Some of my fav pics

Camel anyone?

One of the afternoons in Luxor we took a Faluka (sailboat) ride accross the Nile and met with a camel "caravan"! We all saddled up and took a camel ride down a path adjacent to the river Nile!!! We each had a camel leader, all under the age of 17. My guide was 13 year old punk named Mustaf. These boys were hilarious! They would hand us the reigns, then run down the line to a buddy and get a cigarette or a sip of beer or something. All the men (shop keepers, security guards, kids, you name it) try their darndest to flirt with us, perhaps in the hopes that one day they may score a wife and ticket to America, but it is rather hilarious and obnoxious. If I only had a dollar for everytime my eyes were beautiful or i was more beautiful than Cleopatra! These kids had it down to an art. We rode right at sunset and it was beautiful- right out of Arabian nights- incredibly romantic. Maybe if Mustaf had a few more years under his belt.... Just kidding!
Apparently i was a natural at camel back so Mustaf told me to sit like an Egyptian; cross legged atop the camel. I was all over that, espcially after he handed me the reigns. He smacked the camel's rear and off we went- me bouncing comedicaly up and down on the camel. What completed the picture was the fact that I was wearing a skirt that was billowing in the Egyptian breeze. ha! ops... I would have worn pants, but the only pair I brought had a whole the size of a watermelon in the crotch from doing an ultimate punch of the pyramid. Totally worth it! All in a day in Egypt!

LUXOR-THEBES

O and on eating- we were advised to not eat anything that wasn't hot and cooked. We could only drink bottled water and drinks.
Ok We took a plane to Luxor from Cairo and checked into the Sheriton Hotel overlooking the Nile. HOLY COW. the NICEST hotel I have ever been in! It was beautiful! as fun as it was to share a room with two friends, it would have been so much more fun to share it with someone else... So romantic. We had a balcony overlooking the nile- even pictures will not do the place justice.
We hit the valley of the kings in the first morning. I saw Ramses 9, Rames 4, Horemtep, and Tutenkamen's tombs. holy cow! it is unreal how well these places are preserved. The valley of the kings is incredibly narrow- all the tombs are literally next door neighbors. The tombs are hewn from the rock and many go hundreds of feet into the rock with all sorts of chambers, passageways and tombs. My favortie was Horemteps. He died unexpectedly, so his tomb was not completed before they had to seal it up. consequently, you can see the process they used to create the tomb and the hieroglyphs and the paintings. it was incredibly! It put personality into the dead culture. You could see the sketches on the walls, then the fine chiseling, etc. This process could be witnessed in room after room. The granite tomb inside is massive- well over 8 feet tall and 12-15 long. The wealth of this ancient nation is unfathomable, but in contrast, the poverty of the nation now is undescribable. sad! King Tut's tomb is really small, but his mummy is there! I saw king tut! he is very small- 4 foot somethin small. There were only 2 main rooms in his tomb but the wall hieroglyphics were vivid.
We next hit up the temple of Hatshepsut and the pit tomb 33 where the mummy containing the papyrus of Abraham wrapped around his chest, was probably found. We had a really intriguing mini-fireside there. From Hatshepsut's temple, the contrast between the fertile land of the nile and the sourrounding desert is apparent. You can literally walk 3 feet from lush to arid. No wonder the obsession with Nile life and fertility in the culture! The Nile basin and flood plain are GORGEOUS though. I didn't quite expect that, but is is the most fertile land on earth.
We got back in time to go out on the town!! Driving in Egypt is very different than anywhere else I have seen. Rome driving was insane, but now through in HUGE buses, donkeys, carriges, pedistrians, camels, street vendors.... ha it is comedic. We had to go out with at least one guy and good thing they told us that becuase it would have been a nightmare otherwise. The street vendors are desperate sharks who live dollar to dollar. It takes so much energy to enter a market, a shop, or even to walk down the street. Vendors will follow you for streets yelling in your face, saying lewd,rude, or hilarious thing, grabbing your arm, etc. Luxor was just as bad as cairo, which makes sense since 50% of the coutry's income is tourism, and the literacy rate is 49%. yikes. Little children swarm around Americans and beg for money with their beautiful eyes and scrawny arms. It breaks my heart! My friend gave one such little girl a granola bar. She looked at it, then threw it on the ground and held her hand out for money instead. This country has serious problems.
One night in luxor, we crammed 8 of us into a little horse drawn carriage and headed for a market. we were taken on quite the ride! How do millions of people not die every year from traffic problems?? No idea.
We also saw Karnak and Luxor temples- the number one thing I was looking forward to. These 4000 year old structures are massive. detailed. preserved. AWESOME. Sorry my descriptions are lacking a bit... i will add pictures that will help!

Giza

On the way to Egypt, we stopped in lots of biblically and culturally significant spots. You know how it says that the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years?? ok remove wilderness from your mind and instead think of mars with oxygen, or better yet, Hades wasteland of death and despair. The Zin desert/wilderness is amazingly hot and awful- and i was in the bus for the greater part of it. ha. We stayed at a Kibutz (a socialistic Israeli agriculture commune society) becuase it is about a 12 hour drive to Cairo. Approaching Cairo, we saw thousands and thousands of empty, half built buildings. They look like abandoned cities that have never been lived in. Just half built and abandoned. Seriously miles and miles of these lining the roads as far as one could see. It was really bizarre and ghostly. Once we entered Cairo, nothing changed. no building is finished and 99% of it lookes like crap. ha. I asked our guide a few times why on earth it is like that and he said it is a cultural thing here in Egypt to build as much as you can with all the money you have becuase metal, cement, etc are just getting more expensive, so you build your level to live in, then as many levels above as you can for your sons and their families, until you run out of money. Everyone does this, making the country look like a trashy construction sight with homeless people living in some areas. hmm.
The pyramids can be seen all over Cairo and Giza (which are seperate cities) and loom in the hazey distance. When we first caught side of them, everyone in the bus went crazy. the pyramids!!! they exist! they weren't a hoax! To be honest, I teared up a little. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. I was the little 8 year old girl who would go through National Geographics and cut out everything having to do with Egypt and make posters. After checking into our hotel "The Oasis" (the name fits the place believe you me! it was beautiful), we hit the sound and light show on the pyramids and sphinx. Even though it was a lame show, it got us so excited for the next day!
We had to wake up early in order to get in line to get tickets to go inside the largest pyramid! Apparently Americans are the only people in the whole world who really stand in line. You don't understand. Lines in the middle east are not obligatorialy, and not necesarrily even an option! our guides kept yelling at us to kick people out of the line, be rude, and squish in. As a result, we have all become much ruder line standers! :) After forever (Egypt has had 6000 years to perfect the art of Beaurocracy and boy have they), we got to climb up indside the 400 foot pyramid! THEY ARE MASSIVE. One block is a little shorter than I am. There are lots of blocks. There is not much to see inside, and someone claustrophobic would have a rough go, but it was fun to lay inside of Pharoah Keops' stone coffin. hehe it was my idea and after everyone did it too. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but i'm sure imagination would do better in this case anyway.
We explored the sphinx and necropolis too. Prof Brown (the most expert man on every subjuct i have even known) talked to a small group of us about the relgion of Egypt. It sounds foreign and kind of bizarre, but really it hits very close to home. He spoke about the cleansing and purifying process the Egyptians had and how concerend they were with moral worth and ethics and the importance of imortalilty and eternal life. They built these grand edifices, the pyramids, as a visual reminder of what they needed to be aiming for. He put many ideas in my head concerning all that; gaining this perspective really set the tone for the whole trip and made it worthwhile on a completely new level.

Back from Pharoah Land!

Ok after 8 days I returned home! It is strange that the Jerusalem center is now home... I miss my legit home and family, friends, puppy, etc, but I really feel like i'm supposed to be here- especially after the amazing adventures in EGYPT!!! I guess I will just go through site by site...

Next stop.... PHAROAHS

I'm headed to egypt for eight days!!! we are leaving right now!!!!! Just thought i would brag for a second there... the top concerns are heat, diarhea, and dyhydration...we'll see how I fare...

Cave Slugging!

On our field trip today, I had an EPIC ADVENTURE. We went to "Micah's Cave" (so named because Micah was born in a town nearby) about 30 miles south west of Jerusalem. It was the last stop on our awesome, but tiring, day-long field trip, so when we first got there, not knowing what we were in for, we were not super stoked. Three seconds in, however, and I was JAZZED. We crawled (army and hands-n-knees) through maybe a 30 foot tunnel into a larger room carved into the chalk/limestone, then could pick a variety of side rat holes to explore! I was the leader of our little adventure group and led the way through dozens of winding, twisting, tight, birth canal-like tunnels. They were SO small! There were spots where my shoulders barely fit through while I simultaneously ate a spider web and hit my head on the ceiling. It was the coolest (can i say that? i think yes.) thing I have done here. EPIC.

Wailing sirens and the Wailing Wall

Yesterday as a big group field trip, all 82 of us plus faculty treked to the western wall at sunset to see the devote welcome in Shabbat (Sabbath, today, saturday). En route, we were passed by many police cars and ambulances, but we didn't think much of it; Jerusalem is prone to car accidents. I have already witnessed two and have seen the aftermath of probably5. Anyway so we get to the wall, walk in and see lots and lots of people: modern, tourists, orthodox, conservative, you name it! I was expecting a slightly melancholy group mourning the loss of their temple but that is opposite to what I witnessed. Kids were dancing, people were singing, families were hugging- it was quite the party! we went over to a group of girls who were standing in a circle singing and dancing. Without hestation, the girls/women welcomed us in with open arms, grabbing our hands and teaching us the words to their Hebrew songs. I have never felt so readily welcomed in my life. It was amazing! We danced and sang with the group for a while, then headed over to the temple wall itself to observe the festivities. The joyful atmosphere permiated the entire plaza. It was an inspiring experience!
At the preappointed time, we met back up with our group near the entrance and were told the reason for the sirens earlier in the evening. There had been a shooting and two Palestinians had been shot and wounded in the neighborhood right outside of Dung gate, right outside the western wall plaza. Ah! So instead of walking back, the center bused us home. While waiting in the two buses for everyone to be loaded, the professors did a head count and came up with 81...we walked in with 82.... It was more funny than anything; the kid missing is the one you would expect to be. The kinda quite, super funny, suprisingly adventurous, and totally oblivious one of the group! Bless him. Well we all took the buses back while security stayed and looked for him. He, however, beat everyone back. He had taken a taxi home when we couldn't be found! Officaily a successful night.

Under the Jerusalem Center

So for those of you who don't really know about the Jerusalem Center, let me give you a brief picture about how incredible it is. It is on Mount Scopus, overlooking Jerusalem. It is 8 stories tall, goign down the side of the hill so there is no elevator access; instead there are 150 stairs ( I tend to count them). It was built with THE BEST materials from all over the place Italy, Africa, bla, bla, etc. k and it cost over 20 million to build... in the 80's. It is the single most costly project/building the church has ever built, excluding the new conference center in SLC. WOW. we went on a tour underneath it today and it was pretty neat! There is open space all under the center for maintenance, possible additions, pipes, etc. We got to write our names on the wall down there too, in hopes to get grafitting out of our system before we go too many places around the middle east. Ha!

HEBREW 101: For MI Padre's sake

K dad so you have asked me about 7 thousand times if Hebrew is spoken nowadays, who speaks it, what they do with new words, etc, and I finally have your answer! I had my first day of Hebrew 1 today and learned that Hebrew WAS a dead language and was only learned to read the Torah, etc, but was resurected and now modern Hebrew is the national language of Isreal (as well as Arabic) and very wildly spoken. Beni Hudi (sp?) was the main mastermind of resurecting the language. They come up with new words by using roots of words. The entire language is based off of roots. So for example, the root word to think (taken from ancient Hebrew) is used to create the word for computer. The whole language was built this way! BAM dad. Never ask me again. :)

First Field Trip

on top of the church/synagogue/mosque at Samwil! (prophet samuel's tomb)

this is modern day bethlehem in the background and the closer hill is probably where the shepards were :)

on top of the city wall near Jaffa Gate west of the city

Today we went on a fieldtrip exploring the surrounding area of Jerusalem. I am learning all kinds of really cool things and finally getting a real setting to place my scriptural knowledge. The Augusta Victoria Tower on top of mount olives is an amazing church. It is Byzantine style: decorated with elaborate, sparkling mosaics of Christ, and is made of Pink marble and Limestone. BEAUTIFUL. We got to climb to the top of the tower (a blessed 223 steps) to see the city and get a visual of the Judean wilderness/ Valley of Jordan, and the whole Jerusalem Panorama. HOLY BLEAK. I would rather die than be lost in that wilderness. Believe you me; the picture in the back of the bible does NOT do it justice.

We saw the city of Bethlehem from an overlook and I learned something super neat. It is speculated the lowly shepherds guarding the flocks by night the night of Christ’s birth where Levite shepherds tending the unblemished, first born sheep that would be used as sacrifices for the temple. They were priests; they knew the signs and knew Christ. Bethlehem is super huge by the way, and always has been large. Not the tiny village we all always picture.
Jerusalem and the surrounding area is HUGE. The neighborhoods and cities never end! They dot the landscape as far as the eye can see; and literally dot. They are all built on hill/mountain tops and most are very separate.
We also went to the prophet Samuel’s “Tomb” in Samwil, South of Gibeon and north of Jerusalem. There is a tomb marker/monument in the basement of the building built by crusaders (1100’s ish) and people go in and pray and worship. It is a half buried cylinder. Very interesting. Although I don’t agree with most of the devote people here, it is awesome to be surrounded by devote individuals! I’m used to being one of the few who live their religion. I have great respect for these people.

FOOD!

The cafeteria here is BOMB. They cook it Middle Eastern style, but stick to things we would recognize. I love the bizarre combinations that seem to work INCREDIBLY well. For example, last night there was chicken curry as an option: kind of strong yellow curry with dried apricots, apples, and walnuts in it.Yum. I had the most delicious sweet potatoes a few days ago too. Tasted like apple pie. AH! I’ll look into getting some of these recipes…

First days in the city!

Sorry i'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures without overloading the internet here ... I'll get some up here eventually!
OK! JERUSALEM!
Yesterday we did a walking orientation of the city to wet our palate to this amazing city! The Jerusalem center is NE of the Old city on Mount Scopus, close to the Mount of Olives and therefore on a hill. The old city of Jerusalem is on another hill across from us on the other side of the Kidron valley. And let me tell you these are SERIOUS hills! The Muslim side of town (the east where we are) is significantly dirtier and more conservative than the west side of town (the Israeli side) and not quite as safe.
Today we couldn't enter the city until after 3pm because Friday is Muslim Sabbath! So I waited till then to enter with my new super good friends Kate and Sarah (we have to stay in groups of 3 or more). We did not take into account that every single Muslim in Jerusalem proper would still be in the city and attempting to get out ... AH! We spent close to an hour in Damascus gate, fighting the crowds and attempting to enter with many others while hoards were swimming to the exit. We all got pinched and pressed into but nothing serious. We watched all kinds of people get pick pocketed too! These little children are super cute, with SUPER little hands! Watch out! After almost suffocating, we joined the throng outside-bound and tried to find a new route under the direction of our new friend "Peter", a Muslim high schooler who has lived in the states and knows "us Mormons" (that is what everyone knows us by here and the majority of the people love "the Mormons"). He hung out with us for like an hour and a half! Teaching me Arabic words and showing us shortcuts through the city! I feel bad for letting him down though; when he asked when he could see us again, we couldn't really tell him anything, or where we would be, or our cell numbers or anything. The kid felt totally rejected! Nice kid though. He went with us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher-kinda crazy building. It is like 20 different churches in one! Complete with creepy statues, altars, people, and smelly crypts. My mom told me there were all kinds of 'interesting' worship going on there when she visited, but everyone was quiet and reserved while we were there. In fact, for some reason, when Kate, Sarah, and I explored the bowels of the church, no one else was to be found. It was super creepy! The dank, rotting smell, shadowy darkness, and millions of tiny crosses carved into the stone walls. We were surprised to find one of these little chapels unchained, and I, like any normal Price kid, snuck behind the stone altar and much to my imagination's wellbeing, found a passageway of death complete with drop off stairs and nasty odor. Hmmm.
We also went through the Jewish quarter to the West wall of the Temple, or the Wailing Wall. Much to my disappointment, there were no intense displays of devotion. It was cool to see the original wall of Solomon's temple and the worship that occurs there daily. Although many of the sites I have seen thus far do not hold a religious significance to me personally, it is really warming to see how these landmarks touch the hearts of other religious individuals. When I see something super weird, it is refreshing to turn around and see others around me with tears in their eyes, in the midst of personal worship. Although I may not understand or agree, their devotion is admirable; I could probably take a lesson from them!
The food here pretty much rocks and the weather isn't too scorching; in fact, the nights are kinda chilly! We had classes for the first time today; YIKES!!! Goodbye GPA!!!! Everyone gets along great and there are so many fun people! It doesn't really occur to me to miss home or much of anything. I'm so busy, distracted and fulfilled here! Minus the fact we aren't allowed to touch anyone. Haha o well! Hopefully I'll survive

Orientation and Up, Up, and AWAY!

At orientation, we were issued super-cool BYU Jerusalem center backpacks, a few books, and a nametag, then corralled into a "No Food or Drink" auditorium for over 3 hours. blllaaaaaaaa. I suppose the information was necessary, but Prof Curl, albeit brilliant, was a tad harsh in his explanation of his expectations, "If you wear a tight shirt, you WILL go home," "If you wear the wrong shoes YOU WILL GE A PLANE TICKET HOME" were among the threats. YIKES! Some things were a surprise, like the banning of hoodies because some people apparently bury themselves inthe recesses of their sweatshirts, but on the whole, we were thoroughly bludgeoned by understandable rules.

4AM came with mixed feelings. First of all, I was headed to JERUSALEM! THE HOLY LAND! MY journey was underway! On the second hand, it was 4 am. Third of all, there was a plethora of misery between me and that great city. ..aka a layover in Denver, a layover in DC, a layover in Vienna, and a bus ride to Jerusalem.
There are 60 girls and 22 boys in the program; plenty of friends to be made and more than enough fun to be had! Everyone seems awesome and this time together, tired, stinky, and loopy, has been great for bonding. Jerusalem here we come!!!