Spring 2015 - Day 4
Today was just all classes and they were all awesome. I do have an 8 am but it is photojournalism so it is totally worth getting up early for. I am actually going to learn how to use my DSLR camera and I am SO EXCITED. I love taking pictures so it is perfect for me and why have a nice camera if you don't know how to use. My professor told us we are not allowed to shoot on automatic or, as she calls it, the green box. We can't use it at all. And we are only allowed to shoot on P for the first few weeks. The idea that I could understand my camera enough to use those two settings is pretty awesome.
Our field lab for that class also sounds pretty cool. We are going to go to some war memorials and sacred places in Kobe, Japan. We have to compare and contrast the memorials and the temples through photographs. How cool is that?
We had our first lesson with our camera where we learned what all the buttons and dials on it are. There is a tiny dial way at the top that you adjust to let the camera know whether you are far sighted or near sighted so that when you focus the camera it is actually in focus. I never knew that, so cool. After our basic lesson we went out on the back of deck 5 and took pictures of the wake. We learned how to hold the camera (one hand on the side, the other supporting the lens), how to look the lens (preferably with both eyes open), and how to breathe (in before you take the picture, hold it, then out after you take the picture. This helps eliminate shaking).
Next class we are learning about aperture and shutter speed!
My mixed media class has a little overlap with my drawing class. Its the visual journal. We also have to do a visual journal everyday for mixed media. I was like, hell no, that is far too much art for me to be doing in addition to all of the blogging do. But she said that those of us that overlap classes can just do a two page spread instead of two completely separate pieces. Thank goodness. At least the visual journal makes more sense to do in a mixed media class.
I am really excited for our field lab in this class too, it is coming up in our first port of Hawaii. We are going to a Japanese garden and then to the University of Hawaii where we will tour their printmaking shop. We are going to do some sketches in the garden and collect things along the way. Then, in the first class back after the lab we are going to create a garden from our imagination based on our sketches and the different things we collected. Sounds really cool and an awesome way to incorporate our own ideas with the things we observed in Hilo.
But even before the lab we are doing some pretty cool things. Next class we are creating postcards by using image transfer. At least I am going to be using all of the supplies I brought with me, for the transfer we use wintergreen oil, something I had to randomly order online.
My final class doesn't have a field lab, which is very disappointing because it is World Mythologies and that would have been really interesting. Instead we have discussion groups on study days. Which sucks because study days are so nice an relaxing and are now going to be broken up by a discussion group. Just something else to get used to I guess. The class itself will be interesting, we are learning about a million different kinds of mythology. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, trickster, flood, north american indian, greek, etc. It goes on and on. Should be cool to learn about the mythology of the place we are going before we get there. Our professor is really cool too. He was in the Navy during the Vietnam war so he went to about half of the places we are going to. After he left the navy he got a Phd in mythology but realized that wouldn't really get him very far so he also got a law degree and another masters. But he has never used those two professionally. So he just randomly got a law degree to have one. What a badass.
That class was in the Union right before lunch and it was rocky. Jessi and I keep arguing about the severity of the rocking. I think its a 6 or 7 and she thinks it's barely a 5 and that we had a few days that were a lot worse. I think I blocked it out or something because I remember two or three really bad days but over all it being considerably less rocky than it was this morning.
It calmed down a lot and right now it feels more like it did before. I am sitting in my cabin and I can barely feel it. I also successfully ran on the treadmill without falling over. It is definitely better than the morning. But the Union is the worst place because it is high up and right in the front so it is a terrible place to compare things to.
I had dinner with Stephanie. Not my roommate Stephanie but the Stephanie who is also from the University of Tampa and is in my sorority with me. I knew she was coming and helped her with some things to prepare but I hadn't seen her since we had gotten on the ship. She is doing really well. I met some other new people too but I can not remember any of their names. One of them was the Oceanography teacher. She was a last minute replacement and found out she was going to be on the ship at the end of October. I can't imagine what that would be like.
After today we have three more days until we are in Hilo. I am ready to be in a country. Since I have a field lab in Hawaii I will have school for 10 days in a row. After Hawaii we won't have a study day until the 20th. Which, if you do the math that is 11 days but, on the 19th, we cross the international date line and so lose that day. The 19th just won't exist for us. Poof, gone. Jessi was talking to one of the professors that sailed on the ship in the fall of 2001. They crossed the international date line on September 11 and so missed 9/11. How surreal would that be? You are hearing about this incredible tragedy and you didn't even live the day that it happened. I can't even imagine what it would have been like on the ship then.
Hopefully nothing crazy happens on the 19th.
Well, this needs to be over because I need to go journal visually. I have absolutely no ideas so hopefully something will come to me.
Bye!
Our field lab for that class also sounds pretty cool. We are going to go to some war memorials and sacred places in Kobe, Japan. We have to compare and contrast the memorials and the temples through photographs. How cool is that?
We had our first lesson with our camera where we learned what all the buttons and dials on it are. There is a tiny dial way at the top that you adjust to let the camera know whether you are far sighted or near sighted so that when you focus the camera it is actually in focus. I never knew that, so cool. After our basic lesson we went out on the back of deck 5 and took pictures of the wake. We learned how to hold the camera (one hand on the side, the other supporting the lens), how to look the lens (preferably with both eyes open), and how to breathe (in before you take the picture, hold it, then out after you take the picture. This helps eliminate shaking).
Next class we are learning about aperture and shutter speed!
My mixed media class has a little overlap with my drawing class. Its the visual journal. We also have to do a visual journal everyday for mixed media. I was like, hell no, that is far too much art for me to be doing in addition to all of the blogging do. But she said that those of us that overlap classes can just do a two page spread instead of two completely separate pieces. Thank goodness. At least the visual journal makes more sense to do in a mixed media class.
I am really excited for our field lab in this class too, it is coming up in our first port of Hawaii. We are going to a Japanese garden and then to the University of Hawaii where we will tour their printmaking shop. We are going to do some sketches in the garden and collect things along the way. Then, in the first class back after the lab we are going to create a garden from our imagination based on our sketches and the different things we collected. Sounds really cool and an awesome way to incorporate our own ideas with the things we observed in Hilo.
But even before the lab we are doing some pretty cool things. Next class we are creating postcards by using image transfer. At least I am going to be using all of the supplies I brought with me, for the transfer we use wintergreen oil, something I had to randomly order online.
My final class doesn't have a field lab, which is very disappointing because it is World Mythologies and that would have been really interesting. Instead we have discussion groups on study days. Which sucks because study days are so nice an relaxing and are now going to be broken up by a discussion group. Just something else to get used to I guess. The class itself will be interesting, we are learning about a million different kinds of mythology. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, trickster, flood, north american indian, greek, etc. It goes on and on. Should be cool to learn about the mythology of the place we are going before we get there. Our professor is really cool too. He was in the Navy during the Vietnam war so he went to about half of the places we are going to. After he left the navy he got a Phd in mythology but realized that wouldn't really get him very far so he also got a law degree and another masters. But he has never used those two professionally. So he just randomly got a law degree to have one. What a badass.
That class was in the Union right before lunch and it was rocky. Jessi and I keep arguing about the severity of the rocking. I think its a 6 or 7 and she thinks it's barely a 5 and that we had a few days that were a lot worse. I think I blocked it out or something because I remember two or three really bad days but over all it being considerably less rocky than it was this morning.
It calmed down a lot and right now it feels more like it did before. I am sitting in my cabin and I can barely feel it. I also successfully ran on the treadmill without falling over. It is definitely better than the morning. But the Union is the worst place because it is high up and right in the front so it is a terrible place to compare things to.
I had dinner with Stephanie. Not my roommate Stephanie but the Stephanie who is also from the University of Tampa and is in my sorority with me. I knew she was coming and helped her with some things to prepare but I hadn't seen her since we had gotten on the ship. She is doing really well. I met some other new people too but I can not remember any of their names. One of them was the Oceanography teacher. She was a last minute replacement and found out she was going to be on the ship at the end of October. I can't imagine what that would be like.
After today we have three more days until we are in Hilo. I am ready to be in a country. Since I have a field lab in Hawaii I will have school for 10 days in a row. After Hawaii we won't have a study day until the 20th. Which, if you do the math that is 11 days but, on the 19th, we cross the international date line and so lose that day. The 19th just won't exist for us. Poof, gone. Jessi was talking to one of the professors that sailed on the ship in the fall of 2001. They crossed the international date line on September 11 and so missed 9/11. How surreal would that be? You are hearing about this incredible tragedy and you didn't even live the day that it happened. I can't even imagine what it would have been like on the ship then.
Hopefully nothing crazy happens on the 19th.
Well, this needs to be over because I need to go journal visually. I have absolutely no ideas so hopefully something will come to me.
Bye!
