My Top (and Not) Three for November

Wow, another month has gone by. Here are my top three this month:

1. The weather. – I mean, who doesn’t like the weather in November, anywhere up from 50th parallel north? Well, most people. Usually, I’m such a whiny baby when it comes to less than ideal atmospheric conditions, but for some reason, I’ve been enjoying the crispiness and relative dryness of the Danish November. I think I’m just happy that it doesn’t rain all the damn time.
2. The jump start on the Holiday season. – Normally, I would be annoyed with people getting into the Xmas spirit at this time of the year. In the United States, there is Thanksgiving serving as a sort of a buffer, which prevents people from freaking the heck out and decorating everything in red and green before December. Plastic turkeys and gourds rule until Black Friday and then all hell breaks loose. In Denmark, this happens more or less at the end of October. But I’m okay with it. It’s dark here and why wait to drink glögg?
3. I saw a fox on my street! – yes, a real fox. It was trotting along and I was too stunned to reach for my camera. I asked my neighbors about it. They said: “oh, yeah. That fox. It probably lives across the street at the Outdoor Museum.” Apparently, it’s seen around here quite often. This neighborhood is only getting better.

Three things I’m not so thrilled with include:

1. My language school. – It needs improvement. I passed my Module 3.1 exam, which I’m very happy about! I got great feedback and I feel like I’m starting to understand more and more. But the school itself… It has rigid rules (you miss three classes  – for whatever reason – and you’re out. People come to class sick and spread disease), a rigid structure (you feel like Level 3 is too high and you want to switch? Nope. You need to fail first), and an extremely short break (15 min) which is normally spent in line for coffee. It’s also shrouded in mystery. What happens if you don’t pass an exam? Some say you take the class over. Some say you get bumped to a lower level. And I used to think that you need to start paying tuition if that happens. But I don’t know anymore. No one likes to give clear answers at this school…
2. Buses that come and go EARLY! – When I first moved here I was thrilled with the buses and how they come on time – or slightly early – and are hardly ever late. But now that I’ve missed my bus on a couple of occasions, I realized that these damn buses will often come early! (This would never happen in Japan!) Now I need to make sure to plan on being at my stop as much as five minutes before the scheduled arrival.
3. There is a fox living on my street. – I’m worried about my cat, Bixby. He thinks he’s a badass and starts fights with other cats in the neighborhood. I hope that if he encounters the fox, he’ll know that it’s not a cat and that he needs to walk away from this fight.