Monday was the first day of classes here at IU. I slept until about 2:30PM, and watched TV most of the day. Yep, that’s right, no classes on Mondays for me. It’s looking like the best semester ever, and of course it’s the final countdown (yes, start humming that song). I’m taking 12 credit hours I think, but my schedule is pretty much perfect. I only have classes Tuesday and Thursday, and they don’t start until the afternoon. I don’t think there’s any way to have a schedule better than mine. Here’s a quick rundown of my classes and a wrap-up of Tuesday, which was the first day for me.

Business Marketing M419: Retail Management
I’m going to drop this course tomorrow morning, because I only need 1 more marketing class to graduate. Since I wanted to double check and get a feel for the class before I dropped it, I went to the first day. Note that this meant I had to wake up earlier than I normally would, since this one started at the wee hour of 1PM. Retail management might be useful if I was going to work somewhere like Sears, but I don’t know if I’ll be doing that right after graduation. I got to class on time (seriously, that’s a miracle), and it was in a computer lab that I’ve had several courses in before. That was a big plus; I love computer classes cause they’re usually pretty easy, and I sit there with Outlook and Firefox for web browsing. The class was pretty much all chicks, but the syllabus and prof make it sound like there will be a good amount of work required. Also 3 different groups to work in, which would mean a lot of out-of-class meeting. I don’t want to have to do more group meetings (I have enough meetings as it is). Also the prof mentioned she has a zero-tolerance policy against web browsing and e-mail during class. Uh-oh, no good for me. So yeah, I’m going to drop this as soon as possible. I would have done it earlier but I want to make sure I won’t mess up scholarships or student status when I drop under 12 credit hours. I’ll have 12 eventually, since I’m doing an independent study with the Journalism school. I just have to get that set up and in the books.

Business D302: Operations of International Enterprises
The prof for this class is Dan Li, so I was expecting a Chinese guy. I was right about the Chinese part, but it’s a female. Anyways, this is the continuation of the international business class I took last semester and was pretty un-involved from (still pulled a B). It was also the class that I was late to almost every day that I went to, bombed the tests, but saved myself with the miracle that is known as the “Toys R Us in Japan” paper, which I wrote in Minneapolis and Brian had to turn in for me. Seems like much of the same, but since I don’t have as many classes, I guess I might actually try to study or something. I’m just staying that, you know. I probably won’t do anything for it. Regardless, it’s a fairly straightforward course, much like the last one. A good amount of reading, and that’s that.

Business Marketing M405: Buyer Behavior
The night before going to class, I was looking at the syllabus. The prof’s name is Robert Smith. I was watching Big O on TV at the time and confused it with Roger Smith and thought to myself “sweet, maybe he has a giant robot.” SHOW-TIME! Anyway, this course is pretty much a psych class taught in the business school. It seems pretty interesting and I’m happy to have a class that’s a bit different than ALL the international and marketing-type courses I took last semester. I actually thought to myself the other day (before class) that I wish I had time in my class schedule to take something different, like psychology. Looks like I got my wish. The teacher seems pretty down to earth and relatable (he talked about how he goes to sleep at 3 or 4AM and wakes up at noon), so it should be a fun class. I have to remember not to sit next to the window/AC on Thursday, though, because it was a pain in the butt trying to hear what the prof was saying over the noise of the air conditioner (which was for some reason, blowing COLD air in the middle of January).

Those are the three classes I went to on Tuesday. I’m not going to M419 tomorrow since I’m going to drop it, so I only have class every Tues and Thurs from 2:30 to 5:15. Not too shabby, eh? I deserve this, I’m such a hard working student.

Now, aside from those I’m also taking the following, which will put me to a total of 12 credit hours.

Business X488 Globalization
I need one more class to finish my international business major, and at first I was planning on taking an international economics course or something, which would pretty much kill me. I’ve never done good in econ. Luckily, I got an e-mail in the fall about a new online course available for students studying abroad. Haha, I got in! So, I have a 3 credit hour online course that will finish that second business major, and I don’t have to actually get up and go anywhere. Sweet. It’s not going to be as ridiculous as I kind of hoped for an online course, but it should be better than taking econ nonetheless. I’ll have papers and stuff to do, but I think it should be interesting. Also it looks like a big part of the class is doing journals and “talking” to your classmates on an online message board.

Journalism Independent Research
I really don’t even need to do this, but I think it will be kind of fun and interesting. Also the 3 credit hours of (what will most likely be) A’s will do my GPA good. I’ll be working with a few other IUSTV staff members and the dean of the journalism school (who is new this year and very cool: has a strong interest in student TV) to research other student stations across the country. We’ll look at what makes the best stations the best, and then in turn try and bring new improvements and ideas to IUSTV. I pretty much would do this anyway, so I might as well get credit for it.

That’s the semester. It’s looking like it will be awesome. Fridays are as usual being reserved as IUSTV work days, but I still am undecided on Mondays and Wednesdays. I could spend both of those days doing IUSTV stuff also (which I’ll do to some extent), but I think I’ll finally have more free time in the semester to do what’s important: find a job, sleep, play video games, and watch TV. Life is good. Hope everyone has a good semester. And I hope everyone who is graduated finds a job (snake!).

今学期も夜露死苦、機械犬。