Saturday = Funday

Today was a good day off. I woke up and got some weinerbrød for breakfast, a little treat for Daniel and me after a hard week of work. We ate our "Danish", drank our coffee, and headed out to explore. The Black Diamond is pretty cool. It is monolithic and right on the canal. There were large chunks of ice in the water, and trying to sketch outside was miserable. Daniel seemed to manage it, but I went in and got some hot tea to warm up. I actually had the same vantage point from inside the Royal Library's Cafe. Although Denmark boasts sustainability, I think this building missed the boat more or less, as most of the facade is a dark stone mined in Zimbabwe, shipped to Italy to be cut and polished, and then arriving in Copenhagen to be hung on the building. That is quite a large carbon footprint. The building itself however is really comfortable, beautiful views and grand spaces. I plan on going back a few more times.

After the Black Diamond we walked over to the Danish Jewish Museum. This was mainly an architectural interest, but I think we learned a few things about the Jewish history of Denmark. We came away with mixed feeling towards the design. This was an extremely old building where none of the structure had been renovated and the interior architecture was your typical Libeskind craziness. Not a singular perpendicular wall with slits of ambient light everywhere. What pissed Daniel and I off was the over craftsmanship and the lack of local context. It seemed as if Libeskind designed these interior spaces before even seeing the building. There were certain edges and angles that should have been changed on site, but they weren't, so it looked ridiculous. I still think it was beautiful. Rectilinear wooden sheets with a half in gap in a running pattern on acute and obtuse angles. It was very interesting. The floor also shapes the space, constantly shifting ever so slightly. It was worth the $8.

Then we walked to a cheap sandwich shop that is delicious. It's call Eat Me. I had a pastrami and mozzarella sandwich with spinach tomato and pesto on it, and Daniel had a chicken and mozzarella sandwich with the same toppings. We decided to walk and eat. "It hit the spot," as Daniel said. We got to the train station, which was packed. I jumped onto a full train thinking Daniel would be right behind me. I turned to see him smiling at me as the train's door shut and we jolted toward Nordhavn. Not to worry, there was a train for him about 2 minutes later. That may be the best part of where we live - all of the lines go to from Svanemøllen to Nørreport - we can hop on any line. Anyway, we finally figured out laundry!!! we have clean clothes and warm socks again... almost time for bed.

Watercolor

A lot has happened in the last few days, mainly work. Lots and lots of work. Yesterday our first assignment was due. It was some basic analysis assigned as a group project. We then had a huge review where a faculty member critiques a group while another group that isn't being critiqued sits in on the review. It was all very complicated, but in the end we got 3 critiques and got to critique 3 times all within 3 hours. That is an efficiency UT has never had.

We both finished our projects about 11:30 the night before it was due and raced toward the train station. The train stops at running regularly at 12:00, only running once every two ours after. 

Friday we had our first watercolor class. I think it is spectacular. The teacher is an architect that used to watercolor as a hobby, but when she started teaching she really got into it. Nonetheless, she is a great instructor thus far. We did a few quick assignments - making even tones, mixing wet on wet, and some gradations. It is ultra relaxing, and it really makes you slow down and take a breath... here are just a few examples of what we did. More pictures can be found on the photo link.

Last night it snowed more, it's beautiful. Today though, we really want to go see the Black Diamond - The Royal Library - and maybe the Danish Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. It looks amazing. We also need to go to the art store to get some more watercolor supplies. Have a good one!

Holy Snow!

This is why I bought some gore-tex shoes. When we woke up it was snowing. When we left for school it was snowing. During lunch it was snowing. It was snowing when we had our Western Denmark meeting. It didn't stop snowing until 7 pm. It was crazy. I didn't even get to enjoy it. Today would have been a great day to go see the King's Gardens or any sightseeing. Instead I spent it in my make shift studio - i get my real studio for assignment 2. I did manage to snap this quick shot, which is a shortcut to my studios, bypassing all of the gen. eds...

This coming Thursday, Daniel and I embark on a three day adventure into the old country of Western Denmark. It should be quite fun, but I think we have to take a bus, which is kinda crummy. I'm all about the train now. Except for today... when it didn't come: to much snow or something. We had to wait for a line to clear the opposite direction so that they could take us to Svanmøllen, our train station. We didn't get home until 9.30 pm. We had some rice with broccoli, corn, and green bean medley... not too shabby. Thanks Mrs. Heering for the plastic baggies and Airborne, greatly needed. Daniel is starting to feel better and now I am starting to feel worse. Also, now we have somewhere to put our sandwiches, which happens to be a universal word.

Getting Busy

So i have the utmost confidence in the University of Tennessee Architecture program. I am definitely holding my weight, if not most of my group's weight when it comes to conceptual, theoretical ideas. I think UT Arch. is very underestimated, but enough ranting. We are working on a group project, which is always a bit tough with people like us. Everyone thinks they are right, or they have some kind of critique. We are critical people and have been trained to be and think this way.

This weekend if supposed to be absolutely frigid. A high of 25 degrees... I'm not sure how much exploring I can do in 25 degree weather. I will try to do something indoors, maybe go see the black diamond - the Royal Library.

Daniel got a box from his parents today. He seems happy. Chocolate makes him happy... or is it boxes... note taken.

Other news:

•  I figured how to get Netflix to work thanks to the Switzerland team, and I do mean thanks.
• The Apple tablet is coming out tomorrow which is going to be stellar technology, I'm not sure why anyone would want it, but I am all for cutting edge technology.
• I found my phone - on paper - the Purple Panties Polish man took it and ran up about $300.00 worth of charges. Thanks dude, I am now boycotting the Polish sausage I've become accustomed to in the city hall square
• DTop, how do I post a comment on your blog?

I've got to run to a DIS Ultimate Frisbee meeting.

A Brief Exploration

So we walked around our neighborhood today in hopes of finding one auditorium north of our apartment. However, due to inaccurate information from the internet and the fact that our IQ combined is about 80, we ended up not finding the building. The day was not a total loss though. We did manage to find a park with a nice frozen pond filled with seagull type birds. The ice was thick enough, or so we hoped, to walk on. (Hope you appreciate that one Mr. Matchett). Although we were still frozen, it was not due to falling through the ice. Here are a few pictures of today, and yes they have Matt in them. Next time, I am sure we will have better luck and gloves with less snot on them at the end of the trip.

Standing On a Frozen Pond - Building Bridges

Today Daniel and I went out in search of the phantom building that eluded me yesterday. We came up empty. I showed him that cool gymnasium I found yesterday and the park with all the birds. Today there were no kids, but a couple let their dog off the leash and he continued to run out on the pond and raise havoc among the peaceful birds. The ice was really thick, 4 - 5 inches, so we got a picture of each of us on it. I've never gotten to do that before. I had to go meet my studio group soon after that so we headed back.

It's really amazing how fast people can adapt to a completely new environment. I find myself not hesitating when jumping off the train in a busy station, and not watching the tiny blips disappear until my station, rather it is becoming instinctual. I just know where to go. The landmarks are becoming my landmarks. I still have no idea what people are saying to me when I buy groceries, but at least I know what I'm buying. It's a funny thing, here a plastic bag costs money, so everyone stuffs their groceries into their bags, which is why there is a grocery store on almost every corner. Another thing... people follow directions here. When the light flashes red, people actually wait for it to turn green before walking, even if there are no cars coming. There are a lot of little things of that.

Today I had to meet my studio group for the first project. It's not my actual studio, but rather a mixture of all the studios for a conglomerate of designers. There is an interior design major from Pratt Institute, an Architecture major from California Polytechnic Institute State University, and my Mentee for the semester a pre-Architecture student from Brown University. Together we have to analyze and present information on a Chapel in Turku, Finland. We are actually going to see it in March - where we have to give an oral presentation to everyone there. It should be beautiful from all the pictures I have researched. I will describe it in full when I actually visit.

Getting Lost - Happy Birthday Jaime!

Today was a day of walking the city and exploration for me. It was nice and sunny but still cold. Daniel had to go into studio so I marked a few points on my map and went exploring. One building happened to be at the end of our street. This is an apartment building called Øbro 105-107. It's a modern interpretation of buildings in Østerbro, the borough we live in. 

Architect: C. F. Møller

Project Website

Underneath this building is a Netto, which is a small discount grocery we go to sometimes. There is also a Fakte we go to right on the corner of our building. Since we live in a residential area there are a lot of apartments and food stores beneath them.

Then I set off for my next destination which I never arrived. I got turned around and lost, found a Førtex, or an equivalent to our Super Target I guess, and found a really cool gymnasium on some elementary school campus next to a beautiful park that was frozen over. There was a father and two kids feeding the ducks and some other white birds. The kids were having a blast and were really sad to leave say,"Farvel,Farvel" to the birds. I walked around the park a few times, passing strolling lovers and dog walkers. No one looks you in the eye here, they just simply avoid walking into you.

Finally, I just want to wish Jaime a happy birthday. These last ten years have been extraordinary with you, and I wouldn't change a moment of them. I miss you more than anything and always thinking of you.

Sun! They do have a Sun!

Today was the first day of school officially. it was dark and cold this morning on the way to school. We walk about a mile to the train station and then ride 3 stops to Nørreport Station. It's a quick ride and we usually don't even sit down in a seat. I like the train because you get to see so much. We are close to the port, so we get to see the Baltic Sea and the dozens of windmills out there. Lots of really interesting architecture. I'm excited about this weekend. We are going off to explore the city all day, taking pictures and sketching the places we couldn't during the scavenger hunt.

Today, our first class was Sustainable by Design. It's taught by a young architect named Christian. He took us to the København (Copenhagen) Business School building. It was spectacular. I didn't get to spend much time on the outside of it as I wanted to, so I plan on going back, but the most amazing thing happened while we were heading there. The sun came out! It wasn't like it had been out for hours and we all of a sudden realized what happened. The second the light sprang through the clouds we all looked up in bewilderment. The city seemed to spring to life. Venders were selling Pølser (sausage dogs) and pralines, a violinist played in the square, and people were everywhere.

Here are a few photos of what I did get while at the sustainable building we went to. They are a little dark, sorry.

What: Copenhagen Business School "The Wedge"

Architects: Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter

Link: Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter

See... in the distance... the sun!

Let There Be Light

So the sun finally came out for a few minutes today, and it was amazing. It was the first time we have seen it since we have been in Copenhagen. Classes also started today, and they seem pretty reasonable. Visual Journal seems pretty interesting thus far. we get to go to the Diskotek tomorrow to meet our Danish "buddy" and then saturday night he invited us to go out for dinner and then possibly out afterwards. Matt seems pretty gitty about meeting him.

We 're also planning on exploring some more this weekend, as long as this sickness I have is willing. We re figuring out more and more and meeting more and more people. We have studio tomorrow, so I guess we'll meet the people we'll be around the rest of the semester.

Last Day of Orientation

Today was the last day of orientation, and we are thankful. Not to say we didn't have fun, but I was outside for 3 hours today hunting down checkpoints on a scavenger hunt while it was pouring down snow. It was freezing. I saw a lot of cool things and made notes for Dan and I to go back and check them out this weekend. I took some pictures of what it's like to wake up over here. Today was really dark because of the snow coming in.

This is looking out of our hallway across to the other wing of our apartments.

This is looking down the axis of the apartment complex into a small courtyard inaccessible to us.

This is a small bakery on the corner of our street. They always have fresh Weinerbrød (Danish) and other breads. This morning I was about 45 minutes early to the scavenger hunt meeting post so I went into a local bakery and got a Chokocroissant (a croissant with a small piece of dark chocolate stuffed inside.) It was delicious.

On the scavenger hunt we saw where the Queen lives, only the second Queen in almost 1000 years of ruling, and still a member of the original ruling family of Denmark. I saw the changing of the guards, Nyhavn, the Parliament, and many other interesting sites. Daniel and I plan on going out and actually documenting all of this with photos and sketches this weekend on our own time so we can spend as little or much time as we would like in the places.

Post # 2

Sorry I do not keep up with this as well as Matt. After my first post, I found out that I am supposed to title these things in oder to prevent confusion. It is day ?ish for us. Orientation is still in the works for us, but informative nonetheless. It snowed last night and contiinues to be overcast in the daytime. Feels like a Tim Burton film almost with all the dirty snow and overcast skies. We did manage to get some of the essentials done today such as getting our books. Grocery shopping was another experince. However, if Matt does not keep buying 100 kroner lap dances from the Scandinavian amazons, his stipend will go quickly.

Moving on Up

About five in the morning while staying our first night in the hostel I awake on the top bunk to see some European guy bending over, butt in Daniel' vicinity, wearing nothing but some purple panties. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Who checks out of a hostel at 5 am? I just hope Daniel doesn't get pink eye. 

I couldn't get back to sleep, and I don't think Daniel slept either. We checked out of the hostel about 9:30 and walked a mile in the chill with all of our luggage to the DIS arrival. It was packed, but there was free food and water. I made a small stockpile for later. Saving everywhere I can. 

We checked in and got our food stipend, somehow missed a whole satchel full of important documents and information regarding our orientation and got on a bus heading toward our shared housing. Everyone is very nice and evidently very excited. We unpacked our stuff, surveying our 300-400 sqft. apartment. If Daniel gets on my nerves I can almost hit him from anywhere in the room without getting up. It's easy to keep warm though. 

They gave us brand new towels, sheets, and a down comforter with an absolutely terrible duvet cover. It feels like sandpaper. We decided to just leave that off. It was a Moroccan theme anyway. Didn't work. After we unpacked we took a nap, the cold just does that to you evidently, plus we are still adjusting. 

DIS took everyone living at Tåsingegade out to dinner, Salim, a Thai restaurant. It was pretty delicious. I haven't had white starchy rice in a long time. After that we walked to a bar and watched the very excited students begin to toss their food stipend away. Dan and I went back early, but not before I had a nice talk with Ruben, one of the DIS staff who lives right next door to us. He is a technical Architect/ Student. 

This morning Daniel and I were split up into different groups. I went to the opening ceremony and then helped some girl find the DIS building, both buildings were built before the Declaration of Independence. Pretty cool. The fresh snow makes everything very pure and beautiful. I will try to post some pictures soon of that. 

I have Intense Danish Immersion Lesson in about an hour which will finish up my day. 

Honorable Mention in Volkswagen Bridge Design Competition

Early this last semester Walter and I dove into a student design competition we had no idea about. It turned out to be a very fun experience, being able to incorporate new design techniques and technologies that we were learning simultaneously as the design program unfolded. We were to design a 700 ft pedestrian bridge connecting visitors and workers to VW's billion dollar new car factory in Chattanooga, TN. The whole semester we talked about it and it came down to about 72 long hours in the computer lab at school. We did stop for a break to watch the SEC Championship game (I love to see Tebo cry). The results? 

A bond stronger than glue with Walter and Honorable Mention worth $500.


Here is the link about the winner... Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Here are some renderings from our boards. Cheers Walter.

It's Cold Outside - Day 1

So Daniel and I made it. He slept most of the flight away and watched Funny People while I slept off and on and read. The flight was not bad at all. The meals were quite nice actually. Dinner was a sizable piece of rosemary chicken, a salad, two pieces of bread, a slice of monterrey jack cheese, and tira misu.

Breakfast was half of a ham and swiss sandwich and strawberry yogurt (which I actually ate Jaime). Overall SAS was really nice. We sat in the very last row of the plane, so it was pretty loud. When we got off the plane we were both exhausted. We sat in Starbucks for about an hour trying to let our minds catch up to the rest of us while we sipped our $4.00 cup of coffee.

Eventually we got the nerve to head toward our Hostel we had made reservations for, DanHostel. We bought a ticket for the Metro and preceded to the station. Had it not been for a very nice Dane that helped us we would have taken the Metro to the end of the line. It's a little bit different than our trains. When you hop on a woman/man comes around to check your ticket. If you don't have one or have the wrong one you get a fat fine. When we got off the train we located our hostel on the map and started walking. It was probably half a mile or so, but we had all of our luggage, so it felt like 3.

Once we arrived at the Hostel they wouldn't let us check in until 2:00 pm. We had to wait 4 hours, so we went to a small grocery and I got an apple juice and Dan got what appeared to be European Sunny Delight. Then we walked back to the hostel because it was so cold and the time difference was starting to hit us pretty hard. We ended up sleeping in the cafe and lounge for a while before they let us in a little early. It was alright, a full room - 8 people - but most of them were DIS students as well. Daniel and I took a nap until we got up for dinner.

We walked around looking for places to eat on the cheap. We settled on some place that looked warm. It was... and expensive. Daniel and I each had one beer and a chicken ceaser salad. It was tasty, and it was also $61.30. We sat there trying to justify it by saying, " wow, the chicken is cooked perfectly," and," they do know how to make good beer, how's yours?" All we could do is shake our heads.

We went back to the Hostel and stopped in a 7/11 so I could get some emergency sugar just in case the salad wasn't enough. I got a small Snickers for just over 2 bucks. We hustled back and played some scrabble slam and went to bed.

Well, I am finally signed up with the whole blog thing, and figured that I would make a post while we sit at Dulles for 3 more hours. Thus far, the trip has been a waiting game with anxiety and excitement setting in. Only one more 8 hour flight left before we start our semester in Copenhagen.

Greyhounds, Nashville, and Peaches

 

So, the trip has officially begun. I started from Knoxville, on my first Greyhound Bus. I have to say it was a pretty sad little place but completely stereotyped. Everyone was extremely nice and amiable, apart from the rather large fellow who kept falling asleep and smashing my shoulder against the window. Other than that and stopping at every city between Knoxville and Nashville, it's a completely safe way of traveling.

After I got in, Kristina was waiting for me with a cup of coffee to take me to Daniel's house. It was about 40 minutes of backtracking the way I had just come. Here is Daniel and his infamous kitty, Peaches.

Now we sit and await our flight with our backs to plane, Daniel looking through his new Architecture Book. We hope to hear from everyone soon!

Getting All Packed Up

Well, only three days are left until Daniel and I leave for Copenhagen... starting to get excited. I've set everything up so Daniel can also post here so everyone can follow us throughout this spring semester as we explore Europe together. It should be an incredible journey. I hope to post quite often, anything from pictures of what we are looking at or doing to drawings or paintings we have done.

I'll go ahead and post our departure itinerary so people can come here to look:

Jan. 15 - 8:58 am cst: depart Nashville

11:42 am est: arrive Washington DC

5:20 pm est: depart Washington DC

Jan. 16 - 7:15 am cet: arrive Copenhagen

stay tuned for more updates...