Salvete!
Hello, everyone! Hope you all are having a fantastic Monday. I am thoroughly enjoying myself because this week is going to be far, far less stressful than last week was. I endured a very large Astronomy test on Wednesday, and my Montserrat midterm as well as the usual Greek quiz (on a not-so-fun concept) on Friday. My only assessment this week should be my Greek quiz, which I’m pretty much used to at this point. I also have lots to look forward to- in particular, a trip to the Worcester Art Museum for my Montserrat class. We do a lot of work with art in my class (jokingly dubbed the ‘light and sound show’ by Professor Joseph), where we look at ancient portraiture, sculpture, busts, pottery, and all sorts of neat coins. We’re going during class time Wednesday to the WAM to check out a few paintings that go along both with our class and our required reading this semester for the Self cluster- Ann Patchett’s Truth and Beauty. It’s a lovely book about the life of poet Lucy Grealy and Patchett’s long friendship with her.
And now that I have fast-forwarded a bit, let’s back up to last week. Lots of interesting things (besides my heap of schoolwork) happened. Most notably, I went to my first SPUD on Tuesday. SPUD (Student Programs for Urban Development) is a service organization which aids the Worcester community in all sorts of different ways. At my site, Cambridge Street, around seven of us go to tutor young children for two hours. I was a little hesitant at first to go because they children we tutor are living at or below poverty level, and I was nervous to encounter that. But when I got there and played with a little girl named Aja— colored with her, helped her with her ‘counting’ homework—I fell in love with the place.
I cannot wait to go tomorrow!
This weekend was one of the most relaxing of my life, and I managed to have a ton of fun. On Friday the Classics department and honor society, Eta Sigma Phi, held a little Latin and Greek recitation contest lovingly dubbed “Cookies and Kleos”—meaning Cookies and Glory. My senior friend Steph and I baked cookies and brownies for the event and all of the professors showed up to judge. (Speaking of professors, I think I mentioned that my advisor, Professor Nagy, was going to teach my Archaeology class last Tuesday…his lecture was excellent). Later on Friday, the girls and I piled into our friend Madison’s car and went to Blackstone, then Saturday went out to a huge mall in Natick, Mass. The weather was perfect all weekend and I must say, the winter blues are starting to lift up here on Mt. St. James.
Well, I have another hour or so to kill before Astronomy, and then after my friends and I are heading to Moe’s, a Mexican restaurant. “Moe’s Monday” has become sort of a tradition for us…a delicious one! Sorry for the novel, and Xairete!