Day one of Jordan

These seats are in all of the Catholic churches. Don't we look so wise in them though?!

The mosaic in Madaba

Another bus ride, and another fabulous day in the life of a JC student. We loaded up on the buses early EARLY in the morning and headed on over to Jordan. After another miticulous dance through the border, we made our first stop at Mount Nebo. I guess this is the mountain Moses was trasfigured from. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring. We then stopped at a church in Madba where a mosaic was discovered showing a map depicting the locations of holy Christian locations in the Holy Land. Next stop- lunch! They had salsa at all of the resturants we went ot in Jordan. No chips, but pitas got the job done. We were supposed to be very careful with what we ate and drank in Jordan, but I was willing to get the runs for a bite of salsa! (good news...I wasn't the least bit sick) After lunch it was then time to take a 4 hour bus ride down to Petra. The ride was long, but I slept for most of it. We are all becoming really good at bus travel here. When we arrived in Petra, it was dinner time. Man, I thought my life revolved around food before I got here, I was wrong! I always eat whether I am hungry or not becasue you just don't know what the next meal is going to turn out to be like. Once we finished dinner, most of us left the hotel to check out the the shops near the hotel. We found one called the "Rural Woman Bazaar." Why rural? We checked it out, gave the shop owners a good scare to have well over 20 young Americans flooding the store. When I got to the end of the road, I saw a few of my girl friends giggling together and I just had to be in on what was so funny. They took me over to a shop where one of the most handsome men I have ever seen was working. My friend Sarah Jane had him tie every stinkin scarf in his store around her head while we all smiled and batted our eye lashes at him. After we ran out of ways to flirt with him we met up with some guys to take some pictures. We were all laughing and taking a million pictures by a humongous picture of the king (which we later found out is illegal-oops!) when Saad (the shop keeper) ran down the street to take pictures with us. He hopped in line with the boys and all of us girls started snapping pictures as fast as the shutter would go. With all the laughing and excitement Saad was loving the attention. The boys tryed to explain what "putting out the vibe" meant and accidentally used the word sexy. Wrong word! Saad started ripping off his jacket and going abercrombie on us! We all yelled "stop stop stop!" and died laughing. We quit the photo shoot and the boys started walking back towards us. Saad latched onto David and started stroking his face and telling him how handsome he was. I am SO sure all the good looking men are GAY! What a waste. I quickly jumped in and grabbed David's arm and said, "Hey! He's mine!" We laughed the whole way down the street to Movenpick where we grabbed some delicious icecream and laughed for another good 30 minutes. Our teachers are always warning us girls about how careful we need to be about not getting groped, so the fact that only only person to come even close to being groped was big burly David, by the best looking Jordanian man in Petra. After laughing so hard my head wanted to pop, I decided it was time for bed to get ready for Petra the next day.

COMING SOON!

Coming to a blog near you...Mikael Webb's adventures in Jordan.
I ablsolutely fell in love with Jordan and can't wait to tell you all about it... but I have to watch all the pirated movies I bought first.

Blogging with Becca

Just when I think I know everyone and don't need anymore new friends, I make one. I have discovered my new entertainement in life...Becca. We only had one class this morning and then our Jordan orientation. Because it is a Friday, we aren't allowed out of the center until after 3, so Becca and I decided we were going to watch Emma and blog. I have been attempting to read Pride and Prejudice in the few spare moments I get. I have never read it, or any Jane Austin book for that matter, and even though I am that far in the book, it is changing the world around me. The notes in my journal come out sounding more like Elizabeth Bennett than me. I am already feeling more like a girl with the few pages I have read.

I realize I haven't put anything up in a few days so I will try and get cuaght up. First things first, do you likw how I have redone my page? I was getting sick of looking at the old layout and wanted something that flowed a little better with the pictures I was putting up. Okay, let's see what has happened since the Ramadan feast...

The end of Sukkot came and to celebrate the end, many of the Jews Participate in the Wacking of the Willows. They gather around the Western Wall and slap palm leaves or willow branches on the ground as a way to ask for rain. In order to see it, we had to be at the Western Wall at 6:30 in the morning. It was worth getting up early and making the 15 minute walk. I am suprised how well I have been getting up so early this whole time. It is probably because I love breakfast and the knowledge that I have a good breakfast waiting that gets me out of bed.

Yesterday we went on a field trip to Hezikiahs tunnel. I have been excited to do this. Brittani told me how much she loved it, so I have been been looking forward to going. It really was a blast. They are still doing excavation ont the City of David which is above Hezikiah's tunnel. We were able to look at the ruins. We wound our way down the hill and then went through Hezikiah's tunnel. As you walk through the water gets up to about my mid thigh, whick mean just baout every other girls hips. Yes, I am a tall freak here. It was such a blast to wafe through the water. Dad, that head lamp you got me in the BEST! After going through the tunnel, we went to the pool of Soloam. This is the pool where Jesus healed the blind man. It was really cool to see parts of the city that were really around suring Christ's tims, and to walk to the same streets he did. The streets from His time perios are much lower than street level today. The city just keeps building ontop of itself for years, so walking on streets Christ walks on means going below street level today. A couple friends and I went intot the old city to pick up some batteries and other things we needed. It was a very relaxed day, and I love being able to go into the city and feel at home.

The Kids that Shoot us

Ben Yahuda street-da Girls!

Just a few of the trouble makers

My bud Muhammed


I am not longer as afraid of my own neighborhood. I am not going to lie. I was for a while. Especially at the end of Ramadan. It seemed like every little boy got a pellet gun to celebrate then end of Ramadan. As we would walk up the hill back to the center, they loved to use us as target practice. Yesterday we got the opportunity to face these little gunmen face to face...service project style. The streets and lots around the Jerusalem Center are always littered with trash. This semester, we did a clean up project to pick up the trash and interact with the neighborhood. A bunch of young boys from a school just up the street came to help. These would be the same boys that throw rocks and shoot bb's at us. Luckily I was jsut so excited to be able to be with kids, I forgot that little detail. When the boys came to help, they made their presence known. I began following a little cluster of boys around, hoping they would pay attention to me and take a liking to me. I think it worked. Before I knew it, they were carrying around a stick with a baby doll's head shoved on top, teaching me Arabic words. I'm not going to lie, we didn't do much trash picking up, we be sure had fun. One boy in particular stuck by my side most of the time. He was a hard little worker and I don't think I ever saw a smile leave his face. Even when the rest of us got into a water bottle fight, he smiled and kept right on working. His name is Muhammed. He helped me learn most of the other boys names, and laughed at me as I attempted to say what should have been easy phrases in Arabic, but my tongue and lips just couldn't form the right sounds. After three hours of picking up trash and sweeping the sidewalks, we all ended up in a dirt lot, playing games. The littlest boys were climbing all over the tall students, making them throw them in the air and give them piggy back rides. We all eventually made our way to a grassy, spider covered slope on the Jerusalem Center grounds. Muhammed sat next to me and shared half of his orange with me. the others were all throwing olives that fell off the trees above at each other. Little boys are so much fun! It was so much fun to watch all of us students interact with the kids, and to see how similar children are no matter what part of the world they grow up in. Even if we were dirty and smelly from rumaging through the dirt to pick up trash, it was well worth it to get on good terms with the little trouble makers, and now some of my favorite friends, here in East Jerusalem.
Later that day, a big group of us decided to walk over to West Jerusalem to check out the night life, look at all the sukkot outside the resturaunts, and grab a shwarma to eat. It seems like everywhere we go we turn into a specticle. A couple of the guys started arm wrestling, and before we knew it, there was a circle of people around us, cheering and taking part in the contest. There was every walk of life hanging out on Ben Yahuda street. There were hippies playing guitars, Othodox Jews eating out, and BYU students arm wrestling. It felt so great to get out of the center for a night and add a little change to our routine.

Big, Tough, and Wild

Sometimes you just need to be with the girls. Even though there are like...3... boys here, some of us were in serious need of having some girls time. So what do girls do when they get together? You probably guessed it....SHOP! We tracked down a real mall here in town and set out to buy clothes to add to the wardrobe that is on a weekly cycle here. With all of the holidays going on here, we have been trying to go for a while, but there has been a holiday everyday for almost 3 weeks straight, so actually getting there when we are allowed out and when the stores are open has been tricky. As soon as the six of us girls walked out the gates of the center I was already feeling a little more in touch with my girly side. We were cracking jokes about boobs and and making fun of eachother like girls do when boys aren't around. The girls I went out with are not girls I have hung out with a lot, but I absolutely love them! When I have gone out with just girls before, I have noticed they are usually pretty reserved and cautious because they are contantly telling us how different the culture is here and how how even if we aren't flooseys, western women are just seen as easy. Our little group of six knew how to have fun and have street smarts at the same time. When we got ot the western side of the city and found the mall, it was like seeing a vision from heaven. It was an outdoor shopping mall with European clothes stores lining each side. As we walked into each store, it was very apparent we did not fit in. Here we were in our frumpy, touristy clothes scanning the racks for anything that cost less than and arm and a leg. All the clothes were much too expensive for my bank account, but it was still so much fun to even just look at and drool over clothes. We walked the length of the mall and only bought a few little things here and there. My friend Becca had the best purchase of the day...a little boys t-shirt with a bear on the front that said "Big, Tough, and Wild." Shopping here in Israel is wonderful because they don't care if you touch the clothes or pick them up to try them on. Most places I have traveled, the store clerks freak when you even stretch your hand out to touch something. We were cramming into dressing rooms and giggling at the ridiculous things we were trying on. The sun began to set and that is our signal to hustle home. We quickly ran to Ben Yahuda street to grab a gelato and then started the treck home. There were tons of soldiers out becasue it was a Jewish holiday. As we walked past a parked jeep full of soldiers, I decided to make my secret desire to get a picture with the troops come true. I stopped the girls, turned around, and went back to ask if they would take a pictue with us. Of course they would! One of the soldiers hopped out of another parked truck and ran over to me to say he wanted a picture with me. We took a group picture and then the one soldier started asking where we were from and all of that. Then he asked me how he was supposed to see me again. I told him he wouldn't. He asked if he could have my number, but don't worry, I didn't even know it and I wouldn't have given it to him if I did. As a last resort, he asked if he could give me his number so I could call him sometime..........Sure! I ran back to my friends with the cute Israeli troop's number written on my map. I got his digits! I got his digits! I'll never call him, but it made for a good end to the girls trip out.

Once we got back to the center, we had to quickly change and run up to the forum for a special presentation from the Arabic teacher. He brought two Muslim Shieks to demonstrate the reading of the Koran and the call to prayer fro us. We then went into dinner for a Ramadan feast. The cafateria was decorated with flowers and tableclothes and each of us were seated by ushers to our assigned seats. The dinner tasted pretty much like every other dinner we have everyday, but it was fun to do something out of the ordinary. After dinner we shuffled into the gym to learn Palestinian folk dancing. Anything to do with dancing you know I am going to love it. I was dying of laughter watching the boys attempt to prance across the gym. It was a blast! Best of the day? Getting the guard's number. *note: he is not in the above picture.
p.s. Is is odd that I never noticed their guns until I just loaded the picture?

Two days of Humility

I haven't written for a couple of days, so I will sum up two pretty amazing days in one post. On Monday, after classes were finished, we were able to use the oil presses on the grounds of the school to press the olives we have been harvesting. Before we went out to press the olives, we gathered in the forum to have a devotional on the significance of olive trees, olives, and the olive pressing process. My Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor, Andrew Skinner, gave the devotional. I know some of you may know who Andrew Skinner is but for those of you who don't, I will tell you a little about him. In short, he is a historical Genious. Ask him anything and I can guarantee he knows it. He has written numerous religious books, has been on the correlation commitee for the church, and well, I really could go on and on. The point is he knows his stuff and gets his point across eloquently. I feel so lucky to be in such close proximity with men as great as him, and love even more that he is so down to earth. During his devotional, he taught us about the importance of the olive tree in biblical civilizations and how they used it. He then taught us the symbolism in the many parts of the olive tree and the crushing process to get oil from the olives. He spoke about it with great respect and in a very sacred way. He promised that we would never look at an olive tree the same, and I hope I will always see the great symbol it is. We then were able go outside and use the three different pressed the center has to crush the olives and harvest the oil. It really was a once in a life time experience to take part in.

Today we took a field trip to the Holocaust Museum. I have been so excited to go. I remember being facinated by the Holocaust and WWII when I was younger and reading any book about it that I could get my hands on. I listened to the tape Dad gave me of the Diary of Anne Frank when I would go to bed at night. I also remember renting a documentary on the Holocasut once, not knowing how graphic it would be. I remember turning it on in Mom and Dad's room, and sitting on the floor in front of the TV, excited to see real footage of the liberations of the concentration camps. It wasn't long before I turned to movie off in tears because the skeletons limping across the screen did not resemble any of the people I had imagined as I read and reread the books from the Holocaust. As many of us students talked about the field trip coming up, my excitement grew to become reaquanted with something that had stolen my attention for so many years.

When we arrived at the museum this morning it was raining. The first rain we have seen since coming here. The rain seemed to fit with the events of the day. Upon entering the museum, you can tell every last detail was well thought out and everything was placed in a certain spot or hung a particular was for a reason. The first diplay is of pictures found on many of the Jews who died right before their camps were liberated. The pictures they held were of their families or people they loved before the nightmare of the Holocaust began. As you walk through the museum, it is set up into periods of the Holocaust, starting with the book burnings, and weaving it's way through the ghettos, to the work camps, all the way to the liberation. Artifacts were displayed with care, videos showed actual footage, photos and drawing helped to illistrate what happened, and more information than I could possibly take in on one visit was available. It took us three hours to walk through relatively quickly. It was amazing how quiet and attentive our group was the whole time. While much of what was presented was startling and hard to swallow, it was also very humbling. As we were walking out of the main part of the museum, one of my friends asked what the right word would be to describe what we had just seen. How do you describe something like what I had just seen. Words kept running through my head as we visited the Memorial and the Room of Names that holds all the names they have been able to find of Holocaust victims. The one word I have finally settled on is Sobering. Our last stop in the museum was the children's memorial. It was a memorial made to pay tribute to all of the children who died in the Holocaust. The family who sponsored it had a two year old son that died in the Holocaust. As you walk into the memorial, a sculture of his face is imprinted into the wall. I had been pretty proud of myself for keeping it together throughout the whole museum. Even when our tour guide told us that the first people the Nazis tried to eleminat were those with mental and physical disabilities (they managed to kill 70,000 before the Catholic Church stepped in stopped them) I kept my composure. As soon as I walked into the children's memorial and saw the sculture of the little two year old boy I lost it. His chubby, round cheeks and sly little grin reminded me all to much of my little Asher boy. I tryed to fight the tears, but the whole experience had been pretty emotionally tolling. I hate crying in front of people. I can count on one hand the times I have shown what a bawl baby I am in front of people. Inside the memorial, the names and ages of children are said over a sound system, and mirrors and windows with little lights that look like candles cover the walls. As I walked out of the memorial, I managed to regain my composure and I don't think many people noticed my puffy red eyes. As we walked out of the museum, the sun was shining. My religion teacher came up to me and said, "Did you notice the weather? It was raining when we got here, but now the sun had come out." He must have known I was struggling a bit because then he said, "It just goes to prove there is always hope." It really was a sobering experience, and even though I am still feeling a little drained from the whole experience, I would love to go back again because I feel like I only scratched the surface of all that there was to see. I am grateful for the Olive Crushing experience I had just a few days prior to help me understand and remember times in my own life where I have been able to use the Atonement. Christ really did suffer. He knows all of our aches and pains. He loves all of us individually. It is that knowledge that gives me hope on the rainy days.

Here Sheepy Sheepy!

Cooking my Pita
Patting out my pita with my friend David

Crushing up my spices

Herding my little flock

Yesterday we had a fun field trip to the Biblical Gardens near Tel Aviv. Margo had told me that this was one of her favorite things to do when she was here, and if Margo likes it, I knew I was going to like it too. They created the gardens to help people understand the different plants, anilmals, and landscapes used in the bible and the symbolism behind them. It is so much easier to understand the irony or symbolism of different parables involving things that are not part of our everyday life today, but were in the times of the Bible of you can actually see and handle them. We first talked about almond trees and how they are the first trees to bud at the end of the winter season, but that it takes them 6 months to prepare for this. After learning about almond trees, we went to try our hand at sheep herding. There were actually sheep and goats in the flock we were supposed to herd. I say "supposed to" becasue my group didn't do so well. It was kind of like a little obstacle course thing that we had to take the flock on in seven minutes. My group was supposed to seperate the sheep and goats and take them to the fig tree, then to the fake watering hole, and then to a little area in the corner of the fenced off area. We were trying to hurry and do it all in under seven minutes and we were running too fast...and all our sheep and goats ran right into out imaginary pond and drown. Oops! After we all got a chance to herd the sheep around we gathered around to talk about the symbolism of being a shepard. We talked about the different things that helped us herd the sheep. It was easier if you were behind the sheep prodding them from the rear. You had a view of where they were going and what direction you wanted to move them in. The sheep responded best to nudged and by talking to them. They also were easliy distracted. One would see a leaf and stop to smell it, so they all would. There is always a leader within the herd that the other sheep follow. The shepard guides that sheep, and the other sheep will follow it. There was so much more symbolism with sheparding than I had ever thought there could be. It really was a fun and neat experience. We then went and gathered all sorts of berries and herbs while walking to another pavilian. Our tour guide then talked to us about the symbolism between hysop and cedar trees. Hysop is oregano and grows out of the rocks. It is just a little plant that smells delicious and was used for medicinal and cooking purposes during the Biblical times. Hysop is representative of humility and is used as a symbol of this on many occasions in the Bible. Cedar trees are representative of pride because they are large trees here. When King Soloman became prideful, he had outlandish amounts of Cedar trees brought in to build his palace. After realizing his pride, Soloman asked to be cleansed with hysop. Before learning these things I never would have understood the symbolism in this story, but now I do. After talking about many of the bible stories that involve these two plants, we ground dried oragano up with some of the other herbs we had gathered to use later. We then were able to visit a Torah scribe and see some 200 year old Torah scrolls. At lunch we all sat around and ate our sack lunches, and then they taught us how to make pita bread. We got to make our own pitas and then eat them with olive oil and the oragano we had ground up. It was delicious! I am craving it right now! After lunch, we talked about the importance of milk and honey in the promised land and got to see what a Kosher Sukkot or booth looks like that the Jews still stay in today for their Sukkot holiday. They stay in these booths for 8 days to remember their time in the wilderness and appreciate all that they have in the land of milk and honey. We also talked about why the Jews drink wine to celebrate the harvest, so we all toasted and drank wine to really feel a part of the experience. Okay, it was only grape juice, but we can pretend. It really was a fun field trip and I learned a lot. I also put rocks in a boys backpack all day long and he still hasn't found them. I can't wait until he figures out he has been packing around rocks this whole time!

My week late conference

I don't know if anyone else has ever felt like certain talks were written especially for them, but I felt that with almost every talk we watched today. I have felt that a select few lines in talks were meant for me to hear, or a certain lesson in Sunday school was a subject I was supposed to hear, but I have never felt a whole session of conference was prepared just for me until today. I know I am hearing it a week late, but it is amazing how much that week has helped me figure out for myself what I was wanting to gain from conference. Before I came to Jerusalem Dad gave me a blessing and in it I was blessed that I would know what I direction I should go would be made clear to me while I was here. I didn't think I was wondering what I should do so I was a little confused by why I was told that. When I came here I began to worry that maybe I had made a wrong choice somewhere in life and I was way far off from the path I am supposed to be on. Not that I was worried about being wayward, or that I have been jumping off the deep end or anything, but with the economy tanking and the end of college coming, I was beginning to wonder if my dreams might be taking me in the wrong direction where I came home to Mom and Dads basement everynight. As conference rolled around, I got excited to hear Elder Worthlin talk because he is my favorite and he just has such a simple yet powerful way with words. When he was the first speaker today I was so excited and knew it was going to be a good session. I think I may have pulled something completely different out of conference than everyone else, but I can say without a doubt that I am not pointed in the wrong direction. My 5 year...heck, even my 1 year plan is still hazey, but I know it is going to clear up as I go. As I am looking back on my notes right now, I can see that the subject of the talks really didn't have anything to do with what I learned, but that is the great thing about personal revelation! It comes when you need it, if you are prepared. You are probably wondering what it was that I learned... I am quitting school and becoming a dancer! Just kidding. Quite the opposite. Working with kids is where I need to be. Not a mission. Not passing drinks out on an airplane somewhere. I am meant to work with children and their families. I really might be on the borderline of over obssesive about it. I was talking to a girl here just the other day about it. She is an elementary ed. major so I was excited to talk education with her. She stopped me and said, "I am only majoring in el. ed. becasue it is a good degree to have. I hate working with kids. I don't want anything to do with teaching. But it is always a good fall back plan." I wanted to whop her in the head! I would never send any child to her classroom! I wanted to tell her she was a disgrace and and that she had better rethink life real quick. I held my tongue and decided maybe I could point out some other career options that would be better and would keep her far away from children. I don't think it worked, but I have 3 more months to convice her to do something else. Well, dinner is calling my name, but I just had to write down how blessed I am to constantly be reassured in the gospel. How does anyone get through life with out it?

A Friday to Remember

When ever my friend Oliver would come over he would always say "Best and worst." We would then go around the room and tell our best and worst part of the day, and it always made for good conversation. I hope Oliver is still in Idaho when I get back. To follow Oliver's good idea...best and worst for the day. Let's start with worst... Tests. This morning at 7:30 I had Old Testament and we have quizes every few class periods. I am sad to say it, but I am not enjoying my Old Testament class at all. I have always struggled with the Old Testament, so I was hoping that my classes here would really help me pull some meaning out of it instead of make me wonder why it is even scripture at all. Our quizes are usually 40 questions long and becasue we all study so hard, our teacher has to make them trickier and trickier so we all don't score high scores. I definately bombed todays. I don't really care to know what every single person's name in the bible means, or the 5 names of the mountain that had little to do with anything...I want to know how all these weird stories can make me a more Christ centerd person! I can't wait until we get to the New Testament. After two hours of writing down every little trivial thing there is to learn about the geography of the bible, I went to my Judaism class for an hour and then I had Ancient Near Eastern Studies for an hour. We had our first test in that class today, and memorizing information about several thousands of years of the Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures is not something that comes easy for me. I think I did okay on the test, and have actually come to love studying history. It is beginning to make a little more sense to me. After lunch, we had two hours of our Islam class. Having been trapped in the center for more than two days without being able to step outside the walls, and studying like mad has made me a bit homesick today. I have been missing weird things, like watching TV with Mom and Dad on the leather couches in the front room. I especially miss being able to do something by my self. Wake up in an empty room. Drive myself somewhere. Not talk to someone for longer than 30 minutes.... Oh boy. I AM going to end up alone for the rest of my life. I enjoy my personal space too much.
Now for the best of the day: After class, all 80 of us went to the Western Wall for sunset/ the beginning of Shabbat for the Jews. It is an experience I will cherish forever. I have been to the Western Wall a couple of times now, but this was unlike any other time. Each side was packed with Jews, not the tourists I have seen the other times I have gone. Many of them were in their orthodox get up. The women we all dressed very stylish and very conservatively. They are absolutely beautiful women. The women's side is relatively quiet, but on the men's side, there was singing and dancing. I walked to the top of the partitian and watched the people for a good 45 minutes. A large group of soldiers came and were standing not too far from me. At first they all were pretty timid but then they all locked their arms around eachother in a circle and started singing and pretty soon they were bouncing around in a circle. They were all so happy and it was unlike what I was expecting from such a strict and conservative religion. With every Jew that any of us students have walked up to and started talking to, they have been genuinely kind in answering our questions. People from all over the world come to participate in Shabbat at the most holy place on Earth for the Jews. Many fo the boys from the center joined in the festivities going on with the men. As I was watching all of the people celebrating the start of Shabbat, I couldn't help but feel so satified that I was fulfilling a life dream of mine. At times I just want to go out and make a real friend with someone here, but it is hard to tell who is being friendly because they want our money. We have been taught to be so careful that sometimes I think we forget it is okay to be friendly and enjoy that we are here in the Holy Land with some pretty amazing people. This might be weird, but I felt so much love for the people I was observing. I tryed to imagine how Heavenly Father might feel about each one of them. I am sure he doesn't think about their position on the conflict going on over here. He loves them because they are his children. Going to the Western Wall helped snap me out of my bad additude and remember why I am here...to have experiences like that. It didn't matter what other student were around me,or what test I have on Sunday, I was at the Western Wall watching something so sacred to someone else and enjoying every second. It really is hard to explain, but I am feeling so fulfilled.

Dome of th Rock

It took a lot of work to not get any asains in this picture
My secret society friends. Ask me about it when I get home

Some of us rushed over to the Dome of the Rock the other day right after breakfast. It is only open in the mornings and we have class most mornings so on the days we get a morning off, a lot of us students go there. The Dome of the Rock was much smaller than I had expected and other than a bunch of asain tourists, we were the only others ones there. Here are a few pictures from the quick trip to the Temple Mount...

Yom Kippur/Olive Picking

Nathan, me, and Andrew getting ready to go to The Great Synagogue

Appartenly this is holiday month for the Jews. Just last week they had Rosh Hashanah (their new year). On Rosh Hashanah several of us went to the Great Synagogue and took part in the services. We had to dress very modestly (floor length skirts and elbow length shirts for the girls, and the boys had to wear kippas ) and once you are in the synagogue, the men go in one way and the women another. I did not know what to expect at all, so it was really interesting to just jump in and experience it. The services were held in Hebrew, of course, and The Great Synagogue is one of the few in the world that has a choir that sings all of the scripture that are being read for the services. The rest of the worshippers follow along in the Torahs and rock and sway back and forth as they read along. I am not quite sure why they do it, but they do. I just stood in the back and listened as the choir of all men, and occassionally one young boy, sang beautifully. After about an hour of watching the service, me and a few of the other students snuck out. The streets in West Jerusalem were absolutely empty. It was so weird walking around the usually busy streets. Only one store was open...McDonalds. I got me a huge hamburger and fries and I have never been happier with McDonalds. Rosh Hashanah happened to fall on the last day of Ramadan as well, so the Muslims were celebrating that day as well. We walked through the Old City on our way back home, and it was like it was a completely different city. There weren't near as many vendors, and the were tons more young people out walking the streets. Everyone was all dressed up. Something they must do for the end of Ramdan is give their children play guns. All of the little kids were pointing their pellet guns at us and either pretend shooting us, or really shooting us with pellets. I now understand why so many parents won't let their children play with toy guns. It was kind of scary to see all these little Arab children with guns that looked so real, even if they were just toys. That night it was like the town never went to sleep. Music was blasting, lights were everywhere, and parties were definitely going on. I wanted to go check it out so bad, but couldn't for some obvious saftey reasons. The week from Rash Hashanah on has mostly been a bunch of school work and a few field trips, but tonight is the eve of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Luckily we had our Jewish class today and our Jewish professor dedicated the whole 2 hours to educating us about Yom Kippur. At the end of class, he played a song for us that they will sing in synagogue tonight for the holiday. He got choked up and it was really neat that he would share something so sacred to him with us. I love it here! I am so blessed to be able to rub shoulders with all of these people and learn from them. After class and lunch, they hauled all 80 of us students outside and had us pick the olives from the trees lining the street to the Jerusalem Center. It ended up being a lot of fun and I think I threw more olives at people than I picked. We will pick more tomorrow, and then later this week we are going to press them to make our own olive oil. Today we are not allowed out of the center because...well, I don't know why...but I am kind of sad because I really would have liked to have headed over to West Jerusalem and gone to another synagogue and seen the city on Yom Kippur. I am sure we will find something exciting to do around here.

The vacation feeling is gone

I don't know why it hit me today, but I am sick of all these people. Okay, not all of them, but pretty close. And if any of my fellow students are reading this, I am sorry, but I am sure you are sick of my face too. Maybe it was the fact that we had an all day field trip again today, and the thought of spending one more minute on a bus was too much, but I was feeling especially anti- social. Luckily one of the nicest, and hardest people to ever hate, sat next to me on the bus. The first few stops on the field trip were to places I can't even remember the names of. I guess I should learn them because I know my Old Testament teacher will quiz me on them on Thursday. I know this is terrible, but I am really liking the Old Testament less each day. It is so wierd. After a few stops to places that are briefly mentioned in the Bible and have no significant meaning, we finally stopped for lunch. You probably guessed it, but after lunch I was feeling much happier! After lunch, we went to some caves and climbed around for a while. It was a blast! The boys were having to help pull the girls up a tiny wall. Being the Webb girl I am, I didn't want help. But I allowed them to do their manly duties and give me their hands at the top. When you get to the top f the wall, you have to scoot out backward through the "birth canal". You seriously have to put your arm above your head and scoot with your feet to get through. It was a blast! We all came out caked in dirt, but happy as ever. After playing in the caves, we finally went to a location I knew has some significance... The Valley of Elah, where David slew Goliath. We practiced chucking rocks with sling shots, and I have come to the conclusion throwing them is much easier. I loaded my pockets full of rocks to bring home to Dad (his one request) and then made our way to the top of a near by mountain to look down at the valley. The field trip ended up being great. We got home just in time to eat quickly, load up into taxis, and go to some of the local branch members homes for FHE. We don't know Jeusalem outside of the Old City very well, and I guess our taxi driver didn't either. He dropped us off at the wrong place and then took off. The member ended up having to come find us and pick us up. When he pulled up in his big Yukon with XM radio playing, I could have cried I was so happy to see something that felt like home. The family that had us over for FHE is from Arizona, but the father works for the Department of State. His wife is hispanic, and for dessert she made us homemade chips( she actually made the chips) and salsa. Praise Heaven Above! I have been CRAVING chips and salsa for weeks. I could have kissed them I was so happy. They had two bright little boys who stayed up and played games with us. Going to their house really was a blessing. All day I kept thinking about how much I missed just being around kids. I spend my days at school in Idaho studying about kids, and when I am at home I get to love on the nieces and nephews, so it is hard to not have any contact with kids for this long. Just being able to sit on the floor with the boys and have them be on my team for the game made my day. Even grumpy days are good ones in the Holy Land

Hiking Sinai

All 80 of us students on top. This was our 'silly' picture
1 .a.m. Bang Bang Bang! "Good Morning! Prepare for your departure." I don't believe I have ever been less excited to wake up. Those hotel men came and woke us up WAY to early. I rolled out of bed, put my jeans, jacket, and headlamp on, and I was ready. I easily could have slept another 40 minutes and been fine. Because we had time to kill, my roommate and I went and layed by the pool and looked at the stars. We eventually went and picked up our sack breakfast (3 rolls, a hard boiled egg, and a bag of chips). As many times as I have eaten crap at 1 a.m. I couldn't force myself to do it this time. A short drive later, and we were at the base of Sinai. I had been a little worried about this hike because, well, exercising is not something I perfer to do in my spare, or for that matter, structured time. I was surprised at how many people got up this early to hike up to the top of the mountain. As we made our way up, all the bedouin men kept trying to sell us camel rides. Camels are smelly, grumpy animals. I got snapped at by three just on the way up. Right as I started the hike up, a girl from my group named Heidi came and asked me a million questions and we ended up talking the whole way up. She is an exercise science major so she totally loves this kind of stuff. I don't think she knows it, but she kept me going at a good pace and made the trip up fun and short. After about 2 hours of hiking, 750 steps, 2,285 meters, and one bag of pretzels later, I made it to the top. It was still dark when I reached the top but I found some of my friends and sat by them. Just as I was sitting down, my friend accidentally spilt her water bottle on a European couple snuggling below her. He kept yelling and yelling at her saying "You must understand, you need to be careful! You need to put the lid on your bottle! You must turn your lights out!" At first I thought it was kind of funny, but when he didn't stop after 5 minutes, I was getting annoyed. Then my friend came by me becasue she was embarrased and felt bad. The Webb blood in me began to boil. The headlamp dad got me was the crown jewel of the hike. It illuminted the whole path and blinded anyone looking in my general direction. Just to irritate the man more, I flipped my headlamp on full power and looked right at him. This sent him into another bout of complaints. I just laughed. Then another one of my friends nudged me and said "Mikael, be nice." To this I replied "Moses would just drop it is someone spilt water on him." then the guilt hit me. I was in a holy place, on top of the mountain where the ten commandments were recieved, and here I was being spiteful. I turned my head lamp off, apologized, and decided to just let it go. For the first time since coming over here, I was freezing. We all were. It was also the first time we could all snuggle up and not feel guilty. You would think none of us students had ever had human contact before. Since we are not allowed to even give high fives in many areas, let alone hug, snuggling for warmth was so much more than snuggling for warmth for many. Then the sun began to rise. It was absolutely beautiful. If there were one thing i could change, it would have been less people up there. After the sun rose, our religion professors talked to us for a few minutes concerning the importance of where we were and what mountains represent. We sang a few hymns, and then made our way back down the mountain. A group of us started talking to some Kenyan's on the way down. They were very kind and it was so fun to become at least a little bit familiar with another culture. When we got back to the hotel, we were allowed to swim for a while before loading up for the long drive back to Jerusalem. And a long drive it was. Although I was not ready to leave the adventure of Egypt behind, I was ready to step back into a modern country again where I can drink from the tap.

Mosque

The Citadel

The last day in Cairo. I really was not excited about the end of Egypt coming soon. As gross and grimey as it was, I was loving every minute of it. On this day , we went to visit several Muslim mosques. The first one we went to was the Citadel. It was beautiful on the outside and inside. There were carpets lining every inch of the inside, and we had to take off our shoes when we entered and hold them as we sat in a circle and listened to our tour guide tell us all sorts of facts I can't even remember now. After the Citadel, we went to another mosque where we were the only people there. We got to climb a little tower and look out over the courtyard and the city below. It really was a sight to see. Before I knew it, we were back onto the buses adn driving towards Mt. Sinai. I tryed writing in my journal on the bus ride, but the only sentence I could write before getting frustrated was "If this bus wasn't taking to me to exciting places, I would burn it to the ground." One loooooooong bus ride later, and we were at a dirty little hotel just below Mt. Sinai. We knew that we would be getting up to hike up the mountain at 2 am, but there was just too much fun going on to go to bed. There was a little bedouin tent on the hotel grounds selling all sorts of fun trinkets and playing music. A bunch of us went down there and hung out with the bedouins. They had pillows to sit on and drums to play on, so we had fun playing around. My roommate and I finally went to bed around 10 to try and get a few hours of sleep before the big hike in the morning.

Mummies!!!

I know I only have one picture of this day, but that is seriously all I took this day. If you could have seen how gross we all were you would thank me. After being woken up at 5 am on the train to eat breakfast (which I did not touch) and get get off the train at 6, we went back to our hotel in Cairo to eat a real breakfast, attempt to clean up in the hotel restroom bathrooms, and have sacrament meeting. We weren't allowed to check into our rooms until much later, so it was going to be another day without a shower. Although it was Friday and none of us had church clothes, we were able to shut ourselves in one of the hotel's dining rooms and have sacrament meeting. For Islam, the holy day is Friday, and since were were in a Islamic nation, we held our holy day on Friday as well. At first it was hard not to laugh as I looked around the room at the scraggly bunch we were, and when our doctor/branch President got up in his t-shirt with Egypt embroidered across the front. But when there is a spirit of sacredness and respect, the spirit is present. Several of the students had been asked to prepare talks ahead of time, and we had an excellent sacrament meeting. I think that this is the first time I have had something other than sliced bread for the sacrament. We had pitas. Some of the cooks and servers peeked their heads in and watched with curios eyes as this loud group of haggered American tourists came together to worship for an hour. It really was a fun and neat experience. After sacrament, we loaded back into the buses and went to Egyptian Museum. There were so many amazing things to see in the museum, but because of poor management and the way it is run, it is difficult to really enjoy and see it all. The building is dark and definitely not air conditioned. Tourists are packed into every available space. There are not many labels on any of the artifacts, so you really have no idea what you are looking at. We did have a tour guide taking us around and showing us some of the most important things, but my headset broke when we got there so I couldn't hear her. We were allowed to wander around on our own after our tour guide was finished talking, and most of us payed extra to go into the mummy rooms. I believe there were somewhere around 22 mummies. This was definitely my favorite part of the museum. All the Pharaohs we had been talking, learning, and even joking about in our free time (yes, we are that nerdy here and it is okay) were right there before me. One of the most surprising things was how nice their teeth were! I wish we would have been allowed to take pictures so I could show you. After the museum, we went to the Cairo Bazaar to do some more shopping. I didn't know it was possible, but I did not want to shop. I don't think any of us did. We were gross, timred, and hungry. Most of the shops were closed anyway because we got there just as the prayer service in the mosque just outside of the shopping area was beginning. I did find a ton of Egyptian turquios that I fell in love with. Everytime anyone sees turquios now, they come find me and show me. They have tons in Egypt! Next on the to do list was eat at the hard Rock Cafe. I was looking forward to a good ol' burger and fries for days! Unfortunately, we got the wrong waiter. He couldn't get our drink orders straight, and even though our teachers had called ahead of time and arranged for each of us to have burgeres, our waiter somehow forgot my table and never brought us food. We kept waiting and waiting, and pretty soon I looked around and noticed everyone else was done with their food and I hadn't gotten mine yet. Then the music got real loud and all the waiters came out and started dancing for us. I was NOT a happy camper. One of the boys at my table tryed to tell another waiter, but he was too busy dancing to care. We had to go tell one of our professors and he had to get the manager before we were given the time of day. I decided to suck it up and join in the dancing until my food came. I tryed to shoot the dirtiest looks I could when our waiter came to tell us they were making our burgers, but everyone else at my table was so nice about it I felt bad. After lunch, we were finally allowed to go back to the hotel and check in. As soon as we could, we all got in our swimsuits and jumped in the pool. It was so hilarious to watch all of the other tourists watch us. One man could not stop laughing at our game of Marco-Polo. Before long, the boys were contructing human towers in the pool. My first thought was, "They are going to make us stop soon. This is such a liability hazzard." And then I remembered... we were in Egypt! All the tourists had their video cameras and phones out taking pictures and video. Somehow, with the combined power of boys and girls, a group of students built a tower five people tall. We were all screaming and cheering while everyone by the poolside laughed and watched the crazy Americans. I am sure we were a sight to see. When the pool closed, we all went back and showered and decided we were all going to dress up in our newly purchased Egyptian clothing for dinner. At dinner we had a blast taking pictures as we walked in, and pretending we would actually wear these clothes again after that night. Some of us girls even did the dramatic eye make up and tryed to look like the Egyptian beauty Queen Nephertiti. Too abd everybody doesn't know I really am Nephertiti...reincarnated.

Temples and Trains

My Egypt roommate Rachael and I in our disgusting train car

Luxor Temple



A scarab beetle carving at the Karnak temple



At the Karnak temple

This day began with a boat ride up the Nile to Karnak temple. Once again, an amazing structure build by genious means. The Egyptians new how to make everything so much larger than life, and somhow much of it is still standing thousands of years later. Everything from the pillars and columns. Once again, there was temple symbolism all over their carvings in the walls. After the end of tour, we were given some free time to run around and take some pictures. We then took carraiges (yes, those are still a highly used form of transportaion here) over to Luxor temple. Luxor temple was not quite as big at Karnak, but just as impressive as all of the other buildings we have visited. Outside of the Luxor temple there are rows of Shpinx creating a path towards Karnak temple. Back when the temples existed in all of their glory, they were connected by a two mile walkway of Sphinx. How fun it would have been to be able to walk that past! There are now buildings and homes blocking the connection between the two. One of the strangest things to see in both of these Ancient Egyptian temples were the signs of Early Christian influence. The faces of many of the Egyptian writings were chipped off by the Christians and paintings of Holy scenes were painted up alongside all of the Egyptian writings. In Luxor temple, There is a mosque and signs of where a Christian church was built inside. it contains three major civilizations places of worship. After Luxor temple, it was back to the hotel for free time. I didn't feel like battling the Bazaar again, so I stuck around the hotel. As evening time came, we all gathered in the hotel lobby and socialized until we got on the buses that took us to the train station. As soon as we ariived at the train station, I knew we were in for an undesired adventure. The only train I have experienced before is the train in Durango. A short, clean, opren train car for a scenic ride. This train looked like it had been to Hell and back one too amny times. As we loaded into our sleeping traincars, I have never felt so out of my comfort zone as when I tryed to figure out how I was going to ride all night in this train back to Cairo without touching anything. You know your in trouble when the bar of soap in the sink says "Good Luck". My hand sanitizer bottle went from about half full to almost empty by the end of that train ride. Luckily for me, I has a roommate that was as free spirited as any person could be, and she made the stay in the train as little of a fuss as possible, and kept me laughing the whole time we were awake. Because we has been kicked out of our hotel rooms earlier in the day and had to ride the overnight train, all of us looked like train wrecks. No showers and a night on the train from hell can do that quickly.