Seattle Cultural Trio Trip

I went on another cultural trip with the Trio Program last week. A bunch of Trio students took a bus up to Seattle. The trip was smack dab in the middle of finals week and, to tell you the truth, I probably should not have gone. I felt like I really needed a break from the stress. I took my laptop and books with me, so I could study on the bus ride, but I really didn't get a whole lot done.

It was a good opportunity to get out of my shell and interact with other students. A couple of the same people were on the bus that were on the riverboat cruise, so that made it easier. I made a connection with a guy who is involved in the Viticulture program, who makes wine at the school. I'm hoping that the next time they make a batch that they will let those of us in the DTC program, who are pursuing carreers in graphic design,  make the labels. I also connected with an attractive girl who does modeling and is really into Steam Punk. She gave me her card and said she would be glad to do a shoot with me. This will go really well in my portfolio. If I hadn't forced myself out of my comfort zone a little bit, I never would have made connections like this.

Once again, I highly recommend joining some sort of school group, even if it's not the Trio Program. I believe it is paramount to our success that we branch out and make new friends and connections.

When we got to Seattle, the first thing we did was go on the Seattle Underground Tour.

It was interesting, the way the tour guide presented it. I had been on the tour before, but I remembered it as being really boring. This guy was both entertaining and informative. I got some cool pictures too.

After the underground tour, we went on a "Duck Boat" tour.

The duck boat was an amphibious vehicle. We had a very entertaining tour guide. As we drove around the Seattle area, we learned all kinds of interesting facts about the history and culture of Seattle. The duck boat also gave us a tour of lake Washington.

While cruising around the lake, we got to learn about the history of Lake Washington.

After the duck boat tour, we went and had an awesome dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Great food and interesting conversation. I felt like I had perhaps made some new friends, which is never an easy thing for me to do. At the very least, I made some good contacts to help build my portfolio and I was able to quit stressing out so bad over finals and just relax and enjoy a beautiful day.

Culture blog catch up "The Riverboat Cruise"

I've got some catching up to do. I've been so busy with finals that I haven't felt that I had the time to get anything down in this blog. Part of the problem is that I am a perfectionist. I feel like everything that I do has to be polished, rather than just getting down my thoughts and experiences, like I suppose you are supposed to do when writing a blog. So... I am going to try and remedy that. I am going to try and write about my life and my experiences, for good or ill, without making a big production about it.

I have recently been on a couple of school trips, sponsored by the Trio Program. The Trio Program is something that I would highly recommend anyone coming from prison and transferring to, or starting out at a college campus. Coming from prison, you would automatically qualify, due to your history of low income. The Trio Program helps you with mentoring, tutoring, early registration, and many other services. There job is to keep you in school and assist you in any way they can.

These trips were sponsored by the school in order to enrich our cultural awareness. I suppose that some of that occurred, here and there... but, most of all, we just had fun. The first trip I went on was a riverboat cruise. It was one of those old school paddle boats.

The captain spoke about the history of the Columbia and snake river as we paddled down it. Honestly, the thing that I got the most out of, was learning to communicate with other students. Getting to know other people, from other walks of life, can be a big challenge to someone who has spent their whole life on the streets, or locked up. Feeling comfortable and confident enough to approach and make friends with "normal people" is a skill that takes some work and getting used to. I strongly believe that it is an integral part of learning to become a citizen and productive member of society. I would encourage anyone coming from a similar background as mine to involve yourself in school groups. Even if you feel uncomfortable at first, force yourself into social situations that will improve your people skills and allow you to make new friends. I believe that you have to learn to hang out with the kinds of people that you want to become like. For me, this means stepping way out of my comfort zone. All in all, it was a great trip. Great food, cool scenery, a little increase in cultural awareness, and a good honing of the social skills. In my next blog, I will tell you about the Seattle trip we took. for now, it's back to studying for finals.