A Post in Three Acts

Hold on to your hats, 'cause this is gonna be a long one.  So long that I've split it up into 3 acts (one of which is a fun announcement, so it's worth reading all of them).

Act I - Forced Home Remedies

Having a cold in Denmark is a pain in the ass.  In America, I would head over to the 24-hour convenience store and pick up a bottle of NyQuil and some cough drops, and I'd be good to go.  Unfortunately, they don't sell NyQuil, at your local corner store here.  And while they might have something similar at the local "apotek" or pharmacy, the pharmacies keep hours like most places in Denmark... they close by 6pm.

So last night, when it was 9pm and I was hacking up a lung, I didn't really know how to proceed.  I've had this nagging cold for a few weeks now, but it's gotten worse over the past week, to the point where tea and cough drops aren't cutting it anymore.  Some quick Googling told me that there are a few 24-hour pharmacies in and around Copenhagen, but the closest one is 3 kilometers away.  That wouldn't have seemed like much if I still had a car, but with a bad cough and temps below freezing, riding my bike there struck me as possibly counterproductive.

As luck would have it, my husband happened to be visiting a friend who had some cold medicine in his medicine cabinet that he was willing to part with, so I managed to finally get a bit of sleep last night.

I can't speak to how the prescription meds are here, but I can say that it's not easy to get over-the-counter stuff that isn't basically someone's grandmother's herbal remedy.  Today, when stores opened again, my husband went out and bought some kind of liquid that smells like licorice and is mixed with water, and made me some tea made from thyme.  Will they work?  Unlikely.  Will they taste good?  Nope.

Act II - Studieskolen Redemption

Earlier in the week, I was feeling a bit pessimistic about my new Danish class because of this.  Well, just as I'd hoped, the woman who will be teaching the class on Thursdays and Fridays is absolutely wonderful.  She's been teaching at the school basically her entire career, and really knows what she's doing.

So, I'm still not convinced that I'll learn much on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I'm hoping I can make up for it by learning everything I need to know later in the week.

Act III - The Announcement

I think I neglected to give an update on how my audition went after posting this.

It went poorly.

I was exhausted, nervous, and had just biked to their rehearsal space in the rain.  I had worked really hard to warm my voice up enough, and to try to learn the Swedish for one of the auditions songs, and then promptly forgot everything I'd learned.  They were extraordinarily nice and patient with me, but it really wasn't good.  I knew I could do better, but I knew I was only getting that one shot.  I blew it.

But...

Turns out I didn't actually blow it.  They called me earlier this week and told me they'd chosen me and one other girl.  So... Hey, I'm in an a cappella group now!

We had our first rehearsal on Wednesday, and despite this plague that I'm working through, I think it went pretty well.  I'll try to post in advance when we have shows coming up.

Hooray!