Alice House Living

Hey everyone.

If you're expecting to see pictures of beautiful, outside Savannah, it's not in this post. I've done a lot of walking through the historic district but I didn't have my camera with me. I was mostly trying to take it all in. So, due to that, and the fact that I've been super busy / stressed, random pictures I've taken around my apartment will have to do for this first Savannah / film school blog post.

This is my apartment. It is called The Alice House and is located on 455 Montgomery Street. It really is incredible. It has three bedrooms, a utility room, kitchen, living room, hallway and two bathrooms.

It's so big I don't know what to do with it. I'm still working on decorating it / organizing my room (which I don't have a good picture of yet).

This is Long Li. He's been in America ten days now. He likes Bruce Lee, American movies / food and using the f-word. He's one of the coolest people I've ever met. I've spent a few hours now in the past few days talking to Long. Every time we talk, there is a decent communication gap. He doesn't always understand me and I don't always understand him. But I feel like we both always learn something each time we talk.

He just wondered into my room a few hours ago and we talked about girls, roller coasters, rock music, Harry Potter and what it is to be brave.

I love this guy. It's only been four days and already I feel like I've learned so much from him. Looking forward to the rest of the year.

This is Tom. His Chinese name is Jingwei Dang. Much like Long, he also has only been in America ten days. He is a little shyer than Long (who often wanders out into the night by foot in search of a pool table to play on) but is equally as great. I've talked to Tom just as much as Long. I think he is easier to understand and he seems to pick up on things faster. He's a really nice guy.

Tom has taught me a lot about China and how oppressive the living there can be (though he still loves it because it is his home). The Chinese government controls a lot of the media that its citizens have access to. For example, they only allow twenty American movies into the country a year and sites like Google, Facebook and Youtube are all banned from China's internet.

So I can't say how happy I was to help Tom and Long set up Facebook accounts yesterday with my friend Erich when we finally got our internet set up.

I'm excited to be living with Tom and spending more time being his roommate.

My last roommate is Rodrigo Uribe. He was born in Mexico but lived most of his life in Cleveland, Ohio. Rodrigo, like Tom and Long, is a really cool guy. He's the only other guy in the house who speaks fluent English other than me so it's nice to have him around as a solid for communication. He is studying visual effects (such as CGI) and how to use that in film. It's a pretty exciting field. I'm eager to see what he can come up with and possibly work with him.

The other guy you see in the picture above is Erich Burchfield. Erich isn't a roommate but is a friend Rodrigo and I met at orientation. He is also in visual effects and is an interesting guy. He was one of the first people here in Savannah to really befriend me and make this giant transition a little easier. So I'm thankful to him for that.

Well that is it for now. I promise to have more updates soon with actual pictures of Savannah. It's really a beautiful and amazing place. My life has already changed a lot in the past few days. I hope I have the time to help you see how and what I'm learning here through both pictures and writing.

More to come soon.