Random Scholomance series thought

Back in book 2, El goes into a lengthy digression about the Pune Enclave, namely that there isn't one, because the wizards in Pune, having traded an amazing spellbook for the enclave-building spells immediately devolved into what El refers to as "internecine fighting", the consequence of which was that some of them went to join other enclaves and some of them didn't and some of them, rather extremely, renounced all magic, purged their mana, and went to live in the wilderness as ascetics.

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Balked, but did nothing to solve it, you'll notice. Going into the wilderness is all well and good, but how does that help? I kinda feel that way about El's mother, and have since the first book. Sure, it's great, she lives on a commune and doesn't ever cheat and is spirit-whole - but just because it's the best thing for her doesn't make it the best thing for her daughter. Protecting wizard kids from mals seems to come down to location - if you can't get into an enclave, your next best bet is either so deep into the boondocks that you have no neighbors for miles around, or a very crowded apartment building. Given the enormous target on El's back, this commune seems like the worst of both worlds, and at the very least, the kid might've benefited from living somewhere with other non-white people.

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Jenn is trying to learn Spanish, in addition to brushing up on her French

As part of this for some reason she bought Don Quixote in English to read - and wow, she was surprised when I remarked that I'd read a big chunk of that in Spanish! She didn't realize I could read Spanish that well! (I can't anymore, I don't think. This was back in high school, and I'm fairly certain that I wasn't supposed to be in that class, but it was either that or the other Spanish class with the teacher I couldn't stand. He liked me, but he was also massively racist, so... I mean.... I threw myself upon the mercy of the guidance department!)