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By the time I came out of UArts in 2008, I had a degree under my belt, making bank bartending 3-4 nights a week, training clients at the gym, sharing my knowledge and new found love for strength training with the same friends I met at the bars, and I was creating like a madman. The nights I wasn’t bartending, I would work out of my studio apartment, sewing together stuffed monsters. My sleep schedule was so sporadic that I’d often stay up all night, faux fur, plastic eyeballs, and hot glue…. everywhere. Like a muppet horror movie. .
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My previous junior and senior theses were three dimensional and interactive. First I made a giant pile of leaf pillows - I drew a bunch of leaves I found in Rittenhouse Park, printed them on fabric, and then sewed them together. I tossed them all in a pile in Hamilton Hall and encouraged people to JUMP in them. My next installation I bought a toy box, painted it and then filled it with random animals that I’d always wanted to see in an animal cracker box - something different from the norm, like baboons, hummingbirds, sharks, and porcupines. Then I drew this giant toddler on the wall, bending down to dig into the box, knocking over a giant glass of milk in the process. (Don’t cry over spilt milk). .
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I was dating an amazing girl and decided it was time to take a trip - a big trip. The money I’d saved up got us two plane tickets, two train tickets, and took us all over Europe. London - Paris - Nice - Madrid - Barcelona - Rome - Sorrento - Croatia - Berlin - Munich - Switzerland - Brussels - Amersterdam. We explored the catacombs in Paris, visited Park Guell in Barcelona, did mushrooms in Amersterdam, and swam up and down the coast of Croatia. We visited platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame, had sex as quietly as we could in hostel showers, and I also had my first beer.(Yup, that is accurate, I wasn’t drinking at this point.) This trip opened me to the transformative power of travel - especially backpacking, moving from place to place, on a budget. (Continued in comments) 📸 @taghinaderzad #travelbug #hostellife #europe #eurotrip #backpacking #travelgram