best kept secret - book review

I love to read. I believe that I have mentioned this before. I have been having a field day this summer, reading nearly every day. It's amazing what you can do when a baby is napping for 2 or 3 hours. Wow. If only I could keep the big two quiet as well! Clearly, that is wishful thinking.

I've been reading a book every couple of days, sometimes in a day. It just depends on how long D-man naps, or how long the book is, or how good the book is.

Yesterday, I read a book. The whole book. Granted, I did send the kids over to a friend's house to play and swim (even baby). So I had a little bit more quiet time than usual. But even after the kids got home, and I cooked dinner, and the kids were finally in bed, I read. I don't always do this. I like to watch a little TV, snuggle with my husband. Have some quiet and peace. Last night, I wanted to finish that book.

It's called best kept secret, written by Amy Hatvany. And it is spectacular! I have read a lot of books, not just this summer, but throughout my life. I have meet a few books that I am willing to part money for. Maybe more than a few, looking at the bookshelves in our house. But there are VERY few that I am willing to spend hardback money on. If I had not checked this book out from the library, I would have spent hardback money to get it. It is that good. I may still go and buy it, so that I can have my own copy to read whenever I want.

It is the story of Cadence, a freelance writer who was staying at home to raise her son. She is a heavy drinker, some would say (correctly) that she's an alcoholic. Her now ex-husband takes her son one day, and she is too drunk to do anything. She thought she'd been hiding it, that no one had noticed. Cadee is through rehab, is meeting with a counselor, in a group, and attending AA meetings. She is also fighting to get her son back. She is forced into self-examination and finding new friendships.

I am not like Cadee. At least, not on the surface. I am not divorced, a single mom, a writer (ha!), or an alcoholic. But I felt myself in her on nearly every page. I knew her struggles to keep her temper with her son (my sons). I know how hard it is to cope with the boundless energy of children while holding down a job and managing a house. I know how hard it is to feel people looking at you, judging you, while you stand there not being able to do anything. I know what it is to feel powerless to stop something over which you wish you had more control. I know how hard it is to open up and let other people into your life.

Cadence is every mom. I know moms who would deny it, and say that it's not that hard. I know there are moms who make it look easy on the outside. But we all have things we can't control. We all have addictions. We all have issues, we just don't show them all the time.

If you are a mom, or even if you're not, I would recommend reading this book.

By the way, another book I was willing to pay hardback for? Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume. It's not a kiddie book. But that's a whole other post. 

The Sound of Silence

Ahhh, bliss!

What do I hear?

Nothing.

Well, just the air conditioner.

I'm in a hotel. By myself. Yeah, that's right. No kids. :)  No husband. :(

I'm going to a conference for a few days. For work. And they're putting me up at a hotel. My own room! With two beds! I can bed hop from night to night!

But it's so quiet. There's no TV going. There's no whispering in another room. There's no sound of snuffling and snoring through a baby monitor.

What? I'm what? Lonely?

But I've been looking forward to enjoying some quiet time! (Imagine this in a whiny voice.) With three boys at home, don't I deserve to enjoy some peace and quiet?!

Don't you hate it when you look forward to something for a while, then the reality falls short of what you were imagining? Like at Christmas, after you saw Santa. You'd given him your list, and you just knew that he was going to finally bring that Barbie Dream House. Then on Christmas morning - no Barbie Dream House. "Guess Santa ran out of those!"

Whatever, Mom and Dad.

Why am I not enjoying this lovely, quiet time? I can read in peace, without someone interrupting me. (Honey, I'm looking at you!) I can write my post without someone looking over my shoulder. I could go get a drink from the vending machine and I wouldn't have to share!

Oh, man! I miss my kids! I miss their whispers. I miss the snoring. I miss the jumping up to give me a hug goodnight. I miss their sweaty, little boy smell. Okay, not that. But the rest, I do.

I miss my hubby. I miss his cuddling on the couch ... well, I won't really go into all that. Let me just say, I miss his incessant TV watching too. Who am I going to watch Franklin and Bash with Tuesday night? I might have to turn the TV on, just so I feel like he's here with me.

Hope my babies will be okay without their mommy. Hope mommy will be okay without her babies.

Well, I have two more nights to enjoy my silence. Maybe the quiet will feel less empty tomorrow.

Too Much Fun!

Wow. Just wow.

This was the first week of crazy summer vacation. I don't know what I was thinking. I get these ideas in my head, like HEY! Let's do fun stuff! In the summer!

And I forget that I'm the only adult in the house, which means I'm the responsible one. Ha.

So Monday, we went to the zoo. It went well. The boys insisted on posing with every single brass statue animal that they could find. And of course, I had to take their pictures. And of course my stupid camera on my stupid phone wasn't working properly. So I lost about half of the pictures I took. And if I can figure out how to get the pictures it did take onto my Chromebook, I will surely post them. Because my kids are nothing if not cute. Very cute.

We saw most all of the animals, except that damn komodo dragon. All the signs pointed to the reptile house, but then D-man had a dirty diaper while we were looking at the crocodile, so we had to skip the last bits. Little disappointed there. Luckily, my mom and her partner renew our family membership every year, so we can go back as much as we want.

We ran into any number of zoo workers on this trip. They were so nice about answering questions from the boys. We learned about alligators, saw an ostrich pee (had nothing to do with zookeepers), and learned about flamingos. I don't know that we've ever had that happen before. Guess we should go on Monday's more often.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when we visited the bird enclosure, where the penguins are housed. I've seen penguins. The boys like the penguins. We've seen Happy Feet, and Happy Feet Too. But nothing prepared me for sitting down next to my 13-month-old and watching him watch penguins for the first time. Oh. My. God. He was thoroughly delighted by the birds as they swam past him over and over. You'd think that God had made the penguins just for him! He giggled, he laughed out loud, he banged on the glass with his little baby hands. It was sweet and adorable. And I sat next to him and enjoyed it.

Life with a baby. It is truly wonderous.

Tuesday we chilled at home, but Wednesday I was up for another adventure. It was an indoor kind of day (read: f*ing hot!), so we went to EdVenture Children's Museum.

We also have a family pass to EdVenture, and we go about every 3 or 4 months. I am continuously fascinated by this place. Every time we go, there is some new exhibit. It is perfect for kids!

This time, they had giant, kid-sized games: chess, checkers, tic-tac-toe, floor hockey, Jenga, cornhole, and Battleship!!! Giant, freakin Battleship. Sadly, my boys do not know how to play Battleship, so we had to forgo that one. For now. It was too much for me to explain the rules, and keep track of the baby. They played chess (Cheese won) and Jenga (B-rex won). And D-man just played on the cornhole thingys. Yes, again, there are pictures. On my phone. I'm working on it!

There is also an exhibit called Moneyville, which has an educational slant to it. It's supposed to show kids about budgeting, figuring out what change to give, even a stock market game. (Cheese wanted to play that, but I couldn't help him figure it out. I don't understand the stock market.) There was also a station where you could make your own "bucks." I made Dino Dollars, with my picture on them!! The boys got to make their own too. You could even print them out, which of course we did. Now the boys want me to make copies of their "bucks" so they can "have 12 million dollars!" It's cute. Delusional, but cute.

One of the neat things about EdVenture is the baby areas. They understand that little guys (and gals) need their own place, since most of the exhibits are for bigger kids. So D-man hung out in the newly revamped toddler room, for 3 and unders only. There's a giant tree with a slide, a boat, and a baby area. There is also a new section in the construction area that is just for little ones. He got to play with toddler sized cars on a toddler sized table. It was fantastic!

The last stop in EdVenture was the outdoor water area. It's not a water park, just an area that shows how currents work and some other environmental stuff. The boys got soaked. Like, got cold in the air conditioning of the car, soaked. Even the baby! They all had to change clothes when we got home.

Once home, we left again after D-man decided that a nap was not for him. We went swimming with some friends from church. Yay! Swimming! We were there for two hours. And the boys went back again today. Oh my.

And did I mention that we've also had vacation Bible school all week, in the evenings? And I'm volunteering in the nursery. There are only 3 little dudes in there (Thanks, God!), so Miss Dawn and I get to chat. But it still means eating early (and therefore cooking early) so we can get there by 6:00. And it also means that the boys aren't getting to bed before 9:00. Thank God for summer, so they can sleep a little later!

Tomorrow is Friday. The plan is to chill with church friends in the morning, then get ready for the family night VBS picnic. And at some point I need to finish doing laundry, since we're going to the in-laws lake house for the weekend. Then the boys and I are going to Greenville for a few days, since I have a work conference. Hmmm... so much to do! 

Lucky or Blessed?

So, you go on vacation for a week, and life goes on without you.

I entered a contest over on The Dose of Reality to win a copy of one of three books. The one I was really looking to win was Jen Lancaster's newest, but I would have been happy to win any of them. I LOVE books!

Turns out that my lucky streak isn't over yet. I won a copy of YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG by Michael Ian Black, the comedian. I'm sure this is going to be a hilarious read. So thanks to Ashley! And everybody go check her out. It's a great blog!

And about vacations, if you have not made time to vacation in Atlanta, GA, please do so. We were there for four days, and did not get a chance to do everything. Granted, that was probably because we slept in until 10:00 one day after staying up for a Braves game. The only drawback was that the hotel pool was too cool to swim in.

The city has so much to offer. We visited the World of Coke, which I thought was going to send my oldest over the edge. We spent an afternoon at Olympic Centennial Park. It is a beautiful, open area. It has two playgrounds, one specially designed to accommodate all kinds of children. It was perfect for our littlest guy. As stated above, we went to a Braves game. Which they lost to the Yankees. Blech. But we did go on Craig Kimbrel bobble-head night. Rockin! And we had to stop in at LegoLand - because our middle son would have mutinied for sure.

One day, the whole day, we spent at Stone Mountain Park. I had never been there before. Honestly, we could have spent two or three days there easily. We did not have time to do any hiking, or to visit the farmyard. We did not get to watch the video on Sherman's March, which my kids were actually interested in. I'm hoping we'll get back there again, maybe to stay on the property for a longer time. Seriously, it's great.

So, what's next on our summer agenda? Vacation Bible School. Every evening this week. Then I'm off again, to Greenville for a conference. No moss is growing under me this summer!

And I may go out and buy a lottery ticket. Can't hurt, right?

Inconceivable

"I do not think that word means what you think it means." ~ The Princess Bride

Yeah, I went there. I love that movie. But that particular scene reminds me of this past month. Just when I thought some event couldn't possibly happen, it did. Or when I thought things couldn't get any better, they did. It was a serious HIGH!

First, Cheese's soccer team won the State Cup. Now, I know it's a U9 soccer league, and his team was not in the highest bracket. But the fact remains that the team won FOUR games that weekend. They got a trophy. They got medals. And capped off a season that went from cold and miserable in Atlanta, to warm and ecstatic in Sumter. It was magical. Inconceivable.

Next, "my girls" beat a very tough BMS team to win the District Championship. Yes, it's middle school soccer. But we beat them 2-0, after going into OT the first time we played them. And we went UNDEFEATED on the season, 12-0.  My first season as a coach. It was completely unbelievable. Inconceivable.

And I got an email that would change the end of my school year. No, I didn't quit, or change jobs, or get fired. I won a contest.

To meet the author, Claire Cook.

In Austin, TX.

At Lake Austin SPA & Resort.

All. Expenses. Paid.

This kind of stuff doesn't happen to people like me. Sure, someone has to win those contests. You see pictures and posts of stuff like this all the time. But not to people I know. And NEVER to me. (Guess I can't say that now.) Inconceivable!

Like I said, it was a crazy month. There was a lot of winning involved. I hope I didn't use up all  of my good karma.

Maybe I should let more cars pull out in front of me when I'm driving. Or go volunteer at a soup kitchen. Something to balance the good with the bad - which is not totally my fault. I mean, I have three kids!

Anyway, go do something nice for somebody. Maybe you can have something good happen to you too!

Beginning Another Summer

It is officially the second day of summer vacation 2012. What have we done at my house? Nothing. Well, we've made a mess of Calvin and Hobbs books and cleaned up. We've spilled a glass of orange juice and one of apple juice. We've looked at picture books. And we've watched the Wonderful Wizard of Ha's about 20 times. We went out to dinner, we ate Pop Tarts, we are finishing some Twizzlers. But nothing of note has occurred.

It has rained. For pretty much two straight days. Yuck! If it were just me and the two older boys, I wouldn't even notice. They are big and resilient. They don't mind running through the rain. They enjoy jumping in puddles of water, especially in their brand new shoes. They like the adventure of dodging raindrops.

However, now I have a 13-month-old. He does not enjoy the rain, or the cool temps that come with it. I do not want to take him out in rain, for fear that the constant drip from his nose will not take a break. I don't want my sweet baby boy to get wet. He doesn't get to walk through rain puddles or dodge raindrops. He gets to watch the rain through the window in the comfort of our living room.

Am I wrong for this? Should I let him experience the falling rain? The joys of spinning in circles while rain falls? The fun of splashing your mom (ME!!) when you jump into a particularly good puddle? I don't know.

I am not a helicopter.

I am not a bad mommy.

I have to keep telling myself that, while I watch him wander from room to room, picking up the same toys over and over. Yet, he's only a baby. He doesn't even remember what toys he has, so I don't think he's suffering much. It's just me, being overly concerned, wanting to do everything right this third time around. Wanting to be perfect for him, so he can grow up to be perfect.

I must be delusional. 

Ouch!

My throat hurts! B-rex has been back in daycare for a week now, and I think he brought home a little something to share with the family. His nose started running Friday night, and today my throat hurts. Cheese also has a runny nose.

I suppose I could have picked it up at work, but my students aren't back yet, so that seems more unlikely to me.

It has been a busy week for me. Getting ready for back-to-school is never easy. I had Latin meetings on Monday and Tuesday, then met again with the other myth teacher on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were official school work days.

Friday we also had orientation for 6th graders. A time for them to pick up schedules, meet their teachers, try to figure out their lockers. Which evidently is much harder now than back in the day when I was in school. I don't remember having a hard time with my locker. Yours truly got to be one of the official greeters at the orientation. Yes, me! I am actually really good at fake smiling and being pleasant to people. It must be from all those church greetings! (I just knew that being a pastor's wife would come in handy one day!)

In other news, we are looking more closely at Cheese's last surgery! So close! He went to the doc on Friday and the prognosis looks good! Can you tell I'm excited!? Finally, he is going to be "normal" in the booty area. Please, God.

Hubs is sailing along. Still driving out to work every day. Wish we could find some way so that he doesn't have to drive so far, but right now I guess that's how it has to be. Either that, or I have to drive over an hour to work. And since we can't afford for me to quit, this is it!

Anyhoo, I'm going to find some drugs to help my throat. I hope this clears up by Thursday. I'll need my voice when the kiddos come back to school!

Picture update again

These are pictures from this week's adventures. I thought I had them in the right order, but turns out I was wrong. Oh, well. I'm getting older, I can't remember things properly anymore.

We begin our journey at the Villa of Hadrian. It is located outside of the city of Rome, in a town called Tivoli. Hadrian liked to have a little down time just like the rest of us. This is one of his reflecting pools, and no, that is not ancient Roman water:
This is also a picture from the Villa. This used to also be filled with water. It contained fish, we think. There are also rooms underneath, with passageways for people to move around:

This is from one of the many guest rooms in the Villa. I counted about 10 rooms, each with its own distinctive mosaic. I know how hard it is to make one of these things, on a much smaller scale. These were absolutely amazing!

And finally, a last look at the 2nd reflecting pool at the Villa. That man sure did like his water! In the background, I believe, are the baths. But I could be wrong there.

Below you will find a picture of an ancient road in Ostia. Ostia was built at the mouth of the Tiber River to provide a port for Rome, which was inland. This is the Decumanus Maximus, one of the main roads:

This is from the top of a column in the synagogue in Ostia. Notice the menorah. The synagogue sat way out towards the sea. It was quite a hike to get there.

After Ostia, I went to the beach with some friends. These are not my friends, just random Italians. But I wanted to show what the beach looked like. It was beautiful! And the water was freakishly cold.

This is a picture of a garden that we passed by after we visited Horace's Sabine farm. Italians have such pretty gardens!

This is me, standing in front of a waterfall/fountain near Horace's Sabine farm. It was really pretty and LOUD! Horace liked it so much, he immortalized it in a poem.

I took this picture from atop Hadrian's mausoleum, otherwise known as Castel San'Angelo. That's the Tiber River. I have many pictures of the great views, but not enough room to show them all here.

As you can tell, it was really windy up there! I was trying to get a picture with St. Peter's Basilica in the background, but I think I stood in front of it instead. Oops! I was too busy making sure my skirt didn't fly up.

I took this picture inside St. Peter's Basilica. That is the altar, the dark brown structure in the middle. Sorry, it's not the best quality picture. But it's dark in there, and the flash really doesn't help any.

And so concludes the saga of my adventures. As of tomorrow, I will be going home! I hope that you have enjoyed the journey with me. I know I have loved being here.

Please leave a comment so that I know who's been looking around here! Thanks, and have a great day!

the lazy days of summer

Finally, a day that actually feels like a vacation! As you might have heard, our official tour ended yesterday in Rome. We have the whole weekend free to see anything we might have missed, or just other things we want to do.

Personally, if I see another museum anytime in the next year, I may go crazy. Seriously.

I got to sleep in today. Then I went and dropped off my laundry at the local launderette. It's a great concept, paying someone else to wash your dirty clothes. Wish that happened at home!

Then I wandered. I took the Metro to Spagna (near the Spanish Steps). I walked over to the Borghese Gardens again. I decided, as I was wandering, to go to the zoo. Or the Bioparc as they call it.

I saw a lion, two tigers, and two bears! (oh my!) I also saw a seal, some lemurs, a zebra, an ostrich, an elephant, a camel, some antelope, many kinds of birds, and various other animals. It was a nice little park. Honestly, I was a little let down. I expected, since Rome is such a huge city, that it would have a really impressive zoo. I found that it wasn't any better than our one at home. In fact, we had most of the same animals, just more of them! But it was nice to see it, and very restful.

I wandered back over near the Spanish steps, then down the Via del Corso a bit. That's one of the main shopping areas in Rome. I didn't buy anything! I veered off the main road for a bit, and took some of the smaller "viales". Those are like little roads. The larger roads in Rome are via. The smaller ones are viale. I found some viale.

I feel like I got to know the city a bit better today. I ended up over by the Campo dei Fiori, which I have mentioned several times. It's one of my favorite places in the city. Then I walked back over to Largo Argentina and caught the bus home.

I did take a nap this afternoon after I returned. It felt good!

Chanda, Jason, and I went out to dinner at a local place. We got to create our own pasta. Basically, you pick the sauce and the type of pasta you want. We each got something different, so we shared. It was good. And I have to say that Jason's tortellini with pesto was the best.

Now we're home, and I'm feeling a bit tired again. I don't really have any plans for tomorrow. I would like to find some silver sandals and a pair of jeans. But if not, I'm okay with that.

Officially Done

This was it. The last day of our trip. The culmination of five weeks (years) of work.

We met in the morning for a few hours. Translated a letter that Pliny the Younger wrote about his villa. Of course! I had the 2nd sentence, which was the hardest one in the whole letter. No, really. it was!

Then we each shared something that we learned from the trip. Or how it will effect our teaching next year. We all pretty much agreed that it was great to actually dialogue with other Latin teachers. Some people are so isolated out there. I feel blessed that I actually have so many other Latin teachers to communicate with whenever I want to.

When we were done, I came upstairs and took a nap. I was tired after staying up late last night, working on my translation. Then Jason, Kate, and I went "chopping." (that is shopping) I didn't find anything, but we found 2 shirts and a tie for Jason! Yay! Now he has something to wear with his nice, new Italian suit. Sweet!

A bunch of us met to talk pedagogy with reference to Cambridge. That's our new textbook. There were about 8 of us. We sat in the back of a wine bar, had a glass or two, and a nice discussion. We were supposed to talk about the textbook, and some ideas on teaching with it. But it kind of evolved into a bitch session about how students don't know any English grammar. And some other stuff. But I did get a couple of good ideas to try out next year.

Then it was time for our final meal all together. Everyone but Allison went, because she had plans with a friend. It was fun, but really expensive. It was a very touristy restaurant. The food was okay. Not the best I've had, for the money.

Afterward, Chanda, Greg, Jason, Kate, James, Michael and I went walking around the Campo dei Fiori and over to Trastevere. In that part of town, they are celebrating the feast day of Saint Mary something. They dress up their image (statue) of Mary and carry her through the streets to the church. She hangs out there, all dressed up, for a week. Then they'll process her through the streets again, then put her back. There were so many people out! All the cafes and bars were open. People were milling about all over. We all sat on the curb and just watched them all go by. It was so neat to see a real part of Italian culture.

No big plans for the weekend yet. There's a group going to the Forum in the morning, but I think I'm just going to sleep in. I've been there before, and I need the rest. I'm just going to take it easy. I'd like to just wander around and see all the little alleys and such. You know, get to know the city a bit before I have to leave her.

Two more days!

The Last Day

Today was our last day of sightseeing. Tomorrow, we just have a session in the morning, then we're done! I can hardly believe that it's almost over. It's bittersweet. That seems to be the consensus.

We began the morning at the Church of Saint Clemen. I think he was a pope, at least according to Church tradition. The current church building was built, I believe, in the 11th century. Under that is another building from the 4th century. And under that is an even older building. The original building was a Roman house, then an insula (apartment). Part of the insula was turned into a Mithraeum. Which we learned about the other day. Remember, it involved sacrificing a bull and was only for men. That was pretty neat.

There was also a room that had water running through it. Part of the wall was cut through, and the water was just gushing under there. It comes into Rome via aqueduct.

Next it was time to go to the Theater/Auditorium of Maecenas. He was a friend of Octavian Augustus. He was also a patronus/amicus of several poets including Virgil, Propertius and Horace. (You can Google them if you want to know more. He basically would give these guys a house or land or something, and they would feel obligated to mention him in something they wrote. Usually it was nice stuff, or at least a mention that was not totally mean. It sounds a lot like buying their work (free advertising!), but it was actually a little more complicated than that.

So Maecenas had this theater where people would go and read poetry and such. From the outside it looked like a nice place. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in. Even though the sign says that it is open every day from 9-1:30. And it was only, like, 11! So someone called, and they said that it wasn't open today (duh), but would be open on Saturday. Oh, well.

We then had some free time for lunch. Chanda, Jason, and I walked over to our next destination the Castel San'Angelo. After what seemed like forever, but was really only 30 minutes, we made it. We ate our "stolen" sandwiches (made at the hotel this morning, not really stolen) and sat in the shade. I also had a cup of watermelon, because that just looked GOOD!

At 2:00, we met the rest of the group. Sr. Therese gave us some background information on the site, which was originally designed by the emperor Hadrian. Remember him? Once his "friend" Antinoos (sp?) died, he got really morbid and decided to build himself a mausoleum. That's a place to be buried. It is pretty big, just like his villa was yesterday. It is also round, which is normal for that sort of thing.

We walked inside of it, all the way up to the top! It was crazy windy. As an aside, my skirt blew up several times, exposing me to the other people up there. Luckily, I don't think anyone was really paying attention, because they were looking at the incredible VIEW!! From up top, you can see most of the city of Rome. You've got a great view of St. Peter's basilica, and can see everything on top of each of the hills. I took lots of pictures, which will perhaps be taken from my camera today.

I left the castle with James, and accompanied him to Vatican City. We made it through the metal detectors and went into St. Peter's. As usual, it was completely immense and beautiful inside. I pretend not to be awed by the place, but in reality it is overwhelming. We wandered around inside for a little bit. Even went and had a look at Pope John Paul II, who is still lying in there, all waxed up. After we were finished, we went out and got to see the changing of the Swiss guard. That was neat. I took pictures.

Then we came back here to the compound, and here I am! Just a few more days, and the dream is over. Back to reality!

At the Big House

So, it's just after 11 in the morning at home, but we're already back at the compound for the day. Tee-hee!

Today's adventures took us to two completely different villae. The first was (supposedly) Horace's Sabine Farm. Horace was a Roman poet. He wrote odes, epodes, and some satires. The ruins were not that impressive. Robyn joked that Horace must only have been about a foot and a half tall. The walls were only about that high off of the ground. And they all had asphalt or something on the tops of them, presumably to keep them from eroding or something. It was all very nicely laid out, with an easy-to-read map. Quite lovely.

But it didn't really seem real. Like, it was too perfectly ruined. I dunno. And we weren't allowed to take pictures there. At all! Greg even had to ask permission to take a picture of the sky! But he did take some on the sly. Shhhh!

Then we went up to a fons. That's a fountain. It was a waterfall! It was a loud waterfall. But it was very pretty. And we were allowed to take pictures of that. I took a couple.

Then we got back on the bus and headed over to Hadrian's Villa. Hadrian was an emperor a while back. Obviously, he had more money than Horace. Well, he built this villa out in a place called Tivoli, out of the city of Rome. You know, even an emperor has to get away sometime!

It was magnificent! The walls were about 3 times the size of normal house walls. And there were so many different parts. It wasn't all one big villa. There was the library area. One library for Latin authors, one for Greek authors. There were TWO bath complexes. And remember that when the Romans took a bath they had three different rooms and lots of stuff involved. (See this previous post.) He also had a stadium, where they could have entertainments and races; TWO large reflecting pools; a winter triclinium (dining room); a summer triclinium; not to mention the private parts of the house. WOW! I took a lot of pictures.

I am planning to load my pictures to my computer today, so I hope to be able to upload some tonight. Get caught up, ya know?

We still have our translation and presentation stuff to do tonight. I'm off the hook, but I think a couple more people still have to go. I hope it doesn't last too long, I'm a bit tired and don't want to be rude and fall asleep!

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!

Pictures with me and my friends

Okay, so it's time to put some faces with those names I've been dropping. These are the lovely folks that I have been hanging out with in Italy.

This is at the Hard Rock Cafe. It is me, our server Mossimo, Diana, and Carrie.

This is on the Appian Way. That's Jason, Chanda, Michael, and Greg. They've been my main crew through most of the trip.

This is at the Trevi Fountain. That's me, throwing in my coin. Carrie took the pic.

This is at the Domus Aurea. That's Kate and Sister Therese. Kate doesn't usually wear a hard hat. But they made us. Can't be too careful underground!

This is in our room in Pompeii. That's the back of Dawn's head. Kate and I did that cool braid.

This is on top of Mount Vesuvius. This is Allison.

Also on top of Vesuvius. This is James.

This is at the Cave of the Sibyl. That's Robin. She was channeling the Sibyl and prophesying. Not really, but she's pretty crazy most of the time.

There are about 20 other people that I spend my days with. They are all incredibly cool and incredibly strange all at the same time. I have often told my students that all Latin teachers are weird. I can now say that my statement is 100% true. BUT, they are also really neat. What an amazing opportunity, to spend so much time learning with others who have interests like mine. WOW!

Give me Liberty!

Today was by far the most relaxing day we've had so far. While yesterday was nice, I still didn't feel like it was very relaxing. But today, today was relaxed.

I slept late. And by late, I mean like 8:30! Went down, had some breakfast. Came back upstairs. Read my new book for a little while.

But I was bored. Who knew? Who would have ever thought?

So I went out with Diana and Carrie.

We started out the day at the Borghese Gardens. Lovely. We saw the Temple of Aesclepious. He was thought to be the healing god. People would go to his temple to be healed of their ailments. (I could really use him right now, because I have a splitting headache!)

There is a little pond in front of his temple. You can rent rowboats. Which kind of worries me, because the pond is really not all that big. But whatever! There were some fish, ducks, and turtles hanging out in the water.

Then we went over to this fountain. It has the inscription: VITAE LAUDEM MURMURE SUO FONS CANIT. "The fountain sings the praise of life with its own murmur." Nice, huh? We sat there for a while, just being. I like being. It's nice.

Then we went over to the Villa Julia. Which sounds like it should be a house. Belonging to someone named Julia. And perhaps at some point it was. However, now it is a museum. Yes, I went to another one. But this one had lots of pretty gardens outside. Pretty. Inside, there were lots of things. Urns, bowls, mirrors, cups, swords, things from temples, jewelry. Wow! We were there about 2 hours.

I think that I have officially met my museum quota for the next 10 years. Seriously.

Anyway, after that, we needed some fun. So, Carrie wanted to get a tshirt from the Hard Rock Cafe. Coincidentaly, we were not too far away from the Cafe. So we went. And it was AWESOME! I had a bacon cheeseburger and french fries. It was like heaven. Really. Grease never tasted so good! I even stopped being so homesick for a couple of hours. It was nice.

And our waiter was cool. When Diana told him that we were Latin teachers, he started quoting Catullus at us! What are the chances?

In all, it was a fun day. Very relaxing. Which is good, since we start again tomorrow. Only 5 more days of go-go-go. Then 2 more days of rest. Then the plane ride. Then I'm HOME!

Leisure time

Today we were off from the main study days. So what did I do on my first day of rest? Went to a museum.

It's the Palazzo Altemps. It used to be the resident of a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. The guy had a really impressive collection of artwork, let me tell you!

There were a lot of 1st and 2nd century pieces of mythological figures. I got some good pictures of various gods and goddesses.

Before the museum, Carrie and I went by the Trevi Fountain. Legend has it, that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you will return to Rome. Yes, I know it's silly. But I did it. It's worked every time so far!

After the museum, we went and found some food. We actually ate Chinese food! In Rome! It was pretty good. It wasn't nearly as greasy as the Chinese at home. Quite nice. Then we spent a little time in a bookstore. I bought a copy of Colleen McCullough's Antony and Cleopatra. I don't have that particular book yet. She has written an entire series about ancient Rome, which I highly recommend if you haven't read it. It's not really, really boringly historical. Pretty entertaining.

Anyway, then I went and got my nails done. 'Nuff said.

Then we came back here to the compound. We did stop on the way home and get a gelato. I had nutella and menta flavors. They were SOOOOOO good! Have I mentioned that I love gelato? I wish I could bring some of that home with me. It is so yummy.

All in all, it was a good day. It was not too stressful, and my feet do not feel as bad today. I don't really have any plans for tomorrow. I'm sure that I will find something to do. I'd like to go back to the Via del Corso or over to the Campo del Fiori. Or down Tritone street. Who knows?

update on pictures

Okay, these pictures are in some semblance of order. At least the dates are. Sorry! It's late where I am!

This is the famous statue of the she-wolf, Lupa, suckling the twins. Those are Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed his brother then founded the city of Rome. Or maybe he started to found Rome, then killed his brother before he finished. Yeah, I think that's it.


This is a room in the Domus Aurea. If you remember, we discussed that this was the emperor Nero's house. Party palace, I should say. You can still see some of the colors on the wall. If you squint and use your imagination!

This is a picture of a little church I stopped at the other day. It is teeny. It's all nestled back in a corner near the Campo del Fiori. I said a little prayer and lit a candle for my favorite sister! Love ya!

This is a sign used by early Christians. I saw it at the Catacombs of Domatilla. Early Christians used this sign to show which way to go to a church service. Remember, Christianity was still illegal back then. Whichever way the fish was looking, that's the way to go!

This is the spina and meta from the hippodrome on the Appian Way. A spina is the middle of the racetrack, around which the chariots would race. A meta is the round part at the far left, called the turning point. A hippodrome is where chariots would race. That's Jason jumping off the meta. They asked us not to climb on the ruins. Oops.

This is a picture from the Baths of Caracalla. It is really hard to get a sense of the grand scale of this place. So, notice the person standing in the foreground. Then look at the rest of the structure. Now, do some math. This place was HUGE!!!

This is me, standing on the Appian Way. The Via Appia was the first road that was made to/from Rome. It went all the way down the coast. The maker was Appius Claudius. Hence the name. This part of the road is actually the original. It's over 2000 years old. And I stood on it. Even walked a few steps! Wow!

This is a pretty fountain in the Piazza della Repubblica. I just thought it was pretty. It has no historical significance that I know of.

This is my buddy Augustus that I've been talking so much about. Octavianus Augustus Caesar. Here, he is dressed in the Pontifex Maximus outfit. That's the high priest in the Roman religion. This is a famous statue. Commit it to memory.

This is a cool inscription from the epigraphy museum in the Baths of Diocletian. It is the funeral inscription of a Christian named Priscus. Note the dove and chi rho at the top, both Christian symbols. The inscription reads: "Priscus, who lived 36 years, died on the 5th day before the Kalends of June (May 28). His brother made this. Rest in peace." And yes, I really just translated that. I didn't make it up.

Anyway, here ends my lectures for today. I will hopefully have more pictures/stories tomorrow!

The Age of Augustus

Caesar that is, not my B-rex.

So, today I learned everything I never wanted to know about Octavian Augustus Caesar. Wow! That boy had it rough. He was adopted by Julius Caesar. Was given a top-notch education, including study in Athens. Then, Julius gets himself stabbed. So Octavian has to come home. Only, people want him dead too. But he gets out of that. Then later, he fights with Julius' old buddy, Marc Antony. And he wins! So now, Octavian gets to rule the world! The Roman world anyways.

Turns out, Octavian was really a busy guy. He spent some time in Egypt, where he saw an obelisk he liked. He "asked" some guys to bring it back to Rome for him. Which they did, of course. And he set that sucker up as the pointer of a GIGANTIC sundial. In a HUGEMONGOUS open area. Like the size of a few football fields! And it actually kept track, pretty accurately, of the days, weeks, months, zodiac signs (always important), and even the equinoxes. Pretty coool! Too bad all that has been built over. I say that we should just get rid of all those buildings. They're just the Italian Parliament. Not terribly important. (ha ha)

The obelisk still stands, though it has been moved from its original place. Due to the aforementioned buildings.

We did get to go under a church where archeologists have found part of the sundial. However, since that part of Rome often floods (it's called the Campus Martius), they can't leave it open to be looked at. Since they don't want the church to fall down. I did get to see some creepy cool skulls and bones, though. Neat-o!

Also saw the Ara Pacis today. Augustus had it built to commemorate the peace he brought to the Republic/Empire. Quite impressive. Really, it looks like a giant box with the top missing. But once someone points out all the symbolism in the friezes, it becomes cooler to nerds like me.

Did some laundry tonight. There is a laundromat not too far from the compound. And the lady there just does it for you. So, I have all clean clothes!!!! Except what I have on! Yay!!! It's the little things, isn't it?

A Down Day?

Today was not quite as busy as yesterday. Which is good. I thought I would fall down from sheer exhaustion!

This morning, we visited the Casae Romanae. Those of you with Spanish training should be able to figure out what that is. The Roman Houses! There is a church, whose name escapes me, with 5 levels of Roman housing underneath. Unfortunately, we were only able to see the top-most layer, I think. The rest we could see through holes in the floor, but not actually reach out and touch. Darn it.

The one level was cool though, because it had an inscription about John and Paul, who were martyred for the sake of Jesus. There was also an altar there. And other ancient stuff. Neat!

Then a group of us went to the Baths of Diocletian. He was an emperor in the 3rd century AD. We did get to go in the Baths, but not in the same way we were in the Baths of Caracalla yesterday. These Baths have been rebuilt as other buildings. Like a church. And a museum. And some other stuff. The church we went into is Santa Maria with Angels, or something. It was HUGE and only took up about 1/10 of the total original Baths.

I can't explain it, you'll just have to come see it yourself.

We also went into 2 museums. Yes, I went into 2 museums. In the same day. And my head did not explode, though I seriously thought it would. The first one held a lot of inscriptions. Like writing etched in marble or other stone. It's called epigraphy. It's cool. I tried to take pics of some to show my students.

The second museum had a lot of statues. Including one famous statue of the emperor Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) dressed in his Pontifex Maximus robes. I'd actually never heard of it, but maybe someone else out there has. We specifically went to this museum, the Palasso Massimo, to view a room from Livia's house. It contains the wall paintings (frescoes) from her dining room (triclinium). They are very pretty!

Livia was the wife of Augustus. I think. It's hard to keep all those women straight, especially since very little is written about them.

After that museum, Kate, Carrie, and I went to eat lunch, then over to St. Peter's Basilica. That is also known as Vatican City, for those of you who don't know or may be confused. Since I had just been there last month, I didn't feel the need to go back into the basilica itself. Instead, I just went into the gift shop, where I bought gifts for several family members. And yes, I know they are not all Catholic, but deal. It's from a foreign country. That alone makes it cool.

After that, we went back to the compound/hotel. not too strenuous.

I have been trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to get the past few days worth of pictures off of the camera. It is taking a long time. I promise that I will post some as soon as I finish.

Looking forward to the weekend. Once we're done tomorrow, around 5:00, I am free until Monday morning! Some folks are talking about going to Orvieto on Saturday. I don't know. It is an ancient Etruscan city. And I've never been there. But it requires taking a train. And those aren't cheap. It's like 15 Euro round trip (about $25). Plus food. And entrance to whatever sights are up there. But what would I do if I stayed here? Sit around all day, most likely.

Oh, decisions. If only my Hubs were here! He'd help me decide! Maybe I should have asked him when I was talking to him earlier. Oh. well.

Aliae Villae

So, I have lost count of how many Roman villae I have seen since coming ad Italiam just 2 short weeks ago. Villae are country houses. they are usually a pretty good size, and contain many rooms. Most of the rooms are situated around the central atrium, which was open to the air and often had a small pool in the middle to catch rainwater (impluvium). Remember, these were the days before indoor plumbing was big!

Yesterday, we saw the largest villa of all, by far. It was the Domus Aurea, which was built by the emperor Nero. It took up, I believe, four hills in Rome, not to mention the valleys in between. How did he manage this?

Well, in 64 AD, there was a big fire, and much of Rome burned to the ground. It makes sense, since everything was made of wood. Anyway, Nero took the opportunity to buy up a lot of property. The complex, and that's really what it was, contained all sorts of rooms and areas. There was a whole section of the house (domus) that was just for entertaining! Nero was a big partier! And one of the valleys, where the Colosseum now sits, was actually an artificial lake. There was also a large statue of Nero as Apollo the sun god (the colossus) outside the lake. The lake was, apparently, in the midst of a large pastoral area.

Nero had more money than sense. Bless his heart!

Anyway, I got to go into part of the Domus Aurea (Golden House) in the afternoon. I had been there previously, in college, but had not been back since. Evidently part of the ceiling had collapse, so they didn't want anyone to get hurt. I got to wear a hard hat!

In the morning, before the D.A., we went to the Colosseum. Since I was just at the Colosseum last month, it was not quite as exciting as you might expect. I didn't really wander as much as I normally do. But I did see this cool exhibit on Roman Triumphs. Roman generals had a triumph when they won a war. It was like a big parade, kind of like a baseball team winning the World Series or something. There were coins, friezes, frescos, etc. I took lots of pictures, which I will share when the time is right. Like when I get them off the camera.

Today, we saw dead people. Well, not really. We went to the Catacombs of Domatilla. That's where early Christians buried their dead. They are underground, in 4 levels. It was cold down there! I recommend a sweater if you visit. It was pretty neat. There was a painting in a vault which depicted Peter and Paul on either side of Jesus, listening to the story of the dead man, preparing to judge his destination. It was neat. No pictures of this stuff. Most of the graves were empty, as grave robbers had stolen the bodies.

Before that, we had been to the Baths of Caracalla. He was an emperor (wasn't everyone?). He built really big baths. See, in ancient times, not everyone had a bathroom in their house. In fact, it was pretty uncommon. So the Romans had public baths. There was a changing room where you left your clothes. A warm bath (tepidarium). A hot bath (calidarium). A cold bath (frigidarium). There were even places to work up a sweat, like a gym (palaestra). And when I say "bath", it's not like they took soap and scrubbed. The "bath" was more a swimming pool.

When you finished sweating and "bathing", you went to a separate room and got rubbed down with oils and perfumes. Then a slave scraped it all off with a strigil. Not exactly hygenic to us, but it was normal back then.

Anyway, we also saw a large tomb today. And then went out to the Villa of the Quintili. It's pretty big also. These brothers, the Quintili, had done well for themselves. They had a big round room and baths. Right in the house! Unfortunately, they got killed when they got on the emperor's bad side. I can't remember which emperor, or else you'd get another lecture.

Tomorrow, we're going to see some church that has the remains of yet ANOTHER house under it. I have never seen this many houses before! Not even when Hubs and I were house hunting! I hope I don't go crazy after all this.