deireadh an tuath;

"O môr henion i dhú
Ely siriar, êl síla
Ai! Aníron Undómiel!"

~~~~~

Today I woke up and didn't feel like going to school.

Honestly. I just lay staring up at my ceiling and thinking, "...oh, God. And so it begins again."

But of course I pep talked myself, and rallied myself up a little bit, and I got up ready to survive the week even if I couldn't conquer it.

I walked into school, and the first thing that Junie said to me was, "...YOU LOOK TIRED."

...Tired? I do? But I got, like, six hours of sleep. Which is, like, six more than the average Singaporean student sleeps.

Junie; if you're reading this- I love you surprisingly much for someone I've only just gotten to know this year, + I am not Naomi from 90210, + if I had to be on a TV show at all it would totally be on Clash of the Gods/Battles BC/Xena: Warrior Princess and not some moneyed up Beverly Hills spin-off, + you make me smile and therefore are pretty awesome.

Speaking of ancient History, mythology etc; watched Clash of the Titans over the weekend with Di, Cephas, Wayne/Wade?, and Steve.

Cara: "I can't wait for Clash of the Titans!!!"

Steve: "Yeah, me too. I'm really into History. Imma nerd!"

...and I felt like spearing him through his toga because greek mythology NOT = history. Um, hello, MYTHology. Get your facts (or not facts, as it turns out) right.

Aanyway. CotT was incredibly incredible. 'Course I'm incredibly biased, because hello, Greek geek; ...but I was honestly smiling throughout the entire film. I truly wanted to step into the screen. Stupid 3D CGI.

Throughout the movie; Di, Cephas and I kept laughing at random intervals at certain wittily mythological references, which nobody else in the cinema seemed to get- presumably because while we were reading The Iliad and The Odyssey etc, they were off studying Vectors or Technology or Work Efficiency self-help books and other things infinitely more productive. Something.

Laughed over the Di And Cara language phenomenon.

She speaks to me in German, I speak to her in Elvish- and somehow we both understand each other perfectly, even though my entire German vocabulary consists of about 6 words, and she doesn't know her lembas from her mithril.

Gerich veleth nin, Di, ithilwen.

---

Today's Lit consol was nice.

We analyzed two poems- I took one look at them and broke into a huge smile because GOD living language.

"If We Must Die", and "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death".

I just sat there with pen half-poised, arrested in midair; and all I heard was battledrums and cries of old ghosts echoing over old fields, and the bugle on double duty--

first as a rallying call; defiant, dissonant, reckless like the unfurling of a rebel flag,

...and then later. banner fallen; dust settled. limbs of boys like red roots across a dirty battlefield; intertwined. flesh and flag and silence and stone.

-----

If We Must Die

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain, then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!