Jan 26, 2011

The walls that bind

Sakuya sounds like she's sort of settled in. Apparently they were surprised to find out that their apartment is also a storage repository for 22 chairs, a half-blind old cat, and several pianos. For their two bedroom flat, they are paying about 1400 Euros, so she and her roommates are apparently not real happy. (However, cursory checking around for alternative Helsinki apartments comes up with a similar or higher cost). Outside of her apartment, it sounds like she is having a lot of fun, making new friends with the locals, and  trying to keep up with the American program director who apparently speed walks through the city. It still feels awkward here, I'm still stumbling along like I've lost a phantom limb, this gaping hole in my life.

My AA class, thats the Architectural Association in London, the world-renowned school of architecture, has ten students. Seven out of the ten, that's 70%, are Chinese. There are a lot of elective credits, and there are a significant population of Chinese students here, but it seems statistically odd. I can think of several reasons for this- students may get into a certain class and suggest it to their friends, there could be a wider interest in the AA in China compared to the US as the US is less willing to acknowledge that there are good or better schools outside of its borders, it could be that by the time these students who have a harder time with English, got their classes arranged, that it was the best of the classes that were left over. Anyway, at any rate, I applaud their dedication to the art and theory of architecture, and if I'm struggling to finish the hundred pages a week of reading, I can only imagine what they must be going through.

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Medium is the message

I moved the blog again. I deleted the Tumblr account and moved everything to Medium.com, a more writing-centric website. medium.com/@wende