Monday

Today was the big day. THE DEAD SEA!!!!!!! I don't know which will be more fun: floating on the water , or getting a salt rub when I have to dry off. I'll just have to find out as soon as I get there!

If you've ever seen a salty ocean, wait, no. Let me rephrase that: YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN A SALTY OCEAN! Not even if you've gone to Salt Lake. When you stick your hand in the water and bring it back out and strain it, there's about two teaspoons of salt in your hand.

The cool thing about the Dead Sea is that it actually looks dead. In quite a few places the salt is so accumulated that it makes waves without any water at all. Here's a picture so that you get what I mean:After walking around the shore for a while, wondering at how these formations were possible, I finally made myself go in. The water actually wasn't that bad. I reason it was about 65-70º F, a little cooler than the Pacific Ocean. It was a warm day, so it wasn't cold at all. I waded out about five yards, and then I went for it. I lay down on the water!

It was so easy to float because of all the salt. I was completely horizontal and almost my whole body was on top of the water. I pretty much floated there for about 45 minutes, letting all of the salt stick to my back, then got out and dried off (not that I needed much). As each particle of salt scratched my back, I got an amazing salt rub without having to go into the spa on the edge of the sand.
When I was done drying off, I laid down my towel and lay on it to get a nice, even tan. As I was lying on my towel, warming up, a man came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was trying to get a tan, but he didn't understand. I tried to explain, but then I realized the reason he was so confused.

Obviously, since most Africans are dark-skinned, he couldn't get a tan. When I finally noticed this, I told him that it must be something that just Americans do. This didn't seem to surprise him. He said "oh" and then walked away. I guess he was just used to Americans doing weird things (in their standards).

All in all, I had a really great day. An awesome way to end my trip. I'm glad I could tell all of you about it, and I hope I get to go somewhere else soon. Bye for now!