Positive Psychology

A little ambitious to do two posts in a row, but I wouldn't necessarily count this. My core class here in Denmark is called The Psychology of Happiness. In the field, it is known as Positive Psychology. Basically, the area of Psych tells you to quit dwelling on the typical Psychology we see and hear about these days...the kind of stuff such as disorders, psychopathology, etc. Positive Psycholgoy focuses on your strengths. For instance, I took a 240 question test this morning that at it's result...gave me my top 24 character strengths. It is pretty cool.

Anyways, I decided to share my results.


Top Strength: Industry, Diligence, Perseverence

2: Judgment, Critical Thinking, Open-mindedness

3: Hope, Optimism, Future-Mindedness

4: Kindness and Generosity

5: Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

6: Caution, Prudence, Discretion

7: Capacity to love or be loved

8: Honesty, Authenticity, Genuineness

9: Gratitude

10: Leadership

I am only posting my top ten, since writing them takes forever. Anyways, it is a pretty neat test. If you have about 20 minutes you should check it out. Go to AuthenticHappiness.com, do the quick registration, and then hit test center. This test is called the VIA Survey of Character Strengths (Adults). There are a bunch of other neat tests you can take as well.

Til next time,

Hilary

Week 2: I look like I live in a freezer...

So it's been over a week in Copenhagen! It is going by slow and fast, if that even makes sense. I feel as if I have been here longer. Due to the cold and blizzard conditions, however, I have been limited in exploration. AKA I basically only know how to get to my school. The rest is still a bit of a challenge. Hopefully that will end soon.

Nightlife in Copenhagen can only be described in two words: expensive and late. The city isn't very much alive until from 12-6am. Thus, I have been getting home very late and very cold. The trains run all night on friday and saturday, but only once per hour. Ours, unfortunately, only comes at :02...so if you don't catch the 2:02....you have to wait. Until 3:02. I have already spent many atimes, huddled up, loitering in the 7/11 on the corner near our train station desperately trying to retain any form of warmth while waiting for our train. It is not a fun-filled wait. When all you want to be in is a warm bed. But that warm bed is a 25 minute train ride and one mile, painfully cold walk away. As a result, I have very little desire to go out.

Did I mention, when you are out in the city at night, that not one of us knows where we are going? So we spend usually over 30 minutes walking in the freezing cold place to place, trying to figure out the scene. We still haven't. I see these leggy, blonde, gorgeous danish girls in skirts and I think they are utterly insane.

Did I also mention my awkward reaction when Danish men try to hit on me in Danish...the look on my face must be priceless. I pretty much just nod and try to avoid their desperate attempt to make me play pool with them.

Classes are going well. I haven't done much but I have tons of reading. So any mention of being abroad and it being a joke can be disregarded. I probably have more reading than at Gettysburg.

Today, I had a field trip to the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Wednesdays we do not have class and sometimes have field trips, depending on what classes you are in. Now, I was very much looking forward to this. However, Today it literally blizzard-ed in Copenhagen. I'm talking high winds, more ice than snow...flurries...whipping me in the face, stinging my eyes...I could not even look up. Well, this institute, it is a 40 minute walk from my school. In a blizzard. I also was not wearing a hat today. My hair had ice encrusted to my scalp. You couldn't even tell my hair color. I felt like I was in Antartica. It seemed like some kind of joke.

The field tip was very informative, but basically 4 different lecture topics for 2 hours. I was falling asleep toward the end. I did learn some interesting information though. Such as, did you know that even if you are born in Denmark, you are not considered a Danish citizen unless one or both your parents are Danish? Different from the US. Basically even if you were born and grew up here your entire life, if you break the law or do something stupid...you can be shipped out at any point. Scary. Anyways, I did not want my field trip to end, because of course, the blizzard had gotten worse.

My teacher also did not walk us back, as he had walked us there. Luckily, a girl knew the way to the nearest Metro and we smushed into a metro train packed like sardines. My first time on the metro. So crowded I could not breathe. People were pressed up against the glass, that is how crowded it was.

I finally made it back to near my school. I had to meet up with Jenni who was at a Museum with Britt. Lucky.

We (Jenni and I) still had the interesting task today of going grocery shopping. Now, our Danish host mom was home all day doing nothing. She asked us if we could get her some groceries and gave us a list and some money. I considered this fine until I realized we would be carrying very heavy grocery bags across Copenhagen in a blizzard, taking the train where we would be warm for 25 minutes, then trekking home in 4 inches of snow and wind for about a mile with the heavy grocery bags. Via a blog, this probably does not seem too bad. Buttttt....

Let me tell you, I have never laughed this much since being in Copenhagen. I laughed because if I didn't, I think I would collapse on the ground, curl up and die. In the snow. Laughter was the only thing getting me home at that moment, because all I wanted to do was chuck the grocery bags onto the train tracks and crawl home.

So, before this, we had to navigate the grocery store...with EVERYTHING in Danish...finding stuff such as yeast...which I do not even know where its location is in a US supermarket. We decided to splurge on ourselves at the grocery store and buy ourselves chips and salsa. This purchase would later be my single motivation in getting home from the train station.

So, we take the train, which is packed as well, home with groceries. And our dreaded trek in the snow for a mile begins. Jenni and I each have a very heavy grocery bag as well as all of our school stuff on us (in our school bag). I could not move my uggs very far through unplowed snow that had accumulated so much since this morning. I know this because I shoveled the path from the driveway before I left for school. We were so hopeless, we began to go a little mad..shouting chips and salsa, chips and salsa for about half the way home just so we could get there. I seem dramatic, but I am not kidding in the least. Again, like earlier in the day, I looked like I stepped out of a freezer. Ice all over my body.

Needless to say, I am never complaining about walking the full 10 minutes it takes to go from point A at Gettysburg to point B. Never, ever.

I don't know what else to discuss, so I will end it here.

Hej Hej,

Hilary

PS. The chips were amazing. The salsa tasted/had the consistency as if you were dipping a chip in pasta/red sauce. A bit odd but what can ya do.

Over and out.

Week One: Peanutbutter Jelly Time

I decided to try doing a blog. Adventurous some may say, but alas it remains the best way to keep everyone updated on my life across the pond. For this first entry, I could probably write pages. The last 4 days have felt like an eternity. Now that classes have begun today, I may finally have the chance to settle into some sort of routine. If I have told you about København already, sorry and too bad, cause I´m writing it again.

Speaking of sorry, I´d have to say...though trivial...it is one of the biggest culture differences I have encountered thus far. Danes are very blunt. In the city, if you are knocked around by mobs of commuters getting to work, there is no *excuse me* or *sorry* ever uttered. People just go on with their day. Now after been almost run over several times by countless bikes (you know, the whole Green concept) and being almost hit by a car- to even squeezing by someone..I keep saying sorry. I then of course, remember I am speaking English, am a silly American, and they frankly don´t care if they´ve bumped into me or not. I heard someone at DIS explain it as...if you bumped into 50 people on your way to work each morning, you would then be saying sorry 50 times, and what is the point of that?? True, I guess it does make sense. Anyways, us Americans are a little baffled. They also don´t have a word for please in their language, which by the way...is the most complicated thing I´ve ever heard. Nothing NOTHING sounds like it looks, legit. There is not even a slight chance I will be learning it, once again labeling me as a foolish American who always mumbles across words when going to a cash register at a store, being confused as Danish and thus being spoken to in utterances, until I work up the courage to say ´Ummm.............................I only speak English´. True story of my first encounter, most awkward thing ever. Jenni witnessed. I´m thinking it gets less awkward each time...hopefully.

By the way, the last few days have consisted of primarily jetlag, going to school and getting home in pitch black due to lack of sunlight, adjusting to Danish home life, trying to navigate trains when everything is in Danish and I have no idea WHAT it says, and running around the city on scavenger hunts in between 4 hour orientation sessions twice daily where I fall asleep due to waking at 5am. Sounds fun, right? I´m looking forward to classes starting. Also, did I mention I have NO IDEA where I am or where I am going about 75% of the time. I am clueless with direction and maps and find myself forgetting places I was an hour ago. Things are looking up.

Okay I´ll stop with the harsh stuff, onto the amazing stuff...like living in Europe. Ahhh.
The city is very pretty. I love the buildings and the area, and I am very grateful to be here. Did I mention, however, this is their coldest winter in 15 years?? It hardly ever snows in København but has been snowing the past week. My scavengr hunt around the city was in a blizzard. that was interesting. Im glad to have snow instead of rain though, since that would just be awful. I took some pretty cool pictures and I cant wait until everything is green again!

My host family is very nice. Rita is the mom, a teacher, and Flemming is the dad and a lawyer. Their house is small and one story (no basement either) but furnished very nice. There is a kid suite area with cabinets, couchs, and a tv...kind of like the kid section of the house. Jenni´s room connect to it, so it is almost like her own suite. My room is on the wall before it and also right next to my 14 yr old host brother´s room. My room is much smaller than Jenni´s since she won the rock paper scissor´-for first pick- challenge. BUT her room is extremely cold and she has less of a bed. Mine is not as cold and more comfy and much warmer so I am happy.

Just to exemplify Danish bluntness, our host mother approached the 2nd or 3rd day and was like "Dont you have a present for Valdemar (host brother)? He is expecting his present." Good thing I got him something, or else I probably would have died in embarassment. I was shocked she said it this way, but I guess that´s just how it is different.

In the kid area we have our own minifridge where my host mom bring us food to pack for lunch. Now we have already been introduced to some interesting food, most of which I can write or pronounce, let alone know what it is. I eat it though. They eat fish a lot, we´ve had fish soup several times which is good. Only problem is Fish of all sorts makes Jenni gag, so thats unfortunate. Glad I like it. Rita also makes homemade buns all the time which are tasty. I have not taken to eating cheese and jelly on my buns though, and their breakfasts are different--containing carrots, and ham and cheese options as well. A lot of stuff we would eat for lunch. I tend to have some cereal and skim milk for breakfast along with a bun with jelly on it.

Lunch is where it gets tricky. She is supposed to make us something (most people´s host moms do) but we make it ourself which is also common among students living with a family. However, we mainly have access to only the food in the kid fridge. She basically thinks all Americans love peanutbutter and banana or peanutbutter and jelly sandwichs...that or ham and cheese (which i dislike)...so I pretty much have eaten peanutbutter..something...everyday for lunch. We will have to see what other stuff she eventually gets us. Im hoping one day we can go grocery shopping with her (which I have also done at a Danish store called Netto during Orientation).

Last night for dinner we had Veal and it was pretty good. It was cooked kind of like the way a crockpot cooks roast beef all day and I just had to tell myself I wasnt eating baby cow the whole time. It was realy good though. The other night, Jenni and I went to one of our older host brothers (does not live in the house) hockey game. He plays for the national team for Denmark...pretty cool. It was fun, despite the fact we stood and watched it for 2.5 hours or however long..after a tiring day of running around the city and little sleep. Guess I just thought we would be sitting...but no. Other than that, it was really fun and good bonding with our host family.

Jenni and I have been happy so far, of course I am unable to say I am loving it yet, but I think that is just about adjusting. Im probably leaving sooo much out but Im in the small DIS library at school and waiting for Jenni to get out of class so we can travel home and NAP. Therefore I will end it here. I already have a lot of homework to do, even before the first class, which angers me but its all good in the hood. Til next time.

Hej Hej (bye bye in Danish)

Hilary

PS. A danish (the pastry we eat) is not called a danish here. Its called Vienna bread, but in Danish. Wienerbrød. Weird that we call it a danish, and they say its from Vienna. Adios.