Friendship

Miles: I think he is happy, that he has got some friends on Culver Creek. Before he hadn't got any, we remember the going-away party.

Alaska: She seems to be popular, but she ratted on a friend to avoid trouble.

The Colonel: The most important point for him is that his friends are loyal.

Our opinion: It is important that ...

 ... you can trust your friends

 ... they hear you, if you have problems

 ... friends are a kind of loyal, for e.g. if you did something stupid

Their relationship/ friendship (p. 63-83)

The bufriedo

On this picture a bufriedo is shown.
Like the one which Miles and his friends ate one in the cafeteria of Culver Creek.
You can a bufriedo also call 'chimichanga'.


Here is an original recipe from mexico:

BURFRIEDOS:
250 g flour
1 teaspoon salt
80 ml oil
100 ml water
flour, for the work surface

CHICKEN FILLING:
2 tomatoes, peeled,
1 avocado, ripe
2 tablespoons lemon juice
400 g chicken breast
Oil, for frying
Baked beans cream
Sour cream
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt & pepper
  
Chimichangas:
Flour, salt, oil and water (adjust amount of water) to a smooth, supple dough. Cover and soak for about 1 hour.

Platelets:
Dough into 12 portions and shape into 12 balls. Balls to press tortillas tortilla press with an original mind Ø 25cm.

CHICKEN FILLING:
Cut the tomatoes into thin slices. Peel the avocado in half, remove stone, cut into thin strips. Immediately drizzle with lemon juice.
Chicken breasts, pat dry and season. Fry in little oil on contact. Cut into very fine dice.

FILLING:
Just before serving, spread baked beans in the middle of the hot chimichangas. Top with chicken, sour cream, avocado and tomatoes. Drizzle with oil, season with little salt & pepper. Fold chimichangas (such as Chinese spring rolls), or roll, so jedenfals that the abundance during frying can withdraw anywhere.

FRYING:
Rolls in hot oil fryer fry until crisp. Done.

A comparison between Miles and us

One part in this book we could understand Miles. On page 34 he explained the situation in his frensch class. He didn't understand anything, because his class before wasn't on that high level like this one. We were in the same situation as we came from a Realschule to a Gymnasium and that's why we are hating frensch (a little bit) like Miles. A funny scene (for us).

Analysing the beginning of a novel

The narrative does begin 'in media res' (the reader doesn't get any background information -> plot has already started) and it goes up to page 38.

At first Miles and his parent are in Florida and his mother is going to organise a farewell party for her son, because he wants to go to a boarding school in Alabama.
At Culver Creek Miles mets his roommate Chip, called Colonel, and the beautiful girl Alaska. Miles got his nickname 'Pudge', but in fact he is the opposite of pudgy.
And in one night some boys played a bad prank on Pudge.

This is a sculpture by the Cuban sculptor Yoan Capote (2008)

Here is a maze shown that looks like a brain. It is not that huge, but it seems difficult to find the right way out of it. We can see a few men. They are walking into it, going through the labyrinth or standing in it and one person is standing in front of stairs into/ out of the maze.
The personon symbolise that there could be many 'right' ways or they are something like obstacles or stones in the way when you want to walk through the labyrinth.

A good title for this sculpture in connection with the book 'Looking for Alaska' could be 'The Labyrinth of Live'.

Personally, I would think that Alaska would like this sculpture, because it fits to what she says and it is an plausible answer to her question waht the labyrinth is.

The Labyrinth

On the Pages 22 l.22, 23 l. 6 and 23 ll. 26-27 Alaska and Miles are talking about a labrinth.

In a book called 'The General in His Labyrinth', by Gabriel García Márquez, Simón Bloívar is the main charakter. Alaska has brought this book to the lake where she and Miles met. They talked for example about famous last words which Miles knew of course, but when Alaska aksed him for the last words in the book he could not answer.
Simón says 'Damn it. How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!'

Then they started talking about the maze.

They ask each other what the labyrinth is, if it is living or dieing and which is he (Simón) trying to escape- the world or the end of it...
Alaska wants to find out what the labyrinth is and asks Miles for his help.

We could ad the questions why is it called 'labyrinth' and what it stands for.