Nimes

Wow. So today was an excursion day. Rainy and cold, I awoke at 8 to the sound of my cell phone alarm, the prickly dream of spiders still brushing across my fingers. The humid warmth of my room, bright with orange light, was a distinct contrast to the dark gray sky and damp pavement outside where I walked, curling my fingers against the cold.We waited in front of the train station for everyone to appear, scanning the streets for our peers while laughing at the cold. I wasn't the first to walk past those old city walls, but I wasn't the last - a significant difference from my current record of timeliness.

Once on the bus, the sway of the vehicle lulled me into silence. Hills of muted green bushes scraggled from the rocky earth between fields of empty olive trees and small, stone houses shut up from the weather. It was calming and quiet.

Nîmes was a beautiful city. Europeans take for granted the architectural marvels that sit between their glass train stations and their shoe stores. There are monuments in European cities that predate the end of the Roman Republic but they don't spare a glance as they walk past them. It's too important to be aloof.

At the Pont du Gard, Laura, Cali and I climbed to where the aqueduct ended. Alright, I'm done writing. I got to stand on top of the wall of the amphitheater. At least three or four stories up. maybe five.

Yeah. I'm awesome.