Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is easily another favorite city of mine.  I would compare it to an older, more historical Helsinki.  The city is founded on several different islands, each island connected with a bridge.  Just like Helsinki, the people here are so nice and enjoyable.  The architecture is pretty adorable too!  Throughout the years Stockholm has enforced strict rules for buildings and their appearance.  Because of that, the entire city is no higher than 5 or 6 stories.  The buildings here also suggest a romantic style, one that uses a compilation of architectural elements unique to Stockholm.  The buildings are all very similar, but each has its own individuality.

Yesterday was just another one of my emotional roller coaster days.  The day began wonderfully with me drinking a cappuccino by myself in a café on the cruise ship.  Again I say, BY MYSELF!  It was amazing and relaxing to gaze out the window for more than five minutes by myself.  We got off the fairy around 9:00a.m. which meant we had an entire day to fill with tourist destinations and endless guided lectures.  Oh boy!  Some days I wonder if the schedule will ever end.  Anyways, we began our tour of Stockholm as soon as we got our coach at the ferry.  The tour continued well into the afternoon, when finally, for the first time in a very long time, we were given independent study time for the rest of the day.  With our time a few of us roamed around the old town for several hours shopping, drinking hot beverages, and forgetting about architecture!  We ate dinner at a small café that was absolutely adorable and delicious!  Last night was such a great night that it got my mind off of so many things. 

Today Les and Rod led us on a walking tour around the city with our destination being The Vasa Museum.  It was unique in that the building was built entirely around an ancient ship.  The Vasa is a ship that sank in the Baltic Sea in Sweden just 1000 meters after it set sail for the first time.  Divers discovered the ship-wreck and brought it up to be preserved in the mid-1900s.  The Vasa is a great example of ship life in the 1600s.  After the museum we had another free day.  I headed back towards the hostel with a group where we got a quick lunch and hung out for a few hours in the hotel.  I took a shower in probably one of the sketchiest showers ever at the hostel so I could be presentable for dinner.  For the first time since Italy, I put on a nice shirt just because I felt like looking decent.  Dinner was amazing and expensive as expected.

Now I am hanging out in the lobby working on homework and journaling.  It is way too cold to be walking around the city at night.  It does not look like Berlin is going to be much better either.  Apparently a blizzard has hit central Europe; great timing huh?  I am so ready for some warm weather again, and my own bed, and some personal space, and to just be home!    I stated this a few weeks back on Facebook, but I must say it again, “Traveling the world is awesome, but nothing beats my friends and family.”

Helsinki, Finland

People keep asking me what my favorite places have been, and I have not really had a definitive answer until now.  Without a doubt one of my favorite places is Helsinki, Finland.  I cannot pinpoint what it is about this city and country that it so great, but I loved every minute of it; it was even an average temperature of about 10 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time we were there.  It is a rare feeling to be in a completely different country than I am used to and feel comfortable there.  I think this happened because everyone I talked to was really friendly and willing to help me; it is a really laid-back city as well.  Helsinki is a city that has great historic and modern architecture that complements each other pretty well.  I love the style they have going; simple, classy, and free from ornamentation.  The style is completely different than the classical style in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 

Helsinki is also a very active community.  Despite the freezing temperatures, it seemed like everyone was very active walking, jogging, and even cross-country skiing.  When the bays of the city freeze every winter, the citizens of Helsinki get a new park.  They use the ice as recreational space for all kinds of things; we used it for a snowball fight.

We went on a couple different walking tours in the short time we were there.  Some highlights included Stephen Hall’s Modern Art Museum, Helsinki Concert Hall, Helsinki Train Station, the Harbor, and a housing development called Arabia.  Arabia was my favorite part of the city simply because it is the type of architecture that I was born to design.  Historically in Arabia, the area was primarily industrial.  In this area several old factories have recently been converted into condos.  Modern construction complexes are mixed into the industrial condos, creating an architectural harmony.  I love the style of the place so much!  A local architect who worked on the project showed us around the area, giving us a wealth of information.  Afterwards we visited her office where we learned more about the general architecture practice in Finland. 

Another memorable time in Helsinki happened by a mere accident, but it was awesome!  Half of our group went into a coffee shop to kill time while we were waiting to meet up with the rest of our group.  We sat down with our snacks and coffee just in time for an unexpected music recital to begin.  About an hour later we left the coffee shop, having heard a fantastic concert of classical piano and violin.  It is experiences like these that make this trip the most worthwhile to me. 

We left Finland a few hours ago on a cruise ship for an overnight ferry ride, in the morning we will arrive in Stockholm, Sweden.  It has been an enjoyable time so far, especially since this is my first time I have been on a cruise ship.  World Tour always presents a new experience; you never know what is going to happen next.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

We all survived the 9 hour flight and made it to Russia, only slightly annoyed with the people sitting next to us.  I am not going to say that Russia is the worst place we have been so far because that would be inaccurate; however, Russia is definitely not at the top of my list of favorite places.  I cannot really pinpoint what it is that I do not like; maybe it was the multiple weird looks we got, or the fact that almost no one speaks English here.  Our guide did not help my experience too much either.  She is the most scatter-brained person I have met in a while.  When she talks of course she has an accent, which I am used to that happening, but all of her sentences run together!  It is the most exhausting thing ever to try to listen to her.  After about an hour or so, I am drained.  Most of the time, her talking ended with me putting headphones in and enjoying the scenery, because I honestly got more out of it that way. 

While in Saint Petersburg, we visited the Hermitage Museum.  It is a really old palace that has been restored into one of the world’s most famous museums.  It was really cool to see, but everything there is either classical or baroque style and I can only take so much of that stuff in one day.  My favorite part of the museum was a huge collection of impressionist paintings by every master artist, including Van Gough.  For some reason after the museum we did not have a coach bus to take us back to the hotel.  So we had a solid 30 minute walk back to the hotel in 20 degree Fahrenheit weather.   Not the most fun activity so far, but definitely memorable.  The rest of the night Dan and I spent in the hotel eating room service pizza and working on assignments.  Several people in our group went to a Russian Ballet, but I decided that I would enjoy myself more if I was just relaxing at the hotel.  Ballet has a way of boring me to death, and I have never even been to one!  Plus the tickets were $100, a little bit too steep for me!

Today we spent a couple hours at Saint Catherine's Summer Palace outside of Saint Petersburg.  Again this place was cool to see, but it got old pretty quick.  After the Summer Palace we returned to the hotel to have a studio charette session.  For about 3 hours we spent time brainstorming and critiquing each other’s projects.  I did not get many drawings done but I developed a pretty strong concept.  I spent the evening in the hotel again working on homework and organizing my bag.  Tomorrow we have an 8 hour bus ride to Helsinki, Finland.  I am so ready for it!  We have not had a quality bus ride in a while.  These are often the times I get most of my work done, and I cannot forget to mention my alone time.  I love the fact that on bus rides I can turn on my music, relax, and do my own thing!  It is amazing what these magical bus rides do for my mental health.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of those places you see in pictures your entire life, but never really even dream about making it there.  That was me at one time, and not that I have been there I still really cannot comprehend it.  Yesterday I climbed the wall for 3 hours, about 5 km of hiking up and down the stairs.  Never before have my knees hurt so bad!  Every single step was worth it though!  Spending time on the wall is one of my favorite activities on the trip so far.  The part of the wall we went to is apparently one of the least traveled ones when it comes to tourism.  I can understand why, the condition of the stairways and paths make it almost impossible to travel safely.  Multiple times I was climbing up and down steep staircases where the steps were in shambles with no railing to keep me from plummeting over the edge.  It sounds scary, but it makes for a great adventure!  I took plenty of pictures but I am a little sad about it because a picture will never do The Great Wall of China justice.

Exhausted, we all slept on the drive back to the city.  We had one last family diner on a lazy Susan, which I am not mad about.  I have been in Asia for a bit longer that my taste right now.  I am over hole-in-the-ground toilets; eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and shoving my way through everyday activities.  Enough of that, now back to our last family dinner.  Lin, a graduate landscape architecture student on the trip, had her family join us for the day.  Lin’s family lives only a few hours outside of Beijing.  For dinner they brought us three rounds of drinks, which is a traditional Chinese practice for serving guests.  The first round was apple juice, or what they referred to as apple vinegar.  The apple vinegar is a business Lin’s father and uncle started up several years ago.  Lin told us the apple vinegar is the most expensive kind in China, probably because it is so tasty!  After the apple juice they served us wine, and then a Chinese liquor, fire-water.  Thanks to Lin’s parents, my last meal in China was one of my favorite.

This morning I woke up late and did not have time to eat breakfast.  I just knew that this would be an indication of how the rest of my day would go.  I went to the post office with a large group to ship another box of souvenirs home.  It took a solid two hours just to put my stuff in a box and fill out a packing slip.  It was the most hectic experience I have had in a while.  Because it took so long at the post office, we somehow ended up running through the streets of Beijing in order to get back to the hotel in time to leave.  We made it back 10 minutes before the bus left at 11:00 a.m.  Naturally I did not have time to get lunch!  We stopped at the Beijing Olympic Park for about 15 minutes on the way to the airport.  I had just enough time to take a few smoggy photos of the place and reflect on the fact that history was made at the exact place I was standing.  The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were really the only things I could see, but I am still glad we were able to stop.

And now I am sitting on a plane.  I have been for the past 3 hours, and I will be for about 6 more.  I really, really need to get some homework and studio done, but so far all I have accomplished is two movies, a trip to the bathroom, and this journal entry.  I think it might be hopeless at this point.  I need to find some inspiration for studio, and I need to find it quick!

Beijing, China

Unfortunately, I think I have become jaded to certain things on this trip.  Today in Beijing, I saw The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace all in the same day and I was disappointed at the end of the day because we did not get to see any modern architecture.  I am grateful for the opportunity to visit these places, but I can only handle so many Chinese gardens and ceremonial spaces; they all start to look the same after a while.  The Forbidden City was still cool though because since the beginning of China, it was the location of all politics and power.  The emperors lived and worked in The Forbidden City.  As cool as the city is, it is still difficult to appreciate the place because I am not very familiar with Chinese history.  I am also sad because I do not think that we will get to visit the Olympic Park.  No Bird’s Nest pictures for me.  In addition to The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace we visited the Landscape Architecture School of Beijing Forestry University.  This is where Lin and Chin completed their undergrad education before coming to Ball State.  We all realized how lucky we are to have them with us because the LA program at Beijing Forestry University is the number one program for LA in China.  Lin showed us to a small art store similar to ArtMart at Ball State.  I was so excited because I was able to get a lot of sketching supplies for dirt cheap!

Today is Drew’s 21^st birthday so we all enjoyed a drink with him at our hotel this evening.  The place where we are staying is really nice; it has a small bar and pool table in the lobby.  We hung out downstairs for a couple hours celebrating with him.  Jake and I were 2 for 2 as pool partners.  It was a pretty great night away from homework.  Tomorrow is the day we visit the Great Wall of China, just another one of the many significant days to prepare for. 

A Mongolian Adventure

Think of the most remote place on this earth, (besides maybe the North Pole) add subzero temperatures, and throw in 26 Americans and you have a great Mongolian adventure.  The past 4 days have been the most unique, adventurous, and unbelievable of my life, oh and also the coldest.  We arrived in Mongolia mid-afternoon after a 2 hour flight.  We were immediately greeted by the cold as we walked to our bus at the airport.  We stopped at an ATM and a grocery store to get snacks and then headed straight for our first destination, Terelj National Park.  On the way to the park we were informed by our guide, Bata, that it would take about 3 hours to get to our yurts (pronounced gers) where we would be staying for the night.  He also told us it could take plenty longer depending how many times we would have to shovel our bus out.  A fresh snow fell about a week before our arrival so the roads, more like paths, had not been cleared.  No one really thought much about it… until about 3 hours later, when our bus got stuck for the first time.  Before I go any further, I should give you an overview of Mongolia.

Mongolia is the second least populated country in the world.  So that means there is pretty much nothing outside of the city, Ulaanbaatar, except for nomads.  Mongolia is also one of the coldest places in the world with an average winter temperature of -5 to -10 degrees Celsius.  One last thing, the country as a whole has a small concept of tourism.  Our group makes up 26 of the 25,000 people who visit the country per year, which is a very small amount compared to other countries.  To put this number into perspective, about 140,000 people visit Shamakmak State Park every year.

Ok back to our bus stuck in the snow.  The only thing I can think to compare this bus ride to is four-wheeling with a coach bus.  As you can imagine the smallest incline gave the bus trouble, even with chains on the tires.  Each hill required a running start, often failing the first couple times.  If you know our group at all you would figure out that the smallest things have to be a big deal, so hill climbing in a coach bus was turned into much more of an ordeal than it probably would have been.  By the end of it we were chanting, “Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!” for encouragement like in the movie, The Mighty Ducks.  It was all fun and games until the bus got stuck for good! 

Our next order of business was getting to our yurts before dark.  Luckily we were within walking distance of our camp, and unfortunately, we were in walking distance of our camp.  We walked a quarter of a mile uphill in -5 degrees Fahrenheit through a foot of snow carrying 50+ pounds of luggage.  No exaggeration.  At least three people fell down on the trek to the camp.  It seems so crazy looking back on it.  Also, Mongolia is about 3,500 feet about sea level.  Compared to 800 feet above sea level back home, the oxygen was in short supply.  Thankfully, we all made it safely! 

We were greeted with a traditional stone roast lamb dinner and hot delicious tea.  Later we got our yurt assignment and were released for the evening.  Yurts are round insulated tents with a coal-burning stove in the center and beds situated against the walls.  Camp workers come in throughout the day and night to stoke the fire and keep it warm.  Nomads in Mongolia still use yurts as their home, which is amazing to me.  My yurt was pretty cold throughout the night, but I did not mind it too much.  Better cold, than hot.

That evening a bunch of people gathered in one tent and drank and played cards.  Dan, Adam, Devin, and I decided that we would rather just chill for the evening so we watched a movie on Dan’s iPad.  I stepped outside the yurt to get our drinks that were chilling in the snow and looked up.  The stars made up the most beautiful sky I have ever seen.  I have never been able to see the constellations in such a clear and crisp sky.  I felt like I could reach out and grab the moon; what an experience I will never forget.  It was a much-needed relaxing time, and for the first time in a couple weeks I got a solid night of sleep. 

The next morning I woke up freezing with a stuffy nose; it was a pretty inconvenient time to have a cold.  We stuck around the camp most of the morning.  Several of us rode Mongolian horses while the rest went on what I hear was a sketchy rock climb.  The horse ride was awesome except for the part where it was freezing outside.  I came back with numb fingers and toes because they were so cold!  My horse was the most stubborn of the group.  At one point he decided it would be fun to stand and not move at all.  When he started moving again, he kept walking in circles doing doughnuts.  At least the experience was memorable.

Around noon we loaded up the bus, which was now unstuck, and headed to a nearby nomadic family.  They allowed us to enter their home and learn about their traditional lifestyle.  This gave me a great topic for my upcoming colloquium assignment.  The mother of the family served us a warm milk tea and what appeared to be cookies.  I bit into a “cookie” and almost broke a tooth; it was dried curd.  Yeah, gross.  I slipped it into my pocket to dispose of later because I did not want to be rude. 

We loaded up the bus again and headed towards another national park where we would stay the night at another yurt camp.  A couple hours into the ride we stopped on the side of the road where you could pay to hold an eagle.  Naturally, I had to do it!  I mean, who would not want to hold an eagle?  Even Bailey and Kathleen who are deathly terrified of birds held the oversized bird.  In order to hold it you had to move your arm up and down continuously so the heavy weight of the bird would not hurt your arm. 

We had lunch in the city and began our adventure to Hustai National Park, a park even less established for tourism than Terelj National Park.  I fell asleep on the bus just as we were leaving the city and woke up to a violently bouncing bus driving through no-man’s land.  I am still not convinced that the driver was actually using a road.  We got stuck once or twice but we were able to get out with little trouble.  The third time though is what turned our Mongolian drive into an adventure.  For the two hours that we were stranded, only two signs of civilization passed us, one guy in an SUV and one guy riding a horse.  The whole group dug and pushed and dug some more until we ran out of daylight.  That is when the guide called for help.  A while later, a small flatbed truck showed up and all the ladies, including myself, piled into the back.  We huddled together to stay warm as the truck sped off to the tourist camp.  5 minutes later we arrived hungry and cold.  The men were able to free the bus after another hour of labor and returned as heroes to the camp with our luggage.  Finally it was dinnertime! 
Some of my favorite meals on World Tour have been in Mongolia.  Before we settled in for the night, our guide taught us a few ankle-bone shooting games, traditional to Mongolian culture.  Ankle bones of sheep are used as dice for several different games.  After an hour or so Monica and I returned to our yurt to find the temperature inside a scorching 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  It cooled down a bit throughout the night, but it still did not stop me from feeling like I was sleeping in an oven.  It did not matter too much though because I took a Nyquil to help with my cold and it knocked me right out, the second time in a row that I got a full night’s sleep.

The next morning we piled into 3 smaller vans and headed out on an excursion to see wild horses.  We had to take the vans because according to our guide, “the terrain was a little bit rougher than the roads we have traveled previously.”  This is such an understatement because this ride was what we call 4-wheeling at home.  The terrain in Hustai National Park is more desert-like, whereas Terelj is more mountainous.  A ton of snow drifting happens at Hustai, making the paths dangerous and unpredictable.  We were just driving along most of the time when we would hit a drift and get completely hung up; a couple times we almost rolled over.   We eventually found several horses but had to hike quite a ways to get close enough to photograph them. 

We returned back to our yurt camp to have lunch.  While we were eating, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came on the television, proving that American culture is everywhere in the world, even in a yurt camp in Mongolia.  We said our goodbyes to nomadic tent camping, packed up, and headed for the city.  Ulaanbaatar is not the most impressive city we have seen so far, but it is the weirdest.  We visited a cashmere factory, a museum, and the most interesting thing yet on the trip, a traditional Mongolian concert.  I now know that Mongolia is famous for throat singing, where they use their throat noises as just another instrument.  It sounds as ridiculous as it sounds.  The dancing and singing together was neat, but as the show went on it kept getting more weird.  They even threw in a contortionist to add some spark, not that the show needed anything else.  The throat singing was enough. 

Our hotel in Ulaanbaatar that night was not the greatest, but we were all so glad to be in a hotel that it did not seem to matter too much.  The yurts were awesome, but I was ready for my own bathroom and normal sleeping temperatures again.  Plus our hotel had free WI-FI so I was able to communicate with home again.  It was long overdue.  This morning we woke up and had a pretty chill breakfast, visited some stuff in the city, and returned to our hotel and enjoyed some downtime before our flight left for Beijing. 
Flying is just one of the many things I am starting to get sick of.  Regardless I had a pretty great flight and got to our hotel in Beijing at about 8p.m.   I met up with Dan, Adam, Devin, and Sarah for dinner in a restaurant at our hotel.  I was a pretty great dinner for several reasons besides the food.  For once in a very long time, I got to choose what I wanted to eat, instead of dinner being chosen for me.  The highlights of the night included Sarah jumping off the bed, me shocking Devin almost to death, and endless venting sessions about button-pushing on this trip.  A boring day turned into a pretty great night in Beijing!  I am going to miss Mongolia’s minimal population and crisp, clean air.

Xian, China (aka the Terra Cotta Warriors)

Day 55 is one that can easily be forgotten in my book. Our early morning flight from Shanghai to Xian was delayed by about 6 hours. Instead of leaving at 7:30a.m. our plane left at about 2 or 3p.m. Consequently we spent hours sitting in the airport; some slept, did homework, played cards, and wrote in journals. I did not exactly mind it, because it is the first time in a while I have been able to sit and do nothing. While I was doing homework, Dan and I had a good talk about the trip and life and all the things we have been annoyed by. I will not bore you with all of the self-discovery we made.

We arrived late in Xian so we had to wait to see the Terra Cotta Warriors until the next day (yesterday). We headed to dinner and then to the hotel. Since we got very little food at dinner, a group of us decided to find some more food. We left the hotel and took Chin with us since he knows the language and since almost no one here speaks good English. My favorite part of that night is when Chin asked someone for directions to the closest McDonald’s. Poor Chin was leading a pack of helpless Americans to fulfill our greasy food addiction. Sadly enough we never found McDonald’s, so we had to settle for KFC, which was not the worst thing in the world.

The next day began with an early morning at a Chinese Folk Art Museum. I got to try my hand at ancient calligraphy and I purchased an original painting by a Chinese calligraphy student. It was great! The next destination was finally the Terra Cotta Warriors! I do not know what else to say about it except it looks exactly like the pictures I have seen. Do not get me wrong, it was unbelievable, but it is one of those places that I already knew what to expect. One thing I did not realize was how many soldiers there actually are. Close to 5 thousand are supposedly guarding the tomb of the first Chinese emperor, and only a small fraction of them have been excavated. Another thing I never really thought about was the fact that the warriors were actually found in shambles and had to be pieced together when they were first excavated. It can take up to a year or two to piece together just one warrior. The government has decided not to excavate much more than they already have because of cost and preservation issues.

After the Terra Cotta Warriors we ate the best lunch that I have had in China so far. Northern China is known for multiple ways of making noodles. The restaurant we ate at had demonstrations of noodle-making and cooked them right in front of you. It was very tasty and entertaining. We headed to the airport directly after lunch to fly to Beijing. We stayed the night in Beijing at a hotel close to the airport, only because we had another early flight the next day (today).

So right now, I am on a flight to Mongolia. Yep, Mongolia, possibly the most remote location I will ever visit. I am pretty excited about it too, especially after being in overly-crowded Asia for 3 weeks. I do not even care that I might freeze my face off! Tonight we get to sleep in Yurts, also known as Mongolian tents. I am excited, but also a little nervous because subzero treks to a modern bathroom in snow in the middle of the night just sounds terrible. I am hoping it works out better than things look like in my head. I figure if I expect the worst possible situation, well it cannot be much worse than that.