Eeeejipt

Dear Diary,

Sunday at 6:30 AM we leave for Egypt.  I'm full of mixed emotions--scared yet excited, pumped yet reserved, estatic yet mellow, erupting from within yet a still lake in the high mountains, tranquil yet ruffled, reckless yet ordered.  Somehow, I feel that everything "will all be hunky dorey" coloquially speaking of course. 

My sweet sister Lauren had a blog when she went to Jerusalem a year ago.  She had a number of followers.  Mother would always read her posts to us at the dinner table on Monday evenings.  We would all laugh and say how much we love and miss her.  I feel a weight-like pressure from the competition to get the same attention at the dinner table.  I can only do my best.

Last Sunday, Taylor James Henderson III and I instituted the "The Cuddle Club".  We are the co-chairs and have meetings one to two times a week.  As co-chairs we have an eagerness to bring people together in an unforgettable way while on the other side of the world.  Our first session of cuddle club was a flat out success.  Being co-chair brings responsibilities not a few.  I played the role of shepherd and overseer, to use the vernacular of the region, and coralled the sheep.  Our next meeting is scheduled Sunday January 22, I can't wait.

Cheers,

Cam

Going underneath the Jerusalem Center.  We had to wear hard hats to ensure safe passage.  I wore the yellow one because I was "clean up".  I made sure no one was left behind.   It's interesting how metaphorical that is to my life.  So often I play "clean up," so to speak in this game we call, "life."

This is my first time uploading pictures on my blog and I don't know how to arrange them in a cool way.  But I'll learn.  Anyway, this is a pic of my name and my two other siblings who came to Jerusalem.  We all wrote our names in the crawl space underneath the center = Cool.

This is me.

This is me too.

B-E-A-utiful...

Inside the Church of the Holy Seplechure, where certain Christians believe Christ's tomb is. (There are a couple of these spots throughout the city.

In Jericho with Lindsey Christensen and Lauren Nelson.  This is part of the wall that fell down when Joshua's army blew their trumpets and the "walls came tumblin' down."

My new pal Taylor James Henderson III (the 3rd) and I.

Golgotha.  Translation = skull. With the bus station is just below.

The Garden Tomb.

Dome of the Rock

This should probably be the first picture on my new blog created just for Jerusalem because somewhere in this mangled mess of metal is probably my passport.  (Refer to earlier post to understand further.)

Gotta love Donnie and Marie.  It just felt right...

Shabbat Shalom

My first Sabbath  in the Holy Land has been stellar.

Yesterday, I bought a kipa (yarmulka) so I would be ready as we went to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). At sundown, we joined hundreds of Hasidic Jews in praying, singing, and dancing to celebrate the coming of the Sabbath day.  Such devoted peeps!

Getting over jet-lag = death.

(Even though having a blog is pretty much a girl thing, here I am--blogging, giving it my best shot.)

Everyone ha been telling me that if you take a nap you'll never get over jet-lag. But after Arabic class I was zombified and just needed to "rest my eyes."  I set my alarm to wake me up in an hour so I would be on time for dinner at 6 PM.  I never woke up.  12 hours of sleep = wonderful.

The next day I did the sam thing.

Jerusalem

10:30 Monday night, pretty much all packed and then havoc wreaks when I open up the desk drawer to pull out my passport.  Why does opening up a desk drawer equate with havoc, you ask?  Let me jog your mind quickly with 2 words--"Pandora's Box" 

Micah, my mom and dad, and I tore my house and room apart, my car, my apartment, my work managers, my neighbor, my friend's apartment, and my scooter.  Come 2:30 in the morning, no passport.

I woke up at 4 to take a fellow Jerusalem-ite to the airport, got instructions on how to get a new passport, and the adventure continued.  Because the passport office didn't open til 9am and it was still 6am, Micah and I pulled up into a Burger King parking lot and slept till 9:30.  We then proceeded to run all over Salt Lake getting and filling out paperwork.  We got back to Provo at 3pm and slept.  

Finally, Saturday morning I leave SLC for Tel Aviv.

Welcome