here remarkably well.

So maaaaybe I should cut them some slack.

But not right away.

This back and forth goes on for about 30 minutes. I don’t get back up from MBH for forced family fun. The stubbornness only strengthens, getting closer to diamond-level hardness and given my improving ability to pick my battles, eventually, I relent.

But I also have the last word “FINE. Give me all your screens, NOW!” Glares, protests, angry retorts.

But I do not give in. Looks who’s got diamond-quality stubbornness now…

Screens are collected, hidden, MBH and I head out.

This afternoon’s proposed activity was a visit to The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art . To get there we bike to the Hellerup train station, take the 029 train 20 minutes to Humlebaek stop, then walk about 12 minutes. It’s a sunny, crisp, fall day (do leaves in Denmark change colors?) and an overall lovely journey.

Incidentally, the name of the museum has nothing to do with the State of Louisiana in the United States. Something about it was the name of the first estate of the guy who founded the museum. The explanation wasn’t as interesting as I’d thought it might be so I didn’t pay close attention.

The very first exhibit is that of the artist Pipilotti Rist.

Posters outside the museum of the different exhibits.

We both found this exhibit just, well, weird and opaque and unpleasant. Didn’t understand it at all. I really didn’t like it and wanted to get out quickly.

Maybe that’s the point?

I snapped a few photos of it on our way out just to try and share/convey the oddness of the exhibit.

A yellow swimsuit (?) leotard (?) modern day corset (?) suspended by two ropes, one of which had little yellow ribbons. Yes, that’s a screen in the bottom of it showing I do not know what. A few people looked more closely at the video screen. I couldn’t bring myself to do so.
I blame the Puritans.

Purses on stools with red velvet covers. Ok, could be interesting. But wait, look inside the purse…

an orb playing an indiscernible video…?????

Pipilotti Rist, eh, not so much…But perhaps the fact that this exhibit has the most pictures and the most commentary in this post is the point…

The exhibit where we spent the most amount of time was Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth. Really it was more a documentary: “A visual shell shock: With ‘Generation Wealth’ Lauren Greenfield has created a unique document of the recent decades’ crazed consumerism in a world, which is increasingly obsessed with the dream of looking both beautiful and rich.” Photographs and videos, all with fairly detailed descriptions that took time to read. I know the wealth is out there, but I intentionally avoid thinking about it as the world slides deeper into ecological and climate apocalypse from human activity, (including that of our family). Anti-depressants have a limit to their effectiveness.

But for Generation Wealth, I did feel an obligation (and morbid curiosity) to stay.

Going through this exhibit I found myself getting physically sick to my stomach at the greed, consumption, selfishness, jaw dropping waste, shallowness, cultures that encourages sadly impressive spending so young girls grow up faster and orders of magnitude more spending for women to look ever younger, obscene wealth earned and spent around the world.

A few examples.

The couple that set out to build a replica of Versailles in Florida (would have been the biggest house in the USA), spent years collecting stuff from France to furnish it, and stores it all in a 60,000 sq ft warehouse. And they lost their not-even-half-finished Versailles-copy dream home after the 2008 crash.

But are still filthy rich.

A 16 year old polo player from China, attending Choate, owns 5 horses.

A 9 year old owns 3 luxury cars.

Mall of the Emirates in Dubai has an indoor downhill ski area.

Girls in LA start getting plastic surgery in middle school.

A bus driver (somewhere in the USA) goes to Brazil to get 8 plastic surgeries – it’s cheaper and the doctor is fine performing them all at once. The USA doctor wanted to do them one at a time.

A family of 4 from Rochester NY moves – flying of course – (another huge contributor to global carbon emissions) to one of the most expensive capital cities in the world for a 1 year sabbatical, and does so on one income. Maybe one day traveling on zero carbon emissions sail boats will become the norm.

Ok, so our family did not actually make it into the Generation Wealth exhibit, but I include this to share that while it’s easy to focus blame on the super rich for their wealth and habits, too many of us are complicit in this culture of consumption and waste and fossil fuel emissions. I am acutely aware – just about every waking moment of every day – of the privilege of having this opportunity. And I’m constantly identifying (and acting on) ways I can use this opportunity to make the world a better place. I’m open to suggestions if you have them.

I took my time, reading just about every description and watching every movie/slide show.

This poster outside the museum advertising the Generation Wealth exhibit was the only photograph I took of the exhibit. It was quite crowded. The exhibit is open through February 2020, so if there are any visitors who come before then and would like to go, I’ll definitely go again. It’ll give me an excuse to become a member – an on going *discussion* with MBH. Will we save or lose money on memberships? I didn’t get a membership yesterday but said if I went again, I was definitely getting one. There are lots of activities and art for children and the grounds are a wonderful place to explore.

This does remind me of a story from when the oldest was about 4 years old. We lived in New Haven Connecticut, 4 houses down from Vincent Kay, Founder and Owner of Swords into Plowshares honey. His honey processing barn was in his back yard, and he also kept 10 or so chickens in the coop behind his house. Periodically I’d send the girls down there to get either eggs or honey or both.

One day he told me when they came down, the oldest had announced, apropos of nothing “You know we are very rich.” (at that particular point in our lives money was quite tight)

This took him aback but he asked “Oh, really? What makes you say that?” Her response “Well, we have food, and clothing, and shelter, and medicine when we need it, so that makes us RICH!” Remembering that story always makes me smile.

After spending about 90 minutes in the Generation Wealth exhibit, I was feeling quite drained and needed to go outside.

I’d read and heard how incredibly beautiful the grounds are, and on a day like yesterday, they were magnificent. Sculptures and art throughout, paths that go every which a way. The museum sits right on the coast of the Baltic Sea and as such there are gorgeous views of the sea and of Sweden on clear days.

I snapped a few pictures.

The sight that greeted me when I first stepped outside, one of the doors. There are many many doors to the outside throughout the museum. The layout of the museum made it a little challenging to navigate but not having a teen and pre-teen whining about being bored and wanting to go home meant we could just kind of wander. I honestly think they would have enjoyed the Generation Wealth exhibit and then just hanging out at the cafe with the view of the Sea. The youngest would have probably enjoyed exploring the grounds.
Kids (ok ok English language hawks, “CHILDREN”) under 18 are free.

View from the museum’s patio. There’s a cafe at the museum and by the time we were thinking about grabbing something to eat, there wasn’t much food left – a few coconut macaroons. This wasn’t really what we were in the mood for and it was a little too late in the day for coffee. In more than one cafe, I’ve asked if they have decaf and the response I get is a chuckle with a head shake. “Silly Americans” they must be thinking. But I’m going to keep asking because some cafe somewhere must have decaf. Another anecdotal observation we’ve made in a few places, including this cafe, is that there isn’t an abundance of all prepared foods 100% of the time. Like too many places in the US where everyone up until the last customer has all the choices as the first customer did. Instead, there seems to be a finite amount of food prepared, and when it’s gone it’s gone. And while it makes things less convenient, I will -100% of the time – take the less-convenient over the impact: reduction in food waste. Whether or not it’s happening in Denmark on a scale big enough to make a dent in the country’s carbon emissions from food waste, I don’t know. Reducing food waste is the #3 solution to drawing down carbon globally and something my family considers me to be more than a little obsessive about. One thing the Danish government (or maybe it’s just Copenhagen) does do is municipal composting. Our apartment has a”bio” bin – for compost that is picked up once a week. (Recycling is a different matter- more on that later). There may be governmental policies that incentivize restaurants to reduce food waste. Or maybe it’s the cost of food. Or maybe it’s Danes being Danes and consistently striving to be sustainable and reduce consumption and carbon emissions. Either way, a whole lot of people and countries could learn a thing or two from the Danes about reducing food waste.

My dad has always said that photos are much better with people in them. “Photos with just landscapes or trees or castles are too boring,” he’s said for years. Hearing this my whole life has had an impact. Dad, you are right. So here’s a selfie for you:)

Final picture of the sea (and Sweden) at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

It was getting near closing time and dinner time, so we headed home. Rounded up the girls and biked [10 minutes] to an Asian food place grad students had recommended to MBH.

It was quite delicious.

Just gotta toss that hair…
Also, for those of you that notice the bottled water on the table… I know, I know. It’s terrible. And wasteful. And contributes mightily to carbon emissions. Except for possibly Jaden Smith’s bottled water company, JUST Water.
We take our reusable water bottles with us almost everywhere. But sometimes we forget or don’t anticipate not getting water in re-usable cups. Which is what happened at Chin Chin. We kept and will re-use these bottles

All and all a lovely Saturday. I highly recommend the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and I do think the girls would enjoy it. Maybe one day I’ll convince them.

Bikes, phones, vampires, Danish bureaucracy, and an intro to Danish pronunciations…

Vampires, wha…? (It’s there, promise!) Read on with patience and care…

In our first 3 weeks we bought 6 bikes. They are all 2nd hand – bought either from DBA.dk ( Danish version of craigslist), or in local bike shops. This may be considered excessive by some (a colleague of MBH’s comment was “you might have a bike problem,”) going carless for the year means we all need [pedal-able] wheels.

A few bike photos before tales of SIM cards, CPR numbers, Visas, NemIDs, and Rejsekorts.

B.B.B.

Bikes.Before. Bureaucracy

Mom, Can I take this bike home with me? Response: um, no sweetie, sorry. Even though you beat me in arm wrestling. That 500 pound, 800 dkk bike ($118 USD) will exceed our entire baggage weight limit.

Their expressions say it all (and crack me up every time I look at this photo. Hopefully one day they will be as amused). Also, turns out this (two people sharing a bike meant only for one person) is illegal in Denmark. Fortunately they/we did not get caught by the authorities for ICA (Illegal Cycling Activities). And as I’m reviewing this photo I realized they were also breaking a 2nd biking rule. Cyclists are supposed to stop at the back of buses that pull over at bus stops (where passengers step out right in the bike path, like the bus in this photo). This is so cyclists don’t plow into bus passengers disembarking. I’m hoping my memory is serving me correctly: that these bus passengers disembarked unscathed.

**MBH with his Denmark road bike. A dba.dk purchase.**

My road bike. I think she’s beautiful. The girls think she’s ugly. And are of course entitled to their opinions. Also another dba.dk purchase. Thank the Lord (again and again and again) for Google Translate.
And just because I’m sure you’re curious, here’s the origin story of this bike.
Every July there’s a big charity bike ride from Scandinavia to Paris, to raise money for children’s cancer research. Team Rynkeby. You raise/pay 20,000 dkk (~$3000), and are part of the group that cycles to Paris. Part of the package is this road bike that retails for 16000 dkk. This particular bike has been to Paris 3X. Carbon fiber, Shimano 105 components. And personally I love the color and the sticker decor. I got a pretty amazing deal and am seriously considering bringing it back to the states. The previous owner’s stickers are still all over, which I think gives it so much character. (mom, it’s really ugly) In the 4 weeks I’ve had this bike, I’ve cycled about 275 or so miles. Which might sound impressive to some, but I Am Very Very Very Very Slow… So slow I will not publicly reveal my RunKeeper data. Maybe next year. After I’ve trained for that Half Ironman I keep saying I’m going to sign up for. I say it enough times, it will be so, right? This week I’ve been thinking about naming the bike. And have zero creativity when it comes to that sort of thing.
So, for those so inclined, I’m taking bike-name suggestions!

Others may say “but what about public transportation?” (or, with more snark “sure, biking’s great now, but what about in December?) Public transportation in Copenhagen/Denmark is excellent. It is also very expensive, especially if you don’t have a Rejsekort. (~$4 per trip on the bus – cash only (Exact change not necessary! This does make it easier) $8 or more for the S-tog each trip, debit card only). Unless the ticket machines and the 7-eleven ticket-sale system at the station aren’t working. Then you just gotta get on and hope you don’t get caught without a ticket. Which the girls and I did have to do one day. We did not get caught. Whew. And truthfully? I was so caught up in “the Danish Way” and being honest and wanting to follow all the rules (possibly birth order came into play too. I’m the oldest of 3 girls, and according to one of my sisters, my whole life growing up I had a “halo” and could do no wrong (until I came back from Africa in 2003 – drinking, smoking, and omg, changed political parties(!!!)).

Anyhow, for whatever reason, I seriously considered buying our train tickets once we got back to Copenhagen (post trip!). For about 30 seconds. Then I wisened up, thought “that’s pretty nuts and probably no Dane has ever done that, ever.” So quickly I talked myself out of following through on that GI (Good Idea).

So, back to the Rejsekort. Rejsekort pronunciation: French “R” (the fun French gutteral R sound) then “eye” “se” “kort” (soft guttural R again and soft-sounding T)

To get a Rejsekort, you need a NEM ID. And to get NemID, you need a CPR number.

And getting that CPR number required, well, I’ll just say it was the Danish Government’s version of Pan’s Labyrinth. We (read that, MBH) started looking into this back in April ? May? Can’t quite remember. It was also expensive. And time consuming. It required an overnight trip to NYC for a biometrics appointment with a company that contracts with the Danish Government. And things were going pretty smoothly (only slightly stressful).

But then things got very very very stressful.

You simply cannot have an overseas move without something super duper stressful happening. And for us it was learning that we’d screwed up getting the girls’ their biometrics data. We had misunderstood the online information about the requirements and thought they didn’t need to submit biometrics for their CPR numbers. Wrong. Big Oops.

As a result of our misunderstanding, about two weeks before our DOD (Date of Departure), we learned we were facing $15k in fines, if the girls did not have their CPR numbers by Sept 4th, *insert numerous freaked out emojis here.* Something about the girls and their school and Danish subsidies and having to have their CPR numbers…

We actually considered delaying our move (the cost of forfeiting our plane tickets, and buying new ones was less than $15K), but ultimately decided to just do our best to get the girls CPR numbers before the Sept 4th deadline.

We realized our budget would take a HELL of a hit if we had to pay that $15K, but so much was already in motion we just had to go for it. Movers were booked, our Rochester house was already rented, tenants were moving in, we had a lease signed for an apartment in Copenhagen, starting August 8th, and our Copenhagen Airbnb was booked (and paid for) for August 1 to August 8th.

Friends also encouraged us to just go. They said that although the bureaucracy is intense, the Danes are so efficient it would surely work out. (Thank you friends! You know who you are. You were totally right!)

For all the Danish bureaucracy, once we made the appointments, begged and pleaded with anyone who would listen, prayed, begged and pleaded some more, sweated, spent more than a few sleepless nights tossing and turning with CPR number nightmares, the girls got their CPR numbers a couple of weeks before the deadline. WHEW.

Gazing in awe and wonder at International House Copenhagen. The place to finalize CPR Numbers. The appointments were super quick and efficient. Thankfully!

MBH gets all the credit for making this happen.

All smiles outside Copenhagen International House after successfully obtaining his CPR number.

One casualty of the Danish Bureaucracy is my National ID card photo (separate from the CPR card, the NemID card, and the Rejsekort card).

I look like a vampire. But not a beautiful one, like Bella.

Scary, I know. Yeesh. This might just be how all the freshman, in the dorm where I was a Resident Advisor (at Virginia Tech, years and years ago) viewed me. No Nonsense. Do Not Mess With Me. Or Break Any Rules. Or Wake Me Up at 3am Because You Don’t Have Your Damn Room Key. I did hear a story (via another RA) that one freshman chose (very wisely) to sleep in the hall bathtub one night instead of waking me (the RA on duty) up (at 3am) to let him into his room. My being an actual vampire would have certainly helped the not-quite-sober boy as vampires don’t sleep…Alas, I was not, and he made TRD (The Right Decision).

THANKFULLY, I got to choose my own photo for my Rejsekort card. Yay! And I was NOT going to let an opportunity for an excellent photo on a transportation card exactly zero people will ever see, pass me by.

So.Much.Better.than my National ID card photo. If I do say so myself. If you disagree, it’s O.K.! We can still be friends.

How I prepped for my Rejsekort selfie:

ATTIRE: Put on one of my favorite shirts – that I bought second hand (Clothes Mentor in Henrietta, NY) several years ago. It is quickly approaching unwearable-in-public threadbare status but totally usable for this picture (and any outfit where I wear a sweater or jacket over it). It also has one little hole on a seam behind my shoulder. As soon as I find a sewing kit (proving difficult in Copenhagen) I’m going to pay the youngest to sew it for me as I’m still not a sew-er.
JEWELRY: One of my favorite necklaces that MBH gave me years ago. One of those occasions where I had stated very clearly and emphatically that I did NOT want a gift (therefore getting myself off the hook for having to get him one). But, being the wonderful and thoughtful husband he is, he went and picked out the necklace below, and I’ve loved it ever since. Was I as thoughtful? That is a rhetorical question…
HAIR: I also brushed my hair – typically a bi-monthly occasion. Getting my hair cut is a bicentennial event. Especially now that we’re in the Expensive-Haircut Capital of the World. 380dkk ($56!!!!!) for an 8 minute man’s buzz cut (!!!!).
PHOTO EDITING: cropped out the split ends.
MAKEUP: I put on lipstick. I really love this particular lipstick and like so many seemingly innocuous things in our lives, there is a story behind it. It’s Mary Kay Figue Somptueuse “Rich Fig” and once belonged to Becky Sullivan, my brother in law’s mother. Becky died suddenly and unexpectedly almost a year ago – October 8th, 2018. She was from Chattanooga, TN and we’ve lived at least a day’s drive from family for 15 years, so we would see her about once a year or once every other year. In between the times I was fortunate enough to see her in person, I usually knew what she was up to from my sister and brother in law. And in spite of the distance, what I do remember very clearly was her deep love for all friends and family, her sense of humor, her warmth, her sass, her incredibly bright joie de vivre. You can read more about Becky here. The week she died, I flew to Chattanooga to be with my sister and brother in law and to help out with whatever needed to be done. One of the tasks was to sort through Becky’s things and as we were doing so, someone found a box of unopened Mary Kay merchandise, including this lipstick. Becky was always very well put together – hair, make up, clothes – another thing I really admired about her. Taking care with my appearance has never been my own strong suit, but at that moment I was inspired to start. So after checking to make sure no one else wanted the makeup, I took a few pieces from the box. And while I’m still not one to put on makeup very often, this is now my lipstick color. I think of Becky often, and I especially think of her every time I apply Figue Sompteuse. Becky, you are loved and missed.

Phones

We got our EU SIM cards day 2 of our arrival. It took less than 10 minutes and cost 100dkk ($14.82) each. They also came with Danish phone numbers and, ready for this? EIGHTY GIGS OF DATA FOR THE MONTH. Yes, you read that right, 80 GB of data. For less than $15. Our 2-phone family plan in the USA, with ONE GB of data each month cost way way WAAAAY more than the $60 it cost for 4 phones with 80 GB of data each. We re-upped at the beginning of September, and turns out, the minimum plan is 100 GB (!!!!) for the same price 100 dkk.

Travel tip: If you travel to Europe don’t bother with an international phone plan (when we checked into this for past trips, these plans were stupid expensive) just go to a phone store and buy a SIM card.

Also, telecom companies are robbing USA customers blind.

Although the youngest is not quite as into phones as her sister, even she couldn’t contain delighted surprise at 80gb of data. Getting phones was one perk (some may call it a bribe) for moving overseas away from their schools and friends and lives. Huge thanks to Aunt Conoly and Uncle Matt for passing theirs on to these two.

So, one month and 8 days in to our one year sabbatical in Copenhagen, all the Kelleys have:

Bikes.
CPR numbers (I’m told this is primarily our health care ID)
Necessary Medical Appointments (very easy to make)
- me – an appointment with my assigned GP (General Practitioner)
- the eldest – appointment with her assigned orthodontist
NemIDs (actually, just MBH and I. 15 and unders don’t get NemIDs).
Rejsekorts
- either in hand or on the way. I just ordered the girls’ cards this morning and expect them to arrive in the mail by Friday at the latest.
What remains (and that MBH is working diligently on):
- Denmark bank account
  Denmark Mobile Pay (Denmark version of Pay Pal or Venmo)
  Figuring out how to actually use those Rejsekorts…

Danish Pronunciations

The other aspect to settling in that has made things So.Much.Less Painful than it could have otherwise been – is the prevalence of English here. The vast majority of websites translate to English (many do so automatically), google translate with video camera is pretty amazing, and Every.Single.Danish.Person.In.Copenhagen speaks brilliant English. In fact, they prefer switching to English than listening to me try and speak Danish with French pronunciations. Although that French “r” sound is coming in handy.

Here’s some fun-with-Danish-pronunciations for you:

Disclaimers:

phonetic spellings below are a mixture of English and French
I could still be wrong about the pronunciations below. This is my own understanding based on convos with Danes and ex-pats and hours on Duolingo). If you know better, please feel free to correct me.

The Danish “y”

Pronounced like the French “u.”

Lyngby (a town) —> Loon-g (very very soft) -boo
Ryparken (a train station and park near us) –> Rue – Parken
Meny (a grocery store) –>Men-(then “ue” sound as in “rue”

The word “havn”

Pronounced “hound”

Nordhavn (neighborhood with the girls school) —>Nor_hound

And as unbelievable as this may sound to some, the frustrations and stress have been worth it. The Danish Bureaucracy and systems can feel quite overwhelming, but once you’re through it, and on the other side, and have the numbers and cards and papers and phones and apps and wifi you need, life becomes more of a cinch…

Neighborhood Loppemarked!

It feels like it’s been ages and ages (In actuality only about 3 weeks) since I wrote and published a blog post. However, I’ve been taking pictures and THINKING CONSTANTLY about what I’m going to write, all the exciting (to me at least, still not sure it’s so exciting to others) things I’m going to share, fun pictures I’m going to post. But then, I hop on my awesome (2nd hand) road bike for a 30 mile bike ride, or I stroll around Copenhagen (gotta get my 10,000 steps in), or go grocery shopping (multiple trips per day required due to limitations of grocery shopping by bike), or meet a friend for coffee. There are also cute cat/animal videos ya’ll keep posting on FB. Or hilarious twitter hashtags trending: #RevolutionaryWarAirports, #30to50feralhogs to name a couple of the funniest. Then 8pm (my bed and reading time) rolls around and lo and behold another day has passed and no blog post…

But today, I’m just going to write something. My plan this coming week, of course, is to post daily and catch up with sharing all the things we’ve been up to. Unless, the weather is decent (above 10C and not pouring), I commit to being a Boy Scout mom, and soccer team parent liaison. In all cases, chances of following through with catching up on blog posts is reduced by approximately 90%.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a clear and beautiful beautiful day in Copenhagen. Very few clouds, zero bursts of rain the whole day. I have yet to find a weather app/weather station that can give me an accurate forecast but all last week it was cloudy and would randomly rain (pour) every hour or so. I’m almost to the point of giving up trying to plan my outings or bike rides around the weather. But not quite. But anyhow, yesterday was beautiful.

I was trying to figure out what we could do and then MBH had the brilliant suggestion of going out in search of flea markets (Loppemarked – super popular in Copenhagen and all over the place). The oldest especially, loves them (her allowance money only goes so far for new purchases) and of course, given my (probably a bit unhealthy) obsession with reducing consumption and living sustainably and climate change, I love them too. I know there’s thing about going into Target or Costco or Wegmans or *insert name of store here* for $15 worth of stuff and leaving with $250 worth of stuff. I walk into those stores and kind of cringe, buy what I went there for and leave as quickly as possible. But 2nd hand stores/flea markets are a whole different ballgame…My oldest also tells me you can really only find out about them in Copenhagen if you’re connected to the right people on FB.

But, I did a quick google search and learned that googling “Fleamarket” is quite productive. I found this page and decided to check out the Frederiksberg Loppemarked. So, I googled the route to get there, checked, re-checked, and checked weather.com. Then checked again. Then I repeated this process with AccuWeather and Weather Underground and Yr.No. It all looked good. Then we planned out the bags and bikes and racks we needed to have so we could haul any purchases back. Rechecked to make sure the market was going to be open. Did some research into what we might explore in the neighborhood around the market. And so on and so forth. The rabbit hole of google for such an excursion here can go very very very deep.

And THEN, after ALL this planning and google research and (99% of the time, useless) weather page monitoring (but thankfully not yesterday!) , we walked right outside our front door and turns out our whole neighborhood was a loppemarked. I’m sure it was posted on the neighborhood FB page, but it’s all in Danish so I don’t pay attention (clearly I should, and just use the brilliant google translate app with the camera).

Here are some of the things we acquired.

Black purse for the youngest. Easier and lighter to UWB (Use While Biking) than her backpack. Especially her, she travels light, everywhere. In fact, last week, she went on a 4 day overnight field trip with the 7th grade at CIS and packed a small duffle, and her backpack. She had to bike it all to school so she could only take what she could carry (and what could be waterproofed. It was pouring rain that morning and the bike ride to school is about 15 minutes). I felt a little sorry for her – but not sorry enough to actually bike with her to the school to help her carry her things and see her off. Of course I told myself I’d spend the bad-weather time writing a blog post, and totally didn’t. Anyhow – she said other kids kept asking her where her other bags were (many had 3 to 5 bags). I biked to where they were staying last Wednesday, because I wanted to check out that bike route and pop in to say hi (and have a good excuse to not write a blog post that day)
Hopefully that’ll one day be a blog post…

Our apartment is furnished, has lots of windows, but little lighting. Since we’ve been here, that’s worked out just fine. The long hours of daylight has meant that our apartment is bright and airy. But, the days are already getting shorter and daylight will eventually last only about 4 hours a day, so more lamps/lighting are essential.

Bare wooden floors makes for poor acoustics (and cold feet). So we’re keeping an eye out for 2nd hand area rugs. Last week we picked up a very big one a neighbor had just left on the street. This one cost 80dkk (google tells me this is 11.82 USD) I love google. And fully understand they will take over the world one day. But when I go down, I know I won’t be going alone. Google owns us all. Except possibly MBH. He was doing very well staying off the google radar until *I* signed up for some random keto diet online newsletter. Then HE started getting keto diet emails!! hahahahahaha. Sorry, my love. Also, yikes! that is super creepy.

The red bike bag. In great condition. One of the best bargains – 20DKK or $2.96 USD. New, these things cost $80 to $100.. As I bought the yellow bags new as a gift for MBH a few years ago. On an occasion that I *actually* remembered. Birthday or anniversary or Christmas. I’m terrible with gift giving occasions…except that time. I did alright.

One of the things on my loppemarked shopping list is a yoga mat. I asked MBH to keep an eye out, GBH (God Bless Him), he texted to tell me he’d found one, 10dkk ~$1.80 USD. I was so excited. But, as some may be able to tell, this isn’t actually a yoga mat – More of a camping sleeping pad. No matter, I’m going to try and use it anyway… (and keep my eye out for a yoga mat). At the very least we’ll have some floor padding for visitors (JUST the children, adults will get a bed, promise!)

Another excellent deal. YARN! For the youngest, who loves to knit thanks very much to my dear friend Lisa, who taught her (and gave her her first start up bag of needles and yarn). I don’t knit or sew. In fact, years and years ago, when I was about 12, my mom signed me up for an intro needlepoint class. I was about as disciplined then as I am now (which is to say Not.At.All) and after the class was over (6 or 8 weeks, I think), I had a sampler pillow that was about 1/4 finished. I remember very clearly asking the teacher when I should finish it and she said, well, at least in the next 5 years, ha ha ha. I laughed too, thinking “That’s silly, of course I’ll finish it in the next few months). Aaaaand guess what, I never finished that pillow. I’m sure the bag is still in my parents house somewhere. I also ask my youngest to repair my clothes, sew on my buttons (pathetic, I know). Which she does, happily. And as I’m typing this, I’m realizing I am totally taking advantage of her good nature, so henceforth I will be paying her for such tasks.
Anyhow, back to this new project. Green is her favorite color, this wool is a blend of alpaca and merino wool (SO SOFT, she says) and the whole bag was 40 dkk (5.91 USD).
You may notice there are commercially rolled balls of yarn and hand rolled balls of yarn. She’s unravelling two sweaters.
The seller of this bag of yarn had started a complicated sweater, stopped about 1/4 of the way through. Then started a less complicated sweater with the same yarn, and gave up on that one too. Then, after letting the bag of 2 unfinished sweaters and unused yarn sit around in her house for many years, decided to just sell it. I’m gonna take a wild guess that there are more folks out there besides myself and this seller who start awesome projects only to fairly quickly give up on them. The youngest is going to make socks (says that anything else is beyond her expertise, even with youtube video instruction. And has said more than once “I need Lisa for that). UPDATE: The youngest is going to NOT make socks – but a hat and cowl, or shawl, or hat and scarf. Thank you Lisa!!

And finally, the ugliest purchase of the day. Gummy Wrapper earrings. That’s the oldest flashing a peace sign. She would not consent to a picture of her wearing these. The seller was shocked she (anyone!) even wanted them and hadn’t prepared a price. 5dkk. Which the eldest paid.
I think this might be the *one* occasion in Danish people’s existence where price negotiation could have actually happened. Danes are quite direct and don’t bargain. Our understanding is they actually find it quite insulting. But in this case I think the oldest could have said “how about 2dkk?” and the seller would have agreed. And yes, we’re talking a difference of pennies here, but when I think about those earrings costing 1/4 the price of that awesome bike bag, I kind of cringe…So goes loppemarked shopping. The eldest says she’s planning her Halloween costume… to be junk food (She is the first to admit she is a junk and sugar food junkie) And for anyone judging me on this, trust me, we’re working on it…

Bikes, trains, troll hunting, nude beaches, smørrebrød, and friends: A perfect day trip to Greve Strand.

**Beautiful, clean, and renewable energy in Greve Strand,(a small town south of Copenhagen) Denmark**

We had the good fortune to connect with friends (our next door neighbors) from Cambridge, MA (We lived there summer 2012 to summer 2013). Christine, the mom, is half Danish, so I had reached out to her a few weeks ago, and turns out they were going to be visiting Denmark! So we made plans to meet in the small town where they were visiting her cousin – Greve Strand.

I’ll also say that once again, careful study of the week’s weather was a factor in the decision to meet in Greve Strand and go to the beach on Monday. Monday was going to be the sunniest day this week. Although this is definitely *not* the Danish way. The saying is “there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” And in the 3 short weeks we’ve been here, I can say this is true.

First the girls and I had to get there. This required:

biking to the nearest train station (Norreport Station) with the S-tog that went directly to the Greve Strand train stop.
figuring out which train was ours,
determining which direction to go,
find the right platform
buy train tickets.
validate train tickets
get on the right train.

Norreport Station is huge. Lots of entrances. Lots of S-tog trains and metro trains.

Here’s the one map we found

**I had to really study this. And it’s when I found out there’s a difference between S-tog (commuter rail) and Metro (city center metro)**

Where do we go? There was some disagreement.

I stayed out of it and let them lead the way. The oldest was also very frustrated that I wouldn’t just ask someone. I’m determined to figure these things out. Also, I’m reluctant to ask for help…

Buying tickets

After confusing an ATM machine for the ticket machine, I did buy a ticket. But I was expecting 2 tickets – one for me and one for the oldest. The youngest doesn’t need one because she’s not yet 13. But only one ticket popped out and I thought I’d done something wrong. (Ticket was in Danish) I have just accepted that I will make plenty of mistakes and blunders as I/we try to figure things out here and figured this was one of those times. And this is where my hours and hours and hours of trying to learn some Danish on Duolingo came in handy.

On the little ticket, about 1/3 of the way down, there was a line with “1 Voksen 1 Barne” I didn’t know voksen, but I knew barn (child). One adult, one child. So whew, we were good.

Validating the ticket.

I remembered reading somewhere about validating train tickets. And while on-train checks for validated tickets are random (and it’s not like US metros where you have to scan a ticket or card for the gate to open. No gates here), according to whatever guide book I was reading, ticket-checkers do not have much sympathy for tourists (which we totally are right now and likely will be for the duration of our stay). So we tried to validate our ticket.

**It just wouldn’t validate.** **But I looked around and most people were validating plastic cards – not paper tickets**.

So I figured we needed to just get on and if I’d done something wrong I’d just do my best to talk my way out of it.

Later that day, I asked our Danish friends about this – and turns out the kind of ticket I’d bought “use now” is good for up to 2 hours and does not need to be validated.

Finally! We’re on the train. Hope it’s the right one!!

**All smiles. One is still a bit skeptical. That’s cool. I’d expect no less from a teen.**

We arrived, met our friends, and set out to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful.

Headed to lunch at a little cafe just on the other side of those boats. About a 20 minute walk from where we were standing. And where we are standing here is about a 20 minute walk from the train station.

**Our lunch spot. This cafe serves delicious Smørrebrød (Danish open faced sandwiches)**

**Harbor view. The building on the left in the distance was where we ate lunch.**

Done with lunch now headed to the beach. The walking and biking paths were everywhere. And amazing. The two women on the bikes – my friends sister and her friend, had just completed a ride from Berlin to Copenhagen. Badass.

Decision points for the group:

Lifeguard? Or no lifeguard?

Nude beach? Or non-nude beach?

We asked the kids about nude vs non-nude beach and they all just kind of shrugged. Not a big deal to them.

The flag in this picture indicates there is a lifeguard here.

But THEN our friends told us about the TROLL!!

Apparently trolls are important in Denmark, and there’s an artist (can’t remember his name) who has built trolls in random places all over Denmark. There’s a hashtag on instagram #TrollHunting. I was super curious about this troll under the bridge nearby.

We walked another 25 minutes down the path along the beach.

And arrived to the troll bridge!

But where’s the rest of the troll?

The youngest. Always willing to smile for the camera. The kid with the California shirt on is sitting on the troll’s nose. He sat there for quite a while and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get a picture of the trolls face.

TROLL FACE!

I took a few pictures from the troll bridge.

The white building in the distance is a fabulous art museum. Hopefully we’ll get to visit one day.

View from troll’s bridge in the other direction.

Now can we please go to the beach and swim?

Off to the beach we went.

The beach!!

**This beach (non-nude) was unfortunately inundated with seaweed that smelled quite bad. It was the non-nude beach.**

Arriving at our spot. It was starting to get cloudy. This was a nude beach. But we had the actual beach spot to ourselves. There were naked people but they were smart and had set up their towels in the dunes where it was far less windy. I don’t know why this picture is so fuzzy. Apologies.

SWIMMING!

I’m taking this picture from the beach because, once again, I was taking my time working up the courage to get into the water. Which I did do. It was a few degrees warmer than the harbor water in Copenhagen – probably because it was much more shallow here. Harbor water we swim in is 27 feet deep. Where the group is in this picture is about 3 feet deep.

We headed home at 4pm and had to get on the train without a ticket (!?!?!) The ticket kiosk was broken, and although there was a little 7-eleven at the train station that sold train tickets, the minute the clerk went to put in my order her ticket system went down. The oldest and youngest were very very tired and begging to get on the train (we’d walked about 7 miles and they had swum for about an hour). So the clerk said “just get on, they probably won’t check tickets and even if they do, they’ll be able to see that the ticket buying system is down here so you’ll be fine. This sounded a bit far fetched to me, but I was willing to give it a go (getting on the train without a ticket)

**The train ride was only about 15 minutes. Perfect amount of time for a cat nap.**

Thank goodness we got a bit of rest on train ride home. Because when we got back to Norreport station, the rows upon rows upon rows of bikes greeted us. And we hadn’t paid much attention to where we’d put ours.

Oops.

Where oh where are our bikes?

Fortunately, the oldest’s bike really stands out (it’s red and white) and the youngest’s is fairly distinct as well. Mine is black and looks like thousands of others at this train station.

We found the bikes within about 10 minutes. Whew.

And encountered some bike traffic on the way home. It was rush hour.

More bikes than cars at rush hour. It’s awesome.

For friends and family who plan to visit, if you’re interested we can definitely take a similar day trip. There are towns like these all along the coast. Just delightful.

The library!

Last night MBH decided to go check out the library nearest us (about a 5 min bike ride). He of course checked the library hours before going. I declined to go because yesterday the mass quantities of Advil I took only took the edge off my sore neck and wrist, and biking at all was still uncomfortable. Today I think the same amount of Advil will take all the soreness away. So, significant improvement!

Off he went, and was home about 20 minutes later having learned why there are 2 different library hours listed on the website. “Opening hours” and “Library Service.” Library service hours are when there are librarians/staff there and the doors are unlocked, anyone can come and go. The hours outside of library service, “Opening hours,” are when the doors are locked, there are no staff there, but if you have a library card you can get in! Last night someone just let him in because he was knocking on the doors. And possibly check out a book – but he didn’t have a library card yet.

We think that getting a library card requires a CPR number. All the Kelleys DO have our CPR numbers (more on that rather stressful saga in a yet-to-be-written-post) so will take a trip to the library during “library service” hours. Hopefully this weekend.

Another little gem of Danish culture. Maybe it’s common throughout Scandinavia, I don’t know. If you’re reading this and have seen this before, please do share! (in the comment section)

So about that fall off my bike…

I ended yesterday’s post with “I have a sore right wrist, sore right hip, and sore right ankle. But am otherwise fine.”

Today, I am definitely not “otherwise fine.”

Yesterday afternoon (about 2 hours after I fell – was still feeling fine) I met up with friends at Torvehallernene Market. (I challenge anyone to correctly pronounce this name). Anyhow, our friends are in Denmark this week (a lovely family. The mother is half danish and we were next door neighbors in Cambridge, MA). We had met up with them Monday at Greve Strand and I hope to get to that post today. Monday was a beautiful, perfect day and I can’t wait to write about it (and have procrastinated because I know it’ll take some time).

ANYHOO, yesterday afternoon we strolled around the Kings Gardens, another lovely park (Denmark and Copenhagen are full of them) while their children ran around and played (my two were in school). I surpassed my 10,000 a day step goal. My wrist and ankle were still a little sore, but otherwise, still feeling fine. I biked home around 3:45 (still feeling fine) and sat down to do, I cannot even remember what.

I stood up 30 minutes later and immediately thought “oh good lord, what the hell did I do today?” I was so stiff and so sore and could not stand up straight right away. My whole body ached – like I’d finished a few really hard triathlon training sessions without proper care afterwards. Or finished a full triathlon I’d not trained for. Or had suddenly aged to about age 95.

But I haven’t yet started training yet. And while I’m definitely not 25 anymore, I’m not 95 either, and I certainly didn’t think my current age (you can probably google it, or wait for FB to tell you, on my birthday) would be the sole reason for being so sore. I didn’t immediately make the connection with the fall off the bike. I really did briefly wonder if I’d forgotten about a hard workout. I do believe [in hindsight] that my wounded pride masked the physical impact of the fall AND my memory of it, for several hours.

What was really weird (also puzzling) was how sore my inner thighs were. Like I’d ridden a horse for the first time in decades the day before. But I knew I hadn’t done that.

After [much too long] I realized it had to the fall, and possibly being out of shape, and also, yes, probably my age was a slight contributing factor. But how did my inner thighs get so sore? Did I hit my hip so hard it threw my pelvis out of whack that then pulled on the ligaments, tendons, and muscles? Was it the bike saddle? (the bike came down with me). Your guess is as good as mine.

In my confidence of my ability to heal quickly, I thought that what I felt yesterday late afternoon and evening would be the worst of it and I’d feel better in the AM.

I was wrong.

I developed a [rather debilitating] crick in my neck overnight and I’m more stiff and sore, everywhere. I’m moving very very slowly.

I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few days, but I am going to have to take it easier than I’d planned – (but still move around some – I have learned over the years that moving is important in healing these sorts of musculoskeletal injuries), take Advil, and apply Voltaren.

Voltarin is amazing (I have not been paid to say this, promise). And of course it’s not available OTC in the US. I learned about it several years from my friend Svanhildur (she is from Iceland and she and her family lived a few doors down from us in Rochester before they moved to Munich) who A) introduced me to it several years ago and B) kindly helped me stock up on it in the US (before we knew we were moving to Denmark).

I still love biking, and the incredible bike infrastructure and bike-as-transportation-culture in Denmark. I think I’m just going to need to be more careful. And maybe wear my helmet (people don’t really wear them here).

First Day of School

There is so much to blog about I now find myself thinking in blog mode constantly and adding to the growing list of blog post topics: Danbo cheese, Monday’s amazing day in Greve Strand, bike infrastructure, groceries in Copenhagen, and more) And then I go down rabbit holes that do not involve actually writing.

Like finding a new theme for the site. Apologies still for the current layout and formatting. I’m not really happy with this particular word press theme so started looking for one that will make this site more user friendly with more formatting options. It is entirely possible I just need to figure out how to use this one better.

But holy cow there are ENDLESS themes and options and I’m hoping to just decide already by the end of this week later. And for those who asked about getting email notification each time I post, I’m doing some research into that as well (ok, it was just one person, thank you Laura). But I’ll be working on that too.

So anyhow, back to the first day of school. I woke up with the sun about 5am and went for a walk. If I had been actually focused on the girls’ first day of school, I would have been thinking about making sure they had a nice breakfast and made sure to stock the fridge. But I wasn’t and we were out of all breakfast food: milk, bread, cheese, yogurt, cereal, eggs.

And time was running short. Fortunately, we have phones, and of course I remembered mine for my walk (can’t remember food for my children but I can remember my phone). So MBH called to ask if I was picking anything up and we decided it’d be quicker if he just biked up to the 24 hour netto (300m from our apt) to pick up the regular stuff + a few pastries (something Denmark is known for, that we hadn’t tried yet, and figured it’d be a nice first day of school treat).

MBH left for work about 7:30 (late for him).

The girls and I headed out about 7:50am.

It was a beautiful sunny day (it poured off and on all day yesterday, so glad that was yesterday and not today) and the girls were excited and a bit nervous but definitely trying to be as chill as possible about it.

The girls made the light. I did not. I figured they’d go on ahead and just expect me to catch up (they know the way), but bless their hearts, they pulled over to wait for me. (I didn’t get a picture of that – since I wasn’t expecting it and didn’t have my phone out)

**Bike traffic jam! So.Much.Better. than car traffic jams.**

**Exceeept we didn’t make the light. Turns out it’s a very very quick one. Almost didn’t make it this time either. (But we did)**

**This is maybe 1/3 of the total bikes parked at the school. There was definitely a long car drop off line too. Biking is so much better** **(I know, I know, the weather is beautiful and perfect now, I’ll check back in about this in a few months**)

**Ok, fine, you can take a picture of us but please don’t take too long!**

**Wind Turbines. I never miss an opportunity to take a picture of them. This is from the front door of CIS.**

**They bicker, they fight, they have very different personalities.** **But when it’s the first day of school in a whole new country, they stick pretty close together.**

After the welcome (this was middle school only), parents were invited to stick around for coffee and tea.

One thing (and there are many, already) I deeply appreciate about the school is that coffee and tea is served in ceramic mugs – not disposable mugs. The school is making a big effort on sustainability – in line with the whole country of Denmark, basically. It helps when the government and leaders and decision makers are all on board with reducing waste, carbon footprint, energy. And although I’d gotten to the point of avoiding many social gatherings in Rochester (job and anti-racism activism took a lot out of me – extrovert that I’ve been my whole life), if I/we are going to find community here, I’m going to have to make an effort. This was wise advice given to me by another 8th grade mom, Jessica. And CIS/the PTA are organizing tons of them (another thing I am very grateful for).

So I stayed, got a cup of coffee, and started looking around for folks not really chatting in a group yet. I don’t mind walking up to folks and just introducing myself (ok, so it kinda makes me nervous – less so if it’s not a group already connecting. And struck up conversation with Amr and Weaam. They just moved here from Cairo, Egypt and have two daughters – one in 8th grade and a high schooler. It was so wonderful connecting with them, chatting, and learning a little bit about Egypt (I am woefully ignorant). Amr works for the WHO and Weaam is a children’s book author.

We chatted for quite some time, then I headed out to my bike. In blog mode, and thankfully didn’t start looking for my keys. Because I would have gone into panic mode. Why? In all MY excitement for the first day of school. I had left them on my bike.

**I was so excited about the first day of school (also probably in blog-mode) I forgot A) to lock my bike and B) my keys** **on my bike**. **And although Danish culture is very trusting and rule-following. Bike theft is common. Hopefully it will become less common for me to A) leave my keys on my bike and B) forget to lock the bike.**

I headed home and on the way was lost in thought about a) this blog b) the triathlon next summer I want to train for (with a road bike? or a tri bike?) when I had to stop suddenly because a bus was stopped and passengers were getting off (they get off into the bike lanes and bikes must stop). I tried to be cool and practice balancing on my bike, but quickly had to put my right foot down. It landed on a crack in the bike lane, my ankle gave way and…

I fell over.

Very embarrassing. Fortunately, it was past bike rush hour and I didn’t take anyone else down with me. That would have been much much worse. Everyone was really kind and asked if I was ok and helped me up. I have a sore right wrist, sore right hip, and sore right ankle. But am otherwise fine.

Swimming! Nordhavn Bassin and…jellyfish

**The first jump is always the hardest…**

2019.08.16 UPDATE! I asked Danish friends about jellyfish and the rule of thumb is if the ring around the top of the jellyfish is white or blue, their sting does not hurt humans (can’t get through the skin).

If it’s red, the sting will be felt, but it’s nothing like a Man O War sting, it’ll only last 20 or 30 minutes.

And also, peeing on the sting is a myth – except, apparently, for one species of jellyfish in Hawaii…

After studying Sunday’s weather forecast for the better part of Sunday morning, I determined that the best (warmest) time to swim Sunday would be between 1pm and 4pm. So we timed our arrival at Nordhavn Bassin to coincide with the switch from “mostly cloudy” to “partly cloudy,” at 1pm.

It didn’t work out as I’d planned.

The “mostly cloudy” lingered until about 2:30. It was super windy – like-cannot-move-the-bike-forward-in the-headwind-windy and mostly cloudy + windy + 66 degree water was just not ideal.

The youngest was not deterred, however. And jumped in right away.

It’s gonna be cold it’s gonna be cold it’s gonna be cold

Because it was windy, cloudy, 70 degrees, Dad and I developed a strategy for swimming – Run first. Before you get worried that we ran together and left the girls to swim without adult supervision (no lifeguards here – more on that later). MBH (my beloved husband) went to run first – about 45 minutes, pretty fast (5 miles or so) came back. Then I headed out: 20 minutes, run/walk – 1.5 miles… I’m easing into training for a 1/2 ironwoman next summer…When I got back from my short shuffle, it was still mostly cloudy and very windy and MBH had decided to wait until next time…

But I was NOT going to NOT swim today. I had spent far too much time strategizing and plotting and planning for this. And I knew that I just had to take the leap, swim fast for a minute or so to warm up, then settle into swimming freestyle for about 20 minutes. And I’d be done. And I’d be happy I’d done it.

So I jumped in. And it was damn cold, but I put my head down and swam to the other end of the roped off swimming area and as I was swimming, I saw a bunch of somethings below me that made my heart race faster (almost stop, TBH)

Jellyfish.

Egads, I had not anticipated this. And there wasn’t just one. From one end of the swimming area to the other I saw 10 to 15. And before I was going to stay in that water, I had to find out more about these jellyfish – I.e. how badly do they sting.

I got out. quickly.

And expected to immediately be freezing because it was still super windy. But I wasn’t. Why? Because my skin was numb. And as hard as this may be to believe, it really wasn’t unpleasant.

I did some quick internet research on jellyfish in Copenhagen/Denmark and apparently it is the time of year for lots of them.

Wild About Denmark
A 2015 article about jellyfish invasion
One person quoted in this article is wholly unconcerned about swimming with Jellyfish in Copenhagen Harbor.
OMG, here’s a dolphin JUGGLING a jellyfish in Denmark. Just 2 days ago. Not Copenhagen, but Denmark is a small country so probably not far. The dolphin’s jellyfish looks a bit bigger than the ones I saw.
I’m thinking these jellyfish may be Aurelia aurita
And while this article says they are harmless to humans, this article suggests otherwise.

Some sting strong enough to go through human skin, others don’t. I’m 90% sure the ones I saw swimming below me are the harmless kind, and so many people were swimming and jumping in around us, I’m sure I could have gotten back in to swim my 20 minutes without dying.

But I decided to call it a day (J & M and MBH had already called it a day). I need to be 100% sure these jellyfish won’t kill me.

So we headed home.