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I got an email a couple of weeks ago at howtoliveindenmark.com from a Danish woman who now lives in Germany.\xa0 She says that this podcast helps her keep in touch with life back home, but that she doesn\u2019t really like it. \xa0She writes: \u201cI have to tell you, that almost every story has a negative ring to it when you portray your thoughts on Denmark and Danes. I cannot shake the feeling, that you really deep down, do not like Danes or Denmark. I find this sad, as you have been living there now over a decade.\u201d

Lady \u2013 I won\u2019t say your name on the air \u2013 but you\u2019re full of baloney. \xa0Of course I like Denmark.\xa0 Otherwise I wouldn\u2019t be here.\xa0 I do have a pretty nice country to go back to. \xa0

I like living in Denmark, for a lot of different reasons.

One of them is that people here have a lot of time to spend with their children.\xa0 There\u2019s a clich\xe9 in the U.S. business world of the CEO who quits because \u2018I want to spend more time with my family\u2019.\xa0 That always means he\u2019s been fired.\xa0 But in Denmark, people really do want to spend a lot of time with the people they care about.\xa0 I think that\u2019s one reason why a lot of people here are not very ambitious \u2013 because getting ahead means working a lot of hours, and they want their free time.

The pace of life in Denmark is much slower than it is in the US, or the UK.\xa0 There\u2019s much less competitiveness, which can be a good and a bad thing. There\u2019s never a feeling of fighting to get through the day.\xa0 Before I lived in Copenhagen, I lived in Manhattan, and there, everybody wanted your job, everybody wanted your apartment, everybody wanted your boyfriend, everybody wanted your seat at the restaurant \u2013 everybody wanted everything you had, all the time.\xa0 Denmark is much more relaxing.\xa0 And people have much less stuff here.\xa0 The taxes are so high that you can\u2019t buy a lot of stuff. People don\u2019t go shopping just for fun. So people have fewer things, but better things.\xa0 That means less clutter, and less stuff to clean, which is always a positive in my book.

Other things I like about Denmark. I like the biking culture, and the mass transport culture.\xa0 I do have a drivers\u2019 license, and I enjoy driving a car, but I also like the interaction with people you get on a bike or a train or a bus.

And the public transport system generally works well \u2013 not always, but generally. Things work well in Denmark, not as aggressively as they do in Germany, where I used to live, but generally well.\xa0\xa0 I love Southern Europe, but I don\u2019t think I could live there. The disorganization would drive me crazy.

In general, I find Copenhagen quiet, but sophisticated. I\u2019m happy living here.\xa0 I have no plans to live anyplace else.