MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS CAROL

Some of you could enjoy this wonderful song in the class; then for those who were not there, here you are...



Do you want to write on the blog this Christmas Holiday? What about telling your classmates about what you typically do during this magic season?

EXAM DATES

GROUP 17:00-18:30

(20th January: Revision activities)

Writing > 22nd Thursday
Reading+Listening > 23rd Friday
Speaking > 27th-30th Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

GROUP 18:30-20:00

(19th January: Revision activities)

Writing > 21st Wednesday
Reading+Listening > 22nd Thursday
Speaking > 26th-29th Monday, Wednesday and Thursday


GROUP 20:00-21:30

(19th January: Revision activities)

Writing > 21st Wednesday
Reading+Listening > 22nd Thursday
Speaking > 26th-29th Monday, Wednesday and Thursday

*You should come to class to decide the date and time of your speaking exam

ESSAY - UNIT 2 - NIGHTMARE JOURNEY



Deadline: December 9th or 10th (depending on your timetable)


Write about a nightmare journey you have had or invent one (between 150 - 180 words)





Paragraph 1: When? Where? Who? Why?

Paragraph 2: What happened?

Paragraph 3: What happened in the end?

Some tips:

You are writing a narrative so remember to use time connectors.
Here you have some of them:

First (of all), at first, suddenly, as soon as, until, then, next, before, after, after that, afterwards, when, while, during, soon, immediately, finally, eventually.

If you are not sure about how to use them, use a dictionary to read some examples.

And.. after the nightmare... A JOKE

When travelling good funny situations may happen too, so here you have a joke of a journey by train. ENJOY YOURSELF!!

A man and a woman who have never met before find themselves in the same sleeping carriage of a train.

After the initial embarrassment, they both manage to get to sleep; the woman on the top bunk, the man on the lower.

In the middle of the night, the woman leans over and says, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm awfully cold and I was wondering if you could possibly pass me another blanket."

The man leans out and, with a glint in his eye, says, "I've got a better idea. Let's pretend we are married."

"Why not," giggles the woman.

"Good," he replies. "Get your own damn blanket."

Smiley Faces - Gnarls Barkley

Hi everybody,

About "The Script"I think they have a nice sound and they have a lot "soul" in the songs.....very emotional Irish trio.


I would like to post the following song because I like it! If someone has a opinion about it.....please, I would be please to hear you.......

Hope you like it too..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZJ8hMA3eU4


Bye bye for now!

Sex Boom

I like some sports. One is Ice Skating, and it's so dificult to see it, because you don't can see it on the TV. But this year I have the fortune and I can waching on TV, in eurosport channel. Last weekend was celebrated The Russian's Cup. It was more excitant and funny. There were lots spectators. One of those was Euvgeni Plushenko. He is one of the best ice skater of the world. He was retired three years ago, but he did amazing pirouettes and leaps. I think him have not been overcome yet.
Well, here you're a entertain video with a exibition program. I hope you like it.

The Script

Hi, I like lots kind of music, but now I have descovered a group called The Script . Fist, I listened "The man Who Can't Be Moved", their first single in Spain.
Now I'm listening all their album and I'm not going to tired to listen it. Their music has something that it makes me feel fine, the singer's voice is so...I don't know describes it now. Well, I'm trying to traslate their songs and understanding when they speak; this last question is complicated for me at the moment, because my listening and speaking is not enough that I'd like.
I hope you like this video. It`s their first single in UK and Ireland. The song is "We Cry".
You can write comment whith your opinion.

working hard in the computers room

Today we are working in the computers room. We (Pablo and Lucía) have done all our homework very fast and our fantastic teacher Andrea [ :-) ] has asked us to post something on her blog. The main problem is the fact that we don't know what to talk about.
We are going to describe the situation that we´re living at this moment. We are about 30 and we are all very hard-working. We think that all of us will pass this year ( Pablo says he doesnt think so)...
Now Pablo is talking about which is the means of transport we have chosen in the last activity.
And I'm going to finish this strange text saying that we invite you to clean it when you wish.

First Holidays Abroad.....Tunisia!

Hi,
For the first time in life I took the opportunity of enjoying a holidays abroad.......with some friends. The final destination was Tunisia......I don´t like the hot weather, so the idea of travelling to Tunisia and putting up with high temperatures was not really attractive for me but eventually it worthed it.

So, my friends and I flew into Monastir airport from Santiago and after getting cash......we were on our way through customs and ready to experience the country... We got to the hotel and checked in. The staff at the hotel were always lovely and helpful. We stayed in a typical hotel and tourist resort with huge hotels located in the coast. Everything was shiny, clean and comfortable.

The next morning we walked around Hammamet (resort town) and booked our tours for the week. We walked 10kms along the beach to the old town to see the medina. The lovely Mediterranean Sea and wonderful sand beaches are definitely one of the best points for Tunisia. We played beach volleyball, flew the parachute and rode the banana (both driven by motor boats) and generally had a very good time.

The next day we did a tour of Tunis, Carthage, and Sidi Bou Said which is a gorgeous little town painted white with blue doors and windows. Carthage is a place full of roman ruins which I was keen to see and eventually was a really nice surprise. For the next days, we had planned a 3 day tour to different places.....

The first day we visited a roman amphitheatre smaller than the coliseum but very well preserved and quite impressive. We also went to Matmata where some episodes of Star wars were filmed and where people live underground because it is too hot.

Around that place, we ate in an underground restaurant a traditional food (if you ever go to Tunisia... You have to eat a Brik...it is nice). Sadly, probably the food was not as nice as its looks because practically all of us got stomach problems....

On that afternoon, we reached the Sahara starts where we had camel rides in the desert. On that day, we spent the night sleeping in the dessert in a terrible and horrible hotel.....

On the next day, we crossed a salt lake which is 200km by 100km and then into an oasis (we were around 40-43Cº temperature) and finally, we went by car through the Atlas mountains which was dusty and even hotter temperature but an amazing view........

On last tour day, we made some tourist activities which were not really interested and then we back to Hamammet. There, we spent the last days trying to get a bargaining and found ourselves in bad deals.....and also spending a bit of time in the pool just relaxing.

In general, I absolutely loved my time in Tunisia, despite of some bad points (It is a bit an underdeveloped country when you leave the resorts) but Tunisia is a wonderful place for visiting and having fun where you will find unforgettable memories. I would recommend it, however, I just hope not to be back there.......at least on summer time!!!

My last summer... I worked

My last summer I worked so I hadn´t holydays, only in my free days when I came back to my home in Ourense or to somewhere with my friends to enjoy the summer.

But my job wasn´t a typical job in a office, my office was a light aircraft. I worked for the Ministery fighting against the wildfires in the northwest of Spain. We (my pilot, co-pilot and I) lived in Santiago and if there was an important-big wildfire Ministery or Xunta called me to say the coordinates of the wildfire.

With this job I usually traveled around Galicia and León, and I saw some marvellous views like the photo, that is a reservoir in the mountains between Galicia and León. But the best was to have the opportunity of pilot a light aircraft, It was incredible and amazing. Some of my friends are very jealous. I didn´t work a lot of, I saw marvellous scenery and I piloted a light aircraft(Can I ask for anything more?)

In my last travel on holidays with my friends we went to Chicago, but I´ll speak you about this travel other day.

Madrid

What have I done this summer? Really… this year nothing, I hope the next year this change. Jej, but I am jealous for the person who tells her travel to Iceland two posts before. When somebody ask me: Where would you like to travel? I answer always this country. Well, maybe someday.. , anywhere I hope mariaD has enjoyed her holidays.

This summer, at least, my nephew came to Madrid to visit me, Well my sister and my brother in law also came, and one day, we went to the zoo.
Well, In the picture my nephew and I, and our new big friend.

AMSTERDAM

Hello, my name's Rosa. This year stay in Andreas' group.
My last holidays I stayed in Amsterdam. It's a beautiful city full of canals.

I walked across the city (it has a lot of things to visit).
We had luck with the weather, it was sunny. Normally people go by bicycle and they have preference, they are so dangerous, be carefull with them.
I spoke english with the people, it`s easy undestanding whith them because they speak so clear ( not like London). They (more or less) undestanded me.
I took lots of photographs.Well in other moment I'll show you.
Now I'm going to my english class.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS SUMMER?

This is Landamanalaugar, one of the most beautiful places in the world (in my opinion).

Is here where I've been this summer, in Iceland, the land of the ice and the fire.

During my hollydays there the sun never set; it was allways sun. Everywhere you can see Ice, Volcanos, the most purest nature....

In this photo you can see the colors' mountains, they are made of differents minerals and you can see red mountains, blue mountains, ilt's like artificial, but No! it's the nature who has painted them!

I'll be back soon.

CONCERTS

You may think Bryan Adams is the only singer I like, but this is far for true. He's my favourite, but I like many others. Here you have an example, last May I went to the most amazing concert I've ever been to (well, except Bryan's concert), LENNY KRAVITZ'S CONCERT. It was incredible to see him live in Vigo, a wonderful experience. He proved he's one of the greatest singers of all times. Here you have one of his greatest songs so that you can pratice your listening skills while having fun. Listen to it and if you feel like, you can write a comment with your opinion

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!!!

If you are a student of the year 08/09, you can continue with an activity that last year students started. You simply have to post a picture of your last trip and explain a little bit what you did, as I did below talking about Valdoviño. You can also comment on what other students said.

If you find it interesting to talk about any other thing, please, feel free and do it. E.g. You may want to talk about your favourite song in English language, a film you liked, the last concert you went to, etc

I hope you find the blog useful. I really encourage you to use it and continue learning English outside the classroom.

REVIEW ACTIVITES FILE 1

Go to this link http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/intermediate/ and review FILE 1 with the following activities:

GRAMMAR> FILE 1 >LESSON A-1
GRAMMAR> FILE 1 >LESSON C-2
HOW WORDS WORK > FILE 1 > LESSON C
PRACTICAL ENGLISH >INTRODUCTIONS
VOCABULARY > A > CROSSWORD
VOCABULARY > B > CROSSWORD
VOCABULARY > C > CROSSWORD
GAMES > IRREGULAR

My holidays in Derry

Hi to everyone! I have passed my holidays in Derry (Northern Ireland) because I've requested a grant for studying English in a foreign country during 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't learn too much English because all the people in the residence where I lived where spanish people, so Andrea I'm so sorry if I commit a lot of mistakes in this post.

I really enjoyed my time in Derry and I would like to come back in the future. I met a lot of nice friends and we went to many places together.

When I arrived to Ireland the first thing which surprised me was that all the landscape was surrounded by grass, irish people called this scenery as “greenery”.

The first day in Derry the director of the school told us that we had to be there everyday at 9:30 sharp, but we always went out at night and sometimes we went to school with hangover. Moreover, this day we had to do an exam to probe our English level and I did it very well! I was in the level Advanced II which was the second best level after Advanced III.

The rest of the days we have to wake up early to go to classes, we ate at school and in the afternoon the have something programmed for us, like going to some place to play pool, orienteering in the city, some parties (including a fancy dress party), play sports (I played sumo wrestling... ¬¬), etc. And we also went shopping in the afternoon for food or souvenirs.

After several days going out at night we had to rest because we were too tired so some days we took a “siesta” instead of going to the prepared activities.

On Thrusdays we went to dance Salsa in a pub (but it wasn’t Salsa, it was only Spanish music).
On Fridays we also had workshops which were compulsory and you had to be fast to choose the workshop you wanted to do. There was a choir, gaelic football, theatre… but I always arrived late so I chose some boring workshops.

And some day we visited the murals in Derry about terrorism and we learnt a lot of things especially about the Bloody Sunday, the IRA, the troubles with London and between catholics and protestants.

A monument in memory of the Bloody Sunday

On Saturdays we made some excursions to a castle, a national park, the Giant Causeway (some stones which are supossed to be created by a giant as it says a legend) and Belfast.

And that’s all, at the beginning we went out to some Irish Pubs where we could listen to groups in live and drink a lot of Guinness beers, but in the end we went to some discos and we have serveral parties in the residence.

Me and some friends in the fancy dress party

The weather was very strange, in a day we have sun, clouds and rain, but especially clouds. And that’s all, if you have respect to all the people, the city is not very dangerous and I recommend to everybody to go there.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS SUMMER?

I invite you to post a photo of your holiday and tell your classmates about it. I promise to write comments with the corrections so that you can improve your writing.
It's as simple as follows:

So far I haven't done much in Summer. I have just had a brief trip with some friends to one amazing Galician beach, Valdoviño. It was like a short visit to paradise!But I will be travelling soon to some other place. Destination: It is still to be decided, I'll let you know with a photograph as soon as I come back.

CLASSROOM VIDEOS

Here you have a good oportunity to review some of the videos we have worked with throughout the year. Watch them and try to do the related activities again. It's a good way of not losing and improving your listening skills