Project Parsons

photography by Angie Muldowney. Love the aged look. It's a very peaceful polaroid.

Round 1, Game 4. FIGHT!

Yes dear fellow readers, I am charging into my fourth year at my beloved school aka fashion school at Parsons in the Big Apple and am set to graduate spring 2009.
Round 1 out of 15 weeks has commenced. I came out pretty unscathed and surprisingly quite happy with my classes:

Fashion Portfolio: Yes, if you must know, this was the first class I had this year and no you won't be able to introduce yourself and say who your favourite fashion designers are anywhere else unless you go to my school. And they'll take you seriously when you start explaining why Gucci is your favourite designer. LOL My teacher is a younger version of my high school art teacher, Ms Chelin with the crayola colour clothes and earrings. She's super cute and for all the fashion know it alls, Doo Ri used to be her roommate. Anyway this class is relatively one of my normal classes where I just do whatever they make you do within the fashion industry. I'll be doing a lot of drawing and composing themes and concepts for fashion collections most of the time.

I encountered the WEIRDEST small world experience ever at my first class: I introduced myself to a girl in the class and I ask her where she's from. Turns out she's also from Hong Kong, went to HKIS AND get this, SHE LIVES IN REPULSE BAY. Not only does she live in Repulse Bay, where my grandmother lives and where I stayed this past summer, she lives in the exact same apartment complex: just two buildings away from me while her best friend lives in the same building as me. WEIRD. She also knows two other HKers I took classes with last year. She also knows the store I interned at this past summer. Its a small small small world.

Mandarin: Out of 12 of so kids so far (I'm anticipating for people to drop out): three Koreans, one Japanese and the rest are white. Everyone is so adorable: ba, bu, bi.... lol. We sounded retarded reciting the pinyin. Oh well. I've never laughed so much in the first class before. My mandarin teacher is pretty neat: she reminds me of my mom.. nice but strict.
I came out of this class pretty hyped. I bought the required $116 worth of textbooks and audio cds (T-T) and started looking up words in my character book to try and translate chinese text I saw online. Really now my motivation for learning Mandarin is to be able to one day type to HKers in Chinese, to read the HK street style blog comments (yes I am nosy... I want to know what other people are saying about a certain outfit) and to improve my Canto.
I think that perhaps Mandarin would be 'easier' in a way for me because I enjoy seeing how the traditional characters are built up to mean other things. Plus they're a bunch of abstract pictures and as an artist, I think I'm a little more in tune with my visual side. But we'll see. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have to speak to Cantonese people in Chinese because my Mandarin will surpass my Canto. Now that would be the day. lol.
Eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize.
"Wei??? Wo jiao Samantha! ni ne?"
I called my mom right after class with my few lines of Mandarin. It was quite pathetic. :P
Oh, I can now read one of the song titles from a Justin Lo cd: Good person. LOL. Just don't ask how I learned the '好' character.

Senior Seminar: I have two senior core thesis classes. We ended up going to Madison Square Garden to introduce our thesis to each other in a 'creative' way within a minute. I just got up there and yelled my thesis proposal out to them because it was so friggin loud at the park. I'm crossing my fingers for this class: it's going to define a lot of what I do this whole year.

Youth Culture and Fashion Seminar: Yep like any other liberal arts class it's a lot of discussing, reading and writing on youth culture and how their ideologies are reflected in how they dress. It'll be covering groups such as the Brit Mods, punks, Goth, Asian Kawaii culture and retro/vintage. I'm a little scared for this class because I have issues with just sitting still and listening to a person lecture to me but we'll see. We have to write a final paper and I've already decided to do something about Asian youth culture. KEKEKE It gives me a perfect excuse to dig up all those street style pics from HK. HAAHA. I did not plan this at all.

Senior Thesis Core 2: Monday was Labour Day so I haven't taken this class.. but it's my PHD philosophy sustainability teacher who is steering that class and whom I really admire so I'm pretty much okay with it. He has a friggin PHD in philosophy and intertwines sustainability and design into everything. COOL

Business and Entrepreneurship: Er this is an online course so I have no idea what's going on. :P

Yep, a lot of my senior classmates are taking it super easy with only four courses. I have a friend who is taking only the two senior thesis courses and a screenprinting and a knitting class. LOL. Talk about taking it easy.
I'm trying to plan ahead by seeing what skills I'm missing and could 'nurture' in Spring 2009 prior to graduation. I want to continue Mandarin next semester if all goes well during the fall year, and take perhaps a couple of business classes. I don't want to be totally oblivious to everything if I ever start on my own.

So here's to another round of school. My last. I'm gonna try and savour it and have fun in New York when I still can because after this, I'm screwed. :P
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What to do after graduating? I know I want to go back to Hong Kong some time. I know I don't really want to go back to Toronto anytime soon in my youth: no offense to anyone who lives there or is a Canadian but when I go back as happy as I am being with the friends I cherish dearly, I just feel a little of me dies. It's a little too quiet and too comfortable in a way that does not compel me to want to do something significant with my life. I just end up sitting back in the car or at Destiny or at church and do.. nothing. Anyway who knows, maybe I'll end up moving back to Toronto to open a menswear store with my cousin at P mall. LOL. Someone needs to dress the boys at home.

Hm as much as I hate this excuse that every graduate uses, I want to travel. Not for a very long time: two months to cover Tokyo, Seoul and HK/China. Then I'll be a happy camper. Traveling back to HK this summer has really made me rethink and shape my ideas on gender and dress. And then I'm thinking of staying in NY for one or two more years to get some work experience. Probably not longer than this because I won't be able to save money here.
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MSN Convo with Rin on some guy:

<>< RINA <><: ohh he IS a pretty boy
<>< RINA <><: i see it
<>< RINA <><: yeah, totally gay drama
<>< RINA <><: *j sorry not gay
§åM: HAHAHAHAHA
<>< RINA <><: i swear ididn't mean gay
§åM:OMG RIN
<>< RINA <><: seriuosly! typo!!
§åM: BAAAHAHA
YOU HANG AROUND JER TOO LONG


LOL.

In the meanwhile, Heroes Season 3 starts Sept 22 and Project Runway is half over with. :D