A Day of All Seasons

A Day of All Seasons has been my experience here at the BYU Jerusalem Center. Seriously! Below 0 in the classroom. Layers and socks/shoes in the morning for class! About 85F as soon as you walk outside! And then off come the layers and you try and find the lightest outfit you have.

Anyway... Just thought I'd give a little taste of the climate. It's actually feeling a lot better now that it has cooled off a little (a little like Utah's fall but without the leaves).

Oh Mom, my Relief Society lesson went really well! The women here are amazing! It was a lot of fun!

And good news: I'm going to Jordan tomorrow! I'll update when I get back!

Lots of love!

Olives Part II and Hezekiah's Tunnel

This morning when our class was trudging through thigh-deep water inside a tunnel chiseled over two thousand years ago under the walls of ancient and modern Jerusalem and the City of David I thought to myself, "I can't believe I get to call this school! I wonder what everyone is Rexburg is doing." We have had a lot of fun this week! Especially this morning in our Southern Kingdom/Judah Field Trip. I liked it because we've been studying this time period in both Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Old Testament this week. There are a lot of life lessons to be learned from these people! I'm glad I get to learn them here! Picture: note the level of water! wahoo!


The other fun thing we got to do yesterday (to get away from studying) was crush the olives we
had to pick last week. I learnedsome interesting things. For example, the huge round stone (in the picture) that you crush the olives with is called a tribulum... where the word tribulation comes from. Now think about that for a minute. It was a great experience... and it was fun to watch all of the olive slim fights afterwards. Thankfully I wasn't involved in that one.


Midterms are finally here and class is a disaster! Mostly because none of us want to be in class. That is how spoiled rotten we are! 2 Midterms, 2 Quizzes to go then we're headed for Jordan! I really want to write more, but it'll have to be later! Love ya lots!

Carlee

Boker Tov: Good Morning

Hey! What a good week!

Classes are crazy as always! We're starting mid-terms which is no fun at all!

We picked olives for three days after class so we can crush them this week. It was a lot of fun! I miss climbing trees! Life is good when you have trees to climb! :) Even though my bucket is empty I promise I picked some!

The highlight of my week was going to the Garden of Gethsemane. We went yesterday on Shabbat after church. To get there we walked through Orson Hyde Park which is also very beautiful. We asked if we could sit in one of the side gardens at Gethsemane that was locked because they don't let many tourists in there... excepts the Mormons. It was beautiful, and surprisingly quiet and peaceful. Wow... that is all I can say to describe it.

One of my roommates and another one of my really good friends received their mission calls this week so the JC has been full of excitement! Sarah is going to France, Rachel is headed to Spain! I'm so excited for them! (Maybe a little jealous even ;) ) I even guessed Sarah's call right on! Wahoo! I won some TimTams and am ready for a TimTam Slam baby! Ha ha! Hmmmmmm... so good! Well I have to run to class... (eck)

Lots of Love!

Carlee

Galilee Trip #1

Hey ya'll!


Earlier this week I had my first Galilee experience and loved it! I definitely am in love! I can't wait to go back next month for longer! It was a quick trip...two days to see everything we can't see in our next trip. Highlights: Megiddo, Acco, Caesarea Maritima, Mt. Carmel, and Mt. Arbel, and the Sea of Galilee.
Picture: Enactment of a battle at Megiddo





I will tell you my one misfortune of the trip: My favorite pants now lay in ruin in my closet. It's a long story. So I'll show you the picture. It's was quite the adventure since that happened on Day #1 and they were my only pair of pants I brought. Moral of the story: The Lord likes to laugh... and walking backwards is a great skill!



Conference was amazing! It was recorded for us so we've been watching it throughout the week. The combined effort of ancient and modern prophets and apostles has really done so much to touch my heart and strengthen my testimony of the gospel. In case you were wondering... the church is true!

Mom and Dad... I know you are in Florida but you still better watch conference when you get back! You are going to have to report back to me! :)

Love ya!
Carlee

This Week in Review

This week was a really good week. Our Palestinian class teacher couldn't get a visa out of West Bank into Israel so we didn't have half our classes this week (don't worry he'll be back next week). So we ended up with quite a lot of free time... my favorite! We got back from Egypt on Sunday then had our Conquest Field Trip on Wednesday and our Judges Field Trip yesterday. It was way fun!

Conquest Field Trip:

In Old Testament we were studying Joshua and his conquest of the Canaanites and settlement of Israel. So we do what we always do here... took a field trip. We visited both the Old and New Testament Jericho Tels (archaeological sites) and of course to get there we went through modern Jericho. I've now been in the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. wahoo! It was actually a really neat place. We also visited Quruntful Monastery which is traditionally where Satan tempted Christ to turn the stone into bread. They built this monastery right up on the cliff face. Crazy... the picture to the right is looking out from there over Jericho.

After we got back we went into the Old City for a little while. We tried to go a couple places but ended up St. George's Cathedral and sang hymns (from their hymn book) for a half hour or so. It was nice. There was a young man who sat down next to us and listened and Ashley and I had a neat conversation with him afterwards. I love the people here.

Judges Field Trip:

So we moved on and are studying the time and book of Judges. So we took another field trip. (jealous yet?) We went all over the place! We stopped at Bet Shemesh (once the residence of the Ark of the Covenant), Azekah, Elah Valley (place where David slew Goliath... and I learned how to use a sling), Bet Guvrin, Lachish, and Micah's cave (where we explored all these caves which was by far the most fun). It was a good day! Lots of learning! Pictures: Me, Risa, and Craig in the caves

Most grateful moment of the week: when Karey killed the ginormous spider that was in our room! It was sick! It gushed guts everywhere... don't worry I took a picture. :)

Most happy moment this week: getting to watch the first General Conference session live! We also got to watch the Relief Society rebroadcast at 7am this morning. It is so good to hear the words of the Lord from his servants!

Well we are headed to Galilee tomorrow for an overnight field trip. I'll be sure to update when I return!

Love ya lots!

Carlee

My Exodus to the Land of the Pharaohs

Well hello again! I know you all missed me! So basically I just had the time of my life! Egypt is incredible! Since there is hardly a way to tell you everything I did I'm just going to give you a basic outline... and pictures of course! (plus I know that's all you really want anyway)

Sunday (the 23) Israel/Egypt

On our first day we made a few stops on our way out of the country. We stopped at Tel Beersheba the place where Abraham dug a well and kept his family (as well as Issac and Jacob). It was really neat since its an active dig site. Then we went to an amazing overlook of the Zin Wilderness where the Children of Israel dwelt for a time (it was also David ben Gurion's grave). That was amazing to see! That is really the desert! Holy cow! It was cool though! And then a couple of hours later we visited our first Kubbutz, a small township that basically practices socialism... very communal living. It was neat to see. There are several of them in the Negev Desert (where there isn't anything else out there). Picture: Holli and I at Tel Beersheba with hardhats and everything!

Monday (the 24) Cairo
Well we drove in the bus... for a LONG time! Then we sat at border control for a LONG time. Finally we made it to Cairo! Phew! Then we swam the night away at the hotel. (Oh and I got asked to speak at Sacrament Mtg. see Sat.) That was about it. Picture: Rachel and I outside border control

Tuesday (the 25) Cairo

Basically the best day ever! We did so much! We started off the day going to the Pyramids at Giza! Wahoo! We went up through one of them. Talk about tight places. It was cool though. Its quite the grand piece of work for such a small room. After that we went on a camel ride... and I officially decided I don't like camels. I'll take a horse anyday. Then we went see the Sphinx, a mastaba (tomb of a wealthy ancient with original paintings), Zoser Pyramid (the first ancient step pyramid), and then a quick stop in Memphis. It was a busy day, but incredible. Then we took an overnight train to Luxor. I'm not going to lie... I was afraid it was going to fall apart on us. Needless to say... it was a long night! Left: Me and the Pyramid. Below: Me and the Camel

Wednesday (the 26) Luxor

Besides the fact that I was just really grateful to get off the train this day was probably tied for my favorite. We went to: Valley of the Kings (including King Tut's tomb), Hatshepsut's Temple which is carved into the Mountain, the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, Colossi Memnon, and then that evening went on a Faluka ride and watched the sun set over the Nile (and danced to funny Arabic songs). It was so much fun! I learned a lot about Egyptology and decided I would really like to learn more. Bro. Draper has had a few informal lectures about Abraham 1, and the facsimiles, and lots of ancient Egyptian history that is very applicable to us and I absolutely love it! Sometime I'll have to share all the things I've learned! When I have a couple extra hours... :) Pictures: hierogliphics, a faluka on the nile

Thursday (the 27) Luxor

Okay... maybe this was another one of my favorite days. I can't pick just one okay. We visited the Karnak temple which is pretty much the coolest temple of them all (trust me... we have seen them all). There were so many interesting "doctrinal debris" as Bro. Draper calls it. Seriously though... I can't wait to go through our own temple and it will probably help with understanding. The Egyptians sure did have some truth. I liked a quote I heard about the Egyptians by President Kimball, he said that the Egyptians were very interested in finding the key to the eternities, immortality, and deity. However, they found many keys and for fear of selecting the wrong one wouldn't let any of them go and thus became their downfall. But I think they had been given several chances by the Lord to have the right one, they just wouldn't commit. It has some interesting applications I think. Anyway... took a carriage ride, had some free time, shopped, visited the Luxor temple, and then jumped on a plane and finally headed back to Cairo. Picture: Bro. Draper (my) class at Karnak temple (I'm now officially the class photographer)

Friday (the 28) Cairo

We visited Old Cairo (it was okay). The best part of the day was when we went to the Khan al Kalili Bazaar. I now have quite the reputation as the bargainer to stick with. ha ha... really. I had fun getting my prices and debating with merchants. Who would have thought? ha ha. Picture: Me, Sarah, Stephanie, Karey, Rachel, and Kayla

Saturday (the 29) Cairo

First thing on Saturday we went to Muhammad Ali Mosque which was really neat. I liked it. Then we visited some not so exciting things around the city so I won't bore you with that (well not exciting compared with the rest of the week).

We then traveled to Sinai and had Sacrament Meeting at the hotel that night. President Hayes asked me to speak for Sacrament. That was an interesting experience. First of all we had just traveled approx 6 hours on a bus after a long day out. Second we were holding the meeting in a restaurant at 10 at night. But I really appreciated the opportunity to do it. I spoke about trusting in the Lord, and it fit perfectly with Brooklyn speaking on enduring to the end, and Trevor speaking on finding joy. A lot of us needed it. Then we went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 1am to hike Mt. Sinai. (That would equal 2 hours of sleep if you wanted to know.) Picture: Mosque

Sunday (the 30) Sinai
Well we woke up at 1am and hiked Mount Sinai. We got to the top an hour early for sunrise, so we all slept at the top. It was a really neat experience and breath-taking! The Sinai desert has its own unique beauty. There were 787 stairs to get from the last stop to the top, but we did it! But by the time we got down I was ready to go home... to Jerusalem. Everyone slept on the bus. We got stuck at border control for even longer this time so we went and played on the beach of the Red Sea. Finally at 10pm we made it home. Honestly the highlight of my day was taking to Russ and the family when we finally made it back. So family... just know you beat Mt. Sinai. That's how much I love you! ha ha! Above: Me on Sinai. Below: the sun rising

Well this was quite the longwinded blog. My apologies. I promise I won't burden you like this very often.
I love ya! Thanks for your prayers! And I definitely need more emails from everyone!

Carlee