AREEZONAAAAA

Hello hello hello friends in Athens and abroad on your own adventures! I'm in Prescott [pronounced PRES-kit, oddly], AZ for a month learning the basics of sustainable design with the Ecosa Institute. Even though I've only been here for 24 hours there's already so much I have to share that I'm itchin' to share, so viola blog!

Ok so where to start...I'm living with two other girls who are doing the program, here they are below outside the Ecosa studio as we're about to leave to bike to our apartment: 

I like them, they're cool people. In fact, everyone in the program seems really interesting and everybody's from so many different places and backgrounds and have really crazy stories. I talked to one guy on the program who's been a stonemason/glass welder for a long time about Burning Man. He's been every year for more than a decade, and it sounds like quite the experience. Definitely put it on my bucket list, because who doesn't want to see a parade of people dressed as bunnies and a homemade Viking ship that also serves as a bar?

Oh, and speaking of homemade boats, our director is an old British man with silver hair that's done a ton of crazy stuff and planned on making his own ship to sail from NYC to England, though it turned problematic because he had never sailed or knew anything about making ships. People are so fascinating! I <3 life stories!*

Our program schedule is SO exciting. We're covering the following through lectures, hands-on workshops, studio time, field trips, etc: permaculture, sketching, drawing for site design, riparian restoration, systems thinking, technical drawing, bio-climactic design, solar, site survey, autocad, construction methods, green materials, biophilic design, urban design, etc. Basically perfect for what I'm interested in + a little more. 

We're also doing a project redeveloping Prescott to be a pedestrian-centered city, and another to create a master plan for a "sustainable intervention" of a small village in Liberia. Actual clients will be coming in so this is kind of legit. 

Sadly I don't know how much of all this information I'll get to since I'm only here for the first month. At the very least I'll get to know some people, some basic drafting skills, OH and I'm learning basic survival skills in a couple of weeks from this dude Cody Lundin [left]. Huh, he reminds me of Rob. Just noticed that. Ahahahah. 

Ecosa focuses on independent-learning, and requires a lot of self-motivation. Since we're not getting grades, I feel like this is the kind of schooling I would prefer over dealing with plus/minus grades ANY DAY. (By the way I hate genetics with a fiery passion that consumes my soul.)

Prescott itself seems full of progressives, but I'm probably biased because all the people I know here are from Ecosa. The town seems pretty small, there's a small liberal arts college (Prescott College) and an aeronautical engineering school.  Near our apartment is a natural foods store and there is a Prescott CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) so me and my roommates buy a box of produce every week for about $17 total a week. By the studio is a bakery/coffee shop called Pangaea and they make their own pies and ice cream and have DELICIOUS foods. Though I can't help but notice that one of my roommates and I may be the only two Asian people in the city. 

The housing situation is nice too, we have a spacious apartment with two bedrooms (one single and one double), bathroom, kitchen, laundry, and living room. The three of us are so cute, every day one of us cooks and the other two clean, and we bike to the studio together. The apartment has a composter and even a little garden in the backyard.

Compost

Texan roomies:

The outside environment is so different from Georgia (yeah obvious I know, but bear with me). It's so much flatter and you're surrounded by mountains everywhere. We're pretty high up elevation wise, so the air is crisp and sometimes harsh while biking up the few hills there are in town. It is very dry, to the point where I'm constantly reapplying chapstick and my eyes are slightly reminiscent of those sleepless nights in Oxford (aka red). It is absolutely beautiful though. I don't know if it's the beauty or the elevation that make some of the views breathtaking (har har har oh haaaay). 

Today on the bike home I took a bunch of photos of the area, here's a glimpse. I fell in love with so many of the exteriors of houses around downtown, I couldn't resist photographing them (hope I don't freak anyone out so they call immigration on some Asian girl on a bike with a camera...OH ARIZONA JOKES)

Thumb Butte looming in the background

Look at that stucco!

Look at those colors!

Proof that I'm not in Georgia:

Oh hai cactus

Why so sad America? OH WAIT IS IT BECAUSE ARIZONA'S IMMIGRATION LAWS ARE BRINGING YOU DOWN

Nancy, one of my roomies being the poster child of sustainability:

One of our neighbors:

I'll be updating with photos and lots of all caps throughout the summer, so check back for moaaar.

*of people who don't suck 

x-posted on rompalime.blogspot.com