Tutti Frutti

We had Mama Pharaoh back today! She is seriously awesome. In the Cairo museum, as we were about to go up to the second floor to see the Tutankhamen exhibit, she said, "Have a look [at what she'd just shown us] my lovely Pharaohs and then we go upstairs to see Tutti Frutti!" Lol.

Guys, I'm already planning my next trip to Egypt. There's so many things I still want to see and do, and bring my family to see one day... I want my kids to meet Mama Pharaoh (I got her email address so they can!) and see the pyramids and ride in an Egyptian taxi. I know I'll be back someday. I love this place too much to leave it behind forever.

Yesterday we did the temples. Karnak and Luxor. We took a motor boat up the Nile to Karnak, and then took the touristy horse carriages to Luxor and back to the hotel, lol. K, so Karnak does not look enough like Ramses III's funerary temple for me to have had that much deja vu. Dude, I keep having all kinds of crazy deja vu. It's made it a really crazy trip for me. But fun, too. Like driving to the airport Tuesday I saw the Mohammed Ali mosque/citadel our the window, and I had completely forgotten it until that moment and all of a sudden I started having like, random flashes of memory. It was nuts. But anyway, Karnak was fun. It was neat to be there with an actual tourguide because I felt like I got more meaning out of the place, but we also didn't have as much downtime to just wander around as I would have liked (once again). My favorite part is the hall of columns. There's 134 huge columns that are 10 arm spans around (I have the picture of us measuring...) and about 10 feet apart and I just love walking through them. They're also one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (along with the pyramids- I need to find out what the other 7 are, and then go visit all the ones that are still standing :D).

Luxor temple was new to me. I'm pretty sure about this one. No crazy deja vu or anything. The coolest thing about Luxor was the Avenue of Sphinxes that used to stretch all the way to Karnak. And the ones that are still there are still pretty intact (k, another hindsight interjection here- I was looking at my picture of them and actually only about 1/2 of them are, but still). It's prolly about 100 yards long now. And there were some more big statues of Ramses II. There were a bunch of those at the Cairo museum, too. To be perfectly honest, I think they have more of them lying around than they even know what to do with. They guy ruled for 67 years and he wanted everyone to know it, but you can only marvel at so many statues of the same guy.... I don't know if I already mentioned that he's believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but it makes sense because he built a lot of stuff, and somebody had to do the grunt work.

After the temples we just had lunch and free time and I pretty much just chilled. Laid out by the pool, took a nap. I thought about going to the bazaar again with some people (in fact, I actually signed out and was about to go) but then I realized how tired I really was, and the nap was definitely the best decision I made all day. Then we got on the night train to Cairo. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sketch. But honestly, it was really only as bad as the train I used to take to Stratford. Except with beds and like, actual compartments. Granted, I also didn't have to sleep on the train to Stratford.... But, surprisingly, I slept really quite well. I didn't even use the Tylenol PM the "Bus Doc" gave me. And in the morning I swear I was more awake than at least 80% of our group, lol. When we were at the museum, one of the girls remarked, in a kind of "who are you?" tone, "She's [meaning me] the only one who doesn't look tired!" Lol.

So then we had breakfast and sacrament meeting at the hotel. On Friday. Ya, don't worry about it, no big deal. Lol. This is what I love about the Middle East. It's so cool to be in church on a day that's not Sunday! :) Then we went to the Cairo museum to see Tutti Frutti, lol. I actually saw mostly a different part of it this time. Coz with my fam we didn't spend as much time downstairs (with the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom stuff), mainly I think because we didn't really know much about what there was to see except Tutankhamen's stuff. And I didn't go in the Mummy Room last time. Also I think one of Tut's sarcophagi waws on display somewhere else before, so we didn't see it, but I could be totally making that up... But ya, the Mummy Room was pretty sweet. Completely disgusting. Some of them still had teeth and they all had finger and toe nails, and one evn had curly long hair. It was sick. One thing Mama Pharaoh told us is that they keep the mummies covered except for the head, and sometimes hands and geet, and it's out of respect for the people who used to live in those bodies. She said, "We never asked them to display their bodies for everyone to see, so we try to give them respect." I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't get to go in the animal mummy room tho, because I didn't even know about it until too late. Apparently they have a crocodile and a baby crocodile and all kinds of cool stuff. Rude. Next time, I guess. Oh, we also got to see some round carved disc things that kind of look like facsimile number two. And some papyri that were written in black and lined with red ink like the ones Joseph Smith had were supposed to be. Pretty cool.

So then we went to Khan al-Khalili, the huge bazaar in Cairo. It was nuts. All the merchants were yelling and trying to get us to come look at their stuff. Some of my favorite lines were, "I don't know what you're looking for, but I have it!" and "How can I take your money?" Lol. The only thing I bought was a little scarab beetle magnet. I'm pretty stoked about it, tho, coz I'd been kinda wanting a scarab beetle but didn't really know what I would do with it, so when I saw it as a magnet I was like, I'm pretty sure I need that. I got it for a dollar. It's ridiculous how much you can get for that much here. Seriously, they will sell you anything for like, $1-3. It's out of control.

Then I had my very first Hard Rock Cafe experience ever. It's in the Grand Hyatt, which is across from the Four Seasons in the nice part of Cairo. The next time I come here, I want to stay in the Four Seasons. :) Seriously, tho, it was kinda fun being down there because I'm pretty sure that's the street my grandparents lived off of when we were there. That was another thing I'd forgotten about the Four Seasons. The Hard Rock was fun. The waiters all got us up and line dancing. Seriously, we are so cool. I had to pay extra to get cheese on my burger, and when I was trying to pay at the end, I wanted to give them exact change in American but I guess they don't take coins. So I was figuring it out with the waiter and he was all, "You have beautiful eyes" and like, grinned at me like he's just made my week. I was like, Thanks sweetheart, but I really just want to pay for my food... And there's was this amazing sign on the bathroom stall doors that said "No drugs or nuclear weapons". Like, what the heck, right.

So then we went back to the hotel and I once again had a very chill, relaxed evening. Some people went to the Pyramids Sound and Light show, but it ws 25 bucks and I've already see it. People were talking about having another dance party, but I don't think anyone was up for it. After all, we have to hike Mt. Sinai at 2 am in a couple of days and we're already exhausted. I think that's why everyone gets sick on the Egypt trip (it's got a rep). Between sharing germs on a bus all day and the brutal pace, we've got no chance. My goal for this trip, though, is to not get sick. Good luck me. Ooh, the hotel made us a cake tonight, too. it said, "BYU DAKKAK QUEEN TOURS" and they brought it out with these awesome flaming torches. It was sweet.

"Lucky Girl!"

So, last night we flew down to Luxor. We're staying at the Sheraton Luxor Resort. The hotel is bright orange. The teachers said it was white the last time they were here, and I don't know whose artistic genius produced bright orange, but somehow I don't think it was the best idea they had all year.

This morning we went to the Valley of the Kings. It was really neat, because I think only one of the tombs we went in today was one I'd see before. My favorite was Thutmosis III. We had to climb up a metal stairway up this big cliff face and then the tomb went way down deep into the mountain. The heat, or lack of oxygen, or something made my thighs cramp up really bad, though. Only inside the tomb and only on the way down, but it hurt. It was weird. When we were down in the very deepest chamber (well, at least the deepest one they let you go in, I get the feeling a lot of these tombs aren't 100% accessible, even though I didn't see any other entrances to other chambers or anything...), the lights went out and it was pitch black for like, 30 seconds. I fully expected to see a dead body when the lights came back on, it was totally Tomb Raider. It was awesome. The other sweet thing about the Valley of the Kings is that they've actually discovered another tomb since I was last there! How cool is that??? KV 63 was discovered in 2006 and they're still excavating it. We couldn't go into that one, but we saw the construction sight and everything. It was totally sweet.

We stopped by the temple of Hatchepsut and Pit Tomb 33 (which is where the papyri of Abraham are thought to have been found) for like, 5 minutes and the bus just stopped at a distance and our guide talked for a bit. Mama Pharaoh didn't come with us to Luxor, I totally miss her. Our guide is cool, but not nearly as cool as Mama. Anyway, we didn't get out of the bus to at least take decent pictures from a distance or anything. I was a little annoyed, but I did get to do that last time so it wasn't the end of the world. I think I would rather have gone to Hatchepsut's temple than Ramses III's, which is the one we did go to. I don't think I've been there before, but I guess it looks a lot like Karnak Temple (which is where we're going tomorrow) because I kept having the weirdest deja vu there. Because the first and last sections weren't familiar, but as we were going through the middle I started thinking, Am I sure I haven't been here before? Honestly, I'm still not 100% positive. I'll have to ask my dad. Also, by the time we got there I had a bit of a sun headache (not like dehydration- believe me, I've been doing a great job of keeping hydrated on this trip- more like my eye muscles were tired of squinting) and I wasn't really feeling it. But I got some good pictures of the carvings and stuff. We also stopped off at the Colossus of Memnon for five minutes- they did let us get out to take pictures of that one- also something I saw before.

This afternoon we went on a camel safari! It was awesome! They took us through a village on the West side of the Nile- we took a felucca ride to get there. The little boy that was like, the felucca first mate was pretty cute, he taught us a felucca song, it was pretty sweet. But ya, so we got on the camels and the kid leading mine was totally not interested in being at the back of the line. He kept like, making my camel run and going around all the other camels. I mean, I wasn't complaining or anything, it was just funny. But then at the end he tried it again and the camel was having none of it, lol. Like, not even close, he was done. And I got some really neat shots of people in the village. All my best pictures from today are basically of people. There were all kinds of adorable children. And these two little boys were tag-teaming it on one girl's camel and they were so cute. I took about 5 pictures of them. And I got a great picture of our security guard on his horse, showing off his gun. He had flashed it for us earlier on the felucca, but he wouldn't do it again so we could all get pictures of it, so I was actually really surprised when he obliged, and I was like, Crap I gotta take this picture before he puts it away! Coz I wasn't expecting it, lol.

And tonight we went shopping! We went over to the bazaar in like a big group, but we kinda split off to do our own thing and I ended up walking around with just two of the guys. The whole way down the street all the merchants kept saying stuff like, "One woman, two man. Lucky girl!" and like, whistling at us. It was hilarious. I loved it, lol. I bought a light blue pashmina scarf. It had embroideries of like, flowers and butterflies in shiny (but still the same color) thread. I'm pretty sure the butterflies are what sold me. :) And I'm also fairly confident that I'm about the only girl from the JC who didn't buy like, 15 of these scarves, too, lol. And then I bought this gorgeous ring. It's pretty much my favorite piece of jewelry I've ever owned. It's silver with a white amethyst. It's a round cut, but the setting is square, so you get all the brilliance of a round, but it looks like a princess with the way it's all shaped. Plus it's set at an angle, so it kind of has almost the feel of a marquise, too, which is perfect for my finger. And the band is tiny. It's so delicate, I love it.

Well, we get to sleep in til 8 tomorrow. How sad is it that we're all excited to *sleep in* til 8? But we've been up at 6 or earlier the last 4 days, so 8 is practically noon. :)

"Come, my lovely Pharaohs!"

Right, ok. My computer is going to the hospital for 2 weeks and I was unable to recover my original blog. So rather than make you all wait that long, I am recreating the parts that were lost (I only actually lost the second part of this one because I have written copies of the others, owing to my battery dying in Luxor and me forgetting my charger- a blessing in disguise), but most of these were written in real time, as I was there experiencing it. Egypt was so awesome.



Today was our big day in Cairo. It was amazing.

But first I should recap yesterday quickly. It wasn't terribly exciting. They checked our passports about 50 times at the border. And I got a way awesome new stamp. It is by far the coolest one in my passport right now (including my previous Cairo and Luxor ones). We spent a lot of time riding on a bus. Highlights: We gave the other bus (behind us) a puppet show while we were stuck in traffic at one point, and I definitely listened to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In fact, I'm listening to it again right now, lol. Our hotel was really nice. We each had a big queen sized bed to ourselves, two to a room. My Egypt roomie is Richelle, and she is awesome. :) We totally had a dance party in the hotel lobby. We were so awesome. Japanese tourists were totally taking pictures of us. And it was so fun. Oh, I also ate the strawberry tarte that was on the dessert bar, even though the teachers warned us against fruit. I totally ate fruit the last time we were in Egypt, and I didn't get sick this time either. And it was really yummy.

We got on a tour bus bright and early this morning. Our tour guide was named Noha, but she said, "Pharaoh is the name they give to royalty, so you are all my little Pharaohs, and I will be your Mama Pharaoh." She was seriously my favorite ever. I want her to be like, my godmother or something. She was just all day saying how much she loves us and every time she said, "Come, my lovely Pharaohs!" it just made me so happy.


Me and Richelle with Mama Pharaoh. (I thought I'd post some pix with the blog this time since I was in the airport (free wireless, yay!)- the other ones I mentioned are still pending, sorry- and I will post more Egypt pix later, too, but there will almost definitely be no more pictures until after my computer is fixed, sorry)



Hehe, our buses are Matthew and Mark, and they spelled Matthew wrong.

First we went to the pyramids. Which, of course, are AWESOME. It seemed to me like they were a lot more eroded than before, but I must just not remember that well, because if they were eroding that fast they wouldn't have lasted this long... But we went inside the same one that I did before (I heard there's another one and they like, alternate which ones they let people in... I kind of wished I could have seen both...). It was sweet. You have to like, bend double to get through the tunnels. It seemed a lot shorter this time, and I realized afterward that's because last time there were like, 5 times as many people... It was pretty much just our group this morning. And we totally did this awesome thing in the middle where the tomb was. Like, one person starts a beat (clapping or stomping or something) and everyone else adds complementary beats until you get this sweet percussion deal going. They could totally hear it all the way down the tunnels, too. It was awesome. Then we went out to a vantage point where you can get pictures of all three pyramids together and that was pretty neat. I very nearly left my headset there (ya, $150...) but luckily Richelle picked it up, coz she's awesome, like I said.


This is Mike, me, Stephanie, Kara, and Teri Ann in front of the pyramids.

Then we went and got up close to the Sphinx, and went into its temple. That was pretty cool, as it was something we didn't do before. There was a *wishing well* that I threw a penny into, and basically we just all went up and took cool pictures of the Sphinx. I wish I had more than that, but this blog entry is the one that was lost so I'm trying to think back like a week ago. I'll add more later when I get my computer fixed.


Hehehe, Jeff, the Sphinx, me, and Josh. We had to keep retaking it because the Sphinx kept making a weird face... :P

So after the Sphinx they took us to a papyrus museum. Well, they call them "museum" and "institute" and all these fancy names, but really they're just expensive papyrus shops all over Egypt. They kind of take about 15 minutes to demonstrate the papyrus-making process and then give you an order card... Lol. But the neat thing about this place is that they have the facsimiles from the book of Abraham. And they're all in color in stuff (honestly, I think black and white- maybe with some red outline like the real ones- would have been cooler, but still). I couldn't afford all three, but I got facsimile number 2, the one about all the stars and stuff. Number 1 makes a better picture, but I decided that 2 has more like, spiritual and symbolic significance, so that's the one I wanted.

Then we had lunch at a restaurant out by Memphis, which is the original capital of Egypt like way back in the day. It was a pretty sweet little place, there was a band outside the entrance and they had a bunch of drums one of those snake charmer flute things and they totally played as we were walking in, it was awesome. And they had a brick oven where they were cooking fresh pita bread and it was definitely delicious. I ate like 4 pieces. With the hummus, of course. Then we went over to the little compound at Memphis. There's a really big statue of Ramses II there (he's thought to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus) but they only have part of it and it's humongous so it's lying down (picture below). And there's an alabaster sphinx, which was kind of neat to see because it's like, how the big Sphinx at Giza was originally supposed to look. And then there were a couple of other statues of Ramses II. There's a lot of those here.


This is the big statue of Ramses II. I don't know what the weird shadow is on the bottom right hand corner, but I think it's actually a discoloration in the stone.

The last stop today was Saqqara, which is where they have the very first stone pyramid-like structure ever built. It's not a true pyramid, because they built it in steps (it's called a step pyramid...) but it was the very first one. There was also a tomb near this pyramid that was for like, an important priest or something that was pretty interesting. We had a good look at all the carvings on the wall, and it amazed me how detailed they were. I mean, I guess the carvers would get bored carving out 5,000 cows or ducks or the other offerings that were depicted, but it was like no two were the same. They had like, cows giving birth and being milked and fighting and all kinds of crazy variation. It was amazing. We didn't get to go out and see the bent pyramid, and I was kind of disappointed. It's not actually bent, but they started building it at too steep of an angle, so about 2/3 of the way up it switches from 45 degrees to like, 52 degrees or something. We kind of saw it off in the distance, but it was really far away and Cairo is super smoggy, so we couldn't see it very well.


The pyramids were too big to fit in my pictures, so I tried to make them a little bit shorter and it just ended up crumbling... (yes, I do think I'm really funny, actually). This is the step pyramid at Saqqara. Built by Imhotep for Pharaoh Zoser ... a long time ago (I don't remember when, sorry).

It's been really interesting to be here again. Certainly quite a different experience than before. Like, I found myself thinking after all that today, What did we do in Cairo for 5 days? Because it felt like we've seen just about everything in one. But with my family we got to spend more time with the pyramids. Just kinda hanging out and taking it in. And I kinda wished for that a little today. For the most part it was get off the bus, take as many pictures as you possibly can, get back on the bus so we can keep moving. So I'm really glad I was able to have that experience with my family. (K, I have to add, in hindsight- I think I have a better appreciation for Egypt than most of my classmates. Most of them were like, well that was cool, but that's all. And I feel like the time that I spent really getting to know the place helped me to love it as much as I do.) But it was also nice to have the benefit of a tour guide, to show us the things like the papyrus place with Mormon souvenirs, and it was cool to be able to see more even if it was kind of rushed. You can't have it all, that's why you go back. :)

Dang it, I also said something really profound here at the end about how I didn't think it would be my last time in Egypt but I can't remember how I said it, so.... sorry. Like I said, I might add a couple things later, at least for my records, lol.


This is the way awesome little alabaster pyramid that I bought. Mama Pharaoh helped me haggle it down to $2. I seriously love this thing. It's awesome. I am exceedingly pleased with my purchase. This was as I was originally uploading the pictures and typing the first half of this in the airport waiting to fly down to Luxor.

Sorry

So, even though I didn't have internet for most of my trip in Egypt, I have been keeping up with my blog and will post the entries asap. However, my computer (where the files with all my blogs are stored) is currently out of commission. I'm not sure what's wrong but as soon as I can figure it out I will post the blogs from Egypt. Until then I may or may not continue to update... Depends how much exciting stuff I do over the next few days. Thanks for your patience and I'm really sorry!

In case anybody notices/cares about the changes I just made, I switched all the Egypt posts around so that they would be in *real time* and I'm really only preserving the comments from this one... Which is why I didn't delete it. Don't worry about it.

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!

K, I finally got to an internet connection where I can upload pictures!!!!!  I only have here the ones through the first half of the wall, because I still have to get all the awesome pictures of that excursion from the people that took them (since my camera ran out of battery) and I want to try and keep it all chronological.  So there won't be any more pictures for a while, because I think I'm gonna have to wait to do that until after Egypt.  But I'm still taking pictures and you will see them eventually, I promise!  

This is where I live, guys.  Yep.

Me overlooking the city.

The Dome of the Rock.  Yes.  This is Jerusalem.

The Rockefeller Museum (from the entry with no title, and I'll be providing reference points for the rest, too).

The gorgeous courtyard in the middle of the museum.

Some really awesome plants in that courtyard.  Seriously, how bible is this?

So here are the pictures from the Field Trip.  This is the Benjamin Plateau, seen from Nebi Samwil.

The sweet mosaic in Augusta Victoria.  All the gold part (that you can barely see) is like, actual gold. 

An outside view of Augusta Victoria.

The Elias monastery.  Cool lookin building.

This used to be the kibbutz that BYU students stayed in, back in the day before the Center was built.  I think it didn't used to look like that... I think it's like a resort now.

The spice tower! This is just some merchant in the Old City that has this awesome display in his spice shop.  With me and my roommate Stephanie in the foreground.

The mother of pearl nativity that absolutely broke my heart.

The Garden of Gethsemane.  It really looks a lot bigger than it is...  I was right up against the fence taking this picture.

More Gethsemane

Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene.  I haven't been there, but I pretty much take pictures every time I go by, because it's a pretty sweet lookin building.

Orson Hyde Park.

Another view of Hyde Park.

Damascus Gate!  This is the gate we pretty much always use to get in and out of the Old City.  It's the closest one we're allowed to use, plus it's pretty cool lookin, as you can see.

A neat looking building.

All of us waiting in line to get up on the wall.  All the rest of these are from the "Shalom Y'all" post.

Me in a loophole- which is a hole that archers used to shoot arrows from.  

Me, Josh and JJ up on the ramparts

Rooftop patio :)  That's Sarah (my other roommate) looking at the camera.

View of the main street from the wall.

Dormition Abbey.  This is a sweet building and I can't wait to go in it.

Me on the wall in front of Dormition Abbey and the mosque.

Some cool wineglasses at "Joseph Smith's" shop in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

The Garden Tomb

Today I experienced the most sacred feelings I have yet felt here in the Holy Land. We all went down to the Garden Tomb, which is where some people believe that Christ was killed, buried, and resurrected. It was incredible. I could feel the spirit from all the way outside the gate where the merchants were trying to convince us they would give a "good price." And once we stepped inside, it was almost like walking into the temple.

The garden is beautiful. They've preserved and kept it up to be an actual garden, and it's beautiful. Our tour guide first took us to Golgotha. The rocks on the side of the mountain are carved out in three places and look like a skull, which might be why it was called "the place of skulls." Our guide also told us that it was along one of the busiest roads in and out of Jerusalem. It gave me kind of a new perspective on the crucifixion. Artists always represent it as being up on a hill far outside the city, and it's just so much more heart rending to think that Christ suffered in full view of everyone who traveled the road to Jericho that day, hundreds of people.

The tomb itself was breathtaking. And it wasn't the beauty that took my breath away. Just to think that this is the place where angels announced that the Lord was risen, where He appeared to Mary, and where the apostles found the empty tomb. The experience is absolutely indescribable. I think I mentioned before that The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most holy site in most of Christianity, and the Western Wall for Jews, and these were both wonderful places to see and to see the devotion of the worshippers. But today I felt the awe and wonder that Jews, Muslims, and other Christians must feel when they visit the places that are most sacred to their faith.

Our tour guide was wonderful. He's a baptist preacher from somewhere in the south, and I was talking afterward to our Branch President and his wife, and they said that usually the guides are much more adamant about hitting the archaeological evidence of why this place is the actual site. But our guide said something very profound: "It's not the place that's important. It's the person. It's knowing that Christ died for our sins and triumphed over death." And that is what makes this place so sacred. He also said (and I wholeheartedly agree), "If God had revealed that this is the place where Christ was risen, there would be a big cathedral sitting over top of it right now." And I have to say, I'm grateful for a place that can be preserved to at least look like it would have on the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

I can't even describe to you the experience I had today. But my life is being changed with every place I go and everything I see, and seeing the Garden Tomb today is something I'll never forget.

"And this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him. That he lives!"

"Where from, Barbie?"

Yes, I did actually get called Barbie today. By one of the merchants in the city. Lol. The weather was really warm today, so I think that resulted in an overall more boisterous mood than usual, because we also got meowed at (literally) on our way into the city. Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase "cat call".

Yesterday I walked where Jesus walked. We went on what's called the Kotel Tunnel Tour. Kotel is another name for the Western Wall. It was pretty darn sweet. Because it's not just a tunnel, and it's not really like, underground caves or anything. They take you through like, the archaelogical excavation site underneath the Muslim Quarter that's where the old temple wall stood. And in one section of it, you're actually standing on the original stones that made up the street from the time of Christ. It was pretty amazing. It's funny, because you get here and start listening to your tour guides (or teachers, in my case) and realize that at pretty much all the sites you're visiting, the place where Biblical events is actually several hundred feet underground. So it was really neat to be able to not only see *approximately* where something is thought to have happened, but actually stand on the exact same stones that our Savior might have walked over 2,000 years ago.

They haven't been able to excavate the actual temple site, because a Muslim group owns it, and they're afraid that if anything is found, the Israeli government will sieze the land and turn it into kind of a state park, if you will. So there's a lot of controversy over it. Our tour guide was pretty indignant that the Muslims would let all this history just go to waste, and they're denying the very existence of Herod's temple, but our teacher explained to us kind of the Muslim point of view after the tour. Our guide was a pretty cool guy, though. His name is Yeshua (I think...) and his mother was American, but he was born here, in the City of David (which is kind of the area where the original Jerusalem was back before Solomon's time). He teaches history at a high school in Jerusalem, and I guess does these tours in his spare time.

Other than that, I really haven't been doing too much. I kind of wore myself out at the beginning of this week, so I've been trying to catch up and get ready to go to Egypt. I keep missing the groups that go over to Hebrew U (where I would be able to post pictures) and don't hear about it til afterward, so my apologies. Maybe there will be wireless in the hotel in Egypt...

All my teachers are trying to get through the Egyptian part of the cirriculum before we go there. I don't think we're going to make it all the way to Moses in the one class period we have left in Old Testament, but we might get through Joseph, at least (and I am so going to listen to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat the entire way there!) and in Ancient Near East, we got through the Middle Kingdom in class today. I am getting way excited to go back to Egypt guys! We watched a National Geographic on it yesterday and seeing all the places I've been to just gets me even more excited to go again!!

"Shalom Y'all"

Today's title is taken from a decorative tile kinda thing that I saw in the Old City. I thought it was funny.

Well, yesterday we had our first free day. And instead of sleeping in, I got up at 6:30 to eat breakfast, and then left with a big group to go to the Old City Wall at 8. So we spent the day up on top of the wall to the Old City. For about 3 or 4 bucks you can go up to the ramparts and walk along them and see the city from up there. We started out with like, 40 people, but as people were walking it kind of dispersed, so that I ended up by the end of the day in a group of about 9.

We walked around the north side of the wall first. It was fun. I dunno, there's not much to tell but we got a lot of really fun pictures (which I promise I will post asap!!). It was sunny, which was nice. In fact, today was the first not really nice day since I've been here. Now, it's rained a couple of times but the majority of every day has still been pretty decent, with sunshine and everything. Today it was a little bit colder and no sunshine. It had rained Saturday night, and was still raining when I got up at 6:30 yesterday, but it had cleared up by the time we set out and it was really nice all day.

After the north wall we went down into Zedekiah's cave. It's the largest cave in Israel, and it's where they quarried the stone to build Solomon's temple. We took a bunch more sweet pictures and sort of tried to play sardines, but that didn't really work out so well... Hey, at least no one got lost, anyway.

Then we went up on the south side of the wall, over by Dormition Abbey and the Dome of the Rock. Oh, sad story by the way, my camera ran out of battery about 80% of the way through the north wall, so I still have to wait on getting the rest of the day's pictures, anyway. I think the computer committee is going to set up like a photo database on one of the computers, so I should be able to get all the ones I want.

So, by the end of today I was beyond exhausted. I mean, we walked around for like, 8 hours straight. Ooh, and the very last thing we did, we went to Omar's olive wood shop. It was pretty awesome. He does nativity scenes and stuff like that, but he also does all kinds of Mormon stuff. Like, he's got Joseph Smith, and Emma, and Joseph and Hyrum, and Nephi, and Captain Moroni, and he did a couple of Greg Olson paintings in olive wood. And they're all really good. I mean, his stuff is amazing. And he gave each of us a BYU Jerusalem Center key chain.

So that was yesterday. We also watched Prince of Egypt last night, and we'll probably watch it again before we go to Egypt, and I am also way excited to watch The Ten Commandments on Saturday (we leave for Egypt on Sunday).

Today I went to the Dome of the Rock. I hate to say it, but this was a bad choice. I definitely should have stayed home and recuperated from yesterday. The Dome of the Rock was cool, though. It was neat to kind of look away from the Dome at the open plaza, and imagine that the old temple is behind you instead of a mosque. Because there would still have been the same kind of open courtyard in Jesus' time. So that was kind of cool.

This morning I only had one class (I had Arabic this afternoon). It was our Judaism class. Kind of a weird class to be in, I'm not gonna lie. Because it's like a religion class, but not my religion, you know what I mean? Very interesting, though. We've been learning kind of about the history of Judaism. My teacher makes a distinction between the Israelite religion (which is what we have in the Bible) and what started to evolve in the Second Temple Period- from about the end of the Babylonian captivity to like, the time of Christ. Which I can definitely agree with. in Arabic we're just kind of learning some conversation, you know. It's a pass/fail class.

Well, that's all for now. I really am trying to get pictures up as soon as I can.

My New Favorite Sunday (or Saturday) Activity

Today after church a big group got together and went down to the garden of Gethsemane. It was really a lovely walk, because to get there you walk through the Orson Hyde Memorial Park on a winding path down a hillside that's beautifully landscaped. They've planted all kinds of native Jerusalem foliage and it made me feel like this was the Jerusalem I thought I would see. I mean, the city is different and exciting, but it's still modernized and just doesn't have that same Biblical feel to it that these gardens did.

Gethsemane itself wasn't exactly what I had pictured. They have a small plot of garden that is really beautifully kept and has trees that the gardener told us are over 2000 years old, and the trunks are all gnarled and cool looking. But the garden is fenced in, and you can only walk around the outside. I heard that they sometimes let small groups of BYU students into the garden areas (as we were leaving I saw another one across the street that was also part of Gethsemane) but there were a ton of us today and there were a lot of other tourists too. But like, the main part of the site was a gigantic church. I didn't go inside (or get a good enough view of the outside), but I think it might have been the Church of All Nations, which I know is located at Gethsemane. So it was just this small garden plot, and I sat on a stone bench that was built into the wall of the church to read some scriptures.

I read the accounts of Gethsemane and the crucifixion in Luke and I got about halfway through the one in Mark before we left, and it was amazing how real the story became to me. I'm not even sure if it was just being in that place- I don't think that the place of Christ's suffering really looked much like it- but like, the spirit in which I went, coupled with the knowledge I've already gained about the geography of the area (from my field trip) really made the scriptures come alive for me. I've never gone so deep into a scripture story before, I don't think. It really put a whole new perspective on the Atonement for me. I can't wait to go to the Garden Tomb and ponder the resurrection, and go back to Gethsemane. Being here and being able to visit these places really makes my Sabbath into a day of worship, which I'm really grateful for.

"Are you the only Jew in Utah?"

K, you guys have no idea how excited I was to see that I had 3 comments on my last post!!! Seriously, comments make me happy.

Tonight we went to the Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall) to welcome Shabbat. It was really neat! They literally celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath. Our teacher, before we went, talked about the overwhelming joy that they have to welcome their most holy day. I mean, we really take the Sabbath Day for granted. The Lord, in D&C 59, tells us that fasting is equivalent with rejoicing, and tell you what, the Jewish people really have that whole rejoicing thing down. Everyone was dancing and singing and just so excited to usher in Shabbat.

We first got there and I went up to touch the wall, and you could see all the little pieces of paper tucked into the cracks in the wall that have special petitions on them, and everyone was bobbing and praying. They do that (bobbing), by the way, because of the commandment in the Torah to pray with your whole heart and body, so they engage their whole bodies while praying. It's called davening. It was also really humbling for me to see even people my age and younger completely focused on paying homage and their devotion to God. And I really felt the spirit there. Something that one of my teachers said is that these sites that are sacred to other religions are in fact holy in God's sight because of the reverence that these people show. And I have really felt that. Both at the Western Wall and at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Spirit resides in these places and with these people because they really devote their whole selves to worshipping God and revering these holy sites, even though they don't have the truth that we do. We might even think a little more carefully about the way we feel toward places like the temple, and not feel so commonplace about them.

So we were there for about an hour, and after about 15 minutes I was done with the wall itself, and I wanted to watch some of the celebration. But the women totally weren't even doing anything. All the cool stuff was over on the men's side (which, by the way, was a lot bigger)! So I went back up on the plaza above where the worshippers were so I could watch some of the dancing and singing that was going on. Dude, it was great. There was this guy that looked just like the rabbi from fiddler on the roof, and he was like standing on top of a chair leading all the singing and dancing around him, and then he started saying something and I realized he was British! It was like, what the random? But like, he had all the beard and was wearing the hat and everything. And I could see some of our boys totally right down in there dancing and loving it. The men all have to have their head covered, and they have little cardboard kippas for visitors to wear, but a baseball cap apparently suffices. And one of our guys had turned his baseball cap around and tucked the brim into his collar so it looked more like a kippa. It was great.

So then I looked back over at the women's side and I saw that there was a group that had started dancing and a bunch of other girls from the Center were with them, so I went back down and joined the group. There were a couple of Jewish girls kind of orchestrating, and they were teaching us some songs and we were all kinda dancing around. It was kind of funny, because the group was like, 70% mormon, but we totally got into it and sang (pretending we kinda knew what we were singing...) and danced and everything. It was great. And when we had to go meet up with our teachers, the group kinda dissipated, because we were the majority of the participants. There were a surprising number of Americans, actually. I think a lot of them were there on like, well I've heard of this Jewish organization that will send young Jewish people to the Holy Land for free before they reach a certain age, if they want to go, so I think that's what most of them were there for.

Alright, and last but not least, I must explain my title. At dinner, I was talking with a guy who told me about his dancing experience at the Western Wall. His name is Mike, and he said his cardboard kippa kept falling off, so a Jewish guy came over and was like, "You need one of these!" and gave him his hat to wear, because this guy also had a kippa. So he got to wear this sweet authentic Jewish hat, and then the guy grabbed his hands and started dancing, and after they danced (I know, that sounds really awkward, but hey- women aren't allowed on the men's side and vice versa, they gotta dance with somebody...) the guy was like, "So, where are you from?" and of course Mike said, "Utah," and the guy asked, "So are you like, the only Jew there?" And Mike said, "Uh, almost." Hahaha. Good times.

Field Trip!

Today we had our first field trip!  It was very exciting.  Mostly what we did was go to a bunch of lookout points all around Jerusalem so we could kind of see where everything is.  Also, good news!  One of the guys offered to trade my 4GB card that I can't use for his 2GB (which I can) for the trip.  So I don't have to buy a new one, and I was able to take pictures today!  Hooray.  Once I get a good few together, I think I'll prolly send them on a CD to my dad and then maybe he can upload them.  So, once again, sorry for not having pictures, but remember, patience is a virtue.  Luke 23:19 (too bad Rebecca's not reading this- my sister).  

Anyway, the first place we went to was called Nebi Samwil, and it's a little mosque/synagogue (go figure, huh?)  on top of a hill to the north of Jerusalem where they have a couple of cenotaphs (tombs without a body- one Muslim, one Jewish) commemorating the prophet Samuel (which, is in fact what Nebi Samwil means).  We were also able to look out on Beth-el, which you can read about in Genesis 28, where Jacob sees the stairway to heaven and sees the Lord in vision.  And we sang "Nearer My God To Thee," which talks about that event, in the mosque section, and it had some pretty sweet acoustics.  Apparently we Mormons are pretty famous around here for singing hymns on field trips.

Our next stop was a point overlooking the city, right above Gethsemane.  There were a bunch of merchants there, selling camel rides and giving out free camel kisses.  I got a nice picture of me with Jerusalem in the background.

Next we went to Augusta Victoria, which is  a Lutheran church.  They have the oldest organ in Jerusalem and one of the religion teachers was able to get a key and open it so that his wife could play and we sang with that.  

We had lunch at the Haas Promenade Overlook, which is next to the Mount of Ill Council (which also happens to be the place where the UN built their headquarters in Jerusalem), and overlooks the old City of David area of Jerusalem, so kind of where Jerusalem was in like, the time of David and Solomon and Lehi and pretty much I think up until the Babylonian conquest.  And there were some pretty cute cats up there, too.

  

Last we went to the hilltop next to the Elias Monastery.  We didn't go into the church but it's a pretty neat-looking place and I got a couple good pictures.  From there we could see Bethlehem.  And we could also see the old kabbutz where the BYU students stayed before the Center was built.  :)

So that was our Geography field trip.  Our next one is Egypt, but it's not for a couple weeks.  Personally, I'm just excited to be caught up on the reading for my classes (I just realized that I don't have any more that I really have to get done til like Monday).  Though not excited for the cleaning check tomorrow.  

I still wish I had an infinite supply of clever names/quotes to make my titles, but if I waited for those to come around, I would probably not post as often.  Thank you to everyone who commented!  It made my day.  :)

K, so can I ask a favor?  Can you guys post comments so that I feel kinda good about myself?  :)  Thanks.

Well, I found out why my straightener shorted out 2 converters.  Turns out it uses like, 400W of power, and the converters I had were 50W and 100W. ... ya.  So I think that means I have to buy a new straightener, most likely, which is made even more annoying by the fact that, had I known that, I could have left mine home and packed more cute clothes.  I'm getting pretty sick of my wardrobe, not gonna lie.  First of all, not nearly enough selection, and second of all, half the clothes I brought are ugly clothes, and all of them are depressingly drab colors.  I wish I had underestimated the dress code a little more.

Ok, enough complaining, I apologize.  I really am thrilled to be here. :)  Yesterday we went to the Rockefeller Museum, which houses part of an antiquities collection that is usually on display at, I believe, the Israel Museum, or something like that.  They had these really cool jars and pottery that were coated in some kind of iridescent paint.  And there was one display where they mounted all the pieces of molding from some building (sorry I'm not more specific...) on like, a framework, so you kind of got a sense of what it would have been like to be in a building surrounded by all that kinda stuff.  And they had a beautiful courtyard!!  I really can't describe it (I tried and then deleted what I had coz it sucked, sorry), but it was gorgeous, and the sun was shining.  :)  Oh, in other news, my brand new 4GB memory card is too new-fangled for my ancient camera...  And I left my other one at home.  So I'm borrowing a like, 32KB card from someone until I can get another one.  Lol.

So I found someone that knows how to ballroom dance!!!!!!!  He's 17 and he's my Old Testament teacher's kid, but he's really pretty good.  He doesn't know very much but he's got a good, solid technique, so it'll be fun to teach him. :D  I'm very excited.  Oh, kind of a funny note, actually, I was the only girl in heels on Saturday (Sabbath).  The packing list said, "High heeled shoes should be left at home" because like, of the limestone stairs.  Whatever.  Anyone who is even marginally comfortable in heels would be fine.  And my heels that I was going to bring didn't fit, so I wore my Latin shoes to church.  :)  It made me happy.

My Arabic teacher showed me how to write my name in Arabic.  (I wish I could find a way to show it... the online translator won't just do it letter for letter...)  He wrote it up on the board and said, "See, it's beautiful, just like her."  Lol.  He's a pretty funny guy.  Both of my Palestinian teachers are pretty interesting.  My other one is for Modern Near East from the Islamic Perspective (essentially, I don't think that's the actual class name).  They just have a funny sense of humor and a different style of teaching than the other professors.  Mixes things up a little.

Tonight we had a speaker from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.  He's in the Tel Aviv Branch, and he's the official spokesperson for the embassy.  He spoke about Gaza and everything that's going on down there.  It was really interesting, and he made the point that the U.S. isn't really getting a lot of the coverage, because the only news station that's allowed in Gaza right now isn't broadcast on most networks.  If you want to know more about what's going on, see if your cable provider has Al Jazira- English (though I'm not quite sure about that spelling), or maybe you could look it up on the internet, because that's apparently where all the coverage is coming from.  Today we couldn't go into the Old City/East Jerusalem because of a strike going on that had to do with Gaza.  It's an exciting time to be over here, for sure.  

Well, that's all for now, please comment! :D

"Mormons!"

We went into the Old City today, and that was the greeting from everyone we saw.  :)  Mainly all the merchants, who I'm sure see a lot of BYU students.  Today was our first day really allowed out of the Center, but only in groups of 5 or more, and only along the paths we had already taken on our tour.  They're still feeling pretty cautious about the whole situation, but I think they knew we were dying to get out, and we had an entire free afternoon today.  Not gonna lie, it's a little weird being out and about on a Sunday, lol.  But we had our Sabbath yesterday, so it's all good.  

We mostly just wandered around the market streets, looking at the different things.  One of the merchants owns a "BYU store," where he sells like, leather scripture cases imprinted with designs from Jerusalem (I am definitely going to get me one of those) and BYU t-shirts that have "Jerusalem" in three different languages.  And everybody loves the Mormons.  :)  In one shop there was this heart-breakingly beautiful mother of pearl nativity scene.  The shop owner said $200.  It was gorgeous.  

We also went and saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where most of the Christian world believe that Christ was crucified and buried.  It was interesting.  It's interesting to be in a place that's kind of tourist-y, but to so many it's like the epitome of holiness.  When we went into the kind of sanctum where the tomb is supposed to be- it only fits like 3 or 4 people and you kneel in front of an altar- I thought to myself, Christ is worshipped here.  And I felt the spirit.  And I just said a small prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the experience of being here in Jerusalem and for the Atonement and the Gospel.  It was a nice feeling.

It rained for the first time since we've been here while we were out.  It wasn't too bad though, all the market streets are pretty well covered and we were in the Church for the worst of it.  But the weather for the most part continues to be beautiful. :D

Well, I am completely exhausted.  So that will be all for now.  

"Please Don't Date Very Much"

Yes, that is in fact the official policy at the Center, straight from the mouth of Dr. Kearl (the Provo Director). :) So you can all quit speculating.

The plane ride was a little excruciating. I've been adjusting better than most to the time change, as I planned my use of sleeping pills on the flight to minimize jet lag. I still wasn't completely immune, unfortunately, but I'm doing about fine now.

On Tuesday, my group of 30 flew from Salt Lake through Chicago, Washington D.C. (where we met up with the 40 that had gone through Denver), and Vienna, finally arriving in Tel Aviv 22 hours (and almost 2 days, with the time change) later. I've never been to Austria, so Vienna was kind of fun, even if we were there for a grand total of 2 hours, and I really never left the seat I collapsed in.

The weather in Tel Aviv was beautiful (take that, all you people who absolutely insisted it would be snowing...). The weather in general has been about like Southern California. Told you so. Also, I am so excited to finally have roommates who love the heat as much as I do!! We keep our apartment around 80 degrees and it just makes my life. :D

When we arrived on Wednesday, they greeted us at the door and forbade us to lie down. Smart, really, as I know what it's like to try and wake up once you crash after a trans-Atlantic flight and we had a full schedule of orientations for that night. I was sad to realize that I was actually too exhausted to fully appreciate the beauty of everything around me.

The Center is a gorgeous building, and the view is incredible. I first really appreciated the view the next morning- I think part of the reason I didn't the night before is that it's not quite as awe-inspiring when all you can see is city lights. There is nothing like looking out over a city that is so distinct. There is no way you could ever mistake Jerusalem for a Western city because everything about is so different. Honestly, I felt like I was living a Bourne movie or something like it- the part where they're showing the panorama and city scenes right before Jason Bourne enters.

On Thursday we went on a tour of the city. We stopped to listen to our tour guide (one of the sisters (as in, half of a service couple) from the Center), and a merchant nearby said, "Hey! Mormons!" And we answered with, "Hey!" and smiles. And he was like, "I'm standing by Mormons! ... Nice people!" Jerusalem is the only place in the world where the church allows the word "Mormon" to be officially used to refer to members of the church. There's even a road sign leading to the "Mormon University".

Also on Thursday, after our orientation meeting in the morning (we had a lot of those...) the Center Director made an announcement about security. He began with "We have had some developments within about the last half hour..." and continued to tell us about the rockets that had just been launched into Israel from Lebanon. It's pretty exciting to hear things like that, I'm not gonna lie, although being restricted, essentially, to the Center is not so fun. Really, we just can't go into East Jerusalem, which is the Muslim side and includes the Old City, because of the potential unrest with relation to the events in Gaza. We did go through East Jerusalem and the Old City on our tour, but are not allowed to go there on our own. And since today the Jewish Shabbat (Sabbath) began at sundown, they told us there would be nothing to do anyway, so we couldn't even leave the Center.

It's been fun getting to know people. I have to say I really like how condensed the Center is. I feel like I can get to know people easier- when you spend almost every minute of the day with some combination of the same 80 people it's not hard- and I love, love, LOVE having school, church, and my room all in the same building. We may have 8 stories with no elevator, but I no longer walk 10 minutes (in the freezing cold, suckas!) to get to school.

The food is... well, pretty good, but very predictable. We had some excellent banana ice cream tonight, though. And anything they make with beef in it is usually quite good. And, of course, pita bread. The Center favorite is pita bread with honey and peanut butter. I can't say that's really my thing, but I am a big fan of pita and hummus.

So, that's all for now, I suppose. Feel free to post any questions. It would help me know what to write about. :)

Scheherazade

So I figure I should start out by explaining the name of my blog.  Here is the official wikipedia explanation (since it tells it better than I can...):

Scheherazade is a legendary queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.  The frame tale goes that every day Shahryar (the Persian king) would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday's wife to be beheaded.  This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife was betraying him.  He had killed three thousand such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter.  Against her father's protestations, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the King.  Once in the King's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved sister, Dinazade, who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night.  The King lay awake and listened with awe to Scheherazade's first story and asked for another, but Scheherazade said there was not time as dawn was breaking, and regretfully so, as the next story was even more exciting.  And so the King kept Scheherazade alive as he eagerly anticipated each new story, until, one thousand and one adventurous nights, and three sons later, the King had not only been entertained but wisely educated in morality and kindness by Scheherazade who became his queen.

I thought it was pretty clever. :) So I hope you enjoy my myriad of tales (though they are unlikely to be 1001, sorry) from the Middle East!