Christian de la Huerta

So this guy came to speak at Johnson & Wales on Wednesday evening about religious tolerance and religion. The title of the event was called Beyond Belief and it was true in some sense because Alissa, Jake and I were Beyond Belief that the school had him as a guest speaker. There were about 20 - 25 students that showed up, which did not surprise me, but I think they were expecting more. Christian de la Huerta is a Gay ex catholic, who writes books on bridging homosexuality and spirituality as well as women empowerment.

He started off by talking about Religious Tolerance and what it was and what it wasn't. I agreed with him on that topic. Then he started talking about different religions and started bringing in all these facts, that I am not sure where he got them from. He said things about how Christianity and Catholicism oppresses women and how if we empower women to their fullest we can solve all the world problems. Islam on the other hand is very liberating toward women. He also said how all religions work towards the same end destination and we can get there on our own as well (the end destination being enlightenment). Basically he picks and chooses what he wants to keep from each religion and so he is his own religion. He says that we all have this whole inside of us and we try to fill it with ice cream, music, friends and food etc. But we can't. We can fill it ourselves, we just have to look deep down inside us to our inner-self. He also answered someone's question by saying that the bible has been used for good and bad (meaning the crusades and spanish inquisition) and that it had been changed and twisted so many times. Also, apparently reincarnation used to be in the bible until they took it our a couple centuries ago. This is only a little of what he talked about. There was a bunch of other ridiculous stuff that was said as well.

Alissa and I were just so shocked that the school would bring someone like this to speak. Another thing is there were students in the audience who were there because they were searching for something and I feel like him speaking just added a whole bunch of confusion to their already confused mind. Please pray for those students and Johnson & Wales. If this is a reflection of what the school thinks the students are looking for then it is cause to be very nervous. 

Spirits

Yuck!!! That's what I have to say to that. This week in Beverage Appreciation class we tasted spirits. Vodka, Gin, Tequila, Whisky and Rhum. I do not understand how people can honestly sit a sip on these without mixing them. They are revolting. The Vodka had no taste, it was just a cool burning sensation that you felt in your nose. The tequila tasted chemically, like a margarita mix. The gin tasted like I was drinking a pine tree because of the juniper berries that it is made with and the Rhum tasted like leather with a sweet taste at the end. The Whisky burned, it was slightly sweet and mellow but it did have a hot burning finish to it.

If anyone does drink these straight up on ice or however, could you explain to me why you do so? And why you like them.

Dogfish Head Brewery

Today in Beverage Appreciation class we had a guest speaker from Dogfish Head Brewery. They are a craft beer company and are based out of Delaware. Craft Beers are only 5% of the beer market, but they are gaining more customers with every year and beer that is tasted. Bud, Coors and Miller feel threatened by these craft beer breweries and feel that they need to offer more flavored beers to their markets, except that all their flavored beers mostly contain adjuncts (added flavors, syrups and stuff) and not actual fruits, herbs, wood, etc infused into the beers.

We tasted 4 different beers today and I have to say that it has my taste buds yearning to taste more craft beers. My favorite of all 4 beers that we tasted was the Midas Touch. It was like wine, but in beer form. It was sweet, but slightly dry. It was made with thyme, grapes, and honey I think. It is an ancient Turkish recipe from the 2700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas.

They have a variety of different beers and they try to incorporate flavors that one would not think would be in beer; such as, vanilla, maple, raisins, beet sugar, caramel, chocolate...you get the idea. They have seasonal beers and limited release beers. Another cool thing is that they take ancient recipes from hundreds of years ago and create a beer out of them. They have one from China, Finland, Aztecs and King Midas' tomb. Another interesting beer that I would like to try is called Pangaea which contains an ingredient from all 7 continents. That would be a flavorful drink to taste. I have to say though that once you taste craft beers you may never go back to Bud or those other beers.

http://www.dogfish.com/

Contemporary Issues in the Food Service Industry

You know I have to laugh at my class on Contemporary Issues in the Food Service Industry. All we do in class is give presentations on different issues and write article reviews. The first two presentations have gone already and they were about Going Green and Organics. I have to laugh though at some of the things that these students say. In the Going Green group they talked about Composting and the girl said that it sounds confusing when you hear it, but when you know what it is it's not. Now I was sitting there wondering how the word Compost sounds confusing. Anybody know? The other thing that I have to laugh at, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's funny how all these students and people think that recycling is this new thing and how it's amazing and the same with composting. Europeans have been doing it for years. Ever since I remember I grew up composting and recycling. It's so funny how a country that is meant to be up in the world is just starting these new concepts.

Today was the kicker though out of all this stuff. Today was about Organics. I had found this article the other day about how organics really aren't that much healthier for you and the only way to eat healthier is to add more fruits and veggies to your diet and less animal products. The group today kind of said the same thing, and the fact that there aren't any pesticides on the products to make you get sick. But that's not the kicker. The kicker is what my teacher said in reference to a girl's comment. The girl mentioned how they have linked growth hormones given to chickens and cows to the sudden growth and earlier puberty of children. Then my teacher said that it's true and they have discovered that the hormones given to cows to produce more milk has caused people to grow taller or just grow more in general. Now this was about 10 years ago when they started all this stuff with hormones and I drink milk everyday; not organic and it's not straight from a cow, so why am I still 5'2"? Shouldn't I be a couple inches taller? I just had to sit there and laugh to myself because I am pretty sure that it is mostly genetics that affects how tall you are, as well as how you carry yourself.

It's funny how we can get caught up in the topic and so want to say something that we don't even realize if what we are saying is true or not.

WICKED THE MUSICAL

Saturday Evening, I joined Micah and some of my fellow students for a wonderful night of the musical Wicked. I had never read the book or seen the play, but I LOVE the Wizard of Oz. I have to say it was a very good play and the story great. It was funny to see how they tried to connect the two stories and prove that the Wicked Witch of the West was actually not Wicked. There were a lot of good morals and underlying themes in the play as well. If anyone gets a chance to see it....GO.

New Years

For New Years this year we slept until late in the afternoon because we got home late from England that morning. We did stay up until midnight though, playing poker, watching British Mystery Christmas Specials, and then at 11pm we watched German New Years Folk parties on TV. We then went outside and watch our neighbors set off fireworks into the wee hours of the morning. We stayed outside for a good half hour and then since it was freezing, decided to go back inside and watch Race to Witch Mountain (which is a cute movie). The sad part about this year was that we did not get our traditional New Years Book. Every year, since we were younger our parents would give us a book on New Years Day. This year however the mail was being stupid and weird and the stuff that was ordered didn't come in. Not all of the Christmas gifts came in either, so we may be getting some gifts in January or February.

England for the Holidays

So my parents decided Christmas Day that we were going to England the next day to visit family and friends. So we loaded up in the van...which is very small with 7 adults....the next day and were on our way. It took 5 hours to get to the ferry in Calais, and 1 hr 30min ferry ride and another 2 hour drive to London. The hotel we stayed at the first night was ok, but the elevator was scary. We loaded 6 people into this closet elevator with bags and rode up to the 4th floor, on the way it felt like we were going to fall at any time. We decided to take the stairs from then on. The next day the elevator was marked as out of order...kinda creepy.

We saw my aunt and uncle that night, whom we hadn't seen in 6 years and they are the same as ever. My aunt is still as crazy as ever. But we love her. We took the Underground into London the next day and hit as many sites as possible because it was the only day we were going to have there. We went to 21B Baker's Street...a MUST. We are huge Sherlock Holmes fans. We went to the Bunhill Graveyard and Wesley's Chapel & Leysian Mission (that was exciting). We saw the Tower Bridge and London Bridge (which is not the real one). We saw the Globe Theater, but didn't get to go in...sad :( We walked the Millennium bridge and saw St. Paul's Cathedral, and stopped for a nice warm drink at Starbucks. We had to take the traditional picture though of how many people you could fit in a telephone booth....we fit 4 of us. And another must was the 9 3/4 platform at King's Cross, which was a little disappointing because it wasn't the actual stop they use in the movie but it was close enough. We went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Piccadilly Square. These were all in the evening so we got to see all the lights and stuff for christmas.


The Next day we drove 4 hours to the coast to see some very good friends, whom we haven't seen in 6 years. It was so much fun to just relax and spend time with them, having dinner, walking around town (even though it was so cold). My friend Rachael had a baby girl 2 years ago named Gracie and I just got to meet her on this visit. She is so adorable and she has pudgy cheeks. She looks exactly like her mom. We had some of the best fish & chips in a long time......DELICIOUS!! We ate Italian the first night and the garlic bread that we ordered for an appetizer came out looking like a pizza and tasted like one too, but it was really good garlic bread.

Jan, 30th we began our drive back to Germany. Of course we had to stop at an English grocery store before leaving to stock up on delicious British food. We then headed out on our way and hit traffic and detours. We ended up missing the ferry we were meant to be on, but got on the 6 o'clock one. It was then an hour and a half boat ride and a 6 hour drive home. So we didn't end up getting home until around 2 in the morning.

All of us trying to fit into a phone booth...we only managed 4 people

St. Paul's Cathedral with the Sunset hitting it

Tower Bridge....not London Bridge...many people get confused

All-in-all it was a great trip with many, many new memories.

Christmas

I'm a little behind on writing about everything but I am going to try and catch you all up.

So every christmas morning we have cinnamon rolls, open our stockings and read the christmas story from the book of Luke. We then open our gifts from under the tree. There were some really crazy gifts given this year. It's funny because everyone that I tell about this stuff laughs and thinks we are cray giving and getting gifts like this. Well last year my dad decided to get us compound bow & arrows and I also got a professional Belgian Waffle maker. This year however, I received tools (alan wrenches, pliers, a measuring tape, work gloves, etc.). My sister Rachel got an Egyptian sword from my older sister and my brother Nathan got an English shield (legit size and everything) from her as well. It was the year of weird and out there gifts. I also got this old pottery punch set that is really amazing.

We cleaned up and while my brother was trying out his new wii game my mom was in the kitchen making dinner. We helped of course. We sat down at the end of all the hard work to a delicious ham, roasted potatoes and carrots, homemade bread, stuffed mushrooms, mashed potatoes and stuffing.....I'm getting hungry just typing about it. And for dessert we had homemade apple pie and pecan tarts with eggnog. I almost forgot the christmas crackers. We always have christmas crackers at christmas. Everyone holds one and crosses their arms and holds the end of the person's next to them, so that the whole table is linked. You then pull as hard as you can and whoever gets the bigger end gets the prize inside. It normally consists of a paper crown, a joke and a toy.

 That night we watched Poirot. We receive British TV so we get a lot of British shows and there seem to be a lot of detective shows. Poirot is a Belgian detective, with a funny mustache, who lives in England and solves murders. We love the show for some reason and they always have a christmas special on and we watch it every year.

What are some family traditions that you do at christmas?