So basically a year ago, I told you that I was going to this Graphics Camp for a week...and then I never mentioned it again once I got back. I haven't mentioned anything for the past few months though. -__-" (I just still don't really feel like blogging, I guess? I don't know; it's more like, there are other things I could be doing instead now...like watching stuff on Youtube. OTL)
But yeah, I figured I'd get around to it now before I totally forget about my whole experience. :P
Camp was fun. We even started off the trip with a bang. Jeffy came over to pick me up while I was frantically trying to stuff everything into my bags because I decided to finish packing at the last minute. And then we had to turn back around after we had left 15 minutes later because I forgot to pack sleeping close. -__-" And then Jeffy decided to go 100mph since we were on a quiet deserted road and his car basically broke down after we got off the interstate to get some lunch because of that. We basically had the car in neutral while we drifted to the gas station that was thankfully right next to the interstate.
Jeffy called his dad to see if he knew what was wrong after trying to see what was wrong with the car himself, and parents ended up coming to get us and driving us to the camp after putting Jeffy's car in a different location and calling a towing company on the way. The ride up was kind of quiet as Jeffy sulked after his parents berated him for going 90mph (cuz he definitely wasn't going to tell them the real truth, lol) in his old car.
We honestly thought that we were going to get to camp late since the check-in time was from 3-4, and it was already three when Jeffy's parents showed up, but we somehow managed to get there in time. :) But either way, since Jeffy's parents didn't know that he was driving me there, too, we lied and said that we ran into each other with my other friends who were also going to camp and that he offered to give me a ride since he noticed that car car was packed, so I texted Emily and Jeffy texted Alexis to tell them to tell the people at camp that we were going to be arriving late while also telling them about our alibi if Jeffy's parents ask about my friends.
Lol, now that I think about it, we had so much lying and scheming going on, it was a bit ridiculous. :P
So, we checked in, and it turned out that I didn't have a roommate because the way that the rooms were situated involved two rooms combined with a bathroom connecting them together. Each room has two beds, and the room that was connected with mine had two of my friends from HOCO. The reason why I got my own room was because Emily and Alexis's bathroom door's lock was broken and they didn't feel comfortable living with strangers who could easily come into their room and steal their stuff, so the camp people asked if it was okay if I lived in the adjoining room and they were okay with that since they knew me (and I didn't have a say since I wasn't there, lol).
After we waited for one more person to arrive--there was only 10 people who came in all, it was a surprise to all of us at how evenly split it was between guys and girls, lol--we went to go eat dinner, but it turned out that the dining room was already closed, so we ended up walking around campus trying to find somewhere to eat that would take our meal card. In the end, we went to Subway and had to pay for our own meals.
Once done with eating, we went back to our part of campus where our rooms were at. What's funny about the place was that, unlike most places where you're locked out of a building, our place was locked on the inside. You had to have a card that only teachers and PA's had to swipe to open the doors to let us out of the building and swipe again to get into the building behind it that was where our rooms were at.
Anyway, the building had its own rec center/hangout place. It was movie night, so we finally agreed to watch "Coming to America" since no one had watched it yet. While we were waiting for some of the student staff to set up the movie, we went around the room and introduced ourselves, and afterwards, the girls had set up the ping-pong table while the guys played billiards. In the end, the guys quit playing billiards and played ping-pong, getting super competitive, which made it less fun for the girls. :/
Then it was 11 and we had to go back to our rooms to shower and get ready for bed. We had to wake up at seven the next morning, which I wasn't really looking forward to since I usually went to bed around one or two. But I woke up nonetheless thanks to Eriko, the girl PA.
We went to a different building for breakfast and then went to what was basically the Graphic's room where we spent the majority of our mornings and afternoons in designing and creating things. I really liked the room although it was way too cold for my liking, but it made sense since the room consisted of four rows full of 27" iMac computers and rolly chairs.
I have to tell you, after experience a huge HD screen like that all week, it was hard not to see the appeal of an iMac and wanting one myself. -__-"
In that room, using Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and/or Photoshop, we all created our own designs for metal water bottles, stickers, foldable boxs, hats, shirts, posters, and pages for a book. In another building across campus, we got to see how to make the plates for the stickers and the machine that used the plate to create and cut our stickers (which was a lot) and transfer our designs from a pieces of paper onto other objects and cut out perforated holes to make our boxes.
It was really cool and interesting to see how to do everything, especially since we got to help take part in every process of everything that we did.
Check out my t-shirt! I still wear it to bed, lol. It hasn't faded at all.
Then, for dinner, we would go to a different dining hall or building depending on what we wanted after the first few days when we found out that we could use our meal cards to eat out at some of the restaurants around campus. And since we had to pay for our own dinner the first night that we came, the people in charged of the program told us that they would pay for ice cream for us, so we got to go to Cold Stone and get free ice cream, which most of us saved for later since we just ate dinner at Einstein's beforehand.
After dinner, we always had something planned, which usually had us in the rec room for the rest of the night until curfew. On the second night, we had a mandatory karaoke night, which meant that all of us had to sing at least one song on the Wii. It was hilarious watching Ian and Spencer especially since they both really got into it, and Spencer was always dancing and doing these funny moves whenever he sang.
After we got tired of that, we went outside and played Capture the Flag. Alexis and I were picked as the captains since we were the most quiet of the group while they were explaining everything. What I realized later was that I had unknowingly picked all of the athletes to be on my team. Kamaria plays lacross and volleyball, Eriko plays soccer, and Grayson and Dylan are football players. I was the only nonathletic player, and I was the leader, lol. But I was mainly a figurehead since we all came up with the strategy together.
We hid our flag, which was Eriko's bright yellow tank top on a door handle in a corner at the far end of our side of the field. I hid in a bush right in front of it, Kamaria hid behind the dumpster that was second closest to our flag, Dylan climbed up a tree to act as a lookout, and Eriko and Grayson stood in front of our jail, which was a brick grill.
While Eriko, Grayson, and eventually Dylan went to our opponent's side to look for their flag, I was moving around behind the bush, being eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was really bad. When I get a mosquito bite, it swells up to at least the size of a quarter, and by the end of the night, I had over 50 bites on my arms and legs. I really regretted not changing out of my shorts and into pants earlier.
And when I finally was called out from hiding behind the bush to help get Grayson out of jail, Kevin pushed me too hard and I lost my balance and fell on the concrete floor, scraping both of my knees so much that I started bleeding. I went to the bathroom and cleaned it up and joined the game a little bit later and eventually got out of jail with Dylan's help, and we managed to win in the end. :)
By that time, we were all tired and dripping in sweat (except for Spencer, Jeffrey, and Emily who had been in our jail for a long time, lol). I was so sore for the next three days, it really sucked, but it was funny too. I really need to work out more.
I always say that I like to run, but I never go running... and all I've been doing lately is staying in my room all day on my laptop or in bed reading. I can really see the amount of flab I've been gaining over the summer. ;__; But it's so damn hot outside that I never want to do anything once I step outside!
...I'm digressing.
Besides designing different stuff like stickers and boxes, we also learned how to make three different types of books: spiral, perfect, and the double-loop. The teachers had taken pictures of all of us when we had karaoke night and used it to design the cover of the books. The rest of the class had to design at least one page for the inside of the book. I was too busy working on all of my other designs that I didn't really know what to submit for my page, so I just created a crosswords puzzle using words that we learned in class.
For the rest of our nights, after going swimming and playing wallyball (which had their own drama, but I don't really wanna type it all out), we learned how to play ERS and quickly became good enough at it that our games were always super intense and funny. It was great. Emily, who is never competitive, is a boss at the game, and Ian, who was the one to teach us how to play, always roars whenever he losses, which is how he got the nickname Rex. XD And Kevin is usually a beat behind everyone, so he'll be one of the first out, and whenever he realizes that there's a sandwich, he'll slap his hand down on top of everyone else's even though it was over by then.
It was really fun. On our last night together, almost all of us went back to the rec room and played ERS for the last time, and it was a blast and kind of sad at the same time since we all knew that it would be our last time playing ERS with each other. I found it also really sad because every day, I would get to know some of the other campers better, and it sucked that we had such a short time to hang and play together.
The next day, we had to wake up early and put our stuff in the van to go to the Rock, which was this graphics company a couple of hours away that we were going to have a tour of before going home. We ate breakfast at our usual cafeteria place before we left and slept in the van for the majority of the ride up there.
It was interesting. After getting a brief slideshow, we split up into two groups--a girl group and a boy group--and got a tour of the place. Afterwards, we had lunch and got to listen to some of the workers' stories of what they did and how they got there.
Then it was time to leave. Jeffy's mom picked us up from there and dropped me off home. The ride back wasn't even that long since the Rock is actually somewhat near Warner Robins. It was around a 45 minute ride.
So yeah, this is a year late, but that's basically what happened at Graphic Design Camp at Georgia Southern.
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