Part 5--Classes and. Castles

So, as I mentioned before, classes started on Tuesday. For any of you who don’t know, or don’t remember, I’m taking two classes about HIV and AIDS, one from a biomedical perspective and one from public health. They way the courses are organized, we take one class at a time, so I am currently in the biomedical class. This one is team taught by three Danish MDs with what I have gathered are varying degrees of teaching finesse, albeit seemingly equivalent knowledge and experience with AIDS patients. Overall, this class is turning out to be a lot more med-schooly than I was anticipating—the main focus is on treatment and patient care—but it is still pretty interesting. In summary of my education, though, I would like to pass along this message to all of you: Please, don’t get infected with HIV, and especially don’t go without treatment if you are. In short, use a condom! End of AIDS talk.

In other news, in my non-classroom time, I have been doing additional exploring (as well as reading for class…mostly). On Wednesday I ventured to the King’s Garden and Rosenborg Castle, which are actually only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. The King’s Garden is basically just a large grassy park. There are flowers and rows of the rectangular-cut trees that Copenhagen seems so fond of. There are also pigeons and people, many of whom have dogs or small children, but you get the idea. This park area, however also incorporates/surrounds not only Rosenborg Castle but also the Queen’s Guard training facility. So, after a brief stroll through the park, we followed a group of Danish school children (all of whom had tiny backpacks. It was quite adorable, but it also made me wonder if I had a tiny child-sized back pack when I was their size. I always thought my backpack was normal sized, but now I question that assumption.) across the bridge over the moat and into the Castle grounds. We toured the castle, which is maintained as a museum to display many Royal odds and ends, including the crown jewels. You had to pay extra to take pictures inside the castle, so decided to just rely on postcards and such. I kind of regretted that decision once I was inside as there were some really cool rooms and trinkets hidden within. I still can decide which I liked best: the mirror room, which had completely mirrored walls and a large oval mirror in the floor and ceiling, or the glass chamber, which housed all of the Royal glassware on impressive floor to ceiling (and I’m not exaggerating, the walls were all entirely covered) gold shelves full of glass. They were both quite impressive, as were the three life-size silver lions that guarded the King’s throne. The crown jewels were nice, too, but they were crown jewels, they have to be nice. But, overall, it was a pretty successful and entertaining tourist venture, complete with the opportunity to watch the Queen’s Guard depart on their march to her Palace for the changing of the guard.

My free time has also afforded me the opportunity to explore the Southern, more modern part of Copenhagen. It was unfortunately rather windy and chilly with patchy rain, but it was still an interesting experience. I thought it was a rather unique combination, seeing these large black steel and glass buildings right next to the rather traditional quaint and colorful older buildings. Even the fun traditional buildings were a lot newer than those in the part of the city where I’m staying. You can tell because they are built in straight, vehicle-conscious rows rather than the curvy, crooked pattern of the older parts of the city. This part of the city also contains the gold and black tower with the spiral stairs you can climb that I posted a couple of pictures of. We decided not to climb it that day because it was really windy and cold and there were some rather shady looking people just hanging around in the doorway… But, I’m still determined to make it back over there and climb it before I leave, perhaps just on a less blustery day. Or when there are fewer shady people hanging about.

That pretty much sums up my happenings since my first post. I’m not sure of my plans tonight. I hear talk of an ice bar (from the people that run the ice hotel) a couple streets over, but I’m not sure what the deal is with that. Guess we’ll see… Anyway, Malmo, Sweden on Saturday and Legoland Sunday, so I’ll keep you posted.

Oh! And thanks for the comments. I enjoyed knowing that people were actually reading this. And, Josh, you won the prize for length. I'll look for Hamlet's Castle for you...