highlyeccentric and other medievalists... (also a rant. feel free to ignore that.)

Hmm, would it be smarter to start out taking Latin or taking Greek? I'm leaning towards Latin, just because I feel like Latin is more common during the MEMS period than Greek is, and also if I have to learn another alphabet I may shoot myself in the head, it will be faster, but the Odyssey is in Greek. And I love the Odyssey.

Also I am very behind on learning both, because I went to a public school that had two, count 'em two, languages (okay, three, but only two at a time), and then I took Japanese for three semesters, and of all the languages one apparently has to learn to be a medievalist or a classicist, surprisingly, Japanese is not one of them.

(Also, the next person who asks me why I didn't grow up speaking Japanese when my mother is a native speaker is getting punched in the face, I swear to God. One, that is none of your fucking business, two, it does not indicate a personal failing on my part or my parents' part, and three, there is nothing in the code of children of immigrant (and I don't even consider my mother an immigrant) Americans that says we have to be MOTHERFUCKING BILINGUAL GOD I HATE EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.)

*cough* I am in a slightly (read: really) bad mood, and also about to go fail a midterm. (Administered by one of the professors who asked me that, hate people, so much. Actually, I think he was concentrating more on why I thought I could be a classicist if I hadn't started in on Latin and Greek ten years ago than why I couldn't speak Japanese, but still.)

(no subject)

Okay, I have said this before, but I am saying it again as I try and work things out.

I'm looking at taking an accelerated Latin course at the University of Washington this summer -- the UW doesn't offer intensive Latin or Greek, and all the schools that do are out of state and considerably more expensive, and also the idea of having three years of Latin forcibly stuffed into my skull in ten weeks makes me want to cry. It's a four and a half week course, five quarter-credits -- I'd have to talk to my academic advisor to make sure this will transfer to Tulane and how many credits it will transfer to, and also check with my major advisor when I finally get around to declaring for Classics and make sure it will count towards the major. In theory I could do both the first and the second terms of summer quarter, only the last day of b-term ends right before fall semester at Tulane starts. (Last day is August 20, first day of classes is August 23, so it would be very awkward. On the bright side, I probably wouldn't have to pay for a hotel room; I could just go straight from my dorm at the UW to the airport!)

Anyway, from what I can tell from the UW summer quarter website, it wouldn't be significantly more expensive, to pick up another class. If I stayed for the full term, I could do Medieval Women (awesome). If I just do a-term, I could do Comparative Colonialism (potentially awesome. also potentially full of things that would offend me on principle). Or History of Christianity; I wonder if that would count towards Medieval Studies? And there's an a-term class called "Rome", that one also looks fascinating...

*muses* If I'm not doing an intensive language program, it doesn't seem like a terrible idea to pick up another class. (Although, damn, it looks like the only a-term lab science is at the same time as Latin 300. *pouts*)

this is probably not what Spenser was thinking. or my professor. or JJ Abrams

I am possibly more of a nerd than I thought. Am reading The Faerie Queene for class, and have come to Book IV, Canto xii, stanza 13:

Thus whilst his stony heart with tender ruth
Was toucht, and might courage mollifide,
Dame Venus sonne that tameth stubborne youth
With iron bit, and maketh him abide,
Till like a victor on his backe he ride,
Into his mouth his maystring bridle threw,
That made him stope, till he did him bestride:
Then gan he make him tread his steps anew,
And learne to loue, by learning louers paines to rew

Which of course makes me think of the scene in Star Trek (2009) where Spock and McCoy are talking about how Kirk needs to be broken like a stallion. (Or...something, I cannot find the scene on YouTube, mostly because how the hell do you search for that?)

ANYWAY. You may all return to your regularly scheduled programming.