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>>>

Suits me

Saturday evening I took Jen with me to Fashion Square to look for suits. We looked all over the place, from Dillard's to Macy's to Robinsons to a few smaller boutiques. Macy's was the only place that had a suit in my size (36) that fit well and was in the color I wanted. Dillard's didn't even have a single 36. The suit is made by Alfani, single breasted with three buttons, and a traditional lapel. 100% wool, of course. The only modern things about the suit is that the pants aren't pleated, and the jacket is has vent cuts in the back instead of the single cut in the middle of the back. I tried it on with a dress shirt (that's a sixty dollar shirt, the salesman informed me) and with the slacks. It looked really good, really nice fit in the shoulders and arms. Jen really liked it. It was the first whole suit I tried on, and we came back to buy it after looking at the other stores. The suit normally retails for $470, but it was my luck to get it half off. I would have had them hem the pants for me, but it takes them 11 days to do, and I intend to wear the suit in New York. They gave me a list of places they recommend, and I'll call a close one monday to find out thier turnaround for hemming.
I have a test tomorrow in structures class on dirt, steel, and wood. So back to studying.

A Sad Day for Salsa

I started the day off very leisurely, waking up at ten. I spent the day re-reading The Fountianhead by Ayn Rand. Some I read in bed, some lying on the couch, sitting at the table, sitting on the floor, sitting on the steps outside sipping iced tea. I finished it tonight, covering about three hundred-odd pages today. Its a great book, but the end feels too ideal, too perfect, like Jurgis at the end of The Jungle. Everything suddenly goes right. It felt out of character for the novel. It's a good inspiration for my portfolio which I will resume this monday.

Tonight we went to our salsa final. It was set up as a competition, with about 500 of her students from the various levels. The room was packed. A group would run on the stage, dance for under two minutes for the judge, then run off the stage as a new group ran on. It was difficult to figure out the timing of each heat so you had to pay close attention as to who was dancing and what they were doing. Sally, Jonathan, and Jen's mom Diane, came to watch us. Sally brought me brownies, which was really nice of her. She also got a few pictures, but I think it was mostly of my back.
I slipped up and recovered partially in the salsa. My rhumba was a mess, I completely forgot our moves. Cha-cha was so bad, I had to stop to get back on time and so nervous I started doing a completely different dance. Mergengue was mercifully last, so we ended that dance without my screwing it up royally.
There are four tiers of competition. We didn't even make it to the second. We went into the audience to find our respective spectators. They made a good show of liking the dances we performed. Ah well. We had practicied for this competition twice, each time for under an hour. Jen had her portfolio to turn in the 15th and I had my final project. We had no time to spend on dancing, so I was extremely grateful that we got full credit for merely participating. I'm just no good at coordinated activity under the spotlight. In cross country you had three miles to show your stuff. In architecture, you have weeks to prepare and think and plan, so that even though you might pass out where you stood, you could still talk coherantly about your project's ideas, spatial organization, and concepts. Am I making excuses for myself? Probably. I'm just glad I got what I did from the class. I disliked almost every class- it was a bad idea to take it at night, and on my most stressful day of the week- but I'm glad it taught me to be confident on the dance floor of the clubs, to really enjoy meringue and bring me closer to Jen.
After we all walked back, Jen's mom took us out to the Country Tavern at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale. It's a kind of upscale claim jumper, reminded me strongly of other places I'd been, mood lighting, exposed wood, tall dark booths, steaks, expensive seafood dishes, and exemplary service. I ordered an excellent Seafood Pasta with jumbo shrimp, andouille sausage, and scallops in a creamy cajun sause on linguine. I wore what I wore to the competition, black pants, white shirt open at the collar. We ate dessert there, apple cobbler and chocolate torte. When we got back, Jen, Ben, and I went to the crazy house for a party.
The crazy house is rented by five students of design. One dates a twenty-five year old mother, one recently changed his major from architecture to archeology, one only dates black men, one is in my studio, and the fifth became a residential assistant at the dorm were we all used to live. They throw massive parties. There were easily eighty people there and the place was jumping. We left a little around one, when there were more strangers arriving, more people getting drunker, and another keg on the way.
What a day.

Recovery

Well, I'm finally getting over my headache. Too much caffine and too little water. I went to bed last night at 7:00 PM, and slept until 3:00 AM when I awoke from hunger. I hadn't eaten anything since a bowl of cereal at 6:30 the previous morning, and a snickers bar during the project review. I toasted some eggos and downed two glasses of orange juice. Then I went back to bed. I slept until 10 AM. I look thinner. During charette week I think I lose about five to ten pounds.

Went to urban planning this afternoon, the only class I've attended this week apart from studio. It was a guest lecture on sustainable development (not only is it impossible to define, but its also nearly impossible to impliment). The TA with my paper told me his dog ate it (along with seven others) but that I got a B. I was less than elated. Ah well.

I treated myself to a great lunch at the Chuckbox, the best burger joint in town. They ask what size you want (the big one or the really big one), and what kind of cheese you want. Then they slap the meat on the mesquite grill and grill it right in front of you. I also ordered some beer-battered fried mushrooms and a lemonade. Total came to a little under 8 dollars. Kind of pricey, but delicious. I loaded up on the condiments, tomato, ketchup, and lettuce and dug in. Man, that first bite of burger is the best. Juicy beef with that smokey grilled tinge, cool lettuce and tomato, the slightly toasted bun. The mushrooms are great too. Beer-battered, fried, and served with ranch dressing. A lunch to remember, maybe I was just hungry. I ate ravenously and everything.

Came home and now I'm getting started with cleaning up from my studio mess. There's bits of cardboard and chipboard everywhere.

Recovery

Well, I'm finally getting over my headache. Too much caffine and too little water. I went to bed last night at 7:00 PM, and slept until 3:00 AM when I awoke from hunger. I hadn't eaten anything since a bowl of cereal at 6:30 the previous morning, and a snickers bar during the project review. I toasted some eggos and downed two glasses of orange juice. Then I went back to bed. I slept until 10 AM. I look thinner. During charette week I think I lose about five to ten pounds.

Went to urban planning this afternoon, the only class I've attended this week apart from studio. It was a guest lecture on sustainable development (not only is it impossible to define, but its also nearly impossible to impliment). The TA with my paper told me his dog ate it (along with seven others) but that I got a B. I was less than elated. Ah well.

I treated myself to a great lunch at the Chuckbox, the best burger joint in town. They ask what size you want (the big one or the really big one), and what kind of cheese you want. Then they slap the meat on the mesquite grill and grill it right in front of you. I also ordered some beer-battered fried mushrooms and a lemonade. Total came to a little under 8 dollars. Kind of pricey, but delicious. I loaded up on the condiments, tomato, ketchup, and lettuce and dug in. Man, that first bite of burger is the best. Juicy beef with that smokey grilled tinge, cool lettuce and tomato, the slightly toasted bun. The mushrooms are great too. Beer-battered, fried, and served with ranch dressing. A lunch to remember, maybe I was just hungry. I ate ravenously and everything.

Came home and now I'm getting started with cleaning up from my studio mess. There's bits of cardboard and chipboard everywhere.

whupped

see above. crit went ok, better than most. I had everything this time and it looked pretty cool, but there was one guy who wired his model for electric lighting. Anyway, got five hours of sleep monday night, and no sleep last night. Forget salsa, she's just going to yell at us for not practicing anyway. As if I could do anything on the dance floor right now. Current status: see above.

brief update

Had a nice dinner with Sally and Johnathan last thursday night at the Indian restaurant my family would always go to. In urban planning that day I got an 97 percent on my exam, which is worth about 20 percent of my grade for that class. Friday was really busy too, I directed the habitat truck into campus and helped load the framed walls of the shed I built so they could be taken back to be used in a house. Then I spent a few hours working with my classmates on a site model we decided to build out of class. It's the context and area outside of the site we're building on, so we can just pop our models into and out of the site. I was planning on going to the Beaux Arts Ball afterwards, but I was just drained. Ben grilled some steaks outside and Jen had her tri-tip and afterwards we played a few rounds of scrabble.
This weekend I've just been working on my architecture project, which is really a shame as is gorgeous, warm, and sunny with cool breezes. Fortunately it's due wednesday and not monday, but I'm going to try and get the model done today. I may also get a haircut, get it cut short for the summer. I'm going to look so wild after Europe.
While waiting for my concrete test pour to cure, I picked up The Fountianhead. I had read it the summer before coming to ASU and actually made comments in the margins. It's fun, because its like a conversation I have with myself. My studio instructor recommended that people read it before college, during college, and once again after one graduates, as different things will be noticed and taken.
Back to work. Try not to think about the dance competition that Sally and Jen's mom are going to see.
"Jen's mother is coming here? We shall double our efforts!"

Kind of a crummy day

Well, got to bed last night around one after working on the architecture project, a regular bedtime now, and was promptly woken up at 7:30 AM by American Express to tell me that they couldn't verify my card. I was so tired I didn't even remember what they said. Anyway, as I had to be up at 8:00 to get ready for my 8:40 class, I just got up. I did talk to mom which was really nice as I don't get to communicate with my family enough. Anyway, I left without breakfast and got to class to see the teacher not show up. We have this great coordinator, a professor smurf, who got confused about his own schedule as to when the project was due, then announced last class that today's' class was canceled, thinking our project was due next monday. This guy is always making these kind of mistakes and then holding us accountable for what's written in his handout, so my architecture group decided he'd realize his mistake then come. I guess he figured since most people wouln't come, he wouldn't, either.
With no time to waste, I walked to a nearby art store and bought twenty dollars of basswood and chipboard for my model. I left it on top of a locker, all but hidden from view less than two inches from the ceiling and went to my 9:40 class, a lecture this time on "Wood: Our Friend" in structures for two and a half hours.
I had waffles for lunch after I got back and packed my model and other supplies into my portfolio case and walked to school early to catch an Architecture Student Assoc. meeting at 12:30. I passed one of my friends in third year coming the other way who informed me that the meeting was actually at noon, the email I read being incorrect. So I talked to another person in my studio while I waited for the 1:40 studio and realized the chipboard I bought was not going to work for my base anyway, as the thickeness was wrong. I would have returned it, had I not cut it in the store waiting for class. The basswood bundle had also been taken, apparently much too visible. The studio instrcutor gave us his ten minutes of "ASU program sucks, your craft sucks and I spit on your presentation skills" speech and then let us free to get to work. At least we dont have to stay in studio. I walked home.
Upon reaching my apartment, I drove directly to the art store Utrect and bought the correct chipboard I needed. The next two hours I spent precisely cutting through the double ply to get 12 identical sheets of the right size and shape. I still need to actually make the elevation change cuts, but that can wait for tomorrow. After I did the cuts, I made a formwork and poured a test concrete wall I colored red with powdered pigment. It's actually a nice shade of Tucson red.
To my shame, I must confess I spent nearly thirty minutes hanging out with Jen wating for the concrete to cure. I ordered a pizza and was able to eat three slices before we were due at Salsa class. I forced myself to focus on getting the dance routines right until it ended at 9:40 and we left for home. At least we ended practicing merengue, my favorite dance (the one with the least complicated footwork).
Ben recommended we watch some SNL and I though hey, I could use a little SNL. So I invested an hour in recuperation watching the best of Phil Hartman (Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer). Something about one of the sketches, Cooking with the Anal Retentive Chef, just triggered me and I just laughted hysterically, until tears streamed down my cheeks. Just needed something to release the stress I guess. Anyway, Dinner with Sally tomorrow, the birthday girl and ONE CLASS.... AT 12:15.... LAST CLASS OF THE WEEK.... I love Thursdays.

Reader's Digest Presents: Last Two Weeks

San Francisco
Saturday we drove into the city and walked around the pier. Saw the sea lions and took a harbor tour as Alcatraz was booked solid through wednesday. Ate clam chowder from a sourdough bowl from a famous local cafe and walked around the Gheridelli Chocolate Square where we found a bookstore dedicated to books about architecture, urban planning, construction, and interior design. I bought three books, all at really good prices. New Vernacular Architecture and New Forms: Architecture in the 1990's, and Home: an Evolution of an Idea. Afterwards we drove to the massive park in san francisco, which really reminded me of the botanical gardens in Singapore. We walked around there for awhile and drove to the Palace of Fine Arts, a massively scaled roman dome and collanade.
Sunday we all went to church, then I helped set up for the Gozzi's Easter dinner where they served ham and the usual tasty dinner dishes. After a quick bite to eat, we left at six and drove to the airport for a late flight back to phoenix, getting me home a little past midnight.
I'm going to New York on the 22nd, and before then I have to finish my last architecture project ( it has to be the best I've ever done), and also compete in a salsa competition with my salsa class for our final grade.