THE Story, My Parents, Clinical Psychology, and a Curry

Hi again everyone! It's been a pretty good 2000-and-fine so far over here in fair Glasgow, and I hope it has been equally brilliant for you wherever you happen to be.

I've got a few things to tell you about, so I'm going to segment this one. Yes? OK.

THE Story

Now, as many of you may or may not know, there were 6 of us sharing this modest (OK, tiny) flat up until a few days ago, when one of the couples moved out. Apparently, they found something better than sharing a tiny flat with one bathroom with two other couples. Imagine that!

So, we set out to replace these people immediately, and had been giving strangers tours of the flat for a few days. A guy called and asked if he could come up and look at the place, and since Chris was at work, I showed him around on my own. Later that night, he called again and asked if he could come back to look for a second time. We thought it was odd, but we agreed he could come by again. This time, Chris showed him around. When he left, I asked Chris what he had thought of this guy, and Chris said, "He smelled funny..."

Later that evening, Chris and I were headed out for the night, and on our way out the door, we noticed a suspicious smear on the wall near the phone. Chris said, "That guy leaned up against that wall..." and reluctantly sniffed it. He said he thought it smelled like...well, like poop. I, of course, felt the need to confirm this for myself and agreed. Somehow, this guy had pooped on our wall.

When he called back to ask to come see the flat for the third time, we told him it had been taken. We didn't want to see what he'd leave behind this time.

My Parents

My parents are coming over soon! They arrive EARLY on the 17th and are staying until the 25th, and I'm pretty excited. I guess that didn't need an entire section, did it?

Clinical Psychology

So, as many of you know, I'm over here studying Counselling. I've been tossing around the idea of studying Clinical Psychology next, and have found a program over here that would be pretty ideal, if I could get into it. The idea of more school is daunting, I admit, but this year has been surprisingly non-academic, and I want more of a challenge.

Part of my thoughts on this is that a lot of people involved in my Counselling course don't even believe in mental illness. My in-school supervisor even went as far as to say she doesn't believe in depression, psychosis, personality disorders, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, and that the symptoms of each of these can be cured by counselling, and that the use of medications was NEVER appropriate.

NO!

While I do believe that talk therapies are helpful, I do believe that mental illness is real, and is a medical issue, and often requires medical intervention. It does not mean that people are weak, or 'not paying attention to their internal selves' or whatever other nonsense. I bite my tongue a lot when I'm in supervision at school. Sometimes I can't hold it back and then when I talk about mental health it's like a dam burst, and I've realized how passionate I am about it. Counselling is incredibly important to me, but I'd also like to focus on mental health.

A Curry

Chris and I found an incredible curry take-away place just down the road from us. It's the best curry I've ever eaten, seriously. They make a mean Chicken Korma...I guess this didn't need an entire section either, did it?

OK, I hope you're all having a great time and that the weather is improving in Minnesota! I miss you all a ton.

xo