Reflection, March 28, 2010

This week mostly consisted of translation and class discussion, and one day when we drew these very interesting drawings on the board of the different characters that can be found in the underworld in the Aeneid. This is a sample of what was done. I might have been the only one to notice that the word 'fames' which means hunger must be the root word of the English word famine, which I guess makes sense because during a famine, people go hungry. The drawing under 'Metus' (fear) didn't scare me until someone went up and drew teeth on it, after that THEN I started screaming. By now in the Aeneid, Aeneas has successfully made it into the Underworld, and I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens!

Reflection, March 20, 2010

I can honestly say that I felt so sick this week that I don't really remember what went on in class, I was always in the nurse's office or falling asleep due to not feeling good and feeling feverish, but I did manage to retype (or should I say update) my question and proposal for my IA as well as update my bibliography, for which I removed several of the books which I am sure I will not need. I definitely need to go to the library though, and find three more sources to meet the deadline for the next part that is due. I will do my best to get something done during study this week, and/or after school or in my spare time. I need to stop being so lazy with it but it's a boring process.

Most of the rest of what I remember about this past week is the translation in class. We have a new system for translating - in pairs. I think it works effectively apart from that one person in class has not been asked to translate out loud, maybe because they're not paired up with anyone for the 'translate in pairs' exercise. Oh well, what can be done. The Aeneid is getting more interesting and by this point, the sacrifice is in the process of happening and it shouldn't be long before Aeneas is in the Underworld. What will happen next? No one knows. Well, I will if I feel better by Monday and am able to pay good attention in class, something I will be trying my best to do.

Despite all of my negativity in this post, I actually saw this week as relatively productive and I am proud of myself for having completed everything I needed to complete despite not feeling well. I am sure this next week will be better and possibly more productive.

Reflection, March 12, 2010

Apart from the usual translation of the Aeneid, there were two other events in class this week that stood out to me as particularly important.

The first was that I went in to talk to Dr. Stewart about the IA, and he let me know that he thinks I am on the right track as far as that goes, and that I might be able to get a lot of it done before the school year ends. I feel like I can but the first thing I need to do is to get a copy from him of my question, introduction, and bibliography so that I can switch my old question with my new question, as I have changed the theme of my IA slightly but not significantly enough that the sources I have thus far aren't valid. I will be doing this within the next week as I continue to look for more sources, but I feel like I am on the right track.

The second thing this week that struck me as important was a Paper 2 about the part of the Aeneid where Aeneas finds the golden bough. I will admit that I did not know we even had the paper 2 until the second I walked into class, therefore I had not studied and was quite unprepared. I was able to answer most of the questions with a significant amount of detail but at the same time, it would have done me some good to study as well. I am lucky that I understand Latin well enough that I can read between the lines and draw my own conclusions but I should have been paying better attention in class in the days before this so that I would have known what was coming up so I could study. We have not yet received our grades back for this assignment.

Overall, it was a productive week. Next week I will work on the IA as much as I can.

Reflection, First week of March

This week consisted mainly of translating the Aeneid, and then on Friday, going to the library to do further work on the IA. The story is getting interesting so far; Aeneas has finally achieved his goal of finding the golden bough, which I was glad to see after all he has been through so far, particularly the death of Misenus, his close comrade. I was glad to see something go his way, and I am interested to see how the story will unfold from here, and what will happen to Aeneas when he gets to the Underworld, which is his destination.

As for the IA, I have decided to revise my question a bit, from focusing solely on how Cicero perceived Caesar but to how people who corresponded through letters, including Cicero, perceived Caesar in the last 5-10 years of his life and the context around it. I think that it will be easier for me to do my IA if I include the word of others besides just Cicero, but I need to limit it to a specific number of years, and I think I will try to focus on the last 5 years of Caesar's life. The next thing I should do is continue looking through the texts, starting with Cicero's letters and eventually I will look to see what Caesar was doing during these years, so I will know why people perceived him the way they did.