More holidays!

We have had four glorious days off work. Thursday was a public holiday here in Denmark and Friday my company was kind enough to give as a present, of which I was very grateful.

Ideally, I should have studied for the forthcoming module test in Danish but, sadly, due to attending one of the last five classes, I made a decision last Monday to pull the plug on Danish for the moment. Not getting to class was stressing me out and ‘affecting my mentality’, to borrow a phrase from Muriel’s Wedding.

I can’t deny I am disappointed but, at the same time, I’m relieved. There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to go somewhere and still being at work. However, I really had to put it all into perspective. I have to work. I have no rich old Aunts or Uncles who can help me inherit a gazillion kronor, so work has to be a priority.

Anyway, making that decision has actually been a relief and meant I’ve been able to concentrate on what I must do for now. It also meant I’ve been able to relax and enjoy this mini-break.

We spent Thursday with friends celebrating three of the family’s birthdays and gorging ourselves on lagkager, hot cocoa and other goodies from a table beautifully decorated and complete with spring flowers and lots of little Dannebroger. I’d never been to a Danish birthday party before, so come the time to sing the Danish equivalent of Happy Birthday, I realised I was in dire need to learn a new Danish song. I guess it won’t surprise anyone that the song includes the word dejlig! If ever the Danes decide to produce an advertising campaign to promote tourism, it will have to include dejlig. It’s the Danish equivalent (not in meaning, of course) of ‘G’day’.

What did transpire at the party for we two English speakers was we are understanding much more Danish than we used to. There is, of course, a ten second delay which means as soon as you compute the current discussion, everyone’s moved on to the next but it does give one reason to hope.