Autobiography

My name is Cristina and I live in Madrid.
I think I am cheerful and positive, but sometimes a bit shy and very proud of myself.
My interests are to go to the cimena to see American movies, and to meet my friends at the weekend, an also to do aerobic, to travel to the beach and listen to music.
I love going shopping, and when I get my salary, the first thing I do is to go shopping with my friends.
I haven´t been to too many places, but I´m sure when I have time and money, I´ll go abroad. The first places, which I´m going to visit will be Venice, Tanzania in Africa and London...
I adore pets, but particularly dogs. I have got one, its name is Pancho, and he´s a little bit grumpy, but also friendly at the same time.
Later on, I will tell you more about my hobbies and my life.

Lots of kisses from

Cristina Juan.

The Retiro Park

Is the main park of Madrid,the capital of Spain. The Retiro Parkt is a large and popular area of about 1,5 km in the city center,very close to Puerta de Alcala and not far from the Prado Museum. A magnificent park, with beautiful sculptures and monuments, galleries, a quite big and peaceful lake, which hosts a variety of events. Without any doubt it is right one of Madrid's main attractions. The park is entirely surrounded by the buildings of the town.

History of Park and Palace:
In 1505 at the time of Queen Isabel the Catholic, the Monastery of Jeronimos was moved from elsewhere to the present place near the church of San Jeromino del Real, and the new monastery was built in Isabelline Gothic style. The Royal family had built it as a part of the church. The Retiro was described as 'the world art wonder of the time', probably the last great creation of the Renaissance in Spain. When The Retiro became the center of Habsburg court's life, at a time when Spain was famous all over the world.

Activities:
From late May throught early October, every Sunday at midday, the Banda Sinfonica of Madrid gives free concerts in the park. The park features an annual Book Fair. Around the lake Retiro's pond, many puppet shows are greatly enjoyed by children, and all kind of street performers and fortune tellers. Powboats can be rented to paddle about, horse-drawn carriages are available to hire. Many families in Madrid usually go there to have a nice time in summer.

Bye for now

A Biography : Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso was born in Oviedo, on july 29, 1981. Since he was a very small boy he knew that his future was going to be linked to motor racing.
It started as a pilot when he was 3 years. At that age he began to drive karts at the best school, Senna and Schumacher? for the Formula 1.
He has always won in different classes of karts. He is tricampeon of Spain, runner up in Europe and world champion in 1996. A prodigious adoptation from Fernando´s side.
He started with cars in 1999. The first day he climbed to a car in the Telefonica open, took just six laps to equalize the records of Catalan. A former Ferrari engineer at the time of Lauda asured that he has never seen a talent like his.
Swept in the Open Telefonica, confirming expectations in 1999 and ran away with the open telefonica, though it was his first season with a race car serious. The F-3000 is the prelude to the F-1 and, therefore, a difficult championship, and with fierce competitors.
Alonso does not know the circuit or when single European lola, and also only has one and a half hours of training each weekend. However, progess is spectacular: he was number 6th in Australia, 2nd in Hungary and 1st in Belgium.

An Unforgettable Trip

I went to Canada two years ago to see one of my favourite countries in the world.I love this country for its beatiful landscapes with lakes, mountains and huge woods with a lot of wild animals like the grizlie bears or the American wolfs .
So I took the aeroplane to initiate one of the most unforgettable trips in my life. After eight hours travelling by aeroplane I arrived there and almost the first thing that I did was to catch the train in order to see The Rocky Mountains as soon as possible.The first thing which I could admire was an enormous blue-coloured lake so beautiful as I had seen it in the Mational Geographic photographs.
The weather was very cold and at that moment it started to snow, giving me the opportunity to see a fantastic view.

My Summer

Hi,
Last summer it was very important to me for two reasons, first my aunt married her boyfriend and second, I could travel to the North of Spain as I have written in my chapter "El camino de Santiago".
Moreover, I have been working during summer, as I did four years ago. Now due to that worldwide crisis it is very dificult to find a good job now.

The Prado Museum

For the traveller who comes to Madrid, it is essential to see the Cibeles fountain and walk down along Paseo del Prado until the Prado Museum.
The museum opening hours are from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.It is free to visitors under 18students ( from the UE under 25),teachers, retired people.

THE PERMANENT COLECTION:Spanish painting 1100-1850.The colection of Spanish paintings goes from 12th century Romanesque mural paintings to 19th century works by Goya. On the ground floor there is a collection of Medieval and Renaissance paintings.On the main floor there are paintings by El Greco,Rivera, Murillo, Velazquez and other famous painters.

Italian painting 1300-1800.This section spans the period from the early Renaissance to the 18th by Angelico,Mantegna,Boticelli,Tiepolo. On the grond floor can be seen works by Raphael,Tintoretto,Veronese and Bassano,Titian,Caravaggio and Gentilleschi.

THE TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONIn the Spring-Summer 2008,The Renaissance, Duero,Rfael,Boticelli.Then in the Autumm-winter 15 october 2008-6 anuary 2009 Rembrant. The exhibition contains among others Self-portrait as Zeus, Betsabe, the Blinding of Samson, Flora,the Abduction of Europa, the Apostle Bartholomew and self-potrit of Rembrant

About me

Hi! My name is Mariana and I’m going to tell you a bit about me.
I like listening to all kind of music, though my favourite is punk-rock and ska. I regularly play drums, but also the guitar and the piano. I like enjoying my freetime with video games and board games, especially card games. I love staying up late and reading fantasy and mystery books but my favourite novel is “Marianela” by Galdós.

I’m mad about football and my favourite team is “Deportivo de la Coruña”. I also love travelling but I don’t have enough time and money to do it. One of my dreams is flying to Finland to know about people, to learn about its traditions, landscapes and to taste their food, but especially to enjoy seeing the lakes, the midnight sun (this happens when the sun doesn’t fall for some weeks from the middle of May to the end of July) and then the Northern light in autumn.

Ghandhi

Mohands Karamchad Gandhi was a thinker and leader of the Indian nationalism. He is the most relevant indigenous personaly of the Indian contemporany history. He has been an important political and social person of the first half of the 20th centuy. His activity was focused on the well being of his own people. In addition he published several articles in magazines and news papers, he did numerous official speeches in Indian and England.
He was born in 1869, Portbandar and he died in 1948, Delhi. As for his family was very stable. His childhood happened in a very quiet and good environment. His father was a Minister and his mother had preserved a very deep religious faith.
His human initiatives were great. What is more, he founded agricultural colonies and hospitals, and specially, since then, he tried to eliminate the castes and religions that were dividing his people.
On the other hand, his relations with the governement who did not rispect the rights of human people and Gandhi was avoding armed confrontations and putting into practise taht of the "satyagraha" (passive resistance).
To conclude, in 1920 the appellative he received of "mahatma", that alludes to his endowment of prophet and saint that people recognized on him, was kept for the posterity.

About My Great-Grandmother

I am going to write about my great-grandmother, Soledad, because I have lived a similar situation as the one in our students' book.

My family took my great-grand-mother to the nursing home near Madrid and we can go to visit her when we have time. My grandparents are going every week to visit her.

When my grat-grandfather died, Soledad lived a lot of time alone in a house, but some years ago we decided to move her with my other great-grandmother to the nursing home. Is very difficult for an old person to leave her house after living all her life in it. Soledad always has been a strong person, but with the time she wanted to die. Now she is ninety years old, she is losing her head and when the family goes to see her, she does not recognize them.

I think that this situation is positive because she is with older people and she is monitored all day by nurses and doesn´t have to be a housewife.On the other hand she has not got so much privacy as she had in her own house.

My Summer in Menorca

Last summer in August, I flew to Menorca,the Balearic Islands. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in the world.

Life in my Home Town

In a far away place from La Mancha which I don't remember its name, I usually spend my holiday. I stayed there for two months in summer. Last year I was living with my father and this was fantastic.

My Hobbies:

My hobbies are, I suppose, those of a girl of my age.
I like travelling, but because of my work I could not go out very often. Particularly, I would like to go abroad and I would love to go to Maldivas Islands, but I find it very expensive.
Another of my hobbies, is to go to the cinema at weekends. I like both ancient and modern films, but especially horror films and thrillers.
But one of my favourite hobbies is reading. I like reading all kinds of books about different topics.
I would like to be able to enjoy these and others hobbies, but sometimes it is a hard work, to study and be able to perform

A Composition About Madrid

The climate in Madrid is extreme, it is cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. The city is about 600 meters high and it is situated in a plateau with several mountains near the city, Navacerrda, Guadarrama and Somosierra
There are a lot of festivities in Madrid coming from previous centuries with several celebrations like San Isidro with processions, music festivals and bullfighting.
The are a lot of activities to do in Madrid at the weekends like going to theaters. visiting museums, mainly the Prado Museum where you can see a great number of paintings, Reina Sofía, the museum of modern art.
The food is another typical tradition in Madrid and you can eat famous dishies like cocido and callos in well known restaurants.Likes for examples Cocido(chickpeas) ,snack on squid and callos(Hand and pig's snout).

Travelling Abroad

Hello, I am Cristina, I am 18 years old and live in Madrid.
I want to tell you about my trips to Lisbon (Portugal) but only I will tell you a few small anecdotes of this magic city. People were charming to me. In Lisbon there are beautiful parks, and big castels.

Travelling to Lisbon

Hello, I am Cristina, I am 18 years old and live in Madrid.

I want to tell you about all my trips to Lisbon (Portugal) but I will only tell you small anecdotes of this amazing city. People aare charming

My first trip in France

The first time I travelled abroad was quite interesting.
We set off from Madrid to Gerona (France) which was at the weekend.
On Monday we continued our trip to France, where our cousings were waiting for us, because they live in Narbona.
Our staying there was brilliant, Narbona is a wonderful place and it has got very nice beaches. After a few days we had to come back, but next time, we will go by plane because the trip was too long.


Bye bye for now.

A Biography : Rafa Nadal

Rafa Nadal was born on June 3rd, 1986, in Mallorca,Spain. He was born in the tennis professional world. Like every player's dream, Rafa´s dream is to become number 1 ranked player in the world.
His first victory ocurred in Majorca,in 2002. He also won the 2004 Davis Cup.
He became the youngest player(18 years old). Rafa is better equipped than the other young players. He says, "My only objective is to continue to improve myself because I am only 18 and there are still lots of things to improve. If I improve my game,the classification will follow."

My Holiday in the Mediterranean Sea.

Hello everybody

I have been recently in Valencia, because it was the Grand Prix of motorracing, that has taken place in Cheste, a small town in the East of Spain. It lasted the whole weekend. I like motorcycling a lot. In the circuit there were about 120.000 people. It was very exciting to see the pilots riding at a great speed, and nobody had fallen in that race.

El Camino de Santiago

This summer, on the second week of September I went cycling with two friends of mine on the Way to Santiago. We visited a big area of the North of Spain on mountain bike for a non stop five days trip.

We started in Astorga (León) and our finish was set in Santiago de Compostela (Coruña). The experience was exciting because the landscape was great and the food was terrific!. I enjoyed both a lot.

I could meet people from different parts of Spain and many more from other countries in Europe.

The experience was gratifying and rewarding because you can see a millenary road where you meet and talk to people from places you have never heard before.

AFRIKA

Africa is the name of my cousin. She is so cute and amazing. She is from Valencia. Her complexion is brown and with a very smooth skin, her hair is dark and long, her face is very attractive, her eyes are brown and beautiful and she looks really pretty. She has come to live with me to Madrid since last September. She is an excellent cook, her dishes are always delicious, the best one is "paella valenciana" I love it. Since Africa appeared she has changed all my life.

bye, bye from now

My dream to a famous city in Europe

Last year I went to Amsterdam with two friends. We flew in March so the weather was awful, it was raining all the time, and sometimes snowing too; but we went well equipped with our winter clothes. In the city there were many coffee shops which were decorated beautifully.
While we were walking along the street and avenues we could see that the windows of the houses were with any curtains, and pasengers could see the inside of the houses. It surprised us a lot.
We visited Anna Frank´s house where we discovered how she lived while she was hidden with all her family during the Second Wordl War.

My favourite town.

When I went to visit Segovia...(taken from my travelbook)

I have not visited Segovia since last year, and the most popular monuments for me are the Aqueduct that was built by the Romans, to bring water to the town from the Sierra of Fuenfría, the monastery of El Parral, where there live the monks called jéronimos. From that place there is a magnificent view of the Alcazar, a military palace, but it was taken as an example of the Walt Disney fairy teales castle.

Then, there are beautiful Romanesque churches, san Lorenzo, Santa Cruz.

My best trip

My best trip was in January, 2007. My boyfriend and I went to Salamanca. Fortunately, we could go by train, although some days before many trains had been cancelled because of the snow. During the trip we saw that everything was covered with snow. We arrived at Salamanca at night, it was two degrees below zero and we went to a four-star hotel, which was fantastic! That night we went to see the town hall, which at night is so beautifully lighted. We were sight seeing all the following morning, and at dusk, we came back to Madrid by train without being able to forget that we had had a really good time.

Learning English 2, October 2008

Dear you all
Lets start our blog this way

Try to use this address so we can start walking with our larning in English
All the best
PedroJesus

Tarea audio aicole

http://www.educa.madrid.org/cms_tools/files/eb0e79a2-4587-4c04-a3ce-eebaca02bea6/mp3/aicole.mp3

Our hero again

I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds. On the morning of his departure he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. He possessed two active volcanoes; and they were very convenient for heating his breakfast in the morning. He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, "One never knows!" So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney.

Questions on the text.

1. Tell him how is your house.

2. Immagine an ideal house.

A kid well dressed, ready to travel.

1. How would you address him for the first time?

2. You like holidays because you travel a lot in summer, dont you?. He is an intelligent person, and he wants to travel somewere, first, how would he escape from his planet?

3. When you travel, you get your bag ready. Give him some advise to prepare his luggage.

4. Imagine which languages does he speah. How would you help him?

5. We have a lot of worries, we think a lot before we get into our dad's car. What do you think, what are this kid's worries?

6. Would you like to add somecyng else? Add three or more details of your own.

7. Would you like to complete the picture?

The Littel Prince

1. Have you ever read this story in English?

2. How did you come across this book?

3. Do you remember a very interesting story?

4. Could you tell eny details in order to associate them to the hole story?

5. How is the little Prince so nostalgic?

6. Could you add any personal question that you would like to?

Travel writer. Colin Thubron

Good evening again to all of you.
Bon jour à tous.
The best way to learn a language is travelling, I think. These days I came across the Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron who is one of my favourite writers, and he had the opportunity to travell from Xian, China, to the Mediterranean coast. English people allways have time and money to do it that way, and the ability to pubblish their books. He did it in two different years but succeded and wrote his book. As we cannot do the same, I guess, why not to start reading his book to find out all his discoveries?
Then we can share our experiences.
Bye
Pedro Jesús

Learning English 2

Good evening
First, I vould like to make it clear that the titel (with a mistake) is chosen only under the suggestions of Blogger.
I welcome everybody to have a lok as soon as it is coming to life.
Kind regards.
Pedro Jesús Martínez