Busy, Busy, Busy, B!

Wow have I been busy!! So this week I came home from Athens on Sunday, had a group powerpoint presentation Wednesday, Thursday I was in Hamburg from 7am-9:30pm, another powerpoint presentation on Friday, AND my 10 page paper due Friday before 11pm! Needless to say, the amount of sleep and extra time was limited.

There are no signs of this slowing down either! Next week I have a 3 page paper due, a group project where we have to put together a book of sketches that analyze a number of spaces we visited through out our time in Europe, my sketch book itself is due (which I need to do some more work on), and another paper to write on Friday. The Friday after that is my Final Crit and then 4 days after that... I'm shipping out to Boston! WHAT?!

Ya, I have 18 more days here and then its on the plane. What happened to the time? I still thought it was October 1st. What happened to September? Was it fun? Anything interesting happen? And where is November going? Before I know it I'll be eating a huge turkey (deep-fried *hint*) with some squash, mashed potatoes, and corn with my family at a table that is way to small for us.. cause it just wouldn't be a family holiday if we had an appropriately sized table.

Needless to say, this journey has gone by as fast, of maybe faster, as I expected. Not to say that I have missed it, cause it has been great and I've made sure to take advantage of being here. I saw it as my last opportunity to be in Europe... which may VERY well be true.

So now that I've told you all my work that is due... time to do it! Talk to you later!! Soccer game tomorrow... maybe I'll post pics. Also, check out the pics from my day trip to Hamburg, it was a pretty cool trip.. minus the rain and cold weather!

One Crit Down, 4 To Go?

So I'm not sure how many more crits I have until the Final Crit, but I am one more crit closer than I was! After a late night in the studio, 4am to be exact, I had a very successful studio crit and am feeling very good about my project. Was it worth staying till 4? Yes, because my other other option was to leave at 11, and at the point I would have regretted leaving without pushing more work out.

See, here is the big flaw in the living situation here in Berlin. It takes me 45 minutes to get from my apartment to studio. It is all by subway and there is only one place I have to get off and switch lines, but it still takes a long time. The apartment is bout 4-5km from the studio, so walking there anytime between 11-4 is out of the question, but the last train leaves the nearby station at 11, and if you are not on it, you have to wait for the next one... at 4am!

So I willing missed the 11pm train knowing that I should stay and pump out some more work, and that is what I did and it paid off big. My professor loved where I was with my design, he was a little concerned with the fact that my building is based on 3 different concepts: Views, Circulation, and Spaces. He felt that my building focused around 1 very powerful central view, which is correct and that was my intention. His concern was that my other two concepts might start to take away from that one central view as my project progresses. I saw his point and have already thought of some ways to make the central view the top priority and make my other concepts minor supports. This should be good.

With that, my next step is getting my building ready for the engineering students, who will come in next Monday and be "HVAC consultants." This should be interesting, I think it will be the first time any of us have really worked 1-on-1 with an engineer. We will need to meet their needs and they will help guide our building from wasting too much energy and show us areas that need improvement.

I am looking forward to all of this, I hope all this traveling doesn't tire me out too much and I lose my motivation and ambition on this project. I like where it's going and I'm already excited to see the end result!

Thanks for the support all. But now it is time for me to go to bed... even though it's only 7pm!

Gute Nacht!