London Part Deux

        Arriving in London after an incredible weekend of Acrobatics, I felt great. I had already spent 4 days exploring the city while staying with my friend Steve before going to Copenhagen in January, so instead of the unfamiliar rush that comes with entering a new city for the first time, I was greeted by the comfort of the Tube, the Heathrow Express, and was well-prepared to look to my right first when crossing a street. Also, since I had some time to kill before my flight out of Hamburg, I had been able to get one of those in-Airport massages that I've often walked by with a smirk, wondering who would ever want a massage before a flight. However, after three days of sleeping on a gymnasium floor and lifting and throwing people nonstop, there was nothing I wanted more. Suffice to say, I was ready for a week of touring biotech research centers.
      Throughout the week, we visited companies such as Spirogen, the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering, The Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, and the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science.  At each of these centers, we saw different aspects of the biomedical research process. Spirogen is a huge developer of anti-cancer drugs, and has in phase 2 clinical trials. There, we were given a chance to tour the labs and see some of the equipment they use for high throughput screening to identify drug candidates. At other centers we were shown facilities that do cutting edge stem cell research, develop nanotechnology, and use extremely powerful microscopes and 3D imaging to better understand cell division and protein interactions. With this diversity of research interests and facilities, we were shown a clear picture of the drug discovery and development process.
        Academics aside, we also got to see some really pretty buildings--so take a brief blog-intermission and have some eye candy. These photos are from the Blizard Institute (which I promise actually does really legitimate research on cancerous stem cells).

                                                                 View from the main entrance

                                                      Open labs, as seen from the main entrance upstairs

   The conference room, because of course it is.

  As far as we were told, this room is the 'PR room' designed to impress interviewing students. I do not believe it serves any functional purpose.

It sure looks fancy though.

            Outside of our academic visits, we were given the opportunity to do experience a lot of the rich culture that London has to offer through various, appropriately-titled 'cultural visits.' Rather than waste time describing these visits for you and asking you to conjure mental images of these excursions, I have decided to instead provide photographic illustrations of the events, which I hope will suffice. These are those photos:

 Tower of London, past location of horrible tortures and present location of a gift shop with a frustratingly-sticky candy called strawberry bonbons.

 London's Tower Bridge

  The Tower of London is all about chains. Chained up chain-mail animals serve a reminder. 

 London's State Motto

                    Before                                                                                           After

 Panorama of London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Note my friend Christian in red.

 Panorama of Big Ben and the London Eye. Note the double decker bus turning into a van.

 Buckingham Palace

 In England, the toilets have genders.

 Urban Art during our walking tour of the East End of London

London's premier dessert shoppe

 Blenheim Palace

 That chick was well-groomed.

 Tea Time!

 Scones with butter, jam, cucumber sandwiches, banana bread, and a tea tasting

Rugby Match, Oxford vs. Cambridge

Where Malfoy made fun of Harry Potter in Goblet of Fire

            Our last academic visit before the end of the Study Tour was to the Wellcome Center, which is a museum featuring various exhibits on modern science and the human body. Selected Pictures:

 The entire human genome.

The H1N1 Virus

An actual cross-section of a human being

     After a very busy week, I decided to stay in London for 3 extra nights to stay with my friend Steve again. He was just returning from his spring break, so we had a relatively low-key, recuperative weekend. We also got the chance to see our friend Melissa, who went to high school with both of us and goes to Brown with me, which was great! Here is the one, blurry photo taken during these 3 days:

      On the 11th of March I headed home after a great second visit to London and an amazing time in Germany, but the adventures were just beginning; four days later, I left for Paris for four unforgettable days, which I'll save for the next blog post. 

AkroKiel!

So I left off after hearing exciting news of an Acrobatics convention in Kiel, Germany from my Monday night Partner Acrobatics class. The problem was that this convention was going to be taking place from the 2nd-4th of March, and I had plans to fly to London on the 4th with my Biomedicine class for a week of touring biomed research centers (more on this shortly). Convinced that I should not pass up this opportunity, on Tuesday I spoke to my program head and got the OK to meet the group in London on Sunday, on the condition that I find my own flight back from London as well. By Wednesday I had tickets booked and by Friday I was in a car with four Danes headed to Germany.

The four hour drive set the theme for the weekend--getting to know the people I'd been training with for over a month. Carsten and his wife, Pernille, sat in the front, and I sat in the back with Simon and Laila. The start of the drive I fell asleep surrounded by excited conversations in Danish. With my very rudimentary Danish skills, I could not pick up more than a couple of words, but by the time I woke up my friends were happy to speak English with me. I found out that Simon has a five-year-old son, Carsten did some pretty substantial work in partial evaluation and computer science several years ago, and Laila sailed throughout the Caribbean and, eventually, across the Atlantic after deciding she should spend a semester learning to sail and convincing her school that this would be important for her geography studies.

Throughout the drive, I was a little nervous for what would essentially be 3 days straight of acro training, both because I had never done anything like this and because I was worried I would be among the most inexperienced people there and wouldn't be able to keep up. However, the weekend ended up being much more about helping one another learn and having fun than I could have imagined, and I could not have asked for a better time.

We stopped at the German border before heading to the gymnasium, to stock up on alcohol and miscellaneous supplies. I was most taken aback with how many shelves were lined with candy. Aisle upon aisle were stocked top to bottom with more types of candy than I had ever seen in one place, outside of Dylan's Candy Bar. This is because Denmark has taxed candy for 90 years, in addition to the more recently controversial fat tax last October, which hiked prices for foods containing over 2.3% saturated fat. Anyway, there was a lot of candy in Germany.

Screw Tony the Tiger, I want ferocity in every bite of my breakfast cereal.

After getting to the gymnasium and setting up a spot to sleep (all of the acrobats slept in an enormous open room), we set right off to training all of Friday night. Almost immediately I was introduced to other Danish acrobats and before I knew it I was balancing a man sitting on my feet while another man climbed on his shoulders. Suffice to say, I fell asleep the moment my head touched my sleeping pad.

I had the presidential suite. 

Saturday we woke up at 10, had a delicious catered breakfast of eggs, cereal, yogurt, and various sandwich components. Besides a break for lunch and dinner, we trained from 11am until about 8pm. Unlike the previous night, Saturday was full of various workshops--an hour of handstand tricks, an hour of counterbalancing, an hour of tumbling, an hour of 3 person tricks, 2 person tricks, beginner acro, hand to hand, etc. I ended up practicing a lot with a 14 year old girl named Felicia, who was friends with some of the people I came with. This was great because Felicia is quite light, being 14, and also a great flyer (the top person in partner acrobatics), since she's spent time performing in the Danish circus. I learned a lot, and by about 3pm I started falling asleep on the mats. However, I still managed to learn to flip people off my shoulders in between taking 5 minute naps.

The only picture I managed to take during the whole weekend--I had my camera in my bags during most of the training. 

Saturday night we were treated to a performance, in which several of the groups who had attended the convention participated by presenting a piece. There were performances on trapeze, trampoline, silk, juggling, and, of course, acro. It was great to see so much talent and to have gotten a chance to train with some of the performers! At the end of the performance, there was a big dance party, which I took part in for an hour or so before my body no longer permitted me to maintain my grip on consciousness. I woke up at 6am to get to the Kiel bus station, headed to the Hamburg airport, flew to Heathrow, caught the Heathrow express to Paddington, took the northern line to Old Street, an got a cab to the Thistle City Barbican, where I arrived just 2 minutes after my group from Copenhagen, all of whom were getting ready for an exciting, busy week in London. All I could think about was what an amazing time I'd already had, and getting my room key so I could fall asleep as soon as possible.

      Hamburg Airport in the morning (I imagine it looks similar to this in the afternoon and evening as well)

Food!

Before I begin the story of Germany and my long study tour to London, I thought it'd be nice to post some pictures of some of the food my friend Carly and I have been making here in Copenhagen. I figure this will keep the majority of readers interested in the blog--who doesn't love pictures of food!? I know I do. Usually we'll pick a recipe during the weekend, buy ingredients Monday, and cook Tuesdays, and it's turned out great every time so far! So here's some pictures of food I've been making (with Carly's help):

Lasagna Soup

 Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta (didn't use shrimp in the recipe)

 Chicken Pot Pie

Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich with a Fried Egg in the Bread

 Chicken Tamale Pie

More to come soon!

Cultural Explosions and My 21st

After returning from Western Denmark, I was very excited that I had chosen DIS for my study abroad program. Not only had we been given a chance to spend 3 days traveling, exploring, and getting to know our core class, but we also got a chance to tour and hear talks from biomedical companies firsthand--something not many other programs offer. However, DIS is big on giving students in-the-field experiences like those on the short study tours, which is further shown by the fact that we have no class on Wednesdays. Instead, this time is reserved for field studies in which all of our classes can schedule trips to locations relevant to our curriculum. So far, I've been on five of these field studies, and they've all been eye-opening.

For our Danish Language and Culture class, we took a trip to the Danish National Museum for a tour of the Danish historical exhibit. While this was educational, I'm not the biggest fan of museums; however, this trip was quickly remedied by the free concert tickets our professor gave our class for The William Blakes, a Danish rock band that has (as far as I know) virtually no connection to the romantic poet. I went to the concert in Amager (pronounced Amah [Danes tend to cut off at least half of the majority of words when speaking]) with my roommate, Thomas, which happened to be the weekend of the Danish equivalent of Halloween, Fastelavn. This meant that everyone at the concert was dressed in elaborate costumes, including the band. Our professor also joined us for the show and it was great to talk with him outside of school.

Around this time, I had my 21st birthday. People had commented that it'd probably be anticlimactic turning 21 in a country with a drinking age of 16, but I had to say it was an incredible day nonetheless. What I remember most is that it was the first day over 40 degrees all semester. The weeks before had been below 20, and so walking outside to a warm, sunny day was about all I needed. Things got better after getting an email that I had a package, which ended up being 21 cupcakes from a well known Danish Bakery sent by my Very loving parents.

Coincidentally, my birthday was during Restaurant Week in Copenhagen, a week-long event in which many local restaurants featured prix-fixe 3-course meals for 200DKK (roughly $35). This was an incredible deal, and after looking at a few menus, I made reservations at Cafe Victor for myself and seven of my friends from my program. We had an incredible meal and went out to celebrate at a local bar called The Happy Pig.

 

Shortly after my birthday, I went on two additionally memorable field studies. With my Biology of Marine Mammals class, I went to the private collections of the Danish Zoological Museum, where we got to see, and often touch, an enormous array of skeletons, and stuffed and preserved animal specimens. Our primary focus was the whales, dolphins, walruses, porpoises, seals, and polar bears, but the end of the tour was filled with pretty much every animal I could imagine and many more. It was incredible standing next to whale skeletons and trying to imagine how big the animal would be in real life (some whale are one and a half times taller than their skeletons). The most interesting part of this trip was definitely hearing the stories of some of the specimens, especially the Gaboon Viper at the end, an extremely poisonous snake which our tour guide had killed himself in the Amazon in an incredible story.

 Narwhal Horns (made of pure ivory)

 Walrus Tusks (each one weighs about 25 pounds)

 Who wouldn't want to kiss a polar bear skull!?

 Me standing next to a Sperm Whale's upper jaw (lower jaw can be seen on either side)

I prefer my lions bagged. 

 What buffaloes look like on the inside.

The Gaboon Viper, a snake no man (or baby) should ever be on a plane with

The last trip that I went on before going away this past week was to a closed prison. This took place the day after viewing the Danish film, R, which is a Danish prison movie which supposedly depicts an almost entirely accurate representation of gang violence and life in a closed prison. We got the chance to meet with and speak to two of the movie's stars after the screening, one of whom wrote the screenplay. We found out that only one actor in the movie had any previous acting experience and that virtually all of the rest of the actors were prior convicts who had served time in Danish closed prisons, including the screenwriter, in order to add to the film's authenticity. The film was extremely sobering; within the first 10 minutes viewers are shown a very graphic scene of prison violence, in which a new inmate must knock out another's teeth in order to avoid gang violence himself. Of course, when we actually went to the closed prison, we saw nothing of this harsh life--except from the guards who discussed how rival gangs were not allowed to walk in the same hallways at the same time and that movement in the prison was strictly monitored to avoid any similar altercations. 

Overall, I was struck with how much freedom members of Danish closed prisons have compared to our prisoners in the US. If they are not extremely violent, they are allowed to order food off the internet and cook together in kitchens--some prisoners even cook and eat with the guards. Many are allowed to leave on weekends after a majority of their sentence has been served in order to visit family or start working at jobs, and they all own their own clothes and have their own rooms, that look much more like dormitories than prison cells. Sentences are also much shorter--we met a man who robbed and murdered someone for drugs who was serving 12 years, and said he could get off in 9 with good behavior. While at first this stunned many of us, I've developed more of an open mind as I learn more about the Scandinavian justice system, a system which promotes getting someone rehabilitated and out of prison as soon as possible so that they can successfully reenter society.  

My final burst of culture took place at my Monday acrobatics class at AFUK on February 27th. I walked into the main entrance to the building to be greeted by a huge banquet hall full of tables with fine glasses and fancy cutlery. I was ushered to a different entrance of the building, confused, and told I could not walk through this way tonight. After getting into the practice room, I was informed that Denmark's minister of culture was going to be touring the facilities that evening with several European dignitaries as part of a tour of influential organizations receiving state funding in the fields of arts and culture. The minister entered our practice room and gave a speech to both the dignitaries and my class, discussing how much the circus academy gives back to society in Danish culture and how it had impressed many of the other members of the tour. Two members of the academy then gave a double trapeze performance for the minister, which was accompanied by a live theremin performance--an instrument I had never thought I'd see performed in person. 

At the end of practice that evening, one of men in my class, Jacob, asked me if I was coming to Germany with them that weekend. I told him I didn't know anything about this, and he told me about Akrokiel, an acrobatics convention in Germany that the group went to every year that would be taking place that coming Friday-Sunday. This sounded like an incredible opportunity, but I had plans to go on my long study tour to London with my biomedicine class that Sunday and wouldn't be able to make it back to Copenhagen in time if I went. We discussed possible options, and I left that night determined to do everything in my power to make it to Germany to spend a weekend with 200 acrobats from all over Europe...