True Story. GS500 is a blast to ride & cheap to fix. They’ve been building it for many years relatively unchanged until the last couple of years.
Ducati is not a great starter bike. Labor intensive, parts are expensive, & they require lots of maintenance
Definately worth taking the course. I rode 4000 miles before the course. After I took the MSF course, I had no idea how I rode before it. You’ll get more out of it if you intend to learn. Most guys take it with the idea that they have to, to get their license, so they don’t put much into it. I took it 5 years ago with the idea that I wanted to learn all that I could.
The Suzuki GS500 is a parallel twin. It is rather sporting, but not a really fast bike (still faster than most stock cars & almost all Harley Davidsons 
). If you are a smaller person, it is a great fit. I am 5’11" 240 lbs, I look like a clown on one. Still alot of fun. Very lightweight.
Your comment on the front fairing…they changed the plastics in 2004 (they brought the bike back to USA after a year or two of not importing it). It was not selling well (probably because of the looks), so they introduced it with a more sport-bike style with a front fairing, engine covers, etc. Still the same bike underneath, though. I enclosed a pic below.
http://gstwin.com/ is a good site devoted to the GS500 series