Update

Hello Everyone!

First of all, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you! I have almost reached 1,000 page views and honestly, I never thought that would happen (hopefully it will). I guess about 100 visits are from me, but still I want to thank everyone that is reading and following my semester abroad!

Second, I wanted to take a day to explain MANY things. Hopefully it won't take very long, and it won't all be in this blog, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up on what to expect in the future! I thought about making a vlog for this post (Mum, it stands for video blog) but it's really late at night and I just woke up from falling asleep for four hours (also called a nap) so I'm not exactly looking my best. But that is the first thing I want to tell you all about. For the weeks I am traveling, or if I have a week where I do a ton of things that would take years to write about (and read!) I am going to make a vlog and talk about it instead. I can also talk for hours, but I promise not to. Hopefully my sociology class last spring where I had to make a movie trained me well enough to make vlogs. Who knows, but I am really looking forward to talking to you all!

I also wanted (finally) share my class schedule with you! I think it's important if you're considering studying abroad at DIS and might choose the Medical Practice and Policy (MPP) program that you know what your class schedule will be like. All core sections are taught in the late afternoon, because that's when the doctors have time to teach, and also when the hospitals are less busy. My other classes are in the afternoon because I am NOT a morning person (well, possibly, more on that later). So here's my schedule:

Monday/Thursday	Time
- Medical Ethics	1:15 – 2:35
- Medical Exploration of HIV/AIDS	2:50 – 4:10
- Complexity of Cancer	4:25 – 5:45
Tuesday/Friday
- Pregnancy, Birth and Infancy In Denmark	11:40 – 12:00
- Human Health and Disease (MPP core class)	3:30 – 5:30

My favorite class so far is Complexity of Cancer. I absolutely love the detail we get into about the types of cancer and how to treat them. The professors are both young oncologists and have great stories and experiences to add to their lectures. We also do a lot of case studies, which help pass the time! As you can see, all classes at DIS are an hour and twenty minutes, besides your core class, which is two hours. But all of the professors are really nice and always give 3-5 minute breaks halfway through class.

Something else I wanted to discuss is my love of cupcakes! Hopefully by the end of my semester here I will have worked my way through (with the help of friends) the entire Agnes Cupcakes menu. This isn't going to be easy, since I tend to go on Sundays and they don't have all the flavors that day. But I will figure it out. I will probably post my cupcake blogs on Thursdays because that allows me to taste two cupcakes - one on the weekend and one during the week - before I write the blog. Right now I have two flavors waiting to be written about! So look for those on Thursdays. If you follow me on Twitter (the link is on the side, it's a special account for my blog) you can get a heads up on when a new blog is going up, too!

More schedules! The next few weeks are very crazy for me because I am going on my long study tour (remember when I went on my short study tour?) to Berlin and Poznan, Poland on Sunday, October 2nd, and I'm not returning until that Saturday! So that will definitely be a vlog and not a blog. Too much to talk about! But I promise to keep up with the cupcakes while I am away!

After that week away, my mom and sister come to visit me in Copenhagen for a week and a half! We are going to Stockholm together, so I will have lots of update you all on, plus tell you of any adventures we have while they are here. I already told my sister she's helping me with the cupcake flavors I don't like. They leave towards the end of October, and a week and a half later I am off to Europe! Ok, I mean traveling in Europe. I don't want to tell you where I'm going quite yet, but I can tell you it is going to be amazing. And that I will seriously need to think about how to pack.

What else, what else... oh I know. I will hopefully be posting blogs three times a week (with the exception of blogs like this that are just updates). Probably on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday but if one pops up on Monday or Friday, just go with it!

Also (I promise this is it), be sure to check out the lists I've made on the side bar! If you're looking for blogs that include a certain topic, just click on the link it will bring up the blogs in order of most recent first. That way you can check out my housing, where I traveled to, what I did on the weekend and which cupcake flavors I reviewed without having to file through every single blog. I actually use this a lot to find old blogs I need to create links for.

Well I think that's it! Nothing more from me today, but I will leave you with a wonderful cupcake image that will make you want to fly across the ocean and visit me - flights are under $1000, I checked today!!!

Haha, until next time,

Devon

Agnes Cupcakes: Round Two

Hurray for a second post of the week! I hope all of you are near a very nice cupcake store this fall because the level of cupcake blogging is about to increase exponentially. I have decided to blog about Agnes Cupcakes, the leading (and possibly only) cupcakery in Copenhagen. A little while ago I went to their new location in the Torvehallerne Market, located a few blocks from where I live, and blogged about the amazing dark chocolate cupcake I had (read about it here). Then my friend Julie wanted to go see what flavors they had, and it turned into a crazy adventure ending in me deciding I just had to taste all thirty flavors. So each week I will be blogging about a new flavor or two that I tried during the week. But for today, I'd like to tell you all about my adventure with Julie to find some cupcakes...

We started a bit late in the afternoon, rolling out of bed at about one. We had just come back from our short study tours and weren't really feeling like getting out of bed. Julie asked me for directions to the cupcake store, and I said I'd go with her (pass on cupcakes? I think not.). As we got ready to go, girls on our floor kept giving us 30 kroner for a cupcake, and pretty soon we had a list of people wanting a delicious cupcake. We got on our bikes and rode to the market, list and kroner in hand.

Half of the market - there are two identical buildings.

And it was closing. Julie and I had waited so long to roll out of bed, hardly anything was open. No sushi, no bread, and barely any cupcakes. I had my eye on the carrot cake flavor but there weren't any. Julie wanted dark chocolate but they were almost out. And we had to buy everyone else cupcakes too... So we jumped back on our bikes and headed downtown to where the Agnes headquarters are. To be honest, you'd never find them without a detailed map or a nice juice store employee, who helped Julie and I out after we had become terribly lost. 

People waiting in line for cupcakes at the flagship store.

Finally we got there! We bought SO MANY CUPCAKES!!! Julie bought a dark chocolate for herself, I bought a mini carrot cake to eat there (they were all out of the normal size), and a black and white for later that day (to review here). Then we bought the three girls dark chocolate cupcakes and had them wrapped in a box to bring home. Julie has a bike basket, so it was easy to carry them all back. When we got home and opened the box, we found this:

Not exactly what they looked like in the store, but they tasted just as good! It was a little warm that day and we think they just melted on the ride home. Oh well! My black and white cupcake (chocolate with vanilla frosting) was possibly better than the dark chocolate flavor I originally tried! It was sweet but not too sweet, perfectly moist cake and just enough frosting for each bite. The chocolate shavings around the edge were the perfect ending. I'd eat ten more if they weren't bad for me!

I can't say anything bad about Agnes Cupcakes. They have the best cupcakes around. My next cupcake review will be APPLE! I don't want to give it away, but I already ate it and you won't be disappointed! 

Until then,

Devon.

Julie before her very first Agnes cupcake. 

Embracing My Inner Scandinavian

Oh please, you knew this was coming. I've been in Denmark for a month and have yet to blog about Ikea. This would be because there isn't an Ikea in Copenhagen, you have to travel just outside to Gentofte to reach the nearest one. Lucky for me there is a bus that stops right in front of the entrance, and another bus that takes me straight there from my class at the hospital - meaning I'll be back again and again and again.

I decided to make the trip this past weekend as I had nothing to do either day. You don't have to remind me that I'm in Denmark and should be traveling every chance I get - I have many trips planned and will post about that soon. But back to Ikea! I took the 5A bus to Norreport Station, where I stopped to get breakfast/lunch (it was noon) and ran to catch the 150S, the express Ikea bus! Everyone piled on and everyone piled off at Ikea. When I say this is the Ikea bus, I mean it. They even announce the stop.

When I walked inside, I immediately regretted going on a Saturday. If you don't know, Ikea has a restaurant with very good food and great prices, as well as a play place for kids (and a daycare - more about that later). I was overwhelmed by the completely Danish signs and mass of people walking around me, heading in to refurnish their entire house for under $1000 (I don't know if this is possible, but I don't doubt it). Apparently in Gentofte, Saturday is Ikea day.

I managed to avoid getting lost and had no major collisions with carts. My purchases included a duvet cover and pillow case for six dollars (Ikea pick of the day - but I didn't know this until after I bought it), three reusable grocery bags for a dollar each, a scale - it was eight dollars and probably a smart buy, and a scented candle for my room! It smells like apples and cinnamon and I've been burning it ever since I bought it. I'll have to go back to get some more fall scented candles. It just makes things so cozy!

My bed with my new duvet cover and pillow case!

After I bought everything, I went to the restaurant for some lunch/the only meal of the day so far. Being at Ikea, I had to have the meatballs! I also slipped in a piece of pie since it looked so delish and I wasn't in a soft serve ice cream mood (Ikea has a sundae bar). Oddly enough the soda I got tasted just like soda in the US, not like soda here in Denmark. I guess commercial companies in North America are at the same standards level as the Ikea cafeteria... The meatballs were just right for the rainy afternoon and the mashed potatoes and gravy reminded me of Thanksgiving (it could also be that it came with cranberry sauce). Definitely a decent meal for only eight dollars.

Mental note: 10 meatball meal+drink+dessert is only $8!

I will definitely be back to Ikea, it was so much fun! Hopefully next time it will just be to visit, not buy things, since I'm going to run out of room in my suitcase! But going to Ikea, being alone, and only hearing Danish definitely made me feel more immersed in the Danish culture. And I'm sure when I head back to school in DC and go to the Ikea in College Park my experience will be very different...


- Devon.

Oh Dear...

I am so, so, SO sorry that I haven't blogged at all this week. I know this wonderful distraction from homework, time passer during block classes, and quick view into the world from Copenhagen is a crucial part of your lives. And I let you down. But - before you get all depressed thinking you missed out on more than a week of my life here, have no fear! I have been taking pictures and documenting my every move, just not writing about them. So this week I promise to catch you all up on my adventures and hopefully entertain you in some way. Today I'm going to head back to a week ago Thursday, when I left with my core class for Western Denmark for our short study tour.

Thursday
My tour was pretty busy, and when we came back all I wanted to do was sleep, but I will try to include everything. Thursday we left Copenhagen at 7:15 am. The first city we went to was Aarhus (pronounced Arhoos), about five hours from Copenhagen in Jutland, the mainland portion of Denmark. When we arrived we went to the University Hospital, a teaching and research hospital in Aarhus. Here they gave us a tour of their radiology department and showed us some of their research projects. It was interesting to see what kind of research they were doing (mostly cognitive mapping of the brain) since Denmark is seen as a leader in medical research here in Scandinavia. After our hospital tour, we had some downtime, so our bus driver parked at IKEA and we grabbed some food for lunch. Definitely one of the highlights of the day.

After our quick lunch we went just outside the city to visit a general practitioner's office. In Denmark, the GP connects all patients to the medical world; a referral from one is like your golden ticket for treatment. The GP we met with was passionate about his job, and made general medicine seem much more interesting than people give it credit for. Coincidentally he studied abroad in the US, and when I asked him where, he told me he lived 20 minutes from where I grew up for an entire year! I was shocked, nobody knows about Maine at all. Such a small world! After meeting with the GP we headed to our hostel, which was SO much nicer than any hostel I've ever stayed in! Private bathrooms, hot water, a table and chairs in the room... it was nice. After leaving our things in the rooms we headed back to downtown Aarhus for dinner. DIS paid for two meals on the trip (plus three hostel meals) and this was delicious! I can't wait for my long study tour and the meals we'll have then! Thursday night I explored the city with my new friends I had met, and we stumbled upon ARoS, a modern art museum. It houses "boy" a larger than life statue I learned about in my art history class in high school. Unfortunately somehow we missed the massive sculpture... But we did take great pictures from the roof!

Friday
Friday I woke up with a cold. A miserable, sore throat and stuffy nose cold. But since our first activity was a scavenger hunt of Aarhus with a cash prize, I sucked it up and headed out into the cold (northern Denmark was so much colder than Copenhagen!). My team did well, but didn't win. We did learn a lot about Aarhus, though. After the scavenger hunt we had some free time, so I bought some postcards and explored the stroget (walking street). Departing downtown Aarhus at one for our next leg of the adventure, we drove towards the largest hospital in Northern Jutland for a tour of their research and bioengineering departments. Here I stood next to a pig during open heart surgery, saw a mouse heart beating outside the body in solution, learned about the physics behind heart valve replacements, and compared the pros and cons of natural versus man made valves. It was a great visit and our two presenters were fabulous!

This was the end of the academic portion of our trip, and now we just had adventures ahead of us! Our final stop for Friday was Den Gamle By, or "The Old Town", an open air museum created by relocating houses from different time periods from all over Denmark. It is like a Danish version of Plymouth Plantation. We had a medically-based tour of the town and met a very curious horse! On the way out, we even crossed paths with the Danish Cultural Minister, who was touring the museum with his entourage. Piling back onto our bus, we settled in for a two hour drive to Vejle (Vi-leh) where our next hostel had dinner waiting for us. This hostel was even nicer than the first, I have to give DIS credit for choosing great places to stay! Dinner was fabulous, and everyone in my room was so tired, we went to bed at 10!

Saturday
The last day was all fun and games. I wasn't feeling much better but had fun anyway. First we went to Jelling (pronounced yelling) to see the Jelling Stones. The story behind the rocks and mound formations is incredibly interesting, and I promise to make a blog dedicated just to them in the near future, because it was really cool. The church in the town is the first church in Denmark, built by the Vikings and ordered by their king Harold Bluetooth, who converted the Vikings to christianity. It was also interesting to see the cemetery - too many people want to be buried at the church so they bury you for a few years, and then send you somewhere else so another person can be buried there. A bit strange, but practical.

After Jelling we drove to Odense (pronounced the same, but with a little emphasis on the last 'e') to tour Hans Christian Anderson's childhood houses and the cathedral he was confirmed in. It was a beautiful day and our tour guide (a teacher at DIS) explained everything so well! She even planned the tour so we would end at the restaurant we had lunch at. Hamburgers and fries were exactly what we needed after a long trip around Denmark. We ate as much as we could, keeping in mind we were going gokarting next... This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We just zoomed around the track, crashing into people (by accident I promise, Leanna!) and racing tournament-style (we kept track of points and had a championship race at the end). Sunday I woke up so sore from all the bumps and crashes. But we had a great time!

Heading back to Copenhagen we all slept (basically the norm of the bus was to fall asleep once we started moving) until we arrived. We had such a great time and I loved going to all the places. One thing I will say is that I am in the last section of my core class, Medical Practice and Policy, so my class was divided in two. I didn't know 20 of the 29 people I traveled with, but by the end knew everyone. I was worried at first, but it went so well!

Sorry this blog is long, I had a lot going on last weekend! Tomorrow I will put what I did last Sunday on here, and you will love it, I promise!

Until then,
Devon.

10 Years Later.

I'll keep this short, but I wanted to make sure I wrote today.

Ten years ago I was a student in Mrs. Norris' fifth grade class at Whitefield Elementary School in my hometown in Maine. We had finished our journal entries and had moved onto math exercises. While we were working, a teacher came to our doorway and asked our teacher to come into the hallway with her. A few minutes later she came back and grabbed her radio - we still didn't really use the internet at my school then, and nobody had laptops. Throughout the day we were concerned. Concerned a person had died, concerned someone's family member was in trouble, or that someone's house had burned down. It wasn't until 2:20 pm, when we lined up for bus dismissal, that our teacher told us the news. Our principal had forbidden the teachers from telling us, but Mrs. Norris made sure we knew. She held up a copy of Time magazine with an arial picture of Manhattan on the cover. She said, "See these two buildings right here? They're gone. Men flew planes into them and they are gone." And with that, we were dismissed to our buses, our minds racing with questions.

I had never flown before 9/11, so I can't compare the differences, but I can say I have flown enough since to see the never-ending list of security checks and procedures. And it always makes me think when I travel to Europe and sail through customs with no waiting, no horribly long lines, no need to fill out forms. I admire the way Europe has handled the need for updated security measures, screenings and protection. In Copenhagen I feel as safe as I do at home in Maine, a place where you don't lock your front door and let your kids play outside alone. As my friend Amanda put it last night, Copenhagen has theft, but not robbery. Yes, people steal here, but there will always be petty theft. What you don't hear about is armed robbery, people stealing cash from banks or breaking into buildings. This is something even Maine has, yet I've read nothing about it in the newspaper here. People here are happy and for the most part healthy, they want to get along.

I love my country and I love the support that began ten years ago and continues today. Sometimes admitting you're American in Europe can be hard, as it brings stigmas and stereotypes. But today, as the man at the sushi counter asked where I was from, I told him without hesitation, the United States. Being in another country for September 11th has shown me how supportive the world is of all nations - including the US. Ceremonies were held in Berlin, Sydney, Madrid, Paris, London, and in cities across the world. We are all living here together, and even if we don't speak the same language or share the same customs, we can support one another. And it just makes me so happy to be living in a place where I know this is true.

- Devon.

Agnes Cupcakes

As a semi-Washingtonian, I have a strong connection to cupcakes. Before my freshman year at American, I hadn't given the idea of gourmet cupcakes much thought. Georgetown Cupcake changed everything for me with their delicious creations (my favorite being chocolate squared). But as all DC residents know, there is much competition between cupcake shops. Hello Cupcake, Red Velvet, Baked and Wired, I could go on for days, but I'll just end by saying I am now a cupcake fanatic who will go out of my way to find a new cupcakery.

And that is what I did today. I had heard about Agnes Cupcakes through a friend and knew they were the Georgetown Cupcake of Copenhagen. When the new food markets opened near me, I saw that Agnes had opened a second location right inside. Today is Wednesday, so I didn't have class, and after walking around the shopping area for a bit, I stopped in the market on the way home.

It was amazing. So many flavors, so much frosting (I am a huge fan of overly frosted cupcakes), so many people! 

I decided I had to try their dark chocolate cupcake, since chocolate with chocolate frosting is my ultimate favorite flavor. I waited until home to try it, but was so tempted to open the box before even leaving the building!

It was definitely a huge cupcake, with more frosting than I've ever seen, but it didn't feel like too much. The cake was moist and fluffy, a perfect combination. The frosting was plenty sweet and light, not as dense as some. I like this because when the frosting is too dense, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. Too much sugar! It also had chocolate shavings around the side which added the dark chocolate flavor, and also cut down on the sugar taste all cupcakes have. It was heavenly.

Next time I want to try their carrot cupcake, and then move on to the black and white (chocolate with vanilla frosting). It is surprisingly inexpensive for Copenhagen, 30 kroner for one ($6) - but by no means cheap. Check out their website, agnescupcakes.com for all their flavors and more information. 

Looks like I'm hooked!

dwh.

Why I Love the Danes

There is something about Danes that makes me admire them. They are so friendly, easy-going and warm (which I guess you have to be here)! Today I was in a situation that made me appreciate this country even more than I already did.  Here's what happened:

Today I had my class at the hospital, which means at 3pm I have to take a train from Norreport station, near DIS and my house, outside the city to Gentofte, where my hospital is. All of the trains run on the same tracks (there are five), with commuter rail trains beneath. When I arrived, I had seven minutes, which meant I would barely make it to class on time. After a few trains came and went and I had two minutes left, a girl came up to me with tears in her eyes, speaking to me in Danish. I explained I only speak english, and she explained to me that she had lost her mother. She must have been at least 10 because her english was quite good. I honestly didn't know what to do. In the states, you take children to the ticket agent and explain what happened and stay with them until you know they are safe or their parents have arrived. In Denmark, there are no ticket turnstiles because they use the honor system, so there are no ticket agents to get help from.

I looked around trying to figure out what to do, telling her it would be ok, and asking her what she looked like. It seemed as if she had been on the commuter rail and when they came up to the S train level, she got lost in the crowd. By this time she was crying and so scared, and I desperately wanted to help her, but honestly didn't know what to do since there were no train workers close to us. The closest help would have been to take her to the street level to the ticket office and wait there, but then her mother never would have found her. Then, just when I saw my train approaching, an older woman waiting in line for coffee near us turned around and asked what was wrong. There were many people around, but the Danes are very private and do not disturb other people. After hearing her story this woman pulled out her cell phone and handed it to the girl, telling her to call her mother and not to worry, that they would find her. Then she looked at me with a short smile and a nod, letting me know it was ok to go. I ran on the train and when I left, the girl was wiping away her tears and the woman was staying put, dedicated to finding the mother. Somehow I know she found her mom, and I made it to class on time.

This is what I love about the Danes. They will go out of their way for one of their own. They are the most genuine people I have met, far more grounded than Americans. If you say you will do something, they expect you to do it! They never turn their backs or leave you hanging. This woman had no idea what she was getting herself into, but knew we both needed help and came to our assistance. The whole situation made my day that much better. And the fact that I looked Danish enough for the girl to approach me was nice too, she trusted me. So that's all for today, I just wanted to share my story! It honest made me appreciate Danes more than I thought possible.

dwh.