Folklore Fiancé and I both ended up taking summer courses over the past few weeks, which is why I have been less than attentive to some of my social media until recently. We were both working nearly every day on our lessons and assignments, so the summer has gone by much quicker than usual. The reason I ended up taking a summer course was that I had only taken two classes during my first semester at Villanova, with permission to have the third course I would have had that semester during the following summer. The courses that were offered over the summer were only Latin-based courses, one of which I would have taken (an accelerated Latin course for a refresher, which I definitely need at some point) if it had counted towards my Master's program. Alas, it didn't, so I was in the course Roman Drama.
Since I focus specifically on the Civilization aspect, I take most of my courses in translation, so part of the class was reading Seneca's Medea in Latin and translating as they went. All the other plays we read, everyone read in translation, though, because we had to read them before the following week and no one would have had time to translate that much material in so little time. (If you can do that, please tell me your secrets.) I thoroughly enjoyed all of the plays (despite how gruesome some of them were - yikes) and I had never read any of Seneca's writing, so this was all new for me.
The whole time was a blur, really. My class was during one of the days I have off (since I work in a museum, my "weekend" is Monday/Tuesday) so I was basically not home the entire seven weeks I had class. The summer consisted of me waking up with my Fiancé, making breakfast, and getting ready for the day. There was a lot of Starbucks stops, then library trips, and sitting in the computer center at the college while I waited for my Fiancé to be done with their classes.
This worked out particularly well for me, as I would do my homework and readings while I waited for my Fiancé to finish class; my class overlapped with the time they were in Political Science, so often I would be finished at the same time. The only issue we ever had was when they got out of class early - so what I would end up doing is sign in to the Zoom meeting on my phone so that we could go home, and I'd keep my internet signal the whole way there while my classroom was essentially in my pocket while I wore earbuds (our house is just down the street from their college). I was able to attend all the meetings with relative ease, save for a couple of internet connectivity mishaps.
The most frustrating part of this course was having to try and fit in time to research and write a 7-8 page paper in less than a week. At first, I wanted to focus on the crime and punishment aspect of the plays, tie it into law, and see if the law was reflected well in the plays with a comparison of ancient Greek laws and ancient Roman laws in the corresponding Euripides plays with Seneca. Unfortunately, the lack of time or the lack of resources made this an impossible route to take, so I ended up meeting with my professor (who I adored and hope I get to take another course with again), and changed the main idea of my paper. So, I essentially had to begin my research all over again.
After I had changed the subject matter, I took to Twitter to ask for recommendations, and as always, Classics Twitter came through, and I had plenty of references to use for my paper. The paper I wrote ended up focusing on Medea's position as a metic woman and how this affected her actions in both the Euripides and the Seneca plays. I speak extensively about this in an upcoming YouTube video, so I won't outline it here, but the gist of it is the way that Medea's status as a metic woman and how women were expected to act created a prejudice against Medea before she was even really a "monster." The aspects I covered were marriage, motherhood, and murder; it was challenging to squish all of it together in a 7-8 page paper, and I would like to expand it at some point.
Once the class was officially over, the worst part was yet to come: waiting for my grades. I try to be patient, but I'm such an anxious mess over the grades I get in coursework, not knowing what they are for the entire time of class makes waiting for the final grade so much worse for me. The past week I was an anxious mess, knowing my grade would be posted by Friday. Everyone around me was very reassuring about how they were certain I would have an A in the bag, so I shouldn't fret, but because I didn't have any check-ins on the way, so until it was a sure thing, I was going to be anxious. On top of that, I applied to a potential new paid position, and I should hear back from them soon as well. A lot of the end of July and early August has been me waiting to see how things are going to end up.
My grade was posted yesterday.
I got an A.
50% to M.A. in Classical Studies Complete
Since I focus specifically on the Civilization aspect, I take most of my courses in translation, so part of the class was reading Seneca's Medea in Latin and translating as they went. All the other plays we read, everyone read in translation, though, because we had to read them before the following week and no one would have had time to translate that much material in so little time. (If you can do that, please tell me your secrets.) I thoroughly enjoyed all of the plays (despite how gruesome some of them were - yikes) and I had never read any of Seneca's writing, so this was all new for me.
The whole time was a blur, really. My class was during one of the days I have off (since I work in a museum, my "weekend" is Monday/Tuesday) so I was basically not home the entire seven weeks I had class. The summer consisted of me waking up with my Fiancé, making breakfast, and getting ready for the day. There was a lot of Starbucks stops, then library trips, and sitting in the computer center at the college while I waited for my Fiancé to be done with their classes.
This worked out particularly well for me, as I would do my homework and readings while I waited for my Fiancé to finish class; my class overlapped with the time they were in Political Science, so often I would be finished at the same time. The only issue we ever had was when they got out of class early - so what I would end up doing is sign in to the Zoom meeting on my phone so that we could go home, and I'd keep my internet signal the whole way there while my classroom was essentially in my pocket while I wore earbuds (our house is just down the street from their college). I was able to attend all the meetings with relative ease, save for a couple of internet connectivity mishaps.
The most frustrating part of this course was having to try and fit in time to research and write a 7-8 page paper in less than a week. At first, I wanted to focus on the crime and punishment aspect of the plays, tie it into law, and see if the law was reflected well in the plays with a comparison of ancient Greek laws and ancient Roman laws in the corresponding Euripides plays with Seneca. Unfortunately, the lack of time or the lack of resources made this an impossible route to take, so I ended up meeting with my professor (who I adored and hope I get to take another course with again), and changed the main idea of my paper. So, I essentially had to begin my research all over again.
After I had changed the subject matter, I took to Twitter to ask for recommendations, and as always, Classics Twitter came through, and I had plenty of references to use for my paper. The paper I wrote ended up focusing on Medea's position as a metic woman and how this affected her actions in both the Euripides and the Seneca plays. I speak extensively about this in an upcoming YouTube video, so I won't outline it here, but the gist of it is the way that Medea's status as a metic woman and how women were expected to act created a prejudice against Medea before she was even really a "monster." The aspects I covered were marriage, motherhood, and murder; it was challenging to squish all of it together in a 7-8 page paper, and I would like to expand it at some point.
Once the class was officially over, the worst part was yet to come: waiting for my grades. I try to be patient, but I'm such an anxious mess over the grades I get in coursework, not knowing what they are for the entire time of class makes waiting for the final grade so much worse for me. The past week I was an anxious mess, knowing my grade would be posted by Friday. Everyone around me was very reassuring about how they were certain I would have an A in the bag, so I shouldn't fret, but because I didn't have any check-ins on the way, so until it was a sure thing, I was going to be anxious. On top of that, I applied to a potential new paid position, and I should hear back from them soon as well. A lot of the end of July and early August has been me waiting to see how things are going to end up.
My grade was posted yesterday.
I got an A.
50% to M.A. in Classical Studies Complete
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