I'm really bad at writing about myself. I sit at the computer thinking: hmm.. my life is boring. Why would anyone want to read about my life? Usually there's something crappy going on, and I want to complain about it- but I don't want to be one of those annoying bloggers that just complains about shit all the time. That's stupid. I could talk about random stuff that happens to me - but why would anyone want to read about fine arts fairs, or driving by a hostage situation, or working at college over the summer? It's not like I was taken hostage, or I was showing stuff at the art fair, and honestly, no one would want to read about my job. I mean- woo, writing obits? OMG so like today I wrote stuff about dead people hahah isn't that great?!? Uh.. no. It's depressing. And though I usually depress people accidentally I don't really like just saying obvious Debbie Downer stuff. I like to do it slowly, so that they don't realize I'm sucking out their soul. And no, I don't only write obits... I write articles that don't get published and take photos of occasionally important things. And no, I don't suck souls. That was like, so three years ago when Harry Potter was still in. I mean, I don't get all this Twilight shit. Come on people, read Vampire Knight. It's waaaay better.
Okay, so my life isn't totally boring. I was actually lying. My life has occasionally interesting, dramatic things. Not right now though. Lets see if I can summarize the last like.. entire semester since I've updated this thing. I did fine in all my classes, though I felt dumb the whole time because lets face it, I only took twelve credits whereas my roommates and basically everyone else was taking 15-16 credits. Honestly, I think they were all a little nuts. In some cases, thoroughly nuts. Like the girl who was walking by me on my way to class around midterms. "Hey Nadya! How's your week? Well, I haven't gotten any sleep ALL week because I've had like 5 midterms and it's just been crazy. I mean, if I can get 5 hours I'm happy. How about you, how are your midterms?"
What I wanted to say: Are you fucking nuts? You can't possibly function on that much sleep, so you're either lying to me or you're going to pass out in 3..2...1. Plus how can you even have that many midterms, when you can only be taking like 5 or 6 classes and one of them doesn't have a midterm because you're in it with me.
What I said: Well, I've been really sick and I don't have any midterms.
Okay, moving on. I took an animation class. Really chill professor, so that was fun. I learned how to use Maya which is what all the professionals in Pixar and whatnot use. I made a penguin sliding down a mountain. It was all happy and cute and maybe I'll render it, stick it on youtube, and then link ya. Too bad it costs like 10,000 dollars. I could totally buy that on my minimum wage, right? Not.
I also made a new friend, a Korean girl who works at the Office of Communications. I haven't really made many new friends since first semester so it was cool, plus I kind of love Asian people so meeting a legit international student was pretty awesome. I hope I haven't scared her with my "OMG Asians are sooo hawt!" fangirl behavior.
I'm kind of excited for next year because I will have my own single room! I won't have to worry about one of my roommates zoning in and out of consciousness in our living room for a week! I won't have to wait hours before I can get privacy! I won't have to clean up other peoples messes or feel guilty for my own! It's like, heaven or something. Plus I'm a self absorbed only child so I need my privacy, y'know? Even though I'm Russian and Russians don't have a word for privacy. Bet you didn't know that, eh? Plus the room is like huuuuuge. Its the size of a double or maybe bigger. Jealous? You should be. Its pretty damn awesome. I'm practically jealous of myself.
Plus I can like, watch awesome Russian TV. And drink black Russian tea. And listen to Russian music.
But, back to last semester. I saw my boyfriend again. For a week. This made me ecquisitely happy but then when I was leaving him it was like my heart was being ripped out. Or my ribs were breaking. Or I was drowning. I dunno, some combination of those. The trip back was horrendous. This long distance thing kinda sucks, putting it mildly. But I'm good at it thanks to moving and shit. Whatever. We made it through a whole year, with neither of us cheating on each other or getting into epic fights.
Oh, art class. This will be fun. Full of hipsters, of course. I felt like such an outsider, and nobody really talked to me. At some point someone turned to me from their group of giggling girls being like "Hey Nadya, are you in a co-op?" and I was like "Uhhh. noo.." and then they all laughed. Because apparently that's just hilarious. I always laugh at people who are too lazy to cook and clean and attend boring meetings where people argue about the same thing over and over. Sounds like such a hoot. So the first assignment in art class involved making an art book. It required good craftman skills. I've never worked at my craft in my entire life, because I never had to. So I had one idea at the beginning but then she kept telling me to change it, cut it up, make my little icons 3D. Which required a lot more craft. Basically I took her advice, and then in front of the whole class she looked at it and was like "You need to cut it up more. Cut the fucking paper." So that was pretty awkward/embarrassing/blah. I cut it up some more after that. Made it.. "better". Then the students had to walk around the class and talk about each book. Lets just say someone basically told me to my face that "The craft sucks." Thanks. Love you too, bitch. I say this with as much sincerity as possible: I hate hipsters.
Luckily, the art class got better. We started painting- I'm actually kinda good at that and suddenly my painting was one of the best in the class (no, I'm not full of myself, the professor actually told me that in private) and people didn't insult my work anymore. That was nice. I got an A. I like the professor now. Just needed some.. adjusting.
What else did I take?
Russian. My professor is a very sweet lady. We had a bit of a strange relationship, since she treated me as her fellow Russian, but I still feel caught between cultural worlds. She kept saying "how much I've grown" which I guess annoys me a little since I don't see myself as being that different. I didn't have any revelations, nor did I drastically change my behavior like a lot of college students do: you know, having lots of sex, drinking, stuff they didn't do as much of in high school because it was harder to get away with it.
Aaaand.. Creative Writing. How could I forget. I got rejected from the program a second time. I edited my submissions 4 times. With each draft I had advice from a senior with an Honors Creative Writing major. I took so few classes so I could devote to my writing. It kind of feels like a huge waste now, and the professor could have been more organized. Much.. more. He always wanted the students to be organized, but he never was. Rather hypocritical, wouldn't you say? And yet, everyone loved him. He's a good person and all, but come on guys.
Well, that was a pretty quick overview. You're probably thinking "what?! no it wasn't!!!1" Well, I say it was, so it was.
So fast forward to now. I've been working at the Office of Communications for a semester and I'm working full time for the month of June. It's not too bad, but its rather lonely. My roommates are people I didn't really know during the year and the people at work are all graduated seniors so I feel like getting to know them too much is mildly masochistic.
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After checking back on my blog I realized that my last post wasn't even at the end of first semester. So.. its hard to remember that long ago. I know that my grades were fine, but one of my roommates was having a lot of issues because she never handed anything in on time and was seeing the effects of her procrastination. I just remember being kinda glad that first semester was over. I quit my job at Girls in Motion after one of the black girls basically pounced on a white girl when she said that she liked Black Eyed Peas or something and said "excuse me, but for your information I do know that band." After that happened the black girls friends were rolling around the floor laughing hysterically and reenacting the scene. It was a zoo, I got such a terrible headache. I don't even know how I lived through that. Then I worked for two weeks at the Oberlin Heritage Center. I felt pretty bad quitting after so little time, but I hadn't expect to get the Communications job. I mostly just did paperwork there, so it was much more relaxing and I liked working in such an old, historically important building.
I got to see my boyfriend over Christmas break, which was spectacular. I also got to see all my friends from high school too, since everyone I know from that time is in Minnesota. I even got to see my friend who moved to Puerto Rico. It was fantastic. I don't like thinking about it too much, though, because it makes me depressed. The best part was my boyfriend of course. I feel like a different person around him. He fills me with happiness. It was hard moving away. It was also hard leaving after Christmas break. Really hard. Eh, leaving him is always torture. Hopefully when I see him this summer it won't break my heart quite as much.
Then for the rest of winter term I just worried about making a house in Second Life, so I learned how to use 3 dimensional tools and stuff in Second Life. I read books about having a business in Second Life. I realized Second Life could actually be quite profitable and I could try to make a business there myself. I didn't do that though. Instead I just made a cool looking Oriental style cozy cafe looking thing with a fireplace and modern looking. I like how it turned out. Here's a picture.
That took me a lot of work. It's totally 3 dimensional, I had to build it out of parts. Different shapes that I can manipulate in specific ways through Second Life's system. It's practically its own world, really. Second Life money can be translated into real money. Basically everything you think of in real life exists in Second Life. Yes, even the inappropriate things. You can make money having an avatar that knows strip tease and just have her do that at a club. Just invest some money in a sexy looking avatar and some animations for stripping and vallah! There you go. You can also be a waitress. Or a model. Or a geisha. Whatever you please! Your avatar can be the dream you! Theres also great resources. Harvard, Princeton, etc. have hubs on Second Life where you can download lectures and all sorts of other neat stuff. There are museums, artworks, fashion designers who work on Second Life. People who like to write poetry can read it aloud at poetry readings in beautiful Second Life locations. It's a whole different world to explore, and if you have a high resolution, pretty fast processing speed and whatnot the visuals are just gorgeous. And no, Second Life is not my first life, I haven't even been on it in months. But it is an experience.
So basically once I was done with winter term my professor liked the house I came up with and said she wants to try and see if Oberlin will take it to be their own location in Second Life. I think that would be pretty awesome. Its a work in progress, but its pretty neat.
After that I basically started second semester, and I already told you all about that. Oh, theres also a huge music scene in Second Life. Musicians can make a lot of extra money performing there. This makes my love for Second Life well up inside me again. What a wonderful tool for communicating across states, countries, the world.
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