Madison experience so far, and first day of class.

My experience at Madison so far has been mostly pleasent. I moved in on Jan. 14th, but there wasn’t much to do around my dorm. Not too many people moved in yet. So I went exploring around Madison, to get myself familiar with the roads, and just how to get to places in general. Living in Madison has brought a few things to my attention that I used to take for granted.

1) Car - I am so used to drive everywhere, and now that I don’t have a vehicle, I have to rely on my legs, and bus. Sometimes it’s faster to just use my legs.

2) Food - I don’t cook too often at home, even though I am pretty capable of cooking decent food. Now, I open up the fridge, and there isn’t food there; and there isn’t all that much time for me to make food either.

3) Family - Yea, even though when I was back home, I don’t interact with them THAT often,it’s kinda weird not seeing them around. Not having Milo sleeping with me

Everyone has moved in. Classes started today, and it was alright, but more about that later.

Since I’ve been here, the devil has been trying to attack my faith left and right. It’s very important for me to stand firm on my faith, and not compromise. The otherday a dude on my floor was just hanging in my room, and out of no where, he cracked a joke about Jesus’s crucifixion. That made me mad, so I told him to get out of my room. Probably not the best way of approaching the situation, but he left, and he came by the next day and apologized. Through that single event, pretty much the whole floor heard about it, (Ko kicked so and so out of his room, he’s a Jesus freak… something like that), and I am not sure if that’s a good thing. I don’t mind being labled as a religious guy, or a Jesus freak, but I don’t want to appear unapproachable either. This might impact the kinds of conversations we will have in the future (and opportunity to share the gosple). This might also impact the kind of relationships I have with the people here… I might just be an acquaintance and wont have the oportunity to be a friend.

But the people on my floor has been pretty nice to me, and I think it’s too early to tell of the impact of my impulsive reaction that happened that day.

My roommate Adam is nice. Before I met him, I as at first kinda afraid of what he would be like. I’ve told a few people my concern; seems like God matched me up with a good fellow so far. Adam is pretty respecful, and flexible and putting up with me. He’s pretty quiet, but he’s pretty cool. He studies a lot, he started reading his textbook before class even starts. I think we can get along pretty well.

First day experience:

Well, I made it to my first class without getting lost, I didn’t wait for the bus, so I just walked there. I was surprise I got there without trial and error. But the second class I couldn’t find the building at first. God was providing for me. On a campus of 40 thousand people, I bumped into Bridget, as I was waiting on the street corner waiting for the light to turn “green” so we can go across. She directed me to the correct direction, and I didn’t miss my second class. My third class was on the same building, so I obviously didn’t get lost on that one.

I had “Data structure”, “Probability”, and “Discrete math” today. All pretty challenging so far. In data structure, my professor made it a point to remember all our names, so she had us write our name on the black board, and have us stand in front of it, so she could take a picture of our face and our name. I found it kind funny, kinda like a mugg shot. We already got our first programming assignment, it’s not due till the 5th, but still. It’s been a while since I last programed, so this might be a hard one at first.

In probability, the professor said that the class is pretty hard, and that if you are a sophmore, that came straight from calculus, you shouldnt be taking the class, because there’s a high probability for you to fail the course. I read the first chapter of the book today, and my head was a hurting. There was some stuff I did not get, and I was staring at it, trying to make sense of it. So another challenging course.

Discrete math, was definitely something elese. The professor came in, said his name, and the title of the course, and sorta went through the syllabus (which was maybe first 10 minutes of class). Then he jump straight into lecture. The class is scheduled for 75 minutes, and by the time the class ended, I had 5 pages of notes from the board. I was having a hard time understanding what he is saying, he is using a lot of notations and terms which I am not accustomed to. He also has a foreign accent, so that make things a little more interesting. He talks very fast, which does not help the issue either. After the class, I felt like I didn’t learn more stuff, but I felt like I am more lost than I was before. Probably not how it’s suppose to work. I hope this gets better soon.

The first day was tiring. I came back from my last class and slept for two hours. I guess I gotta adjust myself back into a school routine, and get used to little sleep, and constantly doing something.

Anyways, God is good. I went to a movement meeting for Campus Crusade yesterday. I met many of th student leaders at Madison, and I am glad to be plugged in right away. I only remember a few though, but I am sure in time, I will know all of them. This weekend I will be going to a men’s mini retreat by our campus director here in Madison - Scott Roe. So that should be fun. God has already open opprotunity for me to serve him, I cant wait to see what direction God wants me to take.  So at the meeting, it was a pot luck meeting, so I cooked fried rice, it was good, there wasn’t any left. That fact has no relavence at all, just thought I add that in my blog.