Monday, September 6, 2010

Milwaukee!

Bryson and I headed over to Milwaukee on Saturday and decided to focus our adventure at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM). It sits on Lake Michigan and is so beautiful! We had lunch at the museum cafe (which was so good!) and then had a great time exploring the first part of the museum. Afterward we headed out across the suspension bridge to see a little of downtown Milwaukee. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of the wind (Bryson kept telling me to embrace the wind :) ) it was fun to see all the different styles of architecture, from turn of the century and art deco to modern.

Even the museum's parking garage was a work of art.

One of my favorite pieces, this was what we saw when we came up from the parking garage.

Want to know a secret? I think it would be so cool to be a glass blower and make things like this!

Standing in Windhover Hall looking up at the sky through the museum's "wings." The Burke Brise Soleil has the wingspan similar to a boeing 747 and the open and close every morning and evening. Plus they have wind sensors, so when the wind reaches a certain point, the wings will close.
Here's a view of the wings from the suspension bridge.

The next couple pictures are some of the amazing buildings we saw in downtown Milwaukee.




We're so excited to head back to Milwaukee. Not only for the wonderful traffic (Driving to Chicago is stressful!) but to see more of what Milwaukee has to offer. I'm sure we'll be back soon!

Friday, September 3, 2010

First "week" of classes

So...I guess I finished my first "week" of classes - which was actually only one day of classes and one day of auditions (they are on a Monday - Thursday schedule here...). Things have gone great! A little bit exhausting, but I'm looking forward to a great semester. Here are some pictures of my office, I think its turned out really nice! Hopefully it makes sense. We'll do some pictures of campus later...

Panorama makes things look funky, but the desk on the right and the table on the left are actually parallel to each other, my little "nook" in my office. Notice the candy jar on the table, I won that at the retreat!!

That's my window! Bookshelves (with mostly my books) on the right. When I came in, both bookshelves were PACKED with books that weren't mine. My first couple days were spent sorting through the ones I wanted to keep and the ones that were out of date...

Kinda weird angle, but it connects the rest of the room. My "closet" on the left. I'm making a goal of riding my bike to work, so I have lots of clothes to change into once I get there :) The bike (try not to notice its conspicuous absence) will go on the wall by the door.