Halfway through Term 1

I'm at the halfway point of Term 1. 4th week in and there's no end in sight. It's almost 5am on a Sunday morning and I'm up because I started writing a paper yesterday and I thought I could finish it tonight but I'm throwing in the towel. The paper is due in a week and a half but I have 3 more tests on Monday I need to study for. HAHAHA and it's only Term 1! What exactly did I sign up for?

So let's see what happened this week? Oh yeah, so much for growing my hair out. I went to the shop around the corner and the lady cutting my hair just said, "it looks better this way". Gee thanks lady.

I don't have too many pics this time around. Here are some quick ones of our building. Notice it's like me and like three other people... I don't even remember what time of night this was.





We did start an editing project where we had to do all the foley sounds for some animation pieces. Here's one of my classmates working on recreating a sound:


You really lose track of time when working on foley trying to get just the right sound. Even though these are relatively short pieces, we still didn't have enough sounds to cover everything, and we were at it for 6 hours! Next time you watch a scene try to pay attention to EVERY sound... chances are you won't even know some are there.

Final thought for this update... my friend introduced my to Ketchup chips. Now before you go thinking "ohh gross", you really have to try them. Not so much weird, just different. A chip is still a chip, you can't just eat one. I'm saving all my food reviews for one update though:)

Week 3

So here I am at the end of week 3! The pace has definitely picked up and there's no time to kick back. I need to remind myself to stay focused but at the same time I can't forget to take everything in. I was talking to my roommate and she said that even though a year sounds like a long time, it really goes by before you know it. She said there were a bunch of things she wanted to see and do while she was here but kept putting them off thinking she'd have time to do it later. Well she's leaving on Tuesday and you guessed it, she never got around to doing everything she wanted to do.

So yeah, about the living situation... she's outta here next week and my landlord told me a new student is moving in. The idea of me movin' on up...to a deluxe apartment in the sky (I couldn't resist), probably won't happen. I thought for a small increase in rent I'd move up to the penthouse and get my own bedroom AND bathroom but actually I'd still be sharing a bathroom up there too. I could take over the bedroom in my current apartment but my rent would still go up $50. I'm hardly ever in the apartment so I think I'm just going to stay put. $50 a month isn't worth it just to have a door. The new student is supposed to be arriving sometime in June and he's going to be in the in the Foundation for Visual Art & Design program, the intro course to the school if you don't know what you want to specialize in.


School is tough! We've already had a few tests and our Term 1 projects have already been assigned. The thing is, between studying for the tests and working on the projects you don't have time to do anything else. Seriously, there is not enough time to do anything else! I did OK on 2 out of the 3 tests so far, but I'm not happy with just being average. I want to ace everything and I think I'm just putting unneeded stress on myself. It's actually a good way of seeing who will crack under the pressure. That's my guess anyway.

So after finishing one of our tests we had a bit of time to kill before our next class so a couple of classmates and I decided to walk around Granville Street. It's one of the main strips where everybody goes on nights and weekends, kinda like Georgetown back home.
(DougieDog, just a funny pic)

After walking up and down Granville we still had some time so we went to the beach at English Bay. Now when I say beach, it's a place where water meets land. No super fine sandy shores but it's a cool place to chill if you're tired of looking at glass buildings all the time.


It was nice just to get away from school and get some fresh air even if it was about 60 degrees that day. At least the sun was out and it wasn't rainy :)


It was was weird to see a palm tree in Canada. I thought, there are no palm trees here! Apparently there are. Sure they're not the ones I'm used to seeing but they do look like something you would find in a tropical climate. If you look real close you can see the snow on the mountain tops in the background. (weird...)



Well it looks like my updates have turned into a weekly thing now... but it's nice when to catch up with some of you on Skype or even just chatting on IM. I'm not online as much as I used to be because I'm on campus editing whenever I can, which is where I'm headed off to now...

Week 2

I woke up today and thought it was Wednesday. I have no sense of time and it's only week 2! But I love it :) So what happened this week? We were assigned our first project to work on and we have 3 tests next week. Luckily I finished up my project tonight so all I have to do is study for the tests.

I'm falling into a pattern already. Get up about 6am, (I swear I'm still on east cost time), have my oatmeal and toasted bagel while watching CNN. Out the door for a 10 minute walk to campus. Lunch break at 12pm and I usually hoof it back to the crib to make a sandwich. I could bring my lunch with me but I'm getting used to the 20min walk, at least on sunny days. We're usually done by 4pm but I find myself staying after just to keep studying with whoever else stays.

Saturday and Sunday? HA- you guessed it, back on campus most of the day. Sounds exciting doesn't it? I just hope I don't get burned out too quickly. Unless you want to see what my walking routes look like, I don't have too many new pics... and no more time for sight seeing ;) After these first 2 weeks I might have to go see a movie to remind myself what I'm doing here in the first place. That reminds me, I have to sneak some pics of the hallways because they're covered with movie posters of which VFS Alumni have worked on. Old movies, new movies, and ones coming out later this year... awesome stuff!

Week 1

So I survived week 1 and I have to admit, it really was a blur. There was so much information to go over I went back to school today to meet up with some others making sure we're still on the same page. There's a reason why the campus is open 24/7 and there's also a reason why there's a line in the Student Handbook saying, "Students are not allowed to sleep on campus". Do you know how long it's been since I had to take notes!?!?


I was talking to one of the guys in class about where the good sushi is and remember the $5 sushi joint I mentioned earlier? From what he told me I'm guessing it's what you'd expect $5 sushi to taste like. There are tons of cheap eats in the city but you kinda have to be careful where you go. I did give a place called Tokyo Joe's a try. I mean, it wasn't bad it was quite filling actually for $9. For a quick sushi fix it was alright.


I really need to get a "spend less/eat more" cookbook. Please feel free to send me any recipes! There's only so many ways to make pasta. My way of changing it up is by getting the different shapes. The mini elbows seem to cook the quickest right now. I'm not a vegetarian but I was intrigued when I found this stuff called Tofutti. On bagels I can't really tell the difference. Try it, you'll see.

My roommate just told me the Scotiabank Theater at the end of the block has half price Tuesdays. If I have time next week maybe I'll check out Iron Man 2. Some of the class saw it already and they said it's definitely worth it. Speaking of the roomie, she's supposed to be leaving at the end of this month. I got an email from my landlord saying that the school's housing rep was coming into our flat to take pics for other potential students to check out. (Just like the pictures I got in email that I showed you). It is a little weird to have so many students coming and going on a month to month basis. We'll see what happens...

At least the weather has been great :) 50's-60's in the mornings, 70's by the time I'm walking home. I don't miss the hot humid DC weather at all. I'm still trying to get more pics of everything but this week was hectic just trying to keep up with classes. I keep waking up early because I'm on the east side of the building and by 5:45am my room is all lit up. Here are some quick pics I took tonight... sorry if they're shaky, I was holding the camera out the window ;)

SD46

So meet (some of) SD46, Sound Design class 46. There are 15 of us in the class, that's considered a full class for sound design. Not everyone came out so I don't have pics of everybody yet and my camera battery died after a few shots so I'll have to remember to keep my camera on me.


Sorry guys, I'll get better pics... (directed towards SD46, I don't think they know I have a blog) hehehe ;)

Anyway, VFS isn't too keen on letting people record stuff or take pictures of the facilities and everything so I can't be snapping shots left and right like you know I like to do (team GDE). Here's a shot of our back courtyard where we take breaks and chill. (CHECK THIS OUT)


There's a pho shop around the corner as well as a taco place and a sushi joint where lunch is $5. Yes $5 sushi... I'll try it someday. For now I'm seeing how long I can put up with walking back to my place and grabbing a quick bite. It's a lot cheaper than eating out everyday even if it is just $5.

There's a lot of information to digest in the first 2 full days of class but as with anything, with repetition of concepts and and terminology this should all be easier to understand as we move along. I'm pretty sure some of us will be meeting this weekend to compare notes. Speaking of which I must go back over today's stuff...

Getting started - Day 1

I knew trying to keep this updated would be a challenge and as the weeks go by I'm sure I'll have fewer and shorter posts. I met up with my classmate from the UK, a film production student from Mexico, and an actor from Scotland on Saturday night. We went to this pub 2 blocks away from my place called Doolin's. Of course the place was filled with Canucks fans since they beat Chicago 5-1. Had a blast, got a little hazy towards the end. I remember hearing bagpipes being played, shots of tequila, and me yelling out "OY, OY!".

So today was the first day of class. FINALLY! We got our IDs and security badges all sorted out and basically it was another orientation. We got familiar with our workstations, toured the building, and saw all the equipment that we were going to be using. It was a pretty easy day since we only had the afternoon session. The schedule is pretty much like work. There's a morning session from 9:00am-12:00pm, a one hour lunch break, then an afternoon session from 1:00pm-4:00pm. There will be occasions where we'll have an evening class from 5:00pm-8:00pm. The great thing about it is as we're working on our projects, especially in the later terms, we have access to the studios 24/7.

So after our first short day, a bunch of us went out to a place called Wings. There were about 10 of us and we were lucky to find one last table since the Canucks were playing again. I thought football fans were crazy back home, hockey up here is religion. (I don't think I'll be wearing my Caps gear up here anytime soon).

On to Day 2!