Back to the Cave

Yes, the new spelunking school term has arrived. So far I LOVE my teachers and classes...although that tends to be my beginning of term reaction to school. Hopefully it will continue in this vein.

There's been a little drama here and there at the spelunking school, most of which I won't go into, except to mention a funny little pet peeve. We got this really nice new cave last term, much prettier than our old cave. But it turns out that there are all these kind of annoying rules for the new cave, like you can't eat in any of the caverns, or drink anything except water. Now spelunking classes are lengthy--three or four hours. The best/most passionate teachers give five minute breaks, and tend to teach up to the next class. So if you're lucky enough to have a couple of great teachers consecutively--you find yourself going without food or caffeine for seven hours. I came to the cave on Tuesday at around noon. By 5:30, like a criminal, I was desperately trying to palm a piece of string cheese before I toppled over. Fortunately, my spelunking teacher is a rebel. He turned to me and said "You don't have to hide your food." It almost brought tears to my eyes. I hate to be a wimp about it, but, come on. I was registered for a class after that, which would have brought my time-in-foodless-cave up to ten hours--but I dropped it. Adrenaline only gets you so far.

On any film set, morale goes down as meal penalties go up...

This could well be the first semester that I am THRILLED with the level of education I am receiving. But these kinds of rules don't let me forget -- someone out there cares more about their cave than the students inside it.