This week in pictures...

So we have finals this week and things are bound to get a bit crazy, we're going to Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust Museum) tomorrow and I'm sure I'll want to write a big long post about it, so I decided that to sum up this week I'd share just a few pictures. 

Jen, Denise, Mark and I just took a trip to the old city for a quick lunch outside the Hurva synagogue in the Old City.  Sometimes you just need to get out, even if its just for an hour or so.

Thursday night we had our Passover Seder Meal.  It was soo  awesome, I'm pretty sure it was as legit as you will get, especially with the temple mount in the background.  

Me cleansing my hands.

And acting drunk off of grape juice.

Friday afternoons we get to put together hygiene kits, and then commence with a giant dance party afterwards.  They've had to cap how many we do because we're so dang efficient.

Later Friday night we had an impromptu ipod Karaoke party.  Rules are, blast the song in your ipod and sing your guts out.  No one can hear the music but you, and you can't hear yourself...its quite the activity.  This is my heartfelt rendition of "My Heart Will Go On". 

No one got as into it as Cory, with his extremely lively version of Katy Perry's Hot and Cold.

Sabbath brings out the competitiveness in Miss Gubler.  This was her first game of chess ever, and she was pretty proud of herself.  Even though the game pretty much ended up like playing checkers with chess pieces.

This is my family celebrating Audryn's birthday on Sunday!

Oh, and BYU kicked butt against SDSU!  It was wonderful, Jimmer rocks Jerusalem!

Anyways, that's gonna have to do for right now, but like I said, expect a long post soon about our trip to Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl.  Love ya all, and don't call me Shirley.

I just haven't met you yet...

Me, Lisa's daughter, Linda's son, and Suzie's daughter.

This post is dedicated to the moms.... the moms of my friends whose acquaintances have yet to be made.  Linda Laney, Suzie Gubler, and Lisa Gordon.  I'm glad that you enjoy reading my blog and I hope that you will continue.  I'm sorry that your children's blogs aren't interesting enough for you, hopefully you'll find joy in perusing my thoughts through the written word.  I promise that I'm taking good care of your respective children, and they take care of me.

Mrs. Laney I would like to formally invite you to continue looking in South Jordan for your next residence, as a long time resident I can honestly say that it is a great place to live.  I'm sure you and President know that already but I thought I'd offer my testimony of that as well.  However, Highland is nice too.

To Mrs. Gordon, I am hoping that you wont go back on your offer of having a Madi-Jerusalem-friend-table at the wedding, I've heard youre doing dutch oven.  Yeah, I'm a fan.  But, even if I don't make it to the wedding, I can't wait to meet you nonetheless. Your daughter is hilarious, and I have a good many pics of her that I would love for you to see sometime.

Finally, to Mrs. Gubler, I can't wait to meet you and prove that my hands are still clean and that my heart remains pure.  I anxiously await my visit to St. George where I can finally taste your vegetarian lasagna, salmon and wheat pancakes.  I've heard its all fantastic, on days where I just eat Nutella and pit it sounds especially delicious.


To all those who may have no clue as to who those formerly mentioned are:  Hey, don't worry about it friends!  I hope everythings going well.  I'll be updating you soon on what all happened this week, its been fun.  As a quick summary, we learned how to dance like the Israeli Folk, we did some serviceable stuff, had a seder meal, and we're watching Jimmer right now... 15 BYU to 10 SDSU....not a bad start.  Go Cougs! and don't call me Shirley!

Once, In Royal David's City

Beifuss and I stoked for this movie.

So, its that time of week again.  Yes, my JC Comrades and I took another little field trip, this time we didn’t go far, just down the valley to the ancient City of David, Salem, Ancient Jerusalem etc...  It is a common misconception that Bethlehem is the City of David, this is incorrect.  Bethlehem is only referred to as the City of David once.  The city of David is Jerusalem..This is the Jerusalem that Nephi and Lehi would have lived in, this is where David reigned from, Solomon, Hezekiah and a lot of other kings that I’m not about to try and write down.  So Monday morning came, I packed my little backpack with a towel, put on a swimsuit underneath my pants, and donned my watersocks.  We made our way to the visitors center where we were all treated to a fantastically produced 3D movie

Me and the ancient toile

Madi and I inside, ready to go.

Men, being men.

about the history of the city, and of course flying doves, because what Israeli 3D movie would be complete without doves flying at your face.  My favorite feature was the sound system throughout the park that had subtle harp music playing, yes folks, I heard that secret chord that David played, you know, the one that pleased the Lord.  We saw the ancient Millo, its a big stone structure that used to hold up David’s palace.  Also seen here is an ancient toilet seat with two holes, what the ancients called one and two.  After seeing all those rocks, we went to the main attraction, Hezekiah’s tunnel. This is a giant underground tunnel that King Hezekiah built as a means to protect the water from the Gihon springs, as well as provide the growing city of Jerusalem with water.  Now its just a big tourist attraction, and rightly so.  It was a blast to walk through this dark ancient tunnel getting wet, making creepy noises and splashing around.  The tunnel ends up in the pool of siloam, here we had a quick, but wonderful devotional.  This is the site where Jesus healed the blind man in John 9:7.  

The Pool of Siloam

This a random pic of me and Mark at Absaloms Pillar

A pretty nice nap/study spot on a Sabbath day.

I love my life. Period.

So I haven’t blogged in a while.  I know that you were all worried, and waiting to see what your favorite blogger has been up to.  Sadly I don’t have much time, due to the fact that we have a ginormous paper due and to be honest, sometimes there are cooler things to do than blog.  So I’m going to see how quickly and thoroughly I can share with you what shall heretofore be known as...this week.

Statue of David, outside Dormition Abby

The Upper Room

The week started on Sunday, we walked out to Mt. Zion to see the Upper Room, David’s tomb and Dormition Abby.  It was a wonderful place, we sang a few hymns in the upper room, while the room itself is not the same, the airspace is almost positively the space where Christ and his apostles supped for the last time.  We then went through the Jewish quarter, ate some nuts, the girls shopped and we headed out of the city to eat some pizza.  It was good.

Monday, Valentines Day, Sister Muhlestein’s birthday was a quick field trip out to the border of the low hills (Shfelah) and the coastal plains to a place called Neot Kedumim.  This is essentially a big biblical garden.  This was created by Israeli’s and Palestinians to show what the land would have looked like in the time of the Bible.  The highlights of this trip was a sheep herding challenge, and making fresh pita.  The pitas were delicious, especially with date honey and zatar.  It was pretty awesome.  After the field trip we had a Valentines Dance, it was hot.  Oh and the temperature was pretty warm too.

Denise, Jeni and Me grinding our own Zatar.

Our well herded sheep.

Pretty skies.

Madi and I makin us some pita.

Valentines Dance.

Thursday was pretty cool, our Judaism class was canceled and we took a trip over to Dominus Flevit and the Church of Mary Magdalene.  They were both beautiful and had awesome views of the Old City.  We also had our formal talent show that night, it was really really cool.  I sang a song and then accompanied the famed Jeni Gubler, the whole thing was really awesome.  I have a really awesome picture that the one and only Kevin Collier took, hopefully I’ll get it so that I can post it, cause really its freakin awesome!

Church of Mary Magdalene (Russian Orthodox) from Dominus Flevit

Church of Mary Magdalene from the Church of Mary Magdalene

Just displaying how difficult it is to live in an environment where there is a 3 to 1 ratio of girls to boys.

I got Jeni's autograph following her smashing performance, she only gave out two.  It was quite an honor.

Fridays we aren’t allowed in East JRu until after three, so we took taxis to West J so we could make it to the shuk before Jews started their Sabbath.  We wanted to get some more Challah or Sabbath Bread, its sooo good, we had to get some more.  It was fun, the shuk is like this awesome market where they sell olive oil, nuts, bread, fruits, veggies.  Its pretty sweet.

Challah, or Jewish Sabbath Bread...its delicious.

Which brings us today, Sabbath.  The day I look forward to, because I don’t feel bad for not doing anything.  We enjoyed church, took a nap out on the warm lawn, and have been watching movies and playing games since.  I love spending time with my big happy family here.  Anyways, hopefully thats enough to keep you all happy and reading.  In the words of Bro Judd, “you guys are awesome.  be good, don’t be bad.”  Oh, and don’t call me Shirley.

I just want to say to all my friends and family.

Happy Valentines Day!

Singin, Slingin, and Slippin all While Field Trippin

Lets be honest with ourselves for a moment.  What’s the real reason I came to Jerusalem?  Was it to see pretty buildings with big golden domes?  Was it to leave the country and see big pyramidical shaped edifices? Was it to meet many, many pretty girls?  No.  It was so I could get out and throw some rocks around in the mud of the Valley of Elah, just kidding...the girl part was big deal maker as well.  But folks, I can say been there done that to all of the above.  This week’s field trip took us students out to the lower hills of Israel into what is affectionately known as the Shfelah (not Shephelah like it is seen in the Bible maps; primarily because Dr. Chadwick says so and also because it doesn’t fit the song very well).

We started with a trip to Tel Tzafit, also known as Gath, known for it’s large men, you know Goliaths.  Actually, its known for THE Goliath. [Major Sidenote:  While I was thinking about Goliath, my mind returned to the time last summer when myself, Nathan and Bryce took a trip to Huntington Beach.  While there we made a trip all the way up to Valencia to go to Six Flags (even though Disneyland was like 20 minutes away: not bitter at all).  At Sick Flags there is a ride called Goliath, its cool.  Also there is a ride called the scream.  We rode it a lot, got sick and took this picture.  I was really just looking for a reason to repost this picture, and thought this was a good excuse.  Summary: Goliath = Six Flags = Scream picture = Bryce’s awkward pose that he untagged himself in but undoubtedly keeps seeing pop up.  Love ya man!]  Back to Israel.  Gath is way cool with a lot of sweet archaeology.  Our professor is actually one of the head archaeologists that digs there every summer, so we got a very thorough tour.  

The Bell Caves

We then made our way to Mareshah.  This has a major oil making installation under ground which was pretty awesome, and there is also a huge room where they used to keep doves and pigeons for sacrificing and also for food.  I can only imagine how awful that place must have smelled back then.  The highlight of this place was probably what is known as the bell caves.  They are these huge caves that are made from super soft limestone.  They resemble the shape of big bells (thus the name).  Anyways we sang a few songs and absorbed all the cool acoustics of the place and then took pictures.  Always taking pictures.

Can't help but take engagements in the lush
green meadows of Lachish.

Lachish was one of the most beautiful places, it is soooo green in Israel right now.  Only our semester really gets to see it like this because we’re here in the rainy season.  Wow, seriously you would never think that Israel looks like this.  This was the place of a giant fortress that was attacked by Assyrians in 701 BCE.  During that chain of attacks all of the Judeah’s major cities were destroyed except for Jerusalem.  They had huge beacons that they would light to communicate to other cities, to show how this would work Dr. Judd showed the clip from Lord of the Rings: the Return of the Kings in class.  Let’s just say, I really appreciated that.  

The Valley of Elah

Then we went back to the main part of the Valley of Elah where the epic battle between one Mr. David and one Mr. Goliath took place.  Here we had a dramatic reenactment of the scene featuring yours truly as young David.  Following my triumphant victory over Sir Lawrence, we grabbed some slings and practiced throwing projectiles of a somewhat rocky nature.  I didn’t think I was half bad.  I’m sure it would be more difficult when a giant 9 ft (or 7 ft depending on which translation) tall man was charging at you, but with practice I bet you could get pretty good at aiming those things.  

The view from Azekah.

After that we went up on top of a big hill called Azekah where we overlooked the Valley and were treated to an amazing rendition of ‘My Boyfriends Back’ cleverly changed to “Goliath’s Back” by Dr. Chadwick (video will be coming shortly).  I loved this site actually, the sky was somewhat dark and overcast which is my favorite type of weather and the trees driving up covered the road, kind of like an environment you would see in Oregon or Washington.  Beautiful.  

We ended the field trip at Tel Beit Shemesh, which is where Samson grew up and grew out those long luscious locks.  At this point I think we were all pretty exhausted, but it was fun to beat Muhlestein’s class up the hill for the primo spot, even if Bro. Muhlestein is starting us all off with -5 points in his New Testament class for it.  

It was a full day but all is well and good in the Shfelah of Israel.  Please don’t call me Shirley. 

Resigned to my solemn thoughts...

In the words of a classic 'Friends' episode...
"Bow wow old friend, bow wow."

I resign myself to admit that today was somewhat an off day here in the Holy City.  I woke up and things were quite normal, then I made my way out to the landing so I could check my email and the Deseret News (I like to stay in touch with things back in the good ol this-is-the-place place) and to my dismay I see a big picture of Jerry Sloan touching a handkerchief to his misty eye.  I was surprised at how hard I actually took this, seeing as that I'm not the most die-hard Jazz fan in all Utah-dom, but he's the only part of the Jazz that has always been there.  It's weird to not have him at the helm of our humble little Jazz team.  (Congratulations to Nathan, his uncle and other Jazz haters, I hope seeing a Jazz fan distraught brings you as much happiness as it usually does.)

In other words of resignation.  Hosni Mubarak has officially stepped down as president.  The whole protest/ revolution is now being called the January 25th Revolution.  From this day forward, if anyone ever asks me where I was on the first day of the Egyptian January 25th Revolution I can say Cairo.  Can you?  Probably not.  Shalom ya'll, and don't call me Shirley.

Inside a pyramid...

So, I went to Hebrew U today for our hourlong break and uploaded these videos.  I was planning on coming back to the center and organizing them and captioning them so that you would actually know what they were...but I got back and realized that I can't see the videos that I have posted.  But I'm pretty sure all of these are inside various pyramids while we were in Egypt.  So enjoy.  

Bell Cave Singing

Goliath Song

Train Dance Party.

So while we were in Egypt we took an overnight train from Luxor to Cairo.  We ran from car to car, cabin to cabin dancing and doing other various things of a more obnoxious nature.  This is a video of one such train dance party.

Mormongwarts...

Life at the JC is going extremely well, I don’t know if you could tell from my last posts, but I love it.  A lot.  It is different though, and recently it was brought up that we were all essentially living in a newer, more spiritual, and less wizard-world-drama version of Hogwarts.  This is probably one of the best ways to imagine what life is like here.  A few examples...while the building we live in is not ancient, the site and significance of the location is, and it feels like there are enough stairs to be a castle.  Our world is in the middle of a major conflict, not between muggles and wizards, but between Israelis and Palestinians and Egyptians and other Egyptians.  Instead of butterbeer we have pomegranate juice, and instead of Every Flavor Jelly Beans, we have a large assortment of gummy bears, worms, sour strips, peach rings, watermelons and other candies.  Every day or so we get to take a trip out of our castle, not to Hogsmeade, but to the Old City or West Jerusalem, and we are tracked via proximity cards and cell phones as opposed to a magical map.  Instead of Quidditch, we have soccer and volleyball and it’s just as intense.  Instead of Hagrid, we have George, Tawfek and our security guards.  Instead of Dumbledor we have Eran Hayet.  Instead of spellbooks, we have the Old Testament.  And instead of magic, we have the spirit.  Along with all of that, I suppose the biggest validation in favor of this comparison is the fact that everyone is together all the time.  And when I saw all the time, I mean all the time.  I highly doubt any of my friends in Provo eat, sleep, watch basketball games, travel and worship with their professors and their families.  The other day we were at dinner and had a question regarding our reading, and so someone simply turned around to the table behind us and asked the professor.  I regularly talk to my professors wives, who are just as awesome, and I lead their children in Primary singing time.  It’s a bit strange to be so connected to everyone of your classmates, teachers and the administration, but I really like it.  Who needs McGonagall when you have Judd, Muhlestein and Chadwick.  So there you have it.  Life is good, and grand at Mormongwarts.  And don’t call me Shirley.

Arabian Nights...

Cory, Me and Piers with our matching Arab garb.

So the other night we had an awesome evening full of Arab stuff.  The night started with a demonstration from two men who are the ones who do the call to prayer from the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is the third holiest mosque in all Muslim-dom.  It was soo cool, I hear it five times a day but something about hearing it live and from them in person was extremely awesome.  They also prayed in front of us, this is something that you don't normally see, so I was extremely grateful that they would offer to show us how they worship.  I know I would feel really strange praying on a stage for a bunch of people.

Me and women.  Lots and lots of women.

Following the demonstration we went to the Oasis for a delicious Arab meal.  The room was decorated up the wazoo, it was beautiful and seriously the food was extra delicious tonight.  We had lots of new foods that students helped cook.

Our Palestinian dance teachers (and Jenny, she's the blonde one)

After the feast that was a plenty, we headed to the gym for some Palestinian folk dancing.  Okay, the girls that came to teach were gorgeous.  Oh, and the dancing was fun too.  Haha, JK.  Seriously though, the dancing was soo much fun.  It was way difficult, I felt uber-uncoordinated.  Maybe I'll be able to post some videos soon.

Delivered.

Yes folks, that is right.  It seems as though me and 80 of my best friends were just delivered from Egypt across the Red Sea into the deserts of Sinai.  Sound familiar?  I thought so.

So I think it's fair to say that everyone knows that Egypt is in a full fledged revolt against their government.  If you don't know what has been going on, then here's a link.  To be completely honest, we were completely protected and didn't face any truly dangerous situations.  However, I would just like to point out a few of the cool "coincidences" that occurred before, during and after our extended field trip to Egypt.

Before we began, our first schedule said that our Egypt trip was actually supposed to be 2 or 3 days earlier.   I don't know the original reasons for delaying our trip,  but whether it was by coincidence or providence it was a great thing for us Jerusalem Center students.    The trouble began on Tuesday, and had we gone the two days earlier, then we would have been touring the Cairo Museum which is right downtown where the protests took place when they started.  However, with our revised schedule we were out in Giza away from any trouble and were unaware of any unrest until we arrived in Luxor that night (way down South and very far from danger).  We spent two days in Luxor seeing the Valley of the Kings, the Karnak and Luxor temples and lots of shopping.  Then we took an overnight train back up to Cairo.  Once we arrived back in Cairo we were informed that we wouldn't be able to go to the Cairo Museum as it was supposed to be the "Friday of Wrath".  Instead we took a trip to see some more pyramids...our professors hadn't even been to some of them before. While we were out there I was with our tour guide Islam and was talking to him a bit and he checked his phone, and unfortunately internet, and phones had been cut by the government.  So we were out in the wilderness with no access to anything and had no clue as to what was going on in Cairo.  Anyways, our outing was fun but it ended around noon and then we were confined to our hotel for the rest of the day.   So we hung out by the pool, played spicy questions, and watched CNN a lot of CNN.  It was crazy to think that the images we were seeing were just 20 minutes away.  That night while we were all fast asleep one of our tour guides Achmed decided to break the nationwide curfew, and his wife's wishes, and drove as far as he could into downtown Cairo and then walked to the Cairo Museum in attempts to protect it from looters until the army could arrive.  Once the army arrived he left and during his walk back he was caught in some crossfire and was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet.  When he got back to the hotel, our JC doctors bandaged his wounds.  That was probably the closes we came personally to any "action".  The next day was again supposed to be filled with touring Cairo, instead we woke up early and made our way to Sinai.  On the drive out we had to drive on 6th October Bridge which is a main bridge, we were told to shut the curtains and our driver sped up fast, there was lots of honking, and since I was in the back of the bus I of course peeked.  We were passing a shopping mall where cars were pulled over, some burned, and saw looters, lots of looters running into the mall.  Then, 30 seconds later we were out, and on our way to Sinai.  Sinai was definitely a highlight of the trip, it was peaceful, spiritual and full of awesome friends.   Again had the trip gone a day longer, we would have missed out on my favorite part of the trip.  We would have gone straight to Israel and skipped out on Sinai.  I'm so happy that that didn't happen.

Timing was key during our week in Egypt and things worked out so perfectly to make the whole experience amazing.

Today in our Palestinian class our professor told us that the Egypt we went to is now history.  Egypt will never be the same, and we got to be there during the start of something new.  Whether that new thing is good, or turns out to be bad...we all feel very fortunate to have experienced Egypt and make it around in complete safety.