What archi has done to me....

Well well, another semester has (nearly) passed n I've studied("or tried to study, or even pretended to study" *learnt this quote from one of the tutors*) Architecture. It has changed my thinking, my personality, my habits. Bottom line? Archi has changed me a lot.

1.I'm much more observant now, even more than before. Of course, the things I observe kinda change too..If previously these eyes are often trained on Nature's handyworks, now I also observe nuts n bolts, the way steel beams are connected, the way escalators are placed in shopping malls, the way windows and doors work...thanks to a module called "Architectural Construction"...
Oh,n I'm more observant about clothes too..Weird cuz previously I've never paid much attention to what I wear, much less what other people wear. Now though, when I go out I'll check out people's clothes, shoes, hair color n determine if they match .(It's becoming a subconscious thing,really..). This obsession starts with my tutor's claim that "Singaporeans don't really know how to dress", n I'm determined to judge it on my own.

2. I can glance at a chair or table, or stair steps, n guess quite accurately the width, length n height...in fact, i kind of do it subconsciously also...as i climb up a set of stairs, i'll start guessing the height of the riser, the width of the steps..

3.I've learnt the meaning of "working my ass off" (what the seniors told us when we first came in, naive n innocent freshmen...).. I've learnt that, indeed, it's Mind Over Matter, that when your hands are shaking from severe lack of sleep, it's still possible to draft decent work. That you dont need coffee to stay awake till 5 a.m. since work is as good a stimulant as any other. I've learnt too, from witnessing what my friends underwent and achieved, that even greater feats than these are possible.

4.I've learnt tt sleep is a necessity, a luxury,n a form of entertainment rolled into one. Seriously? I'm way more grateful for a good night's sleep after i became archi student.

Those r kinda the positive stuff..the negative stuff?

I've learnt tt my brain is truly creative in inventing distractions juz before submission. (The need to eat a certain kind of chocolate. To check out new books online. To juz play guitar a bit - n extend it to 1 hour. To ask my bro if he's done his homework. etc etc. ) Also, I found out tt I can be truly 'heck-care' abt my appearance n personal hygiene if circumstances permit..On the first place, during some of the worst times I didnt cut my nails till they grow long enough to be rather dirty (though my habit usually is to cut them really short the moment the white part is visible cuz i dun like long nails), I didnt even wash my hair for a week...(juz tryin to be honest here..newae tt was really the worst part). n speaking about hair, I have much more white hair now (testimony frm the auntie who cut my fringe)... at this rate, my hair's gonna be way older than my face pretty soon... N i feel weird initially using a flat table to write, since I've been using slanted surfaces for months (reducing parallax error when drawing). Not to mention the "I'm driven out from my own home" feeling when we were asked to pack our stuff from the studio for end-of-semester cleaning...

(side note:in the middle of the semester i ran out of face wash, felt too busy to buy a new bottle, n juz washed my face with water since . Still no pimple whatsoever. Gotta thank my mom for the genes.)

k,back to topic. What archi has done to me, though, is nothing compared to what it's done to my yr 5 senior..been helping him cut stuff, make trees for models, n he exhibits symptoms as:

1.severe lack of knowledge about "the outside world" (which is anywhere outside studio) due to being cooped up there for weeks (n weekends...)on end.

2. tendency to talk to himself (yep..) n utter weird sutff,sing weird lyrics..

3. generally as days go by, u can see his eyes going dimmer n dimmer, as if his very soul is being sucked outta him...

4. tendency to forget stuff, misplace stuff (actually this could b attributed more to the messy state of the studio ;p ) and "see-wrongly" (e.g. mistook EZ link card for cashcard kind of blunders), more than the average person...

5.Not forgetting, getting whatever kicks he can get from telling a certain passionate, enthusiastic year 1 student that as days go by, her passion and flame are gonna be snubbed, choked, trampled, extinguished in a "slow and painful death" way, that by year 5, she would wanna get out ASAP from the hellhole that's called studio...

I dunno if I should eagerly await or dread my year 5 days...