About Us

Us

Hi. My name is Allison. And this is my husband Brian.

We moved from the US to Aarhus, Denmark at the end of July 2013 and are currently on our first expat adventure. It’s supposed to be for 3 years, but who knows where life will take us. This blog is to chronicle our adventures as we try to assimilate into a new culture and learn a new city. It’s also to share the unique experience of being an expat. Stay tuned to hear what we learn.

Vi ses!
*As a permanent asterisk to all of my posts I would like to say that I write primarily about the differences between US and Danish culture. To do that, I have to generalize about both cultures. I also sometimes exaggerate just a bit to get a point across or highlight a cultural difference. I in no way mean to pass judgment when I do so. Sure some things are new and unfamiliar to me, but I try to keep an open mind and heart. And I am loving Danish culture so far.

Have any questions? Send me an email from my Contact page.

45 thoughts on “About Us”

  2. I think that, as Americans, we’ll discover there are similarities between the Danish and Norwegian people. I know that my husband, who is Norwegian, will totally disagree with me. 🙂

    I haven’t been to Denmark yet (other than spending hours in the Copenhagen airport – but hey, it’s a great airport in which to spend time!) but I look forward to visiting eventually … in the meantime, you’ll help me get acquainted with the country and culture.

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    • Just so long as we’re not talking about similarities between the Danish and the Swedish! Then I think we’d be pressing some peoples’ buttons 😉 I’ve only been in Aarhus so far, and I’m looking forward to visiting the rest of the country. It’s supposed to be beautiful. And I’m looking forward to visiting the rest of Scandinavia while we’re here. How long have you been living in Norway?

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  3. Yes, the buttons would be pushed! 🙂

    Have you seen the “Scandinavia and the World” web comic? http://satwcomic.com/ They are a riot! And after you’ve been here for a while and really get to know the differences in the Scandinavian countries, you’ll appreciate her depiction of the countries through the characters, cultures, attitudes, food ….

    I’ve been here since January 2007. I first visited Oslo nine months before that and thought it was beautiful, especially the mountains. And then my husband’s job moved to Bergen – where he’s from originally, so he was quite happy – and I discovered that Oslo’s mountains were just hills! (Not really, but nothing can compare to “the gateway to the fjords”!) We’ll be traveling north this fall, we hope, and then I’ll see the REAL mountains and fjords.

    I hope you get to explore much of Scandinavia while you’re here!

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  4. So nice to see a bit of your world in Aarhus, Allison.
    Denmark is great! Have a lovely time, enjoy. I’ll follow you.

    Best regards from a Norwegian,
    living in Germany,
    spending most of her free time in England
    Dina 🙂

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    • Thanks, Dina! I’m excited to read your blog and learn about Scandinavia from the point if view of a native who is also an expatriate.

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  5. I found your blog recently and will read in a great excitement.. It is gonna be great to remember my similar experiences with Danish society and culture… And this small city Aarhus:)

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    • Hi Judy. I’m so sorry about that! I’m new to WordPress, and so I don’t have all the widgets and customization options down yet. I’ve added a follow-this-blog-via-email option that should appear at the top of the sidebar on the homepage. (For some reason, I couldn’t get it to appear on the About page, so I’ve put it also in a footer at the bottom of the page.) Please still consider signing up to follow my blog! I’m sorry I made it so difficult for you to do so : /

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      • Hi Alison…sorry for the delayed response! My boyfriend is from Aarhus and after his 3 years in Canada, we came back here for his work. It’s been a pretty big adjustment for me, but I hope to get through it and enjoy our next couple of years!

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    • Wow, cool! What’s bringing you to Aarhus? Let me know if you have any questions about life as an expat here. I’m always happy to share what little I do know 🙂

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  12. thank you so much Alison i will surely need some advices:)..love is bringing me to denmark:)) so i hope we can exchange ideas about the scandinavian way of living.i know that there is an expat group called international but if you have more ideas i would be glad to hear them:)
    take care
    eva

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    • Yeah of course! And if you wanted we could meet up when you get here.

      There’s the International Community group, which organizes a lot of events. There’s also a Meet-Up group called Århus Internationals which has a lot of events for expats. If you’re going to be looking for work I’d highly recommend checking out Workindenmark’s spouse program. They have a series of workshops that help orient you to the Danish job market.

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  13. waw so many helpful advices :)) thank you so much..the first thing i will do is to get a bike!! learn danish and look for a job..lets see how this will work out..even for europeans scandinavia is a special area..:))..far away from everything closed up in a luxury bubble..:)..i will definitely contact you to meet u:)..i am very interested to find out your opinion about danish culture,people and way of life..thank you again for your advice:)

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  14. Stumbled upon your blog from reading the BBC. I lived in Aarhus a few years back for School from Canada. Hope you enjoy it! Try Dee Dee’s Sandwiches across the Train Station for a quick bite to eat for lunch on the go! Also Mackies has one of the best burgers ever!

    Good luck!

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    • Thanks for the tips! I’ve heard that both restaurants are owned by Americans (or maybe one by a Canadian?), but we haven’t been to either yet. We’ll definitely try them out.

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      • It is till there, though I haven’t been yet. After all of these good reviews, though, I’m going to HAVE to go!

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  16. Hi! Thanks for following my blog! I look forward to reading all about your adventures – that sounded like a bloody complicated language test! And that was only Module 1??? Will Module 2 be on nuclear physics or something!?

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    • Hahaha, let’s hope not, but it is a two day long test with some sort of exercise book that you have to fill up. I’m not looking forward to it.

      I’m very excited to read about your adventures. Your post on visiting the doctor was hilarious! (And also sad because no one wants to have pneumonia, but mostly funny.) 🙂

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  17. Hope you enjoy your first Christmas in Denmark. I’m an American living i Norway… been here for 12 years now, but my plan was to come for 2 years. Looking forward to following your adventures!

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    • Hah, I hear that happens a lot in Denmark too, you come for a short period of time and end up staying. We’re certainly enjoying our Scandinavian Christmas so far. I hope you have a great Christmas in Norway!

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      • I’ve learned a bit. I can make it through basic conversations (as long as they stay on very specific topics) and through transactions at the grocery store (as long as they don’t ask me anything weird like, “did you find everything OK?”). lol. Are you learning/have you learned Norwegian?

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      • I’m fluent in Norwegian now. My husband is Norwegian. I speak English to our children and he speaks Norwegian to them, and he and I speak Norwegian to each other. My English is a bit scary now 🙂 I forget ordinary words,and put my sentences in the wrong grammatical order. Never would have imagine that would happen when I first started learning the language.

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      • Hah, I’ve heard that can happen if you speak another language enough. That’s awesome that your’e fluent! I can’t even imagine getting there with Danish, but then we’re not here permanently (and we’re both American).

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    • Sorry about the delay in my reply to your message! It got kind of lost in all the holiday hubbub. I’m actually not currently working. From what I can tell, most people come here either to study or for a job. A lot of families come over because the husband got a job here. In Aarhus, the biggest employers are the university and a couple different companies that employe mainly engineers and project managers. It is kind of difficult to find a job in Denmark if you don’t speak Danish. Not impossible, you just really have to work hard at it and look for a long time. So my advice would be to look for a job before coming over or to come with enough finances to get you through 4-6 months while you search for something. Good luck!

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  19. Sorry if i have posted here already. This is not a spam. I’m just chasing dealines, but nonetheless i’m delighted I came across your site and was wondering if you or any of your readers can give me some advice about recruitment in Denmark. I’m working for a company that is looking to expand into Aarhus and was wondering if anyone had any advice on the best places to advertise locally. We are looking for English speaking businessmanagers so any advice would be greatly appreciated. We’ve advertised on Linkedin and Monster.com but haven’t had much luck attracting the right applicants

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    • I would check out the univeristy and see if they have a job center. They may be able to advertise or post something for their students/graduates or spouses of English speaking faculty and staff. I would also check out https://www.workindenmark.dk/ as they work with a lot of English speaking expats and their spouses and post jobs for them.

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