Rambling Man

I don't usually eat dinner at 10 pm, but when I do it's with the Dean of the School of Architecture and Odile Decq; well known french architect (who also happens to look like Edward Scissorhands.) I mean, it wasn't just the three of us, there were 4 professors and 3 other students too, but I was the only student that was invited -instead of being drawn from a raffle- because I'm in an advisory council with the Dean. I can't tell if the best part was hearing all of the insight from this woman of ingenuity, or seeing my Modernity professor drink too much wine and talk about how I shouldn't be surprised when our lecture is all over the place the next morning.

He was kind of all over the place this morning.
Just like this post is going to be all over the place too.

In other news, it is most definitely fall here in upstate New York. I ordered (and am wearing) a new quilted jacket that I got on sale from Frank & Oak, an online menswear shop that is based out of Montreal. It's one of my favorite pieces in my closet as of now so I wear it all the time. These pants on the other hand I rarely wear, even though I've had them for almost 5 years now; and yet they somehow still fit me.

The other night I got a bit restless and decided to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from one of my favorite food blogs, A Pastry Affair. (I also found her recipe for a pumpkin spice latte that I plan on trying very soon.) The cookies are so simple, but delicious.

I've spent my free time recently renovating a mid-century modern dresser that was left in our basement into a sort of liquor cabinet (almost 21 guys, almost) where I took out the bottom two drawers and replaced them with semi-transparent plastic doors. It's pretty poorly constructed but I'm pretty proud of myself for trying to do something I'd never done before and it actually pretty much worked out.

That'll be my motto for this year; try new things and hope they work out.

Playing catch-up

So lately I've been wanting to take some style photos now that it's fall, but I just can't seem to casually take photos of myself on or around a college campus so once I figure that out there will be more outfit pictures.

For now, enjoy this flashback of me when I was in Hawaii this summer at a luau.

An expensive weekend

I love the way that the setting sun lights up a city. Every building has the shadow of the building in front cast upon it, the angular geometries of the skyline become intensified, and the sea of skyscrapers before you become spectacular to look at.

I spent Friday night and most of the day Saturday in New York City for a "field trip" to meet up with a professor at MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art along with some of my friends in the school of Architecture. The Le Corbusier exhibit that we went specifically to see was fantastic to say the least; it was amazing to see all of the work of one of the architects who defined what modern architecture is today. The museum is six stories of wonderful art and I only really got to experience about 4 of them, but it is somewhere I will definitely return to once a new exhibit is set up.

We also went to the Guggenheim which is a spectacular building, but the amount of work that was inside was lacking, and the featured artist really didn't do much for me, besides the lobby installation which mesmerizing. The rest of the time spent there we were with our other friends who are spending a semester studying in the city, the most of the time we spent together was at restaurants, which would have been fine if the service wasn't so poor and the food so expensive.

And even though I spent far too much money, I'll be back soon enough.

Does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all

I'm still not sure how this phenomenon occurs, but the first week of classes feels like it actually took course over the period of an entire month. It probably has something to do with the fact that I've been here for over 2 weeks now, but 5 days of classes should not have felt that long.

In terms of school:
- For third and fourth years of Architecture school we get put into a process where we rank our top choices for a professor during a given semester and a somewhat rule-based lottery determines if we get our top choice or not. I ended up getting my top choice, but it's different than all the rest because it meets Tuesday Wednesday.
- Because of that, I had to drop a course (I really didn't want to take it anyways) and I picked up another.
- The new course is a prep class getting architects ready to take the test to become LEED accredited which is much more beneficial to me.
- I think I might actually like my courses this semester, even with the large quantities of reading I have to do for Modernity (a history/theory course).
-Where is my motivation to be productive?

In terms of living in an apartment:
- I wish I had a car, or a knew how to and could get a motorcycle or something because I hate having to ask people for rides.
- Cooking on my own is good so far. The meals have been pretty unexciting but they have been healthy and taste good so I'm not complaining!
-  I don't even mind not having a dishwasher.
- Note to self and to others in charge of food: don't buy more produce than you can eat. For example, six ears of corn, although a steal, was a pretty unreasonable purchase.
- Follow up: If you do buy more produce than you should have look up ways to use it and keep it fresh longer. For example, cooking the corn and then cutting of the kernels to eat later when you feel like having corn again.
- This goes to anyone who has roommates. You will have problems with your roommates. It is bound to happen, big or small. Just try and resolve any issues in the most rational ways possible. Keep in mind, everyone comes from different ways of living and was taught different ways of doing things.

In other news:
- It is really hot and humid here and I always forget that because it's cold so much the rest of the year. (Note to self: If you end up getting an internship here over the summer invest in a window A/C unit!)
- I really need a haircut.
- Even though I am complaining about heat I just got a quilted jacket for fall because of good labor day deals.
- Kopecky Family Band, Lorde, and Josh Ritter are some recent music choices of mine.
- I'm really happy to be back with my friends on campus, but there are a lot of people that I miss quite a lot; whether they're abroad, graduated, or from different parts of my life.

That turned into a series of lists, and I do not apologize for that.