God jul!

Merry Christmas! (and Christmas means there is only one week until I am in Minneapolis...)

Norwegian Top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Bareback horseback riding. Yes, I have now officially ridden a horse. Without a saddle. And Ive learned that horses are very different than bikes.
2. My cousins. They speak better English than I do.
3. Norwegian Jul Services. I couldnt understand a word. I tried to sing, luckily it was loud so no one heard me butcher all the words.
4. Pepperkakke: crunchy gingerbread cookies
5. Saft: concentrated sugary juice drink
6. Norwegian Christmas Dinner: we had traditional roast lamb, chicken, potatoes, cooked vegetables and three courses of dessert.
7. Touristy Norwegian trolls. I got one for Christmas! They bring good luck.
8. Norwegian bike paths. There is a path on the side of every single road. I think that they run the length of the country.
9. The air. Its actually clean here.
10. The words GOD JUL. (MERRY CHRISTMAS). Sounds like gooo yoool.

and maybe a 10.5 - I think that Im going skiing in the mountains tomorrow. yay downhill!

Land of the Vikings...

Im in Norway, and Id say that its one of the most beautiful countries Ive ever visited. I flew in on the 18th from London. The plane landing was beautiful - the Haugesund airport is right on the coast. As we cruised in to the airport, I snapped pictures of the rocky little islands and watched the mountains in the distance. The rocks are bare and rugged - very similar to the Scottish highlands. There isnt any snow here, but its pretty darn cold. The sunlight situation is also a bit interesting. The sun doesnt fully come up until about 10am and it starts to disappear again at around 3pm. Therefore, Ive got a short amount of time during the day to get some sightseeing, running and bike riding in.

Now no blog entry would be complete without me raving about how great the riding is here, but really, its amazing. A trail system starts about half block from my relatives house and it winds up and down and through a forest covered mountain. The trees are absolutely covered in moss and there are lots of streams and lakes in the area. Every now and then I hit a waterfall. Im using a really fun steel frame bike that my relatives let me borrow. Im very grateful to have it, but let me just say that a rigid bike on these trails makes for some very rubbery arms and an exceptionally sore bum.

I went to Bergen on Wednesday with Solvi, and on the way there we got to stop and see their horses that they keep in a stable about 30 minutes away. I am not around horses often, and the size of their heads always surprises me. Its about half the size of my body. These animals are huge, and they were hungry. The little horse nibbled on my hand when I fed it. After the horses, we continued on to Bergen and drove onto a ferry to cross the fjord to get to the city. I hadnt ever been on a ferry before, so the experience was a lot of fun. I turned into a real tourist and climbed onto the upper deck to take some pictures. It took about 40 minutes by ferry to cross to Bergen - and Bergen is hands down the prettiest city I have ever been too. Everything was clean, stylish and manicured. The Norwegians have impeccable design style and the buildings werent overdone or gaudy. The city was perfectly laid out next to the Bryggen, or harbor, and the whole of Bergen is tucked inbetween seven mountain peaks. I took the Floibanen (a train-lift thing) to the top of one of the mountains to see the city from the top. It was well worth it. I did some drawings and a little bit of hiking, and left the top before it got to dark to see everything on the descent.

My relatives have been wonderful. The first night I stayed here it was my cousin Selinas birthday party and I was invited to partake in the festivities. Selina turned nine, so she had a little party with her friends and then afterwards all of the adult relatives came over for small dinner and cake. Now when I say cake, I MEAN cake. There were four of them. One chocolate with chocolate frosting, one with chocolate and mashed peanuts, one a traditional Norwegian cake with meringue in the middle and another with a graham cracker crust and a smooth gelatin top with blueberries and raspberries stuck into it. Needless to say all of the cake didnt get eaten that night, so weve been eating cake for the past week. But back to the relatives, I met too many people to remember all of their names, they were all very nice. My cousin Benedicte who is 21 has been inviting me out with her friends. A couple of nights ago we went to a cafe on the harbor and sat outside with drinks underneath heat lamps and blankets.

So far its been wonderful, and today I think that I will be going to a viking museum and maybe for a cruise on a big shipping boat out in the ocean... well see!

xoox
steph

I like this:

This is from the new Iowa women's team. I like numbers 1, 4, and 8. I'm not on this team, but don't worry Billy, I won't fire you.

Would you like to be a Punk Rock Woman? Simple... just follow these steps:
1. Train and race so hard you sweat, vomit, and bleed lactic acid.
2. Stand tall, stand proud, and be a leader in your sport.
3. Fire your coach and do it on your own.
4. Do it harder, better, and faster than the person next to you.
5. Host a race to benefit your cycling community, not its governing bodies.
6. Earn the win, and give your victory to a teammate.
7. Honor the finishers and call out the quitters for what they are.
8. If she defeats you, make sure she went through hell to do it.
9. Demand something better for yourself and all other women.
10. Never settle. Never settle. Never settle.

Number 10 also sums up my life. I've just realized that in my collegiate career, I've started out at a different college three years in a row. And this summer I'm thinking about moving to Seattle. Eh, Kari?

School is over...

Monoprinting in life room...

Five minute warm-up drawing...

Bad photo, final drawings in ink wash and tea stain...

A term's worth of work...

And since I'm done... I ride...

I found a sweet Chequamegon-esque road today in the countryside, screwed around for two hours and spun back. By the end of my workout tomorrow, I'll have ridden a good 15 hours this week. A bit of time in the weight room puts me at 17+... This makes me happy.

So does thinking about buying a new cross bike, shoes, pedals and aero wheels. My xmas present to myself... maybe I'll actually buy a track bike too, since mine's a loaner from the Stewarts...

Good luck to everyone at XC Nats!

Green December

This post is for all my Minnesota cycling friends. I love you, and I hope this gives you ...hope.

Woke up this morning, looked out the window. The sky was BLUE! Here, this is very much a rarity. Seeing blue sky is like like seeing sapphires in a coal pit - so I decided to take advantage of it. I GU-ed up my water bottles, packed some food and headed out for a four hour ride. I took the normal route out of the city, riding west on Great Western Road. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing remotely western about this road, but the Scottish are obsessed with cowboys and and old western movies so I guess its appropriately named. After I battled some Sunday morning church traffic I was in the country and free to roam...


This is one of my favorite sights. About an hour riding out of Glasgow, a massive lump of land just rises out of a field. If you look closely, there are a bunch of sheep and highland cows in the foreground. Before I leave I might go and try to climb it.

So on I went, through a bunch of small little parishes and more fields and more puddles. The roads are thickly lined with hedges or ancient moss-obscured stone walls. To make things more interesting, there aren't any shoulders. But I've found that the motorists are polite and considerate, and they just wait until they can clearly see that there aren't any cars coming and pass in the other lane. Because the roads are often curvy for a very very long time, you get a pile up of vehicles behind you. Then the cars start rely on you to wave them by. I often think about what would happen if I accidentally waved a motorist into oncoming traffic... its obviously a SERIOUS situation, but somehow, it comes up funny in my head and I start giggling... revenge of the cyclists!!!

I've talked about Crow Road before, and that's where I went again today. This time I timed it, and I was climbing for 30 minutes. I started to get a little bit of vertigo on the road today, so I had to stop looking off the edge. It was great to crank up the whole thing, I was feeling fantastic. I think that all the hours in the weight room are paying off this year.

After I got to the top, I stopped to take a picture. It had snowed yesterday, but all of it was melting quickly. You can kind of see where the road winds through the glen in the distance...


Then I hit the descent. That's when I found out why all of the riders were passing me going in opposite direction. The road was practically underwater from melting snow, and the speed resulted in a nice ice cold rooster tail. Despite the water, I put on my clear glasses and totally gunned it. I was on my mountain bike and it crushed the little snow piles... I think that I had too much fun running them over. Thankfully, my Arcteryx jacket saved me from the water (that jacket is made in heaven) and my core stayed warm until I hit the bottom.

Descending...

Still descending into greener pastures... Look you can see the snow covered highlands!!!

When I finally got to the bottom I was cold. So instead of continuing forward, I turned around. I have no idea what compelled me, but I went straight up Crow Road again.

The final descent...

If you can't tell, Crow Road is my favorite route. But Scotland isn't all great riding. For one, its not the Pyrenees, and its not sunny and hot. The city center is a huge pain in the ass, and any ride shorter than 2 hours is punctuated by stopping incessantly for traffic lights and pedestrians. Good news is I'm going to Norway in a little over a week, and they don't have snow! Can you say fjord riding???

Soon, I will be back in Minnesota with the snow and cold. Although it will be bittersweet I will not complain. I am way too pumped for indoor training and all of Billy's hard sprint workouts! Bring it on! And of course, jersey-zip racing with Pat. Be forewarned, I'm going to fill my Ipod with horrible rap music and bring it to practice. Timbaland...Kanye...Rihanna... yeah!!!!!!

One more thing. I'm entering Artcrank this year! Should be awesome. I love bikes.

0x00x0x steph

Long time no post

Well, the europe tour has taken a pause and so has my blogging. To be completely honest, the only thing that I've been doing lately is obsessing over the spring bike racing season and getting my studio ready for my assessment on Monday. I'm satisfied with my art work over the semester, mainly because it covers every square inch of my personal wall space and the result looks pretty cool.

The last art thing that I did this last week was body monoprinting, where I inked up sheets of metal, set them on the floor, put paper over the top and made marks with my body. I rolled and crawled and scratched all over the top of it, got some strange stares and came out with some good work.

Last week my mom was in the country and we tried to climb Ben Nevis. The weather advisory said that trying to climb the mountain that day was a bad idea, but we went anyways. So we got 20 minutes from the top and suddenly we were in a mind blowing white out blizzard with 60 mph winds. I don't think that I've ever been scared for my life, but I was, and my hands got really really cold. I was thinking of all those everest movies where the climbers got stuck, got frostbite, and had to get digits chopped off. Luckily, my hands were not black when I took my gloves off, but I was happy to get down off that mountain and into the warm car.

Thats all folks.
Steph

Italy vs Scotland

EVERY day that the Scottish football team plays a match, all hell breaks loose in Glasgow. We (as international students) were warned not to go wandering around without purpose on Sauchiehall Street on match days, and if you were here yesterday you'd know why.

I of course :) had a good reason to be out. I was going out to a noodle bar with some friends for a nice dinner. We don't do it often so we weren't about to turn around and sit in the flat just because there was a match going on. But when we walked over the hill and looked down on Sauchiehall, even I felt a little bit intimidated. The street was completely filled with people, most wearing kilts, with a scottish flag wrapped around their shoulders and faces painted blue and white. I was not dressed for this occasion, but at least I wasn't wearing Italian colors... I think that a fight had broken out on the left hand side of the street so we kept our distance and continued walking. It was around 7pm, so mob rule had already ensued - none of the pedestrians were obeying traffic laws so cars became periodically stuck in the middle of intersections. Police officers were running everywhere, about every 15 seconds you heard sirens and saw police lights fly by...Where there was a pub, there were a million people outside either waiting to get in or watching the match through a window. And because its illegal to drink alcohol outside of establishments, no one carried bottles of alcohol but everyone was pissed to high heaven. The funniest part was watching herds of completely plastered men run around singing and dancing in the street with complete abandon.

Despite how I make it sound, my friends and I made it through unharmed and we made it to the restaraunt - Wagamama's - after an hour of being lost in the street. But the wait was short and the food was excellent - i had noodle something (it was spicy) and coconut ice cream with chilled mango sauce and coconut chips on top. Of course I remember exactly what the dessert was.

Norway

I just booked a flight to spend most of my Christmas holiday in and around Haugesund, Norway! I will be staying with some relatives that I met about a year and a half ago. I'm incredibly excited, and can't wait to see why everyone always says that I look "Norwegian"...

My flight actually leaves from London, so I'm going to fly in several days early to visit The Saatchi Gallery, Tate Modern and the National Galleries. I'll probably also do the really touristy things like go see Big Ben and visit the Globe theatre... Yay for Shakespeare!

I just finished my life drawing course and it was fantastic. Everyday I was in studio from 9:30 to 4:00pm. We had one to three models per day, and we went through various exercises to "hone" or rather deconstruct, our preconceptions of drawing. For example, on one day, we started the morning with 1 minute drawings of the figure, upgraded to an allowance of two minutes, then to five. After lunch we drew with our left hand, drew with an extended tool, drew without looking at the paper. After one week we switched to liquid media and moving poses. Its the most fun I've had in in the studio in awhile...

Next week I'm going to Edinburgh to visit some galleries with my class, and then my mom is meeting me in Glasgow. Some good exploring is in order.

Thats all for now.
Steph

Dali

Christ of St John of the Cross - Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

Dali and Man Ray

La Gare de Perpignan - Museen Ludwig, Koln

Above are the only two Salvador Dali paintings I've ever seen and a random photo that I found on the internet. The first painting is here in the Kelvingrove Art Museum, which I visited yesterday. The Kelvingrove is one of those museums that has everything - dinosaur bones, tools and artifacts from ancient Scandinavian invaders of Scotland, natural history exhibits and works from art masters like Bruegel, Rodin, Rembrandt and Dali. It even has an organ (that was played yesterday when I visited) and a WWII plane hanging from the ceiling.

The painting has quite an interesting history behind it. It was bought by the Kelvingrove in 1952 for £8,200, a price that was considered quite high at the time. Glasgow School of Art students protested the purchase, citing that the museum should instead use the money to provide exhibition space for students. I'm sure that they've since changed their minds about the purchase, its now carefully protected behind glass and probably worth millions.

In 1962 the painting was attacked with a knife by a mentally disturbed museum visitor. It has luckily been so well restored that I couldn't even tell that it was damaged when I saw it. But the thing that I like best about the entire thing is the strange perspective. Dali is infamous for his dreamlike compositions, and both paintings that I've seen give me the impression that I'm floating. The Kelvingrove placed the piece at the end of a really long arched corridor, so your first impression of the painting is from a distance of 60 meters. As you approach, you get sucked into it. Its great.

The second Dali was the one that I saw in Cologne, and it is much more spectacular in person. The painting is huge - I can't find the dimensions online but its probably 10 feet long and 8 high. I don't know as much about this one, but I think it speaks for itself. Dali is weird.

Art Stories

Yesterday during art in the dark I was introduced to a new artist during the lesson. I can't remember his name (more due to my memory than the THICK accent of our professor) but his work definitely made a statement. This Scottish artist found and resurrected an old row boat. He built it up just like new. Then he put a wood-burning engine in the boat to propel it through the water. One day the artist decided to take his boat out on the loch. The engine needed wood to keep the boat going, so the artist started cutting up pieces of the boat and feeding it to the engine. Soon, all of the boat was gone so it sank again to the bottom of the loch. Pointless? NO. Cool.

Sophie Calle is a French artist who also likes to travel on the road of bizarre. One of her most famous works was a piece where she had her mother hire a private investigator follow her around Paris. She knew that he was there, so she decided to spend the day taking this investigator on a sightseeing tour of the city. They visited some nice museums, a grave of some person, her mothers house, etc. To complicate matters, she asked one of her friends to take picture of the private investigator as he followed her around. The result was a who's watching who... watching who.

Here's another one that I find quite funny. A man from San Francisco wrote a letter to Sophie in Paris. His letter said that he was very sad because he had just lost the love of his life. He could no longer sleep in the bed that they once shared together. The man asked Sophie for help. So Sophie decided to send the man her bed via FedEx. Sheets, mattress, pillows, everything went to San Francisco. The man received the package and slept in the bed for several weeks. He said that it made him feel better - and when he thought that his emotions had recovered sufficiently, he sent the bed back. The End.

Doctor

Since moving to Scotland, I've been sick more in a two month stretch of time than I ever have before. I figure that it's the added stress of being in a new country, trying to train 15 hours a week, and having flat mates who party around four nights a week (those guys are virus factories...). But today I went in for my first doctors visit. The system here - the National Health Service - is very different than in the United States. First off, its free. Second, its fast. When you want an appointment you call the morning of and you get an appointment the same day. If you show up on time to check in, you wait literally a half minute before they call your name. When you walk into the exam room, the doctor is already sitting there ready to check you out. There aren't any magazines, pointless conversations or hours of wasted time. You're in, out and done. I spent a total of 15 minutes in the hospital and was pleased by the doctor and the service.

Now, I'm sure that there are some downsides to the system. All Scottish citizens pay for the system through their taxes, and I'm not exactly sure how high the tax is. My flat mates have remarked on the absurdity of our system, and after this, I'm inclined to agree. Who needs to pay several hundred dollars for teeny doctor visit? No one...

UofM Jerseys

Last night, I had a dream that Pat Gordon changed our 2008 U of M bike jersey designs. In my dream, he decided that the school colors should now be blue and white, and that we should have huge pictures of Goldy the Gopher all over our kit.

I think that I was happy about it, but I can't remember

Goodness, I'm already dreaming of race season.

Off to class.

This is more like it....

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=/photos/2007/nov07/SPhammezogge07/b5

Good find, dad.

Six Day Impressions

Well, I arrived in Scotland yesterday morning and I’m happy to be back. I had a good experience in Germany, but Glasgow feels closer to home. Even though I only spent nine days in Germany, I can say that I honestly prefer the UK. It’s messier, louder, and somehow seems more real to me.

The Glaswegians, as they say, “Walk fast, talk fast and drink fast.” For example, it’s not uncommon in Glasgow to hear someone yelling obscenities on the street if a Glaswegian’s feathers have been ruffled. The Scots (and the English too, as I’ve heard) are aggressive and upfront as a culture and with each other. From a day to day perspective, the Germans gave me the impression of being much more reserved in speech and action, at least while sober. I don’t know if one would ever hear someone spouting the equivalent to the f-word on a street in Germany...

Bike racing, is something I also prefer in Scotland. I attended day two of the Dortmund six-day with my friend Stefan. I was very excited to go because I’d heard that the atmosphere was incredible. As Stefan and I approached the Westfallenhallen complex where the event was being held, music pulsated from the building. Standing outside, I didn’t feel as if I were about to enter a bike race. There were people everywhere, most drunk and ready for a party. A huge television screen broadcasted the racing near the entrance. In America, a production of this magnitude is reserved only for a football or baseball game, and I was happy to see such an extravagant event for cycling.

Stefan and I walked into the stadium during one of the first pro madisons of the night. It was incredible to watch Erik Zabel and his partner Leif Lampater ramp it up among the excellent Swiss team and other racers. The riders were cranking front chain rings bigger than pancakes, and their bikes were amazingly cool. I was very impressed.

But despite the incredible athleticism of the racers and relentless race program, the atmosphere just didn’t jive with me. I couldn’t get into the loud music, the lights, the blues brothers car driving around the track. For me, it was all so distracting. Maybe I’m a purist, but I JUST want to see racing. I want to hear the racer’s breathing, I want to be outside yelling and screaming and running next to the field cheering racers up hills. I want tons of other spectators to be involved and cheering next to me...

I’ve seen pictures where the complex was filled completely to the brim with spectators cheering the racers on, but on the night that I went the stands were only a third full. While wandering through the building several hours later I found out where everyone was – drinking beer and dancing in the discotheque just outside the stadium. I guess I expected the infamous, and stereotypical, crazy European bike racing fans – the kind who actually buy tickets to watch the racing. I know that there are tons of people who love this stuff – the multifaceted nature of the event, the partying, etc. But by the time midnight rolled around I was ready to leave.

After watching the six-day I realized that one of my favourite parts about racing is just being outside. I loved the Mountain Bike World Championships at Fort William. I hiked all the way to the top of the mountain and sat in the heather watching the racers go by. I cheered with some drunk Englishmen in the rain. The scenery in the middle of the highlands was breathtaking. Blaine is also wonderful for that very same reason, and not to sound too cheesily romantic, but I like to ride underneath the lights at night and watch the sky change colors. I think that I even like the mosquitos. Perhaps I’ll go roll in the mud at a cross race and call it quits – but this brand of racing just wasn’t my thing.

Xoxooxoxo
Steph

More Germany

Above, Museum Zollverein again. Below, the Kolner Dom, tallest cathedrale spires in Europe...

Below, a night view of the Prussian fortress I stayed in for two nights...
This is part of the Rhein Valley. I stopped and ate my lunch here.
These are the vineyards on the Rhein - the vineyards in the area were established here about 2,000 years ago, when the Romans controlled parts of Southern Germany.

Red Dot Design Museum

This is one of the stairways in the Red Dot Museum. Yes, there is a car hanging from the ceiling. And the thing underneath the stair is the most amazing couch I've ever seen.Escalator entrance to the Zolleverein Museum... this escalator tops the one in the Guthrie BY FAR...

This is one of the streets in Essen. While in Germany I found out that every inch of spare concrete is covered in graffiti. I think that the Germans have stopped fighting it and started embracing it. As they should, the graffiti is damn good...

Germany is awesome.

Im currently blogging from Essen, but in the last two days Ive been a traveling fiend. Ive hit up Cologne, Koblenz, St Goarshausen and every city on a 33km stretch of the Rhein river south of Koblenz.

My plans turned out a little bit differently than last predicted. Instead of going either to Aachen or Bonn I spontaneously hopped a train to Koblenz to spend some time riding a bike along the river. The really nice German receptionist at the youth hostel in Cologne called the Koblenz hostel for me and reserved rooms for that night. Before I knew it I was rushing to the Gleis (platform) to catch my train, as it left 4 minutes after I bought my ticket. I said goodbye to my dear Moroccan friend, we really did have a lot of fun together, and off I went. As the train rumbled through the upper section of the Rhein valley, I watched castles pass by out the window. The weather was wonderful and sunny, and the closer we got to Koblenz the more excited I got. Finally I arrived, checked my destination and the tourist office and rented a bike, and went off to find the hostel.

The hostel was across the river in Ehreinbreitsein, about a 20 minute bike ride. I could see it from the bridge crossing the river, because Ehreinbreitsein is not only a hostel, but the largest fortress Ive ever seen in my life. It was built in the 1820s by the Prussians after they destroyed a castle existing on the site. Of course, building a fortress means building in a place that is extremely hard to get to. To give you an idea, there was a chairlift that took guests to the entrance. But being cheap and stubborn I took the footpath. Ive never seen a hill like this in my life, the grade was pushing 16% to 18% and went on for ages. The bike that I rented weighed about 30 pounds and my backpack probably weighed about the same. So I went into competition mode and automatically started stomping up the hill as fast as I could muster. I passed some nice German couples who were tending their gardens and even though I gave them the friendly Guten Tag greeting they looked at me like I was insane...

I was rewarded when I got to the top and rolled through the fortress to the castle, over cobbled streets, tunnels and walls several meters thick. The view from the top offered a panorama of Koblenz, with its towering sculpure of Kaiser Wilhelm II on the peninsula.

I went to bed early, and woke up to some screaming children at 645am. I made the best of it and went to breakfast early. I managed to eat two meals consisting of yogurt, muesli, meat, cheese, bread, toast, chocolate cereal, mint tea, strawberry tea, coffee and dried fruit before departing on my bike ride at 10am. Looking out over the Festung (fortress) I was a bit worried that my bike ride was going to be ruined by a thick layer of fog that completely obstructed my view of the Rhein and city below. I decided that I was going to go fog or not and I started south down the Rhein.

As I was riding along, I could see the foundations of the famed Romantic Rhein castles. Fortunately at about 1215, the sun sliced through the fog and revealed beautiful vineyards that lacêd up the hills. I stopped to enjoy the view and since the fog had dissapated, I started taking pictures of every castle I came across. I got bored of riding and stopped at St Goarshausen to climb up the hill to Burg Katz (Castle Cat). It was closed to the public, but the view from the top was undescribable.

From here I turned back to Koblenz, and I finally started to feel tired. I had lugged that bike around for around 40k, and it definitely didnt fit me correctly. I ended up causing a minor traffic jam at a construction area because I was riding too slowly. Cars started honking and someone yelled something at me in German. Luckily I couldnt understand so I just kept going as fast as I could, because I really couldnt do anything else... it was actually really funny... I can just picture the line of cars behind me.

I collasped when I got back. All and all it was about a 7 and a half hour ride. But honestly, I dont think that youve lived unless youve ridden along the Rhein.

Well, if theres two things I love its cycling and art. Now Ive got my german bike riding fix I can go home satisfied...

xoxooxoxox
steph

Im in Cologne

I got to Cologne yesterday morning and it has been quite an adventure. Right after I checked into my hostel room I met a really nice guy named Yusef who is Moroccan but lives in Spain... the only problem was that we didn{t understand each other because he didn{t speak english well I can{t speak spanish. We ended up finding a common language in French, so for two days now I{ve been practicing my rusty french vocabulary all day long. We{ve been walking around together and today we walked all the way along the rheine to a sculpture garden, and then doubled back to several large cathedrales and finally parted so that i could go to the kunstmuseum Koln. This museum is famous for its huge collection of modern art, and i was amazed. Ive never seen so many picassos, richters, kirschners, beckmanns, chagalls, .... on and on you name it they had it. they had an incredible balthus show, and i saw the coolest installation art by claes oldenburg... i saw my first ever sculpture by christo and painting by dali, ive saw so many artists i never even knew existed. lets not forget the video by william kentridge...wow! sorry this is a lot of name dropping... the building itself was also incredible, it was a modern art-deco interpretation with tons of stairways and secret rooms and little hallways. by the time that i finished looking around it had been 3 hours and i had a huge headache... so i went south of the museum to meander around the aldtstadt, or old town, and i marveled at the old german architecture and everything smelled like sausages.

going back to yesterday i visited the Dom Koln, which is the largest cathedrale in germany. i have pictures but i can{t post them right now... the bell tower on the dom (which i got to climb up) was the tallest building in europebefore the eiffel tower. construction on the building started in 1248, but it wasn{t finished until the mid 16th centry because they kept running out of money. the exterieur is covered in soot, so its very ominous from the outside... there{s also a shrine in the cathedrale that is devoted to the 3 kings who went in search of jesus when he was born... legend says that they are buried underneath the shrine.. but who knows?

tomorrow i am leaving to either bonn or aachen. bonn is a large city further south of cologne and is the birthplace of beethoven. aachen is right on the border with the netherlands and belgium, so if i end up there i will be riding my bike into both countries. i haven{t decided yet. but im gettig very very excited to watch some 6-day action, and then its back to school for me!!!!

au reviour...

Germany...

(Im writing on a Swedish computer, so all of my y's are going to be z's)

Uneventful flight, eventful afternoon trzing to get to Stefans apartment. I arrived at Niederrhein airport and got on a bus to Essen. Our trip was slightlz diverted because the German authorities discovered another undetonated bomb from WWII somewhere along the highwaz hours before I arrived. Therefore, all traffic routes around the area were shut down as thez tried to safelz recover it. I guess that this happens somewhat often, so after getting through massive traffic jams it was smooth rolling with no concerns all the waz to the Hauptbahnhof in Essen. There, I was dropped off with the other passengers and soon realiyed that I had no idea of where I was. I had tried to google map the station before I left, with no such luck. But after talking to three different people, I finallz got a taxi driver to give me directions to Stefans flat.

Walking through Essen was an interesting experience. Yet again, the traffic drove in a different direction. The streets were verz clean and the sidewalks were paved in beautiful cobble designs. Trains run right down the middle of the street, and wires hang permanentlz in the air above the tracks, suspended in between the first and second stories of buildings. The architecture is somewhat more reserved than Glasgow, and I have zet to see an elaboratelz carved stone building. All this being said, I havent zet explored Essen to the extent that I have Glasgow. But Essen is a much smaller citz, and much quieter as well. It was a welcome change.

Zesterdaz night I went out to a Turkish restaraunt, and had an interesting time trzing to order Turkish food that had been translated into German. Thankfullz, with Stefan's help, I made a good choice.

Todaz I went on the three hour long bike ride along the Ruhr river. There were all sorts of interesting ducks that I had never seen before, along with swans, grez herons and mallards. I have NEVER seen so manz people riding bikes before, and everz single one of the guzs who passed us looked incrediblz fit. I had a lot of fun just cruising and looking at the scenerz...

Tomorrow I'm riding a bike to Dusseldorf to visit some museums and then plan to ride to Koln to do lots of sightseeing...

Next Friday!!!

I will be here

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Emergency

Today was our final formal day in printmaking for the term. We a wee last day critique. It was a wonderful three hours of talking about what we've accomplished and struggled with over the past weeks. However, structured conversation usually digresses after the first hour, so we ended up talking about pumpkins.

Everyone who is paying attention to their calender knows that Halloween is just around the corner. Obviously, one of the main iconic images of this spectacular holiday is the pumpkin. But the Glaswegian pumpkin is mysteriously absent on the doorsteps and windowsills of the city. This afternoon I found out why. The pumpkin fields in Scotland didn't get enough sunlight this summer, and the pumpkins failed to turn orange due to decreased UV levels. Because various stores and buyers are afraid that no consumer will buy a green pumpkin, the poor green ones are sitting in a warehouse being blasted with UV light to try and make them change hues before the holiday.

Are they taking a piss? (Glaswegian for, "Are they kidding?!!!") What a waste of money! Bring on the green pumpkins!

Ich verstehen nicht Deutch...

Oh dear, I feel like I've got a giant clock ticking on my back. I've got a plane flight to Germany at 7:15am on Friday... and I've just realized that I don't speak German. Now this may not be a surprise to most people, but for some strange reason I thought that my German language skills were more proficient than they actually are. Simple requests like, "I need a train ticket to Essen" won't be so easy anymore, because I don't know the words to say it!!!

I've only traveled in countries where I've had no problem speaking with the locals. In France I was able to get by reasonably well. There was only one incident in a small town in Normandy where I had trouble. I was asking for stamps, and I think that the lady asked me what kind, but she said it so quickly I couldn't understand a word.

Here are a few german words I can say:

ein Farrahd - a bicycle
ein Flugzeug - a plane
bier - beer

I think thats sufficient...

I can also experiment with Ich bin (I am...) and wild arm gestures or facial expressions until I am able to make my point clear. Actually, I'm not totally screwed. I can say that I don't understand, that I can't speak German well, and can make a mild attempt at asking for directions.

Even though I'm slightly anxious about the language barrier, I've got a lot of cool museum hopping planned. Cologne has a Kathe Kollwitz museum and renowned modern art collection, Essen is home to the Red Dot design Center, and the Kunstmuseum in Bonn looks spectacular. Duesseldorf also has some interesting attractions, including some Frank Gehry creations. I never realized what a modern art hub Germany is, and although most of the major attractions are in Berlin or Munich, I think that I've still got plenty to work with. If I have a little extra time, I may try to make my way to the Bauhaus epicenter in Dessau.

The only thing that could put a damper on this adventure is my sore throat. Tonsillitis is swarming through the Margaret MacDonald house, and I've got a throat that hurts... I'm crossing my fingers...

In search of Crow Road

I've heard many things about Crow Road. Today I decided that I was going to go find it and see what all the fuss is about. I started out around 9am with my pockets jammed full of food and extra water, expecting to get desperately lost. I'd looked on a google map before leaving, but I don't have a printer here so I couldn't print it out. To complicate matters further, most roads in the country are not marked, so you ride blindly and hope for the best. Luckily I knew half the route, and I figured that Crow Road wound up the hill pictured below.As I rolled into Milton of Campsie, I stopped half a dozen times to ask where the road took off from. Disguised as a residential street, I finally found it, and it was wonderful. As it turns out, Crow Road ascends for almost 2 miles before descending about the same distance. Even though you can't really tell, there were streams and waterfalls in the glen on the left side, and a sharp hill on the right side. The hillside was dotted with ancient wells that were marked by stone slabs and carefully carved with a description of date and creator. I chased a guy up the hill for quite awhile, and I got far too excited and really started to feel the weight session that I did yesterday. At the top of the climb I caught up with him and we descended together. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures on the descent. The scenery was spectacular, but I was having too much fun going 35+ to take out my camera and stop. I know I'll be there again soon anyways.
This is happy Stephanie climbing Crow Road. (I've got a glove in my mouth.)
It ended up being an accidental four hour ride. Yahoo!!!!!!

A walk in the park.

I feel like I haven't put enough images up. This is a corner of the print studio. The windows look over Glasgow city center and lots and lots of trees.
This is the street that I live on. They have a really strange one-way system going on, so I never know which way I should be going when I'm on my bike.

This is a major intersection a two minute walk away from my apartment. I took this picture standing on a bridge that goes over the main highway, the M8. The pointed tower is the distance is part of Glasgow University - I walk there several times a week to use the gym.
This is part of Kelvingrove Park. I sat on that bench for awhile today drawing the fountain. Needless to say it was fairly difficult. The large building in the background is Kelvingrove Museum. Right now, of all things, they have a retrospective exhibit on Kylie Minogue's life. She is SO huge over here right now - even though her hey day was in the 80's and early 90's. I've heard that the highlight of the show are a golden sparkling pair of hot pants that Kylie wore during a music video... hmm....

Stuff

I love riding in the morning here in Scotland. The traffic isn't nearly as bad, so there are a significantly smaller amount of motorists pulling bizarre 180's in the middle of the road. The weather was freezing, but I got to see the sun rise (at about 8am) and there was a thin layer of frost on the fields. And the first thing I thought of when I saw the frost was trying to train for x country skiing on frosted fields at St. Olaf a couple of years ago. I thank Coach Brochman for these wonderful memories...

By the time I got to the Campsies (the hills) I had to turn around. My hands were freezing - so to keep myself warm I started pedaling as fast as I could. I passed a field of black sheep, an official bowling green, and rode through an area that smelled like a distillery. The really fun part about riding this particular route is that its all uphill on the way out, downhill back. I was absolutely flying, and I got speed-addicted so I started racing cars. Too much fun.

I got back, showered and headed to class. I've got two seminars on Thursday afternoon. One on Post-Modern and Contemporary Art and the other on Philosophy and Aesthetics. Post-modern is my favorite, probably because it's slightly ridiculous. The whole thing is filled with phrases like "conceptualizing conceptualization" and "mediating mediation" and the lecturer rants about how the artist is "dead" but not really dead, the artist just isn't an "artist" like he used to be. The class goes around and around in circles, and the "theories" never get to the bottom of anything, or specify any coherent meaning. So I sit in the magenta-painting auditorium and get nicely confused, and walk out feeling really smart because somehow I feel like I've connected with what our prof is talking about. The more likely case is that I've just lost touch beyond reason - but its still great because I'm getting lots of great ideas for sculptures! Oh, art in the dark.

Another adventure - I dyed my hair a couple of days ago, and today I got it cut. The salon was way cool, you got complimentary hot chocolate and candy. I was unable to resist and ate about 500 candies while I was waiting for my friend Cara to finish. We then decided to make a grocery run, so we shuffled off with our pretty hair to Lidl's. We bought WAYYY too much stuff to carry home, but had to do it anyways. So Cara carried a huge bag, about half the size of her body, and I carried everything else: a backpack with a case of beer, two bags on either hand, a jug of milk and tennis shoes hanging from the pack straps. We looked ridiculous and had to stop every block to re-adjust our purchases... it was funny, you had to be there.

And... In one week I leave for Germany! First stop, Essen, which lies inbetween Dortmund and Dusseldorf. I'm going to visit museums, ride bikes, watch racing, eat sausages and chocolate and enjoy german beer. Yay!!!

Upon Request...

This is my first lithograph, I completed it the first day of printmaking...which was yesterday... Sorry that the angle is skewed- I just lifted up my camera and shot it, very sophisticated.Well, I think that I've eaten too much curry, because I've got a massive headache. Either that, or printmaking is very hard on my eyeballs. Since starting our two week intensive yesterday I've spent about 16 hours in the studio, and even though it hasn't really hit me yet, I've been learning a lot. In fact, I've decided that I should become a printmaker. There's something so comfortable about being in the studio among the huge antique presses, fun rollers, messy inks and smelly smelly chemicals. I got to play with a bunch of ajax today, it looked like snow... The view from the studio is amazing. We overlook Glasgow city center, and the whole room is always flooded with a clear, overcast light. I can see the southern hills rolling in the distance. It makes me want to ride my bicycle - but the weather definitely doesn't. Today it rained, then the rain started floating (the rain was trying so hard to be snow, but it just couldn't make it...) then there was sun and a rainbow...

I'm finally starting to get the hang of things around here. I've learned that wearing a scarf and wool jacket is a necessity, and I have now amassed a small collection of pashminas. I've learned that everyone takes tea time, but you are allowed to drink hot chocolate during the scheduled 30 minute break. But when I do drink tea, I've learned that English tea is best very milky and with several sugars and it is absolutely essential to eat shortbread with it. I've also noticed that some English authors are very depressing (cough cough, Emily Bronte).

It's almost time for bed, but I just spent the last hour discussing music, Jenny Salvo, Lucien Freud and Egon Schiele with a English friend. I really should be doing some late night brushing up on post-modern and contemporary art theory, but that's not due until Thursday... There's some party chatter outside my window and an Irishman in the hall. The leaves are falling, the ground is always wet. My life? Yep!

Pictures!

This is the inside of one of the rooms at Scone Palace...
This is the shepherd starting to shear the sheep. It is not dead, it is relaxing, I promise.
This is Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. See... no Nessie!

Marathon weekend = marathon post

On Friday morning I left Glasgow on a coach bus and headed to Inverness. The trip was organized through my study abroad agency, so it was jammed packed with every tourist activity you could possibly imagine. The day started with a visit to Scone Palace - pronounced "Scoon" (because you eat scones, not palaces...hahahahhaha!!!...). We lined up for a really interesting falconry display on the palace grounds. Falconry, or pleasure hunting with trained birds of prey, has been a hobby of English/Scottish aristocracy for centuries. The coolest part of the whole display was when the falconer brought out the largest owl I've ever seen in my life, and threw a piece of meat up in the air for the owl to catch. It swooped in with both its feet, wings spread, and snatched the meal right out of the air, and then flew off into a tree to eat it. By landing in the tree, the owl disrupted a family of crows, who started attacking the owl - then the crows called for reinforcements so the owl eventually was forced out of the tree by about 50 swarming crows... it was like the Hitchcock film Birds...

We took a tour of the palace, and the decoration theme tended to center around the importance of the visit of Queen Victoria in the late 19th century. The furniture, dishes, silk wall dressings and various other decorations were bought and designed especially for her one night stay at Scone. Forty-two scottish kings were also crowned there - and a large monument marks the place where the 'Stone of Destiny' used to lie. Unfortunately the English stole the stone, then the Scots stole it back, and so on, until the stone ended up in Edinburgh Castle, where it is today.

And by far the coolest part of the day was when we visited a working sheep-dog farm. The discipline that the master has over his dogs was amazing. A certain pitch and pattern of whistle issued from the master to the dog told the dog where to go and what do to. So the master whistled twice, and the dog disappeared into the hills to round up the sheep. Soon, the dog was back, moving the sheep along in formation. The master whistled a certain pattern so that the dog would slow down. He whistled some more and the dog stopped. He did some more whistling and the dog knew to herd the animals to the left, but while walking slowly so that the sheep didn't become scared. And when the master whistled, the dog's response was instantaneous. He showed us how the dogs could separate 2 sheep from the entire bunch and keep the rest of the group intact... and on and on. Then the shepherd picked one of the sheep from the group and started shearing it. I got to help shear the sheep!!! Freaking cool!!!

We stayed the night in Inverness, a small town in northern Scotland. The next morning we took the bus to the Cairngorm Mountain Ski Center and got to enjoy the scenery. One thing that is really interesting about being at outdoor centers in Scotland is that they actually acknowledge global warming as fact. The debate that centers around it in America is nonexistent here - and it's refreshing to be in an environment where its existence isn't fought. The guides told us that they are having problems with new species of animals, particularly hares, living at altitudes that they previously were unable to inhabit. The hares are consequently messing up a little ecosystem niche and will probably wipe out some plant species that reside in the area. They also told us that in the winter the winds can get up to 170 mph at the summit. Yikes!

We then rushed on to take a tour of a distillery, where I tried some Scotch whiskey and learned a whole bunch about alcohol and whiskey's history in Scotland.

Then today I went to a battlefield, took a cruise on Loch Ness, but didn't see any monsters (not enough whiskey I suppose) visited another castle, and drove through the Western highlands again through Glencoe. Uff da.

I've been in Scotland for 6 weeks already, and the time seems to be flying by. I know that in another 8 weeks school will be over, and my time in Europe will also be drawing to a close. This next week I start printmaking at school, which I will be working on for the next two weeks. Then I'm flying to Germany and possibly venturing into the Czech Republic while I'm there... or I could go to Luxembourg, Belgium or the Netherlands. I'll take votes...

Peace!!!
Steph

Ich liebe Deutchland und Lidl!!!!

Today I successfully booked a airplane ticket to Germany to visit my friend! I'm leaving the end of October to travel for nine days in mainland Europe. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but I don't care. Traveling alone, despite being a little bit stressful, is always an adventure.

This afternoon I was not in such a good mood. After being frustrated with my art projects for the better part of the morning, I was ready to take a break and decided to find a discount grocery store called Lidl's. The food is exorbitantly priced here no matter where you get it - and the products are teeny-tiny (unless its made of chocolate). I've been training too much, so with my metabolism I can't make 30 dollars worth of food last more than 3 days. It's pathetic.

When I left to find Lidl's I didn't know exactly where I was going, so I got lost. After a good 30 minutes of extra walking I finally found the store. The carts were stacked outside, so I tried to pull one out, and realized that they were all locked together. I tried yanking on the chain, twisting, pulling, and the cart wouldn't budge. So I ran around the store trying to find someone to help me. After looking like a complete idiot for a good amount of time a nice woman informed me that you have to put a pound in the cart to use it, then when you lock it back up it gives you your coin back. Sheesh!

Shopping was also an adventure. Lidl is a German company, so all of their food labels are from Germany or in some other language I can't read or understand. I took a risk and bought something that looked like curry sauce and was written in what looked like arabic. (I ate some tonight and survived! Hooray!) In addition, OVER half the store is devoted to stocking sugary biscuits, candy and cookies. I the UK has a serious addiction to bad food, you wouldn't believe how cheap candy is compared to bananas (like half the cost).

At the check out, the cashier thought I was nuts - I didn't know that you had to buy plastic bags to carry your food out in, and he had also never seen a credit card that looked like mine... he kept staring at me like I was some from other planet, and also made a comment that I looked confused and didn't know what the heck I was doing...

By that point, I didn't care. I walked home, put everything away and got on my bike. By a twist of fate I met a really really nice guy who told me about some close mountain biking areas, so I found one venue and rode around for awhile. It was also a dog park, so I got chased by some friendly hounds. Then I crashed and WHACKED my knee out really hard.

But I was ok and made it back to the Margaret Mac. House before it got pitch-black.

Well, that's all folks!!!

Studio, studio, studio

I spend a lot of time here, its my little home away from home. Its been a week, and I've managed to start on every you see in my space. So far I've "stolen" - or rather 'asked and taken' -random parts of the Mackintosh building so that I can paint or draw on them. The GSA has been named as a Cultural Heritage site, so there's a whole bunch of construction going on and there are spare things lying around everywhere. If they sit there for more than a week I ask someone and adopt it into my studio!This is the upstairs gallery - there's a really cool faculty show going on right now, but I really like the giant flower tree made out of paper mache... Please notice the wonderful replication of winged victory in the background, I like to think of this gallery as part of the Louvre...
And for all your fellow plunderers - I found out today that on Wednesday nights, everyone in Glasgow puts stuff outside that they don't want, and you can just take it. It's basically institutionalized dumpster diving!

Talk to you later,
Steph

Holy wow.

Wow, I am very very tired. I woke up this morning 8:30am to meet a local group of riders for a 50 mile ride. Five minutes before I left I realized that I didn't have any proper cycling waterbottles, so I dug some out of the recycling, washed them REALY REALLY well, filled them and took off. I met them at a huge roundabout around 35 minutes outside of Glasgow. It turned out to be a really nice group of masters riders who thought that I was kind of crazy for trying to ride with them on a mountain bike - but whatever, better workout, you know...

We started a rotating paceline and I got to know all the guys a little bit better. It was kind of hard to understand some of them with their thick Scottish accents - and to give you an idea some of them actually do aggressively roll their R's (like fat Bastard in the austin powers movies, im not kidding). But I learned quite a bit about the area and now I have even more information to go get even more lost on Glaswegian roads!

I could keep up just fine on most roads, but we started to hit super hilly areas when we got deeper into the Trossachs and I began to have a bit of trouble. So I decided to turn around early with some guys who are racing tomorrow, ended up kind of bonking on the hilliest part of the ride. oops. They were nice enough to wait for me and we just rolled through picturesque Scottish countryside, dotted with white sheep and heather...sounds like a joke, its not. Then it started drizzling - another Scottish cliche, but absolutely true, and several times I almost got hit by hedges that line the sides of these tiny tiny roads. Next time I go out I'm bringing my camera.

When I finally got back into Glasgow I ate almost everything I had in my refrigerator, and now I have to go shopping. I'm going to buy a HUGE bar of chocolate.

love,
steph

Doom and Bikes...

This afternoon we had a giant painting meeting in studio 21. I thought that they were going to give us a nice little talk about the GSA like they have normally been doing... but I was wrong. A woman that I didn't recognize was standing in the corner. She wore a long dark skirt that draped over her large frame and a matching knit sweater thing that was pinned together by a large mother of pearl square brooch. Her hair was gray, and cropped short to her ears with the standard artsy-fringe brushing the tops of her eyebrows. She introduced herself as Sam, and firmly stated that Sam was NOT short for Samantha - it was a name that she gave herself at 12 years of age because she HATED the name her parents gave her. ("And DONT ask what my real name is, because that will NEVER be said out loud.")

Then she launched into a manifesto about how someone told her in art school that she should NEVER have enough time in a day to do everything she wanted to - and if she did she was wasting time. She expected us to TREASURE our time at art school, because there would never again be a time in our lives where we had all day everyday to make art. She said that she expected all students to be in the studio eight hours a day, and if she had it her way it'd be twelve... Sam continued along these lines until she had thoroughly intimidated all of us, read a passage from a book about living, breathing and drinking art, and then handed us a written paper called "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" by Bruce Mau. It listed all sorts of pointers, or rather, orders on how to grow as an artist:

#2. Forget about good
#5. Go deep
#7. Study
#8. Drift
#12. Keep moving
#13. Slow down
#14. Don't be cool
#18. Stay up late
#25. Don't clean your desk
#34. Make mistakes faster
#37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it...

and so on, there are 43 of them, all with accompanying descriptions.

Then Sam said that she was going to be doing individual and group critiques with us on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Welcome to the Slaughterhouse, Sam is going to rip us apart. (!)

(im not scared, im actually excited)

More news:
I got my bike tonight - put it together all by myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEN I WENT RIDING IN THE RAIN!!!! tomorrow im getting lost in Glasgow in the AM - on a bicycle!

love,
steph

Don't ask me, I don't know...

This is what my papier mache looks like up close:
This was the supposed start of an explosion of artistic creativity at the GSA:
This is what it turned out like after one day.
I don't know where it came from - but to me it looks like a mother wearing a top hat, holding a raggity anne doll smashed together a la robert motherwell...

This evening I was reincarnated as a fish.

I bought a membership to the local gym and went swimming. I soon learned that unlike cycling, swimming takes place in a pool and a person cannot breathe while underwater. So I almost panicked halfway through a length, and then I remembered to breathe. Hmmm...

Also this morning I decided to make papier mache. I found a recipe online that said that you could make it by boiling flour and water, so I tried it. Long story short, it didn't make papier mache, it made something that looked like mashed potatoes. But I decided to go to studio with it anyways and ended up smearing it all over a painting board... it ended up looking quite like wax.

It was a grand failure. I'm very proud of it.

Goodnight all.

Steph

This weekend I went to Penrith, England for a family homestay weekend. I really didn't know what to expect, but it turned out awesome. Two other American students and I stayed with a farmer named Eddy and his wife Jane. Eddy picked us up in his little tiny white car at the bus stop. I soon realized that I'm still a conditioned American when I walked up to what I thought was the passenger side seat on his car, only to realize that it was the driver's side. Everyone laughed, but I was forgiven. When we got to his house, we met Jane, who had pasta bolognese and sticky toffee pudding hot and ready for us.

We woke up the next morning, ate hot breakfast and listened to Eddy talk a little bit about his life, house and some local history. Eddy had lived in Penrith his entire life and was born in the same 12th century house that we were staying in. The house and land that Eddy was responsible for all belonged to Lord Lonsdale, who allowed Eddy and Jane to rent the property from him. Lord Lonsdale still lives in a picturesque castle about five miles away from Eddy - and the land, castle and various other estates will be passed down through the royal family for the foreseeable future.

Besides lords and ladies, Eddy explained that the village of Penrith was home to the last battle between the Scots and the English, and the site is commemorated by a small plaque on the side of the road...

Saturday brought a huge adventure. Another host dad drove us around to see a beautiful waterfall. We took a motorboat out on a lake and ate leek and potato soup afterwards. We saw William Wordsworth's grave, where Beatrix Potter lived and went to a stone circle built by ancient Celts in 1500 BC. It was absolutely spectacular. After going castle sightseeing we returned home and ate dinner, and then accompanied Jane to a little make-up party. I'm not much of a girly-girl, but there was tons of candy and cakes and smelly lotions so we all had a good time.

Today Eddy took us around on quadbikes, or four-wheelers, to see the entirety of "his" land and sheep and the facilities associated with owning them. I ended up driving around - and it was probably one of the most fun things that I've done here. We blew straight through fields of sheep, and caused giant sheep stampedes. The scenery was fantastic, rolling Cumbrian hills in the distance, patchwork farmfields and pasture in the foreground, and thousands and thousands of sheep.

Now I'm back, school starts tomorrow - in the studio from 9:30AM to 5:00PM!

peace,
steph

Curious Happenings...

The Art School. Thats the name of the student-run bar on campus, and on every Thursday night, at approximately 10pm it turns into a gigantic club. Literally hundreds of hip night-crawling Glaswegians queue at the door, itching to be let in to drink unbelievable amounts of alcohol, watch bizarre films and dance till they can't feel their legs (a phenomenon that is aided by ample amounts of Guiness).

Tonight, I found myself there because I didn't have anything else to do. My friend Deena invited me to come along, and together we walked the short distance over the hill with a couple of her flatmates. One of them is probably the most Tim-Burtonesque character I've ever seen in my life. His hair was about a foot long and stood straight up on end, but was parted messily to one side (a la Edward Scissorhands). He was about six feet tall, and his chicken legs were accentuated my black skinny jeans. I don't think that he had washed or slept in days, had dark circles under his eyes, was smoking incessantly and couldn't walk a steady line to save his life. I have no idea what he had been drinking or taking, but it must have been a lot...

When we got to The Vic, I was very very underdressed, or rather, undercostumed. The general style at the Glasgow School of Art is fairly consistent. Women predominantly favor a variety of hairstyles from the 1960's, clothes from the 1980's, or anything bought second hand from vintage shops or charity stores. If it doesn't match, thats great. If normal society would think you've completely lost it, even better... Being here is like watching the craziest fashion show you've ever seen, and when you think you've seen it all, a woman walks in with a pink-glitter and sequin dress and hair fixed into a bleach blonde mohawk, with one side closely cut to her scalp and died florescent pink.

The party atmosphere at the bar was great, but I got tired to quickly to stay for very long. To say that I'm not a night owl is an understatement, and perhaps just by luck, I'm not yet stoned out of my mind or completely pissed(drunk). But next week, I might try a little bit of dressing up, and if I do, pictures will follow.

Cheers.

Photo Update...

Here are some pictures from my weekend!
Summit!
Yay! Thats what we went up!
My friends at the beach...

Meet, greet, climb, get sick

Long time, no post. But to be quite honest, the last week was rather uneventful. I went to a ceildh (pronounced kay-lee, thats gaelic for ya) on Thursday night and enjoyed very rambunctious Scottish dancing, which is more like spinning around in circles, all the time as fast as you can. I went on an international student trip where I climbed up 3000+ feet and enjoyed the beautiful view from the top with a couple of friends, while eating chocolate bars and crisps. I went to the beach and took tons of pictures of ocean rubbish. I saw the train bridge from the Harry Potter movie in Glenfinnan. I've met students from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Estonia, France, Norway, Wales, Britain, Bulgaria, Austria... to name a few. Last night I hung out with my flat mates and watched four consecutive episodes of Dawsons Creek. I've developed a refined level of knowledge about various types of cabbage.

Ok, maybe I've done more than I've thought...

Today I met my instructors, saw my huge studio space and was introduced to the printmaking studio and life drawing room. We don't actually start working until next week - but then we start rotating on 2 week schedules, 2 weeks painting studio, 2 weeks life drawing studio, 2 weeks printmaking studio, then repeat until the end of term. This should be awesome...

I love this toilet sign. I found it in Glasgow - they have a strange sense of humor.

Today I'm leaving Edinburgh, and heading with the group of 8 IFSA-Butler students to Glasgow. Although the four star hotel, and gourmet meals and view of a castle from my breakfast table have been nice, its time to get back to the real world.

The past two days have been filled with meetings and information about what lies before us in terms of study and expectations. The Glasgow School of Art sounds fantastic. Although I already knew a lot about it, I'll outline some of it for the people I haven't talked to. Every week students are expected to put in about 35 hours of studio work in their private studio. The instructors periodically drop in to critique your work, but the projects are largely self-guided and self-motivated. We don't have a traditional American class schedule, but we do have one class on Thursdays on critical theory and art history. Otherwise there is no assigned homework or bigillions of written papers. The studio is only opened from 8:30am-6:30pm, with restricted hours on weekends, so I can't do homework late until the night, which means... no all nighters, ever. This is just what I need.

A couple of quick things about Edinburgh, where I've been staying for the past couple of days. The city is huge and cosmopolitan - to me it seems a bit like Paris, if you've ever been there. All the women wear highheels and smart, stylish clothing. I feel like I really don't fit in here... but oh well!

I ended up renting a bike on Friday, and pedaling as fast and as hard as I could for about 2 hours. An inept Italian mechanic tried to help me set up the rental bike - but I ended up helping him put on my pedals, raise the seat and pump up the tyres (British spelling!). The manager offered me a job, but I politely declined... After checking the bike's brakes I was off. I didn't even turn onto the wrong side of the road once, and I must say, riding in traffic here is a lot of fun. The roads are like patchwork quilts... they have small patches of cement, small patches of cobbles, and small patches of asphalt. In addition, the roundabouts are fantastic you can go zooming around them really fast.

I also visited the velodrome, but didn't get a chance to ride. There was no one there to help me get a bike, but I did get a personal tour of the facility. The track does look exactly like ours, except for the fact that its tucked away in a ghetto of Edinburgh. Barbed wire fencing, huge tenement like housing and graffiti sprout up all around it. The track was actually built in 1979 and its holding up just as good as ours.

Since i didn't ride the track here, I've just decided that I am going to Manchester to ride on the indoor velodrome there - they just finished it. :) !!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I also went to the Edinburgh national museum, where we got to see a Picasso ceramic exhibit. Although I found it interesting, the permanent display of taxidermied animals was much more enthralling. They had a collection of thousands of stuffed animals - from ostrich to kiwi to tiny bugs and snakes - you name it they had it. Its one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.

Well, I have to pack my stuff, I'm leaving in 30 minutes!

TTFN.