This week continues...

Tis I, the frenchiest fry. I love taking reflection pictures in my sunglasses.

After a wonderful Sabbath Saturday, we took advantage of our free day and took off to Eilat and the beach. Ah! The beach! Sun and sand and very salty water and snorkling. 

Snorkling is a wonderful thing. I enjoyed it immensely, and I saw some really cool fish, as well as a sting ray. The rest of my time was spent on my towel, enjoying not wearing pants and the feeling of the sun. I read the Hobbit and ate ice cream. :) It was a good, good day. The Red Sea is 4 hours away from the center, and the only low point was getting on the wrong bus going back. I wanted the quiet bus. I got on the wrong bus. 

Well, not the only thing. My poor skin has had no contact with the sun, and it did not like it. I look like a red velvet Oreo, layers of red and white. 

But it was so cool to be in the Red Sea, to go along the route that Lehi went down, and the sea that parted when Moses told it to. 

Me parting the Red Sea. 

Emma and I Post Red Sea pic. 

We stopped to get some dinner at a kibbutz, which is basically a socialist community, but they produce some amazing ice cream. I found the only two Reese's Peanut Butter cups in Israel. I bought them. 

How fun right!!!

Midterms and the Red Sea

Wow. This week. I mean, it's amazing how much we can fit into one week here into the Holy Land. Let's begin. 

The Dome of the Rock. And me in the front. 

The Temple Mount is completely controlled by the Israeli police, but Muslim's have a much easier time getting to the Dome than we tourists do. We enter from above the Western Wall, which is interesting, because Jews are not allowed up there by their own laws. Long story short, we had an hour up on the mount starting at 1:30. We walked over there, stood in line, and went through both an Israeli security check and a Muslim modesty check. I got in trouble for my shirt, which showed...nothing. But whom am I to argue? I covered up, and we got to take some beautiful pictures. The Dome is always prominently visible from the Center, and so it was amazing to go see it up close. 

Here's Jacob's name in Aladdin's 
"Book of Mormons"!!!! Got to love that!

We went off to the city for some shopping, and I visited Omar's, the "official" olive wood store for BYU students. Omar is so nice, and he bought us all ice cream--a mix of pistachio, zatar (which is salt, oregano and other spices) and some other spices. It was delicious, and we looked at all his amazing carvings, then went back to the center, because we needed to study. 

I had two midterms this week, which were fine, because we study so much. :) I'm still recovering from Egypt and how we got really no sleep there, so I took a nap pretty much every day when I could. But the classes are still so amazing here. I love when our teachers go off on tangents because they are just as interesting as our lessons! 

Thursday I went to the Dome and Omar's again!! New group, but we also stopped at Shabaan's to ask to borrow some dresses, because it was Arab Night!!! It was a chance to really embrace the Arabian culture, so we all dressed up in headscarves and dresses and went to party it up Arab style. We listened to some sheiks, who are basically professional readers of the Koran, and these particular sheiks are the ones who sing the call to prayer at Al Aqsa Mosque. They recited some of the Koran, did the call to prayer, and went through a short prayer so that we could see what they do. Then we retired to the Oasis, where our wonderful cooks had whipped up an enormous spread of all their favorite foods. After a wonderful, very filling meal, we went to the gym to learn the basics of step dancing, which we are all not very good at. We got the clapping down pat though. 

Hannah, me, Christa, and Emma. Look how cute we are!

Mary and I being all mysterious. 

The Last Day in Egypt...so sad.

Our last day in Egypt was the day we went to the Valley of the Kings!!!!!

Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures, because reasons. They were really adamant about it, and we had to leave our cameras in the bus. I'll describe as best as I can. 

Imagine a long hallway, low ceiling close enough to make you want to crouch when you don't need to, stretching out before you. It's cool, a blessing compared to the heat outside, and your voice is loud and cramped in the enclosed space. The hallway continues maybe 40 feet before opening up into a larger room, with short pillars framing the doorway you enter from. Another smaller hallway leads into an even larger room, where an enormous stone sarcophagus sits. And all the while you are going down, until that lowest point of the burial chamber. 

Imagine color. White as a base for everything, blue for the ceiling with yellow stars as the night sky. Figures, dressed in white with red skin and black hair, gods and goddesses guarding the path to the burial chamber. You know their names: Horus, the falcon headed god with a golden eye and a sword, Isis and her sister Nephythys long and thin in white dresses with decorate collars in blue and green and gold, twins in design except for Nephthys' blue skin. Osiris, with his green skin for the underworld, curled beard and the crook and flail in hand. Anubis, the jackal headed god of mummification. And everywhere hieroglyphs, not black on white but blue and green and red and gold. 

It was truly amazing. Most tombs weren't as colorful and complete as the one I described (Ramses XI) , but all were amazing. We went into 3 tombs, and it was mind blowing. Afterwards we went to the temple of Hatshepsut, the most powerful female Pharaoh ever. Her successor tried to eliminate all traces of her in history because she usurped his throne as a child, but they rebuilt her amazing temple. 

Emma and I in front of Hatshepsut's temple. Girl power!

Our last stop was at the Ramesseum, which was the funerary temple for Ramses the great. He built a statue of himself that was 6 stories tall. Unfortunately, most of it is gone. It's actually the inspiration behind one of my favorite poems Ozymadius. Look it up, because it is amazing. 

Me by Mr. Ramses the great's head. He was so egotistical,
but he built some amazing stuff. 

I thought it was funny that Pharaoh had a mini mart and a restaurant. 

We flew back, and had the rest of the day off to study and sleep. Much sleeping occurred. Lots of fun stuff will be explained in my next email, but that was Egypt!!!

Luxor and the temples

One of our cute boats. 

After a long wait and a short flight, we got in super late and were ready to sleep in. Never fear, because we were dragged out of bed at 5 to go to the Karnak temple, probably the biggest temple complex in the world. Our hotel was right on the banks of the Nile, and it had it's own private dock. We took advantage, and took little boats up the Nile to the temple. 

The Karnak temple is basically amazing. It was a temple for the living, as opposed to all of our previous sites, and it stretches on forever. It has its own lake. The most amazing part had to be the hypostyle hall, which is basically a bunch of pillars in an open area courtyard. Absolutely amazing. Dr. Mulestein gave us an amazing lecture about how Moses probably grew up in the most splendor Egypt and basically the world has known, but when faced with God's presence he said "Now I know that man is nothing." Now in Egypt, I was never cold, but I got chills up and down my back then. Sitting in one of the most amazing places I've ever been and listening to that amazing story, it was a powerful experience. 

Me and William, strutting our stuff. 

After we spent all morning at the Karnak temple, we were all ready for a break. Luckily, the afternoon was all free time!! I signed up to go on a camel safari!! We road actual sailboats down the Nile to where we would ride the camels for about 30 minutes. Sailboats are actually very scary, especially going against the wind. You serpentine up the Nile, and the boat tilts pretty far over. It's a very precise balancing act. 

My camel was named William Shakespeare, and my guide was Adam. Shakespeare and I instantly connected. We moved as one, especially when he stood up for the first time. He was also the tallest camel there, so I was pretty high up there. 

William Shakespeare, Adam and I post ride. It was so fun!

After our camel ride, we hung out in the pool until dinner, which felt divine on such a hot day. We were of course told not to swim in the Nile, so it was great to escape the heat however we could. 

Emma and I after our camel ride. 

After dinner we went to go see the Luxor temple by night. We took carriages there and back, and let me tell you, our driver was insane. Literally crazy. First thing, he locked on to me, and it was intensely awkward. We fit four people to a carriage, three girls in the back and one boy next to the driver. Our male presence, Josh, was all over the protective detail. He kept us safe from the driver, but... We were going pretty slow, just plodding along really. We asked if we could maybe go a bit faster, and our driver took that as a go ahead to go crazy. We passed almost every other carriage--we were in the back--in whatever way necessary, including veering into oncoming traffic and almost crashing carriages together trying to pass. It's a wonder we survived. 

On the way back, he asked us girls if we were single. We all three lied and said, "Nope! We have boyfriends." Here's the details on my man. His name is Alex, and we are very seriously committed. He gives me lots of presents, and I think we are going to get married when I get back. Mind you, he had been telling us all about his wife and kids before. He told me he would pay a million camels and a couple chickens for me, and I said that Alex had done that, plus a couple turkeys to seal the deal. And then the horse pooped, and we were going so fast that the poop came flying back towards us like brown bombs falling from the sky. I was so glad to get away and take a shower and go to bed. 

The Luxor temple was amazing, all lit up at night. We talked a lot, which was sort of characteristic of our guide. I loved Achmed, but he could make a two minute description into a 30 minute lecture. I was so tired. 

Such dramatic lighting!!! I love this picture of Emma. Unfortunately, they turned off the lights before we could switch places, but we look so similar that we just pretend it is me there too. 

Mosques and churches and synagogues, oh my!

The next day, we went to the Cairo museum. It was absolutely amazing. There were so many thousands-years-old treasures packed into the museum, but my absolute favorite had to be the King Tut exhibit. They tell you that the pharaohs were incredibly rich, but you can't really visualize that until you walk through the exhibit and into the Gold Room. There are so many solid gold items buried with the mummy of a teenaged pharaoh. To imagine what Ramses the great had in his enormous tomb after over 50 years on the throne is just mind blowing. 

After wandering the museum and lunch, we went off to explore all the religions. We stopped at a Coptic church, took a peek into a Jewish synagogue (fun fact: there are only 12 Jews in Egypt, all children), and visited the Alabaster mosque, an absolutely amazing mosque that dominates the Cairo skyline. None of the pictures capture the glow of the place, but I tried. We got to wear our headscarves for the first time, and we all looked fabulous. 

Emily, me, Emma, and Aubrey in front of the Alabaster mosque.
Don't we look so cute in our head scarves. They are my favorite thing.

The ceiling of the mosque. Probably a thousand lights were hanging down a couple feet above our heads, giving everything a beautiful glow. 

Amanda and I against the skyline of Cairo. Yes, everything was covered in smog. I felt right at home. You can't see--the smog--but off to the left the pyramids were visible. 

Our dinner location. Nothing finishes off a day better than eating delicious food while on the Nile. We even had slightly sketchy entertainment in the form of a Whirling Dervish, fancy talk for a guy who spins in circles in a skirt for about 20 minutes. It was interesting. And a bit weird, because he was actually sort of creepy. The best part was taking some pictures from the top. 

Sometimes people snap pictures while I'm not looking. 

This sweet lady was making bread on the dock. It's sort of like pita, but infinitely better in my opinion, and the best warm. I watched her for like 20 minutes. 

After dinner we took off for the airport to fly down to Luxor, where we would finish up our time in Egypt. I was so tired, but once again sleep eluded me. Never mind that. I talked with Andrea about books, which was the best. Harry Potter for the win. 

Egypt!!!!!!!!

Prepare to be overwhelmed with pictures and emails about Egypt. I took a lot. (It's over 300!!!)

Emily and I and the layer of sweat that never went away.

We woke up early Sunday to morning to go hop on a plane to Egypt!!!!! The first thing we noticed when we got off the plane? The heat. Remember how it feels when you open the oven to take something out, and it's like a wall of hot? That's what Egypt was the whole time. It was 114 degrees when we got off the plane. 

Our first dinner was at the very authentic and Egyptian T.G.I. Fridays, where we had the first of a week of chicken and rice and absolutely no fruit. We didn't eat anything that hadn't been cooked, because the water here is really bad. It's a third world country, so it makes sense, but the watermelon was tempting. Also the restaurant was on the Nile. 

Jenna on the pretty Nile river. (It was actually full of trash and
we weren't allowed to swim in it because "if you swim,
you will get very sick" and nobody wants that.
Also the first of many bad hair days.)

The first stop we made was at a khan, specifically Khan al-Khalili, which is basically an outdoor mall. It was our first experience with the very aggressive merchants. It became sort of a joke among us. "One dollar!! One dollar!!" Dr. Mulestein, my Old Testament teacher and my chaperone for every field trip, started offering crazy things to make them go away. There was a guy who was being really aggressive with his bookmarks, so the good Doctor told him "I want to sell you something! You can take him (Cody) for all those!" He proceed to try and sell the guy all the boys standing around us, until the guy muttered "crazy" under his breath and walked away. Dr. Mulestein for the win! 

We had armed security guards, and the police had a car follow us around for the whole week, so we were very safe, but it was a frightening experience to walk down the street with all the people staring at us. Emily was a bit nervous so I stuck close and went over all the ways to choke someone unconscious in my head. But once they let us go and shop, I felt a bit better, especially when I realized that I am pro at haggling. They will try and sell you a 5 dollar trinket for 20, but I always got them down to at least half their asking price. Finally, all that people watching came to good use, because I could see all of the subtle tells of when I should try to walk away so that they will go down. :) Jenna is the master. I bought a mug, and a gift for Kellie, and a bracelet with an Ankh on it. 

Walking down the street. Our tour guide Achmed
was in the white with the hat and the Egypt flag.

We went back to our very nice hotel (5 stars!!!) and had dinner while we were all sweaty and gross. There was a definite awkwardness, but good food and cake from the hotel smoothed over any ruffled feathers, as well as an absurd amount of pictures. My roommate was Maddy Truman, and our beds were so nice. We had robes, and slippers, and AC, and two big fluffy pillows. I seriously considered trying to fit one in my suitcase, but decided the pillow wouldn't fit, the robe could be reused, but I took the slippers. :) 





Day 2 - Yeah, I saw the pyramids

Kayla, Cody and I by a sphinx at Memphis

Our first stop was at Memphis, the oldest capital of Egypt. It's actually really under developed excavation wise, but we saw huge statue of Ramses 2, the guy that many think was the pharaoh of the Old Testament. I will mention him a lot, because he liked to put up large statues of himself everywhere. Basically if he had an Instagram account, it would be pictures of his face. And that's it. 


Our next stop was one of the firsts of the world, in this case the first pyramid!!! 

Emma, Emily and I making our pyramid in front of the Step Pyramid. It was covered in scaffolding because they were restoring it pretty extensively.

Jenna looking out into the Sahara. It is a true desert. We say Provo is technically a desert, but we lie. Behold the hottest, driest, longest, most exciting stretch of dirt you've ever seen.

This picture is blurry, but still pretty cool. The Nile gives life to everything it touches, but where it doesn't touch, there is nothing. The artist in me enjoyed the contrast, but it also give a bit of context to the cities. Everyone crowds in really close to the Nile because things grow there. Cairo is a huge city, made of shabby, precarious brick buildings for miles. With the revolution five years ago, everybody just built wherever they wanted to, and so green areas like this were taken over by the loud messy streets of Cairo. 

Yeah. Selfie by the pyramid. It's huge. The base is 2 and a half football fields long. We didn't lecture much here, like we usually do, and there weren't many merchants around either. They set us loose for some free time, and guess what?

I climbed on the pyramid. We are not quite sure whether it was legal, but they really will let you do anything here. So our guide said, go! Climb on the pyramid and don't pay anyone anything, and so we went. 

We had five minutes for panoramic pictures, but before that I got to go inside the one on the right!!!! It was very squished, and not really decorated at all. But yes. I have been inside a pyramid. Also look at that hair. 

We took five minutes at the last site so that we would make it to the sphinx in time. Here it is in all it's fantastic glory. We weren't allowed down closer, but I got some good pictures. 

The view of the second pyramid from the sphinx. 

Surprise! Jenna under the Jerusalem Center

Jenna is off to Egypt this week with no internet access, but I was tickled to find these photos of her from a friend's blog. Kathleen Holyoak is the organist at the Jerusalem Center. Her brother-in-law is one of my tutors in the Reading Program at the MTC. He shared Kathleen's blog with me and said, "She puts lots of pictures of the students on there!"  He was right!

This afternoon we had the opportunity to go into the bowels of the Jerusalem Center and see how this place is maintained.  He started on the 6th floor and because there was limited space, only small groups of students were taken.

We entered a very deep, narrow staircase.

Checking out the new water system.

Many more steps down.

Through the years, students have left their signatures
on posts, walls, and ceiling in the basement. 

Group photo

Negev Field Trip, Synagogue Visit

Tomorrow I head off to Egypt for a week without school, classes, readings, or clean water. J As a forecast, we will be staying in a really nice hotel—the Egyptian economy is struggling so we can get really nice places for cheap—and it will be about 115 degrees when we land in Cairo. I am rooming with Maddy Truman, who I know from somewhere, though I can’t remember where for the life of me. Also I will be waking up at like 5:20 tomorrow. Yeah.

But lets talk about this past week.

Our group walking to the museum on free day. 3 miles!

Sunday was our free day,

Cody, Emma and I at the weaving center.

Monday we took a field trip down to the Negev, the arid region south of Jerusalem, before you reach the Sinai region. Basically a bunch of dead grass and wheat, with the hills stretching out to the east and the costal plain off to the west. It’s where the Bedouin people live, and we stopped to visit a weaving center in one of the few recognized Bedouin towns. The Israeli government created a bit of a problem with the Bedouin communities, especially with the women. They don’t have anything to do anymore, because they used to spend all their time weaving and taking care of the tent and clothes and blankets for the whole family, and now they don’t. The weaving center is an opportunity for the women to use their skills for pay and to provide a future for them. It was a cool place, because we sat under a hand woven tent on little cushions, with little cups of herbal tea—they are really big on hospitality with businesses and homes. Many places we stop have drinks ready and waiting for us, and they know we are Mormon, so they provide herbal tea or juice ready. Cool right?—and watched them go through the business of turning wool into amazing rugs. I didn’t buy anything, but I talked a bit with Atidal, one of the women working there at the center. She was sort of an administrator, and was working on a masters degree in International relations?—something like that. She had gone to school, and returned to help other women to become empowered. She was inspiring, and I had to get a picture with her. I also took some artistic pictures of the tassles and people and such, as well as some less artistic pictures. J

Tel Arad from a distance.

Afterwards, we went off to Tel Ber Sheva, close by the actual city of Ber Sheva, which was sort of a home base for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their own times.  It was a very well preserved place, and we sat and talked about temples and wells and gates. We took a trip down into the water system under the city, which was amazing. We sang Come, Come Ye Saints down there, because “All is Well”. Hah. The puns these visiting professors come up with. The last place we visited was Tel Arad, which had some significance that I honestly can’t remember. But the important part was that we went, and stood in the tower the Crusaders had built in the middle of the town, looking down on it from above. Two significant details here: when they were excavating it originally, they found shards of pottery with writing on them, basically our equivalent of using scrap paper for grocery lists and such. Someone had written Hebrew words, but used Egyptian characters to do it. A sort of…reformed Egyptian. J Sounds familiar right? It should. Thing number two, the Israelites who lived in the area built a temple in the city that is still preserved because they retired it instead of destroying it. It had an altar, some of the original walls, holy space, and a holy of holies, complete with incense altars. Amazing. I took some pictures, because how many people can say they’ve stood in a holy of holies? We drove back along the Jordan valley, right past the Dead Sea, which we will swim in much later this semester. It was a two and a half hour drive back to the center, and so most people on the bus took a snooze. Dr. Mulestein, my Old Testament teacher and my field trip teacher, took pictures of everyone who was asleep. I think he puts them in a scrapbook and takes it out whenever he needs a laugh. Sleeping on a bus is a dangerous thing. Cody was asleep when we were all eating lunch, so we balanced chips in his mouth until he woke up and ate them all. The chips they give us here are weird, spicy cheese, and ketchup, and chicken. It’s universally acknowledged that the chicken ones are the worst.

Me, Emma and Hanna messing around at the museum.

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of fun and interesting discussions, including a mind blowing lecture on ancient Egypt that I’ll have to teach you all when I get back. Basically, ancient Egyptian beliefs and rituals and the LDS religion are similar in very specific ways. I’ll leave it at that for now, but I promise you, it was amazing. I’ve never enjoyed a class more. Another notable moment with the cats around the center: I’ve named the one that stalks our meals Cleocatra, and her kittens Anubis and Ra. And you guys say I’m bad at naming animals. These are naming gold.

I've got the Pharoah position down. Me and my
dear headless Ramsses the great.

Tuesday we also had Dr. Mulestein give us a basic run down of Egyptian religion and temples, basically a survey of what we would see and what to look for. He’s an Egyptologist, and it was amazing. My notes make me so happy, especially because we learned how to read hieroglyphics. More than just the symbols mind you. A symbol can either represent what it is, or the sound associated with it. So the symbol for house, which is a box with an opening along the bottom can either be a house, or the sound per, which means house. Also ancient Egyptians didn’t use vowels, so each hieroglyph represents just the consonants of a word. So the symbols for leaf  would be a l and a f. Based on that, you could have leaf or loaf or loufa or any number of things. So they add another symbol to give you a clue to the context, whether it’s an animal or an action, an object or a symbolic thing. I’m so ready for this.

Class was cancelled Thursday morning from 9-5 for the Israeli Independence Day, so Mary, Carly, Kayla, and Makayla and I took off to the city for a day of shopping. My original plan was to find some snacks to take to Egypt, because they only feed us three meals there. We walked around a lot, just browsing, all that girl stuff. Some creepy guys started following us, but we ducked into Shabaan’s shop and stayed in there until they left. I actually had a chance to put my Italian skills to good use. Three semesters, all for that moment. It was great. Omar, Shabaan’s son and the one who runs the shop when he’s not there, speaks a little bit of every language, from German to English to Arabic. It was a really cool moment. I picked up Mom’s gift—I know, already!—and we headed back in time for lunch, because we were having falafel!!!!!! You never pass up free falafel, and it was so good. Definitely a high point of the food this week. Though one night I was really missing my favorite foods, and wanted either a large bowl of Dad’s soup or a Café Rio burrito. Now, a bowl of Dad’s soup didn’t just appear, but we did have what passes as a burrito here, and it was so good. It was a tender mercy for me, who was aching for something familiar to eat.

Unfortunately, once again I was weak against the heat and got a migraine. But three hours of snoozing and 400 mgs of the good stuff later and I was up and kicking once again. It seems that I am one of 2 heat sensitive people on this trip, because Crystal was also down for a couple days because of the heat. I think Dr. Heiner, our resident health care professional, has me marked down for an extra close watch while we are out and about this next week. How fun? On the bright side, my sort of cousin Emily proved that she is the best person ever, because she came to offer me migraine medicine and a beanbag to put over my eyes to help me feel better. We talked until Arabic, where Iman taught us how to say hello and how are you and welcome. I’ve decided to be able to at least write a few things in Arabic when I come back. The first word I learned was peace.J I’ll have to show you when I get back, after I practice a bit more. My Arabic script needs work.

Friday we turned in a lot of homework, but then we don’t have to do any, so it was worth it. Just classes really, but I played a cut throat version of dodgeball called scatterball before dinner. It was really fun. We’ve also started our intermural basketball league, and I’m on a team with Aaron and Sam. I’ll get a picture for us, but we need a team name. Any ideas?

The ladies waiting for the van to pick us up from the
museum. Hannah, Emily, Crystay, Christa and Kayla.

After dinner, I went to welcome the Sabbath at a synagogue. It was such a cool experience. We got there a bit early, so Dr. Ophir—our Israel instructor—could give us the details of what would be happening. He told us to spread out and find someone to sit by that wasn’t our classmates so we could have someone there to help us find our place in the prayer books. I did what he said, and went and sat down by a girl who look to be a little bit older than me. She was so kind. Her name was Netta, and she had the most beautiful rich voice. They sing a lot at their services, and the person leading gets through an absurd amount of words in as short of a time as possible. It’s pretty amazing. We did a lot of standing and sitting, and I listened to all their beautiful music. Their worship songs are solemn and almost mournful, and everyone will harmonize whenever they want. It was beautiful. Netta kept me mostly on track in my book, but I didn’t want to bother her too much, so a large portion of the 3 separate services we did—they have three a day, evening, morning and afternoon, and the Saturday evening one is combined with the Friday afternoon and the welcoming the Sabbath, for a total of about an hour—was spent reading the psalms they sang and just listening. I felt the spirit there, listening to Netta sing with such emotion in her voice. I wished I could have gotten to know her better, but I’m hoping she will come to one of the music concerts we have at the center and I’ll run into her there.

Saturday—today—we performed in choir in sacrament meeting, and I received my call!!! Primary worker-AKA nursery. It was the best. There is only one official member, but we also have visitors children. So just Teo and James, two adorable little boys. I taught my lesson on how we should love others, we drew pictures of the people we love, took a walk outside, and had a snack. The rest of today has been spent reading and wandering around and packing. Everyone is being really loud outside, and I don’t particularly feel like braving the noise to do anything. I played Apples to Apples for about an hour and a half, and we made it interesting by making people defend their choices each round. J I’m ready for Egypt.

I called mom and dad this morning, and I heard that video calling over Facebook works really well. Maybe we can try that? Let’s give a shot next time. I won’t have a cell phone or internet connection while in Egypt, but I get back Friday afternoon, so I will shoot off another email that afternoon or after church on Saturday. I love, love, love all of you!

Mom says: I can't stand it! I can't wait until Friday! I need an email and a picture from you

Dear Mom,

I love that I hear from you so often. It makes me feel very loved. 

Kat, Paige, Courtney and I in the Holy of Holies

We went on a field trip Monday, going down to the Negev (which is a flat  dry area to the south of Jerusalem). We went to a Bedoin weaving center, and to 2 tels, which are rounded hills where there used to be buildings and settlements, and where most of them are excavated out. I'll save the details for later, but let me tell you the coolest part. In Tel Arad, which was a large city on a hill, the Israelites built a satellite temple. When King Hezekiah centralized worship in Jerusalem, all temples were closed down and most were destroyed, but at Tel Arad the temple was retired peacefully. So it was intact thousands of years later when archaeologists discovered the site. It was a real temple, and I stood in the Holy of Holies, which is where this picture is taken. The interesting thing is that in front of us are two incense altars, instead of just one. Our teacher made a point that they didn't stop worshiping Jehovah, they just added other gods in. It made me think: which gods am I trying to worship along with the Savior? There are a lot of things to think about here. :) 

We are prepping to go to Egypt, which is going to be so amazing. There are so many things that are so cool, and so familiar on a gospel level. Add on the fact that I've always felt drawn to Egypt and I am so unreasonably excited. :) 

Atidal and I. Atidal worked at the weaving center and she was the coolest lady. I had to get a picture with her.

Hannah, Emma and I copying the art at the museum on our free day.

Week 2: Jerusalem Overlook Field Trip, Sabbath at the Western Wall, Garden Tomb

Wow. The days are long and the week is even longer here because we do so much in one day! I go to bed exhausted every day! But it is truly a joy to be here in the Holy Land. I imagine I won't want to leave when August comes, but that is a long way off.

But enough of that. We have a long email ahead of us, so lets get started!!

The beautiful city of David, the original Jerusalem

Monday was our first official field trip, and they took us to 5 different sites that overlooked the city so that we could get a feel for the countryside. Our first stop was at the Seven Arches hotel, which gives a full view of Jerusalem from the east. 

Our next stop was at the Augusta Victoria hospital on the Mount of Olives, which was built to commemorate the Ascension of Christ. We went up in the tower and got a good look to the south, at the separation wall and the two valleys that surround Jerusalem, the Kidron and the Hinnom. We had a lesson from Dr. Skinner, who teaches Ancient Near Eastern Studies and who is just the smartest, wittiest person. He explained that the Mount of Olives basically functioned as an open air temple, and drew a lot of parallels that made me so glad I have gone through the temple, because they would have gone right over my head. Katie and Alissa, the temple is the goal. Aim towards it. 

The view from Nabi Samwel. Gibeon is the hill
on the right, and the land of Ephraim is those
hills to the back. 

Afterwards we drove to the north of Jerusalem, to Nabi Samwel, which is a synagogue that functioned as a crusader fortress when they first came to the Holy Land. They named the hill MontJoy, or Mount Joy, because it gave them the first view of Jerusalem and they were happy to finally see it after traveling so far. It's a place with lots of great architecture, and it's where the Jewish people commemorate the prophet Samuel's death--thus the name Nabi Samwel which is Prophet Samuel in Arabic. This hill itself basically functioned as a temple for Samuel, where he talked with God and had some amazing visions. The Jewish people come there to pray because they believe that their prayers are heard better when they are in a place associated with Samuel, since God listened to Samuel very well. It was my favorite place by far, because we looked off to the north. 

Directly north is the town Gibeon, which is now my favorite story. Read Joshua 10, and look at the picture I'll attach, because that is where that happened. Amazing. Further north is that land of Ephraim, which is so cool, because that's our ancestral homeland!! My professor made a point of emphasizing that the scriptures are our family history on that trip, and it made everything so much more real. 

We looked east and saw the palace at Gibeah, which is where Saul ruled from, and where much of the story of David happened. Along the ridge we saw the Patriarch's Way, which is basically how Abraham and Isaac and Jacob would have travelled the land when they went on all those journeys. 

Bethlehem in the distance. It was really hazy today. 

We stopped at a place south of Jerusalem as well, but the true gem was a hill halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The two cities are actually about 5 miles apart. We looked out towards Bethlehem, which is beyond the separation wall--we'll go there one time on a field trip--and talked about the birth of Christ and angels and shepherds, and looked out where it happened. The words "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." It was a special moment. :)

Emma in the Ottoman empire, which is what
we call our favorite study area.
Seats are coveted here. People will sit on the floor. 

The rest of the week has been spent closer to the center, but is no less exciting in my mind. First thing to mention is that we read. A lot. Every night. This program is not for the faint of heart, because we have so much. For perspective, I have 25 pages due for my next Palestine class (multiply by 2 because our packet has two book pages per page), 6 chapters of Old Testament on Tuesday (I honestly think we will read the entire old testament in 2 months, because we had 15 for Friday), 19 pages for Israel (multiply by 2 again), and a moderate 1 chapter for ANE. That's a wonderful total of 80-90 pages of reading by Tuesday and Wednesday. :) I'm loving the fact that I can read and understand very quickly. 

Otherwise, classes are amazing. All my teachers are so smart, have so much to teach us. My favorite class has to be Old Testament, because Dr. Mulestein is a funny teacher who teaches us amazing things about the scriptures. Combined with Dr. Skinner in ANE, any day with the two of them is a good day. My Palestine teacher is Dr. Bashir, who is one of the only non-Mormons who we can talk to about religion! I ate dinner with him and a couple other people on Tuesday, and we had an amazing talk about the temple and our understanding of covenants. Israel is taught by Dr. Yarden, who is a very sweet guy. He had us all go out and listen to the siren that commemorated the Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday. They commemorate stuff with the air raid siren here. It was a solemn moment, and a quiet one. My group is quite loud all the time, but we were all silent for that 2 minutes. Arabic is taught by Mr. Iman, who is really funny. We are learning the letters and sounds, and there are 28 of them. Arabic combines both gutturals and rolled r's, so I'm basically going to kill this. 

Somehow, I am so hungry every meal, even though I spend most of the time between meals sitting. On Tuesday we had our first forum, where Dr. Whitchurch told us about the creation of the center. There were so many miracles involved. The center sits in the Green Belt, which is a government mandated no building zone around Jerusalem designed to keep the city beautiful. There were tons of protesters out in front while the center was being built, enough that the builders had military protection. Now they love us and our beautiful building. :) 

Jenna at the pool of Bethesda

I went out to the city on Thursday. Amanda, Emma and I walked to a pita factory--read, a store that has a pita making machine--and then over to the old city, where we saw the pool of Bethesda. Now that was amazing. They've dug all they way down--40 feet!--to the actual pools and steps. We got to go down in the cisterns  that would hold the water as well. 

My overall impression of the whole trip was that when people are honking, they are either mad that they can't go 70 or they are honking at us. Similarly, the people we pass are either really nice, like the boy that chased after us on his bike to give us back our map which we dropped, or creepy, like the man who asked if we needed a rich husband. We go out in groups, but I think I like to have a guy with us, if only because we avoid comments like that.

Friday was full of crazy events. I had lunch with our special, surprise guest. Ladies and gents, sit down, because I rubbed elbows with a powerful person today. Senator Orrin Hatch came to lunch today, and I sat at his table. Granted, I didn't hear a word he said, because he speaks a little louder than a whisper, and I was sitting four chairs away. But we got him a mic and he answered some questions about his trip and American politics and being a Mormon senator and such. He gave me a hug after, which was sweet, though I think he forgot my name not 2 seconds afterwards. The bragging rites still apply. 

That evening, we went to the Western Wall in the evening to welcome the Sabbath in Jewish style, with song and dance and prayers. It was a cool experience, to stand and watch women praying at the wall and then to have my turn as well. We sang some songs and danced as well. Well, the Jewish girls sang, but we clapped and smiled and looked at each other cluelessly and had a grand old time. The women's side (they split into men and women as you get close to the wall) was quieter before the Sabbath came and louder afterwards. We got to take vans back, which was very nice. We got caught in traffic, so my van sang some. Our rendition of the EFY medley was very rough, but we sounded beautiful when we sang our other songs. We watched the Prince of Egypt after, in prep for our trip to Egypt in a week. 

I talked to Mom that night as well. It's hard to find a time to call! That 8-9 hours difference is hard to work around, because the awake times for me are late for you! Right now as I write it's after dinner on Saturday, almost 7. We'll be having our after dinner snack in an hour. That means it's early Saturday for you guys. Maybe some of you are still asleep. :) Get up! It's almost 11! 

The Garden Tomb - it was actually really busy
so ignore any legs you see peeking out!

Today was our fast Sabbath, and we have so many visitors! The auditorium was full to the breaking point! I still don't have a calling, but I imagine I will soon. We had a great lesson and RS, and then we took off for a trip to the garden tomb. It's a very busy place, but I think I want to go back each Sunday. We went on the tour, and sang some hymns as well. The tourists hopefully enjoyed it. They took lots of pictures of the singing Mormons. I'll upload some pictures. :)

The next week is going to be full of prep for our Egypt trip. We leave in a week!!!!! But tomorrow is going to be great to, as our second free day approaches. :)

I love all of you guys! I hope you are all doing well. :) Send me some emails, or start some chats on Facebook with me. :) I'll do my best to respond!!

This sign is in the garden by the tomb and I loved it immediately

The church of St. Anne, Mary's mother. This looks like something out of a Lord of the rings movie. I was amazed. :) 

There are cats everywhere in Jerusalem. They're pests here.
This one was smart, because it's actually snoozing
in an enclosed area, basically a cage.
I thought it was funny. Behold the mighty lion.