"I want to change some money. Yangon has controls on gold exchange, and it is not very convenient for minors to do so."
Gu Weijing poured the gold coins in the small box onto the bed and clicked them. There were about twenty or thirty gold coins.
"What do you need so much money for? To buy a game console, Xbox? PS5?"
Mona glanced at the gold coins on the bed. She thought that an adolescent boy would probably be able to do these things when changing money.
She stretched out playfully, a strand of reddish-brown hair sticking out from her bathrobe, and the beautiful curves of her figure were looming.
Mona pointed to the wall-mounted TV on the bedroom wall: "You can come to my house and we can play Just Dance together."
"I actually want to visit the orphanage recently."
"Orphanage?"
Mona rolled her eyes at Gu Weijing.
The school spirit of private schools is more refined and self-interested, and what is popular is elite culture.
In particular, Miss Mona lives in a traditional Indian family. In the old society, their family is called landlords and old wealth. She grew up in the care of low-caste servants.
She may cry when she sees flowers, plants, and animals being injured, but she doesn't have much compassion for the lower classes of society.
So she didn't believe that anyone her age would want to visit the orphanage, so she just thought it was a lie that Gu Weijing made up casually.
Hmph, forget it if you don't want to, she thought.
"By the way...have you started preparing your portfolio? The school will have an admissions meeting in May. I heard that the University of Rotterdam has a cooperation with our high school. It will be easier to apply. Can we go together?"
After Mona was silent for a few seconds, she changed the topic.
She looked at Gu Weijing expectantly and hinted.
There are several ways to apply to foreign art schools.
The first is that you look for admissions channels on the official website of the corresponding university, apply for admissions application forms, mail recommendation letters, etc. Some schools require cultural test scores, and some only require language.
Then leave everything to chance and see if the other professor can take a fancy to you.
All procedures are handled by yourself, which is also the so-called DIY study abroad.
The second is to find a corresponding study abroad agency. The fees range from one thousand US dollars to tens of thousands of US dollars. The other party will guide you in the ideas of your portfolio and arrange the application, mailing and other processes. Some of the most powerful people can even get you letters of recommendation.
Different from ordinary study abroad, in the art department, a letter of recommendation from a certain well-known professor is very important.
This is a heavyweight professor's recognition and endorsement of your art style. As long as your portfolio is not too bad, it can almost open the door to many first-class art academies in the world for you.
Painters like Kazunari Sakai or Professor Lin Tao - if a study abroad agency can ask them to write letters of recommendation, a letter of several hundred words would start at tens of thousands of dollars.
But it doesn’t matter how it compares, at least it’s much cheaper than donating a house.
In the private school that Gu Weijing and the others attended, there was a third and simplest method. Since it was an international art high school, there were naturally international cooperative schools.
In mid-May, the school will hold an admissions meeting.
International art schools that cooperate with this high school will send teachers and professors to attend the admissions fair and conduct on-site interviews with students.
If your portfolio is impressive enough and teachers rate you high enough, you can get an offer directly.
The University of Rotterdam is one of their school's partners.
This university is a well-established and prestigious university in Europe. The QS World University Ranking ranks around 130, and sometimes it can reach the top 100.
However, the school is not famous for its art school. Among the art schools, it only ranks around 200.
If compared to Dongxia, it is an unpopular major among the lowest-tier 985s.
It is also the target of Mona’s guarantee application.
She knew that Gu Weijing's painting skills were better than hers, so even if she didn't hire a private tutor for tutoring, applying to a top 100 art academy wouldn't be a big problem.
University of Rotterdam is a bit of a waste for his level.
But out of a girl's little thoughts, she still hopes that the other party can enroll in the same university as herself.
"My recent focus may not be on preparing a portfolio?"
"What about your portfolio?"
"I plan to paint a big painting. If I have time, I will put this painting in my portfolio."
"Just one piece of work?"
"Just one piece of work."
Gu Weijing originally planned to complete his portfolio in the first half of this year.
Now it seems the plan needs to be adjusted.
Now there is only half a year before the art exhibition, and the works to be exhibited must be determined in advance.
Painting large paintings is time consuming.
He must go all out to improve his experience bar and prepare for the Lion City Art Biennale, and it is difficult to find time to prepare a special thematic collection.
No matter what, you can just put the prepared photos of your exhibition works into your portfolio when the time comes.
Although many students have hundreds of works in their portfolios, if it is shocking enough, one work is enough to impress the professor.
It can also be seen from the market price. The students' oil paintings are worthless at all, but the winning works at the Lion City Art Exhibition cost at least tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy. If they are the best works selected by the curators, they can even reach millions of dollars.
If he can't draw an oil painting that is as good as a hundred ordinary students' works, there is no need for him to participate in any art exhibition.
"What's wrong with you? One moment you told me that you wanted to go to some orphanage in exchange for money, the next moment you told me that your focus is not on your portfolio, and now you say that you will only have one piece of work in your portfolio."
The corners of Mona's lips pursed.
She turned sideways, the playful little smile on her face disappeared, and turned her head to stare at Gu Weijing, the disappointment in her eyes almost palpable.
"Gu Weijing, from the first day I met you, you said you wanted to be a good painter. But now that you are about to go to college, you told me that your focus is not on preparing a portfolio."
Miss Mona twisted her fingers together, and the gold ring on her wrist jingled.
"I have always thought that you are a serious and down-to-earth person with clear goals. You have time to paint big paintings whenever you want, but now, college is the most important thing."
Gu Weijing hesitated.
Miss Mona is someone he vaguely likes in his heart, and she has been his best friend since childhood.
Although it is difficult for Mr. Cao to talk about his bet, he does not mind revealing his future plans to his good friends.
"Believe me, I am confident in my own level, and getting into a good university is not a problem for me. At least I should be able to go to Central America."
"CAFA, you are talking about the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Dongxia, which is ranked among the top 30 in the world. Do you think it is easy to get into CAFA?"
Mona stared at Gu Weijing.
As the highest-ranked art school in East Xia, it is considered the best in Asia and the world. Of course she knows what CAFA is.
Admissions to this school are very strict.
Based on Gu Weijing's level in Mona's impression, with all his strength, he would be at most a school of the same level as CAFA.
And it’s not necessarily possible.
Now he said with a relaxed face that he would definitely be able to get into Central America, but Miss Mona didn't believe it at all.
"You want to be admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts with just one big painting. Who do you think you are? Monet or Titian, or some kind of genius that only happens once in a century in the painting circle? Be practical, Gu Weijing, otherwise you and I will really be disappointed. ”
There are often people like this in art classes. Their hearts are as high as the sky and their lives are as thin as paper.
They feel that they are so powerful that they don’t need to prepare seriously. The professor can fall in love with him by just drawing a few strokes, or he can create some weird and unconventional works. Few of these people have good results.
We are all students, how much difference can there be in painting skills?
If someone has a thick stack of portfolios, but you only have a thin portfolio, a few points will be deducted from your impression score. A slap on the non-serious hat - unless the reviewing professor really appreciates your work, your application will end up in the trash.
"My grandfather introduced me to a professor from CAFA, and he liked me very much."
Seeing Miss Mona's really angry face, Gu Weijing carefully explained one more sentence.
"real?"
He nodded.
"Did the Central American School send you an offer, or did it tell you clearly when to fly to Central American School for a separate admissions interview? Did the admissions office of Central American School call you?"
Mona asked reluctantly.
Gu Weijing shook his head. His relationship with Professor Lin Tao was now in a Schrödinger state.
Mona was not relieved.
The Academy of Fine Arts does have early admissions.
For example, the top five old-school art academies in the world, the Paris Academy of Fine Arts, the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts, the Repin Academy of Fine Arts, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
These schools have their own admissions summer camps, international cooperation projects and independent special admissions interviews, and young painters from all over the world are flocking to them.
If you can perform particularly well in these projects and attract the attention of a certain professor, you may be able to receive an admission notice in advance.
Otherwise, you won a prize in some international art competition for teenagers under the age of 18.
For example, the Apocalypse Art Prize, a children's competition in the United States, the Saatchi Gallery/Deutsche Bank Art Prize for Schools, a youth art exhibition in London, or internationally recognized art competitions and youth art exhibitions such as RB's Tokyo Metropolitan Museum Children's Artist Competition.
You may also receive a call or offer from the school’s admissions office in advance.
In short, in this early admission situation, either your grades are particularly strong, or your relationship is particularly strong.
Miss Mona knew that Yangon could not compare with those cosmopolitan cities.
There are not enough local art competitions that are recognized by the Central American Admissions Office, so the former is impossible.
As for the relationship - Miss Mona knows Gu Weijing inside and out.
Gu Tongxiang is indeed a very kind old man, but his family's conditions are not as good as his own.
If there were some backdoor connections at a local university in Myanmar, she would still reluctantly believe it. But at a world-famous school like Central America, the most you can do is have two glasses of wine with a visiting young professor.
No matter how much,
Are you worthy?
It's not just a few polite words at the wine table, Gu Weijing should take it seriously.
This kind of thing, which was not guaranteed by any written document, was probably just mentioned casually, and he took it as a guarantee for being able to attend one of the world's top art academies.
Mona looked like he was somewhat heartless.
"Gu Weijing, I just want to remind you that you are the one responsible for your life. If you can't get into a good art academy, I won't wait for you."
She said it with a cold face.
