Oktoberfest

So this is kind of an experimental post. It is now 5pm on Friday afternoon here, my train leaves for Munich in about 5 hours. In this one post, I plan to talk about pre-train events, then pause for the day and enjoy Oktoberfest, then finish the post Sunday morning, Post-Oktoberfest.

There are really two way this could end up, pretty interesting... or a complete failure. I'm hoping for the first one, but preparing myself up for the later.

Like I said,it's 5pm here, I'm on a rather large break from class and am about to start up the last part of class any minute. We took a tour of the Berlin Wall museum earlier this afternoon and it was pretty cool. There is so much history here and it is all hard to believe. When you look at the city now, everything seems to normal for me, it is hard to believe at some point in time (not to long ago) there were people killed for attempting to cross this wall that split the city in two and created two different worlds, not just cities.

Today we learned about "No Mans Land" and how they used the space not only to spot people escaping, but how the also raked the soil so that they could see footprints and find all the hotspots so they could block them, and also they could use the footprints and track who was on in that area and punish them. We were told of a story about this man who was separated from his wife and family, so when a new sports car came out which only stood 3ft from ground to top of the window, he went out and bought it. He put his wife in the truck and his mother-in-law squeezed in behind the seats. He deflated the tires as much as possible so that when he approached the gate he appeared to be pulling out his pass and then gunned it at the last second and went right underneath the gate at Check Point Charlie! It was so close that he had to duck his own dead!

Anyway, pretty interesting stuff. But tonight I leave it all and go to Müchen for the Oktoberfest celebration. This will be a first for me and I don't really know what to expect. I know there is going to be tents and tons of people, but other than that, I don't really know what to expect. I'm excited to see this though, this is a tradition that started in 1810, it is the worlds largest fair! So like I said, the train leaves here around 10pm and arrives in Munich at 6am Saturday morning. That gives us a solid 8 hours to sleep if we want.. which I plan to do! We enjoy the city and culture until 11pm and then arrive back to Berlin at a wonder 7 am Sunday morning! Pretty good plan... I don't see ANYTHING going wrong! :)

Thats it for now.. catch ya on the flip side...

It is now the flip side! I got back from Munich Sunday morning, but I didn't feel like posting yesterday, so I am doing it today instead. Oktoberfest was awesome and I had a really good time. When they said its the worlds biggest fair... they mean it. This place had like a full size roller coaster and everything. It was almost like an amusement park, but with the feel of being a fair.

We arrived in Munich at around 6:30 am Saturday morning and followed the waves of people wearing the lederhosen to the site of the actual fair. It was only a 10 minute walk, so it wasn't bad. We were there pretty early, we stepped in line at the first beer tent around 7, but none of them even opened until after 9. We first got in line in the front of the building, we were only 4-5 rows back, so we were in pretty good shape. Then everyone started moving to the side... apparently you enter from the side entrance.. the front is for looks only! This made us fall back in line a ways and by the time we entered the tent there were no more seats! NOTE TO EVERYONE, if you are ever looking to go to Oktoberfest, reserve a seat at a beer tent before you go... its an extra 50€, but you're guaranteed a spot to sit all day. You have to reserve months in advance, so don't plan last second.... like I did.

Anyway, we ended up eating outside, but it was still fun to walk inside and check out the festivities. People kept standing up on the table and chugging their beers... probably 1/2 liter at a time. Everyone would start chanting "chug, chug, chug" and if they finished it there would be a big cheer, and if they left even a sip left, they would all boo! There is no mercy! People all over are chanting their "cheers" song before they all take a drink, and more everyone threw out a "PROST!", which is the equivalent of 'cheers.'

The food was amazing. I ended up eating some kind of goulash, which is like a beef stew, and mine had small pieces of potato in it. It was so good, I wish I could have more! I also tried to get pictures of the kitchen area, you'll have to look at the pictures to really understand what I'm talking about, but there was more rotisserie chicken than I have ever seen in my life! 10-15 chickens per rotisserie stick, and 5-8 sticks all rotating along this wall of heat! It was so crazy to see. On top of that, there is a giant big, I've also never seen a pig this size, rotating on it's own rotisserie. It was like a big you see the Mythbusters use on their show... full size... just there. You'll have to see the pictures to fully appreciate this. We also ate a lot of pretzels, very big pretzels. I'm not sure if I got a picture of this, but it was probably 18" wide and probably 3" thick. I didn't know how to order, so I just told the waitress "Groß Bretzel!", which is 'Big Pretzel!" and she brought one.

Anyway, I am in the process of posting pictures, so keep an eye of the Picasa page (link can be found on the right) for new pictures of Oktoberfest and more.

This has been a very long post, but I think it was pretty successful, before and after thoughts. The train ride home was long, but I'm pretty sure everyone slept, it was pretty long day in Munich, and we had just enough energy to walk back to the apartment at 8am Sunday morning and go back to bed for a few hours.

Overall, it was a great trip and I suggest it to anyone. The beer tents are just a small part of it and can easily be avoided. There is an entire fair there and I'm sure there is way more then we saw. It was so big and so easy to get lost... which happened a few times! Though after 6 it starts to get a little more rowdy. Everyone has been drinking since 10am, and around 6pm is when they start playing more modern age music so young kids get a little crazy, until then they play original festive music so it is not as bad.

Ok, seriously, that is it for now!

Take care, Tschüss!

One Crit Down, 4 To Go?

So I'm not sure how many more crits I have until the Final Crit, but I am one more crit closer than I was! After a late night in the studio, 4am to be exact, I had a very successful studio crit and am feeling very good about my project. Was it worth staying till 4? Yes, because my other other option was to leave at 11, and at the point I would have regretted leaving without pushing more work out.

See, here is the big flaw in the living situation here in Berlin. It takes me 45 minutes to get from my apartment to studio. It is all by subway and there is only one place I have to get off and switch lines, but it still takes a long time. The apartment is bout 4-5km from the studio, so walking there anytime between 11-4 is out of the question, but the last train leaves the nearby station at 11, and if you are not on it, you have to wait for the next one... at 4am!

So I willing missed the 11pm train knowing that I should stay and pump out some more work, and that is what I did and it paid off big. My professor loved where I was with my design, he was a little concerned with the fact that my building is based on 3 different concepts: Views, Circulation, and Spaces. He felt that my building focused around 1 very powerful central view, which is correct and that was my intention. His concern was that my other two concepts might start to take away from that one central view as my project progresses. I saw his point and have already thought of some ways to make the central view the top priority and make my other concepts minor supports. This should be good.

With that, my next step is getting my building ready for the engineering students, who will come in next Monday and be "HVAC consultants." This should be interesting, I think it will be the first time any of us have really worked 1-on-1 with an engineer. We will need to meet their needs and they will help guide our building from wasting too much energy and show us areas that need improvement.

I am looking forward to all of this, I hope all this traveling doesn't tire me out too much and I lose my motivation and ambition on this project. I like where it's going and I'm already excited to see the end result!

Thanks for the support all. But now it is time for me to go to bed... even though it's only 7pm!

Gute Nacht!

Back in Black

Guten Abend!

Back to Berlin and back to studio! I arrived back to Berlin Saturday night around 10:30, made some food, and called it a night. Prague was pretty cool, I posted a lot of pictures, which I will give you the address for soon. The city was full of history and a little bit of modernism was sprinkled in here and there. It still amazes me how buildings from the 20's look like they were built yesterday. Not only in their condition, but in their style and modernism. Those are the builds that make me want to be an architect, if I ever design a building that still looks modern even 80-90 years later, I'd be happy.

But being back to Berlin means back to studio and back to work. Yesterday I did nothing... all day. Luckily for me, no one did work. Everyone was pretty exhausted from Prague and very unmotivated to do any work, so nothing got done. But unlike everyone else, I came in to studio early and pumped out some good design ideas, which my professor really liked, so I'm in good shape.

So about the pictures. It has been kind of a pain to get these pictures all organized in a place where anyone and everyone could see them. I originally, for those die-hard views who have been reading since the beginning of time, had designed a webpage that contained both my pictures and blog all under one convenient roof. But for everything good, there is a bad, and for whatever reason I had issues uploading to my domain and had to seek alternative methods. So long story short, I started using this method to post my blog and using Facebook to post pictures, but not everyone on here has access to my Facebook account. So yet again, I had to seek alternative methods, which lead me to using Flickr, which I found I could only post 200 pictures unless I wanted to pay $26, which then lead me to Picasa. Picasa is free and is a Google page, so as of right now everything is perfect. I have 1 gig of free space, so I hope that doesn't fill up, we will have to see. Anyway, the address to my Picasa page is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bbake18

I will add to the links section on the homepage of my blog, just incase you forget it. But I think that is it for now, I have to get back to work, we have a critique Wednesday and the students from the school that gave us the tour are coming to watch, so I want to impress and I want to have a lot of stuff for them to look at so they can try and understand how the building might actually look like. It is still very conceptual right now and that will make it hard to understand. Anyway, off to work.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Prague... not pronounced like the sauce

So it's been a few days... but it has also been a very busy few days. With the project underway, heading to Prague Thursday, and now a critique Wednesday, it is easy to say that I've been very busy.

But... the past couple days I have been in Prague, and I must say, I'm liking the city. Like Paris, we are staying right in the center of the historic town. There are so many history buildings, monumental buildings, and even old town blocks and town houses. The buildings are amazing and the city just seems to light up at night. Each historic building is brightly lit and is clearly visible from across the river, which splits the original city in two. The Prague Castle is beautiful and its almost impossible to capture its true beauty with a camera.

There are many town squares and areas along the river that are specifically staged for the sights of the old city. I am currently studying one square that is adjacent to the river and has buildings on 3 sides, but the buildings are oriented in a way that draws your eye not to them, but to the view across the river. The space is amazing and well planned. To draw tourist and users into the space, Frank Gehry was commissioned to design a building on the corner, and he designed an iconic building that you can't stop to see if you come to Prague. Once you're there, it is the orientation of the rest of the buildings that turns your focus elsewhere. The view is amazing and it only gets better at night.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we are staying on a Botel during our visit in Prague. Yup.. that is a hotel... on a boat! It's pretty crazy, the rooms are tiny! Two people per room, and its right quarters. My roommate is about 6'-5" and the shower is about 18"x18"... I hardly can fit in there... I can only image how awful it is for him. But luckily, the shower head is removable so you don't have to move much, just need room to move the shower head around you.

So yesterday I had rabbit for the first time... and it wasn't bad. There wasn't much meat to eat... well, I didn't know what meat to eat and not to eat... and there was a lot of bone! But the meat itself was pretty good, it was a lot like chicken, but just had more taste to it. I can see why Bear Grylls gets so pumped when he catches one.

Also, the Czech money, koruna, is actually worth LESS then the USD!! Its about 17 korunas for $1.

A disco boat just went by.

Anyway, the USD is still strong here, but also products cost like 500 korunas! It is crazy to go buy a drink and it says 33,00! Then you realize that is only $2 and every things is ok again. Last night 5 of us went out for dinner and our bill came to 1,755... but after you break it down, I only paid $20 for what would be a $30+ meal in the states.

So I think that is it for tonight, I know I'm forgetting stuff, as I do every time I write these, but I touch on most everything. It's time for bed now though, so good night!!

The disco boat just went past again... the opposite direction this time... I wish I had my camera on me

Stu-Stu-Studio

So my first week of actual class is over… and it has only just begun! The professors made sure to load everything onto us all at once! Almost all of our assignments for the semester have been given to us and it is a little overwhelming! Here is the break down.

For our actual studio we will each design a student center for a school, much like a high school in America. Part of the building is from pre-WWII, the rest of the building and its surrounding area is post-WWII. The school is adjacent to a major street corner, elevated rail system, and a river. On the other side of the river is a more historic and rich neighborhood. Tomorrow we visit the school and talk to students, but we also need to have a group model of the surrounding neighborhood, which includes all of the buildings and their correct height. We actually need TWO of these models, one for the students upstairs, one for the students downstairs (our studio is split into two floors). So that is what I have been doing this weekend, as well as some sketches of my own proposed building. This project is due in 3 phases; initial iterations, design development, then the final product at the end of November.

Next is the Urban Design class, which we travel to Prague, Siena, Rome, and Hamburg. For each of these trips there is a group that has to work together and produce a PowerPoint of the cities history, buildings, architecture, and such. My city is Hamburg and it is the last city we visit, so I’m worried that everyone will wait till the weeks before we go to do all of this work, which will also inconveniently be during the heart of our studio design that will no doubt take up 90% of my time. We may also have to each write a paper on the city, I’m not 100% sure about that right now.

On top of all that, Humanities is requiring each student to write 1 paper, present 1 PowerPoint, and write the final paper on the last day of class. This actually isn’t too bad by itself, it’s the addition of the other work that makes it difficult. The paper will be given to each student by the draw of a hat, so no one knows what their topic will be until the end of class. If your name gets drawn at the end of class, you better hope you were paying attention during that class because that days topic is the topic of your 3 page paper. Luckily, the paper isn’t due until the end of the semester. Four students already got chosen last class, so they are won’t be chosen for the rest of the semester. The PowerPoint we signed up for. I paired up with my roommate and are making a PowerPoint about the Berlin Airlift. Should be pretty straightforward and easy... should be. The final paper I am not at all worried about cause we write it in class on the last day of class and we already know the topic. It is basically a reflection paper on what we learned from the class.

So here is to hoping everything runs smoothly! We travel to Prague for 4 or 5 days starting Wednesday, so I’ll write again about that experience, should be exciting!

Goten Morgen und Tschüss!

America Vs. Europe

Ok, so this has been a long time coming and it may be a pretty long post just cause there is a lot to say. But let me first say that I am not saying that either side is better then the other, I'm just pointing out key observations that when I first saw them made me look twice because it was different then what I am use too.

First, as I have mentioned before, bicycles are on the other end of the spectrum here, compared to the Sates. Not everyone though, but on average. For example, Amsterdam was packed full of bikes and they had the right of way over pedestrians. You could take them any where, park them any where, the city just made it so much easier to own a bike over a car. Paris, not as many bikes, but they did have these "bike station" where you can rent a bike and then park it at another "station" where ever you were going. So it was kind of like renting a bike, and it was was tied into your Metro pass, so the bikes were often found at Metro stations and you just tapped your card, the bike unlocked, and off you went into the sunset. Pretty cool concept. In Berlin, there are not as many bikes as Amsterdam, but they have special bike lanes that do not share the road with cars but are actually more sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians. My fellow students and I often finding ourselves walking on them without realizing it, because it is only symbolized my a change of brick with no type of barrier, and jump out of the way as we hear a bicycle bell come flying up behind us. Basically they just make it easier for people with bikes so more people own them, and I like that.

Another big one is the cleaning service. I noticed this more in Amsterdam and Paris than in Berlin (so far). But basically, Amsterdam doesn't seem to wake up until 10 or so, and I think it's due to them staying up until 3. The town is most lively at like 1-2, so you can imagine that there is a huge mess in the streets the next morning. Well, not for long because city workers, on feet and street cleaners, are up early in the morning sweeping up all the streets. Not saying the place is spotless, but it does seem cleaner. One night I was walking home and this one street at literally hundreds of Fanta bottles all over the place, the next morning, GONE! I've also seen this in Spain, so I know it is a common European concept.

This is kind of annoying to me, but when you buy bottles here in Berlin, you can get charged up to 50 euro-cents as a deposit. You get it back when you return the bottle, but you can only return it to a store who sells that same product. So if I buy a coke, I have to return it at a store that sells coke. I guess if you buy something from Aldi, which is a grocery store that I bought my groceries at a few posts ago, you have to return them at Aldi and Aldi only! Kind of annoying.

This is a gimme, but the cars over here are crazy! First, in Berlin, the traffic lights go Green-Yellow-Red and then Red-Yellow-Green. This country is made for fast cars... and they show it. As soon as that goes from Red-to-Yellow, those cars are gone! Second, I walked down a "rich" shopping street today and passed by several Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, Aston Martins, and a few high end Audi, I think it was an R8. But I have seen these cars go flying by near my studio and apartment, so they are pretty common, unlike back home.

Lastly, for now, is COLD MEDICINE! I've been sick since Amsterdam with some kind of cold. I've been to two pharmacies since my arrival in Berlin and have come out with the wrong thing the first time and empty handed the next. Apparently they do not have "cold medicine" like we do in the States. They also, that I have found, do not have stores like CVS or Rite-Aid where you can walk in and look at all the non-perscribtion meds you can think of. Trying to explain you have a cold and not a fever and just want to treat the cough, in German, is hard. The first time I was given medication for a sore throat. The second time she was trying to give me a pain medication for my chest. All I want is some Tylenol Cold & Sinus! All well, should have brought some, bad planning on my part!

Anyway, that is it for now, time to some food, after my 45 minute train ride home! Take care all!

Tschüss!

Berliner

Well, I've finally reached Berlin and it has been so nice to settle in, as I expected. The apartment is awesome, fake leather furniture, big windows that open 270 degrees, and kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. It's pretty nice. I tripped the breaker about 10 times and blew a fuse in my converter trying to get my US power strip to work... it did not. But I didn't burn anything, so everything is good.

Also, you might notice that the site has changed and you are now reading this on Blogger.com. This change is due to issues with connecting to my WIT web space and therefore I can not upload my blog and pictures. So I have made the step over to Blogger, which runs much more smooth.

Back to Berlin. I went grocery shopping yesterday morning and that was an experience. I went to this small store, which was hidden and nothing like what we would think of as a grocery store. It was more like a dollar store theme then a grocery store. Anyway, I brought my own recycling bags and almost loaded up both of them with spaghetti, oranges, apple and orange juice, milk, cereal, and a bunch more, all for 10 euros! But I get to the check out, there is only 1, and she rings up my items and slides them past the scanner to this tiny little bagging area, which is where I am suppose to gather my money, give it to her, receive my change, all while bagging my own items that she has just rung up. Then as I was finishing up bagging, she was throwing items of the person behind me into my mix, but luckily I knew the person behind me, so it was ok. It was all crazy.

Today I am doing some shopping on a street that is said to be filled with stores. I have a few things I need to get, and a few groceries that I forgot to get yesterday. A bike is in order for me also, as long as I can get one for under 30 euros. I'm obviously looking for a used one, but bikes are really cheap over here because they are not as fancy as the 21 speeds in the States, it is basically a classic bike with one speed... sometimes you can get one with multi-speeds.

Anyway, it's time to get on the road, still have nearly a full day ahead! Enjoy your day in the States, hopefully the weather is a nice as it is here!

PS. Pics coming soon... I've been kind of lazy with the pics lately... trying to catch up and get some relaxation

Au Revoir, Paris

We are on the road today, left Paris, touring through southern France and then off to stay at a pilgrimage for the night. I’m probably going to make this entry short, just cause I already wrote about most of yesterday and today is pretty fresh, so not much to talk about.

So last night I saw Paris after dark and took a lot of pictures. It was pretty fun to see and the pictures came out really well, I think. At 11:00 pm, I just so happened to be taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower when all of a sudden it started sparkling. I can’t describe it very well, not even to other people on the trip, so I’m not even going to try to explain it to you via typing. But take a look at the photos... when I get them up... and maybe you can see the sparkles. Anyway, the sparkles lasted for about 5 minutes and then stopped. It was great!

Anyway, the city was awesome, and it was even better in the dark. But enough said, it is something you’ll need to experience yourself to understand!

Good morning in the States!

Ps. The picture above is my signature on the Eiffel Tower. Many people signed the billboards on the stairway to the top, so I joined in.

Fraaaance

So yesterday was a pretty good day, the weather was good for the most part, the building we saw were amazing, and the small community we stayed at was the exact opposite of every other place we have been since arriving in Europe.

Yesterday started by visiting Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoya, pictured above. I’ve seen this building many times during my studies at WIT, but to actually be there was incredible. It is one of those buildings you just never want to leave. It is hard to believe this house, like the Shroder house, was built in the 20’s.

Next was the Versailles Garden, which is by far the largest garden I have ever seen! You should probably Google it. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative during my visit, but it was still nice to wonder the gardens. The gardens are over 1,900 acres and were built by the order of Louis XIII. Like I said, find a map on Google and check it out, it’s HUGE and pretty amazing. I wish the weather would have been nicer and we had more time, a bunch of us were going to rent segways!

After the gardens was another beautiful house called Maison Carre’ by Alvar Aalto. This another building that is studied a lot in school, but again, it is nothing that you ever imagined when you finally visit it. This space was amazing, even with the vegetation overgrown to block what use to be views for miles. Though this building was built in the mid to late 50’s, it still looks pretty modern for todays time.

Anyway, after all that, it only got better. Last night the group went to this very little village in the mountains of southern France. I believe it was a place called Vézelay, though I am not 100% sure at this point. But in this village, way at the top of the hillside, was a beautiful cathedral. We just so happened to get to the cathedral just in time for mass and I sat through my first Catholic mass. Though I had no idea what they were saying because it was in French, their voices and singing carried through the 12th century building so clearly and beautifully.

After mass, a few of us went out to get dinner and stumbled upon this relatively fancy restaurant. I was served a 3 course meal for 19 euros, which contained a little bit of chicken, pork ribs, duck, potato vegetable soup, and raspberry mousse. Ya, that’s right, I ate duck and it was pretty good. I thought it was a cross between steak and chicken, not sure if I’d ever order it as a meal, but I’d definitely eat it if it was readily available.

So overall it was a pretty good day, a lot of fun and adventure. Also a lot of driving on the bus! This trip is almost over and Berlin is only a few days away. Soon I’ll start chatting more about my experiences in Europe and how they differ from US, but I’m just letting them build up right now so I can post an entire blog about them. I will say it is almost 100% different, that is my opinion.

But that concludes another night. Just past 11 pm here. Sorry for the lack of posts. Internet in Paris and France in general was weak if existing at all. Hope all these post make up for it. Take care all!

Centraal Beheer (Bear-heer)

I have presented my project, toured the building, taken several pictures, and am now ready to write my research paper. The building I have been studying is Centraal Beheer in Apledorn, Netherlands. Centraal Beheer is a very well known issurance company here in the Netherlands and in the mid-70’s asked unknown arhictect Hermann Hertzburger to design an office building for 1,000 employees. During this time, it was Hertzburgers belief that people spend more time in the office than at home and therefor an office building should feel more like a home. His main ideas about the buildings were that there would be no hierarchy, meaning every office space would be the same for interns all the way up to CEOs. He also wanted the space to be very open so that one could easily get up and roam to get coffee or talk to another employee or just relax, this also made it easy to sneak out of work without the boss seeing you.

Hertzburger compared this building a city. He gave it many different exits/entrances, put several public spaces in it for the users, created a grid system and took away the hierarchy. It is an amazing building with great concepts. I loved touring it and couldn’t believe how successful it was. All the images I found of the building, as well as plans and sections, never really helped me understand the building. It is a crazy building with crazy concepts and a crazy design, but once you enter the space and look around, everything makes sense. Though it would take a new employee a few weeks to learn their way around the office. Once really cool concept is pictured below. As you can see their is only one escalator going from floor to floor, so during the morning rush hour they run the escalators moving upward. They then turn them on moving downwards in the afternoon rush hour. In the hours in between they are shut off and used as normal stairs, this way the building saves energy and we all know what that means for the environment. Of course the building does have an elevator and alternative stairs.

I guess that is it for now, hopefully I get internet soon! Later all!

Bonjour, Paris

Tonight will be my last night in Paris, it has been great here. The people are nice, the buildings are fantastic, and the weather is... ok. There are a ton of things to climb, the picture above is at the top of Notre Dame, but I also climbed the Eiffel Tower this afternoon. I thought Notre Dame was a lot of climbing after spinning around a spiral staircase which seemed to lead no where, then I climbed the Eiffel Tower. Both climbs were well worth it in the end and now I can say I actually climbed the Eiffel Tower, not just took the elevator.

Anyway, Paris is a great city to see many different kinds of architecture, it is almost like an onion. The center of town, the area where it all began, is the historic area. There are buildings wall-to-wall, parks built by kings, cobblestone, and very old buildings. As you get further out of town, the buildings get more and more modern until you finally reach the tall skyscrapers. The coolest thing about this is that the city is split directly down the middle by a river, so if you take a river tour you can see all these layers and most of the important buildings can be seen from the river anyway.

One thing that took my by surprise were the rats. At night time, these things are everywhere! You usually only seem them near the bushes and grass areas, but I saw one dart through the plaza like it was trying to set a new land-speed record or something. After investigating where it came from, I found what appeared to be a colony.

Well I guess that will be it for tonight, still not a strong internet connect, so again I can’t upload this. I think I may be switching to google blog because it will work better in places I don’t have strong internet and it will allow everyone to comment back so I can see what everyone thinks. I don’t know though, we’ll see.

Take care and enjoy your day!

Bye-Bye Nederlands

So it has been a few days since I’ve updated everyone, but it has been busy, and I think I’ve done pretty well, this is post 3 in 5 days?

As the title suggest, we are on our way to France, with a few stops along the way. Since my last blog, I have visited Rotterdam, Utrecht, and seen more of Amsterdam. I have been posting pictures on my Facebook account, mostly because it is easy, so if you’re not a Facebook friend, request me and I’ll add you so you can see them.... maybe. I’m just kidding. But I will try to post some more photos on here, I’ve been taking a lot, nearly 300 every day, 360 yesterday!

Rotterdam; Great architecture, weird place! The modern architecture is great, and many more sky scrappers than Amsterdam, which has nearly none. But the culture in Rotterdam is not the same as Amsterdam, they just don’t seem to have their own “thing.” Amsterdam has a strong cultural fabric with their canals and everything you think of when you hear Amsterdam. Everyone there seems to act the same and everything jut flows together nicely. Rotterdam was the opposite, everyone seemed to do their own thing. It is almost like it is a city of tourist, there is no such thing as a “local” because everyone there is really from somewhere else. Anyway, the city is a growing city (building development) and I think that may play a role. But because it is a new and growing city, the architecture is just amazing and I got to see so many modernist forms, organic forms, and the use of so many modernist materials that it really just puts shame on American architecture. I’m starting to wonder what they think about the architecture when they come to America, and I don’t really think I want to know the answer.

Yesterday we went to Utrecht, much smaller city, but still very interesting. This is where the Schroder House is located, and I could go on forever about how awesome that was, so you’ll have to talk to me in person if you really want to know about it. But I will say it is the building pictured below, and it was built in the 20’s!! As you can imagine, the local community was NOT pleased with the new appearance that did no fit with the rest of the houses. But this modernist building is amazing inside and out, the interior has elements that people still today would consider to be very modern. Keep in mind this was built nearly 85 years ago! Also in Utrecht was an amazing cathedral, and I love cathedrals. It amazes me how they constructed these enormous structures with such little and simple machinery. I took several photos of the inside and outside, I will try to post them soon. While I was there, a group of women were doing some kind of performance in the courtyard. It was no doubt either a performing arts or religious ritual, but it was pretty unique and nice.

Anyway, everyone is sleeping on the bus right now, I think I am the only one awake! But not for much longer, I will post again after my presentation later today!

Take Care All!! Thanks for reading!