Spring 2015 - Day 9
Today was supposed to a sea day but that was a big fat lie. Ok, not entirely a lie because technically we were at sea in the morning. But the afternoon was spent bunkering in Honolulu. Bunkering means to take on fuel. We don't even fully dock, we just float off the coast and a bunkering ship comes right up next to us.
When I got up I was alarmed that we were sailing in the middle of the ocean with no land around us because we knew we were going to be bunkering and I was going to use my phone again to talk to my dad about a solution to my computer issues. But I found out in my first class that we would arrive in Honolulu around noon and it turned out that we were still close enough to Hawaii that our phones worked. So it was just like a normal day of classes at a land university where everyone tries to be sneaky and use their phones but you can totally tell that's what they are doing.
It's pretty difficult to do that in my classes because they are all hands on and require you to be doing something.
In my Mixed Media class we brought all of our sketches that we did in the garden as well as other reference materials like pictures and brochures. We were instructed to create a landscape from our imagination based off of the reference materials and sketches. I knew exactly what I had in mind and was ready to go right away, so was the girl sitting next to me. But the rest of the class seemed to struggle. They didn't understand the assignment and kept asking for more clarification from our professor. It was really interesting to me that no one understood what to do because I had no trouble at all and got right down to sketching out my garden. I think the confusion stems from the fact that almost mo one in the class is actually an art major. Instaed we are business majors or english majors or something like that. We are used to having really strict guidelines through all of or assignment, right down to the size font we need to use. We are not used to being in a creative space where you are just asked to use your imagination and basically do whatever you want.
I am enjoying it. I hated those kinds of open ended assignments when I was in business classes because you knew that the professor really had something in mind and that if you actually did whatever you want it probably wouldn't match their vision and you wouldn't get a good grade. But I do not feel that unease in these art classes. My imagination is running and I am just ready to create something.
Our class was so confused that Professor Kim changed the assignment, instead of it being due next class we are going to continue working on them in class and she is going to come with some more concrete guidelines.
In the evening, after Jessi and I went to the gym, we went to our shipboard mom's cabin for milk and cookies! She lives on the 7th deck so just going to the cabin itself was pretty exciting. Those cabins are large, very large, and very cool. She has a walk in closet and a tub in her bathroom. She also has a huge outside deck! It is beautiful. She said that she never uses the space and should rent it out for people to sunbathe. We all thought that was a great idea.
Almost everyone showed up. Let me see if I can remember everyone's name. There's Amy, Irene, Katie, Jess, Brianne... and one more that I can't remember. We all talked about what we did in Hawaii, some of our plans for Japan, and what we think the ocean is going to be like on the crossing. We are going to be diverting a storm so it will get pretty rocky. That's kind of nerve-wracking, I'm a bit nervous. Especially because everyone likes to start rumors and exaggerate. Our captain is very good and will keep us safe so I am not that worried about it. But I might start taking sea sickness meds just in case, I haven't decided yet.
I did already have a headache again by the time we left our family time. We had left Honolulu by 6pm so we had been going for a while. The next few days are supposedly going to be the worst so we shall see.
When I got up I was alarmed that we were sailing in the middle of the ocean with no land around us because we knew we were going to be bunkering and I was going to use my phone again to talk to my dad about a solution to my computer issues. But I found out in my first class that we would arrive in Honolulu around noon and it turned out that we were still close enough to Hawaii that our phones worked. So it was just like a normal day of classes at a land university where everyone tries to be sneaky and use their phones but you can totally tell that's what they are doing.
It's pretty difficult to do that in my classes because they are all hands on and require you to be doing something.
In my Mixed Media class we brought all of our sketches that we did in the garden as well as other reference materials like pictures and brochures. We were instructed to create a landscape from our imagination based off of the reference materials and sketches. I knew exactly what I had in mind and was ready to go right away, so was the girl sitting next to me. But the rest of the class seemed to struggle. They didn't understand the assignment and kept asking for more clarification from our professor. It was really interesting to me that no one understood what to do because I had no trouble at all and got right down to sketching out my garden. I think the confusion stems from the fact that almost mo one in the class is actually an art major. Instaed we are business majors or english majors or something like that. We are used to having really strict guidelines through all of or assignment, right down to the size font we need to use. We are not used to being in a creative space where you are just asked to use your imagination and basically do whatever you want.
I am enjoying it. I hated those kinds of open ended assignments when I was in business classes because you knew that the professor really had something in mind and that if you actually did whatever you want it probably wouldn't match their vision and you wouldn't get a good grade. But I do not feel that unease in these art classes. My imagination is running and I am just ready to create something.
Our class was so confused that Professor Kim changed the assignment, instead of it being due next class we are going to continue working on them in class and she is going to come with some more concrete guidelines.
In the evening, after Jessi and I went to the gym, we went to our shipboard mom's cabin for milk and cookies! She lives on the 7th deck so just going to the cabin itself was pretty exciting. Those cabins are large, very large, and very cool. She has a walk in closet and a tub in her bathroom. She also has a huge outside deck! It is beautiful. She said that she never uses the space and should rent it out for people to sunbathe. We all thought that was a great idea.
Almost everyone showed up. Let me see if I can remember everyone's name. There's Amy, Irene, Katie, Jess, Brianne... and one more that I can't remember. We all talked about what we did in Hawaii, some of our plans for Japan, and what we think the ocean is going to be like on the crossing. We are going to be diverting a storm so it will get pretty rocky. That's kind of nerve-wracking, I'm a bit nervous. Especially because everyone likes to start rumors and exaggerate. Our captain is very good and will keep us safe so I am not that worried about it. But I might start taking sea sickness meds just in case, I haven't decided yet.
I did already have a headache again by the time we left our family time. We had left Honolulu by 6pm so we had been going for a while. The next few days are supposedly going to be the worst so we shall see.
