Post-Life Adventure

Last Thursday, we lost my Poppa Doc. It gives me a lot of comfort to know that during his last days, he was surrounded by his family who loved him and was still his same old self, teasing family members and making everyone laugh.

So far, this has been the hardest part of my semester abroad... not being able to comfort and be comforted (in person) by my family back home. While thinking about how he's now free of the pain and limitations of his tired, worn-out body, I was reminded of a quote by J.M. Barrie from the book, Peter Pan, that I found touching:

"To die will be an awfully big adventure." 

After thinking more about it, the quote seemed surprisingly relevant to Poppa and my semester here, since it has been all about embracing the adventures that life throws our way. I'd only anticipated those I'd encounter in my travels, but I am now realizing that maybe a semester of "embracing adventure" goes deeper than simply hopping on a plane to Europe.

Not five minutes after this quote came to mind, I unexpectedly came across a photo of the kid who played Peter Pan in the movie (dressed in character). About an hour later, and without mentioning anything to her, my roommate Veronika told me that she was so excited to find one of her favorite books in the bookstore down the street: Peter Pan. Somehow it felt like a sign that Poppa was up there having quite the adventure.

I might be living an adventurous life here in Spain, but I know Poppa is now having a more joyful, pain-free adventure than I could ever imagine. Love you and miss you.

Things I miss about Texas

(besides family and friends, of course) ;)
Torchy's
regular business hours
food trucks
garbage disposal
normal street signs 

Things I don't miss about Texas
heat
lack of siesta time
lack of bike lanes
driving everywhere

Stockholm, Sweden

This past week, I made my first trip away from Valencia! I hadn't started classes yet (well, not really...), and Josh had a week off from medical school, so he flew to Stockholm, Sweden where we met up with a bunch of friends who are studying all over Europe for the semester! It's a group of about 25 architecture students who travel with two architecture professors from UT, and they go all over Europe for the first 7 weeks or so. This past week, they were in Stockholm, so we decided to join!

The building below is the Stockholm Public Library, designed by Gunnar Asplund. The circular reading room inside is a pretty neat experience.

We also went to the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Architecture with the group. For their "studio Europe" program, each student is assigned a building and a city which they have to research. When they get to that building, that student gives a short presentation to the rest of the group. Here, Diana is giving us a brief background of the Museum and its exhibits.

 This was the best "group" picture I could manage while I was with them. Guess I'll just have to meet up with them again somewhere else in Europe! :)

 

I have to admit that I wasn't super pumped about our next stop, but it ended up being one of my favorite sights from the trip: The Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. In the 1960s, they decided to PULL IT OUT OF THE WATER and salvage it. This thing was HUGE. Even though I read all about the process of how they got this thing out of the water, I am still amazed that they were able to do it. The size, detail, precision, everything... was absolutely incredible.

Riddarholmen Church: burial church of the Swedish monarchs. 

The only things I didn't like much about Stockholm were 1) the food (can't say I'm crazyabout Swedish food... too much mayonaise, dill, and weird fish things), and 2) most of the people that we met weren't overbearingly friendly. But overall, Stockholm was pretty fantastic. The city is incredibly clean considering how large it is, and I noticed innovative design solutions everywhere. There were a TON of bikes everywhere, and the fact that we were walking around a bunch of islands was pretty cool. Also, since it's so far north, the sun hangs pretty low in the sky and always creates long, dramatic shadows that usually only happen in the morning and evening for us Texans. I felt like it was 6:00pm all day long! Another benefit from its northern latitude: an amazing sunset that seemed to last for ages. 

Bienvenidos a Valencia!

I finally made it to Valencia! And I had a GREAT last couple of weeks in Texas. I met a bunch of international students studying at UT for the semester (including the two architecture students who are from my school in Valencia!), and I got to spend some time with my family and Josh at the beach in Galveston :)

Goodbyes are always hard, but my last two weeks in Texas involved a LOT of goodbyes. First, I moved out of my apartment in Austin, which was sad because I had a lot really good time living there this past year. Saying bye to my friends and family was also tough... And I had to say goodbye to our house of the past 21 years, because when I come back to Texas in January, my parents will be living in their new place in Austin!

But soon after all of those goodbyes came lots of "hellos"! It's been a bit surreal that I'm finally in SPAIN to live here for the next 4 and a half months. Spain has 17 communidades (like the US states) and this flag is for la Comunidad Valenciana, the community in which the city of Valencia is located. I really like the flag! :)

 These are two of my new roomies, Aldo and María. They have both been so great, but unfortunately María is moving to Copenhagen in a week. She has shown me all around town and helped me so much with my Spanish. I'm seeing a trip to Copenhagen in my near future... Aldo will stay in Valencia, and I have two new roomies coming soon from the Czech Republic.

 It doesn't get much better than a view of the beach and the mountains. We walked down a pier near the port of Valencia and got to see these great views of the ocean.

The hardest part of being in a new country has definitely been the language barrier. I've been pretty surprised by the fact that I can carry on a decent conversation in Spanish (even if my grammar is TERRIBLE), but when I'm in a group, it's a whole different story... The other day we went to this beautiful swimming hole and had a picnic by the water, but while we were sitting around the table, I didn't say anything. Not because I'm shy (definitely not the problem...), but because by the time I was able to figure out what everyone was talking about in Spanish and thought of a response, they had moved onto a new topic. For over an hour, I didn't say a single word. I felt SO antisocial, because that is not me at all...

I was feeling pretty stressed and overwhelmed after spending almost an entire day in confusion, so I decided to go for a run that afternoon. There used to be a long river that flowed through Valencia called Turia, but it was diverted, and the old riverbed has now been converted into a park that goes all through the city. The park is extremely wide (this picture doesn't show it very well) and is absolutely beautiful. What surprised me most was that each part of the river/park was so thoughtfully considered, because around each turn there was some beautifully designed feature: a small sidewalk cafe, a reflecting pool, several playgrounds, a skate park, places to rent bikes, sculptures, art... and it reminded me that truly wonderful design does have an impact on us, whether we realize it or not. Simply being in the park made me feel so much less stressed about my day.

I have one last story, and then I promise I'll stop writing. (See, a lack of things to say is really not my problem... just a lack of things to say in SPANISH.)

So grocery shopping in a foreign country is more difficult than I anticipated. My roommates and I decided to make fajitas because I thought I'd bought chicken... but apparently it was turkey. I am a horrible Texan for making turkey fajitas. At least we had a healthy dinner? Also, I have no clue what kind of cheese I bought... but whatever it was, it wasn't too bad in the fajitas. 

And with that... here are some more pictures around Valencia. Bona nit for now... (Goodnight in Valenciano) :)

Picture of a Picture

July 13, 2012

I’ve always wanted to take a picture like this. In case you didn’t notice at first, the new picture is taken from the same vantage point as the original.

My grammy, me and mom hangin’ at our house back in the day.

Texas nights

july 13, 2012
I just started summer school this week, and I feel like my awesome summer break is slowly ending… I’m taking Physics II at the ACC campus waaayy up in north Austin from 8-12, then I head way south to work until 6, then work on my online biology class in the evening. You’d think I was a science major with all this sciencey nonsense I have to take… Anyway, before school started, I was having a pretty good summer!



The most “Texas” night I’ve had in a long time :) We went swimming at the greenbelt, ate dinner at the Gristmill in Gruene, and then saw Kyle Park in New Braunfels that night. Nothing like a beautiful Texas sunset, country music, and bbq to make me realize how much I’m going to miss these things when I’m abroad!

 
Shelly drove back to Austin for the concert, and when we got home Michaela was also back in Austin for the weekend. Roomie reunion!! 

While Michaela was in town, we got a little group together from the tri team to go on a ride. It was a gorgeous evening and a great workout! I’m still nowhere near prepared for Triaggieland, a triathlon in College Station that I’m doing on Sunday, but it was fun to get back on my bike. 

Also, I recently found out that there are two students from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (the school I’m going to in Spain) who are studying at UT this fall! We’ve been emailing back and forth, I’m excited that they’re going to be in Austin for a little while before I leave to go abroad. That way we can help each other choose classes and find decent housing!

New Office!

june 27, 2012
Schneider-Halls Design moved into a new office this weekend! It’s off of Southwest Parkway and it’s so much bigger and nicer than our old office. I felt bad for not being able to help with the move over the weekend… but I had to drive into Houston to apply for my Spanish visa! Which, surprisingly, went WAY more smoothly than I’d expected.

 
We discovered that the partitions between our desk spaces are at a kind of awkward height because it puts us eye-to-eye with the person who sits across from us. However, we also discovered that they are PERFECT for puppet shows… 

check out our beautiful new conference room^^

This is where our new reception desk will go… when it arrives!

Since I had to go to Houston anyway, I decided to make a weekend of it and stop by Galveston and The Woodlands :)

We found this cool jetty at the very end of the island…



And it was COVERED in hermit crabs!


One thing I love about visiting Galveston is getting to cook with fresh seafood. Josh and I always go get fresh fish from Katie’s Seafood Market and then try out some kind of new recipe. This week? Shrimp Ceviche! It was delicious!

Visit to Chi-town

june 18, 2012
For my 21st birthday, I asked for a plane ticket to Chicago. My friend Emily is interning there for the summer, and Josh was there for a conference with the American Medical Association, so it gave me a great excuse to tag along and visit a new city! The deep dish pizza and hot dogs were delish, and seeing several buildings that we’ve studied in my history of architecture/interior design classes was really cool. My two favs were Marina City and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House.

Here’s where I crashed while I was there - Emily’s pretty studio apartment downtown!

A view of the exterior of her building - fun fact: it is the tallest building designed by a female architect!

Marina City, designed by Bertrand Goldberg in ‘64

While Emily was at work, I ventured around town with the med students. This is inside the glass box at the top of the Sears tower… You can’t tell from the picture, but the viewing deck juts out over the city on the 103rd floor and is entirely made of glass. And yes, I thought I was going to pass out.

Em and I finally made it to the Robie House! For you non-archies out there, this a famous house designed in the early 20th century by Frank Lloyd Wright (also known as the father of American Architecture). While all of his contemporaries were copying other cultures’ designs, FLW said, ” ‘MURICA!”, and came up with a new design language for American architecture.

 
Visiting the Chicago Art Institute. Name that painting! 

Deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s. I didn’t believe Em when she said I’d be full after one piece, but she was right…

I don’t care that this piece has a real name… I refuse to call it anything but “the bean”!

 
Annnddd this post wouldn’t be complete without a blurry phone pic of us hanging out downtown on Friday night. It’s missing Trey-Z (the 3rd med student there with Josh), but this is our group that hung out during the trip! 

Adios Austin

june 18, 2012
View of downtown Austin from the plane to Chicago. I can zoom into my apartment building in this photo!