Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

28 December 2008

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

8 August 2007

The Big Wide World

August 8, 2007
Mood: extremely excited, nervous and scared

I'm scared.

Portus 2008 : July 10-13, 2008 , Dallas, Texas

Accio 2008 : July 25-27, 2008, Oxford, England

I finally got the go ahead signal from my mother to go alone unsupervised to these events.

And I am scared.

I am excited though, cause it's gonna be tons of fun, I'm gonna go meet a bunch of friends that I've never met before. It's a Harry Potter convention, and it's gonna be glorious!!

But I am a bit frightened at the prospect of traveling alone.

Heck, I'm scared out of my wits!!!

I have a lot of "what if's", "what now's", "how's", and stuff running around my mind. But ah, things will sort themselves out.

And as my mom said, "You can read English, you can speak English, I see no reason why you'd get lost." See my mom, the Sagittarius. :D

I'm soooo excited! Words cannot describe the excitement I'm feeling right now. If I could, I'd pack my suitcase right now and wander off... but I can't! I need more money, more time, more preparations, more everything!!

And I'll have to ask my mom's help about ticket reservations and stuff... I've no problem with Dallas, cause someone's gonna pick me up. But you know what scares me the most?

England's train stations.

They've got a whole web of trains!! Honestly! I don't understand a thing!! I'm scared!! Accio sounds like a formal but fun event, and it's in England! ENGLAND!! But it's gonna be my first time there and I'll be all alone!!

Well, granted, two people I know whom I've never met are gonna be there too but that's beyond the point.

I do know an Englishman, but I'm too shy to bug him for help. Honestly. Maybe as a last resort.

Jerry! You have to freakin' help me!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

I am at the verge of panicking; yet the event is a year away!! Holy crap!! >_<;; I guess I'll just have to reassure myself that it's all gonna be okay. That everything's gonna sort themselves out...