Day somethingsomething

Howdy friends and other characters, it has been a terribly long while.

Today I sit alone in rainy-Copenhagen, still suffering from the cold that SHALL NOT PASS. Emily is off to Toronto and I, for better or worse, am left here alone with my thoughts.

Where to start! I'll start with yesterday's Danish election.

For me - and perhaps many of you USAmericans - foreign elections present a somewhat strange concept of how elections work, how citizens vote, and how folks are elected.

This is my simple - and probably flawed (likely flat-out wrong) - explanation of how the Danish system works. I'll try to simplify this by starting at the a-prime-minister-is-elected point.

Once appointed / elected, a PM has the position for a maximum of four years. At any point prior, the PM can call for a general election. There are many many many many many many many *somewhat* major parties here. They range all over the place, but generally speaking they split up into two distinct blocs or coalitions. Right. Left.

Voters can vote for party or individual. Final party percentages determine the number of votes for PM, and thus the need for a coalition / bloc to elect the PM that those *winners* prefer.

Our current PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt's party actually scored the most votes in yesterday's general election. The Danskfolkeparti finished second. They are sadly part of the bloc / coalition that will elect the next PM.

To familiarize you with the Danskfolkeparti, I'll give you this from their wiki

The party holds that Denmark is not naturally a country of immigration. The party also does not accept a multi-ethnic transformation of Denmark,[43] and rejects multiculturalism.[23] Former party leader Pia Kjærsgaard stated she did "not want Denmark as a multiethnic, multicultural society",[44] and that a multiethnic Denmark would be a "national disaster".[45] The party seek to drastically reduce non-Western immigration, oppose islamisation, and favour cultural assimilation of immigrants. In 2010, the party proposed to put a complete stop to all immigration from non-Western countries, a continuation of a proposal the month before to toughen the 24-year rule.[46] They do, however, make the distinction between immigrants, those who intend to stay in Denmark permanently, and refugees, those that will only be in Denmark for the duration of the conflict, but ultimately intend to return home. The party has stated that it is more than happy to help those in need, but have a moral responsibility to the people of Denmark to keep Denmark Danish.[47]

So yes, a horribly racist, frighteningly nationalist organization grabbed 21.1% of the vote. You might say, what was voter turnout? Maybe this was based on some sort of get-out-the-vote activity? I mean for us lazy USAmericans, in 2012, only 55% of voters came out to vote. Here, in Denmark, we generally approach the 90%.

I get that it's easy to grab Danes on the idea of Danish-nationalism. Immigration is an issue. It's also easy to grab old people on this sort of nonsense - in 2014 approximately 18% of the population was over 65.

Here's the thing that I don't get. Most of the *right* aspects of Danish politics - reduced taxes, less social programs, more room for corporations, more flexibility, more money - they don't apply to the f$%^parti.

This is a party that has sold voters on tons of social stuff, as long as that social stuff doesn't apply to africans and easternblockers and asians and anyone else neither *Danish* nor *Western*.

I've been here for 2 and a half years and this concept of Danish-ness is still ridiculous. I don't know what makes a *Dane*. I don't know what makes a *Westerner*. I'm stupid. I'm an American. I don't even know what makes an *American*. Such is my stupidity.

But, for the Danish *right* to pull this sort of eff-all-nonsense into their voting bloc just to pad their stats for the sake of electing a PM!? Bah. It's garbage. Total garbage.

Day 564 - T Shirt Wacky

It's always fun to see the random Dane wearing English language shirts. Often they contain random profanity! Yay!

This morning I saw a 50-ish / 60-ish man wearing the always fun;

What Happens 
in This Shirt 
Stays in This Shirt

I can only imagine what's happening in that shirt, because sadly, I will never know.

This afternoon at work I saw the also always fun;

D.A.D.D. 
Dads Against Daughters Dating

If it did nothing else, it reminded me of this.

We got new clothes from the donation bin! I'm a surfer! 

Look, Daddy, Todd is stupid and I'm with him!

Day 545 - Advance with a loss / Graduation Exhaustion

It's weird to be happy with a loss, but the US has advanced and we're (they're if you're going to be like that) out of the group stage. Success.

It's also once again graduation season, and I for one, am already tired of it. I am old. I am cranky.

There are many Danes wearing white hats. Wearing white hats. They've got their white hats on.

Day 530 - Pointless Rules and Manners - When / how to use a Knife and Fork

When I was in the States I was shamed by the Danes with whom I was traveling for two specific failures of "etiquette".

One. Eating a burger with my hands. In a restaurant.

Everyone ate their burgers with a knife and fork! How do you eat it? With your hands?



Yes, I eat it with my freaking hands! Because it is a freaking hamburger! I am not an animal!

Two. Using a fork - instead of a knife - to cut pieces of something. Let's say something like, oh I don't know, a freaking fried fish filet. Come on, that doesn't even require a knife! It's not like I'm trying to cut a steak with a fork. For shame Collin, for shame.

As I've mentioned before, this is not exactly a manners driven society and I find this stuff - to say the least - confusing and - to say the most - ridiculous. I am an ugly American and I eat things with my hands and I cut things with my fork. I'm Collin, I'm disgusting. Send me to the Danish version of finishing school. Immediately.

I mention all of this now because last night I had some visiting Americans and a few members of my team over for mexican food. Tacos. Cochinita Pibil to be precise. I wasn't able to source any masa harina, but I had enough to make eight delicious corn tortillas. This is how you eat it. With. Your. Hands.

You could even use one hand if you wanted. Because it's small. And it's delicious. And it's street food. And it is, in a every sense conceivable, casual. Food of the people. For the love of god it is a taco!

Everyone used a knife and fork. The Americans - perhaps shamed by an earlier conversation - used a knife and fork. Flabber. Gasted.

Day 520 - Jesus Sky Speed Day

For you non-religious types and - oddly enough - non-Danes, last Thursday was The Feast of the Ascension / Ascension Thursday. As we've mentioned before in this space, Danes are particularly perplexing when it comes to religion / religious holidays.

The country as a whole is fairly non-practicing, despite the fact that nearly 80% of residents belong to the Church of Denmark! Nearly everyone has a baptism, confirmation, etc. We also get all sorts of religious holidays off - Pentacost, Prayer Day, Good Friday, Whit Monday. What!



Ascension Thursday is known as Kristi Himmelfartsdag in Danish. Himmelfart is Danish for "ascension" but could be translated literally as "sky speed". I much prefer Jesus Sky Speed Day.

Day 481 - Fun with Gangsters / Tillykke med Fødselsdagen

A pool hall near the Lindevang Metro station has been advertising heavily in our Metro station. This is my favorite part of the advertisement.

Watch out for notorious Chicago gangster Allan Capone! It turns out that this is actually some sort of Danish video game / slot machine. I can't tell for sure.

More importantly, you should take this time with me to wish Emily a happy birthday! Happy birthday Emily!

Day 437 - For that Special Someone

I saw these in the grocery store yesterday.

Nothing says V.I.P. better than cheddar, bacon, spareribs, and barbeque. Yes, I'm choosing to spell barbeque incorrectly because, well, that's what the bag told me. 

The other important thing here is that these chips are specifically labeled kun for V.I.P. That's only for very important people. These are the Members Only jacket of potato chips.

Day 435 - Twenty Five or Twelve and One Half

No, it's not that I can't remember the lyrics to many a college basketball band's favorite Chicago song. Today we're talking about anniversaries. Wedding anniversaries.

I can't speak as to whether the following is an accurate representation of what happens in all Danish workplaces, but the following holds true for life at Novo.

As far as I can tell, Danes celebrate two distinct wedding anniversaries. One, at twelve and a half years and one at twenty-five years. Originally, the 25-year anniversary was the be-all / end-all anniversary celebration, but in this modern cynical world of ours the number of couples making it to 25 dwindled, and thus the need for a new celebration at 12 and a half. When we're talking about celebrating, lowering the bar is always acceptable. And as I've mentioned before, Danes like to party and when it's time to party they will always party hard.

You are expected to throw a mega party for family and friends on these anniversaries, and most people spend a lot of money doing this. I don't know how much money, but it's considerable. One of my coworkers recently celebrated a 25 year anniversary with - instead of a big party - a trip to Thailand. If I had any interest what-so-ever in adopting any of these Danish customs, I'd definitely go this route.

There's a traditional wedding-arch-like thing that I can't seem to find the Danish word for. When it's your anniversary, people at work make an arch - or a half-arch for the "half" jubilæum - near your desk / office that you theoretically have to walk under.

This one is made of nitrile gloves. If you looked carefully, you might have noticed the aluminum foil. Yes, my office enjoys the fun harmless pranking. Not the kind of pranking that involves Christopher Walken and / or a tire iron.

Yes, that is a very young Seth Meyers. Fun times.

So yes, my office enjoys pranks. Hiding keyboards. Removing wheels from chairs. Etc. This most recent prank involved wrapping every item on my colleagues desk in aluminum foil.

Day 414 - File under "unexpected greetings" / WotD #25

Today the train was all messed up - some sort of signal problem at Dybbølsbro. I missed the bus that brings me to work. We had to walk.

I don't know if we've mentioned it before, but Danes have many required pre-set social phrases / sayings that are very situation specific. It's in the Danish social contract that you say these things in these specific situations. Kind of a structured social nicety. People don't deviate from the phrasing.

It's weird because I would never describe Danes as overly polite. This is not a hold-the-door / smile / have-a-nice-day / how-are-you sort of society. I mean, this is a language without a real word for please, but in these situations Danes have a very structured call-and-response brand of polite-ness. Or is that politesse? Thanks Mick!

Let's rattle off a few.

Tak for mad!

Literally "Thanks for food!". We have a weekly morgen brød on Friday - literally morning bread, but more appropriately breakfast. I got into the details of morgen brød here, but basically one person in the group brings in a bunch of breakfast stuff and we eat it. When things are done at breakfast, everyone thanks the person that brings the breakfast and ALWAYS says it as tak for mad.

Tak for kage!

Thanks for cake. So this one is pretty much like tak for mad except that it's specifically for when people bring in dessert to celebrate something - a birthday, a publication, a new child, etc. Danes use kage in the way Brits use "pudding" to describe any dessert.

Velbekommen

Literally, enjoy the refreshments. This is something you say before digging in to eat. We don't really have a comparable phrase in English - we've stolen bon appétit, and that's probably the closest direct translation.

Tak for sidste!

Thanks for last (night). This one is a next day thank you for everyone involved in some sort of event / activity. Each person involved will - when they see someone involved in the activity for the first time since the activity took place - say this. There's another variation of the phrase I can't remember, but it's applied in the same way.

God weekend!

Good weekend. When people leave for the day on Friday, EVERYONE says this. Again, it never deviates. Mostly it's funny because "weekend" is obviously an English word. Week in Danish is uge. I don't think that there really is a Danish word for weekend, it's just weekend. Weekend. Weekend. Weekend.


Godt Nytår!

Happy New Year. You hear this one all through January - you're expected to say it to friends / colleagues the first time that you see them in the new year. As many people are still on vacation into the 2nd week of January, you still hear a ton of godt nytår's well beyond the point at which I would think it's still "New Year".

Morgen / God morgen

This one's pretty simple and not really specific at all to Denmark - it's just good morning. You get a lot of god morgen or just morgen every morning. I get a lot of practice so it's probably the first and only phrase that I can say in Danish that comes off well.

Anyway, this morning a colleague popped into the office with the standard god morgen and she followed that up with "Collin, do you like beef jerky?". The answer was obviously yes.

This resulted in about ten packs of Jack Link's jerky being plopped on my desk. Happy Valentine's day to me.

It's Friday and now I have a bag-full-o beef jerky. God weekend indeed.

Day 412 - Valentines Day

Like most American holidays designed for profit, Valentines Day is catching on hard and fast in Denmark. One of the local grocery stores - SuperBest - is currently running this ad / promotion;

Yes, that's a Valentines cake above for only 40 kroner! But, what, you might ask is that fancy ring? Much like a golden ticket hiding inside a the wrapper of a Wonka Bar, the tiny / creepy baby trapped inside of a king cake, or the magma-hot silver dollar lurking inside loukoumades, biding it's time until the moment it gives you the gift of third-degree burns, this cake has a surprise. 

Hiding inside ten of these cakes throughout Denmark are gift certificates / cards which you can then exchange for the ring pictured above - it is valued at 7,575 kroner, about $1400!

Day 363 -- Christmas in Denmark

It's Christmas Eve (or Juleaften) and I thought I would blog about all the various Danish Christmas traditions we have experienced so far.  

1.  Advent Candles/Calendars.  These are all over the place in Denmark.  Some candles are sets of four, like we purchased and I have pictured below.  You light one each of the four Sundays before Christmas.  Another alternative is the single advent candle that is a tall pillar candle with 1-24 numbered down the side. On the Dec 1 you burn it until it reaches the 2, on the 2nd it burns until it reaches the 3 and so on.  Apparently this is a very popular one with kids.   Advent calendars are very common...they have the traditional ones you find in the US where you open a little door each day and get a present or something...Stores have these as well with each day offering a new deal.   Finally they have Advent shows on TV...24 episodes with one a day until Christmas.

2.  Christmas markets  (Julemarked).   We went to three Christmas markets, all very different from each other, yet all selling pretty much the same things.  Our first market was on the Strøget (the pedestrian shopping street downtown).  This was modeled after a German Christmas market and sold German sausages along with Danish gløgg (more on gløgg later), ornaments, winter hats, christmas trees and more.  The second market was the famous Christmas market in Christiania, the "free town" in Copenhagen that has been discussed earlier in this blog.    We got there right when it opened at noon.  It was fairly crowded, an indoor market with tons of booths selling various Christmas foods, ornaments, hats, and various handmade trinkets.   We left at 12:30 and the line to get in was wrapped all around Christiania.  The third market we went to was the also-famous Tivoli Christmas market.  Tivoli is the old amusement park in the middle of the city.  They open for a few weeks in December and the park is transformed with lights and animatronics and music and stands selling Christmas foods, ornaments, hats, etc.  (sound familiar?)  but this market includes stands from well known Danish stores like Georg Jensen and Illums Bolinghus.  They also have a few actual reindeer that live there in December.  The following pictures are from the Tivoli market (Christiania does not allow photographs)

real live reindeer

 

3.  Christmas "lunch" (Julefrokost).   We were invited to three julefrokosts but two occurred immediately after my surgery so we had to skip them.  So I only went to my work julefrokost and only have that one to discuss.  Julefrokosts are super-common Christmas dinners hosted by work colleagues or friends or family.  They are known as being lots of food, LOTS of drinking, and lots of fun.   Mine ended up being not very traditional as we had it at Favrholm (previously discussed in this blog) which is known for its creative and exciting food preparations...so the things we ate were twists on traditional foods...smoked salmon tartare appetizer, duck confit with brown potatoes (more on them later), and the very traditional ris alamande for dessert (more on that later as well).  There was no aquavit which is the common liquor at these events, but just lots of wine.  so nobody got as drunk as I was told would happen.  We had live music but that was it.  I heard these events get pretty crazy but my department tends to be pretty calm and lowkey (I'm certainly not complaining!)  Collin's department has a reputation for wildness but he didn't go to his so nothing to report there.

4.  Christmas foods.  There are a number of food items that show up in December and are served at julefrokosts or Christmas dinners.  I'm a big fan of Æbleskiver which is a kind of Danish pancake/donut.  They are traditionally served plain with a side of raspberry jam and powdered sugar.  Along with these you often have a glass of gløgg which is a warm mulled red wine.  very satisfying on a cold day.  Risalamande is a typical Danish dessert served on Christmas Eve.  It's kind of like a rice pudding with almonds.  A whole almond is mixed in, and whomever gets the almond wins a present.  I read that the person who gets it usually tries to hide that they did in order to keep others eating as much as they can in hopes of winning it themselves.  Brown potatoes (brunede kartofler) are small boiled potatoes that are then pan fried in browned butter and sugar.  Well-made ones are DELICIOUS.  not-well-made ones are oddly sweet and kind of not delicious.  one of the most common, and seemed to be well-liked, meats is flæskesteg, a type of roast pork with crackling around the edge.  I can't stand the crackling and can't understand how you eat it, it feels like crunching on rocks, but everyone here goes crazy when it's served.  For Christmas eve dinner most families serve duck with flaeskesteg on the side.  

5.  The three days of Christmas.   The official Danish Christmas in Dec 24, 25 and 26th.  Most people have off on these days and most stores, restaurants etc are closed on these days.  Danes typically celebrate Christmas on the 24th.  The whole family gets together for dinner followed by the lighting of the candles on the Christmas tree (yes, often REAL candles...although nowadays they often keep a bucket of water next to the tree just in case...) After dinner they join hands and walk around the tree singing Christmas carols.  Then AFTER that is all done (sometimes 9, 10:00 at night) the kids pass at all the gifts and they open them, usually one at a time.  This could take a long time.  Christmas day (the 25th) is a day of quiet recovery.  The 26th is often a day of family julefrokosts.  

6.  Julemand.  Translates to "Christmas Man"  This is what they call Santa Claus.  According to them he lives not at the North Pole but in Greenland.  He is sometimes accompanied by nisser which are little pixie/elf-like creatures that go around creating mischief.  You want to be good so the nisser aren't too mischievous with you.  

7.  Christmas decorations.  Danes aren't too much into color.  Most lights (except at Tivoli) are white, with maybe monochrome colored lights -- with blue being the most common.  Paper decorations are very common.  The julehjerter and julesterjner are handmade hearts and stars.  I bought some silver strips of paper to attempt to make my own.  The star directions were quite complicated.  The heart was a little easier.

This heart came from Novo (hence the two blues which are Novo's colors)

I apologize for the quality of pictures.  My phone is old and has no flash making night time pictures especially difficult.

Nyhavn (the port area)

Strøget:  the pedestrian shopping street

Magasin...the old department store

Hotel d'Angleterre :  Nutcracker decorations

animatronics at the mall

more animatronics

our own tiny tree purchased across the street

a little Danish pixie

8.  Pakkeleg:  This is a game played at Christmas time at julefrokosts or other get-togethers.  Everyone brings a wrapped present which goes in the middle of the table.  In the first round you take turns rolling a die.  If you get a 6, you get to pick a present from the middle of the table.  If not you pass it on to the right to the next person.  This continues until all presents are selected.  Round 2.  The presents are still unwrapped.  The second round lasts for a pre-determined amount of time (but no one knows the amount).  This time if you roll a 6 you get to pick ANY present you want from anyone.  If you roll a 1, you have to pass one of your presents to the left.  Sometimes people have other additional rules for other numbers but this is all we played with.  After round 2 the presents are all unwrapped and showed to everyone.  Round 3 is the same as round 2 except this time you know what the presents are.  After three rounds the game is over.  Some people end up with lots of presents, some get none.  It's a fun time.  

There are probably many more traditions that are Danish in nature but that is all I can come up with right now.  Here's a picture of the cookies I made this year.  The biggest comment they got "So much color, is that safe to eat?"

Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!!

Day 334 -- Part III An introduction to the Danish Healthcare System

And now for the real reason why I am all the sudden back to blogging today...and spoiler alert, the end result is good  :)

A few months ago I felt a small lump in my abdomen.  I tried to fool myself at first into thinking it was a small muscle developing.  After all, with all that unemployment last year I was going to the gym pretty regularly.  But it was only on the right side and kind of a weird shape for a muscle if I was going to be really honest with myself.  Then I spent a few months ignoring it, convincing myself I didn't really feel anything.  By the end of the summer, I realized it was growing and I could practically hold it in my hand.  I decided it couldn't be anything too serious since I didn't have any other symptoms, and I didn't really want to have to navigate the Danish healthcare system. But after it annoyed me during one of my infrequent runs I decided I really had to go see the doctor about it.

So in September I made an appointment to see my GP.  It was a lot more casual than any doctor visit I had been on in the US.  First of all, doctors here generally just go by their first name, as opposed to "Dr. Whatever".  The office kind of reminded me of Doc Martin, a very funny British tv show about a city doctor who moves to the country..but I digress.  My doctor checked out my abdomen and asked a few questions.  My blood was drawn by the receptionist while I sat at her front desk. The doctor then decided I needed immediate analysis at the hospital.  She got on the phone and spoke in rapid Danish, the only words I could understand were "stor tumor, meget store tumor" which means "big tumor, very big tumor".    Unfortunately the hospital had no openings that day.  I was told they would call me with a date in the next few days.  About 10 days later I was at the gynecology department in the hospital getting a number of ultrasounds done by a number of different technicians and machines.  The good news was they were all in complete agreement that I had just a typical, run-of-the-mill fibroid growing on my uterus.  Completely benign, normally not even noticed.  Except this one was huge...about 5 cm by 13 cm, an estimated couple of pounds. It was pretty sad watching all the happy couples holding their sonograms of their babies while mine just showed a large blob.  I did not elect to have a picture printed!

I didn't really have any option except to have it removed.  Once I learned what it was, I realized I did have a number of symptoms related to it that I had also just been ignoring.  So at this point all I could do was wait for them to send me a surgery date and begin preparing for the big day.

A few weeks later I got a date in the mail.  Tuesday 19. November.   I had about 6 weeks to get ready.  The time in between the hospital visit and the surgery date was difficult information-wise.  Although everyone CAN speak English, and everyone was more than willing to answer my questions, it felt a little like pulling teeth to get the answers, and I was constantly feeling like the onus was all on me to ask the right questions.   no information was just given without my prompting.  But between the conversations I did have, lots of internet research, and many phone calls to my mom, I felt I was as prepared as I could be when the date approached.

The week before the surgery I was busy at work getting everything ready there for a few weeks of absence.  I was told the recovery would be 2-4 weeks off work depending on how I was feeling.

Monday night I had to call to find out what time to be at the hospital. I was told to arrive at 7:30 am for a surgery around noon.  Collin took the day off work and we went to the hospital...which is a short metro and bus ride away, downtown on one of the lakes.  After checking in, we were taken to what was going to be my room for the next two days.  I had a roommate who was sleeping, after all, it was 7:30.  I was told to just hang out until 11 or so at which point I was supposed to change into hospital clothes.  I had not yet met with the surgeon to ask my questions and was told I would either up in my room or down in the operating room.  so with nothing more to do Collin and I just hung out in the room and tried to pass the time.

room with a view

Close to 1:00  I was given a medley of pills to take.  A little later the surgeon came in, introduced himself, and explained what the procedure would be, what he expected, what possible complications could arise, and what Collin should do in the meantime.  He was very nice and thorough.  Around 2 they finally wheeled me down to the operating room and Collin left to take care of Charlie.

I was wheeled into a hallway where I waited until the operating room was ready.  While laying there a number of nurses and the anesthesiologist all came up to introduce themselves and explain more of what would happen.  Each one started in Danish and I had to continually ask for English but they were all fine with it when I asked.  After a while I was wheeled into the room.  It seemed very clean and sterile, as expected.  I was laying down so I couldn't see too much but the lights were pretty cool.  Both the nurse anesthetist and the anesthesiologist talked to me a lot about what was going on and what they were doing.  They applied the anesthesia and I started feeling a little tingly and tired and then dizzy...the lights started moving all over.  When I told the anethesiologist I felt dizzy he said that was exactly what he was waiting to hear, and then that was the last thing I remember.

Next thing I remember I was having some sort of dream about the operating room and then all the sudden I was awake in the operating room.  Everyone was moving around and there was a lot of chatter.  Someone kept telling me to breathe so I just kept concentrating on breathing in and out.  I couldn't swallow and that kind of freaked me out so I probably kept holding my breath as I was trying to force myself to swallow.  But I kept being told to breath so I did.  Eventually I was able to swallow and felt a lot more relaxed after that.  They moved me back into my bed (from the operating table) and wheeled me into the recovery room.  I was in and out as I laid there.  But i remember them taking the oxygen out of my nose for a while, but a little later they put it back in.  I noticed other patients around me had nurses near them with cell phones, I assume calling their loved ones, and I was wondering if someone would call Collin so I worked for a while trying to remember his cell phone number (the problem these days with programmed phones and not needing to remember phone numbers any more).  After I remembered his number they actually came over and told me I was headed up to my room.  The trip there took a while.  Turns out the person wheeling me didn't know my room number and I couldn't remember it so we wheeled around in circles for a while until he figured it out.  When we got to my room Collin was there waiting for me.  It was a little after 5 I think.  The surgery was supposed to be an hour but actually took closer to 2 hours.

Tuesday night I felt pretty fine.  I was happily surprised and was able to email family to tell them how I was doing.  Collin stayed until 8 or 9 and then I was on my own.  That night was rough sleep-wise.  They came in every three hours to take my temperature and blood pressure, and my roommate was pretty loud all night, but health-wise I felt fine until early in the morning when I started feeling nauseated.  Most of Wednesday I was pretty nauseated and light headed, but at least not in much pain.  The surgeon came by in the morning to explain how the surgery went.  He had warned me I would probably bleed a lot with this surgery and expected about 500 mL of blood but I actually lost 1.1 L (about 2.3 pints) which was a lot.  But other than the excessive bleeding the surgery was uncomplicated and the fibroid came out easily.    They wanted to monitor my iron levels but once they got those, they told me I was either free to leave or welcome to stay one more night...you gotta love national healthcare!  My roommate had actually been discharged during the day.  So even though I was feeling better by the evening, we decided I would spend one more night there.

That night was better sleep-wise since they only had to measure my blood pressure once and I had my own room....hospitals are still very loud places though and sleeping on my back is not for me.  I was looking forward to going home.   I was woken up at 7:30 by the nurse and told I was supposed to go out and eat breakfast down the hall.  I was happy to find out I had an appetite, and was able to carry my own tray of food.  It did feel a little weird though to be completely left on my own to eat.  But not having any other hospital experience (thankfully) I'm not sure if that is normal or not. Collin came by 8:30, helped me dress and then we were told we could just leave.  Again, unlike a US hospital, we were on our own for walking downstairs and out of the hospital where we took a short cab ride home.

Since then I have been home recovering.  The pain is not bad at all, in fact I am only taking tylenol.  I have not felt nauseated since Wednesday.  Friday I had a small scare when I almost passed out but since then I have been pretty good and just concentrating on taking it easy.  In fact, now is probably getting even more important to take it easy because I am feeling better and can accidentally overdo it (as opposed to earlier in the week where I had no choice but to take it easy).  Today was my first day alone as Collin went to work.  And I am happy to say it was a success.  Things take me so long to do that it helps to pass the time!  Plus I am catching up on shows I've been meaning to watch..just trying to avoid the comedies for right now.  And reading a few good books.  I have an appointment Friday to get my stitches removed and my iron measured again.  But so far the recovery is going as well as I could hope.  I might even be able to figure out how to sleep on my side tonight which will make the nights much better!

Day 334 -- Part II What else did we do this fall?

Barcelona was the last of our trips this year.  The last two months we have just been hanging out in Copenhagen and settling down here.

Collin's work has been crazy busy.  He was offered the opportunity to join a new team within his department at Novo starting in January.  I'm sure he will blog about this himself one of these days, but in the meantime he has been busy finishing up the work he is doing with his current team, and getting ready for the switch.  I think they must be very happy with his work so far to ask him to join this team, and I'm very proud of him.

Work has been going well for me also.   I have been given increased responsibilities on one of my projects, and have had the opportunity to submit a number of abstracts to various conferences next year.  In February I will attend a conference in Brussels, Belgium and in May Collin and I will head to Melbourne, Australia for the World Federation of Hemophilia.  We're really looking forward to that trip.

In the Danish (or maybe just Novo) tradition of holding meetings at unique venues, I had a day long department meeting at the Copenhagen Zoo a few weeks ago.  The morning presentations were interrupted by the sounds of many animals waking up and being fed.  Our view out the windows were of camels, lions and polar bears.  At lunch we got to walk around the zoo and see the animals being fed.   Because the zoo is just down the block from my house I invited the group over for a small halloween-inspired party afterwards.  My coworkers brought me a jack-o-lantern.  Pretty impressive for their first attempt at one!

Day 278 - Chicken in a Bag

As we are fancy Danish folk, we prefer to buy our chicken in a paper bag.

Note, this was not more or less expensive than the standard plastic / cell-o-phane option.

For my cooking friends who have not already heard the gospel...THIS, is the best / easiest way to cook and enjoy a whole chicken. Go drag yourself to ACE Hardware and buy a $10 cast iron skillet. Thank me later.

Day 275 -- Biopharmaceutical Research Unit (BRU) Research Day

Friday was Novo's annual BRU research day.  Novo is split into two research units:  Diabetes (called DRU) and everything else (called BRU).  Collin and I are both in BRU and therefore got to attend this day together.   This year's venue was an area in the northern part of Copenhagen.  The site is called "Docken" and is where, a long time ago, ships were built and then released into the water.  Now it seems like a large warehouse/ shipyard area that is also starting (?) to be revitalized.  We took the train to the closest station and walked the final 2.2 km along construction sites and large warehouses, hoping we were going the right way.

I guess they roll out the red carpet?!   Actually, despite the outside appearance the venue is pretty nice.  Of course we failed to capture any pictures once we got inside, but here are two from the Docken website

sandy outdoor space out back

view from the back

The day started with a scientific talk on FVIIa by Ulla Hedner (who discovered and pushed forward Novo's only currently-marketed haemophilia treatment in the 80s) and a few talks on inflammation and immunogenicity.  Lunch was a typical Danish lunch of meats, breads, mayonnaise potatoes, and frikadeller (Danish meatballs).  The afternoon had more scientific presentations followed by a performance by three sopranos from the Royal Opera.  They performed a medley of songs from both operas and musicals, in English and Danish, ending of course, with a rousing rendition of Abba's "Thank you for the Music".  

Dinner followed the musical act.  We sat with our departments so I didn't see Collin through this part.  It started with a salad with some sort of ceviche, followed by meat and beans and tomatoes and potatoes, of course.  Dessert was some sort of nutcake.  Nothing to memorable  

Following dinner, a cover band took the stage and played a mix of music in both English and Danish...some I knew, some I did not.  And everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, danced.  Danes apparently love dancing.

Collin and I got home shortly after midnight.  It was a long and busy and tiring day.

I will leave you with a picture of the sign outside the bathrooms that made me laugh.

Day 274 - Counting by the week / Kartoffelferie

When I started at Novo, one thing that required some getting used to was the use of "week numbers" when discussing anything involving a future date in the calendar.

It's as you probably imagine it. We start each year with week one and we end with week fifty-two. Would you say, "I'll be out of the office from October 1st through the 11th"? Of course you wouldn't. You would say "I'll be out of the office in week 40 through 41".

Which brings us to Potato Week. Potato Week generally happens in Week 42. What, may you ask, is Potato Week? I'm glad you asked.

Danes like potatoes. Like is far too weak. Love. Danes love potatoes. Example. Once, at the Novo canteen, there were THREE DIFFERENT POTATO DISHES. Ireland weeps in shame.

Anyway, back in the day, country-type Danes needed extra help around the farm come fall potato harvest time. As everyone knows, potato trumps book-learning, and so it goes without question that Danish country kids quit on school for the week and happily labored in the potato fields.

Today, potato week continues! Sadly, most kids no longer have to dig up potatoes. It's fall break or Kartoffelferie. Kids get a week off from school but Danish farmers have to harvest potatoes on their own without the aid of any tiny potato digging hands. Poor potato farmers.

Day 268 - Danes and Pop Music

When Emily and I started to consider a move to Denmark, my knowledge of the country was fairly limited. I knew about Lego. I knew about Søren Kierkegaard. I was pretty sure that Lars Ulrich was Danish.

That was about it.

So we did some research. One of the first things I learned was that the pop group Aqua was from Denmark. Yes, this Aqua.



Aqua is the most successful - in terms of record sales - Danish musical act of all time. Let that sink in. Aqua, the Danish equivilant to their Dutch cousins the Vengaboys, is the biggest selling musical act in Danish history.

I didn't think much of this at the time. I figured that it had more to do with the fact that Aqua is probably the only Danish band to successfully sell records in America and that aspect alone put them well ahead of some other more substantial Danish bands.

I've reached the conclusion that this probably isn't true.

Let's go back a bit here. My first clue was when Robbie Williams played Parken. A few people in my lab, around my age, had tickets and were super excited. It was a little weird that a 40-ish year old straight man with a family was pumped about going to a Robbie Williams concert, but different strokes for different folks.

Second clue. Novo Nordisk has a big summer party every year. I'm talking big. At some point we'll probably have an entire blog post detailing the event, but I'll just mention a few things about music here. While I was just chilling with my department, drinking some Danish beer, we got to talking about music. One of the older guys in my lab got to talking about pop music.

Basically, it came down to this. He likes to listen to music with great hooks and, in his opinion, pop music offers the best version of that. While we had this converation, Alphabeat hit the main stage.



People of all ages were very excited to listen to / watch Alphabeat. I mean, all ages. One of my coworkers, who has worked at Novo for 25 years, was right up up against the stage, rocking out to Alphabeat.

Final - and possibly most important - clue. This morning I rolled into the office, sat down with my cup of coffee, and started putting my day together. My coworkers - who are both older than I am - asked if I was going to see One Direction. What?

Here is the actual conversation.

Coworker 1 : Are you going to get tickets to see One Direction?

Me : Um, no.

Coworker 2 : Why not?!

Me : Um, because I'm not a 15 year old girl.

Coworker 2 : What do you mean by that?!

 I actually felt bad for hurting their feelings. I didn't even take the question seriously! How could I? I really thought that they were joking. I had to cover things up with, "Ah, it's not really my thing. I'm not really in to pop music".

Maybe it's not Europe / Denmark that's weird. Maybe I'm the weird one. Maybe I should buy tickets to see One Direction.

Day 262 -- Emily's Function Day

A while ago Collin blogged about his function day ("Day 160-161 Funk Tur").  Yesterday was my department's turn.  Ours was not an overnight driving extravaganza like Collin's.  Ours was just one day.  For those of you that don't remember Collin's, the function day is a day (or two days) where your "function" (which means all the departments under the same director/VP) spends time together team building etc.  My function consists of two department with about 45 people total.

Our day was held at one of Novo's meeting sites called Favrholm.   This is also were Collin and I attended our introduction day for all new employees but I couldn't find that in our blog.

photo courtesy of favrholm website

Favrholm is about a 30 min drive from our house; 1 hr and 15 min via public transportation (with many changes).  Luckily my department manager offered to give me a ride which was much much nicer than last time we went there!

Unlike Collin's day of Danish hijinks, driving, and alcohol, our day actually involved work-related activities.   The morning was spent on introduction to the importance of our function and a lot of group work about improving how we do things.  Favrholm is known for their emphasis on food, so lunch was delicious, putting our pretty good work canteen to shame.   The buffet included roast lamb with baba ganoush, an assortment of salads with nuts, fruits, cheeses, some sort of fish with roasted tomatoes, the normal assembly of danish Smørrebrød toppings and bread, roasted vegetables, and an array of cheeses.   After filling ourselves we went back to more discussions/group work on innovation; and then the fun really started....if you speak Danish...and if you like a more "low-brow" type of humor, from what I could gather.

The next 75 minutes was spent listening to Connie Svendsen: flight attendant-turned-humorous-motivational-speaker.

photo courtesy of Connie's website

Now maybe if I had some more Danish skills I would have gotten something out of her presentations.  Did I mention it was only in Danish?  But I have a feeling even if I understood what she was saying, it might not have been my sort of style.  I'm pretty sure there were fart jokes in there, and there were definitely pictures of half-clothed overweight people.  and some story about Denmark's second largest baby (I understood those words) and props.  including a clown nose, an oversized pen, glasses with eyes painted on them, and much much more...all of which were used in succession.  In my opinion she could have spread them out a bit more.

So after an uncomfortable 75 minutes of not smiling when everyone around me was falling of their chairs with laughter, she finally finished and we all headed outside for some healthy exercise.  We broke into 8 teams for a mini-tournament of "Kubb" aka "kongespill" aka "Vikingespill".  According to the Danish wiki, kubb was invented in the middle ages, but not documented until 1990. and probably invented in Sweden.  It can be played by 2-12 players.  It kind of reminded me of a Danish version of cornhole, in that you have teams that stand opposite each other and throw things...a good tailgating/picnic type of game

the kubb box....hasn't anyone told them vikings didn't have horns on their helmets?

the playing field mid-game

Kubb consists of 5 pieces of wood ("kubber") lined up across from 5 other kubber.  In the middle of the field is the crowned wood ("konge" or king).  The object is to throw fat sticks about a foot long ("kastepinde") from one side of the field and knock down the kubber on the other side of the field.  Once you have knocked down all 5 kubber on the other side, you have to knock down the king.   You take turns back and forth in throwing and the first team to knock the 5 kubber and king over wins.  If you knock the king down at any point in the game before you knock all 5 kubber down, you lose automatically.  I believe there are more rules than that, but we played an abbreviated version so that was all we did.

My team won our first round but lost in the semi-finals (to the eventual champions).  I am proud to say of the 10 things we knocked down in the two matches, I was responsible for 3.  It's harder than it looks.

After the kubb tournament we had a final work-related seminar and then dinner.  This was a sit-down meal starting with roasted beet root salad with crumbled rye toast and blackberries and a tarragon emulsion.  The main was venison with hazelnuts, freeze-dried celery, a plum vinegrette, some other sauces and parsleyed potatoes.   Dessert was buttermilk sorbet with torched meringue, salt and lemon verbana marinated raspberries, and freeze-dried white chocolate.

After dinner the fun continued with beers in the lounge but I was exhausted and had an offer for a ride home so I took it.