We went to Certamen today! Er, that's the Latin competition. MISSED A WHOLE DAY OF SCHOOL YESSS! And I don't have to take a math Pop Quiz because of it! I'm SO happy...

Certamen was pretty fun. I had to sit out for two of the rounds though since we wanted one of our guys in for all 3 rounds, since he knew everything. Well, not REALLY, but he was our best teammate. Oh well. I'd say I helped our team score a grand total of at least 20 points!

... of course across alll 3 rounds we accumulated about 300, but oh well.

We won two of the rounds and I still say we should have won the other one. The other team got the easiest question in the world and our guy so had his hand up first. I mean, the answers were mosaic, fresco, and bas relief. It was asking about what's laying colored tiles on the ground or painting on fresh plaster! And they didn't know the bas relief one but a girl on our team did. Anyway, in that round we lost by 15 points, and would have won by 25 if we had gotten that question.

Oh well. We probably came in second. I mean, there was this other team who went before us in one of the rooms, they won the round 195 to 0. THAT is scary. Absolutely shut out. Wow.

I was starving by the time the three rounds were finished, so I paid 7 bucks for a cheese steak and soda. In hindsight I oughta have paid 4 bucks for the slice of pizza and soda, but whatever. The other restaurant sold a sandwich for EIGHT BUCKS. I don't care how good or how big that sandwich is, who sells a sandwich for EIGHT DOLLARS?

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The New Jersey Junior Classical League Certamen competition was held at the beautiful Princeton University campus. Wonderful architecture, a lot of history, very cramped auditoriums.

But I really love the architecture. You got these beautiful elegant columns and towering arches and battlements and stained glass... it's positively picturesque.

I shoulda brought a camera, but then again I'd rather not lug around an extra ten pounds of very fragile machinery all day to the various rounds of competition and then the school bus and parent teacher conferences...

But yeah. Princeton. Beautiful place.