Rushing Romans

Phew - I feel quite mentally drained, I can tell you...apologies that this won't be a very long and probing post.  Today I've written a 1500 word essay about the Roman poets Virgil, Horace and Propertius from scratch.  From scratch!  Yesterday all I had was a pile of papers with bullet point notes on and right now I have exactly 1500 words (carefully edited so as to be not one word over or under the limit) which are not too bad if I do say so myself. 

I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm doomed to always end up rushing these assignments.  Every single time I finish one I swear to myself that next time I'll be ahead of the game.  I'll have studied the chapters ahead of the schedule, thus leaving myself ample time to a) plan and b) write the thing.  But now I find that there's only one assignment left before the exam!  It's due two months from now...what are the odds of me actually getting ahead and having that extra time to do it real justice (it's worth the highest percentage of marks of the whole course)?  At least I know that once I've done that one, all I have left is exam revision, which I actually enjoy as it gives me a chance to do flash cards, mind maps and all sorts of visual memory aides.  And after that my Wednesdays will be purely for creative writing! 

Assuming I don't crumble and sign up for another OU course in October of course...  ;o)

Adios for now! 
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Romans and ruminations

I can't begin to describe to you how much more interesting the Romans are than the ancient Greeks...  Somehow time has flown by and I'm already at the end of the third Block (first Roman one) in Exploring the Classical World, but have covered so much!  I think it's the fact that there is so much more physical evidence for the Romans - the things they invented (in true "what have the Romans ever done for us?" style) that we still use today, the Roman alphabet letters that we use every day and so on, while the Greek legacy is more conceptual.  Democracy, for example.  I find it hard to get really interested in it because it's abstract - I can't physically see it like an aqueduct or an unbelievably long straight Roman road.  To me personally, even though I've learnt about their military exploits, building programmes and achievements, the Greeks still feel like a sort of mythical race that never actually existed (I know, it sounds stupid!), while the Romans seem so much more alive.  Maybe it's the fact that I've been to Rome, but never to Greece?  It's hard to put into words - all I know is that this one block with all its information on the political hierarchy, temples and tombs and so on has been a joy to study in comparison to the parts of the Greek blocks which were something of a slog. 

But anyway!  I'm off to see King Lear at the theatre with my dad this evening, so am squeezing in a bit of writing this afternoon, now that I'm all up to date with where I should be with the lovely Romans.  I'm writing this post before I start (so that I don't forget later) so rather than tell you what I have done, this is what I will do.  

After the huge success of interviewing my Crunch heroine last week, I plan this afternoon to look back at her answers and consider what sort of scenes I could use to work these facts about her into the story.  Not by dropping a deliberate speech about x, y or z into somewhere it doesn't sit right, more along the lines of 'what could happen that would make her react in a way that shows she feels x about y?'.  I already have the basic skeleton of the plot sketched out, so I see this as starting to put meat on those bones (ew - not the nicest metaphor, but it does sum up what I'm thinking most accurately!).  

So I'd better go and get on with it hadn't I?!  

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I like days like these...

Greetings readers!  You'll have to imagine me beaming at you down the cables (? airwaves? fibre optics?) as today has been a really productive day! 

Not only have I done some writing (Project Blake - police/forensic) but I've also finally finished my archaeology course AND caught up to where I should be on my Exploring the Classical World course.  HURRAH!!  I can't say I'm sad to finish the archaeology - though I love the general idea of it, I've learnt that I'm not really made for the science side of things, I think I'd be more the anthropologist who comes along to look at the stuff after they've dug it up and cleaned it, and work out whose it was, what it was for etc.  But hey ho - I gave it a try and that's what life's all about isn't it? 

Classical World though is another thing altogether, I love it!  You may remember that last week I was doing my first assignment (still no result back by the way :o( ) about Homer's Odyssey, well this week looked at the 'prequel' poem the Iliad, which is just as fascinating, all about the Trojan War.  It's about 25,000 lines long so we don't study all of it (thank goodness!), just a variety of extracts, but all the same it's so thought-provoking to consider and learn about an era from so long ago.  Having been there last year and seen it first-hand, I can't wait to get to the blocks about ancient Rome! 

Totally unrelated to either writing OR studying, but taking up a semi-large chunk of the day - hubby and I also sorted out our greenhouse ready for winter (the frosts have started already here), so my tomato and pepper plants are now safely housed in the conservatory away from rain, wind and cold.  Here's to the stir fry their produce will eventually end up in!  :oD

Until my first proper 'Booklog' post on Sunday, goodbye and have a great week! 
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