Christmas Tree Set-up

I just found out today that we'll be setting up the Christmas tree again tomorrow. Normally we wait until around the 1st of December to set it up, so I'm not sure why we're doing it before Thanskgiving. It could just be that everyone is going to be busy once December starts to spend any time on it (I know I'm going to busy with that final English paper). To me, setting up the Christmas tree is a very enjoyable experience since it reminds me that Christmas is coming and will soon be here. I'm not really sure how everyone else reacts when they set up the tree (or if they even set one up for that matter), but they should be happy to know that Christmas, and a big break from school, are rapidly approaching.

Hard Interpretive Essay Question

I seem to really be struggling to come up with a good question for an Interpretive Essay I have to do for History. The book we'll be doing the essay on is When I Was a Slave by Norman R. Yetman. The question and answer, or thesis, have to be focused(neither too broad nor too short), interesting, motivating, and controversial, all at the same time. Whenever I think I may have come up with a question and answer, one of the requirements above just seems to be missing. I find this to be really frustrating since the paper is due next Tuesday and I'm not able to get anywhere on it at the moment. I wonder how everyone else is doing with this paper. They all seem to be total slackers so they probably haven't really started working on it yet. I'm sure that those who have started it are probably just as stuck as I am. Fortunately, the grading scale for my History class is very low, so even if it looks like I haven't done a good job, I'll still be getting a passing grade.

No Spoiled Olives in the Olive Garden

Olive Garden Restaurant Review

Location: 15355 Eureka Road
Southgate, MI 48195
Phone Number: (734)-282-7838
Times: Sun.-Thurs. 11:00 AM-10:00 PM
Fri.-Sat. 11:00 AM-11:00 PM
(Olive Garden)
Rating: *** out of ****

The first few steps I took as I walked into the Olive Garden didn't exactly give off a feeling of wonder or excitement. At first glance the atmosphere seemed to be pleasant enough and the restaurant was fairly clean, but there just didn't seem to be anything special about it. However, the closer I looked, the more I realized the pleasantry of everything around me. The restaurant provided a nice, calm feeling to help its guests feel comfortable and the service, for the most part, was very good. On top of that the food was outstanding, with a hot, spicy flavor being dominant above all others. The only minor problem I had was with the prices, which seemed to be a little on the high side. Ultimately, the Olive Garden Restaurant creates a feeling of relaxation and satisfaction that will make you crave a return to its gently ordained interior and superbly crafted meals. The interior of the Olive Garden is made of plaster white-walls. Hanging on a few walls are dishes made of china and pictures that portray chefs from the restaurant's past. In addition, the constant conversations of people can be heard in a quiet, muffled voice. All these elements combine to form a nice relaxing atmosphere, one that isn't too excessive in its presentation nor too bare of any form of personality. Part of the effort to help keep this atmosphere intact can be seen in the form of mostly-clean floors, walls, and tables in the restaurant.

With the exception of a few leaves near the entrance and the occasional garbage scrap here and there, the floor of Olive Garden was virtually spotless. Even the restroom seemed to have been scrubbed and cleaned. The walls and tables were largely the same as the floors in regards to how clean they were, with a few smudges and forgotten straw wrappers to tarnish a perfect surface. Despite these little blemishes, I knew the restaurant staff cared about their customers' view of cleanliness and felt almost at home sitting at a clean table with my family. The service provided by our waiter and waitress also helped us feel comfortable.

Before I was able to get too comfy in my clean chair, a waiter and waitress came over to greet us. Two servers were needed to effectively tend to our family since my aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandparents had come with us to celebrate a birthday my grandpa had recently had. Throughout our stay at the Olive Garden our waiter and waitress treated us with respect and attentively took our orders, making sure they had heard us correctly when we told them what we wanted. As the hours passed, the service seemed to slow down a little. Our waiter and waitress gradually came by less and less to check up on us and we had to wait several minutes to recieve our check when we were ready for it. However, every single food and drinking item that was brought out was so good, albeit pricey, that we managed to forgive this minor inconvenience.

The appetizers we had while waiting for the main course were the Brushcetta, pictured above, and the stuffed mushrooms. The Bruschetta was essentially made of several pieces of warm, chewy bread with a small dish of crushed tomatoes for dipping. The bread itself had a slightly salty taste to it while the combination of bread and crushed tomatoes gave off a warm, sweet flavor. The stuffed mushrooms had crab meat inside and provided a hot flavor almost like garlic. I found myself enjoying the stuffed mushrooms more than the Brushcetta simply because the flavor of garlic given off seemed to be more enjoyable. Altogether, the appetizers cost a total of $12.60, $6.25 for the Bruschetta and $6.35 for the stuffed mushrooms. Other menu appetizers we could've chosen from were the Caprese Flatbread ($6.25), the Sicilian Scampi ($9.95), and the Calamari ($8.50). There was also a vast majority to choose from in regards to drinks, including red and white wine for $5.25 and soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi for free (Olive Garden). I found these prices (except for the free soft drinks) to be very high. A couple of appetizers for $12.60, as well as everything else, just seemed to be a little too expensive for me. At least the prices for our main course items were almost the same as those for the appetizers and drinks. The main course I had was the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, costing $9.95. This dish would have been almost tasteless if it wasn't for the spicy sauce that came with it. The sauce had a ground-up combination of meatballs and mushrooms and, together with the spaghetti itself, provided an abundance of extremely hot and spicy flavors. I've always been a fan of spaghetti and found this particular dish to be satisfyingly delicious. Other dishes my family had were the Ravioli di Portobello ($11.50), the Stuffed Chicken Marsala ($14.50), and a pizza with cheese and pepperoni costing $10.95 (Olive Garden). I was told that all these dishes were pretty much the same in terms of flavor, with spicy being dominant and cheesy being subdomiant. These meals filled us up so much that we just didn't have any room for dessert.

Even though we didn't have anything after our main meal, a few dessert items were the Black Tie Mousse Cake shown above at $6.25, The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for $5.25, and the Lemon Cream Cake for $6.25 (Olive Garden). All the dessert items looked extremely good and seemed to emphasize a wide variety of flavors, as shown by the names of the items above.

I would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys a calm, gentle atmosphere to eat in and a wide variety of hot and spicy foods, if you can stand the prices. The service and cleanliness aren't perfect, but they're good enough to help make your stay enjoyable. Though we didn't have any dessert, I can tell that those particular food items can only add to the fullness you'll experience by devouring everything before them.

Give the Olive Garden a try and you won't be disappointed.

Works Cited

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany. 2009. Web.

22 Nov. 2009.

Ryanrules95. Olive Garden interior. 19 Feb. 2009. FlickR. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.

Thanksgiving just around the corner

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving! It's hard to imagine just how fast this semester is moving. It seemed like only yesterday was Halloween and now we have Thanksgiving. I think I may be going over to my aunt's house this time around. Other than that, nothing really changes each year. Everyone comes over and has a good time conversing, watching TV (especially my dad, uncle, and grandpa), and enjoys the delightful turkey dinner that's prepared. I'll make sure that I get a good amount of homework done (especially English) so I can also have a good time and not be stressed out. Until then, I'll see what I can get done.

Restaurant Review Link

Here's the link for a review for the restaurant Winsor Dim Sum Cafe. The review was done by a professional restaurant reviewer named Robert Nadeau. The website that hosts his
reviews is The Boston Phoenix. Nadeau seems to organize his reviews in a particular way. First, he describes several of the restaurant's best food servings and lists their price, than writes a short summary paragraph on the desserts. Nadeau than writes a few more paragraphs that give summaries on the service and general atmosphere (room decorations for example) that the restaurant provides.

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Food/71762-WINSOR-DIM-SUM-CAFe/?page=1#TOPCONTENT

Another A in Algebra

Today I got back the second Algebra test I've taken. Unlike the previous test, this one seemed to be a little more difficult. This is probably because we're just getting further into the book and because of that, the types of problems get harder and harder. I knew that I had done well on it, but I didn't know just how well I had done until I got it back. At the top of the paper in green ink was 95%. I've now Aced two out of three total tests in my Math class! I'm not sure if we'll be having a final exam, since the third test is just going to be over a couple more chapters. Even if we do have a final, I'm not worried since the scores of these tests have convinced me that I can Ace anything the teacher might throw at me.

Another Music Concert on the 13th

Things have been getting pretty busy lately for my Music class. Aside from going to the 11/6 concert and writing a paper on that, I'm now going to another music concert this Friday. The music that's going to be played this time is different from the music that was played at the other concert. Instead of Chinese music, I'm going to be listening to Polish music. Personally, I think I'll enjoy this type of music more than I enjoyed the other type. Also, my class and I were able to meet the conductor of this performance yesterday, which was pretty interesting. From him we learned the basic skills (such as music awareness and perception) that a conductor needs to successfully coordinate all the musicians who are playing. Even though I just went to a music concert last week, I'm still looking forward to this one. I'm also looking forward to what type of musical experience I'll have received when the concert's over.

Music concert tomorrow

Tomorrow at 3:30 within the CASL auditorium (the large open space visible as one enters the building) will be a Chinese music concert. When I say Chinese I mean that those who will be playing are Chinese in nationality. They won't necessarily be playing Chinese music. Usually I wouldn't really care about a musical concert, but one of the assignments I have in my music class is to go to a musical concert and write about what you experience, so this concert works for me! By experience I mean what may be heard or felt within the music and whether or not this excites, disturbs, or gives you things to think about. It's actually a pretty easy and short paper to write, so I won't worry about it. I'm also going to be going to another musical concert on the 13th with all my other classmates in music. This concert will be at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. Hopefully nothing will happen that will make me miss any of these, since I'm actually starting to get excited over them.

QW for Cisneros and Oblivious Empire

I'm not really sure if this is a required assignment, but it's on the syllabus so I'll do it.
"I've never made love in Spanish"
The first thing that caught my attention with this reading was the use of figurative language. Cisneros describes the Spanish language as being a "sweep of palm leaves and fringed shaws" (par. 5) and that it "whirred like silk, rolled, puckered, and hissed" (par. 6). Cisneros also describes the English language as being "crunchy as apples, resilient and stiff as sailcloth"
(par. 5). Other uses of figurative language reveal little details about how Cisneros views the Spanish language that wouldn't be seen otherwise. However, a few similes that are used, such as talking in the kitchen at the same time, don't really make seem to fit in with everything else. Also to me, this excerpt reminds me a bit about the concept of ethnocentrism. Cisneros is partly Mexican and thus, seems to view the language of Spanish as being superior to the language of English. This basically seems to be the case for all people. They view their languages as superior to those of others. Still, Cisneros does provide a good view of how bilinguals experience their languages by showing how she sees each of her languages.
The Oblivious Empire
I've known for a little while that the US really gets out and tries to make other countries see its views on issues, and this reading proved it. What kind of struck me was how oblivious some Americans can be in regards to other countries as well as their own, hence the title Oblivious Empire. The article states that we "know little of the outside world" and are ill-informed about what our government is doing" (p. 101). Both of my parents seem to be very knowledgeable about what goes on in the world and what the government is doing, so it was a little bit of a shock to read how we as citizens don't even know what our own government is doing. What I also read, but wasn't really surprised at, was how the US government insists that it's fighting in other countries to impose liberty and freedom, but is actually helping to create and support laws that endanger everyone living in other countries. This doesn't seem surprising since I know that the US has, over the years, really let itself go in terms of holding a view of liberty that everyone agrees on.