Comparative Culture, Tuesday, Period One

[doubleohblonde]

The desks in the classroom had been arranged in a rough circle, so no movie today, kids.

"Good morning, class," Bond greeted them. "And welcome back from your break. Speaking of which, one way to learn about a culture is to spend a period time immersed in it, so today I'd like those of you who went on the school trip to talk about what you learnt about the culture there, any one who instead went to their homes can discuss if they noticed if anything felt different once they were back there."

[ooc: wait for ocd]

[Class Roster]

Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain and You [Weds, 3rd Period]

[atreideslioness]

When students arrived in the Danger Shop today, they'd find it set up for rock climbing.

"Hello, students," Ghanima said briskly, a pile of handouts available on a bench beside her. "If I had known where your Fall Break was headed, we would have studied this sooner. Today, we study mountains and rock climbing."

"The important thing to remember about mountains is that each one is different, depending on the size and location," she said. "High mountains, and mountains located close to the Earth's poles, reach into the colder layers of the atmosphere. They are consequently subject to glaciation, and erosion through frost action, and such processes produce the peak shape for which mountains are known. Some of these mountains have glacial lakes, created by melting glaciers. Mountains can be eroded and weathered, altering their characteristics over time, so even if you've been to an area once, it may not be the same as before."

"Tall mountains have different climatic conditions at the top than at the base, and will thus have different life zones at different altitudes. The flora and fauna found in these zones tend to become isolated since the conditions above and below a particular zone will be inhospitable to those organisms. These isolated ecological systems are known as sky islands and/or microclimates."

"Mountains are also generally less preferable for human habitation than lowlands; the weather is often harsher, and there is little level ground suitable for agriculture. At very high altitudes, there is less oxygen in the air and less protection against solar radiation Acute mountain sickness, caused by hypoxia - a lack of oxygen in the blood, affects over half of lowlanders who spend more than a few hours above 3,500 meters, or 11,483 feet."

"Today, you'll be learning how to scale these majestic landmarks." Ghanima gestured to the gear and the walls. "There's easy, medium, hard, and expert trails here today, you just have to follow the color-coded tape paths. Or, you can try making your own goals. Race each other, work in teams, or get a feel for some of the unconventional maneuvers you might have do in order to move about a mountain."

"I just ask that you warm-up on the easy and medium trails first, no matter how advanced you think yourself. I don't want anyone getting hurt after surviving Skyrim."

How To Get By In A Hostile World, Wednesday

[suitably_heroic]

"As some of you might have noticed last week," Atton said, "Fandom weird has a habit of following people around no matter where they are. My TA - also known as the guy with the dumb hair over there - thought maybe it was a good idea to spend some time strategizing how to deal with that. I mean, on a school trip, nobody's going to care because you won't see them again anyway, but if you're going to normal Earth college after this or whatever, it'll be a pain in the ass."

Coincidentally, he was teaching this in one of the normal classrooms this morning. Thinking ahead, and everything.

He walked up to the board and wrote down PROBLEM | SOLUTION.

"Sure, you could come up with stuff on the spot and handle it as it comes," he said, "But hey, sometimes it's easier if you plan these things out in advance. Take genderswap, for example."

He dutifully jotted down genderswap, then pulled a face. "...Okay, Sparks, you handle the writing from here on in." He tossed the marker in Sparkle's general direction. There. That was solved. "Genderswap," he repeated. "Also known as the process of the island turning you into another gender than the one you're accustomed to. Now, sure, you can lock yourself up in your room for the day, but that's a pain in the ass. There are, however, a couple of ways you can set things up so this is easier when the time comes."

"If you're going to college after this, it's probably the easiest," he added. "Just tell everyone you have a sibling people rarely see, if ever. Or a cousin, if you're worried your family is gonna show up and muddle things up. Another option, if you're comfortable with that, is just convincing everyone that every once in a while you like to mess with the way you present yourself. Or say you have a booty call. Or... well, the list goes on. Plant these seeds before the day comes, and you'll save yourself a whole lot of stupid on-the-spot lying you haven't actually had the time to think through."

He sat down. "Now, turning into a pony-- that one's a little harder. Might have to work to make sure that you know all the exits to wherever you wind up. Make sure there's a back door, if you're in a position where you can do that. Or do the thing you do with the genderswap thing and just say sometimes you like to play dress up. Sure, people'll think you're a little weird, but you can just cover it up later by saying there was a convention." Beat. "Or make sure you live alone, or room with people who do drugs regularly. Actually, that last one's probably the easiest on everyone."

Thanks, Atton. Sound life advice right there.

"Bringing this back to last weekend," he said, "the luggage-- that one's actually pretty easy. Take the day off. Make sure that whatever place you're in, it has enough room to house the luggage. Prep a story about getting a bunch of novelty bags by error - maybe push it off on those neighbors you don't like. Or make it an excuse to plan a vacation."

He shrugged. "Anyway, there's about a million of these things that can follow you around," he said, "I think it's time we put our heads together, put as much of them on the board as we can, and brainstorm up some solutions."

Heroic Tales, Wednesday, Period Two

[toteshammered.livejournal.com]

When the students entered the Danger Shop, they'd find it set up with all the equipment necessary to make mead. Okay, so that wasn't specifically from any Midgardian tale, but Thor had just spent a week in a realm that reminded him in some ways of Asgard, and they had been very fond of their mead. And mead was often an important component when telling tales, so... it made sense. Really.

"I hope you all had an excellent holiday," he started out. "If you went on the trip, I am sure at some point one of the local citizens offered you a drink called 'mead'. I thought today we would learn how to make our own, as drinking mead and telling stories often go hand in hand." See? Totally valid reasoning. "Now, typically, mead will take about a month to ferment properly, which is why we are only simulating the process rather than actually creating it. I do not think the school's administration would let me keep several barrels of alcohol on the premises, even if the laws regarding young people and drinking are rarely enforced here," he also thought said laws were kind of silly, but that was an argument for another time.

"To make honey mead, one begins by heating honey, sugar, and yeast together until everything has dissolved..." he started, pausing to let the students complete the first step. The process was slightly different from what he was used to in Asgard, given the relative simplicity of Midgardian technology, but mead-making wasn't exactly a complicated process to begin with. Once everyone had completed all the preparation and had poured their mixture into the container, he pressed a couple of buttons on the Danger Shop controls, and the opaque liquid in the carboys turned much more transparent. "This is what mead looks like when it is ready to be bottled," he said, picking up a siphon. "So, take this, attach it to your container, and begin to fill your bottles."

When all was said and done, Thor handed out several bottles of mead that he had prepared of his own to the students, because really... it wasn't fair for them to do all that work and only have it result in simulated mead. "Just please wait until you are back in your rooms to actually partake in it."