When waiting to sync, what exactly is going on? Is my computer processing something? Am I simply waiting in line for the others before me? I thought the value of a block chain is that the other's participating in this coin will be syncing each other.
the blockchain, is a chain of blocks

so when you are syncing, your client is downloading each block in order and checking that it appears valid.
1
2
3
4
5
6
... etc to the end.