One month and fourteen days...

That's a lotta time, but I might as well get starting on this thing now so I'll be good at it by the time people actually start reading it. Plus it gives me a way to avoid homework while waiting to graduate and get started on my adventures.

Denmark! It's a random country, I know. The most I ever thought about it before now was only two hours' worth of semi-conscious thought, watching "Hans Christian Anderson" as a kid. Since then there has been, in my cleverest of moments, the occasional "something rotten in Denmark" comment. But that's about all the attention I'd ever given the country, until now.

Why the sudden interest? Over several months/years I have had an increasingly unquenchable desire to travel. Coupled with a very low/nonexistent budget, this was a bit frustrating to me until I found an interesting idea...Au Pair-ism. It's way to experience another culture first hand: living with a family, making friends with them, and working for them (babysitting and help around the house), doing some traveling on weekends.

I originally thought I wanted to go to one of three countries: Italy, Spain or France. I was interested in these countries mostly because those languages would be easiest after Portuguese. But nothing seemed to be working out for those countries. I discovered after a phone interview with a Roman family that Italian laws prohibit American au pairs. Though many just ignore that law, I couldn't bring myself to do that (something about being honest in your dealings with your fellow men...) so that pretty much ruled out Italy.

Then I got a great offer in Copenhagen with a family that was nicer (by far) any other family I had been in contact with. After my initial "where's Denmark?" reaction, I did some research, and discovered that not only is it a great place, but the laws are much more in favor of au pairs, including American au pairs, than any other European country I had researched.

So, long story short, I am now so excited about it that I'm starting a travel blog one month and fourteen days before I leave. But it's really not that much time....