Jerusalem Fall 2009

Pictures

2009-11-27T03:51:00.001-08:00

Some Galilee pictures are up on Facebook!

EGYPT: Day 4

2009-10-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

Ok this is going to be my last Egypt today. Make sure you don't miss days 1-3 on the previous pages!

9.20 This day was wonderful.

Valley of the Kings – This is where the Pharaohs of the Upper Kingdom were buried. We were given a ticket to King Tutankhamen’s tomb and another ticket that let us go in any three tombs of our choice. Tut’s tomb was by far the best because it hadn’t been looted like the other tombs. All of the paintings on the walls were as vibrant as they would have been thousands of years ago. There was also a climate-controlled glass box that had the actual mummy of Tutankhamen in it. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring cameras but believe me, it was pretty awesome. The other tombs were much bigger (Tut wasn’t very important) but there was graffiti from the 1800’s on it and much of the paint had worn off. They were still really cool. I was lucky because my teacher had an extra ticket so I got to go into one extra tomb than everyone else.

Hatshepsut’s Monument – Queen Hatshepsut was the only female buried in the Valley of the Kings (there was a separate valley for queens). Everybody but her royal court thought she was a man. All of her statues and hieroglyphics depict her as a man. She had a large temple built into the mountain in the Valley of the Kings. It was very impressive. A side-note about Hatshepsut is that she kept her son, the rightful heir, imprisoned for most of his life. When she died, he got control of the throne and went around much of Egypt defacing her monuments.

After this, we went back to the hotel and had a sacrament meeting in our church clothes. It was really interesting because we were having church on Sunday instead of Saturday, and we were doing things just like normal except for the one hour we had sacrament. Later in the day we took a Felucca ride (pretty much a Nile riverboat) to the opposite side of the Nile.

The other class took their camel rides first. When we were waiting we hung out with some little local kids. I gave them all a piece of gum and they didn’t know was to do with it. The camel ride went through a local village and past some farms. My camel guide was named Muhammad. Pretty much all I learned from him is that he has never heard of Muse, my camel’s name was Casanova, and that his favorite song was some song off of the movie Titanic.

Later that night we decided to go out into the city. We took a carriage and told the guy to take us to the local market. He ended up taking us to this dumb tourist store where apparently all the carriage drivers go because they get a commission if we buy something. I was pretty mad about it but it was nice riding the carriage at night through the city along the Nile. Ok this is the end of the first four days. Stay tuned for the next four!

EGYPT: Day 2-3

2009-10-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

9.18 This day was mostly a travel day.

We went through the border which took a really long time and then drove through the Sinai Peninsula into Cairo. Cairo is a huge city. I think they said that the population is around 30 million. It is the largest city in Africa. The residential buildings were tall and made of brick and concrete. They weren’t painted or anything. The city was smoggy as well but you could faintly see the pyramids in the distance which was really cool. The hotel was called the Oasis and it was set up kind of like bungalows. When we got settled in pretty much everyone went swimming. Dinner was good because it was the end of Ramadan. That night we went to the pyramids and watched a light show. It was a little cheesy but the lasers were cool.

9.19 This day was awesome!

Great Pyramid – We had to head out very early to get in line for tickets to be able to enter the Great Pyramid of Giza. For some reason people don’t think that cutting is bad and kept cutting our group. Some of us blocked people so by the time it was our turn to get tickets, they had run out. We were going to maybe just have to go to the second largest pyramid which I would have been fine with but I think some of the teachers gave up their tickets or something because when I got on my bus they had one for me. The Pyramids are gigantic I couldn’t believe it and joked about them being made by aliens. Anyways we were allowed to go inside through this narrow shaft into the main burial chamber. It had been emptied thousands of years before by grave robbers but you could still see how large the coffin was and the cool paintings on the walls. Inside we sang “If You Could Hie to Kolob” which was really cool because it echoed so much. I took a lot of pictures on the pyramid but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to go up top.

Sphinx – This was really cool to see in person. It is all part of the Giza pyramid complex but we went to it separately. There are a lot of different sphinxes around Egypt but this one is the largest. There were a lot of merchants selling things and I got totally shafted on this copper pyramid paperweight I bought. I got it for $20 and when I went to another place I saw I could have gotten it for $5. I was a ruthless buyer after that and got some really great deals on other things.

Memphis – Memphis was the main capital of Egypt for most of its history. There was a museum-like structure there which was really cool. There was this giant statue of Ramses II there and another, smaller, Sphinx. They also had this giant ship on display. The ancient Egyptians buried it with one of the Pharaohs to ensure his safe passage. It was fully constructed and hanging up in a special room to preserve the wood now that it had been dug up.

Saqquara – This was the site of the precursors to the pyramids called “step pyramids” or “mastabas.” The one we went to belonged to the Pharoah Zoser.

After this we went to a papyrus “factory” where various hieroglyphics had been copied onto home-made papyrus. One of the interesting parts of this place was that they had copies of the Joseph Smith papyri from the Book of Abraham on display. We then went back to the hotel, packed enough stuff for a few days into carry-on bags, and took a night flight to the city of Luxor. We arrived and stayed in this really nice Sheraton complete with a rain function in the showers and toilets with bidets :)

EGYPT: Day 1

2009-10-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

So I have a lot to catch up on. I am going to post half of my Egypt stuff today, let you all read it, then post the other half later.

9.17

We had breakfast earlier than usual which wouldn’t have been a problem except I was up really late the night before. There are always two buses for field trips determined by which of the two religion classes you belong to. Instead of tackling the drive in one day, we stopped at a few places.

Tel Beersheba – This is where Abraham dug a well and made an oath with King Abimelech. It is also one of the major spots on “The Patriarchs Way.” It marked the southern border of the Israelite kingdom. One of the cool parts about this place was the four horned altar, based on an existing altar found there, on which people could hold to in case of involuntary manslaughter to escape the avengers and gain a fair trial.

Wilderness of Zin overlook – We watched a movie about the great rift valley and the geography of the area. Then we went to the top of the building and took pictures overlooking this huge valley of the Wilderness of Zin (Sin) is where the Children of Israel wandered for 40 years.

Avdat – This was my favorite stop of the day. Avdat was an ancient Nabataean city. Nabataeans were involved in the spice trade and this city was an important stop for that. Avdat was maintained by the Romans and later by the Byzantines who built Christian structures. One of the interesting features of the Byzantine construction is a cross-shaped baptismal font.

After these stops, we travelled to the Yotvata Kibbutz. The people there are involved in dairy and date harvesting. We got a tour of the entire complex and got to eat some of the local dates. After this we had delicious food at the Kibbutz’s cafeteria for dinner. For those of you who don’t know what a kibbutz is, it’s basically a socialist Jewish colony. We then took a short drive to another kibbutz to stay the night.

Pics Up

2009-10-02T07:58:00.001-07:00

On Facebook. It took a really long time (like 1.5 hours) because I was at the center but pictures are just piling up!

Egypt

2009-09-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hello I just got back from Egypt last night. I took a ton of photos so bear with me as I sort them all out and stuff

Photos

2009-09-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

New photos on Facebook. Some on here to come!

Photos!

2009-09-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures from various field trips

Pictures up!

2009-09-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Go to facebook of pictures of me. I will be posting random photos on here of like the city and stuff later!

Update

2009-09-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

Well everything has become very busy now! I have lots and lots of reading and hw and quizzes etc. Saturday night (Sabbath) we went to the Orson Hyde memorial garden and it was really cool. I spent most of Sunday studying. There is this cool lounge/student store in the centre and we had a dance party thing there Sunday night. We went to a bunch of cool lookout points on Monday (where I took my facebook pic). My favourite place from that field trip was the St. Augustine church of the ascension. I took lots of pics of that trip. Tuesday was a busy class day but a few of us were able to go into the city for a few hours. We went under the Damascus gate where the original gate was at the time of Christ. We also went to this place called Zedikiahs cave. It is this huge cavern where the stone was cut out of for making the temple and the walls. It was really cool. We had a forum that night and it was pretty much a really busy day. Today (Wednesday) we had class and then took tours underneath the centre. All of the people who take the tour take chalk and write their names on the walls at the bottom (we are allowed to). I made my name really huge along with the year. Well it's lunch time now. I'm going to upload pictures some day!

Pretty Photo

2009-09-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

View of the city from the center the day I got here. It takes forever to upload pics I might go over to Hebrew University one day and post a bunch to Facebook or something. I will do a legit post tomorrow it is bed time!

Sabbath

2009-09-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

So this is going to cover yesterday (Friday) and today (Sunday).

Friday:
We had the first day of real school. I went to Old Testament and Ancient Near East Studies. Lots of reading to do so it looks like I'm going to be very busy. After those classes, we had lunch and met with our committees. I am on the "in-Jerusalem activities committee" which basically covers little field trips for us to do on free days while we are in Jerusalem. After this, a bunch of us decided to head into the city and do some exploring/get out money converted to shekels. I changed some of my cash for a trip a few of us have planned for the beach in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Probably 75% of the people at the center went with us to the money changers and we were going to go to the "Via Delarosa" and the Western "Wailing" Wall. Because it was taking so long for us to all get done, people left in small groups. I decided to go with these three girls that were going to go alone because they didn't have a guy with them (I was under the impression that girls had to have a guy with them at all times but in actuality it is only during the night but it was good that I went with them). We didn't know how busy it would be but I guess Friday during Ramadan is like the busiest time to be in the city. We left for the Damascus gate, not knowing that it was going to be packed. There were so many people trying to get in and out it was like a rock concert or something. The girls wanted to try and get through and that's why it was good I was with them. A lot of the guys were like "hey baby" and stuff but luckily none of them got groped or anything (which I heard happened to some of the girls trying to get through the gate). We started trying to get through and it was so packed we had to turn around mid way, take a rest in a shop, and push back out. It took like a half hour. We then called the center to ask for an alternate route. We walked around the perimeter of the city and ended up at the wailing wall. It was very interesting seeing the mix of ultra-orthodox Jews and just normal ones there. I didn't go up to the wall because we will be going there another day but I got some good pictures. We met other people there, many who didn't even try going through the gate. On the way back there was me, two other guys, and nine girls (three of which were from my original group). We headed through back through the city. The streets were pretty crowded and I decided to kind of be the sweeper and stay at the rear. Pretty much by the time we arrived at the other side of the same Damascus gate (the crowds being only a little bit smaller) it was just me and seven girls that I was getting all paranoid about. We all pushed through the gate and made it luckily. We walked back to the center and were back about a half hour before dinner ended. That night we had some get to know you activities and brownies.

Saturday:
It was kind of nice that today was fast Sabbath because there was no breakfast and therefore no reason to wake up. I slept a good 10.5 hours. We had church in the big auditorium that has huge windows overlooking the city. I was one of the few who wasn't in ward choir (they sing the prelude) so I passed the Sacrament. After sacrament we had Gospel doctrine and Priesthood just like any normal branch. The branch isn't a student ward (there are people that work at the embassy and stuff) so we probably won't be getting a bunch of callings. The main callings are already filled. After that I hung out at my apartment and now I'm doing this. Dinner is starting soon so I'm going to wrap it up. I am looking forward to going to the beach tomorrow a bunch of us are going I think and it should be a blast.

Day 2

2009-09-03T06:26:00.001-07:00

So we took Austrian air again to Tel Aviv. I really wish I knew more German because it was being spoken by everyone there. We arrived around 3pm and, after a long time going through security, customs, and waiting for people whose baggage didn't arrive, got on a bus for Jerusalem. All of the signs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Driving into the city was awesome. All of the buildings are required to be built out of Jerusalem limestone. It is very hilly and reminds me of San Francisco minus the big buildings and gays. The weather is a little humid and it gets really nice in the evening and is only a little hot in the day time. We got our room assignments and ate at the Oasis (the name of the cafeteria). There are a lot of food options here and it's pretty good. I have two other roommates and they're pretty cool. There was a lot of space to put all of my stuff and even some room to spare. The view from my patio is amazing you can see the entire old city. I will do a photo upload once I get a good amount. After dinner we all went outside on the big balcony and talked to some of the teachers about the city. We are right in the middle of the one month long Muslim holiday called Ramadan. During this holiday, Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, eating large feasts and partying at night. They like shoot guns in the air and do firecrackers before sundown it was kind of scary at first. We are right in the middle of the Muslim quarter so we got to view it from the balcony. The streets are lit up with white Christmas lights. There are these large spires on the tops of every mosque that are lit up with the same green lights. There are a bunch of megaphones pointing in every direction on top. Four times a day there is the "call to prayer." Each of these spires play a recording or have sombody live singing this prayer. It is very eastern and mystical sounding. Not all of the spires play the same music and there are a ton of mosques so there is this cacaphony of Muslim prayers going on. They do the call of prayer before sunup at 4am. I was scared I was going to be woken up by it but I was so exhausted I slept thorugh it. Anyways after we were on the balcony and listened to the call of prayer we had an orientation. This guy did an organ solo on the massive pipe organ and they basically went over a bunch of boring stuff. Then we met briefly with our ancient near eastern studies teacher and religion teacher. Then we broke up into groups and took a tour of the center. The center and city are beautiful at night and the weather is perfect. We went to bed after this. The next day we woke up, had breakfast, and went to another orientation. We then went on a general field trip of the city. The drivers are crazy. They don't really care about pedestrians. We started out walking around in the Muslim area. The streets are pretty dirty and there are a bunch of stray cats but all of the people were very religious and kept to themselves. The shop owners know all about the BYU kids and would stop us and give us their business cards. We didn't really stop anywhere for too long and were told not to take pictures. We went through the Muslim area, through a Christian area (stopping at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). We also passed through an Armenian area. We then went into the Jewish area. There was a mall and brand name shops. The streets were a lot cleaner and it seemed like there was a larger mix of secular people. There would be the orthodox people with their hats and beards but also there were people that were dressed in regular clothes. We were allowed to look around and I found a power adapter that I had been looking for. After this we came back, had lunch, and more orientations. Its about 5pm right now and we have a little break to do whatever as long as it's in the center. We haven't yet recieved our cell phones and id cards.

Travel Day

2009-09-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

So I am currently in Vienna Austria at the airport on a layover. I am wiped out from traveling and there is still one more flight plus a bus ride. We flew from Salt Lake to Chicago to Washington DC to Vienna. Its like 11pm in Vegas right now but its like 8am here. It's so weird. Anyways I don't usually blog but I think this will make it easy for people to see what's going on without having to send mass emails. Hope you enjoy!