How does the Senate vote?

Today was my favorite day so far. Dan woke me up at 7:20 to go for a run (we're thinking about running a marathon in Florence the weekend after the quarter ends), and we ran down to the Tiber River (where everything began, practically), and then ran along the river to the Circus Maximus. It's really hard to run in Rome, not only because of the cobblestone and muggy, polluted air, but also because everywhere you go you have the hardest time watching where you are going. Cross country camp was fun and nature is pretty with the trees and the hills and all, but try and maintain a seven minute mile pace past the Castel de S. Angelo. It's hard to do. The Circus Maximus is really just a field with a little dirt oval (little=approx. 1/2 mile) in the middle. We did two laps (ensuring at least one mile in our run), and then ran back along the river. Class began at 8:30am sharp, with Professor Stroup leading us to the Roman Forum, the center of Rome.
We walked up the Capitoline Hill (I misnamed the hill in the previous entry, we've been on the Capitoline twice so far, and have yet to climb the Palatine), and from there around past the Imperial Fora and into the Forum through the actual entrance gate to the site, which is about a half mile away from where Professor Stroup thought it was (on the other side of the Forum).

View of the Roman Forum from the south side of the Capitoline Hill at about 8:45am. The immediate structure is the triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus.

View of the right side of the Forum from where we were standing. Both sets of columns are temples, but I don't remember to whom. I believe the large set of about eight is the Temple of Saturn.
Arch of Septimius Severus, up close and personal. My camera does black and white, and I couldn't resist.
Something Augustus built...I forget what type of building it was, and I know we don't know exactly what he used it for, but he was the emperor and he could do whatever he wanted, so he built it for something cool, I'm sure. It's good to be the king. I like the scale that the guy walking by gives it. This building is huge.
These guys are caretakers at the Forum. I want this job. It's virtually impossible for Americans to get jobs excavating in Italy, and even harder to get a job working as a professor at an Italian university where one might possibly be able to do research on site. I don't care, really, I just want to know how hard it is to get one of these guys' jobs. See mom? All you had to do was get a house with ruins in the yard and I'd have weeded every day for free.
The video is of my entrance into the Senate House. Most of the building is original, including the floor. The original doors were stripped and mounted on the front of the cathedral of someone (I forgot who). The marble carvings set up on the inside are not supposed to be there, and were relocated from some temple, I think. No one knows (though there are many theories on) who the bronze statue in the back is of.



The Forum from behind the Basilica Julia(?). So much crap is being crammed into us on site that I really don't remember much of names or dates. Be assured it's all really old and incredibly awesome beyond all belief, but when I am sure of my names and dates I'll make that clear.
If you click on this picture, as I'm sure the more computer-savvy have found, it becomes larger, and you can read on the marble slab "UMBILICUS URBIS ROMAE," which means "The center of the city of Rome." This building was the traditional center of the city, conveniently located in the Forum. I'm not sure how original the marble is, but the building is definitely B.C.E..