A Whole Week's Worth Of Entries

Sorry I haven’t written in so long, it has been an extraordinarily busy week for me. But now I have an enormous amount of time in which I have nothing else to do, so here we go.

01Feb2005 – Tuesday

Tuesday I again awoke early. This time I believe it was after about 5 hours of sleep. Again I got online and talked to JB for a while. I do miss her a lot… anyway. So around 7:30ish I went and got in the shower and then I made my way down to breakfast. Which was again rock hard bread and jam, as I soon found out it always is. After breakfast I found a comfy chair in the student lounge and curled up and sketched down all of my ideas for my upcoming project. Then I got online and answered some e-mail.
At about 11 we had our first class for the week which was out architectural history/philosophy class. We had a guest speaker and I believe I came in just a tad late. At any rate she spoke for a little over an hour and in that time went over 2000 years of history and architecture in Roma (Rome). It was fast paced to say the least. After class it was time for lunch so we did that. Then we all pretty much went straight to studio because it started in a little while anyway. Well I did some more sketches and go pretty much all of what I had figured out on paper and then brainstormed about the things I hadn’t. I took a break at some point to go check my e-mail, use the restroom, etc. this time the professors were making their way around class and having little “desk crits” as we call them with everyone. That’s just a nickname for desk critiques for those who were wondering. Well I after the entire class was over ant it was about 5 me and 4 other people still hadn’t been spoken to. Well the profs said that they’d come back around 18:30 and get the rest of us in before lunch. Well I was tired, so I decided to take a nap. Well the alarm went off at 18:30 and I simply turned it off and rolled back over. Heh. Well at 19:15 my roommates woke me up for dinner and I got up and figured I might as well go see if they were still down there perhaps I could still get in a slight critique before dinner. Well I got down there and lo and behold they were talking to Jon. They finished a few minutes after I got there and Marcel came over to me. He glanced at my paper and began talking. Then Peter came over and the two began taking to each other and then to me as well. After they finished explaining a lot of abstract thoughts about what they wanted I asked if I could explain my design. Marcel said, “Oh, yes of course,” As they had obviously forgotten that part of the crit. So I quickly explained the major details of my design and they asked if we could walk and talk as it was time for dinner. So we did and they in a nutshell told me that it was no go. They said a lot of things about it being too simplified and I needed to be more creative to (Peter) “go crazy!” Then Marcel gave me a speech about how any building that is every built is only 10% of it original design and how I’ve already knocked off 90% of mine and if they were to build it as I have it designed it would be next to nothing, they wanted to see the 100% of the idea before I simplified it, they wanted the “big picture.”
So with that we were at dinner and that was that. So I went and had dinner and then I didn’t feel like thinking about the project anymore so we played spades and chatted and then a few people decided to go out but I decided to talk to JB briefly before going to bed and trying to get some sleep before our trip the following day to Freinze (Florence).

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02Feb2005 – Wednesday – Field trip to Frienze

Well again I woke up early and went ahead and got in the shower and before I knew it we were boarding the buses to go to Florence. Well by the time I got up to the buses (as we have to walk up hill to get to the drop-off point) myself alone with about 6 other people were the only ones left, and there were no more seats by the bus drivers’ counts. Well one of the buses took another count as the professors tried to figure out how to get the rest of us there and found one seat so I took It and let the rest of the group stay together. I ended up sitting in the front of the bus with one of the professors from K-State. All of the professors were all talking to each other and whatnot so I put on my headphones to my mp3 player and drifted in and out of sleep for the entirety of the bus ride.
We finally arrived at a little palazzo near the top of one of the hills above Frienze. (Florence – but this is the last time) From there we all started trekking up the hill to the top where our first stop was, a church. Once we got there we split up into 3 groups each with a different Professor as a tour guide. I was lucky to be in a group with a good number of people I knew; 2 guys and 3 girls. Well we started the tour and saw the church. It was pretty cool, but we were there for over an hour and we were all a bit anxious to see the real Freinze so when we started hiking down the hill we all got a little more excited about the day. We came to the gates of Frienze and my excitement soared, we were here! We went in and across the river and then down some more till we came to the Palazzo De Santa Croca (Crosha) where the Basilica de Santa Croca was and it was our next stop.
They again organized our groups to make a head count and buy tickets for our entrance to the church. While outside I saw a huge statue of the one and only Dante ad then when we got inside I found the entire outside aisles filled with statues and paintings. Almost all of the pews in the main nave had been removed. We immediately started a historical tour with our guide (Paolo was the guide for my group) and after a while I slowly drifted away from the group and started taking pictures. Before it was all said and done a lot of us were just going around taking pictures. I soon discovered that the some of the statues I had been taking pictures of were infact the tombs of THE Michelangelo and Galileo! And the empty tomb of Dante! I thought that was pretty cool. I also found a sculpture of an angel that I could get right on (I could’ve climbed on it if id wanted because there were no ropes around this one. And I decided to get some extremely detailed shots of the masterful carving of the wings. These things were insanely well crafted! The detail was amazing! We continued the tour outside into the garden I’m guessing is what it was and a smaller chapel within the complex. After we left the church we went on a very twisting curving path to the restaurant where the entire group was going to eat. I believe it was owned and operated by Paolo’s brother from the rumor I heard. Well this was by far the best meal I’ve had in Italy. It was absolutely amazing. Our first course was a pasta plate that had two different kinds of pasta on it, followed by the main course of chicken with a creamy cheese sauce and fried zucchini (which I actually tried and very much enjoyed), followed by desert of the one and only Italian Gelato! It was amazing. It’s very much like ice cream but is a little sweeter and has a slightly different consistency, and was drizzled with the best fudge I’ve ever had. Mmmmm… Delicious!
After lunch everyone got free time until we had to leave. Everyone except my studio, that is. Peter and Marcel had decided we were going to have another historical tour and right after lunch we were to report to another palazzo right in the middle of town. Well I got there a little early and decided to take pictures of all of the statues around and actually saw the real “Hermes slaying Medusa.” It was amazing. There were about a dozen beautiful statues under this one loggia ad I believe that about 8 of them were originals. I took pictures of nearly all of them.
Well we finally stared our tour and walks and ended up sitting on the sidewalk for a half an hour in a side street as Peter talked about the architecture in the area and its significance… they were apartments that were new. But apparently the area had been destroyed after WWII, etc, etc, etc… yeah. So needless to say we were all a little miffed at not being able to go shopping and exploring like everyone else. So we were all having a little bit of a hard time paying attention. Finally we moved on and went to another main palazzo and heard more history, then we went around the corner and what radiant site entered my eyes? THE Duomo! I couldn’t believe it! I was standing in front of the Duomo and its Baptistry and its Bell Tower. These were easily the most ornamented buildings I have ever seen and they were gorgeous! But we were only there for a short time as he only briefly stopped here and then we continued our trek to our last stop which was some book store he wanted to show us. So we finally get there and he says “Okay, here’s the bookstore, it’s a little small so you guys can come in if you want or go and do your own thing.” FINALLY! (and yes we now have an hour left before we have to leave… he has taken 2 and a half from us… so I went with a small group and we went back to the Duomo for a little while to take more pictures, then we went to the PonteVecchio which is a famous bridge that has little shops on both sides. I saw the church of Dante, and before I knew it we were heading back to Santa Croca to be picked up. Well they’d gotten a call or something that the buses were going to be late so I went in a few of the shops in around the palazzo and then we all started hiking back to get picked up. We finally got back on the bus and I sat next to Blake who is a guy from Colorado. We sat together at dinner the very first night, and Blake and I talked for close to an hour about Brazil before we both ended up putting on the mp3 players and doing the drifting in and out of sleep thing.
We finally got back and I went straight to the computer lab to try and talk to JB a little before going to sleep. After I’d done that I went to sleep for the night.

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03Feb2005 – Thursday

Well again I woke up early in the morning but I had gone to bed at 10 the night before so I’d actually gotten 7 and a half hours. Well following routine, I went and talked to JB before showering and then breakfast. Then I went straight to the studio and began formulating some idea at all. I really had nothing. I had tried to think about it all day Wednesday and I hadn’t really come up with anything. So while all around me people were beginning models, etc, etc, I started brainstorming and sketching. Then we went to lunch and then studio started and Peter decided to pass around a sign up sheet to make sure that everyone got talked to. Somehow I managed to get the dadgum thing last even though it started right behind me. Grrr… Well I continued brainstorming and sketching and took a break at least once to go and vent to JereBeth in an e-mail and then returning to work some more. Well believe it or not, they didn’t get to me again. They said they’d get to those of that hadn’t been able to after dinner. So after dinner I went back to studio and finally talked to them last again and upon viewing my sketches etc, they sort of mocked me for being so confused about the project which ticked me off a little. But the reason they didn’t understand is because they thought one of the ideas that I had had was excellent. It was one that I had come and gone with for about 30 seconds and had done like 4 little sketches for it and then scrapped it and put no more thought into it. Well of course this would be the one they liked and wanted me to do. The one idea id put no thought into and really had no idea how it worked.
Well I took the challenge thankful really that I finally had anything to work with and dived into it. Well I should have checked the depth of the pool because I definitely got a headache from doing so.

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04Feb2005 – Friday

I ended up working on it all night, minus a 5 minute chat with JereBeth and a 4 and a half hour nap, then all morning, through breakfast, through lunch and all the way up until it was due. By the time everyone was coming back from lunch I finally figured out some stuff on my model which had been giving me the headache for I don’t know how many hours… 10? 12? What I was doing was so hard that the grad student T.A. couldn’t even figure out what I was doing. Shed tried helping me the night before for about an hour. Well she came in after lunch and grimaced when she saw my lack of progress and asked how my drawings were coming. I told her I hadn’t started yet and she laughed and smiled at me. She knew I was cutting it close, but she also knew what I had been through and how hard I had been working. She suggested I leave the model alone and just do the drawing so that I could finish something because at this point I had absolutely nothing to show for all of my hours of work except a half built crappy model.
I took her advice as it was about an hour before the thing was due and started working on drawings. Now I have to say that I am proud of myself at this point. A managed to do all of my preliminary sketches and trace everything in the next two hours (yeah, I came into the review about a half an hour late and sat in the back). Well I thought they looked great and was really happy with the drawings although the model was still lacking quite a bit. In the end I didn’t have time for on drawing and I didn’t even care really.
Well I presented and based on their comments I really don’t know how I did, although I know I was starving, tired, and in desperate need of a shower at this point. Hours later we finally finished all of the 27 presentations for the class and I immediately went up stairs and got in the shower. Then we went downstairs to dinner which was very relaxing for me at this point because all of my stress was finally gone. After dinner I had planned on going to talk to dinner and then straight to bed early because we had another trip on Saturday that the bus was leaving for at 6am.
During dinner I made the mistake of getting a cappuccino and the espresso here is extremely strong so I was rather awake. After dinner some people were going to watch Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels which is a movie I really, really love and just thinking about watching it cheered me up so I made a quick call to JB in the states to tell her about my change of plans and then settled in for the movie. After the movie I went ahead and got online and ended up talking for a few hours. In the end I believe I went to sleep at about 1.

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05Feb2005 – Saturday

“Chris.” Nudge. Poke. “Chris, get up, it’s your turn.” What? Oh! I jumped out of bed and into the shower. It was 5 and the bus was leaving in an hour. I quickly got dressed and headed up the hill and actually found a seat this time. I settled in and right away put on the headphones rearing up for the loooong bus trip to Genova. We were going to Genova because there was an art and architecture expo going on that was an ensemble of some of the greatest works in the last decade and was arranged very well and since nothing like this would happen again for probably the next 15 years our profs had decided to take advantage of it.
About an hour and a half into the trip I woke up and gently tapped on Andrea’s shoulder next to me to wake her up as we were pulling into a rest stop for breakfast. We got out and ventured into this “Autogrill” and figured out breakfast. I ended up getting a chocolate chip croissant that was delicious and some pineapple juice that was phenomenal and a bottle of water. Then we got back on the road and I did the headphones in and out of sleep thing for the next few hours as we traveled north. We finally got there and this time she woke me up, lol. Then we drove another 20 minutes through this enormous port city and would the center of town where the drop off was right across the street of the expo. At least this time we didn’t have to hike from the bus. We went in, got our tickets, and went out to get in line to enter the expo. While we were out there some important politician (we think) was on camera right behind me and 5 people I was talking to, so if you see us on CNN or something don’t be surprised, lol!
We finally started the tour that was in two parts and I ended up doing most of the first half right along side of our professors which was very interesting. We would talk about the different pieces and they would explain things to me here and there. It was very informative and pretty fun actually. Somewhere near the end of the first half I lost them and ended up with the T.A. instead. From there I did the entire second half with her and near the end of it we picked up two more from our group. Hours, upon hours, later we finally finished this thing and no one else from our group was anywhere in sight. We went to claim our bags and actually retrieved the last 5 from the Santa Chiara Center. We quite literally were the last 4 people from our group to leave, lol. Well we were all starving so we went in search of some food. In Italy everything closes down from noon to 4 so that people can go eat lunch and spend time with their families, and at this point it was about 3 o-clock. (And yes, we were leaving at 5. another misadventure as far as exploration and shopping goes.)
Well we were finally forced to go to a McDonalds that was near the bus pickup. We ended up running into a few people from the group right after and they were telling us that Christopher Columbus’ house was right near there so we all decided to go see that. A short walk and about 5 minutes later we were there but as 4 euro to go in. So we stepped back and realized that his house was the size of medium size trailer and decided not to do it. Instead we just took pictures of it, and a little well right behind it, and some really old towers that were behind it.
After a while the T.A. Melanie really wanted to go see some of the installations that went with the expo and were around town, so we pulled out the expo map and made our way to the closest one. When we got there we couldn’t figure out where it was and finally realized it was underground in the metro station somewhere. So we went all the way down to the train and couldn’t figure out what it was although we did see some very interesting lighting on the way down and after we emerged disappointedly we realized that the metro station was the installation! And it was a very nice metro station at that, lol. Then we decided to check out one more before we left that was by one of my favorite architects, Frank Gherry, and was relatively close to us. We made our way over to it and had no problem figuring out what this one was, lol! Gherry has a very noticeable and unique style to say the least. We ran into some more people from our group here and one of the girls wanted to take my picture for me with the installation, but she made me get in this really goofy pose, so I hope you guys enjoy that one, and then we made Melanie do the same thing, lol. It was pretty funny watching her roll her eyes and do as we instructed.
Well the installation was right next to this beautiful and weird church so we took a few pictures of it and its sad lion statue and made a quick stop inside then we quickly made our way back to the bus.
They were late again, lol, and I stopped in a small shop just to look around while I waited. Then we got on and I almost immediately fell asleep. An hour and a half later Robert, my seatmate, nudged me because we were making an unplanned stop at another “Autogrill.” This time I got a grilled sandwich that was really good and had to get the pineapple juice again. (I actually still have half the bottle left over, lol, they are a huge 1 litre!) Well then we got back on the bus and Robert and I had a short religious discussion before I did the good ol’ headphones-on-on-off-sleep thing. We finally arrived here and I decided to check my e-mail really quick. I had an e-mail from JereBeth from about an hour before and she was worried because we actually got back late after the stop and late pick up and I had planned on talking to her about an hour and a half before that, so I decided to get online and talk to her for a few hours before venturing to bed. I went upstairs to find my roommates already asleep (this was a first) and I quietly climbed into bed.

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06Feb2005 – Sunday

I got up this morning at about 9ish and came down to write my journal entry and to my shock found JereBeth still online. But she was about to go to sleep so I said I quick goodnight and then began this journal entry. Well it’s a few hours later, I believe, and I’m pretty much finished. There’s another field trip today that isn’t mandatory to a neighboring city for a festival called Carnivale (long e at the end) but I don’t think I’m going to go. What I need right now is a nice day of relaxation from this extremely busy week, so I think ill go take a shower and then see what I feel like from there. I plan on talking to JereBeth after dinner so I’ve got a lot of time to kill with doing whatever I want, so I hope to enjoy myself thoroughly.
Well I don’t know when ill update again, but we get out next project assignment tomorrow and my other class starts this week so I’m rearing up for my “routine” to begin. So we will just see how things go. All in all I’d say its been a pretty good two weeks, although if things keep going at this pace I may very well burn out pretty soon, lol!

I love you all and I miss you! I’d love to get some e-mails, so feel free to write and ill get back to you whenever I get a chance! Oh by the way! My number here is as follows:
011-39-347-480-9187
All of my incoming calls are free, but I’m not sure what it’ll cost to call over here, but feel free to do so if you like!