And what America can learn from them — A little over a year ago, my husband and his two daughters moved from Denmark, voted the second happiest country in the world, to America, the eighteenth country on that list. Here’s what they think so far. American schools look like jails When my 10-year-old step-daughter joined a (well-ranked) public school in Brooklyn, she asked…

Sometimes I’m just as puzzled as he is — For a year and a half since moving to New York and then Los Angeles from his home country of Denmark, my husband has been asking me questions about this weird country of ours that I sometimes struggle to answer. It’s not that his questions are difficult. It’s just that…

Two polar-opposite people from two polar-opposite countries — You couldn’t find two countries more different than America and Denmark. The huge vs. the tiny. The loud vs. the quiet. The money-obsessed vs. the equality-driven. The huge egos vs. no egos at all. The fourteenth Happiest Country on Earth vs. the second. So it’s no surprise that my husband…

We can’t all move to Denmark, but we can bring some of it to us — When adjusting to life in Copenhagen, I noticed that things were very different in Denmark from back home in New York City. Locals seemed more relaxed, less addicted to their phones, more present with one another. Streets were quieter, shops and restaurants played gentle music on low volume. It’s almost…

And why you should, too — A new writer on Medium recently accused me of being racist. After a few back-and-forths, I realized she wasn’t interested in having a discussion. Instead, she wanted a fight. So I blocked her. Then, I was told, she wrote another piece where she said that I blocked her because I…

And stop pretending we have so much of it — At the bank last week, my Danish husband was told to get a credit card so he could “stop using real money.” My dear American friend just told me she has forty thousand dollars in credit card debt and she “can’t stop spending.” As is often the case in the…

You can borrow a dog and sleep under a palm tree — This summer, my husband and I were lucky to spend a few weeks in London. For me, it was a welcome return after having lived there in the past. For my husband, it was the first visit. My secret plan worked and he, too, fell in love with my favorite…

And needed them, too — They say you don’t know how much you need someone until you lose them My husband and I are working on an out-of-town project in a desert city three hours outside of Los Angeles. And last week, I had to stay behind there to finish the work while my husband…

A great example of how not to make friends and influence people (on Medium) — Today, I experienced the freedom of speech first-hand: anyone can write anything about you on Medium, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Here it goes. If you haven’t read my work, it’s usually light-hearted or humorous and revolves around anecdotes of my and my Danish husband’s life in…