This is a really nice from one Giorgia Sala, one of our student bloggers. Giorgia is Doctoral student at Deakin University.
Enjoy!
Eat. Sleep. Stress. Repeat.
This is my life at the moment, on the endless journey of becoming a clinical psychologist. I have made it particularly long for myself, having never taken time off since high school. However, I don’t want to write about that! It just seemed like a catchy title. Plus, I shouldn’t complain because I recently went to Europe, so I’m going to write about that instead.
Over the uni break, I went to Amsterdam, Budapest, Berlin, Bilbao, San Sebastian and few places in between. It was a quick jaunt; three weeks of free walking tours, hot weather and delicious food. Amsterdam and the Basque country are particularly memorable; Amsterdam’s canals and skinny, slanting buildings were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There was also a distinctly village-y, relaxed feeling throughout the city. Maybe it’s all the bikes! The Basque country was very different; warm, hilly and close to the beach, full of amazing food and vibrant atmosphere.
Berlin also left an impression. An expansive, gritty city with reminders of its recent past everywhere; paintings on the wall that fell in 1989, bullet marks in the cathedral. Of course, as a tourist I look for these things, I’m an outsider there with my own expectations. I can’t fathom what a local Berliner would think, if these details would leave an impression on them as they did me.
Overall, I was surprised by how frequently the topic of WWII came up in the tours of each city. This should have been expected, as the world wars and the Cold War dominate our collective perception of recent history, particularly in Europe. Nonetheless, the trip sparked a preoccupation with WWII that I didn’t foresee. The stories of occupation and loss of life were confronting, even though we’ve heard them before. The hardest part is that suffering on this scale isn’t a thing of the past; as I write this, there are over 65 million displaced people in the world who have endured violence unimaginable to me. As a child, the world wars felt distant; as an adult, they feel closer than ever. While away, I read Man’s search for meaning by Viktor Frankl, who was a Jewish psychologist in the early 20th Century. The book is a retrospective narrative on his time in concentration camps in WWII, but also on his views of therapy and the ultimate ‘point’ of life. I won’t spoil it for you; I will say it is an extremely warm, comforting and honest read.
On a lighter note, it was also refreshing to get out of Melbourne. Not because Melbourne is unpleasant, but because it really makes you appreciate how fantastic this city is. Melbourne of course has its own amazing food scene, varied architecture, parks, museums, sport and relatively-okay public transport. It’s also funny because it looks a lot bigger and more modern than a lot of the places I went, where the skyline was low and buildings were old. What is interesting is that Melbourne had a lot of those old buildings too, but they were knocked down! If you want to see what parts of the city looked like before, have a look at this article with excerpts taken from the book ‘Lost Melbourne’ by Heather Chapman.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun in Europe. It made me long for the day when my degree is over, so I can save some money and go again. Until then, I’ll try to keep the stress under wraps and remember to eat and sleep.
Giogia Sala
Ref: Psychology Clinic Melbourne
Clinical Psychologist Melbourne