Rain rain go away

I tried to deliver a photo today, but we were unsuccessful, so - being resourceful - here is a picture off the web of what we would have seen had we continued on through the rain. We headed out with good intentions to go to Frederiksburg Have for a poetry festival and to enjoy the park, but the weather did not cooperate. After two months of sun (June and July), August has been one of the wettest on record here. I'll add a link to the Danish weather page so you can check up on things here, as we have been doing with Hurricane Ernesto. A good thing about not being a tourist here is the freedom to take a day off and try again another time.

Denmark has many castles. I'm not sure we'll be able to see them all, but it is a worthy goal. Many were built by Frederik IV, who might have been better off had he spent the money on his army and navy fighting Sweden (not that I would advocate that). Living here, it's hard to picture the rather violent history of this region.

Our latest news is that Alexa is working now in two jobs. Teaching English at a private language school in Copenhagen and working as a substitute teacher at an international school north of Copenhagen. We've also joined a local choir, which will be a fun way to meet folks and learn some more Danish.

We're still here . . .

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.