Masada!

This weekend, Marcus, Gabe, and I went camping and hiked up to Masada to see the sunrise. It was awesome! Masada was a fortress siezed by rebel Jewish forces in the First Jewish Revolt. Rather than surrender to the Romans, its inhabitants committed mass suicide. Its story was largely forgotten, but during the Zionist movement, newly remembered as a sort of defining episode.

Gabe, Marcus, and I--just before
sunrise

Sunrise over Masada
and the Dead Sea

A 5th Century Byzantine Church

Masada's dovecote (you can see
pigeonholes on the wall to the right)

Gabe and Marcus, navigating
through the ruins

Bethlehem et al

Church of the Nativity

Herodian

All of us at the top of Herodian


All of us atop Herodian (Back row:
Katie, Meridith; Middle: Me, Zahar, Melissa)

In the extensive water tunnels
at Herodian (also used as rebel hideouts
during the First Jewish revolt and
Bar Kohkba)

Lunch! Traditional
Palestinian Salads. YUM.

The wall, from the Israel side

So this weekend I went to Bethlehem with a great bunch of girls--Meredith Marshall, Melissa Shipp, and Katie Jensen. We visited an LDS woman named Zahar who lives in Bethlehem. She joined the church when getting her masters in statistics at BYU a few years ago. Her situation is poignant--she is only allowed into Israel to attend church 3-4 times a year. Meredith was asked to be her visiting teacher (yes, we did receive visiting teaching assignments) and so we all visited her this weekend. We went to the Church of the Nativity, Herodian (awesome ruins of Herod the Great's summer palace), and to an awesome restaurant called The Cave--great food and great atmosphere! We did happen upon some rioting on the way home. It was eye-opening. More on that later. But we passed through the wall safely and went to church the next day.

Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea

Wow! What a weekend... it was fantastic. We (all ten of us) left after class on Thursday for En Gedi (cf. 1 Sam. 24:1) from Jerusalem's central bus station. Then, 8 of us opted to stay in an expensive--albeit very nice--hotel, while Gabriel and I stayed at the youth hostel. Thursday evening, we swam, or rather, floated in the Dead Sea. It was surreal! And very salty, which made real swimming an intensely unpleasant experience (When any water reaches your eyes, they burn like mad! Talking pepper spray here. I was blinded one too many times...) But floating was gorgeous... the beach remained pretty deserted during our entire stay there, so that was rather nice. On Friday morning, after the recommendation to explore En Gedi over going to Qumran (from a sort of traveling masseuse who thought I was insane for voluntarily refraining from coffee), we hiked the trail to David's Spring. It was BEAUTiful! Holy cow. Natural springs peppered the trail every 5 minutes or so, dollops of beauty amidst dry crags and caves. We stopped to take a dip in one, and then proceeded to hike above the Spring and to a Chalcolithic temple. Then we began our descent, saw the ruins of a 5th century synagogue, and swam in the Dead Sea once more before catching the bus back to Jerusalem at around 2 or 3. A wonderfully refreshing trip. The rest of the group stayed behind for an additional day, but Gabe and I came home for financial, educational, and spiritual reasons (yep, it was justified). I had to give a talk in church on Shabbat, which went well (I think) and love it here! But I have to go study now.

Dead Sea--Me and Gabe (Photos
courtesy of some Ogden, Utah natives
we happened upon at the beach!)

The Dead Sea from En Gedi

This is David's Spring, essentially

Lower falls of David's Spring,
which we swam in. Paradisaical!

Taking a much needed break during
the long trek up the mountain... the
Dead Sea is in the background

An awesome Chalcolithic Temple
at the top of the mountain, where it's
supposed the moon was worshipped

Cute little ibex! These guys
were all over the place

The floor of a 5th Century Synagogue at the foot of the mountain(ish)

Rocks in the Dead Sea, with
salt build up. Gabe actually took
some salt formations from the
beach...

A-Okay

Just to let anyone who may be worried out there know, I was not bulldozed yesterday. In fact, I've hardly noticed any aftereffects at all. I was far away at the time, and not visibly affected in the least. Ciao!