all done...

...unless there are some questions about what I did or what I did not. Thesis and studio are taking up all my time from here on out.

Some of the places I have seen and pieces of architecture I have experienced were unforgettable moments. This study abroad has changed that way I think about architecture and reinforced my appreciation for good food. Most importantly, it has allowed me to appreciate differences in cultures. Everything is out there, we just have to find it. It's been an adventure!

I'm flying back on December 20 and will be showing up with a fro. I have my living situation figured out for the next four months as well. See you all soon!

Vals, Sumvitg, Basel, Ronchamp, Vitra..

When I initially planned to go to Switzerland it was for the architecture that I wanted to see, but what I didn’t take into account was how beautiful the Alps would be. Part of me feeling this way was probably because I imagined nothing else I would see on this study abroad could compare to Sweden. I was wrong, the Alps were gorgeous. The little villages that were spread out throughout the Alps were very quaint, beautiful, self-sufficient little towns.

I traveled with three other grad students. We woke up Thursday and went to the airport to pick up our rent-a-car. It was a four-door, manual, small Fiat, which ended up being a nice ride. Thank God we paid the extra money for a Tom Tom. We would have been lost without it. We started our drive north, through Bologna, to Milan where we stopped and checked out a Fuksas project, which was pretty cool. Then we continued north into the Alps. Our first stop was Vals, Switzerland, which was in the middle of the Alps. The route had snowy hairpin turns with giant cliffs off the side, with wood guardrails. It was pretty nerve-racking.

We finally got to Vals and checked in our hotel and went to the Thermal Baths by Zumthor. The baths (warm swimming pools) were great. The spaces Zumthor created were nice. There was a hot bath, warm bath, German bath (and I intentionally did not go near this one for good reason), steam bath, cold bath, scented bath, and a warm outdoor bath. The views he set up to the Alps were great as well. That night, the baths were open from 10:30 to 12:00. I went to the outdoor pool and relaxed; saw a couple shooting stars and the big dipper in a sky that was black. I felt like I was pretty close to them being on top of the Alps.

The following day, we spent the morning at the baths and then packed up and drove to Sumvitg, Switzerland. This was even further in the middle of the Alps. Old, weathered, log cabins were scattered around the mountainside. It is the location of another great Zumthor project that is now one of my favorite pieces of architecture, a church built for the town San Beneditg.

Light, material, craft, smell of the wood, and the apparent value of labor allows the everyday inhabitant to transcend his architecture and find a deeper meaning within it. In this piece of architecture, Zumthor puts the craftsman on the spot. Every saw cut and nail will be seen. The intentionality of making the space rougher and more related to the construction techniques of the local people, when compared to the baths, shows the flexibility of Zumthor to adapt to certain programs and places.

When we left it was my turn to drive. It was a lot of fun, but one mistake and we were off the side of a cliff. I thought I knew a shortcut, but the road we took was blocked because of snow, so we had to turn around and go the long way.

On the way to Basel, we attempted to stop in Zurich to quickly check it out, but got stuck in a traffic jam for two hours. No luck. Then we got to Basel and crashed at the hostel. Hostels are cheap places for young backpackers to stay. You basically pay for a bed, rather than a room. This hostel was 20 euros a night for a 10 bed room, meaning 9 other people in the room, with shared bathrooms and showers. Luckily, no one else was in the room that the group of us was in.

Saturday morning, we drove into France and checked out Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ronchamp, France. This is a must see for any architect that is in the area. It was pretty cool. I liked the lighting effects and the lightness of the church for actually how massive it looks. The outdoor area for service was something I never knew about. After Ronchamp, I drove through back through France to Vitra, Germany. This place has a work by Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Herzog de Meuron, a Bucky Fuller dome, Nicholas Grimshaw. A lot of architecture. Zaha and Ando were my favorite.

When we showed up in Basel that night there were people lined up on the streets cheering for people of all ages running. Some kind of 5k or 10k. But people were going crazy for these runners. It created a great, live atmosphere. The city was nice, it had a lot of young people because of the university.

In Switzerland they use Swiss Francs rather than euros. In Basel they had some pretty amazing bratwursts. They hit the spot. They don’t put them on buns, but they give you a piece of bread with Dijon mustard on it. So you eat the brat and then take a bite of the bread.

Sunday we woke up and walked around downtown looking at HDM buildings and we walked through the markets. Then drove back to Florence and arrived that night at 10:30.

Switzerland_Germany_France

This weekend I am taking an architectural trip with three others in the graduate program. I’m going to see the work of one of my favorite architects, Peter Zumthor.

We are going to the Thermal Baths in Vals and his St. Benedict Chapel twenty minutes from Vals. His work is based off of the concept of being completely experiential. A lecture of his is documented in the book, Atmospheres, remember mom? We will stay in the Thermal Baths hotel for one night. I’m excited to drive through the alps, I imagine it will be a sight to see.

The following day we are going to drive to Basel, Switzerland. This city is in Switzerland, but borders Germany and France. At some point we are going to drive to Zaha Hadid’s Fire Station in Vitra, Germany and Ronchamp by LeCorbusier in France. All are within a close distance to each other. Last trip of the semester, when I get back I am going to have to be 100 percent focused on studio and thesis.

Ha allegra Thanksgiving e’ mangiate molto tacchino per me. Sono grato mi famiglia e' amici.

Stockholm

Stockholm was everything I imagined it to be and more. I loved the atmosphere, culture, people, and architecture. It was freezing and it was snowing the second day. It was dark at 4 pm everyday because the sun was so low. Stockholm uses the Kroner’s instead of the Euro so I was excited to be able to use a different type of currency. But, in Stockholm everything is more expensive. The whole weekend I was extremely happy, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I am extremely lucky to be experiencing this.

We flew into Stockholm and took the bus from the airport. I did a reenactment of Neil Armstrong jumping on the moon, except it was me jumping off the steps of the plane. It was 2 in the morning so we just went to bed after traveling all day.

We woke up early and went to the Woodland Cemetery designed by Gunnar Asplund. A professor of mine has written a book on this cemetery so I was pretty familiar with it. It is a beautiful landscape design. I enjoyed looking at all the old tombstones as well. Then we went into town and walked around the Old Town and the Royal Palace. The architecture is again, beautiful. The water is great too. We walked around all day and hit up an architecture exhibit on Swedish architecture which was nice and had an amazing architecture bookstore. That night we walked around and went into a few of the bars and talked to a lot of Swedish people. They all speak English because their education system requires them too. Everyone was so friendly, whereas in Italy, a lot of people are ornery.

Saturday, it snowed and it was beautiful. I separated from the two I went with because I wanted to go experience the land on my own. I went to Djurgarden because it is a huge landscape park. I spent a few hours there walking around and watching people. It was again, absolutely beautiful land. Then I met back up with my friends and ate Swedish pancakes, which were awesome. After that we went to a great little Christmas amusement park which was packed with locals. Then the rest of the day we shopped. That night, we went to a different area of town and met more Swedish people and had a great time.

The Swedish people look like Henrik Zetterberg, Nicholas Lindstrom, and me. The girls, since it was Stockholm, they weren’t all blond and pretty because it is a diverse city. But the amount of blond, tall, blue-eyed girls was the most concentrated amount I have ever seen in a city. So in essence, the guys were all rough and tumble while the girls were all pretty.

A Swedish guy (Peter Lindstrom) who I sat next to on the plane back told me cities, like Smaland (pronounced Schmallend), is completely blond and blue eyes. He said he’s been there and said it was beautiful. I saw a few people from Gavle, which I noticed in the genealogies is where another large portion of my ancestry comes from.

Stockholm is hands-down, the nicest city I have visited so far. It was clean, fresh, and vibrant with life, great shops, beautiful buildings, and an absolutely awesome culture. One night we were walking around we stumbled upon a skate rink which was packed with people having fun and then a great little shopping district where I had reindeer jerky for the first time. I tried hard to find lutefish and potato sausage, but no luck, I even searched through a lot of Swedish cook books.

I describe it as a constant state of ecstatic, overwhelmed, happiness. I still can't believe I am able to travel like this and experience places I never imagined I would actually experience.

By the way, I want more questions and comments or I am not going to tell you how Switzerland is next weekend ;). I'm sick of talking to myself, I want to hear your thoughts! I know I am leaving stuff out that you may have a thought about!

Sweden!!!

I leave for Stockholm Thursday and return Sunday. I'm pretty excited about this because I have always, alwAYS, ALWAYS wanted to go to Sweden. We'll see if the assumption my 8th grade paper on Sweden is true; that Swedish people are the best looking people in the world. If I remember correctly, I made a pretty good argument.

Traveling with two people, a grad friend and an undergrad friend from Wisconsin who decided to go, should be good, both pretty easy-going people. I have a few architectural things on my list to see, but it is the culture that I anticipate most. I have always been intrigued by the culture, the Socialist structure, and simply my ancestry's homeland.

It's 30 to 40 degrees everyday so I will be wearing my whole suitcase! Also, I plan to tie my thesis into this trip. Possible site??

Rome

Rome was the biggest history lesson I have ever received. Like Venice, Rome will be hard to summarize because there was so much, but I will try my best.

The most amazing part of Rome is its history and the pizza. A lot of the ancient Roman ruins that I saw were from around 700 BC, they were enormous. The pizza was very good too. The best I have had in Europe so far. It was thicker than Northern Italy and with a lot of cheese. The gypsies, as they call them, were all over the place trying to sell stuff to tourists and there were a lot of tourists.

We arrived by bus at about noon on Thursday and it was down-pouring. Our professor’s originally had St. Peters planned as a group tour, but decided to give us a free day and let us roam in Rome. I was happy about that. The closest thing to the hotel was The Pantheon, so I decided to go there. The Pantheon is ancient; I think the largest concrete dome in the world? Since it was raining, the rain was falling through the oculist, circular hole in the roof. This added another level of interest to it because it was pretty cool when it started pouring inside the building. Then the rain slowed down and eventually stopped. We walked around the city and hit some of the major sites; Trevi Fountain, some Piazza’s, the Spanish steps, Tomb of Augustus. A great aspect about Rome compared to Florence is Rome is attempting to bring contemporary architecture inside its city. So, we saw the Ara Pacis by Richard Meier too.

That night, we ate pizza a couple times. They have little shops you walk into and grab a giant piece. Then we went to the Vatican, which was amazing. I was able to take some good photos of it during the night. I walked around Borromini’s Piazza for awhile. Then back to the hotel, where we played some cards and had a few drinks.

In the morning, Friday, we headed straight to the Vatican. Vatican City is a country separate of Italy, which I though was cool. We were able to get right into the St. Peter’s Church. The largest church in the world! It was amazing. Saw a sculpture, Pieta, by Michelangelo. Our tour guide rushed us. I could have spent much more time in there but we left and headed for the Vatican museum, which has ancient works by Raphael and Michelangelo, a LOT of art. The best part of the museum is the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The piece where God nearly touches the finger of Adam, it was incredible to look at.

Then I took off with the architecture group and saw works by Zaha Hadid (under construction), Renzo Piano (three beetle-like auditoriums), a Nervi basketball stadium, and finally the 1960 Olympic Stadium complex. Then ate some pizza and went back to the hotel. That night a group of us went out and experienced the bar scene of Rome which was awesome.

In the morning, an early morning it was, we went to the absolutely amazing Roman Forum, Capitaline Hill, and Palatine Hill area. I love the stories of ancient Rome so the whole time we were there I was captivated by the tour. This is where all the ancient ruins are, the Arch of Titus, Arch of Constantine, and the Coliseum! We spent about half of the day there and then a small group went out to the EUR area of Rome which has a lot of Fascist architecture. It was a designed city, so it was an interesting thing to see.

In the evening the villa went to the Villa Borghese. I had no idea what to expect, but I am glad I went. We saw pretty amazing sculptures by Bernini, Raphael, and Caravaggio. The villa then went back to Florence, but I decided to stay another day. We tried to get into the catacombs, but they were closed by the time we got there.

I went back to the Coliseum to take photo’s at night. After the Coliseum I walked around and saw a lot of the tourist stuff in the city. Just kind of walked and experienced the city. Everywhere I went there was a swat team of police officers because students were protesting something. Had McDonald’s for dinner and headed back to the terrible hostel.

In the morning, Sunday, I went to St. Peters and climbed up to the top of the dome and caught some amazing views of the city. We got there early, so there was not a line for anything. Then went down into St. Peters and spent awhile in there, watching people go to Mass. At 11 we thought the Pope came out of his window and gave the Sunday blessing so we went out to see him. But it was 12, good thing we went out early though because the piazza was packed with people. It was pretty incredible to see the Pope and listen to him deliver his blessings!!

Then we went and walked around the inside of the Coliseum. Then went to a Richard Meier Church of the Year 2000 which was 30 minutes out of town. We couldn’t find a taxi back, extremely worried that I would miss the train I asked a young Roman couple who were taking pictures of the church how they were getting back, they said by car and asked if I need a ride. Absolutely we did so Matt and I jumped in their car and they gave us a ride to the train station. They spoke very little English, but it was an interesting conversation in the tiny car.

Made it back Sunday evening at about 10:30 and found out that I have another nephew! I couldn’t ask for a better surprise!

The Duomo

Since I have been here, I have yet to go inside or to the top of the Duomo. I have walked around it a few times, sat on the front steps, and I've been in the Baptistery, but not the Duomo. Today, I decided I am going. I told Matt I was going and he decided, so long with studio.

We took the bus to the downtown and walked to the Duomo. Since it is Wednesday and not many tourists, there was no line and we walked right in and climbed to the top of Brunelleschi's dome. Climbing up through the dome was pretty claustrophobic. It consists of two shelled layers of brick, the stairs were between them. The dome was enormous and incredible. The views of Florence were great and there were only about 10 people up the whole time. I spent maybe an hour to two checking out the views of Florence of where I have been and haven't. The painting on the underside of the dome was very graphic and freaky at moments with their depictions of hell. The church was absolutely enormous. It was hard to actually understand the scale of it.

When we go to St. Peters in Rome this weekend I plan to climb to the top of that dome. That's why I went today, because I want to compare Michelangelo and Brunelleschi. They say the Florence church can fit inside of St. Peters, not the dome though.

"swashbuckling 15-hour trek"

http://arch.umich.edu/newsandevents/news/?news=8813167923221781526
Copy and paste that link and the school of architecture's website for the Florence studio will pop up. Thought it was interesting, the passage was written by my professor here. It will keep getting updated as time goes on.

One thing I have been wondering since I have been here. Why do Americans call and spell European cities by names that are not what Europeans call and spell them? For example, Florence is Firenze (Fur-enz-eh), Munich is Munchen (Moon-chen), Venice is Venizia (ven-itz-ia)...and the list goes on.

Rome is Roma (type them in a Google search separately and 'Rome' comes up with the English wikipedia version, whereas 'Roma' gives you the Italian wikipedia page)??? It knows our lack of translation.

Going to 'Rome' Thursday through Sunday. I'm pretty excited, considering it is one of the most narrated and historical cities in the world. Pantheon, Colosseum, St. Peter's, the Vatican, Trajan's column, and I have always been fascinated with the catacombs (the underground network of tombs they used to use). Also, the spatial organization of the ancient Roman houses. Rome has a a few contemporary architectural pieces as well.

Carraran Marble

The studio took a field trip to Carrara. It is an area which is known for its marble. We went there because part of our studio investigates ground and architecture. Carrara is near Cinque Terra. It was pretty cool, there are literally mountains that are cut in half and mined. The size of the chunks of marble was enormous, so I won’t be bringing a new kitchen countertop back with me. I never actually thought about where marble came from before this experience and I would have never imagined there would be mountains of marble in this world.

When we first got there, we got out of the bus and the weather was clear and perfect. About ten minutes later, we saw a thick gray cloud charging at us. The rain wasn’t really dropping, rather than just running into us, because it was a cloud. The streets were like the streets you see on a Porsche commercial, hairpin turns and only one lane the whole time. That was pretty nauseating.

When we were viewing one of the quarries from a birds eye view, a friend and I decided to scale the hill down to the quarry and actually get into it. So, I was inside a mountain that used to be pure marble. It was awesome to feel a 1:1 relationship with the quarry, rather than viewing it as an object. Everyone else in the group was pretty jealous. The climb back up the hill was work though.

These mountains have been mined for a very long time, and they will never run out. The area is known for its lard, which I tried and is surprisingly very good. I guess it is suppose to be a delicacy. I had a lard sandwich. I probably should have a few more, I wish I had a scale because I would guess I lost 15 pounds since being here.

These mountains are also where Michelangelo personally went and selected his chunk to carve ‘David’ out of. We hiked up a mountain and had some pretty great views of the area.

Friday, October 24th

The Leaning Tower of Pisa!

I intentionally planned my flight to Barcelona late in the day because I wanted to spend some time in Pisa. I liked Pisa a lot. It was a small University town that was full of life and culture. The only relevant site to visit in Pisa is its cathedral, tower, and the baptistery. Nothing else.

The leaning tower was pretty incredible. I like the way that it tries to correct itself as it proceeds to be built. The tacit knowledge of the carpenter is at play here, and I find that interesting. The tourists were ridiculous and looked idiotic trying to capture their perfect pose holding up the tower. But everyone has to look ridiculous for a minute, because that is the iconic image of being there. I suppose I looked like an idiot performing my stunt in front of the tower.

In the photo above, the leaning tower threw off my equilibrium, not really. Credit to Matt for the good timing on the photo. Also, I ate a piece of pizza in pisa and have my photo in front of the leaning tower of pisa eating a piece of pizza. The pizza in pisa was surprisingly not good.

Keep your wallets in your front pockets: October 25th

Picasso Museum
Morales Food Market Structure
Gehry Fish (day)
Agbar Tower: Jean Nouvel
Sagrada Famiglia (night)
Attempted Gehry Fish (night)

The day was great and we were excited about what we have seen all day. We wanted to make one last stop to see the Gehry Fish lit up at night before we headed back to the hostel. To get there you have to travel by metro. Matt, Helen, and I figured out our plan and went down into the metro, not realizing we were being followed from the point we pulled out our wallets to get in the metro. We arrived at the platform and waited. The tram came and I was the first one on, with Helen behind me, and Matt behind her. The group of kids, nicely dressed, 18-22 years old, followed behind us. One wedged himself in front of Matt and proceeded to make a scene, hugging Matt and telling him “welcome to my country.” While there was a kid behind Matt taking his wallet.

By this point I was already seated and wondering what is going on. The kids leave the tram and Matt realizes his wallet was taken, I heard him swear and jump out. The decoy ran and Matt and I followed. We chased the kid through the two metro stops. I am slow. There was not a chance we were catching him, he was around 5'4", 120 pounds. I noticed they literally have a running lane track out of duct tape in one of the main metro stops. I think they actually line each other up to see which one can run the fastest. We ended up getting outside and he was nowhere to be seen. Matt and I were livid. We walked back to get Helen.

We chased the decoy; in our book it says the wallet is never with the one you think has it. So, the other group of kids actually had the wallet. Helen did not follow us, so she jumped out of the tram and saw a group of kids standing; they pointed her in the opposite direction we ran. After she walked a little bit and realized they were all a group, she walked back and saw them on the steps sifting through a wallet. So she grabbed it out of their hands and walked away. They got away with about a 100 euros of Matt’s, but he got everything else back. Helen is Indonesian, around 5'2", and maybe around 100 pounds. I'm still surprised she had no fear to walk up to 3 or 4 kids and grab the wallet out of their hands.

So we were relieved, but if another person touched us it would be a bad move on their part. We decided no more to the Gehry Fish, just go back to the hostel and call it a night. As we were waiting for the other metro in the same station I notice a different group of nicely dressed 20 year olds. We do the same thing, I am on first, Helen next, and Matt last. The same thing happens but more subtle this time, so none of us noticed. Who would think it could happen twice in a row!? These kids just unzipped a zipper on Matt’s bag and luckily there was nothing in there. So they didn’t get away with anything.

Also, Matt looked the most touristy out of all three of us. He had all his travel gear, his North Face gear, a large and very nice camera around his neck, and he is American but of Asian ethnicity. The people in Barcelona seemed to single out the Asians as easy tourist targets everywhere we went. They thought I was Swedish, so I didn't encounter much problem.

From that point on throughout the whole trip, Matt kept his wallet in his front pocket and we watched our back everywhere we went, always making sure we were the last ones on the metro.

Sunday, October 26th

Sagrada Famiglia: Gaudi
Casa Guell: Gaudi
Casa Battlo: Gaudi
Casa Mila: Gaudi
Park Guell: Gaudi
Gaudi’s house in Park Guell
Barcelona Pavilion (night): Mies
Gas Building (night): Morales
Gehry Fish (night)
Seashore Park

I dedicated this day to Gaudi’s work. He was a pretty amazing architect and had his own way of designing. Everything of his is organic and relates to nature. The Sagrada Familglia is a church that was started by him and not going to be done by another 30 or so years. It was started around the 1900’s? I’m pretty sure that it is the most visited church in Spain. The forms Gaudi created were overwhelming and beautiful. The iconography was legible and had amazing depth and detail. The amount of detail he put into all his work is incredible. We waited in line to climb up one of the towers and the tightness of these is claustrophobic but the views were amazing. I was very excited beforehand to see this church.

One of the most interesting pieces that I have been anxious to see in all of my architectural education is Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion. This is another work that is constantly studied in all architecture schools. The plan is simple, but the work is very powerful through its use of materiality and spatial volumes. I spent quite a bit of time here that night experiencing this work.

Monday, October 27th

Morales Park
Herzog de Meuron Forum Building
A Photovoltaic Tower
FOA landscape
Barcelona Pavilion: Mies
Calatrava Communications Tower
Olympic Park
Gas Building: Morales
MACBA: Richard Meier

This was a pretty great day. At some points during the day we were just walking from point to point and would run across something pretty cool. The city is loaded with great contemporary architecture.

At night when we went to the MACBA, there were about a hundred skateboarders flying by, jumping, and crashing. After looking at the building for awhile we sat down and 3 police vans pulled up. Some people dispersed when noticing this. We just sat there. About 30 swat police officer pile out with riot gear on and start yelling at everyone. One yelled at us and told us to go a certain way, then he realized we were tourists, so he did not mind us. But the guy after him started screaming at us and told us to go to this spot where they were pushing everyone. We just kept walking when we got there and then the police had a group surrounded with a drug dog checking everyone. Crazy.

Tuesday, October 28th

Norman Foster Tower
People watched

The one piece of architecture I missed on this trip was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Gehry. A piece we planned a day around and a flight to and from. We missed the airplane, the scale on the metro map for Barcelona was not to scale and we misjudged the time it would take to get to the airport. I have a feeling though if we would have made this flight we would have missed the one to Paris the following day.

So, at 7 in the morning we had to go back into Barcelona and find a hostel. Definitely NOT the one we stayed at the previous nights. We went right for the spot where it would not be to far away from the city center. We found one and it was 30 euros, worth it though. I took quite a long nap once there. Then we went out to the Norman Foster tower and I walked around and watched tourists the rest of the day. That night I went next door to the bar and had some Swedish people start talking to me because they thought I was Swedish. Had a few beers and called it a night, excited for Paris in the morning

Wednesday, October 29th

The Louvre: I.M. Pei
The Eiffel Tower: Gustav Eiffel (also designed the structure for the Statue of Liberty)

This was a travel day. We woke up early, excited to get out of our dirty hostel, and rode the hour bus ride to the Ryanair airport and flew to Paris. Ryanair is cheap because they drop you off an hour away from the city. I think this way they don’t have to pay the high parking fees at near-city airports. So from the airport to Paris, we had to jump on another bus for a hefty fee and rode for an hour and a half into Paris. I sat next to a Spanish girl who was studying outside of Paris. I had to speak very slowly and not mumble for her to comprehend my English. It was like having two language barriers, (Spanish to English, and English to my English).

The Barcelona hostel we stayed in was disgusting and the sheets were definitely not clean. The Paris hostel was a ten bed room. This was a lot better and cleaner.

Thursday, October 30th

Notre Dame Cathedral
Saint Chapelle
Pantheon
Arab Headquarters: Jean Nouvel
Pompidou Center: Renzo Piano and Norman Foster
National Library of France
Frank Gehry Cinematheque

This day was rainy and was very cold. The Pompidou Center was my favorite. It is a brutal Deconstructionist piece of architecture. The idea was to push all the functions of a building to the exterior. This is why the HVAC, egress, and structure are all on the façade. The great thing about this is it frees up the interior space by not needing any interior columns. It is a pretty clever building and I enjoyed staring at it and wondering why a city that hinged tightly to its history would allow an architect to do this. I was glad they did. But every non-architect, I would bet, thinks this is a terrible building.

A French person told us that if we go around the back, we can get in for free. This building is used as a public library (3 floors) and a contemporary art museum (top 2 floors). So, Matt and I went around the back and acted like we were French and got in for free to the library portion. The place was packed with people reading, writing, and using the computers.

Friday, October 31st

Villa Savoye: LeCorbusier
Grande Arch at La Defense
Villa La Roche: Corb
Swiss and Brazilion Pavilion: Corb
University of Paris
Contemporary Art Museum: Jean Nouvel
The Louvre: Mona Lisa/Aphrodite
Moulan Rouge: I have not seen the movie
Arc de Triumph

A busy day makes for a great day. Villa Savoye was a short train ride out of Paris to Poissy. This was a must see because it is the pinnacle of the modern architectural movement. Most people do not like Corb, his stuff is pretty simple. I thought the Villa Savoye was incredible. Corb describes it as an “object in a field.” We spent about half the day here and I could have stayed longer. This house is one of the most architecturally studied houses in architecture. Corb's main theory about architecture was his five points: pilotis, free facade, free plan, roof garden, and the ribbon window.

Skipping to the night. Since it was Friday, people under 25 got in free to the Louvre. So I saw the Mona Lisa for free. It honestly looked like it does in the pictures; there was nothing different about it. I thought about ripping it off the wall to see if there was a secret encryption on the back that would lead me to the Holy Grail for those of you that read the “Davinci Code.”

The Arc de Triumph was enormous. The day was unbelievable. When I see these things I never would have imagined I would be able to walk through them.

Saturday, November 1st

Palace of Versailles: King Louis XIV
Corb Salvation Army
Corb Ozenfant Studio
Top of the Eiffel Tower (day turned into night)
Notre Dame (Night)
Pompidou Centre (Night): Renzo Piano and Norman Foster

Friday and Saturday we had a couple of beers in the bar of the hostel. The hostel in Paris was pretty nice. It was more expensive but worth it, being that we got clean sheets in this one. Everyone who stayed in the hostel could go down and hang out in the bar area.

The Palace of Versailles is a world renowned place and studied in every world history class. All I remember from my history class is that there was no plumbing, so back when the King's lived there, they would use the corners of the rooms. I'm not making that up. It was a short train ride out of Paris and it was an absolutely miserable day. We walked through the Palace and checked out King Louis the XVI bed. This is also the place where the French president takes people like George Bush for international meetings. The gardens were enormous and since it was raining and freezing we left there at about 1:00 and hit up some McDonalds.

The most amazing part of this day was the top of the Eiffel tower. Matt and I waited 40 minutes in line, met a couple from Oregon, and climbed the stairs to the second pier of the tower. We got up there during the daylight and then while we were taking pictures and checking out the incredible views it turned night and the tower lit up blue. This made for some awesome photo’s. I was amazed and freezing, but not wet.

Notre Dame is my second favorite church I have seen, behind the Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona. The Gargoyle's come from this cathedral.

Sunday: November 2nd

Parc de la Villette: Bernard Tschumi
A desolate factory building: Renzo Piano
Communist Party Headquarters: Oscar Niemeyer
Rue de Meaux Housing: Renzo Piano

This was our last day of Fall break. Our flight was at 9:55 pm out of Paris, so we had from 8 am to 4 pm to see what we had left to see.

Parc de la Villette was my favorite part of this day. It was the first thing we saw in the morning and it was worth it. Tschumi, an architect, designed the landscape and the follies that are placed in it. The landscape pushes and pulls the ground. The 30 or so follies are red structures that he places randomly around the park. These structures plop down anywhere, right in front of other buildings. I thought to not care about the existing buildings on the site was interesting. There were images of fake cows. The best part about the park was that it was used to its max. Every field had people playing soccer on it.

Skipping to Piano’s housing. It was locked, so Matt and I could not get in. When we were peeking through the gate a guy that spoke English who lived there asked us if we wanted to go in. Then he gave us a tour and described what it was like to live there. It was literally a forest in the center, surrounded by housing.

At 4 pm, we waited for a half hour for the third person to show up. We took the metro for an hour to the bus to take us to the airport. The bus ride was an hour and a half. Our flight was delayed 40 minutes. Long story short, we landed in Pisa at 12:30 am with no transportation back to Florence. We were told there would be a bus, but that took two hours to arrive. I found a park bench, then the bus came and I stood for an hour and a half because it was packed with other students returning to Florence. I arrived at the villa at 4 am last night, 12 hours for an 1.5 hour Ryanair flight.

Now I want to go to everywhere else in Europe

I remember when I built a 3-D puzzle of the Eiffel Tower without actually thinking that I would ever see it.

I am back at the villa, safe with nothing stolen. The trip was great. There was incredible architecture in both Barcelona and Paris. It was a great experience and it was pretty amazing to see some of the architecture that I have studied so much about. The architecture is completely different when in its context.

A little bit about the week before I write about it. I planned this with Matt, which ended up being a good choice. We saw everything we wanted to see, except for one thing. We researched quite a bit about what we wanted to see and what we did not want to see, so we had an extensive list. Late in the game, another grad architecture student did not have anyone to go with for Fall break, so she asked Matt if she could tag-along. She booked everything with us. This ended up being a pain. Matt and I always knew our next move and didn’t need to explain to each other why or how. She was off-key for most of the trip and it was frustrating having to wait, explain, and re-explain. In a sense, the tag-along tried to become the organizer when we had different agenda’s.

Another thing about this trip is when I traveled, it was to see the architecture, culture, and which city had the best looking girls (Paris). A lot of the other students in the villa had a different experience than I did. They went to cities just to get blown out of their minds, and did. I have talked to a few of them since I have been back and it sounds like they don’t remember a thing.

I met a lot of interesting people, some Swedes, Australians, and other study abroad students. On a bus ride from the airport to Paris I met a Spanish girl named Yolanda who would not stop talking because she is trying to learn English, but doesn’t have English speaking people to talk to. The Australians were pretty irritating. They think they are cool because they are Australian and have an accent, so they play off that and blow it out of proportion.

I am going to just go day by day and cover what I did and what I felt from the places I visited.

Fall Break

I am pretty excited about Fall Break. I leave Friday morning for Pisa. I’m not bringing my laptop, so I won’t have any means of communication for a week. My fantasy football is all set for the week, should be the least of my concerns. I am filling my backpack and going to live out of that for ten days. Flights and hostels are all set. I have one day in Pisa, three days in Barcelona, one day in Bilbao, and five days in Paris! It's still somewhat surreal that I am going to see these places. I am traveling with Matt, my roommate who is an architect also. He is a pretty efficient traveler so there won’t be much down time.

A few other people (non-architects) want to meet up with us in the cities that I am going to, but we’ll see. When we say Bilbao or the Barcelona Pavilion, they look at us like we are crazy, they are probably right. My head will constantly be on a swivel looking at some of the best architecture in the world and hopefully relating a lot of what I see to my thesis.

The Bilbao Effect

“The Bilbao Effect - the idea that one building can transform the fortunes of an entire region - was today described as “bullshit” by the architect who pioneered it. Frank Gehry built the spectacular fish-scaled Guggenheim museum in Bilbao for less than $100 million 11 years ago.”

When I say that I am going to Bilbao, I am going to see Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum. It is a huge issue of architectural debate and whether or not it is good or bad.

This is easily the most contemporary, iconic piece of architecture in the world. Since I have been in Italy I have been skimming through ‘Architecture and the Aftermath’ by Terry Smith. In this book he explains the effect and symbolism of iconic architecture and its cultural effect.

The Simpson’s had an episode where Marge convinced Springfield to build a new concert hall. Marge wrote Gehry a letter and he crumpled it and threw it on the ground. Gehry looked at the crumpled up paper and it was the new design for Springfield’s concert hall. This episode is based on what has happened in Bilbao.

The reason Bilbao commissioned this is simply to bring tourists to the northern region of Spain. It worked, I am going. They bought a Frank Gehry symbol to improve the economic stability of the poor area. The Bilbao Museum completely rejects and does not work with the site. It is forced into the site. Neighboring buildings are being overheated because the reflectivity of the tin. They are complaining of glare. A lot of problems.

So why am I going to see this building? I am going because it has become the icon of ‘starchitecture.’ ‘Starchitects’ are being hired because local governments think that it will be helpful to the economy. The Bilbao Museum is massive. If Gehry wasn’t commissioned to build this project I think architecture would lose a sense of what it is. It is meant to test ideas and create a more interesting living environment. As bad as it is for the site, it does push some limits in materiality of a building and what a computer can do for architecture. It is advancing digital of architecture. Also, it gets people interested in architecture, whether or not it’s good or bad. A government commissioned Gehry to build this giant, alienated, overheating piece of architecture?

I'll never be in Spain again, so I figure while I am there I have to see this. I am excited to see it and how the surrounding environment has reacted to this architectural interloper in their town.

Palladio and Scarpa Tour

First, thanks for the questions and comments, they make it more interesting.

Yesterday, we took a studio field trip to two of the most important and beautiful pieces of architecture in the world. These two works are pieces that I marked out as an absolute MUST SEE, before flying here.

When I say a studio field trip, it means the 11 of us graduate architecture students and our professor, not the whole villa. Our professor planned the day and we didn’t have a break or a minute to spare all day. If we would have somehow screwed the timing up, it could have meant the loss of one of these sights. No eating on the bus, no bathroom breaks, eat and walk at the same time...

First, we visited Musee Canova by Scarpa. Second, we toured Villa Barbero by Palladio. Third, I personally had an enlightening experience with the Brion Cemetery by Scarpa. Fourth, we saw the Villa Rotonda by Palladio. Lastly, we toured a theatre and a few other works by Palladio in Vicenza, coined ‘the city of Palladio’.

All of these sites are spread out in the Veneto region of Italy, so we woke up at 5:30 and took a train north. Then we rented a bus driver that drove us around all day. The school pays for all of this through a fund they set up for us, the only thing I had to pay for was the 23 euro train ride back to the villa.

Scarpa’s work was unbelievable! Musee Canova was an addition he did to a sculpture museum. The detail, craft, light, and the way he forms interior spaces is all clear in his architecture. You just have to look and feel it. I could have stayed here all day, but we only had a half hour or so. Scarpa’s work is primarily all concrete; the forms he creates with concrete are breathtaking. The details in which he makes two materials meet is beautiful. No photos were allowed inside, but I have become pretty good at sneaking them in.

The next Scarpa piece we saw was the Brion-Vega Cemetery, in the middle of nowhere. This was truly, a pretty unbelievable experience. This is one of the works that I HAD to see while here. We have studied this in design classes numerous amounts of times. The reflection of the water is supposed to create a reflective moment on life. The materiality of the spaces was well crafted. Lily pads, concrete, water, grass, corn. The detail and craft in the concrete was unlike anything I have ever seen in any architectural design. The site is set in a corn field. The architecture then changes depending on seasons, whether or not the corn creates a void in space. So we were there at the perfect time of year, because the corn is tall and dead now. Dead correlating with the dead in the cemetery. Everything has a meaning. This experience has reconfirmed that he is top three on my favorite architect list.

Now on to Palladio, I know…this was the greatest day I could have asked for. Palladio was a stone mason in the 1500’s, then turned architect. Back then architects designed and built themselves. His work is world renowned and he may be the most famous architect world-wide; along with Brunelleschi, LeCorbusier and so on. He is about symmetry, and proportion of spaces. The proportion of spaces relates to the human body somehow.

The first work we saw of his was the Villa Barbero. This was essentially a farm house. We had to wear awkward foot socks so we wouldn’t dirty the floor. The neat thing about this villa is the painter that was commissioned and Palladio didn’t see eye to eye. So in many of the paintings and art work, the painter intentionally tried to make his work look bad, which in the end had the reverse effect and adds to the whole concept of the villa. If you look at the photo's I have posted you will notice an 'astronomical' clock on the front of the Villa Barbero. This is attributed to the painter.

The most important Palladian work is the Villa Rotonda, the second work I HAD to see. This is only open from 3 to 4 on Wednesday’s of each week. Our field trip was organized around this. We arrived at 3, thanks to Fabio, our bus driver. It was pretty amazing to see something I have read about so much.

Then we went to Vicenza, city of Palladio. We walked around for about an hour and tried to see as much as we could. It was interesting to see some of his other works that are not as world renowned as Villa Rotonda.

Then Fabio took us to the train station where we ate McDonalds and waited for the train to take us back to Florence. It was an exhausting day, but worth every second.

An interesting mosaic

I was in Florence Saturday night getting some great pizza with a couple friends. On the way back, I noticed that the Baptistry for the Duomo Church was open and we could go inside for 3 euros. So, we went in.

After looking around at these mosaics that date back 500-700 years I noticed one in particular that stood out. A scene of Adam and Eve. I noticed this because it was relative to one of Dirty Kurt's philosophies.

So here is the scene of that in the Baptistery, outside of the Duomo. A scene from the book of Genesis. The left mosaic is the two of them giving in to their temptations, the middle is Adam and Eve covering themselves with a fig leaf to hide their sin from God, and the right mosaic is them being banished from the Garden.

Assisi

Assisi was a nice, clean, little town built into the side of a hill. It is about two and a half hours south of Florence. The town is the home of St. Francis and all the Franciscans / Priors. Everything in the whole town was centered on him and St. Clare, a famous woman who was a follower of St. Francis. So, inevitably, there were some important pilgrimage churches in Assisi that we went to. It was also the most nuns and monks I have ever seen.

When we go on a villa trip like this, we have an art history professor, who talks, and talks, and talks, about the art and paintings of the church. I don’t care about brush technique. I have come to realize, when she is talking I am like Kurt at Ellis Island; cringing, complaining, and ruining it for others around me by messing with them.

I’m interested in other stuff. I am more interested in hearing the stories of Francis, not the style and brush techniques of the master painters. Also, I focus on the architecture and how the space feels. With my pessimism aside, I did have a great time through my own eyes. The churches are very different than the ones in the north; Milan, Venice, and Florence.

The house fellow (RA), yea I have an RA who takes her job serious and told me not to spill wine on the fresco's in our studio. What am I, going to shake it up and spray it like I just won the Daytona 500? Anyways, she told us we wouldn’t be able to find the castle that sits above the city. A buddy and I were wandering around when we had a couple hours to wander and found the small path that leads up to it. It was awesome! The view was great and seeing an ancient castle was awesome. The two of us and two others were the only ones to find it. Most people sat in front of the next church we were suppose to be at for the 2 hours, instead of exploring. They sat, while we saw the best view of Assisi and the area, and a really cool castle. It was a great day!

some trips are planned:

My flights for my trips have been booked. Europe supports European movement or integration, so they have a couple airline systems that have really cheap flights. The one we use is Ryanair. Some of their flights are 0.00 euros with a 15 euro tax. So many of these flights like, Barcelona to Paris, Pisa to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Stockholm, were 15-20 euros.

For fall break, which is October 24th through November 2:
- Train to Pisa for one day
- Fly to Barcelona for four days
- Fly to Bilbao for one day, return back to Barcelona the next day
- Paris for four days

On an upcoming weekend, after fall break a few of us want to drive up to Switzerland. There is a lot of great architecture there, and I heard the landscape was beautiful.

The weekend of November 20th to the 23rd a friend and I found very cheap tickets to Stockholm, Sweden. I have always said if I were to ever move out of the U.S. it would be to Sweden, so I am pretty excited about this. Does anyone else think like that or is it just me?

Any suggestions for any of these places?

-dale

Aldo Rossi

Friday, our studio took a trip to Modena, Italy. It is about a hour and a half away from Florence. We went there to specifically see Aldo Rossi's Cemetery. It was built in the early 80's. It was a pretty awesome experience. I did not know much about the cemetery before we went there, but walking through it and experiencing the spaces was pretty cool.
Rossi's (newer) cemetery is next to the existing cemetery. He plays off this a little bit through a variation of visual connections. Rossi's cemetery is all concrete, Grandpa would love it. The craftsmanship and form-work was unbelievable. The choice of concrete relates to the city and its emphasis on factory work. Modena's work force is predominately factory workers since it is home to a major Italian luxury automobile called 'Maserati'.
The site is outside of the city because when the cemetery was first created, Italians didn't believe in burying their dead inside the city. The city had different neighborhoods and the cemetery was laid out according to neighborhoods.
The most interesting aspect of the cemetery is it isn't done. Rossi planned this cemetery to be built over a 100 year span. You build as people die. So what exists right now is about half of the overall master plan, the rest is to come.

Pasta, Pasta, and more Pasta

The food continues to be awesome. I have never ate so many carbs in my life. Typically, we have a pasta dish every night, but once in a while the head lady (Helen) here will grill. So far she has grilled chicken once and Florentine steak once. The T-bone steak was grilled a couple days ago and it was real thick. It tasted amazing, people were cutting it with knifes and being polite. I couldn’t take it anymore so I picked it up and cleaned it down to the bone, then making sure everyone had one, I went and grabbed a second steak. Not too often we get beef, and I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy. My professor commended me; he’s an avid fan of good food too. After the steak, Helen grilled some bananas with chocolate in them for dessert, awesome!
Their lunches are their main meal for the day. For lunch we usually start out with a fresh-home-made soup and then they bring the second course out which usually contains chicken or pork with pasta. After the main course is when you can get your coffee and a fruit, which is always fresh. I noticed they do not eat snacks throughout the day like we do. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are what they eat, and they have an ethics as to what you eat first and how you eat it. At the grocery store they don’t have Doritos, Ho Ho’s, Twinkies, junk food is rare. So for my mid-day snacks for the last month I have been eating peanuts, because they don’t eat sunflower seeds. So my habits I am quitting: sunflower seeds, chew, junk food, and cutting down on coke.

Milan & Como

Friday we woke up and left for Milan at about 8:00. We went with a group of ten people, which made it more fun and more of a pain in the ass for me, the organizer. We arrived in Milan at about 11:00 and went directly to the hostel.

The hostel was a disaster. First time staying at a hostel and it was disgusting enough to not want to do it again, but I am going to have to. Matt, Mike, and I shared a room with three other guys and showers and toilets with about 30 people.

Milan is apparently the fashion capital of Italy, if not the world. Everything was more expensive and I was possibly the most underdressed person everywhere all weekend. Models and designer clothing were everywhere. The models looked exactly like they do on TV, about 5’8” and 90 pounds. Gucci, Louis Vuittion, Prada, it is crazy how much money some of these people had. It also reinforced my opinion about materialistic items; I don’t get it and have no care for that kind of stuff. Everyone looked the same with their Gucci bags.

After getting settled we went to the Milan stadium, which was pretty Modernist, so it wasn’t very nice to look at. Then we went to the duomo (huge church) and when we walked out of the subway tunnel there were 100’s of teenage girls screaming because we were on Italian MTV (TRL). That was funny, being caught in the middle o a spectacle like that. It’s like Times Square. The rest of the day was pretty average.

That night the group of us decided to go out to a club. Michael and I were leading everyone and they thought we got lost, so they sat down and said call them when we get there. We got there and they were on their way back to the hostel, too bad for them. This club was guest list only and nothing but class and good looking people. We talked our way through the bouncer somehow, I have no idea why he let us in. We couldn’t really talk to anyone because of the language barrier, but it was fun to look at everyone. Again, jeans and a polo shirt was the most underdressed there…me, and I still looked good.

The next day we went to the top of the duomo which was pretty awesome. It was an amazing view of the city and the square. We also went to the 1300’s castle that still exists. The coolest piece of architecture we saw was an Italian Rationalist piece by Giuseppe Terragni, I’ve studied this building and it was pretty cool to actually see it in its context. Then we walked around the city the rest of the day and ate McDonalds. The nicest McDonalds I have ever been too.

Sunday we woke up and took a train and hour north to Como. Como is situated on Lake Como which allowed for some pretty amazing views. There is another Terragni piece in Como that we saw. The Casa Del Fascio was pretty revolutionary piece of architecture during its time and I have studied this a lot in undergrad, so again, it was awesome to see in its context. Apparently, George Clooney has a cottage in Como, didn't see him though.

We arrived in Florence at about 9:00 p.m. Sunday night. It was a great weekend, better than it would have been in Ann Arbor!

Weekend trip to Venizia

Venice was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. It will be hard to summarize because there is so much. So, if you have any questions…

First, all the myths are somewhat true. Yes…parts of it stunk, the water was dirty, and there were not any toilets or plumbing. I did not see any rats. It was crammed with tourists and people trying to sell stuff, which at times made it a little claustrophobic. All this included, it didn’t even matter.

The reason Venice is amazing is because of the cities relationship to the water. The streets are water, they use boats as their transportation and they walk everywhere else. The city is built to accept the rising and falling of tides through the materials it uses. Nothing like the tidal waves of Indonesia would ever happen to Venice because it is enclosed by another land mass that is built to accept the beatings from the sea. It is constructed on wood piles and since the wood piles are under water and receive no oxygen, they will never decay because they fortify. This is why it has never sunk and the foundations are as old as the city is.

I did ride a gondola with my professor and friend. The normal gondola’s are around 100 euro’s to ride in. This one was just to take us across the ‘street’ for 50 cents because it was for gondoliers in training. I can say I rode in a Gondola.

Friday, we took a train from Florence to Venice at 8:00 am and arrived in Venice at about 12:00. The first thing we did was check out the Calatrava Bridge. It was interesting, like all his other work, it was foreign to its surroundings. From there we took a water bus to the architectural biennale. The biennale was pretty awesome. Architect’s have a weird train of thought, you’ll have to look at some of the photo’s on flickr to get what I am talking about. I saw works by Zaha, Gerry, Scarpa, MVRDV, UN Studio… and so on. That night when we left the biennale a few of us took the water bus back to San Marco Piazza and checked that space out the rest of the night.

Saturday, we woke up at 5:30 to get to the fish market. This was probably one of my favorite moments during the whole weekend. The sight, smells, sounds, and disgustingness of the whole thing was remarkable. Again, check the photos. We spent a couple hours just watching the locals interact and cut the fish, octopus, sharks, squid, swordfish, and much more disgusting sea life. Then all day we toured San Marco, learned about the history of Venice, and toured some museums. After the fish market, it was a pretty standard ‘touristy’ day.

BUT, that night something awesome happened! My favorite moment of the whole weekend. One of our history prof’s is our tour guide and she has been doing this awhile. Somehow she was able to reserve San Marco’s Church alone to our group of 50. Mind you, during the day there are hoards of people trying to get in. Anyways, we were brought in the side door because the front was packed with people peeking in. We were walked through and seated in the church and they shut off ALL the lights. Over about ten minutes they turned the lights back on one by one. The suspense, reflectivity, magnitude, gold, and richness of this amazing space was revealed. We also we’re lucky enough to be able to go downstairs to see where the relics of St. Mark are stored. That’s a myth in itself.

Sunday, we woke up after a long night and finished up the tour of the biennale. After that, we went on a couple more tours with our art history professor. Then we finally came back at around 8 Sunday night.

Overall, it was a great weekend.

questions...

What is this two hours of socializing?
This everyday event is called 'La Passeggiata'. It is an Italian ritual where Italians, from about 5 to 7 pm, take a walk. They get dressed up and stroll around the streets and converse with each other.

It was very busy in the streets and the Sesto park we went to. The older men sat on the benches and talked while the young kids played in the courtyard. Also, I noticed there were a lot of mother's walking with their children...no signs of their husbands for some reason, maybe working? Most people either had a piece of pizza or a glass of wine in their hands. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. I went because my friend had to go and observe this for his class, and I was not doing anything at the time.

No i-pods or any other devices that provided people their personal privacy by taking them out of the social realm.

Any freaky animals or bugs:
No, no freaky bugs yet. They have a lot of lizards running around though. Mosquitos are bad too. Actually, I just remembered, I saw a jellyfish in the sea Saturday. Typical jellyfish, about 8 inches in diameter, that was really cool.

Favorite food and drinks:
The food at the villa is unbelievable, we have a chef, Nino, who cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner every weekday. Nino is actually a former opera singer and he sings happy birthday (in italian) when it is someones birthday, he's pretty damn good. Pasta and water every night, I need meat and coke though, so I go to the deli and get salami and a coke occasionally. They don't drink beer or have bars every street block like we do. People are looked down upon if they are drunk, so last night after Michigan lost was my first drunk here. They have 2 hours out of the day where everyone goes into the streets and socializes, crazy, I know.

The wine at the wine tasting was awesome. I also went out to a pizzeria and that pizza was amazing, still not comparable to Fricano's.

Interesting people:
I haven't met many people outside the villa yet. In cinque terra I was suprised, I ran into a few people from west michigan.

Ilsa, an old german woman, who I sat next to on the plane was an interesting meet. She talked my ear off. The students at the villa are a different breed but fun too, you can tell they all come from rich parents, they're from Duke and Wisconsin.

Girls:
I have some pictures. Nothing worth sending or posting, but some pictures. In general, they are much better looking, not to much McDonalds or obesity goes on over here. They dress much more promiscuously over here. That girl was our tour guide at the wine tasting, barely spoke english.

Cinque Terra

We went to Cinque Terra Friday. We were going to go to Carrera on Saturday, where there are literally mountains of marble and granite, but the train and bus drivers are on a strike apparently, we already have plans to go back.

Cinque terra (5 lands) was awesome. We took a boat to the last city and hiked to each of the next cities. I've never been a huge fan of hiking, but with views and trails like that, it was fun. The first hike was 1 and a half hours, next was 1 and a half hours, 45 minutes, (20 minute lost detour), 30 minutes, 30 minutes... The whole hike with stops in the cities took about 6 hours, needless to say I was exhausted. The views and the cities were awesome. It was amazing to think how the cities were set into the mountain sides and built on top of each other.

Also, it was funny to see the difference between Americans and Europeans. Americans are completely out of shape! All the students from the villa had the mindset that there was no problem they would make the whole hike and they sprinted up the first climb. About 3/4 of them hopped on the train the next stop to go to the next city. About 10 -15 out of 55 I think, made the whole hike, including me, which I'm pretty proud of. Europeans weren't even breaking a sweat and by the first hill I was soaked, I drank about 10 bottles of water.

Next weekend is Venice. We are leaving Friday morning and having all day to check out the Venizia Biennale. It's a huge architectural exposition known world-wide, can't wait.

Venice Biennale Link:
http://www.labiennale.org/en/

Cinque Terra Photo's:
http://flickr.com/photos/72096180@N00/

-----Be back next week with Venice...Dale

Siena & Florence

Yesterday, the villa took an hour and a half bus ride south to Siena. The town was beautiful and amazing. Everything was so jammed into each other, the streets were very narrow. The best part was when three of us decided to branch off from the group and get the to highest point possible in Siena. Which is shown in the picture, and yes I am happy, the sun was in my eyes and it was hot. It was a breathtaking view. After we left Siena we stopped off an exit and went to a wine tasting and tour of a villa in the middle of nowhere. Still haven't quite acquired the taste, but it was a cool experience regardless.

Today, we went into Florence for the first time and walked from San Mineato to the Uffizi and to the Duomo and saw everything in between. Every time I see these ancient buildings I imagine what I thought of the images when I read about them, books and lectures don't do it justice. To actually stand in front of these beautiful structures and feel the magnitude and construction of these structures around me, it hasn't ceased to amaze me yet. After the walk we stopped and ate. The restaurant we went to was too tourist oriented so my pork panini wasn't too good. The best part of today was the view we got when standing in front of San Mineato and had a complete view of Florence, it was unbelievable.

I am looking forward to our visit to cinque terra next weekend. These five villages are on the coast of the Mediterranean and we have to hike to each one.

Check my flickr page for some pics of Siena and Florence if you wish.

I'm in Italy!

The flight was great, sat next to Ilsa, an old German woman who talked to me the whole time. The views from the plane were great and the difference in the planning and light pollution between and American city and a European city was clear.

So, I am settled in the villa, except that the luggage was lost from Munich to Florence. Hopefully, I will get that tomorrow, so I can start feeling comfortable.

Tonight, after dinner, which was great, some others and myself went for a walk to downtown Sesto for the fair. It was like the Fruitport carnival except that people were having a lot more fun and kids could do whatever they wanted. Then on the way back we stopped and got some gelato (Italian ice cream/yogurt) which was great.

This weekend I will be traveling to Siena with some others in the villa and I will let you know how that goes.

This is the start to my thesis year. Instead of writing a paper, like most professions, I will be using these books to formulate a thesis topic, then turn that into a visual argument. The topic, is yet to be determined. The "topic" is due next Wednesday with a presentation of it to my professor and other classmates who are going to Florence with me. This is why I took the last week off of work...

Welcome...

I'll be flying out Grand Rapids September 2nd at approximately 1:00 pm. The good news is I am not flying alone, I am flying with a friend from school who is originally from West Michigan as well.

From Grand Rapids I will be flying to Chicago to Munich and finally arrive in Florence at 8:00 am Sep 3rd.