Hey again! So my Art History teacher is the sweetest man ever! He’s so cute I love him! My guess is that he’s around late 50’s, he just had a daughter that graduated from Pratt 3 years ago. Dennis Longwell is his name. Oh, he’s so nice! You can tell when people are just genuinely nice when they come across that way right from the first second they open their mouths. The class actually goes until 2:20, I had that wrong, so it’s a two-hour class. But sheesh, 2 hours is WAY better than 3 hours, I dunno how we sat through that last year! Oh, I love him! I’m so glad too because I do really like art History. It’s straight forward as Art History usually is, except when you have annoying teachers like my first one last year who expected us to memorize the ENITRE book. He lectured on a list of slides that he handed out, and we study them, and that’s that. Museum trip and a paper, that’ll come later, midterm, and a final. Yay! So that went great! Taryn is, indeed, in my class. So are a lot of kids from my drawing class last year, but all ones I didn’t really get talking to.

So then, GAR, I went to the gym. Today was the beginning of not entirely wanting to, But only a tiny, blah I don’t wanna! Not bad at all. I think it was because on Fridays I have to go in the afternoon, and it’s a lot easier to get it out of the way in the morning and then I don’t have to worry about it. I showered and just ate a tasty apple, yum! The peanut better and banana sandwich was also quite superb. And now I’m gunna call mom back. I called her this morning while I was paying my lab fees for the Photo stuff. $100 for two tiny white and orange round stickers on my ID! Haha. That’s all for now.

So. I just had Digital Photography with Sean McDevitt. He seems fabulous! He knows EVERYTHING and he explains things really clearly and looks like he’s going to show us everything about Photoshop we could possibly need to know! Nikki and Courtney are in my class, which is fun because I don’t have any other classes with Courtney and I was hoping I would have at least one! And I passed Taryn by when I went to pay my lab fees, and I think she has Art History with me at 12:30. Freaking lab fees! I had to pay a ton! With how much we’re paying for this school, holy crap, I can only imagine the profits the people at the top get to skim off. Ew. I got out early of course, first day. We got our first assignment which is a semester long project. We have to photograph our breakfast every morning. Haha. I think it’s an awesome idea! They don’t have to be anything special, it’s more just to teach us how to organize and keep our digital photographs so it’s not a big mess. Should be fun, I just have to remember to do it every morning… and figure out how to use my camera. Well anyway, Sean seems really really good! I think I knew that already though because I think his class was the first class I put on my schedule, which then helped shape the rest of it. He went over a few very very basic things today, but he explains things so well, I’ll have no trouble remembering and following how to do things. After class though, he was talking about what sorts of cameras we should have, and he FREAKED ME OUT because he was making it sound like the NEW camera I just bought was a crappy one! But he was like it’s okay don’t freak out! It’s a perfectly fine camera for what you’re going to do here at Pratt. But sheesh, it was sad. Plus, he does work with UBER expensive camera’s for his job, so he’s used to that. I figure it’ll be fine, and I’ll get an uber nice one after school when I’m doing jobs and I’ll actually need that. For now, a less expensive decent one is FINE. Grrr. But I’m really rally excited about Digital! I feel like for me it had the potential to be a disaster because computers are not my favorite thing in the whole wide world, but since I have an excellent teacher, I’m going to really like and see what I can do with it. We’re going to be taking both scanned negatives and actual digital pictures and seeing the difference and what we can do with them and all that sort of stuff. I’m juiced! It should be great :)

So, I have Art History at 12:30 until 2:00. Should be fine, especially since it’s only an hour and a half class, not three hours like last year. And, as always, I tried to get who I thought would be a good teacher. So far, it’s all looking good. It looks like all of my 9 teachers are going to be great haha, so I hope they all actually are. My semester would be wonderful. It would take away stress immensely to know my teachers weren’t going to eat me if I screwed up. I put enough pressure on myself without anyone else’s help hehe. After that, I suppose I’ll write in here about it, and then organize a list of all the supplies I still need to get, and maybe (though, probably not) start on some homework, but I’ll probably just organize a list of the homework I have. Hopefully tonight is still on with the girls :)

Michele is unfortunately in the doctor’s office right now, she has acid reflux disease and hasn’t stopped hiccupping for two months, and they’re getting worse. She’s uber worried because she’s going to be late to class, but I reminded her this is precisely why we made sure we had the class together! She’ll have my notes, I’ll tell her everything that went on. She couldn’t go after class because she’s going home for the weekend. But she made us peanut butter and banana sandwiches YUM! And we tired that smoothie for breakfast. It was pretty gross haha. But I drank it anyway, don’t wanna waste, and it was still fruit and good for me, no matter how it tasted. Welp, gotta head to class in a couple minutes, so that’s it for now. Enjoy.

Hey, so Thursday’s over now, that other one was technically Thursday, but really still Wednesday. So. My day. It was fine, a little lazy, but man, am I enjoying the laziness while I can. I got up around 11 and went to the gym. Then I went over to Morgan’s around 1 and she made me a grilled cheese sandwich which was SO TASTY seeing as I haven’t been eating a whole lot of cheesy melty bready goodness recently, and I haven’t had grilled cheese in years! We were able to catch up a bit, and it was really fun. I had plans to go to the farmers market with her and a few other people she knows on Saturday, but I remembered later that I have yoga Saturday mornings, which is both a bummer but also the only other thing I’d want to be doing on a Saturday morning. Maybe she’ll wait and go in the early afternoon so I can make it. Or maybe she’ll pick up some tasty stuff for me. I want to go though! I love farmer’s markets, and it’s so warm here, it would be fun to take a walk and go to one!

Then I came back to my room because Morgan had to go to class. I was gunna do some homework, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it (I tried, I really did, but I fear that my World Civ. book is going to be quite hard to concentrate on…), so I ready Harry Potter until Silk Screening at 5. I also painted my toenails a lovely red, which I’d been meaning to do because I’ve been wearing flipflops almost every day! Silk Screening was fine, but another introductory class, and I was sleepy so I had to concentrate a little harder than usual. But my teacher seems great, a little hard to follow (I think possibly on account of all the drugs he used to do… only joking… except maybe not haha) and there’s nothing wrong with that because he was perfectly nice, I just get worried when I don’t know EXACTLY what’s going on. Plus, this is something I’ve never done before even remotely, and there’s all sorts of supplies I have to get that I have no idea about, and it’s a whole new ballgame which gets my nerves up because I have that perfectionist tendency. I left the class feeling not entirely sure what I was supposed to do, but it did seem like I could bring in anything fun and that would be fine with him. It sounds like he knows everything there is to know, and if he doesn’t, he loves problem solving. He went to Pratt, graduated in 73 I think he said, then did work for people and on his own, taught at Parsons for over 30 years, and has been at Pratt for 8 I think. He didn’t look quite as old as that all makes he sound, though. Or maybe he did, who knows. He seems a little all over the place, but he seems very nice. Not like some teachers who make no sense and then get angry with you for not understanding, you know? He’s not entirely clear, but he wants you to take things anywhere you want to go with them, so it’s fine. I have to buy a screen and a squeegee and tons of ink and all that sort of fun stuff. My first assignment is to design something I want on a t-shirt, something that works with the idea of being on a body. Should be fun. I know two kids in the class, but only as acquaintances, but I exchanged numbers with Adrienne because she too seemed like she’d like to have some company trying to decipher the class. My teacher, Professor Kirk, really wants us to do things collectively because they work out much better that way, like all buy different inks that we can all use so everyone has access to tons of different kinds without spending a fortune. Stuff like that. I like the sound of it.

I got out early, of course (first week) and I went up to Michele’s because I knew her Grandma was visiting (she lives here in New York) and Michele was making dinner. She made a tasty salad with my help (I told her to make a good salad you simply buy a leafy-green, a fruit you’re in the mood for, a nut, and a cheese if you like, and other veggies, whatever you want, balsamic vinaigrette, and you’re done!) and she found this fabulously easy recipe for black bean soup, and it was also very tasty. You should try it: 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed, a can of chicken broth or vegetable stock, and a sup of whatever salsa you want. Heat them up, blend them up, and there you have it! And it’s REALLY good! She had some homework to work on because she wont be here this weekend to do it (she’s going home for the Greek Festival, which she invited me to, but I have other things I need to take care of this weekend, unfortunately!) so I ran up to my room and grabbed Harry Potter again, and was reading until I came back up here and got ready for bead and started writing this. I’ll read more afterwards too, I’m loving this time to read :)

I have Digital Photography tomorrow with at least Nikki, but probably a few other people I know too, and Art History with Michele right after that. Then I’ll be going to the gym, and then I’ll see what’s up until the evening when me and Katy, Adah, and Morgan are gunna go out for a girl’s night. I’m excited because I don’t know how many Friday nights we’ll actually have time once homework kicks in. I was looking forward to seeing Rabbi Simcha, but I’ll see him soon enough and can see him any Friday I wish, and hopefully very soon, will see him every Tuesday at lunch, so I wanna to hang out with my girls this week :)

Michele’s so cute because she’s eager to cook and plan meals for the two of us, and it’s a lot of fun! She has a blender and we’re enjoying smoothies, so tomorrow for breakfast, we’re making a mango, kiwi, papaya smoothie! How good does that sound? Grama, the papayas are the canned ones you sent me last year towards the end of the year but I never got a chance to eat them! I put them in storage and they will be fabulous in a smoothie! :) And then I think she’s gunna make some sort of lunch and bring it to Art History (she doesn’t have a morning class, and I don’t have time for lunch in between my classes) which is so nice of her. But I can just bring an apple and a oatmeal bar and that would be great too :)

So stuff to do is starting come… I need to get supplies and go to Salvation Army and get working-clothes that I can get filthy doing projects and start taking pictures and actually working on homework and all that jazz. Yikes. I’ve been doing really well eating healthy and going to the gym, and I don’t want that to change, but part of my success is that I’ve had plenty of time to concentrate on it. So now I’ll just have to work it into everything else as part of the routine. Gah. I’m already stressed because I’m worrying about the stress I know is coming. That’s nutty.

Well, I think that’s all for tonight. The first week is almost over! At least you all will have a story of the beginning if nothing else when I run out of time :) Now back to Harry Potter!

Hiya. So it's late, but I don't have class until 5 tomorrow. Yoga was AWESOME of course! The rest of 3-D went fine, we worked on what we need to finish for homework (easy peasy). So far all my work is easy and straight forward. Like that's really gunna last, oh sigh. I tried reading some World Civ. stuff, but though I'm not falling over exhausted, I'm too tired to concentrate properly on history. But yoga was wonderful! And the I hung out with Katy and Adah and Michele and some other people and it was a tad like oh wow I have absolutely nothing to do... this is weird, shouldn't I have something to do? But it's not like I’m complaining! I wish the whole year could be this calm. But I know what's a-comin, so... rawr to that. Anyway, that's all, just wanted to add that the rest of my day went well. Tomorrow I have plans to go to the gym, have lunch with Morgan who I haven't gotten to spend a chunk of time with yet, and maybe possibly work on some of that tiny bit of homework I have just to get it out of the way. Then I have Silk Screening from 5-8. I am SO DUMB I left all sorts of clothes that I'll need to use as work clothes at home! I'd better call mom and get her to send a package really soon because I'm so stupid, I have two whole REALLY MESSY classes, as well as two whole other semi-messy classes (photography) and I only brought nice clothing. I also forgot some skirts... hum... Oh and I also got to talk to Ms. Naomi today and that was fun! She's leaving for college on Saturday, for Middlebury on Vermont. And I talked to Michelle from home (hence forth, Shelly) and she's leaving Friday for Brown! YIKES! I remember being a freshy and being all scared and alone, but it gets better, I promise! And you can always call me, I'm still here! hehe yay. It was really good to talk to them, I love those girls. I am very lucky, I have a buncha really good friends both from back home and right here at school :) But anyway, I think I might read some Harry Potter while I still have the chance... though I might just fall asleep... GOODNIGHT :)

Hey so it's lunchtime on Wednesday and I figured I'd sneak in a little bit while I have a tiny bit of time. 3-D this morning and this afternoon... didn't go quite as horribly as I though it would. My teacher seems fine, but as I've learned quite well, first impressions of teachers can be very very horribly wrong... but the assignments he's given us to start off with are reasonable, and understandable, which is really the most important part. I have teachers who assign stuff all loosely and it doesn't make a wink of sense and they're all sore at you for not understanding. I can't stand that, why teachers aren't clear. So our first assignments are very basic 3-D ideas, ones that will be fine for me because it's all stuff I understand already. That's not saying that I think this class will be a synch, but this first assignment is fine, a little time consuming, but very do-able. I had to go dumpster diving for some cardboard and buy materials to do some plastering and find my sharp knife, if that gives you any sort of idea what we’re doing… well DUH we’re making three dimensional shapes out of cardboard and plaster! Oh my.

Haha anyway. Going to see Tyler yesterday was fun, except that I was really tired! But that seems that’s the norm for these days, I’m sleepy today too. but I figure I wont be as sleepy this afternoon because I’ll be doing something with my hands instead of watching Mr. Sanderson demonstrate. He didn’t even introduce himself, really, just went right into the showing bit. Wouldn’t know his name if I didn’t already. He has an accent and his hands shake a bit like I notice a lot of older people’s hands do. It always makes me sad, and I don’t really know how to explain it, but I think you get what I mean without that. The class seems like it will be sort of a GAH class to push through, but for now, it seems not too bad. Plus, he seems nice enough, which should mean I’ll like him, which should mean I’ll be nice to him and we’ll get along, which should mean he’ll like me and be helpful and I’ll learn what I can. I do believe I’m the only sophomore in the class. I really don’t mind though, because honestly, it just means I’m chillin cuz I’ve been there and done that before, where as the poor little freshies are scared out of their wits and have no freakin clue what to expect. It give me a level of comfort they don’t have, and room to make friends and talk where last year I would have been shy.

Anyway, Tyler. So he should be almost in Israel by now, he’ll be there for 10 months! How exciting and awesome is that?! It was fun to go with Michele, especially since we really didn’t have homework we weren’t doing or anything because this is the easy first week! We were there in the international terminal for a good long time, and then I came home and dropped straight onto my bed. BYE TYLER HAVE FUN! Oh, and he loved the presents from Peru, yay!

It is HOT here oh my. I’m sweating and I don’t like it. I have yoga tonight, so hopefully I wont fall asleep during that haha. Nah, it’ll be really nice :) but I’ll try to write about the rest of 3-D and yoga later. I just wanted to get in a bit now for Grama incase she checked today. Now you have a little to read! Yay. Okay, gotta get back to class… whooooooo… hoo? Have a wonderful day! :D

Whew okay so so far so good. I’m still tired, but I went to sleep early last night and got to sleep in because I only have an afternoon class on Tuesdays. I got my booty to the gym again, so I feel good because I exercised, and then me and Michele made smoothies for lunch yum! So then I went to my third class, Black and White photography III! Some of the same kids are in that class too! I’m hella juiced! My teacher, George Hirose (here-osay, I believe… or here-osie… who knows) is the new head of the department, or whatever they call that here, and a few kids in the class had him last year and either seems enthusiastic to have him again, or at least didn’t seem to mind, which is a very good sign! Plus, we got a very good first impression, he’s really sweet and seems like he’ll be a lot of fun. I was warned that he’s a little ADD (not literally, of course) but I doubt that’ll be a problem. What’s worse for me is a rigorous teacher because I’m plenty self-motivated, but I hate being confined to super-difficult projects and stuff, if you know what I mean. The class seems as reasonable as the other two… 1-2 rolls of film per week, hand in 4 photographs per week, and it’s set up how I like it! Pretty much take whatever pictures suit me! We are going to have one assigned project to work on, and that should be fun because I definitely need practice with that. The others we assign ourselves, so I need to talk to him about that… next week we’re bringing in old work, and we’ll go over what I have and try to figure out what direction I should go in, because I told him that I tend to just take what I find, and I know my work has a consistency and a certain style, but I’m not really sure what that is. I need to learn to set things up and take people-pictures better. What I love to do and I’m comfortable with is more stable, serene, landscapes and found things, people I know well, etc. See? There’s some sort of coherency… maybe. :)

But anyway, I’m really juiced about the class. Friends I know and a good teacher and my favorite subject = awesome. Plus, a few of us that are in both classes together were talking, and we’ve decided that we’re going to set up a system for dropping off and picking up our colored film, to make it easier on everybody. I think it sounds like the best plan in the world! That way, instead of once each week, dropping it of and the going back to pick it up, we’ll trade off and only have to do a drop off OR pick up once every two weeks, or something like that. BRILLIANT! I’m juiced about that! And we’re going to do a photo-supply run soonish to get that last few things. Lucky me, I have almost everything already YAY! It looks like the supply list for this year is going to be MASSIVLY cheaper! But I don’t wanna go get supplies until I’ve had all my classes and know everything I need, so I can make one run and get everything all at once!

But all in all, I am VERY excited so far about this year! I have good friends already made, room to meet plenty more, apartment-mates that seem great, good teachers and classes so far, a nice single bedroom, friends are near me in the apartments, I’m going to the gym, I’m eating well, I LIKE IT! I’m definitely already worried about being stressed, which ironically, is making me stressed (of course!) but a full-fatty schedule with good classes and teachers is WAY better than one with bad classes and teachers, so my life is better for that. Whew, I hope the enjoyment really stays for this year, because this school is supposed to be enjoyable! :)

So now I’m off to say goodbye to Tyler, Michele’s boyfriend. He’s leaving for Israel for a year, I think I wrote that yesterday maybe. But anyways, we’re taking the train to JFK to see him off. He’s a really great guy, I’m so glad I got to meet him and now he’s my friend! I have a gift for him from Peru yay. I gave a couple people presents, they liked them :) but yea, got out early again, only had about an hour of class, and Michele just got out of her class (same World Civ. Class as mine yesterday) so I’m going to meet her in her room now. So, that’s it for now I suppose! I got to talk to Molly today on the phone cuz she was home from school, and that was fantastic! Okay bye bye for now.

Back :)

Hey everyone!

I know I said I wouldn’t really be writing anything here, but I have time this week because it’s the first week, and I have a lot that I want to tell everyone and TIME to actually tell it, so this may not last like it didn’t last year, but at least for now instead of calling a million people, which I actually don’t have time for, I can tell you all at once.

So today was my first day of classes, they went fine. First days/weeks are easy, no homework to worry about getting done and handing in, no real classes to attend, just syllabus stuff. This weekend, mom helped me go and get everything I needed for my room and such. We found a hella nice rug for on $40! It was awesome! And we found a memory-foam mattress pad for only $20. We did good! We got everything I needed, besides things to decorate my wall with and supplies for class, which I can’t get until I actually know what those will be. The weekend was exhausting. We flew in Friday and stayed in a hotel and then moved me in Saturday and mom spent the night here. I’ve seen a bunch of my friends, Michele, of course, was the first person I ran into! And almost everyone lives RIGHT near me. Easy peasy for visiting. I still have a few more people to find, and a bunch more to actually catch up with, but this place is hella busy with everyone getting settled. Not that it’ll be calmer or anything as the semester continues…

So, I am living in a single and I have two apartment-mates, Rachel and Spencer. I haven’t gotten a chance to really talk to them yet, but they seem really nice and should be perfectly fine to live with, especially since if for some reason it turns out to be an awkward match, I have my own room so it’s no big deal. I hope to get to know them at least well enough to call them friends :) They’re both fashion majors, but that’s all I really know. My room is BIG! Mom can tell you, I got here and I was jumping around in happiness because it’s all to myself, which is so NICE and it’s bigger than the room I was in last year, and I was SHARING that room! The bathroom is tiny, but reasonably clean, and I don’t need to use it for anything other than showering and such. But the kitchen is sad. It’s kinda gross and very small, which would be perfectly fine if it wasn’t kinda gross. They re-did some of the kitchens over the summer, but mine wasn’t one of them. Luckily, Michele’s was! And she can’t eat out of my kitchen anyway because it’s not Kosher, and when I wanna cook elaborate things, it’ll probably be with her, anyway. So mine doesn’t need to be used for much more than food storage and quick fixings. OH! And we have a balcony! Sweet. Not everyone does, maybe 6 or 8 roomers per floor, out of 18 rooms I think.

I am TIRED because it is HOT here and I’m starting a plan of getting exercise everyday, so I went to the gym at lunch, which is why I’m so sleepy. I also didn’t get to bed right away, so though I had enough sleep to get me through, it wasn’t as much as I like, which is a lot hehe. So my first class was Color Photography with a new teacher, and from the sounds of it, she is new to teaching all together. But she’s been working professionally for 9 years, I think, and been here in Brooklyn for 2. She seems really nice, and color photography is her life, she we know she loves it, and I think that will make for a good teacher, as it most often does. So that’s good, because they didn’t announce who are teacher was until like 2 days ago. We only had class for about an hour because there’s not a whole lot you can do on the first day without equipment, know-how, a camera, film, paper, SOMETHING in a photo class. So she told us a bit and that was that. She wants about 1-2 rolls of film per week and 5 final prints to hand in each class. That seems perfectly reasonable and do-able. Other than the fact that I will have THREE photo classes which I will need to take photo’s for. Better get crackin, huh? And we don’t process our own color negatives, so I’ll have to find time every week to get them developed. Luckily, color develops much faster simply because more places are equip with a developer. Black and white has to be sent out and can take a while. Lucky I do then myself… Oh, and my teacher’s name is Kate. She went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I don’t remember if she mentioned where she grew up, though. She seems nice. Oh right! And my class is in the same room as my black and white class last year, and there are about 7 of us who were all in that class, so it’s like old ttimes! It’s gunna be awesome because Taryn and Nikki, two of my friends, are in it! And my class was fun last year, so we’ll enjoy ourselves being back together. :)

So then I went to they gym and showered and read, knowing full well it might have been one of my chance to get some reading in. Finally at 2 I went over to my World Civilizations class. Another one that looks good. 2 down… My teacher is John Frangos, he didn’t tell us what to call him yet, but I assume Professor Frangos. Who knows. But he seems really good! He actually worked in a Psychiatric Hospital doing administration stuff for 20 years! His major had to do with that too. He’s from here in New York, and I think he said either he or his son went to Stevenson! I don’t remember the significance, but I know someone in the family went there or something, right? I can’t believe I can’t remember. But anyways, thought Grama would want to know. So history has always been a hobby of his, and he was taking courses on the side for fun, until he wound up with all the requirements for a Masters except his thesis, so he went to Paris and studied something to do with a medicine and history combination. He seems to really enjoy history, which is GOOD because I do too with the right teacher! So if he likes what he’s doing, and cares to teach people, it’s going to be a very good an interesting class! And he seems VERY far, with a decent amount of work, you know, not too little that it’s a joke, but not too much that I’m dying. It’s a read and then take notes on a lecture and write a few essays style class, which we all know I’m good at. And, if for whatever reason he turns out awful (which I highly doubt) me and Michele made sure to get the same teacher, so she’s on a different day, but we’ll have each other for moral support.

Alright well that’s it for now, I hafta go hang out with Michele before her evening class. I’m sure I’ll write more later because as we discussed, I actually have time and I’m taking advantage of it. :)