working late nights.... boston @ midnight

see flickr for large file

and the days grow short...

so it finally happened, its no longer sunny when I leave the office at 7:30. Between that and the fact I need pants for biking in means only one thing... fall is here. Though its not all bad, does mean that football is back and I have and excuse to watch TV on the weekends.

work in the office is very busy, we are in the thick of CD's. There is always something to draw or coordinate. I really enjoy the project but its hard to constantly have to be on top of your game. It is nice to see the set of drawings progress and its fun to learn Revit in the process. Its not the easiest program to pick up on the fly and be expected to produce beautiful drawings.

I hope to take what I'm learning here and re-invest it in my thesis project as I get back into working on that at some point...

I actually made it to the Boston College/Virginia Tech game a few weeks ago care of Ashlee. So I was able to see the team in real life which was a treat. Not quite the atmosphere of Blacksburg on a game day, but it was a lot of fun and really enjoyed spending he day tailgating and meeting people.

I've begun to study for my ARE exams, I've taken (and passed) PPP. So only six more to go, Site planning is up next. Hopefully that will go just as well. I'm trying to study as much as I can, having a good group to do it with has certainly helped and pushes me along. The test are a weird combination of extremely board subjects with very specific questions. I find myself constantly second guessing what would seem normal or prudent for what answer the test is actually looking for. But I do find myself enjoying the studying and learning about the practice. I'm sure it would be easier with more working experience under my belt, but I will enjoy the freedom that being licensed will bring.. perhaps.... We'll see how the tests go.


I've started playing soccer with a couple friends, through a social league in Boston. Its really informal, half field with only 2, 25 min halves. Its a nice change of pace for exercise though and remembering how to play soccer is good (most likely hilarious to those watching).

some pictures of when the germans were around and of dad's place in maine... see flicker for full albums

10 miles gives you some time to think...

I went for a run with my buddy Mike this morning.... gave me some time to ponder this post.. figured I'd just throw it out there.

As a life update.. for those that are interested.. or follow.. Boston is great. Work is really, really busy. I am just going 115% every day.. all day. I love it. We are now deep into CD's and the amount of things that are swirling in my head about the building make me ill at times. Its hard to keep it all straight and sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed. But I wouldn't change anything.

I was home over the last weekend and I went back through some of my old projects and I have got some good ideas for a furniture design I'm considering, I need to find someone with some experience to find out how I could get some prototypes made.. or how...

My friends from Germany arrive Wednesday evening... I am really excited to have them in town and it will be a nice break. We have some adventure planned and will be a fun time showing them around.


Here is the deep stuff....

Note: The first part of this post was started around 3 months ago

Recently Nate stopped by the office in Boston on his way up to the 603. One of the first stops was the 17-20” Wacom tablet I call a computer screen. “They let you touch this?” was his reaction (and to be honest mine as well when I was told which desks I could use.) A few days later in discussion about my blog he suggested I do an entry entirely on the tablet. The idea grew in my head and I after thinking about it for a few days I came up with a good direction to take my thoughts.

Now, the tablet is pretty awesome. I remember back in High school I think I saw a small tablet pad once a computer store. I probably wasn’t even sure what it was used for, but I knew it was cool, and I wanted one.

As I write this I’m having another flash back which is eerily familiar…

It’s of an old ITT Tech television commercial. I feel like this particular one aired from the late 80’s/90’s. It opened with these two guys in a large architecture office. I’m not sure if they were friends… or siblings or what… but either way. One was showing the other around and the younger of the two was completely enamored with the CAD drafting stations. The old school ones where this Ouija board looking mouse that clicked the tools on this huge pad. They show some screen shot of some poor intern hard a work drafting up some mindless detail in a building, but with some funky back ground music that makes it seem like the best job known to man. Yeah, that made me want architecture…

So flash forward to this last week, the similar situation is playing out in Behnisch studio East as I show Nate around.

Now… I must boast a little bit about the glory that is the Wacom screen. Outside it just being plain sweet (as any 20” touch screen would be) anything that involves Adobe programs is amazing. Say, cutting out silhouettes in photoshop actually approaches being enjoyable. Between key commands and the pen marking up pdf’s and doing little corrections is a breeze. I’ve notice that I save a lot of paper just going over the pdf’s on screen than having to print them out to check line weights. Though actually drafting and making corrections in AutoCad is not the best use, there’s just too much going on with the mouse to make the pen work well….. perhaps its only downfall.

Here we enter my current train of thought……

So that bit was written while I was still bright eyed and bushy-tailed about the Wacom tablet. And yes, it is pretty awesome, but sadly I ‘ve seemingly not been using it to the best of its ability. I’ve been spending more and more time in AutoCad and Revit as we get deeper into CD’s with he UB Law building. But the beginning serves as a nice segway into the current state of technology in the architectural practice.

There is always something new, faster, better on the Horizon that promises to be the savior of the professional office, weather it is a Mayline, AutoCad, Revit, or some yet unthought-of system. As anyone knows, this progress comes with a fair amount of skepticism. I had a little experience with Revit while in school, making my odd models for my thesis study, but actually getting into the program (and I haven’t even really done that) is an entirely new experience.

With hand drafting, or even CAD, drawings are still pieces of information that exist to themselves. Plans, elevations, sections all relate to one another and form the concept of the building, but they all exist as separate pieces of the puzzle.

One cannot assume that one will inform the other. They are unique.

However, with something like Revit, where one doesn’t make a drawing, but makes a building, these drawings all exist at once. There is no consideration in drawing a section, it can simply exist within the project. This is not to say that people don’t, or wont consider the section, but the very manner in which the basic quantification of architecture is made has been changed.

This of course can be said with any media or method of drawing. Drawing a section doesn’t necessarily imply an understanding of volume or presence. Lines on a page, if drawn by pencil or autocad are still just lines. Leaving a reader to extrapolate their meaning. But it seems to easy in Revit, to say, have a section and say that it has been “drawn”… because drawing something implies that it has been considered, studied or discussed. Which might not be the case at all.

Which then one might have to go back to the more “primitive” tool of CAD to flush out the detail or the information that one hopes to convey.

Well…. These are my thoughts for an Saturday morning….

awesome

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-57336.html

rankings

stumbled on this...

newest architecture school rankings here

Lazy Saturday...

So to get it out of the way... YES.. it has been too long since i've last wrote anything... but here I am... trying to catch up and get back into a rythm for this. Getting set up in the city is certainly taxing....

some photos of my time so far can be found here

they include pictures from when the office went to Toronto for a exhibition opening as well as some shots of boston and Adrienne's and Stans wedding (good times were had as shown by the 800+ images...)

As for the rest of what is going on. I'm loving the city, so far I really cant complain about anything.. perhaps it would be nice if I had a few more hours in the day to get work done or allow me to enjoy a bit more of my social life.. but really I cant complain to much. I've been working on the UB Law building in Baltimore since I arrived. Its a really great project and I've been learning a lot and really enjoy working with the group. I've been able to go down to Bmore a couple of times and see the site and be part of the semi-monthly meetings on the project. We are currently working on getting the CD's out for the project so its been really... really.. busy. I'm focusing a lot on the classrooms, library and the lighting. Its very much a throw you into the deep end of the pool and see if you can swim. Which I love...

Last week we went to Toronto to see the opening of a museum exhibition that the office had there on design, ecology and technology. I had never been to Toronto so it was certainly a nice treat and was fun to see the city and watch a bit of soccer.

They had been preparing for the G8 and G20 so there was a huge amount of security going on in the downtown area. It was really quite something... all of the police.. the huge fence they create around the entire central downtown area. Some shots of all that on the flickr...

As for outside of work. I've been keeping pretty busy with the little time I have. I've enjoyed being close to home so for a couple weekends I've taken advantage of that and spend time with family. Which has been nice. I'm riding in the Prouty this weekend.. so I'll be home then as well and that will be a nice time spent with dad and timothy.

I've finally dragged myself to a Redsox game as well.... three no less even. I went to the Baltimore game last night which was a blast as well as seeing the Twins from the Bud deck with Chris and Ashlee. Good times were had by all. I've been able to get some great meals and catch some music as well. I've generally enjoyed meeting people in the city and there always seems to be something going on. In general.. I've been having a great time.

Well that will serve as a small general update.. I'll attempt to be more on top of things now and give more timely updates of what I'm up too...

Prouty

My dad, brother and I are going to be doing the 50 miler this weekend to benefit cancer research. We would appreciate you support. Please feel free to donate in support... give what you can.. every bit helps!!

donate here

and I'm settled... kinda

Well I'm sure that my absence has dissuaded anyone who might be reading from doing so. I've sure taken my sweet time in getting back into writing. This note will serve no more than to assure people I still am alive and plan to keep this updated. I've moved into my place and slowly set up my room and unpacked my things. Its take a while but it sure feels good to get settled in the city. I bike into work which is great, only takes me about 15 minutes or so going over the Mass Ave bridge. I've been starting to train again with the GBTC. They run some nice workouts on Tuesday nights and I've slowly started to work normal runs into my schedule. My legs are tired but I really enjoy being active and training again.

The office is great.. its especially nice not having to worry about the commute home in the evenings. I tend to leave around the same time but I have a lot more free time in the evenings. I've been able to hang out with friends in the city and enjoy a bit of social life. Which is a great change.

But thats all I have, I got back from my run and I'm just exhausted. I'm working on some thoughts for some posts and I'll upload them once I have a free weekend.

peer reviewed!!

well, I must say, basking in the glory that someone other than myself reads this thing my mind has now exploded with ideas.... which I think I'll bait and hang on the line for this weekend. They stem from a suggestion from Nate and I'd like to collect my thoughts before I push them out into the river at 11 pm... I certainly dont want this to become some sort of pity party, so I'm reflecting on Nate's advice as I push forward.

however, I have found a couple of nice links and and thought I'd share


the state of architects websites is pretty sub par.. all flash (literally) and no substance...read on

though if you are traveling to Athens, London or Paris.. you must go here (I think I've posted this before.. but the site is kick-ass and everything one would want...

a little mental stimulation

and some of my own images





I see this sign every day, (twice to be exact) and it always makes me chuckle. You see it right as you emerge onto the roof at the parking deck in Lowell. The goal of the sign seems suspect. I'm sure that even the most astute driver cant prepare for a car to fall from the sky... or from time... (not sure which direction/dimension they intend to reference)





I took the train out to Brookline to meet my new eye doctor today. It was a nice ride and a nice opportunity to get out of the office during the day. I've come to enjoy the green line. Even though it seems to enjoy ending service at government center for some reason the train conductors seem the happiest on this line. Or maybe its just the old world trolley feel one gets as the screeching coaches come lumbering up the track. The red line has definitely been the bane of my existence thus far in Boston. it simply is never on time and or some train is always broken down and affecting the route.

where does this train go?

­So I’d thought I’d take some time to reflect on a few things on my time in Boston so far. This, in my slow attempt to move this blog to something a bit more professional… or at least substantive. Though I’m sure at times I move further away. Oh well… its all a process.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a litany of opportunities to meet up with people that I haven’t seen since college, or even high school. Some of these meeting have been by chance. Randomly running into people while on a lunch break in Chinatown, while the majority were planned. I found myself in one such engagement last night. Sharing drinks with someone that I haven’t seen (or spoken to) in almost ten years. Outside of the obvious “what the hell have you been up to” questions it evolved into a sort of cat and mouse game of rediscovery. I’ve found that in these recent re-meetings I have figured out a lot more about myself than I otherwise knew, or acknowledged.

With what probably resembles the efficiency of speed dating one is forced to come up with concise answers that otherwise float around in my head for days. The example of what do I see myself doing with architecture entails roughly a couple hours of explanation, but I’ve found can be summarized in a few seconds. And I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Having to describe who you are, to someone who once knew you is a very odd experience. Immediately one (or perhaps just I) compares their past and present life. It affords you the opportunity to accept, or discharge your personal qualities. For example, often when around people you’ve known for a while you behave as well… you always would. Even if that’s not necessarily you, or maybe just that it is you, but doesn’t seem noteworthy.

I’m not suggesting that since I’m in a new city I’ll become some new person or suddenly change. But its certainly provides a very nice framework in which to establish (or at least become aware) of what qualities of life I’ve come to enjoy and those that I haven’t. These meetings have really highlighted the changes that I’ve gone through and how much I’ve changed, and stayed the same over the years.

So my time in Boston so far has given me the time to finally slow down a bit, and through the establishment of a normal work routine and meeting these old friends figure out how I want to spend my time here.

I’ve also discovered (ironically considering my previous statement) that I cant stand slow people. Their lives just don’t make sense to me. Those that walk slowly down the subway platform or sidewalk, the slow drivers in the left lane… People often tell me life is about the journey, but I would disagree, life happens at specific locations, events, places. And I want to be there when it does, so get out of my way.

I also thought I’d take the time to outline (mostly to myself) a few of the projects I’d like to get started on.

Submitting my thesis work to the BSA student competition. This will require a fair amount of work to get the project to the quality I’m sure they are looking for and fulfill the requirements but I think it would be fun to try and would certainly get the ball rolling in terms of working on my book again and getting it ready to make printed copies.

Rebuilding my portfolio of work… and organizing it into a respectable website. I feel like I have a decent amount of work and I want to come up with a better way of showcasing it.. this requires a fair bit of planning and help…..

Getting my laptop stand idea to a point where it can be legitimately shot down or not as a viable project

Slowly buy Surely....

With every passing week I'm growing more and more comfortable with being home (the weather sure has helped). The office in Boston is great. I'm enjoying my time there and everyone is very nice and very helpful in getting me orientated. Presently the office is mainly focused on Baltimore, we were getting the design development drawing set as well as an associated presentation out last week. I was working on a couple interior perspective shots for materials and such as well as classroom perspectives.
These are really quite basic, going into sketchup and creating the space quickly and then using photoshop to place some materials and things. Initially I was finding it a bit difficultot get into these. Its similar to the perspectives I struggled with for the competitions but now they want to have a bit more precision as well as realistic representations of color and materials. So there is a bit more than just leaving it sketchy. But eventually I got the hang of it and I'm getting better (or I would like to think so) with the whole thing.
At the end of the week I started working on a seating plan for a large auditorium in the building. Trying to figure out how many seats we can fit in and what the spacing will be depending on the types of seats used.
Over the weekend I relaxed, which was great. No running around. I did go to Dover/Portsmouth for Saturday which was nice. Went out to drinks with Maura (who I hadn't really seen in a very, very long time) as well as going to my sister's swim meet at phillips exeter. I poked around the library there in hopes of getting in but I think they were on spring break so no dice. But now that I'm in the area permanently perhaps I'll make a swing by when it will be open. It would be nice to get inside and appreciate the space.
I also found a place in Boston, which is a great load off my mind. Its a nice place in Cambridge that I'm sharing with 3 other roommates. It has off-street parking, short bike commute into the office and is located close to the metro. I think it will be a nice place to get used to Boston City living. I'm looking forward to getting my 4 hours a day I'm loosing to my commute. I think I'll start running again once I get situated there, it will be good to pick up and lord knows I need to get back in shape... But its getting late, so off to bed for me.

first couple weeks

some pictures of my weekend at Killington here


So its been a few weeks since I came back to the states and I've slowly been adjusting to life in Boston. The office is great and its been a nice transition. The commute in from Concord is long, but living with the two Chris's has given me a nice base to call home as I get situated and look for a new place in Boston. We learned that the office in Stuttgart recently won a large project in the city which is great news for the firm.

Also learned that we won the urban design project we were consultants on in Singapore. That is especially nice given that I spent so much time on that project while in Stuttgart. It will be interesting to see what the project turns into and what our role in it will be. Well I have a long weekend of meeting friends and getting to know the city (and some office work) so thats all for now...

as usual I hope to add more as I have more time, which I slowly seem to have more of... its a nice feeling...

back in the U.S.A

hello all!!!

I made it back. the flight home wasnt bad at all. My friend Johnannes gave me a life to the airport with was a big help, as it would have sucked to have dragged my 100+ pounds of stuff to the S-bahn station at 5m on Sunday. Once at the airport I discovered that my flight to London had been cancelled. They put us on a Lufthansa flight that left a bit earlier and there was no problems. Went through security once there (keep count of this for later). The german border police took a bit longer that the others with my passport but didn't say anything and didn't ask any questions. So it would seem I have no problems there. Once in London I transfered to to Terminal 5 and went through security again, full pat down (possibly due to me forgetting I had my watch on... or maybe I just looked weird... who knows.. I waited around in the terminal for a bit, I got my tax refund on the few items I had the receipts for and then made my way to the gate for my flight to Boston. Once there we had to go through additional screening at the gate. (third time).

This took forever, between this and possibly a stacking of planes we didnt leave London till around 12 noon (supposed to be 11). Though somehow we managed to get into Boston around 15 min ahead of schedule... speedy. The flight was good, I slept a bit, watched some tv, tried to read and then slept some more. I got 20 questions from the border patrol guy here.. why I was there so long and how I had so much vacation with my job. through some fancy wording of travel arrangements and (mostly) true statements he sent me on my way. So we'll see if my passport is good the next time I need to go someplace...

I spent the rest of the day at Salt Hill enjoying some music and then moving stuff into my new place in Bow with the two Chris's. It will be a nice place to hang my hat while I search for a reasonable place closer to the city.

The boston office is a complete change from stuttgart. Just on a completely different set of priorities. Its a bit hard to get used to and its definitely going to take me a while to adjust my brain to how this office works. But its nice to come at it from this end than to go the other way. I am working on the Baltimore Law Center project and helping the rest of the office with the drawing sets that are going out.

Well thats all for now... bed is calling after a long first day...

last day

new pictures from the weekend.... here

nice architecture article.... here

busy packing...

last full weekend

My last full weekend in Stuttgart was a good one. Annika came down from Holland and we spent the weekend crossing off the last items on my "to do" list. We went to the cube (the modern art museum , Weissenhof Estate, the Mercedes Museum (yes I have already been there but it is really quite nice), climbing (riding an elevator) to the top of the TV tower, and going to the Zoo among other things. We spend some time just wondering around the city center as well.

The weather couldn't have been better, it was warm, mostly sunny and just made it a great time to get out and enjoy the city. here are a few teaser photos.. I'll update more and ost more pictures on flickr this week.

late nights - inspiration

the last week has been very busy with the current competition. but I think things are going well and I finally starting to feel comfortable with the projects. just in time for me to head home. the last few days I have been working on office concepts for the building as well as several series of diagrams outlining our idea for the building and how individual parts of the building work, and were devised. We had a review this evening and it went well, no major things were lacking that I had worked on so I feel good about that, I think tomorrow I will get some new marching orders for the project for the last few days. We will see what I get put to work on.

I thought I would include a couple of links of some places I like to visit for inspiration and such

Detail is great for the technical aspect, lots of great drawings and the nitty gritty of how buildings work and go together. I currently have a subscription to this one.

Wettbewerbe is another great magazine that I have been introduced to. it fills the opposite roll of detail. It showcases all the competition results for projects. One can see all the boards for architects that competed for various projects and see how each did. It is a great place for ideas and for concepts on how to lay out boards and for different ways to showcase information. I plan to start getting this when i return (even though its all in german)

this is a shot crossing the tracks late night....

Hello - Links

So, I am posting associated links here..

my ETD can be found here

pictures (flickr) can be found here

its been snowing in stuttgart all week, we have a nice covering and its looking quite pretty. In the office today and its hard to believe I only have a couple weeks till I return home. I purchased my MBTA pass today and I am excited to start making use of it. I'm interested to see what I will be doing in Boston. I think it will be mostly construction documents for the project in Baltimore, but who knows. Doing that will be a nice switch from my current position. It will let me see how we develop all the crazy ideas we come up with in competitions into actual architecture.

I think this week will be a quick one and I'm already preparing for what I will do this weekend. I think prob veg and soak up a bit more of the city. I will prob spend saturday out and about, maybe go to the Kunst museum and wander around some of the other shops and stuff.

Last night I went out to dinner with a friend from the office, had a nice meal and talked about the office. It was good get out and enjoy the city like that, its something that I haven't really made time for or... or had time to do... not sure which....

hello

well, hello from snowy Stuttgart. Though we probably don't have as much as the East Coast... it was nice to have it snow this week. I think all told we got around 4-5 inches. Work has been crazy this last week. I have been working on the competition in Paris, doing some 3D stuff as well as creating the site plan. We have a former employee in town to do the renderings for us (he runs his own rendering firm now) so I have been helping him make our building so he can construct the pretty pictures for our boards. When not busy with that I have been working on our site plan and other drawings for the boards. Its a lot of time spent in CAD and then photoshop to make them look nice and get the colors to match. The due date on the project is next friday so will be in the office all weekend and next week for the final push.

Its hard to believe that my time is winding up here. I am certainly ready to get back to the states and settle in there. The months certainly flew by and and I have learned so much. I am look forward to my last couple of weeks...

its a busy week.. pictures of visiting Annika can be found here. I will provide descriptions later....

weekend update

just a quick update of the weekend. I went to Holland and visited Annika who is working there for a few months. We traveled around to Amsterdam and Rotterdam as well as saw Den Haag (where she works). It was a good weekend and it was nice to get away before the last few weeks here in stuttgart. I submitted my book and will post a link to the Virginia Tech Library site when they have it on the server. I will be updating it as well and printing hard copies at some point when i get home. I will post photos from the weekend and a full description later this week.

a shorter album of Chris's entire visit can be found here.

so the last week was spent working on a new competition for a Laboratory building in Germany. I joined the group a little late in the game but it was a nice project and fun to work on. It was a bit like the first project I worked on when I arrived in that I had very little time to make certain drawings fit into how our office presents them. I was somewhat successful in this light. I worked on the elevations for a few days and then on an interior perspective. The interior perspective turned out a bit better and involved a lot of work (at least for me).

After that was submitted on Thursday night I was moved to another competition project that is in Paris. there is around 3 weeks left in the project and right now I am coming up with the site plan for the boards. I think that I might have a better grasp now of colors and how things should look, so hopefully it will go a bit faster and look a bit better.

This weekend I spent saturday relaxing and catching up on all the things I neglected during the week. Sunday I am spending doing my last bit of work on my book as well as a bit of office work. I got the corrections I need to make from the grad school (only one) and so I am going to do that and then send it off. I plan on spending the rest of the week maybe doing some fun stuff to do and upload a final copy later in the week. Then I'll be done.. a little later than normal, but hey... its still done. And I like how it turned out. Its not the greatest book, and there are some things I would have done differently. But overall I think it shows my work nicely.

Next weekend I will be going to the Netherlands and visiting Annika for a few days. She is working in an office there for a few months. I have never been there so it will be a nice change of scenery and to see her.

post vacation....

I was able to post a couple days while on vacation but here is an overall recap and what I am up to now...

also, complete picture diary can be found here. (yes, there are a lot) I will upload an edited set of my favorites within the next week or so.

Chris arrived on Friday afternoon, after a long, but reasonably uneventful trip. I managed to find him in the airport around an hour after he landed but was in good spirits. That night we got some dinner and explored around the town at bit. Let chris soak up a bit of the night life and try to keep him awake so he could get his clock on german time. Saturday we got on a train to Munich and toured the city for a day. I revisited a couple sites I had been too but also found some new places. Sunday we spend touring the Benz and Porsche museums which was a lot of fun. Both had some really great stuff.

Monday picked up our car rental and started out on a couple day drives around the black forrest area. The first day we did a panoramic tour (though pretty cloudy) and found some small towns to explore. Tuesday we spent doing the same, a longer drive today, down the wine road near france, which was a great drive. Wednesday we went to Nurburg and to the ring. we spent some time in the museum/adventure area they have there as well as went into the town and explored the castle.

Thursday was spend on the train again, we went to Frankfurt and had a great day there. It is a very urban city (sky scrapers and all) we walked around a few of the notable buildings as well as the old city center. We also hit a nice little architectural museum as well.

After getting up very, very early to get Chris on a plane home friday morning I went into work. I wanted to see how the final bit of the urban planning project I was a part of went. The boards looked great and everyone seemed to be happy with the outcome. We will hear in a few months I think.... About mid-day I was added to a competition for a small lab building. Its quite a change from the last project but its nice to have a sense of scale again. This is a very quick project (at least for me) as it is due Thursday evening.

I also submitted my thesis book for review so I should be hearing from the grad school in the next week or so regarding changes and then that will be done as well... will be really nice to have that all said and done. Well I am off to get some office and book work done. Hope everyone is well.

tuesday

news-flash:

chris eats chicken wrapped in paper towels.... you heard it hear first folks

it took us a little longer to get moving this morning than we thought. last night we went out with my friends in stuttgart for some drinks and while we only had two we didnt meet them until 9pm so it was a late night by the time all was said and done. today we spent on another drive around in the black forrest. we went down to the souther part of the natural reserve and drove though towards france. we stopped at a couple smaller towns along the way and did some sightseeing. It was a great drive and had some awesome views.

Once we made it over to the other side we came back up on the regions "wine road" which was a great driving experience but by that point in the afternoon the fog had settled in and we couldn't see more than a few hundred yards off the road. Pretty disappointing as I'm sure there were some great thing to see as we drove through But we had some adventure trying to stick on the path through these little towns.

I'll load all my pictures from the time Chris is here next weekend. here are some from today.

Sunday

after sleeping in a bit more than we anticipated Chris and I set off on exploring some of the attractions that Stuttgart has to offer. We visited the new Porsche Museum, attempted to climb the tower at the train station (seemingly closed due to the poor weather) and then went to the Mercedes Museum. Both places were great, and offered something a little different. It was interesting to be able to compare the BMW, Mercedes and Porsche museums to another and pull out the aspects, both in the buildings and layouts but in the cars as well that we enjoyed or disliked. They all had a different way of going about showcasing their products and telling their history.

we returned in the evening and I introduced Chris to my favorite doner kebab place and planned our route for tomorrow. We are picking up a car at the train station tomorrow and doing some drives over the next few days around the area. I think tomorrow we will be driving through the norther black forrest area and visiting a brewery. We are going to take our time and just meander around. Get to know the area and stop if we see something of interest.

Here is some eye candy from the day...

long week... vacation now...

sorry for the last week or so. I haven't been on top of my game in keeping this updated since I have returned to Germany. I have been absolutely floored with with (both school and in the office). This last thursday we had our deadline for the office project we were working on and on friday I needed to submit a copy of my book to the grad school for a first check. So a lot of sleepless nights and headaches all week.. but its over now. And Chris has arrived, which is great.

the book, is coming along, still a lot of work to do on it, but its coming together nicely and I think it will look great when all is said and done. I'll get some feedback on it in a few days/weeks and have a couple more weeks to work on corrections.

friday after Chris arrived we went into the city center and wandered around a bit. showed him a few things in the downtown area. then got dinner at a beer hall/restaurant.

Today we took a train to munich and spent the day there. We hit up BMW welt and the museum as well as the olympic park and then wandered around downtown for a while. dinner was spent at hofbrauhaus.

Tomorrow I think we will spend the day in stuttgart, go to the Porsche and Benz museums as well as prob some other places down town (train tower, assorted museums....)

One week.

I've spent the last few days reflecting on the first bit of my trip to Stuttgart and thinking about how I will spend my time hear in the future. I think that finally having a job has begun to set in (a very good feeling) and the routine that it brings is also very welcome. I know, in some way, what I'll be doing and feel a bit happier (or at least burdened) in a way that I have some sense of stability. Also I realized that it was good to be back "home", I realized that in a few conversations I used the word home to describe my place here in Stuttgart. And while this isnt really the case long term, it certainly was an interesting realization in how comfortable I have become here. I certainly have a long way to go in becoming 100%... or even 50% comfortable.. but it was a nice feeling nonetheless.
Work is going well... its a bit chaotic as the project approaches the end (and I can begin to see why it was difficult when I originally came with only two weeks left in my first project). We are feeling confident about our contribution to the project but at times it is frustrating as being a consultant we dont really know what parts they will use or will find ourselves a few days into something only to discover they have gone in a different direction. It forces one to quickly regroup and try and find a new plan of attack. But after Thursday/Friday our part will largely be done (and I go on vacation for a bit). There was mention of a model for their final presentation in Feb and I'm not sure if that task will fall on me or if I will move to different project entirely.
Chris will arrive in less than a week and we've got a loose plan of what we will do while he is here but we havent nailed down specifics of our days. Which I think we will do this week.

It snowed pretty heavily here yesterday/last night and now we have a good 5-7 inches on the ground it seems. It may even snow today through tomorrow and we might end up with a good amount of snow when all is said and done.

Well I am off to work on my book and get some work done for the office. The book is due by the 15th so i've got to hammer that thing out and get it out of my life.

Back in the Saddle Again

So I made it home and back over the holidays. I took a train from Stuttgart to Zurich and then flew to Boston. It was good to spend time at home and relax for a while. While home I was able to move some things into my new place (for when I finally return) which was a good thing. One less issue to worry about once I return from Stuttgart. Most of my time at home was spent trying to stay warm. The cold was accompanied with snow, which is a nice thing but some days were just too brutally cold. But I suppose I have to thicken my blood for when I finally move back.

New years eve was spent at home. Had some friends over and watched the football game which was a lot of fun. I was able to put the swedish fire log as well as the Feuerzangenbowle which was a lot of fun. The trip back to Stuttgart was a little stressful, the plane was delayed for around an hour and a half and then there was trouble getting the baggage off the plane in Zurich. These two issues caused me to miss the train I initially wanted to take home. I had to wait a couple hours till the next one went through. So when all was said and done I didnt get back to my place till 7. Needless to say I didnt go into the office.

Though it was nice to get in today and get back to work. The next two weeks are going to fly buy, two big deadlines, one with work and the project and then the other with my thesis book. And then Chris arrives on the 15th.

Its late and I'm tired.... I'll update more about my vacation later... few pictures of my trip can be found here (they are the few new ones at the end of the album)