another video

action shot...

Just finished with another day of construction. Up at 7:30 am, meeting at 8:00 am and head out to the job site at 8:30 am. Day 2 consisted of fitting rebar to make a cage in our the holes we dug out the previous day

Construction Day 1 Croatia Day 15

First day of construction. 0 injuries reported. We started demo, cut and fill, and setting up batter boards for our posts. Cut and Fill SUCKS! Especially with huge rocks in the soil. So day one resulted in us spray painting our layout.

Day 1 completed

pics from the first night @ Plivics Lakes

After a the long drive from the coast to the mountains we got off the bus and settled in. We stayed in an apartment and I had to share a room with Nick and Myles. 1 queen and 1 twin bed was the set up. That night we also had our welcoming dinner which was a 2 km walk from our apartment. It was good to get out of the dorm have a couple of Karlovacko beers and have food not from the cafeteria.

Weekend Trip

Design/Build Recap Day 9-16

Design? Check. Build? Check. Have an awesome trip to a magical place between designing and building? Check. The past week has been crazy. We presented our proposed designs to the head person of the dorm, the priest, instructors, housekeeper and students from the eco-group at the dorm last Friday (Oct. 13). Then we packed and headed out that afternoon to Plitvice Lakes. It was a beautiful place. It was much needed and it was awesome. Just imagine going on vacation right after a review and in a huge natural set of detention ponds! The drive was along the coast of the Adriatic Sea and into the mountains. Check out some of the pics. The first pic was of three landscape arch students and one civil engineer student being confused by grading and drainage! and the second pic is us enjoying the weekend! haha. We were welcomed to homemade "plum brandy" that our hostess Anna gave us. Good times.

mini motivational quote of the day

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.
- Will Rogers

Design anyone?

These are some pics of a redesign for the dormitory entrance. THe design teams consists of Nick, Nicole and myself. We are designing for the high school and college students who stay at the dorm. A teen culture of smoking cigarettes!

Eco-Village

We checked out an Eco-Village in Hula (sp.) This was a community in the Croatian boonies that lived off the principles of sustainability and permaculture. There were rain water collection systems, compostable toilets, wind+solar power, straw bale construction and a native american sweat lodge. It was pretty incredible to see how someone can live without some of the comforts we take for granted. The people there also believe in a "Fairy" forests which we didn't get a chance to check out.

Pics from Opatija

We got to check out the urban core of the city. A famous park and Villa name Angeliona. Oh and this is where Carlos and I were yelled at by a local merchant. As we walked a long the boardwalk we noticed a stand of hand made jewelery and started to chat with a lady who told us about her handmade possessions for sale. We both looked at a lot of items but decided to wait for one of the girls to give us some advice. I wanted to get something for Karina. As we were leaving a guy claiming to be her brother who looked like a 45 yr old Jersery Shore member asked us what we were doing here. Then grabbed a necklace and asked us if we wanted to buy it for half off at 50 kuna ($10 US). It was ugly and we wanted to wait on anything. As we told him that he told us to fuck off! and that we were wasting his time! Well he are some pics from the city and when half of the studio jumped in to the salty cold water.

Croatia Day 4 recap

So yesterday was a long fun filled day where I got to see what Croatia had to offer. People told me before I got here that the beaches, sea, restaurants, countryside and resorts were beautiful. Every bit of that was true. The day started with us leaving the dorms with a sack lunch and dinner consisting of (a sandwich with 2 huge buns and a protein that could have been either pork, turkey, or chicken. Then a fanta, water, pear, 2 more slices of white bread with nutella and patte as spreads. Dinner had 2 huge buns with just cheeze and some more bread! I am tired of WHITE BREAD and POTATOES! So the cities we visited were nearby Rijeka. We visted Crikvenica and Opatija two cities that runs on the coast of the Adriatic. They both had beautiful beaches and gorgeous views out into the Sea. The water was turquoise and clear. The last stops of the day were to an Eco-Village somewhere in the boonies where a small knit bunch of people started a lifestyle that was off the grid. After we went to a family owned olive oil factory and got to sample and purchase some of the finest olive their is. It was a good day to get out of the dorm and put the pause on designing for a day.

need my sports fix!

WTF today I checked the usual email, seattletimes, fantasy football. Found out Randy Moss to the Vikings Part II, Cutler is out for a game with a concussion, Marshawn Lynch to the Seahawks, and Tony Wroten announcing later today>!! Crazyness. Keep me updated ppl! Also I need my Karina fix. I love you if you are reading this.

Welcome Dinner...

Goodness. Family style dinner because we had 19 ppl with us and I didn't what to order anyway. Dinner was amazing. We had steak, potatoes, gnocchi, antipasti, and some kind of stew with. Apparently the dark strips of meat on the antipasti plate was horse!

Luigi and Mario completed Level 1

Storming the castle

Pic from the little marina by the bay. So if you look at the castle perched up on the hillside. 500+ steps and a half of a heart attack later we would make it to the top.

french fries vs pom frites

Pom frites win. Double fried with two dipping sauces. "Hitting the spot like Gatorade" -The Dirty Projectors

Call of Duty World at War?

view from natural history museum

It was a great view of the city but a precursor to the journey we still had coming. If you can see the hillside slopes all the way down to the bay. We went down to the bay and then climbed all the way back to the top where the buildings sit on the horizon.

pedestrian corridor

Rijeka's Public Transportation

After a big lunch we headed on the bus (15 kuna = 3 dollars) to Rijeka's downtown. Where we got to tour the city for the first time. After a monsoon the night before we woke up to sunny skies and 70 degrees. The downtown had a lot of small cafe-bars and pedestrian only corridors. I saw an obligatory McDonalds but decided not to order a Royal with Cheese! We got to see the architecture, Natural History Museum, Adriatic Plaza, Governor's building, a CASTLE and had dinner at Konnan Tobor where I ate cured HORSE meat. It was not bad after trekking it on foot for miles and over 500+ steps to the top of the city Croatian's #1 beer Ozujsko and a big dinner hit the stop.

Croatia Day 2 Pics

This was lunch from today. The obligatory white bread with a cup of water. The main course was sausage and a bean, cabbage, and sausage stew.

dormroom and community room

Pics from Day 1

Dinner from last night. Fish sandwichs without the bun, broccoli and potatoes. The cafeteria is setup just like in middle school and the lunch ladies look like the ones from The Simpsons.

Croatia Day 1

After leaving Seattle at noon I am finally half way around the world. The travel breakdown was 9.5 hrs from Seattle to Frankfurt. 3 hr lay over. 2 hr flight from Franfurt to Zagreb, Croatia and then a grueling 2 hr luggage filled cab ride to our final destination in Rijeka. A lesson that I learned was "move marathons" are awesome especially on long flights. I got to check out Karate Kid (kicks ass), Toy Story 3 (awesome), Grown Ups (ok may be better with sandwiches) and Prince of Persia (surprisingly good). I got to grab a proper German bier at the airport. A half liter of Paulaner Hefe helped me nap on the next flight. So other than not knowing what time it is anymore and having jet lag I am looking forward to checking out what Croatia has to offer.