Granville Island

With the last few days I have left before starting class I decided to walk over the bridge to Granville Island. It's an amazing public market where you can find lots of fresh, cheap food. It's only about a 30 minute walk from my place.

The brown building in the middle is 1380 Burrard Street, the campus for Sound Design.


And just a few random shots on the walk over.



Pictures of Granville Market



I'm going back to get some of that pasta...

Vancouver International Film Centre

Today I met up with a couple of my classmates at the Vancouver International Film Centre (where they hold the Vancouver International Film Festival). We attended a ceremony for the newest group of Sound Design graduates. It was great to be able to see their final projects and to hear how their year at VFS went. It was especially interesting to find out what's expected of us for our final projects, it was definitely an eye and ear opening experience.

The pieces were assorted short films either live action, animated, or 3D animation. Some of the shorts had dialogue but most had no dialogue at all. They had to rely on sound to tell the story. One of the grads explained how he went to a local church to record the sound of the church organ. It took him hours to set the mics to get the right sound he wanted. I think he said it was about 3-4 hours of recording for about 30 seconds you hear in his final cut. (gulp)

I'm pretty much settled into my place now. Luckily I have a market right across the street and there's a Starbucks and Tim Hortons footsteps away from the lobby. There's also a movie theater on this block so hopefully I can keep up to date with the rest of you guys.

I've figured out how the mail works. I have a mail box in the mail room but if it's a package I think they'll try to buzz my room. Chances are I'll be in class when the mail arrives so they leave a card in the slot saying there's a package for me. My roommate says there's a postal stop/convenience store a block or two away where I give them the card and they give me the package. At least I think that's how it works.

All for now, I'll try to get more pics.

(random shots)

Orientation @ VFS

So Monday was Orientation Day for school. Where else would they have it but at a theater called "Tinseltown". Students started filing in the lobby and I was trying to figure out who else would be in the Sound Design class. One thing I noticed right away was that there are so many international students of all ages. I think that's what is going to make this an amazing experience. I get to work with all types of people with different backgrounds and we all get to learn from each other.

We had our paperwork to fill out and went through the presentations, all very inspiring and at the same time reassuring me that I'm here at the right time. After the presentations we broke up into our groups to meet our Program Managers and where we would meet our classmates for the first time. They started with the Actors, obviously the largest group, then 3D Animation, Classical Animation, Writing, Film Production, etc... and last but not least Sound Design. We are the smallest class with 15 people. I recognized one of the guys because he was in the Summer Intensive workshop I attended last July. It was cool to see a familiar face.

Our Program Manager quickly went over our tentative schedule and mentioned we would be privileged to meet some Sound Designers throughout the year. Not just a meet and greet thing, but we would be learning and working with them for a week! Ray Beckett who just won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, and I thought I misheard him when he said Ben Burtt might be coming as well. OMG! The clouds parted and the angels sang! (If you really have to click that link, I might have to hurt you).

Needless to say this is shaping up to be a life changing year! I can't wait to get started! This is my last week to get everything sorted. I have to get medical insurance, open up a bank account up here, you know fun stuff. And NO I'm not a Canucks fan.

(btw Dennis, please send me my Hurt Locker dvd)

Chinatown

One thing for sure is I'm going to have to get used to this lovely weather. I think I've seen about 50 shades of grey so far. I guess I should just expect it to rain even though the forecast calls for partly sunny skies. It's not all that bad, it rains for about 15-20 minutes then clears up. It's a light rain too, a sprinkle really. No Northern Virgina downpours here (yet). So after the morning rains, the sky cleared up again and I was getting hungry for lunch.



I walked over to Chinatown today in search of the rumored $10 haircut. I figured I'm eventually going to need a haircut so why not check it out. It's about a 30 minute walk but it never feels like it because there's always something interesting to look at. Downtown is very touristy and it seems a little weird that I'll be studying here. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not really here on vacation!



So after walking around Chinatown for about an hour I only saw two places with the old school barber poles spinning at the storefront. Lo and behold I see the sign in the window that reads "Haircut $8.50". Considering I'm going to orientation tomorrow and they'll be taking student ID photos, I passed on this incredible deal. I'll take the gamble some other day.





I was getting hungry and I walked by so many different places to eat. The one that caught my eye was Hon's Wun-Tun House. It seemed to be the busiest joint on the block so it had to be good. The service was really quick and they had what you'd expect to see on the menu. The soup and noodle dishes run about $4 to $8. I really wanted to try some noodles but I haven't had a real meal since I got here so I tried the beef and broccoli dish. I was so hungry and it smelled so awesome I forgot to take a picture when they brought it out.



I practically burned my tongue taking the first couple bites. WOW, you know how everybody says the Chinese food here is great? It's no lie man, the Chinese food here is GREAT! For something as simple as beef and broccoli this is definitely the best I've had so far. I have to go back to try the noodles. I splurged, $15 with tip for this meal and it was so worth it.



Next mission, try to find an awesomely tasty/cheap sushi place!

Settling in

So the flight out of Dulles was ok. It was a nice surprise to see Rich, Aaron, and Eric at the airport to send me off. It seems whenever we get together we have to relate whatever situation we're in to some movie scene and then make it our own. It started off with Eric running late and he said he felt like the guy hurrying to the airport to say goodbye to someone. (Yeah, you were thinking "the girl" so we stopped talking about it at that point too).

So Dulles to LA wasn't bad. Slept most of the way. I love how you get nothing on airlines today. I had maybe a soda on the flight... awesome. I landed at LAX at 11:30am and had to catch a connecting flight to Vancouver at 1:59pm. Plenty of time to get to the next gate and grabba bite, right? Wrong. I think I was in the security checkpoint for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. By the time I got to the gate I had 10 minutes to eat what looked to be a day old sandwich, which is quite tasty if you've had nothing to eat all day.

The flight to Vancouver was uneventful. Breezed through customs and got my luggage. I had to wait about an hour and a half to get my student permit and at that point I was running on empty. I grabbed my bags and headed towards the exit. The weather was no surprise, grey skies and cold. As soon as I left the airport I started seeing familiar things that I remembered from when I was here last year. I couldn't believe I was really here again, and it's still sinking in that I'm here now blogging about it.

I was too tired to do anything when I got to my place. Which by the way is called The Electra, my current address is:

1613-989 Nelson Street
Vancouver BC V6Z 2S1

I'm not sure how the mail works around here yet, still trying to get my bearings. Looking out my window I saw a hot dog cart on a street corner and at that point I knew exactly where I was. Japadog on Burrard and Smithe. It's dangerous having one that close by, and yes they are that good.

Anyway, I met my roomie and she is super cool. She's from the Bahamas and yes I said 'mudo' to her. She laughed and asked how I knew the word. I told her I had friends that went to school there and she just laughed because she still says it all the time. She's graduating from the Acting class at VFS next week and probably only staying another month so I'm not quite sure where that leaves me and my living situation. I love the building especially because it's 4 blocks from my campus. I don't think I'll be able to give up the convenience of being this close to school.

So here are some pics of the place. Sorry for the crappy night shot, I need to learn how to use my camera.

See you when I see you...

So here I am hours before I venture off to Vancouver. Not much to say, I think you guys know how I feel. I'm excited, anxious, nervous... it is a little scary going off to a city where you don't know anybody but this is what I've been wanting to do for a long time so I gotta go for it.

It was great seeing everybody the last couple weeks and I can't believe I'll be there 24hours from now. I'm not much of a blogger but I decided to make this in case anyone wanted to see what I was up to whenever they felt like it. So for now I'll just leave it with... see you when I see you.



And more pictures from the HH at Rio's: