holy canoli. i knew it had been a long time since i last regaled you with my adventures in denmark, but a month? that's a little obscene. i can't attribute it to anything other than sheer laziness. in my head, it takes a great deal of energy to compile my thoughts about my adventures. definitely false. and so, out of a contrite spirit, i will set out to post something every day this week so that i'll be all up to date by the time i leave for my two-week european adventure (get pumped. it's going to be "off da chain" as the kids say.)
i believe i left off just before leaving on my short study tour to jutland. this was a phenomenal trip and study tours will definitely stand out forever in my mind as one of the best parts of DIS. each program has two associated study tours: a short one to western denmark, sweden, or another place we can get to quickly. the tours are intended to supplement what we learn in the classroom with visits to relevant locations and institutions interspersed with fun cultural activities and delicious foods. what's not to absolutely love about that?
my short tour took me to århus, denmark's second largest city, and ebeltoft, a much smaller city, both of which can be found on jutland, the largest of denmark's islands. we had three academic visits during our time there (which was quite brief. i think we left on a thursday morning and came back saturday night.). the first was to the PET center, a institution that specialized in neuroscience research with an interdisciplinary approach. members of their faculty include musicians, philosophers, biologists, psychologists, you name it, they've probably got someone. all of their studies involve looking at brain function or structure in one way or another. one of their particularly interesting studies seeks to explain the phenomenon of pathological gambling. quite intriguing.
our second visit, and potentially one of my favorite things i've done here in denmark, was to a danish general practitioner's office. here we met with one of the doctors who works in the practice and enjoyed a fantastic presentation on the structure of the danish healthcare system along with some comparison to the US system to put it in perspective for us. i think that session might still be my favorite academic experience here in denmark. i just loved finally knowing exactly what danish healthcare looks like and coming to understand why it's able to function the way it does. the more i learn about it and the more i hear danes talk about it, i'm convinced such a system would never function in the US. it's not so much that we don't have the money or human resources for it; it's that it goes so completely against american capitalist ideaology. there are two things without which universal healthcare absolutely cannot function. the first: a stable economy. the second: the people have to have complete faith in the government to use their funds appropriately. danes pay obscenely high taxes (50% flat rate with an additional percentage graduated by income level) but they generally don't mind it because they trust the system will come back to them in one way or another. i think the bipartisan political system of the US will make it virtually impossible to have any more than 50% of the population to trust that the government has their best interests at heart. until that issue is somehow resolved, i think it would be of very little benefit to our country to try to implement a system of universal healthcare. we could definitely do with a little more regulation of the system, however. you know, just to stop this ridiculous price gouging/inflation business.
our last academic visit was to århus university hospital, the biggest hospital in denmark. my impression is that it's århus university that gives life to århus. the city is home to 50,000 students, 35,000 of which attend århus university, and huge numbers of other residents are affiliated in some way with the university. it struck me as being very similar to ann arbor in that way. maybe that's why i enjoyed it so much.
sadly, this visit wasn't very memorable. i say that because i had to turn in an assignment about my short and long study tours yesterday and i truly struggled to come up with anything to say about the hospital. however, one of the things we saw there will live on forever in my head: pig surgery. we were allowed to venture down into the basement where fourth year medical students were practicing their surgical skills on pigs. one group was performing an appendectomy, the other just practicing suturing, cutting, and cauterizing. it was awesome. but smelled unsettlingly like bacon.
our cultural, non-academic visits on this tour were also phenomenal. our first one was dinner and bowling at a very tiny bowling alley in ebeltoft. it seemed like an odd thing to have us do at first but i think it effectively bonded us as a group. on this trip we weren't just with the other members of our section of our core course--we combined with section a which ended up being an awesome thing. it was great to get to meet and spend considerable time with other students from the same program that i probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. the section a-ers also traveled with us on our long study tour and the end of it felt a little like graduation when we realized we wouldn't get to see these people all day every day anymore.
anyways, the first night was bowling and food. our next non-academic visit was destined to become one of my favorite places in denmark: the aros modern art museum. i think this museum got me excited about museums. i've never been a huge fan but this one just had so many pieces that i loved and was structured in such a phenomenal way that i fell in love. highlights included a 5-meter tall statue of a boy, a room filled with fog and colored lights, and the rainbow panorama. the rainbow panorama is a circular hallway on top of the building. the outer panels are tinted in a rainbow gradient so depending on where you're standing, you see the city in different hues. people come from all over just to see this piece. it's definitely worth it.
this is how the panorama looks from the exterior.
aaaaaand the interior. way cool. i took pictures of the city through each of the colors. feel free to check them out on my facebook.
our next visit which i have trouble categorizing into academic or non-academic, was to a very small museum of medicine. here we were shown through their main exhibit that describes the progression from the very beginning of medical care to the modern day, showing examples of old instruments and machines as well as simulations of what old doctor's offices and pharmacies would have looked like. the highlight of this museum was definitely their temporary exhibit. it was one fertility treatment and contraception. the main attraction (that was probably not intended to be the main attraction but became so for 30 college students)? a giant uterus.
big enough to crawl inside with pillows and warm red lights. and a track of a beating heart playing. to make the whole thing seem more realistic, of course. here's a picture of a couple of my classmates lounging inside.
i think at this point in the trip we were all so tired from going and going and going non-stop that we would have been quite happy to curl up together and sleep in the hyggeligt uterus. unfortunately, the museum was closing and we were ushered out and back onto the bus.
we also had the opportunity to see the jelling stones, a very important piece of danish history. the stones are engraved with runic text that tells of how harold bluetooth christianized the danes and they also contain the first mention of the name "denmark". i think in the early 2000s they were officially declared unesco monuments so they've been encased in glass to protect them from the elements. it's often hard for me to comprehend the age of what i'm looking at when i'm confronted with objects that are hundreds of years old. i just can't imagine anything being that old. i think, were i to make a list of the top five differences between europe and america that i've noticed during my brief time here, the concept of time would definitely make the cut. europe just has so much more history than our country does. for danes, it's no big deal that there's a 17th century church around the corner from their home but in america, since our history has been so brief, we tend to make a huge deal about the historical elements we do have. even homes built before 1900 are a big deal. hm. such a fascinating difference.
our last stop before going home was a handball game. handball is a very popular sport in europe. apparently. i don't know that i was actually aware of its existence prior to coming to denmark. when i first got here it was hard to ignore: the danish national team won the european handball cup (or some other tournament of equivalent importance). it's an intriguing game. it appears to be a mixture of soccer, frisbee, and extreme catch. every time i see it played i'm struck by how terrifying it would be to be the goalie. giant men jumping and whipping balls at your face? yikesyikesyikes.
so that's our first study tour in a nutshell. i love that DIS offers us opportunities to travel in such a structured way. and to see things in denmark that many danes don't even get to see. my danish professor was one of our chaperones for the trip and she loved getting to see this side of denmark. her background is in business so all of these medical-themed visits were brand new to her. it was fun to watch her experience that. and to watch her grapple with her curiosity and gag reflex when we went to see pig surgery.
stay tuned for the tale of my whirlwind trip to brussels to see my dear friend c-ray. until then, here's a picture of another fantastic piece from the aros modern art museum.
kærlig hilsen,
kati
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