Archives for January 2014

The Sunday Paper: For Monday (1.27.14)

January 27, 2014

Although my weekend wasn’t terribly busy, I couldn’t find it in me to spend a lot of time searching links on the internet. Usually, they just fall into my lap, but I needed some disconnect time. It’s really healthy for me to take a break from my computer and other blogs and social media and news in general. I’ve noticed that giving myself time off from these endeavors relaxes me and lessens my anxiety.

THAT SAID, I still found some awesome things I want to share with you! I hope they get your Monday off to an interesting start! Happy day!

+ I may have already posted this, but…22 sights on the planet that are so awesome they don’t even seem real. It’s awesome enough to repost, right?

+ Wine pairings with…Girl Scout cookies! I’m skeptical but, I also might have to give this a try.

+ I just found this helpful travel website: Cost 2 Drive. Although I think it might work best for the United States, we have a lot of road-trippin’ ahead, and this helps to compare to flight costs (and there’s even a little link that gives you an example of a plane ticket price). Handy!

+ The best countries to be an expat. As a wanna-be expat, I found this interesting–I was especially surprised to see China on the list! Would you live any of these places?

+ I love this Ted talk: what do you want to be when you grow up…how about happy? I think it’s wonderful to think about making a life not just a living. What do you think?

Writing

Freestyle Friday: Personality and Harry Potter

January 24, 2014

As you may know, as a psychology graduate student, we often discuss personality theories. Most of the time, I don’t gain any clarity in regards to my personality. There’s a lot of theories and often they don’t go hand-in-hand.

This is even more true in a current class I’m taking about career counseling.

As someone who’s changed careers about six times in two years–and changes aspirations every two days–don’t even get me started on how many times I changed majors–I probably really need this class.

Most of the time, however, it just triggers my anxiety and I freak out about the fact that graduation is looming and some days I don’t even want to use this degree I’ve been working so hard for (or, at least that I’ve been working for).

Yesterday, though, we took the Kiersey Personality Test. While I wasn’t disappointed in my answer (Idealist Healer/INFP) like often happens with these types of tests, I didn’t get terribly excited until one of my classmate’s brought this into the room:

(click image for source)

I’m Luna! And I love it. I’m definitely happy to be a Dreamer with Luna. One of my classmate’s was Snape, which made me laugh.

Why can’t everything in psychology (or maybe just the world…) relate back to Harry Potter?

Why don’t you give it a try? Take the Kiersey test here (it’s 71 questions but it only takes about 10 minutes) and match up your four letter code with the character above.

I’d love to hear your answer!

And, HAPPY FRIDAY!

China Travels

The Summer Palace {Beijing, China}

January 23, 2014

Beijing is busy.

It’s crowded with tourists, students, workers, families. It’s the capital of China, one of the most populous countries on Earth, and Beijing follows as one of the most populous cities on Earth.

Coming from the Wild, Wild West of the United States, Beijing was an assault to my senses. The nonstop sounds, combined with a complicated language I didn’t understand, gave me a constant headache. So did the constant, suffocating smog combined with humidity. My eyes were sore from the many things to see (and the smog probably didn’t help that, either).

Then, in the middle of this giant concrete jungle, we found an oasis.

The Summer Palace is not a sight I ever thought to see in China (nor I had really heard of it…). But, of all the major landmarks in Beijing (and one of the many World Heritage Sites), I loved the Summer Palace the most.

The Summer Palace was started during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) as a second palace for the emperor. Many emperors have used it since then, adding on, changing the name, and eventually using it as a summer resort, hence the current name. It’s full of traditional Chinese architecture, but unlike the Forbidden City, which is endless miles of pavement, the Summer Palace is on beautiful grounds, many acres of land, with a lake where you can rent a paddleboat and a little canal (complete with a “model village”). It is known as a gem of Chinese Imperial Gardens.

It felt most like an escape to me because, once you got past the entrance, you could actually escape (and pretty easily) the matching-hat tourist groups and families flocking to get the best pictures. It’s easy to climb up a slightly harder trail or slightly steeper steps to get away from it all in the trees. There, you’ll discover lovely pagodas and tiny buildings hidden amongst ancient trees, and pretty views of the lake (despite the smog, as you’ll see). We paid a little extra to go to the little village by the canal and have a beer, and it was quiet and perfect.

It was familiar, and comforting in the middle of culture shock. It was a reminder that I was not in just in any big city, but in China.

There, In the Summer Palace, I found China as I had imagined it would be.