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Published: November 18th 2008
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My fall break was great. It all started off in Turin, Italy (think back to the winter olympics '06) and that in itself was pretty cool. It was for an event called Terre Madre & Salone del Gusto. So basically it's an event or a huge meeting held once every two years all about saving and preserving foods from disappearing off the earth (think like the endangered species of the animal world) and sustaining local food production and the people who are responsible for it all. As well as tasting foods from all over the world in a place that was bigger than the Jacob Javits center in NYC. We stayed in a hotel where they used to house the athletes so it was all very new and clean looking.
Anyway, before even getting to the hotel, we were at the stadium where the opening ceremonies were held for the Olympics and that is where we had out opening ceremonies as well. So once again, flags were carried in by people from all over the world and thousands of people filled the stadium talking and chatting to one another and bonding over being in the same place at the same
time. How many times in your life are you going to be in the presence of thousands of people from 153 different countries around the world? Only once and maybe twice if you're lucky.
I went to the event as a youth delegate and so I ate dinner every night with other youth delegates and it was such an experience to meet other people in my age group from all around the world and it became really handy when I met someone from Paris and Ashley and Maxann and I asked her what we should do there and got some great advice. Everyone was so nice there and I tried to meet as many people as I possibly could. Infact, I met someone from Egypt and hung out with her for a while during my time in Turin and we became friends and she gave me a small token gift of a picture painted on papyrus. I also met several people from Africa. I ate a bug with one of them! There was a man from Congo and somehow convinced me to try it. Haha, I don't think I'll be eating too many of those in the future.
I bought a few things from the people there. I bought a little container of Shea butter from this Woman from Katrina, Africa who was helping to raise money to send the girls from her tribe to school. I got a small jar of jam from a french family who have been doing that for generations. I also got a little finger puppet from a Mexican man and a little decoration from Mongolia.
It was just incredible to see everything too. There was wild tea and spices from various countries. In Salone Del Gusto, there were actually aisles of different things. There was a "Sweet lane" where there were little four or five rows of all sweets. Every kind of chocolate and pastry, cookie or cake in the world. There were lanes of cheeses, meats, beers, wines, jams, spices, fish, pasta, olive oil, breads, coffee, there was literally everything there.
So not only was the actual event a lot of fun, there were also a bunch of people speaking there and talking about the whole idea of sustainable food. Which, I didn't know much about going into it, and to be honest, I didn't get to listen to
too many speeches because I just enjoyed being around people from different countries, but it's really an incredible cause because there are so many groups of people out there that depend on their local foods and with people trying to cut costs and with government subsidies these days, it's hard for them to cut their prices and so they get pushed away and since their food isn't being bought, they can't make money. It's really sad.
On the final day of Terre Madre, there were the closing ceremonies. That was another life experience I don't think can ever be repeated. There was a huge concert with people performing from all over. There was a drum performance by a group of Ethiopians, a bunch of dancing performances and a lot of mixed groups. Once they started playing music, everyone from the stands got up and fled to the middle of the stadium to dance. I danced with people from 153 different countries, I still can't believe it. It was so much fun.
At the end of my four days there, I headed on the train and went to Paris =)
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