Archive for April, 2010

Travel Updates: Reed and Linfield

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Today we started our day with my favorite college of the visit, Reed. The campus was beyond gorgeous with old brick buildings and mossy surroundings. We walked all over campus from the old dorms, to the new dorms, from hall to student center, and all around.

We stopped on a bridge to talk with a freshman Reedie to get the down low about the college. She said she loved the small classes and the way students got to explore all avenues of their passions which is something that I am really interested in. I really liked this school, I can’t wait for more information in the future. I mean seriously the school had a swing set.. I am a sucker for swings 😀

Next was Linfield, a school out in the middle of nowhere on the way to the coast from Portland. Yet again, another beautiful school. We didn’t get to spend that much time but we got to look around and it looked very nice.

That is it fo   colleges we visited on our trip but all of the little adventures we had in between have yet to be shown. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip. A sneak peek of something we did, a stop at the Multnomah Falls in the Columbian Gorge

0

Travel Update: Oregon Colleges

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

The first college we visited on our road trip through Oregon was University of Oregon. We toured around the campus while it was pooring rain outside in Eugene, Oregon. We met up with Maddy, a first year student of University of Oregon,  showed us around her dorm. I really enjoyed it and was able to get a very good feeling of the school. I enjoyed it a lot. After looking around we checked out downtown Eugene, which had an amazing farmers/ craft fair going on which spanned over about three blocks. It was full of all kinds of characters and talents. I really enjoyed it, even though I was being rained on the whole time.

After Eugene we headed up to Salem Oregon to check out the tiny, but beyond amazing liberal arts school of Willamette. This campus is beautiful! I just wish I had been able to see it when it was full of students. The buildings were gorgeous brick and were so interesting and old fashion.

One of my favorite things were the white lawn chairs spread out around campus. We visited an amazing library which had an overlook of the Willamette River.

The whole school had a feeling of tranquil genius :D. I look forward to learning more about this school.

We then headed up all the way to Portland for a quick stop at Lewis and Clark University. This school was so nice and quaint. I really enjoyed it. We didn’t get to look around that much because we were so tired, but what I did see was beautiful.

Tomorrow we will be visiting Reed in Portland and from there on out we are winging it!

0

Travel Update: Olive Pit

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

On our road trip up to Oregon we stopped for a snack in Corning, California which proclaimed itself as the olive capital. I am a huge olive fan so I pulled off at a tourist shop full of olives of every kind. I was a kid in a candy shop…  olive shop.

They even had a huge sample bar for all kinds of olives from Cajun spiced, Texas hot, garlic, Kalamata, and smoked. First note, Texas spicy green olives were definitely the best, I had many, many samples of it. The woman kept eyeing me, I guess I wasn’t sneaky enough. Second note, smoked olives are disgusting. I won’t make that mistake again. They had really cool little scoopers to pick the olives out, it was quite the experience.

That was about it for the beginning of our trip. There was a lot of rain but it cleared up after a bit leaving behind remnants of beautiful storm clouds. When the sun set I was dying to take a picture but I was driving. That put me in a bit of a bad mood, I always get a little peeved when I see a shot and miss it. Let me tell you what it would have been: Big cumulous clouds, some light and some very dark, framed in orange and pink, hanging over an orchard. Do you understand now why I was upset?

We have stopped for the night in Redding. Tomorrow, University of Oregon and hopefully Willamette.

0

Travel Update: Oregon

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

So for the first part of my spring break I am going to be heading up to Portland Oregon for some college visits. My mom and I are road trippin it up and we are going to be having fun along the way.

Top on my list is Reed. I can’t wait to see it, Reed is one of my top choices at this point and I am ready to learn more.

I will also be stopping along the way in Eugene Oregon to stop and see University of Oregon. There is no saying what else I will do, or what I will see. Stay tuned for photos and posts about my trip.

0

Perspective

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Something like a pot of flowers can seem so ordinary, not because it actually is but because we have become so accustomed to it that it has lost it’s uniqueness in our eyes. In my eyes this is a crime. My job is to provide perspective to all of you, it may not be right, different, or even worth your time, but it is something to remind people that nothing is one dimensional. Here is a series of photos, all of this seemingly normal flower bouquet. (P.S. I love flowers that is why I chose them, I think they are beautiful beyond compare)

This is a magnified perspective of one flower in the bouquet. Already, just a photo closer to the flower reveals so much more about the flower. This perspective allows us to study detail, to notice what people would normally brush over. Look beyond what you normally see, instead of seeing a flower, look at each petal, how are they different, how are they the same? Look at the center and how it darkens, drawing your eye. Don’t just see it, question it. Why would a flower have a darker center on such a vibrantly colored plant, why not make it a more colorful hue instead of black. There are a million and one ways to look at the same thing and each is unique within itself.

It isn’t always the front of a flower that holds the beauty. Try looking at things from a different angle. Sideways, upside down, from underneath and from above. Each new view can change the object entirely. Even the slightest shift from the first photo to the second, changes the view dramatically. Drawing your eye to one point, instead of to all of the flowers. Positioning is key, it can change how others look at an object and the message that they receive from it.

The objects standing right in front of you are not always the most important. Sometimes the things that seem so blatantly obvious are just masks for the real beauty that is staring you right in the face. Focus forward, don’t let what stands in front of you stop your ascent or progress. Look beyond and between the obvious and seek out the third path that leads you to your own future.

Beauty frames the world around us, I know it is hard but try to notice all of it. Not what stands in front of you, but all of it. At first it can be overwhelming to try to take in all of it, but the world will seems so much brighter because of it. Perspective is everything, without it, we would not be able to fully appreciate the minute details that build up the beautiful world around us.

So take some time, look at the ordinary things in your day in a brand new way. Notice what you would have never look at before. That is my only goal, to make people look at the world with eyes that can truly see.

0