School: This semester has been my hardest one yet, and also my heaviest work load since I started (16 credit hours-4 design classes and 2 generals). 3 midterm design projects, 4 final projects and a final test certainly kept me busy all semester. This is also the semester where I took nothing but upper-division classes (minus the 2 generals). The thing that's unknown about the Interior Design upper-division classes is there is no such thing as "finals week." I'm assigned my final project a little after midterm and I work on it until I turn it in during "finals week." and let me tell you--I need all the time I can get. I cannot even remember how many nights I stayed up past 3 or 4am scrambling to finish drawings for my perspective/rendering class (seen below). Surprisingly however, this has also been my best semest
er grade wise. At least I know all my hard work paid off!Final project--concept, "bridge the gap." Project for a youth center in Portland, OR (Portland is full of bridges so I ran with it). I'm not very satisfied about the board presentation. Better luck next time I suppose.
Moving on. . .
Intervarsity: The past few years I have only been to a couple of IV events, but this semester I started getting more involved. I attended the "large groups" every Thursday, went on a weekend retreat in October, and also went to other little events. It's been great. So great that they asked me to be the "President." IV is a club on campus and every club needs a president. It's really more of a coordinator. I accepted, but am changing the name to "Chief." You may call me, The Chief. I schedule all of our events, make sure large group is squared away, and that everyone is doing what they need to be doing to make Intervarsity great.
Also with IV I'm going to Urbana. What is "Urbana?" you may ask. Urbana is a missions conference put on every three years by Intervarstiy. It's huge. At least 20,000 people will be there. I cannot wait! and I don't have to wait much longer because I leave on Sunday the 27th. The conference lasts 5 days and I come home Jan 1, 2010, so it looks like I'll be ringing in the new year in St. Louis, MO. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Gerald: That's right, he gets his own category. He's been in Afghanistan for 121 days and I get to see him in 127 days (that's right, I'm counting. Deal with it). I've mailed a few letters to him but yesterday I sent my first package. It has some homemade cookies, a "cheese ball and crackers" that he requested, socks, wet wipes, other snacks...the usual. This whole deployment has definitely been like stepping into uncharted waters. This is G's second time over there so he knows the ins and outs, and he helped me get ready for it. Regardless of how much I tried to get ready, I don't think I could have truly been prepared for what deployment does to my emotions and spirit. Nevertheless, phone calls with G, fellowship with family and friends, and moments with God always triumph.
My, my, my, are you still reading? Here's some good news--you made it all the way to the end. Thank you for withstanding my long post!
That is all
