presentation...over

boom. done. it went really well too. for my first few images on this blog, i think i'll give you a taste of my work in the first three weeks...

**note: we are designing shoes and bags right now...a little product design. these images show shoes and bags that are very different from eachother, but they actually originated from one another. it's a species of shoes and bags that started in the same place...if that makes any sense.

p.s. dont mind the naked silversurfer lookin woman. i know its temping to stare....

buda....pest

going to budapest tomorrow morning. yaaaaa. hungary for halloween! i don't know what that means but im doing it. i think we are going to some indian party there. so wierd. that's why i love it. i will gladly give up a typical costume for an indian party in hungary on halloween. but hey, maybe i could dress up indian for this one....hmmmmm :)

bin, my roommate, is coming along too. we are going with one of the guys in class who is from there. good way to see the city, knowing the locals. apparently there's only one bed for bin and i, but this is not a problem. i will force him to sleep on the kitchen counter or something (if they have those in hungary). he will submit to my demands! he's funny though....he came in this morning, and asked, "where are we going again?".......i said "budapest" of course. not sure how he didn't know, but it was funny because he was like "oh ok, well it doesn't matter, i will go to iraq with you if you want to."

he's like sam wise from lord of the rings. i love this guy! so we are going to iraq. screw it!

nah..not really. BUDAPEST...just budapest.

fourth shot of coffee

i just lined up a set of coffee shots. i'm running on two hours sleep. currently i'm watching sarah present her project to the assistants. our shoe and bag designs are due NOW. we are eighth to present and i really just want to go to sleep. i went to bed this morning at 10 am, which is just wierd. then i woke up at 12, like it was a new day or something. the guy in our group that i was talking about before (you know, the one that doesn't do anything at all), chose to go home last night for a good nights rest while we slaved away alllll night. we should just make him present. what a turd.

anyways, its going to be a long afternoon. this review is pretty chill though. everyone is just sitting down while presenting and eating lunch. my kind of review. i think i will join in and eat this apple that is sitting next to me. oh, and of course sip on my ultra strong, power-packed mini-size coffee that i have as well. (coffee portions are definitely ryan size). none of that venti grande crap like starbucks, where you are basically eating coffee as a full meal.

hey alright! our whole group is here now. a successful day so far. maybe if you guys are lucky i'll post a pic of one of our shoes and bags for ya. they are pretty sexy i must say. i just might wear the heels if i got the chance..................................................

..................

.............

exploration station

definitely getting fed up with my project group right now. we have an assignment due on friday. we have to design a pair of shoes, and a bag to go with it. pretty cool, except we have four people in the group that all have different ideas. one guy doesn't care one bit about the project. he just sits there and does whatever he wants that's not related to our design. i feel like the mommy of a really diverse group of childen. one romanian, and two germans. haha. whaaatever. i don't really care much about the project. im in vienna. screw it.

so i like to leave the group for hours and hours at a time and just disappear into the city. there's so many areas to explore. yesterday sarah and i met our ucla instructor at a cafe and bought expensive coffee drinks that he paid for. then checked out this dope building that made me think i was in spain. they also had a sweet cafe there that had sandwiches that definitely resembled a pizza bread from pizza factory in shasta lake. of course, pizza breads of the factory are the bomb and can't be beat. (that's just for your information, in case you didn't know already...which you should know, if you are from redding.)

today the german guy was criticizing some part of the design i did and instead of punching him directly in the face i took off for 2 hours. just went to the subway and rode to a new stop in the city i hadnt been to. it was such a dope area. i think it was the 9th district. found a cool cafe/bar, had a beer and kicked it there for a while. the neighborhood feeling there was the best i've seen so far in vienna. i'm thinking more and more i could live in vienna for a while. maybe after school's out? hmmm. i don't know though. i mean, i like the cold weather right now, wearing like 10 layers and 4 scarves and 9 beanies with a hat on top of them. but i think i'll get sick of it soon. i'm the type of person that belongs in a place like LA, or austrialia, or SLO. or madagascar. i don't know. that seems like its more me. hmmmmmmm australia. wow i'm already thinking about my next trip. i need to stop doing that. im gonna go broke. (actually i am broke...living off loans). i already have other trips in my mind....like tokyo for our research studio next spring, and a roadtrip across america with my closest friends next summer, and thoughts about spending time in africa to design/build homes and schools. im ridiculous sometimes.

wellllll i have to design a woman's purse right now. haha. wierd. its gonna be such a cool purse that even men will a strong yearning to wear it. that's right, i used the word "yearning". i don't know if i've ever typed that word before. i had to think about how to spell it for a second.

BOO

booooooo.

not so good review / randomness

hey all! i haven't written in a few days so i have cover a couple happenings in the last 72 hours...

first of all, our review with the assistants didn't go so hot on wednesday. in fact, it didn't even happen. they stopped when they got to our group, and then said they would come back the next day at 2. however, they didn't come till 4. geeez. either way, the review wasn't bad. but it wasnt good. lots of changes. dang. we were all a little frustrated after the that, so we said screw it and everyone from studio went out for a beer. went to the usual "wunderbar", which is pretty much awesome. it was a packed little place, cause its cold outside now, and everyone is basically smoking in your face until you begin to feel a buzz from it ( my friends there smoked like a pack and half each.) we stayed for a looooong time. it was really fun though cause we had all these people at one table from all over the world. 2 guys from tianjin, china (who go to the school i studied at last may in china), my roommates from shanghai, my partner from romania, this girl mina from croatia, some other guy from prague, and then of course some people from austria...and me, representing LA. at the time it hit 12:30, everyone has to decide when they are going to head to bed or stay out for a long time, because the subways stop running at that time. my roommates and some other decided to go to another film opening party down the road, and i stayed at the wunderbar for a while....which means we all weren't taking the subway home. there are, however, night buses that take you around town, but you just have to find them. so around 3:30 it was about that time to find the bus. sergio, my partner, and I walked for about 3 kilometers to find the main stop for these buses...and there i find hundreds of drunk people eating kebaps and schnitzels all over the street...waiting. funny sight to see. and of course, i bought a schnitzel as well. got my bus, found a stop on the list that sounded familiar, and got off. nothing was familiar. started walking. 15 minutes later, took a right turn. got lucky. found my home! haha. really its a lot of work to get home if you make the decision to stay out after 12:30....

so on friday morning is was then time to work out some crap for school. this was a crazy day of highs and lows. we would all agree on something awesome, then meet with the assistants and they would see it another way. then we would have a great idea, and the assistants would like it, and then two of us in the group would hate it. so we argued all day. there was definitely some yelling and hating going on. by the end of the day my brain was so pissed at me, so i had to peace out of there and enjoy the night. we kind of got somewhere but i knew on saturday it was going be ridiculous again.

so a group of us went out to this place that serves giant portions of ribs for really cheap (13 euros....cheap for ribs). they were insane. me and bin loved them, and everyone pretty much stared at us while we dominated all of them. after we went to this little bar called voodoo bar or something. it reminded me of a place i would find in a small town in texas...but with austrians inside drinking austrian things..speaking in german of course. but the music...ha..that was allllll american stuff. rolling stones all night! i pretty much watched people drink as i sat there filled with an extra set of ribs in my stomach. the chinese students with us got a little bored and thought up the idea to play truth or dare, as if they were deprived of that when they were 5 years old. so we played. a couple people were dared to go say wierd things to random austrians and wear their hats and such on the coat rack, but the most interesting thing was what some people actually revealed about themselves in the truth part. haha. i was pretty surprised to hear some things from certain people. can't name names but we were basically told that someone had been with a few other people since being in the relationship. anywaaaaays...kind of random. but that night we had to peace out at 12:30 cause we new how much crap we had to deal with in the morning for our project. caught the very last train home by speedwalking to the subway station....

god gave me some serious inspiration on saturday morning before we met....it was like a scene in the heroes tv show where the painter guy gets all cracked out and starts painting future...and when we wakes up he has no idea what just happened. that sort of happened to me at breakfast. i started sketching something and wrote a few notes...and BOOM. everything about our project made sense. took the info to school, explained it. BOOM. everyone is on the same page. what the heck just happened? it was crazy. we still had some bumps later in the day...and one of the guys started doing his own thing, thinking it was the right thing...so we had to scold him and put him the corner for a half hour...and make him think like us again. :) no but we actually got somewhere....which means we arent working saturday night. thank god. that would be stupid. that's one thing i want to avoid while im here.

moritz, one of my group members from germany, likes to go clubbing/dancing, and he and some friends were going, so sarah and i went along too. it was insane. we started just kicking back at some friend's flat for a couple hours, snacking and having a drink, then going to a birthday party for some girl no one really knew, meeting some hilarious austrian drunks that all love LA. of course. who doesnt love LA? we kicked it at the party till about 2 am...and then....time to go out.

on the way downstairs, was talking with the birthday girl about complete randomness, and apparently in all flats in austria, the lights on the stairs automatically turn off. so when you need the light, you have to find the button, wherever it is. it was so dark we couldn't see eachother at all, and we started feeling around the walls for a button. i found one first, and since i was excited about it i told her i found one and pushed it for a while. i heard a wierd buzzing sound that was pretty loud and coming from somewhere close. the birthday girl starting yelling no no no no! and told me it were her crazy neighbors doorbell that i was ringing...so we ran down the stairs as fast as we could because apparently we were about to get shot but some crazy austrian...

now going out in austria is a lot different than in the states, especially california, since the nightlife ends at 2. they pretty much start at 2. and go till morning...or all day the next day. sarah and i decided that this was a necessary thing for us to do so we made a pact to dance like retards until sunrise. we didn't get into the club until 3:15 in the morning because it was so packed and there was still a line. it was crazy techno music, of course. its popular here...im not a huge fan but im down to check it out and be stupid for a night. so we got in and boogied till 6 am we all the rest of the sweating, crazy techno people...most of which were probably on drugs. you basically just bounce to music in any way you want....you have to FEEEL the music...haha. whatever. it was fun though. by 6 we couldnt even stand anymore so sarah and I peaced out and went to the subway (which starts running again at 6 am). sat there for a while, and met some other architecture kids that were studying in germany. they were kinda cool...like cool enough to go to breakfast with them on the spot when they asked on the train. but then as they tried to figure out where the place was and what stop to get off on, we realized how uncool they really were and slowly decided to just leave them and head home. we definitely decided this when they picked the wrong station to get off and proposed to walk the rest of the way. haha. so we took off and went home. i got back just in time for the sunrise and for the local bakery to be opening up with fresh snacks a 7 am. unfortunately for me in only had a 100 bill and like 50 cents change, and neither of those allow me to get any sort of delicious breakfast snack. and since the only thing i have on my shelf of the fridge right now is a beer, i went sleep without any breakfast....

that's all the randomness i have for the last couple days. back at school this afternoon. its like a spring day here today. really nice. but im inside trying to figure this project stuff out. i think today's gonna be a pretty chill day though. no one really wants to work hard at all. we are kind of just waiting on one of our teammates to start modeling these shoes we designed, cause he's the best modeler. but he's feeling lazy soooo im gonna take off and kick it in vienna tonight...

ITALIA COMING SOON

sitting here in class. we have a meeting today. been doing a lot of work the last couple days. pretty much because i just spent four days in london. i was hoping that when i got back a bunch of work would be done, but NOOO. not really. haha. ahh well its fine.

we are planning our italy trip right now. one of my group members has a car...so what do ya know? we are roadtrippin it to rome! boom. then on the way back we can hit florence, venice, pakistan, whatever. how awesome is that? its like a 10 hour drive to rome from vienna. just like going up the coast of california! we will probably spend a week total cruising around, including our time visiting rome and presenting to.......Zaha. yes. we will be seeing her. watch...she doesnt even show up. that would be ridiculous. she kind of has no choice but to be there though, because she has a museum opening to be at. she will definitely be going for that.

by the way...went to some guys birthday party the other night at a little hole in the wall bar/cafe..and they serve these sandwiches there that everyone likes to get. however, they aren't called sandwiches....they are called "toast". plain and simple. however, when i hear the word toast i think of...toast, of course. this "toast" has meat and melted cheese in the middle and comes with a plate of ketchup to dip. AWESOME. there's something about dipping a sandwich...err...toast..in ketchup that makes me smile. plus a cheap beer to go with it. what else could you ask for?

can i go home?

back in vienna. at school. roommates arent around. apparently they went to bratislava in slovakia for a couple days. but they took both of our hostel keys with them. so i cant go home. no one is here at school, except me. im just typing this little blog. fun fun. got a little update on our group project today. apparently we have to change some things...and they didnt change them yet unfortunately. so i guess i have some work to do in the next couple days. damn. i dont want to work. i want to travel some more! yaaaaaaa. well rome is coming soon, plus vienna is awesome so i'll survive im sure! hahahahaa.

oxford at 4 am

so somehow i came up with the idea that we should go up to oxford, where oxford university is at. not a bad idea, except that stephen was supposed to take a flight to ireland in the middle of the following day, so in order to go we would have to get up super early or leave...immediately. it was 12 pm and we were at some bar with tristan's friends, and we made the unanimous decision to head to oxford after we were done at the bar. no place to sleep, no one to know :) awesome. it probably wouldn't have happened if tristan didn't finally agree to it, which i completely attribute to the wine and beer he couldn't stop drinking. so at around 2 am we left his friends and were planning to grab a coach bus from downtown london out to oxford, which takes about an hour and half. got a little shawarma wrap along the way, went back to tristans to grab stephens bag for ireland (because he would go straight to the airport when we returned the next day) and head out for the bus stop.

we took a cab over to the bus stop, which i somehow paid 20 pounds for (30 dollars...insane). get out of the cab. and what happens? tristan barfs all over the street. yessssssssssss. now let's ride on the bus for an hour and a half! haha. we get on the bus and lie down in the back. tristan hasn't spoken yet since his recent barf. stephen and i laugh for a bit about it, then go to sleep. tristan is already sleeping.

wake up in oxford to tristan dry-heaving in his seat in front of me. such a great alarm! we are in oxford. its 6 am. its cold. we know nothing about oxford. the bus driver says nothing is open except mcdonalds, so we head there to rendezvous. we had planned to maybe find a dormitory or something to crash in, but that was not possible since all the colleges are apparently heavily guarded like its WWII again. soooo.....mcdonalds was the place. had some breakfast...laid my head down on the table, and tried to sleep for a bit. tristan was PISSED. everyone knows that feeling of not sleeping at all and having to much to drink. PISSED is the word. again, stephen and i laughed for a while, took some pictures, and then tried to sleep some more. HOWEVER, sleeping is impossible when the mcdonalds employees enjoy blasting american pop music over the speakers on the ceiling, one of which happened to lurk directly overhead our table. uggghhh.

decided to start walking. tristan isnt speaking. walked some more. looked for a map. found a map. found a coffee shop with big leather chairs. CLOSED. walked some more. shivered a little. found some cool buildings. CLOSED TILL 9 AM. damn. finally found a coffee shop that opened at 8 am. waited until 8:15 am since apparently they don't open on time. bought coffee but didnt drink it. went upstairs in the corner, took up three couches, and passed out.......for like 5 minutes. because....once again, employees like to blast music in the mornings. this time it was like jazz...but with the loudest trumpet ive ever heard. it was like a marching band was practicing in the coffee shop.

finally at 9 we convinced tristan that it was time to go and explore the city. and the city was awesome, for stephen and I. 1000 year old buildings! amazing. there was like a graduation going on or something, because every college was walking around dressed up. cool day to be there. each college has its own building that is completely badass. they are all like castles. its definitely like another world. after exploring, with tristan staggering behind us, we found a really old pub where CS LEWIS and JRR TOLKEN used to kick it and talk about books or something. decided to have lunch in the very room where they used to hang out. stephen and i had a traditional english breakfast, which means you have eggs, bacon, sausage, and for some reason, beans. tristan ordered an egg and bacon sandwich, took one bite, and decided he was still not hungry. so i ate that sandwich....i took one for the team! and after that, we were pretty much done. tristan couldn't wait to leave, and i dont blame him. grabbed a train back to london around 12:30 pm...which took about an hour, and then sent stephen on his way to stanstead airport.

as for tristan and I, it was naptime. boom. slept the rest of the day. woke up and kicked it with tristan, just talking about random things and spending some good old fashioned time together (including ordering greasy chinese food for dinner because tristan was finally hungry), and then crashed again. i proposed going to a pub one more time for a beer, and tristan almost threw up in his mouth. so we watched soccer instead and went to bed.

thats my story and im sticking to it.

UK P2

hey all you jumped up little gits! still in England till tomorrow. we've done so much stuff here that I feel like I've been here for weeks. it's been great though. met up with stephen yesterday morning. he was about 2 hours late trying to find tristans place, which is actually pretty hard to find. we kind of kicked it till about 1 in the afternoon and then went out on the touristy mission of checking out westminster abbey, house of parliament, buckingham palace, and the tower of london. let me say right now that westminster abbey is one of the most amazing places. the oldest kings of london are buried there, and the building is completely old and just awesome. its crazy to think that the united states came from this country, and that the US is only a couple hundred years old, whereas this place has buildings that are intact from 1000 years ago. CRAZY. london is a beautiful place in general. maybe that's because its been sunny the whole time we have been here, which is so rare for this city. i was expecting rain nonstop. and again, i must bring up the ENGLISH PUBS. we found this awesome spot after hitting the abbey, that had 5 pound meat pie meals and 2 pound london pride and guiness on tap. we dominated that place for like an hour and half. meat pie of the day (with other things inside we didn't want to ask about....probably pig brains) mashed potatoes, peas, bread, and beer = heaven...and a lot of burping and farts. and heartburn. crazy heartburn.

that night we were able to hit some wine bar for tristan's friend's birthday party. some finance guy from the states...actually from Wisconsin. wierd. and a bunch of germans. there are apparently a ton of germans in finance in london. oh ya, and a chinese girl with a british accent. what the heck. but from this point on in the night, the events started to get a little more interesting. it was time for an adventure...and this requires the introduction of stupid ideas that somehow become a reality...maybe because of the wine...

the united kingdom

greetings from the UK! pretty amazing here. rubbish, futbol, double decker busses, and driving on the left side of the road. i've almost gotten killed so many times already because i ALWAYS look right when im crossing the street instead of the newly introduced 'look left'. tristan continually saves my life.

good seeing him for sure. it's been so long. even though we only spent 6 weeks as roommates like 4 summers ago, we picked up where we left off. and he was late, as usual, to meet me at victoria station in the city. i waited there in front of a burger king (figures) until he showed up, which is really all i can do. if he didnt show, there is absolutely nothing i could do to change that. but he made it...and he looked the same, and i must have to or he wouldnt have found me.

first major thing we did was hit a 'proper' english pub, of course. proper is quite the term here. i kind of love it. that and 'geezer' or geeeeezaa. haha. i'm going to try and throw that would into all my sentences, somehow. LONDON PRIDE is the beer of choice. delicious stuff, and obviously brewed here in london. Pubs here are awesome, and everywhere. it's said that you're never 3 meters away from a rat, or a pub, in london. kind of funny...

first full day here....went and did some touristy things. tristian showed me around the entire city. he's a pretty good tour guide (except we got lost once...idiot). saw wherehe works in the financial district (he's a bond trader...kind of gangster). walked the london bridge. went up in the london eye to see the whole city. rode in a double decker bus. walked like 500 km through winding narrow streets. kicked it in trafalgar square with some massive lion statues. i love lions. had a 'proper' english dinner....this time some fish fillet and chips with peas and a guiness. YESSSS. so good..

last night went out with tristan and his banker buddies. all the financial people go out on thursday nite after work it their suits..to party it up and meet some sexy ladies. however, these sexy ladies are smart. they are the 'essex girls' meaning they come down from essex to meet their husband, who they seek out by asking questions about what bank they work for and what sector they are in. CRAZY. i'm not buying drink for one of those ladies. however, they probably woudn't want one from me :) pretty interesting scene though. love the girl's accents nonetheless. walked forever down this place called brick lane, which is exactly what its called. tons of pubs, clubs, and cheap food. people everything doing stupid things. had a couple whisky drinks with tristan and company, met a girl from pennsylvania who pretended to be 23 when she was definitely 16. haha. watched tristan's german friend as he creepily followed girls around in every bar we went to. haha. he would stand there and stare at them, until they would acknowledge him, then he woul attack. and fail. so he resorted to a tuna beigel (should be spelled bagel) and the beigel shop on brick lane. when you choose tuna for a snack, you've basically given up all hope at meeting a woman for the night. that's the english way of throwing in the towel. haha. at about 2 we took a cab home (cabs are pretty interesting here. lots of leg room) and grabbed a double cheeseburger from mcdonalds before hitting the sack. i keep saying i wont go to mcdonalds in a different country..but sometimes you just gotta have a little cheeseburger in your life. and when IN-N-OUT's not around, gotta resort to the micky D's...

stephen's on his way over right now. he's staying with us tonight before he heads to ireland for a couple days. we are gona check out some of the more notable stuff in london today...buckingham palace, big ben, towers of london, etc. hope my group at school is doing well. it's pretty awesome i can disappear for a few days andnot have to worry about my project. love it.

got to take a shower (inside, this time). updates coming soon.

wind chill factor

holy crap is cold here all of a sudden. the wind chill factor is officially negative 1000 today. i have like 17 layers on. seriously.

leaving for london today. tristan, my old roomate, took thursday and friday off school to show me around. and stephen is alread there so tonight should be a good night. i hear its even colder there right now but we'll see. i don't even care though. it's london. screw it.

and last night i must say i had some amazing chinese noodles cooked by bin, my roommate. those kids can cook pretty damn well. they cook a lot, which i can't completely understand because im always running around...but im glad they do so i can get it on it every now and then! it's still wierd to me that i sometimes eat chinese food in austria. i still feel like im back in china every now and then....

adios...talk more in london :)

RYAN SIZE

everything is "ryan-size" here, as we call things back in the RDG. this is basically a measurement system based upon my height. is case you haven't noticed, I am a little shorter than the average human. my "best" friends love to make fun of me for this. i just can't live without them! but this measurement system applies to everything. 1 ryan, 2 ryan. .4563 ryans, 854.3 ryans, and so on. so ya, everything here is smaller, and by everything i mean groceries. this came to mind because i just went to buy some milk and they basically only sell small shots of milk that will fill one bowl of cereal. stupid. i mean, ya i can walk outside my hostel and bam! there is a grocery store, pharmacy, post office, cafe, bar, etc. within like 5 steps (ryan size steps), but i'm used to those GALLONS of milk. YEAH! MAYBE TWO GALLONS FROM COSTCO! you don't have to go back for months. haha. actually i eat so much cereal i could go through two gallons in a week. but overall, i decided to replace a lot of my favorite foods with bread. the bread is so bomb and so cheap...i just bought like 15 rolls for 75 cents. not bad.

anyways, that was a random thought of the day. its getting effing cold here now. it rained a bunch yesterday, and i didnt have an umbrella (everyone uses them here) and so i was pretty soaked. and today...its totally clear. but there's a crazy wind that basically freezes my fast instantly when i go outside. gotta start wearing 8 layers of clothes. im going to be as wide as i am tall (which really isnt that wide).

got to go to school now. trying to help my group out as much as i can before i leave for london tomorrow. ill be there for four days. yaaaaaaa. im stoked about it. but i want my group to think im doing a lot of work so gotta put in a little time today.

oh ya...and a little update on the choices i made in munich. the unexplained incidents that happened there are still unfolding....parents received an ambulence bill in the mail yesterday in Redding! 500 euros! damn. THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING AN IDIOT. i think there is another bill to follow though. good news, though, i have double insurance that should cover these bills so well, i actually might MAKE MONEY because of this. hmmm. i just have to do the paperwork...................

crazy girl

so this girl, sofia, is pretty funny. she's like the most excited and happy girl i've ever seen. she liked to go on random adventures (like on a tram around the city, which by the way, was realllly stupid). but the story she told me of why she is here was pretty interesting. she has more balls than i do for sure.

she came to austria to work on an internship for Wolf Prix..an architect and professor here at the school. she goes to school in Vancouver. she liked the job but she got interested in our Hadid Studio, so she just decided, instead of finishing her internship, which is part of her school in Canada, she would quit the job and apply for Studio Hadid. She got accepted and started class with us. She never told the school in Canada or her parents until yesterday. Her parents basically want to disown her now and the school is pissed at her. Also, if she does this, she will have to do an extra 2 years of school. wtf. that's crazy. so she's deciding what she wants to do, all the while having the biggest smile on her face. haha. AWESOME.

GUTENSTEIN!

gutenstein is the place. it's a mountain town. and its AWESOME. hiked a trail with some of the guys here. found the top of the mountain. gazed at the beginning of the austrian alps covered in leaves turning red and orange. small little road below. MONEY. good food. good people.

back to the city now. gotta meet the group at school straight from here. kinda sucks but i havent done any work yet...and im leaving again fro LONDON on wednesday. can't wait for that!

at school kinda working...havent gone home yet since friday. im pretty sure we switched rooms for three days so my roommates probably threw all my stuff around. i most likely wont be able to find something important...like my passport or external hard drive with my life saved on it. this girl from class, sofia (a chinese girl from canada...wierd) just invited me to go with her and some random people on a tram that goes all around the city. why not. guess i won't go home for a little longer...

THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN

up in the mountains again. but this time im waaay up in the mountains. im like an hour and a half outside of vienna with some new people from all over the world. this retreat is full of people from nigeria, south africa, the US, central america, eastern europe, etc. it's really cool to see everyone come together and seek God on some mountain in the middle of nowhere. its so foggy outside right now. we just had to get up for breakfast at 8 am. i didn't sleep very good at all last night. two of the guys in my room snore soooo loud. i don't think i've ever heard anyone snore so loud before. i stuffed my ears with toilet paper, then wrapped my head with a sweatshirt, and finally smashed my head between my pillow and the mattress....AND I COULD STILL HERE SNORING. it was pretty awful. i contemplated going to sleep outside in the freezing cold! ah whatever, im up now. its okay. time to go though. breakfast is waiting!

niiiice people

its kind of crazy how nice every single person is here at our studio. i wasn't expecting that for some reason. but seriously...everyone is amazing. my group is amazing too. they all have great ideas and all want to do a good job on this beast of a project, so that will be great.

went and hung out with some college kids from the church i checked out last weekend. really cool guys. learned about romanian communism for like an hour from a kid that used to live in it. kind of crazy stories he had! i was invited to a retreat they have in the mountains this weekend. decided this morning that i'm actually gonna go. i packed up a few things an hour ago and am planning to head out straight from school. should be an awesome time. not only that but im gonna go to london next wednesday to see stephen (my roommate who works with the british consulate) and my old roommate at ucla, who is from London. I haven't seen him in three or four years! so i'll be all over the place in the next week. my group seems okay with it. at least we have four people in our group, so its not a huge deal if one person disappears (me). im stoked about it!

today its pretty cold and it looks like its gonna rain. probably will. ive been planning for this to happen since i got here. i think the warm weather is pretty much over with. im actually hoping it will snow here this winter. sometimes they say it doesnt anymore until january, which mean i wont be around!

well im at school and i guess i have to do work or something. the guy in my group that said we should meet at 11 today is still not here at 1 pm. so we are just kickin right now. my other group member, sergio, is sitting here smacking the crap out of his monitor, because apparently that makes it work again. haha.

NO ZAHA

ATTENTION ALL READERS! ZAHA IS NOT IN THE BUILDING! she couldn't make it. had something better to do, like design an awesome building in france or something stupid. but Patrick Schumaker did show up. he presented project for the next year and it seems pretty interesting. he also seems like a pretty nice guy. maybe that's why zaha liked him so much!

the project is about industrial and product design and how that can translate and related to an architectural project. so our goal is to design a lot of little items...like shoes, chairs, and then cars, and boats, and finally museums and stadiums, all with the same basic concept or sense that they can all relate to one another. all of this is to be done through the idea of parametricism in the background. should be interesting. i'll be around for just part of this process, but its enough to get a few products designed for my portfolio. it will be good to have something other than architecture in my portfolio. my group is also really great. a wide range of people with varying backgrounds. two people from germany, one from romania, and myself. its a good size group which is great because im leaving halfway through. definitely should be interesting. i think i'll be able to learn a lot from them. ALSO, WE ARE GOING TO ROME FOR THE MIDTERM. so dope. we present there and join Zaha in her opening for her museum there. we will be there november 12-16. so money!

after our briefing and bunch of guys went out to the "usual" bar and restaurant called "wunderbar". such a cool place. you basically kick it outside on a little alley street and have beers or coffee or sandwiches for hours and hours. the weather here right now is like LA weather. PERFECTO! so we sat our there for seriously like 5 hours and just talked about random things and enjoyed the weather while it lasted. its such an interesting culture. you would never see that in LA. people are always in a hurry there. the coffee culture is so big here, and everyone always sits outside. its amazing. and afterwards...had the best shawerma tortilla wrap ever invented. those are really big here, probably because we are somewhat close to the middle east. and they are pretty cheap. like 3 euros for a massive wrap. its like the closest i can get to mexican food here!

good times and great oldies

Met with Sonja last night. really cool meeting up with her, but it's been soooo long it was basically like getting to know a new person. we sort of remembered each other in high school but it was so long ago that we had to kind of start over. it's just so crazy how small the world is. we were able to talk about some interesting stories from high school. definitely entertaining! hopefully we will be able to get together again soon. it was great to see her for sure! unfortunately we all hung out so late that the trains stopped running. they stop here around 12:30 a.m. So I had to walk home...which i thought wouldn't be a problem because i knew the street i was walking on connected to my apartment. HOWEVER, i was at the complete other end of the street....so i had to walk about 40 minutes...in the rain. haha. at least it wasnt pouring i guess!

SYKE!

Got an email this morning. school is not starting TOMORROW. i get the feeling it will never start. i guess thats fine though :)

last nite was a good time with some friends from school. went to a cool restaurant and bar called somethign that basically means 'beer paradise' in german. pretty awesome. had a couple beers and laughed about stupid things while sitting outside in a courtyard. love it. then it started to rain. damn. all that nice weather might be ending soon...

on the way home something kinda funny happened. we were waiting for a train and bin didnt realize that at night all trains run on the same track, instead of two different ones...and the wrong one came. i told him it was the wrong one but he thought i was joking. he jumped on and laughed at me and i was yelling at him to get off. so he took off to some other station across town. i took the next train to the right stop and waiting 15 minutes for him to show up. it was pretty funny when he saw me sitting there waiting for him. haha. maybe you had to be there.

Bin, my roommate, and I had the best weinerschnitzel today for lunch. we went back to one of those hole in the wall places our landlord showed us. the lady that owns the place is so nice. she gave each of us a hug when we showed up. i felt like i had been there a thousand times. schnitzels are the bomb! loved it. and its not a hot dog...remember that.

ok off to meet a friend of ours from high school. she actually dated my buddy jordan when she was on exchange back then. shes from vienna and still lives here. havent seen here since high school. kinda crazy how small the world is! again...ill let u know tomorrow what the deal is with my education. i may or may not be doing any work while im here....

Finally Settling In!

Yesterday was our last day at the landlord's cabin in the countryside. That was probably my last time taking a hot shower outside in the austrian country side.....i will definitely miss that! we just kicked it and ate tons of snacks (including a loaf of bread) and dumplings (chinese people love to have chinese food wherever they go). Good times hanging out with the roommates. we are all getting along really well...so i think.

Back in Vienna...with our hostel to ourselves for 5 days. Then we switch to another room for three days, and then back to this one for GOOD. geeeez. what an annoying process. But at least now when we change rooms, we only move across the hall...not 50 km away! Got to do laundry today...for the FIRST TIME SINCE I LEFT LA. yes...i said it. luckily a brought a lot of clothes. however, certain items had to be re-used of course! I won't mention specific garments :)

Laundry takes forever here. the washer is the slowest thing ever...and of course...dryers don't exist on this side of the world. so what do i do? GO FOR A RUN. why not? its like 70 degrees out when its supposed to be snowing or something. pretty dope. i ran all the way to the city center down these winding, narrow streets full of bars, cafes, and people in the way to slow me down! i realized once i hit the city center that i am actually much closer to the center than i thought. it seemed farther by subway.

now im kickin it here at the hostel. we have internet in one little spot in the kitchen by the window. i'm sitting backwards in the kitchen table bench in the most awkward position ever...so that i can write this message. the view outside the window is nice though...old rooftops with little chimneys sticking out and the vienna skyline in the distance. i can deal with this for sure.

ok...gonna go get some dinner/a beer with some people from school. last night before we get the project brief and.......A ZAHA APPEARANCE? should i even speak that name? haha. actually she probably won't be there, but her partner, Patrik Schumaker, will be there for sure. I'll let you know what kind of project I'm doing (and where I'm traveling to for it) tomorrow!

Last night at the CABIN

went to church yesterday and met some awesome people. it was definitely a cool place to be. they have a college group that meets every week so ill probably check that out on thursday. lots of people from all over the world go to this church, whether missionaries or students or just random people who decided to move here and ended up falling in love. a bunch of us from the church went out to lunch and had...can you guess? MONGOLIAN BBQ. random! i never thought i would be eating mongolian bbq buffet with people from all over the world in Austria. it was sooo money though because ill ive eaten in the last week is loaves of bread and cheese (which, by the way, is the @%&$).

afterwards, met up with the roommates, who were busy at school downloading movies for the night's events out in the countryside (not much to do besides watch movies after a while). left them because apparently they hate the outdoors when its realllly nice outside, but that's okay. sarah and i went to some park full of traditonal live music that sounded like it was from Russia and hippies that must have been from California in the 60's. TOOK A NAP. (and help my bag close so it wouldn't get jacked).

I abruptly got a call saying it was time to go back to the cabin (as i call it). apparently the landlord was IMMEDIATELY ready to go. met the roommates and landlord at a bar close to our hostel. this was a different one than the last, because the other was closed on Sunday (like most places in the city). this one was pretty awesome too. cheap beer, student specials on the weinerschnitzel (by the way, these are not hotdogs AT ALL)...and nice people, some who grew up in San Francisco. It's just a great hole in the wall bar that's a one minute walk from our apartment. AWESOME. these people are my new best friends!

Afternoon in the Country

perfect todayWent back to the Renter's home today at 3. the weather is perfect today. everyone out here is hiking and riding horses and riding motorcycles...so i decided to go for a run. since we are kicking it here till they drive back tomorow, might as well enjoy the outdoors of austria. wont be able to do this anymore while im here, since it will be raining and we'll be in the city. the run was awesome. so many cool little traditional austrian homes. everything...and i mean everything..is green! its awesome. found a trail and hiked down it for a while to find a large crucifix on a grassy hill with a bench beside it. kicked it there for a while. gonna go back and take some more pictures because its so amazing out right now.

the landlord just came in...asked if we want to fresh milk from the cow down the street. how dope is that? really? heck ya we want some fresh milk from down the road! oh wait...and he's gonna get us ome mushrooms from the forest. hahahaha this is awesome. he rides his dirtbike into the forest to collect mushrooms for cooking. he just brought some back. they are huge! man i love it. i'm start to think i should move out here....

Random Day

Today we are going to check out some Austrian Designer exhibition at this museum that's connected to our building, then maybe explore some old buildings full of important things from history. not sure what they are though. we shall see. we have to head to country early today, since its saturday and the landlords get a little extra time off. Gonna go hang out with the pigs or something today :) the landlords mentioned that we all might go in their sauna tonight and have a beer together. this will probably be the most interesting conversation ill have for the rest of my time here! haha. tomorrow i check out church in the morning...see whats going on there.

got to go explore!

ill let you know how my time in the sauna goes over....

SCHOOL BEGINS

On thursday, we met with our TA and met everyone in the class. people here are so nice. actually a lot of the people in the class arent from here. there's a lot of newbies from all over the world. mainly europeans, but not many from austria. we were basically told to make groups together (thankfully, so i dont have to work on this project by myself) and go get to know eachother. so off to the secret bars we went. they have a couple they like to go to in the first district, and they were so money! picture this...small alleyway (called a gasse) with very old, traditional austrian apartments rising on each side...cobblestone 1 lane street, sidewalks full of tables and chairs, along with people drinking beers, sipping coffee, or eating some wierd sandwich. an alfa romeo car parked out front and an ambulance with the stupid european style siren going off cruises by all of a sudden...(what's the deal with sirens? how did they evolve to different noises? personally i don't mind the american sound, but probably because im just used to it.) went to a couple places like this, got to know some people that ill be spending a lot of time with in the next 2 months. this trip is going to fly by...everyone can't believe sarah and I are only here for the first half of the semester (which, by the way, sucks because no one will want us to be in their project groups, because we are just going to peace out in december and leave the rest of the group to fend for themselves....not sure how this will work. we will probably just jump into a group next week or something.) also went to the Museums Quarter in the first district of the city if you're not sure what that is...i'll just say that there a lot of museums there :).... they have a large courtyard in the middle of it where there are they lounge-scape forms that people can lie on and kick it all night. In europe you can drink outside with out a brown bag anywhere you want...so people go a have a beer or ten there. anyways, four of us from class went and lounged for a couple hours and had a beer together. i was with a 19 year old from Vienna who is just starting architecture (sucks for him) and two finnish students who have a lot of interesting stories about Finland. What i got from it all is that Finnish people are NOT friendly in general. apparently not the best place to go for tourism, unless you are going for the natural beauty!

Since I stayed in town late to get to know some of the students, i didnt go back to the country side with the chinese...crashed at sarah's instead. it sucks being unsettled still...carrying a backpack around of necessities gets annoying after a couple weeks. ahh well...as of monday we should be relatively settled in. Sarah and I did some more exploring yesterday...museum of modern art was pretty dope..and wierd of course! Found an awesome mile long flea market where you can buy anything you want pretty much...even old nazi war memorabilia-kinda cool!

back to the country-side again!

Exploring Vienna Part Zwei

Went to Veinna Christian Center this morning. It's a church that was started by some english missionaries about 17 years ago. met some really nice people there. Huan, the chinese girl living with us, is also a Christian and is going to come with me. So awesome. What are the odds that she would be a Christian as well. I feel like God put us together for a reason. i'm pretty stoked about checking out the church this weekend and meeting some new people there.

also went to a pretty cool shopping district by our hostel. huge strip of stores, restaurants, and cafes. the three of us had coffee on the street together and looked for a beard trimmer for my face. apparently the voltage was that correct on my other trimmer, and it shorted out when i plugged it in. BASICALLY, MY BEARD IS FULL AND BEAUTIFUL RIGHT NOW. its fine, it will keep me warm this fall over here! OK GOTTA GET SOME LUNCH W/SARAH BEFORE WE START THIS WHOLE SCHOOL THING....servus!

LIVING THE COUNTRY LIFE!!

Last night turned out to be one of the best experiences so far!

before we left for their home we stopped at a little dive bar that they love. it was a little hole in the wall place that was so old i thought it would fall down on us. free beers from the landlords! it was an awesome little place, just down the street from out hostel.

the landlord's home is amazing, and they are really nice people. very hospitible. their dog, benji, is very nice too. they live 50 kilometers outside of the city, which is really inconvenient for us, but an awesome adventure on the other hand. we drove out of the city to where there's no internet or even phones, or plumbing for that matter. the house was really nice with a guest suite and sauna..DOPE! and their shower is awesome. they have an outdoor shower in the back yard area, facing a huge grassy field. taking a shower naked outside in the cold, with hot water in the austrian country side definitely put a smile on my face. the chinese students were embarrassed to do it, so they kind of stink today..haha. i think they are gonna make it happen tonight though. the toilet is really just a porta potty that was built by them in the yard. pretty cool idea for sure, but obviously smelled like @!#&....the home is a traditional austrian style home, almost like a log cabin but with ornamental decorations that austrians are used to. really nice. we were also able to cook dinner and hang out with the landlords, since they basically stay up realllly late. they are pretty funny people. very talkative. i can hardly get a word in. what's really interesting is that they met when she was 17 years old and he was 41 years old...and they got married. apparently she liked older men. hmmm.

bin, the chinese guy staying with us, snores like crazy! it was pretty bad last night. i guess i'll have to resort to ear plugs from now on. i had to keep pushing him last night so he would roll over and stop, but i kept waking up so it sucked.

school starts today...CRAZY. not sure if im ready for all this crap now.

Exploring Vienna Part Ein

Saw some great buildings in the city today. sarah, bin, and i went and checked out some of the old palaces, government buildings, and concert halls that people used to kick it in centuries ago. vienna's downtown is pretty much amazing. tiny roads, cobblestone paving, cafe's everywhere, a diverse population, and old ass buildings. reallly old. ate some pizza at a restaurant on the street in the sun. pretty good pizza too. the weather was perfect today. and the palace we went to was amazing. franz ferdinand, the archduke who was assassinated, and became the firestarter of WWI...lived there at one point or another. pretty dope. sarah and i got to look at a ton of old paintings that are held in the palace rooms these days and walk thru a massive garden of water and a maze-like configuration of plants. of course i then bought a load of bread to battle my hunger for my trip up to the middle of nowhere withe the landlords...t-minus 3 hours until we either start a new horror flick or have a great story to tell in the morning...

LIVING SITUATION........

first couple nights here went pretty well. although hectic since we dont realllly have an official place to stay yet. we've spent some of our time at the school because they have internet (althought really ghetto and their computer lab is a pile of crap) and we dont really have internet, except in the corner of one room in our apartment...which, by the way, is actually just a hostel. i didnt realize this, but WE ARE STAYING IN A HOSTEL FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS. haha. love it. its a nice hostel though--minus the internet in one corner and the fact that we have to stay at the landlord's place for the next five nights, 50 kilometers outside of the city. what the heck. thats pretty far. like a half hour drive. they say they have only one neighbor, and there's no internet or phone to call anyone if we are getting axe murdered. BUT SERIOUSLY...IS THIS THE NEXT SAW MOVIE WAITING TO HAPPEN? obviously, i cant miss out on this!