Recap: Two weeks in York

SFO



POUNDS.

YORK:


The Minster

Having a great time here in York. We leave for Edinburgh on Monday so this weekend the plan is to stay in York and go to Tim's dad's art exhibit. Tim is our professor, and his dad is a painter.

We went to Tim's parents' house for 4th of July, which was so much fun. They have an adorable cottage close to where we're staying, so we all walked there and had an amazing Italian dinner from a nearby restaurant, including a number of cheeses and charcuterie, salmon, ham and cheese quiche, veggies and a bunch of great desserts.

Let me rewind a bit! We've been so busy going so all these amazing places. On June 29th: mom's birthday, happy bday mom!!! We took a daytrip by bus and visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which was a huge amount of open land with sculptures and sheep all over.

There were pieces by Andy Goldsworthy there. The following sculpture is by Jaume Plensa.

We also went to Hepworth Art Gallery and saw a bunch of sculptures made by Barbara Hepworth. After that, we went to Undercliffe Cemetary in Bradford, which was very very old and had a gorgeous view of the town. We had an action packed day from 8am to 8pm!

On Thursday of week 1 of the program, we went to the Castle Museum in York, where they have many exhibits including life size replications of what a Victorian era street would look like.

On Friday, we shared our project 1 presentations. This is a photo of the Bonding Warehouse and my group for the project:
From left to right: Evan, Kate, Courtney, me

For our first whole weekend here, 14 of us went to Manchester on Friday night. (There are 27 in our program) ... The train ride was about an hour and a half, and we all stayed in a hostel together called Hatter's. None of us got separated for the whole night out, which is an accomplishment with so many people. Manchester is an awesome city... we went to bars in the gay village and then went to a club called Sanky's for lots of dancing.
Manchester:
Manchester street art.

On Saturday, we went to Manchester Craft and Design Centre. Artists have their studios on-site, so you could see them making things and then buy them in their stores. There was a bunch of pretty jewelry, paintings, purses and crafts of all kinds.


After that, we went to high tea at an adorable place called Sugar Junction.

On Sunday, Sophie, Courtney, Libby and I went to Leeds and then to Skipton. We went to Leeds Food Festival and had so much delicious food.


Really pretty and tasty chocolates!

The above 2 photos are at Jamie Oliver's booth, promoting his Leeds restaurant called Jamie's Italian. Courtney looks excited.

Libby, Sophie, me, and Courtney at the Spice Girls exhibit in Leeds!

After spending most of the afternoon in Leeds, we hopped back on the train and headed to a small town called Skipton. We got there and found out it was Sheep Day there, which is apparently an important day there!

Salt n' pepper shakers.


This is where we're staying in York:




Good times in the dorms... bottles and king's cup:

@York!

I'm in York! I've spent one night here and it's already been so much fun. It's been a whirlwind 48 hours this is how it went...

United flight 954 departed SFO at 12:50 pm and arrived at London Heathrow at 7:10 am. From there, took the underground to Kings Cross Station and then another train to York. The train ride north was gorgeous, it took about 2 hours. Arrived in York around 3, walked to York St. John University from the train station and checked into my room.

A big group of us from the Design in Britain program walked around and explored the campus and the town in the evening. Most of us had arrived in the afternoon and felt a little delirious with the time change and all. Ate a pork sandwich with stuffing and apple chutney from a small spot on the street and about 10 of us checked out a few pubs in the evening.

Went to bed about 1am York time, 5pm California time. When I woke up, I glanced at my phone and it said it was 12:40. I took a shower and got ready to go out and walk around York for the afternoon.
My friend Olivia knocked on my door and we went out to explore the town. Not many restaurants were open, and I figured because it was Sunday. She mentioned that it was 9am. WHAT.......

I looked at my iphone and it said 1:00. A.M!!!!! Not P.M. Turns out, my phone never actually changed to this time zone. I have never felt so disoriented. So completely thrown off and confused. I changed the time on my phone manually pronto.

Once I accepted the fact that I naturally woke up at a very early hour and my whole sense of the day was warped, I decided to have a scone at a teashop. Loud bells rung at the York Minster for worship.

I had a lot more time than I thought I did before orientation at 5:30, so Olivia and I walked all around. There's a big river that runs through the town, with lots of boats cruising up and down. MUST go on a boatride while I'm here.

We stumbled upon a very cute Belgian restaurant with a great outdoor seating area next to the water. We watched the boats and Canadian geese and I ate a croque madame. The weather is lovely. It hasn't rained yet...

York is so charming. It's bigger than I expected it to be - so many shops, pubs, restaurants, beautiful old buildings and churches. It is so rich with history. It has the largest length of medieval wall still intact in England. I'm planning on checking out the Monk Bar to see the place where executions were ordered by Richard III in 1483. Crazy shit.

Tonight all of us are having orientation and then going to dinner. First day of class at 9am tomorrow. We're going on a daytrip to the coast on Wednesday to visit Whitby.

Pictures to come!!!

Dance With Me

Music by Nouvelle Vague.

The video shows the dance scene from the 1964 film Bande à Part, directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in North America as The Outsiders.

Examples of my Design Work

Please consider the following images. I designed them during Fall 2010 in Design 16 Graphics and the Computer at UC Davis.






The final image is a poster that I designed for Sustainable Design 127B.

Take a toothpick tour of San Francisco!

I think I could study Scott Weaver's toothpick model of San Francisco for hours; it is intricately designed and tediously executed. Watch the ping-pong balls go on a ride around the city. He's been working on this project for 35 years and it is now on display at The Tinkering Studio in the Exploratorium from April 5 - May 31, 2011. What a way to work with wood, scale and architecture.

Scott Weaver's Rolling through the Bay from Learning Studio on Vimeo.

This is a Title

'The Art of The Title‘ was made for the SXSW "Title Design Finalists Screening" in Austin, TX. Directed by Ian Albinson and concepted by David Horridge, the video beautifully mixes movie title designs over the years.

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

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