Easter

On the occasion of the Easter Holiday, I would like to describe some of the Easter traditions celebrated in France.

The French word for Easter is “Pâques”.  To say “Happy Easter” you can say “Joyeuses Pâques” or “Bonnes Pâques”. Easter is widely celebrated in France - by kids as well as by parents. One of the traditions on the Saturday evening is for children to prepare nests in their gardens and houses.  These nests are for the Easter bunny who will arrive during the night and will bring chocolate eggs. Some kids leave out carrots for the bunny in case he would be hungry. When they wake up on Easter Sunday, they are very excited because it's time to search for the chocolate eggs left in the nests by the Easter bunny! This egg hunt is called “La chasse aux œufs”. What’s more, there’s a traditional game on Easter Sunday. Children throw raw eggs up in the air and catch them. They keep doing this until someone drops one. The first child who will drop and break his egg is the loser, and in some versions, he must pay a penalty like giving a piece of his Easter candy to his brothers or sisters. 

When it comes to Easter food, on Good Friday, like in Poland, most of the French don’t eat meat. They only eat fish, vegetables, fruit and bread - in fact anything, as long as it is meat-free. On Easter Day, they eat roast lamb or roast pork and a lot of vegetables. They have also a cake called “La Gâche de Pâques”.  It's a very rich bread mixture which contains bread flour, sugar, milk, yeast, butter and eggs.

And what about other countries? Do you know how people celebrate Easter in Spain or in Italy? :)

superstitions

There are many people who believe in superstitions, especially the oldest one. So, if a black cat crosses their way , they believe they will have bad luck. The same will happen to them on Friday the 13^th or when they will go under a ladder. But as far as I’m concerned, a superstition is only a kind of play. In some situations it’s easier to be superstitious. For example, when something went wrong, we can always blame it on a black cat which had crossed our way that morning, can’t we? :)

I know a lot of superstitions and some of them are really funny. Having bad luck when you get out of the bed on the wrong side or having luck when you see a chimney sweep and at the same time you catch one of your buttons…And the funniest one: what has haircut to do with passing the A-Level exams (our “matura”)? If you don’t learn enough, you won’t pass this exam…And if you do the haircut, it won’t prevent you from getting good marks!

To sum up, I think that we can’t predict everything, our luck depends on many circumstances. Many things happen by a stupid coincidence. However, to be honest, what would be our life like without all these superstitions? Ordinary and boring, I assume. I’m not sure if I’m superstitious or not. But if I see a ladder, I rather try not to go under it... :) I think that it’s better not to tempt the fate because bad luck can be waiting for us everywhere. And you, are you superstitious? Do you know any other funny superstitions?  

something unusual

Inspired by the article that I read a few days ago, I decided to write you something about the most unusual restaurants in the world. This subject seemed to me quite interesting because I haven't idea that such places exist! There are sooo many weird things in the world and I thought that nothing will surprise me...but I was wrong...:)
So, for example, does a toilet themed restaurant sound strange to you? In California, you can find The Magic Restroom Cafe which is the first toilet-themed restaurant in America. There are toilet chairs to sit and food is served in various toilet-styled plates and bowls. "Black poop", "Golden poop rice" - even in the menu you can find some dishes inspired by this theme!! For my, it sounds rather disgustingly...

Are you afraid of hospitals? If you want to shed your fear of visiting a hospital, you must eat a dinner in the Hospitalis restaurant in Riga, Latvia. You can see there the waitresses who wear nurse's uniforms and who treat the guests as patients and take good care of them. They also sing songs and play music! The food is served in flasks and operating-room's dishes and is eaten with surgical utensils.

If you will be in New York City, you can enjoy a Japanese dinner served by...ninjas! They will drop down from the ceiling to show theirs best ninja kicks. To get to the dinner room, the guest have to walk through a labyrinth, which is supposed to resemble a Japanese mountain village.

To sup um, all around the world, different themed restaurants have opened up, some more outrageous then others. For those who are seeking an out-of-the-box dining experience, there are many intriguing options. And you, which restaurant would you chose? :)

Supermarkets tricks

Have you ever thought about the ways that we are persuaded to spend more money? I would like to show you some of the supermarkets tricks which are hard to spot but which bring about that we buy more than we need. 

Let’s start from the shops’ structure. Every part of the supermarket, from entry to checkout, is designed to make us spend more money and to buy more food than we actually wanted to buy. Have you ever noticed that food product that we use every day, are placed at the very end of the supermarket? Shops tend to hide dairy products on the back wall so that we have to go through the whole store to get to them. That provides more opportunity to spot something we like but we weren't planning on buying. That’s why customers who want  to go to the store only for bread, come away with full shopping trolley.

What’s also important is an arrangement of products. The items that supermaket really wants us to buy are at our eye level. Obviously, they are the most expensive. Cheaper choices are typically on bottom shelves so we have to bend down to pick them up (which is too complicated for some people…).

And what about music that we can hear during shopping? Supermarkets play on our senses of sound. Studies have shown that slow music makes people take their time and spend more money. Loud music makes them move through the store quickly without affecting sales. And classical music leads people to buy more expensive merchandise. I read recently that some of the supermarkets change their music depending on the time of day, such as Frank Sinatra on Monday mornings when older shoppers are more likely to be around, and then switch to modern music on Friday nights to attract the younger shoppers. Can you imagine? I would never guess..

And how about you? Do you know any other ways used by supermarkets to persuade people to spend more money? Or maybe, do you have some advices of how to avoid these tricks?

And the Oscar goes to...

What a night! The 86th Academy Awards ceremony took place last Sunday in Hollywood. I’m very keen on American cinema so I was really excited and I couldn’t wait for this night! What’s more, I adore Ellen DeGeneres and this year, she was a host of this event. I watch her television talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” quite regularly and I knew that she would be the best choice for it! And she didn’t disappoint me! Her selfie with Hollywood celebrities broke the previous record and in less than 24 hours after the ceremony, it has been retweeted over 2.8 million times!!! Can you imagine?! It’s insane!!

Moreover, Ellen ordered pizzas for the celebrities and she dressed as a fairy godmother!

But it’s not over! This year, we had a lot of funny moments during the Oscars night! Just when I hoped that Jennifer Lawrence would make a big entry at Hollywood's biggest night, the actress repeated her act from last year (when she fell down while walking up the stairs to accept her award) and fell on the red carpet!! Hopefully, she’s a laid-back, young girl so she didn’t worry about it and she started to laugh aloud! She seems to be very clumsy but at the same time she’s so cute and funny! I burst out laughing after Ellen’s comment about Jennifer’s propensity for falling :“If you win tonight, I think we should bring you the Oscar.”

The other funny moment of this night was the performance of my favorite singer Pharrell Williams. During the opening performance of his song “Happy”, he started to dancing with nominated actresses Lupita Nyong'o, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. It was amazing!

To sum up, even if one of my favorite actor - Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t win the Oscar for his role in “The Wolf of Wall Street”, I spent a great time watching The Academy Awards! It was worth burning the midnight oil!! :) And you, did you watch the Oscars night? What’s your opinion? Do you agree with the Academy Awards choices?

The Hunger Games

Because of the fact that it’s exam time, I do everything to not study :) Finally, I “found” some time for reading. I decided to finish the last part of “The Hunger Games” trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. Have you already read it?

I was totally fascinated with the two first books in this series (“The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire”) so I couldn’t wait any longer to find out what will happen next. And to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed! That’s why, I would like to recommend you these books!

“The Hunger Games” trilogy takes place in the future, in the totalitarian nation of Panem. The country consists of the wealthy Capitol, who rules over twelve poorer districts.  Katniss Everdeen, who lives in District 12, is the main character and narrator of the story. Each year, one boy and one girl from each of the districts, between the ages of 12 and 18, are selected by lottery to participate in the "Hunger Games". These Games are a televised event. The participants, called "tributes", are forced to fight to the death in a dangerous public arena. The winning tribute and his or her home district is then rewarded with food and riches. The purpose of the "Hunger Games" is to provide entertainment for the Capitol and to serve as a reminder to all the districts of the Capitol's power.

In the course of the first book, Katniss volunteers to replace her younger sister, Prim. She uses her knowledge of hunting and archery to survive. Throughout the next two parts, she becomes the symbol of a rebellion for the twelve districts against the Capitol's oppression.

All in all, I won’t tell you a whole story, because it wouldn’t have a sense. Of course, like many books, who are being transformed in movies, “The Hunger Games” has its own adaptation. This year, the second part hit the screens, but as far as I’m concerned, the books are always better than the movie versions and it’s also in this case.

To sum up, I strongly recommend “The Hunger Games” trilogy  to all of you! As an interesting fact, I can tell you that these books surpassed the record previously held by the “Harry Potter” series! Can you imagine?! So, as you can see, it’s really worth reading! :)

The most interesting person I've ever met

To be honest, I decided to take advantage of our homework. But this story is so fascinating that I’d like to share it with you. We had to describe who is the most interesting person we've ever met. So I chose Risy. It’s my Brazilian friend who I met during my Erasmus in France. I really enjoyed her company and I found that we were absolutely on the same wavelength, so we became best friends very quickly.

With time, I was getting to know her better and better. Her story about her life made me feel like a whole new person and I would never look at the world as I did before. Despite the fact that we’re both the same age, her life has been full of trials and tribulations. As a child, she lived on the outskirts of São Paulo, in favelas, a shanty town. Her neighborhood was full of dwellings that people had made themselves from any material which they could find. She lived in a two-room house with her parents and two brothers. She was the oldest one, so she spent every afternoon (and weekend as well) in the market, where she sold snacks. Luckily, at the age of 16, she met a French teacher who played a leading role in her life. He decided to help her family and thanks to him, they were able to move out from favelas. Now, after a few years, her family’s life is much better. Moreover, as a French student, Risy works for a charity and teaches poor kids for free.

All in all, Risy showed me a way to look at the world with new eyes and what is the most important, she let me notice what I really want to do in my life and what I’m really keen on. I realized that I want to help people and that French is something that I want to base my career on. For this reason, I’d like to be a teacher of French at an elementary school in Brazil, where I could make people’s dreams come true.