Berlin!

Sorry, no pictures.. only some links!

I arrived in Berlin at 8 am. There was hardly any security kind of thing. The guy just looked at my passport and asked me what I was doing here and let me go. No customs or anything either.

Took a nice bus + subway ride from the airport to my apartment and just absorbed the surroundings as much as I could, with the help of our resident director who picked me up. Napped for about 4 hours and got settled. Apartment has huge windows, furnished with most things you could need and balcony! Views are great-in my bedroom window I can see a tennis club. From the balcony There's a small playground!

After my nap, I embarked on a mission to get toilet paper and a cell phone cause those were two things I did not have. Found that they have Yang Le Duo! (Yakult) and some interesting foods.

Also saw a Turkish protest? I'm thinking it had to do with these protests. Well even if I'm a little clueless, it was interesting to witness.


So here's a list of things I noticed about Berlin or Germany or Europe that I think is great:
   -huge windows, operable for ventilation  (think this is Germany)
   -SO MUCH green space, lots of parks and public spaces--and they're not empty either (think this is Berlin)
   -lots of bike lanes (Germany?)
   -lots of recycling. we have 5 different bags for trash, compost, paper, glass, plastic.... etc (Germany)
   -lots of food on the streets!!! Small shops. just like Taiwan
   -tons of graffiti--sometimes can be nice
   -transportation is quick. you can get a monthly pass for 77 euro and use it on buses, trains? and subway
   -subways are fairly nice too. Biggest difference was that you have to push a button to open the door

Here's an article that my roommate showed me of differences between US and Germany- was quite interesting to read.

Hey Summer

This blog is back! The first few weeks were really hectic since I went on two trips. First one was the Charlottesville to see a bunch of people graduate. And the second one was to the Outerbanks! Lots of fun. Overwhelming fun.

A quick and clean summary of OBX without people in it:

ride to OBX was rainy, but we played "Here Comes the Sun"
by the Beatles so it got better

took the Ferry to Ocracoke 

couldn't wait to touch the ocean

Hobbit feet 

our little friend

our little friends... they were delicious too

some people took lots of naps on the beach

all the bodies on the sand

off road vehicles allowed 

sunrises

Hatteras Light house

view from above

rusty metal railings at the top

stairs to lighthouse

mmm cookin burgers

a new invention

wright monument

sunrise walk without the sun

sunrise walk on the beach

Goodbye Oatmeal!

bye bye oatmeal! hello cereal!
My two good friends: Gangsta F and his homie, JD  

The Knife and the Scissors

I don't know why this is so funny to me. Marc Johns has some "serious" drawings and they always make me laugh inside.. in a weird way.

France

No, I did not go to France, but my awesome friend did. Notre Dame! :)

Mice!

So it's going to be my dad's birthday, but we decided to celebrate it a little early. Since his zodiac sign is a mouse, we made a bunch of little mice to hide around the house. We planned to make 52, since he's turning 52, but there wasn't enough time to for that! And he didn't really look for the mice anyway, but it was fun.

the mouse I gave my friend

the mouse my mom added eyes and whiskers to

we put him on top of the trap, where my dad catches real mice

mice in the pantry 

mice in teacups

mice chillin out with a monkey

more mice in cups

mice reading my dad's books

mice playing with the Wii 

A huge wrapping paper mouse checking out some files

another huge wrapping paper mouse playing
board games

Mini Golf at the Museum

Today I went mini golfing at the National Building Museum with my good archie friend! It features 12 courses designed by architecture firms around here, including Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and STUDIOS Architecture/ OLIN. Sounds like it'd be a fun charette type project/ design build type thing.

Check out the site and check out the museum if you have a chance!

SOM's, inspired by topography 

This one's inspired by Daedalus's Journey
Looove the concrete, plus the golf balls bounce on it

this one was practically impossible...