Copenhagen, Denmark
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him." - Buddha
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My girlfriend and I went to the National Gallery yesterday. They had a ton of old paintings from throughout Danish history. It was a nice break, and really interesting. Her and I have both been having a hard time adjusting to the climate and food here, since Costa Rica is about the polar opposite, but we both can get up and do something.
The paintings were just surreal cool. Old depictions of royalty, Jesus, biblical stories, fishermen, students, everyone. You saw how these people lived. You got to wonder what it was like, what they believed. It was all free too. They just let the people walk in here.
We walked around the street where you shop here. It's just a cobblestone road no car is allowed to go down. You can walk up this one church's tower and get a fantastic view of the whole city, buy some roasted almonds on the side of the road, and (Natasha's favorite obviously) shop at any kind of store.
It's so weird here. The people obviously have no motivation to help you. Store employees run away when you look for help. We had some girl just shut the lights off and tell us to get out the moment it hit 7:00. Like seriously, it's such bad service. It makes sense, since its my understanding their government just takes care of them here, and everybody makes pretty much the same amount. It's the same basic flaw with communism, when everybody's making about the same who gives a shit? Then again, I think about how cutthroat capitalist my country is and so many others, and how much I get harassed in those countries by store owners, and I wonder which is worse.
I took Natasha to a seafood restaurant here and I asked specifically that this one vegetable be kept separate from the fish, because Naty doesn't like it. Correction, we asked twice. The chef goes out of his way to mix it into the mashed potatoes I ordered on the side. Like why in the hell would you do that? I mean, seriously, call yourself a nice seafood restaurant and charge like that, get my damn order right. Send your waitress more than once to me, even though I'm not the best dressed guy there. Show me some damn respect if you want a tip or my money again. I'm a polite guy and a good tipper if you just do your job.
I don't know why that is with poker players. We all have such hatred for people who don't do their jobs right. Maybe because we're always referred to as second-class citizens because we're gamblers and frequently get awful service, watching the staff favor idiot students who are 100k in debt with student loans whose mommies and daddies can just buy them the newest Tommy Hilfiger bullshit.
Maybe because I worked those jobs and I'd never do that. It's not brain surgery, just write it down on the ticket. That's just laziness. I would've been mad with my staff if they did that, back when I worked at a restaurant.
We saw another movie at night because I'm not really down on the clubs here. People look at us weird all the time here, and I'm reminded of last year when Jaka and I couldn't go into a club, for no reason I could come up with other than he was brown. In Amsterdam I had some guy whisper a racial slur at us. I just walked on. Little bitch would never say it to my face, and he probably got rejected by a girl who looked like Natasha. Scared bitch ass white boy with no heart. The day he says it to my face I'll show him how I react, but until then its not worth it.
I have a lot of guys glare at me. Natasha's part Pakistani, and she looks it a bit. She has Costa Rican blood too but a number of people here are just ignorant, a dark person automatically equals a Turkish person. They're so racist, they still freely refer to black people as "n***ers". It's still the one word I won't write in my blog because I have no right. I don't give my black friends preferential treatment or do that white guy bullshit where I'm always scared of stepping on someone's toes, and I expect them to rip on me too, but seriously it's whack to me.
So many men look at me like "you're an awful human for being with her." Others just stare, STARE, at Natasha like forbidden fruit.
Natasha pointed out the men are more polite here. I give the "back off" look to a guy and he does. A girl just sneers if Natasha does the same thing.
The people here are just hostile. I'm not going to mince words. I'm supposedly Danish, my mother's maiden name was "Jensen" but apparently that wasn't my grandfather's real last name. Looking at the harbors here and in Alaska, where my whole family's from, I see so many similarities. I loved this place last year because it reminded me of home. People here look like my extended family. It's weird just...a lot of people are nice, but a lot of people are kind of weird.
Every time I go, "well that guy was cool," Natasha goes, "you realize he was gay right?"
Ugh.
We saw Shutter Island. Naty called out the ending in the first five minutes, which was kind of brutal, but so did I so I mean...whatever. Leonardo Dicaprio just is one of the best actors of my generation. His performance and Scorcese's directing reminded me why I love movies. I was into it from the start. The ending is sick and twisted, and leaves you thinking. I love that. I really want to read the book now.
I tried eating Mcdonald's yesterday. My stomach almost exploded. I used to eat fast food primarily, back when I was younger, dumber, poorer, and on my own. I have no idea how I did it. I almost threw up. How the hell do we feed this to people? Like okay, when I'm in a rush, two cheeseburger meal with some ketchup is where it's at, but you're full of shit if you're telling me this stuff isn't as damaging as cigarettes and alcohol.
I gotta book my tickets today and grind out this massive Sunday. This is probably the only Sunday I'm working while I'm on the road, but I can't miss this. I woke up at 2:00 PM here, but everything starts at 7:30 PM in Europe. I hope I don't get tired. Naty's going to get my meals and everything so that's good.
It's just after shot. All my horses innit yeah. Just pop off one, please. I don't know how I get my hopes up still every weekend but I do. I also have a horse going to the next EPT, snowfest, so that's good.
Business has still been frustrating as hell. Tilt locked up a money in a horse's account and we're in a lengthy battle to get it back. Tilt support is run by monkeys with half a brain, and if I ever meet these people I will scar them for life with how I scream at them. Seriously, you have five figures of my money locked up because my horse logged in from a different computer when he went home, you guys are idiots. I've never dealt with this kind of crap before. All poker is is staying liquid, and you're screwing me. I also had checks lost and a lot of other crap. It's all good though, I'm going to make it work, like I always do.
I'm feeling good. Going to go job along the harbor, in the snow. The snow feels good on my knees. My girl taught me pilates this morning to fix my back and shoulders some, and I feel great. Time to bring the pain.
