My day in detail

I have been asked what exactly my day looks like, so for today, I will take you through everything that happens. Detail by detail…as if I don’t write enough already! HA!

My alarm went off at 6am. I sort of laughed and hit the snooze button. Cause really…I KNOW I’m not going to get up at 6am…but I just can’t seem to set it for later than that. I hit the snooze button until 6:45 and then thought about getting up to shower. I then realized that I had taken a shower the night before so I decided to go back to sleep for a while. I slept till 7:30. Breakfast is served at 7am, but all they have available is bread for toast and cold cereal. Since I have a milk allergy, I can’t do cold cereal and let me tell you, toast EVERY DAY gets so old. One Tuesday’s they offer porridge as well, but really? YUCK! Wednesday they offer eggs and bacon, but not in a delicious way, sort of in a … not so appetizing way, and then Thursday they have more porridge and then Friday just toast and cereal again. So, I skip that meal. Well, actually I eat a granola bar or have an Advocare shake. To this morning, I got up at 7:30, put on some clothes, ate a granola bar, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bag and left for class by 7:45.

First period I had Old Testament Literature. We had to have read the first 10 chapters of the Bible and to start on our first lesson in our study guide. Not that hard, and I had it done. In class we talked all about the book so the OT and what they are called and the groups they are in. Then we started to memorize them to prepare for the final. It’s not too hard of a class yet, but I’m sure it will get there soon enough! To start the class out one of my classmates opened in prayer. He is from Ethiopia and said the prayer in his native tongue. I have no idea what it was. I just waited till I heard other people saying “amen” and then I knew it was over.

Between classes we have a 10 minute break. Mostly people just go outside the classroom and sit in the courtyard till the next class starts. I like to stay in my seat and get ready for the next class or to read so that I can get a head start. Plus, I don’t need to get out of my seat every 50 minutes, I find it annoying that there are so many breaks. Second period started and the person that opened in prayer was from the Republic of Congo so he prayed in French. I took two years of French in high school and learned nothing. So, I understood nothing. Again I just waited till I heard him say Amen. It was now English class. The night before I knew that we had to do ½ of lesson 1 but I was not paying attention and I did the whole thing. No matter though, cause we never even opened our books. The whole class was about the difference between the word meanings of live, live, life, leafe and leave. A WHOLE 50 MINUTES ON THAT! I can understand why, these people don’t get it. And they had LOTS of questions! Amazing. I hope that this is not a picture of what the rest of the year will be. I really hope that it picks up a little. Or…a LOT! Oh, and me, with my not so good spelling, had to correct the teacher…jeeze! I was annoyed that whole class. The teacher kept asking questions and then when nobody would say anything she would look to me and I would answer them. I have learned not to say anything until called upon so that I don’t look like a know it all. It’s actually more frustrating than it sounds though.

After 2nd period, we have another 10 minute break. Then we have Chapel. We have different speakers or teachers or events that go on each day for Chapel. The 4th years (seniors) here at CTS have to preach a sermon their last year in Chapel, so today was one of those. A student named Marvyn spoke. It was really good, and he seems like a really smart guy. I liked it! After Chapel it was Tea Time. We have a 1/ 2 hour tea time each day. We just get a cup of tea or coffee and there are usually sandwiches made for us.

After Tea Time, I had 3rd period, which was good ‘ol Public Speaking. UGH! Class started and the teacher wrote 3 topics on the board. She then told us to write an introduction to a paper using one of the subject. We could interpret the subjects any way we decided. We only had 5 minutes to write it. I thought that was more than enough time. At the end of 5 minutes, and I’m sitting there waiting for her to say, “TIME!” she pipes up and says.. “ok, well since you all have trouble with English, I will give you an extra 5 minutes” hhmpf! After the time was up and were all done, she said, “ok now I am going to call upon a few student to get up and read what they wrote. Heidi, you can go first.” I thought I heard her wrong, so I looked up and she and everyone was staring at me. Great! I hate this class and our first assignment and I have to go first. (Emily thanks for jinxing me last night with that prophecy!) I grabbed my notebook, walked up to the front, read what I wrote and walked back to my desk, all without lifting my head. And, without throwing up…I so I guess that was positive. She called two more people and then we moved on to other stuff. I wanted out of there so bad! The class eventually ended after what seemed like 4 hours which was really just 50 minutes and we had another break.
Stinking breaks!

4th period started which was Man & Sin today. Our teacher is sort of hardcore, but good. He is a great teacher, but also a stickler for the rules. We were supposed to do our Lesson 1 in our study guides. He asked that we all get our books out and he went around and checked everyone’s assignments to make sure they were done. He said that if you for some reason were not able to finish the homework, don’t’ bother coming to class. Which, I can see why, but to make that a rule and to state it in a loud voice was a little strange. He made his point though. I am actually excited for this class and I hope to learn a lot. Hopefully he will not go as slow as the other teachers. To open this class, he had Simon open in prayer. Simon prayed in German.
Interesting day!

After 4th period it was lunch. I went and got my food and ate it while in a Missions Committee meeting. I did not have any classes after that so I went to my room to start on my homework. I worked for about an hour and then decided that I needed a nap. At this time it was about 3:30. So I set my alarm for 6:00 and fell asleep! I woke up and went to dinner and then came back to my room and studied for another 2 hours. At 8:00 I got a text saying that UNO was on in 5 minutes! YAY! I figured I would play one hand and be down there for about 15 minutes because I still did have lots of homework to do tonight. At 10:00 I realized that I needed to be done. I had played 5 hands of UNO and was getting tired. I called it a night and headed upstairs. Upon getting back to my room, I remembered that tomorrow, Wednesday, is a PEP day and we don’t have classes like normal. So no homework is actually due till Thursday. GOODNESS!

I got online and answered a few emails, checked my facebook, talked to a few people on skype and now I am writing this. It’s just after midnight and I am still wide awake. Nap + Coffee = 2am bed time. I think that after I am done with this I will finish up my homework just so that I have be ahead of schedule. I have church on Friday nights, so not having homework would be nice.

Here is my daily schedule: (there are 5 peiods a day, starting at 8am and ending at 2:45pm)

Monday: OT.Literature, English 1,Public Speaking, Man & Sin,Free
Tuesday: OT.Literature, English 1,Public Speaking, Man & Sin,Free
Wednesday: PEP/PAP
Thursday: OT.Lieterature, English 1, Intro to computrs x3 hours
Friday: OT.Literature, Man & Sin, Public Speaking, English 1, Free

PEP and PAP are every Wednesday throughout the year. PEP is where we get together as a class and learn how to use what we have learned in our classed in the real works. This might mean having a speaker, or lecture from a teacher or even going off campus to do a practical ministry at a church for the morning. And then PAP is where all year long we have the same subject and learn one specific thing. This first semester we have English. We are learning how to write papers. Our final paper for Man & Sin is the paper that we will be using to learn with in this class. This information is all that I have been told. After tomorrow, I will be able to better explain what it really is and what we are doing. Also, tomorrow they might tell us what PEP and PAP stand for. Like I said before…communication is the their strong suite here.

I am going to be getting driving lessons soon. They didn’t happen today as Mary, the lady teaching me, was too busy, but maybe tomorrow!!! I will keep you updated! Scary! Sitting on the wrong side of the car, shifting with the wrong hand and driving on the wrong side of the road…I’ll be fine, I’m sure.

My sunburn seems to be getting better. It is not as sore as it was yesterday. I have put so much lotion on. I have used nearly a whole bottle in the last 3 days. I REALLY hope I don’t peal/peel (sp?) too bad!!!

Have a wonderful day everyone! Talk to you tomorrow!!!

oh, and i have pictures of my church and of the Boost Africa Gallery, but i don't have the patients to upload them tonight. Maybe another day this week.