11.09.2010

Hola amigos! I am again in Spain, this time in Barcelona! I flew in early yesterday morning and have enjoyed exploring the city with my studio the past two days. Catalonian architecture is so beautiful! And I absolutely love Antonio Gaudi - tomorrow we are taking a tour of his most famous buildings!

Since writing last, I also traveled to Northern Island to meet up with my sister Abby and friend Carissa Christensen. We were hosted by an Irish family that we knew of through a good friend from our church in Cedar Rapids. The Harper family was extremely hospitable towards us! Their son Johnny was my age and he drove us to the north shore to see the beautiful coastline. We even had a Guiness in an authentic Irish Pub.. but I didn't like mine much. They tell me that beer is an acquired taste - one that I may never acquire if I keep up the pace I'm going now!

My entire class also took a four day road-trip through southern France. I called it a "Le Corbusier tour" because we slept two nights in the famous La Tourette monastery, traveled to Firminy to see five of his buildings, and saw the church at Ronchomp. We also visited Ledoux's Royal Salt-Works in Arc-et-Senan and stayed in a really quaint bed-and-breakfast. The mountains of southern France are absolutely gorgeous in the fall. And the little towns that dot the landscape make you think you're watching a medieval movie through your car window!

Through all of these travels and my urban exploration class in Paris, I have successfully learned the art of wandering. Exploring buildings has never been so much fun! At times I feel like an under-cover spy, decoding the organization of a building as I casually maneuver through spaces as if I’ve done it a million times before. Today for example I walked into a Spanish university as if I were a student - right past the smiling security guard. It was well-worth it! Check out the way the light streams through those louvers and parallels the staircase in the atrium! I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to travel Europe and learn so much about architecture in such a short amount of time.

À bientôt!

10.09.2010

Tonight I write to you from Madrid, Spain! I arrived here yesterday and met my friend and sorority sister Elizabeth at the airport. She is studying in Oviedo, Spain and we are here to see the capital, as well as the family of a good friend from IIT, Luis Miñambres. The Miñambres family has been so hospitable to us so far! We have shared dinner, breakfast, and tonight Luis´ mom, Reyes, is treating us to a Flamenca dance performance. I´m so excited! Today we saw a couple of museums, inluding the brand new Caxiaforum featuring Patrick Blanc´s living wall system. It was SO COOL!!

The past two weeks have flown! I finished a 10 page paper this week on an architect very famous in France named Le Corbusier. I´ve really enjoyed visiting his buildings in combination with research. Perhaps the Austrian architect Adolf Loos was right when he said that buildings should never be photographed, only explored in person. Coming to Europe has given me a lot more motivation to be an architect. Last weekend I even purchased my first architecture book that I was not required to buy! It is about nature in architecture and features a bunch of modern buildings that look AWESOME. Hopefully I´ll be able to visit some of them in my lifetime.

My studio project is progressing nicely but I have a lot of work to do before my midterm presentation on Wednesday. In the midst of studio stress, I confess that I´ve begun to use cooking like a drug. I enjoy it so much! I hope to forever use wine when I cook, especially for meats. I tried my own Chicken Cordon Bleu soaked in red wine the other night. I didn´t have any toothpicks though, so I scrubbed my hairpins well and used them to pin together the chicken breasts. The uncooked presentation was so funny-looking! But it was so worth it because the meat tasted wonderful. :)

In light of my travels and architectural escapades the past two weeks, God has been chipping away at some of my weaknesses by teaching me three important traveling tips:

1) Stay flexible
2) Make decisions quickly
3) Stay alert

As an oblivious, often indecisive planner, these lessons are much needed. Praise God for giving me four months to work on these areas!

God also has been faithful to teach me as I´ve accepted his invitation to love my Parisian neighbors. I began baby-sitting at the Foyer de Grenelle this week - the homeless shelter I mentioned in my last post. I´m so thankful for this opportunity! Surely God uses young children to teach his children the most simple of lessons. I began to read a toddler a French story but he lost interest after about five minutes. I wanted to keep reading because I was learning more French vocabulary, but I put down the book and followed the little boy to the next toy, suddenly aware of my independence as a young woman. Though I deeply desire to be a mother one day, God used this child to give me such a wonderful lesson in contentment. I´m so thankful for this season of freedom and growth! And for my Heavenly Father who reminds me daily of my blessings.

À bientôt!

09.24.2010

Hello dearest friends and family!

I've started this blog so that I can keep up with the stream of e-mails and messages I've been receiving from you all. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful support network in both Cedar Rapids and Chicago! However, it has been difficult to send people individual updates about my travels, so I hope that this blog helps. :) I will attempt to post something here every other week to keep you updated.

I've been in Europe almost 5 weeks already! It has gone by incredibly fast because I've enjoyed it so much. I climbed up 700+ steps (and rode an elevator) to the top of the Eiffel tower, wandered through the enormous collection of artwork at the Louvre, explored the beautiful churches of Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame, and navigated the hidden "passages" that cut in and out of the Parisian boulevards. My class spent a week in The Netherlands and I got to explore the cities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Almere, Rotterdam, Delft, and a national park near Arnhem. We stayed in houseboats, rode a ferry through the canals of Amsterdam, and saw SO many cool buildings!! I also got to spend a lot of time with my wonderful sister, Abby, because she is working in Amsterdam right now for Shelter City (a Christian youth hostel).

Though I've missed my New Covenant and InterVarsity families the past few weeks, I've started getting involved in a church here called The American Church in Paris. They have a young adult group that hosts pizza parties every other Tuesday and a multi-generational study called "The Gospel in Life" on Thursdays. I've enjoyed branching out of my "IIT clique" to meet people at the church from all over the world. Though this church, I also found out about a homeless shelter in the 15th district of Paris. I'm reeeeally excited to begin volunteering there in October! I'll be baby-sitting infants and toddlers while their mothers take French classes from the shelter.

Overall, I've really enjoyed my classes here. My studio problem is to design a "living collective," which can be translated for you non-architecture types as some type of an apartment building. I'm working on developing a program that serves poor families and helps them attain a permanent residence in conjunction with starting a small business. If you have seen anything like this before, please let me know! I'm still very much in the brain-storming stage of the project.

The last thing worth mentioning is that I have not found peanut butter in Paris! PB = a staple in my diet. Thankfully, my parents sent me 2 big jars through my sister and I've been thoroughly enjoying them this week. Thank you mom and dad!!

A bientôt!