The First Seven Wonder

We had to get up at three to go to the airport to catch a flight to Washington D.C.  I've always hated getting up early but it was especially bad because I'd just been at a friends birthday party (his name's Alex and we went to see an Ohio State soccer game and I got back around midnight). I got about 3 hours of sleep.  We got business class once again going to Rome but long flights still aren't fun.  When we were landing in Rome I didn't know what to expect but there was a beautiful ocean and it was really nice and sunny out.  It was really confusing trying to find out how to get to our apartment.  We were originally planning on taking the train and then the metro or something but that was to confusing and expensive so we just got a taxi.  The actual city was a lot like Paris except not as nice (it's more crowded and lots of graffiti).  The driver's were also very dangerous.  There were lots of scooter and motorcycle riders that would go in between cars passing them by inches.  There was obviously lots of honking and yelling.  When we got to our apartment we had to wait for a while because we showed up two hours early.  We visited the Vatican and St. Peter's cathedral which wasn't fun, not because it was boring but because we were really tired.  We went to bed around 4 and woke up really early in the morning the next day.  The second day was the day we decided to see the Colosseum and the ancient ruins.  We got an early start and it was a really nice walk even though day got really frustrated because we couldn't find it.  When we got there we were on a balcony looking off at all the ruins imagining what it would have been like to be living in them 2000 years ago.  We walked through the ruins and it was amazing.  There were scientists studying certain parts so we watched the for a while.  It was really big but I'm not going to go into lots of details on this because I'd rather focus on the reason we came to Rome.  It was huge.  We could see it from the balcony rising up a lot higher than any of the other ruins and when we were right next to it looking up, we couldn't believe it was built thousands of years ago.  We started on the ground floor and walked all the way around.  There was a cross marking where Cesar used to sit.  You could look down and see where the trap doors were and where they would set lions on the gladiators.  Part of the underground passages were covered by a flooring that was supposed to show you what it used to look like when the gladiators were fighting on it.  It was just a wood covering with sand on top.  Then we moved to the second floor where you could look down on the passages which was really cool.  We didn't really spend a whole lot of time there though because we were all hungry and tired so we took the metro home.  The metro's in Rome aren't nearly as nice as the metro's in Paris.  On the last day of our trip we visited a lot of places but I'm just going to write about the Pantheon.  It's an ancient building but it's still in one piece so you can walk inside of it.  Before we went in we got gelato (ice cream) which was good but not as good as the ice cream in Paris.  Inside there was a big dome that had an opening but there was no glass covering it so when it rains it just rains right into the Pantheon.  It's supposed to being pretty cool.  There's lots of drains so it never floods or anything as far as I know.  It was a short trip but we saw a lot and learned a lot so we all thought it was plenty of time and were eager to get home.  It was nice but not as nice as Paris.

The Obama Rally

Today we went into Columbus so we could see Obama speak live.  When we got to the area where the rally was taking place there was a long line of people that were heading somewhere that we couldn't see.  We finally found a place to park and started walking towards the line.  On our way there were tons of vendors selling shirts, pins, and hats.  Above all the noise you would just here some guy yelling, "hats and shirts!, shirts and hats!"  It was a big line but it moved quickly and soon we were in.  There was already a large crowd gathered up where Obama was going to speak and if I would have known how many people were going to be there I would have wanted to get a spot in the crowd then but since we had an hour and a half we found a nice shady spot and waited there.  There were a few volunteers handing out free water so we didn't get hot and thirsty so it wasn't all miserable waiting.  Before the future president took the podium there were various people talking such as one of the senators and the mayor.  They were just trying to get the crowd going.  When Obama came everyone went crazy and started waving signs in the air but I couldn't see a thing because of the massive crowd.  There was some kind of construction vehicle that a bunch of people were standing on and mom told me to go over and get some good pictures for her blog.  I found a spot on it where I could see Obama clearly and it was much better than being in the crowd.  I got one really good picture of the huge crowd and the American flag in the background and I think mom nominated that one to go on her blog.  We didn't watch the whole thing so we didn't have to worry about the crowd but he was done soon after we'd left.  My favorite part of the whole thing was the secret service agents.  They were all dressed up in a suit with dark sunglasses.  They had guys on the roof with giant binoculars looking for potential problems.  It looked like a cool job to me.  When we left we went to the closest fast food restaurant (Wendy's) and all ate big meals because we were all starving.  We then went to Easton (a shopping center) and watched a movie about religion.  It was pretty much about some guy talking about how stupid religion is.  It was rated R but Isabel still watched it because there was just a little cussing.  Those were the highlights of our day.