samedi, avril 30

villa d'este
we traveled outside of rome today to villa d'este. I had a good sketching day overall. I am starting to use other media besides pencil, such as marker and watercolor. I think my water came out quite well. It is not too large or detailed, I like to move in small steps.

vendredi, avril 29

seriously what is up with the mullets?

mercredi, avril 27

sketching...rome
hmmm rome, old stuff...weird looking people, some sketchy some flashy... and im trying to draw these monuments! I started off a bit rusty. I turned out one good sketch for the day. so okay. I am here for class. there are 14 of us and we meet the a sketching instructor, his nickname is sketch master P because well he is just amazing at sketching. and he is a good teacher. today we started at the coluseum and then did the forum. I had gelato today. mmm good. you are missing out.

mardi, avril 26

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY JAIME!

lundi, avril 25

Only 30 minutes to run through all of Venice...
I met up with a few friends from Versailles who are here in Venice on thier school sketching trip. They rented an apartment because they are here for 10 days. The apartment seems like a nice alternative to hostels. We went for dinner because it was sunday and all stores are closed. I had some pasta with ham in it..i like the pasta but could do without the ham..it got to be past 930 and ben and I had to catch a bus to piazza roma to get out the camp ground (20 minutes and back on mainland). our location was woutheast of san marco. which is really really at the point of the island and Roma was at the north west end. We ran. we ran across these canals...one dead ended into a canal...nope not a large puddle. and another dead ended into a wall, what the?? where was I going I had no clue, but It was wet and raining hard. my jeans were dragging soaking wet. but i still ran. I pretty much took off and i did not look back. I realized i was then alone and ben was not behind me. So I ran harder, following these signs that read arrows to piazza roma. it was like an insane television adventure game. I was like in this maze running from these narrow corridors and through these plazas, my map, heh that was disinigrating and no longer any good. I had to catch that last bus I was not about to spend another night in a city without a bed, alone! I eventually found it from the rear. and ran to the bus as it was pulling away. I was stalling as I was looking for my ticket...this gave ben time to catch the bus too. It was such an accomplishment to catch the bus, Im not sure if I can do the same route again tho...it all looks the same here.

dimanche, avril 24

Hiking, spazz attack and night in Milan...
We spent our last day in the swiss alps by hiking our way up to a mtn. The goal was to reach mnt. Manchillon. which was 4000m high. we were climbing 1500 m. we got about 2/3 and a 4ft deep snow was on the trail...unable to continue. walked down and across to try another trail and there was an old avalanche block (yeah pretty cool to see). Instead we went off trail and climbed whenever we saw something interesting, which was mostly waterfalls. I was doing some amazing manuevers. grasping onto tree roots...just to get up close and take a picture. I had some really nice pictures from that day. I couldnt wait to show everyone back at home. On our return we were at a trainstation in the mnts (picture a smaller station, not too many people around) and I used the bathroom. I mustve forgot my camera in there, i was out in a hurry to catch the train. i did not notice until after the 20 minute train ride that i did not have the camera. I franctically asked the trainmen to contact the station and look for the cam...but it was not there...i went there myself..looked, gave the stationman my name and number. I went back to the river where we were before I lost it (location of the last pics) looked and just sat and tried to settle down. I was more upset with myself for loosing it than actually loosing the cam. At that moment I tried to just try to capture everyting by looking. I could not be able to capture and show anyone...but then i realized that to others its just a picture...it can not hold that same feeling that the photographer had and felt the neccessity of taking the picture. Ill have some pics borrowed from Ben...but my pictures are lost...due to this we spent the next morning in the mnts again when we were suppose to leave. we hiked up to the spot, the spot that I felt had the most amazing view. I think this is a good spot to build a home. maybe itll happen, maybe not, but it was the spot for me to last see and be in the beautiful alps. so we eventuall took a train out to milan, but the next one was not until 6pm! we did not arrive into milan until 930, no more trains were going to venice by that time! we never planned on a night in Milan, we had a booking in Venice actually. So I saw Milan by night only. the trainstation did not reopen until 4am...around 3am i was trying to sleep on a bench outside somewhere...at 4, i was trying to sleep on wooden benches in the station...it felt like a homeless shelter because everyone was sleeping on the benches with all of thier stuff. Our train left at 655 am, somehow we got first class seats and I slept well on our way to venice, but I was still damn tired when we got in. I was in a have daze as I was walking over these canals trying to find a bus to take me somewhere where I can then sleep from this day...

jeudi, avril 21

I met the giants parents and damn they are nice
I think today my eyes have seen the most amazing thing thus far. I traveled up to 11333 ft above sea level to the highest peak of europe. It was a 2 hour trip total up, I felt like a little kid because I could not stay sit, I got up frequently to take pictures. Once up to the top there was a plateau of which you could see the highest peak, because well i wasnt actually on it. It was 13 C below up there, my hands were numb but I still took the pictures to try and capture what I saw, but it was no use. I could never seem to fit the beauty into a 1.25 by 1.25 screen. Some attraction things were closed like the husky sledge ride that I wanted to do (actually i just wanted to play with the dogs) but instead we went into this ice castle which was in the snow of the mountain and was completly ice. like the ground too, so it was entertaining for about 5 minutes because ben and I just skated and slid our way through the thing quickly, oh besides the time when I wanted him to take my picture, I think i fell down about 3 times while trying to pose. I was so glad that today turned out really nice...no rain at all...the snow glistened and the clouds were seldom. I hope for the same tomarrow. we plan on hiking all day.

mercredi, avril 20

im walking among giants.
I can not ba leave how amazing it is here in the Swiss Alps. Currently I am located in Interlocken. There are two huge lakes that sandwich the city along with huge mountains on all sides. the clouds hung low today. I could not see the peaks of the mountains, yet because so they appeared very mysterious. It was also a bit rainy, but it did not stop me from going out and checking out the town and past. Ben and I found a reminant of some old castle. It was really neat. I wish my eyes were some sort of camera lens for a screen for others to watch who are not here. You really need to see this, its amazing.

lundi, avril 18

I do not know where I am but I like it
I was forced to pull out of bed very early from berlin to head onto Prague. I must ve acciedently booked a smoking car because I definetly was coughing. And it seemed like every german highschooler was on a class trip to Prague. who of course wanted to sit in the smoking car to smoke. but those thoughts were all lost when I looked out the window and saw huge ridges and small homes below. My train rode right along a quiet river which went through clusters of valley towns. It was so much to take in, thankfully the freshman brats were annoying me eneough so I can pull back and relook again. I think I was somewhere right before and and after the czech border. I want to go back and stay but the only way I know back would be on that train.

dimanche, avril 17

Sachsenhausen- they are walking skeletons.
Ive read the stories, heard of the gruelsome details, and now ive seen where the prisoners of the halucost were held. Not too far away was a camp named sachsenhausen. It first held prisoners in 1933, and it enlarged in 36 for the larger number of prisoners. The progom of november 1938 was when many of the jews were gathered and brought to the camps. So many have died through exhaustion, starvation and physical violence. sachenhausen was considered an ideal camp in design. its figure is a traingle in plan and the bararcks are radially set out. It was to be a guide for the other camps to follow. 60 years ago was the releasal of the prisoners at sachsenhausen. I was fortunate eneugh to randomly be there on a day that family members and survivors all gathered at the camp in memmorial of the releasal, april 23 1945. I also tracked down parts of the wall today...interesting but i have mixed feelings on it. tomarrow is Prague...

samedi, avril 16

Its beautiful in Berlin, Berlin is beautiful
Berlin is one of those cities where wayfinding is not an obstacle at all. Once we look our head away from what we are seeing at the moment, something new catches our eye and takes us to our new destination. We barely have to pull out our maps, only for the sbahn which is thier tram n metro system. We ate such good dinners here, boiled potatoes and sasuages, yummm. We were at a park and it was heavvily populated however a couple was still going at it, and they were like midaged and i mean going at it. i should not get too discriptive here, but okay ill just say like more than kissing, and we were just laughing and giggling aloud. i mean i know we are in europe but cmon people!!! its odd how people can do this and then like 10 feet away is a group having a conversation...I would say besides that germans are my kind of people. Everything in Germany is big. Big sausages, big plates of food, big people, big buildings, big roads, small cars but big numbers of cars. Its practically the closest thing to an american city.

"and then there are people next to them having an intellectual conversation, about something...i dont know, intellectual.....like the pritzker prize" Sarah

"this is the best form of which I have created in my entire life" frank gehry

mercredi, avril 13

i am so outta here....
Tomarrow I leave for travels of 3 weeks. I am heading to Berlin, Prague, Interlocken, Milan, Venice, Rome, and Tuscany. Yeah, its a lot. Ill be meeting up with various people along the way...it should keep things fresh and exciting, because you know the travels wont (j/k). My sketch trip picks up in Rome, we are there for 6 days and then we go to Sienna. Ill pretty much just be doing a lot of sketching during that...Im looking forward to Switzerland the most...mountains excite me. I need a break...I love school, but I dont.

STALK ME:
April 14th Night Train to Berlin
15th-17th Berlin
18, 19 Prague
20,21,22 Interlocken
23 Milan to Venice
24, 25, 26 Venice
26-May 2 Rome
May 2-6 Siena
7 Milan again
8 flying back to Paris at 6am

periodic updates so come back

mardi, avril 12

"we could just redraw the buildings based on the models we just built"
"yeah I decided not to put in any doors, its basically a lifetime membership, you move in and stay during the constuction of the building"
" and I am blocking the sun by not putting in any windows"
"its ironic how the green path was the first idea we have had and the only idea that we kept, and its not here in the model"
"heres our 50 euro model"
"i wonder how many hours we have been with eachother this past week"
"i wonder how many hours we have not been with eachother"

There is one thing better than failing, failing with others

I lived in Atelier 14 for a week, never saw the sun, ate horribly, cut my finger and slept a total of 1.5 hours in the past 48 hours and this is what I get?

I feel so unaccomplished, we did not finish...what do we do now? The only thing that looks good our the boards of the individual buildings. The master plan is there, not rendered. where are the mastersections??? the model is in peices. I am tired, and when I did sleep I slept through my stuctures study review. the only thing that is keeping me emotionally okay right now is belle and sebastion.

mardi, avril 5

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND GUNNAR!!!!!!