When in Rome

I know that is an incredibly cliché phrase, but it actually works pretty well here. Suddenly nothing needs solid logic anymore. We don't need as much planning or preparation. We can be spontaneous and make random decisions. All you need to do is throw on "when in Rome" and suddenly everything is ok.

So yeah, I'm in Rome. Our last day in Athens was spent doing whatever we wanted. Turns out all 30 of us wanted to do the exact same thing! We all went to Agina, an island south of Athens, by ferry. It was gorgeous! Pretty much all of Greece is gorgeous, but this island was stunning! We hung out on the beach and walked the streets. Some people rented scooters and cruised around the island. No one died, luckily. That evening we had dinner at this little place in the Plaka and as we left started talking to this random group of English speakers. And what do you know! They were Mennonite! It was a group of Canadian Mennonites from Ontario. We enjoyed talking with them and sharing our travels for a while. Small world. Small, small world.

The next day, the 13th, we hopped on a bus to go to Corinth. I was pretty impressed at how well maintained the ancient city was. We read Acts 18 (I think that's the right one) and could see where it all would have happened. Then after luch we had a short worship service in the theater there. It wasn't much, but it was nice closure to Greece.

From there we rode on the bus for a little way to catch our floating city to Bari, Italy. It was a "SuperFast Ferry." I'm not quite sure what to say about this leg of the journey. The whole trip took 14 hours and was spent in luxory. The boat had a casino and arcade and disco and could room 1500 people! Our group had a private lounge to meet in for another meeting about Paul and for chapel planning. (Everyone had better go to chapel on the 23rd at 10:00!) The one piece of sad news is that the trusted Rook deck has called it quits. It has seen hundreds of games this semester, but without a 1 and 13 and only extremely obvious 2s, 3s, and 4s to replace them, the deck had to be retired.

At Bari we were met by Virginia Mennonite Missions workers. They gave us a short presentation and packed us lunches and sent us on our way. After 6 hours we arrived in Rome and the Mariono Hotel. Today has consisted of the Roman Forum, Constantine's Arch, the Circus Maximus, the Collesium, Olympic Stadium, the Spanish Stairs, and some sweet fountain. The food has been incredible! I'm glad to spend 8 days here so that I can try as much Italian food as possible! Tomorrow will bring many more sites!

Life is great and I am out of time unless I want to pay another euro, which I don't.