can't stop...but must stop

i haven't been terribly good with keeping this updated lately, but hopefully this weekend might be a catch up one. last weekend's 4 day holiday would've been a good time, as it was a combination of hectic and relaxing. i did much more relaxing and enjoying of the weather than most of my peers, though. it was an unusual weekend when i got to:

1. meet up w/ an old h.s. friend for some good cambridge pizza
2. discuss international development opportunities with my housemaster
3. grab ice cream w/ my boston marathon runner friend, now sporting a new mohawk
4. hear john piper deliver a great message on joy at park street church [click to listen - it's worth it]
5. enjoy a sweet and savory brunch w/ a friend from gcc, thankfully in the area
6. figure out how mit can get involved with the department of micro-urbanism [more on that soon]
7. finally have a french soiree w/ my old parisienne roomie over crepes and scrapbooks (remembering one of our favorite cafes)

and...yes, i did do work in between. ! this past week was actually pretty crazy, with a deadline in every class. i also got sick and am still not really recovered...which makes it even more difficult because our schedule never stops for anyone, and an illness or even simply feeling under the weather can really take a toll on your momentum. my body pretty much came to a halt a couple days ago, and there were two nights in a row when i had to go home early and sleep 12+ hours. this amount of time is pretty much unheard of, especially on a weekday...people typically sleep about a quarter or a third of this amount on a daily basis.

so it's a perpetual conundrum: you need to stay awake to get your work done, but if you don't get enough sleep, you get sick and then can't get your work done. it's a bad cycle, and unfortunately, the system doesn't really accommodate for pit stops of any kind. i guess that's where personal discipline and balance comes in. some professors have said we don't need life balance, since we're doing this for only 3.5 years of our lives...but i'm not so sure i buy into that mentality.

sadly, this actually does happen to people in studio as they're trying to work...or pay attention in class...or even drinking a cup of tea (me, last semester...agh):


in sum total, architecture breeds narcoleptics if we're not careful.
anyways...more (cheerful) updates soon. tonight, sleep. tomorrow, a nyc wedding!

_currently: on the uprise...i hope
_excited about: international development, some possibilities of travel for the summer