What do you call two midterms, a 7-page paper, and 25 hours of class?
4 days of not leaving the Center!
Holy Hannah, this week has been kinda crazy! We had midterms in Old Testament and Judaism and a paper due in Islam, all on top of our normal classes and homework. Somehow it always all comes at once. But now we're done!!! And that means WEEKEND! My tests went really well and hopefully my paper was okay too! Now, I can look forward to relaxing tonight (slash "Indiana Jones," surprise dance party, volleyball, and a good night's sleep), Conference tomorrow, a much-needed outing to the city on Sunday, and an awesome field trip to the City of David (including Hezekiah's tunnel!) on Monday! Everyone has been a little bit tired/stressed/weird this week. Ha. Here are some highlights, if you can call them that, from this week:
1. Arab Night! Complete with an interesting presentation, an amazing dinner, and some awesome Arab dancing lessons. We had two sheiks come-a father and a son-who have held this position for years. A sheik is a religious position held in the Islamic faith. They sang the call to prayer for us, they are two of the chanters that broadcast from the Al Aqsa Mosque here in the city, and demonstrated to us how they pray. The dinner involved many elaborately folded napkins, lots of roses, and delicious traditional food. The dancing was a ton of fun. It wasn't what I was expecting, the teachers were about our age and it was really upbeat and fun. Good times. :)
2. New cell phones! Our old ones were about 4 years old...our new ones have lots of minutes and 400 texts (to other students or to America). It was like we hadn't seen a working cell phone in years. It'll be nice to be able to shoot a text to a friend instead of running up and down the stairs trying to find them.
3. Cougar fights and feral cats...
4. Reciting the Islamic months and the 99 names of Allah...
5. Awesome songs including "Halleluya" in Hebrew and "Shephelah, Shephelah, Goliath's back!" in Ancient Near East (sung to the tune of "My Boyfriend's Back." All credit to Dr. Chadwick.)
6. Lots and lots of Judaism and Islam class time, complete with Professor Yarden's jokes.
Q: "How many Orthodox Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?"
A: "Change?!"
7. Security guards that make fun of my last name...
8. The first rain of the season!!!! Don't worry that we were in class the whole time....but it was so exciting! We ate lunch on the patio today without baking like toasted cheesers! (NTM!) I'm excited. :)
9. People. I love everyone here. Here's a little excerpt from my roomie Miriam's blog. I think she said it perfectly.
"As I sat in the forum tonight, it hit me that we have become friends, and living companions, and support systems, and venting listeners, and studying partners, and alarm clocks, and clothes sharers, and dancing party starters, and sympathizers, and pumper uppers, and secret surprise party planners, and travel guides, and picture taking experts, and bad hygiene tolerators, and bluntly honest tellers, and blossoming romance watchers, and expert matchmakers, and blog followers, (and blog stalkers), and every meal with each other eaters, and shortening words talkers, and slow internet frustratees, and security lovers, and explorers, and teacher worshipers, and adventure seekers, and fanny pack packing experts, and straight up family."
Anywho, sorry I don't have anything more exciting to report! My next one will be better...I hope. Haha, it's been a good week though. I've learned lots. The information we learn in all of our classes and on field trips is really starting to come together and make sense. I absolutely love learning about the history here. I'm so happy! Hope all is well with all of you! :D
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