Kindness of strangers

So, my second day in Denmark we made it to the bike auction, where we had about an hour to look through over 200 bikes that had basically been confiscated by the police, looking for things like flat tires, bad breaks, loose pedals- anything. Anywho, the auction starts, all in DANISH, of course, and the guy offers to do it in English knowing all the international students that are there, and said to just raise your hand and ask. Ok, they wheel a bike out, he starts at 50 kroner (about $10 US) and it goes up in increments of 50 until the last one is standing. Since there is a 25% "auctioneers fee," we all decided our limit would be about 500 DKK, just to keep it from being too expensive.

But, you could never tell because he went so fast! You're at 50 one minute, 750 the next! Utter craziness for my feeble mind. One French guy attempted to ask for English, but the auctioneer basically laughed at him, then held up his fingers instead of saying the numbers, all the while laughing at him like he asked some sort of absurd question. Anyway, there weren't many girls bikes so we had to jump on them. Eliza was first, but was actually going against Jena, although neither could see each other, which ended up driving the price WAYYYY up. Either way, she got a good bike...for about 750 DKK :( The guy that took us there got one next for about 200 DKK, and then it was me!

I saw a purple bike, it looked ok, so I held up my card. And kept it there for 10 seconds before it was MINE! For only 100 DKK, 125 with the fee. YAY me! Only $25 for a nice looking bike. There was a crazy old hippie man outside we paid to cut the locks off (for mine he actually figured out the "code" that you sort of punch in, so I got a free lock too! woo!) Anywho, it ended up having a completely FLAT tire, and I attempted to repair it, but basically Emiel did most of the work, which in my mind is how it should be because he is DUTCH! All they do is fix bikes all the time, right?

Happily ever after...until we actually looked at them.

Well, we patched it but then I found out it has this really NOT COOL pump mechanism that doesn't work with most pumps. How the hell should I know that?? Grr. So my bike has been sitting around completely useless for 3 weeks while I pay 11 DKK for a 2 hour bus ticket (yea, about $2. RIP.) So today, after shopping and a bit of happiness that ensued, I was like "Yo Sar, get your act together and fix that shivvy!" So naturally, I asked my roomie's boyfriend to help me. (AMERICAN IN DISTRESS!)

Most.awkward.situation.ever. First off, this guy is Danish, and after knowing my Dane guy friends, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't know chivalry if it hit them in the face.

True story. We cook all the time, but he just watches TV, and never even OFFERS to do the dishes. At least make a verbal effort buddy, come on. Its like 3 words! Ugh. Anyway, he claimed he would have "no idea" how to help me get the tire back on, and then his girlfriend, my roomie AND friend totally backs him up. Come on, he's 1. a DUDE. 2. my friend 3. my friends boyfriend and 4. sitting there doing NOTHING.

I was beyond irritated, but went out and tried by myself, in the dark, for about 20 minutes to no avail. Thank god bwalt was online so I could ask him some important Q's! Unfortunately, he is a dingbat and only wanted to video chat to make things better which was totally impossible. But cool idea. So I watched some youtube video of a nimrod showing how to replace a bike tire, but knew I had already messed up.

Then, facebook got the best of me. I noticed my downstairs neighbor from Slovenia was on, and asked him for advice. Not only did he offer to come HELP me do it, but was super nice about it. Even though it was 830 at night, freezing, dark, we had no tools, and I messed everything up.

Either way, I think that was just plain old cool. I guess when you can't count on friends, you turn to perfect strangers.