Egypt take 3!

So here are a few more pictures from Egypt.

This is a picture of the Zin Wilderness. This is in Israel on our way to Egypt. The children of Israel spent quite a bit of time in this area and this might give you an idea of what the land looked like that they were wandering through for 40 years. My eyes have been opened to why the Israelites might have been complaining. It is hot and dry and there is not much to look at! More of the Pyramids!This is one of our friends that spent the week traveling with us in Egypt. Yes, we had security guards that went everywhere with us. So don't worry about my safety!
Jerusalem...
The Western Wall

Dome of the Rock

Last Sunday I took my first trip to the Temple Mount.

A street in the Old City

Friday afternoons are different than most days in the city. As you can see the streets are pretty empty and many of the shops are closed because every begins to prepare for Shabbat. Usually the street is packed with people and we have to walk single file to get through.

Field Trip

Part of our field trip this past Monday was in the Elah Valley were David fought Golieth. A few of the students took on the responsibility of creating a Golieth. You can see him below. He is made out of water bottles and may not be a little thin but it worked as a great target. We each had a sling and took on the role of David. I am not as practiced as David to say the least. I think this has been our most dangerous outing. We had rocks flying in all directions but we all made it out alive. That is everyone except Golieth. When we failed to hurt our Golieth with our sling shots, the guys took it upon themselves to drop the slings and start thoughing large rocks at him. They knocked him down and attacked. I don't want to be graphic but I think he went home without his head attached. I think they just wanted it to be as close to the bible story as possible!

We went to a lot of caves on this field trip as well. The accustics were awesome in this cave so we sang some hymns as we usually do whenever we get a chance.

Who can answer the riddle?

On Friday afternoon we went to look at some olive wood and went into Bagdaddy's shop. He was very friendly and said if someone could answer his riddle he would give them a gift.

What is between heaven and earth? (anyone know the answer?)

You guessed it, I answered his riddle and he gave me this nice little lemon juicer. I am pretty proud of my prize!

Meet some of the couples serving here...

We are very lucky to have wonderful directors, teachers, and service couples here with us. If any of you are familiar with the documentary "Journey of Faith" our academic director Brother Kent Brown was one of the executive producers. The film is about the journey of Lehi and Sariah to the promised land. We watched it last night and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested. I really enjoyed it and you can see Brother Brown in it. There are some shots in Jerusalem and looking out from the Jerusalem Center.

(Roy Huff-religion teacher from BYU-I, Sister and Brother Masters-religion teacher, Brother and Sister Brown, Brother and Sister Whipple-Service Couple at the Center and Brother Whipple is the Organist, Brother and Sister Thomas-Service couple who had been over the tours at the center, they just returned home last week)

Meet a couple of my friends...

Here we have Lisa Foote. She is from Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a Math Ed. Major with a Business Minor. As you can probably see from the pictures that I put up, I spend a lot of time with Lisa and she is usually in my pictures. Lisa also happens to be one of the two that jumped into the Nile River. If you have ever seen the Nile or know anything about it you would know that that it not the healthiest thing to do. She is adventurous and a lot of fun! P.S. Lisa is the one in the white hat :)

Next we have Jane Barlow. We hadn't really ever talked until we went to Egypt and somehow we ended up sitting next to each other in the back of the bus and had plenty of time to learn all about one other. Since then we have be come great friends! Jane is from Rochester, Minnesota and is a Comparative Liturature Major.

Outside the Center

This afternoon I had some time to walk around the grounds of the Jerusalem Center and play with my camera. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Dome of the RockFront door of the center Looking out from the 8th floor of the center
This is Katie and I in front of the center on the 7th level. To the left you can see the big windows of our chapel.

Visit to the Hospital

Thursday afternoon I was able to go with two other girls to a hospital just down the road from the Jerusalem Center. We went as volunteers to help feed the babies. Below is a picture of the nursery. While we were waiting, one of the nurses called us in to see a baby boy who had just been born. They were all so tiny and it was so fun to see all of them.

I sat for about 45 minutes trying to get this little girl to drink her bottle. She just kept falling asleep. I couldn't stop smiling as I held this little infant in my arms. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!

On our way home from the hospital we stop to talk to some kids that were out playing by the street. While we were talking we were attacked by two boys with water guns. These weren't wimpy water guns either. They were the kind that had backpacks filled with water. We escaped with minor damage and I am sure they got a good laugh from it. I think we are going to go to Toy Land and get our own water guns so we can defend ourselves next time!

A few more pictures from our trip to Egypt...

Below is a picture of the Step Pyramid which was the first pyramid built and later led to the building of the great pyramids. After walking around the area I was walking out of the temple structure a young man grabbed my arm. I have gotten used to just ignoring anyone that I pass by but I was surprised that a white tourist would try to stop me. As I turned back around I realize that it was someone I knew. This young tourist was actually a friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU. He just completed his mission in Romania and his family had picked him up and they were doing some traveling and then visiting his sister who is on a mission before going home. What are the chances that I would see him in Egypt at the oldest pyramid in the world. It was a very fun surprise.
Here is a picture of the kind of boats we road down the Nile River on.Camel Ride! Luxor Temple at Night

This is the tomb of the famous King Tut. The interesting thing is that he really was an insignificant king but he was made famous because his tomb was the only one found that had not been found by the tomb robbers. All of the treasures found in the tomb now fill one level of the Cairo Museum. Inside the tomb they had the mummy of King Tutankhamun. I loved seeing the mummy in the original tomb he was found in.

Trip to Egypt!

Egypt was so much fun and I saw so many amazing things. It was amazing how much we packed into a week. After a lot of warm bottled water, no fruits or vegetables, and every person getting sick, I think we were all glad to see the Jerusalem Center again. With everything that we did it would take me hours to share all of it but I will just give you a sample of a few of the things we saw and did.

On our way to the border on the first day we stopped at a Kibbutz in Israel for a tour. Stepping off the bus was like stepping into the sauna. I was amazed that they have been able to keep anything alive. And just my luck...they took us for a tour of their dairy operation. I don't know if I have been on a vacation where we have not visited a dairy along the way,the streak continues. They milk about 600 cows three times a day and produce 60-70% of the milk in Israel. They give the cows showers 6 times a day where they shower them for 1 minute and then turn on the fans for 2 minutes. It was quite interesting.

The Great Pyramids! The pyramids were amazing and it was so wonderful to drive into Cairo and see them in the distance. The night that we arrived we went to the light and sound show at the pyramids. If you look closely you can see the outline of one behind our heads. Kristen, Me, and CathrineThey switch which pyramid they allow tourists to enter and we were lucky enough to go into the "Great Pyramid" which is the largest one. It was a long climb into the center and inside I thought we might run out of oxygen with all of us in there. Tomb area is about the side of a large living room with a tall ceiling in the center of the pyramid. The size of the blocks of stone are amazing and the size of the pyramid even more impressive. It was quite the sight! Below you can see us sitting on the bottom layer.After a day in Cairo we took a flight to Luxor which is south of Cairo. We all got on and found our assigned seats. After taking my place in the second row I found out that I was sitting first class! The flight attendant came and pulled the curtain behind my head and the six of us in front of the curtain just started laughing. We were brought a hot towel, warm drinks, and a meal while the rest of our classmates and teachers were out of our sight and received a small drink. We could not stop laughing! Who would have guessed I would sit first class on Egyptian Air. I am guessing that will be my first and last time sitting first class but we lived it up and got a lot of laughs out of it. Traveling the Nile River. We were in Luxor for two days and in that time took almost every form of transportation available. This included: airplane, bus, taxi, sail boat, camel, motorboat, horse carriage, and train. My favorite was the camel but I had some fun experience on all of them. Karnak Temple. The oldest parts of the Karnak Temple date to about 2000 BC. The temple is mostly the product of the New Kingdom pharaohs and each pharaoh added on to the temple. The pillars are huge as you can see in the picture and every wall and pillar has engravings on it and many depictions of important ceremonies. Always a time for firsts! We went to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was my first time in Egypt, my first time at the Hard Rock, so I thought it might as well be my first time for a hamburger. It only took 21 years and a trip to Luxor, Egypt to try a hamburger! On our final day we woke up at 2 am to climb Mt. Sinai. The sky was beautiful and it was difficult to have to look where I was walking. I have never seen so many stars in the sky. We made it to the top after about 2 hours and waited for the sun to rise. It was freezing cold on top so we huddled together for warmth as we waited. It was a beautiful sunrise! After spending a week looking at some of the greatest creations of man there was nothing that matched the creations of God. After seeing what Moses had grown up seeing, I understand better Moses 1:10 where he says, "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. But now mine own eyes have beheld God." He had been surrounded by the greatness of man but found out as I did when I sat on top Mt. Sinai that man is nothing.

Headed to Egypt!
Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Egypt. We will be there for the next week and I am sure that I will have great pictures when I get back. This past week has been packed with many exciting things. The Pope has been living next door all week so we have had soldiers on the side of our building. They were protecting the Pope but one of the guys made a flyer that said "Thanks for protecting us from the Pope" and gave it the the soldiers. So don't worry we are in good hands here :)

We also had a few great visitors last Tuesday. Governor Huntsman and Attorney General Mark Shurtliff and their party ate dinner with us and then provided our forum. The week was also full of classes and our first midterm. We are all looking forward to a great vacation in Egypt! Here is a little update on a few of the things I did last week.

It is hard to believe that another week has gone by. On Sunday we went to Ien Kerem which it the town just east of Jerusalem where John the Baptist was born. It was nice to get away from the populated streets of Jerusalem and visit this quite little town. The landscape was beautiful and we were able to go up and hike up a few trails on the hillside. Idaho girls! Kristen, Amy, and Rachelle are from Bosie so we tried to recreate Idaho in our picture so if you look really hard you might be able to see why we look so funny.This is at Mary's Spring. It would be a great watering hole except for the fact that there is a big sign warning that the water is not safe to drink!So I can't figure out why this picture will not go the right way but oh well. I have officially been to the lowest city as well as the oldest city in the world. That's right, we went to Jericho! This is my friend Ashley as we began out day at this great city.Do you see anything wrong with this sign? If not read it again! This has to be one of my favorites so far.This is up on the side of a cliff that we climbed to the Monastery of Temptation. This is where they say Satan tempted Jesus to turn the rocks to bread. It was amazing how they built out from some caves and made this monastery. This is looking out on the city of Jericho. And you my look at what I wearing and think that it was cold. Wrong, it was very hot but we had to have long sleeves going into the monastery and wear a scarf over our heads. Don't get the wrong idea, it is warm here :)Here we have all of the students in the program. 79 in Total! These are the people I spend all of my time with, and I mean ALL of my time. These people are wonderful and it is amazing how one can make best friends in a matter of days and weeks when you spend 24/7 with them! After the sites in Jericho the bus dropped us off at this location and I never caught exactly where we were. Where ever it was it was an amazing sight to see! It is Shabbot again! After church today we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We went into a quiet garden that they keep locked next to the main site where all of the tourists go. It was nice to take some time to ponder the atonement and the sacredness of this location.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!