Fredag Highlights

Some of the other girls waiting for breakfast to be served

Friday morning we woke up to about 10 alarms. Each girl in my room (myself included) had set at least 2 alarms on our various electronic devices so that we would be sure to get up and out in time for breakfast. We succeeded and got washed, dressed, and packed in shifts so that we all had adequate space to move about. Breakfast in the main cabin was delicious (I think I ate 4 rolls, yogut and musseli, eggs, and bacon!) and it was fun to hear about the other cabins' (similar) bed dilemmas from the night before.

After breakfast we had to clean our cabins, which meant emptying the trash, sweeping the floors, and putting everything back in its place. Seeing as we had been there less than 12 hours, we decided that not much sweeping needed to be done (though we did it anyway), emptied the garbage, and took advantage of the remaining time before departure by wandering by the water's edge and taking pictures on the dock.

Our cabin's proximity to the water 

Me, the ducks, the dock, the dawn

Across the way

New friends

L-R: Helen, me, Joanna, Felicia

Thank you Mads and Louise! Yum

After a bus ride (during which I sat with Evan and sang showtunes), we arrived at this cool refurbished building for the first lecture/activity of the day. We met with two people who run a consulting organization that holds alternative-style workshops with businesses and organizations to help with conflict resolution. The reason that I call it "alternative" is because their approach does not fit the model that we are used to in terms of offering concrete and fixed solutions. Instead they use a series of 100% interactive exercises to get people up, moving, talking, laughing, thinking, reflecting, sharing, and changing perspectives (with an emphasis on the changing perspectives piece).

Waiting for the next instruction during our greeting activity

We talked about new ways to run introductions/check-ins at meetings, specifically creating ways that increase the likelihood that people will actually listen to one another instead of checking-out/mentally rehearsing their own introduction (which we ALL admitted to doing). We went around shaking hands with one another while assuming different roles: pretending we were meeting people who we didn't care about meeting; pretending we were meeting one of our role models; pretending we were a politician greeting potential constituents; pretending we were meeting someone who we thought we were a little bit smarter than, and then we discussed the differences in these different interactions. Some were much more uncomfortable than others, some more stress-producing, and some more energizing.

The "Strength Cards" that we were given to help
pick out the actors' strengths (and then our own)

We also spent a considerable amount of time watching a role play between the two facilitators and interpreting their interaction. We had to assume the role of each actor, explain their thoughts/feelings/frustrations, and then identify strengths of the other character. We found that after taking the time to 1) really understand the other person's perspective and 2) identify his/her strengths, we were much more willing to generate our own compromise/mutually-agreeed upon solution, and then to feel good walking away from it.

On our way to lunch

As we left this activity, I felt closer than ever to my classmates, and was inspired by the idea that this type of work exists. In an age where we all know that "compromise has become a 'dirty word' in politics" (and life), there are at least some efforts to help people develop the skills necessary to learn to work together to solve problems and foster community.

Our group at lunch (we took up the whole top level
of the restaurant)

We walked into downtown Arhus for our lunch break, and dined as a class at Cafe Fraust, which was right along the harbor. The meal was a bit odd (basically inside out hamburgers with various condiments--including raw egg, which I did not eat--that you could add), but was actually quite good.

Evan and me with some gangsters outside the restuarant  

Our walk from lunch back for the second workshop

Our second lecture of the day was a talk on positive psychology in clinical practice (what I am most interested in). I made some truly exciting connections between former clinical research I've done, my own experiences, and the speaker and had even more bonding time with my classmates. My favorite activity of this workshop was one where we got in groups of 8 and using pads of colored sticky notes, identified strengths that we saw in each other. We were all grinning by the end of the 15 minutes, and I was really impressed by the reasons that people were able to give each other as to why they had selected a particular strength for a particular person. It showed just how much we had all gotten to know each other over the past few days.

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip (credit goes to Mads)

Back at my seat, I reexamined my strengths: 

I felt pretty darn good about myself

Love to PPA (positive psychology A)

We then went to hostel #2 to check in and unpack our things. I was in a room with Helen, Joanna, and Felicia again, and we had a new roommate (Megan) as well. Our room was just as small as the previous night's room, but we had an additional person this time and the beds were already in place. Megan noted that there was significantly more space to move about in the hallway than there was in our room! 

Back on the bus and into Arhus for an evening on our own! Mads and Louise dropped us off, gave us tons of information about restaurants, bars, cafes, clubs, and nightlife (such a different approach to the States where because many students are still considered underage, they could never be given advice on good, safe places to go out for the night to drink). Helen, Julian, Joanna, Evan, Felicia, Megan and I went off in search of dinner, and let me just say that making decisions with 7 people who don't really know what they want (but know what they don't want) is not easy. We did manage to find a Thai food restaurant that was reasonably priced and went in for a delicious meal

After dinner our group split up. I went with Helen and Evan to explore and maybe find some dessert and a nice place to sit. We wandered the area for about 45 minutes, peaking in restaurant windows and reading (or attempting to read) menus in search of something tasty for an after dinner treat. We walked by some of the old churches and big buildings posing in front of one of them. 

Finally we found exactly what we were looking for: a restaurant/bar that was also situated right on the harbor and had reasonably priced (and yummy sounding) cakes. Inside it was warm, SO cozy, and quiet. The whole place was dimly lit with tons of candles. We sat on comfy benches and shared two cakes between the three of us. We ate, talked, and laughed for just about an hour and a half before finally (around midnight) heading out. It was a clear night and wasn't too cold, so we decided to save the money and walk back to the hostel instead of taking a cab. The whole trip took just under 30 minutes and while we were walking I commented that it had been my most fun night since coming to Denmark. Helen and Evan agreed. I fell asleep grateful for the chance to make so many awesome new friends. 

 YUM!

More tomorrow.

Godnat!

<3 sara