Originally posted on Monday, July 14, 2014
Another bone quiz. Apparently we did so well on the first one, he upped the ante and selected another cadre of fragments to identify. I was convinced I did far worse that second time, but actually improved. The remainder of the day was spent on the ossification centers of juvenile vertebrae. Jon is the sort of professor who picks up speed the further you go along, he will not hold your hand once you’re in the air, you must keep up and today he showed that. I kept right up, yet the appearance and fusion dates of the various neural arches and centrums that comprise the vertebral forms will definitely be an area I’ll have to pursue intensive study before the next quiz. Others, however, began to feel fully overwhelmed, even those who had previously had little trouble in keeping up. I began an impromptu lecture beside the articulated skeleton, trying to work backwards from adult morphology to juvenile to show what traits to look for to those having trouble (as well as to ensure I knew too). It was an intense day for study, but only perhaps because in the evening we would be piling onto a bus for Brasov, the site of Bran Castle.
During the bus ride, Jill and myself laughed giddily and watched “Van Helsing” on this laptop. While it was for fun, we found it strange that on occasion some of the imagery almost lined up (at least the winding roads, if nothing else)Upon our arrival in the gorgeous city of Brasov, the bus driver just stopped and forced us off, then drove away. Unfortunately for us, not entirely in the right place. Fortunately however, Jon tracked down the hostel staff and a very nice woman from the staff brought us back to the main hostel, where we paid and filled out paperwork, surrounded by travelers from around the world, crammed in so tightly we had to keep our backpacks on our laps. Upon completion, an older gentlemen from the staff had us all pile in his van and he took us to the hostel we would be staying. He introduced himself as “Greg…Gregory Peck.” Unfortunately, the reference was lost on most of the youthful attendees, so when I told Greg my name was “John Wayne”, they thought I’d lost my mind, but he smiled broadly and shook my hand, laughing. (One thought Gregory Peck was a member of The “A” Team…)
The hostel is a drab affair. Nine of us divided amongst three bedrooms, one bathroom and one kitchen. We spent quite some time looking through the small domicile, the most recently thing we could find was from 2009, evidently there had been some group of Spanish speaking Germans here at some point, according to the literature they had left behind. Suitably creeped out, we decided to go for a walk despite it being 10pm. The district we were in was primarily Sports Bookies and Funeral supplies. casket seller by casket seller, one specializing in childrens caskets. These arent touristy trappings, this was simply the commercial interest. We found a bistro open, ate and drank, then returned where I promptly passed out.