How to Taste French Wine :: Personal Narrative France Papers

How to Taste French Wine The Vin Jaune, or "yellow wine", of eastern France's Jura region is not just yellow but the brightest yellow, like pure honey. The strange 62-oz. bottles in which they are sold are half-covered with dirt when photographed for supermarket glossies to show that their nectar, properly served chilled, is of the earth, of good, French earth. Plucked en masse from the sleepy fields of Chateau-Chalon, Arbois, or another smallish vineyard village of the like, Savagnin grapes are harvested late, almost in November, then squeezed, fermented, and sealed and aged in oak caskets for a period of exactly six years and three months. In these caskets, in dark and humid cellars, a layer of yeast forms upon the liquid's surface, protecting the young wine from the spoiling effects of oxygen and thus allowing for its unique yellowness to blossom from within. On the first morning after the last day of the third month of the seventh year, la Percà ©e, or "the piercing", of the caskets begins. Locals flo ck to a tiny, unknown village for the annual mass, ceremony, and piercing itself. There, 25 wine "houses" are set up, each offering only the most refined and choice flavors from the year's harvest. It was amongst these houses, each within a barn, or tent, or some other makeshift location, that I was introduced to proper wine etiquette, and how, in turn, to appreciate wine itself. It was also here where I learned how to go to a wine tasting with friends who buy bottles for in-between-tasting "tastings" and who drink on buses and trains. In other words, this is where I learned how not to go to a wine-tasting. The unknown village that would host the festivities this year was Cramans, indicated my yellow train ticket, printed especially for the event. It would be a formal affair, I decided, and I would wear a tie of red. Arriving at the town's train station around noon with my German friend Thomas, we stepped out into the soggiest, most bitterly cold February Sunday and continued down to a path of hay laid out like a red carpet that continued, little did we know, for about a half-hour until we reached the village "proper" (one main street, lined with ancient brick houses and barns, constitutes the "downtown"). We complained shamelessly and annoyingly about the weather amongst the large group with whom we were making our pilgrimage, but neither of us would have really turned back, not with the irreplaceable lesson in being cultured that lie ahead.

Saturday Night at the Birthday Party

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Introduction: Saturday, March 13th 2004, my friend Hannah had a costume party for her 13-year-old son Jason. Hannah invited 13 children to Jason’s birthday costume party at her home in Kissimmee. The children’s ages ranged from three to thirteen years old. Mostly everyone came to her home dressed in colorful costumes. Some were friendly, scary or funny,others were homemade or store bought. A young married couple arrived around 4:30 pm with their three-year-old son, Matthew, who is the subject of this paper..His father John was dressed as a tattered bum and his wife Sarah was dressed as a friendly pretty witch. Little Matthew who is usually a white, blond hair male was dressed in a black cat outfit complete with the painted face to resemble a cat. He also wore the red nose, red cheeks and whiskers. He is tall and thin for his age. According to John and Sarah, Matthew’s parents, their son is a curious little boy by nature. Emoti onal Deveopment and Stranger Anxiety Matthew demonstrated a wide range of basic emotions as Kail and Cavanaugh predicted. Most scientists agree that complex emotions don’t surface until 18 to 24 months of age (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 186). † Complex emotions require the additional step of reflecting on one’s own behavior and how one feels about it. Matthew moved his big blue eyes as he scanned the busy room filled with wild assortments of costumes that floated around him. Matthew did not speak much but his facial expressions of wonderment seemed to say what his mouth did not. Sometimes, his face would light up with excitement and other times he seemed to be paralyzed by fear.He reacted to the hip-hop music by bouncing up and down and clapping his hands. Matthew demonstrated â€Å"stranger wariness; by the end of the first year the child becomes wary in the presence of an unfamiliar adult (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 188). † He ran to his mother and father and hid his face in his mother’s lap when someone approached him to try to engage him in a dance. Until then he appeared to have forgotten about his parents. His ability to explore and his quick return to his parents when frightened showed that he had a secure attachment to his mother’s presence (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 177).Temperament I myself was dressed as Raggedy Annie. Matthew did not seem to be impressed with or afraid of my costume. He showed much interest in some of the other more outrageous costumes i. e. : a Martian with antennas, and a â€Å"Bug’s Life† look alike. Matthew just simply sat and stared at other costumes. He also smiled and laughs at others. When his parents allowed him to move about freely, Matthew hesitated and clung to his parents. That did not last for very long. As the night wore on, Matthew adjusted to his freedom and ventured away from the safety of his parents. This behavior can be easily related to tempermen t. Temperament is a consistent style or pattern in a child’s behavior (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 93). † When Matthew was first introduced to his new environment, he seemed slow to the adjustment. He seemed to be processing new information rather than just reacting to it. His activity level was very low at first. As time passed, he became more and more comfortable in his new surroundings and began to respond to it more favorably. This is evidence of â€Å"Slow-To-Warm-Up† temperament in which the child’s behavior is initially inhibited and then becomes more like the Easy or Difficult temperament types.He did not pay much attention to the people who were not dressed in costumes. He did not play or laugh with them at all. Rather, he appeared to be more interested in the array of colorful costumes and the behavior that they were engaged in, either laughing and/or dancing. Psychosocial Development Erikson predicted that by age 2 children strive for autonomy , â€Å"independence from others and control over their own behavior (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 179). † Around 6:00 pm it was time to eat. John and Sarah tried to get Matthew to sit with them so that they could eat together.Matthew did not want to sit. He began to cry and pull away when his dad tried to lift him up. When they got Matthew to the table, Matthew did not want to eat. His parents tried everything. He was too excited about all that was going on around him. Clearly Matthew wanted to regulate what was and was not going to happen by exerting his independence so profoundly. He had demostrated his autonomy by resisting, crying, and pulling away. He is probably still going through his terrible two years. He has a strong will power, but it is short lived.His reaction to some of the other more scary costumes and his need to be in the safety of his parents at that time showed some doubt as to his ability to deal with the unexpected. Once again, Matthew became unsure of himself. Erikson would classify this type of behavior as â€Å"AUTONOMY vs SHAME & DOUBT†. Cognitive Development Some of the other guests sensing what was going on with Matthew, attempted to help John and Sarah. A happy smiling clown went over and played with Matthew. The clown got him to eat some of his hamburger and french fries.A white rabbit with a big fuzzy tail pretending to nibble on an orange carrot went over to play with him and Matthew laughed and played joyfully. A silly puppet went over and danced in front of Matthew. The puppet also got Matthew to eat a little more of his french fries and drink some of his apple juice. When the colorful clown and the silly puppet interacted with Matthew he reached out to them, smiled and laughed with them. They got him to eat. Then a hungry pig came over to Matthew and tried to play with him. Matthew cried and pulled away. A ghost and a Freddy Kruger look alike went to say hello to Matthew.Matthew cried, swatted his hands at them to leave, twisted away from them, and started yelling no-no. Matthew’s fear of Freddy reveals the quality of â€Å"Appearance as reality† which is characteristic of the Preoperational stage of cognitive development (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 138). During the preoperational stage, magical thinking is the rule and children have great difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. In Matthew’s mind he believed the costumes were real. He believed the scary characters wanted to harm him (twisting away, swatting hands, crying out no no).His behavior was guided by a mistaken belief (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2004, pa. 123). I asked Matthew about the clown and the rabbit. Matthew said, â€Å"FUNNY, I WANT GO DOWN AND PLAY WITH THEM†. Matthew was also displaying â€Å"CONFUSION BETWEEN APPEARANCE AND REALITY†. Matthew is probably in the pre-operational stage of development. Although Matthew’s parents as well as he himself were dressed in costu mes he still could not understand that these where simply people dressed up as he and his parent’s were. Theory of Mind This behavior is typical for a pre-operational thinker.Piaget stated that children typically believe others see the world – literally and figuratively – exactly as they do. (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2004, pa. 134). Matthew may have seen these types of characters in other settings, like television. Based on the animated characters portrayals, and the way others reacted toward them, his memory has probably developed a schema toward those characters (fear-bad or friendly-nice). After getting permission from his parents I spoke with Matthew. I asked him why he cried when the pig and ghost tried to play with him? Matthew said because they are bad.Then I asked if the pig and the ghost had been mean to him. His reply was â€Å"SCARRY†. This statement has lead me to believe that Matthew was exercising a â€Å"theory of mind† by attributing mot ivations to the other characters (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 123). (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2006, pa. 186) Conclusion: In Matthew’s preoperational thinking, an object’s appearance tells what the object is really like. Matthew is learning how to assert his wishes and to categorize his likes and dislikes. He has a theory of mind which includes attributes of good vs. evil.He showed no emotion towards the people who were not in costumes even though they were strangers to him. He paid much more attention to the people who were in costumes and perceived them to be what they were imitating. Matthew distinguished between the clown, puppet, rabbit, pig, ghost and the â€Å"Freddy Kruger† look alike. He had and idea of what was safe and what was not safe, no matter how friendly they were to him. He demonstrated a wide range of emotion and secure attachment to his parents. Bibliography: Kail, V. C. , Cavanaugh, J. C. (2004). Human Development-A Life-Span View Belmont, CA. ; Wadsworth,

Spanish at the Zoo Names of Animals in Spanish

How well do you know the names of animals in Spanish? Here are the Spanish names for the animals you will find at many zoos as well as notes about the grammar related to animals. In Spanish, a zoo is typically known as un jardà ­n zoolà ³gico, un zoolà ³gico or simply un zoo. Note that because of regional variations, names in actual use may be different than those here. Anfibios Amphibians la rana — frogla salamandra — salamanderel sapo — toadel trità ³n — newt Aves Birds el à ¡guila (feminine noun) — eagle​el albatros — albatrossel avestruz — ostrichel buitre — vultureel bà ºho — owlla cigà ¼eà ±a — storkla cacatà ºa — cockatooel colimbo — loon, diverla cotorra, el loro — parrotel emà º — emueel flamenco — flamingoBelowel ganso — goosela garza — heronla gaviota — seagullla grulla — craneel halcà ³n — falcon, hawkla ibis — ibisla lechuza, el bà ºho — owlel à ±andà º — rheala oca — goosela paloma — doveel pato — duckel pavo — turkeyeel pavo real — peacockel pelà ­cano — pelicanel pingà ¼ino — penguinel somormujo — grebeel tucà ¡n — toucan Mamferos Mammals el alce — elk, mooseel caballo — horseel camello — camelel canguro — kangaroola cebra — zebrael cerdo — pigel chimpancà © — chimpanzeeel ciervo — deerel elefante — elephantla foca — sealel gà ¡lago — galagoel gibà ³n — gibbonel gorila — gorillael guepardo — cheetahla jirafa — giraffeel hipopà ³tamo — hippopotamusel oso hormiguero — anteaterel koala — koalael leà ³n — lionel leà ³n marino — sea lionel leopardo — leopardel manatà ­ — manateeel mono — monkeyla nutria — otterel oso — bearel panda — pandael pecarà ­ — peccaryel rinoceronte — rhinocerosel tapir — tapirel tigre — tigerel alce, el uapità ­ — elkel visà ³n — minkel zorro — fox Reptiles Reptiles el lagarto, el aligà ¡tor — alligatorla culebra — snakeel cocodrilo — crocodileel caimà ¡n — caimanel serpiente — snakela tortuga — turtle, tortoise Animales de Granja Farm Animals la abeja — beeel cerdo — pigel caballo  Ã¢â‚¬â€ horseel gallo  Ã¢â‚¬â€ roosterla oveja  Ã¢â‚¬â€ sheepel pavo  Ã¢â‚¬â€ turkeyel pollo, la gallina — chickenel toro  Ã¢â‚¬â€ bullla vaca  Ã¢â‚¬â€ cow Gender of Animals In most cases, the same word is used to refer the male animals of a species as is used for the females. However, as in English, there are some distinctive forms, such as vaca (cow) for the female of the bovine species and toro (bull) for the male. Animals with differentiated forms are listed below. The one that is listed first is the one you can use as the species name. For example, a group of cattle can be referred to as vacas even if bulls are included, just as in English we can  refer to a group of mixed-sex cattle as cows. Similarly, if you saw a single bovine in the distance and didnt know whether its a cow or bull, you could simply call it a vaca. el burro, la burra — donkey; type of female donkey or jennyel caballo, la yegua — stallion or male horse, mare or female horseel conejo, la coneja — male rabbit, female rabbitel elefante, la elefanta — male elephant, female elephantel gato, la gata — male cat, female catla gallina, el gallo — hen or chicken, roosterel lagarto, la lagarta — male lizard, female lizardel leà ³n, la leona — male lion, female lion or lionessel oso, la osa — male/female bearla oveja, el carnero — ewe or male sheep, ram or female sheepel perro, la perra — male dog, female dog or bitchel ratà ³en, la ratona — male mouse, female mouseel tigre, la tigresa — male tiger, female tiger or tigressla vaca, el toro — cow, bull If you need to distinguish between the female and male of a species and there arent separate names, you can use the invariable adjective hembra or macho, respectively. Thus you could refer to a female koala as un koala hembra and a male koala as un koala macho. Using the Personal A With Animals Although the personal a is normally used with people, it can be used with animals such as pets that the speaker has an emotional attachment to. Note the difference in these two sentences: Vi un perro con un solo ojo. (I saw a dog with just one eye. The speaker is referring to an otherwise unknown dog.)El veterinario sacrificà ³ a mi perra de nueve aà ±os. (The veterinarian euthanized my 9-year-old dog. The speaker is referring to a pet that she thinks of as a personality.)