Wrong.
The day soured quickly after we ventured out from DIS. My group decided to hit up the closest location on the list which happened to be a gay bar around the corner. What transpired was mostly our fault, but it really shook us up and set the mood for the rest of the hunt. Since the club was our first visit, we didn't really have a set idea of what we wanted to do. Did we want to just observe from the outside? Or should we go in and take a look around? Our teacher, Helle, had suggested that we maybe go in, order a glass of water (around 20 kronor), and soak in the atmosphere. We decided to bite the bullet and go in, thinking there would be plenty of people inside so that we could slip in and out unnoticed.
We opened the door and immediately four pairs of eyes were fixed on us. Three guys at the bar and the bartender turned and stared at us, four little girls with backpacks on, frozen in horror in the doorway. It was too late to back out so we awkwardly found a seat in the empty bar. The bartender came over to take our orders, but we were still puzzling over the Danish drink menu. It was only 1:30PM, far too early for a drink, and none of us were really hungry. One of us ordered a water while the other three politely declined. The bartender looked really annoyed and said, "This is an 18 and over bar." so we assured him that we were all twenty. I tried to explain to defuse the increasingly tense situation.
"I'm really sorry, we're here for a school project..." I was hoping to engage him and maybe get a Danish perspective on the Copenhagen party scene.
He cuts me off, "Well, you are certainly not going to do your project here if you don't order something."
We were really looking for an excuse to leave, and while we were hoping for something a little more discreet, being asked to would have to suffice.
When we got outside, there was a moment of collective, mortified silence. I was so appalled and embarrassed, I wanted the pavement to open up and swallow me whole. We shouldn't have gone in unless we were going to order something, but we weren't expecting to sit down in the first place. I guess this was also a lesson in Danish forthrightness. No silent disgruntlement on this bartender's part, he tells you straight up when there is an issue. I feel like this situation would have been handled differently in the States, much more polite dancing around the issue, certainly. My group decided to observe from the outside from then on and walked away from the scene of the crime as fast as we could, our horrified shuffle punctuated with occasional exclamations of "Oh my God." (I purposely omitted the name of the club because I don't want to give them a bad rep for what was probably an anomalous encounter.)
The rest of the scavenger hunt was tame in comparison. Considering that we took a stroll down Istedgade, a street in Copenhagen that is dominated by sex shops and adult clubs, that's how traumatized we were. We finally decided to take a break and sit in Baresso, the Starbucks of Copenhagen (Note: the ONLY Starbucks in Copenhagen is located at the airport. So yeah, leave your Gold Cards at home.) We spent a good forty-five minutes winding down and discussing different things we had observed throughout the city before heading back to DIS. As we got up to leave, all of sudden one of the girls asks, "Guys, where's my backpack?"
Her entire backpack. Complete with laptop, camera, and wallet inside. Gone.
We frantically started asking the patrons around us if they had seen anything, but really? We were sitting right next to her, and we didn't see jack. The scariest part was, it really could have been any of us. We had our bags carelessly tucked around us, mine was just hanging on the back of my chair. Perhaps the thieves targeted her because she was the only one with a backpack rather than a purse, and it was fairly obvious there was a laptop inside. One minute, she was tucking sugar packets into the front pocket of her backpack, the next moment, it was nowhere to be found.
We went back to the DIS and reported her items as stolen. The front desk informed us that DIS students are insured and can be reimbursed to some extent for stolen possessions. We made a list of the items in the stolen bag and then took a trip to the police station to fill out an official report. As we walked, Amber lamented, not the lost items themselves, but the emotional value they held. The pictures on her camera, two years worth of documents and files on her laptop -- no amount of reimbursement can bring those things back.
When we finally returned from the police station, Amber realized that she had no money to get back to her host family. The front office was closed. Fortunately, our teacher was still in her office and generously offered to pay for a klippekort (similar to a transportation pass). It must be said though that everyone at the DIS was so helpful and comforting about the issue...unlike the hot policeman who told us, "This is not uncommon. We get 100 cases each day. It may be a while until we get to your case."
Even though eventually the police will (hopefully) review the Baresso security cameras and identify the perpetrators, there isn't much that can be done.
A few lessons I learned from this experience:
1.) Keep your belongings close. Whether it's a backpack or a bag or just a cell phone, keep it close to you, especially when you are sitting down or walking. Keep backpacks or bags tucked in between your body and the seat so that you are leaning on it while you are sitting. iPhone thefts have been rampant in these past few weeks so a few tips here too. Don't leave your iPhone in loose outer coat pockets or in the outer pocket of your backpack. Keep them in the pockets of your tight-fitting jeans or in the pocket of your jacket under your outercoat.
2.) Back up files continuously. Sometimes, shit happens and there's not really anything you can do about it. Just do your best to preemptively minimize the damage.
3.) When in doubt, go to DIS for help. The nice ladies at the front desk were able to give us a checklist of things to do such as cancelling credit/debit cards, contacting PicCell to discontinue accounts, etc. Which leads me to..
4.) Keep a copy of all account numbers at home. Whether it's your credit/debit card number, your PicCell account, your driver's license, or passport, just keep a photocopy at home (in both Denmark and with your parents) in case something unfortunate happens so you can have all the necessary information on hand to take appropriate action.
5.) Minimize the amount of things you carry on you. If you don't need your laptop that day, leave it at home behind locked doors. If you're going on a field study in Copenhagen, DIS has plenty of lockers that you are free to use. Just go to the front desk in Vestergade 7 and they will help you check one out.
6.) To quote Alastor Moody, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE". Look out for your own belongings and be aware of your surroundings. Maybe if I had been less focused on my pastry and more on the people around me, we wouldn't have appeared to be such easy targets.
Another thing to note, be careful when you use the backpacks that DIS gave us. In Copenhagen, those backpacks pretty much mark us as easy prey because would-be thieves know that we aren't from the area. ...not that our tendency to speak louder than the average Danes in obnoxious American accents doesn't give us away. Don't get me wrong, I love my backpack, but I think I'm going to save it for when I get back to the States. Right now, it's doing a great job doubling as a laundry hamper.
This is one of those unfortunate happenings that makes you want to throw your head back and scream to the universe "WHO THE HELL DOES THAT?!? WHY. OH THE HUMANITY." Walking around all day, weighed down by the hopelessness of the situation and not being able to offer any real comfort was devastating, and I wasn't even the one who had my belongings stolen. I found myself clutching my tote bag a little closer to me on the train ride home today.
I don't want to end things on a sad note, so I'll leave you with something to look forward to. Short study tours are happening next week!! I'll be traveling to Western Denmark with the rest of my section in Medical Practice and Policy to conquer both castles and clinics alike! Expect all the updates! My camera battery is a-charging!
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