Awesome News...

I just found out earlier today that Ben is actually going to be back on December 9th! That's almost 2 weeks earlier than we had thought and the best part is that he doesn't have to be back until January 7th! It is during my exams but he has tonnes of stuff to do and it'll give me a great motivation - I shouldn't have to study as much as I have in the past - no 18 hr days, so I'll see him in the evenings! YEAH! I'll have a "house-husband" over exam week!

Also, I bought a Killswitch Engage ticket earlier as well. They are too good to pass up just because no one else will come with me! It should be fun!

TTFN - I'm going to sleep!

Ben's Gone Back to Reality

Well, Ben left for his 6:30am flight this morning. Mum and I drove him to the airport. We all had to get up ridiculously early, thank goodness for daylight savings time - 4 am was really 5 am! We had a great few days - we relaxed, shopped, ate, and enjoyed spending time with each other. It was awesome. It was such a nice surprise and it will make these next few weeks go really fast. Ben has 3 weeks of coursework, 2 weeks of fieldwork, and 1 week of administration left until his french-language course. Before we know it, he'll be out of the crappy part of training! He's already booked his flight back here for Christmas!

Ben's Coming to Visit!!

Ben's coming to visit this Thursday! His flight arrives in the morning and he doesn't leave until Sunday! I can't wait!!!

Killswitch Engage and Latin

So, Killswitch Engage is coming to Edmonton on November 28th at the "Edmonton Events Centre" (which was Red's). Unfortunately, my taste in music is slightly different from most of my friends, and Ben's in Quebec - boo, no one to go to all the good concerts with! It's only $30 and I'm thinking of going - by myself *gasp*. It won't be as fun, but Killswitch Engage kicks so much ass that I'm thinking of doing it. I might canvas around and see if anyone's interested (if you are, email me!) but if not, then it'll be a Kirstin's night out! Hmmm...decisions, decisions...

In other news, the Latin quiz that I wrote Friday which I thought I failed - I didn't. I got 82% which is 1% below class average - I can handle that! Though I don't know how I can feel so stupid in this class, but be getting these sorts of marks. It doesn't make sense. Usually when you are struggling in a class (mind you, I think the whole class is struggling) you don't pull off marks between 80% - 90%. Weird, and I'm definitely not complaining, but it's just weird. This class is way too stressful! It's reducing my lifespan and pretty much every day that I do Latin (especially now, when we're translating Cicero - he's impossible) I ask why in god's name I'm taking this class! It's torture! Greek, on the other hand is easy, which seems really illogical. They use a completely different alphabet and it has a very similar structure to Latin, but it's easy and blindingly obvious. Weird... It's good for my mark but it's weird! I'm thinking that I'll concentrate more on Greek if it always seems so obvious to me! I had my Greek midterm this morning and the only vocabulary word that I didn't know came from a chapter that we haven't covered yet! I'm going to ask the prof about that one.

In Ben's world - he's passed his week long exam thingy! This next week is just administrative stuff before he starts the next course as well as a few classes and stuff like that. Hopefully this week will be way more relaxing than it's been so far. It would be nice for him to recover for a few days, and try to kick that cold that he's had for ever.

I almost forgot! I started applying to Grad Schools on Friday! It's really exciting and much less scary once you start. I'm actively applying for U of Western Ontario, U of Toronto, U of Calgary and McMaster U. All but one school hasn't opened their application process for Classics students yet. Grrr... I emailed all of them, asking questions, etc... so hopefully this process will go relatively smoothly.

This weekend I (finally) watched HBO's Rome series. I only finished the first 5 episodes, but I'm going to watch all of them soon! It was really good and I just found out today that they are filming Season 2 which is about Augustus (Young Octavian in the first Season). That's super cool because Caesar is interesting, but Augustus and Augustan Rome was something else entirely! I'm excited and you all should definitely see it!

Until next time...

Issa - a Poem by Martial

According to the introduction to Wheelock's Latin (3rd Edition) Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) was an Augustan age poet (who lived from 45 - 104 AD). He is famed for his more than 1,500 witty epigrams and for the satirical twist which he so oftengave to them. As he himself says, his work may not be great literature, but people do enjoy it (p. xxxvi).

ISSA (Wheelock's pg. 355)
Issa est passere nequior Catulli:
Issa est purior osculo columbae;
Issa est blandior omnibus puellis;
Issa est carior Indicis lapillis;
Issa est deliciae catella Publi.

Hanc tu, si queritur, loqui putabis.
Sentit tristitiamque gaudiumque.
...
Hanc ne lux rapiat suprema totam,
picta Publius exprimit tabella
in qua tam similem videbis Issam
ut sit tam similis sibi nec ipsa.
Issam denique pone cum tabella:
aut utramque putabis esse veram
aut utramque putabis esse pictam.
(Martial 1.109)


English translation (by me, with corrections in class):

Issa is more mischevious than Catullus' sparrow:
Issa is purer than the kiss of a dove;
Issa is more flattering than all girls;
Issa is more dear than India's gems;
Issa is Publius' darling little dog.

You will think that this dog is speaking if she whimpers.
She feels sadness and joyfullness.
...
In order that death not seize all of this
Publius portrays in a painting
in which you will see an Issa so similar to the real Issa
that not even she herself would be so similar to herself.
Finally place Issa together with the painting:
either you will think that both are real
or you will think that both are painted.

I thought this poem was adorable and I immediately thought of Chase!

Crazyness

Whew, time goes fast. I've finally got a free moment to update my blog, so here's what's new:

Ben's doing well in BOTC: he's surviving!! He just finished and passed a week long field exercise/test thingy! This upcoming week will be all admin and then they apparently start the actual Basic Officer Training Course the week after that. He got his dog-tags a couple weeks ago, which is morbid. They're used to tag bodies so the commander can keep track of the casualties. His new nickname is "Officer Cadet Sledgehammer" because he's as subtle as one!

My life: school, school, school....ben....school...etc. My life looks fairly boring but it's not been this last week. Last Sunday I wrote an email to CBC Sunday Morning and I recieved an email on Tuesday asking me if I want to film a segment of my email to put on the show! I said yes, of course. The funny thing about it is that I was writing the email, watching the show, talking to Mum, eating breakfast and drinking tea all at the same time, so I didn't think my email was too polished. I filmed it on Thursday morning in Churchil square! It was a neat experience, and it was really weird having to look into the camera lense - I tend to watch everything when I talk! So, hopefully I'll be on this weekend's show - either the CBC Sunday morning, or the evening 1 hour version! Cool!

On Wednesday I handed in my take-home midterm and presented my presentation on the Carthaginian Charioteer statue (all on the same day)! Whew. It was a stressful week leading up to it, but it went ok. I pulled lots of late nights (for me) - 1 o'clock in the morning! I found the midterm not too bad - it just took alot of time to think about how to answer the questions. The presentation caused me alot of stress but it went really well. It was thourough, well thought out, and I think I presented it ok! YEAH! Because of the stress of the past week, I didn't do great on the Latin quiz I just had today, but 1 won't count - and I think this will be the one for me! After school today I met Tessa at Nokomis (an awesome, local store on Whyte Ave) and I bought 4 really nice t-shirts (they had a buy-one-get-1/2-off sale!!!). That was the first time I had ever bought stuff there - now that I've started, hopefully it won't be big trouble!! Tonight, I've rented 5 episodes of HBO's Rome and I bought a bottle of wine - no homework in sight (althought I did start to apply to grad schools!)!!

On the weird side, you've got to check this out. I don't know what it's from, but the song will get stuck in your head!

Well, that's all for now, though I am going to post a cute Latin poem right after this!!

A New Picture of Ben and I!

Here's a new picture of Ben and I! This was taken this summer right before we went to Jason and Michael's wedding. Peter and Susanne were taking the picture. I think it turned out very well. We both look very spiffy! I'm not used to wearing dresses at all! What a nice change. The only bad part (at least for this specific occasion) was that it was ridiculously hot!