and so there was a sudden panic to learn Filologia Classica and Storia Greca. I passed my Greek History exam; the Philology remains to be seen (I went to take the spoken exam and after twenty minutes and varying degrees of success, I got thoroughly stumped by being asked the difference between the author's manuscript and the archetype on a stemma. And while I know the answer and the appropriate vocabulary, everything was just running round and round in my head in a blur of English, Italian, anxiety, trying to figure out which tense and which words to use... and I came up with a complete block. My lecturer then suggested I return and take a written exam. So I returned two weeks later, and the test was very kindly written.. yet I don't think I did as well as I should have and I'm slightly concerned I've failed that too.)I also took a 'Introduction to Greek Literature' in November/December, and nearly imploded with frustration. I've never had a lecturer that talks and talks without pause for three hours. And the digressions.. twenty minutes on why you should use the article with surnames in academic papers, lest the poor reader be confused as to whether the 'L. Rossi' listed in the bibliography is male or female. I mean, really? Should it make a difference? In my staunchly English mindset, this preoccupation with genders strikes me as bizarre, probably because I didn't have to spend my formative years learning whether inanimate objects were masculine or feminine.
I would have thought he
might have made the course more accessible, considering there were only nine students, two of whom were foreign, but no. In fact, every so often he'd comment on the fact that the foreigners were probably completely stuck by now and launch into another tirade. Fortunately it's not just me - the others decided we should all get together in January and revise together in the vain hope that at least one of us understood something.Anyway, with all this, I wasn't in an especially positive mindset. My flatmate taught me to knit, so I furiously knit a hat for my sister. And then two mittens (both right-handed), one arm-warmer and a pencil-case. On top of this, I've been trying to get the primary sources together for a paper I'm supposed to be writing (and in fact, should be doing now.) All in all, that's why I haven't been updating, but will be back in the New Year. I hope that anyone/everyone reading this has had a lovely Christmas and all the best for the New Year!
