Catching up…

So it’s been a few days, I apparently suck at doing anything in a consistent fashion. The sheer amount of homework we have to do is keeping me from fun things like writing on here and talking to people for very long online, but it’s not all bad. The watercolor class I’m taking is pretty sweet, and really relaxing. On the other hand, the technical sketching class is terrible. I like sketching, but not this “dry” and “correct” sketching. For some reason there is very little appeal for me in drawing something exactly as it is, or breaking it down into even more boring straight or precisely curved lines to show the thickness of walls and width of entrances (blah). Where’s the shading, the interpretation of perspective, and the fun??? Gonzo.
On a different note, I’ve met some pretty crazy people since I’ve been here. On Thursday night I went to the Art Bar, a little hole-in-the-wall place on the way to our apartment that plays American music (predominantly Rage Against the Machine and other music from that genre). They have pretty cheap beer and the walls are covered in U.S. license plates and comic strips, so it is right up my alley (I even got to sit at a table made of Spider-man comics from the 80s and 90s haha). Most of the crazy people I met were all from the U.S. Army base that’s a few minutes outside of town. They’re all huge (except for one little guy who’s 18, and by little I mean my size) and have tribal tattoos. They’re typically douche bags but they know it so it’s cool as long as you aren’t a woman. Then it isn’t cool because they use terrible pick-up lines that are straight off TV sitcoms or Keystone boxes.
I also met three people who taught me some Italian while I was there. There was a blonde girl who had lived in California for a little while who spoke perfect English; a funny Italian guy who spoke Italian, French, and some Russian but no English; and a Russian guy who spoke French, Italian, and of course, Russian. The only English he seemed to already have down were curse words and offensive hand gestures. He was hilarious though, and even after the other two left he stayed behind and hung out with me and my buddy Walt (since we were the only two from our group still at the bar).
We went back there on Saturday night, and I didn’t stay very long that time, just had a beer after doing homework all day then left to come back to the studio for more homework. I did stay long enough to witness a few people I was with take the craziest shot I’ve ever seen. First, you get a lemon slice sprinkled with coffee grounds; after you eat that, the bartender lights the shot of whatever it is on fire; she then covers the shot glass with her hand WHILE it is still on fire; when the fire goes out, it creates a vacuum that suctions her hand to the shot glass which she then lifts off the bar and shakes back and forth; after that she slams it down and peels her hand off of the glass, tells the person to grab the shot but not to drink it; instead, you pour the shot in your mouth and swish it around for around 10 seconds; after that, you swallow the shot and suck air through clenched teeth until you cough. That concludes the most complicated shot ever invented as far as I’m concerned. Watching people take these was enough entertainment for the whole night.
But now on to more homework, I’ll try to do a better job of keeping everything up to date. Keep chillin over there in the U.S., I miss everybody!