Egypt!

So Egypt was pretty incredible. Im not going to lie, i was soo nervous to go at first because i heard everyone gets sick in Egypt, with lots of things either throwing up or what we like to call "Pharoah's Revenge," or "Ciaro Quick Step," or in simpler terms, travelers diarhea.  They get it because the water is so bad and us Americans arent use to it, so basically we were all on a diet of no fruit or vegetables for a week, unless they were fully cooked.  I thought that was going to be bad but it made me fall in love with the pitas! Anyways so im just going to hit the highlights of this trip because we did SO much!

Day 1

We started out early in the morning on January 21.  We were all packed onto 2 buses according to whatever religion class we are in and stayed with that group the whole time.  We first arrived at a Tel called Beersheba, which sorry to say wasn't that cool, just another location of big piles of dirt...haha Then we went to another Tel that was awesome! It had a bunch of hidden caves and the temple part of it was awesome though, because it was so big!

(Jessica, Kinzie, Mary, Elissa, me)

Then we stopped at the Wilderness of Zin which had an incredible view, and this is like one of the few pictures that i got with Elissa because we are in different groups, so i rarely see her.

And this is just another sweet view of it from a different angle, but i was soo nervous of the cliff because it was soo high up, but it made a great photo!

That night we stayed in a Kabuts, which was very interesting to learn about because it is basically like a communist community, where they are secluded and work there, have houses, a dinning room and schools. We had dinner there which was soo good and they had really good ice cream because they specialize in their diary products. Anyways so we didnt actually get to Egypt the first day.

Day 2

We started out driving to the boarder which is such a long process of lines and checking passports and with our size of group it just takes a while. So were were so excited when we did get there!

(Eric, me, Aaron, Daline, Ryan, Jill, Jeff, Leslie, Dan, Greg, John, Mary)

That day was mostly driving, and the crossing of the boarder.  The first city we stayed at in Egypt was Ciaro.  Once we had arrived at our hotel and got settled we went to a sound and light show infront of the pyramids, which we were all super excited about. Unfortunatly it wasnt as exciting as we thought but it was fun to get out that night.

(Alex, me, Anna, Katie)

Day 3

Giza Pyramids!!!

(so we kinda were in a silly mode this whole trip, and we started doing poses at all the different sites so please excuse all the cheesy trying to be model shots..haha)

The classic picture with the Sphinx

After going to the pyramids and sphinx we all climbed back into the buses and headed to the airport where we flew to Luxor, Egypt. And there we stayed at the Sherlton, which was a five star hotel and it was overlooking the Nile River.  My roommate, Katie, and i were lucky enough to be able to one of the few who got to be out in the bungalos rooms which was soo nice too! Oh and p.s. what really made the room was that the shower had a shower head that is like the rainfall, oh my gosh, it was the best shower i have ever taken in my whole life, other than being supwer carefully about not to get any of the water inside my mouth! haha! Thank goodness Jerusalem knows how to treat their students well!

Day 4

Queen Hutchepsut Temple

Me and Carrie (one of my roommates) infront of some sweet statue

(me, Jeff)

After our travels in the morning we got to go on a camel ride next the Nile River! It was so fun, here is the view from the camel..unfortunatly i dont have a picture of me on it yet..but my camel's name was Alex :)

Then we came back and had a beautiful sunset view of the Nile..seriously maybe one of the best sunsets i have ever seen!

Day 5

Temple of Karnak

(me, Alex, Anna)

And there are tons of stray dogs everywhere, and this one was just so cute! But you dont have to worry about them, they are all really nice

Here are some more silly modeling poses..haha

So this picture is us being abducted, because the night before we did. We decided we wanted to go to the Souk, where you do all the shopping. And one of the girls told the driver that it was our first time in Egypt,...bad idea. So we ended up in the ghetto infront of the driver's brother's papyrus shop! But it was okay we just threw our money at the driver and ran, haha!

(Ron, Alex, Anna, Ryan, Katie, me)

Luxor Temple

Fun fact about Luxor temple is that when they were building a mosque, they found some stuff underneath it and BAM! there was the temple of Luxor!

After our temple visits we got to go on a caridge ride and do some more shopping!

(me, Alex, Ron, Anna)

That night we rode a train all night back to Cairo, which was probably the grossest thing i have ever been in. But this is me pondering out of the window, which after that picture i found on the window sill a couple of black curly hairs!

So this was our reaction..

(me, Katie)

 Day 6

Back in Cairo we went to a couple of more mosques that we couldnt take pictures in, but for lunch we went to Hard Rock Cafe! A hamburger never tasted so good!

(Ron, Corina, Ryan, Alex, Katie, Anna, me, Brooke, Natalie)

Then we said goodbye to the Nile, and here are my roommates back in Jerusalem...

(me, Kaley, Marrisa, Carrie)

Muhammad Ali's Mosque

(me and Mary)

Day 8

Woke up at 3 A.M. suppose to have woken up at 2:30, but of course somehow our room didnt get the wake up call so we made everyone late for the hike up to Sinai! But thankfully our good friend, Anna, woke us up so we made the buses!

Sunrise..

Overall, Egypt was AMAZING! It definitley made me so grateful for living in the United States where it is so clean and we have clean water!

Sillyness in the City

I have some random pictures that i have been taking of just the city that i would like to post, that have some stories to go with them...teeheehee

So firstly, one on of our first outings, one of the boys i was with likes to go down random tunnels in the city just to explore it. Anyways so we went down one of these tunnels and it led to this YMCA kind of buiilding that was a place for kids to come and play and stuff.  We started talking to the owner and he showed us around and he showed us the niegborhood above the building it was such a humbling experience because these people live in such tiny courters with their whole family living in one room most of the time.  One of the most troubling thing about this is that all these peole are living so close together and some are Arabic and some are Muslim and so there is always tension and fights happening.

This is the view from the top of the roof of one of the neigborhoods that we walked around.

Because i took lots of advice from Molly, i have been enjoying the candy stores. It is so unlike me being the germ and clean freak that i am but, yes, you do just grab a bag and grab with your hands whatever candy that you want. But it is sooo good!

Here is one of the many candy shops in the city

And naturally as my thoughts have been on my family and friends back home... i was thinking about what i should be getting for Brooke for her baby girl that i will be missing..

Here is a possible present, what do you think, is it not soo cute and probably for only a couple sheckels ;)

And next my thoughts turn to Janessa and her bridal shower that i will probably be missing...so i have an idea for a present that i should get for her...which color would you like Jan?

And for our Old Testament class we have to go on our own random field trips and do a little write up about them. So me and a few friends went to Zedekiah's Cave where Zedekiah hid for a couple days until he was found and was killed. Anyways so after sitting down in cave we all realized that we had a little souvenier :)

From right to left:

Gretchen, Britney, Alex, me, and Andrew

And what a fine crew we are : D

Jericho

On Monday we all went to the city Jericho, and it was probably like 45 mins away from Jerusalem.  And a fun little fact is that Jericho is the oldest city and lowest city in the whole world. Our first stop was at the Monestary of Tempation, which from the picture you can see that it is up on this cliff just hanging out and we hiked up it, but it wasnt a bad hike at all. This is where they think that Jesus went to go when he was fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

At this monastery, there was a tiny little cave where there was some sort of shrine with just some candles and a plaque.  But what was SO scary was the balcony that overlooked the city of Jericho, dont get me wrong the view was great! But we were sooo high up and the balcony seemed to just be chilling off of the building, i was only on the balcony for the quick pictures and had to leave because i was getting sick from being so scared! haha

Here is the view from the balcony...

Then we went to the ancient Jericho, which no offense, wasnt that interesting. None of us were too interested it seemed like because we were laughing and making fun of it the whole time because it seemed like it was big piles of dirt that they said was like thousands of years ago, which dont get me wrong..it is amazing, but i have little interest in it..

Then we went to the Judean Wilderness, which was incredible!  It seriously was just non-stop hills of sand, but it was endless! It was nice too because it was a cloudy cool day which is very unlike the Wilderness because usually it is like 100 degrees. But this is the land that Mary and Joseph traveled through, along with Jesus.  From the view we had it made it very clear that Jerusalem was the city up on a hill, which there are many references in the scriptures of people traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem, that they would travel "up."

And this is just some cool kids from the group..

Their names from right to left are:

Denise, me :), Jeff, Emma, Allison

Even through the first bit of coldness, it still was a great fieldtrip!

I Made It!

So i have finally made it to Jerusalem! Here is the view from my room..

And we have already had a field trip called Geograph field trip that basically was us looking over the city in a bunch of different locations so try to understand everything..

And then this is one of my outings when me and a group of guys went to the dome of the rock! Which is amazing!

And the wailing wall...

And then this is us in the student lounge doing what i feel like what we do soooooo much of...studying!

I love it here! i cant believe i was ever scared..silly me :)