Friday, December 31, 2004

1 am, six days after christmas

so basically you can't say much about anything in life sucking when over 80,000 people from your own country and 117,000 total people have been killed all in one day. whoever actually reads this and would like to help out, donate something to red cross/red crescent.

as for my own year of end news...i'm working. yeah, if you have a hot new years date AND want to take her out to eat speckled trout and hush puppies, stop by hydens conroe to see me. i'm sure while working i'll be reflecting on this whole 2004 thing. it has been quite a year, despite my anti-climactic plans. wow, what a year. wow.

well goodnight.

Friday, December 24, 2004

thank you baby jesus

so my apartment might work out after all. i got to go to zoe's birthday at the last second AND watch napoleon dynamite. i got a $60 tip yesterday and even though i have to work tonight, on christmas eve, i'm sure i'll get plenty more nice tips.

christmas miracles DO happen. i should go wrap gifts.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

(clears throat)

did i ever tell you i wanted to move the world? i think you saw that before i even knew it, but i want to remind you i've still got traces of that passion and seeing you reminds me to be that passionate. i think i'll move the world.

care to join me?


Monday, December 20, 2004

there's no place like home for the holidays

by now the words ciao and si have completely left my vocabulary and i found myself yesterday dropping a mornin' to an old guy walking down the steet. i'm sure if i replaced it with buon giorno, i'd get a perplexed smile back and he'd walk a little faster.

driving back into austin made me realize how much i do enjoy being from texas, with the fields and cows and other classic symbols of americana. seeing friends though, made me realize that whole thing about home = friends and family to be quite true. but now i'm at my conroe family home and i have to say it's nice to come back during christmas. even returning to hyden's isn't so bad seeing as they're piping in sleigh ride over the speakers 24/7. actually i am tired of that already, but at least the food is even better than i remember.

ps. i had no hand in the christmas lights this year so please forgive the animatronic flying reindeer.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

eternal sunset and marc the american









and here i am in conroe, texas. home of kuntry katfish, the fighting conroe tigers, and me marc.

in a way, it seems like i never left. yes the nephews are definitely bigger and a few more forests are cleared, but it still seems as if this grand european trip was all an illusion and that for the past three and a half months i've still been living at home watching bad vh1 programming. i'm sure once i see all the santa chiara kids back in austin it'll all make sense to me but for now i'm running errands at kroger and eating leftovers from last night. though every once in a while i'm caught off guard and a flashback rushes in and leaves me in a dead stare. did i pass time in rome by sitting in front of the pantheon? did i swim naked in the mediterranean? did i ride bikes across austria, hike up the swiss alps, AND go ice skating in denmark? was i not just living in a medieval tuscan town?

so hear's the deal. i'm sure all of this changed me in some way but i'm not sure how yet. it's good to be home, for christmas time is upon us and i aim to have the best dang christmas lights in town. buongiorno america.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

letter from europe

well this is it. i won't be back at 10 baron's place until late tomorrow night central standard time but a few hours from now i'll have started that long trek back home.

it's really hard to sum up everything i should say so i'll just say very little. um, thank you england, italy, austria, switzerland, and denmark (and a little bit of sweden this evening) for keeping me. cheers. gratzie. danke. tak. thanks, it's been great.

bye.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

hugli

i think it's spelled wrong and that's actually the adjective form of the word but in general hugli is danish for a sense of comfortableness. according to nicole, there's really no exact translation into english but i think i get that sense.

it's been wonderful. less than 24 hours after lounging outside the coloseum on Saturday night, i was riding rollercoasters and hans-christian-anderson-meets-it's-a small-world through a 19th century amusement park decked out for christmas. since then, we've toured the canals, visited hippy villages, had our fair share of varme cocoa, introduced me to ice skating, and dined on tuscan wine and danish goat cheese while watching eternal sunshine. i could talk in depth forever about all that but that'd take forever.

more than anything, it's just nice to hang out with a friend from a back home and meet new ones from around the world all at the same time. this was the perfect way to wrap up my european vacation. i love københavn.

Friday, December 03, 2004

ciao also means goodbye.


i'm not sure when's the last time i've cried but i don't think it's every been from happiness.

today was so beautiful seeing how the fog has finally lifted from castiglion fiorentino and all the trees along the hills had turned orange and yellow and all colors autumn. glad to see we got to see that right before leaving. as usual these days though, i spent the entire day indoors running between art history papers and room check outs.

after dinner though it hit me that i'm not gonna see these people in Italy again. sure, we'll all be back in austin but it'll be different. we can hang out and see each other but it could never be the same. our last hours hanging out in the hallway were the perfect way to go out. seeing the group board the bus, i actually cried and damnit that feels good.

a few of us are left here now but we'll slowly be parting ways tomorrow and i'll be in rome by myself 24 hours from now. i guess i figured my last writing from Italy would involve more talking about the italian food and beautiful landscape and the unique experience but that all would have been nothing without those kids from santa chiara.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

portrait of an architect as a young man

this has been quite a week. honestly, i don't think i've ever been this productive back in the states. i guess it's sad that we've had too spend the majority of our last days in Italy writing papers and doing drawings late into the night, but tomorrow is basically free.

summarizing, the review went well. maybe the reveiws weren't as helpful as they could have but we ended up having some good ol fashioned architecture discussions as a class. looking back on this studio, i think i've learned a lot so hopefully that transfers over. even greater, out exhibit was a success. architecture and photography and wine and cheese!

okay, why am i writing this? i'll go spend our last real night here with a bunch of people whom i've grown to love.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

The Great Italian Adventure

Wow, how can i describe today.

I was awakened by the Tuscan sun coming in across the valley. I ran down to the train station for my day trip to Florence, but on the way I stopped at a bar for cappuccino and met Olivia, a beautiful Italian girl working there who happened to be studying english at the time. Needless to say we tried as we could, me in broken Italian and her in better English, to exchange stories of our families, and school, and traveling and ended up talking for about three hours. Realizing that I hadn't yet been to a vineyard, she actually asked me to visit her aunt and uncle outside of town for lunch and grape picking.

So we hopped on her Vespa and drove down the hill and through the valley past little farms, her hair and light blue scarf blowing in the wind across my face. Her uncle Giotto questioned me at first but eventually we talked politics over a glass of wine and her aunt Mariana served up a pesto pasta and thick garlic bread. By the end of the meal, Olivia and I slightly tipsy on the Chianti picked grapes, tossing more at each other than actually putting in the baskets.

After falling asleep underneath the vines, we awoke to a slight chill and a dimming sky. She tried to explain that she had to get back to work but i convinced her to take the last train to Florence with me. Again on the train, we talked about music and art and life and love and before we knew it we were in Florence amidst the city lights and roving street musicians. Strolling across town, we came across the Ponteveccio just as all the gold shops were closing down. She told how her her uncle had proposed to her aunt on the bridge almost 50 years ago and that she'd always made a wish when visiting it, hoping to be so fortunate. Right then, I left her there, found a simple gold ring for all the euro I had in my pocket and returned to her on my knee asking for marriage before she could say anything. She said si and so here I am, in love and making plans to spend the rest of my life here in Tuscany picking grapes and selling artwork out of Olivia's bar.

And actually, none of this happened seeing as I don't even drink coffee and my Italian is molto piccolo. I did however spend most of the day at studio working inside, while the fog outside never actually lifted from this morning. This is my last Sunday in Italy. Alora.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

raise your hand if you're gonna sleep in the london airport!

after chatting with smilja milovanovic-bertram, i've come to the conclusion that my project sucks. not completely but enough to make me a frustrated little architecture student, especially with only a few days left to work. i just wish there was more time.

on a lighter note, i'm going to copenhagen for a week of fun in the sun. well it will be cold, but nicole and i can hang out and do weird danish stuff. like eat danishes? after that, it's gonna be a mad rush back to london so i can get out of this crazy continent.

i'm thoroughly entertained in the meanwhile.

Friday, November 19, 2004

(insert thought here)



all my energy is pretty much devoted to studio now and making a huge housing complex work with the above market. seeing as our final review is just a week and a half away, i'm gonna be turning out models and drawings like a mad man. no time for traveling. no time for partying. no time for wondering.

man, i love water colors. who would have known that my fourth grade landscape painting entitled "Indian Village" was just the beginning?

maybe there is time.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

and one more thing

"if you're ever in paris give me a call." what the hell is that supposed to mean?

have you got nothing to say?

how wonderful is it when certain people come along and remind you of how stupid you have been?

maybe if i was a different person things would happen slightly differently and i'd be writing something completely different but things are what they are and i'll take all i can from that. and of course, maybe this just goes to show again how stupid i can be. but in this case being stupid doesn't seem so bad.

so here we are. sunday morning in a small tuscan town, full of saltless bread, working on studio projects. i should write my project proposal for art history. maybe get some laundry done. i'll see you around.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

well fine

we made a little day trip to rome yesterday that really isn't that blog worthy. saw old stuff, got lost on the outer edges of the city, hung out at the train station. no i haven't become jaded with seeing all of this. i can just honestly say it isn't blog worthy.

oh and we went up to volterra wednesday which as far as i remember had fog and rain and a museum. i really believe that the rain was coming straight out of the fog at some points and 10 feet above me and there were beautiful blue skies.

we went out to regiro's, the local pub, again last night. have you ever noticed that whenever i do go out people try and get me to do things and then other people get disappointed in me for even thinking of doing such things. i didn't realize i had such rag doll qualities.

and by the way, i ran in right at the last second for christine's birthday, served the cake, which ended up containing alcohol, which is great to serve to a mormon. we managed to get her to eat some anyway and in the end i think it made everybody sick.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

well damn

well damn, you show up one minute late for dinner and somehow every seat is taken. especially the one right next to your friend who's birthday you're celebrating and who you got a cake for which you plan on surprising her with at the end of dinner. so here i am, back down in the basement as i hear everyone having dinner fun. i think there was some seat open in the back but i'm not up for forcing conversation with people from calpoly that i don't know. it's like the peet junior high lunch tables all over again.

so here i am back down in the basement where i spend a lot of my time lately. i don't actually get that much work done and when i do spend 3 days writing a renaissance art paper i get a C on it. on the other hand, i feel i'm doing great in studio and photography. i may need to pick up the pace this week so as to not get swamped later on, but still i'm doing fine.

the so many little things i want to do hear before i leave and regret not doing them. go to a soccer game, make an italian friend, buy something that'll always remind me of italy, find love, blah, blah.

i hear more noise coming out of the dining hall so maybe food's over and i can run in for dessert.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Southern Italy


well it rained. especially on our day off which could have included hiking, sailing, swimming, and other sun related sicilian activities. but who can complain when that same storm brings on the most beautiful thunder clouds ever to cross the mediterranean and the resulting crashing waves against the coast that spray salt water at you up at street level? in the end the tip of the italian boot showed through the clouds and i found myself in a tropical paradise.

between the sun and rain there were plenty of greek temples, amphitheatres, various relics, and of course tense politcal debate. hell i didn't vote for either one so i see what everybody is feeling from both sides. a lot of america is quite upset but that's democracy folks. there was no scandal and everybody was represented so america chose who america wanted. democrats should just try finding a better candidate and quit contradicting themselves and republicans should keep in mind that even though they control pretty much the entire federal government, nearly half of the people didn't vote for them. and for one more revelation, we all have lives outside of our politics so put on your poncho and go play in the rain.

by the way, watching the election unfurl on italian television complete with 20 commentators and bush and kerry punching bags all on one stage beats dan rather any day.

Saturday, October 30, 2004

we's a cookin up a party fa you

i'm busy with work that i care little about. manifestos and midterms. i'm ready for this final project but i'm worried we won't have enough time to create the next great building in our lives as architecture students. imagine the next great housing complex/market place for castiglion fiorentino, toscana and send your entries to me at room 33. many will play, one will win.

so tomorrow is halloween and i'm dressing as my photography professor but i lack glasses, white hair, a black vest, and a brightly colored ralph lauren tshirt. but good lord i have the beard. this thing is creepy long and coffee house approved.

and monday morning we leave for sicilia on the last great italian vacation. has anybody heard of this election coming up? tensions have been relatively tame here at campus but i imagine the results will show everybody's true colors. what's my true colors you ask? did you even ask? i feel pretty passionately about stuff but i try not make a big deal about it around others for some reason. let's just settle on the fact that i probably disagree with you either way.

that's all you get.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Deep into Fall



Today felt like autumn. More importantly it felt like autumn in the states and everybody seemed a little homesick because of it. It was cool though how the field trips kinda sucked (considering that we just went to see more churches and museums) but we spent most of the time just chatting and taking pictures of each other in the leaves.

On a related note, they all seem to long for someone back at home. That or they've all had someone visit them recently here or will have someone visit. I'm feeling kinda solo on this whole life thing right now and I'm strangely ok with it. Being content with yourself could be the greatest thing in the world. Be content along with someone else might be nice too. How melancholy.

Oh boy, I registered and got all the classes I needed plus I added tennis right at the last second. The past few days have included a bit of long term school planning which I've never been a fan of cause it makes me have to think of the future.Throw in the fact that many friends are already graduating/getting married/doing grad school and here I am content with whatever it is I'm doing right now. How pensive.

Gretchen is a smart girl.

Friday, October 22, 2004

swiss yearbook


What more can I say about the frustrations and resulting fun of traveling? Basically it gives you headaches and takes all your money, but when else do you get to bike across Salzburg at night to buy train tickets? When else does going to the grocery store involve trekking through tiny Swiss farming villages? You can only plan so much until the unplanned events become more memorable.

I want to tell the whole story but instead I’ll just give words and phrases that make sense to only Gretchen and me. It’s like when groups of friends buy ads in the back of the yearbook for all their inside jokes!

leaving on a jet plane…gimmewald or grindelwald?…ugly swiss money…smoking baby trains…friendly swiss transportation workers…the bus to stechelberg that we never took…japanese luggage…“10” minutes through murren….gimmewald or grindelwald part 2…waking up in the mountains…goats, chickens, cows, and tiny horses…bunless burgers…SCHILTHORN…gretchen’s fist snowball fight being at 3000 meters…mountain beard...let’s stop for pictures…fondue and lager bier hell…watching the cheaper, earlier train leave from your later, more expensive train window…running through the Milan train station…running through the Florence train station…creepy eurostar man!

Stay sweet. Never change. Have a great summer!
Marc
203-4148

Monday, October 18, 2004

Gutenblog

Well I´ve made it through Venice with som sort of (deadly) headcold. Being well would have helped the experience but I got enough architectural inspiration to make me want to get back to work soon.

No time for that though seeing as I´m in Austria. Yeah, after hoppinng a overnight train wth Gretchen and a few drunk kids from St. Louis, we´re now surrounded by Germans. Or at least they all speak German. It´s fun to slip into Italian though and get strange stares.

We watched the sound of music last night with everybody at the hostel. They´re watching pimp my ride now. Today we rode bikes to the outskirts of the Salzburg, then rode bikes through the old inner city, and basically spent the whole day on bikes. How very grand.

Tomorrow we leave for Switzerland to go find some snow. Why am I headed to the Alps with a deadly cough? Ricola.

Monday, October 11, 2004

It's waterweek on the Discovery Channel.



Quiet days have come again to Santa Chiara. Or at least quiet day of no a&m or cal poly folk to cover up the sound of a beautiful rainstorm and an even more beautiful rainbow. Rainbows don't actually make sounds but good riddance anyway.

By the way, I leave for Venice tomorrow morning until Saturday. Then miss Gretchen and I head off to Austria and Switzerland for a couple days each of eating chocolates, and cheeses, and clocks. And this girl hasn't seen snow so this should be good. I guess I won't say too much about this grand trip now cause I'll have plenty to say l when I get back.

Bring on the precipitation!

Saturday, October 09, 2004

life is life



I had to go to Florence this morning to pick up my camera. It's good to remember what you're actually doing everytime you get to run down that hill to that train station, but it's hard to forget that trek back up the hill at the end of the day. Plus it makes you realize why Italians think it's silly to go jogging.

So the camera repair was 120 euro. Damn. I don't want to ask for help on this one from dad cause for some reason mom just deposited a few hundred onto my account last week for no apparent reason. You can talk big of financial independence for only so long.

By the way, running through Florence back to the train station brought a fresh face to the city.







Oh and I finally got everything up on my photopage. Check out the link here. I think you just have to sign up with an email address, which is no problem. Come on. Or just look at the picture above if you have ADD and more than one picture is just too much.

Friday, October 08, 2004

entry 1

there was a full moon last night. not literally, but you could sense it, in the way you can sense it's a rainy day before you see a cloud in the sky. what does that mean?

i guess i should have expected santa chiara to be much like the school of architecture back at ut. a limited amount of people spending way too much time together, eventually giving rise to love, hate, and late night trouble making. but i'm enjoying the hell out of it. you have no other choice but to become good friends, fall in love, and then hate each other only to start the cycle again next week.

it's a cycle that's been going on for more than a month now and sadly won't go on for many more months. our little oasis of time will reach the half way point soon and then we're back to our normal lives. but who says you have to count the days and furthermore, why go back? again, i'm not talking literally. life is a metaphor for life.

Monday, October 04, 2004

Northern Italy



After hiking up every Tuscan hillside ever to star in a film, it was nice to see Italy has a 21st century prescence. On a related note, I see how money effects people's moral compass when faced between bangladese child labor and fun pin striped pants! It'd be easier to say Ihad no problem with it but I did, and that's the problem.

I guess people (and by people I mean me) can really repress how they feel when it just makes things easier. Apparently long downhill climbs* and sitting on the edge of hillside lakes help you express those feelings though, so spend a hundred euro then run to the mountain air and your karma is set. All observations aside, I love Milan and Lake Como.

*Is going downhill really climbing? And wasn't I just complaining about going up and down hills?

Sunday, September 26, 2004

alcohol

i guess i understand the appeal of it now. drink the equivalent of a bucket of beer and magically all your spanish language skills come to the surface, which is surprisingly useful in pirate themed italian pubs. hey, want to hear my romantic history? buy me a shot before i can say no. want to see me repeatedly ask someone to marry me? keep filling my tumbler with wine.

despite all this, somehow the beer goggles make you see things more clearly. move on. let go. jump in. everyone discovers a little bit about themselves and each other at the bottom of a bottle. so maybe it's not all bad. cheers to good fortune, good friends, and all things bueno.

Saturday, September 25, 2004

tuscan rain storm

Enter Arezzo, where I'm just one step closer to where I've been before and thousands of miles from where I usually am. Each train trip is alike save for the change in seasons, which always change back. Enter fall and homecoming games and everything you're used as they come storming back. Wait, you're in Italy. Enjoy the rain.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

shiny side up

I'd like to begin by say my head is stuck at a 75 degree rightward angle right now. That's what Tuscan bus trips and sleeping on tiny Iranain girl's shoulder's will do to you.

Handwashing my clothes makes me realize that my underwear is the most colorful part of my wardrobe.

I've learned more about the female anatomy than necessary in Italy.

I still don't know what "getting ponied" entails but sign me up.

The end.




Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Tuesday.

It's pajama day. So do I play the game or hold out? For 21 years more years. I guess Italy just brings out the best in you, as if olive oil makes you confident and social. Maybe that's the wine. So here's to drinking more and to playing games and avoiding drinking games, for tomorrow is Wednesday.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

all roads lead from rome.

Roma is quite a town. I could have just stood in the middle of that huge intersection and watched cars flying past me all day. Especially when you look all around and close to a thousand people you don´t know on their way to somewhere.

I didn´t know where i was going half the time and that´s when I understood this whole italy excursion. You can go on the planned field trips and listen to your art history professor talk forever but there´s no point to it all if you don´t run off on your own (or a least with leyla and andrew.) on that note, late night jazz music in front of the pantheon is a great new memory. dinner with smilja and her son milos right up there too.

pompeii was great. pompeii brothels are great. the other dead volcano place was even greater. rinsing oneself of basalt sand in a cutain less shower is difficult. and will hale ever figure out how to use a bidet?

We covered much ground on the way home. And despite what my Dave Mathews impression might say, I´m burned out on pizza.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

lost in traduzione

what do you do when you're alone in the one of the biggest, most ancient cities on earth?

Sunday, September 12, 2004

where were we?

as classes have now come into full swing you'd think all the crazy travel stories would be ending, but no. let's just summarize by saying the beach was beautiful, camping with russians is fun, and slightly tipsy mass skinning dipping in the mediterranian is unforgettable.

that's all you get there. the real story is getting home. formt he beach a few of us leave later to catch a bus into town to get in the main bus by 530. if someone reads the bus schedule wrong, you have to call a taxi. if a taxi doesn't get there til 515 and the trip from town before had taken 30 minutes, the taxi should drive fast. so there we are-sandy, sunburned and weaving between fiats through the countryside all the while trying to caluculate kilometers per hour to miles per hour to estimate it around 90 mph.

we pull up just in time to see the rest of our gang jumping on the bus. ticketless and tired we take an hour and a half ride through beautiful valleys with a bunch of people from massachussets.

enter sienna. we came in to sienna by bus so you'd think it´d work the other way too. we were wrong again. ticketless again we jump on the train station bus only to find none of the trains we need (imagine italian train station guy basically yelling "impossible" when we suggest how to get back home.) so begins the grand detour.

one tasty can of orange fanta and an hour long train to chiuze later, we are on a deserted platform waiting for the munich overnight train which happens to be on the way to arezzo which just happens to be somewhat close to home. did i mention the train was full of sleeping germans? so the 8 of us quietly sit in the hallway so as not to disturb the sleeping germans while trying not to fall asleep ourselves and wake up north of the alps.

ah arezzo. our provincial mother that sits only 16 kilometers from castiglion fiorentino. but no bus. no train. so as they search for taxis i calculate the walk home to 10 miles (i'm getting good at this). our only sign of hope was a sign that simply said taxi. standing nde it seemed our best chance until sirens started flashing, busses of screaming people zoomed by, and cops with walky talkies and riot gear surround us. "are you americans?" an offical man asked. "then i suggest you not stand here." this was our first encounter with italain soccer hooligans. long, long story made shorter, we walked up & down arezzo a few times, the hooligans disappeared, and we eventually found a taxi around 1 am that took us all the way to castiglion fiorentino, right up to the door.

i find it necessary to mention that i was the one guy amongst 7 girls. birth control, penis size, shaving, waxing, and the ever popular classic "circumsized or not" were all up for grabs along our trip. lucky me.

we all leave for rome for a week tomorrow. yeah, shouldn't run into any problems there, eh? just beware of fiats, hooligans, and foreskin.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

cultural overload

no emails? i actually do get bored here after seeing medieval parades and beautiful italian women all day so drop me a line and let me know what happens is america nowadays. how's clinton's ticker?

honestly there's so much going on here that it's hard to remember it all. saw where they filmed "under the tuscan sun" thursday, measured ancient ruins near rome friday, saw a cello/piano concerto in a quaint old church here in town friday night, hiked up to an old castle saturday morning only to lounge out by local the pool that afternoon before it closes for the summer, and then saw medieval parades and beautiful italian women all today. there, i can sumarize. did i mention the italian women?

so about the italian women...no, but really everything seems to be generally beautiful here. all the people are dressed so well and every building actually has character. maybe it's just that i'm seeing what i'm not used to and that an italian going to america would be overloaded just as much. that's what i ould like to think that even my little home of conroe, texas is full of splendor and wonder and stuff...to the untrained eye. and seeing as i'm pulling from garden state themes and christine said i had a blog just so i could be like zach braff i will now digress.

i hope i'm not missing anything.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

ciao!

It really is quite beautiful here. I could even say I prefer the day to day life in town more than escursions to Florence, which we did yesterday.

So how do you take classes, read books for those classes, take trips, take pictures with two cameras, paint, draw, write emails, journals, blogs, and postcards al at the same time? You don't so be patient as to when you get your postcards. I've got a lot of time left here and plenty of other places to get cards from.

And now our little campus is full of people surely don't know. I think for now I'll stick with all the new UT people cause they all seem "with it. " That's all I'll say about that.

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

mamma mia!

at 2am in london we went searching for a bus and found one that had a fight going on it for about ten minutes. we finally crowded on with our luggage and drove for about 30minutes til we got to the big bus station that would get us to the airport. We couldn't find one so a girl sophie we metfrom australia had us running through the streets of londonat 3am looking for anything that would get us there knowingit was at least an hour and a half to the airport. luckily we came across the back of a "closed" bus station tofind just the bus we needed. at this point we're wearing asmany clothes as possible to take away from the weightrestriction and are therefore very sweaty {and tired}. finally we get to the airport around 5, sit in line, findout we're all over {i only had to pay for 3 kilos though},and then run across the airport to the furthest terminal tocatch our 625 flight.

it would have been nice to stay awake across europe but it was even nicer to sleep so i did. as soon as we hit rome we were on the run again trying to get from one airport to the other. luckily we had no problems, the main group got there a few hours later, i learned how to count 1 through 10 and before we knew it our full bus had come to castiglion fiorentino {the g is silent}.

it's breathtaking here. my bed faces as eastern window from which the sun blazes through every morning over the hills. our campus is in the city walls and the streets are barely12 feet wide. it's hard to describe exactly how picturesque so i'll try more later. this keyboard is almost american and in effect very confusing.

Saturday, August 28, 2004

from across the pond

bloody 'el. they look like me, they dress like me, but it's weird that i'm in a completely different country. london. england. britain. the uk for the next few hours.

the flight seemed so short i don't know why i haven't traveled this far before. and already i'm starting to see all that i can learn from the grand little trip. lesson 1: exchange rates suck.

in all the hub and bub and running on a few minutes sleep. tomorrow i go to rome. goodnight britain.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

all quiet on the western side of the house

i leave in a few hours now. after a 11th hour shopping spree i'm worn out and my luggage seams are wearing thin and it still hasn't hit me. it's like i'm a dog just excited to get a trip in the car without realizing i have to go to get shots too. this is big. "i'll never forget that autumn of 2004, with my travels to europe..."

it's good to see i'll be missed. i miss y'all too. goodnight america.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

summer is over

one last trip to north texas to wrap things up. i'm baked from that strong setting western sun but at least i'm home, home for the next few days. and then home becomes italy. zach braff said something about home once and it sounded grand but i won't attempt to misquote now cause that's just not right.

on the ride home my dad and i had "the talk." you know, about loose bowels. "Marc, have you ever used Imodium AD?" basically it derrived from us talking about his travels to India and all its spicy foods. it's important to stay regular he said. thanks dad.

it's time to say some more goodbyes.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Model complete?



ernesto said it looked good. that's great.

Monday, August 23, 2004

split it up first

i'm back to try this webpage thing again at the advice of a professor for my little trip across the world. that'll be my excuse. no really.

oh but be prepared because this is just a precursor to some grand web UNIVERSE that i might get around to some day. anyway, let's hope i can have pictures and anecdotes of italy to entertain myself with in the future (and you too in the meantime).

so far blogging has taught me i type poorly. cue the obscure indy tune.