Can't believe I'm here, that I'm blogging and that I'm actually wandering around in Europe alone as if I have ANY business being here! Whodda thunk?
In typical "Ozburn" fashion I had several last minute changes of plan and am now traveling solo. I have decided to completely abandon my normal control freak personality in which I am over-organized and 100% anal-retentive and be a clueless wander, hoping things work out and pretending to not stress out to the point of a shingles outbreak (don't laugh. it's happened before). My lovely mother has graciously opted to abandon precious Bethany time to participate on a Yale-funded adventure through the Middle East. While this is my third time to this part of the world it is her first and needless to say if there wasn't the tempting 10 days in Greece at the beginning of the trip not sure if she would be as willing. Thankfully my Roselund-Ozburn heritage has groomed me to be flexible in rapidly changing plans and if they don't happen accidentally to seek them out and create them myself! Haha.
So I basically have to decide what I am doing with this blog. As far as I see it I have three options:
a) write about purely academic and architectural events and experiences (my original and "intellectual" intention)
b) use this as another travel journal in which I record my adventures, both architectural and personal, and end up with a wonderful record yet at the same time completely obliterate my intense conviction against all sappy internet sharing and creepy world-wide big brother connectivity (groan...)
c) start this at the request of my mother but abandon it mid-stream because I just can't handle it (ha!)
Hmmm...
I guess in the spirit of academic recording I should start by saying that the goal of this trip is to physically experience and document cities that have been destroyed by war and have at one point established a Green Line-- a line of demarcation between two hostile and opposing forces. It is usually established during a civil war between religious groups and results in a city divided into two homogenous sections with a street or buffer zone as the physical boundary. This area invariably gets destroyed by bombs, snipers and fighting in general and leaves a scar on the city that takes years to reconstruct.
Beirut, Lebanon had one of these during the Lebanese civil war and Nicosia, Cyprus still has theirs after a failed attempt to dismantle it in 2004. I'll be mapping these "lines", taking pictures of what is being rebuilt after the destruction, and studying how these spaces that are drawn on a map as a thin pencil line are manifested physically in width and cultural prejudice. You know, just everyday, general, easy tasks... sheesh.
The original trip included Syria and Cairo but thanks to Yale's needless worry about trifling things such as "safety", "liability" and "unstable political climate" (the weenies!) my trip now begins with a strenuous tour through Rome and Greek islands. Oh, the hardships of life...
Rome is a personal indulgence since I've never been, but Greece is part of the study as I will be looking at cities designed and founded after the end of WWII by the Greek architect and city planner Konstantinos Doxiadis. He went on to do city plans for Beirut and many other Middle Easter cities and my original research proposal was to record the implementation and current day status of those plans (see left). Regardless of this, I'm sure my time in Greece will be less focused on cities established after the occupation and more on the blue water, white sand and baklava. Academia at its best.Ok, not sure how long these post thingies are supposed to be but I feel like that is enough for now, although it is hard to want to get up from this cafe. Tree lined streets, cafes with umbrellas and great cappuccinos do that to ya I guess. Ciao.
(Am I allowed to say that or is it too typical-American tourist?-- insert "when in Rome" comment here along with a generous eye-roll)
