Olivia's First Entry

Over the last couple of days, I have fallen behind on my journal entries so I'm going to do one big one now. First of all, Germany. While spending time in Italy I have definitely come to miss Germany and the German efficiency. Everything that was supposed to happen happened and it happened at the right time. I am way more likely to live in Germany than I am to live in Italy. Italy overall has been very enjoyable though. We've seen the Pantheon and Ostia Antica. When we went to the Pantheon I was surprised at the sheer number of people in the pantheon despite it being closed for the day. There were tourists from all over and they were just laying and sitting all around. There was no tape or anything around it saying stay off. It was all open for anyone to see. Also interesting were the number of street vendors trying to sell selfie sticks. Not only were they selling in the late afternoon but when we came out of the church from listening to the Central Oregon Children's choir at about 9:30 the vendors were still there but this time trying to sell glow in the dark toys. I also noticed that there was no end to the number of tourists willing to buy these silly gadgets. When we went back the next day when it was open I was really quite impressed. Even with limited technology they were still able to construct a giant but beautiful building with amazing columns and decorations. Needless to say I loved seeing the pantheon. The next day we went and saw Ostia Antica. This was a lovely pile of ruins. Ostia Antica was not my favorite because it was pretty boring. It was lots of piles of rocks. There were two interesting places though. I found both the roman toilets and the amphitheater entertaining. It was interesting to experiment with sound at the amphitheater because while a few of us were sitting up at the very top the others were standing at the bottom. The ones at the bottom were speaking normally and those of us at the top could still hear them fairly well. It was very intriguing considering the sheer size of the amphitheater. We messed around with sound for a bit before going to walk some more. Towards the end of the walk around we arrived at the old toilets. They were interesting mainly because they were so old. I found it great that we were able to actually sit on the toilet because almost anywhere else everything would have been roped off and you would not be able to sit where thousands of people hundreds of people before you had sat. Overall, Ostia Antica was boring in some respects but also highly entertaining and interesting in others.