Biblical Zoo

On one of our free days, we went to the Biblical Animal Zoo in West Jerusalem. It was really fun, and the restrictions there are a lot less than that of the U.S., so we got to get up close and personal with the animals, as you will soon see..
Steph and I are always laughing at something
This isn't even close to the size of the actual ark...crazy.
I call these the 'Albert Einstein' monkeys...see the resemblance?

My favorite animal at the zoo was the monkeys



These birds made the oddest sound, it's hard to explain but.. I just don't even know what to say to describe it, so I'm going to stop trying.

Orem High Tigers, class of '08.. Tiger pride baby.

Mediterranean and Red Sea visits!

On a free day, we spent the day in Tel Aviv (about an hour West of Jerusalem) at the beach. BYU-JC 2009!

A picture of some of the girls in front of the Mediterranean Sea
Titanic? haha nah..
Rach and I at the Red Sea snorkeling day trip at Elat.

Alyssa and Rach. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures with the snorkeling gear on but it was great snorkeling. The reefs and fish were everywhere you swam.
This picture was taken on the night we stayed at a Kibbutz, on the way to Egypt. We went and swam in the Red Sea at night and had a little.. fun. We figured we would only be there once so we took advantage of the situation :)

The streets of West Jeru...

It takes quite a bit of time to upload so many pictures for a monthly blog post so therefore, from now on I am going to just do a bunch of smaller posts. This one is a recollection of the nights (and some days) spent in West Jerusalem. It's the only place we are allowed to go once the sun sets. West J-ru (as we call it) is the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. When you walk from the Old City to West Jerusalem, it's as if you got transported in the future a couple hundred years. Here, you can see for yourself...
This is my favorite Jewish Street. HAHA.

Finals finished this night, we had to let out our pent up energy somehow after being inside the center for 7 days straight..
'Gelado by the Bald Man' mmmm...
This is my favorite taxi/van driver who always comes and gets us from West Jeru at night. His name is Amhad, has 4 kids and lives on the Mt. of Olives, great guy.
Western Wall.
This was the Western Wall on Shuv'at, or Pentacost. We got up at 5 a.m. and went to the wall, I have never seen that many Jews at one time in my life. It was incredible to see the little children reading their prayer books that diligently, and that early.
Emily's 22nd Birthday at a Pizza place on Ben Yehuda
Waiting for the van to come pick us up... bored? maybe.. entertaining ourselves? Definitely.

The only restaurant open on Shabbat was 'Meat Burger' (a kosher hamburger restaurant), it was surprisingly pretty good.. probably because it was the first meal I'd had without dill in weeks...
Hebrew McDonalds Menu! I love McDonalds, I never did at home, but here it's the best and only fast food around!

One night we went exploring and found this Greek Orthodox hotel/church, this was on the outside.

We also found a huge windmill, probably equivalent to the bell tower at BYU, but twice as big.
If you couldn't tell, we got in a huge water fight at this fountain
I am assuming this is some form of a play set.. Or maybe a large sea shell? I have no idea to tell you the truth, but it was a fun to slide down. I have to tell the funniest story that happened at this place. One of the guys in our group, Brent, was running up to large rocks and jumping off of them. He jumped on what he thought was a rather long rock and a homeless man in a sleeping bag shot straight up! He looked up and Brent booked it, I have never seen a man sprint so fast. I witnessed the whole thing and was dying laughing, I literally couldn't even stand I was laughing so hard. That poor, poor man. Brent says he luckliy jumped at a place where the man's body wasn't (because he felt the grass), or so he says..
Yad Vashem field trip, which is basically a memorial to the Jews who died in the Holocaust. Pictures weren't allowed inside for good reason. It was a very depressing yet informative museum, especially from the account of a Jewish tour guide.

EGYPT!

I had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in Egypt! Here are pictures from the stops on the journey to Egypt, and in Cairo, Giza, and Luxor. I know I know, I am a horrible blogger. I have been here for 2 months and only made 2 blog posts.. sad. However, they are really long posts chalk full of my escapades in the Holy Land and.. EGYPT! Alright I am done talking, here are the pictures you've been asking to see... Oh and by the way, this blog starts at the end of the trip and works up to the beginning, sorry I formatted it wrong!

Right when you passed the Egyptian border, you see this little island; it belonged to one of the pharaohs. It reminded me of a huge sand castle.

On the way to Egypt and on the way home, we got to swim in the Red Sea! One time was at night the other in the day… I can’t believe I am admitting this, but… now I can say I skinny dipped in the Red Sea J I figured if I did in an ocean in Fiji, I could in Egypt!

We got up at 2 a.m. to hike Mt. Sinai! We hiked in the dark and had flashlights to guide us. It was about a 2 hour hike and when we got to the top, the sun was starting to rise. You literally felt like you were at the top of the world! I kept thinking Moses stood on this exact spot. The 10 commandments were given to him on this mount! It was freezing but we huddled together and sang hymns and after, we had a testimony meeting. Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of bearing my testimony on the top of Mount Sinai, it was an experience that will stay engraved in my heart and mind forever.

Since ‘Bargaining’ wiped us out, we went to this little park where hundreds of Egyptian citizens go at night. We started playing duck duck goose and a couple other games with the kids, it was awesome. I decided I want to work in the Pediatric ICU (PICU), I love kids.

Shopping in Egypt is insane. Actually, shopping isn’t the proper name, I would call it Bartering. The shop keepers are CRAZY! I won’t even start to go into the details of the bargaining stories I have with them.

This is a picture inside the Coptic Christian church. The wooden flowers on the wall have either 10 or 12 petals, which symbolize the 10 commandments and the 12 disciples. There are also 12 pillars in the middle which represent Christ's 12 apostles.

This is the Mohammad Ali Mosque. To go inside, we had to take off our shoes. Inside it was this gorgeous room full of chandeliers and intricate tiles on the walls and.. ah I just can't even describe it. It was just beautiful, I will end with that (wow I sound so much like my mom...). Here we had lunch at the Hard Rock Café in Cairo and the YMCA came on. Of course, the loud group of 80 American students stood up and started dancing in the middle of the restaurant. The next thing we knew, all the waiters and waitresses joined in. When in Egypt…

This was on the door of the stall in the bathroom (called Water Closet) of the Hard Rock Café.. No need to fear mom and dad- this time we had no drugs or nuclear weapons to take into the water closet..

The Karnak and Luxor temples was a gold mine for those Egyptorians (yes. I did make that word up). I learned so much and saw amazing things, I just wish I could read the hieroglyphs that were all throughout the structures. The Egyptians were very intelligent and productive people. So much of their life was centered on ‘Ankh’= eternal life. Their goals and what they were aiming for are similar to my religion in many ways. It was interesting to make the comparisons and contrasts as well.

To get to the Karnak and Luxor temples, we first took a boat ride on the Nile then got off and got on carriages that took us there. This is inside the carriage. Within a few days, we had used several different forms of travel. 1. Bus 2. Plane 3. Train 4. Camel 5. Falucca 6. Carriage 7. Motor Boat.. I am beginning to understand the concept of Travel, in all sense of the word.

This was our camel Safari—I LOVED it. We got to go on a ride through an Egyptian village. It reminded me a lot of the Fijian and Philippine villages I served in; very gracious and humble people, a lot of poverty and farming was their way of life. We got to go on a ‘Falucca Ride’ on the Nile! The name of our Falucca was ‘Nile Jamaica’. A falucca is a boat that has no motor or big sails, just a rudder and the wind (and oars if needed).

This is the spot where the scrolls of Joseph and Abraham were found which are now in the Pearl of Great Price. For my little brothers and sister—This is where the cool pictures in the back of your scriptures, the one with a man being sacrificed and the circle with all of the different pictures in the middle were found! Colossus of Memnom

Behind us in Queen Hatshepsut’s funerary temple. She was the only female that had a temple built for her, so naturally, I like her. In this same day, we went to the Valley of the Kings where we saw several tombs, including Thutmose III. If you were a pharaoh or A noble family in ancient Egyptian times, you were living the high life…

We took a plane ride to Luxor, Egypt and took a train ride back to Cairo. I’ve never spent the night in a train, it was quite the experience. I kept thinking I was in the movie the Polar Express or Anastasia. I am a fan of trains.

If you go to Egypt, according to my family, it's expected to take a ‘Kissing the Sphinx’ picture. So as tradition goes, here it is… {with a little change to spice things up a bit}

We were able to go into the biggest pyramid, which as the tomb of Khufu. It took about 15 minutes to climb to it (and the tomb room was basically at the bottom on the pyramid) and we sang, ‘high on a mountain top’ inside. The air inside had not circulated for thousands of years so I have to admit I felt a little claustrophobic, but it was definitely worth it.

The night we got to Egypt, we went to the Pyramid’s Sound and Light show. I could not believe I was standing feet away from the PYRAMIDS! Interesting fact: The pyramids were 800 years old when Abraham was at them… Gives you a little taste of how long they have been standing strong!

Here we stopped at the Wilderness of Zin. (Yes, I do have my fannypack on in every picture, I admit I am a fan on the fanny, it will come back into style someday.. maybe?)

Avdat. For the Israelis, this is their theme park. We got to climb all over ancient ruins, it was one of the best theme parks I've ever been to. Our teacher purposefully forgot to tell us it was against the law to climb on the ruins.. and because of that, we got some great pictures out of it.On the way to Egypt, we stopped at many biblical sites related to Genesis. This is a picture of Tel Beer Sheba where Abraham built a well to show it was now his land. It was here he left to sacrifice his son Isaac. We all know the story, but being there was a whole different experience. Oh and one more thing, it was HOT! It was only May and I was sweating, those poor people that lived there in the middle of the summer.