Barcelona is Beautiful

Mountjuic, La playa and an awesome finally

2008-04-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

La Sagrada y mi familia

2008-04-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

We are Architecture VIPs
The holy family as designed by Gaudi over the entrance of the first facade to be built, the Nativity facade.

From the outside you really don't pay attention to the stained glass because of all the sculpture, but on the inside, your sensations are reversed and the glass gets the most attention.

One of the areas of the church (behind me) only has different types of white glass, as Gaudi specified.

The current architect of the Sagrada Familia (Jordi Bonet), who gave us a personal hard-hat tour. His father (Lluis Bonet) was an architect and a friend of Gaudi. He was explaining how they now use computers to help them cut the stone into the shapes that used to have to be cut by hand. Originaly they were made with plaster. The current architects use the same computer programs as Frank Gehry.

The Top of the columns that the architect was describing, they act like trees.

The group on the roof after we thought we were going to die in the lift on the way up

Matteo under a Parabolic curve being held in place.

The boys in the Parabolic arches.

Form-Active Structures

We are Architecture VIPs

The group on La Rambla waiting for our tour of the Enrique Morale/, the same firm that did the Natural Gas Building and the Santa Caterina Market.

There firm is in an old Gothic building, that they partially remodeled but kept true to what it was originally. The walls still have choice vertical strips of the original plaster and paint that was underneath them, but the rest of the walls are plastered white. They did the same to the exterior facade of the Santa Caterina Market that they remodeled but kept the original exterior facade that used to be for a monastery. They fixed up and plastered over some of the brick to the facade while leaving a couple horizontal strips around the whole building in their original state as a detail. A good way to modernize but not hide what is beautiful.

The Class in the model room of the firm with CeCe I wanted them to whip out some of the large scale models of the Natural Gas building, when the Architect described the building she told us how the shape reacted to the site, I guess Kevin and I were right, when we noticed that the form responded to the Arch de Triumph and the tree line in the Parc de la Ciutadella.

Plaza Real on the walk back from the firm, somewhere I'll miss.

Hawra posing in front of the restaurant that we ate dinner at our first night in Barcelona.

Some candy at the Bocaria... so good and just the right day to end our exhausting but awesome day of architectural enthusiasm.

They were wearing Fes...Feses?

2008-04-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

Day 1...

Welcome to Morocco: Bienvenido a Moracco

Our hotel was amazing, we stayed in an authentic Moroccan Dar that was restored.
Lindsey and I were in the Mezanine suit, it was two stories and gorgeous.

http://www.dar-alandalous.com/

This is a design on our ceiling.

Even the toilet paper despencers were rediculously detailed.

Where we ate dinner the first night.

Bab Boujeloud gate

Adrienne with the kittens at the Medersa Bou Inania and water clock

Mokri palace

Embroidering on the street

Mo-Mo our tourguide

At the ceramics

Lindsey inside of a Dar that was being restored

Doster Trying to duck out of my picture.

In an old hamam (public bath), not exactly like the one we experienced with the local Moroccan women, something I'll never forget.

Middle Atlas Mountains

Bye Africa, I'll miss you

fin

Casa Batllo

2008-03-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

The first Gaudi building that I've gotten the grand tour of...

There's beautiful stained glass throughout the building and especially in the windows that look out onto Passeig de Gracia.

Gaudi changed the tone of the tiles in the light well in the middle of the mansion so that it would appear to be one color when it was sunny out becasue of the bleaching action of the sun acting against the changing color of the tile.

The mansion is realy about bringing light and air into the building naturaly. He made it so that your laundry could dry within the laundry rooms and you wouldn't have to hang your laundry outside with these vents

Gaudi's genius is apparent not only in his artistic expressions but also his structural and mathematic knowledge. He used parabolic arches to support his structures which he was pretty much the first to explore.

Even though this building over 100 years old, it feels extremely modern.

The Palau de Musica and ex-Archies

2008-03-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

The beautiful sunset from our apartment.

Crepes a Barcelona before seeing Moonwians

Udon after seeing Moonwians

Jessie and Amanda admiring the Palau

In the Palau

Viva Inspiration!

2008-03-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

I've allways loved Gaudi's architecture for so many reasons, but my greatest respect for him came from learning that he was fighting the man through architecture.

Cece, one of our teachers, took us on a firm tour to OAB which is run by Carlos Ferrater. His son gave us a lecture on some of their work but included historical information about Barcelona in his presentation. Ferrater has been asked by the ex-mayor of Barcelona to essentially be the next Gaudi and create the Casa Mila of the 21st century, also on Pasea de Gracia.

The design of the facade for the new building is based off of the same principals that led Gaudi to design the unjulating facade of Casa Mila. In Gaudi's time there were lots restrictions on how much facades could pertrude and set back, they were supposed to be essentialy flat with small balconies. Gaudi tricked the strict code by creating a facade with elements that no one had ever seen before. He completely pushed the boundaries and was able to get his design accepted because it technically fit into code but not by the code's intention.

Ferrater also creates a dynamic facade in his new project, that is currently under construction, in the true spirit of Gaudi.

The new design even relates back to the courtyards in Casa Mila, although Casa Mila has two of them and the new building only has one.

So now I love Gaudi and Ferrater. The photos are from his website. http://www.ferrater.com/

Weird connection between Walt Disney and Barcelona

2008-03-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is a weird theory of mine that has absolutely no factual bases, so don't read allot into it.

It all started when I was doing research for our last studio project on La Parc de la Ciutadella here in Barcelona and noticed that there is a monument to Walt Disney in a corner of the park, which for the most part only has monuments to mayors, generals and other important people to the history of the city.
Perhaps it is because I grew up watching the Little Mermaid, but The Sagrada Familia has always reminded me of Tritan's Palace that the Little Mermaid lives in.

I don't know if it is because both include organic curves and structural systems that seam impossible, but the two have always shared some magical quality to me.

The same is true about the Cathedral on the top of Mount Tibidabo. From the first night we were in our apartment we were calling it Cinderella's Castle because we can see it from our balconies and windows lit up majestically at night on the top of the mountain. Over Spring break we finally made it up to the Cathedral, which during the day and up close doesn't look like much. It's definitely not the best Cathedral in Barcelona, but it too has magical qualities.

So maybe these are just the architectural observations of someone who never grew up, but who would want to do that. I want to stay an undergrad in Barcelona forever.

Spring Break

2008-03-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Spring Break was muy excelente.

Jose got to come visit, which was very exciting and we were planning on going to visit his abuelo in western spain but the night before we were going to leave his father called us to say that his grandpa was in the hospital so we should cancel our tickets so that we wouldn't be a burden. So things didn't work out but we still had a blast. Of course I made him sit there and play while I sketched and made him to do tourist stuff.

If you ever have a stale bagguet I would suggest taking it down to the port and seing the gulls and huge fish attack. Muy interesante.

The sculpture of Jesus on the new side of the Sagrada Familia is realy different because he is actually hanging from a cross pertruding horizontally from the front of the building.

Irene's awesome parents felt bad that jose and I's trip got cancelled so they adopted us for a couple days and took us on a cava tour through the Freixenet winery in Sant Sadurni d'Anoia. We learned how Cava is made and all about the different kinds and got to taste the Cava Brut.

It's pretty interesting how they build entire walls out of Cava bottles as the bricks and wood poles as the mortar and they've been building them this way for centuries. I'll have to diagram how they build the walls of bottles for aging.

After that we went back to their deserted beach town where we got to go swimming indoors and freeze when we tried to walk along the Mediteranian.

On the way back to spain we stopped in Taragona to see some of the oldest Roman ruins in Spain. We saw the old ampatheter and part of the aquaduct on our short stay.

When we got even closer to Barcelona we got lost a few times, but eventually made our way to mount Tibidabo because that has been a goal of Irene's and mine since we got to Barcelona. While we were lost we saw multiple cars with people either having sex or doing other public acts of intimacy.

We didn't get to go to the top of the Cathedral to touch the feet of Jesus because we got there too late after being lost, but we still had great views of Barcelona from the ground. The mountains surrounding Barcelona all provide excellent views of the city but this one was particullarly great because the mountain is the tallest in the area and you can actually see the city grid.

I've been trying to study public spaces with street performers but after learning how the whole system works I'm not sure how inspiring it is anymore, it lost some of its romance. Barcelona has a sophisticated system of deciding what spaces street performers can use for their performances. There are actually designated spaces with markers set up by the government where you can perform and a list that you have to sign up on to have the right to use the space at a certain time to perform in.

Even though the system has detracted from the organicness of the study, there still is the human factor and the difference in the experience that is effected by people that pass by and join in the performance. This picture is of the people who joined in and danced to an older singer who was singing traditional Spanish music in front of the Dali Museum.

I ran into the group that originally inspired me to document the spaces used by street performers a few times over spring break. Their CD is called Mariatchi Boogie and I bought a copy to support them, which of course dosen't include any of the crowd pleasers because those are all covers. I think their names are in the cover, but I'm not sure if I understand it correctly but perhaps they are Manu Chao, Aitzi y los lokos de la calle Codols. The first couple time you hear them sing "No Woman No Cry" or "Olle Como Va" you feel like you found something special and you were lucky to have stumbled upon this group at the exact time they decided to play the song that you've loved for years. But when you walk by them once and walk by again a half hour later and they are playing the same song that you heard you are dissilusioned.

I saw the group down in Port Vuel and again in Plaza Cataluna and was told they also perform at the end of Las Ramblas, so it is clear that they allways go for big spaces where a crowd can form that is frequented by both tourists and locals. Actualy I heard their CD playing when I walked by a small store in Raval a few nights ago. So the locals support them but the tourists are how they earn a living of course.
By watching the same group perform in different spaces you are able to compare how the different spaces, the people that group around the performance and the mood of the musicians all fead off of one another.

(videos coming soon)

Roma vs. Barcelona

2008-02-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

After returning from Rome, I compared Rome and Barcelona because every architecture student has to chose between the two.

ROMA

BARCELONA

There's one modern building in the entire city, done by Richard Meyer

Richard Meyer is your neighbor

Peter Keating would go to Rome

Howard Roark would go to Barcelona

As far as Studio, it's heated with a library and computer lab

Cold, powerless studio that gets broken into

You get to live on the Campo

Live on Plaza Universitat

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

$$$$$$$$

Be surrounded by the foundations and classics of architecture

Have a mixture of classic and modern

You can read the Menu

Catalan is Confusing

Mussolini

Franco

The 3B's

Art Nuvo

People sell you roses and knick-knacks

People sell you beer and hash

GELATERIA

PANADERIA

Spumante / Prosecco

Cava

Dirty

BC NETA (clean)

Built on Hills, with man-made aquaducts

Surrounded be mountains and rivers

The Colosseum

Bullfighting

Testaccio

Port Olympic

Capuccino

Cafe con leche

Tap water

Zumo de Naranja

Declining Italian Population

Little babies everywhere

Overall I think Barcelona wins, even though Rome is awesome too.

Okay, I'm a little biased.

Romulus and Remus

2008-02-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

We left on Friday morning to go to Rome. We had an awesome trip and the weekend was well worth the amount of work I have to do to catch up from being gone 2 weekends in a row. I think we picked the best possible weekend to go. Quoting Irene, "It's like God wanted us to love Rome."

After landing we checked into our hostel and met up with the other architecture students in Rome and my friend Tom and some other Catholic students in Rome. We went to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

The coolest thing about the Trevi fountain is that it grows out of the building behind it and actually forms some of the stairs and benches in the piazza around it.

Everyone knows that the best Gelato in Rome is found near the Trevi fountain, but I feel like no one knows which one of the Gelateria's is actually the best. We got some that was supposedly "the best in Rome" and even if it wasn't, it was muy delicioso. Someone must of had a different opinion and decided to shove their cone into a door, it was stuck by the power of frozen desert.

Saturday was spent completely in the Vatican. This was my favorite part of Rome, even though it's not technically in Rome.

When we got to Piazza San Pietro we had to go through metal detectors (which apparently isn't common) because there was some sort of festival and performance with children from all over the world, but we never figured out exactly what it was for, unfortunately this meant we only got to spend a couple minutes in Saint Peter's Cathedral.

But it was all worth it because we got to stand about 10 feet from the Pope. (video coming soon)

The Pope-mobile completely surprised me, it's a G-wagon. G-Wagon= Mercedes Benz Gelandawagen, which is an off-roading little truck that you only find being driven by Gangsters in the US.
The plan of the Piazza looks like it is some beast opening its jaws to eat you (i drew in teeth) maybe I just have something against the oval in plan.

The Vatican was different than I thought it was going to be because the art was the building itself. For the most part it was not about looking at a picture in a frame, it was looking at an entire room that was frescoed by Davinci or some other genius; the building itself was the art. Like Britain, there were artifacts and artwork from everywhere that the Romans conquered, there's an entire Egyptian exhibit. It was cool to see all of the Renaissance artwork that you see copies of so often, but it is definitely coolest because those artists were the ones that actually figured out how to paint in perspective, and you can tell when they were still working out the kinks. We even saw a piece of LeCorbusier's artwork. All the rooms of the museum are impressive and you could definitely spend an infinite amount of time exploring the exhibits but their whole thing's really a teaser for the Sistine chapel; maybe this is why I found the Sistine chapel a little disappointing.
Leaving the Museum we walked down this ramping, cylindrical stair case that reminded me of the Guggenheim, so I looked up to find out when it was made and found that it was made in the 1930's which is bizarre because that's the same time that the New York Guggenheim was designed by Wright, but because Rome hates everything modern the two look nothing alike. There are actually two of these cylindrical ramps and the original one was used in cases of emergency because horses could run up and down them, so that's where the design came from.

We walked to Campo de Fiori along Tiber River and saw more of the city at night.

The other architecture students in Rome live in Campo de Fiori, which is a really lively plaza with a dark past. It used to be where executions took place during the Roman Inquisition and one of the last people to be executed in the piazza was the philosopher Giodorno Bruno, who was burnt alive in the very spot where his statue stands now. This is probably one of the creepiest statues that I've ever seen in a plaza, Tom commented that he looks like a Sith from Star Wars.

Saturday night we explored Testaccio, one of the areas on the edge of the old city.

Sunday we walked around the Colosseum and the Forum and visited the Piazza del Campidoglio, and the San Carlo alle Quatro.
We didn't pay the money to go into the Colosseum but we did walk around and meet a few characters, including a model and her agent. The day was too beautiful to stay inside.
I sampled some of Rome's famous water that still runs through some of the aqueducts. It was surprisingly refreshing.

San Carlo alle Quatro and the four fountains are still beautiful now, but they must have felt completely different before the car. The roads had to be widened to allow traffic to flow so there is now ZERO public space around the church and the fountains, and like every other marble building the church is now black with soot and grime, just like everything around it. Rome is pretty dirty and needs to put more money into its cleaning crew.

Sunday night we went to mass in a church where all the young American priests who are studying in Rome stay. It was on one of the seven hills that Rome is built on and we had a great view of the city. It was funny though because you would see a group of young American guys walking to dinner after mass and then realize that a few of them were wearing their collars.

So the trip was perfect....

Then we got home Sunday night and found bed-bugs in our hostel. That put a damper on the night and flying home on Monday morning. But I still Love you Rome.

London Calling

2008-02-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

I had to do the corny London photo with the phone booth, i couldn't resist. I stayed with some of my old roommates from Catholic in London for a long weekend and had a blast.

The first day I went to the sight that all three of my teachers could agree was the biggest must see for an architect in London. The Sir John Soane Museum. Soane was one of England's greatest Architects. He died in 1837 and left the house as a public Museum. There are collections of artifacts from all over the world and architectural paintings that Soane either collected or sponsored. The house itself is designed with artifacts of other building. Soane understood light and was able to light all the levels of his house including a subterranean "crypt." His dog is buried in the backyard, but apparently he would tell guests that it was an old monk's grave.

My next stop was the British Museum where I got to see pieces of the Parthenon that the British stole on one of their colonizing sprees. I also got to see the original Rosetta stone and took a rubbing of a reproduction. I sat down to try to sketch the addition which was done by the same architect who did the Portrait Gallery extension in DC, Norman Foster. But every time I would move my pencil a different English person would come up to me and start talking. One woman came up to me and asked me if I spoke English and started telling me about the old reading room but her accent was so thick I could hardly understand her, even though we spoke the same language. Another gentleman came up to me and when I spoke to him he was like "Oh, you're American, I can tell by your twaaang," I guess he found it necessary to tell me about my twang. And the last straw was a guy from Madrid who felt it necessary to tell me his life story, oh the people that museums attract (especially the free ones.)

When I got back to Christine's Flat after looking for sketch books and having a terrible experience on the tube, Jose had sent me flowers for Valentine's Day. It was really sweat of him, but only three were able to make it back to Barcelona with me.

I never realized how much the industry of London or of any city has ruined the pre-motor vehicle architecture that still exists until this trip. On my trip to Rome I saw it even more. But London was particularly effected during the Industrial Revolution and some of the buildings still haven't been washed. This one was washed but you can see how the recent air pollution has effected it.

A Modern attempt at an arcade near St. Paul's, I give it props.

Christine and I spent hours in the Tate Modern, which used to be a turbine factory and was converted into a modern art museum. It was a prime location in London, on the Thymes. I can't imagine what the area used to feel like before the old industrial building was renovated. One of the pieces is a giant crack in the floor that takes up the whole expanse of the museum. I'm not sure how I feel about it; I should research if there was already a crack in the original floor that was turned into art or if it was random, that would effect my opinion.

If London Bridge is Falling Down than City Hall must be Blowing Over
The Tower Bridge

Protected Graffiti; since it has a covering, there were some crazy colors of paint, including glittery silver.

It was fun to see all of the places that are written about in stories taking place in London. Harry Potter, Paddington Bear, Sweney Todd, Oliver Twist, etc.

My Hostesses for the weekend, Christine and Danielle and their friend from London.

London, I'll Love You Forever....

Post Carnival

2008-02-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

Giant Puppets and Dancing

You would think that right after lent starts, Spain (a verry Catholic country) would be a solemn place. But apparently the Feast day of the Patron Saint of Barcelona, Saint Eulalia perks up their spirits. Saint Eulalie was martyred at the age of 13 (which is why there are 13 butresses on the Barcelona Cathedral). She keeps sailors and boatmen safe and was interred in Santa Maria del Mar.

Te Amo Barcelona

A Holiday in Spain

2008-02-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Southern Spain was amazing

First we traveled to Madrid, (Plaza Mayor)

Second was Cordoba (The Mesquite)

Third: Granada (La Alhambra)

and Fourth: Sevilla (Real Alcazar de Sevilla)

MADRID was kind of rainy but the day we went to Plaza Mayor was nice, if you found a place to sketch in the sun (it ment risking sitting in bird poop though).

EJ and Christy found some sun

The Picasso exhibit in the MCARS where the Guernica is housed was closed, we still got to sketch in the museo and parts of the extension to the museum were nice, just not so much the cafe. I would like to go back to Madrid, because as of now I don’t love it , but I think it was just because of our experience and I could love it, just not as much as Barcelona.

We ate Chinese food and watched the Super Bowl in a Packed Irish Pub. The Giants won! It was ridiculous. But even the Giants winning couldn’t take the cake compared to our walk through a park in Madrid where Adrienne gave us botany lessons and Eric and Christy gave us architecture lessons of course. My favorite thing about Madrid though had to be the Metro Tickets, they were little and pink.

CORDOBA was beautiful; we went to the Mesquite a.k.a. the Cathedral of Cordoba. I never realized how many times control of Spain waffled between the Islamic Empire and the Catholics until we traveled to Cordoba and were able to see how the Cathedral had been expanded over the years. There’s a very romantic story behind the creation of the Mesquite and the vibrancy of the city which you feel while walking down every narrow street. This is probably one of the most romantic cities I’ve ever been to (if anyone’s looking for a honeymoon recommendation than check it out.)

This was the first place I’ve ever run into Gypsies before, I didn’t even think they realy existed any more until the gaggle of women came over to our taxi and tried to shove Rosemary in our hand so we’d give them money.
We got to be pampered for a night in the largest remaining and still in use Arab baths in Europe. That was my first professional massage I’ve ever received (besides from Irene) and in combination with jumping from warm to hot to cold pools, I’ve never been so relaxed.

The weather was gorgeous in Cordoba, except in the Mesquite which was icy cold due to the stone construction. The food in Cordoba was decent, I had some authentic cuisine one night, but I had Burger Kind another, that was the first time I ate fast food in Europe, it wasn’t too bad, some stuff was better than home.

GRANADA was also gorgeous and the great weather followed us from Cordoba along with the romantic aura. We got to watch the sunset over the Alhambra, which had another romantic story to go with its creation.

Hawra wrote in Arabic in my sketchbook, I think any alphabet that you cannot read is gorgeous, they use it as a decoration on the walls of the Alhambra, and other Islamic buildings. They write “There is only one God” and other excerpts from the Koran. I also find the patterns and shapes used in Islamic design intriguing and tried to figure out one of the patterns I saw. There is a huge Islamic influence over the entire city which you can see in everything from what they sell in the stores to

To me, Granada is more real than Cordoba. Cordoba is quaint and romantic an tiny, but Granada is somewhere you can actually live, it’s more of a metropolis and less of a tourist attraction, at least when you get away from the Alhambra.

At night we went to a Flamenco show, it was like some college-age, maybe a little older group of friends that had one dancer, one singer and one guitarist. It was cozy and inspiring, it made me realize that I love it when it sounds like a woman is going to cry in the middle of the song she is singing. That’s the kind of voice that you need to sing Flamenco music because it is so emotional. I never knew this, but Christy told us that in real Flamenco dancing, the singer follows the steps of the dancer and as the dancer speeds up or becomes more dramatic, the singer does the same.

SEVILLA was greate, I think I love any city that's on the water. The first day we got to explore on our own and made our way to the river walk. There was a regatta with teams from around the world and I cheared on one of the english doubles. I would love to row under all the beautiful, some Calatrava-esk bridges in Sevilla.

We explored the Royal Palace in Sevilla and the Cathedral Sevilla which had also undergone the same Cathedral-Mosque-Cathedral transformation that we saw earlier in Granada and Cordoba. Christopher Columbus is burried in the Cathedral.

We had some of the most amazing food near the hotel in Sevilla, we listened to the waiter and got what he recomended, beef with olive oil and roasted potatoes, that was probably one of the most delicious meals I've ever eaten and even writing this now, I crave them. That night we got to sit on the roof of our hotel for dinner and drink wine remeniscing about our trip with a view of the Cathedral.

Barcelona Theatrics

2008-02-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

I love wandering around Barcelona any time of day and any day of the week you will find something magical going on. This video is what inspired me to explore the spaces that streat performers perform in.

PS: That's the Barcelona cathedral in the Background

MontJuic and Barcelona Pavilion

2008-01-30T02:24:00.001-08:00

Friday was probably one of the best days that I've had in Barcelona so far,

We woke up and took a cable car up to Mont Juic (The mountain of the Jews) apparently in 1988 an entire cable car fell and the tourists in it died, but we didn't find that out till after so, we just had a great time looking down at the city as we went up the mountain.
There is a beautiful old castle on top of the mountain where we wondered around and just enjoyed the sun, the view, the stray cats and all the couples who were making out everywhere. You could also see all the major Landmarks from the mountain, including the building where our apartment is.

We hiked down the mountain (which i strongly recomend instead of hiking up) and saw Calatrava's Communication Tower, where the olympics were a few years back, the botanical gardens and the art museum.

The final thing we saw was the Barcelona Pavilion which was awesome, because we've learned about it for years, but we finally got to go inside. From the outside it was a disappointment, all the grass in the yard in front is dead because people play with their dogs and hang out on the lawn, but the inside was everything I expected. The marble patterns are intricate and stunning and even though we didn't get to sit in Mies's original chairs, it was pretty cool to see them, since so many replicas have been made. I'm sure I'll return more than once by the time the trip is over.

Some people stole rocks from the reflecting pool, but I didn't because I remember learning how the remains of the Acropolis are shrinking because so many tourists steel rocks from it and even though I'm positive that they have since replaced the original rocks, I didn't want future visitors to have a lesser experience because of me.

We took the metro home after seeing the Pavilion and the rest of the night was realy good too.

After a snack we went shopping. I'm on a search for skinny jeans and boots, because every female I see here rocks that style, but I was unable to find them. When we got back from shopping we heard a ton of noise that sounded like drumming from our plaza, at first we thought there was a protest, but then we realized that it was some sort of school spirit activity for the University across the plaza from us. Everyone was dressed in black and red and there was a band drumming, people dressed up as witches, a dragon and people spitting fire on stilts. They even lit fireworks like right in our plaza that exploded in front of our apartment, they were awesome. Another thing that would never be allowed in the states.

We have Fridays off and we try to do something touristy and fun every week, but this upcoming weekend we are traveling to Madrid, so we shall see.

2008-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we finally got to experience the night life of Barcelona.

Thursday I got to meet up with Brendan, my friend from home and he came over to the apartment for dinner with Lindsay, Lauren and Josh, we went to the tapas restaurant underneath our apartment in plaza universitat. The food was awesome and we ate for like to hours, the bill was a little more than i would normally like, but it was the first time we ate out on our own and it was worth it.
That night all the Catholic kids went over to meet Brendan's friends and we went out to a club called Suton, it was a lot of fun.

Jessey's dad came in from the states this weekend, he had business in Europe. He took us out for an awesome dinner at this small, ritzy restaurant called Re Pal, right near the Picasso Museum. I got steak and this tiny appetizer that came with it. The food was tiny, but really good, so we got gellato on the way back to our flat and ran into some Americans who were traveling but who are living in Madrid for the semester. They wanted us to come with them to a bar called The Black Sheep (Ovella Negra) that is only a few blocks from our house and everyone in the world seams to know about. It's like a Barcelona staple. Jessey and I went in to check it out, but left to go home and see what everyone wanted to do. Maybe we'll see them when we go to Madrid in a week. We decided to just hang out over at the Grand Villa appartment with friends instead.

Saturday Lindsay and I we were woken up by a parade for Sant Antoni traveling right under our apartment so we went out on our balcony and watched the parade, it's weird because everyone plays American music here, even in the parades. The rest of the day was mostly spent in studio figuring out our first couple of studio projects, Mateusz and I had to figure out a group project and I had to paint a city planning assignment. Both came out pretty decent, but they were our first attempts at architecture on a Macro scale, and since then we've already improved.

Saturday night we tried out the Ovella Negra, it's a really cool place and almost everyone in our class went and hung out in this ancient feeling underground hole.

We've been cooking dinner practically every night in an attempt to save money and it's some of the best food I've ever eaten (no offense mom), definitely better than Pryz food. All the roommates have recipes from home that we've been trying out and almost everyone can cook, but it works out because whoever doesn't cook, does the dishes.

Classe

2008-01-19T05:07:00.000-08:00

We had to start CLASSES this week, which you would think is a bummer, but actually they've been pretty sweet.

Our teachers are amazing, Christy, Eric, CeCe and Xabi are the Bomb. I think being in Barcelona has made them let their hair down and chill. This week has pretty much been what Eric and Christy always wanted to teach to a class but were never able to in DC. Smoking Hash is legal in Spain and it's funny because I guess that the building that our studio is in is usuallt vacant so people are used to just chilling outside and smoking and they think no one can see them because the curtains let views out but not in.

In studio this week we've been working on black paper with white paint and painting figure grounds of plazas and Barcelona. I accidentally spilt paint in the plaza, but it looks like bird poop, so it's cool. Oh yeah, there are massive amounts of Parakeets here in the trees squawking, they are my new favorite birds.

For Christy's class we had to do a "Derive Exercise" where me and Mateusz had to get lost in an area of Barcelona that we didn't know and see where our senses brought us. Our senses brought us to Santa Maria Del Mar, an awesome park where we picked an orange, and La Sagrada Familia.

The interior of Santa Maria Del Mar

Me and La Sagrada Familia

This blog is part of my homework, and the rest of my home work is not to shabby either, it's mostly exploring and painting.

So school is all good.

Barcelona: The Begining

2008-01-19T04:17:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

This is my first Entry, and I know it's coming late, But there were some problems with the internet and computer access, I'll have to start you from the begining.

Leaving Newark to get here to Barcelona was probably one of the scariest times I've had on a plane, not because I was afraid of flying or leaving America, but because I thought we were sitting next to terrorists. They were Hacidic Jews, so normaly I wouldn't mark them as terrorists, but the one sitting next to me was being realy sketchy and nervous and ducking in his seat to call people and playing with his phone until we were actually taking off, the stewadesses had to yell at them several times, but after take off all was good.

We got to Barcelona just fine and met at the studio which is like two blocks away from our appartment, which is pretty sweet. I love our appartment! It's on Plaza Universitat, which is on the Northern tip of the old city. The Roomies are realy sweet too.

This is a bad picture because we took it right after dragging our luggage to the appartment, but it's on our balcony and shows the view out of the appartment. (The one on the right is Lauren)

Our appartment is between the palm trees in this picture, this is the plaza that we have a view of.

The first night in Barcelona we had a huge dinner with our teachers and all the students at a nearby restaurant and did it up Barcelona style with Paella and Sangria and Sausages and lots of bread. (The bread here is the best ever) But I was falling asleap at dinner from the jetlag and my teachers got a kick out of me falling asleap at the dinner table. Luckily I woke up in time for desert and got coconut Icecream it was delicious. I never knew Barcelona had palm trees, i guess they're all over in Europe.

The second day we were in Barcelona we went on a getting aquanted with Barcelona Tour and most of us walked down to the shore and saw the beach, which I am looking forward to swimming at. We went to Port Olympica, which is where Frank Gehry's Fish is (and a ton of popular bars and clubs) I can't wait for it to get warmer, even thogh compared to home (where it is snowing) it is gorgeous here, it's pretty much early spring weather.

Me and the Gehry Fish at Port Olympica

We've already seen a ton of realy sweet architecture here, From Gaudi to Gehry to Enrique Morrales, I think this is my favorite city. There realy aren't sky scrapers, and the old city streets where you feel closed in are beautiful in their own way.

Barcelona is Beautiful!