megan, allison & i actually went to clemson today instead of being on site, because we have been trying to figure out some grad school stuff. allison is also looking at architecture school, so she had been giving me some awesome information and kicking my butt into gear to get my plan figured out. so clemson has an architecture program that is ranked in the top 20 in the country, plus it's only 4ish hours away, so we decided to go check it out and see what it's about! thankfully we did, because looking at everything online, clemson looks like a great school. which it is. it's just NOT the school for me. they have ENTIRELY too much school spirit, with purple and orange and pawprints and tigers EVERYWHERE. and not just on campus. the city of clemson=the school of clemson, and there's not much else. and i don't particularly like that. and because of this, the school spirit-ness extends beyond campus, into the 'downtown' and places off of campus. it's just too much for me. and although the campus is pretty and has lots of trees, it's huge, and everything is spread out. and there are a LOT of ugly buildings. there are some pretty and old buildings, but a lot of crazy 70s/80s buildings, including the architecture building. and in it, i feel like i'm channeling a 1970's version of my dad in engineering school or something. plus the chair of the architecture department, jose cabana, reminds me of my grandpa, because he's old and funny and has an accent, and wears the same button up shirts with pens and i think a calculator and random things in the front pocket. he was cool, but he didn't seem to understand allison's questions, and answered some of them with these crazy off the wall answers that had nothing to do with her real question. and i feel like he'd be the same way in a studio, which would drive me crazy.
anyway, jose talked to us for a bit, and we asked some questions, then we toured around the building. there were no regular architecture grad students around, but there were some who are doing the architecture + health program. it's apparently only one of 2 programs in the country like this, and is way better than the other one, so people who graduate from it make tons of money. it's unfortunate that i HATE healthcare design, because jose made it sound like a great idea to apply to it. we talked to a few of the people in that studio, and they were really awesome. this one girl talked to us for a long while, and gave us some suggestions & told us about the program, what tools they have [a 3d printer, laser cutter, a library specifically for art & architecture, and some other things that aren't as cool that i can't remember]. then after this, we walked around by ourselves in the graduate studios upstairs. here, it was made very clear that we are SPOILED in our studios at gatewood. the studios at clemson were small and cramped, but allison said that they are actually quite nice compared to some other schools she had visited, and definitely better her studio space in france. so i guess from here on out i can't compare studio spaces to the ones at uncg, because they're just awesome and apparently not normal. also, we checked out some of the final grad school projects that were posted downstairs, and they just didn't blow me away. they were really well put together and great technically, but not super unique or awesome or innovative, like one would expect from a final project. so that was another thing about the program that i wasn't crazy about. i mean, i'll still probably apply to clemson just in case, especially since they do have a really good study abroad program set up, but it's definitely not my first choice school.
soooo, after all this, we went 'downtown' for lunch, explored clemson for a bit, then went to talk to a girl about megan's program in historic preservation. it's based out of charelston though, so it was a super quick meeting where the girl gave megan some info about who to contact in charleston. after this, we went and got some delicious handmade ice cream from the clemson cows, then we headed home!
on the way home, shannon sent allsion a text message, saying 'you'll never guess what happened on site today' or something like that. we all knew immediately that this wasn't good, and we had a feeling it didn't really have anything to do with wiring or tasks that people were working on. we called shannon and found out that robert was held up at gunpoint! he was in his convertible going to get something to drink, and he was stuck at the light up at the corner, where some 14-year old kid came up and put a gun to his head and asked for his wallet. he apparently called denise & got everyone to shut down the site & head home, while he chased down this kid/called the cops. shan said that 2 of the 3 guys were caught, and that the police will be increasing their presence or something around site & neighborhood. thankfully, robert is ok; he was just "insulted" that someone stuck a gun in his face. so from now on, no more riding around the neighborhood with my windows down... robert assured us though that we're safe on site, because no one in their right mind would try to rob a construction site, as there are all kinds of dangerous power tools around. so that's good i suppose....
studio project. 
balcony off of the studios :)
studios.
high five!
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