It was a free day, so we picked up our sack lunches at breakfast and hopped in a taxi over to West Jerusalem. First we visited the parliament building, called the knessat, then the Supreme Court building. Both were so beautiful and cool to walk around. We saw murals, offices, we even got to sit in on a SC hearing, with a criminal and everything. We couldn't understand anything that was happening, because it was all in Hebrew, but it was a neat experience anyway. We saw lots of kids on field trips at the parliament building, and since we got there at the wrong time we had to have half of our tour in Spanish. We met these German students there, so the tour guide was translating from Hebrew to Spanish, me and a couple others were translating from Spanish to English, and the Germans were translating from English to German. Love it.
It was about an hour walk back to the Center, so we just kind of meandered through different parks and side streets. We finally ended up on Ben Yehuda street for a few minutes, then back around the other side of the Old City.
Not much else that night, just homework and reading.
Monday was a field trip day. We went to some different places where the Israelites fought against other people, including the place where David fought Goliath. We got to practice using slings, which was kind of dangerous but really fun. I got to be ok at it... I had the distance ok, but not always quite the right direction. We went to a couple caves too- the "Bell Caves", where we sang a bunch of hymns with these really cool acoustics, and Micah's Cave, which was a real caving experience. I get very claustrophobic, so I crawled through the tunnel to the main cave but I couldn't do much else. Some people started crawling into tiny holes in the sides of the walls and coming out of other ones. The Bell Caves were man-made- they dug out the limestone to use for building and left the caves behind as cisterns or for storage or whatever. There were a couple we went to where they farmed pigeons in little nooks in the walls of the cave.
We found out while we were on the bus about the fiasco at Gaza. A humanitarian boat was trying to deliver supplies to Palestinians through the port at Gaza, the Israelis wanted them to go to a different port so Israeli customs could make sure nothing was being smuggled in, the boat refused, and fighting broke out. Last we heard, there were at least 15 dead on the humanitarian boat, and more fighting along the Gaza strip. The Old City went on strike for 3 days, so we are not allowed to go into East Jerusalem or the Old City until further notice. The JC is in East Jerusalem, so that means that if we want to go out at all we have to go to the upper gate and get a taxi to take us through East J to get over to the West side. Stuff over there is more expensive, because it's the nicer part of town, so it's not as much fun as wandering around places close to here, but still worth the trip. We have midterms this week, so it's actually kind of good timing. It would be worse if we couldn't go out when we had lots of free time with nothing else to do.
More homework and reading last night, for our OT midterm this morning. Still don't know if I'm totally prepared, but we have a little more time this morning to cram.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Day 31
Early this morning I walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane with some friends. We sang some hymns and then just spent some time walking and and reading scriptures. It was the perfect way to start out the Sabbath.
We had fast and testimony meeting today, and it was really cool because there were a bunch of people there who were tourists from different places, so we heard some testimonies from people from England, the US, even Switzerland. Sunday School in Spanish was fun, and in Relief Society I helped translate for one of the Hispanic sisters, Hermana Dulca. We spend about a quarter of the time talking about the lesson, and the rest she just likes to talk about other random stuff. I really like her, she's a really sweet lady. She is working here in the hospital for a few more months.
After Church I got visit-taught, took a long nap, and woke up in time for dinner. Since dinner we have just been hanging out, watching some movies and playing some games. It has been kind of a lazy day, but sometimes it feels like we keep our days so busy that it's nice to have some time to relax.
We had fast and testimony meeting today, and it was really cool because there were a bunch of people there who were tourists from different places, so we heard some testimonies from people from England, the US, even Switzerland. Sunday School in Spanish was fun, and in Relief Society I helped translate for one of the Hispanic sisters, Hermana Dulca. We spend about a quarter of the time talking about the lesson, and the rest she just likes to talk about other random stuff. I really like her, she's a really sweet lady. She is working here in the hospital for a few more months.
After Church I got visit-taught, took a long nap, and woke up in time for dinner. Since dinner we have just been hanging out, watching some movies and playing some games. It has been kind of a lazy day, but sometimes it feels like we keep our days so busy that it's nice to have some time to relax.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Day 30
We had Old Testament and Ancient Near East today, but only an hour of each. When we have class for 2 hours it is very draining. So today wasn't too bad. We can't go out til 3 on Fridays because the city is totally packed for Muslim prayers, so after classes we watched a couple movies, Overboard and Ever After. We did a service project too- putting together a bunch of the humanitarian hygiene kits that the Church distributes. We made about 600 in an hour, and they told us that every single one already has a home to go to, someone who has already requested it.
After 3 my roommate Katie and I went with a couple other people to the Old City. We met this guy at one of the shops and he was telling us about his girlfriend, how they had been dating for a year, would be engaged for about a year, and that he would already have everything they needed when they got married. I guess families here really provide for their children when the get married- he said he already has a house and furniture and everything like that. It's so interesting to find out the random parts of people's daily lives that seem so obvious and familiar to them but that we have so many questions about.
After that we went to Shaban's, I finally bought a pair of awesome genie pants, and we checked out this cool olive wood shop. They had nativities, scenes of the apostles, statues of Christ, Bibles with wood covers, and other neat stuff. It is all hand carved and so beautiful. Shopping is always fun, especially since Shaban always breaks out a couple bottles of juice when we show up, and keeps pouring us more and more while we look around. It's a really big part of their culture to offer people drinks, usually tea or coffee, but he knows the Mormon kids just want juice.
We went out through a gate we hadn't been through before on the opposite side of the Old City, and walked through some newer neighborhoods on our way back to the Center. We ended up taking a detour to buy some fruit at a small shop on the street where the Garden Tomb is. We stopped there and spread out for a few minutes. I was surprised how peaceful it was even with so many different tourist groups there. Everyone is very reverent and quiet, and lots of the groups will start singing their hymns and it is just a really good place to pray and ponder.
On our way back down the hill we ran into an Arab Christian lady. She started telling us how we shouldn't buy anything because they jack up the prices so much, and how dangerous it is to go around the city. She was about 85 years old. She invited us to come over and visit her sometime, since she lives pretty close. When we got to the lower gate at the Center, there were a bunch of Arab kids hanging out there. There are kids there pretty often, but usually just 3 or 4. Today there were about 15, from probably 6 to 16, and they were dancing! They had music and they were doing some cool Arab folk dancing, and then they taught us some of their moves. Mostly the little ones just kept laughing at us trying to dance but it was really really fun. It took us a while to catch on, and we still looked totally off, but we felt like we were doing pretty good and then they said that those were the moves kids do when they are first learning to dance at about age 5. So we have the dancing abilities of kindergarteners.
After dinner I had a meeting with the committee that I'm on to set up for the cultural dinners that we do. Next Wednesday we are having Arab night, so we were planning what we needed to do to get ready for it. I am in charge of napkin folding, so that summer working at the country club is finally going to pay off- I am now a pro at making napkin fans. I'm trying to plan something fun for Tuesday too for my birthday. Yesterday in Hebrew we learned the tradition of putting the birthday person in a chair and lifting them up as many times as how old they are. So maybe we will do that. Any way we do it I am super excited to celebrate!
After 3 my roommate Katie and I went with a couple other people to the Old City. We met this guy at one of the shops and he was telling us about his girlfriend, how they had been dating for a year, would be engaged for about a year, and that he would already have everything they needed when they got married. I guess families here really provide for their children when the get married- he said he already has a house and furniture and everything like that. It's so interesting to find out the random parts of people's daily lives that seem so obvious and familiar to them but that we have so many questions about.
After that we went to Shaban's, I finally bought a pair of awesome genie pants, and we checked out this cool olive wood shop. They had nativities, scenes of the apostles, statues of Christ, Bibles with wood covers, and other neat stuff. It is all hand carved and so beautiful. Shopping is always fun, especially since Shaban always breaks out a couple bottles of juice when we show up, and keeps pouring us more and more while we look around. It's a really big part of their culture to offer people drinks, usually tea or coffee, but he knows the Mormon kids just want juice.
We went out through a gate we hadn't been through before on the opposite side of the Old City, and walked through some newer neighborhoods on our way back to the Center. We ended up taking a detour to buy some fruit at a small shop on the street where the Garden Tomb is. We stopped there and spread out for a few minutes. I was surprised how peaceful it was even with so many different tourist groups there. Everyone is very reverent and quiet, and lots of the groups will start singing their hymns and it is just a really good place to pray and ponder.
On our way back down the hill we ran into an Arab Christian lady. She started telling us how we shouldn't buy anything because they jack up the prices so much, and how dangerous it is to go around the city. She was about 85 years old. She invited us to come over and visit her sometime, since she lives pretty close. When we got to the lower gate at the Center, there were a bunch of Arab kids hanging out there. There are kids there pretty often, but usually just 3 or 4. Today there were about 15, from probably 6 to 16, and they were dancing! They had music and they were doing some cool Arab folk dancing, and then they taught us some of their moves. Mostly the little ones just kept laughing at us trying to dance but it was really really fun. It took us a while to catch on, and we still looked totally off, but we felt like we were doing pretty good and then they said that those were the moves kids do when they are first learning to dance at about age 5. So we have the dancing abilities of kindergarteners.
After dinner I had a meeting with the committee that I'm on to set up for the cultural dinners that we do. Next Wednesday we are having Arab night, so we were planning what we needed to do to get ready for it. I am in charge of napkin folding, so that summer working at the country club is finally going to pay off- I am now a pro at making napkin fans. I'm trying to plan something fun for Tuesday too for my birthday. Yesterday in Hebrew we learned the tradition of putting the birthday person in a chair and lifting them up as many times as how old they are. So maybe we will do that. Any way we do it I am super excited to celebrate!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Day 29
Happy birthday Aunt Debbie! And thanks for all the birthday cards I've gotten! It is so fun to see letters in our little mailbox :)
Turned in the crazy big paper today. Mine ended up being 11 pages long. Call me an overachiever, it was just the personal reflections that kept getting bigger. I guess I have a lot of personal reflections about Islam and the situation at the Middle East. We had two hours of Old Testament this morning, getting caught up after Egypt. We were reading in Leviticus and Numbers, a lot about the Law of Moses. It's cool to learn about that and then relate it to the things we see the Orthodox Jews doing around Jerusalem. We talked about the law against lighting a fire on the Sabbath, and how the Jews today have interpreted it to mean turning on anything with electricity. A lot of buildings have Sabbath elevators that go up and down, stopping at every floor so that you can ride it without pushing any buttons, and not "lighting a fire". I remembered seeing a big sign at the Western Wall, where you have to go through security, that said that the metal detectors are specially designed and approved by Rabbis so that going through them on the Sabbath is kosher. I love learning about the things that are now part of my everyday life!
So I was looking at my hair in class today and decided I needed a haircut. Since I was feeling brave, I let my two very willing but very inexperienced roommates cut a couple of inches off. Fortunately, they did an ok job. My hair feels lighter and healthier, and hopefully it will be a little easier to do in the morning since my lack of a straightener is kind of cramping my style.
We finished up our volleyball tournament tonight- we lost the first games, played the next round in the losers bracket, made it back to the championship, and then lost our last game. First runners up isn't bad, considering how many people here played in high school. The skills I learned in my volleyball class last semester definitely helped, but unfortunately were not quite enough. It was really fun still, I had a great team and we just enjoyed every minute of it!
Turned in the crazy big paper today. Mine ended up being 11 pages long. Call me an overachiever, it was just the personal reflections that kept getting bigger. I guess I have a lot of personal reflections about Islam and the situation at the Middle East. We had two hours of Old Testament this morning, getting caught up after Egypt. We were reading in Leviticus and Numbers, a lot about the Law of Moses. It's cool to learn about that and then relate it to the things we see the Orthodox Jews doing around Jerusalem. We talked about the law against lighting a fire on the Sabbath, and how the Jews today have interpreted it to mean turning on anything with electricity. A lot of buildings have Sabbath elevators that go up and down, stopping at every floor so that you can ride it without pushing any buttons, and not "lighting a fire". I remembered seeing a big sign at the Western Wall, where you have to go through security, that said that the metal detectors are specially designed and approved by Rabbis so that going through them on the Sabbath is kosher. I love learning about the things that are now part of my everyday life!
So I was looking at my hair in class today and decided I needed a haircut. Since I was feeling brave, I let my two very willing but very inexperienced roommates cut a couple of inches off. Fortunately, they did an ok job. My hair feels lighter and healthier, and hopefully it will be a little easier to do in the morning since my lack of a straightener is kind of cramping my style.
We finished up our volleyball tournament tonight- we lost the first games, played the next round in the losers bracket, made it back to the championship, and then lost our last game. First runners up isn't bad, considering how many people here played in high school. The skills I learned in my volleyball class last semester definitely helped, but unfortunately were not quite enough. It was really fun still, I had a great team and we just enjoyed every minute of it!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Day 28
A long morning of classes today... All interesting stuff, but we're all exhausted about half way through and it makes it hard to focus. Lunch, then we went on a tour under the JC. It was so cool! The Center is on the side of a mountain, so it is built like a set of stairs, like this:
Underneath all of those is the basement, which slopes down with the mountain. There were a million pipes and wires, and it was so interesting to see how much it takes to keep this place running. We had to wear hard hats, because the ceiling was really low in some places. There was one area where a bunch of students had written their names on the walls and pipes, and our director let us write our names there too. It was fun to try to guess what part of the Center we were under, because it is seriously like a maze down there.
After the tour, I went to the Rockefeller Museum with a couple of other people. We have to visit there and write a short report by Friday, and there was only a small handful of us who hadn't made it there before Egypt. They had a lot of clay and iron artifacts, and some really cool rooms where they reconstructed parts of buildings so you could tell what it would have looked like in the past. There were some crazy old skeletons and skull fragments, including one from the Galilee Man, who is part of the species that came right before man. They even had a tomb that they had found intact and reconstructed it at the Museum. It was cool to see tangible objects to go along with a lot of what we have been studying in our Ancient Near East class.
I had Hebrew class in the afternoon, where we learned the birthday song and the alphabet song. Aleph bet vet, gimmel daled hey, vav zain chet tet, yud kaaf chaaf, lamed mem noone... that's only half of the song but that's all of the letters that we have learned so far. We have a midterm next week, so I'll be practicing the letters a lot.
The University of Utah Singers were here yesterday to do a concert. They ate dinner with us in the Oasis, and then we could watch their sound check since there are rarely extra seats in the concerts for us to use. We heard them practice some of the different songs they would be singing, and they were really good! It would have been cool to see their whole performance.
Just finishing up the paper for our Islam class- someone submitted theirs to have the professor's input and found out that our citations have to be a lot more detailed than we thought, so I have to go back and fix some of mine before I print it off. Luckily the class isn't til 4 pm so there's lots of time after morning classes to get everything finished.
Underneath all of those is the basement, which slopes down with the mountain. There were a million pipes and wires, and it was so interesting to see how much it takes to keep this place running. We had to wear hard hats, because the ceiling was really low in some places. There was one area where a bunch of students had written their names on the walls and pipes, and our director let us write our names there too. It was fun to try to guess what part of the Center we were under, because it is seriously like a maze down there.
After the tour, I went to the Rockefeller Museum with a couple of other people. We have to visit there and write a short report by Friday, and there was only a small handful of us who hadn't made it there before Egypt. They had a lot of clay and iron artifacts, and some really cool rooms where they reconstructed parts of buildings so you could tell what it would have looked like in the past. There were some crazy old skeletons and skull fragments, including one from the Galilee Man, who is part of the species that came right before man. They even had a tomb that they had found intact and reconstructed it at the Museum. It was cool to see tangible objects to go along with a lot of what we have been studying in our Ancient Near East class.
I had Hebrew class in the afternoon, where we learned the birthday song and the alphabet song. Aleph bet vet, gimmel daled hey, vav zain chet tet, yud kaaf chaaf, lamed mem noone... that's only half of the song but that's all of the letters that we have learned so far. We have a midterm next week, so I'll be practicing the letters a lot.
The University of Utah Singers were here yesterday to do a concert. They ate dinner with us in the Oasis, and then we could watch their sound check since there are rarely extra seats in the concerts for us to use. We heard them practice some of the different songs they would be singing, and they were really good! It would have been cool to see their whole performance.
Just finishing up the paper for our Islam class- someone submitted theirs to have the professor's input and found out that our citations have to be a lot more detailed than we thought, so I have to go back and fix some of mine before I print it off. Luckily the class isn't til 4 pm so there's lots of time after morning classes to get everything finished.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Day 27
Old Testament this morning, then out into the Old City for a little bit to finally go see the Dome of the Rock. Up close it is absolutely amazing. The tile work is so beautiful and there is elaborate Arabic script all around it with teachings from the Qur'an. It is blue and green and yellow, but from far away only the blue stands out. It is on the Temple Mount, with these incredible views of the valleys surrounding it. We got there a little after 10 and they close it to visitors at 10:30, so we didn't get to stay very long but I will definitely be going back a lot I think because it is one of the most peaceful places in the Old City, since everyone there is reverent and quiet, unlike the people selling and shopping in the streets.
The fastest way to get to Dome of the Rock is by passing through the gate by the Western Wall. We stopped there for a minute on our way back, and saw a bunch of little boys and girls all dressed up with gold paper crowns, kind of like the ones from Burger King but way more legit. I asked one of the moms what was going on, and found out that they all go to a Jewish school, and today was the day the first graders were all going to get their first Torah. It was really neat, there were Rabbis and it was kind of like the school programs that we have in the States. The kids didn't seem to think it was as cool as their parents did, but they all looked so precious in their little suits and dresses.
On our way back we walked through the Kidron Valley and saw Absalom's tomb and a few other really really old tombs there. The Kidron Valley is what separates the Old City from the Mount of Olives, which is where the JC is. So normally when we walk to the city we walk down the hill and then right back up the other side, but if you're going through different gates it's fun sometimes to walk down to the valley and then follow it for a little bit before going up to the city.
Still working on reading and homework... We had our Hebrew class again today, learned 3 new letters and reviewed the old ones. We had to review for a while, since we haven't had class for 2 weeks and with all of the other work we have, not much studying has happened lately. We have a bunch of midterms and quizzes coming up next week, (on my birthday), but I'm still going to try to go out into the city as often as I can.
After dinner we had the second round of games in the volleyball tournament, and my team won both games again! It shows less that I have any skills and more that my teammates have amazing skills at rescuing my poor shots. But either way, we are on to the semifinals!
The fastest way to get to Dome of the Rock is by passing through the gate by the Western Wall. We stopped there for a minute on our way back, and saw a bunch of little boys and girls all dressed up with gold paper crowns, kind of like the ones from Burger King but way more legit. I asked one of the moms what was going on, and found out that they all go to a Jewish school, and today was the day the first graders were all going to get their first Torah. It was really neat, there were Rabbis and it was kind of like the school programs that we have in the States. The kids didn't seem to think it was as cool as their parents did, but they all looked so precious in their little suits and dresses.
On our way back we walked through the Kidron Valley and saw Absalom's tomb and a few other really really old tombs there. The Kidron Valley is what separates the Old City from the Mount of Olives, which is where the JC is. So normally when we walk to the city we walk down the hill and then right back up the other side, but if you're going through different gates it's fun sometimes to walk down to the valley and then follow it for a little bit before going up to the city.
Still working on reading and homework... We had our Hebrew class again today, learned 3 new letters and reviewed the old ones. We had to review for a while, since we haven't had class for 2 weeks and with all of the other work we have, not much studying has happened lately. We have a bunch of midterms and quizzes coming up next week, (on my birthday), but I'm still going to try to go out into the city as often as I can.
After dinner we had the second round of games in the volleyball tournament, and my team won both games again! It shows less that I have any skills and more that my teammates have amazing skills at rescuing my poor shots. But either way, we are on to the semifinals!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Egypt Pics!
Camel Ride!
Hiking in the Wilderness of Zin
Inside the Muhammad Ali mosque
Lunch at the Hard Rock
Pyramids!
On our way to Egypt we stopped at this archaeological site and we had to wear these awesome hard hats
This one is me and all of my roommates, Jessie, Katie, and Natalie, over the Nile River.
We went on our felucca ride while the sun was about to set, and it was so beautiful!
Day 26
I'd like to start by sending a special birthday shout-out to my dad and my Grandpa Tom- I love you guys and I hope that you have a great birthday!!!
So unfortunately today has been kind of boring. There is a 7 page research paper due Thursday, so I opted to spend my day getting through most of that. I know, I know, this is so uncharacteristic of me. Those of you who know me well are shocked that I would even start this paper before Wednesday afternoon. But I have turned a new leaf and I am determined to use this summer to get rid of my horrible procrastinating ways. I've finished 6 pages of the paper so far. Yay me! I also got through some of the endless list of Old Testament readings for this week.
The one thing that made my day not entirely monotonous was a picnic. We always pack sack lunches on free days since the Oasis is closed for lunch, so a few of us who were all diligently working in the library took a break to go out on the lawn and eat our lunches looking out over the city and the Dome of the Rock, which was shining really bright today in the sunlight. We learned that there was a Muslim prince who sold one of his palaces or something to put real gold on the Dome. It really is the most beautiful building in the city and you can see it from almost everywhere because it stands higher than any of the other buildings near to it.
For FHE tonight we are playing Disney Scene-It (yes, someone actually used their 60" of packing space to bring that game with them), and then I will be working on homework for the rest of the night. not very exciting, but hopefully all of my hard work will leave me lots of free time later on this week to go out on adventures.
So unfortunately today has been kind of boring. There is a 7 page research paper due Thursday, so I opted to spend my day getting through most of that. I know, I know, this is so uncharacteristic of me. Those of you who know me well are shocked that I would even start this paper before Wednesday afternoon. But I have turned a new leaf and I am determined to use this summer to get rid of my horrible procrastinating ways. I've finished 6 pages of the paper so far. Yay me! I also got through some of the endless list of Old Testament readings for this week.
The one thing that made my day not entirely monotonous was a picnic. We always pack sack lunches on free days since the Oasis is closed for lunch, so a few of us who were all diligently working in the library took a break to go out on the lawn and eat our lunches looking out over the city and the Dome of the Rock, which was shining really bright today in the sunlight. We learned that there was a Muslim prince who sold one of his palaces or something to put real gold on the Dome. It really is the most beautiful building in the city and you can see it from almost everywhere because it stands higher than any of the other buildings near to it.
For FHE tonight we are playing Disney Scene-It (yes, someone actually used their 60" of packing space to bring that game with them), and then I will be working on homework for the rest of the night. not very exciting, but hopefully all of my hard work will leave me lots of free time later on this week to go out on adventures.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Day 25
Today we had a field trip, probably my favorite so far. We went to this place called Ne'ot Kedumim, which is a biblical land reserve. They have all of the plants and animals from the Bible, like sheep, goats, sycamore trees, dates, figs, basically everything mentioned in the Bible. We got to herd sheep, hold a lamb, grind oregano, we saw a wheat thresher, we made pitas from scratch and made popped wheat(it doesn't really pop open like popcorn but it tastes really good), we saw water wells and cisterns the way they would have existed in biblical times, it was really fun. At the end we got to watch this Torah scribe copying some of the Torah. Apparently there are a whole bunch of rules that apply to scribes, not just anyone can do it and there are all these things about what to do if they mess up while they're writing. They make the ink from all-natural ingredients and write with a quill. We also got to see how they make the phyllacteries they wear during prayers (the boxes they wrap around their arm and head with prayers inside).
I spent most of the time after we got back doing reading, we all have a ton of homework due this week and I definitely didn't to any of it during our Egypt trip.
We had the first round of a volleyball tournament tonight, and my team won both of our games. It was pretty exciting. Almost everyone gets really excited about activities like this because we don't have any other sports to really play or watch, considering we have no access to tv. It's refreshing though, not having tv or facebook to distract from all of the amazing things that we could be doing every day here.
I spent most of the time after we got back doing reading, we all have a ton of homework due this week and I definitely didn't to any of it during our Egypt trip.
We had the first round of a volleyball tournament tonight, and my team won both of our games. It was pretty exciting. Almost everyone gets really excited about activities like this because we don't have any other sports to really play or watch, considering we have no access to tv. It's refreshing though, not having tv or facebook to distract from all of the amazing things that we could be doing every day here.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Day 24
It was the Sabbath, and it was such a great day! We woke up, had breakfast, went to Church, had some great speakers. I translated for one of the Spanish-speaking ladies in Relief Society, only she spent a lot of the time just chatting with me about stuff that didn't really have much to do with the lesson but she had a lot of really good insights and I still got a lot out of the meeting.
After Church, visiting-teaching, then I headed over to the Garden Tomb with some friends. We all had to kind of take a step back and remember that we weren't just "heading over to the Garden Tomb," but we were going to one of the most sacred and meaningful sites in the world. It was humbling to re-realize just how lucky I am to be here and to have the opportunity to visit and revisit these places and feel the Spirit that is there.
After dinner there was a meet the branch activity where we got to meet the permanent members of the branch, and it was fun to hear why the parents were here and what their kids thought of being here.
Later, my apartment got home-taught out on the lawn with the Dome of the Rock and the sunset in the background. It was really cool. Kudos to our home teachers. After home teaching, we watched an episode of Planet Earth. Luckily there are some people here who love it as much as I do, so I think we will start a weekly tradition of Planet Earth on the Shabbat. Super exciting!
After Church, visiting-teaching, then I headed over to the Garden Tomb with some friends. We all had to kind of take a step back and remember that we weren't just "heading over to the Garden Tomb," but we were going to one of the most sacred and meaningful sites in the world. It was humbling to re-realize just how lucky I am to be here and to have the opportunity to visit and revisit these places and feel the Spirit that is there.
After dinner there was a meet the branch activity where we got to meet the permanent members of the branch, and it was fun to hear why the parents were here and what their kids thought of being here.
Later, my apartment got home-taught out on the lawn with the Dome of the Rock and the sunset in the background. It was really cool. Kudos to our home teachers. After home teaching, we watched an episode of Planet Earth. Luckily there are some people here who love it as much as I do, so I think we will start a weekly tradition of Planet Earth on the Shabbat. Super exciting!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Egypt
Wow where to even begin? It was a very busy week packed with some amazing sites and experiences but I will try to keep it as short and sweet as I can.
Thursday morning we started the long bus drive. We stopped at a couple places along the way, and did this really cool hike at the Wilderness of Zin. We were climbing the face of this really steep mountain with steps cut into the stone and even ladders some places where it was too steep for steps. Thursday night we drove down to a Kibbutz in southern Israel. It was really interesting, it's basically this self-sufficient socialist compound. The people raise these algae for anti-aging products along with dairy animals and date trees and there are a few other random things they do to generate money and then it all goes back into running the kibbutz and everyone gets an equal share of food and services and a small income every month. There were a lot of hippies who were there for a few months or a year.... To me it seemed like the kind of thing that would be a cool experience for a summer or something, but I was amazed at the “permanent residents” who spend their whole lives there.
Friday we crossed the border, then drove for about 7 hours until we got to Cairo and went to church at the branch there.
Saturday we saw the pyramids! It's the kind of thing where you can't even believe that you're even there, but looking back it's incredible. They were huge. Like, huge. It's amazing because driving through the city you can always see them, because they tower over even the tallest sky scrapers in Cairo. We got to go inside one of them to see where the tomb was. All of the pharaoh's tombs in Egpt that they've discovered were robbed thousands of years ago except King Tut, so all we could see was a stone coffin but it was still amazing. Then we went over to the Sphinx, which was also huge and amazing. There were little kids everywhere who kept trying to take our cameras and have us do kissing or other funny poses with the sphinx. We saw a few other cool tomb sites and then we headed to the Cairo airport and flew to Luxor.
Sunday we went to the Valley of the Kings, which is where most of the tombs are located. They were all getting robbed at the pyramids, so they decided to try to hide them in the mountains instead, but the builders were the ones who went back to rob them later so it didn't work out too much better. We saw Queen Hatchepsut's temple, which was built into the mountain and it was so cool, it had a lot of history written on the walls in hieroglyphs and our tour guide wanted to make sure that we heard each and every story written on the walls... so we were there quite a while. And it was hot. Really hot. Over 115 all day. So we were all sweating out of our eyeballs the whole time. After lunch we went on a felucca ride (sail boat) down the Nile and then we rode camels! They were super smelly but it was soooo fun. Mine was named Sindebad, and most of the rest of them were named Michael Jackson or James Bond. The guy who was leading my camel spoke pretty good English, so he was telling me everything I was looking at. He started out by pointing out the alfalfa, maize, date trees, and other plants, but I think he thought we don't have the same animals they do in America, because he kept saying, and there is a cow, and that is a cat, and that is a sheep, and that is a horse, and that is a donkey... in case I wasn't sure. That night I went out into the city for a while to do some shopping. We went to the Suq, where they have a ton of little shops kind of like in the Old City. The merchants were super pushy and kept asking the guys who were with us how many camels they would trade us for. It definitely made us miss the men in Jerusalem who are way less creepy. We went to a mosque too, which was built into Luxor temple so you could see some of the columns from the temple, which was lit up really cool. Our taxi driver was really nice and waited for us everywhere we went so we didn't have to call a new one. They drive crazy there, and when we asked him if he'd ever hit anyone he went, hahahaha yes, it's no big deal. So we felt pretty safe.
Monday we took a boat ride Karnak temple and then a carriage ride to Luxor temple. They were huge and amazing! It was astounding to hear how they built them, how long it took and how much effort went into putting up so many columns and giant obelisks. Our professors told us a little bit about the symbolism and how they resemble modern-day LDS temples. We had some more free time for shopping and then we went to the train station for our overnight ride back to Cairo. The train was fun, but smelly and a little bit itchy. The food was awful but it was still a cool experience. We all felt a little bit like we were on the Hogwarts Express.
Tuesday we went to the Egyptian museum and saw King Tutankhamen's treasure and the mummy room. There was so much gold in the museum, it was amazing to think that his was the smallest of all of the pharaohs' tombs. The mummies were amazing too, it's incredible that they have been able to stay intact for thousands of years- they all still had all of their teeth. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then to another bazaar.
Wednesday morning we went to an old church and a couple of synagogues in Cairo and then to the Citadel and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. They were all so beautiful and the mosques especially were incredible, the size and the detail were unbelievable. We had another long bus ride to the Sinai, then at 2 am we woke up and hiked Mt. Sinai. It was the most amazing hike I've ever been on. The sky was so clear that I could see a billion stars and even the Milky Way stretched across the entire sky. It was quiet and peaceful, even though it smelled really bad of camels. At the top we sat and sang hymns as we waited for the sun to rise. I have never seen a more beautiful sunrise. All you could see were these dry, desolate mountains all around us, and then this glow moving slowly up over the top. We had a small devotional and hiked back down the other side on a million and a half stairs (I exaggerate) then got back on the bus. We drove back to the border, which took a lot longer coming his direction, dipped our feet in the Red Sea for a minute and then drove back to the Center.
It was amazing how much we missed Israel, since we hadn't been here that long before we left. I was grateful for the simplest things, like being able to wash my hands with soap and water instead of just hand sanitizer. The first thing I did when I got back was brush my teeth with tap water. All we ate yesterday were fresh fruits and salads and drank all the cold water with ice that we could get. It was a free day, so most of it was spent catching up on sleep, doing laundry and unpacking. As soon as I get all of my pictures put together I will put up some best-of photos.
Thursday morning we started the long bus drive. We stopped at a couple places along the way, and did this really cool hike at the Wilderness of Zin. We were climbing the face of this really steep mountain with steps cut into the stone and even ladders some places where it was too steep for steps. Thursday night we drove down to a Kibbutz in southern Israel. It was really interesting, it's basically this self-sufficient socialist compound. The people raise these algae for anti-aging products along with dairy animals and date trees and there are a few other random things they do to generate money and then it all goes back into running the kibbutz and everyone gets an equal share of food and services and a small income every month. There were a lot of hippies who were there for a few months or a year.... To me it seemed like the kind of thing that would be a cool experience for a summer or something, but I was amazed at the “permanent residents” who spend their whole lives there.
Friday we crossed the border, then drove for about 7 hours until we got to Cairo and went to church at the branch there.
Saturday we saw the pyramids! It's the kind of thing where you can't even believe that you're even there, but looking back it's incredible. They were huge. Like, huge. It's amazing because driving through the city you can always see them, because they tower over even the tallest sky scrapers in Cairo. We got to go inside one of them to see where the tomb was. All of the pharaoh's tombs in Egpt that they've discovered were robbed thousands of years ago except King Tut, so all we could see was a stone coffin but it was still amazing. Then we went over to the Sphinx, which was also huge and amazing. There were little kids everywhere who kept trying to take our cameras and have us do kissing or other funny poses with the sphinx. We saw a few other cool tomb sites and then we headed to the Cairo airport and flew to Luxor.
Sunday we went to the Valley of the Kings, which is where most of the tombs are located. They were all getting robbed at the pyramids, so they decided to try to hide them in the mountains instead, but the builders were the ones who went back to rob them later so it didn't work out too much better. We saw Queen Hatchepsut's temple, which was built into the mountain and it was so cool, it had a lot of history written on the walls in hieroglyphs and our tour guide wanted to make sure that we heard each and every story written on the walls... so we were there quite a while. And it was hot. Really hot. Over 115 all day. So we were all sweating out of our eyeballs the whole time. After lunch we went on a felucca ride (sail boat) down the Nile and then we rode camels! They were super smelly but it was soooo fun. Mine was named Sindebad, and most of the rest of them were named Michael Jackson or James Bond. The guy who was leading my camel spoke pretty good English, so he was telling me everything I was looking at. He started out by pointing out the alfalfa, maize, date trees, and other plants, but I think he thought we don't have the same animals they do in America, because he kept saying, and there is a cow, and that is a cat, and that is a sheep, and that is a horse, and that is a donkey... in case I wasn't sure. That night I went out into the city for a while to do some shopping. We went to the Suq, where they have a ton of little shops kind of like in the Old City. The merchants were super pushy and kept asking the guys who were with us how many camels they would trade us for. It definitely made us miss the men in Jerusalem who are way less creepy. We went to a mosque too, which was built into Luxor temple so you could see some of the columns from the temple, which was lit up really cool. Our taxi driver was really nice and waited for us everywhere we went so we didn't have to call a new one. They drive crazy there, and when we asked him if he'd ever hit anyone he went, hahahaha yes, it's no big deal. So we felt pretty safe.
Monday we took a boat ride Karnak temple and then a carriage ride to Luxor temple. They were huge and amazing! It was astounding to hear how they built them, how long it took and how much effort went into putting up so many columns and giant obelisks. Our professors told us a little bit about the symbolism and how they resemble modern-day LDS temples. We had some more free time for shopping and then we went to the train station for our overnight ride back to Cairo. The train was fun, but smelly and a little bit itchy. The food was awful but it was still a cool experience. We all felt a little bit like we were on the Hogwarts Express.
Tuesday we went to the Egyptian museum and saw King Tutankhamen's treasure and the mummy room. There was so much gold in the museum, it was amazing to think that his was the smallest of all of the pharaohs' tombs. The mummies were amazing too, it's incredible that they have been able to stay intact for thousands of years- they all still had all of their teeth. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and then to another bazaar.
Wednesday morning we went to an old church and a couple of synagogues in Cairo and then to the Citadel and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. They were all so beautiful and the mosques especially were incredible, the size and the detail were unbelievable. We had another long bus ride to the Sinai, then at 2 am we woke up and hiked Mt. Sinai. It was the most amazing hike I've ever been on. The sky was so clear that I could see a billion stars and even the Milky Way stretched across the entire sky. It was quiet and peaceful, even though it smelled really bad of camels. At the top we sat and sang hymns as we waited for the sun to rise. I have never seen a more beautiful sunrise. All you could see were these dry, desolate mountains all around us, and then this glow moving slowly up over the top. We had a small devotional and hiked back down the other side on a million and a half stairs (I exaggerate) then got back on the bus. We drove back to the border, which took a lot longer coming his direction, dipped our feet in the Red Sea for a minute and then drove back to the Center.
It was amazing how much we missed Israel, since we hadn't been here that long before we left. I was grateful for the simplest things, like being able to wash my hands with soap and water instead of just hand sanitizer. The first thing I did when I got back was brush my teeth with tap water. All we ate yesterday were fresh fruits and salads and drank all the cold water with ice that we could get. It was a free day, so most of it was spent catching up on sleep, doing laundry and unpacking. As soon as I get all of my pictures put together I will put up some best-of photos.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Day 14
Happy Jerusalem Day!
This morning we had 2 hours of Old Testament and 2 hours of Ancient Near Eastern, all getting us ready for what we will be seeing in Egypt. After lunch we had some free time so I headed into the old city with my roommates Katie and Jessie to pick up last minute things for the trip. I got these sweet sandals from Shabans, and some gummies, and these cool baclava things. I've never had baclava, but the guy kept giving us samples and they were all so delicious so we got a bunch. We will be in Egypt for 8 days, so we needed to stock up on as many snacks as we could get.
After dinner we had a forum, where 3 Palestinian Moslems who attended BYU came and talked to us about what their experiences there were like. It was really interesting, they had almost all positive things to say, and they kept saying how many similarities there were in the values and the culture that made it relatively easy for them to adapt. It was funny, the one thing they said was the hardest for them to adjust to was not drinking coffee or tea. They said the first few months were miserable for them, since around here they drink that stuff like water. They had some cool insights too on what they liked about the people they met at BYU and how we can be better both in Provo and here in the Holy Land about being tolerant and more culturally sensitive to people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
So Jerusalem Day is actually kind of a touchy holiday because it celebrates the Israelis taking control of the Holy Land. So half of the people are happy about it, and the other half of the people... not so much. But if there's one thing the Jews know, it's how to throw a rocking party. We took a taxi (Mormon-van sized, with 16 seats) over to Ben Yuheda Street in West Jerusalem to join in the festivities. There were musicians and artists all up and down the street, and there were a ton of people out. At the end of the street there was a huge group of Jewish people dancing around a van with Israeli techno music blaring, and we all joined in. The Jews love it when our guys join in, but they're a little hesitant to welcome the girls so we had to form our own circle to dance with. After a few minutes they warmed up and let us join their group. I think they're so used to segregating when they get together for religious celebrations that it carries over even into secular holiday traditions. We hung out there for a while, til some lady warned us that some Arab kids had shown up. We decided we better try to avoid any trouble, so we wandered back up the street until we had to come back to the center.
I am sooooo excited for Egypt, even though we have been told not to drink the water, eat the food, breathe the air, or touch anything. Haha we are starting bets on who is going to get sick first, and we're all praying that we won't be the ones... hence all of the food from Jerusalem. We won't have access to free internet either, so I will be taking a hiatus from the blog until next Friday... but I will take good notes and lots of pictures so I can make a fully detailed report when I get back!
This morning we had 2 hours of Old Testament and 2 hours of Ancient Near Eastern, all getting us ready for what we will be seeing in Egypt. After lunch we had some free time so I headed into the old city with my roommates Katie and Jessie to pick up last minute things for the trip. I got these sweet sandals from Shabans, and some gummies, and these cool baclava things. I've never had baclava, but the guy kept giving us samples and they were all so delicious so we got a bunch. We will be in Egypt for 8 days, so we needed to stock up on as many snacks as we could get.
After dinner we had a forum, where 3 Palestinian Moslems who attended BYU came and talked to us about what their experiences there were like. It was really interesting, they had almost all positive things to say, and they kept saying how many similarities there were in the values and the culture that made it relatively easy for them to adapt. It was funny, the one thing they said was the hardest for them to adjust to was not drinking coffee or tea. They said the first few months were miserable for them, since around here they drink that stuff like water. They had some cool insights too on what they liked about the people they met at BYU and how we can be better both in Provo and here in the Holy Land about being tolerant and more culturally sensitive to people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
So Jerusalem Day is actually kind of a touchy holiday because it celebrates the Israelis taking control of the Holy Land. So half of the people are happy about it, and the other half of the people... not so much. But if there's one thing the Jews know, it's how to throw a rocking party. We took a taxi (Mormon-van sized, with 16 seats) over to Ben Yuheda Street in West Jerusalem to join in the festivities. There were musicians and artists all up and down the street, and there were a ton of people out. At the end of the street there was a huge group of Jewish people dancing around a van with Israeli techno music blaring, and we all joined in. The Jews love it when our guys join in, but they're a little hesitant to welcome the girls so we had to form our own circle to dance with. After a few minutes they warmed up and let us join their group. I think they're so used to segregating when they get together for religious celebrations that it carries over even into secular holiday traditions. We hung out there for a while, til some lady warned us that some Arab kids had shown up. We decided we better try to avoid any trouble, so we wandered back up the street until we had to come back to the center.
I am sooooo excited for Egypt, even though we have been told not to drink the water, eat the food, breathe the air, or touch anything. Haha we are starting bets on who is going to get sick first, and we're all praying that we won't be the ones... hence all of the food from Jerusalem. We won't have access to free internet either, so I will be taking a hiatus from the blog until next Friday... but I will take good notes and lots of pictures so I can make a fully detailed report when I get back!
Day 13
We had class all morning, Old Testament and the Modern Near Eastern class from our Israeli professor. After lunch I went with some people down to a 24-hour mart to pick up some food for Egypt, since apparently we can eat approximately 2% of the food there. It wasn't too far away, but getting there involved walking down the side of the freeway, hopping a fence, getting yelled at by a bunch of kids and their chickens, then walking on a dirt trail trying to find the right paved road that meets up with the store. The way back was mostly the same, except we couldn't find the short fence so we ended up jumping off a wall on the side of the freeway. We ran all the way back to make it to Hebrew class, where we learned a few more letters and practiced writing all of the ones we have learned so far. We had our Palestinian MNE class after Hebrew. It is only the second time we've had the class, but I think it will be interesting.
For dinner, me and my roommate Jessie made a funfetti cake that we found at the grocery store for our friend Lance's birthday. After dinner I spent most of the night trying to catch up on all of the reading for this week. Tomorrow is Jerusalem Day, so we want to spend most of the day after classes in the city watching the parades and doing the rest of the shopping for Egypt!
For dinner, me and my roommate Jessie made a funfetti cake that we found at the grocery store for our friend Lance's birthday. After dinner I spent most of the night trying to catch up on all of the reading for this week. Tomorrow is Jerusalem Day, so we want to spend most of the day after classes in the city watching the parades and doing the rest of the shopping for Egypt!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Day 12
We had a field trip to Jericho. We drove out to some different archaeological sites for Herod's winter palace and a tower that is supposedly the oldest structure in the world and a sign of the first settlement society.
We hiked up to this monastery in the mountains. It is supposed to be the Mount of Temptation, and they have a stone there that they think is the stone that Satan tempted Christ to turn into bread. It was a pretty incredible place, especially considering how steep the hill was and how much it would have taken to build the monastery there.
Then we went out into the Judaean wilderness, which is where Christ went when He fasted for forty days. It was the most desolate place I have ever seen. When I had heard about a wilderness before, I pictured what you pass on the way to Southern Utah, scrub brush and desert. No. It is way worse than you could have ever imagine, and it was hot. Really hot. It is crazy to think about all of the different people in the Bible who wandered through there on their way from Jericho to Jerusalem.
After dinner mostly homework and reading... But I did dominate in the first round of the Rummikub tournament. This week there's a lot going on to get stuff ready for Egypt... I am so excited!!!
We hiked up to this monastery in the mountains. It is supposed to be the Mount of Temptation, and they have a stone there that they think is the stone that Satan tempted Christ to turn into bread. It was a pretty incredible place, especially considering how steep the hill was and how much it would have taken to build the monastery there.
Then we went out into the Judaean wilderness, which is where Christ went when He fasted for forty days. It was the most desolate place I have ever seen. When I had heard about a wilderness before, I pictured what you pass on the way to Southern Utah, scrub brush and desert. No. It is way worse than you could have ever imagine, and it was hot. Really hot. It is crazy to think about all of the different people in the Bible who wandered through there on their way from Jericho to Jerusalem.
After dinner mostly homework and reading... But I did dominate in the first round of the Rummikub tournament. This week there's a lot going on to get stuff ready for Egypt... I am so excited!!!
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Day 11
Today was one of the greatest days of my life. About half of us took busses out to Tel Aviv, and it was amazing. We laid on the beach, swam in the Mediterranean Ocean, explored the city, ate pitas and hummus in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, shared some of the biggest pizzas I've ever seen, and finished the day with some delectable Italian gelato. It was warm with a breeze, the water wasn't too cold... it was just a great day with great people. We met some cool people on the beach... There were some Jewish kids from Ohio that were here for a "religious year abroad", where they come out to Jerusalem to learn more about their heritage and go to every bar in the city and get drunk every night. But they were nice. Then we met a couple of Israeli guys and these 2 guys from Rwanda during a pretty intense soccer game. A lot of the other people we tried to avoid, since a large percentage of them were old men in speedos. Ew. But I did have my first full conversation in Hebrew. Amazingly it included only phrases that we've actually learned in class, and it went like this:
Man(in creeper voice): Shalom
Me: Shalom
Man(in creeper voice): Ma Nishma? what's up?
Me: Be seder everything's cool
Man(in creeper voice): Yofi wonderful
Sadly, I forgot my camera so I will have to post pics later when I can get them from friends. We all came back tired and a little sunburned, but it was well worth it.
Man(in creeper voice): Shalom
Me: Shalom
Man(in creeper voice): Ma Nishma? what's up?
Me: Be seder everything's cool
Man(in creeper voice): Yofi wonderful
Sadly, I forgot my camera so I will have to post pics later when I can get them from friends. We all came back tired and a little sunburned, but it was well worth it.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Day 10
Today was our Sabbath, so we had breakfast at 8, Church at 10. After church we walked to the Garden Tomb. It was so amazing. So amazing. There was the most peaceful feeling there. There were trees and flowers everywhere. First we went to look at Skull Rock, a hill that they think might be Golgotha. Then we went to the tomb. They told us where in the tomb they thought Jesus was laid, and on the door there was a sign that said "He is not here for He is risen". We sang lots of hymns about Christ and the Resurrection, and there was the most powerful Spirit there.
After dinner we had a fireside by Elder Pieper of the Seventy. It was a question/answer thing, and he had some really cool insights to some of the questions that students and permanent members had.
We just got done watching The Prince of Egypt, because we are all getting so excited to leave for Egypt on Thursday! At every scene of the movie someone would yell out, "Guys, we're going to see that!" It was really cool. Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting a bus to take us over to Tel Aviv to shop and play on the beach! Sooooo excited for that too.
After dinner we had a fireside by Elder Pieper of the Seventy. It was a question/answer thing, and he had some really cool insights to some of the questions that students and permanent members had.
We just got done watching The Prince of Egypt, because we are all getting so excited to leave for Egypt on Thursday! At every scene of the movie someone would yell out, "Guys, we're going to see that!" It was really cool. Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting a bus to take us over to Tel Aviv to shop and play on the beach! Sooooo excited for that too.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Day 9
Yesterday was such a fun day. We had classes in the morning, then some time to study. In the afternoon I went to the mall with a couple of girls who were looking for real clothes, but everything was super expensive so we ended up just walking back through the Old City and making some fun purchases. We ran into this old guy who wrote a song for us: "Moooormons, we loooove you...... All the way to Jeruuuuusalem...." Haha it was so great.
After dinner we took a field trip over to the Wailing Wall (a.k.a. the Western Wall) to celebrate the arrival of the Jewish Sabbath. Let me tell you, the Jews know how to party! Everyone was singing and dancing and going around in circles. They separate the men and the women for prayers, and the guys were going even more crazy. We'd look over the wall and see a random BYU kid in the middle of all of these rabbis, and they all had Kippahs (Yamakahs) and it was a blast. We decided we need to start our own tradition of huge parties on Saturday nights.
The coolest part about it though was the actual praying at the wall. Past all the singing and dancing you could walk up to the wall (more like push your way through everyone else who's pushing their way to the wall). I wasn't quite sure what to expect, because all of the Jewish ladies who were praying walked away just sobbing. Some of them would stay there praying for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, others would say a quick prayer. It was actually a really spiritual experience, because everyone there had their own prayer and there was a really powerful feeling there. Some of them were very Orthodox, others were obviously not, but you could still tell what a special place it was to all of them.
Here are a couple pictures from the last few days:
This one is from when we were walking around the ramparts of the wall
This is the monastery where we were chastised by Russian nuns
This is the other Russian Orthodox Church, the Mary Magdalene church
This one is from one of the stops on our fieldtrip, with a really great view of the Dome of the Rock and the part of the city by the temple mount.
After dinner we took a field trip over to the Wailing Wall (a.k.a. the Western Wall) to celebrate the arrival of the Jewish Sabbath. Let me tell you, the Jews know how to party! Everyone was singing and dancing and going around in circles. They separate the men and the women for prayers, and the guys were going even more crazy. We'd look over the wall and see a random BYU kid in the middle of all of these rabbis, and they all had Kippahs (Yamakahs) and it was a blast. We decided we need to start our own tradition of huge parties on Saturday nights.
The coolest part about it though was the actual praying at the wall. Past all the singing and dancing you could walk up to the wall (more like push your way through everyone else who's pushing their way to the wall). I wasn't quite sure what to expect, because all of the Jewish ladies who were praying walked away just sobbing. Some of them would stay there praying for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, others would say a quick prayer. It was actually a really spiritual experience, because everyone there had their own prayer and there was a really powerful feeling there. Some of them were very Orthodox, others were obviously not, but you could still tell what a special place it was to all of them.
Here are a couple pictures from the last few days:
This one is from when we were walking around the ramparts of the wall
This is the monastery where we were chastised by Russian nuns
This is the other Russian Orthodox Church, the Mary Magdalene church
This one is from one of the stops on our fieldtrip, with a really great view of the Dome of the Rock and the part of the city by the temple mount.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Day 8
Last night we had a forum by Brian Steed, a lieutenant in the US Army stationed here in the Holy Land. It was neat, he talked about some of the conflicts in the Middle East, specifically Israel, and how they relate to some of the things in the scriptures and how the prophets and leaders dealt with them then.
This morning two of our classes were cancelled, so we had free time til lunch. After breakfast I went with a group to some of the sites on the other side of Mt. Scopus. First we went to the Roman Orthodox Church of the Ascension. The church itself was amazing, and the grounds were so peaceful and there were beautiful flowers and gardens everywhere. One of the guys had this small, flexible tripod thing. We wanted to get a picture of all of us sitting on the steps with the tower behind us, so we all got settled on the steps, he set up the tripod (which took like 10 minutes), got the timer going, came and ran to sit with the group, and we all smiled and looked at the camera.... as the tripod bent over backward and the camera took a picture of the sky. We all started laughing, he went back and set it all up again, and took the picture.... as a bunch of Russian nuns came over to chastise us for laughing in the monastery. We ended up with a group shot of angry nuns and apologetic looks on all of our faces, and they weren't very friendly with us after that.
The Ascension church is on the very top of the hill. If you walk out of the Jerusalem center and go up a little bit, you are on the right street to go right to it. Of course we didn't decide until we had all the way down past the Garden of Gethsemane that we wanted to go there first, so we had to walk all the way back up this other really steep hill. The road is not very wide, so you have to climb single file and cars honk and go zooming by, close enough you could reach out and touch them, even at the farthest edge of the road. Even though it was only about 9:30 it was still REALLY hot. We are just imagining how hot it will be when we get to Egypt next week.
We walked back down the hill to another Roman Orthodox Church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It has all of these cool gold orbs on the top, kind of like St Peters Basilica but not nearly as elaborate. But they're very shiny so you can see them from lots of places in the city. This one had really beautiful grounds too.
Just up the hill from the Mary Magdalene church was Dominus Flevit. It has an incredible view of the city, which makes sense because it is supposed to be where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
One really cool thing that we did today that I hadn't done as much before was reading scriptures at each of the places we went to that tied in to the site. It really helped to emphasize that we are standing in the spots where some of the most amazing events in the scriptures took place.
We headed back to the Center for lunch, and then we had Hebrew class. We learned 3 new letters and a song. I like the songs, but I'm excited to start learning ones that have more than 2 or 3 words that just repeat over and over. They seem really simple, but these are the songs that they really sing before certain meals and ceremonies.
We had our Judaism class again today. I like the professor, I think he's really interesting. It's cool to get a true Jewish perspective on their history and beliefs, since I don't think I've ever really met a practicing Jew before. Even though they understand a lot of the principles in the scriptures differently than we do, it still helps them make more sense in context of the history. Today he talked a lot about how the Israelites and other people in biblical times understood the concept of God, and then it was a little easier to see how the people could learn from the prophets and still have all of the idols and graven images that they had.
Dinner was Mexican food, some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. The chef was like, it's Palestinian Mexican food! The chips were especially incredible. They said we can get some of the recipes of food they make here when we leave, and this dinner will definitely be on my list of recipes to ask for. Later we had a Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Don't ask me why they are celebrating it on the 6th. But it was really fun.
This morning two of our classes were cancelled, so we had free time til lunch. After breakfast I went with a group to some of the sites on the other side of Mt. Scopus. First we went to the Roman Orthodox Church of the Ascension. The church itself was amazing, and the grounds were so peaceful and there were beautiful flowers and gardens everywhere. One of the guys had this small, flexible tripod thing. We wanted to get a picture of all of us sitting on the steps with the tower behind us, so we all got settled on the steps, he set up the tripod (which took like 10 minutes), got the timer going, came and ran to sit with the group, and we all smiled and looked at the camera.... as the tripod bent over backward and the camera took a picture of the sky. We all started laughing, he went back and set it all up again, and took the picture.... as a bunch of Russian nuns came over to chastise us for laughing in the monastery. We ended up with a group shot of angry nuns and apologetic looks on all of our faces, and they weren't very friendly with us after that.
The Ascension church is on the very top of the hill. If you walk out of the Jerusalem center and go up a little bit, you are on the right street to go right to it. Of course we didn't decide until we had all the way down past the Garden of Gethsemane that we wanted to go there first, so we had to walk all the way back up this other really steep hill. The road is not very wide, so you have to climb single file and cars honk and go zooming by, close enough you could reach out and touch them, even at the farthest edge of the road. Even though it was only about 9:30 it was still REALLY hot. We are just imagining how hot it will be when we get to Egypt next week.
We walked back down the hill to another Roman Orthodox Church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It has all of these cool gold orbs on the top, kind of like St Peters Basilica but not nearly as elaborate. But they're very shiny so you can see them from lots of places in the city. This one had really beautiful grounds too.
Just up the hill from the Mary Magdalene church was Dominus Flevit. It has an incredible view of the city, which makes sense because it is supposed to be where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
One really cool thing that we did today that I hadn't done as much before was reading scriptures at each of the places we went to that tied in to the site. It really helped to emphasize that we are standing in the spots where some of the most amazing events in the scriptures took place.
We headed back to the Center for lunch, and then we had Hebrew class. We learned 3 new letters and a song. I like the songs, but I'm excited to start learning ones that have more than 2 or 3 words that just repeat over and over. They seem really simple, but these are the songs that they really sing before certain meals and ceremonies.
We had our Judaism class again today. I like the professor, I think he's really interesting. It's cool to get a true Jewish perspective on their history and beliefs, since I don't think I've ever really met a practicing Jew before. Even though they understand a lot of the principles in the scriptures differently than we do, it still helps them make more sense in context of the history. Today he talked a lot about how the Israelites and other people in biblical times understood the concept of God, and then it was a little easier to see how the people could learn from the prophets and still have all of the idols and graven images that they had.
Dinner was Mexican food, some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. The chef was like, it's Palestinian Mexican food! The chips were especially incredible. They said we can get some of the recipes of food they make here when we leave, and this dinner will definitely be on my list of recipes to ask for. Later we had a Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Don't ask me why they are celebrating it on the 6th. But it was really fun.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Photo Update
There is this empty, weed-filled field on the way up to the Center from the Old City, and we passed this donkey just chillin. Yesterday there were a couple of horses that came trotting out of nowhere as we were crossing the street and they ran into the same field. We don't really know where they come from or what they are doing.
This is a random piece of modern art that we found near Herod's tomb. They have stuff like this all over the city. I think it was meant as kind of a playground too because it worked like a slide, with kind of steps on one side and then you could slide down through the inside.
This is the signature the Black Eyed Peas left at the King David Hotel. There were actually a couple of people that had illustrations with their autographs but this was by far the most creative.
This is at the YMCA. You can't tell it's a YMCA because it looks like a church or some other super fancy place. The other girl is my roommate, Jessie, and the guy on the Organ is Brother Whipple.
Day 7
Last night I had Hebrew for the first time. It was really cool! We learned how to read and write aleph and bet, the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We also learned this really fun song called Shabbat Shalom. It basically just says those 2 words over and over again but it is to welcome in the Sabbath and you sing it every Friday night before dinner. We had class again today, and we learned 3 new letters and a couple vowels. It is hard because the way they print the letters and the way they handwrite them is very different, so it's like learning 2 different symbols for each letter.
Last night we also had 4 hours of Modern Near Eastern studies, 2 from the Palestinian perspective and 2 from the Israeli perspective. It was a very long 4 hours (we didn't get done til 9) but it was really interesting to hear the different histories of the two different peoples.
After class one of the girls who is a yoga instructor did a class. There were only about 6 of us, and it was really fun! I was glad that everyone else was as new to it as I am because it is definitely a little intimidating to see the teacher doing handstands and crazy backbends.
This morning we had Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern classes, then some free time. I went with some girls to the post office and then to the Old City for some shopping. There is so much to see there! Every shop has a million things in it and we started figuring out which shops we wanted to go back to and which we wanted to avoid. Some of the merchants are rude or pushy or impatient or super creepy (one guy started telling me that he loved me thiiiiiiiiiiiis much, with his arms stretched as far as they would go...) but others are really chill and give you a good price. It is fun because you can walk up and down the same street 4 times and still feel like you see new things everytime, because there is just so much merchandise. One merchant, Shaban, is really cool. He exchanges money for the best rate in the city and he has a bunch of merchandise especially for the BYU kids, like scripture cases and BYU Jerusalem shirts and CTR rings and necklaces in Arabic and Hebrew. He is really friendly and he loves to make jokes. His English is good, but a lot of times we still just don't get the joke and then he'll go, "Haha, I got you!" Needless to say I'm a big fan.
Last night we also had 4 hours of Modern Near Eastern studies, 2 from the Palestinian perspective and 2 from the Israeli perspective. It was a very long 4 hours (we didn't get done til 9) but it was really interesting to hear the different histories of the two different peoples.
After class one of the girls who is a yoga instructor did a class. There were only about 6 of us, and it was really fun! I was glad that everyone else was as new to it as I am because it is definitely a little intimidating to see the teacher doing handstands and crazy backbends.
This morning we had Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern classes, then some free time. I went with some girls to the post office and then to the Old City for some shopping. There is so much to see there! Every shop has a million things in it and we started figuring out which shops we wanted to go back to and which we wanted to avoid. Some of the merchants are rude or pushy or impatient or super creepy (one guy started telling me that he loved me thiiiiiiiiiiiis much, with his arms stretched as far as they would go...) but others are really chill and give you a good price. It is fun because you can walk up and down the same street 4 times and still feel like you see new things everytime, because there is just so much merchandise. One merchant, Shaban, is really cool. He exchanges money for the best rate in the city and he has a bunch of merchandise especially for the BYU kids, like scripture cases and BYU Jerusalem shirts and CTR rings and necklaces in Arabic and Hebrew. He is really friendly and he loves to make jokes. His English is good, but a lot of times we still just don't get the joke and then he'll go, "Haha, I got you!" Needless to say I'm a big fan.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Day 6
Yesterday was a crazy busy day. We woke up early and went on a fieldtrip. We went to 5 different spots to get views of Jerusalem and other important places in the holy land. The first one we went to was Deir Mar Elyas, a monastery with a good view of Bethlehem. Then we went to a couple of towers around the city, and the last place we went was Nabi Samwil, which was dedicated to Samuel the Prophet. It was one of those places where it was kind of like a Moslem/Jewish/Christian place, each had connections to it over the years and now they all more or less share it. It's cool that they can do that for at least some of the sites, since so many other ones cause disputes and rifts between the different religions.
When we got back we got to go out in the city. I went with 2 of my roommates and a couple other people. We did the other half of the rampart walk we started the day before, the Northern side, which goes around the Arab quarter of the Old City. We walked through the quarter for a little bit, then back to the Center. We stopped on the way at this wholesale market, where you can buy big packages of candy or drinks or whatever. Everyone at the Center refers to it as "the Costco place", even though it's not really like Costco since they don't have samples or pizza and smoothies.
We have a ton of reading due for classes tonight and tomorrow, like 170 pages altogether plus 15 chapters in the Old Testament, so everyone spent the night reading and studying, as well as this morning and afternoon. We had classes again this morning, for the first time since Friday. It's kind of cool how sometimes we'll go 3 or 4 days without classes, but then you forget you have all the homework due all at once and it's easy to put it off when there are so many more fun things to do outside.
Highlight of yesterday: There was a shepherd wandering around with his sheep at Mar Elias, and while we were all out looking around, he came up to me with a little baby lamb and let me hold it! Then everyone wanted to hold it and so we passed him around but after a while the man started coming up and asking for money for the pictures. Our professor gave him 30 shekels (about $12) but then he started saying that he wanted $10 per picture. He said a lot of the people are like that, they want money for every picture you take.
When we got back we got to go out in the city. I went with 2 of my roommates and a couple other people. We did the other half of the rampart walk we started the day before, the Northern side, which goes around the Arab quarter of the Old City. We walked through the quarter for a little bit, then back to the Center. We stopped on the way at this wholesale market, where you can buy big packages of candy or drinks or whatever. Everyone at the Center refers to it as "the Costco place", even though it's not really like Costco since they don't have samples or pizza and smoothies.
We have a ton of reading due for classes tonight and tomorrow, like 170 pages altogether plus 15 chapters in the Old Testament, so everyone spent the night reading and studying, as well as this morning and afternoon. We had classes again this morning, for the first time since Friday. It's kind of cool how sometimes we'll go 3 or 4 days without classes, but then you forget you have all the homework due all at once and it's easy to put it off when there are so many more fun things to do outside.
Highlight of yesterday: There was a shepherd wandering around with his sheep at Mar Elias, and while we were all out looking around, he came up to me with a little baby lamb and let me hold it! Then everyone wanted to hold it and so we passed him around but after a while the man started coming up and asking for money for the pictures. Our professor gave him 30 shekels (about $12) but then he started saying that he wanted $10 per picture. He said a lot of the people are like that, they want money for every picture you take.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Day 4
Started out the day with a run. I went with a few girls and we ran up around the Hebrew University next door. Came back, breakfast, then out into the City for the day!
We started out by doing the "Rampart Walk." It's really cool, you can climb up to the ramparts of the wall that goes all the way around the city and follow it from one end to the other. It gives some amazing views of all of the different angles from the wall, and we found some cool niches and stairways to explore. It's amazing just how old Jerusalem is, how many years of history are in that wall. It has been destroyed and built back up so many times. We even passed some guys who were repairing part of the wall.
After that, I went with 5 other people to the YMCA. Brother Whipple, half of one of the service couples here, plays the carillon bells in the tower every Sunday, and we got to go up and see the bell tower and the view from the top. Then he played some songs. He is an amazing musician, one of the best organ players in the world. Then he let me play the bells!!! I played Abide With Me, 2 times through, on bells that everyone in Jerusalem can hear. It was an amazing experience. Those piano lessons finally paid off! We met these ladies who are execs in the YMCA organization, and they said that the Jerusalem YMCA is the most astounding of all YMCA buildings in the world by far. They call it a sermon in stone, because there are so many inspiring quotes and incredible reliefs and stuff from Christianity but also from other religions too. It was really a neat place to see.
After the bells we went to a sweet hotel and saw autographs printed on the tiles from famous people who had been there, including Yoko Ono, Barack Obama, Candace Bergen, the Dalai Lama, and the Black Eyed Peas.
We saw Herod's tomb, which is actually where his family was buried, not him.
We walked through the city some more and exchanged our money, so I finally have shekels! I feel so legit.
It seems so crazy that it has only been here 4 days because it feels like we have already done and seen so much, and I can't wait to keep seeing more! Everything is new and exciting and every day is so fun.
We started out by doing the "Rampart Walk." It's really cool, you can climb up to the ramparts of the wall that goes all the way around the city and follow it from one end to the other. It gives some amazing views of all of the different angles from the wall, and we found some cool niches and stairways to explore. It's amazing just how old Jerusalem is, how many years of history are in that wall. It has been destroyed and built back up so many times. We even passed some guys who were repairing part of the wall.
After that, I went with 5 other people to the YMCA. Brother Whipple, half of one of the service couples here, plays the carillon bells in the tower every Sunday, and we got to go up and see the bell tower and the view from the top. Then he played some songs. He is an amazing musician, one of the best organ players in the world. Then he let me play the bells!!! I played Abide With Me, 2 times through, on bells that everyone in Jerusalem can hear. It was an amazing experience. Those piano lessons finally paid off! We met these ladies who are execs in the YMCA organization, and they said that the Jerusalem YMCA is the most astounding of all YMCA buildings in the world by far. They call it a sermon in stone, because there are so many inspiring quotes and incredible reliefs and stuff from Christianity but also from other religions too. It was really a neat place to see.
After the bells we went to a sweet hotel and saw autographs printed on the tiles from famous people who had been there, including Yoko Ono, Barack Obama, Candace Bergen, the Dalai Lama, and the Black Eyed Peas.
We saw Herod's tomb, which is actually where his family was buried, not him.
We walked through the city some more and exchanged our money, so I finally have shekels! I feel so legit.
It seems so crazy that it has only been here 4 days because it feels like we have already done and seen so much, and I can't wait to keep seeing more! Everything is new and exciting and every day is so fun.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Day 3
We had church today, and it was SO cool! Sacrament was filled with this group of doctors traveling from Provo with their families. Then there's the BYU kids of course, and the permanent members. A lot of them are Americans who work for the consolate or different government groups, but the relief society president is this really cool Palestinian woman who grew up in Bethlehem. Her life story is incredible, apparently, and I'm excited to hear more about it. There is a Spanish Sunday School class, with a couple of ladies from South America and then all of the RMs. Who would have thought that I'd be in Jerusalem learning about the Old Testament in Spanish?
After Church a group of us walked through the Orson Hyde Dedicatory Garden and the Garden of Gethsemane. Both of them are so beautiful and peaceful. It seems like you can't walk more than a block or two without coming across a place that has religious significance to one group or another. They have a lot of differences but really they are all the same, just people who want to worship their God in the way that they feel is right. It's hard to believe that after thousands of years so many of them in this land still haven't seemed to realize that.
The weirdest thing we saw today: These huge centipedes, literally 4 to 6 inches long. Not exaggerating. They are thick and black and creepy. They were all over at Orson Hyde and we all realized why they tell us not to leave our patio doors open... those things are sick!
After Church a group of us walked through the Orson Hyde Dedicatory Garden and the Garden of Gethsemane. Both of them are so beautiful and peaceful. It seems like you can't walk more than a block or two without coming across a place that has religious significance to one group or another. They have a lot of differences but really they are all the same, just people who want to worship their God in the way that they feel is right. It's hard to believe that after thousands of years so many of them in this land still haven't seemed to realize that.
The weirdest thing we saw today: These huge centipedes, literally 4 to 6 inches long. Not exaggerating. They are thick and black and creepy. They were all over at Orson Hyde and we all realized why they tell us not to leave our patio doors open... those things are sick!
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