More Adventures in Copenhagen

Time for another entry!

After a slow weekend the last week was very fun. Plenty of events, yet time to hang out, make food on my own, practice some Danish, and yes, get my bike back.

I was hoping to have a busy last weekend,with plans to meet up with new and old friends, but was disappointed when the majority of them fell through. But it’s my blog and I’m not going to write about the disappointing times :)

I did get a visit from my friend Katie, a fellow volunteer with me at the UW in a peer health education group. She was stopping in Copenhagen for 1 day on her long journey to China. So I got to give my first tour of the city as a resident which felt good and was fun.

The new week started off well. On Monday I got to meet up with my Danish teacher (Jan) and classmate (Yuki) from the UW for beers and dinner. Jan actually teaches Danish in Denmark over the summer and then returns to the University during the school year. Yuki is a recent graduate but absolutely loves Denmark and is renting an apartment over here. It was great for all three of us to finally meet over here in the place we had been talking about in class the whole year.

On to more bike news… Thankfully I believe the bad luck with my bike is over, although I have passed it on to friends in my class. I was borrowing Anya’s (German girl from my class) bike over the weekend who was out of town. I warned her beforehand that I had bad luck with bikes, and she had heard my presentation on bikes, but she thought it was safer with me than parked at the train station. Her bike was completely fine, but the next day her lock broke. No reason really…just stopped working... but I did warn her.

Another bad luck bike story: I was at the beach with Giuseppe and while walking back to our bikes he dropped his key to his bike lock into the sand. We assumed it would be easy to find, but 15 minutes later with the help of 4 other searchers he was carrying his bike back to his apartment. He didn’t want to leave it at the beach because it would be a pretty easy place for it to be taken, and more importantly it was his landlord’s bike! Needless to say it garnered us a few weird looks, particularly when we tried to carry it using my bike (don’t ever try this)…

Thankfully I have passed the bad luck on because I got my bike back from the shop and it rides just fine. The repairman fixed the spokes and there is no shaking. He mentioned that the back wheel is bent, and will eventually need a whole new part. It seems fine to me though and I will just ride it out until something happens. Let’s hope it lasts 4 months and my bad luck with bikes ends with Anya’s broken lock…

On Thursday I had my first night working at “Studenterhuset”—try translating that one yourself—which was great. Studenterhuset operates mainly through student volunteers and offers some of the cheapest drinks in the city, with further discounts for staff and students.

My first night was great because it was not too busy so I got to get the hang of things having never worked in a bar before. I won’t be doing anything too fancy though. If customers want any kind of mixed drink they have to buy it separately (a shot of rum, and a coke for example), and then they pour it! …makes it easy for amateur bartenders like me, and we normally get beer orders anyway.

It was also a good chance to meet lots new people. I was working a shift with international students from Italy, France, and Switzerland, but there are many Danes that help run, and frequent the bar allowing me to practice a bit.

Even though it is a volunteer position they still “pay” you quite well. All non-alcoholic drinks are free on your shift. For every shift you work you get 5 drink tickets which you can use another night to come in and have a beer, or come have a coffee during the day, or give them to a friend. Also, if you have the clean-up shift, its free drinks and pizza while cleaning up!

The only problem was I thought I was working 7-11, but Thursdays they close early and only have 1 shift from 7 to around 2. Needless to say I was tired the next day, and after class and meeting up with some friends at an electronic music festival (not a big fan…) I retired early for the night. My next shift is on Wednesday for international night where it will be much busier, and I will be staying later to clean-up, but I am excited to work again.

I am also really excited for my upcoming trip with my brother Donnie and dad Kirk for quick stops in South France, North Italy, and the Swiss Alps. My landlord just left yesterday on a trip back home to Albania so I have the apartment all to myself until the 6^th of September.

We will be traveling from the 24^th of August until the 3^rd of September so there will be no blog updates during that time. But I have been getting some questions about what the food is like in Denmark and what I and The Danes usually eat over here, so I may do an update on food in Denmark (a favorite topic of mine) before I take off.

As always, look forward to hearing from you. Have some pics below and new one's in the "extra pictures" album on picasa.

Jeff