Earthquake

I want to let everybody know that I am fine. Day before yesterday (Monday morning the 6th) there was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, about 100 kilometers east southeast of Orvieto. I was in Florence at the time of the quake, and I didn't feel anything.

Some of my classmates in Orvieto said they noticed some shaking, but it wasn't very significant. It's really weird to think of this tragedy happening this close to me. Italian tv keeps showing video and images from L'Aquila, revealing the destruction and showing the search for survivors. Last I heard the death toll was 209 with around 20 people still missing.

Thanks for your concern for me, please keep the victims and their families in your prayers.

Spring Break - 3 countries

I have done so much in the last two weeks.. It its gonna be impossible to make a post that gives you a good idea of everything I’ve done. It even seems like a daunting task for me, to even simply remember everything that I’ve done and everywhere I’ve been in the past two weeks.

The first half of my trip was our “study tour” or field trip to Venice. We were in Venice for two and a half days, not long enough in my opinion. Venice is beautiful. Its like no other city in the world, built completely in a “lagoon”, originally uninhabitable. Its founders built the city out of the swampy conditions and it became one of the most powerful cities in the world. It was its own country for over 1000 years.

Getting around was also cool in Venice, they use boats for their public transportation, which now that I think about it, makes complete sense. It was really fun cruising up and down the Grand Canal on the vaporetto (water bus).

We even got to see some of the high water that now plagues the city. One night, in St Marks Piazza, the water was up around a foot deep in some places. And it doesn’t come in from the ocean, the water comes up from the ground. It was really weird. (I didn’t have my camera with me that night, so no pictures).

After Venice, we went to Vicenza for a few hours and then on to Verona, where we stayed the night. Verona is a really cool city. It felt different from the Italian cities I’m familiar with here in the center of Italy. It felt more modern, more well-to-do. (the north of Italy has more money than other parts, and it was evident in the city’s appearance).

From Verona, three friends and I caught a train back to Venice, where we got our overnight train to Prague. There was a big mix-up with our plans to get to Prague, we were planning on riding a train directly to Prague from Venice, but apparently that service has been discontinued. We ended up having to buy tickets from Venice to Vienna and then catching a train to Prague from Vienna, all for 120 euro per person. (when we were originally planning on the tickets costing 15)

Prague was really cool though, I got to see Lisa (awesome friend from architecture) and I got to hang out with Laura and Gracia (awesome friends from challenge). It was really great. I got to catch up with people, eat fried cheese sandwiches, drink hot wine, and see the main sights of Prague. It’s a really cool-looking city.

This is the Tyn Church in Old Town Square (Staromestkse Namesti)

This is Frank Ghery’s “Dancing House”. Its an office building for AIG. It’s the only piece of modern architecture that I saw in Prague.

Lisa and I went to a Czech church on Sunday. I barely understood anything, because I don’t know Czech, but I did recognize a few words that are the same from Russian. They are both Slavic languages, so they share some words and roots. That got me excited about wanting to study languages again. Knowing a little bit of Russian really helped me in Prague, actually. The numbers are very similar, and sometimes, I would just order my food in Russian and they would understand me. (and then they don’t think I’m an ignorant American tourist, just an ignorant Russian one. Or a weird American trying to speak Russian in Prague)

From Prague, I flew to London, the Capitol of the British Empire. Ha. It was so weird being in a place where English is the only language. In the rest of Europe, things are usually in English, but they’re in the native language first, but in the UK, its only English. So, it was weird to be in a place that wasn’t home, that only spoke English. I could understand people passing by for the first time in Europe. So weird. I think this shows that its gonna be kind of a shock to actually come back to America, where I can communicate with anyone and understand everyone.

Anyway, London was really cool. I was by myself, so I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I saw all the buildings and places I wanted to, and I made sure to spend a good amount of time just chilling out in London’s amazing parks.

London feels different than any other city I’ve been to in Europe, it felt more like Chicago, or any other large Amercian city. There are a few historical things, sure, but most of the city feels newer. I suppose much of the city was bombed in World War II, so it probably makes sense that most of the things feel new.

This is London City Hall. I had studied this building last semester in my environmental systems class, so it was really cool to get to go inside. It is located next to the Tower Bridge, across the Thames from the Tower of London.

Here I am in front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. On the inside, this cathedral seemed more like a memorial to British war heroes than a church. There were statues and plaques everywhere dedicated to Generals and Admirals of the British military that had served in any of the various wars Britain has fought in the past 300 years.

This is me with the Tower Bridge in the background. I remembered that I had a remote for my camera, so I set it up and I snapped a shot of myself.

This is the Tower Bridge. Now, I realized on this trip that this is not the London Bridge, which is actually about a mile or so west of this one. The real London Bridge looks lame.

This is the House of Parliament, with Big Ben attached. This building is really huge.

Here’s me in front of Buckingham Palace. I didn’t see the queen, but I did see the changing of the guard the next day. (kind of, there were so many people, it was hard to see anything)

My feet hurt after walking a lot. So, when I was hanging out in Hyde Park I took off my shoes. It felt aaaawesome. Hyde Park is big. It also got cold once the sun went down.

Fish & Chips.

What an experience. I’ve never had a meal that made me feel like I was going to die sooner. OH MY GOODNESS. This meal is ridiculous. So much grease. I felt absolutely disgusting after eating it. I felt like my face was going to break out instantly because of the grease. Its an entire boneless cod fish deep fat fried served on top of a mound of greasy French fries. Never again.

And this is where I spent the night on the way back to Orvieto. I overlooked some details as I was planning my flights. My flight landed in Rome at 10:45pm, by the time I got to the main train station in Rome to catch a train back to Orvieto, it was past midnight and there were no more trains running. All the hostels were full, because of the big Marathon in Rome that day, so I had no choice but to spend the night on the platform and wait for the 6am train to Orvieto. It was the longest, coldest night of my life, but I made it. I was really happy to get back to Orvieto Sunday morning.

Spring Break

So, sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while. I have been lazy, I admit. Or, everytime I go to get on the internet, I'm doing something else (like skyping with Sara, or buying airplane tickets or reserving hostels). So, here's some text for you.

I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for Venice. We are traveling there with school. We'll be looking at some very historic buildings and spaces. I've never been to venice before, so I am really looking forward to it.

Then on Friday, some friends and I are going to catch an overnight train from Venice to Prague. I'll hang out in Prague for 3 days and meet with some friends that are studying there. Then the following Tuesday I will fly to London, in the UK!

I'm really excited about going to London, even though no one else that I talked to wanted to go there, so that is why I will be traveling there by myself. I'm looking foward to it though, it will be a cool experience. I'll be in London from Tuesday till the evening of Saturday the 21st, when I fly back to Rome.

It will be a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm looking foward to it. And I'll do my best to post a blog with a good pictoral summary of my travels. Until then, Ciao!

Amalfi and Copenhagen

The internet at the study center is running very slow right now, so I can't upload all of the pictures that I would like to for this entry. I'm sorry. Just read my descriptions and make the most of it. Perhaps sometime later I'll post more pictures.

On Tuesday morning I returned to Italy from a week-long journey that included the south of Italy and then Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the south of Italy, we saw Pompei and then traveled down to the town of Amalfi. It is a beautiful little town situated in a valley that opens up to the Mediterranean Sea. There are enormous cliffs and steep hillsides all around, but people live everywhere. It is a very cool area.

This is a garden in the town of Ravello, a 2o minute busride up the side of the cliffs from Amalfi. This gives you a good idea of the severity of the landscape of the area. It really is breath-taking.

On Friday, I took a plane from Rome to Copenhagen. The flight was 2 and a half hours long, because we had "the wind in our faces" usually it only takes 2 hours. When I got to Copenhagen, Sara was at the airport. After a few minutes of not seeing each other, she finally found me and it was amazing. It was so good to see her again.

Her host family was kind enough to let me stay with them at their house. It is really cool. It is super modern on the inside. nearly all the walls are white, which really lights up the interior of the house. This is especially important because it is cloudy in Denmark much of the time. The typical ambient light outside is a silvery-grey because of the cloudcover. The white walls and large windows really bring the light inside and create a lively and cozy interior. The Danes focus on the inside of their buildings because it is too cold outside much of the year. But I didn't get a picture of this, just read Sara's old post on her blog for that.

We went around the center of Copenhagen and saw some of the trademark sights.

This is Nyhavn. The trademark view of Copenhagen's harbor. Apparently formerly a shady area of town. Now its really cool, and close to lots of the other attractions downtown.

This building is called the Black Diamond. It is a library on the water of Copenhagen's harbor. I don't know the architect, but it is a really cool building.

Sara and I went to Bagsvaerd Church. This building was designed by Jan (pronounced Yon)
Utzon. This is the same architect as the Sydney Opera House. He is a native of Denmark. The interior of the church is beautiful This is a good example of wonderful Danish design to let light in. The silvery white natural light pours in through the large windows and bounces off the white painted concrete. The result is a beautifully completely naturally lit space.

This is me in front of the little mermaid statue. Apparently its really famous. So this is to prove that I was there. It is to commemorate Hans Christian Anderson because he wrote the Little Mermaid. He was from Copenhagen.

This is Sara and I's panorama of the harbor of Copenhagen, looking from the ramparts of Kastellet, an old fortress. We are on opposite ends to symbolize how we are apart. actually thats not it, we just thought it would be cool.

This is my favorite. The best thing about Copenhagen.

I did some more things.....

Welcome to Florence!

Went to Florence again this weekend. This time I stayed there Friday and Saturday night. I booked a hostel by myself, just so I could have the freedom to do what I want, when I wanted. It was really fun. Florence is a great city. I really enjoyed being there again. We had a tour of the Uffizzi Gallery with our Italian history professor. That was interesting, but it is just kind of hard to pay attention to someone talking about paintings for such a long time. My attention span is just not that incredible.

This is that token view of Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo. It really is a great place to hang out and watch the sun set.

Roommates! on the overlook of Florence.

This is a Russian church that was near my hostel. I coudn't get inside because the gates were closed, so I just looked at it from the outside. It reminded me of being in Russia....

Some friends that are studying in Castiglion Fiorentino met us there in Florence, that was a great suprise, so I hung out with them for the rest of the day.

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. We just took our time going places and hung out in lots of piazzas for a really long time, just enjoying the sun and being there. I had McDonald's for lunch and it seemed like the best hamburger I've had in my life. It tasted so good. ohh yeah. I love overseas McDonalds.

We are leaving on Wednesday morning for our trip to southern Italy. We will visit Pompeii, Amalfi, and Naples. Then I'm off to Denmark! I am going to visit Sara! I fly to Copenhagen from Rome on Friday evening. I cannot wait to see my amazing girlfriend. I'll be there for 3 days (I'm skipping a couple days of class, but its totally worth it).

So...we just finished our first project and we have presentations today in about 30 minutes... I guess I'll go think about what I'm gonna say.

This is the beginning of my third week of school here in Italy. I feel like I’ve done so much, but when I try to sit down and think about it, my mind just wants to chill out and not think about anything. Weird, huh? Well I have done a lot of things, living in Orvieto has definitely been fun. I feel like I’m getting used to really being here and living in this town. I definitely noticed today when there were more tourists than usual. Its pretty cool to be a resident here, even if it is only for a few months.

I’m going to try to give a few little snapshots of parts of my life here.

My apartment is on a really small street. When we first got here I didn’t think that cars were allowed to drive on it, but a few seconds later that thought was thrown out the window. All sorts of traffic constantly comes flying down our little street. Our front door is fairly thin, so it doesn’t really insulate from the sound on the street. This also means that when Italians walk past our door, it sounds like they’re hanging out in our living room. (the apartment is all tile, so sound carries really well).

In the mornings, I usually step outside into our courtyard to see what the temperature feels like for the day. A few days ago, a lady who lives in one of the windows up above our courtyard stuck her head out and said hi to me. She doesn’t speak any English, so I spoke some Italian to her, but she still didn’t understand me! I thought that was weird, so I just left. But she seems nice.

Our landlord bakes us something new every week. She comes and cleans on Wendesday afternoons and always leaves us a fresh new dessert. It is amazing. She doesn’t speak English either, so I am the one she talks to. I can usually understand what she’s saying. She is so incredibly nice. She is the Italian version of Aunt Ramona. For sure.

At an internet café last night, two women sat down at my table. After a few minutes I noticed them speaking Russian. As those of you who know me can imagine, I got pretty excited. I thought,“Russian! Dude that’s so sweet!” So I preceded to ask them in Russian if they spoke Russian (which seems kinda dumb when you think about it). They got excited and said yes, yes, they speak Russian. I have lost some of my Russian language skills I guess, because I couldn’t really understand them. They spoke Italian very well, so we continued our conversation in Italian, with some Russian mixed in there. As you can imagine, that was really fun for me.

So, we went to Florence last weekend. That was ok, here are some pictures.

The interior of the dome of the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence

The campanile (bell tower) of the Duomo. This should look familiar to my old Europe travel buddies.

This small church is associated with Dante, the famous Florentine writer, who wrote the Divine Comedy. This is where he met that girl who inspired him to write the story, Beatrice

For all you literary buffs, this is Dante's house, just a block or so away from that church.

Shannon, I thought you would like this; this is the tomb of Galileo Galilei, in the church of Santa Croce.

On Saturday, I had all-day cooking fest with a world-famous chef here in Orvieto. It was amazing. I ate so much food all day long. I also got to work in the kitchen. I made some delicious dessert pastry ball things. It was a good day.

This is the best cup of cappucino that I have EVER had in my life, EVER. period.

Tommy's excited about cooking. (he's my room mate. literally)

Some of us cooking, with the master Chef in the center.

This is what we looked like after a 6 course lunch. I was so incredibly full. But I feel like my family has prepared me well for times such as this. I was able to eat pretty much all day and didn't feel too bad. Thanks family!



Here are those delicious dessert pastry sugar ball things. OHH MAN.

In other news, I have a guitar now! The pastor of the church asked me if I would like to borrow it. As you can imagine, I said yes! I’m going to play a worship song there soon, now I just have to choose which one I want to play. It is so amazing to be going that church. God is amazing. He is so present here. And he speaks Italian.

Pictures of Orvieto

This past weekend, we went to Rome again for a study tour. But I came back to Orvieto on Friday night, so I could have a whole weekend here. It was really nice. I had two days to just hang around the city without having to go to class. So, I finally got out and took pictures of Orvieto! It was actually fairly sunny, which hasn't happened very often since I've been here. So, look at these pictures and hopefully you can have a better idea of where I am living.

These are the stairs leading from our apartment to the Piazza del Duomo, where the Study Center is located, and, of course, the Duomo (cathedral). I walk up these every day on my way to class.

This is the Duomo di Orvieto.Notice the gold in the mosaics reflecting in the sunlight. A detail of one of the twisted columns on the facade of the duomo. This facade is amazing, covered in mosaics and intricate patterns.

This is the Torre del Moro I believe, it is at the intersection of the 2 main streets in Oriveto, Corso Cavour and Via del Duomo.
The Piazza dei Ranieri. This is the space that Christie and I are studying for our project. We just finished the analysis portion today, and then we will begin designing a demountable intervention in the space.
The entire town of Orvieto is located on a plateau, there are cliffs all around it. Here are some of them.

Some cars and a street.

This is a park located on the western tip of the city.

The park is located at the base of the oldest church in Orvieto, St. Giovanni.

The view from the park. There was a soccer game going on in that town down there. I could hear it real good. There weren't that many fans, but they were loud.

The Piazza de Repubblica. This is where city hall is located.

I hope this is fun to look at an helps in giving you an idea of what this town is like.

So, I watched the first half of the superbowl last night, but after the Boss played the halftime show, I got tired and went to bed (because it was 2:30am) Too bad Kurt Warner lost.