"You would never see a Dane do that..."

I've heard that phrase more this week than any other time since arriving in Denmark.  It must have been a very un-Danish week for me.  In retrospect,  I also found out it was un-Swedish and un-British so I'm thinking I was Icelandic.  (Having never been to Iceland, means that I was probably simply American.)

So here are some things you would never do in Denmark: 
1) Use the oven to make something that is just for you.  (Guilty.)
2) Wear athletic shoes to keep the snow out.  (Guilty.)
3)Turn on too many lights. Instead use candles to make up the difference. (Candles when you can have electrical brightness?)  Guilty.
4) Use the Danish language incorrectly.  I thought I was saying that I was sore, but instead I told everyone that I had murdered myself.  (Jeg radbrækket mig.)  Fantastic.
5) Climb on counters to reach high shelves.  (Guilty.) In my defense I'm shorter than the entire rest of the population, but step stools are apparently available.

On another note:  In London, they don't use the phrase goofing off.  How sad, since it is a fantastically useful phrase.  They do have a phrase for wasting your time, but not for the having fun part of goofing off.  So they asked me what you would say if you were wasting time and I answered, "I was piddling around."  Apparently there, piddling means peeing.  So ya, I just told everyone there that I was peeing around in the kitchen.  Fabulous.

Life is funny and some of the mistakes need to just roll off your back.  I'll do better next week or I'll just have to laugh at myself again.  In the meantime, I'm imagining myself on a lake, like Joshie above, and the wind is in my hair and I'm screaming for all I'm worth with the pure joy of speed and wind.  That's not so Danish either, but I think that's ok.