Every morning is an adventure (it builds character)

People of my generation (whippersnappers) often joke about people of previous generations (old or dead) and their arduous trips to school, where, apparently, everyone lived at least five miles away, and the school was on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

In particular, I always enjoyed how the home happened to transpose locations with the school and was now on said summit.

After a couple months on the bike, I joke no more about "Uphill. Both ways."

You see, the key to the story is you go uphill and downhill each way. You never remember the easy parts.

Here's my question: was flooding such a danger that these buildings all had to be at the top of the hill? I'll never understand history.