Chapter I: Dublin, Ireland

I decided to document our trip on vidcam (vlog), just as something new that I haven't done before and have always wanted to try. The experience was incredibly interesting and rewarding. It let me see my friends from a completely different (and good) perspective. Feel free to check it out on my YouTube channel: YouTube.com/TheStaNg81

Now for the photos :-)

Allllllrighty! Our first stop coming from Miami was Dublin. That's in Ireland for the geographically challenged ;-) Up top the big smoke was the Spire of Dublin standing tall on O'Connell Street.

My first frozen lake! Unfortunately, I can't recall which park this is...someone help remember!

Charming name.

Dinner time rolled around, and we had our first round of Guinness and consequently felt very Irish. Lord knows we laughed up a storm after a few drinks. Great night or GREATEST night?

Oh yeah.

The restaurant was near a port which we galavanted around as the sun dipped beneath the horizon.

Um, be careful.

From left to right: Myself, Susie, Dylan, Nikki, Alex

Dearest Dylan found a cool piece of driftwood...

...while I tried to fly. Driftwood wins.

3

There are three topics I would like to discuss beginning today. One has already begun: getting into graduate school. Second, my cousin recently posted a Facebook status that was quite accusatory, and I'd like to discuss it. Finally, it is time to slowly, but fully...ish, document and share my six months abroad in both Europe and China.

Grad School - Statement of Objectives

I'm trying to get words out for my Statement of Objectives and it. is. difficult. Very difficult. Ever since I made the decision to leave architecture and pursue engineering, I haven't stopped coming up with reasons why. There are countless reasons and I'm finding it a challenge to one, recall all of those reasons and two, produce a coherent essay. And ON TOP of that, I'll surely be writing and re-writing it a few times.

Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll be able to post it (or a draft of it) when I'm done.

Stay true friends,

Stan

A Dance With The Graduate Record Exam

Well here we are on the other side. Here's a rather terse description of my GRE:

Analytical Writing is likened to unrequited love.

Verbal can suck it.

I'll go to bed with Quantitative any night.

Oh, and the current temporary scoring system is just downright frustrating.

All in all, I'm happy with my performance. Good luck to anyone else taking the new exam! (And I hope you're studying from the Revised study books. The ordinary ones won't do you enough good.)

Stan

GRE Day

It's Judgment Day, a.k.a. GRE day under the bipolar geo-gas. Testing begins at 1:30pm and I am far from prepared for the vocabulary I'm about to face.

Dear me...see you on the other side.

Stan

Juxtaposition

This is a screen cap of my Tumblr page. It struck me as I saw these images one after the other. The first is a post from a friend while the second is from actress Allison Mack.

Click to enlarge.

What we face and what we hope for.

Stan

Having A Coke With You

I'm in no way, shape or form in love with anyone, but I do like this poem by Frank O'Hara.

---

HAVING A COKE WITH YOU
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

—Frank O’Hara