more music and healthy habits

salvete!

As Magistra Carroll mentioned, our fabulous production of Pseudolus will include live music that accompanies the show, but there are many delightful opportunities at Academy for musicians to play music. If you are a musician please bring your instrument(s). We have a keyboard, so no need to bring a piano.

On another note: by the end of the day Sunday you will have heard that Latin Academy is a life-changing experience at least one hundred times. Although by the end of these three weeks you will most likely be saying the same thing yourself, it is worth reflecting between now and Sunday on some of the reasons why these three weeks are so life-changing and how you might want to change your own life. Part of the transformation that takes place during Academy is simply spending three weeks around friendly, insightful, and curious people like yourselves in a highly intellectually and emotionally stimulating atmosphere. But three weeks is more or less the exact amount of type it takes to make or break a habit. Not all your habits need to be academic! During these three weeks you will want to be operating at peak efficiency, so healthy lifestyle habits are essential. I encourage you to consider some of the following ways to make sure you feel good all day every day at Academy (and beyond!):

• Drinking two glasses of water as soon as you wake up is a simple 'life hack' that helps you start the day hydrated and wakes up your metabolism.
• Similarly, water is literally the best thing for you to drink. Please bring a water bottle and drink water all day.
• The dining hall has many temptations: maybe eat a piece of fruit with every meal and have a salad once a day.
• We do a surprising amount of walking. It's fantastic! But soreness, tiredness, and dehydration are sneaky sneaks. Drinking water and dynamic stretching will help you make the most of all the walking (which is great exercise).
• Maybe you are an athlete and need to stay/get in shape for a fall sport. There isn't a ton of gym time, but there are simple core, calisthenic, mobility, and flexibility routines such as yoga, tai chi, or pilates, that you can do for 5-20 minutes in your room in the morning to warm up for the day.
• Also, the dorm is directly adjacent to a track where you can run in the morning: there isn't a ton of time to run before breakfast, but high intensity interval training is a great way to get in a tremendous cardiovascular, aerobic, and anaerobic workout in as little as 15 minutes (and it's great for distance runners and soccer players too!).

I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life, but I do want you to feel good all day every day while you are at Academy so you can make the most of your time. I am also happy to provide more specific suggestions to any of the above, so please feel free to ask once you arrive in Ashland. 

I will be driving up from Georgia for Academy tomorrow and am so looking forward to meeting each of you on Sunday. Please enjoy the time you have between now and Sunday: eat your favorite foods, watch your shows, see all your friends, play with your pets. 

valete
Magister Cavedo