Day 103,
More dark clouds gathering today. Wonder when it will start raining. On the one hand, I’d at least like to check out the cathedral again before the rains return. On the other hand, I’m getting tired of rationing the water from the cistern.
On the topic of rain, I was considering offering to let Maiko stay here full time, at least for the rainy season. I don’t know that she’ll accept, but I don’t like the idea of just leaving her alone out in stormy weather. And since it sounds like she was using this place as shelter off and on before I got here, it feels a bit like I’ve kicked her out without meaning to.
That said, I wonder how the nature sprite will react to me having a roommate (housemate?). It doesn’t seem to like showing itself to other people, so that cuts down on the opportunities it has to mess with me.
I’m starting to get parents - sometimes with kids in tow - coming into the library asking if I’ll be sticking with the traditional schedule of starting the literacy classes the second market day after the equinox. Good to finally know when exactly I’m going to be doing that. I was starting to worry it was going to be a matter of parents just dropping their kids off at random whenever they decided they needed a daycare. Having a fixed schedule to work with makes things easier on a number of levels.
Now I just need to get more practice in using these wax tablets. It’s kind of a different technique than writing on paper. Takes a lot more effort and you wind up making all your strokes by starting at the top and pulling the stylus towards you. All the characters come out looking more sharp and angular. Certainly less fluid to write that way, but this script is surprisingly well suited for it.
Come to think of it, that’s the big thing that’s different between the Village and cathedral scripts. Might be biased from the small sample size, but the few examples I do have from the cathedral look to incorporate a lot more curves and loops. It’d be a huge pain trying to learn and practice that one one of these tablets.
What I would give for a chalk and blackboard setup. It’s occurred to me that if I’m going to be teaching a whole group of kids all at once I really don’t have a good way of demonstrating examples to more than one or two at a time. It feels like a weird question to ask, but do they have chalk here?
Tracked down Lin and Vernon on my way out of the Village today. Told them I was going to try to check out the cathedral next market day before the rains came and while Cass was in town if they wanted to come along. They said they’d think on it and get back to me on whether they could get away from their own responsibilities that day. Lin perked up though when I said I was going to try and track down Maiko tomorrow to invite her along. Getting her to confirm any similarities with what she saw on the eastern island is half the reason I want to go back afterall.
