More Revelations about Denmark

1. The Danish have terrible sense of timing.
2. Black people here are invisible.

In the very first description of the place where I'd be staying, it was described as being five minutes away from the hospital. Mathilda (see previous post) told me it was about a 20 minute walk. So, I gave myself about 30 minutes so that I'd be 'on time' for the hospital today, which I arbitrarily decided would be 9 am, since I hadn't really gotten any instructions otherwise. Guess how long it took me to get there.

You were all very close, but Meg was the closest with 45 minutes. Prize goes to her.

More proof of #1 above was that they weren't expecting me in thoracic surgery until tomorrow (despite the fact that my emails all said to show up today). They also thought I was one of two Mexican students, though, so I'm hoping that the switch from orthopedics to thoracics was actually done. Apparently the (hopefully old) contact I have for ortho is in another hospital which, according to the nice lady at information, is 'not quite on this map'.

So I showed up at the hospital this morning, found my way to the thoracic surgery department, and found the first person I could wearing a white coat (after wandering around the floor and not finding any main-desk-type-area): 'Hi there, I'm an exchange student starting today. Do you know where I'm supposed to go?' Eventually found the guy I was supposed to, though today is apparently not my first day. He seemed very happy with my suggestion that I take the day off to tour the city. I did find a bunch of cool lakes/parks to run through/around on my way to the hospital, and figured out how to get there by bike for tomorrow too. Not very many people here wear bike helmets, so I'm taking that as a sign that the Danish are exceptionally safe drivers. Also, there are bike lanes everywhere here, with their own stop lights and everything.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: more proof for #1 above. Here the lights go from green to yellow to red. Then they turn both yellow and red before they turn green. Apparently Danes need advanced warning to get ready to hit the accelerator.

In all honesty I could probably use the day off. Last night, I'm guessing, was a big football night for Spain. Through most of the night I could hear 'olEEE! ole ole ole. Oleee ooooollleee', and a bunch of Spanish-sounding cheering. Either that or I live in a Spanish district that really likes to party on Sunday nights. Only time will tell. Between that and jet lag, maybe today wouldn't have been the most productive day anyhow. Probably will end up going to the amusement park down the street.

The apartment building I'm living in is home to 'Africa House' on the main floor/basement level. Was empty yesterday, which I figured was normal for a Sunday, but it's also closed today. Have also passed by not one, but two specialty 'Afro haircut salons' and at least a couple of Ethiopian restaurants. All empty. The only logical conclusion I can come to is that black people are invisible in Denmark. Well ok, I did see one black dude on the train, and another Kenyan-marathoner-type running along the canal today, but still. Two black people in two days? Something is afoot.

Anyhow, just came home to change and grab my camera. Apparently blabbering about my morning was also on the agenda.

cheers,
-lp