Another holiday already? There have been three since I got here! I'm pretty sure there aren't any more the rest of the summer, so there's that. But yeah. Tomorrow is Pfingsten, which has to do with Pentecost. I haven't really run into anyone who seems really religious, but Caroline mentioned that Eastern Germany isn't really much into religion, and when people are, they're usually older. (Makes sense, seeing as this part of the country was under the USSR for a while. Also, I mentioned to a couple people but I don't think I ever put it on here: Frau Paetzolt mentioned to me that people who grew up in East Germany as opposed to West Germany learned Russian in school during that time, not English. I hadn't ever given that any thought!)
An interesting thing about Leipzig is that apparently there is a very strong gothic movement here, because on the weekend of Pfingsten (I was told a couple times), people dress up in all black and walk around. I didn't think much about it, but I went out today, and these people are dedicated. This isn't just black shirt and black pants. I saw a guy with a cape, a guy with a ton of chains on his pants (criss-crossing all over and I kind of wondered how he was able to walk anywhere), and a lot of the women have on long dresses. Not just long dresses, but like...hoop-skirt style dresses, completely black or with dark colors (green, purple, etc.). It was pretty impressive. I saw one couple dressed up and their little boy (maybe 4) was wearing some black too; it was super-cute.
It's been a pretty quiet but busy week. I've been going to the hospital from about 9-4 every day (except Friday - I'm done at noon) which means I'm gone from about 8-5 every day. The commute isn't too bad: walk 3 minutes to the Haltestelle (bus/tram stop), wait a minute or five, take the Bahn to Augustusplatz (about 6 minutes), take a different Bahn to Franzosenallee (about 15 minutes), and walk 15 minutes to the hospital. Thankfully I haven't had to schlep in horrible weather yet!
I haven't talked much about my practicum on here since I figured I would keep this more to the "exploring around Germany" type things, but since I basically have a full-time job (except it's not actually a job) here, I might as well talk a little about it. Though there are some privacy/confidentiality rules, I don't think I know any clients' names well enough to say anything about them. So I should be okay.
I am pretty much just following around the therapists and observing their sessions, sometimes sitting inside the circle and sometimes not (like for psychotherapy groups). The main groups I've seen so far are the Tagesklinik (day clinic - outpatient therapy, pretty much), drug ward, geriatric psychiatric and psychotherapy groups, and then the general psychiatric and psychotherapy groups.
I'm definitely the most interested in the workings of the drug ward and have been talking a lot with Frau Lülff about them. I don't really have much knowledge about the way the US does drug rehab, and I wish I knew more, but at least when I'm done here I can come back and compare it to the US. I was surprised to learn that roughly 80% of the patients in this drug ward are there because of crystal meth - I guess Saxony (the state I'm in) has the biggest meth problem in Germany because everyone gets it from the Czech Republic (Tscheschiche Republik...gotta love that one in German).
Another thing that really surprised me was that in this particular drug ward, everyone is there voluntarily: you have to call and get your name on a waiting list, and then you'll be about 60-70 people down, and then you call every day and your name moves up. Once you're at the top and they see you have motivation to come, they'll call you and tell you there's a place for you. Frau Lülff said that for some of the patients, they want to come because of a court case and they'll be able to say "yeah, I'm trying to get in therapy", where some of the patients are safer when they're not at home, like if they're a dealer or something. I live a pretty sheltered life, but I can't even imagine some of this stuff happening or how you would get into it in the first place. Scary stuff.
That's all I can really think of right now. As I said, it's been pretty quiet - I haven't been out and about all that much this week. I'm hoping to get out a little tomorrow and maybe explore a little.
Bis bald!
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