First REAL day of classes, Biya, Waffles, Snow?

Today was a delightful day...NOT! I had to actually had to get in the learn something/education mode after being in chill mode for 3 months (uber long break huh? lol). I woke up at 7:30 this morning thinking that I had plenty of time to shower, meditate a bit, and read over some stuff. Boy was I wrong. I was in the shower for quite a bit standing in the steam awakening from my slumber and I lost track of time. After drying off, brushing my hair, makeup, a little zen time and reading over my syllabus, it was 8:45 and I had to go (class starts at 9, tardy is not an option with my teacher I soon learned). Then it hit me, I had to print something off for one of my later classes and I didn't know how to use the printer downstairs. It was somewhat complicated because they had a pay-per-page system here (another part of their recycling initiative) and a girl helped me out. Because patience is not one of my virtues, I hit the print button multiple times and ended up with three copies of the assignment but I was running late and had to get going. The clock was ticking and I had to be in my seat in 10 minutes and just the building itself is a good 10-15 minutes walk...my class is on the 4th floor. Soo, with no other option , I started sprinting to campus and every time I hit a "roadblock" (girlfriends linking arms walking like -5mph) I'd power up and pass them with annoyed "humph!" :P

Well, I made it on time and the class was interesting! Professor Kim is such a cool guy (he wears jeans. every day is casual Friday lol) and the class laughs quite a bit. He stresses how participation must become habitual and I have a feeling that my classmates will loosen up sooner or later and we'll have really interesting discussions. Anyways back to my mundane story, we talked about the culture of Korea and symbols and whatnot. Afterwards, I had some kimbap and a "mild cafe latte" from the Ministop (soooo good yo!)and rushed over to my social problems in a global context class. Guess who was teaching it, Professor Kim! Same cool teacher in a row. I found this class to extremely informative and interesting. We talked about overpopulation and how developed and developing countries differ in terms of doubling rate. Did you know that in about 10 years the female population of Korea will decrease by about 20% because of male preference. Also, developed countries produce 30X's more waste and consume more raw materials than developing countries despite the fact that developing countries make up over 2/3 of the world's population and developing countries produce an exponential amount of people? Another neat point which has nothing to do with the overpopulation this is the legality of marijuana vs. cigarettes. Cigarettes are the most lethal drugs in the world yet it is legal whereas marijuana , which has the same effect as strong alcohol with an odd twist, is totally illegal everywhere though the mortality rate of using marijuana is significantly lower than that of cigarettes. I just found that interesting.

After that class, I begged the teacher to let me into Contemporary Korean ( I wasn't technically registered in it b/c it was full, but I REALLY wanted to take it) and after running around all campus trying to get permission from the higher-ups, I finally got in! Went to my art class, nothing special. We just talked about cave paintings and I filled out the worksheets that almost made me late to my 1st class. I had a huge break so I studied hangul at "Paris Baguette" and let me tell you, that bakery is the shiznit. My favorite bakery in Korea and since it's a chain, I can basically find it everywhere. After that, I went to Family Mart and got a travel toothbrush kit because I think every Korean girl brushes her teeth after eating lunch and I thought it'd be a good habit to pick up. I rather enjoy feeling minty fresh after eating stinky kimchi ^^

On a side note, the building where the registration office resides has a section entirely dedicated to women. There's a women's study lounge, computers, powder room (hair dryer included o.O), changing room, private restroom with bidets in the stalls, and a RESTING ROOM. It's a room with tons of bunk-beds that female students can take naps in or SPEND THE NIGHT IN. How awesome is that?! I totally know where I'm headed if I ever need to pull an all nighter lol.

Back to my day, I went to language class, learned the rest of the Korean alphabet and I can proudly say in the span of 2 days, I can read/write Korean (albeit very very slowly, and my spelling sucks). After that, I met up with some friends to eat dinner and it was raining. The rain soon turned to sleet and then into snow. It wasn't the cool kind of snow though, Seoul is really polluted to I assumed that the snow would be like acid snow and flipped out internally. I'm so glad I wore my hoodie otherwise I'd be freakin out about my hair falling out or something due to the fact that it made contact with the poison snow 0.0 We at at this place called Biya and it's like a hotpot of ramen in the middle with hotdogs and spam. The appetizers consisted of Tater-Tots (yeah baby!) and pickles. It was like spicy warm heaven eating that inside compared to the freezing cold outside. My friends (mildly crazy haha) got ice cream stuffed waffles in the snow! They looked pretty darn tasty but due to the fact that it was like 2 degrees outside, I passed on that (even if they were only $1 lol). So yeah, I'm back now and I'm tired. I totally can't wait until we have to do 15 page papers! Not :P

WWL!