I Update, I guess

So its late on Easter Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, and i'm in studio working and i figured i should update my blog. So, since our great rome escapade, including a trip to Bilbao, and Girona, we got back and did work. NOTE: THERE ARE NEW PICTURE LINKS ON THE LEFT COLUMN. SEE LEFT COLUMN FOR DETAILSbasically. last weekend brandon u came in, we had all had a good time for once, it was a nice refresher after a rather unusually quiet week field trip. but the work is getting worse. our director, in an effort to "keep us on track", decided to have a jury last wednesday, a week before this coming wednesday, which is our midreview jury. dave shove will be in town and so will the council town, so there's alot of pressure. so she decided that in our best effort, in order to stimuate out design, i dont know, it doesnt make alot of sense, but the workload has increased, over easter break. not only are half of the students' families in town, but there is also no real time ot analyze crit analyze crit before having to get down and prepare for this wednesdays jury. so i'm not sure what the big idea is, but i dont think there is one.

anyways, as rob said, what better time to be under pressure and learn a new program. so that's what rob and i are doing. we are going to use ARCHICAD to save us from our woes. basically this program promisses to be easier as far as exporting necessary drawings such as elevations, plans, sections, and perspectives. it so far has proven to be exponentially more competent than sketch up, and alot fast er to use than CAD, in many ways. everything is sort of linked inside of everything else, so you draw a wall, but there's a wall settings box where you can customize just about everything to everything. rob and i think that they asked architects how to design a program, bcecause it gos so smoothly. well relatively, its very early yet. also, this program i think allows pdf exports, which could provide higher quality exports for post production work for our boards. i'll keep you posted on the details.

anyways, its been quiet. i've noticed that my hands cramp up on this keyboard alot, and on my mouse too. its the eregonomics i tell you! theyre at it again, and its not good. if any reader, stalker or not, knows of any good sites or products that could be recommended, please post comments.

Girona, Rome, and Great Weather (Not Bilbao)

So yet again, i will attempt to summarize our second field trip excursion. For this trip, we only hit 3 cities, Girona, in Spain, Rome, and then Bilbao, back in northern Spain. Nice trip, better pace, just some problems here and there. but more on that later.





TO NOTE: Pictures will be sparse in this part where i actually write what happened, but there is a link under my links section (look left column) that says, Rome Architecturally Speaking, click on that, it goes to an album of selected shots of the trip. There might be another one for Bilbao/northern spain, stay posted.





We first went out to Girona for a few days. its a quaint small town, at least the old town part is, and it has a very nice feel to it. it's actually a fairly rich city, which is nice, and walking around was pretty casual and nice. it wasn't like cordoba or granada that have a distinct feel and architecture. Girona was just a nice city. We checked out a couple of churches there, one romanesque, which is the older of the styles, and simpler in design. it was alright. We also went to the Gothic church there, which was awesome. Though pictures weren't allowed, i snuck some, because this church apparently has the largest span of vaulted ceiling in the world as far as gothic church. and it is a massive space, and it didnt feel like a forest of columns. it was really cool, and the stained glass was awesome.





Anyways, we did some other stuff, but really kept it quiet as far as night life and going out. we didnt do that alot this trip, which is very different from last trip. but i didn't mind, i really didnt feel like going out and spending more money. whatever. so we then eventually head off to rome.





rome was awesome. We got to hang out with the rome kids for two days which was awesome.


some of the things we saw were:


Renzo Piano's Auditorium Complex


Zaha Hadid's under construction IMAXXI building


Pantheon


Piazza de Popolo


Piazza Navonna


Pantheon, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum


Campidoglio


Trevi Fountain


Campo De Fori, where the Rome kids' apts were. we stayed there for 3 nights.


Quatro Fontane, only the outside


St. Peters


Church of St. Ivo


Richard Meyers Arcis Pacis Building


Tempieto


Church of San Pietro next to the Tempieto


Spanish Steps





That's quite a list indeed. we spent about five days there in Rome, so this hits alot of hte major ones. This is the stuff that we did as a group. One morning I went out and did my own tour of several other places, including the Piazza de San Ignacio Loyola, The church there, Some imperial palace and another baroque fountain that i dont remember the name of.





Over all, the most impressive buildings were of course, the oldest. Colosseum is nuts, and so are some of the buildings in the Roman Forum. the Temple of Romulus, had the original metal doors of the original temple, making them date to maybe 2000 years old! insane. It was just very impressive to walk the streets that millions of people have walked on over thousands of years. it's a very humbling experience too. Thank God the weather was nice.

Anyways, we eventually go out to bilbao. i'll write about that in another entry. i hate the internet sometimes.. one wrong click and you lose alot of info. captions on photos are always difficult.

anways, stay posted, more to come.

second half of semester begins

here is team rob bob ben's photo board. this is basically 20 boards in one image, each board being 11x 16, roughly. we had to pin them up on the wall with a half inch border, it was

a nightmare and a half. it was an extra half nightmare because we had to do crazy trimming things in order to bleed to the edge if we wanted to.

the presentation went well. Bob told me after i talked my head off that he would have rather just stood up there and let the boards speak for themselves. they definately could have. i talked my head off, but i lead it well i think, that was because we had written all the theory behind our concept early on in the night before, which is really effective later when putting information and formulating graphics for the boards. i think i'm gonna keep that tactic for later projects.

the jury went well, a bit mixed, but i think our stuff was solid, so it was good. because we had proposed to put some new buildings in and redistribute the floor area around the plaza and create new pockets of green space, keeping hte same numbers, but reallocating them differently, the jury wasn't all for it or all against it. it was alright. we later went out to this "local" place, whatever it was, it was really good. alot of meat, alot of patata, and plenty of sangria, which was a nice break.

but i'm hungry. so i'll write more later.

ps-- totally spent my free time designing this site, reading code, experimenting, and having some fun in photoshop. let me know what you think.

working on a layout

working on a layout, clearly. comments please!

once upon a time THERE WAS NO INK

7 til 7.

and there is no ink to print our 20 A3 boards. aka no final project.

THERE IS NO INK, OF ALL REASONS TO FALL SHORT!

it means i'mma hafta outsource it, which costs a bit of dinero. we'll see what the morning brings.

but for all my loyal fans, here is "thumbnail" of the board. enjoy. sorry if it's pixelated, its rather large in real life. i basically did this, while bob created and designed most of the 3d and real model, and rob sat around here and there, got sick, slept some, and then did some rendering and model work towards the end.

but here is the board.

TRIPPIN’ SOUTH SPAIN: WHAT HAPPENED IN 5 CITIES

TRIPPIN’ SOUTH SPAIN: WHAT HAPPENED IN 5 CITIES

Short summary of the eye opening experience in which 12 students, one teacher and a lot of bags went to 5 cities in 10 days to discuss architecture.

Friday---didn’t sleep the night before, that happens, staying up late to do last minute work. Not a great way to start the trip, but a precursor of the typical sleep deprivation that can be found on such trips. Flew into Madrid. Our director/teacher came down with the stomach flu. As soon as we got on the plane. Madrid was cold, freezing and windy. We get to the hotel. It is plush!! Nice pad. We regroup minus our instructor and go out for lunch and then to el prado to view some old school art. Fantastic work. Of course I have no pictures. But it was ridiculous to see some of those paintings in real life. They’re so big, and detailed and just painted…. Man. Humbling experience, along with a bit of jaw droppage. Coolest exhibit? The treasures of the dauphin exhibit in the basement. The exhibition showcased hand crafted ornate bowls, dishes and wine goblets, plates, cups and broaches, etc… just a ridiculous amount of incredibly detailed, handcrafted jewelry in metal, precious metal, gems and stone , and various combinations. Fantastic. Then we went out side, walked to a park, and then walked through the park, only stopping at the playground. We played on the playground, then went home. Slept for a bit, the director is still in bed, went to dinner. Ate a dish called ropavieja, or old clothes. Pretty good actually. Then went back to the hotel, chilled out with everybody, then we went out to check out nightlife. Nearest club was a five minute walk. Checked it out, everybody danced, I actually met some structural engineers from Phoenix and we talked about architecture, engineering and American cities for the whole night. Went home slept.

SATURDAY---wake up to go with director to an expensive breakfast.great. should have gone to bk with the others. Went to palace plaza. Geometric gardens, statues, pretty cool. Space was made unique by being on a different elevation than the street, in order to keep noise down, make private. Cool idea. Then took a walk to plaza mayor. Stayed there, sketched for the assignment. Bleh, hate these assignments. Supposed to be analytical, etc. a bit cold in the plaza. Not a bad space. There was this pretty cool guy who had an old vintage authentic (I think) pin hole camera. He took fantastic pictures, and he developed the film and did his whole dark room basically on the floor of the plaza. Pretty cool I guess. Then we went to the modern museum… don’t remember the name right now. Had these cool glass exterior elevatiors. Didn’t fit the building, but they were cool. Glass encasing the elevators, we guessed after doing abit of engineering, were suspended and hung from above. Marvelous idea. Went inside, saw some modern art. A lot of famous work… had to rush through the museum, actually, Christie the director only gave us an hour. Got to see the guernica. Fantastic. Even more impressive was the in progress photographs of the painting, documenting the progress of the painting. Pretty cool. Went to get churros. Yum yum. Tired. Then we napped for abit. We went out and walked for abit, got some pizza. Hung out with everybody in the hotel, while some of the others went out to the bar. Then we met up and went out to club next door to the other club from the night before. This club was even better. It basically was a mansion that was converted into a club. All these old renaissance rooms were dance floors, with ceilings painted, cornice work and painted walls, very classical. There were side lounges with old school lounge furniture. Very cool architecturally speaking. The music was awesome. They had a live African drum player, who played to the house music, and it was awesome. We danced until dawn. No lie. Walked out of the club and went and had breakfast.

SUNDAY. Train to Toledo. It’s a small medieval city, at least the old city is. Cool. Freezing cold. Go to the local mosque. Smaller than my house. Over the course of the day, trudging in the cold, I get sick. I feel terrible, and the feeling heightens during mass. Had to leave the service. I couldn’t eat, but didn’t vomit. I eventually had to go back to Madrid with Sean. We missed some cool stuff, the cathedral and some really cool escalator stairs. I shower and then sleep. Then I sleep. And I slept a little more. Wake up. Eat dinner. Hawaiian pizza saved my life. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

MONDAY---wake up. Better. Leaving Madrid. Get on the train. I got to see some snow here and there. Very beautiful. Sleep in and out intermittently during the trip. Get to Cordoba. My first Islamic Architecture. I dig it. We check into our hotel, which is also Islamically inclined, and is also located 50 feet from the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which is a big deal. Cordoba, in the old city part, is a quaint, silent little place, no building taller than 3 stories. Everything except for the mosque is painted a pure bright white, which looks marvelous, because it is the old school minimalistic, not modern minimalistic. One of my favorite places on the whole tour. Lunch and then Mosque. Fantastic architecture. A bit dreary perhaps, but a marvel nonetheless. It was really cold in there however. The Mosque had been taken over and made also into a Cathedral, which most of us as architecture students see that as a sacrilegious act of blatant ignorance of existing architecture. It was a bit interesting to see how they had tried to merge the two styles. Sketched for assignment. Then, we went to arab baths!!! Space had always been arab baths, for centuries. It was a really cool experience, very relaxing, included a massage. There are 3 types of pools in the arab bath--- freezing cold, warm and hot. All you do is just go from pool to pool. There is supposed to be a particular order to it, but we just went however we wanted. Very very relaxing. Afterwards we went up stairs to the teleteria for tea and hookah… We all had some really good tea and they played some really awesome middle eastern music. We left and tried to find somewhere to eat. We walked for hours it seemed like. Some punks pretended to be nice and tell us where to eat, but the restaurant didn’t even exist. We eventually found a Chinese place. We order Chinese food in Spanish, which was interesting. We walked home, and some kids went to bed. The rest of us just wanted to explore. We crossed the bridge and went to yet another playground. Felipe and I walked out to this really cool swirl sculpture and looked at the stars. Chill, calm. We then walked along river, in the flood plain area. It was bit creepy but a lot of fun. Eventually crossed further upriver and explored the old castle towers (which were locked) and the old Arabian mill (which we contemplated jumping to) walked home and slept.

TUESDAY---I wake up with a shower and yet I still feel exhausted. We pack, leave our bags with the hotel, and then go to the next sketching assignment—a tiny jewish synagogue. Quaint, small, and the sanctuary space was very ornate, and incredibly detailed with stone tessellations. We then went to Arab House, which was basically that, an arab house. Very cool space, a lot of old authentic things, very nice. Get back to hotel, grab bags, take bus to Granada. Sleeping on the bus, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep. We arrive in Granada, finally. We get to the hotel, check in, drop bags and then navigate through maze to get a church plaza on the summit of a hill in order to see the cloudy sunset. We can see the Alhambra on the opposite hill. It is absolutely nuts how big it is. We’ll go there tomorrow. The walls here are also all white but have graffiti, which is kind of cool to see old school adapting to new school. Walk home through narrow sketchy streets. Five of us go to get pizza because we’re hungry and it’s a cheaper filler than wherever we’re going to eat. We then meet up with the group and go to a little teleteria for dinner. A small place, with a frazzled young waiter who would actually run to get our food and then run back to the kitchen. Maybe they were understaffed. Hookah and food. We then go back to the hotel to hang out, talk and chill. Everybody had a good time swapping stories and laughing at some really good jokes. Then we go to bed.

WEDNESDAY---we wake up and it’s ALHAMBRA TIME!! We spend pretty much all day. A huge palace fortress. Basically the Alhambra is a really cool place. I have a lot of pictures, just ask. We sketched a lot too. It was a bit rainy, but it eventually cleared up. There was a palace section, a huge garden section, a fortress section, and then, further up on the hill, was the summer palace home section. All of it was so cool. Then we were to meet up in an hour. So Meg, Bob, Tom, Rob and I decide to climb the mountain behind the Alhambra. And we did. We basically ran up this gigantic hill. We have fantastic pictures looking down at the whole city. IT was a marvelous view and probably one of the more thrilling parts of the trip. Then we ran down like maniacs in order to catch the bus that would take us to the meeting point with the group. We made it in the nick of time. Did a “walking tour of the city.” Basically 2 churches, sitting next to each other. Then we went up “gypsy street,” which wasn’t that gypsy-ish. I bought my only souvenirs so far, some Arabic prints that looked really cool. Then we got cleaned up and went to dinner. Authentic Morrocan for dinner, and it was pretty good. Then we walked around to go bar hopping. We started at one small bar, and we talked for a while with the bartender, he pointed us in the direction of tantra bar, a more upscale bar which was supposed to be nicer. We went over there and had a few drinks, pretty nice place, nothing cool architecturally, maybe aesthetically I guess. Felipe talked with the bartender, we got some sweet deals and then he pointed us in the direction of Granada 10. This time, instead of a mansion, it was a movie theater that was converted into a club. It has some good music, the place was packed. Bacardi was hosting the party, which was alright I guess. The bartenders from the 2 first clubs actually came over later and we saw them. i eventually go home early. Really tired. Ah, thank God for sleep.

THURSDAY---Waking up involves packing, catching a bus and getting on a train. We are headed to Seville. It’s warm when we get to Seville. We take a very long bus ride to the hostel that we’re staying out. There was a complication and a room for 4 guys only 2 single beds… The complication gets worked out and the solution means Bob and I are put up in the attic of a hotel a half block away. Not too bad, just 4 flights of stairs to get to our room door. Then you open the door and there’s another flight of stairs. But a bed is a bed is a bed. We then walk about 2 kilometers to the university (the professor there asked why we didn’t take the bus) to attend a lecture about the Alhambra. It was a 3.5 hour lecture, broken into 2 parts--- history of Granada, Seville and Toledo, and then the Alhambra. Or as it actually happened: Part 1—sleepy students trying to stay awake, coffee break, and then Caffeinated Students realizing that they are in the presence of a master architecture professor. The guy had actually spent an entire summer measuring every square inch of the Alhambra. Truly a scholar. Great guy too. After lecture, we walked home, or in the direction of home, but then half the group went with Christie the director to this posh pizza place. There we ate pizza and drank wine, not so bad eh? Then from there some kids go home, but bill, felipe and I decide to go find some night life. We talk to some locals, and go searching for this hoppin’ club called Garamond, and instead find a bar called elefunk. The dj playing that night was awesome. He played some really funky jazz dance music along with some very rhythmic latin dance music. Very awesome. Felipe goes back to the hotel to get Monica and Meg. They come back, we hang out there, then Bill and I go home. Walk up 5 flights of stairs to bed.

FRIDAY---We wake up a little later today, wooh! People are starting to get more burned out as the week progresses. We walk over to the cathedral of Seville. We go inside, walk around, then walk up the spiral ramp to the bell tower. From there we had a great view of the entire city. Some of us met up because there were rumors of an arab bath here in SSeville. We go back to the hotel to get more information. We call and find out that the place is booked. Felipe, with his smooth people skills, thought that we should go over there. So we do. Turns out there was an opening. At 12am Friday night. We take it. We meet back up and go out to a flamenco show. The dancer was tall and a good dancer, but she never smiled. I guess it was because she’s not supposed to, but whatever. The guitarist was really good too. It was very theatrical too though. But for a first flamenco show, it wasn’t so bad. But it ran pretty late, and for those of us going to the bath, we had to scramble to find somewhere to eat. Bill and I eventually settled for McDonalds. They served beer, and it was good. We then ran over to the arab bathhouse and waited for the other kids to show up. They eventually did and we went to the Seville Arab Bath. (there is actually only one per city…. Weird) This arab bath was a bit more modern but still very cool. All the pools were salt water pools. They had a warm salt water bath in the basement, and then on the other level they had a large warm water pool with the hot and cool tubs nearby, and in another section they had a sauna room, and also a warm water jet pool which was just a lot of bubbles. A lot of it was very relaxing. There a bunch of couples there with us, our party of five…. Haha. It was funny. We get out, clean up and go back to the hotel, and round up the gang. We all drink a bit, and then head out to Garamond, which we saw on the way to the flamenco show. Turns out to be really cool. We throw our jackets down and go out on the floor. The décor was psychedelic in design, but the space wasn’t anything fantastic. The music was off the hook, however. They remixed some really good songs and it was awesome. It was funny because they were Red Hot Chili Pepper Songs, and so we were the group of English kids who knew all the words and were jumping up and down to these songs. I’m sure everybody thought we were nuts. We stayed out pretty late, about 630am, and then took the riverside walk home. It was nice. Get back to the hotel, and sleep.

SATURDAY---It gets fuzzy towards the end of the trip because I didn’t take notes/journal entries at the end of the trip. Saturday we were allowed to sleep in, so we did, and met up to go to the Alcazar, which is the Seville Islamic Palace, historically speaking. It also became the Spanish Royalty Palace. This was also a huge palace, like the Alhambra, but in a more civic/city setting. It also was very beautiful, especially the Islamic part, and the more Spanish sections were very rewarding to see as well. There were several rooms in which gigantic tapestries depicting maps or important political scenes. These tapestries were easily 50’ by 25’….think about weaving that…. Yea, it was rather impressive. We did some more sketching for the assignment, and then left. Felipe and I met up with Monica and Gisela to all do some shopping. Basically that meant Felipe and I walked with Monica and Gisela to the first shoe store and then we didn’t seem them until later that night. Felipe and I walked along, here and there, and then eventually went back home. For dinner we all went out to his arab bath/ Spanish mansion converted into a pizza place, actually owned by the same owner as the place the night before. Architecturally speaking, not terribly impressive, but still kind of cool. WE had pizza and pasta and wine. Then we all went back to the hotel. Basically Felipe and Brian went out and everybody went to bed but Tom, Meg, Bob and I. we stayed up, had a beer or two, and then went to bed.

SUNDAY—We packed up, took the long bus ride to the airport. Ate, went through Security, and then flew home. Everybody was a bit tired, and we still had studio work to do after that. We remet up and all did some studio work, and then went to bed. Great trip.


What I took away from this trip: I have been awed by some of Spain’s history and architecture, and the power in which architecture can have on a person as he/she experienced, as well as the power that architecture played in different peoples’ lives throughout history. The scale and grandeur of these spaces baffles me, and it has been both eye-opening and humbling. The life in each city has added to my own understanding of city, space, and people in general. I had a blast on this trip and am glad that this was apart of the program here in BCN. Good stuff.

so first "jury" was yesterday. here's rob and i's outstanding board collage. despite critiques, we figured it was the closest board compared the precedence boards that christie our director gave us. critics were up and down about it, but the feedback and discussion is a good sign for the most part. rob and i like it, and we had a coherent presentation, so it's all good.

i'll write more about our extensive 10 day, 5 city trip of a lifetime shortly. not sure when, but soon.

Pictures, 1st 2 Wks

I'm just gonna throw up a good handy selection of pictures from the last two weeks.

Enjoi.

rock on.

for someone special

i was walking down the street and "picked" some flowers for that special girl in my life. ;D love you.

la de da

so, hump day, figured i'd update.

this week, has been alright, so far still havent managed to figure out htat whole thing call sleeping in a foreign country. the problem is not that i don't like sleeping, or that i have trouble sleeping, because i actually sleep super hard and still have dreams, which i used to never have, so awesome. i just dont get enough sleep. it kinda stinks.

monday, was alright. we went to the park, which is literally across the street, to the local school's b ball court and played some basketball. it was a good time, we all agreed it was awesome to get some decent excercise. it was a little sketch, with all these sketch ganster kats watching us, but we weren't bothered at all, so it was fun. then studio from 4-8, in which we proceeded to tour the site for our massive project for this semester... basically there's this roadway, and the city govt is basically saying, nope, want it to be cooler. go. haha. its kinda slummy area, stuff just deteriorating, but its cool. we're completely rennovating that stuff into nice big green open spaces, and then designing some of the surrounding buildings in relation to the new ideas and concepts. its cool.

tuesday, yesterday, i joined the other kids in the composition/publication/experience class... basically an independent study in which we are supposed to both document all the student work, document our own experience, and document and glorify the barcelona program. its a bit unclear because each person involved has a different idea, the professor, our director, and the coordinator back in the states all have different ideas and approaches to the final product, which is either a book, publication or magazine of some kind. i think it could be an awesome mix of all the ideas, but we'll see what happens.

then went to history class, learned more about the history of barcelona, again the class was taught in spanish, with a translator, but i'm able to practice my spanish by listening to the actual professor too. still having trouble staying awake during afternoon classes when i sit down.... its warm and i get tired after lunch. oh well.

went home, did something, cooked dinner... oh yeah, so rob had bought this random big cheap frozen fish, literally, just caught and frozen... well it's called rohu and its a bangladeshan fish, apparently. it had a million bones, but i helped him cook that up for a big group dinner... he did the fish and i did everthing else. good team work, and for a while we were worried that the fish wouldnt work out, but in the end everybody liked it (we mixed with some mustard sauces and stuff) and there was even leftovers. then i went into studio for a bit.

today, we had our sketching class in the morning. alot of fun. we went to 3 plazas , and sketched things as they came to us on our own personal journey from each plaza. it was really cool. the plazas are pretty sweet. it's in the old gothic quarter, with these tall 4-5 story buildings, very narrow streets, dark, dank, gritty, and then you literally look up and walk into these plazas, brightly lit, full of people, orange trees, cafes, or a fountain and trees... its breath taking. i was literally in deep conversation with my teacher and then i stopped breath taken away as i enter the first plaza. it was pretty cool. a good time. we ended up going to the top of the catherdal of barcelona, on the top. pretty cool view.

rob and i then did some work on our plaza project, ate lunch at this cheap place near studio, which was awesome. then studio, did some layout work, got to critiques, then went out to the plazas to take more pictures, get afeel for everything, etc. then we had our field trip to firm class, where went to this apparently prominent architecture firm, toured their facilities. they had alot of cool models, alot of people. nice place, a bit too dreary at night... lit by single bulbs plugged into the ceiling, all ghetto and eery almost. but during the day i bet the huge windows let in a ton of light. cool place i guess. the student interns dont get paid for interning.... so no. haha. apparently most places here that allow interns don't pay them... which stinks.

walked home, went with bob to the grocery store, stocked up on food, ate a quick dinner, here i am in studio. wooh! more later this weekend.

Saturday

First of week of school was over on thursday, but it takes me two days later to get around to writing about it. jeez.


school is alright. spanish, hopefully, i can drop, as it is way too basic for me and some others, and they aren't offering an advanced class for us as of right now. so i'm hoping to create and do an independent study in photography of experience and or architecture.

history so far has been all in spanish, translated by felipe, which isn't so bad, and i'm able to understand most of what the professors are saying. the schoool it's in, the poli tech school's architecture building is cool. this arch program alone has 2000 undergrad students, aka practically CUA's entire undergraduate school. crazy. and they're all very trendy and artsy and left field in their dress, peircings and haircuts. cool, its a different flair. we dont have any classes with them, however.

we didnt have our office vist class yet. that starts next week.

our field trip class started out this week with us playing around with watercolor paint.... haha, 3 year of college and we're learning watercolor. apparently we're going to be doing some sketching in that class using watercolor, which would be very artsy, pretty cool too.

studio is cool, we're going to be doing this massive urban design and building plaza complex project, and will eventually present it all to the city council, nuts! so we'll see what happens. right now we're doing basically a precedence study, looking at existing plazas and how they function, etc. pretty cool.

anyway, i made the new pics and stuff today. you dig? POST A COMMENT!

we went out last night to this hip pizzeria with our teacher. pretty nice place, good food.
tonight we're going over to the other apartment to eat some food, bc our apartment did group dinner last. then we might go out walking aorund the city.... we'll see. then work tomorrow i suppose.

Summary of the Weekend

Dear fans, so i'm going to try to get this thing up to date. that previous entry was on friday. its now monday, so i have two days to tell you about.

Saturday, in the park.... think it must have been the fourth of july...

just kidding, that's oldies music, for those avid music 100.3 fans. Saturday, we slept in i think? then all the students got together and we went and checked out the third apartment. we have collectively decided that it would be in the best interest of all members to drop that third appartment, as there are enough beds between the two appartments for all of us. So we did. This would make rent cheaper, once we are able to get ourselves out of the contract for the third apartment, (which means, we pay until it gets rented out.... we hope it will be in less than a month, hopefully sooner....) So cheaper rent, better community aspect, and also, last but certainly not least, the third appartment feels and is in a shadier part of town, which would not be conducive to studio architecture life. And as it is the furthest apartment away, a long walk home into a shady neighborhood is not ideal for any student, regardless.

As it is, i am in the spacious six man apartment, in which we have Meg in single, Brian in a single, Bob and Tom doubling, and Rob and i doubling. In my opinion, this apartment is alot better than the Gran Via apartment because ours feels alot bigger and our common area is really far away from the sleeping rooms. we ran into problems on sat night because a bunch of us stayed up drinking and talking, till the wee hours of the morning, as the culture prescribes, but we are bit loud and there is no acoustic protection, so we may have kept up some kids who wanted to sleep. but our place is better for that. boo yah gran via.

so saturday, went over checked out the third apartment, then we headed towards the shore, and in the process, emptied out near montijunc, the beginning of hte more mountainous parts to the west of the city. we explored, played on kiddie jungle gyms and got to the summit of the first part of the mountain, only to look at the map and realize we had only covered about 1/16 of the whole mountain, there being so many more buildings and places to go. we were in the part near the beautiful and modern mirimar hotel, which was very cool, there being this big english garden and such there too. it was just an awesome place.

we then went down to the sea, and near the statue of Columbus looked at some little tiendas that were selling all legitimate, at least 50 year old vintage european items, or really cool stuff. it was amazing. you almost wanted to come back here and buy it all up right after you bought a house some where and then ship all the old signs, helmets, badges, books, paintings back and make a crazy place. anyway.....

then we walked back home i think, using la rambla as our way of getting back.... la rambla,as my explanation, is close to the typical picturesesque european street, but in barcelona and on crack. in the stereotypical, ideal and romanticized european street, there's these beautiful buildings, lots of people, many different tiendas, street performers, and crowds of people. that's how la rambla is, with about 4-8 different robot.statue people peforming, plus some very talented drawing artists, and then other stores that sell rabbits, mice and chinchillas as pets, etc... and there are lots and lost of people.

so we went to gran via, figured out the room arrangements, split up and went to aldano apt. we showered, reorganized the furniture, then went back to gran via for dinner. BILL, our FOUR STAR CHEF, didnt realize that the sausage he had bought at the market was actually pig hands, as it translates from spanish, and so we didn't eat those. dinner was just a bit weird, but it's all good. then we busted out the sangria, wine and, no lie, absynth, and we played chirades. it was alot of fun.

AS A WORD OF WARNING: all though i am only speculating on behalf of my friends, making a generalization on their behalf based on my judgement of their character, we here in barcelona, the ones of us who actually drink a fair amount when we intend to drink, do not get more than tipsy at best. i would say a good almost half of the people here do not have alot to drink when we have our social gatherings and so this is not your typical american college kids in a group setting with hard alcohol in a different country. We are responsible and safe, and know our limits. i guess it's better to realize that we are in barcelona, where alot of time is spent SOCIALIZING and CASUALLY DRINKING, and that's what we've been doing in our own student group. so please, to all my american readers, family and friends, we are not belligerent drunkards, please drop the american stereotype/assumption that we are. thanks again.

sunday, we went woke up and went to this beautiful, gorgeous old church a block away from where our studio is. it was wonderful. we then met back as a group with christie, our director, who also got her atm card stolen, and we as a student group decided to go exploring by walking around. Bill gave us another scare when,after we had stopped to look at the map and decide where to go and then proceeded to go in the next direction, he was nowhere to be found. he literally disappeared. there was about 8 of us, and we split into twos and went in diffferent directions. not being able to do much more, we went over towards this magnificient arch that led the the grand park plaza area in the south east part of town. gorgeous. everywhere i walk feels like a part of a movie. i have yet to walk around with my camera, i'm waiting to get everything situated with myself, but will probably do that today, as we are going on a tour later this afternoon.

anyways, i have to go. hasta luego

the Trip Over

ah yes, the trip over.... it was quite an experience. let's see.....

so of course i waited until the last minute to pack up, buy things at last minute, do last minute errands, etc, which drove my family nuts. but we were able to get out to dulles, which was good. hectic, got out on the plane, saw spiro, tumey and eleni at the airport, on their way to rome, bill and i having the same first connecting flight into munich, germany.

so we get the munich aiport, which, by the way, is slick, metallic, modern, white, cool, nice, stylish, etc.... and for breakfast, we have beer and criossants.... oh yeah, we started europe off right!

anyways, so then the fun part comes. my flight is later than bills, and so he takes off and i have another hour and a half to wait before mine even boards.... so i'm chillin', watchin' some soccer, having a decent time. now i've been up all night pretty much, and so i decide, hey, i'll just lie down, it will feel good, i only have about 2o mins probably till the flight boards..... well.... i look up after like 10 mins, and there's no one at the gate counter, and i'm like, what is this about, we have got to be boarding soon. it's crazy. but no one is there. i lie back down. i am lying down 3 rows over from the gate counter, in the proper waiting area, underneath the intercom and right by the clock. so like back down, its 10:15. i sit back up, its 10:57. my flight was supposed to depart at 10:55. there's no on in the gate, but now there's a lady at the counter.

i said, hey, i think i'm supposed to be on this flight.

she said, yes i know, i called your name five times....

and then i said are you kidding me. and nearly died. i was so scared and pissed and distraught.
i was eventually able to get a new flight, at no added cost, but it was another 3 hours in the airport, which was terribly long. but it all worked out.

then i get my bags, finally get into a taxi, hey i'm in barcelona, its awesome. the location for our studio, is pretty crazy. and my cab driver couldn't drive all the way in on the side streets that are one way. so he dropped me off on this main street. and i'm walking around aimlessly trying to find where this place is at to meet my instructor to get my keys. and she's not in front of the studio.... i was so scared. sigh. but it all worked out and we got up with the others, and went and saw the three kings party and then went back to one of the apt.s and hung out, etc.

so that was the first day. i will write more later. i am really tired.

Night before

welcome, bienvenidos, howdy, hi.
so it's the night before the flight over,
just wanted to test this thingy out.
there. done. wooh. more to come later.