The Theater and The Theatre

I took in some light-hearted culture this week.

I really enjoy going to the movies and to the theatre, but I haven't had much chance to since moving to Denmark.

In fact, on Sunday I went to the movies for the first time since we arrived.  My husband and I decided to have a date day, and went off to the Palads Teatret in central Copenhagen to see Skyfall before going to dinner.  I had to ask my classmates the following day about some of the differences in going to the movies here.  Turns out, America is the oddball when it comes to seating in movie theaters.  In America, you buy your ticket and then go sit wherever you want.  I was surprised by the assigned seating here in Denmark, but it turns out that's the norm in many other places as well.  I have to say, I kind of like it.  No need to worry about getting to the theater an hour early to get a good seat for a popular movie.  The screen and theater itself were also far smaller than what I'm used to.  It felt more like going to see an independent movie at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston.

In class on Monday morning, a classmate asked if I had any interest in going to see the Crazy Christmas Cabaret in Tivoli on Tuesday night.  I didn't know anything about the show, but I'm always up for a trip to the theatre.  It turns out that the Crazy Christmas Cabaret is in its 30th year.  It's an English language comedy show that has become extremely popular.  This years theme was Hitchcock movies, and my classmate and I had a good time.  The show was silly and completely ridiculous, but fun.

The biggest downside, though... the woman sitting in the seat directly behind me who thought EVERYTHING that happened on the stage was the most hilarious thing that she'd ever seen.  That in itself wouldn't bother me, but her laugh... I've never heard anything like it.  Her laugh alone was louder than the combined laughs of the rest of the audience.  There were moments when it was clear that the actors on stage were struggling to keep focus.  Good for her for clearly enjoying life more than most people, but... yeesh.

All of that being said, I did enjoy my movie- and theatre-going experiences this week.  I enjoyed them enough that I might just hit up a matinee in an hour or so.

Don't judge me for going to see Breaking Dawn on opening day...

Or do.  That's fine.  I deserve it.

Accentuate the Positive... and the Negative

There are up sides and down sides to living in any country.  Over the last few days, I've seen a few clear examples of Denmark's good and bad sides, so I thought I'd share.  

I'll start with the positive.  

The Danes are an extremely trusting people.  They trust their government, and they trust each other.  Over the weekend, my husband and I went to a second-hand shop and bought this little sideboard:

Since we don't have a car here, we made arrangements to have it delivered on Monday afternoon.  Well, actually, my husband made the arrangements.  In Danish.  I understood that the cabinet was 500 kroner, and the delivery cost was 200 kroner.  What I didn't catch was that the delivery cost was to be paid when it was delivered, not when the cabinet was purchased.  So, when the guy showed up at our place, and after we'd brought the thing into our "pub room," he surprised me by asking for the 200 kroner.  Which I didn't have on me, having assumed it was already paid.  Once I called my husband to verify that the delivery charge was to be paid upon delivery, I apologized profusely and ran around the block looking for an ATM.  Didn't find one.  Closest one was a good 10-minute walk away.  So the delivery guy not only drove me to an ATM, but he also navigated the one-way streets, going out of his way, to then drop me back off at home.

Now, you might be thinking, "Of course he did.  He wanted his money."  True enough, but we later discovered that one of the doors on the cabinet was locked, and we didn't have a key.  So, my husband called the second-hand shop to see if they had the key.  They said to stop by the store and they'd see what they had.  When I got to the store yesterday, the man at the counter handed me a bag of keys, supposedly keys to every piece of furniture in the store that needed a key, and told me I could take the bag home, find the key that works, and bring the bag back when I was done.  So, today, I'll head back and drop of the bag of keys, having found the working key and opened the cabinet door.

This is all totally mundane stuff, but it's stuff that just makes me feel really great about how kind and understanding and patient people can be.

But then, they go and screw it all up.  

A couple of days ago, the Copenhagen Post posted this article.  The article discusses a flyer that was posted by the management at a local movie theatre warning movie-goers that, since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was coming to an end (a month in which Muslims are not supposed to do things like go to the movies), they could expect an influx of "annoying" Muslims at the large blockbuster movies, and that security guards would be on hand to deal with any "unacceptable behavior" by said Muslims.

It's just so wildly, blatantly racist that I don't really even need to say anything about it to make the point.  Other than... Hey Denmark... This shit is not okay.  Anyone who says it's okay is also a big, giant racist, and you shouldn't be listening to the advice of racists.

The people in Denmark have been extraordinarily kind to me, but I fully recognize that part of this is because I'm tall and blonde.  I look like one of them.  It breaks my heart that people who don't look Scandinavian often have an exponentially more negative experience.