Legoland Deutschland Day 1

Tags

Star Wars, Legoland Deutschland, Miniland, Pirates, Lego

You know it’s a rare thing that you live to see the day your wildest dreams come true. I mean, what is there left to want? I get to go to Legoland. -Pete in the movie Knocked Up

As promised, I’m back to continue the overseas adventures with our first day at LEEGOOOLAND! (I shouted that in the car when we got near the sign, and my husband was not thrilled. If you want to see the scene it comes from, click the link). Anyhow, we had started the day a bit late and were meeting a couple friends who hadn’t arrived yet, so we made our first stop at the information center to see if they had hotel information since we had decided to stay overnight rather than driving back. The lady in the center booked us at Hotel Römer which was 98 euro for the night including breakfast in the morning for both of us.

Originally we had thought about getting season pass tickets so we could go to Legoland for two days and maybe come back another time, but the lady at the ticket desk offered another option. If we paid for a daily ticket for the first day, we could come back the next day for a reduced price. We all decided to take that option. Unfortunately I can’t tell you how much that cost because I seem to have misplaced the ticket I could have sworn I saved, but my husband said he thinks it was about 40 euro per person. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and it would make a very long post to share even most of them, so here are some of them.

The entrance of Legoland Deutschland

Miniland is a large part of the park where famous European cities and landmarks are recreated on a 1:20 scale. These include the Netherlands, Berlin, Frankfurt, Venice, Hamburg Harbour, a Swabian Village, the Munich Airport, Allainz Arena, Lucerne Switzerland, and Neuschwanstein Castle. Here are a few of them.

Lego Venice

Lego Berlin Cathedral

Lego castle, although I’m not sure which one.

Rocks near the castle with Lego men rappelling from a helicopter.

Lego Lucerne, Switzerland

Another big area was the Star Wars area. My husband took most of the pictures in that area (and all of the ones I’m sharing from there) so I don’t have captions for them. After the pictures from the Star Wars area are a few random pictures from other spots.

This dinosaur spits water

Tim under attack by a crazy chain saw-wielding Lego rabbit

Entrance to Land der Abenteuer (Adventure Land). The rocks sing “We will rock you”.

After grabbing some quick food next to Pirate Land, we decided to spend some time there. We even got on the boat ride called “Captain Nick’s Splash Battle” where you spray water at the boat opposite you. It’s listed on the website as for small children, but that didn’t stop us. Here are a few pictures from that area followed by a few from random spots.

A pirate lookout

These pirates sing, although I can’t remember what song it was.

Looking over Pirate Bay where the boat ride was.

Pirate Mice

This is something I doubt you’d see in an American Legoland, a pirate without his clothes.

A guy dangling over an alligator being sprayed by a cannon blast.

Lego piggies.

T track for the Hyundai Driving School, where kids can drive a mini car. Unfortunately it’s limited to ages 7-13 so we weren’t able to go on it.

Lego man inside an ice cube at the ice cream shop (which has pretty good ice cream).

That concludes the first day of Legoland Deutschland. Next time, I’ll tell you about our stay in Hotel Römer and our night exploring Günzburg.

Mental Health Blog Day: Stigma & Seeking Mental Health Services

Tags

Counselor, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mental Health Blog Day, Mental illness, Psychologist, Stigma

May is Mental Health Month, and today is Mental Health Blog Day, so I thought I would post a bit about the stigma surrounding mental disorders and seeking mental health services. According to research by Pescosolido et al. published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (Vol. 41, No. 2), 68 percent of Americans don’t want someone with a mental illness marrying into their family and 58 percent don’t want people with mental illness in their workplaces (1). This is disturbing, especially considering that the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that that one in four American adults and one in 10 children experiences a mental health disorder every year, which is about 60 million Americans per year. That is a large section of the population to want shut out of your family and workplace.

Who of us has not been depressed at some point or another, or found ourselves being anxious, or gone back to check a lock or the stove even though we’re pretty sure we’ve locked the door and the stove is off? Many mental illnesses such as major depression, anxiety disorders, and obsessive compulsive disorder are exaggerations of things we have all done. The difference is that someone with a mental illness has symptoms that persist to the point they interfere with daily living and/or cause distress. Do people really want to add to that by closing themselves off to people who have mental illnesses?

And what if one day, as is statistically likely, it’s you being diagnosed with a mental illness? Would you want to be denied the support of family or shut out of the ability to work? What if I said people with cancer shouldn’t be able to marry or people with heart disease shouldn’t be allowed in the workplace? That would be ridiculous, right? So too with mental illnesses. One should look at mental illnesses and the people who have them no differently than we look at those with medical illnesses.

Similarly, one should look at seeking mental health services no differently than going to a doctor’s appointment. That goes for other people going and for going yourself. So many people avoid seeking mental health services because of fears because of stigma. If more people took the time to learn a little about mental illnesses, to be educated instead of afraid, it would help those who have already been diagnosed, and those who fear going for help because they might be diagnosed.

If you are looking for mental health services yourself and don’t know where to start, here are a few options. The American Counseling Association has a Find a Counselor section including the National Board of Certified Counselor’s CounselorFind and Psychology Today’s Therapy Directory. The American Psychological Association offers a Psychologist Locator.

If you are in the military or are the dependent of someone in the military, you can get short-term, non-medical counseling for free from a Military Family Life Consultant. You can generally ask about getting in touch with one through your local Army Community Services, Marine Corps Community Services, Navy Fleet and Family Support Centers or Airman and Family Readiness Centers. If you’re a civilian, check if your company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). A previous job had one offering a certain number of free counseling sessions.

There are many options for assistance. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health (and sometimes influences your physical health as well), so if you wouldn’t hesitate to see a medical doctor if you need one, please don’t hesitate to see a counselor or psychologist.

Reference:

(1) Pescosolido, B.A., Jensen, P.S., Martin, J.K., Perry, B.L., Olafsdottir, S., & Fettes, D. (2008). Public knowledge and assessment of child mental health problems: Findings from the national stigma study—children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 339–349.

 

My Experience With Pulitzer Remix

Tags

Found poem, Found Poetry Review, National Poetry Month, Poetry, Pulitzer Remix, writing

Once again it’s been awhile since my last post. In April, I was busy writing found poems for Pulitzer Remix using Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies as my source text. And I was in school and had to wrap up the last of my assignments for the spring semester over the last couple weeks. Now I have a couple weeks off before summer session starts, so I’m going to try to squeeze in as many posts as I can before then. Today I want to talk a little bit about my experience with Pulitzer Remix. Tomorrow, I’m participating in Mental Health Blog Day. Then I’ll get back to the overseas adventures starting with going to Legoland and staying in Günzburg.

When I was invited to Pulitzer Remix, I’d only written one found poem in my life, and that was for an assignment as an undergrad, and I hadn’t written poems of any type in a long time. So I knew it would be quite a challenge to come up with thirty found poems in a month. I’m glad Germany is six hours ahead of the time zone the poems were due in, because I usually stayed up quite late trying to finish my poem for the day. I managed to keep up until the second to last day when I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore after homework, so I did two on the last day and back-dated the first one. My make up poem was written about PTSD which seemed fitting since it was an analysis of a few PTSD case studies that had kept me busy the day before.

One cool thing about this project was how things just seemed to come together such that I could to write the poems I wanted to write on topics unrelated to the source text. A couple of the poems I was surprised to be able to find in the book besides the one mentioned above were a poem about choosing to be childfree (something I eventually plan to devote a little slice of this blog to, someday) and a zombie poem. While I wasn’t surprised to be able to write about what happened in Boston (and had decided to after I kept seeing Boston come up in the book), I was somewhat surprised to be able to find the words I did.

My interview for Pulitzer Remix

While I had originally planned on trying some different techniques, I mostly ended up sticking with what I started with: pulling lines and words I liked out and grouping them together. As I started to see a poem take shape, then I went to Amazon and used the search inside feature to see if I could find the words I wanted to use. If I couldn’t, then I looked for synonyms. Usually this also lead me to some other interesting words and phrases to use later. I tried to do erasure a couple of times but couldn’t make anything work, so I decided to stick to what was working.

Something I did try that was new to me was the pantoum form which I don’t recall ever learning about before. It was something another poet in the project was doing, and I decided to try it. My first attempt surprised me by coming together pretty quicky, especially compared to later poems that didn’t use a form. I decided to write another pantoum during the project which also came together pretty easily, but I decided to break the rule and add an extra two words at the end.

Overall, this was a fun challenge to undertake for National Poetry Month, and I’m glad I decided to participate. I don’t think I’ve ever written so many poems in such a short period of time, and I have never written that many poems under a set of guidelines. I even found my titles in the text. I did occasionally take advantage of the remix rules in that I was allowed to make something a plural if it wasn’t or change a tense, but I tried to do it sparingly. The most blatant change I probably made was in using the word “remix” in a poem about the project. To do that, I took a part where the author had used the word ‘mix’ and deleted everything back to another word that began with ‘re’.

Another cool thing was the community of poets involved. I got to ‘meet’ and learn from a lot of talented poets. If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out the project yet, you still have a few days to do so. Unfortunately the site goes behind a splash screen May 19th. Fortunately that’s so a manuscript of selected poems from project can be pitched to publishers.

The only downside in participating in the project besides losing a lot of sleep was that it kept me away from another writing community I’ve come to love, that of the blogosphere. Maybe I should participate in National Blog Writing Month this year too…

Participating in Pulitzer Remix for National Poetry Month

Tags

Found poem, Found Poetry Review, National Poetry Month, Poetry, Pulitzer Remix

Today is the start of National Poetry Month and the kickoff of Pulitzer Remix, a poetry project sponsored by Found Poetry Review. I and 84 other poets will compose a found poem for each day of April using our assigned Pulitzer-Prize winning books as source material. My book, which I requested, is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, a short story collection which I read and loved as an undergrad. You can see my interview for the project here and my first poem of the project here. If you’d like to follow my poems for the project, they’ll all be available here. You can also subscribe by email either to all the poems, or to individual books.

“What is a found poem?” you may ask. It’s a poem where the words and phrases that make it up have come from an existing work and have been rearranged into something new. There are many ways to write a found poem. The main one I have been using so far is to flip through pages, select words and phrases that stand out, and rearrange them. Other times I have picked words using a number scheme such as every ninth line or every third word of each page. Some people use an erasure or blackout method (which I haven’t tried yet but might before the project is over) where many of the words on a page are blacked out or erased and the words that are left behind make up the poem. Found Poetry Review hopes this project will generate awareness and interest in found poetry. 

Another goal Found Poetry Review has for this project is to put together a manuscript to pitch to poetry book and chapbook publishers. According to Jenni Baker, the creator of this project and the editor-in-chief of The Found Poetry Review, “Compared to traditional poetry, very few works of found poetry ever see publication. We look forward to putting together a manuscript of the best pieces from the project in hopes that these poems will live on beyond National Poetry Month.”

Found Poetry Review also wanted to create a community of poets working toward a common goal. They succeeded in drawing poets from seven countries. There has been a lot of online interaction between many of the participants leading up to this month, including sharing poem drafts and methods of “remixing”. I have even been exposed to a few forms I’ve never tried before. My first ever pantoum will be posted tomorrow. The opportunity to interact with and learn from other writers is a great aspect of being part of this project.

Speaking of learning, a former teacher of mine, Theresa Williams, is also participating in the project. She’ll be using Martin Dressler’s novel The Tale of an American Dreamer, and you can follow her work here. Theresa taught the fiction workshop where I wrote my first draft of the short story If I Should Die . This story later became the prize winner in Evolved Publishing‘s first short story contest and the first story in the anthology Evolution Volume 1.

I hope you’ll check out today’s poems on Pulitzer Remix and stay with us through the month of April. If you enjoy the poems you read, please consider leaving comments for the poets and sharing links to the poems with others.

Apollo’s First Walk Out in Heidelberg

Tags

Germany, Heidelberg, Neckar River, pets

The week after our anniversary, my husband Tim and I decided to take our min pin Apollo on his first walk out in Heidelberg. (Previously he had only walked on post). We decided to park at the PX and walk along the Neckar.

Apollo is excited to be in the car though he doesn’t know where he’s going.

Tim had to carry him some of the time, which he also enjoyed.

We stopped by some steps near the water. Apollo was calm until the ducks started honking. Then he wanted to bark at them.

Apollo was happy to be near the water. At first was oblivious to the ducks.

Apollo barking at the honking ducks.

Since someone else had come down to sit by the water, we decided to leave. We continued walking along the water for awhile.

Looking out on the water from the trail we were on.

Apollo actually jumped into this cement barrier, apparently trying to jump on it, so Tim picked him up so he could see over.

Looking up the street from under the bridge.

After awhile, we got hungry and decided go to Haupstrasse to find food.

A street on the way there.

Tim got falafel and I got a couple slices of pizza at the window at Pizza Hut. I was happy to be able to order, respond to not needing a drink, and thank the woman at the window without having to ask if she spoke English.

It amuses me their window says “WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN WAY OF PIZZA” since their pizza doesn’t taste like Pizza Hut’s in America. It does taste much better though.

We sat on a bench for awhile to eat and Apollo behaved pretty well. There was a young girl, no more than three years old, not far from us whose parents were at a table. At one point, the girl just wandered off. My husband tried telling the mother that the child was walking away, but it took a minute for her to pay attention at which point the child was further down the street. When she did, she just nodded as if he hadn’t said anything important. I seem to see a lot of young children whose parents aren’t closeby in Germany and I’m not sure why that is. In America, kids tend to be held by their hand or have one of those backpacks with a lead.

As we walked back toward our car, we passed a building where an older woman was going in and she started talking to us, but we did not understand much of what she said. When Tim asked if she spoke English, she didn’t seem to but she started pantomiming, mimicking our dog’s tongue wagging and saying “Wasser” (water), then pointing to the dog. Then she pointed to a foutain that was behind the trees on the street, apparently indicating that we could take the dog over there to get water. We thanked her and thought it was nice that she had thought of that. However, when we got over there we realized there was sign that said “Kein Trinkwasser” which means the water is not for drinking. My husband joked that he wondered if the woman was trying to poison our dog. I think she was just being kind and probably didn’t realize it was not water for drinking.

I bet this fountain looked refreshing.

Too bad it’s not drinking water.

After that we headed back to the car. Tim estimates we walked about four miles. I was pretty impressed Apollo behaved as well as he did and lasted as long as he did with only having to be carried a few times.

Apollo being carried for a bit on the way back.

Celebrating Our First Anniversary

Tags

anniversary, Germany, military wife, restaurant

Our wedding ceremony.

When I stopped to think about why I hadn’t managed even one post during the last session of school, I took a look at the number of words I’d written for my class conferences and found out I’d hit almost 21,500 just for one graduate class, which is about as much as 27 of my average blog posts worth of writing. And then of course there were reading assignments and papers and another class. I had a brief week between sessions and am back in class again so I am not sure how often I’ll be able to post, but I wanted to *finally* tell you about celebrating our first anniversary which I’m writing about less than three months before our second anniversary. Yep, I’m behind. Sooo without further ado:

Our anniversary was in the lovely month of June, just a couple days after I’d started a new job (yeah I started writing about that process late so you’ll hear more about that oh…probably after I’m a few months into whatever my next job will be). Fortunately our anniversary fell on a Saturday so we at least go to spend the day together.

Sign at the turn for the parking lot.

First, my husband took me to Bierhelderhof to get desert with a plan to get dinner afterwards. When we arrived, there were cows having what seemed to be a bit of a fight. This amused me and I took a picture, but it didn’t turn out that well, so here is a picture with one of the cows who was part of the drama off alone afterward. Poor cow.

What was not as amusing was smelling the cows the whole time we were eating, but the green scenery was nice and our desert was awesome. We went back another day and I tried Maultaschen for the first time. I’ll get around to telling you about someday.

View of Bierhelderhof from the parking lot.

Our deserts at Bierhelderhof. I had apple cake (which was more like pie) with whipped creme and my husband had some kind of cherry tart.

Unfortunately what I thought were allergies got in the way of me enjoying being there as much as I could have. As you may know, the work I had started was in a daycare, and of course with my luck an illness was going around and I had caught it (though I didn’t know that then). We drove around for a little bit after dinner. My husband took me to a spot he’d driven past before that he thought would be a good spot for me to take a picture.

We drove around a bit more and then went home for awhile where I tried to nap off what I still thought was allergies before dinner. Here are a couple pictures from the drive.

Driving along the Neckar.

I’m still not sure what the significance of this is, but it caught my attention.

Trattoria Vecchia Bari 2 in Sandhausen

For dinner, my husband suggested the Italian place we’d gone to for my birthday. We couldn’t find it on Google but drove around looking for it as we knew it was on the way to Walldorf. We ended up finding it and discovering the name had changed from Villa Verdi to Trattoria Vecchia Bari 2. For an appetizer we got Mozzarella Fior di Latte mit Tomaten (fresh mozzarella with tomato). The waiter also brought a “treat from the kitchen” as he called it, which was bread with tomato and spices. It was pretty good. My husband saw squid on the menu and thought it would be fried calamari. It wasn’t and he didn’t quite care for what it turned out to be, but our dogs loved it later. I got Cannelloni al Forno which was decent.

Mozzarella Fior di Latte mit Tomaten (fresh mozzarella with tomato).

Cannelloni

Squid

After dinner on the way back home, we saw a really pretty sunset which you may have seen before if you were following my photo a day posts.

Unfortunately not long after we got home I realized it wasn’t allergies but an illness that had befallen me and I spent the next couple days in bed. But I’m glad the worst of it held off so I could enjoy spending time with my husband on our anniversary. It’s hard to believe we’ll already be celebrating our second anniversary in a few months. Around the same time, we’ll be moving again within Germany (assuming the time line doesn’t change again), which will be our third move since getting married. Time really does fly. In that way it’s not so bad to be so far behind on my blog because when I do get the chance to post, it lets me revisit the memories while making more. Next time I’ll tell you about an adventure with Apollo: his first walk out in Heidelberg.

Can I Use an MA in Counseling Psychology When I Graduate (Part 2: CACREP Accreditation)

Tags

accreditation, army wife, Bowie State University, CACREP, Counseling Psychology, graduate school, Mental health counselor, military wife, TRICARE, UMUC-Europe

One concern with deciding whether to attend a university is whether or not it is accredited. Bowie State University and University of Maryland University College are regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. However, I found out that another accreditation is important in counseling, CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs), and the Department of Defense requires one to hold a degree from a CACREP accredited university in order to qualify to work as a Tricare Certified Mental Health Counselor. While there is a grace period through the end of 2014 for people who don’t have the requirements to obtain them, I needed to know if Bowie State University is in the process of getting CACREP accreditation and, if so, when they expect to receive it, since the DoD is the most likely place for me to seek employment after graduation, especially as long as we live overseas.

Before contacting the school, I went to CACREP’s site and looked up some information. On their Student FAQs page, I found out that as long as the school receives accreditation within 12 months of me graduating, then I will still be considered a CACREP graduate, even if the program is still in the process when I actually graduate. I also learned the process can take up to two years, which would make it kind of tight depending on when I graduate and when they are accredited.

Then, I contacted the school using the Contact Us link on UMUC-Europe’s page of required courses for my degree. I mentioned I had seen in the description for the counseling programs: “The DoD has recently confirmed that in order to qualify for employment with the DoD in a counseling position, a degree from a CACREP-accredited institution is required.” I had not seen any mention that Bowie State University is CACREP accredited, but I had seen in the course catalog that the counseling degrees follow the standards published by CACREP. I asked if Bowie State University was in the process of seeking CACREP accreditation and if, so, if there was a projection for how long their process might be.

Someone responded the next day that the director would contact me when he returned, about a week later. When I had not been contacted a few days after that date, I wrote them again and asked if they could have him contact me or provide an email where I might be able to directly contact him. Later that day, he emailed me saying, “Thank you for your interest in our graduate programs. The new DoD rules concerning CACREP do not go into effect until 1 January, 2015. Our Stateside program at Bowie State University is in the initial stages of pursuing CACREP accreditation. The self study and approval process can be quite lengthy, but if all goes as planned, BSU hopes to have CACREP approval by 2014.”

This seemed like good information to have, but I noticed that word “Stateside”. I am not Stateside. So, I asked if the Stateside program being awarded CACREP accreditation would apply those those going through the program through UMUC-Europe. He responded that it was his understanding that once the Stateside program secures CACREP accreditation, it could extend to the overseas program in Europe and that he would learn more as the process progresses.

With this information, I figured the best thing to do would be to just go ahead and apply to the program. If, as they stated, they are following the guidelines from CACREP accreditation already, then hopefully they will have no problem getting approved. The other option would have been to put off grad school, but since we have no guarantee of where we will be next or what educational opportunities might be available there, I could have ended up in the same position again, but a few years older. I figure it is better to expand my education, even if I may not qualify for certain positions, than to spin my wheels and do nothing…and still not qualify.

Can I Use an MA in Counseling Psychology When I Graduate? (Part 1: Requirements for State Licensure)

Tags

Bowie State University, Counseling Psychology, graduate school, Licensing Requirements, MA, Master's, Mental health counselor, State Licensure, Texas, UMUC-Europe

Example of a mental health counselor license from Washington State

Licensing requirements for mental health counselors vary state to state. So, when you’re going to school to become a mental health counselor, you need to make sure that the degree you’re earning is going to qualify you to apply for licensure in your state (or wherever you plan to live). As a military spouse, that’s a little difficult to do, because we could end up almost anywhere.

But I had to start somewhere. Since my husband is from Texas and that is where we’re most likely to eventually end up, I figured it would make sense to use that state. So I looked up their licensing requirements. I found a Licensing Information Worksheet (click link to download as Word doc) to compare the classes with. Then, I tried to compare them to the courses at UMUC-Europe/Bowie State University to see how well they lined up.

While I only had course titles and a brief description to go on, I was pretty sure most of them were covered or at least close. There was one, Abnormal Human Behavior which seemed to be missing. I decided to play it safe and ask the school directly. I emailed them via the Contact Us link on the bottom of the UMUC-Europe page listing the required courses. I let them know my situation and question and pasted Texas’s requirements in the email.

I was a little discouraged that it took a little over two weeks for them to respond (and was at a standstill with applying due to the delay), but the person who replied thanked me for my patience and explained they’d been having technical difficulties. She referred to each of Texas’s requirements by # and listed the Bowie State University courses that were equivalent. As I had thought, there was one for everything but Abnormal Human Behavior. Their closest was PSYC 714 Clinical Assessment in Counseling and Psychotherapy. Since there was only one class not represented I thought this was a pretty good match and decided to go ahead with it with the intention of just taking the missing course if I needed to later.

In case anyone is curious or might be looking at getting licensure in Texas themselves, I will post the contents of the licensing requirements to become a professional counselor in Texas below with my courses filled in. Next time, I’ll be back to tell you about Part 2 of whether I can use an MA in Counseling Psychology when I graduate: CACREP accreditation.

LICENSING REQUIREMENTS.  Applicants for licensure as a professional
counselor must show evidence of the following:

1. A master’s or doctorate degree in counseling or related field from
a university, which meets the accreditation requirements of the board.

2. A planned graduate program of at least 48 graduate semester hours
of courses which are counseling in nature, including a practicum or
internship of at least 300 clock-hours which primarily involve the
direct delivery of counseling services (testing practicum cannot be
used toward the practicum requirements). Practicum must include at
least 100 clock-hours of direct client counseling contact. Areas of
graduate study must include the following:

(1) Normal human growth and development – the process and stages of
human intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development from
prenatal origins through old age;
Course Number: EDUC 507 Course Title: Human Growth and Development

(2) Abnormal human behavior – the principles of understanding
dysfunction in human behavior or social disorganization;
Course Number: PSYC 714 Course Title: Clinical Assessment in Counseling and Psychotherapy*
*closest equivalent, may need to take a course elsewhere to meet this requirement

(3) Appraisal or assessment techniques – the principles, concepts,
and procedures of systematic appraisal or assessment of an individual’
s attitudes, aptitudes, achievements, interests, and personal
characteristics, which may include the use of both non-testing
approaches and test instruments;
Course Number: COUN 610 Course Title: Appraisal, Assessment, and Evaluation

(4) Counseling theories – the major theories of professional
counseling;
Course Number: PSYC 502 Course Title: Principles and Philosophy of Counseling
Course Number: PSYC 734 Course Title: Counseling Theory and Practice

(5)  Counseling methods or techniques – the methods or techniques
used to provide counseling treatment intervention including:
(A) counseling individuals;
Course Number: PSYC 734 Course Title: Counseling Theory and Practice
(B) the theory and types of groups, including dynamics and
the methods of practice with  groups;
Course Number: COUN 731 Course Title: Group Counseling

(6) Research – the methods of research which may include the study
of statistics or a thesis project in an area relevant to the practice
of professional counseling.
Course Number: EDUC 706 Course Title: Introduction to Research

(7) Life style and Career development – the theories of
vocational choice, career choice and life style, sources of
occupational and educational information, and  career decision-making
processes;
Course Number: COUN 608 Course Title: Career Counseling and Development

(8) Social, Cultural, and Family issues – the studies of change,
ethnic groups, gender studies, family systems, urban and rural
societies, population patterns cultural patterns, and differing life
styles;
Course Number: COUN 732 Course Title: Family Counseling
Course Number: COUN 633 Course Title: Multicultural Counseling

(9) Professional orientation – the objectives of professional
organizations, codes of ethics, legal aspects of practice, standards
of preparation, and the role identity of persons  providing direct
counseling treatment intervention;
Course Number: PSYC 502 Course Title: Principles and Philosophy of Counseling 

(10) Practicum (internship) – as referred to in §681.82(c) of this
title (relating to Academic Requirements)
Course Number: PSYC 836 Course Title: Practicum in Counseling Psychology
Course Number: PSYC 858 Course Title: Internship in Counseling Psychology

Strolling through Speyer Part 2

Tags

Altpörtel (Old Gate), cathedral, Die Gedächtniskirche der Protestation (The Memorial Church of the Protestation), Dom, Fountain, Historisches Museum Der Pfalz Speyer (Historic Museum of the Palatinate Speyer), Maximilian Strasse, Relic, St. George the Dragon Slayer, St. Joseph's Church

Last time, we saw some of Speyer, including the outside of the Dom (Cathedral). Today, we’ll go inside the cathedral and take a tour through some more of the city.

Looking up to the left near the entrance to the Dom you’ll see Frescoes painted by Johann Schraudolph.

On the wall of the left side there are several Bible scenes.

There were also several confessionals on the left side. Four have wood carvings. This is the last one of the Crucifixion, including the angels gathering Jesus’s blood for the Holy Eucharist. The ones preceding it depict The Good Shepherd, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the Fall of Man and Expulsion from the Garden.

There were stairs to the left side we walked up. This is the view looking over them followed by a window on the wall to the left of that view.

On the right side, going up the stairs takes you to the area where the crucifix is. This bell is on that side.

This is a closer view of the crucifix.

Looking back out toward the entrance of the church. The organ is to the right. Above it is a crown which I’ve read is a replica of one in the treasury of the Speyer Kaiserdom. The crown hangs over the crypt of the Holy Roman emperors and German kings of the Salian, Hohenstaufen, and Hapsburg dynasties. On the wall to the right, you can see more of the Johann Schraudolph frescoes.

From the room we were in, there was an entrance to the left to the top part of the Doppelkapelle (Double chapel). The fence goes around an opening in an octagon shape (I took the photo below from behind the other side), and one of the lamps is at each corner. You can sort of see down into the lower chapel from there (I didn’t take a picture because I was going down to take better ones). The top level is dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria and is used as a reliquary.

This relic is the head of HL Papst Stephanus I (Pope St. Stephan I) on the other side of the same room.

This is another relic, a bone. The inscription says it is from HL. Guido von Pomposa (St. Guido of Pomposa).

Another relic in the same room. The outside reads “”Blessed Paul Josef Nardini – Pastor, Apostle social, religious founder” with the birth and death year. I’ve read that the parchment wrapped around the bone says “Blessed Paul Joseph, pray for us in God’s throne!”

This is to the left of the first picture. I am far too lazy to translate the plaque but the top of it indicates it’s for Edith Stein (Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross).

This is on the wall next to the previous picture. I am not sure what the inside is/represents but the words in the circle say “St. Edith Stein Of the Cross Blessed”.

This is in the lower level of the double chapel, dedicated to Saint Emmeram (Saint Martin). It’s used as a baptism chapel. This is a bust of St. Edith. I’m not sure what the plaque beneath it says.

This is a close-up of the Taufbecken (baptism basin).

These prayer candles are on the right side of the Cathedral.

This is across from the prayer candles.

After the cathedral, we decided to wander the city. We walked down Maximilian Strasse, the street which the cathedral is at the end of. There happened to be a market going on that day, and in the distance we saw the Altpörtel (Old Gate). At 55 meters, it’s one of the tallest gates in Germany. There’s supposed to be a great view from the top, but we didn’t go up.

This picture was taken as we approached the gate to walk under it.

We walked around town a bit and found St. Joseph’s church. This is within viewing distance of the Protestant church you’ll see next and was supposedly built in response to that one.

A little further down at Bartholomäus-Weltz-Platz we came across Die Gedächtniskirche der Protestation (The Memorial Church of the Protestation). Speyer’s tourism site just calls it “Memorial Church”. It was built to commemorate the protest at Parliament carried out by the Protestant estates of the Empire.

This is the entrance to Memorial Church, but we did not go inside.

This is another view of the Old Gate, coming from the other side. It was raining at this point in our trip.

This is the top of St. George fountain with St. George the Dragon Slayer.

This is a gazebo depicting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We got tired of getting rained on and decided to go into the Historisches Museum Der Pfalz Speyer (Historic Museum of the Palatinate Speyer). They were having a special exhibit on “Discovering Egypt’s Treasures” which was included in the ticket. Some of the plaques were provided in English and we got audio sets to play at various points with information in English. After that, we went through some of the permanent exhibits: Weinmuseum (Wine Museum), Urgeschichte (Prehistory) and Römerzeit (Roman Era). I didn’t see signs not to take pictures, but there were many employees walking around looking serious, so I didn’t. If you want to get an idea of the Egypt exhibit they do have some pictures on their site and you can see example of some of the permanent exhibits here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our stroll through Speyer!

Strolling Through Speyer Part 1

Tags

Antikenhalle (Hall of Antiques), cathedral, Dom, Heidentürmchen (Heath Tower), Speyer, Stadthaus, The Ferryman's Dream, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

We visited Speyer in May a couple of days after Schwetzingen Schloss und Schlossgarten. I’m not sure how I managed to skip over it, but I figured I would write about it now. Speyer is about half an hour’s drive from Heidelberg and is home to the Speyer Dom (Cathedral), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as some other interesting things.

When we first parked in Speyer we were near a park area with a map of the city. The the right of that, we saw this fountain area.

Not nearly so picturesque was this giant spider on the playground, which I found a little creepy. There is a sign near the “Arachnoparc” with a diagram of the inside of spider, which is actually replicated on the part inside where the kids play.

Before the Dom is a Domgarten with statues. There was a plaque near the first ones we saw designating them as Statues of the Franconian Salischen emperors. Here are some of them.

Near that, you can walk through a park area.

Behind the Dom is Heidentürmchen (Heath Tower). It is left over from the medieval town fortifications and used to stand right by the Rhine adjoined by a marshy area which used to be called a “heath”.

This is one of the heads carved into Heath Tower.

The Domgarten continues below Heath Tower. This statue is after a legend called “The Ferryman’s Dream”.

Bear in mind my German is not that great, so my translation may not be totally accurate, but based on what I’ve heard of this tale I think this is roughly what it says: Old Speyer Saga: “The Ferryman’s Dream”. From the Cathedral come the emperors over the Rhine to help the greater needs of the empire. They call “Ferryman, get us over.”

This is the Ferryman, situated across from the statue of the emperors.

Off to the side of the Cathedral is the Antikenhalle (Hall of Antiques). Originally it was built to hold Roman findings in the cathedral area, but wasn’t big enough. Today it’s a memorial for both world wars.

The gate was locked so this was the best picture I could get. I found a site with a picture which translated the text as “IT FELL FOR HOMELAND/48 OFFZ • • u • 1742 UNTEROFFZ PIONEERS/914 EK 1918/OUR FALLEN AND THE/VICTIMS of WW2/TO THE MEMORY/1939 EK 1945.”

This is Speyer Cathedral, also known as “Kaiserdom zu Speyer” (Imperial Cathedral of Speyer), an important Romanesque monument from the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer, suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bamberg, and served as a burial place of German emperors for nearly 300 years. Speyer Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can find more information about it at the preceding link. The picture below was taken near Heath Tower.

This is the Stadthaus (Town Hall) directly across from the Dom (Cathedral).

I took this picture of the Cathedral standing across the street at the Stadthaus.

This picture was taken in the entryway to the Cathedral looking to the left and is a statue of King Adolf of Nassau.

This was taken while standing on the left side looking at the right side and is of King Rudolf of Habsburg.

This is a closer look at the reliefs on the right side.

This is the bronze portal to enter the Cathedral. It’s quite heavy, and there is a small pillow attached to one side of the door on the inside to keep it from slamming. Next time, I’ll take you inside the Cathedral and through some more of the city.