<p>U of Chicago option 5 says that we can make our own quirky prompt and then respond to it. Is a topic about meals quirky enough when compared to options they give ( destroy a question with your answer and the biggest or smallest phenomenon's of string)???
I was kinda playing around with this idea and it seemed to be reeallyy personal and so me(and no i don't like cooking).
so is it quirky enuf or how do u think i should quirk it up??
thnx</p>
<p>elodie, write the essay and see how it comes out.</p>
<p>After you write the essay, try to think of a really profound or pretentious question to go along with it. Make sure the question has a lot of words and meanders about before it gets to the point about what is asked. </p>
<p>Or else write a question that is somehow destroyed by your essay. If you can figure out what that means. Then call it Option 2.</p>
<p>Or else, if your meal essay comes from your heart and is truthful - you can call it Option 1. </p>
<p>If it is a very good essay, then it probably doesn't matter what the question is. The best way to figure out whether the essay will be good is to write it. If it doesn't seem like it will work out for Chicago, you will have an essay you can use with other apps - the common app also offers a "topic of your choosing" option, without the requirement of demonstrating creative prowess in drafting the accompanying question.</p>
<p>Ok thanks... well This is just my first draft so far , could you tell me what you think (for u of chicago that is)??? ignore the punctuation mistakes for I have yet to revise!!</p>
<p>I remember all of those afternoons when my close family , extended family, and people who were my aunts and uncles through just the superficiality of those given names; gathered around our small kitchen table to eat "brunch" on Friday afternoons after the morning prayer. We always kept the kitchen window wide open so that a breeze of air would break the otherwise steamy atmosphere generated by our huge gas stove. Due to that, one was always bound to hear the street's happenings from big to small. From the laud bread vendor on his bike, to the porters wife yelling at her children; these noises quickly became part of our "eating ritual", and through time they no longer seemed to be an intrusion yet more like a friendly recurring visit . </p>
<p>Usually our table was divided into sections, those who preferred to speak English with each other sat in the corner closest to the door, those who preferred Arabic sat on their right and those who favored Spanish sat in the opposite end. I usually picked a different location each week depending on my linguistic craving, while sometimes I simply liked to sit back and listen to their trilingual chatter. Iit pleased me beyond belief, to see myself surrounded by such internationalism in a single kitchen. However when things like "pass the stuffed pigeons please" or "boy, these falafels are more then luscious today" were said it was always in Arabic. Maybe its because our kitchen was in the middle of Cairo, or maybe because we had a strong attachment and strong feelings of loyalty towards our mother tongue; but Arabic was like the common thread which held the other wise, disjunctured table together. </p>
<p>When we moved to a new kitchen across the globe for the first time, we no longer had all of those people eating my mothers cooking. Yet, we were there around , ironically, a bigger kitchen table yet all alone. Four people sitting across from each other every Sunday ( Friday wasn't even given off) afternoon speaking in a single language. Even though every week we practically picked a different language to speak in , we still said those old banalities in our beloved Arabic. I think we did it because it reminded us of home, and I'm sure we missed home oh so much!</p>
<p>In a couple of weeks we invited people over for the first time, and after a few months we had as many local friends as we had family in our old kitchen. But now our kitchen had air-conditioning so we never heard those friendly intrusions from outside. It didn't really matter anyways, as in Lima there were no street vendors or a porters wife; for the bread was always in the supermarket and the porter now became a little intercom on the wall. </p>
<p>Something that stayed the same though was our meals. New people, maybe, but still people that we loved and longed to share a laugh with and receive a smile from. Latinos are very much like Egyptians when it comes to eating; as for them it also is an elaborate affair. We even had the same lingual arrangements, yet here Spanish was more of the common thread among the separate conversations: out of a feeling of love and respect towards our host country of coarse. </p>
<p>Now, in Almaty , we have meals with Kazakhs. Its still an "eating ritual" rather then a "to go please", yet it differs a bit from the one back home. Here, the head of the family has to start of the ceremony by eating a tongue of a cow. Then the mother has to eat the ear. Kazakhs are some of the most hospitable people ever. They make you eat until you can no longer breath to thank them for their kindness. </p>
<p>Even though I moved from Africa to South America to Asia I still eat that one meal with a lot of people whom I love and want to share those special moments with.
Sharing your time with others over food, is like inviting them into your life, culture and origins for that amount of time. Tasting their food shows that you are accepting and respecting their culture. Saying its scrumptious, tells them you appreciate it, and taking seconds shows that you have finally amalgamated into your surroundings. Giving them a taste of your own food is a gesture of invitation into your own homeland. They will surely like it and possibly even savor it; showing you that they respect you in return. </p>
<p>I have had many meals, in many cities around many diverse eating venues; and as a result I have learned to never overlook the true meaning of this quotidian practice. I don't just sit to eat any more, yet I do it to fulfill my hunger of savoring a culture and tasting a tradition while also sharing some of my own. </p>
<p>I respect the different ways of eating a meal, weather it be the one on the floor, the one in McDonalds, or the one around that big cozy table; for a meal is a vivid reflection of the one eating it and if I don't respect that, then I shouldn't even be tasting it to begin with. If I were to have remained in that one kitchen for my whole life I would not be the person who I am today. I'm glad that I didnt, for now I feel that the different meals; ingredients, spices, and toppings are all part of who I am. I'm no longer just an Egyptian girl, yet I'm an Egyptian girl with an international appetite, not just for eating yet for life as a whole. This is because I no longer have just one culture but a stew of different ones with a permanent ingredient that I try to share wherever I go.</p>
<p>pllllzzzzz som1???</p>
<p>Elodie, I think that is an excellent first draft and you should definitely stick with the topic. I do think you can turn it in as an answer to Option 1 on the Chicago essay if you want - because as far as I can figure the Langston Hughes question, they are really only saying write something that expresses who you are. It's a great beginning for other college essays too.</p>
<p>The thing that makes it good is that it reveals a lot about your background, and at the same time is interesting - I want to stick with it and read it all the way through, so I'm sure the ad coms will like it too.</p>
<p>It needs to be tightened up & edited to avoid being repetitive in terms of sentiments. It is stronger when you describe your observations and what you did ("I usually picked a different location each week"), weaker when you try to offer an opinion as to how you felt about it ("It pleased me beyond belief, to see myself surrounded by such internationalism in a single kitchen.") I'd say, keep all of the descriptive details - porter's wives and stuffed pigeons - lose the adjectives like "internationalism". In your writing, the kitchen almost comes alive - I can practically hear the chatter and smell the food - and then the "internationalism" sentence breaks through like an unwanted narration - we already knew that what you liked from the fact that you liked move around the table to different locations, rather than huddling by your mom or hiding in the corner. </p>
<p>And please - get rid of words like "eating venues" or "quotidian"! The colleges do not need to know that you studied a vocabulary list for the SATs. Those stilted words are like brakes that bring the whole flow of your essay to a grinding halt. The fact that you are apparently trilingual and write so well in English is far more likely to impress -- so I think you'd be better off to include a transliterated arabic or spanish phrase. How DO you say "pass the stuffed pigeons please" in Arabic? </p>
<p>Of course when you are done do a spell check and have someone else read the final draft. Don't post it again here though - this is a public forum and readers can steal your ideas. (If you want to PM me, that's ok). You need an outside reader because you had mistakes like writing "weather" when you meant "whether" -- exactly the sort of thing spell checkers will miss, but your high school English teacher won't.</p>
<p>Finally: a good essay does need a good conclusion, but the one you have comes off as a little bit stilted and forced. I mean, first we read this essay where we are having such a good time eating in all the different kitchens -- and then in the end we have to all quiet down and listen politely while someone gives a speech. Oh well, that sometimes happens at real family gatherings, too.... but I'd suggest that you trust your reader to get the point without it being hammered in - so I might take out the sentences like "If I were to have remained in that one kitchen for my whole life I would not be the person who I am today." The strength of your writing is that it is so vibrant and visual - and you certainly get the message across about what you will bring to the college -- I mean, if I were on the ad com, I'd definitely want to admit you.</p>
<p>Also think you have the makings of an excellent essay, elodie. Good work.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your advice calmom. I see what you mean, so ill work on my second draft with those things in mind!</p>