Moving to Denmark: Culture Shock Experience at a Danish Swimming Pool

If I had to describe myself, I’d say that I’m as American as one could be. I LOVE baseball, peanut butter and saying hello to everyone I see. Okay, so the last one may be more of a midwestern thing, but I think most Americans do that. After traveling to Europe quite a few times over the past 20 years, I wouldn’t call myself an expert on Europeans, but I probably have a better grasp of them than many Americans. Heck, I married a European and now live in Europe, but in my mind, that means diddly squat! That being said, I’d like to tell you about my first experience at a Danish swimming pool with my children.

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Having No Clue What to Expect at a Danish Swimming Pool

I’ve been to swimming places before in Europe…mostly in Germany, but I have been to them. I can tell you, though, that I have never had the same experience as I did the other day going to Viborg. To be honest, I know that it is just me who was uncomfortable. I can’t speak for my two young sons, because I was a bit uncomfortable asking them if they were uncomfortable. I figured I would just watch them and see what they did. They are better at adapting to their surroundings than I am. Heck, it has been days, and I’m still a bit perplexed. I feel like I need a slap in the face or something! 🙂 Geez!

Realizing that I’m the Odd Ball in this Situation

I know that the other people I came into contact with were NOT uncomfortable. Lord, I wished they would have been! I felt almost the same as I did one time in Italy when I went to use the toilet and there was just a hole in the floor. Umm…I don’t think so!

Come on, Kelly!! You are from the Midwest!! How many cornfields have you peed in? I rest my case! Still, I wasn’t in nature. I was in downtown Milan. Now, I was in a large, Danish town with normal people, who paid to enter this swimming hall. Again, everyone was comfortable, except for me.

Getting Out of My Comfort Zone in Denmark

Okay, okay. I’ll talk. After paying the entrance fee, I was guided to a hallway that led to the lockers. I had no idea what any of the signs said, but I saw the stick figure of a woman on one of them; I entered that one! Picture this! Right away, you are in the locker room. There are lockers along the wall you are facing as well as the left and right, but the front, middle part has a dark grey floor with benches.

Read all about my comparisons of Danish and International Schools in Denmark. Which one was best for our children?

Right away, the old ladies (well, that’s what they were) started to talk to me in Danish and point to the floor. I had no idea what they were saying, so I told them in English that I didn’t speak Danish. They gave me a lecture (Probably not meant to be, but I felt that I was being “schooled”) about taking off your shoes on the dark grey tiles. Damn!! (Pardon my French!) I just walked in the door! They said, “it is best to learn the children what to do.” Now, if I was really feeling fistey(probably spelled that wrong), I could have corrected saggy boob lady on her English and walked away.

Moving out of Pure Shock and Fear

Instead, I was trying to be a good girl, led my children to the benches, removed their shoes and walked to the other section of the locker room, away from those women. I mumbled about the room being very hostile when my kids wanted to know why we were going “over there”, which was the next section of the locker room, filled with lockers and another dark grey tiled section.

Luckily, they don’t pay much attention to me or know what hostile means! 🙂 For the record, the talkative, saggy boob lady was fully naked. I did not make eye contact, nor did I make really any other contact. I think I was staring at my children, who seemed to have been hit by a train with the looks on their faces. Sure…it is funny when you catch mom out of the shower, but with this lady, I think it was full fear in their eyes! Poor babes!! 🙂

Practically Running out of the Changing Room

I get the boys into their swim clothes and me too for that matter. I took two towels for them and my phone so that I could take pictures. We walked further into the locker room which turned into the bathroom/shower room. Those parts of the locker room were empty. Keep that in mind for later. I had no warning; I had no notice!

Luckily, I figured out how to turn on the water and got us all under the water for our “shower” before heading through the doors to the pool. Now, I don’t know about you, but when it says to “shower” before you enter the pool, I normally just run under the shower briefly. I don’t really take a shower unless I need to. I actually just came from my house where I took a shower, and put on no deodorant or makeup, so I didn’t feel the need to take a shower. Same goes for my kids.

Different Swimming Sections within the Danish Swimming Pool in Viborg

When we got out to the big pool area. We saw right away that there was a large section for lap swimmers, which was not us, but it did have a large slide, which was cool. Maybe some other day.

We headed to the side, where we could tell it was shallower and had some floaty things. As you can see in the background, the lifeguard is trying to tell me that taking pictures in forbidden! What the hell!! You can walk around the locker room with your saggy boobs out, but I can’t take an innocent picture of my children in the pool?

What kind of place is this! I played the foreigner card and said in English that I didn’t speak Danish. Now I know I’m a little s&%t. (I want you to get the impression that I’m a good mom, who doesn’t swear, but my mom told me it isn’t nice to lie! I’ll try to be good! Count to ten and all that!)

The little guy thought that this pool was a bit too deep for him, so we headed over to the shallowest of the pools, which had a cool, raining umbrella and lots of toys. We had a nice, long time here playing with the toys and laughing. A couple of other mothers came by with their babies, but I didn’t feel in the chatty mood. I wanted to spend time with my dudes! (This picture was done in secret. Shhh! Don’t tell!)

Be Aware of the School Kids

When it was time to head out, a large group of kids came in with two teachers. They seemed to be here for their sport class. That would be interesting to do as a kid. The boys liked watching them as the others played with their friends.

There was also another section on the far edge of the pool, that, from what I could make out from the lady working the front desk, was “taken”. She said that someone was already in the “warm water”. I took that to mean the hot tub, but I wouldn’t take my kids in a hot tub anyway. The only other area that I could see was a room that was closed off with doors. I think that this is where they held classes.

Back to the Danger Zone at the Danish Swimming Pool

Okay…back to that awkward moment of writing. How do I begin to explain what happened when we got to the locker room again!? Oh, Lord! Give me strength! When we opened the door to go back into the locker room, we were in a small room that allowed for the people in the locker room to have privacy from those in the pool. I was not prepared for what awaited me on the other side of the actual locker room door. OMG!

Let the Mental Freakout Continue

Again, forgive me for being American and thinking that some body parts should be covered. At the YMCA where I used to live, there are showers, but we have curtains so that you don’t have it all out there for the rest of the locker room to see. Also, we have FAMILY locker rooms, where mothers can take their young sons and not have to worry about them seeing ALL THAT! Any who, lighten up, Kelly. You are living like a European now, so start acting like it.

One way to become more Danish is celebrating Danish holidays like Sankt Hans Aften, a fun Danish summer tradition.

When I opened the door, we were again in the shower room. There, in the shower, was one of the moms who had her baby in the pool with us. I tried to focus my sons’ attention on the baby and not on the large display of woman that was in front of us. The baby was so sweet, sitting in a little bath tub next to the mother, who seemed to be taking her time with her shower.

AAAAAHHHHH!!

More Obstacles for the Foreigner at the Danish Swimming Pool

I am not sure if I ran from the shower room to our lockers, because it is all a blur now, but I would believe it if you told me that I did. Apparently, there was a short wall, blocking the shower section from the way out to the pool, but that didn’t block my view. Lord, have mercy!

But on the “dry” side of this wall were baskets where people had their towels, shampoo, etc. for the showers. I must have missed the memo. It does make sense though, that you would want to get cleaned up and take off your suit so that you didn’t track water back to the lockers. I came to this conclusion after undressing myself and my children at the lockers.

Not thinking about it, I didn’t take any soap or shampoo with me. Perhaps, I figured that we would just go home after that, and we could get cleaned there. It isn’t a big deal, but I bet I stuck out like a sore thumb by doing it ALL WRONG. Whatever!

Getting Braver When Changing at the Locker

On the way to our locker, I noticed the other mother and baby who were in the pool with us (not the one from the shower) plus the mother’s mother, and all three were blocking our locker a bit. I managed to say in Danish that our locker was in between them, so they moved a bit.

All of their stuff being all over the place made things difficult, since I had to dress myself and two little boys in very limited space. With the crushing sense of immediacy, I suddenly felt no fear when whipping my suit off in front of the 4 strange women next to my locker and my children. Heck, my nudity wouldn’t even faze my kids at this point. They seemed frozen, as if they had no idea how to dress themselves. Poor little dudes.

Finding Changing Rooms at the Danish Swimming Pool

At this time, I realized that in this section of the locker room, they had the dark grey tiles and benches for putting on the shoes, but on the other side were two changing rooms. That would’ve been nice to know about before. I guess I didn’t feel like looking around at stuff when I was in there. Getting the heck out of there was more of how I felt, I think! 🙂

Read all about the best places to visit in Denmark for families HERE!

Where is the Swimsuit Dryer?

I took our suits and did a brief search for the machine that dries the suits. No luck! I even went as far as to ask a naked woman if such a machine existed. Nope! Again, she had no concerns about talking to a stranger when she was trying to dry her hair. Crazy! I threw the towels and suits into the wet bag I had brought with us, and then I put that bag into the larger, diaper-style bag I used to store most everything.

Getting the Heck out of the Danish Swimming Pool

Then, I had the boys carry their coats out of the locker room, since there wasn’t much room to put them on. I was a bit flustered and annoyed anyway. The mother to the baby said, “have a nice day” as I mumbled my dissatisfaction about the crazy country of Denmark and their 1940s locker room. Haha!

I could be on a Snickers commercial. You know the one with Marcia Brady?!! “Marcia, you’d better eat a Snickers! You get cranky when you’re hungry!” hahaha

I told the lady, “you too” to her “have a nice day” comment, and the boys and I got our shoes on in the hall.

Needing a Cultural Lesson on Danish Swimming Pools from my Danish Husband 

When my husband got home that night and I explained the day to him, he mentioned how brave he thought I was for going at it alone. He thought that this should’ve been something we could do together.

Maybe I need to wait for him for more things! 🙂 It is hard to make an independent woman sit around and wait, but I think that when it comes to areas of massive culture shock, I think it might be best to have my husband around, if nothing other than to have a shoulder to cry on! 🙂 Haha!

Checking out the Town of Viborg, Denmark

Because I needed to take my mind of what I just experienced, I walked from the swim hall into the town with my two guys. We mostly just walked around the old part of town, which had pedestrian streets without cars.

They tried to smile and eat at the same time, which seemed to be one of life’s great mysteries. This is what I got:

Overall Thoughts of our Adventure in Viborg

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