Last Day in Copenhagen

Winter's Day in Copenhagen

Nico & Kim in their Lab

Kim had a treat in store for me today. She had booked me in for a manicure & pedicure as an early birthday present. The Beauty Spa was located in a big shopping complex and while I haven't had too many manicures in my life, this was the best ever. They use a new procedure called Shellac (out for about 6 months) which incorporates the use of ultra violet light to set each layer - similar to a dentist to set a filling. After the undercoat you get a quick ultra violet session, then a longer session after each of the two coats of colour. The manicure is supposed to last one month if you are careful. My last manicure lasted 2 days, so if this lasts even a week it will be a bonus!

After our stop at the beauty spa we had lunch and caught a train, then bus to Kim's University. It was great to meet her boss & her colleagues, and to see where she spends her work hours. As well as in her office, she spends most time in her lab with Nico (whose home we had dinner with in Sweden with his wife & children). As we walked into the various labs where other co-workers were busily working on samples, it was interesting to hear the interactions between them & Kim. They talk in a language as foreign to me as Danish is - they speak in English, but using geological and research talk that I have never heard uttered in my life before. Most of the others researchers are Danish, and another is German, one American, one French and one Spanish. The boss is Canadian. They speak English in the university, but Kim is expected to move up to teaching basic geology research classes to PhD students in Danish. The only time I have heard people chatting in English has been out with Kim's friends or with her colleagues at the University. They learn English at school, but Danish is the spoken language. As can be expected, the population speaks in Danish.

All the bus & suburban train announcements are in Danish, although the metro to the airport provides an English translation as well. Fortunately all shop assistants and cafe service personnel can understand English and switch when they realise you can't speak Danish! It can be a little awkward when you sit near someone on the bus and they start a conversation with you in Danish, or someone on the street or in a store asks directions - always in Danish. When I start talking in English they realise quickly that there is no point continuing on with me...Ha ha. What a fabulous experience I have had here over the past 10 days with Kim. Probably nine days too long for a daughter to be cooped up with her mother, but what the heck. I will have many fond memories to treasure.