Done with Finals!!

Hi all,

I'M DONE!!! Despite the usual end-of-semester burnout, I managed to finish everything and now have an unprecedented three whole days in which to pack my life back into the three suitcases and a backpack to take it back to the US on Friday. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll manage to find better things to do with my time until at least Thursday afternoon...

Any, in celebration, I've been alternating between watching TV and uploading spring break photos, so here are some links to entertain you. Both are albums of photos from Italy, so enjoy! Yes, I'll get back to actual updates at some point, but photos are better than nothing, right?

See (most of) you next week or shortly thereafter!

~L

Milan and Venice:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213633&id=579896063&l=5872d42f6b

Pisa and Florence: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213947&id=579896063&l=5e0a67ea86

Studying? What Studying?

Hello all,

I know, I know, I'm behind on spring break updates and photos and everything, and I promise I'll get back to them later this week. In the meantime, I just got back from a trip to Skye and figured I should update you all on that before I forget everything! (Spring break memories are safely recorded in a travel journal, don't worry! Those stories aren't going anywhere...)

Anyway, last week was "Reading Week," set aside for studying, which naturally I did exactly none of. Instead, I met Margaret in Edinburgh on Monday, went to Loch Ness with her and Brandon overnight on Tuesday, then headed to Skye on my own for the rest of the week. Highlights are as follows.

Edinburgh--I haven't gotten to spend as much time as I would have liked in Edinburgh this semester, but at least this time it was partially sunny as opposed to the fog of the first trip! Basically we just wandered all over the place, which was not far because for a city, it's reasonably small. We did go to the National Gallery to see their dance exhibit, which was NOT as cool as their advertising promised! I mean seriously, only one Degas in the entire exhibit? Oh well, I guess I'll see more in Paris this summer, so I'll just have to wait until then for my dance-art fix.

We did wander down to Holyrood House, the Queen's residence in Edinburgh, but didn't bother going in. It's a pretty castle though, and there's a big green lawn where the corgis can play. Also, they sell stuff corgis on leashes as souvenirs. Creepy, yet awesome. We then decided to climb the wee hill behind Holyrood for a good view of Edinburgh...it was a long climb! Once we made it back down, we went for tea at a tea shop that looked like Prof. Umbridge's office. Despite the decor, it was pretty good. I love teatime. Definitely the best meal of the day.

And finally, the highlight of Edinburgh: I BOUGHT COO SLIPPERS. For you sad souls who don't know what a coo is, check out my pictures. Basically, a coo (pronounced "cow" in American...) is the cutest thing ever, and I now have coo slippers to remember them by.

On to Loch Ness. Since I'd been before, I wasn't terribly excited for it (and the weather was, surprisingly, better in February...oh well) but it was all worth it because the zoo was open and we got to meet the coos (named Katie and Donald). They were so adorable! However, we had sort of forgotten that they have vicious looking horns, so despite their cuddliness, we didn't pet them...but they were worth the trip.

From there, I went to the Isle of Skye, which really is one of the most beautiful places ever. Sadly, my photos do NOT do it justice because I was taking a lot of them from a bus, and the weather was dreadful on the day when I was taking most of them. But trust me when I say it's gorgeous and I want to go back for a much longer stay someday!

Even the ride there from Inverness through the Highlands to Kyle of Lochalsh was beautiful. I don't normally take pictures from trains or buses, but I made an exception in this case. I was lucky that my train arrived in Kyle early so I could catch the afternoon bus to Portree, the capital of the island, where I was staying. I arrived just in time for the early bird special at the best seafood restaurant in Skye, the Harbor View in Portree--it was amazing! Highly recommended, and not that expensive if you order before 6pm. I had mussels in cream, white wine, and garlic that were to die for, followed by my new favorite Scottish dessert, crannachan. It's raspberries in whipped cream flavored with honey, toasted oatmeal, and (naturally) whiskey. Clearly a Highland delicacy! It was a great way to start the trip.

Unfortunately, the next day was absolutely hideous weather-wise. It didn't actually rain except for an hour or so when I was inside a castle, but the clouds obscured a lot of the views. Guess I'll just have to go back someday and hope for clear skies! I couldn't do the boat trip I'd wanted because the sea was too rough, so instead I went to Dunvegan Castle, which, until its roof is repaired, is really not worth the trip. The castle has a giant white tent over the middle of it--not exactly photogenic! But I wandered up the mountainside to a standing stone, and then around the end of the loch for more pretty views (at least as far as I could see). I also discovered that sheep can be kind of scary, especially if you think you're alone in a field and suddenly turn a corner and there's one with horns staring at you! But I survived my run-in with the angry ram and made it into Dunvegan town (makes Hamilton look huge) for lunch, and, of course, more tea. Then back to Portree for more wandering around and some time to just sit and read and relax(!).

Friday morning I managed to fit everything in my bag somehow (this was a great trip for gift-shopping!) and caught the bus to Eilan Donan castle, on the mainland just across from Skye. It's actually one of the most beautiful places I've been, and ranks right up there with Loch Ness as a must-see place in Scotland. The castle looks like something out of a fairytale--it's built on an island in the loch and linked to the mainland by a simple but beautiful arched bridge. Reminds me of Chenonceau, actually, but not as frilly. I took SO many pictures of it that I've tried to only put the best ones up, but there are still a lot!

Then it was time for my 6hr train ride back to St A and the reality that I have finals this week...sigh. Oh well, volcano-permitting, I'll be home in under two weeks now and back at Colgate three weeks from today!

See you soon~

~L

Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211777&id=579896063&l=d7dac93170

Springtime in St Andrews! (Caution: Severe Sarcasm Ahead)

Ah, spring in Scotland. The days are longer, flowers are blooming, classes are almost over....it's a beautiful thing, or so they tell me. Here in the library, it's a balmy 85 degrees, and the gentle breeze wafting past my carrel smells distinctly like sweaty freshmen, stale books, and carpet that hasn't been cleaned since the 1960's. The printer is beeping its frustration at yet another paper jam, and a thud to my right tells me that yet another head has hit the desk. Oh yes, spring is a wonderful time to be a student...

Let's see, what latest adventures can I update you on. Hmm. Well, about an hour ago, I got up from my table, walked over the the reference section, had the fantastic experience of looking up a word in the New Testament Greek lexicon that weighs as much as I do, and walked back to my table. It was really exciting. Yesterday was even better, though, because I was studying on the second floor because of the carrels' proximity to the BF section, and this one time I made it ALL THE WAY to the BR section. It was like a whole new world. I wish you could have been there. It was probably the best trip of the whole semester.

Ok, ok, enough sarcasm. I was bored. There is one thing worth writing about that's happened recently, and that is the May Dip, which occurred today at approximately 5:20am. Let me go back to the beginning of the story where it all started, at the beginning of the semester...

Better yet, let's start in the sixteenth century. A lovely fellow named Patrick Hamilton was condemned for heresy and sentenced to be burned at the stake on a spot generally believed to have been right outside St. Salvator's Chapel in St. Andrews. As they were fanning the flames, the unfortunate martyr uttered (precisely) these words: "I, Patrick Hamilton, do hereby curse any fully matriculated student of the University of St Andrews who steps on the spot where at some point in the future my initials will be arbitrarily placed in the cobblestones, so that said fully matriculated student will fail all of his classes that term." I'm impressed he managed to get out the word "matriculated" with his feet on fired, but hey, that's martyrdom for you. What a charmer, to leave a legacy like that for us.

Anyway, back to the first Friday of February this year: matriculation day. Literally ten minutes after I became a "fully matriculated student," guess where I stepped? Yep. On the PH lurking in the cobblestones on North Street. And thus the curse began. You'd think being born on Friday the 13th would basically negate any curse I ever encountered, but just in case, I decided to take part in the St. Andrews ritual that promises to undo the curse: the May Dip.

And so, at 5:20 this morning, I found myself running into the North Sea at dawn with hundreds of other students begging PH's forgiveness in one of St. Andrews' most absurd and pneumonia-inducing traditions. It was without question the coldest experience of my life, and this is coming from someone who's survived two Hamilton winters and years of figure skating. There was a lot of screaming and cursing (mostly from Jen!) involved, but when I emerged, I was no longer cursed and have no excuse to fail all my classes.

Anyway, after I'd thawed out, showered, and slept for a few more hours, I was up and back to work, enjoying the beautiful view of the reference section. St. Andrews, I will miss you so.

Back to the US of A in 3 weeks, 6 days!

~L

PS: Yes, I know I haven't finished updates about spring break or put any Italy photos up. But really, is it fair to make me look at pictures of the sunny south that make me wish even more that I was there instead of here? Maybe tomorrow...

More photos!

France photos are up! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=203237&id=579896063&l=839c8a707f

No time to write more, but I'll catch up tomorrow--really!

~L

Spring Break Part 1--York, London, and Oxford

Hello all!

I survived my whirlwind spring break, and somehow managed to deal with course registration and housing for next year at the same time. It was an incredibly stressful 17 days, but for the most part it was really amazing. Since I still have homework to do, I'm not going to be able to write about everything all at once (much less upload my 2600 photos...) but I'll try to update frequently!

Our first stop on the group trip was York, a cute medieval town (complete with walls!) in the north of England. We saw York Minster, the most structurally unsound cathedral ever constructed. Our tour guide was a retired engineer who pointed out how the arches in the crossing bow out because, as they recently discovered, the builders used the foundation from a previous Norman church--a wood raft in unstable ground--for the main tower. Bad idea! To fix it, they went into the crypt and put thousands of crisscrossing steel rods in strategic places to reinforce the tower and act as an actual foundation. Kind of impressive that it survived 400-odd years on a 1000 year old wooden raft, though! Structural instability aside, the cathedral is gorgeous--very open and airy, with an aisle so wide they had to roof it in wood instead of stone (talk about a fire hazard! It seemed like every ten minutes the tour guide mentioned yet another time when the church had burned down. I think it was five total?). The stained glass is amazing too--the largest collection of medieval glass anywhere. The architecture is similar to Westminster, but FAR less tacky and not cluttered with 600 years' worth of monuments. Overall it was a great visit.

York itself is a lot like Sarlat, a medieval town Mom and I visited in France--it has narrow, winding streets with a flower market and lots of adorable shops, and even in early spring it seemed really busy and full of life. I loved it! On our last night in York, we went to see a really weird play that, since we're taking a class on heresy, we dubbed the Gnostic Sherlock Holmes. I still don't completely understand what it was, but it was this insane two man show that left everyone slightly dazed and confused. It was quite strange, but fun, I suppose.

We went to London from there, and since I was just there with Mom and Dad, I wasn't in a rush to see the big things again. We ended up going to Camden Market and Covent Garden on Sunday afternoon after getting settled in the hotel (if you've never had to deal with checking 17 people into a hotel--don't. It was a nightmare...). Both places were WAY too crowded for my taste, but fun nonetheless. Then we had a group dinner at a French restaurant, where Georgia amused herself by educating Brandon and I about French food (we both fell in love with mussels in garlic and butter, which became a slightly dangerous addiction while in the south of France later in the week)and teaching Brandon to use chopsticks by demonstrating with pencils. It was great food and good company, though I was really happy to go to bed by the time it was over.

On Monday, we had some free time in the morning, so I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum by myself (most of the group went to the Tower, but I'd just been there a week ago). I enjoyed the museum, since it had an excellent Rodin collection and, on a slightly less artistic note, the sparkliest room in the UK--the jewelry collection...so many tiaras!--and it also had a lovely tea room with scones and cream. That's really all it takes to make me happy. Then I met up with the Colgate group for a delicious lunch of steak and venison pie before setting off on a pub crawl, I mean, walking tour of London with none other than Colgate's own Alan Cooper. It ended up not really being a pub crawl at all, which is probably good considering how quickly Prof. Cooper walks and how crazy London traffic is--I feel like we might have lost a few students to traffic if it had been the pub crawl promised by Georgia! The downside of the tour was that it was supposed to be of medieval London. Sounds good, right? Except that medieval London no longer exists, so it was mostly wandering through the financial district with Cooper saying what used to be there, and nothing to see. At least it had mercifully stopped raining by that point, so walking wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was still happy when it finally ended though! The best part, I might add, was the number of times Georgia got left behind or lost. We ended up just keeping our phones on, waiting for her to call to ask where we were. Somehow, none of us were all that surprised whenever it happened...

That night, we had tickets to what proved to be possibly the worst show ever written: Dreamboats and Petticoats. It's similar to Mama Mia, except that the songs were written even further before my time and the plot was even more absurdly cliche. I was not amused, and gave up halfway through and went back to the hotel to go to bed early. That show was ridiculous...

The next morning, we headed out to Oxford, which I did really like. Our tour guides were great (though the guy was such a stereotype of the Oxford PhD candidate that he almost didn't seem like a real person--check out the pictures) and the colleges and the city were so beautiful. It's called the "city of dreaming spires," and the spires really do dominate it. We had lunch at the Turf Tavern (an excellent Oxford institution, and we even ran into the Baylor kids from St. A--the UK is a very small place, apparently!) and then Brandon and I toured the Bodleian Library with Georgia and Halley. The tour itself was dreadful (if you've seen the movie The Producers, you'll know what I mean when I say our tour guide was basically Ulla), but the library was incredible. Incidentally, it was used for scenes in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library--not why I find it amazing, but still kind of cool! It's a beautiful building, and there are so many old books just sitting there! Too bad they don't loan books at all. They said that Charles I was refused the loan of a book he wanted, so that particular snobbery goes back a long way! I think I would be way too intimidated to ever do research there, but it was a fun place to visit.

When we got back to London, it was off to see Wicked--finally! It was everything I had hoped for and more--the singing was fantastic, the sets and costumes were amazing (so colorful and quirky!) and Fiyero was quite attractive. :) All of Elphaba's big solos took my breath away, and Galinda was hilarious as anticipated. And she had the best shoe collection ever--I want it! I even found dance moves to copy... During intermission, Georgia made my night by first buying us ice cream and then saying: "This show is SO Gnostic!" We died laughing, but it's so true...seriously, we're all a little obsessed. Anyway, it was a great final night in London, and we ended it with a walk around Westminster before packing and bed so we could catch our flight to Lyon the next day!

Photos from England: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=202115&id=579896063&l=4f798f1645 (If you have trouble viewing the photos, post a comment or email me and I'll try to fix it...hopefully it works though!)

A bientot,

~L

Sunny Days in Londontown

Hello all,

I figured I should try to get one last post in before my spring break adventures begin--more about that later. As those of you who know my parents have probably already heard, I spent last week in London with them during my mom's spring break. I may have skipped a few classes, but it was definitely worth it! We did a lot, so I can't talk about everything, but here are the highlights.

Best (and possibly only) free thing to do in London--attend Evensong at Westminster Abbey. It's a beautiful Anglican service of prayer and singing, and the boys'/men's choir is phenomenal. You get into the abbey free (though you don't have much time to look around--it's worth paying for a sightseeing visit too) and you can sit in the beautiful old choir stalls by the main altar--where monks and royalty have been sitting for centuries! We went to the service Saturday afternoon as something low-key that wouldn't be ruined by jet-lag, and it was a really fun experience. Oh, and I forgot to mention my favorite thing--we got to sing the last hymn accompanied by the organ!

The "high" point of any London visit: climbing the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral (pun courtesy of my father...). First of all, St. Paul's is beautiful--it was designed by the only British architect with any sense of taste, Christopher Wren. It makes Westminster Abbey and any other Gothic monstrosity look pretty tacky in comparison. The sheer size of St. Paul's is impressive, and the details of the building are stunning. I love that there isn't much stained glass--the clear windows let so much natural light in. We decided to be brave and climb the 400-something steps to the top of the dome, and were rewarded not just with a spectacular view of London, but the chance to look down through the oculus of the dome to the center of the cathedral floor--it was a long way down! It's an amazing building. Too bad there weren't more like it...

The Museum of Things Stolen from Their Rightful Owners by Self-Important Imperialists Who Should Give Them Back: aka the British Museum. This was a visit I'd been looking forward to for awhile, and it lived up to my expectations. But it also made me do a 180 as far as my opinion on where important pieces like, say, the Elgin Marbles (surviving statues from the Parthenon) should be on display. Walking into a cool, almost clinical marble gallery lined with marble statues after an entire corridor lined with other marble statues, admiring them for a few minutes, and then walking out into the display on Egypt and not giving Greece a second thought is NOT a good way to see some of the most important remnants of THE most iconic Greek building ever constructed. How different would it be if you walked down from the top of the Acropolis itself, through sunny streets that the ancient Greeks once walked themselves, into a museum dedicated exclusively to the amazing finds from the Acropolis, up the stairs and into a glass-walled gallery, aligned with the Parthenon, which can be seen just to the right from every corner of the room, and THERE were the statues that once graced Athena's temple! That's how something with that kind of cultural and historical significance should be displayed, not lined up neatly in a room next to hundreds of other rooms with equally important artifacts. I understand the many ramifications not just for the British Museum but for museums everywhere if they were to start returning artifacts to their homelands, but it's a shame that they can't be returned on loan or something so that they can be appreciated properly in Greece.

So that's my rant about the British Museum...went a little longer than I anticipated! It was pretty cool to see the Rosetta Stone (which, to be consistent, would have more impact in Cairo) and recognize Greek words (yes, I looked at the Greek more than the hieroglyphics. Deal with it). It honestly got kind of bewildering after awhile, being surrounded by so much history, but it was overwhelming in a good way. It's like the Louvre--I need a month to see it properly, and even then I'll feel rushed. But it was cool to see the things we did.

Another highlight was Shakespeare's Globe. I would NOT want to see a show there--the benches were uncomfortable even for ten minutes!--but it was cool to see the reconstruction and hear the spiel about how the Globe worked way back in Shakespeare's day.

Oh, and the shiniest things in London: the Crown Jewels. SO PRETTY. The kind of hilarious part of the exhibit, though, was all the crowns that had just been reduced to skeletons with empty holders for jewels because the jewels had been "recycled" in another crown! It was pretty entertaining. Sadly, no reasonably priced replicas of the real things were anywhere to be found, or I would have come home with nothing but shiny stuff in my suitcase...

The Tower of London itself was pretty amazing too, though creepy as only a former prison and execution ground can be. We found the tower where many prisoners were kept, possibly including Anne Boleyn, and even though I'd read that this was the case, it was still a horrifying realization that the window of that room looked out at the spot where executions took place (now covered by a lovely memorial). That's worse than torture--watching other beheadings take places as you wait for your own. See why I found it creepy? The history of the place was pretty amazing though, so I definitely enjoyed it.

Best food in London: High Tea at the Kensington Palace Orangery. SO GOOD. Mom and I went Tuesday afternoon while Dad was at the Maritime Museum, and it was just this amazing tower of plates of pastries, starting with an assortment of cute little finger sandwiches, then a warm orange scone with a pot of cream and jam, then an eclair, then a tart...it was amazing. Overpriced, naturally, but worth it for the experience. High Tea is now my new favorite meal...

At the other end of the spectrum, my dad discovered a newfound love of fish and chips. It was good, the first time. Even the second time. By the third time, well... ;) At least he found something he liked!

The last ugly building we visited was the British Library. After the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, it was kind of anticlimactic to be honest. No papyri with the gospels on them. Sad. But their collection of Shakespeare (and Marlowe!) was cool, and they had some of Da Vinci's notebooks which were amazing. Unfortunately, there was a "book club" making a nuisance of themselves and standing in front of exhibits without even talking about them, which started to get on my nerves. I wanted to see them! I eventually got to see everything, so it worked out.

Then it was back to good old St. Andrews and lovely Scottish rain. London was sunny, against all odds--apparently my mother decided to make up for the hurricane she brought with her last visit to the British Isles and bring good weather this time! I'm hoping it's still there, since I'm headed back to London this weekend for part of my spring break trip.

My spring break trip is, by the way, the following: York, London, Lyon, Avignon, Nice, Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Pompeii. In 16 days. Any suggestions from those of you who've been to France or Italy would be welcome!

I'll try to post London pictures before leaving on Friday, but no guarantees. I still have this thing called...oh what's it called...right, homework, that's it. I should probably do that sometime. But I'll add pictures when I can.

A bientot!

~L

Drab, dreary Dublin....

Hello all,

Well, Dublin really wasn't drab and dreary, at least to those of us who have no objection to our castles being, you know, gray. It seems the Irish have a different take on the subject, but that's getting ahead of my story....let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Brandon and I flew to Dublin last Friday to meet up with a few other friends who are studying abroad. We got in late, basically didn't sleep, and got up bright and early the next morning (after a breakfast that did not, sadly, include proper bacon as we had hoped) to explore Dublin. We started off at Trinity College, where we walked through the main gate, saw a line in front of pretty building, and promptly joined the line. In our defense, there was a sign with an arrow saying "Book of Kells" nearby. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the line was not for said book, but for the Irish version of the MCAT's! I mean, I'm sure they're fun and all, but not really how I want to spend my first day in Ireland...

So we awkwardly left the line, followed the sign's directions, and ended up at the exhibit for the Book of Kells. It was pretty cool, I must admit, though the exhibit had lots of useless fluff that just filled space that could have been better filled by more books, but that's just my opinion. The book itself was quite impressive, though the fact that it was in Latin made me sad. I was hoping for Greek. I did manage to fall in love with one of the illuminated pages though that has the XP (pretend those are the Greek letters for chi and ro, not something to do with Windows...), the first two letters of Christ in Greek, taking up a full decorated page. It's really artistic and awesome, and I bought a poster of it so it will hang on my wall at school. Yep. I'm a geek. I'm aware.

Anyway, we left Trinity College and wandered in search of a bank, then wandered through some gardens, then wandered in search of lunch in Temple Bar. We found pasties, which are pastry shells stuffed with assorted meat fillings. Brandon and I were excited because we'd made pasties with Eugene last summer, but I must say, the Irish version is much better. Sorry Eugene. :)

Then the real adventure/nightmare started. Off we went in search of Dublin Castle, hoping against hope that it would be better than Stirling Castle, which had been the worst castle thus far. Naturally, we got a bit lost on our way, which made us end up approaching the castle from the rear rather than the normal visitors' entrance side. We kept checking the map, and we knew exactly which direction we should be going, but it's a fairly flat part of Dublin, and without a hill, the castle couldn't be seen over the other buildings. So we kept walking toward where we thought it was. And then we saw it.

The first part we saw was a blue turret-like structure. As in, sky blue. Then we saw a green crenelated wall. And then some red and yellow walls thrown in for good measure.

Now, you might think this was a joke. That someone had constructed a fake Lego castle to lure unsuspecting tourists the wrong way. But as we got closer, we realized the horrible truth: the Irish had PAINTED THE CASTLE.

After lots of epic picture-taking to document this horror (see the link at the end of this post), we ventured inside to answer the burning question of WHY anyone would do that to a perfectly good gray castle. And the answer, according to the tour guide who managed to maintain a straight face while speaking with us, was that back in the 1980's (of course) that area behind the castle was just so drab, they decided to liven it up a bit with some paint. Irish logic escapes me.

So that was the Amazing Technicolor Castle. For a moment, I thought that Dublin was the worst city ever to exist, but fortunately, it quickly redeemed itself with our next stop: the Chester Beatty Library. Travelers, take note: this is one Dublin stop you MUST NOT MISS. It helps that I'm a religion geek and most of their collection is sacred texts from around the world, but seriously--it's awesome. Go see it.

Two exhibits were really amazing, in my opinion. The first was on Manichaeism, a sect of early Christianity similar to the Gnostics that died out early on. However, the library has a fantastic papyri collection of Manichaean writings, and their exhibit does a great job of giving the history and what we know about the beliefs and traditions of the Mani. Since we're studying the Gnostics in Georgia's class at St. A., Brandon and I rather enjoyed seeing that exhibit. The only problem is that now I want to study it more....

But the second exhibit is the one that I practically had to be dragged out of: sacred books. I wandered in, took a left, and ended up in the Christian section with a 1000 year old Gospel of Matthew in front of me, open to a passage that we'd just been discussing in my class on said gospel. I made my way to the next corner of that exhibit room, which had a similarly old Gospel of Mark, then to the next corner and Luke. By then, I was suitably impressed and ridiculously excited, but it only got better. As I continued around the room, there was a little alcove in the back wall, in which was suspended a tiny fragment of papyrus--it was a manuscript of the Gospel of John, in Greek, from around 200AD. AND I COULD READ IT. It was an absolutely surreal moment for me, seeing that little piece of papyrus that had survived 1800 years and being able to understand the words written on it. It was unbelievable. And it made it very clear to me that I chose the right major and minor. :)

Anyway, the rest of the exhibit was pretty awesome too, though it was hard to drag myself away from that papyrus. There were Greek papyri of Pauline epistles and other early Christian writings, all kinds of Latin Bibles, lots of Torahs, Qur'ans, commentaries, etc. They didn't have much on eastern religions, but they had a few interesting works and some beautiful art. I'll admit, I went back to the Gospels section one more time before leaving the exhibit--I could have stayed forever. I then proceeded to talk myself out of spending several hundred pounds on the various books and collections of articles on Gnosticism in the museum shop...

That's a lot of Dublin for one post. I think the rest may have to wait for another day when I need to procrastinate, and there should be plenty of those this week. Still to come: adventures in neolithic tombs, proof that God has the coolest floors ever, and Brandon returns to his ancestral seaside village...stay tuned!

~L

Pictures:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191528&id=579896063&l=e624a423af