JA!

DIS Biomedicine is the road I chose to take, my entries are not about the potholes, detours or the smooth road travelled, but more or less the impact the road had on the car itself. 

Never did I imagine the places I'd see or the people I'd meet. There's really a reason why Denmark has the happiest inhabitants, I cannot pinpoint what it is for it almost feels like its in the air, you're consumed by it.

I know I'll be back, it's a matter of time.

JEG ELSKER DANMARK!

Helsingør

Trojan Horse

We're almost at the end.

A couple weeks left and this journey has almost ended, instead of panicking, being a neurotic mess studying for the Organic Chemistry cumulative final, I find myself working on a paper that will be a contribution to a Wikipedia article, ours will be on the "Trojan Horse", and no, not the wooden one. Here's a sneak peek! 

Genentech’s method of disguising and transporting the therapeutic antibody by attaching it to a receptor-mediated transcytosis activator has been referred to as the “Trojan Horse” method.

Finally, science that'll contribute to real life, right now.

Советский Союз

Feeling like a building in a war zone, they're all crushing and falling around me as I stand there, untouched, waiting for one of their falls to take me down with them. Where I stand, I don't believe I belong. They're all collapsing on themselves, but all that I'm waiting for that oblique fall, that takes me down with them. 

As you might've guessed, this scene did not take place in Denmark, rather, it is used as a place of longing. Instead, I am speaking of a place that bears the emotional duo of belongingness and aggravation. A land under former soviet rule, Russia.

2 weeks spent and a possibility of more to come as a Russian official took me off my flight. I do come with good news, as I write to you from Copenhagen.

Kuskovo Church and Bell Tower

Either/Or

Choice.

Seems so important at the time. Did you wonder if any of it will matter at the end?

Søren Kierkegaard's Either/Or, "A" says that whatever you choose, you'll end up regretting it either way. Either/Or. Should life be lived on impulse, whatever makes you happy at the moment, or does one commit, with only one purpose in mind, to become oneself, which is what "B" believes. Does becoming oneself supposedly make you a better person, rather than running around like a jolly fool?

Would I be so bad as to say that I agree with "A"? Is choosing happiness over identity, wrong? Or perhaps that is my identity, in which I commit no wrong at all.

To avoid making a choice, is a choice in itself.

Dominus illuminatio mea

The University of Oxford which our Biomedicine group
visited on the long study tour in London! 

It's like floating down a river, led down an unknown path, an unknown destination, held up by nothing but your own peace of mind, for you know, panic will only drown you.

I like this scenic path, whatever the destination may be.

Kærlighed

Loving just one is too little; loving all is being superficial; knowing yourself and loving as many as possible, letting your soul hide all the powers of love in itself, so that each gets it's particular nourishment while consciousness nevertheless embraces it all - that is enjoyment, that is living.
- Johannes, The Seducer's Diary
Either/Or

Rainbow Smoke Room at ARoS Museum of Modern Art
Visited on short-study tour.
Aarhus, DK

Kronborg

"There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life's highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death"
Søren Kierkegaard

Denmark fathered the misfortunes of Hamlet and was perhaps even the result of Søren Kierkegaard's misery. How does such history emerge to present raptures of Kongeriget Danmark?

Yesterday, an mere10 minute bike ride had taken me to Elsinore Castle, the sun had set and the wind picked up.

There's was something inexplicable lingering in the humid cold air in what was left of the medieval city of Helsingør. No longer was Halmets father an imagined spirit that only Hamlet himself once saw. The darkness began to surround you, and deeper it went with every breath you took.

Architecture of such promising vision, chosen to bear a tale of tragedy.

Is beauty a mask as a result of emotional distress for which ones tires to hide the interior mystery or a sign of grandiosity?

Can be both.

A country of such troubled history is now called the happiest place on earth, perhaps, lives leading up to this century were lives lived without boundaries followed by a symbolical death.

Looking down on us, we are not that different from those insects, except, we don't all die happy.

Helsingør

København

A week before my departure to Denmark, I had a triply ass Alice in Wonderland dream. It was a foreshadowing of my adventures in Denmark, as I remember, this place was magical, way far from reality. I remember wicked looking trees and perfectly trimmed bushes as I was sitting in a garden with everything blossoming. I also remember bodies of water, some were big and open while others were dark, mysterious and contained many speckled shadows.

The first day riding the train from Helsingør (my residence: International People's College) to Copenhagen, we passed the sun rising over the body of water that separates Sweden and Denmark.

We passed by trees whose trunks rose from the dirt at a very low angle, as the branches almost seemed to swirl on themselves, never have I seen nature on crack.

 

 

Going to Rosenborg Castle, the garden had perfectly trimmed yellow dried out bushes, it's leaves did not seem dead and crusty, they had a shine to them, a shine which enriched the castle making it look like it had been surrounded by gold, instead of something as simple as leaves.

I headed back to Helsingør at around 4pm, it was getting dark outside as the sun sets at around 3:30pm this time of year. On the 50 minute train ride, I encountered many little frozen over ponds which were surrounded by trees and shrubs.

 

 

Train moves at 60km/hr, everything seemed to come out of nowhere and disappear as fast as it came, until tomorrow.

Det er fantastisk!

Unlike the Mayan prophesies, Nostradamus never declared a world ending, however he did mention his prophesies only went as far forward as the year 3797. My favorite Nostradamus prophesy? Steel birds in the sky.

Tomorrow, apart from myself, 302 people will walk into that cabin, sit their asses down and make themselves completely vulnerable to something so inhumane, an aircraft. Our lives are no longer in our hands.

Which term to do you prefer?

Steel bird, a name that gives machine a soul or airplane? Man made, just like your fine shoes.

While you ponder your mind, might I mention that flying is not one of my fears, far from it actually, I love everything about it, the liftoff, the landing, all of it makes me rather excited!

Which term do I prefer? I'd have to say airplane. Steel bird does make it sound like you're putting more of your trust into God, but who said that the almighty (should I have capitalized that?) is closer to perfection than us humans are? After all, he did create us (or did he?) and wasn't that a huge mistake?
Also, the way I see it, birds are rather useless, they peck away at our foods and then shit on it. Airplanes? Well, airberlin is going to take me to Denmark, I'll trade that in for garbage and poop. However, a steel bird is just a cool combination of words.




Steel Bird

aurora borealis, Latin for northern light.

Light is something that makes things visible. Vision is the power that allows you to anticipate what may come to be.  

My life had many moments which presented themselves with absence, perhaps it was the lack of luminance. 

At last, I see a spark, one that has ignited all my senses. A burning sensation travels down my spine in anticipation of my journey to a Scandinavian country located in Northern Europe. 

As light shines through darkness, a revelation follows the emptiness you once knew.

Denmark, my northern light.