So...here is some stuff I wrote a few days ago on my trip to Scotland. Sorry if it is a little jambled, I'm trying to get all caught up on the last few crazy weeks.
"Firstly, profuse apologies for not writing for so long. It definitely doesn’t mean I didn’t have anything to write about…just the opposite actually. These last two weeks have been packed full; some of it has been fun, some of it not so much. Right now I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to London, where I will then fly to Glasgow, Scotland and board a train that will take me to Dundee, where my awesome cousin Hannah is studying. I am so pumped. We have all sorts of fun things planned and after this past week of school work, I’m not even going to think about the projects I still have to do. It will be so nice to have a little bit of Iowa love over here in Europe. I figured this whole day of traveling would be the perfect time to write some very long blog posts. Prepare.
I hardly know where to actually begin. I have not yet talked about the hyggeligt evening when I transformed from American Rachel into European Rachel…by that I mean I got my bangs cut. No, I guess that does not necessarily make me European…I just like to think it looks that way :) Two days before I left for Milan, my host family had their hairdresser come over to the house for a whole afternoon/evening of cutting hair. I don’t know how they do it, but the Danes can make just about anything hygge (an equivalent American term might be ‘cozy‘, but that doesn‘t do hygge justice). I have been contemplating bangs for awhile so I finally decided it was now or never-- and even if they looked stupid, hair grows so it’s not like I’d be doomed to bad hair days for a year or anything. While I was getting them cut, Karina tooks a few pictures and said “Rachel, I think this has to go in your blog” I completely agreed. After the hairdresser cut my hair, Karina’s hair, Jesper’s hair, Rebecca’s hair, the neighbor’s hair, Jesper’s brother and brother-in-law’s hair (it was a lot of people!)…we all sat down to a delicious dinner together. How awesome is that? I’m not sure if this is common in Denmark or just because my family knows their hairdresser so well, but nonetheless it was a pretty cool thing to experience.
Okay, I know I wrote a few posts from Milan but I think I will briefly go day-by-day just to give you an idea of what our Long Study Tour was really like. One of the reasons I chose DIS was for this long study tour. Each core class goes to a different place for 5-6 days and has academic, cultural and social events. It is an absolutely awesome way to see a new place and experience in a context no “tourist” really can.
Here goes
Sunday, March 6th: Left airport early in the morning and took a quick, 2 hour flight to Milan. From there we took a one hour bus ride through the pretty Italian countryside/’suburbs’. We went out to lunch together and then took a walking tour around the city. It was the most gorgeous day, especially compared to the standard from Copenhagen. It was so nice to get to know the city since we stayed there for 5 days. The evening was free so Lauren, Katie and I wandered around, found a cute pizza place and enjoyed an Italian meal. Memorable quote from that night: “You conquered that pizza the way Napoleon conquered Milano.” (in reference to the history lesson we got during the walking tour around the old castle)
Monday, March 7th:
This was our big day of academic visits. We first went to a lecture by Antonella Della Fave, a leading researching in Positive Psychology at the University of Milan. She discussed everything from the cross-culture issues surrounding positive psych research to her personal research on optimal experience and ‘flow‘. Flow is the state when you are doing something you love and you lose all track of time. Usually hours fly by when you think it has just been a few minutes. During flow, you can so absorbed you maybe forget to eat and you will not notice any fatigue you feel until you finish the activity. Flow is an important part of well-being and that was a fun discussion to have because we all started thinking about what we are doing when we experience flow. A way to utilize her work is by encouraging people to do things that will help them achieve flow more often. It can have a very significant impact on a person’s overall feeling of satisfaction with life. The cross-cultural part of Antonella’s lecture was interesting as well because of some methodological differences that have created a discussion/debate with our class ever since the short study tour. American psychology focuses strongly on empirical studies, ones that have variable that can be measured. These variables can be analyzed for correlation or possibly for causation if one of the variables are manipulated while the others are held constant. This is the method we are taught and we read in the respected psychological journals. European psychology, however, focuses much more on qualitative methods, which is when you make observations about behaviors and analyze those to create theories. (Gotta go catch my plane!)
(Momentary pause: Right now I am sitting in the Queen Street Train Station in Glasgow, Scotland. I caught the bug from the airport quicker than I thought I would but then I missed the earlier train by 2 minutes. The next one doesn’t come for about an hour. But that was the one I told Hannah I would take so I might as well just do a little people-watching and blog writing while I am waiting. It is funny how different from Copenhagen Scotland looks and feels. The downtown area of Glasgow has a much different façade look than Copenhagen and the train station, while fundamentally the same, is also very different. ALSO they drive on the left side here and the entire bus ride to the train station I just couldn’t get over it. It is so funny to see cars that look so similar to home, Denmark, everywhere else I have been…but then see inside and the driver is on the left! Hannah made sure to warn me to look carefully before crossing the street so I didn’t get run over by someone coming the opposite direction than I’m used to. That would’ve been a not fun way to start out this little trip.)
Anyway…back to Milan.
Monday afternoon was another academic visit at a place called Ayurvedic Point. Ayurveda is a type of alternative healing that comes from eastern cultures (mainly Indian) and includes many therapies. The doctor who spoke with us and showed us around was previously a neurologist in America. He did research on the neuronal and molecular level and he said after a while he just didn’t feel like it had any meaning anymore, so he started this ayurveda practice. The purpose of our visit there was to find the connections between positive psychology and ayurveda, which isn’t too hard since they are both alternative ways to increase well-being and enhance life satisfaction. It was an interesting visit and although I would not trust all of my health issues to be dealt with through ayurveda, I certainly see it’s worth in some cases.
Monday night….hmmm, what was Monday night? I’ll get back to you when I check out the schedule from that trip because right now I can’t remember. The days are kind of blending together a lot in my mind so I’ll have to sort it out later.
Tuesday:
Our academic visit this day was with a graduate student named Nicoletta at another University in Milan. She presented her work on gender differences in well-being. None of the information was earth-shattering, but it was especially interesting to see what methods she used and how she went about collecting her results.
That afternoon was our group wine tasting. We had free time before we were supposed to meet so we went to the Duomo cathedral and climbed to the top. It was absolutely breathtaking. I will have to post lots of pictures. What a massive building. It took 450 years to build. After wandering around for awhile due to very-not-good google map directions, we eventually found “That’s Wine”, the site of our tasting. It was a little crowded with all 30some of us in there but we had a jolly old time. We got to try 3 different kinds of wine, a spumanti (sparkling, white wine), another white wine, and a red wine. The spumanti was definitely my favorite. We were also served bread, cheese and meat and told all about the wine-making process works. It was, dare I say it, very hyggeligt and I really got to know a few more people much better because we had quite a lot of time to just sit and chat and enjoy. After the wine tasting we headed to dinner. It took us a bit long to find it, and if I recall correctly, we were all exceptionally….happy, after those three glasses of wine. Group dinner afterwards was delicious Italian food (we had plenty of that!) and then I think we had some time for exploring. That may have been the night Katie, Lauren and I stumbled upon the most expensive street in Milan. Full of Pradas, Dulci Gabanas and Tiffany stores. Pretty sure the cheapest thing on that street would've cost me the rest of my college tuition. So now worries, we only window shopped. Just some funny pictures I enjoyed.
Wednesday:
Our first visit on Wednesday was to see the Last Supper, that highly iconic painting by Leonardo di Vinci. I did not know much about this painting except that we see it everywhere and it is a main focus in the di Vinci code book and movie. A few facts: The Last Supper is painted onto a wall in what is now basically a museum for the painting. With this painting, Di Vinci tried a new “dry” technique. I don’t remember the details of the technique itself, except that it makes the painting incredibly fragile. Throughout history, however, that building was used as a stable, a barn, a fire station…and at one point during a war, the building was bombed, destroying a lot, save the room with di Vinci’s mural. Later on, the building was used by monks and they decided to increase the size of the doorway, cutting off Jesus’s feet. After all the years and uses that building has been through, we are lucky there is still some of the painting left. It is deteriorating at an alarming rate now and therefore they are taking many steps to preserve it. Only 15-20 people can enter the room at a time and each group can only stay for 15 minutes. To see the painting, you have to book about 6 months in advance, then when you get there you have to first go through glass doors and wait in a smaller room until the previous group is finished. Also, the outer doors to the waiting room must be sealed before the doors will open to the room with the painting. It’s a very interesting process. The room it is housed in is rather large and there are some chairs so you can either stand or sit while you observed. You can also go closer and read some information about the different characters in the painting. I had no idea how much detail was in the faces and limb positions of the disciples. Because di Vinci was representing such an emotion moment (right after Jesus said, “One of you will betray me.”), you can see the responses in everything that is going on. 15 minutes was not enough time to be in awe of that work of art. The Last Supper will not be around forever, much less than that actually, due to how quickly it is deteriorating. I will forever be thankful that I was one of the lucky people to personally experience that piece of history.
Of course no pictures or videos can be taken inside the room, but here are the windows that are on the wall to the left of the painting!
I'll be back with the rest of the week later!
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