Arabian Night!

For the last couple days I have had a horrible migraine. I literally locked myself up in my room and covered the walls with blankets so no light could come in. I even slept in my sunglasses for awhile to hide the light. I felt really awful and was not able to go to class because of this migraine. So, I am feeling slightly behind in all of my classes right now. I woke up this morning and even though my head was still hurting extraordinarily bad I got up and went upstairs for breakfast and for class. I went to my first class and could no longer handle it so I went back to my room to try to sleep it off. When I woke up a few hours later I was feeling so much better. It was not completely gone but a much better improvement. The rest of the day I still took it really slow and easy and gradually I started feeling better and better. As the day continued I not only started feeling better but the day got better and better as well. That evening the center had an Arab culture night. Everyone dressed up in fun outfits that they had either bought while they were in Egypt of clothing they had bought while we have been in Israel. We then heard from two local people that are the ones that call people to prayer. So, we got to meet the people that we hear every day, five times a day sign to us the call to prayer. It was absolutely fascinating. We also learned a lot about the significance of the call to prayer and how important it is. For example, if the person that is singing the song does not have a good voice than it is not necessary that they go to pray. Another interesting fact is that the call to prayer is a very big privilege. It is passes down in the family for generations and if you are not in the family than you do not get that opportunity. The two people that came we asked them at what age they started learning how to call people to prayer. One of them said that they started learning at age 7. So they started at a very young age to be able to grow up and get the privilege of calling all the people to prayer. They not only sang for us the call to prayer but they also showed us exactly how they pray. It was such an interesting experience and I kept thinking that I am so blessed to be able to be here and be seeing this. Not many people even if they live here for as long as I have would be able to meet the local men that call people to prayer.
After hearing and talking with these two men we then adjourned to the cafeteria where we had a very special dinner prepared for us. They had all TONS of food all that were traditional food that is found here in Israel. They had things like stuffed carrots, this type of rice that was wrapped in grape skin, all kinds of salads, hummus, Babaganush (so yucky by the way), rice, pitas, vegetables and these chicken wraps that were so delicious. They had so much food it took two separate plates to get just a little taste of everything. For the majority everything was very tasty. However, there were some things that I don’t think I will ever eat again. It was a great experience though. After dinner they had a special treat for us where we learned to do an Israeli Folk dance. It was SO fun! We got in four groups after watching some of the dancers and then they taught us how to dance. After we had learned the dance we all got in a huge circle of 82 students and danced. After awhile of doing the dance they taught us we all started doing our own thing and had such a fun dance party with Israeli music to dance to. It was a blast!(our dance instructors)

Shabbat Shalom!

Tonight was an incredible night. I had the opportunity to go with 14 other student to go to a Friday night Shabbat prayer. My Jewish teacher named Ophir let 15 students go with him to one of the synagogues near his house to pray with him and observe the beginning of their Sabbath. The synagogue that we went to was an orthodox Jewish synagogue; however I was surprised by this title because it was a very lively upbeat synagogue service. When I thought of Orthodox I immediately thought of the very orthodox Jews that have the big hats and dress all in black. However there was not a single Jew in there that was that way. Anyways, it was a very interesting experience. After picking up my teacher and his adorable daughter from their house we drove to this synagogue. Now, because it was a Friday night, and this is the night that the Jewish religion starts their Sabbath, they believe that you cannot drive or turn on any light. So, I could not bring my camera and take pictures. =( Anyways, we showed up about an hour before anyone else so we could sit and talk about the Jewish culture and about what we were going to experience. After visiting for awhile we went in after a few people had already arrived and sat down. They gave us a revised prayer book that had the prayers in Hebrew and then on the other side it was translated in English so that we could know the meaning of what they were singing. Oh yes, I forgot to say, they did not just say their prayers they sang them. It was all acapella and they would absolutely just bolt it out and sing at the top of their lungs. They got so into it that they would start clapping their hands and pounding on the tables. It sounded so amazing. For the majority of it I could sing along because I have been learning enough Hebrew to sing along and then the other time I would just close my eyes and listen. You could just tell that they love their god and they were praising Him with all that they had inside. For one of the songs everyone got up and they started dancing around in a circle around everyone else. I of course got right up and joined the dancing circle. Everyone was so nice and loving and invited us with open arms. They love visitors and talked and visited with us for awhile afterward. I had such a good time and got a new insight of how people worship God. It was really amazing to me how much they praise God. I feel like in my prayers I always thank Heavenly Father but I never praise Him and tell Him how wonderful I think He is. But I want everyone, especially my family to know how wonderful I think Heavenly Father is. God has blessed my life with hundreds of blessing every day. I am so blessed to be here and to be living the way that I am right now.

DEAD SEA!!! Yippee!

WOW! What a fun day! So far this has been my very favorite free day. One of my friends here named Steph thought of a brilliant idea to get a group together and go to the Dead Sea. I fortunately was one of those lucky ones that got to be in her group. We left at about 10 in the morning after we finished doing a humanitarian service project putting kits together for families along the Gaza Strip and in West Bank. Before we left we asked some of the Security guards if there was anything fun that we should do while we were there. They told us that there were some good hikes that were nearby where you could hike up to a waterfall. We drove about an hour and 15 minutes and we were there. When we arrived we asked all around the hotels and nearby stores if there was anyplace that we could hike. We asked a ton of people but it seemed that no one knew what we were talking about. Finally we found someone that told us to hike up and go across the street and then keep walking until we saw some green. We had no idea where we were going but, we still wanted to try and find this hike that we had heard about. So, up the hill and across the street we went and we just kept walking along the road until we saw a little bit of green. We started hiking on what we thought was a trail. We then found a wadi nearby which had a beautiful clear blue stream in it. So, we decided to walk through the wadi and try to find the waterfall. We met a few people on the way up and talked to them for awhile while also asking for directions to the waterfall. They pointed us into the right direction and we continued hiking. It was over 100 degrees outside, however because we were walking in the water it made it much more manageable and not nearly as hot as it would have been hiking somewhere else. The hike was absolutely beautiful. We would have to duck under some trees and there were many different kinds of beautiful flowers and plants to look at. Walking through the wadi we would also have to hike up a few smaller sized waterfalls and big boulders and random pools of water that we would walk through. The water temperature was absolutely perfect to walk through if felt just like pool water. After awhile of walking we made it to the water fall. It was so beautiful there. Some of the girls hiked up all the way to the tippy top of the waterfall and walked along up there. Under the waterfall there was an awesome little pool area where we could swim in along the waterfall, the rock was so smooth that you would just slide down. We spent a good hour taking pictures and investigating the surrounding area. After awhile we decided to hike back down and go to the Dead Sea. On our way to the Dead Sea we asked around for some mineral or mud baths. The only one that were nearby were at the surrounding hotels and they cost about 40 dollars. So, we decided to buy a bucket and all slit the cost. It turned out to be more like 1 dollar a person instead, a much better deal.

The Dead Sea was incredible. I did not know really what to expect but I was shocked by the amount of Salt that was there. We were told to only go in the Dead Sea for 20 minutes because there was so much salt that it would soak up all the water in our body and we would get extremely dehydrated without even knowing. As soon as I stepped in, it felt so weird. It still felt like water but it also had a slimy feel to it. As soon as I lied down in the water my feet literally went up. As soon as I got into the water and lied down on my back, my feet went directly in the air. It did not take any control on my part whatsoever. We swam out farther where there was a drop off and I tried to put my feet down in the water and I literally could not put my feet down. It was so crazy! After I had been in the water for while I got out and then we all started putting mud all over our body! It sounds weird but it was so much fun to put mud all over our bodies. We took a lot of pictures and then got back in the water to wash it off. Oh my goodness, my skin was SO soft! We washed ourselves off and then went shopping for a bit and then left to go back to the center. It was seriously such a fun day! I am so glad that we went!

visit to Jericho

Just a few interesting facts about Jericho: Jericho is the oldest city on Earth and it contains a tower that archeologists date back to 8,000 B.C. I think that is so crazy. That is ten THOUSAND years ago. An interesting fact to consider when you are thinking about how extremely old that this is, Bible Scholar and Anglican Archbishop, James Ussher conclude that Adam and Eve date back to 4,000 B.C. so take this information as you want and make your own conclusion, but I find it completely fascinating. Another interesting point is that Jericho is the lowest point of Earth. When we went to Jericho we first visited a monastery named Quarantal Monastery. This monastery was built literally in the mountain. Not just sitting on top, but in the mountain. It was very neat to go there and see some of the monks and see where they live and practice their religion. We covered our whole bodies with pants and long sleeve shirts as well as covering our hair in respect for them and the monastery. After visiting there, we then went to the place where the Jericho tower still stands. It is known as the oldest man-made structure in the world. Along with the Tower of Jericho there are man-made walls that have been there since the Middle Bronze Era (2200 B.C). Some believe these walls to be the very walls that fell in Joshua’s time. We visited a couple other places, one of which had a beautiful overlook of the desert. When I looked over the beautiful desert scenery I thought that what I was looking at was what people from many centuries ago also looked at. There were no buildings, no houses, just the beautiful desert sand.

catching up!

Hello again my fellow readers, it has been quite awhile since I last updated my blog mainly because time has been flying by and another reason is because I have not been able to put pictures up until now. My days include a lot of learning, laughing and growing. I have gone on a couple field trips, explored Jerusalem and had some free days to go out of town and see new places. However, most of my days have been spent here in the beautiful Jerusalem Center. I have classes most every day which are very challenging but very educational. My classes include: Hebrew, Ancient Near Eastern Studies (where I learn all about the different places in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas), Old Testament class (which half way through the semester will be switched to New Testament), and then I have two other classes one that is taught by a Muslim professor and one that is taught by a Jewish professor. These last two classes are very interesting because I get to hear both the Palestinian side and the Israeli side. So, as you can tell they are all very interesting classes but they are extremely hard because of the amount of work and test that are given each week. For example, last week I only had my Old Testament class but because I did not have any of my other classes I was reading, studying and going to class so much that my teacher said normally, the information and the amount of reading that I did in four days would have taken an entire month to cover at BYU. The following blogs cover the last few weeks since I have been back from Egypt. Hope you enjoy!