Tales of the Egyptian Escapade

Well now that we have been back from Egypt for a good week and half I figured I would be do for an update about it all. Our field trip to Egypt lasted 7 days. These were some of the best 7 days of my whole life. I have always loved Egyptian culture. It's so different from any other culture in history. So I was pretty stoked to go. Our first day was a lot of driving. We stopped along to view a lot of Biblical sites. We went to Beersheba where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived anciently. My favorite stop that day was a hike that we took through the Wilderness of Zin. The first night we stayed at a Jewish Kibbutz. We got to play in the sand dunes which was soooooo amazing. We would run down the hill, dive-bomb into the sand no worries and keep rolling and rolling and rolling down the hill till you can't go any further. Then it would take you foreverrr to walk back up and your calves would kill at the top. I couldn't stop running the sands through my hands. It was the softest sand I have felt in a long long time. After a good while of frolicking we all separated on the dunes. We were given a piece of paper and pencil. We spent about 15 minutes just sitting and meditating, it was a great time to stop and think. There was literally nothing there except for the land and the sky. The next day we finished our drive to Cairo, customs was a major pain but we finally got there! There was an instant difference in sanitation once you crossed the border. The entire time we were in Egypt we had to drink bottled water and be super safe while brushing our teeth. Pretty much everything nasty in the world can be found in the Nile River...and that's what the Egyptians drink. We drove into Cairo and went straight to a sacrament meeting service. Egypt is an Arab country so sabbath is every Friday. I don't think I'll get very many opportunities to have the sabbath on so many different days after living here. Saturday in Israel and then Friday while in Egypt.

Our first day in Cairo was everything you think about when you imagine: The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the Nile, camels, heiroglyphics, oh and you can't forget the naked Chinese man washing his pants out in the men's bathroom because he got a bad case of Pharoah's Revenge! We went into the tomb in the middle of the Middle Pyramid. It was the first sarcophagus I had ever seen...and it was huge! By far Cairo was the most "touristy" place we have been. It's a lot less touristy in Jerusalem than I thought it was going to be. One of the only downfalls was the sanitation of it all. I was afraid to eat anything really the whole time that we were there. A big reason for that were the live bugs that people found in their food at lunch our first day...needless to say my appetite was completely gone after that Only about 4-5 people from our group got sick from the trip which was really good.

Site Highlights:
-Giza Pyramids
-Sphinx
-Luxor Temple-Mosque built within Luxor Temple
-Karnak Temple!!!!!
-Valley of the Kings (King Tut's Tomb)
-Hatchepsut's Temple
-Taxi rides around Egypt
-Nile Felucca Ride
-Camel Ride
-Egyptian Museum (Mummies!!!!!)-Papyrus Museum
-Coptic Churches
-Memphis (statues of Rameses II)
-Saladin Citadel
-Muhammad Ali Mosque
-Luxor Bazaar-Saqqara Step Pyramid
-HIKING MT. SINAI
Don't let the look of the Nile water deceive you...it's full of nasties. At the end of our first day in Cairo we went straight to the airport and took a flight down to Luxor. The next two days we spent running around in Luxor. Monday night we took the night train back up to Cairo. The night train consisted of a dinner...gross, I had some rice...a most unpleasant toilet...filthy blankets. But I was so tired from non stop everyday that I didn't even care, I passed out. I'm just glad I was fortunate enough to get the bedding without fleas in it. Some other girls weren't as lucky. The Valley of the Kings was really amazing because of how well preserved the heiroglyphics were. They were so colorful!! I love trying to imagine what everything must have looked like way back when. A lot of places that we went to in Egypt we weren't allowed to take pictures. One of those places was the Valley of the Kings. One of the girls in our group has an Ipod touch. She bumped it somehow so a light went off and the Tomb guard thought she was trying to sneak a pic, he flipped and held her back at the security station until they finally believed her that the Ipod didn't even have a camera on it to begin with.

Probably some of my favorite memories from Egypt are just at the hotel kickin' it. We would play night games on the lawns, go swimming, just talk or do whatever. Also the bartering was a lot better in Egypt, prices are a lot more set for things here in Jerusalem. Going to the bazaar was always really fun. You would always want to make sure you had a guy there with you though, the vendors are so so so pushy. Oh and the heat was kind of out of control....50 degrees Celsius...gotta have the whole experience right? I wish we would have had more time at the Egyptian Museum...our tour was good as in very knowledgeable but man he looooved to talk. I saw so many things there that I have been looking at in history books for so long. King Tut was a little man...but I guess they pretty much all were.

My favorite thing by FAR was the 2am hike we did up to the top of Mt. Sinai. It was on our way back home. We all woke up at 2am started hiking up about 3:30 then once you got to the top you had time to relax until the sun came up. The stars were just incredible and the mountains had such a unique to them. The whole thing was beautiful and it was one of the best sunrises I have ever seen in my entire life. I put a picture of it up on here...gorgeous. We sang hymns up on the top. It was an awesome time to look back and think on our whole trip so far. We sang some hymns while the sun rose. About 1/3 of the way back down we stopped to have a little impromptu testimony sharing with our different religion classes. I would say everyone as a whole really bonded this trip. Some of the funnest/funniest moments were on the long bus rides to places. Some suggestions for an interesting bus ride: adverb, smurf, truth or dare, psychiatry, things of that sort. Everyone loved Egypt...even the people who got sick. The people there were all really nice, hospitable and it was pretty refreshing to be in an area where there is hardly any tension. All in all it was stellar.

Dusty City

Today you can't even see the Old City from the Jerusalem Center. It's about a 15 minute walk to get to it so if you can imagine the distance...it's not very far. There is some kind of white dust floating around everywhere. I went to Rockefeller Museum this afternoon with my roommate and Craig and the walk back was a pretty quick one due to the dusty air and Natalie having class in 5 minutes. It was nice to get out of the center, yesterday there was a good chunk of classes and an assignment that I had to finish. Although staying in the Center has had its interesting moments this week. Yesterday all of the students got a tour underneath the center. The center is built on the slope of the hill of Mt. Scopus. All of the pipes and electrical systems are underneath the building sloping down the hill as the dorm rooms do. This way if there is ever a problem with electricity or plumbing they can fix a good portion of the problems from underneath the rooms. Pretty amazing architecture really. I was caught off guard by the lone chair faced against of the cement wall of the Jerusalem Center basement...don't want to find out what you have to do to get there.... At the bottom of the hill is the place where all of the students that have been on the tour can sign their names. I was hoping I would see my best friend Miranda's name. No sign of here but I did see Sarah Jane, my roommate Fall 2009 and several good friends of mine from my days at BYUH. My name is now written in sharpie to be forever remembered in the basement of the JC.

The University of Utah singers performed here last night so we got to have dinner with them yesterday. They talked about how much they were enjoying the city...the sites...the shopping...bartering. True to form- the blonde girl had gotten the most free stuff so far. The concert series here are meant for the local community so students at the center get last dibs on actual tickets. We pretty much are on constant standby unless you are a host/hostess for the night. It was unique for the U of U choir to come. The center series are generally reserved for BYU choirs and local performing groups. Lauren and I sat with a lot of the singers at dinner, they were all really nice and fun to talk to. They made a couple Provo jokes but we still love them anyways. A group of us went to go listen to their sound check afterward, they invited us up there after they heard that a lot of us might not be able to see the show. They were really amazing. Probably one of my favorites was a version of "Circle of Life" from the Lion King....really made my night. What might have made my night even more was the dessert they gave us at dinner. I was banking on the fact that they would give us something good to impress the singers, and they did not disappoint.

I'm slowly slowly working on my Arabic....it comes pretty well in class but for some reason when I got out into the city still all I recognize is the casual marhaba you get from people passing you on the street. Egypt taught me that the best way to learn Arabic is to get an Arab taxi driver.

It's dangerous not bringing a laptop to the Jerusalem center. This means that when you have assignments you have to do them in the computer which means non-solitary study time and generally unproductive study time. Example A...last night...I went to go work on my Islamic assignment...got talking about the synonym tool on Word which lead to the defining of 'stoic' which lead to a 'study break' which turned out to be an hour of playing basketball. This lead back into running into and talking with more people. But the assignment is over and we had some good laughs so end of story it was all worth it.

Off to Islamic class...turning in the paper that has stressed out 80 students all within the same week.

Some Favorites

So since I started this blog 3 weeks into the program I just wanted to back track really quick and highlight some of my favorite moments. We just got back from a week in Egypt which was so fantastic but that will have to wait for its own post. So I had a good 2 weeks in the Holy Land before we shipped off to Africa. We had some really great field trips right up front. The second or third day at the center they took us on a "quick and dirty" tour of the Old City. No cameras were allowed so we wouldn't hold up the group. It was my first feel for the city and I got to say I was very disoriented by the end of it all. Jetlag hit me pretty hard traveling over here and the windy narrow streets of the Old City when I was half conscious of where I was didn't turn out well as far as learning the geography of it all. I was just glad to be out there and seeing things right off the bat. The professors made sure to point out the important things to us students...such as..where we can get some shekels and where the best/cheapest falafel stand is. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepluchre on our first visit to the city as well. I really had no expectations coming here so I the only real opinions I have formed are what I have now after having been to teh Garden Tomb and the Church of the Holy Sepluchre both multiple times. We took a geography field trip around all of Jerusalem to get a feel for the area we went to some outlooks where we could view the Old City from the south (above). We went to one hill where we could see the city of Bethlehem in the distance. We learned there that the valley that was right next to us is where the shepherds were that herded the sheep that were kept for the temple sacrifices. It makes sense that the angel would appear to these Shepherds because they were essentially temple workers and also for the symbolism that Christ would be the last great sacrifice. We saw a legitimate shepherd which was pretty cool and he let us all hold his baby lamb!! After about 20 girls wanting to hold the baby lamb he started wanting some shekels before he would let us hold him....gotta get those sheks! The Augusta Victoria Church is right on top of the Mt. of Olives, it was our second to last stop. We went up into the tower there and got a great view of everything around us. We visited the Nabi Samwill synagogue (right) dedicated to the Prophet Samuel. Underneath the synagogue was his supposed tomb and there were some Jewish people praying down there. I didn't stay under and gawk for too long because I didn't want to seem disrespectful. I thoroughly enjoy being able to play around in the archeological sites and try to imagine what the city must have looked like "back then".

What is to be considered the Old City portion of Jerusalem is encased in massive stone walls. Different areas and layers of the wall were built by different peoples depending on who was ruling at the time. A large part of the wall was built during the period of the Ottoman rule. There are walkways on the tops of the walls. A big big group of us got together and walked along the way. There is a north route and a south route. Walking on tops of the walls also gave you a great view of the city and helped orient you to what is West Jerusalem and what is East Jerusalem. I love walking along and just realizing how old all of these things are.


We did the south route the first day so we could have time to go listen to Br. Whipple play the bells at the YMCA tower and came back the next day. Br. Whipple is a service missionary here at the Jerusalem Center. He is here with his wife and together they are over the music for the Center. Every Sunday Br. Whipple goes to play the bells at the YMCA tower and he invited students to come listen whenever they want. The experience was so fun because #1 Br. Whipple is one the most interesting men to talk to and he always has the greatest stories. Also you can play LDS hymns and it's totally cool because nobody knows what the words are. I went to the top of the bell tower and was outside in the warm listening to 'Joseph Smith's First Prayer' be played across Jerusalem.

Another thing I have loved is learning about the other religions here. This is a sacred place for not only Christians but Jews and Muslim people as well. One friday night we went to the Western Wall a little before the sunset to celebrate welcoming the sabbath with the Jews. That was a favorite moment for me. So many things were happening at once. All the men come in singing and dancing to welcome the sabbath. The women weren't allowed to join them because in Judaism men and women worship and pray separately. The guys in our group however definitely seized the opportunity and were right up there dancing with everyone. The Orthodox Jews and pretty easy to pick out. It's a little tougher to pick out the women. Some of them wear wigs because their heads are completely shaved. They do this because they don't want any man to think of them in the wrong way. Some Jewish ladies tried to get some songs and dancing on the women's side of the Western Wall but the group was 70% BYUJC students and none of us knew the words to the songs. But hey it was fun to try. I want to try and go back and visit all of these religious sites as much as I can.

Another definite favorite was visiting the Dome of the Rock. It is at most times closed off to non-Muslims. We made sure to go at a time when we knew it would be open and have time to go around and check things out. I was so impressed by the beauty of it all. I love all of the rich colors and the unique architecture. The language I chose to study while I'm here is Arabic partly because I think the writing of it is so gorgeous. It really is art the way they can write their letters. The dome is built on Mt. Moriah which is significant to not only Islam but Judaism and Christianity as well so it is a pretty controversial issue that the Muslim people have ownership of it currently. In Christianity it's the Mt. that Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son Isaac on. Because the site is so sacred and important to so many people I felt like I had to be very aware of whatever we were doing while we were there. Our professors always make fun of the students for wanting to take 'arrogant jumping pictures'. Which.. that's always kind of a joke but they try to stress to us a lot to remember when we're at sacred places and not make fools of ourselves by taking silly pictures.

So far I have been to the Garden Tomb 4 times and my favorite was when we went with all 80 students one sabbath afternoon. (I have to get used to saying sabbath instead of just Sunday because church here is on Saturdays to coincide with the Jewish sabbath of the Israeli nation). We got a tour of the garden, a view of Golgotha and got to into the tomb as well. After everyone had been through the tour our group got together to sing some hymns. Not to brag or anything but we were pretty much the best sounding group there...no big deal. The tour guide described a lot of reasons why they believe that Golgotha and the garden are the site of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection rather than the Church of the Holy Sepluchre. You can see skull face unique to that hill, also it would have been by a main route in the Roman times which is where Romans liked to do their crucifixion so as many people could see as possible in order to be a stronger example to the citizens. Whether it is the actual site or not it's a great place to come to, read scriptures, write in my journal, just think or whatever I want to do. My favorite thing about it are the words on the door to the tomb that quote the scripture "He is not here, for He is risen." Because for me that's the real message of the whole thing and the thing to focus on.


Just some small things that I have grown to love about this Jerusalem study abroad. #1 they make us wear fanny packs and that's just funny/we totally stick out to the locals as "the mormons" #2 everyone here in the program was practically a stranger to one another and after only a couple weeks I feel comfortable calling each and everyone of them a good friend (having stellar roommates helps a lot) #3 not only do I get to see these amazing cites but I get to go back and see them again and again #4 the Professors here are so knowledgeable and have lived their whole lives studying these things and we have 3 1/2 months to absorb all we can from them #5 they blocked us from facebook #6 you get to barter #7 it may be dirty/sketchy/even hostile at times but I still love every minute.

First Time for Everything

Hey all, this is my blog! I'm a first timer so my friends are helping me out. I'm spending the summer at BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. It has been really stellar so far. Everything from the building architecture to the fieldtrips we go on is great. I am here with 79 other students. 28 men and 52 women to be specific. I have always wanted to come to the center. I have had a lot of friends that have come here and talk so highly of their experience so I'm excited to finally be here! We have been here for about 3 weeks already, only 3 more months left. Everyone one here is a great person so funny and talented in their own ways. It's my first time out of the country so a lot of the things I have seen so far have been out of element. But I love learning. I have loved all of my experiences of seeing the sites, meeting the people, learning the language and culture and being able to study the scriptures in a place so sacred and holy to not only Christianity but Judaism and Islam as well. A lot of people are incredibly devout to their religion in the way they lives. This made sense to me when you think that those types of people would be the ones drawn to live in this area of the world. There can be tension at times but overall everyone is trying to live their lives and worship God.