Wanderlusting Sabah (Malaysia) – Part II

Since my sister knew that I like Culture and History, she brought me to the museum.

I looooooooooooove museums!

This Heritage Village is situated next to the museum.

I love the bridge they built to cross to the other side. My sister hated it because she was wearing high heels.

It’s one of the local traditional houses. Reminds me of my grandma’s once upon a time. I remember being 5 and scared of the howling wind.

The thing that freaked me out the most was the floor. Back in the days I used to think that monsters were looking straight back at me in the dark. My childhood was terrifying.

Unexpectedly, there are some local tribesmen/women who sell souvenirs in each of the houses you’re visiting. They were wearing the full garment so you get to see the colors of forgotten tribes of Sabah.

Oh, I miss my gran’s old mosquito net. She had a pink one. It was my favourite. I would gaze longingly at the shocking color and fell asleep in a cloud of cotton candy.

I love this picture. The girls were having so much fun!

Surprise of the day: the trampoline. Apparently some tribe builds in-house bamboo trampoline for socializing and dancing.

You’d be surprise how flexible it was and how tall you can jump!

It kinda get you thinking of getting one some time soon, isn’t it?

Wanderlusting Cambodia – Part II

So first thing in the morning, I make sure to bring everything. It was dry season so water is a must. Little that I knew I forgot to bring extra batteries for the camera.

We were supposed to honor the sight. The dawn with the ancient building as the background but all I managed to get was this photo with my friend’s mobile phone. I was so angry at myself but it didn’t matter. I could only hope that maybe someone would sell me a pair of AA.

Just look at the amount of tourist willing to wake up at 4 in the morning!

These balustrades were all around the temple, like a trusty guardian. It’s quite scary so I guess they did their job well.

Inside the temple, it was like a different world. The sound and time ceased to exist. The walls were cold and calming in the scorching heat. This was the place of reverence, dancing, riot, grief and absolute grandeur.

I felt so small and insignificant yet at peace with whatever problem that I used to have.

There is Bayon. This was one of the photo in the book. I’d recognize this anywhere.

Then more ruins, rocks, tourists, vendors, pictures, etc.

I walked and walked until I lost track of time. The ruins started to look the same. There were hundreds of them in the park.

This girl saved me when she sold me some batteries 🙂

Almost everywhere I go I’d be welcome with this sight. Suddenly I wish I was French.

Unfortunately I can’t even fake a French accent even if my life depended on it 😦

Wanderlusting India – Part II

There is a term called ‘The Golden Triangle‘ in India. Fear not, they are just referring to New Delhi – Agra – Rajastan route.

That was where I went for a week.

This photo was taken from a holed wall in Taj Mahal. That little place is another beautiful museum telling us all about the construction, lay outs, old pictures, letters, materials ordered, seals of the old government, the history and stuff like that. It’s just on the opposite site of the famous Taj.

It was early winter (end of October) so the weather was just perfect for me, and also several thousand of local Indian tourists.

Keep in mind that more people equals to more noise, more flashes of camera, more scams and more money.

The arc is wonderfully majestic. You can see them in most tombs, mosques, old hotels, government buildings, etc. It’s the delicate tile carvings that made you unsure if it’s a good idea to move or just stay.

I took this photo because I remembered seeing this very place in a Bollywood movie. They were dancing merrily and given the right music, I don’t see why I should not start twirling.

Madrid Memories – Part II

I’m getting very sentimental today.

I even missed the brown sign boards. I hope they put on some effort for it now. If it looked like this in 2008, I can’t imagine what it must looked like in 2013.

Apart of FNAC, I loved Casa del Libro too. Here, I found a water-proof book. It was quite expensive compared to the normal books but it was quite an experimental launch.

But it’s WATER-PROOF books! That would be an unthinkable thing in Malaysia.

I would walk and walk around town, barely knowing where I was but I was never lost. I know exactly where I was. It’s like deja vu. I have been here at some point, some dimension of time before and I knew it.

I would never imagine such a collection of cheese (my eyes grew to the size of saucers of the thought of so many delicious creamy thing at one place!) but later I have been brought upon about 200+ types of cheese on an aisle in a Bordeaux supermarket and spent about 2 hours to pick one.

I just can’t.

I have enjoyed the free flow entertainment from the locals. There is an Opera school in the heart of the city and sometimes the students performed/practiced their routines to fund their studies or just for fun.

Some came from foreigners, like these Mexicans performing Mariachi. I enjoyed watching them as well.

The least fun part was saying goodbye. Here I was, trying to get some sleep at the Barajas International Airport before flying to Edinburgh.

I hope to see you again, Madrid. I really do.

Collection of Words II

1) Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until it reaches its destination.

2) To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.

[Freya Stark]

3) All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler in unaware.

[Martin Buber]

4) When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we took so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

[Helen Keller]

5) Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you thought could never be yours.

[Audrey Hepburn]

6) Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

[Dale Carnegie]

7) A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything.

8) A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

[Bob Dylan]

9) Stories, if they become alive in the mind of the listener, wrap themselves around the journey like arms and legs, holding the traveler within their embrace, carrying her along.

[Irene Guilford]

10) Most of us have dreamed, if just for a moment of chucking life’s encrumbrances and wondering free through exotic parts of mystery and magic.

[Theodore Nelson and Andrea Gross]

11) Begin doing what you want to do NOW. We are living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake.

[Marie Beyon Ray]

12) Afoot and lighthearted I take the open road, healthy, free, the world is before me leading wherever I choose.

[Walt Whitman]

13) Travel not only stirs the blood – it also gives birth to the spirit.

[Alexandra David-Neel]

14) To shut our eyes is to travel.

[Emily Dickinson]

15) People travel because it teaches them things they could learn no other way.

[Lance Morrow]

16) We are defined more by detours and distractions in life than by the narrow road towards goals.

[William Stanford]

17) Wherever the man wanders, he still remains tethered by the chain that links him to his kind.

[Alexander Kinglake]

18) Be ye lamps unto yourself.

[Gautama Buddha]

19) Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting.

[Robert Thomas Allen]

20) The best portion of a good man’s life – his little, nameless acts of kindness and love.

[William Woodsworth]

21) There is someone out there who needs you. You must live your life so that person can find you.

[Jan Phillips]

22) Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.

[Oscar Wilde]

23) Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.

[Anita Desai]

24) Life is too short to waste on speed.

[Edward Abbey]

25) Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things…I am tempted to think these are no little things.

[Bruce Burton]

26) I would love you all the day, Every night we would kiss and play,

If with me you’d fondly stray, Over the hills and far away.

[John Gray]

27) Think not that you can direct the course of love; for love…directs your course.

[Kahlil Gibran]

28) Two of the greatest gifts we can give to our children are roots and wings.

[Hodding Carter]

29) And this is what the traveler discovers: in this great and endlessly fascinating world of ours, everywhere can be home.

[Meredith Moraine]

30) We are all have the extraordinary coded within is – waiting to be released.

[Jean Houston]

31) All travel is exploration of love.

[Duncan Fallowell]

32) If you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown and accept whatever comes in the spirit in which the God may offer it.

[Freya Stark]

33) One of the greatest things about travel is you find how many good, kind people there are.

[Edith Wartone]

34) As much trouble as I’ve had on this little journey, I’m sure one day I’m going to look back and laugh.

[Steve Martin]

35) I have a compulsion to wander and return – a homing instinct like a mother bird.

[Bruce Chatwin]

36) Eres lo que es tu profundo y constante deseo,

como es tu deseo es tu voluntad,

como es tu voluntad es tu esfuerza,

y como es tu esfuerza es tu destino.

[Upanishad]

37) Todas las situaciones críticas tienen un relámpago que nos ciega o nos ilumina.

[Victor Hugo, Les Miserables]

38) Un buen viajero no tiene planes fijos y no está decidido para llegar.

[FNAC, 27/08/08, Madrid]

39) Winners are just ex-losers who got mad.

40) You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

41) The longer I live, the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

[George Bernard Shaw]

42) Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for.

[Earl Warren]

43) Go as far as you can see. When you get there you’ll see farther.

44) This above all: to thine own be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

[Shakespeare]

45) The heights by great man reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]

46) Saddle your dreams afore you ride’em

[Mary Webb, 1881-1927]

47) To laugh often and much;

to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friend;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

[Harry Emerson Fosdick]

48) For better it is to dare mighty things

to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

[Theodore Roosevelt]

49) Procrastination is the fear of success.

People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘Someday I’ll’ phylosophy.

[Dennis Waitley]

50) If you trap the moment before it’s ripe, the tears of repentance you’ll certainly wipe; But if once you let the ripe moment go, you can never wipe off the tears of woe.

[William Blake 1791]

The Pin – Part 2

There was quite a list of curious coincidences stemmed from the mockingjays. It surely meant a lot on so many different levels. The first significance we learned came in the form of Katniss’s father who was particularly fond of the birds. Katniss reconnected to her past after examining the pin and telling us how his father used to sing to the birds, how they recreated the songs and how beautiful his voice was. By that point, we agree that she associated some meaning to the pin. That’s the first step for us to buy this idea. There was no mention if her voice was just as beautiful but that was how the birds – and Peeta noticed her. Even Plutarch offered her to sign in a singing show. I guess the hints are there.

The next one is Rue. It triggered trust on her part. The back story was simple. Back in District 11 the mockingjays were her friends.

“They carry messages for me.” [The Hunger Games, Chapter 16]

She’d sing a 4 note run and the birds would spread it around the orchard. That was how everyone knew when to take a break. In the Games, it was the same song that Katniss learned from Rue so that they can communicate with each other (she then taught a simple 2 note whistle to communicate with Peeta inspired by the tragedy.) Rue’s death had a strong impact on Katniss that she can no longer tolerate the Capitol.  When requested, she sang and all of Panem got the message. It was like the ultimate calling telling them that it is time. Actions must be taken for a better tomorrow.

This is not the first message. Katniss realized later that the image inspired the rebels in so many ways. Be it stamped on crackers from District 8 or the disappearing bird in the pocket watch of the Head of Gamemaker. The bird tells her who to trust.

The next incident was not deliberate too, when Katniss met Twill and Bonnie who escaped from their rebelling district. They had their hopes in District 13, a district known to be obliterated and damaged for the past 75 years. They told a story about the same mockingjay footage that has been reused every time on national television and Katniss knew in her heart that the Capitol has been lying about District 13. That was one of the ways the mockingjay proved to be the perfect symbol to defy the Capitol.

And the most obvious was the transformation of Katniss’s tragic wedding dress (intended to humiliate her) to the ever so legendary Mockingjay plumage dress on national television live through out Panem.

That must have been a kick right in Capitol’s nuts.

Chapter 2 – Part 2

–          Peeta is always potrayed as the rock, warmth, the sun, golden hues, yellow, orange, gentleness and steadiness. I noticed the first fire when she told us in the flashback with Peeta. That particular time, the Everdeen ladies were in a tight spot. They ran out of coal and all she had was a smoky fire from damp branches. She was losing hope. She went to the public market to try to barter the baby clothes but ended up at the bakery’s backyard. There was a glow, fire, the smell of breads. A baker is someone that controls and manipulates it to make bread, food for sustenance. Curiously she mentioned in the Games that Peeta is a whiz with fire, coaxing fire out of damp branches. He was hope. He coaxed hope out of her damp soul. When she said she didn’t want to lose the boy with the bread she meant that she doesn’t want to lose hope.

She also mentioned that the baker, Peeta’s father had burnt scars all over. She did not mention anything of the sort about Peeta, just ‘arms that made her feel safe‘. She mentioned that she trusts Gale’s hands. I love hands (I normally judge people by looking at their hands. Guilty pleasure!) so I think Collins is up to something but I think I have a theory coming.

Well, it’s a shallow one. You normally shake hands with a friend but arms are more private. Not everyone can wrap their arms around you. It’s saved for someone intimate or special. In the baker’s case, his wife ‘burned’ him. That’s all.

I noticed that when the Prep Team came to style her for the wedding dress she casually mentioned that she felt like a dough (Chapter 12, Catching Fire) being kneaded and reshaped again and again.

Well played, Collins.

–          Peeta always talk fondly about his father and they seemed quite close. I wonder how Mrs. Mellark felt when Peeta announced that Mr. Mellark had a thing for Mrs. Everdeen on national television. Must be really awkward for the 3 of them back home. Mrs. Mellark probably got that figured out long before. Maybe that is one of the reason why she was so bitter. I picture this man was just as kind as his son and would not treat him like his mother. I think he always brings a pack of biscuits for the child who has been reaped. It’s the last thing he could do – to cheer them up. He gave them to Katniss anyway as if saying that it’s okay. It’s not her fault. Whatever happens, he would not hold grudges, he would not think of Katniss as the murderer of his son.

–          Peeta, being abused since young probably grew up idealizing a loving mother and wanting a loving spouse/mother for his children. He did not have a good role model but why was he so convinced that Katniss would make a great mother? We did not have his point of view but this much we know is true. Katniss took care of Prim and she’s determined to do anything for her. She’s loyal and fiercely protective. Like the Mockingjay, (as forshadowed by Rue) is very protective of her nest.

We didn’t know if Peeta was close to his brothers but their love didn’t surpass Katniss’s for Prim. She was willing to die for her. Besides unconditional love for Prim, what else that might trigger love for Peeta? Apart of the singing that he declared ‘he was a goner’?He declared that he was infatuated by the little girl who sang the valley song, the one his father pointed out. Will he still like her if Mr. Mellark failed to do so? We will never know. I can safely say that he admired her, how she singlehandedly turned to be the head of the family (breadwinner, pun intended) and she continued to impress him.

It was lovely when he told her about his father and him taking their time admiring her squirrels (Mellark men and Everdeen ladies. It’s genetic!) I remember his expression when Mr. Mellark told him that Mrs. Everdeen ran off with a coal miner. It’s as if that’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. He probably wondered why and ended up watching the Everdeen family and saw love. Maybe that was how he learned about love.

It’s amazing when you realized that both Katniss and Peeta never put themselves first. It’s always the others.

I try to imagine being in Katniss shoe. It’s family first. I would be very touched to know that a stranger had made me a priority. A debt must be paid. I try to be Peeta. A tragic case of unrequited love. I would never believed it that the girl of my dreams decided to sacrifice her life for me. That’s my job!

Conflicting values, complex characters and odds that favors no one.

Well, actually it favors love 🙂

Chapter 2 – Part 2

–          Peeta is always potrayed as the rock, warmth, the sun, golden hues, yellow, orange, gentleness and steadiness. I noticed the first fire when she told us in the flashback with Peeta. That particular time, the Everdeen ladies were in a tight spot. They ran out of coal and all she had was a smoky fire from damp branches. She was losing hope. She went to the public market to try to barter the baby clothes but ended up at the bakery’s backyard. There was a glow, fire, the smell of breads. A baker is someone that controls and manipulates it to make bread, food for sustenance. Curiously she mentioned in the Games that Peeta is a whiz with fire, coaxing fire out of damp branches. He was hope. He coaxed hope out of her damp soul. When she said she didn’t want to lose the boy with the bread she meant that she doesn’t want to lose hope.

She also mentioned that the baker, Peeta’s father had burnt scars all over. She did not mention anything of the sort about Peeta, just ‘arms that made her feel safe’. She mentioned that she trusts Gale’s hands. I love hands (I normally judge people by looking at their hands. Guilty pleasure!) so I think Collins is up to something but I think I have a theory coming.

Well, it’s a shallow one. You normally shake hands with a friend but arms are more private. Not everyone can wrap their arms around you. It’s saved for someone intimate or special. In the baker’s case, his wife ‘burned’ him. That’s all.

I noticed that when the Prep Team came to style her for the wedding dress she casually mentioned that she felt like a dough (Chapter 12, Catching Fire) being kneaded and reshaped again and again.

Well played, Collins.

–          Peeta always talk fondly about his father and they seemed quite close. I wonder how Mrs. Mellark felt when Peeta announced that Mr. Mellark had a thing for Mrs. Everdeen on national television. Must be really awkward for the 3 of them back home. Mrs. Mellark probably got that figured out long before. Maybe that is one of the reason why she was so bitter. I picture this man was just as kind as his son and would not treat him like his mother. I think he always brings a pack of biscuits for the child who has been reaped. It’s the last thing he could do – to cheer them up. He gave them to Katniss anyway as if saying that it’s okay. It’s not her fault. Whatever happens, he would not hold grudges, he would not think of Katniss as the murderer of his son.

–          Peeta, being abused since young probably grew up idealizing a loving mother and wanting a loving spouse/mother for his children. He did not have a good role model but why was he so convinced that Katniss would make a great mother? We did not have his point of view but this much we know is true. Katniss took care of Prim and she’s determined to do anything for her. She’s loyal and fiercely protective. Like the Mockingjay, (as forshadowed by Rue) is very protective of her nest.

We didn’t know if Peeta was close to his brothers but their love didn’t surpass Katniss’s for Prim. She was willing to die for her. Besides unconditional love for Prim, what else that might trigger love for Peeta? Apart of the singing that he declared ‘he was a goner’?He declared that he was infatuated by the little girl who sang the valley song, the one his father pointed out. Will he still like her if Mr. Mellark failed to do so? We will never know. I can safely say that he admired her, how she singlehandedly turned to be the head of the family (breadwinner, pun intended) and she continued to impress him.

It was lovely when he told her about his father and him taking their time admiring her squirrels (Mellark men and Everdeen ladies. It’s genetic!) I remember his expression when Mr. Mellark told him that Mrs. Everdeen ran off with a coal miner. It’s as if that’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. He probably wondered why and ended up watching the Everdeen family and saw love. Maybe that was how he learned about love.

It’s amazing when you realized that both Katniss and Peeta never put themselves first. It’s always the others.

I try to imagine being in Katniss shoe. It’s family first. I would be very touched to know that a stranger had made me a priority. A debt must be paid. I try to be Peeta. A tragic case of unrequited love. I would never believed it that the girl of my dreams decided to sacrifice her life for me. That’s my job!

Conflicting values, complex characters and odds that favors no one.

Well, actually it favors love 🙂

Chapter 1 – Part 2

A bit longer than the last time. 3 things nonetheless.

1) Apples. There was quite a lot of it. Why the author mentioned apples? What does it represent? Brave souls sneak in the woods the collect apples, meeting Peeta under the old apple tree, shooting the apple in the roast pig’s mouth, eating apple (with goat cheese and lamb stew) in the cave with Peeta, apple and goat cheese tart at the bakery, Peeta’s first meal while being clean up after discovered in the mud was dried apple, Katniss’s first meal after the Games was a bowl of applesauce, kids running with cans of applesauce on Parcel Day, Gale coring apples at the small hut when she suggested that they run away in Catching Fire, tossing apple on the roof with Peeta, etc.

Was it just a fruit/food? Was it bravery, brashness maybe? Was it food for celebration, gratitude, survival? Was it a reference to Adam and Eve? Was it another version for the forbidden fruit? Was it a symbol of love and sexuality as referred by the secular art? Coincidentally ‘Alma’ means ‘apple’ in Turkish and Hungarian Language but I think mostly agree that ‘Alma Coin’ has a double sided soul. The Portuguese/Spanish translation of Alma said so.

I can’t figure out the apples.

PS: A gentle soul managed to answer the apple puzzle in this post.

2) Berries. There were 3 kinds of berries.

i – The blackberries, the ones she ate with Gale on the day of the reaping. Sign of home, safe and everlasting friendship. The berries were mentioned twice. First, on Chapter 1 in The Hunger Games, on a picnic and the last time in Mockingjay when Katniss was trying to re-establish her friendship with Gale.

ii – There were Rue’s berries, the ones she introduced to Katniss when they were allies. The same one she mashed with cold water to feed Peeta and drugged him before going to the feast. Sign of trust & survival.

iii – Lastly, the nightlock. Katniss’s father had an important knowledge about the berries and managed to tell his daughter before he died. Deadly and treacherous fruit, it worked as a kind of weapon (for Foxface) and to the Capitol. Updated version of the berries was a pill with the same property. Katniss and Peeta tried to use nightlock berries as a last resort when forced to kill each other in The Hunger Games and in Mockingjay though in separate occasion Peeta asked and was given the pill (though he didn’t use it) and avoided Katniss’s suicide attempt successfully. The berry trick was done the first time to protect Peeta (despite of her confused musings of defiance of the Capitol, unpaid debts and being pariah in her own district) and the last time it was Peeta who protected her (despite of being hijacked, scarred and a burn victim, lost his family and most friends, both possibly punished by the new government, unrequited love). They protect each other. The berries/pills were the ultimatum. Life or death. It’s all or nothing.

3) I understand the separation of class; Seam and merchant. At the Seam, the people has dark, straight hair, gray eyes and olive skin while the merchants that live near the square have blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. How the tessarae system made the gap larger and how both class cannot seem to put this separate features aside and live together.

Katniss’s family (her father being from the Seam married a merchant wife) had broken the pattern but see how in the epilogue, Katniss’s children broke the mould. It could have happened with Katniss and Prim but since the oppressive regime and injustice system was still there, both girls retained the character of separate class despite having mixed class parentage.

Katniss and Peeta is just history repeating itself and this time without The Hunger Games, the author made it clear that the new system is just. The girl has dark hair and blue eyes while the boy has blond curls and grey eyes, representing attributes of both parents and class. We can safely conclude that there were no more tessarae and there’s no separation in the society.

What do you think?

Chapter 1 – Part 2

A bit longer than the last time. 3 things nonetheless.

1) Apples. There was quite a lot of it. Why the author mentioned apples? What does it represent? Brave souls sneak in the woods the collect apples, meeting Peeta under the old apple tree, shooting the apple in the roast pig’s mouth, eating apple (with goat cheese and lamb stew) in the cave with Peeta, apple and goat cheese tart at the bakery, Peeta’s first meal while being clean up after discovered in the mud was dried apple, Katniss’s first meal after the Games was a bowl of applesauce, kids running with cans of applesauce on Parcel Day, Gale coring apples at the small hut when she suggested that they run away in Catching Fire, tossing apple on the roof with Peeta, etc.

Was it just a fruit/food? Was it bravery, brashness maybe? Was it food for celebration, gratitude, survival? Was it a reference to Adam and Eve? Was it another version for the forbidden fruit? Was it a symbol of love and sexuality as referred by the secular art? Coincidentally ‘Alma’ means ‘apple’ in Turkish and Hungarian Language but I think mostly agree that ‘Alma Coin’ has a double sided soul. The Portuguese/Spanish translation of Alma said so.

I can’t figure out the apples.

2) Berries.  There were 3 kinds of berries.

i – The blackberries, the ones she ate with Gale on the day of the reaping. Sign of home, safe and everlasting friendship. The berries were mentioned twice. First, on Chapter 1 in The Hunger Games, on a picnic and the last time in Mockingjay when Katniss was trying to re-establish her friendship with Gale.

ii – There were Rue’s berries, the ones she introduced to Katniss when they were allies. The same one she mashed with cold water to feed Peeta and drugged him before going to the feast. Sign of trust & survival.

iii – Lastly, the nightlock. Katniss’s father had an important knowledge about the berries and managed to tell his daughter before he died. Deadly and treacherous fruit, it worked as a kind of weapon (for Foxface) and to the Capitol. Updated version of the berries was a pill with the same property. Katniss and Peeta tried to use nightlock berries as a last resort when forced to kill each other in The Hunger Games and in Mockingjay though in separate occasion Peeta asked and was given the pill (though he didn’t use it) and avoided Katniss’s suicide attempt successfully. The berry trick was done the first time to protect Peeta (despite of her confused musings of defiance of the Capitol, unpaid debts and being pariah in her own district) and the last time it was Peeta who protected her (despite of being hijacked, scarred and a burn victim, lost his family and most friends, both possibly punished by the new government, unrequited love). They protect each other. The berries/pills were the ultimatum. Life or death. It’s all or nothing.

3) I understand the separation of class; Seam and merchant. At the Seam, the people has dark, straight hair, gray eyes and olive skin while the merchants that live near the square have blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. How the tessarae system made the gap larger and how both class cannot seem to put this separate features aside and live together.

Katniss’s family (her father being from the Seam married a merchant wife) had broken the pattern but see how in the epilogue, Katniss’s children broke the mould. It could have happened with Katniss and Prim but since the oppressive regime and injustice system was still there, both girls retained the character of separate class despite having mixed class parentage.

Katniss and Peeta is just history repeating itself and this time without The Hunger Games, the author made it clear that the new system is just. The girl has dark hair and blue eyes while the boy has blond curls and grey eyes, representing attributes of both parents and class. We can safely conclude that there were no more tessarae and there’s no separation in the society.

What do you think?

Note: You may find the answer to the apples here, a brilliant post by Ms. lost-on-cloud-9