My company’s project, Baxter Street Lofts in Athens, GA, is finally beginning to look like a building, after months (or shall I say years) of planning and hard work. We are shooting for completion in December 2007, so reserve your loft today before we sell out!

Today I completed Jane’s renovation (except for the carpet. That will be installed in a few weeks, but come on! Other than that, it’s finished.). I had fun on this project, and I learned a lot about project management. It made me realize that for future project management jobs like this, I need to be available more often to oversee the progress and talk to the subs. I liked working on this project so much that I am renegotiating my terms with Poliform so that I can have more time during contractor hours to do more projects like this.

You can visit my gallery to see all of the images of Jane’s condo.

http://www.rebargroup.org/projects/parking/index.html
What a clever “invention!” You are going to love this site.

What can I say? I have already promoted Barcelona until I couldn’t talk anymore (yeah right, like that would ever happen, but anyway). The top left picture is on the metro, and I took it just for CBQ. If you look closely, you can see the metro stop is Joanic, where he used to live. Becky and I invaded his old neighborhood, and had a great time. I even made a new friend, Eamon, who is an architect from L.A.
So anyway, the other pictures are from Parc Guell, with a great view of the city. And the bottom picture was also taken in the metro. This is an advertisement (right next to a Calvin Klein ad) protesting the war. If you didn’t know why the rest of the world hates us so much and thinks we are spoiled money-hungry aggressors, here is a little insight.

Becky and I had a wonderful time in Mallorca. We stayed in Can Pastillo, a small town east of Palma. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We rode bikes down the coast and through the city, got a little sun, and just relaxed. We didn’t mind that we were the only people under 65 in the neighborhood; we even went to German Bingo night at the hotel (oh yeah, and they were mostly german). We know we are wild and crazy. You don’t have to remind us!

These are pictures taken from our 7-hour ferry ride back to Barcelona. The first is a picture of Palma, and the second is a lighthouse that we saw a couple of miles afterwards. The bottom two really could be used as blackmail. Becky is eating lunch while laying out, compliments of the free buffet breakfast at our hotel. I don’t know how to explain myself in the other picture, except by saying that there are no gyms in France. But don’t worry; I am already in the process of trying to re-tone my muscles so that I will no longer look this flabby. At least on the boat it didn’t matter. From looking at the other passengers, I don’t think there are any gyms in Spain either.

I am just looking through her pictures and I found these, from Damien’s Class, where we made a newsletter for the class coming to Paris next year. We learned how to etch and make prints, and we got really messy, which was the best part. I miss that class. Somewhere on Becky’s webpage there are pictures of the two of us in a paint fight, and I know Casey has pictures of me in these huge gas mask-type goggles making stupid faces, but I can’t find those yet. Maybe I can post them next time. Anyway, this is making me a little sentimental, so I am gonna stop now, and do something productive like lay out on the roof terrace and read a book
I will see you guys soon!

This was from the beginning of the year (after we had only been here two weeks).
I haven’t been home in a few days, just been hanging out at the dorms, because they have movies that I haven’t seen before, so I still haven’t posted stuff from my Barcelona trip. But I promise it will be soon. We have almost exhausted their movie supply here too, so Wes and I might have to find something else cheap to do to pass the time of the next week. Anyway, I am on Casey’s computer right now (the dorm kids are so organized and friendly; when one of them is out of town, they have a secret hiding place for their key, so anyone else can use their room, or their computer and movies, while they are gone). I couldn’t go any longer without updating my site, plus I found this picture from what seems so long ago and it brought back memories of how clueless we were when we first arrived….all the bizarre stories we had about these weird French people and their habits, and how it all seems normal to us now. And I am sure in a week I will step off the plane in Atlanta and start those feelings all over again, except the weird people will be my friends and family and I guess Americans in general. All I can say is, what a year, what an adventure I have had as well as what is to come!

I have to admit I feel a little guilty for being in Spain without CBQ, frequenting his favorite places, calling him from his old dorm, but then the guilt fades away once I realize, “I�m in Spain!” It took a lot to get here too. In the nature of France the train system was on strike, and somehow they coaxed Spain into striking too. So our train was no longer running to Barcelona, however we talked our teachers to getting us on a train going to Toulouse (the closest city to Barcelona we could get to). From there I almost got to drive a van through the Pyrenees into Barcelona, but I was the only one excited about this plan, since everyone who would have been riding with me has seen me drive before. So we took a bus, lost half a day of the field trip, but we finally made it in one piece. We had a blast with the class, even handed out two awards - Catie got the one for best person alive and somehow Wes got an award for being a loud obnoxious flirt (it had a title relating to being an “international” socialite, but I don�t remember it). I am proud of them both and a little surprised that Wes can get an award for being himself

Even though the Spanish government support the war, the people don�t, and they are more aggressive about showing it than the French. “No a la guerre!” is on the street, in the subway, and on an average of every building in sight. But we are safe; people don�t protest violence by causing it.

Becky and I hopped on a ship to Mallorca and we just returned yesterday. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we managed to get a bit of a tan. We rented bicycles and rode around the coast and through C�n Pastillo (the town outside of Palma where we stayed) one day until it got too cold, so we sought shelter in a tattoo parlor where Becky got her eyebrow pierced. Unfortunately our resort area had many old Germans in it, none taking advantage of the nude beaches, so we didn�t get the chance either. But it was fun, even German bingo night at the hotel (because it was too cold to leave the building and we couldn�t let those senior citizens out-party us).

We are back in Barcelona now, about to go shopping, eating plenty of arroz negro and patatas bravas con ai�li. If I must reiterate once again, we have a really rough life!

(Dios Mio! means Oh My God! in Spanish) 1.5 more days of intense work - planning, cleaning, packing, and studying - then we are off to Barcelona! YAY! I am getting really excited. What shall I wear while I am there? Guess I don’t have to worry about that question when I am on the beach….hee hee Today is April Fool’s Day, but I couldn’t come up with any good pranks for anyone. My best early April Fool’s Day prank was given to my dad (who didn’t fall for it for more than 1.5 seconds). I called him 1.5 weeks ago to tell him that I decided to change my major to interior decorating, and it would only take 1.5 years and about $10,000 more before I got my degree, which would be from a two-year institution ofcourse, because Georgia Tech doesn’t offer interior decorating. I guess I laid it on too thick to make it believable. I was quite impressed with myself for even thinking of this idea. I have this condition the French like to call “stair wit,” where you only think of good jokes or the right thing to say after the fact, when you are leaving the party and walking down the stairs, and then it clicks.

So I will try to update my site while I am gone, but I can guarantee that there will be no pictures included until I get back to my Precious laptop. She doesn’t like the sun and sand as much as I do, so she will not be joining me. Au revoir….

p.s. My mom and my aunt got back to the States safe and sound, and they had a wonderful time in Paris, and they were not harrassed at all by the French. Just so you guys know it is safe to travel here.

Something is definitely wrong with me. I have two nights before my final project is due for architecture studio, and I am printing my documents right now (i.e. I am almost done!). I don’t think I have ever finished this early; ofcourse I still have a few odds and ends to finish up, but usually I never get to that point of the project. What has happened to this procrastination that I always complain of having? Ofcourse, there are several other projects that I haven’t even begun, but I will worry about those later. One of those projects happens to be the making of my graduation invitations (I decided I wanted to make my own instead of doing something normal and easy like ordering them), so if you don’t get one in the mail soon, consider yourself invited anyway.

So here is my final document and pictures of my final model for this studio project, which focuses on representation of architecture and representation as architecture. This is a pavilion that celebrates the personality of a security guard, but that isn’t the important part. The assignment focused on representing the ideas of the project clearly in the documents so that no explanation was needed. I decided to be subtle by posting tv monitors across a wall with images relating to the context of the pavilion, so that the entire building becomes an apparatus to monitor the surroundings. There is more boring explanations behind it, but who has the time or the attention span to sit through my ramblings?

As one of our nights in Prague reached a conclusion, Ian pointed out to us that we walk the most dangerous route to the hostel from the metro. To convince us, he played out all the possible scenarios of what could happen on this stranded, graffiti-covered journey beside the interstate, under a bridge, and up a broken set of stairs. This included everything from a gang fight to a drug deal to a prostitution sell (Ian was the prostitute). He thinks this was dangerous…..he definitely hasn’t seen where I used to live on Ponce!