Schedules and Other Daily Activities

It is Monday evening, and most of today was filled with multiple teachers introducing themselves and a little about their topic, or some of them giving words of encouragement or introduction to the school without saying much about class itself.
The set-up feels so funny because we only have one classroom, and all of the teachers/pastors just come to us and go to the front of the room to present.
I will admit - this was not a very exciting day.
We're all working pretty consistently on school work already so, now that orientation is over, it's just a matter of establishing a weekly routine.

Several people have been asking about my class schedule, and as far as I know this is what my class-week will look like:
Mondays:
Study Tour of Israel (we'll be going everywhere worth going to in Israel) all day
8:00PM - women's discipleship

Tuesdays:
9:30 - 11:30am : Christ in Prophesy
2:30 -4:30pm : Lectures in Ministry and Theology (various pastors from around Israel come and give lessons)
6:30 - 8:30pm : A required class for 1st semester students

Wednesday:
9:30am - 12:30pm : Revelation
7:00 - 9:00pm : Church History

Thursday:
I don't have any classes

Friday:
10:00 - noon : Daniel

Other classes include a Practical Ministry class which includes doing work around the school like help prepare meals, general cleaning, and helping lead worship.
Also every Tuesday - Friday morning from 8:30 - 9:15 the whole school (all 25 of us) gather for Public Devotional Speaking, which is basically group devotional/worship time.
Other required work is "Chuck Tracks" - which means listening to sermons by Chuck Smith as he goes through the whole bible (he began a loooooooong time ago! Several sermons make references to former presidents like Reagan or Nixon... yeah.). We are required to listen to them, take notes and write a bit of personal application - minimum 1/2 page of writing per sermon, so not hard at all.

On paper it looks like I'm going to be pretty busy... and I might be, but I think Tuesday may turn out to be the only really full day. And I'm told the homework load here isn't bad at all, so I think I will be just fine and dandy when it comes to getting all homework done.

Other news in daily living...
Even though I had to leave my guitar at home there are still opportunities to play music with others at the school. There are 3 guitars among us and a nice keyboard/piano. Out of the 25 students there are about 10 musicians (piano/guitar and/or drums)... so it's a very musical group :)

Jerusalem is a pretty normal big city. One of the most noticeable differences between here and the US is the colors - over here everything is sandy colored, instead of the cement or bricks in America. Also it smells pretty bad here... it's not a very clean city.
A pretty funny difference is the driving! Over here the lines dividing the lanes seem to be more like suggestions instead of actual rules... and as long as you don't hit anything it seems that anything goes - even sidewalk parking where there is room. Drivers here honk at EVERYTHING! ...people, other cars, animals... if they don't like it they honk until it changes. Even street lights sometimes. The drivers are VERY aggressive. From the looks of it, I think that drivers just keep a look out for anything around them and honk a warning - pedestrians keep an eye out for enough space to get across the street - and somehow no one is hit.

The apartment I live at is on Hillel St. right around the block from Ben Yhuda St (the big tourist attraction) - I walk down it everyday to get to the school. :)
The only time I've ever seen that street empty is on Sabbath (pronounced Shu-bot) - the town seems to disappear that day until party breaks out around 9:00pm. All the shops that were closed re-open for a few hours and the whole town seems to come back out from hiding and celebrate.

Tonight was one of the best nights because one of the girls here - Hannah - make scones. mmmmmmm :)
and they are amazing... I'm eating one right now... and for some reason it reminds me of hours I spent at the Bean in Corvallis drinking tea and doing homework.

One other very exciting bit of information! We're going on a trip up to the Galilee this weekend!! The 29th - 31st. It's going to be amazing. oh, yes.
...and yes they call "the Galilee" not just Galilee, for some reason.

Love, joy and peace to you all!!

ps - I'm sorry it's taking so long to get pictures loaded up, but they're coming! I promise!!