My day : 9-15-09

Today was a pretty normal day, we had classes, got our announcements, etc.

But one thing was a little unique. They "orientated" us on going to Egypt! We leave on Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m.! Crazy, right? And apparently we have no classes for over a week...Not until a week from next tuesday :) :) :). I guess there is one benefit from having lighting speed homework and reading assignments out our ears!

A lot of us are a little nervous about Egypt cause they told us all this great stuff like we could all get traveler's diarrhea that is so bad that we'll have to ....go..... outside of the bus with a sheet hung up for us....and we have to be sure to sanitize our hands, and always have a boy present. We have to be sure to let the guys go into taxi's first and get out last so they don't drive away with a girl in the cab still...and we will get armed guards and a new bus for Egypt with Egyptian tour guides at the border. Umm....oh yeah, and we were instructed that if any men try to touch us at all to scream "Don't touch me!" at the top of our lungs. I have a feeling I'll be doing that for some of the more timid girls in my group. Hopefully we won't have any problems.

BUT! EGYPT! Ahh! We're all so excited. We get to go to all our sites and just have it be oriented like a field trip the whole time. We're taking a bus to our first hotel, and then a plane to our next one, and then an overnight train back to the first and then back to the center via hiking Mount Sinai on the last day. We'll be gone for a total of 8 Days! and then we have a free day when we get back, then the Sabbath on saturday, and I think another field trip day, and then another free day. I'm not sure why we have so many mixed in free days at the end of our trip, but it will be nice to get some rest and do reading and stuff! And hopefully I don't get sick. Will you all please pray for me while I'm there? I really don't want to get sick or abducted or any of the above. I'm going to be super careful, don't worry. I'm really excited. I get to see the pyramids! And the Sphinx! And tombs and everything! Who knew that I would ever get to do this? I'm so thrilled.

After orientation today we did some sites for my Old Testament Site Log. We have to visit 30 sites this semester for OT, and find scriptures and stuff for them and document our thoughts and everything. So, today we went to Orson Hyde Memorial Park, which was kind of weird in that it reminded me of Utah....with a view of the Holy Land ? It was cool. Then after that we went to the Garden of Gethsemane! (It was just a small group of us to do sites, so we didn't stay long, but I got to see the site, which was really cool. Apparently people go there from my group to sing hymns and stuff before church on sundays. I'll have to go. Ooops...I mean Saturdays...haha, I always make that mistake!) I'm not sure if that was the actual site of the Atonement though, or if it just is a grove of the oldest trees that are left from the actual garden, which I think covered the whole mountain side. I'll have to wait until we go there on a field trip to tell you all about it. It was really cool though, and I can't wait to go and have some time to sit and just be there for a while.

After that we went to the Tomb of Mary, which was fun, and a little different, how they worship her as well as Christ, and everyone else, right? :) And we went to the Russian Orthodox Convent of Mary Magdelene, which has gold onion tops on it :). It was very sweet. Again, a short visit just to document it for our site log. And we went to the Jewish Cemetary and just all over the Mount of Olives! It was really fun. I hadn't been over that way yet, and I was glad to get some outside time today.

Anyway, time for bed, I love you all!!