The way they do it now is that you get 2 96 (hour) liberty times. One for xmas, one for New Years. If you want to take any more time off than that, you need to take leave. Sucks, huh?
During the time you don't have class but aren't on leave/libo you have little musters and PT sometimes.
As a reminder, you can't just take leave minus those 8 days, either, because you have to be in the area to check in or out on leave. Some people want to bridge the gap between them with leave but don't realize even doing that means they have to go on the 96, come back, check out on leave, go wherever, come back to check in from leave, then go wherever.
Again, it sucks. But that is the current policy. That doesn't mean it won't change for when you get here, though. These things tend to change a lot.