Hello from Miki...

So there's one week between now and the final review for second year M.Archers. It's hard to believe. The semester flew by, and now we're all getting souped up to present our final findings from the semester.

I'm pretty happy with the way the semester has panned out... my partner in housing and I are working out really great- if anything, I wish I could collaborate more in the next year till the end, but I know that from now on, it tends to be all about competition.

I've learned a lot from working with a partner, as have others in the housing studio. It's about stepping down from your instinct, and listening to others. No one in the world is the 'best' at everything. Knowing that, it becomes easier and more exciting to be in school and see how others around you add value, not just academically in your work, but in terms of camaraderie, shared pain, and shared bad/good food. I never thought miso soup could be 'ruined,' but at "Cafe Swish" near Columbia, I realized that rubber bands left in the soup leaves a way-unpleasant aftertaste.

I am pretty tired now. This post is a quickie before everything culminates. The big question that seems on everyone's minds these days is what to do this summer. It's the last summer before we graduate, where we (my class of second years) can explore and do whatever the hell we like. New york City is a pull, but so is the idea of traveling to the rest of the world where things are happening. Columbia doesn't seem to support so much foreign travel during the academic year, except for people of the 'graduating class,' OR for the ONE class "Renaissance History" in which all who signed up this year anticipated a trip to Venice or Florence, for a matter of days, in the Fall. This year, the administration didn't allow Dan Sherer to use the school funds. So many hearts were broken. Now people don't even know the purpose of taking the class, beyond book reading and such.

Same old things are happening in studio. Without a doubt, the printers always break down the days of final reviews. One has to run up and down several floors from the fifth to the oh wait, just the sixth floor, only to discover that nothing works. Maybe that is the charm of going to a NYC school- nothing works, and there's never enough room to build your model. Maybe it's just Columbia. But I'm not one to point fingers.

that's all for now, till the 'review'.
Miki