my ten year

I really think Paris is my second home. Everything here just works perfectly with me. 

ok I am being completely serious when I say this, today I figured out my ten year plan. I have had a few pieces of my plan lying around for a while, but my weekend here has been the mortar to my plan. so here it is:

°begin learning French

°graduate

°move to orlando

°get a job as an architect with Disney, become an Imagineer

°spend three years working there

°get my architecture license

°transfer to Disneyland in Paris

°enjoy the perfect job and the perfect life in the perfect place

what do ya think?? Today it finally all clicked, I figured out exactly what I want to do with my life. This weekend has been one of the best weekends of my life. Not just for myself, but the people in my life. Keep it up Dad, I'm really happy for ya!! Lindy, keep killin those interviews (although I am biased towards Midwestern, it looks beautiful on the site).

I gotta give a shout out to Charlotte! Thanks for the best trip ever, all the discounts at Disney, free place to stay, translator, and french teacher. You are the best! I'll be your host when you transfer to Orlando!!

So I gotta finish this beer and get to sleep. My flight is at 6:20am...and my cab gets here at 4:30am    yikes.   I will blog and email as soon as I get to Istanbul. I love everyone!!!! peace

POP

yesterday was pretty much the most relaxing day ever. I am completely in love with Paris. The vibe is very similar to Chicago. All the people are happy, families, young couples in love. Just all around beautiful.

I didnt expect it, but the Eiffel Tower is nothing short of stunning. At night when it is all lit up, it is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. No joke.

My posts are gonna be short cause I didnt bring my laptop, and this French keyboard is kicking my butt. So, look for mega picture post when I get back to Istanbul.

side note, I have learned more French in the past 36 hours than I have in Turkish in 2 months haha....love peace and crepe grease :)

LIVE from paris!!!

so from the time I left istanbul to the time I got to Charlotte's house took about 12 hours. Its all rice and cheesy though. I had amazing food on the plane, and we are about to eat a late night dinner here. I think we are going to Disney on Sunday.... I AM SO PUMPED!!! 

on a huge positive note, I've already eaten two sandwiches with pork, and I'm currently gnawwing (no idea how to spell that) on these little pork nugget things. yummmmmmy.

ok that took me about 10 to type what you just read cause the keyboards here are soo different (I'm on Charlotte's laptop). I'll give you an example.

this is what the sentence looks like on an american keyboard

this is ahqt the sentence looks like on qn q,ericqn keyboqrd:::: but in Frqnce

hahaha. ok!!! talk to errbody tomorrow!!! good luck Lindy!!

abs is best thing in turkey

so I was standing at the crosswalk waiting to meander to the other side today...meanwhile all the native Istanbulians just run out into traffic, I choose to wait. So, in the 20 seconds I was standing there, I witnessed the ABS (anti-lock braking system) kick in on 3 cars. Yes, three. I'm not even positive my scion has ABS, I mean it is supposed to. but in 3+ years of driving one, I have yet to make it kick in. That is just a little example of how I can explain how crazed the drivers are here.

here is my flight info for tomorrow if you are interested:

departing march 12th

istanbul to frankfurt, germany

Lufthansa Airlines

flight number LH3343

5:55pm-8:00pm

frankfurt to paris

Lufthansa Airlines

flight number LH4236

9:35pm-10:45pm

returning march 16th

paris to munich, germany

Lufthansa Airlines

flight number LH4257

6:20am-7:55am

munich to istanbul

Lufthansa Airlines

flight number LH3350

8:30am-12:00pm

I dont know if I am more excited for Paris, or the free meal on the plan.

I'm gonna do my best to post up a blog when I get there to let ya know that I'm all gravy. Hopefully I'll talk to ya tomorrow! Love everybody!!

well, that didnt work out

so I finally finished my animation this afternoon. It took me about 20 hours or so total, including the hours and hours of just clicking things to to and figure stuff out. As expected, it killed the quality and resolution of the video. Unexpectedly, youtube killed the audio on my video also because I sampled 90 seconds of Linkin Park's "Shadows of the Day." Oh well, just know that the animation is set to the beat, and let your heart beat out its own magical rhythm.

anyone ever really look at the word rhythm? yeah, it is probably the most retarded word ever. 

side note, copped the Dream's new album this morning, and it is amazing. Go buy it!!

edit: well maybe the audio is working when I embed the video? I dont know, enjoy

bad news good news, good news bad news

aight follow me here. should be fun

bad news
my laptop hard drive crashed again yesterday
good news
I fixed it

bad news
it took me about 36 hours to get it fully functional
good news
it is fully functional

bad news
its the my brand new hard drive has crashed twice in the past 3 months
good news
western digital is gonna send me a new one

bad news
I am completely unqualified to replace and reformat hard drives
good news
my main man, Will, helped me out big time

bad news
I'm kinda sick
good news
I'm staying out of the gym so I dont make it worse

bad news
not going to the gym this week
good news
get to put 3 more hours of work per night in on my school work

bad news
learning adobe after effects in 3 days is brutal
good news
I am learning adobe after effects in 3 days

bad news
my video is still not done
good news
I have the ability to make simple 3D animations now


*now lets switch the order*


good news
the dream's new album comes out tomorrow
bad news
it has a ton to live up to. I was obsessed with his last album over the summer

good news
going to paris in 2.5 days
bad news
having to hustle to get ahead on my school work

good news
making a ton of new friends
bad news
will only be able to see them for 60-something more days, then probably never again

good news
world superbike this weekend
bad news
more than likely will miss it again and have to watch youtube highlights

good news
taco bell in a few days
bad news
I wont be able to restrain from eating it, so it won't be as good as if I was to wait until America

good news
my triathlon training is coming along really well
bad news
my calf muscles keep getting "charlie horses" in the middle of the night....really hurts

good news
just about at the halfway point of my Istanbul experience
bad news
just about at the halfway point of my Istanbul experience


oooo that was fun. ok, back to working on the video! pppppppppeace

hahaha nicely done

ok you guys def came through with captions! Its gonna be a tough decision, but I'm gonna go with Lindy on this one!! She walked the line of being inappropriate, while staying classy....stay classy san diego...

Her prize will have to wait a few days. I am pretty busy right now with school, trying to get everything done early so I can take off this weekend for Paris. I had a couple technical problems with my video I was making. I should have it done by Wednesday, so look for that soon. 

I seem to have caught a little bit of a cold from my roomie I think. Just a little sore throat and a mini cough. No biggie, I just ignore it. I do this everytime I start to get sick, just tell myself I am not sick, and it goes away. Its all mental babbbbbyyyyy. Oh, and the mass amounts of water, multi-vitamins, and 1000mg of vitamin C a day help out too...

Hope your interview went well Lindy, I'm sure you killed it! In a good way...hopefully not in a literal translation kinda way. Oh, and sorry about calling you in the interview. I thought you were driving...apparently not. My b.

Sandy!! What kind of strings did you pull to get all access like that to the Supercross?? That is awesome, I need more details though. I'm def jealous. Can you tell me what happened during the race? All it said online was that Bubba went down first corner, came back to 7th. And that Chad Reed almost got whooped by a rookie, hahaha he is so lame. 

I'm on the hunt for a brush or comb. My hair is fro-in out, and it is getting slightly out of control. I haven't brushed my hair in a single time my recent memory, so I'm a little out of the loop. Do guys use combs or brushes? I mean, I would like to get a comb that flips out. Ya know, Fonze style. Can't have it all, especially in Turkey.

HOLY CRAP

I just found out there is a Taco Bell in Paris. Yes, you read that right. Now I just have to find it, and enjoy it daily.

Gotta run to studio...look for another post later today entitled "Good news, bad news". Should be a good one.

dirty pop

what up world! Last night was pretty amazing. We had all the Turkish girls from studio over at our place, along with some of their friends. We listened to some good ole american hip hop for a while, then they took us to this 90's Turkish pop music club. It was awesome. The music was pretty standard, most of it just had a catchy beat and was repetetive. Only problem is my ears are still ringing this morning haha.

Most of the weekend I've been working on this video project for my cultural context class. The teacher is...umm..."spacey". I don't know if that is a word, but it pretty much sums it up. Last Wednesday she told us to make a video that expresses our trip to Mardin....without using any video clips....that is due a week later.

So, I jumped on it. I've always wanted to learn how to do 3D animation, so I sat down and started teaching myself how to use Adobe After Effects on friday. I picked it up pretty quick, and spent all friday night and all day saturday building my little cube in 3D. I still have to animate it, but that is the easy part...I think haha. I'm using Linkin Park's "shadow of a day" for the music. I dont know, it was weird...that song was stuck in my head for some reason over the trip. It was only fair for me to use it in my "video."

Hopefully I can finish the video today and post it up on the blog. Don't get over excited about it though, its really simple. 

Thanks Sandy and dad for staying up and letting me watch the race yesterday! You guys are the best. 

So I'm going to Paris in 4 days! Nick, adam, and I are flying over there for the weekend. We made a friend while in London, and she invited us to stay at her house for the weekend...for free. I can't say no to that. Our flight was $215, and we are staying for free. So all I have to do it pays for food, and I know she knows where all the cheap joints are at. I'm gonna see if I can take a trip to Paris for around $300 hahaha. How amazing is that?? I'm PUMPEDDDDDD

alright, here is a random picture for the day. Lets do another contest...this time it is a caption contest! Limit one answer per person, all rules and restrictions apply. Only available at participation locations and all the jazz. This picture was taken at the London airport...lets keep the comments clean. I mean, this is a family environment!

express yourself

as promised, mom here is your reward! :)

karaoke night

my bad about not posting up yesterday! I had a really busy day yesterday, no down time. It was a good day though! I did a half simulation of my triathlon, and took 42 seconds off my time since last week. It feels so weird getting off the bike and starting to run. The first 1/4 mile, my legs feel like they weigh 200 pounds haha.  

can I just say real quick, life is good! 

So after the gym, I came home and a bunch of people came to our house. We listened to some music here for a while, then we went out to a karaoke bar. Oh yes, I said karaoke bar. It was my friend Jennifer's birthday, and she wanted me to sing. So, I got up there first with her and we sang "Candy Shop" by 50 cent. It was epic, to say the least. We had the place bumpinnnnnnn hahahaha. They played some michael jackson, mambo number 5, oasis...all kinds of random music. 

I gotta run, I'm on my way to a furniture expo out by the airport with some of the German & Finnish students. I dont really know what to expect from it, but it should be fun.

and mom, since you won the contest, be on the lookout tonight for a special gift! love ya, peeeeaaacccceee!