life in The District

here's a little peek into DC life these days.  My day-to-day existence is pretty unexciting as most of my time is spent studying / working on school, but last weekend we all had a study break on Saturnday night followed tradition and had a "welcome first years" party thrown by the second year psyd class.  It was a reminder that I'm so blessed to be a part of a great group of people with whome I genuinely enjoy spending time.  Good thing - we'll be spending a lot of it together the next three years.

We'll actually be spending the next two days in each others' company from 8:30 am to 6 as we go through a "group relations conference" ( the conference is desgined to explore group dynamics based on work that was started at the Tavistock Clinic in London after the war.  Prettymuch the premise of the worskshop is an examination of three basic assumptions that can be observed in group behaviour at different times: basic assumption dependency, basic assumption fight / flight, and basic assumption pairing. Basic assumptions operate unconsciously within groups at the same time a group may be engaged in a conscious work task.

Group Relations Conferences typically explore the effects of group and organisational dynamics on how individuals "take up authority and leadership in this temporary institution, and in their work"  thanks for help w/ the explaination wiki ;) Last year there was TONS of drama and fall out and actually some permanant fracutring of the class happened, so we're all a little scared and just crossing our fingers that we can get through without damaging the good rapport we have established. 

Here are pictures from last weekend.  I'm praying we'll still be laughing and smiling like this on Monday night when all is said and done after we've been emotionally pushed, pulled and squeezed.