A picture is worth a thousand words

When simple danish is not enough....

Drawn for the plumber's wife to give to her husband when he returned home (they are our neighbors)

Thankfully Ed was able to fix it himself.

The Forest

I will probably say it 1000 times before we move again but I love the area where our house is located.  I love it! I am not sure if it's because I have always wanted to live near woods, hills, trails and creeks or because when I am out on the trail, I feel 'normal'--like I could be anywhere.  I am not struggling to understand spoken danish,  stammering "Jeg taler engelsk bedre end dansk"  (I have a feeling these words will be used quite often in the coming months..years..), or attempting to differentiate between the 20 kroner (approx $3.75) and 10 kroner coins while staring into my now stuffed-to-the-brim coin purse.

Side story to go with the money here-I went into the gas station last night to buy ice cream and a magazine--a danish magazine.  I didn't say anything to the girl that was ringing me up but when I began fishing the 80 kroner out of my coin purse, it became painfully obvious that I was not all that familiar with danish money, or danish for that matter.  I'm sure as I left, she had to wonder why in the world I would be buying a danish magazine...and the ice cream. Well that was to sooth my depression over paying around $15 for stuff that in America, would have cost about $8 :)

So back to where we live.  As I was saying, I love it.  I am just another person out for a jog with my dog.  No one gives me a second look.  I have a feeling that scout and I will be spending a lot of time on the trails...

It's not difficult to see that Hans Christian Andersen had plenty of fairy tale inspiration all around him. I know he didn't write Little Red Riding Hood but sometimes running through here, I think about her...skipping through the forest to grandmother's house (which is probably the house with the thatched roof at the end of this particular trail!)

Beginning of fall colors

Perfect morning (not a gravestone behind ed in case you were wondering)

In front of our house--scout smells rabbit, which is why he is licking his chops

Scout, my running buddy

Change of Plans

Over the weekend, Ed and I decided that instead of continuing in class till the end of June, I woul go 2 more times this week to say "bye" to our teachers and then be finished with my 'formal' danish lessons.  Ed will now be able to have 100% of our teacher's attention and learn words that I have no desire to know :)   It's funny to see what vocab words interest each of us.  We learned food words our 3rd week in and Ed still doesn't know what 'cucumber' is in danish.  I however don't know how to say or spell 'air force' in danish but Ed knows all sorts of other military-important words.  

So today was my first day of freedom from school :)  I was able to go shopping while most people were at work, take the dog on all of his walks, catch up on some much overdue cleaning and chores and make a planned out dinner like the 'old days'..they were just 4 months ago but how old they seem now....  Also, Ed created my gym routine for mondays, weds and fridays and took me to the gym to show me how to do these so-called moves.  I didn't know what an military press was before this afternoon but I most certainly do now. And my shoulders will surely remember the military press in the morning! Lets just say that I have really let my muscles go to..non-existent and now I am paying for it.  I cannot believe I am admitting this but I was using 2.5 lb weights!!  Pathetic!  I even took a weight lifting class in college..I was showed up by the 5 month pregnant chick in the gym!  wow. 

Tomorrow one of Ed's friends is coming to DC to do a triathlon this weekend.  He shipped his bike to our apartment and it arrived today.  It's not everyday one has a chance to say to a house guest, "here's your towel, a bar of soap, and your bike"... at least not in my world!

Crying over spilled milk

Actually, no milk was spilled but I have cried over cleaning toilets. Once.  In high school..many years ago. But since that day, and to this day, I despise cleaning toilets.  I try to keep our house clean and I mop and make the bed, do the laundry yada yada yada...but sometimes the bathrooms just get...missed.  Not today though! I have cleaned them from top to almost the bottom (i still have to wash the rugs)  I made dinner, walked scout and am doing homework.  It was quite the productive day.  Here is a picture of my messiness first hand. I only documented it because I walked into my bedroom, and saw an AT&T ad. It could say "Look you have 4 bars so there is no excuse not to call the housecleaning company"

Last bit of news for the weekend:  I am leaving danish class soon.  Ed's the only one who has to take and pass the test so he will be able to have 2 full months of one-on-one lessons.  My last day will be July 1.

Breakfast of Champions

If you pronounce 'champion' with a shhh sound at the beginning, rather than the hard chh sound, you have just said champion in danish.  Congrats!   There's not much going on today...we took the metro to school, instead of biking, we learned some new things in danish, i washed ed's clothes, ed made dinner with leftovers and now we are taking scout for a walk together before I type out our verbs of the week.  I will share a picture today, to make up for the fact that I don't have anything terribly interesting to write about. Our favorite breakfast:

The Green Smoothie:  2 cups of water, 2 bananas, 2 tablespoons flax seed, 4 frozen mango halves, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple and 2 large hand-fulls of fresh spinach.  Plus about 6 ice cubes. We make this most mornings when we have time but use whatever frozen fruit is available.  Today, it just so happens to be...quite green.  Have you seen the new 'food plate' that replaced the food pyramid?   This smoothie helps fit in some of the veggies if you are not a big fan.  You cannot even taste the spinach.   Enjoy!

Irony

About a month ago, Ed and I were talking after class.  I (nearly word for word) said to Ed, "It is not like you meet people who speak danish walking down the street like you could meet someone who speaks spanish." That very night (no lie) , I took scout out for a walk and what did I hear being spoken? danish.  I asked the girl, in English, "uh, what language are you speaking" her response "oh, it's danish"  

Ed, practicing his danish at an awesome rooftop bbq

So apparently you can meet people speaking danish on the street!  Meet our new friends peter and sara

4 hours daily in a glorified cubicle? Sure!

When I graduated from college in '07, I didn't think I would return to school for many years, if at all. But no, I was wrong.  I am back in school to learn Danish with Ed.   He actually needs it for work, I just need it to order a beer...just kidding...  So far øl-beer- is the most difficult word for me to say.  Odd, since it's only 2 letters.

Perpetual cup of coffee.  Necessary for learning another language.

Meet our classroom, decked out with Dannebrog (this is actually the flag's name, like you would name a person or pet.  It is the oldest flag in the world and the legend is that it fell from heaven bloody rag maybe? in a battle and the king grabbed it before it touched the ground, held it up, and the Danes won) and the map of Denmark.  Today, our teacher taught us the word vanskelig, difficult. Ed commented, "wow, I can't believe we have not learned that word yet."  Her response, "yes, we usually teach it on the last day of class so that we don't have to spend 6 months hearing you tell us how difficult the language is"  Too late now! I will be using it daily.  Well, off to help Ed with dinner.  g'nite.