en route
and with a blink of an eye, I’m done!
I wanted to have a nice wrap up post, and i will, but it’s going to have to wait until i get back to the states, which is TOMORROW. but until then, i figured i would say to those who read this, thanks for reading, and especially to those who made comments. blogs are a funny thing, and i never thought that i would actually participate in writing one, but i suppose anything is possible. ok. i’m leaving for the airport in about eight hours, then the sitting game. until then, i bid you all farewell.
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in the land of enchanted hills
flight to pisa: booked.
five years ago i had the privilege of traveling to italy with mike (euphrat) and rj (fleming). we spent most of the time working on organic farms, cutting grass, pruning olive trees, and picking up rocks. if there’s one thing i’ve learned in 24 years of life it’s that yes, procrastination can lead to epic failures, but it can also lead to spontaneous and amazing adventures. one said adventure being when we failed to arrange our next home-stay, and randomly emailed the director or wwoof italia, who gladly invited us to her house.
(left to right: spinich, ester, remo, bridget, alan)
unfortunetly, alan and bridget got divorced, and i won’t speculate to spinich’s existance. nonetheless, in two weeks i’ll be heading there. hopefully, for a nice break from the inevitable end of semester grind.
along with counting food and miles, i’ve been keeping track of the music i’ve been listening to via last.fm (though i haven’t found an easy way to post those statistics here) in any event, as a milestone in my opinion… the beatles have been dethroned from my most listened to.
ladies and gentlemen, i give you the avett brothers:
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oldie
i was rooting around my external harddrive the other day looking for old music i hadn’t listened to in a while and came across this (pardon the eight seconds in the beginning):
this was recorded last july with john wesley, not finished as there’s a long gap in the middle where other things were to be added, either way, enjoy.
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scarpetta
a long weekend in copenhagen wasn’t nearly enough to feel satisfied, i tried to soak up as much culture as possible in the given time but still no. but i learned enough to know that i will be going back there sometime in my life.
amazing, their country’s name is also a tasty pastry.
asside from the expense (pizza and one beer – $20), i have no complaints. beautiful buildings, beautiful people, bikes… everywhere. they even have 1500 bikes scattered around the city for anyone to use, you just need to put a 20 kroner coin (~$4) in. and when you return it you get it back. though i must admit those bikes were really hard to find.
———–
ITALY!
so much happening. i’ve been slacking a little on this whole blog thing. studio and everything else has been taking slight precedent in the last few weeks, but i’m determined to at least keep the ball rolling… ever so slightly.
last week we made our last school organized trip to italy. one night in siena, four in rome. absolutely amazing.
dear germany,
it is my deepest regrets to inform you that compared to italy, you’re just not as cool. i know you have a deep rooted identity crisis to deal with, and it honestly seems as though you’re doing quite well for yourself. but as it stands, my heart lies with italy.
sincerely ,
Jared Steinmark
time is dwindling ever so fast, and it’s incredibly frustrating. so much more to see and do, both for myself and for school. i think study abroad is great, but abroad is much better with a lot less studying.
in my quest to document this trip in out of the ordinary means, mike euphrat clued me into this npr broadcast talking about “e-memory” and how we’re outsourcing our memories to more digital formats. this is such a fascinating/frightening idea. i mean it all depends how far you think through what they’re talking about in the interview. as many of the things they do touch on aren’t that much different to they’re analog counterpart, but when they start talking about recording your everymove and integrating “health” sensors… that’s when things take a more science-fictionesque turn.
would you want your every move documented (assuming that it was somehow safe and secure)???
and if you knew you were be recorded, would you act differently?
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flight 4555
_click all images to enlarge
well folks, i must say berlin is pretty awesome. i mean i’ve probably only seen 2% of what there is to see, but so far so good. there has been a decent emphasis in both my part and the schools to give an accurate portrayal of berlin’s tumultuous history. with this, i have been to a bunch of berlin’s iconic squares/museums/buildings/etc. it seems that there is an ever present desire to show the nations’ regret and empathy towards prior events to it’s people and the world. i always find it fascinating when architects are asked upon to make these grand gestures.
enter REICHSTAG:
“The transformation of the Reichstag is rooted in four issues: the significance of the Bundestag as a democratic forum; a commitment to public accessibility; a sensitivity to history; and a rigorous environmental agenda. Emphasising values of clarity and transparency, the glazed cupola is a new landmark for Berlin, and a symbol of the vigour of the German democratic process.”
via foster+parteners
pretty long line to get into this building, but a pretty amazing view from the top. it’s pretty neat that you can see right down into the parliament both from the cupola and the huge window/doors in the front of the building.
the second place i went to was the jewish memorial. pretty powerful. our culture teacher told us that germans are very direct in the language that they use, and it is very evident in the titling of the memorial:
a memorial to the murdered jews of europe
“Standing on a 19,000 sq m (204,440 sq foot) patch of land sandwiched between the East and West Berlin of the Cold War, the new memorial is an undulating labyrinth of concrete plinths. Visitors can move through the tilting featureless stones – each one a unique shape and size – from any direction. There are no plaques, inscriptions or symbols along the way.”
the part above ground was interesting, spatially + formally. but it didn’t do much for me in terms of a memorial. it wasn’t until going to the “museum” part underneath that really drove home everything. a very bitter sweet place. really cool architecturally, but so sad.
on a more postive note: copenhagen!
in four days, that’s where i’ll be. not a lot planned, but a lot recommended (thanks to lela and sarah) there are of course the obligatory building visits… and hopefully even a tour of a firm (seriously nerdy). apparently the language is really tricky:
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_concise bits of data:
address: 65 adalbertstrasse
predominant neighborhood population: turkish
roommates: two: chris harp + sam buckens
studio: 86 Brandenburgische
distance between the two: ~8km
most common method of travel: u-bahn (subway)
for more like this: go HERE or click the link on the upper righthand side of the page that says daytum.
this is where i’ve been so far… the other dots without lines going to them are where i’m either going, or want to go. i head to prague on thursday!
_friday
the first week of school is done with… and it really gets in the way of this whole traveling/cultural exchange thing. but it’s ok, so far. it is nice that one of our classes is devoted to berlin, so i guess it does aid the cultural aspect of things. my studio is where i have all of my classes, and it’s located on the opposite side of the city, so i’m hoping to pick up a cheap bike at the flea markets this weekend. berlin has also been doing extensive work on their rail system so a lot of trains go out of service after peak hours which means expensive cabs, so a bike will be a sound investment.
_sunday
bike aquired… though through unorthodox means. I found a broken one on the street, and took it home. i thought it only needed a new rear wheel and brakes, but apparently i was wrong. today i went to flea market (which is one of the most ridiculous places i’ve been yet) and there were a bunch of bike vendors so i picked up the parts i thought i needed, but unfortunately the derailleur/chain also seem to be in question. stay tuned…
_cultural observations
logical
obedient
structured
dilapidated
graffiti-ed
one of the most striking things about germans so far is their traffic/walk signal etiquette. nobody j-walks, and everyone waits until the walk sign flashes to cross the road, no matter how desolate and empty the roads are. compared to boston where pedestrians have absolutely no manners it’s very weird, i’m constantly caught in the dilemma of following my norms or germany’s, generally it’s been 50/50 so far.
germany also has a large Turkish population, which means Turkish food. next to mc donnalds, kebap seems to be the fast food of choice. extremely similar to shwarma, kebap is slow roasted meat usually lamb + pork, sandwiched between Turkish bread and topped with lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and chili/garlic sauce. there is one of these places across the street from studio and it’s only 2.50 euros. needless to say i’ve eaten a lot of them already.
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Guten Tag
the trip has been non-stop movement since we touched down. in summary i’ve been to five countries, 15 cities, and toured 28 architectural icons. needless to say, i’m in looking forward to staying in one spot for an extended period of time. class starts on tuesday, but it’s only german class so there will hopefully be a little bit of relaxation before studio starts up.
i got a new camera the day before i left, so along with just snapping up tourist shots i’ve been trying to learn this new fangled contraption. for the last ten days i’ve been “that guy” with a camera, taking pictures of just about everything. below are my favorites so far. for everything else i direct you to my flickr page… but it will be a few days until i get everything online.
my professors:
my traveling companions:
arc et senans: my research project
high atop the eiffel tower
it will probably be a week or so until i get daytum and my maps up and running as today is the first day in berlin and we only have internet in studio.
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berlin t[minus] two months
objectives:
[a] jot down notes/stories/facts/figures about my up coming trip to berlin, and [b] alleviate the need to send mass emails to those who are interesting in seeing what i’m doing.
to begin.
i have pretty high hopes for this trip, and honestly, why wouldn’t you? studying architecture in berlin for three months with some of your closest friends from school, what more could you ask for… well if you’re going to ask
along with the usual photo documenting and artifact collecting as i go running around europe, i thought that i would take a slightly different approach to showing people where i’ve been, and what i’ve been doing. this all started a couple months ago when i stumbled on [this]… a fairly exhaustive compilation of the year in the life of nicholas feltron. now i’m not proposing to do exactly that, but something similar, and for a shorter amount of time.
step one: start blog
step two: setup daytum account [explained later]
step three: buy gps data logger [also explained later]
step four: develope ocd
step five: record everything
what do all of these things have in common? data mapping… what i propose to do is, through this blog and other forms of media, is show my trip in quantifiable, visual data, ie charts, maps, photomantages, and lots of numbers [some maybe a little unsettling].
how:
daytum.com is a website that specializes in counting. counting what you may ask… well anything you want really. then it takes your data and presents it in graphically pleasing little diagrams.
a gps data logger will be my creepy big brother that always knows where i am. i’m hoping [assuming i have enough money to purchase one] that i will always travel with a gps tracker, similar to the ones you see on the comercials for your car, but honed for a slightly different purpose: tracking movement, speed, elevation, direction.
to get a feel for the road ahead, i’ve begun the counting. at the very least to see if i can keep up with it, and why not? its summer, and there hasn’t been a decent day in over a month.
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Tags: berlin, counting, data mapping, daytum, europe, germany, gps, travel
