Post-September Update

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September comes and goes way too fast. I've been so incredibly busy, but I'm not complaining. This past month was filled with lots of happy and sad moments. Here's a random compilation of phone photos I took the last three weeks.

This photo is my "thing" now. I can't explain it, but it fills me with so much joy. 

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YAY WORK.

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A present from my mom for my birthday. It's very cozy.

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My dad's birthday was also this month!

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Thank you so much, Ethan~

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Birthday muffin surprise in the middle of the night from my friend ~

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We have a weekly tradition now: go to Shin Sen Gumi after work. 

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My little sunflowers are growing.

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MORE WORK YAY!

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Got this little guy as a present. He is always with me.

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Keeps me motivated.

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So here is the sad news. My professor that I went to India with, Nick, passed away a week ago. It's the most surreal feeling knowing he's not there anymore. We were just emailing each other a few weeks ago, keeping in touch. I've been watching videos and looking through photographs remembering all the wonderful memories. Life is too short and anything can happen at any given moment. I'm happy I got the opportunity to get to know him. <3

cachuma lake

I went camping over the weekend at Cachuma Lake with a fun group of people. It was great...it felt like we had taken over the place. I hadn't been around a huge group of people like that in quite a while. When I used to go scouting, this was something that would happen several times a year so it was something I always expected and looked forward to. When you become busy with your own life and get sucked into school, you tend to forget about the things that go missing. It was a warm feeling...to be around so many loud and funny people again. Friendships like these are what I treasure the most. We might not see each other for long periods of time...but when we do meet again, we pick up right where we left off. I have camped at Cachuma many times before but it had been a while since the last time. It's a beautiful camp ground with a beautiful lake and lots of cute little birds and lizards. During the day the sun was out and it was hot (my face is peeling as I type this...) and the nights and mornings were cold. I was freezing Saturday night. It was ridiculous and embarrassing on my part as I was wearing five layers of clothing plus someone else's jacket. I had been sitting next to the fire for so long that when I finally showered when I got home, I could still smell the smoke in my hair afterward.

**Sidenote! The night sky was so beautiful. I couldn't believe it.

mustache days

Last night our internet went down. It was frustrating because I had some job related business to take care of. Our router is located upstairs. Upstairs is this strange bedroom turned office that we have neglected over the summer since it tends to get extremely hot. As I was making way up, I saw that my dad was already at the top of the stairs. We both wanted to see if we could fix the problem. While we failed to get our internet back, I found an old photograph of my dad sitting on one of the many bookshelves. Then my eye caught a stack full of photographs and I grabbed them....and so we spent forty minutes on the floor looking through old photographs. Photographs of my sister and I in sweden, photographs of my parents when they were students, etc. Long story short....we forgot about the internet.

My dad developed these. The first two photographs are of my mom walking around in the snow in Umeå, Sweden. That's where they went to university and that's were I was born. My dad during his mustache days. And finally a photograph of a drawing of Parouyr Sevak, my mom's favorite poet.

Revisiting Chandigarh - Part 1

After the province of Punjab was split between Pakistan and India in 1947, the half located in India (East Punjab) chose Chandigarh as their new capitol. Famous Swiss architect, Le Corbusier, designed many buildings throughout India in the 1950s. He was chosen as the urban planer of Chandigarh. When visiting the city, it becomes clear that the people living there are very proud that Chandigarh is the home of so many Corbusier buildings. His name is everywhere and everyone knows of him. Early one morning we arrived at The Capitol Complex which consists of the Palace of Assembly, the Secretariat, and the High Court buildings. In these photos, the Assembly is the one pictured with the Secretariat in the background. We didn't know if we were going to be allowed inside even though my professor had previously gone through a complicated process of approval and lots of paperwork.

After about half an hour we were let inside the complex but we were told by guards carrying machine guns that we were not allowed to take photographs of the Secretariat. They slowly changed their minds, however, after they noticed how excited we were to be there but they still insisted that if we went inside the Secretariat, photographing would be strictly forbidden. We found ways around that...but that's for another post since this is about the Assembly building and the plaza outside of it.

Seeing it in books is one thing but experiencing this place in person leaves a different impression because of a variety of environmental factors coming together. The Indian atmosphere is so distinct. The Himalayas as a beautiful backdrop, the haziness of the air around you, and the color of the sun - those are the things I remember the most.

The Assembly's plaza was designed by Corbusier as a place for gathering but in its current state it is the complete opposite of what the architect had planned. It is closed off to the public. At certain moments I'd get an eerie feeling while walking around the empty and abandoned space but it was lovely nevertheless.

The profile.

The road leading up the Secretariat. 

 The use of water to reflect.

A shot of the Assembly from the roof of the Secretariat. 

 The Secretariat in the back.

 I want to touch that beautiful curved concrete.

 So empty and quiet.

I have years of materials hiding inside of my external hard drives that I tend to forget exist. Thanks to this intense heat wave we've been experiencing in LA, I've been inside a bit more than I'd like during the day to escape. I figured this would be a good opportunity to look through memories from the past.

I'll make an effort to sort through and post my photos whenever I find free time instead of posting EVERYTHING at once since that would be a bit overwhelming. So this will be the first part of photographs revisiting Chandigarh.