Something New

I love visiting mosques. Taking off my shoes when I enter reminds me of the temple, and helps me think of how sacred each mosque is to a religion I'm trying hard to learn about.

The is the Muhammad Ali mosque, our last stop in Egypt.

This was a mosque we visited in Cairo. We had two hours of free time, and I'd already stimulated the Egyptian economy more than enough that week...so instead, a few of us grabbed a scarf and spent our free time in a mosque. It was one of my favorite experiences of the trip -- we were immediately welcomed and surrounded by women who wanted to know our names and ages and where we were from. The little girls loved touching our faces and looking at the pictures we took with our cameras.

Nadia, in the middle, wouldn't let us speak English after a few minutes and patiently taught us Arabic words. Then one by one she showed us how to wrap our head scarves the right way and how to pin them. She was so sad to find out we didn't have cell phones, and we were sad to find out she doesn't have an e-mail address. They were all so welcoming and kind to us. It was really cool to be inside during the 4th prayer of the day. Do I look like I could fit in? Just wondering.....

Play

We spent the night at the border between Israel and Egypt at a Kibbutz -- they even threw a barbecue for us and a pool party (yes, our hamburgers and hot dogs were in pitas). That day we went out to sand dunes by the Kibbutz and, after lots of playing, had the chance to each find a spot where we couldn't see anyone else. Once we found our secluded spots we were able to sit alone for the first time in a long time, and reflect on the importance of deserts in the scriptures. I hadn't realized how little time I spend alone these days until that moment, and it was extremely refreshing. So was playing :)

Highlights

Disclaimer: This post has way too many pictures. My life has way too many pictures.

Our first night in Cairo was extremely entertaining, thanks to karaoke and a nearly fatal taxi ride. Driving there is insane, and insanely fun. The roads were full of people, camels, donkeys, cars, and lanes that mean nothing. Our taxi driver, Sahid, was hilarious. I asked him if he had ever hit anybody and he just laughed mysteriously. He took us to look at the pyramids (they light them up at night), then to a shop to see how papyrus is made. The driving was the best part though.

We drove from Luxor Temple to the Temple of Ramses in a carriage, which was also an experience. Scott and I had an interesting carriage driver with great photography skills. There were other pictures I considered posting, but I figured I should do one with our heads in it.

I love following Brother Manscill around at all our sites because he just knows so much about everything. He's my Old Testament teacher for the first half of the summer, and he relates church history to everything we learn. This is at Luxor Temple, where he taught us a lot about similarities between the Egyptian people and temple ceremonies. I need to go back there someday.

We stoped at Tel Beersheba and went on a really fun hike on the way down to Egypt.

Chrissy and I at the top of the mountain! Ladders, caves, stairs...it was a nice break from the bus.

Lisa, Chrissy and me at Hatshepsut. It was insanely hot, but I got a personal tour from a funny worker there for a minute. I couldn't really understand him, but he was telling me a lot about the hieroglyphics and something about giraffes.

Shopping at the Luxor Souks was too much fun, I don't know why I loved it so much. Nothing distracted me from the heat more effectively than shopping. I heard a lot of horror stories about Egypt before going, but all of them about shopping weren't true for me at all. It was a blast!

Memphis! Massive, yeah?

Saqqara was really cool until a (seemingly) cute old Egyptian man tricked me into giving him too much money. That story won't be publicly posted because I'm still ashamed. And I'm not posting the picture I took with him either because I'm still a little bitter. But the pyramid, still cool.

This guy just looked legit.

I think this bird is an 'M'. But I'm not positive. I do know if the arms are crossed on a person it means they're dead, so I'm at least a little more skilled in interpreting hieroglyphics.

Last of the random highlights: the Temple of Ramses III. Luxor Temple was my favorite, but this place was really impressive. I wonder if the Egyptian people knew how timeless all their work would be. Another place we went to was the Valley of the Kings, but they don't let you take pictures there in order to get people in and out faster. We went at 6:30 am so that we could just get back to the hotel during the heat of the day, which was fantastic. The Valley has a lot of tombs of Pharoahs, they haven't even discovered them all -- including King Tut's tomb, which I loved. We also saw Pit Tomb 33, where mummies were discovered that Joseph Smith bought...but that picture is MIA right now. Like I said, I've taken over 1,000. That might be a problem.

The Real Deal

The great pyramids of Giza! I liked staring at them, but if you do it too long the desire to climb them becomes really hard to resist. Dang rules. We did go IN them though, which was an accomplishment for Amanda and I. Dang claustrophobia. We discovered, as we were waiting for our group to go into the tomb ahead of us so we could go in quickly without waiting in line, that we are both claustrophobic from being stuck in sleeping bags at a young age. Dang brothers.


The Sphinx! Smaller than I thought, but cooler too. We came home and watched Aladdin because that movie explains why the nose isn't there anymore. It's completely factual.
Morgan & me! We took this picture so that we could give a shout out to Emily. She's engaged and we miss her!!

Everyone broke the PDA rule for the day. I didn't want to, but everyone else was doing it. Peer pressure at the JC is insane.

And then Egypt happened...

Back in Jeru! Egypt was amazing...so much so that it won't all fit in one post. But I will put up a few as fast as I can so that my family will love me again. To start it all off...

Meet King Farouk! My camel. He smelled about as good as he looks, but he didn't spit. To the right is Muhammad, my camel driver. He would feed me entertaining lies about his life to boost his tip, but the camel drivers around us didn't let him get away with it.

I met King Farouk by trying to kiss him, but he totally denied me with a Chewbacca-like noise. Muhammad interpreted that as a sign that he should be my camel for the night. I didn't agree with the logic, but he wouldn't let me pick another one.

So here's our caravan! I was at the very end (good view, huh?) of our long line of camel riders. I liked that because Muhammad would stop for a couple minutes every once in a while then make King Farouk run (trot?) to catch up with the rest of the group. I loved it.


We rode along the Nile in Luxor, and it was seriously beautiful. Despite the 122 degree weather, I completely loved that place. The Nile is nasty. We used bottled water for literally everything the whole week, I turned into nothing short of a germaphobe for the week. Worth it.
Our felucca ride on the Nile that night was one of my favorite things I did the whole trip. It was incredibly beautiful, I wish pictures did it justice. It's so hard to choose which pictures to post, so I hope somebody back home loves me enough to look at all my pictures when I get back :) Except I've already taken over 1,000, so.....

Isn't it so pretty?? Just don't touch it, that beautiful river holds every disease known to man. The moon is kind of hiding, but look for it -- perfect moment.

Gone to Egypt..

Off to see the pyramids! And ride camels :) And ride a bus for a long time, which I'm more excited about then I should be.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALI! I love you!

When in Jerusalem...

This week's field trip was to Jericho, a lookout point over the Judean Wilderness, and a monastery that somebody built too high up on a mountain. The Rock of Temptation was inside, which was cool. Some people rode a tram to the monastery while our group went up suicide steps, which was not cool.
We had to cover our hair inside the monastery -- that felt really good to do after climbing a mountain in hot and humid weather. Don't take my sarcasm too seriously though, it actually did add to the experience. It also kind of made me miss playing dress up at my grandma's house with my cousins. Those were good days...