Every 2 years there is some sort of Olympic games, whether that be the summer Olympics or the winter Olympics. In this year of 2014 it was the year for the winter Olympics. I love the Olympics and have always loved the Olympics. I watch almost every event even if I have never heard of it or care about it. The capture pure true competition and you get to watch these athletes living out their dreams and the dreams of billions around the world. These people are competing for their country, representing their flag.
Growing up I would pretend to be in the Olympics in my backyard wearing the red, white, and blue and defending the honor of my country in a game I love. I know for a fact I'm not the only one that did that. As I sat watching the winter Olympics this past February I started to notice the sponsor's of the Olympics. After watching the best athletes in the world fly down the face of a mountain with precision, net slap-shots from the blue line, and break the world record in ice skating. These events would be broken up by commercials for McDONALDS and COCA-COLA! The would use slogans like "Supporting future Olympians everywhere."
While watching this I couldn't help but thinking HOW?!?!?!?! How is awful junk food helping you become a better athlete? This kind of advertisement is giving children and these younger generations wrong and mislead ideas. They make it sound like food to help you fuel your body to success. This upsets me A LOT! The place and beverage that leads to obesity and sluggishness is sponsoring the most outstanding athletes this planet has to offer. The Olympics should be sponsored by things other than COKE and the golden arches. Ironic Isn't t?
During the presentation on Climate change and global warming I couldn't help but doubt its validity. As the presentation was going on I kept glancing outside at a massive snow mound that was just hanging out in the April sun. After I winter like this I really wouldn't mind a little global warming. (That was a joke I don't really) The facts they have to support global warming are very valid and very real. Granted the rise in temperature isn't huge but it does not have to be huge to have a large impact on the earth. He showed us stats of if the world was 5 degrees colder, and Michigan would be buried under snow if that were in fact the case. In all honesty our world is getting worse by the Decade, year, month, week, and day! And it is all because of us! But we can change this with the same hands we are ruining it with.
It is astounding the amount of food inequality we have going on in our own backyard. Growing up I would always be told "Anthony, finish whats left on your plate there are kids starving in Ethiopia." My witty and always go to response was "Mom, if they were knocking on the window I would give them my food." As witty as my comeback was it is besides the point I'm trying to make. My point is when my Mom would say is the starving people were in Ethiopia, she didn't mean just Ethiopia she meant all third world countries in that comment. And I'm sure that this is a comment we are all somewhat familiar with. By her saying this is represents a lot of our views on where people are that go to bed hungry at night. The reality is that there are people starving amongst us, whether we realize it or not.
Not only are there people going to bed hungry at night that are so close to us but often have a surplus of food. I'm not saying my parents or families that have a surplus of food are bad people at all, I'm simply stating that we often have skewed views of where the real dissonance in the stats are at.
We live in a society that often even worships food and makes competitions and challenges out of it.
While there are people out there starving our society is trying to see how much food we can stuff in ourselves without puking to win a free t-shirt or some sort of prize.
I don't have a solution to this problem, but maybe you do.
In this book my group and I are reading every chapter represents another month. I think this is very cool because you can follow a timeline by month. Every month that starts my group and I noticed starts with a new recipe that Tita is whipping up! She walks you through the process of cooking the meal. She goes into such detail about the meal I feel that I could make the same meal myself if I followed the instructions.
This isn't the only place that she is cooking or talks about making something. She makes stuff for all sorts of occassions! This reminds me of my house and family. We have certain meals that I almost expect to be made for certain events. For example my grandma's fried chicken on the fourth of july or my mothers country hash for my birthday! I can relate to like water for chocolate based souly on the food the emphasize in this book!
The next 50 pages really ups the intensity. The book becomes much more romantic and confusing, and you are rooting for lovers. So Tita has a lover named Pedro and they are madly in love, and then out of nowhere to me he goes and marries her sister. Reading this I was like "What the Heck man?!?!" And he marries her even though him and Tita are in love. Pedro gives Tita flowers and she doesnt throw them away because they are so beautiful. She makes a dish of rose peddals.
Next to add to the chaos Titas sister runs away with a soldier from the war, and he took her away while she was naked! It sounds just as odd to me as it does to you.
Even though this book is random and odd at parts i find it very interesting. The distinct connection between the sexuality and food is very strong. They make many different references to chocolate and she makes a rose peddal dish. All of it is tying a certain theme to the book together.
The book started out in an interesting way (NOT STRANGE). It immediatley started out with the way to prepare and cut onions. It started out in a way I have never read before. I mean in the sense of the writing, not the actual subject of the onions. haha It goes into deatil about how cutting onions can make you cry. The girl tells about how the onions made her great aunt cry because she was extra sensitive to them. Granted I have never cut an onion before, so I have never experienced the water works that the process includes. When it says she sobs from cutting onions I dont think I ever want too!
The book continues to talk about how the family would make sausage together and how they cooked it. It also talks about the smells that accompanied the sausage. The smell would bring back memories from the past and events that were not even present in the room with her. It reminds of things that I smell that take me back to memories and events that occurred when that smell was lingering around. For example when I smell any scent of vanilla it reminds me of my grandparents house, because whenever we go over there my grandma is always burning a vanilla bean candle. That scent just brings up happy emotions for me even though nothing in the room is causing that other than the scent.On that note I am very excited to see how the book plays out from here!
Whilst immersing myself into the world of the Hunger Games I couldn't help but think about what if it was real life? With this thought in mind this book became much more intense and deep. While watching the movie I always thought to myself "Self, Why do they make friends in the arena if there can only be one winner? Isn't this hard enough on them as it is? Why become emotionally attached to someone?" It never made sense to me why Katniss would care so much about Rue, when even in the best case scenario one of them had to die. That was my thought while watching the theatrical performance on the big screen.
My thoughts changed completely when I was reading these chapters. Katniss truly deeply cares for Rue because thats all shes ever known, is taking care of other people. This speaks volumes about the character Collins was trying to portray in this book. Katniss is loving and soft hearted but also very hardened to the world and will do whatever it takes to make sure those that she cares about are taken care of. I kept thinking "What would I do in this situation?" and after reading these chapters I would just really be hoping to be Peeta haha.
I have never been a big reader as I have said before but I cannot put this book down.
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