Mike T's Essay

For the Junior Urban Adventure I was able to be in the food group. Over the course of this trip we went to many different kinds of restaurants and saw how many different cultures prepared their foods. On this trip my essential question was: Are certain people/cultures proud of their food and does food “unite” them in some way? So during the trip as we went to different restaurants and markets I would go up to store managers and talk to them about the food they were preparing and see if they could answer my question. Most of the store owners could and they all said that they are proud of there food because it is what they make when they are in their native countries. It seemed most of the people even though they did not say it made it seem like the food did “unite” them in some way. I think that the reason is that the food they are making is a part of them and they like to share it with all they can so they can spread their culture. It unites them because on their holidays that they have in their culture the
y can all get together and eat a dish that is from their home land and they can do things they do as they would there and it would make it seem like not has changed and that they are still right back in their native land. I think that this is very important for our country because that way everyone stays happy. If we had a dictatorship for a government that did not allow people to have certain foods for instance then the Asian people in America would not be happy because they would have to change there whole way of life and that is not what this country is about. This country is about being free; people come here so that they may be free. So they can have what ever religion, and life style and they can eat any kind of food they want at anytime!
After going to JUA I thought it was one of the best experiences I have had at my two years at this school. It was assume and I think it should never change. It is a fun way for kids such as myself to learn about the world around us but have fun at the same time. It was a great time and the food great was sick! If I could change on thing though I would have to say it would be the time we spent there. I think if we had more time there then we would learn more and have more fun and we could shop some more. But over all it fun a great time and if I could do it again I defiantly would because I learned a lot about the food around the world and how people feel about it. It was cool.