Back at Porolissum!

Nothing much to report for Sunday, June 20th; we went to Bran Castle and the weather behaved just enough to give us some sun and warmth. Ashley and Lauren did a good chunk of their souvenir/postcards shopping there as well.

The next day, we woke early for the 11:00 train at the Brasov station. It was delayed by about thirty minutes, so we got into Cluj at about 5:30. Our friend Bogdan was there waiting for us. It was nice to see him again. He gave us a lift straight to Porolissum. I can't tell you how great it felt to see that turn-off into Moigrad and the ride up the camp. I'm so glad to be back.

We met the new team there: Elyse, Charles, Neville, Nick, Chris, Kelci, Colleen, Zenobia and Alexandria. Rob is there as well, Zsolt will join us next week, Dan and Beth from the 2008 teams will come in a couple of weeks. So far, the team is very nice and we're all getting along well. I was most happy to see Terezia, who cooks our lunches and dinners at the site, but her daughter Ioana wasn't there. But I expect we'll see her sometime soon. We caught up with Sean who was there last year, and it was a good night.

Tuesday, June 22nd: Our first workday was spent going up to Magura hill at 1:00 and retrieving shovels and spades from the trenches there, and lugging them all the way back to camp. It was quite the hike and took me about thirty minutes to do.

The weather's been very rainy and cold. We only worked a few hours that day. Back at camp, I played cards with Sean, Ashley and Lauren.

Wednesday's weather wasn't much better. In fact, it was even colder. It rained in the morning, so we went down late again. It only drizzled from then on, but I was glad to shovel and spade in Trench 23c, because it kept me warm. I did manage to find a bit of handle and painted pottery shard.

Today, the 24th, we got in a full workday. We went down at 8:00 and came back up at 4:00. It didn't rain at all, and the sun peeked out occasionally. But it's still been about 18 degrees Celsius. I'm in Zalau now with Lauren for Internet and groceries. I've been waiting all year to get some blood orange juice and chocolate wafer cookies, brands found only in Romania.

Tomorrow, we plan to have our first visit to Otilia's, Moigrad's local bar. I'll get to see what some of these new folks are made of when they go up again those large shots of tuica. I've only had a couple shots so far, so I've been good.

As for books, I completed Rebecca and thought it was quite good. I've since been reading Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths by Robin Waterfield. It's a social and political account of the times in which Socrates lived and died, giving reasons why he was put to death. It's very informative and a fascinating read.