Today I was out in the launch at
rowing and even though I wasn’t
coxing I was content because it gave me a chance to observe the water and the woods around the river. Some Coxswains don’t seem to notice the currents and patterns in the water and how they relate to the steering. Even if the water is a brackish color I watch it and observe the flowing, there are general patterns in certain places that I notice, probably due to other sources of piped in water flowing into the river. The river itself is almost dismal, it reeks of chemicals and the water flows from a sewage treatment plant, but there is a rehabilitated sort of vigor in it. There are large groups of carp and catfish thriving in the warm water that generally don’t attract human fishers due to the pollution, so they are free to the large birds that inhabited the area. I’ve seen a myriad of carnivorous water fowl and hawks flocking to the river. I’ve also seen shorebirds like sandpipers and seagulls. The vegetation is abundant and it is especially beautiful this time of year. There are numerous different types of trees and wildflowers, most which I’ve not identified, but I do know that they are exquisite and golden, even if they do grow from tainted water.
My Latin grade is not an A this year, but a sad and appalling B. Why? Well 3rd year we’ve been doing more grammar, less reading (thankfully 4th year is the opposite, it’s just reading the Aeneid) and for some reason my mind just doesn’t care about grammar. I’ll read a sentence and completely understand its meaning, but if you ask me what form the verb is etc. I have to think about it for awhile. I’m the same way about English, but it doesn’t really matter, after Jr. High because you don’t really study grammar much except in terms of writing. I figure I’ll just have to use the raw memorization (flashcards, writing over and over) to pass the grammar, even though this type of studying does not make me understand or notice grammar in the everyday Latin reading.
Speaking of Latin someone in my
AP English class did not know who Virgil was! How can you not know that, Virgil is referenced to in so many other books that I can’t imagine that someone would be so clueless. I guess this is not surprising though, since this is the same person who thought a Daffodil was a Dandelion when we were reading an Emily Dickenson poem with the word Daffodil in it.