Masada/Dead Sea

The rain stopped this morning, and we woke up to a beautiful and clear view of Bethlehem. After breakfast, we left Bethlehem, went through a checkpoint (our passports were checked by a guard for the first time since entering the country), and saw Jerusalem on the way to Masada. We reached the lowet point on earth and rode up a gondola to the ancient fortress Masada, perched on a mountain. We were able to enter a cistern that held 4,000,000 gallons of water, and saw Roman fortress ruins and bedouin tents below. Several of us hiked (Ben and two others ran, racing the gondola) down the trail. Following lunch, we saw Qumran, where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, which our tour guide helped excavate (I didn't know whether to believe him or not, but we saw his picture at the Israel Museum on the 27th). After this, we went to the Dead Sea, and I floated in the water, smeared the clay on my skin, and managed to scrape my knees, swallow a mouthful (which you aren't supposed to do), and got some in my eyes - chlorine has nothing on this stuff! I loved it. After a shower and dinner and our nightly meeting, we met with the Steebers, who are Holden friends, and talked Lutheran Mafia, theology, and Ben even squeezed in some visual culture references. It was a big day; a great day... in Hebrew, the words for big and great are the same... English would do well to follow this example.