Best Defence [Thurs, Period 2]

[wrongkindofsith]

Much like last week, Cara's class were meeting in the salle, and any latecomers had dye balloons lobbed at them, unlike last week, there were training dummies set up in a row, as well as protective hand-gear.

"You weren't terrible," she began. "But if you only learn one thing from this class it'll be to throw an acceptable punch, so today we're going with useful but boring and drilling.

"I could come up with a whole speech about discipline, hard-work, and and muscle memory, but it comes down to this, if you freeze, you're dead, if you overthink, you're dead, if you're sloppy you're dead, actually I could go on all day, but those are the main three it's supposed to help with.

"It goes like this, I'll call out a number and you'll throw the corresponding punch, like this." Counting off, Cara demonstrated a series of four blows to the dummy's body, including a vicious knee to the its groin (sorry, not sorry, Jason) on four. "And since we're stating simple, I won't even break sequence until I'm sure you're ready for it." Pretty generous of her if you wanted her opinion.

"In any case, today I want you to go for technique, not speed or power, those'll come once you've got the first, and if anyone wanted a more exciting class today, just remember, I could have brought out the inflatable clowns." Be glad she hadn't, they were really creepy.

Japanese Art, Friday, Period Two

[shiroi_tiger]

This week, the classroom's setup hadn't changed all that much from the week before. A low-set table and some cushions to sit on. But instead of paper sitting on the table, there were bowls of soil and mud from various locations around the island, another bowl with water, and a few hand-towels, enough for everybody. In the center of the table, there was a small dish, with several polished spheres sitting on it.

"This week," Nathan said, smirking faintly, "we're going to be polishing dirt."

Polishing dirt, forming glossy spheres out of it, one of those.

"I'm going to preface this class by saying that you won't finish your project in the time we have available today," he continued. "Dorodango - literally 'mud dumpling' - is a project that requires patience. Hours and hours of patience."

So it was probably a testimony to how much spare time Nathan had on his hands that there were like seven of the things on the dish in the middle of the table, right?

"I'm going to take you through the beginning stages this week, though. If anybody is interested in actually finishing their dorodango, they're welcome to leave with a printed copy of the instructions, or just stay after class to continue working on their mud ball up to the resting point."

He reached in to one of the bowls to grab himself a comfortable handful of mud, and started working it in his hands.

"Step one," he said, still looking somewhat amused, "squeeze out the excess water, and work your handful of mud into a sphere."

Get to it, students. You were performing the ancient Japanese children's art of basically making shiny round mud pies. Weren't you glad you took this class?

Philosophy of Food | Friday, period 1

[sharp_man]

Hannibal arranged everything on the desk, then waited for the students to arrive, smiling as they came in.

Once they were there, he leaned against the desk and began. "Last week, we discussed what makes us see something as food. There are various reasons you may or may not see something as food that another person does. This week, the question is: Why do we eat?"

He waved at the food and drink behind him. "There are the obvious answers; most people will start with, 'we eat because we're hungry'. But it's rarely so clear-cut. Each section I've set up is a pair of foods. You may eat or drink only one from each pair. Choose one - or neither - and explain to us why. Feel free to debate it with each other as well, and to ask me or each other questions."

He leaned forward. "Remember, there are no wrong answers; the idea is to think about it."