Best Defence [Thurs, Period 2]

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara had told her students to met her at the Onsen, though anyone who'd had a class with her before should have been expecting this.

"Being aware of your surroundings is good," she said, already in the tub. "But being too tense either in your head or your body is just another way of getting yourself killed, so our last lesson is about relaxing." Relaxing in nice, warm, public baths.

Sadly Cara was unaware of the llama that had just started munching on the shubbery outside the onsen.

Japanese Art, Friday, Period Two

[shiroi_tiger]

"Good morning, class," Nathan said, giving a little nod to his students and then gesturing to a selection of porcelain and ceramic dishes and vases on the table in front of them. "Today we're going to be breaking things. And then putting them back together again."

Which was a little against the spirit of the whole thing, but he'd get to that shortly.

"We're doing kintsugi today, literally golden joinery. Traditionally, it's meant to take a broken cherished item and to repair it, embellishing the cracks with gold as a means of showing its history and embracing the beauty of it. So it's somewhat counter to the point when I do something like this..."

Yes. Yes, that was Nathan picking up a vase and smashing it on the floor.

It was a nice catharsis, though. He continued talking as he picked up the pieces and arranged them back into some rough semblance of the vase they once were.

"The traditional method also takes about a week to dry completely before we can even move on to the next step, and anybody who has a broken item they'd like to repair the proper way is welcome to come and ask me about the process any time. But, as this is our final class, and it's significantly shorter than twelve days long, we're going to cheat some more."

This actually kind of pained him. But for a high school art class, he figured that so long as he was being straightforward about this stuff, he'd at least done due diligence. He held up a tube of epoxy glue and a small container of gold dust. The process itself wasn't so different, really. It was the materials that were somewhat improvised.

"We start by mixing some of the gold dust into the adhesive until it's evenly distributed throughout. Then we paint it onto either side of our break, press together, and hold until dry." A pause. "We'd be finding some other way to hold the pieces together if we were using the more traditional adhesives, like tonoko powder or rice flour. We already know that Japanese art often values patience, but a line has to be drawn for holding the pieces together for an entire week. Today, a couple of minutes should suffice. While the glue is still sticky, but not quite wet, we'll brush some more gold dust over it to add a bit more shine. Again, traditionally, we'd be adding another thin layer of our adhesive before adding more dust, but since our method today is significantly less time-consuming and we can catch it before it's completely dry, there's not much need. Today, most of the time we'll be taking will be in holding each piece together while it dries before moving on to the next, depending on how thoroughly broken your dish or vase is."

So, they were missing both a sentimental connection to their items and the traditional adhesives for this process. But in the end, at least what they'd have would be pretty. So they had that going for them.

Philosophy of Food | Friday, period 1

[sharp_man]

Hannibal nodded to his students when they'd all arrived. "Today is our last class. Never fear," he said, smiling, "there will not be a final exam.

"It is said that a good teacher learns as much from his students as they from him, so I think a more fitting gauge of my teaching ability is for the final exam to be mine." He waved at the food on the table. "Today's food, you may thank your classmates for. Those of you who handwavily showed me how to create your foods, I hope I have done well enough by them. Those of you who elected to write an essay," he sighed, "well, I return them to you, printed on edible paper.

"For today's discussion, I should like for you to each tell me one thing you have learned from this class, and one way in which it may inform your future eating."