Since the summer is here and school is over, I probably won't be blogging as frequently, but I thought that I'd write this post to try and sum up everything I'll be doing this summer, artistic and not, so that if I do write another post about one or more of these things you all can have some context.
1. Ganes' Art Class
This is probably the most exciting thing I have planned for this summer. Right now I'm in this purgatory of sorts, waiting for the class, and consequently my summer, to start. I'm taking the class with Vika which is good because it means that she can give me a ride in the mornings so I don't have to take a bus, and because Vika is super cool and it's awesome to have someone you know when you go into a program like this. It's five hours a day of art. That's a comfortable amount of time. What I'm really excited for is some more hands on instruction, and getting portfolio pieces ready, even though I'm not 100% sure if I'm am going to apply to school that need portfolios.
2. French Classes
Again this summer, I am taking French classes at FI:AF in Manhattan. Next year I am taking French 4, which means that I'm jumping French 3. I am confident that I'd do fine in the class next september without the summer classes, but my goal with French isn't to just get by, I plan to have some level of verbal fluency by the end of my senior year. Being trilingual has always been a dream of mine. Learning language exposes you to an entire new collection of ideas and experiences. Especially when you are in the art world, having a knowledge of any other language let's you experience so many other culture's writing, actors, films, in a way that you can't experience with just knowing one language. The summer French class is also in preparation for the next activity on my list.
3. Canadian Universities
In my searches for what schools I'll be applying to this fall, I discovered the gem of education that is Canada. Schools are cheaper, the drinking age is lower, and French. I have no illusions that I'd be ready to go to an all French University in Quebec, but there are a number of English Universities and bilingual ones in Quebec and the rest of Canada. I have two schools that I have fallen in love with, one more than another, but both are incredible. My second favorite is York University and I'd study at the Glendon College campus. York is in Toronto, which isn't my preferred area of Canada, but Glendon is a really awesome school. They whole school is bilingual, and very internationally diverse. I don't want to study language as a major, but I want to be fluent and continue it, which is what Glendon gives. They don't have any major that I'm crazy about, but I could focus a lot on my French and Spanish there, and get the trilingual degree that they offer in an area that I have some interest in, like international studies. My current favorite school is an English school in Montreal called Concordia University. It's an english school first of all, so I could comfortably understand all of my classes, and it's in a French city, so I could get the experience of having to order coffee and ask for directions in French. Concordia has all the programs that I could want to take, because right now I'm not sure what I'd want to do, but the school is large and has all the options I could want. I have tours scheduled to see these school this summer, and I'm super excited. They are going to take up a lot of time for me this summer because of the whole international aspect. There is no CommonApp option for these schools and the application process for international students is always harder. In addition to visiting the schools, I also have to prepare the requirements for the schools' applications and start to look into student visas for Canada.
4. Gym
I'm going a gym. Even though exercise doesn't seem like an inherently artistic thing, I actually do view it as an artistic venture. It's a matter of will, like my 365. I can run on my treadmill everyday for half an hour, but after a week I give up. That's what's happened to most of the people who've tried a 365. It's a couple hours a week of my life so that I can live longer and look better. And it can teach me how to bear through something uncomfortable so that I can be happier overall.
5. Guitar
I've gotten pretty good at playing the chords along to the songs that I like. I put this towards the end because it's generally a minor thing for me this summer. I'm going to take a class a week, but it's definitely just something for myself because it makes me feel good.
