Last week of classes!

Hello Family!

This last week was our last full week of classes. This week we have a smattering of class and all our finals. But then next week it's on to Jordan and complete vacation!
Eilat was fantastic! The water was so blue it looked turquoise. There are coral reefs lining the shore and lots of fish everywhere. We got there after driving by the Dead Sea and down through the desert. We followed one of the possible routes Lehi and company took to the Red Sea and I understand now why Laman and Lemuel complained so much. It would not be fun travelling through that desert for the 11 days it took to get there. But once we were there, it was beautiful. I hung out on the beach, snorkeled, worked on my tan (which never appeared), walked on the beach and relaxed. For Devin’s birthday, I found him a lion fish, who I named Little Dude, in honor of Devin. After 6 hours of beach time, we packed up and headed to dinner before trekking home. 

Monday, after class, a small group of us went back to Hezekiah’s Tunnel because Amy was sick on the day of the field trip and wanted to go. We got there at the same time as a large group of elementary school kids and tried to hurry and get in front of them, but we ended up in between the two classes in the tunnel. I thought my class was loud, but they’ve got nothing on excited, screaming 9 year-olds. It was so loud, but it was also pretty funny. After we got out, we took a different tunnel back to the top instead of walking out and around. It was an ancient road used in the time of Jesus but had been covered up by later building projects. One interesting thing about the Near East is that every generation builds on top of the previous. Things get covered up so fast around here, that the ground kind of levels out enough for the next generation to build a new layer, which is why archaeologists can go find city after city in the same spot and get some kind of timeline. Anyway, we walked through a tunnel that in Jesus’s day was an open street from the Pool of Siloah to the Temple Mount.

On Wednesday, we had a field trip to Neot Kedumim, which is a Biblical Nature Reserve. A group of Jews planted a ton of trees and plants in the area, all found in the Bible, and set up activities so that people could get a sense of what it was like in Biblical times. We got a little tour, ground up hyssop, shepherded sheep, pulled water from a cistern, made pita and lentil soup, and watched a Torah scribe do his thing. It’s easier than I thought to get sheep moving, but that might be because we had a lot of people and the only way for the sheep to move was along the gauntlet we formed for them. The Torah scribe was really cool. His family’s profession is to write the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible) and the papers for the Jewish mezuzahs and phylacteries. It’s a painstaking profession where error is not an option. Depending on the material they’re writing on, they can carefully scrape off the ink and rewrite, but other materials, they have to take the error and bury the paper, because it’s forbidden to destroy the word of God.

Thursday we got to have another Hebrew class field trip to the city. We got a “Tour Around the World”, where we went and saw all the different church buildings built by various nations in the late 19^th century: Italy, Ethiopia, Russia, England, etc. In the middle of our excursion, we were in this courtyard while Shlomit lectured about when, where and why modern Jerusalem was built as it was, and this old Jewish man with a long white beard comes over and invites us into his museum right there off the courtyard. I’ve decided that Jewish old men are just about the cutest men I’ve ever met, they are all just so happy, funny, and sweet.

A bunch of people were invited to one of the olive wood worker’s shop for a brunch on Sunday morning. We ate the best falafel and humus I’ve ever eaten (a great breakfast food). After brunch, Ashleigh, Brianne, and I went on a mission to find the last 2 scarves I needed for my bridesmaids. We found them a lot faster than we thought, so we wandered around the old city for a long time. We just kept turning on unfamiliar streets to see where they’d take us. Finally, we had to face the inevitable and came back to the JC to start the studying for this week’s tests. So far, 1 test down and 4 more to go!

Hope you all have a good week!

Love, Kelby

Harry Potter, Soccer and Tunnels

Shalom, family!

Our free day was Monday this week, because we went to the Holocaust Museum on Sunday. For our free day we walked to Dormition Abbey, where Mary’s tomb is. We walked from there to this outdoor mall. Marissa was dying from lack of American culture and jeans that fit, so we found her an American Eagle. The mall was just like being in America, except the signs were in Hebrew. I bought Harry Potter in Hebrew while we were there. I plan on reading it during the summer term when I don’t have any Hebrew classes. That night we went to Jerusalem’s Festival of Lights. When you got there, you could follow one of 3 paths, each of which had different light shows and things going on. We had just enough time to go one most of the 3 paths before we drove back to the JC. It was really cool to be in the Old City after dark (usually prohibited) and just go along with the all the crowds of people there.

I did 2 things after class on Tuesday: I took a tour underneath the JC and then most of the students went to a soccer game for the Under 21 World Cup happening in Israel. We got to see all the pipes and wires in the spaces under our home. At the game, we saw Israel play England and win. They didn’t make it to the next round, but it was fun to see them win their match. The really interesting part of the trip, though, was getting there and back. We were picked up by vans from the center and they were supposed to take us to a bus stop where we could get on the free buses to the game. They dropped us off at the wrong stop and only a couple vans could be found to pick us up again and take us to the right stop. Then there were so many people coming to the game, we had to push ourselves onto the buses and I sat on Courtney’s lap, to make room for people. We were 20 minutes late to the game, even though we left 2 hours early. Then after the game, no one knew which bus to get on and then we couldn’t find any buses, so we all wandered around the stadium for an hour before we found the right bus. It was pretty hectic, but we got where we wanted in the end.

Wednesday, we went to Hezekiah’s Tunnel. That was probably the coolest thing we’ve done so far. We walked through the narrow tunnel, water to mid-calf most of the walk. Sometimes the ceiling was way above us and other times I had to bend over a bit, but mostly it was a few inches above my head. That’s one site that I really want to go back to. That night, we had a guest speaker who was a 95 year old Holocaust survivor. He was really cute and funny. He survived 9 concentration camps and lost his whole family. Someone asked him how he could be so happy, and he answered, “How could I be sad? I’ve lived a great life and have so much to live for yet!” I thought that is a great way to live: no matter how bad life can get, we have so much to be happy about!

My Thursday morning classes were canceled, so I got to sleep in, although I did wake up early to Skype Matt (and then went back to bed). I learned that early in the morning the connection is good, because no one is on the internet. On Friday, we had classes and then were set free at 3. I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher again, this time with someone who knew a lot more about the things inside. The church is funny to me, because of how random it feels. There are just so many different styles of art, architecture and worship that it’s hard to really make sense of any of it. It’s a product of the 8 different churches and religious and artist traditions.

Tomorrow we go to Eilat, which is on the Red Sea, and are going snorkeling! I’m really excited! I’ve never been snorkeling and it’s one of my only chances to expose my legs to the sun this summer. It’ll be great.

Love you all!

Kelby

Yad Vashem

It was another week in Jerusalem. On Sunday, we visited Haram es-Sharif, or the platform that was once the Temple Mount. We went right after breakfast at 8:30 so we got there before the crowds. I got some pictures without anyone in it, which they told me was impossible. We tried going to the Pool of Bethesda afterwards, but couldn’t figure out how to get in, so we’ll try again some other time.

On Monday, we had our Shephelah (lowlands between coast and Judean hills) field trip, where we visited Samson’s stomping grounds, the scene of David and Goliath, and lots of other places you probably wouldn’t recognize unless you know the geography of the Holy Land. We went into some really cool cisterns, visited caves, saw oil presses, and spent a lot of time in the blazing sun. It was by far the hottest day we’ve had so far.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in class for 8 hours. This month is going to be a lot busier class-wise, because we finish 4 of our 6 classes at the end of June. Then for July and August, we spend a lot of time in Jordan then Galilee. Thursday was another class day but the Hebrew students had a field trip! We went to the shuq in West Jerusalem and used our newly acquired food and clothes vocab to talk to the merchants and other shoppers. Shlomit gave us a ‘scavenger hunt’ to find things out while we were there, too.

Today we had our field trips to Yad Vashem and Mt Herzl. Yad Vashem is the famous holocaust museum here. It was so moving and sad to be there and see everything. It’s hard to sum up the experience in words. Some of the images and stories were so sickening and terrible and others were so hopeful and show that there is hope and humanity to be found, even in the darkest hours. I really liked the section about the “Righteous among the nations”, where they shared the stories of those gentiles who risked so much for their Jewish neighbors. It was such a contrast to the middle section of the museum which focused on the terrible deeds. I think that this trip makes me appreciate what it means to be human. It takes more than just not doing bad things. Many people in Europe never raised a hand against Jews, but they also never did anything to help. Their sins of omission made them complicit in the evils committed. One story that made me think was the treatment of Jews in Bulgaria. The Nazis ordered the government to round up Jews and send them to German camps. But when they rounded up the Jews, the head of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria climbed over the fence to join them and lots of others followed suit and vehemently protested the deportation. The King and other influential religious leaders pressured the authorities to release the Jews. So they did and the Nazi’s never asked them to round them up again. They saved all 50,000 Bulgarian Jews. If all the Axis nations had reacted that way, 6 million lives would have been saved.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week! Love you all!

Kelby

Back to School

Hello Family,

This last week, we got back from Turkey on Sunday at 3:30am. It was really easy getting into Israel at that time in the morning; I think the security people are just as tired as we were, so they let us in without many questions. We had a “recuperation” day, with a late brunch, a half-hour sacrament meeting, and, for me at least, a paper to write for our field trip on Monday. But it was mostly relaxing.

On Monday, we went to Jericho, where we saw Herod’s Winter Palace from a distance, the ruins of the ancient site of Jericho, and the probable ancient road to Jericho. At the ancient site, we got to see Elisha’s spring. You can read the story of the spring in 2 Kings 2:4-22. Jericho really is an oasis. The desert- the real sandy no vegetation kind of desert- suddenly becomes green and fertile and then turns back into desert right after. And the reason is this spring that’s been gushing (currently at 1000 gal/min) for 10,000 years. We then went over to the Wadi Qelt, which is the wadi with the most commonly used road at the time of Christ and probably the one he refers to in the parable of the Good Samaritan. After we got back, we had the rest of the day to write a paper for OT and start on all the homework we didn’t do in Turkey.

On Tuesday, after class, I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and walked around. I wish I had a tour guide or pamphlet to tell me what I saw there. There were a lot of things behind clouded Plexiglas or inside elaborate structures that I had no idea what they were. I can see why Protestants prefer the Garden Tomb, though, because it’s very busy (in terms of art and architecture) and hard to breathe with all the incense. I honestly don’t think either spot is the actual location of his burial, but I also think it doesn’t matter the exact spot; it’s enough for me to know that it did happen.

Wednesday we had an Arab Culture Night, where the prayer callers from the al-Aqsa Mosque came and recited a sura from the Koran and the call to prayer, and demonstrated how to pray. They had a Q&A session after. It was very enlightening and cool to see. We had a very fancy, authentic meal, where I ate lamb for the first time. It reminded me of tender roast beef. We ended the night learning some Palestinian dances.

The rest of the week was filled with classes and our first midterm for OT. On Friday, we went to a synagogue service and the Hebrew students got to go to Shabbat dinner afterwards that our Israel professor set up for us. (Side note: whenever I refer to the Hebrew students, I mean the 6 of us in the intensive program) Marissa, Cameron, and I went to this British family’s house. They were so nice and very funny. We just kept laughing all night. The grandpa kept saying the funniest things and the grandma’s accent was so proper. They all kept trying to get us to spill the secrets of Mormonism and were really funny about it. Their comment on our religion was “don’t worry- we have a weird religion, too.”

Love, Kelby

Turkey Trip

Turkey!

So this post is very late this week, but since getting back from Turkey, we’ve had a lot of assignments due, midterms to take, and regular class work to keep up on. Last week we were in Turkey from May 19-25. It was so cool to go around Istanbul and Asia Minor. We saw so much, I can hardly fit it all into a reasonable-sized blog post. But I’ll try.

On Sunday, we flew to Istanbul (it was a lot easier getting out of Israel than getting in!) and were picked up by our buses and tour guides for the week. The way we’re divided up for trips and field trips is by which Old Testament class we’re in. I spent pretty much every minute with the same 38 people in very close quarters for a week. We only mixed classes when we were given free time at the end of our days and were allowed to do whatever we wanted. My tour guide was Yazemin and she had the joys of being in close quarters with us every minute all week. On that first day, we didn’t see much; we were given free time, during which I walked around the part of Istanbul by our hotel, and then we went to dinner at an exclusive restaurant. We ate kabobs and one of the waiters made napkin roses for all the girls at our table. Our meals all week were always very good and classy, and I’ll tell you about the more memorable ones.

On Monday, we walked the half-mile or so to the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, and Topkapi Palace. The Blue Mosque is a very beautiful building and an active mosque, so we had to cover up our sinful hair to go in. We then went into the Basilica Cistern, which is a huge underground water tank, then to the Topkapi Palace, the home of the Royal Ottoman family for 400 years. In one of the exhibits was an 86-carat diamond. It was as big as my palm and very sparkly. I decided I might want to upgrade my ring for that- it’s only $30 million. After we saw the exhibits at the palace, we went to the Grand Bazaar, where we were set loose to buy as much cheap stuff as we could. I got some good gifts and the beginnings of my bridesmaid scarf collection. From there we walked to the Spice Bazaar, where we had just enough time to look around before heading to our boat for a cruise of the Bosphorus Strait. The Bosphorus is the strait that connects the Sea of Marmre to the Black Sea. We rode along the European side and then the Asian side of Istanbul. We came within 10 miles or so of the Black Sea, but couldn’t see it.

Tuesday, we drove down to Gallipoli, the site of a major WWI battle. There is a nice memorial there for the Australian/New Zealand and Turkish forces that fought there. We took a ferry across the Dardenelles Strait (which connects the Marmre and Aegean Seas) and drove to Troy. We got to take pictures in the original Trojan horse. Yes, it is still there and in great condition, such good condition, in fact, that you can see it featured in the recent movie Troy with Brad Pitt. From Troy we went to our hotel, which had beach front property. The beach was actually kind of gross, because the area is commercial, but the best part of it was all the jellyfish swimming with us. They were stinger-less, so we could pick them up and throw them at each other without consequence.

Wednesday, we drove to Assos, as mentioned in Acts, and saw what remains of the Acropolis and the Temple of Athena. Then we made our way to Pergammum, where we got to ride gondolas to the top of the hill (a tender mercy). That’s the place where the famous Temple of Zeus was still in perfect condition (but is now in Berlin). It also has the steepest theater in the world and a lot of really cool structures. From there we drove to our nicest hotel of the week. Bro Judd referred to it as Hotel Fantastica all week. It had a beautiful beach, pools, saunas, a huge buffet and terrible internet connection. Matt and I tried skyping there, but it kept dropping the connection every few minutes. It was minutes away from Ephesus, where we went the next day.

Thursday, we went to Ephesus, starting with St. John’s Basilica, which is the supposed tomb of John (who we know is translated and not dead).  You can see the famous Temple of Diana (Artemis) from there, but all that’s left is a grassy area with one column reconstructed for tourists, the rest of the stones are gone. Then we went to the main city of Ephesus, where we visited the temples, fountains, latrine, and theaters, saw the great library, watched an Anthony and Cleopatra reenactment, and shouted “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” in the Great Theater, just like the mob in Acts 19. It was huge! By far the largest site we went to, at least in terms of reconstruction and things to see. But it is a very popular tourist spot and that day there were 7 cruise ships at port, so it was also the most crowded place- there were people everywhere. We ended Ephesus by going to the Church of St. Mary, where one of the seven Councils of Nicaea was held. In contrast to the busyness of Ephesus, the final site of the day was at Priene, which was so peaceful. We were the only people there and the hill has a lot of trees, so it was shady and quiet. We had fun in the odeon (which is the name for a small theater meant for government, etc) making dance videos and sitting on the thrones that surround the stage.

Friday, we left Ephesus and went to Sardis. We learned about the kingdom of Lydia, who brought us currency as we know it today, dice, and knucklebones. You might have heard the phrase, “Rich as Croesus”? He was the king of Lydia when they created gold and silver coins. We then went to the nearby Temple of Artemis. The columns there were huge. It would take at least 6 people to make a circle around each. That was a beautiful place, because the mountains behind it provided a very nice background and the area around the temple reminded me of the Sound of Music. We then went to Thyatira, where Lydia and the famous purple trade come from.  After that we went to Bursa to a mosque there that was very beautiful, too. The area is famous for its textile industry so after the mosque we walked over to the silk bazaar, where I got a few more bridesmaid scarves for very cheap and had fun looking around.

Saturday, the last day, we went to Nicaea, to the sites of the first and last of the Councils of Nicaea. The Hagia Sophia (not to be confused with the Hagia Sohpia in Istanbul) was the site of the last Council but was converted into a mosque when Ottomans came but then fell into disrepair. They put up a roof and is an operating mosque, but it’s so little used that we didn’t need to cover our hair. We then went to spot of Constantine’s Palace on Lake Izmir, the site of the First Council. It was a beautiful clear lake. We took a ferry across the Sea of Marmre to Istanbul and ended our sights with the Hagia Sophia. It was in process of restoration, so the north wall had scaffolding and a wall covering it. After we left, we had some final free time, so we went back to the Grand Bazaar. We needed to have at least 1 guy with us, so Nathan was our bodyguard that day. It was Nathan and 4 girls, and the shopkeepers kept giving him a hard time. They’d yell out variations of “Is that your harem? You’re a lucky man!” so Nathan didn’t stop blushing for most of our trip. It was pretty funny to watch and Marissa and I started calling each other ‘sister-wife ’. Our last meal was memorable: we were each given a whole fish, scales, eyes, and all! Some people ate beforehand so they wouldn’t have to, but I thought it was actually pretty good (I didn’t eat the eyes, though).

So that’s Turkey! A very condensed version, even if you don’t believe it. I’ll write a shorter letter about this week on Sunday. And I’ll finish posting Turkey pictures and maybe some others.

Love, Kelby