surprising outburst

it's one of our last days in florence and going to the batisteri is a definate must see. we go inside to rest our feet after another long day of sight seeing and kari, yoolee, lisa and i are all enjoying the gold leafed walled and intricate frescoes when all of a sudden...

someone totally cut the cheese!!!

GEEZ!!! have some respect!!! it's the house of god!




so we looked around for the culprit and spotted a lady covering her face and nodding her head in disappointment at the man next to her who sat with his arms crossed and a slight smile.

there was nothing else we could do but laugh...

a pretty amazing experience

i got a chance to explore the city by myself. it was nice to get away from everybody. you know get some andrew time and not have to worry about people needing to go to the bathroom or not wanting to go to a certain place b/c they're too tired or whatever. you know what i'm talking about... anyways...

it was late afternoon and i headed to one of the highest hills in florence. i got hot from climbing stairs, dodging cars and scooters, and when i got to the top i found out there was more to climb. there was this church at the top of the hill...



it was very unassuming. not as fancy as the duomo, but still nice. i went inside the dark church and heard the most amazing sound... monk chanting. it was like dream. as i made my way down to where they were i realized that i had stumbled upon a mass. and the thing that i didn't realize til i left was that it was being conducted in latin! it was strange, they conducted mass behind this fence. it didn't really make sense to me. i guess we were in the small chapel of the church.



i felt refreshed. it was nice. so i got outside and got this view...



another beautiful tuscan sunset...

the best steak EVER!!!

this was seriously the best steak ever! the guy come down and showed us the 1.5 kilo (3.3 lbs) steak and then cooked perfectly... brown on the outside with the grill marks, seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper and i know this sounds gross and i don't even usually eat steak this way, but it was totally BLOODY!! YUMM!!! it was totally good...



so if you're ever in florence stop by osteria de benci. it's right on via de' benci. pretty close to some pretty cool bars and a mexican restaurant... (btw, the mexican food, really isn't mexican food. i ate there and it was alright. it doesn't really compare with the mexican food back in la, but a good effort. it certainly hit a spot)

Via De' Benci, 13/R
Florence, Italy
055 2344923

Florence

after having traveled norther italy, we finally stepped into the city where the renaissance began... FLORENCE... i had visions that it was going to be this amazing place filled with art, culture and endless amounts of "great" architecture...

i was traveling with the people in my studio, and with the way things were going this trip was going to be a stressful one. we got lost in the morning. there was an unusal fog floating around the autostrade which made for difficult navigation. but lucky for me, i don't drive stick and i didn't have to navigate so i slept in the back, waking up to take a bathroom break or listen to someone's ipod trying to learn italian. btw, i'm not to sure about the berlitz method or brand, i didn't learn too much from them. plus they're a little bit difficult to follow.

anyways we get to florence and the hotel is nowhere to be found. florence has an interesting address system. certain colors stand for a private residence and businesses, but you can also have the same number on the same streets too. odd. so finally we just park, a few of us go search for the place. we find out that the hotel is actually located in this office tower on the fourth floor, next to an attorney's office and some other random things.

the area we were staying in was kind of shady, but alright. it's a good thing that we were in a group and that usually means that no one walks alone. which is good, so people can watch your backs especially around the gypsies around the area.

here are just a few of the images from florence...

the view of the florence duomo. gruesome and grotesque, but pretty amazing...

lisa and i at the top of the duomo with the city as the back drop...

view of the uffizzi and the tuscan hillsides...

Monte Generoso!!!

while being in europe is a highly academic experience (seriously!) sometimes you just need to get away and go outside, especially when the weather is so good outside your window. since we were still on a traveling kick since munich and doing things on the fly, a few of us decided that we would go to the top of monte generoso for shits and giggles.

me, lisa, kari and john on the summit of monte generoso

taking a look at vico morcote from the top of monte generoso

all roads lead to: GREAT VIEWS!

you can't tell right now but the von trapp kids are on top of this hill...


another place for amazing views, and of course animals!!! what is it with me, foreign countries and animals?


this one is for you steve!

dachau

here are a few images from dachau. the camp that other concentration camps were modeled after...

http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/englisch/content/

MUNCHEN (munich)

"PROST!"

our instructor was back in the states this last week, which meant "WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY, THE MICE WILL PLAY!" we weren't that bad, but kari, lisa and i ended up going to MUNCHEN (Munich, Germany) for the last day of oktoberfest.

apparently according to my german resource, who told me on the 1st of october (thanks steve! =)) that oktoberfest is actually from mid-SEPTEMBER to early OCTOBER. so Oktoberfest is some what of a misnomer. this year it was extended a couple of days b/c there was a german holiday, so good thing for us!

our little beamer... now he's all thrashed up...

so we took the beamer and made our way to munich. and like any trip with me, we got lost. it was raining and super foggy but after we crossed the border into germany there were clear skys. germany is really an amazing place, granted we only went to munich, but everyone was really friendly and helpful. after a couple of hours on the road we were itching to just rest up a little bit and head out to oktoberfest.

ummmm....BRATWURST!!

we were supposed to head out to the castle that was the inspiration for the disneyland castle, but that was a no go since our little detours started adding up and we were probably about 2 hours behind schedule. we got a hotel that was probably in the gayest part of munich, which was totally cool. i guess the two guys that where linked arm in arm made sense.

our beer wench

anyways so we head out to oktoberfest and right when we step out, there is torrential rain! it was so crazy but we didn't let the downpour stop us from getting to the beer and sausage! dude we were so hungry that that's all we could think about. FOOD!

too drunk to care...

to get there we took the subway to kind of stay dry. it was the most amazing thing though. being stuck in the tiny resort town of vico morcote i felt to isolated from everything. like i couldn't get out. we're stuck in this place were no one can really visit us, but anyways we i got down into the subway station and suddenly i felt to connected to the world again. and as lame as this is going to sound i felt alive. maybe it was the rush of the crowd, the sound of the subway zipping by, the sounds of cars, street lights, civilization, my heart was racing... i think we were talking about this in film class but it was a really strange, but exciting feeling...

party!!!

anyways to make a long story short... we had some pretty good beer, paulaner (it's made in munich) had some amazing rotisserre chicken (crispy on the outside, with a blend of nine herbs and spices on the inside... the colonel had nothing on this chicken!) and met some new friends. birgit, uli, bastien and a whole slew of others that i don't remember b/c, well... we were drunk from the 2 liters of beer that we drank individually!

PROST!!! not sure what number beer this is...

i'd have to say that germany is a place that i would definately go back to, wonderful people, pretty good food, and some amazing sights...

one thing the swiss are really GREAT at...

C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E!!!

maybe i'm a hopeless romantic...

while we were in verona sitting on some church steps just people watching a couple of us started playing "GUESS WHO'S AN AMERICAN." people passed by and soley based on their outward appearance we decided if they were americans or europeans, and sometimes we just made up stories for them. most european have pretty good style, suits with caramel colored shoes, dresses with high heels, basically just really put together. most of the americans were tourists and were pretty easy to spot, but i've got to give credit to some of them b/c they really stepped up and were dressed impeccably.

after really getting into it, we spotted the couple above. they were strolling down the street, in their sunday best, holding hands (the right way, interlocking, not hands clasped together) just enjoying the late afternoon. it seemed like their weekly routine, but they never got bored of doing it b/c they loved the city, and it was a way for them to remember how they met, and how they fell in love, raised their children and built and amzing life for themselves. like they came full circle.

but looking at them reminds me of one of my favorite movies, notting hill, when william and anna sneak into the private gardens and they see the park benches with inscriptions on them. anna says:

""For June who loved this garden from Joseph who always sat beside her." Some people do spend their whole lives together. "


as lame and sappy as that sounds, sometimes it is true...

attack of the BIRDS!!!

after tiring day of drawing and hiking, we awoke to the soft sounds of rain tapping on the rooftop of the villa. sitting down at the breakfast table with my toast and orange juice, it felt really relaxed. it could have been that i wasn't fully awake yet but life up here seems to go at a slower pace.

so after the group headed up to the studio to pin up our drawings, but something caught our eyes before we could pin up... BIRDS!!!

they were flying through the rain, like a dark cloud, changing shape and then heading towards our windows!!! so what else did we do but take out our cameras and start taking pictures. something like this would never happen in la. it was pretty amazing...

one of our studiomates was telling us to close the windows b/c if one of the birds got into the house, that it is bad luck. and the only way to reverse it was to have another bird into the house. so has anyone heard of that before. it's new to me!






it did feel like the Hitchcock film "birds" but it was just too amazing...

goodluck? badluck?

i usually tend to think that when a bird poops on you it's good luck. think about it. this bird could be anywhere, in the air, on the ground, sitting on a wire. and a person could be anywhere, we're very mobile creatures. and bird poop is so small, usually. so what are the chances that a bird's poop and you will meet? pretty, pretty, pretty small (usually). but pigeons are a different story...

i'm not sure if you've noticed, but i really don't like pigeons. i basically think, and i'm sure i'm not alone on this one, that they are RAT with WINGS. so as we are walking in venice we hit up st. mark's square (or plaza san marco). and the place is infested with these winged rodents. they're everywhere.




people holding out crackers and they're jumping all over them. but it looked kinda fun to do. how many times and i going to be in venice and let these little shit monkeys on me? probably never. so i decided to face my fears and walk amongst them...


f' it, i don't want to be that lucky. luck happens when you least expect it, not when you invite it and let it poop on you jackass...

we're in venezia, give me a drink...

(aka venice, italy, not california)

alright well i guess this is where my little semester abroad, vacation, whatever you want to call it, gets kind of sad.

so after our dinner in verona with the accordian and violin player, the people who drove in the new fiat ducato van (ross, jody, stephanie, lisa, kari and myself) are joined by john and yoolee to go back to the hostel. so we get back and we see coy,our instructor, with leili and the back door of the bmw is open. coy is sitting in the back door and we're like "what's going on?!" and he's like "the car got broken into."

at this point everyone's jaw is on the cobblestone road, and questions about what got stolen are asked. basically the car was parked on an open street outside of verona and a rock was used to break the window and all of the stuff in the back was stolen. everyone's stuff was stolen, including an ipod, clothes, camera chargers and cameras. the only things left were kari's luggage but they went through her bag and stole her shoes and make up. i think the saddest thing was that yoolee's computer was stolen. if you dont' know yoolee she's probably one the sweetest girls. she's got the charm of any asian girl, but she's got this undercover side to her. i think she's working on getting a new one to use here.

coy thinks that it was a group of gypsies that broke into the car and stole the stuff. just another reason to be angry/scared/mad at those people. hopefully this is the only instance of this happening to us (knock on wood!). i would have been crying...

that night a few of them go to the police station to file a report in the hope that they're stuff could be found, which was doubtful, but so that maybe insurance could replace the stolen articles.

so after having a really horrible night and a not so great rest the group decides to head out to venice. we get to the hostel and first of all, all of us are kind of bummed and pissed off that we get accommadations at hostels, not even hotels!!! dude, we're adults, graduate students, not 18 year olds or young kinds that just got out of high school or college and are backpacking through europe! (no offense if you did that, i think that great) but i think that most people our age are passed that and want some decent, not fancy, accomodations. so we get to our hostel in venice and we actually dont' know where it is. we have an address and when we find it it's this big mideval looking door. and a small ass sign that says "BAXPAX HOSTEL." all i got to say is, if you're ever in venice don't go there. anyways so we're knocking on the door and i'm almost waiting for one of the panels on the door to open and have a hunchback stick his head out and say "WE DON'T WANT WHAT YOU'RE SELLING!"

and then just shut the door. but that doesn't happen. so we continue to knock on the door for like ten minutes and then this black guy with an italian accent goes up to us and says "are you de group from swiss?"

and all of us who are just emotionally drained go "yes."

so he goes "follow me."

so we follow this guy and he leads us to this back alley. we're all thinking, about how non-legit this guy seems and how he's going to kill us and take all of our money. he leads us to the top of this building and shows us our accomodations. there is a seperate boys and girls room with mattressess that are stained with blood and what ever other fluids and black satinish, non cotton and non comfortable sheets. the walls are also covered in bad art, like this jackson pollack wanna be painting, and dead bugs. so basically we spend the rest of the day looking for hotels and not really enjoying the city. and we end up eating at this restaurant at like 12am that is italian but run by some northern african people. what a day!!!

at least the sun setting was beautiful...

fair verona...

ahh verona! the backdrop for shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. i wasn't sure what was here, expect for the carlo scarpa building (banco populare di verona) but it surprised me...


this was one of the first images that i got from there. i <3 nikon!


lisa enjoying gelato, nothing makes the day better than a gelato!


this is the fabled balcony where juliet utters "romeo, romeo, where forth are thou romeo?! deny they father and refuse they name, for if thou will not be sworn my love, i will no longer be called a capulet!" or something like that. for the romantics out there, legend has it that when you are under the balcony you should make a wish, and it will supposedly come true... =)


this is where people leave their numbers, hoping to get lucky...


after an exhausting day, we sat down for dinner while this violin and accordian player serenaded us

day 1 and 2: melide and lugano

on that day after realizing that i needed supplies to survive, and hoping that my luggage would arrrive the next day i went down the hill, which took about 1.5 hours to the market, which was basically a convenience store and got the necessities, tooth paste, laundry detergent, shampoo and soap.

i waited for lisa to arrive and then we went to dinner and after i went to bed in my dirty clothes...

the next day when more people arrived we went to lugano and i had probably the best gelato ever...

pistachio and stratiacella, yummy!

and we walked by lake lugano

and rode segways. those things are pretty hard to ride, but i think if i had an hour on them i'd be alright on them

and then later that night every one arrived and we had dinner in our little outdoor patio

sitting under the canopy with the scent of concorde grapes and kiwi's in the air (l to r) leili, ross, jody, yoolee, stephanie, john, kari, coy, lisa and me

the best thing i've seen so far...

okay, i know what you're thinking... suitcases? so here's the story...

a few months ago, when i made the decision to go abroad again we were given a packet that laid out what we should bring with us. without an art supply store within the small resort town of vico morcote, and the nearest one in milan, the packet stated that we should bring any and all of our architecture supplies. x-acto knives, olfa blades, cutting mats, straight edges, computers, and cameras filled my bags. our instructor also advised us to bring drawing pads, graphite dust, pencils (hard and soft leads), pens, and artist tape of varying sizes. my luggage became a small art supply store, it also became a small khiels store, and diesel store.

i packed so much stuff that i had to pay extra... yikes...

so i left lax and arrived at dulles without a hitch. but that's where it stopped. i had a 1 hour lay over to catch my next flight, but i was so confused in the airport. apparently dulles airport is composed of parallel terminals, all of which are connected by these big trams (think hummers and prison buses combined, but not as cool). i walked the length of one of them, on the advise of a airport information worker, to find that i needed to go another tram. at this point i had about 20 minutes to get on my flight. it might sound like a lot of time, but i had never been at this airport to gage time. at this point i'm sweating and rushing towards the ticket booth to alitalia airlines (which apparently isn't that great to fly on). they totally know my name b/c i'm one of the last people to arrive. everyone has already boarded...

so i get on the plane and sit right by the wing and the emergency exit. things are looking up, i have all of this leg room!!! i'm also sitting next to this old, but friendly italian man who starts to tell me how he's going to show his friends around milan and how he flys between d.c. and milan. he also suggests places and things to go see in milan. in the middle of our conversation he starts to tell me about watching my back and beware of the gypsies.... (which totally reminds me of the time we were in chinatown in london and these kosovo gypsies started begging for money. i think it was a diversion so that they could steal our wallets and money...) he also tells me to watch my back in with the swiss people, he doesn't trust them b/c he's italian.

anyways, i get to italy and wait for my baggage for like 30 minutes and apparently, IT'S BEEN LOST!!! it might have had something to do with all of the liquids that i brought and they thought it was a bomb, or they're just kind of incompetent people and didn't get it right... in any case, i got lost in milan, but found my way to the lugano via a tram, that seemed kind of shady, got lost in lugano and basically took a $50 taxi ride into vico morcote. the funny thing is that even though the taxi driver had a gps in his car he still couldn' find the villa.

so i get in the villa and no one is there except for the cook beppi. so far this trip has been great.

and what makes it worse was that there was no internet, and i had to share a room...

boo!

goodbyes... part 1.5

The night before I left, I had a little visitor,

Matthew, my nephew,

he came with his papa.

He wanted to say goodbye to Uncle Andrew and show me he could...


WALK!!!