Little things

As I'm getting used to all things Danish I find myself less and less surprised by the small things but thinking back today there are a lot of small things that threw me off a bit in the beginning. Here is a small list.

1. Light switches are typically small square buttons and flip the opposite direction. ie. down is on.
2. When people go grocery shopping you only shop for a day or two, not the whole week. For this reason you don't see many shopping carts.
3. Because there are no shopping carts homeless people can't keep their stuff in them as is the fashion in nyc. Instead they use handtrucks or fashion rickshaw type carriages. (Also I've only seen like 10 homeless people, all in better shape than most in ny though equally crazy).
4. In money, commas and decimals are the opposite of the US. 3,000.00 is written as 3.000,00
5. Sometimes you see something for like 49,99. I'm not sure but I think this is an impossible price to make with Danish currency. The cents are called øre and I think they are only in denominations of ,25.
6. No fatties. Sure there are some heavier people but it's really pretty rare to see someone I'd call obese. In my nyc experience I'd say maybe a quarter of people on my train everyday were visibly overweight.
7. Bikes bikes bikes. They are everywhere. This is pretty obvious but when I first came here I really wasn't prepared for how much people ride. Also I've learned that people are just as much impatient assholes on bikes as they are in cars.
8. History. Århus has got some! Again, obvious but unexpected when I first arrived. The office building I work in for example is from the 1600s, over 100 years older than America, additionally it's in great shape. Things are extremely well cared for here.
9. At grocery stores the cashiers sit down and they have a panel in front of them that lifts up which is where the money is kept, not in the register.

It would have been nice to have an even 10 but I can't think of one more right now. Maybe ten could be that I'm surprised how much it feels like home. I've been here a bit over 3 months now but I feel extremely comfortable and it genuinely feels like a lot longer. The city is smallish and in a way reminds me of the city where I went to school. It's got the same sort of charm and while Århus is a bit larger it affords the same sense of familiarity.

Also, I started Danish lessons and it's great! Having been mostly programming for the past 2 years I think has restructured the way I process information and I think my mindset is now a lot more compatible to learning languages.

vi ses!