Hagedorn Day!

With all my studying I had not had the chance to write about my day at Hagedorn. Which is also known as Steno, which is part of Novo Nordisk. As part of Chris' onboarding at work, I was invited to come and visit. Bring your spouse to work day? Unheard of!! So I took the train to Gentofte - luckily we had visited the grounds a few weeks back so I knew where I was going. I met with his boss who is super, super nice and likes to chat about culture, art, history, politics... Chris has his own office with a window that opens - fresh air in the workplace? How genius! I was invited to stay for lunch and got to enjoy my first kanteen experience. I can't wait to start working in Denmark simply for this reason - as part of your benefits package, most large work places have a kanteen system. It's basically subsidized lunch - you pay a few dollars a day for a great, healthy buffet meal that is prepared fresh daily. Eating in the kanteen is cheaper that brown bagging. The grounds where the lab is located is very pretty - they are in a suburb and are surrounded by apple trees and gardens - you can go apple picking on your lunch break! There is a small lake and a forest with trails down the street - where I am sure we would often find some of the scientists clearing their heads and thinking about their next discovery.

Malmö & Skole

Being a student again has brought me back years! It also reminds me how much effort it takes to study. Hanne our teacher refuses to speak English. Simply because... well, she doesn't want to. She says that we are here to speak Danish and must get used to only hearing, thinking, dreaming Danish. It's hard work paying attention to all the lessons, honestly, I catch myself tuning in and out of focus all the time. Gotta start brining sugar snacks to stay alert!!!! We've had 2-3 hours homework a day and I know it's only going to get tougher.

Last weekend Chris and I went to Malmö, Sweden. It was such beautiful day that we were able to spend the entire day outside. We spent several hours people watching in a cafe and window shopping for designer furniture. (Notice the word in bold!) The swedish furniture is to die for... and I don't mean Ikea - I mean the hand made variety - the type where the designer made only one. That kind.

I told myself I would not write about food anymore but let me just say one of the highlights from Sweden was that they sell nachos at the bars! It was certainly a little sense of home. Even if the cheese tasted like cheese whiz and even if they serve them with aioli.

Whipped Cream? Yes please.

After a few days of some kind of cold bug I seem to have energy again. I decided to go for a swim at the DGI Byen (don't ask me how to pronounce that in Danish because 'jeg taler ikke dansk!') Cycled and found my way and paid my 40DKK to enter - getting there before 9am provided me a discount. The pools were very cool... they had all sorts of pool props like buoyancy belts and float boards etc. It was clear that you had to move with traffic in the circular lap pool. Did a few laps and then moved into the warm relaxing pool. Overall I thought it was a good deal - just under 10 bucks for a whole lot of fun.

The best part was the way home. After some shopping at a nearby mall and some lunch I went to visit what they call 'little Paris'. It was more like 'little mainland Europe' because they had the most amazing Italian cafe and I had 'en kugle' (1 scoop) of pistachio 'is' (ice cream). The best part was when she asked if I wanted whipped cream on top - yes please! Even the other day I had a hot chocolate to warm me up and they asked me if I wanted whipped cream - yes please! They honestly gave me more whipped cream than hot chocolate.

I am off now - going to shop for a gym membership.

Square Pillows & Topless Sandwiches

I went shopping for pillows yesterday and found out that all pillows here are square. Our pillow cases have been made redundant. They are more like sofa pillows and not like your traditional rectangular north american variety. Who knew. I also found the most magnificent school supply shop - I desperately needed an organizer and folders to keep all our paperwork in gear. We get mail like everyday. Even on Sundays. The bank likes to mail us letters often, they are all in Danish so it's hard to know what they are advertising, selling, advising or even warning. We generally rely on Chris' colleagues to translate anything that looks important.

We are really looking forward to moving into our flat on October 1st. It will be nice to be settled but most importantly I am really looking forward to packing everything up again (for the third time in four months!). This past weekend was a tourist weekend. We had a pub night, went sightseeing and had our own private tour of the opera house.

I decided yesterday that I don't like Smørrebrød. Something about the creamy buttery taste that just does not agree with me. Instead, I made myself a traditional sandwich with two slices of bread sans butter and it was delicious. When you visit us you can judge for yourself.

Had to turn on the heater today - woke up to a nearly 10 degrees! Had on two sweaters on and ski socks. With some hot cocoa and a few radiators blasting I managed to warm right up.

Special Treats

I can't get over the amount of sweet treats that I have consumed in the three weeks we've been here. I think I am officially addicted to sugar. Since there is such a lack of salty snacks (at a reasonable price) I tend to just go for the delicious bakery items. Yesterday was a super special day - I went to La Glace where the process of baking is a fine art. While I was attempting to teach myself Danish this past summer there was one word that stayed with me - "aeblekage" which sounds more like applique en francaise so I ordered a slice of heaven when I got this:

Prior to this consuming this delicacy I rode on the Netto Boat - which is the equivalent of the mouches in Paris. Long slow moving flat bed boats that take you on a tour through the canals and through the ports of Copenhagen. It was such a beautiful day we have to take advantage of the days that are sunny, warm and not super windy. After all this excitement I decided to ride my bike across a long stretch of the city - it was so peaceful. And besides, I needed to work off the cream calories I had just inhaled.