first week in review

Tuesday and thursday, I went to the history of architecture lecture at 10:40, my earliest class of the week. It's taught by this thirtyish bookish guy who lookes exactly like an architectural historian. He's got brylcreamed hair with a huge side part, round glasses, and a high nasal voice. He is however, very energetic and almost manic about the subject, describing how we'd "go across the sweeping expanse of asia to see the great wall, the forbidden city, and japan" like a radio announcer talking about a grand prize vacation. Jen's also taking the class to get more of a taste of architecture. Thursday we were given an in class assignment to build a tower out of six sheets of pink paper that had to be 44 inches tall (4 sheets high). It also had to withstand a "wind test" of a sheet of paper waved in front of it. Jen and I teamed up with another archtiecture student and we built a really nice looking tower with a triangular cross section.

After that, I went to my structures class. This is interesting as its taught by a professional contractor. The downside is that he was alerted he'd be teachign the class less than a month ago, and he's never taught before. It's good because he knows so much from the real world, and how the architect-contractor relationship works, but he doesnt know what we dont know, so we have to stop him constantly to slow him down and explain terms like "kips" etc. Lots of cool engeneering stuff.

After structures comes Finding Purpose, a class that is both required in upper division, and came recommended from a friend who'd already taken it. Basically, its a class about finding your personal direction, exploring alternitives in life and your career, managing time, etc. We're taking the Myers-Briggs test next week, and apparently we also go over things like interviews, and other real-work stuff. There's virtually no homework, just a journal after each class, and the final project is a 5 page autobiography. A nice, relaxing class.

The last class of the day is Human Factors, a class on designing ergonomically and humanistically with anthropometrics. Not a whole lot of fun at this point, but we'll see how it goes.

This week, I worked 14 hours at the library, although I'm still getting the hang of closing it all down. Last night, Jen and I went to the double feature at the drive in. In the sweltering heat, we watched The 40 year old virgin and The Wedding Crashers. I was surprised about how much I actaully enjoyed both of them. Today, friday, I had no classes. Sweet. I just worked in studio for about six hours on my project.