Mid-Week Catch-Up

Looking out the window at the rain this a.m

Today was my first rainy day (as opposed to snowy day) in Denmark, and I realized part of the way through the morning that the weather really doesn't matter as much as I thought it would. I don't know if it's because things are still so new, but I don't mind the grey skies here nearly as much as I do at home. The sun is almost always out for part/most of the day, but even today when the sky didn't really clear, I still felt energized and happy. I think a large part has to do with being so active and busy. I'm biking to the train station pretty regularly now, and regardless of how I get to the station, I have a bit of a walk from the station to school and then home again. I get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, make lunch, and charge out the door to commute into the city. The commute involves walking/busing (or alternatively biking), taking the train, and navigating the busy streets (busy mostly from bikes, not cars) during the walk to school. By 10am Monday through Saturday I've gotten more activity and stimulation than I often do in an entire day in Bethesda/Carlisle. Perhaps tomorrow's post will be documentation of my commute!

But moving on, I thought that I would start today by briefly going backwards. I've been doing a lot of "general" posts recently, so I've missed out on sharing some of the interesting things I've done over the past few days. I'm going to do this update using 3 pictures (ok, well 3 sets of pictures):

From the 4th floor overlooking the main entrance

Monday: Evan's 21st birthday! Woo! So exciting! We had positive psych so I got to see him, which was very nice, and after classes we went off exploring the city. One of the girls from our class, Rosy, joined our adventure and we went to the Black Diamond: aka the Royal Library (which will be added to the list of things I love about Denmark). It was absolutely stunning... like unreal! I cannot wait to go and study there on a Saturday or Sunday (wow... I am a nerd!).

Tuesday: Classes as usual... I came in third in my Danish numbers competition (thanks to Lars, who had stayed up to quiz me the night before). During my Developmental Disorders class we did an exercise in which we were given a clinical case and asked to make a diagnosis using the DSM (for those of you who are not familiar with psych stuff, the DSM is like the instruction manual of psychiatric diagnostics).

We worked in groups of three (all groups were given the same case) and from the moment that we got the case I knew exactly what the diagnosis was: Reading disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. It was not exactly the most straightforward diagnosis because the child was a 12 year old boy and so the manifestation of depression had a lot to do with outbursts of anger, aggression, and other things that led everyone else in my class to decide he had Operational Defiance Disorder (or a personality disorder or ADHD, etc). I convinced my group-mates that it was in fact depression and a reading disorder and when the time came to share with the class, another girl in my group raised her hand immidiately and explained exactly what I had explained to her: that depression can manifest itself differently in different people, but particularly people at different developmental ages. This means that a 12-year-old boy with depression will have very different symptoms than a 30-year-old woman with depression. (Obviously this discrepancy is evidence that we need to change something in our diagnostic system, but that's a-whole-nother story).

My professor was very impressed with her though in the interest of honesty I will admit that I was royally annoyed (though I tried hard not to be) that this girl had used my explanation. I understand that she had also agreed and that the credit doesn't really matter, but it was still frustrating. However, in all honesty, at the end of the day I really was proud of myself for making the correct diagnosis.

Mira on her horse 

Tuesday evening: I rushed back home from the city immediately after my last class so that I could meet Helle at the station by 4pm. She picked me up and we went to take Mira to her horseback riding class. It was so much fun to see her up there on her horse, riding with more poise and confidence than I ever was able to muster anywhere near a horse. She was the youngest girl in her class (of 4), but she looked really great!

Wednesday (today): Today was my first field study, a staple of DIS classes that I guess I should explain. Most courses at DIS have one or two field studies during the semester, which take place on Wednesdays (when there are no classes for anyone to enable this experiential learning). Some weeks you may have two field studies (one during the morning block and one during the afternoon block), other weeks you may have one, and other weeks you may have free. While I was waiting in the front of Vestergade 5 (DIS main building), I overheard people describing their morning field studies to each other and they included several museums, the police station, a kitchen, movie theatre, and a walking tour.

Sign on the door of the practice

Anyway, today my positive psychology class met to go to a mindfulness meditation practice. I didn't know what to expect but the experience was really, really cool!

We started by talking about mindfulness, which I guess can briefly be explained as the practice of living in and appreciating the moment. We did several activities including an exercise in mindful eating, where we ate a single raisin over the course of about 10 minutes... yeah! We looked at, felt, smelt, and even listened to (okay, I thought that was a little weird too) the raisin before we finally were allowed to eat it. When discussing afterwards, one of my classmates said, "I've never had a raisin that tasted better! I was just so ready to eat it by the end!"

Everything in the room was white except for the shelves and the blankets. The chairs, walls, table, plant, windows, lamps were all white. This meant that I was highly attuned to the shape/texture of the things in the room. With the absence of color, it's amazing what you start to notice!

We also did three different meditation exercises. Two people fell asleep during the first meditation, which was hilarious (and yes, a bit annoying) since they snored. The first two I had trouble remaining grounded/centered, but the third one I was figuring out a technique that actually worked. We also learned about research documenting the effects of meditation on the brain and general health. Meditation is making its way into medical hospitals with cancer patients, patients with chronic anxiety/depression, and other compromised groups, but it has also shown to be incredibly helpful in stress reduction, anxiety management, and general health.

One of the best parts of the experience was getting to interact with both my classmates and Mads (professor) outside of the actual classroom. People were more relaxed and I really felt us bonding, which is a good thing since next week we go on our first study tour for 3.5 days to Western Denmark. But more on that later. For now I am going to try to get ahead on some reading. Uh-oh... I hear the rain pounding away outside. I think I have jinxed it by saying that I don't mind the weather. Now I've asked for several days (or weeks!) of steady rain. In all seriousness, I may very well be singing a different tune by the middle of the spring (when it's very rainy), but until then, I don't mind getting wet!