Day 2- Amsterdam

Yesterday was our first real day spent in Amsterdam. We met at 9:30 in the morning, which turned into ten cause our fearless leader, professor Jimenez (who's like a year older than me) overslept. No worries though. We spent the day tramming and walking around, seeing some notable architecture, and ending with a visit to the offices of the firm UN Studio, who did a pavilion in Millennium Park this summer, and did some buildings that we went to see today.

MAN HUNGRY!!!

Tiniest Car I've Ever Seen. There are a lot of these.

Bikes bikes everywhere. This is the bike-park by the train.

My and Jessica in some chairs in a dead-end stairwell with a low ceiling.

Me and Jessica in some tiny chairs.

Almost every building in Amsterdam has these hooks up on top of the building. Because they're five or six floors, no elevator, tiny stairwells. Meaning furniture gets hoisted up through the windows. Crazy!

See the leaning building?

A cool cantilever.

Stilts.

These are tables, a sculpture- bottom one is concrete, top two are wood. Huge.

Another Neutlings and Reijdik building.

A development by a firm West 8

A cool building. Me like color.

Color.

Het Schip. Amsterdam School style of architecture, from the....30s I think...?

Coincidentally, a ship chandelier.

A sweet lookin bridge.

The MVRDV housing project we went to see.

UN Studio's model of bridge we will go see- Erasmus Bridge, Rotterdam

and their model of Agora Theatre that we're going to see.

UN Studio!

Then we ate at some Mediterranean food place recommended by Jimenez's friend from UN Studio who came out with us. After two nights of a bit pricey dinners plus drinks during and after, some people (specifically ME) are getting a bit more thrifty with our decisions. Yesterday for lunch a few of us went to a grocery and spent about 3 euros each and got a loaf of bread, meat, cheese, juice, grapes, bananas, and some yogurt that was the consistency of my mom's homemade whipped cream- thick and rich but still kinda fluffy. I thought it was magical. I will be having more. And it was cheap-ish.

Typical Amsterdam canal view.

More leaning buildings. How do they doooooo thaaaaaaaaat

Me and this guy, we go way back.

Leaning building number a million.

Some people not so thrilled with the train ride.

Last NIGHT after we got back from dinner, some people had stayed out having drinks and came back later after having visited what they call in Amsterdam a "coffee shop". They're ALL called coffee shops, dunno why. So needless to say they and most of us are not getting enough sleep even just because we're staying up late after we get back, using our computers staying in touch with loved ones and such :)

Day 1- Delft

Time to recap my first day. For starters, the night before I found David, my eventual roommate in Barcelona, at the airport no problem. We then started to make our way to Delft, about 40 minutes away by train, with the help of texting our friend Roby, who was an exchange student at UIC last year, who we were staying with. Dave has a Vodafone cell phone he got from HIS roommate, who was studying in Berlin this summer.

We got off at some station to transfer, got on the wrong train, got off, got on the right train, all in all took like two hours or something to get to her place. We walked to her place with all our luggage, dropped em off, and went out for some beers. Sat right in the city center (its a small-ish town with one main square) and had some beers next to a canal. I happened to mention Westvleteren, "the world's best beer" and Roby's friend said they served it down the street. They didn't have their top beer but two others made by the same monks. Neat.

We had another beer out on the back deck and got to bed at like 1:30. Since it was my first chance at wireless, I sat in bed checking email until 2am. Set my alarm for 10, promptly slept until 11 and then 12 because Dave never woke up to my alarms so I figured he was tired, and I was. Didn't sleep well.

Us and Roby:

A cool old Renault I saw.

We got up and walked around Delft, saw a leaning clock tower like the tower in Pisa, that they corrected mid-construction, and climbed another clock tower (forgot to count the steps) and saw some views of the city- Rotterdam and Den Haag off in the distance. Saw some cool modern homes that we went to check out. Then made our way to the University of Delft to see their library, and turns out they had a bunch of other cool buildings too. We walked around from about 12-4:30, getting kinda sweaty in jeans we'd been wearing since we got on our flight, then hauled back to Roby's, walked down the street to see a windmill we saw on the map, and then walked to the train- the platform was about 2 minutes farther than we thought, we weren't sure if it was just down the street to the right or the left, chose wrong, and then chose the wrong set of stairs to go up- the train was just pulling out when we finally got to it, after being completely out of gas from carrying our bags. We waited another half hour.

Dave in the circular stairs that went forever/The view from the clock tower, of a canal

The view part 2:

A canal covered with duckweed and a cool bridge:

A glass room sticking out of someone's condo:

Another cool canal, and some guy:

A cool building at the Technical University of Delft:

The TU Delft Library:

From inside:

We got to our hotel at 6:45, supposed to meet EVERYONE at 7, and hurried upstairs to shower, hurried back down, only to wait 30 minutes cause two guys fell asleep in their room :) Then we headed out to dinner. Kinda pricey. Nice to have a beer though and sit on the water. Did some internetting last night in the lobby at the hotel, the only place I get wifi in the building, and went to bed at like 3 after getting suckered into video chatting with Tiffany for awhile :)

I'm tired today and started getting a cold like during my flight, so my throat is always dry and I fall asleep stuffy. Nuts!!

Frankfurt

Well I guess this is my first entry. 5:12am Chicago time, 12:12pm most-of-Europe time.

I'm growing a beard this semester. And taking pictures each day. And turning them into a video. Here's day one :)

Here's pictures of me packing.

Here's pictures of the Model of the City in Chicago.

My flight has been remarkably good all things considered. There are two aisles, seven seats across, and I had a middle seat, but the guy next to me moved to sit by a friend. SCORE. Two seats and an aisle for me. We also have our own tv screens in front of us, which are touch screens, and we can watch like 10 different movies. I chose Star Trek! Score #2!

We took off around 10pm, on time-ish, impressive considering that their method of boarding was basically calling EVERYONE, who got in a quarter-mile long line in no order while I stayed sitting down and watching the lemmings in amazement. I don't really like picking up my bag every thirty seconds to walk two feet.

Almost two hours after we took off, our dinner service came (DINNER, at midnight). That was after two nice glasses of not-that-nice red wine, and some OJ. Despite two glasses of wine and some chickeny-vegetabley stuff in my stomach and watching a movie, and it being midnight. I slept for maybe an hour I think. I probably laid there half awake with my eyes closed, changing position every fifteen minutes, for about two hours. That was nice. I tried the headphones. No dice. I turned sideways, tried to slouch down. Thought about laying across the two seats. I just can't do the middle-aged-guy-coming-home-from-work-falling-asleep-sitting-up-in-his-favorite-chair-watching-tv thing. Yeah I know, watch who I'm calling middle aged.

So an hour ago I woke up for real when the only person on the plane who apparently wanted to see the rising sun decided to open the window down the aisle from me. Thanks you...lady. Breakfast service came soon thereafter. Guten morgen. Niiiiiiice- four hours after "dinner", at 5am my time, 12pm local time. Between the meals and the non-sleep and seven hour time change, my body's gonna get messed up REAL quick. I just gotta make it through the day. I think after a heavy bier mit dinner I'll be ready for a good snooze tonight.

So now I'm sitting here STILL amazed that the guy across the aisle is STILL using his iPhone. Watching music videos now, but I swear to God that he spent multiple hours I think penning his dissertation or else the mother of all break-up emails, because the whole time he was scrolling up and down, reading and re-reading, and occasionally stopping somewhere to type a little something (hey guy, you know that thing works in landscape mode too now?)

After debarking (disembarking?) I'm now sitting in Frankfurt airport, which feels like an IKEA- there are separate recycling bins for everything, the furniture looks cool, there's stainless steel everywhere, and bright accent colors abound. I like this place. There are airport employees riding little bikes across the airport....

By the way this was my video screen in front of me. It showed cool information about our flight, every once in awhile.

The first bit of "architecture" I saw on my trip, the bathrooms in Frankfurt.

Recap 2

Also, Tiffany left me. :) She moved to Austin to start a three year dual Master's of Social Work and Master's of Public Health. Her great uncle and aunt drove up from Arkansas, packed up all her stuff minus desk and bed that we sold, and drove her back to Arkansas to visit her great grandmother, down to Austin to drop off her stuff and to Houston to get the rest of her stuff, where I flew down a week after she left, met her, packed up, drove rental truck to Austin after hanging out with her parents, and helped her start her new life WITHOUT ME :) Her roommate, who's in her program, who she found on a chatboard, found an apartment for them both. Not bad. See moving in pictures. Unfortunately, one of the locals stole my camera from under my nose, while we were unpacking the truck, a scant 12 hours after I had ordered my new camera, coincidentally.

Tiffany and I spent 4 days in Austin- one unpacking and outfitting her apartment with the esteemed help of Father Uncle Father Bill, one going to the grocery store and other errands and Barton Springs (a giant spring fed part of the river downtown in a state park (where they have Austin City Limits) where people go to swim, and its really cold), one day going to the country's largest water park, Schlitterbahn, with aforementioned Uncle-Priest, and one day riding TIffany's bike and Uncle Bill's lent bike all over downtown Austin and UT campus in the balmy summer sun, seeing the sights, learning our way around. As you can see, we hung out with Uncle Bill a lot!

This is an art installation in City Hall (pictured above) that shocks you when you put your hands on it. A giant cable runs into it from the wall. I was NOT interested :)

Outside City Hall. A little river that spirals into this hole :)

See pictures. And then I went to South Bend for 4 days, back to Chicago for 4, and flew out! Here's also pictures of me packing. I also had a mole taken out of my back that was stitched up and gave me a bit of annoyance for a couple weeks. But don't worry I'm gonna live.

Recap 1

So there are a few things I'd like to recap though. One, a random story I never shared (or did I?). I went to Jamba Juice and got my favorite smoothie. Sure there aren't many flavors but there's still like 15 or something. Guy behind me must have ordered the same thing, cause when mine's done he tries taking it- I was like yeah um that's mine. He said wait, is your name Carl too? I was like huh? Wait, your name is Carl? And you ordered that too? Right behind me? It made me want to take a picture with him. I should have. He was like a tall black guy about my age. I've only met like 5 Carls in my life.

We also went to a family (Ross Mittiga, owner of Corby's, his son) wedding this summer. It was at the Basilica. What a cool place to get married (yeah Carl, when are YOU getting married, c'mon!). The weather was great and it was nice cool to take pictures outside there. Also, they had a sweet rental car to drive away in:

I also saw my friend Dave Esch who I haven't seen in a year I think, since he's been living in Columbia, the country. He was home for his sister Sarah's wedding, who married a Spanish guy, who's brother is an architect in Seville. I'm gonna try and meet him. I'm going to visit Dave also next summer when Tiffany and I go to a friend's wedding in Ecuador for a week, which I believe I mentioned (I don't feel like going back and checking). (I love parentheticals).

Something else sweet is Josh and I ran The Great Urban Race, put on by the same people as the Warrior Dash, and it was basically a one-day version of The Amazing Race. At least 522 teams registered. We had five hours to complete a scavenger hunt across the city. Top 25 teams from each of about 25 cities are granted entry into a national competition in New Orleans to win $10,000! First place in Chicago won $300, top three places had entry into nationals paid for. Josh and I busted our asses, running all over downtown and then all over Wrigleyville- 4.5 miles in all, plus the time on the El- and we finished in just about two hours, placed FIFTH. MAN we were close to 4th and 3rd. But I'll be in Spain during Nationals anyway and we probably wouldn't pay to fly and stay down in New Orleans anyway. But it was fun to do and fun to kick ass.

All My Bags Are Packed

...aside from finishing my mac'n'cheese'n'frozen vegetables. I fit all my stuff in a giant backpack, an oversized messenger bag, and a big computer bag. As much electronics as there are clothes. Three pairs of shoes, like five pairs of pants. Anyway, I'm off at 10pm tonight for Amsterdam via Frankfurt, all night, on Lufthansa.

This is your warning to stay on top of the blog updates- if I can manage, they'll come every week, even if short. I'll be on new adventures all the time, probably every week, and taking a ton of pictures which will all be geo-tagged by GPS to record my location as I go- new technology. I hope to see all of Western Europe (define "all"...)

Time to take a shower and start my journey- bus to train to moving sidewalk to plane for Frankfurt- Sprechen zie Englisch, bitte?

Complaining.

Ps, when Tiffany and I and Karen went to the Taste of Chicago, there was a parade going on. Let me just say, for those that don't know, that I live near (read: in the EPICENTER of) the second gayest neighborhood in the country (I'm assuming there's a gayer one in SF). They were having a parade about how proud they were, aptly called the Pride Parade. Tiffany wanted me to meet her on the other side of the parade, at a nearby El stop. Well the parade was going straight up the nearest big street I live by, to an angle intersection north of me, and then back around south down the other street at an angle- which happens to be the other nearest big street I live by.

I didn't realize/find out the path of the parade until I got there. I was thinking I'd hafta walk a couple blocks around it- until I got north and realized it turned south and I was hemmed in. By the time I got back to walking past my apartment, I'd walked a mile already. I kept walking south another MILE to get past the south edge of the parade, and walked more because the bus wasn't running that far north because of the parade. Below is the path I walked to get to the NEAREST CTA (normally I could walk a block in either direction to a bus or four blocks to the train). All in all I walked , by the mile markers you can't read, almost three miles. I got on the bus almost exactly one hour after leaving my apartment.