Final Thoughts

Brantome:


The Image above is my favorite from the whole trip, i know you have seen it before but after i browsed my 4,998 photos in 56 files i kept returning to this image as my fave. my second favorite is this one:
Rain Rose


My Favorite day was obviously the Hard Rock London when i got to hold Gene Simmons Bass:


After spending a week back in Kansas, half of which i was in Wichita with my family and the other half i was home in Manhattan i have had time to reflect on my experience and journeys over the past month.

First I will give you a rundown of traveling home:

The night before we all hung out and had fun goofing around, after a bit I gave in and went to bed to that I would get up at 7 am, I already had all my bags packed so all I would have to do it hop up and put shoes on. I set up my wake up call for 645 a.m. so that I would be downstairs at 7 am as planned. Well the next morning the phone rang and I was expecting it to be the wake up call, and I heard Armon's voice telling me it s 7 am and they are heading to the underground station. I was like CRAP and put my shoes on and headed down stairs, where I ran in to abbey and told her bye and to have fun because she was staying an extra week in London. I rounded the corner and saw Easton and Dani and told them bye and ran to catch up with armon and the group. Jen had already left for Scotland so I didn't get to say bye to her. We got to the subway got our one way pass and hopped on to get to Paddington station to take the Heathrow express to the airport to head home. Once we arrived at Paddington we had to get our passes stamped and get on the train. Kacie and Matt where first in line so the caught the first train and the rest of us had to take the next train. We got to the airport, got checked in and dropped of our check bags and got our passports stamped again and headed to the gate. Somewhere in the process Hanna and I got separated from Jeremy and armon then I got separated from Hanna so I got to the gate solo and discovered Kacie and Matt. Shortly after Hanna and Jeremy showed up and later Armon. Soon we where boarding the plane and getting settled. We were in the middle section again, but this time there where TV screens in the head rests and you could choose movies to watch or games to play. So I watched Valentine’s Day, when in Rome, Extraordinary Measures, Percy Jackson the lighting thief and finished with bride wars and next thing I knew we was landing in Chicago. Where I had a 6 hour layover before my flight home and everyone else had like a 2 or 3 hour layover, once we got through customs and got our check in bags re-checked and allowed back in the country and to TSA to go through to our final gates to head home. I mostly sat at my gate and read a book until it was time to board. Then it was a quick 2 hour flight home where once we landed and I got off the plane, my duffle bag strap broke! WTF? Lol so I literally had to DRAG it through the airport in ICT and after I passed security again I looked upon a familiar sight of my stepdad and with him my mom and finally maw maw. It was so good to see them again. I spent a few days at home with them and came back to Manhattan on Thursday and surprised josh. I rode up with Maw Maw who was heading to KC to see her BF Donna. Walking in the door and seeing my hubby and babies was better than anything I can describe or imagine. My babies have been snuggling me nonstop since I have been home.

Like I said now that I am home and have had time to reflect I had a great experience. For the most part I had a great time! I got to experience things that I thought I would only dream about! It was a whirl wind trip, something new every day. I am sure that as I get older I will appreciate my experience more. But as of right now I know that I am one of ten lucky people who got to go and have a great time. I appreciate Armon organizing and creating this class. I am a very visual learner and getting to see the places that I have been reading about helped bring it all together. I have experienced and seen things I thought I would never get to see, Stonehenge, Eiffel tower, London, The Louvre and Mona Lisa and other things I can’t think of right now. During this trip I have been able to mark a lot off my "bucket list" and I have had to rearrange my list so now in my top five is: Pyramids of Giza, Las Vegas Strip by night, Rome to see the Coliseum, see the blue coastal waters off Miami, and Mount Rushmore.

Anyway I mostly wanted to say how much I enjoyed the overall experience, and things I got to do. Yes there where bumps here and there, but nothing can go smoothly all the time and I think for the most part all the pain and heartache was worth it to have this once in a life time experience.

Next up is getting my assignment together for the class. Armon rented a gallery to have a showing of all our projects together. I am nervous because I have never had my work publicly displayed. I am not even totally comfortable showing it to my friends and family let alone have it in the same room as my peers. Some of them are way better than I am. I think mostly because they have the instincts that I do not, I still try to evaluate everything in a scientific way instead of letting my instincts take over. Something personal I have to work on and I will over time.

This is the last official post for this blog but I will keep it active so that I can reflect on my experience and so that future groups who get to go on this trip can read it and see what we did and how much fun it was. I hope that one day I will get to go back to Europe and experience it with my husband cuz I think that I I will have a much better time with my family and loved ones.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with me over this last month and leaving comments! I enjoyed reading them while I was gone it helped keep me from getting home sick.
Love,
Natasha

Last Day

June 19th - Saturday - Day 27

Final day in london. in europe. away from my family. its bittersweet that this trip is over, i mean i have had a ton of fun and dont want it to end, but at the same time i am beyond ready to be home.

today is a free day and i choose to pack, guess what? i dont have to leave anything behind! i was able to get everything in my suitcase and our duffle bag, and a few things in my back pack but thats why i brought it :)

After breakfast and crit i went to lilly whites with armon and abbey. NIGHTMARE! so many people i as ready to start screaming, of course they where having a major sale like you could get a LARGE suitcase for like 10 pounds so it was a good sale and worth it if i wanted anything other than new head phones! lol. after i left i explored on my own. I wrode the tube to King Cross and went to the harry potter platform and got a few cool shots.

i tried to go to White Chapel but the tube was shut down on that line, and the bus fair was to expensive so i didnt go :( sad face i know. but i just kept exploring and went to Hammersmith district and inquired about prices for tats and body peircings...too expensive. i asked him how much a black ink only tat smaller than my butterfly and he said 60 pounds, conversion rate? 90 bucks! i said um no and just walked around the neighboorhood a little bit then came back to the hotel. we are all going out for dinner, sort of a last supper if you will (per Hanna's metaphor) and get the details for leaving in the morning.

Keep an eye out in the near future as i will write one last final blog about my travels home and my reflection of my trip. I will post it on FB once it is finished :)

love, 
Natasha

Gallery

June 18th - Friday - Day 26

This morning has started slow. We all went to breakfast where i discovered that Jen's hotel room is infested with bed bugs, she looks like she is 5 and has the chicken pox! they looked up bed bugs online and hopped over to the pharmacists for conformation. so she is getting a whole new room and has to get a new luggage and everything!

I cant believe i only have 2 days left on this trip! it went by so fast, and it was mostly amazing! i just wish my husband has been there with me all they way. I know that someday he and i will get the chance to travel Europe, at least i hope so. we are getting ready to meet together for one last group discussion on the history of photo and a crit before we go to a photo gallery.
well the gallery was neat. its was sort of a lifes work of Sally Mann. very interesting stuff, then we went to a showing off liver pool street. it was an exhibition of a local art schools, basically a mass aBFA show called Raw 9, it all was very interesting. i bought the exhibition book that had artisit's statements in it, which i have very much enjoyed reading. after the showing i walked solo to the hotel ran in to armon on the subway, kind crazy lol. anyway i got back to earl's court and decided to go to the gormet burger company for my dinner adn man it was yummy! now time for me to pack a bit and get to bed tomorrow is the last day and i want to walk around some more :)

Love,
Natasha

Tate and Tate

June 17th - Thursday - Day 25

Happy Birthday to my lil puggie butt Monkey Face, yesterday was his 6th birthday.
Tate and Tate. we went to the Tate Britain this morning and looked around, i went to a few of the galleries and then sat outside for the rest of the time, and the door i went out of to chill had a huge camera crew and people and make up artists and a big red bus. so i sat down and started crowd watching and girls where going crazy for a few of the guys and getting photos taken with one of them and autographs from others. but i didn't recognize the guys, so i asked some girl who was sitting near me and he is a celebrity here in Britain. and they are filming a movie, but she didn't know the title so i think when i get back i am going to look it up.

once the group got done with the museum, we walked to the Pier and hopped on the ferry to the next Tate museum. the ferry was pretty cool, quick smooth ride, and i got some cool shots from the sides of the boat! once we arrived at the opposite Pier we went and ate at pizza express, had some yummy food. then we went to the Tate modern.

At the Tate Modern there was an exhibition called Exposed which gave a look into Voyeurism, Surveillance and paparazzi shots, not nasty dirty images. they took photos from history where the subject wasn't photographed knowling or they where not posed to have their photo taken. Photographers like Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Weegee, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and Man Ray just to name a few. All photographers i learned about in my history class in the spring.
after i finished with that exhibit i walked down stairs and went to the Surrealism gallery and saw DALI and Picasso! very excited about that, and i got photos of them. photos where not allowed in most of the galleries, but i snuck a few in :) then i came back to the hotel to soak my feet in cold water, it felt good on my ankle. now we are just killing time waiting for dinner time :)

Love, 
Natasha

Stonehenge

June 16th - Wednesday - Day 24

this morning we got up earlyish and saw the changing of the guards at the palace, it was pretty neat. i video taped the ending cuz i walk slow after the insident with my ankle, so i got there late :( but it was really cool, i am going to try to go again and get a good spot and take pictures as well.

Stonehenge. word of advice, it looks exactly the same on tv or in photos, and sure you dont feel the magic when looking at it in 2d, but guess what? it wasnt any better in 3d, sure it was great. very awesome to see one of the 8 wonders of the world, but it felt to touristy. and it felt like all the magic has been drained. maybe it was just to surreal for me or something. i think it is pretty important that we went, but i almost would have rather kept the mystery alive and not seen it for my self. on the up side the bus ride there and back was pretty good, i got 2 very good naps in :) after we returned from stonehenge we all went to our rooms to chill, at 8 i went down to jen's room to get her phone and see what dinner plans where and no one was there, i check the other rooms and NO one! those bitches went to dinner without me! WTF? i am so beyond glad to be going home soon i am tried of feeling this way. Count Down is 4 dayz!

Love,
Natasha

Gallery Hopper

June 15th - Tuesday - Day 23

omz i have never walked so much! we gallery hopped today. pretty awesome, we went to like 7 or 8 different galleries and some of it was pretty neat and some of it the art work was like wtf? how is this art? i would have really like to read the artist statements on some of it. but i did see one exhibit in the white cube that caught my curiosity, he was a sculptor and he toyed with race and sexuality. he did huge sculptures of Micheal Jackson's head and hand, and one set was white and black and the other was an exact mirror image in black and white. i wish i could have taken photos. his other works was sculptors of the pregnant man, Pamela Anderson, and the porn couple that looks like one sex but they have the equipment of the opposite sex, and he casted them in bronze and brass. finally he did a head sculptor of the 'cat' man, the one of the guy who has tattoos and whiskers so he looks like a cat, you have seen him on Ripley's believe it or not. he also had paintings on the walls that where very colorful and at first glance they just looked like flowers and what not but if you got close enough and really looked, guess what? lol. no one else liked the exhibit, and maybe i am a perv but i thought it was a very interesting subject for him to take interest in and his spin on the subject was very interesting. i will find out his name so you can look up his work. tomorrow is STONEHENGE!!!

Love,
Natasha

Das Mummy

June 14th - Monday - Day 22

Oh Mummies!!! Today was the British Museum and i basicly spend my entire time in the egypition exibits. it was so awesome to see all the artifacts. I saw the rosetta stone, and it was pretty awesome. i took a lot of photos, over 300 i think. pretty awesome day. after the museum a few of us went in search of the toy museum, which turned out to be really small and basicly housed toys from thee 1800's and early 1900's. we thought it was goign to be an interactive museum with like the history of toys. but jen was the only one to go in, and she got some cool doll house shots. while we waited for jen we talked to Cafe Nero and had a drink, i had a mango and passion fruit icee thingy that was really really good. after jen was done we went to this huge department store called Harrods, which is apparently a pretty big deal, it was neat they had basicly everything you could think of, but all in high end name brands like Prada. i got some coffee for mom and maw maw and some dog treats for all the puggies :)

Love,
natasha

Just Beachy

June 12th - Saturday - Day 20

Everyday you learn something new. well today i learned that England doesn't have sandy beaches. they have rocky ones. and the water is COLD but clear, and it was awesome! if you couldn't guess we went to the beach today. well we traveled south to Portsmouth Harbor and took a Ferry to the Isle of Wight to visit the Dimbola Lodge in Freshwater. 2 fun facts about this Isle, one is that Jimi Hendrix played his last UK gig at the Isle of Wright Festival in 1970, a fortnight before he passed on, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of his death. and the Dimbola Lodge had a statue of the rock star in the front strikeing his usual pose with a guitar. The Dimbola Lodge is the home of the late Julia Margaret Cameron, who was the first female photographer and one of the firsts to use it as a fine art medium in stead of a documentary tool. She got her first camera at the age of 48 for her birthday from her kids, and almost instantly fell in love. We went to the Dimbola to see some of her work, where she lived and her darkroom.

After we visited and had some lunch, where i broke a chair go me, i walked down to the beach to put my toes in the water. and it was so cold! but cool! i collected some rocks and one sea shell from the beach. we took some photos and goofed around. after we got on the bus and headed back to the ferry. I realized that on this trip we have ridden in every type of mass transportation possible, Planes, train, trams, subways, vans, taxi cars, bus, double becker bus and now ferries! lol.

over all we had a great day! my feet are killing me and my ankle is so swollen but i chugged lots of water so i hope that helps. we will see! tomorrow is a free day again and i think i am going to go to white chapel and walk around on the same streets that jack killed his victims i might take a walking tour, we will see :)

Love,
Natasha

All by myself

June 11th - Friday - Day 19

Wow i cant believe we only have 10 days left here! its almost sad! last night the group came in the room informing me that we are drinking across the hall, so i joined and omg. very interesting. we met Hanna's alter ego Pearl and she dubbed one of the other girls drunk side as Stella, then it was Ruby Stella, it was comical. finally we convinced Hanna that she needed to put pearl to bed so she went down stairs to Jen's room to crash. she was a mess. after she left the party fizzed out so i went to bed officially and slept pretty good for once. Got up this morning and had breakfast again super yummy! i enjoy their cereal and juice a lot, i really do.

after breakfast we all met in Jen's room and tried to plan the day and everything they was planning didn't sound interesting to me so i went off on my own and saw the natural history museum and the London aquarium and walked around. while walking around i saw a lady sitting with her pug and my heart jumped. i walked over to her and asked if i could pet him and she let me, i ended up talking to her about pugs for like an hour! her family has had pugs forever, she remembers her grandmother having a pug! his name was Elvis and he was sooo sweet! looked like snotzy but not as floppy. my battery died on my camera so i didn't get a picture of him :(

the history museum was awesome they had a blue whale skeleton, an adolescent not full grown adult, but he will still huge! they also had some really cool geological exhibits and they had this maniacal t-Rex that was so realistic he was frightening! a few of the kid started screaming and where scared to death to go near it. i video taped some of it. he was neat.

the aquarium was interesting, pretty standard stuff but they had the walk way that was all glass and you could walk over the shark tank! and they had a place where you could pet star fish and other annemities and they had a ray tank and a few of the rays where flirtatious they was funny. i taped them too. now that i am back i am icing my ankle and sleeping we had a huge day tomorrow!
Love,
Natasha

Did that really happen?

Photo Below

June 10th - Thursday - Day 18

today has been by far the best day of this trip. nothing can ever top what i did today. You want to know dont ya? wel i will start with the morning and dont you dare scroll down to find out! I woke up around 930 to go down stairs for breakfast with the group then i skyped with josh for about an hour. it was nice. i really miss home, as much as i am enjoying my trip i wish he could have came with me. anyway after i skyped i went down stairs to return armon's computer to him i discorved the new plan for the day was to visit westminster abbey, where i planned to see issac newtons tomb, and then lunch then some sight seeing and shopping and possibly ride the london eye. i stayed with them for a bit and ate lunch. we went to westminseter, where it cost 12 pounds to go in so we voted no, so i didnt get to see him tomb, which is fine i can just watch Da Vinici code if i want to see it that bad lol. after all that we took the subway to Oxford Circus and they all went off to shop and i walked a little bit and tried to find the 1st hard rock cafe, but no luck so i went to the hotel to use internet to look it up and found it. so i let Kacie know where i was going to the hard rock and took off. when i got there i walked around a bit in the rock shop and then went to the cafe where i got a bite to eat, sat down and had a shot and some twisted macarroni. i asked for it with out peppers and when it came out it had peppers and i was sad. i started pickign them off and apparently i was making faces while i did cuz the manager came over and asked me how my meal was and i said fine, and he asked me what i was picking off and i told him that i had ordered it sans peppers and it came with peppers so he apoligized and then got me a new order and some bread and a coupon to tour the rock vault and get a photo of me on prince's couch. i was like cool thanks walked over to the rock shop and into the vault, which we learned was the same vault the queen kept the crowned jewels in untill 1999 when the bank went under and hard rock bought the building. anyway inside was amazing they had so much stuff! original les paul played by les paul signed by les paul! Jimi hendrix's flying v guitar! Beatles harsicord that they used for st peppers album!
anyway i walked over to the guy and showed him the coupon and he asked me if i would like to hold one of the guitars and i said sure, which ones can i pick from and he told me oasis and then he said kiss and i didnt hear the other two, naturally i chose kiss and i looked and it was Gene Simmions AXE GUITAR! i nearly had a heart attack! so naturally i picked that one! he handed it to me and i sat down on princes couch and he had to run upstairs to make sure the entry way was secure so i was alone with it for a god 2 or 3 minutes before he took the photo, it was so cool! the other guitar was Steve Val and i think sting i dont quite remember. but anyway the pooint of the day is that i got to hold gene simmions guitar and it was awesome! i walked back to the underground and caught the tube back to earl's court and came to the hotel the whole time i was in a daze. it was a great day! tomorrow there is talk of oxford or stonehenge so i am going to bed so i can get up early to enjoy our free day!

love,
natasha

Media Museum

June 9th - Wednesday - Day 17

today was the national media museum. and it was AWESOME! i really enjoyed it! we saw some AMAZING things. first we saw the archive for a popular British newspaper that was well over 50 years old, some stuff was older and i twas kept in its original condition. very cool
then we went down stairs and saw the photo exhibit and she took us to see the private museum collections. which was just so cool. i cant even explain half of what i saw you will just have to see the pictures i upload. they had all old gaming systems like the commodore and Sega's and Atari's. it was neat!
oh and we saw a bunch of old film cameras and the Muppet used to film BUDDY!!! it was awesome!
omz we saw a special effect make up exhibit that had the ORIGINAL Dracula fangs on display, and Frankensteins eyes and wolf mans furr! very neat!
finally we saw original Talbot photos graphs was well as his book. we where inches away from the firs negative, thou we couldn't see it cuz the room wasnt safe for it. we saw original work my Julia Margret Cameron and just so much stuff! not as over whelming but just as cool!
tonight we went to a VERY nice Italian restaurant and i had pesto sauce with noodles and green beans and potato's, oh it was so good! tomorrow is a free day and i am not sure what is in store, but i know it will be fun!
Love,
Natasha

more Van Gogh

June 8th - Tuesday - Day 16

toady we went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, both where pretty awesome. i saw Picasso! Child with A Dove from 1901 in the blue period, and i saw VAN GOGH!!!! 7 of them! including Sunflowers and Van Gogh's Chair and Two Crabs! it was awesome! i also saw some more Da Vinci and some Michelangelo and Bronzino and Raphael! i saw so much, that again it got overwhelming and i couldn't appreciate it all. after we went to the museums we saw in the square in front of the museum and people watched for a while, it was funny Hanna kept spotting gingers. and then her and Jen drew whales on each others toes. after armon found us we went and ate at a bar n grill called HA-Ha it was pretty good.
after lunch/dinner we walked back to the underground to go home and do our photo crit and discussion. it was interesting and i saw that my new idea needs more work. but that is the point of a discussion!

love,
natasha

Lacock Abbey

June 7th - Monday - Day 15

Lacock Abbey! which is where Harry Potter was filmed, well parts of the first two films. i walked with Kacie and she explained it a little but mostly was in ahhh, and it was adorable. and it is also the location where the first surviving negative was taken. it is the place where Fox Talbot lived and he took a picture of a Latticed Window, and it was beautiful! we toured the abbey all after noon and then we went and did a workshop where we did Salt printing, a process the Talbot used himself. first you coat the paper with a 2% salt solution and then in the dark you coat it with a 15% silver nitrate solution and then you set in in the sun. like the photo above :) for lunch we went to this lil tea room, and i had a turkey and cranberry sandwich with tea, supper yummy! oh and we road in a double decker bus! we rode on top in the front. super crazy! and we took a taxi to the abbey and it was WEIRD being on that side of the road, very weird.
oh and i rolled my ankle. fun.
Love,
natasha

Chill Day

June 6th - Sunday - Day 14

Today was a free day and the group decided to go to the tower of london and london bridge. i elected to stay at the hotel for a few reasons, one to rest my feet, 2nd it was to expensive. so i stayed here and organized my photos. i have 2,390 photos in 37 folders now and it takes up 9.16 GB of space. i am a shootin fool! lol. Its probaly more like 2,340 images becasue one folder is for my assingment and i copied the images in to that folder and it has over 50 so far that i can use on my assignment. 13 of which are my current favorites :) all and all a pretty calm day. i am about to head out to find a market so i can get some tea and sugar and possibly some dinner.
well that was interesting...took me forever to find the tea and sugar. lol. mostly just a chill day. the group got back and already had ate so i went and got a sandwich. yum. tomorrow is lacock, woot woot

Love,
Natasha

London Baby!!!

DALI

June 4th - Friday - Day Twelve

Dali. that says it all. we went and saw the dali museum today, it was amazing his work was just breathtaking. before that we went and saw the Moulan Rouge and it was pretty cool. Ooh and we went to Hard Rock Paris! it was awesome! i had a watermelon bacardi lemonaid and a shot and got mom and josh adn shirt. then we went to the souvinear shops after so kacie could get a tour de france shirt for her dad. and i got souvanears for my family. it was pretyy neat. 'cept i now have blisters on my blisters and it sucks. my left foot has a HUGE blister that keeps getting worse and i am to scared to pop it, the one on my right foot popped and it HURT the next day it doent feel much better today. Jen, Hanna, and Abbie went to disneyland paris, they had fun. Matt, Jeremy, Kacie and i went off on our own today and saw everything. we didnt go to picasso because it was to expensive. but all in all we had a good day.
easton, dani and armon went to versi and they saw joe montania from law and order, easton got a photo of him i guess. after we all got back to the hotel we hung out in jer n matts room playing games like scene it and catch phrase, and drank from the mini heinekine keg. pretty fun. tomorrow we take the eurostar to london! woot woot! i am so excited.

i just hope we have the internet so i can talk to my family i am really starting to get home sick for the familiar and to be with people who love me and want me around. it seriously feel like a burden on everyone here becasue i am so slow, becasuse i got those damn blisters. i wish my feet didnt hurt or that i had stronger meds to kill the pain. i hate always casuing everyone to lag behind, i hate it alot but i just cant make my feet feel better.

the trip is half over, which is werid to think it doesnt feel like 2 weeks have gone by. its crazy fast paced here. and the days are sooo long, its crazy. it doesnt get dark till like 11, it is throwing us off. oh and while we was playing games we heard loud music outside and we went to look and it was like hundreds of roller bladers decked out and rave style. it was pretty cool. fun to watch.
ok well i am done for now we have to get up early to head to the station.
Love,
Natasha

LONDON BABY!

June 5th - Saterday - Day Thirteen

Today we traveled by the Eurostar to LONDON BABY!!!! Hell yea i love it here already! It is so pretty, and it nice to understand what the natives are saying again! oh and the TEA! so much tea its fantastic! a few thinks i noticed about france that i forgot to mention, or i did and i dont remember. first thing europe in general is very dog friendly and dogs are so well behaved here! their crutches are very interesting, not like ours at all, you would need much more forearm strength to crutch it. finaly paris never sleeps! it would be 4 am and it would still be crazy noisy outside! and it was so hard to tell time in paris, i mean in ks we are used to judging time by the sun and how close to dusk it is, in france it was the oppsite. it would be 11 at night and sunny! it would really mess with your head! oh well now that we are in london we are 6 hours ahead instead of the 7 we was in france. the internet is super expensive here as the exchange rate sucks (1.51 US dollars per one english pound! wtf?!) so their will be 2 - 3 days where the internet will be paid for by the program and thats when i will upload somephotos and this blog. we didnt to much today asside from travel and go to a authintic indian resturant....i had chick peas n curry something or other with garlic naan and streamed veggie rice and most of it was excellent. a lil spicy but excellent. and we setteled in to our hotel, which we are staying at the entrie 2 weeks we are here, so only traveling i have left to do is home in 2 weeks. i will be going from london to chicago then to wichita for a week before returning to manhattan. hard to believe we have been in europe for 2 weeks! and that we only have 2 weeeks left! crazy stuff this is.

well i beleive i will crash for the night. not sure what is in store for tomorrow but i will be sure to blog about it!
Love,
Natasha

Best Day EVER

June 3rd - Thursday - Day Eleven

OMZ. Today was the best day of my life. we got to the museum super early and got right in and went straight to the mona lisa before she got crowded, i didnt expect much becasue i had been told it was so much smaller that you image and you never get that close blah blah blah, but OMZ OMZ OMZ she was the most beautiful thing i have ever laid my eyes on. we got all the way to the front, about ten feet from her, and she looked awesome. a little aged or dirty but a little bigger than i expected becasuse i was expecing to not get that close, but just as beautiful as i had always imagined her. i took a video just for my mom. and i decided that i am going to save money and tell my parents and in laws to save money and in 5 years i am bringing mom here to see her. it just has to happen. and i believe karen and gary will like paris it is such a neat city.
Also in the Louve was more Di Vinici which was all just as beautiful as you can imagine. we got so close to the Madona of the Rocks we could have touched her. it was freaking neat to look at his shading and brush strokes and his use of shadow and light. just amazing. we saw so much today and i am literaly over whelmed with what i got to see. i took 400 images today. 400.
Oh and we saw the medievil moat, the greek stuff, and Aphrodite known as Venus de Milo and she was pretty cool too. we also saw a ton of egyption art and artifact which was bad ass in its own right. Seated statue of Ramses II and the seated scribe. just so much stuff i really could spend another day just talking about it! but i didnt get to see it all, so i will have to come back and mom and i can spend 2 days in the louve so everything gets ample admirance.
after the Louve we went to Champs-Elysse which was pretty neat. huge, and covered in carvings but neat but the group lost Jen adn i cuz we went to sit in the shade while they walked across to get some more photos and when they came back they never saw jen and i so we took the metro to the palace to get a cool shot of the tower then we walked over to it. i didnt go up it for many reasons,number one being that my feet where kiilling be at this oint and there is NO way i am getting on a elevator that goes THAT high. NO WAY. lol. so the group found us and 1/2 went to go up the tower and the other half walked back to the hotel. i chose to walk back cuz i am exaused and i wanted to go over my photos and relive what i got to do today, tomorrow is a free day and i hope to go to the Picasso and Dali museums we shall see!
Love,
Natasha

Speos

June 2 - Wednesday - Day ten!

So after i graduate from KSU with my bachlors, i think i am going to go to Speos here in Paris for my masters. it is the most amazing photography school and program i have ever seen! 42 weeks and you will have your masters and a job, crazy huh? we had a tour of their school and talked to the creator and director of the school, who happens to be the same person who rediscovered niepce's house and bought it and is restoring it in to a museum. they restored everything back to the way niepce had it according to the some 300 letters he wrote to his brother in london. he was a pretty neat cat. then we walked a little but and saw the inside out building, i dont remember what it was called exactly but i remember armon making a big deal of how they buikd it from the inside out so that the outside looks like the guts of a major structor. then we saw the european museum of photography. pretty interesing stuff right there, my two favorite photographers where Philippe Perrin and Mimmo Jodice. and if you look them up you will see how drasticly differant they are, but both very cool peices of work.
Tomorrow is the louve, and i am really exicted. we are getting up extra early so we dont have to wait in line forever to get in. i hope it works.
oh and i went to the market and got some sandwich stuffs, crissaunts and soem shortbread cookies. i ate a crissaont and a short bread cookie. after about 30 minuts i started to notice a familiar rash growing on my skin, not super bad but highly concentrated in a few areas...and it puzzled me becasue i had not been around strawberries at all. so i look at the labels of the food i bought and wouldnt you know it the shortbread cookies had stawberry butter in it. no whereon the cover did the word Fraise show up, but in the ingrediants list it was the second one. lucky for me i only ate one. but still its annoying. oh well nothing is stopping me from tomorrow. Louve, Effile tower and Champs-Elysse!
Love,
Natasha

Tourisy Day!

June 1 - Tuesday- Day nine

Today we saw Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle and Musee d'Orsay. d'Orsay was my fave! It had VAN GOGH! and i cired, again. I just LOVE LOVE his work. i also saw some Monet, Manet, and a few other impressionist painters. it was just breathtaking. since we got there with one hour till closing we got in for free :) Oh and Hamilton was on display as well, we learned about him in out History of Photo class. Oh and the Churches where AMAZING. Notre Dame was just MASSIVE and so detailed it was increditable. I got my second souvinear for family from there, bet you'll never guess who its for! lol. Oh and Saint-Chapelle, all those stained glass windows! O-L-E COW! beautiful! sadly some of the windows where under restoration but it was still awesome.
i finally figured out what my project for the trip is going to be like, i am going to try and do some macros, but in an abstract kind of way and also do some panoramic shots as well and put them together. and the subject matters are going to mimic the advancement of subject matters in photography. we will see how that goes!!!
Today i am starting to miss my family a lot, not neccessarily home sick persay, but missing the familiar just a little bit. and being able to call my hub or mom at the drop of a dime. its going on ten days since i last legit talked to family and it kinda sucks, well i vid chatted with maw maw for about ten minutes so that helped a bunch. OH and I am missin my puggies something feirce. its werid not having them around. is it to early to start a count down?
Love,
Natasha

Nicephone Niepce

May 31st - Day Eight - Monday

today we woke up in Lyon and headed to the train station so we could go to Chalon Sur Saone, where Niepce lived and studied. We saw the museum Nicephore Niepce, which housed original cameras and prints from famous photographers. Including "Steerage" by Stieglitz, which made me cry. it was so beautiful. The Museum Niepce had some of the first 3-D cameras and photos as well. It was so breathtaking, and as if that wasnt enough we got to go to Niepce house. and i am still literally overwhelmed with what i got to see. We saw his home, his lab, the location where the first fixed photograph was taken, the camera that was used as well as his personal study room. I am one of at least ten of the luckiest photographers in the world who had seen this so far as the house is under renovations to create a museum, and we got to see it. It isnt quite open to the public yet, and when it does become open they are not goign to allow photographs to be taken, and we got to take them. I saw his chem lab, the chemicals he used, his "photo studio" which housed the tripods and head vices he used to make portraits. I swear gettign to see his house and his work with my own eyes is by far the best part of this trip, it is so intense. We are currently on the train to Paris! and first thing in the morning we are going to the Louvre to see all that art. which is pretty awesome.
the train wasnt to bad. luckly for us the hotel was right next to the station, and easy to find. there is a metro down the block as well for our future endeavours. tonight is mostly chilling and getting situated for the week. this hotel is so awesome! its like a 5 star but its the holiday inn! lol. we learned that unlike every other museum in the world, the louve is closed on Tuesdays, go figure. so we are going on Thursday and tomorrow we are going to Musee d'Orsay and Noter Dame.
Love,
Natasha