first day of class

today was our first day of class!
first we had old testament with brother belnap. it was great. usually classes are two hours long which sounded  pretty daunting, but he is good. immediately after we had ANE (ancient near east) with dr seely and it was the same deal. he is a great teacher and super funny and it was easy to stay interested. i am super excited. we learned a lot about the west bank, basic geography, and also got a lot of prep info for our field trip on monday (my birthday)! we are going to various sites around jerusalem to get an overview/good views of the city.
after 4 hours of class we had lunch. today we had cold cuts and got to make our own sandwiches. the bread was super good. we also had a lot of nice cheeses. so so good. as usual there was a lot of fresh fruit. today was also the first day they put hummus out with the pita so i finally tried it. it was pretty good. they have this chocolate spread that is super good... the best way to describe it is like cake batter. they also have peanut butter out but i wasn't a huge fan. i think it's all natural peanut butter because it sticks to the roof of your mouth like none other. i am impressed by the food they serve us everyday. it is super good. i am doing good with portion control (pray for me lol). tomorrow is fast sunday. no food until 4:00 and i slept through dinner... so pray for me x2. hahaha.
after lunch we had meetings for security and our committees. first was security with mr. safadi. he is so funny. so is mr. alawi. they look really similar and have super, super dry senses of humor. they are my favorite. they are like arab body builders, they aren't super tall but they are thick. hahah i love them. so he (mr. safadi) went over safety for fires, earthquakes, bomb threats and missile threats. he is so well educated it was impressive. he was using all these different terms for different kinds of collapses during an earthquake. you can tell he has been through a lot of training for this kind of stuff and the entire center is incredibly well planned out. it seems like it is very prestigious thing to work here at the center. one of the front desk ladies is a lawyer, a mom, and a fashion blogger here in israel. i think she is a pretty big deal. she dresses well. wears lots of black, (which is a good indicator of someone with good fashion) hahah. so i endorse her fashion blogging.
we went into the bomb shelter again today to go over some things. the one on the sixth floor is equipped for NBC warfare- that's nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare. it's an intense system and 200 people could live in there for 8 months. i think if a nuclear strike hits i'd rather just die then have to deal with all the aftermath but it is cool to see all the precautions they have taken. i feel very safe here at the center. yesterday we also got our israeli cellphones and our access cards. the phones have the center and security on speed dial and we have to take them every where. as of this semester we also have a new deal where we get 500 free minutes to the states on those phones so that's so nice. we use our access cards every time we leave and enter the building so that security knows who is not in the building in case of emergency.
my favorite part of the day was our committee meeting. i am a co-chair on the service committee which is really cool. i actually signed up for it kind of as an accident. on the papers in provo it is called "humanitarian and hosting" and the description included giving tours of the center which is totally my jam- i love interacting with people. turns out students don't do that anymore but that is okay! i think i ended up with the coolest job.
the service couple in charge of us are the gunthers. they are from american fork and are so cute. sister gunther was a elementary school teacher and i guess i look just like one of her students grown up and it seems like she really likes me. it's so nice to have adult figures here that look out for you. she was the first person that pulled me aside individually and asked me how i was. that kind of stuff means a lot. so basically the service couple has a lot of connections throughout the city and we choose / get a feel for what the students want to do then set it up through them. we have various opportunities at preschools in the old city, a school for extremely handicapped children in ain gev, (how on earth you spell that, i have no idea), a blind school, a soccer facility here on the mount of olives, and more. it sounds really cool and i am excited. almost every friday we assemble kits here at the center. we went down to the garage today to see it and it was soooo nice. holy wow this place is nice. all the employees have decent cars and one even drives a chevy SUV which i thought was funny. so anyways the church is so smart. they put the jerusalem center logo on all the stuff they distribute (coloring books, etc.). we were talking today and class and one of the key things to being safe is associating ourselves with the center/byu/church and not america. people like the church here. doing service and having kids here to spread goodwill is so smart. both israelis and palestinians i think will always support the church and it's presence here as long as we are neutral. it is so smart. the church is so smart. they don't like america, but they like the mormons. i think that is so interesting. what an amazing missionary effort in a non-traditional missionary way. i am so glad i am on the service committee and get to spearhead the effort to spread that goodwill.

after the meetings galore i took a nap. a couple people went into the city but i knew that if i went i would literally collapse. i am still pretty jetlagged. like i said earlier i slept through dinner which may have been a really, really bad idea. we are all playing games now and it's fun. i really like the kids here. there is this one italian kid, brian. he reminds me of douglas weaver and is so funny. (hi wendy haha). anyways i am gonna go play but everyone have a great weekend! i will write tomorrow, our first sabbath! (we have church on sundays). pray that i don't die, i can't eat until four because it's fast meeting. see ya! xo