How Halloween Went Down

(written by Lindsay)

It was a little difficult to work up the energy to go trick or treating with Cavan. Sure some of our neighbors had pumpkins on their front porches, and I'd been told that Halloween is starting to "catch on" here, but still we weren't sure what to expect. Dressing your child in a tiger costume and sending him around to collect candy from the neighbors isn't a cultural practice that necessarily translates.

But when it started to get dark, it just didn't feel right not to be going somewhere on Halloween, so Cavan got on his tiger suit, and we put together a make-shift trick-or-treating bag for him. Once we told him he was going to get some candy to put in his bag, he was all ready to go. We went to our friends' house first, as a test case. I don't think we caught them too off guard, but we quickly realized that even though people may know about Halloween, they are not necessarily opening the door with heaping bowls of candy. Fortunately, of the three houses we went to (people who I knew to have kids and who had pumpkins on their doorsteps) they each had some piece of candy to offer, which saved the evening from being a total embarrassment for us. But let's just say, trick-or-treating in Denmark was just not the same. As a classmate of mine said of the holiday in England, "It sort of feels like sending your children out begging in the street."

Cavan had a great time though. He caught on to the concept quickly, and was eager in his pursuit of more candy. We supplemented his three pieces with some that I had bought in the eventuality of trick-or-treaters at our own house (we had one group of kids, actually). Like every kid, he couldn't wait to dump it out on the floor and see what he'd collected.

Here's a few pictures of our little tiger:

Happy Halloween!

(written by Tom)

Halloween is apparently catching on here. I haven't yet seen any houses done up quite like they are in the US, but I do see people putting carved pumpkins and candles outside their doors. As far as candy, I'm not quite sure what they do for trick or treating because the candy bags they sell in the store do not seem to have individually wrapped treats. Lindsay bought some candy and is planning on putting them in ziplock bags to hand out in case any goblins come by the house tonight. Cavan was going to dress up in a tiger suit tonight but we may have to cancel because he has a little ear infection. We'll try to get pictures out when we can.

Last weekend I was invited to play in a friendly game of flag football that pitted some Microsofties against a selected few from Mærsk, a shipping company. Most people had never played before, not to mention even knowing what the rules are. But it was fun. I got bumped aroud a lot but managed to make a few good defensive plays. The Mærsk guys were just too physical and were able kept us out of the endzone. One of the guys on the other team was a rugby player and at times I think forgot he was playing "flag" football. I've never been hit by a truck but I think I came close to experiencing it on Sunday. X(

More cake please!

written by Tom

Interesting thing I’ve learned about Danes, especially at work, is that when it’s your birthday it is customary to provide cake for other people. In the US it’s usually done the other way around, and other people get the cake for you, if they remember. I like the Danish way better – there are less hurt feelings. :)

When I mentioned this to a friend, here's what he said:

"Oh then you would love my work place. We almost push people or the company into cake at any excuse. When newly employed you have to bring cake or breakfast (some bread and butter etc.) after three months when the trial period is over. Each birthday of course. Going on holiday. For unexpected big orders. When a house or a car is purchased. Or when you sell your house. Anniversary. etc."

Jazz in the city

written by Lindsay

Late last week, we were trying to figure out what we would do for fun over the weekend. Our options usually include staying home and cleaning the house, walking to a nearby playground, attempting to go shopping (although everything we find is too expensive and we can't bring ourselves to buy anything) or going "out" somewhere to explore. I thought it might be fun to find some live music, so that Cavan could see people playing instruments. He loves getting the guitars out at home to play with them, and always pretends the bass guitar is an upright bass. I wish I had a picture of him doing it, cause he actually has really good pretend technique. Anyway, Tom looked online at the Copenhagen This Week site, and we actually found that there would be a free kids' jazz event at a coffee shop downtown. So Saturday, after allowing Cavan a short nap, we headed out by bus and train into the city.

Cavan does really well on the train these days. We usually take along a snack, a couple of his little animals, and a car and he is pretty content to sit all the way there. Once we got to the main train station in Copenhagen, it was about a 5 minute walk to the coffee shop called PH-Cafeen. This place actually reminded me of the coffee places back in Seattle, which seem to be pretty rare here. Street cafes, where they serve not just coffee, but food and alcohol as well, are much more common.

In the back room of the coffee shop, we found the show just beginning: the jazz musicians wearing grey wigs, and the MC/singer dressed up as god knows what. I couldn't understand too much of what she was saying, but throughout the show she was shedding some kind of grey fuzz all over the place. Despite the odd costuming and rather depressing story line, the music was great. Tom got us some drinks and a candy bar to share, and we sat and enjoyed some jazz for about 45 minutes. At that time, Cavan told us, "All done!" We had noticed some other families with small children making their exit already, so we didn't feel too bad about leaving during the show. And when Cavan's done, he's done.

It was still early in the afternoon after the show, so we decided to wander around the neighborhood and see what we could see. We began heading west toward Vesterbro, uncertain of exactly where we were, since we had neglected to bring our map book. Much to our luck, we stumbled upon a huge playground, hidden behind a very old-looking city wall or gateway. It was bustling with activity, with families out enjoying the rather warm fall day. Cavan took his time scouting the place out before finally deciding on some equipment to play on.

Around 4:30 we decided to head out of the city. We took the train to Holte, a small town about a 10 minute bus ride away from our house. There is a rather small city center there, with a few restaurant options. So we decided to have dinner out. Cavan had such a long day on little sleep, but instead of getting cranky, he got completely silly. He provided some really interesting dinner entertainment for us, including the unforgettable moment where we asked Cavan if he wanted to "boogie" (to the music) and he said "yeah" and pointed up his nose. We had such a great day,

My first parent meeting in Danish

written by Lindsay

Cavan's day care had a "Parent Meeting" tonight, and I decided that I would attend. I knew it would be difficult to keep up, but I viewed it as an opportunity to hone my still shaky Danish skills. There are about 100 children in the whole day care, ages 1 1/2 to 6 - I would guess about half of the parents showed up. For the first 30 minutes or so we were all in one room, and the institution leader talked about the changes that have taken place in the organization of the day care over the past year. I could follow along on a very basic level, but most of it was over my head since they were talking about finances and allocation of resources (I assume).

The rest of the meeting we spent in smaller groups, according to our children's age groups. Maria, the pedagog in Cavan's room, led the discussion. She told us about the typical day for the children, and parents jumped in at times with suggestions for how things might run more smoothly. For the first hour, I felt like I was following along quite well. And then toward the end, everyone started talking faster and faster....more people talking at once...topics changing every few minutes...like any meeting, people go off on their tangents. There's only so much a brain can take, however, and I think mine shut down there temporarily.

I left the meeting feeling somewhat proud of myself. In just over 6 months, I have learned enough of this completely new foreign language to understand at least a little bit when people are talking at normal speed. And I also left fighting back tears. It is very hard work being a foreigner and quite depressing at times. You don't quite know what's going on, and once you figure it out, you don't know quite what to say, and then once you've formulated a thought in your head, the topic has already moved on to something else. I'm sure if I'd been attending this meeting in my native language, I would have had lots to say. But I sat there as silent as a rock, hoping no one would speak to me or ask me questions.

Of course, everyone here does speak at least a little English, and Cavan's pedagog (lead caregiver) Maria actually speaks it quite well. She came up to me after the meeting and gave me a hug and told me that she thought I was doing well, and to ask her if I ever don't understand what's going on. It's so helpful to have that support there, to have someone acknowledge that you might be confused. It's a steep learning curve no matter how you slice it, but people like Maria make it feel less impossible. We are really quite lucky.

A day at Bakken

(written by Lindsay)

Everyone I talk to says that this has been an unusually cool and wet summer for Denmark. It has rained more days than not, and I can only recall a handful of times that I have left the house without a jacket. It has definitely been dreary for us, considering we have just survived some of the craziest winter weather back in Seattle. This past weekend, however, we finally got a bit of a sun break, so we decided to spend that precious time outdoors.

A 15 minute bus ride and 10 minute journey on the train found us at Bakken, Denmark's oldest amusement park. The rides and games remind you more of your run of the mill county fair, but there is a certain charm and excitement to the place nonetheless. Admission to the park is free - a short walk through a forested area and you are there - but you pay for the rides and the games and the food. We bought a whole little booklet of tickets, and proceeded to scout out the Cavan-sized rides.

Cavan was fascinated with everything - the bumper cars, the balloons that other kids were carrying around, the umbrellas over the tables at a cafe. We probably could have had a perfectly amusing day just walking around and taking it all in. But of course we wanted to put our little boy on his first ever rides :) Most of them were built for adult and child to ride together, so Tom and I took turns taking him. The first ride, a bunch of "boats" going around a large elephant, was a little too fast and the elephant noises a little too scary. Cavan just looked bewildered when we got off. So then we tried something a little slower: the carousel. He loved it!



And the spinning ducks...cried when it was over.



The Oldtimer cars...screamed when it was over. Yeah, we had to do that one twice :)



At 6:00 we caught the train back to Vedbaek, but when we got to the station realized we'd have to wait 45 minutes for the next bus. So, we walked home. It was a 40 minute walk, but it was such a lovely evening to enjoy, picking flowers and talking to the sheep on our way. This is our life. It takes us forever to get where we're going, but I realized on the way home that night that I don't really have anywhere else to be. Maybe it's because we're living in a foreign country and don't have the same feeling of obligation to things as we did back home. Or maybe it's because the pace of things here (and without a car) is forcing us to slow down. Or both. Either way, I find it refreshing. Even when it's raining.

Biking around

On June 1st, we said goodbye to our apartment in Frederiksberg and moved to our permanent (well as permanent as it gets for me and Tom) rental house here in Trørød. We love the space, the neighborhood, and we love finally having our bikes! The community where we live is not really close to any major shopping areas, and without having a car here, our transportation options are either bike it or bus it. I definitely prefer biking. I have a child seat on my bike and Cavan just loves going places in it - he enjoys the process of getting all strapped in and will point to my seat and say "Mommy!" telling me that I should sit there so we can go! I also have a bike trailer to pull behind if I need to go on a bigger grocery shopping trip or to pull Cavan in once the weather gets colder. So far we haven't used it too much, but it's definitely a necessity.

When the weather is nice, biking is wonderful! We get to breath the fresh air, feel the blood pumping through our veins, and experience all of the new sights and smells at a close proximity. There's a road that we take from our little town of Trørød to the bigger town of Vedbæk where we can stop to see sheep graze out in the fields. There's really no stress about cars running you over because the whole infrastructure in Denmark is set up for bikers. In the picture here, you can see the very wide sidewalk on the left - the part that is asphalt is for bikers only. Unless you are on a very small and residential street, you most likely have your own bike lane.

There are times when our transportation situation can be a bit frustrating, however. Like today: this morning it was a little overcast, but it didn't feel like rain was headed our way, so I decided to bike with Cavan down to our friends' house in Hellerup, which is about 9 miles away. The ride there was lovely - a little path that ran alongside the train tracks, through a small forest. We biked through several small towns, past train stations, and after a few wrong turns finally arrived at our friends' house.

Then it started raining. Lightly at first, but as Cavan and Isabella played and had lunch, it got much heavier. Since biking home for an hour through the rain didn't seem like a good option, I decided we would take the train home (you can take bikes on the train). We got off the train at Vedbæk station and had to bike only about 12 minutes to get home....well by the time we made it here, we were soaked. We're talking I can see the color of my skin through my khaki capris, water dripping off my helmet, shoes are completely soaked. Cavan stayed a little drier as I block a lot of the oncoming rain for him, but his pants were pretty wet too. We walked in the door and just stripped down in the entry way. As yucky as it felt, though, we still had a good laugh about how wet we were. A few minutes and some dry jammies later, we were feeling better and ready for a nice long nap!

The good news is, there IS such a thing as rain gear, we just have to go out and buy it. They make rain coats and pants for kids and adults alike, which you can wear over your clothes. There are ponchos designed for bike riding that keep your legs dry. It's just like having windshield wipers on your car - as long as you're prepared, the weather really shouldn't stop you from going anywhere.

Now off I go, back into the rain to take Sasha for a walk :)