Hello everyone! For those of you who have been following this blog over time, thank you! That being said, I will no longer be posting to this blog, as I have a different website now. You can check out my new website, Abundantly Minimal. At this site, you will find content related to minimalism, plant-based recipes, travel journals, videos, and more! There are also social media accounts available if you would like to check those out as well! Feel free to visit my website, YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Italy Video
Hello! The school year is up in full swing, and Jake and I have been pretty busy, but I just finished the Italy video! Feel free to take a look!
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Venice
Hello! I know it has been a few days since I last posted, as Jake and I are getting into the swing of the new school year! We start teaching next week! Anyways, we loved our stay in Venice! There is something so magical about Venice since it is so peaceful, there are no cars, so much water, and beautiful views! This was actually Jake's favorite city of the whole trip! It was incredibly hot while we were there, the highest temperatures in 12 years! We really enjoyed walking around and exploring the island at our leisure…take a look!
To continue reading, click "Read More".
To continue reading, click "Read More".
Monday, August 10, 2015
Milan and the World Fair (Expo 2015)
Hello! This post is one of the posts that I am most excited about! It is time to talk about the World Fair, Expo 2015! When Jake and I were first planning the trip, it was sort of a coincidence when we found out that we would be visiting a city that was hosting the world fair, and we were pretty excited. I was even more excited when I found out that the topic was Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, so basically all about food! I love food and I love cooking, so I could not wait! I felt like it was also perfect because I just began my Plant Based Chef Certification program in preparation to teach nutrition and cooking classes as an extracurricular activity this year at school, and I figured this theme would provide some additional ideas and inspiration as well!
One other thing to note is that Jake and I stopped in a bakery just outside the fair for some breakfast and had some croissants. What we did not expect, however, was that these would be the best croissants of our lives!! They were amazing and melt in your mouth, fresh out of the oven croissants. It was a great start to the day! :)
Upon our entrance into the park, we entered Pavilion Zero, which gave a general overview of the fairgrounds.
I thought this art was really cool, since they had these walls completely filled with different types of foods, such as spices, grains, and legumes!
This rooms was one of my favorites in the pavilion, as it showed how food prices change globally. They showed these changes in multiple languages and currencies, and it definitely makes you think a bit more about how the ingredients on your plate came to be there.
After walking around a bit in some of the heat, we wanted to cool down! We stopped at the Juicebar for some smoothies, and they were delish!
Once we were refreshed, we were ready to explore! All of the countries that had their own building or exhibit were spread out along the main road of the expo, and each building had such unique architecture with interesting exhibits and entertainment!
Ireland
There was a temporary exhibit with beautiful pottery from China!
There were also several stations that were part of the UN Zero Hunger Challenge, so it was interesting to see some of their initiatives!
These sculptures were pretty interesting! I was drawn to the fruit sculpture!
Some local media coverage of the Expo...
We stopped at Grom to get our first gelato of the trip, with some chocolate and strawberry sorbet! It was amazing! I miss it already from looking at it now!
Czech Republic chose to feature water and water conservation.
Inside, they had a ton of water and plumbing related facts written on toilets. You could even sit on these toilets to watch a video they had as well. Jake looked inside and saw there was a sign that stated "Do not use." I was surprised by the fact that more people own a cell phone than a toilet.
We even tried a lentil pancake at their restaurant. Another exciting part of Expo that I should mention is that most of the country buildings had their own restaurant serving up some delicious local specialties! There were a lot of great smells!
Check out these cool banana plants from Bahrain!
It was interesting to see how much detail countries would put into their exhibit. Angola had one of the coolest, most informative and most interactive buildings! They gave everyone a little passport that had some information about each region of Angola and there was a really empowering video series about women leaders in Angola, and how they are making a difference in their communities.
Brazil had a very fun exhibit! To get into their building, you could choose to climb in on this rope bridge, which was a blast! (Although a little more challenging than it looked!)
We stopped in the Vietnam building just in time for an incredible concert, which lasted about a half hour and featured some instruments I had never seen before.
South Korea proved to be a very high tech and interesting stop! They focused a lot of the contrast of obesity and starvation in the world with several artistic interpretations and sculptures.
They did have a penguin inside!
Many smaller countries were sometimes group together under common themes based upon the climate or type of crops that dominate the economy in a particular region. These included areas dedicated to rice, coffee, chocolate, etc. We enjoyed some of the set-up of the rice exhibit with Myanmar.
Moldova
Bulgaria
Thailand
Uruguay
China
Azerbaijan (this one was definitely one of my favorites!)
Poland
When we visited Poland's exhibit, we were able to catch part of a piano concert by a musician from the Warsaw Philharmonic!
The United Kingdom's exhibit was pretty cool! It was all about bees, and how they are disappearing, yet they made a huge portion of our food supply possible. From a distance, the metal enclosure does look a lot like a swarm of bees!
We also visited Spain's exhibit, which was awesome!
This room was really cool because it showed different Spanish recipes and how to make them by putting the ingredients on these plates along the wall. All of the ingredients were written in English, Spanish, and Italian!
They also had tomatoes on the floor!
France
Israel
Ecuador
Germany
We were very interested to see the US pavilion. Jake and I were wondering what approach the US would take, and what people from other countries would be thinking, since the US food system is so messed up. I was wondering if they were going to feature a GMO exhibit, but was happy to see that the US was smart enough not to bring up GMOs, as all of the European nations and basically every other developed nation in the world has banned GMOs due to their health risks. (And then people wonder why the US has the highest rate of cancer in the world by a significant margin… yikes!) The inside seemed to focus on some video exhibits with different food scientists and President Obama, and thankfully they did not "brag" about GMOs.
What was peculiar to us was that the main focus was on video footage of seven food trucks, and they even called the US the "food truck nation". Now, I don't know about you, but I don't actually really know about that many food trucks, besides a couple that were at the Taste of Chicago last summer. I wasn't sure if it really painted the best picture of the US food system, but then again, the other countries could be stretching the truth in their exhibits as well. Who knows?
One thing we weren't surprised about…look who paid for the chairs in the American pavilion dining area? That's right… Coca Cola.
It looks like Turkey has been selected as next year's world fair host, which is all about flowers. I don't think we will make it to that one haha!
Other parts of Turkey's exhibit.
Morocco
Monaco
Russia
Shouldn't Mishka be purple? Regardless, it made for a fun photo opportunity!
With all of these beautiful and wonderful places and restaurants from around the world, how does a horrible, monopolizing chain get to be here. I was irritated to see McDonald's here, but also not that surprised.
Turkmenistan
Indonesia
Estonia
This beautiful art piece is called the Tree of Life.
Time was flying at Expo and we did not have as much time as we might have liked. However, one added bonus was that Cirque Du Soleil, the world's premiere circus troupe was performing in the evening at the fair, and it was only $30 extra for tickets to see them! This was a bargain compared to the usual $100 to $250 per ticket to see them in the US! Here is a clip I found from youtube with parts of the show! It was amazing!
We truly loved our day at Expo! It definitely gave me some insight into some other parts of the world and I would definitely attend another world fair in the future if it works out!
Next stop… Venice! See you soon!
One other thing to note is that Jake and I stopped in a bakery just outside the fair for some breakfast and had some croissants. What we did not expect, however, was that these would be the best croissants of our lives!! They were amazing and melt in your mouth, fresh out of the oven croissants. It was a great start to the day! :)
Upon our entrance into the park, we entered Pavilion Zero, which gave a general overview of the fairgrounds.
I thought this art was really cool, since they had these walls completely filled with different types of foods, such as spices, grains, and legumes!
This rooms was one of my favorites in the pavilion, as it showed how food prices change globally. They showed these changes in multiple languages and currencies, and it definitely makes you think a bit more about how the ingredients on your plate came to be there.
After walking around a bit in some of the heat, we wanted to cool down! We stopped at the Juicebar for some smoothies, and they were delish!
Once we were refreshed, we were ready to explore! All of the countries that had their own building or exhibit were spread out along the main road of the expo, and each building had such unique architecture with interesting exhibits and entertainment!
Ireland
There was a temporary exhibit with beautiful pottery from China!
There were also several stations that were part of the UN Zero Hunger Challenge, so it was interesting to see some of their initiatives!
These sculptures were pretty interesting! I was drawn to the fruit sculpture!
Some local media coverage of the Expo...
We stopped at Grom to get our first gelato of the trip, with some chocolate and strawberry sorbet! It was amazing! I miss it already from looking at it now!
Czech Republic chose to feature water and water conservation.
Inside, they had a ton of water and plumbing related facts written on toilets. You could even sit on these toilets to watch a video they had as well. Jake looked inside and saw there was a sign that stated "Do not use." I was surprised by the fact that more people own a cell phone than a toilet.
Nepal had a lovely exhibit and dedicated their exhibit to earthquake relief efforts. The pagoda they constructed was very beautiful and a peaceful place, despite the large number of visitors.
We even tried a lentil pancake at their restaurant. Another exciting part of Expo that I should mention is that most of the country buildings had their own restaurant serving up some delicious local specialties! There were a lot of great smells!
Check out these cool banana plants from Bahrain!
It was interesting to see how much detail countries would put into their exhibit. Angola had one of the coolest, most informative and most interactive buildings! They gave everyone a little passport that had some information about each region of Angola and there was a really empowering video series about women leaders in Angola, and how they are making a difference in their communities.
Brazil had a very fun exhibit! To get into their building, you could choose to climb in on this rope bridge, which was a blast! (Although a little more challenging than it looked!)
We stopped in the Vietnam building just in time for an incredible concert, which lasted about a half hour and featured some instruments I had never seen before.
South Korea proved to be a very high tech and interesting stop! They focused a lot of the contrast of obesity and starvation in the world with several artistic interpretations and sculptures.
They did have a penguin inside!
Many smaller countries were sometimes group together under common themes based upon the climate or type of crops that dominate the economy in a particular region. These included areas dedicated to rice, coffee, chocolate, etc. We enjoyed some of the set-up of the rice exhibit with Myanmar.
Moldova
Bulgaria
Thailand
Uruguay
China
Azerbaijan (this one was definitely one of my favorites!)
Poland
When we visited Poland's exhibit, we were able to catch part of a piano concert by a musician from the Warsaw Philharmonic!
The United Kingdom's exhibit was pretty cool! It was all about bees, and how they are disappearing, yet they made a huge portion of our food supply possible. From a distance, the metal enclosure does look a lot like a swarm of bees!
We also visited Spain's exhibit, which was awesome!
This room was really cool because it showed different Spanish recipes and how to make them by putting the ingredients on these plates along the wall. All of the ingredients were written in English, Spanish, and Italian!
They also had tomatoes on the floor!
France
Israel
Ecuador
Germany
We were very interested to see the US pavilion. Jake and I were wondering what approach the US would take, and what people from other countries would be thinking, since the US food system is so messed up. I was wondering if they were going to feature a GMO exhibit, but was happy to see that the US was smart enough not to bring up GMOs, as all of the European nations and basically every other developed nation in the world has banned GMOs due to their health risks. (And then people wonder why the US has the highest rate of cancer in the world by a significant margin… yikes!) The inside seemed to focus on some video exhibits with different food scientists and President Obama, and thankfully they did not "brag" about GMOs.
What was peculiar to us was that the main focus was on video footage of seven food trucks, and they even called the US the "food truck nation". Now, I don't know about you, but I don't actually really know about that many food trucks, besides a couple that were at the Taste of Chicago last summer. I wasn't sure if it really painted the best picture of the US food system, but then again, the other countries could be stretching the truth in their exhibits as well. Who knows?
One thing we weren't surprised about…look who paid for the chairs in the American pavilion dining area? That's right… Coca Cola.
It looks like Turkey has been selected as next year's world fair host, which is all about flowers. I don't think we will make it to that one haha!
Other parts of Turkey's exhibit.
Morocco
Monaco
Russia
Shouldn't Mishka be purple? Regardless, it made for a fun photo opportunity!
With all of these beautiful and wonderful places and restaurants from around the world, how does a horrible, monopolizing chain get to be here. I was irritated to see McDonald's here, but also not that surprised.
Turkmenistan
Indonesia
Estonia
This beautiful art piece is called the Tree of Life.
Time was flying at Expo and we did not have as much time as we might have liked. However, one added bonus was that Cirque Du Soleil, the world's premiere circus troupe was performing in the evening at the fair, and it was only $30 extra for tickets to see them! This was a bargain compared to the usual $100 to $250 per ticket to see them in the US! Here is a clip I found from youtube with parts of the show! It was amazing!
We truly loved our day at Expo! It definitely gave me some insight into some other parts of the world and I would definitely attend another world fair in the future if it works out!
Next stop… Venice! See you soon!
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