My First Thoughts of Denmark

We moved to Copenhagen in the beginning of December 2012.  My husband had the choice of moving for his job and we thought it’d be a great experience to live in Europe for a few years.  We packed up ourselves and our 9 month old daughter and off we went on a huge adventure.  Of course most of our family thinks we’re crazy moving halfway around the world, but we wanted adventure and to experience something completely new.  Our little girl is the first grand baby on both sides of the family so the grandparents were all pretty bummed when we took her away from them.  I had only been to Europe once before we moved here.  We had gone to Scotland for 10 days a year and a half ago.  My husband had to go for a class and I got to go with on holiday.  I love Scotland and still do.  Everyone is so friendly and fun (LOVE the accent too), even when the weather is gloomy and gray.  Denmark has struck us as a bit different than Scotland.  Everyone here seems to be a bit standoffish at first.  One of my first experiences in the grocery store almost made me get on a plane and go back home.  We had some trouble with our credit card (silly Americans….our credit cards are no good in Denmark, lol!) and the lady behind us was very angry for holding her up.  She shoved my husband out of the way (and I mean shoved…hard) after we paid and started to pack her stuff into her bags.  At the grocery store here, you pack your groceries up as fast as possible and make sure to stay out of everyone’s way.  You see, they have this thing called “Law of Jante” in Scandinavia (please look it up on Wikipedia….it’ll help your understanding of it greatly).  As Americans it is really hard to wrap our minds around this concept.  We are groomed from the very beginning to do everything in our power to make our lives better.  We want to be the best we can be and we want to stand out and show off our achievements.  Here they like to make sure everyone is taken care of (socialistic society) and they let the group take the credit for an idea, not just any one person.  No one person is any better than the next and so why should you take extra time in the line in the grocery store like you are someone who is better than anyone else?  (We had a cross-cultural training session that taught us all about this.)  It can be very frustrating at times but I just try to remember about how they think about life here. 

The first few experiences in the grocery store were also tough because most products are in Danish.  Thankfully our friend came to visit us from Norway and knows Norwegian which is very similar to Danish.  He helped us find a lot of the products we needed and really helped us with everything.  Before he left and he made sure I had a cell phone, we had a TV and cable service, we found the post office, etc.  Back to the grocery store....a vast majority of food here tends to be fresh.  You don’t see as many canned good as in the US or frozen things.  Our freezer is about the size of a dorm fridge so we don’t have room for tons of frozen things anyway.  The milk, butter, cream, and cheese are so fresh and taste AMAZING!  That being said, they don’t last as long.  You can almost bet that a liter of milk will be bad on the date printed on the carton.  I have had milk go from good to completely solidified in a day.  There are some small things you don’t think about too.  They use a lot more glass here – peanut butter comes in a glass jar, for instance.  I think it's because glass might be easier to recycle than plastic?  The Danes are very green.  They live their lives trying to make the world a better place (which is really cool in my opinion).  They will burn the weeds off the sidewalks instead of using pesticides as an example.  I have noticed already that the laundry detergent and soaps tend to be much less harsh than what I am used to.  I use a lot of vinegar to clean due to very hard water here (and not being familiar with the cleaners I see in the store).  The water is so hard here that we have to use salt in the dishwasher, tablets to soften the water in the laundry, and any droplets that are left on the sink leave big marks behind.  We even squeegee the shower every day (and if you know me at all, you know this really annoys me but cleaning showers annoys me worse!).

All that being said, we have an amazing apartment.  We live right beside the ocean.  I almost can throw a rock and hit the water (if I didn’t throw like a girl, that is, lol).  There is a very nice walking path by the building and a field for Dakota to run around in too.  They have built a very nice swimming platform by the paths for anyone to use to swim in the ocean.  I couldn’t help but stare one day as someone (thankfully I was far enough away so I couldn’t see anything) got off their bike, got completely nude, and hopped in the ocean for a dip.  IN DECEMBER!  I couldn’t imagine taking my coat off in December much less jumping in the ocean!  The Danes have no problems being nude I’m finding as well.  It’s everywhere….TV, billboards, by my house….a bit of a shock to my conservative mind.  I can’t even change unless the curtains are closed! 

I have found that a lot of our neighbors are expats.  I met a woman when I was out with the dog who was Canadian.  It was nice when I hollered at the dog in English and she said, “You’re not from around here either I see”.  The Danes that live in our building tend to be a bit older and rich.  Danes will never tell you they are rich, but look at their clothing, cars, apartments, etc.  They don’t brag about it with their mouths but with their eyes I guess.  There’s also a lot of fur coats here.  As an American we are taught how cruel it is to have fur coats our whole lives and rarely see one.  Here it’s quite commonplace for people to be wearing them.  Hard for my mind to wrap around….they’re beautiful though (I’d like to just say in here that I won’t be buying a fur coat, just an FYI). 

Well, that’s all I will write today.  Please feel free to send me comments or questions if you have any!