I took out a loan for sketching pens

It's taken 2 months, but I'm finally done with my sketches! One of my assignments for the study abroad course is to complete 30 sketches in Europe of art, architecture, etc. The idea was to do about a sketch a day while we were there, but we were so busy every day that I only got a handful done. SO, 2 months and 6 micron pens later, the deed is done. I'm posting my top 10. Not Royal Academy, I suppose. Still better than a finger in the eye, aren't they?

  Stay tuned- I'll be posting my European patterns in the next couple weeks!

Quotes

For whatever reason, I love collecting quotes. The other day I found some awesome quotes about traveling and I'm sharing my favorites. Enjoy! :) 

1. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

2. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine 

3. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson  

4. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson 

5. “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck  

6. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

7. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson 

9. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

10. “When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D.H. Lawrence

11. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

12. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

13. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

14. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru

15. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

16. “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner

17. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

18. “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain

19. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

20. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou

21. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon 

22. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” – Lillian Smith

23. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

24. “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” – Freya Stark

25. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

26. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

27. “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

28. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

June 29- Heading Home

I got up at 3:30 this morning, so I got a grand total of 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Precisely 24 hours later, I arrived in the Salt Lake City airport. 24 hours is a veeery long time to be in and out of airports. But I made it! I'm back home in my dear beloved South Jordan. It's so good to be home!

Here's a very basic list of what I think I got out of my Study Abroad Experience:

1. 21 new relatives.
After living with the same people for 5 weeks, you start to get to know each other... Maybe a little too well. All I can say is, I will never see my professors Darrin and Susie the same way ever again. Don't worry, it's a good thing.

2. Open Eyes
I saw things done so differently- things I never even thought to question, never even considered could be done another way. It really broadened my perspective and I know it's really going to help me think outside the box.

3. Patriotism
There is no place like home. The end :)

4. Inspiration
My eyes have been opened to a different way of doing things, and it's given me a few ideas of my own. Seeing so many styles of art, architecture and interior design has given me a better idea of what I like. Or at least, a good direction to start in. 

4. Myself
I think I've learned to be true to myself. It's ok to do things differently, and I'm strong enough that I can do things by myself. Also, there are a million guys out there trying to push their ideas onto the next sucker to come along. I refuse to let them win.

If I could have done just one thing differently, I would have liked to see more places directly related to interior design as a career. How amazing would it be to visit a big design firm in Europe????????? Pretty dang amazing.

I want to dedicate next few lines to funny quotes acquired on the road.

All’s good that ends good!  –Stacy

Dead sloow. HOOT!  -Leslie and Rachel

It’s ok, some people just have useless talents.  –Maddi

Why can't you throw your litter on the ground like a normal person?!  - Nicole

You never know what you'll see in the sea.  -Irish tour guide, quoted by Leslie and Rachel

Bueno- Bueno- Bueno- Bueno…  -Leslie and Rachel

Pet my hair!  -Maddi

Sunshine will cure just about anything. Except for a sunburn.  –Rachel

It’s Toe Time with Maddi!  –Stacy

I’m giving this to Stephanie because she’s combless.  -Maddi

Buenas Noches!  -Leslie and Rachel

The end of this trip is definitely not the end of my traveling days. Who knows where I'll go next?? You never know what you'll see in the sea. ;)

June 28: Our Last Day in Europe

As this was our last day in Europe, it was a very important day and called for some special spontaneity. So at 5: 40 this morning, Leslie and I got up and took the subway to the beach to watch the sunrise.

Best. Idea. Ever. We got to the beach just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. It was breathtaking!

We also made a new friend while we were at the beach this morning... He just walked over and sat down on the sand in front of us and started talking. He was really nice, but because I've taken up a city mind set, he made me a little bit nervous. When we got up to leave, he said he wanted to see us again and asked if we'd come back to the beach later today to hear him play African music. We turned him down. He was really cool about it; he shook our hands before we walked away.

Since 5:40 is kind of an unhappy hour to get up in the morning, after watching the sunrise we went back to the hotel and I slept for another hour.

Then we had breakfast and went shopping with Stacy and Elise. Not much to report on shopping, but we went to the Hard Rock cafe for dessert. I've never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before. I loved it!

We went back to the hotel to meet up with a handful of classmates. We had a picnic on the beach for a final kind of shindig.

A few of us left early and hit a couple of tourist shops on the way back from the beach. The people working there were so pushy! I was too annoyed to buy any of their overpriced stuff. Andrea and I finally found a shop where the employees left us alone. I was so happy that I was willing to pay full price instead of haggling. I am definitely NOT going to miss these pushy store owners and street vendors when I go back home.

Somehow, while we were shopping, the four of us got split up. By the time we were finished shopping it was dark and there were huge masses of people on the streets to buy from street vendors. Andrea and I walked up and down the street to find Stacy and Leslie, but in that crowd it was a hopeless cause. So we headed back and hoped they would do the same. Luckily, we caught up to them walking a little ways in front of us. Phew!!

The rest of the night was spent packing. It was a veeerrry long night. With a very early morning ahead!

Our awesome hotel

The lobby of our awesome hotel

The outside of our awesome hotel. Stacy, Maddi and I were in the 5th floor, 2nd window from the right :)

The night view from our balcony :)

THE BEACH

It is a sin and a shame to not go to the beach when visiting Barcelona.

Our last two days in Spain are scheduled free days, so today we went to the beach. For 5 hours. Surprisingly, I’m a good shade darker but I didn’t really burn. Hooray for sunscreen!

We went out for dinner at an American 50’s style diner. Hamburgers and milkshakes- I think I’ve been missing my American culture.

And we topped it all off tonight with Christmas in Barcelona. It’s Maddi’s last night in Spain because she’s leaving with a group to Italy tomorrow, so we opened presents! The hotel bathroom had complimentary packages of random things. I got the package of tissues because I’ve had a bit of a cold for a couple days. Maddi got the razor and aftershave- she used the aftershave to put a white beard on her face to look like Santa. Stacy got a shower cap.  We decided to give the comb to Stephanie, because according to Maddi, she’s “combless”.

Tomorrow is my last day in Spain. Crazy!!

June 26: Barcelona Architecture Walking Tour O' Fury

We were supposed to meet in the lobby.

We woke up 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet in the lobby.

Since our alarm didn’t go off this morning, we woke up 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet in the lobby.

We didn’t get breakfast, since our alarm didn’t go off this morning and we woke up 10 minutes after we were supposed to meet in the lobby.

Ah well. Ce’st La Vie!

The most iconic building we saw today, and one of Barcelona’s main tourist attractions, is Gaudi’s Basilica De la Sacrada Familia- or Basicilica of the Sacred Family. Construction of the building began in the 1820s, and it’s STILL under construction today. In fact, it isn’t likely to be finished for another 20, maybe up to 40 years.  The basilica is very unique for its parabolic structure- a new invention in architecture at the time. I don’t understand it well enough to explain it, but essentially, Goudi discovered a way to use straight lines to build curved lines.

We also spent some time looking several at other works by Goudi. Goudi once said, “The straight line belongs to man; the curved line belongs to God.” What a perfect way to explain his style of architecture! Goudi’s designs are chock-full of curved lines. They have so many curved lines that the buildings look like they belong on a different planet. But there’s also a lot of symbolism behind his designs, which makes his work easier to appreciate.

We also walked through the business area in the city and saw a lot of really contemporary architecture. We saw way too many buildings to mention them all, plus most of them I can't remember their names, but these are pictures of some of my favorite buildings we saw:

June 25: Un Dia Bonita En Espania!

We have arrived in Barcelona! And we hit the ground running- our tour guide met us at the airport and we spent the rest of the day touring the streets of Barcelona.

Observations: it is SUNNY :D and humid. and there is a serious lack of space. (over 6 million people in about 3 square miles). There is design EVERYWHERE. There are hundreds of shoebox-sized shops and they all have interesting space design.

I finally feel like it's summer!