Am I Danish yet?

I took a trip to a friend's cottage on the west coast of Jutland in Denmark the weekend before last.  The west coast of Jutland is the equivalent of the gulf coast of Alabama or Mississippi.  Once you get there it's absolutely gorgeous but it's never a place you never imagine yourself going.  Then suddenly you're there.  Away from anything but exactly but what's there.  A decidedly old school experience untouched by foreign influence (like me and my foreign influence) or a desire for convenience (like restaurants and my love of them). It is what it is.  Expanses of small hills and dunes make their way to an expanse of pancake flat sand to an expanse of shallow blue gray ocean to an endless blue gray sky.  It's easy to imagine that somewhere out there where the ocean meets the sky is where explorers used to think the world just fell off.  It could be deafeningly quiet in these remote surroundings but it's quite the opposite.  The wind hits land coming off the North Sea for the first here. You feel it pushing you along and making you invincible or pushing you back as you walk into it.  You're constantly aware of which direction it's coming from and compensating for it. 

Walking into the charming summer house was a pop of unexpected color compared to the neutral landscape and my expectation of sparse Danish design.  Usually Danish design is shockingly devoid  of color - white walls, white wood floors, neutral rugs, white sheets.  Even a Danish child's room will be mostly white.

Apparently, Danish summer houses - small and basic but ideally crafted getaways - are Danes' excuse to let their freak flags fly - in a moderate way, of course, they're Danes after all.  After this recent trip I've now stayed at a total of one Danish summer cottage in my life.  I've heard this is true of other Danish summerhouses but you'll have to take their word for it - Danish summer houses have a careful collection knick knacks (nips in Danish) curated around the house and a rainbow of design accents in jewel tones.  They save up all their use of colored furniture and rugs and random little trinkets for their summerhouse.  

The Danish summer cottages on the west coast of Jutland could very easily have been built on top of these little hills and have a view of the rolling landscape jutting up against the massive flat beach.  That's the way it would be done in the US, no doubt, but the Danes are playing the long game.  They recognized that if everyone built their cottage on top of the little hills then the view would be compromised.  Instead everyone builds their cottages nestled between the hills so they're hidden and everyone can enjoy the view.

Picking oysters in the shallow ocean waters

Being in Denmark but not in Copenhagen is smack in the face.  It's a massive reminder that despite my continental colleagues, international friends and lifestyle I live in Denmark and shit is very Danish.  This week I have now lived in Denmark for 2 years.  I've come a long way but I still have a long way to go.

I still....

• Talk loudly (the all too true Danish stereotype of Americans)
• Don't speak Danish anywhere near fluently
• Have barely traveled outside of Copenhagen in Denmark
• Haven't cooked any Danish food
• Can't get used to the fact that I need to arrive at work late or leave early to go to any store other than the grocery store or the main department store during the week since everything else is only open from 10am-6pm
• Haven't stopped working in the evenings or on weekends
• Can't open a beer bottle with another beer bottle
• Haven't gotten a tattoo

Without these things I'm kilometers from Danish.

But I.....

• Have realized I talk loudly and isn't awareness the first step?
• Recently travel to the west coast of Denmark for the first time (as you now know)
• Do cook far more than I used to (as it's typical in Denmark to eat at home at the beginning of the week)
• Do spend far less money on needless shopping since the shops are closed
• Have stopped looking at my phone every time an email comes in
• Have a Danish boyfriend (who lives in London) but by association makes me a bit more Danish;)
• Stopped perma-obsessing over what my next career move will be and started being happy with how badass my life already is
• Became more fit (and competitive about my running times, as you do in Denmark)
• Stopped my obsession with green juicing (though the coconut water obsession still lingers)
• Learned that no party is complete without a group game of some sort
• Realized that if I'm stressed out I only have myself to blame
• Gotten used to taking my plastic bottles to the grocery store to be recycled and my glass bottles to the municipal recycling container by the canal

With these things I'm a little bit less American....

And I'm not Danish...yet.

Here's to walking the line.