Kevin's Watch

Finally. Un poco de breathing space! My prolonged absence (probably noticed by few and regretted by fewer still) is due to a highly unexpected arrival: my wifes 28 year old cousin from BLEEDING PARAGUAY has decided to immigrate to Denmark.

He has been sent here by his father (my wifes uncle) and his mother (a Paraguayan citizen) because of the financial crisis hitting Paraguay with a vengeance messing with job opportunities and money for education.

We were told of his arrival two days after he landed in Copenhagen airport. During this time he had been tossed back and forth between immigration authorities, police and the county social office that happened to be closest to the airport.

My in-laws (that's his aunt and her husband) picked him up and sheltered him for a few days. After which they tried to persuade his father (my mother in laws brother, who is a danish citizen but lives in Paraguay) that he really should get his son home. He refused. Now, this nearly broke up the family and ended up in much crying, disowning, reciprocity and gnashing of teeth, with the poor non-danish speaking kid (yes, he is 28 ) in the middle of it all, just seeing everyone colapse around him. How intensely crappy that feeling must have been.

So, there was only one alternative to putting him back in the streets: Casa del Prebe, where he has now been living for two weeks.

His father has been smart enough to maintain his sons Danish citizenship (he lived here the first two years of his life) and hence, he is not even an immigrant in the usual sense of the word, which has the local county immigration authorities baffled beyond comprehension. I feel like friggin Kafka speaking to them, but it is all hugely entertaining.

He's a good (if shy) kid and he's settling in, actually taking bike rides around the countryside now.

Stay tuned!

Does he enjoy røde grøde med fløde, røde pølse, knasende sprøde and øl?

Prebe wrote:My prolonged absence (probably noticed by few and regretted by fewer still)...

So that's where you've been.

--A

Sounds like quite an ordeal for everyone concerned. And I can tell you, being the same age as your new guest, I wouldn't want to be suddenly shunted off to a strange country. It must be pretty disturbing for him.

There's a book in there ... with a movie deal ... you just need one or two more plot twists to nail it.

Best of luck with the new arrangements, Prebe.

Thanks guys . I'm still a bit shaken (not stirred of course).

Vader: He's had rød grød (summer fruit poridge) although without fløde (cream). He seems to loathe all dairy products.

And much to my joy, he hates øl (beer) which leaves all the more for me.

Edit: He's learned to work the lawn-mower now. Not fast, but ít still beats doing it yourself.

WF: I was thinking of that myself. It is amazing how often reality surpassed immagination.

Good luck. That's a fine thing to do for him. Hopefully he's a hard worker and takes the opportunity you've given him and makes it work.

Thanks Brinn. I'm confident that he will. Although I'm equally sure that he'll be mooching off the tax money (that his father elected not to pay, damn "#¤&&&%¤!!) for a short period of time. It all depends on how fast his language learning skills are really.

wayfriend wrote:There's a book in there ... with a movie deal ... you just need one or two more plot twists to nail it.

Yes, I think I need a flowchart to understand your situation, Prebe. (But then, familial relations have always tripped me up.)

Anyway, hope you're not totally stressed out!

Wow, good luck with the new boarder, Prebe...

Just got word from the language school. The county office has accepted his relocation, and he is now officially residing with us. He's due for an interview on the language shool on tuesday. I called them yesterday and asked nervously: "Do you have a Danish course for Spanish speaking people?" The answer was: "We have ONE Danish course for everybody. We teach Arabic and Turkish anafabets to speak Danish, so I'm sure that a spanish speaking ex-law student will not pose a problem."

Heh! I feel so confident after that conversation. I love people in public offices with a sense of humour. They are a rare commodity indeed.

Prebe wrote:My prolonged absence (probably noticed by few and regretted by fewer still) is due to a highly unexpected arrival: my wifes 28 year old cousin from BLEEDING PARAGUAY has decided to immigrate to Denmark.

I hate it when that happens. The last few times it happened to me, I...

really.......



umm......











well...........

Prebe wrote:Just got word from the language school. The county office has accepted his relocation, and he is now officially residing with us. He's due for an interview on the language shool on tuesday. I called them yesterday and asked nervously: "Do you have a Danish course for Spanish speaking people?" The answer was: "We have ONE Danish course for everybody. We teach Arabic and Turkish anafabets to speak Danish, so I'm sure that a spanish speaking ex-law student will not pose a problem."

Heh! I feel so confident after that conversation. I love people in public offices with a sense of humour. They are a rare commodity indeed.

whats are anafabets ?

Are you able to communicate with him at all , You don,t speak any spanish I take it Prebe?
I hope it all works out for you guys.

iQuestor: The irony is so thick that you can cut it with a knife: Analfabet is a nordic term (not international, as it were) for illiterate. And as you can see, i spelled it incorrectly. I stink. Heh!

I speak an itsy bitsy bit of Spanish, and his english is a touch better than my Spanish giving us a total common vocabulary of about a 100 words. That is enough to explain that he can help himself to anything in the fridge, but apparently not enough to explain that in Denmark the sewage system is perfectly capable of handling used toilet paper

Prebe wrote:...in Denmark the sewage system is perfectly capable of handling used toilet paper

good to know, that is

ooh, ooh, idea! those internet translator thingies! use those ^_^

Prebe wrote:And much to my joy, he hates øl (beer) which leaves all the more for me.

(I have to admire a country where the word for beer is just two letters. That's being efficient in all the right places.)

Yeah, we tend to economize with the letters in the right places. But to be honest, the danish 'ø' is a contraction of the two letters o and e as in "coeur de lion". It's pronounced like the e in 'the'.

We've shaved of a letter in wine too: 'vin'...

Reisheiruhime:
Thanks, we are doing that, when things become to tough. The english sentences that come out of his input are often hillarious, but you can usually catch the meaning. I know enough spanish to know when my sentences are completely outrageous, so I'm actually learning some grammar.

Prebe wrote:iQuestor: The irony is so thick that you can cut it with a knife: Analfabet is a nordic term (not international, as it were) for illiterate. And as you can see, i spelled it incorrectly. I stink. Heh!

I speak an itsy bitsy bit of Spanish, and his english is a touch better than my Spanish giving us a total common vocabulary of about a 100 words. That is enough to explain that he can help himself to anything in the fridge, but apparently not enough to explain that in Denmark the sewage system is perfectly capable of handling used toilet paper

now I get it analphabet, literally, without letters. Nice.

Prebe wrote:Reisheiruhime:
Thanks, we are doing that, when things become to tough. The english sentences that come out of his input are often hillarious, but you can usually catch the meaning. I know enough spanish to know when my sentences are completely outrageous, so I'm actually learning some grammar.

Heh. It's a bad idea to study for your Spanish final with those. Sissy faaaaaailinated...