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.

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.

(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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.