Blog conitnued

Evidently I take a lot of photos. And when I take a lot of photos I post a lot of photos and it turns out I've run out of photo storage room on blogspot. So instead of paying money for more storage, I decided to start a new blog. But essentially, it's the same blog - it's just the continuation of this blog!!

The stories continue at:

www.jlbeggs2.blogspot.com

=) 

Model made the website =)

My model made the LEVS website! Click HERE to see the project details, and 2 photos of the model I recently finished for the Lieven de Key project in Utrecht, Holland.

I got a cheap haircut (trim really) last night. In fact, I already had the scissors, so essentially, it was free. Why pay for haircuts when you can do them yourself at home?! I even attempted layers. I wasn't too daring though. Next time, perhaps I'll go for a mohawk.

Laura and Adrienne are heading to Amsterdam in a couple hours. Busy weekend ahead - probably won't be able to blog for a couple days. Until then... ciao!

We Remember

 Remembrance day, a day dedicated to honour sacrifice. 

The Netherlands doesn't celebrate Remembrance day. However I was reading on CBC News about the strong relationship Canada has with Holland from the WWII. 

 

The Canadian Army went on to play a significant part in the liberation of the Netherlands, which ended in 1945. The Dutch, having suffered through an extremely harsh winter, enthusiastically greeted the Canadians and forged a strong friendship between the two countries that lasts to this day. [CBC News]

In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year. [Wikipedia]

On my grade 8 grad trip to Ottawa we visited the Parliament buildings and saw the tulips that Holland sends Canada every year and learned about the background behind that tradition. Amsterdam is nice, but I grew up in Canada, and am so proud to call myself Canadian. My mom emailed me this article a few weeks ago - I feel it sums up the Canadian spirit so well. 

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You probably missed it in the local news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had advertised in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed a Canadian - any Canadian.. 

An Australian dentist wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is, so they would know one when they found one. 
    
A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German,  Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican,  African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan. A Canadian may also be a Cree, Métis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians.  A Canadian's religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim,  Hindu or none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. 
    
A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognize the right of each  person to the pursuit of happiness. 

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds.  

But they also welcome the least -  the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected. 
    
These are the people who built Canada . You can try to kill a Canadian if you must as other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world have tried but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbour. This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place.  They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian. 

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I am so proud to be Canadian.

I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful... I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful... I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful... [Bob Wiley]

Today was a good day - I've started a proposal for signage design for a building and parking lot of a current project. It's a nice break from making models. I "watched" (listened to) two movies on youtube while I was working in photoshop today - What About Bob and Pretty Woman (Bob - the movie, not the hostel, thank goodness). I know both movies off by heart so I was able to listen to them without watching. I don't think my boss would be too happy if he walked by and saw me watching movies during work hours. I listen to movies all the time while working in studio at school. Helps me focus. It's all good - unless you burst out  laughing and draw attention from your co-workers. What About Bob is a funny movie. It's hard not to laugh!

Bob Wiley: What are we doing?

Dr. Leo Marvin: Death Therapy, Bob. It's a guaranteed cure.

=)

Tomorrow LAURA and ADRIENNE are hitting Amsterdam and we see Cirque du Soleil Saturday night!!!!!!

Don't sink the 8 ball

Pool Night with Stefania!! I'm no good at pool but I won a couple games by fluke. I was also doing pretty well on our last game until I sunk the 8 ball. Oups.

Here's a model that I finished today. It's the "correct" and "more complete" version of one I posted a while back. After some tangents and working on other things, I finally finished this model. It's going on some project board that LEVS is showing at a presentation later this week.

I would like to make one random note: on my way to church on Sunday I brought my paper that needed recycling with me and to my surprise, I found that those puny recycling bins are not sitting on the ground but are covering a hole that is a mile deep! I dropped my papers in them and I could hardly even see the bottom of the bin. It reminded me of this image that was on a poster I saw once at a chiropractor's office (their poster was describing how big health problems are often hidden): *image from google*

Happy Tuesday! =)

Prague Numero 2

Prague Numero 2!!!

Friday afternoon Monika wasn't feeling well so Adrienne and I took on Prague on our own. We did it all - we got lost, we wandered, we visited Old Town Square, we ate, we shopped, we walked up the short, chubby version of the Eiffel Tower and we ended the day with a nice dinner with Monika and Vaclav.

This was at Old Town Square - St. Nicholas Church

Inside the church

Here's a short video - a feel of the church

This is the Prague Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square

 

This is the clock doing it's thang - does it every hour. The clock recently celebrated its 600th anniversary just 3 weeks ago.

Adrienne and I with our gelato =)

Here is a short chubby version of the Eiffel Tower. Prague has a tower that looks like the CN Tower as well.

Sort of looks like the Eiffel Tower... ish

Overlooking Prague from the top of the short chubby Eiffel Tower!

 Adrienne and I trying Hot Wine... Monika recommended it.

Here's Adrienne trying hot wine - her face at the beginning is priceless =)

Friday night we met up with Monika and Vaclav for dinner for dinner. We had to go restaurant hunting to find one that wasn't full - this was one potential. Unfortunately it was full. But it was really cool because it had BOWLING inside the restaurant! 

Monika and her boyfriend Vaclav at Back Doors, where we ate dinner

Adrienne and my Czech dinner (and our cocktails at the top of the photo)

The wonderful breakfast Monika made me Saturday morning - I tried to write PRAHA in the Maple Syrup that Monika brought back with her from Canada (if you can read the PRAHA, you have very very good interpretive reading skills!)

Monika and I outside her parents' house on my last day in Prague

This is at Vysehrad; the place where Prague was originally founded

Overlooking Prague

This picture took skills - the camera was balanced on a fence and I had to put it on 10 second timer and run down a set of stairs, over to the wall, hop onto the wall and pose for the picture. This shot actually 2 tries - not because I wasn't fast enough the first time, but because the first time I crossed over the wrong leg =P

 Back in Amsterdam! I flew with easyJet . Everything on the plane was orange - the attendants' clothes, the seat covers, the magazines, even the trash bag was orange!

 After I landed in Amsterdam, Jaewoo surprised me by meeting me at the airport and we quickly headed home then to MuseumNacht (Museum Night) where 45 museums in Amsterdam were open to the public with drinks and dancing music from 8pm - 6am!! We didn't stay out until 6am though!

The first "museum" we visited was the zoo in the dark!! We couldn't really see much, but our tour guide shared some really interesting facts about Artis Zoo. It is a very small zoo - it is in the middle of the city and is limited in space. However they have some cool animals - here is a vulture. I love the creepy look - it suits the vulture!

This is in the aquarium of the Artis Zoo

This is inside the Van Gogh museum - there were cocktails, dancing and even live music!

This is what is believed to have been the last painting painted by Van Gogh

And now I'm back in Amsterdam. Had a quiet day on Sunday after my 4 full days in Prague - went to church in the morning. Still loving the fact that I can understand the English Mass. I've missed being able to sing along. Laundry is almost done. Next weekend 5 of us are seeing Cirque du Soleil Totem. I've heard great reviews about the show.

Some exciting news from work today: LEVS Architecten has been nominated for the Dutch Architect of the Year Award 2010! There are two finalists in our category and we're one of them! Click HERE to view the announcement. It's in Dutch, so unless you understand the article, you may have to google translate the text if you wish to read through it.

Six weeks tomorrow I fly home... I have a lot to do in the next month and a half =)

Prague Numero 1

My Journey to Prague (Praha is the proper, Czech name) started off at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport... where apparently they're already all decked out for Christmas - tinsel everywhere, decorations and of course, Christmas trees. Little early, no?! Kim Milanes tells me the Eatons Centre is already all decked out for Christmas as well. I feel stores switch over to the Christmas theme earlier and earlier every year!

Wednesday night pizza!!

Once Adrienne joined us in Prague Thursday afternoon, Monika showed us her university. This is the Narodni Technicka Knihovna (National Technical Library) beside the building with the architecture program.

Inside the library - there are funny drawings drawns around the atrium space in the middle of the library.

Such as these (click on the photos for larger picture):

This is how I often feel at school... tied to my computer:

  Here's the atrium of Monika's school. The building is 14 floors high - that's a little taller than our 3 level School of Architecture in Cambridge.

Monika and Adrienne in front of the library =)

 Adrienne, Monika and I went for lunch to have some traditional Czech food. Dumplings and some sort of meat (I forget) but it was very tasty!!! And we tried Czech beer (it was huge)...

...and I finished the entire thing!!

 Monika and I

In front of Prague Castle (where the President lives)

Monika and I inside the grounds of Prague Castle

View of  Praha

Changing of the guards at Prague Castle

At Prague Castle

The Dancing House by Frank Gehry

Malostranska Metro Station

Lentilky Chocolates - they taste similar to smarties, but are about double the size and are not quite as good!

 Tough biker bear... hahaha... had to laugh!!

 Prague Numero 2 to be posted tomorrow!! =)