2nd week of classes.

My impressions after my second week of american college life. Let me correct that. NYC FIT college life. I do have my reasons to believe that this is different from most american colleges.


-Teachers are actually really good, at least mine have been better than I expected. Smaller classes then I expected (around 20) makes the teachers really get to know all of our names and keep track of who are active in class. Maybe it's my lucky semester... I have heard another student talking about her teacher that brought work life in to the classroom a little bit to seriously. Example: The students we're supposed to get a nude-colored paper binder and then glue a white-colored paper on top of it and write their names on it. If the paper binder wasn't nude they got one more chance, if you didn't bring a paper binder at all you got fired. I have a really funny picture in my head of how this might have looked. 


-HOMEWORK, I have never in my life had so many homework assignments that are graded. It has usually been 'Read this chapter', not 'read this chapter and discuss around these 3 topics, if the paper is handwritten or late it will not be graded'.


-Multiple choice answer test, YES, sound good to me!


-Essay exams in english on world affairs, I'm already dreading these midterms and finals...


-Starbucks on campus. Everybody walks around with a cup of vanilla rooibos chai latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon or a non fat white chocolate mocha java chip frappuccino , even though it says everywhere that we are not allowed to have foods or drinks in the classrooms. Now they have cute paper mugs with hearts for valentines day. 


-Stand outs. What do I mean by stand out? Everybody dresses as crazy and outrageous as possible. I've seen a guy with blond/purple/pink afro, HIGH heels and platforms, piercings in places I've never seen. I've seen gucci, mulberry bags, Jimmy Choos etc. Everyday I see people that dress great and I see people that dress crazy. I do not see outdoor geeks, patagonia insulators and running shoes (I do occasionally see TNF fleeces at the gym).


- I have at least one gay guy in every class.


-Diversity, people from all over the world, all over USA and all over NYC. My classmates that are from New York City are almost never american by heritage. Croatian, dominican, cuban, spanish, russian etc. Usually a good mix of all of the above.


-Frozen yogurt and rasberry swirl. Häagen-Dazs is american right!? And fantastic.


-Lime tortilla chips. I have loved them for years, but never had the access to them like I have now.




By little brother pointed out that I have made a lot of spelling mistakes (and now he is saying, "Va, jag har inte sagt att det var manga!?") I apologize for my spelling, I have never been good at it and I don't really try to improve. But I guess I have to now with the essays coming up. So if anybody has any tips, please let me know...

Thursday afternoon.

We don't have internet in our apartment yet. There is coming some guys tomorrow to set it up with Wi Fi and stuff.


The sewing class last night was interesting... I came in to a room with a teacher just taking out into the air saying things like; 'Take you paper and fix the patterns! 1 bodies 4 pieces and 1 skirt with 3! Sign in on the list!' She was just calling out these random (in my ear) things and I just freaked out and started doing what the girl next to me was doing. I'm glad that I'm always way early because I saw the fright in the students eyes that came in after me. Let me point out that I was there 20 minutes before class was supposed to start. When I traced the pattern and had cut out the pieces I calmed down feeling in control again and started to talk to the girl next to me. In the middle of the chaos I had started to think that this might not be a beginners class, because I felt so lost and so many people looked like they knew what they were doing. But to my relief I was not the only beginner. The rest of the lesson we practiced spooling a bobbin, threading the machine and sewing strait lines on a lined paper. I could just see the look on moms and grandmas faces if they saw me then! All sweaty from getting the tread through the pin and so concentrated getting the lines strait. This is probably something I've should have learned when I was 12. But I wasn't interested then, luckily I matured our something and I'm really excited to finally learn how to sew. My teacher turned out to be very funny, she is so sarcastic all of the time and I really enjoy her small tohonestbutwithalittlelove comments.


Today I had my first textile science class. I think it will be really interesting to learn everything about fibre, thread and fabric, to get really technical and hopefully a better educated consumer at the least.


Now it's time to hit the gym for the first time in three weeks! Finally!

One hour boredom.

Sitting in a cafeteria waiting for my next class to begin. This is something I haven't missed from school... I absolutely LOVE having a break in-between classes if I have time to do a work out, go home and take a nap or study, but having a hour free with a tone of stuff to carry around isn't ideal. So a grande chai latte for me and some ny times reading.


I'll get back to you about the hole moving experience.

Tuesday night.

So I survived my first day at a american university. It was easy! Just presentations about our self and our goals for the class, and then we of course got the long list of supplies we need to buy. If anyone of you don't know what to get me for my next birthday I have plenty of stuff figured out now. Luckily for me the pattern making class and the sewing class have a lot of the same items.


I started off with Fashion art and design with a really nice professor who laughed at himself all the time. He has a deep laugh that sounds similar to what I have imagined Santa having. I think that class will really encourage me to draw more and help me find a way to express myself in my drawings. We are going to learn the basic proportions and helpful tools to give every drawing the same look.


My evening class in pattern making started of very slow. Our professor came in a little bit late and we hadn't bought any of the supplies yet so the only thing we did was to measure our mannequin. Is it called mannequin? The torso body shape that you fit your pattern to any way. I got J 16, a size 8, a wolf model. What ever that means.. What completely threw me of was that we measured in inches. It hadn't really occurred to me that we weren't going to work in centimeters so of course I had to do the whole thing over again. The inch system is a little bit weird I think.. It doesn't seem right having it divided by 8.


Tomorrow we are gathering all of our stuff here at the ear and try to pack it into the bags it once got here in. Moving day! Then I have classes between 3-9.20 pm. So we'll try to get all of our stuff over to the new apartment and then Seb can unpack when I'm in class.


Now a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory before bedtime.


Oh by the way it was Spring here to day. I even wore sunglasses.

First day of school.

Good morning!


We woke up to a sunny NYC with predicted 12C (56F). Now time for some yogurt breakfast and then I'm off to my first class for this semester. Fashion Art and Design. I really had no idea what this class was about when I picked it, but now when I seen some of the assignments I feel very positive. It seems like it's mostly drawing and learning the proportions of the human body.


Seb will continue his thinking today. :-)