Good Times: Those were the days Part II

After about a month of exploring Copenhagen and getting acclamated to the Danish culture, I began working. I was a manufacturers rep for furniture made in Germany, Denmark and Italy and was hired by a Danish man who owned a very small company to grow the US market on the east coast. Life was good. I was working part time and traveling home to the states every 5 weeks for 2 weeks allowing me to see my friends and family, not to mention getting some great furniture at cost. (the mark up on furniture is shocking by the way) I got to travel around Europe for work and more importantly was able to get my foot in the door with international sales and move on from teaching. I really enjoyed my job and was very disappointed when I was laid off after only 9 short months. The economy in the states had taken a major downturn after September 11th and our largest US customer could not pay their bills leaving my boss no choice but to cut back. So, I turned in all my "equipment" and was officially a full time expat fiance.

After a few months I realized I had to do something with my free time or I wasn't going to make it out of the country sane. I discovered the LINK (ladies international network of kobenhavn) club and met many wonderful American moms with a lot of free time on their hands and in desperate need of some part time help. Seeing as I did enjoy being around children I thought I would start nannying in hopes of curing my boredom and a little extra money to shop with never hurt either. I nannied on a regular basis for the most adorable and amazing identical twins, E & C. At the time they were 2 1/2 years old and I grew to love them so much. I miss them to this day and think about them often. Below they are pictured in authentic Danish princess costumes at their 3rd birthday party. Aren't they beautiful?

Not only did I fall in love with these little girls, but Brad did too. We watched them over many weekends together and their big brown eyes and sweet smiles suckered him in. He still will mention them from time to time and we haven't seen them in about 5 years or so.

We did also have some wonderful friends who were over 3 ft tall. Below is Jesper and Cille (pronounced Yespa and Cilla) at their recent wedding, which unfortunately we were not able to fly out to Copenhagen for. We became friends with Jesper when he was living in Richmond, VA working for the same company as Brad back in '99. Jesper and Cille dated and lived together for 5 years and finally tied the knot this past August. I'll never forget the first weekend I was in Denmark, Jesper took us to party. Of course, everyone in Denmark rides bicycles everywhere due to the 300% tax on cars and the crazy expensive fuel prices. We were riding through the streets of Denmark and Jesper says in his Danish accent "Come on Christy, keep pedaling, your ass will be so tight in no time." Every time I think of him saying this I laugh. Of course at the moment I was offended until I learned and understood the Danes.

Our other best Danish friends are Allan and Jette. Many of you probably have even met them. They've been at our wedding (along with Jesper and Cille) and have been to Annapolis to visit us twice. Jette and Allan were introduced to us when we were all living in Charlotte, NC. They had been expatriated (were not married at the time) and were living in NC the same time we were. Jette, a career woman, was not working in Charlotte and going a bit crazy. Because I was teaching, I had the summer off so we would play a lot of tennis together. Let me rephrase that: Jette kicked my butt in tennis almost every other day. But all in all, I did learn a lot from her. We were fortunate because Allan and Jette moved back to Copenhagen several months before we moved over and they took us under their wing, introducing us to their friends, showing us around and making us feel welcome and comfortable. They are AWESOME and I love and miss them terribly. They now have two little ones, Grace and Zach (yes, American names. we tease them and say they are 1/2 Danish and 1/2 American because they love the states). Actually, Jette's favorite show while living in the states was "Will & Grace" which is where she heard the name Grace. When her little Gracie was born with firey red hair, she didn't have to think twice about what to name her.

And then there is my sweet, sweet Aimee. Aimee is probably one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. (her brother in law actually calls her Aimee Sweet because she really is!) It may run in the name since I know several very nice Aimee's. Aimee is American, not Danish and we were put in touch through one of the American moms whom I met through the LINK club. Aimee phoned me one day out of the blue and we chatted on the phone for over an hour. We decided to meet in person with our fiances at a bar/club. It was extremely strange walking into a bar looking around for the "American" couple; almost like a blind date. We spotted them not long after we had arrived and the four of us shared many beers and a lot of laughs. We all clicked and the rest is history. Aimee was very outgoing and friendly and once TJ warmed up to us, we haven't been able to quiet him down yet.

Our stay in Denmark was for 2 years and then the company decided to decentralize Brad's group and move them to Den Hague, The Netherlands. We had the choice of either moving back to the states or committing to another year abroad and since we weren't quite ready to move home, we agreed to Holland for a year.

We celebrated our last night out in Copenhagen with Aimee, TJ and a few of their other American friends from work. I am confident in saying the Dane's were proud of our partying that last night. Yes, that is my husband at about 4am sitting in the lap of the Hans Christian Andersen statue.