Reading over yesterday’s post I learned I’m not so coherent when I’m attempting to write in an airport before my plane boards.
I’m actually writing this Tuesday afternoon because Wednesday breakfast is served beginning at 6:45, and since my body will think it’s 5:45, I’ll need to focus on moving myself across the street in time.
One of those nifty little coffee makers is in the room. It’s a baby Cuisinart, but the mugs have a Lavazza logo, which makes me wonder if that’s any indication of what the coffee may taste like. Or maybe it bubbles into the mugs. . . I’ll be sure to let you know.
The bus ride from the Orlando airport to Daytona Beach is L-O-N-G, especially when the air conditioner vent about your head is blowing 45 degree gale force winds. My teeth were chattering.
And that freeze factor only served to remind me that I forgot to pack a jacket. Drat. The taskmasters keep the Ocean Center at near freezing–it’s a conspiracy between the College Board and the charter bus company, I’m almost certain–and survival depends on fully covering one’s arms. I did remember socks. I could cut holes in the toes and wear them as gloves; maybe even push them up my arms as the day goes on.
I’m not counting on getting too overheated sitting in a chair all day reading essays. Once the actual scoring starts, we’re each given a folder of 25 booklets. We don’t write on any of the essays; we score them according to the rubric. [I can feel your eyes glazing over. Hang on. I'm getting to the point.] When I complete a folder, I raise my hand, and a runner picks up the scored essays and hands me a new folder. So my happy butt’s pretty much taking up residency in a folding chair all day.
One of these tourist traps souvenir shops should have something long-sleeved and, I hope, on giant discount since it’s June in Florida.
I’ve been assigned to Question 2. Whew. That’s a relief; otherwise, I would have been doomed to “everything you never wanted to know about the penny” [see yesterday’s post). My question is from a two-column excerpt (total of 68 lines) from author John Barry’s The Great Influenza, an account of the 1918 flu epidemic wherein Barry writes about scientists and their research. Students were directed to “read the passage carefully. Then in a well-written essay, analyze how Barry uses rhetorical strategies to characterize scientific research.”
Oh, Lord, where are those sweet chariots?
One of my favorite lines in the passage is, “A single step can also take one off a cliff.” I’m taking bets one of those kids is going to reference Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark (I think it’s that one...) when he has to take the step into nothing before the bridge appears.
This might be a painful week. I’ll post when I return to the room tomorrow.
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