Lazy Tuesday?

I suppose waiting 2 months between posts is a little obsene, and I have no true excuse for it. I have to admit however that blogging is one habit that is easy to kick. I gave a big presentation yesterday for my world cup rowing venue research. It took four hours for 10 people to talk about their research. Its week 7 and still I have so much to do. Papers, midterms, tests, projects, research and work. Yay winter break! I can almost see you.

Im going to Seattle next week. I am going to visit my site at Sand Point, Magnuson Park.

Go Bus!

Count down

Its about to be the end of the summer for me, as I will actually be working in an office next week. While I still will be doing work for Kevin down at his firm in Santa Maria, a former professor of mine needed some "extra hands" in the office, so I will be helping her with that hopefully even a couple of hours a week into the school year. It was odd how coincidental the opportunity came up because i had just started looking for an additional job when i got a message from a classmate on myspace about the job. I guess some things do happen for a reason.

Last night i saw one of the strongest and longest storms I have ever seen in California since I moved here. It lasted from about 10 at night to approximately the last big bang of light ending at 5 in the morning. The storm was so strong that I was outside for a couple of hours watching the light show, though i do hear that my friends and I were not alone. Along with the neighbors being outside, I heard many stories of other people lining the streets to watch the weather pass by. I hear christine even stood with many other people in Morro Bay watching the bolts of lightning course through the sky as they reflected along the bay.

The weather changed today, only to be horrible and hot. Hopefully it will not be hot tomorrow, or atleast tolerably so.

All Apologies

Apparently time has proven that only European inundation provides me the fastitidy to keep up with my nearly daily entries of what's happening in my world. There was a reason that I did not end my travel journalling as a I should have, because I left Europe a week early. After Andie and I spent some time in Spain, we found that daily travels were not nearly as fun, nor informative without the rest of our class and professors. Our days of discovering a city took longer and we were both travel worn and ready to have more than 3 changes of clothes. The fact that there were some problems in the Spanish government and we saw more than a fews mobs, not riots pressured us into changing our flights. I kept my coming home a secret to everyone but my family, and Jeff. Jeff would have been in the dark too, except that he needed to pick me up.
I spent my last day in Europe in the city of Barcelona. We went to see Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. It was quite fantastic and the fact that they are still working on the construction from over 100 years ago astounds me. Oh, and yeah, that day was my 22nd birthday. It quite truly sneaked up on me, as I didn't realise it until Andie wish me a good one. I got no physical gifts that day, but I am quite sure a nearly 3 month trip to Europe covers that one. Thanks. :) We spent the last part of our day at the beach eating hot dogs and drinking our last true sugared (not corn syrup) sodas. We went out to dinner on the main shopping strip in Barcelona called La Rambla surrounded by street performers and and tourists. We ate seafood paella and I had my first sangria. Afterwards we ate our last gelato and andie lit a match in it for me to make my wish in La Paca Reial. We then headed to the train station to pick up our bags and head to the airport where we spent the night repacking our bags to the best of our abilities and taking small naps until the Lufthansa desk opened up. We took a short flight in the morning to Frankfurt where Andie and I said farewell as we had different flights and I flew home. I landed in the late morning only to find that my bag had not mafe my plane, so I went through customs with no baggage, only a carry on and a paper stating what I meant to bring through. The people were so nice to me, and the spoke English! It was amazing! I took the shuttle to Union station and took the pacific coast starliner up the coast. 38 hours after getting to the airport in Barcelona, I arrived in San Luis Obispo, thus ending my European excursion.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

And Thank You for the trip.

Europe is under construction

On the 11th of June Andie and I decided we wanted to go for a run...a run accross Spain. We started early, early and took a quick train out to the old city of Toledo which in no way resembles its American sister. The city is older than medieval and is situated on a "strategic" hill that is almost surrounded by a river. When we were there, before the crowds, the people of the city were starting to hang cloths, banners and garlands throughout the narrow streets. The celebration was Dias de Fiestas en Honor de Nuestra Señora de las Estrellas. (celebrations in honor of our lady of the heavens) The town had some great views, but much to our dismay, the fort was closed for a complete renovation not be finished until next summer... sad. We did however love to look at all the pieces of demascene steel (inlade with color) that the city is famous for, and the old buildings that remain. We even got in free of charge to a museum that held 18 pieces of art by El Greco. I recognized maybe one of them, which i thought was a pretty good ratio ;). At noon we left the city and headed back to Madrid to catch the early afternoon train to Cordoba. Cordoba is famours for one thing, and one thing only, the Antiqua Mezquita, or cathedral of cordoba. This is an old islamic mosque that traded hands a number of times in the past, and only got more expansive. We have studied this place many times in our history classes, so it was nice to finally see what the pictures never could. It was extremely hot in the city, 36 degrees infact. I dont know what that is exactly, but i know it is uncomfortably close to the tempurature of my body. That is why neither Andie nor I complained when our hostel room had air conditioning! We kept it pretty cold that night, about 19 degre

On the morning of the 12th we took another train to Granada to see the Alhambra, known for its red bricks. This too we learned about in our history classes and to be able to see the Generalife was indeed a good experience. The views here were also beautiful of the palace, the white washed city and the snowcovered sierra nevadas in the distance. The water fountains that were everywhere with cold mountain water helped too. The sad thing is, when we got to our other destination on the hill, the court of lions, there were no lions in the court! They were removed as the originals were getting worse for wear and they were working on replacement ones....again, sad reconstruction. Though i guess i cant blaime anyone for trying to make things last longer for someone other than me.

We ate a spanish dinner of Gezpacho and Pollo Asada. The coffee we had afterwards was probably in my top five coffees for this trip, Spain, who knew? We then hit two birds with one stone and took the trenhotel once more to get sleep whilst we traveled to Barcelona. Our last stop. The train was pretty quiet other the the two old codgers who were sitting beside me. They sat there, watching me draw a building of the generalife until I finished when i asked them if they would like to see my sketch book. They were more than delighted and followed my trips through France as the other countries are in my first book. I think I suprised then that i spoke to them in Spanish, as again they said they thought i was German. They had been to the town of honfleur and recognized some other little known places I had sketched.

I write this now inside a hostel across the street from Parc Guell in Barcelona. The hostel is actually quite beautiful, having been someones estate once long ago, it has high ceilings and beaitiful detail work. Too bad most youths that stay here couldnt give a damn about the history they are sleeping in. Oh well, Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia today!


No worries, i dont actually like Gaudis work, but I feel as though i should atleast see it while i am here.

"Hermanitas mas gualpas" -old man

Yesterday we took a tour of the Palace Real, it was probably one of the most ornate palaces we have been in to date. The halls wre beautiful and the views from the windows were excellent. My favorite part though had to be there armory where they had full suits of armor of both knights and horses alike. They even had some for dogs and children. though most of it was extremely ornate and obviously for show, i liked it, especially the conquistador helmets and the 10 foot muskets.

Our hostel, is pretty nice, though the walls are very thin and I could here our neighbor snoring through the walls last night...atleast that is all I had heard. We slept in this morning until ten then walked around town some more, intending to do some shopping and exploring, though, much to our dismay, we had forgotten today is sunday and nothing was really open. We walked to the parque del buen retiro and the old train station that has been filled withtropical trees instead of tracks. Which by the way was a neat idea on paper, but horribly humid when used as a place for people to travel through. We then went to get out of the heat by going to see oceans 13, which was pretty good, but not up to par of the others. I guess you would expect that for the 3rd installment. spiderman, cough. cough

tomorrow toledo, cordoba!

Bienvenidos a Madrid

Last night Andie and I took what is called the Hoteltrain out of Paris to the city of Madrid in Spain. It took about 14 hours, but it was ok because we each basically got our own lazy-boy to sleep in. I was amazed at the countryside as we passed it this morning. I felt as though i was drivng through a movie set in central california, with the small dusty towns and the single slouching church standing tall above the rest of the city. Anyway, we got to Madrid and found a hostel at the tourist center of the train station. Its small and run by a young pregnant woman who keeps the place unscrupulously clean. The shower was wonderful.

Its funny, although its been 4 years since i spoke spanish on a regular basis, i can still understand most of what is said to me. though i do know the people are probably speaking the most elementary of Spanish because i am a blonde blue eyed american, it still makes me happy. Poor Andie is expected to speak Spanish because of her sur name Garcia, though she really speaks very little. It dissapointed one woman who was trying to help us out this morning when she asked "¿me entiendes?" and andie did not respond.

We plan to spend a couple days here, then head to toledo, granada, and seville before we go off to Barcelona to finish this 3 month adventure.

Bittersweet Symphony

We had our last day of class at the park de Vosges this morning where we had a picknic with rotisserie chicken sandwiches(no vegetarians here) and wine. It was bitter sweet as people will be leaving now. I walked through a little of the city with Mike Hee and some of his friends who came into the city this morning. It was easy going and different. We were going to go to St. Chappalle to see the glass windows; but it evaded us once again by being closed. We will go tomorrow. Tonight our class plans to go to the trocadero to watch the sun set and see the Eiffel Tower twinkle as a last horrah to say goodbye. Our hostel has no running water today; so that will be fun later. Tommorrow night, andie and I are heading to Madrid for the last part of this little trip. Wish us luck.


I watched a parade of policemen today ride horses down the street as they played their bugles and trumpets.

Day Day

We woke early yesterday to catch the faster train that goes out to the city of Caen. Here we went to the Normandie bunker museum. Because it was the day before Dday, there were veterans in uniform all over the place. I met one man who was a british pilot back in the war. His plane was shot down and he was taken in and hidden by a number of french families. He has spent the last week remeeting and eating dinners with the same families who saved his life so long ago. In the museum we watched a movie that was rather well done. No words, just a split screen of filmed from both sides of the battle of dday going at once. It was hard to follow, shocking, and to the point. I would hate to have been the man to document all that. Though I guess that is your one job. Stay alive, hold the camera. Its not unlike the revolution. Stay alive, hold the flag. In one of the gardens outside the museum I found about 100 british soldiers practicing a ceremony for the anniversary.

After the museum we took a bus in to Gold Beach. We couldnt make it to omaha or Utah, as there reamlly is no bus system thqt way. On gold beqch we saw a small parade of veterans and then sprinted back to catch the bus. The bus ride was beautiful along the coast. I felt like we were riding among cinderellas chataeu all over the countryside, on the hills, on the beach and cliffs. It was phenomenal.

We went out for another dinner with a total of 10 of us to end our time in Honfleur, the best pqrt of France. This morning we cqme bqck to Paris and spent the day checking off sites that we have missed. Tongiht we plan to go to LA Defense to see it lit up when it is finally dark.


The weather is wierd here. Its not hot until about 4pm and it stays light until 10 pm

Hail Mary Full of Grace

On June 4th we met for class at the largest wooden church in the country of France. It was one of the most interesting ones I hqve been in in a while. Of course, it was built by sailors and shipwrights, so I guess the odd architectural style is forgiveable. Afterwards we walked up the hill to the north of the city and got a decent view of the bridge that crosses the bay. We went to the churcyh that locals believed saved the city from the war, as marys stqtue had once survived the cliff face falling. We did some skecthing that dqy qt the Marina and then climbed the steeple of the church. Wow, the was a bad idea. To quote the mqn who sold us the ticket to climb, "climbing is forbidden" (you cant sue us) " if you are up there when the bells ring you will be destroyed"( cover your ears). the steps were iffy, as were the supports, but in my defense, i was follozing the professor. We went the the Boudin Museum, a contemporary of Monet and then went back to the park to work on projects once more. We ate kebabs for dinner, then went to bed.

Bread and Wine

On june third we took the night train out of the city of Nice bqck towards Paris. We met one nice french girl and one nice girl from Quebec. Both of whom hqd problems with the boys in the car next to ours. In the Morning when we got to Paris, Mary qnd I took another train out of the city towrds Normqndy, qs the rest of the group hqd to deal with ,oving out of their plqce. We took the trqin to Lesioux and then waited in the cafe for the bus out to the town of Honfleur. While we were waiting; Walt and Judy got off one of the trains and joined us in our wait for the bus. Aftre we got on; we chatted q bit about where we were and the lqndscqpe thqt surrounded us. We decided it was so,e sort of combinqtion of Wisconsin and the east coast. I tqlked with Judy a Bit qnd we tqlked qbout Minnesota. Apparently both she and walt are from there. She spent a summer once in Moose Lake and it was her fathers construction compqny thqt built highway 35. Talk about a small world. When we descended from the wooded hills of the ride, we cqme to q small town filled with half timbre homes and sail boats. We had reached Honfleur. Our Hotel ETAP was luckily accross the street from the bus stop so getting there was easy. The room however was not ready so they let us leqve our luggqge in the room while the lady cleaned it. We went to a smqll park we found in the south end of the town; passing Marinas to get there and ate lunch. We brought a bottle of wine with us, but had to opener, so I had to search for a group of picnickers who would be so kind. I found one and we ate our cheese, bread and wine in the park. We spent about an hour more there working on our projects then headed back to the hotel to bathe and change. When we got bqck outside and decided to explore the town we found ,ost of the rest of the clqss just getting off a bus. We led them back to the hotel. Along with jeff, We headed for q good fresh seafood dinner. The menu was filled with good things so we each got something different to be divided in thirds. That night I sampled atleast q good portion of mussels, 3° oysters, fish soup, dorado, skqte, tuna; flan, apple tart, and an odd cold merengue dessert.

After dinner we walked out of the town heading west. We found the beach that warned of mortal danger because of the tides. We watched the sun set that night on the english channel.

Nice in Nice

We checked out of our hostel this morning and headed to the train station to get everyone's reservations in order, and to lock up our bags for the day. We then walked towards the old "acropolis area" of the town and hiked the hill up to the ruins of an old chataeu and took photos from the beautiful panoramic view of the clear aquamarine water. We also got to hang out by the natural spring and watch as a newly married deaf couple climbed the hill to take their wedding photos from the same spot. We then walked down the hill and towards the rocky shore where we sat and tried to catch some sun. The clouds however would not have it and we walked along the water instead, collecting sea glass and porcelain. We also met a nice grad student from Maryland who was starved for some good American conversation, and he had only been here 10 days! Try 3 months! Oh well. We've walked around much of the town now and seen what there is to see, including the orangeries and naked women, old and young along the shore.
We are heading to Paris on the sleeper train tonight and Mary and I will continue to Honfleur to check in to our hotel and finish our project for class on monday.

Instead of saying hello to everyone on a bus, French young teen girls give the double kiss greeting to their favorite friends only. Talk about being singled out.

Its good to be the King...i hope you cqn reqd this

Ill type it; if you cqn reqd it!

On Tuesday we trqvelled to q little known garden cqlled Versailles. The place was huge and awesome. Though I hqve to sqy the contruction going on qround it zqs kind of q let down. The grounds of Versqilles zere so huge thqt I couldnùt fully grqsp whqt it wqs thqt I wqs seeing: WE spent the dqy there qnd even rented bycicles to see some of the rest of it. We qtleqst got to see q pqrt pf Marie Antionettes gqrden. That night we qte dinner in the Latin Quarter, or where the bqrricqde was set up in Les Miserables. I hqd Onion soup...delicious....rotisserei chicken...delectqble....and creme broule....sumptious, for only 10 euro. I found it a very good exqmple of french food.

On Wednesdqy we spent most of the dqy pqcking up our little flqt qnd travelling to q town cqlled Blois. We took the trqin qnd q cqb to get there. Though Blois proper zqs quite beautiful, the qreq we stqyed in reminded me of McDonqlds region USA: The next dqy we met Judy qnd Walt in the town of Ambloise and I hqd the best Baguette of ,y life, for only 87 cents. As a class ze rode 20 km through the Loire Vqlley countryside to the Chqtequ Chenoncequ. Aside from Neuschwanstein, it was ,y fqvorite. The cqstle sits on q river and hqs q single room; thqt zqs used qs qn infer,ery during the zqr; thqt crosses over the entire river: There zere some nice pqrterre gqrdens to be seen from the windows, qnd I got so,e pretty good sketching done.

On kind of q Whim, 6 of use decided thqt we would like to tqke q trip for our three dqy weekend, so we took q night trqin down to the City of Nice (Neece). Fpr those of you zaho dont knoz; it is in the French Riviera, qnd thqt is where I qm now writing this updqte. We were lucky thqt the weqther was beutuifl when we qrrived qnd we spent much of the dqy qt the beqch enjoying the sun. Then q storm cqme through while we got our tickets to our next plqcxe of clqss on Monday, neqr normandy. Our dinner wqs good qnd fuill of flqvor; though I think thqt ,uch of the flqvor is now plqguing me with my first stomach qche of the trip.

Say Cheese.

We spent the day fighting the weather. We left our apartment at 9 this morning. The room was cool, so we knew the day would be, but we didn't know how wet we would become. We met Walt and Judy outside the Parc de Buttes Chaumant. It is the park in the city that Napolean workedto get through. It was a pretty neat park one with a lot of history. Apparently executions used to take place there and gallows were a permanent thing. Later the site was used as a gypsum quarry. Today the park is like fairyland. There is a tall hill that has a temple situated in the best of areas. There is also a grotto inside a cave through which a river flows from on high. It was here that the rain started. I had an umbrella, so it wasnt too bad and we walked through the rest of the park with few cameras and sketchbooks out of their bags.

We then took the metro as a class to Le Parc de la Villette. It was built in 1989 and was a very interesting location study. The park is built on a series of rooms and has several buildings for different activities including music, sports and theatre. There were severel themed "rooms" and many different types of play equipment. On one lawn sits what looks like a giants bycycle was buried in the area. At the end of the park Andie took a joy ride down a very long, wet slide and unable to stop, found the large puddle at the bottom, and everyone of us with our cameras running.

Short time left, short blog.


I limboed my way out of a kiss from a hobo yesterday. Ewwww

Food is the Reason for Travel

Yesterday we took our saturday on a little pilgrimage. We woke up early and took a 45 minute train to the small town of Giverny. Giverny is the home town of Claude Monet. The whole town has embraced the art of impressionism, because of him, and tourism because of him as well. When we got there, I felt as though I was coming home, well kinda. When we got out of the bus, there was a fragrance in the air that pulled me back 10 years and 10,000 miles ago. Among the trees that were planted in the town were roses. The self same roses that volunteer their blooms every spring in the green woods of Connecticut.
We walked to Monet's restored garden and traversed through it. We stopped to smell the roses more then a substantial handful of times. The main part of the garden is filled with blooming poppies and roses right now. It is at the tale end of the peonies, though the blooms that are left make up for the loss. We then walked under the road that has grown since Claude's time and finally saw the pond I imagined so many years ago back in first grade with Mrs. Mahoney. Though the bridge looks different and the edges of the water have a different contour, I could imagine a bearded man sitting in his rowboat with a paint brush. Some of the lilies were blooming and added the the image.

The garden was worth while but there was a severe age gap in the visitors. Either they were students, or they were retired americans who spent more time talking about their own gardens than looking at what was around them.

Today Mary and I fled the country. For 7 hours. We took the morning train to Brussels and spent the day there. We walked through the main tourist parts of the city and walked through the larger city parks. The best thing of the trip was the waffles. I would have to say, a single bite would have made the trip worth it. They were soft and moist with a carmelized glaze. MMmmm. So good. We also split a serving of escargot from a cart. They were good too, and very salty. The prices were better in Brussels than they are here in Paris so the shopping was good, or would have been good were it not Sunday. I suppose had it not been, I would have found the ever elusive boots I have been looking for. I did however find a nice leather dress shoe for less than 25 euro. It started raining only when we got back to Paris, so I suppose the weather held out for our trip and hopefullly will for tomorrow as well.

The Golden Arch

We went to two museums today on our open museum class day. We started at the D'orsay a museum that is little known but with alot behind it. The building is an old refurbished train station and the results are pretty neat. There were works by many well knoen artists like Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and many others. I even saw Whistler's mom. We stayed there until noon, ate lunch, then headed to the Louvre. We saw all the main things in the Louvre including Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. They were as you would expect them to be, better than the print and larger than life. After about 8 hours of museuming we decided to leave. When we came up from the lower floors of the Louvre we found the sky opened up in a brownish grey. There were rain drops the size of golf balls falling from the sky and there was lightning flashing simultaneously with the thunder. We held up under the outdoor awning until the green light, then sprinted through the rain to the other side of the street. There we stood under a covered walk. We thought of our options of finding indoors eating areas. At the end of the walk was our savior, an old friend in fact. Good old Ronald McDonald and his golden arches flashed at us through the dreary rain. We ate there, sat there for an hour and a half journalling and waiting for the rain to ebb. It was good.

Tomorrow we are going to Monet's garden in Giverny, lets hope the rain holds out.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me

Yesterday morning we met for class just down the street from our apartment at the Arch De Triomphe. We climbed to the top of it and got to actually be able to see the 12 radiating avenues from its rotary, rather than just visualise. Though it was hazy, we could see for a very long ways down to the new part of the cities. It would be a pretty phenomenal sight to see an army marching down one of those avenues. Atleast four have walked under the Arch itself, ours having done so twice.

We then walked down the Second Priciest Real Estate in the world, the Champs E'Lysee. I bought a croissant.:) The latter part of the road is embraced by a series of trees including, oak, sycamore, linden and chestnut. That way as we walked, we could find ourselves some shade. We ended our long trek, a couple hours later at the Jardin de Tuileries. A garden that is near the Louvre and outside of one of Mairie Medici's Palaces. We spent some time there showing Walt our skectchbook progress and discussing our plans for the weekend. After we left walt, some of us seperated to go to the Parque de Citroen, like the car. It is a park that resuses the spaces and frames of the old factory to create a series of rooms. Personally, i found the park intriguing. It set off my curiosity as you go through it room by room.

After the park, we headed back to the Champs E'lysee to buy dinner. I got a small salad, and then we met with most of the rest of our class, including Walt and Judy, to get in line for Pirates of the Caribe* World's End. Yes. the movie was released last night, more than a day before it is at home. So, Haha. It was a great movie, there will be no dissapointment. Also, if you plan to go see it, stay past the movie credits, its a must!

This morning we met for class to walk around the city once again from garden to garden. The first place we went was the Place De Vosgues, the earliest designed plaza in known history. It was supposedly the prototype of every city-square built there after and was started by King Louis XIII(13). Also, Victor Hugo, the author, lived there.

We then walked to the Promenade Plantee a linear garden that was planted over the path of an old city railroad. It was a pleasant walk and the array of foilage used was wide. I would call the space almost delicate, considering it used to be a railway, but it is the only elevated garden in the world(supposedly).

We finished the day at Parque Di Verce. My favorite part of it was the lumbering young great dane trying to play with the small mutts in the park. He was a nice looking dane and came up to his owners chest, as she was smallm even for a Parisan. When she had him leave he was very upset and stood at the bottom of a large staircase until she was almost out of sight. Only then, with just three bounds, did he catch up to her. Back to the park itself, it was next to a stadium that had grass for walls...ask for pictures when i get back, they explain better. The park was built as a series of rooms that are to be used for different things. There was the English Pastoral Area, where we found the dane, the Rose Garden, the educational garden, for the children, and the pool area, where there were turtles and koi. The whole garden was surrounded by expensive apartments and at the end was a nice little shopping area with a really nice sweet shop with delicious biscuits that hopefully will find there way back to the states when i buy them again.

30 days Till Home (yeah, Im getting homesick)

Yesterday, t
he first day of class, we met Walt and his wife Judy at Notre Dame. I must say, disney and hollywood have ruined me for its splendor. That or all the other catholic cathedrals I have seen on the trip. WE did not go inside, but instead walked to a memorial of the resistance of WWII. WE then walked to the Garden De Luxenbourg and spent quite awhile talking over what we had done in the past 7 weeks. Walt gave us ample time to sketch and I got to finally start to break in my new journal. That is really all we did the first day.

Last night we met up with classmates at about 11 pm at the arc de triumph. We walked to towards the Eiffel tower and waited there at the Trocadero, taking pictures of the uplit tower. At midnight we got our reward. The tower becomes what people call a standing firework. It started to twinkle. The entire thing is rigged with thousands on flash bulbs that go off for about 5 minutes at 12 and 1 am. It was what Sahoko calls phenomenal and we got many, many pictures of the occasion.

This morning, we met at the end of the Champs del Mar. We talked a little and then we went to go climb the tower. We decided to walk the 700 some stairs instead of taking the elevator, both because it was cheaper and the line was shorter. While some people say the tower is not as big as they expected, the must say this before they climb it. Luckily, there are 3 levels and the final level, you have to take an elevator up to. The last elevator ride seemed as though we might be in tghe tower of terror, springing towards the sky, with a view of the city all around, many of us half expected to feel our stomachs drop as we were let go. While the view is magnificient, it does not do the city of paris justice and makes it seem more like a pile of buildings than a place of history and curiosity. When we climbed back down, we were all tired and we spent time recupperating and learning about the Trocadero. WE then walked past a museum with a living wall of plants and finally ended class for the day on the lawn of Les Invalides, the "Hotel" that Louis the 14th built for veterans of war.

We've walked around since then, and eaten dinner. Now I am in an internet cafe called MIlk. Around me are about 100 other computers. Half of them are filled with boys, sitting in front of Blizzard's Crack, either World of Warcraft or Defense of the Ancients.

Thank You French Cabbie

First let me say that I am indeed in Paris, but before I talk of that, let me start to explain the process of getting here.

The plan was to take the Chunnel across the English Channel. Mary's friend Theresa told us that a ticket should not be a problem and we could leave when ever on Sunday morning. We decided to sleep in and take our time. We left for the station at 11 and entered a very busy Eurostar office. When we got to the head of the line and asked for tickets to Paris, the lady looked at the bookings and could only find 1st class tickets at 150 pounds, or 300 dollars each. As you know, we don't really get a kick out of spend our parents well earned money frivolously, and well I am a cheapskate. We kindly backed out of the order and quickly went in search of an internet cafe in order to try to find another, cheaper way of getting to Paris. We walked about 10 blocks with all of our luggage. Keep in mind that mine is on my back with a last way in of 40 pounds. Unfortuneately every cafe we found was closed because it was sunday. Apparently the only things brits do on sundays is go to church and drink, or both at the same time. WE decided that we would try another option. We went back to the waterloo train station and ended up taking a train to Dover on thye coast. The cliffs in Dover were pristine and white. We evebn got a quick glimpse of the dover castle. It was a gamble that we would be able to catch a ferry, that we couldnt buy a ticket for, but we decided to make the gamble anyway. The ferry we took cost us 6 pounds with our eurail passes and we waited until 6 pm to take it. There were very few people on the ferry, but I have to say, it was quite nice, posh, ritzy, and very worth the price we paid for the ride. The ride was smooth and short. We spent most of the time finishing journals and snacking, since we missed dinner. When we got on the ferry, we had expected to spend the night in the train station in Calais, as we would get there after the last train to Paris. When we got off the train, we walked out of the station and found that the buses had stopped running.

As we were running through our options and coming to the conclusion that we would need a taxi, one pulled up right in front of us. The driver looked decidedly like Mr Clean and he asked if we needed a ride. We said Oui and he helped us with our bags. When we all had climbed in, he asked us where we were headed, we said Paris. The guy knew that the last train out of the main station had left and asked us what we were doing, we said sleeping in the station. The taxi driver would not have that. He used his mobile phone to check things and ended up, with our permission, driving us to a beautiflu rural train station outside of Calais that had a train going to Paris. Thanks to the cabdriver, who was well tipped, we got on the train to paris, having to spend an extra 22 euro for the first class on top of the eurail.

We made it to Paris, got off the train and took a series of metros in order to get into our very small flat near the embassy quarter. But we did, indeed make it to Paris.

London goodbye

Its funny, I have been here 5 days and I really have very little to say about my experiences. I saw the things I needed including Big Ben, the tower of London and the tower bridge. We walked by the Globe Theatre and when to Covett Garden and the main parks of the city. We went shopping in Camden town and went to a pub for cider. As far as my experiences go, London was fun, but its not on my top ten.

I suppose I am an little jaded from all the places i have been, but the red phone booths and double decker buses just dont make the cake for me. The city seems pretty loud and the lack of public rubbish bins makes the city messier than it needs to be.

Some up- If i were to come back to England I would spend most of my time outside of the city, maybe go to Kent and visit Stonehenge, or Cornwall. Though, I must say, being in an English speaking country where they dont look confused when you ask for tap water was a very good thing.

The circus

We walked around today, ate real English lunch and spent the afternoon at Harrods, the department store with the oddest of reputations. It is said if you order anything, they will serve it to you, including elephant meat...atleast back in the day. We then walked around the ritzy, or posh areas of town and through the picadilly circus.

Best Loo in London

I spent last night on the floor of a womens correctional facility jail cell.

We are in London now and its normal every day rainy weather. We left Bacharachf early, as i stated yesterday and then spent the afternoon in the city of koln, or Cologne, yes, like the scent. We wandered through the shopping districts and climbed the 509 steps up one of the towers of the tall gothic cathedral. We ate our last german dinner there and i had half a rottiserie chicken from one of the country's fast food restaurants. It was delicious. We took the train in to the Koln airport and then flew to Chatwick outside of the main part of London. We got in at about 11 local time and met up with Theresa at the train station.

As i stated earlier, I spent last night on the floor of a womens correctional facility jail cell. Or atleast it was one. The Metropolitan University of London has taken over the facility and made dorm rooms out of the old buildings. Mary's Friend Theresa has kindly let us stay here, in her room, free of charge. Which is a good thing youth hostels even, in london are expensive and the considering pound exchanges for $1.98. We walked a around the city today and saw the eye of london and Big Ben, we were going to the palace, but then it started to rain. Tonight we might watch a movie and eat at home, nice and cheap.

Im Dürstey

Im sorry about not posting any news, but we spent the past four days in a little village along the Rhein River. Its called Bacharach, and there was one internet cafe, with one computer in it. It actually was the elementary schools computer that you could pay 50 cents every 15 minutes to use. In the town of Bacharach, i felt like i was in fairytale-land. The town is nestled at the bottom of a large hill. The hills are covered with vineyards planted vertically down there nearly 80 degree slopes. At the top of the hill sits an old castle. The castle is now used as a youth hostel, but we were told that last time students from CalPOly stayed there, they were crying at Astrids door the next day. So we stayed at a B and B call Pension Im Malerwintel. The inn sat at the end of a path with one of the walls part of the old city wall. The architectural style was all original half wood houses. And with the landscaping it seemed as though we were staying in some Disnez concoction of Salvang mixed with Hobiton. But I loved it. The buidings were crooked and the churches were tall. One of them sat just below the castle and was bombed in a war in the 1800s. The ruins still sit as they did a century ago. As part of our stay, we took a boat ride down the Rhein. WE were on the boat from 10 to 6 and saw many, many castles along the waz. We passed by the Loreley Rock, that the old man told us about way back in Munich, and saw some Roman churches. We got off the boat to take a tour of the Castle of Marksburg. It is considered one of the best preserved castles in Germany and also houses the German historical castle council. Two families still live in part of the church today and have to walk up the tall hill to bring in their groceries as there is no road. Apparently there usedto be a road of sorts, as the gates were built tall enough for a mounted knight to run through. We got to see the armoury, not that any of it was original, and the stables which were used as a torture chamber in the 1800s when the castle served as a prison. Its a little funnz how much the families spent to fortify the castle, they were prepared with cannons and archeryu windows, but were never attacked, one reason the castle still stands as it did.

When we got off the boat, our Anna was there waiting for us. She was ready to play hookey from school so that she could spend thenext couple of days with us. We had an enjoyable German dinner that night.

Yesterday we did very little, as Astrid was checking peoples journalling progress, so Mary and i climbed one of the towers on the hills. We sat up at the tower and sketched both the ruins of the chapel and the castle. We later came back with the rest of the class so that they too could enjoy the view we found. For dinner we went to a small restaurant where I ordered my first full meal of German Mountain Trout. It was delicious and I ate it with a glass of local Reisling (medium dry) from a bottle that Astrid ordered for our table of four. After dinner we went to pack our things and met up with most of the class at the only pub in town. We spent a couple hours just talking and anna taught me a german drinking song, but Im not sure i was being true to the song, as i only had one drink. But anyhow. Viva Colognia!

Sniping Sycamores

Last night we went to a discotek with Astrids cousin Meriam. The club was put inside an old factory building along media island and the interior was quite en vogue, with videos projects on every wall balconies and a floating dancehall. The music was interesting as alot of it was pink floydesque, but techno. In the dance hall they played music like Prince and dance songs from the 70s like Im coming out. There were a few more umm...recent songs played. It was incredibly warm in there, even though the airconditioning was running. I had alot of fun with most of my classmates. We stayed out...cough..cough...pretty late, but Meriam gave me Jackie and Mary a ride home, so we were ok.

This morning we woke up tired, and early to head to the train station for a day trip to Schloss Dyck outside of Düsseldorf. We caught a train that took one 1/2 hour, then a 40 min bus follwed by a 20 min bus in the countryside. It was cold, and windy. There were deep gray clouds in the sky, along with leaves flying through the air. Astrid and her cousin met us at the gate. As the bus left, they informed us that the park was closed because of the high winds. Apparently even Germany doesnt want people crushed by a falling tree. We spent some time walking around the area that we were allowed. Astrid wanted us to walk around. Though most people went inside one of the shops, I walked along the paths in the wind. I sat down to draw a view of a modern garden i could see from my perch, only to hear a horrendous splintering. Ok, well, a loud one. A branch fell off of the sycamore tree i was sitting near. The wind was picking up more, so finally, i decided that it would in fact be a good idea to go inside.

Inside the shop they sold apples, honey, juice and other things that smell like fruit farm in the fall (odd considering its spring). I ended up buying a bottle of apple cider and dried apple slices. Mike Hee bought a bottle of Rhubarb juice, and finding it much NOT to his liking let me finish it off. Yum! But wow was it sweet and sour at the same time. We spent a little while longer in the shop waiting for the wind to die down and for our bus to arrive. As we sat on the bench, for a reason unknown, or maybe the harmonica someone had, someone started singing childrens songs like the wheels on the bus, im bringing home a baby bumble bee, and itsy bitsy spider. Its kind of odd, i know, but I guess it helped to warm us up and to pass the time.

Tonight, i was hoping to meet up with a Cal Poly friend Kristin Johnson who is studying her masters here, but that might not work out. We plan to spend the evening with the rest of the class playing cards and singing along with Jeff on the guitar...maybe.

Tommorrow we will head off to Bacharach on the Rhein. It is near the infamous vineyard area.

The Next Generation

So, we went to the city of Duisburg today. It is an industrial city that is trying very hard to become metropolitan. We visited the public park that we have studied in the past, especially in our reuse areas. The Landschaftspark, or lanscape park in Duisburg was constructed out of the old iron and steel mill. It was shut down in 1985 and now sits as a public park for the people of Duisburg.
The original pieces of the mill still stand, and even one is open to explore. There are many different uses found in the site including indoor soccer, concert halls, gardens, playgrounds and rock climbing walls. One of the features they installed to be more green is a giant windmill. It was supposed to aerate the water that is runoff from the rest of the site so that it doesnt go stagnant, but as our tour guide stated Germans like to go big. The windmill is the largest of its kind in the world and took wind too fast. It is broken now, the fin is pushed aside, and the water in the unmoving manmade river below it lies stagnant....oops. It was raining while we were there and the wind from the top of the blasting furnace made it sway in the wind when we were 5 meters in the air on top of it. Oh, also, there is an IKEA that was built on the site where the soil is toxic as if to say "good luck next generation"

Its Springtime for Laura in Germany

Ok, so, I guess you could say that I was more tired than I thought the other day when i wrote, I didn't even know the name of the city i was in. We are currently in Düsseldorf. I guess since I hadnt heard of either of these places before we came to this country, I automatically made them into one. The city sits on the Rhein river and is pretty close to the Netherlands.

Yeah, so the rainy weather of Germany continues, and it is pretty cold.

For class yesterday we met Astrid for a walking tour of the city. Her cousin, who is studying to be an attorney walked the whole day with us. We saw the Frank Gehry buildings along the port and walked under the tower. The river is a big part of the city here, as is shopping. There are 7 bridges that cross the Rhein as it wraps around the city, each unique in its own right. We stopped for lunch at a Pub that Astrid has gone to since she was young. Mary and I split an order of ribs, and it was atleast 3 slabs. Mike Hee, on the direction of Astrid ordered a Pork Leg. It waas huge. He ate alot of the meat, then handed the rest around for people to get a sample of the incredibly dilectable meat. I have some great pictures of him holding the bone as he tears off meat. The funny thing is, the best part, according to some was the skin. I did not have any, but then, I dont think that I am a fan of boar hair in my diet. After we were set free we went to do a little shopping. I bought a jacket, for the weather for only 15 euro, and a pair of shoes to replace my poor spoiled and soiled merrell's. After we explored the city a little bit, we met up with most of the rest of the class to go out for Mike Samarippa's birthday. Before we went to dinner, we all met up at their hotel. We had a getogether in Mikes room, where Jeff sang him a song (written especially for Mike)on his newly purchased mini guitar. It also started to storm, pour and little bits of ice fell from the sky. Though "the sun will come out tomorrow", it did not come out yesterday. We walked in the pouring rain to the Hauptbanhof, or train station, only to find the tram would have been faster. We then walked through the downpour again to the tram and finally found the restaurant. All 14 of us sat down together and enjoyed a meal served by very nice people. The food was probably the best Thai I have ever had. For Mikes birthday, the restaurant gave him a slice of Cake, a free cocktail and a bottle of wine in a wine cozy. Though it had not rained since we got to the restaurant, Murphy's says it would start raining when we left. Which it did. It downright poured actually, and the thunder and lightning started up again anew.The tram we had to catch was the last one of the evening and we saw it at the station about a block ahead of us. I must say if I were the tram driver and I saw 14 people sprinting in the rain towards in the deep dark, of a stormy night, I would have driven off too. Oh well, we ended up walking back to the hotel and said good night to the rest of our group and headed home to do sit ups, take showers and go to bed.

This morning we met at the tallest building in the city, the media tower. We were given a tour by a native architect, and her boyfriend, a retired german professor from New Jersey. It was informative, but incredibly dry considering it was raining the whole of class. We were given the afternoon to explore the area, or go to museums. We chose the Picasso museum in the city. I never realised what a primiscuous man he was, nor how many children he had with as many women. Butanyway, his works were pretty neat too, though most of it was work from late in his life. My two favorites, La Guitarista, and Guernica were not there, not that I expected them to be. I got some good sketches of both the work, and the children who were field tripping to the museum. After the museum, we broke up to work on projects and mary and i worked on a transect of the streets in the city. We focused on the pedestrain, tram, bicycle and vehicular traffic through three different streets.

Oh, yeah, its still raining and has been all day.

Tomorrow we are going to Dusburg Nord.

A little place by the Rhein

Ok, so we made it to Bacharach. We havent really seem too much of it because we got in from the train after three, then took a bus to our hotel. After the four of us got settled into our 3 bed room, we went to the laundromat and sat and worked on our homework while our laundry was running. I must say, it will be good to have stiff jeans to put on in the morning. We went to have a light dinner. Mary and I split a small pizza and a bowl of French Onion Soup. Btw, you can tell we are nearing France, as the display style in the food is prominent. Hopefully tonight will be an early night, but I do still have some work I want to get done before tomorrow.

Ohh, hes so Cute!

This morning we went to Berlin Zoo. It was a wonderful day. The zoo sits in the Tier Garten and is surrounded by city buildings on three sides. I have to give them kudos, Berlins zoo really tried to entertain you while you were in the zoo, as opposed to the education factor. The zoo seemed almost like a park because of the old trees that cover all the paths. It was good to see so many animal bablies too. That must mean the animals are happy.:)The best part of the trip was Knut. For those of you who dont know, the baby polar bear Knut has been the topic of animal rights activists of late. His mother decided to stop caring for him while in the zoo, so the keepers took over the care. The crazy activists said that this was wrong and that the keepers should have let him die. Anyway, the word spread and Knut (Newt) is now a famous little man. We spent 1/2 hour waiting in line to see him, but it was really worth it. The keepers took him out for exercise and would play with him like his mother would, teaching him balance, play and pouncing. It was really adorable to see as he is the size of an extremely fat dalmation. After we were ushered away for the next group we walked to see the full grown bears. Lets just say, the bears are very happy and there will be another young cub in the near future...cough...cough.

After the zoo we split up into seperate groups to work on our regional transect studies for Astrid. Mary and I did a comparison of Three places in the city, and their connection to the River Spree. We spent about 3 hours working on it, but got it all finished in time to meet the rest of the group at Potsdamer Platz.

It was incredible. We went to see the Blue Man Group and at half the price of the US. Yes, the self same ones as those in the Pentium Three Processor comercial from so long ago. The show was great, though we didnt understand some jokes, as they were in German. I was really appreciative of the fact that the show is about interaction with the audience. Well, that and drums, pipes and paint. I smiled the whole time. After the show we walked into the lobby and the band from the show was in there. They looked a little bummed, and I went up to them to thank them for an awesome show. They smiled, suprised that an American would be there and posed for a picture that I took of Andie. I stood around for a little longer and got a picture with one of the Blue Men. It was fun, and I recommend it to anyone, as long as you dont hate drums. ;)

Rose flavored gelato is delicious.

500 to 1

We technically were not supposed to have class today, it was scheduled as a museum day, but our tour guide the other day changed that. He offered us an opportunity we could not refuse. He opened up the citys building that contains a model of the entire city. The thing filled an entire room and was easily< 30 by 40 feet. The awesome thing about it was that all the building, about half, that were in wood were built in the last 15 years. It was what the man called a working model as they add to it everytime they put in another building.

After the tour we were released to go off an explore a museum for the day. We decided to go to the Bauhaus Archives, as we are students of architecture. It was pretty small, but I was really interested in the innovative design thoughts these people had way back in the 30s. I also found it funny, that their design style, which they hoped would be for the masses, is now found, quite frequently in you everydaz hospital waiting room. Yup, they were all about efficiency. I also liked the many photos of great danes that one of the students bred and sold to fund the school. After we skecthed for a while we walked to the museum island where we never actually went into a museum, though we did sit out on the lawn and sketch the Berlin Dome and the people that surround the other buildings.

We walked to dinner and ate pretty good Thai food, especially for the price. Tomorrow we will go to the zoo and spend the day finishing up projects for Astrid before we head to Düsseldorf on Tuesday.

Frederick looks a lot like George.

Ok, so the town of Potsdam has confirmed it. I like Berlin. Potsdam is a town...of 300,000 that is made up of very rich people. It was originally built by the dutch settlers in the 1700s, showing that germans immigrants were much more posh than America's. Anyway, we went to Frederick the Great's Palace in the city. Its a small castle that sits on a small lot....yeah...right. The castle is huge, long and accompanied by 3 others. They all sit on a lot of land that is about 720 acres...just a small backyard, right? We spent the day walking through the park and sketching the many arranged views of the tiered and english pastoral gardens. One thing I have to ask though, is...why have grass if it wont be sat on? I was annoyed that I got kicked off the grass while sketching by some overzealous wannabe bicycle CIA guy. One of the neat things about the park is a single windmill that sits next to the Oragery. Apparently it belonged to a miller who lived on the site before the castle was built. The man was able to convince Frederick to let him stay on the site, and his windmill still sits there today. I wish I could explain about the day, but how can someone explain the vast beauty of an expansive green real life painting?


Long Day, short Entry.

German thoughts so far

Ok, so I did not know what to expect from this northern country. But, if I did i would say it has thus far exceded my expectations. The people here are much nicer then any of them were in Italy and it is so much cleaner. I suppose as of the places we have been to I would most likely live here in Berlin. Though therre is an extreme surplus of designers here so i couldnt find a job. Its just that, though the city is extremely old, there are so many new and fascinating things to do here. New buildings to see.

The funny thing is how many people here think I am German. Many times when we walk into a store, or a new place as a group, people know we are american. When my friends go off alone, they know they are american. With me though, as long as I dont say anything but hallo, they think i am German and are incredibly nice to me. Maybe though, they just think I am some Finlander who doesnt speak the language, though I can live with that.

I guess I never paid enough attention in history class. I just never realised how much a part of the last 50 years of german history the US had a hand in. No wonder the country seems the least foreign to me.

Check point Charlie was cool, I got Brandon a postcard.

Gutten Tag

First let me say, anything i type in here will probably be severly incorrect in terms of the spelling. German is a difficult language to learn, but i am sure even more difficult to spell.

This morning we met early at the Reichstag, or Parliament house. We had to meet early so that we could get in before the crowds and to meet our tourguides of the day. The tour was done by a company found on guiding-architects.net that will give you an in depth tour of particluar european cities through the eyes of its designers. Anyway, we were given an introduction then headed inside the building to climb up the dome. Its quite a spectacular building that they have rebuilt. The dome is now made of glass with a double helix ramp to climb to the top and to give the structure extra support. In the middle of the floor of the dome you can see straight into the parliament room. Because of the distrust in the government in the past, the citizens now can sit above their government and watch what happens. The government is trying hard to be as transparent as possible and thez even sit in a room of glass, though it is bullet proof and 6 cm thick, you can still see what is happening. The area that we spent the day has all been constructed in the past 15 years and its amazing, even today the large number of cranes standing in the citys skyline.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was the conversation about the swiss embassy. Apparently, the swiss embassy is the oldest standing structure in the german government area. It still stands because the custodian who worked there during the wat refused to take cover and would spend the night standing guard and putting out any fires that started in the building. Germany was not happy that switzerland had that building, and that land, so they tried to buy it. They tried protests, but switz. would not give in. Today, the embassy stands, tall proud, old and swiss.

We walked along the former path of the berlin wall and passed by some neat new buildings. One of them was really quite fantastic. If you looked inside, you saw that the floor was sunken in and quite shiny. If you backed up from the windows you would start to see the reflection of the river in the glass. You would then realise that the building was designed to look as though there were a swimming pool inside that the employees were walking across.

We went back to the Pariser Platz and went inside the Frank Gehry building. It was pretty neat I suppose, but the structure inside looked like a giant whale. Though I do hear its óne of the most famous buildings in germany. We also went in the art academy building and got to climb to the top and look over the plaza. As we were there, many police cars came by and helped people out of a limo. We learned later that it was infact members of the Finnish Parliament or something who were going to stay at the same hotel from which Michael Jackson hung out his baby. Anyway, it was really neat seeing the drastic changes in the space of such a short period of time.

We went to lunch at a mexican place called cancun. Mary and I shared a quesadilla and as a table we split nachos. I was glad to find that the nachos actually had cheese on them this time. It was good food, and less than 4 euro after the split.

We met up at Checkpoint Charlie. Some of us took a curcuituous path to get there and ended up walking by an outdoor museum of the wall. We then headed to the Jewish Museum and I spent the rest of the afternoon getting basically depressed from the experience, but what else would you expect. There was one room in particular that moved me. It had a steel floor that was covered entirely in 2 inch thick steel faces. The designer made it so that when you walked across it, it was as though you heard chains moving, people falling. It was completely experiential and hard to make one understand when they havent been there.

We then went back to our area of town and got pizza at the place next to our hostel. Its good food and cheap, at 2.50 for a personal pizza. Tomorrow, we will go to Potsdam and spend the day in the southern area of Berlin.

Spree

Ok, so, I cant type much as i am supposed to meet people here soon. I am in Berlin and we made it safely on the train overnight. We got to our hostel which is right across from the train station and napped and walked around our part of the city for the day.
For class this morning we went to the Brandenburg Gate. It was integrated into the former Berlin wall. there are still pieces of the wall to be found in the city. After the Tor, we walked to the Holocaust Memorial that was built three years ago and brought in 10000 people per day. It covers an entire city block and is bascially a site of prisms set in a grid. Their heights vary, thereby makijng you feel small and alone when walking through it. The fact that some columns are sinking and leaning adds to the effect. The concrete that was pored has an anti spray paint glaze to keep off tagging. apparently the company that makes the stuff tested it on the prisoners in the holocaust so therefore donated all of it in atonement. we went to many other places and saw the TierGarten and other parks around it. We spent lunch time at the Sony Center, which is actually a beautiful building and apparently is amazing to see at night, I will find out later. At the end of the afternoon we went on a boat ride through the city on the Spree. Its amazing to see all the architectural modifications the city has done in the short time since reunification. Astrid said there are parts of the city that she doesn't recognize from just 4 years ago. The ride was fun and calming after all the walking of the day.
Sorry for the short post, maybe i will add more tomorrow.

Nein Danke

Ok, so we had the day off as it is supposed to be a travel day. While we did not go back to the Olympic Park for a swim, we went on a free bicycle tour through the city of Munich. It started at 1130 and ended at about 3 in the afternoon. We went to many places in the city we had already been, and also learned new things about the area, and the history of Hitler in the city. We also saw more naked people in the English Garden than we had previously, apparently the particular meadow where the naked people accummulate is known as the sausage fest, because no women really go there, or atleast the attractive ones. We found them on the river sitting on the banks.
We spent some time walking around the city and then met up to head over to SpringFest. Springfest is basically like octoberfest, but smaller because fewer tourists know of it. We walked through the carnival and then went to the beer hall for dinner. I only ate a large pretzel and we sat there watching the peopel drinking and cheering. There was live music in a polka style. For a few of the songs they did johnny cash and mexican songs, but in german. When we were about to leave, they started a contest of climbing up the large post in the center of the tent. A few people did it, then jeff decided he wanted to try. We waited a while and our barmaid tried very hard to get me to try it. I am not sure why she did, but she kept trying to have me go, smiling and telling me about the free liter of beer i would get..in her broken English. Jeff made it to the top, but did not take up on his beer. The lady tried to have me do it and pointed at my dress saying it was ok, i had on leggings. It was kind of cute that she thought that i really should do it, but in a hall of several hundred people, i am not going to make a fool of myself trying to climb up an old slippery pole while wearing a dress. All i could say was, Nein, Nein Danke.

We are heading out of Munich tonight on the overnight train, so lets hope I get some sleep. :)

Duck, Duck, Swan

Ok,so, i didn't have time to update yesterday, and given the time that I have tonight i will try to catch up on the many things I have done in a period of two days.

Yesterday, we started the day of class by meeting at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. I can't say that it was fun. I can't say I enjoyed myself.And I certainly cannot say I would like to go back. But, like those movies that should atleast be seen once, it was an experience i will never forget. Astrid met us for class and gave us the rest of the day to go through the camp, and leave when we had "had enough". I walked it alone with only my recorded headset for company, though i preferred it that way. Since about 1996 they changed the set up of the park so that every visitor has to walk through the same wrought iron gate that mocking reads Arbeit Macht Frei, or "work sets you free." Of the original 64 barracks there were only two rebuilt and where the others used to lay are only the foundations filled with river rock, as though the entire expanse of the camp were a gravesite. I went in the museum where i was "walked through" the years of the camp and its many cruel murders, experiments and horrors. I left the large building severly sobered and angry. I found Astrid walkign between the old road between the foundations. As i was talking to her I had a person run up behind me and give me a hug. It was my long lost Anna! Anna is studying in the town of Stutgart(sp?)and came to visit us for the day. Her being there made mine. We walked through a littlemore of the camp, and I merely glanced in the rooms of the crematorium and the barely used gas chambers, but that wasmore than enough.

After we gathered our little group together, we walked into the medieval part of the town of Dachau. we climbed the main hill and ate a small lunch on a patio overlooking the small river that runs through the town. The camp wasnot visible, and I am sure that fact helped to brighten our day. After lunch we had made a plan with some of our other classmates to go to the English garden to spend the afternoon in the sun and play some soccer. We were a little late, on both groups, but it worked out. We played some soccer in the middle of the massive park while hundreds of poeple layed in the sun, walked there dogs, did yoga or even get together to play drums. It was very relaxing, and lightened our hearts after the extremely heavy morning.

We decided to walk back to the train station instead of taking the tram and it was indeed a brilliant idea. We walked through numerous public parks with blooming flowers and lovely fountains. As we walked by one park on our hunt for food, our noses found something for us. We all smelled barbeque! It was a restaurant that barbeques outside and had very cheap food. Mary and I split a steak smothered in barberque sauce, and probably the best potato salad i have ever had. We also split what is called a Radler. Its really the only beer I can drink, as half of it is lemonade. After food we went back to Mike's hostel and played a couple rounds of Boggle. After the games the four of us, Mary Andie Jackie and I had to head to the train station to pick up our luggage so that we could go to our new hostel, on the other side of town. We got in at about 11. The hostel reminds me of a camp building from the 70s but the price was right, and they actually had space among all the construction worker convention visitings.

The breakfast this morning at the hostel was mediocre at best, but the price was right as it was included with the room. We got up and ate early in order to head over to the Olympic Park and go swimming before we met for class. The facilities were great as you would expect any olypmpic ones to be. There wer hundreds of little change rooms in the locker room and lockers with wristband keys. We swam for about 45min. I only did one true lap accross the pool, but I did dive off the boards alot and jump several times from the highdive. We met for class and learned about the bittersweet history of the park. We took the fastest elevator on the continent to the top of the park tower and got the best view of the city yet.

We were given a small lecture of the park by a classmate and then walked throguh a lot of it towards the old residential area. We then met up with ASTRIDS cousin in her housing area, since it is new age and sustainable-ish. The community sits on an oldmilitary base and the members helped todeisgn the place. It ios called "The project". Apparently architects come from all over to study it. The part that i really thought was nice was that in order to move in, you had to spend about 80 hours working on a building in the complex.That way, the place is part of you and you get to know other people that will live there too. One man giving the tour was actually born in Maine and lived in Ely,Minnesota for 8 years. After the visit our Anna left us for home, since she has a design due tomorrow.

After the tour, the Minnesotan and his girlfriend brought us to an icecream parlor, then Schloss Nymphemburg. It was a palace of the Wittenburgs. Though we did not go inside the palace, we spent two hours walking around the 200 acre "backyard". The grouds were expansive and I took way too many pictures. We walked with Astrid and she helped me figure out my independent study just a little bit more. The river found in the english garden was rerouted through this garden and in the water lived many,many waterfowl. There were ducks i could not name, mute swans and even some canadian geese. We left before sunset and are nowplanning for our last day in Munich before we head to Berlin on the first.

Hitler wouldn't have happened without bier.

So, I lied. Dinner did not turn out to be light. We left the hostel late, due to a game of cards, and we wandered the neighborhoods, and much on the main paths in the city, looking for a resonably priced dinner. We ended up back at the Weisses Pub we ate at on the first day. There was very little seating, and we had to go eat inside. There are long tables inside, at which more than one group ends up sitting. The table we were seated at was empty, except for one elderly gentleman. Jeff, being the only male ended up sitting next to him. When sparking conversation, he asked the old man what was good. The start of a 2 hour conversation. The man, called Peter talked up a storm about the city, country, and Europe in general. He spoke 4 language fluently and was a retired filmographer. He gave us one of the best history lessons, i can remember, but his attachment to his bier stein, and his self deprecating manner might have helped. There were so many one liners about germany, spain and munich residents in general, that i wish I had recorded it for a laugh on a later day. He told us how each place we were going to be and then discussed Dachau and Hitler, a can of worms none of us would like to open. As we were told, there was a definite tone of guilt to anything concerning that war, and his discription of Dachau left him very teary eyed. We paid our bill and Jeff bought his bier. As we walked out, he pointed to the exact location of where Hitler got started and said. "Hitler wouldn't have happened without bier."

Today we went south, basically as super-Uber-tourists. We took a tourbus to two castles, they were both built by crazy Ludwig (LOODVIG) the second. The first was a very small one, almost cabin sized, if a palace can be that, called Linderhoff. The interior was extremely ornate, either baroque, or racoco, maybe some combination of the two. The walls were covered in guilded work, and there was a chandelier which took the death of 50 elephants, and 4 years to make. We did not spend too long there, but got to enjoy the view a little before we headed off to my dream castle, Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwahstein sits on the top of a hill, overlooking a valley and a lake. Unfortunetaly, due to the odd winter germany was having, the lake is almost dry...very shallow lake. We ate a small lunch before we took a tram to what is called mary's bridge for a view of the castle before our tour. We did not get to take the hour long hike up higher to see the view i really wanted, and we were crunched for time as it was. I love this castle. It was one of those places, that i have found here in europe that just makes me smile. I can't help it. The paths wound through talls forests and up hills. Marys bride stand about 200 to 300 feet above a waterfall that winds under the base of the castle. We then basically sprinted from the hill, to get to out tour on time. Now, you have to realise, sprinting is something i rarely do, especially on mounatinaous paths. But of all tours weve had, i didnt want to miss this one. The views both of the castle, and from the castle seemed almost surreal, and it makes me sad that they would ever have to photoshop any picture of it. The tour was ok, the interior overdone, and decorative, maybe pretty if you like that kinda thing, but the views are what i was there for. I had been informed of, but still depressed by the stripping of the interior third floor for a gift shop, so I boycotted it and walked straight through passed the finiished kitchens, and out.

We rode the 1.5 hour bus ride back to Munich, and I sewed my greece patch onto my bag I bought there, and then took a much needed map.

BTW, for the next time your in there Alpine snow melt makes for deliciously cool tap water when running in the mountains.

Bananen for Munich

I woke up early this morning, at about 630 and took a shower to start my day off right. We didn't have to meet for class until 10 am, so I took my time, and the four of us girls, as Jeff is living elsewhere, ate breakfast at the hostel. It wasn't bad, but the coffee seemed watery to me, and the canned milk left me wanting.
We met for class, and everyone of us was early. It was a church thing today, so we started class, by climbing up the tower of Munich's St. Peter's. It was pretty tall, not overly so, but enough to take my breathe away due to the view, and the city's altitude... The church inside was nice, especially since it was almost obliterated in WWII bombings.
After we enjoyed the view, we walked back to the Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel. We waited until 11 am when the clock turns, and the figurines in the church move. It was kind of neat i suppose, but it took 10 minutes, and watching things spin for 10 mminutes, is, well, pretty boring. We walked from the Marienplatz to the church of out lady, or the Frauenkirche. It was a beautiful airy church inside with large interior collonades and bright beautiful stained glass.
We also stopped by another baroque church that I do not feel the need to name. The interior was dark, ornate and utterly discusting. I felt claustrophobic and heavy inside, even though the church was huge.
We then walked down the the Viktualienmarkt and ate lunch and a small outdoor restarurent. We ate with Astrid and she bought pitchers of beer for the class as beer runs through Munich like water and runs cheaper. I had some, but found solace in my water bottle when I ate my local favorite White sausage.
We endrd the day going to the largest public city park in the world, the Englischer Garten. I have to admit, it was huge, and the large fields made me want to pick up a game of soccer. We spent some time sketching there, then headed back to our hostel to eat a light dinner, and change our rooms for the night.

Bretzel

Ok, so last night we spent a while with the girls from wisconsin playing cards and eating what the germans think is gelato.

This morning, we had our first actual sleep in day in europe. We slept until 930 and it was great. We cleaned up our stuff and put them in lockers so that the new roomates could move in without a worry. We had fresh pastries for breakfast, as we missed the one in the hostel, and headed to what is called the Residenz. The res. is the old castle of the german nobles. It was expamnded through the years, generally by weak rulers who wanted to put their stamp on historz. Anzwaz, it was pretty neat and huge. Many of the original things were destroyed in WWII, but many were also saved. There were huge halls, beautiful parquette floors. The intricate wood details in the desks were trumped only by the work in shell and stone. Too bad so much money was wasted on such a selfish thing.

We ate lunch at a pub called Weisses Brauhaus.It is reputedly one of the better beer halls in munich, and I have to agree. The prices were good, and after a bowl of potato soup, and a sausage platter split three ways. We were all full, and loving it. The sweet mustard and pretzels provided complemented the meal well.

We will now go back to our hostel to have a small dinner and see if others from our class arrived in the city yet. We have class tommorrow and will meet Astrid at the Glockenspiel, or Rathaus (town hall)tommorrow morning.

Bernese...I want one

Ok, so I have to apolologize. On my last update I forgot about yesterday. On the 22nd, when we took the train from Interlaken to Zurich. We went stopped off at the citz of Bern. For those who don't know, its name means bear, its where Einstein was from and where the Bernese Mountain Dog got its name. The city was set on a small river and was verz clean. I was reminded a little of New Orleans however because the artisan district sits below water level, and apparently had to be evacuated a couple of years ago. We only spent long enough there to see some views of the bernese alps, pout at the fact we dont have a bernese puppz with us, look at the rosengarten on the far side of the citz, gaze down at some of the large brown bernese bears {bear bear}in the bear pit and ride the lift that took us up and down the steep inclines of the city.

Ok, so today.
We are now in the country of Deuscheland in the city of Munich. We took a morning train from Zurich that wrapped around the lake, and through a part of austria...which we did not have a pass for. It was ok though, it cost us 5 euro to make up for that mistake when it was have cost 15 each had we done it properly. The land that we road through reminded me of areas of wisconisn, with the rolling hills and small patches of old trees. It was the view of the snowcapped mountains, european homes and fields of chartreuse mustard that belied my perception. We are staying at a nice hostel called wombats and are sharing a room with 2 nice girls from the wisconsin dells. The city is busier than zurich, but cleaner than rome or even florence. We learned quickly that if the road seems as though you could never cross as a pedestrian that there is probably an escalator down to walk below the road...oops.
We walked around to get our bearings that afternoon, and we were very glad to find that food it germany, unlike switzerland is affordable. We ate our lunch in a cafe in the 5th floor of a department store, and Andie was taught by the nice waitress how to properly cut open german sausage. It was funny watching the woman take over, just like "mom". I finally got the meat that I needed. Mary and I split some pork broasted in dark beer with potatoes on the side. Yum. The pretzels here are delicious, but we decided the cappucino was a little let down after the rich 90 cent ones in italy. Oh well, beggars cant be choosers.
We have one more day as a 'break' before we meet Astrid for class, just a few blocks away. Updates will also be easier in munich than in switzerland, as they dont milk our wallets to make cheese and chocolate here.
Tschus.

Bitte Warten

So, while my friends and I have made it to switzerland, my poor passport shows no sign of either my egress of Italy, or my entrance to the hills. We spent our first 2 nights in the town of Interlaken. It is small town that is nestled between two lakes. The city makes its money on the many activities that are found in the area. An active visitor could do anthing from canyoneering, to skydiving. Because we are poor college students tryingnot to spend all of our parents money, we did not choose to go parasailing, though i really wanted to. We toured some caves a boat ride away and to a ride down a track from the top of one of the mountains with only a hand break to determine our speed. We stayed at an old hotel called Funny Farm. It had beautiful views, and was probably once a beautiful place to stay. The building was old, and have some nice art deco paintings in the interior. The main staircase was made out of white marble, that had been protected with some cheap strips of burber carpeting. Our room, while large, was severely dated and the beds left us wanting. The view, again, was gorgeous and I sat down, while my roomies napped to draw it.

The most interesting part of interlaken was the way through which we knew where we were in the city. On our first day, we went to the store and bought cheese crackers and salami for lunch. We decided to eat it in the park where we sat at the edge of an unmown field and watched some children playing in the adjacent playground. As we sat there, something blotted out the sun..for only a moment. It was a paraglider coming in for a landing. The city keeps that field unmown for the numerous paragliders that come in the land during the day. So, throughout our stay we would look to the skies to see where the paragliders were dropping so that we could situate ourselves in the city.

Today, we are in Zurich, the city that literally means too rich. It is costing my dad 10 swiss francs for me to be here typing to you, but its the cheapest one we've seen yet, and its been a while.

When we got here yesterday, we checked into our small hotel above a shopping area, and spent the evening by the lake watching the sun go down. It was very realxing, and as this is a break from classes, i am ok with being realxed. Since we only have 3 beds for 4 people, we had two twins nexts to eachother and one at the end. We then spent the night lined up like sardines, but with space between us. The windows were open, and we learned how quickly zurich can cool off. The town was remarkably quiet at night. That is excepting the stupid ducks that make a horrible call that is oddly like a dogs chew toy. We slept in until 830 and then went on a boat ride this morning on the lake. We ate buffet salads at a store downtown and spent the afternoon shopping. Its funny how food, anmd internet is so expensive, and yet clothing, generally is cheaper, especially with the difference between dollars and francs. Ok well tonight we might be going to a movie, possibly 300 since it is being played in English. We also plan to splurge a little on dinner and get some good truly swiss fondue before we head out to Munich, or Munchén tomorrow morning.

Hopefully Munich's internet will be more affordable.

Prost

OK, so I am alive. I am in interlaken, Switzerland, but its very expensive for internet here, so I will give a thorough update when we get to Zurich, hopefully, tomorrow.

Ciao Bella

So as I am sure everyone knows, there was very bad thing that occurred the other day in Virgina. One of my classmates, Shelbie, however had one that was just as bad. Her brother attends virginia tech and was in class at the time of the incident. Her father called Joe right after the fact to have him tell Shelbie that her brother was ok. Apparently he was in the same building as the shooter, heard everything and spent the time, waiting for it all to stop. Im glad that he is ok, but I have to stop and pray for those that aren't.

This morning went rather well with the class of 17 crammed into our small apartment. We had a brunch of scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, yogurt and juice. I was completely full, as i think everyone else was. We said our goodbyes to Joe, as he teaches class in SLO on monday, and many people left, heading on their own vacational route to Munich.

Mary and I spent the afternoon looking for boots. I was not successful, as the ones i like are always out of my size, especially when they are on sale. Oh well, im probably better without them. Tonight we will go out with Kelly for dinner to some sort of Italian appetizer buffet. Then, the first of our trains to Switzerland leaves at 7 in the morning.

I feel it, deep down in my sketchbook

It was a pretty easy day today. We met Joe across the city at the San Pito. When we all arived, we bought access to the Boboli gardens. I have to say it was more of an estate, it took Mary and I 3 hours to traverse it to our content, though i must admit there was some sketching involved in there aswell. The garden was built starting in the 1600s and was 'redone' in the 1800's. There ar long dark paths everywhere because the hedges and trees are so old. Mary and I decided it was rather like the Secret Garden do to its creation of quiet seclusion. The entry is based on a symmetrical layout. As we climbed up the hill, we saw some old stairways that seemed to lead to no where. When we traversed the stairways, there was far from nothing there. On a 'small' patio at the top of the hill, the whole 360 degrees of the city of florence could be seen. We had a good view of the Duomo, and could actually see the rolling Tuscan Hills. With the amber homes, old cypresses, and blooming, redbuds, it was quite a sight to see. AS mary and i walked down the steps, we passed a bride and groom walking the slope to get their wedding photos done.

We each had a meeting with Joe about where are designs are headed and how our independent study is going. It took most of the afternoon.

WE then walked as a class to a couple of other gardens on the hills of florence, and finally spent the last day of class at a cafe at the gardens of michaelangelo. All we have left with Joe is a breakfast that we are making at our apartment tomorrow for the class.

We bought our tickets to Interlochen today. :) Yay Snow.

Eternal Smile

Ok, so it's been awhile, i know. We made it to Venice, and it is everything you would think it would be, but more. The first thing was did when we got there was get lost. We had thought it would be a good idea to try to get away from the tourist area and in doing so, we walked ourselves right off of our tour book map. Luckily, we found an american who pointed us in the right direction and then we headed to Piazza San Marco. Its easy to observe that the city in in fact sinking. Many buildings have been raised and some doorways into homes have blocks places above the original threshhold to keep the rising waters out. Apparently, even ST marcs square is underwater many months out of the year now. But back to the point of interest. When you see photos of venice, you would expect that the photos were carefullr cooridnated because of how the canal winds, and the window boxes are planted. The photos are not of just a few choice canals in the city. Every..single..canal we looked down was beautiful, unique and photographable. I had to check myself from filling my camera card up too fast. One thing we learned that is different between roads and canals, is that you cannot just jaywalk accross a canal to get soemwhere. We spent several extra minutes trying to find bridges to the unattainable other side of the 'fence'. Overall, i would say venice is nice, but too expensive to stay. We spent one day and that was all we needed.
Yesterday for class joe took us to a small city in tuscanny known as Lucca. I had the most fun of the trip yet. The original city was an old roman (or etruscan) town that was built on a hill. The city was surrounded by a wall to keep the armies of florence out so many years ago. Today, the city has spread outside the walls, but the original ones still stand. The city has made the walls into a large city park. Where soldiers once stood, people now walk their dogs and ride their bikes. Just below the walls on the outside are fields, with the earthwork still apparent, that people lay in the feel the sun, or walk their dogs. As a group, we rented bikes to ride the 2.5 miles around the city. The day was clear and comfortable, the walls were wide and open, and I enjoyed myself so much that I just could not stop smiling.
We ate as a class and I had the best taste of Italian food yet, Lasagna. After lunch we climbed a tower that had 200 year old oaks growing on it. From the top of the tower, we could see some peaks of the southern side of the alps. There was just a little bit of snow left this far into april.
This morning we went to another tuscan town called Siena. Siena was built in the mountains, and is a mountain city all the way. From here, we could see the quintessential farm land so well known in Tuscanny. To start the day we climbed 400 stairs of the town hall that miraculously stands without a foundation. It hit noon when we were up there, so our ears got to feel the bells first hand. Because it is nearing the end of our time in Italy, we did not do much today. We have an assignment due tommorrow, then will basically be done with Joe. The 4 of us, Mary, Andie, Jackie and I will be heading out to spend a couple of days in Switzerland before we meet Astrid for class in Munich.
I made dinner tonight, as it was my turn. We had fresh bread with sausage and bree, to start our pasta with mozzerella and zuchini.

Ciao Bella

Observations of Italian Culture

Italian men think that they are God's gift to women. According to some reading it is because of Casanova. I think that it is b/c they are just what Mary calls, Skeezy. Instead of the American cat calls, men here will pucker their lips and make kissing sounds at women. They will also make hissing sounds and try to get your attention on the street. They complement profusely, just for attention and make comments about your appearence. Just as I walked in this internet cafe, the clerk, who sounds oddly like Apu said to me. 'you're beautiful.' Women walking will hear things like 'bella signora, signora.' Anyway, they full of it and its best to just ignore them and let them find another source of prey.

Cars take precedence here, and the horn is more important than the brakes. You honk to turn, to stop to move pedestrians to or off the sidewalk. Sometimes, you even honk becuase you're bored and their are not enouigh cars on the road to nearly hit. Joe compared Italian driving to skiing. 'You only worry about whats in front of you, that you dont hit them. What is behind you is someone elses problem.' There is no correct side of the road, only right and left and what you drive on.

Americans are easy to spot. They wear shorts, not pants. Their jeans look right, not wierd and hanging off the buttocks. They wear flip flops. A waiter told me he knew I was american because, 'if a group of people is laughing, they are american.' Americans like their space. When in a line, people will be packed in tight neck, breathing on neck. Where the line opens up to wider spaces and individuals can be discerned, there are americans.

Coffee. Italians are coffee Nazis. They will not let you sit with your coffee unless you pay to do so. They do not drink Cappucino in the afternoon, only expresso, and they will roll their eyes if you dare to order a cappucino.

Italians, some anyway, like to cheat tourists of money, by giving back incorrect change, sometimes even american money, which does not compare. They will charge for a round trip, but only give a one way ticket. Joe had a fight with a train clek b/c the man had over charged then pocketed the money. But it was taken care of.

Some people are very nice where you wont expect them to be. A vender warned me of who could be pick pocketers in a plaza. A man helped me lift my bag on the shelf while on the train. Another taught us how to use the wierd key for our aparment and how to use the local phone.

Liz had a run in with a gypsy who was trying to pickpocket her, but all we got was a whack in the face and a group italians yelling at him. Plus the bag only contained chocolate. Ooops, wrong tourist.

So in total of what I have seen Italy is not culturally rude, its just different and more unstructured I suppose.


P.S. RIP Kurt Vonnegut

A starving artist

Andie and I went to bed before the rest of my roomies got back. I suppose this was a mistake. I had a rude awakening this morning when Jackie woke me with the words, 'We have 15 minutes to make the train.' I panicking for a moment and started gathering clothes. We decided that we would in fact take the later train, but because the later train was full, we put off the trip until tommorrow. So I will be waking up at 5 in the morning, then sleeping on the train. Anyway, since we were awake early in the morning, we decided to go to the large indoor market accross the plaza from our apartment. There was so much food in there, and as I was very glad to see, so much meat. The display cases were filled with large cuts of beef, chicken, fish, and rabbit. I was a little disturbed that tripe looks oddly like carpeting, but I hear it is actually pretty good, other than the oddity of the texture. The market was filled with so many different kinds of cheese, so we bought some brie, as it is the cheapest for our lunch and dinner. We also bought veggies and fresh made ravioli for dinner. We ate our salami sandwich lunch on the steps of the Church of St. Croce. This cathedral, that I have never heard of houses the tombs of several influential names from our past. Michealangelo rests here, accross the way from Da Vinci and Nicholai Machiavelli. When we were finished with our sketches we brought our things home and went to the bazaar near our place to get some little things for our people at home. I also bought a tshirt.

Kelly met up with us later and we walked to the best gelato place in town where i got a cup of rice gelato with chocolate orange and cream with choco chips. It was delicious. I also splurged a little on myself. Since this is a place of leather and artistry, Kelly knew of a little shop that makes leather sketchbooks. As my book currently is already half full, 1/3 into the trip, I am having one made. It is shaped to my liking and will have my initials embossed. The neat thing is, that it will not cost any more for the custom making, or for the lettering. The woman also gave me a student discount of 10 euro. The total price of a cutom leather book will be less than the price of two moleskeens, which are smaller and too popular for my taste. So, yes Im sorry, but the aroma of leather seduced me.

There are too many good artists here. Its about 6 euro for a good potrait.

A firenze

Well, on Thursay morning we took a two hour train to Florence. All of us were spread out in the train because the train service in Rome was less than helpful. I sat next to a guy that we have dubbed Europunk. He decided his foot room and elbow space on the armrest were more important than anyone elses comfort. Jackie sat next to a nun, and we mostly slept the whole way here. When we got to the city, we stepped out of the station and finally understood that we had left Rome. The city was clean. It did not smell like urine, or beer and the people, and the cars were friendlier and generally more open to Americans and tourists in general. Our apartment here is so nice. There is a pillow for each person and bedspace made to suit as many people as we have. No more sardines.:)The company left a bottle of wine and a bowl of fruit for us to enjoy as we look out over the plaza below our window. We met with Joe at the city's Duomo and walked around the city for a little while. Joe had booked tickets for us at the Accadmicca and we got in to see Michaelangelo's David. The statue is huge, which is odd considering the idea of david being so small. But I understand why the work is so revered. I cannot believe the detail old Mikey put into it at the age of 29. Davids right hand in particular, the strong one, is so detailed that the veins pop and you almost expect the see blood flowing under the surface of the marble. We were given a while to sit down and draw David. I felt though, that my work is basically inadiquate to compare with David, and I would not want to see his beauty marred on a page in my book. I wandered instead and found quite a nice sculpture of Magdeleine. She was put in the back corner of one room behind other sculptures, and she was, in genereal. ignored by the wave of people that came through the room. As there were no chairs in the gallery, i plopped myself down on the floor and drew her for probably 45 minutes. I was amazed at the number of people that spent time looking at her increased once my presence there seemed more important. I had many people looking over my shoulder at my work, but generally, i ignored them and kept skecthing. I am pretty sure it is one of my better drawings of late. The issue with the people watching has to make me wonder what else I could make tourists stop and look at, just by sketching them. When I left, I thanked the guard for not making me get off the floor and we left to go to the Duomo {dome}. Joe joined me and my roomates on a 463 step trek up the dome. The view was quite beautiful and the late afternoon haze created an almost surreal perspective of the Tuscan hills. We spent awhile up there then headed down and went to dinner, without Joe. Andie and I shared a bowl of roasted wild boar, which was quite tender, and therefore probably not wild. The waiters joked with us by singing american songs as they passed by and generally we had a good evening. Because we had to work on our regional roman wrap up for the morning we went to a bar to get some euro cappucino before we got to work. We stayed up until about 130 working on reviews and diagrams while below, outside our window the restaurant had live music playing. I showered, with actual continual hot water and went to bed.

This morning i had a rude awakening when a truck tried to fit inside a candy jar. Well, knock it over anyway. The hustle and bustle below us started early but since i was awake anyway, i didn't really mind. We met joe again, at the duome, since it is the most visible place in the city and walked around the city comparing ren architectuire to gothic. We looked at some plazas and spent some time at the river sketching the Ponte Veccio. While I was sketching, a nice young australian told me my work was "gorgeous" But I think he just wanted to sound like steve irwin. As I stood at the wall by the river, i saw atleast 4 different groups of poeple skulling on the river. I was sad though as there space was limited and they had to keep turning around. After the Ponte Veccio we walked to a church where my roomies and I gave our wrap up of rome and therefore finished all the work for the quarter for LA 411. Its pretty nice to have that out of the way. We were set free early and we met up with Kelly who is studying here and walked with her through the many markets and venders in the area. We bought produce and groceries and Jeff Yuen made us 5 girls dinner for the 4th time, which we ate happily around the table in our cute apartment above the plaza.

Tommorrow we hope to take a day trip to Venice but as the train system is on strike today, it might not happen. I do hear that these strikes are frequent and quickly ended, so, here's hoping.