Based on the amount of notes and the number of pictures I have taken, I feel as though this blog could be incredibly long. But…tomorrow is our trip to Lake Como and I certainly don’t want to be sleepy while I’m trying to spot George Clooney! (and learning the fascinating history of the city and lake, of course). So instead I’ve decided I will just reveal the highlights of my trip so far; the cultural and academic things that have struck me the most. Cultural first, then I will get down to serious academic business.
Cultural things I have learned in Milano:
1. Gelato is good. Any time of the day.
2. Gelato can cure almost all ailments.
3. People in the streets will not tie rainbow colored bracelets around your wrist just because they are nice. They definitely will want five euro and they may even be a little too forceful about getting it.
4. Other “kind” strangers may put seeds in your hand and when the raise your hand in the air and whistle, pigeons will flock. It will be terrifying. But also kind of cool.
5. If strangers do the aforementioned act, they will probably ask for ten euros. Only give them one or two.
6. Lying on green grass, in the sun, surrounded by statues and buildings that have seen the span of hundreds of years full of war and history, is simply amazing. It can also a great place to take a brief power nap right after a large plateful of pasta.
7. Cotton candy, though called by a different name, is made the same way and tastes about the same as in the U.S. I believe the Italian word for that is delicioza (though that may be wrong).
8. The phrase no comprende is pretty multi-lingual. An older Italian woman can say it and I will know exactly what she means even though she, (as she told me in Italian) “doesn’t speak English.” I even learned that we can bond over clothes in Zara regardless of the language barrier.
9. And finally (for now at least), I have learned that American influence is everywhere. While it is kind of nice to recognize the beat of “What’s my name?” or a similar pop song playing in a cute littler European cafe, sometimes I really just want to get away from the same old club music and the same old hamburgers and French fries. Although I promise I have not been to a Italian McDonalds’, I can already tell they are quite a bit classier than at home. I suppose I wouldn’t expect anything less from Milano!
And now…academic things I have learned in Milano:
1. Blogging is an excellent way to achieve maximum savoring. This I actually knew before this trip, because I have my own blog that has been updated on the entire Denmark adventure, but the fact that I have a real excuse to sit down and write my thoughts about the trip and the academic visits really proves that reflecting on an experience makes it much more meaningful.
2. Favorite quote from Antonella della Fave: “Never think you have a brilliant idea and you are the first in the world to think it up.” This is somewhat depressing for me, but even more so it is inspiring. One of my dreams is to be a researcher and starting at this early stage in my research career, I often do think that I need to come up with the most elaborate, new, unique psychological idea or theory. The talk from Antonella helped me see that that is simply not the way it works. I will have ideas, I will have interesting thoughts, but I am certainly not the first to think them. The best I can do is expand on them and contribute my part to the world of psychological research.
3. The concept of flow is more cross cultural than I imagined and I certainly did not know actual research was being done on “optimal experience”. I find that fascinating and am anxious to read a few more articles on this concept and how it could be incorporated into life to increase quality and meaning in the larger scheme.
4. There is no perfect culture in the world. I knew this before, but had never thought about it in such explicit terms. Each culture is different and even though I come from a specific “Iowan” cultural, that does not mean Iowan is the only way to go, or even the best way to go. The real idea is that there is no best way to go, and that is helpful when you begin doing cross-cultural research because before you can integrate and work between cultures, you have to realize that they are different, but not separate by levels of “rightness” or “wrongness” or “weirdness” or “normalness”. Our culture seems right and normal to us, as does their culture to them. And that simply cannot be forgotten when one culture creates measures to use in the context of another culture.
5. I am beginning to understand the validity in qualitative research methods. I have to say, even after that debate at Aalborg University, I was still skeptical about the usefulness of these methods. I have spent my three years of college reading, analyzing and critiquing empirical methods. To suddenly have qualitative methods served to you on a platter is quite eye-opening. But it is even more eye-opening to see how those methods can be used effectively and can help bring about actual changes and improvements in some type of suffering environment.
6. This is not entirely academic, but seeing the Last Supper today was mind-blowing. I was not quite prepared for the scene that actual lay before me as I approached the wall. Of course I have seen that painting in photographs and heard all about it in The Di Vinci Code, and when you are not standing in front of the actual wall it can be easy to somewhat dismiss its importance. But when you stand there, and you see the detail of the floor and the tablecloth and the ceiling, and you see the expressions on the faces, and you see the twisted agony of the limbs…you know it is real and you suddenly feel like the train of history ran into you with full speed and jarred every bone in your body. That painting is hundreds of years old. That space used to be used as a barn, a barracks, a fire station. For many years the painting was exposed to open air and not regarded as a most treasured item. And now it is preserved as though our lives depend on it…and we got to see, up close and personal. That for me, was a most amazing experience.
I should wrap this up now. So many more wonderful things have been seen by my eyes and experienced by all of my senses, but I simply can’t describe them well enough at this sleepy hour of the night. Hej hej for now!
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