HEY!!! I'm Back!

Hi guys!! :) I'm back blogging again! Today is Friday, and this weekend Justin and I aren't traveling anywhere except for a day trip tomorrow. I'm so excited about it. I was really glad to have a day here where I could get up without needing to go somewhere. I stayed up at the Pab most of the day, and worked on my paper, ate lunch with Justin, and wrote some letters and postcards.

I'm also excited because later Justin and I walked down to the lake for a break and we had a nice talk. Then we came back and got to eat a real dinner instead of a bag dinner, (long story), then I got some plans worked out and got some free clothes from people who have too much stuff to take it all back. Yay! :) Oh, and I got a great pair of shoes from my roommate, too. Thanks Stevie!

Yeah, and I have a lot to do on my paper still, but I'm really glad about how smoothly it's going.

And I'm excited to be coming home soon. I get pumped up thinking about it. :)

So... tonight's feature. European angles. I don't remember if I've talked about this before, but Europeans feel no obligation like Americans do to work in right angles. Around here you will see many houses with kind of oblique angles here or there, or even apartment buildings with odd-angled corners. This is more common in older cities. Europeans also use odd angles at their road intersections. Sometimes this means several roads intersect at one point instead of our usual four or maybe five; incidentally, the roads crossing to the other side often change names on the other side, which makes navigating by map difficult. Having many roads intersecting in one place necessarily makes the traffic and the shape of the intersection itself different as well. Back to angles, often in an old city, you can stand on a street and look across at some building facing you and see both the left and right sides of the building at once, because the building has a narrow front but slopes out from both corners to be wider at the back. It seems kind of strange to see both sides at the same time and to see buildings so narrow. This usually happens at one of those places where the streets also intersect oddly, such that the shape of the building matches the shape that the roads make. Smart.

Well, it's nice to be back with you all. I look forward to seeing you all again in person. :)
Love,
me.

posted by LizC @ 4/22/2005 01:39:00 PM