Can't Hardly Wait

T-minus 4 days until I go home to Ireland for an entire month. I'm planning to go on a couple of decent road trips, camp on Achill Island (if it doesn't rain, I amn't a masochist), root through thousands of family photos and sort them into albums, eat real food, drink coffee in Bewleys, and spend time thinking at my mom's house in the West.

I have an annoying 'Is Summer Over'? cold due to the temperature dipping like a crazy. My chest hurts like it always does, and I'm sitting at home with a scarf around my neck drinking hot water with about half a lemon squeezed into it. I rarely get sick these days, so I'm hoping I can stave it off soon.

I'm doing that rarest of things and PAYING to check in a bag on my flight home. I was looking through my room packing up for the month, and realised I had a shelf full of books, a bag full of cross-stitching materials, a Gameboy and a dozen games, along with a charger for it, and countless other materials I rarely use, filling to make me feel cosy in new surroundings. So I decided to stop my serial hoarding, I am bringing all the nonsense home, where it can sit in my childhood room and be as cosy as it likes. I don't want to have to move apartment with two heavy suitcases and a rucksack, never again.

Not Another Bank Holiday?

It seems like we haven't had a Monday to Friday straight run in about six weeks now. Every week there's something. Pentacost, May Day, Random Holiday That No One Understands But We Get A Day Off So Who Cares...you get the gist.

Monday was yet another of those glorious days off, so we made the most of the sunshine, ate brunch at Paludan, my favourite café in Copenhagen (when you can get away from the loud international students ruining your breakfast with self indulgent nonsense, I left the English speaking world for a break from you, kids) , wandered around the Botanic Gardens of the Geological Museum (it was closed, sadly) and went into the Kunst museum. As usual, here's some pictures from my day.

The weirdest/coolest bike

This is the 5th largest meteorite found on earth! Just sitting in the grounds for anyone to touch!

I love the angle of the light, for some reason

I love the massive windows at the Kunst museum overlooking these gardens

I don't have the names of the artists of the above works, but safe to say I learned a little about Danish, Dutch and Belgian art from the 17th-ish century and I like it an infinite amount more than the Western European equivalents. Not that I know anything about art at all, really.

Bank Holidays are a-ok.

The Great Debate of Our Age; Working as a Waitress- London vs. Copenhagen

Let me preface this by saying; this is the last time I will work as a waitress. I'm 24, enough now.

Since coming to Denmark, I've been re-evaluating my entire life about 5 times per week day. I'm just your typical recent graduate, mid-20s looming, searching for a purpose, or at least a solution to pay the rent on time. I can't keep resorting to waitressing jobs as I stave off the reality staring me in the face: I should get a real job.

I don't mean to brag, but nobody works the casual end of the labour market like I do. It's not exactly a choice, or even the best choice for me, but with Irish and British economies how they are I've just gone with the flow and taken whatever work I can get.

Despite working my toosh off in college, I haven't managed to find a job related to my studies that suits my trajectory just yet, which kind of has something to do with why I'm in Denmark in the first place, taking a break and studying woodwork. I intend to start some voluntary work, get some 'real world' experience, but of course I need a paying job too.

In Denmark, if you don't speak Danish and aren't lucky enough to work in finance or business for a multi-national of some kind, the odds of getting a skilled job are slim. So many newcomers face months of unemployment and drained savings, or they just bite the bullet and get an unskilled job. I am no stranger to the latter, so I reluctantly figured some more of the same wouldn't hurt me.

I want to talk a bit about working in hospitality in Copenhagen, and how it differs from London, where I have the bulk of my waitering experience. Basically, London and Copenhagen are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to casual, or, as I like to call it, 'precarious' work. The minimum you can expect to be paid for a simple catering or waitering job can be as much as twice what you can hope to earn in London.

In London it is usual to lose a large proportion of tips to the TRONC system, which is an accounting system for taking that sneaky service charge (12.5% is standard on bills in London, watch out), siphoning off huge chunks of it, heavily taxing it, and cheekily presenting it to you as adequate compensation for 14 hour shifts and working every Sunday of the God-given year. In restaurants in Copenhagen tips are usually distributed amongst all staff evenly. Management, accountants and random HR personnel do not take a cut.

Labour legislation is a lot more stringent, and there is a mentality of fairness, cooperation and straight-forwardness that permeates work here. In London you will most certainly get called in to work at 6pm on a Friday evening, made to suffer with double weekend shifts for a month if you request a weekend day off, and face uncertain death if you call in sick because you are legitimately sick.

The 'Zero hour contract', fiddling you out of holiday pay, sly additions to your contract that are unfair and disempower the worker, the non-existence of unions, all commonplace in London. Life is certainly easier for the humble waiter in Copenhagen.

I know I've been slightly tongue in cheek here, but if I have to work evenings and weekends, I want to be doing something I enjoy. I'm fortunate enough to know these jobs are only a temporary stop for me, but for many, hospitality is their forever-job, the end of the job hunt. And it's no lie that waiters are some of the lowest earners in the formal labour market.

It is important to work in an environment where you get respect, have pride in your job, and, most important of all, get paid a reasonable, comfortably livable wage. For that reason, I am so glad that if I have to wait tables right now, I get to do it in Denmark. I'd like to say 'long may it last', but to be honest I'm really looking forward to getting out of the industry, into one with no apron included.

Taxing Matters

Claiming tax back, registering to be taxed, all that fun stuff that comes with leaving one country and moving to a next. It's such a pain. Luckily, the Danish system is so straight forward and I don't even have to fill in a form like I thought I would have to, just gave them a call. As it works out, I don't know if I'll stay here much longer after my course is finished, so the lady marked the form out accordingly, and chances are I won't have to pay any tax at all. How lovely.

HMRC, on the other hand, are never fun to deal with. Granted, I called the 'foreigner' number and didn't have to wait on the line for 10 minutes, but sadly the lady was able to tell me a letter has been sent to my Danish address because more information about my P45s is required. What information I don't know, because she couldn't tell me, and I haven't received the letter yet.

And so we wait. With my ever-decreasing bank balance, I know I am owed tax back, but who knows when I will get it. And I don't get paid in my new job until June, which feels like a lifetime away. Oi vey.

On the plus side, I made all my calls through Skype, and it cost literally a few pence. I could not be happier.

Hellerup, Bakken Amusement Park, and a Birthday

Last Saturday was Leo's 27th birthday, and, as we're not big birthday celebration people (well, he isn't big birthday celebration people, I love celebrations, but there we go), we kept it low-key.

I'm really relishing having weekends off, I can't emphasise it enough. The whole time I was in London I didn't get any free time to enjoy like a normal person, so it's such a novelty to sleep in on a Saturday and then lounge around.

For Leo's birthday we went on a trip to Hellerup, a beautiful suburban part of Copenhagen that's on the sea. We brought our bikes on the S-Bahn and then cycled up the coastal road, enjoying the fading sun and stopping at a few little beaches along the way.

We found the most famous petrol station in Denmark, design by the architect Arne Jacobsen. Architecture students flock from all over Scandinavia (well, Denmark, in any case), to marvel in the design of this gas station. I don't know if I share their enthusiasm, but then again maybe I'm just a philistine.

 

Bakken is home to the oldest amusements in the world. Entry is free, it's kitschy, colourful, and hosts a huge array of Danish people, many carrying giant chocolate bars or stuffed animals they won.

 It is surrounded by a huge wooded area, and I have been told that it's better in winter, when the amusements are closed and you can wandered around the shut down park like its part of a ghost town.

I didn't buy a birthday cake, because I'm a bad girlfriend, so when we got home from the cinema (we saw Stories We Tell, a documentary by Sarah Polley, it was really good) I stuck a birthday candle in an orange.

Happy belated birthday, mi querido.

Feels Like Spring

The snow is a thing of the past, and we're enjoying (almost) constant pleasant days. Most of the time it's nice enough to cycle without a coat, and all the flowers that got crushed by the late snow storm we had in March are blooming. Sometimes it rains, but wouldn't we really have something to complain about if it never rained?

On sunny days, all these Danish families emerge from their tea light filled homes and walk the streets, strollers a-tow, soaking up the rare sunlight.

Buildings are lit in a different way, and everything looks quaint and tiny and beautiful. One thing is for sure, Copenhagen is a whole different world when the sun shines. I can't believe I wore wool tights and waterproof trousers for so long.

Here's a few pictures of us enjoying the nice weather over the last few weeks.

I made Leo get rid of this monstrosity

Suburbia

Spring Spring Spring!

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up

On a whim, we booked tickets to come to Berlin for the weekend. The novelty of being able to go on a bus to any part of Europe I like had to be taken advantage of. On Friday we cycled with our heavy backpacks to the town centre. Leo's ticket was for Saturday, not Friday, because he's a silly goose, so we weren't sure if he'd be allowed on or if I'd be spending my first day alone.

Luckily the driver of the other bus let him on, so we were reunited on the ferry crossing from Denmark to Germany, and again once we arrived in Berlin. I was sitting beside a scary lady who scolded me for talking on the phone for two whole minutes, and then accused me of playing too-loud music. It was the radio on the bus. Talk about difficult.

Goodbye Denmark

There was a literal snow storm all the way to Berlin. I saw three baby deer and some storks, and I didn't see much else. There was about 20cm of snow in all the fields and I awoke from my nap to find thick snow banging against the windows of the bus on the motorway. Scary stuff, but I really love snow so I was delighted.

One of my favourite things about Berlin so far is that I found out  that they are fans of the concept of Kaffee und Kuchen much as the Swedes are of Fika and the Danes are of, well, I don't think they have a name for it but they go to cafes constantly and play board games. All these lovely ideas are centred on the concept of gemütlichkeit (German), gemytlig (Swedish), or hygge (Danish). I know we don't have the same concept in the English speaking world, but if we just launched an educational programme to teach people that the feeling they're craving has a name and exists in these Germanic contests, I just think everyone would be a lot happier. It's out there, people, and it's gemütlichkeit!

I'm leaving to go back to Copenhagen tomorrow night (11pm bus, potentially terrible decision), and until then we're just taking it as easy as is humanely possible. I'm going back to Ireland for all of Easter and like the big saddo that I am I am going to miss Leo so much, so I really just want to keep him all to myself until I have to leave. That being said, he's been asleep for the past two hours :/

Our hostel is adorable, we have a pink and white room with a canopé(!).

Berlin itself has been somewhat difficul to negotiate in the snow. It's so so cold that you really just want to stay inside, but we've mixed museum hopping with occasional coffee drinking outdoors and lots and lots of walking around. The S and U Bahn look so lovely and old fashioned, and the architecture is so interesting. We've visited a lot of museums; Bauhaus, a musical instrument museum, Topography of Terror museum, we've been to Checkpoint Charlie and the usual famous sites of Berlin, and last night we made a U Bahn tour of  the trendy going-out areas, then came home to the safety of our warm room for tea and book-reading. Because we are that cool.

Here are some pictures of the trip:

(It's a carpenter's bench!)

Snow Much Snow

I was incredibly sceptical of all the snow storm talk at first, but am currently eating a massive bowl full of my words. For it is March, it is more than mid-March if you will, and every time I look out my window the snow is getting heavier. Euro News says it's -1 but 'feels like' -6 Celcius. There are about 10cm of snow. I don't actually know if that's accurate or not, but it feels about that. I tried to find a picture from Google Images, but either the search engine doesn't understand English or Google is disintegrating slowly, but it just won't show me what I want. So you'll have to make do with this mediocre picture I took from my room.

The snow from outside my window

I'm chilling (well not, it's balmy in here) in my room, anticipating the beginnings of my new Vonnegut book (a decidedly vintage edition). I just read Slaughterhouse-5, so I'm really excited to start this one, but since I have a 7 hour bus ride to Berlin on Friday, I might try to hold off. I'm also having the staple Breakfast tea and some Lindt sea salt chocolate. Verdict: not as good as salted caramel,  but still very good.

                

The Weakerthans may be my favourite band, so I was overjoyed to discover the principal lyricist and vocalist has a new album out. I'm definitely downloading it to immerse myself in this weekend.

Long Time Passing

I know, I know, the blog posts are coming few and far between these days. The truth is, it takes such a long time to put a post together, and a lot of the time I'd rather be playing my flute or reading than sitting at the computer. That being said, this is my only written record of what I'm up to over here, so I have to keep up with it.

I've just finished my Monday joinery class. We cut wood to start a project, of which I shall explain more later. I had the best weekend; my friends from home visited, and I haven't giggled (or been thrown about by the wind) so much in months. It was the coldest weekend, because of the wind chill, that I've endured since moving here, for sure. I think we need to work backwards to go forwards, so I'll start where I left off, and update you on last week before going on about this weekend.

Pedagogically, last week was not the best, and I was a little disheartened because of it. Our lessons were, at times, unstructured, and there was a lot of being left to our own devices, with too little wood and tools that were in need of a good sharpening. The problem is I want to spend absolutely days, if not weeks, practicing the one joint over and over, but because of the nature of the course that's just not possible. So instead it feels like we're racing through things, and it makes me a little sad/frustrated that I can't get the most out of my time.

I made a promise to myself to stop comparing my progression to others in the class, to just go at my own speed, and to try and make less mistakes. Lots of tiny mistakes lead to an overall mediocre finished product. This week has started so much better. I'm making a flute box as a project, so I got my dimensions planned today, practiced a dovetail joint (disaster, but hopefully tomorrow will be better), got some wood and learned how to use the saw and planing machines properly in a small group.

Outside the world of woodwork, last week was a bit of a mixed bag. My ballet class went very well and I'm noticing some improvements in my posture. Our budgetting is going swimmingly, and I love how little we're spending here. I finished reading Slaughterhouse-5, which is definitely the most enjoyable book I've read in a long time. Unfortunately, the job I thought I would definitely have didn't quite work out. The langauge barrier was too big of an issue, and so I have to look elsewhere for employent. I'm going to go to the local Irish bars, where it's presumed you're an English speaker.

So, onwards to this weekend I think, as my dinner is waiting for me downstairs. The girls were delayed by a couple of hours at Dublin airport, but no harm done, as I met up with a friend who goes back home from the airport every day. I also really enjoyed the buzz of the Arrivals hall. I love airports, so I was more than happy to sit nearby with a coffee and watch the kids wave Danish flags and wait for their dads to get home. I also had a Danish flag, and at the modest hour of 22.00, some two hours after their expected arrival, two of my best friends arrived at my new home.

We took a train back to my apartment, giggling and joking the whole time. I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time. We took in the usual sights, the Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Andersen on his self-named street. We also ate a lot of cake, had delicious brunch, and went to a decidedly Twin Peaks-y karaoke bar. I couldn't believe how quickly the weekend flew by, but luckily just four days ago I booked flights home for Easter, a glorious 8 day trip. I am honestly so excited to go home and see all of my friends and family.

Ok, I'm going to wrap it up here, I'm off to eat some dinner before getting down to some future life planning I have to do. I'll post some pictures soon.

Some Pictures from Last Week

The frame for the screen printing press I am making

I (we) made a bench!

The first sunny day since we arrived

This bark had grown around the gate

The Swastika is one of Carlsberg's official logos, they just don't use it anymore for obvious reasons.
 Leo hugging a dubiously clothed elephant.

Wood outside a ridiculously expensive organised food co-operative

The story behind the McDonalds picture is that I became a militant vegetarian at the ago of 12. One whole decade later I turned back to meat, and now follow a diet which makes me very happy. In the past, I liked to cling to ideologies that defined me, or that inhibited me to really enjoy myself. It's taken literally 10 years, but I finally decided that at some point you have to stop being defined by ideological aboslutism. It's ok to eat a hamburger every once in a while. I had a Happy Meal, and I damn well enjoyed it. 

This was the single greatest cafe experience of my life.
I cannot wait to bring my lady friends here next weekend.

She was eating that ice like an ice pop!

Master of Snow