chicken cupcakes (well, not together)

So it was definitely interesting seeing the chicken factory, but I have to admit that I got so bored sitting through all the explanation and tedious details... just sitting all day long. I almost fell asleep. They talked about the company, its history, workplace safety, workplace problems and how and when to deal with them, filled out lots of forms, etc. She had participants read aloud many of the boring pages of do's and don't's that they had to sign. It made me realize that reading aloud is a learned skill that not everyone has practiced and can do. Internationals, I understand, but it surprised me how much grown American-born citizens were struggling.

I am glad I went and stayed for the whole day. It gave me a chance to see a little of what many of the refugees are experiencing. I even happened to meet up with a couple friends I know who work there. We saw the lunchroom and I got just a peak into the factory part, seeing chickens upon chickens pass by. The smell in areas was really quite horrid. If I worked there... would I ever want to eat chicken again? I'm not sure.

It was interesting seeing that this company supplies for places I know well - Chick-fil-A, Kroger, KFC, Tyson, and many others. And from what I've gathered and the impression I got, it really is a well-run company who treats their employees well. I'm glad someone does the dirty work! I'm not a huge fan of meat, but I do like my chicken sometimes!

Well, on to an entirely different subject. I leave you with pictures from earlier this week! For ESL Monday morning, we had a "cooking in the kitchen" theme. We started off basic with cereal and basic vocab for that. Then we moved to making cupcakes (box mix), building on vocabulary and verbs. Then we had southern grits!

We had leftover batter after making the mini cupcakes, so I just poured the rest of the batter in a small round pan and baked it. It looked like it needed to be iced and enjoyed with friends! So later that day I invited some girls in to decorate and eat the cake. I was in a random mood. Hehe... so we decorated it with chocolate icing and peanut butter and banana slices! I just added some water to the peanut butter to make it usable in an icing bag. And we even colored some of the peanut butter a bright blue. For fun. :) It was weird eating it. It looked totally like bright blue icing but was really just pure peanut butter with a dot of food coloring. Some of the kids thought I was a bit crazy and were really skeptical. But everyone did end up enjoying it!