anyhows. i got back from the recent spring break trip to alabama and I am so happy I decided to go in the end despite all that hesitation. having such a small group meant easier bonding time and I got to know several people on a deep level which is awesome. it was quite surprising to see about half or more of the team was made out of international students, no doubt mostly from taiwan and I ended up rooming with them since I could speak chinese. any other person rooming with them would feel left out because they couldn't understand chinese. I don;t think I've ever spoken so much chinese EVER in my life. now my brain is quite in tuned to chinese again and under their influence, my chinese now has a slight twang of taiwanese. in other words...i now strangely sound like a taiwanese when i speak chinese and an american when i speak english. lol.
Got to know the people in my van very well, especially blake, the only male student in the group since he lived next door to me and was especially interested in motion media design so we often found ourselves talking about that. i love how quite a large sum of our bonding sessions involved talking about the industry and majors that we are in, ranging from discussions about typefaces around the city and in posters to motion media and animation stuff and how the industry will evolve in the future. very exciting things to talk about though it just goes to show what nerds we are. lol :p Jessica and I found ourselves talking alot about typefaces that we see around, stirring quite a commotion among the non-graphic design students. lol.
anyhows. the drive up was pretty decent and I finally got to see Atlanta though not the SCAD campus though I was told I would have opportunities to head up there again for SCAD events as an ambassador. SWEET! i certainly hope to get up there to look at the scad facilities there and visit the famous georgia aquarium and zoo. whoopdeedoo. it was kinda unfortunate that our spring break was not very spring-like. it was gloomy everyday and rained the whole way through the drive. even when it wasn't raining the sky was overcast and it was cold :( sadness. thankfully I brought a jacket with me just in case. nonetheless, I do believe that my time here during the savannah winter has sort of prepared me for the coldness and I do think I have adapted to the weather here. I was actually found it hot when it was 24 degrees..not a good thing if i'm going to return back to hot hot hot singapore.
work at the birmingham zoo was unsurprisingly mainly maintenance work now that I've gone through last year's ASB. this time though everyone was working cos we were a small team with a lack of MANpower. by the end of the first day my arms were practically ready to fall off my shoulders and I could no longer feel my toes from being on my feet for so long. no kidding. wheelbarrowing and shoveling gravel is NOT what i'm made to do. it did however, make me feel quite manly doing all that cos it reminded me that muscles do exist and i do need to develop them. lol. after all...mouse clicking ain't very strength inducing :P at the end of the whole thingamajig we got to go behind-the-scenes in the zoo and look at the animals who were off-exhibit, meeting hawks and owls and foxes and what nots. a very very sad thing is that my camera died. SADNESS. i thought 2 bars could have lasted me the whole day. STUPID STUPID MEEEE!!!
third day of the trip sent us to the birmingham museum of art where we ended up not doing anything other than visit. We thought we were gonna have hands on experience but i guess due to the nature of the work we were only allowed to see, not touch. it was really really exciting because how often do you get to go into the secret areas of the museum where the entire collection is stored and not on display and see how preservation work is done??? superbly exciting :D kinda felt surreal and in a movie. I was half expecting to see laser beams for security purposes. sadly. none of that sort. the museum in itself was great. we were allowed to walk around on our own time to view the entire museum and it was really really good. unlike the ones in singapore. it pretty much showed the history and development of art from various periods and they were mindblowingly beautiful. the romantic period american paintings were GORGEOUS. very inspiring to send me back to the canvas and paints/drawing board but I know that when i do, i would drop it all within the first 10 minutes from discouragement of my lack of skill. maybe when i grow old and retire I would actually do it out of boredom. unless they come up with something better than facebook. lol.
another project we did on this trip was to film a commercial for bark for a park, basically an organisation that seeks to open more dog parks for owners and dogs to increase socialisation, both a good thing for dogs and humans. we were there mainly to redesign their logo, t-shirts, brochures and create a commercial to advertise and promote their existence and cause. Got to meet and play with a ton of really amazing dogs, very sociable and friendly and super fun to play with. makes me wanna have a golden retriever all over again...until i think of the size of it's poop and the amount of rugs that it sheds per day. :S i want a dog who can love and be as amazing without all that work and money involved leh. either that...or scad should have pet therapy. that one day of fall fest during fall quarter does NOT count.
last day was mainly spent at an old folks home, which was quite a strange mistake. we were apparently supposed to go visit an old folks home WITH a group of elementary school students but the organizers on our side misunderstood as us going to an elementary school. so our activities were geared towards kids and just as we were about to leave, we found out the elementary school wasn't going to come with us. which was then that we realized we were going to an old folks home :S AWKWARD. lucky for us...when people get old and degenerate, they are almost no different from kids anyway so we conducted the same activities. the only annoying part was that the old lady i was working with was so frail i had to help her do her crafts under her instructions. not so bad cos i'm not THAT lazy. the one big problem was I couldn't understand what she was trying to say :S when i ask her questions she wouldn't answer them and when i narrowed it down to 2 options she said yes to both. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?? :S i was dying for that to be over. till today I still believe that community service should be kept outside of serving people. interaction with people takes up too much effort. i rather lug stones than try dealing with old people. meh.
other times on that trip was spent playing a game called "a game of things" which involves a judge picking a card from the deck with statements like "things your parents forgot to tell you" or "things old people shouldn't do" and you basically write your answer down and mix it in with everyone else's and then you take turns guessing who said what. very amusing and highly entertaining :D way better than the game "apples to apples" which is too americanised and not fun if you dont know the people on the card. i'll try to bring some cool american games home in the future :D we also visited a civil rights museum which was cool...but possibly not as cool as the science museum which was too expensive to go to. sadness. i wanted to go see dinosaur bones :( we also visited vulcan park, which is basically a park with a statue from paris which was given as a gift to alabama. not much other than the fact that you get a few minutes to look at the city lights. birmingham is too city-ish to have anything birmingham-ish to really do, unlike the everglades and it's airboat rides and alligators (which apart from that has nothing else either. lol)
soo...apparently there are plans for a year end winter break trip to another place in a similar fashion. cheap travel of food, lodging, activities and transport under the cost of $30. our new favourite question? "Is that covered by SCAD?" thankfully, most of the time the answer is yes :)
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