Fandom High School

Today class met in the Danger Shop, which looked like a really large parking lot. Jon had tried to make it nicer, but that mostly just meant there were occasional trees and flower beds sticking up in places.

"Today, we're discussing modern transportation," Jon announced. "There are all sorts." He waved at various things as he mentioned them. "For more pedestrian options, there are roller skates - four wheels or inline, skateboards, and scooters, which can be entirely push-powered or have motors to help them along. Going up from there, there are bicycles - those are powered by you pedaling them - and motorcycles, which as the name suggests have motors. They can range from slightly larger than bicycles to utterly ridiculous.

"Then there are automobiles, which are fairly ubiquitous off the island. There are all sorts; here I've replicated something like the one the island gave me a few years ago, which is fairly normal and low-end, and one of the others you'll see in the lot at the end of the causeway, which is ridiculously luxurious." He made a moue of distaste at the Bentley.

"Past that, there are larger vehicles like busses," and yes it was a proper London bus; he'd barely seen any US types, "and lorries and things that are mostly for cargo hauling. Then there are trains, though not as many of those in our current country as there should be. In some cities, you'll see underground ones - the London Tube is down those stairs if you'd like to take a look, though I haven't had this thing build any other stations. For larger distances, there are aeroplanes, but I thought we'd stick with ground transportation for now."

He eyed the students and sighed. "I'll show you the basics of the individual transports, and you can try them out. Or you can ride on the mass transport options. At least nobody can get hurt in here."

Today class was in a regular classroom, albeit with a large screen at the front for him to show things on.

"Today," Jon announced, "we're going to briefly cover sport." He grimaced. "I'm not much of a follower myself, but for many people it's an important element of life." For some reason.

"In the United States, one of the major sports is called football." He showed some footage as he spoke. "The rest of the world refers to this as American Football, because 'football' elsewhere is this." He showed different footage. "Because you play it with your feet, which at least makes sense. American football is more similar to rugby. Sort of. In all of these sports, there is a ball, and two teams, and each team has to get the ball into the other team's net or end zone. That seems to be how a lot of team sports work."

There was different footage now. "Basketball is another US sport that follows this rule, although the field - called a court - is much smaller. As are the nets."

He changed the footage yet again. "One exception to the format is another major sport in the US, baseball. In this sport, one team stays on the field, and the other hits a ball and then tries to make it around these bases, while the first team tries to prevent them from doing so.

"All of these sports have a lot of fans. That is, people who enjoy them, cheer for the team from their city or a city they identify with, and follow their exploits. Often people will get together and have parties while watching the games, or travel to view them in person."

The screen split to show four different things at once: swimming, gymnastics, fencing, and surfing. "Right now, something called the Olympics is going on. It's based somewhat on an old Greek tradition and was revived last century. Nations all over the world - at least the ones that can afford it - send athletes to one location to compete in sports. Right now it's in France. Mostly. It's meant to be every four years, though lately there have been some exceptions, and the summer and winter games are split so there's really games every two years. Anyway, there are a lot of different sports going on, and whichever individual or team wins or comes in second or third is awarded a medal. It's all very competitive."

He frowned slightly at the screen before turning back to the class. "If you have any questions about any of the sports I've mentioned or others I haven't, please let me know, and I will do my best to answer them."

Jon was...out of sorts today. The weekend had been interesting, to say the least.

But he was here, he was determined to get through this, and he was at his stiff and Oxford professorial best as a consequence.

"Welcome to Daily Modern Life," he began once everyone was presumably here. "This is a course designed to acquaint those of you from different times and places with how to do some useful things in this one. The first class is traditionally for introductions, but as we have quite a bit to get through, we'll also be engaging in our first lesson. So if you would all please introduce yourselves with your name and where and when you are from, as well as anything in particular you are interested in learning, we'll get started.

"To begin, I am Jonathan Sims. You may call me Mr. Sims or Jon. I am from Bournemouth, England, by way of London, in more or less the present time."

He nodded to the first person.