Hey everyone! I am in Wien and it is hot and humid, kinda like St.Louis...which makes hiking around the city super fun......psssssssh!
Munich was really fun and really hot, and filled to the brim with football fans! It was a great time to be there, surrounded by tons of fun people and things to do! We walked the streets of Munich all day, taking in Museums, Churches, and a palace. We also trekked over to the BMW plant but we unfortunate to get a tour. Later that night we were able to find a few Americans at the hoffbrauhaus watching the England game. Turns out that one of the girls had actually studied in Prague not to long ago. We had a great time talking about all the wonderful things in Praha. After a few liters and a shot of Jaeger bought for us my a rich Aussie, we headed back to our hostel for an early morning wake up call and train ride to Vienna.

Today we ventured around the city and came to a place in the southern part of the city. We meandered the wonderful gardens for a few hours and by them time we were done with our tour, out flip flops were covered in dust and out bodies covered in sweat. Now we are back at the hostel and watching the football match between the Netherlands and Argentina. I am personally not supporting anyone but looking forward to a good match. Next stop Budapest.

The time has come for me to say good-bye, or Na shledanou. My parents are whisking away my computer and leaving me with nothing but my Zadie Smith book and sketchbook...a good thing, a very good thing. During my parents stay we got to see some really interesting and beautiful things and were able to explore some parts of the city that I have been holding off on. In short I lead them on a city walking tour that took us to some of the biggest sights in Prague, made them walk up a steep and long path up to the castle as opposed to taking the tram to the main entrance of the castle (woops…who knew the 22 went up there), and meandered through some great museums. And in return they took me out to dinner at some of the most mouthwatering restaurants in the hottest spots in town, and forced me to go on senior citizens [not really] boat cruise + bus tour, which when it was all said and done it was pretty cool. In our small group of 10, including the guide) there were some interesting characters on the boat. An ancient Canadian couple who were kicking butt and taking names, a couple that I am sure had an interesting but mysterious background (one from New York, and one from Norway, whom meet on a cruise ship…apparently) and a mother and daughter team, from Australia. The mother of this duo was so cute and little, and had to be at least 68-75 and was from Hong Kong. We had a really nice conversation about the different travels she had been on throughout her life. She seriously has been everywhere, and had some really great stories that I enjoyed immensely! She made me want to explore the world so much more! She said that while her friends spent much money on nice cars and big homes, she spent it on travel and seeing as many different places as possible. And I couldn’t agree more; memories and experience is priceless and will always retain their value. Different cultures are fascinating to me and I hope that this is the beginning of a lifetime learning and discovery.

Yup those are the heads of my parents climbing to the top of the Prague Castle; it was a nice WARM day for such a climb. [Who needs a tram when you have two legs and two feet?]

Jewish cemetery, people are stacked 12 deep in some spots others 8.

Mom got blessed by the birds of Prague; it is good luck I swear! [I bet she is going to loooove this being up on here]

I had to carry this old man and his walker up to the top of that tower [grin]

I was so happy to have my parents come to Praha and visit me, see this wonderful city that I have been so lucky to live in for the past four some-odd months. It was really fun to be able to share all that I had learned here with them, including trying to teach my dad how to say a few basic phrases like Dekuji [thanks] and pivo prosim [beer please]. I just wanted to thank them for all their support and love; it means more to me than anything else in the entire world. I really hope that they had a great time and that this young little whippersnapper didn't tucker them out too badly, [wink].

Despite not having a computer for the next two and a half weeks I will try my hardest to keep some info up to date! Hope everyone is doing well and will be happy to see everyone back in the STL when I get home in July! Miss you guys! And gals!

It is here, my Parents arrive today! At 2:00 I will be on a bus to meet them at the airport! I am so excited to see them I seriously can't wait! Until then I guess I will stroll about town, retrieve some grades and print off some hostel and flight reservation information, just to kill some time. Pretty much the same things I have been doing since Friday.
I was finished with my project Friday afternoon, all printed out and rendered, but I had to wait ‘till Monday until I could display my work in my studio. At noon, June 12th we posted our drawings and had a small crit at 3:00. However around 5:00 the Americans left early to go to old town square, where they had enormous TV screens set up to watch the Czech Republic take on the Americans in some World Cup Soccer action. Without much surprise I watched, along with a small group from the states, as the Czechs blasted 3 unanswered goals past our keeper. WE GOT KILLED. As we made our way through the crowd of Czech soccer fans, it felt like the biggest walk of shame anyone could take. I kept my head down and just wanted to make it out of there without being hassled.

Mack left for Amsterdam on Tuesday and it has been too quite without her here, and it is only been a day. But Carl and I will meet Mack, her two brothers, and Luke in Munich on the 19th and then we will head to Austria where we will meet Annie and Allison in Vienna while Mack's bros head back to the states. From there we will travel to Budapest and through Slovakia. On the 25th and 26th I will spend my last two days in Prague and soak as much of it into my skin as possible. On the 27 I head to Spain, first in Barcelona and then Madrid, for three days a piece. And that brings me to the 3rd of July when I board a plane at 11:20 and arrive in St. Louis around 7:10, 30 minutes to my house brings us to 7:40...so I will be in my door at about 7:45-7:50...I am calling it now.

So can you tell that I am willing to do anything that doesn't involve working on my project? Well just to keep everyone up to speed, I have completed most of my drawings, the only one left is the dreaded wall section. Let's face it since I have little to no actual construction experience it makes it really difficult to know how to draw how a high-rise building is put together!
I might be going crazy.
On the upside I have finished my model! That took a few days and not up to my usual standards, but since there is no bass wood here in the Czech Republic, I guess the chipboard that was used will have to do.

Also today is Kate's [my British flat mate] birthday! Wooo-whooo! On Friday we are having a BBQ to celebrate the 23rd year the of life and times of Kate Jones! But tonight we are having a surprise party for her, it will be fun!
Tonight a friend from KSU leaves for home, bummer I bet he wishes he were here for longer, booo leaving early Brian! But tonight we bid him adieu, and dine in the pub across the street which is so good it will knock your Czech made socks off your feet.

Also here are some sites I have been gendering at, while putting off being productive, or any near the definition of productivity. Common' how fun would life be if we didn't procrastinate?

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
This site has inspired me to cook a plethora of delicious meals upon my return to the states! [There is nothing wrong with cooking with a computer in the kitchen...is there?]

http://www.everestcoatings.com/details/er/
This site might help me pass my design studio, thank GOD for Google!

http://www.richardmeier.com/
Inspiration

http://www.time.com/time/quotes
You’ll never know what you will find, or read

http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O
Conan is my hero

this is what I feel like....round

This morning while I was doing some Sunday morning supermarket shopping, I saw a very grandpa-esque Czech man wearing a Wayne’s world black baseball hat. While he was loading up his groceries I wondered to myself, "I wonder if he has ever seen the movie, or ever sung the 'Wayne’s world, party time, excellent woo woo woo' song?"


[he might have had a pair of garths glasses, in his pocket protector]

Today was the first beautiful sunny day here in Prague in a long time, and what was I doing? Oh I was inside working on my model for studio. It wasn't too bad cutting chipboard with rays of sunlight streaming through my oversized west facing windows. It actually was quite nice. Since Thursday, studio work is all I have left to work on. I turned in my final projects for sculpture and art in architecture. Making the number of complete [as in ended] classes come to five while leaving only one incomplete, but that will be taken care of on the 12th when we have final presentations for studio.

For my final art in architecture project I took images that reminded me of home and abstracted them to create a visual answer to a rhetorical question I had asked myself just after arriving here in Prague. The different media that I used included water color, tin foil, ink pen, pencil, trace paper, and carefully crafted words.

Thusday afternoon, after tuning in my project i retuned to my dorm room, and set out to red line my drawings, [i.e find and correct errors]. I looked down at my right wrist , looking at my watch, to see the time when I saw that my usually dependable Timex ironman watch was blank, dead, void of any information. I hardly can remember a time when my wrist was without it. The blue face was now worn to gray blue matt finish, the silver top coat was worn to the plastic underneath. Lately my watch had been acting funny and unfortunately was beginning to get water logged. So to say the least it was time for a new one. I headed to Tessco and found a replacement for my wrists companion, and on my way home from this excursion I stumbled across some interesting activity in the city center. Tents were set up throughout the squares and each had their own band playing different genres of music. I stood with the other tourist and on lookers and watched these music men play some lovely songs.

After returning home I continued work on my drawings for studio. As the night carried on my phone rang, it was time to leave the dorm and enjoy a bar other than the one in our basement.
Somewhere near the city center we found a pretty cool music bar, kind of hole in the wall, relaxed and cheep. There were brown tables stretching from one end to the other. Names of previous visitors were scratched and craved into the tops of each table, a reminder of the patrons visit to the music themed bar. After a few beers and meeting a group from Syracuse University, we headed home via the 56 tram and crawled into bed around 4:00 just early enough to see the sun begin to peek over the horizon.

Today, the state of my desk showed that some progress had been made my model, bits of chipboard and shreds of scraps lay strewn over the top of my desk. My progress maybe slow, but it is moving along and that is the good news. As I was sitting, gazing at my computer screen, reading various blogs and searching the internet for random information, I noticed the beautiful blue sky just beyond my window. Just when my focus changed from the great outdoors to the glowing screen before me, fireworks started to appear. Flashes of light shot through the air; gold and silvery flares of light exploded; danced across the dusk sky, leaving behind trails of smoke, flashed of dying sparks. Mack and I stopped and watched for the entire show and were disappointed when it ended. Back to work I suppose, at least for another few days.