February 13

This morning we left the hotel at 8:30 to more dismal weather. The plan today was to drive to Sardis to visit the ancient city (a 3 hour drive), stopping on the way for groceries to have a picnic lunch, and then drive another 2 hours to Ephesus, where we will be staying for the next 5 days.
I decided to change up my homework schedule. Since it is significantly harder to do schoolwork on the bus (there is much less room and the roads are much bumpier), I did all my readings for the next day in the hotel room before bed and read my personal book on the bus. This worked wonderfully. The time passes much quicker with a better read. I also don’t have to continually adjust so as to take notes or highlight the readings. All in all, the bus ride today was quite nice. I am currently reading The Devil in the White City, the one about the Chicago World’s Fair and the serial killer.
We got to Sardis around 11:30 and, of course, it was raining. Only the severest of weather will prevent us from visiting a site, however, so we took the necessary notes on the bus and then ventured out into the rain to take a look around. This site is the home to a very impressive structure that blends the Roman bath and the Greek gymnasium, constructed in 211 CE. Another cool feature of this site is a Jewish synagogue, which was added in the 3rd century CE, possibly a gift from the emperor to the local Jewish community. This synagogue is paved entirely with beautiful mosaics, and one of the walls has been restored to show the typical decoration using thin marble sheets.
We had lunch on the bus. Shopping at grocery stores for lunch in Turkey is much harder to do than in America. There are no prepared foods and few of the items have English descriptions. Today I ended up with a loaf of wheat (it at least looks like whole wheat) bread, which I split with Emily, a carton of skim milk, an apple and a pear. It was a weird, but eventually satisfying lunch.
Next, we drove to the Temple of Artemis, which was a bit higher up the mountain. This temple has actually gone through three separate phases of construction (spanning hundreds of years, from 2 century BCE to 2 century CE), none of which were completed. It was a massive temple, though, even in its ruinous and incomplete state. It is the largest temple we have visited so far, and was designed to compete with other large temples in the region. We also found a Lydian inscription (Lydia is the name of this region) which refers to the god Artemis, and is the basis for the theory that this temple was dedicated to Artemis.
The rain had been coming down in spurts over the past few hours, and during one of the sunnier moments, there was a very pretty rainbow over the hills.
We got back on the bus and drove to the hotel. Unfortunately, I am in a triple for the next five nights and this room happens to be particularly small. So, the first thing Louisa, Sarabeth, and I did was try and figure out how best to arrange our suitcases and where to put up the clothesline. We were all appropriately self-less, yet creative. We ended up putting the chair on top on the armoire, one of the tables between the armoire and Sarabeth’s bed, and then string the clothesline from the folding-wall-coathanger to the bar above the window. It’s going to be a cramped week, but we all gave good attitudes and we never really spend that much time in the hotel rooms. I then spent about 20 mins doing laundry. At most of these hotels, there is some sort of soap or shampoo dispenser and they are great to use as detergent, especially shampoo (it gets much sudsier).
We left for dinner at 7, to a little place that Gulin found for us. I know I have sad this before, but I am going to miss Gulin. She makes meals so easy. The dinner was very good. We were served a salad, lentil soup, a main course, and orange slices for desert. I chose the stuffed vine leaves as my main course and this included stuffed cabbage, grape leaves, and peppers. It was delicious. A fire was going in the lobby of the hotel when we got back, so I decided to do my reading there. Today would have been a perfect day, had I not decided to take a shower. This was the worst shower I have ever had, and I did put some thought into this judgment. The water pressure is a joke. I ended up washing my hair in the sink because I knew there was no way I would get out all the shampoo, let alone get all of my hair wet. But at least I am clean, right? Apparently, the pressure is better in one of the other girls’ rooms, so I will be showering there for the next few days.
Adios amigos.