back in HFX

I will probably only be used to how NSCAD does things when I graduate: while I've started classes, my NBCCD friends are still on break (until tomorrow). Then again, NSCAD starts their Christmas break earlier and is finished earlier in April than NBCCD.

I spent the break staying up late, sleeping in, reacquainting myself with some music that I hadn't touched since at least April (a long story that probably isn't fit for a public forum like my blog--though I will say that listening and dancing to those pieces again was wonderful and emotional), making cinnamon buns for Christmas, wondering where three hours disappeared to on Christmas morning, photographing with my new Nikon D7000 (thanks, Tom), wondering where Christmas break disappeared and writing a massive year-in-review email to a friend--it was over 1,900 words long. 2012 was a big year.

Monday and Tuesday: Packing like crazy. 'Nuff said.

Wednesday: The bus to Moncton was delayed by an hour--which meant that the other buses that connected to it were also delayed by an hour. That meant that I didn't get into Halifax until about 8:30/7:30 EST that night. I did some unpacking and then crashed.

Thursday: I spent the better part of the morning getting my internet sorted out, as the university where I'm living shuts NSCADians out of the internet every semester and we have to go to the ITSS desk and get our computers configured again.

I was not ready for classes to start (three years at NBCCD will do that to ya), but I went anyway.

Although The Reconfigured Image, which is on digital image manipulation, is described as "an intermediate level course," because it's a different course at a different school, I decided to register for it when I put my schedule together in July. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. Plus, I love Photoshop and don't think there's such a thing as too many Photoshop courses.

During break, I dashed over to OSAS and got the semester sticker put on the back of my student ID and asked a few questions about my student loan and changing my expected graduation date to December '13 (I'd originally planned to finish during the summer, but because the summer semester is split into two half-semesters and one of the mandatory courses for photo majors is a nine-credit, 4000-level course, it definitely isn't available during the summer). I have a couple of meetings set up for Tuesday afternoon to start changing things around.

Friday: Fridays are going to be... interesting. I have Questions of Obsolescence, which is this year's PHOT 36xx seminar course (and which is mandatory for photo majors), first thing in the morning and then Writing for the Arts in the afternoon. Although the seminar is a three-credit course, it's a whopping four hours long. So Bob suggested that we meet at 9:00 instead of 8:30. As someone who's definitely not a morning person, I loved that idea. He let us go early, so I went over to Kinko's to order my reading pack.

Writing for the Arts is NSCAD's foundation-level writing course, but although I took NBCCD's FVA writing course, Communication and Student Success, that course is never transferred. I find that more than a bit frustrating, but I love writing so I'm looking forward to Writing for the Arts, and will probably learn some new stuff (the same thing with Reconfigured Image). One of the assignments is a group exhibition, and I've already started thinking about what I'm going to show. This will be my first time showing work outside of New Brunswick.

Saturday: After such a crazy week, HELLO, WEEKEND! I spent the day not doing much of anything except listening to Les Toyens (I was about forty-five minutes late because I'd written down that it began at 2:00 AST rather than 1:00) and doing the reading for Reconfigured Image (Ray Bradbury's The Veldt).

Sunday: I spent the day running errands and getting stuff done. Course pack picked up: check. Journal for Writing for the Arts: bought and started (three pages on Les Mis? Why the heck not?). Readings for Obsolescence: started. I also met my new roommate. She's a freshman from Seoul, South Korea.

Speaking of Les Mis, some point over the next few weeks I plan to go see the movie. I've been waiting for it to be made into a movie since I saw the tenth anniversary concert on PBS when I was eight (the concert was performed the year before). I'll never forget plunking out Master of the House (one of my favourites) on my family's upright piano. I still have much of the "seventeen Valjeans" segment memorized: French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian--bring it on.