Getting Comfortable

Today marks two months since our airplane touched down in Denmark.  The couple we replaced said that it would take about three months before we begin to feel comfortable here.  I think I should have asked her to define "comfortable."  In many ways I am more comfortable than I was.

We did a little bit of shopping for the meal tomorrow, and it was nice to realize that I am learning prices and brands and items well enough to know when we are getting a good deal.  I still struggle with converting a recipe in Danish to English.  You probably don't think that is a big deal....but it is.  For instance, when an American recipe calls for 3/4 Cup of butter, it has been a bit of a brain fry to me.  Butter comes in large cubes that are 250 grams.   A pound of butter is 454 grams or 473 ml.  So trying to figure out how much butter to use can be daunting.  Of course I could always try to soften it and measure it out in my American measuring cups!

But I found another way....hooray for the cupboards here.  Look what I found.

(Still having problems with the internet  - I'll post the picture tomorrow if possible.  It is a little kitchen scale!)

 It measures pounds, ounces, and kg.  I don't know how long I can hope to keep discovering these finds, but it is delightful.

I can find my way around the city fairly well, and seem to have a good sense of the layout of Frederiksberg and areas of Copenhagen.  I know where some of the key bus stops are.  I can find my way to the center, the temple, the mission office, the post office, the bank and 6 of the major grocery markets here.  (None of them come close in size to an Albertson's but they are just fine.)  I am beginning also to know my way around grocery stores....they are not laid out like American stores and sometimes it takes a real effort to find something.  And within a certain range I can find my way home.  I also know where there are several little shops that I want to go into sometime.  As yet, I could not find my way to our church building, but I am working on that.  I know which buses to take to get there!

Views from our bus stop....I think these buildings have such charm!

In the most rudimentary of ways, I can communicate with Danes my age who speak a little English. With my Danish and their English, we can get along quite well.

I am getting to know the YSAs by name.  I am beginning to be a bit more relaxed at the center and I enjoy visiting with the young people.  The meals are still a challenge, but I get the idea they will always be.  And that is OK.

Once again today we realized that we are tenderly looked after just because we are missionaries.  We received 3 invitations to join different families on Christmas Eve.  Each one who called said that they are anxious that every missionary will have a Danish home to go to on Christmas Eve so they can experience Danish traditions.  So that will be great fun.  I hope we can take some of these wonderful traditions home to Arizona.