First few days of classes!!!

Well, I have completed my first "week" of college classes (minus two days)! So far so good :D

Wednesday - First day of class
In themorning I started off by filling out an application for a scholarship that is due on September 12th....I also have to write three essays that are each more than a 1,000 words!!!
The first class I had was Mass Media and Culture (abbreviation = Media/MMC)- I definitely like the professor, and the textbook is pretty interesting. It takes me the longest to read though, because I have been taking notes on it. So far it has introduced various aspects of how we communicate with other people and then the different functions of media in our lives. Interesting stuff! That class is probably my biggest...I think it has about 4o students. A couple of the guys I already know from Dallas, a couple girls were in my O group, and several people are in my major.
Wednesday noon was my first honors class, Old Testament Survey (abbreviation = OTS)- the professor, Dr. Blankenship, is a very very fascinating man. He attended seminary in Boston, which has a system so that if you are enrolled in one seminary in the area you can register for classes for any of the 9 seminaries there. As a result, he has spent time living in monasteries, under Catholic teachers, under rabbis, etc. etc. He has also studied at least half a dozen Biblical languages. On Wednesday he talked about literary context, especially how the Bible uses certain patterns that the original audience would have immediately recognized. For example, what story do you think of if I tell you that a man travels a great distance, stops to rest at a well, meets a woman, makes a good impression, meets other people, and the list goes on? There are actually four such stories in the Bible (Abraham's servant meeting Rebekah, Jacob meeting Rachel, Moses meeting the priest's daughters, and Jesus with the Samaritan woman) and additional ones in other Hebrew literature. Dr. Blankenship's point is that a Jewish reader of John's gospel would see that John was using that pattern, and that the differences between it and the other stories would strongly emphasize what John was trying to say. This class has 20-30 people.
Wednesday afternoon I had my first Gateway class (abbreviation = Gateway/Narnia)...the syllabus gives a better description of what the Gateway class is - it is meant to help students understand how education at a Christian university is different by encouraging us to view all of our subjects through a Biblical worldview (and yes, they used that word! :D) I really like my professor for this class too, as well as the subject matter!!! (Narnia!) We will be divided into seven groups, and each group will make a presentation about one of the Chronicles...so that will be very fun! I think there are about 20 people in this class too.
My last class of the day was News Writing 1 (abbreviation = NW1). Professor Warner talked about the journalism program at JBU, how hard and difficult it will be, and where some of his former students have ended up (literally around the world!!!). He also assigned us a couple little projects to turn in on Friday.
After getting out of class, I went with a couple other girls to Wal-Mart and finally picked up a few things I had been needing. We also stopped by a Dayspring outlet store where I bought a really pretty journal! We had dinner, then the freshman all had our Workstudy meeting. I am going to be working in the cafeteria. The chef said that he would be starting us all out doing cleaning after the cafeteria closes in the evenings (I'll probably be working from 6:30-8:30 four days a week), but that if we do well at that he may be able to move some of us to other jobs. So hopefully I will be able to get a weekend shift and then only have to work a couple nights a week...we'll see.
We also had a meeting with all the residents of Walker (the dorm I live in), going over various rules/safety issues/activity opportunities/etc. I stayed up until nearly midnight putting my various class assignment schedules into my calendar/planner.

Thursday - Second day of class
Since I had stayed up so late, I got a really really slow start the next morning. As in, I probably stayed in bed until 7:45!!!! ;-) I wasn't feeling 100% either (no, I'm not sick), so that didn't help matters any. I did get some of my reading done before chapel at 10:30. President Pollard spoke and welcomed the students back to JBU. After chapel I decided to go ahead and eat lunch so that I would have a bigger chunk of time for studying. I finished the reading for Media and OTS and started NW1 before my 2:45 class. As I walked to class it kind of sprinkled, but while we were in class it POURED and THUNDERED - it was quite interesting! :D Thankfully it stopped by the time we were done with class.
The only class I have on Tuesday/Thursday is Honors English Composition (abbreviation = English/Comp). I think it will be very interesting and good for me, but I think it will also be a stretching experience. We will be doing about 18 pages of essays for that throughout the semester, in addition to smaller in-class assignments. This class only has eight students in it!!!
Once class was over, I headed back to my room and finished up all my reading for the next day. That evening I also auditioned for the Music Ministries Ensemble here on campus (MME/Music). The lady in charge said she would email me...I haven't heard back yet, so we'll just have to wait and see! Got to bed in a much better time that night, partly because I was really tired!

Friday - Third day of class
Getting up on time went much better yesterday morning. I went running for the second time here and decided to go for a personal distance record. I had gone 2.25 miles without stopping a couple times, but I wanted to get up to 2.5. I would have thought that I couldn't stand going 25 times around the little tenth mile inside track here, but it actually wasn't too bad! I was pretty happy with my time too - 26:13. I need to keep working on getting my distance up, because I hope to run a 5k (3 miles) here in Siloam in October.
I took too long taking my shower, so I was afraid I was going to miss breakfast...thankfully I got in before they shut the doors, because I didn't end up getting any lunch! I went back to my room and got a little bit of stuff done, then stopped by the cafeteria on my way to class to talk to the chef about my work schedule. He said to come back in on Monday, but at least I got the non-skid shoes I have to have ordered.
Had my Media and OTS classes that morning. There isn't a whole lot to say about them because we are still kind of dealing with introductory issues...
All of my honors classes are at what is called the Honor's house, which is a little ways off campus. On Fridays I have my OTS class there at 12 and then my Honors Orienation at 2. So I have decided that I am just going to stay at there in between so that I get a more solid study time rather than walking all the way back to my room, having a few minutes there, then walking all the way back again. That's why I didn't get lunch yesterday...but from now on I will be able to pick up a sack lunch at the cafeteria before my first class. Yesterday I did have some trail mix that I ate though, so it wasn't too bad not having lunch. I started the Media reading for Monday during my break, and made pretty good progress.
I started my last new class - Honor's Orientation (H.O.). I am very happy because one of the girls I kind of know from the Dallas area is also in the class with me! And I share other classes with most of the other people in the class. This class also has less than 10 people in it. Yesterday we were talking about not conforming to the world. The director of Honors Scholars Program (HSP), Brad Gambill, is our teacher. He had us watch an old music video and read a poem and discuss each of them. I didn't like either very much at all >:P It was kind of interesting to discuss them though.
I was almost late to NW1, but thankfully Professor Warner hadn't closed the door yet. If he had, I probably would have been in trouble. I will just have to make sure that I leave the honor's house promptly after we finish class! We talked about who a journalist is and what kind of qualities they have, and he assigned us to write a "Letter to the Editor" about the government option for the health care plan. I haven't started writing it yet, but I think it will be interesting to write......
Once I got back to my room I finished the Media chapter, read a chapter of the brand new book "Why College Matters to God" (written by a JBU professor!) for Gateway, and skimmed through the three NW1 chapters Professor Warner had assigned (seventy pages of reading.....he told us to just skim them at this point). This evening we had a Welcome Back BBQ for all students, so that was yummy, especially since I was really hungry!
I spent a copule hours working on one of the 1,000 word essays for the scholarship, and didn't end up getting to bed until midnight again. It was easier to get up this morning than Thursday morning though, for some reason.

Saturday - the "boring" day.
This morning I got up about 7 and took my laundry over to the honor's house so I could wash and dry it for free. I definitely learned NEVER to take the whole bottle of detergent with me though - it's way way too heavy! I also discovered that my brakes have basically no effect...so I'm going to go work on that in a couple minutes here. I am also going to buy a basket to make it a little eaiser to transport my laundry and other things. So I spent two and a half hours over at the honors house doing my laundry. Of course, I had taken some schoolwork with me to work on. During that time I read the article from H.O. that I have to write about before Wednesday, and I also worked on a two paragraph assignment for Media on Monday. I didn't have breakfast until 11:3o, so I'm not having lunch - I grabbed an apple instead that I will probably have later. Since then I have planned out my homework schedule for next week (it looks completely do-able, almost easier than WorldViews!) and started thinking about what I am going to write for the three paragraph essay due for Comp on Tuesday.
Oh, I found out at H.O. on Friday that the Honors students have a camp-out next Friday/Saturday, so that should be a lot of fun! We are going to Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma.
So now I'm going to go out and install my odometer on my new bike, and try to fix the brakes...we'll see how that goes!