Jerusatime

Contrary to the title, my blog has now extended itself to the Middle East, quite a big feat for such a fledgeling Peruvian blog.

I've been here for about a month and a little bit, mainly in the BYU Jerusalem center but also with a short stint in Turkey.  This time around I've decided that I'm going to try to put pictures in between writing in the blog, instead of all at the end.  That way more people will read all the words instead of just skipping to the bottom for the pictures. 

Ta Da!

I figured out how to put the picture on.  This is the Dome of the Rock!

My friend Alex found Jesus in Old Jerusalem!

...

Just Kidding, I didn't know how to get the picture in right there.  Maybe I'll figure out later.  

The Jerusalem center is really nice, the best part is that its really close to the city, so almost every day I get some time to walk out into the city.  

I'm going to have to share some stories of the happenings of the city when I get the chance.  Right now I just can't think of much.  

Last night I got back from Turkey.  It was amazing!  Istanbul was a magical land of Mosques and mustaches.  All I could ever hope for.  The first two days I spent in Istanbul.  I visited the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.  Both are breathtaking and amazing, and completely covered in calligraphy.  I also went to a museum and the palace that had one of the worlds biggest diamonds, 64 Karat or something, and also had a hair from the Prophet Muhammad's beard!  

We then went on a river boat ride on the Bosphorus Strait.  Man some of them Turkish guys (and gals) have some big houses.  I was surprised by how rich some some of the people are there.  I guess Turkey produces a lot of cars and stuff like that, so they probably make their money doing that or selling Baklava.  Mmmm, speaking of Baklava, I had the best Baklava there, just about every day.  But a girl in my study group says that she can make better, so its my goal to see if thats true.  Their Baklava is just drenched in honey... So gooood.  

We then took a trip down the coast to visit a bunch of New Testament sights.  

Lots of cool ruins but the best part were the views around the sights, and the lizards and turtles that are everywhere.  

Also, the ruins were cool.  We saw Ephesus, which was an awesome sight.  There were cats everywhere.  And Asians.  

I also went swimming in the ocean a couple times.  It was so cold, but worth it.  We got back to the hotel with about a half hour of sunlight left and about half of the 80 people in the group changed into their swimsuits and jumped in the water, even though our professors strongly discouraged it because of the temperature.  It proves to me that we are still stupid fun loving college kids.  I'm glad to be me.  

We saw a few more cool ruins.  My favorite was Miletus (or something like that) because it wasn't as restored as the rest of them and we were able to just explore for a while.  I found a building that had clay piping used for water (I think).  And I found 4 tortoises.  They were cool.  One of the highlights of the sight.  

One the way back I made my friends take a shortcut with me that ended up being about 5 minutes longer.  We cut through a grove of olive trees to make it back to the bus in time.  See, things always just work out.  

Well, 

Thats enough for this time.  I promise I will put pictures up soon.  In the mean time I will enjoy my perfect view of the Dome of the Rock, and my Baklava in the city.

Shalom!