Ode to Carroll, part two

In honor of my roommate Carroll, who came to visit me this past weekend from Edinburgh, I have composed a small poem summing up our adventures in Copenhagen together:


This weekend I got to see my lovely roommate,
I missed her a lot but those three days were great.
On Friday she had to come to some of my classes,
But that night we went to a club which all others surpasses.
We ate dinners cooked by my host dad,
Who also bought us danishes that made us very glad.
Saturday was spent walking around,
In the citadel, Christianshavn, and of course downtown.
We climbed up the very high spiral tower,
Luckily there were no rain showers!
Saturday night we went to Ice Bar,
Built completely of ice, its the coolest by far.
Our last day together we went back in the city,
To spend the day with my host sister Maja at Tivoli.
The three of us went on all of the rides,
And enjoyed eating the delicious(ly bad) food the park provides.
At the end of the day we went to the Living Room,
A great cafe with delicious hot chocolate to consume.
Sadly, the weekend was at an end,
Carroll went home and I now miss my friend.


That was essentially a summary of our weekend together, in poem form because I am avoiding studying for my two remaining tests on Thursday and Friday- Danish Language and Copenhagen. I got to show Carroll around the city on Saturday (with some help from my friend Aaron), and she met a lot of my good friends here in classes on Friday and when we all went out together in the city on Friday night. I had a really great time and am so glad she got to visit!

View from the top of Copenhagen's Citadel

Spiral tower of Our Savior's Church

Carroll, Aaron, and I at the top of the spiral tower!

Copenhagen from the top of the tower

Carroll with our tour-helping caffeine jolt of the day

Christiania the pseudo-hippie commune does not consider itself part of the EU

Carroll and I at the Birkerod train station Saturday night!

Carroll on an ice-motorcycle in ICEBAR

Carroll and I in our icesuits (with ice drinks!)

Ice drink glasses

My host sister Maja, Carroll and I at Tivoli!

Carroll and I at Nimb hotel in Tivoli!

Street in Tivoli

October's almost over?

  I have been unfortunately lax in my blog updating recently, but I think it's excusable- after my incredible study tour my parents were able to visit for a few days, followed immediately by my roommate Carroll! But because I can't handle too much blogging in one day, I'm going to start with my parents visit and get back to Carroll a little later (after the tests this week that have so rudely snuck up on me...)
  My time with Mom and Dad began with a Friday afternoon trip to Vesterbro for a project I had for my Copenhagen class. The city of Copenhagen is divided into the main city center, with five "fingers" or outskirt neighborhoods spreading out from there- Christianshavn to the east, Vesterbro to the West, Frederiskberg to the northwest, Nørrebro to the north, and østerport to the northeast. Vesterbro and Nørrebro are working class neighborhoods, while the other three are a little more upscale. Our task was to travel around Vesterbro, identifying certain buildings and answering questions. It was actually pretty fun!
  That night was Kultur Natten (Culture Night) in Copenhagen, a huge annual event where museums, official buildings, and various sights are open to the public until midnight or later, and are free with a culture night pass. We got to see the Danish Parliament, the ruins of Copenhagen's first fortress (from around 1157) at night, the Royal Stables, Ice Sculptures outside, and the Medical Museum. And, despite the hour wait, we were able to go into the never-open-to-the-public Børsen, one of my favorite buildings in Copenhagen- built by Christian IV around 1621 to provide a trading facility for the city's wealthy merchants, its fantastically gorgeous and now the home of the Stock Exchange. 

The Chamber of the Danish Parliament

Model of Medieval Copenhagen, in front of Copenhagen City Museum

Main hall of Borsen!

Borsen at Culture Night

  The next day we took the 45 minute train ride across the øresund Sound into Sweden (allowing my dad to say that he's been to Sweden!). We spent the day wandering around the city of Malmö and following a suggested route from my Copenhagen professor. It's a beautiful city and lots of fun to wander around, although we were more focused on having tea than appreciating the gables...

Park in Malmo

Malmohus, the oldest Renaissance Castle in Scandinavia

Sunset over the Oresund Sound

  On Sunday the three of us went to Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, an amazing museum of art and sculptures collected and donated by the founder of Carlsberg beer- a pretty cool guy! Some of the paintings were amazing, and there was a huge collection of Rodin sculptures that I loved looking at. When I finally pried my mother away from the museum, we went to TIVOLI, arguably my favorite place in Copenhagen. Tivoli is Europe's oldest amusement park, and feels to me like something between a fair and Disney World. Even though it's only open for 9 days in October, they went all out with decorating it for Halloween- pumpkins everywhere! We didn't try the rides that day, but really enjoyed wandering around and appreciating the decorations and atmosphere (not to mention food!).

Entrance to Halloween Tivoli

Pumpkin'd path

Lake in Tivoli!

  The next day was a historic (and very hyggelit) event- my host family had my parents over for dinner! I cooked macaroni and cheese, my parents brought meatloaf, and the host fam prepared about 10 different salads, not to mention an amazing cake for dessert. My two host sisters Maja and Stine were there and it was so much fun (even with both sets of 'parents' ganging up on me a little bit!). This may be a good time to attempt to describe the idea of 'hygge' or 'hyggelit' since I keep forgetting to do so. Hygge is, for lack of a better way to define it, cozy or comfortable. It is an entirely unique Danish concept of something being fun and comforting at the same time. It's normally based around friends, family, and the home, but not exclusively. Hygge is a very personal thing, so what is 'hyggelit' to one person may not be to somebody else. I'm bringing it back to the states for sure! All in all, the dinner was a great success and very hyggelit. 
  My last day with the parents consisted of an afternoon touring around Rosenborg Castle, located in a beautiful park (Kongens Have, or King's Garden) in the middle of the city! It was built by Christian IV (my favorite) as a sort of nearby retreat. It also has the Crown Jewels now, so it was quite fun. The day ended with finding me a pair of rain boots, apparently a requirement for my upcoming trip to Russia the second week of November with DIS (I should be memorizing the Cyrillic alphabet now, actually...), followed by a delicious dinner at an adorable restaurant in the city center, Det Lille Apotek (The Little Apothecary). All in all it was a great visit! Now about that alphabet...

Mom and Dad!

  

The Best Field Trip Ever

  I've recently returned (and am still recovering) from my weeklong field trip to Poznan, Poland and Berlin, Germany with my Medical Practice and Policy class. I think it's safe to say we spent way too much time together and know waaaay too much about each other now. Which is probably a good thing because apparently we're doing full physical exams on each other next week....
  Anyways, more about my field trip. We started our study tour on Sunday morning, with a lovely 10 hour bus ride. Luckily, it was just my class on the bus, so everybody got their own seat and promptly fell asleep. We arrived in Poznan just in time for dinner, which happened to be at the imperial castle across the street from our truly luxurious (and sauna-containing!) hotel. no big deal. after dinner, we came back to the hotel and had a supremely classy night with juice boxes of wine and the sauna.

the Imperial Castle, home of our dinner restaurant

  Our first (and only) full day in Poznan started with an academic visit to the Perinatology/Gynecology ward of the local hospital- one of the biggest in Poland. Sadly, it brought home how lucky we are in the States to have access to good (and fast!) medical care. The hospital was depressing at best, and some women were there for six weeks already (with quite a few to go). One thing I talked about with my host family was privacy- in Denmark, the idea of having a roommate at University is extremely strange. But in Poland, there were five women in a hospital room, with no curtains. We saw the same thing in Germany, and my host mom tells me that it's similar in Denmark, although they normally have two-three people per room. For a country who doesnt like the idea of a roommate, they seem to be okay with one in their hospitals...
  After our somewhat depressing morning, DIS decided to lighten the mood with a tour of Lech Brewery, one of the three largest providers of beer in Poland, or something like that. It was very cool though, and they even gave us a free pint (and complementary pint glasses!) afterwards! We ate dinner at a very nice restaurant in the middle of Old Market Square, followed by an evening of bowling! Bowling in Poland is surprisingly fun, which might have had something to do with the very cheap bar located right next to our lanes...

Some of our class at Lech Brewery with our complementary pints

Me at Old Market Square in Poznan

  The next day we had another academic visit, this time to the hospital's Pediatric Gastroenterology ward. Again, depressing. We met a 14 year old who waited 6 months just for an endoscopy, after a year of chronic stomach pain. And also heard about Poland's current "brain drain" where the bright, motivated students (and even the not so bright) leave Poland because of the overworked, underpaid position that physicians in this country have. Thus, the resources are even less. We had four hours to think about this as we drove to Berlin, which was a whole new ball game. Upon arrival (granted our hotel wasn't quite as nice as in Poznan, but I guess really nice hotels are only cheap in economically depressed countries...) we had dinner at a restaurant in the Sony Center, a skyscraper-surrounded plaza with a very cool cover. I dont know what the point is, but I liked it. The food, not so much- we were given what amounts to an entire pig's leg, with sauerkraut on the side. Sauerkraut, good. Pig's leg on which my friend claimed to be able to see hair, not so good. It was all forgotten, however, upon reaching our next DIS-arranged activity: the acrobat/dance show YMA, centered around a transvestite of the same name. Needless to say, it was not your average show. And quite possibly the most sexual thing I have ever seen in my life. But it was full of incredible athletes and definitely a unique experience!

the entire pig leg they gave us for dinner.

YMA's curtain call

  The next day we went to the Jewish Museum, followed by a bike tour of Berlin. As my biking skills have dramatically increased, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We got to see the Reichstag (home of German parliament), Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, the site of Hitler's Bunker (now home to communist apartments, a chinese restaurant, and a gay sauna), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Museum Island, and Bebelplatz (the square of the book burnings of 1933). We then went as a group to the top of Berlin's tv tower, where there is a bar 203 meters above ground, with a 360 degree view of the city. DIS pulled through as usual and paid for a round of drinks. A bunch of my friends and I got Berliner Weiss, a type of beer with raspberry or herb flavoring that is apparently only found in Berlin and quite delicious. After our time in the tv tower, my friend Monica and I decided to explore a street recommended by our bike tour guide as having good bars. And we lucked out, meeting Jack, a New Zealander who let us tag along with him on a student pub crawl around that area of East Berlin. He was very nice and we learned a lot about New Zealand from him- apparently there are 14 sheep for every person there!

Brandenburg Gate on our bike tour!

Reichstag!

Berlin Cathedral

Berlin from the top of the TV tower

Monica and I with New Zealander Jack

  The next day we had two academic visits, to the Berlin Medical History Museum and the Center for Anatomy at Berlin's Charite medical school. The Center for Anatomy was a truly incredible experience- we got to see (and touch) a cadaver, which is definitely not what we were expecting. It was very interesting though. After that we had the afternoon free to ourselves, so Monica, Steve, Sam and I went exploring together. We went to the Topography of Terror museum, located on the spot of the former SS and Gestapo headquarters, which was quite disturbing. We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, one of the only ways to get through the Berlin Wall, and Fassenbender & Rausch, an amazing chocolate store with replicas of famous Berlin sights.

Chocolate Reichstag at Fassenbender & Rausch

Me "climbing" the Berlin Wall! (just for you mom)

Berlin is also famous for its love of bears, and decorated statues of them all around the city

Checkpoint Charlie!

  After our fun afternoon of exploring the capital, our class had a DIS-arranged dinner at Unsicht Bar, a blind restaurant. Yes, a blind restaurant. As in, it was pitch black and I was feeling up my food on the table (which turned out to be tofu). Kind of frightening, kind of cool. After we all survived the blind restaurant, our entire class (including our awesome tour leaders Astrid and Bryn) went to a bar together, before some of us headed out to Matrix, a supremely cool Berlin nightclub full of university students and dancing. We had a great night until we passed out for three whole hours of sleep before our last academic visit, to Helios Klinikum, a private hospital just outside of Berlin. And it was ridiculously nice. And apparently cost 1400 euros for our class to visit. But at least we got doctor shaped stress balls!
  After our visit to Helios, we got back on the bus for a lovely 8 hour drive back home. All in all it was a great trip but definitely exhausting. dziękuję Polska and danke Deutschland for a great time!

Medical Practice and Policy C!!

C4, F3, F5, C7

  For those of you not in Copenhagen, you may not know what those letter/number combinations that we in Denmark see on what seems like every building and vaulted chamber are. So in the interests of cultural enlightenment, and because I feel like I now know more about Danish history than my own country's, this post is dedicated to those four men- King Christian IV, King Frederik III, King Frederik V, and King Christian VII. In case you're sensing a pattern here, an interesting fact: every king is either Christian or Frederik. (I'm of the personal opinion that every Dane is named Christian anyways, but that's another story)
  So what's so great about these guys? C4 (as my Copenhagen professor Carsten affectionately refers to him) was probably one of Denmark's greatest kings (ruled in the early 17th century), although admittedly a little ahead of his times. If you ever go to Copenhagen and notice the overwhelming number of massive, beautiful red brick buildings (all in the Dutch Renaissance style), those are his- Bourse, Rundetaarn, Frederiksborg Castle (where I went today), etc. He also built Nyboder, essentially its own neighborhood on the outskirts of Copenhagen, designed to house Europe's first permanent navy, and Christianshavn, today one of Copenhagen's most popular (and expensive) neighborhoods. His son, F3, wasn't necessarily as ambitious building wise, but introduced absolutism to Denmark. Which is kind of cool. Especially for him. And without absolutism, we would never have (later down the line, in the mid-18th century) F5, who was a pretty bad king but gave us the beautiful area of Copenhagen known as Frederiksstaden. And I like to include C7 just because he was completely crazy, undermined absolutism in Denmark, and had a prostitute girlfriend. And for some reason I've had to learn A LOT about him for my classes.
  And yet I still haven't really gotten to the point of why I'm writing an entire blog post about these kings, and going on and on about their accomplishments. So my point is twofold: I've spent a lot of quality times with the products of these kings' reigns (field trip for my Copenhagen class on Wednesday, visit to Frederiksborg Castle today) in the recent past, and (as dorky as this sounds) I'm amazed at how knowing more about a city, about a king and why they did what they did, really adds a lot to your entire interpretation of the place you live. I go by buildings every day and where before I wouldn't look twice, I now recognize greek key stringcourses (okay probably they're not important, but still). A statue, instead of just being beautiful, now means something. Even the shape of a square means something. I'm amazed at how much detail went into planning things it would never occur to me to think about today. So this post is dedicated to those four kings (in addition to my professor Carsten, who introduced me to all this), for opening up a whole new way of looking at Copenhagen especially, but cities across the world as well.

 Alright now onto the fun stuff- still related to this topic though. On Wednesday, I had my first field study for my Copenhagen class. It was focused around Frederiksstaden, and began with the apartments at Nyboder.

The only remaining original block of Nyboder

  We then continued on to Kastellet, a citadel on the outskirts of Copenhagen, built to protect the navy from a possible attack from Sweden. Carsten has a very strong emotional attachment to bastions, to the point where a) we had an entire class on them and b) this was the longest part of our field trip. Also interesting to note was that the danish equivalent of the CIA has its headquarters in this citadel- and you can go running through the citadel/around these buildings with little to no security. 

On the way into Kastellet- each bastion is also individually named (this one was dronning, "queen" in danish)

 Our final stop on the field trip was Amalienborg Palace, the official residence of the Royal Family and, more importantly (according to Carsten) the site of one of the most stylistically perfect squares in all of Europe. It consists of an octagonal square surrounded by four mansions, originally designed to house officials. We also got a private tour of one of them, Moltke House, which is considered the most refined of the Rococo mansions.

Fredeerik's Slotsplads

Moltke's Palace

 Well that was our field trip on Wednesday. And because I was not cultured enough, I decided to go to Frederiksborg Castle today with my friend Benjamin. Frederiksborg was originally built by Christian IV slightly to the north of Copenhagen, and is the largest renaissance palace in Scandinavia. It's truly gorgeous and was quite a nice afternoon of wandering through ornate rooms and baroque gardens.

entrance to Frederiksborg castle

one of the great banquet halls (deer chandelier included)

view of castle from the baroque garden/fountain behind

  That's all for now! I'm a little cultured out for the time being, but fortunately I have a travel break coming up :) Or rather, a week-long field trip. We head out tomorrow morning to Poznan, Poland and then Berlin, Germany. I get back Saturday morning and can't wait to see what DIS has planned for us! Have a good week!