First, I wouldn't be seeing substantial return on psychic investment until I had lived here for two or three years more.

Second, there are three types of expatriates in Denmark - "here for work," "here for a job," and "refugee." Out of all three groups, none seemed to have Danish friends unless they were dating or married to a Dane.

Third, my progress learning Danish was very slow because I didn't need or even want to use Danish. This is because I've never felt like I belong here or want to belong here. I've checked it out and it's not my bag. (Aside: the people here are very nice. One phrase I've seen a lot in travel gossip around the world is "the people are nice." In my experience, most people in most places are nice most of the time, as long as you are interacting individual to individual. Humans are nice. People in China are nice; people in the US are nice; people in Europe are nice.)

Since I have no plans to settle here permanently, all this argued against investing another year of my life just to make the year or two after that nicer. The job is still interesting, and we've got some fun projects for the rest of the year, so I'll keep working for Collaboraid. I still want to live in various strange places, and so I updated my essential criteria for selecting a home. There are three. I gotta have friends or family there already, speak the language fluently, and enjoy the weather. That left southern California, so I'm moving back to my birthplace, Los Angeles, from where I'll work remotely, travel back to Copenhagen for a month or so this fall, and not think about the future until I really have to.

Though I do want to get back to studying Chinese. 1 billion native speakers vs 5 million. Hmm.