Jeg elsker Danmark

I feel bad for not blogging for so long--not that it has probably really affected anyone, except for causing me to lose what few readers I may have had. The reason I haven't taken the time to write a few posts is because I suddenly realized I am moving soon--TOO soon--and I have wanted to spend every possible moment with my friends, or out seeing Denmark, and saying goodbye. I go to the city center, and walk the pedestrian streets, trying to absorb the sights, sounds, and smells, and somehow imprint them in my mind so that I will never forget them. I pay more attention to the view from the window of the bus, the experience of descending the escalators into the Metro, the walk to school. I notice with a mixture of delight and sadness the pictures and posters on the walls in my building--almost all of which are astronomy related--that I usually just ignore in my rush to get to class, to my office, or to leave the building and get home after a long day. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, thinking perhaps if I take enough pictures I can capture the essence of Denmark, and bring it home with me. I know it won't really work, but I still try.

It's crazy how quickly time passes. I feel like it was only a mere month or so ago that I was arriving here, getting off the plane and being hit with jet lag. My first few days I felt like a zombie. In a lot of ways it was harder to adjust to living in Denmark than I had expected. The people, the culture, the language, the grocery stores. There were times when I wanted to just throw in the towel, pack up, and go home. Surviving the winter was tough--most days I would leave while it was still dark, and get home after dark. Not hard to do when the sun starts setting at 3:30 pm, I suppose. It was cold, wet, and miserable, and the people seemed to withdraw along with the sunlight, leaving Copenhagen feeling like a very barren place indeed. A month-and-a-half-long battle with mono didn't help things, either. :)

But, the jet lag passed, the mono passed, the winter passed, and I suddenly realized one day how much I love it here. When I started making plans to come to Denmark, I expected to have a good time, to make friends, and to be sad to leave. What I hadn't expected--and what totally took me off guard--was to love this place so fiercely, or my friends so deeply. I hadn't expected to be so filled with sadness at the thought of my impending departure.

I love my country. I can't wait to see her again. I will be so excited the first time I see an American flag flying over American soil. I will be so happy to see my family and friends and cat again. But, leaving will hurt. Denmark has become a part of me, and when I go, I will leave a part of me behind. I dread this moment, in the way that a person anticipates something they know is necessary, but will cause them pain--an upcoming surgery, getting a shot (I hate shots!), something like that. I can see it there on the horizon, but I can't avoid it.

Although I will only have lived here for slightly less than a year, and my Danish skills are still sadly lacking, I will always consider myself just a tiny bit Danish. I do have the surname, after all! Though I haven't even left yet, I am already making plans to return.

A day at the beach (in pictures)

The walk to the beach was rather picturesque...

View from the pier I walked out on.

(A bike that somehow ended up in the water, and is now covered in seaweed...)

You might be a programmer if...

you spend 3 hours writing a shell script to automate a task that would have taken you 45 minutes to do manually... :)

La Princesa

While I have yet to post pictures of my wonderful trip to Spain over Christmas, I had to post this picture we took at Parc Güell. I think it is Princess' Spanish cousin!

And, a picture of Princess just for comparison:

The Problem

When a guy screws up, it's because he screwed up (or is stupid, or whatever). When a girl screws up, it's because all girls "suck at math" (or physics, or astronomy, or engineering...). This is an attitude we have to deal with much too frequently.

Comic (c) xckd

And yet, I use it anyway...

This is totally how I feel.

My experience with mononucleosis

I have noticed that the majority of people that stumble onto my blog via Google are finding it because of one little image that I posted when I had mono in January and February 2008. The image was of my penicillin-induced rash that I got because I was taking penicillin for a "sinus infection" which most likely was, in fact, the first sign of mono rearing its ugly head. I have had many people contact me asking for more details about the rash, as it is apparently quite common, but unfortunately there isn't much information about it to be found. I have done my best to answer their questions, and finally decided that I should just write up a summary of what I experienced. (It is probably relevant to note that I was in Denmark during all of this.)

First of all, when I first went in to the doctor, before knowing I had mono, she asked me if I had a rash. I said no, and she mentioned that sometimes that is a symptom of mono. She said nothing of the penicillin-mono rash, even though I had specifically mentioned to her that I was taking antibiotics, and even brought the container to show her. Actually that is what made her think I had mono in the first place because she said I shouldn't have strep if I was already taking those. I suppose I should back up a bit...

The first symptom I experienced was a horrible headache, with a fever. This went on for days until I finally thought maybe I had a sinus infection and went into the doctor. (Since it was late on a Friday night, I wasn't able to see my regular doctor but instead went to the after-hours clinic at the hospital. I was also having a movie night at my house that night, so after the first person arrived, I left him there and told him to let everyone else in--sorry about that, Lasse!)

At this point my throat was starting to hurt as well (I thought maybe it was post-nasal drip. Incidentally, I also taught that term to the doctor, who had never heard it before. He seemed delighted. He also taught me what it was in Danish, but I can't remember now). The doctor listened to my description of my symptoms, barely even looked at me, and put me on antibiotics. In retrospect, I really wish he hadn't. I am very very against taking unnecessary antibiotics, and I'm fairly sure these were not necessary.

My headache did go away and I thought the antibiotics were working, but a few days later I developed a horrible sore throat. It was so bad I couldn't even sleep because of the pain. My tonsils were swollen and had white spots on them. I knew this was a symptom of strep, but also knew I was on antibiotics so I shouldn't have strep. I called my regular doctor and even though she was very booked, she managed to get me in later that day. I think part of this was due to the fact that I was pretty much crying on the phone when I called.

Anyhow, as I was saying, she said nothing of the penicillin-mono rash, but maybe she thought if I didn't already have it, I wouldn't get it. She sent me to get blood drawn for a mono test. (Side note: this was interesting because I had to take a number at the blood clinic place and then they called out numbers, but I wasn't entirely sure how to say my number in Danish, so I was a little worried I would miss my turn... it all worked out in the end, though.) They told me it would take until Tuesday to get the results. I think this was on a Thursday or Friday. I was a little upset that I had to wait the whole weekend without knowing.

At this time I still wasn't feeling very bad except for the sore throat. On Friday night a few friends came over to my apartment and we watched a movie. I was starting to feel a little fatigued so I was just lying on the couch with a blanket. At one point close to the end of the evening one friend remarked that my face looked red. I thought it was because I perhaps had a fever, and didn't think much of it, until said friend was leaving and I went to say goodbye and walked past the mirror in the hall. My response "holy cow, my face really IS red!" Not only was it red but it was also swollen a little. I looked horrible. This was the start of the lovely rash which I would come to be so familiar with.

Most people that contact me want to know how long the rash lasts, and what, if anything, they can do for it. In my case, the rash slowly spread from my face down my body hitting my legs and feel last. It lasted about 10 days or so, and went away in the same order it started, so my face was rash-free first, and the finally my legs (and everywhere else). (The residual redness on my legs actually lasted a good 2 weeks or so, though.) It also itched like crazy the entire time!!! To the point I couldn't sleep for a few nights because if it. A few things I did that helped were:
-wear silky pajamas turned inside-out so the seams wouldn't rub and cause itching
-ice packs helped the itch go away, but unfortunately it's very hard to apply ice packs to your entire body all at once.
-lotion seemed to help a lot, too, since it made my skin less dry. For me, the best kind seemed to be some Bath and Body Works Body Cream, it was nice and think and smelled like apples. During the worst I think I was putting lotion on every couple hours.
-drinking a lot of fluids. Good advice for any time you're sick.

Mono hit me hard. I think I was in bed for about a month. During the worst of it, I barely had the energy to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. I was so sick there was a point where I was worried that my poor little immune system wasn't going to be able to fight it off. But, in the end, it triumphed. Mono was conquered. When I finally recovered enough that I could actually go out and walk to the store to go shopping for some much needed-food, it felt SO weird to be wearing shoes again. One doesn't have much need for shoes when they are in bed all day.

To read some of my inane ramblings from when I was sick in bed all day with nothing but a laptop to keep me company, see the following links:
http://janvswild.blogspot.com/2008/01/insert-pick-up-line-that-has-to-do-with.html
http://janvswild.blogspot.com/2008/01/jm-mono-crazy.html
http://janvswild.blogspot.com/2008/01/recap.html
http://janvswild.blogspot.com/2008/01/im-smooth-one.html


I will add pictures and a better timeline later. And feel free to post a comment and leave your email address if you have any questions. You won't be the first! :)