I was blown away by the quality of students and faculty at the CEU. The group-teaching environment meant that I had an opportunity to see my colleagues in action and to learn from their teaching styles and their respective knowledge bases. I was also amazed by the quality of the students, who came from across the world and showed particularly strong representation in Eastern Europe, where there are so many fine young people working in the field of later Roman history.
My favorite memories were touring the late antique funerary complexes excavated at Pecs-Sopianae. The Hungarians have done marvelous archaeological work and the display of their results was an impressive eye-opener for me about how much Hungary has to offer the late Roman historian. I also loved the enthusiasm of the students, who bonded in extraordinary fashion in just one week of instruction. They went from never having met each other to forming lasting friendships in a brief span, largely because of the warm and gentle guiding hand of our director, Marianne Saghy. I knew things had clicked when we had people from Italy, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, and the USA playing water-polo in Lake Balaton. A splash of good cheer and camaraderie to cool our racing brains and warm our hearts for ongoing learning together.