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On Nov. 13th Jimena and I went to Bath, and I gotta say, it’s probably one of my favorite places ever. We took the train there, because the coaches take too long (3 hours via rail, or 5 hours via coach? Hmmm, decisions, decisions… ) Bath is really not that far from Bournemouth, it’s just that all of the coaches go from Bournemouth to London, and then from London to other places, so instead of taking a nice direct northwesterly route from Bournemouth to Bath, the coaches all go northeast to London first and then west to Bath. Point of the story- the train is faster.
I was a little nervous because I’d never taken a train before without someone else who knew where they were going, but once we figured out the timetable it wasn’t too bad. We had to take a bus from Bournemouth to Southampton first because the Bournemouth rails were under construction, and then it was a direct train ride from there to Bath. Maybe it was just that section of town that I passed on the bus, but Southampton is not a terribly attractive city.
Bath, however, is gorgeous! Really, I think it is the prettiest city I’ve ever seen, and the history dork in me almost died from happiness that day. Our first stop was the Bath Fashion Museum, which I’d heard about from one of the animation tutors. It also happens to be located in The Assembly Rooms, of Jane Austen fame, so there was no way I couldn’t go. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the size of the museum- unless I somehow missed an entire hallway or something, it wasn’t that big. There were a few historical dresses on display, which is why I wanted to go, but far more from recent decades. I still had fun, though, the outfits they did have out were pretty cool, and there was this little room where you could try on different kinds of corsets and crinolines (which is what ladies in the 1800s wore under their dresses to make them look extra poofy), Jimena and I had quite a bit of fun in there. It was worth it for the gift shop alone, so many lovely reference books….
The Assembly Rooms were where people in Jane Austen’s time would hang out and have parties. They’re open to the public for viewing except on days when they hold events there- and unfortunately there was an event that day. However, as Jimena and I were leaving the gift shop whatever was going on in one of the rooms ended and people were leaving, so I snuck past all the old people on their way out and snapped a few pics, ninja style, before ducking out again. Wish I could have seen more, though.
The Fashion Museum has this nice little partnership with the Roman Baths museum, and we bought a saver ticket at the first which would get us entry to both. So glad we did- there was a big line outside the baths waiting to get tickets, and I heard the employee at the door telling someone it would be at least 20 minutes before they could get in. Jimena and I already had our tickets, though, so we got to walk right past all those poor suckers and enter the museum without delay. :)
The baths were pretty neat, and there is a lot to see in the museum there besides the baths themselves, like the remains of the Roman temple that once stood at the site, or things that archaeologists brought up from the water. Some of the most amusing things there were the curse tablets, which were little sheets of metal that the Romans would engrave on and throw into the water. They were basically notes to the goddess Minerva, usually asking her to punish someone who had wronged the writer of the tablet. One of them was from a woman who’d had her clothes stolen while she was in the bath, and she was asking the goddess to make the culprit bleed and other horrible punishments which I think were a little overkill for theft. Hilarious to read, though; vindictive people, those Romans…. The Pump Rooms are right next to the Baths, but it appeared to me that the whole place is a very expensive-looking restaurant so we didn’t go in (though I hear you can still “take the waters” there, which I find neat).
We visited The Royal Crescent and The Circus as well (and no, it’s not that kind of circus, it’s houses built around a circular courtyard/roundabout). I’d seen them before in period films, so it was cool to be there in person, and some of the homes had plaques over the doors telling you which famous people had once stayed there. Near to those was the Jane Austen Centre, which is a museum about Jane’s life in Bath. You had to buy tickets to get into the museum itself, and since I felt bad for dragging Jimena into the Fashion Museum already I skipped the Jane Austen one and settled for poking around in the gift shop.
Bath Abbey is gorgeous on the outside, and the inside is pretty as well, but I have to say I was more impressed by the Christchurch Priory (maybe because I saw that first, and I’m beginning to find that the insides of large, cathedral-like buildings are all kinda similar).
After we’d hit most of the touristy stuff Jimena and I still had some time to kill before we had to catch our train back, so we walked up and down the main street for a while and got pasties for dinner before heading back to the station. Unfortunately our train back to Southampton was delayed, enough that we missed our bus back to Bournemouth. Thankfully we weren’t the only ones stuck by this, so the Southampton station ordered another coach just for the people who had to go back to Bournemouth and we arrived only a little later than planned. Had an interesting experience on the coach back, though. There was a group of guys who were obviously drunk off their asses, one of them belligerently so. He almost didn’t get on the coach in the first place because he had a beer in his hand which the coach driver wouldn’t allow on, and instead of finishing the beer or tossing it out the guy insisted on arguing about it until his friends finally persuaded him to chug it so we could all get going. Once we finally got moving the coach driver stopped a few times because this same guy was proclaiming loudly that he had to piss and threatened to go on the coach, but his friends finally got him to sit down and shut up and there were no further incidents. The youngest of this group insisted on sitting by me and Jimena and talking to us for pretty much the whole ride. He was kind of amusing, but insisted on calling me Britney Spears (Jimena became Christina Aguilera because he couldn’t pronounce her real name) and was trying very hard to get me to let him come home with me that night. Normally I might be creeped out/offended by this, but he kept saying “bloody hell!” and sounded just like Ron Weasley when he did, so mostly I was just amused. XD
And that was my Bath adventure, definitely my favorite trip so far. Next entry: Salisbury & Stonehenge!
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:
cheerful
Whoo boy, so much for blogging, eh? *dodges flying tomatoes* I was going to post an entry last week, but then I heard about the new US airport security procedures and most of my free time became devoted to e-mailing complaints to politicians and looking up news articles that only served to fuel my rage at the TSA. My rage is now in simmering stage, so I can start to focus on other things again.
I have lots of random stuff to talk about that would be nearly impossible to combine into a coherent narrative, so we’re going to use our trusty friend the bullet point to organize this mess of events.
- Halloween doesn’t seem to be as big of a deal here as it is in the States. People still have parties, and kids trick-or-treat, but there aren’t nearly as many decorations (though not for lack of trying on the part of the stores) and I think I only saw one carved pumpkin. I went to a Halloween party which required costumes, but the amount of creativity I had expected from a bunch of art students was sadly lacking (lots of zombies). There were a few exceptions, such as the girl that came as The Mona Lisa, complete with picture frame, and another girl who’d stuck a wooden pole over her shoulders so she actually looked like a scarecrow, but otherwise nothing real impressive. England is better at a lot of things, but America still owns in the celebration department.
- The 5th of November was a slightly bigger deal. People were shooting off fireworks all that week and the week afterwards, and I hear that bonfires are a popular thing to do that night as well. I was invited to a house party that night, but it had been a long week and I was in one of those rare moods where I actually felt motivated to draw, so I stayed home to take advantage of it. But, just as with Halloween, there were very few visual signs of celebration. On the 4th of July in the States you’ll always see red, white, & blue out the wazoo and flags and other patriotic decorations, but here, if it hadn’t been for people talking about it I would not have known that it was a holiday.
- Christchurch, one of Bournemouth’s neighboring towns, has a big church there that I might have mentioned in another post. Well, the first time I went there I didn’t know you could go inside the church, so one Saturday I dragged Natascha over there and we checked it out properly. It’s called “The Priory” because, as I have since learned, not all friggin’ huge churches are technically “cathedrals“, there’s more to that title than size. We were greeted by these nice old people who gave us a little info pamphlet and kindly informed us that if we wanted to take pictures they asked that we make a 1 pound donation at the bookstore, which I didn’t mind paying at all because a) it was just a pound, b) they don’t charge you anything for entry, c) I know the place doesn’t keep itself up for free, and d) my first thoughts upon entering were “OMG IT’S GORGEOUS, MUST DOCUMENT!!!” *click click click* I love old architecture, and The Priory is awesome because it’s so old (construction began in 1094) and has been constantly added on to over the centuries, so there’s a little bit of every time period in there. As Natascha and I were walking around we noticed that there were some graves in the floor, and Natascha was trying to walk around them but eventually gave up, because the further back we walked the more of them there were, and pretty soon we got to parts where every inch of the floor and even the walls was somebody’s grave or memorial stone. I thought it was a bit weird to bury people in the floor of the church, but after going to Bath Abbey (which I’ll talk about later) I’m realizing it’s actually a pretty common thing for these kinds of buildings. We spent a good 2 hours in there, then we poked around in the castle for a little bit. I found that there’s actually a ruined manor house in Christchurch as well, and I have no idea how I missed it the first time around because it’s not even a minute’s walk from the castle. Seriously, you can just stand on the castle hill and look down and there are the other ruins, right in your face. I saw them the second time, that’s all that counts. XD
- I’ve lost weight while I’ve been here. I suspected as much for a while because all of my jeans have gotten really loose, to the point where I had to get a belt to keep them up, but there are no full-length mirrors in the house so I didn’t really know how much my appearance had been affected. Well, I bought some clothes today and when I went to try them on I discovered that I am indeed smaller than I was in September. Walking everywhere seems to be an effective exercise program, and the fact that I don‘t have my own fridge to raid at will is probably helping as well. Sadly, all my hard work will most likely be ruined after one day back at home (Christmas cookies, I can almost smell you from here….).
- American boys, you could take a lesson from your British peers- even the ghetto boys know how to hit on a girl without being creepy or offensive. By the looks and overall demeanor of the guy that approached me at the bus stop today, I actually expected him to say something like “Daaaaamn guurl!” or any of those other annoying and objectifying statements that American guys use when they think you’re hot. Did he say any such thing? No. We actually had a nice conversation in which he told me my accent was cute and he liked my shoes because they matched his shirt. XD Although the guy seemed to be under this strange impression that all Americans live in big, eastern cities and talk like rappers. Guy- “So, where you from? Queens? The Bronx? Philly?”
Me- “Um, Indiana.”
Guy- *blank look* “So, Americans all talk like ‘Yo, dawg!’ and stuff like that, don‘t you?”
Me- “.…No.”
Someone’s been watching a little too much Jersey Shore, methinks….
- do not go to parties until at least 11, especially if you’ll be by yourself, or else you’ll spend a good hour or so trying to make awkward conversation with people you don’t know
- Cornish pasties are magically delicious
- credit cards are not as widely accepted here as they are in the US- if you want carry-out, you better have some cash on you
- their cigarette packets are brutally honest; none of this “the surgeon general warns you…” in tiny print, oh no, just “SMOKING KILLS” in big black letters
- peanut butter is not very popular here- I was floored when I found out that none of my European friends had ever tasted PBJ
- there is no point in straightening my hair on a rainy day- if the rain doesn’t get to it, the wind certainly will
- I might have developed an addiction to licorice allsorts
- Bournemouth University has a rock-climbing facility, and sometimes they leave the door propped open so that certain American girls that may be walking by can ogle the well-toned, shirtless guys hanging out inside….
Your British Term of the Day:
wellies- rainboots
Next entry: Bath!
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:
optimistic - Music:Iron & Wine- "House by the Sea"
Haven’t been blogging much because there wasn’t much to blog about, but now that I’ve got about a week’s worth of stuff I think I can put together something at least semi-interesting.
I’ve come to mistrust the weather here, it can be very deceptive. I look outside in the morning and the sky’s all bright and cloudless and the sun is like “Hey, I’m out! Look how nice I make everything seem!” and I’m like “Oh, it’s always so warm here when the sun is out, I’ll be fine without a coat!” HA. Not falling for that again- it might look like it‘s 70, but it‘s actually 50 plus wind chill, as I found out one morning while I was walking to school in my t-shirt (those temps are in Fahrenheit, btw, I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around Celsius). I’m not listening to you anymore, Mr. Sun, Mr. Sweatshirt is always coming outside with me from now on.
My hair straightener died on Monday morning, much to my irritation as I had some major bed-head bangs that needed taming. After dinner that night I went to the ASDA shopping center to get a new one (ASDA is like the Meijer of Bournemouth). That was a far more stressful experience than it should have been. I was already pissed because I had to buy a new straightener in the first place, then when I got to the bus stop to go there, the first bus passed with “Sorry, I’m not in service” flashing on it, and I had to sit there for 40 minutes in the cold until the next one came. Once I finally got to the store and bought my damned straightener, the security alarms went off when I tried to leave because the box had some sensors on it that apparently didn‘t get deactivated when I checked out. So I trudged up to the security guy and showed him my receipt, and then he let me go on my grumpy way. Thankfully that is the only bad day I’ve had since I’ve been here.
On Thursday I went with some of the other animation students to Dylan’s Bar at the regular university (yes, there’s a pub inside the college). I was really in the mood for a beer, and they had a special which included a pint of beer and a burger, so that’s what I got. When I sat down with it two of the guys near me stopped talking and one said “Oop, never mind,” and I was like “What?” because they’d obviously stopped talking because of me.
“Nevermind, it’ll probably piss you off.”
Of course then I had to hear it, so he explained (sort of sheepishly) that he’d just been talking to the other guy about how he didn’t like it when women had what he considered “manly” drinks (aka my pint of beer) because it wasn’t very feminine.
“I like it better when girls have little fruity, girly drinks,” he said, “that’s why I wouldn’t buy her *points to girl next to him with two dinky glasses of beer* a full pint.”
After which I shot him the ‘bitch, please’ look and replied “Well, where I come from a woman will probably get more respect if she can drink ’manly’ drinks as opposed to ‘little, girly’ drinks.”
“No offense. I probably sound really prejudiced, don’t I?” the guy asked.
“Yes, you do.” *sips beer pointedly*
I was feeling secure enough in my femininity that day, with my dangly earrings and flower-print shirt, to not be overly offended by this. It helped that he wasn’t a jerk about it either, he’s actually a pretty nice guy despite this slightly sexist opinion he has.
The food took forever, and I started freaking out a bit because I had to be back in the animation lab by 2:00 for the computer system induction, and it was 1:40 by the time I finally got my burger. I scarfed it and ran back to class, only to find out I needn’t have bothered. I wasn’t on the roll call list for the induction because I still semi don’t exist, apparently. Whatever issue there was with enrollment means that I’m still not on the list for some of the classes, which means that the attendance keepers wouldn’t miss me because they just go off the checklist, which I’m not on half the time (the tutors don‘t log attendance, they just turn in the roll sheets to another office which does it for them). The induction thing was kinda a waste of time anyways 1) because I couldn’t log on because my password doesn’t work (enrollment issue again, I’m assuming), 2) the head tech guy who was walking us through it has a really heavy non-English accent and I only caught about half of what he was saying, and 3) I’m an active or visual learner, which means I learn best from actually doing things or watching other people do them, so when someone is giving verbal directions without any visuals to back it up they tend to go in one ear and right out the other. Some of my classmates seemed to feel the same, so I don’t feel so bad.
Fridays are reserved for working on 3rd year films, and I usually hang out in the library with these two other guys who are on my team and we talk with each other while we’re drawing. This Friday though we were totally slacking- neither of them really felt like drawing, so we went to Dylan’s and had drinks and talked some more. I tried to do a little sketching while we were in there so the day wasn’t totally wasted, but I didn’t get much done.*sheepish grin* The director didn’t seem to be feeling too good that day either, I think it was just one of those days….
Saturday I went to Winton with Natascha, she needed to do some shopping and since she knows I don’t like to sit at home if I can help it, she invited me along. Winton is one of the neighborhoods in Bournemouth, it’s where most of the student houses are located and it’s got lots and lots of shops. We stopped at a café for lunch and then wandered up and down the street, occasionally poking around in any places we thought looked interesting. We wandered around like that until dinner time, then stopped at a pub called Hop & Kilderkin to get some dinner, and then went home.
Today I went back to the Russell-Cotes museum to do some more drawing, since I’m supposed to be sketching interiors for Advanced Drawing Studies. Had lunch and cream tea there, wandered around the town center for a brief period before heading home. For dinner I walked to one of the carry-out places near the house, and when I was walking back I saw a fox. I thought it was a cat as first, because it was dark out and I could only see the silhouette, then I noticed the legs were too long and I spent a minute or two trying to figure out what kind of freaky hybrid animal this thing was before I finally realized it was a fox. XD Didn’t expect to see one here, there‘s nothing but houses and businesses for at least a mile. It was a little creepy actually, it just stood there and stared at me until I passed it.
Things I Learned This Week:
- they charge you for just about everything here, like ketchup packets. Some of my friends were telling me that in Victoria Station in London they charge you to use the public toilets.
- I spend too much time in the Russell-Cotes museum- the guy at the front desk recognized me when I came in
- how to order food in a pub; you just sit wherever, order at the counter, and then they bring it to your table (I felt like an idiot at the Hop & Kilderkin because I had to ask the cashier about this)
- pub food is tasty and fairly cheap
British Habits I’ve Picked Up:
- putting malt vinegar on my “chips” instead of ketchup
- taking my tea with milk
Your British Terms of the Day:
posh- high-end, fancy
ice lolly- popsicle
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood: content
- Music:"Done All Wrong"- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Sorry I haven’t been blogging much this week, during the week there wasn’t really much to talk about, and the last two days I’ve been too tired. But now I have an entire Sunday to kill, so I can do some catching up.
Friday I began working on the 3rd year film- it mostly included me talking briefly with the director (his name is Anders) about the kind of style he was aiming for and what he wanted me to do, and then I spent pretty much the whole day in the library looking up artists and designing lots and lots of tiny people who are going to be eaten by trolls in the film. Fun times.
A cool thing about the Animation department here is that all 3 years kinda share the same big space, so there’s bulletin boards around all the doors where anyone can post anything that they want the whole department to see. One such thing was a poster for a house party that some people were hosting (animators only), and since I knew a lot of people who were going and some of the other 2nd years encouraged me to go, I did. It was my first house party, and I had so much fun. I had to walk there by myself at night (which I wasn’t too happy about, but I left my house around 7:30, so it wasn’t really late enough for anyone scary to be lurking about XD), and way overestimated the time it would take to get there. I arrived at exactly 8:00, and was the first one there (a little embarrassing), but the people throwing it were really nice and I didn’t have to wait long for others that I knew to show up. There was lots of alcohol around, but it wasn’t like those crazy parties you see in movies. There was a little incident where some guys tried to light some branches on fire and then duel with them, but luckily it’s too damp here and the branches didn’t catch. Other than that everyone just stood around drinking and talking. They were playing music, but I spent most of the time outside so I don’t know if anyone was dancing- I’m guessing not, because it was really crowded and I don’t think anyone had room to dance. XD I had some nice conversations with people I knew, people I hadn’t talked to much before, and people I had never seen, it was a great night. :D
Left the party around 1:00 (I wasn’t by myself this time, thankfully, Orlando walked back with me), made it back around 1:40 and went straight to bed, because I had to wake up at 6:30 that morning (I know, I‘m slightly crazy). I was going to New Forest with Natascha and Ade and two other girls (both named Anne), and we had to meet at the coach station at 8:00. Ade had our tickets, but ended up being late because the bus she was taking there messed up and she had to catch an emergency cab. Thankfully the coach driver was nice and waited just long enough for Ade to get there so we didn’t miss it (it was the only coach going there that day, so if he’d left without us we’d have been screwed). We departed about 7 minutes late, but we made it.
The New Forest is one of the largest spanses of woodland left in southern England, although there’s really nothing new about it since it’s been called the “New Forest” since the 1000s. There’s a national park and a number of little villages included in the area, but we only saw Brockenhurst village and the little area of woods around there. When the coach dropped us off, my first thought was Omg, he’s dumping us in the middle of nowhere, because the bus stop was just a tiny little shelter next to the road with a big field behind it, maybe 2 or 3 houses, and then nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. We walked down the road a little further and turned onto a street that looked like it might take us into the village. The first thing we saw was this massive cow in the middle of the road, and cars were having to slow down and drive around it because it was just hanging out and picking stuff off of trees. A little further down we came to what was a sort of parking lot area by a big open field that had woods out beyond it. There we saw the largest pig I’ve ever seen, whom Natascha and I named Esmerelda, and a little piggy wandering around. There was a lady there with her daughter who very kindly gave us directions to the village center (it wasn’t far, but we’d headed in the wrong direction), and she also explained that the pigs were roaming around because the acorns had started falling from the trees, and it was an annual tradition for the locals to let their pigs roam for a certain amount of time so they could eat the acorns, since they’re poisonous to the cows and ponies that roam the area year-round. We stuck around there for a while and wandered around the open field, which was very wet and squishy and littered with poop-mines, but at the same time very picturesque. It reminded me of the scenery from a Jane Austen movie. :D The were ponies all over the place, and the smaller ones let us come close enough to pet them. The larger ponies didn’t really want anything to do with us except for two who were convinced we had something tastier than grass for them, and they actually followed us for a few minutes before getting bored and going back to their grazing (all these ponies are owned by people, btw, but they’re allowed to just roam wherever as a way to keep the forest healthy and of course keep the ponies fed, since they just graze 24/7). At one point one of the bigger ones randomly started running at the little ones, and then that herd started running and pretty soon there were at least 50 ponies running around, some of them just came out of the trees, it was really awesome. I got most of it on video.
We headed a little further into the woods and heard what we’re pretty sure was a fox hunt. We started hearing a lot of dogs barking, and horns, and after a few minutes this dog that looked very much like a hunting hound ran out of the woods. When I saw him I was like “Oh, shit, are they coming this way? Are we gonna get trampled?” but he just sniffed around and took off again. Maybe he was lost. We didn’t actually see the fox hunt in progress, but between the dog and the sounds we’re 90% sure one was happening in the nearby area.
Around 11:00 we started getting hungry, so we left the woods in search of food. There was this hotel along the road that advertised a restaurant, and some of the girls wanted to stop there to eat, but as we got closer it became increasingly obvious that 1) it would be really expensive and 2) we totally did not belong there. We’re all in sweatshirts and jeans with muddy shoes, and we’re walking through a parking lot full of really nice cars, and we can see these old ladies in hats and cardigans staring at us from the windows. Since we didn’t know anywhere else in the area, we decided to stop in the lobby and ask if there was somewhere cheaper to eat that we wouldn’t look completely out of place in. The lady at the counter initially thought we were asking about their restaurant and asked if we had reservations (heh, right), but after we explained she told us the village center would probably have more options, so we thanked her and hightailed it out of that awkward situation. XD
The Brockenhurst village center comprised of one rather short street with pretty limited options. I really wanted a place where I could sit down and eat, and there was a little café that had sandwiches which I wanted to stop in, but the other girls thought that was too expensive (I didn’t think it was that bad, and since we were in a tiny village somewhat in the middle of nowhere I also didn’t think we’d find anything better). Eventually we settled for getting some pies from a bakery (mine was a bit cold, but really tasty so I didn’t mind much) and sitting on a bench outside to eat them, and then we all went into the café so I could get tea while we all sat and talked for a bit. I ordered the “cream tea”, which is tea with a scone, and it was probably one of the best things ever. I was getting slightly cranky from all the walking and being hungry and the 4 and ½ hours of sleep I got the night before, but that scone + tea turned Cranky Brittany into Cheerful Brittany. :)
After I had my tea and we’d rested for a little Natascha and I headed back to the woods while the other girls went to check out a different village (Natascha and I didn’t join them because it was an hour and half’s walk to the other village and we didn’t really want to go that far, plus I wanted to do some painting). I did about 3 little paintings before giving up because watercolors frustrate me. This happens every time I try to use them- I always think that maybe the last time I was just inexperienced, maybe now I’ve got enough knowledge to make them do what I want, but I soon discover that that is not the case, and I’m just too impatient because you have to wait for your first brushstrokes to dry before you can add the next ones, but in this humid climate that takes, like, 10 minutes, so I get pissed when I try to keep painting and my colors run together and it doesn‘t look a thing like the landscape I‘m trying to paint and…ugh, just ugh. I still don’t like them, but I’m stubborn (and I paid 11 pounds for a little pocket set) so I’m going to continue trying to conquer them. Just not this week.
Once it started getting dark we headed back to Brockenhurst and picked up sandwiches at a convenient store, which we ate at the bus stop while waiting for the coach. The other girls met us there, and we sat there for an hour and a half until the coach came. I was glad there were 5 of us, because the bus stop had no lights and the closest street light was a little ways down the road, so it was very dark and quiet and more than a little creepy, but the coach came early and we made it home without incident. And that is the end of my weekend. I slept in really late today and I’m still tired, so glad my class tomorrow doesn’t start until 3:00.…
Things I Learned This Weekend:
- a scone smothered in clotted cream and jam is almost equal to chocolate in pure deliciousness
- “tea time” is not a common thing here; tea itself is very popular, of course, but an actual time set aside for the consumption of it is mostly for the rich and fancy set, not your everyday family
- American accents are not as obvious as I thought they were, or maybe mine’s not as bad as others, because people (British or not) still ask me where I’m from even after they’ve heard me speak
- coach seats are really quite comfy
- in the absence of a chip clip, barrettes can work just fine for sealing opened snack bags
Your British Terms of the Day:
scone- a biscuit
dodgy- questionable, seedy
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:
exhausted - Music:"Somewhere Out There"- Our Lady Peace
Classes actually started two days ago, I've just been lazy and not blogging. *sheepish grin* But things have been going well so far.
One of the issues about joining the 2nd years, I've begun to realize, is that I've left all the people I started talking to during induction week. I'd finally started to kinda make some friends in the animation group, but now I hardly see them because they're all in 1st year. :( All the second years have already been together for at least a year, so they all know each other and have established groups of friends. I felt a bit like an intruder on the first day, but quite a few of them have come up and introduced themselves and I started chatting with a group before class today, so it's not quite so awkward anymore. Everyone I've met so far has been really friendly, and the tutors have also been really good about making sure I know what I'm doing. :)
Narrative, my first class of the week, just included getting talked at some more and watching the tutor attempt to play some DVDs that did not want to cooperate with him. Advanced Drawing Studies was the day after, which was a bit more taxing because we actually began with some life drawing that day (which I was happy to discover I could still do after a whole summer of doing nothing), and the tutor wanted us to create a learning agreement. This "learning agreement" thing is an entirely new concept to me, but after reading the syllabi for the various classes it seems that it's a regular part of every class. Basically what I have to do is write a short paper about what I plan to get out of the class or what I hope to achieve by the end of the term. Advanced Drawing Studies (let's refer to it as ADS from now on, because I don't feel like typing all that anymore) is interesting in that the tutor pretty much lets you do your own thing. We have scheduled life drawing sessions, but we don't have to use them if we don't think we need them. The point of this class is for us to recognize what parts of drawing we need to work on, or things we'd like to learn, and dedicate the class time towards doing those things in order to get better at them. That's the point of making a learning agreement for this class, so the tutor can see what we personally want to do, and then he just makes sure that we actually do it. For myself, I still struggle with drawing hands, foreshortening, and high and low angles on people, so I've pledged to dedicate a certain number of weeks towards practicing that. I also suck at backgrounds (mostly because I hate doing them), but I understand that I need to do them in order to become a well-rounded artist (not to mention get my degree), so I'm spending the rest of the time working on those. The idea of coming up with my own lesson plan, essentially, kinda freaked me out at first, but now that I really know what I need to do I think it's actually a brilliant idea.
Today was the first of 3 days I'll be spending in Development of Production Skills (DPS). This class comprises of one project, I found out today. We've been given 5 weeks to animate a pre-designed character pitching a baseball, and then the remaining 5 weeks will be dedicated to animating the same thing in 3D. One day out of every week, we will also be working on 3rd year films.
One thing that attracted me to this school (aside from it's location) is that it really pushes the teamwork aspect of animation, which I think is essential because that's how it works in the real world. 3rd years (the "Senior" class) act as directors and lead animators on short films that they came up with, and then enlist 2nd years to help out with things like inbetweening and layout. After looking at my previous work, one of the tutors suggested a film team for me to join today, and had the director of the team sit down with me and talk a little about the film. He's really nice, really, really good-looking, and Scandinavian (which is probably the cause of the good-looking-ness). :D But in all seriousness, I'm excited to start working on the film- it's about trolls, and after looking at some of the artists that he wants to model the style after I think it's going to be really cool. :)
Things I learned today:
- I shouldn't bother getting lids for my tea when I buy it from the school cafe- they fool me into thinking I can't spill anything when in actuality they are just facilitating the dripping of black tea onto my pale blue shirt >:(
- Joanna Quinn is an amazing animator (how had I never heard of her before???)
- London accents are a bit difficult to understand- then again, I've only met 2 Londoners so far, so maybe it's just them
- there are SO MANY Norwegians at this school. Some of my classmates were joking that the Vikings are invading again, only quieter this time XD
Your British Term of the Day:
rubbish- crappy
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:working
- Music:"When You Were Young"- The Killers
Because I think we can all agree that any spider bigger than my pinky nail is frikkin' huge. Especially when it's in the shower. It didn't last long, I made sure of that....
Yesterday I was finally able to enroll! I still don't know what the issue was, but it doesn't matter anymore, I'm officially on the course. Talked to the animation chair about classes and transferring credits- I'm going ahead and joining the second years, since I've already done all of the first year stuff and most of the third year classes continue into the next term, which I won't be here for. Their class set-up is way different than in the states- normal students don't pick and choose their classes, they all follow the same schedule depending on which year they're in. I'll only be taking 3 classes this term because that's all I'll have time for- each day is dedicated to one class, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, and one of them meets a few times each week. The only exception is Monday because the class I'm taking that day is just a 2 hour lecture late in the afternoon, the rest of that day I'm free to presumably work on assignments. Since the class and credit setup is so different here, myself and the tutors here have decided it would probably be easiest for everyone if I just participated in the classes and did the work, then had my teachers back at RMCAD grade it and decide how to apply it towards certain credits. Still waiting for confirmation from RMCAD that that's an OK plan, but I don't foresee any problems, since they were considering that option before I left anyways.
Today I went to the town center with Jimena and my friend Natascha to do some shopping, because I hadn't really had a chance to check out all the little shops before. I went back to the tea shop and got that cup I had my eye on last time, then I found a hat and a few other clothing items in other shops. After we'd exhausted all the shopping parts I took them to the Russel-Cotes Museum, because they hadn't seen it and we couldn't think of anything else to do. Killed about an hour in there (I think Jimena got bored XD) then came back home. Jimena and I went to the fish and chips shop for dinner, and now I'm here typing this.
Tomorrow I'm going back to the Russell-Cotes (can you tell I love that place?) to do some serious drawing. It's nice being with other people, but sometimes I feel like I'm taking too long for them, because I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes to read the little info blurbs and spends more than 2 seconds looking at a painting. I'm just gonna go by myself so I can take my time making some decent drawings of the artwork there.
Your British Term of the Day:
quid- slang for pounds, which is their equivalent of the dollar
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood: tired
Still no call from admin about my enrollment, but I talked to the AN department chair about it today and he was like "That's their problem, don't worry about it. We'll just act like you're enrolled in the course until they figure out what they're doing." I feel much better now. :)
Didn't spend much time at uni today, we had a short perspective lesson and a Q&A session with some 2nd years, and then we were sent off into town to draw anything and everything. I went with Orlando (New Jersey guy) to the Russell-Codes Museum in Bournemouth Town Center. It's a Victorian mansion-turned-art museum, and O.M.G., the inside of it is gorgeous. You know those moments in movies when they play the epic "Hallelujah" chorus with the fanfare and everything? That's exactly how I felt when I walked into the main hall (I know, my geek is showing). It was unlike any museum I've ever been in, firstly because it's free admission, secondly because there's no guides or security guards. They ask for your bags at the front desk and put them in lockers, but after that you're free to wander about on your own, and there's very few ropes or glass or anything to keep you from touching any of the artifacts (some of the smaller objects were behind glass panels, but the majority of it was just out in the open). The original owners of the house had an enormous art collection from all over the world, so that's on display, but you can also see most of the original furniture and fixtures and everything from when it still served as a house. It was just freaking awesome and I want to go back sometime soon to spend a little more time in there.
We spent about an hour and a half sketching (or in my case mostly staring in awe) in there, then got on a bus to Christchurch, which is a town a little ways East of Bournemouth. Neither of us had ever been there, so we weren't sure when to get off the bus and ended up walking half an hour because we got off too early. We eventually found the town center, where we were then able to find the Priory and the castle, which were the main reasons we went there. Had a small dispute with Orlando over the difference between a church and a castle, because he was convinced the Priory was the castle at first because it was tall and had crenellations on the bell tower, even though I pointed out that that would make a ridiculously impractical castle, and was proven correct when we later found the actual castle. Spent a few minutes sketching in the Priory yard, then moved on to the castle, which neither of us bothered to sketch because we'd been doing it all day and I was more interested in photographic documentation of it while Orlando was more concerned with climbing on it. XD
Afterwards we wandered our way to the bus stop because it was starting to get dark and we'd been out of class since noon. The bus ride took a ridiculously long time, because traffic was really bad on the way back to Bournemouth, and then once we got back to the Bournemouth Town Center we had to catch a different bus to get home. Got to ride at the top of a double decker again, which was sort of amusing, sort of not thanks to this group of Italian guys sitting behind us who were taking silly pictures of themselves the whole time and were all wearing too much cologne.
I'm really freaking tired right now, because I was out from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm today, but it was good. :)
What I Learned Today:
- don't get off the bus in Christchurch until you see a bunch of shops around, otherwise you'll have to walk a ways to get anywhere
- drawing in public is like being on display in a zoo
- how to use my host's microwave
Your British Term of the Day:
naff- lame, uncool (Beki already told me about this one- it's used in New Zealand too- but I actually heard it used for the first time today)
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood: tired
Had a wonderful start to my day today- my hair-dryer (the new one that I bought here after the one I brought from home made it clear that it did not like the major change in location) decided to stop working after about a minute, so after much cursing and switching plugs and turning it on and off again numerous times to make sure it wasn't just pulling my leg, I realized I had little choice but to just go to school with soaking wet hair. When I came back home today I tested it out again just in case, and hey! Whadya know, it's working! bitch.... We'll see if it cooperates tomorrow morning *eyes blow-dryer threateningly*
Induction week continues, though today was slightly more interesting. Still have not enrolled (if I don't get a call tomorrow I'm going after them myself), but the animation tutors talked to us about themselves and their work. One of them had done some commercials that I recognized, and another had done special effects animation on a few Disney films (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Tarzan). They showed us their personal sketchbooks as well, which I thought was neat. We also did a few sketching exercises today, which were both embarassing and interesting. For the first one we did, we had to hold a pencil or pen in each hand and draw a picture of the person sitting across from us using both hands at the same time. Both hands had to be constantly moving and we couldn't lift the pencils from the page at any point in the drawing. Left hand didn't want to cooperate initially, but after a minute or so I kinda got into a rhythm and the sketch didn't turn out too bad. The next exercise was much tougher, we were told to hold our sketchbooks up next to our heads so that we couldn't see them, and again draw the person sitting across from us without looking at what we were drawing. The guy sitting across from me was drawing me at the same time I was drawing him, and since we couldn't look at our drawings we really had no choice but to stare each other in the face for five straight minutes- awkward? Very much so. That sketch was not so successful for me, it doesn't look even vaguely humanoid. XD
The animation department is generally a welcoming place, but there's this hallway in the back that you have to go through to get to the toilets that looks like some sort of horror film mental asylum. It's got pure, bright white walls with flourescent lighting, and it's really narrow and quiet, and it wouldn't shock me if I turned a corner one day and found some creepy girl in a hospital gown staring at me from the other end. XD The lights in the studio don't help any- most of them are motion-censored, and if you sit too still for a while they'll shut themselves off. The bathroom ones are particularly annoying, as they like to take their sweet time flickering before finally turning on so I can use the freaking toilet. Other than that, the facilities are really very nice.
Things I Learned Today:
- English rain is very cold and miserable
- slugs and snails like to hang out on the sidewalks on drizzly days, and it's really gross when someone steps on one
- there are spiders everywhere- I've yet to see one indoors (thankfully), but look at any tree or bush outside and I guarauntee you'll find at least ten within a 2 foot radius
- the British pronounce gouache as "goo-ash" (for any non-art types reading this, gouache is a type of paint, and Americans pronounce it "gwash")
Your British Term of the Day:
crisps- potato chips
Yesterday was the start of induction week, which I've come to realize is the same thing as orientation, it's just major-specific. Been sitting up in the animation labs and getting talked at for hours on end about things I probably won't remember because my brain can only handle so much verbal information at once, and the last two days have definitely surpassed that limit. We were supposed to enroll today, but for some reason I was not on the list for the animation course, and they can't seem to find my info. I am on the computer, thankfully, but I guess they're still missing something that would allow them to enroll me (and I'm the only one with this problem, of course). The enrollment lady was very nice and assured me that it would get taken care of, they'll get a hold of me when I am able to enroll, but that makes me a little nervous because my past experience with administrative-types has taught me that they usually forget about you after giving you such assurances, and then require much poking and prodding later on to get the job done at the last minute- hopefully they will prove me wrong. I'm not sure what happened, because I was on all of the lists for orientation last week, so someone knew I was coming, but I guess this works out for the best anyways, because you have to have your passport with you to enroll and I completely forgot mine today (oops).
Other than that, not much has been going on, just sitting and listening to people talk...blah...
However, one thing I liked about today was the animation staff showed us some of their sketchbooks, which got me feeling really inspired and ready to draw, which is always a good thing. :)
Things I Learned Today (and yesterday):
-the location of the animation department (after much wandering and asking random passersby for directions)
-everyone at uni, including older students, are really pretty nice
-'Fresher's Fayre' is when a bunch of clubs and pubs set up stands on the uni lawn and hand out coupons to students and sell tickets to parties and such, and other uni-related organizations advertise themselves in a similar fashion as well
Your British Term of the Day:
jabs- shots, as in flu shots
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:
intimidated - Music:Ellie Goulding
Went to the movies today with my friend Natascha, we met up at uni and caught a bus down to the Town Center, where we were going to meet up with a girl that Natascha met online who is also going to AUCB- and before you think, "ooh, meeting people from online? kinda creepy" that's one reason why Natascha invited me, was just in case this person wasn't who they pretended to be. Turned out she had nothing to worry about, the girl (her name is Ade) was nice and normal and the 3 of us had a lot of fun together. :) We saw the new Resident Evil movie, which was all right- the villian was totally cheesy and predictable, bad one-liners and all (actually, a lot of the movie was like that), but it wasn't too awful, and the special effects were pretty awesome. The theater set-up was odd, though; there were only 3 screens, 2 & 3 were on the ground floor, and then screen 1, which is where we were, had its own floor upstairs. We got there kinda early, so when we went upstairs it was dead silent and kinda creepy, and you had to walk through, like, 5 doors to get to the bathrooms (once you actually found the entrance, that is), and then once we actually went into the theater part there was this employee who looked like he hated his life sitting all by himself in this huge theater, and his only purpose appeared to be to take our tickets.
After the movie we ate at a Pizza Hut (whoo, exotic), which tasted pretty similar to what I get at home just a little less salty. After that we went down to the beach. Natascha wanted to feel the water, so Ade and I took our shoes off and walked down with her, but the sand was frikkin freezing and Natascha reported that the water wasn't much better. We quickly put our nice, warm shoes back on and stuck to the boardwalk after that. We walked down the beach for a while and talked, mostly about our favorite celebrities and movies and such (we had a lot of faves in common, like Gerard Butler :D). After that we decided to head home, because none of us are really into the club thing, and we all had to take the buses home, which stop running around 10:30, so we couldn't be out too late anyways. I rode in the front at the top of a double decker, which was both fun and terrifying. It's cool because you get to see everything as you're going by, plus it's easier to figure out where your stop is, but you also get to see how crazy the driver is and how close he comes to hitting things.
All in all, fun day. Going out to do a little shopping tomorrow, but I don't expect to have much to report here, so you probably won't hear from me again until Monday.
Your British Term of the Day:
I haven't heard any new ones lately! :(
However, I did hear "fuck" used in a new context today: "he fucked off somewhere" as in 'he went off somewhere'
- Location:Bournemouth, England
- Mood:
pleased
