Day two

The second day of our trip was nothing to exciting to be honest and sadly I don't have any pictures to share. This is partly because there was nothing really worth taking pictures of and partly because the sand from the desert the night before somehow managed to get through my camera case and into my camera lens, making it completely worthless :( Don't worry tho, luckily my friends here are lifesavers and took pictures for me the rest of the trip! We spent the large majority of the day on the bus and I spent the majority of that time trying to sleep in horribly cramped positions or reading aloud our group's getting-to-know-you sheets, which were mildly hilarious if I do say so myself! We finally crossed the border into Egypt after waiting in a wretchedly long line, which was totally worth it because the Egypt stamp/visa in my passport is really cool! After the making it past the border we got our first taste of an Egyptian public restroom....which I will spare you the details on but it was basically a hole in the ground with swarms of flies.....and eventually made it to our hotel in Cairo! The highlight of the day was catching our first glimpse of the pyramids in the horizon as the sun was setting, which made us so excited to be in Egypt, dirty bathrooms and all!

Day Three-The Pyramids, Sphinx, Memphis and Saqquara

Our first real day in Egypt was absolutely incredible! We got up bright and early and headed over to the great pyramids of Giza. There are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, but these three are the largest and the most famous. In fact, they are the only remaining wonders of the ancient world. They are 5,000 years old and absolutely massive-each one is made of over 3 million 2 ton stones and is over 450 feet tall! We got to go inside one them and discovered that the ancient Egyptians must have been very short because the tunnel was only about three or four feet high and required some serious ducking to get through. Once inside we visited the burial chamber and got to lay inside the tomb that once held the mummy of King Khufu-pretty cool! The pyramids were definitely one of the things I was looking forward to seeing most in Egypt and they were everything I was hoping they would be.

After the pyramids we made the quick trip over to the sphinx. The sphinx is smaller than you think it is going to be, but considering it was carved out of a single mass of rock it is still pretty impressive. And yes, its nose is still missing!

Next we went to Memphis-the capital city of Old Kingdom Egypt from 3100 BC. A ton of Egyptian history happened there and from the gospel standpoint it is important because Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, and Moses all spent significant time there. There were some awesome statues there, a smaller sphinx, and a massive statue of Ramses II.

me trying to be statuesque haha

After Memphis we stopped by the papyrus institute where they taught us how to make papyrus which was fascinating. The process is genius and the papyrus paintings they had there were absolutely gorgeous. (sorry no pictures) Our last stop of the afternoon was Saqquara-the famous Egyptian steppe pyramid and the main cemetery of Memphis. The pyramid itself was cool, but the tombs inside, were even cooler! The painting reliefs inside were scenes of daily Egyptian life and our tour guide Islam pointed all of the interesting details out to us.

After Saqquara we rushed off to the airport and got on an hour long flight to Luxor and checked into the Sheraton Hotel. The hotel was super nice (five stars) with huge bedrooms and only two to a room. The JC knows how to treat its students well! It was nice to be feel like we were sleeping in a clean bed after feeling so dirty in the city all day. It was weird to still have to be super careful not to get any water in my mouth or eyes in the shower at such a nice place, but some things in Egypt never change!

Day One-Tel Beersheba, Wilderness of Zin, Tel Avdat, and the Kibbutz

The first day of our trip we actually did not even cross the border into Egypt. We traveled towards Egypt in a very indirect path so that we could visit some sites on the way. Our first stop was Tel Beersheba which was actually pretty cool because you here at Beersheba all the time in the Old Testament. It was the place where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac and where Rebecca and Isaac first meet. For being such a significant city back then it was surprisingly small and we had to wear hard hats......not really sure why since the only thing above us was wide open sky!

Next we stopped at an oasis called Kadesh Barnea in the middle of the Wilderness of Zin, where the Israelites wandered for forty years. It was actually really pretty, the water seriously comes out of nowhere since everything surrounding it is completely barren. We went on a fun little hike up the face of the mountain to get a view of the whole thing and read scriptures about when Moses struck the rock and brought forth water.

After a few more hours on the bus we arrived at Avdat. Avdat was built in about 300 BC and was a huge trade center in its prime. It was probably the largest group of ruins we have visited so far and we had a great time exploring!

Our final stop was at the sand dunes. They were really cool, but they required quite the hike in the heat of the sun to get to them. After making our trek our group talked about how wandering in the desert (aka wilderness back then) for forty years would be the worst thing ever and how we now can maybe understood why some murmuring took place haha. The sand dunes turned out to be a highlight of the day though! For the first part we all had fun rolling down the hill and playing in the sand. After awhile though we talked about spiritual events that had occurred in deserts and all went out on 'desert solos' and spent some time out by ourselves in the desert to think and pray. It was an incredible experience and was completely different from the 'mountain solos' I had gone on in the past. It is amazing how you can feel the spirit so strongly out in nature-no matter the landscape.

how Stacey would feel about wandering in the desert for forty years

We stayed the night at the Kibbutz, which was completely fascinating. There are several of these kibbutz in Israel, which are basically these Jewish communities living the law of consecration..... but in a much more communist way. They share possessions, work together, eat together, go to school there, everything! They basically never leave the compound and it is surrounded by a huge fence with massive amounts of barbed wire, definitely a different way of life!

Pyramids and Temples and Mummies, oh my!

Well, after eight days of Egypt awesomeness and five bottles of hand sanitizer, I am back in Jerusalem! So much happened on this trip, and I experienced so much, that I do not even know where to begin. We fit so much in that our days started before six and did not end until after ten-so that means you should all be prepared for a post overload over the next few days as I try to cover it all!

I have found as I travel that most places are slightly different than what I think they are going to be like. Egypt, however, was exactly how I have always imagined it! The pyramids, tombs, temples, ruins, and nile river were all incredible and we were all in a pretty much constant state of amazement that we were actually seeing them in person. Yes, the inevitable happened and I got sick for a few days (which the whole group predicted and joked about because I was so overly paranoid about everything) but I survived and it was so worth it to get to visit all these sites that I have dreamed about since studying Egypt in elementary school. So stay tuned for all my Egyptian adventures!

Off to Egypt!

Well in about a half hour I will be on a bus departing for Egypt! I am so excited/scared. The excitement of course comes from how amazing Egypt is-I mean I am going to get to see the pyramids, ride a camel, hike Sinai, visit tombs, see mummies, and ride a boat down the nile-pretty amazing! The being scared part comes from the part that it is so easy to get sick over there and those lucky enough to get sick are basically knocked out and miserable the rest of the trip, not the greatest way to experience Egypt! Professor Hamblin told us (only partially joking) that the only way not to get sick in Egypt is to not eat the food, drink the water, touch anything, or breathe the air. Luckily I have stocked up on enough granola bars and dried fruit to last me the week, but as for everything else haha wish me luck! Bon Voyage!

And the Walls Come Tumbling Down....

Monday was field trip day in Jerusalem and this week we went on what is called the Jericho/ conquest field trip. This field trip was really interesting and really hot! It is only May and we are already melting so I don't even know how we are going to handle August....haha should be interesting.

Our first stop was an overlook of the Judean Wilderness. The Judean Wilderness is basically what you would find in you looked up wilderness in the encyclopedia. It is completely barren and empty as far as you can see. This is where Christ fasted for forty days and seeing how empty and hot this place was adds a whole new aspect on how difficult this would have been for him

Next we visited a monastery commemorating the mountain where Christ was tempted. The monastery was built by the Greek Orthodox and they were serious about building it on the mountain because it is literally on the side of a cliff! Brother Manscilll warned us before we got off the bus and the path to get to the monastery is lovingly referred to as the "suicide death walk" because it is so steep. Luckily we all survived, even though having to cover our heads with scarfs certainly did not make it easy! It turned out to be really cool and pretty up there though, and they actually have the exact rock satan tempted Jesus to turn into bread there. Haha it really is quite astonishing how all these churches find obscure relics...don't quite know how they do it! Especially since another church in Jerusalem claims to have the exact rock too....

i told you it was a cliff...

the holy rock

Our final stop was Jericho, which holds the honor of being both the oldest and the lowest city in the world! We visited the spring that Elisha healed with salt and all of the ancient ruins of Jericho and its wall. Some parts of the Tel Jericho are actually dated around 8000 BC in the oldest parts which is amazing. After exploring the ruins we read the scriptural account of Joshua and Jericho, right where it happened and sang the popular song about the walls tumbling down. After we got back to the center we crashed from the long day in the sun, but it was so worth it!

Tel Aviv

Sunday we had another free day like always, and so a bunch of us decided to spend the day at Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is only about an hour away and is basically pretty much pure bliss! Our first adventure of the day involved the world's greatest playground. I seriously don't know why we don't have playgrounds like this in the US, because playing on the laying down group swing is definitely the most fun I have ever had on a playground! Our group spent a good hour acting like five-year-olds, being laughed at by the locals, and we loved every second of it!

After the playground we went to the local flea market, had a great time bartering with the shop owners (Melissa is a pro), and we all walked away with some amazing deals.

The rest of the day was spent on the beach, the main reason we made the trip to Tel Aviv. The beach of the Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous! It is not very crowded, the water is warm, the sand is soft, and we all got to work on getting rid of the farmers tans we are starting to get from the awesome dress code here in J-Ru. I hadn't been to the beach in almost a year, and I forgot how much I love it and how much I love the ocean! (minus the salt in the eyes part) After the sun set we grabbed dinner at the local pizza shop and of course grabbed some gelato for dessert. It's a tough life, i know :)

pizza was super good....kinda greasy....but we fixed that :)

overall, it was a perfect day at the beach!