Dead Sea

Yesterday's fieldtrip was one of my favorite that we've been on. First we checked out Masada, an ancient Jewish city on a cliff that got sieged by Romans (but not before all the people who lived there managed to kill themselves- which I can imagine was pretty disappointing for the Romans to discover once they finally got within the city walls.) Then we swam (or floated, rather) in the Dead Sea, hiked around some waterfalls, and checked out Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), which I was completely stoked for. Ben-o and I at Masada. Ben-o is the 13-year-old son of one of our professors, Bro. Seely, and was voted the "Hottest Guy at the J.C." (We really did actually have elections for the position, with campaign posters and everything. Ben-o wasn't officially on the ballot, but he kicked trash.)
Catherine and I with our tickets to ride the cable car.
Cable car up to Masada.

Part of our class in Herod's palace on Masada.
Chris and I floating in the Dead Sea- it was sooo cool!
Hiking at Ein Gedi.
Waterfall at Ein Gedi.
QUMRAN! The cave behind is Cave 4, where they discovered a ton of important texts. They were preserved mostly because the whole cave was filled with bat poop...and apparently that is good for scrolls :).