Jamaican Food

I am a huge fan of Jamaican culture. I love the way how people there live, their food, their philosophy of life, music, language and their country generally speaking. I am learning the Jamaican language which actually is called patois ( it is pronounced: patwa). It is a speaking language so I watch a lot of videos of people speaking like this and listen to reggae songs where Rastafarai speak with this accent. In order to go deeper into this culture I decided to go familiar with Theo cuisine and make a dish that is commonly eaten in Jamaica. But let me introduce you a bit into the concepts of their believes. Rastafarai, which are the majority of Jamaican population believe that their body is a temple. That take care about it for example by not eating process food, red meat and not using any addictive substances. Therefore I think that the stereotype of Rastafarai might be a bit unfair. Jamaica is a land of fresh fruits, vegetables and intensive spices so the dish that I decided to make tastes exactly like this.
Recipe: 1. 0.6-0.8kg of sweet potatoes 2. 3 glasses of coconut milk 3. Half spoon of cinnamon 4. Half spoon of ginger 5. Half spoon of nutmeg 6. 1 and half spoon of vanilla 7. Quarter of glass of brown sugar 8. 2 glasses of soaked raisins 9. Half of glass of flour 10. 0.2 kg of carrot or beetroot Procedures: 1. Blend potatoes and milk 2. Dice carrot or beetroot 3. Mix all ingredients in a bowl 4. Put it into a greased baking tray 5. Bake firstly for 1,5h at 180 C and then 25 minutes at 150 C 6. Immediately put out of the oven 7. Eat after 5h or the best on next day Activities like this are particularly challenging for me. As I stated previously I hate cooking and I can't do it very well. I am aware of this that this is important ability in my future independent life and I try to develop it because I need it. But actually it was a great fun and the final outcome was satisfying for me. I think maybe someday I might like it.

Learning Outcomes:

• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
• Undertaking new challenges
• Developing new skills

Cycling

The weather becomes better and better. I finally start to feel that the spring is coming. I think that my organism needed it and I plan to get as much as I can from every sunbeam that appears. Now I have a lot of work because final exams are very close and I spend a lot of time in the house learning. I believe that it is not good. Learning becomes less effective when there are no sufficient breakers made. So I decided to do sainting with it. Through the the recent break I started the cycling season. I do really enjoy riding a bike because in this time I can think about my life, some current events and listen to music which I love. Music is my life and lately I had no time to enjoy it so cycling allows me for this. Because of all the important decisions in my life I have some sleeping issues. This morning I decided not to wast my time and do something useful for my body and my mind so I took a morning trip. I was amazing because I could heat the birds in the morning singing and feel the fresh air in the forest. I was really great. And after I came back home I was full of energy and ready for effective learning. I believe that it is important to keep the learning hygiene and do not overdo. Our body has some limits and it is important to take care about it. We cannot put anything in our lives over physical and mental health.

Learning Outcomes:

• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth 
• Developing new skills 

30 days challenge

I've just started 30 day squat challenge. I was inspired to do this by a Matt Cutts' lecture. He is a computer science specialist. He said that firstly you have to state what you always wanted to do. Then just do it. Only for 30 days. It is not for very long so even me with terrible (not) strong will is able to do it.
Matt did photo every day and he was surprised that the remembers each moment clearly. He did not eat sugar for those 30 day. However in the 31st day he had eaten tones of sugar. For 30 day he has written a book, it was not good but it was his dream. For 30 day he had been cycling to work and he still does. Now he is more self-confident and from a guy they was only sitting by his desk he has changed into a person that is cycling to work for his pleasure. And after a few 30 days sessions he had climbed on Mount Kilimanjaro. The highest mountain in Africa. Matt said that there is nothing to loos because this 30 days would pass anyway, so why we should not try something that we always wanted to do, to change in our life. I believe that this challenge is not about doing those things that we will plan, but it is about breaking the routine in our lifes and realising that we are able to do whatever we want, because we state our borders and capabilities and that is something what should always be in our mind. This challenge is very important for me because I do not want it to be a flash in the pan (as usually) but a step to change my life and I believe that this time I will be able to engage in this action and do not resign when first obstacles will occur.

Here is Matt's presentation.


Learning Outcomes:

• Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth 

• Planned and initiated activities 

• Showing perseverance and commitment 

• Developing new skills 

Go Vegan!

I've started new activity in my life. I hate cooking but because I'm becoming older and older and I would have to be an independent adult when I go to collage I decided that this is something that I need to be able to do. I have started to explore the world of vegan cuisine, because it is healthy and suitable for my allergic problems. I'm not saying that I went totally vegan, but I thought they it would be nice to implement a few recipes like this to my diet. I wanted to start with something quite easy so I decided to do vegan chocolate and bean cookies. Here is the recipe:

• 1 and 1/2 cup of red bean
• 3 and 1/2 spoons of peanut butter
• 3 spoons of cocoa
• 4 spoons of grinded Xylitol
• 1 spoon of flax meal
• 1 teespoon of glutenfree baking powder
• 1/4 cup of water or vegetable milk
• toppings: almonds, cashews, vegan chocolate

I did a lot of them so I was able to treat my family with those sweets. Surprisingly they really like them and do did I. There is a saying on all vegan forums that vegan sweets does not fatten. It might be funny but in fact a bit true, because for example in this recipe there is no sugar added. Vegas cuisine is very healthy for the organism if substitute all the products that are forbidden to use on a right way. My sister, which inspired me to implement a bit of vegan cuisine in my life, is on this kind of diet for over two months right now and the examinations that she recently has went very good, much better that it used to be. In this way I decide to take care about my health and change my eating habits a bit in order to deliver to my organism important vitamins, minerals and others and also to remove sugar and and other not healthy substances entirely from my life.

Tasts great with coffee

Learning Outcomes:

• Undertaking New Challenges
• Developing New Skills

Chocolate and bean cookies

Kennels

Recently I have been to the kennels near my neighbourhood in order to give a dog food there. I decided to go there, because my dog has died lately and I had a lot of accessories that otherwise would be binned and it is better to reuse some things, in addition that I had full, unpacked 10kg bag of dog food. I went there together with my sisters and it was quite difficult experience for all of us. Firstly, because it reminded us about the loss of our dog and secondly, because of all the other dogs that were at the kennels. After the winter they all looked sickly and peaky. This is the most difficult time for places like this. We had a small conversation with a lady that was working there and she had explained it to us. Kennels collect food and blankets for dogs for the winter, because there are usually a lot of actions connected with this and many people that want to help poor dogs. However after the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve there are a lot of new dogs that drift into the kennels. Firstly, because kids get puppies as a present from Santa Claus and then they get bored after some time. Puppy is not just a sweet mascot that kids can play with and then leave alone, because they had changed their mind. But there is parents’ role that is the most important here. They should educate their children in the sympathy and sensitivity for other living creatures. Other problems that the kennels experience in this time are the escapes of the dogs during the New Year’s Eve fireworks’ explosions. Dogs are afraid of the noise that is made and there are a lot of cases when in the act of panic they run away. That is why it is advised to keep your dog locked, under the special care and also you can give to it a tranquilizer.

So I got to know that know it is a very difficult time for kennels and they need a lot of help, but unfortunately only a material one. This particular one now has an excess of volunteers and they do not need any more, but they need dog food and old blankets, so my help was on point.

Me and my sisters in front of the kennels.

Learning Outcomes:

• Undertaking new challenges
• Engaged with issues of global importance
• Consideration of ethical implications

4 Design Days

This weekend I've been to 4 Design days in International Congress Centre in Katowice. This was connected with my current plans according to new house they me and my family are building. We all together think about the solutions they could improve our new place of living but also we were searching for some inspirations. In this place there were exhibitions of many companies that were providing solo ruins for interiors in the houses but also simultaneously there were exhibitions of independent art, like some furniture or other accessories to the house and some lectures conducted by specialists in this topic. I was participating in two lecterns. The first one was about how to live trendy but practically. During this time a person that specialize in the interior design was providing many solutions according to the accessories in the house that could not only be use to look good but also to have certain functions for house-dwellers. The second lecture was provided especially for my family. It was made on an example of house for five-person family. In this lecture in was said how to effectively manage space in the house. This is something that would be specifically helpful for my family as there are my parents, two of my sisters and I that are going to live there. We need to discover the way that we should organize our rooms because till now we only have lived in block of flats and we had far smaller space for all of us than we are going to have in the nearest future. However not only lectures were important. During this event there were a lot o exhibitions of certain building companies. We, as a family, live very close to each other and it is important for all of as to actively participate in the family's life. Because of this we were all engaged in other issues connected with our future house. First of all there was a problem of fireplace. We got to know that now there are new, innovative solutions for this case. We decided that gas fireplace is much better for as than the one for wood. It is not only because of design (gas one looks really amazing, it is glass enclosed and make an impression of fire floating in the air) but also, because it will allow us to refuse costs and emission of pollution. Another problem was with floor in our house. We wanted to have wooden parquet but we got to know that it is not a good idea for family especially with small kid (the youngest of us is 5 years old) but also it costs a lot. We were suggested to use a floor made of certain kind of resin. This would cost less and last for a longer time, because it is more resistant to any damages.

During second lecture

During first lecture

I found this event very informative according to my future choices connected with new room. I am not very interested in architecture but this experience was very quaint. A think that the exhibitions and lectured allow me to choose wisely and enable me to design a place that is going to look great, will be organized well and last for the rest of my life. I believe they people need this kind of events especially when now we have a great place for organizing them. Entrance does not cost a lot, because it was 5 zloty for an adult and 3 zloty for a child, and it is worth much more because of the experience and knowledge that it gives.   




Learning Outcomes:

• Developing new skills
• Engaged with issues of global importance
• Undertaking new challenges
• Increased awarness of strengths and areas of growth

Social Experiment - Development

The purpous of our experiment has changed a bit. We decided to investigate the problem of gender inequality and feeling of being underestimated. The effects of our social experiment was very surprising for me. I thought they we will get explicit results and we will be able to see if our community is biased or not. But not this time. Views were divided and some of the people that were questioned really surprised me. What can be clearly seen from this experiment is that girls themselves feel a bit underestimated and sometimes they also, maybe unconsciously, promote gender inequality. I think that this gender differences are rooted in our society and to change them we have to start from the bottom. Maybe some special classes in primary school should be provided in order to make little girls aware of the fact that they are not worse than boys and they can also handle with some situations as best as the boys can. We are going to have a movie that shows all the results that we gained and in this was we want to show the attitude to this problem im our community. I belive that it might change some people's approach to life and opposite sex.