So I had quite possibly one of the most terrifying moments of my life Friday/Early Saturday morning. After a long night of drinking/bar hopping, I got on my train home thoroughly looking forward to crawling into my bed. Well, my ride takes a little bit of time and the last thing I remember is reaching the stop one before my station before unexpectedly falling asleep on the train. The next thing I knew, I woke up to my train pulling away from my stop and me frantically running to the door watching my town disappear into the distance. I got off at the next train hoping that I would catch a train going back the other way. There weren't any. After panicked pacing, I see a man standing on the platform on his phone. I walked up to him hoping he spoke English, and thankfully he did. Now considering this was at 3 in the morning in a little Danish town, the chances of this are next to nothing. What happened next boggled my mind even more. Apparently he had also missed his stop and needed to get back too. He called a cab for the both of us and even ended up paying for half of my cab fare. What makes this situation even more amazing is that since I had no smart phone and no information about where I was and what I should do, if that man was not there, I would have likely had to stay out there all night. While I never would have said this just a few weeks ago, I now swear guardian angels do exist, and mine takes the form of a bespectacled, well dressed, middle aged Danish man.
Moving on, tomorrow marks the beginning of my first short study tour as part of my core course week. Basically, I will only be "attending" my European Business Strategy class for the next school week. For this short study tour, My class will be travelling into Western Denmark towards the Jutland region to do some company visits. We'll be visiting a pharmaceutical company, a textile trade union, and a Danish sportswear company called Hummel. They have a small presence in the US, but a decent following in Europe and huge following in Denmark. The bus leaves from Copenhagen at 7:15 in the morning with our first meeting is scheduled for 8:30 in the morning. We'll be staying in hostels most nights and there are some planned events once visits are done including canoeing trips, bowling, and drinking around a campfire. Did I ever mention the Danes really like drinking? Yeah, just thought I should nail that point home one more time for good measure. It should be pretty cool though and I'm really looking forward to it.
So things are going pretty smoothly here in Denmark. It's slowly getting colder and the amount of daylight shorter, but things are still awesome and I'm starting to feel more and more integrated into Danish society.
All the best,
JP
Hookup: New York Moments Part 2
7 months ago
This reminds me of the incident when I was going from Berlin to Paris and realized that I didn't have the confirmation for my hotel reservation, and I didn't recall precisely the name of the hotel. http://naturgesetz-takecourage.blogspot.com/2012/08/germanyfrance-july-27-28-2012-night.html (See the last five paragraphs.)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't use precisely the term guardian angels to refer to these people (I think guardian angels are purely spiritual beings), but I do believe that divine providence is at work bringing these people into our lives at exactly the time we need them.
Thank goodness you didn't have to stay the night at some small Danish town but there's literally adventure everywhere you look. I guess this is really more for the future, including when you're in the US, just always try to see the adventure in all of it.
ReplyDeleteI had plenty of experiences where people were horrified by what I did(mostly my mom) but I always just laughed it off and considered it an adventure.
Nice to have a little adventure to keep things interesting. I have always found most strangers are indeed nice and helpful but best to be careful. Hope you are not an alcoholic by the time your overseas stay is done lol. - Wayne :)
ReplyDelete