Biking and Hippies! (Saturday)

Goodness, now today is Saturday. So much has happened, I feel like I've been here a month! I went on a bike tour through the morning to the afternoon, which was quite the experience. I swear, I almost got hit by every kind of vehicle- bikes, cars, buses, motorcycles, and a wheelchair. It was terrifying, but after a few hours I kind of got the hang of it all. It's interesting, here something around 40% of all citizens ride their bikes on a daily basis. So, to accommodate the crazy numbers of bikers, the major streets have a bike lane that is actually raised up off the road. So it's like a sidewalk that you bike on. The actual sidewalk is raised above the bike lane and you end up with three different levels on the streets. Anyways, I saw a lot. I'm not going to get into it. Just look at the picture below of Nyhavn (New Harbor). It used to be a seedy sailor area when Hans Christian Anderson lived there, but now it's beautiful.

 Oh! And we went to Christiana, which is this hippie anarchist society right in the middle of Copenhagen. They took over some abandoned military buildings in the early 70s and just started building their own homes, schools, etc. We weren't allowed to take pictures because they were straight up selling marijuana in the street and someone would have taken our cameras away (just so you know- the people of Christiana don't consider marijuana to be a drug, even though Denmark does. Christiana bans all other drugs. Oh and only people who live there can sell. Interesting right?). Anyways, besides pusher street (where they were selling the drugs), Christiana was beautiful. There were these forest trails that led to artistic and nicely painted homes. There were also horses apparently (the children ride them is what our tour guide told us). Oh my goodness and all these nice dogs with no leashes just following their owners around. It was all really surprising.

After the bike tour I wondered around and did some shopping. And, oh this is the interesting part- I finally stopped by this Mexican food place I pass by like every day, called Taco Diner, and ordered a chicken quesadilla. And my goodness that was one fine quesadilla. Maybe the best ever. It could have been because I was starving though. But it was so flavorful! It was more like a combination of a quesadilla and an enchilada (it had that enchilada sauce on top and cheese). Mmm.

And that's my day so far! I'm exhausted!

Family and Studying (Thursday/Friday)

Where did I last leave you? Ah, Wednesday right? It's been a busy week of course, and, on top of it all, I had a test on Friday. A test! So, I assumed it was going to be crazy difficult and studied all the intricacies of the lymphatic, reproductive, and nervous systems during almost all of my free time. I studied so much, it made me late for my exam. Then I took the stupid thing and it was really easy! Although I'm super afraid I over-thought some of my answers. But whatever, that's the end of my nerdy little rant.

On Thursday I met my only family still here! They're my first cousins- one is once removed and the other is second removed. I think that's how you do it. Anyways, they were very nice and interesting! They took me for Smørrebrød, which is this super popular Danish dish that consists of rye bread with various toppings (usually some sort of meat and sauce and lard). I played it safe and got a roast beef one (it had the lard/butter and the meat of course, with pickles and what tasted like cucumber juice, and this interesting, but really good mustard tasting stuff with straight up peeled horseradish on top). I learned that I do not like straight horseradish (never do that to yourself), but the meat was delectable! It was really nicely cured, and I particularly liked the slight cucumber flavor. My newly acquainted family and I then strolled around the area, and they pointed out important buildings and taught me some history. They later treated me to coffee, and we sat outside and enjoyed the unusually warm and sunny day. It was really, really nice. I stayed there with them until I had to go to class. In class, we learned about the nervous system, then had a lab on vision, which isn't really my thing but it was still interesting. Oh! And I also learned about Danish medical school. They apparently go straight from high school to medical school here. Isn't that crazy? It's an eight year program, so it takes just as long as getting a bachelors then going to medical school in the US. Also, general practitioners have the longest residency and get paid the most here (which is the complete opposite of the US. To me, the Danish model for GPs makes more sense because they have to know everything).

On Friday I had to wake up at like 7 to go to a CPR, IV, suture and catheter lab! It was really cool- current Danish medical school students taught us how to do everything then let us try it all out on dummies and things. I think my favorite of the four was the suturing. In a weird way, it was kind of relaxing. After that, we had a couple hours break before our test, in which I studied like a maniac. I really stressed myself out over it all. As you know, I ended up a little late for the exam (I couldn't for the life of me find the building it was in), and as a result had to rush through it to finish on time. Our course assistant came by and gave us Danishes and coffee and tea after the test, which was really sweet of her. I randomly grabbed one and discovered upon taking a bite that it contained a rhubarb filling. I love rhubarb in my desserts, and I've never had one in a Danish! It was good. After the break, we had a two hour lecture on oncology, which was probably one of the top lectures of the week. After class, I decided to wander around to try and get my barrings- I was frustrated after getting lost for the thousandth time. This unfortunately didn't help (I actually got really lost), but I took like two pictures (that's an accomplishment for me!)! Below is one of them.

The picture is of Copenhagen's former stock exchange (Børsen). It was built in the late 16th century, early 17th century. The spire is made of the tails of a few dragons (you can see the rest of them if you get a little closer to the building).

Adventures in public transportation and delivery!

Oh my goodness! Today was such a long long day. I woke up, got ready and immediately went to a grocery store and small coffee shop. I got back to the dorm to put my groceries away and decided it would be a good idea to double check the syllabus (it was at that time around 1:40ish). It told me that we were supposed to be at some hospital I didn't recognize at 2:30, which I was fine with until I Google Mapped it and realized this hospital was outside Copenhagen. I panicked, and frantically scanned the page for directions when I noticed we were supposed to meet somewhere at 1:30. I figured they had already left, so I called the intern who leads our class and she gave me some rough directions as to how to get there. I then decided to use Google maps on my phone. Did you know it gives you public transportation directions? Like, to the detail of when the particular bus or metro you need to catch is supposed to arrive. It's incredible. Anyways, so I get to around where my first bus stop is supposed to be and I notice that there are three different bus pick up places (I don't know what they're called) on the same block. And, to add on top of this, everything was in Danish, so I was really confused. I asked one of the first people who walked by how to get to my particular destination. And this is where it got a little sketchy. She was quite obviously Danish (by her accent and blonde hair), but she claimed she was looking for the exact station I was (which is the hub of the metro here in Copenhagen- it's in the middle of town and really large). She then invited me to go with her through some garden area that was near us because she said she thought that was the way to get there. I declined and said I'd just take a bus and, as her face fell, she told me what bus to get on (and she didn't get on it with me). So, she was quite possibly lying to me about the whole thing (to her credit, you could totally get to this station through the gardens, but I don't know why you wouldn't just walk by it on the street. Especially since she said that she had just gotten lost in the maze. Why would you want to go back to some place where you got lost?). I don't like thinking the worst in people, but the whole situation was just really weird, and I am not about to get a kidney or something stolen. But I still got pointed in the right direction! So, I hopped on the bus that had just arrived and happily went to the metro station. Once underground, I asked someone if I was in the right place to get to where I was going and if I had the correct transportation pass, and she kindly told me I was right. I then raced further underground, confused about the lack of ticket takers. Haha, there were these tall, black rectangle things with a mysterious blue orb near the top that I thought you had to hold your ticket up to. The writing under the orb thing was in Danish of course, and all I got out of it was that it was some kind of check in thing. So I held my transportation pass up to it and got a lot of really strange looks. So I stopped and just got on the metro (later I was told that they just work on the honor system. Isn't that fantastic?). Speaking of the metro, it was the cleanest, quietest, and smoothest metro I have ever been on! I got to Frederiksberg in no time, then almost caught the wrong bus. Luckily, the really nice bus driver patiently told me where to go and told me to watch out for bikes (so considerate!). When I got on the right bus, the bus driver noticed my frenzied state and asked me if "I was distressed," or needed help. I happily told him where I was going and he told me to sit right behind him and he'd help me out. We got to the stop and he pointed me in the right direction. It was so nice! Then, someone who worked at the hospital drew me a map to the building I was supposed to go to and I made it to class right on time! It was really great and I'm extremely proud of myself for it all.

In class we had lecture on the reproductive system. Midwives do all the normal deliveries here, isn't that interesting? And only a small percentage of women get epidurals. Anyways, after lecture we did some hands on exercises. I'm happy to inform you that now I could probably deliver your baby for you if there were no person with any sort of medical background around. So remember, if you have a baby, call me maybe.

Finally some free time!

Hey everyone reading my blog! I'm sorry it took this long to update y'all since I've arrived in Copenhagen!
Basically, my last four days have been like this:

Day 1 (Saturday/Sunday I'm pretty confused about this)- Long story short, I woke up at 3 (a.m.!!!) and traveled for about 20 hours then arrived in Copenhagen at about 8 a.m. (their time) Sunday morning. We were then loaded up on a bus and taken to DIS headquarters, in the old part of Copenhagen. We had to register then they took us on a tour so we would know how to get around (everyone was so jet-lagged I don't know if it actually helped!) and we finally got to our respective dorms sometime around 12. There was dinner (pizza, which, for whatever reason was the last thing I expected. It was really tasty too. Just like an American pizza. Actually, like a slightly more flavorful Dino's pizza, you know what I mean hometown friends?) and yet another tour that night that I don't remember. It was really nice to get some sleep!

Day 2 (Monday)- The sun rises so early here! It woke me up around 4ish. It's nice though, because at night the sun doesn't go down until 10:30 or so. So you can really get a lot done during the day. Anyways, that day, there was a grand opening at the beautiful Universitet (Vor Frue Plads)! I stole the picture on the left of the entryway off the internet (I'm a really bad tourist). Anyways, isn't it something? Everything was very neoclassical and frescoed! After a lecture on the history of Copenhagen, we were divided into groups and went on this "Amazing Race" thing.  There was no prize and my group was hungry so we went to an Irish pub instead. I had some fantastic fish and chips (and it was a ton of food. I still have plenty of leftovers). We then wondered into a grocery store and I got way too excited about finding Cheerios. Finally, at about 4:30 I went to class (Human Health and Disease). It was really intensive. We were quickly taught how to take a rough medical history, then were given a patient to interview. It was really overwhelming but also really exciting! After that, I came back and I went to dinner with someone on my floor. We got lost a few times but eventually made it to this really tasty Italian place! The waiters were so nice (and Italian!), they were joking with us and they gave me free bread (free food is the key to my heart). On that note, everyone seems to be really nice and relaxed here. Total strangers will make clever quips about things you say or do. For instance, we were passing by this guy getting into his car and I said something about thinking I heard lightning and he said something like "Oh it's not good to be hearing things." Somehow everyone's always in such a good mood- it's really refreshing!

Day 3 (Tuesday, ah today)- After waking up at 4 again this morning I decided I deserved to sleep in if I could fall asleep again. I was successful, but as a result had to scramble to spend my few hours before class doing the assigned readings! One of our textbooks (we have three) is a legit medical textbook. I'm realizing I know less about medicine that I thought I did. But I suppose that's what this class (and medical school) is for! After class, I had a nice stroll back to my dorm. I wondered into a convenience store and found some Dr. Pepper (which is totally a Texas thing, so it was a delightful surprise). Oh and on that note, the couple times I've bought things at stores the cashiers have (I assume) greeted me in Danish. So I take that as meaning that I totally look like a Dane. It's cool until I break it by saying "hello!" because I can't understand them. I'm thinking I should learn some basic Danish so I can at least pretend to be a Dane for a few minutes.

Well this is a really long (and probably pretty rambley) blog post! But I hope you enjoyed it anyways! Have a good rest of your day! Oh and feel free to ask me if you have any questions about Denmark. If I don't know the answer I can just go out and learn it for you!

Michelle