Catch up...

So, I've been lazy and am finally getting around to putting up a short summary of all the interesting things that have been happening in my life. Ok, so there are only a few.

First of all, school is annoying. That is the only word for it. I go to class everyday almost, and just about all of it feels like a waste of time. Either I am being taught something that I really learned in the first two years at BYU or they are forcing me to take a class in something that I have no real interest in and no real life application because I'm not about to spend the rest of my life planning awful research designs while cackling maniacally on the top floor of the Ivory Tower. Hebrew class is almost just as bad. The language pedagogy here at Hebrew U is leaving about everything to be desired. Basically, I'm learning how to look slightly interested while being completely bored because the only thing that happens is the teachers will stand at the front and talk in Hebrew the whole time without giving us, the students, the opportunity to even speak to one another. In all honesty, I could probably go a week without saying one word in Hebrew if I so desired. After teaching Arabic at the college level for a year, this is painful.

Otherwise, I'm just psyching myself up for a great Christmas season with hardly any Christmas...The BYU center is now empty, the students are gone (as of tomorrow) and that means that I am back to recieving the full brunt of any and all scorn and derision from the Senior couples for not being married, and for apparently letting the best opportunity of my life slip through my fingers by not snatching up one of the BYU kids. How they expect me to even begin getting to know any of them beyond a cursory, "so what do you do at BYU?" conversation I have no idea. It really isn't that bad, but I'm in kinda a bitter mood right now, so I'll put the worst possible spin on the facts as I can.

Anyway, 2 weeks ago, I headed down to Cairo for a regional Young Single Adult conference. It was loads of fun and way too hard to come back here. It was surprising how good it felt to hang out with other Mormon kids and to just be relaxed. I'll include some pictures at the end. It was cool to see a bunch of friends from both BYU and from living in Jordan as well as to meet a bunch of new people. It seemed like we as a group were able to bond really well even though we only had 2.5 days to do it.

Egypt was dirtier than I remember, but it was still fun to hang out at the pyramids and see the Nile. I also finally got to scratch riding a camel off my list of things to do. And it will be good to not have to think about doing that for a long while. They are the most awkward things in the world to ride.

October

So this entry is to prove to you all that I actually did something in October. There is a lot of confusion (and jealousy) out there about the fact that I haven't started classes yet. So here's the deal: I go to school in Israel, a decidedly Jewish state, which tends to adhere to Jewish laws as well as a somewhat socialist view on things. This means that, at the same time the populace observes the standard Jewish holidays, there is also a weird mix of worry about the proletariat and the hoi poloi. This means that 1) I basically have all of October free because of Jewish Holidays (Succoth, Yom Kippur, etc) and 2) there are strikes on seemingly all the time by both students and facutly here. But before you all start thinking that I'm not going to be getting an education here, let it be known that the International school of which I am a part, doesn't close down for strikes, sadly...

Anyway, so since my semester doesn't start til Nov 2, I decided to do some fun stuff from the end of Sept to the middle of Oct. And to prove it to y'all, here are some pictures I took along the way:

My first stop on my trip was Rome. See the Colosseum behind me? Dead give away, huh?

So I saw all the fun stuff in the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, which was pretty neat. Problematic though, cause it's impossible to get a good picture anywhere inside the places, cause either you can't use a flash, or the lighting is just bad...


This was an interesting building, it's called the Pantheon, because it was a temple to all the Roman gods before it was converted to a Christian church some time a long time ago...


And this is me at the Trevi Fountain...too many tourists...5 pm is the worst time to go there. It seems like that's what all the tour groups do right after all the museums/churches close...



2nd stop on my Italy trip was Florence.
I really liked this city, it was really relaxed and seeing all the art was amazing. I am now officially cultured.

This is me at an overlook across the river from the main squares of the city. In the background you can see the Duomo, the Ufizzi and a few other towers of churches, etc. Definitely a city worth visiting if you haven't. The art alone is reason enough.


Here are just a few of the pieces I thought were cool:



This last one on the right is my favorite. It is an unfinished Pieta by Michealangelo, that was meant to be on his grave. Pretty cool.

Next stop was Venice for 10 hours while waiting for a train to Slovenia. So I wandered around and saw some pretty cool stuff.


So, first we have Jaws, then we have a gondolla (ps- it's really hard to get a good composition on a moving water taxi on the venetian canals) and then we have the winged lion which is a rather old symbol for St. Mark. All 4 of the Evangelists have symbols such as this, Matthew is a winged angel/person, Mark is winged Lion, Luke is a winged ox, and John is a winged eagle. You can see these 4 symbols all over Christian churches and just not notice them if you don't know what they are. Anyway, Mark is the patron saint of Venice, so the Lion was all over the place.

After that I took a midnight train to Ljubljana. That was an experience. While waiting for the train, I started talking to an Australian girl who was going there, and I ended up showing her some sights in Ljub cause I lived there and all. Which was pretty cool, I think she felt rather intimidated cause I spoke Slovene and it didn't help when we sat down on the train and right next to us were 3 Israelis going to Slovenia on a summer trip and I talked them up for a while in Hebrew. Pretty random to run into them there...

Slovenia was amazingly beautiful as always. I saw a lot of the people I know from long ago and it was great to be there for General Conference sunday, cause it meant that the members from all the other branches came down to watch in the new chapel.
Here are a couple pics of the new chapel. And this is Lake Bled to the right. And below is a view of a valley up in the north, which is part of the Triglav National Park.








So all in all, it was a great trip. Hope that these few pictures will suffice to describe it. Really, you should all just go there for yourselves...

Well, the other week I headed down south to a little place called Tel Arad. This is a really neat archeological site that has some interesting ruins that have done nothing but raise questions.

First off, here is a picture showing just a barren room. This is a Canaanite dwelling from before the Israelite conquest. The room that you see is just one that branches off of an open air courtyard. The rooms surround the courtyard. This is significant because it is a great example of a pre-Islamic courtyard house. This building style was widespread in the Arabian peninsula and apparently in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) because it allowed the walls of the homes to be incorporated into the walls of the city if needs be as well as provide shelter around an inner court. Some speculate that this also either played a role in the development of Islamic ideals of privacy for women in the home or came about because of these ideals being widespread before Islam. The reason this is so connected to Islam is that this was the model of house that Muhammad lived in and since his house was used as the first place of worship for his followers, it became the standard layout for all subsequent mosques. They are formed to contain an inner courtyard around which are situated rooms for prayer and teaching. (Some more modern mosques have broken from this tradition...)

So part of Tel Arad is a pre-Israelite Canaanite settlement that was apparently conquered by the Israelites some time before 1000 BC. Another picture of me here has me standing within the cultic bath/trough which remains as part of the ancient Canaanite place of worship. Next to it was an alter, which was an intersting juxtaposition as it creates the three tiered concept of creation with an underworld for spirits (the cultic trough), the regular world we live in (ground level) and the raised alter (the heavens).

After the Israelites took over here, they placed a military outpost to guard the southern reaches of their kingdom. And interestingly enough, they built a temple here. The site was quite a ways from Jerusalem and apparently they recieved permission to build this temple and use it for sacrifices. Eventually, the temple rituals done here were scaled back during a period of reform during Hezekiah's reign and were stopped completely during the reforms of Josiah.

The temple is not quite a complete replica of the temple in Jerusalem but there are some features that are very similar and some that are conspicuous in their differences. First of all, it is a complete three "tiered" temple. There was an outer court (where the congregation could gather) and inner sancturay or court where only the priests were allowed and even a Holy of Holies.

Within the outer court is a sacrificial alter which would have served as the focal point for most of the day to day activities within the temple.
Comparing this picture (on the right) with the general layout of Solomon's Temple (see the wikipedia page) there are some slight diffeneces: one the holy sanctuary is elongated here, and two the entrance to the courtyard is offset. The reasons for these small differences are unknown.

Also unknown is the reason for the biggest difference in the temple: the Holy of Holies. This small room opens up a whole slew of questions. First, the fact that it exists causes problems. According to the Torah, the High priest was to enter the Holy of Holies which was seen as the dwelling place of God on Earth once a year on the Day of Atonement in order to offer the communal sacrifice for the communal sins. If this was to happen in the Jerusalem temple, why would there be a need for a temple in Tel Arad to have one? Was this temple under the jurisdiction of the High Priest in Jerusalem? was there a High Priest assigned to this temple to see to the running of sacrifices and were the same ordinances (to use a modern term) perfomed here as at the temple in J'lem? These are interesting implications...

More intersting though is what is in the Holy of Holies itself. As you can see in this picture there are two incense alters on the steps leading into the holy of holies, and two stones of differing heights at the back, but one is on a raised platform to put it at the same height as the other stone. In the Jerusalem temple, there was only one incense alter standing in front of the veil of the temple and the platform inside was the housing place of the Ark of the Covenant (on top of which was the Mercy Seat, or maybe Throne of Atonement would be a better translation...).
But here there are two items. Some see within this outside traditions of other religions influencing Jewish religion and assert that the two stones are representations of God (Yahweh) and his wife/consort (Ashteroth). But if that is the case, why is the smaller of the two stones raised up to the level of the bigger? why is the incense alter of the one so much smaller than the other? were these just places for two other relics holy to Judaism? and of course the unabashed Christians think to themselves maybe this could be something about Father and Son?
The fact though remains that no one knows and anything is really just speculation until something more is found...