Every new guy at work has to have that one anecdote right? Well here’s mine.
I had been holding off on writing about the last two weeks here in Denmark, mostly because I was too lazy to do it, but now I have absolutely nothing to do after work so I decided to stay in the office and update this blog a bit.
When I arrived at the airport here in Copenhagen last November 25, I had quite the misfortune of being robbed. Not mugged, thankfully, but it still hurts nonetheless. As I was on my way out of the terminal at around 7am, I paused to take my jacket from one of my bags, knowing it was probably 5 degrees outside. Suddenly this guy approached me and asked me if his train ticket was still valid. He looked Caucasian, sounded a bit Eastern European, but that didn’t really occur to me at that moment as my mind was clearly on just trying to wear my jacket. All I thought was that he didn’t sound Danish. Not having any idea what to tell him about his ticket, I just politely asked him to refer his question to someone from the train ticket office. He left immediately, and soon after I was able to retrieve and put on my jacket.
I pushed my trolley a few meters then paused again to get some money to buy a train ticket. That’s when I realized my small bag, which was placed in the trolley basket, was gone. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had just been screwed, and it was like a pail of cold water had been poured on me as I listed down everything I had lost.
Wallet (damn, I just bought that gorgeous wallet and also lost 500 US dollars, 2000 Danish kroners, a few thousand pesos and all my ATM and credit cards)
Passport (holy f*ck am I an illegal alien now???)
iPod (oh joy)
Cellphone (crap I just bought a new sim card)
After what I knew was a futile attempt of circling the train ticket office trying to see if the man was still there, I realized that I had also lost my
Digicam (….)
At that point I wanted to cry.
(On a side note, I also realized one week later that I had also lost 2 watches.)
But of course I kept my cool (as I normally do), no hysterics or anything embarrassing at the airport terminal. I found my way to the police station, filed a report, called the credit card company to cancel my cards, phoned home so they can help cancel my ATM cards, and called my new boss to give him the unfortunate news. As I had absolutely no money on me, he had to pick me up from the airport and bring me straight to the office, because it was too early for me to check in at the hotel.
I’m not depressing too much over the things I lost. It might sound cliche, but they ARE just material things, and I could always save up again to buy new ones. I just hate the hassle of having to get a new passport, and all the documentation that goes with it. I hate my stupidity, although I don’t think it was something I really could’ve avoided, and I always thought it was bound to happen at some point, getting robbed I mean. I hate the fact that in my 25 years of living in the Philippines, nothing had ever been stolen from me, even if I wasn’t being extra careful, and then within the first hour of stepping into this new chapter of my life in Denmark, I get robbed big time!
I should be thankful though that I wasn’t hurt or anything. It could’ve been worse of course. I could have been mugged and stabbed or even left for dead in the cold streets of Copenhagen. Worse, the guy could have stolen my new laptop. Crap, if that happened, I think I would have lost it.
I got my per diem allowance on my first day so at least I don’t have to go hungry until my first paycheck. My colleagues at the office as well as some Filipino friends I know made generous offers to lend me money. I try to look on the bright side about losing that much money — now I have the perfect excuse to starve myself and lose a few pounds. Truly, I’ve had quite a few dinners of pears and bananas and oranges taken from the office lunch buffet. At least I’m on my way to a leaner, meaner me. 
Apart from that and a few office dinners and parties my stay so far here in Denmark has been mostly uneventful. I have yet to find an apartment, and it seems my bad luck is still on some kind of winning streak as I’ve had two apartments that I really liked taken by some other people from my own company. I’m still optimistic that my luck will turn though, and once I get my own place, with a nice kitchen to prepare some good home cooking, I know everything will be alright.
