pictures

a very tired me at the end of the day

another view from the top

the top of this route, and me.

The group down below. I am at the top of one of the climbs. not that high, but still a great view!

The Shoreline next to where we went climbing

Tine, Lizzy, and me at the top of the very old Round Tower with a great view of Copenhagen

at the soccer game wearing a friend's F.C. København's spirit scarf. They obviously won

A Viking Ship! and Tine and me

my lunch again  : )

Sadly the picture I took of the jellyfish won't load but I will try again next time!

Climbing in Sweden

This evening was overall very relaxing and began with a dinner with Lizzy and Anya at Anya's host family's house. We had some delicious carbonara and wine, and Lizzy and I did not leave until 11.30. we walked 25 minutes to the metro, rode it back to a train station in copenhagen, and caught separate trains home. My train arrived in Roskilde at 1.12 am, and the night bus that runs every hour left at 1.08. really sad about that. So I had to wait 56 minutes for the next bus, and I didn't get home until 2.30 (3 hours after I left Anya's) not cool at all, however, I did get to spend that hour talking to a woman who teaches English at the engineering highschool in Roskilde, and she was pretty interesting and a lot of fun to talk to. Sadly, I had to wake up at 5.30 in order to get to the climbing trip, so I got very very little sleep.
     I managed to sleep a little on the drive to Sweden though (2 hours including the ferry and the driving in sweden), but I obviously had to go up on the passenger deck on the ferry and enjoy the sea mist and wind as we passed by Hamlet's castle in Helsingør. It was all beautiful even though it was a very early gray and rainy morning. The countryside of sweden was much hillier than flat Denmark, and it had lots of beautiful woods compared to Denmark's farmland. Apparently though we were in some sort of natural park. When we arrived, we hiked down to the ocean, and the guides told us all about climbing safety and set up routes on the kind of small cliffs right by the ocean. Thankfully I brought my climbing shoes because the rock was pretty wet and slippery. We had four routes total, and it was a lot of fun to get to know everyone while watching others try to figure out how to get up the cliff. I spent some time belaying too, and by the end of the day I had climbed all of the routes. So I went down to the ocean with a girl named Julie to look at the tide pools. we saw some amazing jellyfish and were so entranced that we stayed by the shoreline for the last hour of the day. It was so great, and even though it had rained on us a little, the day was overall pretty great. When we got back to DIS, Julie, Lizzy, and this guy Alex, and I went to get hot drinks to warm up. We went to this little cafe that Lizzy and I have discovered to have the best hot chocolate you can find, and it was so cozy and wonderful that we didn't want to leave. So we were a little late for our train, and we had to run the entire normally 12 minute walk. Thank goodness I have been running so often these past few weeks. We made the train, and Lizzy and I headed back to my house. we had canceled our evening plans because we were so tired from no sleep the night before. when we got home, we took very refreshing hot showers, had a delicious dinner of lasagna, and passed out. fabulous.
    I had all of yesterday to myself, so I read a lot and went running and biking and did my homework and skyped some too, and it was a very relaxing day overall. Next weekend I am going to Poland and Berlin for a week with one of my classes, and Lizzy and I are extending the trip through the following weekend so that we can stay and explore Berlin. This was a very spontaneous plan, and we could not be more excited about it.

recent adventures

I got the seventh harry potter book to reread before the movie comes out in november, and it has definitely taken up most of my free time this week. Nevertheless, I did go to Tivoli Gardens on Saturday evening with Lizzy, and we did lots of exciting rides and enjoyed the beautiful gardens as well. I am proud to say that I overcame a lifelong fear and actually did the ride that lifts you up high above the city and then pauses long enough for you to fully grasp how high up you are and then drops you at a free fall back to the bottom. my stomach usually flips just looking at those rides, but I managed to talk myself into pretty easily when lizzy insisted, and I actually stayed pretty calm, unlike lizzy who completely freaked out at the top, and of course we were both terrified when it dropped. it was so exhilarating that at first we couldn't stop laughing, and it took nearly 20 minutes for us to fully calm back down. totally thrilling and I highly recommend it, especially if you think you are too scared.

  My host family was out of town, so Lizzy and I went back to my house for the night and cooked some pasta for dinner, drank some wine, and watched the Devil wears prada. a very relaxing night.
Sunday, we were lucky enough to attend the biggest rivalry soccer game of the season in Copenhagen. We went to a huge stadium (with our danish classes) and sat very high up with a great view of the field. FC København won 2-0 over the other team, which was glorious, and the other team's fans kept throwing flares onto the field. there were hundreds of policemen in their area, and someone even started a fire in one of the seats. Apparently the fighting that took place after was some of the worst in a long time. These games are so crazy that they have organized fights set up between rivaling fans for after. Luckily i didn't see any, but I did have to ride home on the train with a lot of drunk, loud, and obnoxious fans from the losing team.  

Otherwise, I have been going to school, and yesterday I had a day off, which I spent working, reading, and walking the rabbits with Tine. Laila's aunt and her friend arrived from Canada, so we had an excellent dinner of traditional danish open faced sandwiches with Laks! and I had to try some of their pickled herring, which was actually pretty good. we also drank many kinds of danish alcohol followed by a very full glass of wine. It is always surprising how they just keep feeling it long after Americans would stop pouring. but it was tasty, and for dessert, we had flørboller, (no idea how to really spell it), which is delicious. This weekend I am going climbing on the coast of sweden, so that should be another great adventure!

I thought it was funny that this is a flavor of chips

Lizzy lurking in the flowers

The royal summer house

Anja and me at the royal summer house

the traditional danish open faced sandwiches we got to try for lunch

Lizzy and me on the bike tour

Our tour guide from the rainy bike tour of Arhus, the second largest city in Denmark

Vikings!

  The Danes are descendants of the Vikings, and they like to think they are in fact also vikings. They will all quickly share their loving admiration of the vikings at the mention of the word.  The Vikings were really intense, and their conquests and travels are actually phenomenal. Their skills in shipbuilding are perhaps unmatched. But the funny part is, Danes pronounce V as a W so they call them Wikings, and its really hard to take their adoration seriously when they keep saying wiking. Its hilarous.  They also have seven elevens everywhere, but they say sewen elewen, and its just great to listen to.
   On wednesday I didn't have any classes, so I woke up and went on a 45 min. exploratory run, to sort of survey the area, and although it was really windy, it was sunny and cool and perfect for running. After that I got some breakfast did some work. When Tine got home from school around 1:00, Laila, Tine, and I went into Roskilde and walked along the waterfront. We stopped into a glassblowing studio and art gallery, and then we walked over to the Viking Museum. We could see all the workshops where men were fixing up and renovating all the ships that had been found at the bottom of the fjord right there, and the carpenters have to use the same tools the vikings used to fix up the ships again. It was really really cool, and I also loved the smell of fresh wood. The renovated boats are displayed and also available to go out in, so you can hop in a boat with 25 other people, and it looked a lot like rafting, with a guide at the front telling them when to row. it was great to watch because at first the groups were always a mess. The Museum shop was great too, but I usually love those. The weather was pretty cold and rainy, so eventually we went into a cafe and got cappucinos. Before going home, they took me to the library so I could get lots of travel books and the latest Harry Potter book, since the movie is coming out in November!   When we got home, I made some banana bread and then I cooked dinner. I made this fabulous Goat cheese and tomato pie, where you make the crust big enough to kind of fold up over the top. Laila didn't think they had goat cheese though, we used cheddar and mozzarella, and it was still great. The recipe is one of Carolyn's specialties, so thank you! I also made broccoli,  and chicken with lemon and pepper. Laila made the rest of my cookie dough into delicious cookies for dessert. 
   Thursday wasn't too exciting because I had a test to study for, and I went home with my friend Anja to have dinner and study for a while, and I got home late and pretty much went to bed. Friday was similar, and I studied a lot and felt very prepared for the test, and then I found myself looking at the first question with a blank stare. Our teacher isn't great, and we were totally underprepared for the test, but Anja and I had done a lot to teach ourselves. But the questions were extremely obscure and some of them were based on passing comments she had made. they answers weren't in my notes, the chapter we read, or her slides from class. So I had to make up a few answers. Most of it was fine though. One of the questions asked for the name of the disease where you had blue skin (which no one in the class recalls ever learning), and I put smurf syndrome. Figured it was worth a shot, and I had no clue at all.  After the 1.5 hours of notetaking that followed the test, Lizzy and I walked out into the rain to a bakery where we ate a croissant and recovered for a few minutes. Then we met up with my other friend Anya, and my host brother Jon and his friend Mike. Together we went and grabbed a quick dinner and headed into the fairytale world of Christiania. Christiania is a small independent town in the heart of Copenhagen, and it has a town center, a lake, and a lot of ramshackle colorful houses. It feels like you are walking into children's overnight camp or something.  The difference is that the people of Christiania are real hippies. and they have weed to buy and sell everywhere, even though its illegal in Denmark, and there are a lot of very grungy or bizarrely dressed people. It was so strange and unlike anything I had ever seen. I saw a group of 8-12 year olds smoking together in a group outside of the kindergarten, and that was also the strangest thing ever. It was all so surreal. Then I ran into the teaching assistant from my medical class, and Lizzy and I talked to her for a few minutes, but it was a slightly awkward place to run into the 25 year old (who will be grading my test) in a place like that.
   Eventually Anya, Lizzy, and I got cold so we went back to Copenhagen to a cafe/bookshop and got peach ciders and a slice of chocolate cake. It was great and a great way to relax from the week. Also, I will be going to Switzerland with Anya in November.

pictures!

We found our way from the woods to the ocean.

The woods with great trails around our hostel in Arhus

The dessert from the same restaurant by the sea 

my fabulous lunch of fish by the sea on our study tour

The meeting room at the hospital with the neuro research. They had real orchids on every table!

Lizzy and me in front of the City Hall in Copenhagen after class one evening

Study Tour

        I think this time I will work from today backwards to the study tour.  Today was great because in my Human Health and Disease class, we got to learn how to check a patient's lungs by tapping on their back and chest, listen to the patient's heart in all different places so as to hear all the valves while taking her pulse, and then we got to learn how to do spinal taps and IVs. We got to practice on manikins that had veins and a spine with red liquid in them, so we could tell when we did it correctly. First we did the cardiopulmonary stuff, and they separated the guys from the girls. Then our young female teacher Signe started to tell us that we would have to take off our shirts to see what we needed to do, and she began to pull off lizzy's shirt so that she could give a demonstration!!!! we all started laughing like crazy and thought it was so funny that Signe hadn't thought anything of it, while in America this would have been unheard of. She said that in some cases it is necessary to remove the bra but that we wouldn't do that today because 3 weeks may not be enough time for Americans to adjust to the European lack of modesty. She taught us the pulmonary part and we all took off our shirts and tried it on eachother, and then she taught us about where to listen to the heart. So there are like 14 of us standing there around our teacher wearing nothing but Jeans and bras of all varieties getting a lecture. It was so funny. and very European. 
   The IVs were really cool because after class we could try it on each other. Lizzy and I did really well on the manikin but not quite so beautifully on each other. She went first and stuck me too deep, and instead of letting her fix it, our other teacher Peter kind of took the reins and corrected her. We both wish he had let her figure it out, even though it wasn't very comfortable and did leave me with a swollen spot and a small bruise. It was worth it though in order for her to let me try. i don't know what went wrong for me, but it didn't go quite right, to low or a little off the vein, but Peter thought I had gotten it and told me to remove the needle and cap it, so I did, and in fact no blood came out, so I hadn't gotten it and it was too late to try again. That was too bad for both of us because we were both excited to really get to try it. Even still, it was all really really cool!
     I must say that a Danish gym can be quite intimidating. It doesn't seem so at first, but then you look around and see all these tall thin super fit women running really fast on the treadmills and the 6'3" and taller men lifting huge weights. They are super trim but still really really strong and also really tall. Definitely an interesting place, and then there are all the teenage guys just like at home, and they all wear workout capris. I went to the gym with Laila and Jon last night, and it was a great success.
      Also, today I got hot chocolate with raspberries in it, and it was phenomenal. the raspberries floated just beneath the whip cream and added a fabulous tart fruit taste.  I am now going to skip back to Sunday...sadly I didn't get to do too much because I had a lot of homework and a test to prepare for, but I did make my family chocolate chip cookies. Tine and I biked to the store to get supplies, and they don't have chocolate chips here, so you just buy chocolate and cut it up. I had two chocolate bars, dark chocolate and a hazelnut chocolate. when i chopped them, some pieces were barely crumbs, and others were nice chunks. The small crumbs infused the cookies with a hazelnut flavor and the big chunks were clearly evident in the cookies, like normal. I followed alice's cooking guidelines and took them out a minute early, and they were amazing!!!! I was very happy with them, and the family devoured them happily.
      The study tour from thursday to saturday for my human health and disease class was great. on Thursday we drove 2 hours to Odense on the more western island of Fyn and we visited the Hans Christian Anderson children's hospital which also had one of the best centers for children's cancer patients. We had some bread and coffee while learning about what they do and diseases they research and treat, and then we took a tour and met a baby. It was really cool, and I left feeling really inspired. Then we went into town for lunch and then half of us went to an art museum and half to the Hans Christian Anderson museum. I went to see art, and it was really cool.  Then we drove to our hostel, which was really nice and had a great dinner and then heard a talk from our fabulous student assistant (current medical student) Astrid about Danish healthcare. we went to bed really early for once and left in the morning for one of the top neurological research facilities in the world. We got a great talk about the brain and then learned all about the research they do and their collaborations with top mathematicians, physicists, doctors, and other scientists  to develop the best technology to make curing patients safer and easier.
   we went to a fancy lunch of delicious fish and chocolate mousse/wafer cake with berries in a little restaurant by the sea, and then we headed back into Arhus to go to a general practitioner's office. we learned a lot about how their health care system is set up and how it is different from ours, and i thought it was the best visit so far, partly because it was the easiest to compare to home. we had the evening free, so some of us went to a pub for dinner and got delicious hamburgers, and then we went to the grocery and bought some somersby cider. I bought pear and elderflower, and they were delicious. we were going to go to a bar and then a club, but we walked around for a while waiting for the night to get late enough. We went to a bar and hung out with some other DIS students, but my friends and I went home afterwards and skipped the club because it was getting pretty late and we didnt want to pay to get in. Even still we only got 6 hours of sleep. we woke up the next morning for a bike tour of the city, in the rain, and our guide was quite talkative. It took 5 hours but we did get to visit the royal summer house gardens, and we learned how to tell a building from the 1500's from one built in the 1600's or 1700's. and I thought that was pretty cool. we had traditional smørbord for lunch (open topped sandwich) and they were pretty good, although i wasn't entirely sure what i was eating. 
      Finally we went to an art museum, but we were all so wet and cold that Astrid bought us all cafe lattes from the museum cafe first. we went to see the "I Love You" visit with a tour guide, and he was young and quite inappropriate, and it was actually hilarious. when we arrived he told us that his english might not be great because he had just been napping in the employee lounge, and at the end of the visit, he asked if we had any questions bc if not he was ready to go start drinking because it was the perfect weekend since his girlfriend was out of town. I don't really know why that is a good thing, but it was pretty funny that he told all of us that as part of the tour.