Lamborghini azurro

Not without a hitch

I was delighted to get my passport in the mail with a big ole visa sticker inside. And in about one week's time too. I'm still overwhelmed with what I have left to do. I sent my form for side trips in, due tomorrow, on Saturday so it should have been there by now. I still need to apply for an international driving permit. Actually, I don't NEED to but I want to, hopefully it won't be a waste of time and money and I'll be able to drive/ride in Italy sometime.

However

It was brought to my attention that my student visa is valid from Jan 28-May 25. That is the time that I will be aboard for LdM school. However, I was planning on hanging around until CCS comes over to Europe for a 3-credit class. Those dates are unknown to me at the moment but I do know that the class starts up after my visa expires. I found that that if I want to stay after my visa and permit of stay expires, I'll have to return to the US and apply for another. BUT I don't need a visa if I'm there for LESS than 90 days usually, like on an unrelated month long tourist-type visit. This second class is not 90 days long. And, I think, it's not a real "class" in a school as far as Italy would know. It SEEMS like it's a traveling expedition that I happen to get CCS credit for. So I'm hoping that I can still travel (like a tourist) around Europe after my student visa has expired.

Not done yet folks.

New year, old habits

Yeah, I'm slacking a bit on posting about my shtuff. Mostly I've been shoveling snow and driving in the snow while at home on break. I'm still preparing for my semester in Italy as well, visa has been applied for, more paper work has been sent in to LdM, and $422 have been converted to €300 (at a rate of of 1.4763000, uhhh). I realized that I'm face with some decisions many don't have the opportunity to have. LdM has some field trips arranged for $300 each and I can only afford two or three and I have to choose, Venice during carnival, Italian/Swiss Alps, Rome, Tuscany, SW cost of Italy, French Riviera. I mean, come on. Look at that list! By the way, I've chosen Venice, Alps and Pompeii.

After a long period of who knows what

It's been two days since the semester ended for me. The Nike studio is over and we'll get the result much later. In January I think. Just refresh, there will be a winning group and "if there's room" the shoes will be prototyped. You know, real shoes! Not that they will be put into production, but the level will be just as if it was ready to be produced.

The last two weeks have been the hardest I've ever had for school. I spent most of my time in 010 of the Walter B. Ford building on campus. I even found the good chair with a divot in the seat that can anchor you when you sleep sitting upright. There were many sleepless nights working on final design and many more working on presentation deliverables. Our 2D and verbal presentation were pretty good I think but all of our physical models were...less than desirable?

Either way, this was one of the most [hard, fun, intense, extensive, lengthy, time consuming] classes I've had. I'm thinking about pursuing an internship at a shoe company so I can see how it goes for real. Time now for me to enjoy my own time and prepare for Florence! Waiting for two more parts to get my student visa so far.

Here's my final design with the uniform that I mostly designed. I say mostly because I had some input from my group. Chris mostly designed the warm-ups and "engineered-sock" to go with the rest of our shoe line. Our design theme was hard armored shell on the outside, soft family-like core on the inside (the sock).

November doesn't matter

The entire month of November has passed and not an entry to be found. Basically, Nike has a bit of significance. I'll tell you in two weeks time how it all went.

Vimeo

To keep up with my Time-based Media, check out my Vimeo account. Nike is taking up a lot of time and I really should be working on that now... goodbye!

Adding more pictures

I've noticed that my blog lacks images. Being visual, I like pictures. I like to look at things, not read the rantings of some poor sap. So here is a picture of my work space.