Katthays asked me on the cafe thread to tell about me being from Denmark, so here's the story. Sorry if it's a bit long.
I was born in Denmark and lived there until I turned 20.
Denmark was a great place for my brother who's three years younger than me and myself to grow up. I grew up in a small town of about 5,000 people. Everyone knew eachother, noone locked their doors and from the 2nd grade on, I was home alone by myself after school every day until my parents got home. I rode my bike all over town to friends' houses, to sports, etc. My best friend lived on a farm right outside of town and I spent countless hours with her palying in the hay, visiting with the farm animals and roaming around the farm.
I went to school and studied languages when I got older and wore myself out completely the last year before graduating. When I graduated, I needed a break and ended up going to Florida as a nanny with a friend from Denmark for a year. I absolutely loved it and when my friend went back to Denmark, I stayed!
A continuing education in Denmark - at least then - would have been another 7-8 years of school and after that there was quite a bit a unemployment to deal with. So I chose to remain in Forida.
I was a live-in nanny for years. I stayed over 4 years with the first family I was with, taking care of triplets. The mother had some problems and wasn't involved with the kids a lot, so I was the one to go to parent-teacher conferences, the one who got woken up by sick kids in the middle of the night, the one to spend my weekend at travel baseball, the one to go to birthday parties with the kids, etc. Eventually the kids mother decided to try to become their mother herself and told me to leave. I still remember the kids crying hysterically when I left. I went to stay with a friend and the kids' dad took me - we both cried the whole way. Their dad got in touch with me a few years back and we've kept in touch since. The kids amazingly just turned 20!!! Their parents got divorced and the mother spent quite a bit of time in mental institutions and in rehab for alcohol abuse.
I went and worked for another family for about a year and a half, this time chosing one where the parents were more involved with the kids.
I met my Ex and ended up quitting and moving in with him. While living with him, I started watching people's kids here and there after school, Friday nights and sometimes for a long weekend if the parents went out of town. The business somehow grew to include pet-sitting and eventhough I don't babysit anymore (except for a few long weekends), I right now have about 16 families I pet-sit for. Word of mouth works great! Anyway, the Ex and I broke up and I moved on - though a few years later, he hired me as office manager and part-time trainer at the tennis center he ran.
The pet-sitting is a side business now. Right now my main job is working at the front desk at the gym, customer relations, that kind of thing. Before that, I worked for a few years at an insurance company and before that, I worked for two years at the tennis club. That was my favorite job ever and perfect for me, except for one thing - the Ex! I ended up having to quit, because we just weren't getting along anymore.
Anyway, I've been in Florida now for 13 years and I don't miss Denmark much these days. I've become pretty Americanized by now. I have my Dad and my brother still living in Denmark. My mom passed away unexpectedly after I was here for a few years and the last time I was in Denmark was for her funeral. I stayed there with my dad for 3 months afterwards and then moved back to Florida. Haven't been back since and haven't felt like it.
My dad and brother visit me and generally stay for 3 weeks or so and we have a great time together. They like Florida, too, and have become friendly with some of my friends over here. I'm hoping my brother will come again this summer.
Anyway, that's my story!
