Outside, the rain falls. I sit here alone in the library. What should I do? For Sheila and Stephanie and lostnoldo are all in Rome, along with John and Charlemagne and half the junior class. The lucky ducks! I wonder where they must be right now. I know that lostnoldo is probably singing "The Rising of the Moon" on the Ponte Sant' Angelo right now, participating in the expat version of Christendom's infamous Friday-night riverside symposium, but the others? I most likely won't hear from them for days, or weeks. When you're in Rome, you have better things to do than sitting in an overpriced internet cafe.

Sarah and I will be going to Rome ourselves in a few months, but I can't help wishing that I were there right now. Instead, I sit in my room translating Virgil and Homer... studying the history of Byzantium... thinking about doing the reading for Moral Theology and Medieval Philosophy...

And really that's exciting enough for the present.