Sunset at the JC

We had a spectacular sunset the other night, so I thought I'd upload a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Impersonating David...

Everyone had the opportunity to sling rocks into a field using the same sort of sling (and the same kind of rocks!) that David would have used when he killed Goliath. My roommate Addie took these pictures and caught some excellent candid shots. I figured you might enjoy them.

On a spiritual note, one of our professors, Brother Chadwick, told us the story of David and Goliath and he pointed out that when David prepared to go against Goliath, he went down to the stream and gathered five round stones. David was confident enough that he would kill Goliath within five tries. Why was he confident? Because he knew he had the help of the Lord. On the same line, David chose his stones well. He made sure that the stones were about the size of a golf ball and fairly round. This assured that the stones would go where he wanted them to go. In applying this to our life, are we choosing our weapons (against Satan) well? Are we reading the scriptures and praying? Are we surrounding ourselves with good friends? We need to prepare to go against Satan just as David prepared to go against Goliath, and we will be blessed to come out conqueror.

David and Goliath

Picture 1 - ancient Gath
Picture 2 - ancient Gath
Picture 3 - me on top of Lachish with a rainbow in the background!
Picture 4 - a baby turtle someone found at the top of Lachish!

Last Monday we took the whole day and travelled through the valleys east of Jerusalem. The area where these valleys are is called the Shephelah (pronounced sfelah) and means low land. Our focus of the day was mostly from stories in Judges, and we talked a lot about the Philistines. (Just a hint – the second person in my title was a very famous Philistine.)
We started the day off at Tel-Tsafit, or ancient Gath. This is the town where Goliath would have grown up. Gath was much larger than Jerusalem was, so we said that Gath was a big town where a big man grew up! Then we head to Tel-Maresha where we saw an old olive press, a large dovecote (an underground area where doves were raised), an ancient cistern where water was kept, the Bell Caves. The Bell Caves were really cool caves that are shaped like a bell because they were likely the product of plaster mining during the early Islamic Period.
Following these cool sites we went to Lachish, which has some well preserved walls, gates, temples, fortresses, that were excavated awhile ago. It started raining when we got on the top, but don’t worry – I had my rainbow umbrella and was prepared!
Our next site was the Elah Valley, where the battle of David and Goliath occurred. Each of us was given a slingshot and we got to practice slinging rocks into a nearby field. (I didn’t do very well…) Our next stop was on top of Tel Azekah, which was the site of an Israelite fortress probably constructed during the era of the Judges, but best associated with the story of David and Goliath. From the top of the hill, we could look into the valley where the battle of David and Goliath happened!
Our last stop was Bet-Shemesh, which was the fortress city that guarded the Sorek Valley. By this time it was getting pretty late and chilly, but we were all happy with our day.
It’s funny, because for each field trip we keep saying, “This is the best field trip ever!” Every field trip we go on is so carefully planned out and we get to see the coolest stuff. This next Monday we’re going on a field trip where we will get to see what life was like during Biblical times…and rumor has it we’ll be herding sheep!

Some fun times

So this week has been good so far. The week after Egypt has been kind of exhausting because I feel like I've been trying to catch up on sleep for quite some time. It was so worth it though.
Basically, I just wanted to share some fun pictures with you. :)
After classes yesterday, I went to the Citadel of David with some friends. It was a rainy day, so the sky wasn't particularly stunning, and we got a little wet while exploring, but it was so much fun! I took my first ever amazing jumping picture that I wanted to share with you guys. The Citadel was sweet. It's HUGE and there are so many passages and walls and insides and outsides to check out. We wandered all over the place. And it's all very well preserved, which is really neat.
After classes today I went to West Jerusalem and went shopping in the mall. It's kind of crazy how East Jerusalem/the Old City are a completely different world and time period compared to West Jerusalem. You just cross the street and people are wearing more modern dress, you recognize stores and brands (gap, adidas, nike, kodak, etc.). It's kind of weird. I have no desire to buy anything here that I can buy at home though, so I just kind of went along to have fun. A few of us separated from the group and had lunch at a place called Cafe Hillel. We actually ran into a religious group on a pilgrimage from California. It really is a small world.
After my Arabic class this afternoon, we had Arab Night! We dressed up the best we could (we all looked completely ridiculous and not even close to what everyone here really looks like) and went to a lecture, had dinner, then learned an Arabic dance. The lecture was really neat because a father and son came in and demonstrated "saying/reading" the Qu'ran. (They actually sing it, but you don't call it singing.) It's actually their job and they went to a special school to be trained. The son had been doing it since he was 8 years old and he had the Qu'ran memorized when he was 16! I guess it's a family thing and the job passes down from father to son and if the son does not have that talent or does not want to do that, then the father will find a cousin or something. I really enjoyed listening to that.
Dinner was fun because the tables were set up especially for the evening with table clothes and fabric napkins and all sorts of fun things. The picture of me and some friends was taken after we finished eating. We're a great foursome. :)
After dinner we went into the gym for a dance lesson, but after about half an hour, some people just got too excited and it turned from a dance lesson into a dancy party and everyone just went crazy dancing and getting their wiggles out. We had fun.
Well, I need to get back to homework - we have a quiz in our Judaism class tomorrow!
Love you all!

P.S. The last picture is with my Arabic teacher - Ayman. He is such a funny man!

Egypt was a riot!

Picture 1-the view from the top of Mt. Sinai
Picture 2-the beautiful sunrise
Picture 3-freezing on top of Mt. Sina

Ha ha – get it? Egypt was a riot? One of my friends coined the phrase and I thought it was funny.
Throughout this whole trip, we were being updated on what was going on concerning the riots in Cairo. We actually barely missed those by going to Luxor. Our whole day in Cairo we had no idea what was going on because we were never anywhere close to them.
Sadly we had to change our Friday and Saturday plans to make sure that we steered clear of the chaos and danger in downtown Cairo.
So, we went to the Red and Bent pyramid Friday and then stayed in the hotel Friday afternoon. We didn’t get to go to the Egyptian Museum, which was quite the disappointment, but we got to do some AMAZING things, and no BYU JC crew has ever gone to the Red or Bent pyramid before, so we were a special case. We were very well taken care of though, and I never felt like I was in danger. The internet was shut off, along with cell phone connection starting on Friday, so we were basically cut off from the world for awhile. We watched updates on the news just like everyone else and couldn’t stop thinking how crazy it was that we were in the same-ish area as the demonstrations. It was kind of cool to be there when Egypt was trying to make a statement and see some changes in their government. I don’t understand everything that is going on and I don’t know what will happen, but I do know that everything worked out for us perfectly. If these things had started happening any earlier or if our trip had been scheduled for just one week later, we wouldn’t have been able to go and I never would have had the most amazing experience of my entire life! I loved every minute of my trip – even though a few things were cut out of our agenda. I hope you all know that I was safe from harm the whole time and we could feel your prayers and are grateful for all that you did!

Now, I have to tell you about our Mt. Sinai experience. That’s right – I HIKED MT. SINAI. We drove from Cairo to Mt. Sinai Saturday afternoon and got to the hotel at the bottom of the mountain before sunset. We tried to go to bed early because we woke up at 2:30 am and started hiking up the mountain at 3:45am. It was the hardest hike of my entire life. First of all, I literally hiked from the bottom to the top of a mountain. ¾ of the way were switchbacks, then the last ¼ were stairs that monks built long ago. These aren’t nice wooden stairs though – the stairs consisted of rocks strategically placed in a step-like fashion. Basically, my legs were on fire near the end and I couldn’t breathe. It’s also extremely cold up there. We were told to bring a lot of layers along with gloves, hats, and scarves to keep us warm. Hiking up wasn’t too bad, but once you stop moving and rest at the top, you get SO COLD. And boy were they right.
I brought a few hand warmers which basically saved my life (thank-you mom!). Enough of the coldness though – we made it to the top of the mountain just in time to watch the sunrise. I’ve never seen a more beautiful sunrise. Because we hiked in the dark, we had no idea what our surroundings were. But once a little bit of light started appearing, we could see that we were in the middle of a vast and endless sea of mountains. I took a ton of pictures, but nothing can compare with the feeling I got when I was up there. I don’t think you can get closer to heaven.
The hike down was beautiful because we could finally see where we were going! I loved the whole thing and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I loved my experience in Egypt and I didn’t want it to come to an end! I felt at home and enjoyed every moment. ☺

I'm in love...

Picture 1-Open court in Karnak Temple
Picture 2- Hypostyle Hall in Karnak Temple
Picture 3-Background of our bike rides: Luxor Temple

...with Egypt!
Okay – so we got through about half of the trip.
Thursday January 27th we took a motorboat from our hotel to the Karnak Temple. (Our hotel was on the Nile riverbank. Jealous yet?)
The Karnak Temple had one of my favorite rooms/areas: the Hypostyle Hall. There are 134 columns that just go on and on and it’s beautiful. We definitely got some good pictures there. A few of us would get up on the base of a column and then take some fun jumping pictures, but one of the guys who works there told us not to. I guess it’s not good to climb on the antiquities…ha ha
After the Karnak Temple we took carriage rides to the Luxor Temple and had a fun tour there. All of these temples are so well preserved. Some of the hieroglyphs still have color on them and you can still get a feeling of the grandeur that accompanied these temples.
Thursday afternoon was possibly my favorite part of our Egypt trip. Some girls and I rented bicycles and went on a bike ride with one of our professors (he was our body guard). It was the most amazing feeling to just ride your bicycle along the Nile. There was a nice boardwalk area that we rode along and we got some great pictures. I want to remind you though, that these were not nice, brand new bikes. None of our brakes worked, one girl’s tire went flat by the time we got back, and my bike was so shaky I felt like I had never ridden a bicycle before! But! That just added to the experience and made it so much fun.
When we got back to the hotel, almost everyone was out or doing their own thing, and we needed a guy to go with us into town, so we grabbed our tour guide who was chilling in the lounge. It was great having him go with us because he spoke the language and showed us the cool spots and could explain different areas of town. He also treated us to sugarcane juice because apparently it’s something you have to have! It was actually surprisingly delicious and you all should be very proud of me because I drank the whole thing even though it had a slight grassy taste. Ha ha After going to the market, we took a carriage back to the hotel and barely made it in time for dinner and departure for our overnight train back to Cairo!

The overnight train wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, but I still barely slept. Those little rooms can get kind of stuffy. Oh well. The trip definitely wasn’t about getting sleep!

I’ll write more later!

-Audryn-