First Day of Classes

    I wound up with a pretty good class schedule, 9:00 start on Tuesday, 10:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and 11:00 on Friday.  They do classes a little different here.  For the most part a three credit class will meet once a week for three hours, rather than three times a week for one hour.  I didn't think my attention span would last that long.  Two hours of learning how to shape my mouth around new vowel sounds later I was quite surprised to find that class was over.  My first class only lasts an hour and is called CID.  It's basically just a big meeting for all of the international students.  This week we elected three student body representatives, members who go between us and the faculty and handle celebrations as well as concerns.  We also signed up to receive cell phones, which are coming Wednesday or Thursday due to the holiday.

   I went straight from CID to my speaking class which is in the same building.  It was taught all in Korean, except for a bit of translation here and there.  It seems like a good way to learn, your brain doesn't have the English to fall back on.  Then I have an hour break for lunch before Crime and Accident Case Studies.  Dr. Oh was late, he thought he had class at 3 like last semester.  I think it's going to be very interesting and might give me something to argue with Greg about.  It is supposed to last three hours, but we got out in two.  I think he wants to have a lot of discussion in class, which should help the time should pass quickly.

   Tuesday was a holiday, the remembrance of one of the earliest displays of Korean resistance during the Japanese military occupation that happened March 1, 1919.  I could copy and paste more, but if anybody's interested just Wikipedia "March 1st Movement."  I hung around for a while, then went back to Cheonon with more different people around 2:30.  I don't have many new pictures, but I did find a Pizza Hut and I have a picture of the market sign all lit up.  I had cheese ramen for lunch before we left, which was incredible!  For dinner my suite-mates ordered take out chicken, which is essentially a few pounds of boneless wings.  Four of us made quick work of it.  Its tasty, but sadly not very spicy.  One of the included sauces is wasabi based and an unexpected kick in the taste buds for unsuspecting foreigners.  Still better than the spicy version we had the other day, it was so strong even I had a hard time finishing it.  There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

   Tomorrow I have Calligraphy from 10 to 12, I figured it would be a fun skill I could take home with me.  Hopefully it will help in learning the Korean characters, and maybe improve my own handwriting!