I myself applaud my photography skill right there.

But moreover, I reflect on a sense of fun and adventure accomplished this weekend, because this city...This!!! Is!!! SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was another school-organized trip (no way am I going on excursions by myself anymore!), to not just the city of glorious Sparta, but to the surrounding area of equally historical Laconia. The first thing I noticed was how naturally beautiful the land is, despite its bloody, all-conquering history. It was hard to imagine armies marching in deadly intent over the foreboding mountains, up these majestic hills to construct immortalized monuments, burying their worthy or unworthy dead, on this green and flowery landscape.

Indeed. Beautiful Sparta. Two words I hadn't previously lumped together.

I didn't really philosophize at all on this excursion. I have exhausted my current philosophizing ability. The rest has to be put into my schoolwork where it belongs. For this one, I relished the fun I was capable of having with a few other study abroad students and other new faces, the pretty 2-hour-ish drive to Laconia, getting to put my feet in ocean water for a minute, and the fact that I was in the land of some of the hardest-core warriors this planet will ever see. Upon my return, I've been wanting to reread the Greek mythology I know, and learn more about the epic that Spartan history is. It's undeniable that Greece is also the land of warfare in addition to philosophy and art, so it was interesting to imagine myself in it. We visited Mystras, this castle overlooking EVERYTHING, including the exit of Spartans (nearly impossible due to the terrain, but they were the Spartans, after all) ; the acropolis, which mostly houses the overgrown remains of a theatre now; Vapheio, a tomb of epic proportions; and the beach town where Paris once whisked away Helen of Troy.

We found the actual modern city of Sparta to be...well...quaint. I think we were expecting the tourism to be as kick-ass as its history required it to be, but from what I saw, Sparta doesn't even have a nightlife. We all had fun, though, looking at the sites and talking about the manpower of the Spartans. I know it was bloody warfare, but hey, we're still kids at heart.

We all stood on top of this structure and took pictures of ourselves being Spartans.

By the way, I still have not seen the movie "300" all the way through.