Jack-o-Lantern

Picture by @AnaGarciaTeacha

Today, a great student from 1st Bachillerato  explained the story of the Jack-O-Lantern, that is the pumpkin that we carve at Halloween. She told us that it has to do with the story of a man who was very miser with money and used to drink a lot. He also played tricks on the devil and got his way on not giving his soul to the devil. When he died, he could not go to Heaven because he had not been a saint and he could not go to Hell because the devil had freed his soul, so he was condemned to wander around the world holding a lantern, which was a turnip with a burning coal from Hell.

This story was brought by the Irish to the USA, but the Americans thought that pumpkins were easier to find and to carve, so they started using and carving pumpkins to remember the story of this man.

Burn-e, for 1st of ESO

Burn-e is a great short film by Pixar based on the film Wall-e, I am going to use it as a prize for my 1st ESO students. It is a very special group and they are making an effort to behave and learn more each day. I chose this film because the setting is well-known to students and there are not many words in English. I think they will enjoy it.

Have you watched it?
Did you like it?

"Filibustering" or "marathon speech" in the USA's senate.

The Guardian

"Filibuster" is a word that comes from Spanish and means "robber, pirate", but in the USA it has come to define a process that some politicians use to stop some Acts or Bills being passed or the naming of an important person in the country. This process or strategy consists of speaking for a really long time so that the decision has to be postponed for another session. They usually talk about nonsense or read books or even the Declaration of Independence!
President Obama is trying to set a health insurance system in the USA which reaches the majority of people, that is, more similar to the one we have here in Spain, and there is a part of the country, especially the Republicans, who think the system is not and is not going to work. This is the reason why Ted Cruz has been speaking for 21 hours. But there was a senator that talked for more than 24 hours, of course, other senators who think the same way help them asking long questions so that they can rest and breath.
Did you know about this?
Do you think this also happens in your own country?

Teacher's Appreciation Day in USA

My notebook By Ana García

In the USA, they celebrate a whole week to ackowledge their teacher's work. It is called Teacher's Appreciation Week and the first Tuesday of a full week in May, they celebrate their National Teacher's Day.  They have a hashtag to thank a teacher that you want to say Thank You #ThankATeacher. I have had many English teachers I could say thank you to, I remember deeply my primary teachers (also the English one, who would be with us for two hours per week, not more). But I remember a lot my Spanish Literature teacher, Rosario Carreras, who made me read many books and developed in me the thought that I could read whatever I wanted and, consequently, do whatever I wanted. Thank you Rosario.

Even it is not the day to do this, I also want to thank my students, for listening to me and teaching me while I am teaching to them. I feel lucky to be a teacher, love this work and enjoy it everyday.

Have a look at this funny teacher's Harlem Shake:

So, tell us, what teacher do you want to say thank you to?

Worker's Day, Why today?

On 4th  May 1886, in the city of Chicago, workers were demonstrating to make working days last only up to 8 hours. Amongst them, someone threw a bomb (the first dynamite bomb in the USA)  and the police thought it was a reaction to them -they were trying to dissolve the demonstration- and started shooting to the strikers. This was called the Haymarket Affair, Massacre or Riot.

For this affair, eight anarchists were blamed and sentenced for conspiration, this was understood as an attack to the working movement. The trial was soon argued because some of the accused were not even at the place!!

As a commemoration of this strike and other movements organized among others by Lucy and Albert Parsons, the 1st May is the day to ask for better working conditions in many parts of the world and it is even a holiday in many countries. In USA and Canada is widely celebrated in September.

Did you know this? 

Saint Patrick's Day in Chicago

Tomorrow is a great day in many parts of the world where  Irish people live because they celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, the patron of the Irish country. They celebrate it everywhere wearing their flag's colours, especially the green one, wearing their traditional shamrocks and many other things. In Chicago, USA, where one of the greatest celebrations takes place, they have a parade, they choose a queen and they even dye their river in  green for that day!!!, you can see it in the video.

Do you know the name of the river?

Do you know the other two colours of the Irish flag?

If you want to know more about Saint Patrick's Day, read:

Saint Patrick's Day.

Modern Classics: The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are a Californian group that started back in the 19690s. They are famous for being one of the first rock vocal groups. They talked in their lyrics about the beach, surfing and having fun, so their songs made people have a good time and forget about their problems. Just like the Beatles, they are part of those modern classics that changed music into what it is today.

They were so famous at their time that groups were created in Spain to sing their songs in Spanish, these are called tribute bands, such as The Summer Boys. They even have their own official fansite in Spain called The Beach Boys Spain. The Beach Boys are actually celebrating their 50th anniversary singing on tour.

Did you know them? Do you like them? 

Thanksgiving already!!!

A year ago, I started this blog with a post about Thanksgiving, one year later, I am still here trying to teach you and learn from you through your comments. In this video (first part of two; you can watch the second part when this one finishes), you can see Charlie Brown and his friends telling the story of the Mayflower and the first pilgrims.

As you already know (because you have read my first post), Thanksgiving takes place on the 4th Thursday every November and it is a holiday, which normally becomes long week-end and it is a very familiar celebration. It appears in many soap operas and TV series; you can watch  some "Thanksgiving dinners" in my favourite one: Friends (very funny!!) and in many others, choose your favourite and check out at YouTube.

Even though this is mainly an American celebration, the Black Friday tradition is getting to Spain, have a look at the leaflet I found today in my mail:

Can you tell me what is this tradition? You can check in the first post or at Wikipedia..

 Leave your comments!!!

Obama won again!!!: Voting for president in the USA.

"4 more years", Barack Obama on Twitter

Every four years, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, citizens of the USA vote to elect their president for the next four years. It is a different system from that of Spain. To start with, it is a two-party system, that is, there are only two possible options, the Republican or the Democrat candidate who have been chosen on prior elections within their own parties (primaries). Another important difference is the fact that there is not a list of people who can vote, so they have to register to be able to vote.

In the USA, there is an indirect election, that is, people vote to a candidate in a state and the candidate who wins there gets all the votes for the Electoral College for that state.  It is important to win in those states that are most populated because you get a higher number of electors. The Electoral College has 538 electors of which the new president must obtain 270.

At the moment of writing, Barack Obama, the first Afro-American president of the USA, has been reelected with 303, but he may win some more. (You can see the actual data in real time in the widget on top of the side bar for the next few days).

What do you think of this voting system?

Leave your comments!!

Hahaha...Halloween!!!

All Famouse Wallpapers

Halloween has its origin in Ireland, it was a Celtic celebration of the end of the harvest time and the beginning of the winter, it was also thought to be the Day of the Dead, so people used to dress up to scare the ghosts and spirits. Nowadays, it has more to do with a children's holiday. Children and youngsters dress up in creepy, scary ways and go from home to home saying the famous "Trick-or-treat" and getting candies from strangers and neighbours. It used to be a celtic, then British and mostly American tradition, in these days, it has almost overcome the Catholic tradition of All Saints Day, even in the rest of the world.
 If  you want to learn more about this celebration, you can do so at History. If you want to practice some games or vocabulary, you have a great collection at the blog Think in English, and also at the British Council for kids page.

I want to thank my mate Carmen for all the information on Halloween she gave me. Thanks Carmen!!

Do you like Halloween? What do you do to celebrate?
Tell us!! Leave your comments!!

9/11 Memorial

We were not really sure about going, because we had already visited Saint Paul's chapel and you get the idea of all the suffering that New Yorkers went through those months after the attacks, it was hard to visit the actual place where the attacks took place.

You have to get a visitor's pass (you can do it at their website and print it or print it at the Preview Site) because they make you fill in a form; there are still a lot of security measures but they have tried to build a haven of peace in the middle of Manhattan.

As you probably know, they have built two deep pools surrounded by wide bronze banister in which the names of the people who died in both the attacks of 1993 and 2001. They have followed indications from surviving relatives to arrange them next to the names of their husbands, wives, friends... but most of them are arranged taking into account where they were when the events happened.

What I liked most of the visit is the fact that they are willing to overcome this disgrace, so they have built a place in which they can remember what happened; but they also look to the future and  are building a new World Trade Centre. When they were cleaning up the zone, they found an almost dead pear tree, known as the Survivor Tree, that was the only tree that survived, they have taken care of it and have recently replanted in the middle of the new square. I think this story can be used as a metaphor to explain what has happened in this place.

I was sad!!!

What do you think? Leave your comments!!!

Times Square, where there is always light!

Times Square

 New York is not all lights as it may seem if you look at Times Square, but once, the Theatre District, where Times Square is, had its lights inside its theatres: great or not so great buildings which housed performances with great artists such as Judy Garland. Nowadays it is illegal not to have lights in the outside of the theatres and walls in Times Square if you want to make an ad there, but there are still great artists performing there. If you want to go to the theatre, you should come to this part of town, especially if it is a musical.

Some photos of the legendary theatres around:

Hudson theatre

Foxwood theatre

Lyceum, the oldest one.

    and many more.....

Belasco theatre

Near here, we wanted to visit the hotel Le Parker Meridien, because we had been told that there were great hamburgers there, and it is true!! In a luxury hotel, behind a red curtain there is what they call The Joint Burger, a fantastic place, though quite small that has great hamburgers, short of variety. There is so many people, that in order to go faster, they give you a paper with what they have (barely two types of hamburgers and the drinks) so that you tick what you want and hand it to the cashier and wait till you are called by your name. I show the photo of the entrance of the hotel, we kind of got lost :)

entrance to Le Parker Meridien

To end up the day, since it was Friday afternoon, we visited the MOMA, great museum with activities for kids, you should visit their workshop. I'm leaving you a photo of a part of a picture, do you know what technique is it? My 2nd of ESO students of last year should, leave your comments!!!

Who painted it???

Battery Park

There is a nice walk at the end of Wall Street, it gets you to Battery Park, nowadays it is full of tourists who want to take the ferry to see the so called Statue of Liberty. Reformations are being done these days, and as we could not go inside, we decided to tke the Staten Island Ferry (free) which is much less touristic and see her from the distance.

The Statue of Liberty's real name is Lady Illuminating the World and was a present France gave the USA on their 1st anniversary as an independendent people (1876), though it arrived a little late (1886). You can see a smaller one in Paris.

We also saw Ellis Island which was where all the inmigrants had to go to get into the USA, we did this trip again at night and the views are fabulous, magnificent with all the lights. When we got off the boat, we visited the Seaport area which is now mainly commercial but still has the looks of a shipping area with short buildings and iron-looking blended awnings.

The last thing we visited and I recommend is Saint Paul, a small baptist church, the only pre-revolutionary that still stands. It is very closed to where the Twin Towers were standing, so they say that it miraculously saved itself. It was used as a help centre for workers and volunteers the nine months following the attacks and now it is somehow a hommage to it.

What do you think of this part? Is not it nice?
Leave your comments and tell us!!!

Wall Street: Where the money is.

Stock market

It has been very hot these days, with a lot of muggy weather, but we still love it here. We have visited the oldest part of town, Wall Street, so called because there used to be a wooden wall - you can still see the traces on the floor - that kept intruders out from Dutch limits when this city was still called New Amsterdam.

We visited the Federal Hall which houses now the National Park Service, but this was also the place George Washington took the oath as first president of the United States of America in 1789 ( you can see the statue on my right commemorating it). This building has also been the customs house and the principle of liberty of press in the USA got started here.

Federal Hall

Right across the street is the Stock Market, the place where brokers sell and buy and decide our present and future to a great extent. There are great security measures because there is a civil movement called Occupy Wall Street that wants to do so.

We also visited the Federal Reserve Bank, in which they keep many countries' money in gold bars. They explained us in the guided tour how this independent organism is different from any other bank and how they decide the monetary policy of the USA and tries to keep the balance between unemployment, inflation and welfare.

Do you see? It is really where the money is. Each gold bar is worth $700.000, and there are more than 150.000 gold bars here!!! Would you like to touch one? Come here!

In New York!!!

Home, in Brooklyn.

We have arrived in New York from Montreal, we have taken an Amtrak train which goes slowly and takes 11 hours to get here, but here we are!!! We have arrived to Penn Station, next to the Madison Square Garden- a huge events hall-, we took a taxi which is quite an experience, people (even more taxi drivers) drive very brusquely and get angry very quickly. Lots of people were in the streets and and lots of lights in the high buildings.

 New York has five boroughs, that is, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Harlem, Bronx and Queens, we are only visiting the first two, especially the first one. It is such a big city... and a lot of places, statues, buildings and so on move me because I have read so much literature in English that takes place here, but also, we are culturally colonised by the Americans, and this also seems part of our lives, as we have grown watching TV series and films that took place here.

Some days have passed and we have seen several places of which I am going to highlight those that I liked more. In the East Village, in Manhattan, we can find one of the cultural centres of the city, the Shakespeare theatre is there and there is a special place for me called Cooper Union which is a building that houses a school run on grants. It was founded by tycoon Peter Cooper who was a visionary (built ahead of his time and spread the Morse communication system) but did not know how to write or read because he was of humble origin, so he founded this school (which is the oldest building made with steal beams that stands up still) so that every girl and boy could study, there are grants for that. In its Great Hall, great educative and progressive lectures have been given (pro women and civil rights), prominent speakers from Mark Twain to many presidents of USA, including Pr. Obama.

The Great Hall

Also in the East Village, we find the Colomnade Row, so called because of the many columns in its façade in the Greek style. Now it is very old and not taken good care of, but they used to be luxury appartments in which tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt or writers such as Washington Irving, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens lived.

Colomnade Row

Amor deliria nervosa

What if love were a disease?

I have finished reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver, a young writer from New York, and I really liked it. Even though it is supposed to be  a young reader's book, it raises some questions that really made me think, such as love as an illness and the organization of society.

What is amor deliria nervosa?

The story takes place in a city of the USA, a country that found out that love is the worst illness and scientists have found a cure for it; therefore, all its people undergo a procedure to get cured when they are about to became adults. This creates a controlled society with no pain and almost no crimes. Nevertheless, nothing is perfect and there is a resistance of people who believe in love and have not undergone the procedure to be detached of their feelings.

What happens in the book?

Lena, the protagonist, is expecting her process of pairing (as there is no love, the government matches young people to provide for families) and the procedure for curing her willingly because her mother was infected with the illness and suffered a lot. During her evaluation process, there is a disruption and she meets Alex, unfortunately she falls in love with him. This leads to lots of adventures because their love is not only forbidden by their parents -as Romeo&Juliet's- but it is an institutionalised prohibition, by her family, the regulators and the police!! The only help they have is her best friend Hana and her cousin Gracie who has not spoken in years.

Why do I recommend this novel?

It is a well-constructed love story, it has friendship, hard family relationships and many adventures trying to get rid of the regulators and family and fight for their love. The novel ends when they are trying to get to the other side, the Wilds, where they will be able to live their love freely.

Have you read it? If you have, tell us your view in a comment!!!

Civil Rights Movement.

What is the Civil Rights Movement?

These days we are talking about the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, focusing on the fight that African-American people led through non-violent boycotts and sit-ins against racial discrimation and segregation. Not only did the African-Americans fight for their rights, but also the Chicano, Indian, Homosexuals and Women protested peacefully (most of the time) to get recognition and rights. This happened from 1955 to 1968.

How did it start?
This all started when Rosa Parks decided that she would no longer stand up in the bus to give her seat to a white person in Montgomery. 90% of the African-American people of her town followed her in her social disobedience led by a very young Martin Luther King who became the leader of the movement nationwide. Many other non-violent demonstrations followed. He got the Nobel Peace Prize  in 1964. A few weeks ago, President Barack Obama sat at Rosa Parks' seat in the Montgomery bus. He also got the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

What did they achieve?
Trough pacific means, they attained the passing of very important laws regarding the banning of discrimination in many aspects, the opening of the USA frontiers to non-Europeans citizens, the actual right to vote; these laws were called: Civil Rights Act, Immigration and National Services Act and Voting Rights Act.

You can watch the video of one of his most important speeches in Washington while you read it: I have a dream speech. It is very touching, it always moves me, especially because some things have not been attained yet, 40 years after it.

Have you ever heard or read it? What do you think of it?
Leave your comments and tell us!!

April Fool's Day

Spaghetti harvest, 1957
projectbritain.com

April Fool's Day is celebrated in many countries in the world on the 1st of April every year. It is not a bank holiday but people are used to making jokes to relatives and friends. Also, the television and radio take part in this festivity making jokes to their audience. In 1957, the BBC explained how families in Switzerland picked spaghetti from the trees as you can see in the photo. If you want to see the complete video, you can.

What is its origin?
 The origin of this festivity is not really clear but it has its oringins in Roman times. Nevertheless, the closest to truth that we know may be related to the changing from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which started in the 16th century but which, due to the bad communications system of the time, wasn't accepted in England until 1752. In the Julian calendar, New Year was celebrated on the 1st of April and in the Gregorian on the 1st of January. It seems that people who started celebrating it on the 1st of January laughed and played tricks on people who celebrated it on the 1st of April on this same day. Even though all of this, there are references to this celebration in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which dates back to the 14th Century!!!

If you want to learn more about this celebration, you can go here. Do we celebrate April Fool's Day in Spain? What date do we celebrate something similar? Leave your comments!!!

Soccer or Football?

http://carrie-persichini.blogspot.com.es 

From the 15th century onwards many games involving a ball and different parts of the body were played in England, they were all called "football"; these have evolved into different modern sports. The most famous one in Europe is called "Association Football", more commonly named as "football" or "footy". "American Football", also called "gridiron football" or just "football" in the USA, comes from the football that started to be played at the Rugby School and later on took its name, that is, from rugby.

So, what is "football"? 

In Europe, we call "football" to the game played by two teams of eleven agile and quick players who try to put a spherical ball into the rival's goal without touching it with the arms or hands.The game lasts for 90 minutes with a 15 minutes rest in the middle. In 1863 the Football Association was created. It is nowadays an Olympic Sport.

In the USA, we call "football" to the game played by two teams of eleven really strong players with lots of protective equipment who try to get an  ellipsoid ball into the opponents' end zone, they can run with it in their hands or kick it, they normally protect it with their own bodies so that the opponents don't get the ball. The game normally lasts for four 15 minutes quarters with a rest of 10 to 20 minutes after the second quarter. The first records of an official game dates back to 1869. It is not an Olympic Sport.

Americans, but also Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, refer to"Association Football" as  "Soccer".

A fun way to learn football vocabulary at the British Council's web.
So, do you like football, or should I say "soccer"...? Leave your comments and tell me!!!

Saint Patrick's Day

Irish Shamrock

When is it celebrated?

Today, the 17th of March, is the day when Irish people around the world celebrate their culture.

Who was Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick is Ireland's patron because in the 5th century AD, he christianised Ireland. Before that, he had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he achieved to escape from his captors; nevertheless, he returned to Ireland when he said he heard he was called to end up with former polytheist religions in Ireland.

How do Irish people celebrate it?
Today is a holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is also widely celebrated in places where the Irish moved to along history such as Britain, USA, Canada and Australia among others.
Irish people usually celebrate it going to church, wearing green clothes and shamrocks. Also, even though it is during Lent, they can drink alcohol which is forbidden the rest of the time in Lent.

Shamrocks, these little plants that abound in Ireland, were used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity and has become a symbol of Ireland too.

There is a Festival in Dublin city, the capital of Ireland which lasts from the 16th to the 19th of March and even buildings wear green colours, have a look.

What do you think of these celebrations? Do you celebrate Saint Patrick at school?
Leave a comment and tell us!!