Articles.

This has been a really long, but yet a very good day. When I look back at it I actually feel like the day must have been split into two days taken into consideration all the things I have done today.

First thing today was International Orientation where I met up with Morten, Trygve and the swedish peeps. It was like any other orientation, and we were served lunch and got a few hints and tips. Off course everything took twice as long as it could have because all of the staff speak very sloowlyy so that the ESL people can also understand. I actually feel really privileged coming from a scandinavian country, and having my english being as good as it is. I think I deserve some of the credit for that myself also, but that’s a different tale;)

International orientation was off course followed by regular undergraduate orientation where we were split into groups depending on what major we would attend. When I first walked in to the auditorium they were showing pictures of all the academy directors while playing Van Halen – Jump. Took a picture of it as you see above, lousy quality, taken with my iPhone. Kind of cheezy actually, but I guess it set the right mood. There were speaches by everything from our 12-year NFL star athletics director to a previous student who now works for George Lucas. All of this was very inspiring. I am now apparently an “Urban Knight” which is the name of the AAU basketball team, and once I graduate I will be a Jedi Knight. Sort of a joke, but kind of cool ;)

We were then put on different busses and sent of to different locations where we will attend classes. Mine was in 180 New Montgomery on the fifth floor, which is where I’ll be spending most of my time here. I got to meet the department directors, and I had a small chat with Gino, which is the assistand department director. They showed us several works featured in the annual academy spring show which is where mostly graduates show off their work to prospective employers invited to the show by the academy. Some of the work was really good, and both directors seemed very on top of things, and the first thing they mentioned was the iPad.. only 3 hours after it was launched, so I guess I found my breed. :)

Gino was also the one who reviewed my portfolio before I was accepted into the AAU. He was very pleased with my previous work, which gave me a good feeling and gave me the extra encouragement I needed. So I’m now really stoked about starting school next week, all that’s really left now is to meet my roommate, and have a meeting with my advisor in regards of transfering my classes from NKF. I finally feel I did the right thing coming here in terms of school, I thing the Academy of Art University will do me good!

After everything we all met up again for movie night, and we watched the Pixar movie “Up” which was followed by “Public Enemies”, I had already seen that one, so instead a few of us went to the Tea Brewery at Yerba Buena Gardens and sat down for a few hours. The place is really nice. We also met another norwegian today, who Morten found on Facebook I guess, and she’ll be studying fashion here at the AAU. Basically I now know people around here, in almost every major now, mostly swedes and norwegians though.