Life in the JC

K, so my goal with this entry is to give you a taste of what living here is like.

Thursday night was our talent show. I'm on the talent show committee, and this was our "formal" talent show- the informal one will be later in the semester. We had it in the auditorium, which is where we have sacrament meeting, so it was more geared toward at least low-key if not spiritual talents. My fellow committee members asked me to do a waltz. It was actually really fun. I didn't want to at first because the stage in the auditorium is really not big enough, but with some clever choreography (yes, I am really proud of myself, actually) we made it work. Matt is such a stud. We totally put this together in like, 4 days and he was awesome. I seriously am so impressed with him, he picks stuff up so fast and he's totally a natural. It was fun to work towards getting a routine together again. And it was actually kind of creepy how well it all turned out. For my choreography, I basically choreographed down the stage (it's wide but not deep, if that makes sense) and when I ran out of room, turned it around the other way. I did that about four times, and that was going to be our routine. I taught it to Matt, and then we put it to the music we were using, not really knowing how it was going to fit. The routine was exactly the length of the first verse. We had to cut out most of the intro, but I was seriously like, holy crap. It was amazing. And everyone loved it. They all love the whole ballroom dance thing. I think I'm going to be teaching a class soon as like an evening activity. A lot of people have been asking about it. And there were a lot of great acts. One girl apparently tours singing with the folk dance team at BYU. She was kind of amazing. And there was a strings quartet (except they had a flute instead of a viola but it totally worked) and they played something by Mozart that I know you all have heard but I don't know what it is, and Music of the Night. It was pretty sweet.

Yesterday was our Near Eastern Studies midterm, as well as the due date for one of our papers (we have several more of those coming up, as well). It's kind of fun having the same class schedule as everyone else around you. Some people commandeered a couple of the classrooms and had a study sesh, and they left all their notes up on the board so they were still there when we came to class Friday morning, so we were definitely all still studying during Old Testament. The midterm was not bad. I think people were way more freaked out about it than anyone needed to be. And actually I have rarely felt so well prepared for a test. But I totally, despite all my picture associations and everything, got the question about Lower Egypt (which is in the North, and symbolized by the red crown , bee, and papyrus flower- I know that now, dang it...) wrong. On a side note, since the purpose of this is to give an overall taste of life here in the JC, a series of emails concerning our NES teacher (Brother Skinner) recently... It all started with the Jerusalem Center Post, which was a flyer that some people put together containing a whole bunch of spoof stories, one of them about Skinner being caught skinning a cat. A couple days later, this email was sent by Kitty Catz to all the students:

"CAIRO (AP Wire Service) 1300 GMT
In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, 10 February, Egyptian President Muhammad Hosni Murbarak named Andrew Skinner, Brigham Young University Professor of Near Eastern Studies, to a newly created cabinet post-- Minister of Cat Terminations. It was further revealed that Skinner will serve simultaneously as Curator of Crappy Little Kitty Mummies in the Feline Wing of the Egyptian Museum.
News of Skinner's appointment came as a shock to Jerusalem Center Officials who felt that such a move could not have come at a worse time. An unnamed source in the administrative of offices of the Center has been quoted as saying, "This is so catty." Another official revealed that the appointment will undoubtedly have a cataclysmic affect on the Jerusalem Center cat population. Security officials at the Center said, "This simply bespeaks Skinner's lack of regard for a highly respected, albeit mangy, member of the animal kingdom." However, Egyptian Antiquities Director, Zahi Hawass has defended Skinner saying that he was catagorically in favor of the appointment.
Reactions from the BYU Jerusalem Center student population were mixed, though some political science majors felt that it would definitely have a cat-astrophic affect on the emerging relationship between the Jerusalem Center and the country of Katmandu.
At press-time Skinner could not be reached for comment. However, sources close to him believe the controversy caused him to slip into a catatonic state, but not before overindulging in unhealthy portions of Kitty-cutlets."

Someone proposed the theory that Brother Skinner himself wrote this email, having heard about the article. I agree, it's too well-written and it's got traces of his kind of humor. It was followed by an email stating that the position had been rescinded due to Skinner invoking the gods of ancient Egypt and engaging in cult slaughter of kittens. So that's Ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Our paper due yesterday was for Modern Near East- Islam, taught by Dr. Adnan Musallam. This is really not anyone's favorite class. His lectures are kind of all over the place and just not that engaging. So Mike and I have been playing various games on paper recently during that class. I beat him at the dot game, he slaughtered me at tic tac toe, and yesterday we played probably the most entertaining game of hangman I have ever played. We started drawing more and more elaborate gallows, and since we had to keep topping each other it became guillotine-man, and then firing squad-man, and I think we ended with burned-at-the-stake-man. And Musallam totally caught us, too. Mike had just drawn the guy being shot with a blindfold and a joint, and I was totally busting up. Musallam saw me grinning and called on me to repeat what he'd just said, and I actually managed to pull it off ok. He was pretty chill, too, though, he took what I said (the only thing I'd heard in his last statement was "Gaza") and basically fed me the rest.

This next week we have a paper due from the Egypt field trip (for our "Field Trip" class....) on Tuesday, our midterm for Judaism on Monday, and then I think a paper due for OT some time next week... Like, next Thursday. I am definitely way behind on my reading, but so is everyone else.

Last night I went to the Humanitarian Project. They can only accommodate so many people at one time, so it was my first experience with this. It was kind of amazing. It was like, hygiene kits on steroids. We're trying to get out 10,000 kits by the end of the semester, and people make it into like a race to see how fast we can go. It was nuts. I was down at the sealing/packing end. So basically people put all the toothbrushes, combs, towels, all that stuff, into these official Jerusalem Center Humanitarian Aid plastic bags, and then we have this awesome machine that seals them. Basically the two open edges of the plastic go into this thing that looks like a paper cutter, and the "sealer" (ya, we had fun with that one) presses down the lever for like, a second and a half and it gives it some heat to kind of melt the bag to itself. But if you hold it too long, it'll break off. It's intense. So we had two assembly lines sending down these packages, two guys receiving them and holding them for Mike, who was doing the sealing (tehe) and then my job was- well I kind of had several jobs. I had to pack the kits into the boxes, make sure each box had 5 kits, provide an empty box when the first one was full, and then hold the full box while the other packing guy taped it shut- pretty much all at the same time. And all of this at like, 80 mph. I'm not kidding. If I slowed down for like, one second, I would start getting pelted with hygiene kits, coz the guys helping with the sealing weren't even looking, they were just cranking it out as fast as they could. And if I didn't get a new box out fast enough, they would pack them too full so I had to watch and make sure there were five going into each box while also doing everything else at top speed. And sometimes they would even keep packing a full box when I had already moved it into the next space and had an empty one waiting! I had to keep telling Shelby he was putting them in the wrong box! Punk. Lol. Oh, I also kind of unofficially was in charge of making sure the kits had been sealed correctly in all the confusion. It was so much fun.

After the Humanitarian Project (and Heroes- Mike, his roommate Ken, and I have been watching one episode of the first season every night. We're almost to the finale and it's getting way intense!!!) we had a party in honor of Friday the 13th. Everyone got all dressed up in *scary* costumes (well, as much costume as you can really put together without DI... mostly just black make-up and ratty hair) and we had a dance party in the student lounge. If you haven't noticed, we kind of really like to have dance parties here. In fact, we've had a few "flash-dance" parties as well- it lasts 15 minutes, and you put together a playlist and play about 30 seconds from each song. It's pretty cool. And it's something fun to do that gives you kind of a break without taking up the whole evening. My favorite part of last night, though, was when they put on Thriller, and everyone totally did the dance to it in their scary outfits. I got it on video, it was fabulous.

And today, as I'm sure you're all aware, was Valentine's Day. It was kind of one of the best Valentine's Days I've ever had. Even though, I completely didn't even think about Valentine's Day when I was packing my suitcase and I totally have nothing that could even begin to resemble red or pink in my wardrobe!!! But I borrowed my roommate's red and gold pashmina scarf (from here, obviously) and knotted it around my waist with a white shirt and my white skirt. It worked. But because noone is really dating, everyone just kind of did stuff for each other. The boys all got together and made a card for each room with a rose for each girl. It was so sweet, and they were so beautiful. My room got a white, yellow, and barely light pink rose. They were such a good color combo, and the card said, "We're so grateful you're all here with us and the experiences we're sharing in Jerusalem together." It was so nice. The In-Center Activities committee put together a singing valentine service, which were mostly purchased by the service couple/teachers' wives for their husbands. It was kind of amazing to hear four of the guys sing "S-K-I-N-N-E-R" ("S is for the way you speak to me...") to Brother Skinner, and "(You've Been Married) For the Longest Time" to our Branch President- who, by the way, decided he needed to outdo the Skinners and so dipped his wife back into a silent movie style kiss. It was awesome. And then apparently Sister Huff's order slipped through the cracks, so she sent Matt out to find a bunch of us (we were playing Signs in the student lounge) to come and deliver it. We sang "You have shown her the world, Shining, shimmering, splendid; Tell me Prince Huff, now when did you last let your heart decide? You have opened her eyes, Shown her wonder by wonder, Over Sinai and under, on a magic airplane ride..." :D It was great, there were like, 25 of us outside their door and they were in their pajamas. I seriously hope that we have a vote for "Cutest Couple" at the end of this semester, just so I can vote for them. They are seriously so fun. She sits in on our religion class and she totally laughs at all his jokes (she totally thinks he's hilarious) and he always waits to help her off the bus on field trips. They're great. :)

Last but not least, tonight we played Signs. I'm sure most of you have played this game, but if you've never played it using the rule that the person in the middle has to touch the person with the sign before they pass it, you really should. This game is amazing. It gets so intense, because you totally know who has the sign, and you know who they've passed it to, but as soon as you go for the person who has it the next person will accept it and pass it again, so you're like, diving head-first into people and the people in the circle can totally keep it going by sheer reflexes. The best, too, is when someone who has the sign tries to like, run away from the person in the middle as they're about to get caught and can't think of anyone to send it to. Ya, I definitely was full-on jumped on by one of the guys when we played it at the beginning of the semester. And it's so fun when someone makes like a really spectacular pass. This is kind of our big group game that we play from time to time and it is way fun. Just to give you an idea of some of the signs: mine is bunny ears on the person next to you, we have superman, monkey, imitations of teachers (Musallam always knocks on the lecturn to get our attention, so someone's was knocking), shimmy, ...I don't even know how to describe some of these. We have all names for them, I guess I'll just tell you those, and you can use your imagination: there's "get some," "Kobe," "soulja boy," "money," "genie," ya, it's really fun.

Well, my computer hasn't even been sent to the Apple store yet. I think they're still waiting to check on the warranty... And I think they're pretty tired of me asking about it, so I'm just going to have to be patient. Two other girls' computers have had the same problem in the last week, too.... Well, happy Valentine's Day!