7 airports + 51 hours of travel i will be home in another 37!!
off to tokyo.
home!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
pink people
i'm tired. i haven't slept. studio just keeps going.
and going.
and going.
thank goodness for being able to put hot pink people in my drawings. that's what is keeping me going....
strange, i know. i'll take what i can get.
and going.
and going.
thank goodness for being able to put hot pink people in my drawings. that's what is keeping me going....
strange, i know. i'll take what i can get.
Monday, July 30, 2007
the game
loooong day of reviews for our project.
in case you don't know..."reviewing" consists of everyone pinning their work up on the wall, explaining it, and a group of "critics" tearing it apart. generally.
this is more or less what happened to me today.
my project is too expensive. never once in my academic career have i been asked to think of cost and now they are not only making me consider it, they are forcing us to produce a budget. And let me tell you -- producing a budget with no structural or costing knowledge or RESOURCES is next to impossible.
it is possible to make my project cost less, but it will never be cheap.
it's a sculpture.
so that's the game.
in case you don't know..."reviewing" consists of everyone pinning their work up on the wall, explaining it, and a group of "critics" tearing it apart. generally.
this is more or less what happened to me today.
my project is too expensive. never once in my academic career have i been asked to think of cost and now they are not only making me consider it, they are forcing us to produce a budget. And let me tell you -- producing a budget with no structural or costing knowledge or RESOURCES is next to impossible.
it is possible to make my project cost less, but it will never be cheap.
it's a sculpture.
so that's the game.
Monday, July 23, 2007
singapore sling
singapore is fantastic!
but firstly, why hasn't anyone ever told me how completely wonderful vonnegut is? i just finished breakfast of champions (i read cat's cradle earlier this summer) and he's so incredible i have clearly been living in the dark.
back to the point. singapore! amazing.
we (we=me, tom, eric) took the train down on wednesday morning and seven of the bumpiest hours of my life later we arrived in singapore, thankful we had not derailed. we proceeded to walk across town looking for a hotel as the 8 or so we had called before leaving were without vacancy. surprisingly, this was also the case with the next 10 we walked into (excluding 'hawaii hostel' which was NOT paradise - we tried to steer clear of anything charging hourly rates). we came across the strand finally and settled on it. apparently there was a huuge convention that comes to town only once a year and it was, thankfully, happening the day after we arrived. the point of this story is : we didn't sleep on the streets.
we walked down the main shopping drag, orchard road, which, incidentally, my friend dana's parents designed the landscaping for, had dumplings for dinner, and headed over to chinatown to explore. After two and a half hours of traipsing around singapore with our luggage we were exhausted and so crashed pre-midnight.
thursday we took ourselves on a tour of the city hitting all the major points: little india, kampong glam, downtown and the colonial district, chinatown, club street, and orchard road again.
that night we headed back out to chinatown for hawker food ('hawker' refers to food stalls on the street) and tiger beers (tiger beer is made in singapore). and much dancing on a disco floor later we crashed very-post-midnight.
friday we headed out to sentosa, a tiny island 500ish meters off singapore. it's entirely theme-parky and very odd. we hung out on the beach, reading and watching the handful of brides get photographed on the sand and IN the water. their dresses got soo dirty just in the sand alone i couldn't believe all of them were willing to climb into the water too! (note: these were individual brides unassociated with one another.)
from there we headed back into town to watch a free concert that was happening by the water. unfortunately it turned out to be an AWFUL malaysian rock band instead of the pleasant jazz/classical i was expecting. it was quite disappointing.
saturday was nature day. we hit the orchid gardens, the largest in the world, the botanical gardens, the rainforest, and a night safari. the orchid garden was my favorite thing we did in singapore.
it was sooo beautiful there and i got to have massive amounts of fun with my camera (see the dozens of pictures on flickr). orchids are fantastically magical. i wanted to have them all so i could look at them every day. 
the rainforest was rather comical because we ended up hiking (instead of the walk we were anticipating) for 2 hours up and down up and down. it was really steep and incredibly humid and i was wearing a white blouse and my falling apart sandals (they straps actually are half broken, but i love them anyway - i'm just worried they're going to give out on me). The ups were always anticlimactic because even on trails called things such as 'north view' there was no view. we also climbed to the highest point in singapore ("the summit") to no view. and then the night safari! well, it was admittedly kind of silly and hokey, but very cool. large animals are cool. i saw the biggest elephant i have ever seen too -- huuuge.
it was a wonderful trip. singapore is beautiful, incredibly clean, and has the most amazing public transportation sytem i've ever used. the metro took you everywhere, but the buses filled in the few gaps there were. There were maps and clear numbers at every stop which made it easily understood. the coolest part was the cards you could load money onto and quickly scan when you got on/off any bus/metro train. they were so effective that you didn't even have to take them out of your purse to scan them! how amazing is that?
singapore was by far the most colonial place i've visited on this trip. as a result of western influence it has no other readily apparent culture present. it is a completely western city. when i was walking downtown i actually felt like i was in charlotte. maybe it's this western ness that makes it so easy to like ( i think so)... i feel a little guilty about that, but i can't help but like it.
ESPECIALLY after arriving back in kuala lamepur last night. uuugh. i have never been so unhappy to be back anywhere as i was in the train station yesterday. i went to the bathroom and remembered about not liking KL. the floor was soaking wet and there was a haphazard line system AND only eastern toilets. (i'm not sure i've explained the eastern toilet before, though it's amazing that i could have possibly made it all summer without explaining one. anyhow, if you are unsure about what it is, look it up, it's much too grotesque to explain.) i did feel better after i got some much needed food in my system...
school is VERY busy now. we had a pinup today with our malaysian counterparts. my partner is on board with me now and i think it is going to be a very successful project - i'm excited about it. i do wish we had much more time than we do...anyhow, i should get back to my work, but i'll keep posting as my project and KL life unfolds.
but firstly, why hasn't anyone ever told me how completely wonderful vonnegut is? i just finished breakfast of champions (i read cat's cradle earlier this summer) and he's so incredible i have clearly been living in the dark.
back to the point. singapore! amazing.
we (we=me, tom, eric) took the train down on wednesday morning and seven of the bumpiest hours of my life later we arrived in singapore, thankful we had not derailed. we proceeded to walk across town looking for a hotel as the 8 or so we had called before leaving were without vacancy. surprisingly, this was also the case with the next 10 we walked into (excluding 'hawaii hostel' which was NOT paradise - we tried to steer clear of anything charging hourly rates). we came across the strand finally and settled on it. apparently there was a huuge convention that comes to town only once a year and it was, thankfully, happening the day after we arrived. the point of this story is : we didn't sleep on the streets.
we walked down the main shopping drag, orchard road, which, incidentally, my friend dana's parents designed the landscaping for, had dumplings for dinner, and headed over to chinatown to explore. After two and a half hours of traipsing around singapore with our luggage we were exhausted and so crashed pre-midnight.
thursday we took ourselves on a tour of the city hitting all the major points: little india, kampong glam, downtown and the colonial district, chinatown, club street, and orchard road again.
that night we headed back out to chinatown for hawker food ('hawker' refers to food stalls on the street) and tiger beers (tiger beer is made in singapore). and much dancing on a disco floor later we crashed very-post-midnight.friday we headed out to sentosa, a tiny island 500ish meters off singapore. it's entirely theme-parky and very odd. we hung out on the beach, reading and watching the handful of brides get photographed on the sand and IN the water. their dresses got soo dirty just in the sand alone i couldn't believe all of them were willing to climb into the water too! (note: these were individual brides unassociated with one another.)
from there we headed back into town to watch a free concert that was happening by the water. unfortunately it turned out to be an AWFUL malaysian rock band instead of the pleasant jazz/classical i was expecting. it was quite disappointing.saturday was nature day. we hit the orchid gardens, the largest in the world, the botanical gardens, the rainforest, and a night safari. the orchid garden was my favorite thing we did in singapore.
it was sooo beautiful there and i got to have massive amounts of fun with my camera (see the dozens of pictures on flickr). orchids are fantastically magical. i wanted to have them all so i could look at them every day. 
the rainforest was rather comical because we ended up hiking (instead of the walk we were anticipating) for 2 hours up and down up and down. it was really steep and incredibly humid and i was wearing a white blouse and my falling apart sandals (they straps actually are half broken, but i love them anyway - i'm just worried they're going to give out on me). The ups were always anticlimactic because even on trails called things such as 'north view' there was no view. we also climbed to the highest point in singapore ("the summit") to no view. and then the night safari! well, it was admittedly kind of silly and hokey, but very cool. large animals are cool. i saw the biggest elephant i have ever seen too -- huuuge.it was a wonderful trip. singapore is beautiful, incredibly clean, and has the most amazing public transportation sytem i've ever used. the metro took you everywhere, but the buses filled in the few gaps there were. There were maps and clear numbers at every stop which made it easily understood. the coolest part was the cards you could load money onto and quickly scan when you got on/off any bus/metro train. they were so effective that you didn't even have to take them out of your purse to scan them! how amazing is that?
singapore was by far the most colonial place i've visited on this trip. as a result of western influence it has no other readily apparent culture present. it is a completely western city. when i was walking downtown i actually felt like i was in charlotte. maybe it's this western ness that makes it so easy to like ( i think so)... i feel a little guilty about that, but i can't help but like it.
ESPECIALLY after arriving back in kuala lamepur last night. uuugh. i have never been so unhappy to be back anywhere as i was in the train station yesterday. i went to the bathroom and remembered about not liking KL. the floor was soaking wet and there was a haphazard line system AND only eastern toilets. (i'm not sure i've explained the eastern toilet before, though it's amazing that i could have possibly made it all summer without explaining one. anyhow, if you are unsure about what it is, look it up, it's much too grotesque to explain.) i did feel better after i got some much needed food in my system...
school is VERY busy now. we had a pinup today with our malaysian counterparts. my partner is on board with me now and i think it is going to be a very successful project - i'm excited about it. i do wish we had much more time than we do...anyhow, i should get back to my work, but i'll keep posting as my project and KL life unfolds.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
depress ing
i just met with my partner and it turns out she is only a smidgen less stubborn than i am - which is incredibly depressing.
they also added a major space/design constraint.
i am much less happy than i was three hours ago.
anyway, here was what i haaaad:
they also added a major space/design constraint.
i am much less happy than i was three hours ago.
anyway, here was what i haaaad:
Monday, July 16, 2007
frankly thailand
I am finally getting around to write about Thailand….which was a trip.
(Explicit Content Warning)
We left from Penang, Malaysia, where we visited as a class. It was the first place the British colonized and turned into a port city. They subsequently took over Malacca and then moved onto Singapore. We got to stay in a part of town known as “Georgetown” and the beautiful old Cheong Fatz Tze Mansion. It has the most brilliant blue color that comes from straight from the pigment in crushed indigo flowers. If you ever find yourself in Penang for some odd reason, I highly recommend it for it’s historical significance. And as a bonus, the Catherine Deneuve film “Indochine” was filmed there back in the day. (They were also filming a movie the day we left.)
Back to the point, we flew out of Penang and there was a total of 8 people on a plane that sat 50. For a while it was just the five of us - which we got a huge kick out of. An hour later we got to land on a perfectly green island surrounded by picture perfect turquoise water. Paradise!
The plan was to move around Phuket (perhaps the most popular island in Thailand, though out of season this time of year thanks to monsoons) as we pleased – beach hopping. The first night we stopped in Hat Kamala, then moving onto Hat Kata. The beaches were really beautiful, but ruined by tourists. Kamala was not touristy but it had TRASH on it, which I have never experienced on any beach and it was so disappointing (why do people think it’s okay to litter into the ocean EVER, much less into perfection?)
Kata was long and lovely but dotted with umbrellas and people people people. Tourists aside, and the vendors trying to sell you crap every five seconds aside, it was fantastic. And there was sun! We thought we were going to have to leave Phuket earlier than planned because it would be raining the whole time but quite the contrary. Beautiful weather.
The last thing worth mentioning about Phuket was the large number of kathoey (pronounced ‘Kuh-toy’ to the best of my knowledge), aka transvestites, there. If someone hadn’t pointed it out to me I probably wouldn’t have noticed because these women, or men, were HOT! I mean, I’m pretty girly for the most part, pretty feminine I think, and I felt like a man next to these ladies. If it weren’t for the adam’s apple you’d nneever know. (And sometimes you still don’t know). It’s really rather impressive.
This was more confusing than anything.
What turned out to be incredibly disturbing was the number of Thai women with older white men. Everywhere. Not just prostitutes (I think we only saw those in Phuket but I’m so oblivious to it who knows – and besides, who can tell the difference between a prostitute and a plain ole slutty girl sometimes?) but just younger Thai women. It’s creepy.
PSA: Please no one have a mid –life crisis and end up with a younger Thai woman looking for a better life. She may or may not have been a man in a former life ---- and it’s just not right. Thank you.
Anyhow, we left from Phuket Town on an early morning ferry to the islands of Ko Phi-Phi (Koh Phi-Phi Don and Leh). These are supposed to be some of the most beautiful islands on the west coast and…..the movie The Beach with Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed on Leh. Anyhow, we split up to stay on different parts of the island and three of us rented a long boat and a driver to take us out to Leh for a few hours (no one can stay on Leh, it’s just for day trips) to snorkel and swim.
So beautiful! I always laugh at the water in the rides at Disney and places like Frankie’s Fun Park because the color is so unrealistic but I’ve finally figured out where they get it from – Thailand. Ridiculous. This was much less populated and so we felt like we were exploring. Our drive took us to several coves and bays (we got to swim into a cave!) and we were generally all smiles. (How could you not be?)
The following day we headed back to Phuket and then off to Ko Samui, an island on the east coast. It was supposed to be sunny here, but all we got was rain and clouds. Our beach was quieter and long, white, and beautiful. It was nice to have some quiet time and get lots of reading done. My friend Eric was staying in the hotel right next to us with his family and they were kind enough to charter a catamaran to take us around one afternoon (by this time our numbers have grown to…7). While I was there I also took a catamaran up to Ko Tao two hours away – which is supposed to be on of the best places to scuba dive in the world. Since I don’t YET have my scuba license I settled for snorkeling and saw lots of pretty fish and coral..and some crazy other things.
In order to fly back to KL we had to fly up to Bangkok so we had decided to give ourselves a 24 hour layover in order to jet out and see what we could. It worked pretty well! We went to the famous night market there on Saturday and had delicious and CHEAP Chang beers, pad thai, and pineapple fried rice (yum!). Sunday morning we went to the HUGE market there bright and early. That was crazy. It only happens on the weekends and it was insane. You can get anything you could ever want (food pets shoes vintage tshirts antique furniture handbags candles etc) IF you can withstand the smells. I would not wish some of those smells upon my worst enemy. UGH. We didn’t have very long there and it was such a smelly sticky maze I didn’t buy anything except two glass rings for 50 US cents. (biig spender) But there was some pretty cool stuff – I even saw a Wild Dunes t-shirt for sale! If there had been a Clemson one I would have bought it no matter what. From there we visited the Jim Thompson house (he was an American who promoted silk manufacturing in Thailand and assembled several Thai houses to live in). Then we ran off to ride a ferry up the disgusting brown river to see Wat Bo and the HUGE golden reclining Buddha – which struck me as a little excessive, especially for Buddhism, but whaaaatever. And that was Bangkok.
I kept myself really busy with school last week and then crashed this past weekend. I don’t remember the last time I slept so much at once.
I am really pleased because on a sleepless night last week I came up with a concept for my studio project. I had been worried because I had nothing I was pleased with but it came to me out of nowhere and now it’s going somewhere. Anyhow,
I’m thinking about continuity in terms of flow and progression. Our site in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is surrounded by rice fields and so very in tune with the crop and weather cycles, as well as all those cycles associated with school. I’m really excited with where I’m going. My approach has been very different than everyone else’s, and as a result my project is very different. I haven’t gotten to speak with my partner about it yet, but my teacher has encouraged all of us to move forward because we have no other option time-wise. Hopefully there won’t be a problem as I am very attached to my ideas!
Anyhow, that’s all there is to it for now. I’m going to Singapore at the end of the week, to which I’m looking forward. I’m hoping to scan some of my work before I leave so maybe I’ll put it up here….
We’re posting on the project blog, so don’t forget to check it out every once in a while!
(Explicit Content Warning)
We left from Penang, Malaysia, where we visited as a class. It was the first place the British colonized and turned into a port city. They subsequently took over Malacca and then moved onto Singapore. We got to stay in a part of town known as “Georgetown” and the beautiful old Cheong Fatz Tze Mansion. It has the most brilliant blue color that comes from straight from the pigment in crushed indigo flowers. If you ever find yourself in Penang for some odd reason, I highly recommend it for it’s historical significance. And as a bonus, the Catherine Deneuve film “Indochine” was filmed there back in the day. (They were also filming a movie the day we left.)
Back to the point, we flew out of Penang and there was a total of 8 people on a plane that sat 50. For a while it was just the five of us - which we got a huge kick out of. An hour later we got to land on a perfectly green island surrounded by picture perfect turquoise water. Paradise!
The plan was to move around Phuket (perhaps the most popular island in Thailand, though out of season this time of year thanks to monsoons) as we pleased – beach hopping. The first night we stopped in Hat Kamala, then moving onto Hat Kata. The beaches were really beautiful, but ruined by tourists. Kamala was not touristy but it had TRASH on it, which I have never experienced on any beach and it was so disappointing (why do people think it’s okay to litter into the ocean EVER, much less into perfection?) 
Kata was long and lovely but dotted with umbrellas and people people people. Tourists aside, and the vendors trying to sell you crap every five seconds aside, it was fantastic. And there was sun! We thought we were going to have to leave Phuket earlier than planned because it would be raining the whole time but quite the contrary. Beautiful weather.The last thing worth mentioning about Phuket was the large number of kathoey (pronounced ‘Kuh-toy’ to the best of my knowledge), aka transvestites, there. If someone hadn’t pointed it out to me I probably wouldn’t have noticed because these women, or men, were HOT! I mean, I’m pretty girly for the most part, pretty feminine I think, and I felt like a man next to these ladies. If it weren’t for the adam’s apple you’d nneever know. (And sometimes you still don’t know). It’s really rather impressive.
This was more confusing than anything.
What turned out to be incredibly disturbing was the number of Thai women with older white men. Everywhere. Not just prostitutes (I think we only saw those in Phuket but I’m so oblivious to it who knows – and besides, who can tell the difference between a prostitute and a plain ole slutty girl sometimes?) but just younger Thai women. It’s creepy.
PSA: Please no one have a mid –life crisis and end up with a younger Thai woman looking for a better life. She may or may not have been a man in a former life ---- and it’s just not right. Thank you.
Anyhow, we left from Phuket Town on an early morning ferry to the islands of Ko Phi-Phi (Koh Phi-Phi Don and Leh). These are supposed to be some of the most beautiful islands on the west coast and…..the movie The Beach with Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed on Leh. Anyhow, we split up to stay on different parts of the island and three of us rented a long boat and a driver to take us out to Leh for a few hours (no one can stay on Leh, it’s just for day trips) to snorkel and swim.
So beautiful! I always laugh at the water in the rides at Disney and places like Frankie’s Fun Park because the color is so unrealistic but I’ve finally figured out where they get it from – Thailand. Ridiculous. This was much less populated and so we felt like we were exploring. Our drive took us to several coves and bays (we got to swim into a cave!) and we were generally all smiles. (How could you not be?)
The following day we headed back to Phuket and then off to Ko Samui, an island on the east coast. It was supposed to be sunny here, but all we got was rain and clouds. Our beach was quieter and long, white, and beautiful. It was nice to have some quiet time and get lots of reading done. My friend Eric was staying in the hotel right next to us with his family and they were kind enough to charter a catamaran to take us around one afternoon (by this time our numbers have grown to…7). While I was there I also took a catamaran up to Ko Tao two hours away – which is supposed to be on of the best places to scuba dive in the world. Since I don’t YET have my scuba license I settled for snorkeling and saw lots of pretty fish and coral..and some crazy other things.In order to fly back to KL we had to fly up to Bangkok so we had decided to give ourselves a 24 hour layover in order to jet out and see what we could. It worked pretty well! We went to the famous night market there on Saturday and had delicious and CHEAP Chang beers, pad thai, and pineapple fried rice (yum!). Sunday morning we went to the HUGE market there bright and early. That was crazy. It only happens on the weekends and it was insane. You can get anything you could ever want (food pets shoes vintage tshirts antique furniture handbags candles etc) IF you can withstand the smells. I would not wish some of those smells upon my worst enemy. UGH. We didn’t have very long there and it was such a smelly sticky maze I didn’t buy anything except two glass rings for 50 US cents. (biig spender) But there was some pretty cool stuff – I even saw a Wild Dunes t-shirt for sale! If there had been a Clemson one I would have bought it no matter what. From there we visited the Jim Thompson house (he was an American who promoted silk manufacturing in Thailand and assembled several Thai houses to live in). Then we ran off to ride a ferry up the disgusting brown river to see Wat Bo and the HUGE golden reclining Buddha – which struck me as a little excessive, especially for Buddhism, but whaaaatever. And that was Bangkok.
I kept myself really busy with school last week and then crashed this past weekend. I don’t remember the last time I slept so much at once.
I am really pleased because on a sleepless night last week I came up with a concept for my studio project. I had been worried because I had nothing I was pleased with but it came to me out of nowhere and now it’s going somewhere. Anyhow,
I’m thinking about continuity in terms of flow and progression. Our site in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is surrounded by rice fields and so very in tune with the crop and weather cycles, as well as all those cycles associated with school. I’m really excited with where I’m going. My approach has been very different than everyone else’s, and as a result my project is very different. I haven’t gotten to speak with my partner about it yet, but my teacher has encouraged all of us to move forward because we have no other option time-wise. Hopefully there won’t be a problem as I am very attached to my ideas!
Anyhow, that’s all there is to it for now. I’m going to Singapore at the end of the week, to which I’m looking forward. I’m hoping to scan some of my work before I leave so maybe I’ll put it up here….
We’re posting on the project blog, so don’t forget to check it out every once in a while!
Friday, June 29, 2007
school
i haven't spoken that much about my studio project -- but for pr and fundraising purposes we've created an ongoing blog (of which i am officially "blog master") about it.
i'm really invested in it, so please check it out!!
http://designcambodia.blogspot.com
i'm really invested in it, so please check it out!!
http://designcambodia.blogspot.com
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