Deserted Island Survival 101

[wasthecuteone]

As the students walked into the Danger Shop, they would find themselves on a beautiful beach, jungle behind them, sea in front of them, palm trees swaying in a gentle breeze. Directly in front of them stood their teacher, wearing a cotton sundress and holding a parasol. And off to the left, half in the water, half out, was the wreckage of a plane (or most of a plane). It was still on fire.

( That had been fun to program. )

Around the World in Seven Weeks [Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

Two men--one tall and blond dressed in Jedi robes (if you recognized that sort of thing) and one younger, shorter, stockier and redheaded, wearing jeans, though with the same bright blue eyes as the older man--waited for the class in front of the Portalocity office in town.

"Ho, everyone," the redhead began. "I'm Ben Skywalker. This is my grandfather Anakin--I know, he doesn't look it, long story, not really important--and this class is Around the World in Seven Weeks, where we send you through a portal to a new country every week, give you activities to complete and then expect you to return to us in one piece."

"Without having ticked off the people who live there," Anakin added a little vehemently. "Today," he said, striding over to the map of the world Portalocity had up on the wall ("We'll take you there! Or close enough!") and pointing to a country in South America, "we are going to Paraguay, a nation known for--"

"--not being Uruguay?" Ben suggested with a grin.

Anakin frowned at him. "Anyway, you are heading to the capital city of Asunción, where you will be given two tasks to complete, as well as finding us again in our end location. Be safe, don't get lost, and we'll see you at the end."

Coping With Loss, Tuesday, Period 3

[not_a_whiner]

The great advantage to datapads over paper is that you didn't look so stupid or awkward casting glances at a datapad as you did, say, rummaging through papers. So... there was that.

Kaidan wasn't really in his element here, facing a bunch of teenagers, expected to talk about something that wasn't rerigging shields or blowing things up. That was gonna be... well, he'd see what it was gonna be like. He didn't quite manage a smile for the class as they came in-- as a teacher, he figured he could get away with that.

"Good morning," he greeted. "Welcome to Coping with Loss. I'm Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko, Systems Alliance. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to talk with you guys about grief and... how to handle it."

He took a glance down at his datapad before continuing. "Grief is a normal part of the emotional experience of most species," he said. "It's a brand of emotional suffering that, uh, happens when you lose someone, sometimes even something. You can grieve over a lost relationship or your own health just as much as you can grieve over someone's death."

He touched the desk, mostly for the sake of something to do. "There are a lot of myths about the process," he said. "Like that the pain is supposed to fade if you just ignore it for long enough. Trust me on that - it's just gonna keep coming back worse and worse until you deal with it. Ignoring it doesn't make you strong or capable, it just makes you stupid. It'll creep up on you when you need it least and mess with your head."

Okay. Maybe he didn't need to rely entirely on his datapad for this.

"Being 'strong' isn't always the right way. It might not even be the natural way. You're gonna go through a lot of emotions, sadness, fear, loneliness. Maybe you'll need to cry, maybe you won't, it's different for everybody. But... don't just push it aside. It's no good to anyone."

Kaidan scraped his throat. "Anyway, enough about that," he said. "This is the first class, so... introductions. Tell me your name, your class, and something about something you've grieved about."

Introduction to Meditation | Tuesday | Period 1

[justonecondition]

Originally, Bruce had planned to teach first-aid for the full summer. He knew it very well and it was something approximating a real educational class (practically health class, even) to the extent that he didn't feel like he was just screwing around doing nothing.

But apparently diversifying one's course offerings was the thing to do around here, and that was why the students arriving for class today would find a dimly-lit room with a lot of windows and a whole bunch of yoga mats and pillows on the floor, rather than desks lined up in rows. That would seem a little silly, since the name of the class was Introduction to Meditation and all. There was also a table at the front of the room with several pitchers of ice water with lemon, as well as some tea.

Deciding that, for the moment, standing seemed rather less pretentious than lecturing from a perch on his own yoga mat, Bruce cleared his throat and introduced himself.

"Hi," he said, with an awkward little half-wave. "I'm Dr. Banner. This is Introduction to Meditation, which you probably gathered from the mats and everything since I don't think there's a pilates class being offered. For those of you who might not be familiar with the concept, meditation is a broad term that refers to different schools of thought in regards to clearing your mind and achieving a particular emotional state. It's also... used a lot in anger management therapy."

Cough.

"We're going to be looking at theory as well as practice in this class, and there'll be a lot of sitting and meditating, so you're all encouraged to come dressed in comfortable clothing. It's first period, so if you want to show up in your pajamas, that's fine, as long as you, uh, wear pajamas." Please don't show up in your underwear. Jim. "I also want to ask that you please try to show up in a headspace that's conducive for the kind of work we're going to be doing. If you're feeling especially, um, emotional and don't think you'll be able to concentrate, I'll understand if you miss a class. But I think most people stand to benefit from knowing how to do what we're going to be studying, so if you're at all interested in the subject matter, please do come to class when you can."

He cleared his throat. "For today, I think the custom is to have you all introduce yourselves, so if you could please give your name, something you've recently been emotional about -- if you don't mind sharing -- and one academic subject that interests you, that'd be great. Um. Thanks."

Then he sat down. "Oh, and your TAs for this semester are Natalie Adams and--" he consulted a piece of paper-- "Darcy Lewis. So if you need anything and don't feel comfortable coming to me, you can speak to them."