It took me a few minutes to figure out some of the rather ingenious appliances in my flat. As space is at a premium here, the washer is actually both a washer and a dryer, which is not common in the states (but a great idea). I had to read the directions carefully before I could operate it correctly :).
Likewise the oven is both a convection oven and a microwave - I have no idea how they pulled that one off, esp as it has metal grilles inside the oven compartment. I thought any metal was a no-no in microwaves but this one seems to work fine! Also quite ingenious. You can use it as either kind of oven.
And in the "comic misunderstanding" department, here's a few laughable mistakes I made in the first week due to the fact that I don't yet understand Danish:
- Bought buttermilk instead of milk and whipping cream instead of 1/2 & 1/2 (note to self: look at the *pictures* on the carton :)).
- Struggling with their coins: I still have to sit there and slowly count out the coins to pay for things. If there's a queue behind me I'll just pay with a bill, which means I amassed a great pile of coins by the end of the week! Thankfully a patient guy behind the counter in a local hardware store helped me sort them out yesterday so my "street weight" is now down a few kilos :).
Also the relocation company got my address slightly wrong (I'm in Apt. 4. TH. which means "to the right", they have Apt. 2. TH on 2nd floor) which means my poor neighbor on 2nd floor is now getting my post! Hopefully that will be corrected quickly and they won't start throwing things out :).
I remember lots of different types of milk/cream products in Scandanavia - almost none of which were actually milk. I went to a store with a Swedish speaker and we often couldn't find plain old milk.
Posted by: Scott Sherman | October 12, 2004 at 12:22 PM