Being on this island paradise has been one of the best experiences of my life. Yesterday we went to the famous Golden Beach and I sat there staring at sea in awe of how beautiful it was. Living in a place like this, sometimes I forget that I have to work. When I came into class today, it was a reminder how much work was still left to do. We have a documentary to complete within twelve days. Progress had to be made today or else our deadline wouldn’t be reached. This made today into one of the longest days I have had at the school.
The 3d team worked on unwrapping their models and preparing them for the final render. The research team helped Thomas shoot some additional footage for the documentary. They informed me that they saw donkeys when they went up the hill. The video team worked on our rough edit of the documentary. Due to the amount of work that needed to be done, Thomas thought it would be a good idea for there to be two separate edits of the a roll, one edit done by Andy, and one edit done by Osvaldo and I. We stayed at the school until 6 pm. I was one of the last students to leave.
We did get to have a little break to celebrate Albert’s daughter Delaney’s 11th Birthday. Albert bought a delicious chocolate cake that was paired with vanilla ice cream. The cake was different than the ones from Indy. It had three layers; two of them were chocolate and the bottom layer was soft cake. We all sat around and enjoyed each others company by the pool.
The day didn’t end there though. Later in the evening, Julia, Ashley, Thomas, and I continued to shoot more footage around the island. For about an hour, we got a quite a few beautiful shots. The rest of the group did different things. Riley and Mandy stayed at the hotel. Cynthia, Jiachi, Wen, and Andy went into town for dinner. This group came across an art gallery opening and a concert by a German artist.
Something I will miss here is being able to see all the colors of sunset bathe over the white buildings of Paros. It seems like Parikia itself came to life that night. We headed to the town square and enjoyed some gelato. As I sat there, it amazed me how busy the island was for being 10:30pm on a Monday night. Back in Indianapolis, I can remember walking through the city streets on a Monday and barely seeing a soul. I hope to have more nights like these here on the island before I leave.
Efharisto!
-Sheheryar Ahsan