Some Neat Things by Karla Monterrosa: Summer of '12

I'm two weeks into my last year in school, and as nights get longer and my sleep schedule starts to crumble, I must admit this might not be as scary as I thought/ expected it to be. I mean - I do panic and hyperventilate every now and then, specially when confronted with the idea that I might actually have to start acting like a grown up in the next few months. I'm currently working on putting together a solid storyboard portfolio so I can hopefully get a job sometime after graduation. Graduation, which is in May next year.
NEXT
YEAR

Oooh, boy - when did all of this happen?

Despite school and the scary future ahead, I had a fantastic summer this year. I spent most of it working in Vancouver, but I also spent a few days in Ca-li-fornia while I was volunteering for SIGGRAPH, and a couple of weeks in my beloved San Salvador.

In June, I had the opportunity to intern at Zeros 2 Heroes, a local studio that develops entertainment properties. I worked on layout and art for the first season of Animism: The Gods' Lake - it was a fantastic experience and I got to work with some incredibly talented peeps.

I spent the first week and a half of August in Los Angeles for SIGGRAPH. This trip was absolutely insane - my travel buddy Stephanie and I stayed at a very shady hostel in the middle of downtown LA (however, it was cheap!). The hostel itself wasn't that bad, but the area was very scary to walk around at night.

(Note: I didn't take any of these pictures, they were all taken by my friends and I stole them from Facebook. Let me know if you want credit.)

The area was so classy there was a pupusa place right next to the hotel!

I was SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS

SIGGRAPH was a lot of fun, as usual. I can't wait for next year, although I was hoping it'd come back to Vancouver instead of going to Anaheim. Oh, well.

You end up meeting the most amazing people at SIGGRAPH

A few days after I got back from Wonder-lalaland, some of my friends and I joined the Vancouver Zombie Walk to celebrate undead-ness and my 22nd birthday. After walking the streets of Vancouver covered in stage blood and green paint, we went to Red Robin's for some brainburgers.

My buddies kept buying this fantastic drink for me - it's called a "Screaming Red Zombie"

Appropriate.

The night of my birthday (and zombie walk), I packed my stuff and headed to the airport. I've been very blessed to be able to visit El Salvador whenever I feel like it, really. I'm very thankful for this, since being so far from my family can be terrifying. Even though I'm a huge Skype fan (typing is for LOSERS, Skype's where it's at), nothing beats real-life-4D hugs.