Saturday, July 12th (Shabbat/Sabbath): On our way back from Egypt when we got to the Israel side, we went snorkling in the Red Sea! It was amazing, many beautifully colored fish, the Red Sea is actually very very very strikingly blue and no, I did not see any of Pharaoh's chariots at the bottom. It was salty and tasted yucky :).
Sunday, July 13th (Not the Sabbath): I went to the Holocaust Museum, it was interesting, extremely well put together, very somber and incredibly sobering. That night, a few friends and I ordered some pizza to the center, which was a pretty funny experience and then I ended up eating most of it... haha.
Monday, July 14th: I had six hours of class and spent some time talking to my family, I got a letter from Mike, I tricked Kristen by calling her on her work phone and pretending like I was a student wanting to transfer (it was hilarious. I am so funny!)
Tuesday, July 15th: Had a field trip day, went through Hezekiah's Tunnel, it was dark and wet and very, very intensely cool plus really really old,
and I also went up on the Temple Mount and touched the outside of The Dome of the Rock (that building with the big gold dome roof on it) which is really close to the place where the Ancient temples that Solomon and Zerubbabel built (Zerubbabel's temple was later expanded greatly by Herod). They won't let anyone in the Dome of the Rock unless they are Muslim. It was a big day, I was very tired.Wednesday, July 16th: This day I got 2 letters from Mike and a card from my mom for my birthday, I discovered that I'm probably going to get horrible grades this semester, there is so much more to learn than I ever could in this amount of time, even though I want to really really badly. I didn't write what I did this day so much as I wrote about my feelings about the Jerusalem Center. I'm guessing I studied a lot.
Thursday, July 17th: In my jounal entry for this day, I said: "Today was brutally intense." Dr. Seely spent 2 hours spoonfeeding us direct answers from his study guide for his test, but we had finals for Islam and Judaism (I remember this day now, this was the day that I have never done as poorly on tests before in my life). It was a bad day, haha.
Friday, July 18th: I did well on my Old Testament final. (After my fervent resolve to never do poorly on a test again). Most places in the Old City are closed since it is the Muslim Holy day, but we went to this man named Omar's Olive Wood shop, he caters specifically to Mormons which is kind of funny cause he does olive wood carvings of Joseph Smith and Mormon and stuff, I was seriously tempted by one of the Liahona, but resisted. Anyway, that was a busy day.
Saturday, July 19th (Shabbat/Sabbath): Good speakers in Sacrament, Good lessons, Sabbaths are now my all-time favorite day of the week. I went with some friends to the Garden Tomb, which was a really nice, peaceful experience. I enjoyed seeing other zealous Christians there. In the Holy Land, almost everyone is really religious which is a striking contrast to the States where it is usually more socially normal for people to not be so rigidly defined by their religion. I was happy the tomb was empty.
Sunday, July 20th: A good day for all people, we left for Jordan, Brother Draper sang to me cause I wouldn't get cake, I got a Jordan stamp in my passport and the lady at the border told me happy birthday, we went to Mt. Nebo where Moses looked out over the promised land and was later Translated. We saw a map mosaic in a small, very old church in Madaba, Jordan (where I probably really irreverently pretended to blow out some prayer candles for a picture since it was my birthday) and after we got to our hotel we spent the night traveling around a 2 block limit (our free time in Jordan got destroyed because a malevolent ill-wisher of a radically religious nature decided to shoot some tourists in Jordan about 3 days before we went there) and shopped. Jenni got me a shirt, she's great. :)
Monday, July 21st: PETRA!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Petra was so so so so so Amazing. I'll have to come back to it along with the Egypt things to do it justice. It is like ... incredible castle rooms carved out of sandstone.
It was voted the 2nd world wonder of the new Ancient World or something. It's the place in the third Indiana Jones (The Last Crusade) where they go to find the Grail (it doesn't really have all those challenges inside the Treasury, but when I walked up to it, I couldn't keep myself from whispering "The penitent man shall pass." Petra was ridiculously hot, and we spent hours and hours there. I loved every second of it. Also, I rode a donkey up a cliffy mountain trail. Nearly died (both myself and the donkey). And my donkey was either really dumb, really blind or suicidal. I felt very sorry for it many times, and got off and walked with it. He looked a lot like Small One. We went to a different hotel and spent some time at a mall near there (they had good ice cream) and I got a few pirated DVDs since they don't have copyright laws in Jordan, and I decided that I hate Dinars (Jordinian Currency).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
Tuesday, July 22nd: We went to the Jabbok river, where Jacob wrestled with someone and received the name of Israel, then we went to Jerash/Philadelphia which was a really cool old roman city (and used to be called Jershon at one point which I thought was interesting cause of the Book of Mormon). There were many columns and theaters and old stones and roads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash
Wednesday, July 23rd: Went to the King Abdullah I mosque in Amman, the girls all had to wear black robes with our hair covered by something, and I felt like I really was in Harry Potter. We got to go in the girls area too, which was pretty neat (albeit smaller... always smaller...*sigh*).
We went to a citadel overlook of the city and saw the temple of Hercules and went to an incredible little museum where they had part of the Copper Scrolls which are a big deal, they're part of the dead sea scrolls (Which my teacher Brother Seely helped translate).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Scroll
Then on our way back to Israel, we stopped at the river Jordan and hiked down to it and had a lesson down there and hiked back and my tour guide said he read a thermometer saying that it was 43 degrees C, which is about 109.5 F, without the humidity worked in. Yucky. It was SO hot.
Thursday, July 24th: My friend Jenni's Birthday- Bethlehem field trip. The security code was on high alert here because of the 2nd Tractor incident. My biggest impression of Bethlehem was that of poverty. Ever since the partition wall went up, I guess it's been really tough on the people who live there. They relied heavily on tourism and a lot of it stopped. They asked us not to give the children money, since they were trying to discourage begging, but it was so hard. That part was horrible. I also wasn't a big fan of the church of the Nativity. I felt rushed and it was a dark and rather gaudy... we sang some hymns in the over-decorated grottoes which claimed to be the birthplace of our Savior, but I didn't feel anything and to me those places held little to no spirituality for me, which was sad and rather frustrating. We shopped for a while in Bethlehem, and then drove to a place called "Shepherd's Field" which was definitely one of my favorite things we've done on this trip. We had a talent show prepared with some Christmas songs in the middle as we sat on a hill in a field and watched the sun go down. Basically we had Christmas in July. :D. Brother Draper had us read the story of the Nativity and discussed it with us on a very deep level, taking into account the emotional aspects it must've held for Mary and Joseph, and talking about the "Rogue Angels" who decided to tell the shepherds about Christ being born, haha. We had some contemplative time that night and I listened to some Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas songs about Angels on my ipod, and felt so close to my Savior as I sat on that hill, watching the stars come out and writing frantically in my journal to keep up with inspiration. It was a beautiful night.
Friday, July 25th: We were still on lockdown, so we all spent most of the day studying. I'm grateful for it though because I know I did better on my test than I otherwise would have. Then I went to a Synagogue with 19 other students and my Jewish Judaism teacher to welcome in Shabbat with some real-live Jews!!! That was really cool. I love how much heart and soul they put into their worship of Shabbat. I felt so guilty for ever saying that Sunday was not my favorite day. People here truly do use their day of worship as a joyful day to glorify their God and to rest and feel peaceful. I also met a really nice lady named Holly from Portland, she helped me follow along in my prayer book.
Saturday, July 26th (Shabbat/Sabbath): I LOVE Shabbat. Shabbat Shalom! I had Church and then went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Sang some hymns there with my two friends Jenni and Julia. It was a good relaxing day.
Ok, that's where I'm going to quit tonight. I'm falling asleep so I think that means time for bed, but I love and miss you all! I'll talk about Galilee in my next one, I promise. I got another Letter from Mike while I was in Galilee too. It was so cute. Anyway, off to bed! Goodnight!
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