Walk like an Egyptian

Ali and the Nile

Egyptian man and Camel in front of a Pyramid

I just returned from a week in Egypt! I loved Egypt and being there with friends and professors just made the trip so much fun! We started the trip driving from Jerusalem to Allot. Along the way we stopped at TEL BEER SHEBA, Ben Gurion's grave, and an ancient temple along the spice trade routes. Israel has such a long history it is amazing to see buildings that are still standing 2000+ years later. In Allot we ate dinner at a Kibbutz and learned about the kibbutz life style. After dinner we went to a different kibbutz to spend the night. Monday morning we crossed the border from Israel to Egypt, hopped on a bus and drove through the desert to Cairo. Our first night in Cairo we went to see a sound and light show at the pyramids. The show was a little cheesy, but seeing the pyramids for the first time was amazing! On Tuesday we woke up early and headed straight for the pyramids, we walked around took pictures and even toured inside one of the pyramids. Later we went to see the sphinx and Memphis. We had lunch at this fun little restaurant near Memphis, they served us hot fresh pita's and showed us the woman who was making the pitas in a fire pit. From lunch we drove straight to the Cairo airport and flew to Luxor! Luxor was my favorite city, maybe because the hotel we stayed in was nice and clean! In Luxor we saw the Karnak temple, Luxor temple, the Valley of the Kings, road a boat on the Nile,went on a camel safari ride, and shopped at the Luxor bazaar. While we were on the camel safari ride we were taken through little neighborhoods. I loved seeing the little houses and streets of Luxor. This month is the holy month of Ramadan so we were able to see a Ramadan feast during our safari as well. Shopping the bazaar was pretty interesting. The vendors in Luxor are scary! They stare and are very aggressive when they want you to buy something. From Luxor we took a night train back to Cairo where we saw more ancient temples and shopped at another bazaar. Then from Cairo we drove through the sinai desert to Mt Sinai. About 1am Sunday morning we started hiking and were up at the top for sunrise. From Mt. Sinai we drove back to Israel! It's nice to be back home.

Sorry this post isn't very detailed, I'll try to break down the trip later.

Mediterranean Sea!

Ali and Jessica on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv

Lindy trying to step on people at the beach

Yesterday we spent an amazing day at the beach in Tel Aviv. We spent about half the day in the water and on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the chance to swim in the Mediterranean Sea! After we dried off a little we decided to explore Tel Aviv. We walked through Tel Aviv’s flee market and then headed to the mall. After exploring we found a little falafel place and had dinner. Once the sun went down we started walking the beach. It was a beautiful, fun day, and a nice little escape from center.

ADVENTURES IN THE OLD CITY

Well after visiting the Israel Museum Heather, Ali, and I toured around the Old City! It was quite the adventure, up until Sunday we had only ever been in the Palestinian and Christian quarters. On Sunday we found the Jewish and Armenian quarters. I love, love, love the Jewish quarter, it’s not quite as touristy, it's a lot quieter than the Palestinian quarter, it doesn’t smell funny, and it’s beautiful. Walking through this little section of the Old City we found old ruins, little art galleries, and the Western Wall. The only problem we were completely lost. As we were trying to find our way out of the city we started walking down a street in the opposite direction of hundreds of Palestinian men. I don’t know why we thought it would be smart to walk toward something that hundreds of men were walking away from, but we did. At the end of the road we found a back entrance to the Dome of the Rock and it was made very clear that we were not allowed in and should turn around immediately. We found our way out eventually and we learned a great lesson, always follow the flow of traffic.

Standing Outside of Damascus Gate

ONCE IN A LIFE TIME!

On Sunday we took a trip to see the Israel Museum. They have or I guess had an exhibit with the Isaiah Dead Sea Scrolls. The exhibit ended on Wednesday and the scrolls are going into a vault never to be shown to the public again. So I am one of the very few that have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Just a few things that I learned about the Scrolls from Brother Skinner (who actually worked on translating the scrolls!!)

• The scrolls were kept by a group of people known as the Qumran
• The Qumran claimed to Israel’s restored
• Believed that the temple should be the center of their living
• Believed they were living in the Latter Days
• A Wadi Bedouin man was the first to find the scrolls
• Some of the scrolls ended up for sale in the Wall Street Journal
• All scrolls now belong to the state of ISRAEL
• A special Museum was built for the scrolls THE SHRINE OF THE BOOK
• A scroll made of copper was found buried (proving that metal was used in writing sacred text)
• 40,000 scraps of material found
• 820 separate scrolls found

The Holy Land

Well after 20 hours of traveling we finally made it to JERUSALEM! yay! The flights here were not too bad, but the jet lag is pretty hard to get over. The last three days here in the Holy land have been exciting! Our first day here is kind of a blur. I was so tired that I can't remember much of the orientation that went on. Thursday was a little better, we were able to go out in the city and see East Jerusalem (Palestinian area) The Old City, and a little of West Jerusalem (Israeli area). On Friday classes started. The classes here are going to be a lot of work, but we are already learning so much about the culture and the people here in Jerusalem. We weren't able to go out in the city on Friday. The Palestinians here are currently celebrating Ramadan and Friday is the Islamic sabbath so on Friday there were 100,000 Islamic visitors in the city. So security thought that it would be safest if the students stay in the center.

Security here is great! All of the guys up at security are so friendly and fun to talk to. Whenever all the students go out in the center the security guys drive around the city and keep an eye on us.

BYU's center is in east Jerusalem. The center is beautiful. Every floor of the building has a balcony that over looks east Jerusalem and the Old City. The balcony just off my bedroom has a straight shot at the Dome of the Rock! Also right outside my bedroom is an Islamic tower where the call to prayer is broadcast. Call to prayer happens five times a day, including one at 4:30 in the morning! So much for sleeping in.

(Sorry I haven't posted any pictures, hopefully I'll be able to tomorrow.)