This Semester in review

This year in literary interpretation we have been dealing with the main subject of Food. For our final project we were handed a list of things to accomplish by the final exam day. This list consisted of writing three separate blogs on presenters that present to our class. Another part was to make a recipe, bring in the product of that recipe, and upload the recipe to the wiki page. Another part was to make go to an ethnic restaurant (encouraged to eat a style of food we have never had) and write a blog on it. We were also asked to attend an event in the community relating to food. Last but not least we were asked to create our Ted Talk.

            For the blog posts it was pretty simple and educating. We had presenters from inside and outside our class present. One of the days Joe Starr and Casey presented on satire of food inside video games. This was very eye opening and shed a light on something I would probably never think twice about unless it was brought to my attention. It is amazing to me how much GrandTheft Auto pokes fun at our American culture. Another presenter that came in from outside our class room spoke on Global warming’s effect on our agriculture. I had never known the massive effects that only five degrees could have on our climate. There was a graph that showed if our world were only five degrees colder, Michigan would be buried under ¾ of a mile of Ice and snow. It was a very educating lecture and well put together by the professor that came in. The last presenter that I wrote on was Lexie. Her topic was on Judaism and the food in her religion. Lexie herself a Jewish member gave a very riveting presentation on her religion of Judaism. I am very fascinated by other religions outside of my own to find out what they believe in compared to me and their culture inside of that. She talked to us about the 613 laws of Judaism that the Jews got from Mount Sinai. She also talked about their Passover meals and meals related to their holidays. It made me chuckle when she said “Basically our holidays represent Hey they tried to kill us, let’s eat!” All the presenters were great and very informative.

            For our assignment of going to an ethnic place to eat I was able to get outside of the Kalamazoo area. I got to try a new place I don’t think many people will get to try. I got to go to Demera which is a very well known Ethiopian restaurant in Chicago. My girl friend’s father has been there before and knew exactly where he should take me so I could finish this assignment. I got the Ye-Doro tibs and they were amazing. The experience itself was fantastic and I now like Ethiopian food. The restaurant was pretty upscale but reasonably priced, the service was fantastic and the people were very friendly. This restaurant was voted Chicago’s best Ethiopian restaurant.

            For the final project I created a recipe to share with the class and post to our college cook book on wiki spaces. The recipe I created was called Fruity fun skewers. The recipe was a hit and I did not have any left overs at all when class had finished. I was very proud of my cheap, easy to make, and healthy recipe. Another part was to make it to a community event. Due to my overly packed schedule and zero flexible hours I was unable to make it out to a community event.           

            Finally we had to create a Ted Talk. A Ted Talk in a nutshell is approximately a 5 minute video that is spreading an idea or knowledge to help make the world a better place. They can be somewhat witty, or sometimes very inspirational and powerful. The subject I chose to do my Ted Talk on is the inequality of drinking water in the world. This is a very deep and intense subject. My goal was to drop some hard facts but also keep it somewhat light so that the viewers would be able to understand the need for help but not leave wanting to cry, because I left them with ways to help change it.

            Overall I enjoyed most of this final project. This year has been a blast and I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. I have learned a lot from the moments Dr. Allen has made us get out of our comfort zone and loved getting to know my classmates.