Back to Sønderborg!

I arrived in Denmark almost three weeks ago. And it has been an adventure just settling in. 

Two days before leaving on the 29th (easy to remember because my friend Ivan was married on the same day), I came down with a fever. I had a nagging feeling that something was not right, beyond just having a fever. I couldn’t imagine that I had caught a flu again - I had been sick for a good portion of the summer with a virus that turned in to a bacterial infection in my lungs. But I was treated and thought I was better.

On Monday the 31st, I got an email telling me that I could travel despite not having my visa yet. My flight was for that day and I had almost cancelled it thinking I would not be able to travel. The day was a blur of cleaning and packing and dealing with excitement and sadness and a fever that didn’t seem to want to go away. I took ibuprofen for the fever and pushed through everything else and by 6pm, with the grace and help of loved ones, I was at the airport getting ready to fly.

I had wanted to start my adventure my way and that meant assembling my bike at the airport and riding to wherever i needed to go for the night. That was a better idea when I was healthy but still a pretty great idea. I assembled the bike and rode out of the airport into the night to find my hotel. I was so happy about the bike lanes on that ride, it felt so safe and so exciting all at the same time.

I spent the night at a budget hotel, by morning my fever was up. This was 4 days with a fever and no other symptoms, I’d never had anything like it before and I was thinking best case scenario was that the infection in my lungs had not been cleared up by the round of antibiotics I’d taken in the states. It was a little hard to fathom being sick again and even sharing it with people was hard because it felt like I had sort of cashed in all my sick credits with friends over the summer. But it’s not the kind of thing you can ignore if it doesn’t want to go away.

That night I took the train to Sønderborg, (my home now!) and then biked to Loni and Kjartan’s house. They offered to let me stay at their place while they were in the States and hang out with their cats. This was a real gift. I have my own apartment but something about having cats around when you’re sick and in a new place is pretty special. My fever continued. I made it to a doctor who gave me a blood test and found levels of infection that were too high for the test he has to actually gauge. It took a week of antibiotics to bring my levels down to something he could actually quantify, and after two weeks I’ve started to feel normal again.  My lungs hurt but they feel better everyday and I am out on my bike in the sun and in the rain.

My visa finally came through so I was able to start work last Monday. It has been amazing, a mix of working with people and developing software - of planning and doing. I feel very blessed. I love going to work and seeing my coworkers. I’ve gone to a company relay race and had dinner at Georg’s. It has been a great way to start feeling at home.