Favorite Sketch

I was told that our sketches could be of varying quality, so I didn't chose my most amazing sketch. In fact, this sketch isn't that great, but I really enjoyed sketching it, and I think that is what matters. This was at Vaux le Vicomte, my favorite place we visited on our trip, and it reminds me of the gardens when we were wating for the candlelight tour to begin. That is why I chose this as my favorite sketch, the fountain and the statue in the gardens at Vaux, because of the experience I had when I was sketching it!

Pamphlet For Sustainable Ojects Museum

Along with our sustainable object, we had to design a museum exhibit to display our object. With our exhibit we had to design a pamphlet with wayfinding of all the other exhibits as well. So here my pamphlet...



My inspiration for this pamphlet came entirely from the fact that I wanted it to be as simple as possible for people to find their way through a muesum. I found that when I went to some museums that I felt very overwhelmed by the jumble of exhibits and items to see. I just wanted to create a flowing walk way through the entire museum and exhibits. I also provided a restroom and cafe, because they were immensly appreciated on our journeys through museums. I also color coated the symbol of the group with the matching colors on their exhibits.

Sustainable Object

As most of you know, our theme for this journey was sustainability. For our first sustainability assignment we were asked to design an object that could be used in our group. I am in the marvelous light group and here is my sustainable lighting object.



Now, I know what you are thinking, but this is not just any old skylight. I designed this object to optimize the use of natural light in a residence, or a business. My inspiration for this object, in complete honesty, was that I hated that there was no natural light in a lot of older buildings we visited while we were abroad. This object I have designed is powered by natural light. The light comes through the windows and reflects off of the panels, as you can see. These reflective panels transfer light to other parts of the room. The panels have heat sensors that rotate along with the path of the sun throughout the day. Not only do these panels reflect light, but they store the energy from the light as well to power the rotation they go through throughout the day. Never again will a skylight leave a little patch of light on the floor, but completely fill a room!

Favorite Paris Picture

Along with our London picture, here is my favorite Paris picture. Not only does it have the Eiffel Tower, but it has the river and the tour boat as well. I think it sums up my favorite things.

Favorite London Picture

We were asked to post our favorite picture of London, so here it is. I picked this one because not only do I love Big Ben at night, but I thought it was so cool how I got a picture of the double decker bus blurred. I am no photographer, but I was proud of this one...

When in Rome....

After our two amazing days in Venice, we were off to Rome. We arrived in the city around midnight, so went straight to our hotel. Little did we know what would be there waiting for us when we woke up...

We saw so many amazing things in Rome, there is no way I could post all the pictures worth posting. Here are some of my favorites...I'll let them speak for themselves...



This is me and Whit in front of Trevi Fountain, my favorite place in Rome!



These are some pictures of the Pantheon.




This is outside the Pantheon at the entrance.


These are some ruins on the way to coliseum. It is so tight because the modern city is just built around the ancient ruins. It is like a whole different world.


This is one of the sites we saw on our bus tour. This is where they used to hold chariot races back in ancient times. The winner was determined by the first man and chariot to cross the finish line first after seven laps!
This is the "liar's temple", another site we saw on our awesome bus tour.
This is the coliseum. It was so tight to see it in real life after seeing it in a million movies and books. The structure is huge and even more detailed and amazing in real life. It is a shame we didn't get to go through it, too bad we aren't tour guides!

Shopping In Venice

We only spent two days in Venice, so naturally our second day we went shopping. The streets were filled with little booths and there were shops everywhere!



This was one of the hottest shopping streets close to where we were staying.



Could a girl honestly ask for a better atmosphere for shopping? NO WAY!!! Shopping, Italy, and Pasta....paradise!

The Louvre

Since we had Monday off as well, we decided we would wake up early and go to the Louvre. We wanted to wake up as early as we could so we could beat the crowd, but we kinda slept in. So when we got to the Louvre it was packed! So we made a plan of action to go straight to the Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo, since those were the two main things we wanted to see. So we ran past the groups of people and went straight to the wing where the Mona Lisa was.



This is me in front of the original Mona Lisa, right before we got kicked out. Yes, we did get kicked out for taking pictures. But the important part is that we got one.



After getting kicked out of the Mona Lisa, we went straight to the Venus di Milo. Here is me in front of it, a long with an unknown tourist in motion.



Here is the staircase in the main area of the museum which goes up into the pyramid I.M. Pei designed.



If you have ever seen the Da Vinci Code, you know what this is. This is where the two pyramids meet in the lower level of the museum.



Here is me and Brighton in front of the Louvre. The older part of the building was built back in the medieval times, but the Pyramid was built in the last decade. Suprisingly, the two go really well together.

On to ITALIA!

Today was our last day in Paris. It was sad to see everyone go, but we were excited to get to Italy....even though we were going to have to have a 13 hour train ride. Since the train excursion was so long, we got to sleep in catchets. Inside each train car there are these little cabins, if you will, with beds in them. Ours slept 4 people. So it was Brighton, Whit, Paulo, and I. Paulo is an Italian man that knew about for words in English, and of course I had to sleep in the catchet next to him. This is what they looked like...



Look at these blue beauties! They were about as cozy as they look believe it or not...



After 13 hours we got off the train finally and saw this...THE STREETS OF VENICE!!!



We were so excited to go on a Gondola ride that we hurried to our hotels, showered, and went on one!




These are just some of the things we saw on our Gondola ride. Our boat "driver", if one could drive a boat, was named Roberto.



After a long day of boat riding, we decided to get some Italian pasta. Here is my gorgeous and scrumptious lasagna...

Centre Pompidou

Today we went to the famous Pompidou. I really enjoyed seeing this building because we learned about it in History of Architecture and Furnishings and ever since then I have wanted to see it. The building literally looks like it is inside out. The architects, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini designed the building on the lines of an "evolving spatial diagram". The building was designed in two parts, a three level infrastructure that has technical facilities and services areas, and a huge seven level glass and steel superstructure.



Here is Whit and I in front of the building. That tube on the side of the building is actually the elevator that leads to the top floor.



This is the inside of the building where you can see the bookstore and the gift shop. There are also a ton of exhibits, most of which were closed when we were there, except the erotic art ironically. I am pretty sure we saw enough of that in Amsterdam, if you call that art, so we didn't go to that exhibit.




This is a picture of the restaurant on top of the building. It is beautiful, you can see the most amazing views of Paris, like this...



Even the rooftops in Paris are tight!



This picture was taken in the gift shop. These are tiny replicas of famous designer chairs, like the Coconut chair (the black one)!

Eiffel Tower at Night

After we had a really relaxing Sunday, we thought we would end the night with a journey to the Eiffel Tower. We decided to do the whole package and go all the way to the top. I was kind of sad because I heard you could go ice skating on the Eiffel Tower, so I was stoked to get my skate on. Unfortunately, this special circumstance only occurs during the colder months in Paris. It makes sense, I know, but my excitement got the best of me. They also have a restaurant and a million gift shops on the tower as well.



This is Whitney and I on the very top level of the Eiffel Tower. It was really windy, as you can see, but it was so neat to see the whole city of Paris.



This is a picture of the Eiffel Tower with the lights flashing. Every hour on the hour starting at 10 the Eiffel Tower sparkles with thousands of little lights. The show goes on for about 10 or 15 minutes, and we were on the tower when it was going off so we got some sweet pictures.



This is looking north from the top of the tower. You can't see it well, but the yellow blog in the center is Notre Dame.



This is another picture from the top level looking east. You can even see some tour boats on the river. There are a lot of amazing Bridges in Paris, as you can see.

Paris Via Boat!

Since we are only in Paris for 8 days, we got today off to do whatever we want. Whitney and I decided to go on a boat tour of Paris. It was a really nice contrast considering we've been walking a lot lately.



This is a picture of the famous Notre Dame cathedral. If you look towards the center of the building you will notice a big round window, which is called a Rose Window. It is even more beautiful from the inside and the stained glass it awesome!



This is the Louvre Museum, home of the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. It is huge! This is only a very small part of it. In fact, the tour guide told us that if you spent one minute in front of each piece of art in the Louvre you would be inside the museum for 4 straight months! Crazy huh?



This is a picture of some residences on the island on the river. This is the first place in Paris that was inhabited hundreds of years ago. The tour guide told us this is the most expensive place to live in all of Paris. I thought the buildings were awesome and the roof top gardens were gorgeous!

Overall, our boat tour was really nice and relaxing. We got to see the major sites of Paris and chill on the boat!

Versailles

Today we went to Versailles, which is actually located in the town of Versailles. It was about a half hour train ride to the city, on a double decker train. It was pretty cool.



Here is a picture of me and Kaylee in front of the palace. Unfortunately the entrance was under construction, but it was still breathtaking.



We immediately went to the gardens in the back of the palace. There were so many people, being it was a Saturday, so everything was really busy. The gardens were massive. Much larger than the gardens at Vaux. This is a fountain in the center of the gardens. Saturday is the day they turn on the fountains at Versailles, so we were very lucky to be there today.



Here is another fountain farther back into the gardens. The way it was designed is awesome, it has the sea king and his horses arising out of the water. Pretty tight...



This is a picture, which I was not supposed to take, inside of the royal theatre inside Versailles Palace. It is gorgeous, one of the most elaborate theatres I have ever seen, but it was inside a palace!

Vaux le Vicomte

After we had spent the earlier part of the day at Fontainebleau we took the bus to Vaux le Vicomte. The story behind this place is really interesting. The owner, Nicholas Foquet, built this beautiful chateau and being that fun person he was, decided to hold a party there after it was completed. Naturally, he decided to invite the King. The King arrived at Vaux and was so jealous of the beauty of the structure and the gardens that he had Nicholas thrown in jail the morning after the party. Foquet lived in prison until the day that he died, all because of the King's greed. Pretty crazy huh? So here are some pictures of the most beautiful chateaus in the world...



Isn't it amazing? Now you can see for yourself why the King was so jealous.
The house itself is gorgeous, but the gardens are what were really awesome...



This is a view of the south side of the gardens of the chateau.



This is Whit, Me, and Megan in the gardens at Vaux. This is just a small glimpse of how massive the gardens were.



The best part of the whole night was that we got to see Vaux at night with a candle lit tour. It was gorgeous. The whole inside of the structure was lit with candles, along with the gardens. It was so awesome. They had the fountains going and music playing. It was the best experience as a whole we have had so far.

Fontainebleau

Our second day of Paris and we are off again! We chartered a coach, or bus, and went off to Fontainebleau outside of Paris. We really liked the experience because we got to take pictures INSIDE of this building.



This is the building, notice the staircase at the entrance. It is shaped like a horse shoe and one of the most famous staircases in France.



This is the chapel inside the chateau. The ceilings in the whole structure are gorgeous!



The decor in Fontainebleau is outrageous! It is way over the top, a little more than I can handle, but it is beautiful. This vase was pretty tight though!



Here is Whit and I in front of some fresco paintings and this awesome marble staircase!