Hyllestedvej day one on the job!!!

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Ahh Woke up bright and early kind of excited, but still a bit shocked at the early hour to see what was in store for me at work. It was pissing rain as it had been since I had made it to Kobenhavn yesterday afternoon. Benny had made coffee and laid out some things for breakfast for me. The night before he showed me some things that I could wear to work, including pants, his company tshirt, sweatshirt, and boots. He actually even gave me a hat that was way too small so I looked like a total goof. He brought out the lunch kit container from the fridge and said "take what you like" so i did and wrapped it all in wax paper with a cover on top for the soggy meats. All the toppings were deli meats and there was some patee spread, and remoloulade. Open faced of course. Heavy bread there as well. Thats good cause I hate white bread. Bad for you!!! We each had our own coffee containers, because if you know Benny he LOVES his coffee. No sharing haha. So we took off in the Fiat work van and I was kind of nervous but at the same time not nearly as much as my other first days at work. I was gonna take it as it came, and try not to get hurt on the way. Definetly one of the more brave things i've done though.
First stop was the lumber yard west of Dalmose. Stopped in and got the supplies we needed. I didnt know this but the contractor told Benny to do this cause he was the closest. His name was Thomas. I meet him later on though. Then after we got two huge rolls of what looked like chicken wire, and some screws, and a few lengths of lumber we were off past Dalmose to a bigger city, Korsor. We came to this big warehouse looking place with buoys all over the place. There was a big open space in the middle of the building. So I kind of put one and two together and figured out that was our job was to fix this. But still I was still figuring everything out. I was warned about Neils the older Danish fellow who worked for Thomas full time and didnt speak a word of english. Benny told me he had a bit of a temper and I should steer clear if things went bad. He didnt know what kind of a worker I was either so it was a learning curve. I met Neils and Jacob the younger fellow who spoke english pretty well. I worked with him most of the day so Benny could work with the grumpy old man!! At least thats what it seemed like. First break came around 830 ish. Not bad I was surprised at the pace. Not that I dont work at a nice easy pace myself but I was prepared for the worst. Had a couple sandwhiches and some coffee to warm up.
We started off the day by cutting up the chicken wire. I had no idea why but I made sure that it went smoothly. We cut each piece exactly the same length, to fit up on the roof as a safety method when we were to put up the roofing. It was safer to have the wire net incase you went through the plastic.Next Jacob and I were up in the JLG lift figuring out how to work it. He wasnt very smooth with the controls but he was getting the hang of it. We had these at my work as well, not that I had ever used one but it was cool to see. Benny told me its a Canadian patent this JLG. It was kind of scary the wind was howling and we were swaying back and forth a bit. I had to keep a keen eye on my hat. Later on Benny lost his, but grabbed it with a huge two by four on the roof. Second coffee break at 1030 Thomas came to see how we were doing. He was nice. Had very bad teeth but was nice to me. Didnt speak a whole lot of english either. I was getting a recurring theme that mostly young people spoke better English.
Jacob told me he learnt to speak well when he was working in Thailand for 6 years and 2 in mexico teaching tourist how to dive. He was very into diving and dove around the world. They spoke only Danish at the table in the break room. I just sat and listened to the funny sounding words, and tried to figure out what they were saying. We got to sit in the peoples break room out from the rain which was nice. They had a radio and a coffee machine, so life was good. Thomas brought with him a big bottle of booze to the table and a bunch of mini what looked like shot glasses. It was called Dr Neilsons and it was exactly what the doctor had ordered. I took one to be polite but rejected the next round promptly after. I couldnt believe it wasnt even lunch yet. Benny was laughing his ass off looking at my face. The guys all had another round in which they insisted I partake, Some safety dept haha. Were working on a roof remember! No safety harnassess either. Not like my work AT ALL.
This was a special occasion though, not a typical Danish coffee break!! I had been told. I totally thought it was just a normal day at the job. Back out in the pissing rain we went. We were stappling these chicken wire rolls to the forward framing as tightly as possible. I was doing everything I could to be helpful. Putting the screws in before and holding down the wire for Jacob when he couldnt reach. It was not bad work at all. I had no clue what I was getting paid though. I could only imagine.
On top of the wire we screwed down plastic to keep some of the rain out. Trouble was we didnt have enough of it to cover the whole roof, so we had to do the best we could. I didnt think that this would last the weekend at all. Seemed a bit mickey mouse after we were done. But as long as we were getting paid that made little difference to me. Finished up around 230 becuase it was friday and they only worked 37 hours I found out. Completely soaked though. The rain stopped just shortly after we left the job site. I was kind of hoping it would rain for sake of doing all this work.
Came home and Svetlana was worried about us, especially me. She was like ooo you poor thing. Ha I was milking it for what it was worth! She had a snack ready and then for dinner we had a traditional meal of Frickadillers!!! My mom mastered these a long time ago though, so I knew what I was in for. Shes quite the cook I must say, it was really nice to be taken care of once again!! The only I hadnt had in quite some time was the White cabbage which was pickeled and very yummy. Sveltlana was off to work, so Benny and I sat around and chatted. We got into the old photo albums he had from his mom, Ester. Very funny. I saw pics of him from his army days, some training photo of a guy with his leg chopped off. Tons of pics of Arne and Paul dancing away with bottle after bottle. Even saw my parents wedding photos and my other grandpa Hugh was there with my grandma Enid. There were pics of when they were in Canada and gave all the cousins fan hats that said Denmark, the three of us geeks. Couldnt find any pics of when we were in Denmark last though. Oh well after a cup of coffee it was off to bed for work on Bennies own job tommorow. Night.

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Photos

Benny
On the way from my first day of work in over a month

Stormy Beach
Good fishing here for Salmon Trout

Fields everywhere
ITs a sea of green