Day 3 -- At Sea

So classes started today. That was exciting. First, I sat in on a class called freeing the human voice. It’s a Theater class about, you guessed it, freeing the human voice. Diane, the professor, is a wonderfully nice lady who is one of a hundred or so instructors who are officially certified to teach this specific technique. The example she gave as to why our voices are not free is that babies and toddlers can cry and scream for hours without getting a horse voice. We adults, on the other hand, would ruin our vocal chords. It sounds quite interesting and, more importantly, really easy to pass, so I think I’ll actually enroll in the course. This will allow me to drop my course on civil liberties and Constitution (I’ll still sit in on it, provided the professor is interesting) and give me even more free time. Yay!

Next was Global Studies, which has a whopping 300 students. This really made me appreciate Occidental. I had a lot of trouble focusing in a class this big; I cannot imagine learning off of a TV lecture. I sincerely hope this class picks up, because thus far it has been nothing but definitions to memorize.

My last class was painting. I got off on the wrong foot with this professor at the meet and greet last night when I showed her a doodle I made and jokingly told her that said doodle represented my skill level (and it included stick figures). Unfortunately, she figured I wouldn’t take the class seriously and advised me to drop the course. Now I have already purchased $200 worth of art supplies, so that was not an option. Plus, I want to learn how to paint! I suppose I’ll just put in effort and try to win her over.

Anyhow, today we were given 30 minutes to draw a self-portrait of ourselves. Just as I had hoped, I found the experience to be very meditative. I just popped in my iPod and went to town. I did not budget my time well, though, I had only done my shoulders, neck, and jawline 20 minutes in. So the rest of my face did not look great, the nose especially (how the hell do you draw it in three dimensions??). But I actually surprised myself with where I was at, and I really look forward to honing the skill.

That’s it for now, tonight is the first night we can drink and they are about to open the bar!

“Stay thirsty, my friends” – The Most Interesting Man in the World