The Shepherd's Field

Yesterday I ventured past the separation wall into the West Bank (with my class of course) and went to Bethlehem. We went to the church of the Nativity, which was really crowded, by people and decoration. I watched people kiss the 14 point star that marks "the spot" where Jesus was born, and saw THE mangier. Just like on the history channel. I'm not sure if all of you can tell how silly I think that is. It's a nice thought, I guess.
The best part of our Bethlehem trip was the shepherd's field. We drove out to a hill just a couple of miles from Bethlehem and at our dinner, then listened to stories about the birth of Jesus and sang Christmas hymms. I sang with two different groups, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and Mary's Lullaby. As we listened to the program, we watched the lights come on and the stars come out over the little city. It was really beautiful. That's where my mind will be every Christmas from now on.
Tomorrow I am going to Galilee, and I'll be gone for 10 days. You've noticed that my hopes of putting up pictures for Egypt did not come true, and it looks like they wont until I'm back from Galilee. My camera is lost currently, but I do have the pictures. I'm just missing the ones from Hezekiah's tunnel, which was also awesome. Hopefully its upstairs in the lost and found, but I haven't looked yet. Neverfear, there will still be pictures from Galilee. I have another camera that I brought, but it's not as good. Especially inside. Please pray for me that I'll find the other camera, and stop being sick. I'll write again when I get back!

Egypt!

I have sooo much to tell, but we'll see how far I get. I'm not feeling well, and there is no such thing as free time this week. I have 3 finals and a midterm. On top of my huge readings as usual. I took a great nap today because our fieldtrip was cancelled, but I still feel sick and could go to bed early.
Last night I got back from Egypt. I was only there for a week, but it felt like forever. I felt like I was in a dream, seeing all the wonders I'd only read about and seen pictures of. But now I have my own pictures! Don't get your hopes up on seeing them too soon. Unless I find a shortcut. Like my room mates laptop. Maybe. But once again, it takes forever, and I have no time at all.
Our first stop was Beer Sheba, which was pretty cool. We saw a well that dates back to at least Solomon's time, but it might well be the one that Abraham dug there. I took pictures of the kind of land where Abraham would have lived with his family. The first night we slept at a kibbutz only 5 minutes from the Israeli/Egyptian border. We wanted to be first in line for border crossing in the morning. And we were. It went pretty smoothly as far as border crossings go around here. Not so much for the way home.
We drove across the Sinai peninsula and took the tunnel under the Suez canal. I was a little disappointed not to see the canal, but you can't see everything can you? When we arrived in Cairo, all I could see for miles was the Projects, which are constantly under construction. That is such a dirty city. And my favorite part was their driving philosophies. My teacher asked our bus driver about the lines on the road, and he said "what lines? Oh... those are for decoration." And we realized in the next few days that he wasn't kidding. I had to close my eyes while we were driving anywhere, because it really stressed me out to watch. Lots of things stressed me out on this trip. Stay tuned. Our first glimpse of the pyramids in Giza was quite the experience. We all took pictures out the bus window.
Tuesday we drove 2 whole minutes to the pyramids first thing in the morning. We all got out at the Cheops pyramid (the biggest one) to take pictures. Those of us who climbed a little too far got whistled out by the Egyptian police. I didn't go that high. I like climbing things, but getting down is a different story. We went inside Khefrin, the next biggest pyramid, and it was so hot and gross in there. I'm glad I went in, because who can say they climbed inside one of the great pyramids? But it was just an in and out thing. There's only one small room in the middle, and you have to duck through the longest tunnel to get there. It smelled, but not as badly as I was expecting. We couldn't take pictures on the inside, so you wont have the joy of seeing how squished we were. That same day we saw some giant statues of Ramses II in Memphis, which was his capital. We also saw the step pyramid at Saqqara, and went inside a really old pyramid that now looks like a pile of dirt on the outside, but the inside was really nice. There were writings all over the walls from what is now the text in the book of the dead. That night we flew out of Cairo International Airport to Luxor. That was an experience. Talk about lack of airport security. We didn't even have to have our own tickets. I was Jen Lee for the night. We took a bus thing out to the plane and climbed a staircase onto it, which I don't ever remember doing before. The flight was only about an hour. When we got to our hotel in Luxor, I was really excited to discover the view of the Nile from my balcony. It was even better in the morning.
The next day we started early again to try and beat the heat. We took a carriage to the temple at Karnack and our tour guide, Rifak, told us about it for nearly two hours. We were so hot and tired by the end that we weren't motivated to take many pictures during our free time. It was really cool, but I was sooo tired. By the time we got off the carriage at the Luxor temple, i was already done. I wanted badly to soak in all the information Rifak was giving, because he really is an excellent tour guide, but I was exhausted. I went home and took a nap, praying that I would feel much better by 3, when we left for our faluka ride across the Nile to our camel safari. I did feel much better, and I was so glad, because the afternoon was amazing. I rode a camel through the neighborhoods of Luxor for almost an hour, and it was something I wont forget. I could hardly wait to get in the pool back at the hotel.
Thursday in the middle of the night, I woke up so sick. I wont write all the details, but as Dr. Hayes would say, I had the full experience in Egypt. Don't ask me what I ate, because I dont know. I was totally following all the rules. Maybe I should have brushed my teeth right after getting out of the pool or something. I felt a little better when I woke up, but I didnt dare eat breakfast. As soon as I got on the bus, I knew I should have stayed in bed. I let the Seely's know I was feeling badly, and Sister Seely walked with me to make sure I was ok in the valley of the kings. Good thing too. I lasted about 3 minutes on my feet, then she helped me find a bench to listen to the rest of Rifak's lecture before we went into the tomb of Tutmose III. I went down into the tomb with everyone, and I was so amazed by the colors on the wall! More than 3000 years old, and still so brilliant! I lasted there another three minutes, and then I felt so sick that I was afraid I wouldnt make it out. Sister Seely led me to lean over the railing while she called for Brother Seely, and I almost passed out, but not quite. It was probably like last summer in Hershey park, except I remember the whole thing. The Seely's led me out of the tomb as soon as I could walk again, and we found a place for me to lie down in the shade. Someone went to find me a sprite, and brother and sister Seely and sister Ostler all took turns staying with me while everyone else was in the next 2 tombs. I should have told someone to take a picture, because I really want to know what I look like when this happens since everyone tells me its so scary. By the time my class went into king Tut's tomb, I thought I could make it, so sister seely took me to the front of the group and I saw it really fast. His mummy is actually in there on display, which is pretty cool. The rest of the day I stayed on the bus. Back at the hotel I packed as fast as I could feeling the way I was, then I slept in one of the rooms we were keeping until we left the hotel at 6. I was so achey. It was just like the flu. I was not excited about getting on a train all night. But I felt a little better by the time we actually got on the train. I hadn't eaten anything but bread all day, and I was sooo hungry, but not hungry enough to risk Egyptian train food. I was scared enough of the disgusting curtains, and I didn't dare sleep under the bedsheets. I was freezing the whole night. I slept under my scarf.
By morning I was pretty much back to normal. Just tired like everyone else. We had sacrament meeting in the conference room at our hotel, which was interesting because we would get in serious trouble if they knew that's what we were doing. We couldnt even use the word church outside that room. I sang with a group of about 12 for the musical number, and I was glad to be feeling well enough to do that. Next we went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which was really cool, but most of us were too tired to fully appreciate it. I did take time to see the royal mummy rooms, where 22 ancient egyptian kings and queens are on display. I saw all of king tut's treasure, which is huge. I don't know how it fit inside his tiny tomb. I can only imagine how it would have been multiplied if he had lived to be king more than nine years. Next, we had an unimpressive lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then went to the worlds largest Bazaar to shop. We only had an hour and a half, and I was with 7 other people who kept stopping. I didn't buy anything, and it was just an overall stressful experience. I didn't like the bazaar in Luxor either. I'll choose shopping in the old city any day, because what I have to endure to get cheaper prices in Egypt is so not worth it.
Yesterday we travelled forever to get home. It took hours to cross the border. Then our bus was late. A bunch of kids jumped in the red sea as soon as we crossed to wait. When we finally drove to Eilat, it was so short that I thought we should have walked. Snorkling was cool for like 5 minutes, but the water was sooo choppy. You know I'm not one to have a problem with choppy water usually, but it was really deep, and I was trying to breath through a tube. It stressed me out. So I took it off and did my best to swim back to the platform. It really was gorgeous. I didn't take many pictures, but i'm sure I'll steal one from my friends. When that was over, it was 4 more hours to the Jerusalem Center. I wished I could sleep on a bus, but I cant. And my ipod was dead too. I sang with Camille for a while. We sang all of the combined choir songs we knew since she was in concert choir this last year. Then we started on spirituals, since she had a Moses Hogan book in her backpack, and we tried to remember what we could of the singers CD, I Believe this is Jesus. Then I went back to my seat and tried to sleep as best I could. We were sooooooooo happy to finally see Jerusalem on the horizon. And to eat fruit. I was excited to sleep in my bed, but I only got 4 hours. Thats a different story.
This is a really long post, and I'm going to bed. Hopefully there will eventually be pictures. I love you! Have a beautiful day!

More pictures tonight, I promise!

So, I'm working on the next batch of pictures right now, because I know for a fact that I wont want to catch up on all this when I get home from Egypt. I'll want to catch up on Egypt!
Last night I went to the Western Wall of the temple in Jerusalem to welcome Shabbat. Wow. There were so many people there! And they were all so excited about it. How could they not be? It really was a beautiful site. I went right up to the wall. After that, a bunch of groups started singing hymns in Hebrew, and I wished I had a songbook to follow along. I caught maybe a third of the words with my awesome Hebrew skills. All of the girls from the Jerusalem Center joined in the dancing and singing as much as we could. It was a blast! I want to go back.
Tomorrow morning, bright and early I leave for Egypt! I think breakfast is at 5am. I'm working on packing, and I probably should write my paper on Islam festivals before I leave. I finished my entire fieldtrip manual this afternoon, while I was waiting for it to be late enough in the morning to call mom :) I've been waiting all week, because I knew I wouldnt be able to call on Mother's Day. Today was funny, because it's saturday, but it's the sabbath, but tomorrow is Mother's Day, but only in America. We ended up hearing about mothers in sacrament meeting though, so I guess it's still mother's day? Either way, I was excited about it. So, Happy Mother's Day! You'll hear from me again when I get back from Egypt!

Spulunking!

So, there are more pictures on the way, but I probably wont finish them tonight because I'm watching a movie for my Judaism class. Today we had a super long fieldtrip, and we saw so much. We went to a bunch of biblical sites where there are archeological digs. Not active ones, but they still look cool. We went to Lachish, which was the most important city that Senaccherib took. Maybe later i'll bring my scriptures up here with me and give you some kind of idea about what that means. We went to the valley of Elah where David slew Goliath. We went to a bunch or really cool caves, and I climbed through this really tight tunnel for about 20 yards. And experienced total darkness, which I thought I'd never see again. It was a great day, but I got sooo dirty, and I'm sooo tired! 3 days til Egypt!

Shopkeepers

The other day my room mate and I decided to go up to the Old City to browse the shops. It was so much fun! I'm continually amazed at how many of the shopkeepers know and love us. Dozens of times as we walk through the crowded streets we hear, "Hello Mormons! Special deal for BYU!" It's not like we walk around in byu gear either. In fact, most of us don't use our backpacks or wear our tshirts in the old city on purpose. And we hide our student ids too. Someone asked one of the shopkeepers the other day how they knew that we were from the Jerusalem Center, and he said, "Its in your face. In your eyes." So I guess that story is true. We just don't always notice that in ourselves, but it's pretty obvious to others.
My favorite shopkeepers so far are Imar and Shabban. Imar was so excited to see us. He said, "special deal for mormons! 5 sheckels for any pair of earrings in my store!" And that is a good deal.. its like $1.50. He says he's visiting Sandy Utah next month, and he really loves mormons. He even stepped outside to finish his cigarette because he knows we dont like it. Shabban must have chased us halfway down the street before someone stopped us to introduce him. He led us to his shop and gave us juice, because he knows we wont drink tea. He sells leather scripture cases with the jerusalem skyline on them, and liahonas made of olive wood, among other mormon-centered things. He's very nice, and he's been a friend to BYU students for decades.
Well, I better go do some homework. I just found out that our Islam class is cancelled because our teacher is from the West Bank and the border was just closed, so I'm gonna go draw a couple maps that are worth 25% of my grade.

The first 3 days

So, I planned on bringing my journal up and just quoting from it, but I left it in my room. My first walk through the Old City was so overwhelmingly amazing. I loved walking through all the shops in the Muslim and Christian quarters. The spices smelled amazing as we walked by. There were so many colors and smells and sounds. I'll be back many many times, even if it is just to walk through. We couldn't take pictures on the first trip, because they didn't want us getting distracted and separated from the group. We have had perfect weather for walking so far. Its even a little chilly because of the breeze.
Yesterday we went to 5 different high vantage points to see perspectives of the Holy Land from every direction. I climbed 209 stairs to the top of the Augusta Victoria tower. I thought I was going to die at the top, but I recovered, and the view was amazing. It was an exceptionally clear day, and we could see all the way to the dead sea.
Today was my first Shabbat in the Holy Land, and it has been wonderful. We had church in the auditorium, with a huge window behind the pulpit showing a gorgeous view of Jerusalem. I remember having church in the Nauvoo room, and they wouldnt let us open the curtain during sacrament meeting because they thought we'd be distracted. I think the view just adds to the reverence of the meeting. It was perfect. After church, I walked to the Orson Hyde Memorial garden, which is beautiful. Then my friends and I went on the the garden of Gethsemane. It was very crowded, so i think I'll have to go back during the week to really stop and appreciate it. We saw a few other churches, and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. Its so beautiful.
The pictures I promised are up on facebook! Lets see if I can figure out how to add the link to my blog. I love you guys!
ps- it takes forever to add pictures... I may not do it as often as I had hoped.

Well, I'm here! I don't think the novelty of the view of the Jerusalem out every window will ever wear off. I don't have much time to fill in the details of my travel experience, but suffice it to say it was long. 39 hours from my apartment to the Jerusalem Center. Yesterday, I had an 11 hour layover in Vienna, and I dont think that any of us in my travel group of about 40 stayed in the airport. We took the subway to the city center and walked all around Vienna, taking in all that we could in our already tired state. I took lots of pictures, and I promise to post some later. Not here, though. Only on facebook. Its easier. I'll add the links to this site though.
I arrived at the Jerusalem Center just after 3am this morning, and woke up for breakfast at 8:30. In about an hour I'll be on my first field trip, walking through Old Jerusalem. But we're not supposed to bring cameras for this walk, so I'll just have to go back later for that. I'll write about it in detail, as soon as I've got a good night's sleep. Which may be a while.