Monthly Archive for September, 2007

Yale College is the Real Yale

I went with a dining-planned buddy today for dinner in the Pierson College* dining hall, and holy crap, turns out the Yale I’m looking for is an undergrad affair.

Pierson—like most of the Colleges—are laid out as courtyards surrounded by dorms and gates. Walking through Pierson’s gates is to walk from the bitter street to something somewhere between a sanctuary and a stage set. It’s to feel Yale’s promises of academia and ivy, of peace and prestige fully manifest all at once.

For college food, Yale’s dining is absolutely amazing. There was beef brisket with the trimmings, pork roast, pecan-crusted whitefish fillets, curried lentils, a sort of bean and spinach stir fry, lentil and butter mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables, with a full complement of breads, desserts, salad bar, drinks, and all the other usual. Unlike my Berkeley days, I actually enjoyed what I was eating and finished my entire plate. (I remember back in my freshman year that Yale’s dining was voted “best college food” in some rag, may be the Princeton Review. The hot rumor in the Cal DC was that they were eating steak back east—true on some nights.)

Afterwards I walked out with an ice cream cone and sat with my buddies at a weathered wooden table in Pierson’s oval courtyard. Behind me someone played piano in the parlor; in front of me the sun set behind a large oak tree and over an immaculate lawn. The air was a little chilly, the atmosphere was absolutely relaxing. It was the first time I really felt at Yale, and it was only because I sneaked in for dinner. (Grad student ID cards don’t open undergrad gates.)

*Yale College is Yale’s undergrad division; it has twelve “residential colleges” (called “houses” at Harvard and in Harry Potter, the benchmark for fictional academic environs): Berkeley, Branford, Calhoun, Davenport, Erza Stiles, Jonathan Edwards, Morse, Pierson, Saybrook, Silliman, Timothy Dwight, and Trumbull. I walk by Davenport and Pierson on the way to hell the temp architecture building every day.


The flags of Yale’s Residential Colleges. They have unique scarves, too. (by “Poldavo (Alex)“)

A week in the life of me

Apologies for the short entries—these days my brain tends to sit in a semi-molten, slightly fermenting state of daze sprinkled with confusion. You see, as I’ve previously noted, they’re trying to kill us. My schedule looks something like this (assume I roll out of bed at either 10:05 or 11:05 in the morning on weekends, assuming I set the alarm clock for the right time on the right days):

Monday: sit through brilliant Eisenman lecture in near comatose state, catch furtive glances at hot chick in front, be simultaneously amused and irritated (in nearly Schroedinger’s Cat-esque manner) at Eisenman slyly insulting students who ask questions, consume lunch with most-likely-Asian friend, FOUR HOURS of studio (probably a pin-up), resign self to studio desk, ponder studio stuff before getting up to bother people on other side of studio hall, drink from fountain (”fountain break”) approximately one thousand times
Tuesday: sit through brilliant Forster lecture in near comatose state (conserve oxygen by breathing less in crowded, slightly misty room), lunch, last-ditch attempt to finish studio stuff, FOUR HOURS of studio (desk crits?), over-priced dinner, crap out 5-8 hour [Prof.] Blood drawing (wonder how to draw dodecahedron slice; draw yet more dramatically distorted cubes instead; bitch about with studiomates)
Wednesday: oh shit today’s Wednesday I have structures! procrastinate in bed until last minute, then sit bleary-eyed through reasonably passable Structures lecture while enough stomach acid accrues to digest a two-storey Victorian row house, Blood lecture of unbelievably trying/boring length, take notes on drawing spheres in perspective, feet get swollen while standing for far too long watch TAs/profs review drawings, dinner (did have lunch?), stay up til’ 2 am working on studio stuff, watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ’til 4 am, think about answering email but go to sleep instead.
Thursday: what class do I have again tod-oh my god history in five minutes! arrive late to brilliant Forster lecture, meekly sit in side aisle until prof recognizes my presence and convolutingly tells me to sit in an actual chair, try to sit next to ridiculously hot girl with boyfriend in another city (but fail), take notes with a 0.1mm Sakura pen b/c forget normal pen, stomach growls, snag lunch then furtively finish studio stuff in time for FOUR HOURS of studio (pin-up? water torture?), watch as critic talks until four-point-FIVE HOURS of studio have passed, snag dinner, start working on Structures problem set in loose clump of confused people, crack bad jokes in an almost reflective manner.
Sat… I mean, Friday: just in time for Structures lecture with enjoyably absent-minded professor, quietly write down everything written on blackboard while hoping not to be called on, called on to do question and instantly blank out, get merely passable pita sandwich, somehow it’s 5 PM already, get dinner, perhaps go to 6-on-7-on-2 (i.e. weekly drinking party) but probably not because need to spend six hours doing Eisenman readings then four hours doing obscure analytical axon ink-on-mylar drawing while softly sobbing and whimpering
Saturday: Show up at 4 PM to studio with lunch in Gourmet Heaven brown bag, say quick hellos before plugging into computer and charging The Matrix for the next twelve hours
Sunday: Show up at 3 PM with turkey-on-white-with-brie-and-mustard-and-green-apple sandwich in brown bag, ponder meaning of life while in almost completely comatose state, find inevitably Existentialist explanation for endless suffering, drink steaming black coffee, conclude half-Chinese girls are hotter, pull almost-nighter powered by the dwindling light of my very soul itself, play The Avalanches into the ground

Strangely, I’m now the most lucid in the middle of the night. Trained?

On another note, food in New Haven almost uniformly sucks. All the rumors about the burgers and pizza rocking were complete and utter lies possibly fabricated by people tragically born with daytime television for tastebuds and no ability to leave Connecticut’s leafy yet limited environs. And, and, it’s almost all $6-8 a pop. (I’m tempted to ponder what the hell is wrong with the East Coast, but I had awesome Italian in Boston once so I’ll hold my tongue.) There’s good Thai, decent Indian, pretty good ice cream, and that’s it. Oh Berkeley, most wondrous of inbred liberal hippie college towns, I miss you!

A first

Final review’s in four hours, and get this: I actually finished my presentation. This is the first time in my entire life that I’m actually 100% ready for review: plans, sections, model, renderings, concept diagrams, 48 square feet of presentation board, the works!

In other news, I really freakin’ need to sleep.

Hijacked

Initiation was last night. I met lots of people I have no memory meeting. Also, when I woke up this morning I noticed that I had somehow ripped part of my left big toenail. Needless to say, I was not properly dressed for sudden festivities when I was taken from the laser cutter room.

No other details shall be furnished.

The surly all-nighter

Not-so-fresh from pulling an all-nighter, I’ve come to realize the simple truth of all-nighting: you don’t get free time so much as borrow it from yourself at a 200% mark-up. The “day” after I’m completely out of commission for anything more than standing around blankly, at best. The day after the day, my eyes are resting in rough cardboard sockets and I’ve done nothing more than go to structures lecture. The funk is long and gray.

But there’s no other way to get through architecture school, especially the first year—often compared to various circles of the Pit Realms, except the infernal damned are clad in the entire Urban Outfitters Spring Catalog. The simple truth of the matter is that there are times when you need the time more than other times.