School Reunion

What a title.  There's a Doctor Who episode with that title.  Yesterday, after much travelling, I arrived at one of my former schools.  It certainly holds a special place in my mind, as it remains my favourite school.  The establishment was celebrating its 90th anniversary, and the alumni association invited all former pupils in its extensive history.  Much to my delight, there were some from my own year, as well as my teachers.  It was a stunning day, though on arrival, I immediately threw a spanner in the works, with the few words, "I haven't RSVPed."

However, the organisers were superb - they soon made allowances at the dinner tables, which were packed full.  It's an incredibly small school, and the alumni present could probably cover the entire register of the senior school.  Most of the people I recognised responded in kind, and of those, most assumed I was on the course that I am studying.  One exception to this was one of my favourite teachers - I loved parts of the course, but was hopeless at a vast majority of it.  Nevertheless, my teacher had such confidence in me that when she recalled which year I had left, where I'm currently studying, she asked with great certainty that I was reading the course she teaches.  I cringed.  Another teacher present informed her that, "She's doing xxx, of course." Still, it's a great compliment, however I look at it.  

Another delight was to chat to a teacher who I've not had chance to in almost four years.  She retains some of her distinctive interests, and is largely to thank for my continued interest in the course - she was very careful to keep some challenges to the course, and prevented any tediousness that might have occurred.  The marvellous thing of this particular school is the confidence everyone shows to you.  They are thoroughly convinced that anyone can be spectacular - and if you believe that as well, you really are.  I'll never be a teacher myself, but those people deserve the highest praise.  

Returning to hall, the place is once again packed.  We also have a new Hall Warden, whose initial speech was cringe-worthy.  Having returned to hall early for exams, I met him last week.  Within a day, there was plenty of gossip flying, and fuelling a fire is fun for a character such as his.  However, even within such a short space of time, he's convinced that I'm intelligent.  Perhaps convincing him of other parts of my character may distract him from being a sycophant.  

Silent halls

Well, as the parental units decided to go to the Isle of Wight later this week, I'm back in my halls of residence almost a week before lectures start.  I do have an exam to revise for in the mean time, but today, the hall has been almost eerily quiet.  More people will arrive for their exams soon, but walking down dark and silent corridors has the tinge of a horror novel to it, even if you consider that place a home.  

Monkeying about

Last week, fed up of boring town (not as interesting as university city), and having a local friend moan about how boring the place was, we went off to the local Go Ape course.  For those who've never heard of it, it's a high wire course in the trees.  Safety training is provided, but then you're let loose, unsupervised, self-reliant, into the trees.  Issues with organising such trips always occur, as local friends are impossible to get together (apart from living 20 miles from each other without means of transport, not everyone stays in the country), so I was fairly pleased with a turnout of 6. 

However, one had neglected to mention a fear of heights.  She was extremely brave, and took part in two of the five individual courses, and then dithered about the others.  It also informed me that I'm something of an adrenaline junkie - the zip-wires at the end of each individual courses give a great high, as do the tarzan swings - you attach yourself to a short piece of rope, and then fling yourself off the platform into a net.  Extremely scary, but also amazing fun.  

High places rock!