So, my old Danish roommates moved out. Which is good, they were kind of assholes and we let them walk all over us. Our new Danish roommates moved in. They're much nicer, although they're incredibly fucking white-people. They shop at Whole Foods, listen to Coldplay and weak world music and they make a shitload of money.
Anyway, a friend of my wife and myself hit a bit of a rough patch. She works on movies and with the economy being what it is, a bunch of her gigs got canceled. Then her apartment got condemned. So, since we have a large-ish apartment with a totally unused cozy corner of the basement, we told her to move her stuff in for 2 or 3 weeks while she gets her life together. She's a completely normal person, it's not like she's a flaky artist or an unemployed junkie.
So, I ran it past my roommates- Our non-Danish roommate was totally cool with it and the Danes were also fine. Today, our friend moves her shit in. We had an extra mattress, so we kind of set up a little quasi-bedroom in the corner as we've done for guests in the past. She's not here THREE hours and all of a sudden the Danes have had like. Some major meltdown. The guy was freaking out, he pretty much told her to go get a hotel room. She had some funny, antique Chinese communist posters, so I hung one up on the wall. He actually took it down!
Now, whatever. It can be a pain to have a guest. But she's out of the way AND he's had friends staying here for the last two weeks. While we were out eating dinner before he called me SIX TIMES in 20 minutes. I finally called him back and he was like "IS SHE PAYUNG RENT HOW MUCH IS SHE PAYING WHAT ABOUT UTILITIES IS SHE LOOKING FOR A NEW PLACE". And we talked about this stuff already.
It's just like. I don't know. Is this a cultural thing? They love to be very... up-front, really intense. They love to force their opinon. And they are HORROCIOUS at sharing. Having lived with 4 Danish people now, none of them have ever offered me anything.
Anyway, I was hoping to avoid some kind of tense negotiation shit. Our friend will gladly split utilities and cough up a bit for rent, but she's in a bad spot and it just seemed like a nice thing to do. I hate tot turn into a fucking business deal. And I hate that last week they were very relaxed about it and now it's like she's a rabid racoon or some shit.
So, LESSONS: Danes are temperamental, kind of assholes, who don't like sharing.
-FIN-
