EGYPT

Tel Beersheba: This is where Abraham was said to have lived and owned wells.

Tel Avdat: another ancient ruin

Wilderness of Zin

Maktesh Ramon: pretty much this huge crater in the earth. It was a really pretty overlook.

Our first siting of the PYRAMIDS!!!

IT'S A PYRAMID!!! We actually got to go in that one too!

The Giza Pyramids

Queen Hatchepsut's Funerary Temple. This lady locked up her step son so that she could be pharoah.

This cave is supposedly where Joseph Smith purchased mummies from that were found with ancient writing from the books of Abraham and Joseph. Just an interesting mormon fact.

The Fertileness of Egypt. If you can see in the background it's desert.

The step pyramid and our mini Egyptian friend :)

Boat ride on the Nile.

Camel Ride!

Natalie and Whiskey

Brooke and Ali-Baba. Her camel had a spazy leg and kept kickin. It was pretty funny.

The Holy of Holies in the Karnak Temple in Luxor.

No joke, this is where a scene from James Bond was filmed. We felt the urge to re-in-act it.

See this, this is the train that we slept on for a few hours. It was an adventure of a life time! There wasn't too much leg room and I personally don't remember too much about the whole affair because I took some Dramamine and then I was out, which I am very thankful for! The train wasn't the most sanitary place. Most of us woke up in the morning with very sore throats, I blame it on all the second hand smoke I have been inhaling, and some people woke up with flea bites, yikes! We got on the train around 7pm and then were woken up at 4:30am for breakfast, which wasn't much of a breakfast, a stale croissant! We were all thankful that we were taken to our Cairo hotel for more breakfast, even though what we really wanted was to take a nap and shower, but alas we had a full day ahead of us. -Brooke

Sketchy-est moment of my life! Gave me the hebe gebes! - Natalie
Our first stop this very cloudy morning was to a Babylonian Fortress! The architecture was so intricate and beautiful!

Then we went to the Citadel and Mosque in Cairo and boy was that so neat! First of all I love pretending to become one with the culture, the head wrap is one of my favorite things, taking off our shoes and walking on freezing stone ground, so that our feet started cramping from the cold...not so much, but the mosque was absolutely stunning! So gorgeous! Everything was so ornate and everything had so much symbolism. In many cultures there is a lot of symbolism outside of the building in the outward architecture but not here, it's all about the inside, and it seems like to make up for the lack outside they double time it in the inside. The gold leafing, lighting, turquoise domes were amazing! The pictures don't do it justice!


Cairo Overlook
Saying goodbye to the Nile :( It was a wonderful adventure and we are so thankful for the opportunity we had to learn so much about Egypt and to really explore and learn about the ancient and modern day Egyptians. ...Later this day we went to the Egyptian Museum, we couldn't take pictures which I am kind of thankful for because it would have been SO hard to see as many artifacts as we could and document it at the same time. The museum had everything in it! It was out of control! There was something to be looked at and studied every square inch of the museum, it was absolutely impossible to see everything. It was clear that there could be a single museum dedicated to just one of the exhibits in the museum. It was really sad to see so much history and knowledge just tossed to the side and not really displayed in the most optimum way, but at the same time, it's kind of like the Egyptian way, not much organization and just so much preserved history it's hard to handle. As we walked in though I was overwhelmed with excitement because there was the Pallete of Narmer! I had studied that in my Humanities 201 class and I was so pumped to actually see it in real life! Super Cool! Also in the museum we were able to see upwards of 13 mummies who are still pretty hairy and well preserved. All of King Tut's treasures and burial possessions are there, he was one rich pharaoh, which is pretty crazy because he was one of the lesser pharaoh's so it's hard to imagine what Ramses II tomb would have been filled with, no wonder why it was plundered.

Oasis in the middle of no where... This one is actually special because it was the oasis talked about in the Bible that the Israelites stopped at.

The First peek of sun on the Top of Sinai! We got up at 2:30 am and started hiking!

WE DID IT!!! SINAI.....CHECK!!!

Moses' Burning Bush

The Red Sea...kinda looks Caribbean.

Overall it was a great trip to Egypt! We didn't get sick and got to see all the sites!

Well after finishing a seven page paper on Islam....WE ARE HEADING TO EGYPT!!! We will be there for a week total and after that we will let you know all the great details. Hopefully we avoid the Egyptian Quick Step :) haha

THE MOUNT OF TEMPTATIONS

Enjoy as Natalie takes you on a tour of the Mount of Temptations. We hiked up to a mosque that is built into the rocks of this mountain in Jericho. This is the place believed where Jesus was tempted by the devil.

JERICHO

We visited Jericho today...offically the lowest city in the world.

Overlooking the Judean wilderness. It really was a wilderness and is amazing to think that people used to and still do wander through these lands cause literally there is nothing there. Yet it was so beautiful. It was raining today, which is very rare in these parts of the land.

Brooke and Natalie at the top of the Mount of Temptations. There is a monestary built into the mountains and we were able to hike up the mountain and look around. There in the monestary is the stone in which they believed to have been the same stone that Satan tempted Jesus to turn into bread after his 40 day fast. See the two movies below.

Inside the Monestary. It was really really neat.

The Monestary literally built into the side of the mountain.

Overlooking Oasis Jericho. Here we saw ruins from way back when.

Just in case you forgot what we looked like :)

The Life of Brooke and Natalie in Jerusalem

Monday: Field Trip day. This day we make little travels to different sites around Jerusalem. It's pretty great because it's class outside of class

Tuesday through Friday:

1. Wake up way earlier than we did at college...we set our alarms for 7 cause we can usually get ready in under 30 mintues but we were blessed with roommates that wake up at the crack of dawn so we are usually woken by 6:30ish. And that's if we aren't woken by the call to prayer at 5 in the morning....those Muslims...wow!

2. Breakfast is every morning from 7-7:50 so we usually get there by 7:20 and eat deep fried french toast which is the staple breakfast item. There is always yogurt and pita and some odd cereals so we are fed but it's getting pretty monotonous.

3. 8:00 am Old Testament starts. Really good class. From 8 to 11 we have a variety of classes. Somedays we will have Modern Near Eastern Studies or Islamic Studies or Jewish Studies or Arabic class but pretty much we have class from 8-11. Then we have an hour break until lunch which is served at 12.

4. Okay...food here....really pretty good. And that's a bad thing cause one it makes us eat way too much and b its really good. We have all become lovers of Pita. The makers of Pita were so smart. Oh side note, you will all be happy to hear that Brooke has become a way more adventurous eater.

5. After lunch we have free time which means we can do whatever we so please to do. So here's our options. 1) go out to the Old City and wander around try and find the cheapest candy places or find the cheapest sandles or where the best pastries are. And then we usually will hit up a historical site or two. However, there have been days where we will just stay in becuase we have SOO much homework here. Okay, at least for me it's a lot becuase I'm used to averaging three dance classes a day where there is no reading. Brooke says it's her usual load...poor girl.

6. Dinner is at 6. Once again, we are eating. I feel like all we do is eat, sleep, explore and read. After dinner we either have fhe, homework time, dance parties or something of the kind. Come 9:00 pm the bikes in the weight room start to fill up because many of us have found that the only way we can stay awake and get through the reading is to jump on an exercise bike and pedal. Kinda killin two bugs at one time.

7. Bed time comes at various times for different people. There are some that hit the sack at 8pm and some that stay up way late. Brooke and I have the tradition I guess you could say of going to bed at the same time and if one goes before the other, it's like some kind of magnet becuase the other is soon to follow. So that happens around 11/11:30. And pretty much when we hit the pillow, we are out. No late night talks for us becuase we a) we are so tired and two we have other roommates and I don't think they would appreciate our late night talks we so often have.

Saturday or the Sabbath or Shabbat as they call it here:

This day is our church day. So church starts at 10. Church here is amazing! We meet in the center in the Auditorium which is this big room with one of the wall completely glass so we get to sit there and look out at the Old City while being enlightened. Then we have more free time where we usually do something spiritual like walk down to the Garden Tomb or to Gethsemane. But it's wonderful because it time for ourselves where we just read or write in our journals. Then the rest of the night we either have a forum or just have time to ourselves.

Sunday, which is technically like Saturday is a free day and we do whatever we want for the whole day.

So that's pretty much what Brooke and Natalie are doing in Jerusalem! Love you all!