Of Houses, Bodies and Chickens

My latest obsession: House (TV series)

I'm currently waiting for an episode to finish loading, and I thought I'd post here to make time go faster.

Yes, House has indeed captivated me. Now I'm hooked. Addicted. Addicted like the show is Vicodin. I go through phases, see... I kind of wonder how this is going to affect me in the long run. Will I be sporting a cane in the near future? Will I be alienating people with biting, sarcastic insights and unorthodox methods [and incredible wit]? We can't be sure. Stay tuned to find out.

Dr House is my new hero. I shall be quoting him more frequently.

Aaaaanyway, as you probably didn't know, I have been away. Since the 27th. I was in Copenhagen. Or rather, I was on a cruise ship en route to Copenhagen - I was only in the city for a mere 5 hours.

But now, to the important stuff!

Whilst navigating through the streets of said city, searching for the shopping mall my mother so craved to set foot on, a banner caught me eye. "Bodies Revealed", it said. I regrettably did not get to take a picture, but the banner also had a picture of a human face - with half the skin missing, thereby exposing the muscles and other stuff underneath. It was at this point I realized what the thing was - it was an exhibit. Specifically, the controversial exhibit where they use real (preserved) human corpses as displays.

So of course, I just *had* to see it.

As I stood in line to buy my ticket, I couldn't help but ponder: I am an 18 year old recovering manic-depressive (self-diagnosed), my role models include Hannibal Lecter, I am taking a course in biology, and now I'm standing in line to see dead humans on display. Hmm... just exactly what kind of career will I have in the future?

Oh and by the way... those things up there? Those barely skim the surface of my credentials. If I listed them all here, I'm pretty sure men in white coats will come barging into my room to haul me off to the nearest psych ward. Fun!

But again, I digress.

Again, I didn't get to take pictures... mostly because it wasn't allowed. And probably because I was too excited, I brilliantly forgot to take my notepad with me. So I had to cram every bit of information in my brain to jot down later. Before you get too amazed, I merely memorized the important stuff and made a mental note to research them all later.

But did you know that on average, smoking a cigarette shaves off 3 hours and 40 minutes of your life? Or that a woman is born with all the egg cells she will ever need in her life? Or that a placenta acts as lungs for a fetus?

You'll learn all this and more from the exhibit. I strongly recommend that you go there. Here is a link to the website if you want more details. Here is another link to the other exhibits (Bodies: The Exhibition, etc)

Before I rave on about another thing, let me go on a tangent about two other things. Firstly, people are far nicer to you if you speak English to them. I don't know why; they just are.

Of course, this only works in places where English is just a second (or third) language.

Secondly - I understand Danish. I just spoke English to the staff because I didn't trust my brain to function properly at the time. But anyway, there were quotes on the walls of the exhibit. Some weren't really quotes, but rather explanations for most of the stuff. Mostly these things were written both in English and in Danish (it was, after all, in Denmark). But there was one text there that was written only in Danish. I found it quite interesting. It said something about how scientists have discovered important findings through research, and also about how much medicine has advanced in the last few years. Then the text goes on to say that in spite of this, there is still much more progress to be made. So - they encourage people to donate their bodies for the sake of medical research.

Why didn't they translate that to English too? I just found that interesting.

Now - for the second gem in Copenhagen: KFC

Denmark is the only country in Scandinavia that has KFC. I have no idea as to why. Low chicken prices? I don't know. But yes. I have not had KFC in YEARS! (This might be an exaggeration...) So understandably, I was beside myself with joy as I sat down and ate a KFC meal in a small, cramped, can-barely-be-called-a-restaurant space.

I took a picture!

Sadly, I must say this...

Sorry, KFC Copenhagen, but you fail. You're not as good as the KFCs I have tasted before. Your gravy is bland, your chicken not so juicy and yes, also bland. The only thing that didn't fail was the "original recipe" breading. Better luck next time.

On a thoroughly different note... While on board the ship, I busied myself with my Rubiks cube. To take my mind off the seasickness, which I am annoyingly very susceptible to. I did take some kind of medicine for it, but it ended up with me being all groggy and delirious... a bit more groggy and delirious than I usually am, that is.


So yeah. Rubiks cube. I was playing with it, then stopped when I saw that it had formed a pattern all too familiar to me now...

That's all for me now! Wow, this has been one long post. Ciao! I may or may not post before or after New Year. Depends on my mood.

PS: Who the hell is the "you" person I've been (sort of) referring to?? The reader? What makes me even think I have one?

...I'm not really functioning that well right now, as you can probably see.

PPS: Again with the "you" thing!!

Our bodies break down, sometimes when we're 90, sometimes before we're even born, but it always happens and there's never any dignity in it. I don't care if you can walk, see, wipe your own ass. It's always ugly. Always. You can live with dignity, we can't die with it.
- Dr Gregory House