Countdown

5 Days till the gallery opens
9 Days till graduation
19 Days till Paris
28 Days till Copenhagen
53 Days till I start work at H3HC

Life flies by too quickly.

Random Award!

Yay! I got an award! The Senior Leadership Recognition Awards! What's if for? Who's it from? I haven't a clue, I just know that I have to drag my family to yet another reception on Saturday now.

Last Dance

Last night was my very last performance ever with Dancers Symposium. It's very sad... All the dances went well, except this one thing - one of my dances is pupput themed, and I was the puppeteer. We're supposed to do a bit where we pull each other around on strings, except that my strings wrapped around my puppet/partner's neck, so I had to let go. I think all of us agreed Friday night's performance was better for that one. All the others were great, though. High energy fun - I think I've finally mastered smiling on stage without pasting on my grin. O, and Rowena and the girls got me and Stacy flowers and told us that they liked our dance best. Yay!
After the show, we all went out partying. I dragged Brian along with me since he happened to be home. I think the clubbing experience last night could be best described as "sweaty." Everyone was sweaty, like pouring drenching, wet T-shirts sweaty. I mostly danced with my girl friends, and with one guy I know from a dance. Club dancing with guys...it's not so much dancing so much as dry humping to music...Oh well, all in good fun.
Oh, and one of my friends asked me about Brian because she thinks he's really cute. I told him to join Dancers Symposium if he wanted to find a girlfriend so much. Guess that just confirmed it. Too late now, though.

Dancer Things

So, on Sunday night, I sprained my thumb doing a handstand. Today is the first day where I could open a water bottle unassisted. So nice.
Also, Dancer's Symposium is this weekend so I've been dancing pretty much every night this week for a couple hours. I can't wait for the show...and for the rehearsals to be over. I have one tomorrow night at 11pm. It used to be normal, now it's annoyingly late. I turned old sometime during this semester.
Also, today was the last day of ballet. I was a little out of sorts because Jim decided to throw in some things that weren't part of his usual repertoire, but for once, I figured out the petit allegro (the part of class where you do a really fast jump combination). Anyhoo, class ended with everyone going up to Jim to give him a hug and a thank you. I got an extra "tremendous improvement" from him which really made my day. I'm glad he noticed.

Breathe Deep

Trees don't like to have sex when its cold. For the first time in a couple weeks, I can breathe without hacking up a lung.

the Food Fairy

So, Brian's gone for the weekend leaving just me and Ken at the apartment. I actually am really glad it's just the two of us since Ken's far quieter and doesn't make a mess (or at the least, cleans up any messes that he makes). Today we made dinner together - he made bok choi and rice, I made salmon with a coconut tomato sauce. Tasty.
So when I went back to my room after showering just now, I found that I was visited by the food fairy. By food fairy, I mean that Ken decided to make me a plate of hor d'oeuvres using some onion crackers he got from the Strip District and topping it with some leftover salmon and a little of that sauce. It was reaaally tasty. I'm actually thinking about using it for the 5th year exhibition since apparently I'm in charge of food for family night. Yay for food! Hope mom and dad won't mind driving me into the Strip to pick up supplies...

Oh, the Humanity

In my sheer desperation to keep myself entertained until shows return from the writer's strike, I've started watching...the Bachelor.
So, does the guy really expect to actually find a wife from a competition between 25 women? Looking back on the statistics, not a single guy has managed to make it to the alter. One fellow almost did and then the couple realized that once they didn't have all those fun dates set up for them, there wasn't anything there. Only one fellow was smart enough to realize that none of these women really worked. So, I can understand if a fellow's desperate enough, he might try speed dating and this show is like the ultimate speed dating, but are any of those women compatible? These Bachelor fellows are all investment bankers, entrepeneurs, things like that. How well does he work with a hot dog vendor or a make-up artist? And some of those women...I don't care what they do for a living, they're just plain..STUPID...
And would a girl really be okay with the guy at the end, knowing that he's kissed 24 other women during the time he's known her? And they all have to live together and interact while he's off in his little palace, only appearing to whisk a few of them off for a date. If it were a century or so ago, I'd think of it sort of as a harem. Geez, and the superficial little trials they have to go through to win...just because a girl's willing to try out rugby for a day doesn't mean that she's the one for you.
Speculating though, if I were ever to be a Bachelorette (career suicide!) and had to pick, I'd make all of them go to the ballet with me and then make them learn a little dance and perform it for me. Mwahahaha!

Annoyed

Mom annoys me. Everytime I call her and conversation goes into the realm of men, mom never has anything nice to say. Never. And it's about inane things like the government that a guy grew up under. He couldn't help it that he was born and raised in a different country! It's not like he asked to.
And everytime I tell mom to stop saying bad things about anyone who I'm friends or at all interested in, she completely denies it and says that she would never do anything like that. Well, mom, then why did you just say, "I don't like that he's still in school. He shouldn't be wasting his time like that." I don't have to defend anyone to you, it's none of your business. All I'm doing is visiting him and you want to go and change his entire life.
She's completely taken by racial stereotypes too. It's horrible to think that she disapproves of all of my friends simply because they don't fit her racial/cultural/economic whatever profile. O, all of May's friends are fine because they're white middle class people of similar intelligence to May. But my friends aren't okay because they're smart and are of all types of backgrounds.
This is why I don't like to call home.

Birthday

I think this year was probably one of the nicest and most memorable birthdays I've ever had. Waz put together a little wine and cheese think, and I brought the fancy hors d'oeuvres. I think during dance, the guys snuck over to Waz's to bake me a birthday cake...a pineapple upside-down cake is apparently what defines me as a person...I think it was supposed to be a surprise, but Ken stopping by the apartment, telling me he was at Waz's and going back there, and then leaving behind tupperwares with flour dust in them (which I washed), well, that was a big give-away. It's the thought that counts, and the cake was tasty.
At one point everyone sang happy birthday to me. It was somewhat embarassing as I assume birthday songs are supposed to be. I also got really really tipsy, as in loss of motor function tipsy.
Overall, the party was very nice. Rowena from dance was there because she and her boyfriend are good friends with Waz's boyfriend. I hung out with her mostly and then chatted with everyone else for a little bit. I really enjoyed it. O! And I managed to curl my hair for this fiesta, so its pretty and curly right now!

Bah!

The landlady-issue yet again rears its ugly head. She's showing our place to a girl from NY in a little over the week and asked us to clean the apartment and rearrange just a couple of bookcases. Ken, o lovely Ken, has decided that he simply won't budge yet again. For a moment I convinced him to move simply to get Beth out of our lives once and for all (this is assuming she sells the place) and then he talked to his parents. Apparently it's his parents, his PARENTS, that are telling him to be a stubborn little ass-hole.
So I've decided I'll move the furniture myself. Yes, little me. And if Beth asks for anything more, well...other than asking us to rotate a frickin bookcase for 2 hours every time she brings someone around...
I've also looked around forums online. I don't think she can legally evict us for not moving a couple of bookcases around, or if it gets to a point where we have to go to court, the judge would most likely rule in our favor. The thing is I don't want legal fees. If Ken wants to get into a legal battle that's worth more than our security deposit (and considering a lawyer is $200/h, that adds up fast) then he can do it. All I can say is I did my part, and I hope that I can take beautiful revenge on that bitch of a landlady when all of this is over. Even if it only means being as rude and condescending to her face as she has been to us.

I Hate Apple

I've been trying to solve this all semester: There are online listening exercises for the Italian class I'm taking and so far, the only place where I have been able to access it is in the Modern Language Computer Lab which is crammed and always closed. CLOSED! I've been working on trying to get the audio to play on other computers - really, any lab will do! But no, it absolutely refuses on any computer. It won't play on my computer, my sister's PC, my sister's Mac, or the computer labs at school. It's always either some stupid hidden firewall, or the plug-in is missing something. Really, how hard is it to have a .mov file that works? Or can't they just give us a CD or something?

Employ Me

I've been spending the entire month of February and it looks like the rest of March working on finding a job. I need a job, an architecture one! Hire me!!
It's not that bad, though. I went to a job fair last week and spoke to a whole bunch of firms, all of which were interested enough that they asked me to visit their offices at some point. I just sent out all but two thank you e-mails today though apparently I should've had them out on Monday. Oops... I hope one of them will hire me. I want employment...

I am Mercenary

Recently, the boys and I have been having problems with our landlady. She stopped by a while back wanting to take pictures of the place so she could put images up online, so as to sell the place. We felt this was acceptable, so we cleaned the apartment. Day comes and she's there staring at the place in horror and says it's absolutely unacceptable, and she didn't take any pictures. Granted, our living arrangements are a little dorm-like, and I, personally was willing to compensate, and move around a little bit of the furniture.
A few days later, I get an email from Landlady, and she says that she wants us to get rid of furniture, put things in storage and have Ken move his bed into MY room. I called her up, quite upset, and asked her if she realized that she was asking me to share a room with a boy. She said, well then, move into the small room and have the two boys live together. To which I replied that we're all in the process of finding work right now as well as taking the usual full course load at school. When are we supposed to find the time to move everything around? She was not willing to compensate, asking me to understand her situation when clearly she didn't understand mine. And then she threatened that she would have to charge an extra month's rent if she couldn't get the place sold by the end of our lease.
I did some research, and according to the state, and really, the nation, every tenant has the right to quiet enjoyment. Pretty much, so long as I pay the rent, I can live however I please in the apartment right up until the very last day of the lease. As it is, we're all moving out 10 days early.
Just now, I got an email from Landlady and she said that she's willing to compensate by having us make a floorplan of the apartment for her to post online. To which I replied (because at this point, I have no friendly feelings towards this lady at all) that we have to be compensated for our time and typical client billing for intern architects is $50/h. Let's see what happens...

Ringing in the New Year

Happy Chinese New Years. As far as new years celebrations go, this has to be a strange one. The hot water faucet in our bathtub has been leaking pretty much since winter break. I called Walt, the building maintenance man, a couple days ago when the dripping turned into a steady trickle. This morning when Ken went to take a shower, apparently he turned off the baucet but the water decided to kepp flowing. The tub started to fill eventually and soon he and Brain were bailing water like it was a sinking ship. I, at this point, had been in dance class for about half an hour and was blissfully unaware of all that was happening. So Ken ran downstairs to try to get ahold of Walt. "Big emergency" apparently means the doorman will only "try" to get Walt in ten minutes. Ken finally ahggled it down to two minutes and Walt came in saying he didn't have time for this, blah blah blah. I wonder what his reaction was when he saw the overflowing bathtub. Well, Walt came in and basically upended my room in order to get to the shutoff valve. I've been meaning to clean my room forever, so I guess this is the kick I needed...Good thing my computer didn't topple...
The funny thing is that in Ken's Chinese class today, the teacher mentioned that water is a symbol of wealth and good luck on Chinese New Years. I suppose this means that Ken's going to be way too rich in the coming year.

Clothed

I started Italian class on Wednesday. While I was waiting for class to start, a couple of guys walked in. I kept staring at them because they looked really familiar, but I wasn't sure why. When the teacher started talking to them, I realized that they were voice majors, and the reason I wasn't too sure who they were was because I've never seen them with non-form-fitting clothes on before. Wierd...
It also reminds me of another funny nakee-clothed story. May and I went to a figure drawing class in Manhattan. The nude model was an old lady who looked very similar to the old lady we always drew in Doug Cooper's class, except that she was the black version. Well, after the class, May and I went shopping for a few hours, got lunch, walked to a whole different part of the city, then decided to get on the subway to go to Ken's gallery show (which, by the way, was a big deal though he didn't really advertise - even my uncle heard about the show and he's a computer engineer from Connecticut). On the 1 train headed downtown, we were sitting there minding our own business when we suddenly heard a connecting door open and close and some lady started a speech about getting money for her 18 grandchildren. I look up and there's our nude model, fully garbed and panhandling for money. I look at her, she looks at me. I wave. She shrugs and goes, "Hehe, you gotta make a living, you know?" and hurries into the next cart. Ooops. Teehee...

Snow is blowing in the wind and the ground is covered in white. It's already dark and it's not yet noon. All I want is some yellow sunshine and the sound of birds singing in the trees. Is it summer yet?

Resolution

OK, so I really want to try to keep to this, and it's really cheesy that I have a New Year's resolution...but still, I figured I might give it a go. So this year, I'm going to cut as much crap out of my diet as possible - this means I'm going to make most of my own food. No more candy bars, no more processed cakes and stuff. If I have cake, it's going to be cake I bake myself and it's not going to be Betty Crocker, it's going to be from scratch so I can count how much sugar I put in. I thought about it and junk food always makes me feel like crap anyway, so why eat it? And since I don't have studio anymore, the chances of me having to stay late on campus for anything other than dance is much lower (so far as dance is concerned, the only day I have to stay late on campus is Wednesday and that's only till 9).
I'm also going to aim for eating smaller meals more often throughout the day, too (fat chance of that...I'll try though). According to Waz, this is healthier than just stuffing myself all the time. I think that with this and all the dance classes I hope to take, I should be in good shape.
I just hope when I start working this fall, I can maintain some sort of workout schedule. Is it bad that one of my search criterias for architectural firms is "near a dance school?"

2007 Wrap-Up

My sister put up a fun end of the year meme - basically, just document the first sentence from each month's blog entries. Here are mine:

January
Happy New Years!

February
Love is hugging and kissing me even though I've been puking my guts out and otherwise occupying your bathroom for hours on end all weekend long.

March
I think it's been an incredibly long time since I've bothered to write in my blog.

April
I think I'm getting old.

May
At last, freedom!

June
Yesterday, my sister and I had a lovely day out.

July
Hullo from Copenhagen.

August
It struck me last night as I was having wine and chatting with Martin and Morten, I'm leaving in 9 days...

September
During the week, it's not so bad.

October
This morning, I was in the bathroom going through my morning routine.

November
This morning I woke up to the strange feeling that it ought to be snowing outside.

December
It's been a while, but I'm finally free.

So, my year in summary is: It's New Years, I'm sick, I feel guilt, I feel old, no more studio, hanging out with family is nice, I like Copenhagen, I love Copenhagen, I'm mildly depressed, life is routine, I want to stay in bed, no more studio!

Definite highlights of the year were cooking for my classmates, meeting wonderful new people in Europe and finishing up my last studio with a bang. Here's to the new year, I hope it's even better than 2007...

OOOOO

This Christmas, I received the gift of FIRE! As in, Eric and Sylvia gave me ramekins, a torch and a can of butane gas so I can make my own creme brulees. It's funny, because when I was at the mall a few days ago, I contemplated buying some ramekins myself. And now I have 6! Yay!!!
O, and I really, really, really want a Wii...

End of the Semester

It's been a while, but I'm finally free. It's the end of the semester and the last studio ever! It's a good way to end it, I ended up doing very well in Urban Lab and got my first A in studio since freshman year! And I'm very excited because my semester GPA is a 3.94 (I got a B in my dance class for tardiness...poo...) I'm happy though, it's not everyday someone in architecture has a 3.94 GPA.
Waz and I celebrated the end with a nice dessert party. I should never try to make more than a couple desserts at once because most of them didn't come out right. I did like the carmelized oranges with mascarpone cream...I should try making that again sometime. Also, on the last Saturday before I left, Waz, Cathy and I catered at Dutch's party (Dutch is one of my professors). It was a lot of fun because all of our professors were there. Our Real Estate professor and our "client" for the class were actually the funnest. The food was good - a lot of Asian-inspired peanut stuff. I think I had the most fun because I got to be out and about since I handled the food, whereas Waz and Cathy were trapped in this little side area called the bar...I like catering a lot...maybe I picked the wrong profession...