Slideshows Galore!

Hi all! I figured out how to make slide shows from my web albums, so I hope it is not overwhelming to include 2 in this post. Here they are. Some are duplicates...






Yesterday we made it our mission to find a danish-english dictionary. Seems it is necessary for our survival that we have one. Which makes sense so I don't what took us so long. I knew it would make our lives much easier, but when you enter a park full of attacking deer because you couldn't read the warning sign...well, a dictionary becomes very important. The people here for the most part speak great English and can switch back and forth between languages with such ease that I am in awe. As someone trying to learn the language or even show respect for them by attempting to use some basic words in their language, this makes it hard. They are so eager to use their English skills with a real live person that the second they hear you speak they switch right over and begin speaking English. I have had some pretty lively sign language conversations with some of the older danes who do not speak English. They are very nice about it though.

That said, we went to the train station in Aarhus. Someone told me they had a big bookstore there. Well, it turned out to be a mall! Very similar to one of our malls. First I've seen here. There was even a Foot Locker. To be honest, I didn't like it at all. I have been relishing this different experience of small shops and walking to and from places so much so that an American mall was so usual and disappointing. I actually felt a sense of sadness seeing all of them go here and there shopping for Disney princesses and plastic toys and cheaply made clothes. I know it's inevitable that most of the civilized world is going toward mass production, but I don't know if the enticing qualities about getting things cheap and fast mask the true reality that a certain quality of life is lost. Just thinking out loud.

On a funny note about the mall. It was packed with people and we were standing in line at a store waiting to pay and the kids were talking. This man came up to us and asked if we were Brian's family. He works with Brian and saw the three American kids and assumed it had to be us. Apparently we do stick out wherever we go!

Last night on my run I was contemplating all the differences and was noticing how many children I saw without parents. Kids 5 and 6 were riding scooters on sidewalks unsupervised. Older kids were riding their bikes with friends. Kids were walking to the store to pick up bread for dinner. All UNSUPERVISED! It is such an unusual sight for me. That's part of what I was talking about in an earlier post about my lawsuit self. Not that I have ever been involved in one, but I notice here how much I am predisposed to thinking about safety at every turn. In reality, I am fearful. I tend to see rickety fences at kids fast food playgrounds (like one I saw here) and it seems so unusual. What if a kid got loose? What if the fence fell on a kid? Not that I am really afraid of that happening but I am on the lookout for issues. Along the canal in Aarhus, there are sidewalks and shops lining each side of the water. There are no fences to keep people from falling in! That was so unusual to me. What if a child fell in? Well, I'll tell you what if. They better not or if they do, they better swim to the side.

There is so much more emphasis on common sense. The people are not as fearful and I guess they don't have as much reason to be. I didn't realize how much I rely on rules imposed by law (I guess) and how much I look over my shoulder and watch my kids so that we aren't harmed. Maybe because we have laws and attitudes that we are supposed to be safe we create this sense that someone else is in charge of our own well being. Like the city better put up fences along side heavily populated water ways for my safety. Or McDonald's better put up a 10 ft high steel safety fence around their playground because I may not be watching my kids good enough and it's someone else's responsibility to provide a safety net for me. I get the sense that here it's up to you. If you want your kids safe you better watch them...or teach them how to swim...REAL WELL! But that really makes the kids aware, the parents aware and in more control of their own well being. I doubt the people have to be warned that hot coffee may burn them. Hello, common sense. Very interesting. I am just taking all this in. I'd love to hear anybody else's thoughts on this.

Well, today we are doing school so I better go. When Brian's work permit comes through the kids can start attending a neat after school program and Miles can maybe attend preschool. There is one down the street and it is so cute to see all of them walking to school.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda