Culture Shock; Thursday, Period 2 [03/15].

[somethingwithturquoise]

All the necessary notes, texts, signs and emails had gone out to alert the Culture Shock class that they would not be meeting in the Danger Shop as usual that week. Shock! Gasp! Horror! Except that that meant they had to be meeting somewhere pretty good instead, right?

It just didn't get much better than the cafeteria! Remember? Remember, kids? The school has a cafeteria?

A cafeteria with a few tables arranged in a horseshoe, with little construction paper "plaques" (Summer made them herself, she was very proud of them, and please don't mind the glitter) with everyone's name denoting their seat, along with a small, different colored flag for everyone, too. The horseshoe curved around another table, where they would find a variety of foods arranged on plastic trays with dividers. Each one had a small carton of milk in one spot, some mushy green beans and corn in another spot, a small cookie that was definitely oatmeal raisin in another, but the "main entree" spot varied by tray: one had some questionable looking meatloaf, one had just piles and piles of spaghetti with tomato sauce, one sported another stunning Summer Smith jello creation, and the fourth could offer none other than that quintessential American school lunch classic, the delicately burnt around the edges square pizza.

Summer had prepared it all whilst cackling with glee, imagining that Dr. Lecter was on the island somewhere weeping and not sure exactly why.

And Kanan... was apparently some sort of sadist, because he had gone along with it.

Hell, he'd gone out to buy the tuna.

"Government," Kanan opened with, because, let's face it, he'd been making Summer do the introduction heavy lifting for a while now (but in fairness, she knew so much more poetry than he did). "The system or group of people governing an organized community. Here on the island, we have a mayor. Other, larger levels of government might involve governors, chancellors, presidents, queens... This class, if it counts, has Summer and I, nominally in charge of the lot of you."

Which was why you occasionally had rancors or ice cream with flies on it thrown at you. Weren't you happy you took this class?

"Today," Summer said, "you are all going to be governmental representatives of your home, here at our own little Fandom High United Nations. On Earth, the United Nations is this international organization where various countries of the world get together and try to work out the world's problems. They discuss things like treaties and peace, human rights, humanitarian aid, sustainable development and maintaining international law, blah blah blah, all that good stuff, a way of different governments coming together to make their case and work toward a common solution...or at least a decent compromise."

"In this particular instance, the Fandom High United Nations needs to agree on one of the most important topics of our time," Kanan said, and then he gestured toward the foods that had been set out. "Taco Tuesdays are over, and the cafeteria needs to come up with a lunch special to replace them. One that everybody can agree on."

And they all just looked so delicious, how would they ever manage to pick just one?

Summer took a moment to explain what the options actually were, mentioning that she had extras if anyone wanted to sample for a more educated argument. "We'll go around the table and have everyone state their name, where they're from, and what option best reflects not necessarily your own personal choice, but the choice that you feel will best suit the people you're representing and try to make a good case for why. And then everyone can jump in with their own thoughts, get a good old debate going, and see if you can't manage to work out an agreement that won't leave your 'nations' in a bad spot."

"And then," Kanan added, "feel free to stick around for lunch."

He didn't know about the rest of you, but he was absolutely going to try that jello concoction.

Just to know.

Dollar Store Arts and Crafts, Thursday, Period 1

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Okay, so this definitely blew the concept of 'dollar store' out of the water, but every class needed at least one field trip, right?

"A'ight, so most of y'all are familiar with the end results of pad printin', even if you don't know what that is," Hardison explained, leading the class into a large building. "While the concept of usin' printin' plates has been around for centuries, pad printin' has only really been around since the 60's and 70s, after we started bein' able to really understand and work with silicon. Pad printin' lets folks print on surfaces that regular plates couldn't print on: stuff with curves, textures, compound angles, all that stuff. All of that required far more complicated an' time-consuming options, like hand-paintin' or screen printin'."

They were met inside by the woman that owned the printing business and introduced them all to her before they set off on a tour. They didn't produce any materials of their own, instead, they filled orders for other people who needed objects printing, which meant the students would be able to see a wide variety of different objects getting printed.

Problem Solving and You!, Thursday, Period 3

[wrongkindofsith]

There had been a handwavey note to the class, telling them to meet the super excited (well, one was on the inside) teachers at the movie theater in town.

"Movie day! Only a real movie. In a theater. Not that there's anything wrong with streaming," Magnus said. "But what's more fun than a dark, crowded room full of strangers?"

Just ignore Cara smirking, kids, it was probably just a trick of the light. "This film helps demonstrate our point that there is no problem that can't be solved by carefully applied punching."

"And saying no to the bad guys," Magnus added. "We got popcorn and soda for you all, so you can enjoy the movie without getting hangry."

"There's already plenty of fury in the movie." Cara thought she was hilarious.