Note

The one previous and other soon to come posts have all been written on my iPad during travel. I haven't had much wifi or time to edit, but I want to post them anyway so you may follow our adventures. With that as my excuse, I'll apologize for the multiple typos/autocorrect errors and the semi-pathetic writing. I'll admit it's not my best. But that's because I'm living it up over here in Europe, so I hope you understand :)

M and I are eating an Italian style dinner at a Spanish-style time right now ( it's almost 11 pm for us over here) and then we will be off to bed so we can get up early and leave this lovely olive grove for our trains to Cinque Terre. Looking forward to a little more sun, hopefully, because it was a bit rainy here in Florence today. Hope all is well back home and elsewhere.

R

Tales of Copenhagen

I don't think my telling of our time at the larsens can do justice to how wonderful it was. Not only was I thrilled to be back with them, but we spent the whole time being hygge, playing games, eating delicious food, partying, laughing.

Friday, upon arriving in dk, m and I made our way on the stog to bagsvaerd, the place that was my home 2 years ago. The larsens were home and I was fortunate enough to get to meet Rosie, the larsens exchange student for the past 4 months. She is a wonderful girl from California and I was so happy she wasn't upset that I was invading her space. Quite the opposite, she seemed very happy to meet me and said it would make her goodbye a tiny bit easier. Friday was actually her last day with the larsens. We all bid her farewell at the train station later in the afternoon and she was on her way to Sweden to visit friends before heading back to the US.

Friday night was meget hyggeligt, with bread and cheese and fruit and salad and wine and candles and good conversation. Couldn't have asked for a better welcome back dinner.

Saturday was one of the most fun and relaxing days I have had in a long time. Around 11 am, Michael and his host parents came to the Larsen's house and we all headed out to Bagsvaerd lake. It was a gorgeously sunny day, but not so hot as to elicit much sweat. We rented canoes and spent the afternoon exploring various channels of the lake. At the end of one we stopped and had a picnic lunch, after which the kids and M and I (that'll be my shorthand for Andreas, Rebecca, Michael and I) played hacky sack for a while and then the kids taught m and I to play "dåsen", a game similar to the American "kick the can". It was fun to be 12 again.

After the wonderful afternoon on the river, the Larsen's hosted one of the best barbecues I have ever been to. There were fun neighbors, good music booming from the stereo system inside the house, all kinds of delicious grilled meat and fancy salads, a plethora of beer, wine & liquor, along with an adorable child that we played with a lot. Later on in the evening, one of the highlights was the Eurovision Song Contest, which Denmark won. So that was incredibly fun.

Oh! And floating fire lanterns. That's right, we had floating fire lanterns. You light this peice of burlap that's on a wire at the bottom of the lantern and then hold the sides and top of it until it inflates enough and starts floating, then you let it go and hope it doesn't catch on the tree. Which a few did. And I thought we were going to burn down the tree and the house. But we didnt.

We let probably 6 float into the sky at the same time and then we all stood back and oohed and ahhed until they faded from sight.
The party raged with music and a bonfire and alcohol and lawn games (lit up with an extension cord and a powerful outdoor light from a neighbor) until 4 in the morning, when Michael and I finally gave in and went to bed

People watching people

It's like in the movies, where everyone on the upcoming flight is lining up and the screen zooms in on certain characters, highlighting the woman in high heels, the older man who looks very sophisticated and is mentally counting something with the help of the hand that rests on his carry-on suitcase, the woman on a work call whose Danish accent is clearly heard through the perfectly English words, the numerous men in suitcoats who obviously have somewhere important to be, the girl my age with the badass headphones (she's obviously cool), the dude in a pearl jam shirt, Starbucks coffee in hand. I could go on and on.  There was a slight delay in boarding so this whole line of people was standing in line right in front of a sitting me, just waiting to be people-watched. I've made eye contact with most of them. Makes me wonder what they think of me. And if any of them think this is almost like the movies, when the shot freezes as the viewers are introduced to each person, interesting in their own way, distraught or ecstatic for their own reasons, all of which will be revealed later in the season.

I wish I could write stories. This is fun.

Let the adventure commence!

Here I am, waiting for a first flight to Chicago, after which I will leave American soil and fly to Toronto. From there I will fly overnight to Copenhagen, which actually translates to a 7 hour flight, but it begins at 9pm and arrives at 10:45. I'm generally pretty good at sleeping on flights (meaning I can't stay awake for the life of me) so I'm looking forward to the 7 uninterrupted hours of sleep. Haha. I can't wait to be back in Denmark. I miss the language, I miss the pastries, I miss the s-tog...and of course I really miss my host family. Tonight we will be having hygge :)

My efficient hiking backpack is suspiciously not totally packed full. Room left for presents I guess! I can't tell yet whether I packed too many clothes, not enough clothes or just the right amount. I almost hope I didn't pack enough so I just have to do a little shopping. I'm traveling with a boy so I'm afraid my shopping opportunities are going to be limited. I might have to charm him into giving up just a few hours in each place so I can get my shopping fix...and find treasures for my friends!

The itinerary for almost every place is museums, beaches (or in the case of Austria, mountains), hiking/exploring and trying not to look like tourists. As I mentioned before, we will be in each place about 3 days. Ill try and take at least a few pictures in each place on the iPad so I can upload them.  All other pics I will take on my brand spanking new camera...which I had to buy because the memory cards I bought for my other camera did not arrive in the mail in time :( granted, I should've ordered them earlier, but amazon did say they would arrive by Tuesday....two days ago. And then didn't come. So now I have a camera that can take panoramic shots, extract only certain colors for a shot, take continuous shots at once and zoom in x8. So I guess I can't complain ;) just means ill be encouraged to take the best pictures I can to show you all later.

------ I just got a phone call from my European trebled buddy Michael. He's currently hanging out on Nyhavn and he told me about all the places he's been today. I can picture it so well- I can't believe I'm going to be there soon!

Nw for the boring stuff...I finished my first year of grad school classes! I've sort of already started my class for summer. I'm taking an online stats course, which I actually am very excited about being I haven't taken stats since Knox and I really miss it! And I also feel like I'm a poor excuse for a scientist with my current lack of statistical knowledge. So when I return from Europe I will be spending a good chunk of each day catching up on the class because I'm technically missing the first two weeks of it. I've never taken a summer course before. Now experiences galore!

As I was saying, I finished my other courses- all 4 of them. This semester was challenging, to say the least. But I can't even really express how much I learned. I simultaneously learnt a ton of material and also learnt how little I actually know. I think a good for does that, it shows you how much more there is to learn about the subject. Medical neuroscience definitely did that. To be honest, all of my classes did that. Oh, I know the basics of the fMRI technique? Great, well now I need to learn how to analyze the results, how to calibrate the machine to account for cardiac and respiration cycles, how to understand the underlying mathematical and mechanical concepts that I am only vaguely familiar with now. The same goes for my cog psych class which introduced us to running statistical analyses in excel and to designing programs and analyzing data in programs called eprime and Matlab. So.....let's just say I'm glad grad school isn't only one year long. Because I would be completely inadequately equipped to be any type of scientist.

Ok I'll end the gibberish. My flight has been delayed about half an hour. Thankfully both of my layovers (Chicago and Toronto) are about 3 hours each so I'm not too concerned about missing a flight. I'm not easily bored so ill just enjoy my down time and daydream about my upcoming adventure.



Thanks for reading! And stay tuned, I have a feeling future posts will be a whole lot more exciting than this one

Putting the passport to use

I'm typing on an iPad at a swanky little cafe in the Toronto airport, so I won't write much. I have another post written but its inaccessible on my own in-wifi-ed iPad so ill post it later. First leg of the trip went swimmingly. I even got to watch Big Bang theory and modern family on the flit. What is this crazy technology!?

If all goes as planned, I'll arrive in Copenhagen tomorrow at 10:45. I heard a Danish woman talking earlier today and it made me even more excited to get back there. It's liked I've missed it a lot of something. Weird.

Ok, i better get to my gate. I'll keep you updated! And hopefully post at least a few photos.

In the spirit of adventure,
Rachel

"I don't need to go to the hospital because all of my executive functions are intact and I have no cranial nerve dysfunction" -What a neuroscientist says when asked if she is alright.

Dear friends,
Let me preface this by saying that I am fine, although it appears this being clumsy thing is a new lifestyle choice rather than a once in a while occurrence. Let me follow that by saying it really has been a month (and a few days) since my last post so probably don't believe me when I say I'm going to post more often or not let a full month go by without a post. And let me follow that by saying that this is as good of a time as any to write at least a little bit so here goes.

I'm sitting at home on our couch with my foot elevated and covered in an ice pack. I was planning to be at work this afternoon after a lovely bike ride to church. The lovely bike ride stopped short when I took a tumble between a bridge railing and a "Sidewalk Closed" sign. I know, I know...what was I doing riding past a sidewalk closed sign? Well, I thought I was being smart by avoiding all the pedestrians on the other side of the bridge. Harumph. So much for that.

Anyways, long story kind of short, my hand/handlebar hit the railing, I put my foot down to stop, my foot decided it wanted to be unbalanced and I fell over, my bike fell over on me, I hit my head (but I was wearing a helmet!!) and I laid there for a few minutes not really knowing what to do and maybe saying a few *colorful* words. Like goshdarnit and skiddlderink.

Or others.

And then some nice people stopped to help me. But it turns out my foot was more painful than I expected and upon trying to stand up, I noted some massive light-headedness, started making my way to the ground and found the ground quicker than I wanted to because next thing I knew I was waking up in a very confused state and being told that I had passed out. Gosh darn it, body. You knew you were hurt and just didn't want to face that fact. So you passed out, had a super weird dream full of electroswing music and woke me up nice and gently to the knowledge that an ambulance was coming for me. Great.

The ambulance did come. As did a firetruck. And a police car. The latter two were sent away quickly (thank goodness!) and the paramedics stayed with me long enough to make sure I was no longer light headed, my blood pressure was fine (quite good, in fact! for having just passed out) and my ankle is mainly swollen and likely twisted a bit. But besides that I was fine. So I refused (nicely) to go to the hospital, I signed the necessary forms, and the ambulance left and I hobbled away with my bike. Thanks to good advice from family and help from good friends, I made it home and am now recovering. Man, it wasn't exactly the way I pictured this day would happen. But, like I told the nice paramedic that was helping me, there could have been worse ways for us to meet.

On to bigger and more exciting things, the school year is wrapping up. I cannot believe it. Without wanting to speak too soon, I will say that in 3 weeks I will have *probably* made it through my first year in graduate school. I can't even begin to describe how much I've learned and how glad I am that I am here.

As soon as the school year finishes...well, technically before it finishes, I will be off to Europe for "Michael and Rachel's Epic European Adventure!" Yeeeeaaaahhh, that was as catchy of a title as I could come up with. Let me know if you have any better ideas. It's currently the title for my itinerary, my planner and my special European playlist. We've got all the necessary items planned (except for my train tickets....I really hope those come in the mail soon) and I've even started packing a bit. I'll be toting a rad hiking backpack and another over-the-shoulder bag. Really hoping I can fit 2 1/2 weeks worth of clothes in there. Guess this means I can't bring any textbooks ;)  Actually, to my great fortune, my mom is letting me borrow her iPad so I'll sometimes have internet access and I can pre-load some maps and useful apps on there. I can even put papers for work on there so I can read on the plane and train. But I'll just admit it, I will not be reading those while on the beach :)

Here is our official schedule in case you are interested.....

--May 16th fly to Copenhagen and stay with Danish host families (this is literally the part I'm excited for the most-- I miss my host family so much!!)
-- May 20 fly to Innsbruck, Austria
--May 23 train to Florence, Italy (we are staying at an Olive farm...an Olive grove?..an Olive...I don't know what to call it but it's going to be awesome!)
--May 26 train to Cinque Terre (five beautiful little cities along the Italian riviera)
--May 29 train to Nice, France
--June 1 fly to Barcelona
--June 4 I fly back to the US and Michael continues his trip in Barcelona for another day and then to Paris about the time that I'll be back at work


I suppose I better wrap this up so I can get at least a fraction of the work done that I had planned for today. Hope this finds you enjoying the beautiful weather. Happy Iowa spring...finally!!


Vi ses!
Rachel

Snow break 2013

It's nearing the end of spring...er, snow break. It's a beautiful winter wonderland outside right now, which is giving me more motivation to drink hot chocolate and write this LONG OVERDUE blog post than to study the hypothalamus. I have 14 days until my next medical neuroscience exam. I'll start studying tomorrow ;)

I feel a little guilty about how long it's been since I've written, especially since I've technically been on spring break for over a week now. But somehow that week filled up very quickly and I didn't find much extra time to sit and reflect. During the first weekend I packed up my childhood room. That included a lot of reminiscing, sorting, tossing and packing boxes as efficiently as I could. It was very weird to see the finished product: boxes filling the space beneath my big wooden loft, empty walls (except for the awesome pink, purple and green paint job my family did for me when I was about 8), a pretty empty closet, and just my bed left with sheets, blankets and pillows that will wait until later to be packed. I found some great stuff while cleaning- a high school journal full of angsty entries and epic poems (that have been shredded and really never deserved to see the light of day in the first place), a crisp $20 bill from my Grandma Audrey and Grandpa Darrell for my 8th grade graduation, some report cards (one of which told me I got a 3 (out of 4) for "uses scientific process correctly" HA!), Danish money that will soon be packed to travel back to Denmark with me in May, a shirt I used to love that said "My Space is the pool"......get it?? :P  and, finally, lots of pictures. Of family and of friends. And they all made me smile. Even the ones from middle school when my hair was goofy and my glasses were nerdy.

I'm glad I had a goal. I knew what needed to be done. I needed boxes packed and ready to go to the new house (by the way, my mom bought a new house, for anyone who doesn't know yet. haha). For the record, my new room is going to be sweet. It's going to have 3 light grey walls and one dark grey walls. I picked the colors :)  Anyway, I'm glad I had a goal because otherwise I might've found packing up my childhood room to be more painful. It's sad, of course, to have things changing. It's especially sad in these circumstances, to know that dad would have enjoyed this process, and he would love the new house. And so it's hard to get away from feeling like we're leaving our memories of him there. In the house where we shared all that love and joy and time together.  But we're not leaving it there. We're bringing all the memories and love and laughter with us. To another place that we can make a home. A place we will come for years and years to celebrate holidays or just for the heck of it, because we love to be together.

Back to the things I found in my room. Holy cow, I was more of a teenager than I thought at the time. I will admit, most of the time I found myself to be at least somewhat superior to the average high schooler. I didn't have mood swings (because I was apparently always a bit of a downer), I always did all of my work (because I thought that that was the measure of my self worth), I cared little if people actually liked me (and lots of them didn't) as long as they respected me (and probably only some of them did) and I had surprisingly dark thoughts (I wrote a whole entry in my sophomore english class journal about whether I'd ever have a near-death experience and that maybe it would make life seem less meaningless-- yikes!).  I guess I wasn't as immune to the woes of being a teenager as I thought I was. But I'm pleased to announce that I think I've turned out ok. Thus far, at least.  My perspective on life is much different now and for that I am very grateful. Knox has toned me down a bit (which was definitely for the better) and Denmark has made me more adventurous and Iowa City has made me more responsible, but also more fun :) I find great joy in having the chance to work out, the chance to spend time with my friends, the chance to have one glass of wine with dinner. Those are things young Rachel Clark might not have stood for (the working out, yes. the wine, no).  Anyways, this post wasn't supposed to be all about me. I don't know what it was supposed to be about though, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Onto the upcoming events of life. Starting tomorrow life is going to get a little crazy. The next few weeks include our second med neuro exam, an oral presentation for a conference on campus (which I have yet to create), a draft of my section of a review paper our lab is writing, a few projects for classes, starting an experiment with our newly developed iPad app, giving my "rotation talk" for neuroscience seminar, a trip to San Francisco for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, a visit from my Europe travel-buddy Michael (which will inevitably include more planning for our epic trip!), our second lab exam for med neuro and....that's as far as I can see. Just a few weeks beyond that and it will be finals and then I will be in Europe. Phew! Okay, so I just have this feeling that all of that is going to go very quickly. I kind of already can't believe how quickly this first year in grad school has gone. But then I think about how little I knew before I started about the kind of work I'd be doing and it feels like a lot of years have been crammed into these few months.

OH! Earlier I mentioned that the first weekend was me packing up my room. That was supposed to lead into how this weekend was spent with a trip to Waverley to see Abby and Kyle and that I thoroughly enjoyed my sister (and brother-in-law) time. I don't want to brag too much but I kind of have the best sister and brother-in-law. We went shopping, slept in, ate good food, watched movies, ate more good food, did homework/real work and pretty much I didn't ever want to leave. Not a bad problem to have, if I do say so myself. I'm just grateful they are within driving distance and that they like me enough to let me crash at their place for a weekend :)

I think the hypothalamus really is calling my name now. Until next time... (I'll try really hard for it to not be a whole month before I write again! That was ridiculous. Seriously. I'm sorry it's been so long. For how much I enjoy writing these, you'd think I'd do it more often. )

Stay safe in that lovely spring weather out there and enjoy the end of the week, because it might actually get up to 45 degrees!

Hej hej!