Rusticatio, Part 3 of 4

The fourth for July, Friday began like every other day. Breakfast was optime, thanks to the Ursi, this time. Once again, three teas were needed for me! (Yup, that's how much brain energy this takes! You don't realize how hard you are working until a few days in....)

In Friday's Congressus Omnium, we learned how to talk about the various sports we played. Exempli gratia-- “Ludus Americanus” is Baseball. (mihi susque deque de ludus Americanus=I don't care about Baseball.” It was actually quite interesting to hear about what sports people played. :-).

Post Congressu, the Hyaenae once again headed out with Aloisia. This time, I ended up explaining to the rest of my group how Ultimate Frisbee was played. (This is VERY HARD in Latin!) Then, we read some more, venturing deeper into the list of rude things to do at the dinner table. Communication, by this point, had become easier than I ever thought speaking in Latin would become for me.

One point I realized I forgot to mention in the last entry: On Thursday night, Irenea and I translated Bryn Mawr's “Good Night” round into Latin with the explicit plan to teach it to all and sing it to Annula after dinner on Saturday.

And then off went the Hyaenae and Leopardi to the kitchen, to learn about grilling...in Latin. As it WAS the fourth of July, we had a big barbecue to celebrate. There were sausages, and hamburgers, and veggie burgers, and ribs, and hot dogs...etc...Lunch was fantastic. We all enjoyed each other's company outside, sitting under the trees on the gorgeous grounds of Claymont. Cleaning it up was, even, relatively pleasant!

There were supposed to be games after lunch, to celebrate the Fourth, but, right when we got everything set up, it began raining. Boooo Hissssss! It rained like hell. So we got a chance to really work on our plays. Once again, we split up into our two groups and rehearsed, deciding on costuming, blocking, trying to remember our lines...and trying to think of creative ways to have our lines written down so that we could look at them during the actual play if we needed to do so. Fearing that I would need it, I made a mirror out of cardboard and wrote my lines on that. Many characters wrote their lines on index cards taped to wine bottles. Some taped their lines to their hands. Ioanna, playing Pseudolus, wrote her lines on index cards and put them inside my copy of The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Score. Amata is a fantastic directrix. Actually, everyone had lots of good, creative ideas. It was truly a collaborative effort. We rehearsed for much of the afternoon, and then had a nice, simple dinner thanks to the Vulpes.

After dinner was filled with more rehearsing, more line memorization, and more costuming work. Amata rehearsed my lines with me until we were both sure I had them down cold. Amata, thank you SO MUCH for all of your help and encouragement. :-)

Nervous for the plays on Saturday, we all headed to bed a bit earlier than usual.



Saturday came around, as had every other day. Optime breakfast, thanks to the Leopardi, three mugs of tea, and the Congressus Omnium. However, this time, after the Congressus, we applauded Annula and the Repetitores for all of their amazing hard work. Irenea and I Anassed her, and, though the others in the room did not understand it, the three Bryn Mawrters teared up quite a bit.
The Hyaenae and Leopardi gathered for one final round of Exercitationes cum Annula, which were amazing. Annula ran us through our paces, making us recall everything from the first day and after. The sheer energy in that room was enough to charge us all up for the rest of the day!

After a great lunch, thanks to the Ursi, we put together final plans for the plays. Finally, at 3:00, the plays were ready to begin. My group went first. Irena took huge amounts of pictures with my camera, which you can see at the link in the previous post. Our cast was fantastic. It went off pretty much without a hitch, and we all got through our lines! (I, for my part, was amazed at how well I remembered my lines!) And I got cat-called my Annula. Guess I'm better at being seductive than I thought.

Irenea's cast went next. Directed by Daniel, their version of the play was a bit darker than ours. I was impressed with Iuliana's portrayal of Pugnax, and also with the fact that Irenea knew her own lines cold, as well as everyone else's. Whereas Iustus (our cast) made a funny Ballio (pimp), Brennus (other cast), while amazing and funny, made a much more threatening Ballio. Once again, pictures can be seen at the previous link. (Also, the pictures are good for putting faces to names!)

Both plays were fantastic! Congratulations all! As a reward for all of our hard work, we were allowed to choose a poster of vocabulary from one of our sessions with Annula. Iustus had the brilliant idea of asking Annula to sign his, and soon, we all followed suit. It was then that Irenea and I started tearing up for real.

After a fantastic dinner, we all signed a card for the owners of Claymont and presented it to them. We sang “For he's a jolly good fellow” in Latin! And then we headed outside. There, the Ursi + Brennus set about setting up the fireworks that we were supposed to have had on the Fourth, but had delayed, since it was raining. While they set them up, Amata, Dido, Daniel, myself, and Rahel threw around this gigantic, ultra-light frisbee-type disc. When I mentioned to Daniel that I had a real frisbee in my bag, he excitedly said, “Go get it!” So I did. Taking charge, Daniel organized a game of Ultimate Frisbee right then and there. It was awesome. Although Daniel, Tobias, Iustus, Paulus (the other chef), and I were the ones that had clearly played before, EVERYONE who played was fantastic. Amata, Dido, and Rahel were standouts, and Irenea, though she was not the best catcher, proved very skilled at keeping others from getting the frisbee! Unfortunately, she fell, ending the game. Irenea, you scared the Hell out of all of us! I am SO GLAD you were OK!

The fireworks were AMAZING! We all watched with awe as they flew into the air, full of beautiful color and awesome patterns. Once they ended, we headed into the dining room for a full group meeting. It was dark now, gorgeous. As we all sat there, Irenea and I taught the Good Night Song to everyone and serenaded Annula. From our vantage point, we watched as many people got teary. The song, frankly, is too gorgeous NOT to cry. Then, Amata presented the card that she had made for Annula and the Repetitores to Annula. We had all signed it, and we sang “For he's a jolly good fellow,” modified for the Annula and the Repetitores. By this point, we were all crying.

But we did cheer up a bit when Brennus took us into Aula Scholastica and taught us to Salsa. (I think!) Whateverso, we learned to dance! It was awesome! I have never “Ballroom Danced” before, but I have danced Ballet, Modern, Irish, and Mayuri. I guess it served me well, as Brennus whisked me around Aula Scholastica. Then, we danced to YMCA (in LATIN!) as well as “Quis Ponet Bomp” (Who put the bop in the bop-shu-bop-shu-bop!) also in Latin. We sang the “Horace Nagila” (Yes, Horace can actually be sung to Hava Nagila!) and we danced the actually dance as well! After this, Irenea and I took showers, and she headed to sleep, while I headed back downstairs to sing for a bit with some of the more nocturnal people.

It was the final night, but it could not have been more magical or fun!

Next: Sunday and final reflections!