My Private Sancuatry

I finally went ahead and loaned a camera from my suitemate to take pictures of my room.
I will start with a disclaimer saying that my photographic skills are definitely in need of improvement but I think I did my best to capture the essence of what I had said before.
And also, the pictures are not as rich or as warm as the room feels...to me. Many people have said they like it and I love it.

1. I had two yards of ankara fabric that I tacked to my walls. This served as a back drop for all the colours in my room. Over the years I had amassed alot in shades of blue. I was ecstatic to discover that my comforter was reversible (as the most used side had faded and dulled) and the reverse was a rich and deep blue that matched my curtain (which by the way is half of an incomplete pair...my aunt could not find the other one...it worked out though; got the smaller room)



I took apart a calendar with some lovely pics of the island of greece and framed them using painter's tape. Funny enough, the tape is blue in colour. Took me an evening alternating between the wall and an indian movie
The way it looks from the door. God, why can't I take better pics


I always wear socks indoors. My feet are always cold. And my nose and hands.


I raised the bed (u can't see how) and store my suitcases underneath. I pulled the covers all the way to the ground and the bed anchors one side of the wall.
The carpet is an area rug from Ikea that actually, because of the size of the room covers most of the center and softens the blues.

I need a job

What kind of job can I do off campus that is legal in the US on an F1 visa?
What do I have to have to start my own business cos I am so sick and tired of being broke.....

One week in...

And already have assignments so many, I am exhausted just from the though of doing them
And it has not helped that I have been bed ridden for the past two days.
Who knows anything about Tilt Up concrete? And Response Housing for natural disasters?

I am so in love with my suite.
*sigh* this school year is going to be interesting.

CREATING SPACES

I love watch Nigerian films. Not just because they provide a connection for me to my people but because I am fascinated with the art of storytelling and I also love to have a look into the lives of others. I especially love the sets and locations used. Most have very little effort put into their use. It will be someone else's house ( the tell tale pictures are sometimes still on the wall) or someone else's office. I pay close attention to the decor, I guess, because I am in a career field where that is vital. You can always tell the home of a poor man from that of a rich man. The rich man's house is spacious, airy and lavishly furnished with matching and in most instances gaudy furniture. The walls are clean. The floors are clean. Everything is clean. The poor man's house is always dark and dinghy. Not enough space and thus very little air circulation. the wall has streaks of hand marks and the furniture does not match the rest of the house. I find it interesting that people only associate wealth with the ability to create a space. If you consider your body a temple because it houses you as soul, a manifestation of God's love and you keep it clean in honour of Him, don't you think that doing the same of your house will also serve the same purpose? You don't have to spend too much money to have a lovely home. You start by being clean. Then you pick colours that express your tatses. Yes, income challenged people have alot to worry about but hence your creativity. Do you know that instead of paying alot for ugly mismatched, curtains that imitate European concepts, you can use ankara wrappers, not just for those but also for your throw pillows? Do you know that you can arrange your pictures against cardboard and line the edges with colored tape that matches the colors of your choice, thereby eliminating the need for a frame? Do you know that instead of a head board, you can drape fabric across the wall to create a vertical element, either directly behind the bed or on either side of it Old buckets can be used for potted greens that line your balcony? Instead of a full carpet, why not use just an area rug? A polished piece of wood placed on a seperate or sturdy base ( e.g concrete blocks) can be the coffee table. I can see all those who care about what others think hising at that. alotof wealthy people are buying such things that you can pick up around your neighbourhood for thousands of dollars To give your bed more deifinition and to create space, raise it off the floor using evenly cut wood blocks. Underneath, you can store belongings and behind it, you can drape fabric for a canopy effect. For a duvet, you can use old ankara wrappers and decorate the hem with fabric from "outdated lace" (which for the Yoruba person is lace from last year) Be creative. Surf the internet. Go to the market and instead of shopping for exactly what is in the catalogue, walk around to the sections where they sell art work, you will be shocked what you will find and how you will use it. Create your own spaces as your outer temples. Take a good look, you will see that the spaces you inhabit mirror the state of your personal affairs. http://banibaraje.blogspot.com/ http://giamarrospeaks.blogspot.com/

Internships rolling to a close.
Am going to miss it really bad.
Made me feel very important, getting up in the morning and heading to work to go rub shoulders with the design geniuses....
Buaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

COS I WAS BUSY

JUST THOUGHT TO LEAVE SOME OF MY DESIGN WORK FOR YOU TO SEE....

DESIGN OF A MUSUEM TO BE BUILT IN CAIRO EGYPT...If only.

The Inc

An architecture firm is an interesting place to work into. If you have ever been inside a design studio at school, then you have some idea what a firm looks like. The difference is, everyone has showered that day, their desks are clean and they leave between 5.30 and 6.00 in the evening.

Almost everything else is much like every other office. You have the I-too-knows, the efficient people, the lazy people that complain more than they work, the bosses who cannot quite socialize with everyone but try to be pleasant (at least at the Inc there are), the diet freaks, the women who really should just have stayed at home to raise their kids with the way they channel every conversation into what their toddler did that morning, the office feuds (the turk and the spaniard) and above all the office romances.

This woman should just watch herself. Haba!
So, Man1 (which is what I will call him) put me on his project. I did not do as if anything has been amiss and neither did he. He sometimes has to come to my desk and sit with me as he explains what he wants. Nothing wrong or special there. He sits with everyone. So, that's why I don't know why She2( that's what I'll her) is now trying to stress my life.

She knows very well that I have deadlines and she will keep trying to bounce me from one project to another. They had another run-in because of that and I heard her telling another designer, "I mean, Catwalq is quite green. She is just going into her fourth year. her skills hardly qualify her as indispensable to any project..."
Fire burn her yansh. Useless woman. My skills are not indispensible?!!!
Na me talk say make the man no wan marry, na im you come vex go marry and born pikin ( that's what someone told me)? I no send you message.

Man1 maintains that it is important I follow through on each project and I only be invloved with a maximun of three at any given time so I can keep track of what I am doing and learning (after all, he realises that I am an intern and even though they want to turn me to Jackie, I am still learning). He makes sense. She is just a trouble maker with her whiny nasal voice.

I have started blogging from home before she cracks my password. She is good with computers. And I have deleted all the web history on my computer.

THE THING IS...

I thought she was married. She wears a ring and everything and there are pics of her baby all over her desk...
Then they will both be bitching about all day while we the junior designers play a game of duck and hide when they r together.
She is being too nice to me. I am freaked out completely. I think she knows I have a blog. She said,
"So, Catwalq, I see that you like to write..."
I have to stop reading and updating my blogs at work....
And he has not said a word to me since.

here goes

I thought I was imagining things. I forgot my cell phone at my desk so I went back upstairs. I had left HER and HIM in there; they typically are the last two to leave. That is one of the sacrifices that being head designer and senior interior design coordinator means.
I did not want to be there if they blew up again at each other like they had been doing ever since I came to work at the Inc. I mean, the last time, we all thought she was going to raie her manicured hand and slap him across his middle eastern face. I don't even know why they worked together. They never got along. They are like the coed version of the turk and the spaniard; only that their run-ins have a much greater effect on work in the office. When they r fighting, u don't want to be a designer or an intern caught up in the mix having to deliver some work from either to the other.
I guess that is why I almost passed out when I rounded the corner in time to see him pull away his hand from her face. I came to a stop and they looked up. To their credit, they did not act like anything was amiss. They simply stepped away from each other slightly so that the closeness in their forms could easily be interpreted as necessary for their conversation.
I know what I saw. He touched her face and her eyes were closed. She was loving it and so was he.

Oh my God

I think they are having an affair!!!!!!!

DESIGN INC

It has been three weeks, and the Inc has become most of my life. i get there at 8.30 in the morning and plow my way through layers and layers of design work. the best part is that the CAD programme that I was not familiar with, I am now quite conversant with. I love my desk, which I just recently cleaned; so now, I have the neatest work space in the office.

That aside, what makes me love the Inc are the people who work there. First and foremost, at any given time of the day, there are about five different languages being spoken. Number one is Spanish, then we have Czech, Armenian, Turk and Chinese. English is used when we have to communicate across projects and it quite an entertainment watching the architects and designers translate what they are thinking in heavily accented and halting English. Such a rare treat.

There are these two guys whom I am afraid may come to blows soon. One is Spanish and the other Turkish. For some reason, as I have deduced, they are always put on projects together because it seems that as a pair, they produce amazing work. The problem is that they and bitch and moan at each other throughout the process with the Turk being a perfectionist and not much of a people person while the spaniard is into practical jokes and youtube type antics. One day, i nearly deleted an entire floor plan cos I was laughing so hard watching the spaniard trying to deliver a joke to the Turk. The Spaniard told this winding hilarious tale about how he messed with this girl on the metro and that he was sure the girl was stalking him. Even those of us that were not in on the conversation were laughing quietly to ourselves but it was the Turks blank expression from the story's beginning to the end that killed me. Most especially when the Spaniard kept asking "do you get it?...so now do you get it?"

I especially love noon when almost everybody disappears for lunch to all the surrounding restaurants and I am left with no one looking over my shoulder so I can have a jolly time surfing blogs and leaving comments for my favourite bloggers. This is when the office sepearates into cliques. The restaurant-goers move off in twos and threes for their daily salad rendezvous-ing; the sandwhich and subs cliques move off en mass, the fitnesss people go off to the nearby gym for a forty five minute long work out and the chinese and I remain in the office as we unleash whatever homecooked meals we have. I usually know it is time to eat mine when the familiar smell of chinese cooked rice and vegetables reaches my nostrils. It is quite interesting that they eat the same thing and it smells the same way.

I am loving it

So, I have just completed my second week with the architecture firm and I am so loving it. I am the only other black employee (the other being the receptionist) in a firm of about fifty five people. But that is good because the whites are in the minority. Most of us are foreign nationals including the two firm principals.

So loving it. have started working out religiously because i am the only one in the office with a waistline that is over 25 inches wide. at lunch they all unleash their snacks of green salads, fruit salads, nuts and wheat bread sandwhiches. I unleash home cooked jollof rice with chicken and plaintain and very recently boiled yam and fried fish in palm oil stew washed down with chilled malt. U should see my arse right about no.

i am loving the projects that I working on. am loving my window desk. am not loving the fact that I do not have an ipod and have to log my laptop to work everyday just so I can listen to my music which by the way means that i have listened to my entire playlist back to back... but I am loving it

am loving the dress code...

am loving the distance the office is away from my aunt's house. am loving that the office is just three blocks from potbelly sandwhich place where they make the most amazing chicken salad sandwhiches.

am just greatful for the internship and I am loving it...yeah

Dang It!!!!

DESIGN :C
ENVIROMENTAL SYSTEMS: B
WOMEN IN ARCH :A
URBAN DESIGN :A
STRUCTURES II :D

There goes my G.P.A down the toilet. And all my hopes of a scholarship. I didn't think I did that bad in structures but a D is like, double S*#t!!!!. My mother is going to kill me. It does not even matter what else I got; I mean a C in a six credit class and a D in a three credit class.

I am so depressed!!!!

At least I have one more year to fix my grade. Bye bye, extra curricular activities. No more friends. At this point, I am kind of glad I do not have a boyfriend, cos I already know what kind of conversation I am going to be having on Sunday. Chei, catwalq, how did u allow urself to fail. And as God will have it, u no fit lie say teacher no like you, abi fap your grade. this is obodo, things don't work that way.

People, I am afraid that my mom will make me shave my head as punishment.
*sob* I am so tired. I need to find my sheik and fast.

RATING POSTS UP AND DOWN

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

AND THERE I THOUGHT I REALLY HAD AN ATTENTION GRABBING BLOG HERE, I AM GOING TO THINK OF SOMETHING SCANDALOUS TO WRITE AND UPGRADE TO A RATED R BLOG.
BAH!!!!

Left: brakes; right: accelerator

I am finally learning to drive. I will be 23 in October and I refuse to greet that day without knowing how to move a car about. I mean, do u know how many incidents could have been avoided if I had known how to drive?:

1. I would have been able to attend that party where SHE stole HIS attention! stupid heiffer
2. Spring break would have been so much fun. Walking is good but it was hot and I was not in the mood for a forced weight loss. My arse shrunk a full pant size. Skinny butts should be illegal.
3. My dramatic exits would have been perfect. there is nothing as stupid as storming out and having to wait in the parking lot for him to come drive you home. Then the idiot will now use that time to waste yours. Dang! I have suffered sha.
4. That day with the tummy upset...our presentation at the emergency room would not have been as memorable for the clinic staff.
5. I will not need Omo Ibo to go to the market. Him giving me a ride means I have to include him in my cooking and he does not eat pepper and I cannot be seperating food.
6. The weather man can kiss my arse. I am tired of being the indicator of what is happening outside the studio. I have arrived wet from sweat, rain and snow. Not good for preserving my segzy.
7. I could have enjoyed wearing my skirt that day. Billowing skirts and the sewer were only good on one woman... Marilyn Monroe.
8. I think I would be on time for events... I said I think!!!

Please ladies and gentlemen of blogville, wish me luck. So far, it has been great driving around a parking lot. Otherwise, my aunt would be facing lawsuits and I would be facing deportation. As it is, after every session, we head for the brakes specialist (in obodo, there are no mechanics only automobile engineers and spare part specialists and technicians. I mean, what do u expect when the janitor is a sanitation engineer and the maiguard is security detail?).

What I have learned so far?
1. Give way to traffic on your right.
2. Bicycles have as much right of way as I do.
3. I cannot park anywhere without paying.
4. My feet cannot reach the pedals unless i am practically resting on the steering wheels.
5. I will be using the slow lane for a while.
6. God has to provide for me to get a car that is raised above the road.
7. At this point, I cannot talk and drive.
8. R means "reverse" and not REST.

FOR $9.50

For $9.50, I took myself to see Mira Nair's latest release "The Namesake" starring Tabu, Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Zuleikha Robinson and Jacinda Barrette. I decided that I was going to use my last bit of money and give myself an experience and so after service, I went to the cinema for foreign films and bought my ticket; giving myself up to the god of film fate that Mira Nair would deliver a presentation that will fill my thoughts for days to come.

I went for the late matinee cos I had missed the early one. I had over an hour to kill so I went to get something to eat. I found very interesting the reactions I got as I sat down- a single woman seated in the midst of simpering couples and families. I am not a very physical person and so, I watched with some degree of fascination as some individuals felt it necessary to assure themselves of their companions presence by constantly toucching or leaning into the person. Some women I felt were trying to communicate their ownership and territory with the way they touched their man's arm, ran fingers through their hair, stole prolonged kisses and ate out of their bowls of ice cream when one sat in front of them ( I was at Haagen Daas...)

I watched from behind my shades the patronising smiles and avoided conversation from people that thought it was their duty to include me because I was seated alone. I did not feel alone. I have learnt not to. Most times, I take myself out; I am single and I refuse to be one of those females that requires either a man or an armor of fellow female colleagues to go out on an adventure. When I go to restaurants. I have to sit at the bar because no one makes seating for one.... ( a story for another day)

The Namesake was poignantly fufilling. Just when I thought it was about to drag on and kill the story, it ended on a sweet and sharp note.

The story I understood, the characters I connected with and the message I recognised. In Irfhan Khan's character "Ashoke" I saw a father trying to communicate to his son why he should be proud of his name; in Tabu's character "Urmisha" I saw a woman trying to weather the feeling of loneliness and disconnect attributed with the migration to a foreign land and in Kal Penn's portrayal of "Gogol" I felt I knew the man unsure of his true identity having been brought up with a name so odd and unique and yet at the same time tied to a history that was foreign to him. Jacinda Barrett was perfectly shallow in her portrayal of a white American woman coming to terms that her boyfriend was not as American as she was and Zuleikha's character was a rebelling against the roles and identities her heritage had cast for her as a woman.

I was very much moved by the way Ashoke's character and that of his wife Urmisha was protrayed. Theirs was of a love so modest and yet one of the most powerful interpretations of the communication between a man and a woman. They barely touched through out the film but you knew they cared deeply for one another. It was evident in the way he spoke to her: with tenderness and great affection and he listened with attentiveness and respect to what she had to say. Their eyes always met with a smile. Their words, poetic in speaking. She did all he asked of her without him having to say it. They looked like a couple that had deep and meaningful conversations with each other and I found myself longing for such a companion to share my life with. I wondered if such an innocent love still existed for my generation. The most endearing part was that it was an arranged marriage and yet the bond that was built between both was so strong that I believed its existence.

Gogol's attempt to hide his heritage and culture was saddening to me because in him, I saw all those who either by choice or by birth were navigating life in another man's land but were still weighted down by the obligations associated with your "people". Knowing and living another language besides English usually sets one up for alot of confusion and Gogol was a very confused individual. I travelled with him without leaving my seat back to his father's homeland in India and felt like I could reach out and touch the rickshaw drivers. I longed for a hand woven fan and an open courtyrad house where the family would gather in the shade of a balmy evening. I walked with him through the grounds of the Taj Mahal and felt my heart sing when he, like me, declared upon the sight of such a beautiful masterpiece that he was going to be an architect.

For $9.50, Mira Nair gave me a look into my life by giving me a look into someone else's.

PS: See also Deepa Mehta's "Water" and "Earth". Also Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra". Indian films that have shaped my understanding ,appreciation of and love for storytelling.

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OPRAH-FIED

Ok, so Oprah is coming to give the commencement speech at my school.

PRECEDENTS

1. Oprah always donates at events like that. She has given $4 million on ever occasion she has gone to Townsend university

2. She loves to send people to school

3. She just built a school in South Africa.

PROJECT

How can you get Oprah to give you ( I mean me) money for school?

SOLUTION

1. Crash commencement, dodge security and find a way to get at least to her best friend Gail who apparently goes everywhere with her and hand her your application for sponsorship and resume.

2. Make sure she knows you are African. She seems to be in love with the place right now. Market the idea that she can replicate for a West African what she has so beautifully done for the South Africans

3. Make a T-Shirt that airs your request. (How much does it cost to make a t-shirt online and have it shipped here in time?)

I am in need of money for school and I am about to get Oprah-fied to do it. I have resumed my daily dosage of the Oprah show, been looking for a used copy of the books on her book club selections....

Macdonalds is back on campus

Macdonalds is back on campus and has brought with it:

1. Dollar sweet tea so I can upgrade on my attempts to be diabetic

2. The uneducated rif raffs that hang out in it

3. Actually a brand new decor

4. 24 hr long service and so I can get my 4 am fix while working on my project

5. The rif raffs...

6. Snack wrap and cheap fries and thus an increase in cholesterol and obesity levels

7. The rif raffs

8. Competition for other restaurants on the strip

9. Did I mention the rif raffs. You do not know how much these guys get on my last nerves thinking that because my campus is an open one, they have the audacity to come polluting our visual environment with the sight of them. Eugh.