Paris Pics

Paris

So last week we took a trip to Paris. It was fun getting there. We rented a car which ended up being a lot cheaper as well as allowing us to drive on the autobahn extremely fast in the six speed car the dealer hooked us up with.

First day we were they we walked around in the parks by the river for the most part. Really nice and relaxing. Then we went out for a nice dinner in St.Germaine. After dinner we were looking for somewhere to go for the night and found a bridge with around 300 kids sitting on it just having a spontaneous party. So we decided to simply sit on it and we spent the night there hanging out with the young locals.

Next day was the busiest tourist day I have probably ever experienced. Walking taken to a whole new level, also while running on very little sleep. In the morning we went to the Musee d'Orsay which was one of my favorite museums we have been to. Then we walked around through the parks some more, and went to Notre Dame, which was pretty amazing but I have to say the Dom in Cologne is more impressive. From their we headed to the Modern Art Museum which has all the usual inner components of the building on the outside of the building. The museum had some really cool stuff and some pg-13 stuff that was a little weird if you ask me. From there we went to meet up with my roommates parent's for dinner. This was proceeded by us going to the Louvre until it closed. The Louvre way to big to try and see in three hours we basically walked through it saw the Mona Lisa and would stop occasionally to look at something we found interesting. Then from there we went over to the Eiffel tower and stayed there until that shut down. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest. On the third day we tried to go to the catacombs but ran out of time. It was time to head back and cruise on the autobahn. Short trip but a good one overall.

Berlin

So this weekend we decided to make a trip to Berlin with our new bus passes. We left early Saturday morning, and yes early means before 7 am. We arrived and headed to the Berlin design festival. It was very cool despite all the hipsters. The exhibition seemed composed of all very young designers work which was cool. The work itself was very on the artistic side of design which was interesting to see. After getting our fill of design we headed out to see the city. We had some dinner and of course watched the world cup while eating with the endless televisions set up to watch it on. After dinner we went and found our hostel which seemed almost too nice to be a hostel. After that we headed out to this old apartment complex that has been turned into basically a squatters place for artists who pay I think one euro a week in rent, ha. It was very neat, not sure if I could live there though like I'm told some of the people do.

This concluded the end of the daytime and it was time to head out. We found an English bar to watch the England vs. USA game. We were vastly outnumbered to say the least. During the national anthem I was singing pretty much as loudly as I could while getting cursed at and booed, awesome. That only inspired Chet, Will, and I to chant louder and more often during the game. Chants such as

"Drink some tea" clap clap clap "Eat some Crumpets" clap clap clap

"You've got bad teeth" clap clap clap "You've got bad teeth"

Just an example of a few of them, it seemed almost to easy to make fun of them, ha. To my surprise most people seemed to be really cool about it and most everybody realized it was all in good fun and we were getting taunted as well. One example

"Hey you can't do that he's too close to the end zone."

Anyways that was fun. The next day we spent walking around in the park, we visited the Berlin wall, and then it was game time again. This time it was the opening game for Germany. We went to the public viewing put on by FIFA. There was probably somewhere from 40,000 to 60,000 people there hard to tell when you're in the middle of the swarm. After the game we caught the train home around 1 am and got back at 5:30 am just in time for class at 9 am, ha.

Berlin overall was a very cool city. Seemed very down to earth and not packed with tourists. The town feel was very blue collar, which I liked. We will probably be going back.

La Boqueria (The Market)

Barcelona

It was quite the journey getting to Barcelona. We found great tickets that were only about 75 dollars round trip. However we landed in Girona around midnight which is about and hour north of Barcelona. We really had no plans for a hotel that night. We ended up spending the night at the Girona bus station until about six in the morning when the train came. In between the times of setting high scores in tetris on my phone I learned some things while sitting the night outside. First of all, this may sound weird but you start to feel like a wild animal (besides the tetris). When you walk past somebody in the street you treat it almost unhumanly, you start judging their body language, you try and look dominant, and all your senses are going. Mom don't freak out it really wasn't that bad a place. Secondly I was once again reaffirmed that my life is pretty easy, there were a few people who walked into the bus station at about 4 am looking like they had just got off work and had about a half hour bus ride home. Thirdly, I don't want to be homeless.

Anyways we ended up catching the train at about 6:11 in the morning and took it into Barcelona. Needless to say I was pretty much unconscious the whole way there. We ended up walking around and looked over the city from a hill that we had walked up. Then we hunted down our hostel and checked in. We resisted the temptation to sleep but ultimately took an hour nap. We then spent the rest of the day sight seeing and going to the beach. That was quite the long blur of two days.

Our hostel was in the lower gothic which was a perfect location to the beach and all the sight seeing. It was definitely the old part of Barcelona, all small side streets and cobblestone streets that were nearly impossible to navigate where you were. They had lots of cool little shops, restaurants, and bars. All usually small and locally owned. Very cool stuff.

The days that proceeded that were full of usually sight seeing, then a late afternoon visit to the beach, proceeded by a nap, then out for the night. Inserted in the sight seeing rituals were many Gaudi works and museums.

Some of the places I can remember seeing were Gaudi's church, La Boqueria (Best market ever), the bull fighting ring, Casa Mila (Gaudi Building), MontJuic (Olympic Park), Parc Guell (Gaudi Park), Barcelona History Museum, Contemporary Art Museum, Barcelona Art Museum, the Barcelona Pavilion, the '92 Olympic Stadium, the whole beach front, and lots more.

Overall Barcelona is a very cool city. It was a great experience and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, awesome 6 days.

View from Gaudi's Parc Guell

Pictures wouldn't do it justice and neither did this little video.

It's hard to tell but the background is the ocean.

Red Dot Design Museum

Well today was a Tuesday which means we have no school all day, man going back to a DAAP schedule is gonna be rough. On today's free day we decided to head out to Essen and visit the RedDot design museum, which is located inside a building at an old Coal Mine, very cool. RedDot is an industrial design based organization that gives out annual awards to top products on the market. This was by far the best design museum I have been too, it is pretty much strictly industrial design. It was four floors and a basement of endless products to look at. I highly reccommend that anybody who is in Germany and interested in I.D. try and make a trip out to this museum.

Getting Technical

So for our project this semester in Wuppertal we are designing a shower radio. For the first month we have been strictly doing research and studying different shower radio products that each student has purchased. We have gone more in depth to materials and processes than we usually do in Cincinnati. I think overall this will prove to be a very vital experience. I'm excited to start thinking about the smaller intricacies of a design like leaving an indentation for product sticker placement so it doesn't just get randomly placed on in production. Thinking through small features like this and how to incorporate them into part of your design as opposed to simply putting them on as a last step. Try looking at the underside of a product next time you use it and it is often a dead giveaway to how detailed the designers and engineers went into making the product. Anyways enough rambling, this is a SolidWorks rebuild of the shower radio that I built. The render isn't the best but it was finished at four in the morning so bare with me.

BARCELONA!!!

We recently found out that we have the a week off from school. We thought there was no better chance to do some traveling during the school year than this, so we are headed to Barcelona for 6 days. Should be pretty fun.

Cologne or Koln

Koln Dom Church. It is quite an intimidating building and makes you feel very small and meaningless. Also it takes climbing quite a lot of stairs to get to the top. This was a fun easy one day trip only about a forty minute train ride away and of course free train ride again for students.

Looking to Travel

The last month that we are here we will be traveling around Europe. Anybody who has any input on what they think are must destinations please feel free to comment or e-mail me.

Amsterdam

About three weeks ago we decided to make a trip to Amsterdam. We took the train all the way into the Amsterdam Centraal and to our surprise it was a national holiday. We pulled in at about 9:30 pm and everywhere you looked people were wearing Dutch orange and every street in the city was closed down for two days. It was shocking walking into that without expecting it. We hadn't booked a hotel yet and the first three places we tried we were told "Good luck you will be sleeping on the streets tonight, It's a national holiday." Somehow we ended up finding a hotel though and then we joined in the festivities for the rest of the night. Amsterdam had a very cool layout to the city. Rivers everywhere and people seemed to always be outside enjoying just being outside, there were coffee shops and local restaurants lining the rivers and every street with people hanging outside it was very cool. Overall I really enjoyed the trip there it was almost otherworldly. Things there are acceptable that aren't anywhere else that I have ever been, it almost makes you rethink everything you were ever taught is right or wrong. A perfect example of this is the photo above in the park. Yep you guessed it, thats an outdoor urinal. I guess that's Amsterdam.

side note- the stairs at our hostel were quite steep.

A slightly larger soccer match

One Saturday we decided to take train into Dusseldorf to watch a soccer match. Which for us as student is very easy all travel is free and it is only about a half hour train ride. It was crazy as we were pulling in. There were swat cars all over the place. The trains were full of people drinking beer and wearing Fortuna red. Speaking of the beer public drinking is highly more acceptable and even expected. When we got off of the train to go to the stadium there were shopping carts that had been put out at the station, what were they for? Beer bottles and lots of them, ha. Anyways this was quite exciting as well to see soccer on a larger scale however it was wasn't the top division, I can't imagine how intense that must be knowing how many swat cars were lining the streets just for a division 2 game.

Local Wuppertal Soccer Match

People here really are crazy about there soccer, even down to the small local teams. I have never been a soccer fan but I can appreciate the excitement of being at a game. This was the local team in Wuppertal who are in the third division and from the groans of the fans who calm their nerves by slamming beers and cursing they will be moving down a division after this season. Anyways this was my first taste of European soccer even on a small level it was fun to experience.

My Apartment

WUPPERTAL

It's time that I start this blog fresh again. No better chance than now.... or one month ago. I have been in Germany now for over one month and figured that documenting what happens here in my design classes as well as life in general could be good for me and for everyone else who is wondering what I am doing. I promise it doesn't involve strictly drinking beer. Anyways I will do my best to keep these posts updated somewhat regularly. Hope you enjoy.

Watch Sketches

Proportion Study

Chess Set

A family of form study

Lemon Reamer