School!

Oh the anticipation of the first day of school - even now - and I'm pretty old.  Seeing familiar faces, meeting new ones, living at Starbucks, and oh yeah, the actual school part.  Here's to my second year of architecture school - how time flies.

  

Image via Flickr

Back in DC

After a summer spent traipsing through Scandinavia, and a brief stint in SoCal, I'm back in DC.  After having dinner with my aunt Cheryl on Thursday night, I drove back into the city and man, did it feel weird.  I still don't feel like DC is "home" (which I'm sure would make my parents ecstatic), which is probably aided by my still total reliance on using my GPS whenever I wander roughly outside the 3 mile range of Eddie's house.  But rumor has it that 2nd year M.Arch students don't have it quite as rough as first year, so maybe I'll finally have some time to really start living here.


It is nice having a weekend to ease back into being here before starting school.  Yesterday Eddie and I went to Monroe Elementary where they were having the 3rd (?) annual Columbia Heights Day Festival.  I had a delicious peach and ginger popsicle from Petworth Pops, pet a camel, saw some great performances, and found out DC has its own Shorts Film Festival starting mid-September at the E Street threatres, which I'm really excited about.  Should be a good start to another fall in Washington.

Soaking up some sun

Apparently it was an unusually cold, overcast summer in California.  Well, I evidently brought the heat back with me from Finland, because it's been gorgeous (if not a tad bit too hot) here my first week here in SoCal.  I'm easing back into Pacific Standard Time (I really hope this going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 6 am is a jet-lag thing, not an I'm-getting-old thing), and enjoying what's left of the summer.  Thursday I went to Newport Beach with almost all of the Casciari girls - it definitely reminded me of our annual summer beach house rentals on 64th Street.  By the time I got there, they of course had already befriended half the population, so we ended up playing a few games of volleyball, which was really fun as I haven't played in ages (and oh was I paying for it the next day).


Sara drove down to 12805 today, and we spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, catching up and eating guacamole (which at this point is becoming our ritual).  It was so great to see her, even if for not long enough.  Although, we're already scheming a potential trip for me to visit her in New York, her come to DC in the spring, and (my favorite:) where I should plan to throw a huge party for my BIG 3 - 0.  We're thinking weekend destination, maybe somewhere tropical...


So now, the final chapter to my beaching, I'm headed down to Encinitas with my Dad, to see the beach shack, now complete after months of renovation.  I haven't seen it at all but for pictures my family emailed me while abroad, so I have to admit, I'm pretty excited.  And, of course it will really be great to spend time with my family, and even, gasp, my younger brother, whom I definitely do not see enough.  I'm hoping he'll give me a photography lesson while I'm down there, or maybe even take me out on a board.

Beach house almost finished - so glad I talked my parents into the pop of teal!

An end to Finland

I've experienced so much this summer, and looking back on my blog, I feel I have captured so little.  I guess that's what happens when you squeeze an entire semester into 3 months, a 6-credit studio course into 3 weeks.  But the experience did not feel compressed.  What I have failed to do is write about the places I have seen.  We did a day trip to Tallinn, Estonia - some of the craziest pairings I've seen of old and contemporary architecture.  I squeezed in a weekend trip to Stockholm - a city I know I have to return to someday, as I feel I just glimpsed its potential.  I could have spent the weekend alone at Woodland Cemetery.  As the Finland Summer Architecture Institute came to an end, the 3 Catholic guys and I stopped in London for a few days to end our summer trip.  I started the summer having no interest in staying in London, thinking I'd take the Chunnel to Paris, or fly to Ireland.  With finances ridiculously low, I decided to stay, and what I discovered was a city I could be tempted to live in - even after just three days there.  


I realize I will never be able to "catch up" here with what Finland was about, and since I'm no Austen, I'm sure I would never be able to really do it justice either.  But I have definitely taken a part of Finland home with me.  The culture, the landscape, the architecture, the spirit of place.  Surprisingly, I am feeling rejuvenated and even inspired to start my next semester of grad school.  I am looking forward to the challenge and discovery this new year holds for me.


So, I'm going to try to make a resolution.  I want to write more often on this blog.  It is probably just for me, because I swear even my family doesn't read this any more.  But I hope to continue to write here.  Document what inspires me, what I am thinking - whether design-related or not.  I think our summer studio left that impression on me.  Maybe this is my version of a scriptorium - my way of committing pen to paper - well, you know what I mean...


And since I'm referencing my final project, below are my final boards.

To Amsterdam and Back Again

I can't believe how fast our summer free travel period went.  I had this past week off, and I met up with Anna Kleinsorge (my friend and fellow teammate from Georgetown) in Amsterdam.  It was an amazing time to be there, as the Netherlands played in the World Cup Finals, and the excitement was tangible throughout the city - I've never seen so much orange in my life!  Anna and I partook in the soccer events, as well as hit up several museums, rented dutch bicycles, and generally just ate our way through the canals.  It was a really great break from school.

I flew back to Helsinki Wednesday night and have returned to a heatwave.  After dripping with sweat non-stop for two nights in a row (because of course Finland doesn't have air-conditioning), I went to the front desk to ask about a possible room change, since my room faced the sun all day and our window was "broken" (i.e. it wouldn't open all the way).  My new room is quite an improvement - one of only a few in the entire complex with a balcony, and a nice view of the water.  I'm already living out there.  

Tomorrow I return to school for an intensive 3 1/2 week studio project, which I know very little about, just hints here and there.  It supposedly is going to be very writing intensive, and more of a collage-type project, so it will be interesting to have the details filled in tomorrow.  Somehow in the midst of this, as well, a few of my classmates and I are going to try to squeeze in a trip to Stockholm, which I'm really looking forward to doing.  Alright, better get going so I can enjoy my last day of freedom!

Anna and I at Museumplein for the World Cup Finals, sporting our orange pride and fitting right in.

View from my balcony to the water (as requested by my Dad)

Mmm, Basil Ice Cream

Yesterday we finished the first portion of my summer program - "Documentation and Representation."  The group  worked fiercely these last few days to get everything finished, and somehow we managed to pull it all together for the presentation.

After some much needed sleep last night, and several loads of neglected laundry this morning, Kay and I ventured around town.  I dragged him to see Aalto's House of Culture (as I have to write a paper on it tomorrow), but since it was so nice outside we decided to leisurely walk back to the city centre.  Today was probably the best weather we've had this summer in Helsinki, and it was apparent the Finns felt the same as they were out in droves.  We stumbled upon several groups - out celebrating various events but all soaking up the sun.  It's already tempting me to procrastinate some more with aforementioned paper and go to a park tomorrow and get some sun...

The highlight of my day, however, had to be the basil ice cream I had this afternoon.  A-MAZ-ING!  Not quite sweet or dessert tasting, but with nuts (almonds?) and more savory, probably one of the most unique and delicious ice creams I've ever had.  I guess it shouldn't be too surprising as Finland is Europe's biggest consumer of ice cream - on average the annual consumption is 13.7 liters per person (I stumbled upon this fact one day as my classmates and I were debating the origin of ice cream, and I of course needed to Wikipedia it...).

The first group we encountered - complete with trance music, and dancers (maybe on something...)

Pride Parade Celebration

Aleksenterinkatu (main shopping street)

I keep forgetting tomorrow is the 4th of July - I wonder how big the U.S. population is here in Helsinki, and if there will be anything going on?  We sure don't seem to run into Americans very often (although, I did hear excerpts of a few seemingly American conversations at last week's Arcade Fire concert in Senate Square).  Happy 4th to everyone at home!  Hope you're enjoying your summers!

Midsummer's Eve

The height of the Finnish summer is the holiday of Midsummer - appropriate that a country that spends half the year in darkness would want to celebrate the longest day of the year. Last night we partook in the annual festivities on Seurasaari Island, despite the pouring rain (that apparently is also basically tradition at this point).

We wandered amongst the crowd, eyeing vendors that had set up their shops - blacksmiths, woodworkers - and tons of kids who played tug-of-war, walked on stilts, and watched a puppet show in an open field. The main events surround a newlywed couple, chosen annually to be married that day on the island, who perform the Midsummer bridal waltz, and light the main bonfire on the shore later that night. Despite not understanding a word that was spoken or sung, the celebration was special. Hope for a new year filled with love and happiness, togetherness of family. It definitely made me miss my family thousands of miles away.

Yum!

Trying to capture part of the crowd along the shore - waiting for the main bonfire to be lit.

Winding down around 11.