Dead Sea

This past weekend I went to the Dead Sea! It was pretty cool, except Thursday morning I woke up with some red spots on my torso. After confirming they couldn't be related to the chicken pox outbreak amongst the Kibbutz children, I decided to go on the the Sea anyway. I spent about an hour in the water Thursday afternoon, before sundown (which is at about 4 because of the mountains). It was very nice. By the end of the night, the spots had spread and were hot to the touch. Friday I hiked Masada, and it proved very difficult in my given situation. It only took me about 20 minutes longer than the average hike to the top, though, and I'm pretty proud about that. The top was amazing. A lot of the ruins are still up there, and its pretty cool to see. When I got back to the bottom, I went into the "Dead Sea Laboratories" store, and one of the floor sales women took one look at my skin and ran to get one of the testers of the intensive care moisturizer. I rubbed it in and she immediately gave me more, asking what was wrong, telling me to find some anti-histamine, maybe see a doctor. When I started to rub the lotion into my stomach and back, too, she ran over to the cashier desk and grabbed some sample bottles to give me. It was really sweet. I went back to the sea after that, and used some of the Dead Sea mineral mud that I had bought at the store, and it was really neat. Friday night I went to bed really early, because I was exhausted from hiking and swimming and the benedryl. Saturday, I went back to the beach, but I didn't swim this time because it was cloudy and my skin was feeling more irritable. It was still a nice view. Also, the hostel I stayed in had a great view. It was on top of a hill, with some mountains behind it, and the ibex (like deer) just wander around the hostel grounds. It was pretty cool.
Now I'm back home. I took my first exam yesterday, and actually feel a lot better about it now that I've taken it than I did before. I was really nervous, but it really wasn't so bad. Now I don't have any more for another week. Today I went into Eilat. Did some shopping, ate some good food. My ankles are swollen now, which isn't common for me, even after a long day walking around, but maybe its part of the allergic reaction. My skin looks/feels a lot better, but not totally normal, so I'm still taking the benedryl. I can't wait to come home again! I think the different environment makes me more sensitive to these things, like with the monster bug bites from the beginning of the semester.
Anyway, that's all for now!