Thursday, 1 September 2011
Well my first week has gone and vanished.
Friday was my last class to introduce: Human Health and Disease. Like Morton, the teachers are professionals (dermatologist/allergologists) who associate part-time with DIS. It purports to be very interesting, considering pre-med students in US don’t learn about diseases, symptoms, clinical diagnosis, auscultation, etc, etc until they reach med school. By the way, med school here for Danish students can begin straight out of high school, takes 6 years, and is paid by the gov (you get monthly stipend). Of course, when you are a doctor, there is about a 50% income tax, BUT everyone has at least 5 wks vacation a year (average is 6 wks). And there’s free healthcare. Of course, the system isn’t perfect. Between your general physician referring you to a specialist and you actually seeing the specialist can take anywhere from 24 hrs to 6 months (depending on severity of disease and waiting list).
Friday night happened to be Cultural Night in the small town of Borup. When I was biking home from the train station, I had to go around because the streets were crowded with families, stalls and shops, music and food, etc, etc, and there was a horse buggy going around giving free rides. I tasted a flødeboller, which is a chocolate-covered marshmallow. Except that American marshmallows are puffy and spongy and Danish marshmallows are creamy. It’s a very interesting texture. Also, the Danish hotdog is just as spiced/flavorful as their meatballs (meaning it tastes fabulous even without adding condiments).
And of course I have to mention my silly/crazy/probably-bad-idea-of-the-week event. At one corner of the streets there was a live band playing on the stage. A woman and a man suddenly walked into the center and started dancing, but then the man left her. She continued dancing with an imaginary partner. Now me, being partly influenced by sleep-deprived whim and mostly influenced by a certain friend of mine’s event in China (see below*), I handed my stuff to my host sister and went to dance with the lonely woman. I was attempting to follow her lead, but she really had no structure/pattern to her steps at all, really just tottering around, and I finally figured out she was sadly very drunk. When the song ended, she planted a big smooch on my cheek and yelled ”I LOVE YOU!” I said ”tak” and went back to my slightly mortified/amused friends.
This was very intriguing to me, because I was told it was socially unacceptable to get drunk and tipsy like that in Denmark. No one drinks to get wasted, they drink to socialize. I guess there are always exceptions.
So Saturday (lørdag) I was scheduled to go visit the Frederiksborg Castle. And it poured, haha. My host mum said to me, ”Remember you are not made of sugar, so you will not melt.” =D Favorite quote of the day.
In any case, the tour took place inside the castle. Most of it is actually reconstruction (remember it burned down and the royal family moved to the unimpressive four buildings?) but all of the decorations are so ornate and decorated with a gazillion flourishes---sharp contrast to the plain, efficiency style of furniture and room decorations today (think Ikea).
We couldn’t visit the church part of the castle because someone was having a wedding there! Imagine that, a wedding going through even though it is raining! As I was leaving I saw the newlyweds outside taking pictures, and the cobblestones were still wet, and you could see the hem of the dress dragging on it. Danish happiness? Love in all weather :D
Sunday was an even bigger adventure. I and 31 other students went to Esrum Abbey to learn about the Middle Ages. The Abbey itself is mostly gone, with only 1 original building left. After a quick tour and history we split into teams of 4 and had to decorate a team flag and shield and come up with a war cry. Ours was the peacock mating cry (you might have to google this up). The tour guide said she had no idea about its origins, but it definitely earned points because you could hear it from anywhere. Go, team OOVU! (Where does the name come from? Our shield design was 2 blue balls, and then for the flag we decided to make it V-shaped, so "oovu".)
Then the teams were sent to earn points from different activities that Middle Age knights had to do: climbing up a ladder from the other side (i.e. if a ladder is leaning against a wall, climb the side you normally don’t use), running back and forth on a skinny log bridge, throwing spears, archery, and dueling with Martin, who defeated all the police officers when they came to participate in this activity :D ) We also got to set off a huge trebuchet, but the cauliflower got stuck and didn’t go anywhere.
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