home

I'm back and pretty sleepy. the jetlag has did me in a bit. will write more tomorrow. must find an apartment now.
zzz zzz zzz

land's end

broke my personal speed record again today - this time 110 mph. Its funny, I don't even FEEL like i'm going that fast, but evidently I am.

10 hours of driving today, which is kinda ironic because once I get back to the US I'll be living in New York without a car. Its like I'm getting my last kicks out. Saw Stonehenge in the morning while it was still cold and grey out - perfect stonehenge weather. And don't let anyone tell you that stonehenge is anything more than a pile of rocks because basically that is all that it is. Of course, they are rocks that have been there for thousands of years, carried hundreds of miles by slave workers and seen by million of people - but they are still rocks nonetheless.

Land's End was actually far more impressive. All the way at the southwest coast of England. 2000 or so miles from NYC (there was a sign). By this point the sun had come out and the scenery, with the ocean, the rocks and the landscape was pretty stunning. Good photos too.

Now I'm back home, ready to go to bed to get up early tomorrow (6am - its funny how organized and disciplined I can be when I'm NOT doing what I'm supposed to) to travel to England's Lake District.

And then... a day in London and a final flight back home...

screw ups

london, heathrow
Friday morning

when someone screws up, its always best if there is documentation of it. Luckily, today, there was such a case. On one of the forms they had given me when I rented the car they had circled "diesel" as the fuel type.

All is forgiven and I get a new car. Actually, its the exact same car - black VW golf, but this time it is a diesel. Ironic isn't it?

Alright, off to stonehenge/land's end.

ARGH!!!

frieking london - Thursday night - 9:00 pm
So, yesterday the rental car company told me that my car was diesel. Alright, I thought, I'll fill it with diesel today. So, about 5 minutes away from the hotel (after a trip to Oxford, more later) I fill up the car with diesel (50 bucks UK, which is like $4.3 million US dollars). And then, about 30 seconds after leaving the petrol station, the car starts making noises. Scarey noises. and then acceleration disappears - 15 mph the whole way home. uh oh. I'm only right next to Heathrow airport, there isn't traffic around here, at all.

Crap. After about 6 restarts, enough beeping to scare anyone I finally get home. The rental car place, which is luckily located right in my hotel, said wait till tomorrow morning to talk to their manager. Alright, whatever. I have the super insurance, which I purchased once before in LA which was good because I wrapped the car around a parking deck and they couldn't do anything about it. This time, I may have destroyed my little VW's engine. Screw them, their fault.

Before that, I should tell you that I did get a bit better at driving British Style. In fact, I should say, I've now broken my own speed record - 100 mph. Yes, while driving on the M40 today I passed triple digits JUST TO KEEP UP!!! The speed limit here is 70, but that is about the funniest joke I've ever seen. If I went 70, I would have been passed by the 18-wheel trucks in the slow lane.

That was fun.

Oxford, the place I went to see today, was even more fun. Its what Cambridge (MA) would have wanted to be if it didn't suck so bad. The best bookstore in the world is located in this fine little univsersity town - blackwell's bookstore. I actually had to walk out of the store for fear I would spend too much money. Absolutely amazing. I did, however, find a poster-sized version of "The Great Bear" which is a work of art that takes the map of the London underground and replaces the station names with that of famous people - different professions per line. Its kinda brilliant and I've never seen it in poster form. woo hoo! I bought some books too (one on water systems in urban areas), but nothing super important.

I also talked to a planner for the area around Heathrow airport today, but who cares about airports right???

Hopefully, if I can get a new car out of the rental company, I'm off to Stonehenge/Land's End tomorrow and the Lake District tomorrow.

Driving

London, Wednesday Night
Took my first drive in a British car tonight. Driving on the other side of the road is absolutely mind-bending.
i wasn't too good at it, luckily all I did was drive up on a curb once. After that I got better, I think.
My hotel is located across the street from Heathrow, literally. Its amazing how close the planes come to my room... and how loud they are.

I'm really sleepy again today. Jet lag has really gotten the best of me.

Jacket

7:19 pm, Tuesday, Sept. 20th
Hilton Hotel, Schiphol Airport

In case you were wondering, I bought a jacket today at an H and M downtown. HandM was where I bought my corduroy jacket so it seemed only fitting. It's also corduroy, but a darker brown, and shaped more like a suit jacket.

It felt nice putting it on.

Fairy Tale Village

7:15 pm Tuesday, 20th
Hilton Hotel Schiphol Airport Room 301 (thanks T)

I mean come on...
Beautiful people, all getting around on bikes.
Stunning architecture, the likes of which you'll rarely if ever see in the US.
Perfect weather, and the most amazing transporation system (and airport) in the world.

Oh these dutch...

To put it succinctly, this place isn't fair. At some point I realized I wasn't taking too many pictures in Amsterdam, simply because it wasn't exactly like there was too much that stood out. It was all good. One takes photographs of highlights, but what is the whole thing is a highlight? Movies, I guess, but I don't have the hard drive space for it.

I just keep reminding myself that this country also rejected the EU constitution. Enlightened individuals they must all not be. They are probably kept away from the toursits.

It's been nice here. I'm glad I was only here for a few days, though. Like Barcelona, it seems this is the type of place you see for a day, or you stay for a month (or a year?). Anything in between and you don't really get that much of the place.

I don't know, something about it makes me think it's all a fake fairy tale village.

Corduroy

A moment of silence is necessary...

After three years of extraordinary service, I realized today that I left my corduroy jacket in Hong Kong.

From the blood stain on the collar, to the permanently rolled up sleeves, that jacket was a pretty special part of my life.

Now it's gone and its cold here in Holland.

:-(

It's Monday

Last post I wrote how I didn't know what day it was anymore (I really didn't).

Well, now I know because on Monday's EVERYTHING in Rotterdam is closed.

Well, not EVERYTHING, just everything I took the train down to see. Yup, Kunsthal, NAi, etc. All closed. I did get to see the West 8 plaza which was nice though.

This country is like a fairy tale village. More on that later.

Inertia

Today was an exercise in inertia. Three bars, 8 hours.
Just waiting to get to the airport at a reasonable hour since I was kicked out of my room at 2pm

One, an "english" pub in the hotel. 2.5 hours. Watched a football game (er, soccer) with something like 40 expats. Quite a good show.

Two, an outdoor bar overlooking The Palm as the sun set over the gulf. 2 hours

Three, The Skyview Bar at the Burj Al Arab. All I say was that my $40 beers were worth it. The view of Dubai at night was stunning. Who needs a drinking buddy when you can just stare at the most envious view in the city?

Me.

Off to Amsterdam and Week 3 of 3, with only 2.5 hours left till my 2:45 am flight.

All I can say about Dubai is that basically, either this place is going to be a ghost town in 15 years, or the Middle East's Manhattan. If Las Vegas thinks its gambling on its own future, it hasn't a chance in hell as compared to this place. While Vegas has one strip of skyscrapers. Dubai has at least three, (or was it four?). This place was absolutely nuts. I'm not really sure what to compare it to anymore.

I'm so sleepy, I have no idea what day it is anymore.

Into the Heart of the Empire...

At dinner tonight, I realized this simple equation...

1.5 days in Holland

equals

.5 at Schipol (for subsidizing trip)
.5 at Amsterdam (for requisite tourist experience)
.5 at Rotterdam (for Rem, Kunsthal, Kop van Zuid district)

A simple equation really.

In case you were wondering, it's that last part I'm excited about.

woo hoo

Dubai is like...

Dubai is like what would happen if Las Vegas REALLY let go of its inhibitions.

Dubai is like what would happen if architects acted out their fantasies, rather than their dreams.

Yeah, this place is pretty crazy. The downtown, old part of town is a nice little Arabic town. Its in the new part of town where things get cooking. My hotel is on a street/highway? that is lined with 40 or so towers (with more on the way). There is an inverted-Y shaped one, the tallest building in the Mideast, and nearly every color of glass imaginable.

Best part though, tomorrow I've got reservations for the bar at the top of the Burj al Arab, the world's only 7-star hotel. It's the one out on the island shaped like a sail.

But before that, I'm going to a bar that overlooks The Palm. Woo hoo. And with flight at 2 am tomorrow to boot!!!

temperature

And, it isn't that hot here. Now, mind you I didn't leave the hotel till 3 pm or so, but it wasn't too bad. Nothing like Hong Kong's drenching heat. I know you've heard it before, but its actually appropriate here being a desert and all... its a dry heat.

H K

2 days in Hong Kong and not a single moment at the aiport (yet). Today, I swear, I'm going, I promise.

All I can say about this place is that it makes we want to get home and play Sim City as soon as possible.

I think that's the highest honor I could give a place.

I just wish it was a bit less hot here right now.

Tomorrow, Dubai. Hong Kong will probably seem like the inside of an ice box by then.

Violent Interlude (part 1)

The rain poured into the narrow lanes of Insadong as night fell upon the city.

The district, a mish-mash of art galleries - looking like global architectural hiccups - and indescreet alleys filled with flourescant restaurants, was cut low that night due to the deluge, the death scream of a typhoon that nearly wiped out a chinese city you've never heard of and most likely never will visit.

The rice wine from dinner was doing its job perfectly as I was toured around one of Min Suk Cho's buildings. Cho, you should know, was the designer of the Dalki Theme Park. It was a fine building, one of those that architects design in school but never really get to build. But here, in the car wash rain in Seoul that night, it existed - if not so much in the flesh - at least in concrete.

On the edge of the buildings inner courtyard, a series of shops filled with art and jewelry lined a single outdoor ramp beginning at ground level and snaking its way to the top.

It was there, at the top, where I saw him.

Joshua had told me the architecture community was small and very close knit, but I didn't know this was what he meant. Cho himself, standing with a group of well-heeled architects, was in his very building. Looking proud, the only way I could put it.

My heart raced. He could tour around other architects but could not call me back with directions to Dalki???

I don't remember most of what happened after that, but according to others, it went something like this...

I ran up toward him, pushing aside the Prada-clad architects, pullled out my digital camera and let out a burst of flashes that nearly blinded Cho. As he grabbed for his eyes, I picked him up and ran with him all the way back down his single-ramped building. It looked a hell of a lot easier going down, even with the still-stunned Cho on my back.

As I reached the ground floor, i took off my jacket and tied Cho's hands behind his back with it. The rain had nearly emptied the main street outside except for a single taxi slightly down the block which I ran toward. I threw Cho in the back, locked both of his doors while I got into the front and commanded the taxi driver to start. We had a long journey ahead of us.

By this time, Cho began to emerge and I told him, calmly (according to the taxi driver) that he was going to take me to Dalki...

Airport Town

Oops, I almost forgot to talk about yesterday. The day in South Korea I actually did work.

Started off walking around the International Business Center, of which my hotel is a part. I was wrong, it isn't exactly like taking Century Boulevard and plopping it on an island near Seoul, its more like Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. For an area that is completely disconnected to EVERYWHERE else in the world, it has quite a well-designed public realm. The sidewalks, with street cafes and copius amounts of vegetation, would be respectable in any American city.

There are 7 12-story buildings lining one side of the street, with the other being taken up by the airport's headquarters building and a massive park. For whom this park, with basketball courts and soccer fields, was built for is anyone's guess. There isn't any housing here except for the hotels and I don't see too many tourist groups dropping their luggage to go play a game of soccer. To put it midly, it looks like an American planning firm didn't quite look at their context and actually thought they were building a new downtown in a city somewhere (god, I hope SOM didn't do this project or I'm toast) .

Maybe, years from now, when I return to see the Dalki Theme Park (see below) this place will be built out a bit, but I kinda doubt it. There is a hell of a lot of empty office space in those buildings. I went in a few of them and checked their directories. Most had like one or two tenants each. The retail building "Air Joy" next door even closed off a number of its floors because they weren't selling enough. It kinda makes me worry about this whole airport urbanism idea.

It is, however, amazing how successful the retail is on the street below. Or, should I say, that the entire ground floor area of every building is fully leased with retail uses. Now, most of them are convenience stores (I count five in the seven buildings), but there are also a good number of restaurants and bars. As to who actually frequents these places, that's anyone's guess. Though, I think i would come back again for the sweet potato sandwich I had today (again, see below).

My little International Business Center, however, isn't the only piece of urbanity grafted onto this airport island, for there is also Airport Town. Like Tung Chung in Hong Kong, this is the town built for all the workers at the airport. It is actually pretty large and, oddly enough, quite successful. One thing I haven't worked through yet is that the entire downtown area of the town looks like it could have come from any other major Asian city, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai. What I mean to say is that, though this was built maybe 5-10 years ago, it looks like its been there forever. I've never seen anything quite like it.

That being said, there are signs of its newness, the whole place does feel a bit dusty, like a Western boom town right after construction. But somehow, it doesn't feel too new, or too deadening, like most new projects do.

Of course, the downtown is surrounded by the requisite Corbusier-style towers in the park (however, due to its location, they can only reach 8 or so stories). Walking around them, though, they actually seem quite nice. The landscaping is at least somewhat maintained. I walked around as children were being let out of school and they all seemed happy.

What would have been really interesting is if they could have put the International Business Center into Airport Town. Then, we would definitely have something.

Or, perhaps, like alchemy, it would prove impossible.

After that, i went into Seoul, but I'll leave that for another posting... (Let's just say the subway system here rocks)

One last thing, last night for dinner I had sushi at the Hyatt next door. This Hyatt will forever be known as the record holder for my most expensive beer ever - $11 bucks (not including tip). Not to be outdone, I paid $110 for my hotel, The Best Western, to launder 8 shirts, a few pairs of socks and some underwear. Woo Hoo and I thought Dubai would be the expensive place.

English only

At some point during the trip, maybe it was when I was in Dallas, I decided not to speak any bit of the local language on the trip. Basically, I want to try to get by on facial expressions, finger pointing and English. When you're traveling alone spending half your time traipsing around airport towns and business parks you have to find some way to entertain yourself.

We'll see how long it lasts, but so far so good.

Dalki

That all being said, my dreams of seeing Cho/Slade's Dalki Theme Park were washed away today. Seems like the building is too far away in some part of the country no one can quite figure out how to send a lone English-only speaker to without risking an international incident.

I even contemplated hiring a driver to take me there, but no one could give me directions. I can't even find the damn place on a map.

Someday, though, I will see you Dalki Theme Park!

Running Game...

When your planning a whirlwind trip around the world you spend most of your time making sure fights don't change, hotels don't close, interviewees don't cancel. You know, fun stuff. One thing you never pay attention to is the weather. That is because the weather (or even thinking about it) will cause you to start second guessing yourself.

"Two days in Seoul seems like enough... But what if it rains???"

Well, that's what happened today.

Woke up early. Way too early. 5:00 in the morning early. And, like a good case of jetlag will do, I wasn't able to fall back to sleep. Turning on CNN and having the anchors freaking out about a major power outage wth unknown causes in LA didn't help all too much either. Went to the hotel's hillarious "fitness center" on the top floor at 7am, which basically consists of a few second-hand pieces of exercise equipment. That however, isn't the half of it. What makes the place far more unique is its entrance sequence (right through the large top-floor meeting space) and the golf practice tee next door. For the first time in at least 20 years, I've swung a golf club this morning (minigolf doesn't count), and it showed.

Came back in the room and realized it was raining. However, I didn't think it looked too bad. Went outside to begin my day in Seoul and, well, its a mess out there right now. And with that, decided Seoul wasn't going to happen at least for a couple more hours.

After that, I had a sweet potato sandwich at a little shop next door. Ham, sweet potato and cheese (i think). It was quite, quite yummy.

So, now I'm sitting in the hotel's "business center", which consists of two 5-year-old computers waiting for the maid to finish in my room. Really, today is an exercise in putting off boredom. Right now, boredom is winning handidly.

Luckily tomorrow is the trip to Hong Kong aka the place this trip was built around.

I just hope it doesn't rain.

incheon

I'm here in Incheon. 2:30 in the morning. went to bed at 11 pm and just woke straight up.
14 hours of sleeping/watching Mr. and Mr's Smith (same thing really) can do that to you, i guess.
Damn jet lag.
All I can say about Korea so far is that there are two channels devoted to video games in this country. and not just talking about them. kids, in front of hundreds of screaming fans, play video games against each other (with corporate sponsorship and play-by-play.) It's really fascinating. Well, at least at this hour of the night it is really fascinating.
My hotel is right next to the airport in what only I can describe as what would happen if you took Century Boulevard outside of LAX, removed everything else around it, and placed it on a man-made island off the Korean coast. There is basically a street of 12-story buildings, hotels and office buildings amongst them, that line one of the entrance roads into the airport. My hotel, the Best Western Premier Incheon, is one of them. I drove by the whole thing pretty late on a Sunday night but from what I can tell there was ground-floor retail and at least a few people walking around. Strange. Can't wait to see this place in the daylight.

My last day in Dallas was productive. I spent the morning driving around the Las Colinas development, located right next to DFW and one of the largest office/business parks in the US. For the most part, it was your average really really well landscaped business park, but it did have one really unique feature - the las colinas urban center. Seems the guy who developed it imagined he was not only creating a business park but a new center for the Metroplex.
Alright, fine, except his center consists of about ten 10-20-story buildings sitting around a lake. Not much urbanity really. But it does have the strangest thing I've ever seen in a suburban business park - a rapid transit system. Yep, the guy, who must have been richer than god, built a small single-car transit line between a series of the skyscrapers to make interactions more easy. It drives around every 10 minutes or so. Its actually kind of cute in a not-really-transit kind of way. There is also a small retail area around a canal off the lake. Not much retail activity anymore, but strange nonetheless. Basically, this thing must have been the bomb in 1985. Twenty years later, it looks a bit dated.

Nonetheless though Dallas' airport urbanism is basically a generation younger than Chicago's and, with that, a bit more planned. Not all that great on its own, but pretty interesting in the scheme of things.

I also went to see Dealy plaza in downtown chicago where Oliver Stone made one of his better movies. In case you were wondering, it looks just like it did in the movie. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left.

Also saw the Dallas Galleria which, I imagine, is a far cry from the Houston Galleria. But, in the end, it does have a skating rink on the ground floor of the mall, so who really can complain.

The flight to Incheon, all 14 hours of it, was a bit long. I'd really like to know why they don't offer to put people to sleep for flights like that ala Mr. T in the A-Team. I would probably be first in line. I did however get to fly into LAX today which means flying straight through the basin. I was dorking out identifying oil fields (or, at least there above-ground boundaries) as we descended. I wish I had more time so I could have stopped in LA and seen everybody there. Next time I guess.

Well, I'm going to try to get back to bed now...

Gold Digger

In case you were wondering, Kanye West's "Gold Digger" rocks. I hear that song like three times a day as I'm driving around and can't get enough of it. Definitely check it out.

Dallas #1

Maybe it's having the whole job situation dealt with, but i felt a lot more relaxed today than I have for the past couple days. Whatever the cause, I realized a lot of things today...

1) It was really fitting that I began the trip in Chicago.
While I wrote my Druker proposal at LAX, it was actually Chicago where the whole thing began. Three years ago, my girlfriend at the time and I were in Chicago visiting her brother during winter break. We had been fighting for something like three straight months over the phone and the trip wasn't all that different. On the last day, heading toward O'hare we got into another fight and sat silently driving toward the airport. Looking out the window I began to wonder what all the skyscrapers were doing around the aiport. Three days later we would break up. Three months later I would write my Druker proposal. Three years later I would be back in Chicago. It almost seems worth it now.

2) I have a car in England!
Maybe I should really be planning my time around Heathrow, but all of a sudden today I realized I had a car in England and a few days to spare. Suddenly, Heathrow, Gatwick and the Tate Modern have been expanded to include Bath, Stonehenge, Land's End, Oxford and the Lake District. I've never been so psyched in my life. I just hope I can pick up driving on the other side of the road or things could get interesting.

3) I have a guide-book problem
Upon realizing #2, I drove straight to the nearest Barnes and Noble (or was it Borders?) and purchased guidebooks for England, Holland, Hong Kong and Korea. It took like two hours for me to decide on which guidebook to get (Lonely planet? Fodors? Both?) Big thanks go out to Rick (HKG), Tom (AMS), and Joshua (ICN) for all their travel suggestions. I've spent the last five hours reading guidebooks. Woo hoo!

As you could probably imagine, today was an "off day" regarding airports. I drove to the "cultural district" in Fort Worth and saw the Kimball Museum and Ando's Museum of Modern Art. The light in the Kimball really was great, but the quiche in their restaurant was amazing. Can't really explain it yet, but there is something about those two museums being right next to one another. Yin and Yang or something.

In airport news, I head off to the Las Colinas busines park (across the street from my hotel) and the DFW business center tomorrow. If I have time I'm driving down to the Texas Book Depository and the Dallas Galleria. And then I'm off to Korea...

Pink Smoke

Back at Starbucks again...

I just accepted an offer of employment at SOM New York as an urban planner/designer.

I'm off to Dallas in an hour or two.

My computer has no battery power left.

Will write more later...

Starbucks saved my life

Ahh! Starbucks. After two days of being offline, I finally found you!
It is sad, but it is far easier to find wireless access in China than it is in the US. But, thanks to the miracle of Starbucks I was able to finally get back online. phew.
First off, on the way through security, I was stopped for the full security check. Seems single males traveling alone around the world are some sort of security risk.
Got in to Chicago and drove straight down to IIT to see the Koolhaas student center which was absolutely amazing. Milennium Park downtown was pretty neat and, without fail, I bumped into a former GSD student. Yun, who was an March II a few years back. Walked around the park a bit and then headed back to the suburban wasteland that is my hotel. Every 4 minutes a plane landing at O'Hare flies over the building and everything shakes. This trip is real, kid!
Found a Barnes and Noble (or was it a Borders?) in Schaumburg and bought travel guides for seoul and HK, and a map for Chicago.
The map was the most interesting thing, seems O'Hare cuts through something like three counties, 8 cities and a mess of unincorporated territory. Basically, it is impossible to "see" the area around O'Hare as anything. I drive around flipping through 8 different pages of the map just to get around one side of the airport.
Started driving around the area yesterday morning. The west side of O'hare is completely industrial with hundreds of small little industrial concerns. Industrial manufacturers, food distributors, everything and anything. All of them have a truck depot and it seems all of them ship through the airport.
Snuck into the airport shipping area, where all of the airlines place cargo onto the planes. 24-hours a day, the place is hopping.
Maybe its me, but there sure is a heck of a lot of security around this place. Driving around the airport alone with little reason to be somewhere taking pictures with security vans in back of you can sure make one paranoid.
The east side is the most interesting though. There are convention centers, John Portman buildings, arenas, office buildings. Basically, anything you could find in downtown Atlanta is here, sitting by the highway, in the open areas of the O'hare flight paths. Amazing.
Well, I should head back out there, luckily its Labor Day and so the place isn't too crowded. Talk to you all soon. I head out to Dallas on Wednesday. Talk to you all then.

Other observations -
The area around O'Hare is huge. Well, not really.
Looking through my map book I found a maps of downtown and the airport to scale. The airport dwarfs The Loop. In a big way, too. Luckily, though, driving around the whole thing only takes an hour or two. I think I can photograph the whole thing in a day or two.

Traveling alone, especially in the suburbs of O'Hare, is boring.
Luckily everyone seems to be really nice here. I've had waitresses, the staff at Borders, random people on the street, etc strike up conversations with me. I think its a midwestern thing, but its nice nonetheless.

There is a hell of a lot of meat in Chicago.
Every restaurant is a different combination of meat. My favorite was Steak n' Shake because, you know, the steak isn't enough to kill you, you have to add sccops of ice cream to really do yourself in.

Test

Honestly, if you've made it here and your last name isn't Ruchala, you probably have way too much time on your hands. Back to work with you!
Just Kidding.
But it is a holiday weekend, at least go outside for a bit.