Thursday, August 13, 2009
august 13th, 2009. thursday. approx: 12:30 pm
i just got into london yesterday after spending an absolutely amazing week in france. it is such a wonderful place. and the people were really nice. everyone wanted to help us out and give us suggestions on things to do. and we met some rather interesting and entertaining people while we were there as well. overall it was probably the best week i have had all summer.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
august 2nd, 2009. sunday. approx: 3:15 pm.
i am in barcelona. waiting for shannon. i cannot wait for her to get here. hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. but, when i am abroad i seem to have a heightened sense of patience. it's strange. no where else does this happen. so i thought i would fill everyone in on the happenings of the last two days. granted, very little has happened, but i really want to be good about keeping track of what i have seen and done. so here it is.
_august 1st. i went to the forma, the international center for fotography (realize that should be with a "ph"), it took me over an hour to get there between subways and trying to find it, happens that it is in the middle of fucking nowhere, milan. but the show was really nice. a collection of photos from japanese artists. one of them represented japan in the venice biennale in 2005. my favorite piece, although i felt affected by quite a few, was a series by this artist, hiroshi sugimoto. there were only 3 pictures, but they were of these cinemas, completely empty, and just the white screen staring at you. they were black and white and the whiteness of the blank screen drew you into the photos so much, i think my nose almost touched one. i wanted to be immersed in it. i wanted the pure whiteness to surround me. it was beautiful. i also felt affected by this one photo by shomei tomatsu, it was just a picture of a watch, the face cracked, the time stopped at 11:02. it was found .7 km away from the center of the atom bomb explosion in hiroshima. i don't think i need to saw anymore about it. it was quite intense. then on my way back to the subway after the forma, i saw the strangest thing ever, there was this small side street and a grey mini van was stopped. it had a sun roof. out of the sun roof stood a DJ, and out of each of the doors of the mini van, there were what seemed like modern dancers, doing strange things, like putting their legs over their heads...etc. i don't even know how to describe it appropriately.
then when i got back to my hotel, i got my luggage and took a subway to the train station, an hour bus to the airport. i waited at the airport for 5 hours, got to spain, took an hour bus to barcelona, then had to find a taxi to my hostel. this taxi, was driven by the oldest taxi driver i have ever seen. he had to be at least 65. and he had to ask one of the other taxi drivers how to get to my hostel. and when he stopped the taxi (mind you he was driving manual) he pumped the breaks at least 3 or 4 times. it was fantastic. he also drove like a grandpa, so slow. it was insane, but i got there, checked in and went directly to bed, eventhough it was saturday night and everyone was out partying until all hours of the night. i am lame. and a grandma. what can i say.
_august 2nd. i got up for breakfast this morning, and there were three boys in my room. i mean, i assumed they were boys, but i had not seen them until this morning. i went to breakfast, which consisted of warm cereal, and bread, but was more than i had eaten in twenty four hours. then i went back up to my room and took a nap. by the time i woke up, the boys and their stuff were gone and i had the room to myself. i dressed myself properly and decided to go looking for someplace so that i could call shannon. at first, i could not find it, but i did come across a charming park and i climbed on some playground equipment by myself. then i walked some more and found some locals playing soccer on pavement. it made me surprisingly homesick, for my dad and brother. i took a video of the guys playing soccer, because i thought my brother might think it was cool. then i walked around some more and explored a part of town that was barely populated. it is also sunday, so i am sure it was just that people don't do much on sundays. i came across some graffiti that i took pictures of. my favorite was on this wall, that seemed pretty newly built, someone had spray painted, in black grita cuando te quieres. cry when you want to. i found it appropriate after having felt homesick earlier and wanting to cry. i walked around for another hour and then got a doner kebab for lunch. now i am wasting some time so that by four o'clock, i can try and call shannon, beacause that is when the telephone place opens.
_august 1st. i went to the forma, the international center for fotography (realize that should be with a "ph"), it took me over an hour to get there between subways and trying to find it, happens that it is in the middle of fucking nowhere, milan. but the show was really nice. a collection of photos from japanese artists. one of them represented japan in the venice biennale in 2005. my favorite piece, although i felt affected by quite a few, was a series by this artist, hiroshi sugimoto. there were only 3 pictures, but they were of these cinemas, completely empty, and just the white screen staring at you. they were black and white and the whiteness of the blank screen drew you into the photos so much, i think my nose almost touched one. i wanted to be immersed in it. i wanted the pure whiteness to surround me. it was beautiful. i also felt affected by this one photo by shomei tomatsu, it was just a picture of a watch, the face cracked, the time stopped at 11:02. it was found .7 km away from the center of the atom bomb explosion in hiroshima. i don't think i need to saw anymore about it. it was quite intense. then on my way back to the subway after the forma, i saw the strangest thing ever, there was this small side street and a grey mini van was stopped. it had a sun roof. out of the sun roof stood a DJ, and out of each of the doors of the mini van, there were what seemed like modern dancers, doing strange things, like putting their legs over their heads...etc. i don't even know how to describe it appropriately.
then when i got back to my hotel, i got my luggage and took a subway to the train station, an hour bus to the airport. i waited at the airport for 5 hours, got to spain, took an hour bus to barcelona, then had to find a taxi to my hostel. this taxi, was driven by the oldest taxi driver i have ever seen. he had to be at least 65. and he had to ask one of the other taxi drivers how to get to my hostel. and when he stopped the taxi (mind you he was driving manual) he pumped the breaks at least 3 or 4 times. it was fantastic. he also drove like a grandpa, so slow. it was insane, but i got there, checked in and went directly to bed, eventhough it was saturday night and everyone was out partying until all hours of the night. i am lame. and a grandma. what can i say.
_august 2nd. i got up for breakfast this morning, and there were three boys in my room. i mean, i assumed they were boys, but i had not seen them until this morning. i went to breakfast, which consisted of warm cereal, and bread, but was more than i had eaten in twenty four hours. then i went back up to my room and took a nap. by the time i woke up, the boys and their stuff were gone and i had the room to myself. i dressed myself properly and decided to go looking for someplace so that i could call shannon. at first, i could not find it, but i did come across a charming park and i climbed on some playground equipment by myself. then i walked some more and found some locals playing soccer on pavement. it made me surprisingly homesick, for my dad and brother. i took a video of the guys playing soccer, because i thought my brother might think it was cool. then i walked around some more and explored a part of town that was barely populated. it is also sunday, so i am sure it was just that people don't do much on sundays. i came across some graffiti that i took pictures of. my favorite was on this wall, that seemed pretty newly built, someone had spray painted, in black grita cuando te quieres. cry when you want to. i found it appropriate after having felt homesick earlier and wanting to cry. i walked around for another hour and then got a doner kebab for lunch. now i am wasting some time so that by four o'clock, i can try and call shannon, beacause that is when the telephone place opens.
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