Jordan and Egypt!

Early last week I got back from a great trip with my dad to Jordan and Egypt. We did a lot of things, more than I can remember or recount here, so I think I'll list the things I learned or found interesting or surprising:

- Jordan. I basically knew nothing about Jordan and learned a lot about it on this trip. Jordan recognizes Israel as a country, so that's always a bonus for countries around Israel. It also sees itself as a neutral party in the middle east. It is really difficult to get Jordanian citizenship, supposedly. Also, the Jordanian Dinar is tied to the Dollar, and they accept both currencies, interesting. Also, everyone we talked to was very supportive of America and had a lot of pride in Jordan's relationship with the US. People in general were really nice to us everywhere, a store owner even gave me a mosaic as a gift, even though we didn't buy anything else at his store. Jordanian children also learn Arabic, English, and French in schools.

- Amman. Here are a few interesting facts about Amman (the capital of Jordan): Like Jerusalem, all of the buildings in Amman have to be made of the same stone. In Amman the stone is Limestone, and in Jerusalem its Jerusalem Stone (creative, I know). They are also trying to get rid of all traffic lights in Amman and replacing them with traffic circles to keep traffic flowing (my mom would hate it!). Lastly, motorcycles aren't allowed in Amman, actually I think this is true for all of Jordan, but it was most noticeable in Amman.

- Ancient Egyptian Death Rituals: Now, of course I knew about the pyramids and everything from ancient Egypt, but I don't think I ever really thought about the extensiveness of the death rituals from that time. The ancient egyptians went all out when it came to burying and preserving the dead- it's really incredible. I think the part that interests me the most is the belief behind it. I find myself wondering how they came up with the idea that everything put in a tomb with someone got to go to heaven with them. Or how they thought little model boats could become big boats for their owners to sail to heaven. Or even how taking out all of the internal organs of the person helped them be reborn into heaven. The belief was so deep and so detailed and exotic, it's really interesting.

- I mentioned this in my facebook album, but the coolest thing that I saw was Cheop's Solar Boat. Basically, it is a giant boat that was buried in thousands of pieces in a tomb next to one of the pharoah's pyramid. This boat was built solely to be buried for the Pharoah's soul to magically put together and sail to heaven in. That demonstration of faith and belief really amazes me.

- I am slightly claustrophobic. I've actually knows this for a while- I basically need to know my air source. So, I had some trouble in Egypt when it came to climbing in the pyramids- I basically didn't do it. I went partially up one of them, but then decided to stop. I don't know- the way I see it is that the pyramids were created to house the dead and their things, not for other (live) people to ever go in, so why would good ventilation be a priority? Thus I stay out of pyramids.

- Another interesting thing about traveling has been being able to talk to locals or non-American tourists about the US election. Everyone wants to talk about it. I think all of my traveling and talking to people has completely reinforced my decision to vote for Obama. Everyone has been so optimistic about the idea of Obama as president, and that kind of faith and hope for America redeeming its international image is a big plus for me.

It's about time to wrap up this post as I'm leaving for another adventure in Greece in 4 hours! Here's a preview of some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

This is the sun looking really neat behind a monument on Mount Nebo. Bible Trivia! Mount Nebo is the place where Moses stood and God showed him all the land for the Hebrews, unfortunately Moses was never allowed into that Land of Israel and he died somewhere in modern day Jordan.

This is the treasury in Petra, Jordan. What is incredible about this building is that it was carved out of the solid mountainside... no room for mistakes.

The sun behind the great pyramid in Giza!


As you can tell by the next two pictures, I really enjoyed re-learning manual photography techniques on this trip.



On the trip we did a 3 day Nile Cruise. The next few pictures our from one night when I got to watch the sun set from the top deck of our ship. It was beautiful.


The rest of the albums can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006290&l=39ee8&id=1229460136

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006291&l=2bb3e&id=1229460136

Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

True, I just got back from a wonderful trip to Jordan and Egypt with my dad, but, I decided I should post about an experience I had before I left for that trip.

For those of you who don't know, Yom Kippur is pretty much the most important Jewish holiday. It is the day of atonement; the day where we apologize to God and each other for the bad things we have done and hope for forgiveness and mercy. We believe in a book of life and a book of death, whether these are real physical books is not really the point, the point of the day is to remember that ultimately, our life is not solely in our hands. God put us here and God can take us away, and if we are here, alive, on this earth for the next year, it is through God's mercy and compassion alone. Now, that seems like a strong, slightly ridiculous statement, and I can see a lot of you roling your eyes or maybe even being surprised that I would say this and believe it. Here's how it works in my mind: I believe in an all-powerful, all knowing God, but I also believe in free will, human choice, etc. I know that I am not perfect and that I make mistakes, and I believe in a God that allows that. I believe in a God who wants me to learn and grow on my own: to realize my problems and fix them, to struggle with my faith but always return to it. All the while I still believe that if God wanted my life to end here and now, it would. So do I think my name will be written in the book of death because I spoke behind someone's back or cut someone off in traffic? no. But I think Yom Kippur is the time for me and other Jews to remember that there is a force much much larger than us making these decisions.

Anyways, that was a very large diversion from the story I wanted to tell about Yom Kippur in Jerusalem. Kira's parents were in town for the holiday, so they made us a great pre-fast meal in our apartment. Then we drove into the city and got our rooms at a hotel near the synagogue we were going to. The interesting thing about Yom Kippur in Jerusalem is that every single thing shuts down. On shabbat, most things shut down, but there are still cars and taxis on the streets. On Yom Kippur, no one drives, the streets are completely empty. After Kol Nidre services (the night Yom Kippur started), we walked around town. We walked in the middle of the bussiest streets in the city. Other people were out, sitting in circles in the middle of the streets or strolling like us. The city was silent. Our fast was long and difficult (26 hours) and I'm not sure how I felt about the services we attended, but what really struck me was the trasformation of the city on that one day.

The problem is that some people in Israel took the holiday way to seriously this year (as I've heard that they have done for years in the past). A couple days before Yom Kippur my roommates came home from class saying that they had been told stories of people in religious neighborhoods stoning cars that were driving on Yom Kippur. Ambulances have even been stoned on their way to the hospital. I couldn't believe it. But, it turns out, this year was also not free from incidence. In a town called Accho, an Arab man was driving to pick up his daughter from relatives. It happened to be Erev Yom Kippur and the Jews in the neighborhood stoned his car. This started a riot between the Arabs nearby and the Jews in Accho. Police didn't respond for hours. There are different accounts- some claiming the arab man was playing loud music and causing trouble and others claiming this was a racist attack on Arabs. But the point is that this is where I dissagree with people who claim to practice the same religion as I do: I don't believe in a God that wants me to stone people driving on my holiday. I don't believe that wins me any points with God or will help me get into the book of Life. In fact, I believe in a God that would want me to repent endlessly for doing what the Jews in Accho did.

European Adventures!

I got back last night from a trip through Europe with two of my roommates, Kira and Erica. I have a ton of stories, and even more pictures, so I'll just cover the highlights in this entry. Each city has a corresponding facebook album that I've linked to, so check out the pictures if you want!

Our first stop was Vienna, Austria. The highlights:
-Our hostel, the Wombat. It was colorful, clean, and really funky. Also, they had the whole hostel running business down.

- Seeing the opera! We did the very Viennese thing of getting standing room tickets to the opera. This required us waiting in line for a few hours, bringing scarfs to tie our spots on the railing, and standing for the entirety of the 2 1/2 hour opera. Sounds a little bit like torture, no? Well, it was. But it was also really cool to have done. The opera was "The Flying Dutchman" and it was really strange, but I guess I get the impression that most operas are really strange.

- The Vienna Boys Choir- this actually wasn't that great, but I'm glad that we went. We got cheap seats that meant we couldn't really see the choir or any part of the chapel. But still neat.

- Food! There was a lot of pork in Vienna, so that was a bit hard to navigate around but we did have some really good food- primarily wiener schnitzel, Gulash, and dumplings. The desserts were also not bad, and we managed to make our way to the Sacher Hotel to try the famous Sachertorte.

- The Schonbrunn Palace- we took a carriage ride around the grounds and it was absolutely beautiful. We also did a 30 minute tour inside that was definitely worth it.

-Shopping. We found the main shopping street in Vienna, the Innerstaat, and enjoyed walking around and shopping. We also needed to do some shopping because we were not nearly prepared for the cold.

The photo album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006170&l=389e0&id=1229460136

Copenhagen! The highlights:
-The best part of Copenhagen for me, of course, was seeing Chuck, Lynsey, and Grace (for only a few minutes! sad times!). I got to meet Chuck and Lynsey's host families and see where they are living- and I stayed with Chuck at his house. Even though our visit was short, I got to spend a good amount of time with Chuck and Lynsey and had a really good time!

- The public transportation system: ok, maybe this is not a highlight- but I definitely got to know it well. Also it's a million times better than Israel's system so that was nice. I actually liked being able to understand the train system somewhat, and get around a bit on my own (especially when Chuck was lame and made me go into the city alone... kidding)

- The round tower! Its this tower in the city that was built so that the king or ruler or whoever of the time could ride to the top on his horse! So it was basically a big spiral all the way to the top. Pretty cool. Also, the views were great.

- The weather during our visit was pretty horrible, but I really liked Copenhagen! I would definitely go back- maybe during the summer would be nice.

Album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006171&l=871db&id=1229460136

Paris! Highlights:
-First I'll say that I really loved Paris and didn't have nearly enough time to do everything I wanted. So I'll definitely be back.

- Free tour! Our hostel had flyers for a free tour of paris- it's given by college students who work solely off of tips. The tour took almost 4 hours but was definitely worth it- it was a great tour! I saw more of paris than I ever could have hoped.

- Notre Dame- since it was the first friday of the month, they had what they believe to be the crown of Christ out to be seen by the public. I didn't go up to see it in person, because it was mainly there for Christians to approach it and kiss it, but it was neat to watch people honor the relic.

- Monmartre Tour- this one was not free but I decided to go on it anyways. It was really nice- we got to see the cafe where Amelie worked in the movie (as well as the park and grocery store in the movie), the restaurant where Picasso traded his paintings for food, Van Gogh's apartment, and the beautiful Sacre Coer Church. It was really nice.

-The Louvre- it was really great to go, but overall I found the Lourve overwhelming and the Mona Lisa slightly disappointing. Still, I got to see some pieces of artwork that I studied in art history, so that was really cool.

- Things I wish I had time to see: The Musae D'Orsay- I tried to go, but the line was too long! I heard from 5 or more different people that it is the best museum in Paris, so I'm sad that I missed it!
The top of the Eiffel tour- the lines were also too long for that too, which was also a bummer. Oh well, i guess I have a reason to go back now!

Album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006172&l=79e60&id=1229460136

Now I am back in Jerusalem, briefly, and classes started last night. It should be an interesting semester- and I think I'm looking forward to being in real classes again.