Well, since the last blog I have been all the way across the great Denmark. As a part of the DIS program we have short and long study tours built into our (ridiculously expensive) tuition. This past weekend was my short study tour where we went to Jutland (the big one) and visited a General Practitioner and the Regional Board of Health. After all of the studying, we were rewarded with trips to museums and delicious food!
The drive there was quite spectacular, vastly different from driving the plains of west Texas. There were rolling hills with lush grass and endless coastline. We also crossed the worlds 2nd largest bridge, only surpassed by that tricky one in Japan I think. The first night we stayed in a folk high school. These are curious little institutions. After high school, some Danes choose to attend a folk high school where they take courses on all sorts of interesting subjects, but are not tested over them! These originated in the days when democracy was first spreading its wings over tiny Denmark. It was known that in order for democracy to succeed, the people had to be educated. Therefore, these folk high schools were created to educate the commoners so that they could be informed and participating citizens. I think this is an interesting concept and that it illustrates how Danes seek knowledge not just to be competitive in the job market, but for the simple pursuit of having knowledge. The students were really friendly and you could see how close they were. They attend classes, cook, eat, clean, laugh and play together. They welcomed us with delicious food and Beatles songs. It felt like time stopped while we were there. Set in the picturesque country side, all of the words problems seemed unreal.
We attended several museums, including one in Ribe the Viking Town, but the most interesting to me was the Trapholt Art Museum. It might be my new favorite place. It is actually part furniture museum as well, because the Danes are known for their chair design you know. We saw works from the designers who created the signiture IKEA look and learned their history. The most interesting exhibit, however, was entitled "Fair Fashion" which provided insight on how wasteful our obessession with clothes is. They also displayed inventions from Danes that were aimed at making the world a better place. The most interesting of these was a straw that people in third world countries can use to suck up water, and the straw eliminates 90% of contaminates including viruses such as AIDS. Amazing, right?
That night we ate at this fancy restuarant by the beach, by far the nicest restuarant I've ever been to in my life. It was a welcome break from trail mix and rice. My group leader, a very nice Dane named Andreas, then hung out at the hostel with us playing Apples to Apples and taught us cool phrases to say when speaking to our Danish friends. Sadly I have forgotten all of them. :)
I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I LOVE IT HERE. I think it is going to be really hard moving back, and if it wasn't for my family I probably wouldn't.
Oh yes and here is a link to all of my pictures. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/KeeleyLane173/Denmark02#
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
My Love of Copenhagen Increases Daily
Its really true. If my love were plotted on a graph, it would resemble the graph of exponential population growth in the human species! Only my love shall NEVER reach carrying capacity. hehe. I love nerdy science analogies...
Anyhow, adjustment continues and all is perfect. Last night, thanks to many lucky coincidences, Molly and I went to a local UNDERGROUND DANISH HIP HOP SHOW! And we even knew one of the freestylers...who is Danish! We only understood about five words, but it was an experience of a lifetime. I refreshed my rusty hip hop dancing skills and danced to ancient American hip hop with some really funny danish people. They called me crazy legs, which clearly illustrates that hey need to come to America because in reality...I can't dance! I hope to go back to this tiny little venue sometime. It more less epitomized what I imagine to be the infamous Danish "hygge", or coziness. Good friends, good music, good times.
Academics are also turning out better than I ever could have imagined. Danish class is so much fun. We go on field studies on Wednesday that force us to break out of our tiny American shells and experience Danish culture from the front lines. This Wednesday we were given a list of about 40 things scattered all throughout the city that we had to find. Walking around you cannot help but be overwhelmed by the beauty and history of this place. I hope I never become immune to it. My medical class is also more fun than I was counting on. While it is a lot of very technical reading, it is well balanced with hands on learning. This week we learned how to do chest examinations, listen to the heart, take blood pressures, history's, and what questions to ask to illicit useful information from our patients. Next week we have to give each other injections. I'm strangely excited...
My HIV/AIDS in Africa course is really interesting as well. The professor is actually an ambassador of sorts to Africa so she has boundless knowledge on the topic. Since I have always desired to do the kind of work she does, I find her truly inspiring. The class was designed as a Master's class, so I just hope I can handle the amount of work required. Then lastly but not least, there is biomedical ethics. Honestly, I was kind of dreading this class in the beginning. The first few readings were dry and I lethargically forced myself to read them. However, the class discussions absolutely captivate me. For example, I am not a good notetaker. Usually I sit in a lecture and perhaps write the key points of what the professor is saying, but mostly I doodle....elaborately. If I ever were to become an artist, my academic years would provide enough doodle-ridden notebooks to fill several thousand museums. However, the only doodle you will find in my bioethics notebook is a single peace sign that I drew merely because there was blank space at the top of my paper that just screamed to be anointed with peace. I feel that I can never articulate myself as well as I would like. I think this class will spur me into formulating my decisions and, equally as important, be able to explain and defend them.
That is about all I have for today. I added pictures to my post from a while ago, but it was about as quick as waiting for molasses to drip in a blizzard (thats an original simile right there). So, I don't think I'll be doing that anymore. I will investigate a good picture hosting site so that you may see what I see. Until then...Hej Hej!
Keeley
PS...If you ever want to email me any comments or questions...you should!
Its (keeley . bramblett @ ttu . edu)
Just take out the spaces. I did that in hopes of thwarting out those evil phisher deals that get email address. Look forward to hearing from you!
Anyhow, adjustment continues and all is perfect. Last night, thanks to many lucky coincidences, Molly and I went to a local UNDERGROUND DANISH HIP HOP SHOW! And we even knew one of the freestylers...who is Danish! We only understood about five words, but it was an experience of a lifetime. I refreshed my rusty hip hop dancing skills and danced to ancient American hip hop with some really funny danish people. They called me crazy legs, which clearly illustrates that hey need to come to America because in reality...I can't dance! I hope to go back to this tiny little venue sometime. It more less epitomized what I imagine to be the infamous Danish "hygge", or coziness. Good friends, good music, good times.
Academics are also turning out better than I ever could have imagined. Danish class is so much fun. We go on field studies on Wednesday that force us to break out of our tiny American shells and experience Danish culture from the front lines. This Wednesday we were given a list of about 40 things scattered all throughout the city that we had to find. Walking around you cannot help but be overwhelmed by the beauty and history of this place. I hope I never become immune to it. My medical class is also more fun than I was counting on. While it is a lot of very technical reading, it is well balanced with hands on learning. This week we learned how to do chest examinations, listen to the heart, take blood pressures, history's, and what questions to ask to illicit useful information from our patients. Next week we have to give each other injections. I'm strangely excited...
My HIV/AIDS in Africa course is really interesting as well. The professor is actually an ambassador of sorts to Africa so she has boundless knowledge on the topic. Since I have always desired to do the kind of work she does, I find her truly inspiring. The class was designed as a Master's class, so I just hope I can handle the amount of work required. Then lastly but not least, there is biomedical ethics. Honestly, I was kind of dreading this class in the beginning. The first few readings were dry and I lethargically forced myself to read them. However, the class discussions absolutely captivate me. For example, I am not a good notetaker. Usually I sit in a lecture and perhaps write the key points of what the professor is saying, but mostly I doodle....elaborately. If I ever were to become an artist, my academic years would provide enough doodle-ridden notebooks to fill several thousand museums. However, the only doodle you will find in my bioethics notebook is a single peace sign that I drew merely because there was blank space at the top of my paper that just screamed to be anointed with peace. I feel that I can never articulate myself as well as I would like. I think this class will spur me into formulating my decisions and, equally as important, be able to explain and defend them.
That is about all I have for today. I added pictures to my post from a while ago, but it was about as quick as waiting for molasses to drip in a blizzard (thats an original simile right there). So, I don't think I'll be doing that anymore. I will investigate a good picture hosting site so that you may see what I see. Until then...Hej Hej!
Keeley
PS...If you ever want to email me any comments or questions...you should!
Its (keeley . bramblett @ ttu . edu)
Just take out the spaces. I did that in hopes of thwarting out those evil phisher deals that get email address. Look forward to hearing from you!
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