Hodgepodge for 500, Alex

It's been a bit of a quiet month as far as posts go.  Oddly enough, this is more because there's been too much going on than that I've had nothing to write about.  So here is a brief rundown of this months news:

I'm about a week and a half into module 3.2 now.  It's been a bit of a strange experience, as we had a whole bunch of new students join the class.  So many, in fact, that there are now more new students than people I know.  Stranger still, most of the new students were put into the class directly from module 2.  It seems their teacher thought that they were all so good that they should skip 3.1 completely.  It's entirely possibly that the really are that good, but it does mean that the our teachers in 3.2 are having to repeat a lot of the stuff we learned over the past 6 weeks, and that does slow class down quite a bit.

In other news, I've had my first experience with Denmark's national healthcare system this month, and I have to say... so far, it's a huge improvement from my experience in the US.  I decided it was time to meet my doctor and ask a few medical questions that I've had on my mind for a while, so I called to make an appointment.  They assign a doctor to you when you get your CPR number, and that doctor's name and number are then printed on your "yellow card" (your CPR card).  I was a little worried at first, as the first time I called I got a message saying there were too many people waiting on the line and that I should try back later.  Next time, though, I got through no problem and made my appointment.  Once I got to the office that day, all I had to do was swipe my yellow card in their little machine, and my appointment time popped up on the screen, and I was officially checked in.  The doctor was very nice, and everything seems to have gone just fine.  Even better still, I didn't have to worry about if or when I would get a bill in the mail.  So far, so good.

And finally, my folks have been in town for the last week.  They fly out this morning, but we've spent the past week walking all around the city, seeing the sights.  When learning a new language, it helps to put things in perspective by being visited be people who don't know the language.  I was reassured by how often they would ask what sometime meant and I was able to give them an answer.

Then again, my mother was picking the words up quickly enough that we're fairly certain she'll know Danish before I do.