New Years 2006 - I was in Prague, Czech Republic. I had just finished my first Quarter Away location for my school in London (Oct-Dec) where I interned at Saatchi & Saatchi. While in London I took a few side trips to Paris and Amsterdam. After London I went to Italy. I spent Christmas of last year in Rome and then went to Florence. After that I arrived in Prague. I lived in a 2 bedroom apt with my partner and fellow Ad School student Eric. I arrived at the housing before he did, so I snagged the room with the TV. Although there was only one station in English, and that was only for select hours in the day. We were going to be interning together at an advertising agency there called Mark/BBDO.
My favorite pics of London:
The lady from BBDO contacted me and got me in touch with someone from the agency so I would have something to do on my New Year's Eve. I met Paval (Paul in English) at the Metro and we went to these snow covered hills and hiked to the top to watch the fireworks begin set off all over Praha (Prague). It was quite a mix of people. There was me, the American, Paval and Lucinka, the Czechs, Paval's friend, his girlfriend and their friend, the French, and then two random Russian dudes. Broken English was the communication method of choice. Mostly due to my not knowing any other language. Or so I thought. After we passed around the champagne and yelled Happy New Years! it was time to walk down the snow covered hills.
Now as you all know, I grew up in San Diego then went to Miami. No snow or winter-type weather in either of those places. So being in snow was new to me, let alone walking in it, walking down hill in it while a little tipsy on champagne. Needless to say I lost my group. I was too busy arguing with the French guy (in French mind you) because he had made some comment saying that women would never be able to reach the peak of men. Yeah. Really. So you see why I felt the need to break out my dormant French and defend women everywhere.
So I get to the bottom of the hill and realize the only person I know is this loser French guy. Great. Then this other random guy comes over and asks me if I'm lost. In English, without an accent. Turns out he is from L.A. and owns a bar around the corner. He brought me there and introduced me to a bunch of young Czech, American, and Australian people - all of whom spoke English. I met my good Czech friend Lucie there.
My 3 months in Prague were wonderful. It was cold, but seeing the snow on all the gothic buildings was an awesome sight. My partner Eric turned out to be a guy from San Francisco, so we complained about the snow together. We ended up getting a TV spot produced from our time there, and also helped the agency win the Pepsi Light (Diet Pepsi) account.
Some favorites from Praha:
I also visited Amsterdam for a second time while I was in Prague. My two good friends came to visit me in Prague and then I decided to go and visit them in Amsterdam. The beautiful thing about Europe is that traveling is so easy and relatively fast. I was able to just go to Amsterdam for the weekend.
Amsterdam:
After my internship in Prague was over, I decided to travel some more before returning to the US. I went somewhere where I ALWAYS wanted to go ... Greece. I stayed in a hostel in Athens for 5 days. I ended up going to the Acropolis twice, I loved it so much.
My favorite pictures from Athens:
It is now March, and my next qtr for school starts in April. I told my mom that I was going to go to Spain and then be home around March 20th. Little did she know that my sister and I were planning a surprise for her birthday - March 17th. I flew home from Europe on the 16th and my sister picked me up from the airport. Neither of my parents knew I was home. So first we decided to trick my dad, because my mom was at work. So my sister drives over to my parents house and takes Dixie (our dog) on a walk. She rounds the corner, then I return home with the dog. My dad was like, "Hey, you're not the one who took the dog out of the house!".
Then it was time for my mom. My sister parked her car out front and my dad got in on the action and called my mom telling her that Christy was over and upset about something. So my sister hid in the bathroom and I hid under the covers of my mom's bed. Sure enough she came in and thought it was my sister under the covers. Let's just say she was shocked when I lifted the covers off and yelled SURPRISE!! It was a good birthday :)
April-June - Minneapolis, MN. I was interning at Carmichael Lynch. I'm just glad to have been in Minneapolis in the summer and not the insane winters they have. I must say, they do have the whole downtown fixed up so that you never even need to go outside. It's like one giant hamster cage full of tunnels and mysterious food courts that seem to appear out of no where. We did make it to the lake for a Memorial Day picnic though.
Minne pictures:
June - Key Largo, FL and Miami, FL. My sister and I went on what is becoming our annual South Florida trip. First we went to Key Largo for some snorkeling, then we hit up Miami Beach (my old stomping grounds) for some shopping, beach, and fun.
July-Sept. Chicago, IL. This was my 8th and final qtr at Miami Ad School, and I was interning at an agency called Hadrian's Wall in Chicago (now Zig Advertising) with my friend Beau. Chicago in the summer is *perfect*. It was really a great city. We lived in Wicker park, and there were plenty of cute places to eat and hang out just a short walk (or train ride) away. We went to the "beach" a couple times, and to The Bean (mirrored sculpture below) almost weekly. There were so many food and music festivals going on that we were never bored on the weekend. Although the El is not as efficient as you may think. We went to the movies one night and then waited an ungodly amount of time for our train back to the house.
ChiTown pictures:
I graduated Sep 9th, then Beau and I flew out to Boulder, CO to have one last week with the rest of our classmates. They were all in a program for the school that was stationed in CO. We drove by the Ramsey house, went line dancing, were extras in some ads. All in all good times.
Boulder sunset:
After that I moved back home to San Diego to start the (what seems to be never ending) job search. My school hosted a portfolio review in NYC in October, so I went to that. I have a few friends that live out there so finding a place to crash wasn't a problem.
After my birthday in early December (26 yrs old.. yikes!)
I went up to San Francisco for most of the month. I was meeting with advertising people and showing my work around, getting myself known. The job market in December is just hard. I did attend a Holiday party though. My friend Eric, my partner in Prague, lives in SF and is freelancing at an agency up there. He invited me to go with him, so we went and ate plenty of the free McDonald's burgers that they were disguising as hours d'oeuvres.
I am now back in San Diego with the family looking forward to a nice Christmas.
I hope you all have Very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!
My fav pictures from Rome:
Favorite pictures from Florence:
Ahh Paris:
