You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself

I updated my blog about living in Germany!

brickstobahn.blogspot.com

i'm on school break until jan 9th. Just got back from 8 days in Sicily, Italy. I got invited back for June 8th to be a bridesmaid in a family friend's wedding... I just entertained the thought about making a side trip to spain to get tan before the wedding. and the fact that i can do that??

I love my life.

and cheap european travel on a broke college kid budget.

Yay! So I signed up for a 2nd semester here. I'm officially staying in Germany for a whole year to study studio art & german language and then returning for my BFA art show.

:0

i JUST BOUGHT TICKETS TO ITALY FOR MY PROFESSOR'S ART SHOW IN FLORENCE AND THE VENICE BIENNALE!

TOO. MUCH AMAZINGNESS.

I have been on the road since the 18th of august and have settled into dortmund, germany.

I have walked the japanese bridge in monet's gardens at giverny while the water lillies were in bloom
cried at notre dame and pet gargoyles, been on the seine and watched the sunset from the sacre couer picnicking chatting about art & sipping cheap but good french wine pinching off bits of baguettes for the stray cats. i miss my pets.

I sunbathed, marveled at Gaudi and drank sangria in barcelona, took part in a 40 k person food fight in a tiny village (aka la tomatina) in spain.
I visited a concentration camp turned memorial and stood inside a gas chamber the nazis labeled "shower" and was able to walk out free unlike millions (some of whom were my relatives, my family is part russian jeiwsh)

I met amazing new friends between munich, paris, barcelona and valenicia/bunol (AP reporter living in Israel, british nurses, nyu film kid, polish liederhosen-clad bikeshop worker law student, and many friends also in dortmund)

and now i am in my apartment choose my art classes for this next semester , trying to figure out how the hell to learn german (class mon-fri until october 1st!!), trying to find a place to stay in fully booked munich for oktoberfest, and staring out my window and the cute bunnies that dortmund is adorably overrun with.


Oh, today is the first time ive had internet in my apartment since i got here two weeks ago. I watched every episode of trueblood i missed. i won't post a specific spoiler but **spoiler alert** damn, if someone had to die, why them?? and their theme seems to be dead people not staying gone so maybe they will come back.hopefully :(.ps: sookie is dumb, she always puts herself in the middle of trouble. and how can alcide to what he is about to do after knowing what happened? also the new bromance team... interested to see how this plays out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJM0oJyzvc&feature=related

this month has been crazy.

and learning german is SO HARD. but it will be worth it. the art classes here are insanely out the box crazy. metalworking "sound installation making" class, a drawing class that takes part only at the zoo never in a studio, a combined art history/studio class creating how the architecture makes you feel after you learn about it and see it....

AND SUPPLIES ARE FREE

you just have to pay for small stuff like paper but the expensive stuff is free like printing inks and the metal for metalworking. oh hey gotta love that germany subsidizes its colleges and being an exchange student means i reap the benefits <3

also ive been brushing up on my portuguese there is a guy from brazil here!

this will be hard but so.completely.worth it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yibUR5KNI&feature=share

There are no words for how much I love this song! I've been listening to it since it came out a year ago (same singer from edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros)

I've listened to it like 10 times today since i found out they made an official video for it.

"Since this,
I've grown up some
Different kinda figther
And when the darkness come, let it inside you
Your darkness is shining
My darkness is shining
Have faith in myself
Truth.

I've seen a million numbered doors on the horizon
Now which is the future you choosen before you gone dying
I'll tell you about a secret I've been undermining
Every little lie in this world comes from dividing
Say you're my lover
say you're my homie
Tilt my chin back, slit my throat
Take a bath in my blood, get to know me
All out of my secrets
All my enemies are turning into my teachers"

getting homesick for a place i haven't left yet
getting homesick for a place i haven't met yet.

I guess I'm  at that phase of getting ready to move.

http://brickstobahn.blogspot.com/

I made a blog for my trip!

coming soon: Paypal donation button where you can donate and I'll send you sketches on postcards :)

(dolla dolla bills yall)

Updates:

*new orleans was fun! met a 20 yr old cat who looked animatronic and liked to wear a tie. i also had an absinthe cocktail w/ gin & orange juice...tasty

*my show is down after 2 weeks in the gallery! wow. I did it.

* spent 2.5 hrs on the phone w/ raileurope today... got my train pass but still managed to mess up one of the trips (barcelona to germany) so i need to call back tomorrow and fix my hopefully not TOO expensive mistake.will probably have to cobble together train & bus trips. ce la vie.

* train booked & seat reserved (paid) munich to paris, and paris to barcelona, as well as my side trip to & from valencia for the tomatina festival
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina)

*email sent about booking a tour for the tomatina festival

*stomach ulcer created about all this planning

*went to the ave maria grotto in cullman with my friend christa last weekend. was pretty cool

* and i am going to see the last harry potter on saturday!!!


wowza. lots of stuff. freakishly imeasurably excited for as my art professor puts it mercedes sans borders, european adventure 2011 !!!

In the past week  I have:

went on a 5 day all expenses paid trip to an Atlanta research conference (at the downtown Hilton. 16th floor. gorgeous view)
completed my summer research internship (and received 2300$ stipend for it)
had a gallery opening solo show of my installation art(and because people like dit so much, gallery time is getting doubled)
won scholar's choice award in my grad school prep program (comes with $100)
got asked to go to new orleans. will probably leave tomorrow (free place to stay)
found out there is a sale on the eurorail pass i am getting
got a drawing i did accepted into an art show in birmingham, and i'm also helping to organize the show (perks!)

oh,and im leaving for paris/barcelona/germany august 18.

SOMEONE PINCH ME.

universe,i love you. sometimes things are pretty shitty. this is not one of those times. when it rains it pours (both good AND bad)

oh,and a curator is discussing "future development opportunities" about my project.

dolla dolla bills yall.

(1000% worth the bucket loads of stress i've had over this project, and the panic attack where I fell off the ladder & got showered with T-pins)

a HUGE blog on tumblr called fuckyeahmixedbeauty reblogged a picture of me & my brother! honored <3

http://fuckyeahmixedbeauty.tumblr.com/post/6429926288/me-and-my-baby-brother-we-are-both-black-white

Friends Only! Comment to be added

oh god!
8 euro famous boat tour of the paris's seine river, views of:
* Notre Dame Cathedral
* Eiffel Tower
* Musee du Louvre
* Musee d'Orsay
* Assemblée Nationale (The National Assembly building)
* Hotel des Invalides
* Pont Neuf (Paris' oldest bridge, dating to the 16th century)
* Pont Alexandre III (Art Nouveau bridge dating to 1896)
* Grand Palais (Belle Epoque building housing National Galleries

also, the parisian catacombs! 4 euros
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris

i'm going to have a very eclectic but awesome trip.

and all my money will be gone.

at least their are enough things that are cheap! and cheap wine is like 4 euros a bottle so...yeah lol.



This is gonna be crazy.

ticket officially bought! will be in Europe august 18-Feb 24.

also booked hostels for: 2 days in Munich, 5 days in Paris, 5 days in Barcelona.

One of the days in Paris WILL be spent taking a day trip to Giverny. And also a whole day will be allocated for the Louvre.

Spanish beaches, french cafes... lordy.

Now I just have to buy my euro rail pass & i'll be good to go :)

p.s.: college is awesome.
p.s.s.: is this real life?!
p.s.s.s.: ART NERD FREAKOUT MOMENT WILL BE IN THE PRESENCE OF:

http://www.google.com/search?q=gaudi&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=588

&

It's official! I got the money to buy my ticket to germany. So not only will I be in Germany August-February in Dortmund University taking art classes, before that i will have about 2 weeks to putz around until my german immersion language class starts.

i'll be landing in Munich, stay for 2 days and then split my time between going to:
Paris
a day trip to Monet's garden at Giverny (and the water lilies bloom july-august so fingers crossed!)
Barcelona

12 or 13 days:2 days in Munich, 5 days in Paris, 1 day in Giverny w/ night in paris, 4 or 5 days in Barcelona and then heading back to Dortmund to have a couple days to get my shit in order before my classes start.

yay!

:)

p.s.: its stressful being your own travel agent lol. I had to take a crash course in finding cheap international flights. But soooooo worth it!

dear conor oberst:

please bring back your circa 2007 cassadega folk singer L.A. guru hair.

please.

the scent of lukewarm coffee reminds me of him.

and smokers cough...

and john lennon.

i just realized today that it has been 6 years since i was 16.

(my 22nd birthday is coming up on the 26th)

so many things that happened, people that i met, places that i went when i was 16 became a HUGE part of who i am (and who i decided i didn't want to be) today... it's so crazy to know 6 years are between me & that time!!! feels like yesterday, feels like 12 or 20 lifetimes ago.

i love that beautiful mix of living in one foreign city for 5 months but during & before/after hostel hopping.

best of both worlds! stability & adventure.

i'm looking at parisian & czech hostels right now. <3

i don't even know if i can *articulate* how excited I AM!!!

Also, I've started learning German. It looks about twice as hard as Portuguese, and as hard as french :(. I think it will be worth it though!