Thursday, September 27, 2012

...and we're off again!

So it feels like I just got back from Bornholm and I'm leaving again, this time for an even more exciting adventure - ten days in Munich (for Oktoberfest), Barcelona, Madrid, and Morocco!  This week was spent catching up/getting ahead with my work.  Last night, Niklas came over for dinner and Sigrun cooked Danish meatloaf, which in my humble opinion is a huge rival for classic American meatloaf.  Instead of the ketchup on top, they wrap it in bacon.  Definitely not the healthiest dinner, but so so good.  Today my lunch was a slice of that on rye bread with some mustard, even better!

I had one exam today in my Partner's and Rivals: EU-US Relations class, and then we did our second actual case study in my Medical Ethics class which is finally becoming very interesting-and heated! It definitely leads to some intense emotions and opinions coming out, and I would say it's much more entertaining than the typical lecture we had been doing.  Other than that, this week has been pretty relaxed.  My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 7 am, and I get in around 8:30.  I'm not bringing my laptop with me on the trip, so you won't be getting updates until I am back- sorry!  I promise I'll have pictures and great stories when I get back to make up for it!

Til senere (later, instead of the usual tomorrow)!


Monday, September 24, 2012

Somehow made it back alive

Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post, but I spent the weekend biking across the beautiful Danish island of Bornholm!  Friday was a pretty typical day spent running all over Copenhagen, doing work, packing, and I actually discovered this huge international fair in the square by my school that sells all these different foods, pastries, candies, and even Fudge from the UK!  Obviously it made me so excited!  Luckily for my figure (but not for my stomach), they only take cash and I had none of that on me!  Don't worry, though, I promised the gyro man I would be back tomorrow!




I cooked dinner for my host family that night, and met my group to catch the midnight overnight ferry from Koge to Bornholm. It was a 5.5 hour ride, and was just one step down from the comfort level of an eight hour plane ride without the complimentary food.  We got into Bornholm and drove another hour and a half to our hostel, at which point breakfast was served and we were given our bikes.  That day, I managed to bike almost 50 miles across the island of Bornholm, seeing the beautiful countryside and cute coastal towns.  We went to Akirkeby, Deuodde Strand (the sounthernmost tip of Bornholm with sand so white and fine that it's exported all over the world for hourglasses), Nexo, and Svaneke (an old fishing village where we had to experience smoked herring).

my version of an eye mask

reclining chairs for us to sleep in for the night

Just stopping to say hi to some cows

The beautiful beach!


Random kick boxing class in the middle of Nexo

Just in case they want to relax on the docks

Finally made it to Svaneke!


The very (un)appetizing smoked herring


On day two of the bike ride (honestly I have no idea how we made it to day two), we explored the northwestern part of the island which included the Sacred Cliffs, spelunking in a coastal cave, hiking to find a (nonexistent) waterfall, and discovering the oldest Medieval fortress in all of Europe!  We then headed back to Copenhagen later that day, and spent the entire trip back stressing over our first exam in  our core course (which was today).  Let me tell you, all the stress was for absolutely nothing.  I (fingers crossed) hope I rocked the test.  

spelunking!

Climbing on the cliffs!

pathway down to the sacred cliffs!

view from the bottom


one of the gorgeous views along the coast

Hammershus!


After class today, I had my Danish cooking class where we made "Brain food"  ranging from different types of fish to beans to blueberry desserts!

Salmon and veggies!

mackrel and potatoe salad

Our preparation of bean and feta salad, fisk frikadeller, and homemade remoulade


Til imorgen!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

A place inspired by the great Walt Disney - what's not to love!

Wednesday I met some friends for a trip into Tivoli.  Inspired but the great Walt Disney, and Walt Disney World, you can definitely see interesting connections between the two-  it's not just a park like Dorney or Six Flags where the rides are lined up right after the other, but is instead organized by various themed sections of the park, with stories behind the rides!  Tivoli has captured everything I love about Disney World so well: not only are the actual rides amazing, but the stories within the rides are entertaining and make the wait even more worth it (although the wait for rides at Tivoli maxes out around 15 minutes).

The beautiful Tivoli

The entrance to "The Flying Trunk"  a ride inspired by H. C. Andersen himself

Pretty much the coolest candy store ever (follow the instructions below)


The scariest ride in Tivoli - called Vertigo. Scary as anything but a fun time!

Today was a very long day, but altogether successful.  I met with my group for my Partners & Rivals class and we finally have a concrete outline for our research paper (unfortunately the first two outlines weren't up to par by any of our standards so all that work is down the drain).  And then in my Medical Practice and Policy class, at the hospital we got to done some awesome hands on learning: cardiac ultrasounds, taking blood pressures, and inserting IV's.  Yeah, pretty awesome, I know.  It's absolutely AMAZING seeing your own heart beating in your chest, with each chamber perfectly outlined and the valves opening and closing with each beat.  Then we got to take blood pressures - not so exciting but always a good thing to practice.  And finally, we put IV lines into each other.  Pretty much the same scariness as going on the scariest ride in Tivoli and multiplying it by ten.  It is absolutely terrifying entrusting your vein to a fellow student who has never before performed this procedure in her life.  Luckily, I got stuck first, and the person who put in my line did a pretty good job (meaning she got the line and successfully inserted the plastic section of the IV).  I was so fortunate that Annie did mine instead of the other people, because some other brave volunteers ended up with edemas and other painful poking and proddings.  I was able to get my IV line into Annie successfully also, but hope that eventually it will be quick and efficient instead of a longer more cautious process.

Then tonight, I had my European Wine Tasting Club again, where we explored six wines from all over France, and I actually am beginning to understand the lingo and the characteristics you use to classify the different wines.  It's amazing how complex the process is, and we even explored the chemistry of the different smells!  I wouldn't exactly call me a wine connoisseur, but give me a few more classes, and I might be able to distinguish a Bordeaux from a Chardonnay!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Bedstefar's Stæg- my favorite! Wait, you're eating what?

Bedstefar's beard.  Luckily, Danish food doesn't always match its descriptions.  My new favorite addition to my Mondays is my Danish cooking class.  It's about all I can do to make it through seven hours of classes (even though I love them all, it's a long time of learning for any person), but my Danish cooking class is definitely going to be something to look forward to at the end of the day.  There are 16 of us and we divide into groups of four, with each group assigned an entree and a dessert - yes, four desserts, extremely exciting for a person like me!

*I need to add a little caveat saying the theme of the week was "Cooking Danish on a Budget" and cabbage and potatoes happen to be extremely inexpensive in Denmark!


The menu was as follows:




Brown Cabbage with Medisterp
ølse (aka carmelized cabbage with a spicy sausage)
Served on rye bread with mustard and eaten as an open faced sandwich (with the fork in the left hand
and knife in the right at all times of course)



Brændende kærlighed (aka "Burning Love" - Mashed potatoes with crumbled up bacon, carmelized onions and a parsley/chive garnish)
Basically is the fancy Danish version of loaded mashed potatoes without the sour cream




Kylling Boller (aka chicken meatballs but made with oats, carrots, diced peppers among other things)
I know, it doesn't look like meatballs to me either, but the appearance is deceiving- they're actually really good.  These were served with Bulgur salad- almost like cold rice (but made of wheat) with tomatoes, peppers, feta, corn, and pesto (I made this one! it's similar to pasta salad)



Kål Karry (aka curried cabbage with mincemeat and vegetables over steamed rice)

.... and now for the GOOD STUFF!


Roulade with Raspberry Jam (my personal creation)!


Bedstefar's Stæg (aka Bedstefar's Beard - actually amazing though, a white cake with a layer of Strawberry Jam, topped off with merengue -- SO GOOD)!


Drømmekage (aka Dream Cake) And let me tell you, it is heavenly.  It is a white cake with a crunchy coconut, brown sugar, cinnamon topping


Asta Kage (Spice Cake) Actually looks slightly disgusting like this, but is in reality very good.  It is a spice cake with a coffee flavoring and brown sugar glaze


Needless to say, I had to be rolled to the train station after all that wonderful food.

This morning I woke up and typed up part of my Clinical Case Review (we had a full patient interview yesterday and are somehow supposed to be able to form three differential diagnoses and instruct what investigations (aka tests) to run from just getting a patient history and doing an initial clinical examination).  A very intimidating task, to say the least.  

I then headed into Copenhagen to volunteer at Studenterhuset where, because it was the day shift, I learned how to make Espresso, Cappuccino, Cafe Latte, Chai Latte, Varm Chocolade (hot chocolate), Americanos, and basically any other caffeinated beverage you can imagine.  I pretty much ABSOLUTELY LOVE this job and literally never want to leave.  The two barchiefs, David and Mikkel, who were basically in charge of teaching me the ropes are from Ireland and England and legitimately are so much fun to work with.  They are always making fun of me for being too short and for always saying "Sorry" (which I personally don't think is a bad thing, because at least you're not being rude then), and asking "for here" or "to go" instead of "drink in" or "drink out."  Personally, I don't think they should be picky with me because they're not from Denmark either so I could consider their sayings weird too!  Anddddd. It doesn't help that I am 5'1" and can't reach any drink on the top two shelves of the fridge and always need to ask for their help if people ask for them.  Regardless of all the teasing, I have a great time learning so much and meeting customers from all over the world who like to just sit and chat.  I'm only required to do three shifts a month, but I can easily see myself volunteering extra, just to meet the awesome people at Studenterhuset.

After my 5 hour shift, my friend Kaitlin met me for a belated birthday dinner at a tapas restaurant.  It was a lot of fun catching up, because we actually don't have any classes together so don't get to see eachother as much, but decided that we're going to Italy together on our last travel break (so now I have a travel buddy at all times- YAY)!  Dinner was awesome, and the day was complete when we went to the metro station and were waiting when a flash mob appeared.  Welcome to Copenhagen :)



Til imorgen!


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Oh what a productive weekend

So Saturday was a "lazy day" for me, meaning I didn't actually get dressed for the day until after lunch time.  In my defense, I did wake up at 9:00 and actually did work all morning.  As a result of Saturday morning and this morning, I now have all my reading done up to October 29, all of my research done for my group project, all of my journal entries done for medical ethics, and all my notes typed up as a study guide for my exam a week from tomorrow.  Yeah, actually productive!

After I did work all morning and into the afternoon, I went for a nice long run a couple of times around the lake near my house, just to clear my head.  The rest of the night I spent relaxing and watching TV (Danish of course so I actually had no idea what was going on) with my host sister and then cooking dinner.

Today I woke up and cooked breakfast for my host family.  It ended up being french toast, bacon, and pancakes.  I would say it ended up being pretty good- I know I definitely enjoyed it.  I then did a little work and went into Copenhagen.  I just kind of wandered around Nyhavn and then went to church.

Church was very interesting.  Luckily, I found a church that offered English masses, so I understood most of the very thick accents, but it was interesting because the church was absolutely packed.  Also, the majority of the priest's sermon was him cracking jokes which I didn't understand but everyone laughed at.  Overall, it was a really nice atmosphere, and when the Our Father was said, the people on either side of me automatically grabbed my hands to pray together.  Definitely a nice feeling of connectedness.

After church I volunteered at Studenterhuset which was a great time.  I met people today from Greece, Amsterdam, Belgium, London, and Finland.  It's amazing the different stories you hear and how friendly everyone is (and how good at English they all are)!  Also, I learned two different drinks today. The first was a white Russian- 1 shot of vodka, 1 shot of Kahlua, and milk.  I also learned that if you take 2/3 of a really dark ale and 1/3 of citron (an organic lemony soda), it actually doesn't taste half bad.    I'm on my way to becoming a barista, learning the ropes of the steamer and I actually discovered where the hot water comes out!

Anyway, no pictures today, sorry but I'll try for more next post!  Tomorrow is my first Danish Cooking Class - "Cooking Danish on a Budget."  Exactly what I need!

Til imorgen!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

My first quiz at DIS was (thankfully) relatively harmless.  Unfortunately, I had missed that class on Monday so I was missing some notes, but luckily I did the readings so it helped where my notes were lacking.  I really like class after the quiz (European Storytelling) because we analyzed fairytales in movie context.  It was awesome because I'm so used to taking everything at face value, but it's interesting to see common trends in all the movies and the elements we had been talking about for so long (plus its nice to watch movie clips instead of always being lectured to).  My other classes were good: in my Medical Practice and Policy class, half the lecture was spent learning to read an ECG which is extremely involved but pretty much the coolest thing ever once you understand what information is being presented.

After my classes for the day, I rushed back to Copenhagen (because my last class is in the hospital outside of the city) to go to my first session of my European Wine Tasting Club!  Let me tell you, I am going to really love these Thursdays, not because its wine and who wouldn't love that, but because the class as a whole is so entertaining.  It's really informative and fun to learn the proper edicate and procedure for tasting the wine, but its funny because it is an epic fail for me.  Ian, the man in charge is this classy, clean cut looking Danish man who you can just tell has been doing wine tasting for years.  He explains the correct way to swirl the glass and tells us to smell the wine and asks for input as to what we smell.  People are shouting out answers like salt, minerals, eucalyptus, and then crazy things like raw meat, plastic, asphalt, etc.  Meanwhile I'm sitting here and I'm smelling and I'm like, "Yeah, smells like a white wine to me."  Pretty sure if we got grades, I would fail.  But its a really fun experience and even after just the first session, I am so so so excited that I decided to do it.

Friday was an interesting day for me, because I had been telling my host mom earlier in the week that I wanted to take my bike out and explore Hvidovre, the town I live in, and she offered to show me around.  I wake up Friday morning and it is POURING, and pour myself a cup of coffee, sit down at the breakfast table, and strike up casual conversation with Sigrun, at which point she asks me when I want to leave.  Yup.  Even with it pouring, we still went on this bike ride around our town- I don't think they have the concept of "raincheck" here.  Mind you, it's 55 degrees outside and windy.  Not exactly my idea of a "casual bike ride exploring Hvidovre," but actually a fun experience nonetheless.  In Denmark, with the weather as unpredictable as it is, if you cancelled plans every time it rained, you'd be sitting inside all the time.

After the bike ride, I finally come back and to warm up take a shower, where I find a MASSIVE bug in there.  They come inside in the cold weather.  Mind you, this thing is a good three inches long, no exaggeration I promise (see below).  Apparently, thanks to the fact that we leave the windows open at all times and they don't have screens, these critters and I are going to become extremely friendly.



Sigrun had to work the late shift so it was up to me to cook dinner for Tonje and myself, and I made an alfredo sauce with fresh pasta and laks (smoked salmon) ontop, apparently a traditional Danish meal- Sigrun left me with the instructions on how to cook it (although the only cooking part was boiling the pasta and making the sauce). Not to toot my own horn, but it actually turned out pretty good!  After dinner, I met my friends Morgan and Eric in Copenhagen for the night.



Til imorgen!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

My Twenty-first birthday: Danish style

Tuesday morning, I officially woke up as a twenty-one year old, and my host family made sure I was aware of this! At 8:15 in the morning, Sigrun and Tonje knocked on my door and came in, singing the classic Danish birthday song- definitely an interesting wake up call! (If you want to experience it yourself watch this link just the song in the beginning --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5v3zRKxldI&feature=related).  Then we had a breakfast of rolls with butter and some chocolate flakes ontop, and some wienerbrod for dessert.




My birthday celebration was at Ander's and Lone's house, which was so much fun!  I loved being able to see Soren, Gitte, Claus, and Kitte again, and didn't realize how much I missed them.  I decided pretty quickly that I am a lover of Danish birthday parties because you start off with everyone having varm chocolade (hot chocolate) with homemade whipped cream ontop, to have with the rolls with raisins inside.  After that, you have the actual cake, which is pretty different from your typical American birthday cake.  The Danish birthday song is the longest thing ever (With 5 verses) and there are two versions, one normal and one for children- they sang both!




The weirdest thing for me was that they had me open my presents before we even sat down to eat- I felt so awkward because I was used to doing it after the cake.   Lone and Anders got me a really cool book of Copenhagen with flip out maps (they obviously knew I'm not the best navigator).  Soren and Gitte got me a pretty necklace, and Claus and Kitte got me a "hoptimist" kind of like a Danish Bobblehead doll painted as a Danish flag, except much more awesome in my humble opinion (Google it and you'll agree)!  My host family got me a cute little troll from Bornholm.

After dinner, I went back to my house and then went into Copenhagen and met some of my friends where I got my first "legal" (American) drink- Strawberry margarita.  We also told the bartender it was my birthday and she treated the table to a free round and gave me a Danish flag- they absolutely love having the Danish flag out for special occasions!  Last but not least she insisted I have the traditional Danish celebratory shot- something I hope I will never again have to experience.  It was a shot that tasted like salted licorice, a big deal in Denmark but something I will never grow to love.



Actual face after the "salted licorice Traditional Danish" shot

Today was a nice day, I got up and met my friends in Copenhagen and we booked all of our traveling to Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, and Tangier (aka MOROCCO)!  After that I had a field study for my one class and we went to the US embassy and talked to the ambassador.  I then met with my study group for some time and came back and did some work.  Tomorrow I have my first Danish quiz!

Til imorgen!

Monday, September 10, 2012

You went where???

Well, this weekend was definitely not your typical "travel break."  I don't even know where all the time went.  Early Friday morning, my host mom drove me to Copenhagen airport to fly home for Amy's wedding.  If I were to try to explain how absolutely amazing the wedding was, I wouldn't be doing it the justice it deserves- everything was perfect and I think I could speak for every person there that Amy was the most beautiful bride and Jason the most handsome groom.  Don't believe me? check it out. Even the rain couldn't ruin the day, and as Megan said, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

Mr. and Mrs. Jason Hobbs!





I absolutely loved seeing my family and Ian this weekend, although it definitely made it that much harder to fly back to Copenhagen yesterday, which was an adventure in itself.  Little did I know (until I arrive at the airport) that they decided to cancel my flight, which I picked specifically so that I could arrive in Copenhagen at 7:15 and make it to all my Monday classes.  I guess it just wasn't my day, and instead ended up flying into Frankfurt and connecting to Copenhagen, finally getting back around 12:45, just late enough to miss three of my four classes, so I just went back to my house and grabbed a quick shower.  I did make it to my last class at the hospital next to my house, and it was definitely worth it, because we learned how to do SUTURES today!  It was a lot of fun and Anita said I'm a natural (little did she know I've had practice before)!  I'm now writing this and might actually go to sleep soon (shocking- the earliest I'd have gone to bed since I was 9), due to the fact that my biological clock is rebelling and my body is shutting down on me haha. Plus, I have to be rested up for my birthday tomorrow! Yay!!

Til imorgen!