So It Goes

Friday night, Saori and I went to un Asado with a bunch of the people from the Buenos Aires trip. The asado party was hosted by Chris and his roommates, fourth years, but dismayingly, only Noah showed up from the sixth years. I asked him why the other sixth years weren't there, knowing full well that as two groups we've never mixed well, and he said that some of them were wiped from working on their masters thesis, and that the others were lame.

An added bonus to the part was the arrival of Melissa, one of Jake's friends from Argentina. She's never been to the US before and she's a college student about my age, but she was apparently on the "watch list" of the US government. When she arrived in Atlanta, customs and immigration people pulled out of the line, and took her a small room where they held her for an hour, going through her luggage, asking her what she was doing in the US, and about all of her possessions. She missed her connecting flight and was so distraught by the whole interrogation that she called Jake in tears. Welcome to the United States of Paranoia.

School is flowing smoothly, while people in some other studios seem to be struggling to get on top of their projects, I feel like I'm rolling inexorably towards the finish line. I still have mixed feelings about this studio. Every studio has funds. Many of the studios used the funds to travel: to New York City, to Las Angeles, to New Orleans, and to San Diego. Our studio is going to use the funds to pay a web developer to create a flash-based website for our projects. Of course the the intensity levels too. With the city trips comes more work, harder projects, more group work, many more sleepless nights in studio, but naturally a greater accomplishment. This studio encourages the people to work at whatever level he or she wants, which is to say that if you want to only want to spend ten hours a week on studio work, that's ok. I feel very certain that as developed as my project is, I am still capable of better work. But I don't really feel that bad about it because it's still a lot of decent work, its fun, and its giving me a chance to enjoy my last semester. More time to sip lattes and read the New York Times out on the terrace of Charlie's cafe.

Systems is a breeze, human behavior is getting a bit more interesting, but still a simple 100 level class, we're on to our final project in sketching, and I'm halfway done with my sketchbook.
My sketch class deserves a word of note, we've started a project called "Flying Islands," a piece that's graphic, sculptural, and conceptual. Essentially we had to choose a character from "The Little Prince" and make an flying island for that character using a very meta-process oriented methodology (i.e. draw on a photocopy, rescan it, fold the scan into origami, rephotograph, etc). The sketch book is a blank hardbound book with about 200 sheets. We're supposed to fill it by the end of the semester, but I don't think that's going to happen. I have about a hundred sheets done (200 sketches, wow!) so I think I'm pretty close to what a normal size book is. (I grabbed the double big sketchbook by mistake). Anyway, I get to keep it when its done, and I've surprised myself at actually getting better at drawing as I've gone through the pages.

Taylor turned 18 last week, and I guess he's going to keep on getting older. It feels so strange to me, after I went to college and he went to Moscow, the time and distance really made itself felt, and he's a different person every time I see him. I suppose the same is true with me, to a certain extent, but he's really grown up overseas. Sometimes I still see glimpses of the old Taylor though, so I know that deep down its still him. He's going to be coming to ASU next semester, into the CLAS, getting a dorm, and getting a handle on this whole college thing.

There's something poetic about it, Taylor starting, and me graduating. I'll still be here for him, though. I talked to the head of personnel at work, and he was thrilled that I wanted to stay on after graduation. He's going to give me an offer next time I'm at work. I'll probably work there for about a year, travel a bit, and then go to grad school. So it goes.