Getting started...

It now appears that we have housing arranged for our stay in Denmark. That is certainly a relief to clear our first hurdle. And what a find this place is. Is it different? yes, indeed. The place is actually the rectory for the largest church on Fyn. It was designed by Poul Wad, a famous Danish architect, and is the opitome of Danish Design. Wow. This is unexpected. We move in on Friday, so we will likely use our car to the maximum benefit and go away for a few days. Maybe Legoland or maybe the top end of Jutland.

Leading up to the housing success has been a mixed bag of helpfulness and frustrating bureaucracy that is mixed in with not knowing the ways and language of a country. We are now waiting for our residency permits. Apparently they have been waiting for some extra documentation (that we thought we had sent) since June 30. And now the case worker is on Holiday until August 11. We are making progress, but sometimes it does not seem like it.

But that is a lot of fretting. What else have we been up to? We did see a castle last week, which was quite nice. Those people were collectors. We went to a viking museum - the burial mound for a chieftan that held a ship. This mound is the only one found in Denmark that actually had the ship in it. For some reason Danish Burial mounds are ship-free. This was a great find. Out of the way, and in a nice area on the water. The other interesting thing we have done is we went to the ocean up on the very top of Fyn. An out of the way place, it is beautiful, and free of most people and jellyfish. We waded around and caught crabs, and then walked a little way to a swimming beach and swam in the beautiful, clear water.

Getting a House

Today we got a house! It's nice and roomy with 3 bedrooms! It looks nice and modern and has got a great yard! We can walk to school! It's owned by a minister and the church is right next door.We will move in on friday and all are excited!

Homeless in Denmark

6 days after our arrival, and we are still without a place to call our own... Needless to say, the renters market is tight in Odense!!
Fortunately, we are not without friends. The Frahms, the family we met in McDonald's the first night, have continued to let us stay in their house for 6 days now. And when I told them we had to leave because we liked them too much to continue to impose on them, they decided to go visit her sister for a few days, leaving us entirely on our own, in the house. (No wild parties yet, Tom.)
Off to see a potential rental house this evening... fingers crossed...

Castle Egeskov

Castle Egeskov was very fun. It was a 16th Century castle and was very cool.


There was a doll house for 9 Fairys and it had every thing. Little glass goblets and chairs, a courtyard and the thrown room, a chapel and Bedroom and secrets passage ways for them! It took 15 years to build! There was also the largest maze in the world! It had hedges and everything. there was the ultimate playground and a walk in the trees! Very fun! It also had the best ice cream in the world except for the strawberry cream! Yuck! Thats all for now!

a house is a home

We arrived in Odense tired, hungry, and ready to settle in to our new house. As I said above, we got two taxis and went to the place. Bev arrived first, and was speaking with the landlord in the yard. After happy greetings, we went inside, and saw something like this:


No, that is not Miss Haversham, and actually not the house, but it is very close to it! There was old stuff everywhere, and old, dusty faded furniture. Stacks of Magazines, and old letters were strewn everywhere, amidst trinkets galore. Aiyeee! One toilet did not work, and there were not enough beds. None of the beds were younger than 20 years old. The yard was a disater, and...

SO we had to just get out, and we did that, walking, to the mall of all places. Hot, tired, hungry, we were all on the edge. So we were looking for food, and then we saw them, the "Golden Arches"! So we chose the known amidst the unknown, and went on in. $50 later we had dinner. While waiting in line, Bev asked some people for a hotel and where/when to buy bikes.

On our way out the door, The people who had told us where the hotel was asked us if we wanted to come and stay with them... Wow. So we said yes. Thankfully, as they turned out to be very helpful and friendly. We did come to stay with them, and will through tomorrow night.

So that is our current housing arrangement. The search continues Monday when the contact at the uni is back from vacation. We will see how it turns out.

Travel Day

Well, we are in Odense, Denmark, after a long travel. No pictures yet, that will come later. For now... The trip itself was fine. We had good flights. The trip to Zurich is a bit long, but not any more than Frankfurt or Paris. There were no screaming childrean, nor were there drunk Russians. Katie Managed to not get sick, which was a coup, although she was not feeling well in Zurich at all. We got a little water and Fanta, and then off to the gate...where there was a security checkpoint. Oops. We quickly drank our drinks and got through to the plane.

The Copenhagen leg was also not an adventure, but the train was! Why, well, we opted for Coffee just before boarding, which made handling the luggage a bit hairy. We managed. Along the way Katie and Hank also got hot dogs, but the "Ketchup" that came on Katie's was a far cry from that found in the good o'ol USA. Live and learn.

We arrived in Odense, fine, and then it took 2 taxi's to get us to our house which is...not our house. And that story is to come next. In the meantime, dinner calls.

Packing....

Or, can I fit 6 months of my life in one bag? Not sure, but I am going to give it a try. This is actually a nice exercise to re-calibrate what I truly need. And the truth is I need a fraction of what I have. Something to work on there.

All of us have stuff in piles all over our rooms. We have to now do fall shopping to get all the necessary clothes for the fall, a few books, etc.