December 22, 2010
Reflections...
The past semester was my first in college, and has been the worst in my life. It is so true when they say 'Architorture'. Whoever told me that the Architecture major program at Tech helps a lot in college, lied.
The first day of school, I thought to myself, that a reading journal shouldn't be much. Then, Design came. Literally, the assignment was thrown at us. I believed he asked for too much.
Well, college, the past semester has been the toughest, hardest, and worst in my life! All the people who told me that the Architecture major program at Tech helps, lied. The first day of class on Monday: English was basically a little bit harder than high school, but in the afternoon, the Design professor literally threw the first assignment to us. Most of us, being freshmen in college were shocked, and everyone stayed up late on Wednesday night/Thursday morning to finish the assignment.
Then, the Design professor wanted wooden cube models by the following Monday, so, I went to woodshop on the first Saturday after school started. Everything was going fine, until I had to chisel some wood out and instead poked the chisel into my left hand, right between my thumb and forefinger. I fainted shortly afterwards and the woodshop manager helped to stop the bleeding. But, because it was severe, and the wound was pretty deep, they ended up sending me to SUNY Downstate Hospital. They tried applying numbing ointment onto the wounded area, but it didn't work out so well. So, they started injecting numbing medicine throughout the area. The bleeding had stopped by then, but because the doctors wanted to see if I had damaged any tendons, they had a specialist come down to the ER, who opened the wound once again and the bleeding started once again. A trainee doctor applied pressure to the wound for another half hour because they started stitching it back together. I was told the wound was 2.5 cm deep and 4 cm long after 6 stitches.
I went to checkup at a hand specialist and she told me I probably damaged a nerve as half my thumb is still numb. But, the worst part is that the professors in college don't care. The Design teacher said to me "I know you hurt you hand, but work still has to be done". So, through countless late nights, all-nighters, wood cutting, and drawings, I AM FINALLY DONE WITH THE FIRST SEMESTER!
The only thing that Architecture differs from the rest is that we have reviews, which count as exams. Basically, each subject has about three in a semester. The only subject in which we have written exams is the History of Architecture. Reviews are when the students pin up all their work (drawings, pictures, models) onto the wall and explain their concept and steps to the critics. It's about 5 minutes of explanation and then the critics ask questions and give the students new ideas for the project.
Design is the most important subject, as it is part of the curriculum in each semester, and classes are held twice a week. It is also the class with the most workload as I basically redo things at least three times before he approves of it. At first I hated the professor, but when I finally understood what he wanted us to do, I realized he was a great professor.
English is just analyzing and interpreting critical and analytical texts, somehow related to Architecture, and corresponds to the Design class.
History of Architecture is where we memorize the information of the buildings in the different cultures and important facts of each culture. My professor required us to do a History notebook, in which we had to have info on the buildings as well as hand drawn plans, elevations, sections, and 3-Ds for every building on the syllabus.
Representation is similar to Technical Drawing, in which we use different methods and drawing techniques to express our concept.
And Technics, is where we make the impossible the possible. First, was a paper tower that stood 6 feet tall. Then, a spantilever (span and cantilever) that held gravel in a bucket. And lastly, something that would hold a body up in a weird position. But, the professor stopped showing up to each session after the midterm, in which we suffered a lot. And, for the final review, his two critics were not helpful at all! And the worst thing was, if we did what he told us to do, and the critics wanted the exact opposite, he sided with them. Unbelievable!
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