Our Apartment

On Wednesday Carla and I attended the first ever dinner event of a new pilot program called "Connecting Friends," which aims to ease foreigners' transition to life in Denmark. About 20 people attended the evening, completely self-organized and where six of us volunteered to cook food from India, Costa Rica, Columbia, the Congo, and Finland. (Next time Carla and I will be part of the cooking volunteers.) The evening was filled with excellent food and conversation. I even broke out the accordion and played a little Chicken Polka, preserved by the photo below.

And for some reason this image reminds me of this image.

The lack of rich Parisian lunches at the school cantine has "helped" me lose some weight. But Carla has "helped" me keep some on by cooking cakes, and in particular this lovely carrot cake!

Some of you have asked for a tour of our apartment here in Vesterbro --- a hip community in downtown Copenhagen.

Here is the living room, nearly spanned by the couch. I work on one end, and Carla's 5'2" frame reclines on the rest.

The bedroom, which is nice and comfy.

Part of the bathroom, which is larger than usual and does not require one to straddle the toilet to shower. Also unusual is the room for a clothes washer/dryer.

Carla's creation station, the kitchen, sports a four-burner stove, oven, and large sink --- where I spend most of my time in the kitchen washing the dishes to do "my part."

The other side of the kitchen has a very usual fold up table for eating by two, or chopping vegetables. Just above the can of coconut milk you can see a light switch, and below that a combination switch and electrical outlet.

BEGIN OPINIONATION
The Danish are known for their excellence in design, but this particular design --- the electrical plug with a switch directly above it to turn it on --- annoys me to no end. And this is everywhere, including my university. Apparently, it is not enough to get electrical power to insert a plug into a socket. You must also flip the switch on if it is off, or leave it on if it is on. One woman gave a talk at my university and plugged her computer into such a switch before she started. Half way through her presentation the computer shut down because she didn't take that extra step to turn the switch on. I will have to ask a native to explain this design.
END OPINIONATION