(NEXT - I'll work on Pete's Danish Birthday.)
Wednesday (January 9) – We moved out of the hotel after breakfast. The right-size refrigerator was supposed to be delivered that day between 9am and 1pm. Danes are not late for anything. So, when they never showed up at all, I knew something got screwed up. Even though I had the car that day, I didn’t want to leave the house in case they showed up. So, Pete and I lived off of our hotel food - milk, bread, lunch meat and cheese balls again. Later that day (and super hungry), we met Rich to go take back the rental car and pick up our new car. (It’s HUGE, so don’t worry about luggage not fitting when you come and visit.) Nearly starving, we went to Bones for dinner. The menu is American style hamburgers and ribs. We knew Pete could eat something there – he had corn on the cob, french fries, and ice cream. We stopped to buy pillows and duvets, and then back to the house to spend our first night there with only the bare necessities.
Thursday – Since I don’t have a phone, I told Rich that Pete and I would just stay in and wait again for the fridge man. Rich stopped by around 11:30 and asked if the guy had stopped by. I said – nope. (The guy had called Rich to tell him he was sitting outside out house. ) Well, turns out he was sitting outside someone else’s house in the same development with the same number (different street though). Depending on what web site/mapping program you use, it may or may not be able to show you how to get to our house since our place is so new. Well, Rich saw him and chased him down, and brought him over to our place. Then we went to the small grocery store in our town and FINALLY bought some food.
Friday – just hanging out with Pete. This might be our first day here when its not raining, just overcast and gloomy. (The neighbors had a sun tanning bed delivered today.) I had to FORCE Pete out on a walk. He collected “beautiful” rocks, threw sticks in muddy puddles, and whined that he was soooo tired that he could not walk another step. Then he’d race me. The kid is like Jeckel and Hyde.
We braved big old Bilka again tonight. I guess our biggest problem with that store right now is that they only take cash or the Dansk Visa card (which we can’t get until we open a Danish bank account – which we can’t get until we receive our CPR card…see the dilemma?). So, having 700—Kronner I started shopping. After being at the store for about ½ hour I noticed that I was reading the price incorrectly. The number I thought was the price was actually the price if you bought 3 or 4 of them. OK, then the price didn’t seem so very bad (the exchange rate still hurts you though). I asked a nice young worker (young ones generally and are not afraid to speak English) if I could mix and match for the sale price…of course she says. Ok. Great. I continue shopping for another 1/2 hour, all the time hearing Pete yelling and screaming through the store (it’s a BIG BIG store, this is not the greatest thing, but he gets a pass tonight cause he’s a pent up 4 year old foreigner). I finally have what I think we need…but I don’t know if I’ve overspent. So rounding up Rich and the crazy boy-animal, we walk through the grocery AGAIN, while I tell Rich the price of things I’ve bought so he can add it up. We spend 626 out of our 700 Kronner. Damn! I knew I should have gotten another bottle of wine.
Saturday - We had a very nice time today. We were invited to Lona (Rich’s co-worker) and Jasper’s at 10am. After a tour of their home – which was quite nice - they served us a traditional Danish breakfast – assorted buns/rolls topped with spreadable butter and then topped with currant jelly, cheese, or even thin chocolate slices, and an assortment of sweet rolls (probably what you might call Danish rolls?). There was a bunch of different juices, coffee, and tea. My favorite roll was one topped with roasted poppy seeds with an inside that was slightly croissant-ish. It was especially good with a slice of munster cheese. Rich had spreadable flavored cheese. We’ll get that when people visit. Just a taste of Gammel Dansk (a liquor made from 130 or more herbs) was served with the sweet rolls – the stuff is potent.
We stayed long enough to have another meal of traditional open-faced sandwiches. These consisted of a dense bread with nuts (large sunflower nuts maybe) topped with liver paste and pickled beets (she said that’s what kids eat for lunch), butter and any number of meats (pork, turkey, salami, liverwurst) and cucumber (I liked the pork with cucumber best), or butter and herring followed up by a sip of snaps (or aqavit – caraway liquor). Again, only a taste, this is also potent. I’d say it’s like thick Everclear.
The family had a boy that was just turning 5, and another boy that was 11 (he spoke English along with his parents). The younger boy, Jens, wanted to play with Pete, but Pete just wanted to play with his toys. They also let us borrow some kid DVDs that would play on our Danish TV (US DVDs won’t work in the Danish DVD player). OMG! Our TV is a large screen HDTV. OMG! I mean, I knew it was, but like then we stuck in Madagascar, and a whole new world opened up before my eyes. Totally, like, OMG!
Tonight Rich put a plug on the dryer, and is installing the shower curtain rod. He wanted to put up some lights, but he needed more wire and the stores were closed.
Last night, after buying some laundry detergent at Bilka, we washed a load of cloths. The Danish teacher we had over the other day showed me how to work the washer (I thought). I put in the first load, set it to daily wash, pushed the ecological button, and then start. The timer said 7 minutes – Wow! This is high tech and efficient. It sounded like water was going in, then the clothes started centrifuging at 1600 (super duper fast, Pete and I were watching), I could see a few water droplets on the window, then it stopped. I took the cloths out and they were… DRY. I told Rich – hey, these cloths are not even a bit wet. Ever the engineer, he said – well, it spins fast. I smelled them – NO, NOT CLEAN. Whatever I did, I didn’t wash them. Second time – I pushed an extra button that was the farthest from start (a cosmic feeling told me to do this – it guided my hand), and – 60 minutes later, clean cloths.
Sunday – we had a nice breakfast. Pete even ate spreadable cheese on bread with a bit of texture in it. We went out for a walk, down the path - the other way this time – and found a park. A typical park consists of mounds of dirt (maybe they have grass growing on them), a slide, and maybe something else to climb on. The one by our place is new, so it has an asphalt base, a small jungle gym with a slide, some asphalt humps, and some big rocks. The playgrounds at the preschools are the same. We took a drive to check out schools for Pete and to see where they were located so I could actually take him there by bus. We were told that the school right next to where we live is over-full, so we don’t really have a chance of getting him in there, at least not for ½ to 1 year. We thought we’d go to the hardware store and pick up some wire so that we could put up a few lights, but everything was closed. But last Sunday it was open? I think we figured it out – stores are open on the first Sunday of the month only – not the rest.
Thursday (I’m pretty sure it’s Thursday, it’s easy to lose track of the days) – The movers came Tuesday this week. I had most everything put away buy Wednesday night. In this tight space, with ALL our stuff, I cannot NOT clean up. I drove Rich to work today so that I could have the car to go downtown to the Turkish market. Rich and I visited this market on my trip in September and I knew I wanted to go back. Its awesome! They have a super large produce area with the best looking fruits and vegetables. The men were friendly, and they kept to giving Pete and I stuff to eat while we shopped – pineapple, Clementine’s, tomatoes. You get a better deal than the grocery store, and it’s more pleasant – nobody is in a rush. I also got some tahini, olive oil (using sign language the girl told me it was the best tasting), and mixed olives from the olive bar - YUM. I even had a guy cut Pete’s hair for 70 Kronner (around $14.00). It was too good a deal to pass up. Rich got his hair cut at the mall the other day for 275 Kronner. I took my bags of bootie home and made some babaganoosh on I-don’t-know-what-kind of fresh Turkish bread that even Pete loves to eat. Tomorrow I’m making Tabouli. Now all we need is a table so that we can stop eating off the floor.
Pete's new haircut.
Danish food...and my market purchases.
Babaganoosh!
The feta cheese here is too tasty. It was in this olive mix, and Anders wife also cooked us green beans with feta - VERY tasty.
Saturday – Oh, we had big plans for the day. Buying lights, window shades, a microwave, and groceries. Well, we accomplished 3 out of those 4, plus a little delayed bonus. We ordered a table (to eat at), but it won’t be here for a week. It didn’t come with chairs, so we thought we’d swing by Ikea and get some stackable ones. We drove into and out of the parking lot. The stores here are just CRAZY on the weekend. Either get your shopping done by 11am, or don’t go out.
We left at 2pm from our place to go have dinner with another co-worker who lives with his family on the western coast of our island – Fyn. It was a really nice drive, farmland, and cute little houses every so often. It looks rural but there really are a lot of people around. And windmills! The closer to the coast - the more of them there were. The wind wakes me up at night, that’s how windy it is.
Anders and his wife have one 7 year old daughter, and 4 year old twin daughters. The older daughter was a bit perplexed (well – miffed really) at how Pete could understand the show they were watching (Little House on the Prairie) when she couldn’t. Anders has a BIG gas grill (uncommon), and he made a tasty beef coulette (something like that), and his wife Biertha made lots of tasty side dishes including traditional Danish meatballs – which taste a bit like Swedish meatballs, just without sauce. For the payment of one kiss to Biertha’s cheek, Pete got to take home his new favorite cereal – bran flakes! – can you believe it. (He eats them with a spoonful of sugar sprinkled over the top.)
Sunday – We spent the first half of the day at home hanging lights and pictures, we all went out for a bike ride. Saw some more infants asleep outside in their buggies (in DK if you do not do this you are a BAD parent, in the US they might not arrest you, but they would probably send over a social worker or something). Then, back to the Turkish market so Rich could check it out. We got some more fruit and veggies from “my” stand. The produce area has maybe 6 different vendors, and I’ve chosen my favorite already. Tonight for dinner I roasted fennel, onion, garlic, and carrots and then added them to pasta, capers, chicken, and some red sauce. Since I bought a giant bag of garlic bulbs, we’ll be roasting them every night or two for the next week at least. Michelle Aho taught me how to do this (as Pete would say – Can you even believe it!). Just cut off the top of the bulb, drizzle it with olive oil, and then stick it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Since I don’t know how my over here works exactly, I just cook everything on “max” temperature. So far that seems to be working ok for me.
Roasted veggies and garlic.
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