While I was reading David Sedaris’ “Guide to Santa Barbara”, I was very intrigued and interested in his writing. I liked how he hated on Santa Barbara, but also was saying how good it was but including the money, the food, and the nice hotel. Although, I was a but confused on the smoking portion of it and what he meant at the end of the article. When he said, “Then I quit smoking….found even more reasons to be disgusted”. Did he mean that since he quit, he found how gross things could be or was it that he was annoyed with California because it is so nice. I appreciated how he took his own story or personal issue and incorporated it into the guide. It made it interesting to read. I also liked how it wasn’t too long so you didn’t have to read forever in order to understand the whole story.
After reading Seeing England For the First Time by Jamaica Kincaid, I was a little confused on the writing at first but then understood what it is about. It seems to me that a young girl is taught to worship England and show her how important England was in her daily life. Kincaid uses imagery to compare England to a place in the bible, Jerusalem. I was not so sure of the topic because the relationship between a girl and England seems a bit weird. I guess the passage was written to inform readers of the effect that England had on the little girl. Overall, there was a lot of repetition and words to describe the girls feelings and emotions, and it kept me engaged but I liked the travel guide better.
Skye Shaffer 