Slappe!

Relax!

too many fails, this will have to do.

Well, it’s been another exciting week here in Denmark.  Thursday I had the chance to meet and do a clinical case review on an elderly woman with thymus cancer, whose name will be disclosed since there is only 2% of the entire Danish population who will have this type of cancer this year- it is incredibly rare.  She was a sweetheart, and did not mind allowing 13 of us students to do an abdomen examination on her, which is quite impressive.  Her liver is quite enlarged due to metastases, and we were assessing whether she should have another round of chemotherapy.  Her cancer is terminal, and physicians are only able to give palliative treatment.  Her moral was incredible though, and she was bubbly telling us of her 5 grand children and 1 great grand child.  It was a really cool experience.  I feel like I need to be constantly reminding myself of the fact that the diseases and statistics we talk about in class are of REAL people.  People with relationships, with dreams, with stories.  When I remember that, I feel my heart swell (thankfully not literally), and I have to catch my breath—this sensation of excitement, peace, and passion, is my reassurance that going into the health field, HOWEVER that looks- as a PA, with an MPH, etc.- is what I am meant to do.  Everyone has that thing that makes them get “fired up,” and ready to conquer anything.  I feel like that when I think about interacting with all different people, in some realm of healthcare and education, and having no idea what I will also learn, but knowing I will learn from those relationships. Bah, so so cool to me haha.

SNOW. IN APRIL.

After that great class session Thursday, I headed for Lufthaven and to Stockholm to meet Jenni.  It was quite a surprising landing- THERE WAS SNOW.  I generally try to be pretty positive and upbeat about things, and if I am not, then I try to change my mood, but when we were landing and I saw snow, there was frustration and anger that rose up in me that caught me totally off guard!  It was actually kind of humorous, but at the same time, I think I’m really just over the cold, and the snow, and the GRAY. 

 I am dying for some sunshine and warmth!  (definitely looking forward to the next 10 days  =])  Anyways, getting from the Stockholm airport to our hostel was a bit of a feat, but nothing compared to what Jenni landed with…oye ve!  She ended up being 2 hours from our hostel, when she originally thought she was 10 minutes…whoops!  Needless to say, we both had quite a stressful start to a weekend that we had anticipated would be relaxing and stress-free.  Thankfully, IYHF Youth Hostel Zinkensdamm, was an AMAZING hostel.  So cozy, so hyggeligt =] 

chicken & pasta with pesto...yum :)

Jenni and I slept and then wandered around Stockholm, pretty aimlessly…without an agenda but enjoyed a kanelbulle (basically a cinnamon roll- Swedish tradition) and tea in a café, had a traditional lunch (Swedish meatballs, potatoes and ligonberries), and appreciated the colorful buildings of Gamel Stan (old town) and the ice-filled waters…well, not really that last one.  Our goal for this weekend was to be together!  Period.  So, by far the best part about the weekend was the great company of each other, and not necessarily the city (though Stockholm was quite nice, Sara =]).  We stopped in a grocery store to pick up dinner, breakfast and lunch for the next couple of days, and we were struck with genius- we would bake our own kanelbulles in the hostel kitchen!!! Ha. Ha. Ha.   If flat, spongey, pancake looking things remotely resembled kanelbulles, we may have been able to say we succeeded, but alas, we failed miserably.  It was a laughable event though, that is for sure. 

kannelbulles?

Saturday, we hoped for sunshine, and got brighter gray skies with moderate temperatures…woo!  Again we wandered around Gamel Stan, bought our train tickets for København, and then went to Stockholm Ice 2011.  Yup, we went to an ice dancing performance of world champion ice skaters/dancers.  Incredibly random, but at the same time, a small childhood dream came true!  Both of us had been fascinated by the figure skating of the winter Olympics, and this was like the winter Olympics on drugs- with all the light effects.  It was quite entertaining, though the man to our left didn’t think so (he fell asleep =] ).  After the show and dinner, we stopped in 7/11 and bought Ben & Jerry’s, and enjoyed a pint of phish food and half baked while watching a movie in our hostel…quite a nice end to another relaxing day. 

DELICIOUS MEAL

So, success!  We had a relaxing weekend wandering aimlessly around Stockholm-oh the things we are able to do while abroad!  It is a neat thought- my friend from Bucknell who is from Seattle who is studying in Florence, Italy and I, who is from NJ, who is studying in København, were able to meet in Stockholm, Sweden, and spend a weekend together.  Ridiculous.  In a good way. 

definitely could do that if I tried, couldn't you? ;)

We took the train through Sweden back to København Sunday, and walked around the city a bit with Sara before church and regional train mishaps getting home.  Jenni got to meet my host family and see “my life” here, which was really cool =] 

And now, I have 1 class and some homework standing between me and 2.5 weeks of travel!  Insanity.  This semester has flown by so so quickly.  I have to keep reminding myself that school is not actually the most important thing this semester- it’s the experiences with people of all different cultures and the traveling to incredible places.  I’ve learned a lot about myself, which I feel like is an inevitable thing to say when one goes to a new place for a new experience, but yeah. 

final bow

Tomorrow Michelle and I leave for Cinque Terre, then head to Sicily to see Angelo and family!  Then we head to Venice, Barcelona, and back to Copenhagen for a day before heading out on the Czech Trek with DIS.  I’m hoping to see Dasha while in the Czech Republic too, and maybe Melanie!

1 of 10 pictures of the city...whoops!

That’s all for now, back in a bit =]