Korean New Years Tradition

On New Years Day, there are many traditional activities that occur within the Lee household.

For lunch, the ladies of our family cook a rice cake soup called 'Dduk Guk'.  The broth is made by boiling a type of beef (I forget what it's called) for several of hours.  Once the broth is good to go, you add the rice cake slices in it until it's soft enough to eat.  While that is cooking, the beef is getting sliced to put back in the soup.  Eggs are added along with chopped green onions.  When the soup is poured into the bowl, you top it with toasted seaweed lavers.

Before or after you eat, our family does a bow to our grandparents and parents which is called 'Saebae'.  This means that the elderly of our family sits on the floor and waits for our bow.  We usually bow to our grandparents and parents along with our cousins, aunts and uncles.  Guys and girls have a different style of bow and we do this twice in a row.  Once we bow, we sit and wish our grandparents great health for the new year and they tell us to do good in school and always love one another because we are family.  While we bow, there is a saying in Korean that states: Happy New Years. "Sae hae bokk man-ee bod uh sae yo".  Saebae is a sign of respect for our elderly that has been a tradition for a while.  We usually get quite a bit of cash in an envelope after we pay our respects!

After all of these festivities we then play a game called 'Yoot Nori'.  It's a game that has a board with 4 different teams.  You have to throw these four wooden sticks in the air and the way it lands on the floor is how many spots you can move.  We usually split up the teams by families and take turns playing. I don't understand the full instructions but I just throw the sticks and hope to get higher points. This is just a glimpse of some Korean Traditional festivities that happen in our family!

Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture

Before this presentation from Dr. Karowe, I had no knowledge of Global Warming.  I still lack knowledge of this topic and would like to know more about it.  I am summarizing his presentation as how I interpreted it and what I took away from the information.  So as we know, about 450 million of the world's poorest people depend on agriculture.  There are about 1.02 billion hungry people worldwide...that is a lot of hungry people.  It's sad to know that these hungry people depend on agriculture when sometimes these crops are ruined from the climate change.  Most of the crops vary from wheat, rice and corn which often has decreased yields due to many factors.
- Increased temperatures
- Increased droughts
- Increased flooding
- Decreased nutrition
- Decreased water for irrigation
- Increased pests.
These are all factors that decreases the amount of crops that are grown each year.  This effects farmers who can't grow their crops and will eventually lose money because they can't sell enough.

I feel like this is a huge cycle that comes full circle.  Each action affects the next action which can be good or bad.  There is so much we can do as students in our generation but I don't know where to start.  I wish I knew more about climate change and global warming.

Burger Shot & Cluckin' Bell Commercial

Burger Shot

The 6 pound heart stopper burger they sell at Burger Shot seems to be giving people heart problems.  Although this commercial is making fun of America and how much American's eat, this could be a warning commercial.  Because that man called 911 from eating too much, I think it shows that American's are eating too much fast food.  If people see this commercial, they can learn that fast food isn't the healthiest and too much can be very harmful to your body.  Also, this commercial is sending us a message that as long as you die happy, die from eating the most unhealthy food there is.

Cluckin' Bell

I found this commercial to be very stereotypical and racist against African American's.  A 90 piece bucket of deep fried chicken obviously makes a huge difference in your weight.  I just thought it was stereotypical because this commercial showed only the african american eating the chicken and gaining weight.  On top of that, there were three Caucasians pointing their fingers at him. I also feel like they don't care about animal cruelty because they were saying how small chicken brain's were and they wouldn't feel the pain at all. I think this topic relates to many food industries out there that uses animals but treats them so cruel before they are sold in the stores.

Edible Stories part 6-9

Part 6: The Icing On The Cake

This girl Maya is weirdly obsessed with icing.  It is Julia's birthday and she brings in cupcakes for her class.  Maya has her eye on the cupcake with the colorful icing and sprinkles.  Of course the birthday girl goes for that one and Maya gets stuck with the chocolate icing cupcake.  She manages to trade cupcakes with Charles, the chubby kid.  Then she trades with shy little Zoe to finally trade cupcakes with Julia, the birthday girl.  She saves her cupcake and puts it into her lunch box.  Maya goes to her room and only eats the icing off the cupcake.  She then tells her mom they got muffins at school and gives it to her.

Part 7: The Soup

Mrs. Janie Powell Joseph was called "Light before Dawn" in her language.  She is cooking soup in a big pot and looking out her trailer window.  She gets a call from Dr. Krauss who is a professor that wants to speak her native language.  She is the last native speaker of Kish'da y'k, a town in Alaska.  She is making Salmon fish soup and doesn't offer any to Dr. Krauss because she thinks he won't like it.  

Part 8: Osetra

Sorry, I didn't pay attention to this chapter!

Part 9: Creme Brûlée

Emma is deathly afraid of Creme Brûlée and is paranoid that people are trying to poison her by feeding her that.  She hears of Robert Eggle and thinks he could help her.  Since he is a food critic and has cookbooks.  She goes to him and asks him try food for her before she eats it.  Robert Eggle is the man from the first part that got stuck in a hole. 

So far none of these stories have anything to do with each other except for the character in part 1 and 9.  The characters in these stories all have a relation to food and somehow it is supposed to connect at the end.  Im confused up to this part so I guess I have to keep reading to find out what happens.

Edible Stories & The Farming Life

Edible Stories

I am reading Edible Stories by Mark Kurlansky.  I haven't gotten too far but so far there is a man named Robert and he lost his memory along with his sense of taste and smell.  Aguesia is the loss of taste and Anosmia is the loss of sense of smell.  The book starts out with his leg stuck in a hole and a women who is supposedly his wife comes to get him.  He then starts to continue on with his life going to work and attending meetings.  We find out he is a food critic and has an important job by meeting up with business people from different restaurants.  I think he loses his job and starts distancing himself from Margaret.  I'm really confused of what is happening in this book because Robert is confused.  I think once I read more, I will find out more about his life and what happened.

The Farming Life

Today I attended the The Farming Life event at the Oshtemo Branch Library.  I didn't know what to expect at this little gathering but I left knowing more about the farming life.  There were three panelists that talked to us about their farming life and experiences.  Most of the people that attended this event seemed to be farmers.  There were also people that were interested in becoming a type of farmer and people that worked at the Food Co-op.  It ended up being a Q&A session with some interesting questions asked.  There were questions about the process of becoming organic certified for their crops.  I didn't know it was such a process because there has to be a third party certifier along with a list of guidelines from the certifier.  There are certain compost and organic sprays to use on your vegetables and fruits for it to be considered organic.  They talked about corporate farms using monocropping year after year which is different from the family farms.  Family farms try to rotate crops and build soil to nurture the crops and soil.  It is better to mix up what you plant each time because the soil is so used to growing the same plant.  

The panelists also talked about farms being passed down to family.  It is so much easier for families to keep their farm because the land is paid for and all they need to do is grow their crops.  These days there are many younger farmers who try to look for land and they are having a hard time because land is so expensive.  Local farms end up getting taken over by big corporate farms.  

There was a question that concerned inner-city kids and how kids can benefit from eating healthy.  It is so hard for low income families to eat healthy and get access to the fruits and vegetables they need.  there is something called CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which helps low income single mothers get access to fruits and vegetables.  To help this, there is something called a Free Farm Stand which is free produce every sunday from May-August.  Another benefit is Snap Benefits which offers nutrition to low income families.  

I could go on and on about this because I wrote down so many notes but I will stop.  

The panelists farms':

- Blue Dog Family Farm

- Eaters Guild Farm

- Elder Fire Farm Arts

I would go onto their websites and browse around.  You might find some interesting facts!

SPRING BREAK

Spring Break is so soon and I can't wait! I'm not going anywhere special but the thought of having a week long break is very satisfying.  Although I wish I was in Florida, Jamaica or anywhere warm.  I actually have my whole spring break planned out starting from Friday.

Friday- picking my brother up from East Lansing then going home to Grand Rapids
Saturday- going to Chicago with my family which will consist of eating, shopping and relaxing
Sunday- return to Grand Rapids
Monday-Wednesday- bring my car Hansen Collision to get it fixed until Wednesday because someone did a hit and run while I was in class (eff you to whoever it was)
Thursday- go back to Kalamazoo to work
Friday- work all day
Saturday- go to East Lansing to celebrate a friend's birthday at the Tin Can
Sunday- recuperate
Monday- back to English 1100

Nothing too exciting but I still get to relax with my family and friends.

During break I have many projects and assignments to work on so that's a bummer. I'm getting stressed because I have a huge portfolio due for my Special Education class.  Even though it's going to take a lot of time and effort, it will all be worth it at the end when I get a job!  I get to take a break from teaching my seventh graders next week!!!!!!! Middle school students can be a pain in the ASS, but I learned to love them. I hope everyone enjoys their spring break!

This is my Family. Can't wait to be reunited!! <3

The Jungle

After reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, I had many mixed emotions.  I was a little confused because I don't comprehend as well when I read text online.  But from what I read, every little thing was so disturbing.  In chapter 3, all of the job names were explained.  There were "cleaver men" who chopped the whole animal and needed two other men to assist him.  There was a "knocker" who killed with a sledge hammer.  There was a "floorsman" who made the first cut to the skin.  When I was reading this, an image was created in my mind that I didn't want to see.  I felt so bad for Jurgis because he had no clue what his job was going to be.  He was just excited that he got a job to start making money.  Another thing I found fascinating was that the workers used every part of the hog to make something.  With the leftover parts they couldn't use, they turned it into fertilizer.  I don't do well with guts and blood so I'm a little scared to go to the slaughterhouse on Friday.  But I want to see what it's like because i've been wondering all this time of what a slaughterhouse actually is.