Today we had an awesome field trip. We started out by going to Masada, this site of a Jewish fortress during the Roman war. It is at the top of this really high plateau, and thankfully instead of hiking it we got to take a tram up there. When we got there we talked a little bit about the history of the fortress. They had a palace and a synagogue and a bathhouse and a series of cisterns, and they had a bunch of food stored to get them through the siege. When the Romans finally built a ramp and conquered the city, the people that lived there all committed suicide rather than become slaves to the Romans. Kind of a tragic story but it was really fun to walk around through all the different buildings and then back down the mountain on the tram.
After Masada we went to the Dead Sea to swim. It was really cool, you could literally sit there with your hands and feet in the air and just float on the top of the water. We swam around a lot and went to this mud pit to put Dead Sea mud all over us. It is the kind of stuff they try to sell you at the mall, and it actually works pretty well, my skin is really soft now. Swimming in it is the weirdest feeling, you kind of get stuck a little bit. Since you're so floaty, it's like when you are on a wakeboard and you try to flip over but you can't really so you have to twist your entire body and throw yourself around. It is such a funny sensation. The worst part was that swimming back to where our stuff was I got salt water in my eye, and it killed. My friend Daniel was helping me swim back since I literally couldn't open my eyes, but then he got water in his eyes. It was the funniest scene of the blind leading the blind as we tried to edge ourselves along the rocky beach until we could get back to our group and get a towel to wipe our eyes.
It was about 44 c degrees here today, or 112 f. That is hot. It was not pleasant. We went to En Gedi after the Dead Sea, which is where David spent time while he was running from Saul. Then we went to Qumran, where the caves are that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found at. It was really cool to learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls and how they are the oldest Biblical text manuscripts we have, and the way that they compare to stuff in the Bible, stuff in the Book of Mormon and stuff in the Pearl of Great Price. There are even some scrolls of things that aren't found in our scriptures, like the Book of Enoch.
Tonight when we got back me and my roommates all did a race to see who could get the fastest shower time with the requirements of shampooing, conditioning, soaping, and shaving. I won. The best part was that in about 15 minutes all 4 of us got through the shower, which I think is pretty impressive for a room of girls and it was nice not to have to wait forever to get clean after such a hot and sweaty and salty day. We had FHE tonight and now I have to finish my reading for my NT class tomorrow. We only have tomorrow and Wednesdays classes before the final, it is crazy how quickly this term has gone by and how much knowledge we have crammed into our brains in the past couple of weeks. I love everything that we learn about in the NT, and I think I'm actually going to really miss this class a lot when it's over.
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