Christmas

'Father Christmas' (or 'Santa Claus') has become the human face of Christmas. Pictures will be seen everywhere of the old man with long white beard, red coat, and bag of toys. Children are taught that he brings them presents the night before Christmas (or in some countries on December 6th - St. Nicholas' Day), and many children up to the age of 7 or 8 really believe this is true. In most countries, it is said that he lives near the North Pole, and arrives through the sky on a sledge (snow-cart) pulled by reindeer. He comes into houses down the chimney at midnight and places presents for the children in socks or bags by their beds or in front of the family Christmas tree.

Who was he?

Father Christmas is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, which explains his other name 'Santa Claus' which comes from the Dutch 'Sinterklaas'. Nicholas was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey) in the 4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings.

Boxing Day

In English-speaking countries, the day following Christmas Day is called 'Boxing Day'. This word comes from the custom which started in the Middle Ages around 800 years ago: churches would open their 'alms boxe' (boxes in which people had placed gifts of money) and distribute the contents to poor people in the neighbourhood on the day after Christmas. The tradition continues today - small gifts are often given to delivery workers such as postal staff and children who deliver newspapers.

Class Diary

TERM DIARY

25-09-09
Today we have read a photocopy. The teacher has asked our about our last holiday. We spoke about movies, anecdotes and our last holiday. We had learnt vocabulary as foreigner, compulsory …
The teacher has said that we should speak more and we should do this text.
I have spoken about my holiday in Málaga and my friends about films and anecdotes.

28-09-09
Today the teacher has correct my homework. He has distributed other photocopies. We have read photocopies and have translated the vocabulary what we haven´t understood.
We have spoken about the farms and intensive farming.

29-09-09
Today we have watched a film. It´s funny and we laughted. The films is a boy who hasn´t got money, he splits up with his wife and he has got one son.
One day he bought a scratcher and he won a lot of money. He wants to help the people.



5-10-09
Last week the teacher didn´t go to class because he felt dizzy and he had a temperature.
Today we went to “informática” but the computers didn´t work properly We went to class and we were speaking about thing in our free times and leant a few vocabulary.

7-10-09
Today we have been in audiovisuals, we have watched a film. The film is good. It´s the man who wants to quit smoking, because he doesn´t want to die.
When the film ended we have spoken about the vocabulary.

8-10-09
Today we have gone to “informática”. It is a room with computers. We couldn´t use to computers because Internet went very slow. But the teacher put his screen for us to be able to see the news.

9-10-09
Today we have spoken about yesterday´s news. A woman Miller who won “The Novel Prize”. After that the teacher asked us about our holidays, places, good …And we have read “baby cakes”, at ale.

14-10-09
Today the teacher gave vocabulary we have watched a film and we have spoken about it´s vocabulary. The teacher said that we have to create a dialogue for the following days and we will have to pass. We will have to speak about our life, farms, Karma …


5-11-09
Today, we have shown the compositions that we have got to do. Two girls have performed theirs and they have spoken about traditional things in Spain. The teacher has said that we should look for the tickets to go to Dublin. We ´re very happy.
(The missing lessons have been dealing with history and we haven´t done nothing in special, because we have spoken about historical subjects. And one day we went down to the computers rooms.)

10-11-09
Yesterday, we did a listening and speaking. The teacher said that we will do a dialogue in paisand we will talk about a discussion, an argument, football, at a shop, buying a plane ticket …

16-11-09
Today, the teacher has put a song. We have listened to the music and had to understand it. The song is beautiful and relaxing.

18-11-09
Today, we have watched a film, it´s name is “My name is Earl”, it´s a very funny comedy. The teacher has also given out some vocabulary, for us don´t understand the dialogues.


by A. Y. A.

Sahrawi independence activist Hunger Strike: Aminatou Haidar

Her Kafkaesque plight – which began when Ms Haidar refused to fill in the citizenship line of a customs form – has spurred an outpouring of support by Spanish artists and intellectuals such as film director Pedro Almodovar. They staged a concert outside Madrid at the weekend to pressure the Spanish government into doing more to help Ms Haidar return home.

Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago was expected to visit her at the airport yesterday. A representative from the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights in Washington, Marselha Goncalves Margerin, is also by her side. The RFK Centre awarded her its 2008 prize, for denouncing human rights abuses by the Moroccan government.

"I think Morocco miscalculated about the amount of support she has all over the world," Ms Goncalves Margerin said. But so far she has rejected offers of Spanish nationality, as well as political asylum in Spain. They are unacceptable, according to her lawyer, Ines Miranda, because they would make her "a foreigner in her own land".

"The Independent"

Sum 41 - With me

I don't want this moment to ever end
Where everything's nothing without you
I'll wait here forever just to, to see you smile
'Cause it's true, I am nothing without you

Through it all, I made my mistakes
I stumble and fall, but I mean these words

I want you to know
With everything I won't let this go, these words are my heart and soul
I'll hold on to this moment you know, 'cause I'll bleed my heart out to show
That I won't let go

Thoughts read unspoken, forever in doubt
Pieces of memories fall to the ground
I know what I didn't have so, I won't let this go
'Cause it's true, I am nothing without you

All the streets where I walked alone, with nowhere to go
have come to an end

I want you to know
With everything I won't let this go, these words are my heart and soul
I'll hold on to this moment you know, 'cause I'll bleed my heart out to show
And I won't let go

In front of your eyes, it falls from the skies
When you don't know what you're looking to find
In front of your eyes, it falls from the skies
When you just never know what you will find (what you will find)

I don't want this moment to ever end
Where everything's nothing without you

I want you to know
With everything I won't let this go, these words are my heart and soul
I'll hold on to this moment you know, 'cause I'll bleed my heart out to show
that I won't let go (I want you to know)
With everything I won't let this go, these words are my soul
I'll hold on to this moment you know, 'cause I'll bleed my heart out to show
that I won't let go

LINK===> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh61uElcOck

Another song by The Clash

You are working with R.P. and Estuary versions of "Career Opportunities", by The Clash, in class.

Do you want more? What about a song dealing with the Spanish Civil War?

SPANISH BOMBS

Spanish songs in Andalucia,
the shooting sites in the days of ’39.
Oh, please leave, the ventana open.
Federico Lorca is dead and gone:
bullet holes in the cemetery walls,
the black cars of the Guardia Civil.
Spanish bombs on the Costa Brava
I’m flying on in a DC-10 tonight.

Chorus: Spanish bombs; yo te quiero infinito.
Yo te quiero, oh mi corazón.
Spanish bombs; yo te quiero infinito.
Yo te quiero, oh mi corazón.

Spanish weeks in my disco casino;
the freedom fighters died upon the hill.
They sang the red flag,
they wore the black one -
but after they died, it was Mockingbird Hill.
Back home, the buses went up in flashes,
the Irish tomb was drenched in blood.
Spanish bombs shatter the hotels.
My señorita’s rose was nipped in the bud.

(Chorus)

The hillsides ring with “free the people” -
or can I hear the echo from the days of ’39
with trenches full of poets,
the ragged army, fixing bayonets to fight the other line?
Spanish bombs rock the province;
I’m hearing music from another time.
Spanish bombs on the Costa Brava;
I’m flying in on a DC-10 tonight.

Spanish bombs; yo te quiero infinito.
Yo te quiero, oh mi corazón.
Spanish bombs; yo te quiero infinito.
Yo te quiero, oh mi corazón,
oh mi corazón,
oh mi corazón.

Spanish songs in Andalucia:
mandolina, oh mi corazón.
Spanish songs in Granada,
oh mi corazón.

In 2003, the album The Clash was ranked number 77 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was described as a "youthful ambition bursts through the Clash's debut, a machine-gun blast of songs about unemployment, race, and the Clash themselves." This magazine had ranked the Clash album “London Calling” as the best album of the 20^th Century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-qcy0-7ngw&feature=fvw