Finally.

Hello there :)

It's nice to see Ashley finally wrote something.. Thanks for the very comprehensive intro Ashley. Very graceful. I can FEEL your love and commitment to this blog which we gave birth to together. It's as if we now live in a same house and we're having discord in habits like washing dishes and hanging underwear.

Unreliable friends aside (Haha. I meant that in the most loving of ways. I love Ashley, both her strengths and shorcomings. She loves me too. We love each other... passionately) some updates about my humble little life...

Formal education-wise, I'm now one week (and two days) into my architecture-degree program! *imagines a crowd cheer and mexican wave dedicated to me*. So far, it's really great. Archi is much more than what I hoped for and understood it to be. The first few days of orientation was just speeches and workshops and speeches and speeches and oh-my-god-kill-me more speeches. It was pretty depressing, yet inspiring at the same time when some well-spoken speakers came up to talk to us. Charming mix. Every speaker (lecturer, program director, etc.) seems to stress on some similar points in their speeches :

1. Architecture is a very demanding course, if you don't feel like you're in the right place, leave now. Not 3 years into your degree and realizing you're stuck in a rut.

2. Architecture is also a very rewarding course. Architects don't just 'build buildings'. Architects are utilitarian artists. We identify problems and design a solution (in the form of buildings, furniture, parks, etc.) ... I love it.

3. There's also a stress on producing sustainable (green) designs. Great stuff.

The course is already challenging me. The first Saturday of the school calendar was not wasted. The uni organized an 'Orientation Trip' in Central Market. We walked around KL for about a hour or so to some old sites and picked up scraps of recycable garbage we found here and there. When we got back to the Annexxe, each group had to design a street-furniture that could be used. My group designed a simple bird-feeder/bath. Our design won.

But since that trip, nothing's coming as easy anymore. I already have a big assignment to work on for Design Studio class. And it's really challenging my preconceived appreciation of aesthetics and art. I love to decorate and make things pretty. I'd say it's one of my passions. Give me a small, run-down room and I have a drive to make it homey and inviting with pillows, blankets, dim-lighting, regardless of the exterior. My lecturer in Design Studio calls such ''unnecessity'' a crime and ''decoration'' is a bad word. In a nutshell : For my current assignment which is worth 20% of my final mark (very hefty for a first assignment) , I have to resist my natural tendency to wish to 'decorate' (serves no function) with colour, symbols etc. and instead adopt a philosophy that utilizes space solely for 'function'. I don't think I'm making sense to you right now. Haha. I'm currently reading this book I found in the library that was referenced by my lecturer in one of her hand outs. It's called 'The Poetics of Architecture'. It's so philosophical. It makes less sense than I do right now.

Architecture. Architecture. Architecture. Haha. Sorry.
At least I'm excited :)

Dear friends who read this and love me, please watch out for me and try to make sure I don't get too lost in the artsy and philosophical world of architecture that my defining lines between weirdness and reality become too blurry.

Ashley will be joining me soon, it the further study of an Arts world. But not in my uni nor direction. She's going to pursue Business Marketing but with a focus on Fashion. Is it called Fashion Marketing? I don't know.

Cool stuff.

I really miss some things about 2008. I love the excitement in the possibilities of 2009, but ICPU was a really great course to be in. I wouldn't go back to sit for each class over again, but I'd go back to have lunches occasionally with the people who are still around and visit some lecturers :)

Faces and colours of 2008.

Look behind me, there's levels of tie-dye shirts waiting to dry.

Some tie-dye shirts for the 'World Peace Day' effort.

We used to arrange frequent 'swimming/long lunch sessions' in the condos around Subang area. More than half of the people in this picture are gone now..And I just might not see them again in life ..

This was Ashley and I during the 'Hear Us Out' conference.




I miss this girl. She was home-schooled, so she had a very charming, naive view of people and the world (1000192873982 times worse than me). It's unbelievable the questions she asks sometimes. But she's a real smart girl. We used to sit in McD everyday for the free Coke refills and talk about everything . . from sex, religion to sharing racist jokes about Mustafa in his presence. . I make her sound like a friend from a village in India. haha.

This is Mustafa (Don Corleone) with Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe during the ICPU halloween night.

This is the bunch for Malaysian studies class. We are ridiculous in class. But I love Mr. Aree (our teacher). His heavy accented comments deserve to be framed in a hall.
'Vaowwww. Vyou arr not only beautiful but brrrrrrriliant!'
oh. In facebook. I get alot of random Arab men who requested to tag Ashley in this picture series (theres more). Tags like 'Wow.. Ashley' and 'Sexy'. Hahaha. I don't know how to limit what can be seen in my profile. Teach me.

. . .

That was that.

I'm a big girl now.
Time to move on to big girl things.

Mucho love,
Sofia.