FF1 - Day 1:

Some initial impressions:

1. I'm old in a relative sense: Lots of men there. Lots of younger men. I think me and one other person were the only ones above the age of 30. Everyone else was hovering around the 18 year old mark or lower. A very masculine group. One person of color there but the rest of us were lily-white. Then again, the demographics of the volunteer fire service is probably accurately represented.

2. Good instructors They're very committed to what they do and they really make the course understandable. I'm glad I went with a Saturday class.

The next two classes will cover CPR and first aid. In two weeks, we'll actually begin the review of various fire service topics. Yesterday's class covered basic evoutions of fire (how fire behaves) and we also discussed building construction. Fun fun.

Definitely will INSIST on interpreters for all classes from now on. I had someone sitting with me to ensure I was able to follow the context of discussion but even though the instructors were easy to lipread, it's difficult for me to do that for an hour at a time, never mind 8 hours. By noon, I was exhausted.