Our life in Denmark. We moved to Copenhagen June 2006. This is our way of sharing our experience with friends and family.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Happy?
Happy? (CNN) I'm no expert in happiness, but there may be more to it than just living in a small country. High standard of living, low crime rate, and other things may contribute as well . . . Anyway - we're happy. Hope you are too!
Alexa found a good (and funny) website describing life in Denmark. We especially like (and relate to) the description of learning Danish "I'll Teach Mary Danish."
Not much news today, and sorry - no pictures. The batteries I bought at the grocery store aren't cutting it, and I'm dragging my feet on going back to 7-eleven for the $10 pair of Energizer AA's.
I didn't get around to sharing the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. This was a 10-day festival held every year throughout the city. You can buy tickets for big names at the big venues, or stroll around town to hear all kinds of jazz in the city squares including dixieland and avant-garde. If you'd like to visit next summer, consider the first part of July. You can see more at www.jazzfestival.dk. The left side has a link for English.
Remember, we love to hear your news - so drop us a line when you have a chance!
As before, starting with a cat. Sammie was a little jealous of Kevin's publicity, so she wanted to share her enthusiasm for her new home, buy being photographed with the Danish flag and some very small dalmations. Sammie is having a bit of a hard time. Kevin has taken advantage of the move and the new territory to assert his dominance in addition to showing a bit of attitude now and then. Sammie (as you may be able to tell in this picture) is not happy about the situation. These debates usually occur around 2:00AM.
Today's trip was to Louisiana. This is the main museum of modern art in Denmark, located on the coast about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen. Much of the art was by living artists. There was a large exhibition of videos. My favorite was slow motion film of people (maybe 20+) being doused by a couple of fire hoses. Sounds weird, but (as they say) you had to be there. We just weren't sure how they got a group of people to volunteer for that. The grounds of the museum are the biggest attraction. The museum is on a hill overlooking the Øresund with a view of Sweden across the water. Lots of sailboats were out on the beautiful day. Tomorrow we'll go to the beach.
As of last week, we're official Danish residence. After a bit of a delay, we got our residence permit and registered our address to get our CPR numbers. The CPR number is the magic number that is required for all public services. It means we can go to the library and after a six week waiting period, the doctor. (Don't worry, the company covers us for that time period) The next hurdle is the driver license. As of May, Denmark has made it much more difficult to get a Danish drivers license, now requiring a doctor's certificate and the written and driving tests. The woman at the US embassy told us she was glad she didn't have to do it when we inquired about the new reglations. We'll see how it goes...
A recent visit was to the Frederiksborg Slot (www.frederiksborgmuseet.dk). This is a beautiful castle built on three islands in a lake outside Hillerød, a 30 minute train ride north of Copenhagen. Most of the building took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the chapel a man pointed out the window where bored royals carved names and dates into the glass with their diamond jewelry. There's also the only original Compenius organ which we heard played during our tour. Outside the castle are beautiful gardens which we saved for another visit due to the overcast weather.
An invitation - if you would like us to share anything specific about our experiences here, I'm happy to comply. Just drop me an email or leave a comment. Until then, you'll have to put up with the current pattern of "stream-of-consciousness" and "when-I-get-around-to-it" reporting.
We've had two Danish lessons so far with our tutor. We've been trying to learn on our own, but the befuddled looks of those we tried to communicate with told us we weren't getting it quite right. Danish could be the hardest language to pronounce. I had heard Dutch was hard, but Danish may take the prize. We had hoped the Swedish lessons we took in Houston would help and they have for vocabulary and grammar; but somehow pronunciation took a crazy turn on the way across the Øresund separating southern Sweden from Denmark. Danish has many of the same features as English whereby you can't always trust the letters on the page to help you pronounce the word you're reading. Danish does this to an extreme, not just dropping vowels, but also many consonants. Perfectly normal consonants like 'd' and 't' are often turned them into a soft (almost) 'th' sound or, about as often, dropped entirely. That rant aside, after more than a month, we're starting to pick words and phrases that we've learned out of the jumble. It's a long road ahead.
As before, starting with a cat. Sammie was a little jealous of Kevin's publicity, so she wanted to share her enthusiasm for her new home, buy being photographed with the Danish flag and some very small dalmations. Sammie is having a bit of a hard time. Kevin has taken advantage of the move and the new territory to assert his dominance in addition to showing a bit of attitude now and then. Sammie (as you may be able to tell in this picture) is not happy about the situation. These debates usually occur around 2:00AM.
Today's trip was to Louisiana. This is the main museum of modern art in Denmark, located on the coast about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen. Much of the art was by living artists. There was a large exhibition of videos. My favorite was slow motion film of people (maybe 20+) being doused by a couple of fire hoses. Sounds weird, but (as they say) you had to be there. We just weren't sure how they got a group of people to volunteer for that. The grounds of the museum are the biggest attraction. The museum is on a hill overlooking the Øresund with a view of Sweden across the water. Lots of sailboats were out on the beautiful day. Tomorrow we'll go to the beach.
A recent visit was to the Frederiksborg Slot (www.frederiksborgmuseet.dk). This is a beautiful castle built on three islands in a lake outside Hillerød, a 30 minute train ride north of Copenhagen. Most of the building took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the chapel a man pointed out the window where bored royals carved names and dates into the glass with their diamond jewelry. There's also the only original Compenius organ which we heard played during our tour. Outside the castle are beautiful gardens which we saved for another visit due to the overcast weather.