This was the high school I attended and graduated from. Both of my older sisters, all my cousins, my aunt & my mom all attended this high school as well. I made a few really close friends from my time attending this school and I plan to be in touch with them for the rest of my life. I value this building as it is a family tradition to go to here and it gave me some good friendships. A large part of who I am today was shaped in my time here.
I lived in walker tower my freshman year and I miss it. A lot of people complained about the dorms at OU, but I loved the year that I lived in walker tower. I liked the simplicity of having everything I own in one dresser. I liked the exciting experiences of freshman year. It was very convenient living across the street from the gym and the dining hall. I made a lot of good memories in my dorm and I associate it with the excitement of my freshman year of college.
This is the Church that my family attended when I was a child. I always admired the circular design of the building . When I was a little kid and bored in mass I would spend a lot of time examining the stain glass windows that encompass the building. The building holds value to me as my family has been attending mass there for a long time. It is where my parents got married and where my grandmother’s funeral service was held. Even though I’m not a very religious man, this building will always have value to me from my family’s history with it.
This castle is located in Matsumoto City in central Japan. It is about two hours away from home, and near where I went to high school. It is one of the most symbolic buildings in this region, and the park around the castle is often used for regional festivals. I have many memories with my family and friends in that area from childhood.
The original construction of the Castle dates back to the early 16th century. The castle was once abandoned and sold at an auction for re-development in 1872. However, it is now designated as a national treasure of Japan, thanks to the preservation efforts made by the local community members.
The castle has many defense features such as the moat surrounding the area, steep rock wall of the foundation, and small slits on walls shoot arrows and guns. The circulation inside the building is intentionally designed to be inefficient, in order to prevent the intruders from reaching the top level, where the warlord stayed during attacks. The steepest staircase has an incline of 61 degrees. The floors are very slippery, and some beams run very low above staircases that even I (5’3 tall) have to bend down not to hit my head.
It is a little hustle to get to the top level. But the view from there is very rewarding. It is still my favorite place to take my friends from abroad to showcase Japanese history, and experience life during 16th-century wartime.
I had the opportunity to go to the Georgia Aquarium a few years ago and it was quite the experience. This aquarium was built very differently than I imagined. At the entrance, as shown in the first picture, reminded me of the end of a boat or the tail of a fish/shark. The other thing that amazed me was the tunnel inside. As I walked through the tunnel, it felt like I was walking with all the exotic animals inside. The tunnel gave a very more in depth experience to see all the different animals. Before coming to the aquarium, I thought the animals were going to be locked in small cages, but when I got to go inside, the area was huge enough for the animals to freely swim around. I was impressed by the architecture of the building itself because on the outside it didn’t look like much, but it is the inside where it is at.
Picture Citation:
Swimming with whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. (2019, May 11). Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trw-sharks19-2008jun19-story.html
Festival Foods is a grocery store that is very near and dear to my heart. Not only was it my local grocery store, less than a mile from my childhood home, but I also worked there for nearly four years of my life. I worked as a customer service representative (CSR), being a cashier and bookkeeper on the front end, and also worked in the deli department for the last half of my time working there. I spent many hours working, shopping, and even hanging out in this building. It was a place for me to not only earn paycheck, but gain real-world experience in customer service, food service, and even learning about the inner workings of businesses.
The particular Festival that I worked at was one of 6 stores in Minnesota, all owned by sisters Lauri and Marie Aarthun (About Us). The bakery uses products from the local Taste of Scandinavia Bakery, has a wide variety of local fruits and vegetables, and strives to provide local meat and fresh seafood. Some Festival locations also have Dunn Bros coffee shops in them, a local coffee house. The company dates back to the early 1900s, and has gone through a few different names- Applebaum’s, Knowlan’s, and finally, Festival Foods. The store is very rectangular shape with the classic grocery store setup- a department in every corner and the main aisles in the center. The classic slanted roof and green and black color scheme really bring out the 90’s feel of the store.
Although I worked in the front end as a CSR/ bookkeeper for a much longer time, I think that my 8 month working in the deli department were the most impactful. I learned the kitchen like the back of my hand, knowing where every random packaging item was, where all the different food items were stored in the freezer and cooler, and knew what was in all of the cupboards and drawers.
The people working at Festival Foods were- and are- my family, literally and figuratively. My mom has been with the company for over ten years, my sister currently works there, and I have had a variety of cousins that have come in and out of the store as employees. Many of the other employees have been there for over a decade, and management has been fairly consistent for nearly twenty years. Most of my encounters with this building have been very positive, as I enjoyed working and shopping there very much. We often decorated as the seasons and holidays changed, and the managers worked very hard on beautiful displays that changed with the weekly sale items. Each department worked hard to make sure their displays, counters, and general department look clean, welcoming, and exciting enough to want to try some new food items or explore new recipes.
About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://festivalfoods.net/about/
Carnegie Hall is a concert hall in New York, New York. It was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill (who was also a cellist), for Andrew Carnegie in 1891 (A Short History). The hall has featured numerous famous musicians, including Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and The Beatles. It holds over 500 independent events each year, as well as a number of different concert and recitals in all genres of music. There are three halls within Carnegie Hall: The Isaac Stern Auditorium, Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, and Joan and Sandford I. Weill Recital Hall (Building Overview). The Isaac Stern Auditorium, which is the hall most familiar to me, seats 2,804 people in five different levels.
I visited New York in March 2016 for a choir trip in high school. We sent about a week in NYC doing shopping, music workshops, as well as getting the chance to perform at Carnegie Hall. Performing in Carnegie Hall is a dream come true for many musicians, and I got to do it with many of my close friends and my high school choir. We were part of the Total Vocal II concert with some other high school choirs across the United States, working with Deke Sharon, who wrote all of the acapella music for the Pitch Perfect movie series.
It was a surreal experience, to say the least, to not only see the outside of, and walk into Carnegie Hall, but to be standing on stage and singing. The outside of the building appear to be simple in construction- it is very cube-like, with symmetrical, arched windows and doors. Standing on the stage, looking out at the audience at five different levels, and seeing the gorgeous ceiling and open space was an unbelievable experience. I got to experience something that many musicians, and even music-lovers, have always dreamed of, and Carnegie Hall left a lasting impression on me.
A Short History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.carnegiehall.org/About/Press/A-Short-History
Building Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.carnegiehall.org/About/Building-Overview
Rosedale Center is a mall located between Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota. It opened in 1969, and is positioned along two major highways and two other major roads (About).The mall is 1,149,639 square-feet, and has over 160 retailers, as well as an AMC movie theatre. Rosedale Center is rated as one of the top shopping malls in Minnesota, attracting more than 14 million visitors each year. It is currently undergoing renovations since 2017, renovating the interior, exterior, parking ramps and lots, and the opening of new retailers. The feel of this mall is described as the following: “Glass, steel, wood and stone come together in a dramatic architectural expression to create an inspiring environment, resulting in a first-class shopping and dining experience” (About). The first photo below is before the remodel, taken in 2009, and the next one is after, taken in 2017.
Rosedale Center is a mall that I frequented often with friends and family when I lived in Minnesota. Although Minnesota has the Mall of America, Bloomington was almost an hour drive from where we lived in the suburbs, while Rosedale was a quick 15 minute trip on the freeway. They have remodeled since I used to frequent when I was younger, but the mall still hold the same place in my heart, and the more modern feel it has now doesn’t affect the memories I had there when I was in it. My friends and I would always make sure to meet outside of the Macy’s- it was the closest entrance to the freeway, and we would usually start shopping there. We always started on the second floor, because the best stores were typically on the top floor, which I presume is because you have to drive around the mall to get to lower level parking. We always visited the same stores— sometimes in different orders for different lengths of time, but we always made sure to hit Aeropostale, Forever 21, Claire’s, Lush, and American Eagle. We usually had a back at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, which was on the second floor, and made our way down to the stores n the first level. The first level has a Caribou Coffee, and we made sure to get a coffee or other drink from there before leaving each visit.
My many encounters with this building were always enjoyable, whether it be just spending time with friends, shopping for prom dresses or going to a specific store with a plan.
About Rosedale Center: Roseville, MN. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rosedalecenter.com/about
In the summer of 2017, I lived in Kyoto, Japan for two months for an internship. During that summer I spent much time during weekends visiting historical sites around Kyoto. Byodo-In was at the top of my travel as it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is also printed on the Japanese ten yen coin. This Buddhist temple was originally built in 1052 AC. It was built to visualize Buddhist paradise.
‘Byodo’ means equality or symmetry, and ‘In’ means temple. As the name suggests, it has a perfectly symmetric facade that consists of a central hall storing the Buddha statue, and two wings on each side. The entire structure stands on an artificially made lake. The reflection on the water surface creates a visual effect as if the temple is floating.
The central hall is filled with ornate wood carvings, metal sculptures, and paintings. It was a very spiritual experience to see the world that Buddhists from 900 years ago imagined and spent hours creating.
The high school that I had attended before coming to college is Mansfield High School and even though my time there was still fun in the end there where also times that where not as fun. This is one of the older buildings in Mansfield that has been maintained and still in use the design is simply not good at all from some of the rooms having no natural light to small rooms. Since the building is more rectangular not many classes rooms get natural light especially if you are in the center and the unfortunate thing is that after that class my mood is almost ruined and I am already more exhausted at the start of the day than towards the end. Even though it helps that they have large windows at the end of some hallways it almost feels like a prison from small cramped class rooms to a majority of the rooms receiving no natural light.
