First Week of School...Kinda

So, as some of you know, it's autumn here in Wellington now which means I FINALLY started classes!!  Well, I've kind of started classes.  The school set up is a little bit different here than in the States: they run their classes with a lecture and a lab/workshop/tutorial component part for each class (or paper as they call it).  That means that I have lecture one day a week for one hour, and a workshop one day a week for two hours for each class.  Since I'm only taking three classes while I'm over here, I wanted more time for adventuring and I have an theatrical independent study to work on from back home, that means that I'm only in class for four days a week.  I have all of my lectures on Tuesday: five hours straight yay, and then one workshop on Wednesday, one Thursday, and one Friday.  However, it was the first week so that meant that the workshops for two of my classes got canceled--I got done on Wednesday!!  So I went and did something fun on Wednesday night, but before I get into that I'll let you know what kind of classes I'm taking.

First off, I'm taking a Media Script Writing class, a 300 level writing course about how to analyze and write scripts for television and movies.  This was the only class where I had both the lecture and workshop for the first week.  For this class we're going to spend quite a lot of time watching bits of movies, so our lecture is slated for three hours instead of one, even though we won't always be meeting for the full three.  We jumped right into class, talking about our favorite scripts what makes them good and why scripts are written and for whom.  We even got to do a bit of writing already in our workshop class; we were given the task to come up with a scene that was impossible to film and I'm glad to tell you that my lecturer (they don't call them professors here since most of them aren't full-fledged professors) said that I came up with the best idea.  I proposed that the most impossible scene or type of show to film would be a reality show of someone being a CIA agent, or trying to become one.    I was pretty proud of that =)


Next I have a class called Life Writing.  It's basically a creative non-fiction class.  We've only had lecture for that one so I can't give you a solid impression of how the class will go.  I know I'll have to do some interviews, so if anyone wants to have a skype date some time and talk about family history, let me know!


And finally we come to my last class--Modern Drama.  So I thought it was only going to be an english type class, but to my happy surprise we get to do some acting in it too, YAY!!!  We're starting with Ibsen's A Dolls House, which I read last year, and then moving onto Spring Awakening so it'll be nice to get a jump on that since that's in the 2012-13 season for UW-L.

Sings and plays guitar...

So those are my classes, was there something else?  Oh yes you thought I'd forgotten about my fun adventure Wednesday didn't you??  Well too bad you're WRONG!!  How could I forget my awesome adventure??  So as I've mentioned previously, there's the International Arts Festival going on for the next three weeks; part of the festival is this $20 ticket deal where you can get tickets for a show that evening for only (you guessed it) $20.  They sell them from 12:30 until they run out, and boy did they run out fast!  My friend Josh (he's a kiwi in two of my classes) and I went down on Wednesday morning to try and score some tickets for....Death Cab For Cutie!!  Some of you may have heard of them, they're a pretty big indie band from Seattle (the home of all indie bands it seems) that've been around for a decade and a half.  They're a pretty big deal, but this was their first time to New Zealand, and we scored tickets!

...piano...

So after classes were done at 4 we hung out, got dinner and then went to get a good spot in the "mosh pit."  We ended up about four rows from the front, but holy hipster did we miss the dress code.  All around us were skinny jeans, flannels, stockinet caps, and chucks.  We had a good laugh about it since both of us were in shorts and t-shirts.  Anyway, the band came out and the crowd went nuts.  They craziest people around us, however, were the people we least expected.  There were three guys in wife-beaters and sagging pants who screamed their hearts out as soon as they started playing a song.  They sang along with every word, yelled out requests, and continuously told everyone how much they loved Death Cab: it was surreal.

.....AND DRUMS?!?!

The coolest part of the concert, to me, was when the roadies brought out a second drumset a little before the end of the first part of the show.  I was watching it curiously when I see Ben Gibard (lead singer), sling off his guitar and go over to the set. So not only does he sing, play guitar, and piano, but he also plays drums??  I don't think I've ever seen a more versatile vocalist!  The other thing was that it was a ton of fun!!  His back was to me, but I could see the lead drummer, and he was making faces at Gibbard and laughing, it was just a fun jam.  They jammed for about 15 minutes, just drums, when I happen to see the drummer give Gibbard a certain look, they pause for a second. It was one of those moments when you knew they were about to just go wild, and they did.  They just both went crazy on the drums, while the bassist and the other guitarist jammed with them, then Gibbard joined back up on his guitar and then piano.  It was ridiculously amazing.  It had been their first time in Wellington, but they told the crowd that they were so great, such a great vibe, that they would be coming back soon without a doubt.  It was fantastic!  A great way to "end" my first week of school in Wellie.