Moments: funny, frustrating, charming, and otherwise

I'm living just outside of Copenhagen, so I feel a sort of pressure that every day, or at least every week, I should experience some kind of adventure worthy of blogging about. The reality, however, is that we still live a pretty normal life: yard work on Saturday, church on Sunday, laundry on Monday, and you get the idea... . Of course normal life in, what is to us, a foreign country is seasoned with sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating, and sometimes charming moments. For example, it's funny that Maurie--being the only American in her grade--is frequently called on in history class to speak as some kind of authority on the American Revolution. She probably would place this in the 'frustrating' category because she feels she never knows the right information. Funny versus frustrating has also been called into question when Maurie waited an extra half an hour at the bus stop because the bus just flew by without stopping, or when Grant and Ben had to ride the bus to the next stop and enjoy an extra long walk home because the driver never opened the door for them. The most recent funny versus frustrating moment involved baking chocolate chip cookies--a rare treat because chocolate chips have to come from America--with something like molasses instead of brown sugar. (Occasionally Google Translate lets me down.) Over the weekend, Travis decided it was time to do some yard work. Because there is nothing for him to dig here, he has taken to hedge trimming. The Danes love hedges and use them both as fences and as decorative designs in yards. Our yard has plenty of hedges so Trav set to work with the electric hedge trimmer which, I have to admit, looks like a fun yard toy. It was fun until he sliced right through the extension cord and blew a fuse in the house. We spent the next few hours trying to understand the Danish labels in the electrical box, experimenting with how to replace the European-style fuse, and repairing the extension cord. It was a funny/frustrating moment. 

Of all these experiences, none seem worthy of posting about (although I just did). Sprinkled on top of these and other funny/frustrating moments of trying to live a normal American life in Denmark, however, are the charming moments.

Maurie had such a time when she and two friends rode the train into Copenhagen Saturday night. They did a little shopping--mostly window shopping because of the extremely high prices, enjoyed the view from the Rundetarn--google the Copenhagen "top ten" list, and ate hamburgers at the Hard Rock Cafe. (No, she didn't take pictures at Hard Rock which is simply a clever way to ensure a family dinner there sometime!)

A bird's eye view of Copenhagen.
Maurie took this from the top of the Rundetarn (Round Tower)

Happy to represent the USA in the parade of countries!

Grant and Ben checking out the "France" table hosted
by Ben's classroom teacher, Pete.

On Saturday morning, we attended "International Day" at the boys' school. It was a fun event to participate in. They started with a parade of flags from all the countries being represented that day. These countries were either homelands to the students, or places where students or teachers have lived for some period of time. The list of countries and cultures represented by this relatively small group of people was remarkable:

Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Spain, England, India, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, South Africa, Mexico, USA, Zimbabwe, Ireland
                

A glance at a few of the tables.

                     

Trav especially enjoyed eating his favorite:
curry chicken from Thailand

 After the parade, we had fun looking at displays on tables and sampling food from around the world. Of everything I tasted, my favorite was lamb stew from Zimbabwe.

Ben and his friend, Leo from Scotland, enjoying some juice and
chocolate mousse from France.

I hate to seem naive. But as I stood in this large gym filled with people from all over the world--people in traditional clothing from India, Zimbabwe, and Japan; people with different color skin; people who eat food that looks and smells so strange to me; people who speak all kinds of different languages--I heard laughter and talking, and I saw smiles as people met and shared with each other. And I wondered, why can't we all just get along like this? Why do we complicate acceptance and kindness? Our family really enjoyed the chance to experience a small piece of so many different cultures. This was definitely a charming moment. 

















A final charming moment to share was a visit we made to Frilandsmuseet. This is an open-air museum about 15 minutes from our house. It's a museum made up of old homes from all over Denmark. There are all kinds, everything from rural cottages to manor houses. Most are from 200 to 300 years old. They are original homes that have been brought to this central location to preserve the history of life in Denmark over the recent centuries. Many of the buildings are furnished and decorated in keeping with the appropriate period. It was really interesting to see and walk through! Of course, I really enjoy old buildings--castles, cottages, whatever--so I thought it was a great. I think the kids and Trav, however, felt like after they had seen the first 15 they had seen them all. At that point, Grant started taking pictures of all the irony he could find...fire extinguishers under the thatched roofs, electrical cords coming out of the half-timbered walls, etc. The kids put up with it as long as they could, and I went back another day with a friend to see what we had missed because I knew the rest was not the same as the first 15. (I have to admit this whole experience reminded me of a lot of cobble stone streets I didn't enjoy as much as my mom while on a family trip to London. Perhaps that role-reversal was the greatest irony of the day!)

Gives new meaning to the word "bedchamber."

Grant in the kitchen.

Do you think Scandinavians were ever this short?
Yet every home had really low ceilings and doorways like this...

Inside of one of the upscale manor houses.

Ahh...a bench. This museum is over 65 hectares! 

Grant along a beautiful trail in the museum.

Such a great roof! You could have a garden up there! Check out the height of the door :) 

Trav taking one for the team...hoping there's something
different about this one. :)

This one needs a haircut, but I LOVE it!

Just a cool, old windmill.