fbpx Abroad in Baltimore #2 — PCA

Abroad in Baltimore #2

MICA building2

First Week, First Classes

Wow. Just, Wow.

This is the overwhelming sentiment as this first week of classes at MICA comes to an end.

After the initial thrills of Orientation week, a mixture of excitement and nervousness churned in my stomach. As I stepped onto campus for the first week of classes, I was thrust into stark awareness of the simple fact that I knew next to no one.

This probably should not have been as shocking as it was, but after two years of knowing the majority of people I was in class with, having to start all over seemed a daunting task. Luckily, Orientation week had helped me bond with the lovely group of exchange students I spent most of my free time on campus with, but since none of us shared any classes, I was flying solo.

This Fall semester, I have enrolled in a total of 6 courses ensuring that most of my time at MICA will be spent either in class or doing homework for said class. So far, the differences between French and American art school have been minimal, as regardless of where you are, homework is indeed universal.

The first classes were mainly spent on the syllabus and giving a general overview of the class, but the little taste of content I got was enough to get me looking forward to really digging into the semester. Coming down from the perfect freedom of summer, reality quickly set in as all but one class was quick to hand out a first assignment due next week.

I’d been talking to a friend recently about the phenomenon that is summer break. Because we’ve been students for the vast majority of our lives, summer break just doesn’t feel like real life, and how real life only seems to happen when we’re in class.

Summer is akin to a dream we wake up from, and this first week of classes was a gentle, yet firm awakening. I could already tell that it wouldn’t be an easy semester. At MICA studio classes are not only homework intensive but also six hours long, and I have four of them. It’s possible I’m a bit of an academic masochist when it comes to choosing my course load, but as the deadline to drop a course is still a few weeks away, I felt I should give all six a fair chance.

Aside from classes I did manage to have some fun and explore Baltimore with a friend from my exchange student group, her name is Emma and she’s from Spain. We traversed one of the nearby neighborhoods and did some light window shopping before my evening class began.

So far hanging out with my fellow exchange students has been one of my favorite things about my MICA experience. There’s only five or so of us, so we’ve gotten to know each other well. Our exchange coordinator did a great job of arranging the orientation schedule so that we could have some organized and unorganized fun.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rest of the semester shapes up. As always, half my heart is still in Paris and I hope all of you at PCA are savoring these last weeks of warmer weather.

Until next time,
Ariel

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