International Cafe

One thing I thought was going to turn out to be great when I first got to Copenhagen was the unbelievably high female to male ratio in the student population. I went to the university's "International Cafe" last night. The "Cafe" had a DJ, a bar, and no baristas, so I'm not sure why it's called that, but there were a ton of girls. Out of probably 200 students there, I was one of maybe 30-40 males. It was great in theory, especially since I'm at the top of my game at this point in my life. But in reality, many of the girls were bitchy beyond belief.

I know, maybe it sounds bitter or whatever, but almost every girl I talked to frowned at me from the start of our interaction until the awkward end. Most of the time I asked questions as benign as "How are you doing?" but they still found reason enough to treat me with as much contempt as they would if I were asking them to blow me in the bathroom. Even then it would have been a little excessive. Afterwards, my roommate confirmed my theory. I told him I was surprised international girls were the most standoffish (bitchy). "Man, I could have told you that." He treated the information like it was just another fact tourists don't know until they finally get on the ground. At least it's not just me.

Besides the suffocating sexual inadequacy I experienced most of the night, I had a great time at the cafe, called "Studerendhuset" I think... I got there before anyone had started dancing, and I was wasted before I even left the house. I was prepared to have a good time whether the rest of the people in club wanted to join or not. I got the DJ to play "Like a G6" by convincing him that it didn't matter since I was really the only one listening.

By the end of the night I found myself making regular trip outside trying to coax people far more sober than me into giving me cigarettes. It's really the only time I smoke, when I get wasted and listless. I managed to convince a quarter of the people I talked to into bumming smokes, and when I gave up I offered a beer I had bought at a 7-Eleven for two and got a taker. Bad trade? Yes.

After I left with a one of the girls who also went to Madison, we found that the train was shut down for the night, which I thought was impossible. It was 3am when we got to the station. We waited there, for no reason at first. "What are we going to do?" she asked me helplessly. "I don't know, walk? What else are we going to do?" I was not about to pay Copenhagen prices on a Copenhagen taxi. "We can't walk!"

"There's no way you're gonna walk back." A guy with a piercing in the center of his bottom lip assured us in a Danish accent that we would need to take a bus if we wanted to get back before morning. We talked to him and my new German roommate who was also waiting for a bus until one finally came. On it, I met an excitable Dane who preached about the benefits of marijuana and sold m a gram for less than 6 USD. Pretty sweet deal, too bad I spent close to 40 USD on nothing but booze and cigarettes that night. I guess rice and oats are gonna be my best friends for the next couple of weeks...