This is what it means to be a [British] Designer

I am a Designer.  

This is what they've titled our first project at UAL but from all the conversation going on in this room that is not about design--it's like what I imagine sitting in a classroom in Foundations year must have been like.  

Because everyone is on Facebook. I'm writing this blog post. Our tutors? Professors? Whatever-the-hell-they-call-them-here? Lost in the wind? There are, there must be seventy-five people in this classroom. It's run like an open study period. They call this independent and wonderful. I need some direction, a godawful deadline. For pity's sake, this isn't even what it's like in the real world. Intern or not, I still had to meet with my supervisor at 4PM everyday, deadline tomorrow or no, we needed to check up, keep going, make sure we were on the right track. It's like... Is this the difference between being a Brit and and American? Are we even still in class? Can I go home?  

Listen, we flew in from Barcelona this morning. But more on that later. And it was like this last week, and it looks like it's going to be like this again next week. Our tutor got sick. Aren't there contingency plans in effect for things like this? Your semester is hardly 10 weeks long surely there is more of a plan than let's grab these two guys off the street to handle seventy-five individual projects--it's very different than Parsons.  

And I want to see everyone's work! Gotta check out the international competition both to prove I'm actually worth my salt, and to be inspired by some ideas from across the pond. There is only so much trolling through uber slick, profesh bits of design one can do on tumblr, pinterest, and behance before you start bleeding incompetence and jealousy. I need a little pick me up in the form of designs just as unrealized as mine. Have you ever heard of a crit, UAL? Oh, well, perhaps. But with 75 people, how would that even go?  

There's no place to hide at Parsons. Here, I find dark corners of, I didn't do my work because I didn't have to everywhere. It's weird, and I don't like it.  

But there are plusses. Because even though I have classes Mondays and Fridays--really, who's idea was that--all of this lack of expectation, and lameness of the programme means there is plenty of time left to explore, and heaps of opportunities to spend my money.  

And boy, that's been fun.