Venice, Italy

Okay technically I'm not in Venice right now. I'm on the bus to it though. We spent the day about an hour outside of the city checking out Villa Barbaro and Carlo Scarpa's Tomba Brion. Plenty of pictures taken of course.

As for now I can't wait to get into Venice and eat a large amount of Italian food.

By the way it really is gorgeous here. And there are vineyards about every half mile. I think I should probably have a vineyard some day. It may save me a lot of money...
--Rebecca Leroux

Berlin, Germany

Venice tomorrow!!

Be back in Berlin late Sunday!

By the way, family Uncle Keith decided to drop in Berlin for a day. We went to some percussion show. All I can say is I'm glad it was something musical without words because my German isn't coming along so well. I guess rhythm is universal... Thank God something is.

Berlin, Germany

Studio = 2 thumbs down.

Venice on Thursday :)

I could really go for some schnitzel from Fat Sam's right now.

Berlin, Germany

Such a good night.. or perhaps morning.

Don't try to get into fancy places if you speak English. Apparently that's a no-no. The place next door liked us though.. as well as the British people who also speak English. Good times are good no matter where you are.

Berlin, Germany

Friday and Saturday consisted of the Berlin Wall.

Friday was a day full of our humanities class. During class we went to the museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is the most famous American checkpoint that was used during the time when the wall was up. We met with a guy who actually brought 100 people over from the East of Berlin to the West during the time of the wall. He was arrested and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. It was definitely an interesting perspective. Later we talked to two Germans, one who lived in East Germany and one who lived in West Berlin during the time of the wall. We had a lot of discussion with them and asked them tons of questions. We definitely don't get a feel for this in our history classes back in the states. It's almost sad that we're missing out on such a huge part of world history. I can't even fathom living with a wall in city.

Today, we went and explored the wall. We're also now on the wall, but don't tell anyone. We went to the Wall Museum, saw the Church of Reconciliation, (which was rebuilt later as it was destroyed), and of course the Wall itself. It's a very moving thing to see. It's very hard for us to imagine a life like this, but for many of these people it became a normality. It's crazy.

Berlin, Germany

Today: Philharmonie.

Pictures came out crappy due to my crappy camera. Well it's not crappy, it's just not expensive or nice. It's mediocre at best. Still really cool space inside.

Supposedly there are free concerts (their practice rehearsal) on Tuesdays around lunch time. I will probably check it out next week. It'll be worth a look around.

Berlin, Germany

Pictures:

Altlandsberg
Dessau
Prague (14 Feb)
Prague (15 Feb)

It snowed yesterday. I was trying to think of how you would say that in German, and my French slipped out again.. Il neige. I guess the positive thing is I remember some French. The other positive thing is today all the trees are coated with snow and the sun is out. I have missed the sun.

I have a pin-up tomorrow and I'm slacking on my work. I still don't really like school all that much. At least my teacher is pretty nice. I love how a day of sun usually means I'll be stuck in studio.

Berlin, Germany

Dessau last Friday. Awesome. The sun was out. I had an awesome nap on the train. Bauhaus was way cooler than I thought it would be. They really haven't taught us much about it. There is so much attention to detail. It's awesome.

The environmental building we went to, as well, is supposed to be the greenest building in the world at the moment. It was really cool to look around. Although, I felt it was a bit over done at some points. It looked really cool and had really nice details. Definitely worth seeing.

This weekend. Prague. I love Prague. Could easily be one of my favorite places in Europe, but of course I have a ton more to see!

Here's the story of Prague.

An hour and forty five minutes after the bus was supposed to leave, we actually left. Can't say anyone was real happy at that point. But it was an overnight bus, so I just couldn't wait to get to sleep. The people running the bus were mildly sketchy, but the bus wasn't bad so I got over it. We arrived only about 45 minutes late to Prague. I don't know how that works. But we were there, in one piece. That's all that really mattered at the moment.

Well it's about 6 in the morning and we're in the Czech Republic. It's dark. The bus station is, to say the least bit, interesting. We have no idea where to even find a street sign. Not to mention we can't even check into our hotel until about 1 anyways. So after getting yelled at by this guy who sits in a little booth in the bathroom.. because you have to pay to use public bathrooms apparently.. we found the golden arches. Here, I would like to give a very large thank you to McDonald's for being global. Not only global, but 24 hours. Although, I have to say the loud techno music at 6 in the morning was a bit different. So my first trip to McDonald's in Europe this time around was not because I was craving a double cheeseburger, but because it was dark and none of us speak even the tiniest bit of Czech. I can't say it was the most comfortable position I've ever been in.

Well, I paid my 5 crowns to use the facilities, ate a McMuffin, and then daylight finally came. Prague because less sketchier as the sun rose. We managed to use the crappy tiny map we printed out to get us to a better area. Also, we used a lot of "that looks architectural and big, let's go that way." Our insticts taught us well. Basically Prague just kind of fell into our hands at that point. Everything we wanted to see was basically right there.

The city of Prague is small, probably smaller than Boston. We didn't even use to subway once. We walked everywhere... in -5 degrees c, but oh well. You'll catch a few photos with my mitten in the corner. It was too bitter to take them off for every photo I was taking. Prague was just amazing. When you think of traditional Europe, you should think Prague. Everywhere you turned there was something beautiful (minus the bus station.)

Our hotel was awesome. And all of our meals were amazing. I don't think I've ever had food that good. And it was cheap. I could usually get a meal for about 10 American dollars and that included a glass of wine. Steve documents most of our meals, so those photos might show up at some point. We were those awesome tourists taking pictures in the restaurants. By the way, if you ever want to go to Prague, don't freak out about language. They speak a lot of English there. It was great considering together all four of us could get a few phrases in French, Spanish, and German, but not a single word of Czech. The one thing all Europeans have in common is English. Works great for us. I kind of feel bad for everyone else though.

Ultimately, I'm exhausted and I miss Prague. And I still don't like school and I can't wait to graduate.

Prauge, Czech Republic

I won't write a lot now, but Prague is amazing, beautiful, and bitterly cold. Tons of pictures to come. I wish I had more than a weekend here. This might be my favorite part of the trip so far. Will write more later!
--Rebecca Leroux

Berlin, Germany

Today, very cold. Bitterly cold.

Altlandsberg, also cold, still cute though. I feel a lot of pressure on this project considering they are actually considering our ideas for reality. We stayed in town for dinner and ate at Fat Sam's. If for any reason you are in that area in your lifetime, go eat at Fat Sam's. Not a lot of English spoken, but we made do and the owner who did speak a little English was more than nice to us. Food was amazing. I had Schnitzel. Yup, schnitzel. Basically a sort of fried meat (depends on what kind you get) with either an egg or a creme sauce on top.

Last time I was in Europe, I thought the food sizes were fairly small, but you got like 3 courses usually. Germany must not have got the memo. I can hardly finish meals, not to mention take out is a very American thing apparently, although that is changing.

Tomorrow Desseau. Bahaus :)

Berlin, Germany

Yesterday we did a little precedent field trip for our studio project. The theater was called Schaubuhne. The building was a little outdated, but the inside functionality was nice. The really interesting part was the theater itself. The floor is made up of about 75 panels that can all be mechanically moved up or down. They can change where the seating or stage is for any show. They can also change the landscape of the stage for the show. The ceiling was also this interchangeable grid system where lighting can be shifted in accordance with the floor layout. Pretty neat stuff, very different.

Today we got back to Altlandsberg, Germany for a second field visit. By the way, we got in like 2 or 3 newspapers out here. I'm going to try to get a copy as soon as I can.

Tomorrow we have a day trip to Desseau to see Bahaus and a new green environmental building.

This weekend is Prague :)

Berlin, Germany

This weekend has been an exploration of the city. Night life here doesn't start until at least midnight (which is clearly past my bed time, so some adjusting has to be done.) They also mix a lot of their beers with Coke, Sprite, or Fanta which I found interesting. It's pretty good and I'm hoping that will help me ease into liking beer. (Don't be surprised if I start bringing a can of soda with me when I come out at home.)

Thursday was our first day of German class. It's about damn time we learn some. It's rough thus far and I have to say I hate that they never made us take any classes in it before we got here. We spent the afternoon exploring one of the more exiting areas of Berlin. We went specifically to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, more commonly know to me as "the blue-glass church." There was plenty of good architecture and activity in the area. Check out the pictures here.

Friday was our first day of our humanities class, which is naturally called historical and cultural Berlin. We went to an exhibit called The Story of Berlin. Honestly, very cool looking museum, but way too much reading to keep my attention span. But at the end we got we got to see one of the atomic bunkers they set up during the cold war which was interesting, and kept my attention mildly focused. I have to say it was kind of creepy.


Friday night, Jill and I fought the stove situation in our apartments and made a pretty fancy dinner for ourselves and Steve and George. It worked out well.. well the second time at least. It also worked out well at about 3:00 AM when we were still hungry.

Today, we went to Museum Island and went to the Alte Nationalgalerie, which is the museum of nineteeth-century painting and sculpture. Then I finally had curry-wurst. Not to shabby. You can't go to Germany and not have a wurst.

Berlin, Germany

Photo Link!

More photos from today will come soon!

Berlin, Germany

So I figure I need to do an update of sorts. Today has been the first day I've seen the sun in Germany. It's kind of refreshing. Yesterday, we got our site for our studio project for the semester. It actually lies outside of Berlin in Altlandsberg. It is the coolest little city. Dani and I are actually considering going back this weekend just to see more of it. Our project is also one of the coolest projects we've had yet. We are using an existing Baroque style church and creating a theater out of it, basically a small community type space. We are also adding an entrance building. So basically this project is restoration, adaptive reuse, and a new structure all in one. It's something we've never gotten to do before and I have to say I'm quite exictied.

We took a tour of the church and apparently this project will at some point be a reality. Reporters actually followed us around and took pictures of us and took notes about our project. I guess we'll be in some local paper, hopefully I can get a copy. The committee in charge of the project gave us a presentation and sat us down to this nice layout of dessert and coffee. It was probably the most welcome I've felt here. The community is very excited about this project. They have money for the enterance building, so I guess if some of our projects are good enough some of our ideas will be used in the later process.

The building now is being used as like a studio space for a man who makes stain-glassed windows. Really neat stuff. I'll post some more pictures on my photo page and I'll post the link in here after my class!

Berlin, Germany

I'm typing this on my phone bear with me.

That was the longest travel experience I have ever had. I'm still exhausted. Not to mention that was the shortest birthday I ever had as well.

We all just took hardcore naps in our new home sweet home. The apartments smell a little musty but hey nothing that's going to kill me.
--Rebecca Leroux