SUBMITTED BY DDF DATE 04 - 01 - 2010

One of the aspects of the trip that I have been most surprised about is how well I remember each individual city. When the thought of travelling to over 50 cities in just over 3 months first entered my mind, I was concerned that by the end of the trip, all of the cities would just run together in my mind. That has not been the case. While some of this can be accredited to sketching, journaling, and reviewing photographs from each city, most of it has to do with how each city has certain cultural characteristics that make it stand out from other cities. Although cities in the same country have a tendency to be more similar to each other than not, spaces like the Memorial for the Murdered Jewish People in Berlin begin to create a clear distinction between the urban areas (top photo). These types of spaces begin to define the underlying values of the city and its people, furthering the differences between cities. Along with spatial and design differences, cultural differences have also made an impact on my thoughts of cities. This last stretch of the trip, especially the change from Asia back to European countries has convinced me that less of a world culture exists than I previously thought. After leaving China, I never imagined that I would feel like I was “home” when I got back to Europe, just because it’s somewhat familiar territory. In China, the blonde haired members of our group were instant celebrities with many of them being asked to appear in photographs. Walking down the street without bumping into anyone was significantly more difficult in China than in European countries. I was constantly having minor collisions with people because expected mannerisms were different. Before all of these minor miscommunications, I never realized how many unspoken interactions occur each day and what the result would be if these were not understood. I imagine these differences have to do with acceptable personal space and general population density. Many of the cities we visited in Asia were some of the densest cities per square mile in the world (bottom photo- Hong Kong skyline). When the living situations like these occur, it is reasonable to assume that the level of personal space in the public realm will decrease as well.