Sweden Day 5: Education & the Nations

8 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden

Today, Andy told us about the differences in Swedish pharmacy education, and we shared our curriculum with him. The Swedish pharmacy students have a 3-year option to become a prescriptionist, or a 5-year option to become a pharmacist. Prescriptionists are mainly seen in community pharmacies, and pharmacists tend to do research or go into industry where they make drugs. Andy is a social pharmacist (as is Sofia). Students begin the pharmacy curriculum directly from high school, or after taking a year or two off to work and decide what to do with their lives. Therefore, a lot of their curriculum overlaps with our undergraduate prerequisites. The prescriptionists' curriculum deals mostly with the sciences and how to talk to with patients. The pharmacists' curriculum centers more on science, with very little focus on patient-centered activities. They do not even talk to patients until their final semester in which they work in a community pharmacy. When Andy finished this part of his coursework, he wrote a strong evaluation regarding the lack of pharmacist-like activities. He was more like free labor or a technician for a semester. Thus, the director of the program asked him to take over the internship planning after reading his evaluation. From there he became a teacher, then in charge of the internship portion of the curriculum. He now does research on the importance of reflective learning and patient counseling activities.

We also got a tour of the BMC which is a very modern-looking building, although Andy and Erica didn't think so in comparison to other Swedish buildings. Lecture halls and laboratory faciltiies are similar to those we have back in Memphis.











For lunch, Josh and I returned to Bla (pronounced Blua). Sadly, they had a different choice of meals, but I've photographed them. I got the same Greek salad, and Josh had a tuna pasta. We also got small salads before our meals were brought out. There was red wine mixed in with the oil dressing today, and it was pretty strong!





After our morning with Andy learning about Swedish pharmacy education, we decided to complete our sightseeing in Uppsala. We visited the Linnaeum which is in the center of the Botanical Gardens. There were many trees and even cactus housed in the same building. The botanical gardens are huge, and we were able to walk through them. Sadly, nothing was actually growing as spring has only just begun in Uppsala. There is a tropical garden in a greenhouse as well with many trees and tropical plants.


After enjoying the Linnaeum, we walked up the hill to the Uppsala Castle.








It is visible from all over the city, and a beautiful view of the city is visible from the top of the hill. The castle was originally a fortress built to defend the city in the 16th century, but was destroyed by a fire in 1702. Parts of the castle were demolished, and the north wing of the castle was never rebuilt.





Bastions remain in honor of the castle's original purpose.











For dinner, Josh and I decided to visit one of the student nations. Nations are similar to fraternities, but students join them based on their Swedish homelands. There are 14 nations in all. We were told that the Norrlands Nation's Pub--Orvars Krog--is the biggest and the best one. They serve about 2,000 liters of beer per week just on tap. This is the most beer sold in Uppsala. The Nation overlooks the river.



I had the Robbo burger which this Nation is most famous for--it was very simple, cheese and a garlic dressing. Fries were included.







I tried two kinds of Czech beer from Prague--Starospramen. There was a lighter version and a darker version. I like the light one; Josh likes the dark one.







And this is just a pretty picture from a little bridge over the river that I like from today =)

Sweden Day 4: Part 2

7 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden

For the afternoon/evening, we walked back over to the BMC. I took a picture of it finally! We met up with Sofia, and she and her colleague Erica were working on a research proposal about the impact of pharmacists on counseling patients with the new switch to generics that is occurring in their healthcare market.






From there, Sofia and Erica were going to walk us over to the Pharmen buidling, which is the pharmacy student union. However, we met the VP in the hallway, so we walked with her from the school. The Vice President's name is Ana, and she is very nice. We talked about the differences in pharmacy education with her--pharmacist vs. prescriptionist. I should be able to describe these differences in more detail later today, as we are meeting with Andy to talk about that later.


Once we got to the Pharmen building, Ana showed us around the ground floor. This holds a room referred to as Apotek (the Swedish work for pharmacy), and is filled with old apothecary stuff--kinda like the stuff that Dr. Eoff keeps in the Johnson Bldg conference room and will eventually display in the new pharmacy building. There is also a very large room that they rent out for parties and dinners and such. There was once a restaurant in the building, but it is no longer open. I believe that the kitchen is also on this level, but we didn't get a tour of that.



The floor above contains offices, computer rooms, tv rooms, etc. They produce a magazine called the Reptile. This is a student-produced, rather than administration-produced, so we don't really have anything comparable at UT that I'm aware of.

The basement holds a room with a bar in the corner where they hold the Mentor's Pub every Wednesday. This is an event where the students in the union are invited to the Pub (which serves reduced price food and beer) as are local pharmacists. It's kind of like a networking event where the students can talk to the local pharmacists about their jobs and opportunities in pharmacy.

I had a Greek hamburger for dinner which was very tasty. I don't have a picture of this because you all know what a hamburger looks like, and it didn't look any different. Josh also had a hamburger, though I think it was just a plain cheeseburger, nothing fancy.

We stayed and chatted with the students for awhile about the differences in our educational programs. Prescriptionists go to school for three years, and pharmacists go to school for five years. Legally, there is no difference between these two professions. Prescriptionists tend to be those in the community pharmacies, whereas pharmacists tend to go into research and industry. They have a semester of internships which are only in community pharmacy. They are soon going to offer a clinical pharmacy course, which they are excited about.

There was a presentation after the dinner event, but we didn't stay for that because it was given in Swedish.

I forgot to mention that one of the officers bore a strange resemblance to Edward (aka Robert Pattinson) from Twilight. I was hoping that there would be an opportunity for a group photo, so you all could see for yourselves, but alas, there wasn't.

Sweden Day 4: Part 1

7 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden

Today was a big day. I'm only going to post a few things because I have so many pictures from today. This blog is specifically about our morning adventures. I'll write more once we've concluded our evening with the students' association =)

Today's rotation experience starts late, so we decided to do a little sightseeing in the morning. We started off with a visit to the Uppsala University's main building. There were classes being held while we were there. There wasn't really much to see other than the general architecture and some statues of Roman gods.





Next, we went to the Carolina Rediviva which is the University Library. Within the library, there is a small museum which has a lot of neat historical books. I've included some of those that I found most interesting.





Firstly, and perhaps most famously is the Codex argenteus or "Silver Book." This is a translation of the four gospels that is written in silver ink on purple pages. One hundred eighty-seven of the original 336 pages of the text can be found in the Uppsala University library. An additional page is located in Seyers, Germany.







The library also holds such treasures as an original Mozart score, the layout of Linnaeus's gardens as well as his manuscript on plant reproductive systems, and a copy of the first Bible in Swedish--the Gustav Vasa Bible.


















We also visited the Trinity Church which is located near the Cathedral and the Gustavianum. It is very beautiful inside, as you can see from the photo to the left. It is built in the cross shape, similar to the Cathedral. There is a beautiful organ near the front.










Josh and I both agree that this next part has been our favorite part of the visit to Uppsala (at least sightseeing-wise).

After visiting the library, we stopped for a coffee in a local cafe near the main university building. Then we made our way to the Gustavianum Museum. This is definitely my favorite part of Uppsala thusfar! There is a small fee for entrance to the museum, but it is definitely worthwhile. There are artifacts from Egypt, Rome, and Greece on the first level--including jewelry, pottery, and mummies of both humans and animals. The second level holds historical information about the University of Uppsala, including information about Carl Linnaeus as well as Olof Rudbeck. Linnaeus was responsible for the plant nomenclature system as well as his interest in pharmacology and the origin of disease. Rudbeck is responsible for discovering the lymphatic system. The Gustavianum also holds the Augsburg Art Cabinet made of carved ebony. This is a very ornature structure filled with art objects from all over the world. Some drawers are clearly visible, but others are hidden. The cabinet is really beautiful, but sadly, photography is not allowed in the museum. However, you can view the art cabinet and its history online.

The third floor was definitely my favorite part of the museum. This level granted access to the Anatomical Theater. In this theater, dissections would take place. There is a table in the center where the person performing the dissection (at one time Olof Rudbeck) would stand. Onlookers watch from standing-room only levels built in a circle around the central table which are accessible via steep stairs. We were able to climb up and view the area just as people would have back during the dissections. Dissections were performed on executed prisoners and viewed by medical students and paying public.

This anatomical theater is one of the few in the world which is actually servied by natural light. A copper cupola allows light to enter, creating a really beautiful atmosphere, if dissections can be performed in a beautiful atmosphere...






And...the fourth floor contained info on pre-historical Sweden.

That was all of our morning. Sorry no photos of lunch. We just ate leftovers. Hopefully, we'll have something worth photographing tonight at the mentor's pub!

Sweden Day 3: Food isn't so expensive after all!

6 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden

So today, we started our rotation. We walked by the river and around to the other side and up the road a piece ;) which totaled approximately 2000km (or about 1.5 miles, I think). It was chilly out, but it got a lot warmer by the time we made it to the Biomedical Center (BMC). I don't have a picture of the building because we were more concerned about figuring out where we were going and getting there on time rather than taking photos, but I'll take some tomorrow when we go back. As luck would have it, we got there about 10 minutes early!

We called Sofia from the hallway, as the lab corridors are locked. She took us to her office which was very spacious, and we talked for a bit about how healthcare and pharmacy services are organized in Sweden. As it turns out, there are three levels of government: the municipalities, the city councils, and Parliament. The city councils are responsible for the delivery of healthcare. Similar to the United States, there are conservative and liberal parties who can be voted into government offices. At any time, both parties can be in office, with majorities in different areas, making conflict on issues pretty common.

There has recently been a turnover in Swedish pharmacies from being owned by a single company--Apoteket AB--to being sold off to independent buyers. The advantages of a single company owning and operating the pharmacies was that pharmacies could be run in much smaller traffic areas (the far north where few people live), yet still be paid equivalently. There were previously 900 pharmacies with approximately 5,000 pharmacists and prescriptionists employed throughout the system. This allowed for a lot of one-on-one time with the pharmacists or prescriptionists. Pharmacies also sold little more than drugs under this system. The pharmacies are being sold one at a time, for a total of 100 pharmacies to be sold to independent buyers. Additionally, pharmacies can now be opened by anyone. As you can see, this will most likely lead to underserved populations (again, in the far north), as pharmacies in these areas will not be as profitable as those in highly populated areas. Additionally, pharmacies have already begun to sell additional goods such as beauty products, as similar to the US pharmacies.

Sofia and her colleagues--Christina, Hannah, Andy, and another lady(?)--took us out to lunch at a place called Bla (pronounced Blua, as there is a little circle over the A, which denotes an "oo-ah" sound). This word means "blue." They served lots of tasty food there. I had a greek salad, and Josh had some kind of pork and potato dish which was very fancy-looking. At this point, we realized that we may have gotten the shaft with the Indian food, BUT at least it was only one meal... Sadly, I do not have pictures of our food, partially because I was starving, and partially because I didn't want to look like the American tourist in front of our rotation leaders =) However, Josh and I will probably go back there tomorrow or Thursday, so I'll do a reenactment, no doubt.

We walked back through the university campus, or part of it. Most of the town of Uppsala is actually part of the university campus, it would seem. It's very widespread. Oh, and as an additional tidbit. There are 35-40,000 students in the university; there are approximately the same number of people employed by the university; and this does not include the vast number of people employed by the university hospital. The total population of Uppsala is approximately 200,000 which means over half of the population is somehow associated with the university. I also don't really have any pictures of that, as we were pretty tired--or at least I was. This whole time change this has been a big adjustment for me =/

For dinner, we walked down the main street in Uppsala, which we are conveniently located on. The Kungsangsgatan (your pronunciation is probably as good as mine...idk). The shops roll up pretty early around here, around 8:00pm. We went by the ICA grocery. I got a couple of giant bottles of water. For those of you who know my love of water, this probably doesn't surprise you. Then we contemplated eating at the McD's, but found a place called Jalla open instead.

Jalla had an excellent selection of gyros and pizzas. I got a veggie pizza which included cheese, green olives, pineapple, mushrooms, onions, and paprika. It also called for asparagus, but I had them hold the asparagus--who puts asparagus on pizza?! Josh got the falafel pizza which basically looked like a Philly cheese steak pizza. They were both very tasty, and very reasonably priced (75 kronor apiece). 75 kronor is $10. That also included a drink. The thing about carbonated beverages that saddens me here in Sweden is the lack of ice. I guess it must be an American thing, but I like my drinks cold! And nowhere can you get ice in this town...anyhow, for your viewing pleasure, I've included photos of our pizzas below. And we had plenty leftover for breakfast pizza and maybe even lunch tomorrow...or maybe a midnight snack if I can't sleep again ;)

Sweden Day 2: a day of rest

5 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden

I laid down after taking a shower this morning (see photo of bathroom: toilet, sink, shower) waiting for Josh to wake up, and wound up sleeping most of the day... I'm not sure what Josh did while I slept, although I do know that he ironed my white coat for me (that gets him some cool points for sure =)










These are some photos I took of our hostel as well. There is a living area/kitchen sort of place.


















When I woke up, we went to the Cathedral here. We missed yesterday's Easter service, sadly. I think it's an Episcopalian church, but we're not really for sure...but we got to go inside today, and it was really nice. It is the oldest church in Scandinavia, built in honor of St. Erik, whose remains are actually buried there. The church is built in the shape of a cross. There are a lot of stained glass windows. Then at three of the ends (the entrance or the bottom of the cross, and each of the sides of the cross) are three large windows which represent the Trinity--Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.





Carl Linneaus is also buried there beneath the floor, and there is a little statue off to the side. He is the guy who was responsible for plant classifications, I believe. There is also a garden here in Uppsala, which I think we'll probably visit in the next few days that is named after him. There is also a king and two of his consorts (?), as well as his son and his son's wife buried at the top part of the cross. There is a pulpit that is in the middle of the room, rather than at the front like most churches. The services are conducted from this point, as well as coronations of kings.





There is also another guy with the last name of Swedenborg who is a famous scientist who is also buried there. There was also a place where a lady puts up carved wooden figures which change throughout the year based on the life of Jesus. The one there now is Jesus coming out of the tomb on Easter! Sadly, I do not have any pictures of the inside of the church. No one else was taking them, and I didn't really know if it was right to do so, so I refrained. It was really just beautiful though.






After that, we walked over to the University which was completely deserted. It's still a holiday here in Sweden.













There was a little pub called William's, so we decided to try that out. It was a British pub which served Indian food. We tried out some pretty interesting stuff. I got something that I can't recall the name of, but it was these fried onions with mint sauce. I also got Shrimp Puri which was AWESOME. Josh got this Indian equivalent of chicken nuggets and mushroom soup. You can see our food pictured below.



























We both got Carlsberg Hof beers. I've had Carlsberg at the Flying Saucer in Memphis before, and I really liked it. This was definitely a different flavor, though, more fruity. Food is really expensive here, sadly. We were the only ones in the pub because everywhere was deserted and closed due to the holiday, like I mentioned before.




After dinner, we tried to find a grocery store where we could pick up some food, but we couldn't really find it. I think we'll probably try that again tomorrow. It's a store called ICA, which I saw, but our waitress had told us there was a place called Time on a street I can't pronounce or remember how to spell. We never saw that...and I didn't know that ICA was a grocery.






Anyhow, we start rotation officially tomorrow at 10:30, I believe. So we're going to get there a bit early to find our destination as we have no clue, and things aren't really labeled as clearly as I'd like (or in English, for that matter).

Goodnight!

Sweden--Day 1

4 April 2010
Uppsala, Sweden
Vandrarhem Uppsala
1809 (Sweden...Central...Time...?)

Well, today has definitely been an interesting day. Firstly, we took a plane from Memphis to Amsterdam. I've got some pictures to post of us waiting for the plane. And true to the name of my blog, I'll be posting photos of all of the food we consume on the trip! The plane ride wasn't too bad. It was 8 hours and 17 minutes according to the Delta people. My personal recommendations are to NOT sit in the Exit row unless you have hot flashes regularly or at least a high tolerance for cold. And if you need the extra space, avoid the window seat. And if you DO wind up in the window seat, make sure that you've packed your big winter coat and that you strategically place it between yourself and said Exit.



Even after that, the flight was still not too bad. I wish I'd discovered that coat thing about six hours earlier, but other than that, things were good. We were very near to the bathrooms which was nice. The food was pretty good too--some veggie pasta, a roll, a teeny salad, crackers and cheese (you know my love of cheese ;), and a baby brownie. There were also about 4 movies that played. I didn't watch any of them because the tv monitor on our side was out, and the one farther up wasn't visible to me when I was slumped in my seat attempting sleep. The flight was smooth, though, so that was good. Sadly, neither of us really got any sleep secondary to cold and the light from the bathroom...

From there, we arrived at the Amsterdam airport which is very nice and rumored to have a casino inside, although I didn't see this myself. It was a really clean, quiet airport and gigantic really. We went through customs there. I got right through. Josh got patted down--southerners are very suspicious, you know? There were lots of fancy shops in airport. I'm planning on picking myself out some wooden shoe souvenirs on the way home, as we fly through there on our way back to Memphis from Rome in May. Let me know if you want me to pick you up one too ;)

The flight to Amsterdam was fairly uneventful. Josh and I weren't seated together on that one. I was next to a sort-of prissy girl who kept applying makeup...the food on that flight was super interesting. We got two sandwich halves--one was chicken curry, the other was Edam cheese (not sure yet about this "Edam" part). The curry one was ok, the cheese one was better. They also brought us cookies and little chocolates in the shape of some animal that was somewhat like an elephant, but not, I think...They also had Heineken in airplane size--something similar to those V8 cans. It was odd because we were having a mini-beer in the afternoon, and yet it felt more like 6:00 in the morning. **shrug**

THEN we finally made it to Stockholm! Yay! We were at the Arlanda airport. We picked up our luggage and made it to the Arlanda Central Station (conveniently located in the airport...well, at one far end of it, that is). We got ourselves some tickets and waited in the subway station for our train to Uppsala C (that C stands for Central). I'd have to say that at this point, I feel like I've packed far too much, even though my luggage is really, really small. I'd say lay off on the electronics--for example, if you can leave behind a computer, that's really for the best. Otherwise, I think I'd be set. And while snacks are useful when you're hungry and don't have time to figure out what you want or are too tired to comprehend what is on the menu, they're pretty darned heavy too. I'm hoping to be a bit lighter by the end of the week!


Once in Uppsala (about 20ish minutes on the train--which was a very nice, clean, quiet train), we made our way from the station to our hostel which is called Vandrarhem Uppsala. It's teeny--photo to be posted soon. For anyone reading my blog who's been in Strong Hall and knows the rooms, think of those on 3 or 4 crosswalk. And Josh and I are sharing this, but only for five days. Consult the photo to the left for the full effect...There is also a community bathroom in the hallway. It's a shower and a toilet, but only one of each, and you can lock the door for privacy, which is actually pretty sweet considering that it could be one of those gym-shower type deals. And it's clean and looks new as well. I'll take a picture of that tomorrow for you.



We don't officially begin our rotation until Tuesday, so tomorrow we're going to find our way around Uppsala.

I shall try to stay updated everyday. We do have free wifi--well, included with our room, that is--so I can update regularly from here as long as we have time, which I think we will. That's all there is for now! Off to catch up on some much needed sleep =)

Oh, and PS. It's my birthday! I'm 26, just past the discount age for Europe stuff...dang. =/