Our Fruitful Life in Denmark: Week 11

I’ll start off with a few important pieces of info:

I haven’t written a blog post in over a year and I haven’t written consistently on here in several years (yikes! thanks becoming a parent/life/move).
My family (husband, toddler, golden retriever and I) recently moved from North Carolina, USA to Copenhagen, Denmark to pursue a job opportunity for my husband and experience European living for at least a few years.
I would love to share our journey and how it’s going with anyone interested, so I’m going to try to update here every few weeks.

So, here’s how the move is going

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Number of weeks living in Denmark: 11.5

Weather: High of 75 and sunny

What I’m loving

The summer sun: This is probably my favorite summer weather I’ve ever experienced. The sun is intense, but that means that shorts, dresses and tank tops are all fair game. And the sun doesn’t set until about 10:30 p.m./22:30 (and rises at like 4 a.m.), which makes it feel like you’re cheating time every night.
My garden: Living in a rental home (or villa, as the Danes would say) has lots of perks and one of the big ones in ours is the well-established “secret garden” as I call it. It’s filled with blooming nooks and crannies everywhere. Yesterday, I stumbled on an entire rose bush covered in dozens of blooms that I’d never even noticed before. Experiencing spring and summer in a garden you’ve had to do little to no work to enjoy is purely magical.
My son’s daycare (or vuggestue): I could go on and on about how special the Danish education system is, but suffice it to say that my 21-month-old son is having the time of his life getting dirty, going on park outings and enjoying all the Danish delicacies to his heart’s content. And I’m starting to get some time back in my day to enjoy the city, do that laundry and even start thinking about my next job, and we’re paying half the price for his weekday care. Amazing!

What I miss

My clothes dryer: We live in an older home that has a huge basement for doing laundry (yay for space and a big sink down there), but there isn’t a clothes dryer so I must rely on the clotheslines, sun and wind for drying clothes and towels. With the glorious summer weather and not working right now, I was really getting in the hang of this and taking my time. But, with a dog recovering from a bladder infection, washing and line-drying her bed every day for a week is getting a bit old.
My parents: Although they’ve already made several plans to visit (and my mom helped us make the big first move a few months ago), I’m really missing having them 10 minutes down the road and watching them bond with my son/the free date nights they gave us.

What’s hard

It was a tough day yesterday with an unexpectedly sick child stuck at home with me. This wouldn’t be so bad, but there are some jobs I’m excited to apply for soon and this left me with little time and energy to do so. I once read a quote that’s something like “It’s not hard to watch a child. It’s hard to do anything else while watching a child.” This is so true, and something I have to remind myself as I have to sometimes push off my to-do list. And his obsession with the show Shaun the Sheep helps, too.

What’s surprising

I actually feel closer to a lot of friends than I did before the move. There’s nothing like a big life switch to help you prioritize keeping in touch with friends in other states virtually. I’ve been so happy to have Marco Polo and WhatsApp (where I’ve had every week or so scheduled chats with a different friend) to help me stay in even better touch with friends and family.