Important things I learned today

1. How to bike for 25 minutes and not build up a sweat. For those interested, the trick is to pretend you're not a speed demon (which is really hard for me) and take 'er easy. Lack of showers at the hospital has me doing the whole commuting-in-work-clothes thing. Unfortunate because the loaner bike I have is killer (internal gears and everything, though I fail to understand the advantage of having pedals that can only be used one way).
2. I'm probably not going to be a surgeon (at least not a thoracic one). Yup, first day. Not that I don't find it interesting, I just can't handle standing for 5 hours straight. Lower back was killing me; maybe it's because my abs are so ripped that my back is pulled all out of alignment. Still going to be a fantastic experience (especially since I wouldn't have gotten to experience thoracics otherwise), and I'll be able to suture like a mo-fo, but thoracic surgery is probably not the life for me.
3. The secret to stitching an aorta. You ready? The trick is to do it really fast. Had to get sprayed with blood to learn that one.
4. If someone asks you where the 'windy city' is, the correct answer is 'Copenhagen', NOT 'Chicago'. I think I understand now why alternative energy such as wind turbines are so popular in Scandinavia: it's so freaking windy here! This conveniently brings me to how I'd love to take a boat to Poland, preferably a(n almost tall)ship I saw at the docks today.

Sightseeing has been fun so far. Have taken lots of pictures, but am too lazy to try to figure out how to upload them right now. Visited a canal with lots of funky sailboats today. It's along a busy street with restaurants, cafes, and the like. For those who are familiar with my love of all things nautical, you'll appreciate how good a time I'm having.

I still hold that the Danes have a terrible sense of timing. After specifically telling me to show up at 7:45 for a meeting (which was in Danish, by the way, and a complete waste of time), my preceptor dude comes strolling in at 9 am. Wanker. At least I had time to meet Osvaldo, the other exchange student from Mexico. The airlines lost all his luggage when he arrived, so when he presented himself to the preceptor (also yesterday, so I wasn't crazy in thinking we started on Monday), he took the day off to buy some clothes and such instead of sightsee. His take on it: 'actually, it was kind of funny'. We discussed hitting up Sweden at some point, likely on a weekend.

Also met one of my roommates today. He came home for a few hours, probably just to shower and change. He's currently at a festival of some kind. Seemed to be ok with me using his computer, and very happy that I'd feed the cat for them all. Nice guy, though his room reminds me of Simon's when I shared a house with him.

Did I mention there's less than 6 hours of darkness here at night? Haven't woken up early enough to figure out exactly how much less, but that's crazy.

Ok, that's it for now. Cheers (speaking of which, beer, not to mention foodstuffs, and general knicknackery is prohibitively expensive here; all the more reason to look forward to my future travels),
-lp