jeudi, mars 31

screaming helps 

original moments

"This is your one opportunity to do something that no one has ever done before and that no one will copy throughout human existence. And if nothing else, you will be remembered as the one guy who ever did this. This one thing." -Garden State

It was one of those, you dont know what you are going to do next because you have to do just about everything and no one is cooperating or caring who should be day.
9:10 alarm was set for 8am. didnt fall asleep until 6:30 am, therefore overslept due to lack of sleep. got dressed and ran out of the apartment...I had 3 minutes to catch a train to paris to a class meeting that was essential for my design project. I didnt make it.
9:30 tried calling a colleauge to pass the word on to my professor of my late arrival, I didnt have minutes on my phone tho. I had 5 minutes to buy phone minutes.
9:35 sitting on train, on my way to paris...
10:10 eventually made it to the site, met up with the group.
11:00 first floor of the Caf building that I am redesigning...the structure caught me by surprise-realization that my design will not go as I figured.
12:30 eating chips out of a bowl at a retirement party for a SAPV administrator...my lunch for the day.
2:00 class critique- do not have much to pin up, showed the large scale model Blaine and I worked on the previous day...its a blue blob...
5:00 conversing with 3 of 4 design team members...dissing other teams projects just to make ourselves feel better...I had tears from laughing so hard...we never really discussed our project, there never seems to be a plan of action...i have never felt so not in control or knowing where my project is going this close to the final...
5:30 found 4th team member, ready to bitch him out: im so fed up with his sh*t: never there, always something more important to do...I feel like im talking to a wall, he kept walking as I was talking-mission unaccomplished
5:40 Julie and Jen take me outside they said that they will scream with me...
5:45 screamed with julie and jen at the chateau. It felt like an original moment.
6:00 went to monoprix, bought food
6:25 crawled in bed, put on that 70s show, ate my chocolate and fell asleep
7:30 4th group member calls me, appologizing....
7:35 more sleep
9:30 ben calls me, wakes me to get me to come to studio to take care of travel business...it never ends
11:00 starving: I didnt eat anything I bought besides the chocolate.
11:30 calming down, the day is over, tomarrow is another day to destroy

lundi, mars 28

what does this mean??

Your Brain is 60.00% Female, 40.00% Male
Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female
You are both sensitive and savvy, Rational and reasonable
you tend to keep level headed
But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

http://www.blogthings.com/genderbrainquiz

dimanche, mars 27

i always wanted to do this...

It was getting annoying, so I cut it...
So I said to Pryia, "I heard you are confident cutting hair,"
"yeah, I have cut a few before"
"can you cut mine?"
"sure"
so saturday night entailed me getting my haircut by my friend Pryia who has cut a few heads before and her own. Therefore, I trusted her with scissors more than I trusted myself. In exchange for the haircut I offered to feed her. So we made a vegetarian stir fry ( it was quite good I must add... we put some pineapple in place for meat also with sweet and sour sauce, you should try it and when you do call it, shannons stir fry, because that is what it is.) After we did the haircut. Now Pryia actually cut a bit more than I asked for (typical for hairstylists). Yet in the end, it turned out quite cute. Im not sure what to do with it yet, but thats not the point, the weight is gone, and it can just fro when it wants to. At home haircuts are definetly the way to go.

Tracking down La Petite Ceinture!!
So for my seminar class I have to conduct a study on Paris. My decision was to study the voids that lie within the city...more specifically la petite ceinture (the small belt). The petite ceinture are railroad tracks from the late 1800s and they are not being used today, yet they still exsist. My goal is to find these tracks, try to understand why paris accepts and keeps this void within the city. Thus far I have found places where people live (tents) and where hippies hang out. My professor and I figured out that the petite ceinture run through this crazy asian looking park that is in paris. The park is called Buttes Chaumont and It was created in 1870 by Napolean III. Today I went to the park, I randomly ran into my friend Julie who was having a picnic with her friends at the park...I dragged Julie along with me to go discover the tracks and the tunnel that they lead to. The tunnel was about 400 meters long, it was cold, and it was very dark. It was kinda freaky but we kept walking on, the trick was not to look back and realize that we were still closer to the way we came in than the exit up ahead. We did not have any light except for julie's lighter and my camera. Ocasionally I shot some pics so the flash would light up the tracks up ahead...which pretty much only told us that the tracks were still uphead. Julie took out her swiss army knife and said it loud and clear that she had it in her hand...just in case there were any scary guys down there. but in the end there was not...just a large shredded bird but we saw that at the entrance. About half way through I looked back and I saw two figures at the end where we came in. I wasnt sure what they were doing. but we kept on in our direction. Eventually we made it out, had to hop a fence and asked to use the toliet at a nearby cafe. the toliet was one of those flat in the ground kind, so it was squatting action time. We had no clue where we were, because when we came up we were in a park, I first assumed it was the same one we left from. However, it was not. We came to a realization that we were far from our starting point...and had quite a long walk back to Julies friends who did not decide to come in (i wonder why?) They told us that we were down in the tunnel for about 45 minutes. I think this is the craziest thing I have ever done...well its up there with the UIC tunnels, but thats another story...

Found the tracks at Buttes Chaumont! 

our destination... 

it was seriously dark in there.... 

julie walking with her swiss army knife. 

jeudi, mars 24

Nasrine Saraji followed by Hardcore Show on barge in the Seine River.
So there is a series of lectures that I have been attending all semester long. The lectures are for american architecture students studying in Paris. Wow... is that me? so anyway, Narrine is pretty well known and her projects are impressive. I was inspired by her words and I was jotting down notes and thoughts that kept my mind going into different directions. It would last only a few minutes but then I would Catch my wandering and bringing myself back to earth, back to the lecture hall and back intune with what is being said. Afterwards, my friend Julie talked me into going to a show on a barge in the seine. It was not really my kind of music. More gutter trash punk and hardcore metal. Yeah a weird combo, which drew a even weirder crowd. At one point this really trashed girl who was really dirty fell down really hard. Then she got up and said something to Julie and licked her. It was completely random. I thought I was about to faint midpoint between a bands set, but then I realized it was the barge swaying slowly back n forth. The night ended with a long walk through the underground metro tunnels following every "sortie" sign we saw. We felt like we were walking in circles but wern't. It took forever, but finally we made it up.

dimanche, mars 20

Bike ride, friday nite until 5am and smoking huka...
Its such nice weather here, that I went on a bike ride in Paris for class. See, this class is a little, uh, different. Basically we do what we want, as long as it is in some way studying the city. So, my friend Julie proposed to ride bikes through the city to try to understand the difficulties of bike riding amongst the other traffic. If you have not ridden a bike in a city, I highly encourage it...but I guess its just so much cooler when you are riding down Saint Germain and past St. Severin. Lucky for me...

Friday nite I met up with a group in Paris up in Montmartre. We went into this Irish pub, O' Sullivans. The atmosphere was anything but an Irish Pub. It was more of a dance club the further back into the bar you travel. I really did not like the music too much. I was just kinda bouncing around and making fun of the piano and violin slash house techno remixes. It was entertaining to watch some friends try to dance on the bar...It wasnt entertaining to notice a group of 40 year old tourists (male and female) were watching my friends dance on the bar.

Saturday nite was beautiful. A large group went out to Paris for dinner. We ate at this mess hall place where there was barely enuf room to pull out your chair and sit. The food was traditional french, actually probably one of the better french meals that I have had, which was saucisson lyonnais (sausage with onions) and for dersert fondant au chocolat...mmm it was a fudge/ cake thing in a sea of custard. you have to try it, the next time your in France that is....so then we walked down the street to a huka bar. Now I've never down this before, I really do not smoke at all, but since it was fruit I decided I'll give it a try. We also drank the best mint tea ever. If you go to France, you must get the de menthe...its amazing!! well anyway so there were all of these strong aromas and tastes, strawberry, apple and mint, it was getting too much, so we called it quits after an hour and headed on out...well actually the people at the huka bar were literally trying to kick us out of the joint. and we were not even done yet! it was the first time EVER in France that I was rushed to leave...They said, there are other people waiting...but usually, in France that does not matter...you stay until as long as you want, you have to ask for the check in order to leave. So we were a bit upset after leaving this place...the night ended young with a walk along the Seine river...I thought about going for a swim, then I thought about the coldness and dirtiness...yeah or not.

mercredi, mars 16

60 degree weather.
I was sweating today as I walked around Paris. it was well above 60 degrees, the sun not hiding as it usually does and well, I was also wearing my coat...regardless tho, it was still warm. I appreciated this warmness because its the first warmness of the year here. Its mid march and I dont have to wear a jacket! 4 entries ago I wrote about how it snowed in Paris, what the f*ck is going on here?? they say it all has to do with the tsunami...eh maybe. I bet its colder back at home, hahahaha to those of you who are back home. Its a late night in studio for me. I finished two study models to propose to my team tomarrow. We really have not been working much...seriously, we need to get to work. but its so nice out, who wants to work....i mean we can not take this weather for granted, it may go away next week. I think the weather is the real reason frenchies are not happy. its always rainy and overcast about 70 percent of the year. (i just made that figure up). my teams concept for the project we are doing is to make french people happy. heh....just kidding, no but really it is, but we arent confessing that at the review...

lundi, mars 14

PUNKED OUT.
So I spent this past weekend in London, again. Yet this time it was different. I did not purposely go to architectural projects or do the tourist thing. I was there visiting my aunt Jorie, who was there visiting a friend. I could not miss out on this oppurtunity to see my aunt, plus DROPKICK MURPHYS were playing and I missed them in Ireland 2 weeks ago. Therefore, it was almost fate that my aunt called me a few days later inviting me up to London. The weekend was a blast. I met really cool people, who live alternative lifestyles ("punk" rockers). Friday night it was someones birthday so we went and did a pubcrawl in the soho area...it was great not having to worry about where I was and how to get to the next place. We took a break from the pubs and hung out in the studio that the members practice in. The night ended at a spanish party/bar in a basement of some sort. I got into a fun argument with the brits about what the pins on my bag were called, they kept yelling "BADGE!" and I "PIN!" such good times, I made it home safely.

Saturday I spent the morning in Camden Town. Its become my favorite place in London. Its great place to people watch, I usually dont do it purposely either, but I seem to always find myself waiting for over a half hour for people at the station where piles of interesting looking (read: goth, ravers, punks, hippies, indies and the tourists) come out and meet eachother. I could write more on this people meeting eachother thing as I have observed much of it, but I wont...

so saturday night I saw bouncing souls and dropkick murphys perform at brixton academy. I hung out with a friend of the daughther of my aunts friend (follow that?) because everyone else had some pass that allowed them to hang out in this private VIP bar area...it woulda been totally lame to hang out there during the show...I was right stage by the barcade. Bouncing Souls were alright, but nothng compared to the dropkicks. Just imagine rock with an irish whistle and a bag pipe. it was awesome. they played my favorite, amazing grace. I recorded it on my small cam. After the show, Jorie found me and brought me backstage or to the VIP bar. I was standing there and there was the chick singer of the band blabbing away, and then the lead singer from DM talking to jamie from Hatebreed. and Mickey Fitz from the Business got me a poster from the dropkicks signed by the band! Hes a cool guy, hung out all night. I tried killing the night at 1230am but didnt get home till 3am because no cabs were running. We just chilled at the apartment until they kicked me out...not really, but kinda so yeah for the most part that was my weekend...I knew I would regret it if I didnt go...I dont regret going at all.

money is the issue. I know Im spending a lot. Its the traveling really. always going and staying on a matress in a hostel adds up. But I dont want to regret anything, Im not sure when Ill be able to come back here, considering Ill be paying back this one for awhile, Im going to be broke. The goal is to make friends in every city to be able to stay with in the future. So far I have 2 friends...in one country....

jeudi, mars 10

strike.
I can not go to Paris today. The bloody trains are on strike, again. It happens so frequently that they tell everyone before hand and post up revised train schedules for that day. So yeah transportaion still runs, however not as frequent. My professor said this was going to be a short but really severe one. I dont understand the one day strikes really...do they resolve thier issues after one day? and usually they know before hand how many days it will last. In the past, the teachers went on strike and the post offices as well. Paris likes strikes and public demonstrations. Its been in thier history for awhile. During the 1500s a huge clan of women walked from paris out to versailles while banging on pots and pans to tell king louis XIV that they wanted support from him (money) to help feed the city...or something like that, I cant remember exactly but the women walking in revolt is true, I know that.

vendredi, mars 4

the street I live on, covered with snow. 03.02.05 

Snow!!!
I was told that it has not snowed this much in over 30 years. And here I am staring at these old historical monuments covered with a white blanket. Exitement is everywhere...the children are out until late building snowmen and the bus drivers went on strike to play with them! (not really but they did go on strike on this day of much snow). This week I interacted with a lot of the french students for a week long study of paris. Our presentation was today and it was complimented on a bit. We kinda did a Bruno Latour( http://www.ensmp.fr/~latour/virtual/index.html) meets the beautiful mind thing. it was hot. alright eneugh giving myself compliments. This week flew by so fast. I feel like I was in the mountains yesterday. I miss edinburgh and Ireland.