Updates

There's a strange man in my apartment and all I know is that he wears odd high top sneakers. And sandals in cold weather. For the past month, my roomie has been inviting mystery asian man over for sleepovers and occasionally not coming home, so my only conclusions are that mystery man is her boyfriend and that he is abnormally unresponsive to cold.
In other news, my midsemester grades were pretty darned horrible, mostly due to the fact that I've been focusing more on studio and dance than usual so the enviro classes kind of suffer. O, and by horrible, I mean I only got two As, so don't panic.
Also, after working for about four weeks straight on gut-wrenching heart-stopping gotta-meet-the-deadline work, I finally had a relaxing weekend where I just focused on crocheting a scarf for the long winter ahead. It was most amusing actually, what's been happening with that. For most of the day, I walked around with a ball of yarn tucked under my arm, the scarf around my neck and the "active" part was expanding with every minute as I chatted with everyone. At one point, I was sitting with Ben in his room watching him play Dead Rising and I got called downstairs to help out with something, so I wandered down, not realizing I was leaving a long trail of yarn behind me. Ben ever so kindly picked all of it up off the ground before the cat realized it was there and put it in a pile. Also, right before he was going to bring me home, I was reviewing the state of the scarf, and, to my chagrin, it has shrunk a lot in width. I have no idea where I'm losing stitches. So, I was quite upset, and grumbled while rolling all of the around the current ball of yarn I was on. What resulted was a fuzzy big ball roughly the size of a watermelon. I kept grumbling while I packed stuff up to go, turned around and found Ben curled up around the ball, shielding it from "destructive mommy." I thought that was funny. Not many boyfriends would try to rescue their girlfriends' botched crocheting projects. Isn't he sweet? :)

Exhausted

It's funny how I thought fourth year was such a breeze. I think part of it was the relief that we would be doing something more on the level of what I can understand. However, workload doesn't seem any less. For taking one less class than usual, I seem to still spend very little time at home.
Last Sunday, I had a big studio project due. At least, we all felt like it was a big studio deadline. Little did we know it, but on Wednesday, when the other studios had their presentations, what they pinned up was grease-pencil drawings on yellow trace. And here I spent $60 to make a book. That doesn't seem very fair. At least the review went well.
Immediately after that, I studied for a lighting exam, which I felt went well. Wednesday was my usual night off after discussing Lunar Gala with Waz. Thursday, whilst everyone partied and recuperated, Patrick and I sat in the computer lab putting together the beginnings of our lighting presentation. Friday, all day, I spent drawing the little people that went in our Lunar Gala design portfolio. They turned out fabulous. All of Saturday was spent grading homework and working out solutions for students to study off of. Sunday was all grading homework and Lunar Gala. The deadline was at 10 pm, but we were a little short on time when we found out that the printer didn't like 11x17 paper. But, in the end, we made it work - I even powerwalked between studio and the third floor computer lab. We got the deadline extended to 11 and exactly at 10:59, Waz and I grabbed our barely completed portfolio and sprinted full tilt over to the dropbox - and made it! Yay!
Then, of course, there was still Lighting to do, which is what I did last night until 4:00am. I think the presentation went will, though I feel that today, my thought process is significantly slower than normal because the exhaustion is setting in.
Dance at noon, right before the presentation - we had a substitute who had some interesting moves, many of which went too quickly for me to pick up. And, of course, it was very hip hop and if there's one thing that I really suck at...It should be fun though, a lot of my friends are in the class this time around so there's people to talk to.
1:30 was lighting, and then at 3:30, Waz and I had our Lunar Gala interview where we were solidly praised for the quality of our portfolios. I think we have a good chance, though they tell us that rehearsals are 6 hours a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 till god knows when. That will suck...and they start next week!
So now, here I am, with an hour and a half of free time before I teach recitation and then dance for three hours. Woe is me and my lack of rest. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow evening where I can just completely relax.

Sleep Walking

Have you ever woken up after a nap and gotten really confused on just what, exactly, happened? I pulled an all-nighter last night, and basically worried myself away all weekend long so I found myself in a state of zombieness today.
O and it just so happened, as well, that out of everyone in the entire studio, I had to stay the longest for my extra crit today, which, by the way, I really enjoyed because they had such nice things to say. After that, I went to dinner with Waz and then went home. Upon arriving home, I saw that it was around 7, and was a great time for me to take an hour's nap before doing some homework and then going to dance rehearsal - dance rehearsal that I lead, since I'm choreographing.
And then I woke up. About ten minutes ago, with the cell phone alarm clock thing on the nightstand next to me. How did it get there? I definitely set that thing on the other side of the room so I wouldn't turn it off in my sleep. And the funny thing is, usually, if I do that, I can vaguely recall myself turning the phone off, but this time...nothing...and I'm amazed I didn't trip over anything in my room because it looks like a typhoon came through here.
So all in all, I still have a lot of crap I need to do and let down a whole bunch of people who had to drag their butts to campus in the middle of the night just because of me. And I'm still sleepy. Crud...Sorry, guys...

A Detriment to Studio Culture

Cheers to me! According to my best friend's ex, I am a detriment to studio culture. According to this guru of feelings, I make my best friend feel bad about herself and I badmouth him to the entire school of Architecture.
I wasn't mad at him before. In fact, I was willing to give him a chance. I didn't talk to him unless he talked to me; since my best friend is working things out I figured I wouldn't do anything that might botch things up for her. I thought, 'Lend support to my best friend, try to be positive.' That was what I was trying to do.
And now this. I don't think I did anything to deserve hearing f***, s*** and b***** flung at me several times each over the course of three minutes. I don't recall spreading any information about him. I don't think I even discussed it with anyone who wasn't already aware of the entire situation. In fact, and I probably already said this, I didn't even hate him or dislike him until he decided to call me up just now. Not only was he rudely yelling expletives at me, he was self-righteous, condescending, arrogant, and ever so unaware as usual that he's, yet again, trying to displace the blame. Frankly, I'm offended and hurt. And yet, I still try to give him the benefit of the doubt...

Not Feeling the Love

There's something really depressing about standing at the front of an empty classroom. There's also something really depressing about going upstairs to remind people that there's recitation right now, at this moment, and no one's interested because they're too busy playing poker or eating dinner. Hey, let's add to the depression by having me haar my students joke and laugh about how I'd yell at them for not paying attention because they'll be too busy playing poker in the back of the classroom. Thanks guys. I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE! I'm not impressed. In fact, right now, I'm feeling more than a little resentful of these people.
So, I'm just standing here at the computer, waiting to see if anyone will show up for recitation. My guess is that no, no one is interested, and in approximately 10 minutes, I'll be walking out that door myself, fuming at the insolence of the little buggers. Loving TA I am not. Whawtever. At least I'm making $5 for just standing here and typing on my blog.

Edit: So, half an hour late, but three people managed to show up (they had to finish their poker game first). They were polite enough to sit through it all, and they had questions afterwards. How nice. Still, where's the other 55 people?

No Heat

So today I planned on doing the laundry, since it's been about three weeks since I'd done any. However, the hot water in the building is down and no one knows when it will be up again. While I'm a cold water laundry person, I was warned that the hot water might back up and ruin my clothes. So, alas, no laundry for me. Whatever am I going to do with...all my free time?

Fascinating

I had a good weekend. A few things happened of note, I suppose.
On Thursday, a little red-haired girl at the busstop decided I would be a good conversationalist and talked to me about bugs and dogs. She was very serious, and, for someone who looks like she must be about 7 or 8 years old (though I'm a bad judge of age when they're that young, she could be 10 for all I know) she was very well spoken. I think her mother is a professor or something at the school. That would proably explain things.
This weekend was quite relaxing. Ben and I enjoyed our post-anniversary by christening his brand new XBOX360. Well, rather, he played a LOT, and I watched. Sometimes. Mostly, I dozed in the chair next to him or graded homework nearby. Still, it was nice and relaxing.
Last night, I had the first rehearsal for my dance at 11pm. It went well, I suppose. I might have imagined it, but I kept feeling like everyone was staring at me thinking, "My god, why did I sign up for her dance. We're going to look terrible..." But maybe that was just nerves. I'm not good at leading when I actually know that I'm in charge. Hmm, now that's a revelation.
Today I got a wonderful package in the mail. I ordered two 1GB flash drives the size of trident gum online, and lo and behold, they came in a box that was 8x5x10. For two pieces of trident gum. What's more amazing is that the packaging material, styrofoam, was in larger pieces than the actual flash drives, making me have to dig and thereby torture myself with that horribly styrofoam noise.
Still, 2GB! YAY!

:(

Days like today I just don't feel good about myself. In fact, days like today, I don't even like myself. Life is unfair. No one gives a crap how hard you work, you still get screwed over in the end.

Depressed

So I've got a few things that make me depressed.

1) It's raining and cold, that makes for a bad combination.
2) I have a huge blister on my toe from dance auditions on Saturday and it seems to get more painful with everyday.
3) The blister wasn't worth it - I still didn't get into the one dance I really wanted. Darnit.

On the upside:
1) I got a really good set of dancers in my dance (except one of them seems to have combined my existence with Alice W., which offends me to the core)
2) I made a new friend in the Afro/Caribbean dance class
3) I got a lot of sleep last night.

I'm not sure if it's all evened out. It might be even, but Depressed Reason 3 seems to tip the scale in its...favor?

Auditions and Food

Yesterday was Dancer's Symposium tryouts. I was most apprehensive because I'm choreographing and I hadn't actually ever practiced the dance that I had to show people. Needless to say, when I went on stage, it didn't go so well. O yes, and did I say I missed the choreographer meeting so I didn't know what to say when I went on stage? Well, I suppose as choreographing went, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't a good selection. Most of the girls who are really good weren't interested because it seemed too easy and the girls who did try out just aren't very good. So, I'm changing it. I think they'll all be mildly horrified when they find out that the nice slow song has turned into a moderately fast song and it's slightly more hip hop and a lot less lyrical. I think I'll teach them what I've got so far and if they screw up, well, I'll go back to the easy one. Most important is having girls who can do this.
As for auditioning itself, I think it went well. For once, my pirouettes were on the spot. I'm really hoping I get into this one lyrical jazz piece, but if not, at last I'll have a few others. And if I did far worse than I thought I did, well, at least I have my own to look cool in.
After dance, I ran home and cooked for Waz's housewarming potluck. From what I'd been hearing from Waz, it seemed like there weren't many people bringing food so I decided to bring two dishes, a dinner and a dessert. For dinner, a cod and mushroom casserole that many people enjoyed. For dessert, an almond tofu (not actually tofu, just looks like it) with fruit cocktail mix of deliciousness. That went over particularly well. Waz told me that at the end of the evening, there was only one bowl's worth of the dessert left. Similarly, according to my calculation, there was exactly one bowl's worth of fish casserole left over for my enjoyment.
Ironically, I didn't have to worry about people not having enough to eat, since most of the people Waz invited decided not to show up for some stupid reason or other. I'm most annoyed with them. I managed to bring Ben, and he lives 20 miles away. Ben, by the way, was afraid he would be torturously bored or antagonized and found that he was neither. Well, maybe he was a little bored. It wasn't a problem anyway, since we left around 9 so his dogs didn't have to be locked in the house with no where to pee for too long. I brought a bit of the almond dessert I had left over to his place and gave it to his parents. His mom seemed to like it.
So, to sum up my weeked, I danced relatively well and I know I could make a pretty good dessert chef. ^_^

Hamsters and Ballerinas

I came to a strange conclusion this morning after ballet. For the majority of the day, I'm like a hamster. I like to slump over and huddle in a little area and just eat and sleep. And if I'm out and about, I just kind of sit there and look. Well, maybe I'm not a hamster per se, just a lazy fat rodent, like a guinea pig...
However, it seems after ballet class, I seem much less guinea pig-like. I guess something about the stretching in the class just makes me stand straighter. I look so much thinner after dance, or it could just be something that bothers me when I'm not exercising, that I'm getting fatter because I'm getting lazy. Who knows, my brain is wonky apparently. You can thank Barthes for that.

By Dose is Clogged

Translation: My nose is clogged.
Ernesto seems to have caused me to get a bit of a head cold. Never fear, Sinus Decongestant is waiting for me upon my arrival home. Thank god.
Other than that, nothing of note has been happening lately. I had a nice Labor Day weekend with my benny-bean. He was very nice and drove me all the way to Ikea and suffered through the whole ordeal. To pay him back, I'm going to make a delicious spaghetti dinner for him. Hopefully I don't burn anything.
Right now, I wish I had a tissue...

First Week

Classes seem to be in full swing now. I actually find myself enjoying it so far. It possibly has something to do with the fact that I am only (only!) taking six classes this semester and most of them are fun, or at least, interesting. I think the only one I'm really not excited about is the Mechanical Systems one, but that's mostly because it's so early.
I had a most pleasing day yesterday. For studio, we had to make that occupancy poster. So I made mine. I might post it, but basically it's a big grey word (Occupancy) going diagonally across the page, and I altered a few letters and turned them into the phrase, "Occupancy - function of habitation." There was actually no hyphen, it's just implied. And then I made little red silhouettes sit on the words or around them.
I was quite worried in class when everyone hung up their posters and basically all of them were chock full of words or images. And then there was mine. Four words, four silhouettes. So I started to worry and then continued to worry as the studio progressed and went on for an hour where it seemed absolutely no one noticed my poster. Finally, my professor says he's been waiting and waiting and I guess he just didn't want to wait any longer, and he wants to know all about the Russian Constructivist poster. I felt like a bad student as I wondered what the heck that meant, and felt even dumber when I realized that he meant mine. And what's worse is when I started talking about it, he thought I was talking about the wrong poster because I didn't turn my head all the way to look at it. Yes, everyone, my eyeballs are quite flexible too. So I just muttered about the poster a little bit, basically saying that there's not much to say and then he says he really likes it. Then Stephanie chimes in and says she likes it too! Yay! So I guess I wasn't a complete idiot.
Then my day became especially pleasing at bookbinding. Passion-wise, I think I've found my calling. I love books. I love reading them, I love making them. I do think that I would willingly sit at a table for hours and work on a book until it was perfect. When the professor mentioned that one of his former students is in NY with her own firm specializing in letterpressing and bookbinding I got to thinking, maybe that's all I really want to do. Maybe when I'm all done with school and have worked for a few years, I'll just start a little business where I can make pretty books for gifts, cards and whatnot and even do custom binding and such for those who want fancier portfolios. It wold be like Kinko's except that the employees would actually have brains. Sounds like a credible business, maybe? I think it might work, though mom wouldn't approve because she would probably think that it wouldn't have much in the way of customers. Who knows?

The Rising Tide of Doom

Every year on the first day of classes, I always feel waves of dread as the teachers, who act as if they were going easy on us, assign one assignment after another.
Still, the day went well.
I started out the day by going to my Mechanical Systems class where the teacher talked about how he intends to go easy on us. Then he gave us our homework. We have to go to a fast food restaurant and stare at the vents, and hold our cheeks against the cracks between doors. As silly as it sounds, there is a point to it. I'm going with a couple of people today so we don't look like complete idiots.
Then, I sat around with some people for three hours since we don't have any studio space.
Studio consisted of an hour long lecture by Laura Lee and various higher ups in the department. Apparently our school is hosting the AIAS northeastern quad conference. I wonder what that's going to entail. Then we went to our new studio and stood around for what felt like another hour until our professors decided to show up. They all gave really long course descriptions, but fortunately, all of them sound good (in comparison to last year, anyway). I'm looking forward to whichever Professor I end up with.
I ended up the day with a ballet class at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. The thing about dancing there is that most of the people there have been dancing there, with the same teachers, for years. Many are professional ballerinas. So, needless to say, with basically five years of spotty ballet lessons, I felt horribly ungraceful and fat. Still, I felt great walking out of class, so I'm going back for more torture on Thursday, hopefully with a classmate in tow.
Now I have to figure out how to define "Occupancy." I looked it up in the dictionary, but somehow I doubt that the teacher was going for the exact definition. I see a big word on my 11x17. A big diagonal "Occupancy" and probably a smaller "Habitation." We'll see where I go with that.

The Unfairness of it All

So, since the non-major jazz class in the school of drama stopped for good last semester, I worked with the class president (or whatever his official title is) to put together a good, technique based dance class together. Today, I found out that there will be a class (yay), but, like all the other classes I want to take, it's during studio (curses!) So, yes, I'm feeling very put out about that.
On the upside, I contacted my landlord the other day, who just happens to be a former ballet dancer for the PBT about dance classes. Today I talked to him on the phone about it and he is good friends with the head of the ballet department at Point Park, which I hear is very very good. So maybe I won't have a technique-less year. After trying to get back in shape this summer, having a year where all I do is forget how to keep my hips aligned is horrifying. Here's to Point Park.

The Unfairness of it All

So, since the non-major jazz class in the school of drama stopped for good last semester, I worked with the class president (or whatever his official title is) to put together a good, technique based dance class together. Today, I found out that there will be a class (yay), but, like all the other classes I want to take, it's during studio (curses!) So, yes, I'm feeling very put out about that.
On the upside, I contacted my landlord the other day, who just happens to be a former ballet dancer for the PBT about dance classes. Today I talked to him on the phone about it and he is good friends with the head of the ballet department at Point Park, which I hear is very very good. So maybe I won't have a technique-less year. After trying to get back in shape this summer, having a year where all I do is forget how to keep my hips aligned is horrifying. Here's to Point Park.

Cow?

Today we had a family outing. Yay! Where did we go as a family? Grocery shopping! Yay!
The main reason for shopping today was that we're going to be having a big barbecue tonight and there's a lot and lot of people coming over. So we went to Stew Leonards, a local supermarket where everything is extra fresh, and mom and dad stared at different cuts of steak for what must have been twenty minutes. While they were doing that, the oddest thing happened.
The thing about Stew Leonards is that it's a family friendly place, so it has little robotic things that come alive at a push of a button and do something cute, like lay an egg or sing a song. Occasionally, there's people in cow or duck costumes that walk around and play with kids. Never grownups, occasionally teens, but mostly kids. Which is why it was really odd when a cow came up to May and me while we were waiting for our parents. We were talking in a corner and all of a sudden, there's a cow...standing...right...there... My first response is, "O my god." It waves and then holds its hand in mid-air, and I wonder why, and then May gives the cow-person a mid-five, because it certainly wasn't high enough to be a high-five. Then the cow turns to me, so I respond with another uncertain mid-five. And just like that, cow-person turns around and walks into the back room.
Random. Very odd.
So we stood there for the rest of the time trying to figure out what the deal was with cow-person. At first I thought maybe it was someone I knew. Then we theorized cow-person was sent as an undercover cow-scout to figure out why we were just standing in the corner for twenty minutes. As if I would take that long if I wanted to shoplift...

Pirouettes

It's been bothering me to the point where I literally dreamed about it last night.
Last summer, I took dance classes in New York and all of a sudden, bam, I could do pirouettes. Singles, doubles, triples, I could nail them every time, ending exactly where I should end, staying up in a passe. I started off the school year nailing the turns just like that, every single time. Then, all of a sudden, I just...forgot how.
So, the last Tuesday I was in China, I took a ballet class. At the barre, of course, I sucked. All the other girls had great turnouts and great extensions and I was just rusty and overall unimpressive. Then, when we went across the floor doing pirouettes, all of a sudden, bam, yet again. Every single time, single, double or triple, abolutely on point, I could feel myself absolutely on center for both left and right pirouettes.
And now, I can't do them anymore. Again. I strongly suspect it has something to do with taking ballet classes (pulling up, elongating the spine, keeping the hips aligned, all that stuff we ignore in jazz) except that, o, of course, the selfish school of Drama won't open any classes for people who aren't drama majors. So, I'm left looking at ballet classes that are off campus and horrendously expensive. Except that the schools around CMU only seem to offer ballet on Tuesday which is when I have to teach statics recitation. Curses!

Treadmills

Back in Connecticut and enjoying it. I've done pretty much nothing but eat, sleep and play video games since I got home. Well, I also hung out with Marlen at the mall where I bought a very very pretty pair of shoes. I can't wait to wear them. When did I become so obsessed with those things?
Anyway, I just had to share this music video. Best treadmill workout ever!

Home Sweet Home

I'm back in Connecticut! Yay! Happy, happy, happy. I always forget, but it's so nice to be utterly surrounded by just trees and sunlight, where the only sound is my parents talking and the birds. No cars, no smog, just "the country."
So my plane ride was a little uncomfortable. This time around, the seats didn't have footrests and there were entirely too many babies on board for my comfort. I sat next to an adorable little old lady who I felt quite bad for because she started throwing up halfway into the flight. And the airline attendants didn't have anything for her tummy which made me feel double bad for her. Other than that, though, the flight was good. I watched a few good movies - "Something New" and "Take the Lead." "Something New" was much better than I had anticipated, and somehow the movie made toenail painting look incredible kinky. INCREDIBLY. It also made me slightly suspicious as to how many men actually go for that kind of thing. As for "Take the Lead," obviously I loved it because there was dance. I didn't realize until the end credits that the girl who does the menage-a-trois tango at the end is my former piano teacher's grand-daughter. Go, Jenna!
So yes, my entire family met me at the airport and I told them all about my trip. I pulled out the big sack of candy I bought for daddy and he was very pleased. I also told mom about how I took a ballet class in modern shoes and ended up getting huge blisters on my feet from all the turning I did (but I've suddenly regained the ability to do perfect turns, so it's worth it). Then today we went out and did grocery shopping and dad seemed to be mocking me and my new aversion to NorthEastern Chinese food by buying pickled cabbages. Bad daddy, no peanut candy for you.

Goodbye Jazz du Funk

Today was my last class ever at Jazz du Funk. It was happily an amazing end to the experience with my favorite teacher, Allen, teaching lyrical jazz. Yet again, I will state that Allen is an amazing teacher, and I'm also starting to think, after watching millions of reruns of "So You Think You Can Dance" that he's kind of Brian Friedman-esque in his choreography, only more modern. Great guy (that phrase is a gross understatement of how much I respect him).
Anyhoo, I ended up spending an extra half hour after class talking to the people that were Jazz du Funk regulars gossip and plan future classes. I found out from a lady named Debbie that there's more dance schools in Shanghai, and she's taking me to a ballet class on Tuesday (yay!). I should've started making friends sooner, stupid me.
Allen was also regaling us with tales of how he'd be dancing on the way to some elevator and end up smashing into something. Apparently he bumps into things very often. That started off another conversation about how everyone in the room always seems to walk into things when they're just walking. I'm glad they mentioned that because walking always seems like such an akward thing to me, too. I can't seem to avoid people or objects and just end up glancing off of them into something else, and it seems to be the case for the others. A girl (I don't know her name, but she's from Sweden - cool, no?) hypothesized that since dancers are constantly keeping their entire bodies controlled while dancing, it seems like such an odd thing to be relaxed when just walking, and being particularly limber, dancers end up just wobbling into everything. I decided that that makes sense. I do feel very akward walking, like I'm too fast, or too slow, off the beat that everyone else seems to be following, constantly trying to and failing to avoid bumping into other people. It's ironic that mom enrolled me in ballet so that I would be more graceful.

Countdown: 9 days

With only nine days left till I go back to the US, I thought I would list a few things I've come to realize during my stay in China.
I. Things I will not be missing about China
a) Not being able to drink tapwater - It's like being stranded in the ocean with water all around you when you're dying of thirst and not a speck of it is good for drinking. Except that in this case, I haven't even had the chance to step on said offending soon-to-be-sunk boat and am instead, surrounded by working faucets dispensing all rust-scented water I could ever hope to dream of when the water cooler is empty.
b) Traffic - I miss being able to cross the street in an orderly fashion, meaning when the little walking man lights up and the music blares, it's my turn. No, truck driver, not your turn. And don't you dare honk your horn and glare at me like it's my fault. For that matter, I find it incredibly annoying when people have no reason at all to honk at me because I'm out of the way, on the sidewalk, and Still, they have to honk. I keep having this urge to flick people off and yell obscenities except I don't know enough bad Chinese to hold my own in an argument.
c) Being identified and therefore villified for being a foreigner. It isn't so bad if you're American, white and male. They LOVE that here adn for all the worng reasons. However, if you look asian, don't speak very good Chinese (or at least have a detectable accent) then you are a possible victim, whether it be for making a shirt cost triple price or being marked by shady cab drivers as possible rape victims. I thought I was doing okay with being at least generally Chinese, but just three days ago, I was accused of being Japanese, Korean and some odd Chinese-Russian mix. Yeah, as if I would ever pass for Russian.
d) Dumplings - good lord, I don't think I could eat another one of those horrid things ever again. Supposedly hand made is always better, but in this case, it's much worse. The dumplings here are all the dough-like stuff on the outside, with just the teeniest smidgen of meat on the inside. It's like biting into a cabbage flavored mochi. I miss mommy's cooking...
II.Things I will miss about China:
a) Haggling - I love to haggle. LOVE. Especially when I can do it without being too rude. My crowning achievement was haggling two dresses from a total of 200RMB down to 70RMB. That's pretty good, I think. Particularly since the maid told me the shirt she was wearing this morning was 50RMB. I think I enjoy the bargaining aspect much more than the actual acquiring of things. It's so sad to go back to the US where a $70 pair of jeans will always be $70 and therefore forever out of my reach.
b) Air Conditioning - O, ozone depletion, how I delight in thee. You can bet almost none of the air conditioners in this country are environmentally friendly. And yet they make hot and humid weather so much more tolerable.
c) Bizarre Popsicles - here's a treat. What's chocolate on the outside, pudding in the middle and red beans in the center? The popsicle Shelly ate yesterday. The red bean was an unexpected surprise, but she claims it was still quite tasty. Mine was a delightful confection of vanilla and coffee which lasted almost all the way back to the office. O and let's not forget myh favorite, vanilla with raisins! Add a little rum and it's my favorite ice cream flavor. Add a little imagination and teenage boys would by dying to watch. Horrible, no?
III. Things I miss about the States:
a) STEAK - yah, I'm a carnivore. I tried the vegetarian thing once, but it didn't really work out. I'm getting tired of every single piece of meat int eh country being cut into little bite sized pieces or smothered in sauce so that it's no longer distinguishable meat so much as an added bi to ftexturre in an eggplant dish. I miss meat, as in a juicy steak seasoned with only salt and pepper and cooked on a charcoal grill. Yes, I know, my food fantasies are quite vivid. As Marlen once said, "I may be thin on the outside, but on the inside, I'm obese."

I'm sure more things will come to me as the week goes on. But for now, back to work and dreams of steak.

Big Brother

So, after last weekend's horrible all-nighter experience, it was really nice to just sit back and relax this weekend. I was lazing around Saturday morning when Gege (pronounced "Guh-guh", means big brother in Chinese) walked in and thumped me on the head saying, "Hey, long time no see." Yah...thanks for drinking all my milk the other day and not telling me...
Little aside: He's not actually my big brother. He's actually my cousin, but I call him big brother because he lived with my family for two years way back in my elementary school days.
Still, it's nice to see him after not seeing him for about two weeks despite the fact that we live next door to each other. Yesterday I was telling him how much I missed having American food like Pizza and Fries and STEAK, so he decided to take me out later for some good old American cuisine. We went to a mall near his office where there was not only Pizza Hut and Papa John's, there was also a Dairy Queen, a KFC and a McDonalds. American Food Paradise! So first we went to the video arcade and spent an hour playing car racing games and Taiko drums. Fun fun. And then we went to Papa Johns and got a teeny tiny pizza that was half pepperoni and half "Mexican." Then we realized it was getting late and we had to pick up my uncle from the airport, so Gege bothered the waitresses into 1)hurrying up our order, 2) changing the onion rings in our pre-arranged meal package deal into potato wedges and 3) changing things at the last minute from eating-in to to-go. I told him at one point they probably hate us now, and he said, "Well then they'll probably be extra eager to put everything in a bag and get us out the door." With the bill came a lotto-ticket-like thing where you can win whatever the prize is if your gamepiece has a certain flag or something. Gege won an apple pie which they refused to give saying that the earliest we could get it is tomorrow (or rather, today). Stupid rules.
But anyhoo, when we finally got all the food, we had 10 minutes to get to the airport, so Gege used his speed driving arcade skills and drove us to the airport in 7 all the while eating pizza with one hand. Pretty impressive. Then we just sat, ate pizza and complained about our smoothies until my uncle walked out of the airport.
So that was my fun evening with Gege. I think that for all that he picked on me when I was seven, it's still kind of cool to have a big brother that takes me out for arcade games and pizza.

Nausea

Nauseating things:
Today on the bus, I experienced serious motion sickness. The reason being that 1) I was reading a book, 2) The bus ride was particularly bouncy, and 3) a guy sitting next to me smelled like salt and vinegar potato chips in a bad bad way. My tummy is currently doing backflips and I am not liking the feeling at all.
Also, I just read that "Michael" of Project Runway is making things that look suspiciously like fashion designs out of Elle magazine. So now we have someone plagiarizing things on national television. What I can't figure out is why on earth someone would do that. Why would someone risk his integrity on national television. I suppose he doesn't remember how Vanessa flipped out on television in the first season and had her sales drop a LOT. Stupid people. If people are watching, you really want to be on your best behavior and not let all the dirty laundry hang out for everyone to see.

More Random Musings

It's odd that amongst all the yummy food available in Shanghai (Soup Dumplings, regular dumplings, korean barbecue, etc.) I still find myself craving pizza. Good pizza. Really really good pizza with only a little bit of cheese and a lot of sauce and a lot of crust. Mmmmm, Pizza Hut...
On another note, I am currently the only English speaker left in the office. Shelly is on vacation with her boyfriend, Scott. Kathleen has moved on to a new internship, a hopefully more productive internship, at a bank somewhere. That leaves little old me, studious and ever-hard working (boy would my professors be surprised to hear that) all alone and o so sad. No, not really. It's not so bad. I get a little peace and quiet, except that WangYue keeps bothering me. I think I might murder him soon. He keeps dragging me away from what I'm doing so I can translate stupid games he's downloaded. And when did this annoyance start? Well, it definitely gave me a big nudge when he woke me up when he decided to take my picture while I was sleeping on the couch. There's nothing more horrid than knowing that someone might be watching you while you sleep. It's stalkerish...
O, and somehow, even though I'm eating all this food, I seem to be looking thinner, or so people tell me. I guess it's because I don't really like any of the candy or pastries they have in this country, so I simply indulge in fruit instead. The apples, I have found, are incredibly yummy. I suppose when I get back to the US, I should just continue not eating cake and cookies, but oh boy are they yummy.

All-Nighter Aftermath

Yesterday was the most boring, horrible day of work ever. I mean that in that after pulling an all-nighter, we still weren't allowed to not go in to work (since that would be considered a vacation day). Nor could we sleep during work. Nor did we actually have any work to do. So what started out as a hectic morning, turned into a horribly long, drawn out afternoon spent in front of my computer watching movies over and over again that I had no interest in watching. At one point, I passed out on my table for five minutes and woke up with a big red spot where my collar bone met the table. At 6:30 I whisked myself out of the office as quickly as possible and took a horrifically long busride home, finally entering the door at 8:00 pm.
So I found out my uncle is back in town. And he arrived at 6:00 am to find that I wasn't around. My cousin knew I was at the office, but the maids didn't know where I was. I told the maid this morning that I was working all night at the office, but I have a feeling she didn't quite believe me. Wangyue suggested I show her the photos of me sleeping first on the lobby couch and then on the kitchen table. Boy, that should be fun. Kind of annoys me though. Why else would I stay out all night? I doubt I'd like Karaoke enough to spend an entire night (a school night, no less) singing in a frumpy disco-like bar. Whatever. If mom calls to yell at me, I'll just tell her I was being annoyed at the office by my coworkers who have absolutely no model-building skills.

All-Nighter

Let it be known that I find it tremendously unfair that I'm the only intern in the firm that has to pull an all-nighter. But then again, it's 4:15am over here and I'm feeling might crabby. I went in to work at 11am and started off working on model building. Then I did some photoshopping and then back to model building. I've been working on the stupid model for over 10 hours. I hate brillo trees.
So yes, my first professional all-nighter. Nice to have such a head start on what looks to be my future career. All-nighters twice a month. Sweet...
o yes, and I found out today that the model building skills of people in this firm are atrocious. WangYue makes boxes that don't even come together on the edges. Simple decency, man! And boy did he really annoy me when he dragged up from my desk all the way over to his and I find that the all important reason is that he wants me to translate the English on some stupid Hot Wheels video game he downloaded off the internet. I wonder if he realizes that a large reason why I'm still here at this horrible hour is because he's wasting time downloading stupid video games off the net instead of trying to make a credible box. I think I've remade nearly every one of the buildings he started.
And the dumplings! God, if I have to eat another dumpling, I'm going to hurl. I almost feel like the only strong thing I've gained in China is a strong aversion to dumplings, particularly chive dumplings. Those things make me feel like I just ate a rock.
O yes, and I don't think I get to go home after this o so joyous all nighter either. If I want to get paid for the day (Monday, that is) I have to be there for a full nine hours in a row. That means that if I go home at 6, sleep and come in at noon, I have to stay till 9 pm. And it takes me an hour to get home. It seems that it's not worth it at all, so I'm just going to sleep at the office. And I'm going to buy a toothbrush in the morning when the stores open. And Shelly's bringing her boyfriend in to visit tomorrow. I can just imagine it. "Hello, Scott. So nice to meet you. Why yes, I do have raccoon eyes, thank you for noticing." And then when I get home, my cousin will lecture me yet again for not informing him that I'd been out late. Though I didn't really think I'd still be here at 4:30am (yah, that's what time it is now). And then when I get home tomorrow, I'm sure GuanAh-Yi will be following me around asking me questions in her in-distinguishable dialect and not understanding a thing I say in response.
I'm in a very bad mood. Can you tell?

Paranoia

So, as you all know, I had my cell phone - actually, my aunt's really-really-super-duper-expensive-and-not-at-all-worth-the-money cell phone - stolen by a pick pocket the other day. Today, on the bus back from dance class, I started thinking about the evening when it went missing and I realized when it happened, who did it and how he did it. That bastard.
So the events went like this. I keep the cell phone with my bus pass in a pocket on the front of my purse. I get on the bus and open the pocket to pull out my pass and as I'm doing so, a man gets off the bus and jostles me in the process. I'm pretty positive that in that moment, he reached in the open pocket, grabbed the phone and then got off the bus. That bastard.
I got home last night really late because Anita (my supervisor) is leaving the office. We had a big farewell dinner at a Korean barbecue place and then went Karaoke-ing at a tacky place somewhere nearby. It was fun - our coworkers and bosses are super scary and not at all what I expected when they are singing. LiQiang in particular creeped me out. He's normally such a nice boy...
After we finished singing at around 1:30, the office secretary, WangJing, drives me part of the way home and drops me off somewhere nearby where I live. I was standing on the corner hailing for a cab when a red cab approaches with two men in it. It looks like the meter is running so I take a glance inside. Upon looking in I see there's two middle aged men. One's in the cab seat and the other one is in the passanger seat. They both ask me where I'm going and I was polite saying that I'm fine, I'll catch my own cab, but thanks all the same.
Some things wrong with this scenario:
1) Obviously I'm slightly paranoid because there aren't that many good samaritans in the city of Shanghai.
2) From my experience, cab drivers are completely disinterested in their passangers. This one seemed a little too buddy buddy with the passanger, even offering a bit to the conversation (aka Get in the cab, lady).
3) If a cab driver had a passanger who wanted to be nice and help a stranded lady in the middle of the night, he'd probably say no, because that would mean less money for him or one of his fellow coworkers.
Looking back on it, I also noticed a couple of things:
1) A similar thing happened on Wednesday night when I was hailing a cab. Except the taxi didn't stop on the corner, rather the passanger rolled down the window while the car was passing and put his arm out in a follow-me gesture. Yah, like hell I'll follow you.
2) I really wished I bothered to copy down the cab driver's ID number so I could report a possible hobby rapist who spends gas money entertaining his friend and trying to pick up daft foreign girls for god knows what reason instead of doing his job.
So yes, I'm feeling very paranoid in this city right now. I start to wonder if everyone who takes a second glance at me is a pickpocket sizing up my worth or a horny guy thinking about luring me into a back ally. My coworkers told me not to discount children for thieves, so now even little girls in pretty pretty princess dressed are treated with suspicion. Every middle-of-the-night-cab driver is now a possible mugger who might drive me out of the city and put a bag over my head before beating me and taking all my stuff. Bastards, all of them. I wish I had something like pepper-spray or a knife, or something. I get horrible images in my mind about all sorts of things. What if I had gotten close to the car and they had chloroform? What if they had just jumped out and grabbed me? Sometimes I wish mom had let me take those martial art classes in Chinese school...

Picked

So you know how when you go abroad, people always warn you to watch your bags, keep them in front of you and things like that? Well, I followed the advice. I had my bag in front of me, kept a hand, if not at least an eye on it, and still, it wasn't enough.
Yes, everyone. I, Angela, have had my purse picked. The nice new, shiny Motorola Razor (or Razr if you have to be "cool" like that) that once belonged to my aunt is now probably somewhere on the Chinese cell phone black market. I can just imagine someone turning the thing on and thinking, "Why the heck are there so many baby pictures on here?"
So I emailed my sister and told her to tell mom, and have mom tell my aunt. Yes, I am, as always, being very indirect so as to avoid as much heat as possible. Though I get to see my uncle in a few days. I hope he isn't going to be too mad with me...
It also wouldn't have been so bad if something else had been taken as well. Then I could have said, "Yes, your phone and my [insert precious and treasured belonging of Angela's here] have both been stolen" instead of saying, "Well all of my stuff is here, thank god for that. Your phone, on the other hand..." Yahhhh, so, crap...

PMS

I don't know if it's PMS, but I was feeling most annoyed with everyone. One woman in the office I find particularly annoying because she's very loud and crass. LOUD. and CRASS. Right now she's shouting in the kitchen which is on the otherside of our not so small office, and I can hear everything clearly. I think I might murder her soon, it's getting so annoying.
On a brighter note, I went to a Jazz class last night, taught by none other than a Mr. Strever look-a-like. Except whereas I remember Mr. Strever being cadaverously thin (no offense Strevie), this guy, as Jamie the contemporary dancer from LA says, is CUT. So if you want to imagine my dance teacher, imagine Strevie with wiry muscles and a flamboyant flounce to his movement. O yes, and imagine him a little shorter too. Jamie also told me I ought to go to his hip hop class on Tuesdays. If they're anything like the Jazz class, I think I will. I think I'm getting fat. Actually, no. I am getting fat. Stupid dumplings. I think I should go on that watermelon lunch diet everyone here seems to love so much.
Jamie is a premed student at Berkeley who is currently sitting in on surgeries at some reknowned hospital in Shanghai. Yesterday, right before dance class, she was busy probing a live human being's brain. Just the thought of probing a person's brain already grosses me out, but then adding that it's a live human being...ick... Poor brain. I asked her if the person is ok now. I also think that it would be a bad idea to get sick in this country because I might have a 19 year old premed student performing surgery on me.
On another note, my hip doesn't feel right. I think I must have sprained it or something. Is it possible to sprain a hip?

Not So Bad After All?

It's fascinating. During the school year, I always feel like the dunce in studio. I always feel like teachers look at my work and think, "This is exactly what I teach students not to do." I feel like most people in studio think that in general my architectural design skills are poor to Wal-mart quality. And yet, here I find at LWMA that the architect and my supervisor actually seem to like my work. My coworkers actually seem to like it too. Not my school work, mind you. I'll just continue hiding that trash I do during the school year.
Right now the office is working on a new project in QingDao where we are revamping some old factory buildings for office and retail. I chose to do a geometric analyzation a la first year. For once, the person in charge liked what I did, and assigned two people to work with me on my idea. Not that I'm in charge. XiaoGuan and ZhangYu spent the better part of an hour interrogating me in a language I find I barely understand, trying to understand how I came up with what I did, so we can all figure it out and make something nice. I do think I'll keep this project for my portfolio. It's slightly Koolhaas like.
So maybe I'm actually not a bad architect. Maybe I just need to take less classes so I can focus more on studio... I think I just have to restructure my priority list during the year.

Dance!

I found a dance school in Shanghai, finally. Well, I knew about it for a while, but never had the time to go take any classes until now. It's only been a month of not taking any classes, but I am completely out of shape now. Right now, I feel as if I've been run over by a truck.
The nice thing is that I haven't lost too much of my flexibility and I did a triple priouette that could have gone into a quadruple if it hadn't surprised me so much I dropped out of the turn. I surprise myself too much.
I took a contemporary dance class on Saturday. It involved a lot of contractions and push/sit-ups the like I've never done before, and boy were they tiring. I had trouble doing the dances that the teacher made up mostly because I was so sweaty I stuck to the floor. Sunday I took a lyrical class taught by exactly the kind of girl I avoid in normal everyday life. Still, it was fun. I've never taken a lyrical class before and it wasn't what I expected. I also tried to start off the class in jazz sneakers. Bad idea. Foot cramps. I think maybe the teacher started to hate me because I stopped in the middle of class to take off my shoes. I think Ken Leigh's class has ruined me for non-barefoot warmups.
O and I made a new friend, though I don't remember her name. Little Chinese girl who's going to be a sophomore premed student at UCBerkeley. I told her I was an archie and got the usual response. "O I have a bunch of archie friends. You guys are always in studio!" Yes, yes, we know, our lives revolve around studio. I think I'm starting to get tired of hearing that...

F*$%

Great. Just great.
So, it's been going on a while. Ben would call, talk about his separation anxiety and then get mad at me for leaving him. I thought it would be fine. Only two months to go, I said at one point. And then it progressed to, only 50 more days to go. Today it's 48. But his anxiety is quite a bit worse, now that it's been over a month and I'm on the other side of the world.
Today he asked me to go back to Pittsburgh sooner so that we can be together longer. I understand that he wants to see me as soon as possible and I would like to oblige. However there's also the fact that I get home from China on August 3, and if I were to go back any earlier, I'll have barely spent any time with my parents at all. I can't just go home, say hello and be off. If I go back to Pittsburgh when he wants me to, I'll be too tired to even say hello because I haven't even recovered from jetlag yet.
We were in a pretty heated argument today. He seems to think I won't go back simply because my parents don't want me dating him and I think it will tip them off. He doesn't even consider the fact that I see my family for less than two months a year and it would be nice to spend some time with them when I can.
The argument descended to a point where Ben demanded my home phone number so he could call my mother, tell her what the deal is and declare that he'll never give me up, he loves me so much. As flattered as I am by his attentions, it's not going to help our situation. If anything, it could quite possibly make things horribly worse. Besides, meeting my parents over the phone is not the best introduction, even if it was a conference call. I told him that, and he doesn't understand. But then, he doesn't have Chinese parents, and so it would be difficult for him to understand.
So our conversation ended with something along the lines of Ben saying that "this" is all ridiculous, he gives up, my parents hate him, good bye. So what exactly does that mean? I'm horribly upset over the fact that he might have dumped me because of my parents.
I'm not going to let it get to me at work. I'm not.

Nothing much has been happening lately at work. There's been a lot of torrential downpours with sudden onsets. I started out for work yesterday with sunglasses thinking it was going to be an overly bright and sunny day, and halfway to work, the clouds come in and by the time I'm at my stop, the rain is coming down in sheets. I went into work completely soaked. Fortunately, someone had a hair dryer and an extra shirt for me to borrow.
But other than that, nothing much has been happening. I had a fun lunchtime conversation with Shelly and Kathleen about vanity in asia. It seems that in China, only girls actually give a crap about how they look and too often it consists of pounds of makeup, see through white dresses and cheesy side ponytails. We talked a little about girls in Korea. Apparently it's quite common for girls there to receive plastic surgery for their 16th birthday. We likened it to parents saying, "O honey, we're so sorry you were born ugly. But now that you're old enough, you can go under the knife and make it all better!" Yay! They told me that the process involves lopping off a chunk of eyelid, and even afterwards, there's a definite scar so it's still obvious that the double eyelids that people are looking at aren't natural. I don't know if it's worth it... Does having an extra crease to your eyelids make you that much prettier?
But other than that, there hasn't been anything happening. The dogs have somehow got a hold of WangYue's shoe so we must go and get it back from them now. Fun!
O and I think Ken Lau and company are in Shanghai but have forgotten I'm here. Which sucks because I am hanging out with a bunch of Shel's friends, and wanted to see if they could come, too. The more the merrier after all. Silly Ken.

Annoyed

Why is it that my new roomie can find all the time in the world to go climbing all over her hometown and hanging out, and yet she can't find time to reply to an email of mine that requires one simple date for an answer? For that matter, why can't she read my emails clearly enough to write the correct zip code on an envelope. My mom seems to be very dubious about her. I hope I can prove mom wrong eventually...

The Aftermath

It's been quite a while since I started work at LWMA, and I thought that things were starting to fall into a predictable pattern. Go to work, makes cheesecake, go home, play with baby and fall asleep at 10:30. However, something amazing always seems to happen when I least expect it. Yesterday, it suddenly got very dark around 4:30 and the wind started blowing. We all knew there was a thunderstorm on the way, so we didn't pay any attention to it. And then, the rain came pouring down. The first big commotion happened when we heard people shouting in the printing room, far back corner or the office. We walked over to see what the fuss was about and apparently the windows weren't well sealed adn there was water leaking around the glass and dripping right onto our Best Plotter. So all the secretaries were flipping out adn stuffing towels into all the cracks they could find.
After a few minutes, the office manager ran by shouting something about the kitchen, so I went over to see what was happening. The water from our flat roof was coming into the kitchen through the light fixtures. It wasn't a trickle, it was definitely two very big showers of water. Yellow water. We blamed it on a clogged gutter whcih is being fixed today. Then we heard more commotion going on upstairs and found that the roof was also leaking right above all of our servers. All in all, no one did anything but gawk or bail water for the next hour and a half. In the end, the server room and the printer room stopped leaking and someone rigged up a fancy way of geting the water out of the kitchen.
It didn't help that someone let the dogs in and they were running around like maniacs. I suppose the indoors is better than the outdoors in the event of a thunderstorm, but since the storm kept them from going out doors, and the poor puppies had to go, they ended up peeing and pooping in the office...again.... Kathleen has a wonderful photo of her absolute delight at finding a piece of dog poo in the lobby.
Around 6, everything was pretty much back to normal, so we all went back to work. I left after work to go to the busstop only to find that the extra lane for bicycles and mopeds had turned into a crick more than anything. I walked quite a ways till I find a good place to ford the river so to speak. I briefly considered taking my shoes off and walking through the water, but there was so much dirt and debris in it that I wasn't sure I wouldn't step on something gross. Or sharp.
So I made it home, early by my usual standards. I sat around and ate some dinner, read a book adn then Yuko came in with Mumu-chan. A naked Mumu-chan. "He has daiper rash," she said as she dumped him in my arms while she went to make some tea. I just looked down and him and said, "You had better not pee or poop on me." He just looked and me adn started gnawing on the tv remote control. I must say, it's a little akward holding a naked baby, particularly a naked baby boy...
Today I came into work and found the internet out for a time. Ben Finally acepted my gmail invite, but now he needs to get GTalk so we can chat online.But now it's time for lunch! Dumplings!

Flooding!

The great flood of '06. This once lovely and quite moderne, sunlit kitchen is now the site of two new, very one of the kind, two in one shower light! Witness the superiority of Chinese construction techniques.

Morning News Shanghai

Newsflash! As of yesterday morning, I have been dubbed the ChiJiaoDaXian which means the "Barefoot Immortal" because I go everywhere in the office (other than the bathroom) barefoot. My statement that everyone does this in studio is met with shock and awe, as well as the idea that people Want to be tan.

Newsflash! Hot news of the morning is that a truck overturned just down the road, crushing some poor pedestrian to death. Word is it happened around 8 or 9 last night. Witnesses state that a definite crowd was forming to gawk at the victim fortunately hidden beneath a 7 meter long tank of oil. Shel said that this morning, a crane was at the site, trying to right the truck. Shel also hopes that it's not an open casket burial.

Newflash! Hot news of last evening was that around 11, WangYue (aka Wayne - we named him) text messaged me asking how to write "Fart" which he pronounces "fert." So I messaged him back saying that he ought to work on the pronunciation lest it be mistaken for "Flirt." A very important distinction between the two meanings was emphasized upon seeing him this morning.

Random Musings

I told Shelly yesterday that with a woman as clueless as my supervisor for a boss, I worry about the future of my career. I continue worrying beign that I'm sitting here, over an hour into work and my supervisor has still not showed up yet, nor left me anythin to do. I keep looking up at the sound of clicking heels, hoping its her, but no, it's usually the office manager glaring at me through his emo glasses. Yes, I'm not doing anything. No, there's nothing I can do about it. So shove it.

Yuko and Grandpa Duh's nurse have been in a silent battle over my breakfast rolls. Whenever there's no more regular rolls that Grandpa Duh eats, the nurse gives him one of the ones I buy. She's asked me before if I could, to which I said that it's not a problem. He's a nice old guy - he gave me a bracelet when I was 10. However, Yuko doesn't know that I have given permission for Grandpa Duh to eat my breakfast rolls and now it has escalated into a heated argument that took up 15 minutes of my morning. I don't think it's even a matter of the rolls anymore to Yuko. I think I'll just try not to get involved and hand the rolls over to Grandpa myself.

Speaking of rolls, I was buying some at Carrefour (China's equivalent to KMart, but horrifically Much happier) some weeks ago when I noticed something at the checkout counter. Those tall boxes that I thought were many colorful forms of cigarettes are actually boxes of condoms. How could I miss the happy banana-like condom man with sunglasses on? I should really be more observant. In a nation where only one baby is allowed per family, condoms Would be located where the boxes of candy aisle should be.

WangYue and I were looking at photos Victor took of all of us on our great Shanghai Weekend adventure and we deduced two things. 1) The camera definitely adds 10 pounds on me (great, as if the maid wasn't already telling me I'm too fat and should eat less) and 2) I don't look very Chinese. I keep hearing that. Though here they tell my I look a little Vietnamese rather than asking if one of my parents is caucasian...

An Exciting Shanghai Weekend

This weekend, I went out on a grand tour of the city with the new girl, Kathleen, and Claire, pretty Shanghai lady, WangYue, Jenny from the office, and Kathleen's distant cousin, Victor. I must admit, I was a little apprehensive at first because it would be going out with total strangers, however, I think in the end, we all had a lot of fun.
Day one we all met up at noon at Kathleen's uncle's office. Being it was the weekend, the building wasn't air-conditioned so we sat in a tiny little office waiting for Kathleen to get there while we chatted with Claire. Then we all went out to lunch with Kathleen's uncle to a Shabushabu place. Shabushabu is basically hotpot. The strangest part of the meal was the appetizer/"sushi." What made it odd was that the sushi was actually thinly sliced beef that we're normally accustomed to putting into the shabushabu soup to cook. So yes, ladies and gentlemen, I ate raw meat. And liked it.
After that, I went - again - to XiangYang. I bought a nifty purse for my sister (I think you'll like it May) but other than that, there wasn't anything interesting there. We made a stop at Mister Donut, where I introduced everyone to the wonder that is the chocolate pon de ring (chewy donuts, yum!).
Next, we went to XinTianDi which I already went to as an office fieldtrip. Same as last time, very nice but all in all too expensive to enjoy. Next we went to a bar called Face which was located in some sort of gated community place. It was horribly expensive like XinTianDi and was also filled with foreigners. The the interior was very interesting. Apparently Face is a Thai styled bar. We lounged there for over an hour and Kathleen picked up a monster mosquito bite kind of the like the ones I got when I first arrived.
Afterwards it started to get a lot more fun. Claire took us to a really nifty store that took factory leftovers from brands like Diesel and Yohji Yamamoto. I am now the proud owner of a really awesome Yamamoto jacket. Yippee! Next was dinner at a horrifically ugly looking restaurant that nevertheless cooked good food. Claire brought her boyfriend for us to meet - an extremely tall Dutch man charmingly named Bob. Bob was very polite.
Yesterday after a horrible morning of coordinating, I managed to get everyone to meet up at 12:30 and we proceeded to ChenHuangMiao - yet another super touristy place. The featured attraction is a villa complex once belonging to a very rich man. We wandered around there for over two hours, sweating like crazy. Then we went to Pudong where we walekd by the water and went to a restaurant that specialized in delicious mango deserts. Mango pudding...yummmm. Next was an o so exciting but very short ferry ride across the water to Puxi where we walked for half an hour into the Bund just to climb up onto a people filled platform to get a few people filled shots of the Pearl Tower. Then there was dinner at an alley that specialized in street food. Mmm, street food. We ended up only eating five ShenJianBao apiece. And everyone was too polite to say they were still hungry. Next we went to a snazzy bar in the middle of some park and ended up spending over 200RNB on yucky drinks. I ordered a pina colada and asked for no alcohol, but there was definitely some when I got it. Yuck, alcohol. At drinks we met Bud the art director from Cleveland who seems to strongly dislike the Japanese (all the while I was thinking about my cute little nephew - how can you possibly hate him?) and his prettily dressed up, extremely young companion for the evening and Claire's friend, Kelly. At around 11, I pointed out that tomorrow there was still work and we had to try to catch some form of public transportation. Yah, all the subways were closed, and none of the buses went where we needed to go, so we ended up splitting an expensive cabride, but not before we ran into various convenience stores to buy some food because we were Starving!
This morning, I finally saw Yuko and Kaigen after not seeing them all weekend. Kaigen called me a few times to yell at me for not telling them where I went, and then Yuko sent me a very polite text message saying that I can stay out as long as I want, but please call every so often to let them know I'm alive. Yuko said this morning that Kaigen is afraid that if I get lost or something my parents will kill him. I guess he still lives in fear of my daddy. ^_^
All in all, though, a great weekend. I made a lot of new friends. Yay!

Stupid Web

I realized a while back and just thought I would share. I now know why asian people don't use AIM or Blogger. The reason is because neither are easily accessible. In the case of AIM, not only can I not get onto the network, I can't even get to a website that will download the program. I couldn't even download gaim. I was able to get Terraserver, but that's how I found out the network is inaccessible. And because of this, I have resorted to just talking on the gmail chat network. If you feel like talking to me, get gmail (if you need an invite, let me know). O and my "screenname" is my gmail address - Irenia321@gmail.com. Do feel free to chat, it's quite lonely here and I crave being able to talk to people in English.
As for Blogger, while I can post, I can't actually access anyone's (not even my own) blog. How messed up is that?

Did it Work?

Here's my schewed Barragon. Too much chocolate cake, not enough cheesecake.

Let me know if the screenshot uploaded or not.

Photo and Other Things

It's blurry, I know. However, Ben brought it to my attention today that he has no idea who my friends are, or for that matter, what their genders are. So here are Shelly and LiQiang (a boy, as you can see). We were at a really nifty place that sells XiaoLongTangBao - Soup Dumplings.

Other than that, yesterday has been filled with the most interesting things. I'll start with work. Yesterday was the Architect's birthday. We celebrated with a humongous cake that makes me never want chocolate cake ever again. However, I believe that the party has put the Architect in a very good mood. Later on in the day, when my supervisor, Anita, and I went to see him and go over our designs, he was most amusing. What I'm doing is creating exteriors to pre-existing, unfortunately malformed and overcomplicated interiors. The end result looks somewhat like Casa Barragon, but very skewed. I had a scheme going on about solids and voids intersecting one another. If I can figure out how to get a rendering out of SketchUp I will post a picture. In any case, the Architect said he really liked what I had going on. However there was one problem. "You see," he said, and I translate, "These clients are very conservative. What they want is something more traditional. It's like they want cheesecake, but what you've given them is fancy chocolate cake. The fancy chocolate cake is very nice, but in the end, if we present them with no cheesecake, they'll walk away feeling like they didn't get what they want - namely cheesecake. What we could do is offer them some cheesecake with some fancy filling (he suggested something which I interpret as foie gras - in cheesecake?)." So he told me to hold on to the chocolate cake - he likes it enough that he's willing to present it as a final, very optional option, but he told us that we must work on making cheesecake. Anita later complained that she doesn't like cheesecake, and that she's not very good at making cheesecake. The senior designer, a fellow named Hung Ming, chimed in and said that she's just going to have to figure out how to make cheesecake even if it's really bad cheese or something along those lines. The whole experience has made me very averse to cake of any sort. I doubt I'll be eating any for some time.
Later, I went home. One of my other uncles stopped by to pick up a package my aunt left for him. While he was over, he needed to borrow a bottle opener for something he brought. Since neither of us knew much about the place, we looked everywhere for one. He was in the kitchen and I looked at the sideboard thingy where all the hard liquor is kept. At one point, I saw the shiny metal of a bottle opener and thought, "Oo! Bottle opener." Imagine my horrified consternation when I picked up the shiny piece of metal and found attached to it a very detailed wooden phallus. Yes, the "down there" of a man. I can only assume someone presented it in poor taste to my uncle as a gag gift. And, needless to say, I found a different bottle opener for my other uncle to use.
What's also wonderfully amusing is that the starter conversation of the day in our row at the office was about working women. By working women, we mean hookers. There are a lot of them in Shanghai, and though it is technically illegal, none of the ladies are ever arrested. We asked the boys in our row whether or not the ladies are in a legal business and they said that the policemen here don't arrest them. We asked why. They said because the police here need their services too. Then they asked us how to ask a hooker for her services in the states. Then we told them that it's illegal, but according to movies, the proper approach is "How much?" Then they asked us the usual price. Being that neither of us have ever needed such services, we had no idea. Adn that's a fascinating start to my day.

Today I went to lunch around here. Isn't it nifty? Shelly and I stopped to buy a Chinese yoyo (for her brother) and some pumice stones (for our feet). Since purchasing our rocks, Shelly has fallen madly in love with hers and is planning on buying one for practically everyone she knows. Also, while we were here, we had some cheap and delicious XiaoLongBao (Soup Dumplings). MMMMM.

Shanghai Some More

Last night, I went to a spa! A real one! I went with my aunt and uncle, soaked in a hot tub and got a foot massage. And the foot massage cost only a whopping $6. I love this country.
Today I went with my aunt to a street market that sells fake Gucci, Prada, Fendi and the like. I didn't really see anything that really caught my interest. The only thing I ended up buying was a purse in this random store in the market that was completely original. Mmm, purses. While we were in there, the store crowded up with English speaking people who couldn't fathom that some Chinese people can actually speak English, so that was pretty amusing. I was also at another store where a woman bought something at 10 times the price that I could have gotten it for simply because she was 1) caucasian and 2) could speak no Chinese.
Speaking of caucasians that speak Chinese, I heard a wonderful tale from my coworker, Shelly, about her unfortunate friend. He's in Shanghai working over the summer too. He's a nice American boy who doesn't know a single word of Chinese. The firm he works for set him up with a place to live, but the bed had to linens. So he went out and bought some pillows and blankets and sheets. On the way home he saw a place that sells really cheap beer. Awesome, he thinks and heads on in. The proprieter sees him holding his pillows and blankets and starts pointing and laughing. The poor guy stands there confused. Then, quite a few scantily clad young ladies walk downstairs and also starts pointing and laughing. Then, the young ladies go up and start touching him inappropriately. I suppose at that moment he realized he'd walked into a brothel and they were laughing because they thought he had brought his own equipment.
Gotta' love China...

LWMA = Loquacious Wayward Muddled Architects

So it's been almost a week since I started work. So far it's been pretty good. I've been working on the exterior of a building and it's transformed into a Casa. Kind of like Barragon or however you spell it, but the house is definitely looking more South American than American. I have so far learned how to use 3D studio Max and SketchUp. 3D Max is pretty comparable to Maya, but unless it's changed since I last used it, 3D Max is better an snapping. SketchUp is really great for making simple forms when you're just beginning to make massings, but after my casa got a few too many angles, everything started to go to pieces on me.
It's quite different from working in a tiny firm like last year's. I guess since Nestor and Jonathan were so much older, I felt a little odd hanging out with them, but I have a great time with all of my coworkers, since they're all around the same point in life as me. Well, I'm actually a little behind since most of them are recent archie grads. Still, the level of productivity is definitely lower because I'm having too much fun. I spend a lot of time gossiping with my coworkers about random things like the architect's love life or who does what. Today, Wang Yue (a guy) noticed I was wearing eyeliner and seemed to decide that would be a wonderful thing for him to copy, so somehow he obtained an eyeliner pencil and a mirror and sat at his desk for a good hour trying to put on eyeliner. He tried...it most ended up on his eyelid because he was afraid of getting too close to his eyeball. Silly boy. I can't quite figure out what induced him to put eyeliner on. Shel suspects it has something to do with his fascination with Marylin Manson.
The final deciding point that we were all definitely still kids came today. At 10:30 the senior desinger, Hung Ming or something like that, gathered all the architects into the shuttle. I think there are about ten of us. We drove over to a place called "The Bridges" because our next big project is going to be similar in that we will be taking pre-existing historical buildings and modifying them to become offices and shops. We spent an hour and a half scampering off in different directions, taking photos of everything and each other. Shel kept getting distracted by the merchandise instead of the architecture. At one point, we saw a firm for David Chipperfield, some English guy. Apparently he lectured at Yale so Shel wanted to find out what work they did in China. Since the door was open, Shel popped her head in and asked. The British guy at the table was very rude, asking, "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" She asked her question, apologized and then we left. We weren't more than a few feet out the doorframe when the fancy modern white door came whistling towards us, basically slamming in our faces. Never work for Chipperfield - check. We next saw a really cool looking firm which had very scandinavian design, a nifty place called Alsop which is actually British, too. We popped our heads in their too and the receptionist was very willing to tell us all about the firm and how to apply to work there. Maybe would love to work for Alsop simply because the name is cool and the receptionist is nice - check. Then, when we were all gathered in the courtyard, someone mentioned that SOM's office was in the facility. Shel used to work for SOM so we all decided to go on up and find the person she used to work for. We hiked up to the office, wandered in and the receptionist said, "No, Silas is in a meeting with a client." Basically indicating that he wanted all us low-rate Chinese architects out. Now. SOM is filled with self important jerks that don't make anything that interesting anyway so I'll never work for them - check.
After work I went out with Shel and another co-worker, really nice guy, if he had an English name it would probably be like Greg or something. Friendly and unimposing, very nice and get formal. He brought along an old classmate that apparently they all hang out with. I realized at dinner that it is possible for Chinese guys to be good looking. If only they heard of dental work. Greg's (That's what I'll call him) old classmate looks like Karl the really super cute designer that the blond American woman in Love Actually was in love with. Except he has crooked teeth. Teeth, they're very important you know. Irreplaceable. Can't really eat well without them. But yes, Karl is very nice. He works for an Italian design firm, but speaks no English. Greg on the other hand can say, "Can I carry that for you?" and when picking up the bill, "My treat." Gentleman in training - that's Greg.

Shanghai: First Day on the Job

I hope I make it out of Shanghai alive. I told my cousin the other day that I remembered that in Shanghai, green means go, and red means go faster. Now take that into consideration and imagine me trying to cross an eight-lane highway where there's no stoplights anywhere in the area. Now imagine me only making it halfway across because the traffic on the other side caught up. Now imagine standing on the yellow line with cars honking everytime they zoomed by at 50 mph. I lived. Barely. And it wasn't like I was jaywalking either, because there were definitely zebra lines. And thinking back on it, I want to yell at those drivers for honking like it was my fault. After all, according to the law, they are supposed to stop for me. I'm not supposed to stop for them.
So, the office where I'm working is quite nice. They use a lot of stone in the place, and, as Zach says, the signage is awesome. One thing I noticed is that the office is definitely not to code. USA safety codes, I mean. The stairs don't have any railings at all and the glass thingies that enclose the mezzanine aren't structural in the least, nor do they have mullions. That means that if you lean on the glass, you make the glass fall. Also, there's a crazy sort of half-bridge that hangs out over the workspace. Think prow of the boat, or "off the plank!" or maybe have some mad scientist laughing devilishly as he lords over his little minions below. Of course, as lovely as the idea is, one also has to beware of the fact that not only is there no safety rails surrounding the thing, there's a 6 inch gap between the edge of the mezzanine and the start of the plank.
In the office itself, I have my own desk, my own box of pencils, my own desk lamp, my own computer and my very own empty drawers for stuff I don't have. The only other people in the office fluent in English are the architect himself (fat chance on getting to talk with him - he only spoke a hand full of sentences to me all day because he's so busy) and another intern - a grad student from Yale named Shelly. After a very frustrating day of not understanding my Malaysian neighbor (he mumbles too much) it was a relief to turn off the Chinese side of my brain and speak some English. I later realized, too, that it isn't that my Chinese is bad, it's that people from different parts of China have completely different accents. I had a hard time with the Malaysian accent, but when I talked to the senior project manager, I didn't have to ask more than a couple times for translations (I found out later that he is Taiwanese, so that explains it). It is also a bit of a relief to realize that my reading in Chinese isn't too bad. I need to find time to get my hands on a Chinese English dictionary so I don't have to keep bothering everyone for explanations. I think I made a lot of friends today. Shelly, Mr. Malaysian and some of the other younger people in the firm asked me if I wanted to stay a bit later and play some badminton, but I decided that I would save today for trying to get home without getting lost. Fortunately, I didn't get lost. Day one is over and I'm alive and well.

Shanghai Day 3

I feel like it's been forever already, but I've only been in Shanghai for three days. Partly it's because my cousin has decided to take me around as much of the city as possible this weekend.
Today I went with him, his wife and baby, his grandpa and his aunt to the Century Park out in Pudong. Pudong, in case you aren't familiar with Shanghai, is the newer district. There's a lot of new development out there, mostly skyscrapers that look like rocket ships, imitation art deco or vertically inflated temples. The new airport is out there (photos to be posted on facebook when I'm not so lazy). It takes about an hour to get to Pudong by car and once you get there, traffic is so confusing that my cousin pulled a tricks that would have had him arrested in the US. For example, we missed a turn, so we did a U-turn and went the other direction - right into oncoming traffic. Fun...
Outside the park, Yuko (my cousin's wife) and I were accosted by a teeny old lady who was trying to sell us plastic bottles filled with tap water. Normally I would just say no thanks, but she followed us and kept waving the bottles in our faces. Fortunately, Kaikai (my cousin) and his aunt came to our rescue by whisking us quickly and efficiently away. We went into Century Park and enjoyed the sights. I think the whole landscaping of the park is geared towards framing the skyscrapers in the back. The skyscrapers that look like they could blast off at any second, that is.
We got back to the apartment around 7:30 for dinner and afterwards, while everyone was still eating, I brought my eating-ware into the kitchen where the maid/nurse was eating. I asked her why she didn't eat with the family. She said something unintelligible (For some reason, she speaks only in her dialect and expects that I understand every single word) and then thanked me for always putting my bowl in the sink. I responded that my parents would kill me if I didn't. Haveing a maid, or help of any sort, is really really strange. I don't really like it....

Shanghai

Hullo from the other side of the world! I had the most comfortable 14 hour plane ride ever in an aisle seat on Japan airlines sitting next to an archie that goes to the Boston Architecture College or whatever it is. BAC, BCA, something along those lines. He started the program really late so even though we're both just out of third year, he's three years older than me. It was interesting hearing what their curriculum is like. Teachers always tell us how important it is to have studio culture and from what I hear, this person (Yao is his name) barely ever goes to studio. He has it once a week, and all of his classes are at night. I think the students there (and they have way more archies than we do, and a lot of interior designers) spend the daytime working in firms and their evenings in class. They don't have any university-wide electives because there aren't any university classes and they rarely go to school community events. Makes me really appreciate how I have at least thirty-six more-than-acquaintance friends. Still, while I think the culture is nice, I think they're going to be a lot more functional as architects when they get out because those students live and breathe architecture with no distractions whereas we have hours and hours of extra classes to worry about.
So I thought that getting through customs would be a pain. I figured they'd question me, detain me, possibly arrest me just for the reason that I look suspicious. Obviously I was just being paranoid and got through customs in under ten minutes. I didn't even have to wait for my checked baggage to show up because it rolled right by me the moment I approached the luggage carousel. Looking for my cousin was another story. I haven't seen him since fourth grade so it was kind of doubtful that I would recognize him. I put on my glasses just in case, which made it a little harder for him to recognize me, but fortunately, we recognized each other. Sort of. I saw him and thought, 'hmm, I think...that's...him...but I don't want to be embarrassed if it isn't, so I'll look around and pretend I'm not making a b-line for him to see if he recognizes me.' And then I realized it was him and upon saying hello immediately proceeded to think, 'He's shorter than I remember.' Most likely because the last time I saw him I was only a little over four feet tall. I think he and dad are around the same height.
So then it was an hour ride back to my aunt's apartment and then another couple hours of chatting with Kaigen (that's my cousin's official English name - celtic he says) about stuff - we reminisced about how he used to pick on me (stealing my baby doll, making me run errands, how he and his old high school buddies used to take my doll and toss it around high above me so I would cry) and talked about his new family. He has a wife named Yuko and a little boy named Arvin whose nickname is Mumu. I still haven't met them because they were already asleep when I got there and are still sleeping now.
Today my plans are to hopefully get a phone call from Ben (hint hint) and then go out and figure out how to get to the office. Fortunately, I don't seem to be suffering from jet lag because I went to sleep around 2am and woke up at 8 - that's about normal, right?

Why I Love Home

So it's been a little over a week since I've been home, and tonight I'm yet again reminded of something I don't miss. As we have guests over, and, as daddy never cleans up his papers, our dining room is covered in his litter. Mom asked him to clean up his junk since we have guests over. And now he's throwing a temper tantrum. Why the hell is he throwing a tantrum?

New York Again

Today was my second trip to New York in less than a week. I've had so much going on since I got home that I feel like I've already been here a month.
Anyhoo, this time, I went with May which proved much more pleasant because 1) May doesn't spend the entire trip bitching about how I need a rich boyfriend and more importantly 2) She's willing to walk from Grandcentral (Which is somewhere to 42nd St and 4th Ave) to the Chinese Consulate (Which is on 42nd and 12th Ave). I timed us, and I'll admit it took a while, but I didn't really mind. In any case, we walked many of those blocks, maybe six of them, right behind this woman who was wearing a tight black dress and heels and big "partied-last-night-now-hung-over" sun-glasses. It was very amusing because we were right behind her and got to see all the admiring glances she got, namely almost every man that walked past her. We started keeping count of how many men turned to gape (and I do mean gape) and it was around fifteen. And who said New Yorkers weren't friendly.
We got to the consulate during their lunch break so we went to a little deli and got sandwiches. We decided to eat at the tables outside Starbucks despite not buying a single bit of Starbucks merchandise and then I ditched May there while I stood in line for half an hour to pick up my Visa. That was made all the more bearable by my reading a copy of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Really, why don't they teach Philip K. Dick in schools? It's just as good if not better than Kurt Vonnegut.
Next stop was Broadway between 32nd and 33rd St for my plane tickets. I will be flying Japan Airlines, woohoo! After that, we meandered our way back up, stopping at H&M, Zara and Banana Republic. Surprisingly, I didn't see anything at Zara that I liked, so we ended up only getting stuff from Banana Republic.
Then we walked up to Grand Central, bought gelato smoothies and made it just in time for the 4:20 train, which, contrary to the information on metro north, is in fact a peak fare train. O well, we only got charged $3.25 extra per person.

Settling In

So now I'm home. I had a pretty hectic home-coming as the moment I got home, my mom started berating me about getting my visa and then I got an email from one of my students informing me that my internet apparently farted out mid-grade-inputting so I had to try to figure out who got what grade as quickly as possible. Fortunately, I didn't throw out the grade sheet and was able to call my roomie and she could tell me what the numbers were. Then, Friday and Saturday were spent in New York. Friday kind of sucked because I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, get to the train station and from there get to the consulate. Normally getting from Grand Central to the consulate would take me maybe half an hour of walking, but since I had mom in tow, and mommy doesn't like to walk very much, we had to stand at the bus stop outside Bryant Park for about an hour with no bus in sight until mommy gave in and we caught a $6.50 cab ride. I mentioned to her that I could have gotten to the consulate in half the time for free, but as usual, mom refused to listen. As it was, the whole time we were there, it was pouring.
At the consulate, contrary to popular belief, we didn't have to wait an hour. In fact, by the time I finished filling out the paperwork, they had already passed our number, so my mom argued with one of the annoyed people behind the scary windows and we handed my papers in. Right now I'm on a tourist visa. I told mom I had to have proof of employment before I could get the right visa. Mom, of course, disagreed with me so now I have to go and switch around my visas when I get to China.
Saturday was nice. We went around and got groceries, sat around the apartment and left when we realized the Mets game was about to end (we didn't want to get caught in traffic). So now I'm home. Monday, May and I are going to the library. Wednesday, I have to go back to New York to pick up my visa. Stupid visa...

I Hate CT

I have been home less than three hours and I want to go back to Pittsburgh already. I walk in the door and mom is already demanding this and that, and then I get an email from a student asking about lab grades and I realize that my internet at my apartment is so screwed up that half the grades I input didn't go through. And now I have to figure out what everything is except that my grade sheet is in Pittsburgh and I can't reach my roommate and I think final grades have to be in by tomorrow. I'm probably going to get fired for this. FUCK! Why couldn't my students have brought that to my attention sooner!
I really miss Ben, and I really miss having privacy. It's nice seeing my sister and my dad, but mom is getting on my nerves and I have to waking up at F-ing 5:00 tomorrow morning so we can hop on the train to the consulate to get my visa.
I miss Pittsburgh.

Krispy Kreme Hands

Today Waz and I went to get our end of the semester treat - manicures. We went to a place that's about a block away from where I live called Daniel & Co. The lady who did our nails is very enthusiastic - first we got oil rubbed onto our nails, then the nails got filed, and then we dipped our hands in a tub of hot wax. Our hands came out with a thin coat of wax and for a while, I was trying to think of the best description possible, and the only thing I could come up with is Krispy Kreme Hands. We had a layer of glaze and now I know what I would feel like if I were a Krispy Kreme Donut. So yes, we got a nice little hand massage and we got our nails painted, the whole while the nail lady, Vicky, was giving us all her opinions on everything. It was very...interesting...
So when we left, I told Waz I would screw up my nails in 10 minutes. I definitely didn't try to screw them up, I certainly wasn't trying, but when I went to close my umbrella not 15 minutes ago, I caught my nail in the plastic handle part of the darned thing and scraped a chunk of polish right off. O well, I never was good with nail polish...

Wondering

So I got my studio grade just now. I got a B which is what I really was hoping for. Well, it was a B-, but still, I got the B. I really wonder why I'm sad and yet really uncaring, and why I'm so relieved with getting a B. It isn't great, it isn't at all what I ought to be wanting for my grades. Maybe it's just this year that has me so down, maybe it's the whole studio situation.
I really wonder what I'm doing here sometimes. Even though I decided in high school that I wanted to be an architect, I never really had a clear idea as to why I wanted architecture, and what I would do in the architecture field. I find that I'm so much more interested in other things - the bookbinding class I'm taking next semester has me much more excited than studio. Studio, in fact, I am dreading. As usual. So I wonder, what am I doing here? Maybe I really need to rethink what my goals are. But then again, it's already fourth year. I think it's already too late to turn back. So I guess I'll just have to finish out my time here and think about what I really want to do when I leave school.
I think right now all that's really keeping me here is the fact that I've spent so much time working towards this degree. That and the fact that with the architecture degree, I can have a lot more options than if I were to have a comm design or art degree. I sometimes wonder if I should have done communication design because I spent so much time in school figuring out how to make books and working on layouts. I just had no idea that that was communication design. In fact, I never heard of communication design until I lived with someone who had it for her major.
And then there are those times when I'm so excited about architecture. I really wanted to work for Archi-tectonics, and I'm really hoping for that job with LWMA. Maybe it's just the atmosphere here at school that's getting me down. Everyone's depressed, no one's really interested, just cynical. I've spent a greater portion of this year trying to avoid studio by hiding behind my six other classes, or my job. Incidentally, I think my grades in my other classes are going to turn out pretty well, so much that hopefully I'll make Dean's List again - finally... Hope for the best, work through the crap. That's going to be my motto for a while.

O yes, and I had a super crappy conversation with my mother today where she basically told me, yet again, that I should stop wasting my time with my boyfriend. I don't think she realizes how I find that grossly offensive and that whenever she mentions it, I just decide that I'm not going to listen to another word she says. I hate how she's racist.

Shanghai

It really seems like all the firms in NY are full up for the summer. So now my choices are two - I can work for a really awesome architect in Shanghai over the summer, narrowly avoid heat stroke and see what living abroad without my mother bitching at me about my boyfriend the whole time can be like. Or I can stay home in Connecticut, work at some dinky job that's completely unrelated to architecture, and learn to drive. Those are my options.
As much as I need to learn to drive, that option isn't nearly as tantalizing or glamorous as Shanghai...Hey, who doesn't want heat-stroke after all? The down-side is that my pay is going to be equivalent to a McDonald's worker in China. I guess that means I'll be making a dollar a day. O well, food there is cheap and I won't have to pay rent. Woohoo!

Negativity

Yesterday I got the most negative comment I ever received since coming to college. Last night, a bunch of us were working in the computer labs on our templates. Templates which I was hired to create. Of course, the whole time, people were griping about the template, but I didn't mind too much because it was about having to do the template as opposed to disliking my template.
Then while people were griping, Ben Saks decided to up and say, "Yah, Angela, I have to say, your template is really bad." Thinking that he was joking, I made a pouty sad face and then he said, "No, I'm not joking, I really think it's bad." I thought a few moments, 'Maybe he's still joking?' Apparently not. Then I asked him why he thought so and he mentioned a few reasons - for example, that the 20x20 panels weren't at maximum size, and that there were spaces for things that he didn't want to put in so he had to make that up on the spot. Boy was I mad. In the end, I just told him it's the difference between me having taken a class that had some communication design focus (we learned that white space is good) and him never having taken one.
Still, as I said, it's the single most negative comment I have ever received. It wasn't a "I hate the template." It was a, "I hate your template." Meaning that I'm completely inadequate as a designer and should give up now and switch to engineering while I still have a chance because apparently all I'm good at is math.
This was supposed to be a short post. I think if I see Ben today, I'm really going to yell at him.

Brokeback

Yes, I did it. I watched the gay cowboy movie. And you know what? It was really good. I don't think really good describes it well enough - I think it might even be one of the best movies I have ever seen. It was quite tasteful for the most part other than one scene half an hour into the movie that made my jaw drop a mile. I still haven't finished thinking about the movie yet, there's a lot of depth to it, but I just thought I'd let people know that movie fully deserved all of its nominations.

Loneliness

I have no reason for feeling this way, but maybe it's because I just watched Pride and Prejudice, but I feel incredibly lonely. Darn those romance flicks with their perfect image of love. Completely unattainable, I hate them.