vendredi, novembre 26

A lot of people have asked how my thanksgiving was being in a country that does not celebrate it...so we did celebrate within our own american ghetto here in Versailles...and the French cooked for us:
so my day started out with no classes, but i was up early finishing a paper that was due at noon. Technical difficulties as I wrote in crappy microsoft works and then I had to convert to word to print out at school. Graphics were going haywire during the conversion, so that put me in stress.
Then I did laundry...
At 730 all of the students, professors and our 2 administration workers, along with a few other guests were invited to a dinner at a local restaurant. Everything came as seperate dishes. and the first wine we had was very good but I never found the name, it was pretty sweet-as in the taste. Our main dinner plate was quite dissapointing however, we were served mashed potatoes (which is a fav but not as good as at home) and some meet from a bird of some sort, they do not have turkey here so we figured goose?? it was not chicken. and the dessert was pumkin pie...it was weak, the thickness of the pie was less than an inch and it was long and it did not come with cream or any sort...bummer. After coffee they turned off the lights and on with the black lights and a dj started spinning random spanish music??? I was kept entertained by mimmicing other dancers, its a game julie and I created. Most students went to this bar afterwards in hope to find fun but it was not...I got a call from home during this time and I spoke to all of my family including my grandparents and aunts. They must think I am using parents money partying all the time, cuz i told them I was outside a bar...if only they knew...

jeudi, novembre 25

utilzing the mug, she still works 

me and my mug 

here is the mug all taped up and with scar marks 

almost burnt down the apartment.

My mom sent me a package yesterday and she was so nice to me, she sent me bass wood, food, mint cookies and a new mug from caribou. I was so excited to use my new mug so I used 2 packs of my instant coffee (i do not recremmend doing this) added the water and put it in the microwave as I usually do. I left to utilize the toliet. I came back to find a flame in the micro!! I was pushing buttons and turning knobs frantically yet I could not stop the micro nor the flame! Finally, after the longest 15 seconds of my life I got the door open and blew out the flame...whew. I took out my mug, and the handle melted off...im so sad. I guess I was too dumb to realize that plastic in micros results in a pretty bad thing. So I brought the mug to my workshop (this means across my room where my glue and exacto laid) and I tried to fix her up. I think I may need stronger glue, but for now she has a bandgage of masking tape on her...poor mug. well I continued using the mug..so it still serves its purpose, besides the handle that is. and I really feel the burn marks add character to the mug...dont you think?

mardi, novembre 23

morrissey.

Last night Julie and I ventured to the far northeast side of paris to see a legend...the tix were 33 euro but it was worth the time and money. If you do not know who Morrissey is, then you just do not know what you are missing, the smiths??? anyways, the show was pretty damn cool. Morrissey performs expertly, probably because he is one. I do not even know his newest album so well and his songs are still playing inside my head as I type this now....if one can accomplish that then you know it was a good show. The fans were getting a little rowdy. at one point they were chanting "Morrissey, morrissey, morrissaaay" to some football like chant. Julie and I joined in with the fun during the chants and the "woooos" yeah they were "wooooo"ing meaning in a higher girl like voice and not like "yeaaaaah!" it was odd to hear but whaterver, the french are just odd in general. Im glad I found that Julie likes the same music as I, otherwise I think I would be much more homesick...listening to good music makes me happy, seeing good music live makes me hyper.

i just added a link to a new page just for pictures. look on the left and under travel the web click on IMAGES. thanks.

whoa... his name is big and in red.

jeudi, novembre 18

72 hours and im falling asleep.

Ive had a crazy crazy crazy three days... i think i got about 8 hours total thus far. It all started sunday night, i stayed up until 3 working on design, and then again on Monday. Well monday I stayed up until 5am however all of the work from 2 am till 5 was worthless...i was building a model in double the scale it ought of been in....so scrap those peices. Tuesday night I went to flogging Molly, I did not get home till 1am and I walked straight to studio. Everyone was there working hard core on design. See the next day was the midreview...I still had to do some free hand sketches, and yeah finish that model. so I stayed up all night. at some points i remember waking up maybe a minute later after dozing off with my exacto in my hand and my chip board in the other. of course I could not make the night without cutting myself...that is no surprise.
whoa i am dozing of as i type this...sorry.
The midreview went pretty well. I think my professor trusts me and my design, and the other professor who critiqued it thinks it is a strong project. Im not sure if my peers really understand it, but that does not say much...
oh time to get going, im so tired im becoming mean.

mercredi, novembre 17

fa fa fa flogging molly!!

yeah thats right, I saw FLOGGING MOLLY in Paris! yes i know it would have been better in dublin, but would it really? it was thier first time playing in paris and I think they enjoyed the crowd given the topic of football was brought up and ireland and france are big rivals. therefore with the little french that dave king, lead singer, knew he said basically that there was no competition...the crowd got rowdy ( as if they were not during the whole show). Then in some intermission, yet still withthe drummer and lead guitarist imprompt playing there was King again dancing wildly i guess in some irish way on stage. while also during the whole show you have the rowdy, sweaty, smelling crowd moshing the irish jig, and i did not stand there and watch. at one point ben was standing next to me and a second later these two guys who were moshing linked onto eachother grabbed onto ben and he became part of this 3 man link that was just pretty much dancing around in circles...later on I joined up with Ben and Julie during one of my favorite, "whistles the wind" to embrace the calmer song. before we knew the circle grew to about 30 people Id say and we were swaying and moving in every which way. ah good times... I danced so much, and intensely too...then I returned home to finish my project for the midterm review. My mom called after I just had gotten out of the show... she prolly thinks I am crazy and partying too much, the truth is, well I am crazy. and I am just experiencing the culture here, we dont really call it partying...sometimes the cultural experience requires liqour and sometimes it requires heavy dancing, and listening to loud music. thats all. no parties... .

lundi, novembre 15

AIA Conference.

SO a while back I volunteered to work at this AIA (american institute of architects) conference that is being hled in paris, in doing so there was the possibility of meeting architects and meybe work for them...well that did not happen, however I will always remember this past weekend because I sat in on a lecture given by christian portzamparc who is the architect behind parc de la villette, and you know how much I love that place. Anyway, his lecture was interesting but the more interesting part of the whole conference was how we were allowed to go to the site visits with the large groups and the architect was there on site talking to us about his project. The conference focussed on the rive gauche area and its new plans for develoment...therefore there were many buildings that are in the forfront for sustainable architectrue and the materials used... I learned about many great french architects and they had a round table with american architects with what architecure will be like in 10 years...all very fscinating.

vendredi, novembre 12

So studio 14 held a party two nights ago. I decided to show up because I feel I have not interacted withthe french students much. Let me tell you what the night consisted of:

A brass band of about 14 people playing up on some type of stage...the popular song was lion kings in the jungle, yes the mighty mighty jungle. The band was not all that good, but I guess it was good eneugh for the drunk french students to dance swing too. They are pretty good at dancing. Most americans do not know how to dance unless it is that club bump and grind stuff, therefore not too many americans danced. I did not dance until the bongo drums came out and a group of 5 were playing some pretty interesting beats on them. It was cool, I think some people thought it was odd music, but I like it. and then it went back to the swing dancing again with the brass band and I took part in that. I started doing the oly swing dance move I know which is close to dancing like ska...so I did that and then some other funny twirls and swings with this cool girl named Julie. Julie is sitting next to me now. she rocks. So we were off into our own world of dancing and mimicing other dancers (which is qute a fun game I must add, some people are funny dancers). At the end of the party most of the americans went back to an apartment to keep the night going...but not much excitement happpened there. I left after about a half hour.

mercredi, novembre 10

so i do laundry... sometimes

sarah, me, ted, ben and monica

how it is at the french school.

so the students here basically run the school. They own the studio spaces. Meaning, the professors do not go into studio, and then during class time they all meet in some other rooms. and not all students get studio space, one basically has to fight and claim space or make peace and kindle friendships with the older students because it is a huge hierarchial system here. The grad students (known as diploma students) are the one in charge of studio. as of now, I do not currently have a permentent space, I share a table with my firend Ted in studio 14, which I guess is known as the party studio (convienent how there is a party tonight). And some french students do not like us americans, they are quite bitter. I was told we have a rep to break from the previous year...maybe the americans were rowdy. And you do not really notice how loud and rowdy we are until you go to another country. Ted has been practicing his quiet voice because his voice carries really well. I have been quiet, mostly because I do not feel confident when i speak french. for an instance, the other day I said bonne journee (which means have a nce day) to my land lord and it took me 3 trys to say it in order for him to understand what I said. I must just sound stupid. I try to use some accent, not necessarily a french one but anything that doesnt sound american i figure might work but in the end I come up with something that sounds like garbilished blurred words from some other foriegn land....oh the difficulties of living in another country.

tonight ill learn some french. you take the night off.

julie, alice and I at O'paris

i drank 3 of these bad boys!!!and i found that was my limit

so now youve seen it from all angles and with laundry

this is where i live

closet and desk

more laundry

lundi, novembre 8

update.

this is a quick update because i have not written in awhile and becuause the computer lab is going to close soon. speaking of, 24 hour access to everything at UIC is luxury. this school basically shuts down after 8pm and on the weekends. well you already know that the whole town shuts down on sundays except for the market. difficulties of trying to do research when most of the books are in french, thus i must try to interpret diagrams... so this is the intense period of school and we have so much stuff to do for every class. wish me luck, i hope ill survive.
last night was my first all nighter.

lundi, novembre 1

barcelona, part three: Why I love barcelona

I have fallen in love with Barcelona. Today I was wondering the streets with Ben and we came across to the new project by Miralles that is a roof cover over an existing structure for a market space. The cover has a wavey form and is quite colorful. It is supported by these metal tubes that that are bent and curved in shape. It reminds me of the stumps of shrubs, there are many at the base and then they expand out. After we traveled to the olympic village area. The contemporary buildings were built over the streets to allow more space yet still maintain vehicular traffic. and fro, there we walked along the seafront to the forum. The exposition that barcelona hosted in 2004, that we just missed, however some of the more permanent buildings were still up. The sea front is my favorite part of Barcelona. A new residential area is being constructed known as Diagonal Mar. It contains a series of contemporary highrise buildings, and the park designed by Miralles down below. I think this city loves Miralles, but I do not mind, its nice to look at. The city here is a system. You have the different districts, many developed nodes and paths and all are so interesting. Public transportation consists of bus, metro, tram, lifts and trains. People are walking everywhere, bikes along the seafront. The beach area is well developed with contemporary architecture ( frank gherys fish sits above an inlet of resturants). Much of it was developed for the olympics in 92 and some more renovations for the just past forum, but if that is what it takes to plan a city then so be it. I know a few who are in love with Chicago...but why, I just does not have much to offer as Barcelona. Granted Barcelonas topography help inspire architecture such as Donoatos, and maybe that is why I do like it there so much. It is a city where the water, mountains and people meet.