Oh the work...

So...this trip is truly amazing, BUT the amount of work that we have to do really takes away from the experience, not to mention this flu that has not gone away yet. I don't think that I have ever worked as hard as I have here, and I payed triple the money to come here. Studio is always asking us to produce more and more, even right after a review, and all our other classes do the same. It is so exhausting to try to get all your work done because you want to do well here, yet there is so much out there that we could be seeing! I think everyone envies the Texas A&M students because they are only taking 12 hours, of which studio takes up 6; whereas we have to take 18 hours!! I just always feel like I am wasting time on this trip, like instead of being in class looking at the hours and hours long PowerPoints, why can we not go out and explore more? Why can we not have a real three day weekend every weekend to go to other cities? I hate that everyone gets to visit places outside of Barcelona, and we don't. We are always doing work, night after night. The only new places I have visited this week have been with Professors Mills and Kathrin. We went walking to Monjuic and saw the Joan Miro Museum, and other parts in Monjuic, then we went with Kathrin and saw the Barcelona University Library and other parts near the port. As much as I love it here and would never want to go back, I really am very disappointed with the program, just because we have all this work. I will miss a very exciting festivity called Carnival in Sitges because I have so much do to. That upsets me so much, because this is an opportunity I will never get again.

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

We, with Professor Kathrin, made an outing to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra last Wednesday. There were many interesting spaces within the building, such as the mentioned water deposit rooftop (which turned out to be a playground for big kids, at least for us), the library, and the huge atrium space. The library had a really cool atmosphere and feeling to it, because of the varying ceiling heights, long desktop lamps, and hallways within rows of bookcases.


The large atrium space had a pretty weird feeling to it, almost like you were outside and inside at the same time. You were indoors, but the hardscape features, tall lamp posts, and natural lighting coming in from the partially exposed roof created the illusion of being outdoors. I would compare the feeling as being similar to your first day of high school. I guess it just felt so new because I've never experienced a space like that before.

DAMMIT

so, yeah on top of the countless other things we have to do in a semester abroad, this blog has become quite the thorn in my side to remember haha, but as clay tucker has been quoted to say on here, better late than never i suppose.

architecture.....

okay, so skip the architecture for now, my entire focus since my arrival here has been built upon experiences, both through archtecture and w/o architecture. It's these experiences that i find to be most influential in both what i see in spaces that surround me, and the spaces that i've become increasingly interested in designing.

tonight we went to the parade here in barcelona to celebrate the carnival in sitges that happens every year, it proved to be a success. the one thing i think i've taken from the parade, or through any "happiness" i've experienced here, is that it's all on a budget. the very first "float" in the parade delt entirely w/ bankruptcy which has become a heavier weight to bear on everyone's shoulders in the past few months, yet it's possible to experience, fun, excitement, architecture with a budget. whether that means designing on a tighter budget or designing to increase a budget, i feel that it's a powerful thought none the less. yes it's become "cool" in architecture to be LEED certified or whatever, but what i'm refering to is the simplicities in architecture that people can do on a budget, to increase the quality and performance of a building. not to be "cool" but to be smart, because it's not just us as designers that are on a budget, it's the world. it's a global problem that we are first hand designing to improve. sorry mills for my tardiness, please don't hate me, i'll probably fail your midterm monday anyway :( .....good luck fellow bloggers b/c monday's gonna....well..suck.