Reflection of this week, January 29, 2010

This week was mainly a discussion of midterm exams in the beginning of the week, during which we received our tests with our grades, and I was happy to see that I got a 96 on the midterm in general and would have gotten a 7 on the IB exam, which pleased me. Latin is definitely one of my better subjects.

On Wednesday I got my introduction and question typed and printed out for my IA. Once again the thing I find most difficult is not getting the information that I need, because I know exactly what source I'll be using and what my question is; but I tend to be too wordy and not 'blunt and to the point' enough, which means I run the risk of going way over the word limit. With help from Dr. Stewart I was able to cut my introduction down from 130 or so words, to about 75 words, and it sounds much better.

We also translated the Aeneid some more, and I find the story interesting thus far. I am interested in seeing exactly that Juno is going to do to Aeneas... I guess I'll have to wait and see, or go ahead and translate on my own :)

Journal Entry for the week of January 4, 2010

This week marked the transition from reading and working with Daedalus and Icarus to another story, in the form of a paper 2. After a long winter vacation, I didn't come back to school all that prepared and when I came into class I just then remembered there was a test, and I had to quickly re-read the story in Latin and my translation and recall EVERY image, symbol, etc. discussed and try and retain the information as I took the test. I did not know one of the questions that much and had to guess, and I'm pretty sure this test is not my best work, but I am hoping I at least passed.

We've been talking about Virgil and the Aeneid and to be honest I am somewhat confused. It might be because we are starting with book six, but I understand how Aeneas left Troy, but the part about the underworld is what confuses me. I know why he was there but I don't understand much else, like what happened between him arriving in the underworld and him ending up with Lavinia, the Italian princess. I am probably going to bring this up in class because if I am confused, I assume there has to be someone else who is as well, and it might benefit the class to discuss what actually happened in the underworld a bit better. In class we discussed what the underworld was like but not everything about what Aeneas did down there, and how he left.