Australian food vs. American food blog post reflection

            I believe this blog post best captures my development as a writer for this semester. Reflecting on my writing and analytical skills from the beginning of the semester, I feel as if they weren’t nearly as strong as what they are now. This course has pushed me to develop those skills and it just so happens that this particular blog post focused heavily on that.

            Throughout the semester, we’ve worked on analyzing thoughts, feelings, and comparing and contrast among other topics. However, I feel as if these three topics are the most important components of this class. In the Australian food comparison post, I had to incorporate all three of these topics.

            The two clips began with Australian teens analyzing American food, along with Americans’ take on Australian food. There were several groups of teens that were sitting at a table testing the food that was brought out to them. In the cereal clip, their job was to explain how they felt about the cereal and if it related to anything they had back home. My job was to analyze their reactions and feelings towards the cereal and write about it. The reactions were somewhat predictable; many of the kids thought the cereals were too sugary and couldn’t be eaten for breakfast, however, there were a few that believed it was the best thing they had ever tasted. Reactions consisted of, “It’s just cookies in a bowl? Why am I eating cookies in a bowl for breakfast?” The surprising part from this clip is that almost none of the kids had ever heard of the cereals before.

            The next clip was presented in the same way, however, the kids were asked if the Americans’ take on Australian food was accurate and if they had any of the American dishes back home. The findings here were a little less surprising. Almost none of the kids said the food was like anything from back home. They even said Outback Steakhouse was a terrible representation of Australian food saying, “they were particularly amazed by the "bloomin onion," saying its incredibly gross and greasy and not Australian in any way!” Needless to say, some of the kids fell in love with the foods they tasted.

            With this said, I believe this serves as my best blog post to represent the course because it focuses on all the main points this course covers: thoughts, feelings, and food. Particularly, I feel my closing paragraph best demonstrates this as I am asked to explain how I relate to these feelings (closing paragraph below). In addition to covering the main points of the course, my growth as a writer in regards to my analytical skills is on display, something I feel I haven’t been very good with in the past. This course has definitely helped in developing my critical thinking and analyzing skills and I believe if you take a look at my writing from the end of this course and compare it with my writing from the beginning, you will be able to see a noticeable difference.

 “After watching the American cereal video, I can honestly say I can't relate to their reactions. I mean obviously I know these cereals are loaded with sugar, but still, I never had the same dumbfounded reaction most of them did when they tried the cereals for the first time. Maybe it was just because I was introduced to them at a younger age so they seemed normal to me, but either way, I hope we don’t choose to get rid of these cereals because they are great for a sweet snack every once in a while. For the Australians trying Outback video, I can say I have shared similar reactions. Being raised in a family that cooks authentic Italian dishes, I can very easily tell the difference between Olive Garden and a home cooked Italian meal, so I can see where they are coming from in the sense that the two are just not related in any way.”