Three Idiosyncratic Facts about Yourself

For our first class blog activity, I would like you to list 3 interesting facts or details about yourself. Think of this as a follow-up to our in-class "Finding Something in Common" conversation activity. Try to think of 3 facts about yourself that you didn't talk about on the second day of class, or simply talk a little more about what you already shared with your classmates in the first week of class. Please write your three "things" about yourself by Tuesday, July 20th (you have until midnight on Monday--the 19th--to do this task), so when we come to class on Tuesday (7/20), people know they can go to the class blog that day and read everyone's comments.Okay, I will begin....


Three things about me are:


1) I am a twin! I have a twin brother, Paul, who was actually born 2 minutes before I was. Surprisingly, my mother did not know she was pregnant with twins (at that time doctors did not have the technology we have now to tell a pregnant woman the sex of her child or if she had a multiple birth, etc... Doctors were just beginning to use ultrasounds). So when I was born, it was a real shock! Now my older sister, Diana, also has twin daughters. Their names are Athena and Celeste (they are each eight years old). I think twins run in my family--my grandfather (on my father's side) was also a twin!!

2) If you don't already happen to know this about me, I love chocolate. I am an official chocoholic! One of my favorite things to eat is homemade chocolate chip cookies, especially Toll House chocolate chip cookies (this is an American food company--click on the link to read the recipe). I love to make them--cooking cookies, cakes, sweet things relaxes me--and I even enjoy eating the dough (the uncooked ingredients mixed together) as much as the baked cookies. When I was a child, every time my family went to the ice cream parlor for an ice cream cone, I always ordered the exact same flavor--Double Fudge!! In English, we have an apt expression for this--to have a sweet tooth. Thus, I definitely have a sweet tooth.


3) I am half-Dutch (my father was born in Holland). He came over to the United States when he was a small boy. Like many European families in the 1940's, his family came to the United States during World War II to escape the perils of Nazism. When my father was eighteen years old, he chose to be an American citizen; as a result, that is also my citizenship. Dutch people are notorious for being very tall. However, I am also part Italian and Irish (from my mother's side). Needless to say, I did not get the "tall genes" in my family. I am only a few inches above average height for an American woman. However, my two older sisters are very tall. My sister, Diana, is over six feet tall!! She has no problem standing out in a crowd. Because I am half-Dutch and lived in Spain for six years, this year's World Cup finals in soccer were especially poignant for me. I could not really lose because each team represented a country I have an intimate connection to.


Okay, that's my first post! Now all you need to do is click on the comments box that follows this post, and, in the form of a comment, type whatever you feel is appropriate and leave 3 interesting details about yourself (you will most likely need to provide your google account user name and password when leaving a comment). You need only write 1-3 sentences for each of the facts about yourself, or write more if you feel comfortable doing so. If you wish, and already know how to publish your own post, feel free to post your "Three Things about Myself" on the blog. However, leaving a comment is all I require for now, so keep it simple and clear. Have fun! Feel free to come back to the class blog to read your classmates' comments as they post them. You may also comment on what they have said if you wish to.


--Alexandra