Classes and Nature

It's been a busy week of classes in the happiest place on earth! I haven't really been doing much besides going to class, biking to and from school, and drinking coffee at Studenterhuset. But, on Wednesday, my Communicating Science course did a field trip to the botanical gardens. It was more of a social outing, but it was a gorgeous day out and it was really beautiful to walk around! Pictures below.

After that, I went out to Ballerup to meet with my visiting family. I was paired with this family by DIS since I am not living at a host family's house, and they serve to be that familial influence on students during their stay in Copenhagen. They had me over for dinner, and it was a really nice night! The parents are really interesting people, both engineers who grew up in Denmark, but they have both done a ton of traveling for work and have actually been to Phoenix. They have 3 kids, an 11 year old girl, and 15 and 17 year old boys. The boys were totally antisocial, but the girl was really sweet! They were telling me about their backpacking trips - they go at least twice a year - all over the world, from Argentina to Thailand. A few years ago, they bought round-the-world plane tickets and saw a ton of countries. They said while it is less common for families to travel with young kids, the Danes are really worldly and well traveled people. When I asked the girl what her favorite place she'd been was, she answered Oman! The boys responded that their beds were their favorite place in the world. Typical boys!

A class got cancelled today, so I've just been relaxing at my kollegium until I have to go to the hospital for my medical class in about half an hour. The doctors who teach my class are all recent medical school graduates, and are really interesting people. Last class, they taught us about the process of going through medical school in Denmark. There is no "undergradute" period, so students must decide if they are going to go to medical school when they are 18. They have 6 years of courses/clinicals, then a 1-year internship followed by a period in which most doctors get a PhD and then go onto their specialization. If they choose not to specialize, they still have to train with a general practitioner for 4 years before they can own their own practice.

This weekend a bunch of my friends are leaving town, but I plan to explore Amager (my island) and Copenhagen much more on bike while the weather is still decent! Pics to follow :)