Fun Times in Colorado!

Okay, well, lately everything's been going pretty well in Denver! The pictures above are from the camping trip over Labor Day weekend. I went with Jeff, his roommate and some of their friends. I brought Mia and another girl brought her puppy, Daisy, so they tired eachother out and it was perfect.

It was my first trip to the mountains since I've moved here, so it was about time to get out there. We made it out just in time before the weather started to cool down ( which I am absolutely loving right now!). I love when summer starts slipping into Fall.. I think it's my favorite. Sweatshirts, sweatpants... awesome.

I have also been playing around with my new camera... the Rebel XTi and it's so much fun so far. The camera was purchased from Wolf Camera and they provide some free camera classes with my purchase, so I went to one last Thursday and hopefully I will be able to go to the more in-depth one this Thursday. There are so many little tricks that can be learned. This is one of the things I wanted to do, so I'm so glad that I was given the opportunity to purchase this camera. Now I just want to figure out how to take beautiful pictures.

Mia has been my main subject so far. Maybe I will turn into an animal photographer. Haha... but that could be interesting..

This last weekend, we went to a local designer fashion show. I went with the k-state architecture girls that have all moved here. There's about 5 of us that usually hang out. So, this event was called Art in the City and is kind of tied to the First Fridays events that happen around the city at the art galleries on the first Fridays of the month. It was in a very random spot in Denver in a warehouse, so a little confusing to get to and I think the cab driver was a little worried when we told him to 'continue driving by this warehouse, past the cement truck... keep goin..'

Anyways, it was a $5 donation and drinks and food all night.. Local designers had models strut their designs down a walkway It was really neat and nice to do something a little different and be around the artsy crowd.

Tomorrow, the same girls are all going to head to a rock climbing gym and take a lesson to learn how to climb... Sarah set it all up and we all jumped at the chance to do something new and different.

It's so nice to be with a crowd that likes to do fun things!!

A trip to Colorado Springs might be in the works this weekend and then Jeff and I are going to Greeley, CO to visit our cousin and her family for dinner.

Well, that is what I have been up to.. All going well and loving it!

Pictures of Mia, my puggle pup

the daily routine..

5:00am-6:00am(if I'm lucky) - Mia wakes me up
- take out Mia
- feed Mia

7:00 am - look at Einstein Bros. Bagels across the street and really want a bagel

7:00am -8:00am - play with Mia while trying to eat breakfast and get ready for work - usually don't get a bagel

8:00am - leave for work(no one usually shows up before 8:15)
- grab coffee at coffee shop next door to work or starbucks along the way
- eye the muffins - usually don't get one

8:15am - 12:00 - spend some time checking out the email and facebook situation, then start working on the fun autoCAD.

12:00 - 1:00 ish - go home to let Mia out and eat lunch

1:00 - 5:00 ish - work, check out more facebook and email.

5:15pm - possibly workout directly after work, possibly run errands, possibly just go home

6:30pm - always back to play with the pup, feed her, have snack - go to the park, run/walk around neighborhood

7:30 - 8:00 - dinner, tv, wine

10:00-11:00ish - bedtime

I remember looking forward to having a routine and schedule... it's getting a little monotonous..

I am going to write a post soon.. promise!

I don't know if anyone stops by this site anymore, but I do plan on updating every now and then...we don't have internet in our apartment just yet - coming on thursday. Just trying to put together the apartment lately-going to look at a table after work today. That is the major piece of furniture that is missing and it will be soo nice when a table is in there.
But, I have moved out here to Denver and started working - everything is going pretty well!
Later

FINISHED!

Here are some of my 3d renders from my project. Finally done and I'm so excited.
No job yet...so now I'm on a mission to find the job.
Check ya later

the end is near!

One last week of putting my body through this awful, miserable marathon of no sleep and high stress. After this (assuming I pass this semester), I won't have anymore school projects that keep me up in studio for countless hours straight with no sleep. Starting today, many of us will slip into 'freak out mode' when we realize how little time we have to finish a whole lot of work!
On top of stressing over studio, I also am thinking about how many of my hours this weekend are going towards working at Panera.

If I was really thinking ahead I would have made this week my last week of work at Panera. But, I am not a planner and didn't realize what a good idea that would be. Instead, two weeks from yesterday is my last day. This gives me most of finals week to put in some hours, since I only have one final.

This is the last week of having to use the super glue that must be used to make a model at the pace I need to make it at. For five years now I have dealt with the itchyness that happens in these last final weeks and any other time I have had to build a model in studio. I have known for the last five years there has been something I am allergic to in studio. After coming back from a stress-free, super glue free semester in Prague, I realized it was the super glue. Any resistance my body had built up to the constant use of superglue had left and there was no question after using it again this year that it was the super glue. I have avoided it my best all semester, trying to use the slower-drying tacky glue to build study models, but when it comes down to this time of the semester, I have no choice but to use super glue. I'm loading up on allergy medicine the best I can while using the super glue, but it fails to stop the skin irritation. It's awful!

But it will all be over in one week! Then it is recovery time and graduation.

I still do not know what I will be doing after graduation. I have yet to secure a job and the search had to be put off starting a couple weeks ago, so that I could buckle down and finish the project. What is a job if I don't pass studio??

So after graduation and getting my wisdom teeth out, I will get a move on the job search again. I pray it doesn't take too long to land one that I will enjoy. For the most part, I will be looking in Denver and Chicago, but I will continue to look at some other exciting destinations as well!

Well, it's back to work with the irritating super glue and the severe itching that comes along with it.

studio fun

some progress on my current project.. less than a month to get all this finished!

job searching

that's it. keeping me busy and stressed

1 year, 1 day

I meant to write a little something yesterday. Yesterday was a year since I left for my big study abroad experience. I left with Luke from Wichita and flew to London. We then made our way to Oxford for a very jetlagged tour, then we ended up at the house of Luke's friends, who were so amazing.
And from there, so much more for 5 months.

The students going to Prague this year haven't quite left yet. We left about a week early so we could go to England, but the ones I have talked to are going straight to Prague, so I think they leave in just a couple days.
What a great experience and I've been looking through some of my pictures just remembering what it was like to be there. It would be awesome to be able to go back for a visit soon. Too bad flights aren't as cheap to Prague from the US as they are from England!

Okay, well here are a few pics of my first days in England and Prague.

post!

well, it's about that time to write something.
The semester has been a lot busier than it seemed it was going to be, but that is because I ended up getting a job. After a little bit of looking, I got a job at Panera. So far it's going well. It's definitely keeping my schedule busy. But it's all good and now I have a little bit of income, so I'm not stressed about that quite as much. Besides working, I'm only busy with studio. It's nice to come into studio and only have to worry about studio stuff instead of other classes.
Between studio and work I am trying to finish my portfolio.. it's a slow process, but I'm going to pick up the pace and get it done so I can make sure all is well before design expo.
Design expo is our career fair that the college of architecture does. Right now there are like 130 firms coming, so it is a good opportunity. There are firms from all over, but I don't think there are any from Boston - which is where I really want to go! I think there are some from Chicago, Denver and Portland, which I am interested in as well. Atleast I'll get some practice in for interviews through this.
Our professor just gave us a little lecture on balancing studio and job stuff, because fifth years always get distracted with portfolios and interviews and design expo.

This weekend is Alpha Chi's 60th anniversary reunion. so a lot of people are coming into town! but, panera also decided to schedule me really crap times for the first time so far. I close friday night, which it says is around 11:30..boo! so nobody come to panera on friday, please, so I can possibly get out of there sooner. that's the pub crawl night, so I'll have to join much later. then i work at 7 am on sunday so I can't do anything too crazy saturday night.. so it really kinda sucks. oh well... i'll do my best to enjoy the weekend. I think I may go out on Thursday night to compensate. Or tonight, if K-state beats KU tonight I will probably go out...

that's what is going on.. i will try to do a little more updating.

this is what i want

My goal in life... to be able to get a massage every single day of my life...

break?? not quite...

I got home tonight for Thanksgiving break and this is what I am doing...


yup, school work... this is my project for studio

mid-semester

So, I've made it through over half of the semester. Time has gone pretty fast here in Manhattan - the weeks seem to fly by lately. They need to start slowing down a little bit, so I can enjoy my last year here - which I have been doing. The beginning of the week is a little tough to get through because I have my night classes on Monday and Tuesday, so then by the time those are over I feel like half of the week is gone.
I have finished my Tuesday night class and now need to get motivated to figure out something for my studio project. This new project we have started is proving to be a bit challenging for me and I need to get myself motivated. Halloween is coming up and I don't want to sacrifice those nights of fun to be in studio! -- so that will be my motivation for the rest of the week.

I had a great weekend back home in Wichita. It was nice and relaxing and I felt like I hadn't been home in awhile. We have had so many home football games this year that I have to find the weekends we have away games to do anything. These football games are definitely all day affairs. We have another one this weekend -the homecoming game - it hardly even matters that it's homecoming now that I'm not in the sorority anymore, now that I'm "alum". The only thing "homecoming" means right now is "halloween".
Anyways, Jeff was home from Denver this weekend as well - shortly, because he went to the OU game with my dad while my mom and I hung out in Wichita. We had some good food and I ate way too many m&m's from our bottomeless candy dish...
I don't have too much else to "update" on right now, but life is good and I hope it is for everyone else!

I'll throw in a few pics


some tailgating action

and the roomies

update!

So, obviously I'm not doing so good at updating this, but every now and then I may get the urge to post something.. so I'm keeping the blog around. I need to change the name, because I am no longer in Prague -- sadly.
So I'm still working on getting into the swing of school. Basically, it's the studio stuff that is hard to dive into. I'm not ready to spend all my time in Seaton Hall again. I have had a very large amount of reading to do this semester and most of it is not easy reading. I have to whip out the dictionary every now and then to figure out what exactly these writers are talking about.

***actually, please look at Laura's blog - there's a link to the right. She has a nice quote off of one of the readings we had to read for our Project Programming class in her last post.

One of my classes is basically all reading. We have the class once a week and discuss the readings we were supposed to read throughout the week. We also have a paper over the readings - about 2 pages - due every class. So that keeps me pretty busy. That class is on Tuesday evening. I am in a drawing class on Monday evening, I have studio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as usual, golf class Thursday morning, and a Project Programming class Thursday afternoon. It really isn't too bad of a schedule, since all of them except for studio is only once a week. It also gives me plenty of time to work out in the morning.. besides golf at 9:30 on Thursday, my classes start at 1:30 pm at the earlies.

I'm really liking the golf class of course. I'm so glad I took it. There's probably 11 people in the class and I am the only girl. They have other classes and I think those have more girls, but I'm the only one in mine. We've gone out on the golf course one time so far and I'm guessing we will start doing that for now on. We can go out early before the class and play during class if we want to; we don't have to actually go to the lessons. I have been, because I need them, but a few people just go out and play. Right now the weather is really nice, so it would be awesome if this held out for a good month or so before it starts getting frigid outside.

The football game was glorious yesterday. It turned out to be a pretty hot day, but it was so nice out and we stayed the whole game- which is rare. It was a little difficult to get up after a night out on Friday. The game was at 11:30 so in order to get some tailgating in we had to get up early. Of course, we didn't get up as early as planned, but we got out there some time around 9:30 or 10. Our phi delt friends always have a tailgate going on and this game they had rep. for the energy drink Rock Star, so they were handing out free energy drinks, which I most definitely needed.

Anyways, the weekend went pretty well. It rained last night while we were in Aggieville, which wasn't too fun. The bars got really crowded since nobody was out on the patios. We ended up heading home a little early and called it a night. Now, I'm taking a little break from the reading I'm doing. Fun stuff. I will be busy with homework all day - and week. We have mid crits this week. I'm going on Wednesday. Half way through our projects we pin up our work and get critiqued on our progress so for. I also have to do a presentation with Laura on Thursday for our Programming class. We have been researching an architect and one of his specific buildings.. we have quite a bit to do for that before we will be ready to present. So it shall be a busy week.

Well, I better get going on this reading. I'll try not to wait so long to post next time!

back to the little apple

I have moved back to Manhattan now. My parents came with me on Sunday and helped me move all my Stuff in. This year I had to bring along a bed, a dresser and a desk for the first time. Last year, the one semester I was in Manhattan, I was lucky enough to get to use somebody else's stuff for the semester. Jessie, who subleased from me while I was in Prague, didn't need her bed, dresser, and desk for that semester. It made moving a lot easier! This time we had a lot to haul, but I also get to keep it here for a whole year - and that is a first. I have yet to be able to leave all my stuff in one spot for a whole school year. In the dorms we had to move most of our stuff home over christmas break and same with the sorority house.

My room is pretty tiny, but everything fits in there and so far I'm enjoying it. The set up is working nicely. My desk is at the end of my bed, so the end of the bed is working as a chair for the desk. haha. That is the most cramped part of the room. Good thing I never have to do a lot of homework in my room because the bed as my chair would be rather dangerous and I wouldn't foresee much work getting done there.

We have one more roommate moving in tomorrow and then we'll all be settled here. School starts next Monday and so far the only things I have been doing in Manhattan have been getting ready for the semester - paying for it and then signing up for which studios I would prefer to be in. I'm not sure when I find out about the studio assignment. I also picked up my transcript from my semester abroad-thank goodness those got to the school. They told us that last year they had issues getting them.

Other than those few things, I haven't been up to much more than I was all summer in Wichita. Amazingly, the weather has been beautiful the last two days, so I have been able to run and walk outside. My roommate has a dog - still a bit of a puppy! - so I look forward to taking her on some walks. I took her on a walk yesterday and tried to run with her, but it turned into a full-fledged sprint. So we sprinted up and down Vattier (my street) yesterday..

well that's about it. I will try to update this a little bit more frequently now!

home!

Well, I've been home now for little while. I've been meaning to write a little. The plane ride home went pretty smooth. The first flight was on time and the second flight from atlanta to wichita was about an hour late, but not too shabby. We left extremely early from our Madrid hostel to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time.
Since I have been home I haven't really been up to too much. I don't have a job, which is indeed nice, but I also would love to have some income. So that part isn't very fun. I don't like having to worry about money all of the time!
I have been spending some time at the pool and working out. There are a few friends in town and then some will come in for a weekend. I've been working on getting all the pictures developed and then I plan on scrapbooking a little and getting them into some order.
Friday I took a trip to K-state to see some friends. It was so nice being back there and visiting Aggieville again. Of course, it's summer, so the atmosphere wasn't quite the same, but it really wasn't too bad. I had a great time. I don't think the atmosphere will ever be quite the same as last year since so many people have graduated. Being a fifth year might be a little lonely. I'm living with four of my friends and I know a lot of people still here for a fifth year - whether undergrad or grad school, but we will still be the oldest group around here.
Well, all is going well. I am enjoying the summer and the free time - who knows when I'll be able to do nothing for a month again. Probably never. Next year I will be slaving away at a real job probably.
Hopefully, over winter break I can find somewhere to work and make some money.
Just thought I'd write a little update. I will try to keep this up, but as of right now there is nothing too interesting going on.

takin' it easy in Spain

Well, I am now almost to the last stop of my 5 month excursion in Europe! It is pretty crazy to think that I have been over here for that long. So now I´m in Barcelona, Spain. We have free internet at this hostel, but it runs pretty slow. We stay 4 nights here... 2 down, 2 to go. It´s pretty nice being able to relax and take our time in a city. Most of the time when we visit a city we spend 2 nights there, so that leaves one full day to fit everything into. This way, we get to take it reeeal easy, which was our plan. Our hostel is in a fitting area for the ´takin it easy´ outlook, although it was a pain in the arse to get to! It is way out.. like in a mountain outside of Barcelona-okay not a mountain, a large hill. On the metro, it doesn´t take too long to get here, but their whole transportation system is weird here, so we had difficulties coming from the airport. Once we got to our stop, we also had to hike up a large hill - we took about four turns on the hill and each turn brought on a steeper hill. When we walk it now without our bags we still get incredibly tired and don´t know how we did it with all our luggage earlier-especially my heavy backpack pulling me backwards as we climb up this hill.

We thought the metro stopped at midnight to get back here, so our first night we met up with our two friends, Chris and Laura, who had been here a couple nights already. We had dinner and hung out at their hostel, then Luke and I headed back to the metro-or the FGC - its not actually the metro.. anyways we see the gate is closed when we get there! This was our first night, so we had NO idea what to do, so after some cussing and everything we decided we had to get a taxi.. which was not cool at all because our place is OUT there. On the ´metro´, it cuts through the hills, but in a car you have to go up a hill, down the other side, and up another one... so that hit the money pretty hard. oh well, what can ya do. We got pack to our room and unsuccessfully tried to be quiet. We found out that night that there are 4 kinda old ladies staying in our 10 person dorm, so I´m sure they aren´t big fans of us. It was just a little strange, since usually hostels house people our age. The Youth Hostelling International ones have kid groups and older people, so it´s just not quite the same.

Anyhow, we did meet some guys about our age - 2 from England, 1 from Minnesota, 1 from Indiana and 1 from Sweden. We watched the game last night with them and continued talking and watching The Day After Tomorrow dubbed in Spanish with them. We all had a good time and before we knew it, it was about 2:30 am.

Well, that is a little update. Luke and I have been getting plenty of sleep, seeing a lot of Gaudi architecture, and working on our Spanish tans.

And I will be back in Wichita on July 6...

later

oh.. here's the project

Here's the boards I printed off for my project.. hanging up in the studio room still.... and I got an ´Excellent´.. which is an A. wahoo!

back in prague!

Well, I'm finally back after all the traveling! I just went to 5 different countries- kinda crazy! I had a lot of fun traveling around with everybody. After Vienna, I went to Budapest, which was a really cool city.. actually Budapest is 2 cities - Buda and Pest and different sides of the river. Together they have a huge Parliament building, a royal palace, and a castle - interesting that they have all 3- and of course other things to see. We trekked around both the cities in one day in the hot, humid weather. It reminded me of Kansas. The hostel we stayed in was super hippy. They had a huge drawing of Bob Marley on our yellow walls in our room.. I forgot to take a picture. It was a pretty cool set up, but definitely different than all the other hostels we stayed in throughout the trip.

Anyhow, now I have these last few days to try to get the room all cleaned up and packed, as well as trying to see some last things we haven't done yet in Prague. There's always more to see, but there's just a couple things I feel I should see/do before I leave! Hopefully, I will come back to Prague sometime though.

Today I got a few things done, though. I mailed two packages full of all kinds of stuff back home. I also picked up a package that has been hanging out in different locations around Prague for over a month. My mom had sent it forever ago. They post our names on a list in the lobby of the dorm if we have a package, then they give us a slip of paper, then we head to the post office to pick up our package. Well, over a month ago, I had my name on the list, I got a slip of paper and I went to the post office, except all they gave me was a letter and a copy of the paper my mom had filled out to send - telling the contents of the package. They checked a box on that paper that said "returned to sender" and then there was a letter written in Czech. I figured they sent it home since that was what it said and I figured the letter explained why. I figured as long as it was going back home, then that's okay. Well, they never got it back at home. So before I left on this last trip, I got together with my Czech buddy to have him read the letter and help me figure stuff out. So he told me it was at this place because they had to check it - something about customs and we could go pick it up, but by this point I didn't want to pick it up anymore cuz it's just more stuff to take home. So he wrote an email saying we just wanted sent back to the sender because they do that after a certain amount of time, anyhow. I went on my trip. I came back and my name was back on the package list in the lobby! and it was on there twice - one time it was incredibly misspelled, but it was me. So I got another slip saying I had soemthing at the post office and another letter I couldn't read. I talked to my Czech buddy again and he said there was miscommunication and they had sent it back to the post office! It'd been there for almost 10 days and I thought there was a charge usually when your package sits there for days... so I was scared to pick it up, but worried they would never send it back home. It has my running in mp3 player among a couple other things, so I wanted it back. So I went to the post office when I mailed stuff and decided I'd ask about the package and if it cost too much, I just wouldn't pick it up.. I tried to ask the lady - who of course didn't speak English - I had handed her the letter that I had no idea what it said.. A lady behind me spoke really good english and heard me ask so she asked the lady in Czech and then told me there was no charge! Which was awesome.. So I got my package- which was adding a little bit of unneeded stress! Sorry, long story. Now I have poptarts and granola bars as well as face wash! fun stuff.

But, incredibly enough, we dealt with two post office workers that did speak english when we dropped off our packages and laura picked up an empty box. Then I got some laundry done - which was needed SOOO bad.. I was starting to smell. ha.
Then, (fortunately and unfortunately for my money) I found out there was a big sale going on at this store called promod - which is so so cute. So I HAD to go out there and ended up buying a skirt- I couldn't resist and I've been wanting to buy a dress all semester - so I guess that will do. I also heard tonight that some other stores are having big sales too.. yikes.. so tempting.

Laura and Chris leave tomorrow for Spain - where they fly out of to go home on the 3rd! So, the remaining people all went out to dinner at a new place, but it had the traditional Czech food, so I kinda got a meal I get alot... oh well.

Well, that's about it I think. I need to figure out what I need to pack up for Spain and if there's more to send home before I leave on Thursday for Spain.

Here's some pics of the trip.. but I posted them all on my photos page..

vienna

hello. sorry I have not posted in so so long. I'm in Vienna, Austria right now. I traveled with the bros to Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne (germany) and munich. They parted in Munich to fly home and hopefully they remembered to pick up my bag that was waiting in a locker in the amsterdam airport. We had a fun time- we watched lots and lots of soccer since the boys are obsessed, but it's been pretty fun to be in Europe right now with all that going on. Too bad we lost today!!!
Anyhow, Austria has been really fun. We saw an awesome palace yesterday with the largest area of gardens I have ever seen.

Oh yea. and President Bush was in town yesterday, which was cool even though we definitely had no idea until the man checking tickets on the train told us that our 'captain is in town'.

Well I better go. I hope everyone is doing well! I'm heading to Budapest tomorrow and then I'll be back in Prague for a few days. Then it is spain (where we might hit up the running of the bulls if the time is right) and then home! July 6. I'm getting pretty excited for the comforts of home!