Juliane Maries Vej, 32,
Kobenhavn, Danmark.
Sept. 26, 1934Dear Miss Turner,
Here I am, and you can picture me sitting at the very same desk you once sat at. But first of all, before I go into the subject of Denmark, I do want to thank you much for "The Provincial Lady in America". I enjoyed it immensely as did several other people on the boat. I shall hand it over to Fru Krogh shortly. It was very kind of you to send it, and I feel dreadfully ashamed for not having acknowledged it before. We were on the go most all of the time in England. We spent a week in London at the beginning and then hired a car and toured all England, Wales and Scotland in a couple of weeks. That is a perfectly grand way to see things and I quite enjoyed driving the little car on the left hand side of the road. At the end of the trip I drove it right back to the garage in the heart of London. Miss Ordway sailed on the first of Sept. and I staid in London until the 10th, when I came on to Copenhagen via Esbjerg.
From the way things have started, I'm sure it is going to be quite a perfect year here. Every thing and everybody is just as nice as you said they would be. For the first two weeks I had a room over in Miss Haghfelt's wing, since there were some guests here, but yesterday I moved over and am more or less settled for the winter. There is noone occupying the other room but if it becomes progressively harder, I shall buy me a dyne and sleep on it.
There are only two foreigners in the lab this year, a young German exile and myself, though there is some talk of a Norwegian doctor coming after Xmas. I am working in the room directly opposite Miss Begtrup-Hensen's office, which is where I imagine you worked. The folks often speak of you and Dr. Landis and Dr. Keyes. Besides breakfast and lunch as in your day, we now have coffee at 3:00 P.M. in the sea-water lab. Every one comes and the Professor seems to enjoy it very much. I shall be glad when and if I can ever understand the meal hours. The morning seems so terribly short and I feel as if I were just through breakfast when it is lunch time.
My problem is going to be not too easy. We are going to reinvestigate capillary contractility, using first the nictitating membrane. It is necessary to use the oil immersion lens for observation and so the dissecting needles have to be brought up from below, which is rather difficult. We have tried out an inverted microscope and it works well, but the only difficulty is that it will take a half year to get one made in Germany or else buy an American one which is terribly expensive. It may be possible yet to use the regular one. We are going to try and stimulate the capillaries with micro-electrodes and then the Professor has some ideas about micro-glass blowing and hopes to be able to make some micro-pressure recorders. It always takes time to get started, but it's going to be good fun, I know. The Professor will not give up the idea of the Rouget Cells until he sees for himself that they don't function as Vimptrup found.
This problem of dinner at night is still a little puzzling to me. I have been eating quite often at the housmaid's restaurant and find it enjoyable but very Danish. Each meal is a total surprise and there certainly are some curious combinations placed before one. Noone there speaks a word of English and I had my difficulties at first. One night, early in the game, after I had finished the soup, the waitress muttered something to me, and not understanding her, I thought it safe to say "ja." The first thing I knew she came bearing me another huge plateful of soup and it was a little difficult getting her to remove it. "Ónsker De" is now in my vocabulary and I now now [sic] what
e"mere" means, so I won't get caught again. I must say that I long for some good vegetables. Potatoes were never my strong point. I have tried the various Maelkeri on the Strógt and the Cafe La Reine, but none of them quite satisfies. Of course there are many more to try and I shall make the rounds in time.At present I am taking three lessons a week in Danish at the Berlitz School. I think they are quite good, but I don't know whether or not I shall take more than the first fifteen there. Perhaps I shall do as you did and get a tutor.
The second day I was here the whole laboratory force went in the laboratory boat to a near by island. For the first week and a half the weather was delightful, but now the good Danish weather is settling in. It is quite cold, rains a good deal and is dark at 6 o'clock. You know all of that. We had a grand time on the picnic, and even went in swimming in water about two feet deep.
Last Sunday I went with Miss Begtrup-H and Miss Lindberg (I don't know how you spell her name, but you know her) out to call on Miss B's sister and brother-in-law, the minister. He is now retired and they don't live where you went but in Helleród. It was extremely interesting. We had an elaborate coffee and then a more elaborate supper.
My first dinner party at the Krogh's came last Saturday. There were about thirty five guests and it was a sort of farewell party for some Danish-American friends of the Krogh's who were returning to the U.S.A. I enjoyed it all from the beginning to end, but it certainly did last hours. I long to try a cigar after dinner, and introduce the practice at home!
I have sent off to you the rubber tubing, which I hope is all right. The clips are being made and will be forwarded as soom [sic] as they are done. By the way, Mr. Christensen at Harvard can make them - he made a lot for me. The money you sent me is more than enough and I will send you more tubing later on in the year whenever you wish.Any other commissions I shall be glad to undertake. I haven't yet sent the letters you so kindly gave me, but as soon as things are going well, I shall do so, and I'm sure I'll enjoy seeing the different people you knew. Miss Haghfelt is very nice and jolly and I enjoy her. She is staying on. Professor Henriques doesn't leave his house until after Xmas, but is retired now.
There is so much to do and so much to see that my worries about being lonesome were useless. There are really too few hours in the day for all I want to do.
I hope you had a pleasant and profitable summer in Woods Hole and got a good rest on Mt. Mansfield. Your card arrived the day I did.
Most sincerely
Madeleine.Today was the Krug's birthday - and so I stood hours with all the other Copenhageners - waiting to catch a glimpse of him - which I did! I also saw the golden apples!