08 July 2011

I did not want to wake up this morning. After two nights in a row of not going to bed until well after midnight, I just wanted to stay in bed and pretend I was sick. After hitting snooze on my alarm clock, I finally crawled out of bed after seven o'clock in the morning to get ready for the day and to eat breakfast before New Testament began fifty-five minutes later. As I dragged myself into the Oasis, I looked around the room and noticed that I wasn't the only one shuffling my feet around like a zombie. Apparently everyone stayed up late last night to write a paper for New Testament! However, there were only a select number of us walking around with sugar hangovers...

The entire day was fairly relaxed. Due to Dr. Chadwick's archaeological dig, we didn't have his class until three in the afternoon (rather than at ten in the morning like usual). So we had the entire day open to do whatever we wanted to do - or so you would think. We are not allowed to be in East Jerusalem before three o'clock on Friday afternoons for security reasons. So we enjoyed our time inside by doing homework and writing papers. I ended up falling asleep after lunch and accidentally slept through the humanitarian activity planned forth afternoon! Oops... It's a good thing I gave blood yesterday; so at least I gave service at some point this week. I began the final paper for my Islam class about an hour before Chadwick's class, but I didn't make very much headway. Writing a five to seven page paper without a laptop is highly frustrating. There were too many people talking/laughing in the computer lab for me to focus so I was forced to write it out by pen.

As soon as Dr. Chadwick's lecture was over, the J.C. Special Events committee jumped to the stage to begin our American Celebration! It began with a short devotional. We said the Pledge of the Allegiance and sang “Proud to Be an American,” and then Alyse shared a thought on what being American means to her and why she is proud to be an American. My thoughts were immediately turned to those members of my family who have fought in current wars and in wars of the past – my Grandpa Jackson, especially. It is amazing being able to say that I have family members who have fought for and who are fighting for the freedoms that each American enjoys on a daily basis. Living in a foreign land with restrictions on freedom has really given me an appreciation for my citizenship in America and for those souls who have risked their lives for me. After the devotional, we filed out onto the balcony to have a barbecue and carnival! The food was amazing: baked potatoes, corn on the cob, hotdogs, hamburgers, kabobs, salads, and pies. We were all so excited to see the foods of summers past. The carnival was just as great as the food. There were three-legged races and fishing booths and face-painting. It was really so much fun. And I got a giant octopus painted on my face! Nothing can be better than that! Near the end of the party, we were each given sparklers so that we could have our own taste of Fourth of July fireworks. They didn’t last long, but they were fun while they lasted! I am definitely proud to be an American.

As it was Friday night, the customary film showing occurred. The night’s film was The Exodus but due to my lack of sleep the past few days, I chose to skip the movie and finish writing bits of my paper before going to bed. It was an amazing day. The celebration at the end made up for any imprisonment in the J.C. we had early in the day!