Equality gone wrong???

Since I arrived, I've been scouting networking groups in order to find people with common goals and interest. School has been the best place to meet people because we are all in a similar situation, our spouse works here and we (mainly women) are trying to find our niche. I've attended a couple of really great expat seminars that have given me lots of ideas on how to approach the job search and what to expect out of this new culture and life style. I am still trying to get used to the fact that here, men find it okay to yell at women. On several occasions, I have seen (and thankfully NOT experienced) this in action. Coming out of the grocery store one day, this lady brushed up against a child with her bike - I guess she didn't see the little girl but the girl's father looked like he was ready to hit the poor lady on her bike! He strongly cussed at her, loudly and come face to face with her. I thought they were going to fight. Another time a man cut off a bike while he was driving, so the cyclist (a woman) yelled at him. He immediately got out of his car and approached the lady, yelling and screaming at her, in her face, at the top of his lungs! I found this a little strange and when I asked one of my fellow expats she said, "It's simply their freedom of expression and equality". She also proceeded to tell me that along with this sense of equality, one must expect no special favours or treatments from anyone. She experienced this when one day she went to her local bakery to order a few dozen sandwiches for a meeting. She asked if she could get a discount and the baker turned very sour and went on to ask her why she would ever expect a discount and why she thought she was so special... the baker went on to argue that if the old age pensioner that buys a sandwich once a week has to pay full price than everyone has to pay full price.

After having this conversation I realized I have a lot to learn about this country! And apparently it takes a while. Chris has a colleague from the States, that has lived here for about 20 years, who says that still to this day, his Danish wife corrects his mannerisms, expressions, body language, etc. Who knew moving to another "Western" country would still leave room for loss in translation!