Quisquis Amat Valeat
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Salvete omnes! Today was a Sunday, which meant in the morning, students either went to church or used it as free time to work on anything they wanted to. In the afternoon, we had Quid Rides?, Voces Feminarum, and Stylus Amicitiae since we had our Festa and Ludi on the 4th of July (when we were supposed to have these classes) as well as our second Volvifolium. In the evening, we had an extremely exciting event as we went on a field trip to Richmond to see the play Dr. Faustus! In Quid Rides?, we further discussed Ad Minores and were briefly introduced to our next topic, Nefas (dark humor). In Voces Feminarum, we read about Cleopatra’s portrayal in ancient literature, namely from Cassius Dio, Horace, and Plutarch. In Stylus Amicitiae, we talked about intaglios, which are stamp-like objects the Romans used to mark their identities on letters or important documents. The final thing of the afternoon was Volvifolium, where we turned our calendars to the third and final week of GLA. The entire evening was dedicated to a field trip to Richmond! We had the opportunity to view the play Dr. Faustus. Before the play, we had a zuppa short introduction to the play by RA Benji and an excellent prologue performance by Tucker (who arguably was the most excited)! Since we couldn’t go to the performance on the 4th of July, everyone was hyped up and the play did not disappoint! The actors were superb and every one of us absolutely loved the play. It was past Lights Out (which meant no blog yesterday) by the time we returned to R-MC so everyone was exhausted, but it was completely worth it. We are now approaching our final week of GLA! The past two weeks have been loaded with precious memories for everyone. We cannot wait for Week 3 and what memories await us. GLA Out of Context: “I love a silly little painting.” Arleigh’s Fanta Furies: Total: 74 Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles)
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Salvete, omnes! Happy Saturday! At Academy, we still have classes on Saturday, so it’s not quite the weekend, but we still try to have fun! We started the day with classes, before having Otium and Latina Loquenda. The first half of our day went as usual, but dinner looked a bit different. Instead of having our usual dinner in Estes dining hall, we had a convivium (banquet), where we had dinner and gave previews of our final Varietas presentations! Each group gave a sample performance of their theme presentations while the rest of the groups dined on food specific to their provinces. The previews were entertaining and got all of us very excited for our final Varietas performance! After convivium, we had nugae (social hour)! Instead of karaoke like last time, we played Just Dance! Our tribunes (Mackenzie and Ginny) took song requests and we quite literally danced until we dropped (or, until it was time for us to go to our halls. This is also why the blog is up a day late - we got too tired after dancing to multiple songs straight). Our second nugae was a huge success and our tribunes are already brainstorming ideas for the next one! GLA Out of Context: “History of Japan or Chappell Roan Tiny Desk?” “I’m currently irradiating my hands” “Aegyptus SWEPT the damp category” “A little bit of tax fraud… a little for the soul…” Valete, omnes! Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Salvete omnes! Today was a nice relaxing day after an explosion of energy yesterday during our Festa and Ludi. In the morning we had our usual classes - Quid Rides?, Voces Feminarum, and Stylus Amicitiae. In the afternoon we had Varietas and a wonderful guest lecture by Dr. Molly Swetnam-Burland, a Classical Studies Professor at William and Mary. Finally, in the evening, we had Latina Loquenda and our last block of Artes. In Quid Rides?, we acted out our translated Roman play excerpts from the Turpitudo category and moved on to our next category, Persona, which is humor oriented mainly on people’s appearances and abilities. In Voces Feminarum, we finished Sulpicia’s poems and learned about women’s history in antiquity, specifically Cleopatra and her roles. In Stylus Amicitiae, we discussed the Cursus Publicus, or the “public postal system” of Rome and played around with orbis.stanford.edu to see how long letters traveled for from one location to another. In the afternoon we had time to work on our Varietas projects, and each group will present their projects as a checkpoint on Saturday. In addition, we had a fantastic guest lecture from Dr. Molly Swetnam-Burland on enslaved people’s significance in managing and running Imperial households, mostly during the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Thank you so much to Dr. Swetnam-Burland for your time and the stellar guest lecture! Finally, in the evening, we had Latina Loquenda and our last session of Artes, where we either finished our mosaics from last time or created table decorations for our provinces to use during Mercatus. All of our art projects were finalized today and we cannot wait to set up everything for the grand event! As Fridays always are, it was a relaxing day but an intellectually stimulating (as always) one nonetheless! We are excited for our weekend classes and our second Sunday where we will have time to wind down like last week. GLA Out of Context: “Men used to go to war. Now they go to GLA.” “Cicero est pulcherrimus.” “Estes triclinium.” “Habeo Benji.” Arleigh’s Fanta Furies: We all lost count, but we all know Arleigh drinks multiple Fantas a day… all we know is the total. Total: 54 Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Salvete, omnes! Happy Fourth of July! Today we celebrated with games and a day off from classes! This morning, we started off the day with a game of Capture the Flag organized by our amazing praetors, Lincoln and Nishka! It was Optimates vs Populares, and after a close 25-minute game, the Populares came out on top! After our game, we had some much-needed otium before having lunch and playing another game organized by our praetors, which was a scavenger hunt. Whiteboards were hidden around the atrium of Andrews and three provinces were let out of MPR at a time - the first two provinces to find a whiteboard and return it to MPR moved onto the next round. Our second elective classes took place this afternoon, and we learned about topics such as ancient astrology, ancient zoology, and ancient board games! Originally, we had planned to see an outdoor play, but it stormed and we had to stay inside instead. We took the opportunity to get cozy and watch the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart. Not only was it a very cute movie, it also connected to this year’s theme, “quisquis amat valeat”. As you can see by the post date, this is being written a day late - that’s because when we got back from the movie, we were so tired. To finish off our Independence Day celebration, we dimmed the lights in MPR and watched live streams of fireworks! The day may not have gone exactly as planned, but it was a memorable holiday! Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Happy Wednesday! Today was a chill day with Ancient Greek, Mercatus, and Quae Nunc Est Romae in the morning, Ancient Greek practice drills and Varietas in the afternoon, and Latina Loquenda and Artes in the evening. In Ancient Greek, we reviewed our nominative definite articles and (uncovered? Better phrase) into the accusative definite articles. We also had a fun activity in which students in each class chose words to teach to other class members! We will have an informal quiz on Saturday and Province Cup points will be rewarded. In Mercatus, we talked about Roman colonialism and its impact on other provinces and citizenship statuses in Rome. We discussed the cultural exchanges and their consequential impacts between the Conqueror and the Conquered and the citizenship statuses of Roman men, women, and people of colonized provinces. In Quae Nunc Est Romae, we shifted locations from Greece to Rome and discussed paintings displayed in the Forum Romanum. We talked about three styles of Roman paintings (masonry, architectural, and meta-painting) and notable Greek painters whose works were displayed in the Forum. For most of our afternoon, we had extra Greek practice where we worked on conversations and grammar review, and time for working on our Varietas projects. In the evening, we had Latina Loquenda, today on animals and colors. We also had our third session of Artes, this time on making mosaics. We were allowed to make our own mosaics on whatever we wanted, whether they were cultural symbols of our provinces that we could sell during Mercatus or anything we wanted to make. There were many mesmerizing mosaics that students created! GLA Out of Context: “The accusative, not to be confused with the confu-sative case, in which I spent most of my life…” “My sneaky rib dreams!” “Milk is a private affair.” “Hamworms! Oodles and oodles of hamworms!” Arleigh’s Fanta Furies: Dies Decimus: 5 Dies Undecimus: ZERO! His 1000+ Fantas per diem streak is GONE! Total: 47 Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Salvete, omnes! We started off our tenth day of GLA with sessions of Quid Rides?, Voces Feminarum, and Stylus Amicitae. As always, they were engaging and informative. But they were missing something - war! Thankfully, our plan for the rest of the day involved lots of war. But first - a birthday! Today was Bridget’s birthday, and we celebrated by singing her a song and giving her a very special birthday party hat at breakfast. Happy birthday, Bridget!!! Our typically peaceful provinces went to war this afternoon and evening at GLA. A trade war. It’s called Bellum Mercium, which translates to “commodity war”. At the beginning of each “year” (45-minute round), each province received a set amount of different commodities based on the natural resources present in their geographical area. Provinces could earn points by fulfilling the requirements for ANC (Annual Necessary Commodities), purchasing new territories, winning wars against other provinces, or advancing their civilization with certain materials. After four “years”, our international conflicts ceased and points were tallied. Each province earned a certain amount of province points depending on their ranking at the end of the game. Waiting for the scores to be announced was intense and it was a very close game for some provinces. The rankings are as follows: I Germania with 88 points II Italia with 65 points III Achaea with 55 points IV Africa with 43 points V Aegyptus with 42 points VI Asia with 37 points VII Hispania with 36 points VIII Gallia with 34 points IX Britannia with 33 points The province points awarded by Bellum Mercium shook up our province rankings quite a bit! They are now: I Asia II Germania III Italia IV Achaea V Aegyptus VI Gallia VII Britannia VIII Hispania IV Africa We have some clear forerunners, but the province cup is still anyone’s game! GLA Out of Context - for the many strange things we say while isolated from the Real World! “They got that hourglass figure on lock” “He would’ve joined the army but he was allergic to peanuts” “Me giving a mewing tutorial to Grandpa Benji” “Don’t make me give a Churchill speech in Latin” “I was conjugating last night while falling asleep… I’m scared” Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Salvete omnes and happy First Day of July! We officially enter Week Two on the month of Julius. Today our classes were Ancient Greek, Mercatus, and Quae Nunc Est Romae. In addition to our morning classes, we had a guest speaker and our second block of Artes. First stop: Ancient Greek! We took time to review verb endings and practice declining verbs before expanding with new vocabulary on emotions. We then started reading the first parts of Agamemnon by the tragedian Aeschylus. We are all amazed at how much Greek we can already translate with the grammar we already know! Next stop: Everything Roman society, Mercatus: today we learned about the Good Emperors who reigned during the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. We discussed their impacts on Roman society as emperors and their lives as they balanced this naturally troublesome job. Final stop of the morning: Quae Nunc Est Romae. Cavedo showed us numerous photos of 7th c. BCE Greek vases for us to analyze and examine the depiction of people in these vase paintings. In the afternoon, we had a special lecture by guest speaker Dr. Thoburn, a Professor of Chemistry here at R-MC. His lecture was on the intersection of two seemingly unrelated subjects, art history and chemistry. His lecture focused on the chemistry composition and creation of vital tools, such as charcoal, pigments, and dyes. Thank you so much, Dr. Thoburn, for the guest lecture! We immensely appreciate your time since many students at GLA are also interested in STEM subjects. We finished off the evening with three activities, the first of which was Varietas. We continued to work on our projects that will be presented in Week 3. During our second activity, Latina Loquenda, we were given new vocabulary to practice as we will apply today’s words to tomorrow’s almost day-long activity, Bellum Mercium! Finally, we ended the day with our last major activity, our second block of Artes. Just like our first block, we had the chance to make clay or UV resin molds. We also had the chance to paint our hardened molds from the first block. Time is flying zuppa fast and zuppa slow. We cannot wait to see what joy Week Two will bring us! GLA Out of Context: “I’ll never be a climate scientist in Latin America!” “Oh, Agamem-nog, come get yer egg nog, straight from God!” Arleigh’s Fanta Furies: Dies Octavus: Arleigh lost count… Dies Nonus: Arleigh also lost count… Total: 42 (During Epistulae Arleigh got sent MORE, but we all know it’s not going to last more than three days.) Iocus Diei: None for today :( -Philip Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Salvete, omnes - it is Sunday! At the Academy, this means sleeping in, attending church, or studying in the morning. After we had some much-needed free time, we headed to lunch and then to the computer lab! As teenagers deprived of our phones, it was a very exciting time - we used this time to email our loved ones, check social media, and play games (specifically the New York Times Connections - it was very controversial). After our time in the computer lab, we had our very first elective classes! Each student picked a class taught by a GLA staff member, studying topics such as ancient zoology, ancient board games, and mythological references in music. When we were finished with our electives, we had time for Varietas before heading to dinner. Dinner was an immersion event, meaning we only spoke Latin for the entire meal! But the highlight of our day occurred after dinner when we watched our second picturae movae (moving picture) of academy - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The film was very funny, but out in the “real world”, it was pouring rain. Because it was storming, the staff decided that it would be best to pause the movie and relocate to Andrews Hall. The only issue with this plan was the fact that it was raining. A lot. By the time we got back to Andrews, we were soaked - what an interesting bonding experience! Speaking of bonding experiences, we had our first volvifolium (turning the page) this evening! Vovlifolium is a sacred Academy tradition in which we recite a secret chant and turn our schedules to the second week of Academy! It was a celebration of the end of our first week here in Ashland, and a signal to get excited for week two! Today was a very special day because we had a birthday!!! Angel turned 17 today, and I wanted to include a quote from him in this blog - “Please don’t add my birthday to the blog”. Happy birthday, Angel!!! GLA Out of Context: None for today :( Valete, Your True Aediles, Ciara and Philip Salvete omnes et welcome back! Your True Aediles have returned with another blog summarizing the 24 horae of 45 discipuli. Today, as usual, we started our schedule with lectures - Voces Feminarum, Quid Rides?, and Stylus Amicitiae. In Voces Feminarum, Magistra Koshute introduced us to the poems of the Roman poetess Sulpicia! We translated two of her poems that pertained to her lover, Cerinthus. In Quid Rides?, Magistris Primis McIntire taught us a new category of humor: turpitudo, which is roughly equal to “bullying.” Our classes also discussed societal aspects of humor and the underlying elitism towards knowing to understand jokes. Finally, today’s topic in Stylus Amicitiae was the media of messaging - papyri and wax tablets. We discussed the emergence of papyri in Ancient Egypt and its eventual soar in popularity among Romans along with wax tablets. Magistra also gave us papyri and handmade wax tablets - maximas gratias Magistra Harrell! Our first big activity of the afternoon was the special visit of Legio XX! They set up multiple hands-on stations for us students with various gears: two for military armor and one each for a grindstone with grain and stuffed animals (Romans’ pets). Everyone had the opportunity to experience Roman life for a brief moment. Maximas gratias, Legio XX! Our first of two evening activities was the long-anticipated Thermopolium, where we had the chance to recreate Roman society while speaking Latin we practiced in Latina Loquenda. Our provinces, divided into rich, middle-class, and poor, were assigned spots for various activities. Thermopolium was perhaps the busiest activity yet, as we had music, a Pyramus and Thisbe puppet show, two gladiator fights, shops hustling to sell food and crafts, and a revolution against the rich that lasted for five minutes - all at once in lingua Latina! It was a unique experience allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in the daily lives of the Romans. The last (but definitely not the least-exciting) activity was Nugae, where we either participated in karaoke or board games. We sang songs such as Let It Go, Hotel California, Rasputin, You’ll Be Back, Demons, and Break Free in karaoke. During Nugae, we also received snacks and a hand-written letter as gifts from the Japanese Academy. Thank you so much Academia Iaponica, we hugely appreciate your presence! As we close in on our first week of GLA, we would love to give a word of appreciation to all the students and staff at GLA for both your unwavering support and unmatched enthusiasm. The academy could not have been more exciting without you all. GLA Out of Context: “No, I think you’d be the emperor’s little boyfriend.” “Lamby from Doc McStuffins is cute.” “Amo rubrum quattuorginti.” Arleigh’s Fanta Furies: Dies Sextus: 4 Dies Septimus: 5 Total: 31 Iocus Diei: “Are you the third principle part? ‘Cause you’re perfect.” Today’s joke submitted by Philip. Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) Happy Friday! Today we had classes in the morning, Varietas in the afternoon, and finished the day off with some cooking! This morning we had our second classes of Quae Nunc Est Romae with Cavellus, Mercatus with Princips Wilkins, and Greek with Didaskalos Cogen. In Quae Nunc Est Romae, we discussed a few anecdotes written by Pliny about various Greek painters and got to look at some ancient paintings. Didaskalos Cogen ensured that we had perfected the iconic Greek alphabet song during his class, as well as teaching us some new vocabulary that will help us as we read selections from Iphigenia. Mercatus was particularly exciting today because we got to finalize our plans for Thermopolium, which will be tomorrow night. Each province will do different activities depending on their culture. In the afternoon, we worked in our Varietas groups, where we continued planning our presentations for our final Varietas performance! We’re examining numerous ancient works, including Petronius’s Satyricon and Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura. Each group is brainstorming a unique presentation with a member of the Academy staff guiding them. After dinner, we walked across the street to participate in In Culina (In the kitchen), where we cooked up various ancient Roman recipes with Coquus (cook) Griffin! While we weren’t cooking, we translated ancient recipes, brushed up on our Greek vocabulary, and learned how to write our names in ancient Greek. Tomorrow, the middle-class provinces (Asia, Africa, and Hispania) will sell the food in Thermopolium so that we can all enjoy our own cooking! Province Cup Update:
GLA Out of Context: For all the strange things that we say while we’re translating, discussing, or just hanging out. “I’m looking forward to all old men.” “Nobody cares about my Aediles!” “Would you sell your soul for an underripe banana?” “I could beat a rhino in a calculus test.” Valete, Ciara and Philip (Your True Aediles) |
GLA MMXXIV
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