Oregon 2016

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I will never forget this trip. The places we went, the food we ate, the people we went with. The atmosphere surrounding this whole trip was ecstatic. We did so much within the 7 days we had that when I look back and think about each day, I forget something. I can guarantee that every single person forgot, at least once during the trip, that it was a field study, and not a holiday. That’s just how much fun it was.

Learning on this trip wasn’t a burden or an obstacle. The way it was imbedded in to the whole trip was brilliant. Every place we went to during the week had some significance to our learning, and we probably didn’t even realize at the time. From exploring military bunkers to sucking up shrimp through a tube, it really does seem like we learned a bit about everything Oregon had to offer us.

The books we created on Book Creator were a great way to implement this new-found knowledge in to a fun creative assignment. I really enjoyed creating my book. Others felt like it was a struggle and so did I at the beginning, but about half way through the trip I realized why my book was going well. The reason was that each day before I went to bed I would organize the pages from that day and make it look nice. Why that’s different than other people is that most others just wrote down the information and didn’t worry about the overall look. This meant they had to make it look nice when they got back from Oregon, or in some cases, even over the winter break. This isn’t as good because you can’t remember everything about the trip, and your book will reflect that in the end.

Although the book was one of the main assignments heading in to Oregon, advertisements were another. About two months prior to the trip, we began learning about advertising. I was pretty excited about it because I was pretty confident with my editing and photography skills. We learned all about Logos, Pathos and Ethos, how advertisements are made, different types of ads, the whole deal. Once we were done learning about advertisements, we were assigned the task of creating three of our very own advertisements. One for a local business of our choice, another of a local secret location , and the last being an advocacy ad for what we had been learning in science class, which was earthquakes/tsunamis. These advertisements took weeks of planning and multiple drafts until we ended up with our final products.

A week prior to setting off for Oregon we were told our assignments which included creating our own book, reading and finishing our on-going novel, “The Gospel According To Larry” and creating three more ads. The three ads were as follows. One for a business we would be going to in Oregon, the second for a tourist destination we would be going to, and lastly an advocacy ad for tsunami awareness. Once again I was excited for this, I was now even more confident in my self and was looking forward to taking some awesome pictures and creating some more ads. The ads too were an on-going assignment just like the book, where we would work on them in Oregon and a bit when we got back, but the difference was that for the business ads, we actually went to the businesses and talked to the people that worked there or owned the place. I was really nervous to interview someone who I didn’t even know, and especially someone who worked somewhere that specializes in something I’m not in to. My group was given Cabela’s, and we were all worried especially seeing as we were set to interview on the first day. Before Oregon we prepared our questions to make sure we were ready. The interview actually went really well. We talked to one of the managers and she even brought us upstairs to a conference room. She was happy to answer our questions and was so nice that she even gave us a bag of Cabela’s goodies at the end.

The other two advertisements were much simpler to create and didn’t take as much planning. Our group got Yaquina Head as our tourist destination and as soon as we looked it up as a group I was pumped. I saw the opportunity to snap some cool photos and I realized that even if the weather wasn’t necessarily on our side, it kind of was, because whether it was sunny or cloudy it would still look cool. I think I enjoyed making the tourist ad the most out of the three because I enjoyed the photography aspect. I was pretty proud of the shots I got and my ad turned out pretty good (Apparently not in Ms. Willemse opinion though). The apps I used to create my advertisements included SuperImpose, Phonto, SnapSeed, and probably a couple others.

One of my favourite things about the trip was the food. The first day was a little rough and I was worried for what was to come. The Chinese buffet kinda killed my vibe the first day and I think did the same for most people, but I think it’s safe to say that Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes redeemed themselves later on. Hands down, my number one most happy moment of the trip was eating at Nisa’s Thai Kitchen. The food was absolutely sublime (Jesus I sound like Rachael Ray). Anyways, part of why it made me so happy was the atmosphere. The restaurant is pretty small and when we got in, I didn’t catch a seat beside any of my friends. Then a miracle happened, two spots were open right beside Mr. Hughes and me and Kai took them. I didn’t think about it, but because we were sitting beside the person who had ordered everything (Hughes) we would get the food pretty much first. The best thing I ate the whole trip was at Nisa’s. There was a dish consisting of chicken with an amazing peanut sauce. I kid you not I must’ve eaten at least one whole serving of it because I had just didn’t stop. Leaving that place I feel like Mr. Hughes, Kai and me are a little closer.

Oregon was just one big experience. I mean, it had its ups and downs, but overall I had too much fun. Hanging out with my new friends, getting to see some absolutely breathtaking sights, never in my life will I forget this trip. Thanks Willemse and Hughes.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY OREGON BOOK

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