Drowning Out the Windowside

Sadness. Bad castle connection equates to me losing an entire post. Way too lazy to write that whole thing again, so here is the abridged version, void of any poetry and clever anecdotes.

We stopped on the way to Bruges to a town called Gent. We were looking at a painting that we were lectured on earlier in the week (Jan van Eyck's "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"). The St. Bova Cathedral it was in was gorgeous. To hear about a painting, go and actually stand two feet away from it and get lectured from European professors is sort of surreal. Again (Halie), I feel like freaking Harry Potter. So cool. The paintings themselves make me want to never doodle again... it's unbelievable what artists can make. This cathedral was so gorgeous (Mom, I kept wishing you were here to see it with me).

Much more to say about Belgium but I'll post it later.

Love to all :)

In the Shadow of the Modern Machine

(NOTE: This is the post I thought I lost... It's quite repetitive to the other Belgium ones I put up, but thought I'd throw it up anyways)

I lied. Turns out Bruges is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I'm still moving to Amsterdam, but Belgium is aaaabsolutely breathtaking.

(Got in late last night and stayed up even later, so I'll write about the first town we stopped in and do another post on Bruges later tonight.)

Bus ride was more or less 3 hours. I slept for 2 of these hours plus 45 minutes. We had to get up and be ready to leave at 7 and everyone was pretty wiped out. I don't know that anybody has fully recovered from the shift in time zone yet AND we've been up late/waking up early to go to class all day. That bus sleep was probably one of the best naps of my life. In the top 5, at least. So we stopped in a town called Gent, and the feeling I got stepping onto the street off of the bus can only be compared to coming out of the train station in Amsterdam and seeing the city for the first time: I have never seen anything like this. It's so quaint and beautiful it seems it should be a little lane in Disneyland. Doesn't even look real. The bus couldn't even drop us off right in front of the church we were visiting because the streets are so small and overrun by bikers. Bikers everywhere. If I acquire any bodily harm on this trip it will undoubtedly be because I've been hit by bike. We had stopped in Gent to visit the St. Bova Cathedral where Jan van Eyck's masterpiece triptych "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" is kept. We'd been lectured on the painting early on in the week, and I've got to say, it is the coolest thing in the world to read about a work of art and then have the ability to actually see it. Definitely not a luxury we have as often at home.

So we walked down a couple of blocks over to the cathedral and split up to grab lunch. My roommate and I wandered over to a quieter street and found a cafe that looked good. We sat down, picked up the menus, and realized they were written in Flemish. We do not speak Flemish. Thankfully, the tall cute waiter came, sat down next to us and asked how we were doing. We told him we didn't understand the menu and he goes "Yeah, that's what I figured" and read it to us :).

The cathedral was gorgeous. We weren't allowed any pictures (the one above is a copy of the main part of the painting we came to see) but the gothic style is unlike any old church I have seen at home. I've always loved church architecture and the beauty in this building was so moving. My church at home is nice, but very modern... This place had an original Michelangelo Seriously, the Belgium trip was easily the thing I was least excited about on this trip (mostly because I didn't know what to expect) and this little stop over in the small town was the most pleasant surprise.

Taffy Stuck, Tongue-tied

Off to Belgium for the weekend. Back Saturday night or Sunday... not sure yet. We'd been planning a Dublin trip for after we're through in Bruges, but due to the public transportation strikes among other things, it's not going to happen :(

Art history class all day today. The professor is fun, really knows what he's talking about. Laundry. Watched Robot Chicken with the guys living next door.

The picture here is the first time a group of us headed down to the little bar down the road. I got a haircut right before I left and it's driving me crazy how short it is.

Starting to get sick :/ Hopefully it's just allergies, but I definitely haven't been getting enough sleep and there's a cold going around. Boo.

Photos: Amsterdam

On a Tuesday in Amsterdam

Let me begin by stating that this is my best title thus far. If you haven't caught on, each title is a title or lyric from a Counting Crows song... Lame, I know, but I am terrible at titles.

Today was Amsterdam. I am moving to Amsterdam.

We woke up at 7 to catch breakfast, a bus, a train, another train, and arrive in Amsterdam. The day was centered around our digital photography class. We first had 45 minutes to grab something to eat and meet back at Dam Square (pictures in next post). A couple friends and I grabbed a snack (water bottles are 4 US dollars, most places here, by the way) and headed over to the shopping part of town. Then we headed over to the World Press Photo exhibit in this beautiful old church. World Press Photo is a contest that gives awards to various press photographers' work from the year. The exhibit was nice, but the church stole the scene. This place had beautiful etchings carved into the wooden ceilings and elaborate stained glass. The stone floors had carvings also, as they were tombs of various church patrons buried there. I've always loved church architecture, and as you'll see when I put photos up, this place had so much beauty. Next we had two hours to complete a photo assignment (I'll write more on this later when I can post the pictures). This was by far my favorite part of this day in that I had the chance to wander the city alone, think, write, photograph, and even speak with some local people. One man in particular was important to me today, an artist who spoke with me for about 20 minutes while I was photographing him... I stumbled upon him when I followed a canal down a road that turned out to be the Red Light District.

I don't know what you've heard about Amsterdam's Red Light District. While I'm sure it's not a place I'd like to be on a dark and quiet night, it is definitely not what you'd expect. I'd show pictures, but I couldn't take any because prostitute body guards come and yell and make you delete them. Yes, prostitutes. I was walking along, looking at my camera, when I happened to see, out of the corner of my eye, a glass door that led to a small room with a bed, curtains for the door, and a woman in underwear. It was so strange, seeing these men walk right up to them in the middle of the afternoon in front of everyone... blocks and blocks of these little "woman stores". Similarly, the infamous coffee shops were not hard to find. Or smell. While I didn't go in one, the sentiment was much the same: there was no shame for anyone to walk over and head into the back room, some bolder patrons even taking their product outside. Moral issues aside, there was nothing sketchy about either of these practices Amsterdam has become known for. They were simply treated as any other business. Not what I had pictured.

After shooting for a bit, we went to one last photo exhibit (the FOAM) that featured a display my roommate and I had to present on called The Ninth Floor by Jessica Dimmock (wikipedia it, it's very interesting). Then dinner at a little cafe with 12 of our group. Then I slept the whole ride home.

Terrible writing tonight, I know. Just wanted to get a sort of summary in. When I get home I'd love to talk about Dam Square, my painter friend, or the waiter who asked if I "remembered him from when we met in his dreams". But for now, I have more homework than I can fathom and even more sleep to catch up on. Ciao.

PS: The image is my favorite one from the World Press Gallery of Putin.

this picture you see is nothing like the one...

This is definitely not a vacation.

In class from 10-430 today :/ Photography was fine... The lecture was mostly on early photography and history of the camera, which was a bit dry for my taste. I love religious studies, so the Art History course kept my attention. Now I'm just wiped out from using my brain for the first time in two weeks. And I have homework :(

Looks like the Dublin trip won't happen, but we're booking tickets to Barcelona tonight and we'll probably make a day trip to some beachy town South of France. I could use some sun.

Also, we looked at everyone's first digital photography assignment, the self portrait. I posted mine. Don't make fun, they're sort of cheesey.

To a very special someone...

... I wanted to publicly wish one, Sir Jesse Matthew Brightman Esquire III good luck with summer school.