allegrastudyabroad

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Some highlights from my trip to Paris with my friend Emily, who is studying abroad at the London School of Economics this summer! We stayed just a 5 minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe and 20 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower!! That last picture is a shot of our picnic which we had in the beautiful Tuileries Garden, which we picked up from a local Carrefour. Paris will always be one of my favorite cities ❤️

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Week 4: I began my new class, Child Development: Theory and Practice. So far I love the class, the teacher is so cool and everyone is really passionate (most people are studying to be teachers). We already went on a field study this week to a forest preschool. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to take photos, but it really showed the contrast between Danish and American education. At this preschool, children are bussed out to different parts of the forest with the pedagogues (what they call preschool teachers) where they are allowed to play all day. There’s little adult supervision, the adults are there to guide the children while trying to interfere with their free play as little as possible. These kids are allowed to run around and get super dirty. The pedagogues said the kids actually get less injured than a normal preschool because kids are pushing themselves to be brave and problem solve. They said most kids get a knife for their 4th birthday to learn to whittle wood!! Very interesting, really shows how much we supervise children in the US and how much they’re actually capable of. I was also able to visit the aquarium with my friends, which is where all the pictures and videos are from. It’s called Den Blå Planet, and it’s one of the biggest in Northern Europe!! It’s built like a whirl pool, with each extension a different habitat. There were otters, colorful coral reefs, and a giant tank with sharks and rays.

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Week 3: my final week of the first session Well, I finished off my first class! In the end it was a lot of work, but the work paid off the final week when we got to do a lot of clinical stuff. We went to an ER simulation center in one of the hospitals and were placed in teams to be tested on our knowledge of diagnostic tools and some basic CPR! They used the dummies that can be controlled by a computer tablet — you can even feel a pulse! I resuscitated a dummy who was having a heart attack, it was super cool! At the end of the week we had a long weekend so I went on some trips. Photos 1-3: some Copenhagen sunsets. The sky truly turns cotton candy pink, it’s really beautiful. Plus, the sun doesn’t even set until around 10 PM. Photo 4: the Copenhagen Botanical Garden is basically a giant park with lots of lush greenery, plus some greenhouses with palms and succulents. At the center is a lake! Photo 5: the BEST BRUNCH I’VE EVER HAD!! The place is called Mad & Kaffe. To order, you check off either 3, 5 or 7 items and they give you little portions so you can try lots of things! All the food was so naturally colorful too, so so yummy. Photo 6: the Little Mermaid statue! I biked down to see it for a study break. The surrounding area is also really cute. Photo 7: Bakken is the oldest amusement park in the world. It’s located a little outside of town, in the middle of a deer park by a beach. The deer park exists because Denmark once had a king who wanted to live in nature in a place no one would bother him. The country then made him a castle in the middle of a large green land, and then they shipped deer in! Because they’ve been allowed to roam fairly un-hunted, there are lots of funky types of deer there like albino deer. Bakken may be old but it’s SO fun and definitely hasn’t lost its charm.

[allegrastudyabroad]

Some highlights from my trip to Paris with my friend Emily, who is studying abroad at the London School of Economics this summer! We stayed just a 5 minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe and 20 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower!! That last picture is a shot of our picnic which we had in the beautiful Tuileries Garden, which we picked up from a local Carrefour. Paris will always be one of my favorite cities ❤️

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Tonight I went with my friends on a Go-Boat in the Canal because all my friends said it was a must-do... I see why! A go-boat is a slow self-driven boat with a table for people to sit and drink and eat. We went around sunset, and it’s my favorite thing I’ve done so far. It was SO fun, and the scenery was beautiful along the canal. We hope to make it a near weekly thing because I can’t imagine seeing Copenhagen from a better view. P.S. The last 3 pictures are a view from the boat, but the first 2 pictures are from the famous Circle Bridge, which is made with bikers in mind, just like everything else in this country. Plus, I live near by it!! Crazy.

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Today, my class went to the hospital that provides care for Copenhagen and northern Denmark, Hillerød Hospital. Hillerød is a beautiful town, and it’s very common for towns like this to have citizens that leave out homemade honey and fresh flowers for people to buy in front of their house — the payment system is on honor! The hospital was beautiful (2nd picture!), and the food for lunch was amazing. Lunch was a buffet that included quiche, pork patties, cheese bread, Brie, salad bars, and other amazing options. Drinks were all in glass bottles (coke, lemon seltzer, etc) that they recycle or sell back to the store for money. Even in my Kollegium we have a very detailed recycling system because the Danes are incredibly eco-friendly. Sometimes I wonder if America could be as equal and green as Denmark, but I think we’d have to burn down a city and rebuild it from the ground up for that to happen. Plus, I’m not sure if we could ever get a system where the government takes 30-60% of your income to provide free education and healthcare. Anyway, the hospital visit was super cool because we learned about being an ENT, including learning how to use an otoscope and perform a tracheostomy! They had pig tracheas (not shown for obvious reasons) and we were able to put on gloves and stick our fingers in the trachea and see the epiglottis. I performed a tracheotomy all by myself on a pig trachea - I can’t imagine doing it on a moving human!

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I have found my favorite place. Its about 200 feet from my front door, and it’s called Sweet Treat. They have amazing coffee and different cakes each day, all with dried flowers on top. This cake is carrot cake, and note the dried flowers!! This place is the definition of hygge (pronounced hue-guh), which is the Danish way of life. In general, hygge translates to coziness. This place has eclectic mismatched furniture, candles, and you’re surrounded by pillows and ceramics made by local artists. Fun fact: Denmark is one of the highest consumers of candles in Europe, despite their small size. Just when I thought Sweet Treat couldn’t get better, as I was working I realized that they were playing an artist I love that Ryan showed me called Adult Mom. It is not mainstream in the States at all, so I was surprised this little coffee shop in Copenhagen was playing their songs! Needless to say, it was meant to be. 

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This photo was taken from the top of the medical school I visited for my class. My class this session is Human Health and Disease: A Clinical Approach. We have some of the longest classes of anyone in the program, going from 8 AM to 4 PM Monday through Friday. Right now we are learning about body systems, and we go through about 3 a day! We also have our very first test on Friday, which is crazy because we’ve only had 1.5 days of classes. Here in Denmark, you do not go to undergraduate college but instead go straight into a specialized college/degree-seeking school. Medical school is 6 years long and you matriculate in when you are 18 years old. Oh, and it’s free! In fact, the Danish government pays you to go to medical school. Additionally, my TA Amanda said that the gender divide is about 65% female. Why don’t I live in Copenhagen, again??

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Torvehallerne Market is in the City Centre, and it has EVERYTHING. There are two class greenhouse-like structures that each have over 30 food stalls. I went with a few of my friend from my Kollegium for lunch and we all got smørrebrød, which are open faced sandwiches and VERY popular here. The ones pictured here are chicken breast, pickled herring, and shrimp and egg. All the food here is so rich (also very expensive). The national currency, kroner, is about 0.16 of the USD but everything is pricey to make up for the good exchange rate. Apparently there is a culture of making your own lunch and dinner and only buying coffee or drinks -- I can see why! 

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This is my favorite place in Copenhagen so far. It’s Nyhavn (pronounced Nye-houn), which is a waterfront filled with restaurants and stores. Today, my roommate Emily and I sat on a barge that was anchored to the waterfront with many other people, watching all the boats go by and talking. Plus, it’s a 10 minute walk from my apartment! Another thing: there is 18+ hours of sunlight a day here, so these pictures were taken at 8 PM! The sun rises at about 3:45 AM and sets around 10 PM each day. 

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I’ve officially been in Copenhagen for 3 full days! In some ways, it feels like it’s already been 3 weeks, but in other ways I know I still have SO much to look forward to. The first picture is of my side of the room before it was all set up. I live in a Kollegium, which is very popular for college students here. I basically live in a beautiful apartment building in Christianhavn (pronounced christian-houn) which is a neighborhood in Copenhagen that is characterized by little islands and a very hip culture! I’m surrounded by little coffee shops and bars, and we live 2 blocks away from the main canal where you can jump in or just lay anywhere along the edge. In my Kollegium, I live on the 4th floor in an apartment -- my room is a triple room which I share with two other girls, and then we have a flatmate who lives in a single. We all share a kitchen overlooking a courtyard and one bathroom. My two roommates are named Emily and Sara, who are both in the architecture program here. Emily is from Queens and goes to SUNY Binghamton for architecture, and Sara is from LA and goes to school for interior design in Brooklyn. Fun fact, Emily and I happened to be next to each other in the ticket line at JFK, and we liked each other so much we moved seats on the plane so we could sit next to each other the full 7 hours! The apartment is really nice, and they supply us with all we could ever need.They gave each of us brand new sheets, duvet inserts, pillows, duvet covers, pillowcases, and towels, as well as all the necessary kitchen supplies. My Kollegium is also an 8 minute bike ride to class; speaking of, I got a bike! It’s incredibly stressful biking and I’ve gotten so lost (my bike ride to class in the morning was 25 minutes instead of 8), but I have faith I’ll get the hang of it. Everyone here bikes, even the queen! I mean, I haven’t gotten hit yet, just a few dirty looks. Plus, it’s pink!!