By Edan (Edna) Kamara

After an amazing, exciting Yom NCSY which involved lots of sweat and dancing the night away, we woke up fairly early to head out on our last jam-packed, swagalicious, awesome day of TJJ Bus 4, 2013. First, we headed out to Ein Gedi, the breathtaking desert oasis that King David drank from when he was hiding from King Saul. After the refreshing experience of dunking our heads under the water falls we dried off and headed back to the bus for Masada. After the extremely tiring and strenuous hike from the bus to the cable cars we arrived at the top of Masada. There we walked around for about an hour learning about King Herod’s palace, the rebellion of the Jews, and the mass suicide that took place on top of the mountain.

Finally, we headed to Yam Hamelach (the Dead Sea). There we arrived on a separate beach (with a mechitzah). We slathered mud and sunscreen onto our bodies and traversed the harsh sand to the lowest place on earth (400 meters below sea level). After about five minutes of frying and floating in the hot slimey salty water, most of the guys got out to wash off. Everyone got back on the bus soaking wet, and we headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye. We got back and had a chance to rest a bit. We then had a really exciting night activity! We split up into four groups: one group was making friendship bracelets, one was making tzitzit, one was tie-dying and the last was writing thank-you notes to the people who helped us come on TJJ. The groups switched four times so that everyone got to do everything, which was awesome! We finished at around 12 and went to bed.