First month review

I have officially been here for one month. I can say that I have never (with the exception of one other current item) tried to be more positive about an experience before. I keep reminding myself that for the past three times I've moved in the past 10 years (wow how it been 10 years since I moved from Colorado), it has taken me a minimum of one school semester to acclimate and begin the process of enjoying myself. Well, I obviously need to speed up the process since I only have ONE semester here. I think I am starting to make some friends, slowly, but its happening. But per usual, they are school friends. Meaning, I will probably never spend time with them outside of class. Wow, classic Ariella move right here. I could probably write out the next few experiences that will happen to me over the next month just because it is all so routine.

The situation is this, I do not love Denmark. I thought I would. I wanted to. I assumed I would. I got myself excited. But I don't. Now, I don't want to sound like I'm uber depressed and sulking in my room all day. I'm not, though it occasionally happens. But I don't love it here. I had very very very high expectations that have not been lived up to. I had expectations of the people I'd meet, things I would do, and how I would be able to alter my own typical behavior in the first weeks of meeting new people. None of those were met, so now I am attempting to rebuild/build what never became reality. I am jaded from past travel experiences, thank you parents.

But the thing is, I'm remaining positive. If for the main reason that if I stop being positive, I might actually cry in my room everyday. So to prevent this, I'm staying positive. For those of you that know me well, you will understand that I am RARELY optimistic about things because when I am, I soon become quite disappointed. Maybe this is a new turn in my life. I am becoming an optimistic person. Its a good start, optimistic about two areas of my life. I am questioning my decision to come here though. I've looked forward to this experience for the past 10 years probably and even wanted to do a full year (thank god I'm not), but I'm still questioning this. Maybe it would be different if I chose another location, who knows. I really miss my life at Case, because my time here feels exactly like my first semester at Case when all I wanted to do was transfer.

I am having a lot of trouble finding people I like here. I realized today while walking to verstergade 7 (DIS), that the reason I don't like 80% of the people I meet, is that they don't go to Case/schools I applied to. The majority of people I don't like, go to schools I had no interest in applying to for a variety of reasons. I realized today how perfect my chose of school was even though my freshman college self would completely disagree with me.

NOW THE BRIGHT SIDE! My classes are overall interesting (although the quality of teaching is mediocre to me). I went to a real life European soccer game on Sunday (FCK vs AaB) and I got a second degree burn on my finger from melted sugar. Awesome.

Human Health and Disease: I learned how to do a gynocology exam on a plastic dummy, delivered a baby (on a dummy), got a tour of an endoscopy suite today, and saw a radiology suite last week. Bummer though, I'm missing how to put in an IV because of Rosh Hashana! I'm so dissapointed. So, daddy...want to teach me over winter break? Also, we are learning anatomy and phys that I learned in bio last semester. But thats ok because it makes class easier and the other students are struggling trying to read an ECG.

Cancer: Actually really interesting, but my teacher is horid. Mumbles, doesn't speak above a whisper, and doesn't answer questions. Material is worth it though.

Genocide: Very interesting, lot of reading. I'm visiting a concentration camp near Hamburg next weekend. Stephanie is in my class. Therefore, worth it.

Danish: Probs my fave class. Who would have thought. I'm actually picking up the language, though I'm too nervous to actually use it anywhere.

I'm going to the Carlsberg factory tour on Saturday.

Main thing I'm looking forward to: 2.5 weeks of class, and then I have 3 weeks off for travel.