29 July 2011

It has come to the point in the term that I cannot separate one day from another. I feel like everything this past week has been nothing more than a blur. This may have something to do with the fact that my days are so similar: class, study, city, sleep. There is little to no variation in my daily activities. However, it doesn't bother me. Each time I walk down the Kidron Valley and enter the Old City, I have a new experience; each time I enter Classroom One for New Testament, I learn something new. It doesn't matter if I have done something a million times or once; it always brings something new, something I have never felt. I truly hope this followed me back to the United States. The next four months are going to be fairly monotonous, so I hope I can continue finding the positive in doing the same thing over and over again. But Provo isn't Jerusalem - not even close.

New Testament was two hours today, rather than the usual three, which was a huge relief for most students, especially me. My attention span was next to non-existant this morning. If we hadn't taken a break halfway through the class, I'm not sure I would have made it. My eyelids were falling far too quickly. Once New Testament was over, I hurried into the Forum to wait for my next class to start - Ancient Near Eastern Studies. That's right; Chadwick is back! It has been so weird to have Doctor Chadwick and Sister Kim gone for the past three weeks. They were welcomed back with hugs and smiles. His class went by fairly smoothly. We were greeted with amazing news at the beginning of his lecture: no more midterms for the rest of the term! He has decided to stop giving them because he hasn't been able to teach us regularly enough. Instead, he has assigned us readings to do and report on. It was a relief.

As soon as lunch was over, we shuffled into the parking garage for a Humanitarian Activity....what did we do, you may ask? Well, we assembled hygiene kits! What else is there to do? It was so much fun...and incredibly hot. There is no air-conditioning in that garage. Within minutes, everyone's forehead was creased with sweat. Delightful. The activity didn't last as long as it was planned to...but only because we ran out of supplies! Our group has been the most proactive when it comes to hygiene kits. We get in there and we get the job done! The service couple definitely wasn't prepared for us! Haha what one group usually did in eight sessions, we did in five! It was awesome. And we met our quota: 10,000! We have reason to believe that we have done far more kits than 10,000...but I guess numbers aren't what really matter in this situation. What matters is that we are serving others...and that we are the winner! Mwahahahaha. :) But really, it's not a competition...because against us, there is no competition!

Once we ran out of toothbrushes I grabbed painting supplies and headed down to the playground on the first floor to seal the arches on the murals that were painted earlier in the semester. It took all of ten minutes to get it all done, but it was dangerously hot. The jeans I had on were stuck to me but falling down by the time I headed back into the building. It was ridiculous. This heat is beginning to get to me. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter! I miss being surrounded by air-conditioning... That was another great thing about Ein Gev. No matter what room, what building you walked into, you were greeted by a cold burst of air. The Jerusalem Center doesn't always use its air-conditioning so it gets fairly warm in certain areas of the building. But, I guess we can't be too bothered by that. After all, the building is beautiful and well-kept. There are much larger things that we could be complaining about.

I spent the afternoon attempting to complete one of my assignments for Doctor Chadwick's class. I got four out of the seven pages completed! I was rather proud of myself, but there is still a long way to go until I am finished. I have ten pages total that I have to write by August 8th. I can do it, no problem. It will just take a lot of focus to do so. It is difficult to focus when everyone around you is laughing and screaming and playing and having a good time! By eight o'clock at night, I couldn't take another minute of writing. So Kymberly and I decided to watch a movie, a classic: Charade. There is nothing better than an evening of Audrey Hepburn. She is by far one of my favorite actresses. She is just so proper, so...I don't know. I grew up with a mother would loves Audrey, and that love has definitely rubbed off on me. But I don't mind at all. I would much rather watch older movies than newer movies! You can't go wrong with Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Doris Day, and Fred Astaire! As soon as Charade was over, I shuffled into the next room to watch a different movie: The Adjustment Bureau. Now that was the trippiest movie I have seen since Inception. I liked it, but it was different...and incredibly cheesy! But cheesy movies are always the best ones, right?

I didn't get to bed until fairly late. After the movie was done, I stayed and talked with Dan for a few minutes. And then on my way down to my room, I got a text from Kymberly so we stayed up talking for a few minutes. These early hours of the morning and I have got to stop meeting like this! There is no way that I am going to survive finals if I don't start going to bed at an earlier hour! Perhaps tomorrow night will be different...don't hold your breath...