And even more fun!

Monday

It seemed like a long morning. We had our morning session at the compound. Ron did his presentation about the Pantheon. While I have been to the Pantheon several times, I learned a lot of new information.

Then Amanda did her presentation on Mithraism. That's an ancient cult that involved the slaying of bulls. It was limited to men and very secretive. It spread throughout the Roman world toward the end of the 1st century AD.

Then we went over translation. Bor-ing! I almost fell asleep. I have to admit, this makes me really want to make translation more interesting for my own students. Having someone translate AT me is no fun. Yuck!

We had some time for lunch, then met over at the Pantheon. We wandered around there for a while, then went over to St. Cecilia's in Trastevere. (On the way, I stopped and had a lemon granita. Yummy!) (And we rode on a tram.) We had the opportunity to see some ruins under the church. It was cool. It was a house that then became an insula (apartment). Under the church! We also saw some paintings upstairs that were done by some famous artist. I can't remember his name.

Then Kate, Jason, Michael, and I walked around Trastevere for a while. And then over to the Campo dei Fiori. We were shopping around. We also walked most of the way down the Corso. Jason was looking for shirts and ties to go with his new suit that he bought. Kate and I were looking for jewelry to go with my cute new red dress that I bought last week.

It was a fun evening, topped off with my excellent bartering skills. I got a pair of earrings for 6 euros, and a bracelet for 4 euros. Nice! We also had a nice dinner.

Tuesday:
We took the train to Ostia Antica. Honestly, I was just there last month, so I wasn't too terribly excited about being there again. But we didn't see ANYTHING compared to the last time. We went to the Neptune baths, one house, and the synagogue. That's all. And we were there for like 2 hours! The synagogue was the coolest part. It is way far out from the rest of the town, near to where the shore would have been. My initial thought was: the Romans kicked them out, ostracized them. But really, it was because they wanted to be near to the water, for their ritual cleansing.

Then I went to the beach with James, Nancy, and Robyn. it was a fun time. It was really windy, so the sand kept blowing in my face. And the water was FREEZING! But once you got all the way in, it wasn't too bad. It reminded me of the beaches at home. There were actually shells on this beach, which I hadn't seen at the previous two. And lots of surf. So many waves! It was nice to just lay there and relax.

Afterwards, we went to Termini for dinner. Termini is the train/bus station. There is also a lot of shopping there. We wandered around there for a while. Then we came back to the compound.

Such a nice, relaxing day today. Tomorrow, I think we are traveling by bus. Interesting!