I read "Tales of the beach", and article by Deborah J. Smith. In this article she infused the vacation she had with her family with the cultural experiences she faced. From the article I learned come culture from Nerja, Spain. One of the first things that I learned was that Spain has a part of Britain  inside of it. Nerja had shops that were full of British goods and Miss. Smith said how many  British tourists went to vacation in Spain. "Inside were all the British sweets I can’t find unless I visit our relatives in Belfast." Another thing that I learned and some what knew was that paella is a famous spanish dish. It is popular amungst many people. Miss. Smith even said how she walked all the way down the beach when they were in Nerja just so she could reach the last restaurant(Ayo), which serves the spiced rice, chicken and shrimp dish. "But I had come all the way to Nerja for Ayo’s paella. Ayo’s is the last restaurant at the end of Burriana Beach." Finally I have learned a bit about the scenery in Nerja and what is custom in Spain. Miss Smith shared in this piece how most beaches in Europe have pebbles instead of sand, as well as a strong undercurrent. "We unrolled our towels at Calahonda Beach for a swim. Like many European beaches it’s pebbles instead of sand; the ocean undertow quickly fills your sandals with dime-sized stones and buries your feet in gravel." This is strange for me because I'm used to sitting on sand at a Lake George beach with just waves from the passing boats to worry about (And of course Lake George wouldn't have a undercurrent, becasue it's a lake niot an ocean.) But the thing is that scence I'm used to the lovely sand at Lake George, it's hard to think about relaxing on hard pebbles. Then once your done on the hard sand you get carried away on the undercurrent!  

I listened to the "audio essay" "Bun Day." I really didn't like the audio essay. I mean yes there was some advantages but I would recommend that someone read an essay rather than listen to it. But, as I said there were a few advantages I thought to audio essays. The only advantage I thought was that you get to feel the emotion of the writer and what they felt. When I read essays I might think the author was saying or portraying a different emotion. In this essay Miss Smith said how much she loved and wanted to try the pineapple cream puffs."...They're pineapple cream puffs, my god, give me one of those please!" When I heard this in the audio I knew right away that Miss. Smith was happy and ex-tactic to try this new pastry that she found and that this pineapple cream puff would be a dominant memory looking back in years to come. But in an essay I could have thought that Miss. Smith was happy to try this cream puff and that it was just another fun thing she did. Another example of this emotion was when Miss. Smith was talking about the pop tarts. "these bars of dense pastry sandwiched with berry or rub-barb jam were crowned with pink frosting and had pastel sugar strands down the center. I still wonder why I didn't buy one. every time I look at the photo now I salivate, imagining what it must taste like." In this I can feel the remorse of not buying one of these pop-tarts. I mean who wouldn't want a pop-tart from another country? 

1. Why do you write about traveling?

2. How do you convey people into reading your essays/ what makes them interesting?

1/6 Speaker = 3.7 stars -My opinion- I loved her view on poetry and the connection with sound/ voice. But she seemed a tad bland. I want to here poems about more exotic and creative things rather than a soccer game. But again she did teach me good skills which help me understand poetry better.