Yes, I am not the only one starting on a higher education adventure. This week, the freshman set upon Evanston with their leggings, jersey-made EVERYTHING and flip flops (not too mention the embarrassingly short jeans shorts which apparently are all the rage at the moment). All over Evanston you can see frazzled parents and clueless youngsters clutching their Target accessories and IKEA furniture while praying a cop doesn't ticket them for double parking. I almost fell over when I saw oceans of students wearing Northwestern University Class of '14 shirts! Who graduates in 2014?!?! What does you mean you don't know what a VCR is or how to work a tape player?!?! Crazy.
In order to earn my stipend, I must fulfill my Graduate Assistantship which means I will work in a design shop (Lighting, Costume or Scenic). My GA will be with the Costume shop. Although I am not scheduled for assisting until Spring, I spent Orientation week learning hand stitches, how to use a sewing machine and the layouts of the various costume storage rooms. We also rented a van and drove to downtown Chicago to explore the many and vast fabric stores. I felt like I was on Project Runway even though my skill level barely qualifies me to sew on an ornamental button.
This is our lovely van that was rented for our adventure. The girl in purple is Sally and she is a 2nd year Costume Designer while the man barely seen in the van is David, a fellow first year director.
All 1st year Directors and Designers must take a series of safety classes including How To Use A Fire Extinguisher. Using a fire extinguisher is fairly simple although the thought of having to identify which fire extinguisher to use depending on the type of fire makes me nervous! Thankfully, there are only two kinds of fire extinguishers in our building so we only had to practice with those.
The various kinds of fire extinguishers (ooo! ahh!)
Me, using a fire extinguisher full of pressurized water.
Yu, 1st Year Scenic Designer, putting out a grease fire with a CO2 fire extinguisher. Since she is about 4' 11" and weighs close to 100 pounds in the rain, she had to drag the extinguisher Backdraft style to the flames.
Anya, 1st Year Lighting Designer, and John, 1st Year Director, teaming up to fully extinguish a wood pile. These pictures fail to show how extremely windy and cold the fire pit was that day so in actuality no one wanted to put out our only heat source!
The next day, we had a 4 hour CPR and First Aid Training session including how to use an AED machine (Automated External Defibrillator). It was very stressful and just another reminder why I worship the nurses in my family :) To make matters worse, the balloon lungs on my dummy were not hooked up correctly so the chest would not rise and fall. It was the only time I've ever been trained so I have to wait for a heart attack victim to fall before me in order to find out if I was compressing and ventilating properly. Thank God for the Good Samaritan Law! Eat your leafy green vegetables folks!
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