Saturday 6 September 2008

Gin, Germany and Educational Theory...

So I'm curled up in a big comfy armchair, drinking a gin and tonic and continuing my (admittedly still pretty self-centred) musings. I know I'm blogging a fair amount about me at the moment, but a) its summer so nothing hugely interesting is happening and b) I'm kind of enjoying sitting down and taking a good, long hard look at myself. It's been too long since I last did it.
First things first, I have a house in Hamburg and am flying out on Friday which is pretty exciting. Hopefully I'll settle in and meet people pretty fast, I'm going to be blogging my goings on on here rather than on my travel blog as I don't think it counts as travel if you have a job, a housing contract and flatmates (with goats).
Secondly, I'm pretty much over my "I'm going to live in a hole and join a convent because it's easier' stage, and am taking my first tentative baby steps towards acknowledging that I am capable of liking other people and that that isn't a bad thing, or going to end in tears immediately. Admittedly there have been a couple of pretty unpleasant encounters with guys in the past couple of months, the last one being pretty recent, but this leads me to the 'educational theory' part of the post.
If you've ever done psychology or education, you'll have come across the educational theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Basically they sat down and considered what drives people to learn, and one of the things that they realised was actually discomfort is a huge factor, for example the discomfort of shuffling around on your bottom is what drives you to copy mummy and daddy and get up and walk. This actually ties into my ideas of christian ideas of suffering in an odd way, and it's driven back home again some thought processes I was having when I was ill at a lesser level, that suffering in the short term can actually lead to greater happiness or fulfilment in the long term.
Which is why I'm telling myself that even the bad experiences, dishonesty and abuses of trust that have happened over the past couple of months have been positive- I've had good friends around me to pick me up and keep me going, and I've become a lot more savvy and less naieve as a result.
I think I'm just on such a steep learning curve with the breakup, knee, granny and move abroad that much as I appreciate how that discomfort is making me grow, I'm a bit fed up and would like to be comfy and not growing, just for a while.

Promise a blog not about me will hit soon! Might even hit the last 2 chapters of God on Mute.

S xx

No comments: