22 februar 2018

Welcome Ohio

Nu har vi vaeret totre, fire, nej FEM uger i Dayton, Ohio og saa maa det vaere tid til at beskrive hvordan den foerste tid er gaaet.
Det hele startede med vi forlod Belgien og vores adoptivhus. Det var med et haab om at det vil blive holdt ved lige af dets egentlige ejere, men det er tvivlsomt.

Flyturen gik faktisk over Koebenhavn, og vi rejste soendag d. 21 om aftenen fra Eindhoven.
Naeste dag saette vi os ind i en SAS maskine mod USA som Benjamin fint skrev i sin haand med sin nye "usynlige" pen:













Turen fra CPH til DAY gik OK, selvom det ekstra stop i Washington goer turen lidt laengere, end vi har vaeret vant til. Den gode nyhed er at naa man lander i Dayton saa er turen "hjem" kort og der er ingen koe eller ventetid.
Da vi ikke havde noget hjem skulle vi bo paa hotel de foerste par dage fra mandag aften, indtil vi skrev under paa koeb af vores nye (og foerste) hus. Det er ikke det letteste at bo paa hotel midt om vinteren uden legetoej eller andet end hvad der kan vaere i en kuffert, men med hjaelp fra en swimming pool gik det nogenlunde:













Tirsdag brugte vi paa at besoege Helenas nye skole, se vores nye hus udefra og om eftermiddagen skrev vi under paa koebsaftalen saa Tirsdag d. 23 januar lidt over 5:00 PM vi var husejere mindre end 24 timer efter vi var landet.













Vejret da vi ankom var generelt vinterligt med temperaturer lige over frysepunktet og enkelte dage med nedboer i form af sne og regn. Billedet her er taget foran Benjamins skole. Vi bor mindre end 1000 meter fra skolen, saa Benjamin gaar til skole med sin mor. Da Helena moeder senere end Benjamin faar hun fornoejelsen af at gaa frem og tilbage for saa at gaa op ad en stejl bakke til sin skole.













Naar man ikke er i skole kan man hjælpe derhjemme med at goere huset rent. Der var meget, der skulle goeres inden vores moebler ankom d. 8. Februar.














Indtil vores container kom havde vi to uger i et tomt hus. Vi sov paa et par enkelte madrasser og spiste af plastikbestik og paptallerkner. Det er en form for indendoers-camping vi efterhaanden har proevet et par gange, men det er foerste gang boernene er med helt fra start. Da vi kom til Connecticut var det blot Anja og jeg, og da vi flyttede til Belgien var det sommerferie og boernene tilbragte et par dage og uger i Danmark mens de voksne flyttede ind.














Naar der ikke er moebler maa man sidde i koekkenet og spise aftensmad. Vi havde heller ingen vaskemaskine, stoevsuger eller andre hjaelpemidler til at goere dagligdagen "normal".
Den stoerste udfordring var at faa malet i huset. Alle vaegge var en nuance af brun eller creme, og som lyselskende skandinaver ville vi have malet hvidt i alle rum. Da huset er paa 300 kvm er der mange vaegge og endnu flere paneler og doere.

Mens Anja organiserede maling med et par mere eller meget mindre stabile arbejdshaender fra Cincinatti tog boerne og jeg ud og ledte efter indendoersaktiviteter.













Vi moedte hurtigt vores nye naboer. Allerede den foerste weekend var mange af dem flinke at komme over og hilse paa. Vi blev inviteret til SuperBowl party og dinner ude i byen og vi fik indenfor faa dage opbygget et godt naboskab.














Vi bor lige ved Dayton University, saa der er mange smaa cafeer og restauranter indenfor 2-3 kilometer. Eet af stederne er et pizzaria, der allerede er blevet en favorit isaer blandt boernene. De unge ansatte i koekkenet underholder, saa det er blevet en hel attraktion blandt boernefamiier.













Vores naboer har ogsaa boern, der er lidt ældre end Benjamin og Helena, og de har spændende legetoej og husdyr man gerne maa lege med:













I det hele taget gik de foerste par uger godt her i Ohio til trods for den midlertidighed man til stadighed bor og navigerer i. Det er stressende og til tider frustrerende men det er gaaet saa godt som det kunne alt taget i betragtning.

15 februar 2018

Valentines Reflections

There was a Valentines Day lovo story outreach at the office yesterday and everyone could submit stories to win a romantic dinner. Since I'm new to the company I thought I'd submit even though it does expose you (and your wife) in a brand new place.
My wife and I did not really meet in a very romantic way. But I thought I’d submit since the story involves bikes:
Actually, my wife and I were never supposed to meet. She was already halfway engaged and I was living with another girlfriend at the time. We were both at that stage in life where stability starts being a priority.
When we first met in the gym on a Monday night I was teaching the class she started frequenting. Picking up a participant from your BodyPump class is not exactly on page one of the employee handbook. Or in Romance 101.
Nevertheless, after class we started talking and a few weeks later we met randomly at a night club. I thought she was very beautiful and way out of my league. And I must admit (and she knows) her working in fashion retail was not something I could really relate to. I thought we’d have absolutely nothing in common.
On top of that she wore a lot of makeup, very stylish clothing and appeared to be the archetypal high maintenance gal. I’d always been around sailors, skiers and mountain bikers where powder is something you take a chair lift to find and tight suits are for keeping warm during winter.
To deter us both from getting into trouble I told her I was planning on moving to Australia and look for job as soon as I was done with school five months later. I thought that would scare off a small-town girl who had never ventured outside the zip code other than for vacation. And they have some pretty serious bugs Down Under.
It didn’t really work – a month passed and we both decided to end our respective relationships. We were not sure if we were destined to be together but there was enough spark to realize that we had to break up and leave the safe, comfortable situations behind.

The moment I knew I’d eventually marry her came only a few days later. On a cold, wet winter Sunday afternoon when I got home from an afternoon riding my mountain bike in the woods. 














I had dirt and mud all over and dragged my slobby Cannondale hardtail up the stairs into her apartment since I had no place to wash it asking if I could hose it down in her shower…
There was an awful long moment of silence and some highly raised eyebrows but then she turned to me and looked at my muddy face and asked if she could come with me next time and try riding in the woods.















Three months later we moved to Switzerland to work for Cannondale. We only made it a quarter of the way to Australia but we started living together in a new, exciting country and 11 years and two kids later we don’t get to ride MTB very often anymore, but we have been blessed that the bikes have taken us on adventure round the world.














We have since that day done half marathons, half Ironmans and a 24-hour MTB race together and although we’ve never been on top of the results list you might say we’ve won something somehow. That’s at least how it feels.















Happy Valentines Day!