First Day of Class!

I feel like a freshman again, celebrating my triumph over the first day of class.  I wasn't late, I didn't get lost, and I didn't spill my lunch.  I participated at a moderate level that suggests both eagerness to learn and control over that eagerness.  My first class, International Marketing, begins at 1 p.m., so I have the morning wide open.  For what, you may ask?  Certainly not sleeping, as my body's alarm clock once again beat the mechanical one on my desk.  Why, my morning work out, of course!  It's been exactly a week since I have completed what I consider to be an effective work out.  Around 9 a.m., I located the weight room in the basement of the guys' dormitory - a hot, non-air conditioned, sticky room with no windows, a few treadmills, and 3 or 4 weight machines.  I ran 3.018 kilometers on a Samsung treadmill.  Also, I weigh 55 kilograms, according to the scale.  Thursday, when I exercise again, I will run along the cool, shaded path beside the Han River, instead.  Running in the basement just won't do, unfortunately.  


Before class at 1, I located the cafeteria and mini-shop in the basement of the business building.  For much of my meal, I was the only foreign student eating.  I didn't feel too strange about it, to be honest.  I'm sure people were talking about me, but it doesn't bother me, really.  I wasn't doing anything weird or outlandish - just simply eating my instant noodles and banana and sipping on my tiny cold coffee drink (that I could have chugged in two gulps).  Maybe my chopstick-form was a little unorthodox, but I'm trying my best!


Class went well today - the classroom environment was jovial and interesting, much like my classes at ONU.  My classmates are from all over the globe - Malaysia, Japan, Poland, and Australia, to name a few.  My professor for International Marketing is from Finland.  I don't know anything about Finland, but our professor had us get into groups and write down our notions of her country.  One Korean student mentioned that she thought the people were exceptionally hairy, which I found hilarious.  When meeting some students in my International Marketing class, I mentioned that I was 21 years old.  A Korean student asked if 21 is my international age or Korean age.  That completely took me by surprise!  A Korean age?!  I asked how that was determined.  Through somewhat broken English, I gathered that Koreans count the time a fetus is in the womb as part of a person's years, so when a child is born, he/she is already 1 year old.  Additionally, Koreans turn a year not only on their birthdays but also on New Year's Day.  Technically, I think, my Korean age is 23 (I turned "22" on October 17, 2010, and "23" on January 1st, 2011).  The student said my Korean age is 19, which I don't quite understand, since time is added, not subtracted.  I will need to investigate this a little more thoroughly, but nonetheless, it's intriguing stuff!


Contemporary Korean Society runs from 4-7 p.m., but today, we ended class (after a vote, which would, in any circumstance, result in a landslide) early at 5:15 p.m.  The professor for this class is the definition of energetic, bouncing around the room like a tennis ball.  He talks quickly in somewhat-understandable English, releasing directed questions when we least expect them.  He was absolutely adorable in his pink shirt, buying us drinks (non-alcoholic) during our break, and explaining that the cans are so small because Korean stomachs are smaller than European stomachs, which are smaller than American stomachs.  The joke is always on us!


Today was the first time I've seen sunny-Seoul.  It is a truly beautiful city, framed with tall mountains fading into the cloudy haze.  Tomorrow, we venture to Everland/Caribbean Bay - the amusement park & water park.  Of course, there is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow.