Life- December 1st

Life has taken on a routine these days.  After breakfast we head out. I bike to school, Nhat bikes the long way to work to get his exercise in for the day (see previous post!).    I have started biking along the main drag to town.  Nhat doesn't like it for there are so many bicyclists and the exquisite choreography demands maximal attention.  First you merge into the bike path and then pedal.  Always looking over your shoulders,  "Can I pass this old man wearing a beret and smoking a pipe?"  "Can I go around this girl not paying attention and talking on her cell phone?"   "Is that some buff young dude bearing down on me and wanting to pass?"  "Oh no, there is a delivery van in the bike path"  and we all must slow down and go single file.

The other day I was able to take advantage of the "Green Wave".  The traffic lights are timed so that a cyclist going 20 km/hr can make each light.  Sometimes it works great.  The other day I put my foot down once in the 15 minute bike commute.  Well, actually twice because a woman 3 bikes ahead stopped suddenly and inexplicably in the path and the 2 behind her and a couple behind me slammed on our brakes, just gently bumping each others wheels.  It is something to experience the peloton that is the bike commute in Copenhagen.

So school has started for me.  I was very worried for when I interviewed for class placement, the not extremely friendly school counselor after reading my little essay and hearing me speak, put me in the class I would have continued to 6 years ago, i.e. level 5.  This is the last level before the exam to prove you have the language skills to become a citizen.  I haven't spoken Danish for 6 years.  However, the first day, I knew I could hold my own and didn't get demoted as I had feared.  We have a wonderful teacher and a fun class.  Two men- Holland and Chile.  Two women from Italy, two from Spain, one from Russia and one from England.  Already 2 others have dropped out.  This is the level where people often stop.  They know enough Danish to get by and they have been here long enough that they need to get jobs.  I thought I was older than most by 25 years but there are some who are 35 years younger than me.  I am definitely the old lady in the class.  I am getting better but what a job to learn a new language, especially one so hard to speak as Danish.  Lots of swallowed words and syllables, gutteral sounds that are really foreign to my throat.  Idioms-  tons of them in every language and how to remember them.  I did learn that "hulter til bulter" is topsy-turvey, helter-skelter.  I hope it comes in handy now and then.

The companionship is quite delightful.  I realized I needed to go to school after a Saturday when I spoke for a maximum of 2 minutes all day to the shop clerk at the grocery store.  I wasn't practicing my Danish and I was pretty lonely.  We have a good time in class and today one of the Italian women offered to take me with her to the Royal Theater to watch a final dress rehearsal of  The Nutcracker.  It was wonderful.  The scenery, the costumes and the dancing were so delightful.  The theater was started in 1748 and the building is from the 1870's.  I only wish I had Clementine there who would have loved the ballet.

It was a fun afternoon but as I made my way around the city and home, with candles burning in windows and Christmas decorations everywhere, I got a little homesick.  Holidays are hard to be away from friends and family, especially here where there is an explosion of "Julehygge" or Christmas coziness.  We miss everyone.