Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Years!
I've been back home now for over two weeks and it's been really nice to relax for a while, see my family and friends, and even make some extra money (I work at a bakery at home...which is always fun around the holidays).

I've gotta say though, I miss Boston already. I'm ready to get back into the swing of a new semester. I'm excited for my digital representation class for architecture, replacing my manual rep. I get to take what I've learned this past semester from studio and begin to use computer software to represent my designs.

I'm also am looking forward to really start working towards my Environmental Studies minor, taking a global warming course and Environmental Justice. I've been interested in the environment since I took a course in high school, and I'm hoping that the minor will blend well with architecture, especially as green building is on the rise.

Today is the second day of classes; its hard to believe that break's already over and everybody's back into their normal rhythms. Yesterday, I began the classes I'm taking towards my environmental studies minor, Environmental Justice and Global Climate Change. Both seem like they are going to be really interesting and the professors seem very charismatic and excited to be teaching what their teaching. I have the two back to back, so I think they will provide a nice counter to one another...the social/economic/political aspects versus the more scientific approach.

I also am looking forward to the first Habitat for Humanity meeting this week. Hopefully, I'll be able to get involved in this organization, which has always interested me. Ideally I'd love to travel somewhere internationally during the summer, so if I cannot find something through the school at this point, I may try to find a group somewhat local to my hometown. I'd like to take advantage of the long summer break we have with something meaningful.

This semester too, I think I would like to start taking a language through NUCalls, (a student taught class meeting about once a week) in either Spanish, which I took throughout high school, or in Italian. This would be ideal to keep practicing with Spanish or to start something new because its free and doesn't require a large time-commitment.

I'm happy to be back, good luck to everyone with the new semester!

I can't believe it has already been two weeks since my last entry, the time has gone by really fast with the three days weekends from the snow day and MLK day. I'm really enjoying my classes so far. I'm taking two freshman honors inquiry classes to fulfill the required honors program credits. Both are on environmental topics, and both professors seem really knowledgeable and passionate about what they are teaching. I've also started my Co-op introduction course as well this semester, which has already really helped me better understand what I have in store for the next couple years.

I also began the search for possible summer internship positions in architectural firms in or around my hometown. I'm hoping that if I get a jump start on the process I'll be able to find something that works for me. Especially because after those couple classes I've had for my Co-op introduction, it seems that prior experience is a big selling point when applying for jobs during my Middler year.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night too. Kappa Sigma is hosting BJ Novak, a comedian from "The Office" in Blackman Auditorium, should be a lot of laughs; I've heard great things about his performances.
And thanks for your comment Allison!

It's hard to believe the semester is already about halfway over. I had my first midterm last friday, and I'm moving along on my studio project for digital representation. We actually started using rendering programs on the computer to add light and shadow to the virtual three-dimensional model we made, which is really exciting to see.

(image of my design)

There's been a lot going on for the past few weeks too. For Mardi Gras, Stetson East dining hall was opened late full of traditional foods, dessert, decorations, music, favors, etc. and games that encouraged a lot of student involvement. A lot of students came out to enjoy the festivities.

Next weekend, I'm looking forward to my intramural soccer game; I'm on a co-ed team with students from my building, which is really fun. We play in Cabot gym almost every weekend, and it's nice to just get my feet to a ball once in a while after playing soccer for about thirteen years.

Next Saturday also is my residence hall's dodgeball tournament arranged by the hall President, which should be interesting considering I know very little about how to play.

And soon enough, break will have begun. I'm really excited to go home and see my friends and family. I haven't been home since classes started again at the beginning of January, so it has been at least six weeks. Can't wait!

Hope everyone's semester and midterms are going well!

So it has already been over a week since spring break...hard to believe how fast this semester is going. I really enjoyed my time at home, and I can't wait to go back.

With only about a month left of classes (and some warmer weather coming-hopefully), there's a lot going on. In the next couple weeks, I will be be completing my room selection for the fall. My roommate and I went on the housing tour last week, which I thought was very helpful. For those of you in the selection process that have any questions or uncertainty regarding where you'd want to live next year, it is definitely worth the hour and a half to make next year's living situation the best it can be.

We also have class selection coming up. Luckily for me, the architecture program is very structured and I don't need to worry much about picking any of my classes for next year. The administration groups the students alphabetically into Division A and B, and creates class schedules for them for the five years they will be here. The only choices that need to be made during this time are for your electives or classes for minors.

There are also some fun activities coming up as well. The honors freshman dorms - Kennedy Hall and West Village F - will be putting on a talent show next Monday, which is sure to be a good time. And the Honors Evening is coming up on the 31st, which is a night for upperclass students to present their honors projects and celebrate with a ceremony and dinner.

I am also going to be starting my final project in studio this week. We will be designing a cafe for the area by the Christian Science Center. I'm excited to integrate all the software we've learned in digital representation thus far to create the final product.

I'm already about halfway through with my winter break, and I've been able to relax and celebrate the holidays with my family. I even was snowed in for a few days earlier in the week, giving me the perfect excuse to sleep and watch movies, a luxury much appreciated.

I also celebrated with friends with a small Christmas party, which included all the cliche activities...cookie swaps, secret santa exchanges, and all the classic movies. It was nice way to reunite with all my friends from home that I hadn't seen since Thanksgiving.

I'm still looking for to returning to school though; I should have a lot going on this semester. I will be applying for my first co-op position that I will be starting the spring semester of 2009, which means portfolio and resume preparations. I also will be applying for the study abroad program in Rome for the Fall of next year, an exciting part of the architecture program here at NU. And when I come back, my schedule allows for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to be nearly entirely free of classes (all the architecture classes are now on Tuesday/Thursdays for me), so I will be looking to find a part-time job somewhere, most likely off-campus. I also have my Honors seminar to look forward to. So far all my honor courses have been really interesting and exciting and I'm sure this will be no different. It's on a topic I have no real background in: the history of espionage, taught by Professor Burds. But I'm excited to take an elective that's different from anything I've taken at NU thus far; in the past I've focused on environmental science/studies courses.

Spring break is so close now, only a couple days! But there are still a million and one things to do between now and then. I have a presentation tomorrow in my history for espionage seminar on the WWII Anglo-Soviet parachute agents of Operation 'Pickaxe,' which I found to be a interesting because it's a side of World War II that is not portrayed in any standard history courses.
I also have been plugging along with studio work. We are concluding our site analysis officially on Friday, which has consisted of a lot of diagramming and modeling of various observations and conclusions about the site for the elementary school we will be designing. We have started to think about the programming of schools in general as well as how these organizational strategies will work within the site, considering all of the analysis we have already completed.
Last week I finished up with probably the biggest project of the semester for my Structures (Tectonics) course. After learning about light wood construction, we were to design a small watchtower following a number of design constraints, such as a cantilevered roof and second story. We then were to complete construction drawings and finally a VERY time consuming model of all the frame work. Though it took several long nights to finish, I was happy with the results. It is definitely a project that I want to feature in my portfolio.
Speaking of which, I've been working really hard to finalize my portfolio (to at least as final as a portfolio can get as we are always finishing new work) and my resume for the application process to find a summer internship. The prospects are not looking promising at the moment though, considering the economy. Most likely, I will have something only part-time and probably unpaid. Still, its worth the effort if I'm able to get some firm experience before I start to apply for co-op for next spring.
So, per usual, I've had a lot going on the past couple weeks, and needless to say spring break is looking really good, even if I'm just going home to Connecticut. I'm probably gonna have to budget in sometime though to keep up with work for several classes. Still, to be able to catch up on some rest and relaxation and see friends and family is much needed.