The Final Stretch

Here I am, only 8 days left in Rome. Hard to imagine that it is now December. And by that I don't just mean because the weather is so silly here that I have been walking around in a t-shirt outside no-problem. I mean more that it just seems like time has flown by. I arrived in Italy before the start of October, and while this blog didn't begin until a little while back (so you can't re-live all my experiences here) it just seems like this period of study has gone by with amazing haste. I have traveled to many places, seen many things, yet there always seems to be things that I missed, things I wish I could still do. I wonder how things would be different if I was here for even just another month. Where would I go? What things would I make an effort to do or see? At the same time, as with any away-from-home experience, I am ready to be back with the people I care about and the things I miss. I have gotten to know a group of new and unique characters, some of which I will try to continue to see back in the States (others I will be happy to hopefully never come in contact with again). I feel that my time here has been helpful to not only show me how quickly one can become acquainted with new surroundings, but also how I can do things that I wasn't sure I was ready to do. Traveling into places that are unfamiliar is always challenging, but realizing through experience that you can navigate through a new place (even one that doesn't really cater to your language) without too much trouble was amazing. I made an effort to experience new things, break out of habits, and also see artwork and architecture that is famous and incredible. And, as the days left here come to an end, I think that I made the best of my time. Sure there are things I wish I could have done, but those will always exist, and one can always hope that they have the time and financing to finish those journeys in the future. With my mind set, I look forward to my remaining days here, confident that I will be able to squeeze out the few things I have left to do. Final project, you are almost done. Chocolate shopping, give me a few hours. Home, I am on my way.

Sorry that this post seems so much of a conclusion. I guess my mind is ready and my hands just went along with the train of thought. I will keep you guys up to date as these few remaining days draw out, and I hope that I have nothing but good news left for my final posting from Europe, which I assume will be posted on Monday. Keep on reading friends, and I hope your roads continue winding.

Welcome to Winter

Despite frequent warnings of impending cold, I have yet to be in Rome and think "I need to bundle up more, it is cold here". It has happened in Venice, mostly because it was further north and the temperature was lower, but also because of the terrible wind-tunnels that the narrow streets become as the ocean breeze goes through them. But now, in Brussels, I have been into actual winter. There is something refreshing about the chilly weather and the time you spend coming in out of the cold and just relaxing in a warm spot. I think this weekend was the first that I have really felt like I have been in winter this whole trip.

Belgium, and more to the point Brussels, was wonderful. The sheer difference from anything we have run into in Italy was just a wonderfully welcome experience. The people seemed nicer (even though they spoke French primarily, so we really didn't understand much), the food was delicious and different (Tasty sausages, massive kebab, frites), and the city was fresh and beautiful. It sort of reminded me of Seattle, just a version of Seattle with better and more frequent parks, as well as historical buildings and churches thrown in to spice it up. Much nicer than the monotony of classical building of Rome (which is sort of sad to say, but I just miss some of the more modern touches that the architecture of business towers and trendy buildings have). I really enjoyed the whole trip.

Things worth doing in Brussels:
+Checking out the Atomium (even though it was kinda lame inside, this is a pretty cool and iconic structure)
+Going to the Brewer's Museum and getting a free beer.
+Eating the wonderful kebab that are all over the city and not only taste better and are more filling than those in Rome, but also cheaper.
+Learning the history of this rather young nation
+watching the holiday light show
+Checking out Autoworld, even though we didn't get to check out the cool sports cars on the 2nd floor
+eating the waffles (as well as their other foods)
+Drinking the wonderful actual beer (Italian beer just isn't all that amazing)

Things that I wish we could have done (maybe next time...)
+Go to the Eddy Merckx tram stop for a photo next to the sign
+Find a bike store and hopefully find a cool regional jersey
+Go to Luxembourg, since it is sooo close
+Had more beer
+Had more waffles

Haha, alright. Almost the end of the trip now, in fact I get back home on December 10th, so then I will have to make sure I do interesting things at home.
Here is a cool set of videos for your viewing pleasure, thanks to the guys over at BKW
http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2008/11/jens-voigt.html

Bon Voyage

So, seeing as we are swinging full-tilt into the Thanksgiving weekend I hope you all have some awesome times ahead. However, since I am not in the land of festive early winter dining, my weekend is instead the longest weekend I get whilst studying here in Roma. So, what do you do? Travel. I had thought at the beginning of my trip here that I'd love to check out the big car companies' factories throughout Italia, and other wistful thoughts included trying to explore the Alps a tad (maybe even on a bike!). However, the sad truth is that I never accomplished these ideas and won't have the time to during the remainder of my time here (probably a good thing for the Alps, kinda hard to ride up a steep incline grade when it is covered in ice and snow...). So a bit over a month ago, mostly on a whim, I decided to go with one of my classmates to visit a couple he met pre-quarter in Athens. Turns out they live in Brussels, Belgium (as you probably know, Belgium is a big cycling country). Woohoo. That location almost promises that I'll be able to find some cool local jerseys, a great addition to my cycling wardrobe and also useful souvenirs. The problem with this fairytale trip is that despite our kind emails, it turn out this couple has rescinded their offer. Too bad, we are still coming! So, since you won't see any updates to this blog (likely) over the upcoming days, you now know where I have vanished.

To keep you happy though, I have browsed the interweb and found these pleasant pieces for you:

http://magazines.drivers-republic.com/driversrepublic/thetruth030/ GT2 goodness vs. the Nissan Godzilla

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/No-Bake-Cookies-I/Detail.aspx A tasty looking snack I want to make when back stateside

http://www.gnam.beniculturali.it/ Cool museum we checked out today (Some great stuff here) in addition to the Villa Borgese (a big collection of classical sculpture and artwork including magnificent Bernini Sculptures, a few works of Raphael, and even a large Di Vinci)

Finally, until the end of the week it looks like you can go here http://www.cervelo.com/ and participate in a short questionnaire for a chance to win a jersey.

Alright, Ciao!

Venice, Land of Wind Tunnels

So, the main reason for the big delay between this and the previous blog was that this weekend I traveled up to Venezia with two of my colleagues here, Ben and Cliff. We left early Friday morning and got into our spots only to realize the train ride was actually 4.2 hours long (I guess they knew, I was the only one who was confused...) So we began our journey hanging out in one set of seats since the departure at 8:50 left the train mostly vacant. Listened to some music (sort of getting tired of some of these mixes now, need fresh stuff :/ ) Then, around Florence the train suddenly got packed and I had to move to my assigned seat after this girl (who must have been in a hurry to sit because she kept pointing and talking at me as I was getting up and moving) came aboard and asked for her seat. Shortly after, but before the train began moving again, my friends ended up being moved to their assigned seats which were just across the walkway from me. Go figure. Anyhow, more music while Italian businessmen read their newspapers and tried to sleep between answering phone calls and getting yelled at to be quieter by a short-tempered woman sitting next to Cliff. Finally we ended up in Venice, and it was interesting to watch the land taper off and soon it was just a bridge of road and track heading out until we pulled into the station.

Once off the train we realized that since Venice is more north than Rome it is cooler, obviously, but cooler than we perhaps were thinking. As we walked around we finally found our little B&B and then set out for an evening adventure. We walked about for around four hours until it was about 6ish and the light was too dark to really take any photos that would turn out well. We made our way back to the room and watched some tv while deciding that we wanted to go out and have a good Venetian meal. We finally found a good looking place and settled in for a great tasting meal that for me included a delicious Venetian bean and noodle soup and was followed by fried seafood before being topped off with a tasty apple strudel thingy. Yum. That day ended with a little MTV-IT.

Day 2 was mostly taking photos and checking out churches. It is crazy to wander into some random church and see before you one of those famous paintings you see in every art history class you've ever taken. As the day rolled on we ate too much food and then ended up walking around buying stuff for a bit (I got a cool sweater, mostly because I was getting chilly but it looked nice so I lucked out). Too full still from lunch we grabbed some little snacks and went home to watch tv and movies until Cliff decided he wanted food. So, we walked around for a bit before sitting at a little cafe and he order food while I payed too much for beer. Woo-hoo

Finally day 3. So, since we barely hit any museums yesterday today we scrambled around and found ourselves in the museum that didn't end. After about an hour in a museum about Venetian history we were suddenly in a classical sculpture gallery. Backtracking we continued the first museum and then ended up in a painting collection! Then, right as we were about to leave we got taken into a solo artist show by an Austrian artist who was painting Venice. As we left we noticed another entrance into what appeared to more museum, but we were wiped out. We continued to wander about for a bit, ate some Chinese food for lunch (I felt a little bad about eating Chinese in Venice, but I needed something new) and then we sat on the water-bus taking photos until they kicked us off at the end of the run. Now, only a few hours left til our train, we walked about with the wind slowly picking up and making it even colder. Photos pretty much done for the day we went to the station and climbed aboard the train and waited there eating a bit until it left about 45 minutes later. Venice done.

Another Step in This Direction

So, here we are. Ever closer to going back to the States. Ever closer to finishing up school. Ever closer to having to do interviews for that job. It seems like a lot of life is coming up on me pretty quick, and despite the potential for that all being so much work I am ready for it. This experience in Italy (and soon Belgium for some more European experience, not to mention cycling swag, beer, and some food that Italy just doesn't offer) has been great, but it has really been a vacation. Work here does happen, yet it seems to me at least to be less focused that when I was at school. More spread out. I look forward to having things sort of back into order. Which reminds me that I'll need to move into that new place sometime when I get back into Washington. Fun... Oh well, I plan to reduce what I own so that it isn't so much moving.

Not a lot to report here. Saw some really cool art yesterday when we went to a Bruno Munari exhibit (cool Italian Industrial Design guy). Listened to former UW graduate artist Tim Roda talk about what you need to do to be a successful professional artist (insightful). Finally listened to UW professor Ellen Garvens talk about her work as an artist and where it has led her. That is sort of something I've been thinking about lately too. How my life is leading me. Sort of scary to think about, but at the same time you realize that things build up. So, I guess what I mean is that sure right now things sort of seem rough ahead, but things will snowball up and before you know it you've got things rolling along. It isn't common for avalanches of progress, but even glaciers started out as small blocks of ice; mountains built from a single grain of sand. You just need to keep that chin up and move forward without worrying about every little thing.

And now for a first with my blog, links to stuff! First off, I was reading this blog and I loved the comment following the Obama bike. http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/11/gender-politics-sex-bikes-and.html
And then following on I was intrigued by this silly genderalizer tool that someone created to determine the genders of blog writers. http://www.genderanalyzer.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnew006.blogspot.com%2F
Apparently I am gender neutral with a shift toward feminine when I am writing. Interesting, given that a lot of people find me to be quite crude and masculine in real life (until they get to know me, I'm actually a pretty nice guy, seriously). I guess I can give off a bad first impression (especially at parties, but I can't help that most of my friends are also guys and that I used to work in an auto-shop [otherwise known as the land of the most foul language you'll ever enter]).
Finally, reading around on Rapha I found myself in the middle of the Continental Series write-up about the Snoqualmie falls ride they attempted. http://www.rapha.cc/continental/index.php?page=627
I like the falls, and was intrigued to see their ride plan, which I guess starts in Seattle. Looks like a possible ride for next year when I live in the city. Anyway, fun read and reminded me of home, which was nice. I also glanced back over the sister ride, the Stevens pass affair. http://www.rapha.cc/continental/index.php?page=600
I had read this one just before leaving Washington, and enjoyed their story about the ride that bit back. I can't wait to get back to cycling and hope I can get my friends to actually motivate themselves into riding some of these more grandiose journeys with me over the coming year. Alright. I guess I will leave you with the reading, and leave myself with the working. Ciao

Time Flies

Today, while setting up a rough list of what I need to do today (since I felt I didn't accomplish much yesterday), I realized that my actual time to work on the final project here is quickly running down. Surprising to think that just the other day we were celebrating All-Saints, and now here I am with less than 12 days of work-time before the final show. I guess it doesn't help that this weekend I am losing almost 3 days running up to Venice to wander around and take photos and whatnot, and that just a few days after that I am flying up to Brussels for the long Thanksgiving break! Any way you look at it, days just keep flying by here and my only option is to really start cracking down on this project. Looks like I need to start bringing things home where I can work with a bit more concentration (rather than all the distracting videos and pictures and conversations everyone throws around in studio). I am looking forward to the trips though. It seems important to soak up as much as I can because it may be quite awhile before I find myself in Europe again. The fact that I am seeing so little of Europe as a whole is also sort of disheartening, but then again I am studying in Italy, not vacationing on the continent.

This leads me to also realize that I will be coming home in barely any time at all. Wow. I mean there are still 3 weeks or whatever until the program ends, but especially with the travel and the build-up of work as this project needs to be finished, I realize that these days will just continue to fly by. I hope that much like some of my friends I will be able to resolve my project with enough advance time so that I can relax a bit and fix little things before the show. I am pretty happy with my idea, and I think that especially as the piece comes together it will really be a good project to wrap up my time here. I know that it will definitely have a feeling of Italy in it, which is something that I really wanted to do while I was here. Hope that I can get it close to the image I see in my head. Alright, time for me to actually work on this. Ciao

Plodding Along & Feeling the Need

So, this weekend was long and enjoyable because we were down to a skeleton crew of housemates, luckily the ones who seem to be responsible adults. However, at the same time it was a little frustrating because I was ready to start working on my project but since I had made it through the last talk with just ideas, I felt I needed to get permission (if you will) to actually start making hard progress. So, instead of working in the studio for hours and making progress like some of my classmates, I instead was forced to continually re-draw my little idea diagram and explain things to myself about what I wanted to do. I know this is indeed progress, but not quite the solid evidence I wanted. Oh well, today during my meeting I was given the green-light so now the floods of creativity and work can flow out. I guess.

The other side of my current progression here is that I am more and more feeling the desire to be on my bike. I think most of this is probably my fault since I have been reading about the cycling world and blogs about cycling much more now than in the early part of the program. I also find myself window-shopping websites for things that I want (partly because the holiday season is approaching). I only have a month to go until I could begin riding again at home, but it will be the middle of December, so we will see how much actually gets done. It is unfortunate that I missed some wonderful riding time, but I feel good knowing that I am doing a good job staying in shape so that I should be able to jump back into the game much quicker than even entering last year. I also feel happy that I now have this outlet from which I can let others know what I see and experience once I actually get back to the real world. "The Real World", funny that I heard one of my classmates refer to life back in Seattle as that this morning. It is true that we feel distanced and not quite ourselves here in Rome. Still, I am excited to return to the normal life that I have at home, even though I will lose the grandeur of this city, this place of so much history. Ok, that's enough of my mind getting lost. Hope you all are enjoying your lives, and I look forward to seeing everyone in a month.