This place is big. I mean big. Lots of multi-story buildings, not too tall, about 5 or 6 stories, but these buildings have huge bases. Over a block long, easily. Then I see this big glass triangle coming out of the ground, but I don't go investigate. My first concern was finding where my first class was. Once I found that building, I decided to circle the campus and then head to class. There was an old cafeteria under construction, some basketball courts, and a huge bike rack.
My first class was in the science library. I walked in and boy, was it fancy. The library has gates, the ones they have in the Korean subway, restricting access to the reading rooms and actual library part of the building. Fortunately I didn't have to go into the library because I don't have my KU id card yet. I take the elevator to the 4th floor and don't see any classrooms. Shit. I look around and see students going mainly in one direction. I follow them. I then cross this "line in the sand" so-to-speak. It was really a conspicuous crack in the floor. It's where the new science library part of the building ended and the old building that the library was added on to began. I'll put it this way, my classroom in on the old side had its room number written in sharpie on the door frame and the new building had an elevator that said goodbye when I got out. Yeah, worlds collide. I sit down and am the 2nd person there, but that was expected, I was leaving time for "forced exploring" (AKA Getting Lost).
Eventually the class fills in. One of the first people in is a KU ROTC student. I would see a large number of them throughout the day, easy to spot with their hard plastic briefcases and Anam Tiger insignia on their berets. The class eventually filled up entirely, and there were only 4 girls in the class. The lecture hall could hold about 70, and there were very few empty chairs. As expected, I had an empty seat next to me. Being in a room where everyone was speaking and laughing in another language was very unnerving. It got even more unnerving when the professor comes in and is speaking only Korean for the first 5 minutes. My body started getting geared up to guilt-sit through this lecture because I didn't want to be the huge white kid to interrupt class. I already stuck out enough. Right as my body hit peak adrenaline production, my professor just said "We have 1 exchange student with us from The George Washington University." Whew. I was in the right place at least. I said my name, the professor checked pronunciation and he began the lecture. He went to his powerpoint, which was in English, then said "I'll go over it in English and then Korean, ok?" It was very isolating being talked to as an individual in that class, but it was strangely comforting at the same time. He cared about me. When he got to his about me section in the slideshow he talked about his grad and postdoc at Stanford. He then asked me if I had ever been. I said no, but my dad went to UC Berkeley. He smiled. Mission accomplished. Rivalries always make people smile. He then asked me where I was from and I said New York. The murmurs from around the classroom were audible, which was neat. The Empire State kicks ass worldwide. The lecture let out about 45 min early, so I said goodbye to the professor and left to do some actual exploring now that I had about 2 hours free.
Opposite the glass triangle is a big glass box about 150 yards away. I went to the box and I saw stairs. "Oh, this is that tunnel people were talking about." KU kids told me that there was a tunnel at the engineering campus.
They didn't tell me it was the Scarface mansion of underground tunnels.
I get down the stairs and it's just marble everywhere. Floors, walls, ceilings. It was pretty. The support columns had chairs around them, there were 2 ATMs right by the bathrooms, which were quite large. I walk further and see that one exit/entrance leads straight to the science library basement. Neat. Then I see the stores. There's a coffee shop, a bakery, a Hana Bank (makes sense, they donated the tunnel), a Lotteria (Asian Fast Food that will get its own post soon enough. Think of it like BK and 5 Guys compromised on BK's terms), Ministop, and the KU bookstore. The bookstore was huge and full of all kinds of things. US magazines both in English and Korean, ranging from bridal magazines to Korean Military Revue, textbooks, general school supplies, and of course KU clothing. The strangest thing there was a rack full of American school sweatshirts. Iowa State, NC State, Notre Dame. It was really funny.
My next class was in a large lecture hall, and again, same story there. Only white kid, about 7 girls, and a bunch of anticipation as to whether or not I was in the right place. Yet again, I was. The professor did the first 15 minutes of lecture in Korean, then gave kids the sign in sheet, then told me he was just explaining that this was the course in English. Exciting. This class was a lot more intimidating because of its size and the professor's work background: He helped develop 3G technology. It's weird to think that's the kind of stuff you can do with a PHD in engineering.
After that, more free time. Went back to Hana Square, the tunnel. On the way there, I held open a door for a Korean girl on crutches. The look on her face was one of immense surprise, as if she never expected me to even remotely consider holding the door for her. Her smiling at me and saying thank you made my day a little less nerve racking. I also discovered a piano lounge and gym in this underground complex. This new Science and Engineering building at GW has some pretty big shoes to fill. At least Tompkins hall has the hottest computer labs on earth.
Then my day got kinda shitty. I got lost. Despite my careful preparation, I misread a building name and spent about 25 minutes looking for a room that did not exist. To top it all off, I was in a graduate research building because there were a ton of heavy machines in the hallway and a lot of posters with research projects on them. Fortunately, I was not registered for the class I had missed, so I didn't feel that bad about missing a class. Unfortunately, I had spoken to the professor and was going to get my course registration sheet signed by him today. I sent him an email telling him something to the effect of, "I got lost today, which is arguably this shittiest excuse in the book. Will you still do me a favor and sign my sheet?" Let's hope this goes over well. On the bright side, my backup to this statistics course is a really foreign class to me: Political Systems in America.
Then I went to the main campus, which is a solid 10 minute walk up and down many a hill, for my Korean speaking course. I walk into the classroom, sit down, and am then told to leave the classroom. The class doesn't begin until Monday. Class dismissed. Saddening because I was really excited to have a tenuous grasp of the Korean language, fun because I now had an entire afternoon to do this blog post.
Overall, today was a typical day of any school. My hopes for a semester were raised by some really cool sounding teachers, and then dashed by my own idiocy. Such is learning. The only thing that could have made today better was a bag lunch from my grandma.
My first class was in the science library. I walked in and boy, was it fancy. The library has gates, the ones they have in the Korean subway, restricting access to the reading rooms and actual library part of the building. Fortunately I didn't have to go into the library because I don't have my KU id card yet. I take the elevator to the 4th floor and don't see any classrooms. Shit. I look around and see students going mainly in one direction. I follow them. I then cross this "line in the sand" so-to-speak. It was really a conspicuous crack in the floor. It's where the new science library part of the building ended and the old building that the library was added on to began. I'll put it this way, my classroom in on the old side had its room number written in sharpie on the door frame and the new building had an elevator that said goodbye when I got out. Yeah, worlds collide. I sit down and am the 2nd person there, but that was expected, I was leaving time for "forced exploring" (AKA Getting Lost).
Eventually the class fills in. One of the first people in is a KU ROTC student. I would see a large number of them throughout the day, easy to spot with their hard plastic briefcases and Anam Tiger insignia on their berets. The class eventually filled up entirely, and there were only 4 girls in the class. The lecture hall could hold about 70, and there were very few empty chairs. As expected, I had an empty seat next to me. Being in a room where everyone was speaking and laughing in another language was very unnerving. It got even more unnerving when the professor comes in and is speaking only Korean for the first 5 minutes. My body started getting geared up to guilt-sit through this lecture because I didn't want to be the huge white kid to interrupt class. I already stuck out enough. Right as my body hit peak adrenaline production, my professor just said "We have 1 exchange student with us from The George Washington University." Whew. I was in the right place at least. I said my name, the professor checked pronunciation and he began the lecture. He went to his powerpoint, which was in English, then said "I'll go over it in English and then Korean, ok?" It was very isolating being talked to as an individual in that class, but it was strangely comforting at the same time. He cared about me. When he got to his about me section in the slideshow he talked about his grad and postdoc at Stanford. He then asked me if I had ever been. I said no, but my dad went to UC Berkeley. He smiled. Mission accomplished. Rivalries always make people smile. He then asked me where I was from and I said New York. The murmurs from around the classroom were audible, which was neat. The Empire State kicks ass worldwide. The lecture let out about 45 min early, so I said goodbye to the professor and left to do some actual exploring now that I had about 2 hours free.
Opposite the glass triangle is a big glass box about 150 yards away. I went to the box and I saw stairs. "Oh, this is that tunnel people were talking about." KU kids told me that there was a tunnel at the engineering campus.
They didn't tell me it was the Scarface mansion of underground tunnels.
I get down the stairs and it's just marble everywhere. Floors, walls, ceilings. It was pretty. The support columns had chairs around them, there were 2 ATMs right by the bathrooms, which were quite large. I walk further and see that one exit/entrance leads straight to the science library basement. Neat. Then I see the stores. There's a coffee shop, a bakery, a Hana Bank (makes sense, they donated the tunnel), a Lotteria (Asian Fast Food that will get its own post soon enough. Think of it like BK and 5 Guys compromised on BK's terms), Ministop, and the KU bookstore. The bookstore was huge and full of all kinds of things. US magazines both in English and Korean, ranging from bridal magazines to Korean Military Revue, textbooks, general school supplies, and of course KU clothing. The strangest thing there was a rack full of American school sweatshirts. Iowa State, NC State, Notre Dame. It was really funny.
My next class was in a large lecture hall, and again, same story there. Only white kid, about 7 girls, and a bunch of anticipation as to whether or not I was in the right place. Yet again, I was. The professor did the first 15 minutes of lecture in Korean, then gave kids the sign in sheet, then told me he was just explaining that this was the course in English. Exciting. This class was a lot more intimidating because of its size and the professor's work background: He helped develop 3G technology. It's weird to think that's the kind of stuff you can do with a PHD in engineering.
After that, more free time. Went back to Hana Square, the tunnel. On the way there, I held open a door for a Korean girl on crutches. The look on her face was one of immense surprise, as if she never expected me to even remotely consider holding the door for her. Her smiling at me and saying thank you made my day a little less nerve racking. I also discovered a piano lounge and gym in this underground complex. This new Science and Engineering building at GW has some pretty big shoes to fill. At least Tompkins hall has the hottest computer labs on earth.
Then my day got kinda shitty. I got lost. Despite my careful preparation, I misread a building name and spent about 25 minutes looking for a room that did not exist. To top it all off, I was in a graduate research building because there were a ton of heavy machines in the hallway and a lot of posters with research projects on them. Fortunately, I was not registered for the class I had missed, so I didn't feel that bad about missing a class. Unfortunately, I had spoken to the professor and was going to get my course registration sheet signed by him today. I sent him an email telling him something to the effect of, "I got lost today, which is arguably this shittiest excuse in the book. Will you still do me a favor and sign my sheet?" Let's hope this goes over well. On the bright side, my backup to this statistics course is a really foreign class to me: Political Systems in America.
Then I went to the main campus, which is a solid 10 minute walk up and down many a hill, for my Korean speaking course. I walk into the classroom, sit down, and am then told to leave the classroom. The class doesn't begin until Monday. Class dismissed. Saddening because I was really excited to have a tenuous grasp of the Korean language, fun because I now had an entire afternoon to do this blog post.
Overall, today was a typical day of any school. My hopes for a semester were raised by some really cool sounding teachers, and then dashed by my own idiocy. Such is learning. The only thing that could have made today better was a bag lunch from my grandma.
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