Eilat: Snorkeling

Susan, me Rach, Whit and Rach ready to snorkel!

Rachel and I overlooking the Red sea

On our free day last Sunday we loaded up the buses at some ridiculous hour in the morning and loaded up the buses to begin the four hour drive down south to Eilat. Around the center when this activity was being planned I was told Eilat or at least the Red Sea is one of the best places for scuba diving, which I just found funny because we were going snorkeling, but it really was the best snorkeling I've ever been able to experience. I have never seen such beautiful fish! It was really cool. Here's some more photos of the day!

Becca and I in our beach day garb!

The Red Sea at Eilat was so blue and clear!
It was perfect for seeing all the colorful fish.

Snorkeling in Eilat is why my life is an adventure!

Out and About in Ye' Old City: Armenian Tavern

Guess what I did!

Friday nights in Jerusalem are not exactly the exactly the happenings evenings in Jerusalem, because it is the beginning of Sabbat for the Jewish community and since Jerusalem is a Jewish city, everything is closed. Okay not everything...but everything interesting is. Friday afternoons are great because we are finally done with classes, but there are few sites that we can visit beside the Christian churches to visit. Last Friday, however, we went to the Armenian quarter of the Old City and had a nice Armenian meal for dinner. A group had walked by the tavern before and noted how delicious it smelled and they decided they had to go back, so I just got to tag along.

Jay, me, Rachel, Geoff, Jamie and Melinda outside the Armenian Tavern.
We have a "fashion committee" at the JC, who decide what to wear on fridays...
you may notice it is white shirt and khaki day...you may also notice Jamie has
chosen not to conform to how crazy the rest of us are...we love her anyway.

It was an absolutely delicious meal. Melinda and I split our meal, which was good decision because it was lot more food than I would have been able to ever eat, especially because it was served with the softest pita ever. mmhmmm I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it right now.

I honestly don't even remember what I ordered, but it was the Friday special. It
was basically a soup-- that tasted like hummus-- with some beef, potatoes
and green and red bell peppers in it. It was absolutely delicious!

After eating dinner we walked home...remember there's nothing open in Jerusalem on Sabbat. But as we approached the lower gate to the BYU Jerusalem Center there was a group of Palestinian kids, who honestly are there all the time, but we never have time to play or its just too hot, but I always want to...but this time we finally stopped and played soccer with them for an hour an so.

 I learned my soccer skills are not as bad as I imagined they would be, since I haven't played soccer since I was in Kindergarten. Granted the fact that we played in a 30ft sqaure area, just outside the gate does not mean I really had the room to be embarrassed, but still, I could kick the ball which is a success I will enjoy. At the end of the day though the Palestinian kids still dominated us Americans, but we had a great time cheering for each other that is until it hit sundown and our security guards ushered us inside.



Eating at Taverns and playing soccer with the neighborhood kids is why my life is an adventure.

Yad Vashem

Last weekend, on my free day we went to the zoo for funsies, which really was a ton of fun. For the most part, it's much like any other zoo I've visited, but of course some different animals. It was a nice light-hearted activity, to prepare for our Monday field trip to the Israeli Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl.
This field trip was a sobering one, but not as depressing as I had initially expected. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and I found it to be very graphic and a very harsh approach to the horrors of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem is a museum created by an Israeli state, for the Israeli people which include many survivors of the holocaust.

I felt like the museum really told the story of the Jewish people from their perspective and did not concentrate on the Allie involvement and did not romanticize the Western involvement which I did not realize before but was really the perspective I was used to hearing. One thing that stood out to me was the Jewish people's dilemma. Of course they were greatly deceived, but dealing with the moral dilemma of the Jewish leaders in the ghetto's is one I had never been exposed to. They were the representatives of the Jewish community and were forced to pick the familes to leave on the train or they could resist which would only to lead to the German troops attacking, killing even more poeple and then taking that same amount of people to the camps anyway...it was not exactly an easy choice. There were groups that did resist such as the zionists of the Warsaw Ghetto. The other part history that they ended the exhibit with and was a perfect way to touch on the hope felt, was a concentration on those who risked their lives to help save the Jews from being rounded up and killed. Denmark Jews suffered very little because when the country rallied together and helped evacuate the Jews to Sweden. Another commemoration they have on the museum grounds is a garden where every tree planted is planted to commemorate one person who helped save the Jews at the risk of their own life.

Herzl's grave. Place of

We also visited the grave of of Herzl which is where all the Independence Day ceremonies take place. Herzl is regarded as the Father of the zionist movement and requested to be buried in Zion.

I wanted to be sure to finish this post this week, because you may have seen this place in the news recently, which makes this post just a bit more interesting to you who haven't been here...yet. But earlier this week vandals spray painted anti-zionist slogans all over the walls in the square on the museums ground. If you haven't heard about I encourage you to google Yad Vashem graffiti. It is sure to come up.

Shavuot and Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem

The crew on  our early
morning excursion to
Shavuot at the Western Wall.

Old City walls on our way to Shavuot.

This was actually last weekend, but it was an absolutely amazing weekend! So it started our Friday evening which is the beginning of the Jewish Shabbat  (Sabbath). A group of about 20 students joined my Israel/Judaism professor Mr. Yardin, for a synagogue service. Then Sunday morning was the Jewish holiday Shavuot and the Christian holiday Day of Pentecost. It is by chance that they fell on the same day this year.

So Shavuot is a holiday to celebrate the receiving of the Torah. In Jerusalem, this means that people will stay up all night studying the Torah and then at 4:30am they all walk to the Western Wall together to pray. I've been told that when coming from West Jerusalem (where a majority of the Jewish population lives) there is just a huge mass of people gathering together to all walk to the Wall. We all woke up ridiculously early and were out the door at 4:30am. However, we live in East Jerusalem (in a Palestinian neighborhood) so once we got just outside the Old City we saw small groups headed towards the wall but not any huge masses to join. It was very neat to see everyone praying together and just gathered for everyone to have a personal moment in prayer. We hung around for a couple of hours and at one point a girl about my same age recognized my backpack emblem and came up to ask if we were mormons. Of course I replied yes, and we were able to have a pleasant little discussion. She is a modern orthodox Jew from Pennsylvania who is studying for a year in Jerusalem. It was neat to talk about some of the values and realize how similar our lifestyles and attitudes were when it came to modesty and attending religious services.

After Shavuot it was still only 6 in the morning so after finding a place to buy some bread for breakfast we all headed back towards the wall to wait in line to go to the Temple Mount. We were successfully the first people in line, and the first people onto the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock. It is a beautiful building! I did not realize how blue it was, nor how detailed all the tile is. From afar one only appreciates the golden dome so it was awesome to finally have a chance to get up close.

Brooke, Melinda, me and Whitney at Dome of the Rock

Of course after visiting a Jewish service, a Muslim holy place it was only fitting that we make our way to a Christian event next. So we went to Christ's church right by Jaffa gate and by 9:30 we were at a Christian Pentecost service. Pentecost is to commemorate the gift of the Holy Ghost was given when everyone present began speaking in tongues. This service was luckily in English, and so it was very similar to being in the states for a service, but was still very cool.

Inscription in Hebrew, Arabic and English on Christ's Church

Stained glass windows in Christ's Church

Sorry to say this wasn't the best picture choice...but here's a portion of the group who came to the Pentecost service at Christ's Church near Jaffa gate. In the back Jay and John, Second row, Alysa, Dana, Susan, Me, Melinda, Whitney, and Tacy, and then right in front Chantel and Andy.

After that, to say we were exhausted would be an understatment, so we stopped at the Austrian Hospice for lunch, got a delicious chocolate filled pastry and then headed home to the Jerusalem Center-- which of course involves lots of wandering around the old city along the way.

Anyway, a visit to the three major religions of the world all in one small city is why my life is an adventure.

Fieldtrip to the Shephelah

So this was one of my favorite field trips so far and it is actually a week or so ago by this point. This field trip involved exploring the Shephelah or the low hills. To give you some context, many of the big cities such as Jerusalem, and Bethlehem are in the 'high hills' as you travel west towards the coast you pass the 'low hills' and then of course as you continue you reach the coast. In the Sephelah there are five main valleys listed from north to south are the Alayon, Sorek, Elah, Guvrin and Lachish.

Rachel, Natalie, Karen, Lane, me and Avery overlooking the Sorek Valley

In the Sorek valley it's an area where there is a river that runs year round, which is a pretty big deal in this area where water is extremely precious. But this valley is also significant because it is a place where Samson apparently lived. Samson is they guy from the book of Judges who was blessed by the Lord to be incredibly strong, for those who need a little refresher.

Me at Beth Shemesh

In the above picture I am in Beth Shemesh which is another ancient city briefly mentioned in the scriptures, where it was really just name dropped in my opinion, but is still neat because it is a real place where archaelogists have found it intersting...as you can tell...there really was not that much to see, which is the case at most ancient city ruins.

Now the below pictures are a bit more interesting. We drove to the valley of Elah which is the valley of the battle of David and Goliath. We of course had to act it out! So we had a little bit reader's theater. I was on the side of the Philistines on one side of the valley and the Isralites were on the opposing side. I valiantly stood by our hero Goliath bearing his shield..until David (played by our dear friend Nate) successfully slinged a rock slaying Goliath. I think the best part was being able to the jeering Philistines, it was reminscent of being in the BYU student stands during basketball season.

Goliath (Alvin) preparing to fight David, I, as his fellow Philistine is bearing his shield.

Afterward we all had a chance to practice our rock throwing skills and though I'm not very good at it, my hint is that its all in the wrist and the wind up doesn't matter--it just helps you look cool.

Me with the Davids in honor of David day since we were visiting
the valley of Elah where we got his big start fighting Goliath.
 And then below me practicing my sling shot accuracy.

Next, we left the classic biblical stories behind and explored  a bit of the ancient sites which still have biblical significance, but its just not the stories you hear every week in sunday school, probably because its one of the places the Israelites lost. We went to the site of Lachish. Lachish, though it is a valley as you may recall from our little geography lesson at the beginning of this post, is also an ancient city. I did my site report on this location for my Ancient Near Eastern class, so I found it rather exciting to visit.

Ghost Tree at site of Lachish...no historical or
really any significance from what
I know, but it was sure fun to climb.

Lachish was the second largest city in Israel and would be the last city to fall before invading enemies would attack Jerusalem. When the Assyrian King Sennacherib attacked, he built a huge ramp out of rocks in order to attack the city which was on the hill. King Sennachrib did successfully take the city (no worries King Hezekiah shaped up in time for the Lord to protect Jerusalem so not all the cities fell), but the exciting thing at this site was the Ostraca room or the Rool of Letters as it says on the sign next to me in the below picture. It was really a guard room found within the city wall, but when excavation began they found many pottery shards (which were used as letters in ancient times--talk about recycling) with the same inscription about how Azekah (another ancient city) had fallen and that they knew the Assyrian army was now headed towards Lachish. It is unknown why there are so many copies of the same letter, and unknown why they were not all sent out.

To be honest, I don't remember the name of this next site, but once I figure it out I'll come back and edit this, but the last site was a huge series of underground caves where people lived! These caves were huge and a huge range of functions. In the below photo you see the olive press we're all pushing, but some caves were aviary houses for pigeons, others had cisterns or water supplies, many were just gigantic and could have been where they lived. I wish I could truly explain how amazing these things were.

Jay, Chantel, Susan and me pushing the olive press.

Me and Nate exploring the caves.

The last place we visited was some tombs, Sidonian tombs, if I remember correctly. The site had been restored with recreations of teh ancient drawings so it was neat to see what the tombs would have looked like when it was in use.

Me sitting in a tomb.

Anyway, the Shephelah was full of awesome caves to explore, and large trees to climb so this is why my life is an adventure.

Day 6 and 7

I'm obviously becoming very lazy withmy Turkey updates but that's because I keep doing other cool things that I feel like I can't write about until I finish up Turkey so we're finishing it up today so I can write about last weekend...and then probably about this next weekend :)


Day 6
Well it mainly involved lots of sitting on the bus and driving, but we had a couple neat stops. We are at Pergamon (?) in the first photo I think. I'll have to check, but its pretty neat! In the second photo we are standing in front of the Temple of Artemis. The reason I loved this particular site so much is because there were columns or rather the remnants of enough pillars for us to get an idea of just how big this temple was. And then in very stark contrast, the small building to the left of the temple was the Christian church and it is ridiculously small in comparison. I just find it such a cool little representation of how the Christians in ancient times did have a rough time financiallly and socially.

Nate and I finding our true balance.
(Shout out to Amber and Dad to our Italy pictures!)

Me with Sister Schaffer with the Temple of Artemis behind us.
The timy building on the left was where the
Christians met....they were obviously quite a bit poorer.

 Day 7
We came back to Istanbul and were able to visit the big places that everyone dreams of when they think of Turkey. I only have photos of the Hagia Sophia, but we were also able to the Blue Mosque during our free time. They are absolutely incredible buildings. The artwork of the tile and the mosiacs are incredible and I am so grateful that they have been preserved enough for all of us to enjoy.

Me in the Hagia Sophia.

Stay Fresh, me and Jay outside the Hagia Sophia.

After this, we creeped on a movie set and the rest of the people with me got a picture with the actor from the Mission Impossible 4 and Slum Dog Millionaire. I guess it was the actor who plays the host in Slum dog...whatever the case we had a great time creeping. That evening was then full of the longest dinner of my life...with seafood that I thought was pretty good, but apparently was not welcomed by all in the group. I was able to try an olive wrapped in a sardine....not gonna lie it was kinda gross, but YOLO so I had to try it. Then it was off the airport! Our flight left at like 1am and so we didn't make it back home to Jerusalem until 4am. To say the least no one went out on that free day since we were all recooperating.

I can't believe I get to say I was going 'home' to Jerusalem, that's why my life is an adventure!

Day 5: Ephesus

Here I am in Ephesus! Ephesus was an amazing city to visit. The main road is preserved and enough has been reconstructed that it almost feels like we are walking through the real city.

In the LDS King James Version of the Bible there are photos of significant places in the back of the text and I have now recreated one of those photos! It's pretty exciting to actually be able to visit these places in real life rather than just looking at the photos.

This is John, Jay and me with the inside of the ancient library behind us.

Annnd this is the bug that was on my chair at lunch. Honestly, it was huge! What if it got in my food? I actually wasn't freaking out....until it jumped towards me. Then I had a little freak out. Alvin was kind enough to scoop it up with napkins and take it outside.
This is why my life is an adventure!