First Day Volunteering

I mentioned before that I would be volunteering at Cafe Paraplyen this semester. It's similar to a soup kitchen, except this house is open to the public and charges its visitors a small fee (38 kr is considered a small amount by Danish standards) for a hot meal or a dessert. Cafe Paraplyen also holds a variety of classes, workshops, and talks that people are welcome to attend...they even have a masseuse that comes in periodically. (His services are available to both volunteers and house users...I got to get on that!!)

The day started with a 9:30AM meeting over breakfast to assign duties. I was preparing my traditional breakfast of jam and cheese on bread when I smelled a strange odor. Thinking that I must be sitting close to an open trash can, I proceeded to take a bite out of my breakfast. Then I sloooowly set the bread down. What I really wanted to do was projectile vomit across the room and gargle with scalding hot coffee to get the offensive taste out of my mouth...but that would make for a poor first impression. The volunteers sitting next to me, two hilarious older women who reminded me of those "crazy aunts" that you always see on TV, caught me discreetly scraping the cheese onto my plate. 

Birget: "Oh yes, that cheese is a little strong."

Me: "Yes, yes it is."

Alice: "You don't like it?"

Me: "Um...what kind of cheese is this?"

Birget: "It is cheese from cow... very old cow"

Birget and Alice proceeded to crack up while I miserably finished my jam and bread, still contaminated by the essence of that accursed cheese. I'm not even exaggerating. I had used my fingers to shift the cheese on my bread and my fingers smelled like ripe old gym socks!! UGH.

Birget: "Maybe you should try the Brie?"

Me: "No thanks...now I'm scared."

The table was filled with food and laughter. Nothing like everyone in the room laughing at a joke that you can't understand to motivate you to actually start learning Danish. People proceeded to introduce themselves to me in Danish and I just nodded politely until my supervisor Louise saved me. Sorry first half of the table, I still have no idea what your names are.

I got assigned to work with Darle washing dishes. Now I really wish I had a picture of Darle. Hopefully I will get one before he leaves in a month. Darle was born in Italy and immigrated to Denmark when he was young. He has the build of a boxer and sleeve tattoos that he hides under a sports jacket. He has pierced ears but only wears an earring on one side. When he rolled up his pants to show me the Viking (He pronounces it "Weeking". Too cute, this man.) tattoo on his leg, the elderly woman knitting across from me gave him the stank eye. When he's not volunteering at the Cafe, he works as a cars salesman. On the weekends, he sells antiques at the local market. Even though he looks like a total BAMF, he is always smiling and cracking jokes. He looks like he's in his early 40's but he's actually 54, he boasts. Why am I telling you this? Because I ascertained all this relying only on broken English and an elaborate game of charades. BOO YEAH, I AM THE MASTER OF THIS GAME, Y'ALL.

Darle spent the day teaching me random phrases in Danish (I remembered for about two seconds how to say "salt", "pepper", "young", "old", "Thanks for the meal", and "See you next Friday!") and how to operate the dish washer (I simply MUST have one in my future house. It made dish-washing nice and steamy). We also spent the day figuring out where the random items go. Seriously, there is a drawer specifically for egg slicers. Ain't nobody got time for that. I love mindless tasks and I am moderately certain now that I was born to be a professional dishwasher. They had to pry me out of the kitchen and force me to have lunch. Just something about stacking the plates and the cups, sending them through the dishwasher, letting them cool, and putting them back where they belong, restoring order in the chaos of a busy kitchen....aaaah, therapeutic.

A few pictures to illustrate my experience:

Hot coffee and tea are free at the cafe. Guests can pay
 extra for apple juice or soda.Look at this cool
 coffee maker!!

Menu of the Day: Ground beef cake with onions

The ground beef cake is served with beets and
potatoes,drowned in brown sauce.

Volunteers get a free meal on days that they work. They can also drop by when they're not working for a discounted price. I could not do justice to this meal with only a caption and a bleary iPhone 3 photo. Apparently, this is a very traditional Danish dish. Another volunteer (who looked like a punk-rock version of Heath Ledger), described it as "old-school". The beefcake (the food, not the volunteer) was topped with caramelized onions...but it could have been crap for all I cared. It was ALL about the brown sauce. More like crack sauce. After I finished the potatoes, I was tempted to search for some bread to mop all that goodness up. I have no idea what was in that sauce, but John (the chef) certainly knows what's up. I don't even like beets, but the their tanginess complemented the hearty savoriness of the sauce so well, I cleared this plate. Meat and potatoes. Them old-school Danes are definitely my kind of people.

One last thing: my experience this week really taught me the necessity of picking up some basic Danish. I felt so ignorant during my interaction with the other volunteers and the guests of the house when they would make the effort to communicate despite their limited English and I couldn't even meet them halfway with some limited Danish. I literally know nothing expect "Tak" which is "Thanks" in Danish. I mindlessly thanked people all day for handing me their dirty dishes like an idiot for lack of a bigger vocabulary. I was making small talk with Nina, an elderly volunteer, and I told her I was studying Neuroscience back home. I think she misunderstood me and thought I was already in medical school. She told me she had cerebral palsy and wanted to know more about it. I didn't have the Danish capabilities to convey to her that I really wasn't qualified, and even worse, I couldn't express any sympathy either. I did my best, but I'm sure I just came across as awkward. She looked sad, I felt like a turd. ):

I have to take both the metro and the train on my commute to and from Fredericksberg, but this was the first time I got to sit in one of the end cars. The metro that runs through Copenhagen is completely unmanned and comes around every minute or so. If you have an all-zone pass, or even a pass with less zonage (I completely just made up that term, but I hope it catches on), definitely take advantage of the metro and explore the area around central Copenhagen. There is so much going on everyday!

Doesn't that just look sick??

So yeah, DIS is about so much more than just your studies. Take the opportunity to volunteer -- a perfect way to immerse yourself in the Danish culture, understand modern issues from a new perspective, and meet interesting people -- all while having a great time (and getting fed)!