Copenhagen. Day 2 - the lectures

To the university building

For the next day, I had all planned, or at least, I thought, that I had it all planned. I mean, I had this route learned , which was supposed to be my road to the university building, where the lectures would be held, however, I didn’t really think, that it would need much time to get there. I had been using google maps for a pretty long time already and I was sure that I wouldn’t get lost or anything, because there were all these signs and street names and everything.

It was the Thorvaldsensvej street, that I had to walk on and then I had to go straight, until the Bülowsvej street started, where there was this building with some huge graffiti on it and that's how I knew then that I was on the right way. Then I had to go some streets and Sankt Hans Torv and then I was somehow nearby the University building.

So, it was a pretty good morning, the sun was shining and it was not that cold either and it was not raining like the day before, so everything was fine and I decided to have a cup of tea and go to the lectures. There were already some people gathering in the garden outside the building because of the sunny weather, I guess.

I had to be there on lectures for 9 a.m. and I thought, that half an hour would be okay for my way there, however, I went out a little later and that was why I had to walk faster. Of course,  I had this reisekarte and I could use it on a bus, but I didn’t really know exactly where that bus was coming and whether it was the right one or not, so that I decided to walk from my accommodation to the university building. To be honest, I kind of struggled getting there, but I still managed it with the help of that google maps, of course.

Maybe you haven't heard about  Ågade, Åboulevard , Thorvaldsensvej, Falkoner Alle, etc. Those are the streets, which I had to walk through usually on a usual day and it was not that easy, I must say, and I almost always needed to have my google maps on to find my way around the city.

There was this car, too, on my way to the university building parked along the very large street, called Ågade, which just made my route very nice, because it was just parked there and nobody touched it or moved it, so that it was always there and that's how I knew, that I was going in the right direction! It was my light in the dark, you can say that.

At last I was very happy to see that building that I had seen on the picture and it was pretty high and beautiful, I must say. It was a dark brown tall building with many windows and there was this white cement or something like that on the ground outside of it.

It was called the Maersk Tower (well, turns out, there is this Maersk family, who are pretty rich) and it was the new building of the University of Copenhagen, which looked really amazing and I couldn't really imagine it to be that high and wide, if you want to know the truth.

People there said, that the building had just been built and it was a new thing there and everyone just loved it, especially the students, because it looked so nice and the interior was even more beautiful and comfortable. Getting inside on the very first day, I didn't really have time to look around, because I was already late, however, everything looked amazing around and I couldn't believe, that I was to be a part of this university life for a couple of weeks, which was awesome and I really looked forward to starting the lectures and meeting other students and staff there.

Starting of the course

Well, I was late for 10 minutes already, so that I rushed into the building and went upstairs amazed by all the stuff inside and especially the ceiling, which was kind of strange. Then I looked around wondering where I should go when I saw the arrows and signs about the internal medicine course and it was a blast, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to find that auditorium where the students for that lecture were. It was good, that they had thought about that!

When I went in, everybody was already there sitting around the round tables and there was this one place empty for me at the table just beside the windows. It was a large room with large windows, which made it very bright and lightor whatever. There were many people there and the organizers were explaining some things about the lectures and how everything would be the following days. We were given the schedule and some tips about getting to know Copenhagen and where to dine and where to go by Kathrine and some name tags and notebooks and pens, etc.

Nephrology lectures

So, the first day was about nephrology and we had a pretest about some diseases to see how much we remembered and then the lectures started. Our lecturer was talking pretty interestingly and we really liked the lecture in all. Later when we discussed things about it, everyone agreed, that he did read a pretty great lectures on that day and the following one, because he really made us realize the problems in the kidneys and the things about the diseases of the kidneys. We also had some cases of patients with different kidney problemsand we worked in our groups to answer the questions about the cases and then present them to the others after that.

Lunch

You know, the lunch part of the day was time that everybody loved, I guess. well, it was possible to eat or drink something whenever we wanted, because Kathrine had planned it all! There were always many kettles filled with coffee and hot water and there were teabags and sugar and milk and cream for coffee on the table. And there was this huge bowl, where there were many different fruits,such as bananas, nectarines, oranges, apples, peaches, etc. the nectarines were very delicious, I must say, though I thought, that they wouldn’t have a great taste, because I thought, that they would be like those ones, that we have imported in the large supermarkets in Georgia.

And then, there was this university canteen,which was a pretty large and great place for having a meal or just sitting or hanging around or studying or whatsoever! I didn’t really think, that there would be such great cafeteria down there and neither did most of us.

The canteen was on the first floor and it was just on the left from the main entrance to the building. There were many tables and chairs there and the ceiling was fascinating. There was like large balls falling down from the sky and they were all white and stuff and it reminded me of large snowflakes, i guess. everything was very beautiful there and those large windows made it very open and shiny and you could see what was happening outside in the street!

The canteen itself had its menus every day and though most of the dishes didn’t change, there were some of them, which was just on certain days, I guess. and that was pretty good, because there shouldn’t be just one menu every day, because then it gets boring, of course.

So, there was this plate thing, I mean, you could take whatever you wanted from the bowls there on the tables and then go to the machines and choose the afternoon meal and then the plate thing and put your plate on that thing and it would tell you how much it cost and then you could pay for your meal and have it eaten there. It was a pretty good system and you could pay by cash or by card, so that nothing seemed the problem there. However, when being there for the first time, most of us didn’t know what to do and some machines were in Danish, so that was another problem for us, too, and then somebody helped us and we did understand what to do next time when we wanted to eat something there.

There were also some other things, which you could buy, for example, cakes and sandwiches and yogurts and drinks and stuff, which were more expensive, than those dishes for the plate and that’s why I always bought the salads and meat or fish from the large bowls there.On the first day, I ate some French beans and cabbage and cheese for my lunch, which just cost me 8 DKK and everybody was pretty surprised about the price, that I paid, because no one really thought, that you could buy something for that price there.

Everything there was very well organised and there were those taps for water and the water was really good there. And I read on the Internet, that the cleanest tap water in the Europe is in Denmark and in the Netherlands _ and those two countries were my destinations this summer, so that I was pretty glad and surprised with that information, I must say. There were always clean glasses nearby the water taps and there were microwaves to warm your food, that you had brought from home, for example. There were also the trash cans inside and the things for used plates and knives and forks and glasses and everything and then they used to put them into the washing machines and wash them, of course. And the thing was, that everything was very clean and there was not anything extra in any of those places!

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