"White and Nerdy"

Not much to write about, but a few pictures.

Today while we were feeding the ducks, swans, seagulls, coots, and terns (equal billing, no pun intended) a segway tour cruised by (photo). It might be a good way to see the city, but I couldn't help but think of the Weird Al parody video "White and Nerdy" (1:20). There are also of cycle tours of Copenhagen which are a little more discrete.

As you can see in the photos, the weather here is decidedly autumn and quickly descending into what passes for winter. With today's end of daylight savings time I'll be turning on the bicycle lights for my ride home from work. I have a couple more weeks before I'll need them in the morning (small comfort).

Also today, we encountered (for the second time this year) men dressed in US civil war uniforms (at least they were the same vintage, blue with "US" on the belt buckles). This time I got a decent picture. They were speaking Danish. Not sure what they're doing in Copenhagen, but by the time I got the nerve to ask they had marched off in search of some rebels. Next time I see them, I'll ask them what their story is.

Another season of Denmark's TV talent show ended on Friday. Our favorites were third-place finishers Camilla and Jonas, a brother-sister duo (12 and 14 years old). They are adorable, but they can also play. The winner was Kalle Pimp, a rapper, who was also good (if rap is your thing) and we could even understand some of the words!

I'll leave it there.

April Sunshine brings May . . . what?

April and May in Denmark mean public holidays and the beginnings of a real spring that brings everyone outside to enjoy the lengthening days. That is if it isn't cold and raining. This year we've been very lucky. April in Denmark set record highs this year for both temperature and sunshine. In the Copenhagen area, April averages 167 hours of sunlight. This year's total was nearly double that with 312 (see chart).

With all the sunlight we've been out as much as possible walking, enjoying picnics in the nearby parks, and eating at outdoor cafés. Having a few extra days off around Easter made it extra nice.

During the week before Easter (immediately after the last post) we took trips to two art museums, Louisiana and Arken where we saw a large Max Ernst exhibit and a collection of works by French impressionist works. The best part was watching Anya pass judgement on each of the paintings or sculptures as we strolled through the museums. Anya would consider each item on display and turn away if it did not appeal to her. If she approved, she would extend her hand in an odd benevolent gesture. She seemed to especially like portraits featuring closeups of people with expressive faces. Also, some of the modern art, for example works by Asger Jorn were a big hit. Another (less esoteric) trip took us to Ikea. I can't write much more about that.

The Saturday before Easter we spent in Malmø. It was our first visit there and we found it to be nice for a walk around the downtown area and a stroll through the park. We did some shopping and took advantage of the lower prices on top of the 70% discount on exchange rate between the Danish and Swedish currency. I'm not sure if the savings made up for the train fare over and back, but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless. We ate a good lunch at a cafe downtown and explored the St. Peter's Church.

Anya will begin going to vuggestue (day care / lit. "crib room") in June. We're excited that she'll get to meet lots of new friends, and in a couple of years she can correct our Danish mistakes. The staff are very professional and we're comfortable that Anya will be in good hands.

Farfar and Farmor (J&P) arrived last week to visit us. Anya has enjoyed having some new people to entertain and we've enjoyed having some new entertainers in our troupe.

Following up on an earlier post, the new pizza place down the street (Mo's) has taken over as our primary pizza joint. As for the bagel shop, we're waiting a while to give it another chance.

I'm going to post this before I get tempted to include any more things...

Spring is here

Spring is here, finally! Yesterday was a glorious bright spring day, as was Friday. We took the train up to Klampenborg north of Copenhagen to enjoy a walk in the woods, soak in some sea breezes, and have lunch at Bakken - the "other" amusement park in the Copenhagen area. Anya enjoyed watching the people at the park and on the train. Anya's favorite word right now is "Hi" or "Hej" in Danish. They both sound the same and have the same meaning. The bonus for her is that she gets a nice reaction from some people when she says it. Many people ignore her, but she's persistent and will often at least get a smile from even the surliest looking people.

One Danish word we're sorry to have learned is "aflivning." We discovered last week that our cat, Sammie, had a large tumor in her intestines. She was not quite nine years old and had always been very healthy, so we were shocked to say the least. The first clue we had was when we saw that she was no longer eating the remnants of the soft cat food we use to conceal Kevin's medicine. She has always had a good appetite. We don't think she suffered but we both feel sad that Anya won't get to grow up with her. Despite being testy with guests, she was sweet to us and nice to Anya. We'll remember her fondly.

Since our last post, we've made the change to daylight savings time, as it's called in the U.S., or simply "summer time" as it's called here. Personally I think Denmark should opt out of this system, just as they did with the Euro. There's plenty of sunlight to go around in the evenings during the summer, and whether the sun sets at 9:00pm or 10:00pm is not that important to me. Of course, my feelings may be colored by the concern that we'll be to get Anya to sleep this summer well before 9:00pm (bedtime has already slipped from 7:00 to 7:30) when it's full sunlight outside.

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As expected, we got the car back from the shop looking nearly new again. That good news was tempered by the theft of my bike a week later. Now with a new bike and a nearly new (looking) car, here's hoping I won't have to report anything else to the police.

Turning the corner?

As I may have shared before, January is a difficult month in Denmark. Winter stretches out ahead and the revelry and pynt (decoration) leading up to Christmas and New Year's is long past. The weather is reliably cold (but not that cold) and wet (in a misty, drizzly way) with the sun a rare fleeting sight low on the horizon. You don't have to take my word for it - this is all dutifully archived by our friends at the Danish Meteorological Institute (www.dmi.dk).

Despite all that, we can actually look ahead to February when things begin to turn the corner and March when each day is noticably longer than the last. The public holidays around Easter and the weeks after give way to the manic days of May and suddenly it's SUMMER! So, as you can see - summer is just around the corner... isn't it?

Anya has been doing "sooo big" raising her arms to demonstrate how big she is. This sometimes gets mixed up with waving bye-bye because we taught her both at the same time. She loves to hear us whistle - rewarding us with a toothy grin!

Sunshine

It seems like I comment a lot on the weather and the light patterns here. I think there's a strong biological and psychological link to the amount of sunlight we get. Now the days are lengthening at their fastest rate, about 4 1/2 minutes of daylight added each day, so we've rapidly moved from mostly dark to pleasantly light soon to go to the manic summer days of excessive daylight. It's nice to come full circle from our arrival last year. I've posted the next week's weather forecast from Denmark's weather service. It was such a nice change to see those suns and the forecast warm(er) temperatures after months of clouds and rain.

Tomorrow we're planning to go to Møns Klint to get out of town and enjoy the nice weather. We also want to scout it our for our guests visiting this spring.

In other news, The Olsen Band is being produced as a musical. Hopefully we can learn enough Danish to enjoy it when it hits the stage. Otherwise we can watch more of the old films.

Blown away

We're back in the routine here again, not much news to report. The flip side of the autumn darkness is that it's getting noticeably brighter now - light after 4PM. So, after all, it's only about a four week period from early Dec. to early January where it seems excessively dark. It is gradually getting colder, still not nearly as cold as normal.

The winds are getting strong. I'm not sure if it's normal, but today we went for our run along the lakes and at times could make no forward progress. We even had to turn around once because we were getting pelted by small pebbles blown off the running/walking path. The average winds today were 22 m/s which translates to a little over 50mph, but gusting to above 60mph. Just a reminder that we're living on an island. The upside is more electricity (is that bulb burning a bit brighter?) since Denmark gets 15-20% of it's energy from wind power. The best source of information about the weather is the Danish Meteorological Institute where you can see information on current conditions and forecasts, just remember your Celsius conversion table - in the top right of the weather page is an British flag to click on for information in English.

In closing, here is a good site for pictures of Denmark showing many of the tourist attractions in the area.

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.