A Day in My Life

Lest ye perceive that my days are full of tourism and exploring, and I sacrificed money and a whole semester off my academic plan and four months without dating to merely sight see...... let me elucidate that I am here to study in between Indiana Jones-style expeditions, believe it or not. We actually are taking 15 (difficult) credits and have classes pretty much every school day. Although there is no such thing as a typical day.....let me present you with: A Day in the Life of a Jerusalem Center Student.

6:00 Wake up and go to the gym if you want! In how many gyms is everyone on stationary bikes reading the Old Testament and having conversations such as, "If you had to be afflicted with one of Egypt's plagues, which would you have?" I'd take three days of darkness over frogs or my firstborn being killed.

7:00 Breakfast. Always so many healthy options. Why doesn't Yoplait make pineapple yogurt in the states? Along with this wonderful fruit-milk-yogurt-granola-honey stuff, nutella and pita bread is always a favorite.

8:00 Old Testament. One of the best parts of the day! Brother Muhlstein always has a great quote to begin with. Today's was "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached, as the obstaces which have been overcome while trying to succeed."

9:00 Ancient Near Eastern Studies class. We discuss the meaning behind sites we've visited, geography of the Holy Land, history, archaeology. It's very interesting.

10-12 Free time or homework time, if we don't have another class. Writing a 7-page Islam paper, reading about tels, huge chunks of Old Testament reading, chapters and chapters about Judaism and Zionism....you name it.

12:00 Lunch. Sometimes the weather is just right to eat outside. After maybe sandwiches, falafels, or salads, nutella on pita bread is always a favorite.

1:00 - 5:00 Islam or Judaism class, a 2-hour class. If we had it in the morning than we usually find time to go into the city and see some of the sights. We get credit for seeing a list of required sights! Yesterday it was watching a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall and then a walk to West Jerusalem to the market. It included getting ripped off when I bought some oranges, sampling bread and halva (sesame candy), and bargaining for dried fruit. There were beautiful displays of pomegranates the size of my face, baby pineapples, and other fruit I'd never seen before. So much fun!

5:00 Arabic class. Taught by a large, humorous Arab guy whose name I still don't really know. He cracks us up, and teases the blonde girls. The classroom overlooks the city and it's usually sunset at that time, making it even better.

6:00 Dinner. There are always lots of really delicious vegetable dishes available, so often I don't eat anything else. Except nutella and pita bread...which is always a favorite.

7-10 Evenings usually entail homework, distracted by writing this blog, g-chatting or email.  I'm also an FHE leader, and chair of the snack bar committee which runs the Shekel Shaq each night to create revenue for Jerusalem t-shirts for all the students. There are forums on Wednesday nights when we hear from local speakers, and movie nights on Fridays. Tonight (if I'm not finishing a paper) it's the Ten Commandments!

Just want to mention Wednesday was my sister Hope's 17th birthday! I hope she had a wonderful day, I love her!