London Study Tour: Day Five and Six

Day Five: Wednesday, March 27

8-8:45am: Breakfast at the hotel
9am: Depart for morning visit
10am-12:30pm: Group Visit with the director of Neuroscience Leadership Group 
This visit was something totally new for me. We met with someone who uses positive psychology and neuroscience. All of the activities were very interactive and got us up, walking around, talking, doing mazes/puzzles, competing individually and in groups, and sharing stories together. We started with a hilarious game of telephone in which we stood in a line and waited for the person behind us to write a five letter word on our back, which we then had to "pass on" to the person in front of us. Let me just say that I was the fourth person and by the time the word got to me, it had gone from W A T E R to O E W N __ (it was missing the last letter)... yikes! :-)
I'll also share something that I found fascinating: researchers now believe that the stomach is our "second brain." This means that the stomach has a lot to do with neurotransmitters and communication with the rest of the body (the implications of this from an eating disorder research perspective are very interesting).

View from the bus to work

12:30pm-onward: Lunch and afternoon on own
Wednesday afternoon was SO awesome... I got to go back to the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) where I interned last summer to visit my old colleagues and friends. I took the same route that I took every day last summer: same Tube to the same bus to the same stop and walked up to the front door. It brought back a flood of positive memories and left me longing to be there for more than just an afternoon.

The Eating Disorders Section of the IoP

I got permission from Mads to take the evening off from group activities and therefore got to spend the whole night with the "team." I went out for a glass of wine with Professor A and we brought each other up to date on the research that we've each been doing since we last spoke several months ago. The work going on at the IoP is just fantastic, and I am so honored to have been able to witness/be a part of some of it. It was also great to see Professor A and bounce ideas off her once again. And... she approved my thesis! Yippee! We signed the form and I've now sent it in. SO excited for next fall.

After our late-afternoon chat, we rejoined the rest of the unit for dinner at Frankie's house. We had Indonesian food, which was delicious, but mostly it was nice to get to catch up with everyone. Janet (my other supervisor and the woman who runs the research unit) and I had some really cool conversations and she even asked me to send her some of the things I've worked on over the past year. I was very, very, very sorry when it was time to go, but I tried to focus on the fact that I got to see them. I promised myself that I'd find my way back there at some point in the not so distant future. We'll see though...

Me at work (last summer) 

Some of the members of "the team" at a dinner last July

Professor A and me, near the Tower Bridge, at my Goodbye dinner in August

Day Six: Thursday, March 28th

7:30-8:15am: Breakfast at the hotel

8:15am: Depart for morning visit

The process of getting to our visit with Kate was pretty unforgettable... basically NOTHING went according to plan. We managed to keep a sense of humor about things, which was good because it almost seemed like a comedy sketch. Here is what happened: 

Becca and me, trying to pass the time by rocking out
to Backstreet Boys, Aaron Carter, and B*Witched on the Tube

Getting to the University of East London was supposed to take 50 minutes (our longest commute to a visit). We arrived at the platform on time, but when the train pulled up, it was jam packed. We thought that everyone made it on, but we now know that we left Evan behind (down one student). We got off to transfer and in a scene of mass chaos learned that the Central Line (which we needed to take) was temporarily closed with 10 minute delays. Then they changed the story and said that there was a fire and that it was closed indefinitely. So... we huddled on the platform (surrounded by all of the rush-hour commuters who usually take the Central Line) and tried to communicate a plan to the remaining 24 students (remember, Evan had been left behind). We got on to the next train, but realized when the door closed that we were missing another 9 students. We got off where we needed to transfer (yet again) and waited on the platform for the group who had been left behind to arrive... no such luck. After 3 cycles of trains had gone by, we trudged on (our group was now down to 14). When the train of our final transfer arrived, it was PACKED (all of the people who usually take the Central Line were also trying to find alternative routes) and though we tried our best, there was no way that the whole group was fitting on the train. The doors closed and there was a moment of silence before Paige said (in total deadpan), "And then there were nine" and we burst out laughing. 

By the time we got to the station we were already 30 minutes late. Mads made the executive decision that we were just going to have to go to the visit without the other 10 students and hope they found their way or tried to call Mads (five had reappeared from other random cars when we got off at the last stop)... "survival of the fittest" someone commented. 

Remarkably, we made it, and even more remarkably, everyone else did too! Evan had actually been the FIRST person to arrive! The whole thing was certainly exhausting, and perhaps a little stressful, but somehow it was also strangely fun. 

Evan (without my asking) snapped
this picture of Kate going over
comments with me at a break! :-) 

10am-12:30pm: Group visit with Kate Heffron at University of East London

This visit was the one that I was most excited for. I am doing my thesis on the topic of Posttraumatic Growth, which is the speaker, Kate's, specialty. She's written a bunch of articles that I've read (and also wrote our textbook). Mads had asked her (on my behalf) whether she would be willing to take a look at my paper (from my independent study last semester) to give me some feedback. She happily agreed and not only did she print, read, and mark it, but she asked to set up a time to skype with me in the near future to go over her comments! She even referenced my paper in her talk in front of the class. My heart was pounding as I scribbled down notes during her whole lecture... she was engaging, clearly SO smart, and a great communicator. I learned a ton and tomorrow my goal is to write a follow-up email to her. It was SO fantastic... definitely one of the highlights of the trip. 

12:30pm-4:15pm: Independent time

After the visit, I went off with Becca and Helen for a shopping and lunch adventure. 

4:15pm: Meet at hotel for departure to airport

8:25pm: Norwegian Air flight back to Copenhagen 

And with that, I finish my presentation of London! Looking back the whole experience was pretty amazing. DIS says that "Copenhagen is our home and Europe is our classroom," and I've really come to feel like that is true. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to go on these trips and see Positive Psychology in action while also building relationships with my classmates and friends. Navigating the city streets (and public transit) provided additional learning opportunities as did navigating individual differences between my classmates. All in all, I learned a lot, ate (and drank) well, saw cool sites, met awesome people, and still somehow was very happy to be going home. :-)