JC Talent Show

The talent show on Friday was amazing. At first it seemed that there wouldn't be much participation becuase no one would put their name up on the sign up list. Finally everyone put their names up when Lauren put a deadline on it. It was the best talent show I have ever attended. Everyone participated. The people who didn't participate got assigned to do a skit at the beginning in a group, (yes the faculty included they did an very witty Jericho skit). Everyone was so creative. There was live music, "Disney 'a whole new world' complete with authentic costumes and altered humorous lyrics." Poetry: a tribute to all the funny things Bro. Seeley has said in class. There were serious numbers, including Ashoken farewell played by Kyle and there was a lot of funny stuff. My roomates learned the entire dance to an 'Okay Go' music video. Anne, Jared, Emily, and Cami did a hilarious pantomime which they called 'Dinosaurs'. They were really good at it, they looked like little Jurassic park animals. It was high quality entertainment and I basically laughed for 3 hours straight (yes the talent show ended up going until 10 pm!). Pretty much the highlight for me was a video wherein Davey, Derek, David, Kyle, and Chris impersonated our teachers. They had their mannerisms and voices down! It was so funny, we all gave them a standing ovation at the end. The faculty was all sitting in the back, I was worried they wouldn't like it. I think they liked it. Bro. D told us he has been impersonated before by John Bytheway (his mannerisms are so consistent that he's easy to impersonate). Today in class Bro D asked Davey for a copy of the video to send to his daughter. The video just got put up on u-tube a few minutes ago entitled "The best teachers ever assembled at the BYU JC" (I dont' know if you can find it from that). Our group has a lot of energy. According to Bro H of all the groups he's had ours has the most energy. It's good but we just need to make sure we don't do anything stupid. Every announcement session we all are reminded to respect the building, not eat or drink anywhere but the oasis, our rooms, and the snack bar. We've had some incidents. A ceiling tile got knocked down while we were playing soccer in the gym and some students stained the marble floor by dancing on it without shoes. You can see the spots from the 7th floor when you look down to the 6th, its so sad. I think they just forgot about always wearing shoes...no one will make that mistake again. It's good that everyone has fun but this is a wonderful beautiful building that we should be very careful with.
Anyway, in case you wanted to know, it did snow in Jerusalem, I don't know if I said that. I didn't really get any cool Dome of the Rock snow pictures though because it was foggy and then it melted really fast. Other current events are the deans of the BYU religion class got here on Sunday night. They have been sitting in on our classes. Bro H even got them into the dome of rock (no tourists can go in) through his Arab contacts (A lot of the stuff I put on here is things other students have told me, I wonder how that know it and how much of its true). Anyway, Friday we have a big midterm test in Ancient Near East which everyone is studying for (which I should be doing). Tomorrow is our field trip through Hezekiah's tunnel which I'm really looking forward to and I will tell you about. Dinner is going on in the Oasis right now so I'm gonna go eat. Later!

Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl

Today we went on a field trip to Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust museum here in Jerusalem. We left at 9 am and rode sharuts to west Jerusalem near Mt. Herzl where the museum is located. It was pretty cold and rainy weather today which added to the mournful, somber mood. The museum was very well done. The architecture of the building is all symbolic and everything is well organized. Each room has video testimonies and artwork and propaganda posters everything was designed and presented very well, which I enjoyed seeing. I think the thing in the museum that was the most powerful for me to see was the shoes. They had a large glass case that was under the ground so you could walk over top of it full of peoples shoes. There were large men's shoes and little baby shoes. Particularly the women's shoes struck me. It was powerful to look at each shoe and imagine the person that went with it. There were really cute sandals and shoes they I would have chosen to wear. But so many! I could only think about maybe one person at once, it's so hard to comprehend 6 million individuals.
After the museum we walked just up the street a bit to the Mt. Herzl park. Mt. Herzl is like the Arlington Cemetery for the state of Israel. Our Jewish narrative teacher, Ophir, met us there and took us around the park. He explained more about how the state of Israel came to be and more about their civic traditions. Mt. Herzl is kind of a civil holy place for the Jews that believe in the state of Israel. Much in the same way that Mt. Moriah is a religious holy place. Mt. Herzl was named for Theodor Herzl the main guy who popularized Zionism. Theodor Herzl is buried on the mountain. Every year they have big Independence and Memorial day celebrations there. After our field trip we had dinner at the center and then had an hour more of Jewish narrative class with Ophir on Zionism. Now people are watching 'the office' and getting ready for the talent show which will be on friday.

Sunday night concert February 10, 2008

Will it snow in Jerusalem tonight?

It's 10 o clock PM. Its pouring rain outside the center. It's forcast to snow which hardly ever happens in Jerusalem. We might not have some of our classes tomorrow because our Modern Near East Palestinian narrative teacher won't be able to get here. The entire city shuts down if it snows. We'll see if we get any tonight! We just had the sports activities commitee basketball championship. Everybody got really into it. We had a slam-dunk competition half-time show and everything. Luckily no one injured themselves. I've got a lot of studying to do but I've decided I'm going to try to add to my blog more often even if its just a short update. It's been over a week since I wrote so I'll tell you about the highlights. First big thing when we got back from Egypt was the Conquest Field Trip (February 6, 2008). We went and saw Jericho and the Quruntul Monastery which is a monestary on the supposed mount of temptations (right by Jericho) built basically into the side of a cliff.
The next big thing was the Judges field trip (February 8,2008). We visited the area known as the Shephelah or low-land and talked about the bible events that happened there (Sampson and Delilah, David and Goliath). The highlight for me was where we stopped on our way home . It was a cave of man-made tunnels (I think it was made for secret Canaanite religious practices or something). Barely big enough for a person to crawl/army crawl through. I brought my head lamp and was very glad I did. It was completely dark and claustrophobic many students went through holding on to the ankle of the person in front of them. I were alone I would never have crawled into a hole like that, but, 'everyone was doing it'. When we made it into the cave (end of first tunnel) we had to climb down a latter that was missing a rung so you had to stretch yourself out completely and find something to hold unto while you slid to the nearest rung (in the dark!). Inside the cave it was like a rock/dirt Mcdonald's jungle gym. You crawled up the tunnels and there was a window at the top to the cave room where you could wave your headlamp at friends below in the dark. On the way down I bent my fingernail back and that really hurt. To get out it was recommended we go the same way we came in, but for the more adventurous there was another way out that was supposedly an even tighter a squeeze. Once again peer pressure convinced me to go the adventurous way. Once I stuck my head in I got a push from behind and there was no turning back. It was really hot becuase I left my jacket on to keep from skining my elbows. My arms were getting tired so I was moving kind of slowly. The fact that we were all laughing and screaming didn't help either. It wasn't too tight except for the very end when we finally saw the light. The dirt from outside had kind of filled the hole in a bit. To get out we had to grab on to the foot of one of the guys outside and they would help drag you through a bit. I started to get dragged but didn't want to get all skinned up so I didn't take the help and inched my way out more slowly. When we finally all got out we were sweaty and streaked with dirt. It was awesome!
The next big thing that happened was Sunday February 10, 2008. We have weekly concerts for the public in the Center. This week Brother Galbraith gave an organ concert along with our student choir and a violin duet played by Sister Galbraith and me! We played a piece by Emmanuel Moore, I've never really heard of him or this piece but it was very beautiful. I have a short video clip of us playing that Sis Galbraith sent to me. I'm going to try to put it on my blog. And I saved the program Mom, it has a little sentence or too in it about me. It was a packed house and really a rush to perform. I'm so glad the Galbraith's let me play with them, they are great musicians.
The next day Feb 11 was notable because it was a free day. I went with a group to David's Citadel which is really nice and has a beautiful view. See picture. After a lunch of a lovely old city falafel we walked out to the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book where we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also there was a huge outdoor model there of 2nd Temple period Jerusalem. It was amazing to see how huge Solomon's temple was.
Next notable event was Valentine's Day Eve (Feb 13, 2008) When my roomate Heather and I and the JC's only official couple (Davey and Kristy are so perfect for each other, will definitely be getting married) took a taxi to West Jerusalem for a night on the town. It was my first time out of the center at night (don't worry its not against the rules in West Jerusalem). We went to the Crepe Cafe. Their waffles are to die for. Trending little place in a trendy part of town. We had really, really good dinner crepes and desert waffles (Melted Chocolate, Banana, Strawberry, mmmm). D and K were delightful company. Usually when you go somewhere with a couple its annoying because they're just lost in each other's eyes. I love Davey and Kristy and we had lots of fun. (There's nothing like being a third wheel on Valentine's Day).
The last event of notability was last Shabbat Feb. 16th I got to teach gospel doctrine Sunday School and play my violin in Sacrament meeting on the same day. Sacrament meeting I wasn't very worried about. I played a descant to the primary song Beautiful Savior while two girls sang. Gospel Doctrine however was very intimidating. Our Sunday school consists of all the BYU students, all the faculty (intimidating) all the Mormons who are living, working, or going to school in Jerusalem, and this week there was a bus of Canadian Mormons who were visiting. We had my class in the Forum (the huge classroom). There were a lot of people there and I was nervous. I taught the section from 2 Nephi chapter's 1 and 2. I discovered it's really hard to organize and articulate your ideas when everybody's staring at you. Things started out slow but by the end people got really into the discussion. The thing that made my lesson cool was I played songs from BYU-I's oratorio ('The Tree of Life') that had to do with the doctrine in those chapters. Thanks for this goes to mom who had the songs and words emailed to me. Thanks again! Even though I probably looked scared to death trying to teach the lesson I'm glad I did it because it made me study 2 Nephi A LOT and it gave me some experience trying to express myself even though it's painful.

Overnight train ride

Now to complete my update of Egypt. Day 5 we saw King Tut and many other significant Egyptian tombs. Not gonna lie I didn't enjoy it much because I was sick and sand was blowing everywhere. We stopped at some other famous sites Hatchepsut's Temple, Colossus of Memnon, and I missed the funerary temple of Rameses because I stayed on the bus (not feeling good at all). The bus driver saw me left on the bus and gave me a pillow to sleep on the back row. The warm bus felt good and I rested until flies started landing on my face, yuk. Anyway, In the afternoon the activity was a choice between a Camel ride or a carrage ride around Luxor. I wasn't going to do either of those I had a fever and we had to check out of our hotel. The Draper's told me I could have their room. It was so wonderful, I had a nice hot shower (their shower was big and nice) and slept all afternoon. Dr H came to see me and gave me some more drugs to help me get through the overnight train, which was our next big adventure. It was a miracle how refreshed I felt when I woke up from napping, I was so grateful I had started to feel better. The Draper's told me just to take it easy on the train and let everyone help me. The overnight train ride was awesome. I felt like I was on a movie. The train station was filthy and dusty and loud and stinky. We had an hour to wait for the train to come. We bought lots of snacks and coke (the food on the train can be suspect). We bought and played cards. C even got his shoes shined! The venders loved us. We got on the right train safely. The dinner was interesting I ate the rice. Before I went to bed a huge group of students decided to cram as many bodies into my room as possible (hense the picture). Funny story: when I went to bed my roomate B was out in someone else's room on the train. The chain lock on the door was swinging and making noise so to silence it I just slid it in its lock. A while later I was awakened suddenly by B trying to get in. She could only open the door a little bit because I had left the lock on. I didn't think it would be hard to undo. We shut the door but I couldn't figure out how the lock worked. I struggled with it, it wouldn't slide. I struggled and fiddled. B was getting impatient, 'why did you lock it?' 'it was jangling and making noise.' B sat down in the hall. I tried twisting the chain and fiddled more. 'Wow how did this happen, it shouldn't be that difficult' I thought. Finally I discovered a little button at the top that released the chain so it could slide. Just then the conductor steward guy came by. 'Can I help you?' he said in his little Indian sounding accent. B was sitting in the hall "she can't unlock it." He saw me struggling "wait, wait, wait, wait" he said. At this point I had finally figured it out but I had been twisting the chain so much before that it no longer reached to slide out. I quickly tried to untwist it. He thought I was going to break it or something "wait, wait, wait, wait" he said again. Then he told me to open the side door to the room next to us so he could come in and fix it. This door seemed to be locked cause I couldn't open it. While he was figuring out how to get in the side door I finally unraveled the chain slid it out and the door swung open. Whew!
Wow, anyway, I slept really well on the train. The rocking motion was actually soothing. I didn't get to sleep long enough however. In the middle of the night I thought I heard some tapping, finally I realized it was someone tapping on our door. I thought something was wrong. I cautiously opened the door. And a tray of food was thrust in through the crack in the door, in the dark. "Breakfast!" It was our friend the steward. "You must get up" he said. It was 4:25 am.
To make a long story short eventually the train stopped and we were Cairo. It was dark and our train had arrived a little early so we had to stand around at the station for a while and wait for our bus to arrive. When we got on the bus we went straight to our hotel dropped off our stuff and had sacrament meeting next to the pool. It was so crazy to here President H cheerfully say "Welcome to the Jerusalem branch of the Israel district, meeting in Cairo Egypt, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." we all giggled a little. It was a great meeting. We were all in the clothes we'd been in basically all night. What a sight it was cool. Day 6 was lots of fun. We first went to Memphis. One of the olders cities in Egypt then the Ibn Tulun Mosque. The thing I remember most here was that we had to put booties on our feet to go in. It had a beautiful and expansive courtyard. Stark contrast to the crazily crowded city outside. Next we went to the Egyptian Museum. Saw all the stuff from King Tuts tomb we had visited the day before in Luxor. For lunch we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Most eventful thing at hard rock was a girl fainted (Our lunch wasn't until 2 pm and we'd had breakfast of 4 am on the train, maybe that was why she fainted). Also, they played some good old American music for us: 'the macaraina' and 'YMCA' and we had a dance party. In the afternoon we went to the Bazaar for some intense shopping. Before arriving many of us were stressed out because of all we'd heard about the Bazaar. We were all careful to stay in tight groups and no one got gropped. I really enjoyed shopping in the Bazaar it was cool to barter with the shopkeepers there. They gave us a lot of attention and we had fun with it.

Sick in Luxor

We got of the plane in Luxor went to our hotel, had dinner there and went to bed. First thing next morning Day 4 we took a carriage ride (which was an experience, I have it on video) to the Karnak temple. The Karnak temple was my favorite thing I saw on in Egypt, I think. It is Colossal, basically it blows your mind. The pictures I took don't even describe it. My favorite part was the hypostyle hall which has 150ish pillars that are huge (you could fit like 40 people on the top of each of the pillars they said) and inscribed completely and used to be in full color. It was amazing just to look up and walk slowly and try to imagine what it used to look like before the colors faded. Next we went to the Luxor Temple which was also amazing. The grandest stuff you can even imagine were achieved in these temples. At this point I was kind of out of it becuase I was starting to feel definitely sick. Body aches and a head ache and really tired. I kept sunglasses over my eyes and trudged along the last little bit and went with the first group back to the hotel. After lunch I thought I'd feel better but I had a fever. The plan for the afternoon was to go on a falucca ride on the Nile. In my hotel room after a short nap I got up to go but I was freezing cold and shivering. I wanted to go and see if I would snap out of it but decided to play it safe and stayed in bed. Everyone who went said the felucca ride turned into a motor boat ride on the Nile and that it was really windy and cold. I'm glad I didn't put myself through that. The whole rest of the evening both me and my roomate were sick so we both slept and slept. Neither of us could find our itineraries and didn't know what room other people were in or what was going on. At about 6:40 we decided to go walk around the hotel and see if we could find anyone we knew. We went into the restaurant and found everyone finishing dinner. It was good we found them or we would have missed dinner. It's really precarious when both roomates are sick cause they can't really take care of each other. After eating we went to the Drapers room for a lesson on the facimiles and both went back to bed. It was a rough night. There was a pile of tissues in between our beds and we woke up many times. Our room hadn't been serviced because we were in it when they wanted to (our towels were dirty and toilet paper was running low). In the middle of the night around 3 a.m. I woke up and drank the last of my 1.5 liter waterbottle. This was bad because I was very sick and couldn't wait til morning. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to call and I couldn't ask my sick roomate to do anything. I decided to call the hotel. I called the front desk, no answer. I called room service and after a lot of ringing a 'welcome to quicky mart' voice answered. I asked with a very hoarse voice for water,"wa-ter, wa-ter, wa-ter" "blah blah blah room number?" "three-forty four, three- four- four, three four- four" "blah blah blah you pay?""Yes, yes, yes". I was so happy when that bottle of water got to my room! I even gave the guy a good tip. I think the antihistimine drugs the doc had given me really dried me out cause I downed that water I think by morning. The next day Day 5 I got up hoping to feel better and snap out of it. I put on sunglasses and dizzily got on the bus to go to the valley of the kings. Everyone around me had so much energy I was hoping I wouldn't regret coming...to be continued

Cairo

I think I need to be less detailed becuase I'm running out of time (and battery power)! I have a lot of reading to do tonight and I want to watch President Hinckley's funeral. We're having it rebroadcast for an FHE activity. That's actually what happened next. Day 2 January 28th while we were eating breakfast someone had found and about president Hinckley's death through a text message I think. But Brother H told the table I was sitting at. Its hard to believe its true when you don't see it on the news and can't get on the internet and stuff like that. Anyway day two was all about crossing the border into Egypt which went very smoothly for our group. I got a cool Taba Border stamp in my passport and we got on an Egyptian bus and drove approximately 6 hours to Cairo. Cairo is a crazy place. Very populated. The first thing I noticed about the buildings is that none of the them are finished they have barbed stuff sticking out of the top of them and some of the top floor don't have ceilings. They told us this is becuase there isn't as much tax on a building if it isn't finished. Crazy. Also, the driving and traffic in Cairo is insane. There are donkey drawn carts on the side of the road with cars crazily honking and agressively squeezing wherever they can. As our tour guide told us, the white lines on the road are only for decoration. We arrived at our hotel and had dinner. We were all very careful to use hand sanitizer and not choose any of the food that was not cooked (although I did see part of our group eating the strawberries on the tops of their deserts, uh oh). Day 3 we woke up early and it was off to see the Pyramids of Giza! We went inside the second biggest pyramid. This was kind of intense. I was really chilly and windy outside but when we climbed into the pyramid shaft it was really really humid and the air was really suffocating and the narrow passages were packed with tourists. We kept climbing and climbing I was waiting for the shaft to open into a big room where we could breath easy. There was one sections of the shaft that was really dark and I was trying to see where to put my feet and hoping I wouldn't run into anyone. Finally it opened up into a bigger room that was even more humid and full of tourists it was wierd to breath. We saw the inside chamber with a hole for the sarcophogus and a big grafitti stamped on the wall with the name of the man who discovered this tomb back in the 1800s I think. It was really dark and boring looking but it was amazing to thing that the Egyptians had engineered this thing with shafts and everything and to think how long it has been standing on the earth. We tend to think things were very different way back in the past or very primitive. The same tangible stuff from way then is still here even though those people are gone. Even though the pyramids are so old they don't seem that alien again it felt to me almost like disneyland like it was all fake. We probably just don't realize how real the past is. And how it really wasn't that long ago and how short our lives really are. Following the pyramids we went on a camel ride. It was intense, those Egyptians trying to make a buck are so aggressive and us tourists are obsessed with getting a good picture its kind of funny what we are willing to do for a memory and what they are willing to do for a dollar. Next we went and saw the Sphinx mostly it was take a picture and get attacked by cute little kids selling junky stuff. It was at the sphinx that a kid from our group lost his camera bag and we all had to wait about 30 minutes while he tried to figure out their lost and found system and get it back. (He found out later he probably should have just paid them ten bucks and they would have given it to him). Next thing I remember from that day was they took us to the the Papyrus factory. (I wondered how much our tour guide got for that one). Papyrus are really beautiful. I really like egyptian art in general becuase its alot like modern art. It has really clean lines and looks almost machine tooled. The piece I picked out to buy was from king tuts tomb. It's an engagment scene of him and his wife, very beautiful I like the design. They also had the 'mormon' facimile's from the Pearl of Great Price that a bunch of people got. They didn't look as aesthetic to me though so I didn't get it. At about 7:00 pm we took our simplified luggage (just a backpack for each of us) and got on a small plane for Luxor egypt. Luxor is south of Cairo (only a 50 minute flight) but actually 'up' the Nile (the nile runs south to north). It was in the terminal waiting for our flight that I felt myself getting sick. Luckily not "Ramsie's revenge" food poisoning that is so famous of a trip to Egypt but the cold/flu virus bug thing that has been going around our group.... to be continued

Egypt

I'm back from Egypt. Not gonna lie its so nice to be back in Jerusalem. Its so clean here we can eat fresh produce! Cucumbers, tomatoes, salad, mmmm. Anyway I have 8 days of crazy cool experiences to talk about. I probably won't get it all down in this sitting buy here it goes. Day One: January 27th we left the Jerusalem Center at 6:30 am sharp in our two lovely buses and began to drive. We stopped at Tel Beersheba which is a very very old archeological site. Abraham may have lived there. It was so cool to walk on the stairs that are thousands of years old. Basically this whole Egypt trip I couldn't believe how old the stuff was that I was seeing. I was amazed at how much it looked like stuff that we see and use today. Things haven't changed that much (The stuff in the Cairo museum was so old, from tombs of pharoahs but it looked almost like disneyland like that had made all these crafts for effect. But supposedly, they were the real thing. wow!) Anyway back to day one. After the tel we drove more and stopped at the Wilderness of Zin which is basically an overlook of alot of nothing. The greatest most desolate nothing you can imagine. This is the wilderness that the children of Israel wandered in for 40 years. Very harsh land. At this overlook was also the Grave of Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was basically the George Washington of Israel he was a great leader and in the end refused to take power and went away quietly to farm. After the overlook we stopped at the Yotvata Kibbutz and had a tour. This Kibbutz is known for their dates and dairy cows mostly but they also grow onions and other things. Its amazing how they can do it becuase its such a desolate area. They can't even use sprinklers because the water evaporates to fast in the heat of the summer. Drip Irrigation was invented on this Kibbutz. It only rains about twice a year they said. It was cool because the afternoon we were there it rained! After our tour they served us dinner. Way good food. I especially liked the chocolate milk and ice cream they gave us. Straight from their dairy cows mmm. They had live entertainment during our dinner a group of four singers with one accompanying on the piano. They did alot of Israeli favorites along with some we knew including Fiddler on the Roof "If I were a rich man" and "You ain't never had a friend like me" from Disney's Aladdin. The singing turned into a crazy student dance party after dinner we were all jumping around in circles and singing. It was so fun. After they had settled us down we got back on the buses and drove to Eliot to another Kibbutz where we were to stay the night. I finally went to bed after trying to go swimming in the pool which was closed and not heated (we found this out because two guys jumped in, we forget that it's winter here); playing some night games; and finally going for a short jog in an effort to get some exercise.