The world fears time, but time fears the pyramids

Just playing James Bond in the Karnak temple, which is actually where they filmed a portion of one of the James Bond movies.

Our hotel was right on the Nile, which is where this picture was taken.

Going to the ruins of the Luxor and Karnak temples was probably one of my favorite things. Look how huge these pillars are. The architecture of these temples is incredible!

We're at the first pyramid ever made. It is a step pyramid.

The pyramids! One of the most surprising things was how close they are to the city. We first saw them the night we drove in as we were driving to our hotel. So we could city city landscape with the pyramids just behind the city.

Just kissing the sphynx, no big deal ;)

Laundry, Field Trip, and Thunder

The first picture is at the Tel at Jericho. The second one is overlooking the Judean Wilderness.


So just a quick funny note about how so much of my life is intertwined... this morning I had a quick 5-10 minute break in my Old Testament class. So I decided to might as well make it productive, so I ran down four flights of stairs and took my laundry out of the dryer, and back to my room. How many people can say that they took their laundry out during their short class break? I just thought it was really funny.
Well onto more exciting things... early this week we went on a field trip to see Jericho and a couple other sites. We first went to a monastery that is on the Mount of Temptation. It was somewhere near this sight that they believe Jesus was tempted by Satan. And in the monastery they even had a rock that was the rock Satan told Jesus to turn into bread. :) I love how everyone makes claims here like that all the time. Sometimes you just have to chuckle. Anyway at the monastery it overlooked ancient Jericho, which is being excavated, as well as modern day Jericho. To overlook Jericho we went on a little balcony at the monastery on the mountain, and even our professors said that they weren't sure how much weight the balcony could hold. Luckily we had no tragic deaths falling off the Mount of Temptation. After the monastery we went to the Tel of Jericho, where they are excavating ancient Jericho. It was neat because they are excavating remains that are 8,000 years old! Probably my favorite spot we visited that day was overlooking the Judean Wilderness. They told us that it was the spot where they took the picture in the Bible. I never knew a wilderness could be so beautiful!
So with that field trip our professors told us that one of the most amazing parts was the weather we had. It was raining the day that we went, and our professor told us that he had never seen rain in that part of the country. So the hike up the monastery was kind of slippery because they don't plan on it ever really raining. They also told us that was the coldest they've ever seen it in the Judean Wilderness too. I don't think we got the full effect of what it would be like to be stuck in the wilderness because we weren't experiencing the scourching heat.
The weather has actually been amazing since I got here! The first week and a half we were here the weather was like the perfect temperature, mid 70's or so. It definitely did not feel like January, and we all kind of forgot that Christmas happened less than a month ago. Since then it's cooled down a little bit, but it's still been nice. Probably more like 50 and 60 degree weather. They tell us that this is the rainy season, and we've begun to see that. They're in a drought right now, so it hasn't rained that much, but it is often drizzling lightly. Except for the other day... their was a huge storm! Someone native to the Holy Land told us that it was the worst rain storm that they had seen in a couple decades. It was thundering and lightening like crazy too! At one point it was so close and so loud the huge windows in the center started to shake. I also heard that the rainstorm caused a lot of flooding in the Middle East. Luckily that day none of us were out in the city, so we got to enjoy the big rainstorm from inside.
Another neat thing we did this week as attend a Lutheran service on Sunday. It was kind of neat to go to a sunday service in a church in the middle of the old city. The people were all very kind and welcoming. The funny part was that they had all the visitors stand up and introduce themselves. There were probably at least 100 visitors, and only like 15 members of their congregation.
Today when I went out to the city we have a group of five 14-15 year old boys follow us half the way there. I most definitely had a 15 year old boy trying to hit on me. I was just glad that he was only 15. :) One thing that has been surprising is how much the kids just run around here. It isn't uncommon to see a little kid running around the old city by themselves. Also it's really sad to see how young they begin smoking. As we came back to the center there was a boy that was probably about 9 or 10 smoking on the steps of the center. It's really really sad.
So I need to get over to Hebrew University more often so I can upload pictures, because I know that's more exciting than writing. So I'll definitely work on that, but it probably won't be for at least a week and a half.

You Mormon?

Almost without fail everytime we go through the old city someone asks us "You Mormon? I give you special deal." And in the words of my roommate "yeah, special jacked-up deals." I think that we're all slowly becoming better bargainers. I still have some work to do, but then again all of I've bought so far is some Jesus' sandals, and gummy candies. I'm still trying to find a skirts and scarves I want.

So a little more about Ramparts Walk (the walk around the city on the wall). It was really incredbile to be able to see the city from above. I didn't realize how many stories high the city was. When you're down on the street everything just looks like it is one story high, with all of the stores on the street. From above you can see the homes where all of the people live above their shops. We all decided that it kind of reminded us of Aladdin, because you can see all of the rooftops in this old city. On their roofs you can see all sorts of things, including everyone's laundry out on the line. My favorite thing was probably the little kids that we would pass sometimes. Towards the end of our walk there were a group of 5 or so little kids that were singing us a song and clapping (I believe in Arabic). They were darling! After they finished their song they yelled things like "I love you, I love you!" and "What's your name?" So we talked to the cute little kids on their roof while we were on top of the city wall.
Another cool thing about being on the wall was just simply looking at the wall. There were slits in the wall where you can shoot arrows and such. I really did feel like I had gone back in time.

A note more about going to Dome of the Rock. We've been told that sometimes it is difficult to get access to the Temple Mount, which is where the Dome of the Rock is. So we were pretty excited when we got access our very first try. Granted they only let us stay up there for about an hour, but it was still really neat. We also aren't allowed to go into the Dome of the Rock, but it was neat to be able to be just outside it. It's truly a beautiful building. It is definitely the building that catches my eye anytime I look out any window at the Jerusalem Center.

Yesterday I had falafel for the first time, and I already love it! I also already don't know what I'm going to do when I leave Jerusalem and I can't have pita bread for every meal. Today I already had toasted pita for breakfast, and a pita sandwhich for lunch, and I believe we're having shawarma for dinner tonight. The food here is great, it's just difficult sometimes to make sure I don't eat too much. I'm not used to having unlimited amounts of food at meals. And a lot of the food here is deep fried. Probably one my absolute favorites is the deep fried french toast that they have for breakfast everyday. And they have chololate syrup stuff to put on top. So not healthy! So I've decided to limit my deep fried french toast eating to only on the Sabbath. The only thing I really miss is good desserts. I'm not a big fan of the desserts that they feed us here, but that's probably a good thing considering the food isn't extremely healthy, and actually some of the normal food they feed us should probably count for a dessert. Like this morning we couldn't quite figure out what one of the dishes was, all we know is it tasted like cheese cake... for breakfast :)

Yesterday was our first free day to go out and do whatever we wanted. In the morning we went to the Western Wall, as well as Dome of the Rock. We went to a couple other stops, and then went and walked around the wall that is around the city. Hopefully I'll have time later to tell more details. Needless to say it was amazing, but also extremely tiring because we were walking straight from 8:00 am to about 3:30 pm, definitely worth it though.

Sabbath

Today was my first Sabbath in the holy land. Yes, we have Church on Saturday. We also have an amazing view of the city during Sacrament Meeting. It's pretty amazing when the speaker mentions Jerusalem and your looking out the window at the city. Another thing I thought was pretty cool was we had pita bread for our sacrament bread.
So after church I went with a couple of people to the Garden Tomb. I had already been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and it was amazing the contrast. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is very touristy and loud, while the Garden Tomb was a lot more reverant and peaceful. The Spirit was very strong at the Garden Tomb as well.
So yesterday I wandered out into the Old City without the whole group for the first time. Me and two other people went and looked at many of the shops in the Old City. We were only able to go for about two hours, but it was still incredible. I can't believe how comfortable I already feel around the city. Yesterday we had a lot of people stop us and ask us "you BYU?" or "you the Mormons?" Literally everyone knows who we are. And I haven't met anyone that doesn't love us yet. That's probably one of my favorite things.
So the drivers here in the Holy Land are CRAZY!! Probably the only thing that scares me is crossing the street... :) Yesterday while we were walking a car came zooming by, and then we heard a loud collision. He hit a cat. The best part though was the older Palestinian man passing us said "crazy driver" in English with his accent.

First couple days.

I have made it to the holy land safe, and I'm already loving it! My apartment has a balcony out back and the view is incredible! We have a view of all of Jerusalem. Actually there are windows and balconies everywhere in the Jerusalem Center that have a view of the city. I wish I could explain how beautiful the building is too. I'll have to post pictures as soon as I can. It still can't believe that I really live here!
So my first tragic story of my trip... yesterday morning I woke up and tried to use my straightner. I plugged it in with my converter, and about three minutes later the plates on it had melted off. Yes melted off! I didn't cry when I said goodbye to anyone, but I almost cried when I found my straightner. So it looks like I'll be doing my hair in a bun or a braid for the next four months. Hopefully by that point I'll be able to laugh about the whole thing. :)
Yesterday we also had a tour of Jerusalem, and went into the old city for the first time. Probably one of my most favorite things was when we were walking to the old city a man past us and yelled "good morning BYU" to us, and then all these cute little Arab kids yelled hello and waved at us. The old city is incredible, and nothing like I expected. We're still all very lost, but I'm sure within four months we'll be able to find our way around.

Tomorrow!

Well it's 11:00 pm, and I leave for Jerusalem in the morning. I'm already packed and ready to go! I'll hopefully get something excited posted in a couple of days. Right now I'm just excited to be done with goodbyes, and to have the flight over. But I have a feeling it will come soon enough...