MORE QUESTING! Thursday, Period Four

[toteshammered.livejournal.com]

During Thor's first few months in Fandom, he'd had the pleasure of experiencing the spectacle of the Summer Olympics via the television. The idea had intrigued him, and he'd been quite pleased to find out that there was, in fact, a Winter version of the festival as well. Given that Midgard's Nordic nations often excelled in winter sports, he found himself even more captivated in the events this time around.

... Which explained why the Danger Shop was set up the way it was, with a ski run, snowboard halfpipe, ice rink, bobsled track- and yes, even a curling sheet. In each area, there were athletes ready to give the students tutorials on their respective sports.

What all this had to do with Questing had yet to be explained, though.

"The typical image that springs to mind when we think of a quest is a journey," Thor began. "Hence the previous classes that focused on maps and navigation. Sometimes, however, a quest comes in the form of a contest. Currently, hundreds of athletes from many Midgardian nations are competing to earn glory both personal and for their nation, in many different contests of physical skill. Your task today is to try some of these sports. Obviously, you cannot be expected to master them within such a short time frame, but perhaps you will discover something worth pursuing further! And for those of you who may be concerned, yes, the safety protocols are fully operational and, should you be in danger of injury, will engage in order to prevent that from happening."

How to Cope with Being Suddenly Famous, Thursday Second Period

[jaegerbombdad]

"I'm going to assume some of you have been watching the Winter Olympics," Herc said today, "or at least are aware they're happening. Now, this is not my preferred Olympics," because his country sucked at them, "but there are a lot of things to learn from them. A lot of these athletes are not famous for the rest of the year, and a lot of them will go back to being not famous after these Games are over. But for the moment, they're getting microphones shoved in their faces and their names and words and actions broadcast all over international television."

He cued up a video on the screen at the front of the room. "This is Evgeni Plushenko," he explained. "He's not really an example of 'not always famous,' but I want you to watch him demonstrate an important skill." He pushed play, and Plushenko told an American reporter that his back was bothering him a bit, but he was going to rest a day and then get ready for the next part of the competition, after which the reporter immediately asked him, in light of what he'd just said about his back bothering him, if he was planning to participate in the next part of the competition. Plushenko didn't turn an eyelash, just repeated that like he'd said before, he was definitely planning to do so.

"Now, obviously," Herc continued once he'd paused the clip, "we can all agree that this reporter is not paying attention to the words coming out of her interview subject's mouth. But he doesn't let that get to him, he doesn't show that he's irritated, though he surely must be, he just answers the question and acts like a professional." Chuck, were you listening? Were you? "So, your job today is to pair up, and take turns asking each other stupid questions and responding calmly and professionally to those questions."

Sexual Health ; Thursday

[beyonce_pad_thai]

"So you were all just parents for a week," Mindy told the class as she stood at the front of the room, having just collected (what remained of) the plastic babies she'd given out at the last class. "Awful, right? The crying noise is crazy unpleasant. I mean, I want kids, but god, you have to be ready for that, am I right?"

Mindy was being very obvious about the angle she was pushing here.

"So, condoms, you guys. That's all I'm saying. There's a bowl in the front of the room. You can just casually grab some on your way out the door; no one'll notice. If you want any other kind of birth control we talked about the other week that you need a doctor's prescription for, come talk to me in my office here or at the clinic on Tuesdays and we'll make it work. Actually, I'd love for any of you to stop by the office. I think you'll find that my furniture and decor really make good use of the space."

She continued, "Today I want to have a discussion about parenting and what you found to be least pleasant about herding around a little ball of joy for seven days. Please be specific. I never got to do this assignment growing up, and I always hoped that it'd be me and some cute guy, maybe with freckles, leaning over a crib with a crying fake infant at two in the morning..."

Getting a little weird there, Mindy.

"Anyway, let's hear it."

Plus We Have a Motorcade [Thursday, February 13, 2014, 1st period]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh was about to open his mouth when a familiar voice began singing: "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, a thingie made of clay--" complete with a clanging bell.

Josh stared at the...nothing that was there. "Wow, talk about the wrong holiday. Also, hugely tonedeaf."

If anyone else noticed it sounded like the voice of a certain Dean of Students, well...Josh wasn't going to stop them.

"Right. One of the many, many benefits of being stupidly stinking rich is that if you give a presidential candidate enough money during a campaign, he or she might appoint you to be the ambassador to some totally awesome country like England, France, or the Bahamas," Josh said. "The problem is that the Senate approves ambassadorial appointments and they will ask you important questions like 'Have you ever been there in your entire life?' and 'Can you find it on a map?' These are questions that you should, frankly, know the answers to."

He pointed to a student. "Right then. Give me a country you'd want to be the ambassador to if you had a gazillion dollars and three questions you think they'd ask you about it."

Chemistry 102, Friday, Period 2

[usedtowhizz.livejournal.com]

"So, let's get real here for a moment," James said, putting his feet on his desk and leaning back. "I'm barely teaching you real chemistry, it's Valentine's Day, so of course we're going to talk about your love lives. That's because my options for tonight are the Spice Lounge in Waldorff, going for five stars in the Erotic Thriller category on Netflix, or chaperoning the dance and hoping one of the hotter teachers is sad about the fact that she has less options than me right now. So you're going to let me relive my youth vicariously through you. What do you have going on? If you share, I'll teach you a chemical reaction or two. Trust me, it'll be worth it."

"That's right, you've got to cut through some BS to learn something this week. That's the way life goes. I'm full of lessons today!"