Classes ended at 4:00 pm, this time the one who picked Santiago up was his mother, who took him home.
At home, Santiago dedicated himself to finishing his homework and then read news about movies and watched movies and acting tutorials, that was his life and he took it very seriously.
He was a very particular case, it is not normal for a young man to focus so much on something in that way and it was because of this same hard work that he managed to convince his parents, especially because he did not seem to suffer, in fact, he was having fun in the whole process.
Time passed, but Santiago's routine did not change, he attended school from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm and from there he went to Japanese classes twice a week or else he returned home to finish his homework and Learn about the world of cinema.
Soon it was November, in a short time he would graduate from high school and start his university career, pursuing his dream, the art school in Bogotá was his natural choice, even so, his parents had other plans.
Santiago's family had good economic solvency, their professions were highly paid and as a reward for Santiago's effort to fulfill his dream they wanted to give him the best option.
One night when they returned from work, they called him to the study they had at home, Santiago answered the call and when he entered the room, he found his parents sitting next to each other waiting for him.
A strange feeling invaded him, it wasn't normal for them to be so formal with him, but even so he entered the room and sat down in front of them, the desk was between them and on it a very organized brochure.
His mother asked him to take it and read it and without preamble with a little hesitation he took it and began to read.
It was a portfolio of services from the specialized school of performing and performing arts at the Los Angeles University of the Arts in the United States.
When he started reading, he was nervous because of his parents' solemn atmosphere, but as he read, a smile appeared on his face and when he finished, he raised his head to see his parents with loving smiles on their faces.
"If you are interested, time is short, we must process your study visa before the end of the year so that you can start in January," said his father, still smiling.
Without thinking, he accepted, there was no way he could refuse, what better place for movies and acting than Los Angeles.
After that meeting, all the visa procedures began the next day. It was a tedious process, but thanks to some connections from Elias, the process was simpler and shorter.
The paperwork was done, when December arrived they all traveled to Los Angeles to carry out the processes with the university, his parents and brother accompanied him and they did everything without problems.
Classes began on January 10, so he had to arrive no later than January 8, to complete the induction and dormitory delivery processes, since Santiago decided to live in the university dormitories due to its proximity and comfort.
With that over, the family spent the rest of the vacation traveling and then returned to Colombia.
On January 7, he traveled from Montería to Bogotá and from there, he traveled to Los Angeles, it was about 9 hours including the breaks between flights.
Upon arriving at the Los Angeles airport, he took his luggage and then a taxi that took him to a hotel near the university, although he would live in the university's dormitories, he had to carry out procedures for the dormitory assignment and that could only be done until the next day.
For that reason, although it was still early, Santiago had dinner at the hotel and went to rest. It had been a long day and he was tired, so much so that he lay down in bed and in a few minutes he arrived at the kingdom of Morpheus.
Because he went to bed early, he got up early, the sun hadn't risen yet, although that didn't stop him, he washed his face and teeth, put on sports clothes and went jogging a bit.
Since he wanted to be an actor and his parents were doctors, Santiago led a very healthy life, he used to exercise and eat well, from time to time he indulged in a hamburger or pizza, but it was not frequent.
Thanks to this he kept himself in shape, he was not muscular, but his body was well toned and if he added his height of 1.8 meters, his short dark brown hair and eyes of the same color, he was a handsome young man.
If it were only for appearance, being a model or an actor would not be a problem, unfortunately the world is not only about having a beautiful figure and face, however, Santiago was not worried about that, he wanted to be an actor for the love of art and to prove himself .
After jogging for an hour, he returned to the hotel, took a bath, changed his clothes and marched towards the university to finish the paperwork and move into his dormitory.
The walk was short, about 20 minutes at a good pace, although he had come to campus with his parents before, it did not fail to impress him.
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Since it was an arts university, it was not very big, since the programs offered were not many, the school specialized in scenic and interpretation arts was the most popular, since everyone wanted to be an actor.
The university had 4 schools, the aforementioned was where Santiago would study and in addition to this were: the school of theater and cinematographic direction, the school of musical art and the school of makeup.
In a few words, it was a university focused on cinema, since Hollywood was nearby, this type of university specialized in this field was not rare, however, this institution was one of the best in its field.
Santiago walked through the campus, until he reached his college and entered the administration building, because it was early there were not many students, so he walked to the reception where a middle-aged lady was.
"Good morning, I'm Santiago Rivera, a new student of scenic and interpretation arts, to finish my paperwork regarding the bedroom," Santiago said calmly with a smile.
The woman raised her head and looked at him, "Wait a minute", he replied with a smile and started typing something on his computer.
After a few minutes, he got up from his seat, walked to the end of the hall, and when he returned, he handed Santiago a key and a pamphlet.
"You requested a private room, this is your key and this is a map of the campus, I pointed out the dormitories in red," the woman explained as she showed on the map how to get to the dormitory point in red.
When she finished explaining, the woman took another piece of paper out of her desk drawer and explained that it was the proof of handing over the key and she had to sign it, Santiago read the document and once verifying that it was what the lady said, she signed it, thanked her. And he left.
Since the campus was not big and with a map indicating the way, Santiago arrived at the dormitories, it was a quite large and very artistic 4-story building, it had a somewhat medieval structure.
He entered the building and took the elevator to the 4th floor, these dormitories were mixed and it was better to call them apartments than dormitories, since they all had a small living room, bathroom, and bedroom.
The difference was the type of bedrooms, there were single rooms like the one in Santiago and there were two, three and even four rooms, the more exclusive, the more expensive.
The only thing that these dormitories did not have was a kitchen, since the university did not want fires due to the irresponsibility of the students, however, there were many cafeterias on campus and they were open most of the day.
Santiago checked his place, it had everything he needed, the small reception room had a sofa, the bathroom was adequate in size, and the bedroom had a comfortable bed, a large closet, and a desk.
After checking out the place, she went back to the hotel to collect her things and brought them back, arranged her clothes in the closet and placed her laptop on the desk.
Having unpacked, she left the room and went to a nearby mini-market and bought some personal hygiene items, as well as some toiletries for the apartment, while she returned she took the opportunity to see what was near the campus.
He soon discovered that there were several 24 hour convenience stores nearby, there was also a small park, as well as a public laundromat, which made him happy as there was no washing machine in the bedroom and this was convenient.
There wasn't much to see nearby, but he knew there was a subway station nearby, so that would allow him to go to other places, but at the moment it wasn't important to him so he went back to the bedroom.
She organized the things she bought, most of which were from the bathroom. When she finished, she sat down in front of her computer and began to see the class schedule that she would start in two days.
This was a school with a very specialized program, all its classes were focused on acting, even the theoretical classes, it was about acting concepts and techniques and the like, there were no history classes and the like that didn't help with training.
After carefully reviewing his class schedule, he put it aside and went to sleep, he was still tired from the trip, moving, paperwork and so on, so he quickly fell unconscious in the world of dreams.
As was customary for him, he got up early and went jogging, he always exercised in the morning, plus the tour of the surrounding area allowed him to see the surroundings that he had not yet traveled.
On his morning jog, he realized that he was not very far from a very particular area, everyone knows Hollywood, but few know what for people in the middle is known as the small screen area.
It is known like this, because many of the television production companies are located there and since this is known as a small screen, hence the name, when Santiago passed through that area he was surprised, being an aspiring applied actor he knew this area very well.
Unlike its Hollywood counterpart, the small screen area was full of large buildings and the streets seemed very congested, despite being quite early the traffic was already complex and although it was not the center of the city, you could already see the big city chaos.
Santiago toured the place to learn the location of the best television companies, he was not so naive as not to know how difficult this medium was, it never crossed his mind that he would finish his studies and become an actor.
He was very aware that it was possible that he would not even receive the opportunity and be a frustrated actor for the rest of his life, he had already prepared himself for that possible result, however, it does not mean that he was discouraged, although he thought about that possibility, he was focused on achieving success, rather than failing.
After a while, he recorded in his mind several addresses of the most important television producers and continued on his way. She returned to his bedroom, took a bath, changed her clothes, and went out again.
This time I wanted to know the university, although it is true that it is not very big, this is compared to other highly renowned universities in the country and the world, but it did have the extension to get lost if you did not know it well.
Since it was a university focused on cinema and theater, most of its classrooms were spacious, which facilitated acting practices, there were also many theaters, from the smallest that can hold about 100 people to the largest that can receive up to 3,000 people.
There are even music recording studios, since there is a school dedicated to creating musical artists, there was also equipment for filming, since there are also director courses, in a few words the university has all the equipment to create a film, TV series or Musical Album.
Thanks to this, the university is one of the best positioned, since students have the possibility of doing independent work and making themselves known, not to mention that the university has many connections in the industry, which gives its students the best opportunities. .
Santiago finished touring the facilities, ate something on his way back home and then sat down at his computer watching performance videos and the like, he never relaxed, he knew how difficult the medium was and he didn't want to miss an opportunity when it arrived. for not being prepared.