Chicago, and some.

With my first week of my internship done with, I'm excited to really start experiencing the city. I've officially gotten used to the train/bus CTA system and it's really nice to not have to use my car to go everywhere.
Anyway, Gensler is great. Everyone is really nice. I'm surrounded by architects and it's definitely a different experience compared to being surrounded by Graphic Designers day in and day out. I'm the only graphics intern and I'm in a very diverse studio, which is how they separate their different groups of projects out; it's strategy, graphics, and I think the rest may be architects and interior designers? (I'm obviously still getting acclimated, so excuse me if I sound crazy/wrong or whatever else haha)
Getting used to the lingo and the idea of design as a whole versus just graphic design is interesting. I hear the word "design" and I automatically think of graphic design, but in actuality it's EVERYTHING, literally. We always say that in school, but I am definitely thinking of it as a even more holistic concept.

We, as interns get to work on a research project about trends and what young people are doing. We each got assigned a "umbrella" topic, and mine is "travel". With that in mind I definitely feel a little "ahead of the curve" due to all the research we did this past semester. We also got assigned to a mentor to help us along the road and mine is really great.

Studying for LEED certification is also kind of exciting, because it's something I have interest in, but have no idea about either, so I know there will be a lot of learning going on there. I'm not sure if it's necessarily going to benefit me in any way, but I can't see it going against me either.

Anyway, I'm blabbering...


Some goals I'm setting for myself are:

-Take more freaking pictures, I need to get back into the habit of loving photography.
-Do more things by myself...not knowing anyone in Chicago that well, has kind of hindered me in what I do so far, and I definitely don't want that to happen anymore.
-Take advantage of this opportunity to the fullest. (Now, I'm sounding cheesy) But, talking to Sarah (my mentor) about what I could do this summer she suggested going on information interviews to firms I have interest in potentially working at when I graduate. I hadn't thought about that before, and I think that is definitely a great opportunity to get an idea of how it may be here in Chicago.
-That's all I can think of.
-Oh yeah, buy a pair of spanks.

I'll have to post some pictures of where I work!