Extra-uppgift.

Dear Antonio Dinozzo,

my name is Rebecca and I am currently living in Sweden. I came as a tourist to your village Cerqueta a couple of weeks ago, I must say, I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, there was one thing that bothered me and that was the littering. It was awful to see how much your villagers litter all kinds of garbage. I'm writing you this letter to help you save that lovely village of yours from collapsing. Environmentally, that is. Don't take this in the wrong way, I'm doing this with all kindness. During my two weeks of vacation in Italy I barely saw a single litter bin. I thought to myself, this is terrible. I wouldn't want such a beautiful place like this get ruined by littering! I'm doing this as a polite gesture just to help you and your villagers. Are you aware of that all of your actions you're making today is going to affect the next generation, your grandchildren that is. How selfish you want to be is totally up to you but you should have that in mind. You're not going to notice any difference if you litter on or two candy paper on the ground now but if more people than you does it, it is going to affect the environment sooner or later. I asked a kid where the deposit station was so I could get rid of my pop-can and he looked at me like I was some sort of alien. He had absolutely no idea what I meant and it looked like he never heard of it before neither. Would it really be that bad to set up a few litter bins, a deposit station and maybe a smaller recycling station? I'm only asking you to think twice. You should be aware that the actions and decisions you're making today will bite the next generation in the ass! I think it's time to call a meeting with your villagers and have serious talk about this whole thing. Think about the consequences. It's not a biggie to execute but it does make a huge difference on the environment. Your village was one of the nicest one I've been to and trust me, I've visited a few. Don't let some garbage destroy that!!!

Kind regards,

Rebecca Gelin

Reflections

MY REFLECTIONS

I think this project have been interesting. I like working with different kinds of cases, it seems more likely that we'll have to use all the stuff we've learned in real-life scenarios. I think this subject we've been working with was fun, I love food and everything related to it so this suited me just perfectly. I think this made me realize even more, how our enviroment are effected by our actions. The transport of the banans ain't something I'm think about daily. It's something we take for granted. We expect the bananas to be selled at the grocery store, we do not think about how it got there and its consequences. I don't, however. According to my point of views, I think this have made me realize that there are other people involved in my buying of a banan, for example. Peoples time, money and effections on the enviroment are also included if I may decide to make myself a smoothie as a snack. I decided to take a look at the fruits I had at home after we got intorduced to Case no. 2. What I saw in the bowl was a pineapple, a melon, and bananas, and they were all produced in Costa Rica. It might be pretty obvious, since it's the most perfectly place to grow exotic fruits like banans, melons and pineapples but it's still something you're not think about every time you decide to get some banans. That's what I think, and I'm propably not totally wrong. This whole thing have made me think again, some things I've been working with, I've known during many years but it's still not something I think about all the time. Why we eat this or that food in that country, for exemple. I've known that there are a lot of rice fields in China since they've got the enviroment that suits the growing of the rice but I kind of take it for granted. You automatically think about Asia when you see food like sushi or wok but you don't think about exactly why it's produced there, do you? In the first case, I compared the Russian food culture with the American and I found some pretty fascinating infromation. The Russians eats a lot of root vegetables and bread, food that keeps you stuffed during longer periods. When it's cold outside or when the religious ones are fasting. The Americans on the other hand are famous for their unhealthy food eating and it's not because their climate is cold. I also got to think that bigger countries like USA and Russias traditional food depends on where you're located. The climate are varied depending on where you are and thats why the traditional food is varied as well. I didn't think about that when I made up my mind and decided to work with those two countries. It made it a little more trickier to decide what the most common dish was but I think I solved it fair enough. I found all of the cases fun to work with but I could have lived without so much assignments in the other subjects. Especially all of the assignments with got during our Swedish class. I fancied the fourth and very last case as well. It was fun pretending to be an entrepeneur for once. I'd absolutely like to have more projects like this, maybe not about the subject food but with the same way of working. I thought the lections we got was interesting, I learned a whole bunch of words I wasn't familiar with and the meaning of it. It was fun and even though it didn't get so much new information about it, it really opened my eyes and I thought a little further than I'm used to.

Interview with my American penpal!

I asked my penpal Kimi if she wanted to do an interview with me and luckily she said yes! She's from Los Angeles, CA and I really do appreciate that she made an effort to answer all of my questions. I thought it would be so much fun to get to know more about her foodculture, thoughts about recycling and other stuff related to this subject. Thanks a lot Kimi! I'd do the same for you if you asked me.

What's your favorite food?

- Shrimp Tempura Roll (Sushi)

Do you have any certain days when you eat this or that food?

- At school, I will usually buy pizza or sandwiches from the cafeteria. My dinners at home during the week are quick because we have to get back to work. We might have chicken (that has been marinating all day) and rice or something already prepared from earlier (leftovers from the day before). On Fridays, we will somtimes have pizza as a celebration of the end of the week ( and because my mom doesn't want to cook).

What would you say is the most American-ish food?

- Hot Dogs and Cheeseburgers.

What's typical everyday food in your family?

- We will usually have salad everyday with dinner.

What do you eat on special occasions, like your birthday or something?

- On birthdays, we will the special request of that person so, if it's my birthday and I want sushi, that's what we will have. On other special occasions, my mom might make an arry of different foods for guests or we might just go out to a nice restaurant.

What do you dislike the most, something you can't stand?

- I really hate olives and mushrooms.

What would you say is typical Swedish food?

- Meetballs and lingonberry sauce.

What do you miss the most about the Swedish foodculture?

- I really miss that all of meals were homemade and that when it was warm outside, we all went outside to eat together. It was quite different from American culture because the Swedes actually took the time to sit down together and have a family meal.

Which holiday has got the most delicious food to offer?

- Thanksgiving! That's the holiday where my family makes the most food. I really love stuffing, ham, and cranberry sauce the most.

Do you cook your own food from time to time?

- Yes, I do cook my own food sometimes. The days that my mom is at work late, I might make some pasta or heat up some chicken for my brother and I. I just make meals for fun, like one time I made wonton soup from scratch. It tasted so good! I also make desserts like apple pie, a lot for the family.

How often do you and your family visit the grocery store?

- We try to do our main grocery shopping during the weekend like Saturday and Sunday. My mom is just getting into clipping coupons again so she will usually shop on Sundays after she clips the coupons from the Sunday paper.

Do you visit the supermarket reguarly?

- Yes we do. We do our main on the weekends but we still visit the supermarket for small trips to pick up a few things.

Do you recycle?

- Yes we do recycle cans and bottles. We collect them for a while and then we take them down to the recycling place where we get $0.05 (5 cents) for a can/bottle. My brother gets the money for it because he is the one who actually goes down to recycle them.