I'm such a terrible blogger. I find it so difficult to write everything down every single day. But for the sake of memories, I will continue to try. On Thursday, at the site, I found a hobnail, which are used to secure the soles of shoes. So I touched something that was on the foot of a Roman. I find that very disturbing yet incredible! But it rained for the latter part of the day, and things started to get really muddy. Mud makes digging very messy and frustrating, so we were rushed into the little trailers to do some cleaning. 

Cleaning CBM (clay building material) is very dull. I dread doing it again. But soon enough the rain stopped for the most part and we were able to return to our site. That night after dinner, we did not have a lecture. So the six of us played cards until bedtime. It was really fun and I discovered that my reflexes are too slow for most games!

On Friday morning, I woke up feeling exhausted. I just wanted to lie in my bed forever. It was raining really hard outside and I just wanted to crawl deeper into my covers. But, because the rain kept getting worse when we reached Binchester, our day at the site was canceled. Instead, we just learned how to fill out important paperwork (context sheets) and after two hours, we returned to the university. 

As you may have guessed, I took a very nice nap. 

After our much needed naps, Sarah, Adam, and I went to the vennel cafe to get some coffee. The cafe is located in a vennel, which is basically an alley way. I ordered a carrot cake that tasted wonderful. Adam doesn't usually drink coffee, but he wanted to try it. So I recommended he try a cappuccino, which is not strong as something like an expresso. He did seem to like it, but he was disappointed that it didn't wake him up. Sarah found some animal pins on the table next to us. She gave us pins of some interesting looking birds. 

Afterwards, we went exploring at the market place. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look through  bookstores that had old books about Durham. But then something stupid and unfortunate happened. Stupid on my part, because I accidentally missed a step and rolled my ankle. I'm fine now, but I cursed myself for being so careless. I rolled my other ankle last year also! The pain takes awhile to go away. 

But it was really raining that day so accidents were very likely! Kelsey, the most adventurous of us, fell and bruised her knee very badly. She had it even worse than I did. But both of us were gimps for the day! 

Later that night, went to the small bar that is located in St. John's College and is run by the students here. We had an excellent talk with James and Mae, who study here at Durham. It was a very interesting culture exchange. They told us about the education system in the UK. They have to write many papers (fun isn't it?) that do not count towards their grade. It's all about practice. I remember Tina, my Latin professor who also went to Durham, was telling me she did not like that the US education system does not for the most part allow students to learn from their mistakes. I agree with her in that many people are pressured to get an A on a paper rather than being able to focus on honing their writing skills. 

Then we enlightened them on the ways of the Mormons in the United States. I've never met a Mormon and do not know much about them, so I learned a lot also. 

Saturday was spent shopping. I bought a cute skirt for 8 pounds! But the best part of our day off was that we had fish and chips. I tried the cod, and it was soooo good! We plan on going back again and this time, I'm going to try the salmon :) 

Linda and me!

I feel terrible because I still have no idea what to buy for my friends and family. I finished my weekly allowance and also had to dip into my emergency funds. But I think I should be fine, since most of my money went towards buying basic necessities (toiletries and such). We will be going to Edinburgh on the 21st, so I'll save up my money and buy a bulk of the gifts then. Edinburgh!!! I can't wait! I'm even more excited about the train ride. I don't usually ride the trains, but I look forward to seeing the sights. It's something you can't really do in a stuffy bus or an airplane. 

I am a bit afraid I'll be sleeping for most of the ride, since we're catching the train at 7:23 AM on that day. But I'll definitely pump myself with a lot of coffee with extra shots of expresso. 

Sunday may have been the best day of all! We went walking along Hadrian's Wall for four miles. I absolutely enjoyed the cloudy Northeastern England weather, the miles and miles of green fields, and the amused groups of sheep. It did not rain, fortunately, but there were some winds that helped us cool off from the up-and-down hills! 

I think I almost cried walking along this wall. It represents all the time I spent reading my Roman history and culture textbooks. To think that Roman soldiers had once marched along this pile of bricks. It's even more incredible to think that the stones survived to this day. I'm not sure about the wall itself, because I was informed that it was reconstructed in the 19th century. But the experience was still mind-blowing to me. 

Me on top of the wall!

After that, we went to Vindolanda, which is another one of the many Roman military forts in Britain. The museum was the most interesting part of this experience. There were so many coins, and other material culture that was found in this site! But I think I almost died when I saw the wooden tablets. They were various letters that the Roman exchanged with each other. The most famous was the birthday invitation letter between a woman and her sister. I translated the letter in the fall semester in my Intermediate Latin class. Erin (another Classics major) understood my excitement the best! 

We ended the day with a visit to a temple of Mithras. Not much of it was left, but there was something powerful about being in a temple. So many prayers of the ancients were probably heard here! I had heard the many many stories circling around the secret cult religion of Mithras and listened to Gary Devore, a classicist from Stanford, tell us more about the temple and the religion itself. 

Today, Monday the most agonizing day of any week, Erin, Kelsey and I worked again in the same area! It was very frustrating today, because I had no small finds. But I have almost three weeks left to find something amazing like a coin. 

I hope I gave a good enough recap of everything that happened in the last five days. And I promise I will try to update more often :)