Day 770: Rick Steves

As much as I feel like Disney has taught me a lot about the countries around the world, specifically those featured in World Showcase, it's an entirely different experience to see those things in person. After all, the Eiffel Tower at Epcot is much, MUCH smaller than the legitimate one in Paris. Then again, how would I really even know, as when it comes to touring Europe, I certainly haven't gotten past the East Coast of the United States. Yes, my family is quite well versed in travel, but that travel mostly occurs during our trips to Florida. Beyond that, I have visited many of the other states including Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, Colorado and California, just to name a few. But Europe? Not so much.

That doesn't mean I have no want to go there, although the really long plane ride does throw me off a bit. We all know how much I hate two hour plane rides, much less 9 hour ones. Regardless, my Travel board on Pinterest is filled with unique locations all over the world, including much of Europe.

About two weeks ago I was home for part of the weekend when my Dad suggested that I watch an episode of Rick Steves' Europe with him on Wisconsin Public Television Online. I've seen plenty episodes of Rick Steves' before, which, for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, is basically a television show travel guide, to say the least. The host, Rick Steves, travels across Europe giving you tips and information on some of the most popular and historic locations. It's really a wonderful show, especially if you're looking into traveling to Europe in the near future.

The episode, on the other hand, that he wanted to show me, was a behind the scenes look at the creation of the show, which I enjoyed greatly if for no reason other than my own work on the SHS 2014 Band Trip Video. I definitely understood the trials and tribulations of rainy days and getting the perfect shot and writing a script, even if I had no lines to memorize for my own production. Still, I was able to appreciate that as a writer.

Then I looked into some of the other episodes online, specifically those on France, which I watched while studying for my French Class (and gaining me a favorite on Twitter by Rick Steves himself!), and the #1 country on my bucket list, Ireland. It literally took him about 10 words to have me more excited about Ireland than before I hit play, but I suppose that's to be expected when one of your favorite actors originates from Drogheda.

The point here is this: World Showcase + Rick Steves + Colin O'Donoghue = Lizzie wants to go to Ireland like no other, even if there's no Ireland pavilion in Epcot (whyever not!?!). Of course, someday I do hope to see the Eiffel Tower in it's full size, but until then I think I'll settle for the scale model and the French film accompanied by an Eat Around the World adventure.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on February 23).

Day 319: A Miniature World Showcase

This is a post that I've been meaning to do for some time now. Since I've come to college actually, or at least since a month after I've come to college and the food rotation started over. You heard at least once before about some of the food that we have here at St. Norbert, when I talked about the Butterfinger Cupcakes back on day 252. If you click on the 252 you can go read that post. =)

Anyways, the food we have here is wonderful. And I mean wonderful. I love it. Not quite as much as I love food from Disney, but it's still certainly good, and here's yet another parallel between Disney and my own caf here on campus. This entire week was "cultural week" as far as food goes, meaning that every day they had food from a different country. So let's get started, shall we?

Monday: Ireland

As I'm sure you can guess, I thought this day was totally awesome and kind of freaked out...and then tweeted pictures of my food to Colin O'Donoghue. Honestly if I do study abroad I want to go to Ireland, and if this is the kind of stuff I'll get to eat...I'm good. What we have here is Irish Beef Stew, Colcannon (which is potatoes and greens together), Homemade Soda Bread and Homemade Tri Berry Marmalade. Everything was seriously delicious. 

Tuesday: El Salvador

I really wish I had been more hungry on this day because there was just so much food and I did not have enough room in my stomach to eat it all. On this Tuesday we have Salvadoran Papusa, which is a thick corn tortilla with tradition fillings. I have no clue what the other stuff is though, although I think the top left is avocado with shrimp salsa or something like that. They incited local chefs of that cuisine to cook some of the food, so they didn't have a full list of the stuff we'd be eating on the promotional sheet they put on the tables. That's what I have a picture of. Either way, this food from El Salvador was great!

Wednesday: Caribbean

Yo ho! Yo ho! A Pirates Life for me! Wait...if Colin O'Donoghue plays Captain Hook, and Colin is Irish, does that mean that pirates eat Irish food too? Huh, I must really be eating the food of swashbucklers this week! The food from the Caribbean was wonderful, just as the last two days, and featured something we actually have quite often in our caf, Caribbean Chicken Breast with Mango Salsa and Red Rice!

Thursday: France

We actually have this meal quite often as well, but that doesn't make it any less special! From France we had Coq au Vin, which is chicken breasts in a red wine garlic sauce (they were SOOOOOO good), French Cassoulet, a hearty strew with ham, potatoes & carrots, Warm Baguette with Herb Butter and French Lemon Cheesecake. Oh, and they even had Oreo Fluff, which I totally count as an attempt at Grey Stuff. It's like someone in the kitchen knows all about what the Grey Stuff is and how it's delicious! 

Friday: Japan

The final day of our cultural food week was food from Japan, and that means SUSHI!!!! Now while I personally felt the sushi was a little bit dry (I happen to like mine with more filling and less rice), it was still delicious...and it made me realize that I wanted more sushi. So that's what my family had for dinner this weekend when I went home! 

In general, the entire week was kind of like this miniature World Showcase for lunch. I mean, we always have some sort of cultural food at the station called Fusion in our caf, but this week was just really awesome. On Wednesday they also had Native American Flute Music being played by a live performer from the area, and I really wish I had a recording of it to share with you because it set just the right tone for everything. It actually really reminded me of Epcot music that plays throughout World Showcase, especially right before Illuminations. 

I'm sure you'll hear more about the food our caf continuously has in the future, because there are other meals that do have Disney references stuck in as well, and I can't wait to actually remember to take a picture of them and share them here on my blog. 

 

Frumpstagram today was Chandy Candy, and thankfully I've got a ton of pictures of lights, unlike a couple of the previous days where I had absolutely nothing. This happens to be not only one of the first lights I found, but also one of my favorite. You can find it on the top floor of Bay Lake Tower right by the Elevators, meaning that it's something I saw just about every day on my last trip (just kidding, I did see it everyday...kind of had to because I passed it at least twice a day).

Here's today's Disney History: 2008: At WDW, Disney's Contemporary Resort opens the Contempo Cafe. 

Have a magical day!

Day 81: Impressions de France

This morning as I sat down for my first hour study hall, my friend pulled up a blog that she's been reading. She wanted to show me a picture of a building in France that the blog writer has been living near. It's the Chateau de Chambord, and I noticed it right away.

If you're anything like me, you'd figure out very quickly that this is just no ordinary home. Yes, it's spectacular...but it's also a part of Impressions de France in the France Pavilion at Epcot. Then we proceeded to watch the entire show from a youtube video. It wasn't the best quality (but then again one shouldn't be filming it anyways!), but it served it's purpose to show her where I knew it from. I was pretty proud of myself that I recognized it right away. 

It's actually in there twice...once as an aerial shot during the day and the other near the end of it at night. Look familiar? 

Here's today's Disney History: 1987: The Wonderful World of Disney airs the 1971 Disney feature Bedknobs and Broomsticks. 

Have a magical day!