Day Ten

Today was our final full day in Turkey! It is so sad to leave this amazingly beautiful country, especially after the week of incredible learning we have had  :( 

We had a final lecture this morning, synthesizing a lot of our conversations from the week. We looked at the Salutaris Foundation inscription--a really significant inscription found in Ephesus, and, as mentioned earlier, connected to a slope house in the city, as well. 

After our lecture, we ventured up the hill to see the ruins of the medieval Church of St. John. This site claims to hold the tomb of John of Patmos (who wrote the book of Revelation) or John the Evangelist. Both may be unlikely, but the tradition arose from somewhere...and we spent some time thinking about historical evidences for both.

After the walk to the Church of St. John, we took a bus to Pamacuk, to eat lunch by the Aegean Sea. I've included a pic above. It was a fantastic lunch, and we had a really nice time walking on the beautiful beach. But it was freezing! At least the transition back to Boston won't be difficult...

In the late afternoon, Andrea and I took a walk back to Ephesus, one last time. And then spent some time walking around the market in Selcuk with some of the other students--trying to spend our final lyras!

Tonight, is our goodbye dinner. We say goodbye to our most amazing hostess Janet Crisler, of the Crisler Library in Ephesus. It amazes me to see such a gracious woman who is so incredibly encouraging of young scholars. It felt like a true privilege to be here, as a guest of her library.

Unfortunately, we already had to say goodbye to Courtney this morning, as she was headed off to meet her husband for a few more weeks of international traveling! I've included a pic from this morning, of the three doctoral students (Chris, Courtney, and me).  :)

Be back to Boston by tomorrow night...

Hope everyone is well!

Love, 

Krista