I just got back from WJCL (Wisconsin Junior Classical League) Latin Convention!!!!!!! It was A LOT of fun. It was not by any means restricted to written tests, oral tests etc., etc., etc, there was a costume contest, a war machines contest (tin foil only in the actual ship), an impromptu art, memorized oratory, impromptu oratory, art contests of almost all types, certamen (a bit like latin jeopardy), a t-shirt contest and spirit competition. Spirit includes a door decoration contest, a humorous roll call skit and the actual spirit competition. The spirit competition involves standing (or jumping, dancing... if you're sitting you're probably not going to do very well) in a large room and screaming at the top of your lungs (believe me you have to, to be heard) cheers, chants... whatever you want to do to represent your school. Smiles and similar outfits are also key. The point of this competition is to prove that latin is not a dead language, and if you ever go to a latin convention and watch (or participate in) spirit any thoughts of latin being dead will soon leave your mind. The volume is unbelievable, 450 some students all yelling at the top of their lungs makes for quite a bit of noise.So this was my first year but our homeschool group has sent groups for several years now. We were the smallest delegation, 4 students compared to the next smallest with 9. But we did pretty well, our war machine held 17 dollars worth of pennies meriting 1st place for us in that contest!!!!!! We took first place in the spirit contest for the small school category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our spirit included cheese heads, crazy hair and wigs (including a really long braid worn by the one guy on our team) impromptu togas, dancing around the table screaming "My cheese it has three corners, three corners has my cheese, and had it not three corners, it would not be my cheese!!!!!!!!!" and yelling chants like carpe caseum (seize the cheese), Julius Cheeser and carpe diem (sieze the day). Oh BTW, all the cheese elements are due to the theme of that day "Seize the Cheese" (the overall theme was carpe diem).
This is starting to get to be a really long post, I will continue later (maybe:). Oh and the picture is of our team in front of the capitol in Madison.
This is starting to get to be a really long post, I will continue later (maybe:). Oh and the picture is of our team in front of the capitol in Madison.
P.S. This blog has been really inactive lately, sorry.
Oh, Ria, it's been a while since I visited your most excellent blog! Love the background-- have no inkling as how to do one for me!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I will forward this post to our Number Three, Greek and Latin scholar he is-- I am planning on starting a Jr Classical league chapter for our homeschool group next year! Wish me luck! This post will give him a better glimpse on the League's life than what I've told him. Thanks!