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