Our First Two Days In Denmark

[The following is the text of an e-mail message I sent describing our trip to Aarhus and what we did during the first two days of our stay. -- Ken]

I'm happy to report that after two days in Aarhus, we are settling into our new apartment. This is actually a surprise, because we had been told not to expect to move into the apartment for several days. Here's a quick update on our trip (as seen through my eyes, I'm sure Leysia will respond to fill in details that I've forgotten...).

The Airport

We arrived at the airport safe and sound (after making our way through a surprising amount of rain and sitting through an unexpected 15-minute traffic jam just minutes from the airport!) on Tuesday morning, where Ilene (our nanny) was waiting for us with a big cart for all our luggage. We had a short wait in line and then a very nice (and patient) lady checked our passports, checked our luggage (we brought 7 big bags + 5 carry-ons and Ilene brought 1 bag and 2 carry-ons), and made sure we were sitting together for most of our flights. We then lugged our carry-ons through security which went pretty quickly all things considered. We then had a short wait at our gate before our first flight. We were a bit apprehensive because Max had been crying off and on as we made our way through the airport because he was scared of flying and kept saying "I wanna go home." Lilja had a runny nose and was a bit whiny as well (mostly at having to get up early to go to the airport).

The Flights

The flights went really well. Leysia gave Max and Lilja some dramamine (after having checked this out with our doctor and pharmacist) and it chilled them both out. So much so, that Max and Lilja slept for most of the flight to Washington DC. At DC, we arrived at terminal D and needed to go to terminal B to catch our next flight. Ken, unfortunately, misinterpreted the signs for the shuttles between terminals and we ended getting on a shuttle to the main terminal! We then had to walk from there to the B terminal. As such, we arrived just in time to get on our next flight to Copenhagen.

That flight was 7.5 hours long but was not so bad since each seat had its own TV screen and controller. The TV screen had a menu (which Max quickly mastered) that provided access to movies, music, games, and flight information. One cool feature was the ability to view cameras that showed what was in front and below of the plane. Max had a lot of fun watching these cameras during take-off and landing. We tried to get Max to sleep on this flight but he was too interested in watching movies (Finding Nemo) and playing games. We also worked on his maze book and he played with his LeapPad a few times. As a result, Max stayed up for the entire flight, only falling into a deep sleep right at the very end of the flight! Lilja did okay on this flight. We kept her busy handing her between Leysia, Ilene, and Ken. Ilene and Leysia would take Lilja for walks up and down the aisles; unlike Max we did get her down for a nap (with Leysia) at one point during the flight.

At Copenhagen, we found a cart for our carry-ons, a stroller for Max (who was now dead asleep), and made our way through passport control and customs with no problem. (Indeed, customs was entirely unmanned, with only a sign and a telephone that said "if you have something to declare, please use the telephone!"). We then walked a surprisingly far distance from the terminal where we arrived to the domestic terminal to catch our third and final flight to Aarhus. We had what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour layover turn into a two hour layover when our flight to Aarhus was delayed by 30 minutes and had its departure gate changed twice! (During that entire time, Max was asleep and never once woke up; indeed he slept through me carrying him into our plane, and the entire flight to Aarhus, only waking up while we were waiting for our luggage in Aarhus!) We managed to scrounge up breakfast and kept our spirits up talking with Ilene, who was traveling to this part of the world for the first time. There are some cultural differences that are immediately apparent on your first international trip, such as the way people dress, the different languages that you hear as you walk through the airport, the architectural style of the airport, the use of a 24 clock, the way familiar words are used in unfamiliar ways, etc. that we had plenty to talk about! Our final flight to Aarhus lasted only 30 minutes and was sufficiently empty that Ilene was able to move from her aisle seat to a window seat in another row to watch as we landed in the beautifully green Aarhus airport (which used to be military airfield) surrounded by forest and located about 35 minutes from the city of Aarhus.

Our Arrival

The Aarhus airport is quite small with only two baggage claim areas, one for domestic flights and one for international flights. There were no large carts to use for our luggage, so we grabbed about four of the smaller carts and got set up near the domestic baggage claim area. A flight from London had also arrived and so people were also waiting near the international area. We didn't think much of it when their luggage started to arrive first, until we noticed one of our bags was appearing on their conveyor belt! I ran over there and in rapid succession ALL of our luggage appeared, all eight bags, our car seat, and our stroller. Our bags were easy to identify since we had placed bright green straps on each of them; as a result, people started to help me get bags off the belt when it soon became apparent that I couldn't keep up with the rapid onslaught of bags! :-) After that, we had the problem of getting all our bags out to the front of the airport, where our friend and colleague Susanne Bødker was waiting for us. It took a couple of trips, with Leysia going out front first with the kids, while Ilene stayed with our bags, with Ken rapidly going back and forth ferrying bags, but we eventually made it!

After saying our hellos to Susanne, Ken headed to Hertz to pick up the car that we had purchased from the former tenant, Diana Schendel, of our apartment. It was waiting for us at the Hertz parking lot, because Diana had originally purchased the car from them and the car salesman was happy to facilitate the transfer of the car between us. (He is also going to help Leysia and I get the car registered in our names and will then purchase the car back from us in a year's time!) We then took our luggage to Susanne's car where we loaded up as much of it as we could along with Leysia and the kids. Ilene and I then headed to our new car, placed our luggage within it, and then embarked on a somewhat tense journey as Ken attempted to make his first significant drive using a stick-shift car into Aarhus. Thanks to practicing a few weeks ago on Jaimi and Sean's car (thanks Jaimi!!), he did okay. He stalled the car a few times along the way, caused the engine to make some very interesting grinding sounds occasionally, and found out how hard it is to get such a car moving when going from a complete stop to first gear when on a hill, but otherwise was able to stay behind Susanne until we arrived at our first destination in Aarhus, which was Kai Grønbæk's house.

Kai's House, Day 1

Kai is a professor at the University of Aarhus (as is, Susanne) and he offered to let us stay in his house while we waited for our apartment to come available. Kai and his family are currently on vacation in California, so we didn't have to worry about imposing on them too much. Kai and his wife, Iben, have a lovely home with clean Scandinavian lines and many examples of classic Danish furniture, which Kai collects. More importantly, Kai's youngest son had a room full of toys that Max and Lilja quickly started playing with! In addition, they had a nice size backyard and between the toys and the yard, we soon did not have to worry about the kids.

Our friend, Niels Olof Bovin, was waiting for us at the house and he and Susanne made us feel at home; Niels Olof helped Ken carry our bags in, while Susanne made us a pot of coffee and stayed to chat with us for about an hour. Niels Olof had recently visited us in Boulder and so Max was excited to see someone he recognized. Ken has known Niels Olof since 1997, and once hosted him for a year in Boulder when Niels Olof was finishing up his PhD. (Indeed, Niels Olof finished his stay in Boulder, the day before Max was born in 2000 and presented a paper for Ken at the Hypertext conference that year that started the day after Max was born! He started his presentation by putting a picture of Max up on the screen and saying "This is why Ken cannot be here today!".) After Susanne took her leave, Niels Olof walked us to a nearby grocery store and we purchased food for lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day. We then settled into the house, took care of the kids, and struggled to stay awake until evening. We all went to sleep at around 7 PM. We were hoping that we would sleep 12 hours and then get up for breakfast but Max and Lilja had other plans. They slept for 8 hours and then got up at 3 AM wide awake! :-( Leysia got up with them first and fed them a snack. Leysia then got me up and went back to bed with the baby, who thankfully went back to sleep again. Max had no such plans and was playing computer games while Ken finished off the book he brought with him. Eventually, Ken fed Max breakfast and then went to sleep again after Ilene got up. Ken, Leysia, and Lilja got back up at 9:30 AM, where we found Ilene and Max picking cherries from a cherry tree in the backyard (Max was catching the cherries in a butterfly net and was having a blast!).

Day 2

Everyone had breakfast and got ready and we then drove to the computer science department to pick up our keys and such. This was the first time Leysia had visited the department (Ken had been there before back in 2001 while attending the Hypertext conference.) and she really liked the building that we will be working in for the next year. It has very clean lines, large offices, and nice community spaces for joint work and socializing.

We then headed to the "Folk Registry" (a literal translation of the Danish word) where we needed to register to get what is called a "CPR Number" which we need in order to get paid as well as to register Max and Lilja for school. That almost turned out to be a disaster since they asked to see our marriage certificate! Leysia was starting to find a way we could still register for the number without it (which appeared unlikely) when Ken discovered that he had taken a folder along with them that had materials used to apply for their Danish work/residence visa and there inside was a copy of their marriage certificate. Leysia couldn't believe it! With that disaster averted, we headed to lunch (quite expensive) where Max's 3 AM wake-up time finally caught up with him and he literally fell asleep while sitting at the table. Ken, Leysia, and Ilene had been talking about various things when Ilene noticed Max and pointed to him where we discovered him asleep with his chin on the table! :-)

After lunch, we drove to our apartment with Max asleep in the backseat and Lilja falling asleep on the way. We locked them in the car and went to explore our amazing apartment. The apartment has a LOT of space with a quite spacious living room, dining room, and TV room. It also has a small but adequately sized kitchen and three bedrooms (two small bedrooms and one master bedroom with more space). The apartment is on the second floor and there are bathrooms next to the bedrooms as well as down in the entry hall on the first floor. The land surrounding the apartment is simply beautiful and there is a large amount of space in the front, back, and side yards for Max and Lilja to play and explore. We had a nice time exploring the apartment before heading out to run a few final errands for the day.

Finishing Up

A couple of quick notes to finish off the letter. First, gas is expensive, at least twice the cost of gas in the states. We filled up the tank of our car and it cost us 76 dollars! As a result, we think we are going to be exploring the cost of public transportation to get around the city and also pick up a few bikes which are ubiquitous throughout the city. Second, dining out is expensive, but food at the grocery stores is more reasonable and so we'll be doing a lot of meals at home, which Leysia is looking forward to! Finally, Denmark is 8 hours ahead of Colorado and 9 hours ahead of California. As such, we think we'll be doing a lot of our "live" communication with all of you in our evening time which will be your morning/afternoon.

Today, Friday, is going to be another day of errands. Leysia and I are going to try to open a bank account and visit our car salesman to register our new car in our names. This weekend, we are going to be having dinner at Susanne's house and visit a Viking festival (I kid you not) that is being held south of Aarhus.

This morning, Leysia, Lilja and Ilene are still asleep while Max is up playing games and I'm finishing up this message. I'll leave you now and rustle up some breakfast for Max and I.

Ken