From MLK to Auschwitz to the Colosseum in Rome?

So today is MLK day. Back in Ann Arbor I always enjoyed going to the different MLK events- this MLK day was spent on W. 26th street in a cubicle. Yes, I worked on my day off. Joy. Oh the joyous Planning retreat and RoKS preparation that has oh such a tight timeline making life quite miserable for about 3 weeks. Mama D I feel you, you have it way worse. After spending my day off working overtime I decided to come home and contribute to my New Years resolution- one of three, after failing to contribute to either of the others (I ordered sushi and skipped the gym).

Back to my point- so I went to bbc.com to check out what it had to offer from MLK day but got sidetracked by an advertisement for a BBCTwo series on Auschwitz. As many of you know I love Germany and last year I took an awesome class called the 'History of Nazism.' Anyways long story short I got side-tracked again and ended up in the BBC multimedia area taking a animated tour of the Colosseum. Have you ever been to Rome? It is incredible. I spent 4 days there in the summer of 2002 after my internship in Munich. It was one of my favorite stops in Italy.
Anyways I was drawn to the Colosseum because saturday I spent a 'sarah day' reading 576 pages of Dan Brown's Angel's & Demon's. Yep, couldn't put it down except like a dozen times when I was too scared and had to take a break. It is a must read. In the book while Robert was searching for the antimatter in Rome he makes some comment about how ironic it is that one of the greatest landmarks was originally used for barbaric fighting between animals and slaves. Sure enough I learned that on my tour in 2002. So I see the Colosseum take the tour of the 'Arena of Death' and learn that the arena was covered in sand to soak up blood and that gladiators fought exotic african animals to death there. Not to mention that criminals were often punished there. Ick. The cool thing is that this amphitheatre held over 50,000! If you think just over 10,000 in the Big House is incredible just imagine the wave in this thing! Too bad, as woman, I would be sitting at the very top 48.5 M high getting splinters from the wooden seats.

Check it out if you are interested The Colosseum. Or if you are easily distracted like sarahk at the moment- really distracted considering I hate video and computer games- play Death in Rome. I lost but it was awesome, like playing clue but by myself. Not sure that this contributed to any cultural or worldy learnings but it brought me back to the good ol game playing days. Not bad for 2am on a monday. Night all- except those of you in the AIESEC house in Madtown- just called mixmaster so he could clue me in on how to create links (duh sarah) and that house is RoCkIn! You kids make me feel like an old lady.