First week of college: Done!

Hey everyone. Reporting from Oakville, Ontario here. First week is all finished up. Gonna talk about it now. And you thought you were gonna get out of it. Teehee.

So, on monday we had the day off. Canada copied the US and has labor day on the same day. Psssh how unoriginal. I don't really remember doing anything that day? I think we partied quite a bit actually sunday night....nothing really special to say about that.
On tuesday we had our first classes. I only had imaging systems, or I guess I should call it drawing systems actually. It's am 8 am class, which is as early as they get (aaaah so much nicer) but its still pretty early. It's a very technical class, a lot of perspective and technical illustration. I think I will learn a lot, but the teacher seems a bit dry. She spent an hour showing us her personal work. I nearly fell asleep in that dark room. We are supposed to have a 500mL milk carton for our next class for our first assignment. I only have my emtpy 2L one...same thing though right? Just bigger...all we are going to do is draw it anyway.
Wednesday I had color theory, with Sybil Goldstein. Apparently she's a mean woman. For now she seemed alright, but I can definitely see how being on her bad side or doing something wrong would be bad. She asked the class what they each wanted to go into. There are a lot of people here trying to get into animation, it is a famous animation school after all. I don't think many people from here are going to try for Calarts, Canadians have such cheap education that I don't think many of them would be able to stand the 40k tuition calarts asks you to shell out. But she definitely put us down. Sheridan animation is much like calarts, only about the top 10% make it in...so its tough to get in, obviously. But hearing a teacher put me down for what I want to do makes me want to prove myself all the more. I'm not a fantastic artist, but god knows I'm gonna be! Our first assignment for that class is actually something they did in the painting class at Niwot (joy) We are supposed to get a 6x6 pattern and we are going to paint it with different color schemes, i.e. greyscale, analogous, complementary, etc. Should be pretty simple. She also lectured us on the importance of high quality brushes. Apparently, we should spend big bucks on nice brushes and cheap out on paint when we are young and can't tell the difference in paints anyways. Noted.
On thursday I didn't have class. It was odd. Sheridan schedules classes for art fundamentals in a very annoying way. They take a group of students and put them all on the exact same schedule. So you have all your classes with the same people, and there are only a few variations of schedules out there. There are probably about 400-500 people in the program, and yet you only get to meet 20-30 people. I'm so pissed. I want to meet lots of people! All my classmates have english on thursdays, but since I took my test late, I got placed in another class.
On friday, I don't have class until 2pm, which is really nice, because all my friends who don't have class on fridays will party, and I can party with them, because I have a lot of time to sleep in/get over my hangover if need be. I had 2d design with Sheila Greenland. So far, this is my favorite class, mostly because the teacher is really friendly and its late in the afternoon. Greenland has worked postproduction on a lot of big name IMAX movies, such as star wars, harry potter, spiderman, etc. So I automatically like her. This class is more of a design class however, our first assignment is to create a 4 panel abstract composition in black and white with gouache paints. So basically, what I've done in the margins of my papers for the past 4 years. Should be pretty simple. Gouache will be interesting to use though, especially since its used so much in animation.
Then came the weekend! Let me show you some pictures though, because I know you're bored of my text blocks.

This is my attempts at using a can opener...I'm really bad at it. I'm really bad at this whole adult thing in general actually. I plunged my own toilet the other day, and did laundry. I have to make all my own meals here, which is really hard because I'm not very creative with food. Fortunately our neighbors, who we've become pretty good friends with, like to cook a lot (healthy food too!) so sometimes I have decent meals. Tonight they made shrimp stir fry. It was delicious. In exchange I did their dishes. We had chocolate milkshakes for dessert. Also...yes that is a nerf gun and dinosaur placemat in the background. So much for being an adult.
Another thing I never realized is how quickly food expenses add up. I went shopping at walmart, and buying all walmart brand foods still cost me $80 for about a weeks worth of food....bleh.

So on Friday night the student union hosted a popular regional band called Alexisonfire (like alexis on fire, not alex is on fire, as I learned) I bought a ticket and we all went. It was a pretty good time. The music itself was ok, alexisonfire is more of a heavy metal/screamo band, which is really my taste, but it was an interesting experience. I got in early enough to be right up in front of the stage....unfortunately it was a bit to the side where the speakers were....my ears were ringing for hours. It was literally so loud that the bass felt like my heart inside me beating. Intense. Above is Mel (an older student from the 3rd floor, she's pretty rad), Bryce and Chris (our neighbors), and me and my roomie, Amy all while we were waiting for the show to start.
The band was pretty wild, particularly the guy in the white shirt. He was nuts. Fun to watch.
These are our neighbors at the after party (there was even a guitarist (the hot one) from the opening band there! He had jeggings and was really wasted. good times), Jackie, Bryce, Melissa, and Chris. They're all pretty cool people. Jackie and Melissa live next door, and Bryce and Chris live across from them. We all cook and have shennanigans together. Bryce and Chris are also in art fundamentals, and they're both into comics and animation and stuff. It's awesome. I drew a picture of them and put it on their door today as a gift. In return they came over and tag team hugged me, haha.
On Saturday I got up and finished opening up my bank account, and then did some grocery shopping. After that we had a movie night in the movie theater on our floor. It has legit movie seats with cupholders and everything. We watched Kick-Ass. It was kick ass, haha. Today I just did some stuff I needed to do and watched some movies. I find myself a little bored, and my head feels sort of clouded sometimes. I am still debating on whether or not to get an on campus job here, but I still think I'm gonna wait and see how the course load goes. But I just can't get everything inside me to clear up. I want to sit down and draw but I am stumped for as to what to draw. I can barely get even a doodle out. I had a crazy dream last night about deep cuts on my hands, getting surgery and being shocked intensely, I felt like I was dead. Then there was an explosion...I just remember crying a lot in my dream. I wasn't crying when I woke up or anything, but I looked up on dream dictionary what it all meant. Apparently I have many repressed emotions and whatnot. Good stuff. I need some sort of way to get my head sorted out...all I can do is sit and stare out the window sometimes.
Tomorrow I have half of my classes, all the ones I haven't had yet. This includes English first thing in the morning (still haven't bought the textbook for it yet...bleh. It's $60), then 3d Design right after (its pretty much sculpture and such...we are supposed to buy 6lbs of a certain brand of clay, but all the stores in the area are sold out! I'm nervous she's gonna be pissed we don't have it yet. ah!), and then an hour break and life drawing. I'm looking forward to that the most.
Sheridan offers extra life drawing from 6-9 mondays through thursdays and apparently its really tough to get a spot, but I'm determined to go 2-3 times a week. I really need it. It should be easy on mondays since I'm in the room its supposed to be in til 6, so if they don't kick me out of the room before everyone comes in, then I should get a spot easily. Of course that means 12 hours of work that day...but its worth it in the end.
It's funny to think I've been working on getting into calarts for so long...
But I won't give up! I see everyone's pictures going up on facebook and it makes me want to be there so bad! But I'm enjoying myself here, and I've made friends so quickly and easily, its so different from high school. I keep forgetting I'm in college...I feel like I am at summer camp or something!
I also plan on getting in shape while here. FOR REAL. There's a small gym two floors above me, and a fully equipped one 5 minutes away....I am going to sign up for zumba classes and yoga classes. It's a $40 fee for 10 weeks, which when you think about it is only $2 a class. What a deal! So I gotta get on that...
Anyway, long day ahead of me tomorrow. Gots stuffs to do. I'll put up more stuff later.