UMN Alumni (Port-au-Prince Chapter)

Coincidentally, a group of Graduate Architecture students from the University of Minnesota are in Port-au-Prince for 7 weeks studying and working with an organization called Architecture for Humanity. They have been updating a blog about their work and experiences in Haiti and referenced our lunch in one of their blog postings. Here is the link

Shrimp Creole

This was a special dinner at a near by hotel called the Montana. It was a fair-well meal for a women who has been working in Haiti for the last 2.5 years as a spinal-cord injury specialist. I enjoyed the Shrimp Creole!

National Palace

The National Palace of Haiti unsteadily sits as a reminder of the damaging force that was brought by the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

PaP Urban Landscape

Here are samples of the urban landscape surrounding Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Rotterdam, Netherlands

I spent a weekend in Rotterdam, staying at one of Roel's friends place. Linda (Roel's friend) was so generous and hospitable. Saturday morning we hopped on some bikes and she gave me a tour of her city. We were fortunate enough to visit the NAi (Netherlands Architecture Institute) the day before it closed for renovation. At the NAi there were some really intriguing exhibits on how architecture can address issues of sustainability and since it was going to close for the following 6 months the exhibits were free that day... lucky us!

Brussels, Belgium

The first photo is of a funny little Brussels landmark called "Manneken Pis". It depicts a little boy peeing into a fountain. It's a strange attraction with many legends behind the meaning. The second photo is some historical architecture in Brussels and the third shows how populated some of the streets can get. The fourth photo is really a bizarre story: Roel and I were walking through the main square in Brussels and I heard an American accent, turned my head, and BAM there was my friend Nate I know from Minneapolis!

Guidecca Canal

This was the wonderful view we saw every morning walking to the studio!