The new semester is already underway, I feel like my holiday break went by way too quick.

My new class schedule is great. All of my classes deal with topics in Urbanism, which I've gotten really interested in for my possible thesis topics.( Cairo, Istanbul, the cities of China, Florence, Rome, Venice, and art of the city..) My thesis topic is still up in the air, and while I'm beginning to worry about it, I'm shifting my focus to my classes as a way to keep it out of my mind, and now the mass quantity of reading begins.. I can only imagine how many trees I've slaughtered since I've started grad. school, and I can't even begin to think about the whole time I've been in school altogether.

On a much darker note-

I must also mention that two years ago today I woke up from surgery in Barcelona. I woke up in a place far away, in a lot of pain, with no one to talk to. I cried out a lot in French and English, and in the only drastic phrases I could recall from high school spanish class "Oh my god!" and "I have pain!"

I had tubes sticking out of my nose, which extended into my throat making it not only hard to speak, but also hard to breath. The tubes extended down my throat and into my stomach. I also had drainage tubes coming out of my three open stomach incisions, which were held together by either staples or stitches or a combination of both. There were tubes out of my penis, which drained my urine as I was unable to move from my bed., I was a mess. It was the most uncomfortable I've e

ver been in my life, and nothing gave me hope, or made me want to live. Panic was a regular expression for two solid days, or three, or four... I eventually was medicated into calm, which made my mind and body become more stable and to heal..

After my critical state, I was moved to room on a higher floor. The hospital was in the middle of the city, and even though I didn't have a good view of my surrounds. I eventually was able to walk to windows that enabled me to see the buildings and urban fabric. The window in my room only revealed more windows. I must have sketched them a hundred times in my sketchbook, which I also wrote in.

" Eventually I'll stop remembering the smells of the building, and the smells of the equipment used here, and the I.V. pole in my hand. Eventually I'll stop waking up with night terrors with my experience in mind, only to realize it is my reality. Eventually I'll forget the names of nurses, doctors, and fellow patients..... I'll forget the materials that made up the space and the details of my regimental daily routines for . Eventually I'll forget Gaudi, Picasso, and Dali. I will however never stop thinking about the architecture or the experience I'm having here, and if there was someone to tell other than this sketchbook I'd probably have no need for this pen that I begged the nurses station downstairs for. The tiles are cold tonight on my bare feet, and 'football' is on almost every t.v. on the floor." My sketchbook from Barcelona.

I'm uploading a video I made from my mom's cell phone. This was week five of being in a hospital. I am in Marseilles when I filmed this, my mom had just arrived, and my spirits were high.

Aside from learning medical jargon in three different languages, finding a new allergy(which almost killed me in a bad IV incident LOL), I also could not watch my favorite tv show of all time anymore. Grey's Anatomy. (Iheard it wasn't worth my time after George left anyways.)

This semester and this next year of my work in graduate school is goingto shape my professional career a lot more than the rest of my schooling. My written thesis will shape what my focus is and who and what I work with in the future. While my travel to Europe was the worst experience and best experience in my life, I want to go further.. I want to learn more than the social and architectural conditions of the western world. I have decided to focus beyond the stereotypical European study and look into the Middle East or Northern Africa for my focus. Now the work begins.