Class Update:

German - the usual. It looks like we'll be keeping a journal during the weeks of this term, too - 200 words a week about random things, to be polished into an essay later. It'll be good writing practice, and heaven knows I need that. I do fine with the grammar exercises, but "it all flies out the window when you hit the writing section!" lamented Frau Washburn. I should practice more...

Latin - Pigman's still fairly dry, but funnier when discussing Ovid and the finer points of Latin. Also, it looks like Ovid's going to be quite entertaining - Pigman loves him for his cleverness in language. We're reading a collection of letters he wrote in the characters of different couples from mythology and literature: Paris and Helen, Hero and Leander, and Acontius and Cydippe. Already I think I like the class - it's relaxing, somewhat laid-back, and I remember bits of Latin poetry trivia like synecdoche (use of the word of a part to represent the whole, I think) and metonyme (use of one word to represent another thing altogether). And scansion - wow. I'd forgotten I'd missed all of this...

Especially, of course, the raunchiness and double-meanings ALL OVER. The first page today was great: Paris trying to seduce Helen, beginning with sweet nothings in her ear and feigned modesty.

Excerpt from Paris Helenae (Paris to Helen):
"si tamen expectas vocem quoque rebus ut addam,
uror: habes animi nuntia verba mei."

"if nevertheless you expect a word to add to those things,
I burn: you have the messenger words of my soul"

I love Latin. :)