5 STRANGE FACTS ABOUT DENMARK PART 3

Hej Everyone!

I know, that the upcoming posts were supposed to be about my apartment stories, however I think you are not that much interested in those.. Are you? Let me know! Today though, I have for you 5 Strange Facts about Denmark part 3. I know you love these series! Write a comment below and share your thoughts of Denmark too!:)

5 Strange Facts About Denmark Part 1
5 Strange Facts About Denmark Part 2

As always, a little disclaimer - these facts are not as strange to me as they were before. Those are the things that surprised me about Denmark and might surprise you! I am not writing these posts to offend Danes or show my huge love to them. These are just the things that I observed over 5 years in Denmark :)

1. Rich Students

In Poland (where I come from) students going to universities, in order to pay their rent and/or their expenses, they need to have a part time job. Unless you have rich parents of course! There are also some schools that you need to pay for. The people who did not get into public universities, are often enrolled into these private ones and they need to pay there money for each semester. Well, in Denmark all students are receiving their monthly pay from the government and trust me, they can afford to live well and party for that, without having to find any job! ;)

2. Black Prams

When my mother came to visit me here in Denmark she told me about this and I started noticing that. In my country there is plenty of colorful baby prams / strollers ! The bluest or the yellowest - the better. In Denmark though EVERY stroller is BLACK! When I said about that on my polish website, people commented that it is because, there is not that much sun here, therefore black brings a bit of warmth into the pram and the baby. Is that true, or is it just fashion? :) You let me know!:)

3. The Teacher May Be Your Friend!

I was so surprised when I came here and all the teachers wanted me to speak to them by name! Does not really matter if the teacher is young or older. They don't really like to be called mr. mrs. or Professor. Sometimes they can even sit down in a friday bar with you and have a beer together! It was a huge challenge for me because I come from a country where the power relation is kind of big and you talk to everyone calling them Mr., Mrs. or Professor and you keep a distance!

4. Clean Up After Your Dog (REALLY!)

When you see signs with "Clean up after your dog" you don't really pay attention to that, do you? At least I know me, and all my friends. However when they say so in Denmark, DO IT. Otherwise you will have people looking at you like killers or screaming from the window to clean the poop up! #neighbourpolice

5. Naked People Around Me!

One day I decided to go to the swimming pool here in Denmark, and what? And I was shocked! I had no idea that being naked is not a big issue here at all. In Poland everyone hide themselves in locker-rooms, or behind the towels, because you can't even see a knee of a child! (joke, or not..  but you know what I mean) Here nobody cares. Young and older women are going around with EVERYTHING on the view, either in the public changing-rooms or in the shower area. After a couple of times, I stopped caring as well, but until now it's a pretty strange view to me:)

Well, I hope you liked all of the observations and I am not the only one noticing them! Let me know what you think about it and if you have anything else that really surprised you?:) I am waiting for your comments!:)

Aleks

Why I needed to move out?

Hi everyone!

Long time no see - but, I needed to move out. In this post I am going to tell you, why I needed to do that. I am planning on making at least 3 blog posts about apartments in Aalborg and my experience with it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

(Read my experience on living in camp house and dormitory by clicking here)

(My first real apartment in Denmark and what should you be aware of when looking for one)

The 1st Reason

Not looking at the picture of my table with cosmetics, wardrobe and some boxes ready to pack, you can notice in the up-left corner, a really strange spot close to the window. Well, that's actually the first reason why we needed to move out. Me and my boyfriend started coughing, our eyes were all red and stinging, and very often we had running nose and a migraine. Why? Well, because we had MOLD in our apartment. We went to the doctor and he told us, all the symptoms are because of that, and it might be very dangerous for the future. (More about that issue in the next post - I know you like the short readings:) What agency was it, why we had mold and what to do in that case)

The 2nd Reason

Well, we had a dog in our apartment (as some other tenants..) even though we were not allowed to have one. Therefore after 3 years (haha) we got a letter that we need to get rid of the dog (SAY WHAT?) Hahha, never! I have seen that some of the Danes in the building did that (no idea where they put the animal), but we love our dog too much - then we knew it's the time to move out. 

Did you have any experiences with mold or animals? let me know!!:)

The next blog posts:

• Mold in the apartment - what to do?
• What are the costs of living in the center? (I get this question A LOT!)
• House tour (Some pictures of my old place)

Any other requests? Let me know!!

Follow me on facebook to be updated!

5 Strange Facts About Denmark part 2

Hej everyone!!

Some time ago I wrote a post called "5 strange facts about Denmark part 1" ( <- Read it there) and lots of you loved it! Even Denmark.dk shared this post on their facebook page!:) I knew right away, the continuation of that post will be needed :)

Again - Some of these facts may be normal to you, however those are the things that surprised me personally, if there are others that surprised YOU, don't forget to share them with me here :)

1. The danish accent + written and spoken form of the language

The one thing that stayed in my mind was one situation where my danish friend asked me if I knew the danish man : Andersen and I replied .. NO. Why? Because in polish we say his name directely as it is written, together with 'D' and 'R', so when she asked me about him I had no idea, who is she talking about!

The same is with other words that I am trying to learn in this video down below (another written form and spoken one, as you can hear:) )

 

2. There is more pigs than people!

You can of course interpret this however you want to, I am just saying.. :) There is around 5 mln people and over 13 mln pigs!:)

3. The tax is in avarage 49%

Of course there are some exceptions, as for the students - 8 % , but whenever you reach the earnings over some kind of limit you pay much more… and most of us do reach that and it feels so bad to pay half of your money to the state.. :( (And yes, I know what we are getting for that - education, health insurance etc, but the thought you need to pay so much is just depressing! :) )

4. Equality of men and women

I know, everything is great - women can go to work,  drink as much alcohol as men and nobody's judging, perfect - I agree, but there are some things that are just making me upset, as for example men walking first through the door, not letting the woman first… GRHHH I hate that! I still feel that a woman is a lady!!! :)))) and it is not acceptable in Poland when a man goes first, he is then treated as he was raised in a "bad" manner.

Another surprising thing is that you can see a lot of women working in a job that in Poland for example is considered only for men :) As in building construction or painting the houses:)

Also the one thing, I was told in the first year of my education in Denmark though my teacher - The head of the family in Denmark is the woman - not the man as in any other countries :) For example most men doing shopping or taking care of children when mother is coming back to work after the pregnancy :)

Can you also guess the toiltes are common is some buildings? Both for men and woman - even at my school :) In Poland - not acceptable hahhah :)  I am used to this one, but I still find that as quite interesting fact :)

5. Renting the apartments

First of all - almost everyone does that. In Poland its mostly students who rent, and directly after finishing their studies, they are getting a loan and trying to buy something. Denmark, among other northern countries are leading in the statistics of renting apartments in Europe.

Second of all, when you rent the apartment you come in to the totally empty one. You just see white walls and just a kitchen ( sometimes you even need to get your own fridge.. ) and what is the most funny is that you need to pay a deposit for that empty space, that is equal to 3 times the price of your monthly rent :) So speaking more straight - most of the times the deposit for these empty apartments is minimum 10. 000 KR (min. 1.000 Euro) of course depending on the price of the rent, in my case it was always 15. 000 for two rooms. Imagine bigger apartments and bigger rents :)

( I will write something more about renting apartments in Denmark,since it was highly requested:) Ask questions if you have any)

That are just some of the things that really surprised me and are creating Denmark as it is:) I am not judging here - those are just funny/surprising/strange/interesting facts to me:) Share yours if you found any!:)

All the best for the New Year!!

Aleksandra

Punished for entrepreneurial spirit?!

Hej everyone!

Some time ago I was watching a polish movie based on facts called "Układ Zamknięty" and I must say - I loved it, not only because of the story but also because of the danish details that were included in it.

Just to explain it shortly, the movie  was about 3 young men who opened a business in Poland, that after a short time was bringing benefits to the company itself and polish economy. Of course as it is, some representatives did not believe so easily in the fast success of these three businessmen, so they were all the time trying to do anything just to put them in jail. Finally they succeeded in it, even though men were not guilty, they spent 3 months in a jail, lost all of their money and company's equipment, one of them lost child because of harsh actions of police, one of the man's daughter stopped talking, and finally the youngest businessman was raped in a jail (what is actually very common in polish jails..)

In the end turned out, that the men even though are not guilty lost their business and in compensation from the state received only 20 000 DKK (2 500 euro) PLUS the men who put them in jail and were trying to make privately owned money on it (and we are talking here about public prosecutors) are still working in a public sector in Poland(!) That is just amazingly (if that word exist) pathetic! 

So.. about the danish details in it? I loved the moment in the end of the movie, when one of the danish colleagues, participating earlier as a supplier of the needed equipment said to already poor and dreamless businessmen, offering them a job in Copenhagen : Your buisness will be conducted in Denmark, where people aren't punished for ideas and entrepreneurial spirit.

Looking at the fact that this movie was based on facts and this whole situation was just loud (?) in the media, I would not add anything else to this blog post. The sentence in the purple lines says it all.

Best,

Aleksandra

The trailer to the movie :

Danish Language Video

Hej Guys!

Today just a very spontaneous video post that I have prepared together with my good, danish friend - Julie. For sure you recognize her from my previous post and video note on the danish study trips. If not click here to see it;)

Its a short video where you can learn basics in danish. We had a hyggeligt evening in, where we wanted to film something for you! (Danish Hygge post) ..  Hope you will like it! :)

Let us know if you want more of these, so we can continue that series:) Also, if you have any question about danish culture or anything, just ask in the comments! I know Julie would be very happy to make another video! Trust me! :)))

If you are more interested here is another post I made on a danish language where you can read other students experience with that:) 

Always use hashtags on the right where you can find the words you are specifically searching for! :) Maybe the post you are looking for is already there:) 

Check me you ucn facebook page for more updates!:)

Enjoy!

-Aleks:)

Rejsekort - Your travelling card

Hi everyone!

After talking to some students here in Aalborg, I noticed that some of them, did not know of existance of rejsekort. That is why I decided to inform you all about that.

What is it, for who and how much does it cost?
Rejsekort - Travelling card, is a card you can use when travelling in Denmark. The tickets are much cheaper than usual - the normal ticket in a bus costs 20kr, and  with your travelling card you pay only 9 or 12 - depending where you are and how much you travel. You can have your rejsekort totally for free, however  you need to pay an activation amount, can be 50 or 100kr , which you can later on use on your travelling. So if you are a student here and you know, there won't be classes in the uni every day, there is no point to buy a monthly ticket - because this alternative could be much cheaper.

The only thing that you need is your CPR number and danish account number so you can load up your card every time you need it. You can order it online (over here) and it will come to you within 1 week :)

If you are a tourist, you can also have it,then its called anonymous, but you need to pay for it 80kr.

When visiting other cities..
The great thing about it, is that you can use this card travelling in Aalborg and when you are lets say fly to Copenhagen, you can also use this card over there - from the airport to the centrum. For me its very convenient! I am lazy, and don't like buying a ticket every time I travel in another city, especially when its metro in Copenhagen and you don't quite have a time to buy a ticket, because the metro is going away in a half of minute.. :)

When travelling between the cities..
When you are travelling from Aalborg to Vodskov or Nibe for example, the card is still working and it's still cheaper. I was going last time from Aalborg to anoter city 25 km from here, without a card I paid around 50kr and with a card, only 28. However when you have a longer way to make, Aaloborg - Aarhus for example , then its not such a big difference, its actually better to buy a normal ticket then, unless you upgrade your card, but you need to pay more.

I hope you are now more or less informed. The website is also in english so I highly recommend reading more information about all of that before buying the card. http://www.rejsekort.dk

And remember - when you have a card already ITS CRUCIAL to check IN every time before a travel and check OUT when its over (by putting the card close to the blue point in the bus for example) If you don't do that, there will be money taken from your card. (I think it will be around 50kr)

Have a good journey!
Aleks