Turkey part two

Assos

Pergamum

Ephesus

Hagia Sophia

Blue Mosque

Turkey - part one

First meal in Istanbul (egg plant stuffed with meat, mushrooms, and peppers with cheesy potatoes on top)

Suleymaniye Mosque

These toilets were everywhere but I only used one once

The Grand Bazaar

Basilica Cistern (I only got one picture before my camera died)

Troy

random adventures

Some Jewish festival. I'm still not exactly sure what it was but it was pretty cool ha

 

Avengers in Jerusalem

Our first mosque that we had to wear head scarves in

The last couple of nights have been pretty fun.  Wednesday night we went to a Jewish celebration.  They had huge bon fires all over the city and the men were all dancing.  We wanted to dance but we asked some women and they said they don't dance in public so we just got to watch from across the street because they also seperated the men and women.  We did get in trouble a couple times from the men because we accidentally went over on their side.  It was really interesting to see though.  Thursday night we all went to the Avengers in 3D.  Such a good movie and we had a ton of fun.  The head scarf picture is from one of our field trips.  We went to a small mosque just close to the jerusalem center and we had to wear head scarves in there.  Also we were matching so that's why we took the picture in the first place ha



Tel Aviv

Me and Jerica at the Mediteranean Sea

AJ didn't bring a towel (he used a skirt) and Robert had the smallest beach towel ever

Swimming in the Mediteranean Sea

Walking through a market in Tel Aviv

Sunset at the beach

Dancing in the street

We went to Tel Aviv for one of our free days.  We went to Old Jaffa and checked that out for a while and then spent the rest of the day walking around Tel Aviv and hanging out at the beach.

Feild Trips

The Garden Tomb

The wilderness the Israelites wandered in for forty years (it kind of reminded me of Nevada)

Reaching the top of our hike in the wilderness

Layika Negev Weaving
Picture 1.) woman making a blanket

                   2.) yarn made by Negev women

Tel Be'er Sheva

Going into the underground cistern in Tel Be'er Sheva

These are two of the feild trips we did this week.  The first one was to the Garden Tomb.  This was not what I had expected at all.  I thought we were going to go into a Tomb and look around for a bit then leave.  Instead it was a garden with benches and pathways through it.  Someone who worked there came and talked to us about it and then we got to go look inside the tomb where they think Christ was laid.  We only got to be in there for a second because it was pretty small so we had to take turns but it was amazing.  After we got to sit and sing until they closed for the day (it only ended up being one song because they closed an hour earlier than we had planned). Our second field trip was to the Negev.  We visited several sights there.  Our first stop was to the Lakiya Negev Weaving company.  This is an organization that empowers Bedouin women.  This organization has volunteers and workers who make yarn and then send that to Bedouin women who can then make blankets, purses, pillows, etc from home.  The money they make goes directly to the women who made the product.  After that we went to Tel Be'er Sheva.  This sight is believed to be the ancient city of Beersheba.  We also got to go into their large underground cistern there.  From there we went to the grave sight of David Ben Gurion that overlooked the desert that Moses and the children of Israel wandered in for forty years.  Then we got to hike in that same desert.  Our last stop was to Avdat which is an ancient city built for the trading of incense.   

Overview of Jerusalem

Jerusaelm / David's city

Bethlehem                                                             

Augusta Victoria Church

(These first three were on our overlook field trip of Jerusalem)

Pool of Bethesda.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this place because it was so beautiful. 

One of my favorite places so far!

First shawarma

The Western Wall

Zedekiah's Cave

Well week two in Jerusalem has been great.  We have started school and all my professors are awesome and really know their stuff.  It's so cool to go places with them because of how much they know.  I was called as an F.H.E. group leader and we had our first F.H.E.  We had a volleyball tournament going but so far it's only been one night (our team won our first game). And I also did some shopping for the first time this week and have actually made some friends already.  Imad is one of the first shop keepers we met. He gives us really good prices and is very nice to us. He will also tell us what good prices are so we make sure to ask him because we are still trying to figure out what good prices are.  I have also met Shaban (all BYU students go to him because he makes the BYU Jerusalem t-shirts).   

Other things I have done this week

• Tried my first shawarma
• Went to Zedekiah's Cave
• Went to the Garden Tomb
• Went to the welcoming of shabbat
• Had a feild trip where we went to different lookout points of Jerusalem
• Met Julie B. Beck (she was on a tour with a group and they went to welcoming of shabbat too)