Geek On The Go

I'll be travelling to Quebec City for the next two weeks as I'm done with touring Ottawa for the rest of the season (I'll miss you Ottawa!), but I'm a lucky gal because I got there right in time to catch the POMPEII exhibit at the Museum of Civilization. Warning: Geek levels increase dramtically here - remember that I've been studying Classics since I was fourteen, took Latin for four years, taught myself ancient Greek (no lie) and competed in a Provincial Classics Conference for four years only to return as a volunteer when I graduated from high school. Don't forget about that time when I told you my favourite derivatives. When I found out a few weeks ago that the administration at my old school was considering cancelling the third year Latin course I nearly had an aneurysm (they didn't and I'm okay).

Anyway.

I can't even describe to you how excited I was to find out that not only would I be in Ottawa at the right time, but that my group was also going to be spending three hours at the very museum where the exhibit was. !!! So there I am with my group and they're being set free on their activities leaving me with an hour and a half by myself, so naturally I decided to hop into the exhibit. It wasn't easy as I needed a special ticket (at $5, how could I complain??) and to check my bag (I ended up chatting with the coat check lady who is a history major and she pumped me up for it even moreso), and ten minutes later, I was in! I had to take a couple deep breaths to take it all in of course and to calm myself down. I couldn't stop smiling and sighing. I spent a good hour in there, reading every single word, examining every artifact, taking photos (don't worry, there was no flash so I didn't get in trouble), and thanking The Fates That Be for landing me in there. I had mere minutes in the gift shop so all I managed to snag was an exhibition poster, but that's good enough for me. The rest is in my heart. Aw.

So here I am, having been graced with the presence of THE REAL THING. Actual jewellery, coins, statues, tools, and FRESCOES all preserved by Mt. Vesuvius' ash and pumice and gases and heat and PRYOCLASTIC SURGES and various other volcanic debris. I've seen the casts of the bodies! People in mid-flight, in self-preservation mode trying to hide under tiles clutching all their prized possessions, money, jewels and family members. I can't explain to you how simply exhilarating it was to see that everything I had studied was real, that it all happened and that there was proof. Their lives were so different from ours and yet, so much of it was the same. We live, we love, we lose. We learn. It's humbling to think that we really are at the mercy of nature; it's scary to think that an eruption like that of August 24, 79 A.D. happens about every two thousand years. The next one is due soon.

I'm excited to e-mail my Classics teachers and professors and tell them about it all. I want to share my photos with them because I know they'll be interested. I even took photos that pertain to their areas of study! *insert brown-noser comments here* It's funny - as I was snapping away, I kept thinking that those pictures would make great slides for one day if I was giving a lecture or teaching a class on Pompeii or Herculaneum or Dionysus and his maenads. Or coins. I love ancient coins. The skill and craftsmanship and artistry it took to make such elaborate currency! Awe-inspiring. Breathtaking, really. Everything was. I'm still trying to catch my breath.

I'd like to share pictures with you too, but that'll have to wait as I'm a ditz and forgot my camera cable in Waterloo and I won't be back in that city until the 18th. So all in all, I think everyone needs to go and see this exhibit - go before September 12 if you're in Canada because this is its only Canadian appearance! I read that they were supposed to go to The ROM as well, but those plans went down the crapper. Click HERE to find out when it comes to a city near you! I can't believe that they only go to one Canadian city and four different ones in Japan for three times the duration too! That country is how many times smaller than we are??

Yes, I'm a geek and I lurve it. By the by, I'm in love with brackets (can you tell?).

End scene.
5:40 pm