Being a paperboy!

Due to the lack of money (read previous post), I had to search for short-term solutions, i.e., get a job. As I don't speak Danish, it was a bit harder, but then the first option came to be a newspaper carrier, paper-boy! I had no other choices, so after meeting my supervisor, of course I got the job (actually he was selling me the job instead of interviewing me), a small attached trailer for my bike and a flashlight. It so much reminded of the old Master System game Paperboy!!

For those who know me well, you wouldn't recognise me waking up early, at 3am everyday during winter vacations, delivering 200-250 newspapers from 3:30am to 6:30am... and be able to smile afterwards :)

My first day was a tragedy: zero degrees outside, slippery streets and frozen mailboxes, I got lost in the streets with strange names, houses without lights or numbers... I finished almost by 9am and got over 10 complains. But I knew I could do better and I couldn't give up. Next morning I finished by 8am and no complains. From the third day I had already learnt about the street numbering system, and the complicated houses that have no numbers, no names and no lights! And from that point on I got an average of less than 1 complain per week, even when delivering at different districts (complain means that the newspaper didn't arrive - and Danish people always complain if their newspaper is not there!).

One interesting aspect is the feeling of safety of Denmark. All houses are open, without walls or fences, and actually most of the time there is no mailbox, I needed to insert the newspaper through the slip at the door, after entering people's gardens, garages and backyards. Luckily there are almost no dogs (or actually they sleep inside the houses). When I deliver in buildings I receive the keys or codes for the doors (but most of them are just open). In the beginning I even felt uncomfortable to enter those "private" areas! Funny, eh?

Another interesting aspect is that when I tell people here what I'm doing, they respect me a lot. First because they ALL DID it already (mostly when they were teenagers), and secondly because it is normal doing this. Denmark is a country almost without class systems and social prejudice, where the salary as cleaner or newspaper carrier is the same as an recent-graduate joining a private company.

People told me that it takes a week to find out if you like this kind of job or you hate it. Although it's not the easiest money I ever made, I enjoyed! And it was very important during this "poor vacation" period, where I didn't have money to travel or do anything, to wake up early and feel energised (being outdoors, in the silence of the night, by yourself) and ready for the tough day - reading books and writing e-mails and applications for scholarships, partnerships and sponsorships with companies and different organisations, making contacts, talking with people... to find a long-term solution for my case and plan my future projects.

With the restart of the classes next Monday, I changed jobs and I'm cleaning restaurants in town, during the evenings or weekends, so I can be awake in class. It's still hard because I cannot dedicate myself fully to the school and my own ideas, and it's actually worse than delivering newspapers (my opinion that everybody disagrees ;-)), but I shall not give up now...