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)