“New year, new me” was perhaps the most bandied about phrase as our classical studies class met for cocktails. People promised to work harder, go to the gym and to go to more societies. I myself fell under two of those categories (exercise has never been a pleasure for me and I marvel at those who enjoy it), and I’m looking forward to doing more in societies and to trying to work harder. Hopefully these resolutions will stick.
This new year has found me living in the centre of Bristol, a street away from Waverley, Favell and the Rackhay, and sinfully close to Saint Nicks Market, which has the best food and is wonderfully affordable. Settling back into Bristol has never felt more natural, and this summer away from Bristol’s amenities, colours and vibrancy really made me miss it. I’ve already made the most of welcome week, having had two of the free burgers that Woodies (the church at the end of Woodland Road) gives out, and a free ice-cream too. I also went along to the Classics Symposium, hosted by the Classics Society, and enjoyed seeing all the years mixing and comparing summer stories.
This new term will also see me embarking on learning greek from scratch, which is daunting as I learnt no language at school, and my experience with latin in first year, although fun, didn’t get me the highest grades. Nevertheless, I wanted to prove that my low scores in latin were due to the lack of work, and a flatmate who had always done the homework (read as: after week 2, I just copied the homework and did no work myself). Perhaps third year isn’t the time to be trying to challenge myself to unfamiliar territory that could have me scraping a pass, but as I proudly proclaimed at cocktails “new year, new me”, and this new me is a greek aficionado. Languages do take a different set of skills, for one thing learning declension tables seems to require ritual chanting, but I relish the idea that there can be a correct answer, and the reward of knowing it is enough to have me chanting on the way to uni.
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