Comida!!!!!

In Spain, they have a long break called siesta every day. During siesta hours, all the stores are closed but restaurants and cafes. When we are not traveling, we ate at Pension every day except weekends.

Vincente, who is the owner of the pension and restaurant, fed us really good. Whenever we are outside of Guadamar, I missed endless food that they served. Usually, we got three dishes and we had a choice for each dishes. Through Pension food, I got to try many typical Spanish dishes such as Tortilla and Paella and something new and never thought of eating before, such as rabbit, and ostrich.

There are some of my favorite dishes!!!

Alioli: (this is not a dish.) It is like a Spanish mayonnaise and it has a nice kick of garlic. Great with bread and salad!! You get to eat every day if you eat at Pension.

Paella: Paella is a typical Spanish food. The Pension Paella is probably not the authentic paella but I really liked it and ate almost every day. They call it Chicken paella but it is actually rabbit meat I heard.

Fish Soup: When I was not mood for Paella, I had fish soup. It is very flavorful and contains lots of seafood. They seemed to have different seafood every time I ordered but good.

Vegetable soup: yammy!!! But it is not vegetarian. It has meat in it.

Tortilla: Tortilla is a Spanish omelet and it usually has potatoes and onions. Very good with picante sause!!! Tortilla sandwich is also good as well.

Fish (main dish): they bring different kind of fish every day. Since Guardamar is by the beach, they have really fresh fish every day.

ostrich: it is a secret menu. You have to ask Vincente if you have them or not. I have never eaten ostrich before. Surprisingly, it was tasty and did not have lots of fat.

For sure, I am going to miss these foods. Now, I am scared to get on the scale when I get back…

Yoshie

Rediscovering My Freehand

As the summer comes to an end, and I consider writing about the many beautiful and amazing places I have seen, cultures I have encountered, foods I have eaten, songs I have danced to and architecture I have experienced, I have decided to share how a personal struggle with a simple studio assignment has taught me a lot about myself, and who I want to be.

I remember it was our first conceptual model, and we were asked to draw an elevation and cut sections from it. Simple, right? Well apparently not for me. When I asked myself why it was so difficult for me to do such a simple task, I realize it was because it had been engrained in me from my past education before I transferred to UC Berkeley to make drawings as precisely and perfectly as possible. So when it came time to make the drawings of these very abstract models, I couldn't for the life of me draw the model using my freehand. I wanted precision.

It was this struggle that made me realize that what I have been missing was the ability to trust my hand when it comes to designing architecture. But really what it was about was trusting myself, and my intuition. The assignment helped me to understand that it's ok to not seek perfection, because either way it will not come. Seems like such a simple lesson to be learning, but it is an important one because it has showed me that there is a lot in life that can make me doubt my intuition and self. So through this small struggle I am happy to have discovered my freehand, artistic self, and intuition again.

-Matt Mojica

Capitalism, Marrakech Style

In my very rushed research on what to do in Marrakech, visiting the souks came up in every guide. The souks are crazy markets packed with so many vendors and goods that you can actually get lost inside of them. But the souks don’t sell everything and are just a part of the network of tiny stores and vendors in the city. In a city where work is scarce, entrepreneurs are everywhere. Everything (even directions) is a commodity and every nook in the city is an opportunity for capitalism. My favorite walk in the city was derieve where we ended up walking down a narrow street crowded with locals and lined by every sort of store imaginable.

Here are some of my favorite stores I saw in Marrakech:

The one chair barbershop, open at midnight.

The shop with three payphones and nothing else, no people, no cash register

A “store” consisting of an open cupboard attached to the outside wall of a building on the street.

Tiny general stores packed floor to ceiling which either sell everything or sell only one thing.

A donkey-drawn cart selling watermelons late at night. These carts were everywhere and it was fun to watch them navigate main streets with the motorcycles, cars, and busses.

A Berber in J’maa al Fna square selling pictures with him. This square is always packed with performers and food stalls and really comes alive at night. In fact right after getting off the bus from the airport, I was assaulted by a monkey in this same square. A too-friendly Morocan shook my hand, but instead of letting go, he held on as his monkey climbed across and onto my head. I got away by claiming that I had no camera and thus no pictures to pay him for – a lie that was made harder though by Zack snapping pictures the whole time.

A juice vendor selling juice from a shop just barely big enough for him to stand in.

And my favorite, a tiny store that instead of having goods had several men lounging on pillows on the floor at 11 at night. We saw several similar “stores,” but I have no idea what they were selling or what their purpose was.

-Sean Phillips

A Second Christmas

In Guardamar, Christmas happens twice a year, once in December like everywhere else in the world, and a second time at the end of July during the Moros y Cristianos festival. It isn’t Christmas exactly, but it does seem like the city and its residents spend more on this festival than on gifts for friends and family.

Over the course of about a week, I witnessed some amazing displays of pyrotechnics and watched about a half a dozen parades. The fireworks on the beach were the best I’ve seen in my life, probably because I was closer to them than would ever be allowed in the States. Fireworks shot into the water than continued to explode high into sky. How is that possible??

I was pleasantly surprised by the costumes, creativity and coordination of the Comparsas (teams) in the two main parades. It was like watching a Disneyland parade times a thousand, something I would never have expected from a small vacation town. The costumes were incredibly fantastical with feathers and jewels arranged on luscious velvet capes and gowns. There was a horse, fake camels, a battle reenactment, fire twirlers, marching bands…

This festival is supposed to commemorate the history of the area. While I did do some learning, I probably will mostly just remember the glitter and the night-long celebrations. Spanish street parties make America seem Puritanical. I would never be able to get so close to fireworks, build bonfires on the beach when ever I want or go to clubs that close at 8am back in the States. I will truly miss the Spanish appreciation for life.

Cecily

A True Gem of Dreams!

7.6.2011: The days seem to be getting more and more magical with each passing day. We just arrived in Altea, the first major stop of this weekend. It has been a dream come true so far.

Our day began this morning in Guardamar when we stood in line to buy our ticket to go to Alicante. Soon after we bought our tickets, one of the managers of the station came up to us and told us to watch our bags and belongings because the handful of ladies that purchased tickets before us were pick-pocketers… AKA Gypsies. At first, we were really confused about what was going on but soon realized what they meant. It was unbelievable how obvious the Gypsies were. The four or so that were present at the bus station seemed to be crowding in on us, getting way too close, and were eyeing our bags. The movement of their eyes were so apparent… all twenty-five of us just hung onto our bags and stared at each other haha. Anyway, two buses came and picked us up as we headed off to Alicante.

From Alicante, we took a tram along the coast through a handful of interesting Spanish towns… we stopped at one and spent some time walking around before catching the 6:35pm tram to Altea. It was dreadfully hot today so I did what we could to beat the heat and walked down to the beach, ate some ice-cream, and hid in the shade. The beaches there were so beautiful, oh my God. The water is a lot clearer than the water back in Guardamar! Ahhh. Eventually, we caught the tram to our final destination of the day: Altea. Once we got off the tram, Alex pointed to a dome structure on top of the hill and said, “We need to get there.”

The walk up to the small Altea town was unexpectedly steep, but we endured the burn we felt in our calves. The view of the whole town and scenery just got better and better the higher we went. Arriving at the top made us forget about how heavy we were breathing. The town was so beautiful! All the buildings are white, the streets are narrow, and an old-town Spanish culture runs proudly throughout the town. The “pension” that we are staying at is GREAT. It has private doubles so my roommate and I got a room together… with a sweet balcony! It was awesome, dude! Haha.

We spent the evening browsing some really beautiful shops. My roommate and I even ate Margarita Pizza for dinner! We rarely, ERRR hardly ever eat anything from anywhere but convenience stores. So it was a nice change of scenery… on my plate. We really enjoyed our one summer night in beautiful Altea. This gem of dreams is definitely one of my favorite towns in Spain, thus far. Hands down.

The cold shower I ended the night with was numbing haha. But, the view we have from the roof top terrace of our “pension” makes up for it, even the numbness. The view from the top of where we are staying is breathtaking. Some say that it reminds them of Greece. For me… I simply felt at peace.

- Jaimie

Weekend excursion to Lisbon Portugal

Go to Portugal. A group of us went to Lisbon, Belem, and Sintra Portugal: 3 amazing places within a short distance from each other and require at least a day of exploration. What Lisbon has to offer as Portugal’s capital is a castle overlooking its old cobblestone streets and plazas, and a garden of hedges that leads to an amazing view of the city and the ocean. The castle was well preserved so that it appeared to me like a picturesque painting, with the grass and the trees behind it. The canons were set out at every level of the castle, and the group of us climbed up the towers within the castle. The castle was not the main attraction in Lisbon however: there are large arches, similar to the ones in Rome that are monumental and lead to the water; gothic cathedrals I read about in Arch 170, cable cars running within the cobble stone streets, lively night life; custard filled pastries at every bakery I encountered.

Sintra Portugal was my favorite place I visited this summer. Sintra was a short 1 hour tram ride from Lisbon and requires at least a full day to see. The most exciting place was the Pena Castle and the Moors Castle that require a cool walk up to the top of the mountain. The journey up the Pena castle required some creativity, as we didn’t want to pay 4 euro for the bus ride to the top. So, we walked a few miles up the windy, narrow streets that a bus could barley drive on to get to the top. It was worth it because the road was covered by a canopy of lush green trees and pathways covered with moss. During parts of our walk up, we could see the Pena castle in the distance, which seemed unreal to me. In person, the castle is jaw dropping, and reminded me of a castle I would see in Disneyland; except this time it is real.

It was extremely colorful and there were towers everywhere that we climbed all over. We were able to tour the inside of the castle, and were able to see the king’s chambers and extremely elegant paintings and mosaics on every ceiling in every room. The view from any direction of the castle was exquisite, as we could see the Moors castle and the horizon line in the distance that overlooked the watch towers and forest of trees. The Moors castle was a 15 minute walk down the mountain to get to and reminded me of the Great Wall of China. We climbed up and down the stairways that followed the castle wall. The Moors castle overlooked the town of Sintra and the Pena castle at the very top. It is hard to describe how incredibly high we were on the mountain, and how amazing the view was.

Belem was also another great town that had monumental architecture and a castle on the water. We walked a good 2 hours to get to a town that would have taken 5 minutes to get to by bus. Note to self: take the bus or train. The castle was free since it was on a Sunday, and we could overlook the bridge and the water it rested on. We had to climb up a windy spiral staircase to get to the top. Belem was definitely the most picturesque place of the 3 towns were visited. In the 2.5 days we were able to stay in Portugal, we visited everything that I read about and that I could see on postcards ( a great way to see a place is to look at the postcards and make sure u find and see those places). If I go back, I have the same place to sleep in if I want to save some money for a night: the Madrid airport.

- Melissa

Being in Guardamar for nearly 2 months has taught me that what is to be learned is not always something that you don't already know. Our professor did not set out to put ideas into our minds, and instead fostered moments where self discovery could occur. What is my discovery here in this unique and remote portion of Spain? -- Architecture does not need to be rational. You can choose to dedicate the bulk of your conceptualizing to sculpting, engineering, or some sort of logical contextual mapping... or you can admire the wonderfully sinuous curves of the human form. For a while, I believe I will be a navigator amongst the currents of my mind instead of trying to force a path. I'd thank you for this lesson if I wasn't so confused as to whether or not I've known it all along.

I guess you never really know what you got till its gone…

A list of things I take for granted back in the states:

1. You won't find a cold beverage in supermarkets. They are so right, soda, water, and juice are way better warm… yummy!

2. Sunday isn't a day to relax. It is a day to do nothing. The Spanish take being lazy very seriously.

3. Everything takes 3 times longer to get accomplished. If they say something is going to be ready on Monday it will be ready on Friday… or next Monday… or a month later. Don't hold your breathe.

4. Fastfood isn't fast. And no one has ever heard of a value menu. Have fun spending $10 on a Big Mac.

5. No peanut butter means no PB&J's.

6. The public transit company gets irate when a group of people actually buys all their tickets and fills up their buses. Driving around half filled buses is way better…that way you can take a whole row to yourself.

7. Condiments at restaurants don't come in bottles, they come in packets. It takes about 10 packets of ketchup for 8 fries… but they will only give you 3. You are a greedy asshole if you try to nab 6 packs.

8. They have great washers, but you won't find a dryer here. Try the air.

9. Tap water has a slight dash of chlorine to it. And I thought water with lemon was good.

10. Stores are closed more then they are open. I dare you to buy anything between the hours of 3:00pm and 5:00pm from someone who isn't Chinese.

11. You get what you pay for. You may not be expected to tip, but your waiter will act like you killed his cat.

12. General safety. Open flames and drunk people are a must for any good party.

13. If you can't walk and require a wheelchair you would be better off hiring a sherpa to cary you places. ADA is just so American…

14. Lots of 13 year olds smoke cigarettes. Spanish people just understand being cool so much younger than Americans.

15. Getting chased by wild, man-slaying animals is not only a sport, but it is a reason to shut down a city, cover each other in sangria, and barf all over the place… for a week straight.

16. You get into clubs for free. But if you want to leave you have to buy a drink. Bouncers just really want to make sure you have a good time and get a little more drunk… Then you can go home.

17. If the power goes off, it doesn't come back on in a few hours. It comes back on in a few days.

18. Harry Potter will reach theaters at the same time as the US. But you will have to watch Harry duke it out with Voldemort in Spanish. "Vayase Ya Voldemort!"

19. Public transit keeps a tight schedule… unless Nadal is playing in the finals of Wimbledon. It is great stopping abruptly in the middle of nowhere to watch the entire final set of a match with the entire bus.

And one thing I took for granted in Spain: Vicente. I don't think I will ever find someone as energetic and full of life as you back in the states.

-Kenneth

Visita a la Exposición de Proyectos de los Estudiantes de Arquitectura en Alicante

Durante unos de los paseos del curso, tuve el gusto de conocer al Profesor José Luis quien nos dio una guía alrededor de Alicante. Al terminar con el paseo nos invito a la exposición de proyectos de los estudiantes de Arquitectura cual se tomaría acabo el día siguiente. Solo siete estudiantes tuvimos el placer de aceptar su invitación, pues los demás se irían a viajar a otras regiones de España por el fin de semana.



En el trayecto asía la exposición, nos encontramos en el camino un edificio que daba la fachada de ser una estructura moderna. Sin embargo, entre mas nos aproximamos nos dimos cuenta que el interior era algo diferente y especial.



Lo que encontramos fue unas ruinas en medio de la planta baja. Fue entonces que el profesor José Luis nos explico que al empezar la excavación para la construcción se encontraron los restos de una cuidad antigua y tuvieron que respetarla. La construcción siguió en pie, sin embargo el diseño tubo que ser modificado para respetar el hallazgo.




En el camino también nos encontramos con un puente que me pareció divino. Era un simple gesto en forma de curva, cual crea una experiencia que un simple puente en línea recta no pudiera conseguir fácilmente.




Finalmente llegamos a nuestro destino. La exposición no se tomo a cabo en la universidad de Alicante, si no en un lugar en la costa de la playa. José Luis nos explico que cada año se elige un lugar diferente para facilitar la participación de la comunidad.



En el momento de ingresar nos dimos cuenta del espacio tan pequeño, me dio la impresión de estar un poco vacío sin embargo la gente se encontraba al otro lado del aula.




La gente manifestó su presencia al momento de empezar la función. Esta función fue muy diferente a lo que yo he presenciado.



Al principio pensé que era un concierto de cantantes pero al empezar a analizar el sentido de las palabras entendí que era una presentación de su proyecto. La actuación narraba el proceso y el resultado.



Después de las actuaciones dimos un vistazo por los pasillos y nos encontramos con los proyectos en forma grafica y las maquetas. No tenia idea de que tan similares los proyectos podrían llegar hacer a los de UC Berkeley. Tal vez el resultado final de cada estudiante era mucho mas avanzado y concreto sin embargo el proceso párese ser el mismo.
















Las maquetas me recordaron a las que nosotros habíamos creado la semana anterior, las cuales describían las fuerzas que forman las dunas de Guardamar. Tal ves ellos tenían mejores materiales sin embargo la creatividad y lo abstracto era parecido. Al final del día, me quede con la idea de que realmente la forma de aprendizaje español no es tan diferente a la cual nos enseñan en Berkeley.

Varios días después nos explico Alex que la Universidad de Alicante era la única escuela en España que reconoce la importancia de ensenar arquitectura en forma abstracta. Eso me confirmo que estaba en lo cierto al pensar que los proyectos de los estudiantes de arquitectura eran similares a los de Berkeley.



A nuestro retorno nos encontramos con el puente nueva mente, esta ves estaba iluminado cual le daba el efecto de estar flotando.

-Carla Arechar

Final Reviews in Alicante

While the majority of my classmates traveled to different countries on our free long weekend, a small group of us stayed behind in Guardamar. The day before, we had met Jose Luis since he had organized our tours of La Illeta, Lucentum, and Alicante's Museum of Archaeology. While waiting for Tim, he started talking to us about our weekend plans since he had overheard that we would have a free weekend. When we told him we'd be staying behind he smiled and suggested we check out the final reviews of students from Alicante. There would be a showcase of projects from many grade levels as well as final fifth year presentations that next evening. We were initially hesitant because of the bus schedules and having to stay in Alicante for the night, but he offered to make arrangements for us. He initially organized for us to spend the night at some of his student's homes, but when we got there, it didn't workout because one of the girls had to leave for a personal emergency. So rather than stay with the students, he got the keys to his cousin's house who was away for vacation and let us crash there. The place was right on La Rambla, the most active strip in Alicante at night.

We were very excited about having the opportunity to actually see how architecture is taught as well as how it is produced, and presented in Spain. To our surprise it is extremely different. I don't think any of you would believe it if it weren't for the following video. I'll let it speak for itself...



...and yes the guitarist's microphone is attached to the foot of the dude doing the handstand.

This presentation just kept on getting crazier, and in reality more creative as the students presented their ideas and processes of their projects through songs and games.








I'm assuming that a more formal final presentation was done prior to this, but regardless it is evident that the students had a lot of fun, which further highlights the Spanish culture and its celebrations. The celebrating continued all night at Mulligan's, a club located on La Rambla.


--Cecilia Cardenas

Epiphany in Granada

I've always been struggling with myself about my career choice of becoming a designer. I love aesthetics... but I felt absolutely guilty of dedicating my life to it. I really want to contribute something to this world, and I fear that something would be shallow and only fuel the materialistic greed that humanity is addicted to. However, I love creating things and I love gadgets, cars, and architecture of all sorts. I've felt like I was satisfying a frivolous desire... and that I wasn't going to create any good in the world at the rate I was going. But when I came to Granada - I had an epiphany.

I feel in love with Granada the moment we got there. The city was a perfect blend between old and new. When we went to the Alhambra, I felt like we were walking into a garden of paradise. I have never had such a unique experience. The architecture there was astounding; not just because of its sheer beauty but because some of the spaces made me meditate on things I wouldn't otherwise have thought of. For example, when I walked through the garden of twenty fountains - the sound of the mass synchronized water splashing gently in a linear row made my senses and mind at ease. The space encouraged me to close my eyes and just listen. I feel into a trance of bliss. Other spaces made feel personal inquiry, some made me think about the existence of God and myself. Alhambra is a masterful assembly of different spaces offering their own individual experience.

In conclusion to our trip to the Alhambra, it hit me that each space was able to influence me in a different way. It never occurred to me that aesthetics can influence people in numerous ways. They can put people in awe, or they can evoke personal inquiry, or they can make one think about a concept or idea that they would've never thought of. Aesthetics can be shallow, but if the designer is focusing on evoking a certain idea it then gains the opportunity to become rich and meaningful. As designers, we have a great power. And with great power, comes great responsibility.

Tim

burning aesthetically pleasing six story tall styrofoam sculptures
stopping traffic, singing stories, solving riddles through spectacle.
burning the: designing, carving, paper mache, sanding, painting,
glossing, assembling. soon to be celebrating nonsense

fire-hydrant heat seeker soaking sinking spectators swimming the
warm streets and sidewalks, surfing waves far too intense to soak in
saving sleep for some other day, holding flames in hands. steady
setting all six of our senses on fire, learning significant life lessons




Sometimes, summer in spain is a little like

taking the bus to the nearest town
spending the night in strangers empty apartment
going through family pictures on walls
making up stories about what their lives are like

its like trying not leave any evidence
leaving the sheets over the furniture
memorizing how the kitchen cups were placed
trying not to make noise in the hallways

its like going to a bar with architecture students you
don't know, like falling asleep at 6 in the morning
squeezing into a bed that probably hosts marriage sex
like cleaning obsessively 4 hours later

like never meeting the people that live there
and knowing that you never will


Leslie Valencia

London in Three Days

On one of the long weekends, I made a rather spontaneous trip to London. I had to pay €98 (about $150), because I booked my flight the week before. If you book your flights early enough you can buy them for a very cheap price (as long as you don't check in your luggage. travel light!) on Ryanair. Fortunately, one of my friends from middle school who lives there invited me to stay with her so I didn't have to spend any money on hostels (keep in touch with your friends that are studying abroad). I left Guardamar on Thursday night and came back on Monday morning, so I had three full days to explore London.

There are three airports in London (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted). Although Heathrow is the closest to central London, I flew to Gatwick because there's no direct flight to Heathrow from Alicante. Once I got there, I took the train to Victoria station (an hour ride at ₤12 is a little more if you want to take the express but it's only about 10 minutes faster) to meet up with my friend. From Victoria station, you can take the Underground to your final destination (i.e. your hostel, or in my case, my friend's house in Belsize Park).

Day 1. Borough Market - River Thame - Tower Bridge - Gherkin by Norman Foster - Lloyd's building by Richard Rogers - Architectural Association Project Review Exhibition - Korean food dinner.

Borough Market is a farmers market held every Thursday-Saturday. There are all sorts of food to buy from fruits and veggies to cheese and olives, pastries, seafood, and more. I bought a pack of tomatoberries for ₤2. They were very sweet.

After spending my morning at the Borough Market, I walked along the River Thame. I was lucky enough to see the Tower bridge open up (my friend told me it's extremely rare that you witness this). Walking along the river bank, you'll pass by the city hall, and across the river you'll see some of the iconic buildings of London at one glance.

I couldn't enter either of the Norman Foster's Gherkin building (well I went inside the little cafe to eat a maringue) and Richard Rogers' Lloyd's building, so here are a few shots from the outside.

Architectural Association holds exhibition at the end of the year, showcasing the year long range of work done by the entire student body. AA's undergraduate program is divided in to Foundation (yr. 1) - First year (yr. 2) - Intermediate (yr. 3-4) - Diploma (yr. 5). What I found most interesting was the work done by the Foundation class, which is "the introduction to the art and design-based education," where students develop conceptual ideas of fine arts and architecture through exploring all kinds of mediums (drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, film, etc.).

"Trust that little voice in your head that says, "Wouldn't it be interesting if?" And then do it." -Duane Michels

One of the mot crucial parts of my trip to London was getting Korean food (and bringing some back to Guardamar with me). My friend was nice enough to cook me dinner everyday, but we decided to go out to eat at this new Korean restaurant in Holborn. This restaurant had one of the best Korean food I've had in my life (especially after a few weeks of Korean food deprivation). My night could not have ended better.

Day 2. Portobello Market - Oxford Circus - The National Gallery - Big Ben - Westminster Abbey - Tate Modern

Portobello Market is held every Saturday, and it's known for the antique shops inside the pastel color buildings. There's a lot to see (and buy if you have the money). You'll catch yourself wanting to stop and photograph at the antique shops, but make sure to ask the owner for permission when you do, because both my friend and I were yelled at taking pictures at one of the shops. Towards the end, there is also a farmers market where I spent the entire morning and where I bought an antique compass for ₤14 (p.s. do bargain!).

My next stop was Oxford Circus (for a very specific reason). My mission was to find macaroons, and it was successful. Fortnum and Mason also has chocolate and other pastries, tea, and cooking spices.

I stopped by the National Gallery for only a couple of hours (because I wanted to save as much time for Tate Modern), but you can probably spend an entire day looking at the collections they have.

You can't miss out on Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey when you're in London. I walked there from the National Gallery, and like any other monumental places, there were a lot of travelers taking pictures. Westminster Abbey is only open for church service, so I decided to stay for an hour and go to the service for an hour before heading to Tate Modern.

Alas, I arrived at the Tate Modern! I had to walk a long way to get to the museum from the underground, and later I realized that it was only because I took a detour and went around the other way, otherwise, it's about a 10-minute walk from the station to the museum. Entrance was free, except for the featured exhibition on Joan Miró. I decided to pay ₤12.20 to see the Miró exhibition and it was completely worthwhile. His work revealed the passion he has for his Catalán identity, and yet his artistic expression was kept simple and abstract. My favorite was the Constellations series.

Art museums are one of my favorite places to be. The experience of reading the work of art itself has a lot to offer, especially for an architecture student like myself that uses visual tools to communicate ideas all the time. However, what I really love about art museums is the air that fills the space with the thoughts and emotions that the visitors offer back to the art. The slow strolls, the long ponderous stares, the whispers between lovers, the curious glance of children, they are the strokes that paint the space to create another layer of art, which I love to enjoy. I allowed myself to soak it in before leaving the Tate at closing time.

Day 3. Design Museum London - Covent Garden

Because I was so tired from exploring the city during the previous two days, I slept in and left my friend’s house around noon. By now, I was familiar with the Underground system, so my journey to the Design Museum from Belsize Park was quick.

Design Museum is about 15 minute walks away from the station (along the river bank). Once I arrived at the museum, I spent a couple hours looking at Wim Crouwel exhibition and the 2010 British Design Award exhibition, which held all kinds of award-winning design work from architecture, fashion, furniture, to smart phone application (i.e. Angry Birds).

The last place I visited in London was Covent Garden. Unfortunately a lot of the shops and venders were already closed when I got there, but I managed to find an ice cream shop, watch a street show, and find a French teashop that sells macaroons. After buying a box of macaroons for my friend to try for the first time (she loves macaroons as much as I do now!), I went upstairs to sit down for a cup of tea and write to Mr. Palomar about my three days of adventure in London.

Although I was not ready for the rainy weather, my trip to London was quite perfect. I came back to Guardamar with a bag full of Korean food, a stack of postcards, 450 photographs, and a fervent wish to visit again someday.

-Jinah