crime and punishment, punishment and crime

This week in English we started to read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punsihment. Dostoevsky was a brilliant fiction writer, a journalist, and a publisher. He also had a gambling problem, suffered from epilepsy, and had constant financial problems. Like the hero of our novel, he spent time in prison in Siberia. He wasn't imprisoned for murder, though, but for being a member of the Petrashevsky Circle.(source). Crime and Punishment opens up to Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor ex-student in St. Petersburg, Russia who goes to a pawn broker and plans on murdering her for her money.

I, of course, had my doubts about the story. However, when I read the first few pages, it started to interest me. The only problem is with the crazy Russian names, like Alyona Ivanovna and Marmeladov. I know these names are difficult to pronounce since they're from a different culture, but it makes me wonder how phonetically-challenging American names are in comparison. Alex or Jan doesn't seem that difficult to pronounce compared to most Russian names. I also found names from Africa even harder to pronounce.

But enough about that names. I am only a few pages into C&P, but I hope that there is more in store as I read on!

apple of my eye

So this week's blog post was inspired by the Fuji apple in my lunch. I've never realized how many types of apples there are! Of course everyone knows the basic ones like red delicious, golden delicious, and delicious delicious (just kidding). My favorites as of right now have to be Honeycrisp or Fuji. Here's a site that lists many types of apples: http://www.nicholsfarm.com/ottoapplecard.htm

Anyway, I wanted to spotlight the origin of the name for the classic Granny Smith apple.

Granny (Ramsey) Smith apples were “born” in Australia in 1868 when Maria Ann Smith discovered a new kind of apple, purely by chance, growing on her compost heap. The seedling (malus domestica x malus sylvestris) was growing happily in the humid almost subtropical climate of Sydney.

(src:http://www.justfoodnow.com/2008/09/13/sour-apples-and-sesame-snaps/)

Granny Smith apples are considered all-purpose apples. They have an even green skin and have a crisp, firm flesh. Granny Smith apples are simply good for eating, as well as being a good cooking and baking apple. Granny Smith apples can be made into applesauce, apple pies, and many other apple cobblers and cakes. Granny Smith apples are also desirable for their long shelf life. They will stay crisp for much longer than other varieties of apples.

j'aime cat.

For the past few weeks in English, we have expanded our vocab unit to include French terms. French is one of the most phonetically pleasing languages spoken, in my opinion. There's something heavy about German and something nasal about Chinese. (Lol I would know.) And I know that makes me sound like an overly opinionated elitist but hey c'est la vie.

I was surprised by how many French terms that I already knew, considering I am from an Asian American upbringing and supplemented my linguistical studies with Italian to start, then Spanish. I've always been scolded for forgetting my native language, but taking ESL classes at the age of 5 tends to make you do that! I wish I had kept up with Canto, but it was just too hard. I don't even remember speaking it..it was that long ago. Writing Chinese is even harder than trying to speak it; my mom admits that it's really difficult since the marks are hard to differentiate.

Anyhoo, I only knew about most of the French terms since I read a lot. These terms, such as pièce de résistance, was used in a fashion book that I read a while ago. France is one of the fashion hubs of the world. I find French culture really interesting too. One day I hope to travel the world and Paris is definitely on that list! Hopefully I'll have learned more than a basic "bonjour" by that time!