Rusticatio Virginiana, Part 2 of 4

On Wednesday, we woke up as usual. Breakfast was once again optime , thanks to the Leopardi this time. Once again, we headed for Aula Scholastica for a Congressus Omnium. I wish I could remember exactly what we learned at this one, but it really all is a blur! I THINK we learned the countries of the world and the languages associated with them. I speak Anglice (obviously), Lingua Latina (yes...), Lingua Francogalica, and Lingua Graeca Antiqua.

Once again, there was the fifteen minute break, and then the Hyaenae (Myself, Irenea, Amata, and Glis) headed off with Aloisia, our Repetitrix, for some more poetry reading. Since I haven't mentioned her yet, Aloisia is one of the sweetest, most accommodating, warmest women I have ever met. She made it clear to me from the beginning that she would watch out for me and my allergies and health issues and she did the same for Irenea. What a wonderful help she was! Anyway, we read another fun poem, but Irenea and I both realized that discussing it was difficult because we were experiencing what Annula calls “Linguistic Interference” and thinking in French! Ah, well. We managed!

After Exercitationes cum Repetitores and another 15 minute pausa, the Hyaenae and the Ursi headed down to the kitchen for exercises with Andreas before the Hyaenae had to prepare Lunch and the Ursi had to clean it up. So the group was: Amata, Glis, Irenea, Myself, Iustus, Tobias, Regulus, and Iosue. Out of that group, Tobias, Regulus, and Iosue are relatively quiet. This time, we all walked around the kitchen, familiarizing ourselves with the various cooking instruments in this particular kitchen. We learned about all of the spices and condiments, and what each meat was called. Then, the Ursi left, and the Hyaenae set about preparing Lunch. Glis and I both have...sailor mouths in the kitchen, but I hope we were drowned out by Irenea humming Heather Dale's “Flowers of Bermuda!”

At lunch this time, Irenea and I told Iustus and Rahel about Heather Dale and her supreme awesomeness (in Latin, no less! Go us!). We found that many of the people at the Rusticatio enjoyed Celtic Music and were really musically talented at that. After lunch, during the hour-long pausa, Irenea and I, while chatting with Rahel, found out that she is a D&D player, as well as a “nerd” just like us. Score!

Up next, the day's second Congressus Omnium. Once again, we played a game. This time, three people were picked to go sit up in the front. The rest of us had little white boards. From behind the three players, Annula would hold up a word, or the name of a country, or the name of a person. We had to write down the first word that came to mind and then, on Annula's cue, hold up our boards. The three in front then had to guess what word Annula was holding up. When I was up there, we had countries or “lands of the world.” If I had had more faith in my response, we would have gotten the “land of the world” right. Boo, America Meridiana! Oh well, next time.

Once more, a fifteen minute break and then the Hyaenae and Leopardi joined together for Exercitationes cum Annula. So, all of the Hyaenae plus Brennus, Christophorus, and Scottus. I cannot, for the life of me, remember what we learned in this specific session, but I do remember thinking, “I really like these sessions. It's awesome to see everyone’s personalities!”

Dinner was once again fantastic. After dinner, there was a surprise meeting. We were handed scripts for “Auricula Meritricula” (Auricula, the little prostitute!) and were sent off in two groups to read through it for the first time. Although these groups were not going to stick, we were supposed to start thinking about what part we wanted to play when we performed the play at the end. I quickly decided that Auricula had too many lines. Dolia, the clever slave girl, however, looked nice. Perhaps I could play that part. I guess I would find that out tomorrow, when we split into our true groups. The thing I remember most from that night? Brennus, reading the lines of Laurina, the Madam. He was fantastic.

Once again, Irenea, Rahel, and I talked about life, the universe and everything after showers and before bed. I really appreciated both of their optimistic, cheerful attitudes.




On Thursday, we woke up as usual. Breakfast was once again optime , thanks to the Pumae this time. Tea, however, was very, very necessary today. I think I drank three mugs. Two at Breakfast, and then one after the first Congressus. The Hyaenae also had to clean up breakfast today. Ah, well. Sic est vita. Once again, we headed for Aula Scholastica for the Congressus Omnium. I wish I could remember exactly what we learned at this one...

Once again, there was the fifteen minute break, and then the Hyaenae (Myself, Irenea, Amata, and Glis) headed off with Andreas, because Aloisia was occupied helping Aurora (our AMAZING coordinator) with something or other, for some more poetry reading. We read another fun poem, this time about Epicurus, and making fun of his desire for more and more food.

After Exercitationes cum Repetitores and another 15 minute pausa, the Hyaenae and the Ursi headed down to Aula Scholastica for exercises with Annula. So the group, once again, was: Amata, Glis, Irenea, Myself, Iustus, Tobias, Regulus, and Iosue. We learned more about how to talk about what we did and didn't like, along with more associative learning. God, I love Annula. Without her, I never would have been so into learning and practicing so much Latin! (I mean, I would have done it, but not with the fervor that I did!)

At lunch this time, Irenea and I chatted about education and PhDs with Richardus, and then talked about educational theories, books, and methods of teaching Latin with Iohannes the Repetitor, Iuliana, Richardus, Rahel, and Amata. I got some Really Good Ideas! Thanks, all!

Up next, the day's second Congressus Omnium. We played a game, much like Wednesday's game. Once again, three people were picked to go sit up in the front. The rest of us had the little white boards. From behind the three players, Annula would hold up the name of a person in the room. We had to write down the first word that came to mind and then, on Annula's cue, hold up our boards. The three in front then had to guess what person Annula had written down. The words that people thought up were awesome, and very descriptive. Alas, I was not one of the guessers or the people who had to be guessed. Then, we played a bingo game, using the questionnaires that we had to fill out on the first night. Aurora had gone through them, picked out some really interesting ones, translated them into Latin, and made a bingo board out of them. I appeared on the board twice, as did Irenea. Crazy stuff! We had to go find people who had done these things. Michael won, awesomely.

Once more, a fifteen minute break and then the Hyaenae headed off for Exercitationes cum Repetitores. This time, we started reading a poem in Latin about how to behave at the dinner table. It was written in the Renaissance for young boys, giving them a list of rules. It was...quite interesting, but fun to discuss and explain in Latin. And Glis is talented at burping on cue....

Dinner was once again fantastic. After dinner, we were assigned our true groups for Auricula Meritricula” and were sent off in our two groups to read through it and decide firmly on parts. Alas! Irenea was in the other group, but my group rocked anyway! We had:

Iustus as Ballio (the evil pimp)
Rahel as Auricula (the little prostitute)
Scotus as Marcus (the poor poet that the prostitute loves, and who loves the prostitute, but they cannot be together. Eheu!)
Ioanna as Pseudolus (Marcus' clever slave)
Myself as Dolia (Pseudolus' love, and the one who lures Pugnax away from Auricula)
Michael as Pugnax (the soldier who wants Auricula)
Patricius as Edax (the parasite who follows Pugnax around and flatters, in hopes that he will get fed well by Pugnax)
Amata as Silex (Marcus' father) as well as our master directrex
Dido as Laurina (the Madam)
Glis as Malacus (the horny old man who turns out to be Auricula's father, thus making her a free woman!)

We read the play through, knowing full well that we had to have the lines mostly memorized by the next time we met. When we all got back to the room, before showers, I learned that Irenea was her group's Auricula. She showed me all that she had to memorize, and I promised to help her. Terrified that I would suck at my part, I ended up crying a bit to Irenea and Rahel after the read throughs were completed. However, both of them assured me I would be fine. Hey guys? You were so right.

Next: Friday and Saturday

Valete!

~Aurelia