The first half of my first quarter is about through here at UC, and I'm sure you're all dying to know about this amazing architecture program we apparently have here.

FYI, there are 75 arch students and 45 interior design students in the first year of the program and we're all in the the same classes. The 120 of us were divided into 6 tribes (I mean studios) of 20 each and we do pretty much everything in those groups.

Anyway, I think the impression that most of us have gotten is that the program is certainly unique, if not a little odd. The first day we watched Babette's Feast. If you haven't heard of it, it's a movie made in Denmark about a famous female French chef who goes to become the maid for two sisters in Jutland. Without giving away the whole story the thematic line of the story is "an artist is never poor."

Well, our first assignment was to draw the village in the story and the dining room of the house. We watched the movie again two days later and did the same assignment. Something about seeing a movie once makes you a viewer, seeing it twice makes you a critic. The whole curriculum so far has centered around meals and dining. Our second assignment was to analyze a magazine that could have food related pieces and write an article in the style of the magazine about a restaurant. The third assignment was to pair up and go to a restuarant and analyze its atmosphere, decorating, impact of location, etc. Now we're doing a project on a specific type of meal and the events that go with it. I'm researching Oktoberfest.

We have basically 4 classes specifically in this program. The design studio is the main part, and a drawing skills class and computer class tie into the same themes. The fourth is called the Environmental Studies Seminar in which we take field trips around Cincinnati and draw buildings. On Mondays in the design studio we have a lecture relating to something. One was about the cultural aspects of meals, another about how tables represent altars.

I'm sure you're wondering how this relates to here so I'll tell you. The other day we were having a discussion/lecture in the design studio and my professor, who seems to talk very vaguely in a half-confused, mind-wandering state, began talking his discussions with some of the other faculty. He had asked one of the main organizers of the program what he thinks sets great designers apart and the response was that the best designers/ architects are avid readers. He didn't elaborate too much on this, but I'd like to know what you think about it, and what you think about the program in general. I've enjoyed it so far, but it seems so terribly strange. What do you think?