Wednesday, August 15, 2007

A Very Good Place to Start

Not many people are crazy enough to spend half their maternity leave in a foreign country, but I was. My brilliant philosophy doctoral student husband received a short-term grant to begin his dissertation research in Copenhagen and there was no way I was going to do the single mom thing for eight weeks with a newborn. So the day my son turned one month old, we arrived at CPH.

Fast-forward one year later, the brilliant Michael has landed a Fulbright to research for a year in Denmark. It’s hard to pound out the dissertation with the ever-varying needs of a developing child under the age of one and the Fulbright was the perfect opportunity to crank out that monster and move on to the slightly more lucrative life of an assistant professor of philosophy at any college, university or place of higher learning. I gave up my job as communications director of my state’s flagship university law school to come to Denmark for a year, do a little freelance work, become a domestic diva and enjoy spending time with our sweet son John.

As it so happens, I’m also pregnant – due February 7 – which is sure to make our trip more interesting.

If you like reading random observations about Danish culture, motherhood musings, the autoethnography of my experiences with the Danish maternity system, my lost inner monologue on staying at home vs. working, recipes and adventures in cooking, make yourself a cup of tea and stay a while.

We arrived in Copenhagen today.

2 comments:

Roxane said...

Wow, you have no idea how happy I was to find your blog.
I am a mom-to-be about to move to CPH for my husband's grad study (sounds familiar...?)
If things go according to plan, we would be moving to CPH (from Canada) a few months after our first baby is born.
It was great to read that the whole thing is actually doable! It still feels like a rather insane thing to do, but at least I know that someone else has done it before and they made it!
Thank you so much

Rebekah said...

I'm glad I can help you feel a little better about the whole thing! Copenhagen is a great place for families with children. Rent a one of those huge prams for your little one and enjoy roaming the city!