Expedition: Life

So, it's been awhile

2008-03-25T11:33:00.002-04:00

I feel like I'm starting all over again with this blog; however, in reality this will probably only be a brief return as undoubtedly Carleton will again keep me more than busy enough in less than a week. Regardless, I will try to take these last few days of spring break to cross off some of the of topics that have been sitting on my desktop for about 3 months. So if anyone still reads this, enjoy the brief outburst before I go back into hibernation.

What is cornbread?

2007-12-16T17:38:00.000-05:00

On my last night and dinner with my host family I offered to cook. The menu was simple and reflected my longing to be home in the blizzard. Chili and cornbread. In general, I hate cooking in a foreign place, which includes someone else's kitchen, let alone a foreign country. There are just too many challenges associated with it.

And as expected, I ran into those challenges today. In reality, the chili was a relatively smooth process, minus being short on tomato sauce and having to substitute tomato soup. In the end it turned out just fine. However, the same can't be said about the cornbread. When I first thought of this menu I okayed it with my host dad regarding the main ingredients. Its worthless to plan on making chili and cornbread if you can't get chili beans or corn meal. He assured me they had everything.

Well, on Saturday when we went to the grocery store (2 in fact) there was no corn meal to be found. Instead, I had to substitute corn starch. Couple that with the fact that my host family owns zero measuring devices and baking the bread became quite the event. Having to guess out oil is not easy, and I failed. Way too much oil. Still, after baking for about 25 minutes I was left with a solid, kind of yellow looking bread. Once I tasted it though, I knew it had failed. Not miserably, but still a failure. It was served anyways and my concoction was saved by ignorance.

No one in my host family had eaten cornbread before, so they had no idea what to expect. This worked out perfectly, as they loved my creation. And the entire meal was a big hit. Their last memory of me can be my success in the kitchen, that is until they go back to the US, have real cornbread, and wonder what it was I made for them.

The coldest night

2007-12-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Appropriately, tonight has been the coldest night in Copenhagen during my 4 months here. It is also my last, in a sense. I was officially done with all coursework at 4:35pm this evening, and I couldn't be happier to be done. The one adaptation that Carleton has reinforced is having either 9 or 10 weeks of school and then a break. I'm not use to this whole 15 week semester thing.

Overall, the exams went well, although today's was a little rough, and brought an end to an academically stimulating semester. I definitely learned things here that I never would have had a chance to learn at Carleton, and that was really one of the points in coming, so mission accomplished.

After the exam I went out to dinner for one last hurrah with a few friends, which ended with some final goodbyes at the end of the evening. This was weird for me. I've never been a big fan of goodbyes. I definitely appreciate them and what they stand for, but I just hate doing them. I would much rather slink away in the night and be gone. Probably not the best method, but still my preference.

It's just been a kind of weird realization today that I'm done. It has been a My last time at DIS. My last time logging onto facebook and not doing work in the library. day full of lasts. My last bus ride into Copenhagen. My last bus ride home. My last bike rides. The last time seeing people. The time has definitely flown by, and I'll be commenting on this a bit more in the future.

Speaking of future, now I'll give an update on my time scheulde for those of you that are curious. I am leaving for a couple days in London on Monday morning. I'll be flying back to Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon, and then flying home on Thursday. It's then a couple days at home, before I head up to Elk Rapids (Northwestern Michigan) for Christmas. It's then home for a couple days before leaving for Carleton on December 30th.

Needless to say, I'm busy traveling the next couple weeks. You can look forward to posts about London, a final recap on Denmark (which could easily stretch into multiple posts), and at least a post about the future of this blog. Odds are that it will be sticking around, but you can read all about that in a future post.

A brief mention of something that I'm missing. Snow and real Christmas weather. Tonight was the first night the temp has dropped below freezing in a long time (and even possibly the first). I had a great final bike ride back from the bus stop in the cold air. Felt almost like Minnesota. Besides the cold I'm also missing the snow. I'm incredibly jealous of the snow storms that have hit Minnesota and the one that's supposed to hit Ohio tomorrow. This is my current desktop to try to deal with my longing for snow:

I am definitely looking forward to the white stuff, so keep it pouring down Mother Nature.

Who doesn't love free rice?

2007-12-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

www.freerice.com

A couple of my friends have mentioned this website on their blogs, and I've also read about it on other random blogs so I finally checked it out today. It's completely addicting. And that's such a good thing. FreeRice.com is a free vocabularly builder for English. The catch, if you can even call it that, is for every correctly answered question 20 grains of rice is donated to those in poverty. For free! The level of the vocabulary is adaptive so there is no reason not to do it, whether you're in 2nd grade or a Ph.D. I've already wasted half an hour there today. I highly suggest you do the same.

Pig's head anyone?

2007-12-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

The other day I had what I thought to be a momentary flashback to this summer when I took part in surgical procedures on pigs. The cause of this feeling of deja vu was passing by one of the many Arab butcher shops on Amagerbro -- the main street I travel on. First, when I passed in the morning on the bus -- there happens to be a bus stop right next to the store -- I noticed there was a severed pig's head hanging from a hook in the window. Normally, all the butcher shops have various pieces of meat hanging, but this head was a definite first. Then, to further add to this situation, I passed the store again later in the day as I was going to pick up dinner. This time hanging from a hook in the shop window was half a pig's head. I'm not sure what surprised me more. That someone would only buy half a pig's head, or that they would continue to display the aforementioned head even after it had been cleanly cut in two. The good news was that any passerbys could get a great anatomical lesson on the pig's head, so some good did come out of it.

It finally happened...

2007-12-06T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well, it finally happened. I finally met a Dane that did not speak a word of English. Please bare in mind that I have been in the country for over 3 months now, and that I leave in 14 days (more like 10). That's quite a long time to be in a country and never run into this problem. Of course, it occurred in a situation where I really needed someone that spoke English. I was at the small post office in one of the grocery stores by my house, attempting to mail a package of Christmas presents home. A simple task became quite difficult. We (the attendant and myself) managed pretty well, however, and the package was sent. Last time I tracked it, the package's status it read "Sent to the USA" so I at least know I got the country right, which I view as a good first step. Hopefully, it will manage to make it the whole way there. If not, no Christmas presents for anyone.

I went to Vienna & I was Punsched Three Times

2007-12-03T23:52:00.000-05:00

I think I will provide you with a "blow-by-blow" recap of the weekend, but it's been a couple days so I'm sure I'll be forgetting some details.

The trip began with my first outgoing experience at Kastrup, the Copenhagen airport. Let's just say it was a little less than ideal. First, there were only 3 check-in counters available for 4 different flights. This resulted in a decent wait in line. Then I attempted to grab some dinner, but again too long of a line and slow service at Burger King prevented any chance of that happening. Security wasn't much better as they only had 2 security lines open in the entire airport. All in all, it was good that I gave myself 2 hours.

The flight itself was great. I would highly recommend Austrian Airlines to anyone. We only spent an hour and 20 minutes in the air, which is less than a flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis/St. Paul, yet not only was I provided with food, it was hot! An actual meal! It was quite the surprise. I didn't think airlines still provided that kind of service. Otherwise, getting into Vienna was hassle free with nothing else exciting to report.

Getting to the hostel was also relatively easy, although there was a fun moment as I turned down a street -- as the directions told me to -- and was confronted with a six or seven prostitutes. That was an interesting development, although it sounds a lot more exciting/sketcky than it really was. Since, I had been up since 5:00am that morning, and didn't sleep on the flight, I quickly passed out.

The next morning I woke up and met Hannah, a friend from Carleton, downstairs to start off the sightseeing. The first stop was the Hofburg Palace complex, where I was told prior to leaving that I had to see the Spanish Riding School. Training took place in this gorgeous building, which looked more like a ballroom than a place to ride horses. I probably was missing the impressive difficulty of the riding as I know so little about horses because it didn't seem to be that exciting, but I assume all the hype means something.

After that we crossed the street to Maria-Theresien Platz, which is in between the art and natural history museums, and also had a Christmasmarkt. Hannah and I perused through the market for a while amazed by a couple things. First, the sheer number of punsches available. Evidently, this is a Vienna thing to serve Christmas punsch, and there are an endless amount of varieties. Beerpunsch (berry punch), normal Christmaspunsch (orange/berry flavored), Mozartpunsch, Schillerpunsch, and Apfelpunsch (apple punch) to just name a few. In reality, the sheer number of hot alcoholic drinks was overwhelming, which included Jaga Tee, which is Jagermeister and hot tea. An interesting combination to say the least. Regardless, we passed on the punsch initially. Second, we were surprised that the music playing in the background wasn't some classical, Christmas piece, but rather crappy American pop Christmas music. I had higher expectations than that. Third, I made my first of to be many food purchases which was some really tasty Kaiserschmarrn with apple sauce. Just imagine torn up pieces of pancakes and you've got it. I also managed to buy a pizza pretzel for lunch, too. Fourth, for some cognitive dissonance, one of the other food stands in the market was selling Kartoffelpuffers, which were pretty much potato pancakes, at a "German" Christmasmarkt. A little weird to say the least.

We then went and checked out the art museum, which in a very similar fashion to Italy, was disappointing for me personally, as I didn't feel like I had a good understanding of what I was looking at. Couple that with the ticket booth guy stealing 10 Euro from me, this was probably the low point of the trip.

After the museum we walked around a bit and found ourselves in front of city hall, which was absolutely gorgeous. Kind of on the level of the Hungarian Parliament, albeit smaller. This comparison makes a lot of sense if you think about it, as at one point it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There also was another Christmasmarkt in front of city hall. This supposedly was the classic market and it was jam packed with people. Hannah and I were on a mission to find Mozartpunsch -- warmed egg liqueur with spices, etc. -- but came up empty.

Making use of the metro we headed outside the city to see Schoenbrunn Palace. After walking through the assosciated gardens we decided it would be absolutely beautiful in any season but winter, when everything wouldn't be dead. Instead, we had to let our imaginations do the work envisioning all the trees, plants, and flowers. Surprisingly, there was another Christmasmarkt. Sensing a pattern yet? This one also had some live signing in front of a big Christmas tree. But to throw us off when we arrived, they were singing a Jewish song. How confusing. At this market though we were able to find the punsch we were looking for -- with a different name, nonetheless. Prices for punsch are always 2 Euro higher than listed as you place a deposit for the glass mug that it comes in, which is either yours to keep and reuse or to return to the booth. I now have some mugs as souvenirs. The punsch itself was amazing. It was pretty much warmed eggnog and was a whole new experience in terms of eggnog drinking. Highly recommended.

Post warming via the punsch we took a tour of the palace and were amazed by the grandeur that the Haupsburg's lived in. I'm pretty sure we both commented on how this would have been a decent place to live. We also made the decision that we should go back and have our 21st birthday's there. It would be a kind of cool place.

We walked around the Christmasmarkt a bit more after the tour, bought some more punsch, and then just sat in the gardens, enjoyed our drinks, and the gorgeous sunset. It was pretty impressive:

It was then back into the heart of the city to wander around before dinner. Thanks to it getting so dark so quickly we were able to see the city all lit up, which included having images displayed on the facade of St. Stephen's Church in a very similar fashion to the Berliner Dom in Berlin. Once again, it was really cool.

Dinner was a great meal combining Austrian and German influences as I had veal in a paprika sauce (Austro-Hungarian) with spaetlze (German). Accompanied of course with good German beer. After dinner we headed back to the hostel as Hannah had a train to catch, and I was exhausted. It was another relatively early night as it had been a long day, and I needed to wake up pretty early the next morning.

I was up at 6:30AM the next day. Why this ungodly hour? Well, because of God I guess. I had tickets to attend mass at the Hofburg Chapel; however, the real motivation was a chance to see the famous Vienna Boy's Choir perform. It was an interesting event, although I'm not sure if was worth the money or the waking up early for. The night before I had created a list of things to do on Sunday, so I was off to make my list happen.

The next stop was walking by the Votiv Kirche, which had some really cool spires that attracted me. I then headed down towards Freyung, which took me through another Christmasmarkt, then towards Hof, where yes, there was again a Chirstmasmarkt. After that it was over to Judenplatz where I checked out the Holocaust memorial, then to Danube Canal and the Marien bridge, followed by St. Ruprecht's Church -- the oldest church in Vienna.

It was then time to head to the Ankeruhr for its 12:00PM showing. 12 figures from different time periods parade across the front of the clock accompanied by time related music. I took a ton of pictures and a couple videos from this, which can be found on my Webshots site. Once I took that in I walked down one of the main shopping streets to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where I took a quick glance in. Then it was off to see dead bodies as I checked out the Habsburg Crypt where I got to see all the people's coffins that were important within the dynasty.

I then strolled down to St. Charles's Church where one more Christmasmarkt existed. Turned out that this was acutally my favorite of all the markets I visited. It had the greatest assortment of high quality goods for sale. I was then drawn in by the magnificence of St. Charles Church; however, once I entered the outer room I questioned if I wanted to pay the 4 Euro fee and actually enter. Eventually, I decided to, and what a great decision. First, the church itself is gorgeous. Second, and more importantly, the frescoes on the ceilings were in the process of being restored, so you could take an elevator up into the cupola. All the way up there:

What an experience! I was close enough I could touch the paint!

My legs were shaking the entire time. I've never been one to be scared of heights but I was freaked out. Maybe because I was on scaffolding that said it could only support 10 people -- and there was definitely more than 10 people up there -- or maybe the fact that I was someplace that part of me knew I shouldn't be. Regardless, it was amazing.

It was then over to the last Chirstmasmarkt, the Spittleberg. Supposedly, this was the best one to shop at, but I was actually pretty disappointed. In the end I headed back to Maria-Theresien Platz and its market. There I made my last purchases although not without incident. By this time my time in Vienna was running short, and I was out of money. To top it off, I couldn't find an ATM anywhere to save my life. After wandering the streets and asking a handful of Austrians if they knew where one was -- no one was able to help -- I finally tried a hotel, where the receptionist directed me. Much to my chagrin, when I reached the ATM it was out of service. Luckily, there was one across the street, but when I tried it I was told that the service was unavailable. I tried 2 more times. Still no luck. Something told me to try it a fourth time, and magically it worked. I then ran back to the market and made my last purchases, as well as grabbing a last glass of punsch -- the third of the trip -- and a wild boar meatloaf sandwich. And that's how my trip in Vienna came to a close. It was back to the airport and on an Austrian Airlines flight, and the food was included again! Then it was time for sleep back in Copenhagen.

Familial Events

2007-11-29T12:15:00.000-05:00

While my family was here for 8 days we did more than just eat Christmas dinner and celebrate Thanksgiving. One night we went to Tivoli to see it all lit up. It was gorgeous. The only thing that could have made it better was snow, but I think that may have been asking for too much.

We also managed to stumble upon a winter light show over the little lake in the park. It was pretty cool.After taking that in we headed over to the Glass Theatre, which is also in the park, to see the 25th annual Crazy Christmas Cabaret. This is an original comedy show put on every year by a British woman, who writes a new script for each show. This year was a parody of Around the World in 80 Days, which was titled Around the World in 80 Minutes. The majority of the show was either raunchy humor or stereotypical jokes about different parts of the world. This show in general is quite the crowd pleaser, as over 75% of the 1,000 people attending were repeat visitors. That number of people coming back year after year lets the writer include some recurring themes from year to year, which meant sometimes the crowd was laughing hysterically only at the appearance of certain characters. My family, especially my Dad, loved it, and as expected we laughed the hardest at the jokes regarding the good ole USA and its NRA president George Brush. Personally, I was excited that I was able to understand the jokes about Danish culture. Made me really feel like I have become somewhat integrated.

Another day we took a trip outside the city to the town of Roskilde, which sits on a fjord, and use to be capitol of Denmark way back when. There are two primary attractions there, and we saw both. First was the Roskilde Domkirke which is an old Catholic Church, which is now Lutheran Reformed, where all the Danish Kings and Queens have been buried. It was a unique place, and somewhere I had been wanting to go for quite a while. Second was the Viking Ship Museum, where remnants of 5 Viking ships that were scuttled in the Fjord had been put back together. It was amazing to see wood that dated back to the 11th century.

My favorite activity took place on Sunday night. After a dinner in a restaurant that dated back to the 13th or 14th century we all headed back to my parents apartment, where I had left my laptop. We got back from dinner just in time to start watching the Browns game in the 2nd quarter. This was special for a couple reasons. One, I hardly get to watch any Cleveland sports games with my Dad anymore, which was always our main thing. Two, I'm not sure if I'll get another chance to watch a Browns game with him this year just due to scheduling. Three, this is the first season since 2002 that they have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs. To top it off, the Browns won the game against the Ravens in incredibly bizarre fashion (I'll spare you all the details), making it a game to remember.

That's all the recap I'm going to do on my parents visit. In other travel related news, I'm off to Vienna for the weekend tomorrow. I'm quite excited to see this gorgeous city in winter and explore everything it has to offer. I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures and fill you in with how the trip went. Luckily, it's only a weekend so there won't be too much to say.

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T17:19:00.000-05:00

So as I mentioned in my previous post, my family came over for Thanksgiving. One of the main events was making Thanksgiving dinner for my host family. First, when I told my host family that my real family was coming over towards the beginning of my stay in Denmark, they were so relieved. I guess DIS explains to the host families the importance of Thanksgiving to American's, and especially American students as its normally a time when they return home. All of this information made them nervous about the whole situation, and they were more than happy to pass off the meal to my family and me.

The preparations began a week ahead of my family's arrival, as shopping lists and cooking utensils were cross-referenced. This led my host family confused as they had no idea what all this food could be for, or why we needed a 6 kilo turkey (about 12.2 lbs) for only 8 people. Working on a deadline of the Thanksgiving meal taking place Wednesday night, my mom had her first Danish shopping experience the Monday before. She managed to find almost everything. Anything she couldn't find initially, my host Dad helped her with on Tuesday evening. Later that night the pumpkin pies were baked. When I got back from a DIS dinner that night, I just couldn't help but beam as the smell of pumpkin wafted down to me as soon as I entered the door.

Wednesday was then the big cooking day. Unfortunately, I had a major group assignment/presentation due the next day so I wasn't around too much. This meant I missed my favorite part of cooking, which is the browning of the onions and celery for the stuffing. The aromas associated with that step just whets my appetite and gets me prepped for the meal. When I did return, my nostrils were treated to an even better smell and caused me to announce to absolutely no one that "Its Thanksgiving!". I lended my assistance for the final steps, but for the most part the meal was set.

As we sat down on the table we were greeted by turkey napkins and an amazing meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry applesauce, cranberry jelly, stuffing, carrots cooked in brown sugar and raisins, gravy, pumpkin bread, and a pretty nice Ohio Amish red wine. A true feast!

So the most important part of this meal was my host family's reaction. I think its safe to say that they were pleasantly surprised, especially regarding how all the flavors meshed together. I can also proudly say that my host brothers acted like Americans and absolutely stuffed themselves. I had never seen Victor eat so much, and Marc must have had four helpings of mashed potatoes. All and all, the meal was a huge success! The last surprise of the evening was people's reactions to my mom's pumpkin pies, which were excellent as usual. My host parents were not expecting it to be like it was. The texture and lightness really threw them for a loop.

The only negative of the meal was that my host family had no idea what to do with all the left-overs, as its not something they are used to (and I'm sure I've mentioned this before). I managed to make a bowl of potatoes, stuffing, turkey, and gravy to have for lunch the next day, and I was able to extend the shelf life of the applesauce to today, and the pumpkin pie to yesterday, although, sadly, it was thrown out with four pieces left!

After dinner one of the best parts of the evening happened. My whole family went down to my room and we called both sets of grandparents via Skype. Needless to say, they were both shocked to be receiving a call from Copenhagen that was coming form a computer. It was great to hear how excited they were by hearing my voice as well as the rest of my family's.

Overall, the transplantation of Thanksgiving across the Atlantic was a huge success, and I think a true cultural experience for my host family to take part in. And perhaps most importantly, I got my favorite meal, and was able to enjoy it with my family, so I was more than satisfied!

Christmas 24/7

2007-11-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

Note: My parents and brother recently spent a week in Copenhagen visiting me, during their time off for Thanksgiving. This will be the first of 3 posts about their visit.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. In fact, it may be my favorite. And I'll go all into what it was like in Denmark in my next post. But, while here, I think I determined a very important function for this holiday. It tells everyone exactly when they can start to think about Christmas.

See, in Denmark, Thanksgiving doesn't exist. No Indians or Pilgrims. This also means they have no established date in their calendar of when Christmas thinking should begin. So it becomes an arbitrary process, at best. And in my opinion, they arbitrarily decided way too early. Christmas decorations, music, and advertisements first started appearing on the streets and in the stores of Copenhagen almost 2 full weeks ago. And, since the country is pretty much completely homogeneous, and the country's official religion is Reformed Lutheran, there are no public qualms about decorating. So, pretty much, everything is covered!

Not only that, but Christmas is a huge holiday for the Danes in terms getting together with friends and family and sharing a meal. However, because there are so many friends and family, these meals have already started. And, because these meals have begun, restaurants have started to cater their menu for Christmas meals. What this means is that while my parents and brother were here, we had pretty much the same food 3 nights, because it was the only option on the menu. Don't get me wrong -- I love the Danish Christmas meal, and I really like the fact that it's a set meal like Thanksgiving, but there's only so many times you can have it in a week. Three types of herring, smoked salmon, shrimp, fried plaice, beets, red cabbage, tomato, liver pate, chicken salad, roast pork, roast duck, apples and prunes, potatoes cooked in brown sugar, pickles, crackers, cheese, and rice pudding. With that kind of lineup, once is enough.

I Can't Help But Look Up

2007-11-25T04:25:00.000-05:00

Denmark is fairly far north. It is situation around 55 degrees North latitude. That's equivalent to the southern tip of Alaska. This means that the lighting patterns are very similar to Alaska. For example, today's sunrise was at 8:03 AM, and today's sunset will be at 3:50 PM. Pretty Early. Which means it gets very dark very early. While this can be incredibly disheartening and can manage to throw anyone's internal clock way off, I'm attempting to find some good in it. So far, the only positive thought I can manage in regards to leaving class and thinking its 10:00 PM is that it makes the end of my commute home really splendid. I don't know if its the clear, winter skies, but the stars seem to be shining much more brightly now, and once I enter my neighborhood on my bike, my speed slows way down, and I pedal with my eyes firmly affixed above. I love looking at the stars no matter where I am, and there's something relaxing and perhaps charming about them. And as long as I manage to stay upright on my bike, and not run into anything, I will continue to look forward to getting the chance to look up.

Feeling a little Danish

2007-11-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

When I walk the streets of Copenhagen no one confuses me with the native Danes. I don't have people tell me I could pass as a Dane. My Danish language skills are non-existent. In other words, even though I've been here for over 3 months in some ways I still feel very much like a guest in the country. However, there are two times each week for some unknown reason that I feel quite Danish. After my Human Health & Disease course on Tuesdays and Fridays I have a 20 minute walk home. Normally, I occupy myself with my iPod, and as I walk down Amagergade I feel Danish. I feel like I belong, and that this place is as much mine as anyone else's. And that is a really great feeling.

A Positive Outlook on Life

2007-11-19T17:55:00.001-05:00

It's important to go through life with a positive outlook. It just makes everything seem better. So, I strongly advocate this concept; however, not if one has to have delusional thoughts to make it possible. Take for example the Swedish nationalistic views in the mid 1700's from Karin Johannisson's article about Swedish Mercantilism:

"Moreover, the Nordic climate was unusually favourable, a number of writers maintained. The cold protected the people from infectious diseases and made them 'merry, lively, and manly'. The snow on the ground prevented nutritious substances from evaporating and, when it melted, transformed the rotting leaves and needles into rich humus. The woods were teeming with useful game -- "if anyone seriously tried to domesticate our moose, they might well become our camels" -- and lakes and rivers were swarming with salmon and other splendid fish, pearl-filled molluscs, oysters and lobsters. The people could also rejoice over what the Swedish climate spared them from. They were spared from the burning sun of hotter countries 'where the people, drained by the heat, for much of the year must splash around all day in their water barrels'. They could walk in the forests without fear of tigers, lions, leopards, and apes and they could fish in the lakes and rivers without being frightened by dreadful hippopotamuses and bloodthirsty crocodiles. Given persevering application, all this splendour would show a wonderful capacity to multiply. 'When wilderness and wastes are cultivated, a whole new land will be created, much more fruitful than this, milder in climate, pleasanter in ever way, rich and able to support and feed many million people more than now.'"

That's what I imagine when I think of Sweden, too!

Michigan still wins at some things

2007-11-18T06:34:00.000-05:00

As some if not most of you know, yesterday was the Michigan - OSU football game to determine the Big Ten champion. And while Michigan lost, again -- it's time to go Lloyd -- there was one aspect Michigan beat Ohio State at: number of fans in Copenhagen. As I was walking around downtown yesterday I saw a Dane -- he was speaking Danish and everything, so there's no chance he was a tourist in disguise -- sporting his maize and blue paraphernalia, including a block M hat. I can lovingly report that I saw 0 Ohio State colors, insignia, etc. When you've lost 5 years in a row, one has to take solace in any moral victory one can get.

Accent Troubles

2007-11-15T18:18:00.000-05:00

I have problems with accents. I just can't imitate them. My friends can attest to my horrible attempts at an English accent. Not only can I not do them, I don't have one myself, especially when it comes to speaking in a foreign language. All my time spent in Germany has consisted of me speaking in German, and being talked back to in English, all because I have an American German accent. And the easiest way to spot a non-native speaker of a language is their accent. Here in Denmark, normally the roles are reversed. I'm listening to non-native English speakers, and normally I notice an accent. However, I have been thrown for a loop a couple times in the last week. First, about a week ago, I was ordering a chai tea from a Baresso (a Danish Starbucks) near DIS, and speaking in English when one of the girls behind the counter asks me where I'm from. This isn't a normal question I get while being out and about in Copenhagen. Typically, this would be a question asked by someone else not for Denmark. Then, to confound things, she didn't have an accent. Or to put it more precisely, she had an American accent to go along with her English. I was confused. Was she an American living/working in Denmark? So I sheepishly asked where she was from. Copenhagen. I was pretty embarrassed. Turned out though she spent a year in Michigan during high school. Same thing happened on Wednesday at the hospital. One of the doctors I was shadowing starts talking to me in perfect American English. Confused again, I ask where she's from. Denmark. She just spent some time at Vanderbilt in Nashville studying. Almost all the Danes speak very good English, but I have to say I'm impressed by these two's American accents. They are the first I've heard in Denmark. Now if I could just manage that in Germany.

Got a boo boo? Go to the ER!

2007-11-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

If you haven't figured out already from my posts, the Danish and the American health care systems are quite different. On Wednesday, I was able to experience the Danish in action as I shadowed one of my professors for the morning. We spent most of our time in the ER as she was the on-call doctor for surgical consults. Granted, I haven't spent that much time in American ER's to truly comment, but overall, the Danish version seemed to operate in much the same manner. The one major difference was the utilization of the ER by the Danes. Remember, Danes' health care is covered by the taxes they pay, so a visit to the ER doesn't cost them anything extra. This, in turn, leads to some people coming in for things that they really shouldn't. This included a twisted ankle that wasn't even swollen, and a single in-grown hair on a person's back. The first got nothing, the second got a band-aid. The other interesting aspect was how serious they take possible infectious disease. One woman came in with diarrhea and vomiting. She was immediately isolated, and both the nurses and doctors wore a second layer of clothing that was immediately removed upon leaving the room. While this may seem over the top, it does work. Denmark is one of the few countries in the world that does not have a true resistance to penicillin. Spending 5 hours in the hospital was great, and made me realize I had really never done anything like that before -- just being on the floor of the hospital and seeing patients as opposed to observing surgeries. Mathilde, my professor, was a little upset by the fact that I couldn't have any of my own patients just because nothing presented itself. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to go back before I head home and maybe then I'll get my first patient!

A Dangerous Commute

2007-11-13T00:08:00.001-05:00

Everyone in Copenhagen bikes to commute. This topic has been addressed multiple times by me already. What could there possibly be to add? How about the fact that Danes bike to commute all year round, which includes yesterday morning after it snowed the night before!

First, everyone was incredibly excited for the first day of snow. In fact, it meant "that winter is really here now," or something along those lines. The event coincided well with Sunday night's meal, which was a typical Christmas dinner, as it was some holiday that I don't even think my host parents truly understand -- they had to look it up on a calendar just to know when it was.

The snowfall was nothing extraordinary, a light dusting that managed to stick to the ground, but it was more than enough to make for an interesting commute the next morning. I quickly realized this when trying to turn a corner and felt my bike wheels slipping on the slippery stuff. For the rest of the way to the bus stop I was that Ohio driver who slows down to 20 mph just because of a little snow on the road. I felt like it was the better choice then having my butt on the ground.

Dealing with pain/suffering? That'll be 150 DKK

2007-11-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

Once again the Danes have a great concept regarding health care. This time its in regards to patient compensation for malpractice and in this case there is no doubt in my mind that this should be implemented in the states. The Danish system is not even comparable to the American system. They are night and day. Just in case you are not aware, the American system is based on litigation and the court system. Personal injury lawyers have ads everywhere, telling patients that if things didn't go perfectly that court is the answer, because that's where patients can receive compensation. This, in turn, requires doctors to spend money on malpractice insurance to cover themselves in case a patient proceeds with a lawsuit against them. It doesn't even matter if the doctor did nothing wrong; there is nothing stopping frivolous lawsuits. So there's the recap on the American system.

Now for the Danish system. The Danes base their system on no fault compensation. For full information on the system check out this website: http://uk.patientforsikringen.dk/public/dokumenter/
pdf/pjecer/engelsk/patientsentitlement.pdf

I'll do my best to try to summarize the information. First, the patient compensation is looked at as a patient's right, therefore all patients are covered by this "insurance" in pretty much all cases, except for dental care. The compensation scheme applies to injuries caused by both examination and treatment. But there are limits, as you cannot obtain compensation for an injury caused by the illness or accident for which you were treated, nor can you obtain compensation for treatment not leading to the recovery you expected. Compensation can be paid if the injury was in all probability caused in one of the following ways: if the injury could have been avoided by better treatment; if the injury is due to the malfunction or failure of technical apparatus and instruments, etc.; if the injury could have been avoided using another treatment technique or method of equal efficacy; if the injury is very unusual and serious in relation to the disease you were treated for and therefore goes beyond what you should reasonably have to endure. Compensation itself is fixed in accordance with the provisions of the Danish Liability for Damages Act. Compensation can be paid for loss of earnings, loss of ability to work, permanent damage, and pain and suffering. Compensation can also be paid for recovery costs resulting from the treatment. In the case of pain and suffering there is a cap set at 150 DKK per day, or about $30 per day A board consisting of doctors and governmental workers determine if claims are appropriate and deserve compensation.

This system creates equality amongst all patients, and also acknowledges that doctors are human and can make mistakes and should not have to be punished to provide compensation for the patient. If the doctor has made a grievous error than there is a board that can provide appropriate punishment. What this allows, though, is for doctors to practice medicine in a non-defensive posture, as they do not have to constantly protect themselves. All in all, a much better system than what the states makes use of. Again, the hangup with implementing a system like this in America would be the issue of where the government would get the funds to provide compensation as it would probably require more taxes, which are never popular with the American public. Nonetheless, in my opinion, this is a great system that would make medicine better for all involved.

Where am I again?

2007-11-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Forgive me if I seem uncertain where I am at certain times in my life. I blame my professors at both Carleton and DIS for this. Upon my return from traveling a common theme in my classes has been to spend the first few minutes and name the cities where people went. In my Human Health & Disease course this included both of my professors as well. It turns out that they spent a week in the United States at a DIS seminar, which happened to be taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota where DIS is headquartered. This also meant that they took an hour drive south and spent a day at Carleton. It's kind of odd to think that my Danish professors have been to Carleton more recently than me. Henriette had two impressions of her trip worth sharing. First, she couldn't believe the minuscule size of our dorm rooms. She has no idea how we can live in such a place. Maybe Carleton should take notice of this. Second, the rural areas south of the twin cities reminded her a lot of southern Sweden, so if any of you were contemplating a trip to southern Sweden save your money and visit me instead!

Then to add to my confusion I received an e-mail yesterday from Herr Paas, who is the head of the German department at Carleton, and was my professor for German 204 last fall. It turns out that he and a couple of Carleton administrators are going to be coming to Copenhagen for a seminar or something, and they want to take some Carls (Carleton students) out for dinner. This will then be my second encounter with a Carleton professor at DIS.

For the recap. DIS professors going to Carleton. Carleton professors going to DIS. So this begs the question, where am I again?

Final Travel Thoughts

2007-11-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Whew! Three straight weeks of traveling is a lot. Still, it was a great experience that I wouldn't have changed at all. Just in case you haven't already read, below are posts about a lot of the places I visited and some of the things I saw and took part in. Also, all of my pictures are now posted on Webshots for your perusal. But now for my concluding thoughts.

First, it was insane the different kinds of transportation I made use of. Automobile. Charter bus. Ferry. Streetcar. Metro. Local Train. Regional Train. National Train. Night Train. Airplane. Public bus. I pretty much did it all. Shows how well Europe is connected.

Second, I have come to the conclusion that everyone -- Americans that is -- should do Europe twice. Once as a student. There are just certain experiences people get traveling on the cheap that they would never get if they had money, such as staying at hostels and meeting the people there or eating at cafeterias. It's just a different and enjoyable way to travel. With that said, I also feel that people should go back to Europe when they have more money to truly enjoy some of the more expensive luxuries Europe affords such as great food. This is definitely a blueprint I plan on following.

Along some of those same lines the people I met, especially in Florence were great. It was also interesting to note the differences in ages and what that made the trip be for each person. For example, I met two college aged students that were taking some time off from school and just enjoying Europe. But then I also met two people that were 30+ who almost seemed to be escaping from certain aspects of their life by traveling to Europe. I found this dichotomy to be quite intriguing, and really nothing more.

So it was a great trip, but I am definitely not looking forward to going back to school. DIS doesn't do any favors as I have an exam on Friday and a presentation due in a week. But still, less than 2 months of classes, and then I'm done. Time has really been flying.

The last two months aren't just classes, though. I still have plenty of excitement to look forward to. First, my parents and brother will be here in less than two weeks to spend a week in Copenhagen and celebrate Thanksgiving with me and my family. Then a week later I will be taking a weekend trip to Vienna to experience that amazing city in the winter. Then finally, once classes are done I'll be spending a couple days in London before heading home. So I definitely have things besides classes to keep me occupied.

Siena and the end

2007-11-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

After a very easily hour and a half train ride south, Liza and I arrived in Siena, which is a small, kind of touristy town in the heart of Tuscany. Our first sight was cathedral of San Domenico, which was built in the 1220’s in completely red brick. The coolest aspect of the church is not its age, though, but rather the fact that it displays human remains. St. Catherine is the patron saint for both all of Europe and also Siena, and her head and finger are proudly displayed for all to see. Her actual head and her actual finger. I’m not sure if I’ll ever understand the Catholic concept of relics, even after taking a class in it at Carleton. We then headed through town, which itself is from the medieval times and only open to pedestrians to Il Campo, which is the famous town square. It is a huge opening surrounded by buildings and the town hall, that is covered in bricks, which quite surprisingly are burnt sienna in color. The square reminded me a lot of a gigantic bald spot, as there were people, mostly university student age, sprawled across it enjoying the late morning sun – just like Carleton during spring term.

We then enjoyed another fantastic lunch at a small hole in the wall place, where there was no menu. Liza and I split our pasta dishes, homemade tortellini and homemade ravioli. For the second course I had no idea what my options were so I told the waiter/owner to give me his favorite. After receiving translation help from an Italian customer, the owner understood and placed an order of lamb for me. It did not disappoint. It was a great last real meal for the trip, and a good way to remember Italian cooking.

Post lunch Liza and I headed towards the last major tourist sight in Siena – Siena’s Duomo or cathedral. This was a stunning building regarding both the exterior and interior, which were both made of white and green marble that was layered in stripes. Perhaps the most dazzling aspect of the interior was the floor. Most of it was covered, but the parts left open for us to see were made of marble that was placed in various scenes. It was unbelievable. I can’t imagine seeing the entire floor at one time.

Our last “event” of the trip was buying Liza a new book for her trip back to Budapest. We found this cute little American bookstore of the main pedestrian road, run by a middle-aged American. Liza and I both had thoughts that that would be a cool thing to do as a job, if either of us ever wanted to spend any serious amount of time somewhere in Europe.

Upon leaving Siena, Liza and I had a long night of travel to look forward to. First, it was an hour and a half train ride back to a suburban Florence station. There, we enjoyed our dinner of salami and cheese sandwiches, which hit the spot perfectly during our hour layover. We then had a 2-hour train ride to Bologna central where we arrived around midnight. We then had a 4-hour layover until our next train. That was an experience. Luckily, we found a waiting area and were able to claim some seats for part of the time; however, the room was still freezing and definitely had a particular odor. Sleep was not easy to come by there. Finally, we had a 3-hour train ride back to Milan central, which was highlighted by seats not meant for sleeping and an incredibly cold compartment. We then had our last food in Italy at a little café outside the train station after which Liza and I got on our separate buses to head to our different departing airports. Our trip was done, as was my three straight weeks of travel. My next post will have some overall thought about the entire time as well as information on other things happening in my life that find important, but haven’t yet shared.

The Inferno: Florence

2007-11-04T07:35:00.000-05:00

The next stop on the Italy trip was the Renaissance city of Florence. This city in many ways mimicked my reading of the Inferno by Dante this summer – including Dante lived in Florence for true symmetry. My main problem with the Inferno was that all I ever knew was the general concept of what was going on. Dante made way too many references to ancient Greek gods and goddesses that I had no knowledge about. This resulted in a very hollow reading of the book and the desire to read it again in a class setting where these things could be explained to me. I had the exact same feeling with Florence. Florence is a city of art and architecture, neither of which are my specialties – nor do I really have any passing level of knowledge either. This led to in some ways a very hollow visit as well, as I felt like I wasn’t really appreciating the things I was seeing simply due to ignorance. What this means is that I can say I saw the David – which I did – and that I went to the Uffizi – which I did – but I didn’t really “see” either of them. I guess Florence will be due a second visit either after taking a class or two – probably unlikely – or with a tour guide of some sort – much more likely.

So in Florence we had three big visits. I’ve already mentioned the first two – the Academia where David is and the Uffizi – and the other one was to the main cathedral simply known as the Duomo. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit the Science museum as one of the days I was in Florence was All Saints Day – November 1 – and a lot of places were closed. The Duomo was magnificent from the outside to say the least. Its grandeur was only increased when Liza told me that the entire structure was constructed without scaffolding, and that no one knew how to build the domed top for over 100 years. Not only did we due the typical tourist walk through, which as cathedrals go, was somewhat disappointing – apparently most of the art, etc. has been moved across the street to the Duomo museum, which we did not visit – but we also attended the night mass on All Saints Day. This was my first and possibly only Catholic mass. It was most certainly a unique experience. Not only do you have all the Catholic ritual, but you also have it taking place in Italian. It created a very foreign experience. Somewhat oddly, what my attendance did cause was a desire to attend a church service back home, which I haven’t done in quite a while. Sadly, I don’t even know how much of a possibility that is with the little time I’m at home during my break, but that’s a different story. The one cathedral that was absolutely breathtaking from the outside was the Santa Croce cathedral. I never went in due to the cost, but it is where Galileo is buried along with Dante:

Unfortunately, the Italians have some weird rules about photography. A lot of museums and cathedrals will allow you to photograph as long as you don’t make use of your flash; however, none of the museums or cathedrals in Florence would allow any interior pictures, which means that I’m lacking a fair number of typical pictures that I would normally take.

There were some very important gestational discoveries made in Florence. In terms of food itself, we learned first hand how expensive Italy really is. This caused us to pack one meal a day and eat decently the other. One fun meal was at a self-service restaurant much like the one in Genoa, where we were able to stuff ourselves with pretty decent Italian for a relatively cheap amount of money. But by far our best meal was at this little trattoria we ate at for lunch one day. It was an incredibly small place, with tables and chairs stuffed in every available inch, and you shared tables with other patrons to maximize the space. There was also no menu, as it changed daily and the waitress just ran through it quickly once you had sat down. It had amazing pasta, and my second course was an incredibly tender piece of beef that was lightly fried and covered in tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Liza was a bit more thrilling and tried tongue. I had a bite or two and have to admit not being a big fan. It’s just weird to imagine eating a cow’s tongue. I also had some amazing gelato, as apparently Florence is known for this specialty. I feel like even if was the freezing outside – and Florence was warm, but it wasn’t that warm – that I could indulge myself with good gelato or ice cream. Perhaps the biggest food discovery was my wine preference. Obviously, being in Italy a fair amount of wine was consumed, and I have to admit to being – at least at this stage in my life and at this stage of my limited wine tasting career – a fan of white wines. They just tasted better to me than the reds, although I have been told this is a little odd, and that red wine is more of an acquired taste. I guess time will tell.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Florence was our accommodations. Being the cheap students we are, Liza and I tracked down the cheapest decent accommodations possible. This turned out to be a campground right near Piazza Michelangelo, which meant we had an amazing view overlooking the city and the river. We stayed in a quite spacious house tent; however, it was still a tent, which meant no heat, no electricity, and no power outlets. This led to us sleeping in multiple layers and piling on the blankets, as well as a conservation of cell phone and battery power, and spending time outside at the bar/café.

Spending time there, however, was great, as unlike in Genoa, we were able to meet some really cool people. There were about six of us including Liza and myself that hung out for three nights. The other four were all from Oceania, three Australians, and one New Zealander. Two of the Aussies were dating, while the third was on their own. We had our self-proclaimed “posse” which shared stories about our travels, home, and also just in some good fun and company. I can easily see where this aspect of traveling can be addicting.

Our last morning in Florence was spent sending a couple last e-mails while we had internet access and then enjoying an amazing breakfast at the king of breakfast restaurants – McDonald's. There was one right by the train station that we made use of as we were leaving later that morning for our last city, Siena. Oddly enough, I also ran into a friend from DIS who was also on the Czech Trek with me who was on her way to Venice. This was the second DIS person I had seen while in Florence. It’s amazing how small of a world it is.

Snow and Palm Trees

2007-11-04T07:34:00.000-05:00

The next day was another travel day as Liza and I left Genoa for Florence. This travel involved about 4 hours of train rides, which were highlighted by some interesting occurrences. For the first train ride we were going from Genoa to La Spieza, which took us on a route that hugged the coast. Despite the rain, we were greeted with some great views of mountains right on the coast of the sea, along with numerous palm trees. It had a very Florida like feel, except for the presence of the mountains. In La Spieza we changed trains as we began our trip to Florence. This also brought about a totally different kind of scenery. Now when we looked out our window we were once again greeted by mountains, but this time it was the southern edge of the Italian Alps, which already had seen some snowfall. Talk about a dichotomy of climates. Snow, coupled with palm trees, and neither being artificial!

Another crazy thing happened on the second train. Liza and I were enjoying our gourmet lunch of peanut butter and nutella sandwiches when another American couple, asked us what it was we were eating with the peanut butter. We explained about nutella, and started talking with them. Of course, they asked us if we were studying in Europe and where we went to school, etc. When we told them we went to Carleton and began to explain about it being a small liberal arts school in Minnesota they interrupted us, and quickly interjected that their son goes to Carleton. It gets better. He is also a junior. Still better. He was my next-door neighbor last year in Goodhue! Talk about a crazy small world. We ended up chatting with the couple for 20 minutes or so until they got off the train discussing traveling and studying in Europe, and various Carleton things as well, such as the new dorm to be built and the current status of the dinning halls. Who knows whom we’ll end up running into in Florence.

A City on a Hill

2007-11-04T07:27:00.000-05:00

Genoa was exactly what I wanted. Exactly. A gorgeous Italian city on the Mediterranean with great weather. For example, what kind of flora first greeted me outside the train station? A palm tree, of course:

This city is famous for a few separate things. First, pesto and ravioli were invented here. Second, this is Christopher Columbus’ hometown. Third, it has a quite extensive medieval quarter. Fourth, it boasts the second largest aquarium in Europe. But that’s it. This is not your typical tourist destination, especially in comparison to other Italian cities. The amount of sights was perfect for my 1.5 days that I spent there.

My second impression of the city – my first was based on the palm tree sighting – was that I felt like I was backpacking as I rode the bus to the hostel for the first night. Never before in my life had I seen so many switchbacks on a road. That’s pretty much all we took the entire way up. What it does create is this very interesting cityscape as the building right next to the one you are in is only 5 feet away, but its also 10 feet lower. This pattern continues all the way to the water’s edge. Supposedly, this is similar to how San Francisco is constructed. I’ve never been to California, so I have no idea.

The first morning Liza and I walked down into town, which was awesome. We went down these narrow alleys and lanes, and numerous staircases, amongst all the houses that line the hill. It gave a really interesting perspective of the city itself. Eventually, we made our way down to the more touristy areas with the old buildings and churches, along with the famous Italian piazzas. We walked around for quite a while until we made our way to the aforementioned aquarium. Of course we went in. It was pretty fun, and of course, to demonstrate that there are connections to other people throughout the world at all times, one of the exhibits was on the biodiversity of Madagascar, which is where one of Liza and my mutual friends is studying. We then ate lunch on a bench near the water and enjoyed the warming effects of the sun’s rays – I had not seen the sun for about a week previously. We then continued to walk around the historic center, where we found an internet café where Liza excitedly learned that the Red Sox swept the Rockies to win the World Series. I guess if the Indians had to lose to someone in the playoffs its good that it was the eventual league champions. Another interesting find during our walking was Genoa’s “red light” street. Walking down one narrow alley we intersected another one that was completely lined with prostitutes, and this was at two in the afternoon no less! A more important and useful find was a gelato shop, where I had amazing raspberry gelato. Oh, do the Italians know how to do food. All this walking also led me to another impression of Genoa. If Copenhagen is known for everyone riding bikes – and rightfully so – then Genoa needs to be known for everyone riding scooters. Take a look:

The other interesting tidbit regarding Genoa that came about was the hostel where I was staying. First, it is the only hostel in the city so there are not a lot of options for those travelling on a budget. Still, I was shocked by the clientele making use of the accommodations. There were only a handful of students like me. Otherwise, you hadyoung families, old families, old couples, young couples, and older travelers going along. I have never seen such a hodgepodge of characters at a hostel. Normally, fine accommodations such as these are reserved only for students like me – on a very tight budget.

Just because we were staying somewhere cheap doesn’t mean that our dining followed the same pattern – it tended to be cheap, but very good. For example, that night Liza and I ate at a self-service place off of the main shopping street in Genoa. Imagine a high scale cafeteria. For 13 euro I was able to get a 2-course dinner, salad, fruit salad, and bread, and this was a high quality meal no less. Liza and I were both proud of our find, even if it was recommended to us by a website. We finished dinner around 9pm and when we left we were absolutely shocked to find the streets of Genoa deserted and all the stores closed. Apparently, Genoa isn’t much of a party city. That night another trend continued as I was greeted by fireworks from the harbor as I was getting ready for bed. I never figured out exactly why there were fireworks, but it was an impressive display, and very interesting to see from the perspective of being on top of the hill, which allowed me to look down upon them. This was the third time I had seen fireworks in the last 3 weeks, though. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues. In my room that night I also met a really interesting guy. His name was Guillermo, and he hailed form Le Mans, France. He was 7 months in to a 2-3 year trip biking around Europe. He was not using a motorbike, but rather the standard bicycle. So far he had gone through France, the entire coast of Spain and Portugal, back through France, and was just starting Italy. He hopes to continue along the Mediterranean until he works his way to Egypt and Turkey. There, he’ll make the executive decision about continuing on to Asia, which he wants to do if he has enough money, or to continue through Eastern Europe and eventually head back home. Not bad for 3 years of travel.

A Day of Travel

2007-11-04T07:24:00.000-05:00

Getting around Europe on public transportation has already been an adventure. Luckily, this trip, while more complicated than my travel plans from a couple days ago, went much more smoothly. Still, it was a get-on, get-off journey. First, we had to walk about 5 minutes from Liza’s flat to the tram stop nearby. We took the tram a couple stops until we reached the metro station. The metro was utilized until the end of its line, which stopped at a bus station. We then rode the bus for another 30 minutes or so to the airport. At the airport, our plane ended up being delayed by an hour or so, which seemed to be pretty typical of all the flights leaving the terminal – mind you, it was the budget terminal. We also didn’t immediately get on the plane either – we had to take a bus to board the plane. After the hour and a half flight to Milan, we then took another bus to disembark from the plane to the terminal in Milan. Once we gathered our luggage it was yet another bus ride, this time about an hour, to get into the city central and the main train station. There, we bought our ticket for that night and grabbed a quick dinner from a pizza stand. On a side note, maybe it’s the mental realization that I was in Italy and thus the Italian food should be really good, but the calzones I had were amazing. We then caught an hour and a half train south to Genoa, which is the first stop on our weeklong Italian sojourn. Still, once we arrived in Genoa we weren’t done. It was another 40-minute bus ride up to the hostel (more on this later) before we could finally say we were done traveling for the day. Time of departure: 12:45 pm. Time of arrival 10:35 pm. Quite a day.

Buda or Pest?

2007-11-04T07:13:00.000-05:00

That is the question if you are living in this gorgeous Eastern European country on the Danube. And for my gracious hosts, the answer was and is central Pest. Liza met me at the train station around 1:00pm – 3 hours later than expected – and took me back to the flat she is sharing with two other Carls, Haggai and David. After getting the first food since dinner the night before, and getting a chance to throw some of my dirty clothes in the wash, Liza showed me around her new home city.

Budapest is definitely Eastern Europe – possibly even more so than any other city that I have traveled to thus far, or will travel to on this trip as well. However, it is absolutely gorgeous as well. We walked by St. Peter’s Basilica, which is absolutely enormous and its grandeur matches its size as well, and then walked across the Danube into Buda where we strolled along the river getting stunning views of Budapest Castle and Palace, another cool church, and perhaps most spectacular, the Hungarian Parliament, which might be the most magnificent building that I have ever seen in my life. But don’t trust me – form your own opinion:

We then met back up with Haggai, David, and Liza’s new boyfriend Dan at their apartment and went down the street to one of Liza’s favorite local spots for dinner. Almost all of us had a scrumptious gypsy steak, which was a heavily peppered cut of pork, with the much needed garnishment of fat from somewhere on the pig on top. Post dinner Liza and I hung out at one of her favorite bars, where unfortunately there was not any traditional gypsy music. Evidently, on Tuesday nights there is a band that plays absolutely amazing music. We were only entertained by some odd religious a capella.

The next morning, with the little time I had left in Budapest, I was busy finishing laundry and getting packed and all set for a week in Italy, which was slightly disappointing, as I would have enjoyed having some more time to explore Budapest and be a tourist there. Nonetheless, the warmer weather of Italy is/was quite inviting.

Prague: A City of Serendipity

2007-11-04T06:55:00.000-05:00

The arrival into Prague was uneventful. It was also the only portion of the trip that would retain that designation. Pretty much every event/thing/item that followed getting off the bus in the city had some unique twist to it. First, upon arrival a group of us attempted to find our hostel with no real directions or true sense of where we were. About 20 minutes and a lot of steps later we finally found the place. Once we became settled, we then headed towards to Old Town square. There we found the Old Town Hall and the Astronomical Clock. Prior to continuing, we decided that some lunch was in order, and quite randomly stumbled upon a great little pub that had traditional Czech food, so we ended up all ordering the same meal – the goulash – which was splendid to say the least.

After lunch, we explored a bit of the Jewish quarter and then continued on to one of the lesser-known bridges crossing the Vltava River. It afforded some great views of the more famous Charles Bridge, which nicely allowed for a different perspective. Once we crossed the river, we headed up to Prague Castle. Simply unbelievable. Prague Castle contains the Old Royal Palace, but more importantly it also encloses the St. Vilius church. I’m not exactly sure what to say about this church. It was breathtaking. I'm pretty sure neither my words nor my pictures could fully do it justice. We took our time and walked around the church, as well as climbing its 279 steps to the top of one of the towers (the exact number is known because we were warned about it before beginning). From the top of the tower we had an amazing view of all of Prague. The only negative was the lousy weather wasn’t conducive to having a clear view.

We then walked down from the castle and briefly walked around New Town, before crossing the ever-famous Charles Bridge into Old Town. From all of this walking around I came to two conclusions. First, Prague is incredibly touristy. There were tourists everywhere you were. It reminded me of New York City in some ways with just the incredibly large number of people milling about. And this is in the end of October – definitely not high tourist season. Second, if you are British you were visiting Prague. Obviously, that is an overstatement, but I heard so many British accents everywhere that at times I thought I was in London. The Brits are probably just being smart and taking advantage of the 40 Czech Kroner that every 1 British Pound is worth.

That night our serendipitous decisions continued, as we decided to see a black light theater show called “Rock Therapy,” which was based off of Beatles music. It was an experience to say the least, or I guess a bit better one could say a trip. There was no dialogue, just Beatles music and some odd compilations done by the troupe putting on the show. I think to truly enjoy the show a person needs to take the song “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” a bit more literally. The show did remind me of home, as it was definitely a show for the Geibs.

After the show, we left the theater and were walking down the street when we were suddenly greeted by fireworks. It turned out that there was a huge mall opening that night very close by and a party was being thrown which included bands and fireworks. Once the show was done we of course had to check out the new mall. It was pretty high class in terms of the stores inside but also its architecture and design. A definite change from places like the Mall of America or the mall back home.

The next day was a slower day, which was needed after the constant going, going, going of the previous couple days. I woke up and went to the train station to purchase my ticket for that night to Budapest. I had researched the train I wanted before hand, but did not purchase the ticket, as I thought it would be cheaper to buy it in person than online through a ticket broker. Unfortunately, and quite surprisingly, I was wrong, as I paid about $20 more in Prague. I then decided to it was necessary to see St. Wenceslas Square. However, somewhere along the lines I lost my map, so that became a 2-hour adventure of walking around Prague. Eventually, I found a tourist information booth, purchased a new map, and found the square. It reminded me a bit of Unter den Linden strasse in Berlin, which leads up to the Brandenburg Gate. In both cases you have a wide, tree-lined street, lots of people, shops on either side of the road, and the street ending in a national monument.

I then met up with my friends from DIS, had a late lunch, and then headed out to see the actual Mucha museum. Even after seeing most of his work the previous week it was still quite interesting. My favorites are “The Four Seasons” and “Four Precious Stones”.

We ate dinner that night at some random restaurant in the basement of a building that we stumbled upon in the Old Town area. It was really good, and probably one of my last cheap meals for the rest of my travels.

I hung out with my friends for the last time on the trip for a couple hours back at the hostel before I had to head to the train station. Luckily, the train station was only a metro stop away from the hostel, and the metro stop itself was only 50m away from the hostel. So around midnight – my train didn’t leave until 1 am – I gathered my bags, said my goodbyes, and headed towards the metro station. This is when the fun began. First, after I got down to the station I realized I was at the wrong line. This required 5 minutes more of walking up and down stairs to get to the correct line. Once I did that I then heard an announcement saying that the train I needed was no longer running for the night, even though on the schedule it was supposed to run three more times. So I then walked another five minutes back up to the street level to try to find another way to the station. I stumbled upon two taxis, and asked them if they were in service. I received a gruff shaking of the head to indicate no. At this point, I was beginning to worry a bit, and started to walk towards the station. About 10 minutes later I found a taxi that was in service, but he didn't take credit cards for payment, and my Czech Kroner supplies were running low, which meant we had to stop at an ATM, where I needed to withdraw about 200 Kroner. Of course, the ATM the taxi took me to only allowed withdrawals in 500 CZK increments. This meant that I was going to have some extra money at the end of the trip. Nonetheless, I managed to get to the station on time, and went and boarded the train. The train had to be from the 1970’s, as it was dirty and worn down. Luckily, I had an entire compartment to myself to sleep in for the 9-hour ride to Budapest. It was also a good thing that I was alone, because by the end of the night I needed to strip down to almost no clothes due to the overactive heater, which constantly spewed incredibly hot air even though I had it set as cold as possible. The fun continued though, as I woke up around 9:00 am to find that we weren’t moving. Figuring it was just a scheduled stop I milled around my compartment putting things away, etc. Half an hour passed and we still weren’t moving. Finally, I questioned a German passenger what was going on and it turned out the train had some troubles in the evening. We were three hours behind schedule and in Bratislava, Slovakia. This means that I lost 3 quite valuable hours in Budapest – I was only supposed to be there four about 24 hours as it was – along with having to occupy myself quite a bit longer on the train. Such is the life of a young traveler.

Shaky Legs

2007-11-04T06:50:00.000-05:00

This day started like all the rest on the trip: shower, breakfast, and gearing up for another day of challenges. We experienced a slight change in location, as we took a 30-minute bus ride to Mala Skala, which is another rock formation close to where we were staying. My group’s first event was rock climbing and rappelling. This was my first attempting to climb a real rock, and my first time since 4^th grade at climbing anything. A lot has changed since then, and I made it up the first face methodically, but absolutely fine. I figured out I have issues when it comes to knowing where to go once I’m on the rock. Indecision regarding the path wrecks any rhythm to my climbing. It also wrecked my chance on the second face, which was a bit more difficult. About half way through I was stuck and didn’t know where to go, so my attempt was called. Nevertheless, I made progress and even have proof as you can see below:

Rappelling, on the other hand, went a lot more smoothly after just the little bit of prior experience I had now accumulated. I found it much easier to trust the thought that I was well supported and safe, and that I could in fact simply let myself fall off the face of the cliff. The rappel was really fun and allowed for some great views. The rock also started to curve in a bit towards the end, so for the last 1/3 of my descent I was in mock Navy Seal mode, as I was more ziplining down a rope rather than rappelling.

We then walked to lunch in the nearby town where we had another typical Czech meal: soup, meat (fried), and potatoes. Post lunch my group headed in a new direction towards some caves. At the caves another scavenger hunt of sorts was set up that involved us climbing up and down rocks, ladders, walking on nets, and of course exploring a few caves, most of which required us to be lying in the prone position just to be able to move. It was so much fun. This was what I always dreamed of doing when I was little. It was like my own Goonies movie.

That event brought to an end my “adventure” aspect of the trip, as the next morning we will be leaving for Prague, where I’ll be spending 2 days/1 night.

Epi Shot

2007-11-04T06:47:00.000-05:00

There is nothing better than the knowledge that you are going to wake up to a nice, hot shower and a good breakfast. Unfortunately, I did not have that knowledge this morning. First, I woke up to our door wide open – I think it was that way all night. Our room had a slight problem. The last guests must have locked themselves out or in – either is oddly possible – and broke the doorframe to get in or out. This has not been fixed, which means that our room does not fully lock itself. It has made hiding valuables quite the game, though. Second, the showers here are pretty bad. Plain and simple. No hot water and no water pressure. Not the best conditions to wake up to.

Breakfast was the typical European breakfast, but it was accentuated with something special, massive doses of epinephrine – adrenaline. This was due to this morning’s activities. Rappelling down a 150-foot sheer cliff, taking a zipline across a gorge, and then walking back across on a rope bridge. These things get you going, no doubt. Impressively – especially for me – I was able to complete all of these awesome pursuits. Rappelling was definitely the most fun, and difficult, at least initially. I had problems with placing myself perpendicular to rock wall, especially at the beginning, where there was enough of a slope that you felt like you could stand. Once I was able to pass that aspect it was smooth sailing – or falling all dependent on your outlook. Rappelling is definitely something I want to try again, as I feel like it will be a lot more enjoyable with some experience under my belt. The zipline was fun, but nothing great. It was a zipline across the gorge. Nothing too spectacular. The rope bridge, on the other hand, was the most intense activity – hands down. Walking across this thin rope, with everything swaying in the wind and with your body weight, causes an intense and constant adrenaline rush. I was so happy to have both feet on firm ground afterwards.

After another typical Czech lunch of vegetable soup with meat and potatoes the group of us that went rappelling, etc. in the morning were now embarking on a hike through the woods surrounding the castle. It was beautiful. The trees and soil remind me, once again, of northern Michigan as white pine, paper birch, and sand is ever present. It gave me a brief feeling of home, even though I am halfway across the world.

And the wheels on the bus go round and round...

2007-11-04T06:33:00.000-05:00

One of man’s greatest abilities is our capacity to invent new things. It is what has propelled the human race to where we our today. However, we have failed miserably when it comes to inventing a good form of bus transportation conducive to 26 hours on a bus over a 72-hour period. I just hate buses. Sunday afternoon was the beginning of another 15-hour bus ride, this time to Cesky Raj in the Czech Republic. It was not a pleasant experience to say the least. Not to mention the crazy feelings of déjà vu that ensued, primarily due to the fact that I was on the same ferryboat from Gedser, Denmark, to Rostock, Germany, for the third time in a week.

In another moment of déjà vu, the first stop the group made was at a former Nazi concentration camp. This time we visited Theresientstadt, which is notorious for being the camp that Nazi officials would show off to foreign dignitaries and Red Cross workers to demonstrate the high level of facilities and care provided to the detainees. If the Nazis were good at one thing it was propaganda. We were able to watch one of their “movies/documentaries” that “showed” the true conditions of the Jews and the camp. It was unbelievable how well they were able to pull a veil over the real events that were taking place. For this reason, though, the camp had a very different feel than Sachsenhausen, as there were many more trees and well kept buildings. It seemed entirely out of place. The other interesting aspect was the focus of the museum on Czech issues. The plight of the Jews was definitely mentioned, but at times it took a secondary seat to the plight of Czech citizens unduly imprisoned and murdered. Some people might complain about this fact and how they are ignoring the largest population that was murdered during the Nazi atrocities; however, it seems to make sense to me. If the Czechs do not put an emphasis on themselves and what they went through, who will? Undoubtedly, it is human nature to focus on the group that you most closely associate with, but the troubles of all peoples needs to be recognized, even if it is only a tenth in scale.

Following the concentration camp, we arrived at Hruba Skala, our castle accommodations. “Wow” is the only word I could utter as we arrived. It was absolutely gorgeous. The rocks. The castle. The trees. The sky. It was picturesque. It was also exactly what I wanted – being out in the middle of nowhere with the ability to run around and enjoy nature’s beauty. After getting checked in, settled, and experiencing the loads of fun that icebreakers always are, we had an hour and half before dinner, so a group of us went down in the valley/gorge area and explored. We were climbing all over the place – up hills, up trees, up rocks – all resulting in spectacular views. The only thing missing was Craig, as he would have been eating all of this up.

The rest of the evening was spent socializing with other people on the trip, as there is not a whole lot of nightlife in the area – none to be exact. It was a fun night nonetheless, and it really got me excited for the rest of the trip.

2 Weeks of Traveling: Recap Time

2007-11-04T06:29:00.000-05:00

So I've just arrived back in the CPH -- or the KBH if I'm feeling quite Danish -- after two great weeks of quite contrasting travel. The first week, as you'll read, was highlighted by the amazing "visceral" experience of being outdoors climbing and trekking, while the second week was a who's who of art and culture. I'll be formating these posts in a similar fashion to what I did for the first week, which will slowly work their way to my most current thoughts with each post being written relatively recently after the events took place. Enjoy!

And Phase Two Is Commencing

2007-10-21T10:46:00.001-04:00

It has been odd being back in Copenhagen for 36 hours. It was great sharing meals with my host family again, and to have their good cooking, but it just feels so weird to be packing so soon after unpacking. Anyways last night I watched my last Indians game for the season, which they unfortunately were demolished in by the Red Sox. Even if Cleveland wins game 7 tonight, I'll be missing the World Series while I travel. Nonetheless, it's been a really fun season to watch. Hopefully next year they'll be just as successful, if not more.

Still, in under an hour I will be off on another bus adventure. This time a trip of about 15 hours awaits me as I head for Cesky Raj in the Czech Republic. This is the beginning of my 2 straight weeks of travel. It will be a crazy time transversing Europe from Copenhagen, to Cesky Raj, to Prague, to Budapest, to Milan, to Genoa, to Florence, to Siena, back to Milan, and finally back to Copenhagen. I'm excited and nervous, and cannot wait to get started. And of course I will share all the lovely details I experience and all the impressions I am left with. And in case you haven't already read, posted below are my thoughts on the first week of study break. They are in reverse order in a sense, so the most recent day is on top. Time to finish packing.

The Final Day

2007-10-21T08:48:00.000-04:00

The last day of the study tour and my time spent in Poznan was a great way to culminate the first week of my travels. It started off with being able to sleep in for the first time all week, which was definitely appreciated. I then spent the morning at Poznan’s Pediatric Hospital and Outpatient Clinic. There, I shadowed three different pediatricians in both the clinic and hospital settings. I was able to see some interesting things, mostly focused on the GI system, which included an endoscopy searching for a swallowed pen cap. Perhaps the most interesting aspect was one the attending physicians is the head of Poland’s cystic fibrosis organization and he was being interviewed for a spot on the Polish national news regarding decreasing reimbursement rates for various types of care. I guess that’s not a problem limited in scope to the United States.

After the hospital visit lunch was on our own again, and again I had a doener. I won’t be having another one for quite a while if I can help it. We then as a group saw an exhibit of the Czech artist Alfonso Mucha. He was considered a master of art nouveau. I really enjoyed his pieces. There was something very abstract and fanciful in a sense, but still very concrete as well. It wasn’t typical abstract art where there is simply colors and shapes thrown on the medium. This was of people and nature, and they were just exquisite, especially his charcoal drawings. Unfortunately, pictures weren’t allowed so I can’t share any of his work.

We then had a couple hours to burn prior to dinner so a group of us made some purchases at a famous gingerbread store in town and then spent an hour or two at a café where we indulged in amazing hot chocolate. This was no Nestle or Swiss Miss hot chocoloate. This was actually melted chocolate that you drank. I had the “Mexican” version which had some cinnamon and spice added to it. It was delectable.

Dinner that night was covered by DIS and we ate at Poznan’s trendy microbrewery. DIS purchased each of us two beers so there was a lot of exchanging going on so that we could taste all of the varieties. I had a Pilsner, and then parts of a very good dark beer and their honey beer. Unfortunately, their hot, spiced honey beer was not available. That would have been interesting.

Post dinner was spent loading the bus for our 12-hour trip back to Copenhagen. Bus is not my favorite form of transportation. No doubt about that. I don’t think I ever anticipated a flat surface as much as I did the floor of the ferry on the last leg our trip. It was so nice to spread out and just be able to actually sleep. Everyone took full advantage of that situation. Then it was back in Copenhagen for a day, and time to start packing for the next trip.

Videos Suck

2007-10-21T08:47:00.000-04:00

Today was supposed to be the exciting day for our travel break in terms of academic visits. I was scheduled to visit a Polish pathologist and see an autopsy first hand. Sadly – if that’s even the appropriate word – no one died the previous day and we weren’t able to actually experience an autopsy. Instead we were able to see it via video, which was nothing special. That’s something I can do on You Tube. The remainder of the day involved lunch on our own, which happened to be my second doener in two days – I see an unfortunate pattern developing here – and a guided walking tour throughout Poznan.

This was incredibly interesting. And it extended much beyond just being able to see all the sights and take pictures. It was more interesting to hear the Polish tour guide’s opinion on various sujects, particularly the Russians and Germans. Let’s just say she’s not a big fan of either, and with a fair amount of good reason based on how both countries have treated

Poland

in the past.

Berlin nach Poznan

2007-10-21T08:45:00.000-04:00

The next day we were off to Poznan, but not until noon. This meant I had a little more time to sightsee. I took full advantage of this and got up early that morning for breakfast and to head over to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. This memorial was/is quite controversial among the Berlin populace as there were issues regarding if the Jews should have their own memorial in Berlin versus all of the victims of the Holocaust, and why this memorial needed to be in Berlin. The early morning was a nice time to go there and reflect, nonetheless.

Afterwards we were planning to visit the inside of the Reichstag which is the German parliament, but, unfortunately, the dome on top and the parliament were closed for cleaning. We still had too much time to head back to the hotel so we took a trip out to the western suburbs of the city and visited the Olympic Stadion. That was really cool. I was filled with feelings of awe at the building itself and a sense of history and pride when I saw the track and imagined Jesse Owens beating everyone else in 1936. It was a definite odd juxtaposition of feelings.

Then in my last act in Berlin I ran around the area by the hotel for a good 20 minutes trying in desperation to find a doener. I finally succeeded and enjoyed every last bite of my Turkish/Berlin delicacy. The next 6 hours were spent on a bus heading to Poznan in

Poland

. The highlight of the trip was the hour spent at the border having our passports and bus checked.

The Polish countryside was quite a shock in comparison to Berlin. Much more rural, and much more rundown. When we first entered the Poznan city limits comments were being made left and right regarding the dilapidated state of the city. However, as we headed further into the center of town and closer to our hotel the better things appeared. After getting settled into our hotel we headed for our first Polish dinner, which was nothing to rave about, but not horrible either. Then it was just a chill night as people tried to catch up on their lack of sleep.

2nd day in Berlin

2007-10-21T08:41:00.000-04:00

The second day in Berlin was full of ups and downs, with the day starting off pretty bad and steadily improving. We began with a visit to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, where we were given 2 different seminars. One was about identifying genetic diseases via humans and the other was about technology in molecular genetics. Neither were that interesting, or informative for that matter. It was pretty much a wasted morning. This was definitely the low point of the day.

Things greatly improved afterwards when we were on our own. I and a couple friends visited the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Tor, which was right by where I had classes with IES. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take any pictures of the synagogue or of the views from the dome. We then headed over to Museum Island where we visited the Pergamon and Altes Museums. The Pergamon was amazing. Nothing more needs to be said. It was a collection of actual and replica pieces of art and architecture from the Greeks, the Babylonians, the Syrians, and various Islamic cultures. It was stunning. The Altes Musuem was a quick visit mostly for the chance to see Nefrititi, whose bust is on display.

My friends then wanted to see the Berliner Dom; however they were having services so we waited out on the steps for half an hour and just chatted. It was actually quite relaxing. Post services we checked out the interior of the church (which I saw last time I was in Berlin), where I met a friend – a cute, little mouse hanging out in the prayer chapel.

The true highlight of the night was when we came out of the cathedral. That night Berlin was having a festival – “The Festival of Lights” – which had nothing to do with Hannukkah – if you were curious. What it did involve was lighting up various landmarks throughout Berlin, which included the Berliner Dom and Brandenburg Gate. You can see how beautiful these two buildings looked below:

The evening also involved a fireworks and laser light show at Alexanderplatz. It was all pretty cool and a fun evening. And I was able to have a Berliner Weisses Rot, which took care of that urge.

My former home

2007-10-21T08:38:00.000-04:00

Talk about a crazy sense of déjà vu. Today we toured around Berlin and it caused such an eerie feeling and memories of two summers ago to flood back (along these lines I did not take that many picutes seeing as I have already once before. If you are very interested in Berlin pictures I suggest you look at my older Webshots album from two summers ago.). Looking back at that time there are definite parallels that I am currently experiencing with DIS, but there also also – and perhaps more profoundly – definite distinct differences. It overall just makes for interesting thoughts – none of which have much coherence or logical flow.

To further add to my feelings of déjà vu we also toured the Jewish Museum, with this being my third visit. It was still incredibly interesting, and it was even more fascinating to hear the museum explained by a different tour guide with a new perspective. Still, not much has changed since I was last there.

Afterwards I explored an interesting special exhibit about the work by Charlotte Salomon entitled “Life? Or Theater?". The background is that this 21 year old German Jew was fleeing from the Nazis and staying with her grandparents in the south of

France

. She also had experienced a tumultuous childhood, and her main method of coping was painting. In the end, she painted over 1,300 different watercolor panels, and added text and music to accompany them, which all together has turned into this play. It was quiet interesting and provided a different perspective on things.

We then walked around various parts of the city without much aim, just trying to experience Berlin. I then had a unique experience as we visited KaDeWe – Kaufhas des Westens (Department store of the West) – with a focus on their 6^th floor gourmet items. It was ridiculous the amount and vaired kinds of food they had for sale. You could also go and eat there if that suited you as well.

We were on our own for dinner tonight and a group of us decided to try a restaurant in the bottom of a mall called “Bavarium,” which is a German restaurant focusing on dishes from Bavaria. It was good. Lots of meat and potatoes. It definitely brought back memories of my family vacation to southern Germany. We met a group of middle age+ American businessmen that were also eating at the restaurant. Impressively, they knew exactly where Carleton is – and how good of a school it is.

The rest of the evening was spent with friends, walking, talking, and hanging out. On a surprising note bars/restaurants/clubs are not open that late here, at least in comparison to Copenhagen. Tomorrow is our last day in Berlin and I still have two things I need to accomplish: one, eating a doener; two, having a Berliner Weisse Rot. Hopefully both of those happen tomorrow.

A Concentration Camp and Berlin

2007-10-21T08:32:00.000-04:00

Today was the beginning of the long study tour, and it was quite the start. First, I was operating on 1 hour of sleep, as I stayed up the entire night watching the Indians beat the Red Sox (minus the 1-hour nap I took during the uneventful 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th innings). It was awesome seeing them put seven runs on the board in the top of the 11^th. Pretty much 2 minutes after the game ended Michael and I were in the car heading to Frue Plads, where he dropped me off to catch the bus. Unfortunately, bus seats aren’t that conducive to good sleeping so I wasn’t able to catch up on my sleep. We then spent 2 hours on a ferry to go from Denmark to

Germany

, which was followed by another 3 hours in the bus.

Our first stop was at Sachsenhausen, outside of Berlin, which was a Nazi concentration camp, and then a Soviet camp. This was the second concentration camp I’ve visited, as I went to Dachau during my family vacation to Germany two summers ago. **Unfortunately my immediate thoughts were lost, so this will now include my thoughts 3 weeks later.** In comparison to Dachau, Sachsenhausen seemed to have a greater effect on me personally. I'm not exactly sure why, but it just seemed to be a more emotionally draining experience. That might have to do with my state of mind, the weather conditions, or perhaps just the people I experienced it with. Whatever it was, it really brought out feelings that coincide with my personal connection associated with my own Jewish heritage, cultural upbringing, and familial ties.

We then drove for another hour or so into Berlin. Initially, when I found out my tour was going to Berlin I was less than thrilled, mostly because I spent two months there two summers ago, and would have much rather seen another European city. However, with that said, once we were there I was so excited to be back in Berlin. It is unbelievable what a factor familiarity plays in a person’s outlook on a place. It was great to know where we were, to be able to point out places of interest to other people on the bus, and to be able to navigate the city’s public transportation.

The highlight of the evening by far was dinner. We ate a restaurant called Unsichtsbar, which has a rough literal translation of the unable to have sight bar. This was a dark restaurant. That means that the eating area is pitch black and all the waiters/waitresses are blind. It was an unbelievable experience. Not being able to use your eyes while eating adds such a different dynamic to a meal. You end up focusing more on the smell and taste of the food, as well as its texture. Then, the darkness also makes you focus more on other people’s words and not on their physicalness. The food was good too, as an added bonus.

This restaurant was also awesome because it was in a neighborhood that my friends and I loved to hang out in (when I was in Berlin previously). This allowed me to show my DIS friends our favorite hangout and I was also able to get a beer that I had been craving since arriving in Denmark, but that can apparently only be bought in Berlin. It’s nice to be on vacation. I think that is the theme for the next 3 weeks. two summers ago), but it was still quite the emotionally draining experience. We were provided with audio guides and set off on our own to explore the exhibits and buildings. I spent most of the time with another girl (who is also Jewish, and spent some of her summer on a birthright trip to Poland (seeing all the Polish concentration camps) and Israel) discussing the impact of the Holocaust on our outlook on life being of Jewish descent. For whatever reason this camp seemed to be a little more emotional draining than Dachau, but I’m not quite sure why.

The Study Tour Recap

2007-10-21T08:08:00.000-04:00

So I've just returned from my week long trip to Berlin and Poznan. And of course I want to share how those adventures progressed. I'm going to do this slightly differently than how I gave a recap on my previous trips. Each day will be its own post, and will be posted after this one. I think this will let people scan around quicker if they so choose. Also, just for your frame of reference, most of these posts were written the night of the day they are referring to. Enjoy!

You're a Dane if...

2007-10-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

Before I depart for three weeks, I thought I would share my thoughts on how you can determine if you are a Dane or not.

You are a Dane if...

...you only wear black and white (no colors allowed).
...you enjoy riding your bike to work while simulatenously smoking and talking on your cell phone.
...you take your baby everywhere in a baby carriage that resembles one from the early 20th century.
...your favorite candy is black licorice rolled in salt.
...you have a defeatist outlook on the Danish national history.
...you have an inferiority complex in regards to anything dealing with Sweden.

Pre-game thoughts...and a lot more

2007-10-12T18:18:00.000-04:00

T-minus 20 minutes until game 1 of the ALCS. I'm sucking it up and planning on staying up tonight to watch the game. Granted, this is the farthest the Indians have made it in 10 years so I feel like sacrificing some sleep is worth it. The whole situation gives me a feeling of deja vu from this spring when the Cavs were in the NBA playoffs. They were viewed as the underdog a large way through the playoffs, but still managed to make it to the finals. Hopefully, the Indians can emulate that run.

Besides that point I have a lot of other thoughts to share. Part of the reason for this "outburst" is the fact that I'm half way done with my time in Denmark. Hard to imagine, but I only have 5-6 more weeks in Denmark itself. This is because starting Sunday for the next 3 weeks I'll be traveling around Europe on a mini, well I guess much more than a mini, vacation. I'll definitely be sharing my thoughts on my travels during and after the trip (all dependent on when I can get internet access), but I'll at least let you know where I'll be going. The first stop is back to my stomping grounds two summers ago as we spend a couple days in Berlin, Germany. After that I'll be heading further east to spend a couple days in Poznan, Poland. I'll be going to both of these cities with other DIS students from the Medical Practice & Policy program as part of our long study tour. Following a night back in Copenhagen I'll be back on the road with other DIS students heading to the Czech country side and Prague. Post Prague will involve a train ride to Budapest and a day spent there. Next will be a flight to Milan, immediately followed by a train to Genoa, where I'll be spending a couple days. I'll then move eastward to Florence and then to Siena for the next couple days. Finally, it will be wrapped up with a train to Milan and a flight back to Copenhagen. It's a crazy schedule and I couldn't be more excited!

Now on to my other random thoughts.

First, there was quite a stir amongst DIS students two or so weeks ago as former President Bill Clinton was in Copenhagen. Apparently he was giving a speech somewhere in the city, with tickets running close to 1000 DKK or about $200. However, he was also signing copies of his new book at bookstore right by the DIS center, which a fair number of people managed to get in line for. In fact, one of my friends from Carleton went to see him and they ended up in conversation about how great Carleton is (Clinton gave the commencement speech in 2000). I would never dream to meet a former or current US President in the states, but then when I go to study abroad in Denmark I find a President. What are the odds?

Indians update: 1-0 Tribe, heading into the bottom of the 1st.

On another political note, I have begun to notice my own increased interest in the current political climate back in the states, especially in regards to the potential presidential candidates. My only explanation for this is that the primary elections to be held in March will be my first foray into voting in a presidential election and I want to be informed when making a decision Just an interesting observation on my part.

Do you know that if it wasn't for polio you might have health insurance provided by the government? Let me explain. In Health Care in Scandinavia we just read a text discussing different kinds of welfare states. When he was explaining the social democrat model, which includes almost all of Scandinavia (Side tangent: interestingly enough, my professor highlighted that one of the main keys to the Danish welfare system is homogeneity -- of culture, race, ethnicity, and goals. Without it he doesn't imagine it could succeed. This is perhaps an indication that a welfare state could not work in the US.), he states that this was the path the United States was on under FDR's New Deal programs. I wonder what would have happened if his 4th term wasn't cut short by polio, maybe health insurance?

Indians update: 1-1, heading into the top of the 2nd.

I'm having quite the unique experience in my Impact of Epidemic Disease course. The main text that the course is based on, Plagues and Peoples (1998) by William H. McNeil, is consistently contradicted by my professor. It's just so odd to do the reading before class only to have the professor completely rip it to shreds in class the next day. An interesting dynamic to say the least.

After being in Denmark for 7 weeks now, I think I have finally found a couple things that I miss. Granted there have been a ton of things that I have had moments of longing for, but none of those longings have been consistent over my entire time here. The two exceptions relate directly with Carleton. The first is fall colors. I want nothing more than to be able to see a line of sugar maples completely golden, glimmering in the sun. I miss how beautiful Carleton is in the fall. The second thing I am missing is the stars in the Minnesotan sky. Typically, when walking back from the libe or from somewhere on campus I entertain myself by looking up in the sky at the stars shining down on me. I just cannot replicate these things in Denmark.

Finally, I had an interesting night tonight. Once a year almost all of the cultural locations in Copenhagen are open for a one time fee. It's called Copenhagen's Night of Culture. There are literally over 100 different locations that have various programs for the public to enjoy. My host family offered to take me, and I gladly accepted. We started off the evening with dinner at a cafe much like the community restaurant I described a few weeks ago. We then headed to our first cultural event which was taking a look at Black Diamond, which is the University of Copenhagen's newest branch of the Royal Library. It is an absolutely gorgeous building and it was cool to finally see. We then walked around the ground of the Parliament a little bit, which included a quick stop at the Danish Armament Museum. Then for the true experience of the night we drove over to the zoo! It was completely open, and completely dark. It was definitely a different way to experience the zoo, and while interesting, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Animals sleeping is only so exciting. Regardless, it was still a great evening and a unique way to see Copenhagen, and especially appropriate as I'll be leaving this town (my 3rd/4th home) for the next 3 weeks.

Alright, C.C. doesn't have his stuff tonight -- again. He's throwing too hard and letting the playoffs get to him. It's so frustrating because I, and all the other Indians fans, know how good of a pitcher he can be if he just stays under control. Top of the 4th, Cleveland 1, Boston 5.

Architectural Innovation

2007-10-11T23:52:00.000-04:00

Denmark considers itself to be part of Scandinavia, and rightfully so. This means that most Danes share some of the same general architectural concepts as their northern neighbors. For someone like me, who knows absolutely nothing about "real" architectural terms, etc, this becomes apparent in little things I notice. For example, Danes are very fond of the white/black contrast, and in general have a lot of "modern" design elements, whether it is in the art hanging on the wall, or the sleek, curved furniture they make use of. Another favorite is the use of the wood (and sometimes tile). It's all over the place, in varying shades, and really quite attractive (its made me want to use a lot of wood when it comes time to buy/build a house). All of these features are great, and I'm glad that I get to experience them "first-hand" through my homestay, but none of these come even close to being my favorite.

Nope, my favorite aspect of Danish/Scandinavian design holds a special place in my heart, but first a little background. My house at home is almost entirely tile on the first floor. It looks great and it really makes the house feel like it should -- I just can't imagine it without all the tile. The one negative is winter, especially when you wake up in the morning. See, tile has a hard time maintaining heat, and in the winter it can become down right frigid, always providing a shock for your feet when you first wake up.

Now, one would expect the same issue here, but they have it covered. All the tile floor in the basement is heated. What an amazing feeling! I wake up in the morning, get out of bed, and head to bathroom. I expect to be greeted with the frigid reality of the tile, but instead it beckons me to walk on it, and enjoy in its exuding warmth. It's almost addicting in a sense. This is something I am definitely going to have!

A Library Labyrinth

2007-10-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Carleton's library is great. I know exactly where it is on campus. I know exactly how to check out books. I know exactly how to do research. And I know exactly who to turn to when I have questions. There is one problem, though. I'm not at Carleton anymore.

This problem has reared its ugly head quite a few times recently, as I have been assigned 4 different papers. Obviously, for these papers I'm having to do some independent research. Luckily, for almost all of them I have been able to make use of the Carleton online resources and ILLIAD (inter library requests), which have made my life a whole lot easier. I've also been able to contact Carleton reference librarians by e-mail to ask questions about where to look for certain information, and they have been incredibly helpful, as always.

Where my real adventure has come is with one paper that has required me to check out books from the Danish Royal Library. This is the library associated with the University of Copenhagen. They have a great website that lets you search their entire collection online, and then request the books -- if they are available -- to be held at one of the branches. This is all in English mind you, too. So I find the books I'm looking for online, and request them to be held at the Amager branch. No problem. A couple days later, after I've been e-mailed and told the books are ready to be picked up, I head over towards the campus after class.

Unusually, on Amager there is an actual University of Copenhagen campus that has a cluster of academic buildings. As I got off the Metro and consulted a map nearby I had a general gestalt of where I was heading. Clearly, as I'm walking I can tell that the University is on my right hand side, but I have no idea where the library is. Eventually, I find an outdoor map, which says the library should be straight ahead. Awesome! I start walking, and then begin to notice that the building straight ahead is under construction (actually being built), and when I get close enough I realize that it is the new library. This, however, does me little good. Being the good man that I am, I refused to ask for directions and continued to wander quite aimlessly around the campus. Eventually, I have a brief recollection of the number 80, in terms of the library's address. I also find a sign that directs me to this address. I feel like its destiny.

Once I reach the entrance of the building, which oddly enough is right by where I started, I am lost again. I'm now in the building that houses the library, but I have no idea where the library is. I look at the directory and map, but no mention of the library. Then I noticed that directly in front of me, through the glass wall, is the library. Great! But how do you get in? I was left with the choice of left or right in terms of which direction to go. For whatever reason I chose right, and wandered down the halls, always turning to keep the library next to me. Eventually I found the entrance, and I was in.

But now what? At first, I was waiting in line to talk to the woman at the information desk, but then realized that they had reserved books stacked alphabetically against the wall. Sure enough, once I found the "L's" I found my stack. So I was now in possession of my books, but had no idea what to do. Were they already checked out? Do I need to check them out? I had no idea. My initial intention was to just leave, but decided that wasn't a correct decision. I then realized that they had self-service checkout kiosks, much like at the grocery store. So I head over to one to check out my books, but have no idea how to use it, even though its in English. I stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, until I gave up and headed back to the information desk, where the woman helped me get squared away.

I have my books, so I'm set right? Wrong. I need to get home, and luckily there's a bus stop that would take me all the way home right outside the entrance. I wait for about 10 minutes for the bus to come, and when I see it off in the distance I head right to the curb to signal I want on. So what happens? The bus drives right by me of course. This led to a 20 minute walk only so that I could take 2 more buses and make my way home. This entire event turned out to be a 2 hour adventure, when it should have really taken 1/2 an hour. At least I know where the Carleton library is.

Indian Summer

2007-10-05T16:06:00.000-04:00

As luck would have it, this has been a banner year for my Cleveland sports teams. First, you have the Cavaliers making it to the NBA finals, then you have the Indians winning the Central Division title, and beating the Yankees 12-3 in the first game of the ALDS, and finally you have the Browns possibly turning the corner and becoming a respectable football team as they are 2-2 a quarter of the way through the season. What makes this situation so great is that I haven't been able to really experience anything in person. First, the Cavs due to being at Carleton and then Ann Arbor, then with the Indians, being here in Denmark, and the same goes for the Browns. Not only that, but I haven't been able to watch my teams as much as I would like just because of conflicting schedules, and even more so not getting the right television channels. What does all of this mean? It means that I couldn't be happier with the current status of Cleveland sports, and that I'm perfectly content to spend this Friday night in to watch the Indians battle the Yankees a second night, all on my illegal stream.

Do You Have a Billion Dollars Lying Around?

2007-10-03T11:20:00.000-04:00

We had an interesting reading associated with Tuesday's lecture in my Health Care in Scandinavia course. The reading can be found at http://rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9169/. Pretty much what this fact sheet says is that over a billion dollars a year could be saved if insurance companies lowered co-payments on prescription pharmaceuticals. This assumption is based on the data, which showed that for every $10 rise in co-payment, compliance decreased by 5%, and if there is a higher compliance in taking pharmaceuticals by reducing co-payments for those sick or at a high-risk of becoming sick and higher co-payments for low-risk patients, then there is a greater proportion of healthier patients, which could result in 80,000 to 90,000 fewer hospitalizations and 30,000 to 35,000 fewer ER visits. All of this equates to a savings of $1,000,000,000. That's a lot of money.

Interesting Connections

2007-10-01T15:36:00.001-04:00

I've been learning plenty of interesting things about how small the world is recently. For example, while Michael (my host dad) was driving me into DIS to pick something up he just casually mentioned that his sister, who is now deceased, was one of the original founders of Freetown on Christiana (for more information on this special place check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania). This was pretty surprising news to say the least. The other interesting connection happened tonight at dinner, which took place at the Taarnby Football Club. It turns out that one of the dad's of a player on Viktor's (my younger host brother) soccer team spent a year in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan back in the mid 70's when my Mom was there. It really shows how small of a world we live in.

Oslo: A Transportation Quandry

2007-09-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was spent in Oslo, Norway, along with two friends from DIS. We had a great time, although the weather was quite uncooperative. Pictures have already been uploaded to Webshots for your perusal if interested. But here is the rundown on Oslo, day by day.

Friday
The cruise we were taking was supposed to leave Copenhagen harbor at 5:00 pm, which meant we needed to be on board the ship at 4:30 pm. I skipped my last class of the day to make this time frame not be an issue. Patricia and I left DIS around 3:00 pm, with the idea that we had plenty of time to make it to the dock. We looked up online which bus we needed and we were set to go. But of course, nothing could be that easy. We picked up bus 26 at Radhudspladsen as we were supposed to, and we knew it was the correct bus immediately as there was a fair number of people with luggage. In fact, the destination of the bus read "The Cruise Ships". How could we go wrong? Well, it turns out that there are 2 different bus 26 lines, one of which goes to the terminal, but the other stops at an odd point in the harbor. Unfortunately, we were on the second line, and weren't aware of it, so we rode out to this point, where the bus driver told us to get off. Confused, we asked how we could get to the boat. He responded with very poor English that we needed to walk down a certain road, and that we would be there in 5 minutes. So Patricia and I set off, and called Jessica, who was supposed to meet us at the dock, trying to tell her not to make the same mistake. 10 minutes later we reached the end of the pier (and the bus that had previously left us off passed us). However, we still had another 10-15 minutes of walking to do. We finally ended up at the terminal around 4:20ish and Jessica was able to get there by 4:30, too. All in all, a great start to our trip.

The ship itself was great. It was nothing close to a ferry, but in reality a cruise ship. The rooms were small (as expected), but rather nice for what we paid. The odd part was that every other cruise I've been on (Alaska and the Western Caribbean) have always included food. We didn't pay for food, so I stared longingly at the menus as we ate our PB&J sandwiches. I did end up splurging on some pretty bad cheesecake and a hot chocolate (which was amazing). The rest of the night was spent at a table by the bar and the piano player people watching more than anything else.

Saturday
The next morning we got up bright and early, 6:30 am, as we were told coming into Oslo is gorgeous. So we grudgingly woke up, put some clothes on, grabbed our cameras, and headed to the top deck. We lasted for about 2.5 minutes, at most. I almost fell over twice! It was incredibly windy, cold, and rainy. Just gross weather. We made the executive decision that sleep was better than the weather and went back to bed.

Upon actually arriving in Oslo the weather became a little better as it stopped raining. The previous night the three of us had sat down and planned what we wanted to do. The first stop was to walk along the old Norwegian fortress that guards the harbor. Unfortunately, we never had time to really explore that area. Next we made our way to another pier where we went on a boat tour of the Oslo Fjord. Basically, there are hundred of islands within this fjord that are all part of the greater city of Oslo. It was fun, although it would have been nicer if it wasn't so cloudy and a bit warmer. When we came back to the pier, the rain started, though, which made the rest of the day fun to say the least.

After the boat ride, Patricia and Jessica went off to do their own thing, and I met up with Hannah, a friend from Carleton who's studying abroad in Oslo. We had a nice lunch, and it was great to catch up with a friend that I hadn't seen since the spring.

I met up again with Patricia and Jessica after lunch at the Royal Palace. We decided that Oslo in general is much prettier than Copenhagen (even with the rain), simply because of all the trees downtown. We then headed off for a train station to see Holmenkollen, the famous Norwegian ski jump, which is a huge tourist site as it has the best views of the city. However, more fun with transportation halted our plans. About 2/3 of the way there our train lost power. We sat on the tacks not moving for about 20 minutes, at which point we decided to scrap our plan and catch a train back. But we were too slow, and missed the train back, and ended up waiting another 20 minutes for the next train.

By the time we got back to the downtown area we only had an hour and a half left, so we decided to go to the Vigeland Park, which has a ton of statues created by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. It was pretty awesome, and my pictures really don't do it justice.

After spending some time there we decided we should probably head back to the boat. First, we had to catch a tram, which runs every 10 minutes. As we were walking out of the park, we realize that our tram is coming and that we don't have time to miss it. We start on a dead sprint to make it to the station in time, which involved having to dodge a quite large tour bus, whose bus driver was not too happy with us. After catching the tram back to a main station we then had to catch a train to the actual main station. Due to uncertainty, though, we ended up missing the first train and had to wait a couple minutes for the next one. Once at the main station we were only a 5 minute walk from the terminal, and we had 10 minutes to get there. No problem. Except we had come up from being underground and had no perspective of where we were, and thus no idea of where to walk. With the time frame closing in on us by the second we decided we should probably take a taxi. But of course, when you need to find a taxi, you can't. 5 minutes later we're in a taxi on our way back to the ship terminal. We had to have been one of the last 10 people to board the boat, but at least we managed to get on it.

That night was very similar to the last, eating PB&J and fruit for dinner (although I also splurged on a ham sandwich and pasta salad), talking for a while, decided to get dessert, which included my first Chai tea since I've been here -- it was awesome -- and sitting up by the piano player in the bar people watching and talking.

General Thoughts, Again
All in all, it was a really fun trip, and Oslo is a great city. It made me want to go back to Norway in the summer and see Oslo again, but also head north a bit to see more of the arctic aspects. The trip has also had a negative effect in the sense that I'm having problems deciding if I am in fact in school or on vacation still. This makes doing work pretty difficult, which is why I'm writing this right now, of course. You might also notice that I've added a "European Food List" on the side of the blog. This is where I'll list some of my favorite food that I find while here, even if they aren't that special -- Danish/Norwegian apples in the fall are amazing! Then finally, I'm considering taking one more trip right before I leave for home in December. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good European city to see in the middle of December for a day or two?

Being in Europe is all about experimenting...

2007-09-27T14:17:00.001-04:00

Or isn't that what everyone says? You're in Europe, you're young, go enjoy yourself and try new things, right? I've been attempting to embrace this concept, although as almost all of you know, trying new things is not exactly my forte. The one major experiment I've had so far is with facial hair. Normally, I keep myself clean shaven. Granted I've experimented with laziness and just let things go for a couple weeks, but that never turns out well. So I decided since I'm away from people that will harass me about facial hair, namely my friends, I attempted to do the groomed facial hair thing -- a goatee. Surprisingly, it didn't look that bad, and it was nice to have that much less to shave, but ultimately is just wasn't me, and it didn't look that good either. So I'm back to the clean shaven look, and odds are it's here to stay. Guess I'll get to keep on shaving.

Another experiment is happening tomorrow. I am going to miss my first academic class since 6th grade. I'll be skipping my last class of the day to catch a ferry that will be heading to Oslo, Norway, overnight. I'm going with a couple friends of DIS, and we'll have all day Saturday to explore, prior to getting on the ferry Saturday evening, so that we'll be back in Copenhagen by Sunday morning. It should be a nice, quick adventure. I'm also going to be able to meet up with one of my friends who is spending the term abroad in Oslo, so hopefully she'll have some good suggestions of things to do. You can definitely expect a full review of Oslo once I get back, although it most likely will be interspersed with rants about the Browns as they play the Ravens Sunday night.

Smoke Inhalation

2007-09-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

In my complexity of cancer course we are currently learning about various forms of chemotherapy. The text associated with the lectures was pretty intense in terms of level, and I really only gained generalities from it, such as chemotherapy sucks in terms of the toxicities. It sounded brutal, and this was a scientific article! It really makes me not want to have cancer. The other thing I picked up from the article was that radiation therapy can act as a carcinogen, which typically results in neoplasia 10 years down the line. If that is true for other carcinogens, and I end up with lung cancer 10 years from now, I know who to blame: FC Copenhagen and Broendby IF football fans.

This weekend my host family and one of their friends went to see the match between these two bitter, Copenhagen rivals. It was an entertaining game, which FC Copenhagen ended up winning 1-0, but the game itself wasn't the only excitement. The fans decided they would provide some "atmosphere" to the 24,000 person stadium, by lighting flares (some of which were thrown on the field) and smoke bombs, as well as by setting a chair on fire. Couple that with all the Danes that smoke while watching soccer, and I inhaled enough smoke to last me a life time. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good atmosphere for a soccer match. I've tried to capture it in my photos on webshots, but I've also added a new dimension. I recorded some video with my digital camera trying to capture the fans singing and cheering. Take a look and see what Danish soccer is really like (in terms of the fans, at least).

The Danish Cedar Point?

2007-09-23T03:09:00.000-04:00

This past Friday night a group of friends and I decided we needed to check out Tivoli before it closed for the summer season this weekend. Tivoli is the Danish amusement park, located in the heart of downtown Copenhagen, and about a 5 minute walk from DIS. Supposedly, Tivoli is what inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyworld. In reality, comparing Tivoli to someplace like Cedar Point is insulting to both Tivoli and Cedar Point. It insults Cedar Point because the rides do not even come close to comparing, and it insults Tivoli because its landscaping and design is light-years ahead of Cedar Point.

Tivoli is interesting in that there are two separate fees, one just for entrance (about $15) and one for rides (you can ride all the rides for $20, or pay as you go). Most of the rides are meant for younger children, and since we were only there for the evening we decided to pay as we went. In the end, we ended up only riding one ride, this giant swing:

It wasn't what anyone would call a thrill ride, but it did offer probably the best aerial view of Copenhagen that one can get (there are almost no buildings in Copenhagen that are built higher than 5 or 6 stories). Otherwise, we spent most of our time just wandering around the park enjoying the atmosphere. All in all, it was a good time, but I'm in no rush to head back. I'll probably go one more time before I leave, as they re-open Tivoli around Christmas time, and supposedly go all out in decorating, which I've been told I need to see.

A dad is a dad

2007-09-22T10:48:00.000-04:00

My family loves to pick on my Dad (my real family). It's just what my brother, my mom, and I do. It's all in good nature, as I know we all have a ton of respect for him, although in his opinion it might go overboard every now and then. But fear not Dad, because a dad is a dad no matter where you are in the world. Case in point, my host family. What is my 2 host brothers and my host mom's favorite activity -- why picking on their Dad/husband (although I don't think they are actually married, but that's for another post) of course. And just like at home, sometimes it goes a little too far for his liking, and he yells, and it stops. It all sounds all too familiar. I guess this just means its something I get to look forward to down the line.

In other news, I was taken out to dinner by my host family this past Tuesday, at the invitation of one my host parent's friends, Lars. First, Lars lives in this great apartment complex. It's right off the main drag, Amagerbrogade, on the island Christiana. But you would never know it. Once you go through the main doors off the road you enter a courtyard, and as soon as the door close behind you, so does the rest of the world. It is like a little oasis within the big city. You can't hear the people, nor the cars. Instead you are greeted with a courtyard that in reality is like a wild garden, as well as apartments from the 16th century. These are some of the oldest if not the oldest buildings in Copenhagen, as they were spared from the British bombardment and resulting fire in 1807. It was really impressive.

Anyways, Lars invited the family to eat at the community center near where he lives. They were telling me that something along these lines exist in New York City, but I'm not sure. Here is the setup. You walk in to what could be called a cafe as there are multiple tables scattered about, magazines, newspapers, fliers, a foosball table, and a place for live music to perform. There is also a bar that serves beer, wine, coffee drinks, and desert. We ended up here after dinner for an hour or so. Dinner itself was served upstairs in a small room that can seat probably 50 at most. This is why you have to buy tickets for dinner ahead of time. The ticket, besides entrance, gets you water, unlimited bread and salad, and the main dish, as there aren't any options. On this night they were serving veal, potatoes, and a tomato salsa. It was quite good. From what I was told, they only serve dinner twice a week and it is dirt cheap (relatively speaking), about $10, which in Copenhagen is no price to complain about. All in all, it was a fun evening and a good "cultural" experience. For whatever reason, I keep having those. Odd, huh?

Living in a Hurricane

2007-09-17T02:34:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my three day whirlwind trip, and at times it really felt like I was living in a hurricane, either with the weather or the schedule. I'm going to give a recap of all the events and my thoughts on them, which means this will be a lengthy post, so I'm planning on splitting it up with subheadings to make jumping around a little easier. Also, all the pictures assosciated with this trip have already been posted on webshots, so check those out, too. Alright, here you go.

The First Bus Ride
Everyone in my group had to meet at Frue Plads at 8:00 AM Thursday morning for our departure. My host dad was heading into town anyways so he gave me a lift, which was appreciated, as that meant I could avoid walking around with my little suitcase. We started things off excitingly with a lovely 6 hour bus ride from Copenhagen to Aarhus. I filled this time with a little studying, a fair amount of sleeping, and seeing a pretty cool film -- Dirty Pretty Things -- about black market organ donation.

ARoS (Aarhus Art Museun)
Our first stop was at ARoS, which is a relatively new art museum in Aarhus (Denmark's second largest city -- 300,000). Their collection focuses on modern art, but with a slight twist. It's the modern art of different time periods, all the way back to 19th and 18th centuries. The more modern pieces were really cool, and I enjoyed walking around -- and taking a few illegal photographs. I also too a few legal photographs of the piece called "Boy". If you haven't looked at those pictures yet, I highly suggest you do. When I was loading the pictures onto my computer, and the pictures of "Boy" popped up, I was actually startled at first. If you look, you'll see what I mean.

Den Gamle By
The next visit in Aarhus was to the Old Town -- Den Gamle By. This "town" is a collection of hundreds of buildings from across Denmark from the 15th-19th centuries that have all been moved to this central location. The point is to try and give a representation of what life in Denmark used to be, so they have people "working" in period dress doing things that would be normal in the time period. It was much like a Danish equivalent of Hale Farm and Village. A group of us wandered around for the hour or so we were there, poking our heads into the buildings, etc. It wasn't anything too exciting, but it was still nice to just be able to walk around.

Hostel in Aalborg
After another hour and a half on the bus we arrived in Aalborg, which is where our accommodations were located. Once we were off the bus we were told to divide ourselves up in groups of 4 for the rooms, but I wasn't paying very close attention and missed this instruction, which left me scrambling for a room as people were heading off. The rooms weren't actually rooms, but instead these little shacks (I of course have pictures if you want to see), with room to sleep 7, and a little table as well. My room had 5 people so there was in reality a fair amount of room. These shacks were positioned right on the water next to a marina, so we had a great view of whatever body of water it was. I do know that it led into the ocean. We were served dinner that night in the hostel, which was quite decent in reality, and then afterwards people headed back to their rooms to get ready for the evening.

A Night Out on Jomfru Ane Gade
The name of this street translates to Virgin Anne's street, but it is not a street for virgins. In fact, this street is known all around Scandinavia and Northern Europe for being the party street, as its entire length has bars and restaurants on both side of the street. Unfortunately/fortunately (all depends on one's outlook), we arrived around 9:00pm to Jomfru Ane Gade, and the typical Danish nightlife doesn't begin until 12:00am. A group of us walked around the "downtown" area for a little bit, and then went to some bars. However, we were tired and done by 12:00am and decided to walk back to the hostel. This meant we missed out on the real craziness of the street, but I think we were all fine with that.

Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI)
The next morning our academic visits began. Our first stop was at the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI) at Aalborg University. Here they study human sensory-motor interaction at multiple levels looking for ways to improve life. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as attentive as I wished I was, as all the presentations were quite interesting. The researchers there were doing a lot of different things with stimulating nerves to see how it affects the person in general and their brains. For example, one researcher is creating an implantable device that can be clamped around a nerve that will stimulate that nerve automatically in an effort to prevent people from having an overactive bladder. Another researcher is looking to see what reflex nerves are stimulated in response to a painful stimuli, as well as walking, in an attempt to see if electrical/painful stimulation of nerves can help people recover motor function after a stroke. It was really interesting to see this level of neurorehabilitation.

Boernehaven Oesterladen (Danish Kindergarten)
We ate our lunches at a Danish Kindergarten, which was quite the experience. Pretty much everyone on the bus was grumbling about this stop, but I think almost everyone enjoyed themselves at this stop. First, we ate our lunches in their little lunch room -- and at their little tables and chairs, too -- and then spent half an hour or so playing with the kids. A couple things to note about this situation. First, Danish children don't begin learning English until 3rd grade, and all these children were 3-6 years old. Second, most of us knew no Danish or very, very little. Third, Danish kindergarten is nothing like its US counterpart. This was 30 or so kids running around a yard doing whatever they want with very little direct supervision. There was no monitor walking around making sure everyone was behaving. Granted, there are qualified teachers (you have to get a 4 year degree from a university), but they play a hands-off role. They allow the kids to work things out themselves. This results in a little bit of chaos, although not really. The kids were really excited to have visitors, especially such strange ones from Germany (supposedly what they thought via translation), so they made sure to show off. There were kids climbing and trees, playing swords with sticks, swinging, running around, and of course, jumping in mud puddles. There is something comical about a platinum blonde haired boy with blue eyes, being completely brown due to being covered in mud.

Gandrup Laegehus (General Practitioner)
Our academic visits continued with a visit to a small town general practitioner (GP). We actually met with two GP's from the area and they filled us in on their work and the Danish healthcare system. Obviously, the Danish healthcare system is quite different than the American system as there is universal coverage for all citizens, but it also differs in how they practice medicine. This will be an issue I'm sure I'll go into more detail about later, but for now, here's a quick rundown as it applies to GP's. All Danish citizens need to see their GP before they can see any other doctor. The GP acts as a gatekeeper and handles all the primary care. If the GP thinks the issue is more serious, then they refer their patient out to a specialist. The Danish GP's love this system, and think it works. Surprisingly, with this set-up and such a high level of importance placed on the GP's, the state does not require people to have yearly check-ups. Some of the other interesting tidbits that the GP shared with us were that even though the government regulates all people's work weeks to be no more than 37.5 hours, GP's put in closer to 60 hours a week, which is still far less than their American counterparts. They also griped a little about the amount of money they get paid, but I feel like that is everyone. GP's are highly regulated by the government, and in fact, that's who pays them based on a capitation and fee for service setup, but GP's are still required to pay their staff, their equipment, and their facility fees (heating, electric, building additions, etc.). I thought, naively probably, that all of this would have also been covered by the government. The last interesting point I want to share is in regards to the medical malpractice system. This is something that I have no doubt the US should emulate. First, all doctors are required to pay a nominal (we weren't given hard numbers so its kind of hard to do a direct comparison, but I was repeatedly assured it wasn't much) insurance premium to a private insurer. This insurer has a contract with all the GP's and also provides their home, life, etc. insurance as well. More importantly, for patients that are unhappy with the level of care they have received they have two independent avenues for retribution. First, they can file a complaint with the government about the doctor. This is investigated, and if the complaint is valid the doctor can be reprimanded by the government at the level they deem appropriate. Second, they can file a complaint with another governmental agency that independently determines if patient had undo suffering. If this is the case, then the patient is reimbursed an amount that this commission decides, which is paid by the government -- not the doctors. A portion of all Dane's tax money goes into this pot. A lot of times patients receive funds from this agency and the government finds that the doctor did nothing wrong. It seems like a win-win situation. Doctor's aren't being unduly harassed by lawsuits, and patients can still receive compensation when things go wrong -- even if the doctor isn't to blame. Granted, in the states, there would be major controversy as where that money would come from, but as a general concept, I think this is the way to go.

A Danish Beach & Restaurant Raalingen
After the visit with the GP's we were done for the day, and headed for what one of our Danish trip leaders called the prettiest beach in Denmark. After spending 20 minutes or so there watching the waves and the rainbows (the weather was a little rough -- rain and wind), we walked for about 10 minutes to the restaurant where we ate dinner.

The restaurant was a really cool place. It is the oldest privately held estate, as it went into private hands in 1552, and its original construction dates back even earlier than that. We had an absolutely amazing meal there, made even better by the fact that DIS paid for it. We were also greatly helped by the fact that one of our trip leaders, Lars, grew up in this town and knows the owner. First, we were served the restaurant's signature microbrew, which was really good. Then we were left sitting, wondering if food would ever come as we were never given a menu. As an answer to our question grills soon came out to each of the 8 tables, and we were informed that we were going to be cooking our own food. Next, a dish of scalloped potatoes came, and stayed warm underneath the table grill. The first two courses of meat were wild pig and calf, which were excellent, although I think I preferred the calf. We then headed off for the salad bar to hold us over to the next courses. Before more meat could arrive though, Lars decided to order each table a bottle of wine either from his DIS money or himself -- we remain uncertain. The next two courses of meat, which were accompanied by more potatoes, were venison and antelope! Antelope is surprisingly tender and quite tasty, as it has a wild game flavor to it, much like venison. Needless to say, all of us pigged out that night, and had an absolutely unbelievable meal. By the time we got back to the hostel none of us wanted to go out, so we got together in one of shacks and played cards for the night. That night, though, was when the real hurricane conditions set it. It was incredibly windy the entire night. So much so, that a very audible howling could be heard throughout the night as the wind whistled through the masts of the ships in the nearby marina.

Skagen Art Museum
The next day we headed to our second art museum, this time in Skagen, which is at the northern tip of Jutland. Compared to the museum in Aarhus, this was nothing great, as it was all the same kind of paintings from painters all at the same time. I guess Skagen was quite the artists's colony in the late 19th century. Afterwards our leaders treated us again, this time to ice cream, and then it was off to get bikes.

Grenen
The bikes were for a short bike ride to Grenen, which is the actual tip of Jutland. What we came to was the meeting of the North Sea with the Baltic Sea, which was quite a sight. I took a ton of pictures of this, because I just couldn't get over how cool the waves crashing together was. It was also interesting because as we were walking out to the actual point the tide was coming in, and it slowly enveloped the point, and most of our legs. Surprisingly, at least to me, the general landscpare reminded me a lot of the landscape along Lake Michigan by the sand dunes, because, that's pretty much what they had, sand dunes. Anyways, this was an absolutely amazing sight to see, and I suggest looking at my pictures, although I'm sure they don't do it justice.

The Ride Home
Grenen was the last stop on the study tour, so were now heading back to Copenhagen. Of course, this couldn't go smoothly, that just wouldn't make sense. The high winds that I mentioned we experienced the night before continued all day, and there was a decent concern that the ferry we were supposed to take, and the bridge that was the alternative route, would be both closed down. Luckily, the winds died down as we headed south and the day progressed, giving us safe passage, although the ferry did rock quite a bit. The highlight of the trip back though was my first experience with the Danish cinema. We were shown the movie "After the Wedding", which was very good. I suggest renting it and watching with the English subtitles. It was a good thing that we made it back without too much trouble though, as people were ready to go home. A few of us were commenting how already Copenhagen seems like home after only 3 weeks, and laughed at this revelation.
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Overall, it was a great trip, and from what I've heard from other people, better than others. So for that I'm happy. It was great to see a part of Denmark that most tourists never see, and for whatever reason made me feel like this is now my second home away from home (after Carleton, of course).

In other news, Marta is now at home. I've uploaded some pictures my Mom took of the new addition. From what I understand, Misty is slowly adjusting to life with a new puppy, but she is coping rather well. But man, Marta is cute! Now for the parting thought: who would have thought after getting ramshackled 34-7 by Pittsburgh last week, and trading away their starting quarterback for a 6th round pick, that the Browns would respond with a 51-45 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals?

The excitement!

2007-09-13T00:10:00.000-04:00

It has been an exciting last couple of days here and back home (and these are in no particular order). First, my parents have officially bought their retirement home, which is in a great location if you ask me: on Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan! We're going up there for Christmas, and I'm really excited to see it. Second, the last piece of art my parents bought at the Ann Arbor Art Fair this summer finally came, and it looks great. My help was definitely needed on those purchases. Third, I have a good sense of all the extra traveling that I'll be doing while across the pond. It looks like I'll get a chance to go to Berlin (again), Poznan in Poland, Prague and the Czech countryside, Northern Italy and Tuscany, and Vienna. And best yet, some of this gets to be done with Liza. Fourth, classes were done on Tuesday for this week, as we leave today for Jutland. Here's a map of where I'll be going:

Finally, my mom and brother are driving down to the greater Columbus area to pick up Marta, the family's new yellow lab puppy. She's quite cute:

Flag Hysteria

2007-09-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

The Danes are quite fond of their flag. In fact, it typically plays a prominent decorative role at most gatherings. This was the case for both the family friend's 18th birthday party and Victor's as well. The day of Victor's party there were flags in the yard and all over the house. Tables, windows, big flags, little flags, flag candies, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures to really demonstrate this experience. However, today was some sort of event (no one in my host family knew exactly what was going on), because there were flags all over. On buildings, in store windows, and on top of all the buses! I did capture some pictures of this:

On a different note: thank goodness for the existence of wikipedia! I've spent a good portion of today going over the slides/my notes from my cancer biology course, as we have our first exam on Monday and I'm gone most of the weekend. However, most of the information I have is useless as we weren't given any real background info. That's where wikipedia has saved me. I've probably read close to 20 articles today, all of which have done a tremendous job of filling in the gaps where key information is missing. It's really being a life saver.

No Tolerance

2007-09-11T14:46:00.000-04:00

I found out today that I have no tolerance for certain things: people who believe that everything American is inherently better, and people that are unable to grasp concepts that are mentioned in class due to the aforementioned superiority complex. This all happened in my Healthcare in Scandinavia course where today we were discussing 7 theoretical healthcare financing setups. These ranged from a system very similar to how the US does it now to a completely socialized setup like in Denmark. Keep in mind that this was a theoretical discussion only, there was no comparison, we were simply looking at the characteristics and pros/cons of each system, independent of the others. The first thing that really frustrated me was when the professor asked for cons for a system that involved compulsory tax payments to a single insurance company/the government. An unnamed student responded that in the states this concept is highly criticized because of the possibility that it will give motivation for people that are not working to continue to not work, because they will have their health care paid for, and therefore this was a bad system. Whoa! When were we ever asked to for that kind of response? It was not what the professor was looking for, and the haughty attitude that it was said with, did not help. He simply ignored the comment and moved on. The next issue was in a similar situation except in this theoretical setup the single insurance company/the government had contracts with multiple providers, and the text stated that this situation led to consumer choice. No one in the class could understand how this was possible. They were all focusing on the economic standpoint, and they are correct there, there is no competition between the providers for the patients that will result in lower prices, but that's fine because the government pays for it. What people failed to see was the competition between providers to provide the best quality of care in order to have more patients use them, especially if they are being paid in a fee for service or capitation program. It was just an incredibly frustrating situation.

On a similar note, now that classes are picking up, I am going to try to comment on anything interesting that happens in them, such as the above or something entirely different.

One surprising thing I learned today in my Human Health & Disease course was that in Denmark MRI is rarely used due to its expense (for some reason its very expensive here, as CT scans are cheaper). This even includes orthopedic diagnoses. Instead, orthopods use almost only ultrasound to diagnose soft tissue damage, including torn ligaments and tendons. A different way to do things, with both pros and cons. The test can be done faster, and cheaper, but the image results aren't nearly as clear. In my opinion, especially if surgery is needed I would want better image results, but that's just me.

Mmmmmmmm, Danish Mexican

2007-09-10T14:23:00.000-04:00

Tonight, my Medical Practice & Policy program had a dinner meeting to talk about our study trip we are taking this Thursday (more on that in a later post). The meeting was in a cafeteria of some sort for the University of Copenhagen, and the meal was supposedly a "Mexican" buffet. It was the most interesting "Mexican" I think I have ever had. The meal consisted of greens, lentils, bread, white rice with some peas and diced tomatoes, some kind of meatball in a tomato sauce, and baked chicken legs that had some light pineapple flavor. There was zero spice. The food was good, and tasty, but not Mexican. The group of us commented that this must be "Danish Mexican".

Well, when I got home that night, I mentioned this to my host family, and they were affronted that the above meal was considered Mexican. They then reassured me that in fact the Danes do know what Mexican is, and in fact they can do quite well. Maybe some night in the future I'll actually find out.

P.S: Fashion comment of the day: On the bus, I saw a 70 year old man wearing a denim jacket that read "Pure Playaz". Nice.

Oh, the wonders of the internet and crazy, illegal programs

2007-09-09T16:34:00.000-04:00

Today has been spent doing homework and fiddling around with my computer. A lot of that fiddling has been trying to fix one of my external hard drives (filled with all of my music), but that has failed, and I just ordered a new one to replace it. It was a pretty frustrating ordeal. When I wasn't frustrated beyond belief with the hard drive I've been watching the Browns play absolutely horribly, and the US against Brazil in a friendly, with lovely Chinese commentary. How am I accomplishing this? There's this great program that I downloaded called Sopcast, which lets people stream their TV feeds online for other people to watch. This results in reduced quality and a time lag, but being able to watch the Browns suck on "live" TV is so much better than getting to hear Jim Donovan tell me they suck over the internet radio feed (the Browns ended up losing 34-7 and played like crap -- and that's being nice). In better sports news the Tigers lost today, which is always good for the Indians, and the US is up 1-0 over Brazil in the 30th minute. Maybe at least them and the Indians can give my teams a couple victories this weekend.

Stereotyping

2007-09-09T06:36:00.000-04:00

Stereotyping is an inherently bad practice. There is no question in my mind about that. Ever person is different and no cultural generalizations encompass everyone. However, this morning I was thinking about it a little more, especially in regards to the Danish party troubles I have been having. The interesting concept of stereotypes is that they have to have come from something. Meaning, most likely, that the stereotype was established around some truth. And typically that truth was true for the majority of people or else it would have been passed off as an inconsistency and not a stereotype. My real question though is this, once someone becomes aware of a stereotype, and even if they are against the practice of stereotyping, are they more likely to see that stereotype played out in real life based on their on perceptions of events? Just a thought.

A smattering of thoughts (part deux)

2007-09-08T16:55:00.000-04:00

I don't have just one story to share, so this will just be a bunch of random thoughts:

My goodness is Michigan horrible this year. Isn't the Big House supposed to be a form of home field advantage? And doesn't this normally mean that you don't lose to Div I-AA teams, and an unranked Oregon (that had to travel from the west coast)? I'm actually becoming embarrassed to say that I am a Michigan fan.
So my commute home on Thursday was a touch longer, but completely uneventful. The protests ended up being peaceful, although the police were ready for anything. There were paddy wagons all over town, just ready for any trouble.
Speaking of trouble, Denmark has had its excitement, though, too. Over the last week 10 or so Danish citizens or legal immigrants have been arrested for having explosive material and being associated with Al Qaeda. Nothing visibly has changed and no one seems really concerned (my host family and other DIS students), but still, interesting.
I have now experienced my second Danish birthday party. The first was last week for a family friend, which was a long, boring affair. I mean, its great to see how the Danes do things, but spending 3 hours at a restaurant and saying 25 words isn't that much fun. All day today was my younger host brother Victor's birthday celebration. I gave him copies of Bad Boys and Bad Boys II, which he seemed excited about. Today/tonight has been better as I've been able to head down here when bored, but still, not a lot of talking going on on my part. I guess that's part of the problem of not speaking Danish.
Speaking of the family friend's birthday. She was turning 18, which is the big birthday for Danes. At 18 you're able to buy alcohol easily, get a driver's license, etc. So to properly celebrate the occasion the birthday girl was the recipient of a special hair cut, which involved the Danish style of hair extensions. The price, a cool 5,000 DKK, that's just a little less than a $1,000. Crazy.
I think I've discovered my new favorite breakfast. Initially, I was having corn flakes and some fruit every morning, but at the end of last week I tried something new. Raw oats, cut up banana, and strawberry yogurt. Highly recommended.
I don't think I've talked about my host family much in terms of describing them, and that will have to wait, but I will say this -- they are incredibly generous sometimes. When I first arrived they said they were going to treat me as part of the family and I should help around the house (as I would want it), but it hasn't quite happened to that extent. Sure I help around the house, but a lot of the time my offers of help are turned down. On top of that, last night my parents had a party to go to, and my brother was working, so dinner was on my own. No biggie. I was planning on eating out with some friends, and told my host family that that was the plan. They responded by giving me 100 DKK to cover my dinner. I tried to refuse it, but to no avail. They're supposed to provide me with dinner, so they were.
Speaking about going out last night, I learned one key thing: Danes love American music. My friends and I must have passed 4 bars that had like cover bands singing American rock, along with the entire bar, with quite a bit of energy.
I don't know what's more shocking: how dirty Copenhagen is on Saturday mornings, or how clean it is on Monday mornings.
After a full first week of classes I have come to at least one conclusion/realization. I am spoiled rotten at Carleton. It's so nice to have professors that are amazing at teaching and enjoy doing it. Some of my teachers (they aren't professors, no Ph.D., so I'll call them teachers) just don't seem to know how to teach, which includes being poor at communication. I sent an e-mail to a teacher with a question, and he doesn't respond. Instead, he makes a comment in class that some random person e-mailed him. He didn't even know I was in his class -- of 20 students. So yeah, I'm missing Carleton profs.

"Honey, I want THAT one!"

2007-09-05T17:23:00.000-04:00

That's what I imagined this couple saying that I saw today. Late this afternoon, I was walking towards the bus stop to head home for the day when I passed a couple looking at a shop window. The wife was animatedly pointing at things in the window, and every now and then the husband would join in. Overall, I would describe these two as quite respectable in terms of appearance, nothing odd at all; however, there are two "kickers" to this story. First, they were looking at the window of a sex store filled with DVD's, magazines, outfits, and toys. Second, they had to be around 70 years old!

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

2007-09-05T14:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, there is something rotten. In fact, so rotten that the U.S. State Department has issued a warning. First, let me give you the background, at least how I understand it. Approximately 6 months and a week ago, the Danish government kicked a large number of youths (about 17-25 years old) from a government owned house that they had been squatting in for quite a long time. The government determined that they needed the building for some purpose. This upset the youth that were living there, and they responded by protesting, with a slight violent tinge to it (Molotov cocktails), which was eventually broke up by the police with the assistance of tear gas. Well, a week ago was the 6 month anniversary of this event and again the people involved protested. This time it resulted in numerous windows broken from rocks being thrown. Now, these same people are planning in protesting again tomorrow. Only this time there will be 69 groups, starting at 69 different places all with an address of 69. The repetition of 69 is due to that number being the address of the original house. All 69 groups are then going to start marching at 3:00pm towards the town center, where they will rally together. With this group's past history of turning violent, the U.S. State Department decided to issue a warning for Americans to stay clear. My problem is that the protest is in the middle of my commute route and time, so who knows what I'll be in the thick of. I do plan on bringing my camera with me just in case, but I do plan on steering pretty clear of it, as I don't want anything crazy to happen to me. It should be interesting to say the least.

Obama not liberal enough for you? Come to Denmark.

2007-09-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

So everyone knows that Denmark is a liberal country with their socialized health care and welfare state perks. However, their liberalism extends far beyond that. I'll give two examples. First, as I was coming out of my room for dinner last night, Marc (15 years old) had a few friends over. They were hanging out in the basement fooling around on the computer, listening to music, and looking at porn magazines. It's legal here, of course. In fact children as young as 15 are allowed to be in porn as long as their parents give permission, because 15 is the age of consent. My second example is along the same lines. Danes are quite liberal to PDA and the like. I have seen or heard stories of women breast feeding in public, people touching each other quite extensively in public, people making out for extended periods of time in public, and people doing quite a bit more, as well. Obviously, everyone being equal in Denmark means everyone is equal to witness each others sex lives, duh.

Windows, doors, and bugs, oh my!

2007-09-02T12:53:00.000-04:00

Here is one aspect of Danish culture, and for that matter European culture, that I just don't fully understand. First, they don't believe in screens for their windows or doors. This is fine, and to each their own, but they also believe in airing things out, quite frequently as well. In my house, this means that multiple windows and doors (like the front door!) will be left wide open all day (assuming someone is home). This is fine and all, except for when night descends, because then, the house with lights on, becomes quite attractive to the bugs -- especially mosquitoes. So last night, while listening to the debacle at the Big House (I don't even want to go into that), I gained quite the collection of mosquitoes in my room. In the end, I think I managed to kill about 15, and that wasn't even all of them. The good news is I now have nicely decorated walls. Nothing says "home" like smeared bug guts!

Nothing like a street protest/party to mess with a commute

2007-08-30T16:48:00.000-04:00

Today was the official start of classes at DIS, which I guess means my program has now officially, officially begun. On Mondays/Thursdays I only have two classes, biomedical ethics and complexity of cancer. And even better, my first class doesn't start until 1:15 p.m., which means I get to sleep in.

Biomedical ethics is first on my list for the day, and it seem like it'll be a good course. The professor is Danish, but she spends her summers teaching at St. Olaf. This led to a fun discussion when we introduced ourselves and I said I went to Carleton, as we talked about Northfield and Blue Mondays. Anyways the course material is quite interesting, and she has it set up so that it will prepare us for practicing medicine and being able to quickly make critical ethical decisions in terms of patient care, as well as allowing us to be able to empathize with our patients when they ask questions like "what is the meaning of life?". I also found it interesting that she has the course set up much like a Carleton course, with the emphasis on the lectures and our discussions, as that was not totally what I was expecting.

In quite the opposite direction was my complexity of cancer course, which is taught by two Danish doctors that are both at their "residency" stage of training in clinical oncology (the training system is different here, but residency is the analogous position). They however, are not professors, and are not use to teaching/grading, especially with Americans, so their course is very Danish in a sense as they do not care if you show up to class, because in reality the lectures are only ancillary, and everything is based on the reading. This creates quite a different situation for me, and it will be interesting to say the least to see how it goes.

My complexity of cancer course takes place at the Panthum Institute which is Copenhagen's medical school, and it is also my last course of the day. Afterwards then, I took the bus back to the center of town where I had two different options to get back home. Since this was a new bus stop for me I spent the first 5 minutes getting oriented, figuring out which lines serviced the stops, and which line I needed to get home. Unfortunately, this orientation time led to trouble. Once I found the line I needed, I was standing out in the rain patiently waiting for the bus to arrive (it rained quite hard all afternoon). And waiting. And waiting. There was a timer at the stop, showing how many minutes until the bus arrived, and it was showing zero, but still no bus. So I waited...and waited some more. Finally, I look off and I see a bunch of flashing lights towards where the bus should be coming from. Then I notice there are multiple police vans parked at the station with police waiting in them. Then I started to hear the loudspeaker, and the people. There was some kind of parade or protest marching down the street. For what I am not sure, but they had a ton of people, pirate flags, and a moving stage, where someone was screaming things, throwing beach balls, and lighting flares. This little event severely messed with all the traffic including the buses. In the end it turned a 35 minute commute into a 90 minute commute, all in the rain. You have to love the Danes and their love for marching/dancing/chanting down the streets, no matter the occasion.

So when was the first time you had sex?

2007-08-30T13:26:00.000-04:00

An interesting title for this post, right? You'll have to read through to see why I chose it. But first, just wanted to let you know that I've uploaded a handful of pictures of my room and my house/yard. It is really awesome. And the more I hear people complain about their commutes the happier I am with my location (there will be a post about this in the near future).

Part of the whole housing process with DIS involves writing a letter of introduction to your host family prior to your placement. In it, I talked about my interests and personality, etc, but also included my interest in soccer. Upon reading this, my family decided it would be a good idea (and it certainly was!) to treat me to the FC Copenhagen vs. Benefica Champions League Qualifying Match last night all as part of my introduction to Denmark. Unforutnately, Michael, my host dad, had to work and could not come, so it was Marc (my older host brother), myself, one of Michael's best friends, Bo, and one of Bo's friends, Carsten. We all met at a Thai restaurant for dinner prior to the match.

First off, this Thai restaurant was straight from a scene in one of the Rush Hour movies. The owner, a Dane, was walking around in his snazzy suit, and the whole place just smelled of dirty money. I was later informed by Marc that indeed, the owner had a past in Freetown on the island of Christiana, where a commune of people squat/live on government property, which is called a social experiment. In addition to that, it is also a place where the drugs flow freely, so there's not much doubt where the money for the restaurant comes from.

Beyond that, however, it was a great atmosphere, with a ton of FC Copenhagen fans enjoying the buffet prior to the match. Carsten talked to me awhile about how great soccer is and the atmosphere at the stadium, even though I attempted multiple times to explain to him how knowledgeable I am. Eventually, I just let him run with it, as I quickly learned Carsten likes to talk, and likes to extrapolate to say the least. His first point was how wonderful a club FC Copenhagen is, primarily in regards to their financial situation, as he claimed it was one of the 5 richest clubs in the world. I let him run with this point (even though it is incorrect -- they aren't even in the top 20). I also tried to explain how in the English Premier League, where some Americans have recently bought teams, some view the situation as a positive due to the American owners' ability to make money off of their teams by running a business. Somehow, however, Carsten didn't agree with this point, but I'm still not quite sure why.

Before coming over I read a book on Danish culture and etiquette, which went over some stereotypes of Danes that the book made sure to say were stereotypes. Nonetheless, I found it amusing to see that Carsten fit many of them, including the belief that the Danes are the best at what they do (see above), as well as being very open about sexual relations. Case in point, as we were eating, and totally unrelated to any other parts of any conversation that was taking place Carsten just flat out asks, "So how old were you when you first had sex?". Keep in mind he asks this to the entire table. I wasn't too horribly shocked, as I had read about this, but was definitely thinking it was an awkward situation. Bo responded first with his answer, then stated that he really didn't want to hear the answer from his best friend's son. I quickly was lost in conversation with Bo, while I think Carsten still asked Marc in Danish. The question was then dropped, and I luckily did not have to respond at all.

The game itself was fun. The atmosphere was great and the quality of soccer high. Unfortunately, and unluckily, FC Copenhagen lost 1-0, and was knocked out of the qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League. It was still a great time, and the fans, while loud, were never obnoxious, and cheered on their team even when defeat was assured.

Marc and I were unable to take the bus back home afterwards due to the throngs of people ahead of us leaving the stadium (about 39,500 people attended the game). Marc's dad, Michael, had just gotten off of work, though, so Marc arranged a pick-up for us at the American Embassy. While we were waiting outside the embassy a group of 3 to 4 Danes, probably in their 20's, walk by and also stop in front of the embassy by the street. The night watchman, a Danish security guard, came up to them and told them to move. They gave him some lip and didn't really respond (keep in mind that it is around 11:30 p.m.). All of a sudden, a black American appears out of nowhere and asks, with some disdain in his voice, if he can help them. They then get into a "discussion" about what constitutes private vs. public property. Then, a car pulls up and another two people who looked like Danes get out. Turns out that the secret service, who I guess is in charge with embassy security (which I did not know, I figure it was the Marines), does not appreciate loiters late at night. While this was happening Marc and I continued to walk and watch from afar. We ended up stopping on what was probably still "American" soil and continue to wait there. About 10 minutes later, while still waiting, the secret service agent appears and asks quite gruffly if he can help us. I told him that we were waiting to be picked up, all with the intentions of chatting the guy up until Michael arrived. Luckily, Michael pulled up about 20 seconds later so I didn't get a chance to ask the guy's life ambitions -- maybe next time.

The Biking Adventure (x2)

2007-08-28T16:52:00.000-04:00

So today I thought I would be very Danish, and bike into DIS. I made sure I was thoroughly prepared with directions and the like, so as to make the trip as easy as possible. The other thing you need to understand is that the Danes love, love, their bikes. It makes sense as biking is the cheapest and fastest way to commute into Copenhagen. Anyways, I leave the house this morning and start on my way, feeling out how fast people go, and the little nuances of etiquette that I wasn't previously told. Then problems started to happen. First, in Denmark, the street signs aren't like they are in the states. They just use a small sign that is on the side of a building, which is absolutely fine, except when I'm zooming by on a bike, with other bikes completely surrounding me. Needless to say, I missed my turn. So I pulled over and stopped, and consulted my map, and didn't really gain any insight, because I wasn't really sure where I was. I just continued to go straight hoping that would lead me somewhere useful. I even stopped again, and looked at my map again, but still couldn't figure anything out. Right when I was getting fed up, and close to becoming late to my meeting, and planning on asking a random Dane, I saw a building I recognized. This gave me hope! And after two lucky turns I was at DIS.

After the day's events I was off to soccer practice. Since I biked in, I had to bike there; however, this was pretty straight-forward as I was following a DIS employee who also plays for the club. It was rather uneventful, minus the two bikes behind me with DIS students that crashed together when one didn't realize we were stopping.

It just happened that my host brother, Marc, also happened to be having soccer practice at relatively the same time as I did, so he hung around for a little bit, and we rode our bikes back to the house. He took the "shortcut", which I swear was anything but short. Irregardless, as we were heading back Marc found a group of his friends, and stopped to briefly talk to them, while he told me to go on ahead (straight-ahead). I did as I was told and continued down the street, which curved in a new direction. The only problem with this was that I was supposed to go "straight-ahead", which meant leaving the road, and going on a dirt path. This led to about 20 minutes of phone calls trying to figure out where each other was. I had managed to get myself very close to home, and could have made it back, but Marc insisted that I meet up with him. He didn't want to lose me, and I can't really blame him. So after all of this I won't be biking for a day at least (although that has more to do with receiving my books more than anything else).

The other interesting tidbit I heard on the ride home was Marc's views on immigrants. With my help every now and then with filling in words to actually understand what he was saying, he was expressing himself pretty well. His views are also very interesting, although not that shocking as I had read about the concept before in a book and Danish culture and etiquette. Pretty much he was arguing against the immigrants because of their lack of desire to integrate with the rest of the Danish population. Instead they live together, and do not work (living off of government benefits), and harass the Danes (as he told me multiple stories of having things thrown at him and being chased, from 12 year olds to 25 year olds. In reality his whole point was to warn me to avoid them if I'm ever alone after dark, but nonetheless, it was very interesting to hear his opinions. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the conversation was when he told me that one way the government is talking about dealing with this issue is to not allow immigrants to live together in communities, therefore almost forcing them to integrate, or so the thinking goes.

Now about the soccer itself, it went fine. I'm out of shape. Badly. And it was evident. I was one of the best DIS players for the first 30-45 minutes that we practiced, but after that my legs were gone, and I couldn't do anything. It was a lengthy practice, both in time on the field (2+ hours), and time in general (I left DIS around 4:40, and didn't get back to my house until 9:30+). Because of those two things, and the amount of effort it would take me to put into it, I'm totally undecided if I'll keep doing it or not. I think a large factor will be how much work I have to do for my classes, as that could limit my time. We'll see.

A smattering of thoughts

2007-08-27T17:41:00.000-04:00

This post will just be a handful of my thoughts that have occurred today:

Someone asked where my homestay is loacted within Copenhagen. I live in a "neighborhood" that is on the island of Amager, which is where the airport is located. I have about a 30 minute commute to DIS, which is on the low end. E-mail me at londond@carleton.edu if you would like the actual address to look up my house on Google Earth, or some other satellite website.
I'm going to my first soccer practice in about 3 years tomorrow! There is a club affiliated with DIS that allows DIS students to play on one of their teams. Since they have 6 mens' teams, and I haven't played competitive soccer in over 3 years, I'll probably be on one of the lower teams, but who knows. And who knows if I'll continue to do it or not, but I'll at least attend the first practice. I have to admit I'm quite nervous about the whole ordeal, but we'll see.
I went on my "tourist" sightseeing of Copenhagen today. Overall, the tour left much to be desired, but it was fine. I've uploaded the pictures from it to my Webshots, which can be accessed by the link at the top right of my page, or by clicking here: http://community.webshots.com/user/dsocc2l1864
After interacting with a handful of students from schools across the country, mostly indirectly, all I can say is it did nothing to reaffirm how good a fit Carleton is for me.
Finally, I am already getting extremely frustrated with my lack of knowledge in terms of the Danish language. I know realize how rough life was for people in my program in Berlin last summer, who didn't know German. Not being able to read especially makes things quite difficult.

"One night in Copenhagen, And ya know, The nadir's fluorescent"

2007-08-26T16:54:00.000-04:00

I made it! I am now in Copenhagen (København if you're a local)! The excitement with the flights started right away, as a coup occurred and one of my bags was not overweight, saving me $25. Once I reached the terminal I quickly found out that I am not the only DIS student with Northeastern Ohio ties, as there was 6 or 7 on the flight to Newark. That flight ended up being delayed for over an hour (sitting on the runway) due to traffic/weather issues in Newark. This wasn't much of a problem, as I had a 3.5 hour layover. After getting lunch there, I made my way to the gate, to figure out that DIS might as well have chartered the flight. Half of the people on the flight were DIS students. I'm sure the other travelers were ecstatic to see a large number of mostly highly excited college students. This flight was also delayed by an hour, this time due to a lengthy cleaning of the flight before we boarded. Once we took off everything went quite smoothly. The only problem was my inability to fall asleep (even with taking a Tylenol PM), which leaves me right now begging for bed. The highlight of the flight by far was the perfect timing shown by the flight personnel in turning on the lights in the cabin, as it allowed a gorgeous view of the rising sun towards the east, and the fading stars to the west!

Once we landed and set foot off the plane you immediately knew you were in Scandinavia as the flooring was made entirely of wood, and had that distinctive Scandinavian feel. After making it through the passport control line it was on to pick up my baggage. The baggage carousel was very cooly automated in that bags were only added to the circuit when there was an opening. However, this meant I waited for about 25 minutes for enough other bags to be removed so that my bags could be added.

We then took a 15 minute bus ride the University of Copenhagen, which is where the housing orientation took place. We had about 2.5 hours to get some food, and go over the masssive amounts of paperwork DIS had for us. I was able to meet up with a couple of my friends from Carleton at this point, and we caught up on each other's summer activities. All of the students staying in homestays or shared housing were then herded into the main lecture room for a brief, and not very useful, orientation on our housing choices. This was followed by the most nerve-wracking aspect of the morning -- waiting for your family to come in the room, call your name, and be on your way. It almost felt as if I was up for auction, and hoping someone would bid. Eventually someone did, and I joined the majority of family (Michael, Britta, and Viktor). We made small talk, grabbed my bags, and made the way to the car, and eventually back to the house.

The house is gorgeous. It has to be biggest house on the street by far, perhaps even twice as big as the next-door neighbors, especially regarding the yard size. Just like the airport, there were wooden floors throughout, as well as the latest technology (pictures will be up soon demonstrating all of this). My room itself is quite cozy, with my bed, a desk, a chair to read in, and my dresser. Of course I put off unpacking beyond my computer, and was happily greeted by the presence of a wireless connection. That's because Marcus (the other brother) has 3 computers (not 3 monitors as I thought, but 3 complete computers). I then managed to unpack about half my of my things before I was treated to my first Danish meal, a typical lunch (fish sandwiches on rye toast). I then proceeded to make my room actually mine, as well as go through all the papers that I was given earlier.

Of my two brothers, Marcus is clearly the more outgoing one of the two, although this isn't a surprise as he is older and has more experience with English, and is much more confident in talking with/to me. Viktor has been shy, but it is pretty evident that that won't last for too long. It was great to see both of their excitement when I gave them their Columbus Crew mini-balls (definitely a good purchase). In fact, Britta and Michael seemed pretty excited by their homemade Amish apple butter.

Dinner was then concluded by going over some of the odd, and sometimes awkward questions about daily life and practices within the house. Micahel and I then had a great discussion where I explained to him the finer points of American salary caps in professional athletics (NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS), and he was quite amazed by all the differences and how subtle they are. Then I came here, completely out of energy, and definitely ready for bed. Tomorrow brings the start of actual orientation, which includes an opening ceremony in the morning, a tour of Copenhagen (expect pictures from this), and some orientation on athletics. Hopefully, I'll also manage to get a public transportation pass, and find a place that I can work out at.

Already today I've definitely had moments of up and down feelings, but I'm glad to say I'm now going to bed with a postive view on things, and I think that's all I could ask for.

P.S. Danish pillows only come in one size. Square.

And I'm off (plus a full description of where I am off to)

2007-08-25T00:40:00.000-04:00

Well not quite yet. But I will be leaving for Hopkins International Airport in a little less than 9 hours. So that means that I'm all packed, right? Again, not quite yet, but progress has been made, and I should be done in an hour or so, and relatively speaking, it was a rather painless ordeal, which is unusual for my major packing efforts.

So, I haven't given a full explanation yet as to what all this Denmark talk is about, so there is probably a decent number of people that have no idea what I'm talking about. I'll try to shed some light onto what is going on, especially as it allows me to procrastinate with finishing packing.

Tomorrow morning (actually later this morning) I will be departing for Copenhagen, Denmark, which will be my new home for the next four months, as I am studying abroad for this trimester, although it is a semester program (yes, that means I am giving up the sometimes too long 6-week Carleton winter break for a much abbreviated 12 day vacation). The program that I am enrolled in is called the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. This is a kind of umbrella program that within it has about 500 students each semester enrolled in a variety of different subprograms. My subprogram is called Medical Practice & Policy. The subprogram defines for each student there one core course, which for me is called Human Health & Disease, which in turn influences two study trips taken. For me these trips will be to (at least to the best of my knowledge) Western Denmark and Berlin and Poznan. The Human Health & Disease course has a focus on practical/clinical medical situations. It is taught by current Danish M.D.'s with topics including prevalent and common human disease, as well as basic patient care things such as history taking, blood pressure, etc.

In addition to my core course, I am enrolled into 4 other courses. One of these is called the Complexity of Cancer, which is taught Danish oncologists and looks at the biology and treatment of cancer. My second course is called Healthcare in Scandinavia, and is an economics course investigating socialized medicine in the Scandinavia nations. My third course is The Impact of Epidemic Disease, and is a history course looking at, well, the impact of epidemic disease on Western Europe. My fourth course is a philosophy course entitled biomedical ethics, which is rather self-explanatory.

Another highlight of this adventure that I am set to go off on include the chance to travel around Europe. In addition to the study trips, I am planning on taking a 5 day trip to the Czech Republic, which will include a stop at Thereinstadt, Prague, and the Czech country side where I will be able to hike, rock climb, and explore caves. I also have another week off that I plan to use to explore some other aspect of Europe, although in reality, I haven't given the "where" much thought.

Now during the time that I am actually in Copenhagen I will be staying with my host family slightly south of the city. I have been in e-mail contact with them for about a week now, and am incredibly excited to finally meet them. I'm sure lots of my entries later on will be about the going ons in the house, so I'll wait till then to give you the details about them.

Well, this should answer all the general questions anyone may have, but if not, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail (londond@carleton.edu) asking things you'd like me to answer. Now, it's time to finish packing.

A Clean Room...Finally

2007-08-20T23:02:00.000-04:00

Obviously, going to live in Denmark for 4 months means that packing is a pretty key component in getting ready to depart. However, I've been a couple steps behind in that regards...I still had to unpack. From Carleton. So what if I left the land of cows, colleges, and contentment during the first week in June, I was in no hurry.

In reality the delay can be blamed on spending my summer in Ann Arbor doing research at the University of Michigan. I was home in Ohio for a grand total of 1 day in between, so naturally I took all of my junk from Carleton with me to my apartment in Michigan. Then when I moved back home a couple weeks ago it just started to pile up higher and higher and higher. My room was definitely the worst I had ever seen. Not even the mess left from my huge lincoln log, lego, and soldier wars back in elementary school could compare. The whole situation was exacerbated by the fact that my family left for a quick vacation a week after I was home.

Nevertheless, I have finally conquered my room. The floor can be seen, and walked upon. The second bed could actually function as a bed. And all my books, folders, binder, notebooks, and pieces of paper have all been taken care of.

So what does this all mean? I'm set to pack. But no rush in doing that. I've still got 4 days left!

T-Minus 8 days

2007-08-17T14:07:00.000-04:00

It's almost time for me to go. In less than 8 days I will be going from Cleveland, Ohio (on the left) across the Atlantic to arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark (on the right). That flight will officially begin my study abroad experience! And this blog will be the home for information on how it is going. If you're interested in photos, there is a link on the right-hand side of the page labeled "Webshots" that will take you to my Webshots page, where all of my pictures are. I'm hoping to make relatively frequent posts here sharing my adventures and such. In addition, some of my musings on life, news, and sports, will also be expounded here. So if at all interested, check back often and see how things are coming along.