I THINK I ATE SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN CHINA

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Dana Point...10:52 pm

my max is cuter

so i got home on wednesday's afternoon and drove strait to lucky boy for a breakfast burrito, which mite i add, was fucking amazing! but, even more exciting was what i was greeted by as i walked through the door. i sat down to eat but before i could take a second bite my mom told me to close my eyes because she had a surprise for me. i put out my hands and was shocked when i was handed this little puppy.


his name is max and he's a little terror. the funniest pary of the whole situation is the immense amount of hatred lizzie (my moms other dog) has for max. all he wants to do is play with her but lizzie wont have anything to do with it. so...we now have two dogs in the house, one thats extremely jealous and wont eat, and another new addition who is totally cute but is only 10 weeks old and still isn't potty trained. its quite the fiasco.

The End

this is officially my final blog for this summers study abroad trip...how depressing. that was the fastest three months of my life! it feels like just yesterday i was sitting at lax drinkin bloody mary's while waiting for our flight to china. as fast as it went i still cant wait to go home. its weird being away for so long. for my last couple days here without school work hanging over my head i decided to play tourist and see all the things i missed or wanted to go back to. heres some photos...

berlin dome

gallery by schinkle

1968 olympic stadium

libeskin's jewish museum

gehry's dz bank

foster's reichstag dome

to be continued...

The BIGGEST BEER CAN i've ever seen

the beer tasted like shit, but the experience was worth it. whats up with the germans and their need to make everything so big?..and even more important...why aren't they all fat?

the ultimate driving machine meets the ultimate manufacturing

not to say that my time in berlin hasn't been eventful and educational, but my experience at the bmw factory in leipzig this last tuesday made my trip. designed by zaha hadid, the entrance of this factory, as can be expected from zaha, is beautiful. but, where the magic happens is inside. unfortunately, we were not permitted to take any pictures during our 2 hour tour. past the administrative functions of zaha's building lies a massive factory (obviously not designed by zaha) which encases the most advanced and intuitive manufacturing i have ever seen. while walking through the factory i felt like i was in a starwars episode, totally surrounded by machines building machines, droids transferring parts from one station to another, and a surprising lack of human inhabitance. i never realized how advanced production of these beautiful cars was. hers a couple pictures of the exterior

oops, i did it again

for some reason oblivious to me, i decided to ride the the line of the berlin wall on the hottest day since we've been here with a cut off t-shirt and no sunblock. real smart! you would think that i would have learned after my last sunburn incident which left my hand prints scarred into my chest. apparently i'm a slow learner.

yes, it hurts as bad as it looks

uhhh...ya, thats my watch tan. sexy isn't it

i'm gunna die of chines food poisoning

todays been a stressfully day. first a fucked up haircut and now this...


my buddy just sent me a link about a popular snack in china. it made my stomach turn. lets just say...i ate these a few times and now i know why they tasted like cardboard. check it out.

no-hawk

so i tried to get a fohawk/mullet/weird euro haircut today (they're really popular in germany) at this hair studio next to my apartment but things didn't quite work out...actually, i got the exact fuckin opposite of what i wanted. after about 5 minutes of hand signals and the most broken english i have experienced yet, i was under the impression that the hair stylist knew what i wanted. 2 min later i realized that she was doing the exact opposite of what i asked for...a bozo haircut if u will. she cut the back really short, trimmed the top, and left the sides totally long. to make a long and extremely nerve racking story short, she totally fucked up my hair! don't worry, it all fixed now. this is officially the second time i have tried and failed to get a fohawk/mullet/weird euro haircut. i think someone is trying to tell me something.

The Bauhaus

the corner of gropius allee and bauhaus strasse

this week we went to the bauhaus. for those of you who don't know, the bauhaus is the culmination of all that is modernist architecture. since my first year in arch school i've been subjected to architectural history, all of which somehow ties back into walter gropius and the famous picture of this building below. it was almost surreal to, not only see it in person, but to spend a night there.

the bauhaus (a very close impersonation of the famous bauhaus photo)

sorry i haven't been posting very often or in very much quantity. there's alot going on here in berlin. between all the class, school work, bike tours of the city, and the most outrageous party scene in the world, i'm not sleeping too much. i cant believe i'll be home in 2 weeks...this trip is going way too fast. how depressing.

i cant think of a title for this post that isn't insensitive

on friday we visited our first concentration camp just outside of berlin. although it is apparently not one of the most preserved of the camps in germany it still evoked feelings of entrapment and darkness (of course it didn't help that it was gloomy and raining).

the entrance to the camp which all prisoners walked through. literally translated "work will set you free"

central gathering area for all prisoners

one of the few abandoned guard houses remaining on the site

possibly the most disturbing area in the camp...this is were prisoners were taken in groups and shot. it is conveniently located next to the morgue

one of the remaining guard towers

on a lighter note...this is my place of work. as you can see, we have a studio on the 10th floor of this 15 story building. on floors 12-15 is one of the best clubs in berlin (or so we've been told). on friday night after our depressing but good visit to genenkstatt concentration camp, we decided to test the waters. it was great. i wont reveal too many details but i will say that i left the club at 7 in the morning. unfortunately, saturday was solely a day for recuperation. i cant wait to go back! (after i get some work done of course)

mein neues Junggesellehaus!!!

what do you guys think of my new bachelor pad in berlin? doesnt it look cozy?

just kidding...

Guten Tag! (06.18-07.02)

i think that means good afternoon? i'm in berlin, germany now which means that my 2 week vacation is over. sorry i havent posted anything in a while, i've been without my computer and internet for the last couple weeks. my last couple of days in england and my week in spain were great. i'm not gunna give you the blow-by-blow cuz i don't want to bore anyone but i guess i'll hit the key points. i think i saw every tourist attraction in the city and a lot of amazing architecture. gaudi's work (sagrada familia, park guell, casa mila...) and the contemporary architecture of the city (barcelona forum, agbar tower,...) was amazing. as usual...here's some photos.

sagrada familia

park guell

barcelona forum

i have no idea what this is but it looks kool

...ditto

agbar tower

back to work for me...

Food and a Bath (06.16-06.18)

finally!!! some good food! for the past few days i've done nothing but eat and drink. its so nice to eat food not because i'm starving or because i think it would become an interesting commentary for the blog, but because its good. and the beer...dont get me started on the beer. LP and i have been getting shitted - 'dritte' (my new favorite norwegian way of saying drunk) at lunch and dinner almost every day. sunday we shared a traditional sunday roast and a plate of bacon wrapped faggots! yummmmmm. The english love their faggots!!! that afternoon i began my new list of things i've tried...BEER. Sorry, the list will not be as exciting as the one i compiled in china but it will definitely be more fun for me. i think this list will last the duration of this trip.



monday we took a trip down to bath and actually made it there!!! third times the charm! bath is a beautiful city renowned for (i bet u can guess) their baths. after a tour of the roman baths and a stroll around the city we decided to pause for a quick pint in a local old mans pub. while at coeur de lion, i began to talk with an older gentleman who was a retired engineer. by the end of my pint i had met a few of the other old men (all very interesting and intelligent people), the owner of the pub/brewer of the beer i was drinking, and the owners of some other local pubs. they gave me a list of the top 10 pubs in bath and a map where they were located. it was great. if only i had time to go to them all. next time...







tried to go to london on tuesday but missed our bus...not a whole lot to say about that. instead LP and i went to a pub and had a few pints, walked around bristol and did some shopping, got my hair cut, and finally "drank the bar dry" (an event at the bar that LP works at). they needed to get rid of their booze, we wanted to get drunk, so it was pretty much a win win situation.



off to barcelona tomorrow...sangria and paella here i come.

England (06.15...)

I MADE IT TO ENGLAND!!! i've never enjoyed the site of "whites" so much in my entire life. after a long flight my friends and i sat on the runway waiting for a spot to dock. to make matters worse, i was harassed by the snooty old man at the customs booth because he didn't like americans and then the airport lost the entire flight's baggage for about an hour. it all went a bit pear-shaped but once i saw LP all was great.

after a short drive, a quick dinner, and an ever faster shower we were off to the UWE degree project show. unfortunately, we were caught in the rain on the way and walked into the the show completely soaked. it made for an interesting time. the show was great. heres a example of some of the graphics, illustration, and textiles work:

LP's exploration of the word [poole]
http://www.vibs.no/

SP's (LP's flat mate) illustration work
http://www.shellyperkins.co.uk/

nothing seemed to go as planned the entire day but it was still quite a lot of fun. it's great to finally be in england...

The End...of china that is

today may have been my last day in china, but it was definitely my favorite day. ya, we were chased by security a couple times and almost arrested, but how many people can say that they have been inside both the olympic stadium (birds nest) and the aquatic center (water cube).

ln, jfk, sn, and me after our first failed attempt

our trip down to the new olympic center started out very poorly. the first 2 gates we visited turned us away before we could even begin to ask about touring the stadium (our inability to speak any chinese didn't help the situation). finally we took matters into our own hands. by this i mean we jumped a fence and became trespassers. for the next hour or so we inched our way closer and closer to the stadium. it was during this march that we were confronted by security/police on more than one occasion. thankfully, every time we came in contact with their blue and white van there was a barrier between us.

just about every side of the stadium

at about noon time the entire construction site emptied for lunch and the boys and i were left to roam the site with very little threat of being removed. it was at this point that we decided to make our way into the stadium. all i can say is that i have never been so excited about architecture in my entire life. for lack of better words...the olympic stadium is the most beautiful building i have ever experienced.









when we finally had our fill, we decided to try our luck at the aquatic center. ln and sn worked their magic and before we knew it we had convinced 2 sets of guards to let us enter the building. this experience didn't last long. the workers were back from lunch and insisted that we could not tour the building without hardhats. as we walked out we snapped as many pictures as possible.




this was the perfect way to end a great experience in china. i'm off to england tomorrow and then i'll be in spain the following week. not sure how often i'll be able to access the internet, but i'll do my best to post whats going on. Zhi jian...