So These are just a few pics I took while I checking out the Old City so far. Ill explain these as i go.

Jerusalem in a lot of ways in the middle of the world. Its between Europe and Asia and Africa. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre im touching the "center" of the world...with Hannah in the background. 

This is the sword of the Crusader who lead the conquering of the Holy Land.

This is Awad, he owns a little stand that makes and sells Falafel. The next picture are the ones me made for us.  (Although his aren't the best in the City)

Really messy

MY FIRST GELATO!!! Caramel flavored! 

My friend danielle and i with a big group of us who went to get gelato. Our friend Amanda is holding the Gelato

A mosaic in W Jerusalem which displays Jerusalem being the center of the World. note: ameica in the bottom left corner.

This is a Bedouin woman weaving a rug for an outreach program  that our church supports, giving  poor women  training and work to sustain themselves.



I think i need some Lucky Charms....

This and the next 6 pictures are of a place called Arad. Its a fortress that Solomon built durring his reign. The reason this one in particular is so important is because of the "israelite temple. This is a view from above of the temple walls that are left.

This is the altar.

This is me getting sacrificed upon the altar...with a rock.

Me inside the Holy of Holies

This and the next 22 pictures is our class visiting a place called Avdat. It a city that has been home for the Romans, Nabateans, and the Byzantine Empire. (thats not in order). It a place where there is ruins and some limestone caves. SO MUCH FUN!!

Look at this guys nose...

I asked myself "What would Joe Cookson do?" and this is what i  came up with.

Senior portrait

Byzantine Church on the top of Avdat.

a menorah and a cross? What?

Preaching a sermon in the Byzantine Church

Superhero profile pic

an ancient baptismal font

My teacher told me to do it.

a limestone cave!

Band pic

is that luke skywalker?

The entrance to the outside of one of the caves

and this is Brennin's booty as we are coming out of one of the caves

This is one of the bigger caves on the site

Power Rangers?

egyptians?

dinosaurs?

Im hatching!!!

Ancient roman hot tub

These next few pictures are us painting a mural for a local preschool. BYU students have done it before and we are just finishing it for them. Its theme is "Its a small world after all"  

We are painting children from all over the world

First we traced it in pencil

then we painted it with the first coat

Near the end of it, this little girl came out to see what i was doing.  She and i traded  words we knew in each language.

but...since she was like 6 it was more making funny faces and laughing !!

These pictures are from my 4 day field trip to Jordan.

Here are some Muslim Barbies....kinda weird.

These next two pictures are from Machaerus, the place where  King Herod  beheaded John the Baptist. This is the view looking southwest towards the Dead Sea.

The pillars are at the end of the dinning hall of the palace that used to be here.

This is the beginning of the great city of Petra, what you are looking at is a tomb of a Nabatean. What they used to do was put their dead on top of these pillars where the animals couldn't get at it. Something i thought though was "What about the vultures?  

Are those roman soldiers?

Our tour guide showing us Frankincense in the form they used to transport it in. I guess it melts really easily so they only transported it at night and hid it by day in caves. 

This canyon is called the Siq. Its the narrox canyon that leads to the city of Petra. Its so narrow the entire way that it made it a great form of defense for enemies. What my classmates are taking pictures of is a cart that the vendors pulled tourist through the canyon faster.