The Many Adventures of Teenie

Firenze's secret bakery

2012-02-05T03:49:00.000-08:00

Friday night I had the pleasure of going to one of Florence's secret bakeries with a few of my newest friends. It was a little sketchy to begin with, especially since my
friend Joel told us we needed to be really quiet and know exactly what we were going to order. We left my place just before 1am, when one of the bakers will open the door and take your order. It was just around the corner in an alley off of an alley, again, it was a little sketchy. Soon after we turned down the first alley we saw the side alley with other students waiting, impatiently, at the door. It wasn't very obvious that there was a bakery there, save for the sweet smells filling the area.
The door was just made of glass, but the kind of glass that's on a shower, where it's not transparent but not opaque.

There were a lot of students from NYU and Gonzaga, so we met a lot of other American students who were doing the same as us and experiencing the secrets of Florence. Finally the door opened a little and an italian man came out and talked to the first group of students at the door and then disappeared back inside, came back with their order in bags and handed them over, for a euro a piece. I pushed my way forward with money

for the 9 of us and gave our orders and when he came back with them we passed the bags out to our friends, paid, and walked out of the side alley. Oh. My. God. I got a chocolate croissant. SO AMAZING. It literally tasted like pure sugar in my mouth.

The Leaning Tower!!

2012-01-30T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hi all! So yesterday the fairfield group went to Ikea to get any home supplies that we would need for the semester, and then after that we all took charter busses to Pisa to see the leaning tower!!

It was so amazing!!!! I literally could not believe how it can actually reamin standing to this day. I did, of course, take the usual touristy photo with the tower. We had a lot of fun. After seeing the tower a group of us went to grab some lunch off of one of the small streets. I had pesto gnocchi, it was soooooo good.

Classes start today so in a couple of minutes I'll be off to my Communicating in Italian class to learn how to speak like a local :P Wish me luck!

Firenze!!

2012-01-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hi all! I've started up my blog again!! I'm going to update as much as I can, but remember I will be in classes as well so I probably won't be able to update all the time. I'm all set up in my apartment for the most part. We have interne
t!! I'm living on Via Dei Cerchi with 5 other girls, 3 of which are architect majors with me at USF.So far I've been spending a lot of time walking around the center part of the city and eating gelato :P.

17

2010-05-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I skipped a few days... oops. I've been really busy these past couple of days, so that's my excuse. It's coming close to the end of my first year at college and I couldn't be happier... well, that's a lie, I could be happier... I have a cold at the moment so it'd be great if that just went away... like, now.

Anyways, so far things have been pretty good. My studio professor is driving me insane... after 2 weeks of constantly changing my design, she's decided to change it one last time to what I had proposed 2 weeks ago. As soon as she said that I kind of just looked at her, as did all my friends around us, and just said fine. It's kind of annoying when you spend all your time making these changes from what you want to what your professor wants to see and then BAM! they like what you originally had but they think that they came up with it first... see, annoying.

This past weekend I spent Saturday hanging out with my coworkers, Allie and Eivette, who have become two really great friends. We went to this studio open house for Allie's interest and then ate at Q, this amazing restaurant on Clement and 3rd, the one I took my parents too last weekend and first went to with Allie and Eivette. After Q we went to Eivette's apartment and watched about 500 minutes of Hey! Arnold. It was pretty epic. We had a lot of fun hanging out, watching cartoons, and coloring disney color books. We had thai food for dinner and then played 2 games of scrabble. It was a great Saturday.

23

2010-04-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

I know I skipped a couple of days. My parents came up for a visit and we ended up going up to Santa Rosa to the Mark West Lodge to set the date of May 29th, 2011. Yes that's right, my sister's getting married in one year and 31 days. That's crazy if you think about it.

So anyways, my parents came up this weekend and on Saturday I took them to the Ferry Building. Of the 7 years that we've been coming up here my parents have never been to the Ferry Building. For once I can show them something new :D
So we went to the farmers market there and walked around for a while. My mom ended up getting some flavored honey sticks and orchids, dad got some hummus dips, and I got some strawberries. Everything tasted really good. After the farmers market we went across the street to the arts and crafts fair and my mom got a fused glass pendant that is really pretty. After we got food at a small gyros place within the Embarcadero Center. They were really good. I also took my parents to the corner of Battery and Pacific, where my final studio 1 project is based off of. They thought it was really interesting because 250 years ago that spot was underwater, and then became known as the barbary coast trail, which my dad actual knew about.

Saturday afternoon consisted of going up to the Mark West and meeting with Alli for the final time before plans start becoming definite. It was really great seeing her again because she is so sweet and so helpful. We're really excited for when Marie and Nick actually get to meet her. After spending about 2-3 hours at the Mark West, we headed back into Santa Rosa so my dad could look at a few hotels around the area to get a few ideas. We ended up eating dinner in Sausilito at the Spinnaker. It was a nice restaurant, but not one of the best that we've been to. But hey, it's all about the experience, right?

Sunday we went to church and then I took my parents to this restaurant called Q on clement and 3rd. My friends/coworkers Eivette and Allie took me there a few weeks ago and it tasted so good that I had to take my parents to another new place in the city. I got the mac and cheese with tater tots, mom had the chicken enchiladas, and dad had a burger. Everything tasted pretty good, but my mom said that when we go back she's going to get the mac and cheese and tater tots cause they tasted great.

28

2010-04-23T01:37:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYBODY!

Today was the 40th anniversary of Earth day! USF went all out for the event. We took over in front of gleeson library with tons of tables set up to show off everyone's love for the earth and our environment.

Back to the Roots, the club loosely connected with the Garden Project, had a bicycle powered amplifier that was connected to a stage where we had a band playing. BTDR also had a bicycle powered smoothie maker... they tasted really good too.

Garden Project had by far one of the best farm stands yet! We had so many delicious foods from carrot cake to focaccia bread to rosemary lavender muffins to lavender shortbread cookies and grape leaves to lentil soup to beet soup. Everything tasted amazing!

29

2010-04-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty good day. I had calculus this morning, which was you know... mathematical. And then I had work from 11-3 which ended up being a lot of fun. My coworker/good friend and I really enjoyed each others company today. We made a lot of jokes and just had so much fun at work. I know, I know, work isn't supposed to be all fun and games, but today was just a good day.

After work I went back to my room to start working on a revision of my study model for my sculpture gallery/reading room for my studio project. I was doing fine, until I was running low on chipboard. Then Manisha and I went to Blick to get some materials. When we got back we had dinner together and then went our separate ways to work on studio.

I have finished both my study model and section model. I actually really like my section model (it's the picture above), it's really cool and interesting. I'm happy with what I have at this point and I'm sure I'm going to be doing more detail within the models, I just need to talk to my professor and see what she says about them for now.

30 days

2010-04-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so I've got 30 days left... that means 30 days to: Design a sculpture gallery/reading room, finish calculus, write a history of architecture research report including pictures and drawings and then prepare for a history of architecture final test, present a speech on policies or persuasion, take a cubism painting and pick a square from that painting and then do a quick study model and then create a nice polished model from it. Yeah, that's my schedule for the next 30 days.

On a lighter note, for my architectonics class, which is my favorite architecture class because it's more hands on, we were asked to create a chair. This chair could be built at either actual, or half scale. It had to represent someone who influences us and we had to give a short description of how they have influenced us. I made my chair for my sister Marie, who has influenced me from day 1. Marie influenced me to be who I want to be and do what I want to do and I've always appreciated that. I built my chair at half scale to represent a child. I did this because Marie is in South Korea teaching children and I thought it was fitting to put it at that size.

I Know, I Know

2010-04-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Okay so it's been... a long time. I'm sorry :'(
But I promise to fix it. I'm going to try posting a little blurb every day from now until my 19th birthday on May 21st. Because not only is it my 19th birthday, but it will also be the end of my first year away at USF. So here it begins:

This past Friday, my friends and I decided to head downtown to the AT&T Ball Park and watch USF take on Saint Mary's College. We won, of course, but it was so much fun. The Giant's stadium is SOOOOOOOO much smaller than Dodger Stadium, or so it seemed like it to me. Dad was jealous because he's never been there so I took pictures and sent them to him while I was watching the game.

For the past couple of weeks, and for a few more weeks, Garden Project is making a kitchen in the garden! I've been lucky enough to be allowed to come and help build the kitchen and I was included in the original design of the kitchen as well. It is so much fun to actually be out there and build something at full scale, rather than at half or 1/8" =1'.

Tomorrow is my mid-review on my final project for my architecture studio 2 class. We're being told to design a sculpture gallery and reading room. We're also being told to incorporate our mid term project, where we were all assigned a different architect and had to recreate a section of their work. I was assigned Ray and Charles Eames, a married couple during the 50s that created a Case Study House out in Santa Monica. This house was made out of steel, glass, and opaque panels. The Eames house focused solely on bringing light into a small space, making it seem larger. I am going to incorporate this idea of light and space into this project to see how it will work.

Oops

2009-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

I know, I missed 2 days of posting. I am so sorry. I have been busy yet not at the same time. Like I said in my Thursday post, I had gotten all my homework done then so I could have a free weekend. Well, I did have a free weekend.

Friday Johnny came up to visit, he took me and Bunny to lunch at SakanaBune. Then I had class. After Garden Project I met up with Lauren downtown and we treated ourselves to Cheesecake Factory, since she had never been. After dinner we made our way back to USF to watch some of the USF vs Cal Poly basketball game. We left after being there for maybe 15 minutes and went up to Haight St and hung out up there for a while. After she left I watched School of Rock with some of my friends in Garden Project.

Saturday I went downtown again, but this time with Manisha. We went to the Mac store for about 45 minutes, just playing the kids games. Then we went to Macy's and walked around for a little while. We walked through Union Square, they just put in the Safeway ice skating rink so we're going to have to go ice skating one day soon. We ended up at borders for at least 3 hours. We were just walking around and reading and getting Christmas gift ideas. When we went back to school we ate dinner and then watched Mad Money and Fired Up in my room.

Today Johnny and Bunny picked me up around 1030 and we ate a really good breakfast at Rose Pistola. I had fried crab cakes, Johnny had a breakfast pizza, and Bunny had a crab omelet. After breakfast they dropped me back off at USF. I then went to draw a few cafe's for my final project in studio. I also decided to wander around Macy's again and get ideas for my family. I also stopped in William Sonoma just to look around. It smelled so good inside. I then ended up back at borders and read 310 pages in 2 hours. It felt good to get away and spend the afternoon by myself.

This is a picture of my breakfast this morning. It was fried crab cakes with poached eggs and a fruit and greens salad. It was very yummy. Thank you Johnny for a wonderful breakfast.

Free Weekend

2009-11-12T22:43:00.000-08:00

That's right! I basically have a free weekend as of now. Well, free of architecture studio that is. I just spent the last 4 hours in studio with the girls. We busted out 8-9 different drawings for our site analysis. We are so ready for this model we get to build of our site and cafe we are separately designing.

Today was another slow day. I worked from 830-1230 again. I had to talk to a lot of people on the phones since this weekend is open house. After work I had to go down to Haight and Octavia with my friend Manisha to observe our site for our final studio project. We spent about an hour and a half down there and then went to Flax, another art store, to get colored construction paper for our 8-9 diagrams.

Then we had history of architecture, where we got our midterms back. I got a B-, but I'm okay with that because the test was on things we did not go over in class and we were not told they would be on the test. But it's okay, for now.

This picture was taken over summer when my cousin Jason was up here with us. He had never been so Johnny and I had to take him to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Again??

2009-11-11T22:54:00.000-08:00

So I spent a lot of today in studio... again. This morning I had class from 930-1215, where I was in studio. Then I met with the calculus teacher, who knows Johnny, to talk to him about me joining his calculus and analytic geometry I class. He instantly signed my add class form as soon as I mentioned I was Johnny's little sister. It made me smile. After the meeting I had garden project from 130-4.

Garden project was really fun today. We first talked about cover crops and green manure, but at some point I was distracted because a spider decided to hang from my binder somehow so Meredith had to move it for me. Then we went to actually dig up a new bed and plant some cover crops, like fava beans. After that I went to my plot and started getting rid of the weeds growing next to the turnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions. Those weeds are getting annoying.

After garden project I went back to my room for a little bit, only to go back up to studio at around 5. Today we were working on our architectonics class homework. This is the class that I actually get to draw full on plans, site plans, sections, and then build my models. It's a really fun class, just takes up a lot of time to actually get to the modeling part. We were done around 8ish, went to put our stuff in our rooms, and then got dinner. After dinner I came back and hung out with some of the girls in my garden project community. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I've gotten closer with them.

This is a picture of the farmer's market group within the garden project. I used to be a part of them up until I got my job. Every Thursday starting at 1030, a group goes up to the garden over by Lone Mountain to gather the crops we've produced and give them away for a suggested donation in from of Kalmanovitz Hall (K Hall) until around 1, I believe. It's a lot of fun and I really miss being a part of that group.

Busy Busy

2009-11-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

Today was probably one of my busiest days. I had to wake up at 730 in order to get ready for work at 830. Walked up to Lone Mountain and sat down until 1230 when I got off work, came back down to campus, got into my room, only to pack things up and go get lunch with my friend Manisha. And then after that we went up to the XArts studio to finish our homework for part 1 of our final project for architecture studio. We were there from 2 to 730 working on our project. It was intense. And it wasn't very hard, just time consuming. But we are finally done!... for now.

Right now I am lying down on my bed because I am just so exhausted. I got to talk to Marie today, which was really nice since I miss her. I wish it was next September already so I can see her and my future brother-in-law.

The picture today is from Saturday night when I played Settlers of Catan with Johnny and my dad. Johnny won that night for the second time ever! It was upsetting for me though because I was only 2 points away from winning. The object of the game is to get 10 points, received through settlements, cities, and victory cards. Johnny and I were beating up on my dad because it's more fun that way. Johnny was red, my dad was white, and I was blue.

Another Day in Studio

2009-11-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

I know, I missed Sunday... I figured though, that since I don't have the pictures from Sterling and Virgile's wedding just yet, that I would safe Sunday's post for a different time.

Today I had my architecture studio class, where we met down in the Castro and wandered all over the neighborhoods from Castro to Hayes Valley and everywhere in between. We got assigned our final project, where we get to design our own cafe. We even went to the site that we're supposed to be planning the cafe at.

After class we worked our way back to school, where I enjoyed 2 hours to myself talking to friends online, and then went downtown with my architecture friends to get bristol paper for our final, ink pens, and basswood for my final project in architectonics.

Here's a picture of me in my studio working on one of the trace tables. I will pretty much be living in the studio until late at night from now until the end of our projects/semester.

What a Day

2009-11-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

We are now one day away from Sterling's wedding. It's so hard to believe that she's getting married tomorrow. Today was a quiet day basically. Mandi slept over so we didn't get to sleep until around 230-3, and we woke up around 10ish. After getting ready and waking up we went outside and we took down the halloween decorations. She left around 1140 and then I got ready for my hair appointment.

Yes, that's right, I had a hair appointment. Almost all of the pink/purple that was in my hair is gone. Now I have my dark brown hair with honey highlights, and a little bit of pink on the sides of my face. My parents say I look like my sister from a few years ago. I really like the colors because the lighter brown brings out the color of my eyes.

Tonight my mom made lamb for dinner, it was so good! I missed her cooking. Now I'm about to play a game of "The Settlers of Catan", a strategy game that Johnny got about a month ago. We'll probably play a few rounds and then maybe I'll go back to my old ways and play a few rounds of Halo 3.

Here's a picture of my new hair style.

Home Again

2009-11-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Los Angeles for a few days! Sterling's getting married on Sunday so I had to come home for her wedding. I arrived around 9p.m. and met my dad and brother at the airport. They wanted me to feel like I was being picked up by a limo so Johnny wrote "Teenie" on his iPhone and held it up looking for me. It was funny.

Mandi came over and I was so happy to see her. I literally attacked her at my front door. We then headed out to pick up Alexa and went to surprise Steph because she didn't know I was home this weekend. After that we went to Carls Jr. since it's tradition with Mandi and me.

The picture is from the Peterson Car Museum down in La Brea. I picked it because it says Hollywood, to represent where I am, kind of.

New project

2009-11-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

Today went by super fast. This morning I was up at 7:30, it was disgusting. I'm still not used to it yet. Then I hiked up to Lone Mountain for work. It was kind of a crazy day what with family weekend tomorrow and homecoming weekend.

After work began the model building for architectonics. My new project is similar to the first project I did, which was a 1/4" scale of the Kendrick Hall building, next to the USF Law Library. This time, I have to make a 1/4" scale of the front of Kendrick on an 11"x17" cardboard base, with Kendrick Hall's main front wall, including columns, one planter, and then create a new space where the second planter would normally sit. Due tomorrow is just the base, the main wall with the columns, the remaining planter, and we needed to find the slope of the sidewalk. That was a really fun discussion between me and one of my best friends here.

The picture for tonight is what my room looks like when I am working on a model project. It makes me look like the average architect student.

Finished

2009-11-04T23:53:00.000-08:00

Today was the final day of our midterm for Architecture Studio 1. We all met in the new Koret Alumni Lounge which now serves as the senior studio for architecture students. It has natural light!!! Each student had to say a few sentences about what their drawing was of, where it was located, what they wanted to capture in their drawing, etc. It went over very well.

After studio was garden project. In that class I helped extend an area of soil to start growing more artichokes and possibly some more rhubarb. Then I helped weed until I found out there were dozens of spiders in the area we were weeding in. Needless to say I quickly relocated myself.

Lauren came to visit today from SF State, we went up to Haight St and ate burritos for dinner. When I came back she left to work her way back and I went to hang out with my friends on the 4th floor. Then a group of us ended up going down to In N Out by Fisherman's Wharf for our friend's birthday. It was a lot of fun.

The picture for tonight is the Phoenix on the side of the University Center Building. This was the last project my sister took part in. I absolutely love the phoenix, I think it should be our new mascot rather than zorro... I mean the Dons.

That's all for now, Good Night =]

YAY

2009-11-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

So I am finally done with my midterm project. Now I just have to turn it in tonight by 9 p.m. along with a small index card, and then present tomorrow to a panel of judges... aren't I lucky?

I decided to post a picture of what my side of the room looks like. After Johnny came to visit this past weekend I now have a bigger TV, and a small fold out table. It's like I have my own little media center, I really like it. Well, that's all for now, I'll be posting tomorrow, obviously.

And so it begins

2009-11-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

So I decided to join the rest and start my own blog. Yes, that's right, Teenie now has a blog. I decided I might do the same thing that my brother began with and upload a different picture every day. It'll be my goal to post each day, despite what I am doing.

So today is the first post; I had my architecture studio 1 class this morning. We've been working in St. Ignatius church for our midterm project. Each student has to pick an area inside the church and draw it in perspective and tone. It was really hard to decide which section to draw. After searching around I finally decided to do the back left side of the church. It's a small praying area with prayer candles and a statue of a saint. It has taken me since last Monday to pretty much be done. I have to turn in my drawing tomorrow night by 9 p.m. and then go to a critique session on Wednesday and present my drawing.