Istanbul not Constanstinople

So since that I won't be able to Blog all week I will post my schedule of what I am doing daily so you will know what is going on!
Day 1: We are flying from Jerusalem to Istanbul and spending the night there and having dinner. I think we get free time to go out and explore the city
Day 2: Today I will have a full day tour of Istanbul. First we go and see the Hippodrome Square, the location of the Chariot races. Then we visit the famous Blue Mosque. Topkapi Palace is the next stop and this is where the Sultans and their exotic entourage lived. After lunch we go to the Basilica (Underground) Cistern. And then I am most excited to go to the Grand Bazaar. It is the largest street market in the World! So now I can every type of souvenir and wood carving ever created. At night time we get to go on a private boat ride along the Bosphorus and have  a dinner cruise.
Day 3: Today we start early and drive to Canakkale to visit the ancient Troy and Trojan Horse. Here we will read the Iliad and explore the ruins of Troy.
Day 4: During the morning we will stop at Behramkale to see the Temple of Athena and the Acropolis! Then we drive to Pergamum and see one of the Seven Churches that John wrote to. Here we will see the Acropolis of Pergamum. The next stop is to the Asceplion which is the world's first health center. You can read Rev 2: 12-17 and that is where we will be. We will drive to Kusadasi and spent overnight there.
Day 5: Today is EPHESUS!! After spending a half day here we will drive to Miletus, this is an ancient city founded by the Miletus people in 650 BC. Tonight we drive to Pamukkale for dinner and overnight.
Day 6: This day we get to go see the "Cotton Castle" which are these sweet hot springs. I have never heard of these before but they look really cool. Google them! Then we get to visit the Hierapolis. Tonight we drive to Bursa for dinner and spend the night here.
Day 7: During the morning we get to visit the city of Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman empire. We go back to IStanbul today and visit the Hagia Sophia! I am really excited to see this. Apparently this is an awe inspiring building. One of the wonders of the World. Tonight we fly back to Tel Aviv. Luckily for us we get to take a red eye flight back to Tel Aviv. We arrive back at the Jerusalem Center at like 3 am.
Well I hope that all of you have a great week! And I will see you guys when I get back! Read about Paul's missions and also parts of Revelation to track what I am doing because we are stopping at a lot of the places where Paul and John visited!

Pictures to last for the week

This is Lindsey and I inside one of the Tombs of the Kings

An aerial view of the Old City

The Noises that keep me up at Night

Last night was a very long night for me and everyone else at the Jerusalem Center. We were awaken multiple times by the smoke bombs and gunshots that were going off outside the center yesterday. No worries mom, I am safe but right now the Palestinians are protesting the Independence of Israel, they have their own memorial day that occurs tomorrow. Yesterday the Israeli soldiers blocked off the old city to Arabic males between the age 18-40 for security purposes. Since they bring in the Sabbath on Friday night they were afraid of further demonstrations at the Prayer site (ie Dome of the Rock). We were not allowed to go out of the center yesterday but if we stood on our balcony we could see some of the action. There were a bunch of teenage kids that were throwing smoke bombs and I am not sure who they were throwing at or who was throwing them back  (I am guessing it was Israeli soldiers) but they were constantly firing smoke bombs at one another.  Everyone in the area that we live in were out on their roofs also watching it. They teenagers were also hiding and then throwing stones at the soldiers. (let me tell you, they love throwing stones and we are usually the target but luckily we were inside) There was one Muslim teenager that passed away yesterday during the firing. It was a bummer to stay inside but I caught up on a lot of homework and we watched the 10 Commandments movie last night. The demonstrations are supposed to last until Sunday so we are cooped up today and we leave for Turkey tomorrow. When I went to sleep last night the rioting was still going on but for some reason I was not scared at all. The security here is great and the Jerusalem Center is neutral so they will not attack us. Another thing that woke me up was the prayer call.  Every morning at 4:30 there is a call to prayer and we are located right next to a mosque so it is very loud at 4:30, I have adapted to this Call to Prayer but last night it woke me up. I guess it is a good thing we stay in today so I can take a nice long nap :)
Two days ago we went to the Tomb of the Kings, it is this small cave that you have to crawl into via hands and knees. Then it opens into a large room with small tombs around the sides. There are about 4-5 rooms that you crawl into or slide down to. Since it is underground it is pitch black but we luckily brought flashlights to light our way.
Tomorrow I leave for Turkey and I am so excited! Later I will post my schedule and updates about the trip. I will not have any internet access so I will not be able to blog. I know this may be devastating news to a lot of you (all 5 of you) because I know you all religiously follow my blog but I am sorry and I will make up for it by posting more pictures.  Try to survive without any posts.

For your enjoyment.....

Al Aqsda mosque which is right next to the Dome of the Rock

A group of us in front of the Dome of the Rock :)

A traditional orthodox Jewish man

One Problem, Two Opinions

So we tonight we were able to to hear from Bernard Sabella, who is a member of the Palestinian parliament. Last week we heard from Yigal Palmor from the Israeli ministry. Both men spoke on their viewpoints of the Palestinian Israeli conflict. So I decided that I would sum up for you the main points that they discussed. Both of them gave great lectures but very biased so that being said I give out a warning that these opinions are not of mine but theirs:

  Palestinian viewpoint: This conflict has been going on for centuries but he said that the problems really started when  Israel declared itself as an independent state all of the Palestinians where forced to move and become refugees. Bernard's parents were refugees during that time and he spoke of the oppression and horrible state that they were put into. He claims that Israelis feel no responsibility over the refugees and what has happened to them. The recent agreement between Hamas and Fata brings hope for the Palestinians. (We asked if he thought Hamas was a terrorist organization and he said that he does not support them and does not support violence. Fata used to be a terrorist group and now has changed and so can Hamas but that just because they have used violence in the past does not mean they are a terrorist group.) In 2007 these two Palestinian groups had a falling apart and were divided because of Gaza but now they have put in place a peace agreement. This is bad news for the Israeli state because before they could fight that these groups did not represent the entire Palestinian population so there was no need for an agreement. But now that they are joined forces they are ready for a peace agreement. Hamas has apparently made it clear that they want to talk with Israel but Israel is not agreeing to do so. Israel has taken over the land of hundreds of thousands of people and has separated people from their land. There are still thousands of refugees that are trying to reclaim the land that they rightfully own but the separation wall is keeping them from doing so. Dr. Sabelli said that he sees an option of resolution would be to go to the UN council this summer and ask for the UN to recognize Palestine as an independent state. He said that there are around 130 countries that support them and that they need justice and not oppression.  He also thinks that if we continue to look at this as a Muslim/ Islam war that it will never be resolved but we need to see this just as a territorial issue. Justice needs to be found for both the Israelis and Palestinian and the Palestinian refugees should be compensated for their loss. 

Israeli Viewpoint: Yigal Palmor is over the Israeli foreign ministry and spoke to us last week about the issue. His main point was that Israel has tried repeatedly to make a peace agreement but that the Palestinians are refusing to cooperate. He knows that they are planning on going to the UN to ask for recognition as an independent state. If they are able to obtain it, which he thinks they won't be able to the problem will still be here. By declaring them a state they will still fight over the same land and no resolution will be in place. He also mentioned that it is very frustrating trying to make any type of agreement with the Palestinians because they are not true to their words and they repeatedly break past agreements. He said that the Israeli government has made it clear that they want an agreement and that they are at the point where they are waiting for the Palestinian authorities to come and talk with them.

Well I hope that you enjoy reading both opinions and I hope I did both speakers justice. Both speakers did not seem to optimistic that there will be an agreement anytime soon but it could all change in a day.

Jericho

Yesterday we had our second field trip to the land of Jericho. We first made a stop at a place called the Wadi Qelt, this is apart of the Judean Wilderness and traditionally known as the spot where the story of the Good Samaritan occurred. We hiked up to this overlook and saw this amazing Monastery that was built before the time of Christ. It is nuzzled into the side of the mountain. When we were there it was around 7:30 am so the sun was just appearing over the mountains and it was a great way to begin the morning.

The next location that we stopped at was the city of Jericho where we were able to read the story of Joshua and observe the rocks and bricks from the actual wall that fell. It was amazing to read the story and then actually see the residue from the story. Dad, I know that it was your dream to be an archeologist and you love facts about rocks, luckily for you one of my teachers is an archeologist so I learned some great facts that I can tell you when you come out! Pictures of rocks are not that cool but here is a picture of me, Lindsey, and our new good friend Emily at the Jericho sign.

The last stop was at Herod's Winter Palace, the cool thing about this archeological site is that there are no ropes or anything blocked off places so we got to see all of the places. There is still original tiles, plaster, and columns from the palace that we got to observe. The bath house is still fully intact. An interesting story about Herod.
So on the next post I tried to upload a video but it apparently didn't work so sorry about the blank space. Tonight Elder Pipper from the quorum of the seventy is having dinner with us so we are all excited to sit and talk with him!

Katharine: There is actually a small gym/ basketball court and then a really small work-out area. I actually just switched from doing P90x to this other work-out called Insanity. It is so hard but I love it. I would recommend it to anyone!

4th of July...well kinda

Last night the festivities of Israeli Independence Day.  Here are some pictures to sum up the party:

The streets were all blocked off and there were thousands of people that roamed the streets. They definitely have  some interesting traditions that are tied to Independence Day like buying plastic hammers and then going around "bopping" people on the head. Or spraying whoever you want with silly string. Luckily for me I never got stringed but plenty of bops.

There were multiple concert areas that we went to, this being the first. Luckily we had practiced our dancing skills last week so we could show the Israeli nation how to do it. We had tons of people join in and even  more people that stood around us and watch. We had no idea the words or what they were singing but we joined in. At the end of the night the real party animals emerged, the women between the age of 60-80. These women loved us (especially the guys in our group) and would grab our hands and taught us Israeli dances.

Mid dance we were greeted by the Mayor of Jerusalem! He came down and started dancing with our group. He shook all of our hands and then we were the lucky ones that got a picture with us. He was a very nice man. We ended the night with a firework show, so this was our fourth of July! So to all of you back home, Happy Israeli independence day!