( Orientation Week - Day 2 | Sept 7th )

So it was my second day at CalArts and we had an International Students Breakfast Orientation at Langley Hall as early as 8.30 am and over here, I finally got to meet Penelope Weston !! She's the international student advisor who of course, worked so hard to get me and all the other international students to come to CalArts, and she's such a nice lady.

After the orientation, we had a writing placement exam for all the BFA and Graduate students for whom english is a second language, so I had to take the exam. We were told to write an essay on why did we choose to come to CalArts and who or what inspired us to be an artist, so I just wrote away and it was fun writing about stuff like this ! Most of the time, I find out more about myself when writing about my own life's story, and it's really crazy because things that I don't usually notice of myself starts unraveling as I write more. It's kinda like a subconscious thing where you know it but you don't realize it until somebody points it out and slap you on the face.

After the exam, we were told to expect an email on the following day or two from Hilary Darling who teaches language arts for the School Of Critical Studies. It's gonna be an email regarding the decision on whether or not we have to take an extra English class depending on the level of our written english .Few days later, as expected, I received an email from Hilary and thankfully I didn't have to take an English class ! Which was good because I can focus more on my own classes and take another critical study class.

Then there was this library orientation and tour from 11 am to 12 noon, and then we headed to the Modular Theater at 1 pm for the BFA's first year experience talk by Leo F. Hobaica Jr, who's the assistant dean of CalArts, a character animation faculty member, and also our teacher for Color & Design.

The talk that Leo F. Hobaica gave was MIND BLOWING !! It was really inspiring and it was all about "NOW". Leo was repetitively saying that if there's a time for anything, it is NOW, and that how much money our parents have had to pay to get us here, and every minute we're spending right here at this moment must be spent wisely, and it is NOW that we start spending it wisely. It was pretty repetitive but cool at the same time, because Leo's whole point was basically all about giving your very best at this very moment and not to worry too much about the future. He also told everyone who was in the hall, to speak their name out loud all at the same time on the count of 3. So he counted, "1..2...3!" and everybody said their name out loud together. You can pretty much imagine how it sounded like. All different names coming together at once. It was like jiberish, but cooler, cuz it contained everybody's name in it. Again, Leo's main point was that nobody could live alone, and he told us about the 3 people that we should really thank in life. First, your parents, second, your teacher, and the third, who's yourself. He was saying how everybody needed each other and he told us that we wouldn't be able to say everybody's name at once if we tried. It has to come in a whole with everybody together as one. When everybody connects, that's where the magic happens.

Leo is really an amazing amazing guy and I can't wait to sit in his first class !