Translated Meeting

I'd never thought I'd need a translator, but today I had a meeting with Scotty's bornehaven teacher... and we needed to schedule another teacher to translate for us. :) I'm totally serious when I say one of his teachers speak ZERO English, but I really really like her. (see proof that everyone here does NOT speak English)

Having a translator was odd. Who do you look at when talking? What do you do when the other person is talking? Do you laugh when they make a joke and laugh... they know you don't understand them...? I found my mind wandering off about these things and then feeling bad because I wasn't paying any attention to her... but I couldn't understand any of it anyways! I listed to the English part at least! :)

Scotty's teacher would talk, sometimes looking at me, sometimes looking at the translator... I'd just look at her and try to pick words out of whatever she was saying. Once I thought I heard the word for feet - "fa-lugal" or something like that; then I thought: "no, she wouldn't say feet, maybe she said bird, maybe Scotty saw a bird, oh no, maybe Scotty kicked a bird with his feet!" Turned out it had nothing to do with birds or feet.

Sometimes when we were talking the translator would stop us so she could catch up. :) That was funny. We did a lot of smiling and laughing to get us through hard parts; like when nobody could figure out the word for "room" and it turned into a charades game. "stu-a" I think...

Needless to say the meeting went on for twice as long, but I'm really happy with this school. It's so cute and the teachers are all very kind to Scotty. It's so calm and nice and "home-like". The teacher even said she will come to our house to visit and bring two of Scotty's friends at school because the kids like to show their teacher their toys and their room, etc... It's like a show and tell for Scotty, but he gets to show everything at once!

Scotty is doing great at school. He seems to like it and we've been sending him every day because little-monster is all about schedules! Our new plan is to send him Monday - Thursday and not on Friday. I still think five days a week is too much. I'm also just sending him from 8:30am to 12:30 pm. Here's my thinking: They go outside at 11:45ish to play, but it's 1 degree outside! That's cold!! I don't want Scotty to freeze to death so I pick him up at 12:30 if it's really cold or raining... and I'll leave him there longer if it's warmer... you know like 5 degrees. :)

He also said his first, unprompted Danish word!! Mad-pakken. His lunchbox! He has his "taska": (his huge, American, insulated, rocket-shaped lunchbox; and he has his "madpakken": his plastic, square Tupperware container, which is more similar to every other kids lunchbox. He also says bornehaven which is cute as well...

I wonder if there's a spot in his baby book for "First Danish Word" :)

It's finally happened.

I now think 20 kroner is cheap.

...and let's keep in mind it's really ~$4.00!

The other day I was shopping at Tiger, which is like a dollar store with lots of odd things. As I'm putting things in my cart I realize I'm thinking, "Oh cool, only 20kr!". So I keep putting more things in my little basket. When I get to the checkout my final total comes to $60.00!! and I have a basket full of a dozen dollar store items!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN BUY WITH $60.00!!??

When I first got here I'd see 20kr and quickly say "No way am I spending $4.00 on that!" I'm not sure at exactly what point I deemed 20 kroner a good deal, perhaps it was a survival instinct. ...or maybe I just got tired of NEVER buying anything.

I still convert prices to dollars sometimes, but I usually don't even look at the price anymore... espically while grocery shopping. For Snacks and cookies I'll usually convert to dollars, and then more often than not, put it back. Meat or Vegetables I just quickly stick it in the cart because, hey, we have to eat.

Even when I'm done shopping I don't look at my reciept... I did the other day because I bought some toys and wanted to make sure they really were on "sale". ...and I saw I paid $25.00 in taxes! See, looking at the reciept is depressing.

Taska og Klokken

Michaela understands Danish and she didn't tell me! ...Meanwhile I'm suffering through a ten minute charades game with Scotty's bornehaven teacher to figure out that they are eating lunch at 11:00 and then playing outside after they brush their teeth.

I found out that Michaela understand Danish last week as I was proudly explaining to Paul that I know what a "taska" is. She pipes up with a "DUH". Then she proceeds to tell me that a taksa is a bag. THEN she proceedes to tell me she knows as much Danish as a walrus. Whatever little kid!! ...because earlier today we were watching a home video of Scotty at his Danish play gym. I wasn't even listening to what the teacher was saying since I think I instincually ignore Danish talking now, but Michalea says, "Down. The teacher said to get down." Sure enough all the little kids eventually lie down on the gym floor. I was in awe!! ...so she gave me a lesson on how to say 12 o'clock while laughing at me for not knowing.

Scotty, on the other hand, I feel will fight Danish with every ounce in his little body. He gets upset when we switch seats at dinner so you can image his reaction when I pointed at his bag/lunchbox and called it a taska! "NO! NOT TASKA, LUNCHBOX!!" :) Once I tried to count "En, To, Tre" and he yells, "NO! ONE, TWO, THREE!" It will be interesting to see how this one pans out! :)

I know another mom from the States and she sent her four year old boy to bornehaven and three weeks later he came back calling her "Moe-ah" instead of mommy. I think I would cry if I turned into a "Moe-ah". :) (and as a little note: I spell my Danish words how they sound/how they should be spelled.)

I always tell the kids we are lucky that we at least know English though. Sierra came home from school the other day and told me that a boy from Hungry said his first sentence in English and the entire class clapped and cheered. I thought it was so cute. Even kids that I met last year, who didn't speak any english at all, are talking and screaching in class just as much as the others now. Very impressive.

...and another special benefit to an "International School" is that the girls are learning fun words in different languages. They can say "stupid" and "loser" in German. Oh good.

Oh - one more Danish story. When my Grandma and I went to Den Gamel By last week, a lady who worked in a shop asked where we were from. I proudly said that I lived here and my Grandma was visiting from California. Then she asked how long I'd been here and why I didn't speak Danish yet. HA! She didn't exactly say it with a smile and I didn't want to seem like a rude American who isn't bothering to learn the language so I said, "Ya-i taler lit densk, men ya-i-soons du taler mile got englask.", to try and make her like me. (I speak a little Danish, but I think you speak very good English.) These sentenaces are literally the bulk of my verbal Danish skills and I learned them from a cassette tape while sitting in my car waiting for the girls to finish soccer practice in Oregon. AND OF COURSE, she says something back to me in Danish. I just smiled... and said "yes" hoping it would fit the question. :) Phew! It did.

363 DKK

Who wants to know what this says??

It says... Don't park your car in this parking garage under any circumstances. (Of course it's located NO WHERE near the entrance of the parking garage!



Who wants to know who these people are??

These are the people I was supposed to give a ride home to... They are cold and tired and have just eaten pickled herring.

I'll let you figure out the rest of the story... :) It involved buses and husbands whose wives didn't lock their only car overnight in a FOREIGN PARKING GARAGE!!!

(You would think I would have learned from our Sweden experience... You will all be happy to know I did NOT park in a Parking House in Germany!!!)

Bye Grandma

Right now Grandma is a few hours into her 10 hour flight. I'm feeling guilty because I'm sitting here eating pie about to go to bed. I'm so happy she came to see us though; we had a really great time and we all would have loved for her to stay longer.

I never really spent a lot of time with my grandma before, a day or two at the most; but the past 14 days has been different than just a quick visit to Grandma's house. It's been great to have her here for swimming lessons, school, grocery shopping, breakfast, etc... and just to have her hang out with "us" doing what we do.

I've always loved my grandma but over the last two weeks she's become one of my best friends! I miss you lots Grandma - see you soon!

Sweden

We made it to Sweden! Grandma and I rock! We even did it without any problems... except for that one little incident with the parking garage that wouldn't let us out...! I'm very proud of us!!

We left Saturday morning and drove through the rain to Copenhagen. When we got there it was still raining and pretty cold so we didn't walk around the city much. We did drive around quite a bit though... and got to see all the same things! Some of it looked vaguely familiar from my last trip with my parents so I was able to maneuver us around okay. I was even able to remember some facts to tell Grandma so she thought I knew about Denmark! The best part was that I didn't hit any people, bikes, OR scooters!

We eventually ended up at a fountain near a big old church and I knew we were near the Little Mermaid. (Which by the way is going to China for a while!??!) There was lots of parking available so we decided to get out and walk to the top of the hill/fountain and go and see the Little Mermaid. The walk there was nice but it seemed that as soon as we arrived to the statue it got much colder and windier. We were the only ones there! Gee I wonder why...?

We took the obligatory pictures standing in front of the Little Mermaid and hurried back to the car. I don't even think we looked at the statue. :) Grandma has even seen the one in Switzerland but says it looks younger than this one; like a younger girl opposed to a teenager.

Then we took off to Sweden... After crossing another bridge that I don't want to talk about, we arrived in Malmo and drove around a bit. We decided we were tired and so we:
- found a hotel
- got upgraded to a nice suite
- ate a really yummy dinner
- went to bed. :)

The next day we went around Malmo. We did some shopping for food in toothpaste containers and saw the "Turning Torso". Food in toothpaste containers included everything from cheese and butter to caviar and shrimp in a something that looked just like a toothpaste container. AND. The Turning Torso is a huge twisting apartment complex and I can only imagine how expensive it is to live there!

Next stop in Sweden was Lund. Lund had lots of big old churches and other buildings and we walked through the streets for a bit. Lund is also the home of the evil parking garage that wouldn't let me pay and therefore wouldn't let us leave. I was getting close to ramming through the gate! I could write a post all about this and maybe one day I will... but I learned a valuable lesson which I will now pass on. NEVER PARK IN A FOREIGN PARKING GARAGE WHERE YOU CAN BECOME TRAPPED. We did get out... and I didn't have to damage any property.

Last stop in Sweden was Trellerborg on the southern coast. It was a bit smaller but we saw all the big ferries at the dock. It was getting darker and colder so we decided to start back towards Denmark.

After crossing both of those bridges again we eventually made it back to Denmark. We were going to take a ferry back, but I got scared because I had not looked into the ferries or their schedules. Plus it was dark and we couldn't see anything anyways. :) I had a great time with Grandma, I hope she enjoyed Sweden - I did!! :)

Scotty's First Day!!

Awhhhh... My little monster went to school today!

I thought I'd be more excited at the thought of some Scott-Free Moments, but I was too worried that he wouldn't like it and throw a fit... and then this whole thing becomes complicated. He did fine though and was happy to play with other little kids. I don't want to overdo it so I'm going to send him every other day.

Today I only left him there for part of the day to see how it went... When I went back to check on him an hour later I peeked in and found him was sitting in a circle listening to everyone singing in Danish. I have no idea what they were singing but I could hear him saying loudly, "I'm hot. I'm hot." :)

Then it was time for lunch and then they were going out to play. I knew he'd like lunch and outside time so I decided to leave him there and come back later. (I had to take Andrea to the doctor for her shots. :( Poor Little Balubit.) I came back an hour or so later and as I was arriving his class was leaving to walk up the street to the gym to play. They looked just like all the other preschool groups I see around town: 12 little bundled up kids in snowsuits trouncing along ...and my little Scotty was one of them!! He ran over to me and I got a big squeezy hug. It was so cute!! I would have liked to have seen them wrestle him into his snowsuit. :) HA HA

I didn't get to talk to his teachers too much since they were on their way out, and one of them speaks ZERO English, but I think he didn't seem too traumatized . I asked him some questions and he seemed to answer them.
- He said he got a new pink toothbrush to brush his teeth after lunch.
- He doesn't like the little potty, he likes the big one.
- He admitted to crying but didn't say why.
- His favorite part was eating his peanut butter and brown (nutella) sandwich.