In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of the king of Colchis, niece of Circe. The myths involving Medea also invoke Jason and the Argonauts. Jason was the rightful heir to the throne of all the Thessaly, usurped by Pelias through killing the king Aeson, his brother and Jason’s father. Jason claimed his inheritance and throne but Pelias, who didn’t want to leave the command, told him that he should have found the Golden Fleece to get the throne again. Jason accepted but he didn’t know all the dangers waiting for him!
Jason joined 48 heroes who accompanied him to Colchis with the ship Argo they was called Argonauts from. When they arrived, Jason went to the king of Colchis and demanded the fleece from him. The king promised to give him the fleece, but only if he could perform certain tasks. Medea, fallen in love with Jason, promised to help him (though her father didn’t want), but only on the condition that if he succeeded, he would take her with him and marry her. Jason agreed. First, Jason had to plough a field with fire-breathing oxen that he had to yoke himself. Then, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the ploughed field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Finally, Jason fought and killed the sleepless dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason took it and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised.
There are different versions about this trip to Iolcus (in the Thessaly). I’m going further on…
When Jason came back with the fleece, Pelias still refused to give up his throne. Medea conspired to have Pelias' own daughters kill him. This happened and Jason fled with Medea to Corinth. They married and had two sons. But Jason left Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, offers him his daughter, Glauce. Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king, Creon, when he went to save her. Then Medea stabbed to death the two sons she bore Jason. Afterward, she left Corinth and flew to Athens in a golden chariot driven by dragons sent by her grandfather Helios, god of the sun.
Medea, her behavior and her emotions have been the subject matter of several literal, theatrical, cinematographic, musical works. Examples are the tragedy by Euripides, by Seneca and by other modern authors or the operas by different composers (Pacini, Mercadante, Theodorakis…). I think that a very good interpretation of the pains Medea felt and of the strength she, as a woman, showed destroying the Greek perfect lady stereotype of her time is the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. I watched the film in Italian (its original language) and I like it a lot. Even if there are few dialogues, it’s full of suspense until the final fire. I advise you to watch it, also because some scenes are filmed in “Piazza dei Miracoli” in Pisa.
Have you ever wondered why the blackbirds are black? And, do you know why it said that the 29, 30 and 31 of January are thought by tradition as the most cold days of the whole year? Well, I’m telling you a legend that could give an explanation and that is usually remembered during this time of year. A very long time ago, January had only 28 days. He used to exasperate a very beautiful white bird by throwing on earth ice and cold every time she went out looking for food. One year she was so tired and annoyed by the cruel behaviour of January that she decided to make sufficient supplies in order to can resist in her nest during the whole month of January. Reached the 28 of January, the white bird came out: she started to sing and laugh because January was ended and so he couldn’t have made any longer bad things against her. However, January was so resented, that he borrowed by February other three days: during these days, he caused a terrible storm of snow, ice and wind, to induce the poor white bird to take refuge in a chimney where she could save herself. But, when the 1st of February she came out, all her feathers were black because of the smoke coming from the chimney! Here is finally the explanation of her current black look: since that time, she was black as well as all birds of her species! And, here is the explanation of the saying that considers the last three days of January as the coldest ones of the year… but, it is just only a popular belief!
Hello everybody, I want to share with you something about my country…Ecuador. When I arrived to Italy, I realized that nobody knew about where Ecuador was. I thought it was because the information is not as biger as the avaliable information of other countries like Brazil or Peru. My surprice was that everybody, at least, had listened to talk about the Galapagos Islands but nobody knew that Galapagos belongs to Ecuador. Well, Ecuador is located in south America between Colombia and Peru. Also if it ‘s a small country, It have a diversity of landscape that makes it unique in Latin America. In few hours, it is possible travel from the Amazon jungle to the highlands to see their still active volcanoes. Ecuador is divided into 4 natural regions: The Pacific Costal region with beautiful sandy beaches; the Andes Mountains, which occupy the central portion of the country; the Amazon jungle where you can see the more exotic animals such as monkeys, caimans, anacondas, river dolphins, tapirs and variety of colorful birds; and finally the Galápagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago with an extraordinary wildlife: gigant tortoise, marin and land iguanas, pinguins, sea lions and a big variety of birds. Quito is the capital of Ecuador. It is also known as “city half of the world” because is crossed by the equatorial line. That’s why the weather is not as varieble as in Italy. We don’t have the four seasons. The temperature varies between 15 and 18 degrees during the night and between 25 and 30 degrees during the day all year. Also if Quito is 2850 meters high, there is not snow. It is possible to see the snow above 5000 meters. The bigest snow-capped volcano is called Chimborazo and is 6310 meters high. A long the Andes Mountains, there are also beautiful cities with churches and historic houses in a colonial style. It is possible to see also small towns with lively and colorful markets where people dress until now the typical suit.
"The human whose name is written in this note shall die" (first rule of death note)
I’m going to speak about a manga that I like particularly. The title is “Death Note”. The manga center on an high school student, Light Yagami, who discovers a supernatural notebook, named death note, dropped on Earth by shinigami (god of death). The notebook allow his user to kill anyone by writing the name on it and by thinking the face. Light starts to kill criminals for becoming "the God of the New World". But the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of INTERPOL and a mysterious detective known only as “L”. Light is dubbed by the public like “Kira” (this word derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word "killer"). The manga treats principally the psicological game between “Kira” and “L”. The manga is composed by 108 chapter and it has been created also a television series formed by 37 episodes. I invite you to read it or to watch the series in streaming… Bye bye.
In this short writing I want to talk about my sport: the "Palio Marinaro". It's a particular type of rowing made with big boats called "gozzi" that are right to go at sea. This is a traditional sport that was born in Livorno in the 17th century and it has developed until nowadays. At present there are 8 boats with ten oars and 8 boats with four oars. Every boat represents a particular district of Livorno. The Palio Marinaro takes place every year in July with the "ten oars" competition (the most important) and the "four oars" one. The "ten oars" boat winner takes the Palio (usually painted by a local artist) while the last one falls back to the "4 oars" competition. Clearly, the "4 oars" boat winner is promoted to the "10 oars" competition. Even if the Palio Marinaro is the most important competition there are six other competitions as well which are very spectacular. For example the competition called "Barontini Cup" takes place at night in the canals of the city and the one called "Risiatori Cup" is a marathon of 7600 meters at open sea. The athlets that practise this sport train very much from September to July in particular places called "cantine" which are located along the canals. Naturally, every time it's possible, the "crew" trains with the boat at sea. Even if this sport is very tiring I think that it's beautiful especially when, in summer, we train on a calm sea at sunset.
Messenger, Skype, Facebook are computer programs , that we can find on internet to talk to our friends or family. Millions of people use those programs everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. I use those programs to study, because I can exchange informations and files on real-time and meet friends, that live in different cities. Those programs respond to our modern needs! I know people, that use Messenger or Skype everyday to talk to girlfriend or boyfriend, because they live in faraway countries....Those programs help modern lovers! Certainly, this is a good way to meet people, but it can’t substitute real relationship, so we can use it, but with intelligence!
Hi guys, I'm talking about my experience in York. The city is very nice, not big, not small, there are a lot of turists because York is a city with a long history: first there was the Vikings, since 3000 b.C.; then the Romans, nowadays you can see the walls around the city centre. But the most important period was the middle age, where York lived a brilliant time after the 12th century. In this period it was a very important economic centre, as well as cultural and political. During the industrial revolution there were a lot of urbanistic transformations, but York preserved its medieval centre. The city, nowadays, is very nice, in particular for the students: there are a lot of parks and a lot of squares where the people gives live shows...every kind of show: clowns, musicians, jugglers...this is amazing, but there is a huge problem: the WEATHER!!! In York the weather is terrible, but the people that live in York have a sayng: "if you don't like the weather, wait for 15 minutes...the weather will change!!" I remember there were a lot of mornings that I left my house with the sun and I arrived at school with my umbrella..in 10-15 minutes. But after 2 weeks you don't pay attention to the weather. I think York is a good place to improve the language because you can speek with English persons with a good English stress, and there are two or three schools not bad. There are many pubs with special promotions as "1£ 1beer"...if you like beer, it's interesting. Well, I think to enough said, so the proof of the pudding!! Enjoy your holiday.
Saint Seiya In this little writing exercise I’m talking about “Saint Seiya” , better known as “Knights of the Zodiac”. It’s a Japanese manga series later adapted to anime. It deals about 5 guys who became bronze warriors, each of them under the protection of a different celestial constellation. Their aim is to protect Saori-san (lady Isabel), the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena, from the attacks of enemies of Justice, she represents, who want to kill her and to dominate the world. So Seiya, Hyoga, Shiryu, Shun and Ikki (these are the guys’ names) fight against these enemies and always (obviously!!!) win them thanks to their “Cosmos” (this word means “Universe”). The concept of “Cosmos” wants to underline the similar composition of both the human body and the universe. In other words, the human body is formed by atoms whose structure is composed by nucleus and spinning electrons, such as the solar system is composed by sun and planets. During their hard train the Knights of the Zodiac have learnt to understand this similarity and when they fight, they increase this understanding and become able to use the force of the body atoms as if this force would come from the protecting constellations’ stars themselves. In fact they acquire great powers like a galactic explosion! I think that everyone watched at last one episode in his life and everyone who watched all the series has a preferred warrior. The mine is Shun protected by the Andromeda constellation. Many of you are surly thinking that Shun is the weakest knight of them. But it isn’t so. He is the very reluctant when situations have to be solved with violence. In fact he prefers himself to be sacrificed just to solve the situation whit no fight (his behavior is similar to Andromeda’s one: the queen of the myth sacrificed herself to save his country from a sea monster. This similarity is the necessary step behind finding the Cosmos inside himself). But when he is forced to use all his power, he reaches a so high level of the Cosmos that he could exceed Seiya (main character) in strength too! In fact Shun must be without his bronze cloth to “burn” his Cosmos until the last step and to throw his “Nebula Storm”, the attack where all the boundless Andromeda nebula is concentrated in his boby. It’s notable that in the last series Shun wears the gold cloth of the strongest of gold saints: Shaka of Virgo!!! I’m sorry…maybe I wrote too much!!! There are a lot of thing I would like to say!!! But, if you want to know other details, I’ll write them next time!!! Bye
On yesterday morning, while reading my e-mail on yahoo site, I saw an article about kidnappings in France because of dismissals. Actually François Henri Pinault, the president of Ppr group, has decided to dismiss 800 employees, notwithstanding with his great gain. So, two days ago his disperates employees kidnapped him while he was in his taxi. Other similar disorders happened in France in the last days. This event testifyes that unemployement makes people desperate. It's a problem so diffused in Italy and all over the world, maybe less diffused in UK. But in this respect I read an article on BBC news about unemployement rising in UK: it has risen above 2 million for the first time since 1997 and many economists predict it will go above 3 million next year. Unemployement concerns strictly young people: soon I will have to face him. I think there aren't so many solutions to this problem, but according to TUC general secretary Brendon Barber I think "it's imperative that world leaders work together to help stimulate the global economy". Certainly in Italy unemployement depends also on the great number of attended people that look for the job for witch they had studied a lot and not for a wichever job.
Hi everybody, I would like to give you some tips and information about how to find a job. When I was in London and I was looking for a job I found a good website for students: www.e4s.co.uk I love how the website help young people: it's easy,it's useful and it's work really well!The website has 4 different sectors in which you can find different job: -part-time/holidays' job -gap year -graduates -internships Every week you can receive offer of employment and it's easy to send your Cv directly to the companies. Another good tool is read the newspaper of Eures: it's an interesting newspaper that each month points out an important topic. Last month it spoke about How to work in German. It gave offer of employment, listed the documents you need to start to work,published a small dictionary with words you have to know...
My last tip is the most important: in June,in London there will be an important jobmeeting with the most popular and important company all around the world. There will be lessons about how create a good Cv and what is covering letters and why they are so important and so difficult to manage. You will have the chance to test yourself with interview simulation with people who work in the Human Resources... I think it'a a great,challengig chance for you and your job future. Good luck!
During the latest english lesson I read an article about CIA torture during Bush- era(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6109379.ece). I was impressed by the violence of this kind of torture especially since I did not believe these medieval practices were still in use today: "being slammed against walls, wearing a special plastic neck collar, kept awake for up to 11 straight days, simulated drowning known as "waterboarding" and being placed in a dark, cramped box. The CIA also approved exploiting one detainee's fear of insects by putting caterpillars in the box with him. Others were kept naked and cold for long periods, denied food, shackled for prolonged periods or had their family threatened". For about four years the CIA has tortured suspected terrorists of Al Qaida in violating U.S. laws and international standards. Many between mans tortured were innocent. I thought today in a society that proudly claims to be civil this kind of practice was entirely absent: I was wrong. What I think about torture? It's not a way to know the truth but a terrible punishment. Certainly the guilty must be punished but I think treat man as not even animals should be treated is nothing short of cruel and useless: it is just a way to force a man to say what another man wants he says. Torture not only is no guarantee of truth but often the opposite: a desperate man can says anything to stop suffering.
About two thousand ago, a Latin philosopher, Seneca, said: “ Man is a social animal. People are not made to live alone”. Well, today we can affirm: “Man is an online social animal. People are made to live in virtual communities, too”. So, every man needs to socialise. We know... probably for many of you on-line socialising isn’t just as valid as face-to-face socialising. But what does the word socialising mean? Socialising means interaction, socialising means learning, socialising means participation, socialising means sharing, socialising means communicating, socialising means immagination, socialising means having an emotion. Well online socialising is all of this. Beside, on-line socialising has an additional value, virtual world enables you to meet people so far, doing to appear them so near. It isn’t science fiction, but a real experience by virtual way! However, all of you hear all the time now about how the Internet is killing community and socialization and how it’s becoming a health risk. But we know this isn’t how matters stand - at least not entirely. There are some researches who demonstrate that on-line socialisation is an important way - and in some situations the only one - that some disadvantaged persons can use in their real life to communicate with the others and feel less lonely.
I don't agree with Mariagrazia (or with Grace Azemus) because I think the two things are really different.
Socializing is sharing, communication, imagination but through a computer is not the same. Even if we use the so called "emoticons" to show our feelings, if two people speak to each other face to face they communicate also with the rhythm of their voice, with their gestures and so on.
If I consider also that some people get more and more isolated, that social networks sometimes become more important than real life and that my personal information could be used with no control by anyone, that's why I don't try to use the Internet for socializing.
I’d like to expose my personal opinion on the topic of on-line socializing: I don’t support nor demonize it, I see this way of socialization as a powerful instrument, if adequately used.
Starting from the premise that the use of the internet to socialize doesn’t rule out the possibility of getting in touch with people “physically”, my opinion is that the two ways of socialization are “complementary” and both of them have advantages and disadvantages. It’s true that on-line socializing allows people to virtually demolish the barriers imposed by distances but it’s also true that no one should leave aside the need of a real contact with friends and people in general. So I think that nowadays we should take advantage of the various available social networks, with a bit of attention in the spreading of personal information, just to meet new people and to have the occasion to organize meetings with them for a face-to-face interaction, with all the aspects that only this kind of relationship allows. In conclusion, also for me on-line socializing can’t replace a real life contact between two people but it can help in having this.
I hope Latinists don’t hold it against me, but the little mistake (medium instead of ablative medio) in the title was a play on words to indicate that not only value stands in the middle (i.e. value is in the moderate, not the extreme position), but also value stands in information “medium”. Well, what do I really think about on line socialising? As my title suggests, I think on line medium is one of some ways to socialise. According to me it’s wrong to say that online socialising is better than face to face socialising or vice versa. They simply are different and probably they have different role in life of each person. As Francesco says they can be complementary. I like to consider on-line socialising as an extension of face to face socialising, a simply way to broaden one’s horizons. So the first one cannot exclude the other!! Actually , I’m not use to socialising on internet “random” so much, because I prefer to spend my little free time with my friends or sometimes in solitude, but I think internet is a valid tool to socialise for example about a particular discussion topic. Whereas other persons consider it as a good way to socialise playing on line game.
At the end… I’d like to suggest to you ordinary sceptic types : - Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Sometimes test also a second possibility, So just try to do online socialising!!
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Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of the king of Colchis, niece of Circe.
The myths involving Medea also invoke Jason and the Argonauts.
Jason was the rightful heir to the throne of all the Thessaly, usurped by Pelias through killing the king Aeson, his brother and Jason’s father. Jason claimed his inheritance and throne but Pelias, who didn’t want to leave the command, told him that he should have found the Golden Fleece to get the throne again. Jason accepted but he didn’t know all the dangers waiting for him!
Jason joined 48 heroes who accompanied him to Colchis with the ship Argo they was called Argonauts from. When they arrived, Jason went to the king of Colchis and demanded the fleece from him. The king promised to give him the fleece, but only if he could perform certain tasks. Medea, fallen in love with Jason, promised to help him (though her father didn’t want), but only on the condition that if he succeeded, he would take her with him and marry her. Jason agreed.
First, Jason had to plough a field with fire-breathing oxen that he had to yoke himself. Then, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the ploughed field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Finally, Jason fought and killed the sleepless dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason took it and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised.
There are different versions about this trip to Iolcus (in the Thessaly). I’m going further on…
When Jason came back with the fleece, Pelias still refused to give up his throne. Medea conspired to have Pelias' own daughters kill him. This happened and Jason fled with Medea to Corinth. They married and had two sons. But Jason left Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, offers him his daughter, Glauce. Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king, Creon, when he went to save her. Then Medea stabbed to death the two sons she bore Jason. Afterward, she left Corinth and flew to Athens in a golden chariot driven by dragons sent by her grandfather Helios, god of the sun.
Medea, her behavior and her emotions have been the subject matter of several literal, theatrical, cinematographic, musical works. Examples are the tragedy by Euripides, by Seneca and by other modern authors or the operas by different composers (Pacini, Mercadante, Theodorakis…). I think that a very good interpretation of the pains Medea felt and of the strength she, as a woman, showed destroying the Greek perfect lady stereotype of her time is the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. I watched the film in Italian (its original language) and I like it a lot. Even if there are few dialogues, it’s full of suspense until the final fire. I advise you to watch it, also because some scenes are filmed in “Piazza dei Miracoli” in Pisa.
“The days of Merla”
Have you ever wondered why the blackbirds are black? And, do you know why it said that the 29, 30 and 31 of January are thought by tradition as the most cold days of the whole year? Well, I’m telling you a legend that could give an explanation and that is usually remembered during this time of year.
A very long time ago, January had only 28 days. He used to exasperate a very beautiful white bird by throwing on earth ice and cold every time she went out looking for food.
One year she was so tired and annoyed by the cruel behaviour of January that she decided to make sufficient supplies in order to can resist in her nest during the whole month of January. Reached the 28 of January, the white bird came out: she started to sing and laugh because January was ended and so he couldn’t have made any longer bad things against her.
However, January was so resented, that he borrowed by February other three days: during these days, he caused a terrible storm of snow, ice and wind, to induce the poor white bird to take refuge in a chimney where she could save herself. But, when the 1st of February she came out, all her feathers were black because of the smoke coming from the chimney!
Here is finally the explanation of her current black look: since that time, she was black as well as all birds of her species! And, here is the explanation of the saying that considers the last three days of January as the coldest ones of the year… but, it is just only a popular belief!
Hello everybody, I want to share with you something about my country…Ecuador.
When I arrived to Italy, I realized that nobody knew about where Ecuador was. I thought it was because the information is not as biger as the avaliable information of other countries like Brazil or Peru. My surprice was that everybody, at least, had listened to talk about the Galapagos Islands but nobody knew that Galapagos belongs to Ecuador.
Well, Ecuador is located in south America between Colombia and Peru. Also if it ‘s a small country, It have a diversity of landscape that makes it unique in Latin America. In few hours, it is possible travel from the Amazon jungle to the highlands to see their still active volcanoes.
Ecuador is divided into 4 natural regions: The Pacific Costal region with beautiful sandy beaches; the Andes Mountains, which occupy the central portion of the country; the Amazon jungle where you can see the more exotic animals such as monkeys, caimans, anacondas, river dolphins, tapirs and variety of colorful birds; and finally the Galápagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago with an extraordinary wildlife: gigant tortoise, marin and land iguanas, pinguins, sea lions and a big variety of birds.
Quito is the capital of Ecuador. It is also known as “city half of the world” because is crossed by the equatorial line. That’s why the weather is not as varieble as in Italy. We don’t have the four seasons. The temperature varies between 15 and 18 degrees during the night and between 25 and 30 degrees during the day all year. Also if Quito is 2850 meters high, there is not snow. It is possible to see the snow above 5000 meters. The bigest snow-capped volcano is called Chimborazo and is 6310 meters high. A long the Andes Mountains, there are also beautiful cities with churches and historic houses in a colonial style. It is possible to see also small towns with lively and colorful markets where people dress until now the typical suit.
"The human whose name is written in this note shall die" (first rule of death note)
I’m going to speak about a manga that I like particularly. The title is “Death Note”.
The manga center on an high school student, Light Yagami, who discovers a supernatural notebook, named death note, dropped on Earth by shinigami (god of death). The notebook allow his user to kill anyone by writing the name on it and by thinking the face. Light starts to kill criminals for becoming "the God of the New World". But the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of INTERPOL and a mysterious detective known only as “L”. Light is dubbed by the public like “Kira” (this word derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word "killer"). The manga treats principally the psicological game between “Kira” and “L”.
The manga is composed by 108 chapter and it has been created also a television series formed by 37 episodes.
I invite you to read it or to watch the series in streaming…
Bye bye.
In this short writing I want to talk about my sport: the "Palio Marinaro".
It's a particular type of rowing made with big boats called "gozzi" that are right to go at sea. This is a traditional sport that was born in Livorno in the 17th century and it has developed until nowadays. At present there are 8 boats with ten oars and 8 boats with four oars. Every boat represents a particular district of Livorno. The Palio Marinaro takes place every year in July with the "ten oars" competition (the most important) and the "four oars" one. The "ten oars" boat winner takes the Palio (usually painted by a local artist) while the last one falls back to the "4 oars" competition. Clearly, the "4 oars" boat winner is promoted to the "10 oars" competition. Even if the Palio Marinaro is the most important competition there are six other competitions as well which are very spectacular. For example the competition called "Barontini Cup" takes place at night in the canals of the city and the one called "Risiatori Cup" is a marathon of 7600 meters at open sea. The athlets that practise this sport train very much from September to July in particular places called "cantine" which are located along the canals.
Naturally, every time it's possible, the "crew" trains with the boat at sea. Even if this sport is very tiring I think that it's beautiful especially when, in summer, we train on a calm sea at sunset.
The new way to meet people!
Messenger, Skype, Facebook are computer programs , that we can find on internet to talk to our friends or family. Millions of people use those programs everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. I use those programs to study, because I can exchange informations and files on real-time and meet friends, that live in different cities. Those programs respond to our modern needs! I know people, that use Messenger or Skype everyday to talk to girlfriend or boyfriend, because they live in faraway countries....Those programs help modern lovers! Certainly, this is a good way to meet people, but it can’t substitute real relationship, so we can use it, but with intelligence!
Hi guys,
I'm talking about my experience in York. The city is very nice, not big, not small, there are a lot of turists because York is a city with a long history: first there was the Vikings, since 3000 b.C.; then the Romans, nowadays you can see the walls around the city centre. But the most important period was the middle age, where York lived a brilliant time after the 12th century. In this period it was a very important economic centre, as well as cultural and political. During the industrial revolution there were a lot of urbanistic transformations, but York preserved its medieval centre.
The city, nowadays, is very nice, in particular for the students: there are a lot of parks and a lot of squares where the people gives live shows...every kind of show: clowns, musicians, jugglers...this is amazing, but there is a huge problem: the WEATHER!!!
In York the weather is terrible, but the people that live in York have a sayng: "if you don't like the weather, wait for 15 minutes...the weather will change!!"
I remember there were a lot of mornings that I left my house with the sun and I arrived at school with my umbrella..in 10-15 minutes. But after 2 weeks you don't pay attention to the weather.
I think York is a good place to improve the language because you can speek with English persons with a good English stress, and there are two or three schools not bad. There are many pubs with special promotions as "1£ 1beer"...if you like beer, it's interesting.
Well, I think to enough said, so the proof of the pudding!!
Enjoy your holiday.
Saint Seiya
In this little writing exercise I’m talking about “Saint Seiya” , better known as “Knights of the Zodiac”. It’s a Japanese manga series later adapted to anime. It deals about 5 guys who became bronze warriors, each of them under the protection of a different celestial constellation. Their aim is to protect Saori-san (lady Isabel), the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena, from the attacks of enemies of Justice, she represents, who want to kill her and to dominate the world. So Seiya, Hyoga, Shiryu, Shun and Ikki (these are the guys’ names) fight against these enemies and always (obviously!!!) win them thanks to their “Cosmos” (this word means “Universe”). The concept of “Cosmos” wants to underline the similar composition of both the human body and the universe. In other words, the human body is formed by atoms whose structure is composed by nucleus and spinning electrons, such as the solar system is composed by sun and planets. During their hard train the Knights of the Zodiac have learnt to understand this similarity and when they fight, they increase this understanding and become able to use the force of the body atoms as if this force would come from the protecting constellations’ stars themselves. In fact they acquire great powers like a galactic explosion!
I think that everyone watched at last one episode in his life and everyone who watched all the series has a preferred warrior. The mine is Shun protected by the Andromeda constellation. Many of you are surly thinking that Shun is the weakest knight of them. But it isn’t so. He is the very reluctant when situations have to be solved with violence. In fact he prefers himself to be sacrificed just to solve the situation whit no fight (his behavior is similar to Andromeda’s one: the queen of the myth sacrificed herself to save his country from a sea monster. This similarity is the necessary step behind finding the Cosmos inside himself). But when he is forced to use all his power, he reaches a so high level of the Cosmos that he could exceed Seiya (main character) in strength too! In fact Shun must be without his bronze cloth to “burn” his Cosmos until the last step and to throw his “Nebula Storm”, the attack where all the boundless Andromeda nebula is concentrated in his boby. It’s notable that in the last series Shun wears the gold cloth of the strongest of gold saints: Shaka of Virgo!!!
I’m sorry…maybe I wrote too much!!! There are a lot of thing I would like to say!!! But, if you want to know other details, I’ll write them next time!!!
Bye
On yesterday morning, while reading my e-mail on yahoo site, I saw an article about kidnappings in France because of dismissals.
Actually François Henri Pinault, the president of Ppr group, has decided to dismiss 800 employees, notwithstanding with his great gain. So, two days ago his disperates employees kidnapped him while he was in his taxi. Other similar disorders happened in France in the last days.
This event testifyes that unemployement makes people desperate. It's a problem so diffused in Italy and all over the world, maybe less diffused in UK.
But in this respect I read an article on BBC news about unemployement rising in UK: it has risen above 2 million for the first time since 1997 and many economists predict it will go above 3 million next year.
Unemployement concerns strictly young people: soon I will have to face him.
I think there aren't so many solutions to this problem, but according to TUC general secretary Brendon Barber I think "it's imperative that world leaders work together to help stimulate the global economy".
Certainly in Italy unemployement depends also on the great number of attended people that look for the job for witch they had studied a lot and not for a wichever job.
Great chance to find a job!
Hi everybody,
I would like to give you some tips and information about how to find a job.
When I was in London and I was looking for a job I found a good website for students: www.e4s.co.uk
I love how the website help young people: it's easy,it's useful and it's work really well!The website has 4 different sectors in which you can find different job:
-part-time/holidays' job
-gap year
-graduates
-internships
Every week you can receive offer of employment and it's easy to send your Cv directly to the companies.
Another good tool is read the newspaper of Eures: it's an interesting newspaper that each month points out an important topic.
Last month it spoke about How to work in German. It gave offer of employment, listed the documents you need to start to work,published a small dictionary with words you have to know...
My last tip is the most important: in June,in London there will be an important jobmeeting with the most popular and important company all around the world. There will be lessons about how create a good Cv and what is covering letters and why they are so important and so difficult to manage.
You will have the chance to test yourself with interview simulation with people who work in the Human Resources...
I think it'a a great,challengig chance for you and your job future.
Good luck!
Alessandra
During the latest english lesson I read an article about CIA torture during Bush- era(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6109379.ece). I was impressed by the violence of this kind of torture especially since I did not believe these medieval practices were still in use today: "being slammed against walls, wearing a special plastic neck collar, kept awake for up to 11 straight days, simulated drowning known as "waterboarding" and being placed in a dark, cramped box.
The CIA also approved exploiting one detainee's fear of insects by putting caterpillars in the box with him. Others were kept naked and cold for long periods, denied food, shackled for prolonged periods or had their family threatened".
For about four years the CIA has tortured suspected terrorists of Al Qaida in violating U.S. laws and international standards. Many between mans tortured were innocent.
I thought today in a society that proudly claims to be civil this kind of practice was entirely absent: I was wrong.
What I think about torture? It's not a way to know the truth but a terrible punishment. Certainly the guilty must be punished but I think treat man as not even animals should be treated is nothing short of cruel and
useless: it is just a way to force a man to say what another man wants he says.
Torture not only is no guarantee of truth but often the opposite: a desperate man can says anything to stop suffering.
Man is an on-line social animal!
About two thousand ago, a Latin philosopher, Seneca, said: “ Man is a social animal. People are not made to live alone”.
Well, today we can affirm: “Man is an online social animal. People are made to live in virtual communities, too”.
So, every man needs to socialise.
We know... probably for many of you on-line socialising isn’t just as valid as face-to-face socialising. But what does the word socialising mean?
Socialising means interaction, socialising means learning, socialising means participation, socialising means sharing, socialising means communicating,
socialising means immagination, socialising means having an emotion. Well online socialising is all of this. Beside, on-line socialising has an additional value, virtual world enables you to meet people so far, doing to appear them so near. It isn’t science fiction, but a real experience by virtual way!
However, all of you hear all the time now about how the Internet is killing community and socialization and how it’s becoming a health risk. But we know this isn’t how matters stand - at least not entirely. There are some researches who demonstrate that on-line socialisation is an important way - and in some situations the only one - that some disadvantaged persons can use in their real life to communicate with the others and feel less lonely.
Grace Azemus
Socializing and on-line socializing
I don't agree with Mariagrazia (or with Grace Azemus) because I think the two things are really different.
Socializing is sharing, communication, imagination but through a computer is not the same. Even if we use the so called "emoticons" to show our feelings, if two people speak to each other face to face they communicate also with the rhythm of their voice, with their gestures and so on.
If I consider also that some people get more and more isolated, that social networks sometimes become more important than real life and that my personal information could be used with no control by anyone, that's why I don't try to use the Internet for socializing.
Claudio
I’d like to expose my personal opinion on the topic of on-line socializing: I don’t support nor demonize it, I see this way of socialization as a powerful instrument, if adequately used.
Starting from the premise that the use of the internet to socialize doesn’t rule out the possibility of getting in touch with people “physically”, my opinion is that the two ways of socialization are “complementary” and both of them have advantages and disadvantages. It’s true that on-line socializing allows people to virtually demolish the barriers imposed by distances but it’s also true that no one should leave aside the need of a real contact with friends and people in general. So I think that nowadays we should take advantage of the various available social networks, with a bit of attention in the spreading of personal information, just to meet new people and to have the occasion to organize meetings with them for a face-to-face interaction, with all the aspects that only this kind of relationship allows.
In conclusion, also for me on-line socializing can’t replace a real life contact between two people but it can help in having this.
Francesco
IN ”MEDIUM” STAT VIRTUS
I hope Latinists don’t hold it against me, but the little mistake (medium instead of ablative medio) in the title was a play on words to indicate that not only value stands in the middle (i.e. value is in the moderate, not the extreme position), but also value stands in information “medium”.
Well, what do I really think about on line socialising?
As my title suggests, I think on line medium is one of some ways to socialise. According to me it’s wrong to say that online socialising is better than face to face socialising or vice versa. They simply are different and probably they have different role in life of each person. As Francesco says they can be complementary. I like to consider on-line socialising as an extension of face to face socialising, a simply way to broaden one’s horizons. So the first one cannot exclude the other!!
Actually , I’m not use to socialising on internet “random” so much, because I prefer to spend my little free time with my friends or sometimes in solitude, but I think internet is a valid tool to socialise for example about a particular discussion topic. Whereas other persons consider it as a good way to socialise playing on line game.
At the end… I’d like to suggest to you ordinary sceptic types : - Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Sometimes test also a second possibility, So just try to do online socialising!!
see you “on line” soon
Mariagrazia
is there anybody who studied in aerospace engineering, in Pisa?
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