Tran's board: Random but awesome!

Tran's parent:  Mr. Chuong Tran

Tran's mission: 1. Madrid; 2. San Sebastian; 3. Bilbao; 4. Jump off the cliff and survive; 5. Write blogs at the airport...

Transform:  happened within two months in Spain

Tran's sexual: unexpected word coming from unexpected Ian

Transfer.....

Coming to Spain, meeting new people, making friends, letting them become part of your life, enjoy their company, laugh and cry together, then you learn about yourself internally and externally  for instance  like how cool your name can entertain people!!

-Tran's....

Spain_ Great place to learn Spanish and improve English

The most effective way to learn English is to make mistake, then your " new family member" will make fun of you and correct you in the way that you won't ever forget.

Here you go:

-Lesson 1. Tran: "Why are you pissing off, Alex??".... hahhahaha.... Alex: "What? What did you say?? hahahha.... Why are you pissed off??"

-Lesson 2: Tran: " Sorry I can't be a nice person because I am bad in the bones!!" Jesus: " Then you need to go see the doctor!!" hahahhaha... Jesus:" You are bad to the bones, not in the bones, Tran!"

-Lesson 3: unresolved solution... Walking back from the studio in the dark... Something happened.... No one can't remember what happened, but suddenly Tran yelled: " Don't pervered me!!" Ian, Ryan, and victim Tran all laughed....

... It is great to have friends that got your back, laugh at and together with you, and help me learn to be better!!! That is Studio in Spain!! I appreciated those moments that I could laugh and be laughed at by those strangers had become friends!!!!

-Tran...

Picasso Paramour: Jacqueline Lin

Art History was my favorite subject in high school, so to come to Spain and seeing great artworks in person has been an awe-inspiring experience. Madrid and Barcelona are the two top cities in Spain for art (that I can say). They both house large collections specializing, of course, in major Spanish artists. Some of  the greats such as Velasquez and Dali were fantastic with Velasquez's most famous work Las Meninas (in Museo del Prado) so monumental to perspective painting and Dali's crazy surrealist consciousness out on display with rooms of his life's work including the Persistence of Memory (in Reina Sofia), which was surprisingly teeny .

However, the best of Madrid and Barcelona accumulates in the works of Picasso. In Madrid's Reina Sofia, I spent a good 15 minutes just staring in appreciation and wonder at Guernica. How Picasso captures the violence of a bombing in Basque, how the composition is so well composed for its momumental size (each human figure larger than life, and the actuality of seeing this of seeing Guernica in person...was unreal. I immediately bought 3 postcards of the painting.

Then in Barcelona's Museu Picasso, similar to Dali, Picasso's progression of art styles were laid out from stays Malaga, Paris, and Barcelona (where he did the majority of his paintings). It was not only surprising to see his earlier work, which is very impressionistic (Van Gogh was shown in exhibitions in Malaga) and the sadness of the Blue Period, but to also see his sketches, which were pretty much full of sex. Despite the promiscuous nature of the sketches, you could see the skill of his hand-drawn work, and the effort he put into everything he did, careless and thoughtful at the same time. In almost all of his paintings the underlaid outline shows through the paint, which lended to a layered and rich reading of his works.

At the Museu Picasso, the series of studies Picasso did on Velasquez Las Meninas was amazing. He did almost 6 sketch paintings in one day and had so many varied and wonderful interpretations of the landmark painting, each respecting the original artist, but in finality beating Velasquez's sorry ass by having a much cooler painting. It was such a wonderful work to compare with the previous visit to Prado and the original Velasquez. (Thanks Stacy for the bday present of the mouse pad of this Picasso!)

Lastly, to end this Picasso rave: after these two months in Spain, I feel safe to say that Picasso is my favorite artist. Nothing beats his semi unfinished work and the balance in his compositions (his white space and sketches are out of this world). And to my happy astonishment, at Museu Picasso, I found out that Picasso loves me as much as I love him, having a whole series of portraits of me, Jacqueline. It's a mutual relationship. Picasso + Jacqueline

Portrait of Jacqueline 

Guernica 

Las Meninas- Picasso

Las Meninas- Velasquez

Mexican Abroad

So the year came too soon to an end. The people we met and times we shared will now become cherished memories to remember the times we were young. The perfect time to travel and be free from any commitments and worries we live by back in the states. It’s a time when you live by the moment, by intuition, when strangers become friends, and those friends become our family. A family that sees our greatest times (laughter) and our worst times (face down on a toilet). It is easily one of the greatest experiences this Mexican has ever had. You learn, grow, and live so much that it is hard to believe it all happened in just two months. But all that was lived will not be forgotten but rather incorporated into my life back in the U.S. Important life lessons to seriously keep in mind such as having siestas between 2pm and 5pm are a necessity, that partying till 6am should be a routine, that oil makes all food taste better  whether on rice, bread, salad, or yogurt, that the beach is your skins best friend, having a beer and sangria mid-day is normal, that any time is a good time to find Spanish shops open, and placing a “th” sound where the “s” should be in a word means you speak Spanish.

And now for the real reason we were here in Spain - Architecture studio and academics.

……..collaging was fun.

So to the great times lived and the great people they were shared with ..Cheers!

This is only the beginning.

-Jesus

Not Fiesta...I meant SIESTA!

As architecture students, sleep is something we see a foreign object. We accept all-nighters to be part of our daily routine for the following 15 weeks the semester. As midterms and reviews seep into our daily routines, we see how our already limited sleep schedule is reduced to accommodate for these other classes. We remain prisoners of Wurster Hall where we encounter dirty looking beards from stressed out students, colonization of the couch on every studio floor, and weary-eyed individuals who can barely keep focus on their studies. We live in a world of insomnia. We rely on coffee, energy drinks, smoking breaks and in my particular case, the gym to keep us going. These objects become our batteries to keep the energizer bunny going. No wonder we have become addicted to these objects.
 Architecture makes us masochist. Was I ready to put myself through the torture again? However,there was something that attracted me to this torture. Thinking of taking an architecture studio after a year without studio, was devouring me as flew from Miami to Spain.That was until I heard of SIESTA!
Siesta was the chance to catch up on all the sleepless nights that had accumulated over the past years in architecture. When I thought about it, we definitely deserved to have Siesta! Siesta was a reward to all the hard work and dedication that we had put in during the days in Spain. In that respect, we had definitely embraced being submerged within the Spanish culture.
After a week or so, we would "Siesta" everywhere, on our break after lunch, on our trips to different destinations. It became an essential part of this group. Why not record the beauty of siesta?!

Video soon too come!!

Dylan on our way to Valencia

Mernaz asleep on our way to Altea

Noah after his visit to Tabarca

Alex snoring on our way back to Morocco

Ryan's sleeping face

Eddy snatching my phone away while I take a picture of him half asleep

Jesus and I wide awake while Eddy and Ryan are knocked out from our flight back to Valencia

One of the few occasions this ever happened

Jesus too tired from our bus ride from Barcelona

Heather and Matt with a choreographed sleep

All the muscle for something!! 

Hungry for an education

Ryan's sleeping face #2

10 Steps For Enjoying your Summer in Spain

1. Siesta

2. Pull All-Nighters (Non-Studio Related)

 3. Visit Museums (Pretend to be Artsy)

 4. Visit architecture that will make you cry

5. Find Summer Love

 6. Take Cool Selfies (yeah it's douchey but oh well)

 7. Stay Cool

8. Make a British Friend (preferably one that doesn't abuse hashtags though)

9. Dance

10. Have a Caña a day

Follow these steps and this won't be you...

TRAN'S MISSION 1_ SAN SEBASTIAN

While the taxi driving along the river early in the morning, my heart was filled of excitement and nervous for if I would be able to catch the sun rise at the Wind Comb.  I kept looking at my watch and the sky and hope the sun didn't rise so fast.  I could not communicate with the drive in Spanish, but somehow I guess he read my body language and began to speed up.... The fresh wind blow through the window brought the memory of those days I went to school every morning in Viet Nam....But...no longer high school, Tran's on mission_capturing the beauty of the San Sebastian in sun rise.... 

Finally, the taxi stopped... The driver gave me the card and tried to tell me to call if I need to get a ride back.  It is a super funny experience when you can't speak a language but if you tried to listen and guess hard enough, you will get by. The conversation with the driver reminded me the time I arrived the bus station in San Sebastian... I needed to catch the bus to my hostel, but OHHH BOyyyyy.... I dont know how I survived with my poor Spanish, but I did it. I pulled all my Spanish vocabulary which is "Aki" and a finger to point at the map and the address of the hostel... People tried to help me. They spoke among each other, pretty intense conversation.  Then they got back to me, andddd alllll Spanish words were threw at me... I had no idea what they said... and...."Si... si... si..." I followed their hand pointed at the direction that I should go.... 

It was absolutely beautiful, whatever in front of my eyes... I couldn't keep my mouth close.  The horseshoes beach is completely calm and absolutely beautiful.  The beautiful nature had not been interrupted by the present of human yet.  The sculpture the Wind Comb are there on the rocks.  The red color of metal rotting from the sculpture run down along the rock.  Soooooo beautifulllllll!!!!! The sun was rising up from behind the small island.  The wave kept hitting to the shore.  The sky was changing color from purple to yellow.... It was so beautiful when there were not a lot of people.  One fisher man... Several people jogging, they came and gone... Some men cleaned up the sand and set up chairs and umbrellas on the beach...... 

The higher the sun rise, the lower the water get....It was not a best time to experience the wind and the water rise through those wind holes on the floor... My mission was to capture the beauty at the absolutely right moment.  No mission is impossible for Tran's mission. Hahahahhaha......Therefore I decided to come back later in the afternoon and hope the water would get higher and stronger....   It was 9 am.... I walked along the shore and stopped at every interesting points that marked on the map.  I had a day to kill anyway.  

I was back to the center of the city.  I walked inside Maria cathedral and Vicente church... The music was fulfilled the entire interior space.... Light was coming down from the windows and casting the shadows on the statues.  The pains that people probably suffer for a period of time was revealed...

Tapas and sangria for lunch..... Tran's mission kept going.... 

San Sebastian beach at 5pm

I took the bus back to the Wind Comb.... Things changed completely in no time.  The density of people was extreme!!!!! The wind got stronger.  The monster woke up with the heavy breaths..... Oh noooooo, my battery died... and I was running out of time... I had 15 mins to complete mission....I ran to the coffee shop close by to charge my phone and got some napkins to show the movement of the winds through the holes..... 

Finally mission was completed, but I was better run for my life..... My bus to Bilbao was going to leave in 40 minutes..... Run.... run... run..... This is part of study architecture in Spain: hit the road hard, capture the beautiful moment, and run.......

 

  

SPAIN!!!!!!

Spain has been such an amazing experience. 170A opened my eyes to the different architectural possibilities that spain could offer. But nothing beats being able to be in those spaces you saw in pictures! I won't be able to describe how it felt to walk through the streets of Spain. Every city i visited had something new to offer.

 Barajas, Madrid Airport.

 Beautiful view from Santa Barbra castle over looking Alicante

 La Alahambra in Granada

 Beautiful building in Granada

 The Mezquita in Cordoba!

Toyo Ito's unfinished piece in Torrevieja


I'm soooo blessed to be able to see so much from so many different places. I'm definitely going to make sure to never stop traveling. 

Guardamar del Segura

Guardamar de Segura is like no other town i've been to. This small beach town goes through a series of transformations from the beginning of June till the end of August. So far I've seen this place as a ghost town. Nothing but a few people walking through the town during the day, very few shops open, if they were open they would close early. The beaches were clear most of the day. Even at peak beach time, when the sun is out and the water is refreshing, there would only be a few people in sight.
As the weeks passed on crowds of people began to come. With every weekend we came back from a trip it felt as if hundreds of new people had moved into town. We began to see, not just the old spanish couples that retired here, but foreigners from all over; russian, english, polish, german, norwegian, and then some.
The town really began to transform. Growing up in a big city I'm very use to loud noises; many people and cars. I never got the feel for a small town. But I believe this this town has the best of both worlds, small and big.
The locals are crazy. They party all night and start up again early morning. I'm never gunna forget those crazy old men that start drinking outside of my window down at the bar at opening at 7am!
Besides the people town  has a lot of historical significance to offer too. Theres a classic Spanish ruin castle at one of the tallest points in town. On one of our first nights we went up there just before sunset and watched the sun fall behind the mountains as well as watch the town. It was at this moment that i was very happy i was able to come to Spain. It was so surreal to see a foreign town, the ocean, the mountains, the fields, the river, and sand dunes from one spot as the sun was setting.
The Sand Dunes! At first i didn't think much of the sand dunes that were at one end of town. But after a field trip to visit the one of the oldest ruins in all of spain it was explained to me that there was many things that the sand dunes had swallowed up through out the many years and every now and then dunes would reveal a small part of history frozen in time. I found that pretty cool. I even found a piece of a plate from what the guide said is from the early 1700's!.

What's in your suitcase?

Perhaps you are reading this post before your trip to Arch 101 in Spain. Or… you are just bored out of your mind and you are missing the beautiful beaches of Guardamar before all the vacationers took over, the flimsy restaurant napkins, and even the Pension Jaen meals during the oh-so-convenient siesta (which was a perfect excuse for taking naps, catching up on your tv shows and being a lazy bum). But fear not, such symptoms of withdrawal are common now that you are back to the more mundane days in California. Whatever the reason you are reading this, here are some of the items I thought would be helpful to have or have had on this trip!

1) Adapters/Converters

                This is a must if you want to use your electronics in Europe. While you can easily find adapters here, it will just be best to have 2 or more before you leave the U.S., so that you can charge your electronics at the airport or as soon as you get to Spain. I say two or more because if you want to be charging your laptop while you charge your phone, camera, etc., you will want more than one adapter. As for converters, most portable electronics now are capable of converting between 110V (US) and 220V. BUT. If you are planning on bringing a blow dryer, don’t bring the one you normally use unless you want to blow the breaker when you get here. If you still plan on bringing one, make sure you bring a travel size one that can convert on its own. If you are still insistent on bringing your personal hair dryer, be sure to bring a converter. Otherwise, I did not need a converter for anything. But I ended up not using the hair dryer for most of the trip as it got hotter and I just let my hair air dry.

2) A Moleskine sketchbook… or two.

You can never have enough of these nice babies (especially as an architecture student—we capture our entire studio life in that tiny book), and it’s just best to have the essentials before you get here because sure you can buy some over here, but you would have to first find a place that sells them. So to just save time and money, bring at least two (moleskine) sketchbooks so you can start scribbling your thoughts and sketches down as soon as touch ground in Spain. Two because you never know how much you’ll write and draw when you are here in Europe!

3) Tupperware.

                So. If you ask anyone, they will tell you that the one Pension Jaen meal you get every day from Monday to Friday is of a decent first course, second course portion. Therefore, if you want to be economical, environmental, or just lazy because you do not want to cook, I suggest you bring 2 medium-sized tupperwares to this trip.

4) A cold mask/scarf.

                In Asian cultures, it is pretty common to wear cold masks when you go out even when you don’t have a cold, but I cannot really say the same for Spain. I got a few confused stares when I wore my simple white cold mask when I was walking around, but otherwise, it was suuuper helpful. Let me tell you why. So, I imagine you will want to take various modes of transportation to get to your destinations throughout your stay in Spain and beyond. Well, you will have to get used to cold, over air-conditioned buses, trains, and planes. It might seem nice at first, seeing that it is summer and hot after all. But do not underestimate how dry the air gets. That can cause your nose and throat to dry up, which can make your body more vulnerable to catching a cold. Cold masks don’t just prevent you from spreading the germs you have when are sick, they most definitely keep you from catching one in the first place as well, since your mouth and nose will be covered. The major cities in Spain can also smell of sewage and other gunk as well, so it was very useful then as well. If you would prefer staying fashionable, try a scarf—my roommate bought a scarf from the Mercadillo and that proved to be almost as efficient during her travels.

5) Shower sandals!!

                Another thing you should definitely bring is a pair of shower sandals. Whether or not you mind standing in the pension showers with your bare foot or not does not bother me much, but the hostels! I definitely regretted not bringing my $5 Old Navy flip-flops with me when showering at the hostels with questionable sanitation. But those sandals are also useful when going to the beach, as they can act as beach sandals too.

That’s all for now. I hope that this post was helpful.

May you have a safe and fun trip!

- stacy (summer studio 2013)

Don't Wait, JUST DO IT

You had a dream of traveling around the world when you were 10. When you turned 20, you thought you should focus on college and stuff, so you didn't go. When you turned 30, you were so busy with work and thought you still got time. When you turned 40, you had your own kids and you wouldn't go.
Time flies! So live in the present. Do what you have been dreaming for and don't hold back.

I am glad that I made the decision to come to Spain for my last summer as a Berkeley student. Not only did I met all the great friends who I wish I knew earlier, I got the chance to travel around Europe also, even just a weekend during the program time.

After the class excursion to Granada, I went to Cordoba and Sevilla for the same day!

And catched my overnight bus from Sevilla to Lisbon on Saturday. I basically was in two countries and 4 cities within 24 hours!

Lisbon was a great city with great views and food. It actually reminded me of San Francisco a lot, with its hilly streets, cable cars, and the replica of the Golden Gate/Bay Bridge. 

I took one day for a road trip to two little towns of Sintra and Cascais, both around 1 hour away from Lisbon by train. Sintra is such a fairy tale town with its beautiful landscape and the World Heritage castle, palace and houses. Cascais, on the other hand, was a beach town towards the Atlantic.

About a month later, I catched my flight from Alicante to Amsterdam on a Friday night. Amsterdam to me was very different, with its rings of canals and tolerate culture. As the most bike-friendly city in the world, Amsterdam definitely had the best public transit system. I rented a bike for 10 euros for 24 hours. 

Besides the spectaculars of the Red Light District and coffeeshops, the museums in Amsterdam were definitely worth a visit- Van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc. There was this museum of fluorescent art called the Electric Ladyland was also intriguing. 

So, definitely seize your opportunities to travel! It's never too early to plan and decide to go!

-Bob Esponja