A Taste of Turkey

At our first mosque: Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

The Grand Bazaar

The library at Ephesus

Brother Huntsman recited the opening lines of the Iliad in Troy

One of the many theaters.

This is a picture of our survival in Turkey. Yes, it was dependent on Magnum bars. The white chocolate ones sold in Turkey have almond pieces in the chocolate and a cookies-n-cream inside, while the ones sold in Israel do not. A Magnum a day is the very best way! (to survive Turkey, according to Hunts) 

That is Hagia Sophia behind us.

Mini Coke.

Turkey: Assos

Assos may have been my favorite site in Turkey, simply because it was beautiful. It was one of the most, perhaps the most, gorgeous place I have ever been. Photos of me in paradise:

 

I also had some fun with editing :)

Turning Twenty

Turned twenty in the Holy City; it was a wonderful birthday. I expected a few happy birthdays and maybe a celebratory ice cream cone, but contrary to my expectations I was showered with love. Emails and love notes made me feel on top of the world! Thank you.

On a person's birthday, Jewish tradition calls for a birthday throw: you sit in a chair, are lifted into the air, and tossed up and down as many times as years you are turning. I was indeed thrown and despite weak protests for the sake of protesting, I loved it :)

Food, Deserts, and the Dome of the Rock

 First falafel. Verdict: delicious. However, my favorite food in Jerusalem is still the JC's oatmeal/soggy granola with fruit. I have eaten it every day since arriving.

May 7th: Negev. Deserty... dry... and beautiful. The picture on the right is five Rachel's--and one is even missing! Six Rachel's in Jerusalem. My favorite part of this field trip was the hike. We all dreaded it and I was thoroughly prepared to endure it with little pleasure or excitement. However, it was much shorter than advertised, not too hot, no downhill (the knee is always complaining with down hill!), and had a beautiful view.

I loved the Dome of the Rock. I didn't realize that there were beautiful and colorful mosaics beneath the gold dome and the surprising discovery really excited me.

Garden Tomb, Bethesda, and Zedekiah's Caves

Saturday May 5th we went to the Garden Tomb. I loved it. Whether or not this was the place where Christ was buried really is insignificant. The part that really matters is that he rose again.

Our tour guide Roy was an enthusiastic English Christian volunteer, who was very disappointed if we didn't express our excitement about the Resurrection with exuberant exclamations of "Amen"! So with Amens and shouts of joy we proclaimed that He is risen. One of my favorite parts was Roy explaining that when he realized that the Mormons were coming, he signed up to make sure he got to tour us. He can always tell the Mormons apart because "there is just something special about you."

John 5:5-9

"And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

"When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 

"The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 

"Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up they bed, and walk. 

"And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath."

5/2/2012

5/2/2012

Zedekiah's Caves. Pictures, pictures, pictures. We went crazy with cameras: planking, shadow, Joe's pick-up lines... all good.

An overlook and an underlook

Our first fieldtrip: the Overlook fieldtrip. These paintings were in the Augusta Victoria church, and I kind of liked them... I know I know, a little modern and strange perhaps, but the painting of Noah's ark was one of my favorite things from the entire fieldtrip (and we saw a lot of things)

The bottom picture shows a few of the noteable sites (including the ones on the bus--aka, people sleeping, something I found truly entertaining). The tower was the Augusta Victoria tower, and the fields with the sheep were in actuality the fields where shepherds kept "watch over their flocks at night" when the angels came to announce the birth of Christ. Where you can see the Dome of the Rock in the background is East of the city, above a Jewish cemetery. (And that is a real-life camel!)

Fieldtrip underneath the Jerusalem center; the whole center is suspended off the ground. I added my name to the collection and tried to find as many of other people's that I could.

Weekend Number One

Sunday mornings are our free days as Saturday is the Sabbath. So Sunday morning we set out to experience the city. First stop: the money changers. I only had cash, but it turns out cash gets a better exchange rate than checks anyway. When I asked if I could get a picture with the exchangers (I tried to remember their names, but alas, I am finding that foreign names are borderline impossible for me to grasp), they were more than happy to oblige, and even pulled out a thick stack of hundreds for a prop. Former BYU students have left notes for future students, and I found both Sarah Jane and Brielle's--my roommates from this past year. I loved that almost every note held advice regarding pita bread--usually something along the lines of warnings to stay away from it, or admonitions to get enjoy getting fat from it.

Sunday morning we walked the ramparts of the city (Saturday is the Sabbath here, so Sunday is our free day). Perhaps the strangest thing I've seen yet was two men tossing mattresses off the top of a rather tall building. What was below was hidden... but I hope no passersby were bombarded. We also looked over a school, and it was fun to see the kids playing; I caught one particular boy in the process of checking his belly button lint. Or at least that's what it looks like. We were all photo-happy, and literally hundreds of pictures were probably taken between all of us. I loved the walk and will definitely be doing it again!

After the Ramparts Walk, we visited the Shuk--an Israeli market in West Jerusalem. I loved walking through the vendors. I think people here must like gummies more than Americans, because every sweets store we pass has piles of gummy candy. My personal favorite were the sunny-side up gummies. I have yet to try them, but their resemblance to actual eggs was worth noting.

The Western Wall (Wailing Wall) was our next stop. I didn't get the chance to actually go up to the wall, but it was still pretty neat to see. One interesting observation: men and women visit the wall separately, and the men's portion of the wall is about 3 times bigger than the women's. I asked Brother Huntsman about it today and he explained that in Jewish culture, women's worship is no less significant than men's, but that as caretakers of children they have less time to devote to formal observance and so are not expected to worship as much. If you look on the righthand side of my picture of the Wall, you can see the separation of the genders.

A group of soldiers visiting the wall were excited to take pictures with "American girls"... and we were probably just as happy, if not more so, to take pictures with them.

I thought I show off where I get to study. The center behind us and the city in front of us.

This was just a typical, beautiful street in the old city--taken when we visited on Friday.

These pictures are solely for Sarah Jane Curtis, who loves Yogurtland, Puns, and Jerusalem.

Sunset over the city.