Days 15 and 16: Fourth (and Fifth!) of July

Salvete!

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, which meant rather than doing classes in the morning, we took part in the Ludi Apollinares, which was a series of outdoor games organized by our praetors. The events ranged from capture the flag to a campus-wide game of sardines to find Magistra McIntire, and finished with a water balloon fight. Additionally, we headed inside for a few food-related challenges which earned province points for the winners. After lunch and otium verum, we had the opportunity to attend our selected electives, led by our favorite RAs. Olivia taught a class on Cleopatra, Megan's elective was on the worst men in mythology, and Jack informed us about social and political unrest in Rome revolving around the many men named Gaius. 

The rest of the day was relatively relaxed, with dinner brought to us by a former GLA student who now runs a catering company. The banquet was put together in a traditional Roman fashion, with recipes adapted from ancient texts. We then had the opportunity to watch the Studio Ghibli movie Castle in the Sky, and unlike other movies we've watched here, this one was purely for fun rather than analysis, although we were given an informative lecture by anime lover and fangirl Magistra Blanks prior to watching.

This morning we convened to our usual Latin classes for the penultimate time, learning about vocabulary used in the mercatus in Loquenda to prepare for Mercatus Traini, which is fast approaching. We also prepared in our Mercatus class by making boards about our provinces for our vendor stalls. In Ovid, we read the myth of Caenus, who was a famed warrior mentioned in the Iliad who possessed the gift of invulnerability. After classes and free time, those who are working on the play took a big step in preparing to perform by completing our first full run-though of the play, including props and music. We picked out costumes yesterday, and are so excited to showcase our hard work in the upcoming performance. Meanwhile, the set design team finished constructing and painting the backdrops, and the Memoranda team continued to compile images and videos to hand out for our farewell from Academy. 

Finally, in the evening after dinner, we ventured out to Copley for our final movie here at Academy: O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers. This film is a modern retelling of the Homeric epic the Odyssey, set in the deep south of the US during Reconstruction. It was very interesting to see the similarities and differences between the movie and the original poem, and additionally discuss the insightful social commentary brought to light through the film's storytelling. The end of Academy is fast approaching, and we look on with a bittersweet feeling as we attempt to make the most of these last few days. Just a reminder to anyone sending mail to and from GLA students, anything received after next weekend will have to be thrown away by the administration, so please refrain from sending in anything with an estimated date of arrival into next week!

Signing off for now, your aediles,
Ananya and Mercury :D