(no subject)
5 ways I know I'm in the company of fellow dorks:
5. After a brief poll, 32 out of 36 students own Harry Potter in latin. 25 out of 36 also own the ancient greek version.
4. I bought the wine for my friend's birthday dinner knowing nothing about white wine (which she likes), so I picked a bottle because it came from Cerveteri and had one of the Etruscan tomb paintings on the label. Of the 5 bottles contributed to that dinner, 3 of them were that same wine, picked for the same reason.
3. "knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Euripides"
"Euripides who?"
"Euripides pants; you fix them." And no one groaned!
2. During one of our evenings around the piano (we have 4 concert pianists, a clarinetist, and a few guitarists, along with some very good voices) when we were stuck for a song, someone suggested Carmina Burana. Not only did everyone know it, but the song eventually devolved into a friendly argument over church history vs ancient pronunciation.
And of course, the number one reason that this program is utterly and irrevocably dorky:
1. No numbered roll call for us. After all, who needs numbers when you have a chronological list of Roman emperors? Thus, everyone is assigned an emperor and as a group we can now rattle off the first 36 emperors of Rome in under 2 minutes. It could be faster, but because we're occasionally 12 years old, we tend to snicker after Pupianus which, well, is pronounced phonetically. :)
Fun week this time--history of the Etruscans in 3 hours on Monday followed by a full day of field tripping on Tuesday. We left at 8am to hit Tarquinia where we found the museum and the painted tombs. The museum was pretty, but not all that well laid out. We did find the 3rd floor, where the most adorable Etruscan relief is housed--a pair of winged horses, once harnessed to a light chariot, stretch their wings and stamp impatiently. They're beautiful works--thoroughbred bodies with short, arched necks, crested manes and sweet faces. Etruscan art is funny; so often it's archaic and slightly distorted, looking cartoonish more than elegant, but sometimes they come up with these stunning works that foreshadow smooth, classical lines and preserve more personality than most Roman art. The striding Apollo and Hercules by Vulca that we saw on Thursday is another perfect example...but I don't think anyone really wants to read an art history lecture, so I'll say the winged horses are my new favorite piece of art and leave it at that.
The tombs themselves are beautiful. After so many years of watching slides in latin and art history classes, it was fun to see the entire work rather than sections. They're amazingly vivid after so many years and the lively banquet scenes are beautifully composed. Of course they were made much better by the stellar audio guide we used to go through them. Imagine a very dry british voice describing such banquet scenes as "In the right hand corner, an indecorous male figure dances frenetically, obviously inebriated," or "A man in a respectable short skirt frolics through the garden, while a crouching man defecates behind a tree in the corner." Oh, Etruscans. They remain entirely incomprehensible to modern archaeologists and I'm certain they're just laughing their asses off while we try and explain 'that painting that larth made on that one banqueting night, remember that time, with the new grapes...' There is no other explanation.
We also hit Cerveteri, unguided this time, which was excellent. The place is such a playground that we were all instantly struck with ADHD when we tried to figure out the worksheet we were supposed to be finishing. There was a lot of, 'ok, so we need to go down this row and find this one and oh look, another hole! Let's climb in that one!' A few of us had sore necks from running toward the tomb we were supposed to be studying and snapping back to see if there really was a tufa armchair in that tomb. (There was. We took pictures in it.) A very fun day and 36 sound asleep classicists on the bus home.
Thursday took us out to Veii to see the temple to Apollo, which is set down in this pretty little valley--a ten minute walk over a waterfall and along a ravine. There's not really all that much there, but the reconstruction is very cool: thick wire set over the foundations to show the height and layout of the temple. Then the Etruscan museum of Rome, where most of the temple remains are, along with some very exciting etruscan inscriptions. The umass class proved very useful and the 3 of us who'd taken it were in demand.
Looks to be a quiet weekend, so lots of translating for the language classes so I can get Wednesday's assignment started before things take off again. I went for a long run in the big park this morning. I've been running there enough that I've started to recognize the regulars. Early morning there's the man who runs with a pink backpack and nods a good-natured 'ciao bella' in my direction, the funny looking border collie who follows his owner with a stick in his mouth, and a few interchangeable bikers. Late morning are the older couples doing tai chi in the meadow, the two older ladies who block the path and talk rapid fire Italian, and the little old man and his australian cattle dog, who always tries to greet me with some complicated Italian and accepts my confused 'non parle italiano' with a nod, smile and a 'hi' which is possibly the only english he knows.
I suppose I'm being long-winded today, so I'll cease procrastinating and get on my translation. I can't get photobucket to load (I don't think it likes the Italian internet for some reason) so I'll probably upload albums to facebook and share the link here when I take a study break later today.
MHC people, good luck in riding tryouts!
Ciao!
Em
5. After a brief poll, 32 out of 36 students own Harry Potter in latin. 25 out of 36 also own the ancient greek version.
4. I bought the wine for my friend's birthday dinner knowing nothing about white wine (which she likes), so I picked a bottle because it came from Cerveteri and had one of the Etruscan tomb paintings on the label. Of the 5 bottles contributed to that dinner, 3 of them were that same wine, picked for the same reason.
3. "knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Euripides"
"Euripides who?"
"Euripides pants; you fix them." And no one groaned!
2. During one of our evenings around the piano (we have 4 concert pianists, a clarinetist, and a few guitarists, along with some very good voices) when we were stuck for a song, someone suggested Carmina Burana. Not only did everyone know it, but the song eventually devolved into a friendly argument over church history vs ancient pronunciation.
And of course, the number one reason that this program is utterly and irrevocably dorky:
1. No numbered roll call for us. After all, who needs numbers when you have a chronological list of Roman emperors? Thus, everyone is assigned an emperor and as a group we can now rattle off the first 36 emperors of Rome in under 2 minutes. It could be faster, but because we're occasionally 12 years old, we tend to snicker after Pupianus which, well, is pronounced phonetically. :)
Fun week this time--history of the Etruscans in 3 hours on Monday followed by a full day of field tripping on Tuesday. We left at 8am to hit Tarquinia where we found the museum and the painted tombs. The museum was pretty, but not all that well laid out. We did find the 3rd floor, where the most adorable Etruscan relief is housed--a pair of winged horses, once harnessed to a light chariot, stretch their wings and stamp impatiently. They're beautiful works--thoroughbred bodies with short, arched necks, crested manes and sweet faces. Etruscan art is funny; so often it's archaic and slightly distorted, looking cartoonish more than elegant, but sometimes they come up with these stunning works that foreshadow smooth, classical lines and preserve more personality than most Roman art. The striding Apollo and Hercules by Vulca that we saw on Thursday is another perfect example...but I don't think anyone really wants to read an art history lecture, so I'll say the winged horses are my new favorite piece of art and leave it at that.
The tombs themselves are beautiful. After so many years of watching slides in latin and art history classes, it was fun to see the entire work rather than sections. They're amazingly vivid after so many years and the lively banquet scenes are beautifully composed. Of course they were made much better by the stellar audio guide we used to go through them. Imagine a very dry british voice describing such banquet scenes as "In the right hand corner, an indecorous male figure dances frenetically, obviously inebriated," or "A man in a respectable short skirt frolics through the garden, while a crouching man defecates behind a tree in the corner." Oh, Etruscans. They remain entirely incomprehensible to modern archaeologists and I'm certain they're just laughing their asses off while we try and explain 'that painting that larth made on that one banqueting night, remember that time, with the new grapes...' There is no other explanation.
We also hit Cerveteri, unguided this time, which was excellent. The place is such a playground that we were all instantly struck with ADHD when we tried to figure out the worksheet we were supposed to be finishing. There was a lot of, 'ok, so we need to go down this row and find this one and oh look, another hole! Let's climb in that one!' A few of us had sore necks from running toward the tomb we were supposed to be studying and snapping back to see if there really was a tufa armchair in that tomb. (There was. We took pictures in it.) A very fun day and 36 sound asleep classicists on the bus home.
Thursday took us out to Veii to see the temple to Apollo, which is set down in this pretty little valley--a ten minute walk over a waterfall and along a ravine. There's not really all that much there, but the reconstruction is very cool: thick wire set over the foundations to show the height and layout of the temple. Then the Etruscan museum of Rome, where most of the temple remains are, along with some very exciting etruscan inscriptions. The umass class proved very useful and the 3 of us who'd taken it were in demand.
Looks to be a quiet weekend, so lots of translating for the language classes so I can get Wednesday's assignment started before things take off again. I went for a long run in the big park this morning. I've been running there enough that I've started to recognize the regulars. Early morning there's the man who runs with a pink backpack and nods a good-natured 'ciao bella' in my direction, the funny looking border collie who follows his owner with a stick in his mouth, and a few interchangeable bikers. Late morning are the older couples doing tai chi in the meadow, the two older ladies who block the path and talk rapid fire Italian, and the little old man and his australian cattle dog, who always tries to greet me with some complicated Italian and accepts my confused 'non parle italiano' with a nod, smile and a 'hi' which is possibly the only english he knows.
I suppose I'm being long-winded today, so I'll cease procrastinating and get on my translation. I can't get photobucket to load (I don't think it likes the Italian internet for some reason) so I'll probably upload albums to facebook and share the link here when I take a study break later today.
MHC people, good luck in riding tryouts!
Ciao!
Em