July 12, 2008

We had to be on the bus and leaving back across the Sinai at 5 am. Seeing as I am the chair of the travel committee here in the center, I was supposed to be there at 4:45 collecting everyone’s room keys. Well, I woke up at 4:43 sprinted over there and was there by 4:45. Got all the keys, woke some other people up who slept in and were on the road by 5:15. After another treacherous journey across the Sinai, we reached the Egyptian border, where the fun began. You see, I was attempting to bring a weapon across the border. I went through the Egyptian check out and the guy pulls out my sword from my bag and I gave him a big smile and tried to pull the idiot tourist card. Yeah my fellow students all thought I was retarded. Well, he started walking around looking for a superior official and then came back and suddenly just put the sword back in my bag and was like okay. Well, as we got up to the Israel border, Professor Draper comes up and goes, Tyler you might be in trouble up here at the next border, because quite frankly I had to bribe the guy to get you through that last border. I started laughing and was like ha ha okay sure Brother Draper. Then when he walked away another girl was like, no seriously Tyler I saw Brother Draper literally bribe the guy. He reached into his travel pouch and handed the guy 5 bucks! Ha ha My religion professor had to bribe the guy to get me across the border with a weapon! Come on that is hilarious! So when I went through the Israeli border I just had the sword slung over my shoulder and the guy was like do you have any weapons and I was like yup! He laughed and they gave me a hard time about it for awhile, but I just was like come on guys! Eventually the let me pass through, but made me promise to keep it in my bag until the States. Yeah, like that’s happening.

The best part of the journey was the Red Sea. No, it didn’t part, but we swam in it. Snorkeled in it actually. I have always imagined it to be kind of gross, but actually it is beautiful. Like beautiful. They have sweet coral reefs and the brightest blue water. Moses and those guys could have set up a resort if they did not have to pass through it on the way to the Sinai. The snorkeling was not bad. Yes, Park I found a sweet tunnel to swim through under the water in the coral. It was fun, I had a bunch of people follow me through after I did it a couple times. I felt bad because a lot of the girls got cut up on the reef, but they did not listen to my specific instructions, which were to take baby strokes. But, you get a little short on breath and you kind of freak out I guess. That was way fun though, the fact that I did tunnels in the Holy Land both under water and in the hills is just cool to me. I really am obsessed with tunnels now. Tunnels and the Dome of the Rock, and Pyramids. All of these things are very good. I really liked just sitting there at the Red Sea and staring at it. Again, I don’t know what it is, but sacred spots really just have a feel to them. Moses parted that Sea. I know that he did. I really loved just staring at it. That thing parted. Crazy. Crazy. But real.

Anyways, I loved Egypt. It was amazing. I wish I had more time for insight instead of just travel log, but I did not have my computer with me the whole last week, so this was all just done in like two hours and I am tired. The End of Egypt…Back to Jerusalem.

July 11, 2008

That morning was a rough one. All day swimming in your sweat, several dance parties and then a night train followed by another day of sightseeing. We went to Citadel & Mohammad Ali Mosque, Cairo Museum, lunch at Hard Rock Café, and then a Bazaar. Of course, I bought a sword. I got a pretty good deal. I walked in and told they guy I really liked statues. I looked at his statues for awhile then I casually hinted toward a sword on the wall with a camel bone handle. I challenged him to a sword fight and winner gets the sword. He considered it for a moment but realizing that a dead customer was no good to him began to negotiate a price. We negotiated awhile I finally said my last price called him my brother and gave him a hug. He accepted and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was amazing. Oh yeah I also bought a “real” Rolex that is ridiculous and takes up my whole wrist. I will definitely not be late to the bus anymore with that clock on my wrist and it’s a Rolex so you know it’s good.

That night we had a sacrament meeting in the hotel and my elder’s quorum responsibilities basically consist of organizing the Sacrament each week. It was cool. I brought water cups, but stole 8 plates from the dinner line, cut four pieces of bread, and asked some people to help. We passed the bread and water using the plates. I helped passed. These kinds of meetings are always special. Here you have a small group of a little more than 80 who desire to take the sacrament so bad, that while in Egypt they rent the hotel banquet hall, steal plates and bread from the hotel restaurant, tediously fill up water cups with bottled water and hold an hour long meeting. Why? Because they desire to keep their covenants. Because they love the Savior. Because they desire the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Oh it is all about the Holy Ghost. I just love that feeling. It really was a neat sacrament meeting. And best of all, I did not spill the water that I was balancing on a plate. You can bet my tongue was out and I was in full concentration the whole time as I passed it to the presiding authority. It sure was neat.

July 9, 2008

Woke up early again, but this time instead of hoping on a smelly old bus, we boarded one horse carriages to ride to the Karnak temple. Well, you see, lots of people like to sit in the back of the carriage and take pictures out the side and just enjoy the sound of the hoofs on the road and bells on the harnesses. So, obviously I jumped up on the front seat next to the driver and eventually talked him in to handing over the reins. So, yes, I piloted a one horse carriage down the streets of Luxor, Egypt screaming at the top of my lungs “Hi Ho Silver!” Yes Shellie, I thought of you the whole time, if I could have had anyone next to me instead of that Egyptian man it would have been you. The guy later turned on Notorious B.I.G. and we bumped down the streets of Luxor, blaring rap music in a one horse carriage. It was amazing! (side note: I am sitting in the hall of the Jerusalem Center and the security guard just walked by and said what’s up Mr. Moustache! Ha ha ha His Arabic accent on Moustache was awesome) So, we did the Karnak temple, and the Funerary Temple of Ramses III and then back to the hotel for some categories and Marco Polo in the hotel pool before we organized the dance party of all dance parties. So, we rented a motor boat this time with a top, kind of like a ferry. There were 20 of us and we had it for an hour. Naturally, we got on the roof of the boat and rolling down the Nile River showed the viewing tourists and Egyptians how big wheels really keep on turning. It was ridiculous. Seriously, we had a walk off up there, Rusty and I did Michael Jackson moves, it was so fun! The last 20 minutes consisted of Tricia and I talking each other out of jumping into the nasty green waters of the Nile. You see, the Nile is gross. One girl jumped in last year and had to wear depends on the bus ride back across the Sinai. It took a lot of convincing but we both eventually talked each other out of jumping in, even though it was going to be sweet.

The night ended at the train station. We flew from Cairo to Luxor but we took a night train back to Cairo. The train was a step up from India trains on the niceness level, but that was only cause we all road first class. And of course we added to the experience by throwing a dance party in the train lounge. Like 30 of us all piled in the lounge car, Rusty grabbed his Ipod and there was a legitimate dance party in the train car. It got really awkward at the next stop because everyone from the whole station came to check out the car full of dancing white people. The dancing lasted for about 15 minutes before the guy at the counter finally realized that we weren’t going to buy any drinks and killed the music. It was sweet until then though.

July 9, 2008

Wake up call at 5:15. A failed attempt to beat the heat at some of the sites we were seeing that day. We went to the Valley of the Kings that Morning and it was HOT. However, it was totally worth it because we got to see a whole bunch or ridiculously sweet tombs including the famed TUTENKHAMAN…aka King Tut. That guy was a little tiny guy. His mummy was actually on display there, and was real little. It was the first of several thousand year old dead people that I had the privilege of seeing in Egypt. Anyways I asked our guide about the height of Egyptians back then and he got all ticked and was like, what we need to understand is that he was only 18 when he died and not yet fully grown. Yeah, our Egyptian guide was ridiculous. We were all ready to kill him by the end. He kept calling us his Habibi’s and we were seriously ready to stage a mutiny. Anyways, we did not. The guide still lies to torture another BYU group next fall. So, after the Valley of the Kings, we headed to Ramses II tomb and after an annoyingly long lecture by our fearless tour guide Habibi, we got to wander around. It was really cool. For those of you endowed, I have some really really interesting hieroglyphics pictures to go through with you. They actually helped normalize the temple ceremony for me, it really was strange the aide in understanding that the Egyptians helped me with regarding the temple. I would prefer to defer that insight to a more personal setting. The funniest part about the trip though, was my friend Paige, who was actually in my ward last year, were twins. We both wore Wal-Mart $5 T-Shirts, white paints, straw hats, and fanny packs. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

We had free time in the afternoon and then went on a camel ride. Well actually the camels were on the other side of the Nile, so yes, we took a faluka ride across the Nile River. It was not just any faluka ride it was a dancing faluka ride and our captain was a dancing machine. So we had a dancing faluka captain and then our 65 year old professor hops up (yes Kelly, the Draper man himself) and starts cutting some serious rug. What could be better? Oh yeah, for the first time in supposedly five days there was strong enough wind to let out the sails and really fly down the Nile. Oh yeah and on the flag they had a huge Bob Marley banner and the ship was called Amsterdam. I hope that explains our dancing faluka captain. It was amazing. Simply amazing. The camel ride was actually pretty amazing as well. Despite the hairiness, the smell, and the fact that it just plain hurts certain parts of your body to sit on them, the camel was actually enjoyable. My guides name was Ali and he was 10 years old. He was a really fun little kid and I loved him. I felt bad because he had to walk while I rode but his boss would not let him ride up with me no matter how much I tried to persuade. We wandered around as the sun was coming down, which made really cool camel pictures had they have been taken by someone not on a camel. Seeing as I took the pictures they were real blurry, but I had my ten year old guide take one for me and even though my head was cut off I feel like he really captured the moment. My favorite part was wandering through houses. It was just like India again. Like almost exactly. I really did not feel out of place. Well, despite being on a camel, having white skin, not speaking Arabic, and being led by a ten year old boy on a ten foot rope, I felt totally like I belonged. Okay, not really what I meant. What I meant was that for a lot of the huge caravan of 48 camels we had, many people were kind of shaken up by the poverty. Suppose it takes a lot to compete with India, but Egypt did come close. I am grateful to have India to compare everything with for the rest of my life. By the time the ride was over though, I was ready because I was in serious pain. Not so much in my legs, or back, but somewhere in between.

July 8, 2008

Bright and early we head off to the pyramids which in itself would have been a ridiculously sweet activity, but there was more. The Pyramids were incredible. Serioulsy they are way bigger than you would have ever imagined. Like, you picture them to be pretty big, but they are bigger. They are so sweet, but one of those things that you only need to see once. I mean they are cool and you take pictures, but then well they are still just there. Don’t take that the wrong way they really are magnificent! We got to go inside of the middle one. Which was actually the most disgusting thing ever. No air and the body odor of 100 different countries mixed in to one, but nevertheless, it was way sweet to be inside there. Tricia and I (if I haven’t yet mentioned Tricia shares a similar passion to mine of pushing the limits, therefore we have made an alliance and seek to get a little bit more from ever stop we go to) decided that pictures was not enough, so we decided to climb those suckers. You see this is actually strictly forbidden, by the Egyptians and therefore the program. Thus, we could not climb to the top, but we went around to the backside, where no one really was and climbed up quite a few layers before reason got the best of us and we decided to start climbing back down. It would have been easy to climb to the top, but I really did not feel like either an Egyptian prison or another time out on the bus. I felt satisfied with our attempt.

Next, we went to some other tombs and statues and stuff, but to tell you the truth after seeing the pyramids everything else, despite how cool it is, really just does not compare. Now, that is not entirely true, but it was really hot and really hot andf really hot so it got a little bit difficult to stand in the sun and stare at a bunch of statues that began to look very similar. But in the end, it was worth it, there really were some amazing things that day. That evening we flew out of Cairo to Luxor. We checked into a pretty nice place in Luxor, but it had brown water coming out of the showers, and that was gross. We snuck into the pool that night, because it was closed by the time we got there and woke up the staff with chicken fights. It might not actually have been closed, because we never got kicked out, but I think it was.

July 6, 2008

Egypt

EGPYT!!!!!! We embarked upon our 7 day Egyptian tour bright and early on Sunday and July 6, 2008. We honor the Sabbath on Saturday here, so Sunday is a normal day perfect for a super long bus ride with a ton of stops along the way. We stopped at a lot more places than any of us quite expected, but they were sweet and it made for some sweet adventures. The first place we went to was Beersheba where we all had to wear hard hats around the site. This was probably the best joke that anyone has ever played on tourists before. There was these buckets of hard hats that were of course nasty from a ton of tourists head sweat from the ridiculously hot temperatures, and they made everyone who came to the site put one on. Well, it was probably 15-20 minutes later that we began to look at each other in these ridiculous red, pink, yellow, and blue hard hats and wonder, wait why are we wearing these things? The place was a ruined fortress that did not have a standing wall as tall as me, let alone anything that you needed a hard hat to protect you from. Is that a funny joke or what? At the end you did have like a 5 foot long bridge you went under, but man it was funny that we wore hats for that! Beersheba is supposedly cool because everyone says that is where Abraham dug his well, but Brother Draper wasted no time in explaining to us how that was actually false. Which led us to wonder why we are here actually? Apparently because it is just a really old place.

We went to another place, that was just awesome. It was a huge ruined fotress/city that was on top of a huge hill that had caves cut into it all over the place. Tricia and I, as we have made it a habit, decided to wander off and find some sweet tunnels and caves to search for treasure in. Well, we went into all of these houses built into the side of the hill that were awesome, but then everyone caught up with us and played in there too. Then, while we were walking down the path back to the bus, we jumped over a wall and scurried up to where it looked like there were some caves, and there totally were! The first ones we went into were pretty cool, but there was still like footsteps and stuff in there, so there had been people in it quite recently. But, it was still way rad. The second one was even better because there were not foot prints and deep in the back corner of it there was a little tiny hole in the middle of the wall. We both climbed through it and it looked like we were the first two to climb into that room in a long long time. It was super dark and all we had as light was the focus light and flash of my camera. We made our way around and I climbed up to where I could see more of a pass, but it would be a difficult climb with no flashlight, but then we remembered that we were not archeologists, explorers or treasure hunters, but students and that we just might be late for the bus. We left the cave, I climbed back through that hole face first and fell on to my shoulders! Then, we proceeded to sprint down the hill to where the buses were waiting. Sure enough, there was Dr. Draper standing outside of the bus staring up at the hill with his clipboard in hand. I got to him first because I went around the steps and just plowed down the mountain, unlike Tricia who was still just flying down the steps as fast as possible. I get to him and ask the obvious, “Are we late?” “Oh yeah” he replys. Then when Tricia arrives he asks us both to wait on the bus at the next stop. Well the whole way to the next stop we are playing the guilt game and laughing and nervously handling the anxiety from the impending punishment: like a child waiting to be punished by his mother for something he knows he has done wrong. Well, Dr. Draper heads into the next site without us, and Tricia and I are left on the bus like two 8 year olds being punished for stealing candy from the candy jar. Time out was real rough on me. I seriously went into six year old mode and even made the statement, “this is the worst punishment I have ever received.” Yeah, my counterpart thought that was pretty ridiculous. The funny thing is, I still hold true to that statement. Eventually Brother Drapes came out and got us and we got to go in and eat ice cream with everyone, but man it was pretty lame! Totally worth it though, no question.

We ended the day at the Kibbutz, this Jewish kind of communal living plantation place. Basically a bunch of Jews who all live together and try to live the law of consecration. It was interesting. The best part was dinner. They fed us a great meal and then we all learned and sang Jewish songs together. It was especially helpful after going to the Western Wall, we felt cool because we were up on their dance moves. We danced, clapped, song, laughed and just had a great time with those people, basically our tour guide and her brother playing the piano. They were really fun though. We danced our hearts away and then split classes to go to separate Kibbutz to sleep. Our class got hooked up. There was a swimming pool at our place and I organized a huge prisoner game using a soccer ball and a wire that hung over the pool holding up a sign. It was awesome. The prisoner game lasted forever, but it was really really fun. Tricia and I also tried running around on the bottom of the pool with a huge stone and that got difficult because the stone was pretty big, but it was fun. Then we slept and had Kibbutz food in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning we woke up and headed across the Sinai Peninsula. A barren barren wasteland. As I sat in that AC bus and looked out over the miles and miles of desert waste in front of us for the entire 6 hour trip, I really felt for the Israelites. When they were saying that it is better to have been slaves in Egypt than to suffer here in the wilderness, they were serious. That place was absolute punishment. It would have been unbearable. That is why you learn the lesson, listen to the Lord! Do not try deviate, do not temp, do not ignore, listen to the Lord because the consequences of sin can end up being worse than 40 years in the most ridiculously hot and desolate place ever. I do not know how much worse, but real bad. We did not even stop for sightseeing and we stop everywhere, it was just a hot and miserable desert. However, when the trip was over, we ended up that evening in Egypt at the Pyramids for a light show! Woot woot!

So, once in Egypt we throw our stuff down in the hotel and cruise over to the pyramids as the sun is setting to enjoy a light show. It was absolutely amazing! Well, actually the light show was ridiculously corny. Like really bad. But, seeing the Pyramids at Sunset and then lit up at night was a real treat. We actually built a human pyramid in front of it with a bunch of guys. It was such a success that we did it like every time we were in front of the Pyramids.

July 4, 2008
I suppose the appropriate greeting would be Shalom. Today was Friday, which was not only the first day of midterms (which were an absolute killer), but also Friday evening is the day the Jewish people welcome in the Sabbath at sundown. In Jerusalem they have the privilege of the Western Wall, or sometimes referred to as the “Wailing Wall.” There is a lot of history behind this sacred place for Jewish people, some of which I understand and a lot of it which I do not. In context, the wall is a place where people come from all over the world to pray because of some spiritual significance the wall has. Also a common thing to do is to write a prayer or the name of people on a piece of paper and shove it into the cracks of the wall. Well, I have passed by the wall previously and really did not think it was all it was cracked up to be with a few people praying here and there. Today, I found out what it was all cracked up to be. Today, as the evening was drawing in, our whole class walked from the center all the way over to the wall to behold and participate in one of the coolest things I have yet seen. We get there and the place was just absolutely packed with people (it is a good thing I served in India or I would not do so well with all the crammed space and bodily odor, post-India: nothing compares). So, there are thousands of Jews all over the place headed to go pray and sing and dance and celebrate the coming of the Sabbath at the Western Wall. It was amazing! Our teacher asked us the very poignant question, “When were you this happy about the Sabbath coming?” The people really were celebrating their opportunity to observe the Sabbath day. You know what was even better? They let us celebrate with them. The boys and girls are separated, the boys to one side and the girls to another side, but both accessing the wall. We went down and were given kippas (spelling?) to cover the top of our head, which made us blend in with everyone. Except for me of course, the orange shirt and blonde hair kind of contrasted with their brown hair and church dress, but nevertheless, let’s just say I blended in. Oh who am I kidding I stuck out like a Celtics fan at the Staples Center; you could have seen me and some other BYUers from across the stadium! Still, I just kind of followed the basic procedure. First, I gradually worked my way up through the crowd to the wall, I got up to it and I touched it and it was weird, there were people praying all around me and then a couple of us BYU students just up there kind of in the midst of it all, I just did not get the real effect and needless to say felt very out of place. After that, however, I wandered around through all of the different song groups and prayer calls and people worshipping. Here, I must explain, the Jews are always moving when they pray or sing, I guess it is just to show their excitement, but there could be more to it. They sway back and forth or up and down, side to side, as the read from scripture, pray or recite scriptures or sing. With that many people, all of them moving around so conspicuously and often times pretty dramatically, it just… well it is just an experience to be inside the crowd. I wanted to gain more from the experience, so I kind of ditched the group. I went off by myself and for the first time in a while I was alone. Funny that I say alone, I was surrounded by like thousands of people on all sides, but I was alone. I just watched and observed from the middle of the crowd. I loved what I saw. I saw young boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw teenage boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw grown men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw old men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. You know what I really saw? Devotion. I saw a people who were devoted to the God they knew and had passed that devotion and love down though their generations. I saw a people who were so very sincere about their worship. I loved it. A dad passed by me with his son on his shoulders, trying to get him up to the wall. Another dad passed by me holding his two daughters, mom probably couldn’t watch them tonight and that was not keeping Dad from coming to worship. These thousands of people were here, in unity, the young the old, the Jew and, in my case and several others, the Jew and the non-Jew, to worship God. How much does the world need good people? Good God fearing people. People with morals. People with faith. Oh, I just loved the experience. It taught me so much. The world and God need devotion, in whatever form they can get it. Nephi teaches us that we are judged according to the law which we have been given. I am so glad that there are still so many people who are living to their full extent the law that they have been given. It made me think about myself, what have I been given, and what am I doing with it? Am I devoted to my belief and to my faith? What an opportunity for me to step outside of my life, my culture, my beliefs and just realize some very important things. Still, by myself at this point, I again made my way up to the wall. I waited behind a man who had his faced pressed against the wall praying with tears streaming down his face. Earlier I thought this was strange, “how strange that someone would do that in public and at a wall that has been touched by literally millions of people.” Now, however, I was so very grateful for that man. His religion was not a show, or a passive thing, he was there praying and pouring out his soul to the God that he loved, trusted, and judging by the earnestness in his voice and tears on his face, that he desperately needed. In that, there was holiness. A holiness that I could feel. When my turn came up again, now my second time at the wall, I put both my hands on it and said a very sincere prayer to the Father. It was personal, but more sincere than a lot of my prayers have been in sometime. It mostly focuses on my gratitude for being able to be here with these people as well as an earnest desire for Him to bless them and their families.
After this, the fun began. You see, after people are done with their prayers and their contact with the wall. They continue their worship through song and dance. It was AMAZING! A feeling of brotherhood that Elders Quorums would die for. There were several groups doing it slightly different, but basically what would happen a group would gather and all sing a song in Hebrew, very reverently but gradually work their way up to more enthused and more enthused. At the end, everyone would link arms and begin to go around in a circle, like a clock. As they started to move the song basically turned into a simple chant that everyone could say and did say as the linked arms. The circle turned into a full on dancing circle with everyone’s arms on each other’s shoulders running around in the circle, clapping, dancing and singing. Oh it was just amazing to watch. They were all just celebrating! Singing, dancing , clapping and just being with their brothers, with huge smiles on their faces, they welcomed in the Sabbath. As I watched all of this, I just could not help but want to join in. I just wanted to be a part of it and began looking for some way to join. Then it appeared. I looked over to a group dancing a little ways away from me and guess who was right their singing and dancing right along with everybody else in the midst of it all? Yes, you guessed it, Russell Edward Greiner. His hands on some total strangers shoulders, a huge smile on his face, dancing like anything and singing the words to a song he had no clue the meaning of. Lickity split I was over there in two seconds jumped into the group with Rusty and we just had an absolute blast. The people were so accepting, they just kept grabbing people and throwing them in and the circle just kept getting bigger and bigger, if you were on the outside, it was like the tide it just swept you away into the ocean of people and whether you liked it or not you were dancing along with them. Would you guess that I liked it? Yes, I absolutely loved it. It just was too much for words. I am actually kind of embarrassed that I even attempted to try and describe it to you. We were not allowed to take pictures, but if we were, they as you hopefully could have guessed would also, not do it justice.
How is that for the Fourth of July celebration huh? To top off the day even more, when we came back, we stood on the balcony overlooking the city and guess what we saw? Fireworks! In all honesty I have seen fireworks like every other day since I have been here, and we know that those fireworks going off over the Palestinian portion of the city were not celebrating American Independence. Still, it was cool. To be on the other side of the world and see fireworks on the Fourth is pretty cool.