ketchup part 2

What do Chinese lanterns and large, stuffed polar bears have in common?

Absolutely nothing, but I traveled to Switzerland this past weekend and there was a window display for something (a clothing store? a chocolate shop? I still don't have a clue) that combined these two very random objects. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture, but I'm sure you can all imagine how bizarre it must have looked.

Anyway, we had Friday off, so Thursday evening, my friends Kait and Becca and I boarded a flight to Zurich! We kind of dropped the ball on booking a hostel, so when we had to find a place to stay the week before we left, we knew we'd be paying a little more for lodging. However, we stayed in the most beautiful hotel in the cutest neighborhood right next to the water- and it was SO worth the extra billz. 

Kait was really excited about the room

Teddy liked to relax 

 (slappe af as they say in Danish)

Zurich was about 70 degree and extremely sunny, making for a wonderful outdoorsy  day! After wandering aimlessly through most of the city (and stopping to shop, of course) we got some supplies to make a picnic and sat near Lake Zurich.

Olive bread, ham, grapes and cherry tomatoes - yum!

Basking in the Swiss sun

Then we went on a hike up Mount Uetli - however, our hotel manager said it was more of a hill than a mountain which was partially true. We ended up walking through a residential neighborhood (an extremely steep one, at that) and then finally trekked around the mountain. We never made it to the top because we couldn't find it - yeah I know that sounds stupid but it was really confusing. Anyway, here's a picture of the view!

Zurich from Mount Uetli

Saturday we took a train ride to Basel, which is pretty much in France but still technically in Switzerland. After taking the tram waaaay to far, we stumbled upon some type of bazaar/festival in the city/town of Allschwil. It was actually perfect - we bought some homemade goods (I got a bracelet) and ate delicious brats and other festival foods!

Bazaar

Brat - my new goal is to eat a "hotdog" in every country I visit since I am beyond obsessed with Danish hotdogs

The epitome of a Swiss village

We ended up staying in a bed and breakfast which was actually just a guest apartment of some woman. We were sorta freaked out at first,  but then realized it was legit and were very happy to have a bedroom and full kitchen at our disposal! We were all pretty beat, so we decided to run into to town, grab some supplies at a farmer's market, and then make our own fondue and munch on Swiss chocolates! It was probably my favorite part of the trip - spending some quality time with my 2 closest friends here, eating, laughing, and drinking wine all night. 

Mmmm cheese

Our spread, minus the fondue!

Swiss chocolates! The ones with the white on them were my favorite :)

We departed Sunday afternoon and I returned to the reality of writing (more) papers. However, all of that is pretty much done, and I am so excited to spend this weekend with LIZZIE AND SHANE! Both are visiting me, Lizzie from France, and Shane from home, and I couldn't be more excited!

ketchup part 1

So, I've been pretty sucky at updating, but things have been so busy! However, I now have an afternoon free and am writing all about the second half of March. I'm probably going to split this up into 2 entries so it's not just one outrageously post - it will be two moderately long entries! ha.  I'll begin with my trip to Poland for the second half of my study tour.

So, you're probably all wondering, Sam, why did you go to Poland? And why, of all places in Poland, did you go to Poznan? Well, all of my classmates and I were asking ourselves the same thing. However, I think I learned more in Poland than I did in Berlin, both academically and culturally.

We shadowed 4 doctors at 2 different hospitals - a gynecologist, an obstetrician, and 2 GI pediatricians. We were really able to see how poorly funded the medical program is in Poland - the facilities, while acceptable from a sanitation standpoint - were dark, overcrowded (there were some rooms with 5 children in them), and both under and overstaffed; too many nurses not doing anything while there weren't enough doctors  (we barely had time to talk with one of the pediatricians because so many other doctors and nurses were consulting them). Also, Poland has loose privacy laws, and some of my other classmates in a different group got to walk into an emergency c-section as it was happening without having to fill out any paperwork. What also struck me about Poland was the fact that not everyone spoke English - I guess I'm a little spoiled here in Copenhagen. It was really a wake up call, and now, whenever I travel, I don't immediately assume people know English.

We had a lot of free time in Poland (more than in Berlin), and I bought some really cool wool socks from a Polish "mountain man" cart for the equivalent of $2, as well as some cute spring clothes. Everything was SO cheap - 3 zloty was equal to 1 USD, and for a total of 7$ I got a fantastic meal of vegetarian pierogies, a beer, and dessert: something that would cost an arm and a leg in Denmark. We also had a wonderful dinner at one of Poznan's finest restaurants, and were given lots of free alcohol. I think DIS did this purposely in preparation for our 12 hour bus ride home - they just wanted us to get moderately drunk and pass out. Unfortunately, there was an accident on a Polish or German highway and we missed our 6AM ferry to Denmark and arrived back to Copenhagen 3 hours late. I was pretty cranky (me? cranky? never!) by the time we got back, but after a shower, food, and reunion with my roomie, I felt a lot better!

The main square in Poznan - pretty reminiscent of Nyhavn in CPH!

Just my friend Nina and I sitting on the golden goats of Poznan (they love goats there. and potatoes).

The day immediately following my return from Poland, I hung out with my visiting family. They made me lunch (where I discovered that I am now in love with beets) and took me to the Viking Museum in Roskilde. The Viking Museum is pretty small, but it's really awesome! It was super informative and you were able to see excavated viking ships they found. I also learned that the Danes were pretty ruthless vikings - sacrificing slaves when their owners died, raping and ravaging other lands, drinking blood out of their dead enemies' skulls (that's where the Danish word for cheers comes from - Skål! were so They even have a place where you can dress up like a viking... and oh, did I dress up...

Skål!

After that, I had a pretty busy 10 days or so - all of my teachers decided to give exams and make due dates for the same days which was really poopy. I stayed in one night last weekend in order to write 2 papers. However, I had a bit of a break on Tuesday night was able to go out and celebrate my completion of 3 papers in 2 days (one of which was on a book I didn't read). 

Next entry: Switzerland!

Bees are too busy for my liking.

Okay, so I know I owe an entry about my travels to Poland, but schoolwork has been kicking my pretty little butt this week, and I've been busy as a bee! I've got 2 papers due on Monday/Tuesday and had a lot of assignments due last week, so blogging has been put on the backburner. I promise I will update you all about Poland (I know you're dying to know) ASAP.  Here is a video to entertain you while you anxiously await my next post.

http://www.youtube.com uu_zwdmz0hE/watch?v=

Bearli?. Bierlin? Brrrln? So many puns!

Note: I wrote this on Thursday but was unable to upload pictures due to bad internet connection! Entry on Poland coming soon.

So I've decided to split my study tour entries into a separate post for each city. Why, you ask? Well, it would be one reaaallly long entry and I don't feel like writing that much right now. I am currently in Poznan, Poland hanging out in my hotel room having some hermit time. Being with a group of 30 people for 5 days straight is exhausting... especially when some of them aren't exactly who you'd choose to hang out with... but I digress.

We left Copenhagen around 8AM on Sunday morning and began our journey south to Germany. We took a ferry from the south of Denmark to the north of Germany and then continued our bus ride to Berlin, arriving at our hotel around 3:30PM.  After unpacking and hanging out for a bit, we went on a very long walking tour of Berlin's highlights and ended up at our restaurant for dinner. We had some traditional German food, including pork of some kind, potatoes, and sauerkraut (which I've discovered I love). Three other girls and I shared a pitcher of the restaurant's special brew (which was delicious and quite wheat-y). Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and crashed.

Monday morning we went to a human gross anatomy lab. On our walk to the building, all of a sudden I hear "OMG SAM!" I ended up seeing one of my very good high school friends, Marie, in the middle of Berlin! She is studying in Dublin and is traveling around Europe - how weird! We didn't really talk because we were both so surprised to happen upon each other in Germany after not seeing the other in about 2.5 years. What a coincidence! After that impromptu reunion, we parted ways and I caught up with my group. The anatomy lab was really awesome - it didn't smell as bad as the U of M one I went to last semester, and we got to hold the different organs and parts of the brain. Afterwards, I grabbed lunch from an Asian noodle cart (had Sriracha for the first time in FOREVER) and grabbed a "lunch beer" with of my groupmates. The weather was amazing, so we sat outside and talked until we needed to meet for our bike tour. The tour was AMAZING and I'm so happy we did it. Our guide was amazing (and very attractive too!) and so knowledgeable. Here are some pictures from the tour:

 I felt like Mary Tyler Moore all day.

Check Point Charlie!

That night I went out to dinner with my friends Nina and Wendy and Nina's old German exchange students she housed that live in Berlin. After that, Nina, Wendy, and I, along with two other girls from our group, went on a phenomenal pub crawl. We got really great drink specials, free shots, and met a good group of people (mostly older than us, but some close to our age). We ended at a really sweet club in the red light district, and I didn't get home until about 4AM. Though it was an amazing night, I probably should have come home earlier  since I was miserable the next morning. However, I guess since I was only in Berlin once, I had to live it up!

Tuesday we had 2 academic visits. First, we went to a research center that I really didn't enjoy (not just due to my lack of sleep and slight hangover). Though their research was interesting, it was completely unrelated to what we're learning about (to the point where they couldn't tell us how it was practical to medicine) and took far too long. Did I mention we saw another MRI? Ugh. Anyway, after some lunch, we went to a family planning center and had an amazing lecture and tour. It was really interesting to see how family planning is carried out/viewed in Germany. Afterwards, we grabbed another traditional German meal with another group that's in Berlin and then I called it an early night since I was pretty exhausted from the fun I had had the previous evening.

Wednesday we visited the Jewish Museum and got lunch at the Reichstag (German Parliament building). The meal was AMAZING!! Who knew a government building could have a four star restaurant on its roof?? My favorite part was the banana ice cream and chocolate molten lava cake. Omg I'm still drooling. Here are pictures of teh building and it's really awesome dome where you can look into parliament (a symbol that the people are always in charge!).

Finally, we departed around 3 from Berlin and began our 5 hour journey to Poznan, Poland. More on this part of the trip later!

Puns are hard when you don't do anything besides watch TV

I am still boring. However, my next post will be more exciting because I'm going to Berlin and Poznan, Poland this week with my class! We're exploring a bunch of different medical facilities (and unfortunately seeing another MRI... really? We didn't see enough on the short study tour? Whatevz). However, I'm more optimistic about this tour than I was the last - we have a lot of free time (almost every night) and we'll be in Germany/Poland!

Thursday night, I went to another ballet with my class - it's called Dans2Go and it was so amazing. It consisted of 3 different, short ballets: Serenade by George Balanchine (a really famous ballet and choreographer), La Corsaire (a pas de deux) and Jord (which means Earth) by a Finnish choreographer and was danced to a cello band that covers Metallica songs. It was absolutely AMAZING and I was so sad when it was over. After the show, I went out to celebrate some big news with all of my friends - I found out that I got my number one choice of summer jobs - I'll be researching with a professor at Mac! This means I have to get  SCUBA certification which I'm both excited and afraid to get, and that I'll get to be in Saint Paul all summer.

Other than that exciting news, I've just been watching a lot of Criminal Minds (best show ever!) and living life. Last night some of my roommates and I went out for a really nice dinner at a Thai place called Spicylicious - it was soooo delicious! I haven't gone anywhere that I can upload pictures, so this entry is going to be rather short. However, the next entry will be super long since I'll have a week's worth of pictures and stories to tell!

Vi ses!