First Week Back

As I don't start school until the 19th (aka- TODAY) you may be wondering what thesis related information I can possibly have to write about.  I will be honest- I don't have any.  But, like I said in the last post, I do have an idea about what it is that I want to do.  And what I want to do is deeply rooted in my beliefs, emotions, and spiritual grounding (is that enough of a tease?).  Because of this, I don't feel that only STUDIO or only ARCHITECTURE or only DESIGN is relevant to my project.  I feel like all of my feelings, thoughts, ideologies, actions, and happenings relate to how I view the world, and how I frame my project.  I don't intend this blog to be full of intimate secrets, but I think that as a record of my progress, it needs to address how I got to wherever it is I'm going.  I can't speak for any other designers' 'process', but I know that often mine has much more to do with how I interact with the world around me, and how I interact with it than aesthetics or theory.  This post then (and perhaps more in the future) is not going to address architecture at all. It is what it is.

So, in case you don't know- I spent my fourth year of college in Denmark.  That tiny little country where practically everyone that isn't Danish thinks the inhabitants speak Dutch.  They don't.  That's the Netherlands.  Anyway, it was a wonderful experience, and I am more than willing to tell you about it anytime you like.  But, it was a very weird hiccup in an otherwise fluid education.  Therefore, returning to the SLO life has been a little bit difficult.  Downtown has changed, campus has changed, people have changed. 

But I won't lie, it's been a good week.  I drove out from Colorado with my friend, and fellow Cal Poly Arch student, Kayla, on the 10th, and it took us 2 days (18 hours on the road) to get San Luis Obispo.  In spite of the length, we had a fairly fun drive, which was mostly un-noteworthy- in this case, a good thing.  We stayed the night at a hotel in St. George, Utah, ate dinner at a surprisingly good Hawaiian restaurant, and listened to podcasts of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't tell Me!" as we went through the desert.

I got to SLO in the early afternoon, just in time to help Kim, my roommate, and her parents move all of our stuff (well, most of it) out of storage and into our tiny bedroom.  In fairness, the bedroom is actually a very good size.  But neither of us had planned to share a bedroom ever again after our stay in the dorms freshman year (we were roommates then too!), and have both graduated to full-sized beds.  So, between them, we have about 2 feet of space.  And not a lot else.  Which, considering studio will be a home-away-from-home, should be just fine.

The apartment we live in, with my other Architecture compatriot, Cailin, and her fiance, TJ, is very nice from the inside, not so nice from the outside, and incredibly conveniently located.  We are only a few blocks from downtown (Kim and I lament that we now have far too easy access to Bali's, the frozen yogurt shop), and a 10 minute bike ride from campus.  I've made the ride twice now- not too bad.  The hills, at least, aren't too steep.  Also in the house, I forgot to mention, are two cats, Tibby & Casper.  TJ and Cailin have had them for a couple of years now, and they are super sweet, if a little skiddish.  They are funny though, because they are exact opposites of one another.  Tibby, the girl, is white, slender, graceful, and incredibly curious.  Once she knows that its safe to check a situation out, you know she will.  She also gets into EVERYTHING, including the potted plants, to dig dirt out, all over the sofa.  Casper, the boy, is black (looks like he is dressed in a tuxedo), small and thick, and very quiet.  He is a constant watcher.  He is funny too, because he hasn't at all gotten used to Kim and I.  He is very hard to pet, because until you touch him and he realizes how much he likes it, he thinks you might be attacking him.

Other than getting settled, which did take quite a lot of time, as well as trips to the grocery store, Ross, Bev-Mo, Art's Cyclery, and the storage unit, Kim and I have been trying hard to get the last drops of excitement out of SLO before she leaves at the end of the fall quarter.  So- we have gone on several morning runs, hiked Bishops, and visited the Special Collections Office at the Cal Poly library, where we looked at postcards and pictures of Cal Poly from 100-50 years ago.  Which was, as you can imagine, quite funny.

We also had a brief run in (with Cailin and TJ) with Farmer's Market.  In case you don't know about the SLO Farmer's Market, it is one of the most well known farmer's markets around.  It started in the early 80's, and has been going on almost every Thursday night since.  There is TONS of fresh produce, which the Central Coast is especially good for, as well as food vendors, my favorite being the tri-tip barbeque.  The reason our trip was brief is that the first Thursday before classes starts, WOW participants and WOW leaders converge on downtown in costume, making the market much more crowded than normal.  WOW, of course, stands for "Week of Welcome", which is a week (not anymore) when older students help orient incoming freshmen to campus, campus life, SLO, and all of the outlying areas where there are things to do.  Anyway, it was a mess, so we were in and out of there with our produce, and then straight home to cook a delicious family meal.

But the week came to a rapid end, and I realized that school was going to start, whether I wanted it to or not.  So here we are, Monday- 10 minutes before I have a meeting, 1 hour before I start my last first day of studio EVER.  I hope that there will be more time for adventures once this all gets going.  But I don't know.  I have no way of knowing.  Who knows what this year has in store for me!