Camel ride!

I forgot to include photos from my first (and last?) camel ride! On Wednesday, after we visited Valley of the Kings we took a Faluka (boat) ride down the Nile. We got off on the other side of the river and boarded camels for our hour-long ride through Egyptian farmlands and rural cities.

Here I am on the Nile.
And yeah, I know I'm wearing sunglasses in basically all my photos..

So clever!

The girls on my Faluka

The guys on my faluka

"How are you? Is good? Is good lady? No problem, no problem!"

You can't see inside very well, but it's an amazing shoe making shop!

Funny story -- I was wearing a skirt because, oh I don't know, its 108 degrees in Egypt. I get on the camel and my guide immediately wraps my legs with the nasty-camel-saddle-blankets (you can see my legs wrapped in black in the photo above). It was itchy and smelly and way too much skin-to-Egypt contact but he insisted that because we were going through Muslim areas it was a must. There were moments as we drove by groups of nasty men that I was glad since being blonde makes you stand out enough as it is. However, none of the other girls in skirts had to do this. I'm a little suspicious he wanted an excuse to keep touching my legs to rewrap. Gross

It was definitely the experience of a lifetime!

Jerusalem Film Festival

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sunday was our first day back in the center after our exhausting trip through Egypt. They cut us a break and started class at 9am instead of 730am. I’m developing a bad habit of skipping breakfast which is one of the worst nutritional mistakes you can make but seriously, who’s hungry before 7am?

I found out the Jerusalem Film Festival is in town and organized a group of people to check it out. As Haley and Courtney and CZ and the others who’ve joined me for festival films know, you NEVER KNOW what you will find in the movie you’ve selected. It’s a total game of chance.

The movies are shown at the Jerusalem Cinematheque which is a movie theatre tucked in the mountain outside the Old City Wall. It’s a great setting and the people watching was fantastic. The movie wasn’t awesome, but I never expect much so I wasn’t too disappointed. Danen, Loral, David and Jowy were such good sports about the whole thing and made the evening quite a delight despite the awkwardness (understatement….) of the film.

Jowy, Me, Loral, Danen, David

Apparently we have school work due tomorrow because people are studying all over the place. I better get on that… :-)

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Today we embarked on our long journey back through the Sinai desert to Jerusalem. Our bus pulled away from the hotel promptly at 5am. Although I came pretty close, I was not the last one on the bus as I had feared! But only because I showered and packed the night before and woke up early to make a phone call.

We passed through 6 checkpoints at the Egypt/Israel border before being allowed to re-enter the country. I would not want to get stuck in Egypt. It’s just NOT the happiest place on earth. With Egypt behind me, I only have 2 empty pages left in my passport. Some of that will be filled with Jordan and my return to the states. Life goal: fill up a couple passports before age 25 = done!

Rusty, Me, Loral

Our program is so jammed packed, which I love and hate at the same time. They decided to break up our long journey across the desert with snorkeling in the Red Sea on the beach of Eilot. This was a great detour! I haven’t been snorkeling since Tahiti and I must say it was quite superior! Apparently the Red Sea is ranked second in the world behind Australia for best snorkeling, go figure.

Me and Whitney (..and some sick PDA behind ..)

Once finished, it was back on the bus to the Kibbutz where we stopped for dinner. I’ve been sad about forgetting my rainbows and needed a pair of flip flops to use in the center. How cute are these sandals I found for $4! Perfect.

We pulled into the Jerusalem Center just after 1130pm after over 18 hours on the road. It’s amazing how time in a third world country has bonded us so tightly to the comforts of the center. Egypt also brought us closer together as a group. Overall, it was an amazing trip. And I’m glad it’s over!Gotta love jumping photos! I miss Chad & Joseph from Asia in these moments

Egypt - Luxor

Pyramid jumping photo!! Loral, Whitney, David, Me

Yes, we're American tourists



Karnack temple

Luxor museum! A nice "air conditioned" break from the heat

Valley of the Kings - Pharoahs buried in tombs hidden in the mountain.

King Tut's tomb! The only tomb found intact.

I LOVE the hieroglyphic birds all over the temples!

Some statues... it all starts to blur by the end of the day.

Thursday, July 10, 2008 & Friday, July 11, 2008

Luxor

Karnack temple (carriage ride)

Luxor temple

Free time = lunch, Luxor museum, swimming/ice cream, pizza hut on carriage w/danen, quick bazaar stop

Trainride back to Cairo = so hot at station, so tired and actually sleep, beautiful scenery, hotel

Cairo = straight into touring, “habibe pharaohs”, dragging, Muhammad Ali mosque, Cairo mosque w/ mummys, Hard Rock Café, bazaar, hotel

Egypt - Cairo

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

So yesterday, we drove all day long from the border of Israel/Jordan/Egypt down to Cairo. From the time we crossed the border there was a noticeable change in the feeling of the country. The men are much more aggressive and creepy. I think in Israel I’m mostly afraid because I’m American where as in Egypt I’m nervous because I’m blonde and female.

From the border to our first rest stop the landscape was pretty remarkable. It’s a daunting desert, but it’s not flat like Arizona. It has huge desert mountains and ridges and sand dunes. It’s crazy. Our first rest stop was in a little strip of shops that seriously looked like a ghost town. I heard the bathrooms were horrible but didn’t have the guts to check it out myself. We ate lunch in what seemed like an abandoned mosque; it had beautiful moldings all over the walls and ceilings, but plastic lawn chairs and tables. Men in dresses and head wraps with machine guns were all over the place. A few years ago in Egypt a tour bus was attacked by some radicals so now armed guards are required to travel on every tour bus. The men wear suits and sit up at the front and don’t make you feel much better. If things got ugly I’m not convinced they’d be on my side.

Here’s a few interesting things about Egypt.

1. This is a seriously 3^rd world country. There is so much poverty. The buildings along the side of the road aren’t finished, they all have open roofs and unfinished walls on top. They told us this is so the people can avoid paying the various taxes associated with completing a building project. Hmm, seems someone should’ve closed that tax loop hole before the entire town ended up looking like a war zone.

2. Camels and donkeys are actually used as methods of transportation. Cairo is a huge city (almost as big as Los Angeles) and their roads aren’t well developed. The traffic is terrible. On Monday night, after arriving in Cairo we went from our hotel to the great pyramids for the Sound & Light show. We traveled literally 2 miles and it took us 1 hour. I’m not kidding.

3. The Great Pyramids are actually located in the middle of a town. You never see if from the photos that are taken, but the city creeps all the way to the feet of the pyramids. It’s not what I expected! If you can go see the pyramids at night, you should. It was remarkable sitting and staring at the huge structures with the stars and moon hanging around. I hope I’ll remember it forever.

4. The pyramids are amazing. Can’t believe I’ve already checked that site off my Life To-Do list! Just as at any other remarkable historical site, beware of the vendors. Being friendly is not an appropriate technique for getting them to leave you alone. Instead, the the Egyptian will offer your guy friend 20 camels to take you home. Ew.

5. Camels make a lot of strange noises. Beware of the spit.

6. Don’t eat Egyptian Watermelon. You will be ill.

7. It’s extremely hot here. Well over 100 every day. (We start at 6am to try to beat it as much as possible) And Egyptian pyramids & tombs are built to have no ventilation. I recommend you not crawl inside the long, narrow, tunnel unless you want to know what the stale stank of 20 countries mixed together is like. It’s awful. Now you know, skip the inside of the pyramids. (It was the first time in my life that I’ve had sweat dripping off my face and arms in a steady stream. Sick)

8. Keep in mind that Egyptian history is told with an extreme bias. For instance, the limestone off the face of the pyramids was stolen by the Arabs, NOT used for the historical government buildings in Cairo that happen to be made of the same substance. Also, after the statue of Nefertiti was discovered it was covered in mud and stolen in the night by the Germans, NOT discovered and fairly claimed by the archaeological team that has dumped money into excavating Egypt.

9. You can find something pretty cute on a papyrus in Egypt if you look really hard. And you’re not a bad person if while at the Papyrus Making Factory you decide you do not want the Book of Abraham facsimiles on papyrus framed on your wall. Instead, you want birds. What do you think of this one? (The colors are better in real life)

10. Without the wonderful pita ladies of Egypt, I would be a very hungry person.

11. Without this vendor, I would have died at the Zoser Pyramid (oldest step pyramid in Egypt. Look familiar?). The temperature was about 110 degrees, it was 4pm and we’d been out and about since 7am. It was a little windy and this determined vendor took photos with everyone and tried to cheer/perk us up. When giving him a few dollars as a tip the wind picked up and the bills flew over the edge of the wall we were on. This tiny old man scurried faster than anything I’ve ever seen, launched himself off the wall unfortunately flashing us all in the process, chasing after the dollar bills until he had hunted down each one. He was out of his mind frantic trying to gather the dollars, it was crazy!

12. Don’t ever drink the water in Egypt. Period. The famous Nile

Traveling to Egypt!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Today we spent the day traveling from Jerusalem to the border of Israel, Jordan and Egypt. We stopped at various locations throughout southern Israel that are in the bible.

First, Be’er Sheva. This is the city Abraham came from which is really neat! They found an altar among the ruins of this city which is one of the oldest found. We saw a pack of camels roaming around the desert too which was crazy! They are very strange looking animals.

Camels are ugly.

Jon Bradshaw & Me at the well

Next, the burial place of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. David was a Jew who came from Poland in 1948 to establish a Jewish state in Israel. It was crazy to see the Negev desert and the wilderness where the children of Israel wandered for 40 years. The wilderness of Zin is also where Lehi and his family traveled when leaving to the Promised Land. It really does look like an awful desert to wander through; it makes the murmuring a little bit more understandable.

LOVE jumping pics! Me, Elyssa, Caroline, Ashley #5

We had the most fun today at Avdat which was a city developed by the Nabateans who controlled the lucrative spice trade route. These people were the only ones who knew the secrets of the desert and the only ones who were successfully able to cross it. They built huge cisterns and cities along the way to store water and serve as service stops along the way. It was fun to play around in the city and take pictures with the other group. Although, it’s pretty hard for any of these ruins to compare to Pompeii! I’m so glad I got to tour that site earlier this year.

Danen can fit in small places he shouldn't

Rusty, me, metal figurines meant to spice up the site

Best part of the day: running into the other class so I could finally take pictures with Whitney and Loral!

We’re staying the night at a Kibbutz, which is a Jewish community center. The people in the Kibbutz live a sort of law on consecration lifestyle where they share everything. They’ve worked and developed the land and grow major crops in the middle of the desert. They’re actually world leaders in agriculture innovation. It’s quite impressive even though their lifestyle is really odd.

Kibbutz dinner. Everyone in this country eats the same things...

Aladdin's!!

(Pronounced like Paula Deen without the P)

This city is full of money changers, but only a select handful will change money off of a check. These money changers have come to know and trust the BYU students and love our business so they are willing to accept checks on our honor that they won’t bounce.

The walls are covered with notes from students of one program to the next. I was so delighted to find 2 notes for me on the wall! What a treat, Thanks Lauren & Heidi!!! I will definitely take your advice to buy lots of treasures in Egypt, especially a belly dancing costume (and at least one for Courtney!), to only change my money with Aladdin, and to dance at the Western Wall every Friday night.

Did you hear about this?

July 3, 2008

Palestinian Kills 3 With Construction Vehicle

By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian driver of a large construction vehicle went on a deadly rampage along a central Jerusalem thoroughfare on Wednesday, crushing several cars and ramming into buses and pedestrians before an off-duty soldier and a police officer clambered up to the cabin and fatally shot him.

At least three people were killed by the lurching vehicle, and more than 40 were wounded, Israeli officials said.

The police said that they were treating the event as a terrorist attack and that the driver, about 30 years old, was a resident of Sur Baher, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and then annexed.

“There is no doubt at all that this was a terrorist attack,” Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said at the scene shortly afterward. He added that the authorities were investigating whether the driver, identified by acquaintances as Hussam Dweikat, had acted alone.

It is surreal to think I was walking on that exact Jaffa Road after eating our falafel through Jaffa gate into the Old City the day before this attack occurred. Thankfully, we were all out on a field trip that day so no one was out and about in the city. Because of that, I heard about it in probably the same way that you did - from the news. We're very well protected and this is a big city so what happens in one area doesn't really impact the rest of us, despite how it seems on the news.

Don't worry, I promise the Lord is watching out for us.

Dead Sea Scrolls & Falafels

Monday, June 30, 2008

After class on Monday we had the whole day for free time. A group of us decided to take a sherut (taxi van) to the Israel Museum which is out in West Jerusalem (aka Jewish neighborhood, aka really nice area). This museum holds the Dead Sea Scrolls! They were discovered in 1947 in caves and vases. The scrolls contained every book of the Bible, except for Ruth, almost completely in tact.

The scrolls are kept in this crazy looking building with water shooting on the outside to help climate control.

Me, Danen, Allison

Can you guess which book/scroll was most complete and best preserved? The book of Isaiah. In fact, they found 20 copies of it! Isn’t that so interesting? It was on display in its complete form for the first time in 40 years. We are constantly reminded of the importance of reading and studying the book of Isaiah, even by the Savior himself. I think finding so many complete and well preserved copies of that particular book testify even more to the importance of such study. I promise I’ll get around to it.

Soon. Soon-ish...

The museum also had a modern art garden which was fun to explore.

Jubber sisters, Danen, Me & very hot hand chairs

Next we went over to the Bible Lands Museum which holds artifacts from every time period covered in the bible. I loved how they connected each artifact with a passage from the bible that mentioned it. For instance, we had just finished studying the story of Rebekah fetching water at the well in Genesis 22. (God tells Isaac’s servant that he’ll know which woman is to be Isaac’s wife because she’ll offer the servant and his camels water. Later in the story, when asked if Rebekah will go with the servant, leave her family forever and marry Isaac, she replies simply, “I will go.” A response which should in my opinion be as well known and regarded as Nephi’s “I will go” declaration.) Right there in the museum they have several of the water jugs dated back to the time and found in the area of Rebekah. Isn’t that awesome! It brings the story that much more to life.

After the museums we went to Ben Yehuda street which is an outdoor pedestrian-type shopping area. It’s a lot of fun and pretty safe so we can be there at night, etc. (Although I just looked it up and it does look like there were a few suicide bombers there in 2001. Weird…) I had my first falafel at Moriskos and it was awesome! The place is like falafel subway, you can pick all the hummus and vegetables and fries you want inside your pita and it costs 13 sheckles, or about $4. So fun! Ben Yehuda also has a gelato place which I’m sure will come in handy.

To-do: Eat a falafel - check!

To top it all off, we walked home through the Old City and back up to the center. It was one of my best days here, the people meshed well together, the sites, the food, it was all great.

Sheppelah field trip

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Today we went on the Shephelah fieldtrip. The purpose was to understand better the geography of the Old Testament. I’m really beginning to put it all together!

Israel is a very hilly area. Along the coast, you have the coastal plains which were inhabited by the Philistines. The land gradually slopes upwards through a series of valleys and highlands until you reach the Judean Hill Country, where Jerusalem and Bethlehem are located. The hills and valleys between the hill country and the coast stretch out like your fingers towards the Mediterranean Sea, five valleys. Both the Israelites and the Philistines wanted to control the valleys so they could control access into Jerusalem so they were constantly warring over these areas.

Our first stop was Beth Shemesh & the Sorek Valley. This area provided the setting for the story of Samson and Delilah as recorded in the book of Judges. I realized as I’ve been here that I haven’t done a serious study of the Old Testament since seminary my freshmen year of high school. That’s almost a full decade! And quite disappointing. It’s important for me to review these stories with the perspective of my new life position.

Overlooking Sorek Valley. You love the fanny right?

The archaeological dig going on at Beth Shemesh

We stopped at Maresha in Ben Guvrin valley to climb into some old cisterns used by people to store their water. They dug deep cisterns for collecting rain water and built their houses on top. They also used cave-like structures to raise pigeons and doves! It’s such a weird place, but because they’re below ground, they’re a nice and cool break from the blistering heat above ground.

Can you see all the holes the birds live in? And can you imagine how disgusting it would be down here with 2000 birds?

We crawled in a cave called Micah’s cave, in the town where the prophet Micah was from (I know, I didn't remember Micah either until we reviewed it). Actually I can’t really remember now where we were, which is really sad, but I know the main purpose was to vividly illustrate to us what absolute darkness feels like. We had to crawl on our hands and knees through this long, tight, twisty passageway to get there. I started a few times and had to pull out because I was so nervous and claustrophobic but eventually made it. I don’t see the appeal of spelunking whatsoever.

We also stopped in the Elah Valley. I found this to be another fascinating location. On one side of the valley, the Philistines were settled in Gath, which is where Goliath comes from. On the other side of the valley sat the Israelite city Azekah. The Elah valley winds from the Sea up into Bethlehem, which is where David grew up. The famous battle between David & Goliath took place in the valley between these two mountains.

This was another story that I hadn’t reviewed in a very long time. At this stop on our trip I was assigned to give a small summary and devotional which helped me really implant the details of the story in my mind. I guess I won't post my reflections on the Samson and David stories here, because that would probably make this really long and boring. But they are definitely stories worth reconsidering. And you should listen to Regina Spektor's song Samson.

P.S. I just noticed all the pictures I'm posting are solo shots. I promise I have friends! We just don't have lots of time on field trips for photo shoots.. I'll take more around the center.

P.P.S. By the end of the post are you as tired of my outfit as I am??

P.P.P.S. Whoever invented jeans had clearly never spent time in the dessert.