Sunday, July 20, 2008
Orientation and stuff
It's been a while. I probably should have updated this sooner, but I finally caught the summer fever and got lazy about things. I've been stressing about things with VCU and the apartment situation, but I've also been playing a few videogames, which have been taking up most of my free time lately.
My orientation went well, and so did my brother's orientation. However, with him being a freshman and having the two-day orientation rather than the one-day session that I had, I think his orientation was slightly better than mine. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy a few extra benefits by attending his orientation, though. I was able to get two free VCU t-shirts at his orientation (compared to the zero I received at my own), and I was able to attend the bus tour for parents and guests at his orientation, though I personally think that tour would have been more beneficial to the students than the parents. I was also able to walk around the campus and ride around on the shuttle bus to see how I would be getting to all of my classes while my brother was registering for his classes.
Well, I guess I've written enough about his orientation, but I haven't really said anything about my own orientation. To be honest, I think one of the most exciting parts of my orientation was getting to walk by myself from the art foundation building to one of the dining centers on campus. Of course, it wasn't my first time walking across the campus, but it was the first time I'd done so by myself, and it was pretty exciting to be able to figure out where to go by myself without having the help of another person or a group of people who already know where they're going.
It was also pretty exciting to finally register for my classes; it really started to give me a sense of being an actual student of VCU and not just an applicant. However, it wasn't a very organized process; I was expecting a one-on-one session with an advisor who would tell me what classes to take, but instead we got a computer lab full of students and maybe five advisors who didn't all exactly know what we should have been taking. I'm also a little concerned because one of the credits that should have transferred to VCU didn't transfer, and I don't exactly know why. However, the advisors recommended that I skip that requirement in case it transfers later.
I was impressed that my drawing classes at my community college both transferred, though. They transferred as credits for VCU's drawing studio and project classes, but I'm taking the drawing and project classes at VCU anyway because they'll help me keep full-time status and because I want them. My community college drawing classes were great, but since they were at a community college and not a full-blown art school, there weren't a lot of resources for models and other things like that (even though their new easels are quite nice :3), so I think that I would benefit from a drawing class at VCU.
After my orientation we drove around the neighborhoods where the apartments I was interested in were located, and surprisingly most of them weren't in such great neighborhoods. We ended up eliminating all of the apartments that I hadn't been able to make appointments to see prior to the day of my orientation, plus two of the four appointments I had already made.
The two apartments that we actually looked at were okay, but in the end I decided that the best choice overall would be to get the dorm. A lot of factors went into my decision, but in the end I think the two biggest things it came down to were the question of whether my boyfriend could keep up with his half of the rent without a secure job yet or any backup money, and the fact that I probably wouldn't be happy living in either of the apartments for the whole 3-4 years I'd be at VCU. The apartments only offered 12-month leases, and it would have been either very difficult or very expensive for me to try to find a better apartment later.
So I'm going to be in a dorm for my first year at VCU, and I'm going to look into getting an apartment in the spring so that I'll be able to grab one right as graduating or transferring students move out. If for some reason that isn't possible, I might try to get into one of the apartment-style dorms for upperclassmen for the next school year.
As far as other things in my life go, I'm really behind on updating my website, and I haven't really drawn anything since my last CafePress design. I just haven't felt like it, but it probably isn't such a bad thing. I'll be in artist boot camp starting on August 21st, so it's probably not such a bad idea to take a break so that I'll feel rested and ready to work when classes start. If I feel like it, I might draw my characters a bit before the fall semester starts because I'm not going to let myself draw them at all during the semester, but I'm not going to pressure myself to keep drawing just to stay busy. However, I will try to update my website to add my latest drawings sometime this week.
Oh, I mentioned that I've been playing videogames, right? Well, I put Silent Hill Origins on hold because I started itching to play Final Fantasy X-2 again. I started a New Game Plus, but I kind of rushed through it because I really just wanted to finish getting 100% (I had 99% previously) so that I could get the good ending, but for some reason I didn't get it. I got pissed off about that and started playing Final Fantasy X instead. I started getting really excited about totally owning Yunalesca this time around because she gave me so much trouble in my first game, and I beat her last night. Now I'm at the point of the game where all of the sidequests are available with the airship, but I'm already getting bored with it and I want to play something different. It's frustrating because I really wanted to get that AP trick so that I can over-level Yuna and make her hit harder than Auron, but I'm also impatient about getting the items that allow me to do that trick. I think I'll take a break and play something different and maybe come back to FFX when I'm ready to do that.
Well, that's about all I wanted to write today. I'll try to start updating more regularly. :3
My orientation went well, and so did my brother's orientation. However, with him being a freshman and having the two-day orientation rather than the one-day session that I had, I think his orientation was slightly better than mine. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy a few extra benefits by attending his orientation, though. I was able to get two free VCU t-shirts at his orientation (compared to the zero I received at my own), and I was able to attend the bus tour for parents and guests at his orientation, though I personally think that tour would have been more beneficial to the students than the parents. I was also able to walk around the campus and ride around on the shuttle bus to see how I would be getting to all of my classes while my brother was registering for his classes.
Well, I guess I've written enough about his orientation, but I haven't really said anything about my own orientation. To be honest, I think one of the most exciting parts of my orientation was getting to walk by myself from the art foundation building to one of the dining centers on campus. Of course, it wasn't my first time walking across the campus, but it was the first time I'd done so by myself, and it was pretty exciting to be able to figure out where to go by myself without having the help of another person or a group of people who already know where they're going.
It was also pretty exciting to finally register for my classes; it really started to give me a sense of being an actual student of VCU and not just an applicant. However, it wasn't a very organized process; I was expecting a one-on-one session with an advisor who would tell me what classes to take, but instead we got a computer lab full of students and maybe five advisors who didn't all exactly know what we should have been taking. I'm also a little concerned because one of the credits that should have transferred to VCU didn't transfer, and I don't exactly know why. However, the advisors recommended that I skip that requirement in case it transfers later.
I was impressed that my drawing classes at my community college both transferred, though. They transferred as credits for VCU's drawing studio and project classes, but I'm taking the drawing and project classes at VCU anyway because they'll help me keep full-time status and because I want them. My community college drawing classes were great, but since they were at a community college and not a full-blown art school, there weren't a lot of resources for models and other things like that (even though their new easels are quite nice :3), so I think that I would benefit from a drawing class at VCU.
After my orientation we drove around the neighborhoods where the apartments I was interested in were located, and surprisingly most of them weren't in such great neighborhoods. We ended up eliminating all of the apartments that I hadn't been able to make appointments to see prior to the day of my orientation, plus two of the four appointments I had already made.
The two apartments that we actually looked at were okay, but in the end I decided that the best choice overall would be to get the dorm. A lot of factors went into my decision, but in the end I think the two biggest things it came down to were the question of whether my boyfriend could keep up with his half of the rent without a secure job yet or any backup money, and the fact that I probably wouldn't be happy living in either of the apartments for the whole 3-4 years I'd be at VCU. The apartments only offered 12-month leases, and it would have been either very difficult or very expensive for me to try to find a better apartment later.
So I'm going to be in a dorm for my first year at VCU, and I'm going to look into getting an apartment in the spring so that I'll be able to grab one right as graduating or transferring students move out. If for some reason that isn't possible, I might try to get into one of the apartment-style dorms for upperclassmen for the next school year.
As far as other things in my life go, I'm really behind on updating my website, and I haven't really drawn anything since my last CafePress design. I just haven't felt like it, but it probably isn't such a bad thing. I'll be in artist boot camp starting on August 21st, so it's probably not such a bad idea to take a break so that I'll feel rested and ready to work when classes start. If I feel like it, I might draw my characters a bit before the fall semester starts because I'm not going to let myself draw them at all during the semester, but I'm not going to pressure myself to keep drawing just to stay busy. However, I will try to update my website to add my latest drawings sometime this week.
Oh, I mentioned that I've been playing videogames, right? Well, I put Silent Hill Origins on hold because I started itching to play Final Fantasy X-2 again. I started a New Game Plus, but I kind of rushed through it because I really just wanted to finish getting 100% (I had 99% previously) so that I could get the good ending, but for some reason I didn't get it. I got pissed off about that and started playing Final Fantasy X instead. I started getting really excited about totally owning Yunalesca this time around because she gave me so much trouble in my first game, and I beat her last night. Now I'm at the point of the game where all of the sidequests are available with the airship, but I'm already getting bored with it and I want to play something different. It's frustrating because I really wanted to get that AP trick so that I can over-level Yuna and make her hit harder than Auron, but I'm also impatient about getting the items that allow me to do that trick. I think I'll take a break and play something different and maybe come back to FFX when I'm ready to do that.
Well, that's about all I wanted to write today. I'll try to start updating more regularly. :3
Labels: apartments, art, dorm, drawing, orientation, vcu, videogames, website
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Stress
I've had a rough week. Monday evening my mom and I went shopping, and I discovered that I'm too small to fit a size 2 or 4 in ladies' jeans, and an extra small in an Old Navy skirt is actually a little loose on my hips. That's pretty pathetic, considering I'm not that small. I'm short and petite, but I'm not nearly as tiny as some of the girls that I used to wait on at work. I think I'm starting to see why sizes like XXS and 00 actually exist.
I did find a cute pair of metallic pink flip-flops though, and my mom offered to buy me one of two pairs of shoes that I've been admiring online for a little while. It's either this one or this one. I can't decide which one I really want, though. I might have her buy me one of them and then buy the other pair myself.
Tuesday I started calling about the apartments that I wanted to look at, but only two of my original five choices actually had an available apartment, and one of those two didn't even set up an appointment with me because the apartments were going so fast and it was too far in advance for him to set up an appointment with me. I'm planning to call back about that one (and a few others) tomorrow and see if it's still available.
Two of the four appointments I managed to set up are for two-bedroom apartments. One of those two is almost surely out of my budget and it's fully furnished, but the other one sounds like a better value. One of the appointments is for one of the one-bedroom apartments from my original list, and it's actually the apartment that VCU's off-campus housing representative recommended to me as the best of my original choices, but it wasn't my favorite of the original choices. The other appointment is for a couple of different places, but judging by some of their online listings, I don't know if I'm going to want them or not. They seem kind of dumpy and they don't offer all of the features that I want, but I don't think it'll hurt to just look at them.
I might even end up in a dorm, if I'm not satisfied with any of the apartments I see. I applied for on-campus housing after talking to the housing representatives at VCU about my problems. They said that there was a lot of space left in one of the dorms on the MCV campus, which is about two miles away from my classes, and there's a free shuttle bus that runs between the two campuses. They also said that it would be a good idea to go ahead and sign up because it would be a good backup plan for me.
Living in a dorm might be a better option than an apartment, actually. At this point I think the cost of a dorm with a meal plan would be almost the same as the average costs of living in an apartment and buying groceries every week, and I wouldn't have to worry as much about going out of my budget because I wouldn't be buying groceries regularly. It would be a relatively safe environment for me, and living in a dorm might also make it easier for me to make friends. My boyfriend wouldn't be able to move with me, but I think that there'd be less financial stress on him if I lived in a dorm, too.
I guess I won't know what will happen with my living situation until after I look at the apartments, but I'm glad that I at least have a backup plan if I'm not happy with any of the apartments.
I did find a cute pair of metallic pink flip-flops though, and my mom offered to buy me one of two pairs of shoes that I've been admiring online for a little while. It's either this one or this one. I can't decide which one I really want, though. I might have her buy me one of them and then buy the other pair myself.
Tuesday I started calling about the apartments that I wanted to look at, but only two of my original five choices actually had an available apartment, and one of those two didn't even set up an appointment with me because the apartments were going so fast and it was too far in advance for him to set up an appointment with me. I'm planning to call back about that one (and a few others) tomorrow and see if it's still available.
Two of the four appointments I managed to set up are for two-bedroom apartments. One of those two is almost surely out of my budget and it's fully furnished, but the other one sounds like a better value. One of the appointments is for one of the one-bedroom apartments from my original list, and it's actually the apartment that VCU's off-campus housing representative recommended to me as the best of my original choices, but it wasn't my favorite of the original choices. The other appointment is for a couple of different places, but judging by some of their online listings, I don't know if I'm going to want them or not. They seem kind of dumpy and they don't offer all of the features that I want, but I don't think it'll hurt to just look at them.
I might even end up in a dorm, if I'm not satisfied with any of the apartments I see. I applied for on-campus housing after talking to the housing representatives at VCU about my problems. They said that there was a lot of space left in one of the dorms on the MCV campus, which is about two miles away from my classes, and there's a free shuttle bus that runs between the two campuses. They also said that it would be a good idea to go ahead and sign up because it would be a good backup plan for me.
Living in a dorm might be a better option than an apartment, actually. At this point I think the cost of a dorm with a meal plan would be almost the same as the average costs of living in an apartment and buying groceries every week, and I wouldn't have to worry as much about going out of my budget because I wouldn't be buying groceries regularly. It would be a relatively safe environment for me, and living in a dorm might also make it easier for me to make friends. My boyfriend wouldn't be able to move with me, but I think that there'd be less financial stress on him if I lived in a dorm, too.
I guess I won't know what will happen with my living situation until after I look at the apartments, but I'm glad that I at least have a backup plan if I'm not happy with any of the apartments.
Labels: apartments, dorm, shoes, shopping, vcu
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Busy again
Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been working on my website almost nonstop for the past several days, and when I haven't been working on my website I've been working on the apartment hunt.
I'm currently uploading my website, and after I'm done with that, it's all a matter of testing it to make sure everything works okay, changing the links from my old website, and adding a few extra things (like a 404 error page--I've always wanted to make my own).
The apartment hunt has gone pretty well so far; I browsed VCU's off-campus housing website and found at least fifteen listings right off. I printed them all out and sorted through them, and I easily narrowed the group to my top six listings based on what I need in an apartment. I also called VCU's off-campus student services today because I wasn't sure if the apartments were in good neighborhoods, but the man I talked to said that they were all safe places. All that's left with that is to figure out which one is right for me and.
To be honest though, things are starting to pile up on me again. I haven't received my information packet yet, and I need it in order to do anything else because it contains my VCU ID number. I have to submit my response form to tell them that I do plan to attend VCU, I have to request my final transcripts, I have to take a math placement test (even though I already took Calculus >>), I have to get immunization records, and I have to register for orientation next week, and in order to do any of those things I need either my ID number or that information packet.
To add to the stress, the only orientation dates that are offered to students in the School of the Arts are June 23 and July 7, and I really want to do the June 23 orientation because it's better for my mom's schedule and because I want to look at apartments the next day. A few of my listings state that their apartments go very quickly, and I don't want to be stuck picking through the leftovers after all of the good apartments are taken.
I'm planning to call VCU tomorrow to see if they can give me my VCU ID number over the phone so that I can register for orientation and start calling the apartment owners to see if I can make an appointment to look at their apartments next Tuesday. Hopefully everything will go well. If not, I might be stuck ruining my mom's next big weekend trip. :\
I'm currently uploading my website, and after I'm done with that, it's all a matter of testing it to make sure everything works okay, changing the links from my old website, and adding a few extra things (like a 404 error page--I've always wanted to make my own).
The apartment hunt has gone pretty well so far; I browsed VCU's off-campus housing website and found at least fifteen listings right off. I printed them all out and sorted through them, and I easily narrowed the group to my top six listings based on what I need in an apartment. I also called VCU's off-campus student services today because I wasn't sure if the apartments were in good neighborhoods, but the man I talked to said that they were all safe places. All that's left with that is to figure out which one is right for me and.
To be honest though, things are starting to pile up on me again. I haven't received my information packet yet, and I need it in order to do anything else because it contains my VCU ID number. I have to submit my response form to tell them that I do plan to attend VCU, I have to request my final transcripts, I have to take a math placement test (even though I already took Calculus >>), I have to get immunization records, and I have to register for orientation next week, and in order to do any of those things I need either my ID number or that information packet.
To add to the stress, the only orientation dates that are offered to students in the School of the Arts are June 23 and July 7, and I really want to do the June 23 orientation because it's better for my mom's schedule and because I want to look at apartments the next day. A few of my listings state that their apartments go very quickly, and I don't want to be stuck picking through the leftovers after all of the good apartments are taken.
I'm planning to call VCU tomorrow to see if they can give me my VCU ID number over the phone so that I can register for orientation and start calling the apartment owners to see if I can make an appointment to look at their apartments next Tuesday. Hopefully everything will go well. If not, I might be stuck ruining my mom's next big weekend trip. :\
Labels: apartments, vcu, website
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