Statics with Mike and Pete

My most challenging class so far has been Building systems 1. The teacher is a professional mechanical engineer with his own contracting firm. However, he has never taught a college class before. I have a nagging feeling he's doing this because the architects he deals with have no clue what he's talking about in structure. This sets up an interesting personality conflict in class. The teacher talks like a contractor and moves really quickly because its second nature to him, skipping the little steps in the problems. There's so much he's got to cover, he can only outline the reactions at this point. The class of architecture students is extremely detail oriented; we want to know exactly how everything works. One class he drew a framing diagram with a bunch of joists 4' on center (neglecting to explain what "on center" meant) spanning two beams. He started doing the math for one of the joists, and half the class became really flustered because he didn't explain which particular joist he describing. With his limited experiance, it took him five minutes to explain that it didn't matter which one he was describing becuase the forces and loading on them were the same. When one guy asked which end the reaction forces were occuring, he told him that it didn't matter, becaue it was an equally loaded beam and the forces were the same at either end. "You can call it x and y, a and b, or mike and pete as long as you're consistant". We all thought this was highly amusing. He also told us to return the textbook (which I didn't pick up yet ha-ha) because it was useless and spend the money on beer.

The last two weeks we covered the very basics of beams, loads, and construction materials in a really fast overview. This week, we started on the math. None of us have ever done anything remotely like this yet, so its really taking us awhile to get the hang of it. At this point, given a total load per square foot on a floor supported by a frame, we can calcualte the pounds/ft on any beam or joist, the total load on any beam, and the reaction loads at the ends of any span. Ultimately, this tells us how much loading is on the collumns and how strong the collumns need to be. This is actually pretty easy stuff once one understands the why and the units. Anyway, at the end of the class, we should be able to calculate loading on any part of a building, draw loading and moment diagrams, and calculate bending and shear forces.

First project is due monday! I've finished the two walls and most of the framing. Just need to work on the windows. Here's a computer model of it: click for larger view

Arizona State University of Tulane

My studio project is on track. Last night I worked till midnight finishing the formwork for my second wall. The second wall has a 4" wide round opening in it, so I used an old movie cup. I poured it this morning around 11, and it turned out pretty well. With both walls poured, I've begun work on the basswood frame structure.

A new guy came into our studio and was looking around at our projects. I got to talking to him and it turns out he's the first student from Tulane coming here. He was beginning their third year architecture program when they evacuated the school- apparently on freshmen move in day. He, and probably a quite a few classmates, will be joining us for the rest of the semester in our studios and other coursework. The current director of the college of design formerly taught at Tulane, and so encouraged thier architecture people to come over here. In fact, thier entire 5th year thesis students AND faculty will be taking up residence here. At any rate, ASU is set to become the new Tulane architecture campus.

The guy in our studio wansn't able to take anything from his studio with him, so now he has to go and restock everything! He said he spent about a hundred dollars on "small stuff" like pens, notebooks, and drafting supplies. He doesn't even have a board to work on, and the school is scrambling to find enough deskspace. Should be an exciting year.

Birthday Weekend

What a weekend! Friday night, Jen and a bunch of our friends from architecture went out to a college pizza joint, like Greasy Tony's, and then went on First Fridays in downtown Phoenix. Every first friday of the month, the galleries in downtown phoenix all open. There's a few particular areas along Roosevelt where there's a local art community. The galleries here range from very professional galleries to tiny homes people have converted the first floor of into their personal galleries. There's lots of live bands, a fair amount of drinking, and huge crowds. All types of people come out: matrons with baby buggies, I ran into a guy from Habitat down there, and tons of design students, artists, and artist/designer wannabes. This time, we spotted Dan Hoffman, one of the tenured professors taking in the artwork. One of the places, Monorchid, is an amazingly cool designers collective in a spectacular building of glass, concrete, and steel inside an old warehouse. It contains a huge gallery space, a private gallery/function space, library, and offices.

Saturday night I went to a party with some friends and afterwards, when I passed midnight, I made a mojito back at thier house. Everyone I talked to at the party couldn't beleive I wasn't going to do 21 shots of hard liquour or do the "Power Hour" where one goes and drinks for a solid hour at a bar. Such is the school I attend.

Sunday, I went over to Jen's and she made me french toast for breakfast. Then we went to see March of the Penguins. While I liked it, it wasn't exactly a billion dollar blockbuster. Afterwards, I bought a new pair of shoes to replace my sketchers, and a found a really good deal on some Bass leather sandals 60% off. That evening Jen took me out to AZ/88 a trendy American restaurant in Scottsdale.

Labor day, I spent working on my studio project, finally finishing the corrugated wall pour around nine pm. Today is long Tuesday. The human factors class is putting me to sleep, although the Finding Purpose class was theraputic as usual. It helps that the teacher is an acutal therapist. I'm looking more and more at architecture firms nearby. My top three local picks would be Will Bruder, Rick Joy, and Antoine Predock. It's really good working in the library because it exposes me to so much. We get new books in all the time, and I always take time to skim the books I'm shelving.

Speaking of which, I got my paycheck today which made me feel good. I can't beleive I'm being paid for this, especially after Ross and the bookstore. Granted, its not much, just $6 an hour, but for the actual time spent doing library "work" I think I'm actually making $18 an hour since I only do "work" about a third of the time.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans...

What has happened in New Orleans is so appalling its almost surreal. Images coming out of the area look like bangladesh, and not one of the cultural capitals of the south. The aftermath of the destruction of the storm is a powerful reminder of the fragility of society. I was listening to an NPR interview with the head of the National Emergency Response department concerning the New Orleans Convention Center, and it highlighted the entire issue. NPR's reporters on the site described utter scenes of horror and chaos, 12 year old girls being raped, a mob driving off a battalion of police officers, rampant looting, and geriatrics lying dead on the side of the road. Even more appalling was the the head guy's outright denial that there was an issue with the convention center. The NPR interviewer, a station which is notorious for its sedate interviews, was absolutely livid with the national department head because he was refusing to send aid to the 2,000 people in the convention center because he hadn't been alerted to them through the proper channels. These people have had no food, water, or medical supplies since the disaster struck. On the other line, the reporters, actually on the site, were even more livid at hearing the department head dismiss their reports as "anecdotal" and thier bitterness at how the situation was being handled came pouring out in their speech. A few hours later, the department head recieved the report about the convention center.
Apart from the governmental response, I've been dismayed by the actions of the people living in the city. I can understand people who dont want to leave because they have no car, nowhere to go, or no money to get themselves anywhere, and people who are just plain uneducated and stupid. What I can't understand is the looting, shooting, and lawlessness. I've heard stories about people looting wal-marts for food and distributing that out, but what's with the all the looting elsewhere? Do these people think the commerical market is going to come back to town next week? Do they think that rapes and murders are OK now since there's no one around to punish them? These people are savages, they don't understand what a society is, nor will they ever belong to one.
What a mess. I was really hoping to spend some time down there, getting back in touch with my birthplace, enjoying spicy cajun food and jazz. It's going to take at least a year to get New Orleans back on it's feet. At least the French had the good sense to found the French quarter on high ground. I was talking to the janitor back in the architecture building, and it turns out he's also from LaPlace. He was amazed to find someone who actaully knew where it was, let alone come from there. Small world. Oh, here's a computer model of my architecture project so far.

Procrastination: I'll tell you about it later.

My 'terrible tuesdays' aren't as bad as I had feared. In architecture history we learned about cave paintings and stonehenge. Our reading homework is one chapter of the textbook a class, begining with chapter one. My finding purpose class was really interesting. The professor who teaches it studied art and design, but eventually became and still is, a practicing therapist. Today we talked about effective time management skills and it really started to ring a bell for me. He talked about time as a space, an area of hour blocks, with 168 blocks in a week. Many "technical errors" we make when planning I found myself I make.

Errors:
Tasks don't have a home -you don't set aside a specific time or occation to get the task done
Tasks are overly complex -needs to be broken down into simpler steps
Clean up my workspace -ordered, structured work areas translate to better efficiancy

He also talked about obsticles to good time management, various ways to prioritize your tasks, and about procrastination as a major impediment to good time management. He described procrastination as having two causes: 20% of the time you dont want to do it, but 80% of the time its caused from a fear of failure, a major fear of perfectionists. In a hall of design and architecture students, this really struck a strong chord. Ways to combat it were to just to start doing something, anything to get over that initial intertia, and giving it a home in your time/space.

What I found particularly interesting was his point on creativity and structured time. He said that structing your time actually increases your creative potential, as long as you set aside time for dreaming, zoning out, brainstorming etc. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to give it a try.

There was an interesting bit about prioritzing tasks, and how people who categorized the tasks 1-3 in importance always got the 3 tasks done, but seemed to finish the 1 tasks, even though they had very high personal priority. To combat this, he recommended something he does every day, which is to write down the three most important, vital things to get done that day in the morning, and to check back and see how you're doing 4-6 times a day. I think this is a great idea. I'm going to get my whiteboard and make a three line chart.

One last thing he talked about was the system of evaluating how he did for the day using the plus/delta system. It really reminded me of dad, when he talked about plus/deltas for road trips and other things. I miss them, they'd really enjoy this 118 degree weather back in chilly (for an arizonan) weather back in Moscow.

Anyway, today on my work, I flipped through a book on prision design and fallout shelters in the 1950s-onward.

Pictures from the first week of school

Washing clothes at the laundromat, our pink paper tower in History of Architecture, and my desk in the studio of the architecture building.

first week in review

Tuesday and thursday, I went to the history of architecture lecture at 10:40, my earliest class of the week. It's taught by this thirtyish bookish guy who lookes exactly like an architectural historian. He's got brylcreamed hair with a huge side part, round glasses, and a high nasal voice. He is however, very energetic and almost manic about the subject, describing how we'd "go across the sweeping expanse of asia to see the great wall, the forbidden city, and japan" like a radio announcer talking about a grand prize vacation. Jen's also taking the class to get more of a taste of architecture. Thursday we were given an in class assignment to build a tower out of six sheets of pink paper that had to be 44 inches tall (4 sheets high). It also had to withstand a "wind test" of a sheet of paper waved in front of it. Jen and I teamed up with another archtiecture student and we built a really nice looking tower with a triangular cross section.

After that, I went to my structures class. This is interesting as its taught by a professional contractor. The downside is that he was alerted he'd be teachign the class less than a month ago, and he's never taught before. It's good because he knows so much from the real world, and how the architect-contractor relationship works, but he doesnt know what we dont know, so we have to stop him constantly to slow him down and explain terms like "kips" etc. Lots of cool engeneering stuff.

After structures comes Finding Purpose, a class that is both required in upper division, and came recommended from a friend who'd already taken it. Basically, its a class about finding your personal direction, exploring alternitives in life and your career, managing time, etc. We're taking the Myers-Briggs test next week, and apparently we also go over things like interviews, and other real-work stuff. There's virtually no homework, just a journal after each class, and the final project is a 5 page autobiography. A nice, relaxing class.

The last class of the day is Human Factors, a class on designing ergonomically and humanistically with anthropometrics. Not a whole lot of fun at this point, but we'll see how it goes.

This week, I worked 14 hours at the library, although I'm still getting the hang of closing it all down. Last night, Jen and I went to the double feature at the drive in. In the sweltering heat, we watched The 40 year old virgin and The Wedding Crashers. I was surprised about how much I actaully enjoyed both of them. Today, friday, I had no classes. Sweet. I just worked in studio for about six hours on my project.

Salt River Tubing and First Day of School

I spent the last day of summer doing the ultimate college break/arizona thing: I went tubing on the Salt River. I drove out with a bunch of friends from the architecture/design house (a minivan comes in handy) and one other car. There were about 10 of us, and we stopped for lunch at a Sonic on the edge of the city and for a second cooler. We drove out to the meeting point where we rented our inner tubes and hopped on a blazing hot bus for a five minute drive out to the beaching site.
It was a scorching day into 108 when we started around 1 in the arfternoon. More experianced people brought sheets they laid on the innertube as a kind of seat. We lashed the coolers to another inner tube and as a huge group, floated gently down the river. The river was mostly filled with 20-30 year olds, and most were holding cans of beer. It's a very relaxing way to meander your way, enjoying the view, working on the tan, and occationally soaking yourself to keep cool. At one point of the river, there was a small ledge that people jumped off, which seemed like a particualrly bad idea considering that the people who were doing it had had a lot to drink.
It was fun though, and we'd occationally hit "rapids" where the water level was so low, you had to raise yourself up on the tube to avoid scraping bottom. We cruised for about three hours, and waded out at the exit spot.
Also there was a young woman with her group who was nearly unconscious and vomiting, either through the effects of heat, dehydration, and booze, or more likely, all three. One of our guys ran over and helped load her onto the bus. We passed an ambulance with lights blaring on the drive back once we got back into our cars.
Today I had studio at 1:15 PM. Predictably, a bunch of people including me, showed up at 12:30. We knew when class started, we were just eager to get going. We were finally let inside and I grabbed a desk a row away from the windows so I got more natural light. It's so cool to finally get a desk. Its a status symbol, a reward for our hard work. We've earned these desks. There are 13 people in my studio, a couple people I know pretty well.
Our studio instructor is Thomas Hartman, apparently the coordinator for our entire class. He's tall, lean, and balding with glasses, looks very much the bookish professor sans a bowtie. He's reserved, but it seems like he's going to be a mild teacher, which is a double edged sword. On the one hand, he'll let you "get away" with more, but on the other, he's probably going to be less critical of your designs. He seems like a good guy though, and he knows what he's doing.
We sat around our big middle table and talked for awhile about the studio before we headed down as a class for the lecture introducuing the project.
There are to be three projects this semseter. The first one is a rectangular box 10' x 12' x 16' as a human habitation. Half of its walls have to be concrete, half framed with wood and clad with transparent material. The final project is to be at 1'=1" scale. Thats' the whole project.
The purpose of the project is experimentation with materials, aestetics, and tectonics (how a building is put togather and how that relates to the larger structure). He wants us to build big, becasue that will force us to look very materially at how a roof meets a wall, or how framed structures join the concrete. It's a fast project, barely three weeks. We actually only have 30 classes before the end of the semester.
Today (right now, actually) I've started work at the library. I'm working M, T, W from 5-10 pm. It's really quiet and I've been familiarizing myself with proceedures, browsing books, and taking a look around. There's a lot of stuff here, a phenomenal resource. This library job can only help me to familiarize myself with it.

My Run-In with the Law

It was one of my typical wild friday nights. Jen and I'd were driving back in the minivan after watching the 9 oclock feature of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at Arizona Mills. The police quadruple thier presence late friday and saturday nights around ASU. One of them turned on thier lights and pulled me over. Thank heaven I'd remembered to reregister the car, so I had all the paperwork on hand for the police officer. I'd been driving with my headlights off. I hadn't noticed since the dashboard lights were on. He took my licence and registration back to his car, returned it, and let me go without a ticket and didn't even give me a warning. He probably felt bad for me, a poor student in his parents minivan, nicely dressed, just back from a kid's movie with his date. There were much bigger fish to fry.

The movie was really good, except they did some stuff with Wonka's childhood which was a little strained and completely departed from the book. It was a really intersting contrast to the original movie, much darker.

Art (walks) and Architecture (meetings)

Yesterday, I got up early and went to my upper division architecture meeting. I was surprised to see so many people there, until I realized they combined our class with that of the upper division landscape planning for this meeting. From here on in, its just going to be us and they're going to do thier own thing. The meeting was about two hours long, half of it was a welcome lecture by the new director, Petrucci. Right now the college is going through a transitional phase. Instead of the College of Architecture and Enviornmental Design, the college was renamed College of Design. Each section got thier own department head and we have a new director at each post.
Our new director had an interesting story about how he switched to architecture in college.
When he was going to Tulane, his dorm was separated out by floor by major, with architecture students on the top floor. One day, he was surprised to see a student standing stark naked out on the ledge screaming that it was judgement day. The director assumed he was just a religious fanatic (although all the architecture students in the audience knew what he was talking about). The poor guy jumped.
Intrigued by what was going on, he went upstairs and looked around the rooms and studios. The model making, and drawing that was going on put the hook in him, and he quit his premed studies. He ended up getting his BArch from Tulane and two masters from Harvard, the second in urban planning.

The second part was logistical stuff and stuff concerning international travel, internships, etc. We were assigned to our studios, but I'd never heard of any of the professors teaching them. Monday is the first day of classes, and that's when we get to pick desks. Hopefully, we'll avoid the mad petty rush which characterized the interior design girls.

That night, I went with Jen and her parents to the downtown Scottsdale art walk. It's still outrageously overpriced, and the only decently priced artwork is "gliche" or printed by a large format printer on canvas. I did see a gallery that had some russian stuff in it like the ones I saw at the Tetrakov in Moscow. They had a nice one of the Nodichevy convent covered in snow. When the gallery owner asked me why I liked it, they didn't belive that I'd actually been there. Afterwards, we all got ice cream at the Sugar Bowl.

Alec, the Librarian

All the freshmen are moving in, and you can see them everywhere with thier parents: On campus, moving into dorms, at Target, and at Safeway. It's funny and touching to watch them, parents sending thier kids away, trying to give them all the last minute advice about college, like they were never going to see them again, and buying all kinds of useless junk for thier dorm rooms. Target is really on the ball this season with a full kitchen boxed set for forty dollars, including pots, pans, knife block, cooking utensils, collanders, and salt and pepper shakers.

I bought some storage bins for my winter clothes and misc stuff. Yesterday, I hit TJ Maxx and picked up a few new button up shirts. IZOD, Perry Ellis, and a brand I'd never heard of. Jen looked at birds and bird cages, and we went around to Petco, PetsMart, and Birdworld. Birdworld is a huge store with tons of birds and cages including a macaw, a few parrots, a toucan, and a bunch of other birds. Jen bought a cage and a baby hand-fed parakeet and named it Lola. It's a pretty bird, and seems stock-still scarred of its new surroundings. Sugar, Jen's parent's dog, don't help to relax it. It'll just take some time.

Today, I went in to interview for the position at the ASU architecture library. The supervisor is a very interesting guy. He always dresses immaculately in a black suit, and has a very sunken weathered face, with long black hair. Add a top hat and he'd make a very somber undertaker.
He's nice enough though, and he really didn't ask me any questions. He took Molly's recommendation of me very seriously. I filled in a few forms, and he showed me around the library. I got the job.
The job is ideal. I am to work at the desk, shelve books, and occationally work on special library projects like cataloging special collections. It looks like I'm going to be working about 15 hours a week, most of that time I'll probably spend studying at the desk, which is fine with him.

Two days ago, my birthday/upper division enterance present arrived via UPS. Dad picked out a docking station for my laptop and a new monitor. The docking station is cool since all I have to do is stick my in my laptop, and it automatically connects to my USB lines, monitor cables, and LAN internet cables.
The monitor is amazing. It's a 19 inch screen, brilliant bright colors, and I can move my mouse from one screen to the other, allowing me to see multilple open windows at once. Really cool.

Sunday morning

The apartment is gradually falling back into order and cleanliness. I finished cleaning my room and bathroom, the common areas and kitchen are clean, and the only thing out of place are Ian's boxes of stuff. The weather is settling down into just being really hot and a little less humid, although it looks like we've got thundershowers coming later today.
Yesterday, I went to Sara's 5th birthday party at Sally's house. It was good to see them again, and Gabriel is talking up a storm. Sara is still a princess, and recieved a profusion of pink presents; barbies, princess dress up clothes, learning games, and acessories for her new bike. Everyone was really impressed with the Russian doll the family sent. Sally told me about the a new Chino that opened up near Gilbert, so we'll have to go there sometime soon.
Jen came back last night too, so I made her a spaghetti dinner and funfetti cake. Her condo looks really good, very modern with a bit of 1960's retro to it. She got a small barbeque grill and an outdoor umbrella, so they're going to have a really nice backyard/courtyard.
I'm surprised how much jet lag is staying with me. I keep waking up in the early morning and falling back asleep. The last two mornings, I've gotten up at six, and this morning I got up at 8. On to order books online!

Back in the ol' Inferno

Got home safe and sound last night around 2:00 AM. Flight from Moscow was full, and lasted at least three weeks. When I landed at JFK, it felt good being back in the best country in the world. After spending three months in Europe, I am blown away by how convienant everything is here. When I got my bags, they made announcements about a travel desk. Everything is clearly marked and people are happy to help you solve your problems.
At the AmericaWest ticket counter, a few people who joined the obviously one line looked befuddled and confused because it was a line that served BOTH the ticket counter and e-ticket check in. These people need to travel more.
America is so convienant, you can buy an electronic device that keeps your coffee hot on your commute from the seat of your airplane. Airline personell keep you updated and tell you patiently where to go and how long you'll have to wait.
Speaking of waiting, my flight to Las Vegas was delayed by an hour. Half of it, off the plane, half on while they did another mechanic check. Everyone with connecting flights in Vegas missed them, but I got to stay on the plane and continue on to Phoenix. My good luck continues.
All my bags arrived, and there was a super shuttle waiting right outside the terminal.
Phoenix is miserable. Not hot, for phoenix, its only 87 right now, but with really high humidity from all the rain they've been getting. It feels like Oklahoma, but with a higher-watt sun.
Got to sleep around 3 and woke up again around 6. Cleaned my bathroom, and started working on cleaning everything else. I left my room in a disaster. Time for a Stalinist purge.
Suki was happy to see me, and I've not seen any sulky behavior at all. She seemed happy and healthy, except her mats have spread all up her back, so I'll need to take her to a groomer I think. I need to figure out a way to transport her.
Ian is still here, in Ben's room. From the depth of suki hair on the floor, I'd have to say he's not vaccumed once in three months, so I did that this morning and changed the mail address back here.

Venice Pictures

Venice was a bit of a dissapointment: while it's very picturesque, there's not a whole lot to do besides tour the Doges Palace. It's hot, humid, and full of tourists. One good thing is there are no cars in venice, as there are only pedestrian paths. A negative consequence of this is that everything is really expensive. We did stay at one of the nicer hostels we've vistited, although I was kept awake at night by the mosquitos.

Florence pictures

Florence was cool, the home of the Renaissance. The pictures are of palazzo vecchio, the florence rooftops, and the bridges over the river.. The last picutre was from Cinque Terre, a city we did as a day trip from Florence.

Positano picutres

Positano is a small seaside town in southern Italy near Naples. It was one of my favorite places on this trip. The images are of both sides of the town, a cafe where we had our first dinner in town, and the last image is Pompei, the complete Roman city which was buried and preserved by the cataclysmic eruption of mt. vesuvius, seen lurking in the background.

Rome pictures

Click on the smaller pictures to see the larger ones.
From the top: me as a statue at the roman forum, hadrians villa, St. Peters, villa d'este, trevi fountain, St. Marks square, a basillican interior, St. Marks collanade, and the colluseum.

French Riviera

We stayed in a converted convent in the hills around nice, and traveled to Cannes, Monaco, and Eze-Village, a hilltop citidel 500 years old.

Barcelona Pics

Barcelona! City of Gaudi, Paella, and la mar

Paris Pics

Alright folks, here are a sampling of some of my better pictures from this trip. This one's for Jen.
Here a few pictures from Paris: the gardens of Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Cour, Notre Dame, and LaDefense.

Welcome to LeninLand!

Fearless Readers:
I've been taking it very easly up in our apartment, although I have forced myself out and into Moscow at least once a day. It is disturbingly easy to slip into the habit of lethargy, especailly after a trip such as my own. A few notible excurisions:

The Tetrakov gallery was interesting, the best of Russian works before the rise of Communism. Russians came from tightly controlled artistic backgrounds: all works of art were church related up until after the renassance in Europe. Then all of a sudden, Russian artists had to learn how to paint people, landscapes, and battles. They love thier battles. It was interesting to see how they progressed in that short time from ikon-like simple portraits to the verge of impressionism. There were a few really striking peices, but on the whole, it was nothing spectacutlar.

The Red October Chocolate Factory was one of the more interesting things Ive done here. We donned our scrubs and toured a confectionary. The entire factory floor was crewed by women, as it is a low paying unskilled job. They mostly glued labels on boxes, and picked out defective chocolates. We actually passed a crowd of people in the lobby looking for work here. In the musem I was surprised to hear the guide casually mention that during WWII, the chocolates were laced with something "to take away fear" from pilots and submariners. Made me wonder what they drugged them with, probably cocaine. Anyway, we got to try a lot of chocolate and in the end, we got some more and listened to music to eat chocolate by while we had a tea and chocolate party. Everyone else in the tour group was over 40 and american.

Gorky Park is the name of a book I am just finishing and the name of a park in moscow. Taylor and I went there today to see the amusement park part of it. To enter, we had to walk through a marble gateway with bronze reliefs of Lenin and Red Army flags. In typical russian fashion, we had to buy a ticket to get in from a ticket booth, present it to the gate guard, then for every ride, go to their ticket booths, get tickets from them and then take it to the ride ticket collectors. We took three rides, the best one being a kind of platform that flipped around and upside down as it spun around, kind of hard to describe. I wonder where they got thier rides. It looked like a collection of decent german imports (the rides titles were all in german) and american carnie rides (with titles in english in bright bulbs). One ride we saw looked like someone had installed pirates of the carribean in Mt. Rushmore.

Here is a picture of me on the Cinque Terre hike in northern Italy.

Moscow R&R

So far this week, we've mostly just hung around here, watching DVDs. On the tourist side, we saw Red Square, with St. Basil's, the Kremlin, and GUM. Yesterday, we went to Novoditchi Cemetery beside the convent of the same name. Really interesting. Lots of granite monuments and huge busts. This was their field of glory: Military heros, generals, cosmonauts, composers, surgeons, and ballerinas. It was all more than a little overgrown, which led it to have a very garden feel. We also went to old Arbat street and ate at Hard Rock while we played "spot the tourist." Today we went to Ismalavad market and we bought a bunch of movies and some music. I looked at the chess sets but just didn't see any that I liked.
We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith as we ate McDonalds back at the apartment. A dumb summer flick, but still fun. Chase got all his stuff together and we said goodbye before he hopped into the company taxi to the airport. He's got a long long long layover in London. I dont envy his ordeal getting through all the lines and russian beurocracy at the airport, but he'll be fine.

Mockba

Just arrived safe and sound back in sunny Moscow, after a five hour train ride inexplicably filled with loud Italian tourists. The last time I was here in the apartment was less than two months ago, but it feels like years.
On our tour of St. Petersburg, we saw the Hermitage, the Peterhof, Catherine's Palace, a few cathedrals and the Peter and Paul fortress. The six of us actually stayed in a hotel apartment, next door to Pushkin's old flat. The best and brightest by far was the Hermitage, located in a sprawling winter palace done in guilded baroque and luxuorious neoclassical style. The combination of amazing archiecture and amazing artwork is overwhelming. While the palace itself far outstrips the Lourve, the scope of the artwork matches it, although the quality of the masterpieces is not up to Lourve standards. They had all the masters of the lourve, but not thier best works. Also notable was the amber room in Catherines palace.
What amazes me was that of the many numerous palaces the Nazis gutted in thier advances into Russia, the Soviets rebuilt and restored them. Inlaid wood floors painstakingly relaid, statues carved and guilded, paintings redone.
Now, 13 countries and 26 cities later, its time to go to work writing and compiling my extensive notes on this trip. With nothing but time on my hands between now and when I head back for home, I should have a working copy of my travelouge/guide.

Teaser

Just a taste from the Swiss Alps

St. Petersburg

After Chase's Dad saw us off from the bus terminal to the sea station, we took our free cruise ferry to Helsinki. It was a huge ship, but not quite the Royal Caribbean. It was the holiday inn of cruise lines, with computer slots everywhere and all the food you have to pay for. Our initial excitement of getting aboard was dampened by the fact we have to take a special elevator down to our cabin floor, and the fact that its below the car decks. To be fair it was a nice cabin, with four beds and a bathroom and shower, which we shared with two other guys. Really not too bad for our last hostel. 15 hour cruise to Helsinki overnight, where we walked around a bit and got something to eat. I also happened upon Holl's Kiasmus museum, heavily used in examples in my architecture lecture. We caught the train to St. Petes in the afternoon, and sucessfully had our tickets and passports checked no less than three times along the way. At the train station, we were met by a man holding a sign with my name on it, a welcome entry to a Russian city. We took it straight to the hotel to meet my family and my grandma Case. We actually have an apartment on the upper floors, next door to Pushkin's old flat.
Today we went to Peter the Great's summer palace by way of Hydrofoil, where we walked around the amazing palace interiors and the gardens outside. Lunch on the gardens, then hydrofoiled back to see two churches, one amazing one which seems to be on the scale of St. Peters, and the other which looks like St. Basils but is completely covered with glass mossaic tiles inside, floor to ceiling.
The Soviets just trashed these amazing churches, putting an ice skating rink in one, a morgue in another, and an atheism school in a third. Thankfully, all of them have been restored to their old glory.
Tomorrow we see the Hermitage, the largest collection of art in the world.

Goodbye Hostel, Hello SAS Radisson!

Well, we are living the sweet viking life at the SAS Radisson Grand Viking Warlord Dominator Hotel, thanks to Mr. Kerry Kimball. Woke up at 9:45 and went down to a breakfast buffet. I dont think we have ever been more excited about a breakfast buffet, but we loaded up on pancakes (read mini crepes) eggs, sausage, and pickled herring, in the true viking style. Slept really really well, after getting 4 hours of sleep on the night train from Bergen to Oslo yesterday morning. Got to get going, ah yes, we are in Stockholm, departing the 14th for Helsinki.

Bergen

Scandinavia is expensive. Europe is expensive, but Scandinavia is really expensive. We are talking 10 dollars for a hamburger at burger king. It's insane. Every meal we eat, scrounging for the cheapest of what we can get away with is about ten dollars. We changed trains in Malmo, Sweden, and took another train to Trollhatten, a tiny town which prides itself on its old river locks and mentions a Saab museum as the premier tourist attraction. We were stuck here for 4 hours waiting for a train to Oslo. The weather is lovely, cool, sunny days. Oslo is small, and the part we saw, dissapointingly like all other european cities, except a bit smaller. We stayed one night at a hostel with some potentional. This is the farthest north we had been. It doesnt get dark here, just a dusky blue sky past 11 pm. The sun sets at 10:30, which is a little odd. We got up at 8 and caught a train to Flam, never seeing the city in its waking hours.

So much for Flam.

Now we are in Bergen, which is larger, but a much nicer city by the sea. It feels much smaller than it actually is. Nice fish market right by the wharf, old wooden buildings, and mist floating in the pine forest in the surounding hills. Today we took the funnicular up to seee the town from the top, and hiked back down to save the 3 dollar fare. Nice woods, one can easily see the vikings of old coming back from a hunting or looting expedition. It gets more rain here than seatttle, which makes a lot of ferns and moss. Saw a maritime musem (free for students!) and stumbled on a Stave Church, made completely out of wood, almost by accident, even though we were looking for for it. Signage and ease of use is definately lacking in this town as far as the busses are concerned. The outside of the church was cool though, made back in teh times when the vikings became Christianized. Back in town, we had dinner at the fish market, our "nice "dinner was fried fish and chips from a stand, about 12 dollars, and no drink. To be fair, its was a nice whole fillet, and it was the best fried cod I've ever had. Trying to figure out what to do tomrrow before we catch another night train to Oslo so we can meet Chase's dad in Stockholm. Sea Kyaking is sadly out, due to the difficulty of getting there and the expense, plus the price of the ferries, not covered by the railpasses. Be nice to see a coastal town though, a small fishing village.
We shall see.
Fjords not as severely rugged as I thought, maybe see more tomorrow. Time for bed.

Berliner

Lets see... lot of ground to cover. Berlin was interesting, 4th of July, we had duncan donuts at at the Brandenburg gate, drank cokes at Checkpoint charlie and, hunted down the American Embassy to see the flag. The embassy is well protected by all the streets blocked off with massive concrete barricades and a roving squadren of police. For dinner, we splurged on burgers at Andy's American Diner. The last day we were there, we visited schausenhausen concentration camp, the first camp and the one all others were patterned after. It was the site of horrific medical experiments on children, mass murders, and torture. It rained the whole day, a fitting tribute. Everyone should see a concentration camp. After the Nazis, the Soviets refitted it for thier special prisons run by the NKVD. Its now a haunting memorial.
That night, we almost didnt make it to the night train. Getting to Flåm is a bit tricky. We had to take a night train to malmo, and another train to oslo. Twice, we have gone to the station and discovered that the train leaves from a diferent station, making the trains with mere minutes to spare. I triple checked the tickets, and the timetables, and we arrived 30 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. We asked which paltform it was on and they told us it was at another station. We ran to check this with a platform attentdant, and he said that we shouild catch one of the metro trains to the next station. We waited and waited until five minutes befroe oour train was supposet do depart at 11:08, and gave up. We would be forced to lose a day and would have to call all the hostels to change the dates. Chase actually changed Olso, and I calle dour hostel in berlin to reseve a bed. We were sitting on the platform steps when he attnedant found us. He said we could still make the train. Keeping our berlin resrvation, we skepitcally boarded the metro, nothing to lose but sleep. It was waiting for us, held back 50 minutes due to the station shift. We made it with 10 minutes to spare. Teh train actually boarded a ship across to sweeden from Germany, and rolled of in the morning. More later, as people want to get online now.

Safe in Oslo

Hey everyone, family and friends,
Safe in Oslo, from Berlin, will be in Flam tomorrow, and stockholm the 12th. Holding up well. Scamdinavia is outrageously priced with a 24% value added tax.
More later

Prague

What we heard from other backpackers we talked to was that Prauge was a major tourist trap, hardly worth spending any time in. We cut back our time there from five nights to two to make room for our Budapest excoursion. Of course, Prague turns out to be the most beautiful eastern city we have seen so far. Tourists are bad, but no worse than Rome or Venice. The city went through WWII unscathed, so has all of its historic district and buildings intact. Its a surprisingly art deco and industrial arts city. We are staying at the nicest hostel Ive ever seen, with treated concrete floors, amazing walk in showers with dinner plate sized shower heads, and light airy rooms.
Our first day here, we walked around, had dinner, and later went to see War of the Worlds at the theater which premired LXG. I was unimpressed overall, although the action sequences were pretty cool. When I got back, I was immensely relieved to be informed that I had been accepted to upper division.
We also saw dragon boat races, which turned out to be crewed by Irishmen because we saw huge groups of the wearing thier team shirts going between pubs at night.
Yesterday, we walked to the Prauge castle, completely packed with tourists, so we decided to come back today. We also went to see Frank Gehry`s Dancing building, which I actually liked better than his big shiny swoopy buildings. White Stripes was playing at a small venue, but we were too late to get tickets, very sold out. Instead we walked around the Jewish district, the oldest in europe, if not the world.
Today we will go see the castle and perhaps an art exhibit before we hop a train to Berlin. Today is the 4th of July, and how better to spend it than by going to Checkpoint Charlie on the Berlin wall, where the Commuist reign ended and where American democracy broke through.

House of Terror

Man, the Hungarians have had it bad. After siding with the losing side, and being beaten by the Ottomans and the allied powers after WWI, they lost 2/3 of thier land. Then they were invaded by the Nazis for a short bloody reign, followed by the Soviets, for an even bloodier long haul. Today we went to a museum/memorial in the old Soviet NVA headquarters where the communist party ran the city and tortured and interrogated dissidents. It's an extremely well done, never too heavy handed, but always extremely moving documenting occupation by the nazis and the communists.
After we left there, we went to the castle hill district, and wandered around a free national museum of hungarian impressionists. The Hungarians are working really hard to foster tourism, with tourist kiosks near large attractions, free maps, and the angels who roam the trains looking for helpless backpackers. Tried to see the largest Synagogue in europe, but it had already closed. Rain today, light Seattle rain, according to Chase. Makes wandering around less comfortable. We strike out for Prauge tomorrow. One more amazing dinner for an amazing price.

I Take A Bath

Our last night in Veinna, we made Gnocci at the hostl which actually turned out very nicely. The last day we crossed the danube to the 30-k long island, went to Kunst Haus Wien, (a real gaudi ripoff), and looked around the gardens of the Schloss Schunbrum. It is the palace of the Hapsbugs, a pale reflection of versaille with its french gardens, but had a decent hedge maze to its credit.
Train to budapest was nice, and Chase ran into a woman on the train who worked for the Budapest tourist board. She gave him a map, and showed him how to find the hotel.
Budapest is Vienna's poor country cousin. It's got amazing architecture buried beneath grime and neglect, everywhere you look. It reminds me of Moscow, but not nearly as green. Food here is dirt cheap, and it feels really weird getting 10 grand from the ATM, although its actually about 48 dollars. The hotel is ok, not the nicest we've stayed at, but it had availability at a good price. The breakfast room has a bunch of hunting trophies on the wall that look like they had been taken by the hapsburgs. That night, we ate at a great trendy cafe, including dessert for less than 12 dollars, including drinks.
Today we went to the baths. In this amazing neoclassical/baroque complex, there were huge hot outdoor baths, and a lap pool. Inside were countless saunas, steam rooms, and cold plunges. Chase got a Thai massage. We spent three incredibly relaxed hours there for less than 7 dollars. Afterwards, we went to the big mall to try to see War of the Worlds, but it was only in Hungarian. The mall is called "WestEnd Shopping Center" and looks like metrocenter. I kept my eyes peeled for the Orange Julius. Chase said it reminded him of Texas. We had lunch in their food court and then went on to see the gothic parliment building. At this point, we were caught in amazing downpour of rain, which completely drenchd us. Took the metro home. The metro cars are the same that run in moscow, as the city shares strong historical ties to the soviets. Tonight, we'll try to find a good place the book recommends.

The Vienna Opera Mosh Pit

Yesterday: caught a 8 am train to Fussen from Munich, a two hour train ride. From Fussen, its another 20 minutes by bus to the jumping off point for Castle Neuswanstein (or however its spelled). Like its Disneyland counterpart, it was packed with hordes of american and japanese tourists. Lines were phenomenal. We ended up walking there and forgoing an hour wait for the 35 minute interior tour. Got some really nice pictures from the bridge overlooking the castle, then hopped back on the bus, then the train back to Munich. Our gear we left at the hotel for the day, so we hopped off the train, ran back to the hotel, picked up our stuff, ran back to the train station and boarded a train within 15 minutes. That train departed less than 2 minutes later. It was the direct line to Vienna that we didnt even consider catching. Our luck on this trip has remained nothing short of spectacular.
On the train, we sat in a compartment with Peter, who turned out to be an international emerald trader, one of only 20 people worldwide licenced to do gem business in Colombia, where he packs a pistol. We meet a lot of interesting people on these trains.
Vienna is a lot like the other european cities we have visited so far, but its a much more musical town. This morning, we did laundry and played chess on big peices outside. This afternoon, we went to the Haus Der Music, a sort of science museum for the ear, with lots of interactive exhibits and stuff about Beethoven, Shubert, Mozart, etc. By far, the coolest room was a stereo room, an oval room pumping out 10,000 watts of music from 30 high end speakers, 7.1 surround sound, 2 woofers. It was incredible. The msst perfect stero system I have ever heard. Something to work for once I pay off this trip.
After the museum we walked to the state opera house and bought standing tickets to a Puccini opera that evening. They missed my flip flops, and I got in. Tickets were 3.50 euro. I dont remember the name of the opera, something like L----- M------, but it was the worst opera experiance I have ever had. At 3.50 these tickets were overpriced. When they say standign room, they mean, in the aisle, unless you arrive more than an hour before the show. I was kicked away from the side of a standing bar because it had already been 'claimed' with a scarf. I ultimately ended up with a decent view of the stage, almost in the exact middle, but literally in the back of the theater. There was not even room to move it was so packed.
The opera was really really really boring. The music was nothing special, despite being conducted by Ozawa. It opened with a bunch of ladies looking at windows. The most exciting thing that happened in the first 45 minutes was that someones car was stolen. Not even violenty. As far as I could tell, what I saw was that one guy asked a girl to elope with him in a stolen car. I left after the curtain fell on the scene. First rate opera company, Fourth rate Puccini, Tenth rate 'seats'. We found a cafe on a city street and had a snack as we watched the sun set on the hapsburg palaces.
We are planning on hitting Budapest next, just 19 euros from here, and off the eurail pass.

The Munich Sewage Ride

Today was a really good day. We started out at the hotel breakfast buffet, sausage and scrambled eggs, then went to the museum of modern art. They had a really good exhibition of tensile structure architecture, an area which ASU program really lacks, and a really good exhibit of Der Speigal cover art. Der Speigal is amazingly opinionated and partisan by American standards, so it was really interesting to see. They also had a great collection of classic modernist furnature from Thonet up to Aalto, to Panton. Their art collection was decent for only being a few years old: quite a few Warhols, a couple of Picassos and a few Dalis. The architecture was strongly modern.
I've really been surprised by how much I like this city. We were too short on time after the museum for Dachau, but I'm sure we'll get our fill on the holocaust in Berlin or thereabouts. In the afternoon we went to this massive public park in the middle of the city, in the same sort of style as Central Park. There was a force fed river, more like a canal actually, about 10 yards across with a really fast strong current, such that even at top speed, I could not swim agianst it. At the start of the canal, there was a permenant wave, and guys on short surfboards would take turns carving up the 10 yards of wave. We actually dove in near this point and were carried for about five minutes rapidly from where our clothes lay. We actually went too far, and ended up in alge green canal water beyond the park boundaries. We managed to climb out, no small feat considering the current, and make our way back to sun dry in the large grassy clearings. For dinner, we went to an authentic Bavarian beer and food haus, Andachser An Dom, where we got the best beer I've ever tasted. We both got the pork with dark beer sauce and potato balls, with spicy sausage. It was really good, the pork was excellent. Tomorrow, we are going to see Castle Neuschanstein, then continue on our journey to Vienna.

James Bond at 10,000 feet

My last day in Gimmelwald, I decided to hike up to Schilthorn, a peak normally accessed by cablecar. The cable car fare to the top was about 80 euros, so I decided to hike it. It was one of the most grueling hikes I've ever done, including crossing two freezing waterfalls, hiking across massive snowflows in my treadless sketchers, and a perilous ascent up the craggy ridge to the top. The building at the top which included a restaurant in the round had a large room where they screened clips from 'On her Majesty's Secret Service' where schilthorn was the villians lair. I took the cable car down one stop, not trusting my flat bottomed shoes to a decent on ice and loose rock. In total I think I hiked about 10 miles.
Today I am in Munich, and this evening enjoyed the city center. Its pretty and baroque and modern at the same time. More later.

Auf wiedershen, Interlaken; guten tag, Gimmelwald

The train from Venice to Interlaken was really nice, passed through the italian alps and through the lake como reigion which is another amazingly beautiful area of italy. Interlaken is situated between two lakes, in a massive valley surrounded by snow capped peaks. The Swiss alps are amazing, just launching themselves straight up into the sky. The town of interlaken itself was a major letdown. Its one of the most touristy places we have seen so far. Despite a population less than 15000, interlaken sported a Hooters, a McDonalds, and about three trillion boutiques selling swiss army knives and watches. The hostel, Baumers was a dissapointment too. A massive, sprawling affair in wooden, camp buildings, it crawled with boozepackers, mostly americans and canadians. The hostel had several happy hours, serving from two different bars. This was hardly the swiss experiance we had been anticipating. We spent the night and checked out the next morning. I had difficulty falling asleep on my bedroll under the eaves, as a group of drunks on the roof were loudly discussing how cool skydiving was. We checked out this morning, and Chase found a great village in his guidebook so we set out at once.
We took a train, then another train, then a bus, and finally a cable car to get up here to Gimmelwald, in the Jungfrau region. Its a tiny village, not even a town center, really, just a collection of wooden buildings, high up on the side of the mountain valley. THe hostel here is amazing too. Its hard to say which had better views, here or positano. Try googling Gimmelwald or the Lauterbrunen Valley. Anyway, today we had to hike 40 minutes uphill to get to an ATM. We sat on the side of the valley and enjoyed the view while we drank lager and ate chocoate and gummy bears. Also dunked ourselves in alpine glacial runoff later this afternoon. It was a little cold. Now, to see the cows grazing outside.

The Lido

After living in two global cities with major commercial/leasure centers styleing themselves as 'the lid0' we decided to see the real thing. Its a nice beach town island which chase said reminded him of the east coast beaches. Too many men in speedos though to be American. Ate lunch from a grocery store and went back to an interesting church in the round with a very dramatic white round center area. Lots of marble. Called the family this morning for Fathers day, caught them in the middle of a tour of a Turkish palace in Istanbul. Geographically, we are actually pretty close.
After the church we split up- chase went to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, I to the Gallery DAccademia. To each his own taste in art. However, my museum was pretty dull, with only a few interesting Tiziot's. It did have a reliquary which displayed what was billed as two fragments from the True Cross.
Sundays are a cacaphony of bells. They seem to ring constantly with no apparent tune. Took a nap this afternoon. After chase wakes up, well go for some pizza. Good light now for pictures. I have taken approximately 550 so far. Oh! Jen got into upper division along with 19 other students into the Interior Design program at ASU, hats off all around. (Like there was any doubt!). The tension mounts as July 1 approaches....

Ah, Venice!

Yesterday we managed to see Michaelangelo's David, do a complete tour of the Uffuzi, and find our way to the hostel in venice where we are staying. We waited in line for 2.5 hours to get into the Uffuzi, the lourve of Firenze, and it was the size of one wing of one floor of the lourve. It did have its share of Botticellis and a few DaVincis. Sadly, I have no clue what Dan Brown is talking about. They did have the Birth of Venus, however. We paid 16 euro to see the David, and I must confess it is the most compelling, astounding sculpture I have ever seen.
Venice is like the pictures portray, very picturesque for the first half of the day. After awhile the heat gets to you. I like the canals, but a map and compass is virtually useless in these winding dissected streets. We find our way by intuition. This morning, we went out walking aimlessly and ran right into the grand canal vaparetto (water taxi) stand's first stop. We got off and saw St. Marks square. Mom, when you come here, avoid this place like the plauge. Pigeons run amok, and vendors sell feed so you always see tourists literally covered in pidgeons, giggling and laughing like they are covered with butterflies instead of flying, diseased rats. The church is amazing, with a fused style of romanesque and byzantine. gold everywhere inside. More museums tomorrow, and the day after that we strike for the matterhorn!

not so amazing cinque terre

After hearing nothing but rave reviews from all of the people we have met so far on this trip, I must say that cinque terre was a dissapointment. The hikes between the villages were really nice and picturesque, but the villages are overcommercialized and stuffed to the gills with American and Canadian tourists. Positano has spoiled us I am sure. Anyway, we caught a train there this morning and hiked around. Had a really nice lunch in one of the villages. I had the beans (no clue what they were when I ordered them, they just looked cheap) which actually were pretty good, and chase got a pasta with pesto sauce, about double the cost of my beans. We also split a small bottle of white wine, locally grown in cinque terre and bottled in La Spezia the gateway town. It was a hot sunny day, so we split from part of the trail and headed down the jagged igneous coastline. No beaches, but craggy rocks jettign out into the water. We jumped off and swam around a bit, heading back from the mouth of a sea cave after discovering that it was both really dark and also swarming with jellyfish who drifted in. Probably my last taste of the Med for awhile. Caught a train back here to Florence as the sun was going down. Really the best way to experiance the city is at sundown. Washed off the salt water, and now waiting to go grab a slice of pizza for dinner.
At least the high school tour group left.

Under the Tuscan Sun (along with half of detroit)

Yesterday we saw the ruins of Pompeii, which was really cool despite being swarming with tourists and japanese tour groups. The city layout is untouched and its a very personal look into the homes and businesses of a roman city, as many mossaics and wall paintings were intact. Today we left Positano and finally arrived in Florence a full ten hours later. The romance of train travel wears off quickly, but we had a really nice ride from Rome to Florence. We passed through a rainstorm and so saw tuscany with the late afternoon sun shining down through the clouds. Florence was much the same, like a botticelli painting with the sunset on the river and teh narrow cobblestone streets. Its more crowded, and reminds me a bit of paris and a bit of rome. Calizone for dinner. Our hostel is in a scuzzy part of town near the center, and is jam packed with high school studnets on a school trip. Fortunately for you, dear reader, the chapperones shuffled them off to their rooms. Unfortunately for us, our room is one of them with ten beds, 5 bunks arranged military style. Florence looks very promising and we have some tough decisions to make about cinque terre, which everyone has raved about. Hopefully we can figure some way to enjoy both florence and the hike, perhaps taking a day or so off of venice, which is apparently only a weekend town at most. I finished Moby Dick this afternoon, adding it to my list of books read this summer. Tomorrrow- the duomo and david

Amazing Positano

Our room has a tiled terrace which overlooks the town and the ocean. the breakfast here is free cappuccino and coissants. Positano is kind of like if you took the na pali coast of kauai (hence the name) built a little town along its cliffs, and staffed it completely with italians. The only tourists here are other italians. Today we rented a little wooden 8 hp motorboat to explore the coastline. It was the cheapest option, at 80 euro for three hours. We took turns driving, learning quickly in the fortunately uncrowded harbor, and then dropped anchor near a few sea caves, diving into the clear water to swim out to them. We both got severely sunburned today. Spent the rest of the day lounging, reading, and writing. Im working through moby dick and chase is reading my copy of da vinci code. Working also on a title for the travelouge I am going to publish from my writings and photographs. How to say "Tap water, please" in forty-eight languages. etc. please submit any ideas. Caio for now

Positano

Quick post, internet pricey here. After 2 hours on widing roads on the sides of these jagged cliffs, we arrived in positano. Its absolutely amazing, still cant get over it. Check out pics online. just do a google image search for Positano. we are staying at a really cool hostel, the only one in the little town. with a great view. cell recpetion is bad, so still no phone. will try later. Dinner was overpiced, but great anyway. pizzaria tomorrow night. The town is full of steps as its literally built into the side of a cliff. Maybe tomorrow we can find our way to the bottom of the beach. More later. Goodnight!

Positano Ho!

Quick Recap: Yesterday morning we got chase's visa back from the embassy with no problems. Everything looked correct. It's amazing what money will do. Then we saw the pantheon at midday. Finally, we ended up on the old appian way, the ancient entrance road to rome, where cars drive over the same stones where the chariot wheels wore grooves. There went down the crypts of san sebastian, the ancient meeting and entombment place of the first christians. There were no bones, as nothing survives 2000 years. It was a dissapointingly short tour, affording only the most breif of glimpses at the complex labrynths of tunnels and crypts. We saw the resting place of San Sebastain, and apparently, St. Peter and St. Paul were also originally buried in the area. It's quite an experiance, trying to imagine walking in hte same footsteps of these men, only 2000 years past! The appian way is really pretty and rural, with ruins of villas beside modern restored villas.
Last night, we walked along the Tiber river, which is little more than the salt river in arizona. We walked past the church of St. Bartholomew, which contains the relics of the apostle who was skinned. In fact, in sculpture and in painting, he is always seen holding his own skin.
Today we depart for Positano, a mountan side town so isolated, there aren;t even any cars. We have to catch a train to Salerno and from there, continue by local train and bus. I'm looking forward to losing the hordes of tourists cramming the city, and just kicking back in the isolated beach town. Rome just wears me out. I go to bed completely wiped every day I've been here.
Yesterday we went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of fruit to catch up on our vitamins and minerals.
The weather here has so far been very mild for Rome. The first few days here were pretty miserable, but then it cooled off after a rainstorm, and even been cool enough in the evenings for me to need my euro sweater.

quickie

Lets see, last night we decided to go on an adventure according to pre-written clues. We started by taking the metro the farthest out of the city and went from there. Our travels took us back to a church near where the hostel is, and we gave up the chase when the busses stopped running. Today we walked through the Roman Forum and Circus Maximus. I wasnt impressed with CM. It was just a grass hollow with a worn gravel track. The forum was cool, although packed with tourists. Afterwards, we hopped back the the hostel, where we ate at this pizzaria which sells good cheap pizza by weight. Read some more in Moby Dick and and then we set out to find the Old christian catacombs and secret meetign chambers. The map we used was bad, so we had to turn back, but only after we stopped in to San Giovanni.

Our Audience with the Pope

Yesterday we went to the Holy See and arrived in the middle of the benediction. St. Marks square was absolutely packed. The Pope himself was there with the clergy, and they were delivering blessings in different languages. The clerics with him took turns announcing which groups were present that the Pope was going to bless specially. The English speaking cleric read a list of about thirty names of groups including a high school in texas and and a college band. Everyone else who spoke english was blessed too. Afterwards we went to the Vatican museums, where I was miffed to see that they had crammed all the ancient roman statues into one narrow hall, and outfitted them with fig leaves. The museums were nothing special, but they were packed with a herd of people migrating to the sixtine chapel. Way too many people in there, took hours to wind our way over. The chapel itself was good. The painting was immaclate adn brillianly done for optical illusions. However, it was packed with tourists taking pictures despite the signs everywhere which said it was expressly forbidden.
After we left, we climbed to the top of the dome and saw rome from the hieghts before going inside. The line to see John Paul IIs grave was huge, so we decided to pass.

Hadrian's villa

Yesterday morning we got up and caught a train to a Tivoli train stop about 15 miles outside of town. The day before I had asked the desk guys how one gets to Hadrians Villa. This was clearly an unprecedented request, as only the native italian had any idea of what I was talking about. I got off the rail stop and found a deserted station that didnt even sell tickets. I asked a shopkeeper and he told me to catch a bus down the street. We eventually found the bus, and took it to Hadrians Villa (villa adriana). The area was an ancient roman resort town and Hadrian was an emporer who built himself a villa there. Its out in the countryside, very picturesque and rural. The villa is ruins, but very interesting and expansive. Many of the arcades dome and arches still stand. I really wish I could have seen it at its full glory. After that, we ate at a pizzaria and I tried to find Villa D'Este, a renaissance villa world renowned for its fountains and gardens. We caught the bus again and took it up to a hill town I had seen in the distance, Tivoli. The villa was nothing spectacular, but the waterworks were amazing. There were grottos everwhere, water everywhere, fountains of all fantastic shapes, even a line of 100 faces spewing watter from a mossy wall. Caught the bus home to roma for gnocci for dinner. Dissapointingly it tasted like chef-boy-r-dee.

Chases' adventures in Visaland

First thing this morning we got up and got over to the Consulate, luckly only about a ten minute bus ride from the hostel. We had previously located hte hostel the day we had arrived and learned its operating hours. It is open for visa stuff from 8:30 to 11:30 AM only M-F. So we arrived in line outside at 8:30. There was a woman at the gate in a little booth whose only function was to make sure only a limited ammount of people went into the building. That, and to scare away small children. She spoke no enlglish and took pointed to the sign on the window when he indiciated he wanted to go in. We figured out that she wanted his passport. She photocopied it, then waited until some people exited to give him a little ticket that said Enter on it. He went inside with all his visa info. I waited outside for a little less than an hour. He came out and told me that they needed 94 euros and that the soonest they could have it done was by june 16th, several days after we left. They made him modify his own forms, and initially refused to loan him a pen. these are for visitors, they told him. I am a visitor, he told them. Not special enough apparently, but he finangled it somehow. I convinced him to get the money from an ATM and we went back. Cerburus at the window stopped him and refused to express any sort of care or recognition when we returned ten minutes later. She demanded to see his passport, which was inside along with all of his identificatoin papers. She made it clear in no small motions that unless he had his passport, he couldnt get inside, even when it was evident that his passport was already there. We grabbed an exiting woman who translated for us. (once again, saved by the kindness of strangers). Even with the translators help, cerburus refused to let him enter the embassy. Finally, we mentioned that we had not paid and, surprise, she let him in immediately, and me too, only pausng to photocopy his drivers license. Inside the line was short, and the cashier had a hard time understanding chases desire to pay 57 euros, but quickly accepted the 94. June 10th, she said. Save the reciept, I said. This is ridiculous, he said.

We did laundry today, its good to be wearing clean clothes. We lost the drunk middle aged scottsman, and got a party of 5 KU girls, probably sophomores. Apparently they had lost a member after he fell out of a window and had a scull fracture and brain hemmorhages. They took him to a hospital in Genoa, and continued on their way. They talked about it like a train delay. I was releived to learn to that hte mother immediately hopped a jet over.

I cant stand these boozepackers looking to get eurotrashed. It just makes me ill. Why did they come here? To hang out with other american backpackers and get drunk at pub crawls? What an opportunity. What a waste.

I picked up a copy of the da vinci code. While I enjoyed reading about places I visited in Paris, theres little mention of Rome, adn the story gets more ridicuolous and contrived as it goes along. Quick, fun read though. Bruce Willis is a good choice for the role.

The Italian (hair) Job

Yesterday afternoon, I got a haircut from an Italian barber. I just pointed to the phrasebook that said "I want a haircut" and short, and he gave me a very short haircut. It feels a lot cooler. Last night we went to see the colluseum, forum and the king memorial lit up at night and we ate gelatto. This morning I got up early and went to S. Maria Maggiore, an interesting basillica as it has a flat, coffered ceiling. It is also the resting place of Bernini, the architect and sculptor. I found a department store, and bought 2 pair of boxers and a pair of shorts. Its just hot and humid here. Later this morning, we went to the Trevi fountain and saw the spanish steps. We didn;t even know we were on them until we got to the bottom. I didnt think they were that spectacular. There are tourists everywhere here, and tons of tourist junk on the side of the streets. Yesterday we bought a week transport pass that gets us unlimited transportation on the metro and busses. Its a good way to get an overveiw of the city. Last night we ate lasagna and a glass of wine. Its much cheaper here than in paris. Anyway, if theres something you thing we should see in roma, leave a comment.

The Ancient City

Well, we made it to Rome ok from Nice. For some reason, we assumed that the Cinque Terre hike would just work itself out. However, my plan A of starting in La Spezia and hiking for the rest of the day was hampered by the fact that there were no available rooms anywhere in the city. We decided that a plan B would work better. We caught a train in the afternoon to Roma, and so we will just make the CT hike a day trip from Florence. Our roma reservation didnt begin until tomorrow so today I booked this hotel, papa germano, from my cell phone. I am really glad I got GSM. Its been a lifesaver. Anyway, all the hostels and hotels concerned with me are in the Termini area, kind of sketchy at night, but much safer than south of the termini station. The hotel we are in tonight is pretty secure, as it takes 3 keys to get to our room. Chases LOI came in to the hostel so we are going to pick it up tomorrow ahead of schedule. We met a gentleman on the train who spoke very little english, but we got him to recommend a few restuarants for us, and we went to one of them tonight, a pizzaria. My pizza had egg, procscitto, mushrooms, and olives. Really good.

Ah yes, last few days in Nice, a quick recap. Yesterday we went to Cannes, a 2 hour bus ride away. We just hung out at the beach, swam and made sand chairs. The beaches are sandy and wide, and cannes had huge murals of movie stars everywhere. The day before that, we took the bus through this amazing midevil vilage, even more ancient that that place we went to, mom, overlooking the coast. Its called Ese Village. Afterwards went to Monaco and Monte-Carlo casino. I had no intent on losing money so I waited outside and watched millionares drive up to the hotel in thier bentley convertables and aston-martins. Made scottsdale look like Tempe.Chase won back the 10 euros cover charge and quit. However, he blew 20 on a vodka martini at the Bar Americain in one of the most exclusive hotels in the world, Hotel Paris in Monte-Carlo. I got a water. Anyway, back on internet that costs money, so thats about all the time I have.

Still doing well, staying mostly hydrated, and eating fairly well. Big day tomorrow as our first day in roma, so Buenosuerta!

Living it up at the hotel villa st. exupery

Got into Nice in early eavning after a day of train travel. I like the relaxed atmosphere and scenery trains provide, with generally more legroom and chances to walk around, but trains do take about five times as long as a plane. The ride along the french coast was nice, many areas remind me of sedona with the craggy red rocks jutting out into the water. Most the beaches here are all pebbles. Should have brought my water shoes. Train stopped in Cannes, which looked wonderful. Didn't see anything about the film fest though. In nice, we followed these directions to get the hostel: Walk out of the nice rail station to a balustrade. Follow the ballustratde to a bus station and catch bus 23. Take bus 23 to St. Maruice. Walk to the phone booth across the road and a certain number. A car will come for you.
We followed the directions, and a guy came for us in a beat up old black mercedes-benz. The driver was the hostel owner. The hostel is amazing, situated in an old nunnery overlooking Nice. The sanctuary became the dining hall and bar in the evening. Our room here is 21 euros a night, and that includes breakfast. 5 beds to a room. Its an amazing place. People here actually talk to each other and the hostel owner, a german named Ulf and his daughter Yulie run the place and get to know the clientelle. Anyway, we're going to the beach today.

quickie

Yesterday was my favorite in Barcelona. Saw the Sagrada Familia, listened to Mozarts Requiem live in concert in the most famous concert hall in barcelona, Palau Musica de Catalonia, and then we got caught in a religious procession of corpus christi in the gothic quarter. Now its off to nice! hope to have internet access! Adios!

Sabado

Just waiting for Chase to get out of the shower so we can head off to dinner at a tapas bar the desk guy recommended here. We dropped our laundry off this morning at a laundromat that spoke no english. We sweated until we got it back at one in the afternoon. It´s so cheap here, compared to paris. This morning after we dropped the laundry we tried to go Palau Guell, one of the highlights I was looking forward to here. The interior is supposed to be fabulous, with Gaudi unrestrained by costs. the sign on the door said it closed in october of last yaer, not to reopen until 2006. We ended up going through the picasso museum in the gothic quarter. Went up the palatial catalan art muesum and walked around mount monjuic before heading back down to the beach. Tons of people out there today. The busses here are the best way to get around. Lots of the litte things remind me of singapore. The green, the sweltering heat, the trees, the ocean, and the clean, effciant smell of the bus interiors. Our metro passes we havn´t used more than twice, but they´re really paying off for the busses. Time for dinner!

If ASU were a town....

Left Paris last wednesday morning. we barely made the train 5 mins before it was due to leave. once we got to montpilliar, our train ran late, so we missed the connecting train to Barcelona. Our large group mobbed the rail information people, and they put us on a train to Peripignon, a sleazy little border town. the nex train to barcelona was in the morning so they put us in the paris-barcelona hotlel. There was some confusion because we were travelign with three other backpacking US college students and they lumped us all together. It took a french-spanish and spanish-english translator to get our point across to the french speaking rail attendant. I am eternally grateful to those unknown people who in the name of kindness helped us all throughout our travels. For the most part, everyone we have met in europe has bent over backwards to aid us, from the bakery matron who flagged down customers who culd speak english to us. My language skills are just not adequate for travelling completely rough. Anyway, we got a little room in Peripigion but they had almost a shower that worked well. The next morning, we took the train that was an hour and a half late across the border, fnally pulling into barcelona around midday.

Barcelona is hot and tropical. Its part singapore and part pirate town. especially the area we´re in, really close to the beach and the gothic quarter. I goofed up on the reservations, so we didnt´have any for thursday night here. We got to the hostel Sea Point, and were turnd away. We went back to the littl ghetto hostel where i´d asked directions, Miramar hostel. to get inside, you have to walk though an electronics boutique. I kept looking down expecting to see chickens runnign around. At least they had two beds per room, even if the room was six feet wide and the last half of the original room, with the moulding cut in half. We ate well as the food here is great and cheap. Our best meal yet was at La Fonda. Seafood Paella we split was aobut 12 euros. We checked into the right hostel this morning. An interesting place to say the least. They organize activities including ¨Smashed¨a booze tour for a set price including, I´m not making this up, ¨special¨super soakers loaded with vodka. Woopeee!! Pass.
Today we saw Parc Guell, Casa Vicens, and La Pedegral, all works of Gaudi. What a far out guy. anway, back to the beach. We´re litterally on the beach.

list

doing well in paris; its cool here; so Im glad I have my sweater. stumbled into a street market yesterday, and found an excellent bakery. even the french lined up out front for it. superlative. saw la defense arch, a giant bronze thumb, and mass at Notre Dame. Versailles the day before that, although we took a rather odyssean journey to get there includiding an empty train, a wild bus ride, and generally asking everyone we encountered how to get there. the gardens are absolutely amazing and mind bogglingly vast and wild. today we plan to go to musee d'orsay. Times almost up; typing in an internet center more later hopefully; Regards.

safe and wiped in paris

After waiting for three hours in the visa line, chase was told that his multientry LOI could not be used for a single entry business visa. He would either have to get an HIV test here in Paris or have dqd send q tourist visq to our hostel in Rome. I hqte these co,puter keyboqrds: nothing is in the right spot: Anyzqy; the hostel is nice enough; four beds qnd one bqthroom; qt the end of our second full dqy in pqris; ze hqve seen the lourve; montparnesse; sacrecour; notre dame, center pompidou, q lot of the embqssy district, the eiffel tower area; champs l*esses; the arc du triomphe; and the city cemetqry. Versailles to,orrow. More later: 30 mins costs 1.5 euro on this tiny seedy internet cafe.

Odds and Ends

A few other comments

My travelling companion, Chase Lancaster Kimball, is a finance major at University of Colorado at Boulder and a good friend of mine from high school. He is an entreprenuer with a registered business in selling adventure sport discount cards. the website can be found at www.coloradosportssociety.com . His interests include rowing crew, shaving once a week, and wearing dock shoes with seersucker pants.

For those interested, I finished this semester with a 3.96 GPA, and 3.91 cumulative. I feel pretty good about my chances for getting into upper division in architecture.

Three days in moscow

Well, actually only two full days. Monday I went on a tour around the neighborhood around the Kremlin. We started at St. Basil's cathedral. The tour guide, who had actually helped build it, pointed out many interesting facts like: "Do not lean against the walls", "we can not go inside of this chapel", and "do not lean against this car." To be honest, I found the tour a bit dry, despite the fact that the tour guide obviously longed for the days where she would have been shot for hanging around red square with Americans. We also saw many numerous churches in various stages of being rebuilt with a vauge resemblance to the original, and entered almost three. The third one had a few requests we had to satisfy before we entered, like wiping our feet, taking off our shoes, thrice-crossing ourselves, and foreswearing beef. We decided we could just continue the tour.

Yesterday, we went on two absoutely amazing tours. We met at the gate to the kremlin where there enough tennis-shoe clad american tourists to capture Normandy. We got to see the Great Kremlin Palace, the functioning residence of state for recieving dignitiaries, signing treaties, and press conferences. We passed through multiple security checkpoints, including checking passports against the tour list. The palace is superlative, completely over the top, and makes the opulence of Versaille look like a La Quinta. From the moment that I saw monolithic granite collums twenty feet high, my jaw dropped and kept dropping. It was just amazing. There was gold tracery and mouldings everywhere in style ranging from baroque to classical to rococo. A security guard followed the tour group.
Afterwards, mom and I went to see the Diamond Fund, a clever device that lets the Kremlin squeeze even more money by charging a separate admission to see the state jewellry collection. Most imperial jewellry I have seen mostly consists of an object like a crown, scepter, neckalace, orb, etc. made out of gold, then studded with diamonds and precious stones randomly all over like the worlds most expensive beadazzler. The Russians actually designed thier jewellry and objects with the stones as a single concept. There were flower brooches made with hundreds of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, it was all absolutely amazing craftworkd and artestry. Also on display were diamonds the size of acorns, rough cut diamonds, heaping trays of the cut stones, and gold nuggets the size of footballs.
Today I leave for Paris on czech airlines. Wish me luck and I'll try to keep everyone posted on my futher adventures.

Back in the USSR

I'm safely back in Moscow after aproximately 15 hours of traveling. Caught a morning flight from Phoenix to JFK in NY, then flew Aeroflot to Moscow. Not too bad. Food was decent, and the seat was on the isle with lots of footroom. Took awhile to get through customs, but dad and mom were on hand to meet me at the exit from customs. Moscow is cool and green, but brilliantly blessed with a rare day of sunshine. Now I'm just listening to jazz with dad working on his laptop across from me, mom making dinner in the kitchen, and taylor working on homework in the study. Its good to see them all. Having some difficulty with getting the phone card to work. Maybe work on that tomorrow.

Grades so far

Final Grades so far:
Latin Dance/Salsa I: B+ (I went to as many classes as would get me an A, skipping twice on the days when I had been up for a few days on projects, but apparently I forgot to sign in on one of the days I did go)

Creative Writing I: A (Easily done)

Architecture studio: A+ (the big surprise- it was only in the last project where I had absolutely everything ready for presentation. Maybe my instructor really wants me to get in. This will help me a lot as architecture GPA counts for half of what gets me in.

so recently: been packing, cleaning, organizing, tidying up loose ends, planning, relaxing, working on visas, panicing, pacing, and relaxing again.

Finals

There are a few distinct advantages to being an architecture major. First among those are the relative lack of finals. Our final project was due a month ago, and I submitted portfolio about a week ago. I had two tests. One was a short essay test with six questions for Urban Planning, and the one I took today was on architectural structures. Questions included the following: "wood is the strongest: (1) perpendicular to the grain (2) parallel to the grain (3) in tension." I got a 90% or better I think.

Portfolio: Tricky subject. In order to turn it in on time, I sent it to the printer Sunday late afternoon. I took it to the Kinko's in Scottsdale since I knew the one near the university was going to be overwhelmed. Portfolio was due Tuesday at five. I didn't want anything to go wrong. I put my portfolio as a pdf and stuck it on my jump drive. It was formatted to be 8" x 8". My attempts to make it print right on both sides were not going well, hence my decision to take it to kinko's early in the game. Kinko's told me it would be ready by five on Tuesday. When I got home, I figured out how to get the pages ot align better, so I printed a full color, double sided copy of my portfolio, because if Kinko's screwed up, then I'd really be in trouble without a backup since they take at least a full day to print out.

A quick note on submission: Portfolio and applications to upper divion are due by 5:00 PM on that Wednesday. Any later, and you have to wait another full year. Hence, my apprehension at submitting on time.

Anyway, I printed everything out, then went to Kinko's expecting the worst. They did everything perfectly, from printing them on the right paper with the right ink to cutting them exactly right. I was so overjoyed I happily forked over the 90 bucks. It looked great. I had it printed on matte cardstock (heavy paper) with a professional ink. The black shined in the light. I also had 35 pages printed on the front and back. Anyway, I made a simple cover from chipboard and used acetone transfer to write "portfolio of design" on the front in Century Gothic spaced out at 100 percent, the same kind of font I used in the portfolio. I took it to alphAGraphics a little ways from campus to get it bound. There is one right across the street from the architecture building, but I dont use them because: 1) Everyone uses them, usually at the same time 2) They seem to be staffed by ASU dropouts, and 3) They only give decent service to women. This has been coroborated by nearly everyone I talk to. I usally stick to kinko's for these reasons, but only alphAGraphics has the professional metal ring binding. Anyway, later that night I picked it up, complete.

I submitted it wednesday, around noon. I was the 76th person to submit, which became the identifying number for my portfolio as you're not allowed to have your name in or on it. I would really hate to be 1 or 142, so I think 76th is a pretty good number. I also handed in my application to upper division, just a form with my name, school ID and where to send the letter of notification and a padded envelope to mail my portfolio back to Sally.

Speaking of Sally, she invited Jen and I for dinner the other night. She made us pork and mashed potatoes. It was really good. She also gave me a really good, extensive book on the house, everything from discussions of locations and aspects of urban planning to detail plans of soffits, foundation connections, and systems of construction.

Wednesday at 5 I went to see the closing of the door and the stragglers. Seven people submitted in the last five minutes. Two of those were in the last minute. How does one time such a thing? What if they had taken a different route, or gone back for sunglasses, etc. It boggles the mind. There were about twenty people lined up along the hall as spectators. At 5 o'clock, the head of the office called out "anyone else? last call!" the people who could see the door said there was no one coming so she closed the door, locked it, and turned out the office lights. That was that.

Regrets? Sure, for one thing, I wish I'd taken the time to give it a good proof-reading. Nothing too major, just a few speling errores. Hopefully, they'll either glaze over it without noticing, or not decide to reject me for my spelling. Anyway nothing I can do about it now. It's quite literally out of my hands. All will be revealed July 1st, when they mail out 94 rejection slips, and 48 acceptance letters. Hopefully one of the latter will be addressed to me.

DONE!

At high noon, the lone stranger entered the architecture office and became applicant #76, the 76th person to submit an application and portfolio for the 48 spots of upper division. The finished book is 70 pages in 35 spreads, professionally printed and bound, 8" x 8", with plain chipboard covers with the title 'portfolio of design' in black letters. See here>>>