"... Tear down this Wall!"

So maybe the most defining moment of the Berlin Wall coming down 20 years ago was not the famous quote by US President Ronald Reagan, according to the Berliners, but is a historical moment for the US.

Either way, Monday, November 9th, 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall was torn down and the city of Berlin had a huge celebration, and I was right in the middle of it. The festivities started around 5pm, officially, and went on till after 11pm when I left. At the Brandenburg Gate there was a huge concert stage and major diplomats gave speeches throughout the night, Hilary Clinton gave a shout out for the States and President Obama made a speech via "live" video stream. Bon Jovi performed a quick number as well as U2.

The biggest attraction/celebration, and the one I found to be most powerful, were the dominos. Spanning from Postdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate were one thousand 8-10 ft blocks set up like dominos (Pictured Above). Each block was painted by a specific artist from all over the world and was an original design of the artist. Sometime around 9pm the first block was knocked over and down the line they came, each one falling one-by-one. It gives me chills to even think of it.

The blocks and the actions of the ceremony I can explain, but the atmosphere, which gave me the chills, can not be explained in words. First, to me, and some of my fellow classmates, Berlin seems like a much darker, dreary city compared to the states. It is not common to just start chit-chatting with someone on the street, like it is in the US, so the city just seems kind of gloomy to us. So to go to this event and to see the joy in the face of all the Berliners and not just joy, but specifically pride. Pride shown in screams, in tears, and hugs and kisses. The people of Berlin are the ones who tore down that wall, they were the most influential and it was their actions that brought down that wall, and that is something to be proud of.

For a moment, getting caught up in the excitement of watching this wall "fall down" all over again, it seemed like a felt a small glimmer of what it must have been like to see the original wall fall. It was an amazing thing to be apart of and is by far the best thing I have been apart of during my time in Europe, I wouldn't trade the opportunity for anything. No matter how cold it was or how much it rained that night, the spirit of the Berliners was a live and well and the adrenaline that pumped through your veins was enough to keep you warm in the coldest of weather. I wish you could have all been there to experience it for my words do it no justice. I strongly feel it is worth the trip on the 30th, 40th, and/or definitely the 50th year anniversary.

During my time here in Berlin I have learned so much about Germany's history, specially Berlin itself, more than any school book has taught me in school. Growing up we learn about the Nazi Regime and WWII and a little about the Berlin Wall. But there is so much we do not learn about the city and every new thing I learn about the city makes me fall a little more in love with it. Their history is so rich and their past is so dominate in the architecture and culture. I'm just happy to be apart of all of it.

But that is it for now, I am trying to post a video that I took of the "wall" tumbling by, I think it is exciting to just hear the crowds reaction as it approaches. I will post pictures also, but the video can be found on my Facebook page if I can't find alternative methods!

Only 13 days until I'm back on US soil, it's going to go by fast! So long for now!

Busy, Busy, Busy, B!

Wow have I been busy!! So this week I came home from Athens on Sunday, had a group powerpoint presentation Wednesday, Thursday I was in Hamburg from 7am-9:30pm, another powerpoint presentation on Friday, AND my 10 page paper due Friday before 11pm! Needless to say, the amount of sleep and extra time was limited.

There are no signs of this slowing down either! Next week I have a 3 page paper due, a group project where we have to put together a book of sketches that analyze a number of spaces we visited through out our time in Europe, my sketch book itself is due (which I need to do some more work on), and another paper to write on Friday. The Friday after that is my Final Crit and then 4 days after that... I'm shipping out to Boston! WHAT?!

Ya, I have 18 more days here and then its on the plane. What happened to the time? I still thought it was October 1st. What happened to September? Was it fun? Anything interesting happen? And where is November going? Before I know it I'll be eating a huge turkey (deep-fried *hint*) with some squash, mashed potatoes, and corn with my family at a table that is way to small for us.. cause it just wouldn't be a family holiday if we had an appropriately sized table.

Needless to say, this journey has gone by as fast, of maybe faster, as I expected. Not to say that I have missed it, cause it has been great and I've made sure to take advantage of being here. I saw it as my last opportunity to be in Europe... which may VERY well be true.

So now that I've told you all my work that is due... time to do it! Talk to you later!! Soccer game tomorrow... maybe I'll post pics. Also, check out the pics from my day trip to Hamburg, it was a pretty cool trip.. minus the rain and cold weather!

Eisbären Berlin!

Last night I went to an ice hockey game here in Berlin and it was a great time! I loved it! The skill wasn't nearly NHL caliber, but it was still fun hockey to watch and the crowd was very rowdy and very involved in the game. It was like a hockey game with a futbol game crowd.

My roommate and I decided to buy tickets kind of last minute... so we ended up paying €40, but the seats were great! We were 13 rows off the ice, so we were just high enough to see over the class but still be pretty close. We sat on the long side on the end the home team shot twice on. To our right was the local rowdy section, it was standing room only, so it was legit "rowdy" section. There were people with drums and noisemakers and I don't think the entire section stopped yelling at any point in the game.

Unfortunately the game ended as a 6-2 loss, but the experience was so awesome and the atmosphere was so intense that it still made for a great game, win or lose. I go again in two week with my parents. I bought seats right behind the rowdy section, so we'll be right in the heart of it... this may be moms first pro-hockey game, I think she's in for quiet the experience! After that, it's only a month until I come home... unbelievable!

Check out the pics I posted of the game using the link to the album to the right. I've been having issues uploading all of them, but I'll get them up there, I promise!

That's it for now, gotta get back to work! Later!

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!

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