What on Earth are we Doing Here?

Nobody is certain when the idea first came into our heads that moving to Denmark with a 7-month-old baby and two dogs was a good idea, but sometime either shortly before our little boy was born, or shortly after, my husband mentioned an exciting job in Copenhagen and I said something along the lines of, "Well it can't hurt to look into it, you never know." I remember exactly where we were. It was warm outside and we were walking across the street in front of the US Capital building near the Botanical Gardens. I also remember thinking that there was no way I was moving to Europe.

And here we are. Our son, Riley is nearly 8 months old, we left our friends and family behind in the states and we're living in an apartment in Copenhagen. We arrived in late January and didn't know a single person in the city aside from some of Neil's co-workers. Since then, we have managed to meet some people, we finally received our shipment of belongings that spent 6 weeks on a boat traveling from Washington, DC, and we're beginning to learn our way around a little bit.

Riley and I have been attending a Monday morning playgroup for international mom's and babies. We've met new friends from Colombia, Iceland, Scottland, England, Austria and Germany- including an Icelandic baby named Kejrtan. Neil has made some friends at work and maybe in a nearby candy shop. We've done some exploring, found the good grocery stores, learned how to get money back for our recycled bottles and how to say thank you (tak) and excuse me (ood - skool). Things are coming together and we're adjusting.

All that being said, do not be fooled. This isn't easy. People do speak English, but most things happen in Danish. The littlest things (changing a light bulb for instance) are much more difficult. All the cliches hold true. We are outsiders. We do not know things - like light bulbs aren't sold in most grocery stores. You have a better chance of finding them at lighting stores.

We are living in a very nice older apartment. It is much larger than our apartment in Washington, DC and has a great deal of charm including wood floors,  and floor-to-ceiling glass cabinets in the kitchen. It's sunny and there are windows in every room. However, please enjoy the following list of things we have had to deal with since moving in:

Riley's stroller does not fit in the elevator.

The light in the master bedroom turns on only every 10th time you flip the switch.

The oven does not work. This particular joy was discovered after I made a large batch of dough for challah bread and then had no place to cook it.

We have an unusable front closet that inexplicably smells like the filthiest ash tray on the planet.

The faucet in the guest bathroom leaks.

We didn't have a mail key for a week.

There are no window coverings.

The floor boards squeak so loudly that walking across the house can wake Riley up.

All of these issues can be resolved, but have made getting adjusted particularly annoying. Not to mention the fact that we can't figure out how to get our cable and Internet working because the instructions are all in Danish and the cable company doesn't respond to our emails and hold times for phone calls are astronomical.

Nothing like moving to a foreign country to make you feel completely helpless in so many ways. At home, I could easily figure out how to get all of my issues resolved. Here, we don't even know where to begin trying to find a way to do online banking in English. Who could help us with that? We can't figure out why the voicemail greetings we keep recording for our phones don't ever greet callers. We are clueless.

Of course, all of this culture shock is what we were looking for when we signed on for this. We missed out on study abroad in college. We wanted this growth experience, we craved the adventure. We believe the international start to Riley's life will enrich him. And so, in our darkest moments, when all we can think about is our cozy little apartment in Washington, our friends, a cup of coffee that only costs $4 (that's right, who could imagine we'd miss Starbuck's prices?)...we will remember that we embarked on this journey for a reason and if we cling too hard to all of our "Americanisms" we will not be able to truly experience all Copenhagen has to offer.

We hope you'll keep us company as we embark on the next two years in Denmark.