Today was another cooking day in class! I have to say, they may be my favorite days. Today we made Kibe, which is like a fried veal meatball, and tzatziki sauce. I was ecstatic since I love tzatziki sauce! It was mighty tasty, even though I don't think fried meatballs are the healthiest thing. But hey, I'm not complaining. Besides becoming master chefs we have been learning quite a bit in my class. A lot of the time we have debates on the best way to educate people about nutrition and change society. Needless to say, there doesn't seem to be any easy solution. We have also been examining the food pyramids of other societies, such as the mediterranean or African or Latin American. All these food pyramids put a much stronger emphasis on fruits and veges and much much less on red meats. They also all have a base of physical activity. In each one there is an old couple walking, kids doing some sport (Latin America they were playing soccer, China they were doing Karate, and Africa they were playing basketball.... hmmmmm) and some couple dancing. Sorry that is a really awkward sentence, but I'm not writing this for an english class. Another popular debate of ours is that of milk. In the US there is such a strong campaign for milk and it seems like the miracle cure to everything. But did you know that 75% of the world doesn't even drink milk, and they are perfectly fine. Turns out that the dairy industry in the US has a pretty strong foothold in political matters, so they can make these huge campaigns and get the government to up the recommended servings of dairy if they so feel like it. And lets just say that they certainly feel like it. What we've discovered that most nutritionists say is that if you like milk, drink it, if you don't, then don't drink it. There are plenty of ways to get your calcium. Like dark leafy vegetables. Or if you like cheese, but not milk, many cheeses are great sources of calcium. In fact, 100 grams of parmigiano cheese has more than your recommended daily intake of calcium.
In 2011 the government came out with the MyPlate to show relative portion sizes of what you should eat. The only thing is that this plate lacks a lot of information and is a bit inaccurate. But like I said earlier, some industries have quite a strong hold in the government. I suggest that if you are interested in a more informative and accurate plate you look at the one Harvard came up with. Here is the link to it
Harvard Plate. Just to let you know, no matter what recent laws say, ketchup and pizza sauce do not count as vegetables.
Fourth of July is just not the same not in America. Granted, there are tons of students here from the US, so we were all excited about it. But it just was not the same. People were dressed up in American flags and we tried to eat American, but to little avail. So. With that said, I will be celebrating the fourth when I get back to the states. Starting out with eating a burger and some apple pie. Good old American food that is not pasta.
In my free time I have been visiting some churches with a friend. She likes to go because she is an Art History minor. I like to go because they are churches and they are so calming. It has been so cool because I have gotten to explain the religious side of the paintings to my friend. She does not know many Bible stories, so it has been so amazing sharing them with her. It is refreshing to see her curiosity about them! The churches here are, of course, beautiful. We stumbled into Basilica Santa Trinita one day. On every pillar of the arches they had brass reliefs of Jesus carrying the cross. You started on the front left side of the church and worked your way around the church. They had every major event in his journey to Calvary, his actual crucifixion, and it ended with Mary holding Jesus's dead body. They were spectacular and even gave me goosebumps. But they made me realize something. The passion is an absolutely beautiful story. It is one of the top two best stories in human history, the other, is the resurrection. So it struck me that there was not a single piece of art in the church that alluded to the resurrection. Why? It is just as important as the passion. As the Bible says, without the resurrection, we would all be fools for believing what we do. Just some food for thought there.
Continuing the theme of Christian art, we went to the Galleria Academia last night. Thankfully they had a free night for the public! Much of the art in there is Christian art. I went with the same friend I've been visiting the churches with along with some others. While looking at the pieces my friends asked me to explain what was going on in some of them or the meaning of them. I got to pretty much explain the entire gospel to two of the girls! I was so pumped that I couldn't talk fast enough to get out all the words I wanted to say. They were actually interested in it all and had never heard of the gospel of grace. They had only heard of earning your way into heaven or sinning enough that God wouldn't forgive you. One thing I can say is that I can certainly see how everything in my life has led up to moments like this. I never thought that I would be able to explain these types of things to people, but God had prepared me for it. Thank you, Jesus. Our tour of the Academia ended with seeing the David! I have seen plenty of copies and pictures of the David, but I never expected him to be like he was. I figured I would just be staring at another sculpture, but there is just something about the David that draws you in. For one, he is huge! I thought he was only slightly bigger than lifesize. I was wrong. He is giant. No wonder he could beat Goliath.... just kidding. The detain in the sculpting is nearly miraculous. Every detail is there, even the veins in his hands. We sat there looking at him for a good twelve minutes. Thats probably the longest I've ever looked at a statue.
Well now my apartment is clean, my laundry is done, I'm packed up and I'm about to leave for London! G'day governor!
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