Ugh part 2

Ok, so I am all packed up for the most part. I have clothes left out for the next three days and the bathroom essentials but god this is going to be ugly...financially speaking. Not only do I have to mail home my keyboard and poster but at the same time I manage to have enough stuff here for a very large suitcase and my backpack. Both are filled to bursting and have no chance of being under the 20 kilo limit. This is not even to mention my two carry-ons that will have my computer in one and my book collection in the other. How I accumulated this much crap I will never know. I swear I started out with just the backpack!

And to make matters worse I have to check in twice so I get to pay the overage two times instead of just once. Fun fun fun.

In the meantime, it is sad and happy. Sad I am leaving my home for the last six months and happy for returning to my old one.

I still need to figure out how I return all my school books as well as study for tomorrow's exam.

It's a dated quote but..."happy happy joy joy!"

Final Board

Winding down

As my studies in Copenhagen are rapidly coming to an end, I have been trying harder and harder to appreciate the city. I have been so caught up in studies that I haven't had the time to actually enjoy the town. Now that may be an excuse since there are any number of my fellow architects who have been going out constantly and doing all sorts of cultural activities but I guess I just get so caught in my work that everything else just falls away. On the bright side, my work took a wonderful jump forward this semester. Under the guidance of my professor Courtney Coyne-Jenson (whose CV reads like a bowl of alphabet soup) I really moved forward in my work and I find it entertaining to look back at the first project I ever undertook at KU: a pavillion. At the time I thought I knew everything and I suppose the best part of any education is that moment when you've learned enough to know that you know nothing. At times it feels like a martial art. You study for years and years and years to achieve your black belt and only then does your study begin. To this point, I have been learning the proper moves and techniques (and continue to do so) but it will be a lifelong pursuit to truly master this craft. And I look forward to it very much.

After this semester I have added a few more moves to my bag of tricks, mostly in the realm of presentation which needed work. Again, looking back at last spring, I am almost embarassed by my boards. But that is the wonder of learning isn't it. To look back upon something that was once a point of pride with humor and a little condescension.

anyway, that was a digression. The point of this post was to talk about these last few days. On Tuesday night I went and saw Gogol Bordello play for free in front of the city hall here in downtown Copenhagen. Now if you have never been to a Gogol Bordello concert, I believe that you should. Especially for free, out of doors, in the snow and sleet. First off, I have never seen such a high energy show in all my life. Gogol Bordello, which can only be classified as Romanian Immigrant Punk is a collection of musicians from all over the world. The front man is on an acoustic guitar and looks like a gypsy (and is for my bet.) The violin player is in his early 60's with a grey ponytail and an ever present beret. There's an accordian player, a rastafarian bassist, the list goes on. They are incredible. After jumping and dancing for 2 hours, and you do jump and dance, the energy at these concerts is through the roof, we headed to the Architecture and Design end of year party. I was pretty well off by the time we arrived there, however the mood was high and everyone was looking to celebrate. The party took place at this basement bar that occupies the same building as some of the A&D studios called the Australian Bar. Although there is nothing australian about it, the allure is the tuesday night specials of 10 kroner beers and well shots. Everyone was taking advantage.

It was about one a.m. when I left the bar. And the party was in full swing. Now I know it is not like me to leave a party at it's apex but after getting into a Michael Jackson Dance Off with a stranger (ironically enough not to Michael Jackson music) and attempting my 360 spin to full splits move, I realized that there was going to be no more dancing or even standing that night without a great deal of pain. It seems I am no longer as flexible as I once was and managed to pull my left hamstring pretty fierce. I took a c ab home to the tune of 30 dollars but at least I didn't have to wait for the bus.

Yesterday was easy: I photographed my model from this project and moved out of studio. Shopped for xmas gifts and relaxed in my room.

Today I have been doing laundry and getting ready to pack. I have to go to the post office and mail home my keyboard (which will not be cheap) and my drawings from the first project.

Tomorrow I have an exam and my first weekend night out on Copenhagen, and coincidentally enough my last night in Copenhagen. Saturday to London and Sunday to St. Louis.

It feels so very weird. I feel like it was not so long ago I was in Ireland on the boat with my Dublin friends. It doesn't seem like 6 months since I was lost in the dorm, trying to find out where my room was with the bowling ball spinning in the pit of my stomach.

The time has sped by and I cannot but help to think that I wish I had done more.

But isn't that the curse of every good experience?

I wonder if I'll keep posting once I am home?

TW

Ugh

Finally...I'm done with my boards. It is 2 a.m. and I have to catch the night bus soon.
This project was to create a pavillion on a site which houses both a park and a place for ice skating/skateboarding. Also on the site is a kindergarten. These were all fun elements to take into account while designing.

As an interesting side note, I realized tonight, with only 8 days left in Copenhagen, that it was the first time I had been in downtown CPH on a saturday night...kind of sad. But you get so sucked into the life of partying in the kollegium that I just failed to get downtown. Maybe once before I leave I should make a night of it.

Anyway, I'll try to upload my board soon...


----That was yesterday...I have since finished my project and submitted it...tomorrow reviews!

New Photos Are Up

It's about damn time but I posted the last of my Russia photos. Sorry for the delay!

November 4th, Novgorod and Train to Moscow

The first thing we did this morning after an amazing buffet breakfast was to hop on the bus and head towards Novgorod. Novgorod is the third largest city in Russia, but as far as I knew it may as well have been Anatevka. I suppose with big sisters like Moscow and St. Petersburg, it becomes pretty easy to fall into the shadows like so much Jan Brady.

The bus ride was about 4 hours through the arctic tundra of Russia. No kidding, this was pretty much the way you would imagine Russia to be. The kind of place where Nazi's and Frenchmen starved and froze. Miles and miles of endless wasteland stretches out into the distance. Nothing is farmed there, nothing is built there. Aside from the occasional WWII monument commemorating the death of tens of thousands of Germans who got caught in a kill zone, there is pretty much nothing.

That is until you get to Novgorod. This is a contemporary city with a medieval Kremlin (which is translated as "city outside a fortress" so there are actually many Kremlins throughout Russia, not just Moscow.) We didn't get into Novgorod proper but we did get into the Kremlin as well as the old medieval area which is still an active archaeological site. It is in fact a very important one due since the discovery of numerous letters written by the people of the time. It was widely believed that the layman was illiterate during the dark ages but since this discovery of numerous birch bark letters written from the 11th century, that belief has changed. Not only that, but as an added bonus to theoretical linguists out there, the people wrote without the rules of grammar and instead wrote in the way that people really spoke, much like Mark Twain. This allows the academics to truly see how the language had and has evolved.

It was upon our arrival in Novgorod that it started to snow...and it didn't want to stop. It made the whole experience a little difficult. Now when I tell you I've seen bad winters you should believe it. Having lived in upstate New York as well as rural Kansas, I was under the impression I had seen the worst of it all. But I assure you, you have never felt cold like a bitingly frigid gust of wind, that having traveled all the way from Siberia, whips right through your clothing and makes you wonder if life is really worth all this effort. Never before have I felt cold like this...and when the snow blinds you and ice particles are flying into your eyes, well let's just say I dressed in many more layers on a daily basis after Novgorod.

After we left Novgorod (and after having perused the myriad of birch trinkets available at the tourist huts) we headed off to a monastery to meet with Brother Dimitri. He is a Russian Orthodox monk who deals in relief to drug addicted people. He was a well spoken man and a thoughtful man, as one would imagine monks to be, and surprised me in the fact that at one point he had been a chemical engineer. He spoke of the tenants of the orthodox church and spoke out against the bastardized protestants etc... But the most interesting thing he said was his philosophy of noise. He said that in anything in life, noise gets in the way. If you are studying radio frequencies you have to know what the background noise is before you can study variations in the actual subject. He said that this is the same as prayer and listening to god. One cannot hear the word of god if one has too much noise in their life. He said noise comes from abusing alcohol or drugs or sex and if one lives a life of moderation and prayer, that only then can one begin to identify the noise, remove it, and truly speak to god. Interesting stuff...at least philosophically.

We thanked him for the time and headed out for one last stop: a UNESCO protected monastery. At this point, I think everyone was exhausted and tired and was just ready to go. Or at least I was because frankly I don't remember a thing about this visit. Too bad too because looking at the pictures, it appeared to be pretty beautiful.

After another four hour drive back to St. Petersburg, we got dropped off at the train station. That was an experience. The station was everything a train station should be: big, imposing, almost threatening with the smell of diesel permeating every nook and cranny. We had an hour or so before we boarded our train to Moscow. It was an overnight affair so we all had sleeper cars with four beds to a room. I have to admit it was a pretty cool experience. The cars were so much like what you would expect from a Russian overnight train. Great window treatments with curtains etc...it was what you think of when you think of the Orient Express. Just a nice luxurious cabin.

Tomorrow in Moscow.

November 2nd images are up

They are on the right, below November 3d.

Enjoy...
I'll post more soon about the remainder of the trip, Novgorod, Moscow etc...

Take care
TW

I know

I posted some photos out of order...I will get the 2nd up soon.

Sorry.

But in the meantime, enjoy November 3d in St. Petersburg!
TW

November 3d, St. Petersburg

Catching you up on Russia.

The last few days I have been absent, I know, but internet has been expensive and time has been short. But things have been a lot of fun!

Let me start where I had left off, just after our first day of St. Petersburg.

We started the second day, not on a bus, not with our guide Jon, but instead we were guided into St. Petersburg by my groups own, famous Russian television journalist on a tour of the "other side" of Petrograd. We began by first hopping onto the deepest metro in the world, once again, and riding it into another part of the city. Once there, we walked a few blocks to find ourselves at an indoor market. This was a wonderful place, the kind of place I knew existed in Denmark or even Lawrence. The market itself was a kind of permanent farmer's market with everything you could ever want from chocolate to pickled everythings. Fish was in abundance and cuts of meat I still have yet to figure out. There was even an enormous stand selling nothing but honey straight from the comb! It was very cool. We all bought our own individual things, however the guide bought a number of pickles and told us she was going to teach us how to eat a pickle the Russian way.

We left the market and it wasn't too long before we had rounded the corner into an urban neighborhood. We were not in the places that wind up on postcards, and we were not in the places that tourists are itching to go. This was a bit slummy, but then again, this was the day to see the other side of St. Petersburg so onward we go. We turned corner and I, being towards the back of the pack, see everyone disappearing into a large steel door with no markings and no signage. I would not, in fact, have given it a second look. Upon entering the building (and I say building a bit tongue in cheek since it was merely a room with a high ceiling) and realise that at 10:30 in the morning, our guide has brought us to a bar. Not just any bar, however. This bar, she says, usually caters to those who are somewhere between alcoholic and homeless. I briefly wonder where she is on that spectrum since she has just finished telling me she is hung over. The bar itself is probably no more than 10 feet by 10 feet with a bar running the length and sides. There are no stools and it is very apparent that this is the kind of establishment that would not cater so much to dawdling and long form conversation. Get your booze, drink it, and leave, is what the room says to me. She orders us all ENORMOUS shots of vodka and informs us that the proper way to eat a pickle is as a chaser to a shot of vodka. So, who are we to judge. We all throw down the shots like hearty Russians and prepare to hit the town once more, with new strength burning in our stomachs.

Barbara, our guide, leads us further into Petersburg and into areas that are called Brick Cities. This term refers to what happens when a series of communist era tenements are all built together causing odd angled alleyways and squares to form in between them. There is an almost rectilinear zigging and zagging of alleyways that connect major street to major street in this area that would not be on any maps but merely available in the ingrained memories of the locals. There is no grass on the ground and few windows look out. Most of the rooms are part of a communal apartment and you can judge the relative wealth of the tenant by what kind of window framing they have. Needless to say, even the best frames were of poor quality.

It was through these courtyards and alleys that we found our way to Barbara's friend's apartment. He lives in a typical communist apartment and let me tell you, it was not pretty. Think of the worst dorm room you've ever seen, and then put 6 of those together with a shared kitchen and bath. A life like this I would not wish on a dog. But it is how many of the Russians live here in St. Petersburg. Since the fall of communism, is is possible to buy out the rest of the occupants of your apartment and make it all your own, but for the most part, these are all shared domiciles.

After this we had lunch and exchanged stories with the other group. As it turned out, they had not gone to a bar as we had but instead had gone to a Russian donut shop. I guess their guide was not as hung over as ours!

When lunch ended (and let me tell you it is very easy to get sick of Borscht) we headed to the Winter Palace. Talk about extreme ends of the spectrum! To go from the poverty of this morning to the grandeur of the Winter Palace was a bit like running from a sauna into a snow drift. But it was remarkable. The Winter Palace is a place of paramount beauty. Gilded and painted, festooned with art and, in fact, art itself. It is a wonderful place but the kind of place that I'll let the photographs describe.

That was the end of a long day, and I was ready to turn in.

Tomorrow is the drive to Novgorod and then the train to Moskow!

November 2nd, Petrograd

Let me begin by apologizing for not posting new pictures but I have to pay for Internet and it is not cost-effective to spend an hour uploading images. I'll post them when I get home.

So:
November 2
We began our first full day in St. Petersburg on the bus driving up Nievsky Prospect to the statue of Peter the Great given to him by Catharine the Great. This statue, called the Bronze Horsemen, represents Peter astride a large and wildly lunging horse. The horse, meant to represent Russia, is being controlled, only just barely, by the might Peter with his one hand while his right hand gestures towards the horizon. Peter, dressed in Roman clothing and a laurel looks solemnly to the west. This is an important statue in many ways. St. Petersburg was the creation of Peter the Great. He, as a young man, became the first Tsar to ever leave Russia. He chose to travel and study in the west, in Europe. And it was a result of these travels that he became a bit westernized. He returned to Moscow with a mustache instead of the traditional full beard and instantly ordered that all Russian men shave off their beards. He liked things to match the rest of Europe and as such, went to war with Sweden (I think, could be Finland) in order to capture a pathway to the west. Previously, Russia had no western seaport, so after taking this area of swampy land, Peter had it drained, and built St. Petersburg in it's place. The next step was to move the capital here, where he could always be closer to the western world he held so dear. IT is for these reasons the imagery on the statue becomes western in detail: the roman clothes, the non-Cyrillic inscription on one side, and of course the overall image of Peter riding a wild horse into the west. All in all a pretty impressive statue that has been written about many times, most famously, however, in Pushkin's poem The Bronze Horseman. Worth the read.

We stopped to look briefly at St. Isaac's which sits opposite the Bronze Horseman before getting back on the bus to continue our tour. The next stop took us to the Peter Paul Fortress and Cathedral. This was the first western style church many Russians would have ever seen. The renaissance styling and of course the presence of a clock make it all very strange to any Russian of the time, but again, it was Peter's wish. Inside the cathedral are the sarcophagi of ALL the Russian Tsars from Peter the Great on. We then exited the church and looked out over the water before heading to the House of Political Prisoners.

The House of Political Prisoners was a bit of a switch since it was the newest building we stopped at so far. Being built in 1927, it was used not to house enemies of the communist regime, but rather those people who had been imprisoned for championing communism prior to the 1917 revolt. This was, quite literally the first communal building in the world.

The next stop was a beautiful church called the Church of the Spilled Blood (not the nicest name but certainly a pretty place.) And then on to lunch.

In the afternoon we took a walking tour of Dostoevky's Russia and saw not only where he lived but the places mentioned in Crime and Punishment. This was a real treat because I could suddenly picture the scenes more clearly. Almost as if when you see a movie first and then read the book, the characters in the book appear to be the actors from the film, seeing the area in which Dostoevsky wrote gave a hard context to the novel. We even got to walk in Roskalnikov's footsteps as he plotted the murder of the pawn broker.

Our final stop of the day was the St. Nicholas Cathedral, a Russian orthodox church.

St. Petersburg: Day 1

Well, today went a lot better than yesterday if for no other reason than I was at the right place at the right time. It is true, that while the dry run yesterday went off without a hitch, today was not so lucky, I did forget to wear my boots. So that being the only problem, I'll take it.

We landed in St. Petersburg after an easy 2 hour flight from Copenhagen and immediately got onto our tour bus. We drove around a bit and got some bearings while Jon, our professor and tour guide, gave us interesting tidbits about St. Petersburg and how to operate within it. There are certain things, he says, to avoid. For instance, there is something called the Leningrad Amoeba. This is a little bugger that lives in the water and will make your life a living hell if you drink the tap water. So bottled water/vodka only. He also told us that to get a ride around town you just hold out your arm and someone will pick you up. You negotiate a price with them (generally not more than 200 rubles or 7 bucks) and you go where you need to. He said at no times to get into any car that says "officially licensed taxi" or anything of that sort. He said that taxi's as we know them are here to rip you off. And if you see a meter just walk away. Kind of counter-intuitive but hey, it's Russia.

After driving for a bit and stopping off at Moscow Square to look at one of the few remaining statues of Lenin, we headed to the hotel where we had a couple of hours to ourselves. I took the time to take a much needed nap and woke up in time to meet everyone for dinner.

Dinner, as you will see in the pictures, was a standard Russian meal. Heavy good food. Jon taught us all the proper way to drink vodka whilst in Russia which is to say you never sip it and it must be drank in one shot. Always with food and never, under no circumstances, is it to be mixed with anything. They measure vodka here, not on taste as we tend to do in America, but instead on the purity of the spirit. What this means is that they judge a vodka by how little a hang over you get from it. My kind of town.

Anyway, dinner was great, good food, fine conversation and I am exhausted. It is only 10 here which means 8 in Denmark, but I am ready for bed.

Tomorrow we see St. Petersburg/Stalingrad/Leningrad/St. Petersburg!

Oops!

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and gathered my belongings together. I showered, packed my toiletries, ate a quick snack, threw my computer together and headed out. I made the bus just on time and things were looking good, I paid the fare for the airport (about 8 bucks) and sat back to watch the sun rise, timidly,through the windows of the bus. It was all going perfectly, not a hitch, and it was a good feeling.

I was riding past Tivoli when I see a poster advertising the production of Chess that they are putting on. This was the play in the 1980's written by Murray Head that gave us the classic "One Night in Bangkok." Hmmm, I thought to myself "I remember wanting to see that and I remember it had a two night run, the 30th and 31st. And I also remember....aww hell!"

It was at this point that it occurs to me I do not leave for Russia until the 1st. So here I am, back in my room, now confident, as a result of my dry run today, that I will be able to make it to the airport, on time, tomorrow.

Oops!

Presentation Board

Not the best quality, and I wonder how I will get it into my portfolio...I guess the old fashioned way of photographing it via professional.

Anyway, this should give you an idea.

Tomorrow, Russia!

Well, it's been a while

But I have really good reason. A) there has been no travel and B) I have been busting my hump in studio on our first real project of the semester. I have to admit that I am far morew proud of this presentation than I have been of a board in a long time, if ever. I decided on this project to present solely in analogue. I eschewed all the rendering programs, 3d modeling softwares and layout editors in exchange for doing everything by hand: even down to the french cutting of photographs to splice them into my main page. This has been a wonderful experience, and has really brought me back to the concept of a presentation. At some I became enchanted with the digital age and forgot about the tactile. It yielded some pretty amazing results.

Right now I only have the photographs of the model I did for a lighting study but I will photograph the board right before my presentation so everyone can see how good it looks! Seriously, I am so happy with the board, that I have almost forgotten my indifference to my design. I think from here on out I will put that majority of my presentation emphasis in the analogue and slowly and appropriately reintroduce the digital in an organic way. I think in the long run this will serve me well.

Anyway, photos to come, Russia on saturday, and then St. Louis and Lawrence, before returning to Denmark for the home stretch!

See you soon
TW

Notes from Study tour Y to Germany and the Netherlands--or--What now?

This was far and away one of the worst planned study tours I have ever been on. And I have been on 3! If this had been a tour that I partook in separate from DIS I would have been furious and been asking for my money back. Nothing, absolutely nothing after the first day went as planned. We went well beyond Murphey's Law and into the realm of "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And just for the fun of it, we've thought up some new things that were completely unexpected. You're gonna love it." Let's call it, I dunno, Odysseus' Law.

Let's just start with where I left off (sorry about that, we didn't have internet.) This brings us to the Monday of October 5th. We woke up in our wonderful 3 star hotel room (one less star than the previous night but a good deal more than the hostels) and headed out for Essen, Germany. Essen was a coal mining town that, up until recently, was pretty much something out of western Pennsylvania. However, in recent years it has achieved a bit of status because of the Zeche Zollverein. An old coal processing plant, it recently was put into Unesco's list of protected historic places. This is a huge deal, especially since in Europe, everything is old. So OMA and Rem designed a masterplan that woul serve not only to protect the site but also to make it more pronounced as well. There are a great many pictures from within the coal plant and it was interesting to see. What would have been further interesting, had it not been a monday, would have been to do what we were supposed to do and scheduled to do and seen the museum. But, what's that? Museums are closed monday? Excuse me? You say that that is pretty much a universal norm? Hmmm....now why didn't DIS think of that?

DIS screwup 1: failed to consider that museums are closed on monday

So after killing time there (and I mean killing it since we couldn't go through the museum and had allotted time for it) we headed over to the Norman Foster designed Red Dot Museum. Now then, I want everyone to say it with me: Museum's are closed on Mandays. Yes that's right. You would think after running this tour for ten years plus, that DIS would have known about this little anomaly in museum scheduling. This wasn't a total loss, however, because it so happened that the woman who ran the museum was coming in so after considerable begging we were allowed access to the museum. This was pretty cool. The museum is dedicated to recipients of the Red Dot design award which covers everything from xerox machines to backpacks. There was even lawnmowers and ipods recognized. It was fun to see different elements of design all appreciated.

DIS Screwup 2: Closed museum again, only made better by begging

After the museum, we walked over to a restaurant called Kokerei. It was a good meal but the pleasure came in the surroundings. It was built into a coal mill so it was heavy and dark and industrial. Very cool. And the first thing that day that wasn't screwed up!

The afternoon took us to the Zollverein school of Management and Design. This is a building designed by the Japanese firm SANAA. Frankly I did not think much of it. It was open form, adjustable space, etc...but frankly, it was a white cube with as far as I could tell, arbitrarily placed and sized openings. It was not a building I would go out of my way to see.

After that, because the tour had already screwed the pooch for the day, they decided to make a surprise stop and let us hang out with some Dutch architecture students. We had dinner at the Arch. School cafeteria, we waited, we walked around, we waited...hmmm...well the students didn't show up for the debate or mixer or whatever the hell DIS thought would come from this. So let's go ahead and chalk up

DIS Screwup 3: failed to confirm make up plans

It was good to get to the hotel that night.

October 6th, this was a good one as well. We had 3 items on the itinerary that took place outside of the bus: academic visits, if you will. 66 percent of these failed in one form or another.

Let's start with Van Nelle Factory. This was the first (well, supposed to be first) stop of the day. We arrived and after Kate and Boe (the professor on this debauchal) talked to numerous people it was evident that the two architecture students who were supposed to meet us, not only weren't there, but had no idea what we were talking about. So with the promise of returning in the afternoon, we all stopped sketching and loaded up to go to our next destination.

DIS Screwup 4: had not established plans at all

We left the Van Nelle and went to the NAI (Netherlands Architecture institute.) This went off without a hitch but I cannot say it went off as planned since it was supposed to occur in the afternoon. We just had to change the schedule around.

This was a neat building and museum. And recently it had been retrofitted to accommodate the 2010 Rotterdam Bianalle. After walking around there for a bit, and again, killing time, we headed off the the OMA designed Kunsthall. This is a pretty amazing building, but before we toured it we were going to have lunch in the cafe. This was a total joke. When we arrived, they were not prepared for us. They did not have enough chairs and tables and furthermore, they had not received their shipment of bread for the day and as a result had to give us really old bread that had been heavily toasted to compensate for the degree to which it had staled. They brought no utensils and for every table of six, placed one plate with 4 halved sandwiches. Numerous people walked away from that meal hungry because of either dietary issues or because one half a small sandwich was not enough. This is a trendy, contemporary art museum cafe and they were not ready for us. They did bring out more sandwiches eventually, but unfortunately, only like 4 of us were left in the room.

DIS Screwup 5: Failed to make sure we were going to be accommodated

After the Kunsthall, when we were supposed to return to the Van Nelle, we were informed that we would not be going back at all. This could be connected to the previous failure, but I am going to go ahead and count it as

DIS Screwup 6: failed to follow through on promises

We were then set off on our own for dinner and nightlife in Rotterdam after having a bus tour. Which, frankly, is the worst way to see architecture. I can't draw it fast enough and I can't take a decent photo through the rain smeared glass so...

The morning of the 7th brought with it a feeling of "what now." Everyone was eerily suspicious of every plan and frankly had begun to expect the worst. The first stop at the Hessing Cockpit, which is a high end car showroom, was a nice stop. There wasn't a single problem. Lunch went off well too. The only problem, and this is by no means DIS's fault, but the rain preempted our bike tour of Amsterdam, so while it was not their fault, they also did not spend that money on us.

Afternoon free in Amsterdam.

The morning of the 8th was the drivers day off, so we all (38 of us) had to try to take city transport together...it was a mess.

We got to Ultrecht University and had sketching assignments to do on our own. And periodically, groups would head to see the Schroeder house by Garrett Rietveld. I love this house. I couldn't live there but the machination and adaptability of the place is amazing.

Dinner was fun. We drank a lot. For some, too much. And we boarded the bus to return to Copenhagen where, again not DIS's fault, 3 students got violently ill, vomitting on themselves, others, and the bus. We had to stop 3 times to clean the bus.

This was a nightmare trip and I am thinking of asking DIS to return the money that I spent. I know I would if it was an independent tour group I went with...I just can't figure out why I am cutting them slack.

Anyway, it is good to be home.

Oh, one other thing, the other group, Group X, they got to go to a concert and have a cultural night that we did not. I feel shortchanged.

Cologne Germany,

Today was a great day of site seeing in Deutschland. We got to see some really seminal (is that the semen related adjective or the one meaning important? I want the one meaning important. Or wait, is that the native american from florida? Shit. Well anyway...) works of contemporary architecture by such greats as Tadao Ando (the mad boxer) and Peter Zumpthor (recent Pritzger Prize winner.)

I took abajillion photographs and am uploading them as we speak. It does, unfortunately, take a bit of time for everything to move over the interweb here in the hotel so it may take some time, but it truly was a remarkable day.

The day started interestingly enough when we were missing 4 people at departure time. Apparently some of the students went on quite a tear last night and never quite got to bed before about 7 a.m. We would have left without them, but we were not able to leave ourselves. You see, apparently today was the Koln Marathon. A 26 mile race that literally encircles the hotel. As a result, the bus driver could not get anywhere close to us. We had to walk to the bus which proved problematic because at one point we had no choice but to cut through an active marathon. We tried to impede people as little as possible but 45 students crossing through a marathon, well there was going to be problems.

Soon we found the bus and our first stop was the Langen Foundation by Tadao Ando. Tadao is a wonderful architect who utilizes space and light as well as massing in ways that were never thought of before. The amazing thing about him is that he has had no formal training. His original career was as a professional boxer. What an incredible natural talent.

The next stop was a walk from the foundation. It was entitled Insel Hombroich. This was a sculpture garde/architectural garden wherein a number of architects had designed simple pavillions that generally consisted of only one movement. There were some interesting concepts at play regarding sound and experience. Since most of these places were only one room, the concepts had to have one note and be played as powerful as possible, not forcefully, but powerfully.

We then headed back to Koln and drove to the Kolumba Museum by Zumpthor. What a remarkable place this was. Built on the foundations of an acient and decrepit church, Zumpthor took no less than ten years designing this remarkable museum. Characterized by Zunpthor's trademark use of allowing natural light to cut through space, turning the light into a mass itself, this was truly a joy to walk through (and photograph. I went a little crazy with the lens.)

Last stop, the Dome church. Not really sure why it's called the Dome but there it is.

Anyway, tomorrow more travel and we wind up in Utrecht for the night. Should be interesting.

Been a while

So yes, it has been a while since my last entry. And for no good reason other than, I didn't feel like it. So without further delay, before my blog gets relegated to the land of lost diaries, I figured I would catch everything and everyone up.

So Megan and I finished up our week together in the most amazing and perfect fashion. We went to tivoli where we discovered how some rides can deceive. We went to a dinner at Paustian v. Bo Bech, where we had a ten course meal complete with wine pairings from the Danish master of Moleculargastronomy Bo Bech. We spent time together, doing nothing. And it was all perfect.

Most recently, I have just been doing school work, designing a row house that is sited in an industrial area of Copenhagen. It is going rather well. It is definitely going better than my last project at KU. But that's another story.

Last night we drove from Copenhagen to Cologne, Germany, stopping once along the way to see a museum that was placed to exhibit the findings of an archaeological dig that has unearthed a battle from 2000 years ago between the Romans and the Germans. It was interesting. There are pictures. But I was feeling less than motivated to do anything academic.

After arriving in Cologne and checking into our 4 star hotel (no shit, sorry Glenda) we all went out to a three course meal on DIS's ticket. I mean, ultimately I suppose it is on my ticket since I pay DIS but it was still nice to not have to dig into my own wallet.

Slept well and today more study tour type stuff.

TW

Gettin' Peppered

September nineteenth brings with it some new experiences. As you know, yesterday was my birthday and it was an amazing one at that. I don't know if it was because I turned thirty or if it was because I am temporary or it is simply occurred because I have very good friends, but it was hands down one of the best days of my life. I woke up yesterday morning with Megan in my arms: always a fantastic way to start the day. She wished me a happy birthday and we opened presents while mom listened in on skype despite the 7 hour time difference. As the morning grew old, Megan kept asking the time and around 10:25 suggested I may want to put pants on. This roused my suspicion to say the least but at 10:35 I heard a knock on the door and opened it to see a group of my floor mates singing a Danish happy birthday song and waiving little Danish flags.

As soon as they were done singing, we headed to the kitchen where they had prepared an amazing and very large breakfast. It was truly touching. I nearly was brought to tears that these people, who have known me for only a short time would care enough to do such a thing. Sitting at the middle of the table was a birthday card they had made for me telling me that they were going to be making dinner for me and having a party so be sure to be back by seven.

After breakfast, Megan passed out for a while but when she woke back up (I had to pull her physically out of bed) we hit Copenhagen and walked around town until 6:30 hitting the Castle, the Palace, and of course the little mermaid.

We got back home close to 7 and got ready for the dinner and party my Danish floor mates had prepared for me. Jon, the resident chef (and professional one) had made curried chicken and rice for the whole floor. Dinner was wonderful with champagne and wine and just general goodness.

After the meal, the dished were cleared and the party started. These things always begin a little slow but once they start moving....look out! This was no different. We danced on the tables, drank a lot, laughed and had fun.

Previously, my friends had made mention of a long standing Danish tradition. At 25 if you are not married, they cover you and your belongings in cinnamon. At thirty, if you are still unwed it is pepper. Well Megan disappeared to the room for a bit and when she was gone for too long I decided to leave the party and hunt her down. I opened my door and Megan looks up from the floor and says "You're going to wish you locked your door." It was then the smell hit me. My friends had covered my floor and bed and bathroom in pepper! (I can still smell it.) I have to admit that I found even this touching.

About 11:00 the music cut off and they brought in my "present." This was, despite being wrapped, very obviously a man in drag. I could only imagine but since my friend Tim was missing I assumed. And was proven right when he began to strip for me with large artificial breasts (see the pictures).

This was hilarious. And everyone loved it.

Around 12, Hans (one of my Danish friends) decided to change clothes. This was an inexplicable act but inexplicably, Megan and I followed suit. I donned a coat and tie over my teeshirt and Megan was assigned a dress from Charlotte. We returned to the party and Megan looked very sexy. I looked like a cast off from "Saved by the Bell."

At some point, and we are a little fuzzy, Charlotte managed to get my room keys and once again, my room was doused in pepper. Please see photos of me vacuuming. After this I was confident I was not going to be peppered again if for no other reason than the kitchen is now completely out of pepper.

When the booze ran out, we all went down to the bar to have a few more. I drank for free down there which was very nice of the bartenders.

All in all this was a birthday that will stay in mind forever. I will always remember the feeling of belonging, and happiness that my Danish floor mates gave me. It was better than any gift they could have bought and I will have this forever.

I am so glad Megan was able to experience this with me. I would have had a hard time explaining it and I think could only be lost in trying to. But since she gave me the best present of coming up to visit, we now have this memory to share.

Ah, and at one point I gave Megan an engagement ring, made from a cocktail straw, on the wrong finger, on the wrong hand, but the sentiment was the same :)

Western Denmark Study Tour

I know I know, you are all saying, "But Tom, haven't you already been on a Western Denmark Study Tour?" And I say, "Yes children, but that was for furniture design, and this is for architecture." Although there was the occasional moment of overlap it was generally a new experience. And when things did happen to overlap, it only served to make me look like I've researched the site.

So here's what happened.

Thursday morning, we met at Israels Plads at 7:30 in the a.m. This was a little annoying because IP is not too easy to get to from my place. I mean it is only 4 blocks away from my studio, but, well...in writing this I realize I sound a little whiny because honestly it wasn't that hard to get to. I just hate walking with luggage.

So I get to Israels Plads adorned in my camera bag, my satchel bag and my Italian Army surplus bag. Much to my elation, I saw my old friend Jasper the bus driver, whom you remember from previous study tours. Throwing my bag on the bus I greeted him with a big hug and proceeded inside the coach. I spread out my things over two seats to ensure that I wouldn't have a partner sitting with me and then exited once again to let the bus fill up. You see, if you are sitting in a seat with your stuff on the one next to you, then people will ask you if a) that is your stuff, and b) can they sit there. I hate seatmates. They get in my way when I try to sleep etc...So if you are not on the bus and your stuff is good and spread out, people automatically assume there are already two in the row. I know it is not quite Machiavellian but it works.

Once everyone was loaded up, we went underway. Our first Stop was Jystrup Savvwaerk. This is a co-housing project built upon the foundations of an old sawmill. It was interesting to see. A number of Danes prefer to live this way.The complex housed 17 families amd god knows how many cats. The savvwaerk exemplifies this concept that is huge here regarding shared spaces. All the units were tied together with a communal indoor/outdoor space that people had veritable farms growing in. It was kind of impressive. The outdoors were brought inside by the ubiquitous skylights and louvres and the tenants took advantage.

Next was Orbaek Kirke. A church "built by accretion" as my prof put it. This is a regular occurance in Denmark where a church will be added upon every so often until 800 years later it is marked as an historical landmark and not allowed to be altered. Which brings up an interesting point to me. If these churches are so important because they were added upon over a period of 800 years, why do we feel important enough to say, "Well, there will be no more altering now. It s too historic." Isn't this impeded the process which in fact provided the genesis for what made the church so important?

Or maybe it's just me. On to Faaborg.

This museum was pretty cool. Every room was painted a different color. Now what this does is change the way in which you view art. When you think about your standard museum: MOMA, Guggenheim, Getty, etc. the walls are all white. But when, for example, the wall is a bright red, all of a sudden red is all you see. The artwork takes on a new appearance as the reds pop out of the canvas. It forces one to look at paintings in a whole new way. I almost think that artists should each get an extra 2 feet on every side of the canvas wherever their art is hung, just to select the color that most appropriately brings out their project.

Spent the night in Kolding. Which was interesting. I hit the streets with my friend Mike Mannhard (great name right?) and his new friend Cameron. They are both a touch on the hippie side, which allowed me ample opportunity for ridicule which they took in stride. Nothing like a good natured hippie. Anyway, we walked around a bit, going from pub to pub when Mike suggested we go look at the castle. At nighttime this was a great experience. The castle is located on a hill overlooking a lake which provided us with a great view of the city. After taking this in, and after spending about 5 minutes making shadowpuppets agains the walls of the castle, we walked to the nearest bar. After a brief sojourn there, I walked home, albeit not directly (damn medieval street layouts make no sense whatsoever) and went to bed.

Friday morning we got up and, low and behold, went to the castle. This place is a pretty neat project. It is a complete restoration but instead of trying to emulate the original building, the architects decided it would be better to make it very clear what was original and what is a representation. On the exterior, where the walls are brick, that is the original, however, the shingled parts are all restorative. It gets interesting inside as well where in one situation the designer represents the structure that once was through lights. Series of bulbs hang down suggesting the once present groin vaulting and column structure. It was a tad garish, but an interesting idea.

Next up was the Trapholt Museum. You remember this from my summer studies. It was the chair museum. Moving on.

Aarhus University. Yes we have been here before too. This was the place that had the auditorium with the "cowches." This time, however, we spent the bulk of the time outside, observing the landscapes.

That was it for friday.

Saturday was jam packed. We got up and headed for a crematorium. This was a striking place. A very interesting design but the fact of the thing is that I felt like I was inside a giant kiln. A little odd but none-the-less that is how it felt.

Aarhus Radhus: Been here done that. Didn't like it the first time, still don't.

ARoS Museum. This was an amazing building. The Museum itself is part of the landscape. A major footpath walks right through the center of the building so say this was your route to work, well then every morning and night you walk through the museum. This Museum houses one of the works of Ron Mueck called "Boy". Mueck is a hyper realist and one of the strongest ones at that. I suggest you look up his work.

We walked through the city and did some sketching. My sketch book is far better than it was this summer. I have been putting a ton of effort (most days) into it. There are good pages and bad but I am proud of it.

The last place we went to was the Musholm Bugt Feriecenter. This was another co-housing complex, but this one was meant to house the families of those with children afflicted with MS. It was a moving project. The architecture reflected the unity of those who occupied it. I don't know how quite to explain it. Once in a while you here architecture described in strange terms. I would call this one respectful. Not respectful in the concept that it is courteous to its occupants, but more respectful in the way that the architecture is in awe of its occupants.

Christ I am beginning to talk like an architect.

Anyway, today I am going to my first Danish soccer game. Should be interesting.

All for now.

5 days till Megan!

Also, check out the pictures to the left...I've been playing with some new editing techniques. I think a couple of them are pretty interesting.

Ok I've been negligent

Of course I am aware that I haven't written on here in a while. There has not been too much going on that I would deem exciting which always awakes a kind of lethargy in me that is not real conducive to daily routine. However, in the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks are Rob's echoing opines of "I've heard blogs generally last 6 months before they are orphaned." So I don't know if it is out of guilt, or shame or just a return to routine that I am now writing, but alas, here I am.

I want to start this post with a little something I learned recently about Danish culture. I have noticed, throughout my entire time here, that there seems to be an enormous amount of babies in strollers actively being pramulated about the city (clever pun right?) At first I just jumped to the conclusion that in the land of six and a half foot tall beautiful blonde people, they just couldn't keep from playing "good touch/bad touch." Well, as it turns out, there is actually a much more ingrained sociological reason for so many babies being out and about.

In the 19th century, there was a terrific outbreak of cholera here in Copenhagen and indeed all of Scandinavia. People were doing everything they could to avoid the disease. True to form, the government stepped in with advice for all the people. To prevent the disease from spreading to new-borns and babies, it was necessary to never let these children sleep inside during the daytime. So now as a result, if you are a mother and you leave a child at home to nap inside, you are almost viewed upon with a type of inherent disdain. Ergo, babies are everywhere! (including this picture I took of a baby, in its stroller, napping ALONE in the driveway of its house.)

Let's see what else...classes are going very well. I am glad to be back into the swing of work. I was terribly bored for a bit there and as you know, idle hands lead to something or other, I forget. But as for now I am enjoying myself again.

Plus Megan is visiting me for my birthday so Yay for that one!

I leave tomorrow for the first of my three study tours of the semester. We leave from Israels Plads at 7:30 a.m. for a tour of western Denmark. True I did it before, but I venture to think that this time will involve fewer furniture show rooms and factories, with quite a bit more architecture. My goal for this semester is to really improve on my sketchbooking skills. We will see how it works out.

I will try to post everyday while on the tour, but sometimes, those connections are spotty.

So, there you have it.

Open Air Museum

Today we went to an open air museum. Lots of houses from different areas of Denmark. Traditional construction...Like Colonial Williamsburg without people. Kind of dull to be honest.

Copenhagen Scavenger Hunt

Ok, so granted I was a little irritable yesterday. I was dog tired and just a little bit bitchy. So, sorry for that.

Today I woke up at the ridiculous hour of 3 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. By Ben Franklin's standards I should be healthy and wise...frankly I don't feel very healthy. After spending the morning tossing, turning, reading, watching movies, and drinking coffee, I boarded my bus to go on a scavenger hunt of Copenhagen.

I have to admit, I am glad I did. I saw a lot I had not paid attention to earlier. Sometimes, when I am in a city I get a bit jaded and in the interest of trying to NOT be a tourist I take it too far and forget to look around all together. Today was a nice, forced observation, if you will. I wandered the streets with my group of five (about as large as I like to get when traveling) and saw many nice sites. At each local, DIS had an expert waiting who would lecture us on the specifics of the given sites. There was also free coffee at lots of the places...so doubly nice.

After completing the tour and a quick bite from the international food festival that is going on (I had a gyro) I headed in for the program specific introductions. This proved rather painful as it was, verbatim, the same exact lecture I had at the beginning of the summer on the Morphological History of Copenhagen. And once again, it was in a warm dark room, immediately after lunch.

I got a good nap.

I met up with James and a student he is mentoring named Nick for a beer, grabbed my text books and headed home for another nap.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes which shouldn't be too bad since I don't have classes on thursdays...naybe I'll wander some more.

Link on the right has pictures.

TW

I hate my life

Ugh...the last 36 hours or so have definitely not been some of the more entertaining of my life. After the heart wrenching experience of being torn away from Megan by a squat but albeit strong TSA agent, I have flown back to Copenhagen, gotten no more than about 90 minutes sleep en-route, to arrive back in the Denmark only to shower and head out for a day of orientation in a city I have been oriented in for the last 3 months. I am not a happy camper. Tomorrow we get the pleasure of having a scavenger hunt in Copenhagen. Woopeee!!! Oh wait, I'm not six and I'VE BEEN HERE FOR THREE MONTHS!!!

Ok I am a little tired and irritable.

I'm going to take a nap. Then grocery shop, and at some point, I'll try to figure out a good place for all my winter clothes since, guess what, I've got no closet space.

I hate my life.

TW

Exhibition

And done...

Getting closer!

You all remember this stuff...well, this is beach veneer that I have cut and layered in alternating grain directions. This allows the veneer to be strong and to bend in more than one direction.






After completing my vacuum mold, all the corners had to be rounded so not to puncture the bag.







Here we are putting the vacuum bag onto my mold with the veneer sheets and another steel sheet inside. All glued up and ready to go!






Getting the bag on correctly is tricky. You have to allow enough material in the back for the bag to fill in the cavities left by the mold.






We attached a vacuum to a valve we had previously installed on the bag. This sucks all the air out and forces the veneer into the form of the mold.






Et voila








Into the oven it goes!








And out it comes a few hours later.











Here is the piece removed from the mold








And here is a mock up of how it will look. Obviously this is being held together by clamps and the joints are not yet built but you get the general idea. Also there is still some shape work to do.

Sorry for the delay

I apologize for not posting more recently than this. For this final week of labor I am relegated to the night shift which means that I work from 2-10 and don't really get home until 11 at which point the last thing I want to do is upload pictures. So I will try to do it in the mornings.

This week, true to form, I have maintained the process of constant trial and error. The art of making hand crafted furniture resides in the fact that you are in a constant dance with the materials. You can craft a mold to exacting specifications but the fact of the matter is that you are human and as such cannot be exact. The material finds these imperfections and does what it is supposed to do. So if you have a bump in your mold, you will have a bump in your chair.

I have been doing this dance all week.
So as you remember I was starting on my second molding of the legs and arms. I had to shave some of the bottom mold piece (about 4.5 cm) in order to get the legs to have the proper angle.

Here is the piece fresh from the kiln.




The next step was to cut the armature into the two properly sized halves. I was struggling a bit with just measuring and lining it so I found a piece of wood, drilled a pencil size hole in it with a center point 9 cm up and voila! Made life much easier.





So here are the two legs, unfinished as of yet, but ready for the trimming.







Unfortunately, the chair still wanted to dance a little and apparently my mold was not tight enough. Here you can see a little split. This is not a big deal. It just takes a little glue, some clamps and an hour in the oven. And I did this. The problem arose, however, that instead of mixing the glue at a ratio of 1:5 I went ahead and mixed it at 5:1. I stopped working on the legs after that.


So onto something else. I needed the break. Here is the metal sheet that I bent a lifetime ago. The next step is to cut OSB board to match the legs so that I can brace the metal sheet in the right shape for the vacuum bag.





Here is one of the OSB struts.











And here is the vacuum mold assembled. It was at this point that I went upstairs to cut veneer. The last time (knock on wood) that I have to cut veneer. The good news is that I am done cutting veneer now.









The bad news is that on the final slice, literally, the last cut I had to make, the x-acto knife jumped my metal guide and I dug into my thumb with full force. (I am debating to tell the whole gruesome story...ok I will :)

So I swear loudly (sorry Glenda) and immediately grab the base of my thumb thinking that where I am squeezing has to be near where the blood comes from and this will help. I am not sure now if I was correct or even accurate but I think it helped. My mind went into a kind of auto-pilot and I started out of the veneer room into the metal shop. I don't know why I headed that way, I think I was looking for an adult. It is amazing how in those situations, you pretty much revert back to your bassist instincts. Thankfully an adult found me and Nils, ever the hero, says "Follow me Tom."

I almost asked him to carry me.

We ran through the metal shop, my mind happy to have the reprieve from thinking, and hustled up the stairs into the office next to the wood shop. By this point, the under toe created by my wake had attracted three more professors who, for lack of being able to assist, just wanted to see it. Everyone is a doctor in a wood shop. The shop tech, Henrik brings me to the sink. At this point, I have enough adrenaline running through me that all I can think of is that it doesn't hurt and bandage it so I can get back to work.

"Just bandage it and I'll get back to work." I tell Henrik who then pulls my finger apart.
"Oh no. You are going to the hospital Tom."

I go over to the sink and rinse the wound off, as well as my hand, when my phone starts ringing in my pocket. My professors laugh because they know that my phone only rings as a result of one person. Megan is calling. "She knows you've hurt yourself." Says Nils.

"Sit down Tom. You want some water?" This is Henrik.

Sit down? Water? I'm sorry did I have a fainting spell at Mr. Beauregard's promenade? I seriously just wanted to hurry this up. I have material to attend to.

Henrik pulled a tourniquet (wow spelled that right the first try!) from the first aid kit and making sure my thumb was aligned with its, until recently fully attached, tip he proceeded to wrap the wound with the tension usually reserved for tuning a piano. After the third time around with the tourniquet, I knew he was cutting off the circulation. He kept wrapping and I appreciated the fact that my finger was no longer bleeding but it was also turning a very deep shade of red. He wrapped it a few more times, tied it off with a square knot, and then just to be sure wrapped it again and tied another square knot.

"Ok Tom, Erling will drive you to the hospital."

I got into Erling's car and we chatted congenially on the way to the medic. I was trying to maintain my toughness and show that wounds don't bother me. I must have said "I've done worse" about 15 times. It became a mantra. Erling talked to me about the area we were driving through. He apparently had grown up on this Island. Lorteøen, which literally translated means Shit Island. It was originally a massive pile of sewage that was cast off from Copenhagen. Eventually, and I am not sure of how it became solid enough or tolerable enough to build on, people colonized it. He went on to describe his youth there and the details of where he lived but I was having trouble focusing since I was paying more attention to the deep mauve my thumb had become and poking at it, trying to revive any sensation at all.

"Uh Erling, my finger is turning purple."

Erling helped undo one of the knots at a stop light. It was enough to at least relax me until we got to the hospital. At one point, when my bravado had slipped, I voiced a concern about losing the thumb. I think Erling thought I was referring to the injury but I was in fact talking of the now blue-black scion attached to the side of my hand.

We arrived at the hospital on Shit Island and Erling helped me check in. Now I am no stranger to emergency rooms but Denmark has socialized medicine and I was praying that there would not be too long of a wait for me. Not because I was in pain, but more out of concern for the total lack of sensation all together. I walked into the waiting room after giving the nurse my drivers license, and my heart sank a bit. Sprawled out in a chair, in full soccer uniform complete with cleats and shin guards, was a man with a bloody bandage wrapped around his head and streams of gore running down his face.

"I think you are after him." Erling laughed.

I sat down on the chair, and Erling made his exit after giving me his number and telling me to call when I need a ride.

The wait was not so bad. I was thankful when the murse (male nurse for the uninitiated) took off the wrapping. He laughed and commented about how my thumb was black. Now, we have all had an appendage fall asleep before. And we all know how sometimes, if left long enough it can be painful as the limb comes back to life. Take that feeling and add to it the now realized pain of a deep gash. It throbbed a little. Then it throbbed a lot.

"When was your last tetanus shot?" the Murse

Awesome.

It was over ten years ago. And socialized medicine or not, I don't want lock jaw. And yes, I had forgotten how long those needles are. The murse injected me, cleaned the thumb a bit, rebandaged it, loosely, and sent me back to the waiting room to wait for a doctor.

In about an hour, a nurse took me back into a room. She was a gentle lady who turned the faucet on gently and gently asked me if I would wash out the wound. I held the backside of my hand under the flow hoping that the runoff would be enough to clean out the gash.

"Would you like me to do it?" she asked grabbing a plastic cup. Now I don't know what she had intended for that little plastic cup but I could not come up with an answer that didn't involve her somehow hurting me worse than if I did it. Nurse philosophy tends to be that no matter how painful it is, if it is done quickly it is better.

"No thanks...I'll do it properly."

I grabbed hold of a sturdy metal bar with my right hand and closed my eyes. I fed my hand into the water and focused all my conscious mind on that little stream. I pulled my hand back until I could feel the steady trickle pulling the flaps of skin apart and irrigating the wound. I gritted my teeth and held back the gasp as long as I could. When I finally felt like I had been in the water for an hour I pulled my hand back and looked at the nurse with my very best wounded puppy face.

"I'm sorry but you'll need to do that again."

In fact I did it two more times. Joy.

The nurse then brought me to the bed and I laid back into it. She had placed a giant gauze or something under my hand to catch the blood/water etc...you know it looked a lot like those pee pads you buy when you are house training your dogs. Blue underneath. Absorbent. Within a few moments the doctor came in. The nurse had already made the statement that I was going to need stitches prior to his entrance but the doctor wanted to try to glue it shut. He was a nice enough guy. About my age, maybe a little older. He was Kurdish and had fled to Denmark after the Iraqis came. What threw me was he was the first doctor I have ever seen in a mesh t-shirt. I mean it was not a full on fishnet, but it was gauzy and waffle print so it seemed to be mesh. I am not sure as to whether or not I could see flesh beneath. I would have inspected more, but the doctor began to try to stop the blood flow. He did this by squeezing the wound with incredible force.

Explosions went off in my mind. Bright red nuclear explosions that burned away all thought. As the flames dissipated, my mind, wonderful savior that it is, created the image of my thumb as the doctor forced the two halves in such a way as to shear them apart from one another. This, of course, was not happening but my lovely imagination told me it was imminent.

He held on for about 5 minutes, squeezing and squeezing. The balls of his thumbs pushing into the ball of mine. His pointer and middle fingers pushing against the nail (which I had also cut about 3/4 of the way across.) After this medieval form of torture had ended, he unwrapped the finger and readied the "human glue" the nurse had put beside him and stopped.

"It doesn't want to stop bleeding." Said Dr. Waffleshirt, a little confused.
"See. Always listen to the nurse." Said the nurse, gently.
"I think I am going to have to use stitches." said the doctor.

The doctor rolled his chair across to the medicine chest, a move I always thought Dentists had a patent on, and gathered the local anesthetic from the Nurse. I asked for a general but they thought a local would do.

The first shot was excruciating. The needle went in just to the right of the thumb's metacarpal and he dug it around as he pumped in the numbing agent. I'm pretty sure he scratched bone. The second shot was not as bad, but the memory of the first shot was still fresh so there was amplification. The doctor leaned back and let the drug do it's job.

He threaded a curved needle that looked like a heavy duty false eyelash. On the first stitch, I could feel pretty much everything. I could feel the needle puncture the flesh on the side of my thumb, and I could feel the release as it punched through the interior wall of the wound. I could then feel it pierce through the opposite wall and burrow its way to freedom on the opposite side of the wound. I also felt the doctor tie the knot. And this was all, once again, aided by my wonderful imagination which, despite my eyes being closed, gave me a complete movie of the whole experience. Including the newly invented first person experience of the needle-cam.

"Um Doctor. I could feel everything."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I mean I can handle it and all but yeah, I could feel that." I was lying...I couldn't handle the needle-cam again.

The doctor kicked over to the medicine chest again and rolled back with a deftness that comes from total familiarity. He came back with another ampule of stuff and a needle. I didn't watch as he shot me up again but it was no where near as bad as the first time. And the fourth shot, well that was nothing. After a few seconds I had to look down because I thought that I had a bandage on my thumb but there was nothing there. The drugs were working. My thumb had, however, swollen to a squash like shape as a result from all the fluid introduced subdermally.

"Ok doc. Have at it. Can't feel a thing." I gave my first real smile since the knife jumped the guide.

The last two stitches went off without a problem.

The doctor gave me some information on keeping it clean (in Danish) and I called Erling for my ride.

"Is that it?" I asked the nurse.
"Yup you're all done."

I walked out the doors marveling at free health care. What should have been a nightmare of insurance forms and international phone calls was as easy as going to a movie; and cheaper. I walked out into the cool night, past the doctors and nurses smoking on their breaks and laughed at how they maintained job security. I sat on a bench and waited in front of the hospital on Shit Island for Erling to come take me back to school.