First Week at Uni

As of this week, I am officially a student at University Technology Sydney.  During this autumn semester I will be taking three classes – illustration, furniture design, and strategies for interior design. I’m definitely excited to learn more about the design industry here in Australia.  Classes seem to be a lot different here then back home in  the states.  We only meet once a week for 3 or 4 hours (I’m only going to school on Monday and Tuesday!!) and there are only a couple projects/assignments in each.  The kids and teachers in my classes seem to be fascinated with the fat that I am American, asking the typical, what’s different about this? And have you noticed that..?  They then of course link my California background with Beverly Hills and Hollywood – not the first assumption of this nature.  School is only about a 5 or 10 minute walk from my apartment which is very convenient, since simply getting to class can sometimes be difficult.  I have my Monday morning illustration class with Jenna which is nice – this class is going to be very laid back considering we just paint with different techniques for a few hours once a week.  My furniture class might be somewhat difficult because it is for level 3 students (not sure how I was eligible to enroll, but I did) and we have to design a foam chair for a furniture contest and present it to a panel of judges.  I do not know much about furniture development or construction, but I am excited to learn more; my teacher seems really awesome and eager to help as well.  The interior design class will probably be my favorite considering it is my main interest.  It's a beginner class and we have some really cool projects like designing a hotel room and coffee shop.  I can tell it is going to be a lot of work but I'm really excited for the challenge.  I have to admit that it’s nice to finally get into a schedule and calm down on the tourist/partying activities.  While all of that has been a blast, I know feel like I am actually living in Sydney and comfortable with my surroundings.  There’s a few welcoming activities planned in the weeks coming up that I am also looking forward too.  That’s about all I have to report on for the first couple days at Uni, not too exciting but after all it is the reason I am here so I figured it should be mentioned.  Let’s just hope I can stay focused long enough to create some awesome projects (pronounced PROjects here in Aus) for my design classes.