I wish I was ἐν οἴνῳ νῦν.
I’m unplugging everything (save for my fridge) in my room, gathering up my things, going to Latin, and then getting on a 3:45 Badger Bus bound for Milwaukee for Thanksgiving weekend. I am so excited. I’m going to get home and in all probability, pass out. OR no wait— Watch newly-purchased Star Trek and all the special features with the fam. That’s the master plan. And have a laaaaarge glass of οἶνον.
Besides typical Thanksgiving familiaque relatives-related happenings, I also get to spend time with best friends that I haven’t seen since August.
ἀλλὰ there’s plenty of Greek and Latin and creative writing homework to do. καὶ I am ignoring history, because I kind of hate it right now.
GOING HOME TTYL
Latin for realz
For once, my Latin homework does not concern piratae, lupi, porci, filiae agricolae, nautae, etc.
Yesterday I took my “last Latin midterm on grammar evar,” the class having finished our McKeown textbook, in which pastoral vocabulary is abundant.
Today we started learning about dactylic (from the Greek “δάκτυλος,” meaning “finger,” in reference to the bone structure- one long phalanx and two short phalanges) hexameter and scansion, looking at Ovid’s Deucalion et Pyrrha.
My teacher’s mnemonic for the scansion of the last two feet of a verse is “strawberry jam pot.” (__ - - / __ x) (“long short short / long stop”)
I’m loving figura etymologica.
This is exciting!!
But now I have to go do my Greek homework, which is just daunting. I spent some time with my καλὸς διδάσκαλος this afternoon and (besides sharing him the “Latin is a spouse/Greek is a sexy pool boy” quote) told him that I shant be continuing Greek next semester, due to schedule restraints and the general poor relationship I have with that language. I shall go on and gain more proficiency in Latin.
There are 17 days of class left, then finals week. This is unsettling for several reasons— academic, and personal.
Latin is like a spouse, whereas Greek is like a sexy pool boy.
Spring 2010 Semester
Registered for next semester’s classes last evening, in between studying for the Greek midterm (which was this morning, heu misera sum. I think I did alright, though. I’ll find out tomorrow morning.) My schedule is as follows:
Latin 204, Intro to Latin Lit. MTWR 9:55-10:45
History 307, History of Rome. Lecture TR 11:00-12:15, Discussion M 2:25-3:15
History 600 Seminar, “Inscribing the New World.” W 1:20-3:20
Geography 344, The American West. TR 2:30-3:45
PE Activity, Ice Skating I. TR 8:50-9:40
I decided to throw ice skating in there because hey, it fit in the schedule and it’ll be fun, and I only know how to skate forward.
I am looking forward to all these classes. And holler at Fridays off!
This evening consisted of occupying the Greek & Latin Reading Room in Memorial Library with Irene for a good number of hours, until closing time, studying Greek for tomorrow’s midterm. (Help us Lord.)
Walking back to our dorm, we stopped on Observatory Hill and laid on the ground for a while to watch the night sky.
We saw a couple shooting stars, including one that has surpassed all others I’ve seen in my life, burning big and white with a long tail of gold across an arc of sky, burning for a good few seconds before fading out. I will never forget that brief, brilliant sight! Things like that are such a gift to see.
Dare I take it as a good omen? In any case, it was a very good way to end a night, and Irene and I have put it on our agenda for tomorrow night, as well as next week, for the Leonids.
Also: ἑρπετὰ ἐν πεδίῳ
“Snakes on a plain.”
lulz brought to you by my καλὸς διδάσκαλος.
G(r)eek and Star Trek
Spock rocks some stunna shades.
Just watched “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” while kindof doing Greek homework and I especially liked this episode! I enjoyed the character of Dr. Miranda Jones. Andwhaddaya know, there’s plenty of Classical references in this episode! First off, there is the Ambassador Kollos from the planet Medusa. Like the creature of myth they are named after, Medusans are formless figures considered so ugly that upon looking at them, humans are driven mad (rather than being turned to stone).The crew and Dr. Jones discuss the notion “promulgated by the ancient Greeks that what is good must also be beautiful.” This brings me to the name of the ambassador, Kollos- “κολός” is the Greek (masculine) adjective for “good, noble, beautiful.” (o i see what you did there!)
A quote from Miranda Jones: “Who is to say whether Kollos is too ugly to bear, or too beautiful to bear?”
As if loving Star Trek wasn’t nerdy enough, then it has fabulous Classical references I can enjoy as well.
nevermind.
After another late night doing Greek homework accompanied by much hair pulling, I think Latin is definitely the way to go next semester. I definitely don’t need to be stressing out over God knows how many other verb forms which lurk in the dark passages of future chapters of GREEK: AN INTENSIVE COURSE.
Latin is my first love. Enough of this affair with Greek. Except I have to take another midterm (next week thursday zomg) and a final before we break up.
A CHOICE MUST BE MADE
Potential spring course schedule is now dictating my life. If I am unable to bend the laws of spacetime, I don’t think I’ll be able to continue with both Greek and Latin like I’ve been wanting to. Before I had been deliberating on only taking one language, with a History 600 course on my plate, but now that the choice is being taken from me, I realize my true feelings.
But now I must choose between:
Greek 104- Second semester Ancient Greek
Latin 204- Intro to Latin Literature
I AM VERY UPSET ABOUT THIS CIRCUMSTANCE. SEE MY DISTRESS MANIFEST IN CAPSLOCK. DENZIENS OF THE INTERNETS, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Skipping class: I am not doing this right.
So I’m not going to go to my history lecture tomorrow morning. Instead I am going to… go to Greek office hours.
I’ll get the notes from a friend. And besides, I basically slept through last Friday’s lecture. But that’s because I had gotten probably about eight hours of sleep total over the previous three days due to the take-home midterm papers for that very class.
The only other times I’ve missed a class is due to oversleeping my alarmclock malfunctioning…
