Day 282: Food, Food and more food...

I ate so much food today I felt like I was going to burst!

For breakfast at about 9:45am, I had half an egg sandwich. I was in a rush so I didn't have time to make much. I just toasted half my Portuguesh

For lunch at about 1pm, I had pho and bubble tea. My friend lives by Highgate Mall. We used to have a favourite pho restaurant on Kingsway. It was called Pho Saigon. But just recently they changed management. Now the decor is different and also the pho. When it was Pho Saigon, the pho was delicious. Now, the pho is ok. The soup base isn't as salty and tasty. I understand the management is new. The service needs help. We ordered beef skewers, a large bowl of pho with raw steak and meat ball and a small bowl of pho with beef brisket and meatball. The dishes didn't come at the same time. At pho restaurants, they usually give you the bean sprouts and lemon before your pho arrives. At this restaurant, they give you the pho first, then the bean sprouts. The small bowl of pho and the skewer came first. Then came the bean sprouts and the large bowl of pho. Like every other sunny day, I was in the mood for bubble tea.

We walked across the street to Estea. We ordered our bubble tea. I had soya pudding with mixed beans with pearls and coconut jelly. I am used to drinking my bubble tea. I guess becuase we were staying in the restaurant, they served my order in a bowl. It was kinda weird eating my bubble tea with a spoon. It was good. The bowl had soya pudding then the mixed bean, pearls and coconut were on top. Right when I finished my bubble tea, my friend called me to join them for a girls nite out deal at Milestones.

For my afternoon snack, I was at the new Milestones on 8th and Cambie. It was really nice and modern inside. I am so glad they have a small patio. It was such a beautiful day today. I have never been to this location before and I was impressed. I was there from about 3-4pm and there weren't many people. The customers all sat on the patio. There were only 3 of us. We had the Girls Nite Out deal. It is 4 bellinis and a choice of 4 appies from a selected list for $40. We had spinach and artichoke dip, yam fries, goat cheese and flatbread and phyllo shrimp. I didn't want to eat too much because I just finished a bowl of pho and bubble tea. But because the food was there, I kept on nibbling. The crispy honey phyllo shrimp arrived first. It was really tasty. It is crispy on the outside and cooked shrimp on the inside. It is served with a honey chipotle glaze for dipping. The second dish to arrive was the spinach and artichoke dip. It was so warm and comforting. I kept on nibbling on it. The third dish was the yam fries. I like yam fries better than regular fries because it is sweeter. The last dish to come out was the baked goat cheese and slow roasted garlic flatbread plate. The presentation was beautiful. The fig jam and the cranberry relish were in small bowls. The slow roasted garlic was still in it's shell. After my afternoon snack, I was almost ready for dinner.

For dinner at about 7pm, I made perogies with bacon and sour cream. I didn`t time it properly beccause I have never made this combination before. I made the perogies first then I made the bacon. I should`ve made it the other way around to keep the perogies warm. Because I made the perogies first, when the bacon was done, the perogies were cold. I had to pan fry it to warm it up (I dont have a microwave downstairs).

For dessert at about 9pm, I made a sundae. It was a banana with Oreo ice cream with chcolate syrup. Such a good way to end a day!

Day 281: White Spot Car Hop

I have ever been to a car hop before. A car hop is an old tradition of driving to a restaurant and eating in the car. There aren't that many car hops left. It's gone in the way of the drive - in: extinct. There is a girl that works with me that worked at a car hop. It was her last day at the car hop the other day. I wanted to go visit her at work and it was a good excuse to go to a car hop.

We just finished dinner when we headed to the White Spot car hop. I was really excited. We managed to get there to be her last customers. Because we just ate, we only ordered dessert. We ordered a chocolate shake, blueberry pie and chocolate brownie. It came out in the long tray that goes across your car. On the tray, they automatically put on the ketchup, salt and pepper. It was kinda weird getting dessert served with ketchup, salt and pepper. But that was ok, it just took up space on our tray. The chocolate shake was served in one glass. In the restaurant it is served in a milkshake glass and a stainless steel cup. It just seems like there is less in the one glass than in two cups. The blueberry pie is fantastic, as I always remember it. It is filled with whole fresh blueberries. It is topped with a small serving of whipped cream. The brownie wasn't that good. It was a square chocolate brownie cut in half to make two triangles. It was drizzled with chocolate syrup and served with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. The brownie was too dry for me. It would've have been better if it was warmed up to make it more soft and chocolately.

It was a neat experience. I think it is a good romantic thing to do on a date. But it is kinda uncomfortable because it is kinda squishy. It is good if it is the destination. It is the only place you will be going. Then you will enjoy the experience more. But it isn't a place to go to after a long drive. After a long drive, I would like to stretch my legs and have a change of scenery. I would rather go inside the restaurant to have my meal.

Day 280: Salmon and Bannock

A first time at a First Nations restaurant: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/08/salmon-and-bannock.html

Day 279: Bryan Adams / Seattle

Saturday was the day of my very first outdoor concert seated on floor seats. It was very exciting. I waited a month for this concert. It was for Bryan Adams and the Beach Boys as the headliner. It was the best $40 (plus HST, of course) I've ever spent. The Beach Boys performed for 2 hours. It was like a mini concert in itself. There was a short break between the Beach Boys and Bryan Adams. Bryan Adams made a very quiet entrance. No announcement, no loud racket...just walked on and the crowd went wild! I was bobbing with the music. Every other song was a song I can sing along with. It was just so exciting to be there at the concert! After the concert, we headed straight to Seattle.

Because I booked Saturday off for the concert and I usually get Sundays and Mondays off, it was like a long weekend. We decided to go somewhere far to take advantage of the time off. We arrived on Saturday night and just relaxed.


Sunday was a busy day for us. It started off at EMP (Experience Music Project)
The EMP is all about music. I'm not a huge music buff but this place seems really interesting. There was room all about Jimi Hendrix. It has the history of his music career. There was also a room with various guitars. It was really neat to see all the various guitars. The special exhibit was on the Supremes' costumes. It showed the different costumes they wore at different appearances. It was all showmanship; lots of glitter, sexy form fitting dresses, feathers. There was also a section where you can learn to play different instruments. I had a short tutorial on how to play the piano.

Attached to the EMP is the Science Fiction Museum. It was very interesting. It was all about the science fiction genre. There were books, artifacts and costumes. The admission price included EMP and the Science Fiction Museum.




After EMP, we headed to a tour of Safeco Field. It was really dependant on the weather on which day to head to the tour. For EMP and Safeco Field, we had coupons in the Entertainment Book. It was really neat to see the field, the oppponents dressing room and the press room. I never watched a pro baseball game before. This is the closest thing to it.



After 2 hours at EMP and an hour walking tour at Safeco Field, it was time to eat. We planned it so we can make it to the Brooklyn (http://www.thebrooklyn.com/) for happy hour. Happy Hour was from 4 - 6 pm and has a special menu. Appies were $5 or $6 each and raw oysters were $1 each. We ordered 12 raw oysters, steamed clams, wild boar quesadilla, rosemary parmesan fries and mini steak sliders. It was a good combination. My favourite dish was the wild boar quesadilla. Maybe I was hungry, maybe it was the taste of the food? It was something different.



Monday was all about shopping. We went to Wal Marts, a few Ross', Payless Shoes and finally made it to Seattle Premium Outlets. There wasn't as many sales as I would like but I did end up buying a few items.

Day 278: Life's Directions...

You only have a small time frame to do what you want. If you don't do it, does that mean you missed your opportunity? I would like to finish my bachelor's degree. But I heard that you get free tuition when you are 65 and older. I can postpone it till then. I would like to live in my big house and be a billionaire. But will that happen sometime in my lifetime? Can I start from stratch at my age? Or do I just live the rest of my life and go another direction? Do I just think of it as a missed opportunity?

Most people decide what they want to do in high school. Pick the courses they want to take to pursue their career in post secondary. Then work their way up the ladder. I didn't do things that way. What I took in high school, was totally different then what I took in post secondary school. I didn't go to post secondary school full time right after high school. I wanted to be so many things after high school. There was always a reason for not pursuing that career path. It wasn't what I want to do anymore. It costed too much money for tuition. I didn't want to go to school for that long to pursure that career. Mentally I feel like I'm still in my 20's and deciding what to be when I grow up.

Some people have several careers in their lifetime. Maybe it's never too late to do what I want to do? I don't think I have found my 'calling'. If there is such a thing. Maybe I haven't found my passion? Maybe it's both? Maybe I'm just going to live on cruise control and see what happens? Or maybe I have to make things happen for myself?

Day 277: Video Games

Most people think only guys like video games. I like video games. I would like it better if I was good at it. I don't like all video games. I like fighting and shooting games.

Last night I hung out with my friend and we spend some time playing video games. We went to Circuit Circus (used to be Lester's). Playing arcade games isn't as cheap as it was when I was young. It used to be 25 cents a play. Now it's 50 cents. We played a racing game against each other. We played a few shooting games. I played pinball also. It's quite challenging now or maybe it was the game that I played. At one point there were 4 or 5 pinballs coming towards me. After spending some money at the arcade, we went back to his house to play more video games. He has a Playstation 2. It is relatively old but that 's ok. He had Street Fighter (the orginal one). It reminded me of when I was in grade 7 and just started learning how to play Street Fighter. I didn't have a strategy. I just pushed the buttons and hope I am attacking my opponent. Now I still play like that. I don't know what buttons does what. I just push the buttons and hope it does something. We also played Tekken 4. It is a more 3-D realistic fighting game. I guess not playing video games for a long time, I am a bit behind in which games are 'cool'. It is a good way to get some anger out!! I got some sore thumbs but that's ok, typing all day doesn't make it better.

Day 276: Latin Festival / Outdoor Movie

Sunday was a busy day for me. In the morning and early afternoon we went to the Latin Festival. In the evening was an outdoor movie.

Latin Festival
The Latin Festival was held on Sunday, August 15 at Trout Lake. It only took a small portion of the park close to Victoria Drive. We met at Broadway Station and walked to the festival. We were hungry and thirsty so we checked out the food area first. We walked back and forth several times before we decided what to get.


I wanted a drink but wanted something different. The picture above is of one of the drinks I bought. It is sangria flavoured soda. It sounded interesting. It sounded like sangria but without the alchohol. It tasted like a mixed fruit soda. It was cheap at $2 each.


This was our first treat. It looked like a apple turnover from the outside. We had to ask them what it was. The lady told us that it is a guava flavoured turnover. That sounded interesting. For $1.50, it was worth trying. It was pink inside and looked like strawberry rhubarb. It was quite tasty and really tasted like guava.


We got to the festival quite early and we ordered from one of the booths. We ordered sardines. It was bbq'ed sardines and you eat it with the bread, like a sandwich. When we ordered the sardines, their bbq wasn't up and running yet. We had to wait a really long time. The portion was supposed to be 2 sardines and 2 buns. I guess they felt bad that we were waiting for a long time, they gave us an extra piece of sardine. It tasted different than the canned sardines. I think they just put the sardines on the bbq and serve it on the bun. I was expecting the bun to have some kind of sauce to make it more tasty. But it didn't. It was just sardines and the bun. I didn't want to fill myself up with so much carbs so I didn't eat much of the bun and only picked at the sardines.

This is plantines. It is served with a coleslaw with a tomato sauce. It is plantine chips. The coleslaw is a bit different with the tomato sauce. With the tomato sauce on top, if you didn't eat the plantines quick enough they got soggy. It was different.


This was tortilla with filling inside. On this plate one tortilla was fillled with beans, pork and cheese. The other tortilla was filled with pork and cheese. The tortilla was made there. They shaped it and stuffed it then panned fried it. They were also offering tortillas which were grilled on the BBQ. It is served with the coleslaw and tomato sauce. It wasn't as tasty as I thought. It wasn't spicey, it wasn't salty, it wasn't sweet, it wasn't bitter. It was a bit bland. Thanks to the coleslaw, it tasted a bit better.

After 2 hours in scorching sun and after seeing all the merchandise, I was ready to go. I was sunburnt :(

Outdoor Movie


This is the first time I went to an outdoor movie. It was held at Swanguard Stadium. They were playing How to Train Your Dragon. I thought it was free but they were accepting donations for Kidsports in Burnaby. I would feel bad if I just walked in without donating anything. I just gave them $5. You were allowed to sit on the grass or on the bleachers. We decided to sit on the bleachers. I was worried about mosquitos and I brought some lotion and spray to deter the mosquitos from eating me alive. The movie started when it got dark about 9:30pm. It was really hard to concentrate on the movie. There were still kids running around and making noise. There were ambulance driving by. The movie didn't have good color contrast and I couldn't see part of the movie. By the end of the movie, I didn't get attacked by mosquitos and got a jist of what the movie was about.

Day 275: Fish and Tamarind (cha ca)

Tonight I went to a family dinner. We had crab and 'cha ca'. The crab was broiled. There was a fish sauce mixture available if anyone wanted it. It was our appetizer. I didn't eat very much of it because I'm very lazy to pick out the meat of lobster and crab.


The main dish was 'cha ca'. There is a street named Cha Ca Street in Hanoi, Vietnam because most of the restaurants specialize in this dish. Because I eat this dish at family gatherings, I am not sure if they serve this at Vietnamese restaurants. A family member made the dish for us. We just had to heat it up and eat it. It is a fried fish dish flavoured with turmeric, dill and oil.

The fish is cut into small bite size pieces and then fried. It is then put in a ceramic pot with oil, turmeric, dill and other ingredients. To heat up the fish in the ceramic pot, we just put it in the microwave for a few minutes. The ceramic pot is then put on top of a holder of tea lights. It is similar to a potpourri holder. The cha ca is best served hot. The tea lights keep the ceramic bowl hot. It is served with vermicelli noodles, basil, cilantro, vinegared onions, peanuts and a shrimp paste sauce.

Day 274: Experimenting with Food ; cooking/baking and eating it

The other nite was the first time I made the No Bake Chocolate Blueberry Cream Pie. It was pretty good. This picture is after we had a slice. It isn't a perfect pie. I didn't follow the instructions completely. I messed up on a step. I improvised and continued the recipe. I could've also made the sides a bit cleaner. That's ok, I forgive myself because it was the first time making it. Practice makes perfect, right?


The other night we went to Bouzyos and I tried a new dish. Every time I go to a Greek restaurant I usually go for lamb; lamb roast, lamb chops or lamb soulavi. As in my Restaurant posting, I ordered the Mediterranean Prawns and Scallops. That was delicious. Tonight, my dad and I went to Sfinaki (thanks Entertainment Book). My dad told me tonight that he has never tried Greek food before. Because he hasn't been to a Greek restaurant before, it was up to me to decide on the dishes. I wanted to be experimental and try new dishes that I haven't tried before. I, luckily, had a good experience at Bouzyos and now I am hoping it will be a good experience at Sfinaki.

I ordered the following dishes:

Mousaka - classic casserole dish layered with spiced ground beef, eggplant, zucchini and topped with creamy bechamel, served with rice pilaf, roasted potato, greek salad and pita



Sfinaki deluxe - medley of lamb sausage, beef and chicken stir fryed with mushrooms and onions in a tangy tomato sauce, served with rice pilaf, roasted potato, greek salad and pita


Overall, I am glad I ordered these dishes. They were both great. My dad has bad teeth and some of the beef chunks he couldn't chew. But for me, it was fine. My dish has ground beef. My dad's dish has lamb sausage, beef and chicken. My dish was baked. My dad's dish was stir fryed. Greek food is more thanI about souvlaki and lamb. There are so many other dishes. Maybe souvlaki is the 'Westernized' version of Greek food? There are some 'Westernized' Chinese food; sweet and sour pork or chicken, etc. But there is so much more to Chinese food than the 'Western' dishes. There are some Vietnamese dishes that are on every Vietnamese menu; spring rolls, salad rolls, etc. What my parents make at home is totally different than what they sell at the restaurants. Maybe those types of food don't sell? I don't like fusion Chinese and Vietnamese food. I have to pay more to eat that type of food with a Western flair and usuallythey are smaller portions. I like the authentic dishes. Growing up, my parents always got me to try the different dishes. You know the ones with tripe, chicken feet, brains, liver or intestine. Sounds great, huh?

I got a great idea. When my parents cook, I should write down the recipes and learn to make the dishes. I can experiment with traditional dishes.

Day 273: Cooking / Baking

I didn't know how to cook. I didn't want to learn how to cook. I moved out and lived on my own. At this point, it was to my advantage to cook. Eventhough I was living right by Davie St and there were many restaurants to choose from, it was nice to stay in sometimes and on top of that there were times I was too lazy to go out to get food. Since then I have learned to cook a little bit. It's been fun and adventurous. If I have to cook for myself, I have to plan on my menu for the rest of the week. I have to buy produce that can be used in a multitude of dishes. It doesn't make sense for me to buy something for one dish. I don't know when the next time I will be cooking that dish and that food will go bad and I will have to throw it away.

I dated a chef a few years back. It was a good experience because I learned alot about cooking. He had his own catering company. When he cooked, I would ask him about cooking techniques. It was kinda like free cooking lessons. Since we are not together anymore, I have to pay for cooking lessons. :P..

One of the items on my bucket list is to learn gourmet cooking. I am not sure when I will start that yet. I don't really like cooking for myself. I think it's more fun and satisfying when I cook for others. There have been a few potlucks where I brought a dish I made. One entree I made was actually pretty good. I have never made it before and I just made it up. It was like a pasta casserole. It was macoroni and cheese on the bottom layer. Then the next layer was green peppers, I think there was mushrooms too, and onions. Then it was salmon. It was topped off with cheese and baked in the oven. Last week I brought a dessert I just learned about. It was a Philipino fruit salad. It was super easy to make. It was pretty good. It is a mixture of cream, evoporated milk and fruit cocktail. I adjusted it a little bit and added jackfruit and toddy fruit.

In terms of baking, I used to make cupcakes. I thought it was delicious. But now I think it's too fattening. Buttercream topping is made mostly from sugar and butter. I need to watch my calories as I get older and globs of sugar and butter won't help. Every once in awhile I will make my signature cupcakes. They are mini cupcakes topped with chocolate and have letters on them. Some of you have seen them at a birthday party or at another occasion. Tonight I just did some more baking. Ok, it's not really baking. It was a non-bake raspberry cream pie. I went to Superstore to get the ingredients. Raspberries were super expensive. Blueberries were cheaper. It now became a blueberry cream pie. I couldn't fine creme fraise so I substituted it with dessert topping (like Cool Whip). It's in the fridge chilling now. We will see how it turns it out tomorrow.

Day 272: Bouzyos

Best Greek food I've had so far: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/08/bouzyos.html

Day 271: Outdoor Go - karting

My friend organized to go outdoor go karting. When I got the invite, I was excited because go karting is on my bucket list. I read the details of the invite and wasn't so excited. It was at 10am on a Sunday and in Tsawwassen. I wasn't keen to waking up early on a Sunday morning to head off to Tsawwassen. I told him I would come a few days ago. But this morning, I woke up and it was a gloomy and wet Sunday morning. I thought it would be dangerous to be go karting in the rain. I messsaged my friend to see if it was still on. He was really eager to go go - karting so it was a go.

Tsawwasen seemed so far away. In the morning I checked my iphone maps to see how long it would take for me to drive there. It told me 30mins with traffic. Sometimes these maps judge the time inccorectly. I left my house late so I thought I would be late. It took me 30mins to get there so the iphone map was right. I got there at 9:58 am and even got there before the staff. We went outdoor go karting at F440 in Tsawwassen, across from Splashdown Park.

There was four of us that went go karting. Two of them rides motorcyles. The track had a lot of turns and it was a bit challenging. I had a feeling that the motorcyle riders will go on the track faster than myself. I felt like a grandma on the track. I was scared to go really fast. The first lap I was going really slow. I had to get used to operating a go kart. Then I had to get used to going on that curvy track. Then I challenged myself to go faster. We raced three sessions of 15mins each. In each session I was last :(. The first session was so uncomfortable for me. It was drizzling so my helmet was wet. I pushed my visor up a little because I couldn't wipe off the rain drops. But once I did that, dust particles were flying in my face. By the third session, I was comfortable with using a go kart in the rain and going on the curvy track but my kart wasn't going as fast as I would like it.

Overall it was a fun experience. Maybe I would go faster if it wasn't drizzling. It was a bit expensive but I had an Entertainment Coupon and I saved myself a few dollars.

Day 270: Marmalade

Mediocre restaurant: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/08/marmalade.html

Day 269: I feel so rejected!

Today I had an appointment with the Canadian Blood Services (http://www.bloodservices.ca/) to donate blood again. I was early for my appointment. They let me proceed eventhough I was early. After I checked in with the receptionist, I went to the next counter where they checked my iron level. To check the iron level, they poke your finger and collect a few drops of blood and put it in a machine and the machine spits out a number or it says yes or no. I'm not exactly sure what it says, but the attendant then tells you if your level of iron is acceptable. If your level is acceptable, then they give you a long questionnaire to fill out. You are only allowed to fill out the top half at this stage.

The questionnaire is another screening process before you get to actually donate your blood. You have to respond truthfully in this questionnaire. It is beneficial to the Canadian Blood Services to make sure they have clean (untainted) blood. In the questionairre there were questions such as if you have had sex for money in the last 12 months, if you were in Africa in the last 3 months, if you had any dental work done in the last 3 days, if you had any tattoos or piercings done in the last 6 months and other similar questions. After you finish that questionairre, you go into a small room and you see an attendent (I think it is a nurse). The nurse then asks you the questions from the bottom half of the questionairre. There are questions such as if you had used drugs with a needle in the last 12 months and other similar questions. While in the room, the nurse takes your blood pressure and your heart rate. The blood pressure and heart rate has to be a certain range for them to let you proceed to donate blood. My blood pressure was fine. My heart rate was a bit high. The nurse asked if I was nervous. I was nervous because I remembered the last time I donated blood. I remembered I felt the needle in me and it felt uncomfortable for the 10 minutes the blood was coming out of me. The nurse tried to calm me down a bit then took my heart rate again. The first time it was 107. The second time was 104. I asked what it had to be for me to proceed. She said it had to be 100 or lower. She said I can come back tomorrow or another day I am free. I was rejected from donating blood because my heart rate was too high :(

Day 268: Powell St Festival / Chinatown Night Market / Van. Vietnamese Restaurant

Powell Street Festival

This festival took place from July 31 and Aug 1 at the renovated Oppenheimer Park. We couldn't go on Sat, July 31. We ended up going on Sun, Aug 1. We didn't get there until 4:30pm. It ended at 7pm. There many events happening in and around the park area. We parked close to the Japanese Language School. We found out later that there was an exhibit on the atomic bomb and some historic information on the Japanese people in Vancouver.



We walked on one end of the festival and they were selling food; BBQ salmon, sno cones, corn on the cob, spam sushi. We wanted to walk around to see what else the festival was offering in terms of food. We walked across the park viewing some of the merchandise the vendors were selling. Once we got to the other side we saw some more food booths. They were selling octopus balls, gyozas, dessert with red bean filling and tofu items. We were lining up for the red bean desserts when we saw our friends (Hi Laura and Carlos ;) ). They were lining up for the octopus balls. We made a deal with them. We gave them money to get us the octopus balls and they gave us money to get them some red bean dessert. While we were eating our dessert with red bean and octopus balls, there was a drumming performance on the main stage. After that food, we were on a search for more food. We walked to the other side to see what else we felt like eating. We saw a friend of mine and he said there was an exhibit in the Vancouver Buddist Church. We walked in to see what it was all about. The most interesting thing were some minimalistic flower arrangement (see attached picture).



Chinatown Night Market

We left the Powell Street Festival and were heading towards Main Street for some dinner. We drove by Chinatown and noticed that the night market was just starting up. We decided to check it out. Our first destination was bubble tea. While drinking the bubble tea, we walked the whole market, which was only a block long. They were selling the typical night market stuff: ipod / iphone covers, belts, toys, underwear, shoes, clothing, DVD's and Chinese food. We were only there for about 20mins. There was a stage there but we didn't stay for any of the performances. It was dinner time and we were hungry.

Vancouver Vietnamese Restaurant

Full review : http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/08/vancouver-vietnamese-restaurant.html

Day 267: Kids Say the Darnest Things !

My mom is currently visiting my sister and her family. She is spending a few months there to help my sister take care of her kids during the kids' summer break. I talked to my mom and my sister earlier today. My mom told me about a situation that happened recently.

My mom is pretty old school. She was raised in a 3rd world country and food was scarce. There was no wasting food. It was about living in a large family and every morsel of food was spoken for. If you didn't finish your food, there was someone else in the family that was more than willing to finish it off for you.

The kids (my niece and nephew) are 'Americanized' (if that is even a word). They were born in California. They were raised with numerous fast food joints in their surroundings. Of course there is always the odd visit to a fast food joint (with a coupon, of course). They live in a very comfortable house with a swimming pool. Each of their parents has a car. They have closets full of clothes. They have lots of toys. They live in the suburbs so they always have to drive every where. Because they live fairly close to Anaheim, there are frequent trips to Disneyland.

My mom and the kids were sitting eating pizza. The kids didn't eat the crust of the pizza. My mom said to the kids 'you have to finish off all your food'. My mom followed up by saying that there are many kids in Africa who don't have food to eat. My nephew, age 3, said to my mom 'then they can go to Costco to buy their food'. My mom and niece giggled at that comment. They know that African kids can't just drive to Costco to get their food. That comment from my nephew shows his innocence and Americanization.