but for now, I still have to get through this semester. so far so good, though i'm definitely feeling the senioritis really early... hard to stay motivated in a major I don't really enjoy. But only 22 credit hours (2 studios, 2 math, 1 gov't and a pe class) left to go next year, so I'll just have to stick with it. So here's how my current school life is going.
Studio - it's weird to be back in a "normal" studio (as normal as studio could actually be) since my studio in Italy was pretty much a joke. Our semester is all about studying Louis Kahn's works (1960's modern architecture... aka a lot of giant concrete shape sorters). The first two projects were analysis studies of some of his works, so we could get a feel for his style and philosophies. We took a field trip to his Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and spent the day taking photos and sketching details. Then we each made a presentation board showing how the building works and details and such. My prof really likes hand sketches, so I really got to show off my strengths in this project... here's mine:
For the second project, we did a similar analysis to another Kahn building of our choice. Since Kahn didn't have a lot of buildings constructed, so half of the class including me got his proposed projects, ones that were never actually built. This made it a little challenging, since there is little documentation and no photos, but I worked with what I found and ended up with something I really enjoyed drawing. It was a lot of work but I liked drawing the axonometric diagram (the two on the left) the most because it made a floorplan come to life as a realistic looking building.
We are now working on our final project, a competiton called Preservation as Provocation: Re-thinking Kahn's Salk Institute. In groups of three, we are designing additions to the Salk Institute in California, including: new labs; a community center w/ conference rooms, dining center, employee lounge and gym, library; 40-room hotel; and resident apartments. We are in the middle of designing it now, still making changes and figure things out. It is a really complex project, and really overwhelming at times, especially considering I have yet to do a studio project bigger than a house (... which seems odd since I'm nearly done with three years of school ... all luck of the draw of studio profs, I guess). It's due in a month though and I'm getting really nervous about whether we'll get finished in time... and it's been always tough working in groups and trying to make compromises and divy up the work fairly... *sigh* I guess it's going okay, a little slow, kinda stressful, just hope I can get through this next month.
As for my other classes, systems is ... meh. I don't really get what we're doing, the teacher is impossible to understand and really unhelpful, and the homework is nothing like the lectures, but the tests are open book and I'm managing to keep an A for the time being. I'm doing great in structures, my favorite and best class. I have a 103 in the class :) It's really nice to actually know what I'm doing and be good at something that is challenging but doesn't feel impossible, and it's nice to be able to help my friends understand it too. My last class - abstract discrete mathematics - is really tough and it'll probably be my first C, as long as I don't get any worse. It's all theory and writing proofs. About a quarter of my class has already dropped it after the last test, and most of my class are either engineers or math majors (a few are minors like me). ... guess I didn't know what I was getting into with my math minor. I just hope the next two classes aren't so tough.
As for outside of school, work is going great - I'm so glad I got this job last year, at least one thing in my life that I'm good at and isn't stressful - just do my work and when I'm done for the day, I don't have to do think about it. Plus, the people are really nice and so flexible and understanding with schedules and stuff. I can basically work as little or as much as I want. Church is going well enough. I'm now the compassionate service leader, much less demanding than being secretary. Choir is definitely a commitment, but I really enjoy it. We're getting ready for a big Easter program in less than two weeks. It'll be really awesome, so long as we actually learn it by then, lol. I have several solos too, which is cool but a little nerve wracking. Luckily we don't have to have it memorized. I'm a little anxious but I'm excited for it. ...with all I'm doing at church plus school and work, it'll be a really busy next couple weeks.
oh, and one other really exciting and still slightly surreal thing... in 19 days I'll be getting my aggie ring!
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