THIS BLOG HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE ENDANGERED BLOG LIST

whew. i just finished a whirlwind week of work for classes.

this morning i had a critique for the master plan of our groupwork (we have been in 3person groups doing analysis/conceptual design/ideations/etc since we started the project). my group really has a strong idea, one which unites the entire site and merges all of our ideas into one big concept. we recieved very high praise for our ability to come together as a group and mesh all of our ideas into one theme/concept/idea. so the critique went realllly well, and im pumpedabout that.

right after the critique, i had a test in language class. we have actually learned all of the different tenses in the language, so now it's just us repeating and repeating and learning more vocabulary. i did really well on the test, the language is actually quite easy to learn. they dont go nuts with the extra-nice-southern-style stuff "may i please have one piece ofbread if its not too much trouble for you" rather its kind of cavemanlike. they would say "one bread please". very simple. so i am also really pumped about doing well in the language.

we are leaving for BERLIN tomorrow morning at 745, fernando gave us a"tease" of what we would be doing/seeing while we were there, and it looks incredible. it was going to be only the LAR students going, but they extended the offer to the fashion students as well (for a small fee), so now it will be much more exciting with everyone there. we are going from friday morning until monday afternoon. awesome!

went to a futbol game this past weekend, it was INCREDIBLE. besides a college football game, i have never seen fans that into it the WHOLE time(even at nc state the fans get quiet after a while). everyone was singing the chants for the whole game (we learned one - SLA-VI-A TO-TOHO, still working on the translation). everyone was wearing a jersey/scarf/hat/etc of the slavia praha team. the stadium was brand new, slavia praha is in first place in the standings, they have won 11 matches in a row, they wonthe league last year, and the won the game 1-0. we made sure to get a full day of tailgating in at the hotel, ha, so it was definantly a memorable time. ill never forget the feeling of walking into the stadium and seeing/hearing the passion and seeing the nice crisp green field and the players, everything was just awesome. we are going back for sure, the tickets were only $7!!!

we want to go to a hockey game too, its the playoffs now. theres not a definant schedule because of the playoffs, so their next home game is friday night, when we'll be in berlin. but hopefully they win/advance and we can go to a game next week! i bet the hockey fans are even crazier!

the opera on monday night was quite an experience. i was expecting fatladys in viking hats sitting around shattering glasses, but it wasnt like that at all. lots of movement, rythm, color, etc. it was quite entertaining, actually. they started the second act with a song about beer that started with the lyrics "beer is truly a gift from god." we really liked that part. a part of it was like cirq de sole, i videoed it because it was so cool. it was actually a humorous story, and i would consider going to another one, depending on the price of the ticket (it was 'free' for us this time!).

the weather has been getting kind of sort of i dont want to say it but its kind of been approaching light jacket weather for the past few days! it snowed yesterday, but that was just for a few minutes. but the sun has made an apperance for perhaps the last 4 days! its very exciting, we are certainly deprived of its rays. definantly not anywhere close to shorts or tshirt, but moving in the right direction. actually the other day i went running in pants and a tshirt, it was very nice and sunny.

I have been doing lots of 'urban running' lately, which consists of running to the metro station, running through the metrostation, jogging in place on the metro, taking it to a random stop that I've never been to before, and running around there for a while. its the best way to see everything, in my opinion. except I never bring my camera on these runs, so the memories become personal memories, but that's ok. we've discovered lots of cool places.

everything is really good right now, we've really been engrosing ourselvesin the culture and learning about how the history has shaped the attitudes/opinions of the people. the gov't situation is certainly interesting, it's not often that a government votes that it has noconfidence in itself! but the world isn't going to explode because of it, so all is well in my opinion. certainly interesting though.

so i am fine. the blog - well, i think its endangered. its just a big commitment to take the time to do it, but i know that everyone at home looks at it to find stuff out. so its tough. im about to go on a walk, i dont know where, but somewhere good. what i have beendoing is looking at the map, locating a place where there is a little scenic view marked, and figure out how to go there. its certainly not easy, but i love trusting myself to figure it out.

life is good! i will try to keep this blog from going extinct!

terry

My state of being...

...is the most satisfying that it has ever been in my whole life!

The Rest of Spring Break '09

Wow. Its been a little while since I typed something up here, but not without reason. Its been a combination of my Landscape Architecture studio getting amped up in intensity and my overwhelming desire to not miss anything of Prague, going and doing anything and everything in my power to take it all in. Also, a general liberation from the overwhelming "needs" of technology that we experience in the USA has happened.

For the rest of my spring break activities, I will just post pictures onto the picture part of this website (link to the right). I don't quite have the time to go into ridiculous detail about it, but I'll say that it was a beautiful city. The weather didn't really have an effect on the precedings; although it was kind of cold, it didn't rain, and the sun even came out for our last day! To see a blue sky was awesome, we have certainly been repressed from any kind of nice weather in Prague (it's coming, I hope?).

I can best describe Vienna as "Prague that sold out to the 21st century." What I mean is that the old architecture styles (incredible facades, every surface detailed, every building has unique character, etc) were very similar to Prague. There were lots of streets that I think looked like they could have been in Prague, based on these architectural similarities alone. However, there were 21st century advertisements all over the place, via signs flat on the buildings, signs sticking out from the buildings, neon lights, etc, that Prague most certainly does NOT have. There were many streets that I found myself feeling like a NASCAR driver coming down pit lane, trying to find my destination among all of the numbers and signs hanging out over pit lane.

Another thing that contributed to this feeling was the newer style architecture all over the place. After the World Wars destroyed many of the older buildings in the city, opportunities presented themselves to give Vienna a lift into the new age through the reconstruction process. This newer architecture was incredible, and really all over the place in the city.

A list of some of the little things that made Vienna awesome over the last three days that I haven't really covered:

street performers/artists, deserted spooky carnivals, glass elevators to creaky wooden platforms ten stories in the air in the ceiling of a church, temporary ice skating paths through the local park, big huggable globes, incredible beer (Ottakring: Radler), oversized chess sets, multiple views of the city from above the roofline, public transportation fun, among (many) other things

So that was Spring Break '09 for me; 6 days and 5 nights in Vienna, Austria. Pretty cool, absolutely nothing I could complain about, and definantly something I'll always remember.

Sketches

More on Vienna later, here are a few sketches from my sketchbook, per request.

My Favorite Band

So it was only a matter of time...

Everyone please take a fraction of your time to view this video.

This concert (April, 2008, Raleigh, NC) was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Widespread Panic was joined by Anne Marie Calhoon, a fiddle player, who had played with my other favorite band, Yonder Mountain String Band, (http://www.yondermountain.com/), in Feburary in Raleigh, which I also attended. She was amazing then, and when she joined Widespread Panic, it was beautiful.

So enjoy! I certainly did, what a night that was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_fwgkpghtM&feature=related

Also, if you liked that one, here is another one I suggest. It's called "Up All Night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lwbUHYyWwM

They are my favorite band without a doubt, and amazing to see live. They really are a band.

Anyways, will someone let me know they enjoyed that music?

I sure did.

-Terry

Veinna cont'd

I don't seem to have snapped any pictures of the Natural History Museum itself, so I'll just jump right on in...

This is what you see when you walk in the front door:

LOOK OUT!

In the natural history museum in Raleigh, all of the exhibits are directly related to the natural history of North Carolina; in the Vienna Natural History Museum, you walk in on a lion - I'm no pro here, but I don't think that they have lions in Austria.

It was immediately evident that this museum would have more of a worldly representation in their exhibits.

I do not need to go to the zoo in Prague anymore; at this Museum I saw minerals, space rocks, birds, fish, whales, bears, monkeys, lions, elephants, wooly mammoths, dinosaurs, fossils, butterflys, sharks, frogs, snakes, alligators, ostriches, mice, rhinos, buffalo, deer, walruses, early human tools, pottery, and countless other things. I say I saw frogs - really, I saw about 200 frogs. I say I saw alligators - really, I saw about 30 alligators of all different sizes and species. It was so all-encompassing, better than any zoo I have ever been to, minus the fact that everything was dead and stuffed.

The lighting was terrible in the museum, but here are a few highlights:

BIG SPACE ROCKS:

...and others:

So that's really all the pictures I took in the Natural History Museum (the good ones, anyways). It was quite the experience, though, I don't think I'll ever end up in a Natural History Museum more impressive than that.

We exited the museum when it closed at 6:30, and were HUNGRY, looking for food. We walked until we spotted a Billa (BILLA! We love the Billa, it's the place to find cheap groceries in Prague, and here, too!).

Except the Billa was CLOSED ALL DAY SUNDAY.

Boom. Everything, we realized, was either closed, or closed early, on Sundays. Everything, that is, except, MCCDONALDS.

This was the first time that I have had American food in the whole month I've been abroad, mind you, and it was GOOD. It was also very expensive, (as our waitress at a restraunt today put it: "Vienna has money much more than does Prague").

Would you spend 4Euro (roughly $5.25) on this?

Because I did. And it was good.

They had a computer in the McDonald's and so we got on the internet and did a Wikipedia search of Vienna, and found a picture of the view from our hostel! Here is the link that we found in the Mcdonald's, which is the view out of our window/door at the Palace Hostel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna#Leisure_activities

So that made the trip to McDonald's all worth it; finding out that our hostel was the view that they call "himmel" (heaven), made us that much more pumped to be in The Palace Hostel! We retreated for a quiet evening, and made sure to say Happy Birthday to Laura-Nelle, who at midnight turned 21! It was a quiet evening, and we enjoyed the view over the city immensely. It was quite the day, with big plans for Monday as well...

Vienna con't:

Sunday morning, we woke up, checked out of The A&O Hostel (we only stayed for Friday and Saturday nights), and headed out for The Palace Hostel, our hostel for Sunday night. It was located about twenty-five minutes outside of the central downtown district, on a large hill overlooking the city. I thought that it would be nice to spend one of our nights in Vienna here; it would provide a unique perspective of the city, and give us a nice mental break from two days of intense travel.

We took the metro to the last stop on the western side of the city, then boarded a bus, which had a stop at the new hostel. We headed uphill for almost the whole ride, and were rewarded when we got to the top and found the hostel; the view of the city was spectacular:

When we checked in and went to our room (another 4-bed private room with shower and toilet), we discovered that it had a double french door that opened up to the view over the city. It was beyond cool. We could just walk right outside and take it all in. It was a cloudy, grey, foggy, and cold day (as always), but the view was still humbling.

After settleing in for a few minutes, snacking a bit, and putting our day bags together, we headed out, back on the bus down the hill towards the city and the metro. Our goals for the day included a good lunch and a visit to the Natural History Museum and the Fine Arts Museum (they are on the same property, facing each other, with a large monument in between), and then getting dinner somewhere before retiring to the hostel for a quiet evening.

We found a very nice little cafe right near the museums, and settled in for a good lunch. I ordered a Turkey, Bacon, Tomato, and Lettuce sandwich, as well as a big ol' Eggenberger Bier.

After polishing it all off, we decided to head to the Fine Arts Museum first, because it closed thirty minutes before the Natural History Museum. We had an hour and a half in each one, which turned out to be the perfect amount of time.

At the Museum of the Fine Arts, I saw paintings, sculpture, jewelrey, and pottery, ranging from all periods of history. Here are a few of the items that stood out, to me, in the Museum of the Fine Arts:

The first thing that stood out was the building itself, with the monument to Maria Teresa in the foreground, as well as Laura-Nelle, Ginnie, and Rima (L to R). It was incredible, and we hadn't even gone inside yet...

When we did walk in the front door, though, we were blown away. It was the most spectacular entry that I have ever seen, quite fitting for the Museum of the Fine Arts (here is the entry and ceiling):

So after we had gotten over "entry shock" we split up and agreed to meet up in an hour and a half. Here are pictures of my favorite items:

So that was the first part of the day, spent leaving our first hostel, metro/bus to our second hostel (overlooking the city), heading back into the city, eating lunch, and going to the Museum of the Fine Arts.

We walked out of the Museuem of the Fine Arts, checked out the monument to Maria Teresa, then headed accross the couryard towards the Natural History Museum...