Epiphany

I've always wondered why I get sunburned so bad on my nose and forehead despite the sunscreen I put on. It finally dawned on me a few weeks ago why. That's where I sweat the most! Ever since I was a baby I have had little beads of sweat on my nose, and my forehead generally sweats a lot. So in attempts to keep myself dry (and to keep the sweat from pouring down my face in buckets), I wipe it off. This not only wipes off my sweat, but the sunscreen too. I am now sunburned in those two places despite the large amounts of sunscreen I applied in Jordan. I'm afraid it's going to peel.

I am back from Jordan. We arrived home yesterday to be told that we weren't allowed to leave the city due to heightened security. This is largely due to Senator Obama's visit to Jerusalem these couple of days, but there was a mini-terrorist attack outside his hotel a few days ago when we were in Jordan, so we aren't allowed out until further notice. It's not too bad since we have a midterm coming up, a field trip this afternoon and two field trips next week before we head out to Galilee, so I'm not feeling like I'm on house arrest. The good news is that the teachers all seem to think that we will be able to go out today to exchange money. We are going to Bethlehem this afternoon and evening and will have a little Christmas devotional in Shepherd's field. I will write about the Jordan trip later, but here is a little preview to look forward to:

Three quick things about the trip:
1. It was super hot. They told us it was 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) yesterday, but we heard reports of it being 48 (120) when we were at the Jesus Baptismal Site. It was practically unbearable, and the air conditioning on the bus wasn't the greatest.
2. I got a minor eye irritation on the trip and had to wear my glasses the entire time. Not fun when it's bright and you want/need sunglasses. Not having sunglasses doesn't help with eye problems either.
3. Petra might just have been one of the coolest places I've ever been.

Stay tuned for the rest.

"You know you love me, XOXO..." --That's for you Emma and Liz.

Egypt (part 2)

I am now finally writing the rest of my trip to Egypt, but first the craziness that was this week: So last Saturday, we got back from Egypt. Sunday we had class, Monday we had class and free time for the afternoon. I went to the Holocaust museum here. Tuesday was a hike around Hezekiah's tunnel and Wednesday was big studying, Thursday and Friday were finals, and then Friday night we went to Synagogue and today I had to give a talk in church. So it was an incredibly busy week. Today I went to the Dormition Abbey and the Garden of Gethsemane.

Here is my favorite picture from the Abbey:

This is an a dome directly over the supposed tomb of Mary. I liked that it is all women from the bible. Some of them are from the Apocrypha, and we couldn't figure out who one of them was, but we decided that it is, Eve, Esther, Ruth, Jael, Judith, and we weren't sure who the last one was, maybe Miriam. Judith is the one holding the head (she cut off the head of some war guy, and Jael drove a spike through the temple of a military leader).

So back to Egypt. After flying to Luxor we went swimming that night because it was so hot. I have never been somewhere where I'm sweating at night standing outside because it is so hot. I knew I was going to be in trouble for the next day. Here are the highlights of my time in Luxor:

We went to The Valley of the Kings and saw the tombs of Tutankhamen, Ramses IV and a couple other pharaohs whose names I can't remember. I don't know what I was expecting when we got there, but it was a lot more developed than I was expecting. The tombs were so cool though. I loved Ramses IV's tomb. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I don't have one. But here is what the valley looks like:

That first day we also went on a camel ride. The guy who led my camel was so funny. He kept giving me the reigns of the camel and whenever his boss came he would take them back. I felt like a spoiled rich tourist sitting on my camel going through really cool but very poor area of town.

This is our group. There were 40 people riding the camels!

Here is my guide and his friend. Unfortunately for them I wasn't
looking for an Egyptian husband.

Here's me on my camel!

The temples we went to were also really cool. Here are some of the pictures of the temples we went to. I thought they were really cool too. The best part were the sheer size of the temples. I loved the lotus columns at the Karnak temple, and the Luxor temple. It was so cool.

Karnak

Luxor

We finished up Egypt with a visit to a mosque and some shopping. The mosque was really cool and was a smaller version of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Tomorrow we're going to Jordan. We will have structured free time (meaning we aren't allowed to go anywhere the teachers say we can't), because of the shooting that happened yesterday. We will not be going to the gladiator and chariot place because that's where the shooting happened. I know that the center wouldn't let us go if there was any danger. I'm excited. When I get back I will write about our field trip to Hezekiah's tunnel this week.

Egypt (part 1)

We rolled back into Jerusalem last night around 11:30 after our six-day excursion to the hellish heat of Egypt. Despite that, the trip was absolutely wonderful! I loved it. Here are my highlights, pictures included:

We started our trip last Sunday around 6 am and headed down to hit up some Old Testament sites before spending the night at a Kibbutz. The best places were an old fortress which I unfortunately cannot remember the name of and I don't have my notebook with me, but there was an old Byzantine era ruined church there that I really liked. It was totally ruined, so I don’t know why I liked it so much but I thought it was really cool.

This is me with Sister Thomas, the doctor's wife in the chapel.

We also went to Ben Guron's grave where there was a great overlook of the wilderness that the Israelites had to wander in for 40 years. It was desolate and nothing. I don't think I could have handled it.

The Kibbutz was cool. The idea of Kibbutzin stems from socialism. In the 50's groups of Jewish people moved down to Israel and formed communities that a pretty self sufficient. We took a tour of one and had dinner that night there. Their main products are dates and chocolate milk. Here is a picture of the date trees. I thought they were really pretty:

The drive across the Sinai was super long and I just kept thinking about having to traipse around that for 40 years. It did not sound appealing to me in the slightest. We stopped a few times driving across. I tried to do homework, I tried to sleep but the bus ride was so bouncy I couldn't really do anything. We learned that the bus driver was driving about 50 kilometers above the speed limit which helped us make the best time across the desert that the teachers had ever made. We all got really excited whenever we saw camels too.

As we pulled up into Cairo, our hotel was in Giza (which is where the Pyramids are) and I was so excited to see the Pyramids in the distance when we came into the city. Apparently Cairo has 18 million people living there and there are estimated 2 million cars. The most entertaining part was the cars weaving in and out all over. Our tour guide told us that the lines in the middle of the road are more decoration than actual traffic lines. There were people all over. That night we went to a sound and light show at the Pyramids that was entirely overrated and over priced. I was skeptical to go remembering the Malbork show in Poland of last summer, but there were only three or four people not going so I went. The show was pretty bad and I ended up talking to my "date" Meg the entire time. But we got our date picture:

Yes that's the Sphinx right above Meg's head.

The next day we went to the pyramids. It was unbearably hot by 8:00 and I'm pretty sure I have never sweated so profusely in my entire life, until I went inside the pyramid (the one on the left of this picture) and I felt like I had just dowsed my body in wet. The inside smelled and was thick with humidity (humidity from everyone's body heat) and it was not entirely pleasant. It was so hot and disgusting inside that when I got outside it felt cool. My back was covered with sweat and I had it dripping off my earrings it was so gross. It was really cool to be there though. I was surprised at how big the stones were and I just wanted to climb up the Pyramid.

I took a sweet Sphinx picture that everyone thought was so great, but I couldn't take credit for the idea since Cami had done it months ago, but it was the most clever picture so I did it too.

After the Pyramids we went to the Step Pyramid of Zoser which was the precursor to the pyramids now.

By the end of the day, we were so hot and miserable and had to go get on a plane to go down to Luxor for a few days, which I will write about later.

My Jerusalem Life

June 29th

Today we had our first class on Islam. It was really interesting and I got some clarification on the religion and mainly on its origins. One thing that I have been wondering about though, are the different ways the women dress here. Some wear long black cloaks that look heavy, some wear the entire black dress with only their eyes showing, and then others wear flamboyant and flashy headscarves with a normal western outfit on over pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt. But today in class we learned that they all wear their respective coverings according to their particular sect of Islam. I want to learn now what all those are.

After class and lunch we had a long afternoon of free time. We went to the Rockefeller Museum in town, it has ancient coins, pottery, stone carvings, marble statues, wood carvings from an old Mosque and just fun things to look at. It was air-conditioned and that was very needed. Afterwards we went to Aladdin’s a money changer that takes American checks. He had Jazz bumper stickers on the walls and notes from past students for future students. I had a note from Cami my sister, Anne Kelley and Kristen Irvine, all of whom were here Winter or Spring semesters. I felt loved! After that, we went to walk along the ramparts (the city walls). We walked past tons of shops and moseyed our way over to the gate to get on the walls. I was happy to finally make it to the walls because I wasn’t in a shopping mood and we were taking FOREVER! We passed Shaaban’s store who loves the BYU students. Cami told me I have to go to his shop, and we didn’t have time, but Shaaban chased us down to double check that we were BYU and to give us cold drinks. It’s so funny. His sign says BYU shop on it, and he has BYU flags and a picture with him and Steve Young. I have yet to go in the shop but he apparently has an Oregon flag too! He gave us a shortcut to Joffa gate where we started the ramparts walk, and we walked along the ramparts, stopping for 100 times more pictures than I would have taken if we did it my way, but it was still fun. Here is our group:

Here are a couple other pictures from our walk:

The gold dome is the Dome of the Rock, one of the holy places of Islam, and the street is an upper shot of the entrance from Damascus gate. We walk down this street everyday and there is a delicious falafel place at the end apparently, but we have yet to find it open.

We got falafels at the end and then walked over to see the Dome of the Rock, but were too late so continued on to see the Western Wall. I was surprised at how many women there were. It seemed there were more women there than men, but I can’t be sure because the women’s worship area is a lot smaller. It was really cool though, and I felt kind of emotional there. I don’t know if it’s because there were people all over praying, obviously very emotional and spiritually connected as they rocked back and forth praying. It was really neat to be there. Here’s a picture of me standing in front of the wall:

We came home and ate dinner quickly before going to a fireside by Elder Neuenschwander and now I’m procrastinating my homework, but this is kind of a journal entry so I feel ok about that.

Dome of the Rock!

I have always wanted to go to this place and was very excited to finally do that today! (And yes I am wearing the frump of frumpy most dorky of outfits ever. A dress pulled down to be a skirt and an Oregon Ducks T-shirt, my Camelbak and Chacos. And sweating profusely.) It took us a while to get there because there are a lot of restrictions regarding non-Muslims. We had to walk through the Western Wall area to get to where we go to get on Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock is. The crazy thing about going to the Western Wall and also to go up on Temple Mount is that you have to go through an airport security like screening to even be able to enter the area. We had to do it twice to get to the dome. When we got there I was so excited and just in awe at how beautiful it really is.

The highlight though was definitely these girls:

They both came up and were making clicking noises and acting out taking pictures. We asked if they wanted some with us and took a bunch of pictures. The girl in the pink ended up yelling for some other kids to come over, so we got pictures with a bunch of super cute Palestinian kids. The girl with the veil spoke pretty good English and we chatted simply for about 15 minutes. She was 12, the other one is 10. There was another girl too who was 13 too. I wish I could remember their names, because they had beautiful names and were just too cute. The only word they taught me that I remember was the color for white, it sounded like o-bee-aad, which is the Polish word for lunch, and I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason I remembered it, and that might not even be right.

June 28th Post

The privious post was from June 27th, I forgot to date it. Here is what I wrote for the 28th:

Shabat

Today was our first shabat at the Jerusalem Center. I went to choir this morning in which we sang the cheesiest song I have ever sang. It was about love and peace on earth and sounded like the type of song that some has-been singer in a swanky suit, singing at a peace convention for senior citizens. I don’t think any of us could take it seriously. Church was good, one of the speakers (my roommate actually) sounded like she could be the next General Young Women’s President. Her talk was really good though. After church we went to the Garden Tomb (I was in a hurry and didn’t change to more comfortable shoes and got caught wearing my gold gellies, my feet were sore). It was cool to have a lovely little tour by a cute British man. He bore his testimony a few times throughout and also described how dying by crucifixion works. It was terrible! My favorite part was going to see the tomb and our guide telling us that they obviously can’t determine if this was the ACTUAL grave that Jesus was buried in, but he didn’t care because it was empty and that is all that really matters. He was very animated and emotional about the entire tour. Here are a few pictures from that:

The scull of Golgotha:

Me in front of the tomb:

Me with a couple people at the tomb:

Inside the tomb, there was a iron gate that kept tourists back away from the "beds". Next to the fence, there were two women chanting in another language and sobbing, literally. It was interesting and moving to see how other people are affected by holy sites. Overall, it was a really neat day, and next time I go I won't have to do the tour, and it'll be less touristy and more spiritual.

Blogs work!

Well my dear friends, they have unblocked some of the internet restrictions and can post on my blog! I will post my posts that I have already sent out, and then I'll start sending new ones! Hooray!

Here is a post:

Feelin’ hot hot hot

Well I have officially made it to the Holy Land! Hooray! Yesterday was my birthday, but I forgot when I woke up because I was so excited about the field trip. My roommate (who coincidentally was in the MTC at the same time as me getting ready to go to Russia) gave me a pack of Starburst and gave me a little birthday hug. I had totally forgotten to do that until she said Happy Birthday! At least I was the one to forget and not everyone else. Then while we were waiting for the field trip buses my friend, who is super bubbly, found out and announced it to everyone and made them sing “Happy Birthday”. So I had people saying Happy Birthday to me all day long. I also felt like I could do anything because it was my birthday, and kept saying so. I even scored some free Jerusalem bookmarks from a guy at a site because I told him I didn’t have money, someone told him it way my birthday and then I whined a little that it was my birthday and I didn’t have any money. He gave them to me and now they’re marking what I have to read in my books.

It is so hot here it’s crazy. I got totally sweaty on our field trip and had sweat marks showing on my back, it was sick. I was dripping sweat all day long. I was totally embarrassed. But I stayed hydrated because I brought Emma’s Camelback. Smart move. Speaking of camels, we went to a site that had one that was trained to give kisses. Here is me getting a sticky birthday one:

The field trip we went on today was to orient ourselves with the geography of the area. It was confusing because I didn’t know what anything was and was confused when our teacher pointed the places out. I just don’t know my Old Testament very well. But the amazing thing to realize is how close everything is to each other. This picture shows Jerusalem in the background. It only took us about 15 minutes to drive to the look out spot:

And this picture was taken from another spot with Bethlehem in the background:

By the end of the day I was totally sunburned despite the fact that I had applied sunscreen. I’m pretty sure I sweated it all off. (My calves and shins even sweated when I crossed them.)

When we returned from the field trip a lot of people were going to do homework and then a bunch were going into the city. I decided since it was my birthday after all, that I would go into the city. We were going to exchange money but the money changers were closed because of their holy day, whoops, so we just walked around the Old Town and looked in shops. On the way back I got a little ice cream as a present, because it was of course my birthday.

One of the highlights of the day however was probably Sister Huntington, the wife of the academic director, giving us a little lesson on modesty and avoiding uninvited aggressive touching of men. As a little background, Sister Huntington is very soft-spoken, and really sweet. She is just a really nice lady. But the best part of the lecture was when she said if it does happen, it’s not our fault and we shouldn’t let it ruin our days, because the man was just a “stupid, horny idiot.”