The Circus is Leaving Town

As panic sets in and the clock ticks towards our Aug 12 departure from Denmark, it's time to ask some crucial questions: do we need another bag of oatmeal or do we make do with what we have? Should we get Tom a haircut at Suliman's for $30 or wait till we get back and get one at Ted's for $15?

The great Baldoni circus came and went. 'Run away' I said to the kids.

People are asking "Are you excited to go back to Canada?", and I have to say that I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family, looking forward to English discussions, looking forward to living in our new house, but not looking forward to leaving here. The spring and summer here are awesome when the sun shines.

Every day I've been down at the beach with my inflatable tube around my waist, black socks and flippers waiting for summer to arrive. Wait a minute, I don't think I own an inflatable tube and if I did it wouldn't be pale white with hair on it!  Anyway, summer didn't come in July so now that the Danish kids have to go back to school in early August, the Norse Gods have finally granted warm weather and clear skies. 

Last call kids. School starts Monday. HaHa!

We just sold our Peugeot a couple of days ago and met with our landlords to make sure we would be getting our $8000 deposit back. Money is pouring in when we need it least. We could've used a couple thousand in January to get down to the Greek Islands to watch their economic collapse with flip-flops and a cool drink.

Who could resist the allure of this sporty French cruiser? Sold.

If we start at the beginning with a mission statement, it would probably be "Expose the kids to the Danish culture" and perhaps for Mette, more importantly, was the wish to be with her mom during some tough times. My personal goal was to see as much of Denmark and Europe as we could with the time and money that we had available. I had also hoped to learn Danish but that goal disappeared like a two-four of Pilsner at a Whitebear Wedding.

Maja and Tom have thrived in the Danish school system where the motto is "Play hard then take the afternoon off". They have tons of friends and have very mixed emotions about leaving. Mette has been able to share the last 8 months of her mom's life with her and she has also managed to make about 100 new friends to go with the ones she already had here.
Steen has survived but not thrived and I didn't jump off the Malmö bridge when the winter darkness took hold. Apart from winter, I enjoyed living in Denmark and Europe so it was really only 3 months of bad against 9 months of awesome and interesting.

What are you gawking at? Can't a guy get any privacy?

These are all positive results and we all got to dig into the interesting details of the lifestyle here on the Danish Riviera north of Copenhagen. I'm going to miss riding my bike up and down the coastline past the expensive houses and gorgeous view of the Øresund. I think if the mayor of Edmonton really wants to make our city more livable, he needs to bring in an ocean coastline; not just a temporary beach on the side of the river. Think big, Mr. Mayor!

Heating up a frisbee for supper. Last days at the beach.

As I write this, we have about 4 days left before we pack, clean and evacuate for the airport. We spent last night with some friends and a fire down at the Sletten beach. Today, Steen and I will deliver papers for the last time and Mette will join up with her old school friends for the last time. Maybe we'll just eat our last bowl of oatmeal here and we'll pass on the Suliman haircut so that Ted can catch us up on the Oilers. 


Thank-you everyone for reading the blog and making comments. Special thanks to Apper for providing a link to his Facebook contacts - I even had readers from Russia! I've had over 8500 page views over the last year, most from Canada and Denmark, so I know that you are following and that makes it encouraging and fun to write. We'll see our Canadian friends soon and we'll see our Danish friends again in a couple of years. Goodbye and Hej Hej.