National Mythology Exam is tomorrow!!!

You feel it as you walk down the hallways, sense the tension in the air, and secretly wish that you would suddenly come down with the flu--- of course, it's test taking time again. No, I'm not talking about the West Test or those other dreaded bubble tests. I'm referring to the time of year when the girls at my school, being the classy classicists that we are, compete in the National Mythology Exam and the National Latin Exam (for the sake of clarity, the names of the exams are almost misnomers because these are INTERNATIONAL exams. Yeah that's right Hungaria we are going to take you downtown to Chinatown! :) So tomorrow morning we will take the mythology exam. Pray for me, my fellow readers and let's hope that I remember all of the myths and such. Oh no... I just forgot who Zeus is. By Hecuba!- this can't be good.

You know, I better go finish studying now ( that thing just now with Zeus was embarrassing).

~Morgan, the classy classicist

Big pic

I promised you all pictures of my award winning project... This was a scene where Romulous and Remus were rescued by the she-wolf who lived by the Tiber River. As you probably know, Romulous killed Remus when they grew up because Remus kept leaping over Romulous' wall. That is why Rome is called Rome and not Remoria (that is what Remus would have named the area if he killed Romulous and not the other way around.) Maybe it was the best that Romulous named the city. My latin teacher noted that Remoria sounds more like a medicine to cure an upset stomach.

I think the turtle adds a special touch...

The bird represents the god Mars who is Romulous and Remus' father

WVJCL

You all will be pleased to hear that three girls (including myself) from our school went to the West Virginia Junior Classical League Convention(WVJCL) in Morgantown, WV this past week. And guess what... I am now the Secretary!!! Also, one of my friends is now the WVJCL Parlimentarian. We are avaible to sign autographs if anyone would like. Okay, that may be a little too much, so let me just write about what we did.

Before I begin I would like to note that this convention was not what my 10yr old brother would call a "nerd alert"(I promise you he does that anytime I metion latin). Everyone was VERY entergetic and very passionate about reviving this so called "dead language". There were five schools that were represented in the convention. Some of my friends that I have known since first grade were even there with another school. But, let me stress, that there was alot of work that we had to do while we were in Morgantown. There were numerous tests that we had to take and two certamens that we competed in. In all, our little school brought home 13 ribbons. Not too shabby, girls!

It was no wonder that the Lakeview Resort was the venue of choice for the 2011 WVJCL: There was a SpaROMA (get it Rome, Roma haha!) and on the lamps outside of each room, there was a greek key. This picture was taken ouside of my hotel room.

They call it Lakeview Resort for a reason...




There was also a very informative presentation about Cleopatra by Vicky Alvear Shecter. I recommend that you visit her blog and website- she has a post about the WVJCL on it!

http://www.historywithatwist.blogspot.com

From there you can visit her website. Thank you once again Ms Shecter for such a wonderful presentation.


Our school won these awads:

Toga Fashion Show~
Most Romanesque Outfit

Certamen!~
3rd place

Projests~ I will post a picture of our projects later
Models
1st:
3rd:

Mosaics
2nd:

Written Tests
~Derivatives-3rd place

~Grammer(level 3&4)-1st

~Reading Comp- 2nd

~ Vocabulary (level 3&4)
1st
2nd
3rd

Tyrannosaurus Rex: King of the Tyrant Lizard

In science class, we are learning about the facinating period in which dinosaurs roamed Earth. I was very intrigued by the T.rex in particular, so I did some research about them. You probably know that the scientific names of most animals are latin, and I found what T.rex means.

This question was asked by someone on the Enchanted Learning website- I thought it was interesting...

Q: what does rex in t. rex stand for?
from ?, ?, ?, ?; December 6, 2000
A: It means king (in Latin). The T. should be capitalized because it stands for a genus (and the genus name is always capitalized, although the species name is not). The T. stands for Tyrannosaurus (which means tyrant lizard in Latin).

I can't wait to show my science teacher this blog post next period!

Which goddess do these pics remind you of?

Hint: This is Athens, Greece

Olive Branch

Aren't these owls cute!!!

Athena- by special request

America, here is the profile of your favorite goddess.

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was perhaps Zeus' favorite child. That may
(or may not)be because she sprang fully grown and armed from her father's head. I guess he was spared the teenage years...

Here are some facts about Athena:

*Her mother was Metis, goddess of prudence(though she forget this prudene and was swallowed by Zeus when she morphed into a fly). She now lives in Zeus' head where she, for eternity, will badger her ex-husband. Oops... I meant give him "advice" for eternity... My mistake.

*She is symbolized by the olive branch. She is also recognized by the owl.
Hoot Hoot!

*Nike, the spirit of victory, follows her costantly. I wouldn't mind having this particular spirit follow me around...might be useful.

*She, like her other immortal relatives, took GREAT offence when we mere mortals demonstrated hubris against her.

*I suspect that her decendants have a horrible fear of spiders(I base that judgement on Annabeth in the Percy Jackson books). This goes back to that whole hubris thing with Arachne.

*America,a dedicated Morgan's Mythology follower who keeps writing comments, posting on the mesage boards,and sending me messages, is Athena's biggest fan.

*PS: this post is on the new gods and goddess page!

Veni Vidi Vici - here you go Annemarie!

Forget Julius Ceaser's famous words: here's the twenty first century retake on it:
Isn't the big book of quotes insightful?

Veni Video Vici, I came, I appeared on televion, I conquered.


(I'm kidding...Don't you dare forget-veni,vidi, vici I came, I saw, I conquered)