Hello again everybody! So its only been a week and we're well on our way to completing our first projects of the semester. This year, unlike the previous one, I have a lot more academic work to do since I'm taking Emerging Enterprises and Entrepreneurship as well as Human Sexuality. Both classes are pretty interesting but EEE looks like its going to be a lot of rigorous work. Along with that, our interior design classes are picking up too! This year is all about office and commercial spaces, which I'm finding I enjoy more than the residential work we did last year. While residential design deals more with materials and the psychological effects of design and space as far as comfort and emotions go, it's starting to seem like office and commercial design has a lot more to do with problem solving. Of course, we still put a lot of emphasis on smart design, using sustainable products and materials, as well as making the space aesthetically pleasing. However, we also have to solve a lot of user problems. For example our first project was to redesign our professor's small office for his architectural firm located here in Syracuse. We had to go and look at the site and you could tell the office had a lot of serious problems as far as adequate space and storage. There were many specifications for what needed to be included in the new design and there were some obvious architectural elements we had to work around, however, besides that we were free to explore different options. In fact, at the end of the project one of our designs may be implemented in the new office! This kind of interior design interests me a lot more since it involves more problem solving instead of simply making a space look interesting. It's like a giant puzzle! So that's what we have been up to in our classes. I hope schools going well for all of you! Until next time! Leeanna