Hey guys!

So I'm gonna be honest here, I actually posted my earlier post this same day, but just at an earlier time. I ended up falling asleep yesterday and not getting the chance to post, which is why I posted it today instead of yesterday. However, as I said earlier, here is my first post regarding day one of class!

My first class this semester is Chinese 202. Unlike last semester, where I had it at 8:30, this semester I will be having class at 9:30. After arriving, the teacher introduced herself and was quick to tell us she's going to be speaking only in the target language. She also made it a point to tell us that today was the only day we would hear her speak in English. While this is a good thing, as only being exposed to Chinese will help immensely with developing the language, I'm very worried that I won't be able to keep up. This semester the class also has 12 students, about 5 more than last. I have a feeling most of them were in the same class last semester, too. There is a total of 4 (counting myself) from my class last semester who are also in mine. I wonder if the others are in the 8:30 class, too. 

After Chinese I have about a 2 hour grace period where I could either go to my dorm or find a study spot on campus. Because today was the first day of class I opted for the later, choosing to go to the bookstore and try and grab some used textbooks.

No luck. 

Instead I was greeted to an absolute mob of people. Seriously, there were so many students trying to buy books that the store had to open additional registers all throughout the store. I stood in line for probably 15 minutes and then forgot to get notebooks, but altogether decided to forfeit getting them because the line was simply too long. The prices for my two books (I gave the character workbook back, but that was around $35) came to be $103. That's right, one book cost $71 and the second cost $31. This was an insane amount, because last semester my Chinese books came to be around $50. I'm aware that the bookstore is going to be where my textbooks are the most expensive, but since I have homework already, I knew that I needed the books as soon as possible, and the reality is that you're paying for convenience. 

After buying my books I met with Shannon for a little bit before waiting in line to change out my bus pass. The line for that looked small compared to the bookstore, but still snaked throughout the campus center. Once that was done, as it's something that will be changed every semester, I headed off to my next class: Intro to East Asian. I'm probably most excited for this one because it will be pretty in depth about East Asia and I'm excited to learn more about China culturally. I'm also pretty interested in learning about Korea, so I'm hopeful that this class will be beneficial. 

Once that class ended I had another hour to myself before heading off to my next, and last, class for the day: evolution. 

Evolution fulfills my honors requirement for the semester, while also being a science credit. I took this class not because I like biology, if I'm being honest, but because the cutoff is at 15 kids and the teacher doesn't assign tests or quizzes. This means I'm able to enjoy class without taking tests and my grade is essentially me just talking to other people, as it's a lecture class with one presentation as my grade. I have a good feeling about this class, because my teacher had even said as long as we listen to him and follow instructions that he has no problem giving us all an A. I'm hoping he keeps to his word.

Overall I would say my first day went better this semester than last. A part of it is due to my class sizes (all less than 20!) and the times are great. The only downside to today was how stressed I got from being in Chinese class. The teacher has made is obvious she's only going to be speaking in Mandarin, and while I'm sure my comprehension of spoken Chinese is going to improve a lot, I'm worried that the class is going to be difficult. I think what I'm going to do is stay after class during her office hours and just practice my spoken Chinese with her. Not to get ahead, but just to review everything with her. I think I might even reach out to my Chinese teacher from last year, too, to see if she might be available to help me. I want to give it a while before I go to her, though, because I'm sure she's busy with the start of the semester. 

Besides all of this, I have work to look forward to later on and dinner with the girls. Because I work pretty late, I'm really going to try and push for dinner later. Or eat on my own. 

I hope everyone had a great first day and a relaxing break! Because I don't take a lot of pictures of class and my walking to and from, I hope this picture of the palms suffices.