Well, I didn’t update you all last week, but in my defense I was in Western Denmark.
This is a clever term for Americans who know nothing of Denmark’s geography; the Danes would never call it “Western Denmark”. No, I visited Aarhus and Odense, Denmark’s second and third biggest cities respectively. Essentially, we were on a weeklong field trip, “we” being the entirety of my Medical Biotechnology and Drug Development class. We were touring various pharmaceutical startups, university biochemistry facilities, and even big pharmaceutical corporation research headquarters.
After a quick stop at University of Copenhagen’s BioPeople, a place devoted to making connections between patient interests, academia and industry, we drove across the incredibly long suspension bridge between Denmark’s islands to Odense. After a lecture on organoids and 3D cell culture and a delicious (American) lunch of giant hamburgers, we had the chance to explore Odense that night. They call it a city, but Odense’s population is about as big as the 123rd biggest city in America. That being said, it was a really cute town. The snow was drifting down gently, and it was a Monday night, so the walking streets were quiet and peaceful. It really felt like Europe. We had a super delicious meal of handmade pasta, and then found a bar that by some miracle was having a free jazz performance that night. Surrounded by modern jazz, raucous and cognitively disorienting, with candlelight flickering on the table and friends laughter punctuating the air, it felt like a moment. It just did.
Awaiting their musicians
The next day, after another lecture and excited for our bus nap, we departed to Aarhus, and my favorite part of the whole trip, the ARoS Museum. I’m not the biggest modern art person, but the ARoS Museum changed my mind on modern art. For starters, they have this amazing rainbow panorama on the 10th floor that you can walk around and see the city. I’ll just put the pictures below, so you can see for yourself. It was incredible. Afterwards, we walked around Aarhus in the freezing cold and bitter wind for about 2 hours, even venturing into a cathedral and having a conversation in Danish (well, the 20 of us collectively could translate) with a lovely elderly woman about the church’s history and art. This whole walking around in the freezing cold proved to be a poor decision, because this was around the moment when yours truly got sick. Cold, borderline flu, I’ve spent a couple days indoors recovering after the crazy week was finally over.
Every change of color brought with it a whole new perspective of the city- really cool!
Some awesome (and vaguely frightening) street art in Aarhus
We drove back to Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon, after touring a Nanoscience facility, which was MIT levels of cutting edge- except that I was far too sick and tired, to notice all that much of what they were telling us. The highlight of the week, at least for me, was Thursday, when we went to Novo Nordisk, one of the world’s largest insulin suppliers, and I fangirled. You know that common idea that Big Pharma is out for profits and nothing else, at the expense of patient wellbeing? Yeah, Novo Nordisk was the opposite of everything I was expecting. It was, for lack of words, exactly the kind of environment I would like to work in- full of collaboration, expertise, and a genuine concern for ensuring the best quality product achieved through high scientific standards. I get to go back for my Diabetes class, and I might just devote an entire post to that day, so stay updated! If you made it to the end of my crazy busy blog post (it was an even busier week), thanks. More next Monday.
At Novo Nordisk!
Ever lovely yours.
Eleanor