Hello Doctor

We don't have a doctor yet. I have been trying to get recommendations for a good doctor since arriving and just keep meeting dead ends. Finally, an international parents meet up group member responded to my bulletin board posting (who knew that Meet Up was still alive and kicking? I sort of associated it with the Howard Dean campaign and haven't looked back since). The kind respondent gave me the words "good doctor in Amager" or something close to that in Danish and suggested I put them into Google.

I did it. I Googled. And Google led me to an online forum where people were discussing doctors and  several Danes recommended a doctor a couple blocks from our home. (Thank goodness for Google Translate). This was a major breakthrough. Why I hadn't thought of this particular strategy sooner, I am not sure. I had done plenty of searches in English for "good doctors in Copenhagen" and other things, but not much came up. (Obviously.)

In Denmark, there aren't really pediatricians or other specialists, there are family doctors and the whole family goes to one doctor. There are also very specific hours that doctors' offices can be called and visited, etc. We tried calling our potential new doctor all morning with no luck, so this afternoon, I swung by. The woman at the front desk answered all my questions, told me that the practice was accepting new patients, how to call to book an appointment (and when) and as I was leaving informed me that she was the doctor! Wow, an actual doctor at the front desk of the clinic? Apparently secretaries only work a few hours a day and after that the doctors are left to run the clinics themselves.

It's a huge relief to have found a doctor, and met her. She was very nice and the office was clean and new and it's literally a five minute walk from home. We really miss our pediatrician in Washington, DC. She is amazing. If Dr. Kit Christiansen is even half as amazing, we're in good hands.

Handball: The European Kind

Before arriving in Denmark, we did a little bit of reading about our new home and learned that one of most popular sports here is handball. Not the kind of handball with two people on a racket ball court with a little tiny ball. Team handball. I am not going to go into a major description here because Wikipedia does it better. But, basically it's a team sport played inside on a basketball court (with different lines painted on the floor). There are goalies with nets behind them and a ball that looks like a smaller soccer ball which is passed between players, dribbled and thrown into the back of the net. It's a fast sport, high-scoring, slightly violent and very entertaining. Really, it has all the elements of a sport American fans would love. We aren't sure why it's not more popular in the US.

Apparently the US does have a national men's and women's team and we play in the Olympics. But, who has ever heard of them? Not us. In fact, according to some sketchy Internet research, the US has four summer Olympic events in which it has never medaled and one is handball.

But in Copenhagen, handball is anything but obscure. During our first or second week here, we made our way to a local Team Ajax game (named after the cleaning product but pronounced Ah-yahx). It was past Riley's bedtime, but we all still had a great time.

Neil selected a favorite player and began cheering loudly for him in English, I got a little embarrassed because I didn't want to stand out, but ultimately couldn't help but to laugh along with Neil. Riley watched the action intently, following the ball as it zipped around the court.

The Ajax players had a come-from-behind victory that included lots of goals and lots of rough fouls and physical contact. It was very entertaining - and they even had a snack bar in the little arena. If I don't get to spend 40-some nights a season in Verizon Center cheering for the Washington Capitals anymore, at least I have a little handball to entertain me. Our next goal is to see the more professional team AG Kobenhavn in action.

The Beach

This past Sunday, we walked to the beach. It was sunny and less cold (Not warm, but less cold), than it had been and we decided to make the most of it and explore our neighborhood beach. We live in Amager (pronounced Ama'r) and we happen to have a beach about a 15 minute walk from our apartment.

It. Is. Awesome.

If you look closely on the horizon you can see Sweden in the distance.

The Amagerstrand Promenaden consists of a 4 kilometer loop encircling a lagoon and bordering the sea with two sections of beach. There is a natural section with less pavement and more native plants growing and a city beach section (pictured above) that includes lots of nice beach, mini-golf and a gelato stand.

I am so excited to spend time here when it gets a little bit warmer.

In spite of the relatively cold weather, people were out all over the beach yesterday enjoying the sunshine and walking along the pathway that lines the area.  Including this cute little duo with their HUGE stroller.

On the lagoon side of Amagerstrand.

So, all you potential visitors, book your tickets now!

The Popularity of the Denmark Flag

Below are some visuals to support the themes I have been blogging about - just in case anyone doubted me.

The "Denmark is awesome so I am going to have my birthday party with a Denmark flag theme" section that is in every grocery store.

These mushrooms were grown in Denmark - hence the flag on the label.

IKEA for Everyone

We have been to IKEA two times since moving to Denmark. We also went to IKEA when we moved to DC and I went frequently in college once the IKEA in Chicago opened including a memorable post-graduation trip when I purchased many many things Neil and I still have (down comforter, accent pillows, cutting board, etc.) In fact, nearly every move we've made has been punctuated by the assembly of IKEA furniture.

The other night, while assembling Riley's spiffy new toy storage thing-a-majig and looking at the wordless illustrations that told me how to assemble it I thought the following, "Assembling IKEA furniture is really a uniting experience. I could meet people from many many different countries and maybe the one thing we'd have in common would be having assembled something from IKEA."

Yes, it was the middle of the night and I was on day three of four as a single parent because Neil was out of town, but maybe I was onto something. A lot of people have assembled IKEA furniture.

Today, we took two buses and one train to get to IKEA where we bought a rug and a bunch of other stuff. But we went with the intention of buying a rug. Our rug came with a little booklet on how to care for your rug translated into 31 languages.  31!

What Neil likes about shopping at IKEA in Denmark is that all the crazy names for the products that sound totally foreign in the US seem to fit right in here - ORGEL, KOMPLEMENT, etc.

For me, going to IKEA here is a bit like the time I went to Wal Mart in the middle of Nebraska. When feeling completely disoriented and out of your element, it's sometimes comforting to go into a familiar retail establishment that looks basically the same wherever you are. Funny that I feel at home while in a Swedish megastore in the middle of Denmark.

Frogs go what???

Riley and I returned to the magical music session this morning and it was just as good as last week. Same delicious bread. Same adorable songs. Except for one new one we had not heard about a stork and a frog. I know it was about a stork and a frog because the song leader held up paper cutouts of a stork and a frog. It was a lovely little song, except for one thing - at some point in the song, the frog very clearly went, "Quack, quack, quack."

 

The church where the music happens

Now everybody knows that frogs say "Ribbit" and ducks say "Quack" so I was wondering to myself if they just didn't have a cutout of a duck, or if the frog in the song was a confused frog who thought he was a duck, and what did the stork have to do with anything? 

When the singing was over, one of the song leaders came and spoke to me in English. She wanted to know if this was my first week and what I understood of the songs. I explained that we'd been last week, we really enjoy coming and don't understand much unless it's a song like "Wheels on the bus" that we know in English. She nodded and explained one of the songs they sing each week - I had no clue what it was about -  but it turns out it's about a bakery. As she was about to leave I called her back, "Wait," I said, "what do frogs say?"

"Quack, quack, quack."

I explained that in the US ducks say quack. She looked slightly shocked and assured me that frogs say quack. I told her they say ribbit and wondered aloud what I would tell Riley.

"Well," she said, "Tell him it's a European frog."

Good idea!

Flags For Everyone

On one of our first days here, we went to the grocery store. It was the kind of grocery trip someone would make if a new grocery chain came to their town for the first time. Like a Trader Joe's for instance. We wandered around, didn't recognize much of anything and threw a bunch of intriguing-looking food items in the cart. We also managed to find some staples like olive oil, mustard, basalmic vinegar, salad dressing, etc. In the end, we spent way too much and came home with some really random things including the worst dried bannana bars, a rice pudding that I thought was greek yogurt, and extremely expensive (more than $10) organic, completely delicious ice cream.

In addition to the bounty we returned home with, we left the grocery store with a mystery. Why on earth was there a whole section of paper goods (napkins, plates, toothpicks with flags attached, cups, banners, etc.) featuring the Danish flag? Was a holiday akin to the 4th of July coming up?

At another store a few days later we noticed birthday cards for every age with Danish flags on them. Hmm.

Shortly after that I was talking to one of my new friends and I learned that all Danes decorate their homes with Danish flags on their birthdays. Fascinating. This is not something that Americans would do. We'd go with a much more sensible Pokemon or Spongebob Squarepants. My grandma was born on the 4th of July and she embraces red white and blue for her birthday, but nobody else I know does the same. That's some serious patriotism.

Now that we know about the birthday tradition we are noticing more flags. When stores have sales, they tend to become extra patriotic.

 

Big sale at a bike shop

Additionally, many many products have the Danish flag on them or at least brag of being Danske (from Denmark). Our jar of pickles has the Danish flag on the lid. The flour and sugar I bought last week are from here and the packaging makes sure I am aware of that fact.

The patriotism is a bit inspired and a bit alarming. I will wait to make a final judgment until I have been here longer. For now, only observations.

We'll see if we decorate with Danish flags for Riley's birthday this June.