My friend Grace went to a 2-week Latin camp in Harrogate last year, and she recommended that I go to one to prepare for my Latin A Level this September. I had no idea what to expect, and was certainly not prepared for the rollercoaster that was to follow!
I arrived after an eventful 3 hour train journey, during which time I bumped into another Latin camper, Edie. We ended up sharing a taxi together to the Ladies’ College where the camp is held, and we got along really well so she introduced me to her schoolfriend and roommate Coco. I met my roommate Sara, and we all quickly became great friends together which was very reassuring as I’d been worried about the friend-making aspect!
We had our first lesson that very night, during which we met our lovely tutor Katie. She is so knowledgeable and funny and I had a great time with her over the two weeks (although she did have to take a week off for family emergency reasons, during which time I had an equally great tutor, Laura). The aim of the camp was to increase fluency in reading Latin texts, so we got through a good 200 or so pages of original Roman writings across the fortnight. We began with Tacitus’ Nero and Agrippina, which was one of my favourite texts that we read. Latin literature is hilarious, moving, outrageous and stupidly complicated in equal measure. We often joked (half-joked) that we had no idea what was going at any one time. Who had just been killed? By whom? Was he the one who killed his wife to marry his daughter? Or the one who married his uncle? Oh, they’re the same person?
Over the course of the next fortnight, we finished Nero and Agrippina, read Apuleius’ Metamorphoses and multiple stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: the tales of Echo and Narcissus, Tiresias, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, and Daedalus and Icarus. My favourite out of those was probably Pyramus and Thisbe, as it had the saddest, romantic quotes in it 🙁
The main thing I should say about camp is that it was extremely intense. We had three hour-long lessons a day, an hour-long lecture in the evening, a daily grammar test, and insane amounts of prep to fit in between lessons. I was lucky if I had 5 minutes to spare before the next lesson began, after doing my prep. And I do admit to copying someone else’s once (their suggestion) when all I wanted to do was put my pen down for one hour and go swimming with my friends. 😂
The camp wasn’t just about studying all day though. We went on 2 days out, one to Hadrian’s Wall and one to York. For the Hadrian’s Wall trip, we had to get up at 4.45am, ready to be on the coach at 5.00 ready for the 3 hour journey to the start of our hike. We trekked like zombies along the wall (which was very low and sort of came and went 😐) for 2 hours, then visited some different museums and the fascinating Roman settlement, Vindolanda.
The York day trip was tainted somewhat by the incessant downpours which drenched me to the bone and discouraged me from standing around outside to take photos. However, we did get to visit the Jorvik Museum which included a cool little ride through a modelled Viking city. We also went charity shopping, where I bought a really pretty dress for the Roman party that was to come…
On our final night, we had an amazing Roman costume party. Everyone joked that it was going to be awkward and quiet and boring and people would leave early, but everyone had a fantastic time instead and we danced around and sang badly for hours into the night! Most people had done the classic sheet toga trick, but there were a few really cool costumes. Edie actually won the costume competition with her Hercules disguise – red lion head wig thing, a club, and arms stuffed with tennis balls for biceps. She also brought along Sara with a slit throat as Hercules’ murdered wife, and they found a plastic baby in the props cupboard which they covered in gory face paint to represent the murdered baby.
The party was a really fun conclusion to an amazing 2 weeks. I was running on 5 hours of sleep a night and the constant adrenaline of extremely overdue deadlines and bad coffee, but I made some wonderful friends and lots of hilarious memories. I really hope I can go back again next year!
