These are a few of my favorite things...Right Now

Paparazzi Love

Since I work at a Salon I think I have to learn how to do this and then do it everyday! 

Hilarity Ensues!

Brilliant! Beautiful! 

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Awesome Advice from a Therapist on being a Therapist: 

1) Learn a lot about the way the world really is.  Ride along with cops.  Volunteer at jails.  Observe in emergency rooms.  Observe family therapists (obviously, the family has to agree).  Find out what happens to people when they are in stressful situations.  You cannot be aloof from your clients' lives but you also need to learn how to keep your boundaries, not only in regard to the usual patient rules but also for yourself.  If you carry your clients home, you might find you and your family need therapy! 2) Remember clients only tell you what they want you to know.  Don't be cynical, but be cynical.  3) Have a good memory.  Lies don't hold up to a good memory. 4) Do a family tree and try to remember the players, present and absent. 5) Be empathetic, not sympathetic.  Sympathy takes sides.  6) Have a real life which does not include other therapists and does include real fun.  It prevents or postpones burnout.  7) Don't take yourself too seriously.  You're just not that big a deal no matter what clients tell you.  8) Be involved, interested and interesting.  Therapy is work but it shouldn't be punishment.

Storypeople

"This is a dress-up box for the future & it's filled with stuff like courage & love & play because they're the only things that are any use at all when you get right down to it."-Storypeople

Current:

Currently watching: 500 Days of Summer 
Current nail polish: Cajun Shrimp by OPI
Current longing: http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/1118.html
Current music: Adele 
Current book: Mockingjay by Suzanna Collins 
Current avoidance: Physio reading/studying 
Current wish: A change of scenery 
Current must have: hydration. At the moment, Powerade Zero
Current quote: "your reason and your passion are the rudder...and the sails of your
  seafaring soul. If either be broken, you can but toss and drift, or  
else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is
 a force confining; and passion unattended, is a flame that burns to its 
own destruction"
Current enjoyment: Sun Sun Sun! 
Currently thankful for: Danielle, Mariam, and Jennifer. 

"If we all knew each other's secrets, what comfort we should find." – John Churton Collins

I started blogging back at the beginning of January to capture my trip to Singapore, put it into words (which was no easy task, mind you), and share my experience with you. Well now that I have been home for a solid three months I have had fewer bouts of Singapore withdrawal and depression and have decided to start this blog back up! I am a pretty boring person so I highly doubt that my posts are going to be as interesting as they were while I was in Singapore but I like the idea of having a place of my own to share my thoughts, interests, goals, whereabouts, etc. If I bore you i apologize in advance!

I am stealing this from the lovely Ms. Jeanna Bauer. With finals, practicum training, and applying for Doc programs all approaching I think I need to post this on my forehead!

Game Over

OMG! That is all I have to say about little India and Arab street! Complete chaos! There were people everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We all started to feel incredibly claustrophobic and irritable. It wasn’t necessarily that it was a bad experience; I just think that at this point everyone is mentally checking out and is sick of constantly being around other people. As much as I love the friends I’ve made on this trip, my introvert is screaming to have some much needed alone time. At least we have all talked about this and we are comfortable enough to just say to each other, I love you, but I really just wish I could be alone right now! After we trampled through little India and it’s massive amounts of people, we headed to a restaurant called Raj. It is an all vegetarian Indian restaurant! It was awesome! We had garlic naan, basmati rice, and a bunch of different vegetables in different curries and spicy gravies! Afterwards Emma’s brownie and chocolate ice cream convinced us that we also needed some chocolate! So we all split a huge brown with ice cream! Wonderful! After dinner we caught the MRT and headed over to Chinatown! We did a little more shopping and then Danielle and I caught the bus while the other girls stayed to do a little more shopping! Yesterday was mostly a free day for us! The sun came out bright and early and we were able to lay out by the pool for a good chunk of the morning/afternoon! After the pool we got ready and went to class. We had our diversity class again and we did an exercise which consisted of us putting headbands on in a Rambo like fashion and then Len gave each one of us a card with our age, race, gender, occupation on it. We did not know what was on our card and we were instructed to interact and use stereotypes when speaking to someone else to help them identify their card. This was uncomfortable and eye opening. You really had to remove all of your filters and just say some of the very taboo stereotypes that we hold about others that are different from ourselves. This is something we are not used to and do not condone.  Despite the discomfort, I felt that it helped me realize the impact that stereotypes have on us personally and professionally as counselors. It is always something that has to be present in the back of our minds so that way we can work through our biases and be more effective and empathetic towards our client. After class my roomies and our adopted roomie, Amanda, went out to Modesto’s for pizza! It was relaxing and low, considering all of us have reached the point of check out! Today is another relatively free day. It’s looking a little gloomy out so hopefully the sun will come out and we can get some more pool time before class tonight! 

1, 2, 3...Mousedeer!

The last few days have been busy busy busy! On Friday I woke up and early and went for a run. Afterwards it was still cloudy and we were feeling lazy so we all went back to bed until 11:15 when we were forced to get up and shower for class. We went back to NIE for lunch in their cafeteria and then we had class. In this class Len interviewed Dr. Benny Bong (cool name, right?). He was another therapist nominated by his peers as a master therapist. He had some great commentary on self care. He basically said that at the end of the day you just have to say to yourself, “I don’t care” and leave work right where you left it! After the interview we were put into groups of three Americans and four Singaporians to discuss our top three characteristics of therapists. We then compared what the singaporians nominated as their top three and what we nominated. We found that we all had pretty common factors across cultures, which was encouraging and helped the whole class see that we really have more similarities then differences. After class half of the group went to the Marina Bay Sands casino. We decided to pass because really we just wanted to go to the top but the class was going more to check out the casino. So we came back to our apartments (after a 45 minute cab ride, the traffic gets horrible at rush hour), we had “dinner” which consisted for pretzels and nutella along with some Pringles! We then headed to Chinatown where we shopped excessively! I found some great things for my family and myself! I’m so excited to show everyone when I get home! It is the start of the Chinese new years celebrations so Chinatown was packed and there were twice as many vendors than when we went last time! They have such great deals and beautiful things to buy! After we spent close to four hours there and most of our disposable income, we headed back on the MRT! The MRT is so clean and it is such an easy system to use. One trip is usually around two sing. If you return your ticket after your ride you get a dollar back! Awesome! We stopped at McDonalds on Orchard on our way home to get Mcflurries! So so good after a night of shopping! Yesterday was a long, hot, sweaty, tiring day. We met down in the lobby at 8 a.m. where we got on a bus with Len and his family for a day trip to Paula Ubin. Paula Ubin is an island (about an 8 minute boat ride) off the coast of Singapore. It is essentially what Singapore looked like in the sixties before the government stepped in and turned it into a business hub filled with concrete! It is mostly wilderness with a few small houses, shops, and restaurants. There are dogs and cats that run around the small village and are taken care of by shop owners etc. After a quick look at the small village we took a bus back into the forest. Vilma D’Razario and Andrew who is a friend of Karrie and Len’s. They are nature experts! They lead us out onto the rocky shores of Paula Ubin. These rock structures were granite, which was mined for quite some time on Paula Ubin. We then went on a long boardwalk around one side of the island. It was breathtaking! The ocean, the sandy beaches, the mangrove trees with their roots exposed, the mudskippers and fiddler craps! Absolutely wonderful! We headed back into the forest where we spotted a wild boar. This wild boar, however, was really not too wild. It must be used to being fed and approached by people because it had no problem coming up to us and the kids to get a closer look! This whole time Andrew and Vilma had great commentary about the flora and fauna of Paula Ubin. They pointed out wild animal tracks and took us up to a perch that was easily 5 stories high! This perch looked out over the beautiful forests, beaches, and ocean! During the entire tour Len's Daughter, Emma was attached to my hip! She is such a wonderful, smart, precocious little girl! We had fun talking about mousedeer, wild boars, her pink bedroom, and many other things that came to her wonderful imagination!  We then had lunch at a small restaurant on Paula Ubin. We had chili pepper tofu, Lemon chicken, rice, a spicy seafood noodle dish, vegetables, chili and pepper crab! The chili and pepper crab are big hits here in Singapore! After we successfully managed to eat our body weight in food we all zonked out, mentally and physically. We decided to head back to Singapore and since we had to wait another hour for our bus to come pick us up we went down to the beach, collected shells and sea glass, and just relaxed! We then headed back to Treetops where we all sat around and watched MTV for four hours before calling it an early night! It felt great to get 11 hours of sleep! I guess I really needed it! Today we are going to Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street with our class. We plan on touring some more temples, shopping, seeing the Chinese new years celebrations and eating so

Funk Nasty Plus

Hello all! The last few days have been busy busy busy! Sunday was had a walking temple tour which kind of turned into a walking tour of the different areas, housing, shrines, and food in Singapore! Our tour was led by a friend of Lens, Timothy Pwee. He gave us a lot of information about how Singaporians live their daily lives, their spirituality, religious practices, and other odds and ends about the Sinaporian culture! After a long day of walking he invited us to his house so we could see his house. About 90% of Singaporians live in government subsidized apartment complexes. This is simply because of the small amount of land available in Singapore. Each individual has the opportunity to buy out a 99 year leas on a flat. These complexes are required to have a mix of races. Timothy was telling us that in his building they could have over 80% of Chinese in their building, which is proportionate to the percentage of Chinese in Singapore. We then headed to a local food center down the road. Timothy, his wife, and Len ordered us all the best dishes at the food center! We had prawns coated with something that tasted like frosted flakes, curry, pork pot stickers, a dish with fried yams, chicken, vegetables, and fried rice noodles, bock choy flavored with garlic, and a vegetable stew with an assortment of seafood (including sea cucumber which I tried and DO NOT recommend to anyone!) After we were stuffed we headed down to a small bar that had beer, and MANGO MARGARITAS! After the other Amanda I downed a very large jug of margaritas we headed home and spent the rest of the night with chocolate, wine, and great conversation! On Monday we had a short lecture in the early afternoon! Our plans to lay out before class were disturbed by the rain and lack of sun so we headed back up to our room to catch up on our blogs and talk. Clearly I did the latter of the two!  That night we had class at NIE which is one of Singapore’s largest colleges, mainly for education. We had a diversity class with other Masters Counseling students. We were paired up with another Singaporian student and did icebreakers and discussions on how we, as future therapists, challenge ourselves culturally and how we work to understand and become more aware of our biases and reactions to culture! It was wonderful to actually get to talk one on one with a Singaporian student that is in the exact same position as you! On Tuesday we went to the Tanglin shopping center! I splurged on a beautiful maxi dress. I will post pictures of it soon! Thank you Jennifer for talking me into trying it on! After shopping we had brunch at a little café. The rest of the afternoon we spent talking and hanging out. We are all starting to get a little burnt out. In the evening we went back to the NIE campus where we partook in a group counseling class. We once again were paired up and got to know another student one on one. We then observed how Singaporian classes are run. After a short break we were split into groups of half American students and half Singaporian students to discuss characteristics of a good group counselor! It was so refreshing to have different views and opinions! After class Len took us to the Raffles hotel. This hotel is huge, expensive, and full of very rich people. The Raffles hotel is where the Singapore Sling was created. We went to the Long Bar inside the raffles where we split six Singapore Slings between the twelve of us because they are 30 sing a piece! Yikes! Personally I thought it tasted like cough medicine but I had to try one or else I would dissapoint uncle Al! Yesterday we started off the day with more of the class sharing who they were culturally speaking! I feel like these presentations really make you appreciate each of the individuals on this trip that much more! We then had a two men who run an organization called OogaChanga. Which is a community run program to help support gays and lesbians in Singapore. In Singapore the act of gay relations is still illegal in Singapore although it is rarely enforced. Still, Singaporians have much more resistance coming out if they are gay or lesbian. People, especially teachers, can lose their job or be refused a job if they openly come out. This made me appreciate the steps that America is taking to accept the GLBT community. We still have along way to go but we are making progress! We then had a poolside pizza party, request of Keeton (lens six year old son). We had a little while to lay out and then we headed to the Singapore zoo. The zoo is amazing. The enclosures for the animals are so natural and provide the animals with a lot of space. We watched Len’s kids feed a giraffe and we got to take elephant rides! After a quick dinner break we went a night safari! We road an open tram through different habitats! We were able to get so incredibly close to the animals! We also were able to venture into the flying fox and bat cages where we were being dive bombed by bats the size of cat! Len found this hilarious!  Overall it was a wonderful experience! PS the otters were by far the cutest things ever and I may go back and steal one to take home! Surprise Mom! Today I woke up early and went for a nice long run! The funny thing about running here is that I do not think about anything while I run! My head is so clear! Love it! The sun is out and shinning. We have an off day so we plan on getting all bronzed up!