April 20, 2012

Today I got up and went to school. My first class was public health ethics. In that class we talked about whether the state has the right to raise taxes on cigarettes or if that is infringing on a person's freedom. Our teacher told us we were playing a "game", but it was basically like a debate with three sides. One side had to argue from the tabacco industry saying it wasn't okay. My side had to argue for the WHO and say that it was okay to raise taxes, and then the third team were the Danish Lawmakers and had to decide what they were going to do. In the end we all ended up winning a prize which was a bag of candy for each team. Normally when you present a group of college students with a bag of candy they devour it like a pack of wolves. This is not the case with Danish candy. Pretty much every type of Danish candy contains either black licorice or black licorice flavoring, and no one really likes it. All of the Danes it by the handful, but I don't think you could pay most American students to eat black licorice. After public health ethics I had my human trafficking class. During this class we watched a movie called "kidneys on ice". It was about these people in poor Eastern European countries who sold a kidney for $3,000 because they needed the money. These people were also not informed about any of the risks that were associated with donating a kidney. It was a very graphic movie. It was very informative, but it made me very uneasy as I was watching it. This afternoon I bought an ice cream from one of the really good ice cream shops in town. I was sitting outside enjoying my ice cream for a little while, then I decided I should head home. It was almost 3:30, and I needed to keep working on my paper. I got to the train station and there were a TON of people there. Apparently there was a problem with the trains. The longer I've been here the less I am liking the Danish public transportation system, but I've learned to live with it. I knew if I waited for the train there would be no way I would fit on the train because so many people were trying to get on. I decided I would walk to the train station before Nørreport because that way I would already be on the train when everyone else was trying to get on it. This theory worked, but the walk between Nørreport and Vesterport was much longer than I had imagined. It wasn't that long, but in my mind I thought it was much closer. I then got on the train, but we were squished for about 5 stops. It wasn't until I was 1/2 way home when I was actually able to find a seat on the train. This has never been an issue before, there are usually plenty of seats for everyone. I got home eventually and I worked on my paper some more. We then had dinner, and my host mom and Laura wanted to watch a movie so we watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". I don't know how many times I've seen that movie, but I still think its a very funny movie. We had a feast while we watched the movie which included pineapple, grapes, pistachios, and best of all flødeboller (thats a Danish dessert that is marshmallow creme covered with chocolate) I don't know how they are so good, but that is definitely one thing I will miss when I get back home. No more flødeboller.